Deluxe Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 1, 2024

There are 8 speakers on the call.

Operator

Before we begin and as seen on the current slide, I'd like to remind everyone that comments made today regarding management's intentions, projections, financial estimates and expectations of the company's future strategy or performance are forward looking in nature as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Additional information about factors that may cause our actual results to differ from projections is set forth in the press release we furnished this afternoon and our Form 10 ks for the year ended December 31, 2023 and in other company SEC filings. On the call today, we will discuss non GAAP financial measures, including comparable adjusted revenue, adjusted and comparable adjusted EBITDA and EBITDA margin, adjusted and comparable adjusted EPS and free cash flow. In our press release, today's presentation and our filings with the SEC, you'll find additional disclosures regarding the non GAAP measures, including reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable measures under U. S.

Operator

GAAP. Within the materials, we are also providing reconciliations of GAAP EPS to comparable adjusted EPS, which may assist with your modeling. Finally, as an important additional note, this evening's presentation reflects results aligned to our updated segment reporting structure. As outlined in our filings concurrent with our December Investor Day presentation and today's 8 ks filing, which provides unaudited recap business segment revenue and adjusted EBITDA information for both 20222023, including quarterly details for 2023. Updated operating segment figures are reported excluding any results from exited businesses for the respective periods, with results from such activities reported separately within the filed materials and detailed further within our segment information and reconciliation of GAAP to non GAAP measures slides in the appendix of today's presentation materials.

Operator

Chip will add some detail regarding these updates during his comments this evening. And with that, I'll turn it over to Barry.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Brian, and good evening, everyone. Two things before I get started. First, today I'll be discussing comparable adjusted results for the quarter, which we believe best reflect our ongoing business performance. Later, Chip will discuss our reported consolidated and comparable adjusted figures to give even more perspective. 2nd, as Brian just mentioned, this is the first time we're reporting in our new segments.

Speaker 1

We'll also be happy to have follow-up conversations and answer questions that you may have on these updates. We think this new segmentation provides better insight into the company and our future. Our strategy is clear, invest the relationships, trust and brand built in our print business to grow the payments and data businesses. Very simply, payments and data are our growth drivers and print is our cash generator helping drive payments and data success. On this chart, you can see print was 57% of revenue with payments and data combined delivering 43% for the quarter.

Speaker 1

With Q1 combined payments and data revenue of $226,000,000 growing 8.1% with margins of 22%. This is an attractive portfolio of businesses that we think is often overlooked. Our new operating segments should help highlight these businesses. Over the longer term, we expect the combined payments and data businesses to reach revenue parity with print and expect to provide updates annually. Overall, I'm very pleased to report our strong start to 2024.

Speaker 1

In the Q1, we delivered growth across every key metric revenue, adjusted EBITDA, EPS and margin. Our adjusted EBITDA expanded at a significantly faster rate than revenue, demonstrating the operating leverage we have now purposely built into the company. We were also particularly pleased with the significant year over year improvement in cash flow. As a result of the strong performance, we're raising our 2024 cash flow guidance and affirming all other full year operating metrics. You will recall accelerated cash flow and profit growth are the key tenants of our overall strategy and Northstar program, both of which we outlined during our December Investor Day.

Operator

We believe

Speaker 1

the Q1 performance demonstrates our progress. As a reminder, our North Star goal is to unlock $80,000,000 of incremental comparable adjusted EBITDA and a $100,000,000 of incremental free cash flow by 2026. As of the end of Q1, we're making progress on all 12 Northstar work streams shown here. Initiatives comprising roughly 2 thirds of our targeted $130,000,000 of overall EBITDA improvements are now moving to the execution stage. Recall that the $130,000,000 is aligned to our net Benefit realization will phase in during the remainder of this year and throughout 2025.

Speaker 1

We expect to see in year benefits accelerate and remain well positioned to achieve our goals. Now before reviewing our Q1 highlights, I'd like to provide a few comments on the macro economy and key business drivers. 1st, as we discuss on each of these calls, Deluxe actively monitors trends surrounding overall domestic consumer sentiment, including discretionary spending. We review economic information from many providers, including the Federal Reserve, card associations and more. Looking at this information, alongside our own available data, while it appears consumers still feel inflation pressure, some of the unfavorable spending dynamics between less and more discretionary categories present a year ago appear to have stabilized a bit.

