Wajax Q2 2026 Earnings Report

Wajax EPS Results

• Actual EPS: C$0.82
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Wajax Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $515.67 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Wajax Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2026
• Date: 8/6/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Friday, August 7, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 12:30PM ET

Wajax (TSE:WJX) Corp is a Canadian distributor of industrial components. The company's core business is the sale of parts and service support of equipment, power systems, and industrial components through a network of branches in Canada. Most of its revenue is generated from the sale of equipment which includes machinery and components used for construction purposes and its industrial components find utility in businesses like mining, forestry, and material handling for other industrial purposes. It sells to leading manufacturer brands such as Hitachi, JCB, Bell, Hyster, Palfinger and other similar industries.

Wajax Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Profitability improved despite lower revenue: Q2 revenue fell 5.7% year over year to CAD 515.7 million, but gross margin rose 180 basis points to 20.9%, adjusted EBITDA increased 2.6% to CAD 45.9 million, and adjusted EPS grew 9.7% to CAD 0.84.
• Positive Sentiment: Recurring businesses continued to provide resilience, with product support sales up 6.9% and ERS sales up 2.9%. Management expects momentum to continue, supported by mining, oil and gas, power generation, utilities, and customers extending the life of existing assets.
• Positive Sentiment: Backlog and the balance sheet strengthened: Backlog reached CAD 546.6 million, up both sequentially and year over year, while leverage improved to 1.3 times from 1.51 times in Q1; the company also had CAD 297.8 million of available credit capacity and maintained its CAD 0.35 quarterly dividend.
• Negative Sentiment: Equipment sales declined 22.3%, with weakness in mining, material handling, construction, and forestry beyond the impact of an absent year-ago mining shovel delivery. Customers remain cautious and purchase decisions are taking longer, while planned investments in sales capabilities, technicians, and go-to-market initiatives could pressure near-term expenses before producing returns.

Presentation

[Operator]

Thank you for attending Wajax Corporation's 2026 second quarter financial results webcast. On today's webcast will be Mr. George McClean, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Tania Casadinho, Chief Financial Officer. Please be advised that this webcast is being recorded. Please note that this webcast contains forward-looking statements. Actual future results will differ from expected results. I will now turn the call over to Tania Casadinho.

[Tania Casadinho, CFO at Wajax Corporation]

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, and thank you for participating in our second quarter results call. This afternoon, we will be following a webcast which includes a summary presentation of Wajax's Q2 2026 financial results. The presentation can be found on our website under Investor Relations, Events, and Presentations. To begin, I would like to draw your attention to our cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information on Slide two, and the non-GAAP and other financial measures on Slide three. Please turn to Slide four, and at this point, I'll turn the call over to George.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Thank you, Tania. Thank you everyone for joining us today. Before I get into the quarter, I want to spend a moment on where we're headed as a company. As many of you know, I joined Wajax and joined the Wajax team in the Chief Executive Officer role in March, and I've focused a good deal of my time on what I describe as my look, listen, learn tour. I get out to the branches and spend time with our teams, our customers, and our supplier partners across the country. I am now five months in, and that tour is largely complete. I've come away even more confident than when I started, and importantly, we are now shifting from listening to planning and preparing the organization for growth.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

What I've seen so far reinforces my confidence in this business, in the strength of our company, the character and dedication of our people, and in the significant opportunities we have ahead of us. That strength starts with this platform shown on the slide. This slide provides an overview of Wajax. The corporation has more than 167 years of Canadian operating history and operates across 104 branches with a team of 2,900 employees. During the quarter, our heavy equipment categories and revenue sources made up approximately 56% of our total revenue, while industrial parts and ERS generated approximately 44%. Turning to Slide five, Our Purpose and Values. This slide provides an overview of our purpose and values.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Wajax's purpose statement is empowering people to build a better tomorrow, which we strive to achieve by living our values and delivering an exceptional experience for our shareholders, customers, suppliers, our people, and the communities we serve. That purpose is grounded in our belief in our team. We hire great people, we listen to them, and we channel their energy, first toward efficiency and now increasingly toward growth. We also draw real strength from our roots as a stable, proudly Canadian company that has been operating since 1858 with a footprint right across the country. Our purpose and values guide our decision-making and allow us to execute on our strategic priorities. Turning to Slide six. This slide provides an overview of our strategic priorities, which were refined for the start of 2026.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

