Decisive Dividend Corporation ($DE)

Good morning. My name is Joanna, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Decisive Dividend Fourth Quarter and Year-end 2025 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] We remind you that today's remarks may include forward-looking statements and non-IFRS financial measures that are subject to important risks and uncertainties. For more information on these risks and uncertainties, please see the applicable sections of the Decisive Dividend news release and MD&A, which are on their website and have been filed on SEDAR. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Jeff Schellenberg, Chief Executive Officer; and Rick Torriero, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Hello, and good morning, everyone. This is Jeff Schellenberg. I want to welcome everyone to our Q4 and year-end 2025 earnings conference call. The fourth quarter was a successful finish to a year of considerable volatility. Q4 '25 was the first quarter in Decisive's history with over $40 million in revenue and was also the second strongest gross profit and adjusted EBITDA quarter in our history, only bettered by the post-COVID inflated Q3 2023 results. These quarterly results reinforce the benefits of the diversified nature of the portfolio of businesses we own and the differentiated products these businesses produced. The $42.8 million in consolidated sales in Q4 2025 were 14% higher than Q4 2024, and generated $7.3 million in adjusted EBITDA, which was consistent with Q4 of last year. That brought full year 2025 sales to $152.2 million, which was 19% higher than 2024 and drove a 25% increase in adjusted EBITDA to $25.4 million overall in 2025. Each business vertical realized full year sales increases in 2025 versus 2024. The agricultural businesses, which is Slimline's Orchard and Vineyard Sprayer product and IHT generated a 58% increase in sales relative to 2024, driven primarily by strong order activity at IHT. Our group of ware parts businesses, namely Unicast, Procore and Techbelt performed extremely well and achieved a 56% increase in wear parts sales over 2024, driven by both strong belting demand and a significant increase in demand for Unicast's cast steel wear parts and valves. The hearth businesses, which is Blaze King and ACR, realized a 13% increase in sales compared to 2024 on stronger order levels throughout the year. Merchandising product sales were 10% higher in 2025 versus 2024 as marketing impact began to integrate its newly acquired Venger business. Lastly, after a strong first half of the year, the industrial products businesses, which include Northside, Hawk, Capital I and Slimline evaporators, were impacted in the second half of 2025 by demand declines from certain commercial vehicle and oil and gas customers as well as lower wastewater evaporator sales, which were reduced after a strong first half of the year. Despite these factors, industrial product sales also grew with sales being 3% higher in 2025 than 2024. The improvement in sales and adjusted EBITDA in the 2025 results, resulted in a 25% improvement in free cash flow less maintenance capital expenditures compared to 2024, which is our key metric in measuring our dividend payout ratio. This improvement has resulted in our trailing 12-month dividend payout ratio sitting at 79% compared to 96% at the end of 2024, and demonstrates the free cash flow generation capabilities of our business and the sustainability of the current dividend level. Our leverage ratio also grew -- greatly improved from 3.1x at the end of 2024 to 2.5x at the end of 2025. Our improved leverage ratio, along with the improvement in our share price over the last year, leaves us in a very good position to fund both organic growth opportunities and support our M&A program, which I will turn to next. On the acquisition front, we completed three smaller tuck-in acquisitions in 2025, all of which were aligned with our focus of acquiring within the industry verticals we are already invested in. Going forward, our acquisition strategy will continue to emphasize acquisitions within our existing verticals. The verticals we are most immediately focused on investing further in are the verticals where we've had the most success, namely hearth and wear parts, verticals where we feel there is strong industry economic backdrop and policy support, namely energy, critical infrastructure and mineral development, and verticals where we feel we are best positioned to support acquisition integration and post-transaction success, namely merchandising and industrial. This approach will allow us to step into best practice deployment more rapidly, supporting operational efficiency improvement while investing in sales organizations that can support the methodical growth of the businesses we acquire, similar to how we are executing on opportunities in the smaller acquisitions we completed in 2025. In addition, investing in areas that reduce our exposure to potential tariff and trade headwinds in North America will be part of our near-term focus as well. Within this focused scope, we are encouraged by the M&A opportunities we are seeing that will allow us to pursue this strategy and have both increased financing capacity and improved cost of capital to support further M&A activity. We are seeing a number of opportunities of increased size relative to the deals completed in 2025, which drives more material accretion to our critical free cash flow less maintenance CapEx metric. The metric we use to calculate our dividend payout ratio and therefore, a key determinant of our ability to grow our dividend. I want to emphasize how M&A can support dividend increases in my comments here. Given that we buy businesses at 3.5 to 5.5x average historical EBITDA, trade at roughly 8x forward EBITDA and have a $175 million credit facility that has a 5.2% coupon rate on it, adding earnings through M&A is highly accretive to our free cash flow less maintenance CapEx metrics per share, which will first support a return to our targeted payout ratio range, which then opens the door to future dividend increases. In terms of our 2026 outlook, we expect to benefit from the investments we have made in new products, sales capabilities, facility capacity and productivity. Further, higher energy prices and uncertainty tend to drive strength in our hearth businesses, which provide a source of alternative low-cost, secure energy. Additionally, strong metal and mineral pricing supports activity in our wear parts and industrial businesses as does investment in critical infrastructure. While we are facing some ongoing uncertainty, especially in the near term, including the potential CUSMA renegotiation and global upheaval in different regions, and continue to see specific challenges in a few of our subsidiaries. We experienced many of these same factors in 2025, building on our track record of being able to respond to challenges in a way that improves business performance. In addition, we are anticipating a meaningful increase in acquisition activity in 2026 as we continue to see strong traction with exiting legacy minded business owners who value our long-term buy, build and hold approach. As a result, we anticipate an improvement in our results and per share financial metrics that we believe will help support a return to our target payout ratio levels, which will present the opportunity to pursue future dividend growth. Driving long-term improvement in per share financial metrics is a core priority that we believe will reward shareholders over the long term through the capacity it creates to both support a growing and sustainable dividend as well as value enhancement through share price appreciation. With that, I'll now open up the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions] First question comes from Steve Hansen with Raymond James.

