Q1 2024 REV Group Inc Earnings Call
Participants
Drew Konop; Vice President - Investor Relations & Corporate Development; REV Group Inc
Mark Skonieczny; President & CEO; REV Group Inc
Joe Grabowski; Analyst; Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated
Jerry Revich; Analyst; Goldman Sachs & Company, Inc.
Mike Shlisky; Analyst; D.A. Davidson & Company
Presentation
Operator
Greetings, and welcome to the REV Group's first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
This time I'll turn the conference over to Drew Konop, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. Drew, you may begin.
Drew Konop
Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Today we issued our first quarter fiscal 2024 results. A copy of the press release is available on the investor website at investors.revgroup.com. Today's call is being webcast and a slide presentation, which provides more details on the strategic actions is available on our website.
Please refer now to slide 2 of that presentation. Our remarks and answers will include forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
These risks include, among others, matters that we have described in the presentation posted to the Investor website earlier today and filings that we have made with the SEC. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, which may not be updated until our next quarterly earnings conference call, if at all. All References on today's call to a quarter or a year are our fiscal quarter or fiscal year, unless otherwise stated.
Joining me on the call today is our President and CEO, Mark Skonieczny. Please turn to slide 3, and I'll turn the call over to Mark.
Mark Skonieczny
Thank you, Drew, and good morning to everyone joining us on today's call. Shortly I'll provide an overview of our consolidated first quarter performance as well as detailed segment financials.
Before I comment on the quarterly results, I would like to review the strategic initiatives, including capital allocation activities that had been recently executed. These actions were aimed at optimizing our portfolio of products, creating a more focused operating structure and unlocking shareholder value. As we have previously announced, REV Group will be added to the bus manufacturing through the recent sale Collins bus and the winding down of manufacturing operations at our Eldorado national, California or E&C transit bus business.
The sale of the Collins school bus business to Forest River closed on January 26th with an all cash deal price of $308 million, inclusive of certain preliminary working capital adjustment, wind-down of the operations of E&C is expected to be completed before the end of fiscal 2024. We expect to generate net cash proceeds of at least $250 million from the exit of the bus manufacturing businesses.
Approximately $179 million of immediate proceeds were used to return cash to shareholders through a $3 special cash dividend that was paid on Friday, February 16th. The remainder of the proceeds were used to participate in the secondary offering that closed on February 20th by purchasing $8 million of REV Group common shares at an average price of $15.76 for approximately $126 million, reducing the total amount of shares outstanding by 13% in our largest shareholders position from 46% ownership to approximately 18%.
We believe these actions demonstrate our commitment to delivering shareholder value. Since 2020, we have returned over $400 million to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases while paying down debt and strengthening balance sheet. We remain focused on generating high levels of cash from operations and are committed to a strong balance sheet that allows flexibility to pursue new growth opportunities and optionality for future returns of cash to shareholders.
Finally, beginning with today's earnings release, the fire and emergency businesses have been combined with the specialty group business that manufactures capacity, terminal trucks and Lane more street sweepers in the new segment named specialty vehicles. The segment's first quarter results also include Collins operating performance through its divestiture date of January 26th, and will include E&C's financial results through the wind-down period. Specialty Vehicles is being led by Mike Bernstein.
The former REV Fire Group President of recreation segment has been renamed recreational vehicles and remains under the leadership of Mike Lamb CRD. Taken collectively, we believe these strategic actions create a more focused portfolio that provides opportunities for growth, consistent cash generation and improved margin performance while maintaining a strong balance sheet.
Turning to Slide 4. Consolidated net sales of $586 million were approximately flat compared to the first quarter of prior year. Year-over-year revenue result was primarily due to increased net sales, including price realization within the Specialty Vehicles segment offset by lower net sales from the recreational vehicle segment. The increase in net sales in the Specialty Vehicle segment was related to increased unit shipments and price realization within the fire and ambulance businesses and increased bus manufacturing sales, partially offset by lower sales of terminal trucks. Lower net sales in the recreational vehicle segment were primarily a result of fewer shipments of Class A. Class B and towable units, partially offset by higher shipments of Class B units.
