Hooker Furnishings Corporation Q4 2023 Earnings Call
Okay.
Good day, and thank you for standing by and welcome to the Hooker Furniture Corporation fourth quarter 2020 earnings webcast. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speaker's presentation there'll be a question and answer session to ask a question. During the session you will need to press star one one.
Your telephone you will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised to remove yourself from the queue. Please press star. One again, please be advised that today's conference is being recorded I would now like to hand, the conference over to your Speaker today, Paul Hudson Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead Sir.
Thank you Nova.
Good morning, and welcome to our quarterly conference call to review financial results for the fiscal 2023 fourth quarter and full year, both of which ended on January 29, 2023. Joining me. This morning is Jeremy Hoff, our Chief Executive Officer, We appreciate your participation today.
During our call we may make forward looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties a discussion of factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from management's expectations is contained in our press release and SEC filing announcing our fiscal 2023 results.
Any forward looking statements speaks only as of today and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after today's call.
Before we get started I'd like to take a moment to discuss the reason we delayed our earnings release and call from last week.
As you know part of our decision to exit or restructure parts of the home Meridian business involved a significant inventory write down so that we could liquidate that inventory in a reasonably timely manner, which would enable us to reduce overhead related to that inventory.
Pricing has been somewhat better than initially indicated in a liquidation progressed quickly so the new information coming in throughout our year end audit it took us longer than expected to conclude on our final reserve requirements. We know the delay in earnings and in earnings announced that can create concerns. However, we felt that in the long run it was more important to take the time necessary to be comfortable with it.
We certainly appreciate.
Appreciate your patience.
On Friday, we reported consolidated net sales for the fiscal year of $583 million, a decrease of $10 5 million or one 8% compared to the prior year.
The sales that was driven by a 22% sales decrease in the home Meridian segment due to the absence of clubs channel revenue lower order rates and delayed shipments for a major retail customers with excess inventory as.
As well as decreased sales in the E. Commerce channel. These decreases were partially offset by a 47% sales increase in the domestic upholstery segment due to the addition of Sunset West results and double digit sales growth at Burlington, Yeah, Sam Moore, and Shenandoah for the second consecutive year.
Hooker branded net sales were essentially flat decreasing by $1 million or a half a percent as compared to the peak sales the segment achieved last year.
The sales volume decline at home or at the home Meridian segment, and a $24 million charge related to the exit of the Ath brand and repositioning of PRA, which we announced last month drove our consolidated operating loss of $6 million and a consolidated net loss of $4 3 million or <unk> 37 cents per diluted share for the fiscal <unk>.
2023 year.
Compared to operating income of $14 8 million and net income of $11 7 million in the prior year.
The charge was initially expected to be $34 million, but estimates were refined during the company's year end close and ultimately were considerably less than originally estimated without the ACA related write down consolidated operating income would have been $18 5 million compared to the $14 8 million at the prior year.
For the fiscal 2023 fourth quarter consolidated net sales decreased three and a half million dollars or two 6% due to a $16 million sales decrease in the home Meridian segment, partially offset by a six and a half million dollar.
And $5 3 million dollar sales increases and hooker branded and domestic upholstery segments respectively.
For the fiscal 2023 fourth quarter, we reported a net loss of $17 9 million or $1 60 per diluted share, which is attributed to the inventory write down we recorded in the fourth quarter, excluding that charge operating income for the quarter would have been around 720000.
Compared to $5 $3 million loss in the same quarter last year.
Now I'll turn the call over to Jeremy to comment on our fiscal 2023 results.
Thank you Paul and good morning, everyone.
During this call will share how we've adjusted our strategy to a changing home furnishings landscape as our economy and industry returned to more normal conditions. After the multiyear impacts of COVID-19, and global supply chain disruptions, we have many initiatives underway at every level of our company.
