RF Industries Ltd (RFIL) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the RF Industries' fourth-quarter fiscal 2024 financial results conference call. (Operator Instructions) It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Margaret Boyce, Investor Relations. Ma'am, the floor is yours.

大家好，歡迎參加 RF Industries 2024 財年第四季財務業績電話會議。（操作員指示）現在我很高興將發言權交給主持人、投資者關係部瑪格麗特·博伊斯 (Margaret Boyce)。女士，現在請您發言。

Thank you, Matt. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to RF Industries' fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 earnings call. With me on today's call are RFI's Chief Executive Officer, Rob Dawson; President and COO, Ray Bibisi; and CFO, Peter Yin. We issued our Q4 earnings release after market today. The release is available on our website at rfindustries.com.

謝謝你，馬特。大家下午好，歡迎參加 RF Industries 2024 財年第四季和全年財報電話會議。與我一起參加今天電話會議的還有 RFI 的執行長 Rob Dawson；總裁兼營運長 Ray Bibisi；以及財務長 Peter Yin。我們今天盤後發布了第四季財報。新聞稿可在我們的網站 rfindustries.com 上查閱。

I'd like to remind everyone that during today's call management will make forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Please note that these -- that this information the call today may constitute forward-looking statements under the Securities and Exchange laws. When used, the words anticipate believe, expect, intend, future, and other similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.

我想提醒大家，在今天的電話會議上，管理階層將做出涉及風險和不確定性的前瞻性陳述。請注意，今天電話會議中提供的資訊可能構成《證券交易法》規定的前瞻性陳述。在使用時，預期、相信、期望、打算、未來和其他類似的表達方式均表示前瞻性陳述。

These statements reflect management's current views with respect to future events and financial performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the outcomes contained in any forward-looking statements.

這些聲明反映了管理層對未來事件和財務表現的當前看法，並受風險和不確定性的影響。實際結果可能與任何前瞻性陳述中的結果有重大差異。

Factor that could cause these forward-looking statements to differ from actual results include the recent uncertainties discussed in the company's reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q and other filings with the SEC. RF Industries undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

可能導致這些前瞻性陳述與實際結果不同的因素包括公司在 10-K 表和 10-Q 表報告以及向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件中討論的近期不確定性。RF Industries 不承擔更新或修改任何前瞻性聲明的義務。

Additionally, throughout this call, we'll be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. Today's earnings release and the related current report on Form 8-K describe the differences between our GAAP and non-GAAP reporting.

此外，在整個電話會議中，我們將討論某些非 GAAP 財務指標。今天的收益報告和 8-K 表上的相關當前報告描述了我們的 GAAP 和非 GAAP 報告之間的差異。

With that said, I'll now turn the conference over to Rob Dawson, Chief Executive Officer. Rob, please go ahead.

說完這些，我現在將會議交給執行長 Rob Dawson。羅布，請繼續。

Thank you, Margaret, and welcome to our fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 conference call. I'll start with our fourth-quarter and year-end highlights and some comments on our market opportunity. Our President and COO, Ray, will discuss some sales and operations highlights and our CFO, Peter, will cover our financials before we open the call to your questions.

謝謝你，瑪格麗特，歡迎參加我們的 2024 財年第四季和全年電話會議。我將首先介紹我們第四季度和年終的亮點以及對我們的市場機會的一些評論。在我們開始回答您的問題之前，我們的總裁兼營運長 Ray 將討論一些銷售和營運亮點，我們的財務長 Peter 將在電話中介紹我們的財務狀況。

Before I begin, I want to take a moment to share our thoughts and prayers with the communities devastated by the recent fires just up the coast from us in Los Angeles. We're grateful to the first responders for their total dedication and incredible bravery as they faced the indescribable fury of several fires. And we're here to support our partners and customers in any way we can as they work hard to restore the critical communications infrastructure that we all depend on.

在我開始之前，我想花點時間與最近在洛杉磯海岸附近遭受火災破壞的社區分享我們的想法和祈禱。我們感謝第一批救援人員在面對數場難以形容的大火時所展現的完全奉獻精神和令人難以置信的勇氣。我們將盡一切努力為我們的合作夥伴和客戶提供支持，幫助他們恢復我們賴以生存的關鍵通訊基礎設施。

Now, turning to our results, throughout fiscal 2024, our team delivered improving performance which put us on solid ground at the year end. Fourth-quarter net sales rounded out to $18.5 million, up 16% from the $15.9 million in the fourth quarter last year and up 10% sequentially from $16.8 million reported in the third quarter.

現在，回顧我們的業績，在整個 2024 財年，我們的團隊取得了不斷提升的業績，這使我們在年底奠定了堅實的基礎。第四季淨銷售額達 1,850 萬美元，較去年同期的 1,590 萬美元成長 16%，較第三季的 1,680 萬美元較上季成長 10%。

Our gross profit margin for the fourth quarter increased to 31.3%. For the first time, in several quarters, we delivered an operating profit which directly reflected our commitment to driving greater profitability even as our key markets are still in recovery mode.

我們第四季的毛利率上升至31.3%。幾個季度以來，我們首次實現了營業利潤，這直接反映了我們致力於提高盈利能力的承諾，儘管我們的主要市場仍處於復甦模式。

Our adjusted EBITDA was $908,000 and non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.04. We ended the year with a strong balance sheet after paying down our debt to just above $8 million, a significant improvement from $14.1 million at the end of last fiscal year.

我們的調整後 EBITDA 為 908,000 美元，非 GAAP 每股收益為 0.04 美元。在償還了略高於 800 萬美元的債務後，我們以強勁的資產負債表結束了這一財年，與上一財年末的 1,410 萬美元相比有顯著改善。

During the fourth quarter, we shipped a large amount of hybrid fiber products that had been in our backlog for quite some time. Importantly, this started to clear out some older inventory from the backlog. Moving forward, we have a much fresher backlog that consists of more current bookings with a more diverse product mix.

