Q4 2024 XPEL Inc Earnings Call
Speaker Change: Greetings. Welcome to the Expel, Inc. 4th quarter and year-end 2024 earnings call.
Speaker Change: At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad.
Speaker Change: Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, John Nesbett, with IMS Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.
Speaker Change: Good morning and welcome to our conference call to discuss XBEL's fourth quarter in 2024 year-end financial results. On the call today are Ryan Pape, XBEL's chief president and chief executive officer, and Barry Wood, XBEL's senior vice president and chief financial officer, who will provide an overview of the business operations and review the company's financial results.
Speaker Change: Immediately after the prepared comments, we will take questions from our call participants. Also a transcript of this call will be available on the company's website after the call.
Speaker Change: Take a moment now to read the Safe Harbor Statement during the course of this call We will make certain forward-looking statements regarding ExpoLink and its business which may include but are not limited to anticipated use of proceeds from capital transactions expansion of the new markets and execution of the company's growth strategy
Speaker Change: Such statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to be materially different from those expressed in these statements.
Speaker Change: Some of these factors are discussed in detail in our most recent Form 10-K, including under the item 1A, Risk Factors, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ex-Bell owner takes no obligation to publicly update.
Speaker Change: or revise any forward-looking statement, whether results of new information, future events, or otherwise. With that, we'll now turn the call over to Ryan. Please go ahead, Ryan.
Ryan Pape: Thank you John and good morning everyone. Welcome also from me to the fourth quarter and year-end 2024 call.
2024 was obviously a challenging year for the company.
Ryan Pape: going into the year after coming off a really solid growth year in 2023. We anticipated some softness after hearing from our customers at the beginning of the year, but macro headwinds, and particularly in the aftermarket, came fast in the year and impacted the business more than what we anticipated.
Ryan Pape: That, coupled with the sell-in, sell-through dynamic in China and our decisions on how to manage it, and latent economic impacts in Europe and elsewhere, impacted our revenue growth, and we finished at $420.4 million for the year, which was just over 6% growth versus 2023.
Ryan Pape: After a slow start in the first half of the year, we definitely saw customer sentiment start to improve, maybe even more so than the business itself, and see a little bit more momentum coming back in.
Ryan Pape: We closed the year of its fourth quarter with revenue excluding China growing at 10.5%. This was in line with what we were expecting. Our U.S. region grew 6.2% in the quarter to $59.1 million, which was at the lower range of what we were forecasting.
and a reason for that was our dealership services business.
However, average units...
Ryan Pape: that we protected in some dealerships in that category declined or was flat to the previous year as inventory has started to return to normal levels at U.S. dealerships.
Ryan Pape: So, even where we have a 100% attach rate, this can occur if fewer vehicles were delivered to that dealership this quarter than the same quarter last year when inventory was building. And we definitely saw that in some cases.
and then as...
Ryan Pape: New Franchise Inventory Recovered and Built Faster than Sales, we've benefited from that as well.
Ryan Pape: We've got new vehicle supply in the U.S. at about 2.5 million units in December, 71 days of supply. It's really sort of the first time at that level in two years.
Ryan Pape: Overall dealership business has plenty of takes and puts. Newcarsar is still depressed from what some would say is its historical average.
Ryan Pape: Leaving room for that to increase as financing conditions and consumer sentiment improves Same time consumers are upside down and more than one in four have negative equity of more than $10,000
On the other hand, we've seen
Continued increase from dealerships on our pre-installed options.
as they're a hard add.
Ryan Pape: because our products are tangible and valuable. And this presents the opportunity for continued share gains from competitive soft or paper products like insurance offerings.
Ryan Pape: which some consumers may not find as valuable are increasingly under regulatory scrutiny for what they are and how they're sold and are also subject to cancellation by the customer.
So, you know, that leaves substantial opportunity.
Ryan Pape: to continue to grow in this space. And we're focused on our dealership sales organization and expanding it.
Ryan Pape: and continuing to reorganize our sales team in this way. And we want our dealership sales organization to drive business.
Ryan Pape: whether preload, whether F&I, with all of our customers who want to do dealership work. We've talked about that at the dealer conference. We talk about that at every opportunity that if we have customers that
Ryan Pape: are interested in dealership work, we're here to support them and ultimately to try to drive business to them.
Ryan Pape: So, if you think about it that way, our measure of success is units protected.
