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Pool Corp (POOL 1.31%)
Q1Â 2019 Earnings Call
April 18, 2019, 11:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good day, and welcome to the Pool Corporation First Quarter 2019 Conference Call and Webcast. All participants will be in listen-only mode. (Operator Instructions) Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mark Joslin, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Nancy. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter 2019 earnings call. As usual, I'd like to remind our listeners that our discussion, comments and responses to questions today may include forward-looking statements, including management's outlook for 2019 and future periods. Actual results may differ materially from those discussed today. Information regarding the factors and variables that could cause actual results to differ materially from projected results is discussed in our 10-K. In addition, we may make references to non-GAAP financial measures in our comments, a description of reconciliation of our non-GAAP financial measures is included in our press release and posted to our corporate website in our Investor Relations section.
Now, I'll turn the call over to our President and CEO, Peter Arvan.
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Mark, and good morning to everyone on the call. We delivered a solid first quarter despite the cooler weather that impacted many of our year-round markets. Our sales were up 2% overall, while our base business grew 1%. Keep in mind that the first quarter of 2018 had one additional billing day, which is a 2% drag on the order and currency exchange negatively impacted our 2019 sales by 1%. Our year-round markets primarily Florida, California, Arizona and Texas, were up 2% for the quarter. Florida, which experienced favorable weather in the period, saw a sales increase 7%; Texas was up 4% with January and February sales climbing over 7% only to be impacted by a very wet March; California and Arizona, where we saw a nice growth in the first quarter of 2018, saw sales on a combined basis declined 2%, as they were impacted by record-breaking cold and rain this year making construction and remodel challenging.
We believe the unfavorable weather pattern in the West impacted our sales by $10 million to $15 million based on normal growth rates. Our builders are reporting plenty of pent up demand and we believe the shortfall can be made up -- much of the shortfall can be made up assuming normal weather as these are predominantly year-around markets. Labor remains tight, especially in the peak months, but we believe that much of this can be made up in the balance of the year.
Turning to our Green business, which was also challenged with unfavorable weather, our base revenue growth was 5%, reflecting our continued efforts to improve this business and solid demand in the end markets. International sales were up 9% with Europe up 36% in local currency and 20% in US dollars. But remember this is a seasonally less significant quarter for our European operations, so the impact was somewhat muted. It is noteworthy though that Europe had great weather in 2018 and this pattern is continuing. Our European teams are also executing very well and have been able to take share and leverage our operations.
As we look at the North American end markets, retail sales were essentially flat largely driven by the Easter holiday falling later this year, as it tends to delay Pool openings and the associated buying and restocking at our independent retailers. Commercial product sales were up 2% and building materials were strong with 8% growth in the quarter.
Moving on to gross margins, we anticipated -- as we anticipated, our overall gross margin percent increased in the quarter by 90 basis points to 29.2%. The increase is largely driven by the strategic inventory buys and a deferral of customer early buys. As the second quarter progresses and we sell through the remaining pre-increase inventory, we should see a slight uptick in margins, but again this will diminish through the quarter. Overall, gross profit dollars were up a total of 5%, 4% was driven by our base business and 1% from acquisitions.
Looking at operating expenses, the team did a very nice job managing expenses. Our base business SG&A costs were up 1%. reflecting efficiency gains and continued investment in technology and growth. Our POOL360 sales were up 32% for the quarter, which is encouraging as it creates capacity for our customers and for our sales centers.
As we look at operating income, despite challenging weather, our team remained focused on execution and managed to deliver a 14.5% increase in operating profit for the quarter by leveraging expenses and by leveraging the investments we made in inventory last year. Our base business operating margin percent improved 90 basis points, again reflecting the efforts of a strong team and a solid plan.
From a cash perspective, we delivered a very strong quarter with cash flow from operating activities improving by almost $73 million from the first quarter of 2018. Much of this improvement is a result of the burned down and incremental inventories that we highlighted during our year-end call.
Lastly, as a result of the ASU benefit we saw in the quarter, we are increasing our annual guidance by $0.04. Our new range is $6.09 to $6.39. All in all, our results were very solid giving the challenges we faced with weather. We're very fortunate to have the best team in the industry that strives every day to make a difference and be the best channel to market for our suppliers and provide the best value proposition to our over 100,000 valued customers.