第四季度，我們出貨了大量積壓已久的混合纖維產品。重要的是，這開始清除積壓的一些舊庫存。展望未來，我們將擁有更豐富的積壓訂單，包括更多目前預訂和更多樣化的產品組合。

Even with a tight market throughout the fiscal year, our financial performance demonstrated that we've been executing well on our continued transformation. We believe in our overall strategy and we stayed the course even through a challenging market over the last couple of years. This focus helped our company transform further into a full solutions provider by adding to our strong interconnect product offering with turnkey systems and applications like small cells, distributed antenna systems, industrial connectivity, and DAC thermal cooling.

即使整個財年市場緊張，我們的財務表現也顯示我們在持續轉型方面表現良好。我們相信我們的整體策略，即使在過去幾年充滿挑戰的市場中，我們仍然堅持到底。透過在我們強大的互連產品中增加交鑰匙系統和應用（如小型基地台、分散式天線系統、工業連接和 DAC 熱冷卻），這一重點幫助我們公司進一步轉變為完整的解決方案提供者。

Today RFI is in a much stronger position, thanks to our team's dedication and hard work. We have the right products and solutions, the right relationships, and the right positioning within our customer organizations. To optimize our potential, we rebooted our sales team with experienced talent who can really help us make a difference in our target markets. And we did this with minimal impact to overall expense.

如今，由於我們團隊的奉獻和努力，RFI 的地位更加強大。我們在客戶組織中擁有正確的產品和解決方案、正確的關係和正確的定位。為了最大限度地發揮我們的潛力，我們重組了銷售團隊，招募經驗豐富的人才，他們可以真正幫助我們在目標市場中發揮作用。而且我們做到了這一點，對整體費用的影響很小。

Going into fiscal year 2025, sales growth is a top priority but we're also laser focused on profit improvement and achieving our goal of at least 10% adjusted EBITDA margin. To accomplish this, we're reviewing some creative approaches to the overall structure of our production and fulfillment operations. Over the next several quarters, we expect a vastly different operations infrastructure and that will give us a competitive edge in the market, allow us to scale more quickly, and deliver sustainable profitability with an adjusted EBITDA goal of 10% of sales or greater.

進入 2025 財年，銷售成長是首要任務，但我們也專注於提高利潤並實現至少 10% 調整後 EBITDA 利潤率的目標。為了實現這一目標，我們正在審查一些針對生產和履行營運整體結構的創新方法。在接下來的幾個季度中，我們預計營運基礎設施將有很大不同，這將使我們在市場上佔據競爭優勢，使我們能夠更快地擴大規模，並實現可持續盈利，調整後的 EBITDA 目標達到銷售額的 10% 或更高。

Transformation is a continuous process. And we get a lot of heavy lifting during the cyclical downturn to position our business for the rebound. We think we're set up well for 2025 and beyond, for several reasons. First, as I mentioned, we've strengthened our product offering with higher demand and higher-value products, which in turn creates more leverage to fulfill a larger percentage of our customers bill materials.

轉變是一個持續的過程。在周期性衰退期間，我們承擔了大量繁重的工作，為業務反彈做好準備。我們認為，我們已經為2025年及以後做好了充分的準備，原因有幾個。首先，正如我所提到的，我們透過更高需求和更高價值的產品加強了我們的產品供應，這反過來又創造了更大的槓桿來滿足更大比例的客戶材料帳單。

In addition to our core standard and custom interconnect offering, we have further transformed into a solutions provider with our state-of-the-art small cell solutions and DAC thermal cooling systems. Our ability to provide these solutions has become the tip of the sphere for RFI to deepen our relationships at higher decision making levels within large and complex organizations. Achieving the status of a key vendor partner has been a long-term strategic goal that's now materializing.

除了我們的核心標準和客製化互連產品外，我們還憑藉最先進的小型蜂窩解決方案和 DAC 熱冷卻系統進一步轉型為解決方案提供者。我們提供這些解決方案的能力已成為 RFI 在大型複雜組織中更高決策層面深化關係的典範。獲得關鍵供應商合作夥伴的地位一直是長期策略目標，現在正在實現。

Second, we continue to see opportunity to grow in the Tier 1 wireless carrier ecosystem. In the short run, we expect our bigger wins to be in this space. Pent-up demand for 4G and 5G connectivity will be an evolving topic. To stay competitive, our customers need to continuously improve their infrastructures to meet customer expectations for speed and coverage.

其次，我們持續看到一級無線營運商生態系統的成長機會。從短期來看，我們預計我們將在這個領域取得更大的勝利。對4G和5G連結的被壓抑的需求將是一個不斷發展的議題。為了保持競爭力，我們的客戶需要不斷改進他們的基礎設施以滿足客戶對速度和覆蓋範圍的期望。

Not only are they focused on the 4G and 5G macro sites, but also on network densification, which is needed to address coverage gaps and increasing consumer demand for reliable high-speed connections everywhere. We've been at the forefront of the discussion around densification for years and our leading-edge products are a competitive advantage that should translate into getting our fair share of the pie.

他們不僅關注 4G 和 5G 宏站點，還關注網路密集化，這對於解決覆蓋差距和滿足消費者對各地可靠高速連接日益增長的需求是必需的。多年來，我們一直處於密集化討論的前沿，我們領先的產品是一種競爭優勢，這應該轉化為我們獲得公平份額的優勢。

Third, with our new product innovations and additions, we're continuing to explore new market segments outside of the wireless carrier space to diversify our opportunity set. Here, we see some favorable trends ahead for RFI. They're not quite at our doorstep and it's not going to happen overnight but they're growing, and we're ready to capitalize on these future opportunities.