Ryan Pape: by content per unit. And that's really the measure more so than the exact channel, service type, product, sale, route to market.
The measure of success is...
is ultimately units protected.
Ryan Pape: So, we're really excited about how this is coming together for 2025.
Ryan Pape: you know, what we're doing, how we're reorganizing the sales team, the interest we've had.
from many of our customers in the aftermarket.
Ryan Pape: and then the programs we've put in place to help enable them to be successful.
Ryan Pape: Whether it's billing solutions through DAP, whether it's financing solutions we've put in place to help close the gap on getting paid from dealerships.
Ryan Pape: and then menu and inventory and other technology integrations. We've put a ton of work into these, and we're starting to see adoption by our customer base at large. We're very happy about that.
R-O-E-M
revenue
Ryan Pape: In the quarter declined slightly as this was impacted by package changes to the Rivian program So going forward our factory option with Rivian will shift to a full-body matte wrap as part of the stealth package
Ryan Pape: and then at the same time we'll be shifting our offering of the full front PPF into our co-marketed referral program.
Ryan Pape: which we've talked about before. So net-net, this ultimately gives the consumer more options of what to buy than what we've offered previously, but negatively impacted the quarter while we made those changes. We've talked about the referral program previously.
Ryan Pape: and how we're looking to provide more work to our aftermarket installer base through partnerships with a variety of partners including OEM manufacturers where we'll sell the product online and then deliver the installations through our network.
Ryan Pape: continue to have constructive conversation about additional programs and we've added a number of features
Ryan Pape: to the referral platform to make it even more compelling for current and future partners there.
Ryan Pape: excluding the impact from shifting the program with Rivian our OEM business grew approximately 16% in the quarter and like I mentioned we continue discussions on a variety of initiatives with the referral program and OEMs at large.
Ryan Pape: Our China region came in at 9.2 million, which was consistent with our expectations.
Ryan Pape: You'll recall that we had the highest China revenue quarter in Q4 of last year that we ever had at $16.6 million.
So, it makes for a...
A tough comp in Q4, as we discussed in Q3.
Ryan Pape: But as we noted on our last call, we've arrested and...
made many changes here into the sell-in, sell-through dynamic.
Ryan Pape: So, for sort of the new products we brought into the market, this $8 to $9 million run rate should be the baseline from here. Q1 will be less annually with the Chinese New Year holiday season. And then as we talked about, more upside as we get through the other products in China that we're discontinuing where they're still holding inventory. So I think really no changes in terms of what's happening there from what we talked about last quarter.
Ryan Pape: And, as we previously indicated, we want to be direct in the key top car markets of the world, and China is no exception. So to that end, we're advancing in our discussions to ultimately accomplish that in China.
for the year.
We completed distributor acquisitions in Japan, Thailand, and India.
Ryan Pape: As we will talk about, we've added the SG&A load from these operations, but our track record of in-country operations is historically very strong, and we'll see the benefits as we grow past our fixed costs that we've acquired or added post-acquisition.
Ryan Pape: While we've added the cost and the SG&A associated with these businesses, the incremental revenue from these acquisitions is minimal, given that we already recognize the product revenue that we sell to the distributors previously.
Ryan Pape: But as you know, we expect accelerated revenue growth post-acquisition like we've seen in other markets where we've done this successfully.
Ryan Pape: So we're in the very early stages of owning these operations in country that we did this year, but we're already going much deeper than we ever would have
Ryan Pape: accomplished in the distribution relationship, and that includes discussions with OEMs, local franchising partners.
Ryan Pape: dealership services, businesses, and the like. So we have good results in the corridor of Middle East and Asia-Pacific, and you can see the benefit of the focus we've created with our regional leadership, which for us is now Asia, Latin America,
Ryan Pape: Middle East and India Europe and then the US and it's been really important to
Ryan Pape: define that, clarify that, which we've worked on throughout 2024, ultimately to drive more P&L accountability within the region, smarter deployment of capital, and smarter investment in SG&A.
Thank you.
Ryan Pape: So with those acquisitions and pending China, we're largely complete with the strategy of acquiring distributors and key markets. So the focus now is our depth
Ryan Pape: in terms of growing our scale and the go-to-market in each market where we operate, taking a market-by-market approach and tailoring the products and services that we offer, and recognizing the full potential that our direct presence
Ryan Pape: can give us including ultimately full operating leverage in each of those respective markets.
