RHUHF (RHUHF) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Richelieu's conference call for the Q2 and first half, ended May 31st, 2026. With me is Antoine Auclair, CFO and COO. As usual, note that some of today's issue include forward-looking informations, which is provided with the usual disclaimer, as reported in our financial filings. We recorded good growth and positive results during the Q2. We have remained focused on acquisition strategy, completing one new acquisition, followed by two further ones after the end of the quarter. Three promising acquisitions, meeting our criteria and further strengthening our leading position in this high-growth market segment. Thanks to steady growth in our main market segment in Canada and the U.S., our sales increased respectively by 5.5 and 4.4% in US dollar for the U.S. sales. For total sales of CAD 532.1 million, up 3.9%, an increase that would have been five percent on a comparable currency to 2025. Our sales to manufacturers accounted for 89% of our total sales, reaching CAD 473.7 million, up 3.8%, driven equally by internal growth and acquisitions. Our sales to retailers and the renovation superstores increased by 4.2% to CAD 58.4 million. EBITDA reached CAD 56.1 million, and net income attributable to shareholders was up 3.2% to CAD 23.2 million. Regarding the execution of our acquisition strategy since the beginning of the year, we have completed four acquisitions. One in the U.S. during the Q1, another in Quebec during the Q2, and two additional acquisition after the end of the quarter in Canada. On May 1st, we acquired Finium, a distributor and manufacturer based in Frampton, Quebec, specializing in premium wall covering panels with high aesthetic, decorative, and acoustic value. These products stand out for their unique design, quality, and installation ease for both residential and commercial application, and they fit perfectly with our decorative panel offering. On June 26, we completed the acquisition of Solutions Acoustiques, which operates in the Greater Montreal and as a specialized distributor in acoustic solution known for their performance and architectural design. On July 8, we completed the acquisition of Winnec, a distributor of specialized hardware operating in the GTA area with three distribution centers. This reinforces our position in the key market of Ontario. These four acquisition, completed since the beginning of the year, add approximately CAD 45 million in annual sales, bring new value, expertise, new products, new customers, and further enhance the value we provided to our customers. In fact, the addition of Finium and Solutions Acoustiques strengthens our leadership in decorative and acoustic solutions, two high-growth market segment, while further expanding our presence among architects and designers. This strategy builds on the recognition we received earlier this year with our Best of KBIS awards in two different product category, and it reflects our commitment to differentiate ourselves and remain a leader in innovation. I will now ask Antoine to review the financial highlights for the quarter and the first six months.