I will now turn the call over to Mark for some financial commentary.
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Pete. Overall, other than the impact from weather and taxes, our Q1 results came in largely as expected. On our year-end call, we had estimated a $20 million to $30 million impact on revenue for the quarter due to the later Easter holiday, which impacts pool openings and customer early buys and the loss of the billing day. In addition to this, the unusually cold and wet weather in the Western US impacted revenues by another $10 million to $15 million, most of which we expect to be pushed back to later in the year rather than lost, as Pete mentioned in his comments.
Going down to P&L, gross margin and expenses other than taxes were more or less in line with our expectations, with the expense line benefiting from currency translation, as well as a loss of a billing day. The growth in interest expense in the quarter was also discussed on our February call and as mentioned then should moderate after the second quarter.
On our tax line, the positive impact of ASU 2016-09 was greater than expected as the increase in our share price following our year-end call resulted in more employee stock option exercises than we had anticipated. On our February call, we had stated that we expected 2019 benefit from the ASU to be $7.2 million or $0.18 in EPS by the second quarter. Instead, we recognized a benefit of $8.8 million or $0.21 in earnings per share just in the first quarter. This resulted in $7.1 million or $0.17 in added EPS from options that expire this year and $1.7 million or $0.04 in EPS from options that would expire in years after 2019, and which was not included in our estimate for this year. As a result, we increased our guidance range for 2019 to include the unexpected $0.04 benefit. For Q2, we are now expecting just a $500,000 or $0.01 EPS benefit from unexercised 2019 expiring options. For those of you modeling these things out, this is a big shift in tax benefit from Q2 to Q1, and I want to make sure you pick this up.
Moving on our balance sheet, you'll note that receivables were relatively flat year-over-year, in line with our sales growth, while inventories were up $112 million or 16%. As noted in our release, there are a number of reasons for the larger-than-normal inventory increase including last year's prebuy, acquired inventories, business expansion, and the slowdown in Q1 sales. As we move into the second quarter, we'd expect to see the rate of inventory growth over last year to narrow.
From a cash perspective, and as we discussed on our year-end call, we expect to benefit this year from the inventory adjustments we made last year and build on the $73 million improvement in operating cash flow we reported in the first quarter. On share repurchases in the quarter -- excuse me, our share repurchases in the quarter took place earlier in the year and were discussed on our last call. But to recap, we've repurchased approximately 140,000 shares at an average price of $148 a share, for a use of cash of $20 million. This leaves us with a $49 million current Board authorization.
To comment briefly on exchange, the stronger dollar had offsetting impacts on sales and expenses in Q1. Assuming a similar exchange rate for the remainder of the year, I'd expect this to have about a 50 basis point negative impact on sales each quarter and roughly a $0.015 negative impact on Q2 earnings, a modestly negative impact on Q3 earnings, and no impact on Q4 earnings.
Finally, as discussed previously, we adopted the new lease accounting guidance in the first quarter with results as previously communicated. New assets and liabilities added to our balance sheet for about $180 million each with no impact on our P&L or cash flow.
Now, I'll turn the call back over to our operator to begin our question-and-answer session. Nancy?
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Ryan Merkel from William Blair. Please go ahead.
Ryan Merkel -- William Blair -- Analyst
Hello, can you hear me?
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yes, Ryan.
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Hi. Good morning, Ryan.
Ryan Merkel -- William Blair -- Analyst
Good. So, first of all, last quarter you talked about $20 million to $30 million of sales shift in the 2Q from the Easter shift. Is this still your estimate?
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yes. Well, it was a combination of Easter, which impacts pool openings, also the early buys from customers and loss of a billing day. So that in total, we think was about $20 million to $30 million. So estimate we think is really what happened in the quarter.
Ryan Merkel -- William Blair -- Analyst
Okay. So nothing is changing on that estimate. And then could you comment on sales trends, maybe the last two weeks in March and start to April. I'm wondering if it's consistent with the high single digit organic growth you're expecting for the year?
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes. Sure, Ryan. Sales from March when the weather turned, sales picked up and the high single digit that you mentioned is what we were experiencing and that has continued into April.
Ryan Merkel -- William Blair -- Analyst
Okay. And then maybe just lastly commercial up 2% is a little softer I think than trend. Was this weather driven or is there anything else going on?
