Colabor Group Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Colorbor's fourth quarter 2024 results conference call. At this time, note that all participant lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during the call you require me to distance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on February 26, 2025, and I would like to turn the conference over to Monsieur Louis Frenet.

Merci, Sylvie. Thank you, Sylvie. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Collabore Group's fiscal 2024 fourth quarter and year-end result conference call. This is Louis Frenette, President and Chief Executive Officer. Last evening, we released our earnings results for the 16 and 52-week period ended December 28, 2024. The press release and disclosure documents can be found on our website, on the website cdarplus.ca and on our website colabar.com. Joining me today on this call is Pierre Blanchet, our Chief Financial Officer, who, following my initial remarks, will provide an overview of our financial results. Our four-quarter and full-year results demonstrate that we can win even in challenging macroeconomic environments. Because of our diversification strategy within the HRI market and investments made to expand our presence in western Quebec, we've managed to offset the effect of challenging backdrop in the restaurant and retail channel and set the table for a bright future for Calabar. In the fourth quarter, sales grew by 3.2%. driven by distribution sales growth at 5.6%, which compensate for weaker wholesale revenues. Weakness in restaurant channels put pressure on our adjusted EBITDA margins, which still represent a healthy 5.6% of sales in the fourth quarter of 2024, down from 5.9% in the equivalent quarter of last year. Because of our efficient management of working capital, we increased our cash flows from operations by 18.6% to $10.6 million. By prioritizing sound capital allocation, we've also ended the year with a strong balance sheet. Our leverage ratio represents 2.4 times adjusted EBITDA from 2.7 at the end of last year. Fiscal 2024 was a milestone year in the second half of our 2020 to 2025 strategic plan. We entered the year having completed an important CapEx project that would provide us with a base to triple the size, the market of our distribution activities. Starting in Q1, we slowly ramped up the facility by serving our new chain customers And once we felt we had the required level of service, we started going after market share. While headwind affected the restaurant industry in 2024, our diversification strategy and ability to gain market share allowed us to grow our distribution sales, mitigating the effect of the difficult macro environment in this activity. We also completed a small acquisition of the Baudry Cadrin distribution assets, which help us raise synergy at our eastern Quebec facility and create cross-selling opportunities. For fiscal 2024, we generated 35.4 million of adjusted EBITDA, down by 2.2 million. Margins stood at 5.4, down from 5.6 last year from the effect of a lower sales volume. By soundly managing operations and prudently allocating capital, we ended the year in a strong financial situation with healthy cash flows. This provides us with the means to accelerate our growth and profitability plan. On February 19th, we announced the conclusion of a highly strategic acquisition which will further consolidate our position as the largest food distributor and boost our presence in western Quebec. This follows into the footstep of the ramp up of our new facility in St. Bruno. I would like to once again go over the strategic, rational, and key benefits of this transaction, which is expected to close before the end of the current, which is the second quarter. The price paid was $51.5 million, and the deal represents annual revenues of $225 million. We acquired certain distribution assets of ADEME+, which operates under Méran+, all of the equity of Tout Prêt, a processor and distributor of ready-to-use fresh cut fruits and vegetables, and concurrently concluded a six-year supply agreement for the four Méran depot stores. This was a cost-effective way to accelerate our presence in western Quebec with an added value and complementary customer mix. The distribution asset purchase are primarily working capital, customer contracts, and certain tangible assets. By adding this volume to our legacy business, we will increase our purchasing power and supplier revenues, which will benefit everyone. We can also Extract cross-selling opportunities with our private label and specialty products, seafood and meat with our Noref and Lausanne division, adding also the tout prêt opportunity. On slide six, we can see that together on a pro forma basis, our new customer mix move in favor of restaurants and retail, which represents 58% of revenues up from 48% prior to the transaction. Institutional accounts will practically maintain their share of revenues at 19% down from 20, while wholesale customers will represent 18% of revenues down from 25%. Overall, these transactions favorably impact our customer mix, allowing us to achieve an optimal risk-reward profile. Along with revenue synergies, this transaction brings potential efficiency gain and operating synergies, including some interesting route optimization, capacity, and geographical utilization that we aim to gradually realize over the next two years. Efficiently managing our customer mix and product portfolio has allowed us to raise our gross margin in the past few years. We will maintain this approach in the years to come to mitigate any possible headwinds. In conclusion, the acquisition announced last week is highly strategic and accretive to earnings per shares. Because of our sound financial situation and financing structure accompanying the deal, our leverage ratio will also remain manageable as we expect it to land in the mid-threes. upon closing of the transaction. 2025 marks the last year of our five-year strategic plan. The Alimplus acquisition runs off this journey quite nicely. We now have a catalyst for growth and operational efficiency and stronger foundation on which to realize our longer-term ambition. The acquisition of Alimplus raised our market share in the Quebec food service market from 11 to 16%. As the third largest distributor in a highly fragmented market, our long-term ambition is to consolidate the market and create a strong and competitive Quebec supplier focused on supporting our local artisans, producers, and manufacturers. We are all very excited by the potential of a LM Plus brings to Calabar and look forward to welcoming new customers and employees to our platform shortly.

