With a combined revenue of $21 trillion and $2.1 trillion in profits, the 2026 Fortune 500 is the definitive list of America's largest companies.

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Almost $20 trillion in revenue—and a record-breaking $1.87 trillion in profits. Introducing the 2025 Fortune 500, the definitive list of the biggest companies in America.

The 300 companies on this year’s list brought in over $12.6 trillion in revenue for the latest 12 months, with the median revenue figure at $22 billion.

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Industries included in the sector are home equipment and furnishings and household and personal products.

Fortune Sector Leaders: Household Products

The Fortune 500, in its 70th year in 2024, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

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This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 68th running of the list.

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 67th running of the list.

Founded in 1878, this flooring company now offers products worldwide for residential and commercial use.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 66th running of the list.

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The Georgia-based manufacturer of residential and commercial flooring makes carpet, ceramic tile, wood, stone and laminate flooring and rugs.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 65th running of the list.

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Wal-Mart stayed on top as its sales crept closer to half-a-trillion dollars. Apple moved into the top five. And UnitedHealth Group continued its steady climb. 

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Mohawk Industries is the largest flooring manufacturer in the world, employing over 40,000 people. The company supports residential construction, residential replacement, and commercial buildings. Products include ceramic tiling, luxury vinyl tile, wood flooring, and insulation. The company’s integrated approach has operations across design, material sourcing, manufacturing, and distribution. Mohawk Industries is one of the biggest suppliers of flooring, carpets, rugs, and tiling in North America. Manufacturing across 19 countries and selling in 180, the company has had 32 acquisitions since 2013.

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Q4 2024

Mohawk Industries (MHK): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Mohawk Industries

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Good day, and welcome to the Mohawk Industries Fourth Quarter twenty twenty four Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. After today's presentation, there will be

Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to James Brunk, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Wyatt. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Mohawk Industries quarterly investor conference call. Joining me on the call is Kevlar Vaum, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Chris Welborn, our Vice Chairman. Today, we'll update you on the company's fourth quarter and full year performance and provide guidance for the first quarter of twenty twenty five.

I'd like to remind everyone that our press release and statements that we make during this call may include forward looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to those set forth in our press release and our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This call may include discussion of non GAAP numbers. For a reconciliation of any non GAAP to GAAP numbers, please refer to our Form eight K and press release in the Investors section of our website. I'll now turn the call over to Jeff for his opening remarks.

Thank you, Jim. Our fourth quarter results exceeded our expectations as sales actions, restructuring initiatives and productivity improvements benefited our performance. Additionally, the sales impact from U. S.

Hurricanes was limited to approximately $10,000,000 Net sales for the quarter were approximately $2,600,000,000 consistent with the prior year with two additional shipping days, partially offset by the strengthening U. S. Dollar. While residential demand remains soft in our markets, our product introductions last year and our marketing initiatives contributed to our sales performance around the globe. Our adjusted EPS for the quarter was $1.95 in line with the prior year from productivity, additional shipping days, lower interest expense offset by unfavorable pricing, product mix and inflation.

For the full year, our net sales were approximately $10,800,000,000 down approximately 3% as reported and on a constant basis with an adjusted EPS of $9.7 as we progress through the year, our industry deteriorated from higher interest rates, lower housing turnover and reduced remodeling. In response to these conditions, we took additional actions to optimize sales and launched initiatives to reduce overhead, enhance productivity and restructure operations to maximize our performance. Last year, 55% of our sales were in The U. S. And 45% were in other geographies with leading flooring positions on four continents.

The fourth quarter environment was an extension of the conditions our industry faced throughout last year. Consumers continued to limit large discretionary purchases and consumer confidence remain constrained by cumulative inflation, economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions. During 2024, home sales across the world states suppressed, while U. S. Homeowners remained locked in place with low mortgages and existing U.

S. Home sales fell to a thirty year low. Central banks in The U. S, Europe and other regions lowered interest rates during the latter part of last year, though the impact on housing turnover was negligible in most regions. Consumers who did initiate remodeling were more affluent or completing essential projects.

