Kits Eyecare Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
May 6, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Kits reported its 14th consecutive quarter of >20% organic growth with Q1 revenue CAD 57.5M (+23% YoY, +27% constant currency), a record Adjusted EBITDA of CAD 4.1M (7.2%), and CAD 19M cash with zero long‑term debt.
  • Positive Sentiment: The glasses business accelerated meaningfully — glasses revenue CAD 10.8M (+61% YoY), ~156,000 pairs delivered (+50%), AOV for glasses ~35% higher YoY, premium lenses now 42% of glasses revenue, and the 2026 glasses cohort's first‑order revenue is ~62% higher than the 2025 cohort.
  • Neutral Sentiment: A non‑recurring CAD 2.1M tariff refund helped expand gross margin and was strategically reinvested into customer acquisition (marketing rose to 18.9% of revenue), driving ~100,000 new customers; management says this spend was time‑limited and will normalize toward prior marketing guardrails.
  • Positive Sentiment: Customer economics look durable — repeat revenue was 63.9% of sales, two‑year active customers exceeded 1.1M (+17% YoY), Autoship generated CAD 5.9M in Q1, and contact cohorts show very high net revenue retention (85–95%), supporting rising LTV.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Q2 guidance is for CAD 57–59M revenue and 3–5% adjusted EBITDA margin; management reiterates a 2026 constant‑currency growth target of ~25–30% but flags seasonality and USD/CAD sensitivity.
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Earnings Conference Call
Kits Eyecare Q1 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining KITS Eyecare first quarter 2026 earnings call. With me on today's call are Roger Hardy, Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Thompson, Chief Operating Officer, and Ibrahim Kamar, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I am required to provide the following statement respecting forward-looking information, which is made on behalf of KITS and all of its representatives on this call. Certain statements made on this call will contain forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of words such as intend, believe, could, expect, estimate, forecast, may, would, and other words of similar meaning. This forward-looking information is based on management's opinions, estimates, and assumptions in light of their experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, and expected future developments. Those factors that they currently believe are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances.

Operator

Actual results could differ materially from a conclusion, forecast, expectation, belief, or projection in the forward-looking information. Certain material factors and assumptions were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection as reflected in the forward-looking information. Management cautions investors not to rely on forward-looking information. Additional information about the material factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the conclusion, forecast, or projection in the forward-looking information and material factors or assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection as reflected in the forward-looking information are contained in KITS filings with Canadian provincial security regulators. During today's call, all figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated. With that, I will turn the call over to Roger Hardy, CEO. Please go ahead.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Thank you, operator, and thank you to everyone joining us today. Q1 marks our 14th consecutive quarter of organic revenue growth above 20% year-over-year.-14 straight quarters. In Q1, total revenue reached CAD 57.5 million, growing approximately CAD 11 million or 23% year-over-year, and 27% on a constant currency basis. Importantly, this was a CAD 3.6 million or almost 7% sequential growth over Q4. We continue to believe our growth in North America makes us an N of one in the optical category, and Q1 reinforced that view. Adjusted EBITDA reached CAD 4.1 million or 7.2% of revenue, the highest adjusted EBITDA in our company's history.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

A strong start to the year and building on our three-year trend of adjusted EBITDA progress as we take meaningful steps forward in our journey of compounding profitable growth. Gross margin expanded to 40.9%, supported by both underlying mix improvements and a non-recurring tariff refund I'll discuss in a moment. The quarter also marked our 14th consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA while continuing to grow at category-leading rates. We ended the quarter with CAD 19 million in cash and zero in long-term debt. Three themes that define the quarter are, number one, the strength and acceleration of our glasses business, the disciplined reinvestment of a one-time tariff benefit, and the durability of our customer economics. First, in glasses. Glasses revenue grew 61% year-over-year to CAD 10.8 million, building on momentum we've been describing for the past several quarters.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Underneath that headline, we delivered over 156,000 pairs of glasses units in the quarter, a 50% year-over-year increase. This growth reflects compounding tailwinds, including accelerating adoption of the premium lens business, growing units over 75% year-over-year, contributing to expansion of average order value, which now sits approximately 35% higher than a year ago for glasses. Consistency in customer retention with our returning customer rate supporting over 60% of revenue every quarter since our IPO in January 2021, reaching 63.9% of total revenue from repeat customers. Continued strength in our vertically integrated manufacturing capability, which gives us both cost and quality advantages we don't believe our competitors can easily match.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Glasses are transitioning from a growth vector to a core driver of both revenue and margin, now representing 18.8% of total revenue, up from 14.4% in the prior year period. As this category scales, we expect it to play a larger role in both top-line growth and margin expansion over the years to come. Underneath that growth, premium lens upgrades represented 42% of glasses revenues, with digital progressive revenue growing over 65% year-over-year. We ended the quarter with over 609,994 frames in stock across more than 21,438 styles, supporting both selection and scale as we extend into adjacent categories.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

