ODP Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 6, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Delivered $13 million in adjusted free cash flow for Q2 and raised full-year guidance to over $115 million, more than doubling cash generation year-over-year.
  • Positive Sentiment: Business Solutions saw a ~200 bps sequential and year-over-year improvement in revenue trends, driven by new CoreTrust wins and onboarding ~1,000 hotel properties in the hospitality segment.
  • Positive Sentiment: Retail segment improved comparable store sales by 200 bps versus last year and sustained strong momentum into July despite closing 60 stores.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Optimize for Growth plan continues, with 24 retail stores and 3 distribution centers closed in Q2 to reduce fixed costs and streamline operations for future margin improvement.
  • Positive Sentiment: Supply chain business Veyr grew third-party revenue by 90% YoY and increased EBITDA by 32%, highlighting expanding market presence and operational strength.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
ODP Q2 2025
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Good morning, and welcome to The ODP Corporation's Second 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 Corporation, today's call is being recorded. I would like to introduce Tim Perrott, Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasurer. Mr. Perrott, you may now begin.

Timothy Perrott
Timothy Perrott
VP - IR at The ODP

Good morning and thank you for joining us for The ODP Corporation's Second Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. This is Tim Perrott and I'm here with Gerry Smith, our CEO. Also joining us on the call today are Max Wood and Adam Haggard, our Co CFOs. During today's call, Jerry will provide an update on the business, focusing much of his commentary on our results and accomplishments for the 2025, including the progress we are making on our strategy and our expansion into higher growth industry sectors. 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 outlook.

Timothy Perrott
Timothy Perrott
VP - IR at The ODP

Following our comments, we will then open up the line for your 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
Timothy Perrott
VP - IR 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.vodpcorp.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. Jerry?

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Thank you, Tim, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to start by thanking everyone for joining our call today to review our results and accomplishments for the 2025. As always, we appreciate your continued interest and support as we execute our strategy and position ODP for long term growth. This morning, I'll provide an overview of our improved performance in the quarter and highlight the progress we are making on our overall strategy. As I cover our performance, I want to focus on a few key takeaways that I think reflect our progress and provide context for our results.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

These key points are shown on slide four of the presentation. To start, our results this quarter clearly demonstrate that we're executing our strategy and making meaningful progress. Our strategy centers on leveraging our supply chain and distribution strengths to accelerate growth in our B2B business, reinforcing our traditional business while expanding into higher growth areas like hospitality and adjacent markets. At the same time, we remain focused on maximizing value and cash flow from our retail segment. Our Optimize for Growth plan underpins this strategy, directing assets and capital toward higher return B2B opportunities while reducing fixed costs in our business.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Second, our progress this quarter is driving meaningful improvement and momentum across the business, surpassing average external expectations by most measures. We've improved year over year trends in our B2B business and in our consumer business, we're driving significantly stronger results. And most importantly, our improved performance is leading to significantly higher adjusted free cash flow, positioning us to further strengthen our balance sheet and liquidity position. Lastly, looking ahead, we expect these positive trends to continue in the second half of the year, driven by additional top line improvement in our B2B distribution business and sustained strength in our retail channel. Let me expand on these points and provide more detail on our performance for the quarter, starting with the slide five of the presentation.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Our improved performance this quarter underscores the positive momentum we're building across our business as we remain focused on operational excellence and disciplined execution of our strategy. We delivered stronger revenue trends, trends that improved month to month throughout the quarter, resulting in solid adjusted EBITDA and robust growth in adjusted free cash flow, both exceeding expectations. On an adjusted basis, we delivered $47,000,000 in EBITDA and generated $13,000,000 in free cash flow for the second quarter. This strong cash generation is especially notable as we typically see cash outflows in Q2 due to inventory build ahead of the back to school season. These impressive results were driven by improved performance in both our B2B and consumer segments.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

In our B2B distribution segment, we drove stronger revenue traction with comparable revenue trends improving by approximately 200 basis points, both sequentially and year over year. This was driven by continued progress in onboarding new business wins and stronger demand from new customers despite the ongoing softness in general enterprise spending. We're particularly excited about our progress with CoreTrust, a group purchasing collective with over 3,500 enterprise members, which we announced last quarter. Onboarding is progressing well, and we expect this, along with other recent wins, to further benefit our performance in the second half of the year. Additionally, although still small, our early stage expansion into the hospitality segment is gaining momentum and beginning to contribute to our results.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

