Firan Technology Group Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
April 9, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: FTG reported record Q1 bookings, revenue, and backlog — bookings of CAD 60M (+17%), revenue CAD 47.3M (+10.3%), backlog CAD 157.9M and a book-to-bill of 1.27:1 — with net debt of CAD 4M and CAD 4.9M free cash flow.
  • Negative Sentiment: Adjusted EBITDA fell to CAD 7.3M from CAD 8.4M year-over-year, driven mainly by a CAD 1.5M foreign-exchange headwind and the absence of a prior-year one-time gold contract gain, although gross margins were stable.
  • Positive Sentiment: Demand tailwinds in aerospace and defense are strengthening — FTG received initial POs for two classified defense programs, is ramping C919 and De Havilland 515 deliveries, and cites larger OEM production ramps (Airbus, Boeing) that support future growth.
  • Positive Sentiment: The integration of FLYHT as FTG Aerospace Calgary is progressing — the site achieved record profitability, certifications and licensing revenues have resumed, and production is being insourced to Chatsworth and Tianjin to drive further sales in 2026.
  • Negative Sentiment: U.S. administration tariffs are increasing input costs by an estimated multi‑million dollar amount in 2026 (impacting U.S. and some Toronto operations); FTG plans mitigation via customer pass‑throughs, geographic diversification and a new Hyderabad site (mid‑2026) but near‑term cost pressure remains.
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Earnings Conference Call
Firan Technology Group Q1 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

I would like to welcome everyone to the FTG Q1 2026 analyst call. All lines have been placed on mute. There will be question and answer session following the call. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press the pound key. Please note that this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Brad Bourne, President and Chief Executive Officer of FTG. Mr. Bourne, you may proceed.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Thank you. Good morning. I'm Brad Bourne, President and CEO of Firan Technology Group Corporation, or FTG. Also on the call today is Drew Knight, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we go any further, I must caution you that this call may contain forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on the current expectations and management of the company and inherently involve numerous risks and uncertainty, known and unknown, including economic factors and the company's industry generally. The preceding list is not exhaustive of all possible factors. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual events and results could differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements made by the company. The listener is cautioned to consider these and other factors carefully when making decisions with respect to the company and not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

The company does not undertake and has no specific intention to update any forward-looking statements, written or oral, that may be made from time to time by or on its behalf, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. We are off to a great start in 2026. We had record first quarter revenues, earnings, and backlog, with some strong end market demand tailwinds offset by a big swing in the Canadian to U.S. exchange rate. That was a bit of a headwind. More specifically, in our first quarter of 2026, FTG accomplished many financial goals, including our bookings were CAD 60 million, marking a 17% increase over Q1 2025 and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.27:1. Our quarter end backlog stood at CAD 157.9 million, an 11% rise from the previous year end. Our revenue was CAD 47.3 million, a 10.3% increase over Q1 2025.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Our adjusted EBITDA was CAD 7.3 million, down from CAD 8.4 million in Q1 last year. Our adjusted net earnings were CAD 3.5 million, up from CAD 3.3 million in Q1 last year. We generated strong free cash flow of CAD 4.9 million in the quarter. We maintained a strong balance sheet with net debt of CAD 4 million, or only 0.1 times trailing 12 months EBITDA, including CAD 9.9 million in government loans. Other accomplishments in our first quarter included after FTG Circuits qualified for two significant classified defense programs last year. Initial orders have been placed for these programs in Q1, and deliveries are expected to take place in Q3 this year and beyond. FTG Aerospace Calgary, formerly FLYHT, achieved record profitability in Q1 2026.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

