Good morning, and thank you for joining us for Marine Products Corporation's fourth quarter 2023 financial earnings conference call. Today's call will be hosted by Ben Palmer, President and CEO, and Mike Schmit, Chief Financial Officer. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up for questions. I would like to advise everyone that this conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Schmit. Thank you and good morning. Before we begin, I want to remind you that some of the statements that will be made on this call could be forward-looking in nature and reflect a number of known and unknown risks. Please refer to our press release issued today, along with our 2022 10-K and other public filings that outline those risks, all of which can be found at www.marineproductscorp.com. In today's earnings call, and in our press release, we'll be referring to several non-GAAP measures of operating performance and liquidity. We believe these non-GAAP measures allow us to compare performance consistently over various periods. Our press release issued today and our website contain reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. I'll now turn the call over to our President and CEO, Ben Palmer. Thank you and, good morning. Before we begin, I apologize. Appreciate everybody joining the call this morning. Our fourth quarter results reflect the ongoing normalization of retail boat sales as the multi-year post-COVID consumer demand boost subsides. In response to this slowdown, we have adjusted production to meet current order patterns as the retail channel works through excess inventory. We believe we are now in a steady balance of production and sales. However, our fourth quarter results showed significant declines versus the prior year. Difficult year-over-year comparisons are likely to persist near term. In the meantime, we will focus on making sound, operational, and financial decisions to position the company for sustainable long-term growth. First and foremost, we believe our current production and shipment schedule, together with our incentive programs, should now facilitate a net reduction in dealer inventories. While still early, we are seeing order flow that would justify a step-up in production later during the first quarter. So that is an encouraging sign as we start the calendar year and get positive feedback from recent boat shows. With regard to dealer inventory, I'd say we are comfortable with the level of our products in the field as we were disciplined in not pushing too much product into the channel. However, we do get the sense that dealer inventories overall are a bit high. To stimulate buying, we have returned to a historically normal level of retail incentives, which had been minimal these past few years. We launched a program in the fourth quarter to move dealer inventory, and we see other manufacturers doing the same. Mike will comment further on promotional activities as fourth quarter results reflected an outsized impact reinitiating these programs. We've talked previously about economic uncertainty and the new reality of higher interest rates. Rates not only affect the monthly payments for consumers who finance their boats, but also dealers' carrying costs of inventory. The interest rate outlook remains somewhat unclear, and we hope more clarity on the direction of rates and the magnitude of possible rate cuts will help consumers get more comfortable. Despite a choppy environment, we will remain focused on areas of the business within our control. We will continue to invest in R&D to support new innovative features, products, and design improvements to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace. For example, we are delivering premium interior materials as well as showcasing additional safety and comfort benefits. We believe our reputation for innovation and product leadership has helped us maintain our leading market share over the years. Second, we are very pleased with our existing dealer network and believe we have room to grow in that infrastructure. Rather than dilute our existing dealers by pursuing overlapping or competitive distribution, we see opportunities to strengthen existing relationships even further. We recently hosted our most intensive dealer training conferences yet, arming them with our latest selling and customer education tools. We are committed to consistently elevating our partnerships with them, positioning Chaparral and Robalo for continued success in their showrooms. We also conducted more advanced technical and repair training for dealer service personnel. We received incredible feedback from these events, and we look forward to sharing in our dealers' success as a result of these collaborative efforts. Another investment we're making is selective automation of our plants. We are increasingly using robotics to perform certain tasks to leverage the skill of our craftsmen and reduce unnecessary physical demands. This drives a safer production environment and allows our workers to focus on areas that drive maximum quality and consistency. In addition to investments inside our facilities, we have a significant solar panel installation slated for later this year. Beyond the environmental benefits of using alternative energy sources, we expect this project to drive some cash savings. This equipment will have the capability to supply a sizable portion of our energy needs at our Nashville Georgia manufacturing site. So before turning the call over, I'd just reiterate that we are confident in our opportunities to invest in the business, and that we'll focus on preserving as much margin as possible. We continue to assess the demands of our environment. Now, Mike will provide an overview of the financial results. Thanks, Ben. I'll start with a few quick financial highlights for the year and then go into some more detail about the fourth quarter. For the full year, 2023, net sales were $384 million, up slightly versus last year. Diluted EPS was $1.21, up 3 cents, and EBITDA was down 4% to $52 million. We generated strong operating and free cash flow in 2023. Operating cash flow was $57 million, and after CapEx of $10 