Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited

Thank you for standing by. My name is Lauren Cannon and I will be your conference operator today. Welcome to the Canadian Tire Corporation earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Following today's presentation, there will be a question and answer period. If you would like to ask a question, simply press star one one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star one one. Now I will pass along to Karen Keyes Head of Investor Relations for Canadian Tire Corporation. Karen.

Thank you, Lauren. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Canadian Tire Corporation's first quarter 2025 results conference call. In addition to having our President and CEO, Greg Hicks, with us today, we are delighted to have our new EVP and CFO, Darren Myers, with us for the first time. We are also joined by TJ Flood, who recently assumed a new role as EVP and Chief Operating Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to highlight the earnings disclosure, which is available on our website. It includes cautionary language about forward-looking information and the factors, risks, and uncertainties which may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied, which also apply to the discussion during today's conference call. I would highlight that our discussion today will focus on the results of the business on a continuing operations basis, with Helly Hansen being treated as a discontinued operation from this quarter. To assist with modeling the business on a continuing operations basis, we have included restated financials in our Q1 earnings deck, which you can find on our website. After our remarks today, the team will be happy to take your questions. We'll try to get in as many questions as possible, but we do ask that you limit your time to one question plus a follow-up before cycling back in the queue. And we welcome you to contact Investor Relations if we don't get through all the questions today. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Greg. Greg.

Thank you, Karen. Good morning and welcome, everyone. Overall, I'm pleased with our very strong Q1 performance, which reflects our proactive choice to buy for growth and the positive sales impact of seasonal weather and great seasonal products. It's clear we set our sales in the right direction and took full advantage of tailwinds. Our consolidated EPS of $2.18 was up sharply over last year as we drove sales, managed margins, and ran the business with discipline. We saw positive signs right across our business and banners, including increased customer visits, strong response to our new products, and notable momentum in Triangle loyalty. I want to thank our team for their hard work and commitment to being there for our customers. It's worth noting that the current retail environment remains somewhat uncertain, but we're doing a good job of navigating both what we know and what we don't. For instance, we know the direct impact of retaliatory tariffs, and we have that calculus firmly in check. with just 15% of our COGS tied to U.S. goods and a manageable fraction of that currently affected, our Tariff Task Force has been working to minimize possible impacts, seeking alternative sources, negotiating with vendors and managing margins to blunt the risk of price inflation for customers. With limited exposure today, we have visibility to potential impacts and a plan for the balance of year should we need it. In terms of the unknowns, it has been tough to predict consumer behavior. I'm pleased to report that despite low confidence levels, customers have been and remain more resilient than we anticipated. Even as we dug into the Q1 data for communities that rely on tariffed auto manufacturing, we saw no clear signs of softness. Further, spending across all the income levels we track was healthy. More broadly, essentials were up 8% and discretionary products were up slightly for the first time in three years. Anecdotally, because we know it's a trend people are watching, we saw some evidence of patriotic purchasing where Canadians seem to be favoring Canadian companies. This is a topic that gives us pride. Recently, we topped surveys for the most trusted, most reputable, and most Canadian companies in the eyes of customers. and the place they would choose to shop more. Our connection with Canadians is fundamental to our new four-year True North transformation strategy, which I will detail shortly. Before I do, I'd like to turn it over to Darren Myers, our new CFO, to give you specifics on the quarter. Many of you know Darren and will understand why we're so pleased to have him on the team and with us here today. Over to you, Darren.