AstroNova Inc (ALOT) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the AstroNova's Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

美好的一天，歡迎來到 AstroNova 的第四財季和 2023 年全年財務業績電話會議。今天的會議正在錄製中。 （操作員說明）

I would now like to turn the conference over to Scott Solomon of the company's Investor Relations firm, Sharon Merrill Associates. Please go ahead, sir.

我現在想將會議轉交給公司投資者關係公司 Sharon Merrill Associates 的 Scott Solomon。請繼續，先生。

Thank you, Emily. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. Hosting this morning's call are Greg Woods, AstroNova's President and Chief Executive Officer; and David Smith, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Greg will discuss the company's operating highlights. David will take you through the financials at a high level. Greg will make some concluding comments, and then management will be happy to take your questions.

謝謝你，艾米麗。大家早上好，感謝您加入我們。今天上午的電話會議由 AstroNova 總裁兼首席執行官 Greg Woods 主持；副總裁兼首席財務官 David Smith。 Greg 將討論公司的經營亮點。 David 將帶您全面了解財務狀況。 Greg 將做出一些總結性評論，然後管理層將很樂意回答您的問題。

By now, you should have received a copy of the earnings release that was issued this morning. If you don't have a copy, please go to the Investors page of the AstroNova website, www.astronovainc.com.

到目前為止，您應該已經收到了今天上午發布的收益報告的副本。如果您沒有副本，請訪問 AstroNova 網站 www.astronovainc.com 的投資者頁面。

Please note that statements made on today's call that are not statements of historical fact are considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions that could involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, actual results could differ materially, except as required by law. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of today, March 23, 2023. AstroNova undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. For further information regarding the forward-looking statements and the factors that may cause differences, please see the risk factors in AstroNova's annual report on Form 10-K and other filings the company makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

請注意，在今天的電話會議上作出的不屬於歷史事實陳述的陳述被視為 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述基於許多可能涉及風險的假設和不確定性。因此，除非法律要求，否則實際結果可能存在重大差異。任何前瞻性陳述僅適用於今天，即 2023 年 3 月 23 日。AstroNova 不承擔更新這些前瞻性陳述的義務。有關前瞻性陳述和可能導致差異的因素的更多信息，請參閱 AstroNova 10-K 表格年度報告和公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件中的風險因素。

On today's call, management will be referring to non-GAAP financial measures. AstroNova believes that the inclusion of these financial measures helps investors gain a meaningful understanding of the changes in the company's core operating results. It also helps investors who wish to make comparisons between AstroNova and other companies on both a GAAP and a non-GAAP basis. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in today's earnings release.

在今天的電話會議上，管理層將參考非 GAAP 財務措施。 AstroNova 認為，納入這些財務指標有助於投資者對公司核心經營業績的變化有一個有意義的了解。它還有助於希望在 GAAP 和非 GAAP 基礎上對 AstroNova 和其他公司進行比較的投資者。非 GAAP 財務指標與其最直接可比的 GAAP 指標的對賬可在今天的收益發布中找到。

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Greg.

有了這個，我會把電話轉給格雷格。

Thank you, Scott. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'd like to begin by recognizing the great work of our team members across the globe and contributing to a profitable year for AstroNova against the backdrop of a challenging macroeconomic environment.

謝謝你，斯科特。大家早上好，感謝您加入我們。首先，我想表彰我們全球團隊成員的出色工作，並在充滿挑戰的宏觀經濟環境下為 AstroNova 盈利的一年做出貢獻。

High inflation and geopolitical tensions created significant supply chain disruptions across our end markets throughout much of the year. However, our team remained focused on working through these issues and on meeting the needs of our customers by continuing to drive performance initiatives to improve quality, delivery, cost efficiency and growth.

在一年中的大部分時間裡，高通脹和地緣政治緊張局勢在我們的終端市場造成了嚴重的供應鏈中斷。然而，我們的團隊仍然專注於解決這些問題，並通過繼續推動績效計劃來提高質量、交付、成本效率和增長，從而滿足客戶的需求。

Overall, we grew 34% on our revenue in the fourth quarter to a record $39.9 million. The top line increase was attributable to gains in both segments, with Product Identification up $5.7 million, or 26%, to $28.1 million; and Test & Measurement up $4.4 million, or 61%, to nearly $11.8 million.

