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Q4 2024 Simpson Manufacturing Co Inc Earnings Call

In This Article:

Participants

Kim Orlando

Michael Olosky; President, Chief Executive Officer, Director; Simpson Manufacturing Co Inc

Matt Dunn

Daniel Moore; Analyst; CJS Securities

Tim Wojs; Analyst; Baird

Kurt Yinger; Analyst; D.A. Davidson

Presentation

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the Simpsons Manufacturing Company 4th quarter and full year 2024 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions), This conference is being recorded.
It is now my pleasure to introduce Kim Orlando. Thank you.

Kim Orlando

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Simpson Manufacturing Company's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Any statements made on this call that are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements.
Such statements are based on certain estimates and expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual future results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. We encourage you to read the risks described in the company's public filings and reports, which are available on the SEC's or the company's corporate website.
Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws, we undertake no obligation to update or publicly revise any of the forward-looking statements that we make here today, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
On this call, we will also refer to non-GAAP measures, such as adjusted EBITDA, which is reconciled to the most comparable GAAP measure of net income in the company's earnings press release. Please note that the earnings press release was issued today at approximately 4:15 p.m. Eastern Time. The earnings press release is available on the Investor Relations page of the company's website at ir.simpsonmfg.com. Today's call is being webcast, and a replay will also be available on the Investor Relations page of the company's website.
Now I would like to turn the conference over to Michael Olosky, Simpson's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Michael Olosky

Thanks, Kim. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining today's call. With me today is Matt Dunn, our new Chief Financial Officer, effective at the start of this year. As many of you know, Matt has been with Simpson since last summer as our SVP of Finance, and work very closely with Brian Magstadt, our former CFO, to ensure a smooth transition. We are excited to have Matt on board with Brian remaining on as an executive adviser through June.
Today, my remarks will provide an overview of our 2024 performance, highlights from our key end markets and updates to our core company financial ambitions. Matt will then walk you through our fourth quarter financials and fiscal 2025 outlook in greater detail.
Before we jump in, I'd like to take a moment to express our heartfelt sympathy to those that were impacted by the California wildfires last month. The Simpson team and their families are safe and the fires did not impact our facilities or consolidated results. In line with one of our core values to get back, we donated to the American Red Cross.
We have a long history in California, and our thoughts remain with our customers, our team, their families and friends and the affected communities.
Now turning to our results. year 2024, net sales were $2.23 billion, reflecting modest growth over 2023 levels and a year where housing markets in both the U.S. and Europe remain challenged. On a trailing 12-month basis, I'm pleased that our volume growth in North America exceeded US housing starts by approximately 600 basis points, in line with our ambition to continue growing above the market.
Net sales in North America totaled $1.74 billion versus $1.72 billion in 2023 on higher sales volumes. This included approximately $12 million from our 2024 acquisitions. Our North American volume performance was broad-based in 2024 with sales to all end markets demonstrating above-market growth.
The national retail market saw mid-single-digit increases despite a challenging repair and renovation market. Contributing to the above-market performance was our increased shelf space and enhanced share gains within our innovative high-quality fastening solutions. In the component manufacturing market, volumes improved in the high single-digit range versus last year.
Our enhanced suite of digital and equipment solutions contributed to increasing trust plate and connector sales. In the commercial market, we delivered modest volume growth over 2023 despite the significant downturn in the commercial market led by our cold form steel product line and the launch of several innovative new solutions.
In residential, volume performance was down modestly. We are growing the market size and taking share through product line expansions off selling of [ fasteners ] and acres and new customer conversions. And finally, in OEM, we delivered high single-digit volume growth year-over-year, reflecting share gains as our solutions for mass timber construction gain momentum. However, OEM still remains a relatively small contributor to our overall revenues. Turning to Europe.
Our 2024 net sales of $479.2 million were relatively flat compared to the prior year and decreased by about 1% on a local currency basis. On a volume basis, our European business also outperformed the local market, driven by new applications and customer wins. Our total connection products continue to drive solid growth.
Through the execution of significant events of synergies this past year, we have made strides towards rightsizing our European footprint following on acquisition. On a consolidated basis, our 2024 gross margin declined to 46% from 47.1% in 2023, driven by higher input and labor costs, and investments in our footprint to provide even better service to our customers. Product and customer mix has and will continue to be a gross margin headwind going forward. Our resulting operating margin declined by approximately 220 basis points and 19.3% versus last year, reflecting investments ahead of the anticipated market growth that did not materialize in 2024.
Consolidated adjusted EBITDA totaled $520.1 million in 2024, a decline of 6.2% year-over-year, resulting in an adjusted EBITDA margin of 23.3%. In the first half of 2024, we continued investing in our people, engineering, equipment and digital solutions to better support our customers' needs in anticipation of sustained market growth.
In the second half of 2024, we stole the rate of investments as the housing market outlook softened. We recognize our investments have not been commensurate with volume growth now in year 3 of a down market. As such, we will continue to closely monitor the market in 2025, and will control costs accordingly to preserve our margins, while simultaneously ensuring we retain our workforce of highly skilled labor.
Next, I'd like to highlight some adjustments we've made to our core company financial ambitions, strengthening our values-based culture, being the business partner of choice, and striving to be an innovative leader in the markets we operate, all remain central to who we are as a company.
As it pertains to our three financial ambitions, we are dedicated to continuing above-market growth relative to US housing starts, maintaining an operating income margin at or above 20% and driving EPS growth ahead of net revenue growth. As we have stated previously, we believe our business is capable of achieving a 20% operating income margin in a growing market environment.
For 2025, we expect U.S. housing starts will improve in the low single-digit range from 2024 levels with growth weighted towards the second half of the year. In addition, we expect the European housing starts will remain relatively consistent with 2024 levels with more meaningful growth delayed further into 2026 and beyond.
As the long-term oriented growth company with strong margins, we believe we can drive EPS growth ahead of net revenue growth. We remain committed to returning at least 35% of our free cash flow to our shareholders.
In light of these new financial ambitions, we see ROIC being relatively flat in the near to midterm and above our weighted average cost of capital. Despite market headwinds, we firmly believe we are entering into the next phase of Simpson's growth from a position of strength.
In 2020, we have added approximately $1 billion in revenue and $200 million in operating profit. We realigned our sales team by end market, significantly reduced 2-step distribution and made significant investments in our field sales and engineering teams. We made significant footprint investments in both production and warehouses.
Our investment in Tennessee enables us to resource and fasten on anchor production, additional warehouse capabilities enhance next-day delivery for our North American customers. This, along with significant investments in digital solutions that further strengthened our business model thus driving hardware sales and creating value for our customers, making us the partner of choice.
Additionally, we strengthened our senior leadership team through a combination of internal development and executable experts. The result is we are now in an even stronger market leadership positioning connectors with significant gains in both (inaudible).
Before I conclude, I would like to touch on one of the corporate development with the appointment of [indiscernible] as an independent nonemployee director for the company effective January 1, 2025. We are pleased to welcome Angela to our board and look forward to benefiting from her wealth expertise to her extensive experience in financial leadership roles at leading manufacturing companies.
In summary, we are pleased with our continued above-market growth in a declining housing market. We continue to believe in the mid- to long-term prospects of the housing market and are well positioned to take advantage of that growth when it does occur. We feel confident about our ability to continue outperforming the. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Matt, who will discuss our financial results and outlook in greater detail.