Supremex Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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July 31, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Strong second-quarter results: Revenue increased 8.5% year over year to CAD 71.6 million, while adjusted EBITDA rose nearly 34% to CAD 7.8 million, expanding the margin by 210 basis points to 10.9%. The company returned to reported profitability and generated CAD 3.6 million in free cash flow.
  • Positive Sentiment: Packaging continued to drive growth: Packaging revenue grew 19% to CAD 26.4 million, or nearly 28% excluding commercial print, supported by folding-carton wins, e-commerce demand, and the Trans-Graphique acquisition. Packaging now represents 37% of consolidated revenue, reinforcing management’s strategy to shift toward a more balanced business mix.
  • Positive Sentiment: Acquisitions and cost initiatives are progressing: The Goldrich Printpak acquisition adds an approximately CAD 30 million-revenue folding-carton platform in Ontario, with early purchasing and manufacturing synergies already underway. U.S. envelope optimization initiatives are also delivering savings, with roughly one-quarter of the expected CAD 1.4 million annual benefit realized in the second quarter.
  • Negative Sentiment: Tariffs remain a material risk: Management expects an impact if proposed U.S. tariffs are implemented, although it declined to quantify cross-border exposure. Supremex is staging inventory in the U.S., using available capacity at American facilities, and temporarily limiting certain cross-border shipments to mitigate the risk.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Management remains cautiously optimistic: It cited economic and trade uncertainty, postage increases, reduced U.S. Postal Service coverage, and Canada Post reputational challenges, while emphasizing continued U.S. envelope expansion, packaging growth, further M&A, dividends, and share repurchases as key priorities.
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Earnings Conference Call
Supremex Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the SupremeX 2026 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a 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 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.

Operator

I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded on Friday, July 31st, 2026. I will now turn the conference over to Martin Goulet of MBC Capital Markets Advisors. Please go ahead.

Martin Goulet
Partner and SVP of Investor Relations at MBC Capital Markets

Thank you, operator. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining this discussion of SupremeX's financial and operating results for second quarter ended June 30th, 2026. The press release reporting these results was published earlier this morning. It can also be found in the investors section of the company's website at www.SupremeX.com, along with the MD&A and financial statements. These documents are available on SEDAR+ as well. A presentation supporting this conference call has also been posted on the website. Let me remind you that all figures expressed on today's call are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated. Presenting today will be Stewart Emerson, President and CEO of SupremeX, as well as Norm Macaulay, CFO. With that, I invite you to turn to slide 14 of the presentation for an overview of the second quarter. I turn the call over to Stewart.

Stewart Emerson
Stewart Emerson
President and CEO at SupremeX

Hey, thank you, Martin. Good morning, everyone. Well, the momentum we built through the back half of last year carried into the second quarter of this year. Revenue grew across both businesses, adjusted EBITDA margin expanded meaningfully, and importantly, we returned to strong positive free cash flow after a seasonally soft first quarter. Consolidated revenue was up 8.5% year-over-year to CAD 71.6 million, adjusted EBITDA rose almost 34% to CAD 7.8 million. Our margin expanded 210 basis points to 10.9% from 8.8% a year ago. I want to pause on that number because it's the clearest evidence yet of the earnings power of the platform we've assembled. That kind of operating leverage, converting revenue growth into disproportionate EBITDA growth is exactly what we set out to build, and it reflects both improved volume and a disciplined cost management as operating and SG&A expenses grew more slowly than revenue.

Stewart Emerson
Stewart Emerson
President and CEO at SupremeX

Stepping back for a moment, the story we've been telling you for several years is that of a company extending the runway of its legacy envelope business and using the strong, reliable cash flow to build a growing packaging platform. Packaging grew 19% and now represents 37% of our revenue, up from one-third a year ago. The transition is not a slide in the deck anymore. It's showing up in our results. None of that happens without our people. I want to thank our teams across each and every one of our facilities. The folks on the plant floor, in sales, and in our support functions who have executed through a period of real change this quarter, including several acquisitions and plant consolidations. Their hard work is what turns this strategy into performance. Let's turn to operations beginning with Packaging, our growth engine. Packaging delivered another strong quarter.

