ODP Q1 2025 Earnings Report

ODP EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $1.06
• Consensus EPS: $0.65
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.41
• One Year Ago EPS: $1.05

ODP Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $1.70 billion
• Expected Revenue: $1.67 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$31.41 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: -9.20%

ODP Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2025
• Date: 5/7/2025
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, May 7, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 9:00AM ET

ODP (NASDAQ:ODP) provides business services and supplies, products, and digital workplace technology solutions for small, medium, and enterprise businesses in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The company operates through four divisions: ODP Business Solutions, Office Depot, Veyer, and Varis. The ODP Business Solutions division offers adjacency products, including cleaning, janitorial, and breakroom supplies, office furniture, technology products; and copy and print services through sales force, catalogs, telesales, and through Internet websites. This segment also engages in office supply distribution business. The Office Depot division sells office supplies, technology products and solutions, business machines and related supplies, cleaning, breakroom and facilities products, personal protective equipment, and office furniture; and offers business services, including copying, printing, digital imaging, mailing, shipping, and technology support services through a fully integrated omni-channel platform of 980 Office Depot and OfficeMax retail stores, and through www.officedepot.com. The Veyer division engages in supply chain, distribution, procurement, and global sourcing operations. The Varis division operates tech-enabled B2B indirect procurement marketplace, where buyers and suppliers to transact through the platform's consumer-like buying experience, advanced spend management tools, network of suppliers, and technology capabilities. The company offers its products under various brands, including Office Depot, OfficeMax, and Grand&Toy, as well as others. The ODP Corporation was incorporated in 1986 and is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.

ODP Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, and welcome to The ODP Corporation's First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. All lines will be on a listen only mode for today's call, after which instructions will be given to ask a question. At the request of The ODP Corporation, today's call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce Tim Perrott, Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasurer. Mr.

[Operator]

Perrott, you may now begin.

[Timothy Perrott, VP of Investor Relations & Treasury at The ODP]

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for The ODP Corporation's First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. This is Tim Parrott, and I'm here with Jerry Smith, our CEO. Also joining us on the call today are Max Hood and Adam Haggart, our Co CFOs. During today's call, Gerry will provide an update on the business, focusing much of his commentary on our results and accomplishments for the first quarter of twenty twenty five, including the progress we're making on our B2B pivot and our expansion into higher growth industry segments. After Jerry's commentary, Max will then review the company's results for the quarter, including highlights of our divisional performance, followed by Adam, who will highlight our balance sheet and comment on our go forward plans.

[Timothy Perrott, VP of Investor Relations & Treasury at The ODP]

Following our comments, we will open up the line for questions. Before we begin, I need to inform you that certain comments made on this call include forward looking statements, which are subject to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward looking statements reflect the company's current expectations concerning future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. A detailed discussion of these risks and uncertainties are contained in the company's filings with the U. S.

[Timothy Perrott, VP of Investor Relations & Treasury at The ODP]

Securities and Exchange Commission. During the call, we will use some non GAAP financial measures as we describe business performance. The SEC filings as well as the earnings press release, presentation slides that accompany today's comments and reconciliations of the non GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are all available on our website at investor.theodpcorp.com. Today's call and slide presentation is being simulcast on our website and will be archived there for at least one year. I'll now turn the call over to Jerry Smith.

[Timothy Perrott, VP of Investor Relations & Treasury at The ODP]

Jerry?

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Thank you, Tim, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to start out by thanking all of you for joining our call today to review ODP's results and accomplishments for the first quarter of twenty twenty five. We appreciate your continued interest and support as we execute on our strategy to transform our business and position ODP for long term growth. This morning, I'll provide an overview of our performance for the quarter and share updates on the progress we're making with our Optimize for Growth plan and our B2B pivot. Both initiatives are helping us adapt to evolving market conditions, improve operational efficiency, and position the company for future top line opportunities.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

As I walk through our performance, I want to focus on a few key themes that reflect our progress and provide context for our results as shown on slide four of the presentation. First, our strategy is focused on leveraging our core strengths to accelerate our B2B pivot and enhance our position in our traditional enterprise market segment while expanding into new higher growth segments like hospitality and supply chain as a service. Our supply chain assets, distribution capabilities, and enterprise customer base set us apart in the industry and provide a strong foundation for future growth in both our traditional segments and beyond. As a key element to our strategy, we are executing our optimize for growth restructuring plan that realigns our organizational structure, product offerings and go to market strategies to accelerate our B2B pivot and expand into new enterprise segments. This plan also helps us reduce fixed costs, increase operational flexibility, while reducing future reliance on our retail business.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Second, strong execution of our strategy has led to early signs of traction in key areas of the business. In the quarter, we improved our overall year over year performance trends and generate significantly higher adjusted free cash flow, placing us in a better position as we move throughout the year and execute our strategy. Additionally, while yet to be notable in our results, we're making progress in expanding into new markets beyond traditional office supplies. And finally, we have a solid balance sheet and available liquidity and a business model that generates free cash flow, all which supports our strategy and provides flexibility for future growth. Let me now expand on these points and provide more detail on our performance for the quarter, starting with Slide five of the presentation.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Overall, we're off to an encouraging start to the year, with our overall performance reflecting positive momentum and improving year over year comparable trends in the first quarter. Our focus on core operations and the execution of our strategy helped us deliver a sequential improvement in adjusted EBITDA and generate a meaningful increase in adjusted free cash flow compared to last year. Specifically, on an adjusted basis, we drove $76,000,000 in EBITDA and $45,000,000 in free cash flow. Our performance was led by our consumer division, Office Depot, which delivered better top line trends compared to last year while delivering higher margins on a sequential basis. This helped drive stronger cash flow generation driven by targeted consumer initiatives supported by our Optimize for Growth plan.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

