Core Molding Technologies Q4 2025 Earnings Report

Core Molding Technologies EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.47
• Consensus EPS: $0.23
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.24
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Core Molding Technologies Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $74.68 million
• Expected Revenue: $66.44 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$8.24 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Core Molding Technologies Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2025
• Date: 3/10/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 10:00AM ET

Core Molding Technologies (NYSEAMERICAN:CMT), Inc. (NYSE American: CMT) is a manufacturer of composite products made primarily from fiberglass-reinforced plastics and other engineered materials. The company uses processes including compression molding, resin transfer molding, hand lay-up, pultrusion and related fabrication techniques to produce lightweight, durable components.

Its products include body panels, hoods, roofs, fenders, cab components, structural parts and other assemblies used in heavy trucks, automobiles, marine equipment, industrial applications and other markets. Core Molding Technologies also provides design, engineering, tooling, assembly and finishing services to support customers from product development through manufacturing.

Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, the company serves original equipment manufacturers and other customers primarily in North America. Its manufacturing operations and customer base support applications across the transportation, industrial and consumer-product sectors.

Core Molding Technologies Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Core announced $63 million of 2025 business wins (65% in new markets) and says combined launches and market trends give visibility to >$300 million of product revenue in 2027, supported by a $220 million pipeline and plans to add another $50 million in 2026.
• Positive Sentiment: The company won $21 million of annual SMC compound business in 2025 (one-third already launched) and expects all SMC programs to be in production by end of Q3 2026, targeting a >$200 million addressable building-products channel.
• Positive Sentiment: Q4 revenue rose to $74.7 million (+27.8% sequential, +19.5% YoY) with adjusted EBITDA margin of 10.2%, full-year gross margin of 17.4%, operating cash flow of $19.2 million, and strong liquidity (~$88.1 million) with debt/EBITDA <1x.
• Neutral Sentiment: Management is investing heavily in Mexico (spent $6.5M in 2025, plans another $18–20M in 2026) to add SMC and ultra-large molding capacity and expects related tooling revenue of ~$35M, while flagging ~$2.5M of non-capital operating costs in H1 2026 and total 2026 CapEx of $25–30M.
• Negative Sentiment: Core remains exposed to a weak truck market (truck = 44% of product sales) that drove a 9.5% full-year revenue decline in 2025; management expects a truck recovery only in H2 2026, guiding 2026 sales to flat-to+5% and warning most new-win impact will arrive in H2 2026 and 2027, creating near-term ramp and margin timing risk.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Core Molding Technologies fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Sandy Martin, Three Part Advisors. Please go ahead.

[Sandy Martin, Managing Director at Three Part Advisors]

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate your joining us for Core Molding Technologies' conference call to review our 2025 results. Joining me on the call today are the company's President and CEO, David Duvall, as well as COO and incoming CEO, Eric Palomaki, and CFO, Alex Panda. This call is being webcast and can be accessed through coremt.com via an audio link on the Investor Relations Events and Presentations page. Today's conference call, including the Q&A session, will be recorded. Please be advised that any time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the date of any replay or transcript reading.

[Sandy Martin, Managing Director at Three Part Advisors]

I would also like to remind you that the statements made in today's discussion that are not historical facts, including statements or expectations or future events or future financial performance or forward-looking statements and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are uncertain and outside the company's control. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. Please refer to today's earnings release for our disclosures on forward-looking statements. These factors and other risks and uncertainties are described in detail in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Core Molding Technologies assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements publicly. Management will refer to non-GAAP measures, including adjusted EPS, adjusted EBITDA and debt to trailing twelve months EBITDA ratio, free cash flow, and return on capital employed.

[Sandy Martin, Managing Director at Three Part Advisors]

Reconciliations to the nearest GAAP measures are available at the end of our earnings release. Our earnings release has been submitted to the SEC on Form 8-K. Now, I would like to turn the call over to the company's President and CEO, Dave Duvall. Dave?