The newest site of FTG continues to benefit from last year's efforts to obtain certifications, sell its existing product portfolio, and the rebuilding of licensing revenues related to their SATCOM radio for Airbus. In Q1 2026, deliveries to China's C919 program continued. In addition, deliveries to the new De Havilland Canadair 515 aerial firefighting aircraft started to ramp up. More deliveries on both programs are expected for the remainder of 2026 and beyond. FTG is proud to support the Artemis mission around the moon by supplying switch interface panels to the Orion spacecraft. Although space represents a small portion of FTG's business, space is a growing sector and FTG has activities with other customers in this area. We continue to strengthen our team and improve our bench strength with new site leadership in our Chatsworth facilities. Drew will provide more details on Q1 2026 results shortly.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Let me turn to some external items. Our end market remains strong. Airbus is targeting 870 aircraft deliveries in 2026, up about 10% from 2025. More importantly, they're looking to ramp to over 1,000 aircraft annually in the next few years. Airbus has a backlog of over 1,000 aircraft on order. At Boeing, they shipped 600 planes last year, up from 348 the year before. Looking forward, Boeing has plans to ramp their production to over 800 planes annually in the next few years. Boeing's backlog is about 6,000 planes, so over a decade's worth of orders at their current production rates. It has become clear that Airbus is outperforming Boeing in the air transport market in terms of aircraft shipped, and they hold a 60% market share based on order backlog. This does have implications for FTG's plans going forward.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

In the business jet market, Bombardier reported high single-digit shipment increase for last year. They are also pushing hard to add a defense component to their business and have had some success to date in selling their business jets for defense applications, including to the Canadian military. In the helicopter market, Bell reported a 20% revenue increase last year, driven by increase in defense programs. All of this bodes well for us as we look to future demand in the coming years. U.S. defense spending, including supplemental funding requests, is expected to increase going forward. The budget request in the U.S. for next year is for a 50% increase in spending to about $1.5 trillion.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

There are new commitments from all NATO members, including Canada, to ramp up defense spending to 3.5% of GDP, with another 1.5% for defense infrastructure. Canada increased their defense spending last year to 2% of GDP. All of this indicates significant increases in defense budgets for all European countries and Canada. The recent creation of the Defence Investment Agency in Canada to accelerate and streamline future defense procurement activity is positive for the industry here. Looking at the longer term, Boeing's most recent 20-year market forecast for commercial Aerospace shows significant long-term growth, and it continued to show 20% of all new aircraft deliveries going to China and close to 40% to Asia, as has been the case in the recent forecast.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

The business jet market has seen traffic recover, and a recent business jet forecast from Honeywell similarly predicts growth in this market of 5% this year and 3% annually over the next decade. As we have said for many years, FTG's goal is to participate in all segments of the Aerospace and defense markets as each moves through their independent business cycles. It is not often all segments are growing. That seems to be the case now. Beyond this, let me give you a quick update on some key metrics for FTG for our first quarter of 2026. First, as already noted, the leading indicator of our business is our bookings or new orders. Our bookings were CAD 60 million in the quarter. This resulted in a backlog of CAD 158 million at the end of the quarter, even after record Q1 shipments.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Q1 sales were CAD 47.3 million, up 10% over Q1 last year. In our Aerospace business, sales were up 12% in Q1 to CAD 17.1 million, compared to Q1 last year. Sales in Toronto and Calgary were up. Tianjin was flat, while activity in Chatsworth was down in the quarter due to timing of some orders. There were continuing ramp-up in C919 shipments in the quarter, as well as assemblies for both Boeing and Airbus. The C919 shipments benefited both Toronto and Tianjin, while the other shipments benefited Toronto. Calgary saw a pretty even split in revenues between hardware sales, which were mostly SATCOM radios, data sales, and licensing revenues. On the circuit side of our business, sales in the quarter were CAD 31.1 million, up 8.3% over last year.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Our strongest growth in the quarter was our site in Fredericksburg, Virginia, which was up over 80%, followed by our Chatsworth site, which was up over 25%. Minnetonka had strong demand and was up 11%, while our Toronto facility was flat in the quarter. Overall at FTG, our top five customers accounted for 52.7% of total revenue in Q1 2026. This compared to 52.1% last year. Airlines were three of our top 20 customers in the quarter due to the FLYHT acquisition. Also interesting to note that of the top 10 customers, six are customers shared between Circuits and Aerospace. We like to see the shared customers as it means we are maximizing our penetration to these customers by selling both cockpit products and circuit boards.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Given the actions of the new administration in the U.S. of implementing tariffs, it's also good to see that one of our top 10 customers is outside of the U.S., and this was in China, and another seven have some operations inside the U.S. While on this topic, 72.1% of FTG sales are to U.S.-based customers. This includes sales by U.S. sites as well as sales from FTG sites in Canada or China. This compares to 72.2% last year. While sales grew by 10% in the U.S., they also grew by 10% in Asia and by 30% in Canada as we benefited from previous efforts to expand globally, including things like our component on the C919 aircraft in China and acquiring FLYHT with sales globally. Sales decreased in Europe by about 5% in the quarter.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

