Core Natural Resources Inc (CNR) 2021 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Cornerstone Building Brands 1Q '21 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

I would now like to hand the conference call over to Ms. Tina Beskid, Cornerstone Building Brands' Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and thank you for your interest in Cornerstone Building Brands. Joining me today are Jim Metcalf, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Jeff Lee, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Please be reminded that comments regarding the company's results and projections may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These risks are described in detail in the company's SEC filings earnings release and our investor presentation. The company's actual results may differ materially from the anticipated performance or results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

In addition, management will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. You will find a reconciliation of those non-GAAP financial measures and other related information in the earnings release and investor presentation located in the Investors section of our website. Any reference in our discussion today towards EBITDA means adjusted EBITDA, and any reference to prior year period means the prior year pro forma period. Please note, we will be referencing our investor presentation throughout today's call.

Today's call is copyrighted by Cornerstone Building Brands. We prohibit any use, recording or transmission of any portion of the call without our expressed advanced written consent. Throughout this presentation, management may also refer to pro forma financial results. Such results give affect to completed acquisitions as if such acquisitions were consummated prior to the periods presented.

With that, I would like to now turn the call over to Jim.

Thanks, Tina. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. We are excited about 2021 and our solid first quarter start. I'm proud of the outstanding job our team has done to successfully manage through a dynamic market environment and capitalize on strong market conditions. Our commitment to execution and value creation for all stakeholders resulted in record net sales and EBITDA growth.

Demand for residential products were strong during the first quarter. Overall company net sales increased approximately $145 million or 13% over a healthy prior year as a result of volume growth and price. Volumes were 9% higher despite 3 fewer ship days and the weather impacts in the south. Volumes from Windows and Siding segments were 16% better than the first quarter in 2020.

Also, on a comparable ship day basis, residential volumes were favorable by more than 20%. Steel prices are at a record high, which we believe is partially influencing our demand within the commercial segment. As we discussed during the last call, the rate of incoming orders has accelerated as customers try to get ahead of further steel increases, pulling some demand forward. As a result, volumes were slightly favorable to prior year on a comparable ship days basis.

In addition, our team achieved record first quarter EBITDA of $139 million, a 42% improvement over last year exceeding the top end of our guidance range. Our sales, supply chain and operations team have done an excellent job leveraging our scale, agility and our customer relationships. Successfully navigating through the demand-related challenges, they work closely with customers and suppliers to increase availability and ship more volume.

We continue to successfully deliver margin expansion in the quarter. EBITDA margins were 11% of net sales, a 230 basis point improvement over the prior year. This is our 8th consecutive quarter of year-over-year EBITDA margin expansion in all segments. We are focused on our strategic priorities of profitable growth and operational excellence, which include safety, quality, continuous improvement and our commitment to elevating the customer experience.

As a result of our stronger earnings and financial discipline, we reduced the net debt leverage ratio to 4.6x, approximately 0.5 turn better than the first quarter of last year. Jeff will be providing more details around our recent actions to strengthen our balance sheet and advance our capital allocation strategy. Overall, these record results demonstrate our ability to leverage our scale and our market leadership to capture the strength in our end-use markets.

Now turn to Slide 4. The residential momentum continues to be strong with solid underlying fundamentals that support long-term sustainable growth. March U.S. housing starts totaled 1.7 million units on a seasonally adjusted basis. Repair and remodel activity also remained robust in the first quarter, supported by rising home equity, high personal savings rates and limited resale inventory.

With these encouraging tailwinds, our residential market outlook is very favorable. The April incoming order rate is approximately 20% higher than last December and over 15% higher than April of 2019. The pace of recovery, coupled by industry-wide labor shortages and supply chain disruptions have caused extended lead times in growing backlogs. We continue to attack these challenges and remain focused on our service value proposition, solidifying our position as the partner of choice for our customers.

We've also been actively investing in new product offerings and process automation that will generate profitable growth over the long term. Additionally, these investments are helping to expand our national footprint and strengthening our customer value proposition. For example, we are investing $10 million in our Sacramento, California Windows facility. This investment will enhance our West Coast presence, position us to capture more market share and increase our capacity by approximately 50%.

As I mentioned earlier, the outlook for the commercial market is improving, and we believe we are positioned for growth. The Architectural Billing Index reported positive growth for the month of March, reaching its highest point in over a decade. This is a positive indicator of future commercial activity. And as a reminder, low-rise commercial construction projects typically lag residential markets by approximately 18 to 24 months.

