Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:POOL) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 22, 2024 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Melanie Hart - VP and CFO

Peter Arvan - President and CEO

Conference Call Participants

Ryan Merkel - William Blair

Susan Maklari - Goldman Sachs

David Manthey - Baird

Scott Schneeberger - Oppenheimer

David MacGregor - Longbow Research

Sid Ramesh - Stephens

Andrew Carter - Stifel

Sam Reid - Wells Fargo

Garik Shmois - Loop Capital

Joe Ahlersmeyer - Deutsche Bank

Operator

Good day and welcome to the Pool Corporation Fourth Quarter 2023 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Melanie Hart, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Melanie Hart

Welcome to our fourth quarter and year end 2023 earnings conference call. Discussion, comments, and responses to questions today may include forward-looking statements, including management's outlook for 2024 and future periods. Actual results may differ materially from those discussed today. Information regarding the factors and variables that could cause actual results to differ from projected results are discussed in our 10-K. In addition, we may make references to non-GAAP financial measures in our comments.

A description and reconciliation of any of our non-GAAP financial measures included in our press release are posted to our corporate website in the Investor Relations section.

President and CEO, Peter Arvan will begin our call today. Pete?

Peter Arvan

Thank you, Melanie, and good morning to everyone on the call.

For the full year 2023, we generated over $5.5 billion in revenue, the second largest in company history, and over $2 billion higher than 2019, a year with a similar number of new pools constructed and the last year and before the pandemic. We generated $747 million in operating income, more than double our operating income in 2019, an operating margin of 13.5%, a 280 basis point expansion above 2019 operating margin.

These results highlight the larger installed base available for us to serve post pandemic and our ability to fulfill our customers maintenance, remodel, and renovation and new construction product needs. Even in a challenging environment our customer service outshined our competitors through our powerful distribution network, the largest, most integrated in the pool industry, and we continue to make wise investments to promote our future growth. We were up against tremendous comps throughout most of the year, yet the team at all levels worked extremely hard to deliver very solid results.