While store closures impacted our total top line results, we're happy to report that our comparable store trends improved 300 basis points from the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four and improved 500 basis points from the same period last year. Average order volumes are up over last year. Our loyalty program enrollments are climbing and categories like paper are performing better. This performance trend accelerated in the month of April, giving us confidence in our momentum as we move into the next quarter and throughout the balance of the year. In our B2B business, top line trends were about the same as last year, reflecting the continued soft market demand and impact of comping over one large customer loss from mid last year.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

I would also note that some of our recently announced new business contracts are still in the onboarding phase and are not yet running at full speed. That said, we're making progress in several areas. We're continuing to win new business and we're making progress in our expansion into the hospitality industry. On the new business front, we recently added CoreTrust, a large group purchasing collective with over 3,500 enterprise members to our portfolio. We're actively onboarding CoreTrust and other large new business wins, which we expect will add to our performance in the second half of the year.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Additionally, we expect that the progress we are making in the hospitality sector will begin to more meaningfully contribute to our results in the second half of the year, helping us change our trajectory. In all, given the new business we've added, our expected progress in the pace of onboarding and our launch in the hospitality sector, we have growing confidence that our results will improve in the second half of the year. In our supply chain business, VERE, we continue to deliver strong results, achieving over 85% year over year revenue growth from third party customers and adding significant new accounts to its portfolio. This performance highlights the value of our supply chain capabilities and the growing demand for our services. And finally, from a cash management standpoint, our team continued to effectively manage the business and inventory to maximize cash flow.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Cash conversion improved significantly in the quarter, helping us generate $45,000,000 in adjusted free cash flow, which is more than double the free cash flow we generated in the same period last year. I'd like to thank my team for their dedication and focus on cash management. Turning to slide six, I'd like to provide an update on our progress in the hospitality market. Three months ago, we announced a strategic partnership with one of the world's largest hotel management organizations, becoming a preferred provider for operating supplies and equipment. While we're at the early stage of our deployment, we made progress in expanding into this growing $16,000,000,000 market segment.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

We're excited about this opportunity as it aligns perfectly with our core strengths in supply chain and distribution and represents an important step in our efforts to diversify beyond office supplies. Our first partnership covers approximately 15,000 potential customer locations within this hotel management group and we believe it will serve as a foundation for future growth in this segment and other related industries. Our key accomplishments include establishing agreements with leading suppliers like Sobo Westex and Hunter amenities, giving us access to supply of premium hospitality products such as linens, towels and personal care items. Next, building up inventory to meet anticipated demand. While inventory build and sourcing has taken a bit longer than we anticipated, we're gaining momentum and building our position to meet future demand.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Next, adding sales talent with a deep hospitality experience direct growth. Additionally, engaging with potential customers and franchisees whose feedback regarding our services has been positive and encouraging. Next, forge a relationship and sign a supply agreement with a key industry player that we believe will accelerate discussions with other hotel management companies. And lastly, we're also in ongoing discussions with several other key market participants to develop future relationships. While we are still in the early stages of our launch and have more work ahead, these efforts are laying the groundwork for ODP to deliver meaningful growth in this segment.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

We expect these initiatives to begin contributing more significantly to our results beginning in the second half of the year. And finally, I want to highlight the progress we're making with our Optimize for Growth restructuring plan. This is shown on slide seven. As a reminder, this initiative focuses on capitalizing on our core strengths to accelerate growth in the B2B distribution and third party logistics segments, while reducing our fixed cost infrastructure and limiting future retail exposure and associated liabilities. The plan realigns our organizational structure, product offerings and go to market strategies to target high growth opportunities in the B2B market, while also expanding into new enterprise segments including hospitality, healthcare and adjacent sectors.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

