Doman Building Materials Group Ltd.

Good day and welcome to the Doman Building Materials Group Ltd. Second Quarter 2026 Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ali Mahdavi. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Doman Building Materials Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. Joining us on today's call are the company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Amar Doman, and Chief Financial Officer, Darren Guast. If you've not seen the news release which was issued after the close of market yesterday, it is available on the company's website as well as on CDAR along with our MD&A and financial statements. I would also like to remind you that a replay of this call will be accessible until midnight on August 20th. Following the presentation of the second quarter results, we will conduct a Q&A session for analysts only. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to join the queue for questions. Before we begin, we are required to provide the following statements regarding forward-looking information which is made on behalf of Doman Building Materials Group Ltd. and all of its representatives on this call. Remarks and answers to your questions today may contain forward-looking information about future events or the company's future performance. This information is subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events or results to defer material rates. Any information regarding forward-looking statements is made after the debate is solved. The company does not undertake to update on any forward-looking statements. Please read the forward-looking statements and risk factors in the MD&A as these outline the material factors which could cause or would cause actual results to differ. The company will not provide guidance regarding future earnings during today's call. The management does not anticipate providing guidance in future quarterly or interim communications with investors. I'll now turn the call over to Amar.

Thanks, Ali. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you taking the time to be with us as we review Doman's second quarter of 2026 financial results and discuss the current market environment. Overall, our second quarter performance demonstrates the resilience of our business model and the strength of our diversified product offering. Thank you for joining us. Construction materials continue to represent the largest component of our business, accounting for approximately 84% of sales, with specialty and allied products contributing 13% and other sources making up the balance. Our ability to deliver record revenues while maintaining disciplined pricing and customer service reflects the effectiveness of our distribution network, the breadth of our product portfolio, and the long-standing relationships we have built with customers across North America. Close margin dollars increased modestly to $146 million, while our close margin percentage remained stable at 16.1%. Maintained margin in today's environment speaks to the disciplined approach our teams continue to take in managing inventory, procurement, and pricing across the dynamic market. Adjusted EVDA for the quarter was just under $79 million, broadly consistent with the prior year's quarter, despite continued market volatility. While EVDA was slightly below last year's level, we were pleased to generate net earnings $31.2 million, an improvement over the $27.7 million reported in the second quarter of 25. Looking at the first six months of the year, revenues totaled $1.67 billion, with adjusted EVDA of $147 million. Close margin percentage improved slightly to 16.5%, and net earnings increased to $55.1 million compared to $51.2 million in the same period last year. These results demonstrate our ability to generate consistent profitability while navigating a market that remains far from uniform. As always, our priorities remain unchanged. We continue to focus on disciplined execution, operational efficiency, prudent working capital management, and providing exceptional service to our customers. These fundamentals have enabled us to perform consistently across different market cycles and position the company to capitalize on opportunities as demand improves. Our balance sheet and cash generation continues to support our capital allocation strategy, including returning capital to shareholders. Consistent with that commitment, we declared our quarterly dividend at $0.14 per share, reflecting our confidence in the long-term strength of the business. Looking ahead, while macroeconomic uncertainty remains, we believe Doman is well-positioned. Our diversified product mix, broad geographic footprint, experience management team, and disciplined operating model provide a strong foundation as market conditions continue to evolve. In closing, I'd like to thank our employees for their continued dedication and commitment, our customers and supplier partners for their ongoing trust, and our shareholders for their continued support. With that, I'm going to turn the call over to Darren, our CFO, to review the financial results in more detail before we open the lineup for analyst questions. Thanks. Darren?