The most important leading indicator from the quarter, the 2026 glasses cohort is generating first order revenue approximately 62% higher than the 2025 cohort on the same entry-level pricing. The clearest evidence yet that the platform is compounding. Second, the tariff refund and reinvestment. During Q1, CAD 2.1 million in non-recurring tariff refunds related to a prior period and imports into the U.S. Consistent with our long-stated strategy of growing with intention while delivering steady EBITDA progression, we made a decision to reinvest that benefit into accelerated customer acquisition during the quarter, with specific focus on capturing share in our glasses category where the return opportunity was disproportionate. That decision translated directly into some exciting leading indicators.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Approximately 100,000 new customers acquired, representing 36.1% of Q1 revenue. Our two-year active customer base reached over 1.1 million, up 17% year-over-year, and glasses units increased 50% year-over-year to 156,000 units. As a result, marketing came in at 18.9% of revenue. To be clear, this was strategic and a time-bound reinvestment of a one-time item, not a change in our marketing intensity framework. We'll continue to invest in customer acquisition where returns support it. Marketing will flex with cohort quality as we assess the spend against long-term customer value, not short-term period comparisons, while remaining committed to an adjusted EBITDA positive framework. Third, our customer economics. Our cohort metrics continue to support the case for long-term compounding.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Repeat revenue represented 64% of total revenue in Q1 and continues to grow as a percentage of mix. Our Autoship customer base, which is the foundation of a recurring revenue, represented CAD 5.9 million in revenue during Q1. We're seeing strong cross-category dynamics where glasses customers are increasingly purchasing contact lenses and vice versa. At the cohort level, the metrics continue to improve. Our two-year active customer base grew 17% year-over-year to over 1.1 million customers. Average order value is up approximately 35% higher for glasses versus a year ago as customers move into higher value lens categories. Repeat customers continue to deliver materially higher gross margin per order than first-purchase customers. More importantly, cohort quality is improving. What gives us conviction in that signal is how these cohorts behave over time.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Customers acquired in 2024 through 2026 are outperforming earlier cohorts. When looking specifically at the 2021 contacts cohorts, it's grown from approximately CAD 151 of revenue per customer in year one to over CAD 450 in cumulative revenue in a four-year period. That expansion is driven by stronger brand awareness, a broader product offering, and a meaningful improved customer experience. What we're seeing in 2026 is that customers are entering the platform at a higher starting point, which when layered onto the same multi-year trajectory, materially increases the lifetime value of each new cohort. While the financials show the output, innovation is what drives it. On the product side, we continue to expand the glasses offering across materials, product lines, and construction with a focus on increasing both customer value and margin.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

In Q1, we expanded our readers and progressive readers offering, driving meaningful year-over-year growth in units, up 74% year-over-year. We also introduced new frame innovations, including our Flex collection, designed for durability and comfort through a 360-degree hinge system. The more important shift is happening on the tech side. OpticianAI is no longer just a feature. It's increasingly the interface offering personalization, guiding product discovery, improving conversion, and increasing attachment to higher value lenses in real time. As more customers engage, the system gets smarter, conversion improves, and cohort economics strengthen, a compounding loop. We're also extending AI across the business from search and merchandising to marketing and customer support with a clear objective, remove friction, increase confidence, and elevate the entire buying experience.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Looking ahead to Q2, we expect continued momentum with revenue projections in the range of CAD 57 million-CAD 59 million and adjusted EBITDA margins to come in between 3% and 5%. Joe will speak to the operational drivers in a moment, and Ibrahim will walk through the financials in detail. Before I hand off, I want to highlight one point. We continue to have high conviction around our ability to generate asymmetric returns in the category. With that, I'll turn it over to Joe.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

Thanks, Roger. I want to touch on two foundational beliefs that frame how we think about the glasses business and why we believe the next five years represent a generational opportunity for KITS to establish itself as the platform for prescription eyewear in North America. The first is cost. Our vertically integrated model gives KITS a structural cost advantage in high quality prescription glasses at scale. Our vertically integrated Vancouver lab, our just-in-time production model, and the volume leverage we capture as unit scale, over 156,000 pairs delivered this quarter alone, up 50% year-over-year, combine to give us a structural cost position we don't believe traditional optical retailers can match.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

