Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Mark Hartman: Yes. So when we went into the year just to get everybody grounded again, we had $85 million at the end of September of 2022. Obviously, the guidance range has a wide range to it and there’s varying points in that range based on both market demand and supply chain and labor disruption impact. What we had said previously was we are anticipating as you get towards the higher end of our sales guidance range, you would be seeing improvements. From that $85 million that we started the year with, kind of, the middle, you would be kind of right in that range and the low end at, maybe things would get a little worse. And so it’s not a specific number that we’re really focused on, but really that was a part of what we took into account related to the range that we gave.

Gautam Khanna: Okay. And could you elaborate on what you’re seeing, what changed quarter-to-quarter with respect to supply chain constraints? What got better? What got worse? If there’s any trend you can discern?

Chip Blankenship: I think overall, Gautam, I’d say that more suppliers are recovering that’s a general statement. But we’ve taken more off the elevated attention list than we have put on. So that’s a good sign in terms of things getting better. We’ve had better output in some of our value streams and in the front ends of some of our lines, including machining. So that’s also we’re feeling like we’re starting to get more of our newer machinist and operators up to speed. So I think sequentially that’s a good thing. We’re doing less hiring, because people are staying in — more people are staying, so I think those are the three maybe good trends that we’re seeing, but we were having this discussion earlier whether two points as a trend or we need three quarters to say we’re feeling better about those three items.

Gautam Khanna: Right. Makes sense. And last one, if I may. What are your preliminary thoughts on the industrial portfolio? Is it — are you thinking like to skew management? Is it where you make stuff? Is it markets you participate in? Like, what’s your initial impression Chip of where you could actually do better?

Chip Blankenship: I think the initial impression is kind of where you went first with the SKU rationalization is what I would use as an old term from another company. But the product portfolio is vast in the industrial segment. And not all our children are top of the class in performance. So we’ve got some work to do that we do work with our supply base or make strategy as well as our customers to try to rationalize and take good action on things in the latter stages of the product lifecycle. That need to be managed differently in conjunction with supporting our customers, as well as things that we have that are actually upgrades to some of the older things that we sell that we could standardize upon. So there are a number of different moves we could make with that portfolio that are, sort of, well-known tried and true ways to improve our results and reduce our complexity. That’s the really the main focus of it.

Gautam Khanna: Thank you very much guys. Good luck.

Chip Blankenship: Thank you. Welcome.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Louis Raffetto with Wolfe Research. Your line is now open.

Louis Raffetto: Good evening, guys.

Chip Blankenship: Good evening.

Mark Hartman: Good evening.

Louis Raffetto: So a little bit of deja vu here from a year ago, we were kind of same spot tough first quarter and looking at a second half recovery and we kind of know how that story played out. So if I look at just Industrial now, I think your guide is kind of implying 11% margins in that business the rest of the year on average. I mean, is that realistic?

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