Thank you, Amar. Good morning, everyone. Sales for the three-month end of June 30, 2026 were $904.5 million versus $886.7 million in 2025, representing an increase of $17.8 million, or 2%, largely due to increases in year-over-year pricing in certain construction material categories. The company's sales in the quarter made up of 84% of construction materials, with remaining balance resulting from specialty and allied products of 13% and other sources of 3%. Close margin dollars were $145.8 million in the three months ended June 30, 2026 versus $142.7 million in 2025, an increase of $3.1 million, or 2.2%, mainly driven by the increase in sales. Gross margin percentage was 16.1% during the period unchanged from the same period in 2025, despite the volatility experienced in the past year with respect to lumber pricing further reinforcing the resilience of our business model. Expenses for the three-month end of June 30, 2026 were $90.9 million as compared to $87.9 million, an increase of 3.4% and $3 million. As a percentage of sales, 2026 expenses were 10.1% compared to 9.9% in 2025. Distribution, selling, and administration expenses increased by $4.3 million or 6.9% to $67 million in the second quarter of 2026 from $62.7 million in the same period in 2025, primarily due to broad inflationary pressures. As a percentage of sales, these expenses were 7.4% compared to 7.1% in the same quarter in 2025. Depreciation and amortization expenses decreased quarter over quarter by $1.4 million, or 5.5%, to $23.9 million for the three months ended June 30, 2026, compared to $25.3 million for the same period of 2025, mainly due to dispositions of property plant equipment. Finance costs for the second quarter of 2026 were $17.6 million compared to $19.3 million in 2025, a decrease of $1.7 million, largely as a result of overall net debt, including lower utilization of the revolving loan facility during the quarter. This quarter's EBITDA was $76.8 million compared to $80 million in the comparative quarter of 2025, a decrease of $1.3 million or 1.8%. even if during the quarter was generally stable versus prior quarter despite some slightly elevated inflationary pressures from freight and fuel costs. Doman's net earnings for the quarter were $31.2 million compared to $27.7 million for the same period in 2025, an increase of $3.5 million. Turning now to the statement of cash flows, operating activities for the six-month end of June 30, 2026 consumed $2.3 million in cash and cash equivalents, versus generating $1.2 million in the comparative prior year. The following activities during the period accounted for the change in the cash. Operating activities before non-cash, not working capital changes generated $96.5 million in cash compared to $100.7 million in the same period in 2025. Operating cash flows during the period were impacted by the timing of income tax payments. During the six-month end of June 30, 2026, The company generates $35.9 million of cash from overall financing activities related to the funding of seasonal working capital compared to $6.9 million in 2025. Payments of lease liabilities including interest consume $17.7 million of cash compared to $15.8 million in 2025. The company's lease obligations generally require monthly installments and these payments are all current. Total net advances of the revolving loan facility were $84.9 million and John Walsh. The company also returned $24.6 million to shareholders through dividends paid during the six-month period largely in line with 2025. The company was not in breach of any of its lending covenants during the six months ended June 30, 2026. Investing activities consumed $15.3 million of cash Thank you. Thank you. This concludes our formal commentary. We would now be happy to respond to any questions that you may have. Thank you, operator.

Thank you. We will now begin with the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Matthew Keller with, sorry, that's Matthew McKellar with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my questions. First, I know you don't provide quarterly guidance, but you said a high level. What is your sense of how Q3 is shaping up relative to Q2? Last year, we kind of slowed quite a bit sequentially what was With what was going on in the market, I'd be curious to know how you're seeing demand trends so far through Q3 in each of Canada and the U.S. And with that, how are you thinking about the sequential progression in the results? Thank you.

Yeah, good question, Matthew. You know, we've got, you know, July in the books now. And I can tell you it's fairly similar, you know, what we're seeing. So, you know, the economy hasn't changed much. You know, I think the consumer hasn't changed much. You know, the Middle East is still going on and these kind of things that are just, you know, not that bullish for the market. So, kind of steady as she goes. You know, again, nothing crazy on the way up, nothing crazy on the way down. Just hitting a lot of singles and getting it done.

Okay, thanks. And can you talk about any impacts, even if indirect, that you might be expecting from recently announced tariffs on Brazil and Canada, maybe particularly as it might relate to sensing? Thank you.

Yeah, sure. That's a net benefit to Doman. So when we look at, of course, we don't really cross the border with a lot of materials. So the import sort of, you know, severe tariffs have been put on South America are benefiting. We're getting a lot of inquiry for fencing, and I think that's going to continue to go well as a long-term story as we continue to ramp up our fencing production in the U.S. and pretty much stop all imports coming in. So that's certainly going to help demand as the quarters go on.