Ryan Pape: I was pleased with gross margin performance for the year which came in at 42.2%, 120 basis point improvement over 23. We still think we have upside opportunity.
Ryan Pape: to this over the next couple of years, although the strength of the dollar sort of works against us to some extent in the near term. Our Q4 gross margin of 40.6% was off the 24 run rate, primarily,
Ryan Pape: Due to mix as we monetize some slower moving inventory through incentives we typically do this every year in the fourth quarter and and usually it has Some impact to gross margins. So this year was no exception
Ryan Pape: As we talked about on our last call, our growth rate in SG&A is something that we're very focused on.
Ryan Pape: and our SG&A grew 17.4% to $31.4 million in the quarter. We're working very hard to manage SG&A and focusing primarily on our overhead or corporate SG&A. As the business evolves...
Ryan Pape: We have more fixed SG&A costs were occurring at the at the operations or field level such as building leases to support
Ryan Pape: installation operations and management staff overseeing these operations. So that's a dynamic that we have to continue to confront as we go forward and have a broader portfolio of services we're offering.
So, in fact, depending on the configuration,
Ryan Pape: The first dollar of service revenue at a brand new location could have a negative contribution margin due to overhead or startup costs required to get it going.
Ryan Pape: in contrast obviously to an incremental product sold off the shelf that's almost all contribution margin.
Ryan Pape: This is part of the evolving nature of our business, and we'll continue to.
and prove how we manage that portion.
You know, our 17% SG&E growth in the fourth quarter.
Ryan Pape: You know, 11 of the 17% was really driven by factors such as that, the acquisition related SG&A cost that we added.
Ryan Pape: the locations associated with that. And then to a lesser extent, our nominal increase in marketing spend is a percent of revenue in R&D.
Ryan Pape: So, we have to be mindful of the realities of the current environment, and one that we saw this year with slower growth, and to that end, we've kicked off a comprehensive review of our expense structure in Q3 to ensure we're investing in the right places.
Ryan Pape: And so while that review continues, we've already taken actions in February, including a workforce reduction that will net us about $2 million in annual run rate savings. This largely impacts us at the corporate level as we reset our needs to current expectations.
Acquisition
Ryan Pape: I think that, you know, I will justify investments in SG&A that drive revenue growth in the field all day long. These are truly investments in the future, but investments in our true corporate overhead have to be scrutinized and ultimately...
reduced where possible.
Ryan Pape: and available but certainly not at the expense of the long-term health of the business and we're targeting several million dollars more of corporate costs.
Ryan Pape: through optimizing the expense structure with outside vendors and services throughout the organization and through other corporate personnel reorganization by not backfilling certain positions as they become available through attrition.
Ryan Pape: So, we see the outlook for 2025 as mixed and more uncertain than normal. So, the positive sentiment in the aftermarket seems to have improved. As a company, I think we're executing.
Better?
Ryan Pape: than we have in several years as we have more clarity and focus on the things
that are important, I think, as you see.
Ryan Pape: Revenue grows slower. It gives you time to reflect more on what you're doing and to ensure you're doing it correctly.
Ryan Pape: The promise of lower regulatory burden in the U.S. is encouraging.
And I think, you know, we know, and I know,
Ryan Pape: more of what I need to do to drive the company forward in 2025, to start 2025, than I did in 2024. And I think a lot of our team would say the same.
Ryan Pape: On the other hand, inflation and interest rates have not moved as expected, and as we would want to unlock more of the new car market, the aftermarket remains subdued compared to the previous years, certainly in part due to these affordability challenges.
Ryan Pape: Additionally, our business is global in nature, a specter of tariffs and impediments to trade creates uncertainty, despite our efforts to put in place mitigations.
Ryan Pape: The U.S. dollar has strengthened and remained incredibly strong on a historical basis against our common currency pairs, impedes our margin, actually reduces revenue growth rate to some extent and was obviously painful in the fourth quarter just from a...
FX Realization standpoint.
Ryan Pape: But we've completed our global realignment of management responsibilities as I mentioned earlier around our regions And we have the strongest P&L alignment with our leaders
Ryan Pape: and a mandate to focus on optimizing the expense structure to achieve the results while driving growth and expanding their respective markets. And I think from a management standpoint and how we've organized the business to help drive our future success, we're probably in the best structure that we've ever had.
