Transcontinental Inc — Call Transcript 2026

Welcome to the TC Transcontinental first quarter of fiscal year 2026 results conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question and answer session, and instructions will be provided at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, March 10th, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Yan Lapointe, Senior Director, Investor Relations and Treasury. J'aimerais maintenant céder la parole à Yan Lapointe, Directeur, Relations avec les investisseurs et trésorerie. Monsieur Lapointe, please go ahead. Thank you, Joelle, and good afternoon, everyone on the call. Welcome to Transcontinental's first quarter of fiscal 2026 earnings call. Before we begin, please note that you can find on our website at www.tc.tc our quarterly report, including financial statements and related notes, as well as the slides supporting management's remarks. A replay of this conference call will also be available on our website shortly after the call. Please note that this conference call is intended for the financial community. Media are in listen-only mode and should contact Laurence Boussicot, Senior Advisor, Corporate Communications, for more information. We have with us today our Executive Chair of the Board, Isabelle Marcoux, our next Chief Executive Officer, Sam Bendavid, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Morin, and our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Donald LeCavalier. As referenced on slide two, some of the financial measures discussed over the course of this conference call are non-IFRS. You can refer to the MD&A for a complete definition and reconciliation of these measures to IFRS. In addition, this conference call might also contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the current expectations of management and information available as of today. Forward-looking statements also involve numerous risks and uncertainties, known and unknown. The risk, uncertainties, and other factors that could influence actual results are described in the fiscal 2025 annual MD&A and in the latest annual information form. With that, I would like to turn the call over to our Executive Chair of the Board, Isabelle Marcoux. Thank you, Yan, and good afternoon, everyone. First and foremost, let me say how proud I am that we successfully completed the sale of our packaging business. Earlier today, our board approved a special dividend of CAD 20 per share. This delivers immediate and tangible value to our shareholders. It reflects the strength of a business we've built over the past 12 years, as well as our courage to act decisively and our determination to keep building the company. With this transaction behind us, we're opening a new chapter for TC Transcontinental with a clear focus on growing our businesses of retail services and printing and educational publishing. To lead the company through this next phase, we announced earlier today senior management changes effective April 6. This transition is part of a strong succession planning process focused on continuity and growth. I'm pleased that these changes come from internal promotions of leaders we know well and who have delivered strong results for us over many years. Before introducing our upcoming CEO, Sam Bendavid, I wanna take a moment to express my deepest gratitude to Thomas Morin for the role he's played at Transcontinental. Thomas, in 2019, we were looking for a leader with deep packaging expertise to lead our sector, and we were fortunate to find you. You did such an outstanding job that four years later, the board and I asked you to become CEO, bringing your leadership and operational expertise to the entire organization. You delivered in both roles, and I'm deeply grateful for everything you've done. Today, with the sale of the packaging business you helped build and elevate, we come full circle. You can be very proud of your accomplishments in operational and financial performance, in people leadership, and in reinforcing our health and safety culture. On a personal note, Thomas, it's been an immense pleasure working with you every day and a true privilege to have such a great partner. I will miss you. On behalf of the board and my family, thank you warmly and sincerely for everything. Turning now to Sam. I hired Sam more than 18 years ago, and I've worked closely with him ever since. I can say this without hesitation. He's a man of action, focused on performance, and an exceptional deal maker. I know him well, and I trust him fully. At this stage in our journey, we need a leader with a vision for growth, analytical rigor, and strong execution capability. Given his drive, his track record, and his experience, the board saw in Sam the leader we need to generate profitable growth. Sam has consistently delivered results, whether in M&A, procurement, leading our coatings business, or executing our recent two-year program to increase profitability and strengthen our financial position. Sam will be supported by Pat Brayley, who will step into the newly created role of COO. Currently leading our retail services and printing activities, Pat has driven the sector's strategic risk repositioning. He has also led key innovation initiatives, including the launch of raddar and the deployment of artificial intelligence in the production of content for retail flyers while improving operational performance. He's the right leader to support Sam in transforming our organization with discipline and innovation. Patrick Lutzy, a respected industry leader with more than 20 years at TC, will continue to lead our educational publishing business as president of TC Media. Under his leadership, the media sector has more than doubled revenues over the past decade. He's also introduced AI to improve processes and product offerings, reinforcing our leadership in educational publishing across print and digital. In conclusion, the board is very pleased to promote Sam and Pat, two leaders we know extremely well and who have proven themselves time and again. These appointments reflect our ability to develop and promote strong leaders from within. This is an important and exciting moment for Transcontinental, and I look forward to working with our leadership team as we pursue our next phase of growth. Sam will now say a few words before turning the call over to Thomas and Donald to discuss our Q1 results. Over to you, Sam. Thank you for your kind words, Isabelle, and good afternoon, everyone. I strongly believe in the growth potential of our company, and I'm energized by the opportunity to turn that potential into reality. My objective is clear. Through discipline, profitable growth, and targeted acquisitions, as well as smart use of technology, including AI, we will build an innovative, high-performing organization, one that delivers real value to our customers across the retail, education, books, and information sectors. We have a strong balance sheet, businesses with a strong competitive advantages, and an outstanding team that has repeatedly proven its ability to execute. With the support of Isabelle and the board, I'm excited and confident as I embark on this next chapter with our leadership team. I also feel very fortunate to carry forward the experience and insights I've gained working closely with exceptional leaders such as Thomas. Thomas, thank you for all your insights, coaching, and mentoring. I wish you all the best in what's to come. With that, I'll now turn it over to Thomas, and I look forward to speaking with many of you in the weeks ahead. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Sam, and thank you, Isabelle. It's truly been an honor to work alongside with you, Isabelle, as well as Donald and so many talented colleagues around the organization. I have a great confidence in the future of the new TC Transcontinental because of your leadership and because of the exceptional talent I've encountered at every level of the company. I also want to say that the board has made excellent choices. Having worked closely with Sam and Pat over the years, I can attest to their talents, their high energy, and their readiness to take on these important new roles. I'm convinced they will do a tremendous job, and I wish them every success. Thank you, Isabelle, again, for your wise counsel. I also thank the Marcoux family, the board of directors, and the talented employees of TC Transcontinental for their unwavering support. Let's now turn to our Q1 continuing operations results. In the retail services and printing sector, our recent ISM acquisitions have enabled us to partially offset lower volumes in our traditional books and flyers printing activity. Profitability was also affected by price concessions. It is important to note that strategic price concessions are an important element of our toolkit to secure multiyear commitments from large customers for our traditional activity. In our media sector, we saw lower volumes, mainly attributable to the end of the contract related to the electronic tendering system. Let's keep in mind that this is a seasonal business, as Q3 and Q4 are the important quarters for the media sector. As this is my last call with you, I must say how confident I am to pass it on to Sam, two solid sectors, both well-advanced in their transformation and both with potential to grow. As an illustration of this, our flyers business continued to evolve. In response to a challenging flyer market dynamic, we're preparing to launch raddar in Ontario in the next few months, providing our customers with lower costs and greater reach. This will set the stage for further deployments as we see an opportunity for raddar to become a national advertising platform within the next 12 months. Another example is the growth of our in-store marketing business. As we continue the integration of the three acquisitions we made in 2025 that have reinforced our geographical footprint and expanded our offering, we're expecting to close yet another ISM acquisition soon within Q2. We maintain, of course, an active pipeline for further other opportunities. In conclusion, I'm confident in our growth plans, and I believe that the new TC has a bright future ahead. On this, I will pass it over to you, Donald. Thank you, Thomas. It's been a real pleasure to work with you over the last six years, and I wish you the best. To you, Sam, congratulations on your new role. I'm confident you'll do a great job. Moving to slide five of the earnings call presentation. For the first quarter of fiscal 2026, we reported a 2.3% increase in revenues from continuing operations versus the same quarter last year. This growth comes from acquisitions in our in-store marketing activities and a positive exchange rate impact. The growth was partially offset by lower volume and price concessions in our retail services and printing sector. Regarding profitability, consolidated adjusted EBITDA declined CAD 7.2 million or 17.9% to CAD 33.1 million. The decline was mainly due to lower volume and price concessions in the retail services and printing sector, partially offset by recent acquisitions and favorable exchange rate. The increase in our share price also contributed to higher incentive compensation expenses. Net financials expenses decreased by CAD 4.4 million-CAD 9.3 million, mainly due to a lower debt level following strong cash flow generation in the last twelve months. This was partially offset by lower interest income we earned last year from the proceeds of the sale of our industrial packaging activities before we declared a special dividend in April last year. Adjusted income tax decreased by CAD 4 million-CAD 1.5 million and represented an effective rate of 18.3%. This led to adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations of CAD 0.08 compared to CAD 0.10 in Q1 last year. While our results after Q1s are lower than last year, we remain confident in our outlook. We expect adjusted EBITDA to be below last year in the second quarter before recovering in the second half of the year as we start seeing the positive impact of significant cost reductions and profit improvement initiatives. Now turning to cash flow. As expected and in line with normal seasonality, we saw negative working capital in the first quarter of 2026. At CAD 10.8 million working capital usage, it was, however, much better than the 36.4 million we had in Q1 last year. Improvement was mainly due to lower inventory. Our CapEx at CAD 11.9 million was in line with last year and on target to be around our guidance of CAD 55 million-CAD 60 million for the full year. Our adjusted net indebtedness ratio was at 1.69x at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2026, compared to 1.59x three months ago. While we expect to generate strong operating cash flows in the rest of the year, our adjusted net indebtedness ratio is expected to increase over the next two quarters before improving in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. As for the monetization of real estate, we expect to close the sale of one building in the next few months. Our financial position is solid. The board has approved today to return most of the proceeds from the sale of our packaging business to shareholders with a special dividend cash distribution of CAD 20 per share. With the sale of our packaging business, we also sign a revised credit agreement with our banks, securing the funds to repay our CAD 250 million notes that are due in July 2026. The new agreement will also provide the flexibility to pursue our growth strategy. On that note, we will now proceed with the question period. Thank you. One moment, please. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you have a question, please press star followed by the one on your touch tone phone. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. Your questions will be pulled in the order they are received. Please ensure you lift the handset if you are using a speakerphone before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from Sean Stewart, TD Cowen. Your line is now open. Thanks. Good afternoon, everyone. Congratulations to Thomas, Sam, and Pat. I have a couple of questions. I guess just trying to dial in on the guidance that you would expect that adjusted net debt ratios are gonna increase the next couple of quarters before starting to improve in fiscal Q4. Can you give us a bit of perspective on what's feeding into that expectation? You know, I imagine a part of this is the back-end weighted cost savings coming through later in the year. Can you give some perspective on the dollar magnitude there and expected follow-through into 2027? Well, you're right. Actually, the cost saving not only will help on the debt-to-EBITDA ratio at the end of the quarter, but this is why also we're positive regarding maintaining EBITDA compared to last year. That's one thing. Second thing is when we gave guidance for Q2 and Q3, we include the possible acquisition that Thomas mentioned a bit earlier. There's some timing in payments. I will say lastly, the fourth quarter is always a very strong quarter for us in terms of EBITDA and free cash flow. Those are the key limits. Okay, thanks for that. You touched on an expectation that there'll be one property sale in the near term. Any updated thoughts on, I believe there was at least two properties that you had line of sight on and maybe some more behind that, context on expected proceeds and timing of additional real estate sales. Yeah. The one that's close in the pipeline and hopefully that will close in the next few months is in order of CAD 30 million of value. So that's one of the big one that we had in the pipeline. I will say for the rest of market, it's still a market. Depending on the region where you are, it's, I will say, it's kind of slow, and it will depend also what's going on in the current global economy. We're confident at least to close this one in fiscal year, and we'll see the timing for the other ones. We have two other ones in the pipeline also. A small one in the U.S. and one other one in the south of Montreal. Okay. Just one last question from me. Your credit rating was downgraded yesterday. Any thoughts on how that changes your overall cost to capital, perspective on, I guess, higher borrowing costs going forward? Well, not really because the new financing, as I mentioned in my opening comment that we put in place, will be based more on debt to EBITDA ratio. That current rating pricing will be close to the pricing we had regarding BBB- or investment grade. As far as, you know, the investment grade for us, it's more a question that the size of the business because the balance sheet, as you can see, will be very solid. It's more a question of the size of the business regarding the decision by the agency. Okay. Thanks very much for all of that. I'll get back in the queue. Your next question comes from Nikolai Goroupitch with CIBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open. Hi. Could you elaborate more on the price concessions you took, how these developments unfolded and potentially quantify the impact on revenue growth as well? The price concession we took in the first quarter is, I would say, it's north of CAD 1 million. It's in that region, so we're annually it's about CAD 4 million. This is something that when we do important renewal that we had in the past, and we always find ways in the coming quarters to with our synergies or efficiencies to