總體而言，我們第四季度的收入增長了 34%，達到創紀錄的 3990 萬美元。收入增長歸因於兩個部門的收益，其中產品識別增長 570 萬美元，即 26%，達到 2810 萬美元；測試與測量業務增長 440 萬美元，即 61%，達到近 1180 萬美元。

While supply chains remain challenged for certain products, we have been able to resolve some of the more extreme supply chain issues we experienced over the past 2 years with notable improvement in the fourth quarter, particularly in our T&M segment. Compared to last quarter, our unshippable backlog of scheduled orders decreased by roughly $1 million. However, there were still left about $1.1 million of scheduled orders that were unfilled at the end of the quarter, primarily in the T&M segment. Based on the work we are doing with our supply chain, we expect to continue to make progress improving our on-time shipments as we move through fiscal 2024.

雖然某些產品的供應鏈仍然面臨挑戰，但我們已經能夠解決過去 2 年中遇到的一些更極端的供應鏈問題，並在第四季度取得顯著改善，尤其是在我們的 T&M 部門。與上一季度相比，我們無法發貨的預定訂單積壓減少了大約 100 萬美元。然而，本季度末仍有約 110 萬美元的預定訂單未完成，主要是在 T&M 領域。根據我們在供應鏈方面所做的工作，我們預計在 2024 財年期間將繼續取得進展，提高我們的準時發貨率。

Looking at growth drivers by segment. Test & Measurement benefited from a combination of some factors within our Aerospace product group, which manufactures, markets and services flight deck printers and electronics for commercial and defense customers. These factors included favorable pricing adjustment, greater cost efficiencies and the ongoing production ramp-up in aircraft deliveries. In addition to hardware revenue, we've also seen further improvement in our supplies business from our maintenance, overhaul and repair services, all driven by increases in passenger air traffic and fleet utilization.

按細分市場看增長動力。測試與測量受益於我們航空航天產品組內的一些因素的組合，該產品組為商業和國防客戶製造、營銷和服務飛行甲板打印機和電子產品。這些因素包括有利的定價調整、更高的成本效率以及飛機交付量的持續增加。除了硬件收入外，我們還看到我們的維護、大修和維修服務的供應業務進一步改善，所有這些都受到空中客運量和機隊利用率增加的推動。

Today, we produce and market a large range of flight deck printers, including models acquired from Miltope, RITEC and Honeywell, in addition to our own ToughWriter family of products. To further enhance our manufacturing efficiencies, we continue to upgrade and transition customers to our more advanced and feature-rich ToughWriter family of printers.

今天，除了我們自己的 ToughWriter 系列產品外，我們還生產和銷售各種駕駛艙打印機，包括從 Miltope、RITEC 和霍尼韋爾獲得的型號。為了進一步提高我們的製造效率，我們繼續升級客戶並將其過渡到我們更先進、功能更豐富的 ToughWriter 系列打印機。

Turning to the data acquisition portion of Test & Measurement segment. We have won a number of design-ins for defense-related programs, and these agreements are presently working their way through the governmental procurement process. While exact timing is tough to predict, we're pleased to have been selected for these programs and look forward to keeping you updated on the progress of the awards as we move through fiscal '24.

轉向測試與測量部分的數據採集部分。我們已經贏得了一些國防相關項目的設計，這些協議目前正在通過政府採購流程。雖然確切的時間很難預測，但我們很高興被選中參加這些計劃，並期待在我們通過 24 財年時讓您了解獎項的最新進展。

Based on current business conditions, we are excited about the outlook for our Test & Measurement segment in fiscal 2024.

根據當前的業務狀況，我們對 2024 財年測試與測量部門的前景感到興奮。

Switching over to the Product Identification segment. Q4 was the first full quarter with Astro Machine, which we acquired in August. While the acquisition is still in its early days, the business is performing very well and in line with our expectations as we advance through the integration process.

