nVent Electric plc (NVT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Okay. I think we're off to -- we'll be starting here the new webinar. So welcome to the 2023 Spring CADDY New Product Launch. Jim and I are really excited to present to you some of the new products we've got in store, go over a couple of things and see how we can bring some value to your installations. We'll go ahead and get started, go through introductions. Jim, do you want to go ahead?

Sure. Jim Bukowski here. I'm the Global Product Manager for our in-wall products, been in the industry over 15 years and then with CADDY now coming up on 5 years. So excited to be here. Thanks, everyone, for joining our webinar today.

All right. Thank you. My name is Bryson Allen. I'm the product manager for our fastener product family and have recently turned over my datacom responsibilities over to Tom Colangelo. So he's new to our team. I've got over 20 years of experience in the commercial industry with -- coming up on 20 years this summer with CADDY. So it's been great working with contractors like yourself to provide new and valuable installation options for you. So we're going to go ahead and get going. Just some giveaway detail. So just like we've done on some of the previous webinars, we've got some prizes to give out. So it will be drawn after the webinar from the attendee list. E-mail will be sent to the winners from our EFS training site. We've got some pretty cool options there, including the grand prize there, the Carhartt jacket. I know that's popular. It's a great prize. So keep your eye out for that, and congratulations to everyone, an appreciation to spending your time and attention on this webinar. I'll go ahead and get us started, kick us off with the product line extension with our box/conduit hanger. So you should be familiar with our B18 family of products. What we're doing here is we're expanding this range to be worked and included with our 512X product family. So just as a reminder, some background. So we introduced the 512X last year. So what's great about this product, it's a tool-free method to hang an electrical box from a single threaded rod. So you're not breaking into the electrical box, not pushing in the conduit and using the nut and washer or drilling out one of the existing holes on the backside to put through your 1/4-inch threaded rod. No tools, no breaking into the box, no penetration in the box, gives full access to all your top knockouts. It's UL 514 luminaire-rated for 50 pounds. It's a great solution. But one of the bits feedback that we did get from contractors, that we would also like a first means of support for this. So that falls right into what we're doing with our B18 family or the helicopters. So looking at that, so we've added 2 different sizes, the 812M version and the 16M version. The 812M is the range of 0.5 inch to 0.75 inch EMT. And then the 16M, we redesigned 16M last year to include the 0.75 inch as well. So now that has a range of 0.75 inch to 1 inch, which is the range of most popular branch runs that we see out there. So if you look on the right-hand side, just exactly what you're used to, you have the B18X family, and that works with the 512X, the tool-free snapping for electrical box. Put it together, and that's your means of support for your electrical box and your first means for the conduit coming out. So expands that utility in the 512X and is co-compliant with our B18 family per UL. So just as a reminder, just as a refresher with our 16M. So again, we increased that size range of compatibility with our 16M. So now it gives you that option of 0.75 inch to 1 inch, which are the most common branch circuits that we see out there. It gives you the ability to optimize your SKUs, reduce clutter and whatnot on the job site. So it impacts all of these different assemblies that you see on the right-hand side. We've got our box/conduit hangers there that we just talked about, the B18, includes the shock/fire or the flange clip, T-Grid, rod and wire, all of the other scenarios, [indiscernible] neck, all those have been updated in the newest family with the new 16M. So it's just a great opportunity to increase utility of this product family and give you some more options in the field, more flexibility. So our research, we have an updated data sheet for the B18X. You can find this and all the other products that Jim and I will be talking about on the New Products page link. And thinking through, again, with the related products to make sure everyone understands how those are connected, we've got the related products, the 512X and the 16M available there for all the data sheets. Moving on to the next one. We're -- I'm really excited about this one. We're doing more and more in-deck concrete applications for CADDY. We've had a couple of smaller introduction of the product, but this one really is going to be a game changer not only for us, but for you, the contractor, to give you that securement in those installation scenarios for in-deck. So let's get into that. So as you're aware, obviously, there's a lot of PVC and ENT being run within the concrete deck. You see there on the right-hand side some examples of that. It's more than a trend. It's an existing practice. Looking at a lot of scenarios, especially with the stub-down application for all these lighting packages, sensors, low-voltage applications, all of those scenarios that we're seeing more and more prevalent in these newer buildings, these smart buildings. And as you can see on the right-hand side, that can be a pretty busy network. The picture in the center is a traditional application for a stub-down. And what we've seen there with some of the challenges that you can lose circuits in there as that concrete workers going through, stepping through blind, has that heavy laboratory tool. And what happens? You step on those, it breaks over, you lose your circuits. Also, with some of