Consolidated adjusted EBITDA of $30.5 million increased $9.2 million or 43% from the prior year, which increased with increased contribution from the Specialty Vehicle segment, partially offset by lower contribution from the recreational vehicle segment. Increased earnings on the Specialty Vehicle segment were primarily due to increased contributions from the fire and ambulance businesses. Lower earnings in the recreational vehicle segment were primarily related to lower contributions from the Class A. Class B and Towables businesses, partially offset by increased contribution from the Class C business.
Please turn to Slide 5. Specialty Vehicles. First quarter segment sales were $417 million, an increase of 17% compared to the prior year. The increase in net sales was primarily due to increased shipments of fire apparatus and the ambulance units. Higher sales from the bus manufacturing businesses and price realization, partially offset by lower sales of terminal trucks. Unit shipments of fire apparatus increased 24% and shipments of ambulance increased 23% versus the prior year period, reflecting continued momentum of the operational improvement initiatives put in place aimed at increasing throughput.
Net sales of fire apparatus and ambulance increased 36% and 38% respectively, and improved product mix and the benefit of price realization as we deliver a greater number of newer units from our backlog with pricing put in place throughout 2022 and 2023. Within the quarter, certain fire businesses accelerated shipments of aged units that were trapped in backlog, improving the overall backlog mix and future price realization opportunities. Specialty Vehicle segment.
Adjusted EBITDA was $26.2 million in first quarter 2024, an increase of $21 million compared to the adjusted EBITDA of $5.3 million in the first quarter of 2023. The increase was primarily due to increased content additions from the fire, ambulance and bus businesses, partially offset by lower earnings from the terminal trucks business increased fire group contribution was primarily related to higher unit volume, improved efficiencies and price realization, resulting in increased profitability of 550 basis points versus first quarter of last year. This was aided by the stronger first quarter results of the Sparton businesses since its acquisition in 2020. In addition, the Cammie brand had its best quarterly performance in 2019.
The increased ambulance group contribution was primarily due to higher unit volume, improved efficiency and price realization, resulting in 600 basis points of margin expansion versus the prior year, ambulance delivered the highest first quarter profitability in 2017. Adjusted EBITDA contribution from the legacy commercial segment businesses was a year over year, net improvement of $3 million which includes improved pump performance, partially offset by lower terminal truck volume.
Segment backlog of $3.9 billion increased $692 million or 22% versus prior year. The increase reflects strong orders for fire and ambulance units over the past year, as well as the benefits of pricing actions, partially offset by the removal of the column bus backlog, lower demand for terminal trucks and a reduction in transit bus backlog. Excluding the impact of the sale, Collins segment backlog increased $867 million from prior year.
Within the first quarter, the combined emergency vehicle book-to-bill consisting of fire and ambulance orders was 1.3 times, and the book-to-bill ratio, which compares First Quarter 2020 for orders to the same period last year was 1.5 times, demonstrating continued industry strength in demand for our products. We expect Specialty Vehicle segment revenue and earnings to benefit from the increased number of available working days in the second quarter compared to the first for modeling purposes, note that feature segment revenue adjusted EBITDA do not include column bus which was previously disclosed at [$150 million and $25million], respectively, for the remainder of fiscal 2024.
In the second quarter, we expect operating improvements from their main businesses to offset the loss of Collins revenue and earnings, resulting in the second quarter being approximately flat versus the first quarter. We expect continued momentum to build on the second quarter performance with both single digit revenue improvements sequentially in the third and fourth quarters as higher contribution from the fire and emergency businesses offset declines from the wind down of E&C, we expect sequential incremental margins in the range of 30% to 40% on increased revenue throughout the back half of the year.
On slide 6, recreational vehicle segment sales of $169 million decreased $56.6 million or 25% year over year as we navigate through a soft end market environment within and within the industry, dealer inventories remain high with limited for planning availability reduced lot traffic lower segment sales versus the prior year were primarily the result of fewer shipments of Class A. Class B and towable units and other unfavorable mix of motorized units and discounting, partially offset by increased shipments of Class C units and price realization.
