Graco - Q3 2024
October 24, 2024
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Good morning, and welcome to the Q3 Conference Call for Graco Inc. If you wish to access the replay for this call, you may do so by visiting the company's website at www.graco.com. Graco has additional information available in a PowerPoint slide presentation, which is available as part of the webcast player. At the request of the company, we will open the conference up for question and answers after opening remarks from the management. During this call, various remarks may be made by management about their expectations, plans, or prospects for the future.
These remarks constitute forward-looking statements for the purpose of the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated as a result of various risk factors, including those identified in Item 1A of the company's 2023 Annual Report on Form 10-K and in Item 1A of the company's most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q. These reports are available on the company's website at www.graco.com and the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Forward-looking statements reflect management's current views and speak only as of the time they are made. The company undertakes no obligations to update these statements in the light of new information or future events. I will now turn the conference over to Chris Knutson, Executive Vice President, Corporate Controller.
Christopher Knutson (EVP and Corporate Controller)
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. I'm here today with Mark Sheahan and David Lowe. I will provide a brief overview of our quarterly results before turning the call over to Mark for additional commentary. Yesterday, Graco reported Q3 sales of $519 million, a decrease of 4% from the same quarter last year. Reported and adjusted net earnings decreased 8% to $122 million or $0.71 per diluted share. Excluding the impact of excess tax benefits from stock option exercises, the impairment charge and contingent consideration adjustment recorded in the Q3 of 2023, adjusted non-GAAP net earnings per share decreased 7%. The effect of currency translation had no significant impact on sales or net earnings for the quarter. The gross margin rate increased 50 basis points in the quarter.
Realized pricing was more than enough to offset sales volume declines occurring in all segments. While product costs were lower for the first nine months of the year, they were a headwind in the quarter as our production volumes, primarily in Contractor, have declined. We expect these headwinds to continue for the remainder of the year. Total operating expenses increased $9 million, or 7% in the quarter, mainly due to new product development spending, growth initiatives, and other corporate items, including the relocation to a new distribution center. Reductions in volume and earnings-based expenses of $3 million partially offset this increase. Gross margin rate improvement was unable to offset lower sales volumes and increased expenses during the quarter, resulting in an operating margin rate of 28%, a decline of two percentage points from the same period last year.
The Process segment operating margin rate decreased four percentage points to 27% due to the impacts of higher spending and decreased volumes compared to the Q3 last year. Interest and other benefits increased $4 million during the quarter, driven primarily by lower interest expense as our long-term debt was repaid in 2023, in addition to increased interest income on cash held. The adjusted effective tax rate was 19%, which is consistent with our expected full-year tax rate of approximately 19.5%-20.5% on an as-adjusted basis. Cash provided by operations totaled $436 million for the year, a decrease of $55 million from last year, driven mostly by inventory purchases related to new product launches, timing of estimated tax payments, and lower net earnings.
Cash provided by operations as a percent of reported net earnings is 116% for the year. Significant year-to-date uses of cash included repurchases of 399,000 shares for $31 million, dividends of $129 million, and capital expenditures of $93 million, of which $60 million related to facility expansion projects. These cash uses were offset by share issuances of $45 million. A few comments as we look forward to the remainder of the year. Based on current exchange rates, assuming the same volumes, mix of products, and mix of business by currency as in 2023, movement in foreign currencies would have no impact on net sales or net earnings for the full year.
Our full year estimates for unallocated corporate expense and capital expenditures remain unchanged and can be found in the conference call slide deck on page 10. Finally, effective January 1, 2025, we will move to a global customer-centric operating structure with four business divisions: Industrial, Powder, Expansion Markets, and Contractor. At that time, our regional teams, which previously operated independently, will be integrated into the business divisions. The current Industrial and Lubrication Equipment divisions, along with the Process Transfer Equipment business that is part of the Process division, will be combined to form the new global Industrial division.
The Powder division, which is currently structured as a global business, will continue to operate as it does today and will combine with the Industrial division to form the Industrial reporting segment. The new Expansion Markets division will focus on driving inorganic growth in new or adjacent markets.