Thanks for the call. I'll turn it back.

Thanks. Thank you. Our next question is from Amir Patel with CIBC Capital and Markets. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning. Amar, I just wanted to follow up on the fencing side. I know you've got various growth initiatives underway there. Maybe if you could just give us an update on how that's progressing.

Yeah, we've got our Gilmer sawmill operating. It's not quite at 100% capacity with the upgrades we did down in Texas, but it's coming along now, which is excellent. We've reduced our labor costs significantly there in our automation. And then we've got our Estill sawmill that is going to start production kind of any day now. It's kind of as promised, so we'll certainly get into that later in the third quarter and fourth quarter to see sales of one-inch fence products, picket products, and some one-inch that we're going to take back to Texas as well out of Estill. So pretty excited about that. Everything's on track as far as our CapEx goes.

Great. And just on the wood decking side, it feels like you're gaining share within your product categories, but do you have a sense as to how wood is faring versus composites this year?

Yeah, you know, I think the price gap, you know, is still a barrier. So, composites, you know, obviously are doing well. We distribute a lot of composites as well. Treated lumber is still around your substructure. So, it really depends on your price point. Lumber is still, you know, the number one by, you know, massive amounts. And we're happy to distribute either and produce, obviously, on the lumber side. but we just like more decking happening so we're just good people are focusing on the backyard that bodes well for Doman.

Great and so of course I had any you know opportunities to you know enhance that relationship you have with your largest home improvement retailer customer in the U.S.?

Yeah we're always you know you know working to hold on to that business number one and make sure we service it properly so We tend to try and bring in different product lines and, you know, when there's opportunities in the aisles to make new products available. But, you know, there aren't a lot of new products in our portfolio, but certainly, you know, we try to get more market share in the aisle with accessories and other things that we'll produce. It was like the scale coming west out of the east on things like sterilizers, stringers, ball tops, and balusters. Those are items that we're producing on the east coast that we want to replicate as mentioned. kind of in Texas, Arkansas markets, and then post-North on freight.

Great. Thanks. That's all I had. I'll turn it over.

Thanks, Jerry.

The next question comes from Zachary Evershed with National Bank. Please go ahead. Hi.

It's Prashant Subbing in for Zach this morning. Congrats on the quarter. Just a few quick questions here. I saw that revenue growth was driven primarily by pricing this quarter. Can you quantify the contribution from price versus volume and maybe explain which product categories or regions saw the greatest volume pressure?

Yeah, I wouldn't say there was any volume pressure. In fact, our volumes are now ticking, you know, almost in line with 2025, and also in some areas they're up. So we really don't have a volume issue, if you will. I can't really quantify exactly how much of those dollars were inflation on the lumber side, but, you know, it certainly has helped drive that top line to a record over $900 million to the quarter. Anything to add there, Aaron, there?

Yeah, I know, just like Amar said, I mean, volumes were not a concern. They were relatively consistent.

Okay, that's good to know. I'm just wondering, next one here, I saw that OPEX picked up this quarter and that the $67 million was higher than the $62 average we've seen over the past six quarters. What specifically drove that increase and how much of this is temporary?

Yeah, so I'd say there were some inflationary pressures, and that is just more general in nature. But I would say about half of the increase was kind of more non-operational in nature. And in particular, there's some earn-out costs in there related to one of our prior acquisitions, which actually in our mind is... Good news means that it was a good acquisition and we're kind of ahead of where we were expecting to be when we initially did our purchase allocation. So there's a little bit of that. So I'd say about half that increase is related to that, to kind of non-operational items.

Okay. Okay. That's clear. Thanks so much. I'll turn it over.

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ali Mahdavi for closing remarks.

Once again, thank you for joining us today for the conference call. We look forward to speaking with you again during the Q3 conference call and in the interim, should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us. That concludes today's call. Have a great day.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.