compensate for that. Since we at the beginning of new contracts, it hit us directly in the P&L for this quarter. Okay. I see. Thanks. Could you also provide some more detail on the size of the new acquisition you're expecting to close? How do you expect the rest of the year to shape up on the M&A front? We're confident, as we said in the comment, we're pretty much advanced on discussion. Obviously, we need to close some transaction. In terms of size, we won't disclose any amount, but you can expect that it is in the area we did for this group, over the last few years. Not a big one compared to what we're doing in packaging, but very important for us, and that will create a lot of good synergies, on cost side and commercial side also. Okay, great. I see. Thank you. I'll turn it over. Adam Shine with National Bank. Your next question comes from Adam Shine with National Bank. Your line is now open. Okay. Thanks a lot. Sam, congratulations. Of course, Thomas, it was wonderful interacting with you, and I wish you all the best. Maybe we just start in terms of, you know, the Q1 disclosure around ISM timing, where the volumes were a little bit lighter in the Q1. Can you just maybe speak to that, both in terms of quantum and, you know, what was the driver of that? You know, regarding ISM, that was for us in Q1. We were expecting when we disclose at the end of fiscal year, you know, on the retail side because of the current condition in Ontario and the rest of Canada will be tough. ISM, we were expecting a little bit better in this quarter, but it's mostly timing. Having said that, if you look at the impact of pure growth in the quarter, this is something we disclose in our financial notes. It's about 5% decline. We still expect that overall in fiscal 2026, we will have positive organic growth, excluding acquisition for that group. It's mostly because of timing of some contract renewal or some, you know, stores that delayed some of the improvement they were supposed to make in first quarter. We're still very confident for the rest of the year. Okay. No, I appreciate that. Then obviously, you know, interesting development in regards to raddar going into Ontario. I didn't think that was gonna happen until, like, a year or two from now. Is that based on some negotiation with Torstar that allows this to happen, or is there something different going on? Well, obviously, they're an important partner of us, so anything we will do in Ontario, rest of Canada will be in discussion, negotiation, in collaboration with them. You know, regarding the timing, we say that we will do more in Ontario. The timing of where we will be doing, all Ontario, rest of Canada is still not decided, but we will certainly do some tests in the coming quarter. You know, it's important for us to stabilize this business, and raddar is a great solution for us regarding that. Just to be clear, if Torstar is doing, you know, flyers and distributing it in their territory for you, are you looking to offer raddar as sort of a complementary alternative solution to replace those flyers? It comes in as an alternative solution for customers to decide upon. Well, all flyers are done by us, it's just we're talking about distribution. Yeah. What you might see in coming months is some region might have a distribution of raddar, but they will still like in, you know, be some flyer that might be done directly by Canada Post. What we're saying is we will do in some region in Ontario some tests regarding raddar in coming months in Ontario. Yeah. Okay. No, I appreciate that. Maybe, you know, given that Isabelle's on the line. Hi, Isabelle. Just a quick question in terms of the nature of the new sort of structure, just having a COO, is that something where we kinda look upon Patrick as pseudo-president, Sam as CEO, although he does have both titles, or will get both titles? Or do we look upon this as something whereby there's maybe more in play regarding COO in regards to a future transitionary dynamic? Just curious. No, no. You're way ahead. There's no Okay. There's just an upcoming transition. I think you should look at Sam as a very strong growth-oriented person, deal maker. He's done M&A for the company for the past 18 years, and you should look at Patrick Brayley as a true operator, innovator, knowing print so well. A great team with both of them. I think we have one plus one is 2.5. Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you. I'll queue up again. Stephen MacLeod with BMO Capital Markets. Your next question comes from Stephen MacLeod with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is now open. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Thomas, congratulations on your tenure, and congrats to Sam and Patrick as well. Just wanted to touch on a couple of things. Just firstly with respect to ISM, I mean, you sorta touched upon a pending transaction, or one that's in advanced discussions. I was just wondering if you could just remind us kind of the strategy with ISM M&A. Is it about filling in geographic coverage, or is it more about broadening your customer base, or is it a little bit of both? Yeah, it's a little bit of both. We also already, you know, moving in Western Canada with our own platform on the retail side, so we're active over there. But it's adding products, but also it will be geographical. We see many opportunities in the next few years to grow that business. So yes. It's to expand our offering to our own clients, also. Okay. That's Yeah. Sorry, go ahead. No, no. I mean, I was reinsisting on Donald's message. It is really both the geographic reach and the product offering. Yeah. At the same time. It's both. Okay, that's helpful. Are there any? When you think about both of those vectors, geographic and product, I mean, are there any notable geographies or products where you're underrepresented? In terms of product, it's a very large market, so we can go into a lot of detail. We have a very good position in the product that we deliver for our main clients right now. In terms of regional, geographical, we're solid in Quebec and Ontario. We have some operations in Western Canada, but I think we have the right balance regarding where the business is done actually. We were underrepresented in Quebec. Okay. We've acquired the businesses in Quebec to balance indeed the footprint between Ontario and Quebec. We're pretty okay. Yeah. Okay. That's great. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify, Donald, did you say that ISM was down 5% in Q1? Yes. Maybe just turning to leverage, as you think about your. Is it still fair to assume that your net debt EBITDA target exiting 2026 is in that 1.6-1.7x range? Well, first, we don't have a target. This is something. Okay. that we said that, we're not doing acquisition. It was the case before, and even though the rating is not there anymore, we will remain very prudent with the balance sheet. We have a solid balance sheet, and the idea is to maintain it to give us the flexibility to do M&A. I would say that we don't have a target, but we're right now, we can be in the zone of 1.70-2, depending on timing of acquisition. But other than acquisition, we should be under two and going, you know, very rapidly close to one because this business, our business will manage a lot of free cash flow in the coming years. If there's no acquisition, we should be in a very good position. Okay. That's very helpful. Maybe just finally, if you're able to give some color around it, can you give some guidance or color on what the magnitude of the corporate cost savings might be in the back half of the year? You know, we're working on it, but it depends also on the TSA we have with ProAmpac right now because we will, you know, we will work with them. We said over the next two years is to save, you know, roughly CAD 30 million of corporate cost. The timing still need to be established regarding exactly when we'll be able to do some movement. Some of it will come in the second half, and some of it will be mostly next year for full run rate. Okay, that's great. Thanks so much for the color, guys. Appreciate it. Your next question comes from Maher Yaghi with Scotiabank. Your line is now open. I just wanted to ask you a question. You know, putting aside the incentive compensation cost increase, just, you know, on the retail and services and printing. I was trying to figure out the drop in organic revenue of CAD 6.7 million came with a drop of CAD 5 million approximately on the EBITDA side. Seems pretty high. Can you just help me understand? You mentioned earlier that pricing was about CAD 1 million. So I was trying to figure out why the EBITDA decrease was so elevated compared to the revenue drop. Thank you. Yeah. Well, yeah, you're right. For sure, price concession north of CAD 1 million as an impact. Also, where we had some decrease is in the distribution of flyers in the rest of Canada. You know that this is very high margin for us. That had an impact for sure also. I will say that that's the mix that didn't help us on the EBITDA side versus what we lost on the sales side. Okay. Is that running through the P&L completely now, or there could be, like, an additional step-down function in Q2 on that side? When you said step-down function, what do you mean by it? I mean the lower profitability from the lower distribution that you have in the rest of Canada. Is that running through or there are additional geographies that will be affected in Q2 that have not been affected yet? Well, what we said, and that's what I said in my opening comments, we remain confident for the full year to be stable versus last year. The impact you see in the first quarter should be roughly the same in the second quarter because the cost saving program we put in place and some other action we're taking will start to kick more in the second half of the year. You know, looking back at the revenue line, you mentioned you're you know launching raddar in the rest of the country. How should we think about the revenue trajectory in the second half if you're launching that process in Q2? Yeah. Hard to say for the moment because we don't know at which speed the progress will come. As we said, when we have this transition for Quebec and also a little bit of BC, you know, for sure, top line will go down. The most important for us is to maintain the EBITDA. It's really hard to say what will be the impact of percentage. It depends on the timing. The reason, to be clear, that the top line will be affected is that we're using less paper, therefore, it does have an impact, but the VA and the EBITDA is not affected. We saw the impact in Quebec. It's hard for us to say right now because it depends, again, at the speed the progress will go. It will affect the top line, for sure. It will stabilize the EBITDA, and this is the most important thing for that part of the business. Yeah. No, I totally get that. Maybe just if you can give us the total revenue that you currently generate that could eventually transition to raddar for the rest of Canada, just to get an understanding of how much, you know, we're talking about. Well, this is something that Yan can give you some more color offline. Okay, great. Yeah. Just on the leverage side, you know, you know, there's a lot of wacky, I mean, you know, ratios going on now that, you know, you still haven't cycled through the P&L and you're on a pro forma basis. Let's say a year from now, Donald, you know, where would you like that leverage to land? Well, again, it depends on the timing of acquisition. As Sam mentioned in his comments, we're confident to grow the business on the ISM. Therefore, we will be active on acquisition. We have a business that will generate a lot of free cash flow. This is the business I mentioned that will need maybe CAD 50-55 million of CapEx. We don't have a target for that. Obviously, the approach remains the same for us to be prudent regarding the balance sheet. We're confident regarding our balance sheet as we speak right now. We will have room for acquisition. If there's no acquisition, we don't mind to get to a position of, you know, 1x debt to EBITDA, but it's not a target for us. The target for us is to stabilize the business on the flyer side and to grow the business on the ISM, obviously, organic growth and acquisition. Okay. More the way to look at it while maintaining a strong balance sheet. Okay, maybe I'll ask it a different way. Assuming, you know, the M&A transactions are available to you and everything, where do you think the business could run long term in terms of leverage? What level would you be comfortable taking the leverage up to? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Well, I would say, honestly, it's a little bit of a hypothetical question. Like, when we did in the past coverage, we were comfortable to go up as far as 3.50 because we were strongly confident in our ability to get back under two, and that's what we did, that's what we deliver. We don't see, and this is something we mentioned earlier, any big acquisition coming the ISM, so I don't see any big acquisition that will push us like above three. It's, like I said, we think we should be in a range of 1.50-2.50 in the next months. If there's no acquisition, we don't mind to be, you know, close to 1x debt to EBITDA. When we bought Coveris, the last comment on that one, we had almost no debt on the balance sheet, and we were quite happy about that. Okay. Merci beaucoup. Merci. Ladies and gentlemen, if there are any additional questions at this time, please press star followed by the one. As a reminder, if you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset up before pressing any keys. J. Sebastian van Berkom with Van Berkom and Associates. The next question comes from J. Sebastian van Berkom with Van Berkom and Associates. Your line is now open. Thank you very much for taking my call. Isabelle, I know you're on the line, so hello again to you. I have two simple questions. I just arrived, so I was a little late in kicking into the conference call. I guess number one, I would like to know what is the exact date of the CAD 20 share distribution? We will be paying out the dividend on the 20th of March, and that's next Friday. March? 20. March 20? Exactly. Okay. Number two, given that you sold a substantial part or all of the packaging business, the stub or the remaining Transcontinental, can you, Isabelle, give us some kind of a sense of, you know, what kind of a company this is gonna become in the next, you know, five years? Because at the moment, the market seems to say that, you know, it's only worth about CAD 3 after this distribution. It means a very, very low multiple. For me, it's just there's something wrong with this picture. I was wondering if you could give us some clarification. Sure looks like a great buy right now. The stub isn't trading yet, but it probably will trade soon after the March 20th distribution. I'm just trying to figure that out. Like, it seems to be there's something wrong with the picture and that it seems to be awfully cheap, the remaining part of the business. Is the remaining part of the business so bad that it's being sold, it's being traded at such a low price? We think it's a good business. It's a business with potential. Pardon me. We think it's a good business. It's a business with great cash flows. It's a business that's poised for growth. We see growth opportunities in the ISM sector, and we see growth opportunity in these. Is this a business that you expect to grow top line at 10% a year or 15% a year? Like, what kind of order of magnitude are we talking over the next five years? We'll surely look to grow it internally and through acquisitions. We have already started doing that with three acquisitions under our belt only in the last year in the ISM business. What kind of order of magnitude are you talking, Isabelle? Are we talking a 15% grower or a 10% grower? Like, where are we in the next five years? I think this is not something that we will disclose today. What we have said in the past is that we're, you know, now with the sale of packaging, over the last two years, we were able to stabilize the retail and service printing business. We have growth in the media business. Today for us, and by saying that we're confident to again stabilize the EBITDA business, we're putting this business for growth in the next few years because the portion that's growing is getting bigger and bigger, which is the ISM and even the education side of the business. We're confident to grow the business organically over years and then add it over acquisition. We won't disclose any organic plan or acquisition plan for the next five years. Oh, no, why not? Many companies do. Well, this is not our approach, so we're not gonna disclose that. Okay. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. Before closing the call, I'd like to turn it over to Thomas for a few words. Thank you. Thank you, Yan. In closing, I'd like to thank you all, our participants to these quarterly calls, and especially to you financial analysts on the line. I want to say that your questions were always so thoughtful and well-received, and today is no different, obviously, as you could all hear. It's been a pleasure getting to know you over the past two years, and I'd like to thank you all today. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call for today. Thank you for participating. Please disconnect your lines.

