Quorum Information Technologies Inc. (QIS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Quorum Information Technologies Inc. 2021 Year-End Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Maury Marks, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chris. Good morning, and thank you for attending Quorum Information Technologies Q4 2021 and audited full year 2021 results conference call and concurrent webcast. Joining me on the call today is our Chief Financial Officer, Marilyn Bown. Quorum is a SaaS software and services company that provides essential software to vehicle dealerships and original equipment manufacturers or OEMs throughout North America. Our clients rely on our software for their entire dealership operations, including vehicle sales and service. With the acquisition of Accessible Accessories subsequent to the end of the quarter, at least one of our software solutions is now deployed to 1,468 franchise dealerships across the continent. In Canada, at least one of our solutions are in 41% of the franchise dealerships nationally. We refer to an individual dealership as a rooftop, and the growth of rooftops is a KPI. Since 2016, we have added over 1,160 rooftops to our base with 945 of those, rooftops added through acquisition. As at December 31, 2021, we had attained 1,045 rooftops, which represents growth of 24 rooftops compared with the total rooftops deployed in the fourth quarter of 2020. We posted record revenue of $36.1 million, an increase of 17% over 2020. The increased revenue on our modest organic rooftop count growth demonstrates that our focused cross-selling activities are delivering results. We measure cross-selling, a second primary KPI based on our monthly reoccurring revenue per rooftop or MRRPU. This quarter, our sales MRRPU was $2,105, an increase of 7% from $1,971 reported in Q4 last year. This implies that our current annual SaaS reoccurring revenue per rooftop is $25,260. For Quorum, reoccurring revenue for Q4 2021 is 98% of our total revenue. SaaS revenue represents 72% of our total revenue and reoccurring services revenue represents 26% of our total revenue. The reoccurring services revenue is from our BDC, a centralized call center that our clients rely on primarily to generate and manage service appointments. The gross margin for our SaaS reoccurring revenue is 65%, while the gross margin for our BDC is 13%. Although the gross margins are thinner, BDC is an important service because it acts as a lead generator for selling our higher-margin SaaS software. Every dollar of BDC revenue generates an additional $0.37 of software revenue. We are pleased that organic growth in our SaaS software business remains strong throughout 2021. Marilyn will now review our financial results in a little more detail, and then I will offer some perspective on our growth opportunities. After our prepared remarks, we will open the floor to your questions. Marilyn, please go ahead.