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes. I think a lot of that is weather driven because remember for commercial, it's not just indoor pools, many of the commercial pools are frankly the outdoor pools and HMAC category as well. So the guys specifically at west in California and Arizona where the weather was just dreadful, they got behind on the commercial work. So I don't think it's anything other than weather.
Ryan Merkel -- William Blair -- Analyst
All right. Okay. Very good. I'll pass it on.
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
The next question comes from David Manthey from Baird. Please go ahead.
David Manthey -- Robert W. Baird -- Analyst
Hi, good morning, guys.
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Hi, good morning.
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, David.
David Manthey -- Robert W. Baird -- Analyst
You probably don't want to comment on supplier's financial results, but is it correct to assume that you didn't see anything in your first quarter that changed your outlook for the demand backdrop generally?
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
No. We -- obviously, we are not going to comment on somebody else's, but as I mentioned in my comments, underlying demand is strong, builders have plenty of work, and as usual in this industry when the sun comes out, people get back to work. And as I mentioned with Ryan's question, sales have picked up.
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yes. The other thing to keep in mind David is, just looking at the housing market overall, although construction isn't particularly strong, home values have been stable and strong and that drives a lot of the growth that we've had in renovation replacement. So no change in expectations there.
David Manthey -- Robert W. Baird -- Analyst
Okay, it sounds good. And then with Easter seen as a turning point for seasonal pool openings, shouldn't the lateness of Easter this year cost you a little bit in the second quarter as well or are you just assuming that it'll catch up by the time you report the full quarter?
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
I think it will -- I think it'll catch up. There's is -- as you know, there's a big rush to get pools open, and now that the sun is out in most places with the exception of Texas today, the -- I think it'll catch up.
David Manthey -- Robert W. Baird -- Analyst
Okay. And then my final question. Could you give us a generic overview of how you're thinking about your acquisition strategy today?
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes. I think it's really no different than it's been in the past. We're opportunistic and strategic, right? So everything that we look at a lot of deals, both we look at green and blue. So, as you know, we did a small one on the green side in the end of last year; we did Adcock in the beginning of this year. So there's nothing out there that is transformational for us. So we are opportunistic; when we see an acquisition that fits our strategic plan and we think it's a good cultural fit with us, then we're able to jump on those. But nothing out of the ordinary for what you have seen in the past.
David Manthey -- Robert W. Baird -- Analyst
Sounds great. Thank you.
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes, thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from Blake Hirschman with Stephens Incorporated. Please go ahead.
Blake Hirschman -- Stephens Incorporated -- Analyst
(inaudible) pricing, just kind of what that looked like in the quarter, how that stacked up, blue versus green, and if you're still expecting that 200 basis points above average that you can kind of talked about last call?
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
If you cut out in the beginning of your question, I just want to make sure I got the whole thing, could you repeat the question?
Blake Hirschman -- Stephens Incorporated -- Analyst
I was just asking about price, what it looked like in the quarter and if you're still expecting 200 basis points above normal this year?
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes. I think that's a fairly good range. There's been no real -- one of the suppliers has announced a small increase kind of pre-season this year, but I think the numbers that we have talked about in the past are still intact.
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yes. Let me just clarify that you mentioned 200 basis points of improvement for the year inflation. Inflation, yes, let's be clear about that. That's inflation. So the other margin impact as we discussed, we've gotten the vast majority of that benefit in the first quarter with maybe a little bit bleeding into the second quarter.
Blake Hirschman -- Stephens Incorporated -- Analyst
Got it. Okay. And then I know you've kind of talked about base business sales growth expectations and kind of around price versus volume but to kind of slice it up a different way, can you give any color as to how that splits out from an end market sales growth perspective, like what level you're expecting in non-discretionary R&R versus larger discretionary R&R versus new construction?
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes. We say new construction, so last year new pool construction was at 80,000 units and that was up from 75,000 units the year prior. So I would expect a similar increase this year although, we're a little bit behind because of the weather in the beginning of the year but there's still plenty of time to make that up. The rest of the market, so you have -- the organic growth with just the new pools in the market, you have building material sales which for us has been strong. So the renovation market continues to be strong. So I don't expect anything from a different trend in that area as we talked about before a lot of what drives the -- or limits the demand or limits the improvement is labor. And there hasn't been a big change in the labor pool. So the demand is there. So the same growth rates that you have seen in the past by category are probably going to maintain for the year. Again, when it comes to a new pool construction, there's not going to be a big shift there and those same contractors that are doing new pool construction are also doing renovation.
