Ducommun Incorporated (DCO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fourth Quarter 2022 Ducommun Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ducommun's Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Controller and Treasurer, Chris Wampler. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome to Ducommun's 2022 fourth quarter conference call. With me today is Steve Oswald, Chairman, President and CEO. I'm going to discuss certain limitations to any forward-looking statements regarding future events, projections or performance that we may make during the prepared remarks or the Q&A session that follows. Certain statements today that are not historical facts, including any statements as to future market conditions, results of operations and financial projections are forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are, therefore, prospective. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although, we believe that the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. In addition, estimates of future operating results are based on the company's current business, which is subject to change. Particular risks facing Ducommun include, among other things, the cyclicality of our end-use markets, the impact of COVID-19 on our operations or customers, the level of U.S. government defense spending, timing of orders from our customers, legal and regulatory risks, the cost of expansion and acquisitions, competition, economic and geopolitical developments, pandemics and disasters, natural or otherwise. These risks and others are described in our annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC, and our forward-looking statements are subject to these risks. Statements made during this call are only as of the time made, and we do not intend to update any statements made in this presentation, except if, and as required by regulatory authorities. This call also includes non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our filings with the SEC for a reconciliation of the GAAP to non-GAAP measures referenced on this call. We filed our 2022 annual report on Form 10-K with the SEC today. I would now like to turn the call over to Steve Oswald to review the operating results. Steve?

