Boyd Group Services Inc.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Boyd Group Services, Inc. 2026 First Quarter Results Conference Call. Listeners are reminded that certain matters discussed in today's call or answers that may be given to questions asked could constitute forward-looking statements that are subject to risk and uncertainties relating to Boyd's future financial or business performance. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. The risk factors that may affect results are detailed in Boyd's annual information form and other periodic filings and registration statements. And you can access these documents at CDAR's database found at cdarplus.ca and EDGAR at www.scc.gov. We released our 2026 first quarter results before markets opened today. You can access our news release as well as our complete financial statements and management discussion and analysis on our website at BoydGroup.com. Our news release, financial statements, and MD have also been filed at CDAR Plus and EDGAR this morning. On today's call, we will discuss the financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2026 and provide a general business update. We will then open the call for questions. I'd like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded today, Wednesday, May 13th, 2026. I would now like to introduce Mr. Brian Kaner, President and Chief Executive Officer of Boyd Group Services, Inc. Please go ahead, Mr. Kaner.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's call. On the call with me today is Jeff Murray, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Building on the strong foundation that we established in 2025, I'm pleased to report we delivered all-time record first quarter results. We achieved both all-time record revenue and adjusted EBITDA, grew our location footprint by 33%, recorded our third consecutive quarter of positive same-store sales growth, achieved an incremental 20 million in Project 360 and Synergy cost savings, and expanded our adjusted EBITDA margins by 200 basis points. We also successfully closed our Joe Hudson's acquisition, the largest MSO transaction in the company's history, with the integration successfully completed subsequent to quarter end. This success would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication from the entire Boyd team including our new Joe Hudson's team members. I want to thank all of our employees for their meaningful contributions. Turning to our financial performance, in the first quarter we generated all-time record revenue of $997 million, an increase of 28% compared to the first quarter of last year, and increased adjusted EBITDA by 52% to an all-time record of $122 million. Adjusted EBITDA margins expanded by 200 basis points to 12.3%, driven by benefits from Project 360 and acquisition synergies, as well as the inclusion of Joe Hudson's, which is accretive to our adjusted EBITDA margins. To date, we have realized over $60 million in cost savings from the combination of Project 360 and acquisition synergies. This is up from $40 million at the end of 2025. We remain on track to realize an additional $30 million in 2026 and the remaining $50 million expected to be achieved between 2027 and 2029 for a total anticipated savings of $140 million. Same store sales increased 1.7%. However, adjusting for the weather impact in the south, same store sales growth would have been approximately 2.6%. Our same-store sales performance has benefited from continued market share gains and the improvement in repairable claims volumes throughout 2025 and Q1 2026. In the first quarter of 2026, based on repairable claims processing data, we estimate that repairable claims volumes declined between 0% and 2%, which is now back in line with our long-term growth framework. This framework contemplates average same-store sales growth of 3% to 5%, supported by continued incremental market share gains driven by ongoing consolidation within the highly fragmented collision repair industry, strong performance with insurance clients, and disciplined operational execution. This framework also assumes 3% to 4% annual growth in average total cost of repair and approximately 1% growth in miles driven, partially offset by an approximate 2% decline in repairable claims due to the impact of collision avoidance systems. It is important to note that this framework represents long term averages. As a result, performance may vary outside of these ranges over shorter periods of time without impacting our confidence in achieving our long term growth objectives. During recent quarters, the growth and average total cost of repair has fallen below the expected range required to support our long term growth framework. We expect total cost of repair will return to levels outlined in our framework Matt Pinyan, driven by lower total losses from rising vehicle prices increasing vehicle complexity and continued inflation and parts in Labor costs. Matt Pinyan, The positive same store sales trends we experienced in our business over the past three quarters has continued thus far in the second quarter with same store sales in April approaching the low end of our long term range. complementing same store sales growth new location growth remains an important driver of our long term performance as we continue to target five to 7% average annual unit growth over the long term. same store sales growth generates strong cash flows that we reinvest to expand our footprint through acquisitions and startup locations funding expansion through internally generated cash flow has proven to be highly accretive over the long term. In the first quarter, we saw strong contributions from new locations. We increased our location footprint by 33% to 1,312 locations at quarter end, including 258 locations acquired through the Joe Hudson's transactions, three single shop acquisitions, and eight new startups. We remain focused on market densification through acquisition and new location growth, aiming to be a number one or two player in the markets we serve. Market density provides the foundation for market share gains, same-store sales growth, and increased profitability. We continue to have an active pipeline of new startups in development and expect to open five new startup locations in the second quarter of 2026, with an additional 17 new startup locations currently under development for the remainder of the year. We expect startup activity to be complemented by acquisitions of both single shops and small MSOs as we continue to build on the strong momentum we established last year. Turning to Joe Hudson's, we successfully closed the acquisition on January 9th and I'm pleased to report that the integration and synergy realization remains on track. Subsequent to quarter end, we have completed the conversion of all Joe Hudson's locations to our systems and have begun to realize expected synergies. We continue to expect to generate approximately $40 million in synergies from the combination of the Boyd and Joe Hudson's businesses, with approximately 50% realized in 2026. Although Joe Hudson's locations experienced some sales disruptions from the storms in Q1, as well as from the store conversion process through the end of April, the conversions are now complete, which allows sales to return to normal projection shortly. We remain on track to realize 50% of the synergies in 2026 and the balance by 2028. I will now turn it over to Jeff to go through the first quarter financial results in more detail. Jeff.

