Brunswick Corporation

Good morning and welcome to Brunswick Corporation's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode until the question and answer period. Today's meeting will be recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to introduce Stephen Weiland, Senior Vice President and Deputy CFO, Brunswick Corporation.

Good morning and thank you for joining us. With me on the call this morning are David Foulkes, Brunswick's Chairman and CEO, and Ryan Gwillim, Brunswick's CFO. Before we begin with our prepared remarks, I would like to remind everyone that during this call, our comments will include certain forward-looking statements about future results. Please keep in mind that our actual results could differ materially from these expectations. For details on the factors to consider, please refer to our recent SEC filings and today's press release. All of these documents are available on our website at brunswick.com. During our presentation, we will be referring to certain non-GAAP financial information. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures are provided in the appendix to this presentation and the reconciliation sections of the unaudited consolidated financial statements accompanying today's results. I will now turn the call over to Dave. Thank you, Steve.

Brunswick delivered a strong second quarter despite the turbulent external backdrop with financial performance ahead of expectations and year-over-year sales growth across all reporting segments for the fourth consecutive quarter. Our premium and core buyers portfolio remained resilient and our first half boat retail sales were essentially flat when adjusted for the purposeful value model rationalization actions initiated last year. Marine OEM growth rates moderated somewhat from the exceptional first quarter growth, but remained very healthy and drove gains for Mercury Marine and Navico Group. Boating participation also remains very strong and continues to drive our recurring revenue parts and accessories aftermarket and subscription boating businesses. Boating engine pipelines continue to be lean and fresh with balanced channel dynamics. With global bulk pipelines down approximately 1,800 units for the year, we're well positioned for wholesale growth with any future market improvement. Our overall net sales of $1.6 billion increased 8% year-over-year with growth across all segments driven by pricing actions taken in recent periods, improved mix, new product traction, continued healthy OEM demand, and strong operational execution. Adjusted earnings per share of $1.56 increased 34% versus last year, benefiting from the same underlying business drivers, as well as recognized tariff refunds, partially offset by cost inflation, higher variable compensation, incremental tariffs, and continued product investment. Absent the net IEPA benefit, including its associated influence on variable compensation, Adjusted EPS was still significantly ahead of expectations, demonstrating the strength of our underlying business performance. All segments increased adjusted operating earnings and margin, with the exception of propulsion, which incurred additional tariffs and higher product development expenses as expected. Later, Ryan will discuss the overall financial impact of the IEPA refunds on our results and guidance for the year. Finally, we've repurchased $35 million of shares year-to-date and will retire $160 million or more of debt by year-end, underscoring our commitment to both maintaining an investment-grade balance sheet and returning capital to our shareholders. Turning now to external conditions, while fuel prices have clearly not dampened enthusiasm for boating participation, The prolonged conflict in the Middle East, combined with the impacts of inflation on affordability, are negatively impacting consumer sentiment, particularly amongst buyers of our valued products. We continue to closely monitor the tariff environment and successfully drive mitigation actions. We now expect total gross IEPA refunds of approximately $60 to $70 million. We recognized approximately $30 million of submitted and accepted refunds in the quarter, with the remaining expected Phase 2 refunds of approximately $10 million reflected in full-year guidance. The window for the balance of our refund submissions beyond Phase 2 is not yet open and not yet reflected in guidance. We're also monitoring the newly introduced Section 301 and Canadian tariffs, which we