Cadre Holdings, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to Cadre Holdings' second quarter 2026 conference call. Today's call is being recorded. All lines have been placed on mute. If you would like to ask a question at the end of the prepared remarks, please press the star key, then the number one on your touch-tone phone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Matt Berkowitz of the IGB Group for the introductions and the reading of the Safe Harbor Statement. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you and welcome to today's conference call to discuss CADRE's second quarter results. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that during today's call, we will be making several forward-looking statements and we make these statements under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements reflect our best estimates and assumptions based on our understanding of information known to us today. These forward-looking statements are subject to the risks and uncertainties that face CADRE and the industries and markets in which we operate. More information on potential factors that could affect CADRE's financial results is included from time to time in CADRE's public reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Please note that we have posted presentation materials on our website at www.cadre-holdings.com, which supplement our comments this morning and include a reconciliation of certain non-GAAP financial measures. I would like to remind everyone that this call will be available for replay through August 20, 2026. A webcast replay will also be available via the link provided in yesterday's press release as well as on CADRE's website. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to CADRE's Chairman and CEO, Warren Kanders.

Good morning, and thank you for joining CADRE's earnings call to discuss our results for the second quarter of 2026. I am joined today by our President Brad Williams and Chief Financial Officer Blaine Browers. We are pleased to report another quarter of significant financial and operational progress, reflecting the strength of our brands, the resilience of our end markets, and the consistent execution across the organization. During the second quarter, we generated year-over-year net sales growth of 32% and adjusted EBITDA growth of 56%, supported by strong and recurring demand for our mission-critical safety products across the law enforcement, first responder, military and nuclear markets. Our performance through the first half of the year, combined with our record orders backlog and continued momentum, reinforces our confidence in CADRE's outlook. As a result, we have raised our 2026 guidance and are on track for full year revenue and adjusted EBITDA to increase well above 20%. M&A remains a critical component of our long-term growth strategy. Since our IPO, we have taken a thoughtful and disciplined approach to building CADRE into a diversified multivertical provider of mission critical safety products. Importantly, as CADRE has grown in scale, the size and breadth of opportunities we can consider has expanded as well. Earlier this year, we acquired Tier Tactical, our largest transaction since going public. With greater scale, stronger cash flow generation, expanded capabilities, and operations in more diverse markets, we can weigh a broader range of strategically significant opportunities today than we could several years ago. At the same time, our success is not dependent upon transaction size. The acquisition of the Alien Gear, a recognized holster brand during the second quarter, demonstrates the value of smaller, highly complementary bolt-on acquisitions. Whether we are evaluating a larger strategic platform or a smaller add-on, the same principles guide our process. We seek businesses with leading and defensible market positions, strong margins, mission critical products, recurring revenues and cash flows, and clear opportunities to create value with the CADRE operating model. We remain patient, selective and disciplined as we advance our M&A funnel and expect at least one more acquisition in 2026. Cadre enters the second half of the year from a position of strength. We have greater scale, a more diversified portfolio, and an expanding set of organic and inorganic growth opportunities. Deported by our strong balance sheet and consistent free cash flow generation, we believe we are well positioned to enhance our market leadership moving forward and deliver sustainable long-term value for our shareholders. With that, thank you for being with us today, and I will turn the call over to Brad. Brad, over to you.