Jeff, I'll start on the M&A side. Just you had some good opening remarks there. I just wanted to follow up. It sounds like you guys are thinking about the CUSMA renegotiation as part of your M&A process. It's certainly not going to be the only metric. But how do you feel about developing additional capabilities south of the border relative to domestic here in Canada?

Yes. I mean, our most recent acquisition, Venger was in the U.S., right, which will opened up a door for us to -- we have a facility in our merchandising vertical now, for instance, south of the border that we can actually supply our customers that buy products that are more display and merchandising type of products out of the U.S. So that's an example of a recent deal that we've done that supports exactly what you're talking about. I think there's other areas of exposure. We've obviously invested in the U.K. That's U.K. and Europe are about 10% of our revenue overall. I think that we would view that as an area of focused growth as well to be thinking outside of the North American market. And then I think domestically, I think Canada is a very investable country right now, I think, with obviously a large focus on infrastructure and critical minerals, energy, defense opportunities that we would see opportunities within Canada as well. And so I think those are the types of things kind of within the U.S., outside of North America and then within Canada, that would really be guiding our M&A focus right now.

Okay. That's helpful. And just in terms of size, I think the last year was really, I think, characterized by small incremental tuck-ins. It sounds like you might have something a little bit more significant in the pipeline, if I'm reading the tea leaves, is that correct?