第三，透過我們的新產品創新和補充，我們將繼續探索無線營運商領域之外的新細分市場，以豐富我們的機會組合。在這裡，我們看到了RFI未來的一些有利趨勢。它們還沒有到達我們的家門口，也不會在一夜之間發生，但它們正在成長，我們準備好利用這些未來的機會。

One example of the recovery is that we're starting to see the return of stadium and venue builds, which is a sign that overall spend is improving. Those stadiums are coming back smarter and more connected, and that requires innovative interconnect solutions to meet the ever-increasing expectations of stadium customers.

復甦的一個例子是，我們開始看到體育場和場館建設的回暖，這是整體支出正在改善的跡象。這些體育場館正變得更加智慧、更加互聯，這需要創新的互聯解決方案來滿足體育場館客戶日益增長的期望。

This revitalized market is expected to be worth $42 billion by 2029. Examples include sporting events like the World Cup, the Olympics, the Super Bowl, and new baseball stadiums in markets like Las Vegas, as well as new venues and upgrades on the horizon for college campuses, medical facilities, and casinos, to name a few. Right now, we've accelerated our go-to-market strategy and assigned industry veterans who have relationships with the right key contractors and suppliers in this space.

預計到 2029 年，這個復甦的市值將達到 420 億美元。例如世界盃、奧運、超級盃等體育賽事，以及拉斯維加斯等市場的新棒球場，以及即將建成的大學校園、醫療設施和賭場等新場館和升級。目前，我們已經加快了我們的市場進入策略，並指派與該領域的關鍵承包商和供應商有關係的行業資深人士。

Importantly, RFI's strong reputation as a dependable and collaborative partner with a comprehensive range of connectivity solutions is a door opener for customers who want to limit their dealings to a handful of trusted vendors. We believe we're positioned correctly in our key target markets and that has expanded the pipeline of opportunities we're chasing and continuing to win in various markets.

重要的是，RFI 作為值得信賴的合作夥伴，擁有全面的連接解決方案，享有良好的聲譽，這為那些希望將交易限制在少數可信賴供應商範圍內的客戶打開了大門。我們相信，我們在主要目標市場的定位是正確的，這擴大了我們在各個市場追逐和繼續獲勝的機會管道。

Looking forward, we feel good going into fiscal 2025. And in addition to our heavy focus on profitability, we expect the top line to be better than 2024. We're starting to see momentum and while it's not perfect, we have more clarity going forward than when we started fiscal 2024.

展望未來，我們對 2025 財年充滿信心。除了高度關注獲利能力之外，我們還預計營收將比 2024 年更好。我們開始看到發展勢頭，雖然並不完美，但與 2024 財年開始時相比，我們對未來的發展更加清晰。

While our fiscal first quarter is typically our weakest due to seasonality, with what we know today, we expect our fiscal 2025 first quarter to be roughly in line with fourth quarter's revenue of $18.5 million, a significant increase over the $13.5 million that we reported in the first quarter last year.

雖然由於季節性原因，我們的第一財季通常是最弱的，但根據我們今天所掌握的信息，我們預計 2025 財年第一季的收入將與第四季度的 1,850 萬美元大致持平，較去年第一季報告的 1,350 萬美元大幅增長。

With that, I'll turn the call over to Ray for further commentary on sales and operations. Ray?

說完這些，我將把電話轉給雷，讓他進一步評論銷售和營運情況。射線？

Thank you, Rob. As you've mentioned through our team's dedication and hard work, we've delivered improving financial results throughout fiscal year 2024.

謝謝你，羅布。正如您所提到的，透過我們團隊的奉獻和努力，我們在整個 2024 財年都取得了不斷改善的財務表現。

We have done a lot to reach this point including the development of our broad high-quality product and solutions portfolio and earning our customers' confidence as the go-to source for connectivity and communication needs, quick turn solutions, and attentive customer support.

為了達到這一點，我們做了很多工作，包括開發廣泛的高品質產品和解決方案組合，並贏得客戶的信任，成為連接和通訊需求、快速解決方案和周到的客戶支援的首選來源。

Like Rob said on the sales side, we have been successful in strengthening our customers' relationships and building a greater presence with our wireless carrier ecosystem customers. As a result, we have now begun to capture some of their operating and maintenance budget, which is separate from CapEx and another revenue source for us. Being a qualified vendor for annual updates and upgrades in a carrier's maintenance budget, we believe we will be less susceptible to variability in CapEx spending.

正如 Rob 在銷售方面所說的那樣，我們成功地加強了客戶關係，並與我們的無線營運商生態系統客戶建立了更大的影響力。因此，我們現在已經開始獲取他們的部分營運和維護預算，這與資本支出是分開的，也是我們的另一個收入來源。作為營運商維護預算中年度更新和升級的合格供應商，我們相信我們不太容易受到資本支出變化的影響。

Now that we have the right products and solutions and the right positioning within organizations, we have bolted our sales team with experienced talent who can help us ramp up our sales initiatives in our targeted markets. And once again, we have accomplished this without increasing our overall expense.

現在，我們有了合適的產品和解決方案，並在組織內有了正確的定位，我們已經為銷售團隊配備了經驗豐富的人才，他們可以幫助我們加強在目標市場的銷售力度。而且我們又一次在不增加整體開支的情況下實現了這一目標。

On the cost side, we've already made significant headway in streamlining our business and reducing our expenses significantly in fiscal 2024. That said, there are increasing costs outside of our control like wage pressures and escalating insurance expenses.

在成本方面，我們在精簡業務和大幅削減 2024 財年開支方面已經取得了重大進展。儘管如此，我們無法控制的成本仍在增加，例如薪資壓力和不斷上漲的保險費用。

We think we can overcome these heavy expenses to a higher level of sales, product rationalization, and also a more creative and efficient ways of building and fulfilling our product orders through a more cost-effective supply chain and improved operations. Over the next several quarters, we expect to have a completely redesigned operation infrastructure which will aid in our goal of achieving at least 10% adjusted EBITDA and have a strong team that is fully engaged on the best ways to get there.