That cost advantage is what allows us to keep entry-level pricing unchanged while expanding gross margin, and it's what creates the runway to extend into adjacent categories: readers, progressives, light adaptive, Sun Rx, and the premium configurations beyond without compromising on either price or quality. Each new category sits on the same fixed manufacturing base, which means every incremental unit of volume flows through at very attractive incremental margins. The wider our category footprint, the more reasons a customer has to come back to KITS, and the more share of their eyewear wallet we capture over time. The second is repeat behavior. Because customers experience that combination of value, quality, and convenience, our customers exhibit industry-leading repeat behavior. Repeat orders represented 63.9% of total revenue in Q1.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

On the glasses side, specifically, 78,000 pairs delivered this quarter went to returning customers, a 53% year-over-year increase in repeat glasses volume. The more important point is what those repeat customers look like compared to first-time buyers. They trade up into premium lenses at meaningfully higher rates. They carry larger basket sizes. They buy across categories. Glasses customers buying contacts customers buying glasses, and they require a fraction of the marketing investment to reengage. Every cohort we acquire today becomes a lower cost, higher margin revenue stream for years afterwards. That is the asset we are compounding. Lastly, we're on track with our previously announced Toronto location, which we expect to open later in Q2.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

This expansion supports our brand building strategy in Canada's largest market, and we expect it to incrementally support glasses growth in Southern Ontario over the back half of 2026 and into 2027. I also want to take a moment to welcome Ibrahim Kamar to his first earnings call as Chief Financial Officer. Ibrahim has been a key partner behind the scenes as SVP, Finance, and his promotion reflects the strength and continuity of our financial leadership. I'll now turn the call over to Ibrahim for the financials.

Ibrahim Kamar
CFO at Kits Eyecare

Thanks, Joe, and good morning, everyone. To recap, Q1 revenue grew 23% to CAD 57.5 million, with glasses revenue as the standout, reaching CAD 10.8 million, up 61% year-over-year. Repeat revenue represented 63.9% of total revenue in the quarter, and new customers revenue increased almost 17% year-over-year. That combination is what supports both near-term revenue and long-term economics. Gross profit was CAD 23.5 million in Q1, up CAD 6.4 million from CAD 17.1 million in Q1 2025, and gross margin expanded to 40.9%, reaching a new threshold for KITS. It's worthwhile to note three areas under the gross margin line. First, the headline, 40.9% includes a CAD 2.1 million non-recurring tariff recovery. Excluding that recovery, underlying gross margin was over 37%, a year-over-year improvement.

Ibrahim Kamar
CFO at Kits Eyecare

Second, the structural drivers are the repeat revenue mix and glasses. Repeat revenue reached CAD 36.7 million, and our glasses gross margin continues to expand. Third, premium lens categories, which carry higher gross margin, which represent approximately 42% of glasses revenue, highlighted by digital progressives growing over 65% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA was a record CAD 4.1 million or 7.2% of revenue. This includes the benefit of the tariff recovery. Adjusted EBITDA remains positive while we increase marketing reinvestments. On operating expenses, marketing was 18.9% of revenue, increasing year-over-year from 13.5%. As Roger noted, this was a strategic reinvestment of the CAD 2.1 million tariff recovery into accelerated acquisition, mainly in glasses.

Ibrahim Kamar
CFO at Kits Eyecare

Fulfillment improved to 10.5% of revenue, down from 10.9% in Q1 2025, and G&A improved to 5.7% of revenue, down from 6.3% in Q1 2025. In short, outside of the deliberate marketing lean in, every line in our P&L moved in the right direction. On the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with CAD 19 million in cash and fully undrawn CAD 15 million ABL facility with the Bank of Montreal. On January 2nd, we repaid the full balance of CAD 10 million on the ABL, reflecting a zero long-term debt balance. The ABL, in combination with our cash position, provides ample liquidity to fund operations and future growth. Cash used in operating activities was CAD 5 million in the quarter, reflecting a planned inventory build to support our continued growth.

Ibrahim Kamar
CFO at Kits Eyecare

While operating cash flow moderated relative to previous quarters, our supply chain strategy and balance sheet flexibility continue to support ongoing investments in growth initiatives. We enter Q2 with a strong balance sheet, a growing and increasingly loyal customer base, and a glasses business that is inflecting. Operator, we are now ready for questions.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star button 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 button followed by the number two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. We kindly ask that each participant ask no more than two questions each. One moment please for your first question. First question comes from Luke Hannan, Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Luke Hannan
Luke Hannan
Analyst at Canaccord Genuity

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. I want to start with a clarification on the marketing spend. This will be a two-part question. The first is, Roger, if I heard you correctly, you did deliberately increase marketing spend during the quarter. It was 18.9% of revenue. When we back out the CAD 2.1 million from the tariff recovery out of the marketing spend, though, it is close to 15% of revenue. Is it fair to say that for the balance of the year, you are still thinking about the marketing guardrails being between 13%-15%?

