5/8/2025

speaker
Grant Shock
Chairman and Co-CEO

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the annual general meeting of the shareholders of Airbus of America Corp. We're making today's meeting available through both a video and a teleconference facility. Accordingly, I would like to welcome everyone who's been able to join us today in one form or another. I'm Grant Shock, chairman and co-CEO of Airbus of America Corp. Joining me today are Chris Spitsikakis, president and co-CEO, Frank Intilli, CFO, and Chris Figel, EVP and general counsel. I would also like to introduce our board of directors who are participating electronically, Anita Antonucci, David Kamelari, Joanne O'Connor, Robert McLeish, Stephen Ryan, and Alan Watson. For your information, we'll start the meeting by addressing the formal agenda matters. Once all these matters have been addressed, Chris Spitsikakis, Frank Intilli, and I will each make a short presentation, including a discussion of our first quarter 25 results, a brief overview of last year, and an update of our strategic initiatives. We will then follow that with a Q&A session where we would welcome questions from participants. In conducting the business of the meeting, I would appreciate your cooperation in allowing us to move efficiently through the agenda. In order to make the best use of our time, certain shareholders have been asked to move and second the resolutions which we will consider at the meeting. I will call on them at the appropriate times. I would now like to call this meeting to order. Chris Spitsikakis and myself will act as chairs of the meeting and Chris Fugel will act as secretary of the meeting. The secretary has advised that the annual report containing the audited consolidated financial statements of the corporation for the fiscal year ended December 31st, 24 was mailed to the shareholders of the corporation on April 11th, 25. The notice of this meeting, the accompanying management information circular, and the form of proxy were also mailed to the shareholders of the corporation on April 11th, 25. I direct that the proof of service be annexed to the minutes of this meeting. Chris, myself, and our chief financial officer, Frank Contelli, will be available to respond to any questions concerning the financial statements during a general question period that follows the formal business. Before proceeding with the business of meeting, I would like to take a moment to discuss the voting procedure. Each holder of a common share of the corporation is entitled to one vote for each common share held. There are three formal items of the business to be dealt with today. A, to receive the annual report and financial statements of the corporation for the fiscal year ended December 31st, 24. B, to select each of the corporation auditors KPMG, LLP, for the ensuing year and the authorization of the directors to fix the auditor's remuneration. All is described in management information circular of the corporation dated April 11th, 25. With the consent of the meeting, representatives of Computer Share, Arrested Services, Inc., the corporation's registrar, and transfer agent will act as the registrar. I will now ask the secretary to confirm the quorum for this meeting.

speaker
Chris Figel
EVP and General Counsel / Meeting Secretary

Mr. Chairman, I confirm we have at least two persons present holding or representing by proxy 25% of the eligible votes, which results in a quorum.

speaker
Grant Shock
Chairman and Co-CEO

As a quorum is present, I declare this properly constituted. I direct the report on the attendance be annexed to the minutes of this meeting. As the first item of formal business, I would ask our chief financial officer to table Air Boss's annual report to shareholders, which includes the audited consolidated financial statements for the corporation for the fiscal year ended December 31st, 24, together with

speaker
Frank Intilli
Chief Financial Officer

the annual report is tabled.

speaker
Grant Shock
Chairman and Co-CEO

Thank you, Frank. A copy of the 2024 annual report has been mailed to all shareholders who requested a copy. Copies can be found online under Air Boss's profile at CDARplus.com. We will now move to the second item of formal business, the election of seven directors to Air Boss's board of directors. Nominations have already been proposed by management in the proxy circular. All seven of our current directors have agreed to continue serving on the board of directors. Details about each of the director nominees are contained in this year's proxy circular. Shareholders are required to cast their votes for each individual director nominee rather than voting for the entire slate. The meeting is now open for nominations for the election of seven nominees. Morris Eddie, would you please nominate the individuals listed in the proxy circus directors for the coming year?

speaker
Morris Eddie
Board Nominee (Nominator)