[David Duvall, President and CEO at Core Molding Technologies]

Thank you, Sandy. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your continued interest in Core Molding Technologies. In 2019, we set out to fundamentally transform the organization to create a company with three foundational values. Number one, a winning culture that values team success over individual success. A short story here. It's funny how things can make complete sense after some time. You know, I had a leader tell me many years ago, after me working all night long, getting a plant up and running, that winners win. At the time, I thought, "Whatever," and just wanted to get some sleep. I learned it really is a truth. You create a team that sees themselves as winners, and they enjoy winning enough to overcome all the challenges that you face as a team.

[David Duvall, President and CEO at Core Molding Technologies]

Number two, disciplined execution, which is even more important than a good strategy. Number three, the team values and expects a daily inner drive from every employee to continually improve, learn, and grow. To me, this is the required basic foundation for any high-achieving organization, and we have purposefully driven these values throughout every system in our business. We are more excited than ever by the progress we made and the robust foundation we built to drive sustained growth. Through this transformation, we've implemented more robust operating systems, expanded margins, strengthened the balance sheet, created a deep and capable leadership team, and established a performance-driven culture. With that foundation firmly in place, as proven by our financial performance, we are now focused on leveraging all that we've created to drive growth.

[David Duvall, President and CEO at Core Molding Technologies]

Over the past two years, we have also completed a comprehensive executive leadership transition through a purposeful and structured process. This strategic emphasis on continuity and readiness, supported by extensive training, coaching, and development, will ensure strong alignment, continued financial and operating performance, and ultimately drive long-term success for the company and our shareholders. As previously shared, I plan to officially retire from Core at the end of May, with Eric succeeding me as CEO. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to continue supporting the organization in an executive advisory role through the end of 2027. In that capacity, I'll continue to work closely with Eric, our board, and the broader leadership team to ensure continuity and a smooth and successful transition as they lead the company forward. Looking ahead, I'm confident in Core's long-term direction.

[David Duvall, President and CEO at Core Molding Technologies]

The momentum we built, the recent wins across the business, and the strength of our leadership team reinforces the path we are on as the company continues to drive growth and long-term value creation. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Eric and Alex to discuss our fourth quarter and full-year performance. Eric?

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Thank you, Dave, and good morning. I'll begin with a few high-level comments on our 2025 performance and strategic progress. Our Invest For Growth initiative generated $63 million in business wins, successfully executing our must-win battle for 2025. Importantly, the majority of these new wins support our strategic diversification strategy, expanding beyond truck and powersports end markets and strengthening the resilience of our portfolio. Turning to powersports, we are seeing early signs of an industry recovery, which the market now broadly anticipates. Major OEMs launched multiple products with additional Core Molding Technologies content in the form of watercraft, skid plates, and cargo boxes. These new product solutions launched on vehicles in the second half, leading to two consecutive quarters of revenue growth in powersports for 2025. Another area of meaningful progress is our sheet molding compound, or SMC business.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Early in 2025, we established SMC compound as a new sales channel to support the growing building products market, which represents an addressable opportunity of more than $200 million. Our sales and marketing team generated $12 million in annual SMC revenue during the fourth quarter and $21 million for the full year. One-third of these compounds have already been launched, and all of them are scheduled to be in production by the end of the third quarter of 2026. We remain focused on expanding customers' adoption of Core's SMC offerings as a preferred supplier of molding compound. Our Voice of the Customer, or VoC initiative, was instrumental in securing new SMC programs in 2025 and expanding our top coat capabilities at the Monterrey facility.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

