LSI Industries Inc. (NASDAQ:LYTS) Q2 2024 Results Conference Call January 25, 2024 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Jim Galeese - Chief Financial Officer

Jim Clark - President and Chief Executive Officer

Conference Call Participants

Aaron Spychalla - Craig Hallum Capital Group

Amit Dayal - H.C. Wainwright

Leanne Hayden - Canaccord Genuity

Richard Fearon - Accretive Capital Partners

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to LSI Industries' Fiscal Second Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Jim Galeese. Thank you. You may begin.

Jim Galeese

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining. We issued a press release before the market opened this morning, detailing our fiscal '24 second quarter results. In addition to this release, we posted a conference call presentation in the Investor Relations section of our corporate website. Information contained in this presentation will be referenced throughout today's conference call, included are certain non-GAAP measures for improved transparency of our operating results. A complete reconciliation of GAAP and non-GAAP results is contained in our press release and 10-Q.

Please note that management's commentary and responses to today's questions on today's conference call may include forward-looking statements about our business outlook. Such statements involve risks and opportunities and actual results could differ materially. I refer you to our safe harbor statement, which appears in this morning's press release as well as our most recent 10-K and 10-Q. Today's call will begin with remarks summarizing our fiscal second quarter results. At the conclusion of these prepared remarks, we will open the line for questions.

With that, I'll turn the call over to LSI President and Chief Executive Officer, Jim Clark.

Jim Clark

Thank you, Jim, and good morning all. Thank you for joining us on today's call. As noted in our press release issued earlier today, LSI continues to perform well and in line with our expectations despite some temporary headwinds in our grocery vertical.

In our Lighting segment, sales were down 3% for the quarter on prior year sales, while gross margin improved meaningfully to 35%. This performance both in sales and margin reflects our continued ability to manage the business and take share even while we are in a challenging year-over-year comparison and general business environment. Our quote and order activity remains high, up almost 10% from last year while our conversion rate from quote to sales remains extended but stable. While the broader lighting market in many of our competitors have struggled to maintain top-line momentum, LSI has been successful in finding and creating opportunities for growth and we remain focused on profitable sales.