Thank you, Warren. On today's call, Blaine and I will provide a Q2 update and business overview, including recent trends in financial performance, as well as our increased guidance for the remainder of 2026, followed by a Q&A session. We'll begin on slide five with key takeaways from the second quarter. First and foremost, we've delivered outstanding financial results. Net sales, gross profit, and adjusted EBITDA all increased significantly this quarter. Our performance reflects the strong execution and dedication of our talented teams around the world, and I want to thank our employees for their continued commitment to our customers and our mission. We delivered 5% organic top-line growth in Q2, and our backlog increased to a new record level for the second consecutive quarter. Putting this backlog growth into context, it represents an important forward indicator and gives us confidence in the upwardly revised 2026 outlook that Blaine will discuss shortly. Turning to the fourth and fifth bullets on the slide, I want to highlight two major wins for CADRE. First, as you will recall, our Med-N subsidiary was awarded a five-year $50 million IDIQ contract last year to deliver and support the Blast Exposure Monitoring, or BMO, program with the US military. We are pleased to share that we obtained a second purchase order valued at $8.4 million for this program. The second purchase order brings our total to date to $18.4 million received for the BMO program. Consistent with our commitment to innovation and Mission of Together We Save Lives, this program is a testament to Med-Eng's ability to develop best-in-class products that keep users safe in the line of duty. Med-Eng is the most trusted brand in the industry and at the forefront of efforts to better understand and mitigate blast exposure in the field moving forward. The second major win in the quarter was the selection of Safariland's SXHP Ballistic Panel, introduced in 2025. as the ballistic package for the FBI. Chosen over 11 competing products following a rigorous evaluation process, our ballistic panel has been integrated into Predictive Ballistics Overt Armor Kit. Predictive Ballistics was awarded a five-year, $61 million IDIQ contract to supply the kit, which is also available to the U.S. Marshals Service, the DEA, and other Department of Justice agencies. This is an important win that expands our presence within a key customer segment and underscores our continued commitment to innovation. The selection also validates the performance of our SXHP panel, which combines a thin, lightweight design with a high level of ballistic protection. We're encouraged by the strong customer feedback and the potential for broader adoption across state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies. Next, touching briefly on our nuclear vertical, our businesses are performing well and we expect continued strong demand moving forward. Our backlog has increased $13 million since the start, since the end of last year, driven by continued multi-directional support across all three nuclear market segments, which I'll address more in a moment. Wrapping up our Q2 key takeaways, I'd like to also emphasize our commitment to further enhancing CADRE's market leadership through disciplined M&A. We maintain a robust pipeline across both public safety and nuclear and look forward to capitalizing on attractive opportunities ahead. Turning now to slide six, we lay out industry tailwinds supporting CADRE's long-term growth opportunity across our two verticals. On the law enforcement side, we see rising safety threats globally, coupled with resilient and growing spend on lifesaving equipment. In both the U.S. and in Europe, support for public safety is bipartisan. On the next slide, we outline more current dynamics in our core market. Overall, we continue to see favorable near-term trends. Last quarter, we zoomed in our company-owned distribution segment and noted some softness in demand for discretionary products. During the second quarter, we were pleased to see distribution segment demand normalize, helping drive organic growth toward the high end of our 3% to 5% range. While we continue to monitor municipal budget pressures, public safety spending has historically proven very resilient with mission-critical equipment prioritized. Consistent with that trend, we have not seen any evidence of a meaningful pullback in demand for CADRE products since they're mission-critical. Turning to slide eight. I'd like to spend some time discussing our nuclear vertical and the robust activity we're seeing across the sector. Governments and agencies globally continue to prioritize environmental remediation and nuclear cleanup initiatives. All national defense modernization programs support sustained investment in nuclear safety infrastructure and protective solutions. For CADRE Nuclear Group, national security serves as a funded growth engine. The budget request of $32.8 billion from the National Nuclear Security Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Energy, represents a 29% increase year-over-year. Weapons modernization and plutonium pit production form the core of the multibillion-dollar overhaul of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The U.S. aims to manufacture at least 80 pits per year split between the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Savannah River site in South Carolina to support new warhead designs. The NNSA budget and PIP production mandates support demand for CADREPOD products across containers, ventilation and containment, remote handling, and criticality alarm systems. While the down blending executive order that we have spoken about previously costs some margin and mixed pressure confined to one subsegment, it impacts less than 8% of our nuclear revenue. It absolutely does not reflect a break in our nuclear safety business demand. Similar to our core business, quarter-to-quarter program timing can affect segment results on a near-term basis. But overall, we continue to see very healthy multi-year demand trends. This is led by national defense priorities and persistent, decade-long environmental cleanup work. As you've heard it described by us before, the commercial nuclear renaissance is the cherry on top. We're encouraged by the accelerating investment backdrop supported by government and commercial commitments to expand nuclear capacity and rising power demand from AI and data centers. The opportunity for CADRE builds on established products and customer relationships, and we maintain a follow-the-fuel strategy. Current funnel opportunities in this area include nuclear ventilation and containment systems, as well as criticality of accident alarm systems. While still early and not yet as material to revenue, we believe the nuclear energy resurgence represents attractive long-term optionality alongside the larger national defense and environmental management demand drivers. Overall, our thesis on the nuclear opportunity is unchanged. We view nuclear safety as a set of durable end markets across three segments with long-term demand tied to policy and commercial tailwinds. With that, I'll now turn the call over to our CFO, Blaine Browers. to speak more about M&A, CADRE's Q1 financial results, and 2026 outlook.