我們認為，我們可以克服這些沉重的開支，實現更高的銷售水平、產品合理化，並透過更具成本效益的供應鏈和改進的運營，以更具創造性和高效的方式建立和履行我們的產品訂單。在接下來的幾個季度中，我們預計將擁有一個完全重新設計的營運基礎設施，這將有助於我們實現至少 10% 調整後 EBITDA 的目標，並且擁有一支強大的團隊，全力以赴地尋找實現這一目標的最佳方式。

I will now turn it over to Peter for the financial discussion. Peter?

現在我將把財務問題交給彼得進行討論。彼得？

Thank you, Ray, and good afternoon, everyone. There's a lot of opportunity ahead for RFI and we've made great strides in carefully managing the business to improve our financial strength. During fiscal 2024, we made significant progress paying down our debt and improving our working capital position.

謝謝你，雷，大家下午好。RFI 未來還面臨許多機遇，我們在精心管理業務以提高財務實力方面取得了巨大進步。在 2024 財年，我們在償還債務和改善營運資金狀況方面取得了重大進展。

We finished the year strong with shipments of hybrid fiber that had been in our backlog for quite some time. In addition, we're pleased to see order flow continue to recover.

我們以積壓已久的混合纖維出貨量強勁結束了這一年度。此外，我們很高興看到訂單流繼續恢復。

Starting with our fourth-quarter results, net sales were $18.5 million, an increase of $2.6 million or 16% year over year. For the full fiscal year, sales decreased $7.3 million or 10% to $64.9 million.

從我們的第四季業績開始，淨銷售額為 1850 萬美元，年增 260 萬美元或 16%。整個財年銷售額下降 730 萬美元至 6,490 萬美元，降幅 10%。

Importantly, gross profit margin in Q4 increased 290 basis points to 31.3% from 28.4% year over year. The margin increase reflected it's not only due to our sales increase but highlights our efforts to drive cost savings and operating efficiencies. Fourth-quarter operating income was $96,000 versus an operating loss of $1.1 million for the comparable period, a significant delta year over year.

重要的是，第四季的毛利率從去年同期的28.4%增加290個基點至31.3%。利潤率的成長不僅反映出我們的銷售額成長，也凸顯了我們為節省成本和提高營運效率所做的努力。第四季營業收入為 96,000 美元，而同期營業虧損為 110 萬美元，與去年同期相比有顯著差異。

And we are pleased to see that our focus on profitability delivered our first operating profit in several quarters. Our net loss for the quarter was $238,000 or $0.02 per diluted share, improved meaningfully from a net loss of $851,000 or $0.08 per diluted share year over year.

我們很高興地看到，我們對盈利能力的關注使我們在幾個季度內首次實現了營業利潤。本季我們的淨虧損為 238,000 美元或每股攤薄虧損 0.02 美元，較去年同期的淨虧損 851,000 美元或每股攤薄虧損 0.08 美元有顯著改善。

And non-GAAP net income was $394,000 or four or $0.04 per diluted share compared to non-GAAP net loss of $434,000 or $0.04 per diluted share for Q4 2023.

非 GAAP 淨收入為 394,000 美元或每股攤薄收益 0.04 美元，而 2023 年第四季非 GAAP 淨虧損為 434,000 美元或每股攤薄虧損 0.04 美元。

Finally, fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA was $908,000 compared to a negative adjusted EBITDA of $108,000 for Q4 2023. Full fiscal year adjusted EBITDA was $838,000 versus adjusted EBITDA of $460,000 in fiscal year 2023.

最後，第四季調整後的 EBITDA 為 908,000 美元，而 2023 年第四季調整後的 EBITDA 為負 108,000 美元。全年調整後 EBITDA 為 838,000 美元，而 2023 財年的調整後 EBITDA 為 460,000 美元。

Moving to the balance sheet, we continue to manage our working capital to strengthen our liquidity and overall capital structure. As of October 31, 2024, we had $839,000 in cash and cash equivalents. We had working capital of $11 million, a current ratio of approximately 1.6 with current assets of $29.1 million and current liabilities of $18.1 million. As of October 31, 2024, we have borrowed $8.2 million from the line of credit. It is important to note that we have successfully delevered the balance sheet in 2024. Outstanding borrowings are down approximately $6 million from $14.1 million at the end of fiscal 2023.

轉向資產負債表，我們繼續管理我們的營運資本，以加強我們的流動性和整體資本結構。截至 2024 年 10 月 31 日，我們擁有 839,000 美元的現金和現金等價物。我們的營運資金為 1,100 萬美元，流動比率約為 1.6，流動資產為 2,910 萬美元，流動負債為 1,810 萬美元。截至 2024 年 10 月 31 日，我們已從信用額度中藉入 820 萬美元。值得注意的是，我們已在 2024 年成功實現資產負債表去槓桿。未償還借款較 2023 財年末的 1,410 萬美元下降了約 600 萬美元。

We are always reviewing the best capital structures for both short-term and long-term borrowing. As our overall performance have been improving, we are keeping a close eye on our borrowing costs for opportunities to improve a more -- to a more advantageous structure. At year end, our inventory was $14.7 million, down from $18.7 million last year.

我們始終在檢視短期和長期借款的最佳資本結構。隨著我們的整體業績不斷改善，我們正密切關注我們的借貸成本，尋找機會改善更有利的結構。截至年底，我們的庫存為 1,470 萬美元，比去年的 1,870 萬美元下降。

This was by design as we implemented improvements to our procurement and supply chain processes. Moving on to our backlog, as of October 31, our backlog stood at $19.5 million on bookings of $17.9 million for the quarter. As of today, our backlog currently stands at $14.9 million. Our backlog we are reporting here is a snapshot in time and it can vary based on timing of orders received and order fulfilled -- and order fulfillment.