Our existing environmental, semiconductor, high pressure valves, and electric motors businesses, together with select future ventures and acquisitions, will reside within this newly formed division and reporting segment. The Contractor Division will be restructured to serve the needs of our global customers and will remain unchanged as a reporting segment relative to prior periods. We will report financial results under these new segments for the Q1 of 2025. We will provide recast segment financial information in connection with our Q4 earnings release as supplemental information. I'll now turn the call over to Mark for further segment and regional commentary.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Thank you, Chris. Good morning, everyone. I'd like to begin by discussing our recent announcements. In September, we announced our One Graco Initiative, focused on driving global growth, greater profitability, and operational efficiencies. Starting in 2025, Graco will adopt a new global structure with a commercial focus, enabling our sales, marketing, and engineering teams to focus squarely on revenue growth. This new customer-centric approach focuses on segments with similar needs, helping us scale more easily as we grow and enhance our customer experience. The strategy builds on the success of our powder coating business and aligns well with the integration of protective coatings and spray foam businesses into the contractor division a few years ago.
The new structure also strengthens our ability to pursue M&A opportunities through both our legacy divisions and the newly created Expansion Markets Division, enabling us to target significant acquisitions in current and adjacent markets. As we establish our new market-oriented global structure over the coming months, I have full confidence in our experienced leadership team and dedicated employees to navigate this change successfully. During the quarter, we also announced the acquisitions of PCT Systems and COROB. PCT Systems, which provides megasonic and ultrasonic wet cleaning systems, complements our existing high-purity chemical delivery equipment used in semiconductor and electronics production. Although the PCT acquisition closed during the quarter, it did not have a material impact on quarterly results.
We also reached a definitive agreement to acquire COROB, a global leader in high-tech dispensing and mixing solutions for paints and coatings.
This acquisition enhances our strong position in the growing paint and coating machinery manufacturing category within the Contractor Division, while expanding our global manufacturing footprint. We expect the COROB acquisition to close in the Q4, and the combined annual revenue of these acquisitions is nearly $130 million. We're very optimistic about these opportunities and confident in our ability to leverage the complementary strengths of these businesses to drive growth and create value for our customers and shareholders. Moving on to our financial performance. All of my comments will be on an organic, constant currency basis. Sales in the Q3 were down 4%, with declines in all segments except Industrial, which was flat. Industrial finishing system sales in the Americas and EMEA offset steep declines in Asia Pacific, especially China.
Declines continued in the process segment, with weakness noted in the semiconductor and mining markets. New product introductions in the contractor segment have been well received, and global protective coatings markets are strong. The decrease in China revenue across the industrial and process segments accounted for more than 90% of the overall revenue decline in the quarter and over 60% year to date. This represents broad-based weakness and overcapacity across key end markets, including automotive, battery, solar, semiconductor, and electronics. Incoming order rates in the Q3 continued to be difficult worldwide, as all major product categories, with the exception of our powder finishing business, saw order rates decline compared to the Q2 of this year.
Weak demand continued in the Asia Pacific region, especially in China. These reductions have been consistent throughout the year. Demand in North America also softened during the quarter, impacting all segments.
In contrast, over the past six weeks, our consolidated global incoming order rates have shown improvement compared to the same period last year, experiencing 11% growth. This double-digit increase is primarily driven by both the industrial and process segments. While this is a relatively short time period, it gives us optimism for the remainder of the year. Now turning to some commentary on our segments. Contractor sales were down 1% in the Q3. Protective coatings grew across all regions, but it wasn't enough to offset softness in the pro paint and home center channels. Asia Pacific was a bright spot, as the container market showed continued improvement after minimal activity last year. Response to new products continues to be favorably received, and inventory levels within the channel are considered normal.
We have additional new products targeted to be launched prior to the end of the year, which should also have some positive impact for the Q4. Industrial sales were flat in the quarter, as strong finishing system sales in both North America and EMEA were offset by heavy declines in Asia Pacific. Revenue in the Americas was higher for the Q2 in a row, led by the timing of finishing system sales, along with increased activity across the liquid finishing and sealants and adhesives businesses. The team remains positive as quoting activity remains stable. However, CapEx investments are being delayed as end users are taking a wait-and-see approach. Moving on to the process segment. Sales are down 12% compared to the same quarter last year, primarily due to continued weakness in the semiconductor and mining markets, along with a slowdown in vehicle service business.