the existing solutions, comes in at a 45, as you see there on the bottom left-hand side, that can make it difficult to hit your target coming in from the ceiling. So you're trying to go within a cavity of a wall. Our solution just gives that ability to come in at a 90. It's a pull. It's a straight pull down. So challenges, again, lost circuits and getting that target exit into a certain location. What results of that? You damage of your installed conduit. Obviously, there's a lot of scenarios where you have a deck watchman on site there to make sure that they're -- that the concrete is not destroying into your installations, running redundant conduit roads. So you take -- try and take into account. And yes, we're going to lose some things. And then if we go through that and go through the pour and you discover that you've got a critical circuit that's been damaged, you'll have to run conduit on the outside of the deck. And that's a challenge as well. So all these opportunities and challenges, CADDY has come up with a really great solution for you to go about that. So what do we have? So our new product, quick and easy to secure your PVC and ENT or smart tube into that in-deck application. So that image on the right-hand side just shows that it's a task like any other scenario to your plywood form. So then you attach your conduit, have the rebar and the concrete that's poured and after. So what did we do? Now we're looking at the 2 most common size ranges, 0.75 inch and 1 inch. And then we have both PVC and ENT applications. So we included this integrated kitchen, and that's that bottom arrow there. So you can literally stand on this, and it's not going to go anywhere. It's a really robust solution to support that stub-down application. And then ease of use, having that ability just to have a push-in connector for that smart tube or ENT, and that's what that adapter is there on the left-hand side. So this really increases the resiliency of those installations, gives you that confidence that you can have those circuits in the deck, and you're not going to have worries moving forward. So some things that maybe aren't as obvious and you can't see from the outside, the features and benefits we have on the inside. So we did our geometry in a way that it reduces that pull force -- that wire pull force in half. And we've actually tested that and shown that where that geometry we have the smoother transition and allows you to reduce your fatigue scenario or if you're up on a ladder or in a lift, makes it much easier to pull that wire through. So then the bottom feature there, there's a standard fitting, thread fitting. So it will accept all the standard fittings for 0.75 inch and 1 inch. So it gives you that flexibility to either extend with your conduit run after it comes out of the ceiling or if you're just going to attach a fixture or a box. It gives you all those options there, really easy with that standard thread form fitting. And then what we saw in our evaluation of existing products that a lot of times, the fish tape got -- would get hung up in that transition. And we've made those design tweaks to where now that fish tape does not get hung up as we're going through that. So really reducing that aggravation in the field, giving you a lot of confidence and resilience in the installation. So let's just go through the product offering real quick. So we've got 3 options here. The first one on the left-hand side is for PVC. So the part number group is RSD. And then the size scenario, 0.75 or 0.100 for or 0.75 inch or 1 inch. The R designates for PVC. So then that just goes in there. The image in the center is for ENT or smart tube, same route. And it acts as a designation so that adapters already attached coming out of the box and glued together, so then all you got to do is push your ENT into that and it is secured with that adapter. Or we also will be selling the ENT adapter on its own. So it's RSD [ FA ] and then the size designation on the end. So if you want to have that flexibility and just have the PVC version in a handful or a box of the ENT adapters, that will give you all that flexibility kind of depending on what you're doing in the deck during your installation. So we're really excited about this. Looking forward to having this out there in your hands and making your life easier. So again, with the additional resources, we have our data sheet coming up on that. All these products are on the New Product page. And again, coming back to the related products, so in-deck, you not only have stub-down, which is what this product is for, but also those stub-up applications. And that's where the FBS family comes in. Few of you are familiar with this, but we added the FBS4 and FBS6 to the existing FBS range to keep things within that concrete deck to give you another option for stub-up applications. So we're excited about that. I've got a couple of poll questions for everybody. So we're going to go ahead and get started there. Just give it a few more moments to get everyone an opportunity to answer that question. All right. Just another couple of seconds here, and then we'll go ahead and close off the poll. All right. Another question. So if you did answer yes, basically, how many boxes do you have typically in a deck? Pretty interesting spread of answers on this. Appreciate everyone's feedback and input. Let's give it a few more moments to give people opportunity to put their answer in. All right. And then one last, and then we will move on. And this is a question. How do you secure your existing runs as you go through the deck, so not in the stub-downs or at stub-up but as you're running through the deck. All right. Let me just give it a couple more moments, and then we'll move on. all Right. Appreciate everyone's input there. And we'll have one more question at the end when Jim is done. So I'm going to hand it off to Jim to talk to his awesome products.