Thank you, Maury, and hello, everybody. Thank you for being here with us today. I would like to remind everyone that certain statements in this presentation and on our call are forward-looking in nature. These include statements involving known and unknown risks, such as the continued risks related to COVID-19, uncertainties and other factors outside of management's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Quorum does not assume any responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the forward-looking statements and does not take -- undertake any obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. For additional information on possible risks, including risks related to COVID-19, please refer to our annual MD&A dated December 31, 2021, on the SEDAR website. We are happy to report that our revenue figures set yet another record for our company. Total revenue for Q4 2021 was $9.2 million, an 11% increase compared to $8.3 million in Q4 of 2020. Q4 2021 was the highest SaaS and BDC revenue quarter in the corporation's history. SaaS and BDC revenue increased by 9% and 25%, respectively, over Q4 2020. SaaS annual run rate based on Q4 2021 performance is $26.4 million compared to $24.1 million in Q4 2020. BDC annual run rate based on Q4 2021 is $9.8 million compared to $7.8 million annual run rate based on Q4 2020. Total reoccurring revenue represents 98% of total revenue and equates to an annual run rate of $36.2 million compared to $31.9 million calculated last year. Q4 2021 and Q4 2020 SaaS revenue included SaaS revenue generated by the now discontinued Advantage division. Excluding Advantage, Quorum SaaS revenue would have increased by 10% in Q4 2021 in comparison to Q4 2020. Gross profit increased by 17% to $4.3 million compared to $3.7 million reported in the same quarter last year. Gross margin expanded to 47% of revenue in Q4 2021 as compared to 44% of revenue in Q4 2020. SaaS gross margin remained consistent at 66% as compared to Q4 2020. BDC gross margin increased to 13% in Q4 2021 as compared to 9% in Q4 2020. Adjusted EBITDA for Q4 2021 decreased by 23% to $1.1 million as compared to Q4 2020. The decrease in adjusted EBITDA is primarily attributed to an increase in general and administrative expenses. The increase in G&A expenses is due to a significant increase in the annual audit fee and onetime restructuring and acquisition expenses. Throughout 2021, Quorum added new hires as part of its One Quorum strategy, to improve efficiency, consistency and scalability of the company. Resources were added to focus on key initiatives, which included increasing qualified sales leads, consolidating operations, improving BDC profitability and process improvement and modernizing technology. In Q4 2021, we took an impairment charge of $1.7 million due to our decision to wind down the Advantage division, which resulted in a write-down of Advantage's goodwill and intangible assets. The acquisition of Advantage enabled Quorum to increase annual reoccurring SaaS revenue by over $0.7 million by converting Advantage's franchise dealership customers to the Accelerator DMS. However, under IFRS, we were required to write down the goodwill and intangible assets related to that division. This was the primary reason for our net loss for Q4 2021, which increased by $1.5 million as compared to Q4 2020. Including cash of $6.5 million, total net working capital as of December 31, 2021, decreased to $7.6 million from $9.1 million as of December 31, 2020, a decrease of $1.5 million. The decrease in net working capital is primarily attributable to the $1.5 million prepayment of principal and interest on the BDC capital loan. In February 2022, Quorum restructured its credit facility with BDC Capital. The new facility significantly reduces interest rates and extends the maturity date of the loan. And as Maury mentioned a few moments ago, on April 1, 2022, Quorum completed the acquisition of Accessible Accessories Ltd. Quorum paid $4.5 million in cash with a 10% holdback to be released September 30, 2022, pursuant to the terms of an earnout structure. The corporation financed the transaction with a combination of cash on hand and BDC Capital [ priorities ]. The acquisition added 423 net new rooftops and provides a significant cross-selling growth opportunity for the company. With that, I'd like to pass it back to Maury.

Thank you, Marilyn. As I mentioned in my earlier remarks, we are pleased with the progress we are making in organic SaaS revenue growth. It is a balance between adding new rooftops and increasing monthly reoccurring revenue from the clients that we already have through cross-selling. Dealerships are now facing complex market conditions that makes our product suite appealing for dealers attempting to protect their competitive position and to maximize profits. The additional rooftops from the Accessible Accessories acquisition means we now have penetration into 1,468 franchise dealerships, which includes 41% of Canada's dealer network. Quorum solutions are designed to provide dealerships with escalating synergy and value as added solutions are deployed to dealerships. Organization-wide, we are intent on leveraging the current rooftop penetration to cross-sell to our clients to maximize the synergy and value that we can provide their dealerships. I would like to now reiterate our 4 growth pillars: number one, increasing rooftops. Despite the strong 41% penetration into franchise dealerships, we believe we can increase our Canadian franchise penetration further. Indeed, our penetration in the U.S. remains at only 1%, which represents a huge growth opportunity for our company. We have learned that the fastest, most efficient approach to expanding our rooftop footprint is to acquire net new rooftops with complementary solutions. Again, the Accessible Accessories acquisition is a primary example of this approach as we added 423 unique rooftops from that acquisition. Two, as we've been gaining momentum cross-selling our product suite to our existing customer base, post the Accessible Accessories acquisition, the cross-selling opportunity that we have if a client purchased all of our available solutions for their leadership is $4,750 of MRRPU, which is 3x our post-acquisition MRRPU of $1,584. There is an impressive $3,163 per rooftop cross-sell upside potential, a company record. Within our own footprint of franchise dealerships, the total cross-sell potential is approximately $56 million of annual reoccurring revenue. Three, from a product development perspective, we are introducing more capabilities to allow our clients to compete for customers in new digital channels. Our consumer direct digital products include both MyDeal and PowerLane are gaining interest among our client base. And number four, as mentioned in last quarter's conference call, in partnership with AutoCanada, Quorum has entered the adjacent collision center market with our BDC services solution. We continue to look for new ways to leverage our BDC services to improve dealership lead generation and also help Quorum sell more SaaS solutions. Current market conditions are compelling dealers everywhere to modernize and streamline their operations to better compete in that dynamic marketplace. Quorum software and services has breadth and flexibility that allows our clients to thrive in these conditions. The 4 pillars I just outlined, combined with the current market conditions, provide the company with attractive opportunities for new customer adoption and for cross-selling its many products across its sizable installed base. The company has worked hard to provide a product and services strategy that would resonate with peer groups across North America. We would not have been able to achieve this without our amazing employees that are the driving force behind our strong results; and their continued innovation, which ensures Quorum has a product suite and services offering prepared for the future of automotive. Operator, I'd like to now open the conference to any questions from our audience.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Gavin Fairweather with Cormark.