During this year of transition we made some difficult decisions in the home Meridian segment for the long term benefit of the company and its stakeholders while painful in the short term we made the decision to exit the low margin high cost ACTH brand rather than drive dragging out corrective actions for years. It is an intentional effort to resolve this more.
Quickly and get <unk> on the path to profitability sooner.
Also as part of reorganizing the HMA segment, we are repositioning the PRA business unit as a direct container only business model change in the PR I model minimizes both cash and inventory risk and eliminate unnecessary margin erosion from costs related to maintaining domestic inventory, we believe in our strategic.
T J direction and the potential for home meridian to recover from the challenges of the last few years and contribute to our profitability going forward. This transition will continue into fiscal 'twenty four as we move away from higher risk businesses, lower our operating cost and focus on our core strengths, we believe hooker furnishings.
Enters the year, well positioned to navigate a new landscape that shifting from historically high demand to a reliance on market share gains our marketing merchandising and operations initiatives are focused on broadening our share of the total addressable market brand positioning and visibility.
One of the key initiatives to heightened our visibility and brand positioning debuts at the spring high point market. This week with our nearly 120000 square foot new Hooker legacy showroom in a prime location at the center of the market and encompassing the entire third floor of the showplace building feature.
Featuring abundant natural lighting high ceilings, a modern presentation and in the outdoor patio. The showroom will help us attract new customers become a more important brand offering to all sales segments and accelerate our multiple strategic growth initiatives through and engaging shopping experience.
Also at the high point market, we are launching M. A domestically produced upholstery and imported occasional furniture brand. The <unk> brand produced by Sam Moore, <unk> Young and Shenandoah. In addition to imported Hooker case goods represents a significant opportunity by allowing us to address a casual comp.
<unk> modern lifestyle, a look distinct from anything we currently offer. Additionally, we are showing the first comprehensive display at the Sunset West outdoor furniture product line in the southeast U S. The prominent and comprehensive display of defense at West line in high point, along with positioning aligned to have an east coast shipping.
<unk> will help accelerate our distribution expansion of the California based product line throughout the U S. As the outdoor furniture market continues to have vibrant growth potential.
In order to leverage the brand equity of Hooker furniture, <unk> and create a more seamless shopping experience for consumers and retailers, we have renamed Sam Moore HFF custom while the Sam Moore name will remain internally and at the Virginia factory in headquarters this customer facing change helps us elevate the perceived value of the <unk>.
Pollster line to the upper middle fashion perception of Hooker furnishings. It also presents hooker furnishings as a single source for Hooker for home furnishings, Andre United Hooker brands, cementing us as a whole home source for high style high quality furnishings.
And another encouraging development has been the reception to the much anticipated and delayed rollout of the drew and Jonathan home license collection at retail, which is exceeding expectations with sales and enthusiasm from consumers and retailers and February Scott brothers Global and National retail giant rooms to go announced a multi year.
Our partnership under which HMA will provide RTG with exclusive bedroom and dining room collections to round out their whole home offering. We're pleased to have achieved double digit sales gains in domestic upholstery for the second consecutive year and to have a strong finish at hooker branded with the 15% sales increase in the fourth quarter.
Adding to the positive momentum H contract and SL H R contract and hospitality furnishings businesses continued to recover from the pandemic negative impact on these categories in the past two years now I want to turn the discussion over to Paul who will discuss highlights in each of our segments.
Thanks, Jeremy.
I'll begin with the Hooker branded segment, where we're able to achieve a 15% fourth quarter sales increase after getting our inventory mix in balance so that we could ship our strong backlogs going forward. We're in a position to ship our backlogs in service higher demand that we expect from our growth plans.
For the fiscal year, the Hooker branded segment net sales decreased $1 million or half a percent compared to peak sales in the prior year. After the initial COVID-19 crisis.
This segment experienced abnormally low inventory levels in the early part of the fiscal year due to Covid related temporary factory closures in Vietnam in late calendar 2021.