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Hey, Luke. Good morning. You know, I think our normalized marketing framework has historically been in that 14%-16% range, and that remains our reference point.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

What happened in Q1 was specific and deliberate. We had the CAD 2.1 million of non-recurring benefit land in the quarter at a moment seasonally when the return opportunity in glasses acquisition was disproportionately attractive. We made the call to deploy it. That decision has been made and we're happy with the results. Going into Q2, we're not carrying that same elevated spend, you should expect marketing as a percent of revenue to move back towards our historic range. We're moving away to managing towards cohort quality and payback, and specifically because of how strong we are seeing the cohorts this year. Q1 level was not normal, but we are moving towards looking more intentionally at quality of the customer. Thank you.

Luke Hannan
Luke Hannan
Analyst at Canaccord Genuity

Okay, thanks. As a follow-up to that first question, though, and I appreciate all the detail that you've shared when it comes to the reorder rates and the new cohorts that you're acquiring being accretive overall to the P&L. It sounds like compared to earlier cohorts. Can you just share with us, I mean, what does that look like on an LTV basis or maybe an LTV to CAC ratio basis, a little bit more specificity? I think the issue that investors and analysts may have looking at this is there tends to be a lag between, when you're investing and acquiring these customers versus when we may see the benefit of that show up later on in the P&L. How should we sort of think about this or reconcile that?

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Yeah, maybe I'll hit a high level and then pass to Joe for a little more detail. You know, just at a high level, Luke, I think what we, and it is covered in the MD&A, and I think, you know, hopefully fairly well, talking a little bit about, first off, the contact lens cohorts and how those are behaving, customers returning, you know, at almost 85%-95% net revenue retention. And those numbers are, you know, akin to more like a software business, less like a retail business. They are, you know, incredibly unique, I would say, in retail, and they look a lot more like some of all of our favorite subscription type businesses. We've got extremely high revenue retention. That's giving us confidence.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

You know, we've got 5+ years of cohort information there. Each year the cohorts come back, and they spend more. In glasses, you know, it's earlier on in the life cycle of our glasses customers, but we've broken out some of the numbers there that we're also finding and that are exciting, including seeing this year's first quarter cohort in glasses, basically being at a three-year LTV of previous cohorts. We're seeing a dramatic jump in performance. Customers are coming in, they're buying multiple pairs, they're upgrading their lenses, they are choosing specialty products. All of those bode very well for just in general, the KITS brand and more specifically towards glasses, that return being faster and faster.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

When the one-year cohort is higher than the three-year cohort, to your question about how quickly, you know, does it generate a return, the return is accelerating. Maybe I'll pass to Joe for if he has any more comments there.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

Good morning, Luke. We did, you know, as Roger's detailed very well, make an investment in glasses, and here's some more data on why. You know, from a unit economic standpoint, unit economics were very compelling to us. In Q1, we saw glasses AOV increase from, you know, below CAD 100 a year ago to now approximately CAD 130, while seeing gross margin percent grow from the mid-30% to now approaching 50%. From a gross profit per order standpoint, year-over-year, we're seeing an increase of approaching 80%. Lots of tailwind on top of this BOGO offer really resonating, and our manufacturing cost per pair of glasses made in the quarter improved over 10%, which of course helps gross margin.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

I think as Roger highlighted, the reoccurring revenue profile of these customers is what really makes this attractive. Our revenue from repeat customers on glasses in the quarter grew over 50%, which of course our customers, you know, acquired in previous quarters and gives us even more confidence on the nearly 80,000 new customers added to the franchise this year. Put these together, we've really progressed our glasses business in the last two quarters. In two quarters, we've seen the size of glasses grow more than 50% while meaningfully improving the economics. That was just a little bit more context on what gave us confidence in the investment.

Luke Hannan
Luke Hannan
Analyst at Canaccord Genuity

Very helpful. Thanks. For my second question, then I'll pass the line here. Just on capital allocation, if you can share more detail on what drove the decision for you guys to buy the Bitcoin ETF last quarter, maybe who was involved from a management or a board perspective there, and what your plans are here moving forward as well? Thank you.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Yeah, sure, Luke. The position was established as a long-duration treasury reserve at a time when we were evaluating alternatives for excess capital. It's a non-operating holding and has remained modest in size. We did not add to the position in Q1, have no plans to add to it going forward. Over time, we expect it to be reduced as part of our broader treasury management. Our focus as a management team is squarely on the optical business and our capital allocation priorities, our glasses growth, customer acquisition, and the balance sheet.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

The position doesn't distract from any of that. As to who was involved, we had, we prepared a memo, it went through our board, and we had approval from just over 60% of shareholders in person at that meeting to approve it. Hopefully that gives you some color on that. Thanks, Luke.