The decline in sales volume is the primary driver of the decrease in profitability, with decremental margins of nearly 60% for the quarter. Moving on to our outlook. Overall, conditions remain challenging as we continue to experience soft demand trends in many of our core markets. We're encouraged by the increased order activity so far in the Q4, and we have confidence in our new product lineup. However, it's still too early to know if these order rates will continue to the end of the year. As a result, we're maintaining our full-year revenue guide of low single-digit decline on an organic, constant currency basis. That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we're ready for questions.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The question-and-answer session will begin at this time. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Your questions will be taken in the order that they receive. Please stand by for our first question. Our first question is gonna come from the line of Dean Dray with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed.
Deane Dray (Managing Director)
Thank you. Good morning, everyone.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Hi, Dean.
Christopher Knutson (EVP and Corporate Controller)
Good morning.
Deane Dray (Managing Director)
If maybe we could start with the usual tour by end market and by region, obviously, more of a focus on APAC, that 90% data point where the shortfall was, that's kind of what's going on there, ground level. I do notice there's no change in the traffic light chart. You were already at red lights in APAC for industrial and process. So maybe start with that tour end market and region, and where the surprises were.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yeah, we're red. We couldn't make it any more red, so, it's been red, and it's kind of been flashing that way for a while for us. I mean, the China sales, we wanted to highlight those because we really do feel like that has been the main area where our businesses experienced the softness this year. Again, you know, Q3 China sales were down about $10 million for industrial and process, and the total AP sales were down $11.2 million. So, really, all of the decline is coming in those two camps within China, and kind of the same story on a year-to-date basis. If you look across the end markets there, for sure, automotive is down compared to last year.
The construction area is actually up a little bit for us because of what we've got going on in the container industry, so CED actually grew, which was nice to see. But really, all the other big markets in China, whether it's mining, battery production, solar, electronics, they're all experiencing, you know, headwinds this year compared to what we've had in the past. Positively, you know, Japan seems to be doing pretty well. Korea's hanging in there, and we're also seeing growth in India. So, it really is kind of a China story. I think we need to get through the end of the year here, and then hopefully, we can grow off of a lower base there.
Deane Dray (Managing Director)
And how about the other regions?
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
You know, Europe hung in there pretty well, across really all of the different product categories. We had, you know, decent activity in industrial, process, and contractor. So on an overall basis, while the revenues were down compared to a year ago, kind of that low single digit decline really doesn't cause us a whole lot of concern. We did see nice, you know, activity in North America, really driven by some of the larger projects that we had on the finishing system side of the business that freed up in the quarter, that we were able to deliver and get customer recognition for. So, I would probably characterize as the North America market seems, you know, decent, Europe, okay, and Asia Pacific market has been really challenging for us.
Deane Dray (Managing Director)
That's good on U.S.?
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yeah, I mean, North America really is primarily U.S.
David Lowe (CFO and Treasurer)
Yeah, and on that, I would say in talking with our teams here in North America, they've called out over recent months a good activity in defense. The solar market, interestingly, here in North America, which is soft in Asia, despite the challenges in the industry, aerospace, electronics, and even automotive, in both the legacy and the EV manufacturers, are pretty good markets for us.
Deane Dray (Managing Director)
Good. And then just as a follow-up, and Mark, you and I talked about this at our RBC Industrials Conference a few weeks ago. Just the genesis of the resegmentation, you know, the why now? How did you land in these four categories? And from... You know, is it still too early to talk about where and how the growth can be, you know, you'd see some sort of improvement, and just, you know, where and how would you be measuring those benefits?
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yeah, so I think the genesis was really this spring, when our team got together and looked at some of the data and really figured out that we weren't growing as much organically as we thought that we could. And we felt like some of the structural barriers that we had put up as a team and the silos by creating divisions that had their own factories and their own marketing teams and their own engineering teams, and, you know, approaching our channel partners individually versus trying to leverage as a One Graco approach, was really what we started with. We commissioned a group of leaders that were not direct reports of mine, but these were our high-potential people within multiple business and regional units, to take a look at the structure and come back with some recommendations.
