Steelcase Q2 2026 Earnings Report

Steelcase EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.45
• Consensus EPS: $0.37
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.08
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.39

Steelcase Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $897.10 million
• Expected Revenue: $878.73 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$18.37 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +4.80%

Steelcase Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2026
• Date: 9/24/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, September 25, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 8:30AM ET

Steelcase (NYSE:SCS), Inc. is a global leader in the design and manufacture of workspace furniture and architectural solutions. The company develops a wide range of products including adjustable desks, ergonomic seating, collaborative furniture, movable walls, and integrated technology offerings aimed at enhancing productivity and well-being in office, education, and healthcare environments. Steelcase combines research on human behavior, work patterns, and technology trends to inform the development of its solutions, positioning itself as a partner for organizations seeking to optimize their physical spaces.

Through its portfolio of brands—such as Steelcase, Coalesse, and Steelcase Education—the company addresses the needs of corporate clients, learning institutions, and healthcare providers. Its product lines feature modular systems designed for flexibility, acoustic solutions for noise control, and digital tools that support hybrid collaboration. Steelcase’s services extend beyond manufacturing to include space planning, data analytics on how spaces are used, and consulting on workplace strategy and change management.

Founded in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1912 as the Metal Office Furniture Company, Steelcase adopted its current name in 1954 and has since expanded into a multinational organization with operations in over 100 countries. The company maintains manufacturing and innovation centers across North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America, enabling it to serve a broad geographic footprint and adapt quickly to regional market demands. Steelcase has pursued sustainability initiatives in product design and packaging, aligning with broader industry trends toward environmentally responsible business practices.

In April 2024, Sarah A. McCoy was appointed president and chief executive officer, bringing experience from both the design and consumer goods sectors to the role. Under McCoy’s leadership, Steelcase continues to emphasize research-driven innovation, customer collaboration, and the integration of technology into the workplace. The company remains focused on responding to evolving workstyles and delivering solutions that balance functionality, aesthetics, and employee well-being.

Steelcase Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: In Q2, Steelcase achieved 5% revenue growth and its highest adjusted earnings in five years, topping internal forecasts.
• Positive Sentiment: Order volumes rose 6% year-over-year—driven by an 8% increase in the Americas—reflecting strong demand from large corporate clients.
• Neutral Sentiment: International revenue grew 13% (8% organically), led by India, while Germany and France continued to underperform amid macroeconomic challenges.
• Negative Sentiment: Orders from the education segment declined, pressured by changes in U.S. federal funding, and EMEA performance remains uneven despite cost-reduction efforts.
• Positive Sentiment: The proposed merger with HNI Corporation, expected to close by year-end 2025, aims to combine leading brands and expand market reach.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning. My name is Rob, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Steelcase Second Quarter Fiscal 2026 conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. Thank you. Mr. O'Meara, you may begin your conference.

[Mike O’Meara, Director - IR, Financial Planning & Analysis at Steelcase]

Thank you, Rob. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for the recap of our second quarter fiscal 2026 financial results. Here with me today are Sara Armbruster, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Dave Sylvester, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our second quarter earnings release, which crossed the wires yesterday, is accessible on our website. This conference call is being webcast, and this webcast is a copyrighted production of Steelcase Inc. A replay of this webcast will be posted to ir.steelcase.com later today. Our discussion today may include references to non-GAAP financial measures and forward-looking statements. Reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures and details regarding the risks associated with the use of forward-looking statements are included in our earnings release, and we are incorporating by reference into this conference call the text of our safe harbor statement included in the release.

[Mike O’Meara, Director - IR, Financial Planning & Analysis at Steelcase]

Following our prepared remarks, we will respond to questions from investors and analysts. As related to the pending merger approval with HNI Corporation, we will not be taking questions today, and we refer you to the publicly available filings. I will now turn the call over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Sara Armbruster.

[Sara Armbruster, President & CEO at Steelcase]

Thanks, Mike, and hi, everyone, and thanks for joining today's call. I'll begin with an overview of our performance in the quarter. In the second quarter, we delivered strong financial results that built on our recent momentum. Our revenue and adjusted earnings grew over the prior year and exceeded our expectations, and they marked our highest quarterly results over the past five years. Overall, we increased revenue by 5%, led by strong growth from our large corporate customers in the Americas. Our international segment posted 13% revenue growth, including 8% on an organic basis, with especially strong results from India. Our adjusted earnings improvement was supported by the revenue growth in addition to strong cost controls. Turning to profitability, our Americas segment delivered an adjusted operating margin of 11%, and in our international segment, our adjusted operating results improved by $5 million compared to the prior year.