Thanks, Brad. Before turning to the quarter, I'll kick off my comments with a review of our M&A strategy. Over the last four years, we have deployed approximately $455 million across seven transactions, including the recent acquisition of Alien Gear holsters completed in the quarter. This activity reflects the disciplined and patient approach we have consistently applied to M&A. We're not interested in pursuing growth for its own sake, but instead selectively adding businesses that strengthen our portfolio and enhance CADRE's long-term earnings and cash flow profile. For each of these transactions, we have maintained a high bar for strategic and financial fit. Turning to the next slide, we highlight the key criteria that guide our process when evaluating potential acquisitions. We are steadfast in our commitment to businesses with strong margins, leading in defensible market positions, recurring revenue characteristics, and durable cash generation. We also look for opportunities where the CADRE operating model can drive value creation. We enter the balance of 2026 with a substantial financial flexibility and a robust pipeline of potential acquisitions. We continue to target transactions focused on complementary capabilities, new market access, and greater penetration of our existing customer base. Turning now to a summary of CADRE's financial performance, slide 12, details our second quarter results. Q2 net sales of $207.1 million increased 32% year over year, and 5% organically with strong growth in armor, duty gear, nuclear, and distribution. Gross profit of $87.1 million was up 36% year over year, with gross margins expanding 120 basis points year over year, and 209 basis points when you adjust for inventory step-up amortization. Second quarter adjusted EBITDA increased 56% year-over-year. Of note, second quarter net income includes $2 million of inventory step-up amortization and $5.9 million of contingent consideration expense. Also, FX headwinds of $6.6 million adversely impacted bottom-line earnings in Q2. As we expected, we saw a significant increase in revenue and profitability sequentially from Q1. As Brad indicated earlier, we're proud of the team's ability to execute on their demand. A few of the businesses had the opportunity to ship product earlier than expected, and they were able to take advantage of those opportunities within the quarter. We broadly saw upside in most of the core portfolio, including armor, duty gear, nuclear, and crowd control. In addition, we are pleased to see both Tier Tactical and Alien Gear execute above our expectations in the quarter, contributing to outstanding results. Illustrated on slide 13 is net sales and adjusted EBITDA growth year-over-year, including our upwardly revised 2026 guidance, which I'll discuss more in a moment. Our full-year outlook now implies year-over-year revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth of 24.4% and 26.7%, respectively at the midpoints. You can see that over the last several years, Cadre has delivered consistent and stable growth. Our resilience is a key differentiator with businesses that are largely unaffected by economic, political, geopolitical, and other cycles. On slide 14, we present our capital structure as of June 30th, 2026. Our net leverage was down to two and a half times. We believe Cadre's strong free cash flow generation coupled with the strength of our balance sheet gives us ample financial flexibility to continue to pursue organic and inorganic opportunities. We provide our increased 2026 outlook on slide 17. Net sales are now expected to be between $749 million and $769 million, and our adjusted EBITDA guidance is between $139 million and $144 million, implying adjusted EBITDA margins of 18.6%. Our guidance now fully incorporates AlienGear and reflects our improved view of full-year revenue and profitability. We still expect organic revenue growth to be in the 3% to 5% range on a full-year basis. As Brad mentioned earlier in our call, our strong backlog exiting Q2 and the team's execution into Q2 gives us confidence in our full-year guidance. We expect Q3 revenue to be around $190 million with adjusted EBITDA margins of about 18% which implies that Q4 will have a very similar profile to Q2. Overall, our businesses are performing well and we expect continued strong demand in 2026 across our core markets in public safety and nuclear safety. I'll now turn it back to Brad for concluding comments.

