Somnigroup International Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 6, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Record second-quarter adjusted EPS reached $0.58, up 9% year over year, on $1.8 billion in sales and $297 million of adjusted EBITDA despite a bedding market estimated to be down mid- to high-single digits.
  • Positive Sentiment: Tempur Sealy North America expanded adjusted gross margin by 680 basis points to 61.8% and operating margin by 400 basis points to 26.7%, supported by cost synergies, productivity, operational efficiencies, and favorable mix.
  • Negative Sentiment: Management reduced its 2026 adjusted EPS outlook to $2.85-$3.15, citing weaker-than-expected industry trends, a softer U.K. market, temporary ERP-related challenges at Dreams, and Middle East-related uncertainty. The company now assumes the industry will decline mid-single digits for the year.
  • Positive Sentiment: Cash generation remained strong, with record second-quarter operating cash flow of $236 million and free cash flow of $182 million; net debt fell by more than $500 million over the past year, bringing leverage back to 2.99 times.
  • Positive Sentiment: The proposed Leggett & Platt combination has received nearly all required regulatory approvals, with shareholder approval scheduled for August 20 and closing expected before the end of the third quarter. Management expects immediate adjusted EPS accretion, lower leverage, stronger vertical integration, and additional synergy opportunities.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Somnigroup International Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

There are 16 speakers on the call.

Operator

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to the Somnigroup second quarter 2026 earnings call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I'll now hand the conference over to Lauren Averitt, Director of Investor Relations. Lauren, go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thank you for participating in today's call. Joining me today are Scott Thompson, Chairman, President, and CEO, and Bhaskar Rao, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. This call includes forward-looking statements that are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve uncertainties, actual results may differ materially due to a variety of factors that could adversely affect the company's business. These factors are discussed in the company's SEC filings, including its annual reports on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made. The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. This morning's commentary will also include non-GAAP financial information.

Speaker 1

Reconciliations of this non-GAAP financial information can be found in the accompanying press release, which has been posted on the company's website at www.somnigroup.com and filed with the SEC. Our comments will supplement the detailed information provided in the press release. With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Scott.

Speaker 2

Good morning, and thank you for joining us on our second quarter 2026 earnings call. I'll begin with a review of our quarterly highlights before turning the call over to Bhaskar, who will discuss our financial results and 2026 earnings outlook in greater detail. I'll then provide you with a brief update on a proposed Leggett & Platt combination, then open the call up for questions. We are pleased to deliver a record second quarter in adjusted earnings per share. Against a cautious consumer background and ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, we generated net sales of $1.8 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $297 million, adjusted EPS of $0.58, a 9% increase from the prior year. These results reflect our brand strength, a diversified global business model, and consistent, disciplined execution across our operations.

Operator

This, in a market that we believe to be down mid to high single digits over prior years. Turning to our first highlight, Mattress Firm delivered results ahead of the broader U.S. market, supported by its industry-leading scale, effective marketing strategy, and broad product assortment that's designed to meet the wide range of consumer needs. We continue to refine our merchandising assortment at Mattress Firm to better align it with customers' preferences. Following very encouraging results from a three-month pilot program of Kingsdown's products in 200 Mattress Firm stores, which demonstrated improved performance versus certain other products, we have expanded our relationship with Kingsdown and expect to meaningfully increase the brand's presence across the floor over the next six months. The collection is expected to be available in nearly 800 stores nationwide and brings customers luxury traditional innerspring options focused on elevated comfort, premium craftsmanship, and lasting support.

Operator

Our differentiated sleep expert model, supported by ongoing technology investments and a highly trained sales organization, continues to resonate with customers. We've made steady progress on our store refresh program, on track to be completed in 2027, and on our brand wall program, expected to wrap up this year. Both programs are designed to elevate the in-store shopping experience. The improved store environment, combined with enhanced product training and new technology, are supporting an improved store experience for customers, which we believe over time will drive future sales. Our second highlight is the continued success of our international growth strategy. While the operating environment remains volatile, our international business once again delivered solid results and gained share across many of our key markets. Our legacy Tempur-Pedic international business again outperformed the broader industry, benefiting from the strength of the Tempur-Pedic brand, ongoing marketing investments, and strong local execution.

Operator

Dreams continued to strengthen its brand assortment, customer engagement, and its best-in-class operating model while managing through a difficult macro backdrop, a highly promotional competitive landscape, and an ERP implementation that is going well but has created some transitory challenges. Over the past several years, we've advanced our global vertical integration strategy by expanding company-owned retail footprint through expansion of our own Tempur-Pedic retail stores, combined with targeted acquisitions such as Dreams in the U.K., SOVA in Sweden, and our recently announced acquisition of Danish retailer SENG.