Segment unit shipments declined by 39% versus prior year, driven primarily by an 8% decline in towable units. Within motorized, category of consumer preferences are lower and gas units as compared to higher end diesel products continued to weigh on segment revenue within the quarter. Preparation segment adjusted EBITDA of $11.6 million was a decrease of $12.7 million or 52% versus the prior year. The decrease in adjusted EBITDA was primarily a result of lower unit volume, unfavorable category mix, inflationary pressures and discounting, partially offset by price realization and cost reduction actions in the Class A. and towable businesses.
Segment backlog of $377 million at quarter end decreased $611 million, or 62% versus the prior year. The decrease was primarily due to production against backlog cancellations and lower orders over the trailing 12 months within the quarter, the book-to-bill ratio for our most profitable Class B and Class C businesses was 1.2 times and 1.1 times respectively. However, this was offset by reduced demand for Class A. and towable units with seven eight months of unit backlog and the Class B and Class C category.
We expect production increased from the seasonally low first quarter, resulting in increased revenues throughout the remainder of the year. Profitability of the combined Class B and C businesses is expected to remain in the low to mid double digits. While we continue to flex costs of the Class C and towable businesses, resulting in full year segment adjusted EBITDA margin in line with our original guidance of high single digits.
Turning to slide 7 frame working capital on July 31st, 2024 was $363 million, an increase of $45 million compared to $318 million at the end of fiscal 2023. The increase was primarily the result of lower accounts payable and customer advances, partially offset by a decrease in accounts receivable and inventory. Cash used in operating activities was $69.7 million, which includes the payment of annual management incentive compensation than the quarter transaction expenses related to the Collins bus sale as well as timing of certain tax payments we spent $10.5 million on capital expenditures, including the purchase of a service center for our Class C RV business, which we expect will allow additional unit production and manufacturing facility that previously housed the service and aftermarket parts business. That cash on the balance sheet as of January 31st was $87.9 million prior to the special dividend payment on February 16th and repurchase of $8 million common shares at an average price of $15.76 on February 20th, we declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.05 per share payable April 12th to shareholders of record on March 28th.
At quarter's end, the Company maintained ample liquidity for our strategic initiatives with approximately $534 million available under our ABL revolving credit facility.
Starting on Slide 8, we provide a 2024 fiscal full year outlook, which builds upon the momentum experienced within the Specialty Vehicle segment. Today's update to top line guidance is a range of $2.45 billion to $2.55 billion, which includes $150 million adjustment for the column bus divestiture. As I previously mentioned, we expect continued throughput gains and strong incremental performance within the fire and ambulance businesses to offset headwinds from cyclical end market softness within the recreational vehicle segment and terminal truck business at the midpoint of $2.5 billion, revenue is expected to be approximately flat to last year after adjusting for the divested revenue from the ColorPlus sale.
Adjusted EBITDA guidance is $145 million to $165 million or $155 million at the midpoint, which includes a $25 million adjustment for the column plus divestiture. Given the solid performance of the first quarter, we now expect first half consolidated adjusted EBITDA to be approximately 40% of the full year guidance. Adjusted net income is expected to be in the range of $72 million to $90 million and net income in the range of $224 million to $245 million. Adjusted free cash flow is expected to be in the range of $57 million to $72 million, which excludes approximately $71 million of tax and transaction costs related to divestiture activities that are within cash from operations and offset by gross cash proceeds included in the investing section of the statement of cash flow.
Full year capital expenditures remain in the range of $30 million to $35 million, including growth investments in our businesses as well as ERP upgrades in certain businesses expected interest expense of $26 million to $28 million instead of the typical seasonal use of cash in the first half of the year, as well as the impact of calm bus sales E and C wind-down and approved previously announced returns of cash to shareholders in the form of special dividends and share repurchase.
Thank you again for joining us on today's call and with that, operator, we'd now like to open the call up for questions.
Question and Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. We'll now be conducting the question and answer session. (Operator Instructions)
Mig Dobre, Baird.