Thank you, Blaine. In closing, as you can see on slide 16, we executed well across all facets of the business during the second quarter. We exceeded our pricing target benefited from favorable product mix and increased backlog by $13 million sequentially, supported by strong demand for our EOD products. We also completed the acquisition of ailing gear holsters and continue to advance a healthy M&A funnel. Looking forward, we are focused on strengthening our portfolio, further implementing the CADRE operating model throughout the organization, and building demand across our core markets in public safety, defense, and nuclear safety. Our approved outlook for 2026 reflects our confidence in the opportunities ahead. We look forward to continuing to update you on our progress. With that, operator, please open up the lines for Q&A.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will be conducting the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star 1 on your touchstone phone. And so when you draw your question, please press star 1 again. If you are using a speakerphone, Please leave the handset before pressing any keys. One moment, please, while we gather questions. Our first question comes from the line of Tomosano from JP Morgan. Sir, your line is open.

Hi. Good morning, everyone. Congrats on a quarter. Thank you, Tomo. Good morning. Thank you. Could you talk about breaking down the $13 million year-to-date increase in nuclear backlog across environment Environmental Management, National Defense, and Commercial Nuclear. And if you could give us more color, the key drivers in each, please. Thank you.

Absolutely. Great question, Tomo. Majority of the increase we've seen through this quarter has really been in the commercial nuclear energy and environmental remediation. We've talked quite a bit previously that We started to see the funnel increase in those areas, in particular commercial nuclear, and that's really what we're seeing is the team's hard work and efforts building that up. We've also seen a nice pickup in Europe, particularly around Northern Europe, around some of the projects they have going there, which is environmental remediation. So that first part of the comment was more US-based, around commercial nuclear energy the environmental remediation in the U.S., but we're also seeing strength on that environmental remediation in the U.S. when it comes to backlog. I also would like to point out on the commercial nuclear side, from revenue coming out of Europe, we did see very positive strength and momentum in the quarter. On the revenue side, they had the backlog coming into the quarter. So when you think about geographically, both in the U.S. as well as Europe, We are seeing that strength both really on that commercial nuclear component of it as well as the environmental remediation.

Thank you. And just one follow-up. Given that mix, how should we think about nuclear margin quality in back half and beyond? And when should CADRE operating model benefits begin to show up over the next couple of quarters? Thank you.

When we think about the margins, there is a pretty large degree of mix within the nuclear platform, as we've referenced prior. Looking for the back half, I would say on the US side of the business, we would expect the back half to look very similar to Q2 margin. They had a little bit lower margin in Q1, so the first half, second half will improve between those two. On the more European side of the business, Q2 was favorable margin or favorable mix in the quarter driven by some of the robotic arms. We don't expect that to recur, so we expect the European side to look more like we saw in Q1, which would be slightly down on a margin basis, just really returning to normal mix.

Thank you.

In terms of the CADRA operating model portion of the question, so on the nuclear side of things, whether it was the acquisition we made from Cars Group PLC in the UK or the Alpha Safety acquisition, they're all in the early stages of the operating model, so most of the focus is on, you know, your standard Delivery, Quality, Safety, Inventory, that side of things. So from a cost perspective, showing up at the top level from a cadre view, I don't expect to see that this year as they continue to progress through the model.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Yep, you're welcome. Thank you, Thomas.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Larry Solo from St. and JS Securities. Please go ahead.