Speaker 6: Welcome to the TC Transcontinental first quarter of fiscal year 2026 results conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question and answer session, and instructions will be provided at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, March 10th, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Yan Lapointe, Senior Director, Investor Relations and Treasury. J'aimerais maintenant céder la parole à Yan Lapointe, Directeur, Relations avec les investisseurs et trésorerie. Monsieur Lapointe, please go ahead. Welcome to the TC Transcontinental first quarter of fiscal year 2026 results conference call. welcome to the tc transcontinental first quarter of fiscal year 2026 results conference call During the presentation, all participants will be in listen-only mode. during the presentation all participants will be in listen-only mode Afterwards, we will conduct a question and answer session, and instructions will be provided at that time. afterwards we will conduct a question and answer session and instructions will be provided at that time As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, March 10th, 2026. as a reminder this conference is being recorded today march 10th 2026 I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Yan Lapointe, Senior Director, Investor Relations and Treasury. i would now like to turn the conference over to mr yan lapointe senior director investor relations and treasury J'aimerais maintenant céder la parole à Yan Lapointe, Directeur, Relations avec les investisseurs et trésorerie. j'aimerais maintenant céder la parole à yan lapointe directeur relations avec les investisseurs et trésorerie Monsieur Lapointe, please go ahead. monsieur lapointe please go ahead

Speaker 12: Thank you, Joelle, and good afternoon, everyone on the call. Welcome to Transcontinental's first quarter of fiscal 2026 earnings call. Before we begin, please note that you can find on our website at www.tc.tc our quarterly report, including financial statements and related notes, as well as the slides supporting management's remarks. A replay of this conference call will also be available on our website shortly after the call. Please note that this conference call is intended for the financial community. Media are in listen-only mode and should contact Laurence Boussicot, Senior Advisor, Corporate Communications, for more information. We have with us today our Executive Chair of the Board, Isabelle Marcoux, our next Chief Executive Officer, Sam Bendavid, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Morin, and our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Donald LeCavalier. Thank you, Joelle, and good afternoon, everyone on the call. thank you joelle and good afternoon everyone on the call Welcome to Transcontinental's first quarter of fiscal 2026 earnings call. welcome to transcontinental's first quarter of fiscal 2026 earnings call Before we begin, please note that you can find on our website at www.tc.tc our quarterly report, including financial statements and related notes, as well as the slides supporting management's remarks. before we begin please note that you can find on our website at www.tc.tc our quarterly report including financial statements and related notes as well as the slides supporting management's remarks A replay of this conference call will also be available on our website shortly after the call. a replay of this conference call will also be available on our website shortly after the call Please note that this conference call is intended for the financial community. please note that this conference call is intended for the financial community Media are in listen-only mode and should contact Laurence Boussicot, Senior Advisor, Corporate Communications, for more information. media are in listen-only mode and should contact laurence boussicot senior advisor corporate communications for more information We have with us today our Executive Chair of the Board, Isabelle Marcoux, our next Chief Executive Officer, Sam Bendavid, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Morin, and our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Donald LeCavalier. we have with us today our executive chair of the board isabelle marcoux our next chief executive officer sam bendavid our president and chief executive officer thomas morin and our executive vice president and chief financial officer donald lecavalier As referenced on slide two, some of the financial measures discussed over the course of this conference call are non-IFRS. You can refer to the MD&A for a complete definition and reconciliation of these measures to IFRS. In addition, this conference call might also contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the current expectations of management and information available as of today. Forward-looking statements also involve numerous risks and uncertainties, known and unknown. The risk, uncertainties, and other factors that could influence actual results are described in the fiscal 2025 annual MD&A and in the latest annual information form. With that, I would like to turn the call over to our Executive Chair of the Board, Isabelle Marcoux. As referenced on slide two, some of the financial measures discussed over the course of this conference call are non-IFRS. as referenced on slide two some of the financial measures discussed over the course of this conference call are non-ifrs You can refer to the MD&A for a complete definition and reconciliation of these measures to IFRS. you can refer to the md&a for a complete definition and reconciliation of these measures to ifrs In addition, this conference call might also contain forward-looking statements. in addition this conference call might also contain forward-looking statements These statements are based on the current expectations of management and information available as of today. these statements are based on the current expectations of management and information available as of today Forward-looking statements also involve numerous risks and uncertainties, known and unknown. forward-looking statements also involve numerous risks and uncertainties known and unknown The risk, uncertainties, and other factors that could influence actual results are described in the fiscal 2025 annual MD&A and in the latest annual information form. the risk uncertainties and other factors that could influence actual results are described in the fiscal 2025 annual md&a and in the latest annual information form With that, I would like to turn the call over to our Executive Chair of the Board, Isabelle Marcoux. with that i would like to turn the call over to our executive chair of the board isabelle marcoux

Speaker 3: Thank you, Yan, and good afternoon, everyone. First and foremost, let me say how proud I am that we successfully completed the sale of our packaging business. Earlier today, our board approved a special dividend of CAD 20 per share. This delivers immediate and tangible value to our shareholders. It reflects the strength of a business we've built over the past 12 years, as well as our courage to act decisively and our determination to keep building the company. With this transaction behind us, we're opening a new chapter for TC Transcontinental with a clear focus on growing our businesses of retail services and printing and educational publishing. To lead the company through this next phase, we announced earlier today senior management changes effective April 6. This transition is part of a strong succession planning process focused on continuity and growth. Thank you, Yan, and good afternoon, everyone. thank you yan and good afternoon everyone First and foremost, let me say how proud I am that we successfully completed the sale of our packaging business. first and foremost let me say how proud i am that we successfully completed the sale of our packaging business Earlier today, our board approved a special dividend of CAD 20 per share. earlier today our board approved a special dividend of cad 20 per share This delivers immediate and tangible value to our shareholders. this delivers immediate and tangible value to our shareholders It reflects the strength of a business we've built over the past 12 years, as well as our courage to act decisively and our determination to keep building the company. it reflects the strength of a business we've built over the past 12 years as well as our courage to act decisively and our determination to keep building the company With this transaction behind us, we're opening a new chapter for TC Transcontinental with a clear focus on growing our businesses of retail services and printing and educational publishing. with this transaction behind us we're opening a new chapter for tc transcontinental with a clear focus on growing our businesses of retail services and printing and educational publishing To lead the company through this next phase, we announced earlier today senior management changes effective April 6. to lead the company through this next phase we announced earlier today senior management changes effective april 6 This transition is part of a strong succession planning process focused on continuity and growth. this transition is part of a strong succession planning process focused on continuity and growth I'm pleased that these changes come from internal promotions of leaders we know well and who have delivered strong results for us over many years. Before introducing our upcoming CEO, Sam Bendavid, I wanna take a moment to express my deepest gratitude to Thomas Morin for the role he's played at Transcontinental. Thomas, in 2019, we were looking for a leader with deep packaging expertise to lead our sector, and we were fortunate to find you. You did such an outstanding job that four years later, the board and I asked you to become CEO, bringing your leadership and operational expertise to the entire organization. You delivered in both roles, and I'm deeply grateful for everything you've done. Today, with the sale of the packaging business you helped build and elevate, we come full circle. I'm pleased that these changes come from internal promotions of leaders we know well and who have delivered strong results for us over many years. i'm pleased that these changes come from internal promotions of leaders we know well and who have delivered strong results for us over many years Before introducing our upcoming CEO, Sam Bendavid, I wanna take a moment to express my deepest gratitude to Thomas Morin for the role he's played at Transcontinental. before introducing our upcoming ceo sam bendavid i wanna take a moment to express my deepest gratitude to thomas morin for the role he's played at transcontinental Thomas, in 2019, we were looking for a leader with deep packaging expertise to lead our sector, and we were fortunate to find you. thomas in 2019 we were looking for a leader with deep packaging expertise to lead our sector and we were fortunate to find you You did such an outstanding job that four years later, the board and I asked you to become CEO, bringing your leadership and operational expertise to the entire organization. you did such an outstanding job that four years later the board and i asked you to become ceo bringing your leadership and operational expertise to the entire organization You delivered in both roles, and I'm deeply grateful for everything you've done. you delivered in both roles and i'm deeply grateful for everything you've done Today, with the sale of the packaging business you helped build and elevate, we come full circle. today with the sale of the packaging business you helped build and elevate we come full circle You can be very proud of your accomplishments in operational and financial performance, in people leadership, and in reinforcing our health and safety culture. On a personal note, Thomas, it's been an immense pleasure working with you every day and a true privilege to have such a great partner. I will miss you. On behalf of the board and my family, thank you warmly and sincerely for everything. Turning now to Sam. I hired Sam more than 18 years ago, and I've worked closely with him ever since. I can say this without hesitation. He's a man of action, focused on performance, and an exceptional deal maker. I know him well, and I trust him fully. At this stage in our journey, we need a leader with a vision for growth, analytical rigor, and strong execution capability. You can be very proud of your accomplishments in operational and financial performance, in people leadership, and in reinforcing our health and safety culture. you can be very proud of your accomplishments in operational and financial performance in people leadership and in reinforcing our health and safety culture On a personal note, Thomas, it's been an immense pleasure working with you every day and a true privilege to have such a great partner. on a personal note thomas it's been an immense pleasure working with you every day and a true privilege to have such a great partner I will miss you. i will miss you On behalf of the board and my family, thank you warmly and sincerely for everything. on behalf of the board and my family thank you warmly and sincerely for everything Turning now to Sam. turning now to sam I hired Sam more than 18 years ago, and I've worked closely with him ever since. i hired sam more than 18 years ago and i've worked closely with him ever since I can say this without hesitation. i can say this without hesitation He's a man of action, focused on performance, and an exceptional deal maker. he's a man of action focused on performance and an exceptional deal maker I know him well, and I trust him fully. i know him well and i trust him fully At this stage in our journey, we need a leader with a vision for growth, analytical rigor, and strong execution capability. at this stage in our journey we need a leader with a vision for growth analytical rigor and strong execution capability Given his drive, his track record, and his experience, the board saw in Sam the leader we need to generate profitable growth. Sam has consistently delivered results, whether in M&A, procurement, leading our coatings business, or executing our recent two-year program to increase profitability and strengthen our financial position. Sam will be supported by Pat Brayley, who will step into the newly created role of COO. Currently leading our retail services and printing activities, Pat has driven the sector's strategic risk repositioning. He has also led key innovation initiatives, including the launch of raddar and the deployment of artificial intelligence in the production of content for retail flyers while improving operational performance. He's the right leader to support Sam in transforming our organization with discipline and innovation. Given his drive, his track record, and his experience, the board saw in Sam the leader we need to generate profitable growth. given his drive his track record and his experience the board saw in sam the leader we need to generate profitable growth Sam has consistently delivered results, whether in M&A, procurement, leading our coatings business, or executing our recent two-year program to increase profitability and strengthen our financial position. sam has consistently delivered results whether in m&a procurement leading our coatings business or executing our recent two-year program to increase profitability and strengthen our financial position Sam will be supported by Pat Brayley, who will step into the newly created role of COO. Currently leading our retail services and printing activities, Pat has driven the sector's strategic risk repositioning. sam will be supported by pat brayley who will step into the newly created role of coo. currently leading our retail services and printing activities pat has driven the sector's strategic risk repositioning He has also led key innovation initiatives, including the launch of raddar and the deployment of artificial intelligence in the production of content for retail flyers while improving operational performance. he has also led key innovation initiatives including the launch of raddar and the deployment of artificial intelligence in the production of content for retail flyers while improving operational performance He's the right leader to support Sam in transforming our organization with discipline and innovation. he's the right leader to support sam in transforming our organization with discipline and innovation Patrick Lutzy, a respected industry leader with more than 20 years at TC, will continue to lead our educational publishing business as president of TC Media. Under his leadership, the media sector has more than doubled revenues over the past decade. He's also introduced AI to improve processes and product offerings, reinforcing our leadership in educational publishing across print and digital. In conclusion, the board is very pleased to promote Sam and Pat, two leaders we know extremely well and who have proven themselves time and again. These appointments reflect our ability to develop and promote strong leaders from within. This is an important and exciting moment for Transcontinental, and I look forward to working with our leadership team as we pursue our next phase of growth. Sam will now say a few words before turning the call over to Thomas and Donald to discuss our Q1 results. Patrick L utzy, a respected industry leader with more than 20 years at TC, will continue to lead our educational publishing business as president of TC Media. patrick l utzy a respected industry leader with more than 20 years at tc will continue to lead our educational publishing business as president of tc media Under his leadership, the media sector has more than doubled revenues over the past decade. under his leadership the media sector has more than doubled revenues over the past decade He's also introduced AI to improve processes and product offerings, reinforcing our leadership in educational publishing across print and digital. he's also introduced ai to improve processes and product offerings reinforcing our leadership in educational publishing across print and digital In conclusion, the board is very pleased to promote Sam and Pat, two leaders we know extremely well and who have proven themselves time and again. in conclusion the board is very pleased to promote sam and pat two leaders we know extremely well and who have proven themselves time and again These appointments reflect our ability to develop and promote strong leaders from within. these appointments reflect our ability to develop and promote strong leaders from within This is an important and exciting moment for Transcontinental, and I look forward to working with our leadership team as we pursue our next phase of growth. this is an important and exciting moment for transcontinental and i look forward to working with our leadership team as we pursue our next phase of growth Sam will now say a few words before turning the call over to Thomas and Donald to discuss our Q1 results. sam will now say a few words before turning the call over to thomas and donald to discuss our q1 results Over to you, Sam. Over to you, Sam. over to you sam