Speaker 2

Each acquisition deepens our ability to connect directly with consumers, showcase our brands, strengthen our market position. Our third highlight is the execution of our new Stearns & Foster product launch, which remains on track and is expected to strengthen our price architecture across the portfolio and drive higher average selling price. The refreshed collection features an upgraded cooling system, a more robust micro coil support layer, and a new approach to hybrid technology. This redesign positions the brand more distinctly in the premium segment and is designed to expand our footprint. To optimize pricing across our portfolio, we are increasing the entry-level price of Stearns & Foster so that it minimizes the overlap with the high end of our Sealy brand. We're focusing on the higher end products of Stearns & Foster. We've increased the number of high-end models by over 50% in the new collection.

Speaker 2

Our planned national advertising campaign will highlight the craftsmanship and heritage of Stearns & Foster brand as the longest tenured mattress brand in America, while also reinforcing the connection between our advanced materials, quality sleep, and overall health and wellness. Our marketing strategy balances investments in broad reach channels with highly targeted digital media. The launch will begin at the end of the third quarter and continue to roll out through early 2027. Most of the expected financial benefit will materialize in 2027 and beyond. Our fourth highlight is the continued resilience of Tempur-Pedic Sealy North America's business, despite softness in the broader bedding market and supply chain disruptions. Our investments in high-quality advertising, disciplined cost management, and increased balance of share at Mattress Firm each contributed to another quarter of solid performance.

Speaker 2

We also benefited from the strength of our manufacturing supply chain operations, which effectively navigated a dynamic global environment. The operational discipline remains an important differentiator of our business and supports our ability to execute during complicated market conditions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Bostick.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Scott. In the second quarter of 2026, consolidated sales were a solid $1.8 billion and adjusted earnings per share was $0.58, up 9% over prior year. There are approximately $16 million of pro forma adjustments in the quarter, all of which are consistent with the terms of our senior credit facility. As a reminder, we have now fully lapped the Mattress Firm acquisition in the first quarter of this year, and we have lapped the related divestitures of Sleep Outfitters and certain Mattress Firm retail locations in May. We will present like-for-like commentary for Tempur-Pedic Sealy North America on a standalone basis, which will include the intercompany sales to Mattress Firm and adjust for the divestitures. Now turning to Mattress Firm results. Net sales through Mattress Firm were approximately $922 million in the second quarter, and same store sales grew slightly.

Speaker 3

Mattress Firm adjusted gross margin decreased 240 basis points to 33.3%, driven by product mix, consumer financing costs, investments in Mattress Firm stores, and deleverage. The impact of product mix on gross margin percentage was primarily driven by the increased balance of share of Tempur Sealy products as Tempur Sealy's supply contract is structured to provide a portion of Mattress Firm economics in the form of cooperative advertising credits. This reduces Mattress Firm's operating expenses but delivers a lower product gross margin percentage versus other products. When looked at on a conforming basis, there is no material impact on operating margin from the product mix change. It is just landscaping within the income statement. Mattress Firm adjusted operating margins declined 130 basis points to 6.5%, driven by consumer financing costs, the investments in store, and deleverage I mentioned a moment ago. Turning to Tempur-Pedic Sealy North America.

Speaker 3

Sales were flat on a like-for-like basis, with like-for-like net sales through the wholesale channel also flat. Our sales with third-party retailers decreased 5% after normalizing for floor models, representing continued outperformance relative to an industry we believe was down mid to high single digits. Like-for-like net sales through the direct channel decreased 1% in the second quarter. North American adjusted gross margins increased a robust 680 basis points to 61.8%, driven by the achievement of synergies, operational efficiencies, and mix, partially offset by commodity cost inflation for four pricing actions. We achieved $30 million of net benefit from sales and cost synergies in the second quarter North American adjusted operating margins improved 400 basis points to 26.7% in the quarter, driven by the improvement in gross margin, partially offset by investments in cooperative advertising, as noted a moment ago. Turning to Somnigroup International results.

Speaker 3

International net sales grew 2% on a reported basis and 1% on a constant currency basis. Our legacy international business delivered another strong quarter, supported by the continued execution as we broaden our consumer reach. Our Dreams business, as noted by Scott, continues to navigate a difficult environment, given a very tough U.K. market and the recent ERP implementation. Our international gross margins declined 80 basis points to 47.4%, driven by commodity cost inflation before pricing action, partially offset by operational efficiencies. Our international operating margin declined 120 basis points to 12.4%, primarily driven by the decline in gross margin. I'd like to give a brief update on commodity inflation and related pricing actions. We implemented modest pricing actions following the July 4th promotional period to offset higher input and freight costs.