currently estimate will drive roughly $5 million of net negative incremental 2026 impact. And we'll continue to adjust our mitigation actions as the environment evolves. Dealer and OEM sentiment is stable but cautious, with wholesale order rates remaining fairly steady. And we continue to outperform the market, expanding our share of wallet and capturing new OEM wins with well received new products. Moving to segment performance, our sustained momentum across our businesses and product lines is evident from the fact that all segments delivered year-over-year sales growth for the fourth consecutive quarter. As discussed earlier, adjusted operating margin also expanded across the enterprise in the quarter, except in the propulsion segment. However, our incremental 2026 tariff payments are first-half biased. and we expect all segments will expand operating margin over the next two quarters. After a very strong first quarter, U.S. outboard engine industry retail units finished the first half slightly down versus prior year. Our propulsion business delivered another strong quarter with year-over-year sales growth driven by steady OEM demand, continued high market share and strong international momentum. First half global and U.S. outboard wholesale orders were up over 10%, with very strong June order activity. U.S. outboard rolling 12 share was down slightly to 46%, driven primarily by below 5 horsepower registration declines of volume retailers and a strong 2025 comp, with OEM share remaining robust. Internationally, Mercury is driving strong share gains with double-digit unit order increases year-to-date and rolling 12 outboard share up across most regions with significant gains in Asia and Latin America. Notably, in Brazil, we've increased share 600 basis points since 2019. Our five new engine platforms are on track with four launching in the next two years. and we're also pursuing growth opportunities in repower, government and commercial markets, which we'll share more about at our upcoming investor day. Engine pipelines remain lean, with U.S. output pipelines down 7% in the quarter versus prior year. Engine parts and accessories delivered another strong quarter, supported by healthy voting participation and resulting product demand, along with past pricing actions. Combined with continued distribution gains, this drove higher sales and the products and distribution businesses both contributed to improved profitability, underscoring the stability and attractive operating leverage of this recurring revenue business. Our second quarter sales were the highest since 2022 and up across all global regions, with land and sea rolling 12 distribution share increasing again by 130 basis points. The Engine P&A business and Navico Group continue to work together to exploit combined footprint opportunities. Navico Group continued its strong performance trajectory with sales growth across its business lines, supported by new products, multiple OEM wins, sustained aftermarket demand, and ongoing operational improvement actions, and Exclusive of the net IEPA impact, expanded its core operating margin by over 250 basis points versus prior year. We were also excited to finalize our first OEM supply agreement with SACSTOR for Simrad Auto Captain, with more expected to be finalized soon. Lastly, our boat segment grew both sales and margins, benefiting from the increased emphasis on premium and core brands, And we expect continued strong margin expansion over the remainder of the year, benefiting from mix, portfolio actions, and operating efficiencies. The latest SSI data for June year-to-date shows U.S. main powerboat segment retail down approximately 4%, impacted by sentiment, affordability, and poor weather in some northern markets. Overall, Brunswick U.S. internal retail is performing at similar levels, but with premium fiberglass and core product lines flat to prior year and pressure on value product lines as anticipated. When adjusted for our purposeful rationalization of value models, our first half U.S. retail was roughly flat versus last year. Pipelines are lean and healthy, ending down approximately 1800 units. The business acceleration portfolio continues to deliver growth and attractive margins, led by Freedom Boat Club. We recently announced our 450th global network location, and member trips were up a record 13% for the first half of the year. I'll now hand the call over to Ryan for more details on our financial performance.

