Titan Machinery Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 22, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Total inventory was flat at $1.1 billion as of 04/30/2025, with ongoing initiatives targeting at least a $100 million reduction and sequential declines in floorplan interest expense.
  • Parts and service revenue remained essentially flattish, contributing around 25% of top-line sales and over half of gross profit, underscored by two CNH top dealer awards for customer service.
  • European segment revenue rose 44.2% (47.5% on a constant-currency basis), led by Romania benefiting from EU stimulus funds, and full-year guidance now anticipates 23–28% growth.
  • Domestic agriculture same-store sales fell 14.1%, with a pretax loss of $12.8 million and equipment margins at just 3.3%, as weak farmer profitability and undefined government support keep demand subdued.
  • Australia segment sales dipped 1% same-store (up 3.6% cc), and full-year revenue is now expected to decline 20–25% amid dry weather and the normalization of sprayer deliveries.
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Earnings Conference Call
Titan Machinery Q1 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Greetings and welcome to the Titan Machinery first quarter of fiscal 2026 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the call over to your host, Mr. Jeff Sonnek, with ICR. Thank you. You may begin.

Jeff Sonnek
Managing Director of Investor Relations at ICR

Thank you. Welcome to the Titan Machinery first quarter fiscal 2026 earnings conference call. On the call today from the company are Bryan Knutson, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Bo Larsen, Chief Financial Officer. By now, everyone should have access to the earnings release for the fiscal first quarter ended April 30th, 2025, which is also available on Titan's investor relations website at ir.titanmachinery.com. In addition, we're providing a supplemental presentation to accompany today's prepared remarks, along with webcast and replay information, which can also be found on Titan's IR website within the events and presentations section. We would also like to remind everyone that the prepared remarks contain forward-looking statements, and management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions. The statements do not guarantee future performance, and therefore undue reliance should not be placed upon them.

Jeff Sonnek
Managing Director of Investor Relations at ICR

These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including those identified in the forward-looking statement section of today's earnings release and the company's filings with the SEC, to include the risk factors section of Titan's most recently filed annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. Except as may be required by applicable law, Titan assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements that may be made in today's release or call. Please note that during today's call, we may discuss non-GAAP financial measures, including results on an adjusted basis. We believe these adjusted financial measures can facilitate a more complete analysis and greater transparency into Titan's ongoing financial performance, particularly when comparing underlying results from period to period.

Jeff Sonnek
Managing Director of Investor Relations at ICR

have included reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in today's release and supplemental presentation. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, we will open the call to take your questions. I would now like to turn the call over to the company's President and CEO, Bryan Knutson. Bryan, please go ahead.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

Thank you, Jeff. Good morning to everyone on the call. I'll start today by covering our performance for the quarter, followed by an update on our strategic initiatives and operational focus points for the year. I'll then discuss the current market environment and performance across each of our operating segments before turning the call over to Bo for his financial review and comments on our fiscal 2026 modeling assumptions. Our first quarter results demonstrated our ability to advance our short-term goals in a challenging market environment. While headwinds persist across the agricultural sector, our team remains focused on continuing to execute upon our initiative to optimize inventory and navigate through the trough of the cycle. We continue to anticipate a very subdued retail environment, given the ongoing likelihood of weak farmer profitability, with government support programs remaining an important but still very much undefined variable.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

While challenges persist in the marketplace, our team's relentless focus on disciplined execution of our inventory reduction initiatives and our customer care strategy is allowing us to manage key variables of the business that will improve our position as we navigate this cycle. With that, I will now transition to our current inventory position. As you can see on our balance sheet, total inventories were $1.1 billion as of April 30, 2025, essentially flat compared to fiscal 2025 year-end. This is very much in line with our previously communicated expectations as we've been receiving pre-sold units from the factory for delivery to customers in the first half of the year, while simultaneously taking in trades as we deliver those new units to customers. Overall, I'm quite pleased with our inventory progress, which has significantly improved our overall position over the last three quarters.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