Speaker 3

As we discussed last quarter, the timing of the cost increases preceded the implementation of our pricing action, creating an approximately $10 million one-time headwind to Somnigroup profits in the second quarter. We expect those impacts to be offset by pricing actions in the second half of the year. I want to point out, we grew earnings in the quarter almost 10% while fully absorbing the inflationary environment. Moving to Somnigroup's balance sheet and cash flow items. At the end of the second quarter, consolidated debt, less cash, was $4.3 billion, and our leverage ratio under our senior credit facility was 2.99 times, returning to our target leverage range of two to three times, demonstrating our strong cash flow generation and disciplined capital allocation approach. We also further strengthened our capital structure through the refinancing and upsizing of our credit facility.

Speaker 3

The amended facility extends maturities to 2031, increases liquidity, allowed us to reduce higher cost debt, lowering future interest expense. Turning to our cash flow performance. In a muted market, we delivered record operating cash flow of $236 million and free cash flow of $182 million. We have reduced our net debt by more than $500 million over the trailing 12 months while fully supporting growth initiatives and returning over $160 million to shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks. Turning to 2026 guidance. As a reminder, our guidance considers the elimination of intercompany sales between Tempur Sealy and Mattress Firm, which we expect to represent approximately 24% of global Tempur Sealy 2026 sales. Intercompany eliminations in accordance with GAAP will reduce Tempur Sealy sales, will be margin accretive and neutral to dollars of operating profit.

Speaker 3

We expect adjusted EPS to be between $2.85 and $3.15 for the full year. This guidance range contemplates a sales at the midpoint of approximately $7.6 billion after intercompany eliminations. Our annual guidance also reflects our expectation that the global bedding industry will be down mid-single digits year-over-year. Tempur Sealy North America, like-for-like sales growing low single digits. International business growing low single digits. Like-for-like Mattress Firm sales down slightly. We also expect reported gross margins slightly above 45%, driven by 100 basis points of net margin expansion from operational efficiencies, including synergies and operating leverage, partially offset by the impact of Tempur Sealy's pricing actions, which are intended to neutralize commodity inflation, but are margin dilutive. Our 2026 outlook also contemplates our assumption for Tempur Sealy brands and private labels to be in the mid-60s% of Mattress Firm total sales.

Speaker 3

This represents an incremental $65 million of adjusted EBITDA benefit for 2026 versus 2025, and approximately $690 million of advertising investment. This all results in an estimated adjusted EBITDA for 2026 of approximately $1.39 billion at the midpoint of our guidance. Regarding capital expenditures, we expect 2026 CapEx of approximately $225 million, including CapEx of $75 million under our Mattress Firm store refreshes and brand wall program. We expect our CapEx to normalize to $200 million in future years, and for at least 50% of our free cash flow in 2026 to go toward quarterly dividends and share repurchases. Now I'd like to flag a few modeling items. For the full year 2026, we expect D&A of approximately $310 million, interest expense of approximately $230 million on a tax rate of 25%, with diluted share count of 213 million shares. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Scott.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Bhaskar. Well done. In closing, our second quarter results reflect the strength and resilience of our business model, the dedication of our teams, and the benefit of a disciplined long-term strategy. We continue to execute well across our global operations, driving growth and creating long-term shareholder value. Lastly, I'd like to give a brief update on our proposed combination of Leggett & Platt, a leading diversified component manufacturer and longstanding supplier to Somnigroup. We have made significant progress towards finalizing the combination. We have received nearly all regulatory approvals required to consummate the transaction, and the required Leggett & Platt shareholder vote is scheduled for August 20th. We're expecting to close the transaction before the end of the third quarter. This timing is considerably ahead of our original expectations. Leggett & Platt will be incorporated into our guidance post-closing.

Speaker 2

We believe the combination will further strengthen our vertical integration framework and enhance consumer-centric innovation. It is expected to expand our addressable market in bedding and into non-bedding industries. It's going to reduce our financial leverage, drive operating cash flow, and deliver immediate adjusted EPS accretion before synergies, with opportunities for future shareholder value driving synergies across the combined organization. We look forward to welcoming Leggett & Platt into our portfolio of industry-leading businesses. Operator, that concludes our call. Open the call up for questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question, and if you have any follow-ups upon being answered, please press star one to rejoin the line. If you'd like to ask a question, press star one to raise your hand, and to withdraw it, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Your first question comes from Susan Maklari from Goldman Sachs. Your line is ahead.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Scott, I want to talk about the revision to the guide. Coming out of the first quarter, it felt like you could still hit the higher end of the range that you had set for earnings. Can you talk about what changed in the quarter that drove the decision to take the numbers down? How you thought about setting the current range of that $285-$315? What's implied in there, and how you got to that?