The increase in sales outside the U.S. are helpful in the event of tariffs the U.S. might impose on our non-U.S.-based sites. Our goal is to continue to grow our non-U.S. revenue for our non-U.S. sites. In Q1 2026, 36% of our total revenues came from our Aerospace business, compared to 35% last year. I would now like to turn the call over to Drew, who will summarize our financial results for our first quarter of 2026, and afterwards, he will talk about some key priorities we're working on. Drew?

Drew Knight
CFO at FTG

Thanks, Brad. Good morning, everyone. I would like to provide some additional detail on our financial performance for Q1. Starting with revenue and gross margin. On sales of CAD 47.3 million, FTG achieved a gross margin of CAD 14.6 million or 30.9% in Q1 2026, compared to CAD 13.3 million or 31% on sales of CAD 42.9 million in Q1 2025. As such, gross margin rates in 2026 were consistent with prior year. The increase in gross margin dollars is based on top-line growth, while the gross margin rate remained flat despite a CAD 1.5 million negative variance in FX and a CAD 400,000 of gold variance. Offsetting these two anomalies was significant and due to operational improvements at several sites in the U.S. and at Aero Calgary. Moving on to SG&A.

Drew Knight
CFO at FTG

SG&A expense was CAD 6.9 million or 14.5% of sales in Q1 2026, as compared to CAD 6.7 million or 15.7% of sales in the prior year. The increase of CAD 200,000 during Q1 2026 was primarily due to the acquisition impact of having Aero Calgary for a full quarter in the year, and the remaining increase included Hyderabad, India startup expenses and some corporate admin costs of the new leadership team. R&D costs for Q1 2026 were CAD 2.3 million or 4.9% of sales as compared to CAD 1.6 million or 3.8% of revenue for 2025. R&D efforts include product and process improvements at the Circuits segment, as well as Aerospace segment process improvements and product development. Regarding foreign exchange, FTG is exposed to currency risk through transactions, assets and liabilities in foreign currencies, primarily in U.S. dollars.

Drew Knight
CFO at FTG

The average exchange rate experienced in Q1 2026 was 1.375, as compared to 1.431 in Q1 2025, which equates to a weakening of the U.S. dollar by 4%, and this hurts results for FTG, as noted. Adjusted EBITDA, as detailed in the MD&A, was CAD 7.3 million for Q1 2026 or 15.4% of sales, as compared to CAD 8.4 million or 19.5% of sales for Q1 2025. As noted with gross margins, the year-over-year comparison of adjusted EBITDA is distorted by CAD 1.9 million due to a CAD 1.5 million impact from FX and a CAD 400,000 impact from the one-time gold contract gain in 2025. Absent the FX and gold impact, the adjusted EBITDA would have been CAD 800,000 improved over Q1 2025 as a result of growing the top line organically, operational improvements, and managing expenses.

Drew Knight
CFO at FTG

For Q1 2026, FTG recorded net earnings of CAD 3.5 million or CAD 0.14 per diluted share, as compared to CAD 3.2 million or CAD 0.13 per diluted share in Q1 2025. The earnings comparison to prior year was impacted by the same FX rate issue and the one-time gold contract realization. However, this was partly offset by favorable income taxes. The effective tax rate for Q1 2026 was approximately 5.2% as compared to 32.9% in Q1 2025. The low rate in 2026 relates to tax-free profit of business units with historical tax losses and also prior year tax adjustments. Also, Q1 2025 was tax inefficient, with a few nondeductible losses unable to reduce taxable income in profitable business units.

