Dorel Industries Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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May 8, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Dorel Juvenile posted a solid quarter, with revenue up just over 3% to $223 million and improved earnings, led by strong performance outside the U.S. and continued momentum from the Maxi-Cosi brand.
  • Positive Sentiment: Management said growth in Europe, Australia/New Zealand, Latin America, and export markets was driven by innovation, product pipeline strength, and market share gains, while the company expects a stronger second half and full-year 2026 adjusted earnings above last year.
  • Negative Sentiment: U.S. Juvenile demand remained weak due to cautious consumer spending, tariff-related disruption, and heavy promotional activity, though management expects pricing actions and brand strength to help offset cost pressures.
  • Negative Sentiment: Dorel Home was the main drag on results, with revenue down 57% and management saying traditional furniture categories are performing worse than expected, forcing a deeper reassessment of the business model.
  • Neutral Sentiment: The company says Home restructuring is still on track, but additional legacy cost removals, category exits, and possible further footprint changes are under review, with clearer plans expected by the end of Q2 and profitability targeted for the medium to long term.
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Earnings Conference Call
Dorel Industries Q1 2026
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Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Dorel Industries First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star and then one using a telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference, you may reach an operator by pressing star and zero. Before turning the meeting over to management, please be advised that this conference call will contain statements that are forward-looking and subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded today, May 8, 2026. I'd now like to turn the floor over to Martin Schwartz, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Martin Schwartz
Martin Schwartz
President and CEO at Dorel Industries

Thank you. Good morning, and thank you for joining us for Dorel's first quarter earnings call for the period ending March 31, 2026. With me today are Jeffrey Schwartz, CFO, and Jayson Kwasnik, Vice President of Finance. We'll take your questions following our comments. Please note that all figures mentioned during this call are in U.S. dollars. Dorel Juvenile delivered a solid first quarter, demonstrating resilience in a volatile global environment marked by geopolitical uncertainty, foreign exchange headwinds, and rising input costs. Strong growth and improving profitability across Europe and international markets, including export, Australia, and Latin America, helped offset softness in the U.S. business. Disciplined cost management supported performance despite margin pressure from currency movements, while continued investment in innovation and strong global customer engagement reinforced the strength of Dorel's Juvenile diversified portfolio and is positioning for substantial growth.

Martin Schwartz
Martin Schwartz
President and CEO at Dorel Industries

Dorel Home results improved meaningfully compared to both prior year and last year's fourth quarter, but this was due only to substantial reductions in overhead and operating expenses. Sales were disappointing due to the lack of success in certain traditional furniture categories. As evidenced by the recent announced closure of three competing Canadian-based furniture manufacturers, the furniture industry remains very difficult. This is forcing us to be even more focused on exiting categories and channels where our competitive advantage is limited and continue with a product line that minimizes our overhead. This will allow us to return to profitability and provide a clearer foundation for future success as the year progresses. As always, Jeffrey will walk you through our results, but first, I want to add some color to our press release, starting with the Juvenile segment.

Martin Schwartz
Martin Schwartz
President and CEO at Dorel Industries

The Juvenile segment delivered another quarter of improved earnings, with markets outside of the U.S. leading the way. This was the case through most of 2025 as well. Despite all markets facing challenges brought on by various geopolitical events. These conditions were generally made worse in the first quarter with the heightened tension in the Middle East at the end of February. There is no question that when costs rise for consumers, as they have around the world with the surge in oil prices and the general uncertainty brought on by recent events, it impacts consumer behavior. This impact was most acute in the U.S. market, and the positive momentum we saw in the fourth quarter last year slowed down, reflecting continued softness in the Juvenile category following tariff-related disruptions, heightened promotional pressure, and cautious consumer spending.

Martin Schwartz
Martin Schwartz
President and CEO at Dorel Industries

We have responded by aligning the cost structure to a lower demand environment. While the U.S. market remains challenging, we continue to focus on targeted innovation, portfolio optimization, and selective customer programs to support longer-term recovery. This evidenced by re-recognition from several industry organizations. Namely, Forbes recognized Maxi-Cosi Cassia as the best smart baby swing. Wired featured Maxi-Cosi Kani 4-in-1 car seat as best baby gear. Consumer Reports recognizing the See Pro 360 baby monitor, the Starling Bassinet, and the Iora Bedside Bassinet as category leaders. Recognition like this, while satisfying, does not always lead to higher sales. Fortunately, in this case, it only reinforces that our teams are doing a great job with our Maxi-Cosi brand and is leading to positive financial results. This is our flagship brand around the world with a growing presence in North America.

