Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited (CTCA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Please welcome the Chairman of the Board, Mike Owens.

Good morning, and welcome to Canadian Tire Corporation's Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I'm pleased to preside over this meeting, my first as Chairman of this Board. I've been in this role for a year now. And while there will always be more to learn, it doesn't take long to figure out Canadian Tire is in a class of its own in this country. To start, very few Canadian retailers survive to celebrate their 100th birthday, as you saw from the video, as Canadian Tire did last year. But Canadian Tire isn't just surviving. It's thriving because it's founders, A.J. and J.W. Billes, built this company to last. And Martha Billes and her son, Owen, have remained steadfast in furthering their family's legacy of striving always to make things better. Last year, Greg Hicks and his leadership team leveraged this powerful legacy to chart our future course with a clear brand purpose that we are here to make life in Canada better. Across the company, everyone inherently understands what they are here to do. And it is this earnest embrace of purpose that differentiates Canadian Tire. So when you have a company where the people strive every day to achieve a collective purpose, what is the role of the Board of Directors? Well, our role starts with our responsibility to nurture this purpose through good governance and objective advice. Over the past year, our Board has endeavored to provide engaged oversight that balances the long-term interest of the enterprise with driving sustainable growth, ever mindful of our collective purpose. As Chairman, I'm focused on ensuring our leaders' overarching commitment to creating long-term sustainable value for our shareholders and other key stakeholders. So to that end, we continue to work closely with Greg and his management team as they consider strategic choices to optimize long-term shareholder value. We are also committed to ensuring that as a Board, we are equipped with the skills necessary to manage key risks and develop the company's talent. Insight is just as critical as oversight, and we are deepening our insight through Board renewal. Since our last AGM, we appointed Christine Rupp to our Board and are pleased to propose Cathryn Cranston and Lyne Castonguay for election. These new members will broaden the skills, experience and diversity of our Board through their fresh perspectives and valuable expertise. Now when it comes to risk, trust that our Board agenda is heavily allocated to risk topics, which shouldn't come as a surprise. We are living in volatile times. We are well aware of and have prioritized the top risks to our business to ensure they receive timely attention. To continue to prevail, we must anticipate and manage these risks and mitigate their impact as best we can. Lastly, I'll say a few words on talent. I am confident in Greg and this management team. They are driven to unlock Canadian Tires' untapped potential and transform it into action. Greg is a purpose-driven leader who is focused on long-term stability and growth that maximizes benefits for all key stakeholders. Greg, your commitment to leading this company is inspiring. Thank you for your dedication and your partnership this past year. I also want to take a moment to thank the Canadian Tire associate dealers for their collaboration and trust. Trust typically has to be earned over time. But I believe in my case, it has been extended on credit. Of course, I would be remiss if I did not point out that all of Canadian Tire's achievements are made possible by its tens of thousands of team members who guided by a collective purpose on moving this company forward together. I would also like to acknowledge my fellow directors. Thank you for consistently going above and beyond to support the management and effective governance of this company. And finally, I want to extend my sincere thank you to you, our shareholders, for your sustained commitment and trust. As a Board, we recognize the importance of and are committed to shareholder engagement. Now last year, we spent a lot of time reflecting on the past century. Today, I will end my prepared remarks not by looking back but by looking forward to Canadian Tire's next 100 years. Now though that sounds like dreaming, I understand 100 years is a long time. Bear in mind that the Billes brothers probably would have received similar skepticism had they made such a bold claim in 1922. But as I said earlier, they built this company to last and so it has. So if you have any doubts about Canadian Tire's resilience and future growth potential, remember its founders' legacy and the purpose they inspired. It's all still here and continues to make life in Canada better. I look forward to starting the next 100 years with you. And with that, I am pleased to introduce the President and CEO of Canadian Tire Corporation, Greg Hicks.