New home construction was also constrained around the world with higher home costs and interest rates impacting starts. Many U. S. Builders increased sales by buying down mortgage rates to make monthly payments more affordable. Throughout the year, investments in the commercial sector slowed, though they remain stronger than residential remodeling.

These factors reduced market demand and created heightened industry competition for volume. This also resulted in greater unabsorbed overhead and shutdown costs as we manage production and inventory. Given these conditions, we focused on stimulating sales with innovative new products, marketing actions and promotional programs. Our product launches delivered style and performance at affordable prices as well as unique premium products to incentivize remodeling. Last year, we initiated significant restructuring actions and operational improvements that are lowering our costs and will benefit our longer term results.

During 2024, we focused capital expenditures on projects driving sales, reducing costs and maintaining our assets. Through these actions, we delivered full year increase of approximately 6% in adjusted earnings per share in a soft market. For the year, we generated free cash flow of $680,000,000 and repurchased 1,300,000.0 shares of stock for $161,000,000 We ended the year with available liquidity of $1,600,000,000 and debt leverage of 1.1 times. We are well positioned to manage this market cycle, pursue opportunities for long term profitable growth and emerge stronger when the housing markets improve. We are taking actions in areas we control to optimize our current performance and improve sales and profits when volumes rebound.

Now Jim will review our financial details.

Thank you, Jeff. Sales for the quarter were just over $2,600,000,000 that's a 1% increase as reported and 1% decrease on a constant basis. Gross margin as reported was 23.6%. SG and A as percentage of sales was 18.6% giving us an operating income margin on a reported basis of 4.6% with non recurring charges of $38,000,000 during the quarter primarily related to previously announced restructuring actions across all three segments, which when completed will yield a cost savings of approximately $285,000,000 Operating income on adjusted basis was $160,000,000 or 6.1%, which is a decline of 60 basis points versus the prior year due to unfavorable price mix of $51,000,000 higher input costs of $20,000,000 partially offset by stronger productivity of $37,000,000 and increased volume of $22,000,000 mainly due from the additional shipping days. Interest expense was $10,000,000 for the quarter, a decrease versus prior year due to a stronger free cash flow and lower overall debt levels.

Non GAAP tax rate was 17.8% versus 21.3% in the prior year. Looking forward, we expect Q1 and the full year twenty twenty five's tax rate to be between 2022%. That gave us an earnings per share on a reported basis of $1.48 and on an adjusted basis $1.95 in line with the prior year in a very difficult environment. Turning to the segments. Global Ceramic had sales of just over $1,000,000,000 That was a 1.5% increase as reported and 1.2% on a constant basis as the benefit of favorable mix and the additional shipping days were only partially offset by pressures on pricing and FX headwinds.

Operating income on adjusted basis was 5.3%. That's a 50 basis point increase over the prior year with productivity gains of $17,000,000 and increased volume of $8,000,000 were only partially offset by unfavorable price mix of $12,000,000 and increased shutdown cost. In Flooring North America, sales were just over $930,000,000 That's a 2.8% increase as reported and declined 0.5% on a constant basis as positive volume gains in our laminate, residential soft and LVT businesses were offset by continued pressure on price and mix. Operating income on adjusted basis was 5.7%. That's a decline of 120 basis points versus the prior year as the impact of that price and mix pressure of $25,000,000 and higher input costs of $11,000,000 were only partially offset by improved volume of $15,000,000 and strengthening productivity of $11,000,000 Finally, in flooring Rest of the World, sales were just shy of $700,000,000 That's a 2.1% decrease as reported and declined 4.8% on a constant basis as the strength of our laminate, LVT and panels businesses