We are also experiencing a strong pace of incoming orders across all products within the commercial business and backlogs are starting to rise. We feel that the continued rate of steel cost increases have accelerated market demand. While demand is strengthening, challenges exist on the supply side, particularly, as I mentioned, steel that's impacting our business. Supply shortages due to demand and curtailed production have resulted in some supply chain disruptions and rising input costs. Our team is committed to meeting the needs of our customers, and we have plans that leverage our scale and flexible manufacturing footprint to maximize service, which has led to increased costs throughout our network.

In response to this inflationary environment, we are continuing to take price actions across all of our businesses. We are committed to price discipline and expect our actions will offset inflationary cost impacts over 2021. However, margins will likely be slightly compressed in the second quarter. We feel we're taking the necessary actions to combat these cost increases.

We continue to lean into our continuous improvement culture to help maintain our strong profitability and track record of margin expansion. During the quarter, we made advancements towards being a cost-advantaged manufacturer and achieved approximately $25 million of structural cost savings. We're on track to realize our cost savings target of $75 million to $80 million for 2021, strengthening our manufacturing footprint. Our improved cost structure and liquidity positions us to take advantage of the improving market sentiment. This includes making balanced investments in key growth areas to ensure we are deploying capital where we can drive the greatest long-term returns for our shareholders.

We have advanced our strategy towards profitable growth and operational excellence with the acquisition of Prime Window Systems, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. This acquisition strengthens our market leadership position in windows and doors by expanding our West Coast presence and our product portfolio with new product offerings in structures up to 15 storeys. I'd like to welcome the Prime Windows Systems team to the Cornerstone Building Brands family. We also took actions to improve the company's capital structure. We have refinanced all of our credit facilities, and Jeff will provide more detail in a moment. These actions strengthen our balance sheet and provide a meaningful opportunity to advance our strategic priorities for growth.

Now if you could turn to Slide 5. We're excited about the growth opportunities ahead of us. Our 2021 priorities of advancing our strategy, elevating the customer experience, operating with excellence and maintaining our financial discipline are positioning us for sustainable growth and value creation. We will continue to advance our strategy by investing in innovation and targeted acquisition opportunities like Prime Window Systems. We have a well-defined product innovation process that is centered around reducing complexity, offering better performing products such as lighter materials with easy installation, with an emphasis on labor savings for our customers.

We remain committed to elevating the customer experience. We pride ourselves on maintaining strong customer relationships, delivering exceptional service and being the partner of choice. As Jeff and I have mentioned on each call, we are committed to maintaining financial discipline in reducing our net debt leverage ratio by 3 quarters to 1 turn this year through higher earnings generation with our ultimate goal of 2 to 2.5x in the future. By staying focused on our priorities, we expect to grow our market leadership and deliver long-term value for all of our stakeholders.

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Jeff.

Thanks, Jim, and good morning. Our relentless drive for exceptional results led to another quarter of record earnings and year-over-year margin expansion. We continue to deliver strong financial performance by leveraging our national scale and expansive product offering, which highlights the strength of our business model.

Starting on Slide 7. Net sales were approximately $1.267 billion, 13% higher than pro forma prior year, reflecting continued strength within the residential end markets and improved pricing in response to rising commodity and other manufacturing costs. There were 3 fewer ship days in the fiscal first quarter of 2021 compared with 2020. Adjusting for the difference in days, net sales were 18% higher than the prior year.

We generated $139 million of adjusted EBITDA, $41 million more than the pro forma first quarter 2020, driven by $29 million from higher volumes. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 11%, an increase of 230 basis points from pro forma prior year. This improvement reflects our success in effectively managing through a dynamic raw material environment while staying disciplined on executing our strategy towards profitable growth. Across all our segments, production constraints for commodities such as PVC resin, steel and aluminum have driven steep cost increases. In response, we have raised prices across our portfolio, mitigating substantial impacts to our financial results.

At the end of the first quarter, inflation costs did outweigh price by approximately $5 million. Inflationary increases are occurring at a steeper rate and continuing longer than originally anticipated, resulting in a time lag between when the costs are incurred and the offset from revenue. We expect price/mix to offset inflationary impacts through the cycle.

Additionally, as previously communicated, the impact of price offsetting inflation slightly compressed gross margins. Despite the margin headwind, we're able to deliver our 8th consecutive quarter of year-over-year adjusted EBITDA margin expansion across all segments.