Okay, thank you, Chris, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today for our fourth quarter conference call. Today as usual, I'll give an update of the current situation of the company, after which Chris will review our financials in detail. I'm happy to report that Ducommun's fourth quarter top line performance was very strong. The company is delivering year-over-year revenue growth of 14% to $188.3 million. As mentioned in the press release, not only shows that our end markets are in very good shape, but also highlights Ducommun's operational strength, managing the supply chain and workforce. Turning to the markets the continued recovery of commercial aerospace as a real bright spot once again in Q4, the Boeing 737 MAX business up 37% year-over-year and the Airbus A320 also having significant growth up 72% year-over-year overall, commercial aerospace with Airbus, Boeing, Gulfstream and others was up over 60% from Q4, 2021. Commercial aerospace business is well showed year-over-year revenue growth now for the sixth consecutive quarter, an excellent sign as the industry and build rates recover. The company's defense business after 2 years of unprecedented growth in 2020 and 2021, was only down slightly in Q4, but once again delivered solid performance over $100 million in revenue as we prepare for increasing DoD budgets and FMS in the years ahead. The company posted solid gross profit of 20.5%, down year-over-year due partially to several onetime factors, which Chris will cover in his remarks. The team also posted adjusted operating income margins of 8.1%, adjusted EBITDA of $24.5 million was strong and increased slightly year-over-year. Ducommun has adjusted EBITDA margins of 13% in Q4 as well, and we anticipate EBITDA to be solid this year with much stronger numbers in 2024 once the plant closures and restructuring activities in 2023 are behind us. Quality of earnings was good with the company reaching GAAP diluted EPS of $0.65 a share versus $9.05 a share for Q4 2021, but with adjustments, the diluted EPS of $0.85 a share was comparable to diluted EPS of $0.88 in the prior year. Some key drivers for the lower GAAP diluted EPS include restructuring charges and the prior year benefit from the significant gain on the lease sellback of our Gardena performance centers industrial property. 1 area of business, I would like to highlight as we move out of the pandemic-related headwinds in the past few years is the significant improvement of our commercial aerospace business within our Structural Systems segment during 2022. Commercial aerospace revenue within Structures was $165 million or roughly 55% higher than in 2021. In addition, Q4 commercial aerospace revenues were $43 million or 45% higher than a year ago as we see very nice growth continuing in this part of the business. I will also add that this includes very little 787 business, which we see as an additional catalyst in 2023 through 2025. Finally, the backlog at the end of Q4, 2022 stood at $325 million or 17% higher than Q4 2021. So we are set for excellent growth now and in the future. Investors should also keep in mind our Structures business is component-based, not wings or other large capital-intensive products. And we strive as well to produce products of only industry niche technologies, such as titanium hot form and superplastic forming. Switching to the company's backlog performance, the commercial aerospace backlog increased sequentially for the seventh consecutive quarter from $266 million at the end of Q1, 2021 to $450 million at the end of Q4, 2022 that's an increase of 69%. And this was led by the 737 MAX, ViaSat for in-flight entertainment, the A320 A220 Gulfstream, all which we would expect after we came out of a very tough 2020 and 2021 for this part of the Ducommun's business. Defense backlog remained solid in Q4 as well and ended the quarter at $457 million. For offloading from defense primes, the work continues, and we did meet and significantly exceeded our target of $45 million in 2022, up from roughly $31 million in 2021. 2023 is a big year as well. We're expecting roughly $90 million with a great deal of that in our circuit card business for Raytheon at sites such as Appleton, Wisconsin and Tulsa, Oklahoma. The long-term run rate of these defense programs already commercialized or in development for offloading will be over $125 million for Ducommun by 2025 as primes continue to drive cost reduction and challenge the reasoning of keeping certain types of production in-house. Company's cost actions and lead organizational structure continue to pay dividends, too. Our team delivered another excellent quarter as well in Q4 managing the supply chain. And this not only shows in our financials, but we also could not be in a better place with our customers regarding our odd-time delivery and quality. Corporate costs as a percentage of revenue were also very favorable at 4.1% compared to 5.3% last year in Q4. I also want to mention our very successful Investor Day on December 8. First, my thanks to all who participated both in person and virtually, and we very much appreciate the great feedback. We certainly disclose more of that meeting than in the past, especially around our strong results for our 4 acquisitions, and the post-pandemic game plan now is in place. The path ahead for the company and the investors is now clear through 2027. In addition, Chris will provide further details, but we're off to a very good start in 2023 with the plant consolidations and other restructuring activities, along with preparing for the planned real estate sales. For revenue guidance in 2023, we see the company's revenue coming in at the low to mid-single-digit range. The commercial aerospace industry recovery will continue to lead the way and revenue will be solid over the quarters ahead as we see more and more volume return with defense being solid or impacted by some timing on a few programs, but still having a very good backlog. The 2 plant closings will also see some slight reduction in revenue as we improve nonstrategic and low-volume business. We continue as well to be active and opportunistic with acquisition opportunities as in the past, and believe this is another catalyst to drive us possibly higher in the year ahead. Now let me provide some additional color on our markets, products and programs. Beginning with our military and space sector, we posted fourth quarter revenue of $108.4 million, a slight decrease versus 2021. Despite being down, as mentioned earlier, it was greater than $100 million and a solid showing for the business in Q4. We saw increases in demand for our missile programs, mirror and Patriot along with their pay team. The fourth quarter military and space revenue represented 58% of Ducommun's revenue in the period, down from 69% last year. And this trend will continue to reflect more balance with commercial aerospace, which we like. We also ended the fourth quarter with a solid backlog of $457 million, which represents nearly 50% of the company's total backlog. Within our commercial aerospace operations, fourth quarter revenue increased year-over-year to $68 million, driven mainly by build rate increases on large aircraft platforms, in-flight products to ViaSat and other commercial aerospace platforms. Ducommun expect - continue improvement in the commercial space market overall to gain momentum in 2023, and the future is bright across our product offerings. Our delivery and quality also continues to stand out as we move ahead. The backlog within commercial aerospace stands at $450 million at the end of the fourth quarter and was $117 million higher or a 35% increase year-over-year from Q4, 2021. With that, I'll have Chris review our financial results in detail. Chris?