offset by weakness in insulation and sheet vinyl and continued price pressure across the segment. Operating margin on adjusted basis was 10% declining 60 basis points versus the prior year, primarily due to the impact of unfavorable price and mix of $14,000,000 and slightly higher input costs, only partially offset by improved productivity of $9,000,000 Corporate eliminations were $16,000,000 for the quarter as our corporate expenses were in line with our full year expectations of approximately $50,000,000 Looking at the balance sheet, cash and cash equivalents were $667,000,000 with free cash flow of over $230,000,000 in the quarter and $680,000,000 for the full year. In addition, in the quarter, we repurchased approximately $74,000,000 of shares in the period. Inventories were just over $2,500,000,000 and decreased approximately $40,000,000 primarily due to FX as days increased to one hundred and thirty four days versus one hundred and thirty in the prior year, primarily due to increases in source products with the potential of port strikes and tariffs. Property, plant and equipment were just over $4,500,000,000 with CapEx of $161,000,000 in the quarter.

And the company plans to invest approximately $520,000,000 in 2025, primarily focused on product innovation and cost reduction projects. The balance sheet overall remains very strong with strong free cash flow, net debt of $1,600,000,000 and leverage of 1.1 times. Now, Chris will review our Q4 operational performance.

Thank you, Jim. For the quarter, our Global Ceramics segment delivered solid results despite slow demand and industry competition impacting pricing across our regions. The segment's operating income benefited from improved productivity, partially offset by pricing and shutdowns. We implemented many cost containment initiatives, which included reengineering products, improving processes and rationalizing higher cost operations. In a softer market, we increased distribution by expanding our customer base across sales channels, including residential builders, specifiers and specialty retailers.

In the quarter, we improved our mix with products launched into 2024, higher commercial sales and expansion of premium collections. We are elevating our product offering through more advanced printing, polishing and rectifying technologies that create industry leading visuals. In The U. S, we are leveraging our ceramic service centers to grow contractor sales and increasing our position with kitchen and bath dealers nationwide. We are introducing new high end quartz countertop collections in advance of our new U.

S. Production line opening later this year. In Europe, our specifier team, showrooms for the A and D community and premium products are driving commercial sales growth and we are increasing export sales outside the region. In both Mexico and Brazil, the integration of our acquisitions has improved our product offering, sales organizations and market strategies and our Brazilian exports are strengthening as the currency weaken. Our Flooring Rest of World segment saw improved sales of laminate, LVT and panels versus the prior year, though insulation faced additional headwinds.

Our margins were compressed due to competitive industry pricing and rising material and labor costs that were partially offset by productivity gains and lower energy expenses. Our restructuring initiatives in this segment are progressing and improving our cost position and productivity as we rationalize less efficient assets, streamline our product portfolio and reduce administrative overhead. We also contained cost in the quarter by enhancing manufacturing and logistics efficiencies and continuing to manage inventory levels. In December, the European Union introduced tariffs of more than 40% on Chinese wood flooring, which should benefit our sales of laminate, LVT and wood. We grew the sales and mix of our premium laminate and LVT collections through increased advertising that attracted consumers to our retailers.

In addition, we increased product placement with our customers in Central Europe that will improve our LVT sales. In our panels business, volumes held up as we took more aggressive promotional actions and our more differentiated decorative panels performed better given stronger non residential projects. Our insulation business experienced weak demand and margin pressure from increased competition and material costs. In line with the market, we have announced price increases in insulation to partially offset rising material costs. In our panels and insulation businesses, we are investing to expand our geographic footprint and are developing new products to satisfy those markets.

In our Flooring North America segment, we maintained sales in a declining market with benefits from our successful twenty twenty four product launches in our fashion categories. Year over year, our margins were reduced by lower pricing and product mix and higher inflation, partially offset by higher volumes, stronger productivity and cost reduction actions. During the quarter, we completed our LVT restructuring initiatives, which will enhance operations and provide significant savings. We focused on increasing volume across sales channels, optimizing our SG and A spend and expanding both the home center and residential construction channels. In the quarter, our hard service sales grew in all channels as a result of increased distribution of our twenty twenty four product introductions.