I'll provide more details on this shortly. Turning to our retail segment, Office Depot. Our team continued to deliver strong results, driving improved top line trends both year over year and sequentially. This performance fueled by targeted sales initiatives and operational excellence under our Optimize for Growth plan is translating to strong results and increased free cash flow. While planned store closures impacted total sales, comparable store sales trends improved by 200 basis points versus last year.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Additionally, when excluding the impact of an industry wide e commerce marketplace program that benefited sales last year but was discontinued in 2025, our comparable sales showed even greater improvement on an apples to apples basis. This performance represents a significant turnaround from last year. Our team's execution is creating meaningful value in our consumer business with higher average order volumes, increased loyalty program enrollments, and improved performance in key categories like paper. Although it's still early in the back to school season, our strong performance has continued through July, giving us stronger confidence in our momentum for the remainder of the year. In our supply chain business there, we achieved 90% year over year revenue growth from third party customers and we're expanding our new business pipeline.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Operationally, Vehr generated a 32% increase in EBITDA from third party customers, underscoring the strength of our supply chain capabilities and growing market presence. Bayer remains a key asset supporting our global operations, navigating the evolving tariff environment, and enabling effective inventory management, particularly as we expand into the hospitality segment. We're also making progress in optimizing Bayer supply chain assets, working to improve fixed costs and operational efficiency through our Optimize for Growth plan. I'll share more details on these initiatives shortly. Finally, from a cash management perspective, our team continued to execute effectively, optimizing business operations and inventory to maximize cash flow.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Cash conversion remained strong, resulting in $13,000,000 in adjusted free cash flow for the quarter, more than double the amount generated in the same period last year. This is particularly impressive given that we typically see a use of cash in most second quarter results, given the inventory buildup in advance of the back to school season in the third quarter. As we move forward, we are intensifying our focus on inventory management, which we expect will drive further improvements in working capital in future quarters. I want to thank the team for their dedication and disciplined approach to cash management. Now, I'd like to provide an update on our progress in the hospitality market.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

This is shown on slide six. We are making significant progress in our entry into the hospitality industry. About six months ago, we announced a major strategic partnership with one of the world's largest hotel management organizations becoming a preferred provider for operating supplies and equipment, which includes essential items like towels and linens and amenities like soaps and shampoos and many other products. This agreement marked a major milestone, positioning ODP to enter the $16,000,000,000 hospitality segment, a growing market that demands high service capabilities and aligns perfectly with our core strengths in supply chain and distribution. This partnership covers approximately 15,000 members with hotels and related assets, which serve as a strong foundation for future growth in hospitality and adjacent markets.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Over the past several months, we've established key supply agreements with leading industry suppliers such as Sobel Westex and Hunter amenities, ensuring access to premium hospitality products. While inventory build and sourcing took longer than anticipated, we made substantial progress and have improved our position to meet the expected growing demand in the future. We've also recently strengthened our team by adding experienced sales professionals to drive future growth in this segment. The new talent we've added during the quarter brings many years of proven expertise in building successful supply businesses within the hospitality industry. Our team is energized and ready to hit the ground running, and we're excited about the value they'll bring as we execute our plans.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Also this quarter, we've broadened the launch of our OS and E product offering, directly engaging with potential hospitality customers, and we've onboarded about 1,000 new hotel properties under our current partnership. While building momentum takes time, we are encouraged by the strong early response and growing demand that we're beginning to see in the market. While still small, we have seen robust month over month growth, and importantly, our expanded offering is driving increased interest in our traditional office products among hospitality customers, both existing and new. Initial data indicates a meaningful increase in demand for our traditional products among existing hotel customers following the expansion of our offering to include OS and E hotel products. These early results demonstrate that our broader product assortment is beginning to have a positive impact on overall sales.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

We're encouraged by early results and the positive industry dynamics. We've added a key sales leader with deep hospitality expertise and are in advanced discussions with over a half dozen additional large hotel management companies to become their preferred supplier. We expect to sign agreements with one or two more major hotel management companies this year. Overall, we are very encouraged by our progress and believe hospitality will become a more meaningful contributor to our sales beginning in the second half of the year. Finally, I want to highlight the progress we're making with our Optimize for Growth restructuring plan.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

This is shown on slide seven. As a reminder, this initiative is focused on streamlining our fixed cost infrastructure to improve our margin profile while leveraging our core strengths to accelerate growth in our B2B market segments. This includes our expansion into new enterprise verticals such as hospitality, as well as in healthcare and other adjacent sectors in the future. We continue to make meaningful progress this quarter, further optimizing both our retail store operations and supply chain infrastructure to better serve customers and drive greater efficiency. Under the plan, we closed about two dozen retail stores and three distribution facilities in Q2.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

