Advance Auto Parts - Q4 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Welcome to the Advance Auto Parts fourth quarter and full year 2023 conference call. Before we begin, Elisabeth Eisleben, Senior Vice President, Communications and Investor Relations, will make a brief statement concerning forward-looking statements that will be discussed on this call.

Elisabeth Eisleben (SVP, Communications and Investor Relations)

Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss our Q4 and full year 2023 results. I'm joined today by Shane O'Kelly, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Ryan Grimsland, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Following Shane and Ryan's prepared remarks, we will turn our attention to answering your questions. Before we begin, please be advised that remarks today will contain forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements regarding our ongoing strategic and operational review, initiatives, plans, projections, and future performance. Actual results could differ materially from those projected or implied by the forward-looking statements.

Additional information about forward-looking statements and factors that could cause actual results to differ can be found under the captions "Forward-looking Statements in Our Earnings Release" and "Risk Factors" in our most recent Form 10-K and subsequent filings made with the Commission. Now, let me turn the call over to Shane O'Kelly.

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Thanks, Elisabeth, and good morning. Before we dive into the details of the quarter, I want to take a moment to thank the entire Advance team for their dedication and continued focus on serving our customers throughout 2023. I continued to travel coast to coast during the past few months, meeting customers, meeting team members from our stores, and team members from our distribution centers. I remain impressed with our team's strong work ethic and their unwavering commitment to helping our customers. I want to introduce today our new Chief Financial Officer, Ryan Grimsland. We're pleased to have Ryan on the Advance team, and he brings vast experience in the omnichannel retail space serving both DIY and professional customers. His deep knowledge in finance, strategy, and transformation will undoubtedly help lead our company forward. Now, onto the decisive actions we have been taking to turn around the business.

We have continued to act with a sense of urgency to stabilize the business and position the company to return to profitable growth. All of the actions we are taking are geared to help us focus on the fundamentals of selling auto parts, and we will eliminate activities that distract us from that goal. Let me be clear. Our results today are disappointing and not at all what I'm accustomed to delivering. We have spent the last several months analyzing how Advance got here, and we now have a better understanding of the work required to change our trajectory. It's important to note that in recent periods, including this one, there have been several atypical items contributing to our poor financial performance. Through disciplined execution and accountability, we will tighten the fundamentals of our business, which will help reduce and then eliminate elements that introduce noise to our core performance.

On our last quarter's call, we discussed decisive actions. Let's take you through those actions as well as update you on new activities the company is taking today. Number one, initiating the sales processes for Worldpac and our Canadian business. Number two, significantly reducing our costs to remain competitive while investing a portion of those savings back into the front line. Number three, making organizational changes to position us for success. Now introducing two additional decisive actions. Number four, assessing the productivity of all assets, including Carquest independents. Number five, the consolidation of our supply chain. Let's take a moment and further discuss each of these decisive actions. First, we initiated separate sales processes for Worldpac and Canada. We are very pleased with the interest we have received in both businesses. The Worldpac process is underway, and we are actively engaging with potential buyers.

We currently expect to conclude the Worldpac process during our second quarter and look forward to sharing more information when that occurs. As it relates to the Canadian process, this is intentionally sequenced behind Worldpac, and we have begun the internal work to explore separating the business. Next, as I discussed in our Q3 call, the company's costs have outpaced our sales growth during the past several years, which warranted changes in how we operate. In Q4, we implemented significant cost reductions by eliminating roles and initiatives that did not support our commitment to improve the fundamentals of the business, and we will realize at least $150 million of SG&A savings in 2024. We're focused on our frontline team members and are reinvesting approximately $50 million of those SG&A dollars to increase wages, bonus programs, and as well enhancing our training.

This represents approximately half of the dollars planned for 2024 for our frontline, with additional funding coming from sunsetting previous programs. While we continue rolling out these investments over the next several months, we note that we are already seeing year-over-year improvement in turnover reduction of key frontline roles. In addition to the Q4 cost reductions, we are now launching an additional initiative focused on our indirect spend with the goal of eliminating a minimum of $50 million on an annualized basis. We will continue to be prudent with our expense structure and are committed to building a cost-conscious culture. Going forward, in every operational decision we make, if it isn't core to the business to help our frontline team members and service our customers, it's off the table.

In terms of the third decisive action, I mentioned on our last call that we had streamlined our management structure and reorganized parts of my leadership team to drive collaboration and accountability. These changes further simplify our structure, and they upgrade talent in key positions to allow us to drive improvements in critical business areas. In addition to Ryan joining us as the CFO, another example of outstanding talent that we've recently hired is Elizabeth Dreyer, who joined the Advance team as our Chief Accounting Officer and Controller. Elisabeth brings a robust track record of building and leading high-performing accounting teams, and I'm confident she and Ryan will work together to create a high-performing finance function. We also recently hired a new Chief Data Officer, Kunal Das, to significantly improve the quality, processing, and utilization of our data.

In addition, we've also hired a new procurement leader who will help deliver against the indirect cost savings that I just mentioned. We've also made a number of changes within our organizational structure to better align certain departments with our strategic goals. For example, pricing is now part of merchandising. In addition, we have consolidated our real estate function from across multiple parts of the company to form a single enterprise-wide real estate team reporting directly to me. Further, our merchandising and inventory teams now directly report to me. They have been working diligently on the implementation of our new core merchandising and inventory system. We expect to complete the remainder of the vendor and SKU transitions to the new system this year. That effort involves transforming our current ordering and fulfillment processes, enabling us to move away from antiquated systems to more data-driven capabilities.

The fourth decisive action, which we are introducing today, is improving the productivity of all assets in the company, including company stores and independently owned Carquest locations. While we opened 61 stores in 2023, we do not plan to open as many this year as we focus on improving our existing store operations and driving profitable growth. In an effort to optimize our Carquest independent business, we recently terminated our agreements with over 100 independently owned Carquest stores, which will help improve the overall profitability of our Carquest independent program. In addition to improved store productivity, our IT department has made notable improvements in the reliability of our store's POS systems. The improvement in our network and store system resiliency is allowing our frontline to better serve our customers. Lastly, we are announcing our fifth decisive action, which is the consolidation of our supply chain to a single unified network.