切換到產品標識部分。第 4 季度是我們在 8 月收購的 Astro Machine 的第一個完整季度。雖然收購仍處於初期階段，但隨著我們在整合過程中推進，該業務表現非常好，符合我們的預期。

In particular, we have already made good progress integrating products between our 2 sales channels. Astro Machine has historically produced good operating margins, and we are focused on further integration with our sales channels to grow the top line and drive additional profitability through better customer focus, operational improvements and accelerated new product development. We remain excited and confident about the new component of our Product Identification business as a growth platform in the years ahead.

特別是，我們已經在兩個銷售渠道之間整合產品方面取得了良好進展。 Astro Machine 歷來創造了良好的營業利潤率，我們專注於進一步整合我們的銷售渠道，以通過更好地關注客戶、改進運營和加速新產品開發來增加收入並推動額外的盈利能力。我們對產品識別業務的新組成部分作為未來幾年的增長平台仍然感到興奮和自信。

By combining the resources of our joint research and development teams, we will soon introduce several new product offerings. Two of these offerings, which target current and prospective OEM customers, leverage much of the technology used in our very successful direct-to-package overprinting solutions.

通過結合我們聯合研發團隊的資源，我們將很快推出幾款新產品。其中兩項針對當前和潛在 OEM 客戶的產品利用了我們非常成功的直接包裝套印解決方案中使用的大部分技術。

Separately, during the fourth quarter, we launched the production release of the QL-E100, our full color label printer designed for small businesses just getting started with the in-house label printing, as well as larger enterprises that require a large number of distributed print stations throughout their facilities. Production shipments are underway, and the initial customer response to this new solution has been very positive.

另外，在第四季度，我們推出了 QL-E100 的生產版本，這是我們的全彩色標籤打印機，專為剛剛開始內部標籤打印的小型企業以及需要大量分佈式標籤的大型企業而設計遍布其設施的打印站。生產裝運正在進行中，客戶對這一新解決方案的最初反應非常積極。

The driver behind this introductory-level printer launch is to deploy our unique full solution model to a wider audience, whereby customers new to in-house, on-demand digital label printing can take full advantage of our combined easy-access printer with carefully matched supplies and service offerings.

推出這款入門級打印機背後的驅動力是將我們獨特的完整解決方案模型部署到更廣泛的受眾中，從而使內部按需數字標籤打印的新客戶可以充分利用我們組合的易於訪問的打印機和精心匹配的用品和服務產品。

Before turning the call over to David, I'd just like to comment on our improving financial strength. Our balance sheet remains healthy, and we began the new fiscal year on a solid financial footing. With reduced leverage metrics at year-end, we continue to pursue the M&A portion of our growth strategy and are confident we will have plenty of capacity to execute the right strategic acquisitions. Our strong backlog and healthy order demand position gets us set for continued execution on our strategic priorities.

在將電話轉給大衛之前，我只想評論一下我們不斷提高的財務實力。我們的資產負債表保持健康，我們在穩固的財務基礎上開始了新的財政年度。隨著年底槓桿指標的降低，我們繼續追求我們增長戰略的併購部分，並相信我們將有足夠的能力來執行正確的戰略收購。我們強大的積壓訂單和健康的訂單需求狀況使我們能夠繼續執行我們的戰略重點。

Powered by the AstroNova Operating System, the foundation of our continuous improvement strategy, we are excited about the opportunities to grow across the markets we serve.

在我們持續改進戰略的基礎 AstroNova 操作系統的支持下，我們很高興有機會在我們所服務的市場中實現增長。

I'll now turn the call over to David for the financial review.

我現在將電話轉給大衛進行財務審查。

Thanks, Greg, and good morning, everybody. I'll add a few comments to supplement what Greg said about the quarter and the full year financial performance, I'll comment on our liquidity and the impact of the Astro Machine acquisition on our results and on the year-end balance sheet.

謝謝，格雷格，大家早上好。我將添加一些評論來補充 Greg 關於本季度和全年財務業績的評論，我將評論我們的流動性和收購 Astro Machine 對我們的業績和年終資產負債表的影響。

On the top line, full year revenue grew by double digits across all 3 major categories. Contributing to this was $12.5 million in Astro Machine revenue since acquisition on 8/4, August 4, this past year. Supplies revenue increased 12% to $82.1 million, accounting for about 57% of total sales. Hardware revenue was up 35% to $43.4 million or 30% of total sales.