While there's more work ahead, we are on pace and we're confident that these efforts will lead to a more efficient operating model and drive margin improvement in the future. Before I turn it over to Max, I want to thank our team for their dedication to our core business and commitment to operational excellence. We are making solid progress on our strategy, delivering stronger year over year revenue trends while driving strong increases in adjusted free cash flow. Based on our performance so far, we expect to maintain this momentum into the second half of the year, assuming a relatively stable tariff environment and no major changes in the broader economy or enterprise market. Regarding the tariff environment, while we are not immune, we believe we are well positioned to adjust and we have taken proactive measures to position ourselves effectively to help mitigate potential impacts as the situation continues to evolve.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Supporting our outlook as we enter the second half of the year, we anticipate driving additional top line improvement at ODP Business Solutions while maintaining strong results in our retail channel. We are ahead of expectations on cash generation and now expect adjusted free cash flow to exceed $150,000,000 for the year, further strengthening our balance sheet and liquidity. We remain focused on executing our strategy, driving our core initiatives and delivering value for our shareholders. With that, I will turn it over to Max for a review of our financial results.

Max Hood
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 would like to cover our results for the second quarter on Slide nine. Please note that our results, as presented, are for continuing operations. We generated total revenue of $1,600,000,000 for the quarter, an 8% decrease compared to the second quarter of last year.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

However, this result represents an improvement in year over year trends. The decline in overall sales was primarily driven by 60 fewer stores in operation, reduced consumer traffic, and lower enterprise sales despite the positive momentum in recent performance. GAAP operating income in the quarter was $9,000,000 compared to $400,000 in the prior year period. Our GAAP results in the quarter included $16,000,000 of charges, primarily related to $13,000,000 of restructuring expenses largely associated with our Optimize for Growth plan. Through this plan, we closed 23 retail store locations, three distribution facilities, and one satellite location.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

The balance of $3,000,000 was associated with non cash asset impairments of operating lease right of use assets associated with our retail store locations and supply chain facilities. Excluding these charges, adjusted operating income for the second quarter was $25,000,000 compared to $33,000,000 in last year's second quarter. Unallocated corporate expenses were $15,000,000 in Q2. Adjusted EBITDA was $47,000,000 in the quarter, compared to $57,000,000 in last year's second quarter. This includes depreciation and amortization expense of $24,000,000 in the 2025 and 2024.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

Excluding the after tax impact from the items mentioned earlier, adjusted net income from continuing operations for the second quarter was $15,000,000 or $0.51 per diluted share, compared to $20,000,000 or $0.56 per diluted share in the prior year period. Now turning to our improved cash flow generation in the quarter. Operating cash flow from continuing operations in the quarter was $16,000,000 which included $9,000,000 in restructuring spend. This compared to cash used in operating activities of continuing operations of $1,000,000 including $25,000,000 in restructuring spend in the same period last year. The year over year increase in operating cash flow reflects our strengthening business model and disciplined working capital management, as we successfully converted inventory investments into cash, as we indicated last quarter.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

This led to strong cash conversion in the quarter. Capital expenditures were $12,000,000 in the 2025 versus $19,000,000 in the prior year period, and we continue to prioritize capital investments towards B2B growth opportunities supporting our supply chain operations, distribution network, and digital capabilities. Adjusted free cash flow in the quarter was $13,000,000 a significant increase as compared to adjusted free cash flow of $5,000,000 generated in the same period last year. This result is especially noteworthy given that we typically experience cash outflows in the second quarter due to inventory build ahead of the back to school season. Now turning to our consumer business, Office Depot, as shown on slide 10.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

Office Depot delivered another quarter of improving results, with year over year top line trends improving in the quarter as targeted profitable sales strategies continued to gain traction. Reported sales were $716,000,000 in the quarter, down 10% compared to the prior year. This result represented an improvement in the year over year trend we reported in the same period last year. Overall sales were impacted primarily by 60 fewer retail locations in service associated with planned store closures, as well as lower traffic and online sales, partially offset by higher average order volumes and the positive impact of targeted sales promotions. In total, we closed 23 retail stores in the quarter and had eight thirty four stores at quarter end.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

On a comparable store basis, our targeted sales initiatives continue to drive meaningful improvement in comparable store sale metrics. On a same store basis, sales were down 5% year over year, representing approximately a 200 basis point improvement in our same store comp over last year's second quarter. From an operational standpoint, operating income for the quarter was $12,000,000 On a percentage of revenue basis, this result was flat with last year. As we move forward, we're continuing to execute on our profitable sales initiatives in our retail business, balancing our pricing and promotion strategy with demand elasticity. We continue to make progress, and as Jerry mentioned, we carried that momentum into the month of July and are closely monitoring our progress as we head into the highly competitive back to school season.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