We know that our current network is inefficient and needs substantial work to improve our cost structure and inventory availability. We have long served our Blended Box stores via two distinct DC networks, one from the legacy Carquest business and one from Advance. The first step is completing the implementation of our warehouse management system, or WMS, across all of our large DCs. With only three DCs remaining, we will complete this by the end of the year. Step two, which we are conducting in parallel with step one, is the conversion of smaller legacy DCs from functioning as a replenishment node to operating as a Market Hub. With 38 DCs in our Advance and Carquest network today, we view the smaller DCs as valuable assets that can be leveraged more efficiently as Market Hubs, where we will forward deploy the right inventory closer to the customer.

We have recently started our first DC conversion to become a Market Hub, and we will utilize our learnings to scale this key initiative across the network. By leveraging our current DCs, we can move faster and more cost-effectively than if we greenfielded a new network. Importantly, once we complete this work, we will be able to order product into fewer DCs, which will help reduce costs and improve inventory productivity. We look forward to sharing more on all of these actions as we continue to improve our Blended Box strategy. Before I turn it over to Ryan, the last topic I want to touch on is the macro environment. The key drivers of this industry remain strong.

These include the average age of vehicles, which continues to increase and is now at 12.5 years, as well as miles driven, both of which are projected to further increase this year. Combined with the strengthening do-it-for-me demand, I'm confident that Advance can begin to capitalize on the strong fundamentals of the industry. Now, I'd like to welcome and turn the call over to Ryan Grimsland, our CFO, who will review our financial performance in 2023 and discuss the 2024 guidance we provided in the release this morning. Ryan?

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Thanks, Shane, and good morning. I'm pleased to be here for my first earnings call as CFO of Advance. Before I move to the financials, I would also like to thank our team members for their continued dedication, as well as the warm welcome I received from the team. Since my arrival at Advance, there are several swift changes we have made to allow for the necessary transformation of our finance function. As Shane discussed, we recently appointed Elizabeth Dreyer as our new Senior Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer, and Controller. Elisabeth's impressive track record in a variety of financial leadership roles will benefit us as we work to remediate our previously disclosed material weakness related to internal control, which I'll speak to in more detail in just a moment.

In my first 90 days with Advance, I've had the privilege to meet and connect with our hardworking and talented finance and accounting teams. I'm committed to providing cohesive leadership as well as ensuring we have the needed incremental resources that will enable us to be a best-in-class retail organization. As you heard from Shane, we are focused on improving the fundamentals across the business to bring rigor, discipline, and accountability with a sense of urgency. We have begun to make changes and are committed to elevating ourselves to become a high-performing team. The first step has been filling critical roles, including hiring key leaders, as well as a thorough and time-intensive review of our reconciliations and processes across the company. Within this review, we've recently discovered additional work needed to fully realize the intended benefits of our finance ERP system, including potentially sunsetting certain legacy systems.

The turnover of accounting personnel over the past 12 months has increased the challenge to operate as an effective finance organization. We have taken aggressive action to bring in resources around our internal controls, both hiring accounting professionals and insourcing contractors at varying levels to provide leadership and oversight. With these actions, we are making significant progress on remediating our material weakness related to people identified in early 2023. In addition, as disclosed in our release, we identified issues with certain previously reported financial results. We are correcting prior period financial results in our earnings release and upcoming Form 10-K. As you saw this morning, we filed for an extension. We do not expect the results we are discussing today to be impacted. However, we need additional time, principally to finalize our assessment of internal control over financial reporting and the related disclosures.

Our financial results discussed today will compare our Q4 and full year 2023 results to the corrected results for the prior periods. Now onto our results. In the fourth quarter, our net sales of $2.5 billion decreased 0.4% compared with Q4 2022, and comparable store sales decreased 1.4%. This was primarily driven by softness in DIY throughout the quarter, but particularly in the last four weeks of the year as we lapped tougher comparisons to the prior year. However, we continue to be encouraged by our performance in Pro as we realize strong transactional growth in the quarter as a result of improved availability. The West and Northeast were our top-performing regions, while the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest were our most challenged in the quarter. They were impacted by unfavorable weather. From a category perspective, as we improved our availability, we saw strength in filters, heating and cooling, and engine management.

In Q4, gross profit margin of 38.6% declined 504 basis points from the prior year quarter. There are business performance issues along with several atypical drivers that contributed to the deleverage. Inventory-related items contributed approximately 280 basis points, of which roughly 170 basis points are related to changes in estimates and 110 basis points from inventory-related capitalization costs. In 2022, we hired an external firm to identify and recover previously earned vendor incentives over a multi-year period. This resulted in approximately 120 basis points of deleverage. Lastly, elevated supply chain costs contributed approximately 50 basis points. SG&A was $999 million in Q4 2023 compared with $960 million in Q4 2022. As a percentage of net sales, our SG&A expenses deleveraged 176 basis points to 40.6%.

The deleverage was driven by a year-over-year increase in occupancy costs, labor-related expenses from our intentional investments in our frontline team members, and new store expenses. These were partially offset by previously discussed productivity actions taken in Q4. Importantly, we also incurred approximately $8 million in expenses related to our restructuring, as well as $5 million related to the strengthening of our accounting resources. These results are not indicative of how we want to run the organization. As Shane mentioned, we are reducing expenses by building a cost-conscious mindset throughout Advance. Our Q4 operating income margin deleveraged 679 basis points compared with the prior year quarter. Diluted loss per share was $0.59 in Q4 compared with $1.39 earnings in the prior year quarter. This was primarily driven by lower net income as well as higher interest expense.

For full year 2023, net sales of approximately $11.3 billion increased 1.2% compared with prior year. Full year comparable store sales decreased 0.3%. Our gross profit decreased 8.3% year-over-year, and gross profit margin contracted 414 basis points to 40.1%. Inventory-related items contributed approximately 157 basis points. Cost increases were not fully covered by price, contributed approximately 74 basis points to the full year decrease. As mentioned earlier, the initiative to recover previously earned vendor incentives negatively impacted full year gross margins by 60 basis points. Lastly, elevated supply chain costs contributed approximately 50 basis points. SG&A expense for full year 2023 increased 3.5% compared with 2022. On a rate basis, SG&A, as a percentage of net sales, increased 85 basis points to 39.1%.