This value-added capability enables us to deliver finished installation-ready products for construction and agricultural equipment, as well as aerial lifts and other industrial applications. As we previously discussed, we invested $6.5 million in 2025 for the Mexico expansions and Greenfield plant, with plans to invest an additional $19 million in Mexico this year. Construction is well underway, with press pits completed in Matamoros and significant progress on the fabrication of two state-of-the-art 4,500-ton SMC molding presses. Once fully ramped, this capacity is expected to support up to approximately $20 million in annual SMC molded and assembled sleeper roof product revenue. In addition to Core's capital investment, we are also managing our customers' tooling project, which will result in approximately $35 million in tooling revenue. We anticipate completion of this project in Q4 2026.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

As planned, we have also begun relocating DCPD presses and low-pressure injection molding operations to Monterrey, positioning these capabilities closer to key growth customers. We continue to view the Monterrey region as a long-term secular growth market with significant strategic potential. Our top coat paint capability further enhances these offerings and creates competitive differentiation by enabling us to deliver installation-ready components, reducing total system cost for OEM customers, and improving manufacturing efficiency. Collectively, these investments significantly expand our technical capabilities, strengthen customer alignment, and create durable, high-value revenue streams that support our long-term growth and margin objectives. Looking ahead to the truck and powersports market, we see recovery in volume starting in the second half of 2026.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

When we combine this with the $63 million new wins from 2025 that will be launched during 2026 and into early 2027, we have visibility that total product revenue could exceed $300 million in 2027. Large OEM programs are long term, lasting 5-10 years, which allows us to better forecast growth further into the future than most companies. Turning to the fourth quarter results. Revenue was $74.7 million, representing a 27.8% sequential increase and 19.5% top line growth year-over-year. Higher tooling revenue from recent business wins, combined with strong product revenue on powersports, building products, and other, more than offset the lower truck volumes during the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin of 10.2% increased 100 basis points from a year ago.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Cash flow from operations totaled more than $19 million in 2025, following $35 million generated in fiscal 2024. For the full year, we delivered stable gross margins within our targeted 17%-19% range and generated positive year-to-date free cash flow. We also completed our footprint optimization initiative launched at the end of the second quarter. As part of our continued focus on product-level profitability, we consolidated our resin transfer molding, or RTM, operations by selectively relocating programs to other facilities. This action streamlines operations at the originating site and drives further margin improvement. Finally, I am proud to recognize our operational teams for their outstanding execution again this year. We achieved 99% on-time delivery, 62 parts per million quality performance, which is an industry-leading and a strong part of our value proposition.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

These results reflect the strength of our team, our operating discipline, and our robust business systems. As part of our strategy, we firmly believe that culture is a competitive advantage here at Core Molding, and this is embedded in how we execute every day. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Alex to review financials in more detail.

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

Thank you, Eric, and good morning, everyone. As expected, fiscal 2025 revenues declined 9.5%, driven primarily by the continued weakness in the truck sector, which represented 44% of Core's product sales for the year. As Eric noted, despite lower volumes and pressure on operating leverage, we delivered gross margins of 17.4%, reflecting solid margin stability. We compute roughly 100 basis points higher 2025 gross margins when we adjust for hourly related severance and the impact of tooling margins. By maintaining margins within our target range of 17%-19% and tightly managing SG&A costs, we generated $19 million of cash flow from operations for the year.

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

We were encouraged by fourth quarter net sales of $74.7 million, driven by tooling revenue of more than $19 million. While higher tooling revenue was partially offset by lower product sales overall, this was mitigated by strength in power sports, building products, and industrial and utilities, which helped offset continued truck softness. In the fourth quarter, we generated gross margin of $11.3 million, or 15.2% of sales, which is consistent with our historically lightest sales quarter of the year. Hourly severance costs and tooling margins had approximately 230 basis points unfavorable impact on fourth quarter gross margins. Over the past year, we executed several initiatives focused on operational efficiency, raw material cost, footprint optimization, and overall margin improvement, which helped offset headwinds to margins.