During 2025, management focused on cost control, inventory optimization, and margin improvement to reduce leverage, enhance profitability, and increase cash flow from operations. These actions represented initial steps in an ongoing program of operational improvements. In 2026, management continues to emphasize disciplined operation execution across these focus areas, supported by balance sheet strength and prudent capital allocation, which will enable the corporation to deliver sustainable long-term value. At this point, I thought it would be worthwhile to give you some color on the ambition behind those priorities and how we are executing. Our ambition is straightforward. We want Wajax to be a stronger, more resilient, and higher margin business over time, one that grows profitably and consistently through the cycle and not just with it.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

We have a good platform in our recurring product support and ERS businesses, which give us a more stable, higher margin base of revenue, and we have our strategic relationship with Hitachi, which remains a key long-term growth driver. The benefits are building gradually, but the opportunity is significant, particularly as Hitachi expands its presence in the Americas. With our balance sheet now in excellent shape, we have real flexibility to rebuild our acquisition pipeline for when the timing is right. With a focus on efficiencies, we are embedding a lean culture across the organization. We've completed white belt training across much of the entire company. Our branch leaders and other key roles are now moving through yellow belt training, and we've put in place a process to let our team members surface improvement ideas from the front line.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

We are also growing a dedicated strategic projects team to lead change initiatives, and we made further ERP improvements in the quarter, including a better quoting process and enhancements to how we support our customers. We remain intensely focused on efficiencies, process improvement, cost management, and our margin initiatives. We're using better data to sharpen our decision-making, tighten our procurement and inventory management, and drive further efficiencies across our network. This is iterative work. We hope to build on our gains quarter by quarter. That discipline is the foundation. The next slide shows how we're building on it and preparing the company for growth. This slide provides an overview of our strategic planning process. We've launched a strategic planning process engaging a group of 18 senior leaders from across the organization called the Strategy Working Group.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Together, through a number of meetings, we're assessing opportunities across our businesses, regions, and operational functions to identify where we can create the greatest value for our customers and shareholders. As part of preparing the company for growth, we are recruiting into a number of key positions across the organization, spanning sales, marketing, strategic projects, talent, and communications. These roles are helping to build our organizational capacity and bench strength 2025, our focus has been on strengthening profitability, increasing cash generation, and maintaining disciplined capital allocation. Building on that foundation, we're now focused on enhancing the capabilities that will support long-term profitable growth. Key priorities include strengthening commercial execution, investing in our sales force and our technician capabilities, advancing our go-to-market strategy, driving operational excellence, and ensuring we have the right organizational structure and talent to support future success.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

The outcome of this work will help shape our 2027 strategic priorities and investment decisions. As always, we will remain disciplined in how we allocate capital and will focus on opportunities that strengthen our competitive position while delivering attractive long-term returns for shareholders. The work is progressing, we look forward to providing investors with additional detail on these priorities and investments as our planning advances. Overall, I've been very encouraged by what I've seen during my first five months at Wajax. We have a strong foundation, exceptional people, and trusted customer and supplier relationships. Our focus now is building upon these strengths, improving execution, strengthening our competitive position, and investing in the capabilities that will support sustainable, profitable growth and long-term shareholder value. Turning to slide eight. With that context, let me turn to the quarter itself.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