We're also continuing to execute our Optimize for Growth plan, focused on efficiency gains across the organization and help us lower fixed costs. Now turning to ODP Business Solutions, as shown on slide 11. As Gerry mentioned, we're pleased to report improved top line trends this quarter. Reported revenue was $859,000,000 in Q2, down 6% year over year, but representing more than a 200 basis point improvement over recent trends. While enterprise spending remains generally soft, our results benefited from stronger sales traction with new accounts and continued progress in onboarding recent business wins.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

Additionally, although still early, sales in our hospitality categories grew month over month throughout the quarter and began contributing to our overall performance. With our expanded offering, including OS and E products, we are also seeing a meaningful increase in sales of traditional product categories among existing hospitality customers. Overall, sales to hospitality customers rose by a low double digit percentage. Our pipeline of new business continues to grow, and we are continuing to make progress in converting the recent large new customer wins, representing over $500,000,000 in annual spend when at full run rate. Looking ahead, we remain focused on converting these new customers, strengthening relationships with existing clients, and driving growth in hospitality to help offset softer enterprise spending and support continued improvement in the second half of the year.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

From a product perspective, while most categories were lower year over year, we saw slightly improved sales traction in products such as paper and began to see initial demand for our hospitality products. Additionally, adjacency product categories accounted for 45% of total revenue this quarter, up from 43% in Q2 of last year, a key performance indicator for our business. On the operating front, lower revenues and related fixed cost deleveraging resulted in operating income of $18,000,000 in the quarter compared to $29,000,000 in the prior year period. Reducing fixed costs within our supply chain operations remains a top priority as we work to drive future margin improvement. We are encouraged by our improving position for the future as we execute our strategy and expand into new market segments.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

We expect to continue driving sequential improvements in the second half of the year, with greater contribution from the hospitality sector. Now, turning to our results on our Supply Chain business, Veyr, as shown on slide 12. Veyr's reported top line performance reflected lower sales from its internal customers, ODP Business Solutions and Office Depot, partially offset by revenue growth from third party customers. Overall, the year over year sales trends improved versus the prior year on a total segment basis. Vayer delivered sales of $1,100,000,000 in the quarter, primarily derived from supporting the purchasing and supply chain operations of ODP Business Solutions and Office Depot, which are eliminated upon consolidation.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

Veyer continued to make 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 Q2, delivered third party revenue of $19,000,000 up 90% over last year. Vayer drove third party EBITDA of $5,000,000 a 32% increase compared to the prior year period. Now, I'll turn it over to Adam to cover our balance sheet highlights and outlook.

Adam Haggard
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 continued to improve in the quarter, supported by our strong cash generation.

Adam Haggard
Adam Haggard
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

Adjusted free cash flow was $13,000,000 in the quarter, a substantial increase compared to last year. The changes we are making to our business model have resulted in our stronger cash generation year to date and have helped us pay down approximately $35,000,000 in debt so far this year, further strengthening our balance sheet. In total, we've generated $58,000,000 in adjusted free cash flow, a more than 160 percent increase compared to the first half of last year. As we move forward, we're also sharpening our focus on inventory management opportunities, we expect will enhance future cash generation. We believe this strategy positions us to maximize cash flow, further improves our balance sheet, and provides a pathway for long term sustainable growth and value creation.

Adam Haggard
Adam Haggard
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

Our balance sheet at quarter end included total liquidity of $658,000,000 consisting of $177,000,000 in cash and cash equivalents and $481,000,000 in available credit under the fourth amended credit agreement. Total debt was $245,000,000 Moving on to capital allocation. We continue to execute our capital allocation strategy, primarily investing in our core to drive the future of our business. We invested $12,000,000 in CapEx in the quarter versus $19,000,000 in the prior year period, targeted in our supply chain operations, distribution business and digital capability to set ourselves apart in the industry. As we move forward, we expect to prioritize our capital allocation towards investment in our core B2B resources, positioning us to capture the growth opportunities we discussed earlier.

Adam Haggard
Adam Haggard
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

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. Now turning to our outlook for 2025 as shown on slide 15. As we look to the second half of the year, directionally, we are expecting the following dynamics and outlook for our business. First, we expect to drive top line improvements in the second half of the year at ODP Business Solutions, as we continue to make progress on customer conversion and drive stronger sales and hospitality. Next, we expect to continue driving strong performance in our retail channel in the second half of the year, helping us support continued strong cash generation.