We made significant progress in the quarter, executing efficiency measures targeted at reducing fixed costs. We closed nine retail stores on the program and eliminated areas of corporate support structure. The progress we are making is helping us redirect resources and add flexibility to operations in both our consumer and B2B divisions. Before I turn it over to Max, I'd like to reiterate that we are off to a better start to the year, driving improved overall trends and generating a significant increase in adjusted free cash flow. Our consumer business has improved and we are anticipating continued momentum in months ahead.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

In our B2B business, we are winning new business and anticipating better trends in the second half of the year as we onboard new customers and drive more meaningful results in the hospitality segment. We will continue to focus on the core, driving our strategy and initiatives, remain committed to generating value for our shareholders. I'll also note that we are evaluating the tariff situation that has been evolving over the past few months. While we're not immune from potential impacts, our team has been working closely with our vendors, evaluating strategies, but we've taken previous actions we believe will help us mitigate potential impacts. With that, I'll turn it over to Max.

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

Thank you, Jerry, and good morning to everyone on the call. I'm Max Hood, Co CFO. I

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

would like

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

to cover the specifics of our results for the first quarter on Slide nine. Please note that our results, as presented, are for continuing operations. We generated total revenue of $1,700,000,000 in the quarter, reflecting a 9% decline compared to the first quarter of last year. However, this result marks an improvement in the year over year trend compared to prior quarters. The decline in sales was primarily driven by several factors, including 46 fewer stores in operation, reduced retail and online consumer traffic, and lower sales within ODP Business Solutions.

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

Our GAAP results in the quarter included 86,000,000 of charges, primarily related to $48,000,000 of restructuring expenses associated with our Optimize for Growth plan and $30,000,000 in non cash asset impairments of operating lease right of use assets associated with our retail store locations and distribution centers. The balance of the charges in the quarter were related to the impairment of certain software and other store related fixed assets. Notably, the initial restructuring charges associated with the Optimize for Growth plan included $36,000,000 of severance costs that we are estimating to incur over the life of the plan. Considering these charges, GAAP operating loss in the quarter was $32,000,000 versus GAAP operating income of $41,000,000 in the prior year period. Excluding these charges, adjusted operating income for the first quarter was $54,000,000 compared to $66,000,000 in last year's first quarter.

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

Unallocated corporate expenses were $20,000,000 in Q1. Adjusted EBITDA was $76,000,000 in the quarter compared to $91,000,000 in last year's first quarter. This includes adjusted depreciation and amortization expense of $25,000,000 in the first quarters of twenty twenty five and 2024. Excluding the after tax impact from the items mentioned earlier, adjusted net income from continuing operations for the first quarter was $32,000,000 or $1.06 per diluted share, compared to $50,000,000 or $1.31 per diluted share in the prior year period. Now turning to our strong cash flow generation in the quarter.

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

Operating cash flow from continuing operations in the quarter was $57,000,000 which included $10,000,000 in restructuring spend. This compared to cash provided by operating activities of continuing operations of $44,000,000 including $4,000,000 in restructuring spend in the same period last year. The year over year increase in operating cash flow was a result of our operational discipline and prudent working capital management, converting recent inventory investments into cash as we indicated last quarter. This led to strong cash conversion in the quarter. Capital expenditures were $21,000,000 in the first quarter of twenty twenty five versus $31,000,000 in the prior year period as we continue to prioritize capital investments towards B2B growth opportunities, supporting our supply chain operations, distribution network, and digital capabilities.

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

Adjusted free cash flow in the quarter was $45,000,000 a significant increase as compared to adjusted free cash flow of $17,000,000 generated in the same period last year. Now turning to our consumer business, Office Depot, as shown on slide 10. Office Depot is off to a strong start to the year, with year over year top line trends and margins improving in the quarter as targeted profitable sales strategies gained traction. Reported sales were $838,000,000 in the quarter, down 11 compared to the prior year. This result represented an improvement in the year over year trend we reported in the same period last year.

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

Overall sales were impacted by 46 fewer retail locations in service associated with planned store closures, as well as lower traffic trends and online sales, partially offset by higher average order volumes and the positive impact of targeted sales promotions. In total, we closed 12 retail stores in the quarter and had eight fifty seven stores at quarter end. Our targeted sales initiatives are helping to drive a significant improvement in comparable store sales metrics. On a same store basis, sales were down 5% year over year, representing a 500 basis point improvement in our same store comp over last year's first quarter. From an operational standpoint, operating income for the quarter was $45,000,000 On a percentage of revenue basis, this result represented a sequential increase in margins as our sales mix and targeted initiatives helped to partially offset the impact of lower revenues.

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

On a year over year basis, operating margins were flat. Moving forward, we will continue to execute upon our profitable sales initiatives in our retail business, balancing our pricing and promotion strategy with demand elasticity. We are excited about our progress. And as Gerry mentioned, our efforts have continued to gain momentum as we entered the second quarter. We will also continue executing our Optimize for Growth plan that will target efficiency gains across the organization and help us lower fixed costs.