Thank you, Dave, and good morning, everyone. Brunswick's second quarter performance came in ahead of expectations with strong sales and earnings growth over last year. On a consolidated basis, sales were up 8% reflecting steady OEM orders, continued strong P&A and aftermarket performance driven by healthy boating participation, and pricing taken in previous periods. As Dave mentioned earlier, it was fantastic to see the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year sales growth for all segments. Thank you for joining us. This resulted in adjusted EPS of $1.56, up 34 cents over last year, an outstanding result. We delivered a robust $278 million of free cash flow in the quarter, just slightly behind Q2 of 2025, due solely to the second quarter timing of our annual profit sharing payment. This simple bridge shows the key factors of our Q2 adjusted EPS performance. From our Q2 guidance midpoint of $1.15, we had a net beat of a little less than 20 cents in the quarter due to our outstanding business performance. We then recognized a net IEPA benefit of slightly more than 20 cents, which is the gross IEPA refunds accrued in Q2 netted against the related earnings impact of our enterprise-wide compensation plans. The result was an adjusted EPS of $1.56. Now looking at the first half of the year, sales were up 10%, reflecting the prior second quarter factors just mentioned, together with the exceptionally strong first quarter results. First half adjusted operating earnings increased 18% over the prior year, adjusted EPS is up 32%, and free cash flow of $161 million is ahead of last year after normalizing for the impact of enterprise compensation paid versus 2025. Moving to our segments, Propulsion had another fantastic quarter, with sales increasing 8% versus the prior year, driven by steady OEM demand and market share, and pricing actions taken in recent quarters. Adjusted operating earnings were up, and margins essentially flat versus prior year due to the increased sales, favorable absorption, and net IEPA refund offsetting elevated material labor inflation, product spend, and tariffs. After the net IEPA refund, adjusted operating earnings and margins declined year-over-year due to the incremental costs just mentioned offsetting the earnings from the increased sales and positive absorption impact. As year-over-year tariff costs reverse and elevated product spend normalizes in the back half of the year, we anticipate significant margin expansion in the second half of the year, resulting in full-year margin growth of more than 100 basis points for the propulsion segment. Our engine parts and accessories business delivered another strong quarter of 9% sales growth with 16% growth in the higher margin products business. Growth in the quarter reflected strong voter participation and the resulting demand for P&A together with past pricing actions. Adjusted operating earnings were up 19% and adjusted operating margin increased 200 basis points driven by the increased mix from products and the leverage on higher sales with the net IEPA refund offering a very slight benefit. Now turning to Navico Group that had another quarter of solid growth and improved profitability. Sales grew 7% over prior year and were up across all business lines and regions driven by increased OEM demand for new products, pricing, and voting participation supporting very strong aftermarket performance. Thank you for joining us. Navico Group is solidly on track for its full-year target of increasing adjusted operating margin in excess of 100 basis points without any assistance from tariff refunds and despite inflationary impacts on inputs, including memory costs and other raw materials. Wrapping up segment results, our boat segment increased sales by 5%, driven by beneficial mix from premium models, improved pricing and discounts, and Freedom Boat Club. Adjusted operating earnings were up 45%, with margins up 120 basis points, reflecting higher sales, the flow-through of pricing and lower discounts, and the continued focus on operational efficiencies designed to lower costs and increase gross margins throughout the portfolio. Freedom Boat Club had a very strong quarter, announcing its 450th global network location and continued increases in members and trips. IEPA refunds had a de minimis impact on this segment. I will now share our updated guidance for the third quarter and full year. While certain new boat retail markets remain pressured due to continued elevated macro and geopolitical uncertainty, our portfolio of leading premium boat and engine products continue to grow sales and capture OEM and consumer share, and our recurring revenue businesses continue to benefit from committed, healthy boating participation. Our discipline execution and improvement actions also continue to drive strong operating leverage and are expected to result in materially increased adjusted operating margins and earnings this year, overcoming the approximately $40 million impact of incremental tariffs, which is slightly elevated since our last estimate due to the anticipated impact of Section 301 replacing Section 122. Our overall tariff impact is first-half weighted. with the year-over-year second half impact lower than 2025. The overall result is revenue of $5.7 to $5.8 billion, up strongly over 2025, adjusted operating margins of approximately 8%, up 100 basis points year-over-year, and adjusted EPS of $4.35 to $4.75, up almost 40% at the midpoint. We're also increasing our free cash flow guidance to more than $400 million on the back of strong earnings, prudent working capital management, and the benefit of the net IEPA refunds. Given all the moving pieces, we thought one last bridge would be helpful to show the components of our adjusted EPS guidance raise. As I mentioned earlier, absent any tariff refund impacts, our Q2 performance beat was about 20 cents. From there, we anticipate a full-year net IEPA benefit of a little more than $0.30, which includes the refunds accrued in Q2, plus the remainder of our Phase 2 refunds, which we believe will be approved in the second half of the year. We are not anticipating or including in guidance any Phase 4 refunds in 2026, which could add more than $0.20 once approved. Offsetting these benefits are two primary factors. We anticipate incurring an additional 15 cents of material inflation in the back half of the year versus what was included in our April guidance, mostly incurred at Mercury and Navico Group. Second, we believe the tariff changes just discussed will add another approximately 5 cents to our overall cost base. These costs and benefits net to an approximate 30 cents of adjusted EPS benefit, and we're flowing it through to the full year with our EPS midpoint now $4.55 for the year, reflecting a balanced view of risks and opportunities as we navigate the continued challenging macro environment. I'll now pass the call back over to Dave for concluding remarks.