Adam Haggard
Adam Haggard
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

As you heard from Jerry, we continue to see strong results through July in this channel, which give us more confidence heading into the second half of the year. Lastly, we now expect to generate over $115,000,000 in adjusted free cash flow for the full year 2025 as we execute our strategy and continue to focus on working capital management. Our outlook considers a relatively stable macroeconomic environment and minimal additional impact from the evolving tariff environment. As we stated earlier, while we are not immune from the potential impacts related to the changing tariff structures, we believe we are well positioned with a diverse sourcing structure and flexible operating structure to help limit potential impacts to our business. With that, I will turn the call back over to Jerry.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Thank you, Adam. Before we open the call for questions, I want to once again thank our team for their dedication to operational excellence and their commitment to building a stronger foundation for profitable growth and long term value creation for all our stakeholders. To reiterate, we are making excellent progress on our strategy, driving improved performance in both our B2B and consumer businesses, expanding to high growth industries, increasing cash flow and further strengthening our balance sheet. We are encouraged by our momentum and we expect to deliver continued improvements in the second half of the year. Our expansion into higher growth market segments like hospitality is already showing early positive results and we anticipate gaining additional traction in this area, contributing more meaningfully to our performance in the 2025.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Additionally, our improving performance is leading to stronger adjusted free cash flow results, which further reinforces our foundation for sustainable growth in 2026 and beyond. With that, operator, we're ready to take your questions.

Operator

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

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

Good morning. Thank you so much for taking my question. Jerry, during your tenure at ODT Corp, you've been aggressive in pursuing strategic alternatives to try and maximize the value to shareholders of ODT? As you stand today, are there alternatives that you're exploring given where your stock price stands and what you see for the future? Or is the focus more so on simply executing the game plan to continue to perform as you anticipate, which is maybe the way that you expect to maximize shareholder value? Thank you.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Well, Matt good morning, Michael. Great to hear from you. Our our my job and the board's job is always maximize shareholder value. That's our primary focus as a board and as the CEO. I will say that I can't comment on any activities or it's not our policy to talk about any rumors or speculation.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

And so, that's my answer to that piece. And I'm super proud of the team. We're executing our strategy. We have a daily operations focus across all our businesses and we're driving tremendous results that I think our cash results and our EBITDA results demonstrate that. And so, I mean, again, my job is to maximize shareholder value.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

I'm gonna go out and do that. Our team is executing very, very well.

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

Got you. Thank you very much for that. One follow-up is on the expectation that ODP Corp can generate $115,000,000 of free cash flow this year. There are certain signs that the labor market is weakening. So what have you assumed from a macroeconomic standpoint, particularly the labor market within this expectation?

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

And if we do start to see the unemployment rate rise, how would that impact your expectation for free cash flow generation this year?

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Obviously, you know us pretty well, Max and I have as well. We're conservative in our pieces. We've done a we've made a lot of progress and we teased it pretty hard in presentation of we have a daily weekly focus on inventory, our merchants, B2C and B2B teams have done a great job of really looking at our merchant strategies as well as our supply chain teams. And so working with vendors, vendor consolidation, product consolidation, looking at turns, we have line of sight into a lot of cash coming through the business. We're making this a gigantic focus.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

We're pretty confident in the 115,000,000 plus. Remember the plus was there on purpose. And you know, and we're seeing honestly, we saw strength in the business in July, especially on the consumer side. And, you know, the the last, you know, last three or four days have been super strong as well. So, I mean, barring why we put the comment in, barring any changes in the environment, but we think we're performing well in this current economic environment and we're performing well from a tariff mitigation perspective and, you know, super pleased with the momentum we've seen in the last forty five days from a hospitality perspective as well.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

You know, for example, yesterday was our biggest day ever in the hospitality business. So not I I want a lot more and so does Jason Charles, the president of our b to b business. And we we literally have a daily call every day with our hospitality sales leaders. And so we do that on the Kevin does it with me on the b to c side and we're doing on the b to b side, but I want our investors to hear, we're focused on operational excellence. We're focused on daily execution and we have a one hundred day plans.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

We have our top 10 priorities. We're executing extremely well and we're ready to tackle any environment that's thrown at us. But we're, hey, the $115,000,000 plus is important. It shows the strength of our balance sheet and it shows the ability from a liquidity position to get even stronger. And over time, as we continue to build that, we'll continue to look for growth opportunities with that cash in the future.

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

Okay. Two last questions. One is on the tariff piece, what percentage of your assortment roughly speaking is being subject to a tariff? And response, how much are you going to anticipate, taking price up to maintain your margin?

