Blue Bird Corporation (NASDAQ:BLBD) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 8, 2023 4:30 PM ET

Company Participants

Mark Benfield - Head, Investor Relations

Matthew Stevenson - President & Chief Executive Officer

Razvan Radulescu - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Mike Shlisky - D.A. Davidson

Eric Stine - Craig-Hallum

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Blue Bird Corporation Fiscal 2023 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask question. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Mark Benfield, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Mark Benfield

Thank you, and welcome to Blue Bird's Fiscal 2023 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. The audio for our call is webcast live on blue-bird.com under the Investor Relations tab. You can access the supporting slides on our website by clicking on the presentations box on the IR landing page.

Our comments today include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks that could cause actual results to be materially different. Those risks include, among others matters, we have noted on the following two slides and in our filings with the SEC. Blue Bird disclaims any obligation to update the information in this call.

This afternoon, you will hear from Blue Bird's President and CEO, Matthew Stevenson; and CFO, Razvan Radulescu then we'll take some questions. Let's get started. Matt?

Matthew Stevenson

Thank you, Mark, and good afternoon, everyone. It has been just two months, since our most recent earnings call, but Razvan and I are still very excited to update you on the progress of Blue Bird. As we discussed last time through the hard work of the Blue Bird team, we have positioned the organization for a significant success this year and a dramatic turnaround from the results we posted in fiscal year 2022. This quarter, we are pleased to report that the business continues on its upward trajectory. And as we will review during this call is even ahead of plan.

On Slide 6, you can see some of the key takeaways for the quarter. Overall, industry demand continues to be robust and the backlog for Blue Bird school buses is incredibly strong. In this past quarter, we also built the last major tranche of legacy price buses in our backlog. As we have forecasted in previous earnings calls, this will drive a significant inflection in our financials. We define these legacy price units as those at price levels prior to October of 2021.