Mr. Chairman, I nominate each of Anita Antonucci, David Camilleri, Joanne O'Connor, Robert McLeish, Stephen Ryan, P. Granville Schock, and Alan J. Watson as directors of Air Boss to hold office for the ensuing year or until their successors are elected or appointed. Thank you. Peter

speaker
Grant Shock
Chairman and Co-CEO

Deruter, will you second the nominations, please?

speaker
Peter Deruter
Board Nominee Supporter (Seconding Resolutions)

Mr. Chairman, I second the nominations.

speaker
Grant Shock
Chairman and Co-CEO

Thank you. Are there any other nominations? I declare the nominations closed. Morris, may I have a resolution,

speaker
Morris Eddie
Board Nominee (Nominator)

please? Mr. Chairman, I move the following resolution. Be it resolved that each of Anita Antonucci, David Camilleri, Joanne O'Connor, Robert McLeish, Stephen Ryan, P. Granville Schock, and Alan J. Watson be elected as directors of Air Boss for the ensuing year or until their successors are elected or appointed.

speaker
Grant Shock
Chairman and Co-CEO

Peter,

speaker
Morris Eddie
Board Nominee (Nominator)

will you second the resolution?

speaker
Peter Deruter
Board Nominee Supporter (Seconding Resolutions)

Mr. Chairman, I second the resolution.

speaker
Grant Shock
Chairman and Co-CEO

Thank you. As you know, management solicited proxies for the business of today's meeting. On behalf of management, I received proxies representing over a majority of votes cast for the election of each of the directors nominated, named in our proxy circular. Based on the proxy report received, the majority of the shares voted were cast in favor of each of the nominees. Accordingly, along with myself, the following other six nominees have each been properly elected as directors for Air Boss for the ensuing year. Anita Antonucci, David Camilleri, Joanne O'Connor, Robert McLeish, Stephen Ryan, and Alan Watson. If any shareholder or proxy holder is interested in the exact number of votes cast for or withheld from each nominee, you can get the particulars after the meeting from the secretary. A press release and report on the voting results indicating the detailed results of the vote on the election of directors will also be publicly filed after this meeting on CDAR+. The next item in formal business, the reappointment of KPMG LLP as auditors of the corporation and the authorization of the directors to fix the remuneration of the auditors. Morris, may I have a resolution,

speaker
Morris Eddie
Board Nominee (Nominator)

please? Mr. Chairman, I move the following resolution. Be it resolved that KPMG LLP, the present auditors of the corporation, are hereby reappointed auditors of the corporation to hold office until the close of the next annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are appointed, and that the directors of the corporation are hereby authorized to fix the remuneration of the auditors in such amounts as the directors may in their discretion determine for the current fiscal year. Peter, will you second the resolution?

speaker
Peter Deruter
Board Nominee Supporter (Seconding Resolutions)

Mr. Chairman, I second the resolution.

speaker
Grant Shock
Chairman and Co-CEO

Thank you. On behalf of management, I've received proxies representing over a majority of votes cast for reappointment of KPMG LLP as auditors of the corporation and authorization of the directors to fix the remuneration of auditors. Based on the proxy report received, the majority of the votes of the shares voted were cast in favor of the resolution. Accordingly, I declare it carried. If there is no further business for this meeting, I will request a motion that the formal meeting has been terminated. Morris, will you please bring a motion to terminate the meeting?

speaker
Morris Eddie
Board Nominee (Nominator)

Mr. Chairman, I move that the meeting be terminated. Thank you. Peter,

speaker
Grant Shock
Chairman and Co-CEO

will you second the motion?

speaker
Peter Deruter
Board Nominee Supporter (Seconding Resolutions)

Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.