最重要的是，所有 3 個主要類別的全年收入都實現了兩位數增長。自去年 8 月 4 日 8 月 4 日收購以來，Astro Machine 的收入為 1250 萬美元，為此做出了貢獻。供應收入增長 12% 至 8210 萬美元，約佔總銷售額的 57%。硬件收入增長 35% 至 4340 萬美元，佔總銷售額的 30%。

The remaining 13% of sales came from [Other], which contributed -- which increased 41% to $18 million. Much of that growth was attributable to, as Greg said, the profitable repair, service and consumables part of our Aerospace product group. As Greg noted, that's fueled by aircraft utilization and is closely linked to that (technical difficulty)

其餘 13% 的銷售額來自 [Other]，貢獻了 41% 至 1800 萬美元。正如 Greg 所說，增長的大部分歸因於我們航空航天產品組盈利的維修、服務和消耗品部分。正如格雷格指出的那樣，這是由飛機利用率推動的，並且與之密切相關（技術難度）

Fiscal 2023, gross profit was up 10% in dollars but down on a margin perspective by 380 basis points to 33.8%. Percentage decrease was mostly due to the mix impact of Astro Machine's lower gross margins. As we've talked about before, compared to the core PI business, the Astro Machine business model has lower gross profit models -- gross margin model, but it has more favorable operating margins.

2023 財年，毛利潤以美元計算增長 10%，但從利潤率角度來看下降 380 個基點至 33.8%。百分比下降主要是由於 Astro Machine 較低的毛利率的綜合影響。正如我們之前談到的，與核心 PI 業務相比，Astro Machine 業務模型具有較低的毛利潤模型——毛利率模型，但它具有更有利的營業利潤率。

Press release references both the GAAP results and the non-GAAP results, and we reconcile those in the exhibits to the release in a lot of detail. We use adjusted EBITDA as a measure of profitability and operating performance. And for the 12 months ended January 31, adjusted EBITDA, excluding the acquisition cost of about $720,000, totaled $11.1 million. That's compared to $7.3 million in fiscal 2022, which excludes both the large CARES Act benefits and the write-off of our legacy ERP system.

新聞稿同時引用了 GAAP 結果和非 GAAP 結果，我們在很多細節上將展品中的結果與新聞稿進行了核對。我們使用調整後的 EBITDA 作為衡量盈利能力和經營業績的指標。截至 1 月 31 日止的 12 個月，調整後的 EBITDA（不包括約 720,000 美元的收購成本）總計 1,110 萬美元。相比之下，2022 財年為 730 萬美元，其中不包括 CARES 法案的大筆福利和我們遺留 ERP 系統的註銷。

Product ID segment operating profit for the fourth quarter of 2023 was $1.9 million compared to $1.5 million in the same period last year. For the full year, segment operating profit was $7.9 million compared with $9 million in fiscal 2022, excluding the CARES Act benefits. For the period of ownership beginning August 4, Astro Machine's contribution was $1.6 million.

2023 年第四季度產品 ID 部門營業利潤為 190 萬美元，而去年同期為 150 萬美元。全年，部門營業利潤為 790 萬美元，而 2022 財年為 900 萬美元，不包括 CARES 法案福利。在 8 月 4 日開始的所有權期間，Astro Machine 的貢獻為 160 萬美元。

T&M segment non-GAAP operating profit for the fourth quarter was $3.2 million compared with $0.5 million in the same period last year. And for the full year of 2023, T&M non-GAAP operating profit was $9 million compared to $2.6 million in fiscal '22, again, excluding the CARES Act benefits.

T&M 部門第四季度的非美國通用會計準則營業利潤為 320 萬美元，而去年同期為 50 萬美元。 2023 年全年，T&M 非 GAAP 營業利潤為 900 萬美元，而 22 財年為 260 萬美元，同樣不包括 CARES 法案的福利。

Fiscal 2023 operating expenses were $42.7 million compared to $40 million last year. The increases were due to the addition of Astro Machines for half a year and a slightly higher wages and benefits and higher travel-related expenses as a pandemic ended and we were able to get back to meeting customers face-to-face again. Our plan is to hold very tight control on operating expenses in fiscal 2024 and's and expect that, if they increase, it will be only modestly.

