MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc. (NYSE:MSM) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Patrick Baumann: Good. I’m doing well. A quick one to start on inventories. Just wanted to get a sense of how you’re feeling about current levels of inventory? And you talked about supply chain pressures and inflation easing, just and then, as well as some advantageous buying you’ve done maybe at year-end, but you’ve probably been doing that all along. Just curious how you think about inventories moving forward? Do you expect some destock now that the situation has kind of normalized around supply chain and inflation? Any color on that?

Kristen Actis-Grande: Yes, sure, Pat. I can take that one. So, as you’ve mentioned at the end of your question, yes, the year-end advantageous buy, that’s pretty typical for us. We’re just, it’s part of the normal playbook that we would run. I think more holistically if you look at inventory, obviously the last few years and we’ve been in this constraint supply chain environment. We’ve been flexing the balance sheet and certainly not skimping on inventory as that’s been a way that we’ve been able to support our customers somewhat uniquely relative to the local distributors in that time period. But going forward, we’re definitely taking a closer look at inventory. We’re kind of monitoring levels, looking at where it makes sense to adjust things given the environment, but certainly not doing anything that would compromise our ability to support the customer and to support our continued growth.

Patrick Baumann: Based on your standing outlook for ADS growth, I mean, do you think current levels of inventory are appropriate. Do you think you’re over stocked a little bit, under stocked, like how would you?

Kristen Actis-Grande: I want to say we’re over stocked anywhere and there’s definitely been some differences in how we’ve been seeing kind of inventory levels in certain different product categories. Like if we think about, kind of metalworking inventory versus MRO, but I wouldn’t give you a specific range at this point, but I’d definitely say if you think about the 100% operating cash flow conversion there’s sort of a range of inventory contemplated within that that we feel confident in.

Patrick Baumann : I’ll follow-up after the call on that.

Erik Gershwind: Pat Maybe another color I’d add on inventory is, there’s times and you’ve followed us for a while here, like, when we go into a different mode, right now we’re still in growth mode. And in growth mode, even if things are moderating, whatever, the growth percentages, we’re still in growth mode. And that means keeping inventory on the shelves for customers. If there comes a point at some point, there’ll be a point at which things change and we go into a different mode and we €“ that’s a lever we can turn pretty quickly as part of the downturn playbook, we’re not there though.

Patrick Baumann: Understood. Then next question is on OpEx. Can you just help me understand the year-over-year moving parts? I mean, you went from 257 million of OpEx in last year’s first quarter to 280 million this year. I think acquisitions maybe add a little bit, but you have some gross savings of 6 million, like I think you talked about a million of investments. It just seems like a pretty big increase. I’m guessing a lot of that’s inflation related, but any color on the key moving parts in that year-over-year dollar number would be helpful.

Kristen Actis-Grande: Yes, sure, Pat. So, few things on the big drivers on a year-over-year basis. You’re right, inflation absolutely one of the biggest buckets there that was around $9 million. We did also have an increase from having those two acquisitions Engman-Taylor and Towers in the numbers for the first full quarter, that was around . Year-over-year, we’re still seeing kind of T&E normalize for our associates, as we get kind of back to normal and how we’ve been out in the field, that was a couple of million of pressure, little bit of noise on the variable OpEx. And then you’ve got some things in there on higher D&A, some of the investments carryover from the prior year. And then to your point, you got 5 million in that mission critical savings.

Patrick Baumann : And that 280 million like as you think about it, you know moving forward for the rest of the year, is that kind of a €“ how should I think about that absolute dollar number in the second quarter and the balance of the year? I guess I’m thinking in context of pricing contributions that are probably moderating, would you expect, kind of €“ I would expect the year-over-year to moderate on the OpEx growth as well, is that the right assumption?