[Sara Armbruster, President & CEO at Steelcase]

The improvement in the international segment was driven in part by the cost reduction actions we've been implementing over the past couple of years. Our revenue growth was supported by strong orders, which grew by 6% in the second quarter, including 8% growth in the Americas, which was driven by continued growth from our large corporate customers. Orders from our global client collaboration customers posted year-over-year growth for the third consecutive quarter. As we've mentioned before, our customers are recognizing the need to transform their spaces to support new ways of working as their employees more fully return to the office. In our international segment, strong order growth in India and some of our other markets was offset by declines in Germany and France, which continued to be impacted by macroeconomic challenges.

[Sara Armbruster, President & CEO at Steelcase]

In those markets, we're focusing on winning as much available business as possible, and at the same time, we're aligning resources to focus on the best opportunities. In the Americas, our win rates continue to remain strong, which we believe is evidence that we continue to lead the transformation of the workplace. We saw strong growth this quarter from both the financial services sector and from large technology customers. Companies across these leading industries are investing in their offices as they seek to bring their teams together in new spaces that support higher levels of connection, creativity, and performance, and Steelcase is well-positioned to capitalize on this ongoing trend. Our proposed transaction with HNI Corporation is expected to further our strategy of expanding our reach within markets.

[Sara Armbruster, President & CEO at Steelcase]

We believe that combining with HNI Corporation brings together the industry's best brands to more customers, and that's one of the many reasons we're excited to pursue the transaction. We are confident that the combination will be a win for all of our stakeholders. We're working with HNI Corporation to complete this transaction, which is expected to occur by the end of calendar year 2025. I want to thank our Steelcase team for their incredible hard work and commitment as we continue to execute during this transition period. It is because of the team's talent, their dedication, and passion that makes Steelcase the industry leader that we are today and why we were an attractive choice for HNI Corporation. We look forward to the closing with HNI Corporation and to realizing the significant benefits that our combined company is expected to bring to our shareholders, customers, dealers, and employees. Now I'll turn it over to Dave.

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

Thank you, Sara, and good morning, everyone. My comments today will cover the highlights related to our second quarter results, balance sheet, and cash flow. In light of our pending combination with HNI Corporation, we will not be providing forward-looking guidance at this time. Our second quarter revenue of $897 million was above the estimated range we provided in June due to stronger than expected orders from our large corporate customers and favorable shipment timing in our Americas segment. Our adjusted earnings of $0.45 per share also finished above our estimated range, driven by the higher revenue and favorable gross margins, which benefited from favorable shifts in business mix. Our international segment also finished better than our expectations, as Asia Pacific performed better than expected, while EMEA's results were somewhat below our expectations.

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

Compared to the prior year, we posted organic revenue growth of 4%, including 3% growth in the Americas and 8% growth in international. The Americas growth was driven by our large corporate customers, partially offset by a decline from our education customers. The international organic revenue growth was primarily driven by India, China, and the UK, partially offset by continued weakness in Germany and France. Our adjusted operating margin of 8.4% in the second quarter represented a 40 basis point improvement compared to the prior year. The improvement was driven by revenue growth and cost reduction efforts across the international segment. The Americas posted an adjusted operating margin of 11.0% in Q2, which was approximately flat with the prior year. We incurred $10 million of restructuring costs in our international segment in the second quarter, primarily related to the exit of salaried employees in EMEA.

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

These exits were part of a series of restructuring activities, which are expected to be completed in fiscal year 2027. Shifting to orders, Q2 grew 6% compared to the prior year, driven by 8% growth in the Americas, net of a 1% decline in international. In the Americas, continued order growth from large corporate customers was partially offset by declines from education customers, who had grown strongly in the prior year and are now being impacted by changes in federal funding policies. The growth in large corporate customers was driven by the financial services and technology sectors, as well as our Steelcase brand. For international, the 1% decline in orders was driven by continued weakness in Germany and France, largely offset by strong growth in India and Japan.