This was primarily driven by expenses growing faster than sales throughout the year, as well as incremental one-time SG&A expenses related to headcount reductions and personnel changes. Our full year 2023 operating income decreased 82.9% to $114 million. On a rate basis, our OI margin contracted 500 basis points to 1%. Full year earnings per share were $0.50 compared with $7.65 at the end of 2022. Our 2023 capital expenditures were $242 million compared with $424 million in 2022. The primary drivers of the reduced capital expenditures are related to fewer new store openings and IT-related expenses. We expect that our overall capital expenditures in 2024 will focus primarily on IT enhancements and supply chain optimization. We are committed to a disciplined capital allocation strategy on high-return initiatives that hold our teams accountable to time, budget, and financial targets. Free cash flow for the full year was $44 million.

This year-over-year reduction was due to lower net income results despite lower capital spend. Since Shane and I have joined Advance, as you would expect, we have taken a deep dive into the business. While we have moved quickly to simplify the business and taken other actions to help put the company on a trajectory for improved performance, we clearly have more work to do. We are focusing on the optimization of our supply chain assets, implementing additional cost-cutting measures, particularly with indirect spend, and improving store productivity. We believe our efforts will begin to deliver incremental improvements this year, which is factored into our 2024 guidance while setting the stage for growth in the years to come. Our assumptions for 2024 include continued pressure on the DIY consumer, offset by DIFM improvement and modest inflation.

These factors, coupled with the solid industry fundamentals Shane discussed earlier, are considered in our full year 2024 guidance, which includes: net sales of $11.3-$11.4 billion, comparable store sales of 0%-1%, operating income margin of 3.2%-3.5%, diluted earnings per share of $3.75-$4.25, capital expenditures of $200-$250 million, and a minimum of $250 million in free cash flow. With that, I'd like to turn the call back over to Shane. Thanks, Ryan. There's no doubt that we've got our work cut out for us in 2024, but I am confident that with our decisive actions and a focused team coupled with favorable industry fundamentals, we can return to profitable growth. Advance has a proud 90-year legacy, a re-energized frontline team, and a leadership team committed to delivering a powerful comeback.

I'd now like to open the call up to address your questions. Operator?

Operator (participant)

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question today, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad now to introduce you. Participants are asked to limit themselves to one question and one follow-up per person, and please ensure you are unmuted locally. Our first question today comes from Chris Horvers at JPMorgan. Chris, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Thanks. Good morning and welcome to everybody on the management team. My first question is going to start at a low level, and then I'm going to try to bring it up to a higher level from a margin perspective. As you think about the fiscal year items, could you help us understand, and in 4Q, the change in the estimate, the vendor incentive pressures? What exactly is going on there? Are you essentially writing inventory off that doesn't exist, or are you writing inventory down to a lower market level such that perhaps when you sell it later, there's going to be some gross margin recapture? And on the vendor incentive side, totally unclear on what that is. You had accrued for vendor incentives, and now you're writing them off. And what led to that?

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Yeah, Chris. This is Ryan, and thanks for joining us today. Yeah, a couple of things. Those are two, really, the big drivers of our inventory changes. Some of it is inventory that we're shrinking out of the system. Some of it is changes in our excess and obsolete calculations. And then some of it is on the vendor incentives, so approved vendor incentives. Some businesses we maybe no longer do business with, challenges in recovering. We're just making sure we've got the right amount in there that we believe we're going to be able to recover.

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Hey, Chris and Shane. Not unsurprisingly, new CFO, new CAO digging in in the business and looking at our different methods of estimating what we keep and what's dead and what's not. They're digging in to set us up for success, and that's exactly what's occurring here.

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

And Chris, I'll add one more thing on that. We mentioned last year there was a prior initiative to go back and look at vendor income over a multi-year period, incentives, etc., that we have up on the table. That had a positive impact last year that we're cycling over this year.

Speaker 8

Okay. So then maybe to clean it up, as you think about on a fiscal year basis, what are just clean laps, i.e., you're going to get X basis points back in the gross margin line because it was a there's an impact this year that it's not going to affect next year, and you'll get it back, both in terms of the gross margin and SG&A lines?

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Yeah, Chris. So I would expect roughly 157 basis points of those kind of atypical items that I don't anticipate us cycling again next year. So that's a cost perspective there, margin rate. From an SG&A perspective, about $12 million. Really, that's related to severance and some of the expenses related to remediating our material weakness on the SG&A side.

Speaker 8

Got it. Thank you very much.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Michael Lasser from UBS. Michael, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 9

Good morning. Thank you so much for taking my question. Given all the moving parts with your margin structure right now, what do you think an ongoing sustainable operating margin for the business is in 2025 and beyond? Is the 2024 level something that you're working to grow off of?

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Hey, Michael, it's Shane, and Ryan will add to this. So first, you heard some color from Ryan. We sat at a 109 in terms of what we published. You can kind of put together some of the things that might not be occurring this year to get to a bit of a baseline. We put out our guide, which we feel good about, and then later this year, look for us to give a multi-year perspective on where the business can go. As we sit in the trenches today, we're looking to be incrementally better every day, and that's the first step. And as we get that credibility, notably around this 2024 year guidance, we'll look to continue that journey to further points. But Ryan?

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Yeah, Michael, good question. So that 157 basis points is what I would think from atypical items that we don't expect or anticipate to last, again, this year. So that's one data point. In our guide, we do have modest margin rate expansion as we continue to execute on these decisive actions that we talked about earlier in the call. So we've got some modest increase there, as you can see, in our OI margin. That OI margin expansion is primarily coming from gross profit.

Speaker 9

Okay. And then obviously, we're going to get more information on the sale process in the second quarter. So two related questions to that. Can you give us a peek on how that's going to be impacting the financial performance of the business over the long term so we can get an assessment of what we should be modeling in terms of the ongoing sustainable margin rate for the core business you'll be holding onto? That's number one. And two, how are you thinking about balancing, maximizing the value of these assets with the need for resources to improve the business given that free cash flow is under pressure, the rating agencies have downgraded your credit rating, and you have a lot of receivables that are factored? Thank you so much.

