Steelcase Reports First Quarter Fiscal 2024 Results

• Year-over-year revenue and earnings growth realized in very dynamic environment
• Gross margin improvement of 530 basis points compared to the prior year driven by pricing benefits and operational efficiencies
• Outlook projects first half of fiscal 2024 being ahead of pace against full year financial targets
  

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., June 21, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Steelcase Inc. (NYSE: SCS) today reported first quarter revenue of $751.9 million, net income of $1.5 million, or $0.01 per share, and adjusted earnings per share of $0.09. In the prior year, Steelcase reported revenue of $740.7 million, a net loss of $11.4 million, or $0.10 per share, and an adjusted loss per share of $0.05.

Revenue and order growth (decline) compared to the prior year were as follows:

Revenue increased 2 percent in the first quarter compared to the prior year, and was flat on an organic basis, including 2 percent organic growth in the Americas and a 7 percent organic decline in International. The Americas growth was primarily driven by higher pricing but also benefited from faster order fulfillment patterns, partially offset by a lower beginning backlog. The decline in International was primarily driven by lower beginning backlog and continued macroeconomic concerns.

Orders (adjusted for the impact of an acquisition, divestitures and currency translation effects) declined 7 percent compared to the prior year, which had grown 22 percent compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2022. Orders declined 6 percent in the Americas and 11 percent in International. The order decline in the Americas was primarily due to a decline in project business, partially offset by growth in continuing business. The order decline in International was across most markets in EMEA and China, partially offset by growth across all other markets in Asia Pacific. On a consolidated basis, orders grew 21 percent sequentially versus the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, which is consistent with the seasonal increase in the prior year.

"In the Americas, faster order fulfillment patterns, higher than expected incoming orders early in the quarter and favorable pricing benefits drove our revenue and earnings above our expectations," said Sara Armbruster, president and CEO. "Our revenue from large corporate and government customers was better than we expected, despite the environment remaining challenging. Our win rate remains strong as our differentiated solutions are helping our customers evolve their spaces."

Operating income (loss) and adjusted operating income (loss) were as follows:

Operating income of $7.3 million in the first quarter represented an increase of $19.9 million and 270 basis points as a percentage of revenue compared to the prior year. Adjusted operating income of $19.7 million in the first quarter (which excludes $8.1 million of restructuring costs and $4.3 million of amortization of purchased intangible assets) represented an increase of $24.3 million compared to the prior year. The increase in adjusted operating income was driven by a $28.1 million improvement in the Americas, partially offset by a $3.8 million decline in International. The increase in the Americas was primarily driven by higher revenue and improved gross margin, partially offset by higher operating expenses. The decrease in International was primarily driven by lower revenue and higher operating expenses, partially offset by improved gross margin.

"Our International segment reported an adjusted operating loss of $4.5 million in the first quarter, which is expected to worsen in the second quarter due to seasonality and the impact of continued economic uncertainty on our demand levels," said Dave Sylvester, senior vice president and CFO. "As a result of the softening trends, we announced a series of restructuring actions during the quarter in our International segment."

Gross margin of 31.2 percent in the first quarter represented an increase of 530 basis points compared to the prior year and reflected a 650 basis point improvement in the Americas and a 180 basis point improvement in International. Year-over-year pricing benefits, net of inflation, were approximately $80 million. In addition to the pricing benefits, the Americas gross margin improvement was driven by improved operational efficiencies, partially offset by lower volume, and International gross margin was impacted by lower volume.

"Similar to recent quarters, our gross margin improvement this quarter reflected the benefits from the pricing actions we've implemented to recover the significant inflationary costs we've absorbed over the past two years," said Dave Sylvester. “In addition, our supply chain reliability in the Americas has improved significantly, which contributed to our improved operational performance and faster order fulfillment patterns during the quarter.”

Operating expenses of $220.6 million in the first quarter represented an increase of $19.7 million compared to the prior year, which included a $4 million gain on sale of land. The remaining increase was driven by $9.0 million of higher variable compensation expense and $6.2 million from an acquisition.