speaker
Grant Shock
Chairman and Co-CEO

Thank you. All those in favor of the motion, please raise your hands. Contrary of any, I declare the motion carried and the formal business of the meeting concluded. With the formal meeting now over, we'll move to our management presentation. In terms of an agenda, we will start with our annual Chairman's Awards, followed by a management presentation and overview of the first quarter results, which were released last night. And then we will take questions starting with analysts covering our company and then from shareholders. To respect people's time, we will do our best to be expedient. Turning to the annual Chairman's Awards, every day at Airbus, there's inspirational work being done across all our divisions and all departments with team members going above and beyond to ensure our continued success. In 2019, we created our annual Chairman's Award program to formally recognize the special efforts made by Airbus employees. It is a -to-peer recognition program that has employees identify, recognize, and appreciate a broad range of strong contributors who go above and beyond for Airbus. When selecting Chairman's recipient, we ensure that we have a strong representation of our Airbus employees by presenting an award to one peer nominated hourly employee and one peer nominated salary employee who have both shown exceptional dedication and commitment as they have gone above and beyond for Airbus. I'm pleased to announce that yet again, we had great employee participation this year with a total of 302 employees nominated from across the organization and the selection of 13 divisional winners. From these 13 divisional winners, there were two employees that stood out and best exemplified Chairman Award attributes. I'm delighted to announce today that this year's winners are Amy Bailey, customer service representative and master scheduler from Auburn Hills, Michigan, and William Prince, team leader in the filter production from Jessup, Maryland. Amy has and continues to have a major impact on the people in business. She continues to be a business partner to the plant manager. She does her job selfishly and strives consistently towards excellence as the plant metrics continue to show. Her deep expertise, strong leadership abilities, creative problem solving have helped resolve challenges and can continue to drive success for our customers and Airbus. Trey, aka William Prince, took on leading filter production in 2024. He met this challenge head on and executed at a high level to produce more than 80,000 filters in the final three months of last year. To do this, he had to meet 10 new staff members and manage a team of 15-hour workers. Trey made himself available to complete whatever tasks were required to get the job done and did an excellent job communicating what he needed. I would like to congratulate both Amy and Trey on being the Chairman Award winners and to recognize their efforts. They will both be receiving the 2024 Chairman Award trophy and a few other prizes to be given at a later date. On behalf of the board and our shareholders, I want to take this opportunity to thank all our nominees and winners across the organization for their outstanding contributions to Airbus. Before we begin with the next portion of our presentation, I will remind the listeners that our remarks today contain forward-looking statements, including our estimates of future developments. We invite listeners to review risk factors, related to our business, in our annual information form and our MD&A, both of which are available on CDAR Plus and our corporate website. Also, we will discuss certain non-GAAP measures, including EBITDA. Reconciliation of these measures are available in MD&A. And finally, please note that reporting currency is in U.S. dollars. References today will be in U.S. dollars unless we indicate otherwise. With that, I'll now turn this call over to Chris Bitsakakis for the operational review. Chris.

speaker
Chris Spitsikakis
President and Co-CEO

Thank you, Gren, and good morning, everyone. Airbus experienced positive traction in Q1 2025, following a challenging year in 2024, despite pronounced headwinds which continued to impact each segment to varying degrees. The company continued to navigate obstacles related to economic and geopolitical challenges, including market softness, tariffs, inflationary pressure, and the potential for further escalating and retaliatory tariffs, while maintaining focus on risk mitigation plans, including managing costs and targeting continuous improvement actions to build momentum at both Airbus rubber solutions and at Airbus manufactured products. Despite the increased economic uncertainty, disruption of trade flows, increased costs and strains on supply chains resulting from these challenges, management remains focused on the conversion of key opportunities to support future growth aligned with its strategic plan. The company expects further uncertainty to persist in the coming quarters, with volume recovery difficult to anticipate, as any recovery could be impacted by the imposition of further tariffs, duties, or other restrictions on trade. A significant portion of the products manufactured by the company in Canada are sold into the United States and may be subject to recently enacted tariffs, as well as additional tariffs which could be enacted given the cross border nature of the company's business operations. The company continues to evaluate and execute on contingency plans and is reviewing all available options to deal with these challenges, including rebalancing production and sales activities between the U.S. and Canada in order to minimize the impacts on the company and its customers. Airbus rubber solutions had improved results compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, with both revenue growth and margin expansion driven by an overall recovery in most customer sectors. However, there was volatility within Q1 2025 driven by the shifting tariff situation as customers attempted to manage the potential exposure created by tariff headwinds. The segment remains committed to execution on its strategy to deliver strong results by focusing on specialized products, expanded production of a broader array of compounds, both white and color, and enhanced flexibility in attracting and fulfilling new business. As a segment, ARS continued to invest in research and development to support enhanced collaboration with customers. Airbus manufactured products experienced some positive traction compared to Q4 2024, specifically in the defense products business. Overall, AMP also had a notable improvement compared to the first quarter of 2024, primarily due to the defense products business continuing deliveries on previously announced contracts and additional overhead reductions carried out in 2024 to help mitigate volume softness. Management also maintained its focus on operational improvements during Q1 2025 and continued to work with key customers with a goal of leveraging opportunities aligned with its growth initiatives. The company continues to work closely with its suppliers and government partners to mitigate the previously announced delays to its program and will provide further updates as more information becomes available. The rubber molded products operations were impacted by continued volume softness related to the original equipment manufacturers shuttering production due to the impact of tariffs in the automotive sector, which continues to evolve. The business continued its focus on managing costs and a commitment to drive efficiencies and best in class automation, as well as diversification of its product lines into adjacent sectors. I will now pass the call over to Frank for the financial review. Frank?

