Simpson Manufacturing Co., Inc. (SSD) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Greetings. Welcome to Simpson Manufacturing Company's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Kim Orlando, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Simpson Manufacturing Company's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Any statements made on this call that are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on certain estimates and expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual future results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. We encourage you to read the risks described in the company's public filings and reports, which are available on the SEC's or the company's corporate website. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws, we undertake no obligation to update or publicly revise any of the forward-looking statements that we make here today, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. On this call, we will also refer to non-GAAP measures such as adjusted EBITDA, which is reconciled to the most comparable GAAP measure of net income in the company's earnings press release. Please note that the earnings press release was issued today at approximately 4:15 p.m. Eastern Time. The earnings press release is available on the Investor Relations page of the company's website at ir.simpsonmfg.com. Today's call is being webcast and a replay will also be available on the Investor Relations page of the company's website. Now I would like to turn the conference over to Mike Olosky, Simpson's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Thanks, Kim. Good afternoon, everyone and welcome to today's call. With me is Matt Dunn, our Chief Financial Officer. As we begin, I'd like to step back and briefly anchor our performance this quarter and the broader ambitions that guide how we build and grow Simpson. Across the organization, we remain focused on being the partner of choice for our customers, and innovation leader in the markets we serve and strengthening our values-based culture, all while delivering strong financial performance. We are making meaningful progress on these ambitions despite continued market challenges. A defining hallmark of our values-based culture is the depth of experience and long-term commitment across our organization. As we celebrate our 70th year as a company, that continuity matters. It reflects a culture that has allowed us to perform, adapt and grow through many different construction cycles. Throughout the year, we'll be highlighting employees whose long-term dedication and impact reflect the values and culture that have defined Simpson for 7 decades. I'd like to take a moment to recognize a few members of our team. First is Sheryl Wyatt, Plant Director for our Southeast operations. She is celebrating 42 years with Simpson. Sheryl started her career in our customer service organization, gaining firsthand insight into our customers and how we support them. She advanced through several manufacturing and operation roles and today leads our highest volume and most cost-effective manufacturing facility. I'd also like to recognize Cyndi Chandler. Cyndi started her career with Simpson in Texas and has spent 41 years with the company. She currently leads our business in the United Kingdom, where she made meaningful profitability improvements. Over her career, she has consistently led teams through complex change from reshaping our U.S. national accounts approach, to launching operations in Chile and most recently, successfully strengthening our customer relationships across the U.K. Finally, I'd like to recognize our brothers, [ Genaro and John Sid ] from our Southwest operations. With 48 and 42 years of service, respectively, [ Genaro and John ] bring a combined 90 years of experience spanning production planning, leadership and quoting. They are a great example of the deep operational knowledge and customer focus that underscore what makes us unique. These are just a few examples of the people behind the results and we're grateful for the experience, leadership and commitment they bring to work every day. Now turning to our financial results. We delivered net sales of $588 million, up 9.1% from the prior year quarter. As outlined in our investor presentation, net sales growth was primarily driven by our 2025 pricing actions, which contributed approximately 6% and foreign exchange of approximately 3%. These gains were partially offset by an approximate 1% decline in volume as a result of softer housing start activity during the quarter. In North America, net sales were $461.9 million, up 9.8% from the prior year quarter, including a $31 million benefit from pricing actions. As we look across our North American business, performance remains mixed by market segment and varies by geography, consistent with broader construction trends. However, we continue to see areas of resilience and growth for our strategy, business model and customer relationships position us well. The component manufacturer business delivered a strong quarter with volumes up double digits, driven primarily by new customer wins. This business continues to represent one of our most attractive long-term growth opportunities. Even amid broader residential housing softness, customer engagement remains solid, particularly around productivity-enhancing solutions. Truss manufacturers remain focused on labor efficiency, throughput and operational visibility, resulting in increased demand for our solutions across software, plates, equipment and design services. We are making great progress in expanding and enhancing our offerings with value-added functionality. We are also improving our ability to respond quickly with new software features as customers' needs evolve. Adoption of our solutions continue to advance, strengthening our role as a strategic partner to our component manufacturing customers. The OEM business delivered another strong quarter with double-digit volume growth. This segment remains an area of relative strength and strategic importance, supported by long-term trends toward prefabrication and off-site construction methods, including engineered wood systems and mass timber. While project timing can vary, customer engagement remains high and our pipeline of opportunities continues to build. Our ability to pair