Thanks, Brian. As Brian highlighted, we delivered all-time record first quarter performance with positive same store sales growth, significant growth from new locations, and strong margin improvement as we continue to execute on Project 360, and began to realize expected synergies from the Joe Hudson's acquisition. During the first quarter, our sales increased by 28.1% year over year to an all-time record $996.7 million, with same-store sales, excluding foreign exchange, increasing by 1.7%. Without the negative impact of storm activity in the south, we estimate that same-store sales growth of 2.6 would have been achieved in the first quarter. In addition, $203.3 million in incremental sales were generated from 339 new locations that were not in operation for the full comparative period. The acquisition of Joe Hudson's, which closed on January 9, 2026, contributed $168 million in sales, while other new location growth contributed an incremental $35.3 million. As mentioned on our fourth quarter, 2025 results conference call same store sales and Joe Hudson sales early in the first quarter were negatively impacted by unusual winter storm activity in the US South region with activity levels returned to normal as the quarter progressed. Gross profit increased 29.1% year over year to $463.7 million. Gross margin was 46.5% in the first quarter of 2026. compared to the 46.2% achieved in the same period of 2025. The gross margin percentage benefited from increased parts and paint margins from Project 360 and Joe Hudson's synergy realization, partially offset by a lower mix of glass sales and variability in performance-based pricing. The gross margin was also impacted by lower gross margins inherent in Joe Hudson's business. Turning to operating expenses, for the first quarter of 2026, operating expenses as a percent of sales were 34.2%, compared to 35.8% of sales for the same period in 2025. Operating expenses were positively impacted by Project 360, the inclusion of the Joe Hudson's acquisition, which had a lower operating expense ratio, and the mitigating effect of same-store sales growth, which partially offset typical cost increases. Adjusted EBITDA increased 51.9% year-over-year to an all-time record $122.4 million. Adjusted EBITDA margins improved 200 basis points to 12.3% in the first quarter, up from 10.3% in the same period of the prior year. The increase was primarily the result of Project 360 and Synergy Realization, as well as the acquisition of Joe Hudson's, which is accretive to adjusted EBITDA margins. During the quarter, the company realized an incremental $20 million in cost savings from Project 360 and Joe Hudson Synergies, bringing the total savings achieved to date to over $60 million. Net loss for the first quarter of 2026 was $7.9 million, compared to a net loss of $2.6 million in the same period of 2025. The net loss was negatively impacted by acquisition and transformational cost initiatives. These costs are expected to decline as integration finalizes. Excluding fair value adjustments, acquisition and transformational cost initiatives, and amortization of intangibles arising from acquisitions, adjusted net earnings for the first quarter of 2026 was $16.1 million, or 58 cents per share, compared to adjusted net earnings of $6.6 million, or 31 cents per share, in the same period of the prior year. The company expects one-time costs associated with Project 360 and Joe Hudson synergies to total approximately $50 million, of which $26.5 million have been recorded to date. During 2026, the company plans to make cash capital expenditures, excluding those related to acquisition and development, within the range of 1.6% and 1.8% of sales. In the first quarter, capital expenditures as a percent of sales were 1.3%, excluding sales achieved by Joe Hudson's locations compared to 1.5% of sales in the same period of 2025. We continue to expect capital expenditures related to the Joe Hudson's acquisition to total $30 million with $2.6 million incurred in Q1 and most of the remainder to be spent in 2026. At the end of Q1 2026, the company had total debt net of cash of $2 billion compared to $488 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025 and $1.3 billion at the end of Q1 2025. Before lease liabilities, Boyd exited Q1 2026 with net debt of $946 million, compared to net cash of $290.1 million at the end of December 2025. The increase in debt compared to the fourth quarter of 2025 reflects the closing of the Joe Hudson's acquisition on January 9, 2026, which had a total transaction value of approximately $1.3 billion. Boyd continues to have strong liquidity to support future growth. with ample room available under our credit facility, complemented by strong cash flow generation from our capital light business model. At the end of the first quarter, pro forma debt leverage declined to approximately 2.9 times, down from 3.1 times at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025. We continue to expect leverage to reach 2.6 times as early as the end of 2026. I will now pass it back to Brian for closing remarks.

Thanks, Jeff. As we look ahead, we're excited by the significant progress being made across the business through our operational and strategic initiatives. We continue to focus on delivering a high-quality experience for our customers and insurance clients while positioning the company to drive sustainable long-term growth. At the same time, initiatives such as Project 360 and the integration of Joe Hudson's are supporting meaningful operational and cost efficiencies that we expect will contribute to long-term margin expansion. Combined with our proven acquisition capabilities and strong financial position, we believe that Boyd remains well positioned to execute on our strategy and continue to grow in the highly fragmented North American collision industry. With that, I would now like to open the call to questions. Operator?

At this time, if you would like to ask a question, press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you please limit your questions to one question and one follow-up. We'll pause for a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from Derek Lessard with TD Cowan.

Yeah, good morning, Brian and Jeff, and congrats on the quarter. I just maybe one question for me is, could you maybe highlight the biggest buckets of that $20 million incremental cost savings from the Project 360 and the integration?

Yeah, yeah. So one of the largest buckets within there in this quarter is the carryover of the indirect headcount action we took last year in April. So that's the largest. That's probably the largest single bucket that's in there, which obviously rolls off then into the second quarter. Beyond that, it's the procurement savings and the other impact, the initiatives we've talked about previously.

