Lassonde Industries Q1 2026 Earnings Report

Lassonde Industries EPS Results

• Actual EPS: C$5.36
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Lassonde Industries Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $664.05 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Lassonde Industries Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2026
• Date: 5/7/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Friday, May 8, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 8:30AM ET

Lassonde Industries (TSE:LAS.A) is engaged in the development, manufacturing, and marketing of ready-to-drink fruit and vegetable juices and drinks. It also acts as a producer of store brand shelf-stable fruit juices and drinks in the United States and a major producer of cranberry sauces. The company operates through a single segment being the development, manufacturing, and marketing of a wide range of ready-to-drink juices and drinks; frozen juice concentrates; and specialty food products; and the importation, packaging, and marketing of selected wines from several countries of origin. Lassonde has its presence in Canada and the United States. It earns the majority of the revenue in the United States.

Lassonde Industries Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: The company reported strong profitability improvement: adjusted EBITDA rose 12% to CAD 80M, adjusted profit attributable to shareholders increased 34% to CAD 37M (CAD 5.36/share), operating profit +22%, and cash generation reduced net debt to CAD 474M with net debt/EBITDA at 1.35x.
• Negative Sentiment: Sales fell to CAD 664M from CAD 700M (down ~2.5% ex-FX) driven by lower private-label volumes, supply constraints, and intentional portfolio cuts (management flagged ~CAD 25–30M of annualized sales from discontinued SKUs).
• Neutral Sentiment: The new New Jersey production facility is on schedule with equipment delivered, but management says it will be a cost‑optimization and reliability play with no meaningful volume contribution expected through 2026–2027.
• Negative Sentiment: Commodity and logistics pressures remain mixed: orange concentrate prices eased but hedges limited benefits, apple/pineapple costs stayed higher, and geopolitical risks could increase transport and PET resin inflation—management plans pricing, mix, and cost initiatives to protect margins.
• Positive Sentiment: Brand and channel momentum includes share gains for national brands (notably Apple & Eve), a new national QSR bag‑in‑box contract in Canada (~250 outlets), G Hughes rollouts (100 Canadian stores), and the launch of a North America Specialty Food Division to accelerate brand-led growth.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Lassonde Industries' 2026 first quarter earnings conference call. The corporation's press release reporting its financial results was published yesterday after market close. It can be found on its website at lassonde.com, along with the MD&A and financial statements. These documents are available on SEDAR+ as well. A presentation supporting this conference call was also posted on the website. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up for questions. If anyone has any difficulties hearing the conference, please press star followed by zero for operator assistance at any time. Before turning to management's pre-recorded remarks, please be advised that this conference call will contain statements that are forward-looking within the meaning of Canadian securities laws.

[Operator]

Forward-looking information is based on management's current expectations and assumptions and is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. For a discussion of key assumptions and risk factors, please refer to the Forward-Looking Statements section of the MD&A. Note that all figures expressed on today's call are in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise stated, and that most amounts have been rounded to ease the presentation. This call will also include certain non-IFRS financial measures and ratios that are not standardized under IFRS and may not be comparable to similar measures used by other issuers. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable IFRS measures and related definitions are provided in the appendix to the presentation and in the corporation's MD&A. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded on Friday, May 8, 2026.

[Operator]

I will now turn the conference over to Vince Timpano, Chief Executive Officer.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm here with Éric Gemme, our Chief Financial Officer. We appreciate your time today as we review our results for the first quarter ended March 28, 2026. Please turn to slide four. Lassonde delivered solid profit growth in the first quarter of 2026 as disciplined pricing strategies and stabilization of input costs resulted in better cost to price alignment. Operating profit increased by 22%. This improvement was accomplished notwithstanding a decrease in sales, which resulted from a combination of market and supply chain factors as well as specific choices made concerning our product portfolio. That said, our portfolio once again proved its strength as our national brands gained market share in both Canada and the U.S. Now let's turn to slide five for a closer look at operations, beginning with our beverage activities.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

In the U.S., we are pleased with our performance amidst category volume decline in measured channels. Our private label business slightly underperformed the category as we faced distribution losses following certain supply constraints and lower velocity for specific SKUs due to changes in customer promotional strategies. We expect to regain lost distribution for several products later in the year. We also cycled a strong prior year comparison. As a reminder, in the first quarter of last year, we achieved volume growth even as the category was declining, which was attributable to increased production capacity alongside gains in market share. In this first quarter, we remained disciplined in pricing execution, balancing inflation-driven adjustments with promotions while being mindful of demand elasticity.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