Operational excellence is fundamental to our business model and market leadership position. We continue to transform our cost structure and improve the way the work gets done. During the quarter, we realized approximately $25 million of structural savings, which helped to mitigate additional costs we incurred to serve our customers, such as expedited freight and overtime. As a result of our ability to consistently deliver on our cost savings initiatives, we were able to favorably impact manufacturing operating costs and SG&A. We are on track to deliver $75 million to $80 million of operational improvements in 2021, with over 70% of the savings targeted in cost of goods sold.

Now let's look at our business by segment, turning to Slide 8. Overall financial performance for the Windows and Siding segments was strong. First quarter net sales were approximately 20% higher than pro forma prior year, with 16% driven by demand. Adjusting for our fiscal calendar and average daily run rates, our net sales were up approximately 27% versus pro forma prior year. During the quarter, order momentum was strong as wholesale and retail demand outpaced prior year driving higher ship volume. The pace of recovery within these segments has been supported by the positive fundamentals in the new construction and the repair and remodel markets.

As mentioned, along with the positive market momentum, we have experienced increased commodity costs, maintaining price discipline to offset inflationary impacts has been a key competency for Cornerstone. We have announced several price increases across our portfolio to stay ahead of the rising costs.

We remain focused and disciplined on consistent execution. These segments generated record first quarter financial results during a very dynamic environment, continuing our trend of delivering year-over-year adjusted EBITDA margin improvement.

As Jim mentioned, we are taking cost actions to advance our strategy and position towards long-term growth. We recently completed the Prime Window System acquisition, expanding our market opportunities in the vinyl window and door markets. Additionally, our investment in the Sacramento, California facility deepens our market penetration and advances our relationship with strategic national customers. We intend to continue to invest in the Windows segment through organic growth and with strategic acquisitions that will drive margin improvement and expand our geographic reach, while remaining committed to our net debt leverage goals.

We are also investing in the Siding segment. We intend to drive organic growth through product innovation and new product development in attractive adjacent product lines. Additionally, as the only national turnkey provider of stone solutions, we are committed to further strengthening our leadership position with tuck-in opportunities such as the Kleary and Creative Stone acquisitions that took place. We remain optimistic about the market recovery and positive momentum in the residential end markets, which will create long-term sustainable growth for Cornerstone Building Brands.

Moving on to our Commercial segment on Slide 9. Net sales for the first quarter of 2021 were $423 million, essentially flat to the same period last year. Adjusting for the average daily run rate, volume was favorable approximately 1% versus prior year, which signals improving market sentiment. The Commercial segment generated record first quarter adjusted EBITDA of $53 million despite the lower sales and dynamic inflationary challenges. The team has done a tremendous job in leveraging the accelerated cost savings they captured last year to drive operational efficiencies in manufacturing and SG&A.

Additionally, we have effectively managed the impacts of rising steel costs. For the quarter, inflation outweighed price and mix by only $7 million due to the rapid responses by the team. We have demonstrated our ability to navigate in these inflationary environments over the years, most recently in 2018. Within the Commercial segment, price is set at the time of order, enabling us to pass-through higher costs. While passing through higher costs generally protects gross profit, it may dilute gross margins in this segment. We do expect to realize price/mix over inflation for the year.

Just as our Windows and Siding segments have, the commercial segment has been able to deliver 8 consecutive quarters of year-over-year adjusted EBITDA margin enhancement as a result of strong cost management, manufacturing efficiencies and structural improvements to delayer the organization. Positioning towards long-term growth, we have taken actions to advance our strategy within the Commercial segment. We continue to invest in automation projects to simplify the production process as well as in e-commerce capabilities that will enhance the customer experience. We remain optimistic about the positive market sentiment for the nonresidential end markets.

Turning to Slide 10, I'd like to make a few comments about our foundation for growth. The company embraces a continuous improvement culture. We are focused on optimizing cost and building greater brand equity to fuel growth, solidifying us as a cost-advantaged manufacturer. Additionally, we are intently focused on investing for growth in the core business through capital expenditures, organic growth initiatives and M&A opportunities, which we believe will deliver the highest returns for shareholders. We anticipate the full year 2021 capital spending will be approximately 2% to 2.5% of net sales.

Free cash flow was a use of cash of $1 million, an approximate $30 million improvement over the same period last year, primarily from higher earnings.

Finally, we are focused on positioning for growth with an emphasis on deleveraging our balance sheet. As a result of our profitable growth, we have reduced net debt leverage by over 0.25 of a turn from the end of 2020 to 4.6x adjusted EBITDA. We remain committed to our balanced capital allocation strategy as we move forward.