Stewart Emerson
Stewart Emerson
President and CEO at SupremeX

Segment revenue was up 19% year-over-year to CAD 26.4 million. If you exclude our small non-core commercial print business, the balance of the segment, driven by folding carton, actually grew almost 28%. Folding carton continues to benefit from share of wallet gains with large multinational consumer packaged goods customers in health and beauty and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, from new business wins, and the contribution from the Trans-Graphique acquisition we completed last July. We also enjoyed impressive growth in our e-commerce secondary packaging activities with impressive new wins, ongoing expansion within existing U.S. customers, and the impressive reactivation of one of our very first large e-commerce packaging wins that has now been brought back to the nest. The headline event of the quarter for packaging was our acquisition of Goldrich Printpak, which closed on June the 5th.

Stewart Emerson
Stewart Emerson
President and CEO at SupremeX

At approximately CAD 30 million in revenue, Goldrich is a sizable first foray into the Greater Toronto Area folding carton market, Canada's largest packaging market, and is a natural extension of the strategy we have been executing. Its manufacturing facility has been well invested in with a skilled workforce and outstanding assets, some of which bring brand new capabilities to SupremeX. It gives us a base in Ontario from which to further pursue acquisition. We acquired it on a cash-free, debt-free basis for approximately CAD 34 million, funded through a new acquisition term loan and our credit facility. We also continue to build scale in labels. In the quarter, we completed the acquisition of iFlex Labels, a small Saint-Laurent manufacturer. We are consolidating those operations along with our existing Laval label facility into our Lachine folding carton plant.

Stewart Emerson
Stewart Emerson
President and CEO at SupremeX

The build-out of the Lachine facility is underway now. We expect the consolidation to take place by the end of 2026. Labels are highly synergistic with folding carton. Customers who buy cartons very often buy labels, and label customers very often buy cartons. By putting these operations under one roof in Lachine, gives us both cost synergies and a stronger platform to cross-sell. On profitability, Packaging delivered an adjusted EBITDA margin of 12.9%, holding steady with last year, even as we absorb the acquisition and integration activity. Excluding the drag from the commercial print, the underlying margin is meaningfully higher. As we capture synergies across the networks, we see further upside ahead. Turning to Envelope, our cash engine. Revenue was up 3.2% year-over-year to CAD 45.2 million. Encouragingly, this quarter, the growth was driven by both price and volume.

Stewart Emerson
Stewart Emerson
President and CEO at SupremeX

Average selling price was up 2% and volume was up 1.1%. That is a noticeable inflection. For several quarters, we've been talking about average selling price as a headwind, and this quarter it turned into a tailwind. The volume gains came from the acquisitions we completed in 2025, Enveloppe Laurentide and Elite Envelope, along with new customer wins and share of wallet growth in the U.S. market, and a modest rebound as we cycle through the Canada Post labor disruptions which weighed last year. Just as important as the top line is what happened below it. The envelope operating expense ratio improved to 71.7% of segment revenue from 73.8% a year ago. That improvement reflects the operational efficiencies from the optimization initiatives we launched in January in our U.S. operations, the additional volume flowing through our facilities, and the synergies from the Laurentide and Elite acquisitions.

Stewart Emerson
Stewart Emerson
President and CEO at SupremeX

The result was envelope adjusted EBITDA of CAD 7 million or 15.6% of revenue, up from 14.1% last year, 150 basis point improvement. Those optimization initiatives remain ongoing and progressing largely on track and on budget. To give you a sense of the investment behind them, we recorded CAD 1.6 million of restructuring expense in the first half, most of it in the first quarter, related to these U.S. envelope initiatives and the label reorganization I mentioned a moment ago. That is money we are spending deliberately to take cost out and capture synergies, and we expect to keep it contributing to margin expansion as we move through the balance of the year. With that, I turn the call over to Norm for a review of the financials.