這是我們在對採購和供應鏈流程進行改進時有意為之。說到我們的積壓訂單，截至 10 月 31 日，本季我們的積壓訂單為 1,950 萬美元，預訂量為 1,790 萬美元。截至今天，我們的積壓訂單目前為 1,490 萬美元。我們在此報告的積壓訂單是一個時間快照，它可能會根據收到的訂單和訂單完成的時間以及訂單完成情況而變化。

We view our backlog as a general gauge of health; however, it can swing wildly in our case, and at times, not be a good indication of our short-term sales.

我們將積壓訂單視為健康狀況的整體衡量標準；然而，在我們的案例中，它可能會大幅波動，有時不能很好地反映我們的短期銷售情況。

As we noted earlier, a large amount of hybrid fiber was shipped during the fourth quarter that was in our backlog for quite some time. The timing of the shipments had multiple delays based on our customer requests which we accommodated as their trusted partner.

正如我們之前提到的，第四季出貨了大量積壓已久的混合光纖。根據客戶的要求，出貨時間多次延遲，作為客戶值得信賴的合作夥伴，我們滿足了客戶的要求。

In summary, we delivered a solid fourth quarter. We continued to execute on our sales strategy, pay down our line of credit, manage our inventory levels, and continue to work on driving efficiencies and managing our expenses.

總而言之，我們第四季表現穩健。我們繼續執行我們的銷售策略，償還我們的信用額度，管理我們的庫存水平，並繼續努力提高效率和管理我們的費用。

Taken together, these actions drove our fourth-quarter operating profit. As we begin our new fiscal year, we continue to believe our model has substantial operating leverage. We are optimistic about the future in the near and long term and our ability to drive growth and improve profitability.

總的來說，這些舉措推動了我們第四季的營業利潤。當我們開始新的財政年度時，我們仍然相信我們的模式具有巨大的經營槓桿。我們對近期和長期的未來以及推動成長和提高獲利能力的能力充滿樂觀。

With that, I'll open the call for questions. Operator?

現在，我將開始回答大家的提問。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) [Matthew Boss, B Riley].

（操作員指示）[Matthew Boss，B Riley]。

Hi, this is Matthew on for Josh Nichols. Thank you for taking my questions. Yeah, hi. I was first wondering, what would you say was the main contributor to the revitalized top line and what's driving that going into the seasonally low first quarter?

大家好，我是馬修，為喬許·尼科爾斯 (Josh Nichols) 主持節目。感謝您回答我的問題。是的，你好。我首先想知道，您認為收入復甦的主要原因是什麼，以及在第一季季節性低迷的情況下，收入復甦的原因是什麼？

Yeah. Good question. So I think from a topline perspective in Q4, we mentioned in our comments that a pretty significant amount of hybrid fiber that had been in our backlog for quite some time started to ship out in larger amounts during the quarter. So I think that was a help. We generally saw recovery sort of across the board. But I think the -- we got a nice big push from some things that we had expected would have shipped much earlier.

是的。好問題。因此，我認為從第四季的營收角度來看，我們在評論中提到，相當一部分已經積壓了相當長一段時間的混合光纖在本季開始大量出貨。所以我認為這是有幫助的。我們總體上看到全面復甦。但我認為——我們原本預計會更早發貨的一些東西給了我們很大的推動力。

As Peter mentioned in his comments, customers asked us to hold some things a little longer. So we did that and a lot of that went out in Q4. I think as we look at Q1, it's really more seeing a product mix shift overall where we've been seeing better bookings led to a stronger backlog as we ended the fiscal year. We talked about where it stands today. So we've been working through some of that new backlog as well.

正如彼得在評論中提到的，顧客要求我們把一些東西再保留一段時間。所以我們這樣做了，很多工作在第四季完成。我認為，當我們回顧第一季時，我們實際上更多地看到的是產品結構的整體轉變，我們看到更好的預訂量導致了財政年度結束時更強勁的積壓訂單。我們討論了目前的情況。因此我們也一直在處理一些新的積壓工作。

And I think we're just -- in general, we're seeing that these long-term plans we've had in place to drive some better growth in newer product areas are really starting to show up and contribute. And I think that's the -- the big difference between where we've been in prior years is we have visibility in the short term that shows what we can do in our fiscal first quarter where there's a couple of weeks left here. But I think beyond that, we're starting to get a better sense of these projects and these new product lines that have defined deployment plans that people have been sticking to, which gives us some comfort around timing.

我認為，總的來說，我們看到我們制定的這些旨在推動新產品領域更好成長的長期計畫確實開始顯現並做出貢獻。我認為這就是我們與前幾年相比最大的區別，那就是我們在短期內具有可見性，可以看到我們在第一財季可以做些什麼，現在只剩下幾週的時間了。但我認為除此之外，我們開始對這些項目和新的產品線有了更好的了解，它們已經定義了人們一直堅持的部署計劃，這讓我們對時間安排感到放心。

Great. Thank you. And just a follow-up on -- mentioned one, a product mix shift with better bookings. But I'm wondering which products would you say are the most driving that shift?

偉大的。謝謝。這只是前面提到的後續問題，產品組合的轉變帶來了更好的預訂。但我想知道您認為哪些產品對推動這種轉變最有推動作用？

Yes, you cut out a little bit on me, but I think I got the gist of it. So tell me if I'm getting it. I think you were asking about the product mix and what's driving the top line going forward. Is that the question you were asking?

是的，你的話有些誇張，但我想我明白你的意思了。如果我明白的話請告訴我。我想您問的是產品組合以及未來營收成長的動力。這就是你要問的問題嗎？

It was about which products specifically are most in demand and which are being prioritized for that shift in the mix.

它是關於哪些產品特別受歡迎以及哪些產品在產品組合轉變中被優先考慮。

Got it. Yeah. So we've seen -- I think, generally, we've seen overall sort of customer interest in spend picking up. So I think there's a little bit of all boats rise in there. I think the bigger thing is the agreements that we've put in place over the last two or three years with key customers in things like small cell and DAC thermal cooling or newer product areas for us.