innovative products with deep engineering expertise, testing capabilities and field support remains a key differentiator. As customers pursue increasingly complex performance-driven projects, we believe our OEM segment is well positioned to grow faster than the broader construction market over time. Our residential business volume increased modestly year-over-year, supported by continued cross-selling of connectors, fasteners and anchoring solutions. While builders are focused on cost control, cycle time reduction and lowering inventory levels, we renewed builder agreements, launched new products and increased our service offerings to support both our builders and our LBM partners. These initiatives, combined with high service level across the industry's broadest and deepest product line have enabled us to perform relatively well in a market pressured by soft housing starts. In our commercial business, first quarter volumes were down slightly year-over-year, reflecting mixed construction activity by segment and geography. Demand for cold-formed steel and anchoring systems remains relatively resilient. Customers continue to value our technical expertise, project coordination, broad portfolio of code compliance solutions and reliable product availability on large complex projects, particularly where early engagement helps reduce risk and improve execution. While overall activity remains uneven, our differentiated capabilities position us well for continued share gains. Our National Retail business experienced low single-digit decline in shipments, while point-of-sale volumes declined in the mid-single digits versus the prior year. The retail environment remains competitive and reflective of broader housing and repair and renovation trends with customers remaining value focused and selective in discretionary spending. Our teams remain focused on disciplined execution, strong in-store support and close collaboration with retail partners to optimize merchandising. We continue to make progress through pay optimization initiatives, targeted product innovation and the expansion of decorative hardware via our Outdoor Accents offerings. While near-term volumes remain pressured, our emphasis on service, reliability and in-market execution continues to strengthen retail relationships and support long-term growth opportunities. In summary, while near-term market conditions remain difficult, our diversified portfolio, strong customer relationships and focus on engineering and value-added solutions resulted in solid performance across the North American business. In Europe, first quarter net sales totaled $121 million, up 6.3% year-over-year, driven by foreign currency translation. On a local currency basis, net sales were down 5.4% with a decline in volumes partly offset by price increases. The market has been off to a slow start this year but we continue to expect flat to low single-digit market growth over the next couple of years. Even in this environment, we've had several meaningful customer wins, including multiple mass timber projects. We also made progress improving profitability in select countries and continue to optimize our footprint to support long-term performance. While our raw material positions remain strong, we are seeing input cost headwinds that have required us to pass through surcharges and price increases. Taken together, these dynamics reinforce our confidence in our ability to continue improving profitability in Europe. Our consolidated gross margin declined 130 basis points year-over-year to 45.2%, driven by higher material, factory and tooling and labor cost as a percentage of net sales, including start-up costs from the ongoing ramp of our Gallatin facility that opened late last year. Our 2025 price increases, which we now expect will contribute approximately $130 million in annualized net sales helped offset these costs, including those attributable to tariffs. Gross margin was also negatively affected by product mix, partially offset by our productivity initiatives. Our operating margin was 19.5%, up 50 basis points year-over-year, which included onetime costs of $2.3 million related to our strategic cost savings initiatives. Adjusted EBITDA totaled $139.4 million, a 14.1% increase year-over-year. As outlined in our last call, our financial ambitions remain: one, driving above-market volume growth relative to U.S. housing starts; two, maintaining an operating income margin at or above 20%; and three, consistently driving EPS growth ahead of net sales growth. In summary, our first quarter results reflect disciplined pricing and cost management reinforced by strong execution and an unwavering focus on supporting our customers. As we look ahead, we expect conditions in both the U.S. and Europe to remain challenging and we do not anticipate sustaining the same level of revenue growth through the remainder of the year. As for our outlook on the markets, we now believe 2026 housing starts in the United States will be down low single digits compared to 2025. And in Europe, we expect flat to modest growth in the market for 2026. Looking ahead, our culture, customer focus, innovation and financial discipline position us well to execute and maintain a strong competitive position. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Matt, who will discuss our financial results and outlook in greater detail.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us on our earnings call today. As we celebrate our 70th year as a company, I'd like to echo Mike's comments and extend our gratitude to our many long-standing employees who have made Simpson the company it is today. I'd also like to mention that unless otherwise stated, all financial measures discussed in my prepared remarks refer to the first quarter of 2026 and all comparisons will be year-over-year comparisons versus the first quarter of 2025. Now turning to our results. Consolidated net sales grew 9.1% to $588 million. In the North America segment, net sales rose 9.8% to $461.9 million. Europe delivered a 6.3% increase in net sales to $121 million, driven by $13.2 million in favorable foreign currency translation and price increases, which were partially offset by lower sales volumes, partly from adverse weather conditions across the region. Globally, wood construction product sales were up 8.3% and concrete