Speaker 1

You see this reflected in our Merchant Services performance. 2nd, our business continues to benefit from our overall One Deluxe go to market approach as our growth during the Q1 included new customer wins across each of our reporting segments. 3rd, trust continues to be a key driver for the company and as we have noted is one of our core values. We were honored to be recognized for the 3rd consecutive year as one of America's most trustworthy companies by Newsweek. This ongoing recognition is testament to the quality both of our products and services and the commitment of all deluxers delivering every day for customers.

Speaker 1

Now to provide some additional details about our Q1 performance. For the quarter, net of business exits, revenue was $529,000,000 up 1.2 percent or just over $6,000,000 year over year. The combined growth in our payments and data businesses more than offset the single digit secular declines in print consistent with our strategy. Importantly, the company is now in its 4th consecutive year of delivering organic revenue growth demonstrating that our shift towards a payments and data company is working. Total adjusted EBITDA dollars increased 7% from the first quarter of 2023 to $97,000,000 continuing to reflect robust operating leverage across our portfolio as noted in my opening comments.

Speaker 1

Adjusted EBITDA margins finished the quarter at 18.3%, reflecting an expansion of a full 100 basis points versus the prior year. We remain particularly pleased with the results, helping to demonstrate our progress around continued optimization of our operating expense base and expansion of adjusted EBITDA levels outlined within our North Star execution plans. Moving on to some segment highlights, beginning with Merchant Services. For the quarter, Merchant segment revenue grew 8.3%, while adjusted EBITDA dollars grew 16.3% and margins expanded 150 basis points from 2023 on strong processing volumes. We're pleased with the strong performance of this business as we approach the 3rd anniversary of the acquisition on June 1.

Speaker 1

Since the combination, revenue, profit, operating leverage and margin have all materially accelerated, further demonstrating the power of our One Deluxe model. We will continue to leverage our strong bank partner relationships, increasing penetration with integrated software vendors or ISVs and direct selling resources. Additionally, we continue to invest responsibly in our differentiated service capabilities, technology and feature enhancements. Moving now to results within the B2B Payment segment. While we saw year over year declines of 7.7% for B2B, The overall results were largely in line with our internal expectations for the Q1.

Speaker 1

As we have shared on previous calls, we're transitioning to a software as a service or a SaaS model, reducing our dependency on one time non recurring revenue like software licenses and check imaging devices. This move to SaaS will also reduce our dependence on core transaction processing revenue over time. This means we are deliberately reducing focus on selling one time non recurring products. As we anticipated and as indicated in our Q1 results, the short term impact has been less revenue, but improved margins. During the Q1, B2B margins expanded 120 basis points, resulting in modest EBITDA impacts despite the drop in revenue.

Speaker 1

Additionally, we remain encouraged by our growing pipeline demonstrating strong demand for our newest products. While we shift our focus to SaaS, we will continue to focus on efficiencies across lockbox, leveraging recent site consolidations and other operating improvements. We have continued to win new deals in the lockbox business, helping to offset secular volume pressure and fund the transition to SaaS products. We have several high quality deals currently in the implementation phase and despite some customer delays, we expect these deals to go live later this year. To be clear, we do expect to see revenue, profits and margin grow simultaneously as the shift towards SaaS unfolds over the next several quarters.

Speaker 1

We also expect to announce a new leader for this segment in the coming weeks. Moving now to data solutions, which delivered particularly strong Q1 results. The core data driven marketing or DDM business had a solid quarter, driving segment revenue growth of 34.5% and adjusted EBITDA growth of 46% during the period. These results reflect continued strong demand for customer acquisition marketing activities across our expansive base of core FI partners. Additionally, data continues to broaden its portfolio of clients extending to other attractive non financial service verticals including telecom, utility and smart home technology providers.

Speaker 1

As we've discussed previously, quarter to quarter lumpiness results from the campaign oriented nature of the DDM business, with customers often shifting planned marketing expense between quarters. Accordingly, we would not expect the levels of growth reported during the Q1 to recur over the balance of the year. Shifting finally to our Print segment. Consistent with our expectations in prior guidance, the Print business experienced a revenue decline of just over 3% to $303,000,000 while adjusted EBITDA margins held at 30%, in line with our outlook and typical Q1 seasonality. Within the segment, legacy check revenues remained roughly flat during the quarter at just over $178,000,000 Promo revenue declines were consistent with our expectations for the Q1, which typically lags sequentially from Q4 holiday related seasonal strength.

