Proto Labs, Inc. (NYSE:PRLB) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Dan Schumacher: Yes, so let me answer as it relates to kind of the difference in growth rates. And Rob can talk about a bit in terms of priorities. As you know, before we acquired Hubs, the U.S. business from a manufacturing side is much larger in the U.S. than in Europe. And so the higher growth rates, the disparity between the growth rates between the U.S. and Europe is driven by a higher percent of our Europe business is through the network. And that is growing, as we talked about, over 80% year-over-year. And so Rob, I’ll pass on.

Rob Bodor: Yes, sure. Thanks. So we see both Europe and the Americas as very good long term markets for us with strong industrial bases. And as Dan points out, the mix is somewhat different in terms of our business in those two regions. And of course, Europe is smaller relative to the Americas. Our objectives are to grow in both regions. And we believe that from a long term standpoint, there’s similar opportunity there. Now, in the short term, there is somewhat difference in kind of the macro environments in the two regions. And so we kind of have to kind of manage through that as well in the near term.

James Ricchiuti: And then again, to the extent you’re willing to, we’re a couple of months away from the end of the year. Anything you want, to possibly lay out there in terms of how you’re thinking about some of the priorities looking at for 2024?

Rob Bodor: We are going through our budget cycle right now.

Dan Schumacher: Jim, so we’re meeting with the businesses on the budget and we’re putting those plans together and we’ll talk more about our goals for 2024 at the next earnings release.

James Ricchiuti: No, I understand. Thank you. Congrats again.

Rob Bodor: Thank you, Jim.

Operator: Our next question is a follow up from Greg Palm with Craig Hallum Capital Group. Please proceed.

Greg Palm: Yes, thanks. Hopefully a quick one. I’m not sure if I missed this, but did you comment on the mix of kind of the lower price, longer lead time versus quick turn? I know that was kind of a trend you were seeing year-to-date, and I’m just curious if anything changed here in Q3?

Dan Schumacher: Yes, I don’t think we addressed it specifically in the prepared remarks. We saw increase, I would say that our longer lead time, lower priced offerings grew faster than the average right for us in the mix in the quarter. Right. And you can see that because the network offerings, which are mostly in that category, grew 80% or better.

Greg Palm: Okay. I mean in terms on the — because the gross margin was up quite a bit on the factory side of things. So if it wasn’t mix, was it just utilization and higher revenue? Any other reason why gross margin was quite a bit stronger than recent quarters?

Dan Schumacher: Yes. So, Greg, the primary driver really, was the pickup quarter-over-quarter in revenue. And the leverage that we saw off of that, I mean, we were able to do a good job of holding our costs on that revenue pickup in the factory while still meeting our industry best lead times. So that was the main driver. I would say. We did see more customers in the third quarter asking for things quickly than we have in the past, and those were mainly as Rob talked about some of those strategic customers that use us more holistically throughout the portfolio.

Greg Palm: Understood. Okay, thanks for clarifying that.

Rob Bodor: Yes.

Operator: We have no more questions in the queue, so that will conclude today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. And thank you for your participation.

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