Drew Knight
CFO at FTG

I would like to remind everyone that FTG continues to have substantial tax losses available to offset future income, and the accounting benefit of these losses has not been recognized in our financial statements. These tax loss carryforwards are located in both the USA and Canada, and the Canadian losses were recently acquired with the acquisition of FLYHT in December 2024. Speaking to our financial position, FTG maintains a strong balance sheet and our net debt position as of Q1 2026 was CAD 4 million as compared to net debt of CAD 8.3 million as of Q4 2025. This leverage ratio represents 0.1x trailing 12 months EBITDA. Free cash flow in Q1 2026 was CAD 4.9 million as compared to CAD 8.2 million in Q1 2025. Capital expenditures were CAD 0.7 million as compared to CAD 0.9 million in Q1 2025.

Drew Knight
CFO at FTG

Going forward, we expect CapEx to be closer to FTG's long-term target of 3% of revenue, notwithstanding any significant capacity increases. As at the end of Q1 2026, the corporation's primary sources of liquidity totaled CAD 80.5 million, consisting of working capital of CAD 60.4 million and CAD 20.1 million of unused credit facilities. FTG has plans to improve cash efficiency and minimize stranded cash in various business units. Accounts receivable days outstanding were 68 at the end of Q1 2026, up from 55 at the recent year-end due to timing of a couple of customer payments. Inventory days were 111 at the end of Q1 2026 quarter end, up from 105 at 2025 year-end to address order fulfillment in upcoming months. Accounts payable days outstanding were 59 as of the Q1 2026 quarter end as compared to 58 at the 2025 year-end.

Drew Knight
CFO at FTG

Turning to our outlook, FTG's book-to-bill ratio for Q1 2026 was 1.27:1. As we enter Q2 2026 with a near record backlog of CAD 157.9 million, of which approximately 80% is expected to be converted to revenue in 2026. The new business activities in both the Aerospace and defense industries are strong and continue to accelerate. Both the Circuits business and Aerospace business are increasing throughput and winning their share of new customer RFPs. Last quarter, we noted the program awards for two substantial classified defense programs. We have since received the opening POs for delivery in 2026, though these orders are only a fraction of the annualized volume. I should note that FTG's reported backlog only includes POs received and does not include program awards with estimated volumes.

Drew Knight
CFO at FTG

As we approach the midpoint of Q2, we are focused on managing cash flow and improving operational efficiency and continuing with the Aero Calgary integration, which is already bearing fruit. I should note that our complete set of quarterly filings is available on sedarplus.com or on the FTG website. With that, I would like to turn things back over to Brad.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Thanks, Drew. Let me delve into some important items for the future of FTG that will continue to build on our accomplishments from last year and Q1 this year. We will continue to pursue growth in the defense market. As noted previously, we expect defense spending to continue to grow in Canada, the U.S., and NATO. We've had some good success on some new classified programs in the U.S. last year, and we are pushing for more new programs this year. We are seeing volumes ramp up in many areas, including electronics for various weapon and electronic warfare systems. Beyond this, we will look for opportunities outside of the U.S. as well.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

The NATO defense budget was about one-third of the U.S. budget a decade ago, and it's two-thirds today, so it is definitely a market of interest to us. As Canada ramps its defense spending and its commitment to NATO, we're hopeful that it will create new opportunities for FTG sites inside the U.S. After the U.S. and NATO, the next biggest defense market of interest to us is India, and as we get our new site established through there, we will look to capture some market share in this market as well. We will look to capture more work in the commercial Aerospace market, then grow as volumes ramp up. As part of this, we'll look for ways to increase our activity with Airbus, as they are the stronger performer right now.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