I wanted to start out just on the sales environment that you saw over the course of 2021. I mean, obviously, you talked about it being a dynamic environment. When I look at the first half of the year, we saw a pretty nice acceleration in SaaS ARR. And I guess, in the back half, we did see that growth rate decelerate a little bit. So maybe you can just talk about that dynamic environment that you're seeing, what kind of opportunities it's providing you but then also maybe what kind of challenges or headwinds it is also presenting for you to operate in?

Yes, you bet, no -- and great question. Now as we've talked about in the past, right, the market is a really interesting one. So in terms of opportunities, obviously, dealerships are motivated to really put digital solutions in place to -- especially for those consumers that want to buy a car online, that want to get their car serviced without coming into the dealership. I mean, we've talked about in the past how COVID accelerated that. So that's an opportunity for us. What we're seeing is a challenge in the marketplace is, obviously, the different ways of COVID have restricted dealership's ability to service customers and customers' desire to come into dealerships, and even leave their homes, in some cases, with different ways. But what the trail on effect of COVID is, is of course, supply chain disruptions. And if we look across our Canadian customer base with our U.S. one being similar, and we look at vehicle inventories that they have, dealerships are typically holding 20% to 25% of the vehicles that they traditionally would have in inventory. If they're trying to special order a vehicle for our customers, the wait times are 5 months or so for dealership orders, special order car from the manufacturer. So that presents us a number of different challenges because some of our solutions are really designed to help the dealership drive more leads into their sales department. And with dealerships not having enough inventory and having many leads for every piece of inventory that they do have, it's hard to sell those particular products into the dealership. Now contrast that up against the service side of the business or the fixed operations side, which is service and parts, on that side of the business, we're seeing opportunities. So with our PowerLane product, we're seeing opportunities with our DealerMine service CRM. We just released a new tool, a new refresh of a tool called online service scheduling. It allows people to book a service appointment online. Those particular tools we're seeing demand for, and they're really helping us sort of drive revenue, which is fantastic because what we're also seeing from dealerships is when they can't sell as many vehicles as they're used to, they are pivoting more to their fixed operations side of their business, which has always been the highest gross margin side of their business. So hopefully that helps.

That's helpful comment. I mean it feels like probably the operating environment in the first half of this year is probably similar, and I'd imagine that you're still kind of prioritizing some of your solutions like PowerLane given that environment. But any kind of change in the environment you'd note in the first half or any kind of changing tactics that you'd highlight there?

So you're talking about changing tactics going into the first half of this year?

Just in the first half of '22, have you seen any change in that environment? Or any kind of new tactics that you're taking to market?