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

SG&A expense in the fourth quarter was $7.7 million or 10.4% of sales, compared with 14.4% in the prior year period. Excluding severance and executive transition costs of $476,000 incurred in fourth quarter of 2025 and $1,066,000 incurred in the prior year period, SG&A expenses in the fourth quarter of 2025 was $7.3 million or 9.7% of sales, compared with 12.7 in the prior year period. Operating income for the quarter was $3.6 million or 4.8% of sales, up from $0.9 million or 1.4% of sales in the prior year period.

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

Net income for the fourth quarter was $3.1 million or $0.36 per diluted share, compared to a loss of $39,000 in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA was $7.6 million or 10.2% of sales for the quarter. For the full year, we generated $19.2 million in GAAP cash from operations. After capital expenditures of $17.3 million, free cash flow was $1.9 million. Looking ahead, we expect sustaining capital expenditures to be approximately $7-$10 million in 2026. Including planned Mexico facility expansion investments of approximately $18-$20 million, we estimate total 2026 capital spending to be in the range of $25-$30 million. We will also incur operating expenses of approximately $2.5 million associated with these expansion projects in the first half of 2026.

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

We will continue to outline quarterly. As of December 31st, our balance sheet remains strong with total liquidity of $88.1 million, consisting of $38.1 million in cash and $50 million of availability under our revolver and capital credit lines. Term debt totaled $19.7 million, and our debt to EBITDA ratio remains less than one times on a trailing twelve-month basis. Return on capital employed was 8% or 10.2% excluding cash, calculated using trailing twelve-month operating income on a pre-tax basis. As we continue launching new programs, we expect ROCE to improve through stronger top-line leverage and enhanced asset utilization. Additional details, including GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations, are available in our earnings release. Our capital allocation strategy remains balanced and flexible, with priority given to organic growth, continued disciplined debt and working capital management, and opportunistic share repurchases.

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

During 2025, the company repurchased 201,999 shares at an average share price of $15.70, with $1.4 million remaining under our authorization. Looking ahead to fiscal 2026, we currently expect the following. One, total sales to be flat to up approximately 5%, with tooling revenue again weighted more heavily toward the fourth quarter. Two, given our 12- to 18-month quote-to-cash cycle, the majority of the $63 million in new wins will impact results during the second half of 2026 and 2027. Three, we continue to be conservative around the truck recovery and agree with ACT forecasts indicating truck cycle recovery starting in the second half of 2026. Four, gross margin in the range of 17%-19% for the full year of 2026.

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

Lastly, one-time SG&A costs for the year are estimated to be approximately $2.5 million related to Mexico relocation and non-capital construction activities and $1 million related to succession planning. Most of these costs will be incurred during the first half of the year. Finally, while tariffs remain a focus for everyone, our products manufactured in Canada and Mexico remain under USMCA compliance and are currently exempt. We will continue to closely monitor trade developments and their potential impact on our customers and end markets. With that, I'd like to turn it back to Eric.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Thank you, Alex. We are building a world-class engineering and manufacturing solutions organization with a trusted reputation in highly specialized, large and ultra-large molded solutions. We continue to see a strong and expanding pipeline of opportunities and are encouraged by the breadth of engagements across both new and existing customers and end markets. Today, our business development pipeline represents $220 million of quality opportunities, and we are well on our way to securing an additional $50 million in new program awards during 2026. We look forward to presenting and discussing our Q1 wins in May.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