Thank you, Steve. As a reminder, please see the company's 10-K and Q4 earnings release for a further description of information mentioned on today's call. As Steve discussed, our fourth quarter results reflect another quarter of strong performance. The fourth quarter's results saw a significant increase once again in commercial aerospace revenue. We remain encouraged by the continued strength in domestic and global travel, which should help support higher long-term demand and shipments going forward. There are multitude of positive themes as we close out 2022 and combined with actions being taken through our restructured program, we're looking forward to building on our 2022 performance. Now turning to our fourth quarter results, revenue for the fourth quarter of 2022 was $188.3 million versus $164.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2021. The year-over-year increase reflects $26.4 million of growth across our commercial aerospace platforms, partially offset by $4.7 million of lower revenue within the military and space sector. A portion of the year-over-year increase is directly attributable to MagSeal, which we acquired in December of 2021, thus our overall growth was a combination of organic and inorganic growth. Ducommun's overall backlog at the end of the fourth quarter was approximately $961 million. This reflects recent growth across our commercial aerospace platforms. Our defense backlog was $457 million, and we remain positioned for solid -- continued solid performance as we begin the New Year with our defense business. As a reminder, we define backlog as potential revenue based on customer purchase orders and long-term agreements with firm fixed prices and expected delivery dates of 24 months or less. We posted total gross profit of $38.6 million for the quarter versus $37.3 million in the prior year period, while gross margins were 20.5% and 22.6% in 2022 and 2021, respectively. On an adjusted basis, gross margins were 21% and 23% in 2022 and 2021, respectively. Throughout 2022, we've had adjustments for items such as climate fire-related costs, MagSeal inventory step-up amortization and cost of sales related restructure expenses. As we finish 2022 and head into 2023, we expect these types of adjustments to wind down by midyear. While gross margins of 20% to 21% plus are good from a historical perspective for DCO, they continue to lag the levels we ran at in 2021. We globally recognized challenges around supply chain and labor availability have had some impact -- have had some level of impact on nearly all manufacturing companies. However, as Steve mentioned, we continue to manage through without significant supply chain impacts due to the proactive supply chain efforts, executing strategic buys, leveraging our performance center flexibility and utilizing inventory investments. But we have seen certain performance centers to continue to have more of a challenge on various program flow-through, products mix and profitability, 2 of which are in Monrovia, California and Berryville, Arkansas operations. As mentioned during our Investor Day dialogue in December 2022, we anticipate repositioning production from these facilities during the first half of 2023. The consolidations will redeploy the production from these performance centers, which have been unable to perform at expected profitability levels and allow us to better utilize our low-cost manufacturing facility in Guaymas, Mexico. In addition to taking out these fixed costs, we continue to aggressively manage our discretionary spending, all with the purpose of driving margin expansion. Ducommun reported operating income for the fourth quarter of $9.7 million or 5.1% of revenue compared to $11.8 million or 7.2% of revenue in the prior year period. Adjusted operating income was $15.2 million or 8.1% of revenue this quarter compared to $15.3 million or 9.3% of revenue in the comparable prior period last year. The company reported net income for the fourth quarter of 2022 of $8.1 million or $0.65 per diluted share compared to net income of $110.8 million or $9.05 per diluted share a year ago. On an adjusted basis, the company reported net income of $10.6 million or $0.85 per diluted share compared to net income of $10.8 million or $0.88 in 2021. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $24.5 million or 13% of revenue compared to $24.4 million or 14.8% of revenue for the comparable period in 2021. Now let me turn to the segment results. Our Structural Systems segment posted revenue of $68.