Alliance Laundry Holdings Inc. (ALH) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good morning, and welcome to Alliance Laundry's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. With us today are Mike Schoeb, Chief Executive Officer; Dean Nolden, Chief Financial Officer; and Bob Calver, Vice President of Investor Relations. [Operator Instructions] With that, it is my pleasure to turn the program over to the team. Bob, please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Along with today's call, you can find our earnings press release and presentation on our Investor Relations website at ir.alliancelaundry.com. A replay will also be available on our website following the call. As a reminder, today's earnings release, presentation and statements made during the call include forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. Such risks and uncertainties include factors set forth in the earnings release and in our filings with the SEC, including the Risk Factors section of our 10-K filing and subsequent 10-Q filings. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Additionally, during today's call, we'll discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures outlined in our earnings presentation. We believe these measures are important indicators of our operations as they exclude items that may not be indicative of ongoing business performance. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release and presentation appendix. I'll now turn over to Mike.

Thanks, Bob, and thank you all for joining our earnings call. Building on a strong 2025, Q1 demonstrated what we've been talking about since becoming a public company that a resilient, replacement-driven, essential industry, a market-leading position and disciplined operational excellence deliver strong, sustainable outcomes. In Q1, revenue grew 10% year-over-year with adjusted EBITDA growth of 9% and adjusted net income almost doubling. This growth was broad-based, driven by both volume and price. The strength and breadth of this performance, combined with our growing visibility into the balance of the year supports our confidence to raise the low end of our full year revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance today to 6% to 7% revenue growth and 7% to 8% adjusted EBITDA growth. And Dean will take you through the detail shortly. I'd like to highlight that this strong performance was achieved in what we all know has been a very volatile macro environment. But remember, Every Day is Laundry Day. Commercial laundry is a vibrant, growing and essential part of modern life. And our diversified geographies and end markets serving nondiscretionary applications have performed across all economic cycles, providing a level of growth, consistency and downside protection that is hard to find. We see this period as no different. We saw solid performance from our Commercial-in-Home where replacement-driven demand means we are not exposed to new home construction trends and consumers everywhere are searching for reliable and durable products in their homes. Europe also performed extremely well across all end markets. And on tariffs, which I know is top of mind for many, our local-for-local manufacturing strategy continues to be a real competitive advantage, not only in the U.S. but around the world. Our local-for-local manufacturing footprint puts us in a stronger position relative to competitors who have more import-dependent and complex supply chains. Digital innovation also continues to see strong adoption, and I want to be clear about our strategy. Our priority is building an extensive connected installed base and driving adoption by delivering technology, innovation and tools that our customers love. The more connected our equipment is, the more value we can deliver through better uptime, smarter servicing, lower costs and higher revenue. And ultimately, all of this delivers a better end consumer experience, which further strengthens our relationships and stickiness with our customers. Our connected equipment base continues to grow month-on-month, now standing at more than 250,000 connected machines. Also Scan/Pay/Wash, our first-of-its-kind cashless payment solution requiring no app download, processed over 100,000 transactions in the month of March alone, but total transactions in Q1 doubled the entirety of Q4 2025. And we're still in the early innings of the value this technology can unlock, and we look forward to sharing more as this platform scales. But so far, the adoption trends are encouraging, and we continue to see strong progress on our multiyear product pipeline. And as we touched in our last earnings update, we were excited to complete the distributor acquisition in New York during Q1, which marks our second acquisition in one of the most vibrant commercial laundry markets in the U.S. This tuck-in also brings the Speed Queen, UniMac and Huebsch brands together under one highly talented team and provides us with the opportunity to realize its full potential. We've also continued to strengthen our balance sheet, having made debt payments of $65 million in the quarter and reduced net leverage 0.2x to 2.6x adjusted EBITDA, and we remain on track for our full year deleveraging target. Taken together, the strength we demonstrated in Q1, broad-based demand, pricing discipline, a local-for-local manufacturing footprint and a strengthened balance sheet are what we expect to carry us through the balance of 2026. We remain confident in our ability to deliver on our raised guidance for the full year and equally confident in the long-term value we are creating for shareholders. And finally, before Dean takes over, I want to thank all of the investors and the analysts we have met over the past few months. The level of engagement has been fantastic, and I look forward to continuing the dialogue as we work hard to continue demonstrating our best-in-class industrial, financial and operational profile. On that note, I will hand it over to Dean to provide details on our Q1 performance and increased guidance.

Thank you, Mike. Starting on Slide 4, I'll walk through our strong results and strengthening balance sheet. First quarter net revenue grew 10% to $427 million versus the prior year. We saw real unit volume increases, contributing roughly 3%, consistent with our full year outlook, with the balance coming from pricing and roughly 1% benefit from foreign currency. This reinforces what Mike said earlier, Alliance is fundamentally a volume-led growth story, enhanced by rational pricing and our results remain consistent with the balanced growth pattern that has long characterized us and our industry over time. Gross profit grew 8% to $157 million. representing a gross margin of 37%. On the cost environment and tariffs specifically, pricing actions already in place continue to offset our approximately $20 million annualized exposure. And our domestic manufacturing footprint provides a meaningful structural advantage relative to peers. We are monitoring the evolving trade landscape closely and believe we are well equipped to manage through new developments or changes in the tariff environment. Operating expenses were $73 million or 17% of revenue, consistent with our expectations and reflecting the full quarter impact of public company costs as well as our continued investments in our digital, engineering and commercial capabilities at scale versus the competition. Taken all together, these dynamics translated into adjusted EBITDA of $109 million, up 9% versus prior year and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 25.5%. Volume leverage, operational excellence and supply chain efficiency would have driven margin expansion higher in the quarter, but were offset by the incremental costs of operating as a public company. Adjusted net income was up 85% year-over-year to $63 million, a result that reflects both our strong operating performance and the meaningful benefit of significantly lower interest expense as our debt reduction over the past 12 months continues to flow through the P&L. Moving to cash and the balance sheet. Operating cash flow in the quarter was $80 million, reflecting strong operating cash conversion and continued working capital discipline, consistent with what we've delivered historically. We paid down $65 million in debt in Q1, ending the quarter with total debt of $1.3 billion and net debt of $1.2 billion. That puts net leverage at 2.6x adjusted EBITDA, down 0.2x in the quarter and squarely on track for our full year leverage guidance. Drilling into the segments, North America delivered a strong quarter with revenue up 9% to $320 million and adjusted EBITDA up 8% to $87 million and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 27.2%. Growth in the quarter was broad-based across our end markets with some mix impacting margin modestly in the quarter. We saw strong growth in our vended markets, both retail laundromats and communal laundry in multi-housing locations, driven by new store development and existing operators continuing to modernize their fleets with higher capacity digitally connected equipment. Alliance remains well positioned to capitalize on this continuing growth driver. On-Premise delivered solid results driven by predictable replacement demand that defines that end market. And as Mike talked about earlier, Commercial-in-Home continued to outpace the industry. Internationally, revenue grew 10% to $107 million, with adjusted EBITDA up 13% to $33 million and margin of 30.4%. Europe continues its strong momentum with our total cost of ownership value proposition resonating with an operator base that is actively investing in fleet upgrades and energy efficiency. Across our other international markets, we continue to see strong growth in Asia Pacific, especially in the nascent vended markets. Our Middle East and Africa region, which represents roughly 2% of total revenue, consistent with its historical size and split broadly between the Middle East and Africa, also grew in the quarter. Now we will turn to our full year guidance on Slide 6. While it's still early in the year, the strength of our Q1 performance and our growing visibility into the rest of 2026 gives us confidence in raising our full year 2026 guidance today. We are increasing our full year revenue guidance with growth now expected to be in the range of 6% to 7%, an increase of 1 percentage point to the low end of our prior range with equal contribution expected from volume and price. We also continue to anticipate adjusted EBITDA margin expansion for the full year and are updating our adjusted EBITDA growth to be in the 7% to 8% range as we realize price and volume increases and the benefit of continued cost down initiatives. In addition, subsequent to our first quarter deleveraging, we remain confident in our ability to continue to generate free cash flow and are reaffirming our expectation to reduce leverage by approximately 0.75x in 2026, bringing us to the low 2x net debt leverage range by year-end. Our other guidance items remain unchanged. Before I wrap up, I want to reaffirm our capital allocation framework to highlight the strong position this business is in today and the compelling opportunities we have ahead. We are generating strong, consistent free cash flow and putting it to work strategically and deliberately. Deleveraging remains a priority. And as you've seen, we are executing against that commitment. Each quarter of paydown strengthens our balance sheet and expands our financial flexibility. As we move through the year and leverage continues to decline, that flexibility grows, and with it, our ability to act on additional opportunities to drive shareholder value. Organic investment in high-return growth remains a core use of our capital, and we also continue to monitor the landscape for potential tuck-in acquisitions that could support and enhance our long-term growth. At the same time, we expect to maintain the flexibility to return capital to shareholders when appropriate, potential buybacks in the near term and dividends as a longer-term consideration as the balance sheet continues to strengthen. With that, let me turn it back to Mike.

Thanks, Dean. Before we open it up for Q&A, I want to close with 4 key messages. First, commercial laundry is a vibrant, growing and essential industry. Second, we hold a leading market position as the only scaled pure-play operator, 2x the size of the #2 competitor. Third, we have an experienced, hungry and proven team that has long delivered results through every economic cycle, and that gives us confidence to raise our outlook for the year. And finally, there are systemic tailwinds of magnitude that we believe will continue to power this company over the long term. I'll close by thanking our employees, our distribution partners, customers and shareholders for your continued support. We appreciate it and look forward to continuing to create long-term value for Alliance's stakeholders. And with that, let's open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question today will come from Kyle Menges with Citigroup.

Great. Maybe to start off, I'm curious just any notable changes in how you're thinking about the growth in any of the verticals in North America for the rest of the year? And maybe piggybacking on that, I think you mentioned Commercial-in-Home outgrew the industry in the quarter. I'm curious if that growth was still positive and just how you're thinking about Commercial-in-Home for the rest of the year.

Yes. Kyle, it's Mike. Look, I don't think anything has changed. So we still feel very optimistic in terms of all verticals in the business having continued growth. Momentum is positive. Sentiment is positive. Commercial-in-Home, in particular, has been, as you know, been doing quite well for a number of years. We see no change in demand. So at the moment, everything is green.

That's helpful. And I'd love to just hear more about the Scan/Pay/Wash technology that you've rolled out and just curious how unique this is to Alliance and then just how are you thinking about monetizing it? And is it more of a, I guess, market share gain play that you think you can get with this technology?

Yes. So remember, we're really the only player in the industry who has a truly integrated platform with software and hardware together. Payment is a part of that. The Scan/Pay/Wash has been very, very popular just because people don't like to download apps. So I think it's just convenient, it's easy. It provides some benefits to the store owners, but ultimately, it's a convenience for the end user. And in terms of monetization, as I said in the opening remarks, I think we're more focused today on, hey, let's just get adoption. And we believe, again, that, that stickiness, the value that we can bring sort of by the digital platform in general is going to continue to be very strong, and we will monetize that as it goes through. We do clip a little bit of a fee on the Scan/Pay/Wash, but it is not really meaningful, Kyle. And that we think is the right strategy for now.

Our next question comes from Mike Halloran with Baird.

So first, just on the vended side of things, North America. Maybe just talk about the dynamics you're seeing in the marketplace. Any sensitivity to the volatility right now when it comes to the refurbishment cycle or even build-out cycle? And what are the customers saying about the current dynamics?

Yes. Mike, I will tell you, at the store level, not really any major impact of note. At the investor level, so those who are hoping to get new stores or retrofit their existing stores that they have, there is no change in demand. The continual challenge has been more on the permitting and then just finding labor in particular. And to a lesser extent, still you -- when you're putting a store together, you've got a lot, a lot of different components and parts and pieces. And so some of that is subject to supply chain where you can't get a front door that closes or boiler or whatever it happens to be. But in general, it's really just permitting, labor, and then as we talked about on past calls, site selection. But more of the drag is just -- it just takes more time and you're pushing through the funnel. But demand, the pipeline is still very, very robust.

And then on the price cost side of things, maybe just talk to the inflationary backdrop, how you think the price cost manages through the year? And do you foresee any incremental pricing actions on your side?

Mike, this is Dean. I think from the standpoint of price and cost, as we disclosed in our release and talked about previously, we've really covered our cost increases from inflation as well as tariff with the price increases we took in late -- middle to late 2025 and then some in early 2026 internationally. So we're well positioned to manage as pricing evolves, as tariff environment evolves to adjust accordingly. But we feel good with where we're at today and our guidance for covering our price -- our cost with price for the rest of the year.

Our next question comes from Andrew Obin with Bank of America.

This is David Ridley-Lane on for Andrew Obin. Am I right in thinking that this is probably the -- on a year-over-year basis, the most meaningful one for tariff pressure just given the timing of all the things? And then also on the topic, could you discuss -- there were changes to Section 232 tariff on steel and aluminum. Can you discuss whether that was a net benefit or drag for you and also maybe your competitors?

I think from the standpoint of tariffs, yes, I think the first quarter is really the toughest comp quarter given the ramp-up and the activity in tariffs in 2025. We have about $4.5 million to $5 million of headwind in the first quarter from tariffs that are consistent with prior year. And again, consistent with the prior question, we've covered those costs with price. Also on the other side of some of our commodities, as you know, we've locked in the most important commodities in terms of our cost of materials, in terms of steel and stainless steel for the year. So we feel good with where we're at. We have good visibility on those costs as it relates to our prices.

Then I would say on the change in the Section 232, I would say it's slightly favorable, but pretty close to what it was before.

Got it. And just on the -- it sounds like you are in a good position from your own costs. It would seem that broadly, this concept that electricity prices are going higher is out there in the public mainstream now. And that would seem to me to be an impetus maybe for -- since utility costs are so meaningful for your customer base. It would seem to be maybe on the margin, maybe an impetus for refreshing. Is your energy efficiency more of a selling point today than in the past? And how do you think about that?

Yes. Sorry, go ahead.

No, that was it.

Okay. Yes. So again, it depends on the age of the equipment you currently have. So older generation, let's say, approaching the 7 to 10 year, again, these units, as you know, get warm and ridden pretty hard. So everything kind of loosens up, efficiency generally degrades over time, particularly if it's not well maintained, which is the reality. Very few people really maintain their product as well as they should. Just like a car or anything else, like nobody really does what the manufacturer is asking you to do. But -- so there is a value proposition there. I think it would take probably several quarters of when you really see that show up and it materially impacts your results month after month. I think that gets people off of a sort of dead center. So I think it helps. I think more important is sort of the innovation and the digital connectivity that allows people, again, to not only reduce energy, but gives you potentially an uplift in terms of the revenue side of the equation. So I think it will come, but I don't think it's a quick one, and we need it to be pretty consistent out there for a number of quarters.

Our next question comes from Tomo Sano with JPMorgan.

So Europe and APAC was strong. And could you talk about where exactly is the growth coming from countries, channels? And if you could talk about the -- what are the key risks, including geopolitics and competition, please?

Yes. So for Europe, very strong across the board, all parts of the business. So vended was up pretty significantly. Our On-Premise business was up significantly. The majority of that has come where we have direct offices, so Italy, Spain, in particular, in France, and we see no change in that. I will say having just been in that region a week or 2 ago, sentiment is -- people are a little bit -- I wouldn't say nervous, but they're thinking, they're pausing and they're kind of waiting. So I would expect that given energy prices in particular, given again the uncertainty around the war, we'll see some pullback, I would suspect. Nothing material at the moment, nothing that we can sort of point our fingers at. But general sentiment in that part of the world is slightly negative, I would characterize it that way. In APAC, it's been a continual story. We are getting more growth from On-Premise. It is one of the areas that we have, as I've talked about in prior calls, sort of lost a little bit of focus on. So they're getting more there. And then in particular, Thailand has really had a very, very strong start to the year. And most of that has been on the vended side of the business.

And one follow-up. International margins are now 30.4% versus North America, 27.2%. What structurally drives the gap? And how should we think about it going forward, please?

I would say, first, Tomo, as we've talked about in the past, as we grow internationally and as different regions of the International segment and mix impact those regions, especially Europe, in particular, that Mike talked about, we will see stronger EBITDA margins as a result. So it is a little bit lumpy, but consistently growing, trending up and to the right. So parity with North America will continue to increase or to get closer together. One thing I would say is that about 1/3 of the top line and 1/3 of the bottom line is FX related in the quarter. So if you take away the FX impacts in internationally, we'd be up 7% in revenue and 9% in EBITDA. So still margin expansion. We're benefiting from the natural hedge that we have on our local-for-local manufacturing strategy. So we feel really good about the margin trajectory internationally. But again, it's somewhat episodic or lumpy in terms of which regions and which end markets are the strongest in the quarter, again, up into the right over time.

Our next question comes from Susan Maklari with Goldman Sachs.

My first question is on the adoption rates that you're seeing with Scan/Pay/Wash. It sounds like you're getting some really nice traction there. As we think about the next several quarters and is continuing to gain some momentum, can you talk about how we should think about what that means in terms of the overall growth? And then how you're also thinking about investing in the next wave of innovation and in other strategic initiatives that you have in the pipeline?

Yes. So just on Scan/Pay/Wash, again, it's part of our digital platform. So there are a lot of other sort of features that you would get with that. So it's more just sort of an add-on. And again, as I mentioned, it's not really material at the moment in terms of showing up in the financials in any way. And I think in terms of our innovation, it is really across the board. It's something that we have invested pretty significantly in, right? I talked about almost doubling our testing capacity that we have in the U.S., in Thailand as well as in Czech Republic to really get that [ 24/7 ] turn. So the physical product, again, Susan, will be a little bit slower because what we don't want to do is launch a product before it's tried, tested and true. So those labs are very, very important to helping us accelerate the physical product and simulating all kinds of things from brownouts, to dirty water, to vibration, to all kinds of things and run life testing to make sure that, that product is durable, reliable and long-lasting. And then the digital side, again, much, much quicker to innovate faster to roll out. And we see, again, that sort of one-two punch. We've got a very significant development team. As I said, we believe we are the only fully integrated company in the space and got some great team members and a development center, again, primarily in our Asian market. But it is going to be pretty healthy, I think, in terms of how we feel about it, how we look at it and what you will continue to see from the company.

Okay. That's great color. And then you also mentioned that you completed your second acquisition of a distributor in New York. Can you just talk a bit about the M&A pipeline? And has there been any changes given the recent uncertainty in the macro and moves in inflation?

Yes. I mean, again, I think you got -- well, you should think of us as very capable of acquisitions. We're always looking. That pipeline is not infinite. It's a small number. We have largely accomplished what we said we would do, setting out our strategy a number of years ago in terms of the acquisitions of distribution in the U.S. market. That's not to say we aren't engaging, continuing to dialogue with people. But it will be a part of our story. You should not think of us that way. On the manufacturing side, again, we're always in active discussion. But I would say more than anything, we've got everything we need to continue to grow at a pace above market. And we view all of these as complementary, nice to have, but none of it is a need to have, and that's kind of how we look at it. So where we can find value, and again, I would emphasize, we are very disciplined in terms of any of these targets that we're looking at. But where we see it, you'll see us act, but it is more on the margin is what I would say.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from Amit Mehrotra with UBS.

This is Zach Walljasper on for Amit. Just my first question, can you just talk about the phasing of the pricing actions? I was trying to understand like the natural carryover pricing from last year versus the incremental pricing from tariffs. And then just my second question is just around -- can you just elaborate -- the press release called out like a negative impact from the North America margins. And just based on guidance, it seems like the negative mix should reverse in the balance of the year. Just any color there would be helpful.

Yes. Thanks. I'll start on the second question first. Yes. The impact on margins, gross margin, in particular, in the quarter was pretty much mix related product and region. Nothing fundamental to the gross margin for the quarter. We still expect gross margin expansion and EBITDA expansion built into our guidance for the full year. So I think to your point is accurate that we will start to see that pick up as we comp our price increases year-over-year in our public company costs. With regard to pricing, as we said in the previous quarter and consistent with this quarter is that pricing will be a bigger benefit to our top line in the first half of the year, given the timing of price increases in 2025 due to tariffs and otherwise. We pulled forward our 2026 North America price increases into November, announced them in November of 2025. So those could be started and realized at the beginning of 2026. As the year progresses, you'll see less impact in the second half from price because of that timing. But we're also very confident that quarter-over-quarter, consistently for the year, you're going to see volume increases consistent each quarter on a comparable basis quarter-over-quarter, such that for the full year, we still expect to be about 50% price on average and 50% volume in terms of our guidance for the full year.

And we'll go next to Ketan Mamtora with BMO Capital Markets.

Congrats on a strong start to the year. Maybe to start with, can you talk a little bit about -- and we discussed M&A, but I'm just curious, as you start to approach your target of 2x leverage, can you talk about how you are thinking about sort of capital allocation? And if you can just rank order your priorities, please?

Yes. Thanks for the question. I think consistent is the theme, I think, here in terms of our communication on capital allocation strategy. And we're fortunate, given our business model and our strong free cash flow profile that's consistent throughout the year to have multiple opportunities to pull multiple levers at the same time in order to return capital to shareholders and be balanced. But still, our #1 priority currently is deleveraging. Having said that, we are able to deleverage at the same time, we are going to continue to invest in our business in terms of capital and new product and innovation at scale compared to our competition. As Mike referred to earlier, M&A is really not a big portion of our story. It's not something that's going to take a lot of capital as we foresee it today. And then we will still have the opportunity, as we said in our prepared remarks, to return cash to shareholders over the longer term, medium term in terms of when it's available, when it's opportunistic to buy back shares and/or over the long term, consider a dividend. So the good news is that we have a lot of opportunity at our discretion given our strong free cash flow profile and deleveraging is our #1 priority, but able to pull on multiple levers at the same time given our strong free cash flow profile.

Got it. That's helpful. And then just as a follow-on question, Mike, can you talk a little bit about sort of competitive dynamics, both here in North America and in Europe?

Yes. I mean, again, where we can find the information, and as you know, our #2 competitor is publicly traded. So you guys who follow them can find the information. I think in general, the competitive situation is unchanged. We do see at times -- again, these are great companies. At times, there are decisions they make that we don't fully follow, and we're not clear on. But I would say, in general, it is the same as it has been. Again, the international players struggling a little bit more here in the U.S., particularly given the tariff dynamic. We're starting to see some of those pricing actions begin to come in. They are not anywhere close to what we know their costs are going up, but they are beginning to pass those on. And as we've talked about, we felt that, that would really begin to manifest itself in the back half of the year. We still think that is the situation and the competitive dynamics from our position, we feel that we are in a stronger position, certainly. And again, I've been here almost 2 decades, I've really never seen the opportunities that we have at the moment in terms of our value proposition, our products, our team, what we have coming down the pike in terms of the innovation and value for end users is incredibly, incredibly strong. So I'd probably just leave it at that. We're -- I feel we're executing very, very well and in a tremendous position.

Thank you. This does conclude today's question-and-answer session as well as Alliance Laundry's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.