We are particularly excited about the 2025 wins because 65% of those wins are in new and emerging markets for Core and align with our deliberate diversification strategy. These strategically targeted markets include inner bed panels for an electric pickup, satellite tracking systems, building products, and specialized transportation applications. Operationally, we remain highly focused on scaling our platform of execution excellence, leveraging our fixed cost base, and optimizing our overall manufacturing footprint. We are energized by the progress we've made and by our $102 million in annualized run rate incremental business wins over the past two years. This has been an outstanding job executing by our sales team and the entire organization behind them. We will continue taking deliberate actions to enhance our operating capabilities and profitability as we execute all of these new launches.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Looking further ahead, we are confident in our ability to achieve $500 million in annual revenue as part of our long-term objective of $500 million and 5%. We will maintain an intense focus on profitability, cash flow, and return on capital employed. Our strategy is rooted in disciplined capital allocation, continuous improvement, operational excellence, and growth. We are confident that this is only the beginning of the continued momentum we are seeing here at Core. We are targeting large, diverse end markets, including construction, energy, industrial, aerospace, and medical, and are increasingly engaging customers earlier in the design cycle. Customers are seeking strategic partners like Core that can deliver design, fabrication, and finished installation-ready components all under one roof. I would like to close by thanking our team for their dedication and execution, which have been critical to the progress we've made throughout the transformation.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

We also want to thank our customers, shareholders, and board for their continued confidence in Core Molding and in what we are building together. Finally, we are in the planning stages of an investor day scheduled for this fall. We are targeting September 29th for management meetings and September 30th for a facility tour, which will include a half-day visit to our Matamoros facility with secure private group transportation from Brownsville, Texas. This facility will best showcase our capital investments, which make Core's ultra-large composite manufacturing capabilities the best in North America. We are mindful of safety, logistics, and investor preferences, and details for the visit are still being finalized. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or considerations as we continue to refine our plans. Prior to that, we will be attending the ROTH Conference in California by hosting one-on-one meetings on March 23rd and 24th.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Please contact us if you would like to schedule a meeting or an investor call soon. With that, let's open the line up for questions. Operator?

[Operator]

Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please while we pull for questions. The first question today is coming from Chip Moore from Roth Capital. Chip, your line is live.

[Chip Moore, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Hey, everybody.

[David Duvall, President and CEO at Core Molding Technologies]

Hey there, Chip.

[Chip Moore, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Hey. Good, Dave. I guess I, you know, maybe for me, on the, you know, the outlook for flat to up 5%, I think you called out you're expecting a decent amount of tooling revenue from the expansion or related to the expansion. Is there a way to help us think about the split or the tooling revenue potential in 2026 embedded in that outlook?

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

The split will be similar to 2025. Similar split year-over-year, and again, that's mainly due to the Volvo program that we announced in Q2. We'll be forecasted to closing that tooling revenue in Q4 of 2026. Very similar to 2025.

[Chip Moore, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Got it. Yeah, with Q4 being higher.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Correct.

[Chip Moore, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Okay. If we look past that, you know. If you look out to 2027, your visibility is getting better, and markets are showing some encouraging signs. Any way to think about margin potential? You know, obviously 17%-19%, you've been very consistent, but is there ability to, you know, even go beyond that as you get volumes back and with some of the initiatives underway?

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Yeah. You know, I think our. You know, we gave the guidance of 0%-5%. Right now we're forecasting, and the visibility we have is we would be closer to 5% in 2026. Now, that's mainly due to the program wins we have, you know, we had. They're gonna launch in the second half of 2026, so we'll get a full run rate in 2027. Then I think you're absolutely correct on the margin. You know, we will start to get leverage back in 2027. I think that could be somewhere between 150-200 basis points. You know, we see low 20s% as possible.

[Chip Moore, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Great. Very helpful.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

And-

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Challenge in 2026.

[Chip Moore, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Yeah.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

We know the truck market. We see that coming back at least through ACT. They're saying up about 5%, mainly in the second half. We're seeing power sports already coming back. That's stronger than we thought in the beginning of the year. I think the real benefit that we all see is that with all the launches from last year and launches getting into this year, is how quickly they ramp up.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

That's usually the which with a little bit of variability for us relative to how quickly they can ramp up. We can ramp up quick. It's really how quickly can they ramp up.

[Chip Moore, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Yep. That's great. Okay. You know, the SMC progress, great to see. You know, I guess on the go forward, you know, the additional potential for additional opportunity there, you know, what are you seeing in that channel and potential for SMC sales?