知道了。是的。所以我們看到——我認為，總體而言，我們看到客戶對消費的興趣總體上有所上升。因此我認為那裡所有的船都有所上升。我認為最重要的是我們在過去兩三年內與主要客戶達成的協議，涉及小型基地台、DAC 熱冷卻或新產品領域。

So we're seeing those start to contribute at higher levels than where they've been in the past. I also think we're starting to see stadiums and large venues come back in a better way where that will help us not just in product lines like the Microlab product line but also help us in our standard and custom interconnect offer. Whether that's fiber, copper, coax, wire harnesses, all of those things benefit from sort of the recovery in general there, I think. But the big areas that we've been talking about for some time that are really starting to contribute now would be more in the DAC thermal cooling and small cell offering.

因此，我們看到它們的貢獻開始比過去更高。我還認為，我們開始看到體育場和大型場館以更好的方式回歸，這不僅有助於我們發展 Microlab 產品線等產品線，還有助於我們提供標準和客製化互連產品。我認為，無論是光纖、銅線、同軸電纜還是線束，所有這些都將受益於那裡的整體復甦。但我們一段時間以來一直在談論的、現在真正開始做出貢獻的重大領域更多的是 DAC 熱冷卻和小型蜂窩產品。

Got it. Okay, cool. That's great to hear. And I'd also appreciate some color on the (technical difficulty) operations infrastructure you're working on and maybe you can quantify some of the expected savings.

知道了。好的，很酷。我很高興聽到這個消息。我還希望您能就您正在研究的（技術難度）營運基礎設施提供一些幫助，也許您可以量化一些預期的節省。

Yeah, it's a good question. I think. So at this point, we're not going to give a specific dollar amount on those savings. I think it's all in service of getting to that much stronger adjusted EBITDA margin, getting that north of 10%. We believe there's a way to get there over the next several quarters. We're doing some things just to be smarter about the way we do not only procurement, which the team has spent a lot of time on.

是的，這是個好問題。我認為。因此目前我們不會給出這些節省的具體金額。我認為這一切都是為了實現更高的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率，使其超過 10%。我們相信在接下來的幾個季度我們可以實現這個目標。我們正在做一些事情只是為了讓我們的工作方式更加智能，不僅僅是採購，團隊在這上面花費了大量的時間。

But is there a way -- are there better ways to partner with folks who can help us in preproduction work? We've seen some success with that. In some of the newer product lines that we've talked about, I think, there's ways for us to sort of waterfall that into some of the legacy product lines that we have as well. So that's really what the team is putting in the work on is how do we continue to drive better profitability on all product lines through a more streamlined operation structure overall.

但有沒有辦法──有沒有更好的方法與可以幫助我們進行前期製作工作的人合作？我們已看到一些成功。在我們討論過的一些較新的產品線中，我認為，我們可以透過某種方式將其融入我們現有的一些傳統產品線中。所以，團隊真正投入的工作是如何透過整體上更精簡的營運結構來持續提高所有產品線的獲利能力。

Got it. Okay. And just one question. Last quarter, you mentioned (technical difficulty) bringing in back orders with strong probability of becoming turnkey national programs. So I'm wondering if there's an update on that (technical difficulty) contribute to this strong fourth quarter.

知道了。好的。只有一個問題。上個季度，您提到（技術難度）引入積壓訂單很有可能成為交鑰匙國家項目。所以我想知道是否有關於這項技術難度導致第四季業績強勁的最新消息。

Sure. I think so in the fourth quarter, we had some of that and I think really the comments we've made in the past were around signing agreements and/or putting structured agreements in place with key customers to provide DAC solutions in several markets. And we've had success regionally in certain customers. It is more than one customer. I think that's the good news is it's not a one off. We're starting to see it across multiple customers, and it's really -- we're starting to find opportunities in different regions.

當然。我認為在第四季度，我們已經實現了一些這樣的目標，而且我認為我們過去所發表的評論實際上是圍繞與主要客戶簽署協議和/或製定結構化協議，以便在多個市場提供 DAC 解決方案。而且我們在某些​​區域客戶中取得了成功。不只一個客戶。我認為好消息是這不是個例。我們開始在多個客戶身上看到這一點，而且我們確實開始在不同的地區尋找機會。

It's -- as usual, we put things in a lab. We go through tests. We then have a trial market, and then that will grow into hopefully through success into a larger, official market, which is what we've seen so far.

像往常一樣，我們把東西放在實驗室裡。我們經過測試。然後我們有一個試驗市場，然後希望透過成功發展成為一個更大的正式市場，這就是我們目前所看到的。

We also have orders across several markets in smaller amounts. Our expectation is that as customers allocate their spending that -- this is an operating budget, typically operating in maintenance. As customers allocate that spending, it's never going to be a scenario where they hit every market every year. They're going to go on kind of a 7- to 10-year cycle of doing these updates to the equipment, whether that's rip and replace with new or some kind of a retrofit or maintenance fix.

我們還在多個市場接到了較小金額的訂單。我們的預期是，當客戶分配他們的支出時，這是一個營運預算，通常用於維護。當客戶分配支出時，他們永遠不會出現每年都進入每個市場的情況。他們將以 7 到 10 年為一個週期對設備進行更新，無論是拆除並更換新設備，還是進行某種改造或維護。

We think we're positioned really well with multiple customers to get some of that spend sort of market by market as they do deployments. And more to come on that. We've obviously seen some success.

我們認為，我們與多個客戶的關係非常密切，可以在他們進行部署時按市場細分，並獲得部分支出。接下來還有更多內容。我們顯然看到了一些成功。

It's -- as I mentioned previously, some of that's helping us in our Q1, which again takes out some of that seasonality. We believe there's more opportunity there. And I think the team is executing really well. From a sales perspective on those relationships, as our technology and products prove themselves out, we're finding those opportunities to move into additional markets.