To do this, we will leverage our Canadian, China, and Indian sites, and we will continue investigating establishing a footprint in Europe. Given the uncertainty regarding tariffs from the U.S., we will look to continue to diversify our revenue streams for our non-U.S. sites. Some of the items already mentioned will assist in this, but it will remain a priority action for us. We will increase our sales staff inside the U.S. in 2026 to help drive this growth. Tariffs are now impacting costs in our Circuits business. This is because a lot of materials used in our manufacturing processes originate outside of North America. The impact is largest for our U.S. sites, but Toronto is also impacted when material ships via the U.S. to Canada. We estimate the overall cost impact to be in the millions of dollars in 2026.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

We have started to work with our customers to pass these increased costs to them and to the end users. We will continue to take steps to create value from our acquisition of FLYHT last year. As of December 1, we have renamed the business FTG Aerospace Calgary, as we have amalgamated it legally into FTG. The amalgamation was done to possibly enable us to use FLYHT tax losses beyond just our operation in Calgary. To be clear, we do not have certainty that this will be possible. In the Calgary business itself, we believe we are now well positioned to have a strong year as a result of our product certification and STC efforts last year. We are seeing strong demand for all three products, and our pipeline looks robust. The licensing revenue on our SATCOM radio product has returned and should be consistent going forward.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

The licensed product ends up on Airbus aircraft, so we know the demand is strong. The Edge+ WQAR has the key STCs in place, and with our first delivery behind us, we're quoting many new opportunities in a number of geographic jurisdictions, and we're also starting to manufacture this product in our Tianjin plant to enable us to capture margin as well. We expect sales of their weather product to ramp in 2026, with contracts in place with both NOAA in the U.S. and U.K. Met in England. We're looking to manufacture our SATCOM radio product in our Chatsworth, California, facility in 2026. These actions should enable FTG Aerospace Calgary to become a positive addition to FTG and further mitigate the risks from U.S. tariffs. We will open our Aerospace facility in Hyderabad, India, in 2026.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

First, our decision to expand geographically was partly us looking for an insurance policy against anything negative happening to our China operations. It was also partly to expand into a new region with growth potential. As we analyzed options, we concluded India is a very cost-effective place for manufacturing, and with Prime Minister Modi's Make in India policy, coupled with significant defense spending, it would be an ideal place to operate. We selected Hyderabad as it has an Aerospace hub primarily focused on manufacturing, unlike Bangalore, which is more engineering and software-focused. Our facility is well underway. It now looks like mid-2026 for its completion. In the meantime, we will be sourcing the necessary equipment to be ready to go. Our estimated total investment is forecast to be approximately $2 million-$3 million.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

While not the original intent, we believe this initiative could also help mitigate any negative impacts from U.S. tariffs. We continue to assess possible corporate development opportunities that could fit with either of our businesses. We have a few areas of interest, including establishing a footprint in Europe, growing our presence in India, or expanding our technology in a few areas. With our focus on operational excellence in all parts of FTG, our strong financial performance last year and in Q1 this year, our recent acquisitions, and our key sales wins, we are confident we are on a strong long-term growth trajectory. This concludes our presentation. I thank you for your attention. I would now like to open the phones for your questions. Julian.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. Should you have a question, please press star followed by the number one on your touch-tone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press the star followed by the number two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from Steve Hansen with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Steve Hansen
Steve Hansen
Managing Director at Raymond James

Yes, good morning, guys. Thanks for the time. Just wanted to ask on the margin profile going forward. I appreciate the commentary regarding the FX and the gold contract issue not repeating. But as we think about the margin profile here going forward, I think we can all see FX. But is there anything else in last year's numbers that we should think about as being headwinds or tailwinds as we think about the balance of this year for cadence? Just around either Circuits or Aerospace, 'cause the margins were lower than we had anticipated. Thanks.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Right. No, I mean, for sure, the biggest impact is FX, offset by our standard reality of top line drives bottom line or top line drives margin. As revenue goes up, margin should go up, notwithstanding you saw a little bit of a downturn in Q1, but there was nothing other than one-time related from last year to this year at the margin level.