Martin Schwartz
Martin Schwartz
President and CEO at Dorel Industries

In the quarter, sales were up over 20% versus prior year and now represents over 40% of the Juvenile Segment sales. Outside of the U.S., the picture is very positive. The strength of our various divisions has allowed us to overcome many of the same challenges in the United States. In Europe, Dorel Juvenile delivered a strong quarter with organic revenue increasing, driven primarily by robust demand for Maxi-Cosi car seats across specialty retail, mass merchants, and e-commerce platforms. Notably, in Portugal, Maxi-Cosi received a 2026 Consumer Choice Award in both the baby stroller and car seat categories.

Martin Schwartz
Martin Schwartz
President and CEO at Dorel Industries

This marks the brand's first win since entering the Portuguese market four years ago, demonstrating successful market penetration and growing consumer trust in a competitive European market. Other standouts in our international markets include Australia, New Zealand, U.K., which delivered robust double-digit revenue growth, and in export markets like China, Turkey, and South Korea, supported by continued leadership in rotating car seat technology and strong customer execution. Latin America markets continue to execute structural improvements. In Chile, the company advanced its deliberate shift towards higher margin digital and distribution channels while rationalizing its physical retail footprint. Peru delivered strong revenue growth supported by direct-to-consumer performance. While Mexico recorded significant year-over-year growth across all major customers and product categories. Brazil remains a consistent contributor to revenues and earnings as they continue to lead the local market in innovation and design.

Martin Schwartz
Martin Schwartz
President and CEO at Dorel Industries

Finally, in March, Dorel Juvenile hosted its annual global customer conference in Portugal, bringing together more than 240 customers from around the world. The event highlighted the company's parent-centric design philosophy and showcased major product innovations, including the launch of the new Maxi-Cosi Coral Go, as well as new collections and the proprietary SLIDETECH 2 technology. Interactive product hubs encourage hands-on engagement and real-time feedback, reinforcing strong customer confidence and generating positive commercial momentum, particularly within the nursery furniture portfolio. Now for Dorel Home. As we discussed in detail in our year-end conference call in March, we concluded 2025 with the majority of our restructuring complete, with certain legacy costs being targeted for elimination in 2026. These last steps were identified as critical to us returning to profitability by the end of 2026, and they remain so.

Martin Schwartz
Martin Schwartz
President and CEO at Dorel Industries

However, the slow start to the year has forced us to reexamine our business model, and we expect further changes to be successful and profitable again. Our core Cosco business remains strong, but getting certain traditional everyday living furniture categories back to the sales level that we expected is not working. Therefore, beyond the needed elimination of our legacy costs, we will now focus on less categories and work with our long-term retail partners on known winning product categories. We will focus on items and channels with the quickest return and the lowest cash requirements. As of now, our teams continue to work on what that will look like, and it is expected that by the end of the second quarter, we will have a clearer picture of what the future looks like. I'll now ask Jeffrey to review the financials.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

Thank you, Martin. For the first quarter, Dorel's revenue decreased by $52 million or 16.4%. The revenue decline was all in Home, partially offset by revenue improvements on the Juvenile side. In the Juvenile, the improvement in revenue was in all regions except for the United States. The operating loss in the quarter, for the first quarter, for the company was $6.2 million, compared to $14 million in 2025. If we exclude restructuring costs, the operating loss decreased by $8.9 million from last year, to $3.6 million this year. I just wanna point out on financing expenses that if we look at the cash interest payments this year, they rose from $7.4 million last year to $9 million this year.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

There are obviously other charges, but the rest of the charges are non-cash for the quarter. If we go into the Dorel Juvenile a little bit more, the first quarter revenue was $223 million, up by just over 3% from last year. The revenue, as we talked about, the revenue was in all the regions except the U.S. We were very, very satisfied with the operations happening in Europe, in Canada, Australia, Brazil, Mexico. We also have a very fast-growing export division which covers all of the markets that we don't have a physical presence in. All of that is going extremely well, at least at plan, if not better.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