In the second quarter of 2026, Wajax achieved stronger margins, generated robust operating cash flow, and further reduced leverage despite lower year-over-year revenue. Revenue of CAD 515.7 million decreased CAD 31.5 million, or 5.7%, in the quarter. The decrease resulted primarily from lower equipment volumes, including the delivery of one large mining shovel in the second quarter of 2025, with no comparable delivery in the current quarter. Gross profit margin of 20.9% increased nicely, 180 basis points compared to the same period of 2025, reflecting margin improvement initiatives and sales mix. This increase in margin was primarily due to higher margins realized on industrial parts and ERS sales, reflecting margin improvement initiatives and a lower proportion of equipment sales from a sales mix perspective. We remain focused on these margin improvement initiatives to strengthen our margin profile, mitigate ongoing market pressures, and drive continued earnings performance.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Selling and administrative expenses as a percentage of revenue increased to 14.8% in the second quarter of 2026 from 13.4% in the same period of 2025, driven by the year-over-year decline in revenue. Excluding the adjustments noted on the slide, adjusted selling and administrative expenses increased CAD 0.2 million in the second quarter of 2026 compared with the same period last year. Adjusted EBITDA of 8.9% in the second quarter of 2026 improved from 8.2% compared to the same period of 2025, and increased from 8.1% in the first quarter of 2026. Adjusted EBITDA of CAD 45.9 million increased CAD 1.2 million, or 2.6%, from the second quarter of 2025, noting the adjustments recorded on this chart. Adjusted net earnings of CAD 0.84 per share increased 9.7%, or CAD 0.07 per share from the second quarter of 2025, noting the adjustments on the chart.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

At the end of Q2, the TRIF rate was 1.43, an increase of 40% from the second quarter of 2025. Safety continues to be truly Wajax's number one priority, and management is committed to continuously improving our safety programs to improve on this result. We thank everyone on our team for their ongoing dedication to workplace safety. Turning to slide nine, revenue by region. The revenue decrease of 5.7% in the second quarter resulted from lower revenue in Western and Central Canada. Western Canada sales of CAD 223 million decreased 10.7% in the quarter, due primarily to lower mining equipment sales, including the delivery of a large mining shovel in the second quarter of the prior year, with no comparable delivery in the second quarter of this year. This decrease was partially offset by higher product support sales in the mining category.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Central Canada sales of CAD 83 million decreased 12.9% in the quarter, due primarily to lower equipment sales in the construction and forestry category and lower ERS revenue. Eastern Canada sales of CAD 210 million increased 3.7% in the quarter, due primarily to higher equipment sales in the construction and forestry segments and power systems categories, and higher product support revenue in most categories. These increases were partially offset by lower equipment sales in the material handling category.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Please turn to slide 10. An update on equipment and product support sales and year-over-year variances are shown on this page. Equipment sales of CAD 137 million decreased CAD 39.4 million, or 22.3%, compared to last year, due primarily to lower mining equipment sales in Western Canada, including the delivery of a large mining shovel in the second quarter of the prior year with no comparable delivery in the second quarter of this year.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Wajax also experienced lower material handling equipment sales in Western and Eastern Canada and lower construction and forestry equipment sales in Central Canada. Product support sales of CAD 143 million increased CAD 9.2 million, or 6.9%, compared to last year, due primarily to strong mining revenue in Western Canada. Please turn to slide 11. An update on industrial parts and ERS sales and year-over-year variances are shown on this page. Industrial parts sales of approximately CAD 138 million decreased CAD 2.7 million, or 1.9%, compared to last year. ERS sales of approximately CAD 86 million increased CAD 2.4 million, or 2.9%, compared to the prior year. Turning to Slide 12. The slide summarizes sales at a category level for our company's overall groupings of heavy equipment and industrial parts and ERS.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

In the second quarter, the heavy equipment categories decreased CAD 31.2 million, or 9.7%, due primarily to lower mining equipment sales in Western Canada and lower material handling equipment sales in Western and Eastern Canada. The industrial parts in ERS categories decreased CAD 0.3 million, or 0.1%. I'll now turn the call back over to Tania for commentary on backlog, inventory, and our balance sheet.