In this challenging macroeconomic environment with consumers under ongoing inflationary pressures, our private label offerings remains well-positioned to meet value-driven purchasing, whether in mass or discount store channels or for pantry stocking needs. During the first quarter, our U.S. branded business demonstrated resilience, highlighted by Apple & Eve's exceptional performance. Recognized for its strong reputation amongst both parents and children, the brand continued to expand its market share in single-serve and juice box formats, supported by strategic investments in these platforms at our North Carolina facility. As for our new facility in New Jersey, the pace of construction continues to progress on schedule with most equipment now delivered on site. We remain on track to gradually begin transferring existing production activities from the current facility by late 2026 and complete this phase in early 2027.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

It is important to remember that this project serves as a strategic basis for optimizing cost. The primary aim at the initial stage is to improve efficiency and reliability, thereby lowering our overall cost structure rather than pursuing immediate volume expansion. Turning to slide six for Canadian beverage activities. While category volumes declined slightly above mid-single digits, we continued to gain market share. Lassonde's national brands significantly outpaced the category, supported by solid gains in shelf-stable products and strong growth across single-serve formats. These gains are even more meaningful in a context where Q1 2026 marked the cycling of the Buy Canadian sentiment's initial impulse. Meanwhile, private label volume was softer and shelf stable, in part from unforeseen changes in a large customer's go-to-market strategies within the quarter. This segment was also impacted by targeted portfolio optimization actions, including the discontinuation of selected product lines.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

As with U.S. activities, we focused on executing disciplined revenue management strategies, implementing pricing adjustments that align broadly with inflationary trends, while selectively deploying promotional activity where elasticity supported sustainable velocity. We also sustained our innovation efforts by developing new product formulas and formats tailored to meet consumer needs throughout the day. By centering our growth strategy on established and emerging beverage segments such as Oasis Health Break, Smoothies, and Del Monte Nectars, we reduce our dependence to commodities and enhance profitability. Moving on to food service on slide seven. Food service activities continued to perform well this quarter, supported by increased volumes with broad line distributors in the U.S. and enhanced national account penetration in Canada. Our ongoing deployment of the bag-in-box aseptic packaging line has resulted in the addition of a prominent Canadian-based QSR chain, for which we are supplying tailored beverages aligned with its menu offerings.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

Furthermore, we remain actively engaged in negotiations and competitive bidding processes with both national and regional partners throughout North America. Now let's turn to specialty food on Slide eight. Summer Garden grew volume for its own brands, driven by distribution gains for G Hughes in the U.S., as well as third-party brands in the premium, super premium pasta sauce category. We also gained distribution for G Hughes with a mass merchant in Canada beginning in April. Meanwhile, Canadian operations delivered a solid performance, growing third-party brand volume, mainly through significant distribution gains for pasta sauces in Western Canada. In the first quarter, we established our new North America Specialty Food Division, advancing our ambition to strengthen our capabilities and expand our presence in the specialty food market across the continent.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

With new leadership in place, we can double down on building our brand marketing capabilities, sharpen the positioning of our branded products, and execute plans to strengthen consumer awareness and loyalty while continuing to pursue innovation. I now turn the call over to Éric for a review of quarter one results. Éric.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Thank you, Vince. Good morning, everyone. Let's get to the numbers by turning to slide nine. First quarter sales were CAD 664 million versus CAD 700 million last year. Excluding an unfavorable foreign exchange effect, sales decreased by 2.5%. The variance reflects reduced sales volume primarily within private label categories. Volume declines were partially attributable to subdued demand across select end markets and comparative against last year exceptionally strong first quarter, which benefited from substantial volume growth through our U.S. build back program and favorable momentum at the outset of Buy Canadian. Additionally, the decreased results from intentional portfolio management decisions, including the discontinuation of lower margin and non-strategic product lines within our Canadian beverage business unit. Volumes were further constrained by supply limitation affecting certain concentrates, particularly in the U.S., leading to temporary loss of sales. Moving to slide 10.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Gross profit reached CAD 188 million, up from CAD 183 million a year ago. Excluding unfavorable FX impact, it rose CAD 13 million or 7%, reflecting the favorable impact of selling price adjustments, a positive shift in the sales mix, mainly in Canada, and a decrease in the cost of orange concentrate, net of associated hedging program impact. In addition to the volume effect, these factor were partly offset by higher apple and pineapple concentrate costs and an increase in certain conversion costs, mainly in Canada. SG&A expenses were CAD 136 million, down from CAD 140 million last year due to lower finished good warehousing costs, mainly in the U.S., expense in U.S. dollars being converted into Canadian dollar at a lower exchange rate, and a decrease in transportation costs to deliver products to client.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