Speaker 2

Sure, Susan. Thank you for the question. Like anything, you start with an estimate. There were puts and takes during the quarter. Some were favorable, some were unfavorable. If I had to just point at two things that were the largest, probably unexpected negatives, if we're going to focus on the negatives for a second. Obviously, the industry trends in the second quarter were not as strong as we expected. We were expecting what, Bhaskar?

Speaker 3

Mid-single digits.

Speaker 2

Up? Down?

Speaker 3

Down.

Speaker 2

Down, what'd you get?

Speaker 3

Mid to high from an industry standpoint.

Speaker 2

Your first thing would be industry, and that's generally the U.S. is what we're talking about there. The other thing, the U.K. operation Dreams, their ERP system was a little rougher than we expected, and the U.K. market was a little more competitive. Those two were the big ones that I would call out, although there were certainly others, some positive, some negative. The other thing probably that weighed on us was the Middle East activity, in that we went back in for round two, which has created some additional uncertainty, probably from where we were thinking. Those would be the things that I think of, Bhaskar. She asked about in setting the guidance. Why don't you talk a little bit about that?

Speaker 3

Absolutely. Just to recap again, is that going into the quarter, we had an expectation from an industry standpoint on a full year basis, our expectation is that the industry would be down low single digits. As we sit here now, our expectation is that the industry will be down mid-single digits. What that effectively implies for the rest of the year is, with the inclusion of pricing, is that what we saw in the second quarter continues. At the midpoint of guide, it's really how we thought about it, is that the current trends or current industry trends continue. As it relates to the initiatives that we have in place, we continue to execute. The other item that we did tweak a bit is our assumption around sales synergies. We did take up our expectation based on the performance in the first half.

Speaker 2

I think the other thing I'd probably, since you're talking about guidance, influence this as I think about it, as you were speaking, Bhaskar, is if you look at the second quarter, the first couple of months were solid and looking well

Speaker 3

Then we ran into the July 4th holiday period, and I think it's been well documented, but the July 4th holiday period in the U.S. was not robust and was weak. That was certainly not expected. The good news is, since that holiday period is over and it ended, call it July 15th or so.

Speaker 2

That's right

Speaker 3

the market has kind of rebounded back to the trend line that it was before. The thing that we look at that we think is probably the best way to look at the U.S. market is Mattress Firm same-store sales, because it takes out the inventory fluctuations and order timing that we get over on the Tempur-Pedic Sealy side. If you look at Mattress Firm same-store sales post the holiday period, it's running give or take flat, where during the holiday period it was challenged. It's good it rebounded, but certainly that holiday period was also notable towards the end of the quarter.

Operator

Your next question comes from Pedro Gil with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Nice job managing through a difficult environment. I'd like to focus on profitability for a moment. You have remarkable margin expansion in Tempur-Pedic Sealy North America. Could you expand a little bit on what's driving that in terms of manufacturing efficiencies, synergies, and how you're thinking about that in your guidance for the second half with the additional pricing coming into the mix? Thank you.

Speaker 3

Absolutely. Our performance in the second quarter was adversely impacted by the commodities ahead of pricing. We are pleased with our margin performance. When I think about the key drivers of margin within the second quarter, a couple of things really come through. Continue to execute against our cost synergy target. We realized about $15 million, largely as anticipated for the second quarter. As it relates to the full year, our expectations remain that we'll continue to drive those cost synergies. On the sales synergy side, that is where our balance of sales at Mattress Firm, what percentage that is relative to what they sell, is that we exceeded our expectation, and we have revised our expectations for the full year based on that performance.

Speaker 3

How you see that, and therefore from a gross margin expansion perspective, that is also a key driver related to the North America business performance. Finally, I would close with, is that the productivity. Productivity is those things outside of Mattress Firm. It's just doing more with less. Our operations group, as well as the rest of the organization, continues to perform very well. From a margin standpoint, is that we had very nice expansion. When I think about that on the operating line, is that we continue to make those investments that are going to drive future growth, whether it be in the form of advertising or supporting the new Stearns line that we have coming out in the back half.

Operator

Your next question comes from Rafe Jadrosich with Bank of America. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Can you talk about just the cadence for the back half for EPS? What should we be thinking for 3Q versus 4Q, sort of in light of the 3Q to date comments on July 4th?