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

Now turning to ODP Business Solutions as shown on slide 11. Demand remained soft during the quarter, consistent with trends in the same period last year as cautious business conditions and restricted enterprise spending budgets persisted. Reported revenue was $852,000,000 down 8% year over year, but showing slight improvement compared to the trend in the fourth quarter of last year. Results were impacted by weaker enterprise spending and the lingering effects of a large customer loss mid last year. However, we expect to comp over this customer loss by next quarter, which should help improve trends.

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

Furthermore, while onboarding of certain recent new customer wins has been slower than anticipated, progress is being made and we expect these contracts to contribute more meaningfully to future quarters. Regarding new business, we are executing initiatives to convert our strong new business pipeline into revenue to help us regain top line traction. We're initiating service for one of the largest contracts in company history as we previously announced and are winning key new contracts, including our agreement with CoreTrust, an over 3,500 business member purchasing collective serving major industries in manufacturing, retail, hospitality and finance. In all, when you look at the past three quarters, we have won contracts that represent over $500,000,000 in annual spend when fully implemented. Only a portion of this is currently onboarded, but as we progress, these contracts should help improve the trends beginning in the second half of the year.

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

Another area that we see great promise is in the hospitality market. While it has only been a couple months since our announcement of our entry into this industry sector, we are making great progress and building the foundation for future growth in this segment. We've built key relationships with major suppliers in the industry. We have forged new relationships with other key players in the industry and we have met with many potential customers receiving great feedback regarding our service and entry into the industry. Considering our progress, we are anticipating that our efforts in this area will more meaningfully contribute to our results in the second half of the year and beyond.

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

From a product standpoint, most categories were lower on a year over year basis, including technology products, a factor that many other companies are experiencing industry wide. Our adjacency product categories as a percentage of total revenue, a primary KPI, remained at 44% in the quarter, generally consistent with last year and recent trends. From an operating perspective, the flow through effect of lower revenues, pricing mix, and related fixed cost deleveraging resulted in operating income of $21,000,000 in the quarter compared to $31,000,000 in the prior year period. Despite the challenges, we are encouraged by our improving position for the future as we execute our strategy and expand into new market segments. This positions us to improve recent trends and drive our B2B business as we move into the second half of the year.

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

Now turning to our results in our supply chain business, Vare, as shown on Slide 12. VaR's reported top line performance reflected lower sales from its internal customers, ODP Business Solutions and Office Depot, partially offset by continuing to build momentum and driving revenue growth from third party customers. On a consolidated basis, Vayer delivered sales of $1,200,000,000 in the quarter, primarily derived from supporting the purchasing and supply chain operations of ODP Business Solutions and Office Depot, which are effectively eliminated upon consolidation. Vayer continued to make strong progress in executing its strategy to serve third party customers, adding new logos to its customer list and driving a strong increase in external revenue. Being mindful that some of Vayer's third party profitability is accounted for as a contra expense instead of flowing through revenue, for Q1, Vayer delivered third party revenue of $17,000,000 up 89% over last year.

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

Vayer drove third party EBITDA of $3,000,000 flat with the prior year as the company invested in resources to onboard its slate of new customers in the quarter. Now, I'll turn it over to Adam to cover our balance sheet highlights.

[Adam Haggard, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

Thank you, Max, and it's great to be here with everyone this morning. I'm Adam Haggard, Co CFO. Turning to Slide 14. Our balance sheet and liquidity position remains solid, ending the quarter with total liquidity of $653,000,000 consisting of $185,000,000 in cash and cash equivalents and $468,000,000 in available credit under the fourth amended credit agreement. Total debt was $262,000,000 Moving on to capital allocation.

[Adam Haggard, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

We continue to execute our capital allocation strategy, primarily investing in our core to drive the future of our business. We invested $21,000,000 in CapEx in the quarter versus $31,000,000 in the prior year period, targeted in our supply chain operations, distribution business and digital capabilities to set ourselves apart in the industry. As we move forward, we expect to prioritize our capital allocation towards investment in core B2B resources, positioning us to capture the growth opportunities Gerry discussed earlier. We believe investing in our B2B business and expanding into new market segments will drive the highest ROI and create long term value for shareholders. Before I turn the call back to Gerry, I would like to make a few comments about our preparedness regarding the evolving tariff situation that has been unfolding over the past few months.

[Adam Haggard, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

As Gerry mentioned, we have taken proactive measures to position ourselves effectively to mitigate potential impacts as the tariff situation continues to evolve. Over the past several years, we have diversified our sourcing strategy, shifting away from China to other countries in the region for direct imports supporting our private label products. On the indirect side, we are closely collaborating with our vendors, monitoring developments and implementing actions to minimize potential impacts. These measures include sourcing products from countries less affected by tariffs, introducing strategic pricing initiatives where feasible and identifying alternative brands to reduce exposure. While we recognize that we are not entirely immune to the changes in the tariff environment, we are confident that the steps we have taken have positioned us well to navigate this dynamic situation.