Blake Hirschman -- Stephens Incorporated -- Analyst
Got it. All right. Thanks a lot. I'll turn it over.
Operator
The next question comes from Steve Volkmann from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Stephen Volkmann -- Jefferies -- Analyst
All right, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Anything interesting to call out relative to some of your other costs like wages and transportation and so forth and any changes in those trends?
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Interesting to call out. Well, I mentioned that the quarter was impacted by a couple things, the one being favorable exchange and that should continue although as we get into the second quarter the impact is less significant there, but will still benefit us assuming rates stay about where they are with US-Europe being the primary rate that impacts the expenses. And the other thing that benefited us in the quarter was just the loss of the billing day, so it impacts sales, but it also impacts the number of expense days. So fixed costs in particular get pushed out. As I said, I think on the last call we lose the day in the first quarter but gained it back in the third quarter, and so a little bit heavier expenses there. Other than that, the trends are pretty much as expected. We benefited a little bit on the bonus line, just in terms of how we book that based on expectations compared to last year. Not, not big enough to really call out, but a little bit of benefit there, and everything else was as expected. We did, given the lower sales growth, push out -- I think our folks done an excellent job of managing labor costs and so some of the hires and things that generally we'd have gotten started on, got pushed back a little bit and that helped us for the quarter.
Stephen Volkmann -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Okay, great. That's good color, thanks. And then just on the gross margin benefit from some of the advance buys that you did, it sounds like you're saying those sort of fade through the second quarter and then we'll be kind of back to normal in the second half. Is that the way to read it?
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes, so for perspective, remember in the second quarter, we'll do almost twice the sales volume that we did in the first quarter. So by the end of the second quarter, it kind of fades away. Third quarter will be about even. And then on a year-over-year comp basis, fourth quarter will be slightly negative because of the benefit we had last year in the fourth quarter.
Stephen Volkmann -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Okay. And then just from a cash flow perspective, did you -- I can't remember if you disclosed sort of order of magnitude of how many millions this might be?
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Millions of inventory?
Stephen Volkmann -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Yes.
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
So I think at the end of the year, we said it was approximately $100 million.
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Right.
Stephen Volkmann -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Okay. So we'd expect that to come back out of inventory and into cash flow during this year?
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Right.
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Right. Correct.
Stephen Volkmann -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Superb. Thanks so much.
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes.
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yes.
Operator
Our next question comes from Anthony Lebiedzinski from Sidoti & Company. Please Go ahead.
Anthony Lebiedzinski -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst
Yes. Good morning and thank you for taking the questions. So just wondering as far as your outlook for new sales center build out, so you opened the two new locations in the first quarter kind of how you are thinking about the balance of the year. Obviously, you talked about -- earlier about acquisitions, but just kind of organically I just wanted to check in how are you guys thinking about that?
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Sure. So far this year we've added six. So there was four from the acquisition with Adcock -- I'm sorry, so it's five net, because four from the acquisition in Adcock, two new facilities have come online and we consolidated one. For the year, we're planning on; at this point, we have nine new approved. So there's two new online already, so expect another seven to come online before year end, and they are in various stages of construction.
Anthony Lebiedzinski -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst
Right. And are these primarily in existing markets or are you going into any new markets?
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
No, they're primarily in existing markets. I mean, if you look at our coverage, Anthony, there's not many markets that we're not in. Basically, when we add facility, it's usually because we're running out of capacity in the existing facilities and we're following the market so to speak and the growing parts of the geography. So we basically break off a portion that out of an existing branch and that becomes the seed for the new branch and then both of them continue to grow.
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yes. And just remember from a timing standpoint, as Pete said, the seven will come later in the year after the season. So from a revenue standpoint they really don't benefit us too much and there's a little bit of expense that comes with those as they get opened.
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Right. And remember all of our new branches go on our focus list, as do acquisitions to make sure they get the attention. So that they come online and produce in line with the rest of the company.