Speaker 3

100%. Good question. Just to get us grounded is that at the midpoint, that would imply about a 10% year-on-year EPS increase. What we've seen in the first half of the year is about a 10% increase, therefore, in the back half, that expectation continues. The one thing to be mindful of as you think about phasing between Q3 and Q4, a couple of things. Yes, Rafe, one should be mindful of what we saw on the 4th of July. However, as Scott pointed out, things have stabilized since then. Just as a reminder, in the prior year is that the third quarter of 2025, it was on a relative basis, it was strong. When you think about the phasing between Q3 and Q4, we'd expect growth in EPS in both quarters, but more of that in Q4 versus in Q3.

Operator

Your next question comes from Bobby Griffin with Raymond James. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking the question. Congrats on getting the Leggett, look like the Leggett deal is getting done ahead of schedule. I guess, Scott, I wanted to double-click inside the U.S. industry and kind of get more of your view of what you think is going on from a demand perspective. You guys are calling the quarter actually a little slower than 1Q. You compare that to some of the residential furniture reports we've seen recently, which is admittedly not the same product, but correlated, and it looks like it's getting a little bit better.

Speaker 7

Do you think there's a distribution shift that's taking place here that's negative between the marketplaces or outside Mattress Firm, or just any other color on what you think is going on with the demand environment and the fact that it's actually getting worse when we're seeing it stabilize in some other areas of related products?

Speaker 3

Yeah. Great question, Bobby. If you just talk about the industry in general in the U.S., I think Leggett's out today with their numbers, and I think they were calling Springs down-

Speaker 2

Low double

Speaker 2

low double digits. Between that and what we see in other things. I think we've got a pretty good read on the industry numbers.

Speaker 2

Obviously, some of our key advertisers have had some restructuring during the period. That's probably not helpful to the industry because their advertising has been limited. As far as relative to furniture, and I'm not an expert in the furniture side of the house, but at least it's been my experience that we have these periods where for a quarter or two, furniture does better than bedding, and bedding does better than furniture. I think that that's all we're experiencing. I don't think there's anything systemic or different going on in bedding process or bedding sales. We're probably creating more pent-up demand than we really want to create. I think the other trend that is very evident every quarter and continues to get probably larger every quarter is that the large retailers are clearly taking share from the smaller retailers.

Speaker 2

We see that in our orders, there is a shift from distribution from that standpoint. Our own Tempur-Pedic stores are certainly doing better. They're comping up. They were up almost 3% in the second quarter. When we look at online, our online business was much improved from the first quarter, but still slightly negative, if I remember correctly, Bhaskar.

Speaker 3

That's correct.

Speaker 2

When we do our channel checks to call it web-based sellers, it is clearly the web side of the industry has been challenged. I think the brick-and-mortar side of the house has done better. That would include throwing in the big online companies, too. We're seeing more of a move, I think, to brick-and-mortar and a little bit away from web, compared to three years ago. Those would be the primary trends that I can think of from a distribution standpoint.

Operator

Your next question comes from Keith Hughes with Truist. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 3

Keith, if you're speaking, we can't hear you.

Speaker 2

Might be the easiest question I've gotten all day.

Speaker 8

Can you hear me now? Hello?

Speaker 3

We can.

Speaker 2

We can hear you now.

Speaker 8

Okay.

Speaker 2

Yeah, we can hear you.

Speaker 8

I'm not sure what happened. Let me start again. I'll ask you a harder question. The commodity cost, you referred to $10 million. I believe that was Tempur-Pedic Sealy numbers. Pretty small number compared to what's been going on in petrochemical markets. If you could just talk, is that a net number with productivity or other offsets, and what do you expect to be facing in the second half of the year on that topic?

Speaker 3

Absolutely. The $10 million is the impact as a result of the Middle Eastern crisis. Let me put a finer point on that. Coming into the year, we had an expectation about commodities, perhaps a little bit of a headwind for us. However, as a result of the Middle Eastern crisis as well as some supply disruption around LyondellBasell, et cetera, is that the industry, not only us, the industry faced an inflationary environment. The industry as well as us, we put some pricing out there, and our pricing went in after the Fourth of July promotional period. Therefore, in the second quarter, we had a transitory impact where we faced a headwind of about $10 million.

