1/Floor & Décor Investor Day
$FND's investor day was yesterday. Continue to be impressed by this early-stage category killer. Strong execution and one of the better names in my portfolio.
2/Retail Conversion Rate
Homeowner customers that shop at $FND ultimately purchase over >80% of the time. Professional customers that shop at $FND purchase over >90% of the time. Pretty impressive. Average brick and mortar retail conversion rates are 20%-40% for most retailers
3/Sq/Ft
$FND has more flooring dedicated sq/ft coverage than any other operator. Has 12.6mln sq/ft vs. $HD's ~8.0mln and $LOW's ~6.9mln flooring dept sq/ft (est @ 4k sq/ft store). Almost exceeds both combined and dwarfs all others on a total sq/ft basis and on a box vs. box basis
4/SKU Comparison
$FND updated it’s SKU count comparisons vs. peers. Assortment breadth/depth vs. peers continues to increase with both substantially higher in-stock SKU’s and total available SKUs (special order) vs. competitors.
5/Micro-Merchandising
$FND noted each market and each store within a market have product assortments that are fully tailored based on local market preferences. Difficult to emulate as it requires large total SKU breadth/depth to drive enough variation in local assortments
6/Supply Chain
$FND made wise moves 5yrs ago by setting up dedicated LT agreements with ocean carriers. Has insured continuity of supply and kept $FND off spot markets. Last 3yrs $FND has also been using more dedicated truck fleets. Both help sustain a better inventory position
7/Supply Chain- China
$FND sources ~30% of products sold from suppliers in China with it's largest supplier (17%) in the country. Mgmt noted factories for these are located outside of major city centers and $FND has not seen any issues YET with the current China COVID situation
8/Demand
$FND customers are in a strong position. >$7tln of home equity has been added since Q1'19. Mid/upper income homeowners also have seen bank accounts increase $3.5tln over past few years. Coupled with 80% of housing stock >20yrs old provides a backdrop for continued demand
9/Pricing
$FND price variance vs. peers is large, often 30-50% lower. Gross margin has come under pressure due to supply chain/inflation. $FND is lagging pricing to take share. Mgmt intends to recoup lost gross margin via modest price increases over the next few years ('23-'24)
10/'22-'24 Guidance
$FND guided for '22-'24 +20%/yr unit growth, "at least" +20%/yr revenue growth, and EBIT to double vs. ’21 (+25%/yr). Sees EBITDA margins in the “mid-teens” (15% vs ’21 14.1%). Mgmt. noted during the presentation that revenue guidance was conservative.
11/Long Term Opportunity
$FND sees the co. being at least 5x its current size long term. Targets 500 stores in 8-10yrs (’21 160) via 20%/yr. unit growth for the time being. Targets a mid-teens EBITDA margin while growing units 20%/yr. with an upper teens LT mature EBITDA margin
12/End
Came away from the investor day with my investment thesis and LT model confirmed for $FND. This is a business with a long runway that can grow at >20%/yr. While near term margin and macro issues have weighed on shares the LT investment opportunity for $FND appears intact
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Stuffed in the footnotes of their 10-K’s, some may not know that $HD & $LOW actually report their flooring department sales annually…
While their fiscal yr ends do lag $FND by a month, we can still derive good insights from their results
A few highlights…
$FND has massively outperformed $HD & $LOW since 2013…
Using 2013 as a base, $FND sales are up a cumulative +861%, around ~14x $HD (+62%) and $LOW's (+58%) flooring department growth
The bulk of $FND’s outperformance is due to new store growth, as $FND's store base is up nearly 5x from '13 (39) to '22 (191)
Even still, looking at total same store sales growth since '13, $FND's +206% comp growth crushed $HD (+62%) & $LOW (+58%), with nearly ~4x faster growth
$DHR was the first company I came across that had a “business system” – a structured operating framework used to drive continuous growth & improvement
Many other companies have similar systems in place
Often these have proved to be exceptional businesses
Here’s 10 I've found
First up is Fortive $FTV
$DHR's framework unsurprisingly extended to its spun-off industrial business, which has a similar system – the “Fortive Business System”
Novanta $NOVT – a ~10x bagger since 2016 – leverages its Novanta Growth System
$NOVT is a mfg of a wide suite of high precision lasers, sensors, robotics, motion control & other subsystem components used in advanced industrial & medical product applications
$TREX is up +7% today on Q2 results which showed surprising resilience…in contrast to other outdoor living category players like $POOL...
$TREX's better than expected results have a positive read through for names like $FND $SITE $HD & $LOW
My key notes...
$TREX saw revenues decline just -5% (adj), well ahead of street & prior guidance for a -15-16% (adj) decline
Key driver was more resilient consumer demand for composite decking as $TREX saw +MSD growth in channel sell through, leading to higher channel sell in for $TREX
Q2 results are also a notable improvement vs. Q1 which saw a -MSD decline in sell through & a -27% decline in $TREX revenues
$MHK Q2 earnings had some important read through for $FND $HD $LOW & peers
While last qtr mgmt had encouraging comments around a potential bottom in flooring, this qtr mgmt noted they still have yet to see a trough form but remain "hopeful" volumes are near a bottom
Some notes
Investors in $FND should keep close tabs on $MHK as it is…
1) the largest flooring manufacturer (~21% share) 2) $MHK's NA Flooring y/y results have very high correlation (~90%) with $FND total sales and SSS comp sales
While $MHK total sales posted a similar decline to last qtr. (Q2 -6.4% vs. Q1 -6.9%), NA Flooring softened a bit further, going from down -11.1% in Q1 to a -12.1% this qtr.
Unlike last qtr., further deceleration was despite much easier comps (10.6% to 1.7%)…