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Yeah, Michael, lots to unpack there. So let's start with your second question. Worldpac is a good business with good team members. This isn't a fire sale. There's no sort of urgency that we have to sell the business. It's really around strategy and where we're taking the company. We believe that the Blended Box model is our route to success, selling a pro and DIY customer from our core stores. And so that strategic review led to the idea of selling Worldpac, which I think is the right move for the organization. So there's not a as it relates to value maximization, we don't have to sell, and that's why we say it's a potential sale process. The good news is the interest thus far has been significant. We're seeing a lot of players, both breadth and depth of players who are expressing interest.

Centerview is running the process for us, and it's going at the tempo that I've seen. I've done 40 deals of one sort or another. And so as we get to price discovery and working with the potential buyers, we'll look to complete that process in the second quarter. Importantly, though, we do have and have started to think about what we would do with the proceeds. And I can kind of think about them in a couple of buckets. I think debt paydown figures into what we would disposition with the funds. And then secondly, there are some key initiatives you've heard are decisive actions that we could potentially accelerate with additional proceeds. So our supply chain consolidation, I think that can be amplified with some of the Worldpac proceeds. You could think about our IT initiatives.

You heard about our. We've got our new inventory system coming online, our POS system work that can be accelerated. And then lastly, just on our store infrastructure, either in terms of sprucing up existing stores or with our new real estate team looking at what we can do in terms of our new store openings. On your first question, not ready to give a definitive depiction of what we look like as a remainder co without Worldpac. Again, we're titling it a potential sale process at this point. But as we get closer and we get more information, we'll certainly provide that. But we feel good that in the wake of that sale process, if it goes through, we have a company that's focused on selling auto parts out of a blended box, and that's what we're going to do.

Speaker 9

Thank you very much and good luck.

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Thanks, Michael.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Simeon Gutman from Morgan Stanley. Simeon, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 10

Hey, good morning, everyone. Hi, Shane. Hi, Ryan. Hey, Ryan, I wanted to look at the guidance in a little different way. If we annualize the fourth quarter EBIT, you get to about $160 million. And then when we add back the cost saves, which I get some of them may not fully annualize, you get back about roughly a $360 million run rate. That's a tad below the guidance. So a couple of questions is partly how much reinvestment is there in some of the savings, and then what improves in the core business to get you the higher threshold? And some of this may be some of the things that don't repeat, I think, to Chris's question earlier. But there doesn't seem to be a lot of reinvestment if you just take sort of that math.

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Yes, I mean, and so one of the things we did do is we invested in the front line. So we took some of the cost savings, and we reinvested that back into the front line. So that was about of that 150, we invested about $50 million back in. I think from a if we look at our full year right now, I think we're coming in close on a EBIT perspective, 116. We take the 157 basis points. I would say at that back was $12 million in SG&A. You can get to kind of a normalized rate, and then you take that $100 million in SG&A. Now, our guide on the top line of 0%-1%, we're going to work to manage inflation in our SG&A to get that flow through. So I think that's how we would think of where we got to our guide.

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Hey, Simeon, just a couple of quick points on the cost.

Speaker 10

And then a follow-up.

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

On the cost savings.

Speaker 10

Oh, sorry.

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Excuse me. Yeah, welcome to follow up just a second. So on the cost out, the $150, that cost is out. So we made the tough call and never easy. Some 400 team members not with the company anymore. So that's in the run. That's not an ethereal number in terms of how we're thinking about the organization. And then as you think about what we need to do, you heard Ryan's points, but in terms of actual physical initiatives on the ground, you're going to see renewed emphasis on the up and down the street pro from our organization this year. I think it's an area where we had our eye off the ball a little bit. But I also think it's an area we're on a relative right to win in terms of the capabilities of the team members we have out in the field.

I'm referring to our CAMs or our outside sales team members and our CPPs who are inside the store pros. That's an area that they're excited to go after.

Speaker 10

Thanks for that. And the follow-up is, Shane, I'm intrigued by some of the things you're addressing and your diagnosis of what has been kind of holding this business back. So you mentioned a bunch of things, systems and supply chain. Curious about your take, if there is an Achilles heel, whether it is supply chain or merchandising or process-first infrastructure, if you can elaborate a bit on that?

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

So I think some of it goes to culture and focus. And the good news is, as I meet the team members in the field, you see that 90-year heritage. You see men and women who sell auto parts who want to win. And so we need to unlock that by making sure that what we do as a company and from my time in the service called the Inverted Pyramid, that we are geared not as a headquarters-centric organization, but we're a field-first organization. And if you spend time listening to the customers, they'll give you the feedback on what it takes to be successful. If you take time empowering our front-line associates, that's a key route forward for us. Additionally, it's the Blended Box model.

We, I think, looked at different paths to heaven as a company in the past and didn't put the emphasis on the Blended Box. You can see demonstrably in the industry where the Blended Box works. It works in terms of the breadth of customers you could serve. It works in terms of the flow-through you get when you get marginal sales in the same location. So that's really where we're going as a company in the future.

Speaker 10

Thanks. Good luck.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Greg Melich from Evercore ISI. Greg, your line is open.

Speaker 11

Hi, thanks, and welcome, guys. I guess my first question is, I'd just like to clarify a little bit. I know it's a potential sale, but in your guidance this year, how much of the free cash flow sales, etc., are coming from Worldpac or the businesses you're considering sale?

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Yeah, Greg, this is Ryan. In the guidance, we're not contemplating. We didn't put anything in there for the sale. Our guide is based on the remainder of the company or the whole company as it is today, with Worldpac and Canada Inc.

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Yeah, so we'll revisit with you at midyear if that process goes through, and then you'll see the breakout, the proceeds, the remainder CO, and our plan for disposition of proceeds.

Speaker 11

So just whatever Worldpac I guess maybe ask the question a different way. Last year, did the remaining CO generate free cash flow, for example?

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Yep. We're not going to talk about specific individual business units at this time, but we'll come back in Q2 to give you more details on the different.