Ryan Pape: As I mentioned earlier, Appendi China were largely complete in our desire to acquire distributors in key global markets.
Ryan Pape: where we want a direct presence. 2025 is a pivotal year for us to refine and implement our strategy to deploy capital in the business to drive future growth. As we've talked about, the primary interest of ours
as further developing our services business.
Ryan Pape: mainly but not exclusively in the new car dealership space where we think a larger presence can bring more opportunity for our existing products alongside CAM expansion into other products and services.
Ryan Pape: We've gone very deep in this process to analyze all the targets and the strategies and we're working through that now.
You know, the challenges to accomplish this include...
Ryan Pape: the fragmented nature of that business and of these targets to achieve meaningful scale, probably more fragmented more fragmented than we would have hoped.
Ryan Pape: but not such that it's not viable, and then unrealistic expectations around purchase price. That said, you know, there's substantial opportunity in this strategy and to implement this before returning cash to shareholders becomes the primary objective.
Ryan Pape: We just had our dealer conference last week. We had over 700 attendees.
This was an all-time record of attendance, 38 countries represented.
Ryan Pape: You know, very interesting to see in the current dynamic that we would have such record attendance.
Ryan Pape: And what was interesting is, relatively speaking, the conference was later to book up, more back-end loaded, and that probably just speaks to maybe some of the uncertainty that exists in the overall space.
But the sentiment was was positive. I would
Ryan Pape: describe it as much more positive than 2024 at the same time.
2025 off to a good start for folks.
Ryan Pape: and I think, you know, hard to say whether that means...
Ryan Pape: Their business is demonstrably better than 2024 or they just have more confidence that it's not Deteriorating or that there aren't more challenges coming Different opinions based on who you talk to but the the sentiment was good. The feedback was good
Ryan Pape: We unveiled what's our number one objective for 2025 as a company at the conference, and that's really to redouble our efforts to ensure we're always providing amazing service.
Ryan Pape: And we serve many types of businesses, no two customers of ours are alike, across many product lines now and in many geographies. And our commitment is to ensure that we redouble our efforts to provide excellent and efficient service.
Speaker Change: and remote work, Slack messages and the like. These can often be an impediment to getting things done.
Speaker Change: quickly for customers as they need it and more than one example of turning something that could be done in minutes into something that takes days.
Speaker Change: and we're focused absolutely on eliminating that and being as efficient as possible in our delivery of excellent service. So that was our commitment and launch to the customers at the conference.
Speaker Change: and that's percolating through the company and our initiatives for this year. Our launch of the windshield protection film has been going quite well. We've received good feedback on the product thus far. Customers seem to be excited about the upsell opportunity.
Speaker Change: As we mentioned before, we hope to start consumer marketing around this product a little bit later this year to unlock its potential as a gateway product because it does appeal to some consumers that are not typically already in our ecosystem.
Speaker Change: We're making really good improvements to our architectural film program. We've got some technology-enabled selling tools requested by dealers that are in the process of rolling out.
Speaker Change: an extended glass breakage warranty program launching in Q1 or the beginning of Q2. Again, something very much requested by the growing customer base there.
Speaker Change: and then the addition of dedicated surface protection films for things like countertops and related, which is really part of the strategy overall to drive more of the protection angle in that vertical over time.
Speaker Change: As we may have mentioned before, we're also planning to launch our
Speaker Change: colored film portfolio starting in Q2. This is a TAM expander for our business and we're focused on ways to add value for our customers around this and DAP and elsewhere and looking forward to that.
And then finally, our investment in DAP as a platform.
Speaker Change: to help run our customers' business efficiently continues. We're delivering customer their leads and deals in DAP.
Speaker Change: and we're focused on operational components to benefit them, things around work orders, scheduling, commissions, and now our warranty submissions are integrated into DAP.
Speaker Change: and then scheduling, followed by more consumer-facing items such as quotes.
Speaker Change: and things like that. So we launched the first companion mobile app in the app stores to DAP.
Speaker Change: And we received a lot of positive feedback from our customer base at the dealer conference and a lot of additional asks and requests which we're putting into queue.
Speaker Change: So as always, I greatly appreciate the effort of our team. You know, one of the benefits of having our dealer conference is that it is in part a global employee conference as well.