And after a few iterations, with my team as well as the board of directors, we really landed on the One Graco approach. I think it will result in some efficiencies, just in terms of our ability to target customers, you know, with the entire product line versus, you know, on a division-by-division basis. And we'll also reorient us a little bit more towards looking at the key customer constituencies in a number of business units. It's interesting because the end users, the customers in Process, Industrial, and LED, in a lot of cases, are very similar. You go into a factory, and you're dealing with the guy that's actually running the machine, you're dealing with the factory manager, you're dealing with an engineer, you're dealing with procurement people.
And being able to go in with a One Graco approach with the full product line, we think is gonna have a lot of value versus having multiple teams interact with those customers as well. So it's not gonna flip a switch overnight. And as I think I told you, no structure is perfect, but we really do believe that after running the current playbook for more than 20 years, it was time to take a fresh approach, and we're all excited about the prospects that the One Graco will have.
Deane Dray (Managing Director)
Yeah, that's great, caller, and best of luck. Thank you.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Thanks.
Operator (participant)
Thank you, and one moment for our next question. Our next question is gonna come from the line of Mike Halloran with Baird. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Michael Halloran (Senior Research Analyst and Associate Director of Research)
Good morning, everyone.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Hi, Mike.
Michael Halloran (Senior Research Analyst and Associate Director of Research)
So a couple questions. Just kind of following up on that last. You know, at the end of the day, the restructuring you're doing here seems more like a driver for growth. You know, in the past, you've talked about kind of the 5.5% kind of growth, maybe adding 5% kind of growth last cycle, being able to maybe add an incremental point of growth to that. Is that really what the goal here is from a loose quantification? And then secondarily, is there a margin benefit you think you're gonna drive from this as well, with how you're moving things around globally?
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yeah, for sure, growth is the driver behind this. Again, as I said, our team got together, and we look at the numbers, and we felt like we could just do a better job, and so that was kind of the genesis of this change that we're going through. I guess the other piece that I didn't mention is that we also created a new group called Expansion Markets that will be not only managing some of the businesses that we've acquired over the last few years, but we'll also be looking for adjacent markets that are near those businesses and new sandboxes that we might potentially play in as a company.
I really felt like we didn't have anybody at Graco that was focused on that, and I think that there are other areas outside of our current businesses that we can play in on the M&A front, and so we'll be doing some work there as well. I think it gives us maybe a better chance at being able to put points on the board from an M&A standpoint. Our divisions are still gonna look at the stuff that they've always looked at, and our pipelines look pretty good there. But having that group, you know, looking at those things, I think is gonna be a change compared to what we've had in the past. In terms of efficiencies, yeah, there will be some.
I think for now, what we're doing is we're working through the details of what the new structures are gonna look like. We're gonna hit the ground running on January 1st, and I think we'll be ready to talk about, you know, efficiencies and what we expect to see after we're done with the work, most likely when we make our year-end announcement and talk with you guys at that point. We don't have specifics yet that I'm comfortable sharing with you, but we are looking to drive both top line and bottom line growth with some of these moves.
Michael Halloran (Senior Research Analyst and Associate Director of Research)
Makes sense. And then kind of a two-fold question here. First, you know, obviously, we're late in the year here, so your guidance, you can kind of get some implied growth for the Q4 here, but it's a pretty wide range. So the first question is basically: Are we talking about a Q4 growth rate that is similar to this low single digit guide for the full year? And then related: Could you just put what's going on with the backlog and the orders in context and help us understand how that's flowing through things as it sits here?
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yeah, I think the guide is pretty consistent with what we've had now for a couple quarters, I guess, where we're targeting this low single digit constant currency revenue decline. So you guys can do the math on that, but I think it would play out that that's, you know, likely what you're gonna see in Q4, what we saw in Q3, and kind of for the year-to-date number as well. We have experienced quite a bit of backlog reduction. I remember when our backlog was $450 million. Now it's $230 million. So, we're at the point now where we're back to, I call it, a normal business for Graco.
Mostly book and ship, with a couple exceptions, one being our powder coating business, where we do have some backlog there, and then, you know, some of our longer term projects in the industrial side as well. But, you know, in terms of where we're at on backlog, I think we're at a point now where you should expect to see this number kind of hang in there, going forward, you know, barring any kind of crazy stuff like we had a couple of years ago, where everybody was placing all kinds of orders. So that does create some headwind for us, as you know, I'm sure. When you look at, you know, 2023 versus 2024, you know, that backlog came down in 2023. It's come down in 2024, but not quite as much.