Speaker 11

Fair enough. We'll update it then. I guess, Shane, I wanted to follow up a little bit more on the actions taken in terms of stabilizing the business from a profit standpoint. I think you went through. I'd love to hear a little bit more as you toured the country and talked to the front line and the customers. It sounds like the focus here is getting up and down the street. Serving them. What is it that they need to get that they're not getting or haven't gotten from Advance the last couple of years? Is it product quality? Is it speed? Is it in-stocks? What could you narrow that down a little bit more?

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Yeah, great question. So I'll start with the team members. We've got to make sure that our team members feel like they're valued. And if you looked at where we'd invested dollars, it hadn't been on the front line. And so that goes to wage rates. That goes to what their bonus programs are. That goes to training programs and certifications so that both their capabilities and sense of pride are amplified. So we've got a significant body of work underway focused on the front line. And we're seeing reduction in turnover. So that's been a key piece. Secondarily, as we spent money - and this goes to the SG&A takeout - we would engage in marketing programs that were expensive, that didn't bear fruit. And so we're pivoting anything we do around being successful with the customer in the market. As it relates to the customer's feedback, product availability.

We would hear from statured customers who were their first call, and they'd say, "Hey, Advance, I call you first, but you don't have the product. So you are literally driving me to call somebody else." We've had a lot of work going on in product availability. Our in-stocks are up over 200 basis points this year. If you look at our aggregate inventory, it's down. Ryan's talked to some of the disposition. Notably, we've put $300 million of incremental nutritive inventory that our customers are asking for. We're capturing those demand signals so that we have better in-stocks. We want to further that in terms of how we cover on the up and down the street pro with our outside sales team members. There's a tremendous amount of work there.

I didn't touch on this in the script, but within our org structure, our pro efforts were bifurcated in different parts of the company. And now those are solidified. And so we go forward as one team as we think about our pro. So it's not if you call the store and you're the same customer, you get a different set of interactions than you might get if you're working with our outside team. So that's going on a much more definitive basis. And the last thing I'll touch on the merchandising side of the house is reaching out to our vendors, both to ensure that from a cost position and a product availability and a prioritization for innovation that we're where we need to be. But I think important for everybody to know, as we talk to the vendors, that feedback is also overwhelmingly positive around supporting Advance.

There's a strong desire to see Advance thrive. And you could say, "Hey, the vendors should have that perspective, but that works for us." The idea that we've got this collective coalition between the vendors, between our engaged front line, between customers who want to buy from us. We just need to have our fundamentals right in terms of that product, that price, and the delivery all working together.

Speaker 11

Got it. And I think, Ryan, you mentioned as part of the guide, you expected a little bit of inflation in the numbers as we reinvest in that inventory and get the right stuff there. Is that fair? 1%-2%.

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Yes. Yeah, our inflation rate right now that we're looking at is about a 1% inflation rate that we're seeing and we're expecting.

Speaker 11

Got it. Thanks, guys, and good luck.

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Yeah, appreciate it. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question is from Bret Jordan from Jefferies. Bret, your line is open.

Speaker 12

Hey, good morning, guys. On the supply chain initiative, and obviously, that seems to me like it's been going on for a while, the WMS should be done by the end of this year. At what point do you see actually having the DCs on a single ERP system? And when you use those smaller DCs as a sort of forward inventory, will there be an investment cycle in building more large distribution center infrastructure?

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Yeah, so great question. Thank you, Bret. On the WMS, we'll be done with that this year. So HighJump is our WMS system, so we'll have that in all of what will be our replenishment DCs. The second part of the journey in terms of creating Market Hubs - and you see this model prevalently elsewhere in the industry - we can use our smaller DCs to perform in this fashion. And we've had a journey in supply chain, but not a definitive one in terms of creating a unified single supply chain. What we had in the past, we had cross-banner replenishment. But what we were doing is basically asking 38 DCs to function as full-on replenishment nodes, basically to provide every product to a store requiring that product. And some DCs don't have the size and capability to do that.

38 is far too many for my past life in terms of where you'd expect your vendors to ship into. So the idea is we create a national network of larger DCs. We're not ready to definitively define that exact number, but you can look at other companies, and sometimes you'll see 8, 10, 12, 14 large DCs to give you that national footprint. And then Market Hubs, both the conversion of these smaller DCs. We'll add additional Market Hubs beyond that because I think that that flow model works. And so if you take those two together and look at the footprint, there are probably some additional large DC efforts that we need to undertake. And we'll describe that more in terms of, "Here's our exact number. Here's where we have them today. Here's where we might need a new one." That'll all be coming in the coming months.

The key for today is that we are putting a flag in the ground to have a unified supply chain, one flow path, one set of systems, and an easier interaction for our vendors to work with us.

Speaker 12

Do you have a feeling, I guess, internally for what your basis point impact has been to run two disparate, pretty inefficient supply chains? What's the incremental cost of running as you have been running, or what might you pick up by consolidating?

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Yeah. I'll just say it's material, right? So if anybody who's been in logistics, if you're running two supply chains and everybody else or your previous endeavors was one supply chain, it's just not the path forward for us. So as we will explain with you, we think there's material monies that come out of the system. And then importantly for our customers, the product flows better. The availability goes up. And so there's kind of a one, two combo there that we'll describe more at a later date.

Speaker 12

Great. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question is from Steven Forbes at Guggenheim Partners. Stephen, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 13

Good morning, Shane, Ryan. Shane, maybe a follow-up on the supply chain. You mentioned potentially using the sale proceeds to accelerate the migration to the single unified network. But I was maybe just curious if we can think through the two scenarios here in terms of timeframe to completion of that initiative, right? And then I guess if the asset sale occurs, is there a timeframe in mind that you have to reach the goal? And then I guess if the asset sale doesn't occur, sort of what is that change in the timeframe that it would result in maybe a difference in sort of the near-term free cash flow proceeds of the business?