These were partly offset by a net increase in certain administrative expenses and higher selling and marketing expenses. Excluding items that impact comparability, adjusted EBITDA increased 12% to CAD 80 million or 12% of sales from CAD 72 million or 10.2% of sales last year. Turning to slide 11 for net profit. Adjusted profit attributable to the corporation's shareholders reached CAD 37 million or CAD 5.36 per share, up 34% from last year. Let's turn to working capital on slide 12. At the end of the first quarter, the days of operating working capital ratio stood at 51 days versus 43 days, three months ago, mainly driven by DIO. The sequential increase is primarily mechanical, reflecting lower first quarter cost of sales rather than inventory accumulation and remains within our normal seasonal range.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

We maintain our view that working capital should remain within historical range in 2026, with the usual caveat that we may use our balance sheet to secure inventory cost ahead of anticipated supplier price increases, ensure adequate service level, or mitigate potential supply chain disruptions. Now on to slide 13 for cash flows. Operating activities generated CAD 71 million in Q1 2026, as opposed to requiring CAD 60 million last year. The variation reflects mainly stronger working capital performance compared to last year when a high volume of apple concentrate inventory was strategically purchased earlier in the quarter. CapEx totaled CAD 44 million in Q1 2026, including $26 million for the construction of the New Jersey facility. As a reminder, CapEx are projected to reach up to 7% of sales in 2026, including approximately $96 million for the New Jersey project.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Turning to our financial position on slide 14. Lassonde net debt totaled CAD 474 million at the end of the first quarter, down from CAD 498 million three months earlier. The decreased results from a solid operating cash flow generation, partly offset by CapEx. As a result, the net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio improved to 1.35-1 at the end of this first quarter of 2026, compared to 1.42-1 at the end of the previous quarter. All things being equal, we expect the leverage ratio to remain within that range throughout 2026, well within our comfort zone of less than 3.25-1. Before I wrap up, I'd like to share that this is my final analyst call.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

After 12 years with Lassonde, including the past five as CFO, this is a meaningful moment for me. I've been fortunate to collaborate with outstanding colleagues throughout the company and to interact frequently with our investor, whose trust and insightful conversation I truly appreciate. I'm proud of what we've built together and confident in the company's direction and leadership going forward. I also want to express my full confidence in Francis as he steps in to the CFO role in a few days. He is a highly capable leader with solid experience and sound judgment, and I'm confident he will help ensure continuity, financial discipline, and a clear focus on value creation as Lassonde executes its strategy going forward. Thank you all for the support over the years. It has truly meant a great deal to me. I turn the call back to Vince for outlook. Vince.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

Thank you, Eric. Now please turn to slide 15 for our outlook. The first quarter proved that our extensive portfolio is designed to perform across varying cycles. It leverages private label and value-first environments and brands in trust-led occasions, giving us resilience in today's pressured environment. Looking ahead, we remain focused on executing our strategy and driving profitable, sustainable growth while staying mindful of a challenging macro environment and its potential effects on supply dynamics and consumer spending. In this context, we will continue to leverage our diversified portfolio balance with pricing, promotion, and other volume initiatives. We continue to expect to reach approximately CAD 3 billion in sales by 2026, excluding effects and absent major external disruptions. That said, achieving profitable growth will prevail over sales volume solely for revenue growth as we demonstrated in this first quarter. Moving to slide 16 for strategic priorities by division.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

For U.S. beverages, our focus will be on leveraging key investments in single-serve and juice box lines, maintaining price discipline while being responsive to shifts in consumer behaviors, and completing our new facility to improve efficiency. Our Canadian beverage business, our priority remains fortifying our leadership through innovation-led growth initiatives, continuing our focus on effective revenue management strategies, which includes targeted promotion spending while simultaneously investing in brand-building activities and strengthening execution in core channels. Our North American foodservice team will continue its expansion push in this key market, including through our bag-in-box initiative. In Specialty Food, our priorities are to achieve profitable growth by optimizing the integration of our North American network, accelerating brand development and growth through a strategic relaunch of our G Hughes brand in the zero-sugar category. Turning to slide 17 for an overview of certain cost components.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