We recently took actions to strengthen our capital structure and further position the company for future growth. We have refinanced all of our credit facilities, meaningfully extending our debt maturities while maintaining our covenant-light structure. Using available cash from the balance sheet and proceeds from the upsized term loan, we fully redeemed the $645 million principal, 8% senior notes, reducing our annual interest cost by over $50 million a year. We will continue to focus on driving value through the execution of our capital allocation priorities, which includes investments in our core business, margin-enhancing growth investments and debt pay down.

Turning to the second quarter 2021 outlook on Page 11. We expect net sales to be between $1.375 billion and $1.425 billion, an approximate 30% increase versus last year at the midpoint, with volumes and price and mix contributing equally. Strong market momentum within the residential end markets, improving commercial sentiment and positive price mix, coupled with unprecedented backlog support our revenue guidance. The Prime Window System acquisition is included in our guidance range.

We expect adjusted EBITDA to be between $185 million and $200 million, an approximate 21% increase versus last year at the midpoint. The midpoint of our outlook implies an adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.8% and anticipates inflationary cost offsets by price in dollars but slightly compressing margins.

Our first quarter performance demonstrates our relentless drive for exceptional results and a passion for superior execution. Our solid foundation on the actions we have taken to strengthen our industry leadership are positioning Cornerstone Building Brands for growth. We continue to capitalize on the favorable market trends and stay focused on executing our growth strategies.

And now I'd like to open up the call for questions.

(Operator Instructions) First question comes from Lee Jagoda.

Good quarter. So I guess, Jim, clearly, if I look at all -- every raw material out there, it seems like over the last 12 months, they're higher. But specifically, things like lumber are one of the outliers. I guess the good news for you guys is you don't use a ton of lumber. But that being said, is there any way to quantify looking at your various product categories, both nonres and res, how much more competitive you guys have become as a result of lumber maybe increasing faster than steel or aluminum or resin?

Thank you, Lee. We think -- what we really like about our product portfolio, particularly on the residential side when you look at vinyl windows is a perfect fit for what's happening in the residential market as you have the flight to the suburbs. The entry-level homes, the first time homebuyers, they're looking at costs. And our windows really fit well for that, that portfolio, as well as our vinyl siding. You have the sustainability standpoint as well.

So we think, as you can see, with the increased volumes we're having, particularly on our residential side, it is a perfect fit for what's happening in the macroeconomics of residential. And we're pretty excited about over the next year or so. We think it puts us in a competitive position over other products.

And then you go on the nonresidential side, you look at lumber versus steel, it's a different type of construction. Steel, there's less waste on the job. It's engineered. It is a product that, we think, is more sustainable for the environment. So we think that's very important for -- on the nonresidential side, particularly from a durability.

So we think we're positioned both residentially and commercially, with steel on the commercial side versus lumber as well as our vinyl portfolio, both Windows and Siding.

That sounds great. And then just one more for me. Can you give us an update on the most recently announced price increases by segment and then the timing of any additional known price increases you plan to put through? And I guess, lastly, how far away from sort of an equilibrium do you think we are in terms of how much more you need to catch up in each of the various product categories over the next 6, 9 months?

Yes. Let me just break it into residential and commercial. On the residential side, as you know, we have a pretty strong backlog as we're talking about. So the price increases that we have announced and put into the system will start flowing through even more in the second quarter. We haven't fully realized all of our price appreciation on the residential side, both Windows and Siding, that had been announced in the market.

On the commercial side, it's really -- as you know, the commercial business really -- well, it depends. The buildings' cycle is much longer. In fact, we announced a 15% increase just this week on the Buildings segment, which -- with the long lead times, won't be impacting the financials until the second half of the year because of the long lead times of buildings.

Components, we have introduced numerous price increases. And as you know, that's a shorter lead time in weeks versus months. So we have price increases in the components arena, as we speak.

Next question comes from Julio Romero with Sidoti.

So I wanted to start out on your commercial segment. Certainly, on the operating profit line, better performance than I expected. Can you just remind us last year what you did there in the Commercial segment in terms of delayering footprint rationalization, et cetera? And from your expected cost takeouts this year, how much of that amount is focused on commercial?

Yes. Thank you very much. Great question. As we talked over the last couple of quarters, we not only delayered the organization, but we had a tremendous focus on manufacturing efficiencies. We're really proud of the team on the commercial side of the efficiencies of manufacturing. But also, we were very proactive on staying ahead of the pricing, as I just mentioned on the last question that we had.

So we've really set up the commercial business for this year. As we mentioned there, there is some -- we believe there is some pull forward in the commercial business. But we feel with -- what we're seeing with the architectural index and some of the infrastructure spending that the government is talking about, we feel pretty good about the second half of the commercial business.