All right. Thank you. Congrats, guys, on a really nice quarter. I'm just curious on the upside in the quarter and I guess on the outlook, maybe combine that with just the bookings question. In the backlog, it seems like a lot of it is going up on the ELD and sensors and robots, but just curious, What's driving the upside this quarter, this year, and how your general, your law enforcement-based business is doing?

Yeah. You know, on the, I guess, pretty Q2, you know, stellar performance by the team, I'd really split it in half. Not a 50-50 split, but really two components driving it. You know, the first... the really core public safety businesses that have been a part of CADRE since the beginning, the crowd control, the duty gear, and armor businesses all had very strong quarters. Some of that is demand that we received within the quarter that was unexpected, but a big portion of it too was pull-aheads where the team, I say pull-aheads, but really shipments earlier than expected where we had taken a view that customer would want to order in Q3, as we progressed through the quarter. The customer then changed their expectations or requested an earlier shipment, and the teams were able to execute on it, which, again, we're very thankful and, frankly, proud of the team for the size of that swing of the movement. The second component is the acquisitions, both Alien Gear and Tier, really had a phenomenal quarter, and I think it gives us a lot of confidence as we get into guidance to increased outlook based on how those businesses have performed year to date. So we're very excited with the quarter. The backlog complexion, it becomes a bit kind of outsized on the EOD. We've had a very, very significant demand on the EOD side of the world, which has really driven those numbers up quite a bit.

Two multi-year big deal contract.

Yep, you're right. Yep, absolutely. but even when you peel that back a layer and remove that outsized impact, we're still, compared to year end, we're still seeing really significant 10, 15% growth in the armor business backlog, a very sizable increase in the duty gear backlog, larger than that, and then an increase in nuclear, as Brad mentioned, of almost $13 million. So you look across there and I would say, from a backlog perspective, everyone is ahead of where we would have expected them, you know, through the year. So, again, kind of going back to guidance, it gives us a lot of confidence in the back half of the year.

Okay. Oh, great. And I guess, Blaine, while I got you here, a question for you, just to follow up, the gross margins 42.6 in the quarter, and I guess 43.8 if you add back the step up, which is a really nice year over year improvement. And revenue grew a lot, but a lot of that was inorganic. And maybe a little bit of unusual, you said, some pull forward. So maybe that helped the margins a little bit. I guess maybe you can just give us a little bit of color on the strength in this quarter and how we should think about the margins going forward. Sure.

Yeah. Thanks, Larry. A few components inside the quarter on margin. One, I referenced when Tomo asked the question about revenue that we had significant favorable mix in the Zerkaloy side of the world, particularly robotic arms. So those margins were up pretty significantly, and we expect them to normalize in the back half. There was a lot of volume leverage, and this is true in our model where as the volume upticks, whether it's gross margin or EBITDA, there's quite a bit of leverage there. So I think as you're kind of, you didn't ask, but kind of thinking about the back half, I think Q4 with a similar volume could have a very similar profile to Q2, but we think as we move into Q3 with a little bit lower revenue and mixed returning, that we'll have a little bit of a kind of return, reversion to the mean, essentially. Gotcha.

Okay, not fair. I appreciate that, Colin. Thanks. Thanks, Larry.

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Sheila Hayabulu from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi. This is Adam Samuelson. I'm on for Sheila. Good morning. So I guess the first question is just thinking about the organic growth outlook. You highlighted about 5% organic in Q2, kind of alongside the normalization and distribution demand. Can you just help us think about the underlying demand trends you're seeing across public safety and nuclear end markets, and how sustainable you think that organic growth rate is into early 2027?

