NN Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 4, 2023

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the NN, Inc. 2nd Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded.

Operator

I would now like to turn the conference over to Alex Steinberg, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. I'm Alex Steinberg, Investor Relations contact for NN Inc. I'd like to thank you for attending today's business update. Last evening, we issued a press release announcing our financial results for the Q2 ended June 30, 2023 as well as the supplemental presentation, which is posted on the Investor Relations section of our website.

Speaker 1

If anyone needs a copy of the press release For the supplemental presentation, you may contact Alpha IR Group atnnbralphadir.com. Our presenters on the call this morning will be Harold Bevis, President and Chief Executive Officer and Mike Felcher, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We'll also have a few of our new business leaders available to support our Q and A session, including Verlyn Busch, our new Chief Commercial Officer And the new heads of our segment, Douglas Campos, GM of Mobile Solutions and Gennar Svenckls, GM Power Solutions. Please turn to Slide 2, where you'll find our forward looking statements and disclosure information. Before we begin, I'd ask that you take note of the cautionary language regarding forward looking statements contained in today's press release, supplemental presentation and in the Risk Factors section in the company's annual report on Form 10 ks for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, and when filed, the company's quarterly report on Form 10 Q for the 3 months ended June 30, 2023.

Speaker 1

The same language applies to comments made on today's conference call, including the Q and A session as well as the live webcast. Our presentation today will contain forward looking statements regarding sales, Margins, inflation, supply chain constraints, foreign exchange rates, cash flow, tax rates, acquisitions, Synergies, cash and cost savings, future operating results, performance of our worldwide markets, the impacts of the coronavirus or COVID-nineteen pandemic and the Russian Ukrainian conflict on the company's financial condition and other topics. These statements should be used with caution and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside of the company's control. The presentation also includes certain non GAAP measures as defined by SEC rules. A reconciliation of such non GAAP measures is contained in the tables in the final section of the press release and the supplemental presentation.

Speaker 1

Please turn to Slide 3, and I will turn the call over to our new CEO, Harold Bibas.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Alec, and good morning, everyone. It's an honor speaking with you all today regarding my 1st few months as the new CEO of NN. Today, you will see that we are already underway with the transformation strategy, and we are embracing change and Decisive actions to accelerate our long term growth and profitability and become a more predictable company. We have a tremendous opportunity to deliver significant value to all of our shareholders. I have personally spent the majority of my career working Technology Industries and my focus has primarily been on driving transformational change.

Speaker 2

With 4 successful business transformations completed and 2 of them being public companies, I was immediately interested and leading NN through a transformation as I believe there's a clear opportunity to return this great company to the leadership position it once enjoyed. As an industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience, I'm deeply familiar with NN's markets, competitive position and customers. NN has a well respected and diverse customer set. And although we are expanding our focus to include new business verticals and end markets, There is plenty of opportunity within our current markets to expand our share with those who already know the value that we bring. NN has decades of engineering and technical expertise.

Speaker 2

Now I've been very impressed by the acumen and operational capabilities we possess. I'm particularly encouraged by the competitive mode of the company as with its vertically integrated manufacturing, which is further supported by a large globally installed base Equipment that's extremely hard to replicate. That said, our brand assets and talents can clearly be leveraged in a more powerful way. You'll hear today what our plans are and that we are already taking immediate actions to begin improving our commercial and operational strategies. This includes plans to immediately increase the size and focus of NN's commercial new business program.

Speaker 2

Additionally, we are refocusing the organization to better optimize our cost structure, prioritize operational efficiencies and build stronger financial credibility. We will refocus on the things we do best to both drive growth and become a stronger organization. I'll talk you through the basic elements of our transformation plan in a few minutes, So let's review some summary highlights from the Q2, which are outlined on Slide 4 of today's presentation. You will see the immediate impact of some of our near term actions and our improved cash flow metrics. In terms of our specific performance, As outlined on Page 4, sales for the quarter were $125,000,000 and we delivered $10,500,000 in adjusted EBITDA.