speaker
Frank Intilli
Chief Financial Officer

Thanks Chris and good morning everyone. As a reminder, all dollar amounts presented today are in U.S. dollars except for dividends per share, which are in Canadian dollars. Percentage changes compare Q1 of 2025 to Q1 of 2024 unless otherwise noted. To be respectful of your time today, I will aim to be brief in my summary of our Q1 2025 results. Starting from the top line, Airbus consolidated net sales for Q1 2025 were 105.1 million, an increase of .6% from the prior year. The increase was primarily due to higher sales at Airbus manufactured products, the fence business, partially offset by lower sales in the rubber molded products business, and lower volumes at Airbus rubber solutions. Consolidated gross profit for Q1 2025 increased by 4.3 million to 18.5 million compared with Q1 2024, and consolidated EBITDA for Q1 2025 increased to 8 million from a prior year of 4.3 million. In both cases, the increases were driven by improved volume and mix at Airbus manufactured products, specifically in the defense business, partially offset by additional softness experienced at the rubber molded products operations along with across the majority of Airbus rubber solutions customer sectors. Turning now to our individual segments, net sales in the Airbus rubber solutions segment for Q1 2025 decreased by .9% to 57 million from 65.5 million in Q1 of 2024. Volume decreased by .4% with decreases in most customer sectors. Tolling volume was down .3% while non-tolling volume was down 16.4%. Gross profit at Airbus rubber solutions for Q1 2025 decreased to 8.5 million from 11 million in Q1 2024. Gross margin percentage decreased to .9% of net sales from .9% of net sales in Q1 of 2024. The decrease in gross margin percentage was primarily due to mix while gross profit was in Q1 2025 compared to Q1 2024 on lower volume, partially driven by tariff-related volatility, product mix, partially offset by managing controllable overhead costs and continuous improvement initiatives. Net sales in the manufactured product segment for Q1 2025 increased by .6% to 53.6 million from 42.3 million in Q1 of 2024. The increase was mainly in the defense products business offset by lower sales in the rubber molded products business. Gross profit at manufactured product segment for Q1 2025 increased to 10 million from 3.1 million in Q1 of 2024. Gross margin percentage increased to .7% of net sales from .4% of net sales in Q1 2024. The increase was primarily the result of improvements in the defense products business, operational cost improvements and reduced overhead costs partially offset by unfavorable volume and product mix in the rubber molded products operation. Turning again to the consolidated results, free cash flow for Q1 2025 was 4.4 million compared to negative 7.4 million at the end of Q1 2024. During Q1 2025, the company invested 1.9 million in capital equipment versus 1.6 million in Q1 2024. Capital expenditures were related to cost savings initiatives, growth initiatives and minor plant upgrades within ARS and AMP. By the end of Q1 2025, our net debt balance was 96 million versus 98.9 million at the end of Q1 2024. We expect to fund the company's 2025 operating cash requirements including required working capital investments, capital expenditures and scheduled debt repayments from cash on hand, cash flow from operations and committed borrowing capacity. The company has a revolving credit facility that provides for a maximum borrowing of up to 125 million with a 25 million dollar accordion. As of March 31st, 2025, the total available borrowing capacity under the facility was 79.8 million with 54.5 million drawn. With that, I will now turn the call over

speaker
Chris Spitsikakis
President and Co-CEO

to Chris. Chris? Thank you, Frank. As mentioned at the opening, this meeting is being made available both via conference call and via webcast. We will now take questions from individuals attending in person, following which we will take questions from those who have submitted questions through the conference call line and then open up the meeting to questions from those attending via webcast. For those on the conference line, to join the question queue, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. We will now open the floor to questions from anyone attending the meeting in person.