Speaker 3

Just as a reminder from a pricing standpoint, we put enough price in there to make up for the $10 million in the back half of the year, that's still our expectation that that will happen. As it relates to commodities just overall, is that things have moved around a bit. Some things have come in, let's say MDI, TDI, perhaps a little bit, we see some pressures in other areas. Largely speaking is that what we anticipated, call it around $90 million of annualized inflation. That's what we saw coming into the quarter. That's where we sit today. Again, puts and takes within that portfolio, but largely consistent.

Operator

Your next question comes from Peter Keith with Piper Sandler. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 9

Thank you, and good morning. On the industry backdrop, I was wondering, too, if you think there's any dynamics from a K-shaped economy. It kind of caught my attention. I think you said it a mixed benefit to Tempur-Pedic Sealy, North America, and then also higher financing costs for Mattress Firm. Both of those would indicate maybe some strength in Tempur-Pedic. I don't know, what are you seeing high-end versus low-end overall?

Speaker 2

Sure. There's no question there's a K. Entry-level bedding has been the hardest hit by far, and luxury bedding, we'll call it, has been very resilient and at times strong. The financing cost, and we don't take credit risk, but in the Mattress Firm organization, we do pay for the 0% financing. It has gone up because we're selling more higher-end beds, and interest rates have ticked up some during the year where we expected them to tick down. There's no question. Not just us, but all the bedding retailers are living off of ASP, improved higher-end product, and we're seeing the upper-end customer showing up, not being particularly price sensitive. Closing rates are strong. The entry level is definitely challenged.

Operator

Your next question comes from Michael Lasser with UBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 10

Good morning. Thank you so much for taking my question. As you bring together all of the various pieces of the preeminent bedding player around the world, are you seeing more risk, at least in the short term, from two areas? One, that third-party sellers of Tempur-Pedic Sealy products are pulling back, and that is exacerbating some of the sales challenges, in addition to the industry. Two, given the complexity of the business, that it's just becoming a little bit more difficult to manage, as evidenced by some of the ERP interruptions that were experienced in the U.K. How does that influence how you think about the back half and into 2027 from an earnings power standpoint for the business? Thank you so much.

Speaker 2

Well, good. I got one really easy question and one really hard question out of you. The easy question is impact on sales from third parties. No, we're not seeing any significant impact or pullback on sales of what we call the other retailers. Generally, what you're focusing on is that when we say that, is the U.S. other retailers other than Mattress Firm. We were down 5%, which is give or take what we were down in the first quarter. That is slightly less than we believe the industry was down. I think from the way we would look at it, we would say we incrementally actually took some share in the other. You have to be a little careful when you talk other, because that is generally smaller retailers. There's also a share shift going between smaller retailers and larger ones.

Speaker 2

No, we're not seeing any impact in that area. The second question as to complexity. First of all, the opportunity creation that we get as we grow, I think you'll see over the next few years, the synergies are significant and the innovation will be significant. You asked about complication. Is it harder? All that good, without question. Everybody is working harder. We have added some complexity to the business. You mentioned ERP and the ERP Dreams thing we worked through. That's not really a factor. That's simply a company that needed to upgrade their systems, and we worked through it. In the Leggett transaction, we'll have some complications, we'll also have greater opportunities from that acquisition. You see it in the margin profile, and that's just getting started.

Speaker 2

We haven't even begun to realize the synergies from the logistics savings, the distribution savings that we'll have. You can see that we've been able to do some things with people like Kingsdown and Mattress Firm. Of course, we own a little bit of Kingsdown, too. That is something unique. We have some interesting plans for Leggett and some of the bedding assets of Leggett that we think more than offset the complexity. Yes, it is more complex, and we have spent time internally delegating authority and responsibilities to key players so that we can continue to be on top of the business and continue to grow.

Speaker 3

Just a finer point on the ERP and that we put it in place in Dreams. Like with all things, when you put something new in, there are some transitory issues in the grand scheme of things. They are taking orders, they are shipping, et cetera. There is some first time through and some distraction as it relates to the new system. I just want to reiterate, the system is functioning. We're just working through it.

Speaker 2

At most, that's maybe another one quarter. That's not a big issue going forward from my perspective. I think it was just a little choppy, that considering the market was a little choppy at the same time for this quarter.

Operator

Your next question comes from Brad Thomas with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 11

Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to ask about the multi-year financial outlook that when you presented it, called for about a 24% CAGR to 2028. I know that a part of that comes from industry growth, so I was hoping you could just share your latest thoughts on what you think the underlying growth can be if the industry stays stagnant for a couple more years. Then I know we have to hold off another quarter here, or at least a few more months on how Leggett may weave into it. Is it fair to presume that perhaps that underlying growth rate should get at least a few points better once the Leggett deal closes? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Okay. Great question. I'm going to talk, but I'm not going to update our perspective. To be clear. I can talk about it because I don't think we're really ready to, but it's a good question, and actually, I'm glad you asked it. Obviously, with any estimate, it has assumptions in it. Since we did, we'll call it the 515, some of those assumptions are probably going to change whenever we update it. It would not be a surprise to me that when we update it, we will lower the industry growth rate during that period, which all that really means is there's more pent-up demand. It means the outer years outside of 515 will probably be more robust. Okay? That's probably, we'll call that a headwind.