Thanks, Ryan. This year, Brunswick earned 15 Boating Industry Top Product Awards, the most we've ever received in a single year, with 13 different brands represented spanning boats, propulsion, vessel control, and marine electronics. This extraordinary performance, along with many other domestic and international product design and technology awards, clearly illustrates the increasing breadth and depth of our product leadership. Overall, through the first half of the year, Brunswick has secured a company record 86 awards, and we remain firmly on track to surpass 100 enterprise awards for the fifth consecutive year. As in prior years, this recognition spans products, innovation, workplace culture, leadership, and corporate reputation, and reflects the strength and consistency of our organization and values. Thank you to all of our Brunswick employees whose talent and dedication makes this recognition possible. Before we open the line for questions, while I'm very pleased and excited about Brunswick's performance and trajectory, necks never rest. and there is a lot more to come, which we will share at Brunswick's Investor Day on August 11th. We'll release a pre-recorded video strategy presentation on our website next week and address questions on those materials at the event's live Q&A session. The event, which will be held at Mercury Marine's headquarters in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, will also include facility tours and on-water product demonstrations. For those unable to attend, we'll also be pleased to answer follow-up questions in post-event calls. We're approaching capacity for the event, so please register if you've not already done so. With that, we'll now open the line for questions.

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. The first question is from James Hardiman from Citi. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Real shocker, I have a question on terror because there's a lot of Moving pieces there. Obviously, the incentive comp makes it even more complicated. I think I get it for the quarter. Maybe as we just think about the full year guide, EPS is up 30 cents. Tariffs are giving you 30 cents. Those sort of roughly cancel each other out. There's some operational upside, but that's being offset by inflation and Canadian tariffs. Let me know if you think that's sort of good math. And then as we think about the margin guide, a 25 basis point increase, is that up or down at all X the refunds? Thanks.

Hey, James, maybe I'll take this. And maybe I'll be just a little bit broader to start just so that everyone gets the full picture. I think, you know, we consider the tariffs paid in 26 and then the IEPA refunds. Pretty different animals. So maybe I'll take them in sections and that'll help everyone on the call. So on 26, really the only major change in the quarter was the elimination of 122. It was replaced by Section 301. And then the additional potential Canadian tariffs. You know, together, we think that's probably a $5 million or so bad guy. And that's really a second half hit. So if you think about our incremental tariff impact from last year. That takes it from our previous range where we thought we were at the bottom of that 35 to 45 range and puts us squarely in the middle of approximately 40 million. And so that is embedded in the guidance. We will continue to mitigate. We'll continue to lower our China impact. And that is, remember, first half loaded as the way the timing worked through last year versus this year. Bad guy in the first half and actually neutral to positive in the second half of this year due to that timing. And then maybe on IEPA refunds, we think about it in a couple of ways. We have been pretty public with a gross number, so just a gross before any other impacts to the P&L of $60 million of IEPA refunds. You saw today in the materials that looks to be now between 60 and 70 million, but two very key things here. So first, this is a gross number. We understand the refunds are a reduction of COGS, which ultimately is an increase to earnings, but that gross number does not include the associated impacts the refunds have on other parts of the P&L, namely variable compensation. And that's why we're talking about it as a net number, which as we turn the calendar to 27, will enable everyone to back out the net impact, which is really the correct way to think about it. and then the other item is there's a lot of timing involved here. IEPA refunds are really in three phases. There's phase one, which is very small, received and recognized in the quarter in Q2, but very, very small. Phase two, which is about 60% of the refunds and I'll get to that in a second. And then phase four, which is the remainder. And importantly, we are not anticipating currently any phase four refunds to be accrued or any benefit in 2026. So not included that number in any guidance. So that's part of the 60 to 70 million of gross that will eventually be received, but it is not included in any 2026 guidance. So that leaves the treatment of phase two AEPA and simply about 30 million of that, as you correctly mentioned, 30 million was accepted in Q2 and therefore included in the results and once netted for enterprise-wide variable comp impacts represented about a 20 cent benefit in the quarter. So that's what you saw on the bridge. The remaining about 10 million of phase two was not accepted in Q2 due to some technicalities in the system. But we are confident that they will be accepted. And so although not in the Q2 numbers, they are a benefit in the second half, which we included about $0.10 into the full-year guidance. So that really is all things tariff. And then to roll it forward to your full-year guidance question, you know, we had a $0.20 beat in Q2 that had nothing to do with tariffs. We had another approximately $0.20 of net IEPA, which we talked about, resulting in the $0.40 overall beat versus our midpoint of $1.15 from April. And then if you look forward to the second half, we see about $0.20 of risk on the macros, which is inflation and the increased tariffs that I discussed, which is offset by that $0.10 of Phase II goodness. So if you think about what flowed through, You really got the whole Q2 beat that was not related to tariffs and about half of the net IEPA goodness in the quarters for 30 cents. So a raise from 425 to 455 in the midpoint. So long answer, but lots of things covered there. Hope that answers your question.