Okay. And good news on the normalization of the claims volumes. It looks like your April same-store sales is getting back towards your targeted range. Just curious if you have or maybe talk about, you know, any initiatives that you might have in place that could accelerate that growth?

Yeah, I mean, look, the one initiative we've had in place for quite some time is really the strong focus on client performance. And, you know, we've talked previously about linking our GM's compensation to the performance of their top three clients. We know that, you know, we know that strong client performance in this industry actually drives you know, an outsized volume and allows us to take, you know, take market share, you know, in this environment. So, you know, one of the largest things that we're doing is really focusing on how do we make sure that we're performing with clients and getting more opportunities into our stores. And then as we get those opportunities into our stores, the, you know, the stores are really focused on how do we make sure we capture as many of those opportunities as we possibly can. And that all comes down to making sure that we have the right staff inside of our stores and, You know, we've spent a lot of time over the past few years working on staffing models and making sure that, you know, the stores are prepared when that volume comes back. And look, thus far, you know, it has, you know, it has, you know, provided us meaningful benefit in an environment that has, where claims have been down, where we've been able to, you know, deliver outsized performance against that.

Absolutely. Thanks, Brian.

Yeah, thanks, Derek.

Your next question comes from Sabahat Khan with RBC Capital Markets.

Hey, Sabah. Hi, good morning. This is Bauman on the line for Sabah. Can you give an idea of what the landscape and appetite is for Tuck and M&A throughout the second half of this year and onwards?

Can you say that question again? I'm sorry.

Yeah. Can you give an idea what the landscape is and the appetite for Tuck and M&A throughout the second half of this year and onwards?

Yeah, I mean, look, we still believe that the opportunities for tuck-in M&A are still, you know, obviously very plentiful out in the marketplace. There's, you know, over 30,000 locations in the industry. You know, the largest players comprise only a small fraction of that, so the opportunity is still there for, you know, still certainly there for tuck-in M&A. If you look at our If you look at our acquisition or our unit growth strategy, it's really focused on 3 pillars. It's it's 1, the activity that you just discussed and that can be, you know, single shop as well as some of the. As well, as some of the, the smaller 5 to 10 store. Um, you know, that are out there that we have an opportunity to continue to buy with the balance sheet that we have. The other is, you know, our brownfield Greenfield strategy, which is, you know, really the. You know, what we're calling our new to industry activity, and you can see that we've already got, you know, we did 8 of those in this quarter. We've got 5 planned for the sex. We've got applied 5 planned open in the 2nd quarter already. And we've got 17 that are planned for the balance of the year. So it's a, it's a good balance between, you know, us. Building and putting new locations into markets that are focused on building density in the, in the markets that we participate in today. as well as taking advantage of the opportunities that come to the marketplace from an M&A perspective.

Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. I'll leave it there.

Your next question is from Daryl Young with Siebel.

Hey, good morning, everyone. Just wanted to ask around the industry claims activity and the reference to volumes being down 0 to 2% as normalized and indicative of the environment. But claims have been very weak for the last two years. So are we thinking that claims have just the absolute number of claims have just stepped lower now and we're going to settle into that? Or is there an argument that claims could actually increase above that zero to two percent decline?

Yeah, I mean, look, as we've talked about this in the past, we certainly saw coming out of the you know, we saw coming out of the financial crisis. We saw where, you know, 2007, eight claims were depressed. And we ultimately saw in that 11 and 12 timeframe that, you know, claims kind of came a little bit outsized to the normal range. We saw the same thing happen coming out of COVID where, you know, during COVID we saw, you know, very depressed claims environment. And then you saw, you know, really two or three years of positive claims. So I think, you know, we're certainly, you know, prepared should that happen. you know, and there's every reason to believe that looking back, you know, history would suggest that that could happen. When it happens, you know, I think is probably a little bit more elusive from our perspective. And we're just pleased that as we look at, you know, what we've been watching is the drivers of what's been driving claims negative as those things have gotten better. We've seen the claims environment recover, which obviously points us to a place where you'd really argue that there really isn't something more structural happening in the industry. It was really a bit of a cyclical impact of insurance premium increases and people's reluctance or fear to file claims over that period of time. So we still think the growth algorithm is intact. Could there be an opportunity in the future that we see an outsized year? Certainly.

Okay. And just as a follow-up to that, the volumes within your shop, are you able to share where you're at relative to, say, a 2019 level or, I guess, how much latent capacity exists in the network today that could be filled as either claims come back or market share wins drive more volume through those shops?

Yeah. I mean, I don't know that we'll share, you know, we're not going to share the specific, you know, the specific volume numbers against 19. I will tell you that what our shops are focused on is making sure that in every shop is unique. What our shops are focused on is making sure that when an opportunity comes in, that we capture as many of those as we possibly can and maximize the potential of the opportunities that we're getting. And that means that we will fluctuate staffing between stores wherever demand is. is where we're making sure there's people. And as we continue to hone that and master that, we put ourselves in a better position to take advantage of the opportunities that are coming.

Got it. Thanks very much. I'll get back in the queue.

Yeah, thanks, Daryl.

Your next question is from Steve Hansen with Raymond James.

Hey, Steve.

Steve, your line is open.

Brian, can you hear me? Hello? Hey, Brian, you there? So just really quick, what do you think the key factors are that's still keeping the T-core, the total cost of repair, a little more muted here? I'm still a little surprised we haven't started to see the inflationary costs percolating into, you know, same-store sales.