[Tania Casadinho, CFO at Wajax Corporation]

Thank you, George. Please turn to Slide 13 for my comments on backlog and inventory. Our Q2 backlog of CAD 546.6 million increased CAD 24.9 million compared to backlog of CAD 521.7 million at Q1, and increased CAD 22.4 million on a year-over-year basis. The sequential increase was due primarily to high mining backlog, with the addition of a large mining shovel, higher construction and forestry backlog, and higher ERS backlog. The year-over-year increase was due primarily to an increase in power systems backlog, driven by the River-class destroyer subcontract entered into with Irving Shipbuilding Inc. during the fourth quarter of 2025, and higher construction and forestry backlog. These increases were partially offset by lower mining backlog, driven largely by the delivery of four large mining shovels since Q2 of 2025. Backlog at June 30th, 2026, included two large mining shovels scheduled for delivery over the next two quarters.

[Tania Casadinho, CFO at Wajax Corporation]

Inventory decreased CAD 3.7 million compared to Q1 of 2026, while inventory decreased CAD 12.3 million compared to Q2 of 2025. The year-over-year decreases resulted primarily from lower industrial parts and ERS inventory, offset partially by higher rental option inventory in the construction category. Management believes that inventory levels are within normal operating range at this point in time. Please turn to Slide 14, where I will provide an update on cash flow, leverage, and working capital. Cash flows generated from operating activities in the current quarter of CAD 36.2 million, compared with cash generated of CAD 68.3 million in the same quarter of the prior year. The decrease in cash generated of CAD 32.1 million was mainly attributable to a decrease in inventory of CAD 3.7 million during the quarter, compared to a decrease of CAD 56 million in the same quarter of the prior year.

[Tania Casadinho, CFO at Wajax Corporation]

The decrease in cash generated was offset partially by an increase in contract liabilities of CAD 7.4 million during the quarter, compared to a decrease of CAD 4.6 million in the same quarter of the prior year. Our Q2 leverage ratio improved to 1.3x from 1.51x in Q1, due to the lower debt levels, driven largely by cash generated from operating activities and management's continued focus on disciplined capital allocation. Our available credit capacity at the end of Q2 was CAD 297.8 million, which is sufficient to meet short-term normal course working capital and maintenance capital requirements and fund our planned strategic initiatives. We continue to focus on working capital efficiency with a key component in managing our overall leverage targets. The Q2 working capital efficiency was 24.3%, an improvement in efficiency of 30 basis points from 24.6% at March 31, 2026.

[Tania Casadinho, CFO at Wajax Corporation]

Due to the lower trailing four quarters average working capital. Inventory turns have declined marginally from Q1 of 2026 and improved to 2.4x from 2.2x in Q2 of 2025 and from 2x in Q4 of 2024, due primarily to lower average inventory levels, offset partially by lower sales. The optimization of inventory, improvement in working capital efficiency, and meaningful reduction in leverage reflect management's disciplined execution. Finally, the board has approved our third quarter 2026 dividend of CAD 0.35 per share, payable on October 2nd, 2026, to shareholders of record on September 15th, 2026. Please turn to Slide 15, at this point, I will turn the call back to George.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Thanks, Tania. Our outlook is summarized on Slide 15. Our second quarter results demonstrate the continued benefits of our operational initiatives with improved margins, strong operating cash flow, and a healthy balance sheet, despite lower year-over-year equipment sales. We also saw growth in product support and ERS sales. Our disciplined approach to margin management, working capital, and capital allocation continues to strengthen the business and support our financial flexibility. Market conditions remain mixed, with customers continuing to exercise caution in certain end markets. That said, in a number of our end markets, we are seeing pockets of improved customer sentiment as we move into the second half. Mining remains strong, supported by healthy commodity prices, critical minerals investments, and long-term project pipelines. Oil and gas and oil sands momentum continues to build, and government and utilities demand is steady on the back of infrastructure and grid investment.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Approval processes remain lengthy. Customers are still disciplined with their capital, but quoting activity and engagement remain robust across most regions. We have a strong business, a healthy balance sheet, a growing recurring revenue base, and a clear set of growth drivers. I'm confident in our ability to manage the near term while we plan for the longer term. We continue to prioritize disciplined execution on cost control and margin improvement, supported by prudent capital allocation. This positions us well to navigate current market conditions while continuing to create long-term value for our stakeholders. While Wajax's core strengths provide a solid foundation, as previously mentioned, we have commenced a strategic planning process involving a group of 18 senior leaders, called the Strategy Working Group, to identify the investments, capabilities, and operational priorities that will support profitable growth and strengthen our competitive position.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