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Yes. So let me take the let give you the structural at the top and let Matt and Adam jump in with the details from a tariff perspective. So we started daily tariff war rooms when it first came out. Our procurement and and merchant teams have done an incredible job. Eric, me and AJ and a number of people, right, Vish, you know, Andrew across the board.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

We've done a great job of mitigating that. A lot of our tariffs actually hit in areas, Michael, where you have a a math pricing, which is minimum average pricing where the vendor sets the price. And so what the vendors have done across tech and ink and toner, a number of areas, they've already risen, had price increases in that. So the whole market floats up. Now, obviously, there could be softening in demand.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

We haven't seen a lot of that yet. And so, big percentage of our tariffs were there and we'll obviously will flow through appropriately where we see tariffs in other areas. Adam, you want to jump in first and then Max?

Adam Haggard
Adam Haggard
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

Yeah. Hey Michael, it's Adam. One thing that should be clear when it comes to the tariff environment for us is that we were very focused on bringing in inventory early on in this tariff environment. If we go all the way back to when we were buying ahead for a port strike, which feels like it was ten years ago now, but last year at the end of the year, we were starting to get ahead for port strike. We were starting to get ahead for tariffs.

Adam Haggard
Adam Haggard
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

We had a really good inventory position, a good cost base that we were really happy about coming into Q2. What allowed us to do with that cost base was be competitive on pricing. So one thing that should be very clear is that there were no real pricing impacts to Q2. We had a stable pricing environment and so all the trends in our business are organic trends for us. They're not pricing related.

Adam Haggard
Adam Haggard
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

So that should be something that everybody takes away from this call. And then to just put a finer point on what Jerry just alluded to is that about 57% of our inventory is either MAP priced or exempt in the tariff environment. So we have a lot of flexibility in this space moving forward and we feel really comfortable as long as the macro doesn't turn sideways on us, which is the plan at this point.

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

And my last question, I apologize for taking so much time. But my last question is for those who wanna invest in ODP Corp stock, one of the key questions is at what point positive developments does of all the top line actions that you've been taking, such as hospitality, adjacent categories, those that you've laid out or to offset the decline in core office supplies and other factors such that the top line of the enterprise can return to overall growth? Is that a twenty twenty six outcome potentially?

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Michael, you broke up a bit in the beginning, but I'm gonna try to hit it at a high level, let the guys jump in as well. I believe we're tremendously undervalued today. If you look at our balance sheet position, our cash position, our liquidity position, the potential we have in hospitality and the pitches, what we're the execution of our B2C teams. We are a, from a market cap perspective, a two and a half types of multiple, which is a, in my mind, a liquidation multiple, which isn't fair at all. Have some with potential, the cash position, the momentum we have, we should be in my opinion, a much stronger multiple going forward.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

And I think with the potential of hospitality as a growth segment in the future and the cash position we have in the balance sheet, I think we're personally, I think we're a strong buy, Michael. And I think and I as a CEO, my job is to maximize shareholder value and we're we're gonna go keep executing to go up and go do that. But I mean, we have a strong balance sheet position. We have a strong cash position. We just took guidance up on cash at 115 plus.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

And so and we have a segment we've entered into. We're starting to see a lot of traction on that as a a growing market segment. What the timing of that? Hard to predict. But, you know, now is the best time as ever from a a a value perspective because I I have confidence in this business. Guys.

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

Thank you very much and good luck.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Yeah, thank you.

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

Go ahead.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

Yeah, Michael, it's Max. Just wanted to add to that. Just a reminder, we expect to see our retail business continue to decline based on the industry, while, however, that's very stabilized and performing better than we think it is right now. Our focus is on, as Jerry mentioned, a growing industry in hospitality. We've converted over a thousand properties in just the one contract that we began with.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

So we're making really good progress. Just wanna reiterate that it's a it's a second half story where we really expect to see some momentum. So I would keep watching and focusing on the performance this year in the second half.

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

Okay. Thank you very much. Good luck.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Thanks so much, Michael.

Operator

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

Gregory Burns
Analyst at Sidoti & Company, LLC

Good morning. You've given us a of detail on the momentum on the hospitality space, but I just wanted to get maybe a little bit more color on where you're at with those larger new deals you've signed in the more traditional office categories on the B2B side. How are those progressing in terms of their onboarding, the pace of onboarding? Are they where you thought they would be? And what kind of momentum are you seeing from those deals in the second quarter and as we move into the third quarter?

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Yeah. I mean, obviously, I can't get into a lot of detail because some of that's competitive information. But I will say we're active conversations and are confident that we will have contracts in place this year with additional parties that are significant to our overall growth plan.