Thank you, Mike, and good morning, everyone. For Canadian Tire Corporation, the year 2022 was certainly one to remember. In addition to celebrating the 100th birthday of Canadian Tire Retail, we once again demonstrated our resilience against a challenging economic backdrop, achieving normalized diluted EPS of $18.75, barely shy of our 2021 record and a 44% increase relative to 2019. We reaffirmed our commitment to our shareholders through our 13th consecutive annual dividend increase and by returning $750 million of capital to you. And as the pandemic finally began to wane, we set our sights on a brighter horizon. At our Investor Day last March, we announced our evolved brand purpose that we're here to make life in Canada better and unveiled our Better Connected strategy. But as much as 2022 was a big year for us, I'm here to talk about the future and how our Better Connected strategy will create even more value for our shareholders. Our strategy is all about investing in our retail business and is underpinned by our unrivaled understanding of Canadians. While other retailers have pulled out of Canada in recent years, we believe it is a market rich with opportunity for those who truly know the Canadian customer as we do. To further differentiate ourselves from the competition, we recognize that we must develop an even stronger emotional connection with our customers and reinforce their trust in us. Trusted brands grow faster and deliver stronger shareholder returns. They're also more resilient and recover faster in times of crisis. We know trust is so critical that we partnered with a globally renowned research firm to launch our own brand trust index. And the results confirmed our suspicions that Canadian Tire Retail is the #1 most trusted brand within its peer set in Canada. But we know we can do more, which is why we're investing in and connecting our existing banners, brands and capabilities, making our entire platform stronger and more valuable to all our stakeholders. We are allocating our capital and resources to our Retail segment to drive better and more efficient integration of our loyalty program and promote cross-shopping. Moreover, we're committed to staying relevant with our customers and growing with Canada, catering to the needs of both long-time customers and new Canadians alike. Our investments are in support of building customer trust with the ultimate goal of delivering more to the bottom line for our shareholders. We are confident that our Better Connected strategy will create even more value for our shareholders in the future and are committed to making that a reality through 4 focused investment areas: growing our own brands, creating a Better Connected omni-channel retail experience, strengthening our supply chain fulfillment and automation capabilities, and modernizing our IT infrastructure. Starting with owned brands. Our objective is to grow the business by $2 billion or increase penetration to 43% by 2025, while adding smaller brands that deepen our assortment. We ended 2022 with just under 38% owned brand penetration and several brands achieving over $100 million each in annual sales. At Sport Chek, penetration has grown to just under 16%, thanks to the success of owned brands, such as Forward With Design, Ripzone and Sherwood. Since acquiring Sherwood in 2018, we've elevated the brand through meaningful collaborations, including with NHL stars, such as round 2 foes, William Nylander and Matthew Tkachuk, and surface significant value, more than doubling sales to $50 million. As our owned brands penetration continues to accelerate, we are maintaining a strong margin rate differential relative to national brands, averaging within the 600 to 700 basis point range we referenced at our Investor Day. We are seeing an even better top line performance from our owned brands in our new Concept Connect store format at CTR, thanks to our associate dealers and our internal teams who have curated highly differentiated world-class CPG capabilities within our retail business. At Helly Hansen, our CEO, Carrie Ask, and her team are focused on tripling the size of our Canadian business relative to when we acquired the brand. Both the Canadian and U.S. businesses achieved strong top line growth in 2022 with great strides made in Helly's U.S. direct-to-consumer business, in particular. In our second focused investment area, we have earmarked $2.2 billion of our total $3.4 billion investment strategy to create a Better Connected omni-channel customer experience. Led by Susan O'Brien and our customer insights and Triangle team, they've continued to expand and drive member engagement within our Triangle Rewards program. Following a successful beta test of Triangle Select in 2022, the team launched the program nationally. And as of April 30, 22,000 members have signed up and collectively earned nearly $2 million in incremental Canadian Tire Money through their select memberships. We're treating the subscription program as an entirely new business that enables us to test and learn while providing real value to Canadians and driving their connection with our platform. Canadian Tire Bank had its best income-producing year in 2022. Aayaz Pira and his team achieved a 7% average increase in portfolio retail spend per cardholder, while continuing to add new credit card holders. The bank also plays a critical role in strengthening our Triangle program and delivering value to Canadians. As Canadian families struggled with the inflated cost of groceries last year, our Triangle credit card holders across the country received nearly $25 million in Canadian Tire Money, purchasing groceries on our cards. When you combine this with the almost $27 million of Canadian Tire Money discounts Triangle members received when buying gas with our cards, the value that Triangle Rewards provides in these inflationary times is clear. Equally important is that members who redeemed Canadian Tire Money on these 2 value propositions alone drove over $100 million of associated spend across our Retail segment last year, demonstrating our flywheel in effect and the power and value of our mutually reinforcing businesses. The second focus investment area also includes connecting the physical and digital experience. And TJ Flood and his team in partnership with Canadian Tire dealers have made incredible progress to date. We refresh, expanded or replaced 36 Canadian Tire Retail stores last year alone and have another 46 planned for this year. The majority of stores now have pickup lockers and more than half have electronic shelf labels. We've also implemented a new assortment management platform we call Tetris, which empowers stores to build customized assortments and inventory depth at the item level. We're already seeing the impact of our new Concept Connect store investments. In our store projects to date, we're seeing an almost 700 basis point delta in top line performance relative to a comparable peer group of stores and feedback related to customer experience has improved significantly. We're also seeing increased basket sizes and traffic, higher growth of our owned brands and disproportionate growth among our key categories, including automotive, pet and Party City, among others. The impact is most significant in replacement and expansion stores, especially in markets where the former stores weren't growing quickly enough