2023 財年運營費用為 4270 萬美元，而去年為 4000 萬美元。增加的原因是增加了半年的 Astro Machines，以及隨著大流行結束而工資和福利略有增加以及與旅行相關的費用增加，我們能夠再次與客戶面對面會面。我們的計劃是在 2024 財年嚴格控制運營支出，並預計即使增加，也只會適度。

At the end of the third quarter, we estimated the allocation of the Astro Machine purchase price to the assets acquired, and we finalized that in the fourth quarter. Included in that allocation are the customer relationship and trade name intangibles that were appraised at just under $3.5 million, and we're going to amortize that over 5 years. So it will amount to a noncash charge of just under $700,000 per year and $348,000 since the acquisition. In accordance with GAAP, that will be on the sales and marketing line.

在第三季度末，我們估算了 Astro Machine 購買價格對所收購資產的分配，並在第四季度完成了這一分配。該分配包括客戶關係和商品名稱無形資產，評估價值不到 350 萬美元，我們將在 5 年內攤銷。因此，這將相當於每年近 700,000 美元的非現金費用和自收購以來的 348,000 美元。根據 GAAP，這將屬於銷售和營銷部門。

We also finalized the fixed asset appraisal and the noncash -- expense for the half year of [117]. The details of the Astro Machine balance sheet will be in a footnote in the 10-K when we file it pretty soon.

我們還完成了 [117] 半年的固定資產評估和非現金支出。當我們很快提交時，Astro Machine 資產負債表的詳細信息將在 10-K 的腳註中。

Despite the borrowings in the third quarter to acquire Astro Machine, our overall financial capacity is strong. Our debt-to-EBITDA or leverage ratio is declining as we reduced debt by $4.4 million in the quarter and increased the EBITDA, including the acquisition of Astro Machine. We negotiated a new covenant structure when we refinanced our credit facilities to accomplish the acquisition, and we're well inside those covenants. As a result of those facts, we believe we have incremental borrowing capacity if and when we need it, and we're in frequent contact with our bankers about our plans.

儘管第三季度借貸收購了 Astro Machine，但我們的整體財務能力很強。我們的債務與 EBITDA 或槓桿比率正在下降，因為我們在本季度減少了 440 萬美元的債務並增加了 EBITDA，包括收購 Astro Machine。當我們為信貸額度再融資以完成收購時，我們協商了一個新的契約結構，並且我們完全遵守這些契約。由於這些事實，我們相信我們在需要時可以增加借貸能力，並且我們經常與我們的銀行家就我們的計劃進行聯繫。

On top of the revolving credit facility availability, our bank agreement provides term loan-equivalent secured financing of capital equipment, and we'll likely borrow about $1.7 million for that purpose this year as we plan to upgrade our hardware and supplies manufacturing equipment to keep up with expected demand growth in fiscal '24.

除了可用的循環信貸額度外，我們的銀行協議還為資本設備提供等同於定期貸款的擔保融資，今年我們可能會為此目的借入約 170 萬美元，因為我們計劃升級我們的硬件和供應製造設備以保持符合 24 財年的預期需求增長。

And with that, I'll turn the call back to Greg.

有了這個，我會把電話轉回給格雷格。

Thanks, David. We finished what was a challenging fiscal 2023 with a crescendo in the fourth quarter. Based on current market conditions, we expect to continue our growth with improving results in fiscal 2024.

謝謝，大衛。我們在第四季度以高潮結束了充滿挑戰的 2023 財年。根據當前的市場狀況，我們預計 2024 財年將繼續增長並改善業績。

The gradual recovery of the commercial aviation market has allowed our Test & Measurement segment to return to a growth trajectory. We're taking steps to further enhance the efficiency of our aerospace product lineup through the continued migration to our ToughWriter family of printers, and our outlook for the business is positive.