That's really good, and I think it's a good way to frame it. I guess on to, in theory, what should really matter, and that's sort of the demand environment. You talked about retail all-in being down four, I think slattish X, the sort of value units rationalization. What can you tell us about the momentum within those numbers today? you guys started out the year really strong I think January and February were up meaningfully and then March was weaker and then here in 2Q, 2Q was weaker than 1Q is there anything that we should be drawing from that and I think the tiebreaker is always the last month which everybody will want to focus on but anything you can tell us to help us frame sort of where demand appears to be headed with the most sort of updated data points that you have. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you, Jimmy. I'll take that one. Yeah, I think we clearly are continuing to see this case-shaped economy effect that we've seen for some time now, and it's almost like there are two distinct markets at the moment, and maybe we should work to frame them as best we can going forward. There clearly is a premium market, which is very stable. We said that premium fiberglass was roughly flat, but in fact, it was almost exactly, it was exactly flat, basically, almost to the unit. So, you know, Boston Whaler and Sea Ray in the van are very solid, continue to be very solid. Also, our core portfolio is very solid, flat, almost exactly, which includes kind of premium pontoons, premium fishing, and but what we are seeing that we talked about earlier really is that those kind of fiberglass runabout boats where people are not maybe as committed to boating as part of their lifestyle, they're not typically fishing boats, they're not premium boats, that's why we're seeing the softness and it's not new, it's exactly what we talked about and exactly why we rationalized the product line in that area and also rationalized the manufacturing footprint in that area. So we're kind of right-sizing our business in the softer part of the market with still potential for rebound. Both groups actually sacrificed some revenue to do this but gained about 100 basis points of margin, which is exactly what we intended. So I think, you know, we will continue to look at both parts of the market going forward, a part that is very solid and resilient and has good momentum. And we actually, I think you'll see some positive things going on, particularly in saltwater fishing in the balance of the year. But the, but this, The next question is from Randy Koenig from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks a lot. Good morning. I guess, Ryan, for you, what I wanted to try to get you to understand, maybe qualitatively, if you don't want to give quantitatively, is just how we should be thinking about the long-term margin power of the business. You talked about it in the answers to questions or script in terms of continuing to work on things like reducing your manufacturing footprint, i.e. fixed cost expense in the business. So I'm just trying to understand as we think about over time the demand environment improving, not focusing on what's going on in the next 90 days or the last 30 days. for the next two to three to five years. Just want to understand that in an assumption of an improving long-term detail of demand, how we should be thinking about the margin power of the company overall and maybe just high level how we think about the different segments as it compares to prior cycle high margins maybe achieved during COVID, et cetera. How we want to think about that similar or not similar this time around versus last time around. That'd be super helpful. Thanks.

Yeah, Randy, I'll take that. The very good news is in four days, you're going to get a whole lot of detail on exactly that, which is what do we think our earnings power is in a market that we think is going to be, you know, may not provide as much help as maybe in previous plans anticipated. We agree. We think there is still growth in the market. We think we're at a trough in terms of units. But there's different views on how fast that returns to a more normalized view. And the one constant is that Brunswick can continue to drive earnings in a variety of market conditions, as we've proven already. Without getting too detailed, because I do want people to see all the specifics that will be in our investor materials, no one's going to be surprised to see the operating leverage that's embedded in our plan. It's north of 20%. It can get to something that's north of that in various conditions. And that's really across the portfolio. There's not one single business unit that is a laggard or far ahead. I will give you a couple just things to think about. Navico Group continues to grow and have gross margin growth. That has the highest product and variable margins of anything across our across our company, and that will continue to be a strength, I think, as we progress through the next strategic plan. Our parts and accessories business also continues to be extremely strong from a margin standpoint, but just consistent as can be. I mean, this year, boating usage we know is up, and that's been reflected then in a very strong year from the P&A side. And then propulsion and boats both continue – to grow margins throughout any conditions. You know, you've seen the boat business at a wholesale level that they haven't really seen in a decade still grow margins this year, as Dave mentioned a second ago, while propulsion continues to be flat to slightly up and will be up for the full year despite strong product spending and the tariff impact. So I think the investment community is going to be very pleased to see the innate growth across all of our businesses that would be supercharged in the event there's just a little bit of industry help or market help, also given that the pipelines are kind of at historic lows across our portfolio. So hope that helps, and certainly Monday morning, the additional information, it will be very helpful.