Speaker 7: Thank you for your kind words, Isabelle, and good afternoon, everyone. I strongly believe in the growth potential of our company, and I'm energized by the opportunity to turn that potential into reality. My objective is clear. Through discipline, profitable growth, and targeted acquisitions, as well as smart use of technology, including AI, we will build an innovative, high-performing organization, one that delivers real value to our customers across the retail, education, books, and information sectors. We have a strong balance sheet, businesses with a strong competitive advantages, and an outstanding team that has repeatedly proven its ability to execute. With the support of Isabelle and the board, I'm excited and confident as I embark on this next chapter with our leadership team. I also feel very fortunate to carry forward the experience and insights I've gained working closely with exceptional leaders such as Thomas. Thank you for your kind words, Isabelle, and good afternoon, everyone. thank you for your kind words isabelle and good afternoon everyone I strongly believe in the growth potential of our company, and I'm energized by the opportunity to turn that potential into reality. i strongly believe in the growth potential of our company and i'm energized by the opportunity to turn that potential into reality My objective is clear. my objective is clear Through discipline, profitable growth, and targeted acquisitions, as well as smart use of technology, including AI, we will build an innovative, high-performing organization, one that delivers real value to our customers across the retail, education, books, and information sectors. through discipline profitable growth and targeted acquisitions as well as smart use of technology including ai we will build an innovative high-performing organization one that delivers real value to our customers across the retail education books and information sectors We have a strong balance sheet, businesses with a strong competitive advantages, and an outstanding team that has repeatedly proven its ability to execute. we have a strong balance sheet businesses with a strong competitive advantages and an outstanding team that has repeatedly proven its ability to execute With the support of Isabelle and the board, I'm excited and confident as I embark on this next chapter with our leadership team. with the support of isabelle and the board i'm excited and confident as i embark on this next chapter with our leadership team I also feel very fortunate to carry forward the experience and insights I've gained working closely with exceptional leaders such as Thomas. i also feel very fortunate to carry forward the experience and insights i've gained working closely with exceptional leaders such as thomas Thomas, thank you for all your insights, coaching, and mentoring. I wish you all the best in what's to come. With that, I'll now turn it over to Thomas, and I look forward to speaking with many of you in the weeks ahead. Thomas, thank you for all your insights, coaching, and mentoring. thomas thank you for all your insights coaching and mentoring I wish you all the best in what's to come. i wish you all the best in what's to come With that, I'll now turn it over to Thomas, and I look forward to speaking with many of you in the weeks ahead. with that i'll now turn it over to thomas and i look forward to speaking with many of you in the weeks ahead

Speaker 11: Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Sam, and thank you, Isabelle. It's truly been an honor to work alongside with you, Isabelle, as well as Donald and so many talented colleagues around the organization. I have a great confidence in the future of the new TC Transcontinental because of your leadership and because of the exceptional talent I've encountered at every level of the company. I also want to say that the board has made excellent choices. Having worked closely with Sam and Pat over the years, I can attest to their talents, their high energy, and their readiness to take on these important new roles. I'm convinced they will do a tremendous job, and I wish them every success. Thank you, Isabelle, again, for your wise counsel. Thank you, Sam. thank you sam Thank you, Sam, and thank you, Isabelle. thank you sam and thank you isabelle It's truly been an honor to work alongside with you, Isabelle, as well as Donald and so many talented colleagues around the organization. it's truly been an honor to work alongside with you isabelle as well as donald and so many talented colleagues around the organization I have a great confidence in the future of the new TC Transcontinental because of your leadership and because of the exceptional talent I've encountered at every level of the company. i have a great confidence in the future of the new tc transcontinental because of your leadership and because of the exceptional talent i've encountered at every level of the company I also want to say that the board has made excellent choices. i also want to say that the board has made excellent choices Having worked closely with Sam and Pat over the years, I can attest to their talents, their high energy, and their readiness to take on these important new roles. having worked closely with sam and pat over the years i can attest to their talents their high energy and their readiness to take on these important new roles I'm convinced they will do a tremendous job, and I wish them every success. i'm convinced they will do a tremendous job and i wish them every success Thank you, Isabelle, again, for your wise counsel. thank you isabelle again for your wise counsel I also thank the Marcoux family, the board of directors, and the talented employees of TC Transcontinental for their unwavering support. Let's now turn to our Q1 continuing operations results. In the retail services and printing sector, our recent ISM acquisitions have enabled us to partially offset lower volumes in our traditional books and flyers printing activity. Profitability was also affected by price concessions. It is important to note that strategic price concessions are an important element of our toolkit to secure multiyear commitments from large customers for our traditional activity. In our media sector, we saw lower volumes, mainly attributable to the end of the contract related to the electronic tendering system. Let's keep in mind that this is a seasonal business, as Q3 and Q4 are the important quarters for the media sector. I also thank the Marcoux family, the board of directors, and the talented employees of TC Transcontinental for their unwavering support. i also thank the marcoux family the board of directors and the talented employees of tc transcontinental for their unwavering support Let's now turn to our Q1 continuing operations results. let's now turn to our q1 continuing operations results In the retail services and printing sector, our recent ISM acquisitions have enabled us to partially offset lower volumes in our traditional books and flyers printing activity. in the retail services and printing sector our recent ism acquisitions have enabled us to partially offset lower volumes in our traditional books and flyers printing activity Profitability was also affected by price concessions. profitability was also affected by price concessions It is important to note that strategic price concessions are an important element of our toolkit to secure multiyear commitments from large customers for our traditional activity. it is important to note that strategic price concessions are an important element of our toolkit to secure multiyear commitments from large customers for our traditional activity In our media sector, we saw lower volumes, mainly attributable to the end of the contract related to the electronic tendering system. in our media sector we saw lower volumes mainly attributable to the end of the contract related to the electronic tendering system Let's keep in mind that this is a seasonal business, as Q3 and Q4 are the important quarters for the media sector. let's keep in mind that this is a seasonal business as q3 and q4 are the important quarters for the media sector As this is my last call with you, I must say how confident I am to pass it on to Sam, two solid sectors, both well-advanced in their transformation and both with potential to grow. As an illustration of this, our flyers business continued to evolve. In response to a challenging flyer market dynamic, we're preparing to launch raddar in Ontario in the next few months, providing our customers with lower costs and greater reach. This will set the stage for further deployments as we see an opportunity for raddar to become a national advertising platform within the next 12 months. Another example is the growth of our in-store marketing business. As we continue the integration of the three acquisitions we made in 2025 that have reinforced our geographical footprint and expanded our offering, we're expecting to close yet another ISM acquisition soon within Q2. As this is my last call with you, I must say how confident I am to pass it on to Sam, two solid sectors, both well-advanced in their transformation and both with potential to grow. as this is my last call with you i must say how confident i am to pass it on to sam two solid sectors both well-advanced in their transformation and both with potential to grow As an illustration of this, our flyers business continued to evolve. as an illustration of this our flyers business continued to evolve In response to a challenging flyer market dynamic, we're preparing to launch raddar in Ontario in the next few months, providing our customers with lower costs and greater reach. in response to a challenging flyer market dynamic we're preparing to launch raddar in ontario in the next few months providing our customers with lower costs and greater reach This will set the stage for further deployments as we see an opportunity for raddar to become a national advertising platform within the next 12 months. this will set the stage for further deployments as we see an opportunity for raddar to become a national advertising platform within the next 12 months Another example is the growth of our in-store marketing business. another example is the growth of our in-store marketing business As we continue the integration of the three acquisitions we made in 2025 that have reinforced our geographical footprint and expanded our offering, we're expecting to close yet another ISM acquisition soon within Q2. as we continue the integration of the three acquisitions we made in 2025 that have reinforced our geographical footprint and expanded our offering we're expecting to close yet another ism acquisition soon within q2 We maintain, of course, an active pipeline for further other opportunities. In conclusion, I'm confident in our growth plans, and I believe that the new TC has a bright future ahead. On this, I will pass it over to you, Donald. We maintain, of course, an active pipeline for further other opportunities. we maintain of course an active pipeline for further other opportunities In conclusion, I'm confident in our growth plans, and I believe that the new TC has a bright future ahead. in conclusion i'm confident in our growth plans and i believe that the new tc has a bright future ahead On this, I will pass it over to you, Donald. on this i will pass it over to you donald

Speaker 2: Thank you, Thomas. It's been a real pleasure to work with you over the last six years, and I wish you the best. To you, Sam, congratulations on your new role. I'm confident you'll do a great job. Thank you, Thomas. thank you thomas It's been a real pleasure to work with you over the last six years, and I wish you the best. it's been a real pleasure to work with you over the last six years and i wish you the best To you, Sam, congratulations on your new role. to you sam congratulations on your new role I'm confident you'll do a great job. i'm confident you'll do a great job Moving to slide five of the earnings call presentation. For the first quarter of fiscal 2026, we reported a 2.3% increase in revenues from continuing operations versus the same quarter last year. This growth comes from acquisitions in our in-store marketing activities and a positive exchange rate impact. The growth was partially offset by lower volume and price concessions in our retail services and printing sector. Regarding profitability, consolidated adjusted EBITDA declined CAD 7.2 million or 17.9% to CAD 33.1 million. The decline was mainly due to lower volume and price concessions in the retail services and printing sector, partially offset by recent acquisitions and favorable exchange rate. The increase in our share price also contributed to higher incentive compensation expenses. Moving to slide five of the earnings call presentation. moving to slide five of the earnings call presentation For the first quarter of fiscal 2026, we reported a 2.3% increase in revenues from continuing operations versus the same quarter last year. for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 we reported a 2.3% increase in revenues from continuing operations versus the same quarter last year This growth comes from acquisitions in our in-store marketing activities and a positive exchange rate impact. this growth comes from acquisitions in our in-store marketing activities and a positive exchange rate impact The growth was partially offset by lower volume and price concessions in our retail services and printing sector. the growth was partially offset by lower volume and price concessions in our retail services and printing sector Regarding profitability, consolidated adjusted EBITDA declined CAD 7.2 million or 17.9% to CAD 33.1 million. regarding profitability consolidated adjusted ebitda declined cad 7.2 million or 17.9% to cad 33.1 million The decline was mainly due to lower volume and price concessions in the retail services and printing sector, partially offset by recent acquisitions and favorable exchange rate. the decline was mainly due to lower volume and price concessions in the retail services and printing sector partially offset by recent acquisitions and favorable exchange rate The increase in our share price also contributed to higher incentive compensation expenses. the increase in our share price also contributed to higher incentive compensation expenses Net financials expenses decreased by CAD 4.4 million-CAD 9.3 million, mainly due to a lower debt level following strong cash flow generation in the last twelve months. This was partially offset by lower interest income we earned last year from the proceeds of the sale of our industrial packaging activities before we declared a special dividend in April last year. Adjusted income tax decreased by CAD 4 million-CAD 1.5 million and represented an effective rate of 18.3%. This led to adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations of CAD 0.08 compared to CAD 0.10 in Q1 last year. While our results after Q1s are lower than last year, we remain confident in our outlook. Net financials expenses decreased by CAD 4.4 million - CAD 9.3 million, mainly due to a lower debt level following strong cash flow generation in the last twelve months. net financials expenses decreased by cad 4.4 million - cad 9.3 million mainly due to a lower debt level following strong cash flow generation in the last twelve months This was partially offset by lower interest income we earned last year from the proceeds of the sale of our industrial packaging activities before we declared a special dividend in April last year. this was partially offset by lower interest income we earned last year from the proceeds of the sale of our industrial packaging activities before we declared a special dividend in april last year Adjusted income tax decreased by CAD 4 million- CAD 1.5 million and represented an effective rate of 18.3%. adjusted income tax decreased by cad 4 million- cad 1.5 million and represented an effective rate of 18.3% This led to adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations of CAD 0.08 compared to CAD 0.10 in Q1 last year. this led to adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations of cad 0.08 compared to cad 0.10 in q1 last year While our results after Q1s are lower than last year, we remain confident in our outlook. while our results after q1s are lower than last year we remain confident in our outlook We expect adjusted EBITDA to be below last year in the second quarter before recovering in the second half of the year as we start seeing the positive impact of significant cost reductions and profit improvement initiatives. Now turning to cash flow. As expected and in line with normal seasonality, we saw negative working capital in the first quarter of 2026. At CAD 10.8 million working capital usage, it was, however, much better than the 36.4 million we had in Q1 last year. Improvement was mainly due to lower inventory. Our CapEx at CAD 11.9 million was in line with last year and on target to be around our guidance of CAD 55 million-CAD 60 million for the full year. We expect adjusted EBITDA to be below last year in the second quarter before recovering in the second half of the year as we start seeing the positive impact of significant cost reductions and profit improvement initiatives. we expect adjusted ebitda to be below last year in the second quarter before recovering in the second half of the year as we start seeing the positive impact of significant cost reductions and profit improvement initiatives Now turning to cash flow. now turning to cash flow As expected and in line with normal seasonality, we saw negative working capital in the first quarter of 2026. as expected and in line with normal seasonality we saw negative working capital in the first quarter of 2026 At CAD 10.8 million working capital usage, it was, however, much better than the 36.4 million we had in Q1 last year. at cad 10.8 million working capital usage it was however much better than the 36.4 million we had in q1 last year Improvement was mainly due to lower inventory. improvement was mainly due to lower inventory Our CapEx at CAD 11.9 million was in line with last year and on target to be around our guidance of CAD 55 million-CAD 60 million for the full year. our capex at cad 11.9 million was in line with last year and on target to be around our guidance of cad 55 million-cad 60 million for the full year Our adjusted net indebtedness ratio was at 1.69x at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2026, compared to 1.59x three months ago. While we expect to generate strong operating cash flows in the rest of the year, our adjusted net indebtedness ratio is expected to increase over the next two quarters before improving in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. As for the monetization of real estate, we expect to close the sale of one building in the next few months. Our financial position is solid. The board has approved today to return most of the proceeds from the sale of our packaging business to shareholders with a special dividend cash distribution of CAD 20 per share. Our adjusted net indebtedness ratio was at 1.69 x at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2026, compared to 1.59 x three months ago. our adjusted net indebtedness ratio was at 1.69 x at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2026 compared to 1.59 x three months ago While we expect to generate strong operating cash flows in the rest of the year, our adjusted net indebtedness ratio is expected to increase over the next two quarters before improving in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. while we expect to generate strong operating cash flows in the rest of the year our adjusted net indebtedness ratio is expected to increase over the next two quarters before improving in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 As for the monetization of real estate, we expect to close the sale of one building in the next few months. as for the monetization of real estate we expect to close the sale of one building in the next few months Our financial position is solid. our financial position is solid The board has approved today to return most of the proceeds from the sale of our packaging business to shareholders with a special dividend cash distribution of CAD 20 per share. the board has approved today to return most of the proceeds from the sale of our packaging business to shareholders with a special dividend cash distribution of cad 20 per share With the sale of our packaging business, we also sign a revised credit agreement with our banks, securing the funds to repay our CAD 250 million notes that are due in July 2026. The new agreement will also provide the flexibility to pursue our growth strategy. On that note, we will now proceed with the question period. With the sale of our packaging business, we also sign a revised credit agreement with our banks, securing the funds to repay our CAD 250 million notes that are due in July 2026. with the sale of our packaging business we also sign a revised credit agreement with our banks securing the funds to repay our cad 250 million notes that are due in july 2026 The new agreement will also provide the flexibility to pursue our growth strategy. the new agreement will also provide the flexibility to pursue our growth strategy On that note, we will now proceed with the question period. on that note we will now proceed with the question period