Speaker 2

We've had a solid first half of the year with new business wins and have roughly won roughly $19,000,000 in new awards. We're focused on expanding our new business pursuits in both legacy markets and new markets where it makes sense. On a high note, we're happy to report that we generated $3,000,000 of positive free cash flow in the quarter, marking an important step in the right direction. We are free cash flow positive for the trailing 12 month period And our outlook indicates that this trend will continue into the second half as we control costs and maintain explicit cash discipline. Looking forward, we have aligned and are supplementing our leadership team, and I'll highlight these important changes in a few minutes.

Speaker 2

We've also implemented and prioritized cost reductions to better support our margin profiles and ultimately utilize improved margins to self fund our growth. There are immediate opportunities to grow our profits irrespective of sales growth by initiating change in areas where we are underperforming and we are attacking those areas with a new vigor. We are proud of the adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow that our business produced in the quarter, but are far from satisfied and our enhanced leadership team and strategy remains focused on increased cash flow generation and profitability improvement. Please turn to Page 5 in the deck. I want to briefly walk through what our 1st 75 days together have looked like.

Speaker 2

I began my tenure as CEO of NN effective on May 22 this year. My immediate focus was to familiarize myself to get better acquainted with the company, but also begin a deep assessment of our capabilities and team. Within 30 days, I had the opportunity to visit many of our plants globally as well as our partners in Europe and China. I also was able to meet with a few of our large customers face to face and meet with our capital partners. A key takeaway from my interactions was how important our customized products and solutions are to our customers around the globe.

Speaker 2

NN has great DNA for delivering top tier quality and on time delivery, and our customers depend on us day in and day out. Many of our solutions are critical components in our customers' products and thus we have a deep sense of institutional pride in what we do. We have a significant competitive advantage given our global footprint and vertically integrated facilities, And there are clear new actions that need to be taken to better leverage our core competencies into higher results. As we've previously announced, we are rightsizing our Board of Directors from 9 members to 7 as part of our collective commitment, Best practices in corporate governance and alignment of our cost structure to our industry and our size. Please turn to Page 6 in the presentation.

Speaker 2

NN is now focused on a new transformation plan, And we are preparing to execute at a higher level. And I'd like to walk you through the core components of that plan. Our transformation plan is built around an increased organizational commitment to higher sales, profits and free cash flow, And it includes 5 components. The first is getting the top team right, and we are focused on aligning our talent and modifying the top team to better position NN for success. This includes flattening the organization to increase agility and speed.

Speaker 2

I've been using my experience in personal network to supplement our highly experienced and in leadership with proven transformation executives that I've worked with in the past. This includes a Chief Procurement Officer, A soon to be announced Chief Operating Officer and certain specialists. The second component It is a commitment to achieving cost productivity and implementing a steady state program. We must increase our organizational commitment to cost leadership as a way to improve our margins. I'm happy to see as I've gone around that we have abundant opportunity to do this and we intend to improve our margins and spread And our incoming COO and incoming Chief Procurement Officer have already done we've already done this together twice before.

Speaker 2

3rd, we have a significant opportunity to improve our business by fixing unprofitable customer contracts and underperforming plants. Specifically, we're completing reviews of several of these plants and several customer contracts And finalizing our fix it plans in each area. We'll talk more about the steps that we'll take next quarter during our earnings call, But we believe already that there's at least a $10,000,000 annual opportunity to improve our EBITDA profile through these actions. Component number 4 here, as we align our profitability, we're also heavily investing our focus on routinely generating positive free cash flow. This includes better disciplines within our accounts receivable, accounts payable, inventory profiles and capital spending decisions.

Speaker 2

NN has not delivered positive free cash flow as a company annually for several years. But as mentioned just a few minutes ago and as you've seen in our We've already checked this box on an LTM basis, and we intend to perform better on free cash flow generation as we go forward, as it provides the fuel to self fund our investments into our team and our plants, our growth programs and deleveraging our balance sheet. Lastly, point 5, we're taking steps to dramatically increase our new business wins program and drive larger results. This includes aggressively leveraging our open capacity and taking a more disciplined approach to pursuing new business wins that will require significant capital spending. As many of you know, in the industries that we compete in, A win today is primarily supporting business revenue in 18 months to 24 months in most cases.