Luke Hannan
Luke Hannan
Analyst at Canaccord Genuity

Thanks. I'll pass the line.

Operator

Next question is from Martin Landry from Stifel. Please go ahead.

Martin Landry
Martin Landry
Analyst at Stifel

Hi, good morning, guys. I would like to dig a little bit into your revenue guidance for Q2. You know, admittedly, the revenue growth is a little lower than our expectations. At the midpoint, I think you're calling for revenues to be up 17% year-over-year. It would also represent a lower growth than what you've accomplished, you know, in the past several quarters. Can you know, discuss a little bit the environment, why you're expecting revenue growth to slow down a little bit? Anything change from a competitive dynamic? Any color would be super helpful.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Yeah, great. Good morning, Martin. You know, I think Martin, it was an outstanding first quarter to be direct, growth at about 27% on a constant currency basis. We're preferring to think about our growth targets still in a yearly framework of about 25%-30%, but there is gonna be some seasonality inside those quarterly moves. In Q1, the market was fairly robust. That's kind of how we're thinking about it. Of course, we've guided conservatively and consistently over the past, you know, double-digit quarters. We do see some seasonality playing out as expected. I think, you know, there's a lot of moving parts, including the U.S. dollar and U.S. currency and many things built out.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

At a constant currency basis, we think the year looks more like 25%-30%. It's gonna take some solid execution by the team. Q2 is looking, probably seasonally, it has been one of our weaker quarters if we go back over the last number of years. We've adjusted that into our framework. Joe, anything you wanna add there?

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

[audio distortion] That's great.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Is that okay? Thanks, Martin.

Martin Landry
Martin Landry
Analyst at Stifel

Just to clarify, you expect your annual revenue in 2026 to grow by 25%-30%?

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Correct.

Martin Landry
Martin Landry
Analyst at Stifel

Okay. Okay. Okay. That means a pretty strong back half. Just, you know, there's been a lot of, you know, inflationary pressures with the war in Iran. I'm wondering, you know, has any of your input costs increased, you know, following the war, and could that have any impact on your cost of goods sold in the coming months?

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Martin, can I just add one qualifier to that 25%-30%? I did say in constant currency. As you know, 60% of our revenue does come out of the U.S., that dollar impact can be meaningful as it was in Q1. I'm gonna turn over to Joe to talk a little bit about if we're seeing any input cost movement. Joe.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

Yeah. Good morning, Martin. We look at a number of data points as we're kind of assessing the market. One of them is traffic. You know, are customers still interested in the platform? Is traffic growing ahead of revenue? In Q1, we did see, you know, revenue up, you know, 23%, 27% constant currency. Traffic was up over double that. In glasses, it, you know, growing about 60% in revenue, traffic up, you know, well over 100%. Lots of consumers still exploring on the platform, and we think that that's a great leading indicator.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

With regards to COGS, you know, our view just continues to be, we wanna draw the shortest line between raw materials and the customer, and we wanna take as many layers and as much waste out of the system on behalf of customers. You know, if you take our glasses business as an example, you know, all the frames are designed right here in Vancouver. The raw materials come into the lab, they're assembled, the prescription is cut right here, and then they're shipped to the customer. If there is any variance on either inbound or outbound transport, we expect the variance that we see to be significantly less from a delta standpoint than what the industry sees.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

When, when we, when we do see disruption, we tend to see it as an opportunity to continue to get sharper on a simple, straightforward supply chain that passes disproportionate savings on to customers. No change in our, in our forecast or our thinking on 2026 with anything that we've seen so far.

Martin Landry
Martin Landry
Analyst at Stifel

Okay. Thank you and best of luck.

Operator

Next question is from Gianluca Tucci out of Haywood Securities. Please go ahead.

Gianluca Tucci
Gianluca Tucci
Analyst at Haywood Securities

Hi, good morning, guys. Congrats on the quarter. Seems like it was a record also for the gross margin line, even excluding the tariff benefit. Given how the glasses business has been scaling, guys, is this a step function to continue modeling from going forward? I'm just curious as to how you're thinking about consolidated margins from this point forward, given how the glasses growth has been scaling. Is the long-term target still like 40%, 50% gross margin target, or is that now like evolving given the growth here?