In the third quarter, there was a temporary delay in shipments due to inventory mix issues. Those issues were resolved later in the year as inventory increased by about $35 million compared to the prior year end and more than doubled as compared to pre pandemic levels in fiscal 2020 one.
Gross profit and <unk> margins decreased in the Hooker branded segment compared to the prior year due to higher <unk> expenses and increased warehouse labor costs, driven by the high inventory volumes as well as port and warehouse congestion in the U S. As our Asian suppliers caught up on open orders and shipped heavily after the Covid shutdowns were lifted.
Although there were fewer incoming orders compared to the demand surge in the prior year a significant portion of the large backlog from the previous year was fulfilled leading to solid shipments for the year. Our order backlog at year end was 76% higher than pre pandemic levels at the fiscal 2020 year end.
Turning now to homework the home Meridian segment net sales at <unk> decreased by $62 million or 22% compared to the prior year. Additionally.
Additionally, this segment recorded an operating loss of $37 million driven by lower sales volume the $24 million inventory valuation charge and the lingering effects of higher ocean freight costs in the prior year HMA lost about $21 million.
The <unk> brand, which is focused on lower priced items contributed about 13% of home meridians overall revenue, but accounted for over 50% of its operating loss.
Even before the decision to write down the inventory and exit the business.
The units business model required significant investment in inventory and high handling costs to meet quick ship demands <unk>.
Additionally, these lower priced lower margin inventories carried historically high freight costs from the prior year given.
Given the inventory levels industry discounting and low demand, we determined that a profitable market for these products didn't exist and we were unwilling to continue to incur additional lease warehouse labor and other costs to store and sell aging inventory below cost into the future.
As a result, we determined that the best course of action was to exit the brand as part of this restructuring we plan to reduce the physical footprints of our Savannah, Georgia distribution Center and high point, North Carolina administrative offices over the course of the current fiscal year.
This will reduce our lease warehouse and related expenses by the end of the fiscal year, we expect to reduce the capital investment in HMA inventory by 60%, which will greatly improve our cash flow ROI, while lowering our overhead and <unk> by over $12 million over the two year period, beginning in fiscal 'twenty three.
Yes.
Over 30% of the net sales decrease was attributable to H M idea.
Which focused on the clubs channel it was exited at the end of fiscal 'twenty two.
We made the decision to exit H M idea in the prior fiscal year due to the continued losses driven by low margins in excess of charge backs. While this led to a decrease in revenue the exit resulted in a significant improvement in returns and allowances.
Another factor contributing to the segment sales decrease was a decrease at <unk>, and SLS, which service major furniture chains and mass merchants.
This segment experienced decreased incoming orders as retail customers focused on reducing their own excess inventories by delaying incoming shipments.
A more positive note Samuel Lawrence hospitality net sales increased by over 80% compared to the prior year.
Hospitality and contract markets continue to recover as Jeremy noted earlier.
Going forward, we intend to focus working capital on the product lines that matter most to our partners that means we will focus entirely on our core businesses Pulaski Samuel Lawrence.
<unk> and <unk>, we believe we have significant opportunity with these companies to create sustainable a sustainable profit center at HMA without unpredictable ups and downs that we've previously experienced asthma.
As mentioned earlier, we believe <unk> will begin to turn profitable later this fiscal year.
In our domestic upholstery segment, we continued a positive trajectory for the second consecutive year with double digit sales gains at <unk> Young Sam Moore and Shenandoah along with the addition of Sunset West results for the full year performance at the domestic upholstery divisions propelled the segment to nearly $50 million sales increase for the year.
While more than doubling its California production and warehousing space and implementing a new ERP system Sunset West exceeded our growth expectations in the first full year of ownership.
We're excited to participate in the growing outdoor furniture space I believe since that west is in a strong position to gain significant market share.
Gross margin in the domestic upholstery segment was 28% compared to $19 five in the prior year higher sales volume.
And operating at near full capacity significantly improved overhead absorption and direct labor efficiency.