The only area in Q1 that was below plan was the U.S., and that was really affected by a general weakness in the U.S. consumer hard goods market, caused by all the things that I'm sure everybody knows about. You know, high prices on oil and gas and consumer confidence and all of those things which are leading to that. In addition to that, during the quarter, we did have significant price discounting by a number of our competitors, which also made it difficult for the quarter. As we, you know, as we go forward, we're seeing things balancing out now, and going back a little bit to normal.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

You know, we do have sensitivity, of course, in the Juvenile Business towards cost increases, resin, freight, all of that. We do have some hedged or hedging or locked-in contracts in some of that area. Although we are sensitive to it, we are, you know, not expecting huge material impacts for the rest of the year. You know, we will have to adjust by adjusting prices in certain areas, depending on what areas have the costs, but increases. Overall, we're pretty still bullish on that business going forward. If we look at the gross margin in the quarter, 26% decline of 130 basis points from last year.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

The bulk of that was a negative foreign exchange impact, primarily the euro, which we can read at the end of the quarter. Since then, the euro has actually bounced back as most currencies have gotten stronger versus the U.S. dollar since the end of the quarter. We think, you know, a lot of that is gonna be reversed. The operating profit was $3.6 million versus $3 million, but if you take out restructuring, $5.3 million versus $4.2 million. We flip over to Home now. Home is, obviously, you know, a concern point for everybody. You know, the decline of 57%, you know, to $45 million was lower than we expected.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

Now, a lot of it was an intentional reduction that we announced at the year-end, as we tried to go forward with a, the large part of the existing business is the Cosco business, which is furniture adjacent. You know, as people know, it's not quite furniture. The actual furniture business, which was a smaller part. Well, the Cosco business, although a bit short in the quarter, is still solid and is still, you know, a core part of this.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

The other part of the business, trying to maintain all of the furniture product is proving a little bit more difficult than we hoped, and we're reacting and deciding whether or not, you know, we wanna carry the overheads associated with the various different product lines and making decisions to exit a product line if it's going to cost us more in overheads as we try to become a very light expense business on the Home side. You know, the loss decreased by $5.6 million for the quarter. Again, all of that You know, if we look, first of all, if we exclude restructuring, the operating loss decreased by $6.2 million to $4.9 million, that's still, in our eyes, way too high, obviously.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

We have significantly reduced our footprint, and we're looking at ways to continue to do that going forward. With that, I'll pass it back to you, Martin.

Martin Schwartz
Martin Schwartz
President and CEO at Dorel Industries

Okay. Thank you, Jeffrey. For our outlook, driven by our success outside the U.S. market, the Juvenile segment performed well in the quarter. Looking forward, we expect the sales and earnings to improve in the U.S. and coupled with our ongoing success in Europe and other markets, this gives us confidence that we will have a strong second half. Expectations are that adjusted earnings for the full year 2026 will exceed prior year. While we are seeing some upward pressure on the costs, we are actively engaged with strategic suppliers and addressing other costs to mitigate these headwinds. At Dorel Home, we are prudently reassessing the business to identify our path forward. We intend to leverage our excellent retail partnership in making choices on categories that make sense for them and improve our portfolio mix going forward.

Martin Schwartz
Martin Schwartz
President and CEO at Dorel Industries

Cosco remains a leader in its product categories. This has been particularly true as uncertainty around the tariff meant retailers were exploring alternate sources of supply, and we were able to work with them from multiple jurisdictions. Fortunately, the work done last year in reducing our footprint to what it is today allows us to make any needed changes relatively quick. While this is not likely to impact the second quarter, we expect that we can deliver profits in the Home segment in the medium to long term. With that, I'll ask the operator to open the line for questions. Please limit your questions to two in the first round. Operator?

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star and then one on your telephone keypads. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, we do ask that you please pick up the handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your questions, you may press star and two. We'll pause momentarily to assemble the roster. Our first question today comes from Cheryl Zhang from TD Cowen. Please go ahead with your question.

Cheryl Zhang
Cheryl Zhang
Analyst at TD Cowen

Hey, good morning, Jeffrey. This is Cheryl. Thanks for taking our question.