Steve Hansen
Steve Hansen
Managing Director at Raymond James

Okay, helpful. As we look forward, though, is there any other headwinds that we should contemplate? I'm just trying to think about other things outside of FX.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

No. Yeah. Even on FX, the biggest impact on that is below the margin line, below the gross margin line. Yeah, there's nothing else that I see today going forward.

Steve Hansen
Steve Hansen
Managing Director at Raymond James

Okay, helpful.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Sorry, Steve, just while I think of it, because I know from an operations perspective, our Q1 is always a little bit of a challenge because we have the Christmas holidays, and that sort of thing in there. For sure, the holidays had the worst possible timing this year. When the holidays actually hit, at the beginning of the week or end of the week or in this case, middle of the week, it just made it really painful in Q1 this year, in terms of how to get through the holidays, when to operate, when to shut down. That definitely hurt Q1 this year even more than what we typically see in other Q1s.

Steve Hansen
Steve Hansen
Managing Director at Raymond James

Okay. Helpful. Just on the new program ramp up, it sounds like the first POs are in, which is encouraging relatively low volume build. How should we think about the cadence of that revenue layering in? It sounds like this year will be modest, and we can expect a bigger pickup next year?

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Yeah, that's exactly true. Modest this year will be in the millions of dollars. It's not tiny, but the real volumes kick in 2027 and beyond.

Steve Hansen
Steve Hansen
Managing Director at Raymond James

Understood. Okay, helpful. Just on FLYHT specifically, it feels like the cadence of your discussion has changed there. It sounds like things are hitting stride maybe a little bit sooner than I was thinking. How do you think about the pace of your progress there, both on the sales front and the margin front? It sounds like it is more encouraging than we heard before.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Yeah, it's definitely Q1 this year was great at FLYHT. All three products seem to be well positioned to be successful and to grow this year. I'll give great credit to the team there that everything we wanted to get done last year was done. The key for last year was basically get approvals or get STCs so we could sell the product, particularly the WQAR. That was 100% complete at the end of last year, which was great. A great accomplishment. Really impressed that all that got done. Now we're able to just go sell this product. That's what we're focused on. On the QAR, the SATCOM radio has been around a long time, so it's just business as usual, but we've had some good orders, and we see a good pipeline.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Then lastly, on weather, I can say it's a little bit behind the other two, but notwithstanding that, we actually have existing contracts with NOAA in the U.S. and with U.K. Met Office in England. These are existing contracts. This is now about executing on them and converting them to revenue, and that's the key for us. If there's anything that we did not as well as we'd liked last year, but we're all over it this year, is getting the production insourced into FTG sites. I think I talked about it all last year, but it's now happening. There are orders in our Tianjin facility to build WQARs. There are orders in our Chatsworth facility to build SATCOM radios. That is further upside that we think we're going to. We control that 100%, so we know we're going to convert that this year.

Steve Hansen
Steve Hansen
Managing Director at Raymond James

Very helpful. We'll jump back to the queue. Thanks.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Thanks, Steve.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Nick Corcoran with Acumen Group. Please go ahead.

Nick Corcoran
Equity Research Analyst at Acumen Group

Morning, guys. Congrats on the record quarter.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Thanks.

Nick Corcoran
Equity Research Analyst at Acumen Group

Just on FX, are you able to quantify the rough impact of a CAD 0.01 Change between the Canadian dollar and the U.S. dollar?

Drew Knight
CFO at FTG

Yeah, it's definitely transactional is the primary issue, but then it's also as we translate our U.S. operations back to Canadian dollars, and we estimate that a 1% change in the FX is about CAD 800,000.

Nick Corcoran
Equity Research Analyst at Acumen Group

That's helpful. A really strong book-to-bill in the quarter, it sounds like defense was part of the driver of that. Are there any other notable orders that might have hit in the quarter?

Drew Knight
CFO at FTG

Well, yeah, I guess Calgary. Calgary, further to what Steve had mentioned earlier, Calgary had a strong quarter, but it is a little lumpy. We did get a decent order that was a little unexpected, and that definitely made Calgary's quarter a little bit outsized. That's probably one other thing other than those two defense programs.