Sales of our recycled PVC free resilient flooring expanded as a high performance LBT alternative. Our residential carpet collections gained market share with the sales of our PET Premier polyester collections and fashion categories leading our performance. In the commercial channel, our carpet tile products led our sales with their appealing designs and sustainable properties. Hospitality sales remained strong as new construction and renovation projects were completed. With that, I'll return the call to Jeff for his closing remarks.

Thank you, Chris. As a reminder, we announced Chris would be retiring from his position in February and has agreed to ensure a smooth transition and a consulting role. We appreciate Chris' many contributions to Mohawk's success over the past two decades. Under his leadership, Mohawk Ceramic business became the largest in the world with leading positions on three continents. We're pleased Chris will remain on our Board of Directors and will continue to benefit from his expertise.

With Chris' retirement, Paul de Koc is taking over the role of Chief Operating Officer after serving as President of our Flooring North America segment for the past six years. Paul will focus on enhancing our sales and operating plans across the enterprise. Paul is presently in Europe working with our Flooring Rest of World team and he will deliver the operational reports next quarter. Now returning to the outlook. Our industry has been in a cyclical downturn for multiple years and we are confident that our markets will return to historical levels, though the inflection point remains unpredictable.

We expect ongoing softness in our markets during the first quarter due to elevated interest rates and weakness in housing. Intense competition for volume will continue to pressure our pricing, though our mix should benefit from differentiated products launched last year, premium collections and our commercial offering. Increased material and labor costs will reduce our margins in the quarter as we can only partially pass through the higher cost to the market. Our businesses are finding additional ways to reduce expenses and improve processes, which will help to reduce the impact of inflation. We are restructuring our Mexican ceramic business to improve our operational performance, which will save approximately $20,000,000 a year.

Our cumulative restructuring actions will generate annualized savings of approximately $285,000,000 when complete in 2026. Our capital expenditures this year are focused on maximizing sales, improving product mix and reducing costs. As we indicated in our 01/20/1948 K filing, the Flooring North America segment implemented a new order management system, which had more issues than anticipated. The conversion did not impact our manufacturing or financial systems. The majority of the system processes have been corrected and our shipments are currently aligned with our order rates.

Our invoicing was delayed and we are addressing shipping and invoicing errors with customers that mainly occurred in the beginning of the implementation. At this point, we estimate the impact on the first quarter operating income from missed sales and extraordinary costs will be between $25,000,000 and $30,000,000 We are working closely with our customers to remediate any issues or concerns. We believe the impact of extraordinary costs will be limited to the first quarter. It is difficult to estimate the sales impact on future periods, though we do not anticipate it will have a meaningful long term impact on our customer relationships. The U.

S. Dollar has strengthened significantly, which will negatively impact our translated results this year. As a reminder, our first quarter is seasonally the lowest during the year and it will have two fewer days compared to last year. Given these factors, we expect our first quarter adjusted EPS will be between $1.34 and $1.44 excluding any restructuring or other one time charges. This includes an estimated EPS impact of $0.35 per share due to the Flooring North America system issues.

Historically, cyclical downturns in our industry are followed by strong rebound as flooring demand returns to historical levels. All of our regions need increased home construction to address growing household formations and aging homes will require significant updating after several years of postponed remodeling. As the economy strengthens, business investment will increase in commercial channels. As the world's largest flooring manufacturer, we're uniquely positioned due to our geographic scope, leading innovation, comprehensive portfolio and financial strengths. When the industry recovers, higher volumes will leverage our manufacturing and overhead costs to enhance our results.

Additionally, our product mix will improve, pricing will strengthen and margins will expand. We are well prepared to manage through the short term and maximize our results as the category recovers. We'll now be glad to take your questions.