We look forward to sharing additional details on our priorities and investment focus as that work progresses. I'll now turn it back to the operator and open the line for questions. Thank you for your continued interest in Wajax.

[Operator]

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Should you have a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Should you wish to withdraw your question, you may press star two. Once again, that is star one should you wish to ask a question. Your first question is from Devin Dodge from BMO Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

[Devin Dodge, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

All right. Thank you. Good afternoon.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Good afternoon.

[Devin Dodge, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

I wanted to start with mining sales. They had a fairly meaningful year-over-year decline, I think that's both in Q2 and year to date. That seems a bit at odds with the mining sector, which seems to be doing well, and even echoed in your comments about end market conditions. Less shovel delivery seems like that was part of the softness, but it seemed like there may be more to it. Can you provide any color there?

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Thanks, Devin. Certainly, mining and demand in mining continues to be strong. We don't have any concerns there. There are several new mining projects and fleet renewals in process. Of course, the sales cycle in mining is typically very long, so making period-to-period comparisons is difficult. The demand remains high in oil sands and also importantly in base metals like gold, copper, nickel, et cetera. We do see some softness in coal and iron ore. That's based on commodity market conditions and rising operating costs. Most importantly, we do see the demand is high, the activity is high. Certainly, we're in a lot of meetings and discussions and quoting processes, in oil sands and in those base metals. It is a little difficult to compare period to period, but we feel good about the activity.

[Devin Dodge, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay. Appreciate that. Second question. We thought it was encouraging that both ERS and product support saw positive growth in Q2. Is there any reason why that momentum wouldn't carry over into the second half? Could we actually see year-over-year growth figures step up, just given the comps last year don't seem like a high bar?

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Yeah. Certainly, we see ERS as one of our strongest performing businesses across the company. It's been driven by strong turnaround activity, power generation, hydro mining and oil and gas maintenance spending. Certainly, customers continue to prioritize asset reliability and life cycle extension. That's where we're seeing a lot of quoting activity, a lot of discussions for major projects, and that's a good thing to see. We expect that momentum to continue through the year and beyond. On the product support side, it's definitely one of the most resilient areas of our business. The service activity strengthened across most regions, supported by the fact that customers are really extending the life of existing assets in many cases. Oil sands, mining, utilities, Atlantic operations continue to perform particularly well.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Overall, in terms of the momentum you mentioned, we feel good about the strategic planning process and the priorities we're focused on. One of the areas will definitely be around technicians, which is a key element to our success to date and our success going forward. Both of those areas, product support and Engineered Repair Services, rely on great technicians. We're pretty focused in our Strategy Working Group. We don't have the details yet, but we're focused definitely on technicians and training and customer service.

[Devin Dodge, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay, that's great. Thanks, George. I'll turn it over.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Thanks, Devin.

[Operator]

Thank you. Your next question is from Maxim Sytchev from National Bank. Your line is now open.