We're really focused on price over inflation. As we said, there's going to be some slight compression in the second quarter. But we think the back half of the year, with some of these price increases that we announced, are -- will really help the margins of the commercial business.

And Julio, just to give you a little bit of breakdown by segment. So a lot of our focus on cost-outs inside of our Windows segment, and there's a lot of opportunities, a lot of automation that we've put in place, and we'll continue to realize those benefits in 2021. And the investments that we're making will continue into 2022 as well for Windows.

Specifically for commercial business, there's about 30% of our cost savings will be derived from our commercial business. And most of that will be inside of the cost of goods sold line item for the business. But a lot of great initiatives, right? There's a lot of projects that are out there that make us more efficient, make it safer for our employees. And we'll also take some of the labor out on jobs that traditionally people don't want -- where we have a lot of rework and material areas that are associated with those.

So a lot of good projects there, and they're all in place. And in many cases, the equipment has been ordered, and so we feel good about that cost out initiative.

Got it. And just to be clear, that 30% of the cost you guys focused on commercial, that would be for this year?

That is correct. Yes. We've got the cost out guide of about $75 million to $80 million worth of cost out. And about 30% of that is going to come from our commercial business.

Okay. Great. And I guess, the $7 million unfavorable impact in the quarter in Commercial, Jeff, I think I heard you say in the prepared remarks, you expect price cost total for that segment for the full year. And based on Jim's commentary, I guess, you expect continued headwinds next quarter but maybe some makeup in the back half of the year. Is that fair?

Yes. That's correct. As we go forward with our price announcements, what took place really inside of the first quarter was a sharper curve than we anticipated. And our price announcements that got out there still just continue to rise and rise.

And so with that, we had a little bit of pressure as we go into Q1 and Q2. But we've managed through this in the past. If you go back and look at 2018, for example, we saw a sharp rise of about 25% inflation inside the back half of '18, and it came down in the first half of 2019. Through that cycle, we were able to get margin enhancement and get price over inflation. But in a sharp inflationary type of environment, it's difficult to kind of catch that inflation as fast as it's rising.

So we feel good about that. We think that in the third and fourth quarters in particular, depending on what steel does, if we see steel turn and go back the other direction, then that's typically when we start to get the benefits of the other direction. If steel continues to linger on, then we've done the right things and made the right actions in place to kind of get that offset. But we won't necessarily see a benefit from that until steel turns the other direction.

Okay. And if I could just sneak one more in here just on your recent acquisition of Prime Window. You talked about expanding West Coast presence and focus on structures, up to 15 storeys. So just thinking about that, just -- if you could talk about how it kind of complements the portfolio as a whole and if kind of those high-rise, up to 15 story-type windows would be kind of margin accretive to the overall segment. Thank you.

Thank you. We're really excited about having Prime Windows join us. And just kind of stepping back, as we look at acquisitions, as we've talked in the past, they need to be strategic and accretive. And we're really looking at Prime Windows as both of those. What it did, it filled a geographic void that we had. So that was awesome in the Colorado and Washington area. And the end-use markets is very dealer focused, which is a higher-margin business for the Windows business. And also it gave us a little bit of additional capacity, which we do need as well as talent.

So we're really excited about having that. And that 15 storeys is something that we haven't had a product offering to do that. So we're going to learn from that. There could be some other opportunities for us. But we think that the Prime Window is really, it's an important component of our growth strategy.

Really, our whole M&A strategy is really to lead the consolidation and key product categories and really in fragmented markets. And we think we have some additional opportunities as we look at the market.

So really what it does, it fills a geographic void. It puts us in a market that we had not been in. And it's accretive to the overall -- not only portfolio of the window business but accretive to the company.

Next question comes from Kurt Yinger with D.A. Davidson.

I just wanted to start with kind of competitive dynamics on the residential side. And one of your larger peers in Windows talked about taking share with the ability to cut down lead times. But if I look at your growth, it would suggest you're doing the same.

So I was hoping you could talk about where your lead times stand in Windows today and whether you feel like you've been a share gainer against smaller competitors across your footprint and what you might attribute that to.

No. Thank you. That's a great question. And we're really focused on really knocking down our backlog and reducing our lead times. Our lead times on windows are probably 2 to 3x longer than normal times. We're very focused, as we said, of putting in additional capacity with the Sacramento, California, as we mentioned with additional capacity in Sacramento and the growth. Our automation projects that we put in place last year really helped us with the increase in the first quarter.