Thanks, Richard. In the Q2 sales reached CAD 532.1 million, up 3.9%, or CAD 19.9 million, driven by 1.8% internal growth and 2.1% from acquisitions. At comparable exchange rates, sales growth would have been five percent. In Canada, sales totaled CAD 291 million, up 5.5%, despite flat sales in Ontario, where the market conditions remain more challenging. Sales to manufacturers amounted to CAD 246 million, up 4.5%, while sales to the hardware retailers totaled CAD 45 million, up 11.6%. In the US, sales grew to $175 million in US dollar, up 4.4%. Sales to manufacturers reached $166 million in US dollar, up 5.6%, with 3.1% coming from internal growth. In the hardware retailers and renovation superstores market, sales reached CAD 9.6 million, down 12.7%. In Canadian dollar, total sales in the US reached CAD 241 million, up 1.9% over last year and accounting for 45% of total sales. Sales to our US manufacturers market now represent 48% of total sales to manufacturers, further reflecting the growing importance of our US operations. For the first half, total sales reached nearly CAD 1 billion, up 4.4%, of which 1.9% resulted from internal growth and 2.5% from acquisition. In comparable exchange rate, sales growth would have been 5.9%. In Canada, sales reached CAD 541 million, up 4.5%, including 2.9% from internal growth and 1.6% from acquisition. Sales to manufacturers totaled CAD 452 million, up CAD 21.6 million or five percent. Sales to hardware retailers and renovation superstores were CAD 88.7 million, compared to CAD 86.8 million, up 2.2%. In the US, sales amounted to $331 million in US dollar, up 7.5%, with 3.7% from internal growth and 3.8% from acquisitions. They reached CAD 455 million in Canadian dollar, up 4.2%, accounting for 46% of total sales. In US dollars, sales to manufacturers totaled $313 million, an increase of $23.2 million or eight percent, driven by 4.5% internal growth and 3.5% from acquisitions. Sales to hardware retailers and renovation superstores stayed the same compared to last year. Second quarter EBITDA reached CAD 56.1 million, up CAD 1 million or 1.7% from last year. EBITDA margin was 10.6% compared to 10.8% last year. Slight decrease in percentage reflects the impact of tariffs, which proportionately increased both sales and cost of sales. First half EBITDA totaled CAD 99.4 million, up 1.8%, with the EBITDA margin at 10%. Q2 net earnings attributable to shareholders amounted to CAD 23.2 million, up 3.2%, while diluted net earnings per share increased 2.4% to CAD 0.42 from CAD 0.41 last year. First half net earnings attributable to shareholders reached CAD 37.6 million, up 2.5%. Diluted net earnings per share stood at CAD 0.68 compared to CAD 0.66 last year. Second quarter cash flow from operating activities before net change in non-cash working capital reached CAD 47.9 million, up 2.4% from CAD 46.8 million last year. Change in non-cash working capital used cash flow of CAD 28.5 million, primarily driven by a CAD 14.8 million increase in accounts receivable and CAD 9.4 million increase in inventories. As a result, operating activities generated a cash inflow of CAD 19.4 million for the quarter. For the first half, cash flows from operating activities represented a cash inflow of CAD 36.6 million compared to a cash inflow of CAD 51 million last year. For the Q2, financing activities used CAD 33.5 million in cash compared to CAD 23.3 million last year, primarily reflecting higher cash return to shareholders through CAD 7.6 million of common share repurchase, in addition to quarterly dividend payment of CAD 8.6 million. First half financing activities used cash flow of CAD 58.6 million compared to CAD 44.7 million in 2025. In the first half, we invested CAD 26 million, including CAD 15.3 million for two business acquisitions and CAD 10.7 million primarily for equipment required to maintain and improve operational efficiency, including IT equipment. We continue to maintain an outstanding balance sheet with working capital of CAD 629.5 million. I now turn it over to Richard.

Thank you, Antoine. In conclusion, we are integrating our acquisitions while the current economic environment is creating attractive acquisition opportunities in our target markets. We are evaluating several opportunity and remain well positioned to pursue those that meet our strategic criteria and support our long-term growth. We continue to differentiate ourselves by constantly expanding our product offering and bringing innovative solutions and emerging global design trends to the American market. By introducing products that are first to the market and many of them being exclusive with our own brand name. We have become a trusted partner for architects, designers, woodworking professional, and retailers. This relentless focus on innovation, product leadership, and value-added service, combined with the strongest team and a strategically located distribution network, is what defines Richelieu, reinforcing our competitive advantage and help our customers being more successful in their own business. Thanks, everyone.

Thank you, Mr. Lord. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions, please press star followed by one on your touch-tone phone. You will then hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by two. if you're using a speakerphone, you will need to lift the handset first before pressing any keys. a reminder that questions are restricted to analysts only. Thank you. Please go ahead and press star one now if you have any questions. First, we will hear from Hamir Patel at CIBC. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good afternoon. Richard, can you share how sales fared in the month of June and any differences there across categories or geographies? I know I think last time you'd highlighted Ontario as being particularly weak, so any signs of turnaround there?

I think the sales performance followed the same performance that we had in the last quarter. What we see, Canada is doing well as a whole, except for Ontario. I think Quebec is doing very well with a sales increase by more than 10%. Western Canada is also very healthy. I think it's over five percent increase. Basically, except for Ontario, Canada is pretty good. Ontario, I would say, in the U.S, it's about the same everywhere, but we have different market segments, like the specialized market, like the closet market, for example, we continue to experience sales between 15 and 20% increase. For the rest, we have basically a performance of two percent-three percent per market segment. Basically, we're satisfied with that, but I think what we have decided here in this company is that maybe to invest a little bit more in salespeople, mainly in the U.S., in order to gain more customers and to move the market. We think the market is in a kind of lethargy as we speak. I think we have to be more aggressive in visiting more customers and acquiring new customers, and as a result, new sales as well. Basically, we don't think that the months to come in the near future will help us, so we have to help ourselves by moving the sales.