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Yeah, so this is my third time combining supply chains in companies. We want it to be sooner rather than later. But it's a multi-year endeavor. I think that's just the practical reality of what happens. So can we shave time off? Absolutely. And we will do that with the proceeds. But this isn't something that this group should expect to be done in 2024. We'll extend into 2025 and probably into 2026 as we do this. And in particular, there's both the existing set of efforts, which is what we'll do with the first 38, where we have to add net new Market Hubs, or where if we look at our larger DC structure where we need to put in large-scale new DC. Those efforts take time.

I think the thing for everybody here to know is that journey's beginning, and our first Market Hub conversion is going on. Early indications are this is going to be a really good thing for us. We will move as fast as we can because we know that the end state creates value for the customers and improves the profitability of the customer. So more to come, but know that our supply chain team is dedicated. They're focused, and they're already moving.

Speaker 13

Thanks. Maybe just a quick follow-up for Ryan. As we think through sort of non-cash and cash impacts on the margin outlook, any sort of color around the fourth-quarter LIFO, either benefit or charge? Then sort of what's implied within the margin guide for 2024 in terms of LIFO?

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Yeah, so in Q4, we saw $5.2 million of income related to LIFO. We expect it to be moderating in 2024. Moderate expectations in 2024 in our guide.

Speaker 13

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Seth Sigman from Barclays. Seth, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 14

Hey, good morning, everyone. I wanted to follow up on the comps this quarter, down 1.4%. I'm just curious, as you started to implement changes, are you seeing a wider dispersion of performance across the store base? I'm sure it's noisy with weather, but anything you can point to and maybe quantify to say that some of the early initiatives are working?

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Yeah, absolutely. So as we saw availability improve, we did see improvement in the Pro traction. So we're actually seeing good performance in the Pro. We're excited about that, encouraged by our inventory availability. I still see DIY pressured. And so that kind of offsets some of the Pro performance in that. And that's also kind of what's informed our guide going forward. We expect to see good improvement in the Pro. As we have improved availability, we do see DIY pressure going forward.

Speaker 14

Got it. Okay. And then my follow-up question is just thinking about the gap in profitability versus some of your peers and what I guess you'll ultimately guide us to at some point. How much of the issue/opportunity is just four-wall profitability that's sales-driven, it's volume-driven, versus how much of that profit gap is maybe inefficiency outside of the stores? And it may be both, but I'm curious how you think about that as we contemplate the roadmap from here. Thank you.

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Yeah, it's a good question. It is a little bit of both. So some of it is we talked about supply chain conversion. That obviously will generate some benefit for us and help close that gap as well. There's also a mix factor as far as the product in our mix being heavier pro than DIY, and that margin mix has a little bit of an impact as well. Yes, there's also other areas where we need to focus on for merch excellence. Shane talked about improving line reviews, etc. So there's some areas there. We're not going to go into specifics around decomping all of that, but obviously, there is some work and opportunity to close that gap. But I think the biggest one is that mix impact will keep us from closing it completely.

But we do have opportunity, and that's why we're focused on the big one here is just supply chain conversion.

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Yeah, Ryan's exactly right. One way to illustrate and why we're focused on the Blended Box, if you look at revenue per store and you think about us as kind of a $1.7, $18, and you can look at other folks who have higher numbers, when you add revenue to a store, $100,000, $200,000, $300,000, that money drops to the bottom line at an incrementally larger level, right, because you got your fixed costs covered. So that's a key for us. So I think your question's a good one, Seth, that we need to do both. As we do both, we see the path forward to continued success.

Know that as we look at where Advance is, we don't sit and say, "Hey, let's benchmark off the other guys." Our goal as an organization is to be incrementally better, to be incrementally better every day, take care of our customers, look after our team members. I've seen this movie before in other industries, in fact, in my last organization, and that's a recipe for success. Look for that from us and then look for us later this year to provide a perspective on what that might look like after a couple of years.

Speaker 14

Okay, great. Thank you both, and good luck.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Chris Bottiglieri from BNP Paribas. Chris, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 15

Hey, thanks for taking the question. Sorry if I'm thick-headed. I'm just not used to seeing some of these inventory adjustments. I'm not sure I fully understood Chris Horvers's question. Is it likely that these inventory write-downs and changes in estimates will be reversed in the subsequent period when you sell it, or is that not possible? Are these permanent changes?

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Yeah, no, I don't anticipate reversing it. This was making changes to estimates and vendor receivables that as we went through that process, I wouldn't expect that these would reverse at any point in time.

Speaker 15

Gotcha. Okay. And then next question is just I was hoping you could talk more about the independent businesses that you've invested in. It looks like you take up the first 100. Is this an immediate margin saving because you're actually losing money to these customers, or does this enable you to actually shut down some of these Carquest DCs because you wouldn't need them anymore if you stopped serving these particular markets?

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Yeah, so I'll start, Chris, and Ryan can—yep, no, thanks, Chris. I'll start, and Ryan can jump in. The independents are an important part of the business, right? They could serve geographies we can't get to. They could serve end markets where their depth of capability exceeds ours. So this isn't a play around exiting the independent arena. This is one where at times, we were exuberant in terms of adding independents. And as we looked at the sort of balance of trade, if you will, in terms of the benefit to each party, it wasn't working for us. In some cases, it wasn't working for the independent either. And so we looked at the aggregate number, and there are about 100 folks that at the end of the day, it didn't make sense for us to continue that relationship.

As we did that, it's a good move for us. Ryan could talk about the impact. It's also been received well in the independent network. The independents who are good at what they do, and by the way, they exhibit a lot of pride in their business, they don't want folks representing the Carquest name and doing it in a manner inconsistent with what our customers would expect. It's been a well-received adjustment, and we're happy with the independents that we have.

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Yeah, Chris, I'll just add that, yeah, well, we'll lose some sales on that, but we're actually going to gain on the bottom line and operating profitability, roughly $3 million-$4 million. So it's definitely a net positive for us.

Speaker 15

Okay, that makes sense. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Seth Basham from Wedbush. Seth, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 16

Thanks a lot, Anne. Good morning. My question is around the balance sheet and leverage going forward. How do you expect that to play out over the next few quarters, including post-sale of Carquest and any implications for the vendor inventory financing program?

