Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Frederick Wightman: Fair enough. And you guys gave us the chassis recall impact on the topline. Is there a way to sort of frame up the margin impact in the quarter? I mean you guys still posted double-digit adjusted EBITDA margin in the motorized category despite the chassis. I assume that there’s a drag baked in there, too, but could you size that for us?

Michael Happe: Go ahead, Bryan.

Bryan Hughes: I’m sorry. Yes, we prefer not to disclose by chassis or by model there. So for competitive reasons, as you can probably appreciate.

Frederick Wightman: Okay. Fair enough. Thanks.

Operator: Thank you. It comes from the line of Bret Jordan with Jefferies. Please proceed.

Bret Jordan: Hey. Good morning, guys.

Michael Happe: Good morning, Bret.

Bret Jordan: On the marine side, could you talk a little bit about the supply chain? I mean, obviously, power availability has been a big issue in the last 18 months. Is that something that is opening up? And I guess, is marine going to see a better first half of calendar.

Michael Happe: From a supply chain standpoint, on the marine side, over the last couple of years, we’ve certainly seen issues across different categories. But Bret, as you’re probably aware, one of the most important, but also one of the categories that experienced some constraints was the actual engine side of the business. Over the last year, year and a half, we made a very conscious decision to put most of our eggs from a motor/engine standpoint on the marine businesses into the Mercury basket. And that’s for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the supply chain challenges that we had with Mercury’s primary competitor were very disruptive to our business. Secondly, we really think Mercury has done an excellent job from an engine technology and innovation standpoint and continue to candidly set the pace of competition, particularly on outboards, and that’s the category I’m really talking about here, outboard engines versus the others.

We have seen Mercury continue to improve as a supplier for a number of different reasons. And so as we enter calendar year 2023, we have a higher level of confidence that the supply chain rhythm related to those components is going to be much more stable than it was in the past year, year and a half. Obviously, we’ll take as many engines as the market, though is willing to absorb from us in terms of wholesale shipments relative to retail. But your question does give me an opportunity to state again how pleased we are with the Barletta pontoon business that we acquired now about 15, 16 months ago, how well it’s performing and just the reaction that we continue to get from retail consumers to that brand’s product line compared to the other choices they have in the market and the profitability of our Marine segment, particularly around Barletta’s growth, Bryan and I have been very pleased with as well.

So around 15% of our revenues this quarter came from the Marine segment. And I think the profitability was probably closer to 20%. That is a meaningful step forward versus prior first quarters and prior fiscal years in terms of the balance and diversification of our portfolio. And the two things I think outsiders continue to underestimate about our business is our profitability resilience across our entire business, but also our strategic intent and execution to diversify our portfolio. And this was another quarter where the hard work that we’ve done in the last three, four years has paid off in terms of having a solid quarter in light of market conditions.

Bret Jordan: Okay. Great. And then quick housekeeping. Do you know if the RVIA forecast includes a recession?

Michael Happe: Bret, I think you’d have to talk to somebody at RVIA on that. I know they produce a range. We chose the midpoint here is what we generally aligned to during this particular release period. But we have representation on the statistics committee, but I can tell you the 391 number for calendar year 2023 is probably not connected to any sort of hard recession in the U.S. economy.

Bret Jordan: Okay. Great. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. From the line of Joe Altobello with Raymond James. Please proceed.