STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ:STAA) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Tom Frinzi: Yes. No, thank you for the question. Yes, regarding the call center, again, we had said it was a pilot project. We currently ran it through a few months of the tail end of ’24 through the first 3 months of this year. And I think we learned some things, but we certainly have made a pivot because we believe those dollars are better directed downstream to really surround our practices in a more effective way. So I think the pilot did what it was intended to do, to show us what we could learn. And we took those learnings and now are redirecting dollars more downstream and surrounding our customers with the various tools that we’ve developed over the last 6 to 9 months. So I would say the pilot did what it needed to do.

It educated us but we’ve made a decision to pivot and direct those dollars in a more impactful way. As we said, we want to invest where investments are going to be rewarded, and we think more downstream support of our customers will bear the fruit and certainly begin to bear itself out in the Q1 results.

Q – Unidentified Analyst: And then I was hoping you guys can provide some color on the gap between the sales growth and the unit growth between different countries and maybe how to reconcile that 9% sales versus 2% unit growth towards the small decline in gross margin?

Patrick Williams: Yes. The gross margin will be fine on that one. There were some inventory adjustments that we cleaned up some prior products that we no longer have on our — that we actively sell. In relation to sort of the difference between revenue and units, look, we’re getting some pretty good economics driven by China specifically. And that’s really the one that’s pushing the most. I would expect as we go into the next year, we’ll call it, you’ll start seeing that gap not be as wide anymore just because of the comps right now, we’re working out the last year’s numbers on an ASP standpoint. So we haven’t taken that we have a cost increase in quite some time. And so that’s always on the table, and we’ll continue to think about that as we move not only through this year but as we move forward into next year.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Tom Frinzi: Yes. No, I want to thank you for joining us, and we look forward to keeping you updated on our progress.

Operator: Thank you. 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.