construction products sales were up 14.7% as a larger percentage of these products are imported and included in tariff-driven price increases. Consolidated gross profit increased 6.1% to $265.9 million, resulting in a gross margin of 45.2%, down 130 basis points. In North America, gross margin was 47.8%, below the 49.8% reported in the prior year, reflecting the impact from tariffs and higher factory overhead and labor costs as a percentage of net sales, along with some unfavorable product mix in the quarter. As Mike noted, start-up costs in our Gallatin facility represented an approximate 100 basis point headwind to our first quarter gross margin, which we expect to moderate as we progress through the year. In Europe, gross margin increased to 36.3% from 35.2%, driven by higher pricing and lower material costs, partly offset by higher factory and tooling costs as a percentage of net sales. From a product perspective, our gross margin was relatively flat at approximately 46% for wood products. For concrete products, gross margin was 40.2% compared to 49.5% 1 year ago, with the decrease due to tariffs, partly offset by recent pricing actions. Now turning to expenses. As a percentage of net sales, first quarter operating expenses were 25.6%, an improvement from 27.5% last year. SG&A headcount was down approximately 9.1% year-over-year, which reduced personnel-related costs. In total, operating expenses increased 1.7% to $150.7 million, driven primarily by $4.2 million of foreign currency translation and onetime costs in Q1 2026 of $2.3 million related to our strategic cost savings initiatives. These increases were largely offset by lower professional fees and variable incentive compensation. To further detail our SG&A, our research and development and engineering expenses decreased by 6.1% to $18.6 million on lower personnel cost due to less headcount and footprint optimization. Selling expenses were relatively flat at $54.5 million as a result of our strategic cost savings initiatives. On a segment basis, selling expenses in North America were down 3.3% and in Europe, they were up 11.9%, primarily due to FX. General and administrative expenses increased by 4.5% to $77.6 million due to onetime costs of $2.3 million related to our strategic cost savings initiatives. As a result, our consolidated income from operations totaled $114.6 million, an increase of 12% from $102.3 million. Our consolidated operating income margin was 19.5%, up from 19.0% last year. In North America, income from operations increased by 12.8% to $118.3 million due to higher net sales and reduced operating expenses. Our operating income margin in North America was 25.6% compared to 24.9% last year. In Europe, income from operations decreased 23.8% to $7.1 million due to lower volumes. Our operating income margin in Europe was 5.9% compared to 8.2% last year. Our effective tax rate was 24.1%, approximately 140 basis points below the prior year period. Accordingly, net income totaled $88.2 million or $2.13 per fully diluted share compared to $77.9 million or $1.85 per fully diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA was $139.4 million, an increase of 14.1%, resulting in a margin of 23.7%. Now turning to our balance sheet and liquidity. As of March 31, 2026, we had $74.2 million drawn on the revolver, resulting in $525.8 million of remaining availability. Our debt balance was $370.5 million, down $3.8 million from December 31, 2025 and cash and cash equivalents totaled $341 million, resulting in a net debt position of $29.5 million. Our inventory position as of March 31, 2026, was $549 million, which was down $45.2 million compared to December 31, 2025. Pounds of inventory on hand in North America were down double digits with a nearly double-digit increase in cost per pound driven primarily by raw materials. We generated cash flow from operations of $35.9 million for the first quarter. Our capital allocation strategy remains focused on both supporting growth and delivering returns to our stockholders. In Q1, we invested $17.7 million in capital expenditures, returned $12 million in dividends to our stockholders and repurchased $50 million of our common stock. As announced in October, the Board authorized a new share repurchase program for 2026, permitting the repurchase of up to $150 million of our shares through year-end 2026. This authorization underscores our confidence in the long-term prospects of the business and our ongoing commitment to returning capital to shareholders. Next, I'll turn to our 2026 financial outlook. Based on business trends and conditions as of today, April 27, 2026, our guidance for the full year ending December 31, 2026, is as follows. We continue to expect our consolidated operating margin to be in the range of 19.5% to 20.5%. Additional key assumptions include our outlook for U.S. housing starts to be down in the low single-digit range, a lower overall gross margin based on imposed tariffs and increased depreciation costs, a higher realization of the annualized contribution from our 2025 price increases, an expected $3 million to $5 million of footprint optimization costs in Europe and a projected $10 million to $12 million benefit on the sale of vacant land in the back half of 2026. Our effective tax rate is estimated to be in the range of 25% to 26%, including both federal and state income tax rates based on current tax laws. And finally, our capital expenditures outlook is expected to be in the range of $75 million to $85 million. In summary, we delivered solid results in the first quarter with growth in net sales, EBITDA and operating margin despite a housing market that remains challenged. Pricing actions are contributing as expected and are projected to add roughly $130 million in annualized net sales, helping offset some tariff-related cost pressures. Overall, while we were pleased with our Q1 results, we do not expect this level of revenue growth to carry through the remainder of the year, given our tempered outlook for the housing market in 2026 and the timing of 2025 price increases. We remain focused on disciplined capital deployment and our commitment to return at least 35% of free cash flow to shareholders. With that, I will now turn the call over to the operator to begin the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Daniel Moore with CJS Securities.