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Yeah. Chip, we are very successful in the fourth quarter, as we mentioned, and the $21 million of annual run rate won last year. We have a number of projects in the pipeline. Very bullish and confident that that is gonna be a good opportunity. We started that about a year ago, a little over a year ago, we started that project, and it has been very successful. We're confident in it, and we're happy with that decision. We still have some capacity left for the coming year, although we're getting to the point where in the next 12-18 months, we may need to add capacity for compound. That's how successful it's been.

[Chip Moore, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Wow. Okay. Good problem.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Yeah, good problem.

[Chip Moore, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Yeah. Any more update on the expansion? It sounds like everything's tracking well. You know, any big, you know, hurdles or permitting or anything yet to get through, or it looks like it's pretty smooth sailing?

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

No, been pretty smooth. I will compliment our team in Mexico. They have done just a spectacular job at picking up pieces of machinery the size of the foundations and the installation it takes to put in 30-ton cranes and 4,500-ton presses. I mean, it is massive infrastructure, and they work their tails off over the holidays and Christmas season into January. You know, the new plant is now done. Signs are hanging on it. I think we got some pictures of it out there, but yeah, just doing a great job. Already have moved a couple products. We're already shipping product out of the new facility in Monterrey. As of the last couple weeks, a few loads have actually gone out of that building, which is outstanding.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

We're looking forward to show that off later this year to anybody that would like to visit.

[Chip Moore, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners]

Yeah. Fantastic. I look forward to that in the fall and we'll see you in a few weeks in California. I appreciate it. I'll hop back in queue, but thanks very much.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question is coming from Tom Klugas from Impala Asset Management Tom, your line is live.

[Tom Klugas, Analyst at Impala Asset Management]

Hey, I'm Impala Asset Management today.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

All right. Hey, Tom.

[Tom Klugas, Analyst at Impala Asset Management]

Hey, guys. It's Impala Asset Management. Anyways, the spending was quite large for Mexico this year. I guess my question is, next year, does that ramp down a lot? You also started talking about SMC potential expansion. I was sort of surprised to hear that you guys did $21 million this year. My other question on SMC is, you were very specific in the press release for some reason about it being late Q3 SMC ramp, and I didn't understand. It sounded very specific for some reason. I didn't know if there was any commentary around that.

[Tom Klugas, Analyst at Impala Asset Management]

The reason I'm asking about the CapEx is on the new wins, most of that gonna be in the current plants in the U.S., or are you gonna get higher utilization out of the Mexico plants for some of the new business that's being signed? Thanks.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Yeah, great questions. I'll take the first piece of the CapEx. In 2025, we spent roughly $6.5 million on the Mexico expansion project for capital. We're forecasting $18-$20 million in 2026, and that's consistent with what we previously said about $25 million, which I believe we disclosed in Q3 of last year. We're still running at that run rate, and we're looking at $18-$20 million in 2026.

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

In 27, though, the Volvo project is complete.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

That'll be specifically for the Volvo roof program in Matamoros, which will start production in Q1 of 2027.

[Tom Klugas, Analyst at Impala Asset Management]

Yeah.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

I'll take the second half of your question on SMC compound, unless

[Tom Klugas, Analyst at Impala Asset Management]

Yep.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Very specifically, we won $21 million of annual run rate wins, not all of those have launched. About one-third have launched, they're in production. I'd say over the last quarter to two, we've been running at a 7 million pounds a year run rate of that product line. There is still testing on some of those, Tom, like we've talked about with some of the large OEMs where product gets validated, and it can take 12-18 months for a project to go into full production. SMC compound is definitely shorter than that. Some of these are 1-3 month type tests, we believe we'll be up in production by Q3 of this year for all of them. That whole $21 million will be in production by the end of Q3.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Some of those tests are like UV tests, where the part has to have 2,000 hours of ultraviolet, you know, sun exposure on it, and there's just no way to speed that up. You just have to wait for that testing to be complete. The third question I think you asked was, from a CapEx perspective, we're working on improving our utilization of our current assets so that we don't need to buy another compounding lines. We have 2 of those in Columbus, Ohio, as I think you remember. We're definitely not going to be doing that in 2026 as we finish all the rest of the CapEx for Volvo that Alex talked about. But by 2027, 2028, we might need to add more additional capacity to do compounding.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

More to come there. As we're successful in compounding, that could be a problem where we do wanna add capacity.