Our customer care initiative remains a key focal point for us, with parts and service providing a stable foundation even as equipment sales face cyclical pressure. This stability is critical in environments such as this, as parts and service will make up about a quarter of our total revenue mix, but well over half of our gross profit dollars this year. We are leveraging our scale and service capacity across our footprint, which is helping us maintain strong customer engagement. CNH recently validated these efforts by recognizing Titan Machinery with two of their top dealer awards, both centered around superior customer service, which is something that we take great pride in. In our domestic agriculture segment, while industry equipment demand remained subdued, the first quarter revenue was stronger than initially expected due to the timing of pre-sold equipment deliveries.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

On our last call, we mentioned that Q1 domestic ag could be down 40-45%, but noted that high volumes of pre-sales could significantly impact results. Indeed, we received and delivered a substantial amount of pre-sold equipment in Q1, which includes a pull forward of revenue we had in our plan for the second quarter. In the near term, we are still working through our backlog of pre-sold units. However, the back half of the year appears challenging with lower visibility and currently sluggish order activity. Farmers remain in a wait-and-see mode, with near-term sentiment hinging on commodity prices, moisture levels, and the potential of government farm aid. We are encouraging OEM partners to enhance programming for Q3 and Q4 to help stimulate demand in this environment, but absent that, it will remain challenging in the near term.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

It is helpful that spring planting across our domestic footprint has gone relatively well for our customers. However, we have received below-average precipitation in much of our footprint, so timely rains throughout the growing season will remain critical. Before turning to construction, I'd also like to welcome the team from Farmers Implementing Irrigation. We closed on this two-store acquisition on May 15th, and it allows us to expand our New Holland presence in the productive eastern South Dakota region. In our construction segment, performance was largely in line with our expectations, and we anticipate that to continue throughout the year. Revenues showed modest growth over the prior year period, reflecting relative stability in this segment despite broader economic uncertainty as infrastructure projects continue to provide a base level of demand.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

However, as we experienced in domestic ag, we are seeing customers take a more cautious approach to capital expenditures given interest rate concerns and broader economic uncertainty. Our European segment was a bright spot, particularly in Romania, where EU stimulus funds have increased buying activity, which we expect will extend through the end of September. While we anticipate a lift, the degree to which was hard to determine. However, it is clear this support will be meaningful for our operations in Romania. Our business in Ukraine is also continuing to drive growth despite the ongoing conflict with Russia. It has been impressive what our team is able to accomplish given those circumstances. Planting conditions across our European footprint are off to a good start, and industry volumes in Europe are expected to be more stable than in the United States.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

In our Australia segment, we're navigating through market conditions similar to our domestic ag segment. Additionally, the normalization of self-propelled sprayer deliveries that we discussed last quarter is playing out as expected, with the segment transitioning from working through nearly three years of delayed order backlog to selling in line with subdued retail demand. New order activity is modestly weaker than we had anticipated due to dry conditions combined with low commodity prices, and as a result, we are revising down our full-year revenue expectations as Bo will discuss further. Sowing is well underway in Australia's winter crop season, but as previously mentioned, conditions are currently quite dry in much of our footprint, and thus precipitation is very much needed to initiate crop development.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

In closing, while we are operating in a down market, the progress we've made on our inventory reduction and optimization initiatives reinforces our belief that we'll be well positioned by fiscal year-end. Our confidence stems from the disciplined execution throughout our organization, the continued success of our parts and service businesses, and the progress we've made in positioning Titan to manage through this phase of the cycle. I want to express my sincere gratitude to our entire team for their tremendous focus and dedication during this more challenging period. Their ability to execute while maintaining exceptional customer service has been a key differentiator for us. Consequently, we remain steadfast in emerging from this period as a stronger company and delivering long-term value to our shareholders. With that, I will turn the call over to Bo for his financial review.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

Thanks, Bryan, and good morning, everyone. Starting with our consolidated results for the fiscal 2026 first quarter, total revenue was $594.3 million compared to $628.7 million in the prior year period, reflecting a 5.5% decrease in same-store sales driven by the factors that Bryan discussed earlier. Gross profit for the first quarter was $90.9 million compared to $121.8 million in the prior year period, and gross profit margin was 15.3%. These decreases were primarily driven by lower equipment margins, particularly in our domestic ag segment, resulting from our continued efforts to manage inventory to targeted levels. Operating expenses were $96.4 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 compared to $99.2 million in the prior year period. The year-over-year decrease of 2.8% was driven by lower variable expenses associated with the year-over-year decline in revenue and profitability.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