Hey, good morning. This is Brad. Thanks for the question. So, you know, the outlook is positive when you look across the macros, whether it's the nuclear macros that I spent some time on, the prepared remarks, or from a public safety perspective. You know, all indications have been, you know, continued focus on our products. because of the safety side of what those products are. So demand seems strong. It continues to be strong. It looks good as we look forward, both on the nuclear side and also in the public safety piece. We've shown that through the wins that we've announced over the past six or eight months. I talked about FBI win that we're a part of. We've had the BMO, the sensor win. that we talked about last time, which was a large ballistic seat win overall with GDLS. And we've got other ones that are queued up too. So we're positive on the outlook.

Okay, that's helpful. And then just as we think about the revenue outlook for the balance of the year, just with the backlog that you have and momentum coming out of Q2, and that in-market commentary. Just help us think about kind of what occurs to get you to the high end versus the low end of the revenue guidance range at this point.

I think to get to the high end, there's always a number of what we consider large orders or kind of projects. And a lot of those are binary, right? You either win it or you don't. And when we think about our range and putting together the kind of internal forecast and external guidance, it's really risk rating some of those opportunities. And so it's not just one macro driver or one particular business. I'd say majority of our businesses have the potential to contribute to that high-end guidance. And again, we have that positive momentum. We've seen that backlog build. So everything points in a very positive direction for us. But with that said, a lot of these are government procurement-based. There's always the risk that something gets delayed a week or two weeks, not that we won't get the award, but it gets delayed, and that can shift revenue. So we're taking what we feel is a cautious approach on the outlook. I want to ensure we have high say-do and try to mitigate some of those out-of-our-control risks that could occur.

Okay, that's all very helpful. I'll pass it on. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Next question will be from Jeff, Ben, Cynthia Graham from B Reilly Securities. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning, everyone. Realize it's relatively small revenues, but it sounds like Alien Gear is running strong right out of the gate for you. Can you speak about what's driving that business, and then what contribution should we be thinking about going forward from Alien?

Yeah, great question, Jeff. So definitely ahead of expectations. You know, we were cautious. We talked about last, we talked previously about being cautious with the acquisition because it was a company, Alien Gear was a company coming out of bankruptcy, a bit different situation. That can send, you know, mixed signals to the customer base. So that's why we started out being cautious with some of those expectations. I feel like the Alien Gear team and the Safariland Duty Gear team have done a really, really good job communicating the fact that it's business as usual within the businesses overall as we work to do the integration work. Our plans are not to eliminate the Alien Gear brand. We've been very, very clear on that. the Alien Gear brand. We made that acquisition because we do think it is a strong brand in the consumer market and then also within its customer base within the professional side of things. So I feel like the team's done a really nice job out of the gates with that side of things. Now where can it land? So we're in the early days of integration activities. We've already completed the what I call the consumer integration activity where we've taken the Alien Gear team and analyzed what Alien Gear does from a consumer side of things. We've combined the team with the Safariland consumer team, and those teams are fully integrated now and they're executing on their strategies that they've developed. So that one is done at this point. The next one that we've also communicated, unfortunately, for the team up in Idaho, we've made an announcement that we're closing the Ailinger facility there. That is their only manufacturing location. We completed those discussions and we'll take the next Thank you, Brad. both teams at Safariland and also Alien Gear through those strategies. So things are going well. And then where will we eventually land? You should expect overall the margins that we see for the Alien Gear business to be more like cadre-type margins as we work on the various activities that I just talked about.

And then, Jeff, as far as expectations for the year for Alien Gear, We have them in. They did about $4.8 million in the quarter. We have them baked into the guide at $11 million. I think we're still – it's been about a quarter with them. It's been great out of the gates, but still a bit of cautiousness to make sure there's no overhang coming out of bankruptcy.

Okay. Okay. Great to hear. And then can you remind us on the – the FBI panels. When do we expect the first panels to get delivered to the FBI? And then just wondering, are the DEA or some of these other agencies, are they aware of that product?

