Global Industrial Company (NYSE:GIC) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 29, 2024 5:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Mike Smargiassi - Investor Relations, The Plunkett Group

Barry Litwin - Chief Executive Officer

Tex Clark - Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Anthony Lebiedzinski - Sidoti & Company

Michael Francis - William Blair & Company

Operator

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Global Industrial's Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mike Smargiassi of The Plunkett Group. Please go ahead.

Mike Smargiassi

Thank you, and welcome to the Global Industrial fourth quarter 2023 earnings call. Leading today's call will be Barry Litwin, Chief Executive Officer; and Tex Clark, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Formal remarks will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

During the call, we will reference both GAAP and organic metrics. Organic reflects the performance of the Global Industrial business exclusive of the May 2023 Indoff acquisition.

Today's discussion may include certain forward-looking statements. It should be understood that actual results could differ materially from those projected due to a number of factors, including those described under the forward-looking statements caption and in the Risk Factors in the company's annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The press release is available on the company's website and has been filed with the SEC on a Form 8-K. This call is the property of Global Industrial Company.

I will now turn the call over to Barry Litwin.

Barry Litwin

Thanks, Mike. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. In 2023, we continue to execute against our ACE strategy. Revenue reached a record $1.27 billion as we benefited from the acquisition of Indoff, while organic revenue performance reflects the soft start to the year. We entered 2023 with an uncertain economic outlook, cautious customer purchasing behavior and deflationary pricing.

As we move through the year, the demand environment improved. Pricing pressures eased and we delivered solid second half results, growing organic revenue 4%. In fact, Q4 produced our best topline growth of the year. Total revenue was $320 million, an increase of 22.9% year-over-year.

On an organic basis, we posted our second consecutive quarter of growth as revenue improved 5.1%. These gains reflect continued volume improvement and strength in our e-commerce channel. Gross margin was 33.8%, a 100 basis point uptick on a sequential quarter basis. We ended the year with a modest increase in our cash position, even after fully funding the $72 million Indoff acquisition. Given the strong cash flow generation of the business, today, we announced a 25% increase in the quarterly recurring dividend to $0.25 a share, the eighth consecutive annual increase.