[Adam Haggard, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

Looking ahead, while we are not providing detailed guidance at this time due to market dynamics and ongoing tariff uncertainty, we can share the following directional outlook for the year. We anticipate continued improvement and trends within our consumer business over the coming quarters. In our B2B business, we expect to see improving trends as we onboard new customers and gain traction in the hospitality sector, with the majority of this improvement expected in the second half of the year. Vayer is expected to maintain its momentum by converting its customer pipeline, expanding its customer base and driving growth in third party revenue. Finally, we anticipate significantly higher adjusted free cash flow generation compared to last year, along with further improvements to our leverage ratio by year end.

[Adam Haggard, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

We remain focused on executing our strategic priorities and focused on our core to deliver on these expectations. With that, I turn the call back to Gerry.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Thanks, Adam. Before we turn it over for questions, I'd like to reiterate a few key points. First, we're off to a better start to the year, improving our consolidated year over year trends and generating significant increases in adjusted free cash flow. While the consumer business was the primary driver of our improved trends and this performance has accelerated as we entered the second quarter of the year, we believe that our B2B business is in position to generate improving trends as we move forward, particularly in the second half of the year. We have continued to win new business.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

In fact, over the past three quarters, we have won new contracts worth over $500,000,000 in annual revenue when fully implemented. We are encouraged by our progress and recognize we have more work to do as we focus on our core business. Second, we are successfully executing on our strategy and making progress in our expansion into the hospitality industry sector. We have forged key agreements with major suppliers and key market participants. We have met with many potential customers covered in our first agreement and we are receiving very positive feedback.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

We're engaging in discussions with other large hospitality management companies for future agreements and we're adding to our sales expertise and building relevant inventory to help us meet future demand. In all, while we are in the early innings, we believe our efforts to expand into the hospitality sector will more meaningfully contribute to our results in the second half of the year. Third, we're actively executing our Optimize for Growth restructuring plan, which is designed to reduce fixed cost, accelerate our B2B pivot and gradually decrease our reliance on retail. Furthermore, as highlighted earlier, our flexible business model proactively measures have positioned us well to help mitigate potential tariff impacts effectively. And last, considering our strong balance sheet, valuable asset base, supply chain and distribution capabilities, and strong cash flow profile, we believe ODP offers a unique and compelling value for shareholders as execute our strategy.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

With that, operator, we'll turn it over for questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Greg Burns with Sidoti. Your line is now open.

[Greg Burns, Analyst at Sidoti & Company, LLC]

Good morning. Could we maybe just start off with getting a little bit more insight into some of the momentum you have on the retail side of the business, maybe a little bit more detail on what kind of sales promotions and sales strategies you've been implementing that have been driving the improved performance?

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Sure. Hey, good morning, Greg. This is Jerry. Thanks for joining the call today. Love to say that first, I'm super excited with the progress there.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

We had our strategy for our retail business to spread cash and margin, and that team is doing it. So I would say there's four key things to that. First, over the last seven years, we've developed a really good muscle in our stores that took a long time to develop with our store leadership, but meeting and greeting customers to drive our Net Promoter Score. We've taken that muscle and turned it into a sales motion. So they're meeting and greeting and selling at front door.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Second, we've had a significant change in our merchandising strategy. Started last year at the UBS conference with Michael. I teased a little bit of that in

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

March, but we're finding a different way to sell. We have a number of product categories that are comping much better than years before, and we think that we're giving a different value to our customers through that. Third, very importantly, we have a daily management system, and Kevin Moffett, my president of the division, is doing a great job with division and Andrew, but I joined that call as well. We look at every store every day. We look at every district for every 42 districts every day, and we look at the performance of the three regions every day.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

And having that, I'll say, gamified system that we put in place sixty days ago ish, has made a dramatic difference in the business. Merchandising peak started in Q4. Our CEO of our advertising business came up with a great idea, and we drove that. But it's across these four things which have driven tremendous improvements. I mean, having a 500 basis point difference in comp is dramatic from a year over year perspective.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

I will tell you, Greg, and I'll tell everyone publicly, April's even better from a comp perspective. We're about a negative four, roughly, in April from a comp perspective. And sequentially, in the first nine days of May, we're even better than that. So we're really excited with performance. I want to thank Kevin, Dish, Andrew, and his team, and especially my three store leaders, Carlos, Billy, Chris, for they're absolutely executing brilliantly across the store chain.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

And this is important. This generates a tremendous amount of cash flow, tremendous amount of margin dollars. And as Max and Adam both said in their prepared remarks, we're seeing a difference and we're optimistic this is going to make a difference for us over the long term as we ramp up both there and the B2B businesses.

