The Shyft Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SHYF) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Daryl Adams: No.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. I appreciate that. And then just my last one. I was just curious if we could, John, maybe compare FBS margins today implied for 2023 versus levels that you all did in 2019 and 2020 on seemingly a similar revenue base. I understand overall in the corporate P&L, there’s heightened R&D spend associated with Blue Arc, but can you maybe talk about some of the margin differentials in FBS and how we should think about maybe the back half of the year into ’24 in the context of what you guys used to do?

Jon Douyard: Yes. I mean I think as I mentioned, I think the second half of the year looks pretty close to what the second quarter looked like from an FBS standpoint. When you look at certainly, when volumes were up and parcel delivery vehicles where units were high. We delivered significantly higher margins than where we are today. I think as you look at that shift of the business more towards truck body versus parcel, I think there’s a bit of a mix aspect from that perspective. But I think it’s also important to note out that we continue, there are inefficiencies that continue to get after experience. And I think if you look at it, part of that is just volume related and the absorption of some of the capacity, which I mentioned, we’re looking to fill to offset some of that.

But some of the material issues that have plagued us for over a year as we go back to work some of those vehicles, it’s created more cost inefficiencies and have been a challenge from that perspective as well. And so, there’s still a couple of points of margin headwinds that we have from just an operational perspective that the team is working to get us through as we get into later in the year and into 2024. And so, I’d expect margin expansion as we move forward. But I think we’ll continue to manage it through the second half of the year with some further volume challenges and the leverage that, that creates or leverage issues that creates offset by some of the productivity improvements that we expect.

Unidentified Analyst: Got it. I appreciate the time this morning.

Operator: The next question is from Ryan Sigdahl of Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Please go ahead.

Ryan Sigdahl: Good morning. Ryan on for Steve Dyer. I’m curious on market share you guys commented on SCB and the high horsepower chassis on FES are you guys seeing any dynamics there where the share Shyft moving around given the current dynamics?

Daryl Adams: Hi, Ryan. This is Daryl. No, it’s — FBS is one of the harder ones because there isn’t really any good data. It’s all self-reporting. And I think we’ve mentioned multiple times in the past, right, it depends on year-over-year orders. But on average, it’s — we don’t see any deterioration. It’s 2 suppliers, it’s us and Morgan. So it would be maybe this year, they get a different order from one customer that we had last year. So it does move around. But overall, not seeing any deterioration, it’s a wide market challenge that’s going on right now with parcel delivery volumes going down. And I think you read that in all of the parcel delivery company commentary that I mentioned during my — part of the call.

A – Jon Douyard: And I think just to add to that, Ryan, I think if — as you look at the OEM chassis manufacturer reaction of cutting production for the second half of the year, I think that points to it being more of an industry challenge than a specific company or a market share issue?

Ryan Sigdahl: And then just secondly, any price changes, I guess, where your customers are trying to press for price reductions within the backlog or in future negotiations, which is causing them to kind of pause and cause the scale made here?

A – Jon Douyard: Nothing I would say that’s impacting moving forward from an ordering perspective, certainly a more challenging pricing environment than when where we sat 12 months ago. But nothing specific to point out from that perspective.