Global Industrial Company (NYSE:GIC) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call April 30, 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

Lauren Ravalli - William Blair & Co.
Anthony Lebiedzinski - Sidoti & Company

Operator

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Global Industrial's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call.

At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mike Smargiassi of Plunkett Group. Please go ahead.

Mike Smargiassi

Thank you, and welcome to the Global Industrial first quarter 2024 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 under Risk Factors and 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.

Barry Litwin

Thanks, Mike. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. First quarter revenue improved to more than $323 million. And on an organic basis, we posted our third consecutive quarter of growth with revenue up 4.2%. These results reflect the continuation of the cautious customer purchasing behavior we have seen for the past several quarters.

Overall, our performance was consistent through the period. E-commerce was once again our leading channel, and we are seeing strong growth in our enterprise business as it benefits from new account generation and healthy retention rates. Order and volume trends were solid and partially offset by continued price headwinds.

We remain pleased with gross margin performance, which was 34.3% in the quarter. On an organic basis, gross margin of 35.8% was essentially flat on both the prior year and sequential quarter basis. As I outlined on our last conference call, in 2024, we are focused on championing the customer experience across every facet of the business. This includes enhancing the quality and value we provide to elevating our position as a solutions provider and problem solver for our customer. Across the organization, we are executing against multiple initiatives to help us continuously improve and deliver an exceptional end-to-end shopping experience.