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Morning, Gianluca. Thanks for the question. You know, we haven't broken out our glasses gross margin as standalone in the disclosures, but what I can tell you directionally is you're correct. It's meaningfully higher than our contact lens category. It's expanding quarter-over-quarter as in-house production scales, as premium lens mix increases, and the significance of that is compounding. As glasses grows from 18% of revenue today towards a larger share of the mix, it becomes increasingly powerful engine for our overall margin expansion. You know, we view the current trajectory as an inflection, not a one-quarter event.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

As we look out into the future, you know, it's a, it's a good reminder that the glasses category itself is 8x to 10x the size of the contact lens business and, you know, could easily make up 50% or more of our overall total business. You know, we think gross margin will continue to compound and, you know, you're right to focus on that. Ultimately, that'll be the big lever towards contributing to overall EBITDA margins.

Gianluca Tucci
Gianluca Tucci
Analyst at Haywood Securities

Thanks, Roger. Like longer term, is the target for the business still 40 points, 50 points? How are you thinking about the long-term objective on the gross margin perspective, given how fast you're scaling glasses?

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, you know, it depends on your definition of long term. I think, you know, as we move out a couple of years, it's easy to see a business whose gross margins exceeded 50%. I think I'll just leave it there. I mean, we're, you know, as the brand gets stronger, as I mentioned earlier, people are choosing to buy more line items, more specialty lenses, second pair of frames, all of which is, you know, reduces the cost of fulfillment, reduces the cost of marketing as a percent. You get operating leverage from every time customers upgrade and choose higher value product.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

All these things will be contributors to overall, you know, gross margins, north of 50% and to healthy EBITDA margins. That's kind of what we're building towards. Joe, anything I missed there? You okay? Okay.

Gianluca Tucci
Gianluca Tucci
Analyst at Haywood Securities

That's great, Roger. Appreciate it. Then just lastly, can you speak to perhaps OpticianAI and the traction that you're seeing out of that product, and if there's any tangible upsell opportunities that you're seeing through the deployment of that technology across the business?

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Yeah. Great, great question, Gianluca. You know, it's an exciting time to be running a growth company. So many opportunities when we're looking at AI and internally, how our business continues to get more and more efficient. If you look at over the past couple of quarters, we've gone from revenue per employee at about CAD 600,000 per employee to right around CAD 1 million per employee. Again, very unique, I think, in terms of retail. Part of what's helping drive that is just all the technology innovation that's coming out of our tech team.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

We have deployed a number of AI agents, agentic agents doing and helping with many tasks, and we're also running those in parallel with different roles, different assignments within the company, helping those people be more efficient, make better decisions. We're seeing all of those things contribute to making the team better, but also keeping it highly efficient. Sorry, lastly, to get to OpticianAI, it's a great example of where we're using technology to help customers find what they're looking for. It lets us personalize, it helps us upsell. That tool, I think, just will get better and better over time at understanding the journeys customers take, different customers through the website. What products do we need to surface to make sure we serve them in a way that's compelling?

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Customers that interact with OpticianAI right now do choose to have and do have higher order values. We are seeing that at play, and we're continuing to refine it. I, you know, I think we're leading the category in this, in this regard for the number of customers that are checking out with a digital optician, and that is helping and contributing to uptick in order size and uptick in, again, back to gross margin, I guess, at the end of the day. Most, you know, most important probably is just finding customers the right, the right product for them. It's, it's very exciting. It will get better and better over time, and we'll start to show it to more and more customers as we have confidence in its ability to serve customers.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Joe, anything there in more detail you wanna cover?

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

Hi. Morning, Gianluca. Yeah, in the, in the short term, OpticianAI is front and center. Is, you know, is engagement improving and to our expectations with the tool and is conversion improving? Both are a solid yes, and ahead of what we expect it to be. I think as Roger described, this is in the longer term or even really in the midterm, this is an LTV machine, this product. It's really gonna increase the engagement, increase the comfort level, the feeling of, "Hey, I'm home." When I come to the site, it's got my history embedded. We, you know, the sky's the limit for our expectation for this tool.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

You know, typically, in our view, businesses that are set up to win first and in a big way on AI have a digital footprint where all the data is consumed and captured, and immediately goes into improving all different parts of the business. The consumer-facing tools such as OpticianAI tend to get most of the focus and most of the press. I'd say, you know, our team is equally excited about all the, you know, maybe less exciting externally improvement areas like improved turns on inventory that large language models can really help us with. Improved revenue per employee with every teammate getting more productive every quarter, having more access to more data.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

I think, you know, we're investing in this in a big way as a team, and the sky's the limit on what the potential is.

Gianluca Tucci
Gianluca Tucci
Analyst at Haywood Securities

Thanks for the color, guys. I will pass to line. Congrats again.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Thanks, Gianluca.

Operator

Next question is from Matt Koranda from Roth Capital. Please go ahead.