to meet the needs of the growing population. This is particularly evident in key VECTOM markets, rapidly growing suburban areas and smaller underserved cities. In about 1/3 of the communities where we operate, we are either the sole or one of only 2 large gen merch retailers with our range of categories. By providing customers with better choices informed by Triangle data, we are further establishing our unparalleled position in the Canadian consumer landscape and enhancing our understanding of Canadians. Our third focus investment area is strengthening our supply chain fulfillment and automation capabilities. Over the past 3 years, we've experienced a fundamental shift in how we view our supply chain, recognizing it as a critical enabler of customer experience rather than simply a cost center. We plan to invest in adding more than 1.6 million square feet of centralized and automated DC space, and our new fully automated 1.3 million square foot DC in the GTA is now fully operational. The DC has state-of-the-art technology that drives speed and efficiency in our e-commerce business. This is a critical building block for the growth and efficiency of Mark's and Sport Chek operations. Recognizing that our stores can contribute to driving speed and efficiency in our supply chain, we are also building automated micro-fulfillment warehouses attached to our stores. Our new CTR store in Welland, with its automated rollers, conveyors, handheld technology and sortation systems, illustrates this approach. And the fourth and final focus investment area I will speak to is the modernization of our IT infrastructure. Our one digital platform is now live across CTR, Party City and Atmosphere, with Sport Chek and Mark's to follow in Q2. We've successfully implemented Workday, our new HR management system, and new marketing communications platforms to support our personalization objectives. We swapped out the core technology platform running our CTR stores and are working on the core platform that supports our bank and an enterprise transportation management system, among others. These platform upgrades are more than just swapping old tech for new. Our Chief Information and Technology Officer, Rex Lee, and his team are leading us through an IT transformation, a holistic evolution that encapsulates processes, architecture, automation and people, enabling us to be more agile and scale and flex for the future. As we continue to trade at some of the lowest-ever multiples in our retail business, we remain confident that executing our Better Connected strategy and achieving higher retail earnings will improve our competitive posture and translate into increased shareholder value in the short and medium term. At the same time, we are also very focused on creating long-term shareholder value and with guidance from our Board, developed our Better Connected strategy through an outside-in perspective. We evaluated the historical and future value creation potential for each element of our portfolio, providing clarity that is leading to action. Our approach to our petroleum business and our recently announced partnership with Suncor demonstrates that we are exploiting value from the assets we own. We explored the sale of our gas business, and we're intent that the buyer commit to continuing the ongoing strategic value we receive from that business today, which is our first-party data and the issuance of Canadian Tire Money. Although we couldn't crystallize the sale, we strongly believe that the partnership with Suncor and the distribution of Canadian Tire Money expanding from our more than 200 gas stations to a network of more than 1,800 Petro-Canada stations increases monetization from the asset, creates more value for our members and significantly enhances our core business. Our real estate too has always been one of our core assets. And our history of surfacing value through and with the REIT is yet another demonstration of our commitment to driving shareholder value. We have identified 24 high-value properties, 12 owned by CTC and 12 owned by CT REIT that have higher and better uses, which over time can be either sold, entitled or redeveloped to potentially surface additional embedded value. The first step in potential value creation here is to entitle the properties for expanded uses. And we started that process with 3 urban properties in the Greater Toronto area. At CTC, management and the Board are in lockstep in our collective objective of creating more shareholder value. In conclusion, our investments in our Retail segment will help drive value for our shareholders. At the same time, we continue to consider our optionality and how we can surface value through our other assets and investments. I'll end my prepared remarks today by reiterating that through our Better Connected strategy, we're playing the long game in service of delivering value to you, our shareholders. Canadian Tire is a resilient iconic customer-centric retailer with unparalleled positioning in the Canadian consumer landscape. We have a robust and mutually reinforcing platform of retail banners, brands and financial services supported by our digital capabilities and our vast real estate footprint. Our understanding of our customers and their trust in us is a significant competitive advantage that we take very seriously. As I stated earlier, we consider customer trust to be one of our most valuable assets and through our strategy are building a stronger emotional connection with Canadians. And we know that the strength of our connection with our customers is intrinsically linked to the strength of our connection with our team members. As challenging as it was, the pandemic gave us an opportunity to evolve our corporate culture and our relationship with our associate dealers. As a result, we are more agile, innovative and collaborative. And our people are more connected to each other and our collective ambition than ever before. In fact, our most recent employee survey achieved a new record for participation. And results showed our employee engagement has reached an all-time high. We also exceeded the global benchmarks for cultural indicators, including empowerment and collaboration. And employees indicated they believe in our brand purpose and feel connected to our core values. There is no question that our people have a deep sense of pride in working for a Canadian company. They feel that strong emotional connection because they know and trust that our brand purpose isn't a tagline. It's a fundamental truth that guides every decision we make and every action we take. I want to thank all of our team members and dealers for being so engaged and by working so hard to make life in Canada better, strengthening Canadians' trust in us. Between our tens of thousands of employees and the more than 500 Canadian Tire associate dealers, we have the talent, the skills and the collective ambition to achieve everything we've outlined in our strategy and ultimately deliver value to all our stakeholders. And we have the staunch support of our Board of Directors, as you heard from Mike Owens earlier. I want to thank him and all of our directors, including Martha and Owen Billes, for their continued support, insight and oversight. Finally, I want to thank you, our shareholders, for your continued commitment to CTC. We appreciate you joining us here today. Thank you.