Typically, when we put in automation of our 1500 series line. It will increase capacity anywhere from 10% to 30%. So we're really excited about growing our business. We want to work our backlog down. We are not where we should be on lead times, but we feel that we are growing our share with strategic customers because of our lead times in relation to the rest of the industry.

So we're working, as we said, from a labor standpoint. This is not a machine time issue. We have the appropriate machine capacity there. It really gets down to labor, and we're very focused of bringing in additional labor but, more importantly, is bringing in additional automation projects so we can continue to grow our business and outperform the market.

And Kurt, maybe just to add on to that a little bit as well. As we think about our residential business, and I don't know which competitor you're referring to. But as we think about our residential business, our volumes in the first quarter grew 16% on a year-over-year basis.

And we feel good about that, right? Like Jim said, the capacity that we put in place, the efforts that we put in labor inside of our businesses, inside the second half of 2020, enabled us to really -- to get that type of performance of 16% volumes inside the first quarter.

So we think we've got great momentum there. And we feel like we're going to continue to put emphasis around some of the things that inhibit us from continuing to get more of that. And as you look at the guide for second quarter, we guided our residential businesses to be up in around that 20% range. And so it's showing momentum that we have. And we feel that we're doing well when we look at our market presence.

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. And maybe kind of sticking with that point and just putting a little more color on it. I mean if we think about the automation projects but also the challenges on the labor side, the windows compare on a year-over-year basis gets easier in Q2.

Do you think you can, I guess, sequentially improve Windows revenue as the year progresses if demand is there? Or do you feel like as we get into the back half, you're still going to be pretty tight on what you can do in terms of continuing to grow that?

Yes, Kurt. Let me start that question. So again, as we look at -- specifically our Windows segment, we were up 15% in volume inside the first quarter. We didn't necessarily break out our guide by segment, but we are up. And as I look at the second quarter, it's north of 20% that we're expecting right now inside of our Windows segment.

So we do expect that we're going to have momentum inside that business. We've been gaining momentum since the July time frame of 2020. As we're adding different people into our workforce, we're learning to become more efficient. And in some cases, we're paying for extra dollars from overtime, et cetera, to make sure that we get those shipments out.

So we do feel good about it. We think that the first quarter results demonstrate our ability to get that revenue up, and we continue to see that increasing into the second quarter with our guide that we put in place.

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. And then on the Siding side, I mean, you've talked about how you feel you're one of the only vinyl players that's really investing back into the business. I mean how would you kind of characterize your performance here in Q1 versus the rest of the market? And what are you kind of most focused on in terms of potentially growing your share of the vinyl pie going forward?

We're really excited about our Siding business. As you can see, the results are extremely strong, and we had a record year last year and continue to have record performance.

But it's not only investing in the plants. We are continuing to invest in our Siding plants as well and extruders. But it's also having the good, better, best portfolio of the luxury vinyl siding side of our business.

We're really happy with the production of the manufacturing team. It's a continuous process manufacturing. It's very different than windows. And we've aligned scheduling. We had longer runs, so we've been able to ship more and have service.

Our lead times are longer than anticipated. I mean, we're having some -- we have a strong demand, as we talked about. But we feel that we are the service provider in the industry. It's not where we want to be, but we feel that we are servicing our customers in a manner with not only -- get in when they need it and how much they need it but, more importantly, is providing a different product portfolios for them.

So as Jeff mentioned in our prepared comments, we're investing in new product development. We have some test markets going on right now. And we feel that's not only investing back in the plants but investing in marketing, customer portals, e-commerce. And really from a marketing standpoint, it isn't just how the product looks, but it's also what we provide to our customers to -- we want to be the easiest Siding business to do business with.

And Kurt, just a couple of numbers around that as well. And you could see inside of Slide 8, as we looked at our Siding segment specifically, a 19% growth came from volume. And we felt good about our ability to get that volume out and momentum inside that business as well as we added capacity from a labor perspective to make sure that we met the demand inside of Q1.

And as we look at the EBITDA, one of the things that's really impressive with that business is the volume leverage that we're getting there, 260 basis point margin expansion. Gross profit margins were actually down slightly with some of the pressures on price and the inflation inside that business, in particular, and some of the inefficiencies to take care of our customers with overtime, et cetera.

But we're able to take out some of the SG&A costs as well to really mitigate some of that. So we did see that volume leverage, combined with some of the cost-out initiatives, drove favorable performance for our Siding segment.

Okay. That's really helpful. And just my last one on the commercial segment. Could you just talk about which end market segments you're really seeing improved momentum in?