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2022 versus $58.8 million last year. The year-over-year increase reflects $13.4 million of higher sales across our commercial aerospace applications, partially offset by $4 million of lower revenue within the company's military and space markets. Structural Systems' operating income for the quarter was $4.4 million or 6.4% of revenue compared to $5.1 million or 8.6% of revenue last year. The year-over-year operating margin decrease was primarily due to unfavorable product mix and higher restructuring charges, partially offset by favorable manufacturing volume. Excluding restructure charges and other adjustments in both years, the segment operating margin was 10.8% in 2022 versus 12.2% in 2021. This is a solid operating performance from the Structural Systems segment. As a reminder, the results of our MagSeal business, which was acquired in Q4, 2021 are part of the Structures business. Our Electronic Systems segment posted revenue of $120 million in the fourth quarter of 2022 versus $106 million in the prior year period. These results reflect $13 million of higher commercial aerospace revenue, partially offset by $0.7 million of lower revenue across the company's military and space customers. Electronic Systems operating income for the fourth quarter was $13 million or 10.8% of revenue versus $15.4 million or 14.6% of revenue in the prior year period, primarily reflecting unfavorable product mix and higher restructuring charges, partially offset by favorable manufacturing volume. Excluding restructure charges and other adjustments in both years, the segment operating margin was 12.9% in 2022 versus 15.8% in 2021. While not at the top end of the range, this segment has operated. This was a solid quarter for the Electronics segment. As a reminder, and discussed at our recent Investor Day, we commenced a restructure initiative back in Q2, 2022. The identified restructure actions are being taken to accelerate the achievement of our strategic goals and better position the company for stronger performance in the short and long-term. During Q4, 2022, we incurred $2.9 million in restructuring charges. The majority of these charges were severance and benefit related. We expect to incur an additional $12 million to $16 million in restructuring expense for facility consolidations, severance and impairment of long-lived assets during 2023. Most of the expected remaining charges relate to the repositioning of a portion of our restructuring initiative that I mentioned earlier. The majority of the production being moved is going to our low-cost operation in Guaymas, Mexico, with the remainder going to other existing performance centers in the United States. Once we wind down production at Monrovia and Berryville, we anticipate selling the associated land and building at both locations. These initiatives are progressing as expected and when we complete with our restructure, we anticipate our efforts will generate annualized savings of $11 million to $13 million. We have available liquidity of $246 million as of the end of the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter of each year is typically our strongest from a cash flow generation perspective in 2022 was no exception, and we are pleased with the generation of $32.1 million of cash flow from operations this quarter. Cash flow from operations in Q4 of 2021 was $11.7 million. Our 12-month debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio was 2.2 and is amongst the lowest in the last several years. We finished 2022 with a full year effective tax rate of 13.6% versus 20.5% in 2021. The rate was lower this year as the majority of the tax in 2021 related to our gain on sale leaseback transaction, which was taxed at a rate in excess of our effective rate, excluding such transactions. Interest for the full year 2022 was $11.6 million versus $11.2 million in 2021. While our debt refinancing during 2022 was timely and beneficial, the rising interest rate environment drove the increase year-over-year. Assuming no pivot on interest rates during 2022, we expect interest expense to be approximately $18 million in 2023. And when our interest rate hedge becomes effective January 1, 2024, we anticipate it will provide significant beneficial offset in the longer term. Just 1 additional comment from me, 2022 was the third consecutive year with an environment of significant market and macro economical change. And during the time, we've attempted to continually assess and adjust our priorities as we focus on daily execution to deliver for our customers and all other stakeholders, and we look forward to building on the strong foundation we have established as we move through 2023 and beyond. I'll now turn it back over to Steve for closing remarks. Steve?