However, price inflation of raw materials, and higher freight surcharges negatively impacted profitability in the year.
Incoming orders in this segment decreased due to a slowdown in demand some of which we attribute to the extended delivery times that resulted from the high pad high pandemic demand.
Shortages and inconsistent deliveries of certain raw materials. We're also no longer a concern which enabled us to fulfill orders and reduced the historically high order backlogs carried from the over from the prior year.
At the end of fiscal 'twenty, three the order backlog, excluding sense that west remained 57% higher than pre pandemic levels at the fiscal 2020 year end.
Our delivery times for domestic upholstery continue to come down and are approaching normalized levels as the year progresses, we expect delivery times will continue to improve.
Turning now to look at our cash debt and inventory position cash.
Cash and cash equivalents stood at $19 million at the fiscal 'twenty three year end up $12 5 million from the end of Q3, but down $50 million from the fiscal 'twenty to year end, we used a portion of the cash on hand, and cash collected from accounts receivable to fund a $19 million increase in inventory.
$13 million of share repurchases $9 6 million in cash dividends $5 4 million on our new cloud based ERP system and $4 two and other capital expenditures.
During fiscal 'twenty, three we entered into a $25 million loan.
To replenish cash used to make the sense at West acquisition, we also implemented a $20 million share repurchase authorization of which about $3 $5 million remains open as of today.
As we sell off inventories that we wrote out earlier.
We will maintain and much lower inventory position going forward, which will generate cash and reduce our working capital requirements in the future.
At present, our cash is in the mid $30 million range, and we purchased an additional $3 million under our stock repurchase plan since the end of the year.
Our capital allocation objectives for the current year include building, a cash reserve and as appropriate continuing and continuing the share repurchase program as a regular component of our financial strategy paying down debt and continuing to pay our dividend, which at current share prices is yielding about about four 5%.
Now I'll turn the.
Discussions back to Jeremy for his outlook. Thank.
Thank you Paul economic indicators remain mixed we are encouraged by the stabilization of global supply chain dynamics, some moderation of inflation and continuing strength in employment levels, but concerned about possible instability in global banking interest rates and the stock market.
Other headwinds include retailers delaying shipments due to temporarily high inventory levels and the regulatory uncertainty with respect to anti terpene standards on bedroom storage furniture, which we believe negatively impacted incoming order rates in the fiscal 2024 first quarter, especially from larger customers of our home Meridian segment base.
On the recent developments it appears the tip over issue is near resolution and we do not expect it to have a long term impact on demand or product cost.
As the industry returns to more typical demand and supply chain constraints continue to improve previously astronomical ocean freight rates have declined and appear to have stabilized we expect to begin realizing cost savings and improved margins as the year progresses, as we sell through our existing higher cost inventory and replenish with good.
Carrying lower freight charges with the opening of our new Hooker legacy showroom and first spring high point market and the renovated HMA and portfolio showrooms, we expect an exciting well attended furniture market next week.
We believe our new high point, and Las Vegas, showrooms and plans to show at the Atlanta market. This summer are giving us the opportunity to give our brands get our brands in front of more customers and prospects in the next 12 months than any time in our history.
We also believe there is significant momentum at home meridian with meaningful new placements with major customers. We expect the product commitments made by customers will positively affect the current fiscal year, helping put <unk> on the path for solid and sustainable profitability.
The ends the formal part of our discussion and at this time I will turn the call back over to our operator Norma for questions.
Thank you.
As a reminder to ask a question you will need to press star one on your telephone to withdraw your question. Please press star one again, please wait for your name to be announced please standby, while we compile the Q&A roster.
One moment for your first question.
Our first question comes from the line of Anthony <unk>.
<unk> with Sidoti Your line is now open.
Thank you and good morning, Jeremy and Paul Thanks.
Thanks for taking the questions. So.
Firstly.
Big picture kind of question, so with the exits from CAH and RTA in the club channel business.
You are now pretty much done with exiting from the lower margin sales channels and product lines now.