Jack, on this, I turn the call over to you.

Thank you, Louis, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to be here today to discuss our key financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024. Please refer to slides 7 to 10 of the presentation for highlights of our financial performance in the quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2024, sales were up 3.2% to $202.6 million. Revenue from our distribution activities increased by 5.6%, while our wholesale activities were down by 3.8%. Volume growth from our effort to develop new territories 1.9% inflation, and contribution of our Q1-24 acquisition allowed us to mitigate the effect of lower customer spending in the restaurant and retail channels, which continues to impact our wholesale business. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations reached $11.3 million, or 5.6% of sales. compared with $11.7 million, or 5.9% in the fourth quarter of last year, mainly from a decrease in gross margin, reflecting the decline in the restaurant industry. Net earnings from continuing operations were 0.5 million, or one cent per share, slightly up from 0.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. Cash flows from operating activities were $10.6 million in the fourth quarter, up from $8.9 million in the equivalent quarter of last year, resulting from lower utilization of working capital. There were no significant CapEx investments aside from our regular basic maintenance, which landed our total annual CapEx for fiscal 2024 at $3.1 million. Looking at 2025, we don't expect significant changes to maintenance and capital expenses. We ended the year with a lower net debt of 47.8 million, down from 61.5 million at the end of 2023, and a leverage ratio of 2.4 times adjusted EBITDA, also down from 2.7 times at the end of last fiscal year. Total available borrowing capacity on our credit facility before the recently announced financing structure concurrent with the acquisition of LM Plus stood at $29.5 million. I would now like to turn the call over to the operator for the Q&A period.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. You will then hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. and should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by two. And if you're using a speakerphone, please lift the handset first before pressing any keys. Please go ahead and press star one now if you have any questions. First, we will hear from Kyle McPhee at Cormark Securities. Please go ahead.

Hello, everyone. Great results. First one for me, the distribution business seems to be benefiting from volume wins that are more than offsetting the macro headwinds, but more than I thought. Were the year-over-year benefits of the volume winds in Q4 just winds from prior periods that are not yet lapped, or have you also landed yet another round of new winds during Q4? And if that's the case, what kind of client types or channels is that weighted to?

Hi, Kyle. Thanks for your question. It's a mix of the A lot of things, but yes, we have new customers in parts that we won in the last quarter. We started servicing, and they're mainly in the independent restaurant business. And also, as I just said, the inflation was at 1.9%, and also in our results, we have a portion of the M&A we made in the spring. existing customer net growth, but that was mitigated by the retail business as it was not as solid as it was before.

Got it. Okay. And when you quote that 1.9% inflation, is that including the offset from the downward pricing hit on the reprice contract we learned about last quarter, or is the 1.9% just the pure inflation number before any impact?

Pure inflation. pure inflation number, I think, to do with the concept.

Okay. And that restaurant channel data that's out in the market seems to indicate there are some meaningful tailwinds into Q1 2025 from the GST-HST break for consumers. Have you noticed any benefits for your business that align with this type of data that I'm seeing?

We have mixed signals on that and mixed reporting from the industry, but to us, it was minimal. And some restaurants are saying, no, nothing happened with that, and some others said, yes, it happened. But overall, we think at Cote d'Ivoire, it was minimal.

Got it. Okay, thank you. Okay, that's it for me. I'll leave it there and pass the line. Thank you.

Thank you. Next question will be from Michael Glenn at Raymond James.

Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. Just maybe to follow on the last question, to what degree are you seeing any incoming inquiries for you based on your positioning as a Quebec-only distribution company, an alternative to some of the large competitors that are Is that serving as any type of tailwind for your business right now?

I hope, Michael. Thanks for the question. We have, in summary, the market was tough, okay, and our results are above average because we gained 10% market share last year, okay, with a similar gross margin. And the future of the restaurant's business is shown as it will progress slightly in the year. But the fact of what's going on with the tariffs, the potential tariffs and everything, and the crisis that could come politically-wise, we're in a good position because most of our products are from Canada and Quebec, especially in Canada and the rest of Canada. And only 3% of our purchases comes from the U.S. So we don't see a major shift in pricing for us, while it may be more difficult for competitors that have a large portion of their products coming straight from the U.S. In general, I hope to report same date next year that we gain market share with a good gross margin.