Speaker 2

There's also, if you look through that perspective and look at our current margin profile, our margins are significantly better That's in that profile. I would be surprised if when we update that our margins in that profile aren't stronger. We'll call that a good guy in our terminology. In that perspective, we basically, I don't believe, got any significant EPS growth from capital allocation, if I remember correctly, Bhaskar, right?

Speaker 3

Not overly significant.

Speaker 2

I think clearly from our recent capital allocation activity, both with our small acquisition in Europe-

Speaker 2

and Leggett & Platt thing, you can see there's enormous upside as we deploy capital at a high rate of return. When you mix all that together, I have no idea what that number looks like, haven't done it, but there are puts and takes in it. What I feel today is, I would say we're still in the game on the 515 plan. Looking forward to updating you when we do the year-end numbers.

Operator

Your next question comes from Phillip Blee with William Blair. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 12

Morning, Scott, Bhaskar. Thanks for the question. At your Investor Day in March, you laid out quite a few initiatives that were not included in your synergy targets. I believe logistics consolidation was one, real estate optimization, some of your efforts to revamp the Mattress Firm marketing campaigns, or a few others. Can you just give us an update on these, and then when we could start to expect maybe some sort of quantification there? Thanks.

Speaker 2

Sure. Help me out, Bhaskar, if I'm missing any of them. Mattress Firm marketing strategy plan is well underway. Based on the share gains that we talked about earlier, looks like it's been successful. I also don't think that's a journey that's ever over. There's still work to be done, and we'll continue to get better and better. I think you'll see some leverage, we'll call it, in 2027.

Speaker 3

Right.

Speaker 2

We have fixed the problem that was there, and got creative in the marketplace that we're proud of. Again, I think the share gains support that. We can get better. Logistics is being worked on by a large group. We'll probably be in a position to put some numbers and meat around it probably on the year-end-

Speaker 3

Okay

Speaker 2

call is based on the chart I've seen. It's going well, Leggett is additive to that process, additive being positive. They'll have to work through that, but that will also be a synergy on that side. The real estate one takes a little longer. We're getting some benefits, minor, those will come over the next couple of years. Again, some of the real estate is dependent on how the logistics plan comes together as to where your DCs are and other things. That's the logistics.

Speaker 2

Any other ones, big pots we can think of?

Speaker 3

No, I think that's right. It is fair to say that those items that we identified as opportunities remain as opportunities, very excited as we get in and out of this year to update with numbers around what those could be.

Speaker 2

Yeah, the other thing that's not probably, I don't remember if we talked about it in New York or not. I think we continue to study Mattress Firm's real estate strategy, and I expect that we'll be back in store growth mode here pretty soon as the economics of new stores is more compelling now that the balance of share has normalized and flipped compared to what it was going in. It will not go back to what I'd call rapid growth, but I would expect going forward, net new stores at Mattress Firm. There's some holes in the marketplace that we need to fill in.

Operator

Your next question comes from Jeff Lick with Stephens. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 13

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question, and nice job in a difficult environment. Guys, I was wondering if you could maybe drill down a little more on the weakness in Fourth of July. Obviously, this business is a big event business. If I recall, President's Day was pretty good, Memorial Day was pretty good. I'm just wondering your thoughts on any extraordinary circumstances about Fourth of July. We're hearing the World Cup did have an impact, because it was a pretty big event and obviously, there was also some calendar shift issues. I'm just wondering if that had any impact in your view or any other granularity. Then also, as it relates to what I would call the mass affluent, and maybe we'll create a new term called the E-shaped economy. You get the super high net worth, the mass affluent, and then the lower income.

Speaker 13

Scott, in your old world, the car business, we're seeing sales of the mass affluent, the mid-level luxury car. It's been weak for a while, and I'm wondering if that maybe is a negative impact on your business as well.

