Transcontinental Inc.

Mesdames et messieurs, merci d'avoir patienté et bienvenue à la conférence téléphonique concernant les résultats du troisième trimestre de l'exercice 2025 de TEC Transcontinental. Pendant la conférence, tous les participants seront en mode d'écoute seulement. Une période de questions suivra la présentation et des directives vous seront données à ce moment. Nous désirons vous rappeler que cette conférence est enregistrée aujourd'hui le 5 septembre 2025. Welcome to the TC Transcontinental Third Quarter of Fiscal Year 2025 Results Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct the question and answer session, and instructions will be provided at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, September 5, 2025. I would like to turn the conference over to Yadna Point, Senior Director, Investor Relations and Treasury. J'aimerais maintenant céder la parole à Yann Lapointe, directeur principal, relations avec les investisseurs et trésorerie. Monsieur Lapointe, please go ahead.

Thank you, Joëlle, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Transcontinental's third quarter of fiscal year 2025 earnings call. Before we begin, please note that you can find on our website 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 and media are in listen-only mode. You should contact Laurence Boussicot, Senior Advisor, 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 a complete definition of 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. Forward-looking statements also involve numerous risks and uncertainties, known and unknown. The risk, 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, everyone. Bonjour à toutes et à tous. First, I'm pleased to report a significant improvement in our adjusted earnings per share versus last year for the third quarter in a row. This is a direct result of our relentless execution of the program to improve our earnings per share and balance sheet we put in place almost two years ago now. In Q3, the packaging sector saw a revenue decrease, mainly due to the sale of our industrial packaging activities. and to a weaker than anticipated seasonality in some of our markets, despite a good start of the quarter. Thanks to our disciplined improvement initiatives and to our agility to quickly adjust our costs to slower demand, we were able to improve the sector's adjusted profit despite a less favorable product. Q3 was actually better than Q2 in terms of profits, contrary to the pattern we have normally seen in the past. We're now seeing a recovery in demand, and therefore expect to close fiscal year 2025 with organic profit growth. The retail services and printing sector had another strong quarter, with revenues up for the second consecutive quarter, while profitability was up for the fifth consecutive quarter. This solid performance was mostly due to the continued growth in our book printing activity. Aligned with our growth strategy and disciplined approach to capital allocation, we were active on the M&A front, with the acquisition of Middleton Group in late June and MiResident Graphics in early August. I am pleased with these acquisitions as they will significantly enhance our in-store marketing capabilities in Quebec and Western Canada. We are also growing our customer base and diversifying our offering with new product segments such as fleet and vehicle graphics, to name one amongst others. Also of note for the sector is the introduction of artificial intelligence to automate content production for flyers. Phase 1 of this project represented an investment of $2.5 million, including $1 million coming from ScaleAI, Canada's global innovation cluster in artificial intelligence. Our partners in this project, which was announced publicly on July 10, are EvadoLabs, Canada Entire, and KPDI Digital. The tools we are developing will allow our employees to work more efficiently and provide our customers with better speed to market and better tailored offering for consumers. The main development is complete and implementation has begun. This is another step in the reinvention of our retail services business. Phase 2 of the project is underway, so more to come on that. In summary, and looking ahead for the full fiscal year, Despite the main challenges, we're confident to achieve organic profit growth in both of our two main sectors for the second year in a row. Now over to you, Donald.