Speaker 1

Overall, we continue to manage the print portfolio to maximize cash flow through operating efficiencies, pricing actions and responsible investments. To summarize, our overall Q1 results speak to our transformation and NorthStar progress. This ongoing performance improvement provides us with a great foundation to deliver our 2024 revenue growth and EBITDA expansion goals. While work remains, our consistent and sustained pace of progress create even greater confidence in our bright future as a payments and data company. Finally, before passing this to Chip, I want to acknowledge and thank all fellow Deluxeers who work hard every day to deliver these results for our customers and investors.

Speaker 1

With that, I'll turn it over to Chip.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Barry, and good evening, everyone. As Barry noted in his opening, we were very pleased with our Q1 progress, particularly our better than anticipated cash flow generation and our strong comparable adjusted EBITDA growth during the period. As Brian pointed out upfront, our updated segment reporting reflects the removal of all business exit impacts to both ongoing and recasted historical operating segment financials. This will allow for a clean view of our segment performance over time, net of any impacts from divested lines of business. The combined impact of the business exits can be seen separately within the historical results of today's 8 ks filing as well as within the enterprise level non GAAP reconciliations found within the appendix of today's materials and in our past filings.

Speaker 2

Importantly, 2024 operating segment results will continue to be reported excluding any impacts from residual payroll business results that may be realized as customer migrations take place over the course of the year. This is consistent with the conversion agreements we executed during the second half of twenty twenty three as we made the decision to exit these businesses. As a result, our total enterprise 2024 results will now incorporate a comparable adjusted revenue figure in addition to comparable adjusted EBITDA and EPS to remove any payroll business impacts incurred from both the current and prior year results. Now with that out of the way, I'll begin today with a bit of additional color around our consolidated highlights for the period before moving on to the segment results, our balance sheet and cash flow progress and updated 2024 guidance. For the quarter, on a reported basis, we posted total revenue of $535,000,000 down 1.9% driven by the impact of our prior year exits, but increasing 1.2% year over year on a comparable adjusted basis.

Speaker 2

We reported GAAP net income of $10,800,000 or $0.24 per share for the period, improving from $2,800,000 or $0.06 per share in the Q1 of 2023. This increase was driven by improved operating results, particularly lower SG and A expense, as well as gains relating to the business exits during the period. Comparable adjusted EBITDA was $96,900,000 up $6,300,000 or 7% versus the Q1 of last year. Comparable adjusted EBITDA margins were 18.3%, improving 100 basis points versus the Q1 of 2023. Q1 comparable adjusted EPS came in at $0.72 improving from $0.69 in 2023, primarily driven by the improved operating income results previously noted.

Speaker 2

Now turning to our operating segment details beginning with the Merchant Services business. The Merchant business grew 1st quarter revenue by 8.3% year over year to $96,500,000 reflecting strong Q1 performance as Barry noted. Segment adjusted EBITDA finished at $21,400,000 improving $3,000,000 or 16.3 percent versus the prior year with margins expanding 150 basis points to 22.2 percent of revenue, mainly resulting from the strong top line growth and our ongoing profit enhancement initiatives. In addition to the highlights Barry covered, the merchant business also benefited from robust seasonal volumes within the government vertical during the quarter and remains well positioned to continue momentum towards our mid to high single digit revenue growth and low 20 percent adjusted EBITDA long term outlook. Turning to B2B payments.

Speaker 2

As a reminder, our B2B segment includes our treasury management offerings featuring both our R360 software and lockbox remittance offerings on the AR side in addition to our eCheck and DPX AP disbursement solutions. Results from RDC and other scanner hardware and our fraud and security suite of offerings are also included within this segment. For the Q1, B2B segment revenues finished at 69 point $4,000,000 down from $75,200,000 during 2023 consistent with our expectation for Q1 performance. While overall remittance volumes remained fairly stable on a sequential basis during the quarter, the balance of the business was unable to fully offset some non recurring hardware sales from 2023 and other one time items, resulting in an overall 7.7% decline year over year. Despite the revenue headwinds within the segment, adjusted EBITDA margins continue to improve consistent with the focus on operational efficiencies to which we have alluded on our prior 2 quarterly earnings calls.

