MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE:MSA) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Nish Vartanian: So Larry, on the price increase, we’ve done a nice job in pricing getting that price cost balance out there in the marketplace. We anticipate and have announced a well — in parts of the world already, and we plan to do this on a global basis to have a price increase in January. The price increase will be a bit more moderated than we’ve had in the past as we’ve seen costs go up in a more moderated manner. So we continue to keep — expect to keep pace with our cost, and that’s part of the equation of that gross profit piece and keeping that in alignment.

Larry De Maria: Okay. That makes sense. A couple more. Can you maybe comment on the digital sort of recurring io 4? I know you mentioned a little bit on the prepared comments, but are we getting material orders and changeovers on that business yet? Or is that possible in 2024? Just some color as we kind of shift that model over.

Nish Vartanian: Sure, Larry. I’m really excited about that. We’re — we’ve launched that. We’ve had a lot of good activity and interest in that. And I’ll let Steve provide a little more color around what we’ve seen and what we expect going forward.

Steve Blanco: Hey, good morning, Larry. So when you think of the industrial connected work platform, and we talked about the io 4, you heard that in my prepared comments, we’re selling this as a subscription service, so it is recurring revenue. It really — we feel really good because it does connect workers to the overall site, enabling customers to make real-time decisions for their safety and efficiency. Over half of the orders we received are new customers, which has been a real positive. But it is a small base. It’s growing rapidly, and we expect that to continue going forward. We’re getting really good feedback. As a matter of fact, Stephanie Sciullo was just at the NSC, the National Safety Congress, this week and meeting with our channel partners and customers. And maybe Stephanie, you could share a little feedback that we got on the connected work platform.

Stephanie Sciullo: Sure. Thanks, Steve and good morning, Larry. We are seeing really good uptake on the product and positive feedback for all the reasons that Steve mentioned throughout the fall, I’ve been traveling the region. And as Steve said, just done at NSC, one of our major industrial trade shows, I met with some key distributors and customers. And our connected experts hosted a special educational session at the show just yesterday. It was standing room only. And I continue to hear a strong interest from customers. So industry is interested in these types of safety solutions. And for all of the reasons that we talked about this morning, especially that increased visibility into worker safety defined fleet management and asset tracking and simplification of compliance overall.

Larry De Maria: Okay, thanks, Stephanie. Thanks, Steve and good luck everybody.

Nish Vartanian: Thank you, Larry.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Rob Mason from Baird. Please go ahead.

Rob Mason: Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking the question.

Nish Vartanian: Good morning, Rob.

Rob Mason: Based on the commentary with a book-to-bill a little over one, it suggests your orders were — I’m estimating up mid-single, maybe up even as much as high single digit against a pretty tough comparison a year ago as well. So could you parse that down the order activity in the quarter down a little further, I guess, addressing across the three main areas you cover for the main end markets.

Nish Vartanian: Sure. Again, your conclusion here is correct. And what we’ve seen as far as the bookings of orders, they’ve been strong throughout the year, right? Our book-to-bill has been slightly positive for the year-to-date and third quarter was also positive. So Lee can give a little more color and some detail on that.