[Greg Burns, Analyst at Sidoti & Company, LLC]

Okay, great. Thanks. I guess, considering the improved results and the traction you're seeing, how should we think about the pace of store closures going forward?

[Greg Burns, Analyst at Sidoti & Company, LLC]

I guess, also

[Greg Burns, Analyst at Sidoti & Company, LLC]

considering the optimize for growth plan, like how this all like placed together in terms of store optimization?

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Yeah. Optimize for Growth will look at what's the best path for optimizing the most cash flow and the most margin dollars for the business. I will say with some of these cost levels, it will change some of the completely change some of the trajectory of Optimize for Growth, because as our shareholders want, they want more cash, they want more margin dollars. Obviously, more cash will be great for the business, and we will evaluate the stores, as and Mike are running models right now, looking at if we keep this negative five, negative four comp, which is different than our models, what's it mean from a plan perspective? And we'll evaluate that going forward.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

But I want all our shareholders to hear the most important thing is optimizing cash, optimizing margin. And I'm excited because we're demonstrating the results that are going to produce, as Adam said in his prepared remarks, we're going to generate more cash flow for the year, and we're super excited by that. And our balance sheet got stronger on a quarter over quarter basis. And this is a retail business that should eliminate a lot of the fear of the shareholder base that, hey, what's going on with our retail business? Our retail business is running extremely well right now, and we're going to continue to focus on the merchandising, the great store leadership, the daily management model to optimize cash and margin dollars across the business.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Adam, Max, do have anything to add?

[Adam Haggard, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

Yeah, I'd like

[Adam Haggard, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

to just reiterate your comment and just say that as we go through each quarter, we'll

[Adam Haggard, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

be continuously staring at the different stores and understanding the modeling and trying to extend stores as much

[Adam Haggard, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

as possible to drive as much cash flow in the future as we possibly can.

[Greg Burns, Analyst at Sidoti & Company, LLC]

All right, great. And then on the solutions side, why is the onboarding what what has been holding up the onboarding process with some of these contracts?

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

I I think it's diff different reasons for different customers from a hospitality perspective. We're really early. It's a completely different industry. We're learning that from a supplier perspective, we love the supply relationships, but the lead times are much longer. So as we said in our prepared remarks, it's taken us longer to actually just get inventory in on some of the key minimal viable categories, and so we're rushing hard to do that.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

We are hiring a ton of people, qualified individuals to drive in that space. And I think from just the size of our relationship with Core Trust, it's a huge contract. There's a lot of people to contact, and we're working really hard. We're really pleased with the Core Trust relationship and that team and with Mahesh and Greg and the whole organization, but we will continue. It's coming, and we think it's coming in the second half.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

We're going to start a daily focus in Dave's business like we did Kevin's. So that worked. Adam, Max, and I were talking about that earlier this morning. So we're going have that same daily momentum, because I think that daily discipline and emphasis on results is going to what we took and what we found super successful in retail and gamifying who's first and who's last will be a great motivator for our B2B sales teams as well.

[Greg Burns, Analyst at Sidoti & Company, LLC]

All right. Great. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Lasser with UBS. Your line is now open.

[Michael Lasser, Equity Research Analyst - Hardlines, Broadlines & Food Retail at UBS Group]

Good morning. Thank you so much for taking my question. What categories within the retail business have you seen strengthen over the last few months? And is there evidence that you're seeing any signs of pull forward of demand as the consumer is trying to race out and buy some products ahead of what could be some price increases in reaction to the tariffs? Thank you.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Yes. Good morning, Michael, thanks again for hosting me back in March. We really appreciate that great conference.

[Michael Lasser, Equity Research Analyst - Hardlines, Broadlines & Food Retail at UBS Group]

Great to see you, Jerry.

[Michael Lasser, Equity Research Analyst - Hardlines, Broadlines & Food Retail at UBS Group]

Great to see you.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

From a category perspective, I'll sort of answer in reverse direction. We're seeing success in sort of non tariff categories on a slowing down. And and we've done a really good job of mitigating tariff exposure. We saw a little bit early in like a two or three day period for like furniture and tech, we saw a bit of a spike.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Does that normalize pretty quickly? These are sort of in our core categories, Michael, across the board of core supplies. I think that, I'm gonna be careful, obviously, we have competitors sitting on the phone listening, but yeah, I'd be happy to spend time with you offline as well. But we've really made a shift from our merchandising strategy, from our traditional high low to a different merchandising strategy that's more value oriented for our customers. I'm thinking that is really adding a lot of value.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

And and what maybe we can use perhaps time later in the week or what whenever you're available, we'd love to catch up with you.

[Michael Lasser, Equity Research Analyst - Hardlines, Broadlines & Food Retail at UBS Group]

That sounds great. Count on it. How much of an impact will the tariff situation be to o ODP Corp across all of its segments? And how do you plan to mitigate the potential impact of tariffs?