Congrats on the quarter. I guess we'll start with the -- this modest change in expectations around housing starts for the year, certainly not a surprise. And I realize we're talking weeks, not months. But just talk about the sort of the cadence of demand and volumes in North America that we've seen since the start of the war in Iran and spike in oil prices. Just wondering if -- what sort of impact you're seeing in real time? And how do you kind of see that playing out as we look through to the remainder of Q2?

Dan, thanks for the question. So we started coming into this year thinking the market was going to be roughly flat. And as you know, the census data is a little bit delayed. But when we look at the market, Dan, we're doing 2 things. We're getting basically feedback from 6, 7 different firms on how the year is going to play out. Consensus from those 6 or 7 firms is kind of low single-digit number. And then we're certainly cross checking that with a lot of our customers. And what we hear from the customers in the spring, it's been a bit of a soft selling season, which kind of confirms that low single-digit market growth rate expected for the year.

Very helpful. In terms of pricing, Q4, about a 5%, 6% benefit, again, 6% benefit this quarter. Have you taken or contemplated any additional price increases given continued inflationary pressures? And how should we think about the impact of pricing in Q2 as well as the back half of the year? I know you mentioned kind of $130 million all in. Just any comments on cadence is certainly helpful.

Yes, Dan. So when we look at pricing going forward, in Europe, we are seeing rising inputs in a lot of different areas. We have started doing the surcharges and done some price increases there, which we mentioned in our prepared remarks. We're certainly experiencing some rising costs across other parts of our business in North America. We are working really hard to take cost out and try to drive productivity with the expectation that we maintain our gross margins over the longer period of time.

Yes. And Dan, this is Matt. Just to answer your specific question, we haven't taken any additional price increases in North America beyond the 2 that we announced last year. And again, as we look forward, we're seeing those cost increases, whether it be fuel or potentially steel but haven't contemplated or announced anything. And again, we're just really focused on maintaining and kind of preserving our gross margins. So potentially have to look at that if things change. But right now, nothing in the works.

Okay. And taking a step back from the macro, good color and detail about increased penetration, particularly in some of those newer end markets, trusses, some of the outdoor decorative. Just if you want to sort of dig in and give a little bit more color in terms of how things are progressing from a share gain perspective? And how you -- what you -- what your expectations are for sort of outpacing the housing starts for the year from a volume perspective, assuming it does come in, in that low single-digit range.