Nick Corcoran
Equity Research Analyst at Acumen Group

Great. The last question is just on FLYHT. The licensing revenue is starting back up. Do you expect that to be relatively flat through the year, or is there a seasonality or timing of orders that we should consider?

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

For sure it's a little bit uncertain, but the expectation, just based on historic activity, is it should happen each quarter, but no guarantee on that. It's just the licensing revenue hits when they need to ship product to Airbus. The demand at Airbus is there for sure. I think it'll be consistent in every quarter, but it could bounce around a little bit from one quarter to the other. We don't control that.

Nick Corcoran
Equity Research Analyst at Acumen Group

Great. That's good color. Thanks. Take my questions.

Drew Knight
CFO at FTG

Okay. Thanks, man.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Russell Stanley with Beacon Securities. Please go ahead.

Russell Stanley
Russell Stanley
Managing Director of Equity Research at Beacon Securities

Good morning. Congrats on the quarter. Thanks for the questions. Maybe just first on bookings, following up, you've got the new programs contributing, and you mentioned that Calgary had an outsized quarter there. Can you talk to what bookings growth looked like for the rest of the business? I'm not sure you've isolated that out, but any color on that front would be helpful.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

No, I can't, Russ. I don't have it in front of me. What can I say? I mean, the bookings were strong. The book-to-bill was strong. That's against record revenues. We saw a strong demand across the company, and it's coming on both sides of the business, both commercial Aerospace and Defense. For sure, there are strong defense bookings in the quarter. We're still working on a handful of other new programs. Without trying to delve down into a site-level stuff, I am expecting still strong ramp in demand plus some new programs in the coming quarters.

Russell Stanley
Russell Stanley
Managing Director of Equity Research at Beacon Securities

Got it. That's helpful. On those two, the classified programs, I think on the February call, you noted those programs may eventually require multiple suppliers, given the volumes needed by the customer. I know it's only been two months since that call, but I'm wondering if you have a firmer sense as to how many other players you may have to share this work with eventually?

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Yeah. I don't have a definitive answer on this. I'm going to say, I think it's generally two, but it could be three, but not more than that.

Russell Stanley
Russell Stanley
Managing Director of Equity Research at Beacon Securities

Got it.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Also, to be clear on this, it doesn't mean if there's three that each one gets a third. It will depend on performance on initial orders. Whoever's performing well gets a bigger share. It depends on just existing relationships with the customers, will determine who gets a bigger share. For sure, our goal is to be getting a bigger share of these programs, not just an even split with whoever the other suppliers are.

Russell Stanley
Russell Stanley
Managing Director of Equity Research at Beacon Securities

Got it. Thank you. Just on gross margins, just wanted to clarify your comments around the cost inflation related to the tariffs on imports from Asia. Did you see that evident in this quarter, or are we still waiting to see that filter through to your-

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Yeah.

Russell Stanley
Russell Stanley
Managing Director of Equity Research at Beacon Securities

Financials?

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

No. It's definitely in our cost in this quarter, and as I said, we're trying to pass this on to customers. We have definitely passed it on to some customers and working with the others. All of the cost was there. Some of the offset was there as well.

Russell Stanley
Russell Stanley
Managing Director of Equity Research at Beacon Securities

Got it. Thanks for the color. I'll be back in the queue.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

All right. Thanks, Russ.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Steve Hansen with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Steve Hansen
Steve Hansen
Managing Director at Raymond James

Oh, yeah. Thanks. Brad, I just want to come back to the capacity question. I know you've been shuffling some work and trying to create space effectively. Where do you feel like you're at today? Do you have any constraints? You suggested you're still examining some new programs, but you've also got to contemplate the ramping of your existing baseload. I mean, how do you feel about the capacity situation today? I think you described some good progress at Fredericksburg and a few other sites, but just where do we sit today? Thanks.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Yeah. That's a good question. Last year in total, we shipped CAD 191 million. I'd say our available capacity across FTG is north of 250. We have some room to grow. Capacity is described as plants and equipment capacity. If we're running the plants with the equipment we have 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we get north of 250. To get there, we need to add people. That's what the focus has been, get people in the door and keep the equipment running more hours a day. That's the good news. We don't need to spend money to get at that capacity. We just need to get people in and trained. That limits our growth rate. It doesn't limit our total capacity. The one exception on capacity is Circuits Toronto. They are running 24/7.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