Yeah, I think there's really, I think there's a couple factors. One, you know, we are actually seeing the You know, certainly seeing the labor price movement, you know, come into the, you know, into the labor price labor price inflation affect the T core positively. Um, what continues to mute that is. You know, when you look at a year over year basis, we still have elevated total losses, you know, Q1 of last year to Q1 of this year. Certainly over the last couple of months, you've seen total losses actually start coming down, which is good. You know, they are, you know, they're, they're responding in a way that we would expect them to respond when used car prices actually go up and, you know, the total cost of a car actually, you know, is going up as well. So we, we do see total losses and the mixed effect of high dollar tickets. Impacting the average cost of repair the other thing that's impacting the average cost of repairs. We've started to do a lot more. You know, a lot more work around, um. you know, around just the aging car park and what's happening with that is you're seeing a bit of a, we're still seeing a bit of a trough in, you know, new car sales over the past five years, you know, coming out of COVID that ultimately still puts us in a position where now the car park is, the car park age is skewed by about 10 points from that seven years to newer to seven years to older. And as you put older cars into the car park, you have a higher propensity for aftermarket part consumption and more repair versus replace and things that when you're repairing a new car, you don't tend to have. You tend to replace a lot more parts. You tend to use OE more frequently. They also will obviously tend to have more calibration services and needs, which pushes the price up. So I think as we look at that, again, it's It's a bit of a temporal thing that, you know, as in new car sales have over the last couple of years, at least it started to respond more positively. But as you look at that, I think we're just in this, we're in this kind of, we're in this period where we're, you know, we're working our way through this trough in the new car sales. It's ultimately, you know, manifests itself as a slightly older, you know, set of vehicles that we're working on.

That's great. And just one follow-up, just quickly, and going back to the M&A environment, I just wanted to ask about your perception of sellers out there. I know last year, and to a certain degree the year prior, there was more deal breakage than ever before, given the claims environment. Do you think that sellers have started to re-baseline their expectations to more of what I call the current environment that should allow you to accelerate that M&A flywheel? I'm just going to get a sense for the pushbacks that have been there and getting deals done.

Yeah. Yeah. Look, I think as the you know, we've talked about in the past, as volume comes back into the marketplace, it comes back to the bigger players fastest. You know, that's the nature of the DRP relationships that we have. And, you know, the reliance on, you know, us from insurance carriers to continue to drive down their, you know, their loss adjustment expenses by taking on the work that maybe an adjuster would. So we know that when volume comes back, it comes back to us first, which then means that you know, some of the single shop operators and some of the multi-shop, smaller multi-shop operators, you know, feel the pain of the industry longer. And as they feel that pain, they become more susceptible to wanting to sell. We are seeing more, we are certainly seeing more of that smaller MSO activity in the space. You know, as you know, we did four of those transactions last year. You know, so I think that the opportunity for us to continue to consolidate the space is as good as it's ever been. You know, our balance sheet is well positioned to allow us to continue to do that. And I think we are, you know, we certainly are positioning ourselves as one of the, you know, call it the buyers of choice. Appreciate the time. Yeah, thank you.

Our next question is from Nathan Poe with National Bank Capital Markets.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. So it seems like most, if not all, forward-looking indicators are pointing to tailwinds on Salesforce sales growth. So can you walk us through your expectation or anything related to timing of that recovery towards your long-term range?

Yeah, I think the only, I mean, the only indication I would continue to point back to is just the sequential improvement that we've seen quarter after quarter after quarter in the claims environment. And, you know, as you look at that, we knew that the drivers that we were watching, you know, would posit as they became less negative, it would positively impact that environment. You know, as we get closer to that, you know, now we're kind of in that zero to two range, which is certainly more normal from a volume perspective. as we get that total cost of repair to start to meaningfully move up, you know, we're still expecting three to four percent growth from, you know, total cost of repair. And, you know, I do think there's no reason for us to believe that that won't come back. You know, we certainly know that, you know, the average labor rates for insurance carriers increase every single year as inflation increases. We know that part prices increase. every single year as we see inflation on parts, and that's a simple pass-through from us as an organization. So those things are kind of the tailwinds to average cost of repair. The headwind right now, as I said earlier, is just this mix of total losses. And as we see total losses continue to come down, I think you'll see that muting impact start to continue to wane. And when that happens, you'd expect us to be back into the, you know, into the normal range for right now, our focus is on just taking as much volume as we possibly can. And, you know, we know that we know based on what the industry claims environment is against where our, our rivals and our, our volume. You know, vehicles that we're seeing is, we know that we're taking share and we're going to continue to do that in in the environment that we're in.

All right. Thank you very much. And for my follow up, I just want to get some more color on your outlook for April. Were there any carried or was there any carryover backlog from the storm season that was of any benefit to April?

Probably not more than, you know, as we think about, you know, what happened in the first quarter, you know, we saw storm activity in the north. mostly partially offset or mostly offset by, you know, storm activity in the south that was that negatively impacted the business in a number to a number to a greater extent than the positive impact we saw in the north. So I wouldn't I wouldn't, you know, we're largely through the work that would have come out of that. So I wouldn't read any more into, you know, carry over on on storm activity, both positive or negative.

Thank you very much. Turn it over.

Your next question comes from with CIBC.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Just on the same store sales growth number for the quarter, can you give a little bit more color on kind of what changed through the last few weeks of March there? Just given when you had reported Q4, it sounded like you'd expected same store sales to be we already knew about the winter storms in the south?