Yes. And again, Dan, let me start with the market just one more time. So again, delay in the census data. So we're not exactly sure how the first part of the year has played out. We're going to get, I think, the first round of data in another couple of weeks. So that will give us a little bit of a better feel. We do believe we are slightly ahead of the market based on off of a trailing 12 months. And when we look at driving above-market growth, it comes back to those market playbooks that we have. We're almost in 5 market segments. We also have product playbooks all around trying to drive innovation, drive new customer gains, get additional shelf space and get more content on the houses. When we look at some things we're particularly excited about, again, the component manufacturing business growing double digit. Again, new customer wins there. We're very happy with how the truss business is developing. The producer tool has been out in the market for a while. It is cloud-based. So we've already been able to do multiple releases to respond quickly to some customer needs and questions around it. We're still feeling pretty confident about our director, a new design tool that's going to be rolled out later this year. We're actively using AI to help us develop new software and new quality assurance in the truss space. So we're feeling pretty good about that and we're getting, again, good feedback from our customers. And then in the OEM segment, we've been talking about mass timber for a while. These mass timber jobs just keep getting bigger and bigger. And they want a broad set of solutions from us that we're able to offer and the Gallatin facility is going to help us respond quicker. And we've done some other things to help us do really these high-strength heavy-duty connectors packages for some of these big mass timber buildings out of our Riverside facility and we're happy with the progress we've made there. So again, we're feeling good about it. And at the end of the day, we want to make sure that we're driving above-market growth at that 20% operating income level.

Great to hear. Last one, just a housekeeping. I think you said timing around the gain on sale of land, H2. Has that been pushed out at all? Just trying to get a sense from a modeling perspective.

Yes, Dan, this is Matt. It's definitely going to be in the back half. It's included in our guidance for the year. That really -- we didn't specify a quarter when we gave guidance 3 months ago but we've got more visibility now that it's going to be in the back half. TBD, whether it's Q3 or Q4. We'll try to refine that once we get closer.

Our next question is from Trey Grooms with Stephens.

Congrats on the quarter. Nice showing. So thanks for the color on -- so thanks for the color on the outlook you gave on housing, makes a lot of sense. But how are you thinking about some of the other end markets? And sorry if I missed this. But are you still expecting demand for commercial to be kind of flattish? And then as we -- you kind of look into retail or R&R for that to be kind of flat to up a little bit? Or any changes there?

Yes. When we look at our end markets, we're looking at basically a -- we're looking at several firms that help us get the U.S. housing starts number. That's the low single-digit range. When we look at the market numbers for the National Retail business, or repair and renovation, when we look at that particular area, we're thinking basically flattish to maybe up 1-ish percent, in that range. In the commercial area, we're looking at starts and we have a firm that helps us with that. There, we're thinking low single-digit range. And then our OEM business, we really just kind of benchmark that versus the IPX and that we expect to be low single digits.

Yes. Okay. Got it. So no real change there. So -- and then maybe looking at geographically, I know you guys have seen some mix headwinds, I guess, geographically, some mix headwinds from some underperformance in California and Florida, I guess, over the last few years. It sounds like some of the commentary we're hearing from -- out there in the market from homebuilders, et cetera, it sounds like Florida might be recovering somewhat. Anyway, any details maybe you guys could give us on what you're seeing geographically and maybe some of this mix headwind, if you will, kind of starting to subside if Florida is started to pick up?

Yes, Trey, good question. So if we talk about just market specific, the state level data on starts is -- there's a lot of variability depending upon the sources you look at. But if you just look big picture, Florida and California, they are down significantly from their peak housing starts about 3-ish years ago. When we look at our business in California, a lot of engineering into it, especially from a seismic perspective. We continue to talk with customers that are saying they've got a strong backlog. A lot of projects are about ready to get kicked off in that area but we have not yet started to realize that in our sales revenue. In Florida, from what we've seen, really no significant change for us at this point and it's still a little soft.

Okay. All right. Sounds good. And maybe a housekeeping to some degree, maybe, Matt, on the inventories, down pretty significantly in the quarter despite some -- you had some good sales improvements, actually stepped down sequentially. And I understand that you guys usually build some inventory in the 1Q and then kind of work it down in seasonally stronger quarters. Any color you could give us on kind of how we should be thinking about that, given it's kind of lower level as we're kind of entering the building season, how we should be thinking about that seasonal trend?