As we look at 2024 into 2025, if we're assuming that we're at normal levels, we won't have this built-in reduction in backlog. So we factor all that into the guide that we give you guys. We're comfortable with it at this point, and we hope that we're able to hit it by the end of the year, and then as we get to 2025, obviously, we'll update our outlook at that point.
Michael Halloran (Senior Research Analyst and Associate Director of Research)
Thanks, Mark. Appreciate it.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yep.
Operator (participant)
Thank you, and one moment for our next question. The next question is gonna come from the line of, Saree Boroditsky with Jefferies. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Saree Boroditsky (Equity Research Analyst)
Hi, good morning. You know, the gross margin performance was really strong in the quarter, up year-over-year, despite the lower volumes. Can you just talk about the contribution of price/cost or other productivity drivers that helped offset that lower factory volumes?
David Lowe (CFO and Treasurer)
This is David. I think the starting point is certainly the effectiveness we've had in realized pricing, really now for two full years, because we did our interim adjustment, I think, in the middle of 2022, and one of the consistencies in our favorable price-cost relationship since has been what we've achieved in pricing. Admittedly, the increases we saw in the second half of 2022 and all of 2023 were a bit more dramatic than what we're seeing today. But it's been consistent, and it's been consistent across all business units and regions. So I think pricing has been the hero.
In terms of the cost structure, Chris can correct me if I am, you know, straying a bit. Input costs have leveled out, but they certainly have not declined to levels that we saw in any meaningful way, in periods prior to 2021 and earlier periods. So we are working with a higher cost structure, both for input costs, labor, and energy and other things, but we're covering those. I think a maybe more recent development that has had impact on us is some less ability to absorb all the factory overhead because of the decline in unit volumes that we touched on in our opening comments. But with that said, the overall price cost has remained positive.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yeah, I'm pretty happy with the factory performance. Given the fact that we've had volume declines to actually have the margins go up, I would say that we are locked and loaded from a production standpoint and our ability to react, you know, when volumes do pick up. We feel like the business is in great shape, and once we get the volume growth, the leverage is gonna be really nice to see.
Saree Boroditsky (Equity Research Analyst)
You mentioned incoming orders over the last six weeks, up, I believe, 11%, with growth in industrial and process. Could you just kind of dive into that a bit? You know, what markets or regions are driving this? And then as you think about North American industrials, you mentioned the timing of finishing sales. It just seems at odds with commentary from a CapEx pause. So just help us understand what's driving the strong demand.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yeah, I think the growth in orders over the last, you know, six weeks, again, pretty short time period, have been broad-based, with the exception of Asia, which is still, you know, challenging to us. So, and we want to just point out that it was mostly in the industrial and process segments, which have been the ones that have been really, you know, creamed this year when it comes to the declines that we've seen in that particular region. So, I wouldn't, you know, read too much into it other than we thought it was an interesting data point to share with you.
We want to be as transparent as possible, and it'll hopefully give you a little bit more confidence in our year, full year revenue guide of down low single digits for the full year. When it comes to the North America industrial business, we were able to recognize some larger project activity that, you know, was previously booked after customer sign-off, particularly in the powder industry. And so that really did help drive the growth. If you were to, you know, sort of strip that out, you would probably see something similar in North American industrial to what we're seeing in Europe from total demand standpoint, if that's helpful.
Saree Boroditsky (Equity Research Analyst)
Appreciate the color. Thank you.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yep.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. And one moment for our next question. Our next question is gonna come from the line of Matt Summerville with D.A. Davidson. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Matt Summerville (Analyst)
Thanks. Within the process business, it looks like the decrementals have been worsening on a year-to-date basis. Is there something else that's maybe fallen off there when you look at sequentially how that business performed? Just help me understand a little bit of the, you know, puts and takes from the top and bottom line.