[Maxim Sytchev, Analyst at National Bank]

Hi, good afternoon, team. The first question I had was around your strategic priorities, where you're trying to address sales force technicians and go-to-market initiatives, I'm just trying to see what exactly are you trying to address here. Is it insufficient coverage, technician productivity, cross-selling, kind of organizational complexity? Where exactly do you find the white spaces reside and where the biggest opportunity for you exists at the moment? Thank you.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Thanks, Max. Appreciate it. Certainly, all of the above, all of that is being discussed. Of course, an organization can do anything, but they can't do everything, and that's true for Wajax. It'll be a matter of prioritization, but certainly you've hit on a number of key areas. Technicians, we know are a key precondition to success, we have a good group of technicians today. We want to get even better in attracting and retaining and training our technicians. On sales force effectiveness, we've hired a Vice President of Sales Enablement. Josie Patella started about a month ago, she has many decades of experience in this area where we will elevate the performance and effectiveness and help our salespeople be more effective. So we, as I said at the start, see opportunities in all segments.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

There are some areas of excellence that we want to focus on that will support all of those segments. Beyond that, there's some go-to-market opportunities where we're good in one region, let's say in ERS or in material handling or crane utility, and we know we could be good in another region with infrastructure investment and a change in the team. You also touched on role clarity, and that's going to be absolutely critical. Today, we have a good group of people, but we can improve our role clarity to make sure that we've got a front-to-back sales focus and sales orientation, and then front-to-back operations orientation, and good accountability and empowerment in all those areas, which ultimately will deliver great customer service at a higher level, increase volume through our existing channel, and ultimately drive a good ROIC and a good return for our shareholders.

[Maxim Sytchev, Analyst at National Bank]

Okay. That's super helpful. Actually, do you mind maybe building a little bit, because right now, your ERP is substantially complete. Do you mind maybe talking about where the biggest upside from getting better data sets, better data in general, where you could leverage it the most, whether by vertical geography, whatever you can maybe discuss publicly? Thanks.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Yeah. Sure. Happy to share that. On the ERP front, it certainly is a key enabler to everything that we do, the team did a really nice job over the last couple of years to implement M3 and stabilize it, and it's in great shape. That provides a greater access to detailed, accurate data throughout the business on a fast basis. As we've run this strategic planning process, we certainly have a big advantage now that we can get a better understanding of costs and profitability in each segment, in each region, for each supplier, that will lead us to good conclusions around investments. I'd also say that the ERP is a really nice foundation for building our e-commerce platform and getting into that space, which will help us in industrial products and also in parts and product support on the equipment side.

[Maxim Sytchev, Analyst at National Bank]

Okay. Super helpful. Thank you

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

A great platform and a great enabler.

[Maxim Sytchev, Analyst at National Bank]

Okay, thanks. Then one quick one for Tania, if I may. You talk about building inventory in anticipation of seasonal demand, but I guess you're also a bit cautious depending on whichever end market you're talking about. Do you think that I guess what gives you the confidence that the inventory level is appropriate for the demand signals in the back half of the year? I guess any color there.

[Tania Casadinho, CFO at Wajax Corporation]

Thanks, Max. Great question. Yes, we did build inventory up earlier in the year, for expected seasonal demand. Our inventory procurement process, or the way we plan for inventory is quite detailed at not only a category level, but unit level. Based on the forecasted demand that we have seen, and it does get adjusted on a monthly basis because it's a monthly process, we feel like we do have sufficient and appropriate levels of inventory at this point in time. When we look at the turns by category, that looks good too. Overall, from an inventory perspective, we're in the ballpark of our expected turns right now as well. Again, keeping an eye out on expected future demand based on what the business is seeing out in the field.

[Maxim Sytchev, Analyst at National Bank]

Okay. Thank you so much. That's it for me.