Gregory Burns
Analyst at Sidoti & Company, LLC

Okay. I I was more asking about the ones you've already announced and signed. Just where where you are in terms of the pace of onboarding, any any Yeah. Momentum momentum you're seeing in those?

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

For the for the ones we have, we're we're optimistic with the momentum. I mean, signing a thousand properties, Yeah. We are out, sending our teams out, and they're they're knocking on doors, they're they're they're take they're they're getting wins. And, again, we're we're looking at this every single day. And so the the goal is to you know, how do you double that thousand to 2,000?

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

How do you go to 2,000 to 4,000? How do you go to 15,000? And all of a sudden, we're pleased with the momentum of of the other two signings we've had and those are we we mentioned CoreTrust and that's been a very strong relationship for us and that is growing as as well as the other win we announced in November is we're onboarding people on ongoing basis on all three fronts. Adam, anything else? Okay, great.

Adam Haggard
Adam Haggard
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

Yeah. And Greg, it's Adam. Thanks for coming on the call today. One thing that's important to know is that the core trust agreement and some of our other bigger agreements that we've signed have had some impact in Q2, but we really do expect that they'll have a more prominent impact in our business as we move through Q3 and Q4. So last quarter we did allude to the fact that we were a second half story and that was in regards to a lot of the contracts that you're referring to.

Adam Haggard
Adam Haggard
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

So we expect incredible momentum as we move through the back half of the year with some of those contracts that you're talking about. And we see early signs right now in Q2 that it's starting. And so that gives us hope in what the back half of the year is going to look like from a top line and bottom line perspective.

Gregory Burns
Analyst at Sidoti & Company, LLC

Okay, great.

Gregory Burns
Analyst at Sidoti & Company, LLC

Margins on the solutions business were down a little bit sequentially. Is that just some of the newer business coming in at a lower margin and needs to gain a little bit more scale? What was driving that sequential decline in operating margin this quarter?

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

I'll let Max and Adam take that.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

Yeah.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

Hey, Greg. Yeah, it's Max. So, related to the margins, you know, overall, you know, just to be clear on the on the product margin itself, we've held strong. So we've seen consistent product margin being been able to keep that high. Overall margins, you know, we're still we're we're still continuing to see well, we made good progress in our sales trajectory going to a negative six decline in in O2B Business Solutions.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

We still have a deleveraging impact and an impact of our fixed costs on our profit margin. So, this comes back to optimize for growth, which we launched last quarter. We're making excellent progress. We have some details in the release, but essentially closed a variety of facilities to tighten up our supply chain, and that's going to drive very direct profitability improvements in the business solutions.

Gregory Burns
Analyst at Sidoti & Company, LLC

Okay. Thanks for that. And then just lastly, in the what are going to be the cash charges this year for restructuring and the Project CORE and optimize for growth?

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

Cash charges should be roughly around probably about $5,000,000 a quarter.

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

Okay, great. Thank you.

Operator

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

Joe Gomes
Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions.

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

Good morning, Joe. Joe.

Joe Gomes
Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets

I wanted to start out real big picture on the business solutions side, making some good progress there, the 200 basis point improvement in sales trends. What though do you, as you sit here today, do you think needs to happen or occur for that segment to get back to positive revenue trends?

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

I think it is just continue the executional focus we have. We are 100% lengthening hospitality. That's a growth market. How do I get how does Dave and his team and that it was the b to b of business drive from a thousand properties to 2,000 properties to 3,000 properties to 4,000 properties. We're gonna go do that and we're deploying sales teams.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

We did I want to mention that we brought a very experienced leader to run our inside sales team that had you know, fifteen plus years experience in the hospitality provider and did a great job there and is a a a wealth of information and experience. I think he's gonna do a fantastic job for us. I mean, Joe Brothers running our our our team for us. And all other sales leaders are again, we have a daily hospitality called Dave runs. I participate on it.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Adam and Max are on it as well. And so we are laser focused on driving operational excellence to go up and drive this business. That's where we're gonna get the growth from. And from Core Trust and from the other the large deal we had in November and any other deals that we'll continue to look for going forward. So it's about operational focus and and I I think that we've tripled down on that and I think we've done that all year and that's showing in the results in Q1 and Q2.

Adam Haggard
Adam Haggard
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

Hey Joe, it's Adam. Can I pull on that thread for a second as well? One thing to note is that our change in trend in the ODP business solutions top line is really coming from hospitality and our hospitality contract. So when we see momentum like a 200 basis point change in trend because of this new adventure that we're on, we're going to continue down this path. It's just going to get stronger and stronger as we move throughout time.