Orange concentrate spot prices declined versus the same period in 2025. However, the benefit to our P&L was partially offset by our hedging program as higher price contracts from 2025 rolled off during the quarter. By contrast, apple and pineapple concentrate costs remained somewhat higher year-over-year, reflecting earlier supply constraints, although pricing was relatively stable on a sequential basis. While the overall commodity tailwind may moderate in coming quarters, we remain focused on optimizing product mix, maintaining pricing discipline, and executing targeted cost initiatives to protect margins. The situation in the Middle East is also expected to create further inflationary pressures on transportation and PET resin costs. While geopolitics and trade are beyond our control, we are staying agile in this dynamic environment by planning for continued volatility, running scenarios and mitigation plans across sourcing, pricing, and cross-border flows.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

In closing, as shown on slide 18, we continue to expect another solid performance in 2026, fueled by disciplined execution of our strategy and our ability to capture growth opportunities. Driven by a strong and diversified portfolio and highly dedicated employees, Lassonde is well-positioned to maintain a strong competitive position and sustain profitable growth in the North America food and beverage market. This concludes our prepared remarks. We are now pleased to answer your questions.

[Operator]

Your first question comes from Ahmed Abdullah with National Bank of Canada. Your line is now open.

[Ahmed Abdullah, Analyst at National Bank of Canada]

Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Eric, I wish you all the best on your retirement. It's been a pleasure interacting with you, and I look forward to interacting with Francis in the days going forward.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Thank you, Ahmed. Appreciate it.

[Ahmed Abdullah, Analyst at National Bank of Canada]

My pleasure. On the private label weakness, you called out obviously distribution losses. Can you give us a bit more color as to was this really customer specific or are we seeing sort of that trend across the category? Also, could this be something that's more related to mix shifting, more towards branded in the market?

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

Yeah. Good morning, it's Vince. I'll respond to that first. We're seeing some consistencies between Canada and the U.S. I think the core message here, and we're not sure just how sustaining this is going to be, but you have seen the value gap for private label erode over the course of the last short while. What you're seeing is brands continue to focus on promotions as a means to deal with this challenge by this challenging environment from an affordability perspective, and some customers taking a position on their pricing strategy to focus on EDLP. In essence, what you're just seeing is just the erosion of in a value gap between brand and private label. To that extent, what you are seeing is some favoring towards brand.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

The other thing that I would say as well is, you know, the category does remain soft. It's fairly persistent. There's nothing that we're seeing an accelerating of the declining of a meaningful nature. You're seeing consumers, you know, be very, very focused on choice. You know, in many instances, what you're seeing is consumers buying less units per trip. They're trying to stretch their dollar. They're clearly focusing on value. They're making those value choices in terms of packages as well as channels, and also taking a look at the value gap between brand versus private label.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Vince, thank you. On top of that, it's EDLP, just make sure we're all clear, Every Day Low Price. In addition, more specifically, in our situation, our private label was also affected by two type of factors. We've, as we said in our MD&A, we've decided to discontinue some very unprofitable SKUs to focus on the right mix for this organization. Also supply constraint, not necessarily in the first quarter, but more in the back end of last year, didn't allow us to participate in some rotation at the clubs, and also not be in planograms for certain distribution in retail during this first quarter. However, now we've sort of put our hands around this situation. We have those concentrates in hand, and we can participate in those element for sure back end of the year. Even we see some volume coming back in the second quarter.

[Ahmed Abdullah, Analyst at National Bank of Canada]

Okay. That's helpful. To get close to your CAD 3 billion target, you know, the back half of the year will have to do a bit more heavy lifting. What part of that expectation comes from initial ramp up related to the New Jersey facility? Do you see any meaningful kind of contribution coming in this year from that facility?

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Ahmed, on the New Jersey side, absolutely not. We've been very clear. The first thing that we want to do with the New Jersey facility, new facility, is to secure volume that we were getting out of the existing one. There's absolutely not a volume play in 2026 for sure. 2027, not even. I think you should. I'm not sure if we had those discussions, but we need to think about more of a volume in 2028 factor. As I said, no volume effect from the new facility in the next at least 18 months.