Speaker 6: Thank you. One moment, please. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you have a question, please press star followed by the one on your touch tone phone. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. Your questions will be pulled in the order they are received. Please ensure you lift the handset if you are using a speakerphone before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from Sean Stewart, TD Cowen. Your line is now open. Thank you. thank you One moment, please. one moment please Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. ladies and gentlemen we will now begin the question and answer session If you have a question, please press star followed by the one on your touch tone phone. if you have a question please press star followed by the one on your touch tone phone You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. you will hear a tone acknowledging your request Your questions will be pulled in the order they are received. your questions will be pulled in the order they are received Please ensure you lift the handset if you are using a speakerphone before pressing any keys. please ensure you lift the handset if you are using a speakerphone before pressing any keys One moment, please, for your first question. one moment please for your first question Your first question comes from Sean Stewart, TD Cowen. your first question comes from sean stewart td cowen Your line is now open. your line is now open

Speaker 8: Thanks. Good afternoon, everyone. Congratulations to Thomas, Sam, and Pat. I have a couple of questions. I guess just trying to dial in on the guidance that you would expect that adjusted net debt ratios are gonna increase the next couple of quarters before starting to improve in fiscal Q4. Can you give us a bit of perspective on what's feeding into that expectation? You know, I imagine a part of this is the back-end weighted cost savings coming through later in the year. Can you give some perspective on the dollar magnitude there and expected follow-through into 2027? Thanks. thanks Good afternoon, everyone. good afternoon everyone Congratulations to Thomas, Sam, and Pat. congratulations to thomas sam and pat I have a couple of questions. i have a couple of questions I guess just trying to dial in on the guidance that you would expect that adjusted net debt ratios are gonna increase the next couple of quarters before starting to improve in fiscal Q4. i guess just trying to dial in on the guidance that you would expect that adjusted net debt ratios are gonna increase the next couple of quarters before starting to improve in fiscal q4 Can you give us a bit of perspective on what's feeding into that expectation? can you give us a bit of perspective on what's feeding into that expectation You know, I imagine a part of this is the back-end weighted cost savings coming through later in the year. you know i imagine a part of this is the back-end weighted cost savings coming through later in the year Can you give some perspective on the dollar magnitude there and expected follow-through into 2027? can you give some perspective on the dollar magnitude there and expected follow-through into 2027

Speaker 2: Well, you're right. Actually, the cost saving not only will help on the debt-to-EBITDA ratio at the end of the quarter, but this is why also we're positive regarding maintaining EBITDA compared to last year. That's one thing. Second thing is when we gave guidance for Q2 and Q3, we include the possible acquisition that Thomas mentioned a bit earlier. There's some timing in payments. I will say lastly, the fourth quarter is always a very strong quarter for us in terms of EBITDA and free cash flow. Those are the key limits. Well, you're right. well you're right Actually, the cost saving not only will help on the debt-to-EBITDA ratio at the end of the quarter, but this is why also we're positive regarding maintaining EBITDA compared to last year. actually the cost saving not only will help on the debt-to-ebitda ratio at the end of the quarter but this is why also we're positive regarding maintaining ebitda compared to last year That's one thing. that's one thing Second thing is when we gave guidance for Q2 and Q3, we include the possible acquisition that Thomas mentioned a bit earlier. second thing is when we gave guidance for q2 and q3 we include the possible acquisition that thomas mentioned a bit earlier There's some timing in payments. there's some timing in payments I will say lastly, the fourth quarter is always a very strong quarter for us in terms of EBITDA and free cash flow. i will say lastly the fourth quarter is always a very strong quarter for us in terms of ebitda and free cash flow Those are the key limits. those are the key limits

Speaker 8: Okay, thanks for that. You touched on an expectation that there'll be one property sale in the near term. Any updated thoughts on, I believe there was at least two properties that you had line of sight on and maybe some more behind that, context on expected proceeds and timing of additional real estate sales. Okay, thanks for that. okay thanks for that You touched on an expectation that there'll be one property sale in the near term. you touched on an expectation that there'll be one property sale in the near term Any updated thoughts on, I believe there was at least two properties that you had line of sight on and maybe some more behind that, context on expected proceeds and timing of additional real estate sales. any updated thoughts on i believe there was at least two properties that you had line of sight on and maybe some more behind that context on expected proceeds and timing of additional real estate sales

Speaker 2: Yeah. The one that's close in the pipeline and hopefully that will close in the next few months is in order of CAD 30 million of value. So that's one of the big one that we had in the pipeline. I will say for the rest of market, it's still a market. Depending on the region where you are, it's, I will say, it's kind of slow, and it will depend also what's going on in the current global economy. We're confident at least to close this one in fiscal year, and we'll see the timing for the other ones. We have two other ones in the pipeline also. A small one in the U.S. and one other one in the south of Montreal. Yeah. yeah The one that's close in the pipeline and hopefully that will close in the next few months is in order of CAD 30 million of value. the one that's close in the pipeline and hopefully that will close in the next few months is in order of cad 30 million of value So that's one of the big one that we had in the pipeline. so that's one of the big one that we had in the pipeline I will say for the rest of market, it's still a market. i will say for the rest of market it's still a market Depending on the region where you are, it's, I will say, it's kind of slow, and it will depend also what's going on in the current global economy. depending on the region where you are it's i will say it's kind of slow and it will depend also what's going on in the current global economy We're confident at least to close this one in fiscal year, and we'll see the timing for the other ones. we're confident at least to close this one in fiscal year and we'll see the timing for the other ones We have two other ones in the pipeline also. we have two other ones in the pipeline also A small one in the U.S. and one other one in the south of Montreal. a small one in the u.s and one other one in the south of montreal

Speaker 8: Okay. Just one last question from me. Your credit rating was downgraded yesterday. Any thoughts on how that changes your overall cost to capital, perspective on, I guess, higher borrowing costs going forward? Okay. okay Just one last question from me. just one last question from me Your credit rating was downgraded yesterday. your credit rating was downgraded yesterday Any thoughts on how that changes your overall cost to capital, perspective on, I guess, higher borrowing costs going forward? any thoughts on how that changes your overall cost to capital perspective on i guess higher borrowing costs going forward

Speaker 2: Well, not really because the new financing, as I mentioned in my opening comment that we put in place, will be based more on debt to EBITDA ratio. That current rating pricing will be close to the pricing we had regarding BBB- or investment grade. As far as, you know, the investment grade for us, it's more a question that the size of the business because the balance sheet, as you can see, will be very solid. It's more a question of the size of the business regarding the decision by the agency. Well, not really because the new financing, as I mentioned in my opening comment that we put in place, will be based more on debt to EBITDA ratio. well not really because the new financing as i mentioned in my opening comment that we put in place will be based more on debt to ebitda ratio That current rating pricing will be close to the pricing we had regarding BBB - or investment grade. that current rating pricing will be close to the pricing we had regarding bbb - or investment grade As far as, you know, the investment grade for us, it's more a question that the size of the business because the balance sheet, as you can see, will be very solid. as far as you know the investment grade for us it's more a question that the size of the business because the balance sheet as you can see will be very solid It's more a question of the size of the business regarding the decision by the agency. it's more a question of the size of the business regarding the decision by the agency

Speaker 8: Okay. Thanks very much for all of that. I'll get back in the queue. Okay. okay Thanks very much for all of that. thanks very much for all of that I'll get back in the queue. i'll get back in the queue

Speaker 6: Your next question comes from Nikolai Goroupitch with CIBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open. Your next question comes from Nikolai Goroupitch with CIBC Capital Markets. your next question comes from nikolai goroupitch with cibc capital markets Your line is now open. your line is now open

Speaker 5: Hi. Could you elaborate more on the price concessions you took, how these developments unfolded and potentially quantify the impact on revenue growth as well? Hi. hi Could you elaborate more on the price concessions you took, how these developments unfolded and potentially quantify the impact on revenue growth as well? could you elaborate more on the price concessions you took how these developments unfolded and potentially quantify the impact on revenue growth as well

Speaker 2: The price concession we took in the first quarter is, I would say, it's north of CAD 1 million. It's in that region, so we're annually it's about CAD 4 million. This is something that when we do important renewal that we had in the past, and we always find ways in the coming quarters to with our synergies or efficiencies to compensate for that. Since we at the beginning of new contracts, it hit us directly in the P&L for this quarter. The price concession we took in the first quarter is, I would say, it's north of CAD 1 million. the price concession we took in the first quarter is i would say it's north of cad 1 million It's in that region, so we're annually it's about CAD 4 million. it's in that region so we're annually it's about cad 4 million This is something that when we do important renewal that we had in the past, and we always find ways in the coming quarters to with our synergies or efficiencies to compensate for that. this is something that when we do important renewal that we had in the past and we always find ways in the coming quarters to with our synergies or efficiencies to compensate for that Since we at the beginning of new contracts, it hit us directly in the P&L for this quarter. since we at the beginning of new contracts it hit us directly in the p&l for this quarter

Speaker 5: Okay. I see. Thanks. Could you also provide some more detail on the size of the new acquisition you're expecting to close? How do you expect the rest of the year to shape up on the M&A front? Okay. okay I see. i see Thanks. thanks Could you also provide some more detail on the size of the new acquisition you're expecting to close? could you also provide some more detail on the size of the new acquisition you're expecting to close How do you expect the rest of the year to shape up on the M&A front? how do you expect the rest of the year to shape up on the m&a front