商用航空市場的逐步復甦使我們的測試與測量業務重回增長軌道。我們正在採取措施，通過繼續遷移到我們的 ToughWriter 打印機系列來進一步提高我們航空航天產品系列的效率，我們的業務前景是樂觀的。

In our Product Identification segment, the integration of Astro Machine is proceeding on plan, and we will have the benefit of a full year revenue from this business in fiscal 2024. The new products and operational upgrades planned for Astro Machine should enhance the overall growth and profitability of the Product Identification segment as we move forward.

在我們的產品識別部門，Astro Machine 的整合正在按計劃進行，我們將在 2024 財年從該業務中獲得全年收入。為 Astro Machine 計劃的新產品和運營升級將促進整體增長和隨著我們前進，產品識別部門的盈利能力。

Now David and I will be happy to take your questions. Operator, please line up the question.

現在大衛和我很樂意回答你的問題。接線員，請排列問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Peter Sidoti with Sidoti & Company.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Sidoti & Company 的 Peter Sidoti。

Greg, I noticed that inventories and accounts receivable are up. Is this -- do you expect to be bringing this down?

格雷格，我注意到存貨和應收賬款增加了。這是——您希望將其降低嗎？

Yes, that's something that we are working on through the year. And we're taking advantage of pricing efficiencies as well where we find them. And we're still in a situation where, occasionally, we have to buy more than we need just to secure the supplies. But as I mentioned, that's starting to decrease in terms of supplier reliability increasing. So we expect to continue to bring that down, actually, as we move through the year.

是的，這是我們全年都在努力的事情。我們正在利用定價效率以及我們找到它們的地方。我們仍然處於這樣一種情況：偶爾，我們不得不購買超過我們需要的東西，只是為了確保供應。但正如我所提到的，就供應商可靠性的提高而言，這種情況開始減少。因此，實際上，我們希望在這一年中繼續降低這一點。

And what about -- yes?

那麼——是嗎？

Peter, it's David. I'd also just -- Peter. I'd just also remind you that included in those numbers are the consolidation of the Astro Machine. So they jumped up during the year in part because we bought a company.

彼得，是大衛。我也只是-- 彼得。我還要提醒您，這些數字中包括 Astro Machine 的整合。所以他們在這一年裡上漲了，部分原因是我們買了一家公司。

Okay. And what about capital spending this year and next?

好的。今年和明年的資本支出又如何呢？

That's (inaudible)...

那是（聽不清）...

This year, like I said in my comments.

今年，就像我在評論中所說的那樣。

Okay. So you will be generating a lot of excess cash flow this year and next. Do you expect to use that to pay down the existing debt?

好的。因此，今年和明年您將產生大量過剩現金流。您是否希望用它來償還現有債務？

Sure. I mean, we always -- capital allocation, the difference of -- yes.

當然。我的意思是，我們總是——資本配置，差異——是的。

No, it just seems like -- it's a lot of cash.

不，它只是看起來 - 這是很多現金。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Tom Spiro with Spiro Capital.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Spiro Capital 的 Tom Spiro。

Just a couple. Greg, you mentioned on the data acquisition side of the business that, if I understood you, you won a couple of contracts with the government, and they will begin to kick in this fiscal year. Do you expect those revenues from those contracts to be material to the income statement?

只是一對。格雷格，你在業務的數據採集方面提到，如果我理解你的話，你贏得了與政府的幾份合同，他們將在本財政年度開始生效。您預計這些合同的收入對損益表是否重要？

Yes. On the Test & Measurement, the data acquisition part of the business was primarily what I was referring to. And yes, the data acquisition is a smaller part of the Test & Measurement segment. But within that product group, certainly would be significant, and it will make an impact on the overall financials. When you look at the kind of run rate that we're at right now, it won't be orders of magnitude, but it's an important win for that team.

是的。在測試與測量方面，業務的數據採集部分主要是我所指的。是的，數據採集是測試與測量部分的一小部分。但在該產品組內，肯定會很重要，並且會對整體財務狀況產生影響。當你看看我們現在的跑動率時，它不會是數量級的，但這對那支球隊來說是一場重要的勝利。

I see. And on the Product Identification side of the house, the last quarter or 2 while we owned the Astro Machine business. If I back out the revenues from that acquisition, I just did this quickly, it looked to me like the revenues from what I would call core Product Identification or legacy Product Identification were down. Am I right? Or perhaps I'm not doing the numbers correctly.