Super helpful. And then can you just maybe quantify, remind us, You just mentioned it, the extra spend and pull forward that is related to, I think, some of these higher horsepower engine programs. I think you said four or five programs are in process. A couple or four or the five, I think, are launching in the next one or two years. Just curious on how we should be thinking about that extent of the pull forward and the duration of that expense such that when we get to, let's say, I don't know, second quarter, first quarter, 2027, is that an expense we lap and those pull forward expenses start to kind of pull off a little bit? Just high level, how we should be thinking of that as well.

Yeah, it's about 20 to 25 million of spend and that's been spread across a couple of quarters. So yes, by the time you get to next year, the product spend may not be dramatically lower, but this is a lumpier time. Remember, these engine programs ebb and flow over time, and you may get to a point, which we have over the last couple of quarters, where each engine program is at a spot where it's at a little heavier spend, and so that's what you're seeing. But do not take away... that we're going to stop spending on engine product development because that is a core competency of ours and keeps us well ahead of our competition. So a little bit lumpy. Think about it as about $20 million spread over a couple of quarters. But again, it'll soften, but not dramatically so as we go to the out years. Awesome. Thanks, guys.

The next question is from Matthew Boss from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

Great, thanks. So Dave, could you just elaborate on the progression of boat retail sales to the core summer selling season with retail sales tracking down 4% year to date, any change to flat to up slightly for the year or any change separately in your outlook for wholesale units this year?

Yeah, on the retail side, I think given the soft of value Thank you very much. July, which is where we're at right now. That's about 75% of retail for the year. So that will be modest kind of changes going forward. I think, you know, maybe what I didn't say earlier is although we're, you know, we have to recognize that the markets behave, different parts of the market behave differently. If you're looking in the automotive market at the moment at pickups and SUVs, you're having a pretty good time of it. If you're looking at passenger cars, you're not having quite such a good time of it. And that is very analogous to what's going on in the boating market at the moment. And we lean into premium and core. That is where the vast majority of our profitability is. So that remains very steady with plenty of upside opportunity, which we'll also talk about in investor day. The other thing I didn't really say was, of course, we are participating in, if you like, the value part of the market through Freedom Boat Club. There are alternative ways to get at that consumer in ways that are less subject to inflation, less subject to interest rates, all those kind of things. So I think that we are mixing our approaches to the market appropriately exactly for how the market is are behaving and will continue to do so. And we did see really strong performance from Freedom Boat Club this year. And the other part of the market that we don't talk about enough, even though we try to, is boating participation, which has been incredibly strong. So if people own a boat, they are using it extensively despite fuel price increases as we anticipated. So there is no shortage of interest in going boating. We're just seeing this one part of the market, which is a bit less committed and a bit more economically fragile, showing some softness. But that is really not super material to our results, as you've seen.

And maybe just to add on that, you did have a wholesale question. And just to piggyback off of what Dave is saying, wholesale sales for our premium core products, as we look at the 2027 model year, which we're now in, continue to be very strong, especially at Whaler. So as we think about wholesale assumptions for the year, I don't think there's any material changes. If there be any changes in the numbers, just the raw numbers, it would be premium and core continue to be strong and maybe up a little bit over expectations, while value would be slightly down. So really good momentum on wholesale as we think about the back half of this year.

Great color.

That's the block.

The next question is from Joe Altabello from Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Hey, guys. Good morning. I guess first on shipments, you know, in the back half of the year, how are you guys thinking about wholesale versus retail with respect to both boats and engines? Would you expect dealers to end the year higher in terms of weeks on hand?