Speaker 2

Okay. Great job getting lots of questions in there. All good ones. Look, sometimes holidays hit, sometimes they don't. You're right, the most recent President's Day was a very solid holiday. July 4th was kind of a dud. You get those things, then like all retailers, you go back and go, "Huh, wonder why." I'm glad you used World Cup because we couldn't prove it, but you kind of think it, too. Maybe it was World Cup, maybe it was the heat dome, or maybe it's the way the holidays fell. I think it was just one of those holidays that didn't hit. I don't think it was anything significant turning point. It just didn't work. President's Day, the year before, what was that? 2025 was really weak. Right.

Speaker 2

You get these, clearly the third quarter is all about Labor Day. Mm-hmm. We're working through that. On your E shape, which that's a new one for me. I was ready for K, hadn't thought about E. I'm going to say no, it really is more K, because if I look through the sales, Bhaskar, if you look at Sealy Posturepedic, what I think of is higher mid-market, sales have been good. Right. Yeah. I don't think in the midsection we've really felt it that much. Clearly entry level, maybe a little higher than entry level, but not mid to luxury, which has been strong. That's right.

Operator

Your next question comes from Marius Morar with Zelman. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 14

Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Just wanted to follow up on the shift from e-commerce to brick-and-mortar that you alluded to earlier. Is that a function of the K-shaped economy? Does that still hold at comparable price points? Or said differently, have we reached a natural limit to what e-commerce can do in the mattress category? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Yeah. I'm not smart enough to know, but I have an opinion. First of all, I'd say, the last part, we've gotten to more of a natural size of e-commerce bedding, difficult product to buy online, can't feel it, all that kind of stuff. I think we have reached some of that. I think that's in there. I think the second factor is AI and the way the search engines optimize and go get words. I think all retailers are working through the changes. I'm going to call it from Google search to AI. That's probably not technically correct, but I think you know what I mean, and we're still working through that. It's very apparent to me that larger organizations are going to be benefited from that move to the way search engines scrape, in my terminology, for the web.

Speaker 2

It is a journey, and it's going to take a while. It's going to take a little bit of capital to work through that. Then the third impact, I think, is people have stopped being dumb and just chase sales with extremely low prices and have gotten more sophisticated about thinking about, "Well, how much money am I making on this transaction? Did I use up," in my terminology, an up, which is a customer in the marketplace wanting to buy the product. "Did I use up an up selling them a bed on the web and not make any money?

Speaker 2

If I didn't do that, they might show up at my store where I'm going to have a more reasonable transaction." I think all retailers, not just us, but anybody, have gotten smarter about not just throwing stuff on the web so you can have a big top-line sales number. We certainly have done that, and I think that's been healthy for the business. That's pushed the sales trend down some, but not necessarily been as impactful on profitability.

Operator

Your next question comes from William Reuter with Bank of America. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Speaker 15

Hi. I'll keep it to one, and hopefully it's simple. After the Leggett & Platt acquisition closes, assuming everything continues to go along the path that it currently is, do you feel like you are at a point where you're comfortable with your business mix and vertical integration, or do you still see assets across the globe somewhere that you would like to have on your wish list and that we'll continue to see future M&A?

Speaker 2

Thank you. First thing, I should give our good friends at Leggett kind of a call-out on their quarter. They reported they had a very solid quarter in a tough market and grew EPS significantly. A call-out to the Leggett team from that standpoint. As far as our future capital allocation, and we've said this, I don't know, for eight years, we're constantly talking to people all around the world, some retailers, some supply people, and at times, we price things, and sometimes they sit for years before the teams get together and can get agreement on price. It's always price. It's pretty easy strategically to look at companies and for the target and for us to see the benefits, the synergies, get to know each other culturally, kind of the process we go through. You get into price.

Speaker 2

There's some of that that's always in the marketplace. We may never do another deal, or we may do some more deals in the future. There's nothing out there that is as large as Mattress Firm or as large as Leggett. There are other assets in the world that I think would be positive, both for the target and for us, and we'll continue to work with them, and we'll see if we get a fit. To the extent that we can't get it priced right, we'll be very disciplined, and we're fine not ever buying anything else. As we generate significant cash flow, we'll clearly be very aggressive in buying our stock as we get down from a leverage standpoint. With one footnote, with always an eye to uncertainty in the world, primarily Middle East.

Speaker 2

We'll keep an eye on that because at times when the world's uncertain, capital is very valuable. We'll keep an eye on it. We feel very good about getting back in the range from a leverage standpoint.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I'll now turn the call back to Scott Thompson, CEO, for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you, operator. To our over 20,000 associates around the world, thank you for what you do every day to make the company successful. To our retail partners, thank you for your outstanding representation of our brands. To our shareholders and lenders, thank you for your confidence in the company's leadership and its board of directors. This ends the call today, operator.

Operator

Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

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