We'll now begin the question and answer session. Our first question comes from Trevor Allinson with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions and congratulations to Chris on the retirement. It appears 1Q earnings guidance looks like it's roughly in line with normal seasonal trends that you guys saw prior to the pandemic between 4Q and 1Q, excluding the impact of the order management system. As we think about the moving parts of this year moving forward, should we think that 1Q to 2Q then also exhibits normal seasonality moving forward, again, excluding any of the impacts from the order management system?

The second quarter, we don't anticipate any changes in the present market conditions and we do expect normal seasonal improvements. We'll continue to seek volume to maximize absorption of our cost structures. We will benefit from the cost reductions, restructuring and lower shutdowns, though pressures from pricing mix and higher costs will continue in the second quarter. We're investing in new products and sales activities to improve both the mix and distribution. Don't forget the dollar has strengthened and it's also going to lower our trend bladed foreign results.

And as we said, we don't expect any additional costs from Flooring North America system, though it's difficult to estimate if any sales impact on the future periods at this point.

Okay, makes sense and that's helpful color. And then second on natural gas prices, they've come up pretty rapidly here in the recent weeks. Can you talk about what you're expecting from a price cost standpoint in Global Ceramics specifically moving forward? And are you expecting to be able to push enough pricing to offset those potential inflationary headwinds moving forward? Thanks.

Well, U. S. Gas prices have increased with higher cost impact in Q1. In Europe, natural gas cost increased, though it's still dramatically lower than the peak. We've hedged a portion of it in Europe to limit our cost volatility.

We're trying to recover some of the cost of it through cost takeouts and improved mix, but we think it's going to be difficult to get it all back and passing prices through in this environment.

And just remember as natural gas or energy or material costs change, it takes about a quarter to kind of flow through to the P and L based on our inventory turns.

Okay. Makes sense. Appreciate all the color. Good luck looking forward.

Thank you. And the next question will come from Mike Dahl with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Just sticking with the foreign North America issue, maybe it would help us if you could break out to the extent you can, like if you call it $25,000,000 to $30,000,000 dollars hit on up income between the extraordinary costs and the sales impact, how much of that $25,000,000 to $30,000,000 is kind of this one time cost versus the sales and sales leverage impact?

Yes, Mike. So if you look, we said about $25,000,000 to $30,000,000 If you look at the extraordinary costs involved with correcting the system, additional man hours to address issues, manual processes and such, we believe that's about $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 of the impact and we anticipate a sales impact, so sales impact of about $25,000,000 to $50,000,000 in the quarter.

Got it. Okay. That's helpful, Jim. And then I appreciate kind of the context and qualitative pieces around thinking beyond 1Q. I think it would probably be really helpful if there's any way like there's always a lot of these moving pieces.

When you add all this together, do you think you will be in a position to grow earnings on a year on year basis in 2Q?

Well, as we look to the whole year, we start out with that the industry has really been in the down cycle longer than most in history. These downturns are typically followed by strong rebounds in flooring as demand returns and postponed projects are initiated. Just like you, we're unable to predict the inflection point, though we're confident over time that we will return to the historical levels. At this point, we haven't seen any signs in our markets that the rebound is starting or improving at this point. And we're taking a cautious approach about when the recovery will occur at this point.

Given that, this year we're expecting mix improvements, significant productivity initiatives and specific pricing action where we can get them should offset the negative pressures of rising costs and headwinds from the stronger dollar. And then absent the Flooring North America change, we should see a slight improvement in overall earnings given those assumptions.

Yes. And adjusting for the impact of the system conversion, if you look Q1 to Q2, I would look more at historical growth on sales and on margins. So very typical normal seasonality.

And the next question will come from Eric Bossard with Cleveland Research. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Thank you. You talked a bit about competition, Europe competition as a limiting factor, competition in U. S. Tile as a limiting factor.

And I know there's always competition in these markets, but I'm just curious, is there anything different from a competitive dynamic that is limiting either pricing or share? And then also add into this any influence of tariffs in consideration of that in the same vein?