Floor plan and other interest expense was $11.1 million as compared to $9.5 million in the prior year period. However, on a sequential basis, floor plan and other interest expense decreased 15.3%, reflecting our continued efforts to reduce interest-bearing inventory over the past few quarters. Floor plan interest expense is expected to continue to decline as we make additional progress on inventory reduction and mix optimization, and this is building toward a more meaningful decrease in floor plan interest expense next fiscal year. Net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 was $13.2 million, or $0.58 per diluted share, compared to last year's first quarter net income of $9.4 million, or $0.41 per diluted share.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

Now turning to a brief overview of our segment results for the first quarter, our agriculture segment realized a same-store sales decrease of 14.1% to $384.4 million and benefited from a pull forward of pre-sold equipment deliveries, as Bryan already mentioned. Agriculture segment pre-tax loss was $12.8 million compared to pre-tax income of $13 million in the first quarter of the prior year, resulting from softer retail demand and continued efforts to manage inventory to targeted levels, both of which impacted equipment margins, although to a lesser degree than the more intense margin contraction we experienced in the fourth quarter of last year. In our construction segment, same-store sales increased 0.9% to $72.1 million. As Bryan mentioned, we continue to see relative stability in this segment despite broader macro uncertainty. Pre-tax loss was $4.2 million compared to pre-tax income of $0.3 million in the first quarter of the prior year.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

In our European segment, sales increased 44.2% to $93.9 million, which reflects a same-store sales increase of 44%, partially offset by a slight negative foreign currency impact. On a constant currency basis, revenue increased 47.5% and was led by Romania, which was bolstered by EU stimulus programs. Pre-tax income for the segment was $4.7 million compared to pre-tax income of $1.4 million in the first quarter of last year. In our Australia segment, same-store sales decreased 1% to $44 million, which included a 4.6% negative foreign currency impact. On a constant currency basis, revenue increased $1.6 million, or 3.6%. Despite these results, retail demand was somewhat softer than we had anticipated, and we expect that incremental softness will continue throughout the rest of the year.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

Additionally, the quarterly comparables get more challenging in this segment as we progress through the year, as last year was bolstered by nearly three years' worth of sprayer backlog. Pre-tax loss was $0.6 million compared to pre-tax loss of $0.5 million in the first quarter of last year. Now on to our balance sheet and inventory position. We had cash of $22 million and an adjusted debt-to-tangible net worth ratio of 1.8 as of April 30th, 2025, which is well below our bank covenant of 3.5 times. Regarding inventory, in the first quarter, we reduced our equipment inventory by approximately $13 million sequentially to $913 million, bringing our cumulative equipment inventory reduction to approximately $406 million from peak levels in Q2 of the prior year. This was consistent with our expectations at the beginning of the year.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

The $100 million of additional equipment inventory reductions we discussed last quarter remains our target, with most of that reduction expected to come in the second half of this fiscal year. We continue to maintain strong corporate oversight and controls around inventory management, working to stay ahead of the aging curve created by the heavy influx of equipment shipments as supply chains normalized post-pandemic. Throughout this process, we continue to optimize our inventory composition by reducing aged inventory while building toward an optimal mix that better aligns with customer demand, which will have the added benefit of further reducing floor plan interest expense. With that, I'll finish by commenting on our fiscal 2026 full-year guidance, which we are reiterating from an adjusted loss per diluted share perspective but modifying in terms of revenue modeling assumptions for our international segments.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

Starting with our top line assumptions, for the domestic agriculture segment, we continue to expect revenue to be down in the range of 20%-25%. North America large ag industry volume is still expected to be down approximately 30% year-over-year, which aligns with the midpoint of our expectations for cash crop new equipment revenue. Our parts and service business continues to perform well, and we expect flattish revenue in these areas. For the construction segment, we are maintaining our expectations to be in the range of down 5% to down 10%. The federal infrastructure bill continues to provide healthy support for industry fundamentals, but near-term economic uncertainty is impacting construction activity. We are updating revenue assumptions for our international segments based on localized dynamics. Our European segment is now expected to be up 23%-28%. This improved outlook is led by the aforementioned strength in Romania.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