Yes. So we haven't seen any real change in the environment. In actual fact, I think what has happened in the environment is people have really come to realize that the supply chain issues, especially around vehicle inventory, are going to be longer lasting than everybody thought. And so they just come to realize that this is going to be sort of the new operating level for a period of time, these mixed reactions on how long that period of time will be. And so there's -- I think there's, we're sort of seeing there's a realization of that. In terms of what are our tactics, we're over-indexing on our fixed operations tools. So that means that we're spending more money on developing new features for those particular tools, really trying to focus more on those tools, a lot of times selling them not only to new rooftops but by cross-selling to our existing customer base. You look at the Accessible Accessories acquisition for us. I mean there's another tool that helps a parts department out and a service department to sell accessories. So it's a tool that can really help fix operations. It can help sales as well -- the sales team as well, but it also helps the fixed operations inside of a dealership. So yes, a lot of emphasis on the fixed ops side.

That's helpful. And then I just want to make sure that I understand the moving pieces related to Advantage properly. So you moved most of the rooftops on to your Accelerator platform. There were a few that didn't transition. You're now kind of sunsetting or end-of-lifing that product. Do I understand that correctly? And then do you get any cost savings from that? Or are you kind of reallocating some of the people to some of your other offerings there?

Yes. So you highlighted exactly what we did. And we did -- we moved the existing franchise dealers to our current DMS platform. We view that as a big success. I mean that was why we went into the transaction originally. We always thought maybe we could develop on to the product for the independent market and really start selling that in the independent market. That proved to be a lot more challenging than we thought. It was going to be -- but we accomplished objective number one very successfully. In actual fact, I think we wrote in our MD&A, we moved 85% of the franchise dealerships across, but we ultimately ended up moving was -- we moved 100% of the SaaS revenue related to 100% of those dealerships across because we were able to upsell as we moved them across over into our Quorum DMS. And then for us, we made the decision, as we put out in our MD&A, and as Marilyn talked about, that it just made more sense for us to really focus on the franchise business. We saw a fairly long growth runway and cost runway to growing their -- the existing product into the independent marketplace. And so there was going to be a lot more costs to incur. And it was going to take away from our focus, so we made the choice to move forward with shutting it down. In terms of cost savings, there will be a little bit of cost savings but not very much. We really, for the most part, redeployed people within our larger Quorum organization.

Okay. That's great. Maybe we can just touch on M&A little bit. I mean, obviously, we saw you really focus internally and roll out your One Quorum approach, and now we've seen you come back and be active on the consolidation strategy here again with Accessible Accessories. Curious if you're seeing good deal flow. Have you seen any change in valuation? Should we expect you to be kind of more active on M&A here going forward?

Yes. So we are more active. Marilyn and I are spending more and more of our time on M&A. And as you alluded to, right, for us, a big focus in the organization was to One Quoromize the organization, and we were hesitant to add more acquisitions in until we were to complete that. We should be done everything by the end of this particular quarter we're in, so Q2, I think I've mentioned that in previous conference calls. And yes that sets us up for success in terms of onboarding any future acquisitions. We've got a sort of clear path on how we actually deal with those acquisitions from an integration point of view. So yes -- so the bottom line is, yes, we're more active. Yes we're looking at more opportunities, and we hope that those will translate into future acquisitions for us.

And then just lastly for me, obviously, some big news recently in your sector with the CDK take-up by Brookfield there. Any kind of industry scuttlebutt that you could pass on? Or any kind of thoughts on that deal just given one of those big platforms is changing hands here?

Well, I think CDK has been shopping around for a while based on what I have heard through the rumor mill. So this was an eventual -- this was inevitable. At one point in time, I think it was -- just came down to the right partner and the right valuation. And then we'll keep close tabs on CDK going forward and see if there's any real change in strategy.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Gabriel Leung with Beacon Securities.

Maury, just one for you, just around BDC. I'm curious what your thoughts are around some initiatives you might be taking over the next 12 months to sort of increase utilization within that group. I see the quarterly revenues have sort of flatlined here about $2.4 million, and I know gross margins are still below your target of 20% for BDC. So I'm curious what sort of initiatives you might be pursuing this year to improve things there.