正如我之前提到的，這對我們第一季的業績有幫助，也消除了一些季節性因素。我們相信那裡有更多的機會。我認為該團隊的表現非常出色。從銷售角度來看，隨著我們的技術和產品得到認可，我們正在尋找進入更多市場的機會。

Got it. Great. Thanks for taking my question.

知道了。偉大的。感謝您回答我的問題。

You're welcome. Thank you.

不客氣。謝謝。

Thank you. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝。（操作員指令）

Steven Kohl, Mangrove.

史蒂文·科爾，紅樹林。

Good afternoon, guys. Good quarter. I had a couple of quick questions. One is when we talk about facility rationalization. Can you address? Are we done with that this point? Are there still opportunities there to work across the footprint that you have?

大家下午好。好季度。我有幾個簡單的問題。一個是當我們談論設施合理化時。你能解決嗎？到這一步我們就完成了嗎？是否還有機會在您所在的範圍內開展工作？

Yes, I think we generally believe that the heavy lifting has already been done on that. We've consolidated into [larger] more streamlined and more technology forward operations, both East coast, West Coast. We've collapsed multiple legacy divisions into those. And I think the one thing there is probably room is for us to balance production East coast, West Coast.

是的，我想我們普遍認為這方面的重任已經完成了。我們已經合併為（更大）、更精簡、更具技術前瞻性的營運機構，包括東海岸和西海岸。我們已將多個原有部門合併到這些部門。我認為我們可能還有一個空間，那就是平衡東海岸和西海岸的生產。

One of the benefits we have, we're very close between the facilities in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut East and then the facility in Southern California. We've got a good footprint to service large customer projects in the heavy spend areas where there's higher population for these densification kind of plays and DAC thermal cooling. So I think generally we're done with the heavy lifting. There are some tweaks that we think will give us some additional savings, and again, the load balancing where we can remove time and shipment cost of going coast to coast when we don't need to. I think it's still an area that we view as an opportunity.

我們的優勢之一是，我們的紐約、新澤西、康乃狄克州東部以及南加州的工廠之間距離非常近。我們在高支出地區擁有良好的業務覆蓋面，可以為大型客戶專案提供服務，這些地區的人口密度較高，適合這類密集專案和 DAC 熱冷卻。所以我認為整體來說我們已經完成繁重的工作了。我們認為有一些調整可以為我們帶來一些額外的節省，並且再次，透過負載平衡，我們可以在不需要的時候消除從東海岸到西海岸的運輸時間和運輸成本。我認為我們仍然將此視為一個機會領域。

So another quick question: when you look at your mix of business today, Rob, between what's driven by CapEx versus service or operating maintenance budgets, how has that changed? I mean, if you look back over a couple of years ago and we look to where you want to be, what is that -- what would that mix look like in a perfect world?

所以另一個快速問題是：羅布，當您審視今天的業務組合時，由資本支出與服務或營運維護預算驅動的業務組合之間發生了怎樣的變化？我的意思是，如果回顧幾年前，看看你想要達到的目標，那是什麼——在完美的世界中，這種組合會是什麼樣的？

Yeah, I think the important thing to note there is that's in the carrier space, right? A good percentage of our business obviously comes from the wireless carrier ecosystem. We also have 30%, 40% or more depending on the quarter of sales coming from more -- heavy industrial and localized and regionalized OEM manufacturers of other kinds of product lines.

是的，我認為需要注意的重要一點是它在載體空間中，對嗎？顯然，我們的業務很大一部分來自無線營運商生態系統。根據季度銷售額的不同，我們還有 30%、40% 或更多的銷售額來自重工業以及其他類型產品線的本地化和區域化 OEM 製造商。

So I think your question is a great one since we see the wireless carrier space is such a big growth for us. I think, historically, there's always been some operating and maintenance. You know, there's always scenarios where someone needs 50 or 100 new cable assemblies to repair something, whether that's because it was damaged or they're just doing an update. That's more operating budget. Anytime there's a natural disaster or something like that, whether it's things like fires or hurricanes, it's not uncommon for there to be an operating budget related to that piece as well where we've always played in and had a decent amount of business.

所以我認為你的問題非常好，因為我們看到無線運營商領域對我們來說是一個巨大的成長。我認為，從歷史上看，總是會有一些操作和維護。你知道，總是有這樣的情況：有人需要 50 或 100 個新的電纜組件來修理某些東西，無論是因為東西損壞了還是只是進行更新。這就是更多的營運預算。每當發生自然災害或類似事件時，無論是火災還是颶風，通常都會有與之相關的營運預算，我們一直參與其中並擁有相當數量的業務。

I think historically, if you were to break it out in that market, though, probably 30% to 40% of our sales were going into those kinds of applications and a heavier amount was more CapEx related and the bigger spend. As we've added new product lines, that's where the shift really happens is, is you kind of have to look by product type where that might break down. We believe the DAC thermal cooling business is one that is largely OpEx -- not all of it, but it's largely OpEx.

我認為，從歷史上看，如果在那個市場進行細分，那麼大概我們銷售額的 30% 到 40% 都用於這類應用，而且更大的部分與資本支出有關，而且支出也更大。隨著我們增加了新的產品線，轉變就真正發生了，你必須根據產品類型來尋找哪些產品可能會故障。我們認為 DAC 熱冷卻業務主要是營運支出——並非全部，但主要是營運支出。

And we think we can get to a point in the carrier space where, as that contributes more, we should see it sort of balance out more to a 50-50 sort of breakdown in total between carrier CapEx, carrier OpEx and kind of odds and ends in between. But I think whether the percentages are exactly right or not, the big thing for us is we think that can help take out some of the seasonality that we always experience. Because in our fiscal first quarter, if you're looking for three tough months to throw together in a quarter, it's November, December, January.