For our Australia segment, we are updating our expected revenue to be down 20%-25% as market conditions remain challenging and farmer sentiment is lower given dry conditions across much of our footprint. From a margin perspective, our fiscal 2026 assumptions for consolidated full-year equipment margin are to be approximately 8%. Now turning to the ag segment specifically, in the first quarter, equipment margins came in lower than expected at 3.3%, and we expect that the ag segment will have similar equipment margins in the second quarter. However, we expect their margins will improve in the back half of the year as we optimize our inventory mix and work toward our year-end targets. We are pleased with the progress we are making on this important initiative, and we are prioritizing this proactive approach to reducing used equipment levels.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

Consistent with our prior expectations, operating expenses are expected to decrease year-over-year on an absolute basis, which is expected to translate to approximately 17% of sales due to the lower revenue base we are forecasting as compared to the prior year. In summary, while we are making some refinements to Europe and Australia's revenue assumptions, we remain on track with our expectations for adjusted diluted loss per share in the range of $1.25-$2.00. We remain focused on ensuring we're well positioned heading into fiscal 2027, where we expect to drive toward more normalized levels of profitability relative to the demand environment at that time. This concludes our prepared comments.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press Star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press Star two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the Star keys. Our first question comes from the line of Liam Burke with B. Riley Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Liam Burke
Liam Burke
Managing Director at B. Riley Securities

Thank you. Good morning, Bryan. Good morning, Bo.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

Morning.

Liam Burke
Liam Burke
Managing Director at B. Riley Securities

I know the agricultural environment is tough. Weather is bad. At least the—I know government subsidies do not support equipment sales, but is there any positive outlook on the agricultural sector? I mean, are you seeing any positive moves here, or is it still just continues to be tough?

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

Yeah, there has been some of the government payments that have started to come through. If you look at—traditionally, there would be about $10 billion is the traditional level of government payment, which is, at this point, what has been approved. Some of our growers are starting to see those checks, Liam. That is helping provide some stability. Also, as different trade negotiations are going on and we see more deals get done here, that will further help as well. Recent rains we have received here in the Upper Midwest have also helped with sentiment, and that will help with crop development. Australia is at a critical point. There is some rain in the forecast there, so that could help.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

Again, as you look at the USDA net farm income projections that they came out with earlier in the year, those were really heavily predicated around the government subsidies. That remaining, what they have projected to be up to an additional $30-some billion, is still very much an unknown. Where that falls in, whether it's $10 billion or $45 billion here or where in between, is really going to have an impact this year, frankly.

Liam Burke
Liam Burke
Managing Director at B. Riley Securities

Right. Fair enough. On the construction side, there seems to be another area—the sector in general is cautious because of all the macro headwinds and uncertainties. I would expect that construction would be a little more optimistic in terms of end market potential. It seems to be just as challenging as agriculture.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

It is certainly more positive. In talking with a lot of our contractor customers, the start to the year was a little bit slower, but their backlog of work, they're starting to get projects. It is starting to get filled up for them. Their attitudes are becoming more positive. It's certainly not what it was the past two years, that's for sure. It's definitely very heavily dependent on a rate environment. Any positive movement we did see in interest rates, even just the slightest bit, would certainly help there as well. Again, any stability around trade talks and general broader economy would help as well. We definitely see more stability in the construction environment right now.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

Yeah. I mean, maybe reiterating the same thing just for some perspective, right? Construction's coming off of some really good years and, for us, record years. We're talking about kind of a modest step back off of that, given some of the uncertainty in the higher interest rate environment. You compare that to ag, where we're really talking about trough level and kind of historically low industry volumes, quite a bit different outlook, I would say. Overall, down slightly, but putting that in perspective again, coming off of those highs, a much different spot for construction than ag.