Cheryl Zhang
Cheryl Zhang
Analyst at TD Cowen

My first question is on Juvenile. Very strong growth there in Europe and Australia. Is there anything you can point to that enabled Maxi-Cosi outperformance in those markets? I'm curious, who are you gaining shares from in those markets?

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

Well, it's definitely the product pipeline. We've been talking about it for a couple of years now. You know, our market share has been growing significantly in car seats in Europe, for example. It's based on our technology, our innovation. You know, what we do in Europe tends to flow through to most of the rest of the world, and that's why we're seeing so much of it. What I'm excited about is the pipeline's still full. We still have a lot of new stuff coming later this year. I mean, I would say every quarter we're introducing something to actually to the market. You know, we know what's coming for the rest of the year. We know what's coming in the first quarter of next year.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

We've shown it to a number of our accounts. Everybody's excited. It's really innovation and product is driving all of that. Market share is coming from most everywhere, gains. It's not one particular place or person, but, you know, again, excited about that. We're also looking forward to starting to bring more of our European-based products into the U.S., which we were doing a hybrid in the past, where we would take some European ideas and, and make sort of American product with it. Now we're gonna go more to the actual European product adapted for American standards.

Cheryl Zhang
Cheryl Zhang
Analyst at TD Cowen

Okay, that's very good color. On the Home side, I'm wondering if you can give us an update on the restructuring program and what is remaining.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

It's a good question. I mean, we are, I would say, on schedule with everything we wanted to do, you know, that we came up with, sort of, the decisions. It is on schedule. There are a few legacy costs, some buildings that we're still paying rent on that we need to exit, and we're working very much on that. That's gonna be a key element. We are still selling off the old inventory, or we call it the non-go-forward inventory. However, as we look at new product lines, we need to sort of reevaluate, is there more inventory that needs to be kind of put in the non-go-forward bucket. You know, that's sort of the area. Are we looking at new facilities?

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

Well, you know, we're re-looking at everything to see if there's more things to add to the original restructuring program. It's a bit of a work in progress.

Cheryl Zhang
Cheryl Zhang
Analyst at TD Cowen

Okay. Got it. Thank you. Last one before I queue. Just given the ongoing industry softness and the challenging macro outlook, how do you feel about the home segment returning to profitability by year end? Or do you feel like it's more likely a 2027 event?

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

You know, we know that the Cosco business is profitable, like in and itself, right? That's, that's the bulk of it. We've also are looking at an expansion of, we'll call it Juvenile and Youth Furniture within our Juvenile business. Some of what we used to call Home Furnishing is moving over to Juvenile under its current, you know, overhead structure, which is great. Meaning we don't need any, you know, or very little headcount. We need very little warehousing. You know, all of that stuff is there. Those two areas are profitable. What's gonna hold us back might be the legacy costs. How fast can we get out of those costs, and therefore, can we get to the profitability by the end of the year? That's our goal. That's what we think we can do.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

That's where the effort is. We know the businesses that we're really holding on to are profitable businesses. It's just there's still costs that need to be dropped.

Cheryl Zhang
Cheryl Zhang
Analyst at TD Cowen

Okay. Got it. Thank you very much. I'll turn it over.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

Okay.

Operator

Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one. Our next question comes from Stephen MacLeod from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead with your question.

Stephen MacLeod
Stephen MacLeod
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Thank you. Good morning, guys. I just wanted to follow up on the Juvenile outlook and you talk about just some of the upward pressure you're seeing on costs, and I'm just curious, you know, how are you managing those costs? Will those come through in higher prices? You know, you kind of you talk about a couple things in the press release. Just wanted to get a bit more detail.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

Yeah, I mean, that's like live. It's happening, you know, as we go. There are certain items we're gonna need price increases on. There are certain items that we, you know, think that we can make it through without a price increase. There are, you know, there's currency. I mean, there's so many things moving. It's a real live thing. Yeah, I would expect to have some price increases around the world, definitely. Some markets are easier than others. You know, we'll have to deal with it. I mean, how long, you know, how long are these cost increases gonna last. We don't know about that either, right? It's really dynamic, but we feel that with the momentum of the brand, the Maxi-Cosi brand is keeping us well-anchored.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

Also as the innovation hits the market, it allows us, you know, a little bit more price, control. Yeah, I can't give you a hard number because we're in it, like, every day.