Absolutely. When you look at that program, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, other agencies can buy off of that program. So that IDIQ that I mentioned covers multiple agencies, so they are aware of that. In terms of when shipments will begin, we've already received demand. on that program. So it's already started. We're not in what I would call a stabilized demand environment at this point. The Safariland team's working with Predictive Ballistics that, you know, that won the award on nailing down what that demand looks like, you know, overall with the FBI for, you know, at least the next six months out. Keep in mind that's 60 plus million dollar IDIQ is over a five and a half year period. So that's the length of time for it.

Okay, that's helpful. Thanks for taking my questions.

Thanks, Jeff. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Andrew from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Good morning. This is Andrew on for Ron. Thank you for taking our questions. Given the higher margin expectations in the second half, you know, near those 20% levels, what products are driving that expansion? Is it armor or duty gear or something else in particular?

No, I would say if nothing in particular, the back half will be, you know, gross margin EBITDA rate consistent with what we saw in Q2. So if you're looking at the first half, that pressure is really Q1-based and really based upon volume. So as those volumes have ticked up to normal rates, we look ahead and say, frankly, margins, someone asked the question earlier, gross margins kind of slightly down, EBITDA margins slightly down Q3, and then Q4, a similar profile to Q2. So when we look at it, it looks very normalized. It's just that Q1 was a bit of a tougher quarter based on volume and mix. So it's nothing abnormal. In fact, I would say it's more normal mix than abnormal.

Gotcha, gotcha. And if I could just speak in the second one, it seems like the M&A pipeline is strong and Brad Williams, Blaine Browers

When we look at regions or products, first of all, we're focused on the two end markets that we're in today, so on the nuclear front and also on public safety. We do get the question sometimes, are we done with public safety? The answer is no. There's plenty of additional opportunities out there in the public safety side of things, but we're looking for those same characteristics that we've talked about in the past in terms of M&A criteria, so we look for replacement cycle type revenue, recurring revenue, obviously high margin that meets our margin thresholds. We're not scared of what we call fix-it type businesses, but if we do those, we have to make sure that we've got a clear path to the cadre level type margins overall. High cash flow, is also important on our list so that we can obviously use that to continue to fund additional M&A and pay down debt as we go along. So that's the generic criteria that we have, you know, and it applies whether it's on the nuclear side or the public safety side. So we're excited about the funnel. We're excited about what's in there. Keep in mind, you know, similar to the prepared remarks that, you know, Alien Gear was a nice smaller bolt-on that we feel like we can leverage our – are scale that we have within the Safariland brand within Duty Gear. And then Radar, our holster company over in Italy. And that's also an option for us as we go forward, potential bolt-ons that we can add and feel like that we can add a significant value to. So that's what we look for.

Thank you very much. You're welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you. And our last question is from Matt Karanda from Roth Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Thanks for squeezing me in. On the, I guess, the 5% organic growth in the second quarter, can you just parse out, I guess, organic growth between nuclear and the public safety side of the business? And also, I guess, just further to that, I was wondering, I guess you guys were talking last quarter about some headwinds in container solutions, I think, around some of the alpha products. But it doesn't sound like maybe that's the case anymore. Maybe can you just talk a little bit about what has changed in that end market, I guess, in the last couple of months that's driving improvement?

Absolutely. Thanks for the question, Matt. On organic, public safety was just a touch below 5%. Nuclear was actually high singles, low double digits. So for nuclear, we had essentially two months and a quarter of Zircaloy baked into the organic just those first couple weeks of April as inorganic. And then distribution had a good quarter as well. So they were right there at mid-single digits. So it wasn't an outsized contribution from any one particular space, but kind of broadly strength across the public safety, nuclear, and distribution side. So again, that gives us a lot of confidence that it's broad-based and it helps support the back half. It's not one particular business unit.