And then as you talk about the view that customers are trying to get ahead of steel price increases, what would you need to see to feel more comfortable that this pickup in demand you're seeing is really kind of sustainable versus more transitory and price related?

Yes. Really, the end-use markets that we're seeing are -- I think we've talked about it in the last couple of calls. Warehouse and data centers, we're starting to see a little bit of retail coming back. But those are really the key areas, the big mega warehouses that are supplying a lot of the Amazons type of thing.

And we're also -- we also look at the fallout rate of orders. So to make sure that are these real orders? So we track the order fallout rate, particularly on the longer lead time. The components business is much easier to track because that is lead times of 1 to 3 weeks. Where buildings is really the trickier one to really identify what is a pull forward and what is true demand.

We also look at complexity of jobs that come in. Are they higher complexity jobs or lower complexity jobs? And do they require engineering? What we're seeing now is a lot of orders that are coming in. The customers don't want a lot of engineering. They just want to produce it and get the order in, which tells me they're trying to beat the increase.

So we -- there's a 3 or 4 metrics we look to see how much is true demand versus pull forward. And right now, there's some pull forward. But we're looking at the leading indicators coming back to the architectural index. We truly believe, historically, that the light commercial, 5 storeys or below, does follow residential by that 18 or 24 months. And really, that is one of the keys we look at.

So you're looking at where residential really started to get strong, we're looking at the back half of this year into 2022 with that lag effect of light commercial going to the suburbs following the residential construction.

(Operator Instructions) Next question comes from Matthew Bouley with Barclays.

Back to the price cost side, are you seeing that inflation and the shortages in PVC and aluminum and steel, et cetera, are they outright continuing to worsen today such that future price increases may still be necessary so we're not kind of in the same boat with gross margin pressures in the second half? Or does it appear that these issues have kind of stabilized at high levels and pricing just needs to catch up?

Well, I think it's really tailored to 2 stories here. First, on the PVC resin, that had a big impact with those storms that we mentioned that really impacted the Texas, the South -- Southeast market with a lot of our suppliers.

So we feel that is working its way out. So we believe that's probably a second quarter issue that will be going away and don't see that going from a shorty standpoint into the back half of the year.

The one thing that is a really strategic advantage that Cornerstone has is our scale. And we talk about our procurement. We have subject matter experts in PVC, resin, aluminum, steel that are very close to our suppliers. With our large scale, we get treated extremely well. On steel, we follow the index. As Jeff said, really -- we're looking at steel costs will continue to go -- to increase.

But we're very -- we look at the leading indicators there and stay ahead of our cost with our price strategy. So we feel that steel is going to be -- continue to be -- continue to escalate as we go through the year. We think from a shorty standpoint, the PVC resin is something that is more short term.

Got it. Okay. Very helpful color. And thanks for going across all the product categories there. And then back on the metal buildings side, just in light of the steel inflation. I mean that is interesting commentary that the inflation is actually pulling ahead some volume from your perspectives.

Can you tell from your customers if there's any areas or products within the commercial business where that inflation is actually causing customers to, on the other hand, hold back, awaiting normalization in prices or perhaps finding other substitutes from their perspective?

We saw a little bit of that in the fourth quarter. But right now, the big question our customers have is do you have the product and can you supply it? The price has become secondary in our conversations. And they're really, right now, particularly on the building side, are really planning for the third and fourth quarter.

So they're laying in their orders now. We're starting engineering now. So we haven't had discussions with alternative raw materials, particularly with the earlier question, on everyone knows where lumber prices are. So that has not been an issue.

And we feel that right now, there could be some pull forward. So we are cautiously optimistic, but we're in a better spot on the commercial business than we've been in probably a year or so. And then with the leading indicators of the architectural index and what I just mentioned about following the residential, we think the back half of the year should be a fairly solid market for the metal buildings business.

Again, the components business, that's a fast-turning business. We are extremely busy there. We are -- prices ahead of inflation on our components business. And we have not had any pushback from our customers about alternative sources from our components business as well.

Makes sense. That's great color. And then the last one, just back on the Prime Windows acquisition. Any color you can give on the multiple pre, post synergies, et cetera? And the higher-level question is just how do you think about the balance of continuing to do M&A versus delevering?

Matt, let me take that question. So Prime is, as Jim mentioned, very strategic for us geographically and also from the capabilities that we pick up with that business.

From a revenue perspective, we mentioned it's about $61 million, $60 million roughly inside of revenue for 2020. And we think that as a company, we really look for acquisitions that are margin accretive. And as we look at this business, that's the case here as well.