Thanks, Bryson. All right. The first 2 parts you see there may look very familiar. There is the TB425FB and TB435 where you have a powder coated version and a pre-galvanized version with an adjustable depth box. And then we're going to fit it to a 2.5-inch deep stud space. Both of these are used for mounting firearm devices, right? Our current offering in the TB series are 435. Version is for 3 5/8 deep studs. And because of the size of that one, it won't fit in 2.5. So based on contracted feedback with our markets, we're seeing 2.5-inch stud space use. We developed this to fit into that small stud space. Moving to next slide. So the 425 kept all the same features and benefits that the 435 version have. To make it smaller, we had to, of course, make the box not as deep and the brackets a little bit smaller. There's a 2.5-inch deep box, and it will accept -- still accept most fire alarm devices in that 2.5-inch deep box. But they're design mainly for fire alarm devices, strobes and now luminaires. And really, the main value is having a one-part-does-all approach, right? No more assembly boxes, extension rings and brackets and then trying to make that flush with the drywall. That adjustable depth box and integrated bracket eliminates all of that and makes the installation and use before and after drywall easier and faster, right? Like our other fire alarm boxes, these can be mounted on stud, directly studded to screws. They snap on to the -- between stud bracket and/or between stud applications. And with the -- between stud and our TBTG clips, it can be mounted to T-Grid. And the prefab tab there, that could be bent over the rail of the bracket to keep the assembly attached to the bracket without having to install screws, right? Our prefab shop uses that whenever we're building our assemblies to keep them on the center plate -- keep the center plate on the bracket during transportation, right? So when they get to the job site, the assembly is ready to be installed. The bracket can still be telescoped for the size needed, and that box assembly can be positioned along the bracket and then -- in its the final location and then attach the screws. So it's a cool little feature, pretty powerful. And like the big brother, the 435 version, the depth adjustment screws are located inside the box by making that depth adjustment easy to do after drywall has been installed or after the TB panel has been installed. And really, these aren't just the contractors using TB series, right? All of you should be able to benefit if you just bought this one part, right? Struggling with all of this mud, extension rings and how to get those down, and this one part does it all, a solution that adds a lot of value. Next slide, Bryson. So both of the 425 versions are UL listed, and now we have a luminaire rating. On the back of the box, there's a center loop in the arrow there. The loop is designed to accept a drop wire or to accept our Speed Link cable product, and that allowed us to get a UL rating for overhead, luminaires and even a box support rating. So for overhead applications, drop wire to support and install, and that allows you to install the fire alarm with strobe or a luminaire up to 7 pounds. For in-wall applications, the same 7-pound rating is in place as well, right? So for example, a lighted exit sign or a device with a strobe can be mounted on their in-wall application as well. Although an overhead box support rating may not be the first application to think about for this particular product, we do now have a 50-pound overhead rating for any non-luminaire device. So 7 can be used to overhead for a junction box, for example, right? We also have that same box rating now in-wall, right? Not an obvious application here that I would point to. But if you only need to install this in-wall projection box, we have that rating. All right. Marketing assets. We've got an updated data sheet, of course. The data sheets now have 2 different data sheets, 1 for the red-coated version with both parts on it and then a pre-gal data sheet with the updated partners there. And as Bryson mentioned, all of our products can be found on our New Product page. And that page in our website will certain point you in the direction of all those other TB products that are related to this series. Next slide. All right. Next product. Second, it's our OBB4, Open Back Box 4. It's a 4-square box with a removable back plate. Super excited about this product, and we've gotten a lot of requests throughout -- over the years. And we've got our all-in-one product that had a removable back plate. Our fully engineered solution has a removable back plat. So really excited about this. Now you have a box that you can mount to face -- basically a face-mounted type of bracket and give you that open box capability. Next slide. All right. Design is perfect for that prefab contractor that has pre-assembly brackets, boxes, mud rings, devices and cables, right, that are going to be sent to the field. You've got a daisy chain now. You've got to get your cable in your box, right, with that open-back concept. You can quickly easily install it and wire it from the back. It's going to come with the back plate. As you see there, it's all assembled. This back plate has a 10-inch ground wire. It's 2 1/8 inch