Unifi, Inc. (NYSE:UFI) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call November 2, 2023 ET
Company Participants
Albert Carey - Executive Chairman
Edmund Ingle - CEO
A.J. Eaker - Treasurer
Conference Call Participants
Anthony Lebiedzinski - Sidoti
A.J. Eaker
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for attending Unifi's First Quarter Fiscal 2024 Earnings Conference Call. We do apologize for the technical difficulties and the late start, but we will be quick and I hope to answer your questions as quickly as possible. Today's conference is recorded. And you have the speakers for today as Al Carey, Executive Chairman; Eddie Ingle, Chief Executive Officer; and myself, A.J. Eaker, Interim Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer.
During this call, we'll reference a webcast presentation that can be found on the Investor Relations section of unifi.com. Please familiarize yourself with Page 2 of that slide deck as I turn the call over to Al Carey.
Albert Carey
Okay. Thank you, A.J. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for joining the call this morning. I'll start by sharing some thoughts on the quarter and then discuss how we're managing through this challenging environment we're in right now, but also how we're preparing forward, we think will be a much better calendar 2024. After that, I'll turn it over to Eddie Ingle, our CEO.
If you look at our results, it was a tough quarter from a sales and a profitability standpoint as once again, were impacted by these persistent high levels of apparel inventory at retail and also a slower consumer demand. But the big issue for us is the lack of orders to our plants, and that's the primary issue. While there are signs of inventory levels that are nearing a bottom across the industry, this destocking process that we've talked about in the U.S. for quite some time has moved at a slower pace than we expected. And I believe based on our feedback from customers and also public disclosures by others that are in our sector, the majority of the industry would say the exact same thing.
One thing we've heard from our customers is that while brands and retailers are showing encouraging progress towards the destocking and the inventories are getting actually back to right about pre-pandemic levels. Some retailers have taken a more conservative approach as they plan for the upcoming orders and they've instructed their buyers to place smaller, more frequent orders than they have in the past in an effort to preserve cash while the interest rates are where they are. We're beginning to see that now.