Adam Haggard
Adam Haggard
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

So when we look at the change in trend there, that has a lot to do with it. It's a material impact. So we're going to continue on that front and executing in that space because we can see the dividend that it's paying back to us. So laser focused on hospitality and some of these other contracts Jerry just alluded to. Thanks.

Max Hood
Max Hood
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

And I'll just add one quick point to that too. What we're noticing is an extra benefit here is that in our traditional space that our sales are growing there as we explore hospitality as well. I mentioned earlier, low double digit growth in our traditional space. So these are things like pantry, cleaning. So also our traditional space is increasing as a result of our expansion in the hospitality.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

So a great way to say would be they're they're viewing us as a a total a total solution provider, not not just an office products company anymore, now now we can one truck can do, you know, cleaning and break room. It can do snacks. It can do hospitality products. It can do a traditional office products. It can do furniture.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

It can do tech. And so and we've done deals in some of these places in all those categories. So I think it's a really important strategic point you made, Max, you know, hey. In in in these pieces, we're seeing and these customers, we're seeing growth across the whole across our whole portfolio.

Joe Gomes
Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets

Great. And then then one other one for me. So, again, you know, you're seeing some improvement over at Office Depot on the retail side. But guesses out there for back to school could be down anywhere from the mid to high single digits. If that were occur, these they can still see improved same store sales trends at Office Depot or you the way you're looking at it, you're not seeing those types of declines that are being forecasted out there?

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Yeah. I'll take that. And first, I wanna thank Kevin Moff and his team. They've done an incredible job in q one and q two. They had an incredible July.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

This week has been strong as well. And it's really a merchandising strategy shift of offering value across the number of product categories. It's a daily execution by our store teams. Carlos, Chris, and Billy do an incredible job of and we're we're operationally looking at every day's scorecard in it. But I I think that, you know, you know, we're early in the flight weeks.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

This week is a big flight week and we've had really strong performance Sunday and and Tuesday. And so that's a good indicator that we can continue the strength. I can't predict what's gonna happen in the next three and a half, four weeks. But we think we're incredibly positioned with the merchandise and execution of our merchandising teams, the performance of our store teams and the way we've scorecarded and are managing it every single day at every single store, every single district, every single region and we're doing the same thing with our key product categories and it's working. And so I have to applaud that team because they have built tremendous momentum And I was on the call today at 08:30 before this call and another great day.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

So thank you team for doing that and we're gonna try to continue to do every day, but I hope that all our call listeners are hearing strategies working, operational excellence is working, daily focus is working and I have strong hopes for the B2C team this quarter.

Adam Haggard
Adam Haggard
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

Guys, anything else to add? I think you summed it up well. The only thing I would add to that is that, coming in to this first beginning of the flight weeks that Jerry was alluding to, we're seeing nice momentum and usually that's a good sign for things to come. We don't know exactly how things will pan out of course, throughout the remainder of the quarter, but it's early signs, good July, early signs to the first couple of flight weeks that are here. So we're encouraged by what we're seeing early on here in the beginning of back to school.

Joe Gomes
Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets

Great. Thanks for that guys. I'll hop back in queue.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Thanks so much.

Adam Haggard
Adam Haggard
SVP & Co-CFO at The ODP

Thanks, Joe.

Operator

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

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

Yes. I just want to thank everyone for joining the call today. I want just reiterate that I'm really proud of this team. I want to thank my leadership team, my senior leadership team, all the employees of company and our partners as well. We're demonstrating strong strategy execution.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

We're demonstrating an operational excellence. We have very focused prioritized plans and how we run the business every single day. And I think that's really great results in Q1 and Q2. Very pleased with the cash forecast increase across the business. A lot of us have faith and we're turning to that every day across this business as well and look forward to being thank you for joining the call today and we look forward to continue to drive and maximize shareholder value.

Gerry Smith
Gerry Smith
CEO & Executive Director at The ODP

While others will keep praying for success. Thank you very much.

Operator

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

Executives
    • Timothy Perrott
      Timothy Perrott
      VP - IR
    • Gerry Smith
      Gerry Smith
      CEO & Executive Director
    • Max Hood
      Max Hood
      SVP & Co-CFO
    • Adam Haggard
      Adam Haggard
      SVP & Co-CFO
Analysts
    • Michael Lasser
      Equity Research Analyst - Hardlines, Broadlines & Food Retail at UBS Group
    • Gregory Burns
      Analyst at Sidoti & Company, LLC
    • Joe Gomes
      Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets
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