Speaker 2

We've already reorganized internally amongst our sales and operations teams to reallocate a greater portion of our organizational Please turn to Page 7 in the presentation. On Slide 7, I'd like to introduce you to our new leadership team here at NN. And this team is focused on growing faster and winning more As we integrate our commercial and operational teams together to grow the business, as we organize to Have cost productivity and cost leadership and to generate free cash flow. And as you can read from the descriptions here, this team Has been developed through promotions internally of strong industry veterans within our company. And as mentioned, we're supplementing this team with just a few new leaders that bring in strong and proven transformational expertise and with whom I've worked before previously.

Speaker 2

These four leaders on this page have over 20 to 30 years each of direct industry experience, most of which has been accomplished right here at NN. Verlan, Douglas, Gennars and Jeff are already aggressively underway with implementing our new Please turn to slide number 8. We've provided a brief snapshot of our new business wins On this page, and I'd like to cover them for a minute. Year to date, our business wins are roughly on track with our internal goals. And as you would conclude here, we're already in the process of upsizing these goals to a higher level.

Speaker 2

Our global team is now thinking through a larger plan to win at a larger rate and we are already underway with expanding our efforts right now. In the first half, electric power steering components for electric vehicles has been the largest segment that we've won business in, And we're very happy about that. We will expand our product concentration in key profitable areas that we currently serve Like electronic power steering for electric vehicles, but also in areas like connector shielding and braking system components to name just a couple. We'll also look to expand into new markets, including the medical market where we see a lot of opportunity. Our ability to design and manufacture submicron precision machining, stampings and assemblies is very unique and applicable to many industries.

Speaker 2

I'd now like to turn the call over to Mike Felter, Senior Vice and CFO to discuss our 2nd quarter results in greater detail and then we'll take your questions at the end.

Speaker 3

Mike? Thanks, Harold, and good morning, everyone. I'll start on Slide 9. Net sales for the quarter of $125,200,000 Remained roughly flat compared to the prior year period as our ability to drive stronger pricing helped offset lower volumes. Last year's Q2 results also included a favorable customer settlement of $2,300,000 From a profitability standpoint, our operating loss of $4,000,000 improved compared to the $4,500,000 operating loss in last year's Q2.

Speaker 3

We captured approximately $2,000,000 of benefit from net price and inflation versus last year. However, this pricing benefit was more than offset by the impact of lower volume combined with the previously mentioned customer settlement. Adjusted operating income for the Q2 was $1,300,000 compared to adjusted operating income of $100,000 from the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA results of $10,500,000 was slightly below last year's $10,900,000 result. Encouragingly, we are seeing the impacts of the targeted cost reductions flow through to our adjusted EBITDA, totaling approximately $2,000,000 of benefit in the quarter.

Speaker 3

As we progress further through the year, we expect to continue to benefit from cost discipline and addressing underperforming areas of the business. Turning to Slide 10. Sales in our Mobile Solutions Group Increased 5.2% versus the prior year period, improving by $3,800,000 The increase was primarily driven by improved pricing, The impact of new business increased volumes from our existing business lines. Mobile Solutions adjusted EBITDA results $7,500,000 decrease compared to the $9,100,000 in the Q2 of 2022. This was driven by performance challenges in our Wellington and Juarez facilities and the favorable customer settlement in the prior year.

Speaker 3

Profitability was supported by solid performance from our China based JV, which helped to partially offset some of the operational one time challenges to our adjusted EBITDA results. Demand for our mobile solutions end market should be steady as we The second half, though we do not anticipate demand growth given the macro environment and commentary made by other public industry leaders. Additionally, we Operating improvement in our Wellington and Juarez facilities where performance improvement plans are being implemented. Turning to Slide 11, Power Solutions segment sales decreased 7.7% year over year, primarily driven by decreased electrical and general Industrial component sales due in part to slower housing starts and customer inventory adjustments. Further, the segment's top line performance felt the impact on volumes from the closure of 2 facilities as we rationalize our footprint to drive future profitability.

Speaker 3

Sales performance reflected better pricing in the period compared to last year's quarter, which positively impacted profitability. Pricing benefits combined with operating cost savings associated with our plant closures Resulted in adjusted EBITDA of $6,500,000 compared to $5,900,000 in the prior year. Looking ahead, we expect Demand levels in the second half of the year to be consistent relative to our first half. Helping to offset flat demand expectations are the cost and cash flow initiatives that are Already underway. Given our market demand expectations and explicit goals to enhance our profits, we will be prudent and diligent with the management of our working capital, while focused intently on improving our cash flows.

Speaker 3

Now please turn to Slide 12. As Harold highlighted, We are encouraged to report solid positive free cash flow for the period as well as on a trailing 12 month basis. Working capital turns improved in the second quarter to 4.8 turns from 4.5 in the previous quarter, marking the 3rd consecutive period that we've improved upon this key efficiency metric. Now turning to Slide 13, you can see a snapshot of our balance sheet and liquidity metrics. Net debt at the end of the second quarter was 147,900,000 3.87 times at the end of the second quarter compared to 3.82 times at the end of the Q1 of 2023.

Speaker 3

We previously communicated that we were evaluating a potential preferred equity raise. However, given our expectations for continued positive cash generation And the lack of any immediate need for new capital, we decided not to proceed with the preferred equity raise. Our transformative plan for consistent free cash flow generation is Focused in part around our prudent CapEx strategy, we will strategically shift and reallocate our capital spending to focus deployment more towards business reinvestment to drive growth, while still appropriately funding maintenance capital requirements in the near term. As we modify our CapEx spend allocation, we are executing a concurrent plan to improve our liquidity through working capital optimization, cost reductions and overall operational improvement. There is significant opportunity within our markets and our facilities and now that the team is aligned Complemented with the right strategy, we expect to be able to effectively improve our liquidity while maintaining costs and our leverage profile.

Speaker 3

Please turn to Slide 14 for our full year outlook. Consistent with many of our customers and peers, we are revising our outlook and now expect Net sales in the range of $485,000,000 to $505,000,000 roughly flat to prior year adjusted EBITDA in the range of $40,000,000 to $46,000,000 roughly flat to per year and free cash flow in the range of $7,000,000 to $13,000,000 a significant improvement over last year. Our guidance implies demand for the back half of the year for both Mobile and Power Solutions segments that is consistent with levels seen thus far year to date as well as updated industry forecasts. Our adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow outlook reflects the impact of our lower volume expectation and disciplined cash management. Our free cash flow guidance does not include the CARES Act tax refund of approximately $11,000,000 due to uncertain timing.

Speaker 3

In conclusion, while Harold and our reorganized leadership team have only been together for a short time, you can see we are taking aggressive and swift We'll accelerate our long term growth and profitability. We're looking forward to sharing this journey with all of you. I will now turn the call back to the

Operator

operator for questions. We will now begin the question and answer Our first question will come from Rob Brown with Lake Street Capital Markets. You may now go ahead.

Speaker 4

Good morning and congrats on all

Speaker 2

the progress, Earl. Thank you.

Speaker 4

You entered a number of things on kind of your plan in terms of operational excellence. I guess I'd like to get Your view on the ability to kind of cut costs and the opportunities you see here and maybe kind of how long you think that will to kind of get

Speaker 2

implemented. Yes, good question. So on our cost agenda, We have a few elements. One is, we do have some underperforming areas of the company that explicitly Are dilutive. And so they're getting special attention.

Speaker 2

You could call them stop the bleeders or whatever cliche you want to use, but we do have some highly dilutive situations that are causing us to be held back and cost performance There's an element of those an element of that. So you have that number 1, which is fixing some of our problems, which Mike and I both alluded that if you combine the cost problems with our underperforming customer contracts, It's greater than $10,000,000 of EBITDA. In other words, in our reported results, we're carrying $10,000,000 of Below 0 kind of profit rates and so we're attacking those aggressively. Number 2, on Procured materials and our conversion costs, we have not had a routine Cost productivity program, the new Chief Operating Officer that's joining us and will announce him shortly is very experienced At having every plant having a cost agenda where they at least offset their inflation, and the goal obviously to have net Productivity, so that one's kind of starting from scratch. I think it will you asked about timing, Rob.

Speaker 2

I think that one, In my experience, it takes a little while to get up to full run rate. I'd say that we'll get to full run rate in Like 4 quarters on the first one on fixing the problem children, we have a much more immediate kind of game plan there. This is around 2 or 3 quarters. So those are the 2 main elements. In terms of SG and A, which is the overhead costs, We kind of have 2 things going.

Speaker 2

We have our power business is really benefiting from Electric Vehicles and Grid Investment and we're having to grow that team to invest in it. And the mobile one, we're really kind of keeping our cost structure stable. Transitions from internal combustion engine to electric vehicles, there's a transition there and that kind of the top level, The number of vehicles made is steady. And so we're really focused on rightsizing our overhead structure To the realities of the market, a lot of public filers this week in our industry, our customers, if you will, and they're guiding A little softer in the vehicle world and they're guiding a little stronger in the electrification world. And that nets out, as Mike said, to us kind of Being a flat second half to the first half, so I think our SG and A structure is appropriate right now, but we'll monitor it.

Speaker 2

If need to adjust it, we will, Rob.

Speaker 4

Yes. Okay. Good. And I think you touched on kind of the demand environment And what you're seeing there, I guess, still a bit of a tweak down, but are you seeing Any I guess, would you characterize it as a tweaked down or what sort of the demand environment changes that you've seen And how much sort of indications from customers, I guess what's the sort of visibility at this stage in terms of And demand environment?

Speaker 2

Yes. So the public reporters, the OEs, if you will, who are The big arbiter of the answer there and then you have the supply chain of Tier 1s, Tier 2s into those vehicle makers on our vehicle side. They're all painting a slightly softer second half and we've embraced that as part of our guidance here. On the other hand, If you look at the bellwethers into grid investment and electrification, they're guiding to a stronger second half. And we're seeing that so we're seeing that internally also.

Speaker 2

So we're seeing net flat Kind of an outlook to our run rate. In terms of contribution to our run rate from new business Wins, new business wins really take about 18 months to 24 months to manifest themselves and then in the second half of this year, We don't have meaningful new business wins that are going to be additive to our run rate. We hope to change that in the future with a bigger program, but Right now, it's de minimis in the second half, the amount of contribution from new business won, in essence, 18 months to 24 months ago. So We have a good guy and a bad guy and they net out to a flat outlook, Rob.

Speaker 4

Okay, great. Thanks for the color there. And then in terms of just the new business activity, you're showing a lot of Activity on underlying things that's like you said 18 months to get to revenue. But sort of how would you characterize the new business kind of pipeline? And Is it the momentum you're seeing in EV and Grid, I guess, give us Sense on how that's coming in and where you're seeing growth and maybe how you're gaining maybe share there and Maybe just some color on the new business environment?

Speaker 2

Yes. I'm going to answer a piece of that and then I'm going to pull in Verlyn Busch, who's actually on the call with us, Tom, who is our Chief Commercial Officer. On the EV on the substitution rate of vehicles From combustion engine to electric powertrains or alternate fuel powertrains, tremendous amount of information out there on that and the Substitution rates vary by class of vehicle and by geography and government mandates influence the substitution rates, but it's definitely happening. And that manifests itself to us as more looks, as people are modernizing and changing their vehicle platforms, We get a chance to bid on a new platform. So, this substitution rate in this transition ends up being an opportunity for us because there There's a quoting opportunity on our new vehicle deployment.