deep. It's got 0.5 and 0.75-inch multiple knockouts and UL and cUL certification and made in America. And the map -- not a lot of boxes are made here in the U.S. All right. Sorry, my -- popped up on my screen there. So that removable back plate, right, you can see the picture there. I think that kind of describes it perfectly. You've got 2 cables coming in that 4-square box. Those cables can take up a lot of room in that box, right? So before we get to that back of the box, I have to work through the mud ring or drop the mud ring, a lot of value there. So just a quick note, the box itself is designed for U.S. mud rings. And the reason I bring that up is because we do have a cUL listing as well for Canada. But to be perfectly clear and transparent there, if our Canadian friends want to use this, they would have to source a U.S. mud ring. As far as the box knockout configuration, there's half and half pre-cord or combo, knockouts, 11 total. That box lock feature at the bottom takes up the space of that one at the bottom. But typical knockout pattern, the same knockout configuration of the 4-square deep boxes that we're using on our standard prefab assemblies that we launched last year. If you go the next slide. Again, we have all the -- we have data sheets. You can do your submittals. It's live on our website, and you can find -- get all additional information on our website. All right. The last group of parts we're launching is what we call Perfect Trim adjustable mud rings. Very excited about these. This group of parts have their origin and roots in our prefab system as well. It's a family of parts. When used together, the position of the mud ring is perfectly flushed with the drywall in nearly every application. And with this family, we created an innovative installation method of installing devices after drywall, right, for that -- mainly for that prefab contractor that's shipping assemblies with cable and devices and cover plates on that assembly shipping it to the field. So -- and we'll talk about that here in a second. So what is Perfect Trim? Four main SKUs, looks and works just like an adjustable mud ring. They're going to adjust the depth from 0.5 inch up to it 1.25 inch. Four main parts, single and double gang for 4 square boxes, single and double gang version for 4 11/16 boxes. As you can see down below, there's a cross reference to our existing line of AMRs. So we've got 4 on the line and got you covered there. And they are -- this product also is UL and cUL listed. So we designed an extension ring that fastens the inner ring to extend the work in depth. So it's a new methodology, right? We've been -- our existing mud rings don't have that extension ring capability. That extension ring has a guide tab to help position the ring onto the inner ring and to snap in place and once in place, will fasten into the inner ring with 2 screw. The screws do come assembled or provided out of the box. And that ring can be added any time in the process. It can be added in the prefab shop. It can be shipped to the job that way, it can be added in the field. It can be added before or after the device is installed, right? If the device is already installed, you simply remove the screws that are holding the device to the mud ring, right? You're going to leave the pigtails and the wiring attached. You pull it up. You simply put the extension ring through the device over the device and the wires and attach it to that inner ring. So pretty unique and flexible. It's going to get you out to that when you've got -- you thought you had 2 layers of drywall, you got 2 plus some tile. That 1.25 inch is going to get you out to that tile. So adding -- being able to add and extend that ring is a nice future. The second feature is the spring steel snapping clip there that you see, and that spring steel repair clip is optional. And that's -- you can use that in case the box assembly isn't as rigid as it could be, right, where the device and box assembly will push back into the wall cavity, right? You've all experienced that your far side support isn't working or the bracket that you picked wasn't rigid enough, right? And that clip snaps into the ears on the side of that inner ring, you can see it in that center picture. But it's going to snap in to those ears, and then it's going to create a surface to catch the drywall, right? So the clip is going to get installed after the drywall has been installed. And then once that clip is installed, you adjust some screws on the Perfect Trim ring or tighten, and the box assembly will be drawn into the back of the drywall and make that assembly tight to the drywall and make it rigid and eliminating that pushback. So 2 features that are innovative, our existing line doesn't have, and I don't think any of our competitors have a repair clip like that, that can snap into an inner ring. So a lot of value there for using adjustable mud ring. I look at this and think, why would you use anything else with this added capability? So what else? And I talked about the methodology, right? So with the Perfect Trim, we created a new methodology or a way to install devices after drywall. And what does that mean? While the main benefits for a contractor is building assemblies with devices and cover plates, pre-installed and shipped