Speaker 2: We're confident, as we said in the comment, we're pretty much advanced on discussion. Obviously, we need to close some transaction. In terms of size, we won't disclose any amount, but you can expect that it is in the area we did for this group, over the last few years. Not a big one compared to what we're doing in packaging, but very important for us, and that will create a lot of good synergies, on cost side and commercial side also. We're confident, as we said in the comment, we're pretty much advanced on discussion. we're confident as we said in the comment we're pretty much advanced on discussion Obviously, we need to close some transaction. obviously we need to close some transaction In terms of size, we won't disclose any amount, but you can expect that it is in the area we did for this group, over the last few years. in terms of size we won't disclose any amount but you can expect that it is in the area we did for this group over the last few years Not a big one compared to what we're doing in packaging, but very important for us, and that will create a lot of good synergies, on cost side and commercial side also. not a big one compared to what we're doing in packaging but very important for us and that will create a lot of good synergies on cost side and commercial side also

Speaker 5: Okay, great. I see. Thank you. I'll turn it over. Okay, great. okay great I see. i see Thank you. thank you I'll turn it over. i'll turn it over

Speaker 6: Adam Shine with National Bank. Your next question comes from Adam Shine with National Bank. Your line is now open. Adam Shine with National Bank. adam shine with national bank Your next question comes from Adam Shine with National Bank. your next question comes from adam shine with national bank Your line is now open. your line is now open

Speaker 1: Okay. Thanks a lot. Sam, congratulations. Of course, Thomas, it was wonderful interacting with you, and I wish you all the best. Maybe we just start in terms of, you know, the Q1 disclosure around ISM timing, where the volumes were a little bit lighter in the Q1. Can you just maybe speak to that, both in terms of quantum and, you know, what was the driver of that? Okay. okay Thanks a lot. thanks a lot Sam, congratulations. sam congratulations Of course, Thomas, it was wonderful interacting with you, and I wish you all the best. of course thomas it was wonderful interacting with you and i wish you all the best Maybe we just start in terms of, you know, the Q1 disclosure around ISM timing, where the volumes were a little bit lighter in the Q1. maybe we just start in terms of you know the q1 disclosure around ism timing where the volumes were a little bit lighter in the q1 Can you just maybe speak to that, both in terms of quantum and, you know, what was the driver of that? can you just maybe speak to that both in terms of quantum and you know what was the driver of that

Speaker 2: You know, regarding ISM, that was for us in Q1. We were expecting when we disclose at the end of fiscal year, you know, on the retail side because of the current condition in Ontario and the rest of Canada will be tough. ISM, we were expecting a little bit better in this quarter, but it's mostly timing. Having said that, if you look at the impact of pure growth in the quarter, this is something we disclose in our financial notes. It's about 5% decline. We still expect that overall in fiscal 2026, we will have positive organic growth, excluding acquisition for that group. It's mostly because of timing of some contract renewal or some, you know, stores that delayed some of the improvement they were supposed to make in first quarter. You know, regarding ISM, that was for us in Q1. you know regarding ism that was for us in q1 We were expecting when we disclose at the end of fiscal year, you know, on the retail side because of the current condition in Ontario and the rest of Canada will be tough. we were expecting when we disclose at the end of fiscal year you know on the retail side because of the current condition in ontario and the rest of canada will be tough ISM, we were expecting a little bit better in this quarter, but it's mostly timing. ism we were expecting a little bit better in this quarter but it's mostly timing Having said that, if you look at the impact of pure growth in the quarter, this is something we disclose in our financial notes. having said that if you look at the impact of pure growth in the quarter this is something we disclose in our financial notes It's about 5% decline. it's about 5% decline We still expect that overall in fiscal 2026, we will have positive organic growth, excluding acquisition for that group. we still expect that overall in fiscal 2026 we will have positive organic growth excluding acquisition for that group It's mostly because of timing of some contract renewal or some, you know, stores that delayed some of the improvement they were supposed to make in first quarter. it's mostly because of timing of some contract renewal or some you know stores that delayed some of the improvement they were supposed to make in first quarter We're still very confident for the rest of the year. We're still very confident for the rest of the year. we're still very confident for the rest of the year

Speaker 1: Okay. No, I appreciate that. Then obviously, you know, interesting development in regards to raddar going into Ontario. I didn't think that was gonna happen until, like, a year or two from now. Is that based on some negotiation with Torstar that allows this to happen, or is there something different going on? Okay. okay No, I appreciate that. no i appreciate that Then obviously, you know, interesting development in regards to raddar going into Ontario. then obviously you know interesting development in regards to raddar going into ontario I didn't think that was gonna happen until, like, a year or two from now. i didn't think that was gonna happen until like a year or two from now Is that based on some negotiation with Torstar that allows this to happen, or is there something different going on? is that based on some negotiation with torstar that allows this to happen or is there something different going on

Speaker 2: Well, obviously, they're an important partner of us, so anything we will do in Ontario, rest of Canada will be in discussion, negotiation, in collaboration with them. You know, regarding the timing, we say that we will do more in Ontario. The timing of where we will be doing, all Ontario, rest of Canada is still not decided, but we will certainly do some tests in the coming quarter. You know, it's important for us to stabilize this business, and raddar is a great solution for us regarding that. Well, obviously, they're an important partner of us, so anything we will do in Ontario, rest of Canada will be in discussion, negotiation, in collaboration with them. well obviously they're an important partner of us so anything we will do in ontario rest of canada will be in discussion negotiation in collaboration with them You know, regarding the timing, we say that we will do more in Ontario. you know regarding the timing we say that we will do more in ontario The timing of where we will be doing, all Ontario, rest of Canada is still not decided, but we will certainly do some tests in the coming quarter. the timing of where we will be doing all ontario rest of canada is still not decided but we will certainly do some tests in the coming quarter You know, it's important for us to stabilize this business, and raddar is a great solution for us regarding that. you know it's important for us to stabilize this business and raddar is a great solution for us regarding that

Speaker 1: Just to be clear, if Torstar is doing, you know, flyers and distributing it in their territory for you, are you looking to offer raddar as sort of a complementary alternative solution to replace those flyers? It comes in as an alternative solution for customers to decide upon. Just to be clear, if Torstar is doing, you know, flyers and distributing it in their territory for you, are you looking to offer raddar as sort of a complementary alternative solution to replace those flyers? just to be clear if torstar is doing you know flyers and distributing it in their territory for you are you looking to offer raddar as sort of a complementary alternative solution to replace those flyers It comes in as an alternative solution for customers to decide upon. it comes in as an alternative solution for customers to decide upon

Speaker 2: Well, all flyers are done by us, it's just we're talking about distribution. Well, all flyers are done by us, it's just we're talking about distribution. well all flyers are done by us it's just we're talking about distribution

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 2: What you might see in coming months is some region might have a distribution of raddar, but they will still like in, you know, be some flyer that might be done directly by Canada Post. What we're saying is we will do in some region in Ontario some tests regarding raddar in coming months in Ontario. Yeah. What you might see in coming months is some region might have a distribution of raddar, but they will still like in, you know, be some flyer that might be done directly by Canada Post. what you might see in coming months is some region might have a distribution of raddar but they will still like in you know be some flyer that might be done directly by canada post What we're saying is we will do in some region in Ontario some tests regarding raddar in coming months in Ontario. what we're saying is we will do in some region in ontario some tests regarding raddar in coming months in ontario Yeah. yeah

Speaker 1: Okay. No, I appreciate that. Maybe, you know, given that Isabelle's on the line. Hi, Isabelle. Just a quick question in terms of the nature of the new sort of structure, just having a COO, is that something where we kinda look upon Patrick as pseudo-president, Sam as CEO, although he does have both titles, or will get both titles? Or do we look upon this as something whereby there's maybe more in play regarding COO in regards to a future transitionary dynamic? Just curious. Okay. okay No, I appreciate that. no i appreciate that Maybe, you know, given that Isabelle's on the line. maybe you know given that isabelle's on the line Hi, Isabelle. hi isabelle Just a quick question in terms of the nature of the new sort of structure, just having a COO, is that something where we kinda look upon Patrick as pseudo-president, Sam as CEO, although he does have both titles, or will get both titles? just a quick question in terms of the nature of the new sort of structure just having a coo is that something where we kinda look upon patrick as pseudo-president sam as ceo although he does have both titles or will get both titles Or do we look upon this as something whereby there's maybe more in play regarding COO in regards to a future transitionary dynamic? or do we look upon this as something whereby there's maybe more in play regarding coo in regards to a future transitionary dynamic Just curious. just curious

Speaker 3: No, no. You're way ahead. There's no No, no. no no You're way ahead. you're way ahead There's no there's no

Speaker 1: Okay. Okay. okay

Speaker 3: There's just an upcoming transition. I think you should look at Sam as a very strong growth-oriented person, deal maker. He's done M&A for the company for the past 18 years, and you should look at Patrick Brayley as a true operator, innovator, knowing print so well. A great team with both of them. I think we have one plus one is 2.5. There's just an upcoming transition. there's just an upcoming transition I think you should look at Sam as a very strong growth-oriented person, deal maker. i think you should look at sam as a very strong growth-oriented person deal maker He's done M&A for the company for the past 18 years, and you should look at Patrick Brayley as a true operator, innovator, knowing print so well. he's done m&a for the company for the past 18 years and you should look at patrick brayley as a true operator innovator knowing print so well A great team with both of them. a great team with both of them I think we have one plus one is 2.5. i think we have one plus one is 2.5

Speaker 1: Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you. I'll queue up again. Okay. okay I appreciate that. i appreciate that Thank you. thank you I'll queue up again. i'll queue up again

Speaker 6: Stephen MacLeod with BMO Capital Markets. Your next question comes from Stephen MacLeod with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is now open. Stephen MacLeod with BMO Capital Markets. stephen macleod with bmo capital markets Your next question comes from Stephen MacLeod with BMO Capital Markets. your next question comes from stephen macleod with bmo capital markets Your line is now open. your line is now open

Speaker 10: Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Thomas, congratulations on your tenure, and congrats to Sam and Patrick as well. Just wanted to touch on a couple of things. Just firstly with respect to ISM, I mean, you sorta touched upon a pending transaction, or one that's in advanced discussions. I was just wondering if you could just remind us kind of the strategy with ISM M&A. Is it about filling in geographic coverage, or is it more about broadening your customer base, or is it a little bit of both? Thank you. thank you Good evening, everyone. good evening everyone Thomas, congratulations on your tenure, and congrats to Sam and Patrick as well. thomas congratulations on your tenure and congrats to sam and patrick as well Just wanted to touch on a couple of things. just wanted to touch on a couple of things Just firstly with respect to ISM, I mean, you sorta touched upon a pending transaction, or one that's in advanced discussions. just firstly with respect to ism i mean you sorta touched upon a pending transaction or one that's in advanced discussions I was just wondering if you could just remind us kind of the strategy with ISM M&A. i was just wondering if you could just remind us kind of the strategy with ism m&a Is it about filling in geographic coverage, or is it more about broadening your customer base, or is it a little bit of both? is it about filling in geographic coverage or is it more about broadening your customer base or is it a little bit of both

Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a little bit of both. We also already, you know, moving in Western Canada with our own platform on the retail side, so we're active over there. But it's adding products, but also it will be geographical. We see many opportunities in the next few years to grow that business. So yes. It's to expand our offering to our own clients, also. Yeah, it's a little bit of both. yeah it's a little bit of both We also already, you know, moving in Western Canada with our own platform on the retail side, so we're active over there. we also already you know moving in western canada with our own platform on the retail side so we're active over there But it's adding products, but also it will be geographical. but it's adding products but also it will be geographical We see many opportunities in the next few years to grow that business. we see many opportunities in the next few years to grow that business So yes. so yes It's to expand our offering to our own clients, also. it's to expand our offering to our own clients also

Speaker 10: Okay. That's Okay. okay That's that's

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 10: Sorry, go ahead. Sorry, go ahead. sorry go ahead

Speaker 11: No, no. I mean, I was reinsisting on Donald's message. It is really both the geographic reach and the product offering. No, no. no no I mean, I was reinsisting on Donald's message. i mean i was reinsisting on donald's message It is really both the geographic reach and the product offering. it is really both the geographic reach and the product offering

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 11: At the same time. It's both. At the same time. at the same time It's both. it's both

Speaker 10: Okay, that's helpful. Are there any? When you think about both of those vectors, geographic and product, I mean, are there any notable geographies or products where you're underrepresented? Okay, that's helpful. okay that's helpful Are there any? are there any When you think about both of those vectors, geographic and product, I mean, are there any notable geographies or products where you're underrepresented? when you think about both of those vectors geographic and product i mean are there any notable geographies or products where you're underrepresented

Speaker 2: In terms of product, it's a very large market, so we can go into a lot of detail. We have a very good position in the product that we deliver for our main clients right now. In terms of regional, geographical, we're solid in Quebec and Ontario. We have some operations in Western Canada, but I think we have the right balance regarding where the business is done actually. In terms of product, it's a very large market, so we can go into a lot of detail. in terms of product it's a very large market so we can go into a lot of detail We have a very good position in the product that we deliver for our main clients right now. we have a very good position in the product that we deliver for our main clients right now In terms of regional, geographical, we're solid in Quebec and Ontario. in terms of regional geographical we're solid in quebec and ontario We have some operations in Western Canada, but I think we have the right balance regarding where the business is done actually. we have some operations in western canada but i think we have the right balance regarding where the business is done actually

