Symbotic Inc. (NASDAQ:SYM) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Mike Latimore: Yeah. And just last one. Is there any inherent seasonality like in the December quarter just given holidays or should we not think of that?

Richard Cohen: Yeah. I was just talking to somebody today in the construction space and the good thing is, we’re already — we’re building everything we’re doing in existing warehouses for the most part. And so there is no weather-related and really is no seasonality related to what we’re doing. What happens with our projects is starting probably in the summer, people make space available and then we’re just building in that space. So they’ve already made the decisions within our facility to give us space well before the holidays. So it’s not very seasonal at all.

Mike Latimore: Okay. Great. Thanks very much.

Operator: One moment for next question. Your next question comes from the line Brian Gesuale from Raymond James. Your line is open.

Brian Gesuale: Yeah. Good evening. Thanks for taking my questions here. Just a couple, I wanted to maybe ask about break pack, when we might start to see some of those systems get deployed, also maybe, wondering if some of the step-up in R&D and costs incurred there are innovations on that front and maybe just how we can think about the length of time for these systems to deploy versus regular system? Thank you.

Richard Cohen: So break pack is a system we talked about, we talked about at our Analyst Day that we see as a game changer in the industry. As you know, Brian, this is something that really enables us to get in and handle at the individual each level, including mixed it’s a game changer for the customers. We are in a live proof-of-concept deployment of a system with the customer. We haven’t talked about when we expect that to turn into product that we intend to ship and make generally available to customers over and over again, so that’s something that’s still something to look forward to, but it is something we’re excited about. Yes, it does make up a significant level of R&D investment and that was the case last year, we continued to make investments in R&D on break pack as we think about fiscal ’23 as well.

Brian Gesuale: Fantastic. That’s great color. And then, I guess maybe can we just talk about give us a little bit of sense for the systems to be completed this year? I think you had about five in the Q4 of last year, so many of these — so you’ve got like a year under your belt, I think we’re on kind of an 18-month kind of deployment cycle. Can you maybe just talk about what you’re seeing as the supply-chain eases in terms of that 18 months? And how we might see some of these systems kind of get over their delivery milestones? Thank you.

Richard Cohen: Yeah, Brian. I think our goal is to continue to start deployments of new systems and complete deployments of systems each and every quarter, you should expect that there will be some variability on a quarter in quarter out basis on, that but as you think about on the annual basis, our goal is to continue to ramp and grow this business year-on-year full year, so looking for growth.

Brian Gesuale: Great. I appreciate it. I’ll jump back in the queue guys.

Richard Cohen: Thank you.

Operator: One moment for your next question. Our next question comes from the line of Derek Soderberg from Cantor. Your line is open.

Derek Soderberg: Hey guys. Thanks for taking my questions and my congrats on the strong results as well. I know you guys have talked about initiatives around shrinking the deployment timeline. I’m curious to what extent did — any progress there in shrinking that deployment timeline have an impact on the upside this quarter? And then can you sort of share in terms of maybe months or days, how long it takes for a new deployment win today to reach live production? And then I’ve a follow-up.

Richard Cohen: Yeah. Thanks, Derek. So we did benefit from seeing some acceleration in our ability to deploy, part of that is just getting some relief on supply-chain challenges and part of it is just we’re getting more at bats from the first wave of systems which naturally you’d expect took us longer than they should as we get going. So — but yes, we saw acceleration, that was a continuation of a trend we saw in the third quarter. And that’s something that we’re focused on continuing to drive in the near term and as we think systemically go through product innovation along with our overall approach with partners putting in systemic capabilities that can help us really improve that over the long run. Our average — we’re still seeking for an average deployment to be in that year and half-ish type of range here in this first wave of our business as we’re rolling out.

And we can look to drive that lower and set lower — set faster targets when it’s appropriate, but around that timeframe is still our current process.