我懂了。在公司的產品標識方面，在我們擁有 Astro Machine 業務的最後一個或兩個季度。如果我退出那次收購的收入，我只是很快就這樣做了，在我看來，我稱之為核心產品標識或遺留產品標識的收入下降了。我對嗎？或者我沒有正確地計算數字。

Yes, they're basically flat, which was a little disappointing. And it had to do with some items you mentioned before, where we had some supply -- poor supplies from one of our suppliers really that caused us to have to refit some of the machines in the field. And we're working our way through that process now. We're probably about halfway through that.

是的，它們基本上是平的，這有點令人失望。這與你之前提到的一些物品有關，我們有一些供應——我們的一家供應商供應不足，這確實導致我們不得不在現場改裝一些機器。我們現在正在努力完成這個過程。我們可能已經完成了一半。

It really gets involved with kind of flushing out the bad ink and getting new ink in there. And that did cause those machines not to produce as much revenue as we had expected. But like I say, we're coming back out of that right now. So I think by the end of Q1, we'll have most of that behind us, a little bit to clean up in Q2.

它確實涉及沖洗掉壞墨水並在其中加入新墨水。這確實導致這些機器產生的收入沒有我們預期的那麼多。但就像我說的，我們現在正從中恢復過來。所以我認為到第一季度末，我們將完成大部分工作，在第二季度進行一些清理。

But in general, we're effective with it. We're doing fine. Go ahead.

但總的來說，我們是有效的。我們做得很好。前進。

I see -- that's great. That's okay. Okay. And if the product we had -- the problem that we had came from one of our suppliers, are we seeking compensation from that supplier?

我明白了——那太好了。沒關係。好的。如果我們的產品——我們的問題來自我們的供應商之一，我們是否向該供應商尋求賠償？

Of course. And that comes in different...

當然。那有不同的...

Okay. Well, how's it going? I mean, do we have negotiations? Do we have a lawsuit? What -- how does that look?

好的。嗯，怎麼樣了？我的意思是，我們有談判嗎？我們有官司嗎？什麼——那看起來怎麼樣？

No, no, it won't be a lawsuit. We got a mutually agreeable way to work our way out of that with -- I don't want to get into details of it, it's not public. But it will help as we go into FY '24. Let's put it that way.

不，不，這不會是訴訟。我們找到了一個雙方都同意的方式來解決這個問題——我不想深入了解它的細節，它不是公開的。但這將有助於我們進入 24 財年。讓我們這樣說吧。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from George Melas with MKH Management.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 MKH Management 的 George Melas。

My line of question was very much was very much along Tom's question on revenue in the PI segment. So I think you answered some of that. But maybe I can ask you just a few a little bit more details on that.

我的問題與湯姆關於 PI 部門收入的問題非常相似。所以我認為你回答了其中的一些問題。但也許我可以問你一些關於這方面的更多細節。

You said it was a problem with ink. And when did it start?

你說是墨水的問題。什麼時候開始的？

It started, well, a little bit actually at the beginning of last year. But it became a bigger issue about the middle of the year. Yes, and then we deployed our -- go ahead.

它實際上是在去年年初開始的。但這在年中成為了一個更大的問題。是的，然後我們部署了我們的——繼續。

Okay. Can you sort of -- yes. Because I mean, I think -- I mean, I do the same math has Tom, right? So revenue was roughly flat. But then if you take out the contribution from Astro Machine, the EBIT was down quite a bit. So just trying to understand, did you have extra cost and less revenue at that -- because of that problem?

好的。你能不能——是的。因為我的意思是，我認為——我的意思是，我和湯姆做同樣的數學，對吧？所以收入大致持平。但是如果你去掉 Astro Machine 的貢獻，EBIT 就會下降很多。因此，只是想了解一下，您是否因為這個問題而產生了額外的成本和較少的收入？

Yes. It hit us in a couple of different ways. So -- well, actually probably 3 ways.