Norm Macaulay
Norm Macaulay
CFO at SupremeX

Thank you, Stewart. Good morning, everyone. Please turn to slide 15 of the presentation. Q2 total revenue came in at CAD 71.6 million, up 8.5% from CAD 66 million in the second quarter of 2025. As Stewart noted, packaging and specialty products revenue was CAD 26.4 million, up 19%, driven by folding carton share of wallet gains, e-commerce expansion, and the Trans-Graphique contribution, partially offset by the continued softness in our commercial print business, where revenue declined approximately CAD 0.5 million In the quarter and about CAD 1 million year to date. Excluding that decline, the balance of the segment, driven by folding carton, grew 27.6% in the quarter and 22.2% year to date. Envelope revenue was CAD 45.2 million, up 3.2%, reflecting a 2% increase in average selling price and a 1.1% increase in volume.

Norm Macaulay
Norm Macaulay
CFO at SupremeX

Turning to slide 16 on profitability, adjusted EBITDA totaled CAD 7.8 million or 10.9% of revenue, up from CAD 5.8 million or 8.8% of revenue in last year's second quarter, an increase of nearly 34%. In packaging and specialty products, we generated an adjusted EBITDA of CAD 3.4 million or 12.9% of revenue, up from CAD 2.9 million in the second quarter of 2025, with the margin essentially stable as higher volume was offset by softness in the commercial print segment and by acquisition activity. I would note that in the quarter, the commercial print drag on profitability was proportionately greater than its revenue decline. Its gross margin was down approximately CAD 0.7 million from the second quarter of last year. Excluding commercial print, second quarter segment adjusted EBITDA would have been approximately CAD 3.7 million or 16.8% of segment revenue.

Norm Macaulay
Norm Macaulay
CFO at SupremeX

For the first half, those same figures are approximately CAD 7.4 million and 18%, which gives you a cleaner view of the underlying packaging profitability. Envelope adjusted EBITDA was CAD 7 million or 15.6% of revenue, up from CAD 6.2 million or 14.1% in last year's second quarter. The improvement mainly reflects the favorable impact of higher volume on the absorption of fixed costs and the improved operating expense ratio Stewart described earlier. Corporate and unallocated costs were CAD 2.6 million compared to CAD 3.2 million in the second quarter of last year, mostly due to the non-recurrence of a foreign exchange loss recorded in the quarter. Turning to slide 17, adjusted net earnings for the quarter were CAD 1.4 million or CAD 0.06 per share versus CAD 0.1 million or breakeven per share in the same quarter last year.

Norm Macaulay
Norm Macaulay
CFO at SupremeX

On a reported basis, we returned to profitability with net earnings of CAD 1 million or CAD 0.04 per share, compared with a net loss of CAD 0.3 million or CAD 0.01 per share in the second quarter of 2025. Moving to cash flow on slide 18. Net cash flows from operating activities were positive CAD 4.3 million, a significant improvement from CAD 0.3 million in the second quarter of last year, reflecting lower working capital requirements and higher net earnings. Free cash flow was positive CAD 3.6 million in the quarter, compared with essentially nil in the same quarter last year. I would note that these results were achieved even as we deliberately invested roughly CAD 5 million in inventory in our existing operations during the first half, most of it in the second quarter, a prudent measure given the variability in our operating environment.

Norm Macaulay
Norm Macaulay
CFO at SupremeX

The quarter's free cash flow came after absorbing that investment, which underscores the strength of the underlying cash generation. This is a notable turnaround from the first quarter, when working capital, including the settlement of taxes on last year's sale-leaseback, had temporarily pressured cash flow. Turning to slide 19 and the balance sheet. Net debt stood at CAD 40.1 million as at June 30th, and our ratio of net debt to adjusted EBITDA was 1.22x, compared to essentially nil at the end of last year. That increase is entirely attributable to the financing of the Goldrich and iFlex acquisitions. Even after funding those transactions, we retain significant availability under our credit facility to fund future acquisitions.