Yeah, I think – I think we'll be flattish, you know, on a weeks-on-hand basis, Joe. I think what we are seeing from dealers, and actually you see it in the dealer sentiment studies, is we think they think that they are approaching the right level of inventory, and I speak about that on a total market basis. And for us, we have very lean and fresh inventory levels, so we have not seen any diminishing trends in wholesale orders. We believe... will remain very solid, which will probably mean that weeks on hand will probably be pretty flat through this year.

Got it. And just moving on to the U.S. outboard market, are you seeing any shifts in terms of pricing from some of your competitors at this point?

No, we are not seeing any material shifts in pricing. We continue to see very modest pricing, and we are continuing to follow that. As you know, we price at a premium, so we're continuing to maintain that premium, but we're not seeing a lot of pricing activity at the moment.

Okay, great. Thank you.

The next question is from Anna Gleskin from B. Reilly. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I'd like to ask on the boat segment rationalization, do you expect that you would continue to see rationalization spill into 2027 or should 2026 be the end of that impact? Thanks.

I think we'll continue to look at it, to be honest. I think, you know, we did. I mean, really, the product lines that we took out I think we're the right product lines at the time, but we'll continue to see how the market develops. We don't believe that there aren't new opportunities in the value part of the market, and we're looking at different kind of model architectures and ways to approach that part of the market that might offer something that the market is desirable in that market and a little bit different. So we're going to continue to be innovative. but if we need to rationalize more, then yeah, sure, we'll rationalize some more and try and make sure that we maintain scale but lean into the growing parts of the market and the higher margin parts of the market. So yeah, it will be dynamic. I can't say it's complete yet. We're continuing to look at it.

Got it, thanks. And then just one clarification. We've seen some pretty significant operating margin expansion in NAVICO through the first half of the year, but the full year guide, I believe, is for up 200 basis points. Is that 200 excluding the IEPA refunds that hit so on like an organic basis? Because otherwise it seems to imply a potential compression in the back half.

No. Anna, that does not. I'm sorry. Yes, the IEPA refunds are included in all of our guidance as anticipated. NAVICO benefited from that in the quarter, but even if you take that out, even if you take out any IEPA goodness, they were still up 260 basis points in the quarter, so still an outstanding result. If you think about the remaining portion of the year, Q3 we anticipate should be up and Q4 probably closer to flat to get to your guidance for the full year. So it was a one-time kind of good guy for the quarter that will be then spread out for the full year. But to be clear, there are growing margins absent the IEPA refund for a full year basis, similar to they did last year.

Okay, got it. Thanks, Ryan. Super helpful.

The next question is from Garrick Johnson from Seaport Research Partners. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Thank you. Hey, some questions on the associated variable comp related to the tariff refunds. One, can you explain the mechanics? I mean, is everyone getting like a retroactive bonus set at Brunswick? And how much of this variable comp, what's the dollar number that we're offsetting these refunds within the second quarter and then also in the back half. And lastly on this, of those refunds, how are they spread across the segments?

Thank you, Eric. Well, maybe Ryan and I can tag team this one a bit. No, nobody is getting a retroactive bonus of any kind. Our variable comp plans depend on free cash flow, which was stronger. and also on earnings or earnings per share. Long-term is cash flow return on investment. Essentially, we did not... Typically, we have some form of linear variable comp curve or almost linear comp curve where roughly 100% of... are going to forecast earnings and cash flow for the year equals 100% of variable comp. When the tariffs hit last year, we did not ask for any adjustments to our variable comp. And so as they flowed through the P&L, we did not hit our target and we did not get paid at 100% variable comp. In fact, we took a pretty big hit to variable comp. Now, as the refunds flow through the P&L again, they drive our financial performance to above target, and therefore people get paid at or above target. So it is simply our linearity working from one year to the next. Last year we got paid lower because of tariffs running through the P&L. This year we get potentially lower. paid more due to tariffs running through the P&L. And our curves are typically linear or close to linear.

And then, Garrett, just on some of the technicalities, in terms of spread across, I mean, it's pretty even between Mercury and Navico Group and Boat and then obviously corporate. And remember that it's not just incentive compensation on cash. There's the impact on equity. as well as the impact on profit sharing, which goes to all of our employees. So this will support a payment that we obviously made this year that we hope to make next year again that goes to not only the salary folks but also hourly as well. So there's a lot of components here, but Dave had the mechanics correct.