[Tom Klugas, Analyst at Impala Asset Management]

Okay. My follow-up is, how much FMC did you guys sell in 2025? Then again, the question was utilization of. All that CapEx in Mexico is 100% Volvo related. I guess what I was trying to understand is it seems like a big number, so I didn't know if any of the new programs would be in Mexico or all the new programs mainly in North America plants.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Uh, of that twenty-five, about-

[Tom Klugas, Analyst at Impala Asset Management]

Something about the six.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Of that 25, about 20 of it.

[Tom Klugas, Analyst at Impala Asset Management]

Yeah, something about the 63. Yep.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Yeah. $25 million in CapEx, $20 of it is, I would say, related to that roof program. $5 million of it is related to the new greenfield plant, the 200,000 sq ft plant in Monterrey. Our additional capabilities that we've talked about, like top coat paint that we have added to that facility, those are things that will absolutely give us more capacity and for other customers outside of that. There's room to grow there in that facility.

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

Optimizing the footprint in Mexico as well to benefit customers.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Yeah. We relocated a product family to Monterrey. Instead of shipping 180 miles, it will ship 1 mile. Yeah. I think the other thing, Tom, and I know we've talked about this in previous conversations, is the Volvo, you know, our Volvo contract, we put some protection in there on our capital spend. If volumes, you know, don't hit certain levels, our capital spend is protected through our contract with Volvo.

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

Reimbursed.

[Tom Klugas, Analyst at Impala Asset Management]

Okay. The SMC for 2025, do you guys have a number on that or no?

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Of that $63 million of new wins, $21 million of the new wins were SMC compound.

[Tom Klugas, Analyst at Impala Asset Management]

No, I was asking how much of the revenue for this year. Was there any revenue from SMC in 2025?

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Yeah. We don't specifically disclose that. Trying to think of how to answer that. What Eric just-

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

Follow-up question.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Yeah. What Eric said is a third. A third of it is already launched and was recognized in our 2025 numbers. The other customer that we sell to, Tom, is Yamaha. You could go look at the major customer footnote, and some of that is SMC sales. Not all of it, but a good chunk is SMC sales.

[Tom Klugas, Analyst at Impala Asset Management]

Okay. All right. Thanks, guys. It's going well.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Thanks, Tom.

[Tom Klugas, Analyst at Impala Asset Management]

Great, I appreciate it.

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

Appreciate it.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Thanks, Tom.

[Operator]

Thank you. Once again, it will be star one on your phone if you wish to ask a question on today's call. The next question will be from Bill Dezellem from Titan Capital. Bill, your line is live.

[Bill Dezellem, Analyst at Titan Capital]

Thank you. Two different questions. First of all, relative to SG&A, would you please talk about the drivers that led to you being able to lower your SG&A as much as you did in Q4 versus Q4 a year ago, please?

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Last year during Q4, we did a pretty big layoff that was part of it. The other piece, and it's in our earnings release, is our year-over-year severance costs in Q4. In the previous year, we had $1 million, and in the current period was only $ half a million.

[Bill Dezellem, Analyst at Titan Capital]

In addition to that, was there any meaningful structural adjustment to SG&A? I guess to some degree there would have been with the layoffs, that would have been a function of potentially impacted. I'll let you answer the question.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Yeah. You know, moving forward, our SG&A run rate we're looking at is somewhere between $30 million and $32 million. Now in 2026, you will need to add in the one-time cost that we're disclosing in our press release. The $2.5 million related to the Monterrey facility that we won't be able to capitalize, and then an additional $1 million related to succession planning costs.

