Transcontinental Inc.

Welcome to the TC Transcontinental Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 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, June 5, 2025. I would like to turn the conference over to Yann Lapointe, Senior Director, Investor Relations and Treasury. I would now like to hand over to Yann Lapointe, Director of Relations with Investors and Treasury. Mr. Lapointe, please go ahead.

Thank you, Joëlle, and good morning, everyone on the call. Welcome to Transcontinental's second quarter of 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 a call. Please note that this conference call is intended for the financial community. Media are in listen-only mode and should contact Jonathan Provencher, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications, for more information. We have with us today our President and Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Morin, and our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Donald LeCavalier. As referenced on slide two, some of the financial measures discussed over the course of this conference call are non-IFRS. You can refer to the MD&A for 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 on our operations of potential tariffs or the labor conflict at Canada Post. 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, Yann, and good morning, all. Once again, the results for this quarter demonstrate the positive effects of our two-year program to improve our profitability and financial position, with a growth of 11.5% in adjusted net earnings per share in Q2 versus Q2 last year. As anticipated, our packaging sector experienced a decrease in revenues and profits in Q2 compared to the second quarter of 2024. The 3% organic decline in revenues was mainly due to lower volumes. In retail services and printing sector, we had a very good quarter with significant increases in revenue and ABDA. This solid performance was driven by growth in our book printing, specialty solutions, and in-store marketing businesses. It also benefited from reduced costs, mainly due to the transition to radar. On safety, I'm happy to report a significant year-over-year improvement across the company in the first six months for this fiscal year, from 46 incidents to 28, a 40% decrease. We are very encouraged by these results, which will get us close to our no injury target. Now looking ahead to the rest of the year and starting with packaging, we should continue to benefit from the recovery we're seeing in medical. And overall, looking at our good sales pipeline and with our continuous efforts to close deals, combined with the implementation of additional cost out, we remain confident to achieve both an organic volume and profit growth in the second half of fiscal 2025. In retail services and printing, we will focus on closing acquisitions in ISM in Q3, in sustaining our sales momentum in books, and in managing costs rigorously in our radar business, given its tough comparable in the second half of last year. All in all, as the year unfolds, we continue to be laser-focused on our four priorities of growing profits, delivering a strong return on assets, maintaining a solid balance sheet, and commercializing sustainability.