[Ahmed Abdullah, Analyst at National Bank of Canada]

Okay. It's more of an organic recovery that you're expecting to get out of the facility.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Yes.

[Ahmed Abdullah, Analyst at National Bank of Canada]

Okay.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

On top of that, you're right. The CAD 3 billion, we are still confident. We still have a good shot at it. We had, and I can get into because I'm sure I'm gonna get those questions. When we look at our first quarter, of course, the consumer backdrop was a bit depressed. Absolutely. We have to admit that. Also on top of the other few things that we've called during in the MD&A, which is the supply chain constraint, also our decision on portfolio. I have a list of many other things I didn't wanna list necessarily in the MD&A, but really all of them together was a Q1 more specific element. I get into that. What do we have?

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

We had a very strong December, so there probably have been a bit of a loading from our customer, during that period, which led to a very soft January. We had less billing days, not big enough to call it in the MD&A, but another factor here. We also had to comp with a very strong first quarter last year. All of those elements made us say, "You know what?" Some of you may have called this a top-line miss. We are looking at it one quarter out of a year, and we feel that we have a good shot at getting there. Despite all of that, top line is important, but look at our middle of the P&L.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

We've delivered 12% increase in our EBITDA, 34% increase in our adjusted EPS, converted 90% of our EBITDA to cash, and landing on a 1.35x debt to EBITDA ratio with a solid balance sheet. To me, revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, and cash is king, and that's what we've delivered at this quarter.

[Ahmed Abdullah, Analyst at National Bank of Canada]

I like those phrases. It makes sense. Just touching on that profitability kind of angle, if there's top line pressure, and given the costs that you can control while balancing some of the promotional intensities, what SG&A levers would you kind of attack first? You still have to kind of invest in growth initiatives and marketing to drive some more traction. Do you see margins improving this year versus last year if top line pressure is consistent?

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

As you saw, right, we delivered 28.2% gross margin in the quarter. This is resulting from a good visibility at the back end of last year, a bit more stable in terms of commodity, allowing us to have good visibility and making sure that our pricing strategy and our cost were more in balance. That's a good element. Now from a also mix, and you saw that, and again, through some of our decision, improving our mix. For each dollar sales, we convert more gross profit. That's an element that, all things being equal, should sustain during the year. After that, when you look at the G&A, remember G&A under IFRS includes finished good warehousing and outbound freight to consumers.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Under these, if I think about the back end of the year, depending on where the fuel surcharge will be, that might have an impact on SG&A. When you look at other element of SG&A, I can assure you that Lassonde is very lean on this. I would not look for meaningful, in those area, meaningful G&A adjustment to support the profit. I think our profit needs to come from our top line and make sure that we manage very tight any fuel surcharge exposure.

[Ahmed Abdullah, Analyst at National Bank of Canada]

Okay. Thank you. That's very helpful color. I'll pass the line.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Thank you very much, Ahmed. It was a pleasure.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Luke Hannan with Canaccord Genuity. Your line is now open.

[Luke Hannan, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. I would like to extend my congratulations to Éric as well and wish you all the best in your next chapter. It's been great having to work with you over the course of the last few years.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Thank you, Luke. Yeah.

[Luke Hannan, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

My-

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Good morning.

[Luke Hannan, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

Thank you. My first question is just going back to the top line, and I appreciate you calling that out, Éric. I did wanna try and see if you can quantify, if possible, the SKUs that were discontinued, can you give us a sense of maybe what that would have made up as far as sales last year?

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Yeah.

[Luke Hannan, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

Cause it seems like on a light. Yeah, please.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Absolutely. As I said, many, many components on this one. The three SKUs, I would say it's a CAD 7 billion-CAD 8 billion impact on a year-over-year basis, and you should look at a CAD 25 million-CAD 30 million on a full year basis. As I said, and I'm not going to quote necessarily percent, but these SKUs were not worth our investment and time to manage those SKUs, our operating risk related to them, our credit risk, and the space it was taking, the working capital was taking in our balance sheet. I would take that decision and sacrifice CAD 25 million of sales any day.

[Luke Hannan, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

100% that. That makes a lot of sense. If you look more broadly across the portfolio, do you see more opportunities to optimize, whether that's in the Canadian or the U.S. business?