Good morning, Anthony the answer is yes, we are we feel like we now have this to a sustainable core of businesses that can that can reach that sustainable profitability is absolutely talked about.
Got you okay. Thanks for that.
That Jeremy and then.
In terms of the anti tapping legislation I know, that's still yet to be fully resolved but.
And you sort of guess as to how much.
Sure.
Impact that was for the quarter or the first quarter so far.
I really can't give you a good even estimate on that it's more of a.
When you're when you're trying to figure out that type of issue cut.
Customers simply want to make sure. Okay are these products youre going to ship at this point going to be correct for what the new legislation says and of course, the legislation has been up in the air because they're actually voting today.
Which we believe will be in the favor of going towards the sturdy.
Act, which which is favorable for our industry.
So, but we'll know we'll know more later day, but I really don't have an estimate on that and honestly. It's a very short term hiccup and it's not a delay that will have any long term effect on us.
Got you okay. Thanks for that and then.
What is your confidence level as far as being able to maintain pricing for your products now.
Demand has softened and ocean freight costs have come down back to much more normal levels, how should we think about that.
I think it's there's actually three sides of the equation because we've got really if you think about three different models. So when you look at Hooker branded model.
Sure.
Right now we have we still have warehouses full of products with those additional cost from the freight and it'll take us a while to do that as we I would say as we.
As we do sell through and actually realize the lower costs were always going to be looking at making sure we're selling our product at a compelling value. It at the right margin. So that's something we're going to have to keep evaluating but we don't plan on losing ground and our overall margin I can tell you that and also on the <unk>.
<unk> really a lot of those additional cost were.
More on the direct side of the business, which mostly was the contract on the customer side. So that actually just goes down naturally as the container freight has changed for those direct customers. So that's really the <unk> story, mostly and then on the domestic upholstery.
We really haven't seen a lot of decreases in a lot of the components in a lot of the different raw materials.
<unk> kind of stayed tired now they've stabilized we're not getting those cost increases on it seemed like it was a daily basis.
So I don't I don't anticipate much change in the domestic upholstery from a pricing standpoint.
Got it okay. Thanks for that on a couple of more questions. If I can so thinking of HMA. So.
So when you look at how the business has changed over the last few years now.
So if I look at their backlog. So so your consolidated backlog was lower at the end of the most recent fiscal year versus when.
When I look at the.
Fiscal year that ended January of 2020, so right before the pandemic. So on a consolidated basis. The backlog is down but then looking at the components of that backlog, we only really.
Thats down is <unk> the other three.
Three segments are up so.
So I guess on an apples to apples basis, if you so now obviously.
You don't have the club business, you don't have etcetera X Hall, and so on so I guess on an apples to apples basis. If you look at current HMA. The way, it's operating now versus I guess, the pre pandemic HMA look if you were to adjust for those businesses that are no longer and would you say that your backlog is.
Comparable.
I would say that it is a little down from from pre pandemic, but not not alarmingly, so and we feel pretty good about that changing.
For us in a good way.
Relatively quick because of the different placements and things going on that we have going on at <unk>. So.
Yes, I think I think it would be fair to say a little down from pre pandemic on their core businesses that are left yeah. The clubs business tended to inflate backlogs because of the long order cycle, Yes, you could I mean, the backlog just for clubs could be $50 million to $75 million.
<unk>.
But otherwise I agree that I think it's down a little bit from adjusted I think it is going to help Anthony.
Yes, absolutely, yes, thanks for that and then I guess the last question for me before I turn it over to someone else here. So.
For Sunset West It looks like there was a little bit of a hiccup there with the ERP system implementation you guys have a guess as to how much that was as far as revenue impact and it.
Sounds like Youre I think that issue is resolved by now, but just wanted to get a better understanding of that.
Yes. So we believe the impact was roughly $3 million in revenue to sunset to get through the ERP and they also had a move into another building.
Before that so.
We disrupted.
