Richardson Electronics, Ltd. (NASDAQ:RELL) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Edward Richardson: They just — they run it. They take the turbine and shut it down, so there’s an electrical fault to see if it works. They just — for the most part just want to run it in a specific turbine for a period of time. It varies. Some want to do it for a year. Some want to do it for six months. Some for three months. But it’s just a — the beta testing we’ve done almost all the testing you can get in the data in our labs and either a local turbine, but then when we go to the large orders, these large customers, it averages between three months to a year. They just want to run it in the turbine to make sure it works.

Andrew Rem: Okay. So now if I take kind of [Multiple Speakers]

Edward Richardson: Go ahead.

Andrew Rem: Go ahead.

Edward Richardson: I was just going to say, in beta testing, so then there might be a mechanical issue, meaning, the way it fits into the box that we might have to do a tweak here and there, but it’s just a handful of tweaks, but it’s really the performance of it. They just need to run it for a certain period of time.

Andrew Rem: Okay, setting aside the nuance with the mechanical box piece, just if we try to think reasonably expectation, you’ve talked about 7,000 wind towers, but realistically, knowing that the beta test could take six months plus, it probably wouldn’t be until the back half of calendar 2024 where you might start seeing kind of full rollout of that kind of deployment. Is that a fair assessment?

Edward Richardson: Yes. And that’s specific to the Suzlon opportunity in India. If everything goes perfectly, yes, we’ll see shipments in our Q4 and the early part of fiscal year 2025. But yes, based on history and the way these things work, and I’ve been doing MPIs or new product introductions for now almost 40 years, second half of 2024 calendar year will be when we see the large production orders going on.

Andrew Rem: All right. I want to tag on. I think the questioner a couple people ago, I think his name is Rob, mentioned this comment about stock buyback. I want to pile onto that comment by suggesting you might want to take a look at foregoing dividend payment and do a stock buyback, because that would be a much higher return profile for investors. So it’s a way to both pay the investors back. It’s a more efficient way to do it because they don’t have to pay taxes. And obviously, you should be able to — if you realize what you guys are trying to do here, obviously, the stock should be significantly higher. So that would be a great return on investments for you and shareholders. Also what he said about the board, I would double down on that in terms of ownership. So I guess, that’s two votes for a couple of different thoughts there. And then lastly, just Ed, it sounds like maybe you have a cold, so hope you get well soon. Thanks a lot guys.

Edward Richardson: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Richardson for closing remarks.

Edward Richardson: Well, we appreciate all your comments and we appreciate your investment and interest in the company, Richardson Electronics. We look forward to our ongoing discussions and sharing our fiscal 2024 second quarter with you in January. Do not hesitate to give us a call anytime. We’re happy to take your calls and talk to you individually. Thanks, Noma. It was a very good question-and-answer period.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Everyone have a wonderful day.

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