Okay, Chris, thank you. Well, certainly was a strong quarter I hope you're pleased and the year in 2022 was our best top line since 2019. So we feel good about it. As mentioned earlier, the past is now clear coming out of our investor meeting in December. And I think we're off to a very good start in 2023. We've got a lot to do, and I think it's all going to provide a lot of value to shareholders and to the company going forward. In addition, all the meetings I've been having in attending and industry news I have read shows -- I think there's great opportunities as we all know, ahead over the next several years. And Ducommun team will be ready to capture the upside when available. My thanks, as always, to our employees and investors for the support as, we include again a very good year and lots of positive things ahead so again, thank you for listening. I'll now open it up for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from the line of Ken Herbert from RBC Capital Markets.

Maybe I just wanted to first talk about the low to mid-single top line expectations for '23. And I wondered, Steve, if you can break that a part a little bit by market. It looks like commercial aero should continue to see some obviously nice growth based on the backlog and build rates. What is your assumptions for growth in that market and then what are your assumptions for growth in defense?

We're certainly going to grow in commercial aero, Ken. We're a little bit -- we're as we've talked about, we're ready to go, right? So we're a little bit with Spirit and Airbus and Boeing were sort of I wouldn't say we're capped, but we're absolutely going to see growth in commercial aero this year. But we certainly are cheering for them to get to the next level of production. So that's the first thing I'd say. The second thing, as I mentioned in my remarks with defense, I mean, we have a couple of programs that either through timing and order -- the order situation right now. We're going to basically bring defense in probably right around flat to this year, but we're encouraged with our backlog, and we think 2024 is going to be a better year. But we think this year with a couple of things, F-18, we have a little bit of a program there and Apache a few others that are just more timing based. We're going to be above 100, but we're going to be pretty, I'd say, pretty flattish.

Okay, that's helpful. And for defense, does that flattish reflect as well - but looks like you've got an incremental call it, $45 million or so, $40 million to $45 million from offloading benefits in '23 relative to '22?

Yes, it's going to be -- it won't be that high. It's going to be -- we came in, I don't want to come and break down the number there, but we're probably going to get tailwind of say, 30 from the offload to maybe 35% because it came in, in pretty good shape. But again, these offloads are also helping with some of the timing on these programs. So it's definitely going to help us. We're going to certainly hold serve, as they say, and going into '24 because you have to understand, when we're moving cards for the Patriot and for other things. I mean, these have a long tail as far as getting everything over to Tulsa, as I mentioned earlier, in some of these programs at Raytheon. But we should continue to make progress. And I mentioned in my remarks that primes are eager for cost reduction, and they're certainly challenging and questioning their in-house operations. So that's helping us.

And if I could just 1 -- yes just I appreciate that. Just 1 final question on the defense outlook, I mean budgets were up sort of 10% in fiscal '23. There's obviously some uncertainty around fiscal '24, but we're seeing higher international spend. Do you -- you've called out timing on a couple of programs, maybe those help in the latter part of the year? But do we see then a sort of a material inflection positively in defense into '24 or how do you think about this longer term? Because the flattish sales, I can appreciate because it's consistent with what a lot of other companies have talked about. But I'm just curious, Steve, your view on when we start to see the funding catch up or get better reflected in your results?

Yes, we feel much better about 2024, Ken okay. We -- certainly with what we're seeing I mean, maybe now, but we don't disclose that our Electronic Systems, Defense business had a great order quarter in Q4, which was sequentially. I'll just give you that number it probably at least over 40%, 45% versus Q3. So orders are coming in. I mean obviously, there's timing on deliveries is it going to be 2023, 2024. We feel good about 2024 as far as being able to move forward again.

Yes and one other comment, too, Ken, is just as you -- I think as we've seen everything turning from order to delivery to shipments is pushing out slightly as you come through the last couple of years. So it's -- that's why we've got -- we're looking at this next 12 months and saying this will hold serve and then start to see it pick up.

Yes Ken, we're also at the mercy a little bit of other suppliers for these primes that are struggling or have the other issues right other issues where it's certainly a little bit of a challenge for us because, I mean, we're pretty much ready to deliver, but there's other things happening with some of these programs, either those hiring challenges at some of the primes or there's other suppliers that are late. So we're feeling a little bit of that to this year. We're hoping for a much better activity next year.

Our next question will come from the line of Mike Crawford from B. Riley.

I think would you agree that supply chain constraints are easing. And if so, how much of an opportunity is there to bring in some working capital to take that back into cash?

Mike, good question, I think that it is easing. I think it's a little bit of sort of down the middle on commercial aero because 1 of the reasons where we've been winning wars is that we have titanium sheets and we have other things that maybe some of the suppliers don't were able to kind of come in and help. So I would say that second half of the year we see that in a better place, easing, and we're certainly interested in getting our turns up.