Yeah. I mean, look, we don't and won't comment on monthly results. I'll provide a little bit of clarity. One, it's important to remember that there is some degree of monthly variability in same-store sales. That's normal in our business, particularly given a number of factors that can influence the results in any period of time. These include things like the timing of the month end. I mean, the month ended on a I think on a Tuesday or Monday or Tuesday, that's typically not favorable for a month then for us. You got holidays, you got weather patterns. So I think one of the reasons we talk about our guide of a long term is we know that those variations will happen month to month. In addition, the difference between 2.2% and 1.7% is really about $3 million of sales. And that $3 million of sales is on a billion dollars of revenue at this point is quite a small difference, relatively speaking. So that's why we guide to a longer term objective. We know that if you look back to 2008, 40% of the quarters, we were actually below the 3% to 5% range. 44% of the quarters, we were actually above the 3% to 5% range. But if you look back on a five-year basis, we're 8.8% up. On a 10-year basis, we're 4.3% up. On a 15-year basis, we're 4.6% up on same-store sales. So when we get into this monthly game, there's lots of things that can affect You know, the month end and it's again, it's why we focus the guide on, you know, a longer term 3 to 5%. And if you look back in, in any buckets of history, I mean, it really is, you know, or any longer term buckets of history. It will tell you that, you know, we've, we've seen that, you know, and. And continue to then compliment it with with new unit growth, which. you know, which in this quarter was obviously the bigger portion of the positive, you know, having 28% sales growth in the quarter driven by, you know, both Joe Hudson and, you know, the new locations that we purchased last year is really what makes this business, you know, the growth algorithm of this business tick. And, you know, I think that's where I'll leave it.

Thanks. I appreciate the color there. And just for my follow-up, any comments or thoughts on how you're thinking about the summer driving season and where gas prices are at the moment? I'll leave it there. Thank you.

Yeah. You know, it's interesting. When you look at it, there's a couple of periods of time where you can look back where gas prices were elevated. One was that 2008 period of time where, you know, gas prices were elevated and VMT came down a bit. You know, we look at that as probably not the best comparative period, because at the same time you had unemployment that was. It was super high when you look back at 2022. You know, which was the other period of which was another period of time where we saw elevated gas prices. The average vehicle miles traveled continued to to to grow slightly. You know, vehicle miles traveled per car was 13,500, which is pretty much the normal rate. In that period, so I think. I think the other factors, you know, the other factors, you know, come into play when gas prices move the way they've moved. And some of those other factors that have been there historically are not there now, which will tend to be a positive. I think the other benefit on summer travel is I'm not sure if many people have booked plane tickets recently, but as you look at, you know, as you look at the cost of a plane ticket right now for families that are traveling to vacations, you may actually see a lot more people driving to vacations given the elevated price of. Of of fuel on on, you know, the airlines, which seems to have been caught a little bit flat footed on on hedging of fuel. So, I think we're, I don't, I don't think we'd see, we will see and haven't seen any negative impacts associated with it.

Thank you, I appreciate the comments.

Okay. Next question is from .

Hey, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a couple of quick ones here. You know, you reached your 80% internalization of calibration goal. I know you're not targeting 100%, but how should we think about, you know, kind of maybe a continued move upward there, and where do you think it finally shakes out?

Yeah, look, I mean, we've talked about the 80% historically. To your point, we reached it. We're happy we reached it. That doesn't mean we slow down the hiring, slow down the objective of continuing to drive as much internalization as possible. You know, what I would say around where the, you know, there's a balance between, you know, having too much idle capacity, you know, to staff for 100% or staff for 95% and Um, you know, in in the margin benefit associated with it. So what we're trying to do is just make sure we keep the text. That we have productive 100% of their day. Um, you know, and as we, as we do that, you know, with that, we will continue to to inch up. We have markets that are obviously greater than. 80%, we have markets that are in the 90s, so we'll continue to, as a company, focus on hiring the technicians to take care of as much of the demand as we possibly can. But we're very pleased that, and you can see it in the gross margin results, we're very pleased that we've beat the timeframe on the expected realization of this particular initiative. And that team has certainly done a fantastic job of capturing the opportunity that we outlined you know, a little over almost two years ago.

And Brian, maybe I'll just add that it is important to remember that the calibration market does continue to expand itself. So even though we've, you know, got the targeted level of technicians now in place that we commented on, the market will continue to expand and grow. So we should still see further benefits coming through our gross margin.

Perfect. I appreciate the color. Maybe one more quick one on the Joe Hudson side. You know, their stores make a little bit less on average than yours. Can you give us any color on the opportunity there, maybe some revenue synergies and the timing that you could see those?

Yeah, I mean, I've spent quite a bit of time in the Joe Hudson's locations over the past, you know, over the past four months. And, you know, what I'll tell you is you know, still very encouraged by what we bought and, you know, the opportunity that exists. And, you know, one of the reasons for us accelerating the, you know, the conversion process and, you know, I will give, you know, a shout out to the team that we had that was really working those conversions. I mean, converting 258 stores in just under a three month period of time. you know, is no easy feat. And, you know, that team did a phenomenal job of accomplishing that. So, you know, really appreciate the team that did that. You know, what that gave us was then the visibility to be able to see what we see in the legacy Boyd and Gerber business, which, you know, is a lot more data, a lot more focus on client performance. And, you know, I see the opportunity in those locations to be, you know, just as good, if not even slightly better than I would have thought when we were buying the transaction. So timing of it is timing of it will you know, as we said in the prepared remarks, Q1 obviously impacted by a little bit of weather and then the focus on conversion, you know, that works itself out of the system as we get into Q2. And now the focus is just on the same maniacal focus on driving car count, driving capture rates, you know, focusing on client experience, you know, in those locations. And I think that as we do that, we'll see meaningful benefit, you know, from a top line perspective in that business. Perfect, I appreciate the color. Great, thank you.