speaker
Kevin
Analyst (CIBC)

Hi, thanks for taking my question. It's Kevin from CIBC. I appreciate the recap of the Q1 results. Just wondering, as you evaluate your portfolio here and with the improved outlook with defense spending, how that might shift what you might view as core or non-core products within BOSS here? It seems like you have some good momentum across a number of your product lines. How has that shifted some of the initiatives you would have rolled out this time last year as you look to simplify your business?

speaker
Chris Spitsikakis
President and Co-CEO

Yeah, that's a great question. I'd have to say that our strategy remains intact. Our view on core versus non-core hasn't changed. In looking at core versus non-core, we know that we have a lot of product lines that have the potential to generate significant revenue for us. The question isn't whether on a month by month or quarter by quarter basis they are generating that revenue, but what's the long-term view of where the corporation is going with respect to its different product lines? We're staying steadfast on the strategy that we developed last year that has been approved by the board. As we look at core versus non-core, as non-core businesses start to do well, that's certainly a positive time to start looking at monetizing them and sticking to our original plan strategically.

speaker
Kevin
Analyst (CIBC)

That's helpful. Maybe my second question is you do have a manufacturing footprint on both sides of the border. Any shifts in how you're thinking about your production and maybe where these products are being produced to alleviate potential tariff risks? Or has it been challenging or maybe just the uncertainty makes it difficult to make those decisions today until you have greater certainty on the tariff regime you're working under? Just wondering how you think about shifting production between Canada and the U.S. to potentially mitigate tariff risk. We do

speaker
Chris Spitsikakis
President and Co-CEO

have a capacity in the United States to shift a certain amount of our production there if need be. Obviously we've been operating under USMCA and NAFTA before that for many, many years without any concerns in terms of cross-border shipments. I'd say the one rebalancing, looking at the amount of capacity that we have in rubber compounding, just because the flagship plant is in Canada, we have two other facilities in the United States that also are compounding rubber. We just installed our new silicone line in Detroit as well, not thinking about tariffs but just having it co-located closer to its customer. I'd say probably as we look forward here, we're going to be looking for opportunities to increase rubber compounding capacity in the U.S. We do have a very strong mitigation plan in case something goes sideways, although we're feeling a little bit more optimistic that there should be some sort of trade solution validated between the U.S. and the Canadian governments. But we do have contingency plans in place that should be able to allow us to retain the work that we currently do in the U.S. Of course this uncertainty is probably the biggest concern, but I'd say in a longer-term basis establishing more compounding capacity in the U.S. is probably something that's going to be a priority for us going forward. At this time if there are no more questions in the room, I don't see any more hands, we'll go to any questions that are queued up on the conference line.

speaker
Moderator
Conference Moderator

The first question comes from Tim James with Katie Cohen. Please go ahead.

speaker
Tim James
Analyst (Katie Cohen)

Thanks, thanks very much. Good morning everyone. Chris, maybe just looking at the first quarter and staying on the subject of tariffs, could you talk about what you're seeing in terms of customer behavior in ordering on the rubber solution side of the business, just given sort of the uncertainty related to tariffs? And again, I don't know whether there are sort of positives or negatives coming of that customer sort of ordering more product ahead of time or just sitting on the sidelines. Just if you could speak to the customer behavior in the last sort of weeks, couple months.