Speaker 2

Margins improved by 120 basis points to 19.2% during the quarter with adjusted EBITDA dollars declining 1.5% from 2023 to finish at $13,300,000 Despite the expected soft start to the year, we anticipate flat to low single digit full year revenue growth as we transition to recurring revenues as Barry discussed. Overall EBITDA margins are expected to improve to the low to mid-twenty percent range over time. Moving on to data solutions. This segment rebounded very strongly on both a year over year and sequential basis, delivering strong results for the Q1. Data revenues finished at $59,700,000 for the quarter, reflecting a sequential increase of more than $15,500,000 from its seasonally lowest 4th quarter, achieving overall growth of 34 point 5% versus Q1 of 2023.

Speaker 2

As we noted a quarter ago, the data driven marketing business saw several customers accelerate campaigns into the Q4 of 2022, pulling planned data spend from the prior year Q1 comparable results. As Barry referenced, the quarter to quarter volatility of campaign timing within this business can make sequential growth rates difficult to predict with great precision. We continue to suggest averaging the 2 to 3 most recent quarters actual results for both revenue and EBITDA dollars as a good barometer for ongoing segment level financial performance over the balance of the year. We remain very encouraged by the recent performance of this segment and believe our mid to high single digit longer term growth guidance remains appropriate from a full year perspective. Data's adjusted EBITDA margins for the quarter improved 200 basis points to 25%, again reflecting campaign timing impacts within the Q1 compare as referenced previously.

Speaker 2

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $14,900,000 up 46.1% from the prior year period. We continue to have strong confidence in the long term low to mid-twenty percent adjusted EBITDA rate guidance for this segment. Turning now to our Print businesses. Print segment 1st quarter revenue was $303,400,000 declining 3.4% on a year over year basis. This decline was in line with our secular unit decline expectations across this business with legacy promotional solutions revenue driving nearly all the full segment decline as we continue to prioritize stronger margin printed forms and other business essentials.

Speaker 2

Adjusted EBITDA margins declined 30 basis points year over year to 30%, continuing to reflect our operating expense discipline and efficiency across cost of goods sold inputs in particular. Consistent with our long term outlook, for the balance of 2024, we continue to expect to see low to mid single digit revenue declines across the Print segment with adjusted EBITDA margins remaining in the low 30s. Turning now to our balance sheet and cash flow. We ended the Q1 with a net debt level of $1,540,000,000 modestly up from our 2023 year end level, while remaining materially lower than the $1,660,000,000 mark at the end of Q1 of the prior year, consistent with our ongoing commitment to debt reduction as a top capital allocation priority for the enterprise. Our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio was 3.7 times at the end of the quarter, also increasing minimally from the 3.6 times reported at year end.

Speaker 2

As we've noted, our long term strategic target remains approximately 3 times leverage and the Q1 typically reflects our seasonally lowest cash flow result, which tends to drive slight increases to our reporting leverage ratio relative to the balance of the year. Free cash flow, defined as cash provided by operating activities less capital expenditures, finished at $6,200,000 for the quarter, improving by $38,000,000 from the negative results reported during the Q1 of 2023, driven by continued strong working capital efficiency, in addition to reduced year over year CapEx spend, lower cash incentive payments and improved operating results. This was a continuation of the stronger than anticipated operating cash flow results we have reported since the Q2 of last year, noting that we guided to an expected negative first quarter free cash flow results on our prior earnings call. We continue to expect the Q1 to reflect our seasonally lowest cash flow results, inclusive of payments for annual license and maintenance expenditures, employee compensation payments and other items. As a result of this Q1 performance and our updated forecast, we are raising our full year free cash flow guidance range as Barry alluded within his opening remarks.

Speaker 2

We remain very pleased with our overall operating cash flow generation during recent quarters and our ability to continue our delevering path consistent with our clear capital allocation priorities. As an additional note regarding our overall capital structure, I wanted to take a moment to provide a bit of additional color as to the status of our present debt maturities summarized on the current slide. As we announced during the Q1 and mid March, we entered into accounts receivable securitization facility with a capacity of up to $80,000,000 Through the Q1, we have drawn approximately $65,000,000 on the facility, directing these funds toward prepayments against the balance of our 2024 required quarterly term loan amortization. This AR facility provides us 2 primary benefits relative to our prior capital structure. 1st, the 36 month agreement terminates in the Q1 of 2027 and as such acts to shift out as much as $80,000,000 of maturities to the column labeled 2027 plus on the current slide.

