Cascades Inc.

Good morning, my name is Sylvie and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the CASCAD Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference call. Note that all lines are currently in listen-only mode. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. I will now pass the call to Jennifer Aitken, Director of Investor Relations for CASCAD. Ms. Aitken, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our Second Quarter 2025 Conference call. We will begin with an overview of our operational and financial results, followed by some concluding remarks, after which we will begin the question period. Today's speakers will be Hugues Simon, President and CEO, and Alan Hogg, CFO. Also joining us for the question period at the end of the call are Jean-Denis D'Arzif, Executive Vice President Packaging, and Jérôme Porlier, Executive Vice President Tichoud. Before turning over the call, I would like to highlight that certain statements made during this call will discuss historical and forward-looking matters. The accuracy of these statements is subject to risk factors that can have a material impact on actual results. These risks are listed in our public silence. These statements, the investor presentation, and the press release also include data that are not measures of performance under IFRS. Please refer to our Q2 2025 Investor Presentation for details. This presentation, along with our Second Quarter press release, can be found in the Investor section of our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us after the session. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Hugues Simon, who will begin with a review of our performance. Thank

you, Jennifer, and good morning, everyone. Our Second Quarter performance was consistent with our projections. We continue to see cautiousness on the demand side from some customers due to the ongoing uncertainty regarding tariff and trade policies around the world. Factors impacted our performance, both in terms of sales volume and production costs. Notwithstanding this, sales levels increased 3% from Q1. It was driven by volume and selling price, the benefit of which offset the impact of a less favorable exchange rate. -over-year sales increased 1%, with selling prices and exchange rates fully offsetting negative impacts from lower volume and salesmen. Some solid data, David, of $137 million, increased 10% from Q1. It was driven by a stronger performance from our packaging segment, which benefited from improved pricing. Trade and energy costs were tailwinds and partially offset higher operating costs related to lower production volume. -over-year consolidated EBITDA increased 22%. Stronger pricing in our packaging activity offset lower volume and higher energy and production costs across our two business segments. Provide a financial breakdown of the impact of these factors, partially and -over-year on slide 4. Trends continue to be favorable for our raw material input cost. Provide an overview of raw material average, quality cost, and trends on slide 5 and 6. Moving now to the results of our businesses, which are highlighted on slide 7 through 12 of the presentation. Beginning with packaging, our second quarter sales were stable sequentially, with tax improved pricing and slightly stronger volume offset by a negative exchange rate impact. Semen levels remain softer in Q2. Customers continue to be cautious given the ongoing broad economic and trade uncertainties. This end will provide box shipment data for and the Canadian and U.S. industry on slide 7 and 8. Second quarter EBITDA increased by 9% sequentially to $119 million, driven by higher selling prices. EBITDA margins improved by .3% to .6% in Q2. While OCC pricing was favorable, this was offset by higher input costs resulting from a different mix of products sold. As expected, production costs per ton were elevated in the quarter due to lower operating rates, but were largely offset by favorable energy, transportation, and SG&E costs. Previously disclosed, capacity was limited at the green pack mill due to operational issues at the third party steam supplier. Our team rapidly put in and production was almost back to normal in June. Estimated impact of this event was $4 million in the quarter. Supplier resumed normal production forecast gap as of the second week of July. Year over year sales increased by 2% to benefits from higher selling prices, more favorable exchange rates, more than offsetting negative volume and mixed impact. EBITDA levels increased 38% from a year ago period, driven by higher selling prices and lower raw material costs. Margin improved by .1% compared to last year. These were partially offset by a negative impact related to volume and corresponding higher production costs per ton. We are pleased with the progress made at our Bear Island facility during the quarter. Our production increased 8% to 82,000 tons versus the first quarter. It's a steady improvement and more resilient when faced with operational challenges. Progress continued in July during which production levels averaged 1,100 tons per day, which represents approximately 91% of the targeted ramp-up production level. It is our employees at Bear Island who are driving this difference. We would thank them for their focused, hard work and incredible commitment. We are forecasting a stronger second half of 2025 and are confident that we'll continue to close the gap before the end of the year. I would note that this improved momentum at Bear Island contributed to our decision to cease production in Niagara Falls on August 11, a month earlier than originally planned. Bear Island is our priority. As we have previously stated, we have dedicated resources focused on continuing to improve its speed, availability, while maintaining a high level of quality. Moving now to our tissue business. Second quarter sales increased 8% sequentially. Stronger volumes and favorable pricing and mix fully offset a negative exchange rate impact. Inverted product shipments in short terms increased 10%, with a wave from home of 15% and retail of 7%. A bid of $38 million marginally increased from Q1, with benefits from volume, mix and selling prices offset by higher operating costs. Sales were slightly below last year, decreasing 1%, expected a more favorable exchange rate offset by impacts from lower volume. Shipments decreased 2% year over year, reflecting a 1% decrease in retail and a 4% decrease in the wave from home. Year over year, a bid that increased by $16 million, reflecting lower volumes, higher operating costs, and a slightly lower average selling price. Our tissue production was lower in the quarter. Partly a reflection of our planned shutdown, maintenance activity, and investments in our operational platform, and carry out strategic realignment of our go to market approach. The recent $9 million of announced investments in our Kingsley Falls and Granby facility fall within this strategy. Additional volume will be added in 2025, as this transition is complete. Our productivity costs of $20 million in Q2 were largely unchanged sequentially, but decreased $8 million year over year. We expect this lower cost level to continue for the remainder of the year. We'll now pass the call over to Alan. We'll briefly discuss some of the financial highlights. Alan?