Matt Koranda
Matt Koranda
Analyst at Roth Capital

Hey, guys. Good morning. I guess I wanna just hear you unpack the growth commentary for the year a bit more. It sounds like it steps down a little bit in terms of rate in the second quarter. I guess if we wanna hit the midpoint of the full year growth goal, we'd accelerate to something in the high-20%, low-30% for the remainder of the year. I guess, what are the underlying industry assumptions you're using to get there? What's your outperformance versus the industry look like, I guess, in the scenario that you're highlighting? How should we be thinking about, I guess AOV versus unit growth?

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Yes. Thanks, Luke. I think we talked a little bit about the growth we saw in Q1. Lots of new customers there. We're also seeing those customers return at a frequency that's improving. We are seeing those customers spend more as they return. At a high level, those are some of the key assumptions, is that, as you know, we attract and retain a high number of customers. There's a large number of customers repeat and return in a predictable way. We've modeled that into our year and that's the type of growth we're seeing. I guess it's also important to remember that, you know, despite being CAD 200 million+ in revenue, the category itself remains quite large, fragmented, not disrupted.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

There's some parts of what we're finding is that, you know, we're seeing great results in Q1 from a specific number of activities. We'll look to continue to scale those throughout the rest of the year, including some of our the influencer strategies that have been working quite effectively, some of the other OpticianAI experiences that we'll roll out more broadly to more parts of the website. You know, there's a lot of moving parts in that model, but we did see good growth in Q1 and healthy cohorts that, you know, encourage us to continue investing. Yeah, so that's kind of the high level. Maybe I'll turn to Joe if he wants to hit any detail or view?

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

Hey, Matt. How are you? You know, we, I think as, you know, described this morning are taking a conservative look at Q2. But we're looking overall at 2026. You know, with our plans, you know, we expect our fourth consecutive fiscal year with organic growth over 25% in constant currency. I think that puts KITS in a very small pool of companies that can both expand profitability and grow at that level. You know, the underlying platform and economics are really what's driving it. Over 60% of revenue continuing to come from repeat customers.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

As we see the unit economics, you know, on glasses, you know, really improving from, you know, from a gross profit per order standpoint, improving over 75% in Q1 on glasses. It just, you know, and seeing the repeat profile continue to come in, and manufacturing getting even more efficient as we add more volume onto the platform, it just gives us, you know, just so much confidence in the balance of the year and then 2027 as well.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Joe, I'd probably just add one thing. You know, I didn't hit on Matt. Our Autoship program, we've really kind of been starting to uptick and reinvest in the Autoship, with a new Subscribe & Save platform that we're seeing some good early results with. I think I'll that just add that into kind of your modeling perspective. Thank you.

Matt Koranda
Matt Koranda
Analyst at Roth Capital

That sounds great, guys. Thanks for that. Maybe just on the glasses front, this might dovetail with your response earlier, but I noticed the mix of higher priced frames available on your site has increased over the last several months. Just wondering what you're seeing in terms of customer behavior that's driving that mix shift. I would assume maybe some assumption of more repeat and customers liking the product, and coming back. Just wanted to give you the chance to sort of talk about the driver of that mix shift.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

Yeah, yeah, Matt, the big driver of that is category expansion within glasses. You know, you have this platform, this chassis of an optical lab onshore, and with all of the surfacing lines and edging lines and assembly, and selection, and we're now able to add at a faster pace than ever, add new subcategories. For example, readers or progressive readers, which were a big introduction. These are entire categories unto themselves that we're able to introduce at significant savings. I mean, our digital progressives business continues to be one of our highest Net Promoter Score, highest repeating businesses because the value is so astounding to customers.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

You know, customers spending a couple hundred dollars for a pair of digital progressives when they're used to spending CAD 800-CAD 1,000 in the market. Now coming back to say, "Actually, I can now have two pairs." We think we're seeing, it's early days, but the same behavior in progressive readers, and more premium categories to come where, you know, we feel like we have the opportunity with the platform already built to offer incredible value to customers. Those are a few that we launched in the quarter and expanded in the quarter, but many more to come.

Matt Koranda
Matt Koranda
Analyst at Roth Capital

Great to hear, guys. Thank you.

Operator

Next question comes from Doug Cooper from Beacon Securities. Please go ahead. Nope, looks like Doug has dropped. Doug, if you wanna do the prompts again with your question, please go ahead. Otherwise, our next question comes from Frederic Tremblay from Desjardins. Please go ahead.

