Transcontinental Inc.

Welcome to the TC Transcontinental First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2020-2025 Results Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will be provided at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, March 11, 2025. I would now like to turn the conference over to Yann Lapointe, Senior Director, Investor Relations and Treasury. I would now like to give the floor to Yann Lapointe, Director of Relations with Investors and Treasuries. Mr. Lapointe, please go ahead.

Thank you, Joëlle, and good afternoon, everyone on the call. Welcome to Transcontinental's first quarter fiscal 2025 earnings call. Before we begin, Please note that you can find on our website at www.tc.tc our quarterly report, including financial statements and related notes, as well as the slides supporting management's remarks. A replay of this conference call will also be available on our website shortly after the call. Please note that this conference call is intended for the financial community. Media are in listen-only mode and should contact Nathalie Saint-Jean, Senior Advisor, Corporate Communications, for more information. We have with us today our President and Chief Executive Officer, Tom Amarin, and our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Donald Lecavelie. As referenced on slide 2, some of the financial measures discussed over the course of this conference call are non-IFRS. We can refer to the MD&A for a complete definition and reconciliation of these measures to IFRS. In addition, this conference call might also contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the current expectations of management and information available as of today, and our outlook does not include the impact of potential tariffs on our operations. Forward-looking statements also involve numerous risks and uncertainties, known and unknown. The risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could influence actual results are described in the fiscal 2024 annual MD&A and in the latest annual information form. With that, I would like to turn the call over to our president and CEO, Thomas Morin.

Thank you, and merci again. Good afternoon to everyone. The results for this quarter continue to demonstrate the positive effects of our program to improve our profitability and financial position. reduce the cost of goods sold as well as fixed costs and to turn around underperforming plans continues across the organization. Turning to the packaging sector, we've seen an organic decrease in revenues mainly due to the slower activities in our Latin American operations due to adverse market conditions and continued weakness in medical. However, our cost of efforts combined to a favorable mix with significant growth in cheese and dairy enabled us to maintain the sector's profitability for the quarter. In our retail services and printing sector, we recorded an increase in profit for the third consecutive quarter, and this, I'm proud to say, despite the impact of the Canada post-labor conflict, so kudos to the team. Increased book printing and specialized solutions activities contributed to this solid result. The sale of our industrial packaging business and the strong profitability in the quarter have enabled us to reduce our net debt ratio to its lowest since the acquisition of Coverage Americas in 2018. Meanwhile, we continue to work on our acquisition pipeline. Let me now address the question of tariffs. As I mentioned on our last call, our cross-border exposure is limited to approximately 10% of our combined packaging and retail services printing sales. Out of that 10%, we have the confirmation that our book exports from Canada to the United States are exempted. Faced with such a volatile situation, we are focused on what we can control. First, we're looking at a number of mitigating measures that can significantly reduce the impact of tariffs, considering we can't eliminate their impacts completely. We're having conversations with our customers and suppliers to see what can be done. We're also prepared We are also prepared to leverage our footprint on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border relatively quickly. Second, in this ascertained context, we will redouble our efforts on the execution of our priorities, as well as on the year two of our program to improve profitability and financial position. We will continue to increase our productivity through continuous improvement and operational efficiency, reduce our costs, and as always, be agile and react quickly to any new development. Lastly, the loss of the value of the Canadian dollar versus the US dollar will provide some relief. We've done a great job in 2024 to become more competitive in the marketplace, and for sure, we will continue on that path in 2025. On this, I will pass it over to you, Thomas.