Okay. And then are there any other specific programs that you're really aiming to the -- gain business via offloading from primes or you just don't want to get into that level of detail on this call?

I probably don't know I mean, just because I want to be sensitive to the customer and all the customers. So, but I will just tell you that especially in the card area, I mean -- and we put that note about Appleton being over $100 million now, which is a 70,000 square foot plant, which is -- and that's all cards. And that's all people coming and saying, hey, we want you to do it here as well as Tulsa now is on to the next phase, and we're expecting really good things. And again, I mentioned -- I'll talk a little bit about 1 program just because I mentioned earlier is that taking something out of a major operation, test equipment, those types of things, I mean - these things need to take time they should. So that's -- we're more bullish in the 2024 period.

Okay. And then last question might be more for someone. But what if any, changes or opportunities are you seeing on the M&A fund, where you're looking for more of these niche suppliers in protected industry?

Yes, no, I appreciate the question, and that's why I kind of put in my remarks as well. So look, we were -- as I mentioned, we were more forthcoming and rightly so at our Investor Day in December. And hopefully, everybody was pleased with -- all 4 of our operations because we've really, I think, done a nice job at all of them. And I would just say that we're active. The model works for us. It does accelerate our margins, does lots of things for us. And that's kind of where we're heading right now, Mike, at least for the next year or 2, the same kind of profile acquisitions you seen in the past.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Pete Osterland from Truist.

So first, we've heard a few different things across the supply chain about expected build rates this year, particularly for the 737 MAX. So I just wanted to know what build rate are you currently producing at on the MAX? And are you actively planning for production rate increases this year? Is that something that's reflected in your sales guidance or would that represent upside if it were going to materialize?

Yes, so look, we're -- we've been down this road a lot whole industry, right? So we're taking only at his word at 31 a month, at least for this year, okay? We hope that that's going to go up. And certainly, we do not have that fully baked in. I will tell you that. So that is some upside for us. I will tell you a bright spot would be the Tier 1 Spirit, because they're obviously ahead of the chain. So Boeing is trying to ramp up and we're going to feel that from Spirit ahead of time. And again, we've been more modest with our build rates this year just because we want to make sure that we're not too far out over our skis as they say, because we're concerned about other supplier deliveries, concerned about them able to hire enough mechanics and people to get the work done. So I would say if things go -- if things break the right way, we're going to have a better year.

That's very helpful. And then just as a follow-up. Well, I know you didn't give specific guidance on this. I was wondering if you could just calibrate us on margins for the upcoming year. So just any color you could give on pricing versus cost inflation. Do you expect that to be a headwind this year? And just in general, should we be thinking about seeing margins up this year as sales grow and you start to see the benefits of your restructuring or just how are you thinking about that?

Yes. No, thanks, Pete. So yes, I think as you look at this year and you see where our jump-off point is, yes, we would say and we sort of signaled this in some of the dialogue at the Investor Day, we do view it sort of a transition year on margins. I mean we're those same pressures are still there. So we don't think there's going to be incremental headwind. We think we're going to just continue to work through it. And again, hopefully, we will find our way to some type of improvements as we go through the first half of the year, especially with where we were last year. And then the restructuring benefits in the back half of the year as we finish up, and that's where we'll start to get the more significant lift just on the base business. When the growth hits to, that's always going to be another element to it. But as you've sort of heard in the forecast we have, it's not a growth-driven year. It's going to be more about what we can do with the business, what we can do with the cost structure and the repositioning to be part of that.

Yes, let me just jump in here. So look, as I mentioned in the investor call, we don't take plant consolidation lightly here. But I would tell you the 2 factories that we're going to close didn't really help us in 2022, okay, from a margin perspective, okay I'll leave it there. You can interpret that. But the second point is that once we consolidate those into low-cost centers, we take all the expense out, that's going to, I think, delivered very nicely in the mid-term for our margin story, Pete.

Our next question will come from the line of Ken Herbert from RBC Capital Markets.