Christopher Knutson (EVP and Corporate Controller)
Matt, this is Chris. Looking at that business, the decrementals have been tough, for the whole year, I would say. What we do see within that business, in particular, is when we do see volumes fall off in almost all of the factory locations, it really does impact the decrementals pretty hard across the board. Earlier in the year, we may have had some benefits from one of our factories having volume, which could have offset some of the costs in some of the other locations, but what we're seeing now is it's pretty broad-based across all of the different business units, which is driving that decremental margin.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yeah, I think the only thing I would add is that as we've kind of rolled the year here a little bit, we have seen a little bit more weaker activity in our lubrication businesses, which are, you know, really nicely profitable. And so, you know, when I look at like Q1, Q2 versus Q3, those, the revenues there have come down a little bit sequentially through those quarters. The other big one, obviously, is the semiconductor business, which is way down from a year ago, but the bookings are starting to pick up there as anticipated with the, you know, pickup that everyone's predicting for 2025.
David Lowe (CFO and Treasurer)
And I should leave well enough alone, but I'll add that, the two points Mark mentioned also ties once again into the whole Asia Pacific arena-
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yep
David Lowe (CFO and Treasurer)
where semiconductor is, you know, it's all. There's a lot of activity in the region and the ongoing softness there has been, it's no secret, pretty dramatic. And in the lubrication space, the mining markets, not just in China, but even in the Southeast Asia, are a significant portion of that business. So when those markets are soft, I'd say especially in the region, you see that flow through to the process segment.
Matt Summerville (Analyst)
Got it. And then just as a follow-up, I wondered if you could maybe talk about COROB for a moment. What's the historical organic growth rate of that business look like?
And what is their U.S. presence today, and how are you thinking about being able to leverage your sort of big box relationships, we'll just generically call them, to maybe bring COROB's presence to the market or lift their presence in the local market? Thank you.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yeah, I appreciate the question. Given that we haven't closed the deal, I'm a little bit limited in what I can say. What I will say, here, here's what I like about the business. Number one, we understand the technologies. It's metering, it's mixing, it's tinting, it's stuff that Graco knows how to do pretty well. We also do like the overlap on the customers. Some of their big customers are Graco customers.
I think their presence outside of North America is much bigger than it is in North America, and we are hopeful that they can help us out in the Asia Pacific region with some of the contacts they have, like Asian Paints, and that we can potentially leverage our good relationships at the home center customers that we have and you know the larger professional channel customers that we have as well. So I think there are some revenue synergies there that we're hopeful to get. In terms of their growth, historically, it's kind of been in that low to mid single digits, so it's not too dissimilar from what Graco has in terms of organic growth through a cycle. So I think that we feel pretty good about that.
Lastly, what I'll say is that they have really good production in Italy, and they also have a footprint in India, production-wise, that we like. And that is an area that we've thought about expanding into, for Graco to, you know, expand our presence in India from a production standpoint, given the activity that's happening there. So this gives us a footprint immediately, to do that and to experiment with it. It's a little bit lower risk than if we had planted a flag somewhere and did that on our own. So I think we're excited about that as well.
Matt Summerville (Analyst)
Great. Thanks, Mark.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yep.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. And one moment for our next question. Our next question is gonna come from the line of Jeff Hammond with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Jeffrey Hammond (Managing Director)
Hey, good morning, guys.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Hey, Jeff.
Jeffrey Hammond (Managing Director)
Just wondering, you know, I guess as you talk to customers and you take kind of the last six weeks of orders, anything that sticks out that, you know, starts to feel better and kind of gets you out of this rut? I think you mentioned, you know, Asia's still particularly challenged, but just any kind of green shoots?
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yeah, I think that, you know, there's obviously a lot of uncertainty out there these days and not anything you guys don't know, with all these wars going on, elections and other things. So I think that's. There's still a fairly cautious mindset when it comes to our channel partners and end users when they're thinking about making, you know, capital type of investments. So, again, you know, we thought the data point was interesting. I do think that we're starting to anniversary maybe some of the comps that we've had over the last couple of years. As I mentioned earlier, our backlogs now are kind of at levels where you would have expected them to be on a normalized basis.
So as those backlogs have come down, obviously, you know, customers start to reorder and, you know, hopefully, we've seen sort of a bottoming out here, and we can start to see improvement off of what's been a couple of tough years.
David Lowe (CFO and Treasurer)
I guess I would add, you know, Mark touched on the fact that, you know, six weeks is not a very long period, and this is more anecdotal, but just in a recent conversation, taking a look at our EMEA space, businesses that have been okay thus far this year, for example, the protective coating part of the contractor business, especially that portion of the market that serves energy and some of the support infrastructure in the Middle East has remained strong.