Well, first, and just in terms of pressure, the underutilization in the category puts pressure on pricing. But if you look at our business, we benefited from a strong operational performance and then the restructuring actions that we have taken. Our commercial business is holding up with continued strength in our builder channel. We've leveraged our ceramic service centers to grow contractor sales and increasing our position with kitchen and bath dealers and our domestically produced quartz countertops are outperforming other work surfaces.

Just to remind you, the ceramic industry, a large part of The U. S. Comes from around the world and these excess capacities from around the world are ending up in this market too.

And the next question will come from Susan Maklari with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Jeff. Taking a longer term type of view, you've talked in the past about getting the business to a 10% margin and then even moving higher from there. As you just think about all the cost actions and the things that you are driving in the business from both a product and a margin perspective, do you still think that you are on track to get to that? And can you get there even if things do remain a bit more challenged just given what's going on in the business fundamentally?

At the moment, the industry is at very difficult conditions given we're at the cyclical bottom of the cycle. Using The U. S, the housing sales are at the lowest point since 1995, which is creating the pressure on everything. We expect that a recovery we're going to get back to it will take multiple years to get back to the historical trend lines and that the postpone remodeling higher home sales, improved business investment at the time will significantly improve the utilization of our assets. It will increase the average mix of what we're doing.

And then to remind you again, flooring in general has a much higher correlation to home turnovers because when people right before they remodel, right before they sell the home they tend to remodel or right after they move in they tend to remodel. So we're getting our category is more impacted by that. On the other hand, when we come out of it, it's going to help us much more. At the same time when a consumer purchases the product, they purchase higher quality products in the retail remodeling part of the business, which is the most impacted by the categories at the moment. Just to state the obvious, all of our regions are really experiencing the same substantial declines in volume and margin compression that I assume they're going to come out slightly different as we go forward.

But we're expecting them to help us get leverage on the restructuring, which is going to be about $285,000,000 when it's all complete. The leverage goes up. Our manufacturing costs should drop and we should get leverage on our SG and A, which will help us get back to the higher margins that we want to be at.

Okay. That's helpful. And then turning to the cash flows and the balance sheet, it was nice to see you buying back stock again this quarter. The business has been generating approximately $700,000,000 of free cash in the last two years, even with all the pressure that you've been under. Can you talk a bit about how you're thinking about the uses of cash going forward?

How buybacks could fit into that? And how you're thinking about M and A as well perhaps?

Yes. As we look at the generation of free cash flow, we would expect to increase our investments in the business as the market improves. So take advantage and grow both from a product innovation, which kind of sets us apart in the marketplace and also cost reductions. We should see more opportunities, as you just said, to acquire more businesses as the environment strengthens right now in M and A and activity in our sector at least is very quiet as you would expect. And we'll continue to buy shares as we have in the past as part of our cash usage and our strategy, as we move forward.

If you think about just one other point, since 2020, we have purchased about 14% of our outstanding shares, at a total cost above $1,600,000,000 So we will continue to utilize that as part of our strategy.

Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. Good luck with everything.

Next question will come from Stephen Kim with Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

Yes, thanks very much guys. Appreciate all the color so far and best of luck Chris with everything. I guess my first question relates to the outage that you experienced in Florida North America. I understood what you said about your impacts in the 1Q. What I thought was a little interesting was that I might have expected that some of the missed sales in 1Q would actually lead to a sort of a better than normal trend opportunity in 2Q or maybe 2Q, 3Q, something like that.

But it sounds like you're sort of leaving the door open for perhaps a little bit of continued sales impact. Just wanted to see if I could if we could explore that a little bit. Why is it that you wouldn't get actually a rebound and better than normal sales cadence on the other side of it?

Let's see. A lot of the business is for immediate jobs. And the question is, did you miss the immediate jobs that are there or is it going to be postponed? The customers who carry significant inventories, the amount of time that we were behind was very limited. So we're back to normal.

We are able to ship them whatever they want today. So the real question is, do we lose any relationships that are there? We think that long term we haven't. But it's only been a limited period of time to evaluate the actual what's going to happen.