Speaker Change: And it's not often we can bring together many different groups, you know, that are in different parts of the world pushing to drive the business forward. And so it's really an amazing time to do that in a very...
Speaker Change: Dense and high-intensity time and I could tell you that Everyone's working exceptionally hard and and they understand, you know what we need to do in our mission and how we need to serve customers well
Speaker Change: and I'd be remiss without recognizing our marketing team who always does a great job in putting that event on.
Speaker Change: So, you know, busy start to the year. Thanks, our team, for their efforts. And we will turn it over to Barry. Barry, go ahead.
Barry Wood: Thanks, Ryan, and good morning, everyone. Our overall revenue growth in the quarter was 1.9%, but as Ryan mentioned, the China noise masked the overall
Barry Wood: you know, quite solid performance in our other regions. Our product revenue was flat in the quarter but if you factor out the China impacts, our total product revenue grew 10.9%.
Barry Wood: Our total window film product line grew 32.9% in the quarter, with most of that coming from automotive, which grew 31.7% to 14.3 million.
Barry Wood: and with that there was good growth being driven by our partnership with Tent World and in that product line.
Barry Wood: Our architectural film revenue declined slightly to $2.7 million and due primarily to timing of sales into China this quarter versus last quarter.
Barry Wood: Our windshield protection film, newest product, which launched during Q4, had a really nice start with revenue of $1.5 million in the quarter, which effectively is just one month of sales, so we're pretty happy about that.
Barry Wood: Sequentially window film revenue was down about 19% which was expected given seasonality of the product.
Barry Wood: And as Ryan also mentioned, our SG&A expense grew 17.4% in the quarter to $31.4 million.
Barry Wood: and sequentially this was up a little over six percent versus Q3 and most of this sequential increase was due to SEMA related costs and professional fees incurred related to acquisitions closed in Q4.
Barry Wood: And as we think about SG&A expense in Q1, there will be some one-time expenses related to this reduction in workforce of approximately $0.7 million. And also as a reminder, we did have our dealer conference.
Barry Wood: in Q1 this year, which is the same time as last year's timing, and the net cost of that will be around $1.2 million.
Barry Wood: Another anomaly in the quarter was significant strengthening of the U.S. dollar, which started right around September, resulting in an FX monetary transaction loss of approximately $1.2 million in the quarter, and this was worth a little over three cents of EPS hurt for us.
Barry Wood: Our EBITDA declined a little over 19% in the quarter to $14.3 million, reflecting 13.3% EBITDA margin. And if you normalize for the FX impacts, EBITDA would have declined approximately 9%, which would be a 14.3% EBITDA margin.
Our total EBITDA for the year finished at $569.5 million.
Barry Wood: for 16.5% of total revenue, and this was about 9.6% less than last year.
Barry Wood: Net income for the quarter declined 25.7% to $8.9 million, reflecting the income margin of 8.3%. EPS for the quarter was $0.32 per share, but again, normalizing for the Q4FX impact, EPS would have been $0.35 per share.
Barry Wood: Net income for the year declined 13.8% to $45.5 million, reflecting the net income margin of 10.8%, and EPS for the year was $1.65 per share.
Barry Wood: And on our last call, we talked about our expectation that our urine inventory levels would remain relatively static to Q3, but that didn't happen as planned.
In the quarter...
Barry Wood: We brought to scale a new manufacturing location and decided to ramp up the procurement of the raw materials to be used at that location.
Barry Wood: Subsequent to the election and with the threat of increasing tariffs and our retaliatory tariffs, we wanted to make sure we created maximum optionality to supply all of our global end markets with the minimum possible disruption.
Barry Wood: and thankfully the tariff threat has not yet materialized and the new site will be used as part of our global production needs. Raw materials and WIP will remain elevated while the site is fully integrated and then they'll lower over the next couple of quarters.
Barry Wood: Cash flow provided by Ops was $6.3 million for the quarter and $47.8 million for the year, which compares to our 2023 annual cash flow provided by Ops of $37.4 million.
Barry Wood: Our cash conversion cycle decelerated during the quarter with our increases in inventory purchases, but accounts receivable and payables terms are healthy, so improvements to the conversion cycle will come as we continue to right-size our inventory.