[Tania Casadinho, CFO at Wajax Corporation]

No problem. Thank you.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

It's George. Maxim, I'd just add on the inventory side to build on what Tania said. Certainly, I have been fortunate to get a lot of good experience from GM and more recently and more importantly, Grainger, around inventory investments. The key is discipline and a really good approach to investing in inventory to ensure that we have the right products in the right place at the right time to support our good equipment partners, and then on the industrial products side as well. Inventory, as you know, is an investment and we need to be really good at stocking our high velocity A's and B's and making sure that we're really aware of the decisions we make around excess and obsolete to keep inventory really efficient.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

As we go forward, we'll determine what the strategy is and how we deploy and where and when we may need more inventory. We want to be very efficient through the whole process, and as Tania said, we need a good S&OP process, which we're working on and has started already, and really good ownership and control of inventory so that we have that discipline I mentioned and keep the efficiency level at a very high point and even higher than today. It is an investment, but it needs to be a smart one, and we're looking forward to sharing more in the coming months.

[Maxim Sytchev, Analyst at National Bank]

Okay. Appreciate all the color. Thank you.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Your next question is from Jonathan Goldman from Scotiabank. Your line is now open.

[Jonathan Goldman, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe just circling back to the new equipment sales question. Even if you were to add back the mining shovel that you delivered last year, obviously those can be lumpy, it still looks like new equipment sales were down double digits. It does seem at odds with the end market commentary. I understand, delivery timing could be lumpy, but how should we think about the growth in new equipment sales this year? Is this a GDP type of growth product line? Is it expected to grow in line with the end markets or above that? How should we think about it on a full year basis?

[Tania Casadinho, CFO at Wajax Corporation]

Hi, Jonathan. Thanks for the question. You're right. Normalizing for the mining shovel, we're still lower on a year-over-year basis. We are up against a strong comp. Like we said, we had one mining shovel last year and none in this quarter. We are seeing some softness in our construction area of the business. Not softness, more competitive landscape in terms of pricing and particularly around also customers and how they're making the decision to purchase. We're finding it's taking them a little bit longer to pull the trigger on some of the purchases. In terms of forward-looking, hard to pinpoint a direct growth rate. I would say it's hard to pinpoint a growth rate at this point.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

We have a good history, obviously, with Hitachi LANDCROS and our other equipment providers, Hyster-Yale, Bell Trucks and on. Really good quality product that's really important for the Canadian economy, especially as we see Build Canada develop and governments and companies making significant investments in the market. Certainly, we know we've got those great partnerships. We know we have a good sales team and 104 locations across the country to service. Having said that, we also know that we can do better on the sales side. We're investing in sales enablement, we're investing in understanding the pipeline of projects and initiatives and activities across the country like never before.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

I have a fair bit of history around national accounts and government accounts, and while we have some activity today, we can get a lot more organized and aggressive in terms of running that pipeline and ensuring that we leave no stone unturned in competing. We have the products, we have the locations, and we have a team. We just need to better enable them and pursue sales force excellence. I think down the road, given all the activity we have even today, and the improvement around our focus and our training and approach in sales, I'm confident that we will grow this space and take full advantage of the macro trends in the economy.

[Jonathan Goldman, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay, that's good color. I guess on that point then, George, with the investments that you would need to make there, would you see potentially your gross margin or your SG&A rate could be under pressure in the near term? Maybe it gets a little lower before it gets better as the investments kind of season and we see the returns there on the sales line.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Yeah, certainly a good watch-out and a good thing to discuss. We'll be more prepared to discuss that down the road in terms of timing and what we think the investments are, paybacks as well as rate of return, et cetera, in broad strokes. Certainly, we're very committed to being very efficient on the SG&A side and very thoughtful around the margin. Revenue's good, but margin's critical and EBIT is paramount. ROIC is our guide here. We will share more around timing, investments, and timeframe for return in the coming months as we finish our process and announce more about our 2027 strategy. Good question, and we'll provide more color in broad strokes in the coming months around timing of investments versus paybacks and returns.

[Jonathan Goldman, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay, looking forward to it. Thanks for taking my questions.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Thanks, Jonathan. Appreciate it.

