Polaris Inc. (NYSE:PII) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 6 of 11

David MacGregor: Got it. Got it. And then second question on motorcycles. This is a category where, I guess, you’ve had some margin challenges over the years, but you made a lot of progress in 2022 on motorcycle gross margins. So just talk about the drivers of the margin improvement other than the mix, which you referenced in your prepared remarks, but the games seem to be holding well here. So how should we think about the potential upside from here? And what have we assumed in your 2023 guidance with sales up low single digits on raw material cost relief?

Michael Speetzen: Yes. I mean we’ve talked a lot about the fact that the team is driving a path to profitability plan. And we’re really happy with what we’ve seen, the adherence to it without compromising the quality and the innovation. I mean there’s a lot of different factors. I mean, one is the scale of the business, as you grow it, you’re obviously leveraging your overhead. So there’s a lot to be said there. I would talk about things like the price and promo environment stabilizing. One of our largest competitors was doing some pretty challenging things a few years back. And with new leadership that has certainly stabilized and created an environment where I think we’re able to ensure that we get full pricing on our vehicles plus we were dealing with an environment where scarcity was also driving a bit of a premium.

On top of that, we’re leveraging into our engineering spend. We had to essentially build up bikes from scratch, all categories. And with the introduction of the chief this past year, that really filled out the platforms that we needed as a company. And so as we move forward, we’ll still be spending good money on engineering, just not at the levels that we did when we were effectively creating a new business. PG&A has been a huge focus for us is an opportunity. If you look at us relative to some of our competitors, we’re still below where we should be. But I’m really happy with the progress the team has made over the past couple of years to drive that performance. And then international has become a huge growth catalyst for us. About 40% of our revenue growth for Indian is coming out of markets outside of the U.S. And so that gives you a really good opportunity into those markets.

You’re able to hold price and really get paid the premium that the bikes deserve. So happy with what we’ve seen. The teams are working pretty much every opportunity they have and we expect that trajectory to continue.

Robert Mack: Yes. The only thing I would add is we’ve also continued to pursue localization in that business. It is Unfortunately, they’re most impacted by FX given how global it is, but we’ve continued to increase the level of bikes. We assemble in . And as you know, we started to assembly in Vietnam earlier this year, so — or earlier in ’22. So that starts to benefit as we move forward, and we’ll continue those efforts to make sure we’re producing the Indian motorcycles where they’re being sold.

Operator: The next question comes from Jaime Katz with Morningstar.

Jaime Katz: I’m hoping you guys can elaborate a little bit more on Marine, mostly the trajectory of the improvement you’re hoping to achieve. I’m wondering if mostly a remedy that stems from correcting the correction of the supply chain. So it’s sort of a smooth improvement going forward. versus the recent declines at retail? And then is there any way to think about what the impact of the switch coming on to the market might have had on the lower price point end of the market or demand, sorry?

Page 6 of 11