Steve, I just wanted to follow up on the -- on your last comments. On the restructuring, how much of the work at Monrovia and Berryville, have you already transitioned and how much is left to do there? And then how much of a working capital headwind is that this year's I'm sure you've built safety stock and inventory and provisions in anticipation of the move?

Yes, okay couple things. I'll let Chris handle the second part of that. Let me just handle the first part. Look, we've had, I think, excellent or the best you can expect announcements to the teams, okay? And happy to say that for the most part, we still have teams working hard in those facilities. We are actively either engage with customers as far as I mentioned earlier, pruning some things that really just aren't good for us and for shareholders going in the long-term. So we're actively doing that. And we're also putting plans in place. And as we go forward building buffer for -- to be effective and to have this thing sort of innocuous to customer experience with the Ducommun. So we are active. We pretty much -- we're probably going to be going through the first quarter pretty much tight with the group and then we're going to start moving out on moving things and accelerating. So, but as I mentioned earlier, I'm happy how we started off again. These things are always tricky, and we're off to a very good start. And we feel we have the plans and we have the right practice for keeping people on the team and for all the things you need to do to be effective to move the work in place and Guaymas as well is, as we mentioned in the -- I think it was in the investor call, we have another building down there now. So we're in a very good shape with our floor space and workforce to take the majority of this work in Mexico, not everything, but a majority of it.

Yes and just on the inventory or the investment, Ken, I would say modest investment here in the first half of the year, Steve mentioned a little bit of safety stock. I mean there's an element of that, but we do view that sort of being first half of the year, transitions are happening, working it down. And so by the time you get to the end of the year, it's nominal and sort of what the full year view would look like, but there could be a little bit of investment here in the first half of the year.

Okay, helpful. And if I could, one other quick follow-up. Airbus today announced some aggressive or planned aggressive rate moves on their wide-body portfolio with maybe the rate increases on the A320 family pushed out to the right a bit. Can you level set us on where you are with Airbus, maybe as a percent of your aerospace business and opportunities with their supply chain disruption and issues to either take share? And how much will you participate in the accelerated production on the wide-body aircraft, the 330 and the 350?

Ken, I did see that briefly -- I didn't read it, I just briefly saw some of the things. So first of all, just as a highlight, we're in fairly good shape on the A330. So we were not that optimistic about a couple of years ago. So we see that moving in the right direction. That's something that we actually were players on. I won't get into exactly what the percentage is, but we're going to -- that's going to benefit us the A330. We're in the middle of trying and as you know, these things take time to get a position on the A350, which is something that we're engaged in actively, so more to come there. We like to see those increases. I think the -- the year-over-year number that I said about the A320 and Airbus was pretty dramatic. We think that that's going to continue. As I mentioned in my Investor Day back in December, you have to always be a little bit careful with Airbus, they have a lot of mouths to feed and -- but they need the parts to produce. And we're pretty much -- even though we might be slightly off now, we've pretty much been 100% on time in Airbus for over 3 years with a little -- maybe 1 or 2 misses here or there. So we're in great shape with Airbus, not really ready to go fully on what the disclosure is on the amount of business, but it continues to grow. And we're hopeful, and we feel good -- if they're running hard, we're going to feel share gain. That's what we want.

And I'm not showing any further questions in the queue at this time. So I'll pass it back to Steve Oswald for any closing remarks.

Okay, thank you. And thank you, again, everyone, for joining us. It's always a very good Q&A as well as hopefully you felt the script what was helpful. We have a lot going on in the company. We're going to -- I think if things go our way, we're going to hopefully do a little bit better than our revenue guidance, but we always try to be thoughtful and we want to be as transparent as we can on these calls and help investors and help our analyst partners. So, but we feel good -- very good about 2024. We're closing these factories for a reason. It's all going to benefit for the mid to long-term, especially in the margin area and other things. We're excited about our Guaymas operation going to the next level, which is a big part of our future. And we're active with acquisitions and we're feeling good. So again, we appreciate your support, and thank you again for listening.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.