Traeger, Inc. (NYSE:COOK) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Joe Feldman: Got it. That’s very helpful. Thank you. And then just another maybe question about sourcing. I was curious, can you remind us the exposure to China? And if that — if you guys are still making any effort to shift further away from China. And if I recall, you said you would not, you’re kind of happy with where you’re sourcing from. I’m just curious because people ask us in relation to potential Trump administration and if tariffs were to increase again. So, I was just curious about that. Thanks.

Jeremy Andrus: Yeah, Joe. So, we do have an active effort underway to diversify sourcing outside of China. And we currently manufacture in Vietnam — there are other geographies in Asia where we are actively investigating sourcing options. In some cases, the existing suppliers just taking operations outside of China — those are active conversations, and we do certainly believe in the value diversification and always measured against sort of stability and cost within the supply chain. But we’re also — we’re very contemplated around what the environment may be to the extent that a new president such as President Trump leans into additional China tariffs and we think about what a contingency plan may be to accelerate movement from China to other sourcing geographies. So, that’s what the top of mind.

Joe Feldman: Got it. Thanks, guys, and good luck with the second quarter.

Operator: Our next question is from Brian McNamara with Canaccord. Your line is now open.

Madison Callinan: Hi. This is Madison Callinan on for Brian. We were just curious about retailers, floor space dedicated to the category, and whether they remain committed to keeping or increasing floor space for the category. Thanks.

Jeremy Andrus: Madison, yeah, we haven’t really seen any shift in retailers’ point of view on the category either in season or across seasons. There is certainly a moment, a handful of years ago where we saw retailers begin to move to year-round barbecue sets and also to expansion floor space. But I would say it feels pretty steady state right now.

Madison Callinan: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from Megan Alexander with Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.

Megan Alexander: Hey, thanks very much. Wanted to come back to the sell-through. Jeremy, I know you talked about it still being down in the quarter. Is there any way you can quantify maybe just for Grills, what that sell-through number looked like in relation to your Grills revenue being down that mid-teens number? I know you were lapping the sell-in of the launch last year. So, just trying to understand, number one, what sell-through looks like in the quarter? And then just bigger picture, from a units perspective, are you seeing that decline stabilized? Or was your commentary earlier around the macro, does that suggest the declines may get worse? Or are you kind of thinking about the declines have heavily stabilized at this point?

Dom Blosil: I can jump in and answer that. Thanks for the question. I think to your first question on sell-through, I think at the end of the day, it sets sort of a baseline for how we think about our forecast this year, but there are idiosyncratic components to sell in that are building on the declines that we’re seeing in sell-through, which look more pronounced on a reported basis. And it’s exactly what you said, it’s the launch comparison, right? So, comping Flatrock, Ironwood launch in H1 of last year and then the sunsetting of products ahead of a new product launch in 2025 in the back half of the year. So, those are sort of layered on top of our baseline forecast, which sort of underpins our general thinking around demand planning — and I think from a reported standpoint, those look in excess of what we’re seeing from a sell-through standpoint.

We don’t obviously share sell-through information — but I would say that we’ve talked sort of about the pre-pandemic comparison historically, and I would say that that’s still holding at a higher watermark. And so, that kind of been a barometer for how we think about the health of sell-through, where a comp against pull-forward through the pandemic is very different than a comp against ’19, where there’s a reversion back to pre-pandemic levels, which we’re not seeing. And so, our belief is that at the end of the day, we just continue to lap pull-forward through the pandemic, and then that’s augmented and sort of distorted by this picture that’s emerged around excess inventories that we had to bleed down and that came at the cost of top line.

And then this year, these two sort of comp comparisons in first half and second half around the sunsetting of product and then the comp in the first half against the new product launch. So, that’s really, I think, a kind of a summary of what we’re seeing. And I wouldn’t necessarily say we’re in a position to tell you that things are getting worse or better. I think right now, it’s just kind of consistent themes around the sell-through side.