Stephen MacLeod
Stephen MacLeod
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Yeah. That, that makes sense. Definitely, very dynamic.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

Yeah.

Stephen MacLeod
Stephen MacLeod
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

That's helpful. Thank you.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

Yeah.

Stephen MacLeod
Stephen MacLeod
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Then just on the Home business, you know, you talked a lot about Cosco being, you know, a very steady product line and sales were good in the quarter, profitable. Like, how big of home is Cosco?

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

Well, you know, the question becomes the theoretical number that we thought it would be or what the actual number is, which is more. I mean, it is, it is Dan, it's weird what we're doing. I'm gonna not give you a hard number because we're still in the process of taking things apart. It's, you know, it's north of 70%, you know. It's that number could be more as again.

Stephen MacLeod
Stephen MacLeod
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Right.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

As we move some of our furniture over to the Juvenile, then it just shrinks the Home pie. It doesn't shrink the else pie.

Stephen MacLeod
Stephen MacLeod
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Right.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

It's the bulk. I mean, it's the bulk.

Stephen MacLeod
Stephen MacLeod
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Okay.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

Like I said, I mean, you, I'm sure you see what's going on, and particularly even in Quebec with the furniture industry. What I find very interesting is all of these furniture companies, they're not just filing and trying to restructure and regroup. They're all just closing.

Stephen MacLeod
Stephen MacLeod
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Yeah. Yeah, I've seen that.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

They're not even fighting anymore. They said, "We're done."

Stephen MacLeod
Stephen MacLeod
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Yeah.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

Really interesting how that's different than a lot of other things. It's really tough out there, the traditional furniture. We don't want to fight a losing battle, not when we have a great business in the Juvenile.

Stephen MacLeod
Stephen MacLeod
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Yeah. Yeah, of course. Of course. Then just trying to frame the Home business from where you were at Q4, the challenges you're seeing in the traditional furniture side, are they more intense than you would've expected from Q4? Like, has there been kind of a change in the-

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

Yeah.

Stephen MacLeod
Stephen MacLeod
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Backdrop over the last few months?

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

Yes. Yes.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

We're finding it is still the stuff that we had in the past been competitive on and been able to move is tougher than we expected, yes, on the traditional side.

Stephen MacLeod
Stephen MacLeod
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. No, that's super helpful, Jeffrey. Thank you so much.

Operator

With that, we'll be concluding. Actually, one moment. We do have a follow-up question from Cheryl from TD Cowen. Please go ahead with your follow-up.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

Okay.

Cheryl Zhang
Cheryl Zhang
Analyst at TD Cowen

Thanks so much. Just a quick question. I think in the prepared remarks, you noted that you have some hedging and fixed price contracts in place. Curious if you can comment on what input costs are covered there and how much of your exposure is hedged, and when do you have those hedging rolling off?

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

No, I mean, we have contract. I mean, I'll give you an example. I mean, we don't have that I can't give you hard numbers, but we have contracts like on freight, for instance. That doesn't mean that freight's not gonna have surcharges on top of that. Generally, we're not buying open freight pricing. That allows us, you know, protects us to a certain extent. You know, we've held We have some inventory that we've got on resin that's gonna last us for a little while. Again, if this continues to go up and up and up, no, we, you know, it's not going to be enough to stem. If this is, let's say, a two or three-month issue or four-month issue, you know, I think, I think we'll be okay there.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

You know, I wouldn't I can't give you a hard number.

Cheryl Zhang
Cheryl Zhang
Analyst at TD Cowen

Okay. Understood. That's very helpful. Thank you.

Jeffrey Schwartz
Jeffrey Schwartz
CFO at Dorel Industries

Thank you.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, with that, we will be concluding today's question and answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Martin Schwartz for any closing remarks.

Martin Schwartz
Martin Schwartz
President and CEO at Dorel Industries

Okay. I just wanna thank everybody for joining us today. Just wish you a good day and a great weekend. Thank you.

Operator

This brings to a close today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.

Executives
    • Jeffrey Schwartz
      Jeffrey Schwartz
      CFO
    • Martin Schwartz
      Martin Schwartz
      President and CEO
Analysts
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