Your next question is from Gary Ho with the Jardins Capital Markets.

Hey, good morning. First question, wondering if we can get an update on the Mitchell platform onboarding. Are you seeing early benefits, market share gains with the key insurer? I believe you mentioned kind of Joe Hudson is on that platform already. Anything you've learned or conversations with them?

Yeah, we continue to have conversations. You know, I would tell you there's there really has been no meaningful benefit in the results as we sit here today, which that's, you know, from my perspective, good news. It means there's still a bit of a tailwind for us as we as we continue to work on that relationship. I still believe the opportunity will be out there as you know, our objective is to just make sure that our stores are prepared when it comes. So, to your point, we've put Mitchell into every location now. We're on a pathway of getting our teams trained. In many of our stores, we already use Mitchell, so the training is not something that has to happen everywhere. But as we look at stores that have gaps where they're not using Mitchell today, we're getting those estimators trained on how to use it. And making sure that when, when that, you know, when, you know, we unlock that opportunity that that we're ready to take advantage of it.

Okay, great. And then my follow up more of a capital allocation question again that you plan to leverage back down to 2.6 times as early as end of this year. But given the shares are down 30% year to date, is there a path where you'd consider. buybacks over slowing down the leveraging or slowing down the M&A and Greenfield Brownfield build out perhaps?

Hi, Gary, it's Jeff here. No, I don't think that's in the cards in the near in the near term. There's we've just got so many opportunities to still expand the footprint and take advantage of the growth opportunity that in the long term, we feel that's the best use of our capital.

OK, great. Those are my two. Thanks.

Our next question is from Chris Murray with ATB Capital Markets.

Yeah, thanks, folks. Good morning. You know, maybe turning back to the margin profile that we've seen over the last couple quarters, you know, we've seen some meaningful improvement. And I think you guys called out about 200 basis points of improvement this quarter. So I guess a couple pieces to this question. One, relating to the storms, was there any kind of unusual costs that we should maybe be thinking about? I know Q1's historically a bit lower but just anything to think about there but i guess more importantly as we go through the year um i know you kind of talked to synergies and other improvements probably guiding to about 150 basis points over the full year but it looks like we're a little ahead of that pace at this point so any thoughts around how you think you'll be able to uh how you'll be able to improve margins on a go-forward basis uh would be helpful

Yeah, well, look, I think the, you know, the objective is we've laid out is to continue to work our way towards the 14%. You said it earlier that are 14 plus percent at this point. I mean, you said it earlier. Um, in commentary, we know that Q4 to Q1, we typically see if you look over the longer term. You know, we see about 100 basis point dip just based on the resetting of accruals and excess cost that sits in the 1st quarter. So. You know, we saw a number similar to that in this quarter. We, we obviously saw a little bit of a benefit associated with the incremental projects that were initiated this year. Plus the, you know, the mixed effect of bringing. Joe Hudson in, which put us at 12.3% in the, in the quarter. Um, you know, I, I'd expect that, uh. you know, I would expect that, you know, as we look at Q1 to Q2, you see, we typically will see that bounce back, you know, from that 100 basis points essentially bounces back. And, you know, so I'd expect that to happen no different than it usually does. If you were to look at that, then, you know, if that puts us at a 13.2, 13.3, and you look at that against, you know, a year ago, you know, at 12%, you know, which is where we were in Q2 of 2025, you're seeing that kind of 120, 130 basis point movement year over year. And that's based on, that's coming off of then, you know, in 11.5 that would have happened in Q2 of 2024, which then solidifies the incremental, you know, 50 basis points or so to get you to 200. You know, but that, you know, as we think about just building the you know, the profitability back. We had $40 million of project 360 savings realized last year. We expect 30 million of incremental project 360 savings to be realized this year. And we now expect 20 million of Joe Hudson synergies to have a total of $90 million of realized benefit over that period of time. to be in our financials, which should push us, you know, should certainly be pushing us closer to that 14% as we get into the fourth quarter.

Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. And then one other question. We talked a little bit about, you know, hitting the 80% goal on standard and calibration. But the other thing that I wanted to ask about is sort of your mobile calibration services. You've got the operation in the U.S., operation in Canada. As the market needs more scanning and calibration, how do you think about those mobile services playing out there? And in a lot of ways, how do you see those working across your networks and any benefits that they bring outside of maybe incremental growth at this particular point?

Yeah, I mean, look, I think the you know, what we're going to be left with at some point in time is a large collection of mobile assets that can be utilized and deployed to do external work. Because what ultimately will happen is the penetration rate of calibration services goes up and calibration needs per shop go up. You know, the necessity for us to have a calibration tech inside the shop will actually become greater. And at that point in time, you'd assume that, you know, we're doing almost 100 of our calibrations you know as we get as we look out into the future um that mobile team then can be deployed to you know to you know work external opportunities with single shop operators that may not have the financial flexibility to be able to to you know invest in the equipment needed to to conduct those calibrations and i think that's where we see Yeah, that's where we see in the future an opportunity for us to continue to grow and expand our revenue in the calibration space. As we sit here today, that opportunity is more focused on continuing to internalize our own work and drive the profitability associated with that. But certainly in the long term, we do expect that to be a revenue stream that, as Jeff has pointed out, continues to grow. and continues to grow at an outsized rate to the industry, probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 to 25% a year, that we will be able to take advantage of, you know, externally at some point in time.