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Yeah, it's a good question. So as we said with the sale, and Shane talked about it, if we do get the proceeds in sale, one of the first things we'll do is work to deleverage our balance sheet with some of those proceeds. That's one thing we'll look at immediately. But going forward, I think the business is generating good cash flow, and as part of that cash flow, we'll continue to work to delever the balance sheet. We're going to first invest in the business but also get that leverage target into a better place.

Speaker 16

Okay, that's helpful. As we look beyond 2024, obviously early, but with the supply chain transformation, should we expect CapEx to rise from the 2024 guide?

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

No, the CapEx guide that we put out contemplates actions we're taking at supply chain conversion. We're going to be much more focused on our capital expenditures and making sure we're investing in the right things that drive our business, and then we're focused on these decisive actions. So as we said earlier, the capital is really focused on IT and supply chain right now.

Speaker 16

Thank you.

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Yeah, I'll just jump in there. The supply chain transformation is a big one. I think Ryan's got our guide exactly where it should be for 2024. We could raise it in 2025, and we'll either through proceeds from Worldpac or just as the business performed better and we're able to deploy more. Again, back to the previous questions, if we can accelerate or wherever we can accelerate the supply chain consolidation, we'll do it.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Michael Baker from D.A. Davidson. Michael, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Okay, great. I just want to follow up on the 38 distribution centers that you talked about. I'm looking in the Ks and past annual reports and everything, and I can't find a breakdown. I know in the past, you used to talk about PDQs, which are the smaller DCs, but can you just tell us, of these 38 DCs, how many do you consider bigger? What to you is a bigger DC? How many are smaller? Just trying to get a sense of what you're going to go forward with in terms of your big DCs and what may need to be added to that. Thanks.

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Yeah, so the 38, I know it's hard to approach 38. 38 is the Advance and Carquest DC network. So I think in total, we're about 50, which would include the Worldpac as well. So when we talk about 38, we're specifically talking about the Advance and Carquest DC network.

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

So we'll give you, in the coming months, a complete breakout of all the facilities. I'm a little reticent to be more specific. Obviously, we've got team members in these DCs, and if their DC is going to be converted into a Market Hub, as we go through that plan, we want to make sure we're staying abreast of keeping them in the loop. So we'll break out the differences. In general, the smaller DCs that are appropriate for the Market Hub conversion came from Carquest, the larger DCs from the Advance model. And there's a substantial size footprint difference. We largely think we have the large DC network that we need. Again, we may refine that a little bit in terms of what that national footprint might look like.

Speaker 4

So you had said to a previous question earlier that based on the other guys, somewhere between 8 to 10 to 12 to 14 is the right number of large DCs. And you're saying that you think you have those already from the old Advance network, give or take a couple? I just want to clarify that.

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Yeah, Michael, good job threading some questions and answers together. 8-12, 10, 14, that's my experience in a past life, right? If we hired some of the firms that do the work on setting up national infrastructures and you say, "Hey, I want to have a nationwide distribution network," that's what they're going to tell you. And that's what I've seen, and that's what I've lived. And so I think that's an appropriate range for us. And yes, we largely think we've got the facilities today. Thank you. I think the key to it, Shane O'Kelly, is leveraging our current assets, right? We're leveraging our current assets that we have. We think we have the assets to create the network that we need.

Yeah, if we came to you and said, "Hey, we got to put 10 new 500- to 1 million-sq ft DCs up in the United States," you guys can do the math on what those buildings cost and how long that takes. We're trying to do this both more quickly and efficiently using the facilities we have. And a national model might come out and say, "Gosh, the DC you have might be marginally better if it was located an hour this way or that way." That's a little bit of the trade-offs we'll make, which is minor in terms of the efficiency drag. But in exchange for the speed and the overall cost-effectiveness, that's the right way to go.

Speaker 4

Yep, that makes sense. One other, just from the beginning of the call, if I could clarify, you talked about you found another $50 million to give to frontline employees from sunsetting things. What is that? And I guess on a year-over-year basis, is that an incremental $50 million investment, or is that netted somewhere?

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Yeah, so make the math easy. The $150 is out. We took out $150. And then we said, "Hey, we're going to take $50 of that, and it goes in the front line for wages, bonuses, and training." There's an incremental amount, roughly double that, that comes from some of it's our ordinary course. So we've got our merit plan for the year. But some of it comes from sunsetting. We had some HR programs out there that we spent money on that weren't directed towards the front line. So we canceled those programs, and we're putting those dollars into wages, bonuses, and training. So it's no incremental drag to the company. It's a better use of funds that we weren't putting in the right place.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Brian Nagel from Oppenheimer. Brian, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

All right, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. So a couple of questions, I guess basically both maybe philosophical in nature. But first off, maybe not totally fair, but Shane, for those of us who've followed Advance for a while, I think we've heard we've discussed in the past with prior management teams, "Supply chain fixes." So I guess we're talking a lot about that here as a key component of your view of the business. What's different? I mean, as you look at what you plan to do here for the business from a supply chain perspective and evaluating what has been done in the past, what are really the key differences here? And then my second question with regard to you have a lot going on here in the near term. How do you balance or how do you think about market share?

Because you have a very fragmented sector, but within that sector, you've got a couple of really strong competitors. So how do you think about maintaining market share amid all these nearer-term type efforts within the business?

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

We'll start with the second question on market share. There's lots of good companies. There's lots of people that we compete with every day. And you might have some notable examples, but there are plenty of smaller companies out there who sell auto parts. So we know that we've got to earn our keep every day. We've put out our guide. We think that's modest. And we know that our engine, as we restart it with this turnaround, we'll take a minute to get a full head of steam. But the industry fundamentals are very good. This is a disciplined industry. By the way, it's an industry that even with the big players, there's still room and runway to grow. By the way, there's just growth that occurs naturally. And so we won't be a share taker, but our first step is to be a shareholder.

I mean that in terms of market share. So that's what we're looking to do. We don't spend the day thinking, "Hey, what are the other guys doing?" We think about listening to our customer. When they tell us, "Hey, if you have this part, and by the way, if your pricing is this versus that, or if you can get it to me in this time frame, or if I feel good about the relationship," we get the order. So those are the things we focus on. That's what we can control, and that's what gets us a sale. If we do that right and repetitively over time, then the share loss is stemmed, and we can start that road back to holding and then gaining share. That's the first part. Then remind me again on the supply chain, Brian.

