Watsco, Inc. (NYSE: WSO) announced today it will host an investor and analyst meeting on Friday, December 9, 2016 at the Sonesta Hotel in Coconut Grove, Florida from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. by invitation only. The meeting's theme is "Technology at Watsco." Watsco has established itself as the leader in the HVAC distribution industry and produced a 20% compounded annual total-shareholder-return over the last 25 years. Watsco is building on this growth and is investing in a number of scalable technologies. Since 2012, Watsco's technology team has grown from approximately 60 employees to 171 employees while achieving record levels of operating performance. The present annual run-rate for costs associated with these initiatives is approximately $23 million. Watsco has created and launched innovations to enhance the buying experience of its 88,000 customers and the service capabilities at its 568 locations:
- Mobile apps and other on-line tools to enable e-commerce using the industry's most data-rich catalog of product information.
- Business intelligence and data analytics to enable more insightful decision-making by more than 600 P&L managers across the Company.
- Supply chain optimization to improve fill-rates, increase inventory turns and reduce infrastructure costs over the long-term.
- Tools to improve operational efficiency for 7+ million annual customer transactions.
Watsco's traditional sales channel is through one of its 568 locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico, and on an export basis to Latin America and the Caribbean. This network has been built over the last 25 years and serves 88,000 active customers. Watsco is developing and investing in technologies to enable sales via e-commerce, on-line marketplaces and through the retail sales channel. As the industry leader, we believe that significant growth potential remains given that the marketplace for HVAC/R products at the consumer level is estimated to be $80 billion annually. Additional information about Watsco may be found at http://www.watsco.com.
Forward-Looking Statements This document includes certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from these expectations due to changes in economic, business, competitive market, new housing starts and completions, capital spending in commercial construction, consumer spending and debt levels, regulatory and other factors, including, without limitation, the effects of supplier concentration, competitive conditions within Watsco's industry, seasonal nature of sales of Watsco's products, the ability of the Company to expand its business, insurance coverage risks and final GAAP adjustments. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statement was made. Watsco assumes no obligation to update forward-looking information to reflect actual results, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking information. Detailed information about these factors and additional important factors can be found in the documents that Watsco files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's most recently filed annual report on Form 10-K, as updated by its subsequently filed Forms 10-Q and Form 8-K.