Joe Grabowski
Hey, good morning. It's Joe Grabowski on for Mig. This morning, Joe. So just wanted to clarify a few things that you went over in your prepared remarks, but kind of went over it quickly, PRM, the backlog for Collins buys that you backed out of your backlog in the first quarter was that it sounded like it was around $175 million. Did I catch that correctly?
Mark Skonieczny
Yes, on a year-over-year basis, Joe. So actually, we have been talking about the backlog made over a year coming into the quarter. So it's a little bit higher than that. As you if you were to remove it from October 31st.
Joe Grabowski
Okay. So the specialty vehicle backlog dropped by a little over $200 million. Again, I'm trying to figure out is that all ConEd bus or maybe ex count bus backlog and specialty vehicle was roughly flat. Is that the right way to think about it?
Mark Skonieczny
No, actually there was also a decline related to the wind down of the E&C operation of about $50 million.
Joe Grabowski
So maybe you have a sample pack language up modestly sequentially?
Mark Skonieczny
Yes.
Joe Grabowski
Okay, great. Thank you. Next question and maybe there seems to be a little confusion about this. I'm not sure why, but you raised your EBITDA guidance by $5 million versus the recast guidance back in late January, you actually beat our estimates by about $7 million versus where we were where we were back in December. Is it safe to say that the $5 million raise in guidance was basically just flowing through the first quarter upside?
Mark Skonieczny
That's right. Yes, that's right.
Joe Grabowski
Okay. Can you just for just one quarter in and so you kept the rest of the line basically where you thought you were going to be back in December?
Mark Skonieczny
Yes, that's right, Joe. The contractor.
Joe Grabowski
Right. Okay, perfect helpful. Tom, maybe last question for me and I can get back into queue back in December, you mentioned direct Keystone recreation sales would be down roughly mid-single digits. Obviously, they were down 25% in first quarter. I think you mentioned they were going to be you thought they'd be up the rest of the quarters, but just down mid-single digits still sound, right? Or do we kind of need to tweak that a little bit?
Mark Skonieczny
I think we got a we actually did a little bit probably more in the low low single digits, low double digits. It down. Obviously, we're off $57 million year on year in Q1. So a majority of that would be in Q1. But you know, probably building in sequentially increases of 10% going forward, which would be more in that low double digit reduction. But obviously, we're happy with the conversion that we delivered on in Q1 from a margin. So we still feel that we're managing our costs down as the sales drop.
Joe Grabowski
Got it. Okay. Very helpful. I'll jump back in queue. Thanks very much.
Mark Skonieczny
Thank, Joe.
Operator
Jerry Revich, Goldman.
Jerry Revich
Hi, good morning, everyone, and nice quarter mark, and I'm wondering if we could just talk about the fire and emergency business performance in the quarter, can you just update us on where price realization was on units delivered in the first quarter compare to 2022 levels. And as we look out in the backlog, we're out a year, your 0.5 plus, how much higher is that pricing point compared to what flowing through the numbers now, Mark?
Mark Skonieczny
Yes, I don't think, Jerry, we've obviously talked about that. There's, you know, 6% to 7% margin realization opportunity over the year progressively, right. So and it performed well within the quarter as we highlighted. So we still believe that in the original guide and everything's performing well.
I've also said in my prepared remarks where we pulled forward some older units. So as we accelerate throughput, we've been able to get through our backlog order backlog quicker. So that price realization in the back half of the year will improve as we move through it, which is consistent what we've talked about.
The third and fourth is really the what we're counting on there is a fire from put improvement, as we've talked about Amlin's, if you think about a baseball game and it's probably in the fifth or sixth inning of that price realization in fires in that third to fourth inning. So we expect them to catch up here in the third and fourth quarter. So nothing's really changed in Q1 from what we expected entering the year and executing on it.
Jerry Revich
And so just sticking with that analogy, Mark, the inning analogy, so six to seven points of margin improvement this year, somewhere between third and fifth inning, depending on the business does that mean there's another six to seven points of margin improvement as we get and with the backlog in we're building the units that you're booking today?
Mark Skonieczny
Yes.