And so without specifically getting into the details around purchase price with the multiples that are there, we bought a business that is margin accretive to Cornerstone as we get the synergies in place, and we continue to attack that with our scale and size and platform that we have within Cornerstone.

And we've proven that with some of the other acquisitions that we put in place with Silver Line, et cetera. We think we can take that business to make it a very attractive business for us with our efficiencies that we put in place. So again, it is margin accretive. And the revenue that we mentioned was about $60 million. And there'll be more details coming out. This is a subsequent event since the Q1 time frame. And so as we get into Q2, we'll be providing more details around the cash flow statement, et cetera, for this acquisition.

And just to reiterate on our capital allocation. First, we want to reinvest in automation back in the plants. We've talked about that, how important automation is and really taking care of our customers and getting that additional capacity out.

Second is what Jeff just talked about is M&A, but it's organic growth, too. It's investing in new products. We're talking about investing in the Siding business, that luxury vinyl siding and really the good, better, best scenario of having organic growth.

But third, and really important, we have not given up our focus on delevering the balance sheet. Our target continues to be 2 to 2.5x. We've made nice progress, as we indicated in the call here. We aren't where we should be yet. But we said 3 quarters to a turn is our target each year.

And so really, those are the 3 key areas of our capital allocation that we have talked about, and we will continue to be focused on. And as we've done in the past, we plan to deliver what we say.

And just one follow-up with -- to Jim as well on that one. If you look at Slide 10, in our leverage ratio projections and at the time we put this together, we obviously knew about the Prime acquisition. But we finished the first quarter at 4.6x. And our guide out there has us right now to range between 3.9x and 4.1x.

So we'll continue to take down that leverage ratio. We've been successful with that. From 6.3, I think it was at the first quarter of 2019, right after the ESW acquisition, down to 5.3 in 2019, 4.9x and projected right now to be do that 3.9 to 4.1. So making great progress against that and feel good about our ability to meet that commitment that we've made.

Next question comes from Kurt Yinger with D.A. Davidson.

Just on the commercial front, I mean, it looked like metal coil coating and metal building products were actually fairly strong, with IMP quite a bit weaker. Is there anything to call out there in terms of the divergence or why the recovery would be maybe different among those product lines?

Yes. Let me answer. That's a great question. As you know, we have -- the commercial business has the Buildings Business, Components Business and the IMP and coil coating.

The -- if you go back a year ago, from an architectural standpoint, a lot of those jobs were stopped. And right now we're starting to see some growth. Our backlog on IMP is very, very strong. And really, that was the business that was impacted the most with COVID-19.

You look at -- we have a phone supply issue. That's one of the areas in the quarter. We talked about some of the supply issues that we had with the storm, and that impacted the IMP business in the quarter. But that's temporary, and that will be going away.

So it's a great product. It takes out a lot of labor. It's a higher end product. And we think with the -- some of the architectural information that we said on leading indicators, that we're very optimistic about the growth of that business.

The coil coating business, we're -- it's a great business. They've done a nice job in this tough environment. They've had multiple price increases. Sometimes, in some cases, weekly price increases. And that business is an extremely important part of our portfolio.

Okay. Got it. And then just a two-parter on debt and interest expense. As we look ahead and think about -- as using cash to repay debt, will the priority be there chipping away at the term loan?

And then just second, on interest, realizing there may be some costs flowing through that line in the second quarter with the note redemption, how would you have us think about run rate interest expense in the back half of the year?

Yes, Kurt, good question. So as we look at pay down of debt, we'll look at the data as the time comes around for that to determine whether it's best to pay down the term loan or the 6.25 notes. There are 6 and 8 notes that are out there today. And we'll make that decision at the time when it's strategic to make sure that we're focused on long-term and short-term and expectations that are out there.

Specifically on the interest expense, you're right. We did have about $26 million redemption premium that we paid to pay off the $645 million 8% senior notes. And that does go away. So that's going to be a Q2 expense that's in there.

And then as we move into the year, we've guided right now about $200 million worth of interest expense for the full year. As we move into 2021, we would expect -- excuse me, 2022, we would expect that to improve again, as we don't have that redemption payment that's sitting inside of the second quarter. And it's right now about $175 million -- $170 million, $175 million worth of interest expense anticipated for 2022.

And at this time, I will turn the call over to Ms. Beskid for closing remarks.

Thanks again for joining our call this morning. We are very excited about our outlook. I look forward to connecting with you after the call if you have additional questions. Have a great day. This concludes our call.

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.