We have been seeing my expectations as somebody who was based in Europe years ago always is a little low on the industrial side, but there has been a fairly steady drumbeat of regular business, including the automotive markets. And finally, even in the process space, which has been struggling a bit, there has been some recent order activity that is more encouraging than what we have seen earlier in the year.
Jeffrey Hammond (Managing Director)
Okay. And then just... I appreciate the color on the One Graco and the new segment, but if we look maybe more technical on the segment changes, can you just walk through? Sounds like Contractor's unchanged, and then we're moving a business or two from Process into Industrial. Is it that simple?
Christopher Knutson (EVP and Corporate Controller)
I think the way that you look at it, the way that today, Jeff, we have our Industrial Division and our Powder Division, they'll still stay in the industrial group. We'll move our lubrication and a portion of our Process Division into that industrial group, and the remaining businesses will break out and create the expansion markets area, which is the semiconductor, the high pressure valves-
... and the environmental businesses?
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yeah, the only comment I'll make, Jeff, is that, yes, for sure, it's just exactly as Chris described. But historically, we've operated our regions on a matrix basis, where they had a separate P&L, and they would make decisions based on, you know, what they thought was best for the region. We're moving to global structures, where our industrial business will now manage a global P&L, and they'll be able to make those decisions based on the opportunities they see. Same thing on the contractor side. We're kind of knocking down the matrices, and we're gonna be running global businesses, which we're excited about. It's worked really well for us with Gema, and we think that, you know, moving to that approach with Graco will be beneficial, as well.
Jeffrey Hammond (Managing Director)
Maybe just last one, M&A pipeline behind, you know, the two deals. Would you expect that, you know, particularly more focus is gonna be in this expansion markets, or do you think it, you're still looking pretty broad-based?
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Our pipeline that we have has been built up historically by the division. So if I look at the pipeline, I've got about 100 companies in there that we are, you know, talking to, active, kind of ones that we would consider acquiring if they became available. And so we have, you know, good momentum there, and I think the market is a little more favorable today than it was a year ago. And so I'm hopeful that we will see some activity coming from that pipeline that we've already got. Expansion markets, to the extent that we've got businesses already, they have names in the pipeline that they will pursue.
But in addition to that, we're also gonna challenge that group with doing more research outside of our existing markets and find some spaces that maybe our divisions haven't looked at and see if there's opportunities for Graco to expand into those as well. We don't have any targets, but I do, I do feel really good about the fact that now we're gonna have a group that is, you know, charged with that kind of a responsibility beyond just looking at things that are really closely adjacent to us.
Jeffrey Hammond (Managing Director)
Okay. Appreciate it, Mark.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yep.
Operator (participant)
Thank you, and one moment for our next question. Our next question is gonna come from the line of Andrew Buscaglia with BNP Paribas. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Andrew Buscaglia (Analyst)
Thanks. Yeah, so I wanted to touch on, within contractor, you got these, you know, you have these new products, this new product cycle rolling out. We haven't seen much acceptance from it yet, it seems, but you're saying there's more products coming out in Q4. Is that informing your guide, you guys maintaining your guidance? Do you see anything in your orders that you see, greater, you know, sales in that area?
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
I think we've done really well with our new products, so I would say that they've driven a lot of incremental revenue in a market that's not been great. So I mean, if you look at the macro factors in the housing market in North America, for example, they're still flashing kind of red, yellow signs. And the fact that we're, we were, you know, flat through the first six months in contractor and we're flat in Q3, I think it's been fairly consistent. It's always hard for us to know exactly, you know, what would have our revenue been if we didn't have the new products, but we all feel like if we didn't have those new products, you would see, you know, different numbers than what, than what we've reported.
As we get into Q4, I think it's not gonna be like a big step change. We are excited about some of the products that are coming out in Q4, but I don't know that they're gonna have a meaningful impact over a 13-week time period. And yes, that definitely did inform our decision on what we wanted to do for the guide for the full year.