Yes. I mean, I think we would like to be doing deals more in the $2 million to $6 million of EBITDA type of range than some of the smaller tuck-in acquisitions that we've done. We think we've added some important capabilities through the tuck-ins that we completed. For instance, the with the belting acquisitions that we did in 2025, we added the ability to actually fabricate the belting systems that -- we were working with the particular Blackburn Conveyors was the business that we bought. We were working with them on projects where they were fabricating the belting systems, and we were supplying the belting for it. And so it became a very natural kind of tuck-in acquisition, again, an exiting legacy minded business owner who owned that business and was looking to retire and didn't have a succession plan, right? So that was a nice little tuck-in opportunity that added capability that we didn't have before, the less meaningful from an overall earnings perspective. And so yes, we would like to see more of that $2 million to $6 million opportunity, and I'm pleased with the types of opportunities within that range that we're seeing right now.

Okay. Great. And then just quickly on the margin pressure that you saw in finished products in the period. I think there was a few things that were raised in the MD&A around additional incentive costs, et cetera. I mean, how do we think about that margin profile on a go-forward basis?

Yes. One of the -- this is Rick here, Steve. One of the impacts was Slimline's evaporator sale. So that's they had a large sale of their HDXL product in Q4 of 2024, the comparative period, and that's a 60% to 70% margin product. So that was a big part of the compression in that segment for the quarter. I think if you look at the year-over-year, it's actually much closer between the two. And I think that's on an ongoing basis, what we would expect to see on an ongoing basis, absent some of these types of project wins.

[Operator Instructions] Next question comes from Russell Stanley with Beacon Securities.

Maybe I'll follow up on the margin question more generally, lots of moving pieces here given the number of individual businesses, but you've produced steady improvement in blended gross margins in each of the last couple of years. And I'm wondering how much room for continued improvement you might see just with the base business given the mix of headwinds and tailwinds, is there room for additional improvement this year? Or do you think you're more likely to hold steady?

Yes. I think similar to Steve's question, I think our overall gross margins for 2025 were pretty consistent with 2024, some improvement relative to prior years from there. But I don't see really absent some -- these project wins. I think our -- the industrial businesses that had a decrease in activity have lower margins -- gross profit margins than our finished products, as an example, and some of our other wear parts products. And so that mix impacts things, and I think there's always mix challenges or, I guess, opportunities in any quarter. But I think overall, our margins have been pretty consistent within 1% or 2% over the last year here, and I think we could see that continuing.

One additional comment I'd make to that, Russ, is what we've been doing, and we talk about it in our MD&A as well is making some very deliberate investments in the sales capabilities of organizations kind of across the board in our organizations where we've added sales personnel as we transition these businesses from maybe more traditional order-taking type of activities to more hunting type of activities. And so that's been a very deliberate investment. You see some of that fruit, so to speak, in the growth in sales that we had, obviously, a record sales quarter, which is really positive. And so that, we believe, is going to help support the scaling of the business, along with some of the other investments in capacity of facilities and whatnot. But I think we'll really end up benefiting as we increase our capacity, what that will also support is EBITDA margin growth, right? So I think that's -- the gross margin has strengthened, depending on the product mix, we're continuing to look for -- as we think about M&A, we think about proprietary product type of gross margin profiles that obviously illustrate differentiation. So we're going to be focusing on that on the M&A front. We're focused on positioning our businesses for growth, which supports scalability and should impact ultimately the bottom line more significantly potentially than the gross margin line.

That's great color. Maybe just a couple of business level questions, the hearth category, wondering how its performance rank against your expectations. And can you talk to the response to either a new product was it work there? Can you talk to how that performed? And how that informs your plans for next year's heating system -- heating season, pardon me.

Yes. I think performance-wise, the hearth business has had a really good rebound year. Coming out of record-setting 2023 levels based on that COVID demand bubble, as they work through all of those backlogs coming into 2024, sales were definitely challenged. But I think what we saw this year was a return to more historical seasonality, but real good strength in the business in terms of order levels both in the U.K. and here domestically in Canada and the U.S. And I think these new products will only further support that into 2026.