And the nature of the KPIs are all publicly available.

Okay, okay, we can go over those later. As you know, I like to do my own math, but I appreciate it and appreciate the explanation. Thank you. Of course.

The next question is from Craig Kennison from Baird. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. Thank you for taking my question as well. Dave, I'm curious, what indicators do you track that give you confidence marine usage remains healthy? and then what signals do you need to see to believe that boat usage ultimately will lead to a stronger replenishment cycle?

Yeah. Hi, Craig. Yeah. We have a number of indicators. Obviously, some of them are more real-time than others. The most real-time really is Freedom Boat Club data which shows member boat trips up 13% in the first half of the year. And the interesting thing there is if you wanted to design an experiment to look at the effect of fuel prices on boating, you couldn't have a better experimental design than Freedom Boat Club because it's the only variable. Basically, people pay their monthly fees and then they pay fuel costs. You couldn't design a more pure experiment, really. And what you've seen is that the effects of fuel prices have no effect on voting participation. And in fact, freedom voting is up substantially. So that's a nice, unique insight that we have at Brunswick. But you can also see indirectly the strength of our P&A business. and we can look into and analyze that more closely at what kind of categories are being sold. And that certainly supports the fact that people are using their boats extensively. We also track other indicators after the year, but unfortunately, it's really a trailing indicator. Obviously, we get registration data that, as you know, has been very solid and, in fact, is growing in terms of the parts of the market in which Brunswick participates. That's the kind of 7 million units out of the 10 that are registered, which has grown from around 6.5 over the past 10 years or so.

Thanks. And then a follow-up on Mercury. It's been taking share, I think, for several years now, and that typically – Thank you for joining us.

As you know, Craig, and as others will see during Investor Day at the facility, it's almost impossible to create knockoffs of any of those parts. So any replacement is going to come from us. As the products get more sophisticated, it is very, very difficult for anybody to do anything independently to replace our own parts as well. I think at one point in time, as stern drive engines became less popular, there was a bit of a fear that the P&A annuity would be diluted a bit. But in fact, that's not the case. And those large outboards have really taken the place of larger stern drive engines with a lot more captive content. So yeah, we're excited about the future of P&A. We're talking about hundreds of... Tens of thousands of units being added to the kind of P&A annuity every year, so that it is a little bit dilute. But yeah, there are a lot of very positive trends about the strength of our P&A annuity, both in terms of volume and margin. Obviously, the more captive content we have, the more margin opportunity we have as well.

Thank you.

Actually, even though you didn't ask for it, Craig, maybe I'll throw in there that part of the fastest growing part of the market in a lot of ways is the electronics part of the market. And so Navico's aftermarket is another really exciting part of the business that we'll obviously are now participating in more.

The next question is from Tristan Thomas Martin from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Just one question on the P&A trend.

Is there a way to think about a potential West Marine on a bankruptcy store closure benefit? Was that a benefit in the quarter and any way to think about it moving forward? Thanks.

Well, I think, yeah, I mean, a little bit of a short-term headwind, I would say, but the but the reality is we're the biggest marine distributor in the world and so people are going to get their parts and supplies somehow and so for the parts of the market that are more dealer and distributor orientated, some of that business could certainly translate to our line of sea in Kellogg and other parts of our distribution network. So yeah, that's a possibility.

Thank you.

At this time, we would like to turn the call back to Dave for some concluding remarks.

Well, thank you, everybody, for your questions. Another very encouraging quarter, completing a very strong first half of 2026, solid retail, revenue up substantially across all businesses, margin expansion, strong leverage. and continued really strong free cash flow generation. Despite the new bulk market that is stabilized but is certainly seeking a solid rebound, we are clearly firing on all cylinders. Great new products, structural cost reductions coming through. Our portfolio is orientated towards and leaning into exactly the right parts of the market and our recurring revenue businesses continue to really thrive and had a particularly strong first half. As I've said earlier, you'll hear more about that and a lot of exciting new growth opportunities for Brunswick at our investor event on August 11th at Mercury Marine's headquarters. You'll meet the leadership team, you'll explore Mercury's facility and get some fantastic on-water experience as well. So if you haven't registered, please do soon. And we really look forward to seeing you all. Thank you.

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.