Art's-Way Manufacturing Co., Inc. (ARTW) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

We get started. Welcome. My name is Marc McConnell, and I'm the Chairman of the Board of Arts-Way Manufacturing Company Incorporated and serve as Chairman of this Meeting. It's a pleasure to welcome you today. Before proceeding any further, let me introduce our officers and directors. On the phone with us today are our current directors and director nominees [ and ] otherwise in person, Marc McConnell, Tom Buffamante, Randall Ramsey here, Matt Westendorf here, and David Castle is not with us, and David White cannot be with us. From management, David King, our President and CEO; and Michael Woods, our CFO. And from our Auditor, Eide Bailly, Geoff Wasmuth. And from our legal counsel, Fredrikson & Byron, Joe Schauer. The Annual Meeting of the Stockholders of Arts-Way Manufacturing Company Incorporated is hereby call to order pursuant to notice given and provided by the company's bylaws. With regard to forward-looking statements, which may be made by officers or other representatives of Arts-Way [indiscernible] or any other time cautions investors that results of future operations may differ from those anticipated. We encourage you to review carefully the cautionary statements contained in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For the formal business of our Meeting, I'll now call on Michael Woods, the Secretary of the Meeting to the quorum [ and proper ] giving notice and presence of quorum.

In accordance with our bylaws and Delaware law, Notice of the Meeting was mailed on or about March 14th, 2022, to all stockholders of record, as of March 3rd, 2022. The certificate of mailing will be kept with the minutes of this Meeting.

Thank you. According to the report of our Inspector of Election, we had 4,619,733 shares of common stock outstanding, as of March 3rd, 2022, the record date and a majority of those shares are represented at the meeting either in person or by proxy. Therefore, the Meeting is lawfully convened, and the polls for voting on all matters are hereby opened at this time. Today's meeting is being called to vote on the following motion, each made and seconded by the proxy. First, to elect the 5 director nominees to hold office until the 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders; second, to ratify the appointment of Eide Bailly LLP as the Company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending November 30th, '22; and third, to approve on a non-binding advisory basis, the compensation paid to the Company's named executive officers. Because those stockholder nominations or proposals were properly filed in advance of this Meeting, the business of this Meeting is limited to the 3 matters identified in the Notice of Meeting and described in our proxy statement. Are there any questions for the representative of Eide Bailly LLP or any other matters for discussion with respect to items on that -- to be voted on today. Are there any stockholders attending in person, who wish to [ turn in ] ballot or revoke a proxy and vote in person and haven't done so, please identify yourselves to the Inspector of Election and let him know the total number of shares you'll be voting. None. The polls for voting on the matters before this Meeting are hereby closed. The preliminary voting results based on proxies submitted prior to this Meeting are as follows: each of the 5 director nominees has been elected to serve as a Director until the 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders and until their successor shall be elected and qualified; the selection of Eide Bailly LLP, as the Company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending November 30th, 2022, has been ratified; the compensation paid to the Company's named executive officers has been approved on a non-binding and advisory basis and will be taken into consideration by the Board and the Compensation and Stock Option Committees. The report of the Inspector of Election setting forth the final voting results will be included with the minutes of this Annual Meeting, and the results will be also announced by way of filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Since there is no further business, I'll ask for a motion that the meeting be adjourned. For the motion to adjourn on favor of the motion just say --to adjourn say, aye.

Aye.

All opposed, say nay. The motion is carried. The formal portion of the Meeting is adjourned. Thank you for your attendance and for your interest in Art's-Way Manufacturing Company Incorporated. Thank you. So at this time, and then we get some on the phone too. Maybe we can just do a light overview of state of things here at Art's-Way for their benefit, David.

Yes. We continue to have record backlog with the Company, strong backlog across all 3 divisions. Supply chain issue is affecting all 3 companies to varying degrees, with manufacturing affected the most with the supply chain. Labor shortages continue to be in this year amongst all 3 companies. However, we are moving to more automation with [indiscernible] companies, which is helping to offset some of those labor problems. We do have very strong market conditions, especially in the ag and cutting tools divisions with a strong forecast for the second half of the year on our modular building Art's Way Scientific portion. So our biggest challenges ahead are just keeping up with demand across all -- all 3 divisions.

Yes. Thank you. And just to add to that, we find ourselves in cyclical businesses and known -- and have long known and understand that and unfortunately to be in a cycle that's providing some tailwinds to our businesses, and I think that we start to see some better results. And -- and going forward, if we over -- if we can overcome a lot of the cost side of what come -- is coming with that, we are -- we are largely excited about here. So thank you, everyone, for being on here. We can take some questions, if there are any. From the phone, anyone.

All right.

All right. Well, we will hang up now, and thank you for being part of the call.