Frederic Tremblay
Frederic Tremblay
Analyst at Desjardins

Thanks. Good morning. With your new Chief Marketing Officer joining during the quarter, to the extent that you can you comment on if there's any tweaks or adjustments to the marketing strategy, or the marketing tools that you intend on using? Not really looking for numbers per se, but just more broadly at the potential changes in the marketing strategy going forward.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Good morning. you know, we're excited to add a couple of new teammates to the marketing team this quarter. From a strategy standpoint, I think we're just, you know, kinda carrying on things that have worked and been successful historically with a new lens, with some added experience, and with some additional expertise. It's still early and, you know, I think our view is to make sure we give people lots of time to understand the business and, expectations in the first quarter were really just to, you know, seek first to understand.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

I would say Q1 reflects, it reflects kind of that strategy with the newer folks. As the quarters progress here, we'll be looking for our newer teammates to add contributions as we go. You know, we're excited about the new teammates and look forward to them contributing as the year goes on. Joe, anything you wanna add there?

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

Hey, Fred. Great to hear from you this morning. Yeah, it's more of the same of, you know, incredible traction that some of our offers are getting in the market and some of our new launches, like progressive readers. Buy One, Get One just continues to be a big staple offering that others, you know, just are not able to offer to customers at the same value. Influencers continue to be an area where we where the team invests and actually expands. More of the same from a tactical standpoint and more success that we're seeing on the unit economic side for glasses.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

I think maybe just to touch on where we're headed in the long term, again, no change to this, but it's worth repeating. You know, we have, we feel like we've built the lowest cost of manufacturing high-quality prescription glasses in North America, and we now have a big base of vision-corrected customers. Now our focus is on word-of-mouth referrals, et cetera, to continue to, over time, lower the cost of marketing. The last frontier on this platform is if we have the best platform, the lowest cost of manufacturing, and the lowest cost of acquisition, you know, then, you know, that will really be a powerful, in our view, multi-billion dollar platform. That's where we're headed in the long term.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

I think probably one more, you know, point to note is that we, you know, our new teammates have had experience in hybrid and omni-channel type retail. We are excited to, in Q2, our Toronto location will be opening up. It's an extension of our brand building strategy in Canada, our large market here. It's not a pivot in the operating model. We're remaining fundamentally digital-first business, physical locations will serve a specific purpose for us. They'll increase our brand trust awareness in some of these high-density markets. They support the glasses category where customers sometimes want a touch point before committing to a higher value purchase, we see them creating a halo effect on digital revenue in the surrounding geography.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

That's a dynamic we've seen play out with our Vancouver presence, and we really wanted to scale into our team folks that had that experience. It's always nice to be working from experience, not from opinion. We're excited to have folks that have that experience. You know, that capital outlay will be modest relative to our overall balance sheet, we look forward to it contributing to supporting our glasses growth. Again, that experience will really be invaluable as we think about how to expand that strategy further across Canada. Thank you.

Frederic Tremblay
Frederic Tremblay
Analyst at Desjardins

Yeah. Thanks for that answer. Last question for me. Now that the debt repayment has been completed, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about capital allocation priorities going forward, I guess including if you're open to assessing acquisition opportunities or share buyback opportunities as well? Thanks.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

Sure, Fred. Yeah. No, we're continuing to take a long-term view on the value of this platform. You know, the best investment has continued to be our investing in our own organic growth, and we saw it again in Q1. Lots of kind of noise in the broader market, but more growth from KITS and continuing to add high value long-term customers to the platform. I think, you know, Roger talked about the Toronto store, you know, what an opportunity in Canada's largest market to a, you know, and a logical extension of a model that's working really well in the Vancouver market. More awareness, traffic, and trial expected across the GTA.

Joseph Thompson
COO at Kits Eyecare

I think that's our focus. Maybe I'll pass to Roger for anything else on NCIB.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Yeah, no, I think it's good. I mean, I think from time to time, the market becomes fairly short-term focused. We'll assess those opportunities as they present. As Joe said, the focus remains clearly on growing and investing in growth. That's where we'll kind of continue to deploy capital. Thank you.

Frederic Tremblay
Frederic Tremblay
Analyst at Desjardins

Thank you.

Operator

That appears to be the last of the questions for today. I will now turn the call over for closing remarks.

Roger Hardy
CEO at Kits Eyecare

Thanks. Let me close where I started. Q1 2026 delivered strong profitable organic growth, revenue up 23%, glasses up 61%, gross margins expanding, and adjusted EBITDA at 7.2% of revenue. Strong acquisition cohort of approximately 100,000 new customers brought in through a deliberate investment due to a non-recurring tariff benefit. None of this is accidental. Every one of these outcomes reflects an intentional choice about where we invest, what we prioritize, and how we run the company. The optical category remains structurally attractive. We continue to take share, and the model is compounding. We believe the combination of our operating model, customer economics, and continued innovation positions us well to sustain this momentum through 2026 and beyond. Thanks very much, operator.

Operator

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

Executives
    • Ibrahim Kamar
      CFO
    • Joseph Thompson
      COO
    • Roger Hardy
      CEO
Analysts
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