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Caesarstone: Well-Positioned To Turn Around Under New CEO

Mar. 15, 2023 11:08 AM ETCaesarstone Ltd. (CSTE)12 Comments
Philip MacKellar profile picture
Philip MacKellar
769 Followers

Summary

  • Caesarstone is a global leader in the quartz and porcelain countertop markets.
  • It had a rough 2022 and the outlook for 2023 is mixed.
  • The company is attempting to rein in costs and has announced layoffs.
  • The former CEO from 2009 to 2016 recently retook the helm.
  • Despite the turbulence, CSTE is a good business with high insider support, strong financials, and low valuations.

Close up of kitchen countertop samples

Michael Reeve/iStock via Getty Images

Introduction

Caesarstone (NASDAQ:CSTE) is headquartered in Israel, is an international leader in the quartz countertops market, and, through its Lioli brand, is a key player in the porcelain countertop business. If you have recently bought or renovated a

This article was written by

Philip MacKellar profile picture
769 Followers
Philip MacKellar is an analyst, portfolio manager, and investor at Contra the Heard Investment Newsletter. He has been with the company since 2011 and has been investing since 2004. The newsletter’s primary focus is on contrarian and value-oriented investment opportunities traded in the United States and Canada. In addition, Philip sometimes engages in M&A, other special situations, and holds bonds, preferred shares, and convertible securities. Contra the Heard is a Toronto based company and was founded in 1995. Philip also blogs about personal finance topics on his own website called mymoneymoves.ca in his free time. You can also follow Philip at the Globe & Mail, on Twitter @Rallekcam, and catch him on YouTube at Contra the Heard.

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of CSTE either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

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Comments (12)

i
Hi Phillip, sorry to blow your horn, but this company is in a death spiral for the last 7-8 years, and no light at the end of the tunnel.

Just look how sloppy they are, CEO was replaced over a month ago, but they don’t think it’s important enough to replace the former CEO on their website (look under investor/governance/executive management

Also, when was the last time you looked at Omicron’s website? That’s the company that makes them over $100mm in annual sales. The website is completely broken and was probably built in the early 2000.

To top it off, the use third party IR. To me this is an insult to shareholders. You want to tell me this small cap is not capable to have one of the executives to communicate with shareholders? Try to get a response from the 3rd party outsourced IR service. Good luck with that.

Key will be to see what the new/old CEO comes up with.

Not sure what’s his motivation to take the reins, most probably ego IMHO, because money he has enough, and headaches you can get in many other setups nowadays.
Theangryswede profile picture
There’s considerable liability associated with silicosis, especially related to downstream companies fabricating slabs. Caesarstone is specifically called out for ignoring the risk (and not communicating the risks to fabricators) in a 60 Minutes Australia piece. As a result, Australia is considering banning engineered stone outright.
M
They are a dumpster fire. Every competitor in the game is better than them currently they are extremely behind in industry standard sizing. 3x the cost. It took me over 6 months to get ahold of their AR to pay a bill. No answer no return calls. My rep couldn't even get them to pay. Their new show room hasn't opened in 2 years in an industry customers need to go to the show room to see the product. They are specked heavily in projects, but every job I have done with them they have been value engineered out of the project. I am on their absolute best discount key and they are so poorly run and have such bad pricing the stuff barely moves.

These are all things that you won't find on a statement. I watched as their US factory couldn't get online for 3+ years and they would ship out slabs to their distribution points and have them break them and throw them in the dumpster so they could fudge their deliveries and AR.

All their competitors are private owned. ASG and architectural surfaces are a major competitor. Daltile owned by mohawk. Siltstone and Cambria price themselves out of the larger market. MSI crushes them both but Silestone or more accurately Consentinos does ok in commercial. Arizona tile is another good brand.

My company can usually do your entire project for a 3rd of what it costs you to do it in caeserstone with a product that looks better. I have had more claims on caeserstone than any other product. Until Caeserstone drastically reduces the cost of their product, makes the standard size at least 63 x 126 (standard 36" island + 26" back run massively increases utilization), and increases the efficency of their operations; they are headed to bankruptcy. I have told their regionals, their vp's, and most their higher ups this for 6 years. They have the worst service even B2B. A negative earnings per employ. They actually have great guys and girls working for them. They just tie their hands and say we are going to do it our way, and their way is to know nothing about the actual industry they serve and how it works.
Philip MacKellar profile picture
@MRTAY Thank you for commenting, this is great colour.
PriceMatters1949 profile picture
@MRTAY Thanks for sharing. Some of your comments fill in the blanks for their continued profitability slide. However, your sharing a positive outlook. They have been profitable the entire time that you are suggesting they have been incompetent. They have a new (previous) CEO. If he cleans up some of the issues you suggest, the company could do ok when the remodel/building market returns. They have a strong balance sheet to wait it out. I’m not suggesting it’s a great business - but at this price it is probably a decent cigar butt if you like those types.
Pralay profile picture
Thanks for the article and nice uodate. Who are their main competitors? How are they doing?
PriceMatters1949 profile picture
@Pralay From what I can gather they directly compete with Consetino/Silestone (Spain) and Cambria (MInnesota) brands. Both companies private, not sure how they are doing. Great question though!
Philip MacKellar profile picture
@Pralay Hi there, thanks for reading. It is hard to know how their peers are doing b/c they are private - as PriceMatters1949 has mentioned too. I think this is a bit of a risk here b/c sometimes publicly traded peers can give you a more holistic overview of how the industry is doing. Imagine how much more in the dark, for example, investors would be today if only a handful of publicly traded regional banks existed.

Nevertheless, to answer your question, Silestone is the major one I keep hearing about within the North American market. Marble and Cambria are two others that come to mind. I did some digging for you and found these articles:

www.toulmincabinetry.com/...

marble.com/...

These confirm what I thought though there are names in there I did not know. Another aspect of competition you may be interested in is between different types of counter tops. This article could be useful for you in that regard. The author appears to update the costs regularly enough – I check it every quarter or two:

www.remodelingcosts.org/...

Thanks again for reading. I hope that has helped.
Socratic Investor profile picture
Hard to buy at this time with interest rates up, housing starts declining and everyone expecting a recession to come in the next year, but thanks for the article and I'll keep an eye on the company.
Philip MacKellar profile picture
@Socratic Investor you're welcome, taking contrary positions is not always easy.
PriceMatters1949 profile picture
Thanks for the article. I had been watching CSTE for months and started buying when it went under $5. They have a very strong balance sheet ($230M) more then mkt cap. After taking care of liabilities most of this is PPE and inventory. But that is still a lot they can lean into while getting their costs in order.
I would like to understand why profitability has been dropping since 2016, maybe they reduced prices to grow revs? Or could they have been first out with quartz and their competitors caught up during that time? What are your thoughts on the gross margin slide from 2016 to now?
This upside on it is significant, if they return to previous margins they could be earning $75M plus. The downside should be limited with their ability to lean on balanave sheet - they could probably liquidate and break even at current mkt cap (obviously they wouldn’t do that, but it is one angle to look at it).
Cheers and best of luck
Philip MacKellar profile picture
@PriceMatters1949 Hi there, thank you for reading. The strategy changed in 2016 when the now rehired CEO left. Revenues were prioritized over margins, as was market share of quartz countertop products vs. competitor products. The quartz segment competition - as far as I can tell - has increased too. I'd be surprised if the rehired CEO could achieve all of the success CSTE had in the past but I'd be even more surprised if he continued the status quo. I hope that helps, cheers and good luck to you too.
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