Speaker 5

Yeah, just real simply, what's different with your plan versus what may have been tried in the past or attempted in the past to rationalize the supply chain in Advance?

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

We didn't do it. I think that's the key thing. And we didn't if you look at retail distribution models on what it takes to be successful, that wasn't the path we were followed, right? We did a cross-banner replenishment model, but we never set out, and we should have, right? If you think about when we did the GPI acquisition, anytime you put two companies together, the first thing you got to think about is, "What are you going to do with the logistics infrastructure?" And so we let two different models exist for a long time and then had sort of a patch solution. And what we're telling the market today is the right answer for auto parts distribution is to have one single national network. And that's what we're doing.

And so you won't be able to identify facilities in terms of that's a blue versus a red, e.g., Carquest versus Advance. We're Advance Auto Parts, and we will have a national distribution network. The second thing is the idea of using this Market Hub. And I think you see that prevalently. I think it's a good way to get product closer to the customer, more SKUs closer to the customer to be more responsive. And I think that's a function that's a bit of an evolution. I think the customer's expectations have increased in terms of, "What can you get me in a short time frame?" We want to be participative in that, and that Market Hub makes that happen.

Speaker 5

Got it. I appreciate all the color. Good luck. Thank you.

Ryan Grimsland (Former EVP and CFO)

Thanks, Brian.

Operator (participant)

The next question is from Scot Ciccarelli from Truist. Scott, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Thanks for fitting me in, guys. So you talked about 400 teammates that are now gone, but can you provide more color on where you're able to take out $150 million of expenses from your cost structure? It's a pretty big number in a short period of time. And related to that, have you factored in some sort of negative impact on sales? In theory, the people there were doing at least something semi-productive.

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

So the cost takeout was broad-based. So no functional area was exempt. And if I go back to an earlier comment, I think we had a bit of a headquarters-centric approach to running the business. And with that, you end up with bloat in your corporate infrastructure. I believe in the inverted pyramid, the idea that we need to be field-first, and corporate needs to be lean. Corporate needs to be everybody who sits in a corporate seat needs to be supporting the field. And so we want to cross the functional areas. I think notably, marketing was an area where there were more significant cuts than in the other areas because we invested in marketing programs that didn't have a yield. And so we view that cost takeout not only as necessary, but one that didn't dampen our sales.

If anything, I think we've got the opposite going out because we've cleared out some bureaucracy. We've looked at processes that were inefficient, and we're empowering the front line. And as we take dollars and put it in the front line and reduce turnover and create energy, those team members feel like they're heard and supported in a way that wasn't occurring.

Speaker 6

Okay. So you don't think you'll lose any sales on the reduction in marketing. One other question. Are there more restatements to historical results and anything on 2023 we should be thoughtful of before some of the new team on the finance side came in?

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Are you saying more than what actually is being reported today?

Speaker 6

Correct.

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Yeah, no. I think what we're talking about today is what we've shared today are the restatements that we plan to see in the Form 10-K. We'll have the Form 10-K out in short order. It should be within that extension period of time.

Speaker 6

Got it. Okay. So no more restatements to historical results. Okay. Thanks, guys. Good luck.

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Thank you. Thanks, Scott.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Max Rakhlenko from Cowen. Max, your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Great. Thanks a lot, guys. So first, how far away are your in-stocks from where they need to be or where you want them to be? I think you mentioned they'd improve by 200 basis points. So how much room ahead and then just how we should think about that timing?

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Hey, Max, we didn't get the question. Can you say it one more time, please?

Speaker 7

Oh, sorry. Just how far away are your in-stocks from where they need to be? I think you mentioned 200 basis point improvement. So how much further room do you have to go? And then just how should we think about the timing?

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

Yeah. So we're doing that real-time. And as we complete our inventory system that comes online, it will get better from where it sits today. So I don't want to put a definitive number on it, but that journey continues. We do get customer feedback that says, "Hey, I feel better about your product availability." We get feedback from our employees as well. But I don't want to put a pinpoint, but more to come, but material progress that has been noted by customer and field team members. Yeah, other than that, I think broad-based improvement. Absolutely. Broad-based improvement, but there's still work to do geographically. I think 38 different distribution centers, some are smaller, just the ability to allocate the work. That's the work that we're doing with the new system, being able to get there. So there's still work to do, but broad-based significant improvement.

Speaker 7

Okay. And then how are you thinking about pricing on the DIFM side and whether you are where you need to be in order to be competitive? And then just latest thinking around private label versus national brands following some of the conversations that you've been having with the pros.

Shane O'Kelly (President and CEO)

So I'll start with private label. We think private label is an important dimension of the business. And we've got some great brands that we control. DieHard, I think, is a premier name, the Carquest name. And think about Carquest as it relates to our Platinum brakes product. So we've seen growth in private brands, and we want private brands to be an important part of the portfolio. I think something we've done is in the past, sometimes our exuberance as it relates to who we work with, we may have had suppliers not in a position to fully represent what our needs are. We've come through those issues, and our merchant and sourcing teams are making sure that we're not only getting high-quality products, but we're getting it in the quantities that we need. On the pricing front, a couple of things here.

One, this is a disciplined industry, and I think that's important, the conduct between the players in terms of how they act with customers. I would describe it as rational. But customer feedback is an important dimension. I would say we need to be in the zip code of the customer's needs on price, but availability is important as is speed to service. And that's something that we're focused on. We know that if you're a pro and you've got a car on a lift, you've got a Chevy Tahoe that needs brake rotors, we've got to get them to you expeditiously. So we're focused on that speed of service, which is something we measure. But as it relates to price, we'll be where the market sort of demands.

Speaker 7

Got it. Thanks a lot.

Elisabeth Eisleben (SVP, Communications and Investor Relations)

All right. Thank you all. That is our last question for today. Thank you for joining us. We look forward to sharing more progress on our decisive actions that we covered today when we speak with you again in May. Have a great day.

Operator (participant)

This concludes today's call. Thank you very much for your attendance. You may now disconnect your.