That business pretty significantly.
Trying to get them really well positioned in the.
The good news is we feel like they are well positioned at this point to take advantage of the new Chevron, we're opening this market and Savannah.
Shipping point that we now have officially started shipping sense at west out of so we've got a lot going on that we believe is going to.
Really really ramp that business up in a positive way.
Alright, well it sounds good yeah looking forward to seeing the new showroom.
Yes, yes, we are looking forward to seeing you there.
Alright, thank you.
Thank you, yes, thank you Anthony.
Our next question comes from the line of Budd <unk> with water Tower Research. Your line is now open.
Good morning, Paul Good morning, Jeremy Thank you for taking my questions.
Just if I look at the inventory of the $96 million at the end of the year how much of that is the discontinued inventory or is that still in.
That number.
It's in but it's at net so.
I would say.
The impact is probably.
Five or $6 million net because they because the reserve I was going to say $6 million yet because the reserve is in there too. So yeah. Okay. So it would be so on an apples to apples basis without that it would be about $90 million of inventory.
Yes.
And in that inventory how much of that inventory is.
<unk> represented by elevated demurrage and freight costs.
What's the impact of those on.
As you on when revenues are annual margin gross margin as you.
Sell through of that higher elevated freight and demurrage costs inventory.
But we believe that's around 10% that would be additional.
Freight that we don't believe will stay in our system as we sell through it and start replenishing with the lower freight levels. So.
That says to me that you're at 88% $81 million, if you had normalized normalized.
If we normalize those costs in that inventory that product okay.
That's the way to think about it.
Say that that's pretty that's pretty reasonable yes.
Okay.
And AC H or if you look at <unk> on a restructured basis. I know you said you expect to show consolidated profitability later in the year or is that third or fourth quarter Thats kind of my question were second quarter and if you look at the pieces of it are they profitable which ones are at acceptable profitability levels.
Well consolidated we expect to be profitable for the full year. So just to clarify, but if youre talking segment HMA, becoming profitable. We believe third quarter, we should start to see those types of gains in and create and really create a positive momentum going into the fourth and into the next fiscal.
A year, but we still got to reduce overhead and the right kind of eliminate the inventory and reduce overhead in the first and second quarters with correct.
The warehouse inventory right.
Is going to end up being roughly the $12 million Paul referenced in the script.
That's where I was going next year, what are the additional cost to get out of that.
Pieces of the warehousing and other administrative areas, it's easier to do and you say, that's a $12 million.
Additional head alright.
No no no what we're saying is we've saved we will have saved $12 million and our overall overhead at <unk>. If you go from the beginning of last fiscal to the end of this fiscal so it's actually a savings and we don't anticipate significant cost because we actually just went through this.
With the write down so we believe we're we're past a lot of those significant cost to get to the reduction we're trying to accomplish and personnel reductions are a personnel reductions are over and where this is really about overhead from leases and things that we can we can get out of and move towards a smaller one.
Her head base.
So you have moved those essentially those restructuring costs already into the P&L you wont have so if you have to take that down you don't you don't need to reflect that in terms of any additional cost in the first and second quarter.
No actually well costs, yes.
There will be some noise.
Like I'm sorry.
We'll have additional costs, but like we are we do have we still have the full warehouse footprint.
So we have the rent will be lower at the end of the year than it is now.
But it's not going to cost us more to do that it's just we're going to keep obviously pain. The space, we have until we've reduced the space. So there will be.
There it'll be a transition.
And that's what I'm trying to understand is how much are those elevated costs that you wont have which you will be able you say you believe we believe from this point to the end of the year, it's around $6 million right.
Nope.
I guess last question for me on one is in the inventory write down was there any incremental decremental tax effects it looked like there.
A period to period didn't change all that much but I'm just trying to understand if you tried to look at.
The write down cost moves or any additional was there any special tax impact that you could or could not take.
No no.
We didn't it didn't affect any tax carryforwards it affected.