Liam Burke
Liam Burke
Managing Director at B. Riley Securities

Great. Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ted Jackson with Northland Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Ted Jackson
Ted Jackson
Managing Director of Senior Equity Research Analyst at Northland Securities

Thanks. I wanted to circle back into, first of all, some of the government support. The USDA is looking for an additional $37 billion, and $10 billion has been put out. What kind of programs is the USDA looking to have happen? How do they get funded? How do we follow that as analysts to see that it has indeed come to pass? That would be questionable.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

They are putting specifics behind this, and you can find that on the USDA webpage, and they have a timeline for the rest of the year. A lot of the additional payments coming out this year are specific to natural disaster-type events that actually happened in 2023 and 2024. Specific to droughts in supporting the livestock industry, and then specific to other dry areas or wildfires supporting the ag industry. Kind of what they need to do is go state by state: who qualifies, how much money is going to be allocated in that region, how much gets allocated to an individual grower. All of that remains to be seen. If you want to look at that timeline, it is available. There are a lot of specifics out there.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

I would say it's pretty structured, and we're all going to wait and see how this plays out and how much of that ultimately flows to customers that are on our footprint.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

Yeah. Ted, the main one that has really happened so far for the grain growers is what they call ECAP, for the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program. That was just under $10 billion, which is, again, in line with what the annual traditional level would be. Yeah, we'll remain to be watching here on the rest of the year. A lot of times, what that does is that certainly, at normal yield levels, at these prices, would essentially get them close to a break-even for the average grower or just help mitigate their loss. In general, that's why you're hearing us and Deere and CNH all saying that that won't by itself drive equipment demand or equipment purchasing. They'll typically use those dollars to pay down debt and, again, just to fight another year, if you will.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

That said, again, anything incremental beyond that will help. They can't defer that income. There is a point here where it does start to help with demand and help allow them to update some much-needed machinery updates.

Ted Jackson
Ted Jackson
Managing Director of Senior Equity Research Analyst at Northland Securities

Thanks. Number two, when you go into your commentary, you're actually using the word trough instead of decline. I mean, is there something to be read in that? Do you feel that at this point, we're kind of knocking along the bottom of the cycle? I mean, I'm not talking for a turnaround, but more or less that there's more of, I don't know, maybe predictability. Stability is probably too much of a word, but predictability or stability with regards to the ag markets in the U.S.?

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

Yeah. I mean, I guess what we would say about that is certainly not trying to call this specific year or specific quarter as being the bottom. But if you're just looking at history, right, and specifically going back through the year 2000, with large ag expected to be down 30% year over year, that really puts us about 36% below the average from 2024 back to the year 2000 and just a little bit below the previous low point, which was that 2016, 2017 time period. It certainly aligns with it is at or slightly below the trough of the last couple of decades, which gives some support to the fact that we're somewhere near that and operating toward the bottom of the cycle here. Again, whether that changes in the next couple of quarters or it's next year, we're not making that call.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

That's kind of what we're alluding to, right? We're comparing that to history, seeing that we are at those similar levels and not necessarily making the call on when it turns upward from here.

Ted Jackson
Ted Jackson
Managing Director of Senior Equity Research Analyst at Northland Securities

Okay. I got a couple more, but I'm going to step aside, and I'll jump back in line if they don't get asked. Thanks.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

Thanks, Ted.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you'd like to join the question queue, please press Star 1 on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Mig Dobre with Baird. Please proceed with your question.

Mig Dobre
Mig Dobre
Associate Director of Research at Baird

Good morning. Thank you for taking the question. I want to go back to discussing inventory, and it was encouraging to see additional progress this quarter, especially on the use side. I guess I'm curious to get an update from you gentlemen in terms of regionally how you think about inventories. You mentioned that for your Europe business, you expect inventories to remain flattish. Maybe give us a little insight on what's going on with Australia. As you think about the North American footprint, are there particular areas where you still need to work this down? I mean, are there specific product lines or either regions or states where maybe you have a little more with the chop than others?