Speaker 2

Secondly, the base rate plus 140 basis points of interest on the new facility provides rate advantage borrowing against the balance of our 2026 variable rate debt. As shown here, our current revolving credit and term loan facilities carry June of 2026 maturities, while our 8% bonds mature in 2029. We remain very comfortable with our present levels of available liquidity and look forward to providing additional updates on any capital structure developments going forward. Before turning to guidance, consistent with past quarters, our Board approved a regular quarterly dividend of $0.30 per share on all outstanding shares. The dividend will be payable on June 3, 2024 to all shareholders of record as of market closing on May 20, 2024.

Speaker 2

I'm pleased to update our 2024 guidance reaffirming our estimates from our December Investor Day and raising our free cash flow range this evening. As Barry noted previously, we continue to make strong progress in line with our original expectations across all key Northstar initiatives. Forecasted realization of the implemented work stream impacts noted in Barry's comments are fully reflected within our existing 2024 guidance ranges. Our updated guidance figures are as follows, keeping in mind all figures are approximate and reflect the impact of business exits over the past 12 months. Revenue of $2,140,000,000 to $2,180,000,000 reflecting flat to 2% comparable adjusted growth versus 2023.

Speaker 2

Adjusted EBITDA of $400,000,000 to $420,000,000 reflecting between 2% 7% comparable adjusted growth adjusted EPS of $3.10 to $3.40 reflecting 3% to 13% comparable adjusted growth. And free cash flow of $80,000,000 to $100,000,000 increased from our prior guidance range of $60,000,000 to $80,000,000 Finally, in order to assist with your modeling, our guidance assumes the following: interest expense of $120,000,000 to $125,000,000 an adjusted tax rate of 26%, depreciation and amortization of $150,000,000 of which acquisition amortization is approximately $55,000,000 an average outstanding share count of 44,500,000 shares and capital expenditures of approximately $100,000,000 This guidance is subject to among other things prevailing macroeconomic conditions, including interest rates, labor supply issues, inflation and the impact of other divestitures. To summarize, we are very pleased with the Q1 2024 performance and resulting increased cash flow forecast. We look forward to continuing the growth and operating leverage momentum throughout the balance of the year, while remaining focused on executing against our broad Northstar initiatives and continuing our organic revenue growth, EBITDA expansion and deleveraging journey. Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

Speaker 3

Thank you. We will now begin

Speaker 2

the question and answer session.

Speaker 3

Your first question comes from the line of Kartik Mehta from North Northcoast Research. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Good evening. Barry, on the merchant services side of the business, you saw pretty good growth. And I'm wondering, as you look at your business and try to compare it with the industry or kind of the credit card association numbers out there. What type of growth would you anticipate relative to the growth that the associations would see?

Speaker 1

So, Kartik, thanks for being here. I would tell you that we're pretty we're very pleased with the growth that we're seeing in our merchant business. As you know, the business that we have there is very focused in good secular growth categories and we think that we're actually outperforming the market in those categories. If you look at the card association numbers, they also include volume growth in very, very high growth categories that often also include higher risk. Our portfolio is a very clean, healthy portfolio that produces quality results over time and we're very pleased by that performance.

Speaker 1

And you know from when we acquired the business, it was a low to mid single digit grower and we've expanded that and we have a great guide for the year that we think really talks about and shows the power of bringing that business inside of Deluxe and our One Deluxe go to market model where we can bring more products and services to more customers and leverage the trust that customers have in us now expanded across a bigger portfolio of businesses.

Speaker 4

Chip, as you look at the drivers for free cash flow and the improvement that you're going to see in 2024 and the raised guidance. If you look at those factors, are there factors that you look at where you can see maybe an opportunity to improve and the free cash flow guidance be maybe on the higher end or improve even more?

Speaker 2

Yes, I appreciate the question. So I'll tell you the strong Q1 really was once again a narrative of really good working capital efficiency. You may recall in the Q4, we surprised to the positive based off extremely strong working capital. That left me hesitant to change my existing guidance range coming into the year. And once again, here in the Q1, the team managed the working capital very well and we really pulled forward cash to deliver a solid number, nearly $40,000,000 better than a year ago.