Okay, and then, Matt, your question on the nuclear side of things, just to kind of go back to what we talked about previously. It was with reference to Alpha Safety and a portion of the Alpha Safety business that there was an executive order around down blending that reduced some of the volume that we have in the container side of things. to be clear on that, that affects less than 8% of the revenue within our nuclear portfolio of businesses overall. There was more of an effect on mix from a margin perspective, but from a demand perspective, it's not concerning to us. When we look at the pickup and demand that we've seen in other areas, for example, I think we may have touched on it, but manual manipulators within the Walsh Miller business in Germany is running really hot right now in terms of nuclear fuel type applications where manual manipulators are being used within those applications for hot cells. You know, just to put it in perspective again, it's less than 8% that we saw the executive order effect from a top line perspective. And then we're seeing an offset within other types of applications within nuclear. And then just to keep in mind that, you know, when we're talking the nuclear cleanup side of things, I mean, there are still, you know, you can take different estimates, but 50, 60 plus years of cleanup activity that still has to take place, you know, within the U.S. and within other countries. So, even though the down blending executive order came out, there's still work that's being done for that cleanup. And then there's a volume of that cleanup that will continue to increase over time.

Okay. Very clear and helpful on that one, Brad. Thanks. And then I guess Shifting gears to tier, I was curious if you guys are finding any new or interesting commercial synergies now that you've been integrating that business for a bit. Just curious to hear, I guess, a little bit about the growth trajectory of that business and any successful sort of quotation activity you've had.

Yeah, there's actually... We're having fun, quite frankly, with the tier business and the Safariland teams coming together. When you look at the strengths that both teams have and how those can be leveraged across the board, and there's four or five projects that have been kicked off among the teams that they're working together on. Some of those I can't go into great detail because it externally can affect what we're doing at both of those companies, but In general, what we're seeing is some products within the tier portfolio that the team's working on, you know, future steps on, you know, those products that can be sold within the Safariland channels, which would be great. So they fill some gaps within the Safariland side of things, keeping in mind that the Safariland revenue, as we talked about in the past, and the makeup, the customer makeup of that revenue is the polar opposite of tiers. So it gives a really good opportunity to take any products that TIER has that there might be some gaps in product lines within Safariland and use those to fill those gaps. So that's one. We actually have some opportunities within the Med-Eng business. You probably wouldn't have felt that, where we have ballistics within the Med-Eng product portfolio, within our bomb suits and other products. and so with TIER's capital capabilities that we've referenced in the past, they're one of very few folks around the world that have the type of capital that they have and the capability. It gives us an opportunity also then to use TIER to potentially be involved in various new product development projects with Med-Eng, for example, which is one active project that's going on today. I could go on and on, Matt. There's a list of five or six items that the team has on being executed as we speak and working through. And then when we get to the point that those become visible externally, we can reference those more and talk about those.

Okay. All right. That's helpful. Maybe just last one, if I could sneak one more in. On the acquisition front, maybe just Does the level of net leverage that you have right now constrain you to doing tuck-ins? Is that the way to think about M&A activity for the rest of the year, or are there bigger items that you could kind of get done that maybe we're just not thinking creatively enough?

Good question, Matt. We've said our upper end of leverage is really 3.5%. right so that gives us you know quite a bit of dry powder for acquisitions. We've also said right to get to that to get into that kind of three times leverage kind of area you know we'd have to have we have to be really comfortable with a quick kind of pay down so yeah I think that's you know a bit of status quo. We would look at it and say you know we've closed here right we've delevered from there's you know we've picked up the earnings the last quarter and a half. And we have lots of capability, but the right tuck-in is always compelling. Alien Gear is a great example of that, where a fairly small deal, just over $10 million, but really very compelling when you think about it post-synergy. So we're going to be obviously doing our diligence. We're going to be a bit opportunistic if the right bolt-on or tuck-in comes along. Those become a very easier deal with a high level of confidence, and at the same time, we have the dry powder to look at bigger deals in the back half of the year. Okay. I appreciate it, guys. Thanks.

Thanks, Matt.

Thank you. I will now hand the call over to Mr. Brad Williams for closing remarks.

Thank you, Operator. I'd like to thank everyone again for joining us on today's call and for your continued interest in CADRE.

Thank you for joining the call today. You may now disconnect.