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

Yeah. Just to clarify a couple of points. That $100 million target, I would say, is certainly a minimum that we look to achieve. Certainly looking to do better than that, but we're at expectations through Q1. Let's get another three months in and see what we can do before we would revise that. What I would say from that $100 million, painting it a little broadly here, CE was in pretty good shape and really within a range overall. Certainly some optimization, but not really 100%. I wouldn't prescribe any of that $100 million decrease to them. Australia also, I mean, you're talking single digits probably in terms of the target. Then really mostly it would be about 60% ag and 40% in Europe.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

We're certainly expecting to see and driving a decrease in inventory in Europe this year and expecting that to unfold as we work through the rest of the year. Now, within those, from an ag perspective, I would say that most of what we prescribe on there is focused on reducing used inventory levels and optimization across new and used. You're asking areas that you need to focus on. We still have an aging of seasonal products that we got a large quantity at the same time, kind of post-pandemic normalizations. We need to work through those so that we can dedicate more of that balance sheet to the high-horsepower tractors, for example. That's the optimization that we're talking about. On the Europe side, they do a lot less used business than on the ag side.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

There's not a whole lot there, and it's more about reducing the overall level and also working on that optimization. Yeah, I guess I'd pause there to see if you had a follow-up.

Mig Dobre
Mig Dobre
Associate Director of Research at Baird

No, that's very helpful. I want to talk a little bit about Europe. I mean, the increase in revenue guidance, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that in terms of what is happening in Romania and how big Romania could be in order to generate this sort of swing. I guess I would like more detail there. I'm also curious how you think about margin. I mean, margin here was 5% in Q1. If you're raising the guidance to this extent, how do you think about the rest of the year?

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

Yeah. So first off, from some more perspective for Romania, it represents about half of our business in Europe. So it is pretty substantial. Last year, given the significance of the droughts, we actually saw our Europe business, or sorry, our Romanian business, decrease 34% year over year. That was most of the decrease for the whole Europe segment. Because of those droughts, actually, industry and country essentially got cut in half. I mean, a significant drop, right? What we are alluding to with the European Union funds is some European Union funds dedicated to Romania, some subvention funds specifically to support the industry. It is a broader piece. As it relates to our business, initially, that was about EUR 150 million dedicated to providing essentially assistance for farmers to buy certain types of equipment.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

That's helping us drive significant increase in the interest and buying of certain types of equipment, maybe a little bit in terms of from an inventory perspective. It does not necessarily help us address all areas of inventory. Certainly, we need to order some more to keep up with that demand as orders are coming in. That is why you are seeing the swing from saying flat to up 5% to up 23%-28%. It is really getting Romania kind of swinging back to where it was and actually growing from about two years ago, given the significance of these funds and the opportunity it is providing for growers in the region.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

The margin?

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

Yeah. So that also is helpful from an equipment margin perspective in Europe. We talked about overall for the year, consolidated equipment margin being 8% for Europe, expecting about 15.5%. They have historically quite a bit higher margin than the U.S. side. I would say strength in margin on the Europe side, but a little weakness in margin on the domestic ag side. Domestic ag, you saw the 3.3%, expecting something similar in Q2 and then improving from there. In terms of overall priorities for us, what I'd just take the opportunity to reiterate is we've got confidence in executing the plan and bringing inventory down, and thus that $100 million being a minimum and looking to build off of that. That is the first priority, right? In terms of actions we're taking incrementally, it proposes some potential compression on margin domestically.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

On the Europe side, this is beneficial, and we're seeing that helpful.

Mig Dobre
Mig Dobre
Associate Director of Research at Baird

Okay. Last question. On your domestic ag business, again, I am trying to figure out exactly how to get to your same-store sales guidance given timing of shipments. Can you help us out in terms of what Q2 looks like relative to the back half? If we are seeing pretty sustained pressure on the back half, it looks to me like your guidance implies, what gets the margin to be better than this negative 3% in the back half? What has to happen in order for you to get there? Thank you.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

Yep. A lot of it comes down to discipline on our side and ordering activity. We're mostly focused on any orders we're placing or pre-sales. The pressure that all came through last year and ramped up as we progressed through the year was because we had a bunch of stock inventory available that's interest-bearing, right? We're working through that, and we've made really good progress on that. We're going to continue to make progress. We did in Q1. We'll continue to in Q2, Q3 from there. By the time we get to Q4, we're going to be in a drastically different position in terms of inventory health year-over-year, which helps us with that margin improvement. To me, absolutely agree that it's a challenging backdrop.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

The benefit is the significantly less order volume we have coming in and specifically all of that being pre-sold and just the progress we have made and will continue to make on inventory optimization. Because right now, right, in order to make that progress, we certainly are getting more aggressive with internal programs and promotions to get that progress done. As we achieve that, there is less of that that we have to do in the back half and setting us up as we exit FY 2026 to really operate at more of a normalized margin relative to the point of the cycle that we are in.