Speaker 2

Given it is working capital, I have to be mindful that some of it could be timing and a pull forward of future quarters. So my view is roughly half of that sticks for the year at this moment in time. And at this point, we need to continue to execute and see how the year goes on. And for sure, there's an opportunity to over improve with execution and other levers as the year goes on. But at this moment in time, I look at that strong start as a good sign with what's to come.

Speaker 2

We raised the $20,000,000 range for now and then we'll see how we execute as the year goes on. The other point would be, I do anticipate some of that cash flow that occurred in the Q1 being a slight pull forward from the second. I do expect the first half of the year to be significantly better than it was a year ago, But I'm not really sure exactly what it means from a Q2 number specifically compared to last year, but overall really pleased with the performance and great opportunity to raise the guidance here at start of the year.

Speaker 4

And then just one last question, Jeff. Last quarter you gave a very good overview of maybe how the quarters were going to play out from an EPS standpoint. I'm wondering if you could provide just maybe cadence or your expectations as we go through the year?

Speaker 1

Yes, maybe I'll start at the top. I know

Speaker 2

you asked EPS. Let me just start at the top. I think the one thing so first of all, really pleased with the data business and the 35% growth rate that they post, just incredible. Obviously, we're not expecting that to continue here in the Q2. In my prepared remarks, I specifically pointed you guys to look at the average of the previous 2 to 3 quarters, specifically 3 in this case because revenue was roughly 65 in the Q3 of last year, 45 in the 4th and then 60 here in first.

Speaker 2

And so if you average that out, I think that's a good indicator for where data revenue will be in the Q2. Now data is lapping some tough comps, especially in the second and the third quarter. So if you think about the sequence of the top line, I think really getting data right is the key piece on the board to land on the right revenue starting point. Flowing that down through towards profitability, I don't really think I have great guidance for you other than we would expect that as the year goes on, the benefit from Northstar, as Barry mentioned, should grow over time at least until we get to the Q4 where we lap the big in year benefit from a year ago. So I would expect margins to be pretty solid over the next few quarters, growing overall dollars and it should flow to reasonable EPS numbers here in the next couple of quarters.

Speaker 4

Perfect. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Speaker 3

Your next question comes from the line of Jonathan Novartic from TD Cowen Inc. Jonathan, please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hey, guys. Jonathan on for Lance. Nice job on the quarter. Nice job on free cash flow as well. I know you said it, this was largely driven by working capital.

Speaker 5

So can you maybe walk us through the puts and takes, like what items in working capital drove the positive free cash flow?

Speaker 2

Yes, sure, Jonathan. It was mostly from an AR perspective. So very pleased with where our DSO landed on the AR side. By my calculation, the DSO was at 28 days at the end of the quarter with a substantial improvement from where it was a year ago. Now you got to keep in mind, a year ago, we had just gone live on our ERP upgrade.

Speaker 2

So that did impact our overall AR balance a bit. And so it was definitely one of the reasons why AR could be so solid, but the 28 days DSO compares to 31 at the end of the year. So it does show regardless of the timing of the year over year perspective from ERP, we did make progress. The other thing I'll just point you to is we continue to do well managing our inventory. This is a journey we've been talking about probably since the Q2 of last year, but we've been steadily walking our inventory balances down as again we go live on ERP.

Speaker 2

It's been many, many years, but we're through the supply chain disruptions and some of the challenges that we faced back in the 2021 timeframe. And so as you look at what we've done since about Q2 of last year to where we are now, inventory was a good driver of working capital improvement as well. So really at the highest level, you're going to see it in AR and inventory when you get a chance to digest our queue later this week.

Speaker 5

Great. Thanks. My second one is on EBITDA. What levers do you guys have available to improve EBITDA margins in 2024? And is there any segment that stands out with the most opportunity?

Speaker 2

The question, what levers do we have to improve EBITDA?

Speaker 5

Yes, that's right. I'm guessing it's largely driven in like cost improvements, but just curious. Yes.

Speaker 2

So if you think back to our Investor Day,

Speaker 1

it's the

Speaker 2

page I always think of. It's the page I said if there's one page I want you guys to remember the day it's this one. I clearly remembered it. But I did a walk of kind of our starting point for the program of Northstar to where we'd be at the very end of 2026. But if you think about narrowing that focus into just this year, it's really the same walk.

Speaker 2

So we started at $391,000,000 as our comparable adjusted beginning balance for the year. Of course, right off, we have to take off the secular declines, which I like big round numbers. So let's call that 25. Really from that point to the mid range of our guidance, the lever is going to be what we're achieving in Northstar. As a reminder, we've got all the work streams that go across org discipline, pricing actions, procurement savings, you name it.