All right. That's fine. And then a broader question, I know that we're all waiting for the turn in R and R and we've talked about in the past how that typically comes hand in hand with better mix because people tend to those kinds of people tend to buy higher quality product. But in The U. S, there's sort of an odd situation where you're seeing a lot of relatively greater strength in the move up price points right now.

I'm talking for houses. And the entry level of the market is obviously very locked up because of the mortgage rates and that and at the lower price points, the homeowners literally can't move up because they just can't afford that jump in mortgage rate. So I think the lock in effect is probably more prevalent at the lower price point. And so what I guess I'm saying is that if we were to see the an improvement in existing home sales, might it be that you see more of an improvement in with consumers who actually are not going to be paying up as much for products And therefore, you might actually not see the typical product mix, the positive product mix that you would normally expect to see when a cycle recovers. I'm just curious if you've considered that, if that's something you think is a valid thing.

And then lastly, is this dynamic just simply a U. S. Phenomenon, where you have sort of this relative much greater relative weakness at the entry level rather than the move up?

see. To take the question, we are seeing more strength at the bottom, at the top, which goes along with what you're saying as we see it. Also that the large home construction companies are trying to keep the prices of homes down. So that part of the market is using very low quality products to get by with as limited as spending as they can. We think that the consumer who owns the house has been postponing remodeling of it.

And usually they don't go to the lower price point that you use in either some of the new construction or some of the multifamily things that have been doing well. So when they come in, we think that it's going to come into the middle part of the market and some of the middle will trade up more than they're doing now since they're concerned about the future. The people with money always have money. But the bottom end of that market, they tend to trade down too when they get concerned or postpone. So we believe that you are still going to see an improvement in the mix as we come out of this.

Okay, great. That's helpful. Great. Thanks very much guys.

The next question will come from Sam Reed with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Awesome. Thanks so much. So I wanted to talk for North America margins here a little bit. It sounds like volumes were getting positive in the segment, if I heard you guys correctly, but we did see a year over year margin pullback. I realize there's some input cost pressures that muddy the water here, but could you give us a sense as to where some of those incremental volumes that you're getting are coming from?

It sounds like it's a function of kind of lower margin channels or end markets, perhaps homebuilders and home centers. Just want to understand sort of what those dynamics actually look like and sort of why incremental volumes aren't necessarily driving an improvement in F and A margins?

Volumes have gone up, but we've been more aggressive in the marketplace with pricing. We've been able to improve the mix somewhat, but the pricing and mix are more than offsetting the volume that's hanging in where it is in general as yet. Also the remember that there were extra days in the period that you have to take to get it on an equalized basis.

The other side, Sam, to consider too is you are seeing cost increase as well, which is we have strong productivity in the segment, but that's being really used or countered by increasing costs that we've seen in materials start to flow through the P and L. So that's also playing pressure on those incremental margins that you're speaking of.

No, that helps. And maybe just switching gears, you talked a little bit about capacity utilization at a high level on the call already. But maybe just to put a finer point on that, could you unpack where those utilization rates sit today, especially for some of these really important categories like U. S. Carpet and U.

S. Ceramics? And then kind of the knock on question there would be, where would we need to see capacity utilization go before the category would be in a position to take price? Thanks.

In general, the capacity utilizations tend to be ranging from 70% to 80% at this point. If you go to historically when the markets are operating like they have and recoveries were operating in 90% or more, as it. So you get a lot of leverage out of the costs when that happens. What was the other part of the question?

And you get less pressure on pricing as utilization goes up because that means you have strengthening demand.

The competitors and we are taking lower margins trying to operate and reduce the unabsorbed overhead costs. So that's compressing the margins. And then you have the other part, which is the lower mix, which the categories that are doing better are under more pressure.

No, that helps. Thanks so much guys. I'll pass it on.

The next question will come from Keith Hughes with Truist. Please go ahead.

Mohawk Industries (MHK) Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Company Participants