Thank you, Greg. We will now move to the formal business for which this meeting has been called. In accordance with our bylaws, as Chairman of the Board, I will act as Chairman of this meeting. I've asked our Corporate Secretary, Eleni Damianakis, to act as Secretary to the meeting. And I appoint Paul Allen and Eamon O'Leary of Computershare Trust Company of Canada to act as scrutineers of the meeting. Notice calling the meeting together with management information circular, a proxy or voting instruction form were mailed to shareholders as at the close of business on March 23, 2023. The scrutineers' report has been received, and I'm advised that a quorum of holders of both the common shares and the Class A nonvoting shares of the corporation is present in person or represented by proxy. I therefore declare this meeting duly constituted for the transaction of business. The scrutineers' report, which will indicate the number of shares represented at the meeting, will be read by the Secretary at the end of the meeting. Now we have a few guidelines for you on how the formal business of this meeting will proceed. To facilitate the introduction of motions, I have arranged in advance for certain employee shareholders to move and second the motions required at this meeting. These arrangements are in no way intended to influence or discourage discussion of the motions, the items to be voted on today, and the election of director -- sorry, or the election of directors and the appointment of the corporation's auditor. These items will be voted on by ordinary resolution requiring a simple majority of the votes cast for approval and voting will occur by show of hands. For shareholders who have voted in advance of the meeting, your voting instructions have been recorded, and you do not need to take any further steps. The items which you may vote on depend on whether you hold common shares or Class A nonvoting shares. If you hold common shares, you may vote on the election of 13 common share director nominees and the appointment of the corporation's auditor. If you hold Class A nonvoting shares, you may vote on the election of 3 Class A director nominees. As this is an in-person shareholders' meeting, only those shareholders or their duly appointed proxy holders who are present in person may ask questions in connection with the formal business. Once the formal business has been completed, we will open the meeting to general questions from our shareholders and proxy holders, including shareholders who are watching the live webcast of this meeting. To ensure online questions are received in time, please submit those questions as early as possible during the meeting. We would ask that any person present at the meeting who wishes to speak, please come to a microphone and state your name and advise the meeting whether you are a shareholder or a proxy holder. Okay. The first item of business is to place before the shareholders the consolidated financial statements of the corporation for the year ended December 31, 2022, and the auditor's report thereon, which can be found in our 2022 report to shareholders. The report was sent to shareholders who requested a copy and was also posted -- filed on SEDAR and posted on our website. The next item of business is the election of 13 directors by the holders of common shares. I will now ask for the 13 individuals named in the circular to be nominated.