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Well, we do portfolio optimization day in, day out, but those three elements were all together. When you look at, again, the top line heavy but bottom line light, that's why it, they stood out in the quarter, and that's why we've called it out. Of course, it's our job to do that every day portfolio optimization.

[Luke Hannan, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

Okay, thanks. My last one, I'll pass the line here. I appreciate you guys keeping the guidance intact, the sales guidance intact for the year. What are you baking in from a currency headwind perspective?

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

When it gets to currency, our crystal ball is as good as anybody's crystal ball. What we do is we look at a consensus of many banks. Of course, more heavy weight. We weight more on Canadian banks' views on the. We are looking at that. At the moment, we're assuming, I think it's a 1.37, 1.38 view for the balance of the year. It's been, as we know, right, it's been very variable over the last-

[Luke Hannan, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

Yeah.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

few, quarters.

[Luke Hannan, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

Okay. Okay. Understood. Thanks. Appreciate the time.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Thank you very much, Luke.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Martin Landry with Stifel. Your line is now open.

[Martin Landry, Analyst at Stifel]

Hi, good morning, guys. I was wondering if you can discuss a little bit the cadence of the quarter at retail. You know, did you or did your customers at retail see a slowdown in consumption in March when the conflict in Iran broke out?

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

I don't think we have that data, right, Vince? I think we can observe on our end in terms of volume and seriously, No, I don't have enough data. We don't have enough data to comment publicly on this.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

Okay. The best that I can do, Martin, and I can come back to clarify, is just what I've seen over the last four weeks, 12 weeks, and 52 weeks. What you're seeing is, as we said, mid-single digit declines in Canada, which is fairly consistent with what we saw in the last 12 weeks and fairly consistent with what you see over the 52-week period. You know, specifically to what you're seeing month-over-month, I don't have that with me. What I would say is what we're seeing in the U.S. is roughly similar. You're seeing a bit of a softening in the United States, you know, from 52 weeks was, which was up, low single digit.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

It was down low single-digit in the latest 12 weeks, and it fairly held flat roughly in the latest 4 weeks. That's the basic trend that I can give you for 12, 52. In terms of the month-by-month, I don't have that with me.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

From a retailer perspective, Martin, we've, if you look at press, is it yesterday? Yeah. Costco came in with a comparable sales increase of more than 10% in the Canadian market for the quarter and more than 8%, in fact, almost 9% in U.S. market. I think it's more of a, again, I'm not an expert in there, but what I feel there was a bit of a postponement, in general of purchase by consumer. We might see now a bit of a return to a normal consumption level.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

The only thing that I would add-

[Martin Landry, Analyst at Stifel]

Okay.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

The only thing I would add, Martin, just as a broad statement, is what does continue to persist is consumer confidence remaining low. Anything that we're seeing from an inflationary perspective and their concerns around affordability extends beyond our category. It certainly influences our category, but it extends beyond that. Like I said, on the timing month by month, I don't have that information, but what I can say is consumers remain concerned from an affordability perspective, broadly speaking.

[Martin Landry, Analyst at Stifel]

Yeah, no doubt. Switching gears, you called out a new win, a new QSR win, I think, in Canada. That's great to hear. I think this is with your juice box. Can you know, maybe just give us a bit of color as what was the trigger for the client to decide to go with you? What was the trigger to get you to win that contract? Is this a trial or is this a permanent offering? Just the timing at when this starts.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

There's a lot in there. We're super excited about this win. It's not a trial. We, you know, we've got a contract with them. It's a national, recognized player in the industry. I would say the capabilities that we've come up with in terms of an aseptic capability, good quality, great tasting product that we can deliver in a bag-in-box format that we spend a lot of time working with this customer on to make sure that it fit their organizational's needs work. There's a combination of things at play here. Again, the key takeaway is very excited about it.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

I mean, this is a major investment for us, in an innovative platform, that we've been able to demonstrate through our belief that, frankly, customers are looking for this, and that's the win that we've been able to secure. The other thing is, like I said, it's not a trial. It's a contract.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

It's a contract. This is again, we cannot name that customer, it's about 250 outlets in Canada and growing. It's very exciting that we are partnering with a company that is growing.

[Martin Landry, Analyst at Stifel]

Yeah. Congratulations. When does that start?

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

In the upcoming weeks.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

Yeah, upcoming weeks. Yeah. Very shortly.