million, free cash flow was $47 million for the year. CapEx included investments in warehouses and some new trailers. During the year, we paid $19 million in dividends, and we finished 2023 with cash of $72 million and no debt. Now I'll cover our fourth quarter results with year-over-year comparisons to the fourth quarter of 2022. Net sales fell 35% to $70.9 million, driven by a 34% decrease in boats sold. The average gross selling price of our boats increased by 4%, which reflected changes in mix, as well as increases to cover higher input costs. However, this gain was offset by increased retail incentives recorded during the quarter. As Ben mentioned, during the quarter, we launched a new retail incentive program, which applies to boats we sold to dealers during the quarter, as well as boats that remained in our dealers' inventories that we had shipped in prior quarters. While the program had a relatively minor top-line impact, there was a more noticeable impact on our gross margin. Gross profit decreased 51% to $13.5 million, with a gross margin of 19% or down 620 basis points. While gross profit and margin would have fallen due to the decline in boats sold, the reduction was exacerbated in the quarter by the incentive program launch. The fourth quarter retail incentive program represented nearly $2 million reduction in net sales and gross profit, equating to about one-third of the 620 basis point contraction. Furthermore, the majority of the incentive related to boats shipped to dealers in prior quarters. Now that we have normalized incentives and have also adjusted our production schedule to align with current demand, we expect less significant quarterly impacts and better gross margins going forward. SG&A expenses were $7.7 million in the quarter, down 38% or $4.8 million compared to last year. These expenses decreased due to costs that vary with sales and profitability, such as incentive compensation, sales commissions, and warranty expense. Diluted EPS was $0.16 in the fourth quarter, down $0.35 in the same quarter last year. EBITDA was down 58% to $6.5 million, with EBITDA margin decreasing 490 basis points to 9.2%. Year-over-year comparisons are likely to be challenging for the next couple of quarters. But while we don't give explicit financial guidance, directionally, we believe sequential volume and sales changes will be relatively stable in the near term, and that our cost reduction activities and normalized incentives should support gross margin improvements going forward. I'll now turn it back over to Ben for a few closing remarks. Thank you, Mike. In closing, I'd like to mention capital allocation and make a couple of strategic comments. First, we have maintained our attractive $0.14 per share quarterly cash dividend for our shareholders. We have a sound financial profile and believe our compelling dividend yield offers investors an attractive, tangible capital return. Next, while the second half of 2023 had some challenges, it was still a solid full year, which we generated $47 million of free cash flow. We ended the year with no debt and a highly liquid balance sheet with over $70 million in cash. One of the benefits of being conservative and disciplined during recent market buoyancy is that as the tide turns, we are well-positioned to invest prudently and opportunistically. Silver lining of the current soft environment may be an increasing willingness of private boat makers to seek an exit. While our discipline has caused us to pass on transactions at elevated valuations on peak earnings in recent years, it has resulted in a cash accumulation that we are looking to deploy. We are targeting complementary, high-quality boat manufacturers that would enhance our distribution and brand portfolio and increase our marketing capabilities and manufacturing capabilities. And we're very interested in increasing our scale and positioning ourselves as a buyer of choice in the M&A landscape. While difficult to pinpoint timing, it is fair to say that if we do not identify significant investment opportunities, we're likely to continue our long-standing practice of returning capital to shareholders. So before we turn the call over to questions, I'd like to thank our employees for a great year of commitment and dedication. We wholeheartedly believe we have some of the best boat makers in the industry, and their teamwork and pride underpin Chaparral's and Robalo's success. We received good feedback and orders from recent boat shows, and we're looking forward to showcasing our new products in the coming weeks. With that, operator, please, open the line for questions. At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. We will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Brandon Rollé with D.A. Davidson. Brandon, the floor is yours. All right. Good morning. Morning. Thank you for taking my, thank you for taking my questions. I guess first, just on the production and, you know, where it is right now, could you talk about your production levels, you know, your plan for that over the next three months compared to maybe where it was last year? And you had talked about inventory levels. You were comfortable with your inventory in the field, but overall was a little high. Would you be able to comment on, you know, areas where you felt like in the industry, inventories might be a little elevated? Well, again, good morning, Brandon. Probably in terms of our current production level, you know, we adjusted kind of during the third and fourth quarter, so it's probably easier or better to talk about kind of where we go from here relative to the fourth quarter. So, we indicated here that, you know, the early results of the boat shows have been consistent to maybe slightly positive to last year. We've had some shows that have had some negative weather, so it's sort of hard to get a read, an appropriate read on activity levels and so forth. But we're generally pleased with how the early results of the boat shows are coming through. We indicated in, or I indicated in my comments that with some of the recent orders we've had and indications from dealers, we think we'll be increasing production slightly in the first quarter of next year. But we've kind of adjusted it down to where during the fourth quarter that we think is an appropriate rate, where we could again assess demand, watch demand, and then we'll adjust production accordingly as we move forward. So we're hopeful and expect with this, with our retail program and retail incentive programs of other manufacturers, that dealer inventory will clear out, and it'll make room for us to increase production further as the year moves forward. With respect to field inventory, you know, I think it's been documented that some of the other segments of our industry have, you know, maybe slowed down a little bit sooner than our segment of the market. You know, it took us a little. We benefited from, you know, the really strong demand that we had for our products. So, I think some of the aluminum products, I think, have experienced some more inventory than they would want to have. But, so I'd say that's the primary area. Okay, great. And you had mentioned the boat show, performances being slightly positive or encouraging at least. Yeah. What were you, specifically seeing at these boat shows, in terms of attendance or retail sales? Or was it a combination of both that gave you guys a more positive view on the space moving forward? Yeah. I would think it, it's both of those things, right? You get a feel just seeing the attendance, the number of people, and getting a sense for the excitement. And of course, the tangible measure is orders that are placed at the show. And like I said, we had similar or in some cases, slightly better sales than a year ago. And a year ago, things were, you know, still relatively positive. So we take that as a good sign. But we're certainly not gonna move production up until we have firm indications of orders from our dealers. So we're constantly assessing that. Yeah, and I'll just add that, you know, that's really... That comment was referring to a lot of the boat shows here in the South, because I think in the Northwest and Northeast especially, there was a lot of negative impact due to weather. So we're sort of discounting that. I mean, the fact that they didn't have great attendance in the Northeast and Northwest because of weather is something that really, you know, we're not really considering that as indicative of what's going on in the market. But, you know, we attended the Atlanta Boat Show, for instance. I was there last year, I was there this year, and the crowds were the same, if not a little bit better. What we heard from our dealers, as Ben mentioned, was that, you know, things definitely are, you know, about the same, if not slightly better than last year. So we were in a great place last year, so we were very encouraged by that. Okay, great. And then, on your new retail incentive program, could you dig in a little deeper on, you know, are these incentives going to the dealers on just like helping out with... Are they wholesale incentives, or are they retail incentives as well, or a combination of both? Well, what we announced and talked about today and discussed the impact is a retail program. It's a program that we work with the dealers to be able to offer to retail consumers at boat shows and in the showrooms. And of course, the impact on the fourth quarter, you know, the program started late in the fourth quarter, and it's still in effect. So we were required, of course, from an accounting purpose, to record what we think the estimate of the cost of that retail incentive program on sales that had already been recorded. So that's where we talked about the fact that our gross margin this quarter is-... was significantly impacted because we had to record an estimate of how much we thought we would pay out in retail incentives for all the boats we've sold up to this point that are still in dealer inventory. So, it's an estimate, as we always do with those types of programs. But, it's significant, and we think it will encourage retail buyers to order, and that'll filter through to additional dealer orders to restock their inventory. So that's the idea. So it's just a little more normalized. It's not outsized. It's not, it's not huge. It's really more normal, you know, if you go back kind of pre-COVID days. Yeah, I'll just add that, you know, to kind of answer your other question, it is a combination of both. There's incentives to both the dealers and some that flow through to retail. But it's called a Float Your Boat incentive, and you can read more about it on our Robalo and Chaparral websites. There's a lot of information on those websites about it. Okay, great. And just given where inventories are at and the current retail demand, I guess how much destocking do you feel like needs to take place in the industry to, you know, really get back to normalized production levels? That's a difficult question. I'll just answer it by saying, I mean, to quantify it is difficult. What we do, our process is we work with our dealers. We have periodic order points during the year that we go to our dealers, and you know, they're looking at their inventory levels. And together with us, we decide what's, you know, an appropriate number of boats that need to be delivered over time so that they have sufficient inventory to meet their retail demand, right? Nobody wants to miss out on a sale, so you need to have... It helps to have inventory on hand to be able to meet that you know, the buyers that walk in the door that that are ready to execute. So we're working with the dealers. We're obviously watching the boat shows. We'll have another order point coming up in the next few weeks. We're getting some early indication that says that they're pleased with the movement in their inventory. So we're very disciplined in that regard in terms of making sure that we're aligning production with actual demand and dealer inventory. Certainly, you have to make a projection about what you're going to need in the future. But it helps if sales accelerate and right now we're seeing some of that, so that should be positive. And we would expect, you know, and hope to be able to increase production again later this quarter to be able to support some spring and summer sales as well, to bring inventory even down even further. Okay, great. And then, Your next question comes from the line of Craig Kennison with Baird. Operator, Brandon may have been cut off there. Can you check and- Oh, sorry. My apologies. One moment. We're going to take a question from the line of Craig Kennison with Baird. Craig, the floor is yours. Oh, sure. Thanks a lot. Hi, Craig. Hopefully Brandon can... Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Yeah, I wanted to touch, I guess, on affordability in a different way. You mentioned some of the promotions that you've got, but I'm wondering if you foresee any changes to product mix or just the change, any change in the product itself in order to target more affordable prices, and how important is that? I think it's a great question. At this point in time, we're not taking any definitive measures, always trying to create the best, you know, the balance between the best quality and the features and the benefits and the cost of the boat. That's always a challenge and something we're working on. But if you go back to, you know, we in the past have been responsive to those kind of shifts in consumer demand. Harkening back to, you know, kind of the 2008, 2009, 2010 time frame, you know, we came out with the H2O series, which was a lower cost unit. We were able to go through and do some design changes and work with our vendors, and we were able to come out with a product that appealed to the consumer at that period of time and in that point in an economic cycle. At this point, we still feel that we have sufficient demand on the products that we have. But we're certainly watching that closely, and we'll make the adjustments as necessary. But right now, today, we're not doing anything in particular. Of course, we have a fairly wide range of, you know, boat sizes and features and benefits. And to answer the question another way, we're still seeing our more expensive boats carry the most weight with respect to our results. We do sell a high volume of our smaller boats, which do obviously carry a lower price point. But at this point, we are not, we don't believe that we have the need, and we've not seen the need to try to adjust the product configuration or the options and that sort of thing to lower the price. But it's a good question. At some point, that may occur. Yeah, I'll just add really quick, too, you know, we haven't really seen a decline in any of our input costs. In fact, on the contrary, they're still kind of going up slightly, so you've seen a little bit of margin erosion. So we hope now that supply chains are stabilizing, that, you know, things will work down. And because that's the tough thing, too, with the supply chain. Supply chain and the input cost of boats has really increased, so the higher price of boats have really reflected that in the whole industry. Great. Thank you. And then I think you had mentioned, you know, your, your strong balance sheet and the desire to expand the portfolio if acquisition opportunities become available. I'm curious where you see, I guess, holes in your portfolio or opportunities to expand your portfolio. Are there boat categories where you have particular interest? Yeah, when we think about, you know, there's so many factors that go into that decision. Certainly, we want a good company, a good manufacturer, you know, a quality manufacturer. We certainly want to do something that's complementary. We don't want to overlap significantly. Somebody that we could leverage our really strong dealer network, as it would appeal to that dealer network. Obviously, we don't have an aluminum product. That's something that I think would be attractive to us and attractive to our dealer network. Again, we have the opportunity to leverage that and create some benefits. And then, you know, on the fiberglass side, certainly in terms of sizes, we could do some larger boats. I don't know that our first choice would be to go significantly larger, but we think we're nicely positioned in the offshore market. Perhaps a larger offshore brand. That would probably be the two primary ones that I think, again, would both allow us to leverage our dealer network, you know, utilize some of the cash that we have, and take advantage of the fact that we are able to generate a lot of cash, and so we do want to invest that prudently. And again, as we indicated, if we're not able to find something, we'll return cash to shareholders in some form or fashion. More specifically on the aluminum, you know, pontoons is one that we see a lot of progress. That would be. You know, in recent months, you know, demand slowed, but just kind of historically, over the last 5, 10 years, demand for pontoon boats seems to be increasing at a higher rate than the rest of the industry. So that's a very interesting area. Thank you. Now, I'm just looking at your balance sheet, a lot of cash, no debt. How much debt are you willing to take on while you're still comfortable with your cash flow profile? We are, quote-unquote, "not afraid of debt." And we would have other options. Obviously, we could, you know, raise, you know, equity through a secondary or so forth. But I... You know, our—you know, we have sales today or this last twelve months approaching, you know, $400 million. So, you know, I think we could easily, you know, just to pick a number, I mean, we could, you know, $100 million or $200 million, I think, would not be a problem with our balance sheet and our cash flow generating capability. And adding a quality company that's generating cash itself, you know, it would not be a problem at all to initially fund an acquisition if it needed to be funded with cash. You know, it depends on the size of the acquisition, right, that we were doing. But, you know, $100 million or $200 million would not be, not be a problem. Great. Hey, thank you. Thank you, Craig. At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to our CEO, Ben Palmer. Okay. Well, thank you very much, everyone, for being on the call, and look forward to catching up with you later. Take care. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.