The company recorded income tax expense of $1.4 million in the first quarter, which represented an effective tax rate of approximately 48 percent and included $0.6 million of discrete tax expense. Adjusted for the discrete items, the company's effective tax rate approximated 26 percent.

Total liquidity, comprised of cash and cash equivalents and the cash surrender value of company-owned life insurance, aggregated to $199.9 million at the end of the first quarter. Total debt of $446.5 million represented a $34.7 million decrease compared to the end of the fourth quarter, as the company repaid a maturing note payable during the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the trailing four quarters was $234.7 million.

The Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.10 per share, to be paid on or before July 17, 2023, to shareholders of record as of July 6, 2023.

Outlook

At the end of the first quarter, the company’s backlog of customer orders was approximately $775 million, which was 20 percent lower than the prior year. Backlog in the prior year was 52 percent higher than at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2022 in part due to the impacts of supply chain disruptions and extended delivery timeframes. Orders through the first three weeks of the second quarter of fiscal 2024 grew modestly compared to the prior year. As a result, the company expects second quarter fiscal 2024 revenue to be in the range of $815 to $840 million. The company reported revenue of $863.3 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2023. The projected revenue range translates to a decline of 3 to 6 percent, including on an organic basis, compared to the prior year.

The company expects to report earnings per share of between $0.13 to $0.17 for the second quarter of fiscal 2024 and adjusted earnings per share of between $0.19 to $0.23. The company reported earnings per share of $0.17 and adjusted earnings per share of $0.21 in the second quarter of fiscal 2023.

The second quarter estimates include:

• gross margin of approximately 31.5 percent (compared to 29.1 percent in the prior year), with projected pricing benefits, net of moderate inflation, of approximately $65 million as compared to the prior year,
• projected operating expenses of between $225 to $230 million, which includes $4 million of amortization of purchased intangible assets and $8 million of expected gains from the sale of fixed assets,
• estimated restructuring charges of approximately $4 million,
• projected interest expense, investment income and other income, net, of approximately $4 million and
• a projected effective tax rate of 26 percent.
  

“Through the first half of the year, we expect to be ahead of pace on achieving our fiscal 2024 financial targets in part due to better than expected results from our large corporate customers,” said Sara Armbruster. "While we continue to navigate through an uncertain environment around the world, we are focused on continuing to improve our profitability and being the leader in the transformation of the workplace."

Business Segment Footnotes

1. The Americas segment serves customers in the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean Islands and Latin America with a comprehensive portfolio of furniture and architectural products that are marketed to corporate, government, healthcare, education and retail customers primarily through the Steelcase, AMQ, Coalesse, Designtex, HALCON, Orangebox, Smith System and Viccarbe brands.
2. The International segment serves customers in EMEA and Asia Pacific with a comprehensive portfolio of furniture and architectural products that are marketed to corporate, government, education and retail customers primarily through the Steelcase, Coalesse, Orangebox, Smith System and Viccarbe brands.

Webcast
Steelcase will discuss first quarter results and business outlook on a conference call at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time tomorrow.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures
This earnings release contains certain non-GAAP financial measures. A “non-GAAP financial measure” is defined as a numerical measure of a company’s financial performance that excludes or includes amounts so as to be different than the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP in the condensed consolidated statements of operations, balance sheets or statements of cash flows of the company. The non-GAAP financial measures used are (1) organic revenue growth (decline), (2) adjusted operating income (loss), (3) adjusted earnings (loss) per share and (4) adjusted EBITDA. Pursuant to the requirements of Regulation G, the company has provided a reconciliation of each of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in the tables above. These measures are supplemental to, and should be used in conjunction with, the most comparable GAAP measures. Management uses these non-GAAP financial measures to monitor and evaluate financial results and trends.