Sure, Trey. I mean we're doing a lot of work to drive productivity on raw material -- sorry, finished goods and work-in-process inventory. And so that's playing out a little bit when you look at our inventory drop in dollars. It shows up in pounds even more broadly as you think about the cost of things is more expensive, so it doesn't quite show up in the dollars to the level it shows up in the pounds. We're down quite significantly on pounds. So I would say the bulk of that drop, though, is really on the raw material side, so think of steel and steel coils. And so as we're kind of working through the inventory there, as you know, we tend to buy kind of in lumpier chunks when the market meets our needs and kind of the sweet spot for where we want to be. So it's going to be a little bit lumpy on raw material steel and that those prices are starting to move a little bit as we look forward. So I would expect that we'll probably bump back up a little bit on raw material throughout the course of the year. But at the same time, we're working on productivity on the finished goods and the work in process. So maybe somewhat a little bit offset but hopefully not get quite back to the -- certainly not back to the peak we were on pounds. On dollars, it's a little bit tougher to say because the price per pound is going up. But I think where we kind of started 2026 would be sort of like a high watermark and we would probably stay below that.

Our next question is from Kurt Yinger with D.A. Davidson.

Just wanted to go back to pricing. Can you just talk a little bit about kind of the difference between the new $130 million versus the $100 million previously? Is that, I guess, just an updated view on what you'll capture? Or does that encapsulate maybe some of these surcharges and whatnot you've discussed in Europe?

Yes, Kurt, this is Matt. We -- previous guidance was about $100 million annualized. And if you recall from our previous quarter release, we realized about $60 million of that in 2025, which would have implied additional $40 million in 2026. We're upping the annualized number to $130 million. So that would imply $70 million in 2026 incremental. And it's a combination of some of the pricing we've enacted in Europe, particularly related to the surcharges but also some price increases. And then a little bit of product mix in North America, which is driving more pricing. So if you think about the products that had higher price increases, that's primarily fasteners and anchors, they'll continue to grow a little bit faster than the connector business, which provides some additional dollars when you just look at the pricing impact. It doesn't necessarily drive better gross margin or better op income. But when you look at pricing quantification on dollars realized and pricing, it does benefit there. So it's really a combination of those 2 things that's kind of upped it to that $130 million number.

Okay. That makes a whole lot of sense. I appreciate that. And just on the cost side, I mean, it doesn't sound like the change in 232 tariffs is really having any impact on you guys but I would appreciate if you could just touch on that. As well as on the freight side with the self-distribution angle, how is transportation and freight costs, I guess, shared among you guys and customers? Is that a situation similar to Europe where there are surcharges but those are just passed along? Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yes, you're right. On the 232 tariffs, the announcements that came out, I think, early April don't really have much of an impact for us. The tariffs that we were paying are pretty much staying the same. If you think about the fuel rates and things that are impacting surcharges there, I mean, we're seeing it some from our suppliers, passing along surcharges, changing rates weekly sometimes. A lot of our shipments travel prepaid freight. So we have not put any surcharges in place. So from time to time, we have to adjust the amount of a purchase that is able to travel with prepaid freight for free. So meaning sometimes we have to up the minimum purchase. I don't believe we've done any of that yet but that's some of the things that we're considering. But we are seeing an impact in our 2026 outlook from increased fuel costs and we haven't acted on passing any of that through. But we're kind of actively monitoring it and kind of see what -- where it shakes out, what level it goes to and then evaluate the best way to, again, try to make sure that we're preserving our gross margin.

Okay. Got it. And then just on the volume side, I mean, a really good quarter for the North American residential business, it seems. Is there anything to call out there that might have been a transitory boost? And maybe looking at the full year, I mean, it sounds like you kind of trimmed the expectations for housing starts. But if we look at the comps, the first half is very difficult, gets easier in the back half. Just given the positive performance here in Q1, I guess, is there any reason to believe that wouldn't be sustainable just as comps get a little bit easier?