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

As it relates to cash flow in the balance sheet, cash and short-term investments increased $32 million from Q1, driven primarily by $100 million of adjusted EBITDA, partially offset by a $28 million seasonal increase in accounts receivable, $18 million of capital expenditures, and our $12 million quarterly dividend payment. Our trailing four-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $278 million was 8.5% of revenue. Our total liquidity, which includes the cash surrender value of COLI, aggregated to $427 million at the end of the quarter, and our total debt was $447 million. In closing, and as Sara mentioned, we're encouraged by the momentum we sustained into our second quarter, especially with the continued growth from our large corporate customers. From there, we'll turn it back to the operator for questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. Your first question today comes from the line of Joseph Gomes from Noble Capital Markets. Your line is open.

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

Good morning. Congrats on the quarter. Thank you.

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

Dave, I don't know if you could kind of break out, in the outperformance, what was volume versus the price increases that you guys were pushing through?

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

I think if we talk about the order growth in the Americas as an example, let's start there, the 8% order growth. I would say more of it was driven by volume than price. I don't think the price benefits were more than a couple of percent.

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

Okay. Do you have any more plans for additional price increases coming, or do you think you've got most of the tariff stuff offset?

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

I won't comment on pricing actions planned or contemplated, but I will share that we were able to offset the year-over-year inflation and tariff costs with incremental pricing benefits that were related to the actions we took earlier in the year.

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

Okay. One more for me, if I may. If you stand here today and you're kind of looking at the end markets, are they more or less favorable than what you were anticipating earlier in the year?

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

That's a good question. I would say they are more favorable. We anticipated a recovery in large corporate demand, and it's playing out, but it's playing out at a higher level. If we didn't have the declines that we're experiencing in the education business due to the federal funding policy, I think you'd really be impressed with the growth rate. To net 8% suggests that the large corporate demand was very strong in the quarter.

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

Great, thanks. Appreciate it. Again, congrats on the quarter.

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

Thank you.

[Sara Armbruster, President & CEO at Steelcase]

Thanks.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Steven Ramsey from Thompson Research Group. Your line is open.

[Steven Ramsey, Senior Equity Analyst at Thompson Research Group]

Hi. Good morning. Maybe to stick with the demand patterns that you're seeing in the Americas, you've seen strong order growth now for the last six quarters. Maybe you can give a flavor of the demand profile if it's more return-to-office driven or if it's companies that were already in the office but maybe moving locations to better spaces or doing major updates to existing spaces. Just any flavor of the good order growth now versus order growth maybe in the last few quarters.

[Sara Armbruster, President & CEO at Steelcase]

Yes. Steven, I think it's all of the above. I would think what we definitely see is that many of these clients are rethinking their office space, whether it's rethinking existing space or moving to new space, and really focus on outcomes, really asking questions about what is the space designed to support, whether that's creativity or collaboration or connection. I think our win rates with our largest customers remain strong and consistent, and we continue to see employers realize that they need to redesign their spaces as they return to office and provide better solutions, whether it's privacy, collaboration, etc. I think that's a pretty consistent theme across segments. It's a mix of both companies taking on new space and moving and renovating spaces that they're already occupying.

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

Hey, Steven, maybe just to add some color to that, our project-based orders grew at a faster rate than our continuing business, supporting Sara's remarks that a lot of this is about changing and transforming the office, whether in new space or their current space.

[Steven Ramsey, Senior Equity Analyst at Thompson Research Group]

Okay, that's helpful from both of you. Maybe to clarify, was continuing business positive, but project was more positive?

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

Yeah.

[Steven Ramsey, Senior Equity Analyst at Thompson Research Group]

Okay. Great. The second one for me, wanted to dig into the profitability improvement in international. Maybe if you could parse it out, Asia-Pacific profitability, the trend there, and how much of the better profitability was APAC versus Europe?

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

I don't remember the specifics, but both, I believe, improved versus prior year. We feel pretty good about where the Asia-Pacific business is at the moment. They still have additional work to do. They're in the process of continuing to drive some cost reductions that are in various stages of implementation. They were profitable in the quarter, and we feel pretty good about where they are from a demand perspective, especially with China starting to show some demand improvement for the last couple of quarters. In EMEA, we had improvements largely because of the revenue growth, but also because of some of the cost reductions that they've been driving over the last couple of years. What's interesting about EMEA is when you break it down and look at the drivers of demand, France and Germany are down, and really, the rest of the markets in aggregate are up.

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

They're up nicely. There, I'm speaking to the UK, Spain, Middle East, and Africa, the export markets of Eastern, Central, Southern parts of Europe. It's really about a French and German macro situation that we're facing.