Anthony Lebiedzinski -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst
Got it. That makes sense. I was a little bit also surprised -- switching gears now to Europe about the sales strength there. I know it's a seasonally small quarter for them but just wondering as to how -- when you look at the European market, does it present perhaps opportunities for to do some additional sales center expansion there? Or would that be more of a place where you would look to grow through acquisitions?
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
So I think the answer is yes and yes. So Europe is a good market for us. They -- and remember as I said, Europe had a very, very, very good weather pattern. I was over there a couple of weeks ago and they've had a very nice spring. So they're benefiting from that. Our team is very good and is executing. We have a new facility planned in Europe and I would tell you that our M&A strategy for Europe is no different than it is in the US. We're strategic and opportunistic when we find something that makes sense, great. If not, then we basically follow the same expansion strategy that we do here in the US.
Anthony Lebiedzinski -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst
Okay. All right. Thank you very much and best of luck.
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thank you.
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Anthony.
Operator
Our next question comes from Garik Shmois from Longbow Research.Please Go ahead.
Garik Shmois -- Longbow Research -- Analyst
Hi, thanks. I just wondering if you could touch on how we should think about SG&A and operating leverage the rest of the year, just given that sales growth is expected to accelerate, you deferred some personnel expenses into the second quarter due to some of the timing and some of the seasonality. So any help on the drop through would be helpful.
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Sure, Garik. Just I think just going back to our guidance is probably the best way to answer that, which -- what we look for generally on SG&A is growth at about 60% of gross profit growth. And in doing that, then that provides us to the leverage. In terms of how we get that leverage is that really goes to capacity creation, initiatives that we have going on throughout the company, which is ways to make better utilization of our investments and people, facilities, vehicles; POOL360 is one of the ways that we do that on the labor side. And we've had very good results there due to strong kind of focused effort from our team and really explaining to our customers the benefits to them and getting them new adoptions on POOL360. So in any case that all -- the POOL360 and number of other initiatives around capacity creation there, what helps drive that operating leverage and using that 60% for the year and then kind of backing that end by quarter based on where we finished Q1, and factoring in what I mentioned on exchange rates and billing day in the third quarter should help get that model out for you.
Garik Shmois -- Longbow Research -- Analyst
Okay, no, that helps. And then just one last question, just on the $10 million to $15 million in weather-related deferments. Just wondering -- and also a big number that grand scheme of things, but a level of confidence and being able to recover the lost sale is just in the context of the labor constraints that you've been highlighting for quite some time.
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes. I think given that it's in the western half of the US, so there are large markets and in the whole grand scheme of things with what we'll do in the West between now and year end. It's really not that big a deal. So we look at $10 million to $15 million. I'm very comfortable saying that $10 million, you know, could we have risk on $5 million, if we have weather -- bad weather in the balance of the year at some point. We could, but in the whole grand scheme of what those markets will do, I don't think it's really significant.
Garik Shmois -- Longbow Research -- Analyst
Okay. Nice talk. Thanks.
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes.
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Ken Zener from KeyBanc. Please go ahead.
Ken Zener -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
Good morning, gentlemen.
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Good morning.
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Ken.
Ken Zener -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
Pete, you have got like -- your stock hits an all time high, you have got like this is whether volatility versus your old industry I imagine. I just would ask some vanilla questions because you guys are obviously executing well and the story doesn't change that much. So on these delayed products, I get it, I mean is it -- what type of product is it. I know you got the gross margin benefit from your pre-buys, but I mean is it across the board or is it really more (inaudible) and poor maintenance coming out of winter or what's the kind of just 30 second -- what gets delayed. Is it everything or is a particular categories?
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes, you're talking about the $20 million to $30 million plus?
Ken Zener -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
Yes, just been general, like when you get a weather issue like this, you know, not heavy rains like Texas, but just kind of layer, is it just more like a more northern climate where stuff just gets delayed period.
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Well, to think about the fact that we're in this time of year when pools are starting to get open. So you have a little bit of everything going on. So the weather impacts construction days and construction days as both renovation and new build. And then the delay and pool openings affects chemical usage and the start-up expenses that you incur when you open a pool. So you got some maintenance products --
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
The things that didn't -- pools that weren't properly maintained where things may have frozen in the winter or deferred maintenance from the end of the year (inaudible) I'll wait till the next season to change, the light that had burned out. So it really is across the board, Ken.