to the job site, it is going to make that installation and the drywall work around it much easier and much better. So how does it work? So the first step around all the main of the 4 parts, that inner ring can be removed from the outer ring, right, by adjusting the inner ring all the way out. So what you see in that photo is that inner ring removed from what I call the outer ring. So now you've got 2 pieces. So once that inner ring is separated, it can be assembled with the device and pigtails and set aside to be installed after drywall, right, after paint, after wallpaper, whatever, after the last step to do your final step in the process. So the first step, as you see in the photos, is you disassemble the ring, inner from the outer ring. The outer ring is then assembled to the box assembly and into the rough-end mud ring, I'll call it. Next is to guide the drywall that's been used to cover on the drywall. The other key part is the protective cover plate. So when you ship the assembly out or you install the assembly in the wall, you're going to use that outer ring and you're going to put a cover plate over. The cover plates, there's a single gang and double gang. They snap into the outer ring, and they're going to stay there. And it serves 2 main purposes: the first is they protect the contents of the box. So drywall [indiscernible], it can't get into the box, damage wires. And they're going to protect from getting drywall mud inside the box, right, getting it caked in the box, getting it caked in your device because the device isn't there. So the installer -- the drywall installer runs his [indiscernible], and he finds that nice flat surface. He runs up on the side, runs in the outer ring, and you end up with some really nice fitment of the drywall mud ring. No rework, no mud has to go around that now and end up in your box, right? In most cases today, what are we doing in prefab? We're sending out assemblies, right, that have a mud ring. The device is installed with a big old cover plate, right? These assemblies aren't easy to cut around, and they stick up beyond the mud ring. They can add drywall, which, I'm sure, are pretty difficult. And they have to cut out around the assembly even to the extend way beyond the cover plate to [indiscernible] rework, right? With this methodology, that all goes away because that device is now not there, and it's going to get installed after everything is done, right? So with this process, again, no chance of getting the device damaged, taken [ from the mount ] or even stolen. I've heard some contractors, our devices get stolen. These devices aren't cheap, and they're getting more complicated and higher in cost. So -- and it turns out you can quick check those, and then it's a win-win. So once the drywall is installed, painting is finished, all the finish work is done around the device, the cover plate is removed. The device with the pigtails, right, that's on that inner ring can be installed out of the outer ring with the adjustment screws. You do your wiring, screw it in, make it flush. It's ready to go, and now your cover plate can now be installed. And the turnout is completely done. So we see a lot of benefits with this methodology of getting that device out of the way of all that drywall work and doing it on the very last step of the process. Next slide, Bryson. Our data sheet, all -- the new data sheet has all 9 parts on that. So you're not submitting 9 different pages. It's all complete in a 2-page [indiscernible]. We do have a video that we created showing how the extension rings work, the repair clip and then the methodology of installing after drywall is installed. So it's on our website. You can look it up by going to the part. Any of these parts will have the video attached. And that's it. Bryson?

Actually, we have one -- just one more poll question on what information would you like to get as follow-up. It looks like for the stuff for Jim, you'll just need to select the other radio button. Unfortunately, we don't have a split out there, but we'll make sure you get that information. So I'm going to go ahead and launch that, and you should start seeing that coming through now. If you're interested in some further information, please indicate here. And Jim and I may or may not have a running bet on who has more interest.

I'm voting for the other.

Well, you are leading. So...

So if you hit other, then it could be any of the 3, right, Bryson, that you said.

Yes. Yes. Unfortunately, I don't know why it gets blown out that way, but we'll just use it that way. Give you folks a few more moments to vote in on which ones they'd like to have more information.

Yes. So one thing I'll mention real quick is the 3 in-wall products that we're launching, we do have stock available and so on for those. If you have interest and you have maybe a job and you might want to use those on, I would reach out to your local CADDY rep. It's not -- don't wait for somebody to reach out for you based on this poll question.

All right. It looks like we've got everybody in. So thank you. We appreciate your time and attention, and don't hesitate to reach out to Jim or myself or your local CADDY representative. And we'll see you again for our next launch in the summer. Thank you, everybody.

Thanks, everyone.