Barry Wood: We did complete five acquisitions during the year with an aggregate purchase price of $12.5 million, and our credit facility balance sits at zero as of the end of the year. So we're continuing to be financially well positioned going into next year.
Barry Wood: And with that, operator, we'll now open the call up for questions.
Speaker Change: Certainly. At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session.
Barry Wood: If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad.
Barry Wood: A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please while we poll for questions.
Speaker Change: Your first question for today is from Jeff Van Sinderen with B Reilly.
Speaker Change: Good morning everyone. I'm just wondering if you can give us a little bit more color on sort of what's going on on the ground in China with sell-throughs. Obviously there's a sell-through, sell-in thing there but
Speaker Change: I'm just wondering kind of what you're seeing with sell-throughs and the outlook there and then I know this is a tough question but anything you can give us on the timing of when that may become a direct business for you?
Sure, Jeff. Yeah, I think from a
Speaker Change: from a cell-in-cell-through dynamic. Really no changes from what we discussed in Q3, which is that right now and going forward, it's much more evenly matched based on all the changes that we made. So we're seeing
We're not seeing
Speaker Change: Sell in versus sell through dynamic with what you see in q3 q4 and and ongoing The days of inventory for these new products are much lower. And so they're selling through much more rapidly
Speaker Change: than they were previously in part because we're helping to manage the inventory in China. So, the only secondary part of that was we have other products.
Speaker Change: where there is still some inventory that's being sold through in addition to what you see us selling.
Speaker Change: And as we talked about before, you know, as those products sell through, we'll replace them with...
Speaker Change: New products we intend to launch in a similar way where we're not going to have this sell-and-sell-through dynamic.
Similar to Q3, you know, that dynamic is over.
and Q4 is really...
Speaker Change: The last time I think you have this sort of outsized impact like you've seen when comparing this quarter to the prior year. In terms of our plans in China, no, I don't have anything more to add. Obviously, a top strategic priority for us and something we're very much working on every day.
Speaker Change: Okay, fair enough. And then if we could just turn to gross margin and the operating expense outlook for Q1, and then any early thoughts you might have on what the quarterly progression of metrics might look like this year?
Speaker Change: and then also if you could just add anything on on how you're planning to I know you spoke a little bit about this but mitigating potential tariffs
Speaker Change: Yeah, I think you know from the from a gross margin standpoint if you look at the full year number in the 42% range I mean, that's sort of the
Speaker Change: The kind of run rate type numbers we should be looking at, you know, probably a little pressure on that if you consider the
Speaker Change: the impact of the strong dollar, but then offset against where we see opportunity to still grow margins. So I think, you know, in a round number, that 42% is probably good.
Speaker Change: You know I think that it's it's hard to give an outlook really for the business looking out
Q2, Q3, Q4 next year, you know, we see
Speaker Change: We see this as probably, you know, the most the most uncertain when you consider things like tariffs and you consider the impact on
Speaker Change: currency and things like that so I think we feel we have the least confidence looking out that far
Speaker Change: But I also would say, you know, that's not necessarily a negative comment either. When you when you talk to customers and you see the enthusiasm like we had at the dealer conference and you look at.
Speaker Change: how many chose to spend the money to be there and what they're doing in their businesses.
Speaker Change: There's real enthusiasm there, but ultimately that has to be met with customers on their doorstep as we get through the year. So I think there are so many takes and puts.
When you when you look at the
Speaker Change: the tariff impact and all of the things going on at the federal level. You know, I think that to make no comment of the validity or not of those decisions, but it just creates uncertainty, you know, for a company with
half of our revenue more or less outside the U.S.
Speaker Change: We have to be concerned about sourcing, we have to be concerned about end markets, we have to be concerned about retaliatory tariffs. I think we've done everything we can to build in optionality into our supply chain to mitigate that.
Speaker Change: but ultimately you really don't know until things happen and and what the actual impact is so I think that you know we're
I would say cautiously optimistic.
Speaker Change: that the impact is negligible on its face or that we have the ability to compensate for it if it does materialize. But it certainly contributes just to an uncertain.
Speaker Change: environment for this year. And, you know, even to look at something like the interest rate environment and what that means to new car affordability and how that trickles down through dealerships and dealership economics and the manufacturers.