Organic Revenue Growth (Decline)
The company defines organic revenue growth (decline) as revenue growth (decline) excluding the impact of acquisitions and divestitures and foreign currency translation effects. Organic revenue growth (decline) is calculated by adjusting prior year revenue to include revenues of acquired companies prior to the date of the company’s acquisition, to exclude revenues of divested companies and to use current year average exchange rates in the calculation of foreign-denominated revenue. The company believes organic revenue growth (decline) is a meaningful metric to investors as it provides a more consistent comparison of the company’s revenue to prior periods as well as to industry peers.

Adjusted Operating Income (Loss) and Adjusted Earnings (Loss) Per Share
The company defines adjusted operating income (loss) as operating income (loss) excluding amortization of purchased intangible assets and restructuring costs. The company defines adjusted earnings (loss) per share as earnings (loss) per share, on a diluted basis, excluding amortization of purchased intangible assets and restructuring costs, net of related income tax effects.

Amortization of purchased intangible assets: The company may record intangible assets (such as backlog, dealer relationships, trademarks, know-how and designs and proprietary technology) when it acquires companies. The company allocates the fair value of purchase consideration to net tangible and intangible assets acquired based on their estimated fair values. The fair value estimates for these intangible assets require management to make significant estimates and assumptions, which include the useful lives of intangible assets. The company believes that adjusting for amortization of purchased intangible assets provides a more consistent comparison of its operating performance to prior periods as well as to industry peers. As the company’s business strategy in recent years has included an increased number of acquisitions, intangible asset amortization has become more significant.

Restructuring costs: Restructuring costs may be recorded as the company’s business strategies change or in response to changing market trends and economic conditions. The company believes that adjusting for restructuring costs, which are primarily associated with business exit and workforce reduction costs, provides a more consistent comparison of its operating performance to prior periods as well as to industry peers.

Adjusted EBITDA
The company defines adjusted EBITDA as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”) adjusted to exclude share-based compensation and restructuring costs. The company believes adjusted EBITDA provides investors with useful information regarding the operating profitability of the company as well as a useful comparison to other companies. EBITDA is a measurement commonly used in capital markets to value companies and is used by the company’s lenders and rating agencies to evaluate its performance. The company adjusts EBITDA for share-based compensation as it represents a significant non-cash item which impacts its earnings. The company also adjusts EBITDA for restructuring costs to provide a more consistent comparison of its earnings to prior periods as well as to industry peers.

Forward-looking Statements
From time to time, in written and oral statements, the company discusses its expectations regarding future events and its plans and objectives for future operations. These forward-looking statements discuss goals, intentions and expectations as to future trends, plans, events, results of operations or financial condition, or state other information relating to the company, based on current beliefs of management as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, the company. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “target” or other similar words, phrases or expressions. Although the company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they are based upon a number of assumptions concerning future conditions, any or all of which may ultimately prove to be inaccurate. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements and vary from the company’s expectations because of factors such as, but not limited to, competitive and general economic conditions domestically and internationally; acts of terrorism, war, governmental action, natural disasters, pandemics and other Force Majeure events; cyberattacks; changes in the legal and regulatory environment; changes in raw material, commodity and other input costs; currency fluctuations; changes in customer demand; and the other risks and contingencies detailed in the company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Steelcase undertakes no obligation to update, amend, or clarify forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

About Steelcase Inc.

Established in 1912, Steelcase is a global design and thought leader in the world of work. We help people do their best work by creating places that work better. Along with more than 35 creative and technology partner brands, we research, design and manufacture furnishings and solutions for the many places where work happens — including learning, health and work from home. Our solutions come to life through our community of expert Steelcase dealers in approximately 770 locations, as well as our online Steelcase store and other retail partners. Founded in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Steelcase is a publicly traded company with fiscal year 2023 revenue of $3.2 billion. With 12,000 global employees and our dealer community, we come together for people and the planet — using our business to help the world work better.

(1)   These amounts include restricted cash of $6.8 and $6.1 as of February 24, 2023 and February 25, 2022, respectively.

(2)   These amounts include restricted cash of $6.4 and $5.9 as of May 26, 2023 and May 27, 2022, respectively.

Restricted cash primarily represents funds held in escrow for potential future workers’ compensation and product liability claims. Restricted cash is included as part of Other assets on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets.