JUNE 18, 2020 / 9:00PM, SWHC - Q4 2020 Smith & Wesson Brands Inc Earnings Call
As many of you know, we are preparing tospin-off our Outdoor Products & Accessories or OP&A business, from our Firearms business later this summer. In preparation, on May 29, we changed our name to Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. and our ticker symbol to SWBI. The new name and ticker symbol will remain with the firearms company postspin-off. Thespin-off company will be named American Outdoor Brands, Inc., and it will trade under the ticker symbol AOUT. On today’s call, we will refer to thespin-off company as AOUT. Now let me introduce you to our speakers today: Mark Smith and Brian Murphy, are currentlyCo-Presidents andCo-CEOs of our company. Upon completion of thespin-off, Mark will be President and CEO of Smith & Wesson Brands, while Brian will become the President and CEO of AOUT.
Jeff Buchanan is our Chief Financial Officer, and has been our CFO since 2011. As announced previously, Jeff will be retiring when thespin-off is complete. Deana McPherson is our Controller and Chief Accounting Officer. After the spinoff, Deana will become the CFO for Smith & Wesson Brands. And Andy Fulmer is our Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis. After thespin-off, Andy will become the CFO for AOUT.
On today’s call, Mark and Deana will discuss the Firearms segment, after which Brian and Andy will discuss the OP&A segment, then Jeff will present some key financial highlights and an update on ourspin-off, after which we’ll open the call up for questions from our analysts.
Before I hand it off to Mark, please note that we are currently expecting thespin-off to be completed early in our second fiscal quarter, probably in the August timeframe, barring any unforeseen delays. Therefore, this is likely to be our final earnings call as a combined company. Because the financial results for SWBI will not include the financial results for AOUT from thespin-off date onward, we are not issuing any forward-looking guidance on today’s call. And with that, I will turn it over to Mark.
Mark Peter Smith- Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. -Co-President &Co-CEO
Thank you, Liz, and thanks, everyone, for joining us. Let me begin by first addressing the coronavirus pandemic and our response over the last several months, and I’m speaking now for both Brian and myself asCo-CEOs. During our fourth quarter, we were able to keep our factories and distribution center operating, thanks mostly to our operations teams across the company who immediately implemented a broad range of safety procedures and cleaning protocols, which remain in place today, to significantly reduce the risk ofCOVID-19 transmission and keep our workforce safe. We want to thank each of our employees for their extraordinary efforts during this time and for their unwavering commitment to safety, servicing our customers and to supporting our communities.
As the global outbreak ofCOVID-19 emerged, we took several rapid and decisive actions to keep our employees and our business healthy and safe. Those actions occurred across all facilities and included travel restrictions, staggered shifts, enhanced cleaning and sanitizing, remote work where possible, social distancing, use of face masks, temperature screening and many, many more.
In addition to keeping our employees safe, these actions allowed us to continue manufacturing operations, which we immediately leveraged to support our communities. In short order, our engineers had repurposed our manufacturing lines to produce face shields, which were in dire need by frontline personnel. To date, we have donated over 8,000 face shields and 14,000 sets of protective eyewear to over 30 frontline hospitals and first responder organizations. We have also donated funds to multiple food banks and charities in the communities in which we operate. It is evident thatCOVID-19 continues to plague many communities across our nation and the world. For our part, we will continue to support our frontline heroes and the communities in need, while maintaining the health and safety of our employees and our company as our top priority. As we do so, we believe that our actions, the dedication of our employees, and the loyalty of our customers position us very well to navigate that future.
With that, let me turn to our Firearms segment. Revenue of nearly $530 million in fiscal ‘20 represents growth of 10% over the prior year. Our growth was driven by strong consumer demand for firearms as reflected by adjusted mix results, a consumer preference for our innovative products and our ability to keep our employees safe and our facilities operational. Our results were favorably impacted by changes in the timing of our excise tax assessment as well as strong consumer acceptance of our M&P Shield EZ pistol that helped us drive market share gains in the year.
In the fourth quarter, consumer demand for firearms increased dramatically, and our revenue of $193 million represented just over a 37% increaseyear-on-year. The primary driver of this increase was strong orders from retailers and distributors, driven by a sudden and heightened consumer demand for the firearms, which began in March, and which is reflected by adjusted mix in the period.
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