Okay, I'll leave it there. Thank you. Yep.

Your next question is from Mark Jordan with Goldman Sachs.

Hey, good morning, and thank you for taking my question. You know, first one just focused on follow-up to the total cost of repair. I mentioned comments earlier they're seeing more, I think, repair versus replace just given the age mix. But if you could share, you know, anything you might be seeing in terms of parts inflation and how that might be impacted maybe between the mix of OEM and aftermarket parts.

Yeah, I mean, we certainly continue to see a normal environment of part inflation. I think, you know, you've heard, you probably have heard in some of those reports, I think, you know, or at least I've heard in some of the reports where there's, you know, there's some slight competitive activity taking place in the aftermarket parts space that might, you know, might be putting a little bit of pressure on aftermarket parts at the moment. But, you know, we still have the tariff environment that's out there. We still have, you know, we still have kind of the normal, you know, the normal impact of inflation. Obviously gas prices, you know, one area where gas prices does impact You know, the, frankly, positively impact is you're going to see people. You know, having to, you know, increase part prices for the cost of moving them around because gas prices are elevated. So I don't, there's no reason to believe that. You know, that we're going to see anything, but positive right now. What, you know, as I said before that the bigger challenges is, you know, we're seeing that muted by just the, the shifting age of the car park and shifting age of the. The vehicles that we're working on, and that's, that's really just a function of. You know, working through that kind of post coded period where new car sales were slightly depressed and. You know, that's now working its way into the to the latter part of the. Of the, you know, car park and, you know, as we, as, as that comes back. You know, we'll expect that that will continue to, you know, that the mix will shift us back towards some of those high dollar tickets. that makes that inflation come out more prominently.

All right. Thanks very much. And then as a follow-up, just switching to labor, how do you feel about your current labor levels and ability to meet demand at volumes or to improve throughout the remainder of the year, and maybe what you're seeing in terms of technician wage inflation?

Yeah, on the last part, first, I mean, no real, I mean, technician wage inflation is really, you know, kind of at, call it CPI level, so nothing, you know, at normal CPI levels, not last reported. But, you know, we're always looking for technicians. And, you know, the beauty of this industry is technicians want to go where there's work because they get paid for the hours that they produce, not the hours that they work. So as we look to go, you know, we've got a great sales proposition for the technician, which is we have work right now. We have volume in the shops, which is not a luxury that many of, you know, many of the single shop operators and even some of the MSOs actually have. So as you have, when you have work, it's a lot easier for us to recruit. You know, we focus on hiring technicians every single day. And, you know, that remains, you know, still does remain an opportunity for us. But I can tell you that the team is intensely focused on continuing to make sure that we put the capacity in, you know, where the capacity is needed.

Thank you very much.

Yep. Your next question is from Brett Jordan with Jefferies.

Hey, Brett. Hey, good morning. I'm a total loss, right? I guess maybe I missed it, but could you tell us what the number was for the first quarter? And I guess it sounds from the remarks as if you expect it to continue to come down. But could you maybe give us some color as to where you think we should expect all the loss rate ranges to be in the next year or two sort of intermediate term?

Yeah, look, I won't, I won't try to. Predict that I will tell you that if you look at the industry, the industry total loss rate is 23.6 as of the end of Q126. Um, you know, and, you know, what. What I'm referencing is more of our internal numbers where I see, you know, where I do continue to see. You know, the total loss rates in the business, we, we tend to be. you know, less than the industry from a, you know, from a total loss position, because many of those total losses never work their way into a store. You know, so when I, when I think about our internal numbers, I can see, you know, that year over year, we're slightly elevated from Q1 of last year. But I have seen, you know, those come down, you know, around, you know, when you look at the decline that we've seen, just month to month to month. I mean, we're seeing declines that are probably from the peak, you know, which kind of happened in that September timeframe of last year. From the peak, we're down, you know, 20 or 200, two to 300 basis points. So there is meaningful change that's happening in total losses as, you know, as used car prices continue to grow.

Okay, great. And then I guess, contribution from scanning and calibration when you think about, you know, is it comparable to labor margin or are you sort of on the charging the insurance company for that getting, you know, a better return because of your technology and, you know, your equipment involved?

No, I think as we've talked about it, I think about it as more akin to a labor operation. Yeah. Which carries labor margin associated. Great. Thank you. Yeah.

Your next question is from William Staudinger with BMO Capital Markets.

Hey, good morning. Beyond the weather headwinds you highlight in your southern markets, can you just comment on trends you saw across your other regions and if there's any pockets of relative strength you want to call out?