Jerry Revich
Very good. And can I ask in the RV business, you folks are still delivering good profitability at it challenging point in the cycle. Can you talk about how you expect the margin cadence to play out over the rest of the year. Typically, the first quarter I think is your seasonally lowest margin quarter in RV, but I don't know if it changes it considering the production outlook. Can you just update us on how you expect RBA guidance for margin specifically to play out this year?
Mark Skonieczny
Yes. I think our, you know, the cadence probably Q2 as we said in the remarks, probably similar to Q1 and not Q. three, a build up there with ultimately Q4, depending on you know, we're obviously cautious heading into the back half what Q4 would show expansion, which would still get us into that on mid single digit for the full year.
Right on progressively build from Q1, more or less flat in Q2 and then progressing in three and four to build from the 6.8 we were at in Q1 up to that full year on 8% or so mid single digit sort of number by the end of the year.
Jerry Revich
And last question for me. In prior downturns, the predecessor companies were for the RV business were breakeven to slight losses and you folks are delivering solid profitability here. How would you bridge the, call it six to eight points of margin improvement the cycle versus last in terms of the major driving pieces and the confidence in the sustainability?
Mark Skonieczny
Yes. I think like we've talked about previously, we manage the Towables business as well as the Class A. to more of a trough level. So we flexed our costs and we were successful in doing that and didn't get ahead of ourselves during the COVID period, right? So we've been able to manage those costs for margin profitability versus just a volume play, right? So that's really we've been focused on that for the last two years to make sure that we have the right cost structures and have the ability to flex out as units come out, as well as as we build on different product types that may have less hours that we have the appropriate staffing. We don't have trapped labor see in those facilities. So it's really been all the way from an overhead down to the shop floor, managing those business to a trough level, which we're experiencing right now.
Jerry Revich
Well done. Thank you.
Mark Skonieczny
Thanks, Jerry.
Operator
Mike Shlisky, DA Davidson.
Mike Shlisky
Good morning. I'll taking my question. You had mentioned in your comments, Mark, that you have in your key projects underway. Have you shared with us a little bit about how far along you are with again, that changeover done and when we might start to see some of the most indications of that changeover,?
Mark Skonieczny
Some flow of all your last point margin implications are?
Mike Shlisky
Yes, I was curious when you start to see the operational benefits of inflation in the new year?
Mark Skonieczny
Yes, that's really what we're doing there is that, you know, it's more than just a replacement of a very dated system. And it's in our RV space, our Class A. business as well as our BE business, we're implementing a new ERP. So it's replacing our old really old bit, um, operation or ERP with a new Microsoft application. And we are it will be go live this quarter. So it's gone very well and are expected to go live this quarter and kicked off.
Mike Shlisky
Got it. I also wanted to ask secondly, about 15 changes you're making in your Ocala, Florida facilities, the fire and emergency commissioning. So a little bit about some of your developments there. I think you've done. So it makes that even more efficient for the last couple of months, a period to see how far we've gone from kind of where you started to where you think you'll end up in that particular facility?
Mark Skonieczny
So what we've talked about previously, we've really done a lot of work to a value stream perspective. We brought in a lot of people from a upfront process. So we've strengthened our purchasing and supply chain specific to that location to make sure that we're getting parts and when operations need to. We've also bolstered the operational leadership there as well.
So we've got a really nice cadence from a management perspective as buyers, first off value stream managers in each of the facilities that again, that location is made up of 10 building manufacturing site that gold cross Fourmile. So we talk about the site is actually pretty expansive around four mile radius. So we have value stream managers based on the product that they do.
But we've also implemented some central people within that facility specifically around supply chain and engineering as well to make sure that our builds of material are being done accurately and on time. So it's really been a microscopic change. Are you know a microcosm, I guess, of what you would expect a whole company do, and we're doing that on a site-by-site basis. So that's really good the improvement there.
Mike Shlisky
Thanks a lot.
Mark Skonieczny
Thank you very much, Mike.
Operator
I think at this time, we've reached the end of our question-and-answer session and also conclude today's conference. You may now disconnect your lines at this time. And thank you for your participation and have a wonderful day.