是的。它以幾種不同的方式打擊了我們。所以——好吧，實際上可能有 3 種方式。

So number one, the machines that are impacted don't run or don't run as often, right? So you get less revenue. And that's kind of typically the ink and supplies, which are a higher-margin product for us.

所以第一，受影響的機器不運行或不經常運行，對嗎？所以你得到的收入更少。這通常是墨水和耗材，對我們來說是利潤率更高的產品。

And then you have the issue of having to spend -- basically our technical support teams have to go out and repair these because we do warrant the products that we sell through to our end customers.

然後你會遇到不得不花錢的問題——基本上我們的技術支持團隊必須出去修理這些，因為我們確實保證我們銷售給最終客戶的產品。

And then you have essentially the cost of those supplies that go out there. So it ends up as a warranty expense and extra technical support cost for us to do these changeovers.

然後你基本上就有了這些供應品的成本。所以它最終成為我們進行這些轉換的保修費用和額外的技術支持成本。

Okay. And then you're probably going to have that in your K. But can you say sort of how much was the warranty expense in the year and in the quarter?

好的。然後你可能會把它記在你的 K 中。但是你能說說當年和這個季度的保修費用是多少嗎？

Yes, I don't think we divulge that specific number. It was significant.

是的，我認為我們不會洩露具體數字。這很重要。

Okay. And when you say you're halfway through it, does -- that seems like a long time to solve the problem. Because if it started like at the beginning of last year, I mean, that has run through at least 12 months, right? And so help us understand sort of how will a problem like that gets solved?

好的。當你說你已經完成了一半時，確實 - 解決問題似乎需要很長時間。因為如果它像去年年初那樣開始，我的意思是，至少已經持續了 12 個月，對嗎？因此，幫助我們了解如何解決這樣的問題？

Well, first of all, you've got to -- it shows up, you see a few issues in different locations for different reasons. And the issue really is getting to the root cause. So you chase down a variety of different -- it wasn't as simple as, oh, let's just change this, and then it worked instantly. So yes, the technical teams, both from the supplier as well as our own teams had to go through a lot of diagnostics to figure it out.

好吧，首先，你必須——它出現了，你會因為不同的原因在不同的地方看到一些問題。問題確實是找到根本原因。所以你追逐各種不同的 - 它不是那麼簡單，哦，讓我們改變這個，然後它立即起作用。所以是的，來自供應商和我們自己團隊的技術團隊都必須經過大量診斷才能弄清楚。

Pleased to say they did come up with a solution. But now it's going to take time to implement it because you've got to get -- it requires a physical change, kind of a flushing of the machine, basically, to make it in simple terms, and then change out a couple of components. And once we do that, they work fine again. But we have several hundred machines in the field, so you can't do them all instantly.

很高興地說他們確實提出了解決方案。但是現在實施它需要時間，因為你必須得到——它需要一個物理改變，一種沖洗機器，基本上，簡單地說，然後改變幾個組件.一旦我們這樣做，它們就會再次正常工作。但是我們現場有幾百台機器，所以你不可能一下子就搞定。

Okay. And may I ask how many ink suppliers do you have? Maybe I'm getting too much in the weeds there, I don't know.

好的。請問你們有多少家墨水供應商？也許我在那裡的雜草里吃得太多了，我不知道。

Yes, we have actually quite a few different ink suppliers. More than 10, let's put it that way.

是的，我們實際上有很多不同的墨水供應商。超過10個，就這麼說吧。

Okay. And the problem was with just one.

好的。問題是只有一個。

Correct.

正確的。

Thanks to everyone for your questions. We have no further questions at this time, so I'll hand the call back to Mr. Woods for any concluding remarks.

感謝大家的提問。我們現在沒有其他問題了，所以我會把電話轉回給伍茲先生，聽取任何總結性意見。

All right. Well, thank you. And thanks, everyone, for joining us here this morning. As always, we look forward to keeping you updated on our progress. And enjoy the rest of the week. Bye now.

好的。嗯，謝謝。感謝大家今天早上加入我們。一如既往，我們期待讓您了解我們的最新進展。並享受本週剩下的時間。再見了。

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. This concludes our call, and you may now disconnect your lines.

謝謝大家今天加入我們。我們的通話到此結束，您現在可以斷開您的線路。