So Kurt, we're very pleased with the development our residential business team has made. We continue to leverage the business model. And with that shift we made about 3 years ago of going from a product-focused sales team to a market-focused sales team, that's enabled us to really cross-sell the complete product line. And we've continued to develop our warehouse network so that we're closer to customers and we can make sure that we get to a very, very, very large percentage of our customers. They place an order today in the morning, we ship it in the afternoon, they get the next day. And I think all that added up, Kurt, just continue to get more content on houses and pick up more shelf space with our lumber yards and Pro dealer customers.

Yes. Kurt, I think as you look at your comments around back half comps and things, certainly, our volume comps get a little bit easier in the back half when you compare to what we did in the last half of last year but also including a little bit of expectation that the market is potentially going to be a little softer as we go throughout 2026 as we kind of updated in our guidance. So I mean part of the challenge now is, we're flying a little bit blind on what is the market doing because there's been delays in reporting and even going back to 2025 actuals, I think they're still subject to revision from the Census Bureau later this week when they publish the February and March starts numbers. So we believe we're outperforming the market a little bit on volume. We certainly expect to continue to do that. But what that market is going to look like quarter-on-quarter that we're comparing to is a little bit up in the air. We kind of got to see where we shake out here in the first quarter when we get the numbers to see where we were. And then the outlook for the year has gotten a little bit worse from our perspective, kind of backed up by most of the market forecasters out there that are saying it's going to be a little bit softer in '26.

Okay. That makes sense. And just lastly, on the national retail side. The weakness there, it seemed like over '25, there were some points where sell-in didn't necessarily match sell-through but POS has kind of turned now. Do you think that's just a function of the overall project environment in a lot of the categories that you're serving or more so maybe a skew to customers going with a more value-sensitive approach in terms of products? I guess any thoughts on kind of the performance there early this year?

I wouldn't say that we're seeing a shift in the value performance story. So Kurt, if somebody is coming into one of the national retail customers, especially at Pro, I mean, they know exactly what products they're looking for. So I wouldn't necessarily say that. I think we've had some time over the last probably 6 months where point-of-sale data and our sales into the national retailers was a little bit disconnected. It's kind of flipped and gone the opposite way in the first quarter. But we continue to work with them to help them develop the business by merchandising activities. We continue to push our outdoor living solutions product line, which has had pretty good growth over several years now. We're working hard with the Pro dealer -- the Pro desks with our national retail customers. We provided some estimating services and we're doing other things to help them really cross-sell the full product line. We think over time, that will all play out in the short term. We do occasionally see some inventory shifts with those guys and that's been reflected in the numbers in the last 6 months or so.

Yes. And I think, Kurt, this is Matt. I think just to cap it off, I think it's good to see that trend reverse a little bit in terms of sell-in versus sellout. We've seen several quarters in a row where our POS units were quite a bit better than our sell-in. So 1 quarter doesn't make a trend but good to kind of stop that trend and then we'll kind of see where it goes from here.

Our next question is from Tim Wojs with Baird.

Nice job on the results and the inventory number. So I guess maybe just my first question, just, if I remember right, you guys were expecting about $30 million of annualized cost savings from some of the SG&A actions you took last year. What was the -- I guess, what was the realization in the first quarter? I don't know if I missed that.

Yes.

Yes. So if you remember, Tim, the $30 million was about 2/3 SG&A and 1/3 in COGS. So that was kind of how we framed up the $30 million net. And then we said in the last quarter that we expected $10 million to $15 million on a annualized basis below last year's SG&A spend actuals. In the first quarter, SG&A was actually up $1 million but you got to peel it back a little bit. There's 2 big drivers there. One, exchange rate was a $4.2 million hurt on that. So that's the translation of European expenses back to dollars. And we also had about $2 million of onetime related cost to our cost savings initiatives that were in the first quarter. So -- and if you take those 2 kind of the face value and say we are up 1, we were down about $5 million net-net. And I think an important point is what we mentioned in the script on headcount, our SG&A headcount is down about 9% when you look year-over-year. So I would say the realization in the first quarter, if you kind of adjust for FX and the onetime costs is in the, call it, $3 million, $4 million, $5 million range. And if you kind of project that across the course of the year, you can kind of get pretty close to that number we said would be the net number we expect to be down by the end of the year versus last year's actual.