Mig Dobre
Mig Dobre
Associate Director of Research at Baird

Okay. Just to clarify, just for Q2, same-store sales in agriculture, should we be thinking down 25%, down more? The timing versus Q1 versus Q2 of delivery, that's what I'm looking to clarify.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

Yeah. Just to start with also in terms of same-store, the acquisition that we just did in Brookings and Watertown, we're really excited about. In the press release, we had mentioned last year it was $20 million in sales. This year, obviously, they're reflecting the market that we are. When you're looking at growth numbers, it's not really blurring the lines on same-store, just to clarify that for you. In terms of what we're expecting, going into the second quarter, we still have some backlog we're executing on. Certainly, as we look at the back half of the year, the next couple of months are going to be really important in terms of what that order writing activity is.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

That said, sort of as a base case, I've got from an equipment perspective, Q2, Q3, Q4, each being down about 30% year over year for domestic ag. You mix in your parts and service that's more flattish. That's what I would prescribe for you. If you really, I'm zooming back out, and I'll talk on a consolidated basis. Last year, we were more 45%-46% of our total revenue was in the first half of the year. This year is going to be closer to 50% because of exactly what you're alluding to, sort of the pre-sales in the first half of the year, and then we're looking at and projecting forward more challenging order activity in the back half of the year.

Mig Dobre
Mig Dobre
Associate Director of Research at Baird

Very helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ben Klieve with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Ben Klieve
Senior Equity Research Analyst at Lake Street Capital Markets

All right. Thanks for taking my questions and congratulations, nice start to the fiscal year here. First, I want to ask about your comments regarding hopeful initiatives from OEM partners on kind of stimulating demand in the second half of the year. I'm wondering if you can talk a bit about this from the perspective of kind of specifically what you would most like to see, the degree to which you have these embedded within your guidance, and then the degree of confidence you have that these will come to pass.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

Sure. Good morning, Ben. Yeah. First of all, we're looking at another year of weak farmer profitability, as we mentioned, and uncertainty on exports with our global trading partners. As we see those continue to evolve and, as I mentioned, watching moisture levels and crop development. All that will further determine farmer sentiment and net farm income. As it currently sits, the net farm income, as we've mentioned, is very challenging. That is where the OEMs, those discussions happen and looking to pull many different levers, whether it's through financing programs, additional incentives, and what have you. We'll continue to a lot of the front half of the year is already baked, as we've been talking about a lot of those pre-sales coming in. You heard Bo talk about that.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

We're really looking at back half of the year and as we get into order boards for next year here. There's been a lot of price increases that have happened with the equipment post-COVID here or even over the last 10 years. There's been a lot of improvements and a lot of technology advancements with the equipment as well that really are driving that ROI on the equipment. How the OEMs look to pull those different levers to keep their factories at levels that work for them and also from a dealer perspective to keep our sales up and keep the fleet to a certain level of aging as well out there.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

As we are at, as Bo mentioned, 20-year trough levels here in demand, the further we go through the cycle at these levels, we will continue to age the fleet and continue to increase replacement demand even as you go farther. We will continue to work with them on just various incentives to help stimulate demand, help bridge what is currently a gap for growers as you look at their net farm income levels compared to what the certain payments or cash flow levels of the equipment are in the trade prices right now. Various levers and tools we will pull and look to team up together with the OEMs to bridge that gap right now.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

Yeah. In terms of you asked the question, what's embedded in the guidance, I would say kind of a consistency with what we've seen from our strategic OEM partners over the going on 50-year relationship. We try to provide as much clarity and transparency to them in terms of what we're seeing. Right now, the pinch point is weak farmer profitability along with softer used values creating a gap in that boot or the cash price that they need to bring and working with the OEMs to find a way to make those deals that work for the grower, the OEM, and ourselves.