我們認為，我們可以在營運商領域達到這樣的一個平衡點，隨著貢獻的增加，我們應該看到營運商資本支出、營運商營運支出以及介於兩者之間的零碎部分在總體上達到 50-50 的分配。但我認為，無論這些百分比是否完全正確，對我們來說最重要的是，我們認為這可以幫助消除我們總是會遇到的一些季節性影響。因為在我們的財政第一季度，如果你想在一個季度中找出三個艱難的月份，那就是十一月、十二月、一月。

You have every seasonal headwinds kind of thrown together into one three-month window. And we think things like OpEx spend and the DAC thermal cooling offer in particular can really help us smooth out some of that seasonality.

所有的季節性不利因素都會集中到這三個月的時間窗口內。我們認為，諸如營運支出和 DAC 熱冷卻服務等因素確實可以幫助我們平滑一些季節性影響。

And thank you. And one last one. Just if you could speak to your team in the sales force and where have you been adding. How many people have you added? And where are you adding them? And what type of experience -- how have you been able to attract into the company?

謝謝你。最後一個。如果您可以和您的銷售團隊談談，您增加了哪些內容？您新增了多少人？您要將它們添加在哪裡？您是如何吸引具有哪些類型經驗的人才加入公司的？

Sure. Yeah. So it's not a huge amount of people. I mean, I think one thing I've been very clear on since I joined here years ago is: look, we're a small company. We need to rely on force multipliers like our distribution channel, like our manufacturers' reps, folks that our feet on the street to help us grow the business without overspending. We could go hire 100 people, and great, now we're going to have a different issue, which is just the cost of doing so.

當然。是的。因此人數並不是很多。我的意思是，我認為自從幾年前我加入這裡以來，我一直非常清楚的一件事是：看，我們是一家小公司。我們需要依靠力量倍增器，例如我們的分銷管道、我們的製造商代表以及街頭巷尾的人們，來幫助我們在不超支的情況下發展業務。我們可以僱用 100 人，那太好了，現在我們要面臨一個不同的問題，那就是這樣做的成本。

We've largely traded out expense as we've seen other expenses come down or some transitioning of people within our sales team. We've been very focused at bringing in people who have existing relationships, who have some time they spent in these key markets with these key customers. They know them. We're able to allocate those folks by account and/or by region, which helps us, I think, have a very targeted approach to how we're going to grow and focused on the right product lines and applications that we've seen as an opportunity for us.

由於我們看到其他費用下降或銷售團隊內部人員的變動，我們已經在很大程度上降低了費用。我們一直非常注重引進與這些關鍵客戶已有現有關係的人才，他們曾與這些關鍵市場的關鍵客戶一起共事過一段時間。他們認識他們。我們可以按帳戶和/或地區分配這些人，我認為這有助於我們採取非常有針對性的方法來確定我們如何發展並專注於我們認為是機會的正確的產品線和應用程式。

The other part of your question around where we find these people, how do they come to us? I think the thing that I've appreciated in the whole time that I've been here is we have a great reputation as a company and as we've added good likeminded positive people -- that's something I say to the team all the time -- is we got to surround the little company noise that you can get caught up in. We're doing a good job.

你的問題的另一部分是，我們在哪裡找到這些人，他們是如何找到我們的？我認為，在我在這裡工作期間，我最感激的事情是，我們公司享有盛譽，隨著我們吸收志同道合、積極向上的優秀人才，我經常對團隊說這句話，我們必須消除公司裡可能出現的小噪音。我們做得很好。

We're growing. We're taking share in spots. We're adding a good offer. I think we need people that believe in the story and understand it and can go make this happen. And interestingly, people, a lot of times reach out to us. I think back on when we added people like Ray, we added a woman like Mary Beth Smith in the last year who came from several of our past in ways that we work together. And that's kind of how we're finding these new folks. Some of them call us.

我們正在成長。我們正在佔據一定份額。我們正在添加一份優惠。我認為我們需要相信這個故事、理解它並能實現它的人。有趣的是，人們很多時候都會向我們伸出援手。我回想起當我們招募像雷這樣的人時，我們去年又招募了像瑪麗貝絲史密斯這樣的女性，她與我們過去的合作方式有相似之處。這就是我們尋找這些新人的方法。他們中的一些人打電話給我們。

In other cases, we identify an opportunity or a need for us in the market and there's a short list of names that come up and we make some calls. And I think what we found generally is people are receptive to that opportunity and they're at a point in their career where making a change can make some sense. They show up here and we love it.

在其他情況下，我們會在市場上發現機會或需求，然後會列出一份簡短的名字列表，然後我們會進行電話聯繫。我認為，我們普遍發現人們願意接受這樣的機會，而且他們正處於職業生涯的某個階段，做出改變是有意義的。他們出現在這裡，我們很喜歡。

It's a -- I think the biggest thing for me is surrounding these opportunities and this transformation of the company with more likeminded people who want to be positive, want to help make a difference. There's not a lot else we need at that point. We think the strategy is sound and our offer is sound. We just got to execute on it.

我認為，對我來說，最重要的是圍繞這些機會以及公司的轉型，吸引更多志同道合、積極、願意提供幫助和改變的人。到目前為止，我們不需要太多其他東西。我們認為這個策略是合理的，我們的提議也是合理的。我們只需執行它。

Sounds good. Thank you, guys, very much. Appreciate it.

聽起來不錯。非常感謝你們。非常感謝。

Thank you, Steve.

謝謝你，史蒂夫。

Thank you. That concludes our Q&A session. I will now hand the conference back to Rob for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

謝謝。我們的問答環節到此結束。現在我將會議交還給 Rob，請他作結束語。請繼續。

That's great. Thank you, Matt, and thank you everyone for joining us today. We look forward to sharing our fiscal first-quarter results in March. Until then, stay safe and thank you for your support of RFI.

那太棒了。謝謝你，馬特，也謝謝大家今天的到來。我們期待在三月分享我們的第一財季業績。在此之前，請保持安全，感謝您對 RFI 的支持。

Thank you, everyone. This concludes today's event. You may disconnect at this time and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.

謝謝大家。今天的活動到此結束。現在您可以斷開連接並享受美好的一天。感謝您的參與。