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

We believe we've mitigated almost all the impact. Let me explain that because people might go, how how do they do that? A lot of the impact was on mark minimum average price, what we call map products that our our partners slash suppliers set. So for example, our tech providers, they they just rate the the actual COGS of the product, and so the whole market floats up. And so, you know, from a pricing per from us absorbing price a cost increase, the whole market's doing that.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

The whole price lifts up, and we're able to pass that through contracts and pass that and obviously change our store price. That was the majority of lot of it. And obviously, there could be some demand elasticity, but we haven't seen that yet. Second is we did a really good job on our direct imports. It's a big chunk of our COGS for private label and other pieces.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Back in 2020, if you remember, we shifted a bunch out of China to other countries. And so into Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, a number of places. Sam and our GSO team have done and John's organization have done a great job of leading this. And so we've dramatically reduced our impact on our direct COGS in China. And so as we have the pause from a tariff perspective, we're looking at that very, very carefully, and we have a three times a week war room that that my whole staff, whole procurement teams, all the merchants are on.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

We're looking at inventory. But, because of the fact we've had that shift in in that indirect cost, we are not we're not heavily exposed at this time. And if there is if there's a 10% where we believe we can drive that into our pricing, then we're not going to have a huge impact. There is a small impact, but we think we've mitigated over and again, we will look at this on a daily basis. As you know, something could could change overnight and and something else could go up.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

So obviously, we're all open and praying that there's a you know, there's settlement in in the future as well. And so appreciate it.

[Michael Lasser, Equity Research Analyst - Hardlines, Broadlines & Food Retail at UBS Group]

Got you. Okay. One last question. Recognizing you're not providing guidance, but how do you, least conceptually, the b to b business in light of the potential for continued underlying softness in the core business, but being offset by the ramp in some of the new business activity that seems to be on the horizon? Thank you very much.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Yeah, let me I'll take a high level and let Max jump in on the details. At a high level, I think the yeah, we do feel very confident from a cash flow perspective that we're gonna be accretive for the year, as as Adam said. And then from and we as we said in our prepared scripts, we do think there'll be sequential improvement in the second half of Dave's business. It's still too early to figure out that exact piece, but we do feel like we have line of sight into improvement in the second half of year across Dave's business. But, Adam and Max, please jump in.

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

Yeah, Michael, it's Max. Good to talk to you again. Yeah, so while we're not providing guidance, we do need to evaluate the tariff impact, what that's going to do to customer demand. But as Gary said, we tried to provide as much high level guidance as we could. One other point is on free cash flow.

[Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP]

So the performance of our consumer business right now is driving more cash, more margin. So we expect to have higher free cash flows than we did last year as well. But really, we see a great trajectory with all three of our business units right now. I'm really excited about it.

[Michael Lasser, Equity Research Analyst - Hardlines, Broadlines & Food Retail at UBS Group]

Just for clarity, Thank you so much, David.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

For solution, so everyone understands. Sorry about that.

[Michael Lasser, Equity Research Analyst - Hardlines, Broadlines & Food Retail at UBS Group]

Yeah, yeah. Thank you very much, and good luck.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Thank you, Michael.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Joe Gomes with Noble Capital. Your line is now open.

[Joe Gomes, Senior Generalist Analyst at Noble Capital Markets]

Good morning.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Good morning, Joe.

[Joe Gomes, Senior Generalist Analyst at Noble Capital Markets]

I apologize. I fell off, so I missed some of the questions. So if I repeat something, just let me know and we'll move on. So a lot of talk about the tariffs and the potential impact. I don't know if you break it out this way or not, but I guess what percent of the business or revenues is consumable products versus non consumable products?

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Can you clarify what you mean consumable versus non consumable? You mean lights?

[Joe Gomes, Senior Generalist Analyst at Noble Capital Markets]

So paper. I mean, if you're in the office and using paper, you're consuming paper versus a desk. You're buying a desk once.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Got it. Versus like furniture, which is a I got it. Yes. So first, you know, a big piece of our our our business is paper. All all our paper supply is is made in The USA.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

So, you know, thank you, you know, for for our two suppliers that have US US plants, and we also have, you know, facilities in in Canada for our granite toy business. So that that that's a super part super important piece because we don't have exposure of other companies who use imported paper versus being made in The USA. I would say that we've done a really good job on the consumable core products, which is what we're seeing to strengthen our B2C business that we talked about, the comp changes. That's all consumable product that's driving that. So why I'm why we're excited with the progress there is even during this tariff piece, we're seeing a substantial comp improvement on a monthly and weekly basis.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