Ben Klieve
Senior Equity Research Analyst at Lake Street Capital Markets

Got it. Got it. I appreciate that from both of you. I guess I have a follow-up to this, maybe more for you, Bo, around these initiatives. I mean, it would seem to be that if this does come to pass, it would be an overwhelming positive for you. I am wondering if you can outline if there is any kind of resulting margin compression that you would see, a need to lean into the floor plan payable, excuse me, in a more material manner, any kind of offsetting effect that those kind of initiatives would provide.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

To the extent that there is further support there, again, for a perspective, right, we are talking about historically low equipment margins for ourselves in domestic ag. To the extent that there is more support there, it helps support the view that we have or potentially a little bit upside in terms of where revenue could be. It could improve margins coming up off of really the floor of where we have been, but still well below normals that we should be operating at. Progress in that direction. Yeah, absolutely. As we free up cash flow, one of our main capital allocations is going towards interest-bearing debt. That could help pay that down faster. Overall, again, the priority is inventory reduction, and we are doing what we need to and just working with our partners on support so that we can all get there as efficiently as possible.

Ben Klieve
Senior Equity Research Analyst at Lake Street Capital Markets

Got it. Very good. I appreciate the caller. Congratulations again. Good start to the year. I'll get back with you.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

Thank you, Ben.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Steve Dyer with Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Please proceed with your question.

Matthew Raab
Matthew Raab
Equity Research Analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group

Hey, thanks. This is Matthew Raab for Steve. Two questions on parts and service here. Firstly, are we still expecting a slight increase year over year in the service gross margin? And then secondly, Bo, you noted last quarter traffic was a little bit slower to start the year. Any update on how the quarter trended and then any expectations for traffic through year-end? Thanks.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

No, no. That's fine.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

Yeah. So from a margin perspective, yeah, similar levels, slightly positive levels. That still remains the expectation. In terms of what unfolded in the first quarter, I recall talking about we were expecting parts and service to be down mid to single digits in Q1. Same-store growth last year, Q1 was almost 20%. It was like 18.9%. So that was part of what was going into it. We ended up down low single digits. So certainly within the realm or maybe even on the better side of what our expectations were there and still expecting kind of a flattish viewpoint there in a world where equipment's down 30%. To us, that's a real positive in just how sustainable that parts and service can be as long as it takes a ton of work. So it's not a given at all.

Bo Larsen
Bo Larsen
CFO at Titan Machinery

Everything that we put behind it to be able to maintain sort of a flattish view there when equipment's down 30%, hats off to the team on the great job that they do to execute. A lot of work to still get done this year to make that happen. That's an important part of our business. I think we already talked about that, but a quarter of our revenue, upwards of 60% of the gross profit dollars this year. You can see why we talk about it so much, why our customer care strategy is one of our number one strategic objectives, and why it'll be critically important going forwards as we continue to move the business in the right direction.

Matthew Raab
Matthew Raab
Equity Research Analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group

That's great. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our time allowed for questions. I'll turn the floor back to Mr. Knutson for any final comments.

Bryan Knutson
Bryan Knutson
President and CEO at Titan Machinery

Thank you for your interest in Titan, and we look forward to updating you with our progress on our next call. I just want to thank all of our employees for their execution and their efforts. Have a great day.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Executives
    • Bo Larsen
      Bo Larsen
      CFO
    • Bryan Knutson
      Bryan Knutson
      President and CEO
Analysts
    • Matthew Raab
      Equity Research Analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group
    • Ben Klieve
      Senior Equity Research Analyst at Lake Street Capital Markets
    • Ted Jackson
      Managing Director of Senior Equity Research Analyst at Northland Securities
    • Jeff Sonnek
      Managing Director of Investor Relations at ICR
    • Liam Burke
      Managing Director at B. Riley Securities
    • Mig Dobre
      Associate Director of Research at Baird
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