MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc. (NYSE:MSM) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Erik Gershwind: So I would say this Pat, look, I think there’s always a trade-off to be made between price and volumes and that’s a conscious choice that we’ve made and we have this repositioning to a Mission Critical part and we’ve made a choice to pivot to a high-priced, high value add position right. So, with the value you were bringing and it’s going to be hard to do that and be the low price — low cost, low price player, that’s not the goal. I would say if you look at the vast majority of where our revenues are, anywhere we’re touching a customer with a person, with a solution, we’re competitively priced. I think what you’re getting at and what is real is there are cases where we’re not touching, it’s a brand new customer or the customer is so small that we’re not touching them with a person.

There’s going to be cases where we’re higher priced than other channels, no doubt about it. And so, yes, I think there will be some work there. I think we can take a very surgical approach to that. It’s not across the board. It’s not across all SKUs, all customers. So it’ll be surgical. But certainly as part of the marketing efforts, we’ll take a look at it.

Patrick Baumann: It makes sense. Thanks for the color. And then on the cash dynamics in the quarter, Kristen, you can help on this. So how much of the — that free cash flow in the quarter was related to this facility? I guess I just didn’t quite understand the mechanics around that. Remind me what exactly that facility is? I guess, it’s off balance sheet, right? And how does the cost flow through in terms of the P&L?

Kristen Actis-grande: That’s correct, Pat. Yes, so the easy math, if you’re trying to adjust the cash flow is just to back to — you benefited cash by $300 million from the securitization. I think you asked the second question about the P&L benefit or the P&L impact. So two things I’d point out real quick at the buzzer. I mean, you’re going to see interest costs decline because of the securitization, you’re going to see other cost increase. And then post the first year of the ongoing annualized benefit of that is about $800,000 to the P&L.

Patrick Baumann: Okay. We can follow up on that offline. And then I had to ask one last, I noticed you hit the buzzer. Any sense on timing of next steps with regard to the proposed share class consolidation, like what are the milepost to watch there?

Kristen Actis-grande: Yeah. I’m sorry, Pat, I can’t really comment on that. As soon as we have news to share, we obviously will, but no further information at this time.

Patrick Baumann: Thanks. Best of luck.

Kristen Actis-grande: Thanks.

Erik Gershwind: Thanks.

Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the conference back over to John Chironna for any closing remarks.

John Chironna: Thank you, Rocco. Before we end the call, I’d like to thank Erik, Kristen and the entire MSC team for giving me the opportunity to continue doing what I truly love. I’d also like to thank our analysts and investors for the wonderful relationships we’ve forged over the last few decades. It’s those relationships that have made coming to work each day a true joy. A reminder that our fiscal 2023 third quarter earnings date is set for June 29, and we look forward to seeing you in person at investor conferences or on the road in the coming months. Thanks again for joining us today.

Operator: Thank you, sir. This concludes today’s conference call. We thank you all for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day.

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