Speaker 2

We've laid it all out on the slide deck. All of those levers are there. And so if you combine the cost levers we're doing as part of Northstar along with the revenue initiatives and just growth across the payments and data business, which as a reminder, our scale businesses that as we grow the top line across the 3 B2B merchant and data, it should bring improved margins with it. And again, really as part of Northstar going after the corporate cost center as well to try to remove costs from the shared services. So I think the answer is, it's all of the obvious levers you would expect and it's all of the things we've gone through as part of the Northstar journey and the simple walk is exactly like I laid out.

Speaker 5

Got it. Thank you. And my last question is actually on Northstar itself. Can you just share a little bit details of where we are today? How much was spent in Northstar during the Q1?

Speaker 5

And, yes, that's it. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yes, sure. So, you'll see in our earnings release that we had roughly $15,000,000 of restructuring costs in the Q1. The majority of that was Northstar, not perfect. There was still a $1,000,000 or 2 non Northstar related activities, but net net it was mostly that. So you may recall, we were at roughly 40 $5,000,000 through the program at the end of the year.

Speaker 2

So I call it right around $60,000,000 in North Star restructuring spend at this point. You'll recall that the overall program has an estimated cost of somewhere between $115,000,000 $135,000,000 So we sit here today at 60, That leaves us 55 to 75 left to go. We do expect a little could drift into the first half of next year, mostly Q1, but a little bit could drift in. So everything is on track from a spend perspective. The other thing I signaled in Q1 is I know you guys will recall, we spent $90,000,000 in restructuring in 23.

Speaker 2

We said it would come down here in 2024. I provided a range of $60,000,000 to $80,000,000 I'm still in that range. So kind of take everything I just said, sitting at 60 today through the Q1, 55 to 75 left to go the program with some of it shifting into next year and overall staying in that range, I think you can figure out kind of how to sequence the restructuring dollars the rest of the year.

Speaker 3

Your next question comes from the line of Charlie Strauzer from CJS Securities. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hi, good evening. Make sure you're hearing me okay.

Speaker 2

We certainly

Speaker 6

Great. Just when looking at the Project North Star and you've talked a lot about that today. Of the things that's always kind of a hallmark of Deluxe is the ability to take cost out of the business over the years and the revenue side has always been the more elusive or more difficult one to capitalize on those opportunities. Where are you on the revenue front there? And maybe provide a little more color as to some of the opportunities that are in front of you on the revenue side?

Speaker 1

Charlie, really appreciate the question. And I think it's one of the things that really is a hallmark of where Deluxe is today. So at the beginning of my prepared remarks, I talked about the progress we're making in our payments and data business, which is about 43% of the company's revenue today and you saw in the Q1 on a combined basis, those businesses that portfolio of businesses grew over 8% with healthy margins at 22%. So we fundamentally think the company is in a very different place today where we have 43% of the company's revenue growing in the high single digit range with very attractive margins and we're doing it at the same time that we're controlling or limiting the downside exposure on the secular declining business like Chex where we're continuing to win market share, putting in operational improvements etcetera to produce and protect that cash flow. So we think the company today is a very different company than the company of just a few years ago that was not growing organically.

Speaker 1

And if you just see the aggregates, we're now in the 4th consecutive year. I mean, Charlie, just once again the 4th consecutive year of organic revenue growth. And while that number may be modest, it is proving that we can consistently grow the company and we're doing that by the success of the payments and data business as an aggregate.

Speaker 3

Your next question comes from the line of Marc Riddick from Sidoti. Marc, please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Hi. Good evening, everyone. Hi, Marc. Hi, Marc.

Speaker 7

So I was sort of curious if we could spend a little time on a couple of the other NorthStar threats that we haven't had a chance to touch on, one of which is around real estate. And I was wondering if you could maybe give us an update there, if there's are there any things that we should be thinking about on that front?

Speaker 1

Mark, you may recall, we have made a lot of progress on real estate consolidating our operating footprint, especially around our lockbox operation, etcetera. And we continue to make more progress even in the Q1 consolidating some of our office locations and the space we have in that and our footprint. I think we'll continue to see us to make incremental improvement there. But over the last few years, we've already made a very significant step forward on consolidating our real estate footprint. And while there's a bit more to go, I feel like we have made significant progress there.

