Park-Ohio Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:PKOH) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

So, I think we’ve got in front of us the things to do. In the backdrop, will we continue maybe to see an opportunity for an acquisition? Yes, within said our G&A, but I would put that third on the list of the things I’ve mentioned.

Steve Barger: Got it. And I know that you guys did a lot of hard work on pricing actions to offset inflation last year. And I think Matt, when you said the heavy lifting is done, it was in reference to that. For the growth of 5% to 10%, can you talk about what your expectation is for price as volume in 2023?

Matthew Crawford: Yes, it’s interesting. I really probably met the restructuring more than the pricing to be quite honest. But I would tell you on the pricing side, I think in general, with some exceptions, but in general, those areas that were disproportionately and materially damaging our company, particularly in the continuing operations, we’ve addressed. So, I think that a lot of those tough conversations have been had. That is a work in process because the markets are work in process. So, as I’ve mentioned on prior calls, I think in many cases raw material was addressed early in the inflationary environment to a lesser extent permanent and significant changes in labor costs have not been addressed. So, no, I think that there is a daily list of opportunities.

We continue to work through to identify opportunities where we’re not getting paid for what we do because of how the marketplace has changed, where we have not recouped our costs. But I would say that those corners of the business where we were seeing things that were more catastrophic that burn through the P&L over the last 18 months, I think largely those have been addressed. But our work is not done there. So, the restructuring feels like it’s mostly done. That piece, until inflation moderates completely, that work is never done.

Steve Barger: Understood. That’s great detail. Thank you.

Operator: And we do have a follow-up question from Dave Storms with Stonegate Capital Markets. Please proceed.

Dave Storms: Hey, thanks for taking my follow-up here. Just hoping you could give us a little more color on the M&A market. You touched on how that’s currently going to be a backdrop for you, but just with the Aluminum Products, was that more of an opportunistic buyer? Or is this a good time to be a seller? Kind of what are you seeing in the external surge from?

Matthew Crawford: Yes. At a high level, on General Aluminum. I would tell you we’ve been an investor in General Aluminum. Our family, quite frankly, for a lot of years, 30, 40 years. It is a very good business. And it’s going in a direction, which is highly sought after. Candidly, there’s not enough capacity in that foundry space for what the OEMs want to do. The reality of it is though — as I mentioned, it is a — we’ve got so many opportunities. I think we had to make some strategic decisions given the growth we’re seeing on where we want to allocate our capital. And we felt there are some good strategic buyers in the marketplace who can do well with that business as well as we can. So, it became, I think, an obvious place to try and harvest some money.

Dave Storms: That’s very helpful. Thank you.

Operator: We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for closing comments.