speaker
Chris Spitsikakis
President and Co-CEO

Yeah, the customer behavior has been really evolving and thanks Tim for that question. In the beginning there was almost kind of a very nonchalant approach from our customer base in the U.S. They weren't following the tariff situation as much as we were. We were the ones communicating with them, talking about the necessity to qualify the production of their compounds in the U.S. or preparing them for having to pay the tariffs on their material. But they were very nonchalant about it because I think the assumption was that this was just a negotiating tactic by the president and probably it would be something that we wouldn't have to worry about. I think as the first rash of tariffs started to happen as it related to steel and aluminum and more recently the vehicle production, I think it took on a much more higher level of urgency from our customer base. Those customers very quickly started working with us to qualify their material to be made in the U.S. We have positioned both master batch and finished compound in the U.S. in terms of a buffer so that we have inventory in the U.S. to be able to manage sort of temporary tariff applications, which we haven't quite seen that yet, but we are protecting both our customers and ourselves from that perspective. I think right now customers are working very diligently with us to make sure that they have at least their products qualified out of our two plants in the Carolinas. And now it seems to have been shifted a little bit more optimistic and a little bit less intensity from their perspective as they see certain trade deals starting to come to the forefront. There's a report in the news today that there may be a trade deal between the U.S. and the U.K. that could be announced soon. So I think as these trade deals start happening, and I know our newly elected prime minister met with President Trump at the White House yesterday and appears to have some level of optimism that we should be able to negotiate something. So I think the customer sentiment has gone from almost very nonchalant to very concerned and now somewhere in the middle, a little bit more optimism that something should be done. Now many of our customers or some of our customers have us dual sourced on certain compounds. So they have options to buy from us or other people, but we have a significant amount of customers that are using Airbus proprietary compounds. And they of course are more concerned because we do produce a very high quality product, a highly engineered product, and it's very difficult for them. So the prospect of them having to pay more for it is concerning. But again, I think right now their overall concern is that the economy itself stays intact and their assumption is that there should be some sort of trade deal negotiated that should protect them. But I think that's anybody's guess at this point.

speaker
Tim James
Analyst (Katie Cohen)

Okay, that's a great answer. Thank you. I could ask a second question. Within the manufacturing products group, defense versus anti-vibration, have you talked at all about the first quarter changes in margin percentages in those two businesses and just on a high level, Royce, you want to disclose that specifically. Is it reasonable to assume with the growth and defense and the decline in anti-vibration on an year over year basis, margins kind of move directionally in line with that, in other words, higher in defense and lower in anti-vibration? And then anything you can talk about in terms of your long-term expectations for margins in that segment, either on a total segment basis or thinking about those two products line up separately?

speaker
Chris Spitsikakis
President and Co-CEO

Yeah, we don't give information on margins product line by product line, but I think it's fair to say that the defense products will have a higher margin than the automotive products would. So having said that, as the product mix shifts, you'll see the margin shift as well in that particular way, but then of course it's not completely linear because there could be volume differences and sort of the product mix gets calculated on a total basis. But certainly the defense products and we are just in the process of launching the new Mallow production out of our facility in Detroit as well as some of it in our facility in Actonville. So you'll see that impact going forward late Q2 and into Q3 and Q4 because it impacts all of our different plants. We're compounding the material in our North Carolina plant, we're molding it in our plant in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and of course the defense group is selling and marketing it. So you'll see the defense products drive a higher margin, but the products that we're making on the automotive side and the non-automotive side, there's been some significant work done in automation and continuous improvement. And we are also seeing a lot of interest in reshoring of material from China into the U.S. right now. So we suspect that we should be able to continue to drive margins positively both on the defense and the non-defense part of AMP.

speaker
Tim James
Analyst (Katie Cohen)

Great, thank you very much.

speaker
Moderator
Conference Moderator

The next question comes from Ahmed Abdullah with National Bank of Canada. Please go ahead.

speaker
Ahmed Abdullah
Analyst (National Bank of Canada)

Hi, thanks for taking my question. You highlighted the 1Q25 volatility in your ARS business. Can you speak at all to how April is shaping up and if that volatility kind of continued into April and our customers kind of building up inventory to avoid any potential tariffs?

speaker
Chris Spitsikakis
President and Co-CEO

Yeah, we started building some inventory in Q1 both on behalf of our customers and they also, you know, the ones that were concerned about it were building up some of their own inventory as well. In Q2, I'd say that we continue to see this volatility in April, I think, and probably early May. I think now that we're getting towards the second half of Q2, we're seeing things like calm down a little bit and normalize a little bit. So again, I think it kind of follows that same answer that I just talked about with Tim James on the customer sentiment. I think as customers are feeling better, they're going back to a bit of sense of normalcy. Now, whether they're feeling normal is justified or not, I don't know, but I'd say going into the second half of Q2, we're seeing a little bit of that normalcy return. I think the big question right now is with some of these trade policies, what is the potential of an overall economic slowdown in the U.S. which would certainly impact ARS more so than our defense products, which are on a set schedule accordingly. But if there was a generalized sort of recession starting to brew, I'd say that on the rubber compounding side, on our automotive products, we may see some headwinds there. But at this point in time, I think people are feeling like we should return to some level of

speaker
Ahmed Abdullah
Analyst (National Bank of Canada)

normalcy. Okay. And I mean, giving all the moving pieces in the tariff discussions and the news, I was just wondering, have you had to pay any tariffs across your product portfolio? And how have been the offset, like the pricing offset discussions, how have these gone with customers so far, if you had to pay?

speaker
Chris Spitsikakis
President and Co-CEO

Well, all of our products that are currently shipped into the U.S. qualify under USMCA. So the fact that USMCA is still intact, we have not seen any major financial concerns from that perspective. However, we were very transparent with our customers. And as you know, Ahmed, that we price monthly to all of our customers. And we were pre-warning all of them that they had a couple of options to work with us on qualifying their material in the U.S. or be prepared to pay for whatever tariff comes about. And so you can imagine how those conversations go. They're not pleasant. But in general, our customers have been with us for years and years, some 10 years, some 30 years, some new customers a little bit less. But we have very good working relationship with our customers. And we expect that working relationship to help solve some of these pricing disputes if they arise. But at this moment in time, we haven't had to go there. And we're hopeful that the USMCA stays intact. And we don't have to have those kinds of uncomfortable discussions with them. And a lot of the defense products that we make in Quebec, they get exported into the US. We have special clauses in our defense contracts that allow them to flow duty free as well. So at this moment in time, we have not seen any major problems with it. It's just that uncertainty because we don't know day after day what new decisions are going to be made and what could potentially happen.

speaker
Ahmed Abdullah
Analyst (National Bank of Canada)

Okay, thanks for the color. And just finally, on the defense business, can you give us a sense as to how your backlog for bids look like there? And with just a general size, what you're expecting in terms of awards this year that could materialize?

speaker
Chris Spitsikakis
President and Co-CEO

Well, we went into 2025 with the biggest backlog that we've had on our defense product lines for a long, long time. And so we're pretty optimistic that for the next period of time this year into next year, that the defense products are going to be producing quite a bit of revenue and contributing positively to the bottom line of the company. We've stopped talking about pipeline and now just start talking about, we're talking mostly about backlog. So certainly we are bidding on multiple programs all the time and we feel good about the general kind of trend of defense spending globally. We announced another award earlier on the CBRNE side with a European customer. And so we see a lot more inquiries out of Europe who are really upping their defense spending. We're seeing more opportunities in Canada. We're seeing more opportunities in Australia and throughout all of our NATO partners. So I'd say the pipeline is strong, but we're mostly really optimistic that this backlog is going to generate good revenue for us. And as new awards happen, we'll be announcing them individually.

speaker
Ahmed Abdullah
Analyst (National Bank of Canada)

Okay, thanks for the call.

speaker
Chris Spitsikakis
President and Co-CEO

I'll get

speaker
Ahmed Abdullah
Analyst (National Bank of Canada)

back to

speaker
Chris Spitsikakis
President and Co-CEO

you.

speaker
Moderator
Conference Moderator

Thanks. There are no further questions from the conference line.

speaker
Chris Spitsikakis
President and Co-CEO

Great, thank you. Since we're concluding the questions from the conference call, I would like to now ask Chris Figgell to read any questions that may have been submitted electronically. Okay, Mr. Chairman, that concludes all of the questions. Okay, since there are no further questions, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for taking this time to attend this meeting. Have a great day.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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