Andrew Buscaglia (Analyst)
Yeah, okay. Yeah, and hey, Mark, you know, you're talking more about, you know, the interesting kind of M&A. Are we looking into, like, brand new end markets that you don't play in yet, that are maybe not, you know, less correlated with what you guys do? Or is it brand new products, you know, before that you're trying to get into? It seems like a slight change versus the past.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yeah, it is, it is a change, and we'll see how it kind of unfolds here. But I mean, you know, there's a lot of fluid handling opportunities in markets that Graco doesn't play in, and I think we've got a lot of expertise there that we can bring. We've got great engineers. We, you know, how to manufacture stuff. We've got a global footprint. We have customers that have some of those needs that we don't really address today. So we'll be challenging our teams to run the numbers, look at the opportunities, and see if there's anything for us there that we haven't really looked at in the past.
Andrew Buscaglia (Analyst)
Okay, interesting. All right. Thank you.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yep.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question at this time, please press star one, one on your telephone. One moment for our next question. Our next question is gonna come from the line of Walter Liptak with Seaport Research. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Walter Liptak (Industrial Analyst)
Hi, thanks. Good morning, everyone. So I wanted to ask a follow-up on China. You talked about, you know, the industrial and process having some headwinds and, you know, the $10 million of some falloff in industrial and process. So I guess the question is, you know, what are we thinking about, like with their quoting and their funnels? You know, what does it take to get the China-- you know, are we looking for macro things like the government stimulus that's going on? Or, you know, how should we think about sort of the, you know, near-term outlook?
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
Yeah, I think there's been over, you know, a little bit of overcapacity built over there in the last, couple of years, so I think there's some catch up that's going on. Because if I look at what's happening in our end markets, it's really kind of across the board in most of the big ones. It's not like it's limited to any one particular thing. If you look at semiconductor, they're down, automotive is down, battery is down, solar is down. So, you know, I do feel like, over the last few years, they've built a lot of capacity. What's gonna change, hopefully, at some point, we get to an equilibrium level, and then, you know, business conditions are a little bit better for us in China than what we've had over the last, you know, twelve months or so.
I don't think that this stimulus is going to have a meaningful impact in the short term. We'll see what happens, but we certainly haven't seen it so far in our results.
Walter Liptak (Industrial Analyst)
... Okay, great. It's been a couple of quarters that we've been talking about China now. So is it, is it gonna be more of the same, you think, until we get easier comps in the back half of next year? Or when do the comps get easier?
Christopher Knutson (EVP and Corporate Controller)
I would say that the comment about overcapacity is right, and here's where you have to go from the, I think, generalizing about the economy to specific markets. As an old industrial guy, I'm hopeful that there's still going to be lots of interesting investments, I believe this, in battery and electric vehicle and some of the traditional markets where we've been. There are certain markets, for example, the construction sector, that would suggest there could be a downturn that could go on for quite a while, if you believe some of the reports that have come out in recent months, where you have, you know, millions of units that have been constructed that are, you know, empty.
That's gonna take more than a liquidity program to drive the kind of confidence that our sorts of end users are gonna need to make big investments in that space.
Walter Liptak (Industrial Analyst)
Okay, great. And then, on the new segmentation, it looks great, you know, focused on growth. Can you give us an idea of, you know, what the expansion markets, what that growth rate you think might look like?
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
The organic growth of those segments, you know, isn't gonna be vastly different from the organic growth at Graco. There's a little more volatility in there with semiconductor that you'll see, you know, from quarter to quarter. But again, the trends are right now look to be pretty favorable. The real, you know, piece that I can answer is the inorganic side. And hopefully, again, the team does some work. It's gonna take time. We're gonna be disciplined when it comes to deploying our capital, but over time, we're hopeful that that will become a, you know, a more meaningful piece of the overall Graco equation.
Walter Liptak (Industrial Analyst)
Okay. All right, great. And as you've gone through this process, you know, could there be divestitures that shake out from it, or do you feel pretty good about all the P&Ls that are in your business?
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
I think we like what we got, but obviously, our team will be looking at all different opportunities and what makes sense. But right now, there's no obvious things that we think we need to get rid of.
Walter Liptak (Industrial Analyst)
Okay, great. Okay, thanks so much.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. If there are no further questions, I will turn the conference over to Mark Sheehan.
Mark Sheahan (President and CEO)
All right. Well, that wraps it up for today. Appreciate everybody dialing in this morning, and look forward to seeing you here in Q4 and during next quarter's call.