I nominate Eric Anderson, Martha Billes, Owen Billes, Lyne Castonguay, David Court, Cathryn Cranston, Steve Frazier, Greg Hicks, Sylvain Leroux, Donald Murray, J. Michael Owens, Christine Rupp and Sowmyanarayan Sampath for election as directors of the corporation by the holders of common shares to serve until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their earlier resignation or retirement.

Thank you, [ Mark ]. Are there any further nominations? There being no further nominations, I declare that the nominations are closed. Holders of common shares have been provided with the opportunity to vote for each director nominee or to withhold their vote. As proxy holder, I'm advised that sufficient votes in favor of the election of each director nominee were cast prior to the meeting. Accordingly, I propose that we proceed with a single vote by show of hands to elect the persons nominated. Only registered holders of common shares and their proxy holders are entitled to vote on the election of these director nominees. I remind you that the Board of Directors and management recommend voting for all the common share director nominees named in the circular. Everyone in favor of the election of these director nominees, please raise your hands. [Voting]

Opposed, if any? [Voting]

I declare that the 13 individuals nominated for election by the holders of common shares are duly elected as directors of the corporation. The next item of business is the election of 3 directors by the holders of Class A nonvoting shares. I will now ask for the 3 individuals named in the circular to be nominated.

I nominate Norman Jaskolka, Nadir Patel and Cynthia Trudell for election as directors of the corporation by the holders of Class A nonvoting shares to hold office until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their earlier resignation or retirement.

Thank you. Are there any further nominations? There being no further nominations, I declare that nominations are closed. Holders of Class A nonvoting shares have been provided with the opportunity to vote for each director nominee or to withhold their vote. As proxy holder, I'm advised that sufficient votes in favor of the election of each director nominee were cast prior to the meeting. Accordingly, I propose we proceed with a single vote by show of hands to elect the persons nominated. Only registered holders of Class A nonvoting shares and their proxy holders are entitled to vote on the election of these director nominees. I remind you that the Board of Directors and management recommend voting for all the Class A director nominees set out in the circular. Everyone in favor of the election of these director nominees, please raise your hands. [Voting]

Opposed, if any? [Voting]

I declare that the 3 individuals nominated for election by the holders of Class A nonvoting shares are duly elected as directors of the corporation. And now ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce you to your directors for the coming year. I will call upon each of my fellow directors to stand and be recognized: Eric Anderson, Martha Billes, Owen Billes, Lyne Castonguay, David Court, Steve Frazier, Greg Hicks, Norman Jaskolka, Sylvain Leroux, Donald Murray, Nadir Patel and Cynthia Trudell. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Cathryn Cranston and Sowmyanarayan Sampath were unable to attend today's meeting in person. The next item of business is the employment of the corporation's auditor and authorizing the Board of Directors to set the auditor's compensation. May I please have a motion on the appointment of the auditor?

I move that Deloitte LLP, chartered professional accountants, be appointed the auditor of the corporation to hold office until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders and that the Board of Directors be authorized to set the auditor's compensation.

May I have a seconder?

I second the motion.

Holders of common shares have been provided with an opportunity to vote for the motion or to withhold their vote. As proxy holder, I'm advised that sufficient votes in favor of the motion were cast prior to the meeting. We will now proceed to vote by show of hands. Only registered holders of common shares and their proxy holders are entitled to vote on the motion. I remind you that the Board of Directors and management recommend voting for the appointment of the corporation's auditor. Everyone in favor of the motion, please raise your hand. [Voting]

Opposed, if any? [Voting]

I declare the motion carried. Deloitte LLP is hereby appointed as the corporation's auditor. I will now ask the secretary to read the scrutineers' report on attendance.

There are 46 holders of common shares present in person or represented by proxy, representing 3,243,298 common shares or 94.74% of the issued common shares of the corporation. There are 234 holders of Class A nonvoting shares present in person or represented by proxy, representing 33,986,542 Class A nonvoting shares or 63.61% of the issued Class A nonvoting shares of the corporation. These figures are subject to amendment to cover late arrivals and to correct any clerical errors or omissions.

This completes the formal business for which this meeting was called. And as such, I declare the meeting terminated. I will now take my seat, and we will open the floor to questions. Thank you very much.

So anyone who would like to ask a question, as I said earlier, please come to the microphone, please. And please introduce yourself. Thank you.

[ Mark Holter ], a longtime shareholder. We talked about shareholder engagement. And last year, I participated in the online forum, which is this meeting. I submitted 2 suggestions to it in the proper manner, in a timely matter, neither of which were brought up at the meeting. One of which was that the questions should be part of the meeting and part of the record and not after the meeting is adjourned. And as we move into the digital age where this meeting is possibly the last meeting, which hasn't been discussed, it's very important that shareholders be able to communicate with other shareholders and not have their questions set aside until after the meeting and not be distributed as part of the record. The second one was Chapman's, a Canadian company located in Markdale, was winding down their children's program, which had over 150,000 children participants. And I was looking at Jumpstart and thinking that a relationship between Markdale Dairy, Chapman's and Canadian Tire would be an ideal way to expand into that market. And that was never addressed nor did I receive a formal reply of my questions that I had posed. So I'm wondering how that was overlooked.