[Operator]

Thank you once again. That is star one should you wish to ask a question. Your next question is from Patrick Sullivan from TD. Your line is now open.

[Patrick Sullivan, Analyst at TD]

Thank you very much. Good afternoon. I just want to ask first quickly about, I've read that Rolls-Royce Power Systems have reportedly been used in data center applications globally. Can you just elaborate on the relationships you have with MTU? Could you talk about potential involvement in data center activity in Alberta in the future? Is there potential to participate in the backup power situation? Is there any other kind of products and services on the equipment side and industrial parts side where you may be able to participate?

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Yes, thanks for the question, Patrick. In terms of Rolls-Royce MTU, we have a good long-term relationship with them on the product side and on the service side. We also have Volvo Penta, which includes marine engines, but also industrial stationary engines as well. We feel we're well-positioned in that space and have the relationships and the technical know-how to take advantage. In terms of data centers particularly, we serve customers who help to build data centers. There are certainly backup power systems. Sometimes those are sold direct, and sometimes we will be involved. There are a couple of active data center builds, as you know today, but there's probably more to come given the state of the economy and where we're headed.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

We participate in the construction space, in terms of equipment that allows our customers to help build data centers, gen sets, and in particular, the maintenance and service of those gen sets. On the ERS side, the technical work, the engineering work that supports the ongoing maintenance and repair of a data center and the activities there, and on the product support side for support for engines. Lastly, on the industrial parts side, we have a wide range of products from bearings to power transmission. We have filtration, instrumentation, and all of those work not only in data centers, but in other sort of new economy areas like battery storage, LNG, other green sources of electricity like wind turbines.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

We feel Wajax is really well-positioned across the country and across those segments and across the products, but most importantly, with good service and good technical know-how to support those customers. In terms of data centers, nothing to share directly in terms of any builds right now, except that we are in that space where the construction occurs, the maintenance and repair occurs, and the parts supply on the industrial parts side as well.

[Patrick Sullivan, Analyst at TD]

Okay. Got it. Thank you. Thanks for that. I guess more recently, conversations have shifted to energy production in Canada growth to supply the planned incremental egress created by potential pipeline opportunities. I guess, would you see this creating opportunity for more large shovel orders? Or do you see this more as a demand driver for large trucks in the oil sands?

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

I think all of the above. Certainly, we're in discussions now around the Hitachi haul truck, which is built in Guelph, Ontario, and the wide range of shovels all the way from the EX8000 down to compacts, and other equipment as well, including wheeled loaders. Lots of good opportunities across that space. Pipelines are heavy duty installations as you know, that take a lot of work and a lot of earth moving, and we're in a good space there. Again, we're in 104 locations across the country, 3,000 people, and well-poised to take advantage. We do know there's more we can do on that sales pipeline, as I mentioned, around assembling that pipeline of all the activities centrally in the federal and provincial governments and in corporations, and making sure we're well ahead of the curve and upstream as the projects get specced and then ultimately announced.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

We'll get better at being upstream and more proactive, but we feel really good about the product offer we have, the team, the technical know-how, and the capacity across the country to service those organizations.

[Patrick Sullivan, Analyst at TD]

Great. Thank you. I'll pass the call back.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. Please proceed with the closing remarks.

[George McClean, President and CEO at Wajax Corporation]

Very good. Thank you very much for your interest in Wajax and for attending today's webcast. It is Friday, I believe, so I hope everyone has a great weekend. Looks like the weather is good. Enjoy the summer weekend, and thanks again for your interest. Have a good weekend. Bye.

[Operator]

Thank you. That concludes our conference call for today. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

Participants

Executives

• Tania Casadinho, CFO
• George McClean, President and CEO

Analysts

• Devin Dodge, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets
• Maxim Sytchev, Analyst at National Bank
• Jonathan Goldman, Analyst at Scotiabank
• Patrick Sullivan, Analyst at TD