[Martin Landry, Analyst at Stifel]

Okay. Okay. Last question is on another of your distribution win. You mentioned that G Hughes got some distribution in Canada. Is this your first distribution point in Canada? I'm not sure if G Hughes was available in Canada. How many doors and how many SKUs will be distributed?

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

The distribution as a start is with a major national retailer. G Hughes is not new to Canada. It's had sparse distribution. This is a start with 100 stores in Canada as a start with a major retailer, and we're gonna continue to focus on that. The thing that we're doing with G Hughes, and you'll see more of it, and particularly in the United States, is we're revamping the brand. We're repositioning the brand and the focus on better for you, a real focus reinforced by zero sugar, label changes, and starting to have conversations with Canadian customers. Like I said, that was one that we would highlight that is new distribution, and we'll continue to focus on that.

[Martin Landry, Analyst at Stifel]

Super. Congratulations. Éric, best of luck in your future endeavors. It's been great to work with you all these years. Yeah, enjoy your time off.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Thank you, Martin. Very much appreciated. It's been a pleasure to work with you and all of the analysts that followed Lassonde in the five years that I've been their CFO, the CFO here. Martin, thank you.

[Operator]

Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Your next question comes from Frederic Tremblay with Desjardins. Your line is now open.

[Frederic Tremblay, Analyst at Desjardins]

Thank you. Éric, congrats on your accomplishments at Lassonde. It was great working with you over the past several years.

[Éric Gemme, CFO at Lassonde Industries]

Thank you very much, Frederic. Likewise.

[Frederic Tremblay, Analyst at Desjardins]

Just wanted to follow up on the brand investments in specialty foods. I guess maybe looking more at the U.S. Can you comment on your expected timelines in terms of seeing an acceleration in volume and new customer wins in the U.S. on the back of the G Hughes brand refresh?

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

The first focus that we've had is really just to do so what we call sort of is a soft relaunch of the brand. The real focus for us, because we do have distribution, is to fortify that distribution, improve velocities with where we have distribution, and then over time, leverage this investment to build distribution and diversify the portfolio's offerings across a whole smattering of retailers across the United States. In terms of the pacing of that, I would just say it's fairly evenly paced as we would describe it. What we'll continue to do is update you in future quarters on G Hughes just so that we can start to talk a little bit about some of the distribution gains that we are seeing, because it is a real focused effort for us in terms of just fortifying that brand and building distribution.

[Frederic Tremblay, Analyst at Desjardins]

Okay, that's great. You know, considering the consumer environment that we're in now and the decline of the beverage category in general, are you seeing some brand refresh opportunities on your beverage portfolio? Could that be a lever to, you know, stabilize and grow volumes in certain areas?

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

Yeah, what I would say is from a midterm to long-term perspective, and we're starting now, the focus for us really is to continue to strengthen our brand position. The team is doing meaningful work in terms of just making sure that the brands are sufficiently refreshed. I would say beyond that, we've got a stated goal to lessen our dependency on commodities and better position ourselves in growing segments within the beverage category for which we believe we've got core capabilities that can be leveraged. What this is translating to is a long-term view on the innovation pipeline and where it is that we wanna play. You're starting to see some of that in terms of the work that we're doing in smoothies and health breaks and the move to certain appealing juice drink categories that are less than 100%.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

It doesn't mean that we're taking our eye off the ball when it comes to 100%. Innovation enabling us to improve gross margins, lessen dependency on commodities, and allowing us to participate in growing segments is a core priority for this organization. You will see more of that in the future.

[Frederic Tremblay, Analyst at Desjardins]

Okay, great. You know, product innovation was actually my last question, so you just answered that. Very helpful. I'll cross the line. Thank you.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

Thank you. Thank you, Frederic.

[Operator]

This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Vince Timpano for any closing remarks.

[Vince Timpano, CEO at Lassonde Industries]

Well, thank you for joining us this morning. We invite you to attend our virtual annual meeting of shareholders to be held next Friday, May 15th at 2:00 P.M. The webcast link is available in our management proxy circular on SEDAR+, and we look forward to speaking with you again at our next quarterly call. Have a great day, everyone.

[Operator]

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

Participants

Executives

• Vince Timpano, CEO
• Éric Gemme, CFO

Analysts

• Ahmed Abdullah, Analyst at National Bank of Canada
• Frederic Tremblay, Analyst at Desjardins
• Luke Hannan, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity
• Martin Landry, Analyst at Stifel