The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Eric Cleveland: And then the last comment I wanted clarity on there was a comment about returning to more normal price/mix realization within the business. And I was just trying to square that with — there was also a comment made about landscape contractor more price sensitive than in the past. And so, I’m curious if there is a return to normal or if there is something different within price mix from an end market standpoint or within your opportunity in that area, just a clarity on that, if you would.

Angie Drake: Yes. So, we talked about returning to a more typical average 1% to 2% price for the year. But the businesses that have high field inventory, we expect to see less realized price than the others. Does that answer your question?

Eric Cleveland: Half of it. So do some get more than normal because some are getting less than normal to get you back to normal? I guess that’s what I’m trying to figure out.

Rick Olson: I think it relates to something we probably haven’t mentioned as often, but we really have a market-based approach to pricing. So we get the price in the market that’s relative to features, innovation, customer value. And this is the — in our guidance reflects the total of that across all the markets.

Angie Drake: Yes. So, it would be puts and takes as you get to.

Operator: Thank you. One moment, please. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Shlisky of D.A. Davidson & Company. Your line is open.

Michael Shlisky: I wanted to first touch on the Amplify program. Do you have any sense of — I guess it’s a two-part question. One is, do you have any sense as to where you’ll see a large cash outlay at the outset of the program to get some of these cost reductions done kind of on a onetime basis? Maybe secondly, have you figured out how much of the $100 million you want to reinvest, you said it was going to be a portion, but as the trip it’s a small piece of it or almost all of it will go back to R&D or other kinds of growth issue?

Julie Kerekes: Yes. So, we will see some onetime and restructuring charges that will be reflected in our GAAP earnings. We’ll ramp those up over time as we implement and we’ll communicate those as we evolve we have set up our transformational productivity office this quarter and are really beginning to get into all of those details. Your question on reinvestment, yes, we do intend to reinvest as much as maybe 50% of this in our — back in our business. We want to invest in innovation and technology and in areas where we can see accelerating our profitable growth.

Michael Shlisky: Got it. And then I wanted to just follow up on some comments you made about ramping up in the professional business in the last quarter so to get production rates moving. I’m kind of curious, was there anything down there that was out of the ordinary for Toro’s history? Or is it just typically Toro’s doing what it does best and kind of being settle when they have to? And I guess, given the backlogs you’ve got and some of the trends you’re seeing, do you think you need to permanently grow the capacity of underground construction in golf and grounds and any other businesses with some additional permanent sort of bridge there? Or is it all just very temporary to kind of meet the current market conditions?

Rick Olson: So, the first part of your question, the results are really the effect of doing what we do. So it’s the combination of many disciplines within the Toro Company, really focused on our integrated supply chain team and incredible work that was done in our plants to get additional work output. That was based on a healthier supply base and more consistent supply of components without really enable that. If you break down the capacity question, that’s really a split answer. So in areas where we see an inflection in growth rate going forward, underground construction et cetera, we are adding structural capacity to be able to support that into the future. We see a different growth rate than probably a historical growth rate in those areas.

In areas that we know that we’re going to return to a more typical glide path, it’s like golf and grounds we’re working not to add structural capacity that we would regret and instead using our existing capacity in a flexible way. So shifting production between facilities, working more extended hours, et cetera, that’s really the solutions that we’re looking for, for those businesses that we expect to return to more traditional growth rates.

Operator: Thank you. I’m showing no further questions at this time. I’d like to turn the call back over to Ms. Kerekes for any closing remarks.

Julie Kerekes: Thank you, everyone, for your questions and interest in the Toro Company. We wish you all a joyful holiday season, and we look forward to talking with you again in March to discuss our fiscal 2024 first quarter results.

Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today’s conference. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.

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