Norm Macaulay
Norm Macaulay
CFO at SupremeX

During the quarter, we repurchased approximately 14,000 shares under our normal course issuer bid, and earlier this morning, we announced our intention to renew the NCIB subject to TSX approval, allowing us to repurchase up to 10% of our public float over the coming year. The Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of CAD 0.05 per common share, payable on September 11th, 2026 to shareholders of record at the close of business on August 27th, 2026. I turn the call back to Stewart for the outlook. Stewart?

Stewart Emerson
Stewart Emerson
President and CEO at SupremeX

Hey, thank you, Norm. Please turn to slide 20. As I said at the outset, we're pleased with the quarter and cautiously optimistic on the outlook. Our operating environment still has variability in it. Economic and trade uncertainty, postage increases, reduced service at the United States Postal Service, and the reputational challenges at Canada Post. We have meaningful levers within our control, and we are pulling them. In envelope, we will keep leaning into the vast and fragmented U.S. market, relying on our reputation and geographic reach to grow revenue while proactively managing our cost base. The January optimization initiatives in our U.S. operations and the reorganization of our label business into Lachine remain ongoing and are progressing on track and on budget. In packaging, we see a significant and growing opportunity, particularly in folding carton.

Stewart Emerson
Stewart Emerson
President and CEO at SupremeX

Renewable, recyclable paperboard that is increasingly favored as brand owners move away from single-use plastics. Combined with continued e-commerce growth and with brand owners increasingly treating premium packaging as part of the product itself, this is one of the largest and fastest-growing categories in North American packaging. Our strategy is to use the capacity, expertise, and cash flow of the envelope business to keep building scale in folding carton and in adjacent niches. Over time, to move towards a more balanced revenue split between our two segments. Goldrich is a major step in that direction. With respect to capital deployment, our appetite for M&A remains strong. We will continue pursuing acquisition opportunities that leverage our existing footprint while increasingly evaluating more substantial targets in packaging, and we remain committed to rewarding shareholders through our regular quarterly dividend and the repurchase of our shares.

Stewart Emerson
Stewart Emerson
President and CEO at SupremeX

Before I close, let me return to where I started. The transition towards packaging that we have described for several years is now clearly working. You can see it in the revenue mix, in the margins, and in the cash flow. That progress is the product of a lot of hard work by our people, and I want to thank them again for their commitment and adaptability through a very active quarter. We are cautiously optimistic. We have levers within our control, and we intend to keep pulling them. This concludes our prepared remarks and we are now ready to answer your questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. Our first question today is from Donangelo Volpe with Beacon Securities. Please go ahead.

Donangelo Volpe
Donangelo Volpe
Analyst at Beacon Securities

Hey, good morning, Stewart and Norm. I guess we're going to touch on tariffs a little bit. I know it's a little bit early to talk about the potential impact. I'm just wondering if you can kind of quantify some of the annual revenues with products manufactured in Canada and sold into the U.S. I guess on the potential to shift production of these facilities, what kind of cost and timing would be needed to do so?

Stewart Emerson
Stewart Emerson
President and CEO at SupremeX

Yeah. Hey, Donangelo. Thanks for the question. Obviously sort of knew it was coming. Just on the split of revenue manufacturing in Canada and sent to the U.S., rather not discuss that for competitive reasons. As I said in the prepared remarks, we have several levers to pull. Some of them I can share, and a couple I'd rather not. What we can share, first, we know hope isn't a strategy, but we're encouraged that the parties continue to talk, and the recent past history showed that cooler heads prevailed when we ran into this at the first half of last year. I can tell you that we're staging as much product, both finished goods and raw materials, across the border in advance of the August implementation date. Continue to stock up there so they're ahead of any potential tariffs.