Speaker 7

Great. And then I was wondering if you could also sort of I wanted to step back to one of the comments around with cash flow improvement year over year. And Chip, I think you brought up the commentary around the timing of the ERP system last year. If I remember correctly and correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm not off the top of my head, I'm trying to remember if this was right. There was like a little bit of a blip when you guys went live that may have sort of maybe set you back a week or so or something like that.

Speaker 7

So relatively speaking, there's sort of a there's a you guys are sort of up against it a little bit last year with that part of it. Was there a little bit of an impact there that you obviously weren't seeing this year that was somewhat helpful there?

Speaker 1

Yes, a little bit.

Speaker 2

I mean, if you think about our print businesses, they would have had a little bit of pressure in Q1 a year ago with not being able to get everything out the door with perfect timing and then made up for it in the Q2. In the blend of everything, when you think about secular unit declines, everything going on, it's not a huge part of the print story. But if you're looking at it in absolute terms, there was a bit of pressure we would have seen in the Q1 last year that gave us favorability in the Q2. So as you look ahead to Q2 comps, there will be a little bit of pressure with print, but we think it really doesn't change the narrative of what's going on there with the business just continuing to execute in this low to mid single digit decline levels. Right.

Speaker 7

Got you. And then finally for me, I was sort of curious as to maybe if you could give a little bit of a pricing dynamic update of what you're seeing out there as far as are there any particular areas where pricing pressures or any pushback has been seen that should be called out or what are we seeing there as far as your expectations as to pricing and escalations there?

Speaker 1

So, we continue to be successful at moving the price for our products and up in the marketplace really across the portfolio. And we think we're able to do that because of the quality of the product and the service that we provide. We have of course no customer wants to see a price increase. So I think that we've been very responsible and I think our customers would agree we've been responsible in the way we have been advancing our prices in the marketplace. And we have been able to make those price increases stand and we continue to take price.

Speaker 1

We had we put some additional price changes increases in the Q1 that we benefit later in the year because as you know, some of the increases get announced, but it takes a bit of time for them to be implemented and actually hit the P and L. But we continue to take price across the portfolio, and it does not appear to have impact on volume.

Speaker 2

Yes. Mark, I would just add that you may recall at Investor Day, we talked about pricing as one of the Northstar initiatives and how it was just advancing itself from inflationary input costs relative to output price and really moving to more of a analytical view of price stratification across the customer base or product base, really moving the need on how we do it. So that is part of the initiative and is one of the drivers behind why we continue to do it and feel good about the responsible price we're taking. I would say if you boil it all the way up, you got to remember you got parts of the business with some decline aspects of it, you got to normalize it all. But at the highest level, I'd say our growth in the Q1 was probably right down the middle fifty-fifty price volume, healthy mix of both.

Speaker 6

Great.

Speaker 7

Well, it's certainly encouraging start to the year. Thank you very much.

Speaker 3

That concludes our Q and A session. I will now turn the conference back over to Brian Anderson for closing remarks.

Operator

Thank you, Mark. Before we conclude, I'd like to share that management will be participating in person at both the Needham Technology Media and Consumer Conference on May 14th 15th

Speaker 1

and

Operator

the TD Cowen Technology Media and Telecom Conference on May 29th 30th, both in New York during the quarter. Thank you again for joining us today and we look forward to speaking with you all again in August as we share our Q2 results.

Speaker 3

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you for all your time. You may now disconnect.

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Key Takeaways

  • Payments & data revenue grew 8.1% to $226M with 22% margins, underscoring the success of the strategy to invest in growth drivers.
  • Merchant Services revenue rose 8.3% and adjusted EBITDA climbed 16.3%, driving a 150 bps margin expansion and demonstrating operating leverage.
  • B2B Payments revenue declined 7.7% as the business transitions to a SaaS model, though margins expanded 120 bps, setting up sustainable recurring revenue streams.
  • Data Solutions delivered 34.5% revenue growth and 46% adjusted EBITDA growth on strong marketing campaign demand, but quarterly timing may cause lumpiness.
  • The company raised its full-year free cash flow guidance to $80–100M (from $60–80M) and affirmed other 2024 metrics after reporting 7% comparable EBITDA growth and 100 bps margin expansion.
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Earnings Conference Call
Deluxe Q1 2024
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