As I noted in my remarks, Circuits Toronto basically was flat year-over-year. They need to add some actual equipment capacity to grow, but we're doing that. The guy running that site has put together a plan. Good news in manufacturing, generally, when you run out of capacity, it's in one or two areas in the plant. It's not in every area. It's basically where your bottlenecks are. We've put together a plan where we're going to expand the areas where we have the bottlenecks, and for about a CAD 5 million investment this year, we'll add CAD 20 million of capacity or north of CAD 20 million. That's happening, and it's underway. I believe that will happen. That will get us additional capacity. We will immediately take advantage of because we need to.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Then lastly, of course, we're building out a facility in Hyderabad, India. This is on the cockpit product side of things, but that's going to add about a facility with about a CAD 20 million capacity. Obviously, we're not going to do CAD 20 million out of the gate, but based on the size of the facility and the equipment set, we can add another CAD 20 million. We're taking steps right now to get to the existing capacity and then add further capacity for both our businesses. We need to focus on it, but it's not a constraint for our growth.

Steve Hansen
Steve Hansen
Managing Director at Raymond James

Okay, that's very helpful. That's great color. Just one more from me, and just a follow-up is on the corp dev side. You referenced, I think, three priorities that you're looking at, Europe, India, and technology. How do you rank order those? It sounds like Europe was first, but is that really the priority? How do you think about the different buckets of opportunity, and how far along are you, or how does the pipeline look in maybe those different buckets as you see it today?

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Yeah. That is correct. For sure my number one choice is Europe. For sure at this point, I am much more knowledgeable about a lot of different factors in looking at Europe. What's the right perspective? Does it matter EU countries, not EU countries? Does it matter NATO countries, not NATO countries? Does it matter low cost versus high cost? Does it matter the labor laws? All these things matter, so that kind of reduces your set of opportunities. Then, obviously, you also only look where there might be something available, so there's got to be an existing company. I know all of that. I know what I'm interested in. We're working it. You also need someone who's willing to talk, and that's kind of the next item for me.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

No announcement this week, but it's priority for me to continue to work this and see if we can get a footprint in Europe for all the reasons I've talked about, and I don't think I said it all today, but why is Europe of interest? Three reasons. First one, Airbus is there, and I'd like to do more with Airbus. Second one, defense spending is ramping faster in Europe, so that's another reason. Third one, there's not a risk of tariffs in Europe. For all these reasons, it's of interest to me, and working it. As I say, you got to find someone to dance with, and that's next on the list. I wouldn't rule out other things. As I say, we're building out our facility in India for cockpit products. We have an option on the land next door.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Could that build out a surface facility? Could be. For sure it's not underway, it's not planned, but it's an option I have. That's a consideration. Lots going on. There are incoming opportunities, and I'm trying to not get distracted on, to be fair. It's easy sometimes to react to the incoming opportunities, but I'm trying to stay focused on what I think is most important for FTG on this topic right now.

Steve Hansen
Steve Hansen
Managing Director at Raymond James

That's good color. Thanks for time.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Okay. Thanks, Steve.

Operator

Thank you. There are no more questions at this time. I will pass back the call to Mr. Brad Bourne for any closing remarks. Please go ahead, sir.

Brad Bourne
President and CEO at FTG

Thank you. A replay of the call will be available until May 11th at the numbers listed on our press release. The replay will also be available on our website in a few days. I thank you all for your interest and participation. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Analysts
    • Brad Bourne
      President and CEO at FTG
    • Drew Knight
      CFO at FTG
    • Nick Corcoran
      Equity Research Analyst at Acumen Group
    • Russell Stanley
      Managing Director of Equity Research at Beacon Securities
    • Steve Hansen
      Managing Director at Raymond James
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