Speaker 11: We were underrepresented in Quebec. We were underrepresented in Quebec. we were underrepresented in quebec

Speaker 10: Okay. Okay. okay

Speaker 11: We've acquired the businesses in Quebec to balance indeed the footprint between Ontario and Quebec. We're pretty okay. We've acquired the businesses in Quebec to balance indeed the footprint between Ontario and Quebec. we've acquired the businesses in quebec to balance indeed the footprint between ontario and quebec We're pretty okay. we're pretty okay

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 10: Okay. That's great. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify, Donald, did you say that ISM was down 5% in Q1? Okay. okay That's great. that's great Thank you. thank you I just wanted to clarify, Donald, did you say that ISM was down 5% in Q1? i just wanted to clarify donald did you say that ism was down 5% in q1

Speaker 2: Yes. Yes. yes

Speaker 10: Maybe just turning to leverage, as you think about your. Is it still fair to assume that your net debt EBITDA target exiting 2026 is in that 1.6-1.7x range? Maybe just turning to leverage, as you think about your. maybe just turning to leverage as you think about your Is it still fair to assume that your net debt EBITDA target exiting 2026 is in that 1.6-1.7 x range? is it still fair to assume that your net debt ebitda target exiting 2026 is in that 1.6-1.7 x range

Speaker 2: Well, first, we don't have a target. This is something. Well, first, we don't have a target. well first we don't have a target This is something. this is something

Speaker 10: Okay. Okay. okay

Speaker 2: that we said that, we're not doing acquisition. It was the case before, and even though the rating is not there anymore, we will remain very prudent with the balance sheet. We have a solid balance sheet, and the idea is to maintain it to give us the flexibility to do M&A. I would say that we don't have a target, but we're right now, we can be in the zone of 1.70-2, depending on timing of acquisition. But other than acquisition, we should be under two and going, you know, very rapidly close to one because this business, our business will manage a lot of free cash flow in the coming years. If there's no acquisition, we should be in a very good position. that we said that, we're not doing acquisition. that we said that we're not doing acquisition It was the case before, and even though the rating is not there anymore, we will remain very prudent with the balance sheet. it was the case before and even though the rating is not there anymore we will remain very prudent with the balance sheet We have a solid balance sheet, and the idea is to maintain it to give us the flexibility to do M&A. we have a solid balance sheet and the idea is to maintain it to give us the flexibility to do m&a I would say that we don't have a target, but we're right now, we can be in the zone of 1.70-2, depending on timing of acquisition. i would say that we don't have a target but we're right now we can be in the zone of 1.70-2 depending on timing of acquisition But other than acquisition, we should be under two and going, you know, very rapidly close to one because this business, our business will manage a lot of free cash flow in the coming years. but other than acquisition we should be under two and going you know very rapidly close to one because this business our business will manage a lot of free cash flow in the coming years If there's no acquisition, we should be in a very good position. if there's no acquisition we should be in a very good position

Speaker 10: Okay. That's very helpful. Maybe just finally, if you're able to give some color around it, can you give some guidance or color on what the magnitude of the corporate cost savings might be in the back half of the year? Okay. okay That's very helpful. that's very helpful Maybe just finally, if you're able to give some color around it, can you give some guidance or color on what the magnitude of the corporate cost savings might be in the back half of the year? maybe just finally if you're able to give some color around it can you give some guidance or color on what the magnitude of the corporate cost savings might be in the back half of the year

Speaker 2: You know, we're working on it, but it depends also on the TSA we have with ProAmpac right now because we will, you know, we will work with them. We said over the next two years is to save, you know, roughly CAD 30 million of corporate cost. The timing still need to be established regarding exactly when we'll be able to do some movement. Some of it will come in the second half, and some of it will be mostly next year for full run rate. You know, we're working on it, but it depends also on the TSA we have with ProAmpac right now because we will, you know, we will work with them. you know we're working on it but it depends also on the tsa we have with proampac right now because we will you know we will work with them We said over the next two years is to save, you know, roughly CAD 30 million of corporate cost. we said over the next two years is to save you know roughly cad 30 million of corporate cost The timing still need to be established regarding exactly when we'll be able to do some movement. the timing still need to be established regarding exactly when we'll be able to do some movement Some of it will come in the second half, and some of it will be mostly next year for full run rate. some of it will come in the second half and some of it will be mostly next year for full run rate

Speaker 10: Okay, that's great. Thanks so much for the color, guys. Appreciate it. Okay, that's great. okay that's great Thanks so much for the color, guys. thanks so much for the color guys Appreciate it. appreciate it

Speaker 6: Your next question comes from Maher Yaghi with Scotiabank. Your line is now open. Your next question comes from Maher Yaghi with Scotiabank. your next question comes from maher yaghi with scotiabank Your line is now open. your line is now open

Speaker 4: I just wanted to ask you a question. You know, putting aside the incentive compensation cost increase, just, you know, on the retail and services and printing. I was trying to figure out the drop in organic revenue of CAD 6.7 million came with a drop of CAD 5 million approximately on the EBITDA side. Seems pretty high. Can you just help me understand? You mentioned earlier that pricing was about CAD 1 million. So I was trying to figure out why the EBITDA decrease was so elevated compared to the revenue drop. Thank you. I just wanted to ask you a question. i just wanted to ask you a question You know, putting aside the incentive compensation cost increase, just, you know, on the retail and services and printing. you know putting aside the incentive compensation cost increase just you know on the retail and services and printing I was trying to figure out the drop in organic revenue of CAD 6.7 million came with a drop of CAD 5 million approximately on the EBITDA side. i was trying to figure out the drop in organic revenue of cad 6.7 million came with a drop of cad 5 million approximately on the ebitda side Seems pretty high. seems pretty high Can you just help me understand? can you just help me understand You mentioned earlier that pricing was about CAD 1 million. you mentioned earlier that pricing was about cad 1 million So I was trying to figure out why the EBITDA decrease was so elevated compared to the revenue drop. so i was trying to figure out why the ebitda decrease was so elevated compared to the revenue drop Thank you. thank you

Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, yeah, you're right. For sure, price concession north of CAD 1 million as an impact. Also, where we had some decrease is in the distribution of flyers in the rest of Canada. You know that this is very high margin for us. That had an impact for sure also. I will say that that's the mix that didn't help us on the EBITDA side versus what we lost on the sales side. Yeah. yeah Well, yeah, you're right. well yeah you're right For sure, price concession north of CAD 1 million as an impact. for sure price concession north of cad 1 million as an impact Also, where we had some decrease is in the distribution of flyers in the rest of Canada. also where we had some decrease is in the distribution of flyers in the rest of canada You know that this is very high margin for us. you know that this is very high margin for us That had an impact for sure also. that had an impact for sure also I will say that that's the mix that didn't help us on the EBITDA side versus what we lost on the sales side. i will say that that's the mix that didn't help us on the ebitda side versus what we lost on the sales side

Speaker 4: Okay. Is that running through the P&L completely now, or there could be, like, an additional step-down function in Q2 on that side? Okay. okay Is that running through the P&L completely now, or there could be, like, an additional step-down function in Q2 on that side? is that running through the p&l completely now or there could be like an additional step-down function in q2 on that side

Speaker 2: When you said step-down function, what do you mean by it? When you said step-down function, what do you mean by it? when you said step-down function what do you mean by it

Speaker 4: I mean the lower profitability from the lower distribution that you have in the rest of Canada. Is that running through or there are additional geographies that will be affected in Q2 that have not been affected yet? I mean the lower profitability from the lower distribution that you have in the rest of Canada. i mean the lower profitability from the lower distribution that you have in the rest of canada Is that running through or there are additional geographies that will be affected in Q2 that have not been affected yet? is that running through or there are additional geographies that will be affected in q2 that have not been affected yet

Speaker 2: Well, what we said, and that's what I said in my opening comments, we remain confident for the full year to be stable versus last year. The impact you see in the first quarter should be roughly the same in the second quarter because the cost saving program we put in place and some other action we're taking will start to kick more in the second half of the year. Well, what we said, and that's what I said in my opening comments, we remain confident for the full year to be stable versus last year. well what we said and that's what i said in my opening comments we remain confident for the full year to be stable versus last year The impact you see in the first quarter should be roughly the same in the second quarter because the cost saving program we put in place and some other action we're taking will start to kick more in the second half of the year. the impact you see in the first quarter should be roughly the same in the second quarter because the cost saving program we put in place and some other action we're taking will start to kick more in the second half of the year

Speaker 4: You know, looking back at the revenue line, you mentioned you're you know launching raddar in the rest of the country. How should we think about the revenue trajectory in the second half if you're launching that process in Q2? You know, looking back at the revenue line, you mentioned you're you know launching raddar in the rest of the country. you know looking back at the revenue line you mentioned you're you know launching raddar in the rest of the country How should we think about the revenue trajectory in the second half if you're launching that process in Q2? how should we think about the revenue trajectory in the second half if you're launching that process in q2

Speaker 2: Yeah. Hard to say for the moment because we don't know at which speed the progress will come. As we said, when we have this transition for Quebec and also a little bit of BC, you know, for sure, top line will go down. The most important for us is to maintain the EBITDA. It's really hard to say what will be the impact of percentage. It depends on the timing. The reason, to be clear, that the top line will be affected is that we're using less paper, therefore, it does have an impact, but the VA and the EBITDA is not affected. We saw the impact in Quebec. It's hard for us to say right now because it depends, again, at the speed the progress will go. It will affect the top line, for sure. Yeah. yeah Hard to say for the moment because we don't know at which speed the progress will come. hard to say for the moment because we don't know at which speed the progress will come As we said, when we have this transition for Quebec and also a little bit of BC, you know, for sure, top line will go down. as we said when we have this transition for quebec and also a little bit of bc you know for sure top line will go down The most important for us is to maintain the EBITDA. the most important for us is to maintain the ebitda It's really hard to say what will be the impact of percentage. it's really hard to say what will be the impact of percentage It depends on the timing. it depends on the timing The reason, to be clear, that the top line will be affected is that we're using less paper, therefore, it does have an impact, but the VA and the EBITDA is not affected. the reason to be clear that the top line will be affected is that we're using less paper therefore it does have an impact but the va and the ebitda is not affected We saw the impact in Quebec. we saw the impact in quebec It's hard for us to say right now because it depends, again, at the speed the progress will go. it's hard for us to say right now because it depends again at the speed the progress will go It will affect the top line, for sure. it will affect the top line for sure It will stabilize the EBITDA, and this is the most important thing for that part of the business. It will stabilize the EBITDA, and this is the most important thing for that part of the business. it will stabilize the ebitda and this is the most important thing for that part of the business

Speaker 4: Yeah. No, I totally get that. Maybe just if you can give us the total revenue that you currently generate that could eventually transition to raddar for the rest of Canada, just to get an understanding of how much, you know, we're talking about. Yeah. yeah No, I totally get that. no i totally get that Maybe just if you can give us the total revenue that you currently generate that could eventually transition to raddar for the rest of Canada, just to get an understanding of how much, you know, we're talking about. maybe just if you can give us the total revenue that you currently generate that could eventually transition to raddar for the rest of canada just to get an understanding of how much you know we're talking about

Speaker 2: Well, this is something that Yan can give you some more color offline. Well, this is something that Yan can give you some more color offline. well this is something that yan can give you some more color offline

Speaker 4: Okay, great. Okay, great. okay great

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 4: Just on the leverage side, you know, you know, there's a lot of wacky, I mean, you know, ratios going on now that, you know, you still haven't cycled through the P&L and you're on a pro forma basis. Let's say a year from now, Donald, you know, where would you like that leverage to land? Just on the leverage side, you know, you know, there's a lot of wacky, I mean, you know, ratios going on now that, you know, you still haven't cycled through the P&L and you're on a pro forma basis. just on the leverage side you know you know there's a lot of wacky i mean you know ratios going on now that you know you still haven't cycled through the p&l and you're on a pro forma basis Let's say a year from now, Donald, you know, where would you like that leverage to land? let's say a year from now donald you know where would you like that leverage to land