Fair enough. Richard, how much is Ontario as a percent of your Canadian business? Is that 40%, 50%?

44%.

44%, okay, that's great. I know, I think. Yep.

I make it 17% of total sales.

Of total sales. Including U.S., everything.

Yes.

Right. Okay. I know, I think, Richard, in the past, you highlighted some U.S. box business that was going to resume. I think it was supposed to start in Q2. Is that only playing out here in Q3?

Yes. It has started. It has started. We're in the process of delivering our first order. So basically that's going to create more sales really for a couple of quarters. After that, it's going to be maybe flat for the next quarters, because once we fill up the stores, it takes a while before the reorder. But after that, it's going to be, you can imagine, CAD 10 million-CAD 12 million sales, yearly sales.

Hamir, it started in June.

June. Perfect. Okay. Just last question I had, Antoine, your EBITDA margins averaged 10% in the first half. On the last conference call in April, you were pointing to an 11% average for the year. Is that 11% still looking achievable? What type of demand backdrop would you need to get margins to that sort of longer term 12%, 13% objective?

We would need a bit more rigor in the market to pump up those margin. But keep in mind, Hamir, that the second half is always stronger than the first half. And you understand as well that the very slight decrease, 0.2, is basically due to tariff, because when we're passing through the tariff, we're passing the dollar, so it has, for sure, a slight dilution on the percentage. We should be able to be close to the 11%, but we would need a bit more rigor in the market.

Okay, fair enough. That's all I had. I'll turn it over. Thanks.

Thank you.

Next question will be from Zachary Evershed at National Bank Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, everyone. This is Nate calling in for Zach. Thank you for taking my questions today. I want to ask first on the margins. Was there anything else to call out on the margin compression year-over-year other than tariffs? Because we noticed your gross margins fell around 200 basis points year-over-year, but your EBITDA margins only fell 20 basis points.

No, there's nothing else than that. Structurally, it's the same. Really the tariffs is definitely what has impacted the margin.

I see. Okay. With the aforementioned 11% EBITDA margin goal, how are you feeling about that on top with recent acquisitions now in the mix and the few, I believe several, you have currently evaluating in your pipeline?

Yeah. Some of the one we closed last year were businesses that we acquired that needed some restructuring. The one that we announced this year in the Q2 are businesses that are generating EBITDA already. We're confident about these acquisitions. The one we just did will not dilute the EBITDA margin.

Thank you very much. We did notice also that capital expenditures ticked up to CAD 7.5 million this quarter. Are there any plans you can tell us about?

Basically, there's a CAD two million of IT equipment that we have to make every three to four years. except that, it's pretty much back to maintenance CapEx. at the end of the year, we should be between CAD 18 million and CAD 20 million, like we told you guys earlier. we should be around that. We're looking at a few projects. we're looking at increasing our footprint in our Drummondville location. as you know, we have a building there. We have land available, we're going to have some lease coming, expiring, and we're going to be building in Drummondville, Quebec. that should occur at the end of the year and the beginning of next year. else than that, there's nothing else to mention.

Great, caller. Thank you. one last one from me. How are you guys feeling about your working capital position, and do you have any targets you'd like to call out for this year or next year?

I think working capital is pretty simple. It's accounts receivable and inventory. I think on the AR side, we're in good shape. We have a day of sales outstanding around 45, 46 days, which is pretty aligned with historical levels. On the inventory side, you've seen increases in the first two quarters. We've also captured some opportunistic acquisition in terms of inventory. before price increase, we've closed some deals to bring in the inventory at a lower price. we've done that. we should see a reduction in the second half. I'm hoping to see a reduction between CAD 5 million-CAD 10 million in the second half.

Thank you very much. I will turn it over.

Thank you.

At this time, Mr. Lord, it appears we have no other questions. Please proceed.

Thank you very much. It was very nice talking to you again. If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to call us. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. At this time, we ask that you please disconnect your lines.