Speaker 2

So the macro environment of that is good for us, is good for our company. With regards to how we're doing, I'd like to invite Verlan to make a comment here. Verlan? Matt, did you come off mute? Yes.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Harold.

Speaker 5

As far as where we're doing and where we're going, Several of our markets are actually doing pretty well and we're staying focused on our EV and our grid Applications, residential, commercial, electrical applications are down, but we're seeing a lot of activity right now in some So we're staying focused there. We recently made some changes in some staffing and hired Some guys out there that are focused on growing in those key areas. So we're seeing much more activity and new business wins in those areas. We'll continue to see and focus on Those markets that we do well in and that we've been in for a while, in the short term, there'll be Only some powertrain components that we'll capitalize on with our current capacities and capabilities as we make the transition more into the EV space. So I think there's a lot of good news on both sides.

Speaker 5

I think The operational effectiveness that we're seeing with the new structure is going to help us be more competitive in all of our markets and all of our regions. We're laying out a plan now to begin to And our presence in medical after our restrictions lift in October of this year. So that will be another area that we'll focus

Speaker 2

on. Thank you, Verlan.

Operator

It appears we have no further questions. Pardon me. Our next question will come from Tom Smith Research. You may now go ahead.

Speaker 6

Good morning, guys. And just following up on the last comment on the medical market, is that A big enough business opportunity where that would be a 3rd segment going forward down the road?

Speaker 2

It is a big segment. And if you look at the types of machinery that we have in house and if you talk To the people that sell the types of machines that we buy, actually the biggest end market for these types of machines is medical And transportation second, I'm talking now on the machining side. On the stamping side, we're still in the business today. The divestiture that we did in 2020 largely did not touch that business and we're still active in the medical market and have a lineup and a roster of medical customers that we've had for a long time. So for both stamping and machining, it's Great alternate use of our precision know how on submicron stamping, submicron assemblies The machinings, think implants, think meshes and the tools, the cutting blades, All of it is very small and very precise and it fits our capabilities perfectly.

Speaker 2

To be honest, it's a little easier Then the vehicle world, the vehicle world has a lot higher pressures associated with atomizing of fuels and that sort of thing. So, it fits us like a hand in a glove. With regards to the non compete that We do have a valid non compete that's in place for a few more weeks. So we're already seeing that coming to an end And we're getting ready to reenter there. We still have plant certifications, operators that know what to do, executives that know what to do.

Speaker 2

We have an old catalog to dust off. We know where to go. So, I hope it It becomes a segment, but initially it's smaller than that, Tom. So it'll just be a product line really for us for a while, but That would be a goal of ours and obviously we could jump start that with a small acquisition too. But it's going to be a new leg in Verlan To grow our company at a higher rate.

Speaker 2

Our overall goal is to get 15% new wins per year on 500. So that's kind of what we're trying to do. So every vintage year, this being 2023, we'd like to get Around $65,000,000 of wins and do it year end, year end, year end. So over a few year period, you've won a few $100,000,000 worth of business. And for us that's going to add up.

Speaker 2

So we're getting organized to do that medical, aerospace, parts of aerospace, parts of defense, Of course, electric vehicles, the grid, these are all good areas for us. And we have small market shares in a very large market. And so the simple thing to say is we're putting more feet on the street to go after more opportunities right now With open capacity, we have the know how that we have.

Speaker 6

Great. Thanks for the color on that. That sounds great. And on the separate note on the China business, is that kind of where back to where it should be after all the COVID stuff? Or is there still a lot of room for improvement In that area?

Speaker 2

Yes. So there's the China business for us is primarily On the mobile side, although we do have a small plant in China for power as well, but The biggest part of it is on the mobile side and we're tied into vehicles in China for China. The vehicle market there is doing Fine. It had a big rebound in the Q2. If you follow that this week with the quarterly results from public filers.

Speaker 2

So the China vehicle market is doing fine. Now for us, We're a supply chain participant into that vehicle manufacturing. So for us, we still are stabilizing supply chains Where our customers kind of beefed up on their inventory profiles of products we make. And we see that now leaning out. And so we see Normal supply chain pulls for us and more of normal operations.