And so we think our strategy is working. So we've gone across all those areas, and we've evaluated where we think impact is. Other consumable products are really affected by the minimum average pricing, as we talked about, and that's ink and toner and some of the technology products. And there was a pause on the higher tariffs on a lot of that. And so that's allowed us to not have the short term impact the impact across the year at this time.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

There are increases of those products, but that's going to be the whole market will go up. Honestly, that happens a lot throughout the last nine, ten years, pricing costs go up, and there's a pretty consistent demand pattern as a result of that. So we don't have a lot of things that we don't think we're exposed longer term from a because of working with suppliers, making sure we're in the right low tariff locations. And honestly, stuff that wasn't you know, we didn't think was our position, we quit ordering. And we we've we've been very disciplined in in our procurement organization.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

That that so, you know, that's which is part of Bayer, which is led by John Ganforth, our procurement organization led by Eric Green, has done a great job of of working with our partners and mitigating a lot of the exposure by being creative, looking at different suppliers, looking at different, you know, obviously, different factories they have across the world that are in a low tariff looking.

[Joe Gomes, Senior Generalist Analyst at Noble Capital Markets]

Okay, thanks for that. And you talked about some initiatives to convert your strong pipeline of potential new business. I

[Joe Gomes, Senior Generalist Analyst at Noble Capital Markets]

guess the question is kind

[Joe Gomes, Senior Generalist Analyst at Noble Capital Markets]

of what's different? What are you doing new now that you weren't doing in the past to convert that pipeline into new business?

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Yeah, great question. First, we're bringing in additional leadership in some of these new categories that are very qualified in those marketplaces, which is super important. Second, we've started a really rigorous management system on a weekly basis. We're going to clip that up even more to make sure we're driving that. And then we're having a a lot of, you know, CEO to CEO meetings or president to president meetings on a frequent basis with these new partners and new customers to ramp up.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

And so honestly, in hospitality, we're learning. It's a brand new category. We love it because it's it's an invitation only category, which a lot so now the use can't people can't just open the floodgates and run-in. But it's it's a big market. We're we're learning, and I think that we're building the muscle.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

So like what I talked about, retail, we started building muscle in q four on this merchandising change and store operations in the future. We feel we're sort of in this, and we're seeing those results now. We feel like we're sort of in that same pattern of building the muscle, building the sales capability. We've learned a ton about the inventory management and the lead times of the products and work with these partners and getting inventory in. And then we just have to build that capability starting to ramp those across hospitality and across core trust and across some of these other large ones we have across the business.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

So we believe in the second half we're going start seeing results, I think that will build a ton of momentum for us going into 'twenty six as well.

[Joe Gomes, Senior Generalist Analyst at Noble Capital Markets]

Okay. And then lastly for me, I didn't hear any mention of the buyback. It's something that you guys have been I know last year was pretty big the year before. And at the end of the year, you had mentioned you were cutting back on that. So I don't know if you could give us an update on that.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Sure. Thanks for the question. I recognize the unintended message it sends. Let me say that the board management team have complete confidence in the future of the company. And very importantly, we continually evaluate potential stock repurchases on a regular basis, and we assess if there are any legal or regulatory constraints.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

This approach also applies potential management and director of purchases as well. This way we don't comment on their individual buying decisions. And so that's, I think I've answered as correctly as I can.

[Joe Gomes, Senior Generalist Analyst at Noble Capital Markets]

Great, thanks. Appreciate it. I'll get back in queue.

[Operator]

Thank That concludes the Q and A session for today. I will now turn the call back over to the ODP Corporation CEO, Jerry Smith, for any closing remarks.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Yes, I just want to thank everyone for joining the call today. We are confident that our core business is improving. We're gonna continue to focus on our core. We're gonna focus on continuing the b to c comp improvement across our merchandising, our store execution, which has been great, and our daily focus. We're gonna also put that focus continue our focus on our b to b business on ramping up our core business of these new big wins as well as our hospitality business.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

And we're excited with the 85 year over year growth in Jones business as well. And so we're going to stay focused on generating cash, driving margin dollars and driving continued improvement as we saw much stronger balance sheet from a Q4 to Q1 perspective. And we're confident, as Adam and Max Bull said, that that's going to continue to improve in the future, and we'll have the ability to continue to generate cash to invest in future business opportunities to maximize shareholder value. Thank you so much, everyone, for joining the call today. Appreciate it greatly.

[Gerry Smith, CEO at The ODP]

Have a great day.

[Operator]

Thank you for your participation. That concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Timothy Perrott, VP of Investor Relations & Treasury
• Gerry Smith, CEO
• Max Hood, SVP & Co-CFO
• Adam Haggard, SVP & Co-CFO

Analysts

• Greg Burns, Analyst at Sidoti & Company, LLC
• Michael Lasser, Equity Research Analyst - Hardlines, Broadlines & Food Retail at UBS Group
• Joe Gomes, Senior Generalist Analyst at Noble Capital Markets