Ken Zener -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
Okay. And then, looking at spend, just to kind of think about this again. I'm just kind of refreshing. But for the blue side, like if a new pool that tends to be about $5,000 a unit and R&R on the blue tends to be about $1,500, is that still the numbers that that you're kind of using in terms of expenditures per that category?
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
No. Absolutely, that's about right.
Ken Zener -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
And then on the renovation, which could include green or hardscape, do you guys have a kind of number that when people are redoing a pool which could include not only the widening the pool, pull piping, et cetera, but it could also include the concrete around it or finishings. Do you have a general number for when the pool gets renovated, what that is and if that's half financed or is that all cash? I'm just trying to understand that R&R side a little better.
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes. And it's a big range, Ken. As you know, there is a lot of variation, and the variation is driven by what the customer wants, as well as how well the customer homeowner is feeling economically. And so when you are sitting on equity in your home and you have a pool that is, let's call it, long in the tooth, it needs a number of things. And you're more likely to buy today because of all the features and benefits that have been having over time.
There is just such a wide variety of things that you can do with your pool in terms of the pool finishes and tile and fountains and fire. And really, the other thing too is, Ken, is starting to appear, and it's sorely needed in the industry is technology, things that make a pool easier to own whether it's the next generation of robotic cleaners or whether it's being able to control your pool even on a retrofit basis from your phone. Those products are just starting to really come out and gain exposure in the market, and that's also going to just -- it'll simply expand -- it will expand the market.
I mean there's a -- of the 5.5 million in-ground pools for instance, 3.5 million of those, we believed, operate on a mechanical time clock. And every one of those is a candidate for an automation update, which for relatively nominal amount allows you to control that pool from your phone.
So the long answer, there is a wide variety, and we've expanded our share of products as well as our presence by opening these entity centers, where homeowners can come in. So we don't want have a specific number. It's just a --
Ken Zener -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
Yes. No, but what I was trying to understand there in the mechanical clock, and I have God knows how, (inaudible) mechanical clock. In many industries, you talk about a life cycle, so pools, appliances might be 10 years. It's a very fungible number. But I'm wondering is as these in-ground pools get older, if in fact you are you experiencing arising need for R&R because they're just literally breaking down? You know what I mean?
You have to show, but everything else is really just hitting points where it has to be greater upgrades than you've had in the past, right, which is your combined not only with your expansion in the hardscape, et cetera, but the pool infrastructure itself is requiring. Do you see any of that? I don't know how to think about a pool's life cycle. I know pump score out and stuff like that. But it seems like the pools, because they've been on the ground longer, are actually facing greater upkeep themselves.
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes, I mean, we think about the interior of a pool, I mean there's so many variables that come into play, and it has to -- water chemistry being the biggest one. You can have a pool that has great water chemistry, and the water is always balanced, and that pool finish will last a lot longer than one where the water chemistry is out of balance and people don't take care of it. But we think about equipment pad, life cycle, similar to which you would expect for the appliances in your home.
And the interior of a pool is probably kind of like a 10-year cycle. So -- but there are -- a lot of that has to do -- it's not just that it wore out. It is design, changes and features. So some of it is not -- it's not that there's anything wrong with the finish. It's just that it's not aesthetically pleasing and when somebody sees a picture of a new pool and says, wow, that's great. And it's a pool that its basic form is a concrete shell. What you put on, it determines and what you put around it determines what it looks like.
Ken Zener -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
Thank you very much. Sorry for that extended question.
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
No problem.
Operator
This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Pete Arvan for any closing remarks.
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Great. Thank you very much for listening today. Our next conference call is scheduled for July 18th when we will discuss second quarter results for 2019. Have a great day.
Operator
This concludes our presentation. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.
Duration: 37 minutes
Call participants:
Mark W. Joslin -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Peter D. Arvan -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Ryan Merkel -- William Blair -- Analyst
David Manthey -- Robert W. Baird -- Analyst
Blake Hirschman -- Stephens Incorporated -- Analyst
Stephen Volkmann -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Anthony Lebiedzinski -- Sidoti & Company -- Analyst
Garik Shmois -- Longbow Research -- Analyst
Ken Zener -- KeyBanc -- Analyst
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