Speaker 2

So it's smoothing out. And again, we also have Douglas Campos on the phone who that operation has Traditionally reported in to him. Douglas, if you could come off mute and make a comment there.

Speaker 7

Sure, Harold. Exactly that, we also see in China, there's big incentives from the government On the what they call the new energy vehicles, to incentivize, we see the transitioning The transition happening fast there from a 26%, 27% penetration of EVs to a 30% Versus ICE. So the overall volume, we're monitoring very closely. What Harold said, we see the improving in Q2 versus Q1. Still for the year, maybe a little bit up Compared to last year, not a lot.

Speaker 7

Certainly, we do have a lot of We have capacity. We're working with our customers. There is also a big trend from China that they have a lot of open capacity. They're exploring exports And that might drive the volume in the short term up. So those are the trends that We're seeing China going on right now.

Speaker 6

Okay, great. Thanks. And then one more Question, the Power segment, I mean, you guys are talking about the residential and commercial construction markets being tough all year. Any trends on that? And is that more just sort of a macroeconomic Type situation or was there also internal issues of not taking advantage of the residential and commercial construction market?

Speaker 2

Yes. So I'll answer part of that and then we have Gennar Sinkelf on the phone who's the General Manager of our Power business. Obviously, these are well reported areas residential, commercial construction and obviously residential in North America has Been down, non residential has been better for us. We're heavily tied into Heating and cooling and electrification of the grid and the creation of a smart grid and the creation of a grid that can Take on electric vehicles, there's some information out there that an electric vehicle driving around town It's the same electrical use as a house. So you have these houses driving around and then they decide to Hook up to the network and start charging and it draws the equivalent of a house's worth of electricity during that charge.

Speaker 2

And so The grid needs investment. The biggest reporter here that I read this week was Itron. I don't know if you know that company, They put a lot of good information on this. And they're growing at their 3rd growing quarter in a row, And they gave a lot of information on this topic. So overall, there's kind of the construction Independent thing here that's happening is that the network, electrical network needs to expand again because of this electrification trend.

Speaker 2

With regards to starts on single family and multifamily, that's been down, but non residential construction has been Dedi, Gennars is on the phone. I'd like to have Gennars come off of mute here and make a couple of comments also. Ken Arce?

Speaker 8

Sure. Sure. Thanks, Harold. Yes, so yes, you absolutely hit it right. We do see some impact related to the residential being down, but We actually have quite a bit of activity on the quoting front that supports largely the industrial side and the grid opportunities that are out there.

Speaker 8

There's a lot of work to be done there and we're seeing that quoting activity, amp up. And the good news on those is that Some of that can have some short term impact for us. The types of processes that are related to making those products, has a shorter launch And then some of the ones that Harold had mentioned earlier are more classic ones that take somewhere 14 months, 16 months. These Can be parts can be produced and launched in a matter of closer to 3 months, 3 to 5 months time frame. So We hope to see the impact of that early next year.

Speaker 6

Okay, great. Thanks for the color on that. One more Quick financial question. Have you guys set a leverage ratio target? I think you had at some point in the past, 3.87 now.

Speaker 6

Was there The goal to get by end of the year or next year or something like that?

Speaker 2

Yes. Mike, do you want to take that one?

Speaker 6

Sure.

Speaker 3

Yes. We haven't set or provided an outlook on a specific target. Obviously, we're focused as we said in the commentary on improving liquidity and reducing the leverage ratio going forward. And we would anticipate our forecast reflects sequential improvement in the leverage ratio as we move forward.

Speaker 6

Okay, thanks. That's all the questions I have for now.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Tom.

Operator

That's all the time we have allotted for questions. I'll turn the call back to Harold for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you everyone for calling in and listening to our company report and we look forward to reporting and speaking with you again at the end of the next quarter and on our Transformation plan, our ongoing results, our new wins, as well as the health of our markets. Thank you very much for your time. And operator, we'll end the call at this point. Thank you.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now

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