Right. Yes. So a few thoughts on this one. Our BDC has been a very busy team in the last while. So I'll just highlight a few things that have gone on with them. I think, in our last call, we talked about the fact that we've had a change in leadership on our BDC. So we've got a new leader in as of roughly December for that particular team. We've also been expanding our services for our BDC. I mentioned AutoCan collision center, but we've been expanding other pieces within it as well. So it's undergone a fair bit of change. They've had a lot of wins. And -- but most of the wins you haven't seen in terms of gross margin expansion. Most of the wins have been around consistency of service related to our BDC for our dealerships, but there's also been wins on the efficiency side. So let me just highlight a couple of those. We're now at the point where our number of calls per agent has gone up. We've gone up from 70 to 90s. The 90 number reflects sort of our calls per agent per day in 2022. So that's a pretty big efficiency improvement for us. But like I said, that's sort of been a current -- a recent improvement. We've improved the quality of our service a lot. So we've got our booking [ years ] are down. Our service [indiscernible] booking [ years ] are down 46%, which has been very helpful. And another interesting number for us is our BDC churn was 0 in Q4 as well. So hence, my point of telling you that particular number is, obviously, the focus on quality and calls has helped, and we've seen it in terms of churn. And then the final number that I'll give you in here as well is what we've also seen is a real decline in the number of voluntary people that have left our BDC. So our turnover rate of staff is down significantly, which is just helping us with consistency of the overall operation. Now you didn't see any of that translate into gross margin expansion but it was all pretty core fundamental stuff that we needed to do within the BDC, and we remain very focused on not only growing the revenues of the BDC, which, as I mentioned, help us with SaaS revenues as well, but we do remain focused on the gross margin side of the business as well.

Got you. No, that's really helpful. I'm curious -- and I'm not sure there's a metric you shared in the past, but within your -- I guess, it's 1,400-plus rooftop now -- rooftops now, sorry. What percentage of that actually take advantage of your BDC services?

Yes. It's only -- I won't get this number exact, so I'm going to give you a range. We're between 125 and 175 dealerships.

Got you. So a lot of opportunity there. So I presume this is one of the cross-sell opportunities you're pursuing going forward. But I'm also curious, the remaining rooftops that don't use your BDCs, do they have an existing provider? Or is it sort of greenfield opportunity for you?

A lot of it is greenfield opportunity. Well, sort of 2 things, actually. Let me split that. So one particular piece is we will go into a dealership and it's an absolute greenfield opportunity. And as the environment gets more challenging for dealerships, they will see the BDC as a more important thing. For a lot of them, they look at the BDC services that we operate as a Godsend because they don't have to build up a BDC themselves and take all that runway to build it up before it actually gets operating and starts helping. So those for us are the -- yes, there's some education you have to do with those kind of dealerships to get them to understand the value that you're bringing to the table, but they're one of our primary opportunities. Then what we also see is we see dealerships -- and this is more dealer groups that have a BDC already in their organization but they're struggling with managing it. And a BDC is tough to manage for a dealership. It's a different animal for them, and they see high turnover rates. And so they're constantly trying to -- with a smaller BDC trying to manage through the training cost and the turnover and all of the pieces associated with that, and it becomes challenging. So we're an interesting alternative to them because, at scale, we can manage through those particular challenges. But yes, we think there's a significant opportunity across our customer base for our BDC services. We also longer term, Gabe -- our vision on this longer term is we would like to expand our BDC. We actually want to expand it and rebrand it as dealer services so that it offers more than just the BDC set of services. We can offer other services, especially those that might help us with adopting our software in a dealership. Like a great example of that would be digital marketing services so that we could provide through to a dealership, would then take advantage of our digital marketing tools that we already have and would ensure high adoption of them and high return for the dealership.

There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back to Mr. Marks.

All right. Well, thank you so much for everybody's support and for attending the conference today and for all the great questions. And we look forward to seeing you again at our Q1 conference call, which is in about a month from now. Thanks, everybody. Enjoy the rest of your day.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.