If you saw that the K it affected the rate a little bit but that was more about the other permanent differences that affected tax rate, yes, but otherwise.
For the other yes, thats where that was.
Yes, that's I mean, that's just the fact that we recorded a book loss.
We've changed it change the impact of some of the other permanent differences on our tax rate, but otherwise no we expect to be able to fully utilize.
All of our tax deductions and Theres nothing unusual about it about the about the write down.
It just creates it creates an odd looking tax rate in the year that it happens, but otherwise that we expect to fully utilize them.
We were going to look at it as an adjusted number on an EPS basis, and I know you don't report it that way, we would simply normal normal tax effect that that breakdown.
Correct Thats right.
Okay and last for me on pricing and I know we've had.
The unfortunate situation of watching the supply chain issues in Vietnam in Covid.
Extra inflation, we look like we may get into some deflation areas are we are we priced properly and.
If we get into the deflationary times are.
Are we going to have to start giving back pricing to larger large customers.
But Anthony had questions kind of similar there's really three parts to that.
With HMA because they are more of a direct container to the customer business their pricing really adjust as the freight goes because that was most of the cost increase on that side of the business. So that will naturally adjust for those customers for about 80% to 90% of our business.
If you get into Hooker branded we have a warehouse full of inflated cost as we talked about with when we said the 10% ish on $90 million I believe you said.
That's going to take us a little bit too to filter through and put.
New lower cost into our warehouse and we will keep probably quarterly we will be reevaluating, our value equation, and making sure that our margin state and stabilized and is where we needed to be but also the balance of us being a value in the marketplace is always important to us as well.
And then on domestic upholstery.
Rising material cost at least have stabilized somewhat so we don't really anticipate much change in our pricing at the domestic upholstery.
Part of our business that helped Bud.
I think you guys yet.
We believe the word normal would be a very nice word to have for a while.
Underlying normal I can go with that I'd like it to.
Yes, yes.
Alright, same so boring before.
Thank you very much congratulations on the new showroom and best wishes for this next fiscal year.
Hey, we appreciate it thank you Budd.
As a reminder to ask a question you will need to press star one one on your telephone.
Our next question.
Our next question comes from the line of Barry Haimes with Sage asset. Your line is now open.
Good morning, Thanks for taking the questions.
One could you just give us the.
Actual order number.
For the quarter.
And then what it was a year ago on a like for like basis. So excluding the discontinued operations and then what the backlog number was at the end of the year.
One second.
Take a second.
<unk>.
Backlog at the end of the year was.
$95 million.
Incoming orders.
For the fiscal 'twenty, three fourth quarter were $88 million $89 million.
Compared to a 106 in fiscal 2022 fourth quarters.
Okay, Great and then my other question was just following up on.
Your comment that some.
The customers are over inventory issue.
Engage with them and you have.
If you had to handicap about.
How many more quarters before they get right sized and any feel for at what point in the year you think youll.
Your customers will have their inventories right size. Thank you.
It's getting better we are.
That of course, we don't have the.
The visibility to see the actual inventories unless they're a public company of many of our customers but.
It is the situation is getting better.
I want to emphasize that a lot of the inventory issues that debt.
Many of our customers have.
Our item or things that they purchased during the pandemic when it was very difficult to get a hold of really any inventory and I think some of the mentality was well things are so good and everything selling that they bought a lot of things that they thought would sell in that environment didn't necessarily perform at the level. They they needed it to and that's kind of put us I think.
Some of the position we are as an industry. So.
I hope that helps.
Clarify yes.
Great. Thank you.
Yes.
Thank you and at this time I'd like to hand, the conference back over to you.
Mr. Jeremy Hoff for closing remarks.
Yes.
Yes.
I would like to thank everyone on the call for their interest in Hooker furnishings, we look forward to sharing our fiscal 'twenty four first quarter results in June take care.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation you may now disconnect everyone have a wonderful day.
Thanks.
Okay.
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Okay.
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