Okay. And then just to circle back on the contract renewal, can you just remind us, it was active for about five weeks in the quarter, I believe. Is that accurate? And was there... I guess you don't have to quantify it, but the growth margin you reported would have been impacted by that contract renewal? I'm just looking for you to maybe confirm that.

Yeah, it's not material. Effectively, it's five weeks in the year. But yes, it does affect the margin ratios. And the idea is what Pierre and I shared with the acquisition that over time, Over time, we'll recover that to the levels we want.

Okay.

And just on the cash flow statement, so the lease liability line in the financing section, are you able to – like that number continues to track below where I thought it would be. Do you have some updated guidance on – where that number will be in 2025? And this is, of course, before. I'm not talking about the acquisition, but just for your business as it is today, where that lease liability payments line will be in 2025.

Yes, Michael, it's Pierre. What did happen between 2023, prior years, and 2024, is when we took on the new lease in Saint-Bernard, it's a 20-year lease. And the accounting now is like a mortgage. So the liability goes down slower and the payments go to interest. So you'll see in the financing charges a higher number. without having a higher debt necessarily. And the portion in the cash flow that goes to the liability is lower. It's like a new mortgage. I see. Kind of not easy to figure out. So the payments are there. It's just that it's the allocation that is different. So some goes to financing charges. and some goes to the balance sheet against the liability. So to the cash flow, it goes at the same place, like same line. I see.

Okay. And just to clarify, though, I think in a couple of the prior quarters, you maybe had received a lower rate from the landlord. I don't know if I'm correct on that, but I seem to recall it.

You are correct.

No, the quarter is fully loaded.

Perfect. That's great. Thank you so much.

No problem. Thank you. Next question will be from Frédéric Tremblay at Desjardins. Please go ahead.

Thank you.

Good morning. On the contract renewal, I think there were some margin enhancement initiatives that you were contemplating related to that. Can you give us maybe an update on where you're at? I realize it's early stage, but just a quick update on that would be helpful.

Yes, Frédéric, thank you for the question. We have implemented mitigation measures in Q4. And again, to your comment in the question, it's early stage, but we did what we expected or what we wanted to do as mitigation. And as a reminder, the new acquisition will reduce the impact as it will make it less, a lower percentage of total sales.

Okay, great. And just on the St.

Bruno facility, how's the ramp up there going, I guess, on some of the key KPIs that you're tracking in terms of customer service and order flow and quality of service? Anything to highlight there?

Merci, Frédéric. It's Louis.

Yeah, good improvement. We're not there yet, but... were close to our targets. So since we moved in early 2024, one of the KPIs is to measure the case per hour per employee, and it's improving. The delivery rates, service levels are almost where it's expected to be. And we reduced the overtime.

uh and uh we're overall happy with the progression okay so it's a slow ramp up it takes a few months to achieve it but uh we're close to it so uh we're happy yeah great last question for me just on the on the sales force you obviously invested in the sales force in 2024 to break into some regions in western quebec um just wondering if the um the investments in the sales force are largely done or is there more to do there? And just your overall comments on where you're positioned on that aspect.

So we operate in a competitive environment, so I don't share my game plan for the future. But the strategy we use, we declared going after Western Quebec, hiring reps with no sales, we call them the hunters, paid off quite nicely. So that was part of the standard of actions that we had on the decision of do we go western Quebec, greater Montreal, or we continue to develop only eastern Quebec. So it did work. And with the acquisition of Air Impulse, we'll have a bunch – of new more sales reps that are excellent reps over there to help us develop further our market, convicted market.

Okay, great. That's it for me. Thank you. Merci.

And at this time, Monsieur Frenette, we have no other questions. Please proceed.

Thank you, Sylvie. Thanks, Kyle, Frédéric, and Michael, for your questions. We're now entering the last year of our five-year strategic plan on a high note. Over the last four years, we have built a diversified and resilient business by paying special attention to our customers and product mix. We've significantly improved our cash flow generation capabilities and strengthened our balance sheets. We are now eager to start integrating the activities of Allen Plus and Touperet and start surveying the former depot stores. This will provide us with scale and efficiencies that will benefit all our stakeholders in strengthening our position and open the door to new possibilities. As we look further ahead, we are getting closer to ambition of consolidating the Quebec distribution market, strengthening our local ecosystem and supply chains. This concludes our call for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024. Thank you very much for joining us and stay safe and healthy. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. And at this time, we ask that you please disconnect your lines. Enjoy the rest of your day.