Speaker Change: You know you just see how the expectations on that has shifted in a matter of you know the past sort of three or four months from You know rates definitely going down to maybe higher for longer and more risk of latent inflation, so I don't think we have
Speaker Change: better insight into those things than the market overall or to any other business. But our goal is just to try and be as well positioned as we can to respond to the things that happen and or take advantage of them if it creates opportunity.
Speaker Change: Okay, that's helpful. And then, if I could just squeeze in one more, just any thoughts on the launch of the color films, how you're approaching that, and then also marketing around that?
Speaker Change: Yeah, we're actually really excited about it. I mean, I think if you've...
Speaker Change: If you've heard my comments on it over a period of time, they've probably varied a bit, but as we've been closer to launch and had a lot more voice of the customer and a lot more engagement with our customer base around the topic, I think we're pretty excited.
Speaker Change: The question still remains of, you know, what is the introduction of different types of colored films due to the overall
Tam of that market.
but irrespective of
Speaker Change: answering that question, it creates a good opportunity for us, and it's something...
Speaker Change: that our customers want, and so we're excited about that. And I would say, you know, from a marketing standpoint, it's probably easier to market something that you can see versus something that's clear. So I can tell you from what I've seen from our marketing team, they're pretty excited about that fact.
Okay, great. Thanks for taking my questions. Thanks, Jeff.
Speaker Change: As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1.
Speaker Change: Your next question for today is from Steve Dyer with Craig Allum.
Speaker Change: Hi guys, this is Matthew Robb on for Steve. Just on OPEX, realizing there's some noise going on there in the in the first quarter of 25, but specifically on sales and marketing.
Speaker Change: You know, XPEL has made some investments, ramped up that spend throughout 24 relative to prior years. Do you feel like that marketing spend will continue through 25? And where do you think it's wise to invest those dollars? And then any considerations we should make on marketing spend as a percent of revenue?
Speaker Change: Yeah, so when we talk, when you see sales and marketing together, you really have kind of three components of that. You've got our sales team, you know, their compensation, commissions, incentives, etc. You've got marketing, which, you know, which we really think about sort of independently as more around, you know,
3% of revenue.
Speaker Change: And then you've got a another component in there, which is really
Speaker Change: I would say third-party commissions and agent fees and whatnot that are more prevalent in the dealership space. And so part of what you've seen in the growth of that is
Speaker Change: those third-party fees and agent fees for partners who are bringing us dealership relationships and so that that just behaves a little bit differently than
sort of
a true sales expense where we're hiring more people.
Speaker Change: So we would, you know, those are trades we're happy to make.
Speaker Change: where we can bring in established relationships, but it just behaves a little bit different than sort of a planned expansion of headcount, if that makes sense. So you're seeing that in some of the numbers. I would say that part happens to us a little bit more, whereas the rest is intentional. From a true marketing standpoint,
You know, we want to grow marketing
Speaker Change: from 3%. We'd like to grow it higher, you know, maybe for 2025.
Speaker Change: If we if we push it and maintain it, you know, maybe we get more like three and a half percent We see this is is an important objective overall. I like to get it to five, but obviously that's not happening
Speaker Change: you know, that's not happening in the present time. When you look at the first component of that total sales and marketing, so absence of marketing in the...
Speaker Change: third-party fees, you know our the size of our our sales force
Speaker Change: In the U.S. and Canada is relatively flat, so we don't really see that growing substantially. We are reorganizing it to be a bit more dealership and aftermarket focused to just ensure both customer types.
Speaker Change: both customer types get the attention they need. But the short answer is don't expect that, you know, line item on a percent of revenue basis, even an aggregate to be growing dramatically.
Speaker Change: Okay, got it. And then just a quick one here. You mentioned a manufacturing location to possibly mitigate tariffs. Is that location in the U.S.?
Speaker Change: yeah so so we have manufacturing now available to us in three countries and so if you're if you're looking about
the strategy
You've got to look at, obviously, the U.S. and market.
Speaker Change: tariffs that could be impacted. So ensure you've got plenty of domestic capacity. But then we're also looking at our other international end markets and what happens in the event of retaliatory tariffs.
Speaker Change: against US-made products. So that's where it's important to have capacity outside the US. So we've got all of that scaled up now and we can make choices about the mix.
depending on what happens.
Okay, that's great. Thanks guys.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: We have reached the end of the question and answer session.
Speaker Change: Thank you for joining us for this session and I will now turn the call over to management for closing remarks.