[Steven Ramsey, Senior Equity Analyst at Thompson Research Group]

Great. That's all helpful color. Thank you.

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

Yep.

[Sara Armbruster, President & CEO at Steelcase]

Thanks.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Reuben Garner from The Benchmark Company. Your line is open.

[Reuben Garner, Managing Director at The Benchmark Company LLC]

Thank you. Good morning, everybody.

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

Morning.

[Reuben Garner, Managing Director at The Benchmark Company LLC]

First, a clarification, Dave, your comments on your pricing actions. Did you say that you had already fully offset any inflation and tariff costs on a dollar perspective with the pricing out there, or were you kind of able to recover your margin with the actions so far? Historically, these take time to flow through. How much of the earlier pricing actions are going to continue to flow through into your numbers over the coming quarters?

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

Yeah. What I was referring to was the second quarter. On a year-over-year basis, the benefits from our pricing actions offset the tariffs and incremental inflation, again, year-over-year. I think we actually started to get a little margin from those actions. On a cumulative basis, we are still trying to catch up because tariffs hit us right away and pricing lagged given the amount of backlog that we had in place that we did not apply the tariff surcharge to. It's going to probably take another couple of quarters before we fully catch up on a cumulative basis and begin to get margin on all of that inflation and tariff costs. It remains quite volatile week to week. We seem to get new information that we have to run through our modeling and see how it affects us.

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

I will stop short of predicting when we will be out of the woods on tariffs and the related inflation.

[Reuben Garner, Managing Director at The Benchmark Company LLC]

Got it. Can you talk about the cadence of order patterns, specifically in the Americas, over the course of the quarter? I guess what you've seen, I don't think I heard you say what you saw quarter to date, but sometimes you guys give the order pattern for the start of the following quarter. What are you guys seeing here lately?

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

Nothing unusual. It wasn't like all back-end weighted or front-end weighted. I think it was spread evenly across the quarter. In fact, when you look at the overall level of kind of average weekly demand coming in, it was fairly steady. The plus or minus versus prior year might have been bigger or smaller in one month or the other, but it would have been because of prior year patterns.

[Reuben Garner, Managing Director at The Benchmark Company LLC]

Got it. Last point.

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

Oh, Reuben, the first three weeks are roughly flat compared to the prior year.

[Reuben Garner, Managing Director at The Benchmark Company LLC]

Okay. Last one for me. Given some of these are, some of the strengths here lately are more project-oriented, larger customers, return-to-office focus, what are you seeing from a mixed perspective, if anything, on how these offices are being put together as kind of changes are made? Anything notable from maybe how it was last year or even maybe prior to 2020?

[Sara Armbruster, President & CEO at Steelcase]

I would say we see more and more customers really rethinking how the space is going to support their strategic goals. I think there was still, in the early days after COVID a couple of years back, a backlog of people who were making changes and investing in their offices in ways that were maybe a continuation of the norm prior to COVID. What we're definitely seeing now is customers who are realizing that they need to redesign their space. They're returning to office. They see that they've got to attract people, that people are working differently, and that they need privacy. They need collaboration solutions. They need technology implemented in different ways. We're definitely seeing more and more customers incorporating those new concepts or those newer concepts into their planning.

[Reuben Garner, Managing Director at The Benchmark Company LLC]

Great. Thanks for the feedback, guys, and good luck going forward.

[David Sylvester, SVP & CFO at Steelcase]

Thank you.

[Sara Armbruster, President & CEO at Steelcase]

Thanks.

[Operator]

There are no further questions at this time. Ms. Armbruster, I turn the call back over to you.

[Sara Armbruster, President & CEO at Steelcase]

Thank you. Just to recap, our second quarter results were strong, and they continued the momentum we've been seeing in the business, supported by the ongoing strengthening from our largest customers. Our customers are recognizing the need to redefine their spaces to support new ways of working as employees more fully return to the office. We remain focused on our strategy with anticipation of an even stronger future with HNI Corporation. Thank you all for joining, and we appreciate your interest, Steelcase.

[Operator]

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Mike O’Meara, Director - IR, Financial Planning & Analysis
• Sara Armbruster, President & CEO
• David Sylvester, SVP & CFO

Analysts

• Joe Gomes, Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets
• Steven Ramsey, Senior Equity Analyst at Thompson Research Group
• Reuben Garner, Managing Director at The Benchmark Company LLC