Stewart Emerson
Stewart Emerson
President and CEO at SupremeX

Due to some of the growth that we're seeing and anticipating, we've recently staffed up in our Indianapolis packaging facility, and we can take on more down there. In envelope, Chicago and Douglas have available capacity, and they'll run overtime to do what they can to help us out. Clearly, there'll still be a gap. Just to help on that side, we're not accepting orders for shipments between August 18th and the 28th. We'll instead sort of chew through a rather extensive backlog, and not ship across the border or limit what we ship across the border in that time. We'll continue to build inventory that Norm talked about that we did in the second quarter. Obviously, it's a concern, but we've been doing everything we can.

Stewart Emerson
Stewart Emerson
President and CEO at SupremeX

We do expect an impact, we don't deny that, if the tariffs are implemented, we'll advise the market as soon as we can quantify it reliably. Be assured, we're planning as aggressively as we can. Probably doesn't help you a whole lot, rather not talk about how much cross-border we have at this point.

Donangelo Volpe
Donangelo Volpe
Analyst at Beacon Securities

Yeah. It's still early days. I do appreciate the color given. I guess just pivoting over to the Goldrich acquisition. Just wondering current capacity utilization and, I guess, expected synergies. Just how quickly you guys think you'll start seeing cross-selling activity from their folding carton into your existing clientele, and how quickly you can introduce existing SupremeX products to Goldrich customers.

Stewart Emerson
Stewart Emerson
President and CEO at SupremeX

Yeah. Synergies are already being grabbed. Maybe just back up a little bit. Because this is a beachhead in Ontario, there's not a lot of real estate synergies that will happen. Certainly, we've already started on the raw material purchasing side, where we put one and one together and hopefully get one and three quarters or something along those lines. Those are well underway on everything from board to ink to window material to cartons. On the utilization side, I would say they're in about the 75%-80% range. Again, they're like us. They have equipment capacity, but they staff according to the volume they're producing. There is an opportunity to change or to turn the dial based on increased volume.

Stewart Emerson
Stewart Emerson
President and CEO at SupremeX

From a cross-sell standpoint, we've already shifted a fair bit of manufacturing that the Lachine operation was doing for the Toronto facilities and for the Indianapolis facility, because the freight lane is better from Goldrich than it is down to Indianapolis and obviously Toronto. It's well underway. It's been a month. Teams are working together. I can tell you there was, I think, one account, and it was well down in the list where there was overlap, so we're not concerned about that at all. On the new capabilities, we've already taken quote requests at Goldrich for Quebec-based customers on a couple of things that Goldrich produces that we couldn't. Well underway. It's only been a month, but really pleased with what we've acquired and the progress we're making.

Donangelo Volpe
Donangelo Volpe
Analyst at Beacon Securities

Okay, thanks for that. Then, this one might be for Norm. Just regarding the Indianapolis optimization, I guess it's substantially completed. Just wondering how much of the expected CAD 1.5 million in annual savings were reflected in Q2, and what kind of incremental benefits we would expect for the second half of the year.

Norm Macaulay
Norm Macaulay
CFO at SupremeX

There's a portion of the CAD 1.4 that's been recognized, but like we've mentioned before, that'll start ramping up as some costs cease. There is probably about a quarter of that has been realized in the quarter.

Donangelo Volpe
Donangelo Volpe
Analyst at Beacon Securities

Okay. Thank you. I'll hop back in the queue.

Operator

Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Showing no further questions, this concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Stewart Emerson for any closing remarks.

Stewart Emerson
Stewart Emerson
President and CEO at SupremeX

Great. Thank you, operator, and thank you to everybody for joining us this morning. We really appreciate it, and we look forward to speaking with you again at our next quarterly call. Have a great weekend. Thank you.

Operator

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

Analysts
    • Martin Goulet
      Partner and SVP of Investor Relations at MBC Capital Markets
    • Stewart Emerson
      President and CEO at SupremeX
    • Norm Macaulay
      CFO at SupremeX
    • Donangelo Volpe
      Analyst at Beacon Securities
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