Yeah, you know, obviously the pocket of relative strength is in the north where, you know, in the first quarter we saw, you know, more snow events. We saw you know, we're starting to see as we exited, you know, as we exited the winter months and got into the spring, you're starting to see some, you know, some hail events that are happening both across the south and the north, some even impacting, you know, what we would call our west. So, you know, I think, you know, weather, you know, weather was impactful in the south in the first quarter just because when, you know, there's weather in the south, when there's snow in the south that it really curtails driving. When there's snow in the north, people drive and they get into accidents. We know that people are sometimes more likely to get into an accident during a snow event than they are in dry conditions. So we had more snow events in the north in the first quarter than we would have had historically. So that's benefited the north. Unfortunately, in the first quarter that was, you know, more than offset by, you know, the softness that the three day, you know, there was really a three day storm that affected everything from Texas, Oklahoma, all the way up into the Carolinas. And, you know, as you know, we've got quite a few stores down in that area. There was a point in time where there were close to 100 locations shut down. Um, just because people couldn't get into work. So that has a negative impact on on the business. The good news is. That's behind us and, you know, but that is, that is part of the reason we will call for. 3 to 5% in the long term, because those types of things can happen in any given quarter. And, you know, it's just important to note that those things are temporal. And they don't indicate anything about what's happening in the underlying business itself. They're just, they're just things that will happen. And when, you know, when. three and a half million dollars can affect 40 basis points or 50 basis points of revenue. An event like that can cost three and a half million dollars very easily.

Okay, great. And then can you just give us an update on what you saw with used car prices and insurance premiums within the quarter? Thanks.

Yeah, I'll give you the latest on used car prices. If you look at Mannheim, you know, April data would suggest up 1.8%. You know, so I think that continues to be a positive. What was the second part of the question? Insurance premiums at this point are, you know, I think the last data I saw was 0.8% up. So, you know, at this point, insurance premiums are all but you know, completely flat, you know, against the CPI that actually they were 0.2% up in the month of April. You know, so auto insurance premiums are all but, you know, kind of like flat at this point.

Okay, great. Thank you.

Yep.

Your next question is from Jonathan Goldman with Scotiabank.

Hey, good morning, team, and thanks for taking my questions. Maybe just the first one. It looks like the outperformance gap spread to the industry narrowed in Q1. You were tracking, I guess, for the past few years, 500 plus. Looks like this quarter is maybe 250. Even if you normalize for weather, it still looks like only 350 BIP outperformance. Still impressive, but it does look like it's narrowed. So I was wondering if you had any color on the trend there.

Yeah, I don't think there's anything, you know, necessarily super notable on on that. I think again, you'll, you'll see, you know, as we're, we're starting to lap. You know, in the first quarter, we're starting to lap some of that associated with with the, you know, change compensation structure that put a lot more eyes on performance. Um, you know, again, I, I think there's still. you're going to see quarter-to-quarter fluctuations in particular related to just things like you articulated. The storm impacts obviously affects, you know, can affect our business, you know, just based on the concentration of stores now in the South. It can affect our business differently than, you know, it affects another business. So, I don't think there's anything really to read into that. In the long run, what you'd expect our, you know, what we expect our long-term growth to contemplate is somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 to 300 basis points of market share gains you know in to to achieve that three to five percent you know the fact that we're still sitting at you know anywhere from three to five 300 to 500 um you know basis points is i would take as a positive okay fair enough and then maybe another one you know brian i think on the q3 call last year you were saying it could be so

it was you were lapping easier comps. I mean, you did offer some color earlier in the call about TCOR and price of cost of repair being held back a bit. I mean, that would probably fill in the delta there, but is there anything else that was different versus your expectations back then to how things played out this quarter?

No, I mean, that fills in all and then some of the delta. I mean, if we had the normal price that we had been getting over the last, you know, historically, just even the 3% to 4%, you know, I don't have to do the math for you, but we'd be outside of the range.

Yeah, that's fair. And then maybe if I could squeeze one more in, you know, thinking about the growth algorithm over the long term, does your baking in of the three to 4% increase in average cost of repair come at the expense of repairable claims volumes? I mean, one of the headwinds the industry has been dealing with is, you know, insurance inflation, which is a product of you know, cost of repair and parts inflation that obviously had an impact on claims volumes. What gives you confidence that we can get back this 3 to 4% inflation and still maintain a historical range of claims volumes?

Yeah, I think probably what's most notable about that commentary is it's really not 3 to 4% that's driven by pure inflation. It's 3 to 4% that's driven by the complexity of the repair. You know, if you think about the fact that as more cars require a calibration service, and that calibration service is roughly just north of $500 a calibration for, you know, on average on a ticket that it, you know, that is what's driving the total cost of repair up. It really isn't, you know, just, you know, a pure inflation equation, which to your point, I mean, the algorithm calls for, you know, a downed, the algorithm still calls for a claims volume to be down 2%, but then offset by three to 4%, you know, combination of price and complexity. And, you know, so that price piece is probably, you know, it may be half of that equation, the complexity piece of it, the other half. So I think there's a benefit on one side and a cost on the other, which, you know, which allows for then the marketplace to just continue to grow. So I, I, You know, I think it's important not to just think about that as pure inflation, because it's a lot of it has to do with the complexity of the repair. The hours are increasing, the calibration services are increasing. And frankly, as those things happen, the cost of a labor hour is increasing at probably normal CPI. The cost of parts is increasing at normal CPI, but that would only get you about two points of the three to four.

Yeah, that's a good distinction. Thanks for taking my questions. Look at that. Thank you. Yep, thank you.

At this time, there are no further questions. I'll now turn the call back over to Brian for any closing remarks.

Yeah, thank you. Appreciate that. You know, sorry about that. So look, as we, you know, I want to, you know, again, take the opportunity to thank the team, you know, for all the hard work and efforts in the quarter. And with that, I thank you, operator, and thank you all once again for joining the call today. And we look forward to reporting our second quarter results in August. Thanks again, and have a great day.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.