TriMas Corporation (NASDAQ:TRS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Kenneth Newman: Okay. That’s very helpful. For Specialty, obviously, you’re guiding margins for the year a little bit lower than what I think have been record margins in that business last quarter. Just talk a little bit about what the puts and takes there on why margins are a little bit lower versus 4Q levels? Is that just conservatism? And how do you think about run rate margins going forward through the cycle for that business?

Scott Mell: Well, I think as it relates to Specialty Products, if you look to the fourth quarter, yeah, the operating margins were a little bit higher than what we’re guiding to. But for the full year, we’re still forecasting sequential margin growth there if you look at the mid-range of our outlook. So I think with the Specialty Products Group, the key item there is just managing through material costs. We’ve seen some volatility in steel costs. They went up, they’ve come down, and they’re starting to creep up slightly a bit here so nothing unique there. And again, I think if you look at this on an annualized basis, the 17% to 19% is sequentially over what we achieved in ’22. And if you look back for a few additional years, you can see the margin continuing to increase year-over-year sequentially.

Kenneth Newman: Maybe last one for me. Obviously, free cash impacted by the weaker demand this quarter. You’re still expecting 100% plus conversion for the full year ’23. Inventory still seems a little elevated despite the consolidated sales decline this quarter. Maybe just talk through how you expect working cap to trend through the year? Would you expect free cash to be a use in the first quarter?

Thomas Amato: We do — well, I’ll let Scott address the first quarter specifically. But yes, we did exit the year with higher working capital than we would normally have in our business. Some of that was related to mix and some of the abrupt change in demand. But some of it also was related to us doing what our customers were doing throughout the year, which is protecting supply. And we did have situations in 2022 where we had poor balancing in our production activities because we were — we didn’t have certain materials and components that we needed to run certain lines. So as we went through the year, we too overstocked in certain areas. So we still have that in place. And I think as we go through the year, you’ll start to sequentially adjusted for seasonality see us improve in net working capital. And our plan is to exit the year in a better position.

Scott Mell: Yeah. I mean as you know, Q1 is typically a lower cash flow quarter for us, just given the investment and the seasonality in the business. I think, obviously, given the fact that we’ve given guidance that our largest business we expect to see sequential quarter-over-quarter improvement and a really strong second half of the year. I think you can then ascertain that our cash flow is going to be more heavily weighted towards the back half of the year.

Operator: There are no further questions. I would like to turn the floor over to Tom for closing remarks.

Thomas Amato: Well, once again, I’d like to thank you for joining us on our earnings call, and we look forward to updating you again next quarter. Thank you very much.

Operator: This concludes today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.

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