Speaker 2: Well, again, it depends on the timing of acquisition. As Sam mentioned in his comments, we're confident to grow the business on the ISM. Therefore, we will be active on acquisition. We have a business that will generate a lot of free cash flow. This is the business I mentioned that will need maybe CAD 50-55 million of CapEx. We don't have a target for that. Obviously, the approach remains the same for us to be prudent regarding the balance sheet. We're confident regarding our balance sheet as we speak right now. We will have room for acquisition. If there's no acquisition, we don't mind to get to a position of, you know, 1x debt to EBITDA, but it's not a target for us. Well, again, it depends on the timing of acquisition. well again it depends on the timing of acquisition As Sam mentioned in his comments, we're confident to grow the business on the ISM. as sam mentioned in his comments we're confident to grow the business on the ism Therefore, we will be active on acquisition. therefore we will be active on acquisition We have a business that will generate a lot of free cash flow. we have a business that will generate a lot of free cash flow This is the business I mentioned that will need maybe CAD 50-55 million of CapEx. this is the business i mentioned that will need maybe cad 50-55 million of capex We don't have a target for that. we don't have a target for that Obviously, the approach remains the same for us to be prudent regarding the balance sheet. obviously the approach remains the same for us to be prudent regarding the balance sheet We're confident regarding our balance sheet as we speak right now. we're confident regarding our balance sheet as we speak right now We will have room for acquisition. we will have room for acquisition If there's no acquisition, we don't mind to get to a position of, you know, 1x debt to EBITDA, but it's not a target for us. if there's no acquisition we don't mind to get to a position of you know 1x debt to ebitda but it's not a target for us The target for us is to stabilize the business on the flyer side and to grow the business on the ISM, obviously, organic growth and acquisition. The target for us is to stabilize the business on the flyer side and to grow the business on the ISM, obviously, organic growth and acquisition. the target for us is to stabilize the business on the flyer side and to grow the business on the ism obviously organic growth and acquisition

Speaker 4: Okay. Okay. okay

Speaker 2: More the way to look at it while maintaining a strong balance sheet. More the way to look at it while maintaining a strong balance sheet. more the way to look at it while maintaining a strong balance sheet

Speaker 4: Okay, maybe I'll ask it a different way. Assuming, you know, the M&A transactions are available to you and everything, where do you think the business could run long term in terms of leverage? What level would you be comfortable taking the leverage up to? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Okay, maybe I'll ask it a different way. okay maybe i'll ask it a different way Assuming, you know, the M&A transactions are available to you and everything, where do you think the business could run long term in terms of leverage? assuming you know the m&a transactions are available to you and everything where do you think the business could run long term in terms of leverage What level would you be comfortable taking the leverage up to? what level would you be comfortable taking the leverage up to That's what I'm trying to figure out. that's what i'm trying to figure out

Speaker 2: Well, I would say, honestly, it's a little bit of a hypothetical question. Like, when we did in the past coverage, we were comfortable to go up as far as 3.50 because we were strongly confident in our ability to get back under two, and that's what we did, that's what we deliver. We don't see, and this is something we mentioned earlier, any big acquisition coming the ISM, so I don't see any big acquisition that will push us like above three. It's, like I said, we think we should be in a range of 1.50-2.50 in the next months. If there's no acquisition, we don't mind to be, you know, close to 1x debt to EBITDA. Well, I would say, honestly, it's a little bit of a hypothetical question. well i would say honestly it's a little bit of a hypothetical question Like, when we did in the past coverage, we were comfortable to go up as far as 3.50 because we were strongly confident in our ability to get back under two, and that's what we did, that's what we deliver. like when we did in the past coverage we were comfortable to go up as far as 3.50 because we were strongly confident in our ability to get back under two and that's what we did that's what we deliver We don't see, and this is something we mentioned earlier, any big acquisition coming the ISM, so I don't see any big acquisition that will push us like above three. we don't see and this is something we mentioned earlier any big acquisition coming the ism so i don't see any big acquisition that will push us like above three It's, like I said, we think we should be in a range of 1.50-2.50 in the next months. it's like i said we think we should be in a range of 1.50-2.50 in the next months If there's no acquisition, we don't mind to be, you know, close to 1x debt to EBITDA. if there's no acquisition we don't mind to be you know close to 1x debt to ebitda When we bought Coveris, the last comment on that one, we had almost no debt on the balance sheet, and we were quite happy about that. When we bought Coveris, the last comment on that one, we had almost no debt on the balance sheet, and we were quite happy about that. when we bought coveris the last comment on that one we had almost no debt on the balance sheet and we were quite happy about that

Speaker 4: Okay. Merci beaucoup. Okay. okay Merci beaucoup. merci beaucoup

Speaker 2: Merci. Merci. merci

Speaker 6: Ladies and gentlemen, if there are any additional questions at this time, please press star followed by the one. As a reminder, if you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset up before pressing any keys. J. Sebastian van Berkom with Van Berkom and Associates. The next question comes from J. Sebastian van Berkom with Van Berkom and Associates. Your line is now open. Ladies and gentlemen, if there are any additional questions at this time, please press star followed by the one. ladies and gentlemen if there are any additional questions at this time please press star followed by the one As a reminder, if you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset up before pressing any keys. J. as a reminder if you are using a speakerphone please lift the handset up before pressing any keys. j Sebastian van Berkom with Van Berkom and Associates. sebastian van berkom with van berkom and associates The next question comes from J. the next question comes from j Sebastian van Berkom with Van Berkom and Associates. sebastian van berkom with van berkom and associates Your line is now open. your line is now open

Speaker 9: Thank you very much for taking my call. Isabelle, I know you're on the line, so hello again to you. I have two simple questions. I just arrived, so I was a little late in kicking into the conference call. I guess number one, I would like to know what is the exact date of the CAD 20 share distribution? Thank you very much for taking my call. thank you very much for taking my call Isabelle, I know you're on the line, so hello again to you. isabelle i know you're on the line so hello again to you I have two simple questions. i have two simple questions I just arrived, so I was a little late in kicking into the conference call. i just arrived so i was a little late in kicking into the conference call I guess number one, I would like to know what is the exact date of the CAD 20 share distribution? i guess number one i would like to know what is the exact date of the cad 20 share distribution

Speaker 3: We will be paying out the dividend on the 20th of March, and that's next Friday. We will be paying out the dividend on the 20th of March, and that's next Friday. we will be paying out the dividend on the 20th of march and that's next friday

Speaker 9: March? March? march

Speaker 3: 20. 20. 20

Speaker 9: March 20? March 20? march 20

Speaker 3: Exactly. Exactly. exactly

Speaker 9: Okay. Number two, given that you sold a substantial part or all of the packaging business, the stub or the remaining Transcontinental, can you, Isabelle, give us some kind of a sense of, you know, what kind of a company this is gonna become in the next, you know, five years? Because at the moment, the market seems to say that, you know, it's only worth about CAD 3 after this distribution. It means a very, very low multiple. For me, it's just there's something wrong with this picture. I was wondering if you could give us some clarification. Okay. okay Number two, given that you sold a substantial part or all of the packaging business, the stub or the remaining Transcontinental, can you, Isabelle, give us some kind of a sense of, you know, what kind of a company this is gonna become in the next, you know, five years? number two given that you sold a substantial part or all of the packaging business the stub or the remaining transcontinental can you isabelle give us some kind of a sense of you know what kind of a company this is gonna become in the next you know five years Because at the moment, the market seems to say that, you know, it's only worth about CAD 3 after this distribution. because at the moment the market seems to say that you know it's only worth about cad 3 after this distribution It means a very, very low multiple. it means a very very low multiple For me, it's just there's something wrong with this picture. for me it's just there's something wrong with this picture I was wondering if you could give us some clarification. i was wondering if you could give us some clarification

Speaker 3: Sure looks like a great buy right now. Sure looks like a great buy right now. sure looks like a great buy right now

Speaker 9: The stub isn't trading yet, but it probably will trade soon after the March 20th distribution. I'm just trying to figure that out. Like, it seems to be there's something wrong with the picture and that it seems to be awfully cheap, the remaining part of the business. Is the remaining part of the business so bad that it's being sold, it's being traded at such a low price? The stub isn't trading yet, but it probably will trade soon after the March 20th distribution. the stub isn't trading yet but it probably will trade soon after the march 20th distribution I'm just trying to figure that out. i'm just trying to figure that out Like, it seems to be there's something wrong with the picture and that it seems to be awfully cheap, the remaining part of the business. like it seems to be there's something wrong with the picture and that it seems to be awfully cheap the remaining part of the business Is the remaining part of the business so bad that it's being sold, it's being traded at such a low price? is the remaining part of the business so bad that it's being sold it's being traded at such a low price

Speaker 3: We think it's a good business. It's a business with potential. We think it's a good business. we think it's a good business It's a business with potential. it's a business with potential

Speaker 9: Pardon me. Pardon me. pardon me

Speaker 3: We think it's a good business. It's a business with great cash flows. It's a business that's poised for growth. We see growth opportunities in the ISM sector, and we see growth opportunity in these. We think it's a good business. we think it's a good business It's a business with great cash flows. it's a business with great cash flows It's a business that's poised for growth. it's a business that's poised for growth We see growth opportunities in the ISM sector, and we see growth opportunity in these. we see growth opportunities in the ism sector and we see growth opportunity in these

Speaker 9: Is this a business that you expect to grow top line at 10% a year or 15% a year? Like, what kind of order of magnitude are we talking over the next five years? Is this a business that you expect to grow top line at 10% a year or 15% a year? is this a business that you expect to grow top line at 10% a year or 15% a year Like, what kind of order of magnitude are we talking over the next five years? like what kind of order of magnitude are we talking over the next five years

Speaker 3: We'll surely look to grow it internally and through acquisitions. We have already started doing that with three acquisitions under our belt only in the last year in the ISM business. We'll surely look to grow it internally and through acquisitions. we'll surely look to grow it internally and through acquisitions We have already started doing that with three acquisitions under our belt only in the last year in the ISM business. we have already started doing that with three acquisitions under our belt only in the last year in the ism business

Speaker 9: What kind of order of magnitude are you talking, Isabelle? Are we talking a 15% grower or a 10% grower? Like, where are we in the next five years? What kind of order of magnitude are you talking, Isabelle? what kind of order of magnitude are you talking isabelle Are we talking a 15% grower or a 10% grower? are we talking a 15% grower or a 10% grower Like, where are we in the next five years? like where are we in the next five years

Speaker 2: I think this is not something that we will disclose today. What we have said in the past is that we're, you know, now with the sale of packaging, over the last two years, we were able to stabilize the retail and service printing business. We have growth in the media business. Today for us, and by saying that we're confident to again stabilize the EBITDA business, we're putting this business for growth in the next few years because the portion that's growing is getting bigger and bigger, which is the ISM and even the education side of the business. We're confident to grow the business organically over years and then add it over acquisition. We won't disclose any organic plan or acquisition plan for the next five years. I think this is not something that we will disclose today. i think this is not something that we will disclose today What we have said in the past is that we're, you know, now with the sale of packaging, over the last two years, we were able to stabilize the retail and service printing business. what we have said in the past is that we're you know now with the sale of packaging over the last two years we were able to stabilize the retail and service printing business We have growth in the media business. we have growth in the media business Today for us, and by saying that we're confident to again stabilize the EBITDA business, we're putting this business for growth in the next few years because the portion that's growing is getting bigger and bigger, which is the ISM and even the education side of the business. today for us and by saying that we're confident to again stabilize the ebitda business we're putting this business for growth in the next few years because the portion that's growing is getting bigger and bigger which is the ism and even the education side of the business We're confident to grow the business organically over years and then add it over acquisition. we're confident to grow the business organically over years and then add it over acquisition We won't disclose any organic plan or acquisition plan for the next five years. we won't disclose any organic plan or acquisition plan for the next five years

Speaker 9: Oh, no, why not? Many companies do. Oh, no, why not? oh no why not Many companies do. many companies do

Speaker 2: Well, this is not our approach, so we're not gonna disclose that. Well, this is not our approach, so we're not gonna disclose that. well this is not our approach so we're not gonna disclose that

Speaker 9: Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. okay Thank you very much. thank you very much

Speaker 2: All right. Thank you. All right. all right Thank you. thank you

Speaker 6: There are no further questions at this time. There are no further questions at this time. there are no further questions at this time

Speaker 12: Before closing the call, I'd like to turn it over to Thomas for a few words. Before closing the call, I'd like to turn it over to Thomas for a few words. before closing the call i'd like to turn it over to thomas for a few words

Speaker 11: Thank you. Thank you, Yan. In closing, I'd like to thank you all, our participants to these quarterly calls, and especially to you financial analysts on the line. I want to say that your questions were always so thoughtful and well-received, and today is no different, obviously, as you could all hear. It's been a pleasure getting to know you over the past two years, and I'd like to thank you all today. Thank you very much. Thank you. thank you Thank you, Yan. thank you yan In closing, I'd like to thank you all, our participants to these quarterly calls, and especially to you financial analysts on the line. in closing i'd like to thank you all our participants to these quarterly calls and especially to you financial analysts on the line I want to say that your questions were always so thoughtful and well-received, and today is no different, obviously, as you could all hear. i want to say that your questions were always so thoughtful and well-received and today is no different obviously as you could all hear It's been a pleasure getting to know you over the past two years, and I'd like to thank you all today. it's been a pleasure getting to know you over the past two years and i'd like to thank you all today Thank you very much. thank you very much

Speaker 6: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call for today. Thank you for participating. Please disconnect your lines. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call for today. ladies and gentlemen this concludes the conference call for today Thank you for participating. thank you for participating Please disconnect your lines. please disconnect your lines