I'd say that business is such a strong gross margin and EBITDA margin profile business that it's just a tremendous supporter of the overall free cash flow profile of our business. And so yes, I think we're pleased with the performance in 2025 for that business. In terms of the new products, think the introduction of those new products, unfortunately, given how highly regulated these industries are, you're somewhat reliant on the time line of the regulator and getting back to you with approvals for new products. Obviously, there's some disruption in EPA processes in the U.S. And so that's delayed our rollout of some of these products into the U.S. market, which is Blaze King's largest market, for sure. I think the product that were introduced in the U.K. is a very different product than that market has experienced previously. It's the first long-burn stove available in the U.K. and the European market, a highly differentiated product really based on Blaze King technology. There's some element of education that we have to have with customers around the benefits of that relative to their previous experiences. We know and understand the benefit, and it seems like North American customers definitely understand and appreciate and value that benefit. So we believe there's going to be a similar type of take-up, but I think that takes a little bit of time to introduce, and we were a bit late to -- we kind of missed the start of the heating season with that product as well. But in spite of those timing impacts, we see really strong customer reaction to those products as we're involved in different trade shows and whatnot at this point in time throughout the beginning of this year, kind of setting ourselves and positioning ourselves for next year. So we're really encouraged about the customer response to that product and I think that's going to be a material driver of growth in that segment as we move forward. Another new product that we haven't spent a lot of time talking about is Blaze King is introducing fireplace product that is a wider screen, larger kind of insert product that's more in the new product -- or new home development type of or more material renovation type of market. That's a totally new segment that they've been in -- than they've been in before as well, and they're getting really strong feedback on that product as well. So we're encouraged about the new stuff we're rolling out. We haven't really -- I wouldn't say 2025 results really were benefited by those products at all, but likely be in a position where our 2026 heating season is more positively impacted by the results of those products.

That's great. If I could sneak one more in. Within ag, wondering what the demand picture looks like for IHT. It's been a big contributor in the past and wondering how the backlog looks. More specifically, how does that backlog break down between new buyers, new adopters of the products relative to existing customers with follow-on orders?

Yes, yes. We'll just -- I'll let Rick speak to the backlog in a second here. But what I would say about the performance of that business is, it's a mix of -- we're continuing to add new customers, including some of the largest pork producers in the U.S., who have -- who are replacing previous products, including some of their own that they manufacture with the product that IHT manufacturers. So we're displacing incumbents in some of the -- in the largest customers in the U.S. So that's -- those are net new customers. So we're continuing to add really meaningful large new customers continuing to support existing customers. There seems to be a return to investment in barn renovation, some barns being built. Pork pricing has really rebalanced very nicely here and supporting that business. And we're also very focused on international expansion. I think we're very North American focused in that market -- in that product right now. And you look at South America, Europe, Asia, as South America is a similar size to the U.S. Europe is a larger, Asia is significantly larger, multiple times larger. And we've had some sales into those markets in the past, but just scratching the surface of what's capable there, too, and they're facing the same types of issues. And so we're really positive about the outlook for IHT. And we're beginning trials of their cooling product, which just doubles up our revenue potential from the fairly significant addressable market they have. And so really, really encouraged about some of the early results out of some of the trials we're doing on that product as well, which will be a meaningful driver of future growth. So yes, overall, very bullish on IHT and the growth prospects for that business.

Yes. And the backlogs definitely support that with -- we actually have higher backlogs for IHT at this point this year versus the same point last year.

The next question is a follow-up from Steve Hansen with Raymond James.

Jeff, just to focus a little bit on some of the more challenge here. Do you just want to speak just to some of the actions you're taking on the Hawk side and on the Northside business line. It sounds like you're consolidating two facilities in the one instance. And just trying to understand exactly what that means. I know you referenced at the beginning of the call, the back half of '25 was a little bit slower. And so you've got a few issues there. Maybe just walk us through what the actions are being taken so we understand those for '26 setup.

