The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
(Questions from industry analysts are provided in full, but answers are omitted - download the transcript to see the full question-and-answer session)
Question: Theodore O'Neill - Litchfield Hills Research, LLC - Analyst
: Thank you very much. Couple of questions by segment here. In the retail segment, you -- in your prepared remarks here, you talked about sales
mix being an issue. And you mentioned new versus pre-owned product. Which has the better margins?
Question: Theodore O'Neill - Litchfield Hills Research, LLC - Analyst
: Okay. In the flooring segment, you talked here about inflationary issues, and it's -- seeing as it's almost the end -- it is halfway through December
now, are you seeing any plateauing or -- of those inflationary pressures or is that continuing into the current quarter?
Question: Theodore O'Neill - Litchfield Hills Research, LLC - Analyst
: Great. Can you give us any more details on the $4.9 million impairment charge in the SW Financial?
Question: Theodore O'Neill - Litchfield Hills Research, LLC - Analyst
: Okay. And my last question, and you may have covered this in the previous conference call, but raw material inventory is up significantly from a
year ago. And it looks like it's the same -- it's been the same level last quarter, too. And you may have explained, but can you give me some
information on that?
Question: Theodore O'Neill - Litchfield Hills Research, LLC - Analyst
: Yes, it does. Thank you very much.
Question: Joseph Kowalsky - Upstream Investment Partners - Analyst
: Hello, gentlemen. Thank you for taking the call and thanks for the interesting information. And thanks to the prior caller for asking a number of my
questions, so that I'll be a little -- it looks like -- and looking at the different segments -- that they all had earnings, with the exception of corporate
and other, if I'm reading this correctly for the quarter anyway. And that it seems that's largely SW Financial that took the hit there. Am I right that
the other segments were all in the black for the quarter?
Question: Joseph Kowalsky - Upstream Investment Partners - Analyst
: Got you. Right. So is SW Financial also an RIA or it's just a broker?
Question: Joseph Kowalsky - Upstream Investment Partners - Analyst
: I mean, my broker-dealer, for example, has both -- does both. It's got -- one side is the RIA side and one side is the broker-dealer side. So I didn't
know how SW Financial works, if you're familiar with the terminology.
Question: Joseph Kowalsky - Upstream Investment Partners - Analyst
: Okay. Are they -- I would hope that they would be expanding the RIA. That tends to be, I believe, the more profitable these days, and hopefully,
they'll move more into that area. That would be exciting. Do you know if they have any thoughts on that?
Question: Joseph Kowalsky - Upstream Investment Partners - Analyst
: All right. Great. As far as Vintage Stock, do you -- you've opened, I think you said seven new stores. Do you see a lot more foot traffic now obviously
than during COVID, but does it seem like it's going to continue to be the case as opposed to, you know, there was time where people thought
everything was going to be done online, and there's going to be no brick-and-mortar at all? How does that look over the next five years, let's say?
Or without making a specific projection, just in general about foot traffic, what are you seeing in that regard?
Question: Joseph Kowalsky - Upstream Investment Partners - Analyst
: Yes, I'm just outside of Detroit.
Question: Joseph Kowalsky - Upstream Investment Partners - Analyst
: Yes. I know vinyl has been becoming more and more prevalent so that's -- that alone is, I think, something that's going to be around for quite a
while to come. And so that's exciting. I would love to go into one of these stores, if I find my way out that way.
Two other questions, though. You said sales and marketing, going to shows and things like that. Is that for a particular division or is that --
Question: Joseph Kowalsky - Upstream Investment Partners - Analyst
: Got you. And then with regard to inflation, I appreciate the response that you gave out with inflation. But the second side of that coin is, what
about the pricing on the goods that you sell in addition to inflation maybe moderating or something? Are you able to catch up with the inflation
in terms of the sales cost -- the product costs that you're selling, the products that you're selling rather than the cost of the goods that you're
buying?
Question: Joseph Kowalsky - Upstream Investment Partners - Analyst
: Got you. And then last question I have is with regard to the company as a whole, do you have an idea or a thought about the areas that you like
to look to when you're looking for new companies? Or can it be pretty much anything?
Question: Joseph Kowalsky - Upstream Investment Partners - Analyst
: So you're basically not going to buy Berkshire Hathaway but everything else is on the table?
Question: Joseph Kowalsky - Upstream Investment Partners - Analyst
: Well, I'm impressed, and I appreciate that philosophy and my clients and I tend to also be very patient in long term. I don't take a client who wants
to look at less than five years. And usually, we're thinking between five and 20 years is really what we're looking for to see some good results. So I
appreciate very much that philosophy. Thank you so much. Thanks for your time. Thanks for answering the questions.
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