[Bill Dezellem, Analyst at Titan Capital]

Thank you. Secondarily, would you please talk in some more detail about what's happening with powersports and that uptick? I know that you'd said, you know, there was an SMC win there. You referenced powersports coming back, but I'm hoping that you can provide more details around the dynamics behind the powersports market rebounding and maybe more on that Yamaha SMC win.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Start with the highest level, the general powersports market. There was that COVID boom back in 2021, 2022, then a lull into, let's say, 2024, 2025. We're starting to see that come back. Just the total quantity of vehicles being produced, that inventory at dealerships that has to get sold, you know, sort of that used market, having some pent-up demand for vehicles. That has kind of gotten through the pipeline, I'll say, right? It's back to a normal run rate. Their assembly plants are building more personal watercraft, more side-by-sides, more ATVs than they were a year ago. You got that macroeconomic support. On a very acute scale, we launched a number of platforms over the last year.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Some of those were in some of our investor decks and platforms like a skid plate. You might remember, Bill, we talked about that's now in full production and running, as well as a new cargo box and another ATV with a cargo box and the SMC for one of the Yamaha watercraft. All of those launched last year. All of those, you know, are incremental brand new wins because they're on a new vehicle or a new part on a vehicle that we already had a part on. All of that supports our powersports growth. Kind of that grow wallet share that we always talk about. We go back to those customers that we've won product with before and sell them another product.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

We're good at that, and they're good at buying parts from us, you know, and we're good at working with their engineers and getting early in that design phase.

[Bill Dezellem, Analyst at Titan Capital]

That's really helpful, Eric. As you look at those design wins tied to a more supportive market backdrop, would you anticipate that each and every quarter in 2026 that powersports will be up from the corresponding quarter in 2025?

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

2026 over 2025? My guess is yes, though incremental over the prior twelve months, but I'm looking at Alex to make sure.

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

Yeah. I mean, for the full year, we would forecast that it'll be up, especially given what we've seen so far in 2026. To sit here and tell you, "Hey, every single quarter is going to be up," I don't know that off the top of my head. Yes, for the full year.

[Bill Dezellem, Analyst at Titan Capital]

Just taking that one step further, that you don't know of anything specific in terms of customer plans, et cetera, that would lead to a quarter to be down, but you're just wanting to be practical in answering the question. Is that what I'm hearing?

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

Correct.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

That's a good definition of how we answer questions.

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

In Q1 and Q2 should be up because of the skid plates. The skid plates launched in Q3 of 2025, so Q1 and Q2 should be up, and then, you know, we'll just see where the powersports demand is in the second half of the year.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

I think we still see strong sales in the, you know, more of the industrial side of the ATVs, like the Ranger and things like that, side-by-sides and work trucks.

[Bill Dezellem, Analyst at Titan Capital]

Great. Thank you all, and congratulations on a solid quarter.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Thanks, Bill.

[Alex Panda, CFO at Core Molding Technologies]

Thanks, Bill.

[Operator]

Thank you. There were no other questions at this time. I would now like to hand the call to Eric Palomaki for closing remarks.

[Eric Palomaki, COO at Core Molding Technologies]

Thank you for your continued interest in our company. We look forward to providing an update on our progress when we report our first quarter results in a couple of months. Have a great day.

[Operator]

Thank you. This does conclude today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Participants

Executives

• David Duvall, President and CEO
• Eric Palomaki, COO
• Alex Panda, CFO

Analysts

• Sandy Martin, Managing Director at Three Part Advisors
• Chip Moore, Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst at Roth Capital Partners
• Tom Klugas, Analyst at Impala Asset Management
• Bill Dezellem, Analyst at Titan Capital