Okay. Okay. Great. No, that's really helpful. And then on the component manufacturing business, just, I think last quarter, it might have been up low single digits and now it's up double digits. Is that just kind of the lumpiness that can be kind of inherent in that business? Or it was a pretty significant amount of adds in the component business specifically?

Yes. It is a little lumpy, Tim, as you know, because it takes a bit of effort to convert a customer. So we continue to add customers and we've added a couple over the last months of 2025 that are now starting to build in 2026.

Okay. Okay. And then is there any way to just, on that business, just kind of give us a kind of a ballpark figure to maybe how big it is today?

No. We have not commented on the size of the component manufacturing business or the different market segments.

Other than we've said publicly that the market size and kind of our rough share position. So I know you've heard that before, so then you can kind of ballpark it somewhere. So...

Our final question is from Andrew Carter with Stifel.

Just wanted to ask in terms of the residential volume performance, up slightly. I know you're taking your guidance down to low single digits. But I think based on the sources you have, customer conversations, I would assume that your guidance is -- you would soon be assuming that there was a pretty deep decline in the first quarter that improves throughout the year. Is that fair? Or anything -- any of my assumptions are flawed?

Yes. I mean I don't know if I'd say deep decline. I think when the numbers come out, I think we'll -- we expect to see that the market was down in the first quarter from a housing starts standpoint. And then I think keep in mind, the back half of last year was the worst part of last year compared to the front half of last year, which actually, I think, had slight growth when you look at the front half from a market standpoint. So the comps are a little bit different. So I think it would be -- if you're doing the math on how do you get it down low single digits for the market, the front half has a tougher set of comps. So I think potentially the front half could look worse and then the back half could look a little bit better but probably more a function of what you're comparing to than a change in the starts rate.

Got you. And then kind of wanted to kind of build on that component manufacturer question, truss, the kind of reacceleration you had in the quarter. You mentioned customer wins. I mean, how often do those occur? Do those -- do you get those, like a shot at that annually? I mean, is that double-digit run rate something you can carry through the year just because you have the customers? Is there any kind of unlocks you get as you roll out the rest of the software program later in the year? Just any thoughts on that cadence?

Yes. I think -- so if you step back and you look at those customers, we've been working with them for a long time in a variety of other businesses, especially all the larger Pro dealers. So, I mean, they know us very well. But a lot of those smaller to midsized guys, we've known these customers for a long time. They know the Simpson service and the approach that we take to working with customers. And we've also been talking with them over the last 12 to 18 months about the development we're making with the software. We've been giving regular updates to it. We've been showing some demos and just letting people see how it develops. And I think you kind of add all that up, that is what has helped us continue to grow as they want to work with a long-term partner that operates like Simpson. We do our level best to take great care of the customer. We believe that our plans to have a cloud-based solution that is very customer-friendly and contracting terms that are a little bit more customer-friendly, it's going to create some additional opportunities for us. And now they see the investment that we've made in this space really over the last couple of years. And I think that's opened some doors and that's made some people realize that we would be the partner of choice going forward for them.

And final question, kind of Europe. I think you said something about flat to low single digits over the next 2 years. Correct me if I'm wrong, I thought that was kind of the expectation for this year. It obviously started out down 5% organic this quarter. I guess that would be the market where you see -- you might see incremental weakness from energy prices, et cetera but it's also 2/3 commercial, so longer cycle. So any update on that market? Or could you -- do you see further risk of that declining? Just any help there?

When we look at the composite index that we built based on the countries we operate in and the mix, as you said, between residential and commercial. And we use, again, experts that pull those forecasts in to help us get the numbers. Our thoughts going in were flat to low single digits. And the fact that they had a tough first couple of months because of weather really hasn't changed that. I think there is some optimism in the market in Europe. To be quite honest, 0% to 2% or 3% will be better than we've had the last 3 or 4 years and certainly better than what we've had in the U.S. the last 4 years. So we're hoping that plays out. In the meantime, we're focusing on the things that we can control and that's just trying to pick up new applications, shelf space, more content on jobs.

With no further questions, that will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.