Yes. For sure, yes. So definitely saw customers pull back on the heavy commercial vehicle side, that's really more facing Northside and obviously, with some of the energy customers as it relates to Hawk. And I think we have three facilities at Hawk as of this moment right now and moving -- our focus is on consolidating down to two. I think that's going to be something that once breakup hits, that we'll be in a position to kind of affect that change, which will be supportive of some gross margin improvement and you have reduced overhead in that business, which is, I think, important for a machining business like that. I think the challenge of a third-party manufacturing is you're really at the -- you're working for -- you have fewer levers to pull to drive kind of your operating results as you respond to customer demand of products that are owned by the customer, right? So the journey, I think we're on as a group is to maximize the efficiency of these businesses while also moving towards developing more of our own proprietary type of products, whether it be less like downhole tools, but which is what Hawk specialty is, but other types of products, even supporting some of our other businesses in terms of the types of products that they can produce. They have some really strong design and engineering capabilities at Hawk that we can deploy and support new product development in, including outside of the downhole tool space. And so yes, consolidating some of those facilities, reducing some of that overhead, beginning a journey, which is a long-term shift, right, to more proprietary product type of development and manufacturing is the journey that we're on with that business. I think with Northside, I think we're in the process of moving to a different facility to consolidate their operations. I think there's opportunities even with some other subsidiaries, given their manufacturing strength to help support them. And so that's a program that we'll be having some further announcements around in the not-too-distant future. But yes, excited about some of the steps we're taking there to help kind of utilize some of the best practices and capabilities they have to impact more of our portfolio as well. And so yes, we'll talk more about that in the future.

And then in terms of Northside as well, we had really good success with onboarding a new customer in 2025 that really helped support that business, even though there was a significant decrease in demand for another one. So Northside has hired a sales -- a new business development individual that's going to be focused on exploiting Northside's expertise in terms of onboarding other OEM type of customers. So they've got a real core competency in that area, and I think that's going to be an opportunity for growth and diversifying the revenue streams for Northside as well.

The next question comes from [ Christoph Himmelstein ], an investor.

You touched a few times on the CUSMA renegotiation for this summer. And I just wonder what kind of scenarios you are looking at and the potential impact on the existing business?

Yes. So we did a lot of work around this in 2025, just given how volatile, especially the start of the year was last year around this particular topic. So I think we're going to be able to leverage off of a lot of the work we did at that point in time as we think about things. We have -- a couple of our subsidiaries have Blaze King and Marketing Impact have U.S. facilities at this point in time. And so that helps manage some of the risk around that. We look pretty heavily at different types of contract manufacturing opportunities for some of our other products in the U.S. We moved a lot of inventory to the U.S. as well in some of our different products. We really refined our paper processes to ensure that we are minimizing kind of the tariff impact on our customers, and we negotiated some pricing changes that reflected our customers bearing some of the cost of the tariffs as well. And so I think those will all be some of the same strategies that we use to address any challenges that come down the pipe with respect to anything with CUSMA as well. I think, obviously, 50% of our revenue is exposed to the U.S. right now. That's where we generate about half of our revenue. We have a variety of scenarios that we ran with respect to our business planning that various outcomes around that. And then we have these offsetting actions that we took some of in 2025 as we face similar issues, and we will be prepared to take more of in 2026. If there's an impact that happens while hoping that the powers that we will be able to achieve an outcome that benefits both markets.

We have no further questions at this time. I'll turn the call back over to Jeff Schellenberg for closing remarks.

Yes. Thank you to all of you for attending our Q4 and year-end 2025 conference call. We continue to believe that Decisive business model, grounded in the acquisition of profitable, low capital intensity manufacturing businesses who produce low obsolescence products distributed through channels that support reoccurring revenue at disciplined valuations, supports long-term stewardship and positions the company well for sustained growth and yield performance. We look forward to updating you on our progress continuing into the next quarter and beyond. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating, and we ask that you please disconnect your lines.