Linamar Corporation ($LNR)

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Linamar Corporation Q1 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded on May 6, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Linda Hasenfratz, Executive Chair. Please go ahead.

Thanks so much and good afternoon, everyone and welcome to our first quarter conference call. Before I begin, I'm going to draw your attention to the disclaimer currently being broadcast. Joining me this afternoon, as usual, are Jim Jarrell, our CEO and President; Dale Schneider, our CFO, both of whom will be addressing the call formally. And of course, available for questions, Mark Stoddart, Chris Merchant and other members of our corporate team. Okay. I'm going to start us off with some highlights of the quarter. A good place to start is always a key reminder of the value drivers that make Linamar such a great investment and how they played out this past year. First, Linamar has a long track record of consistent, sustainable results that drive out of our diverse business. And Q1 is just another great example of that with exceptional earnings growth in our Mobility business, more than offsetting soft markets across the board, as well as other dynamics like tariff in our Industrial business. Being invested in both businesses helps trim those big swings up and down in individual markets and leaves us with a more consistent, sustainable level of performance. The second key point is our flexibility to mitigate risk. As you all know, our equipment is programmable. It's flexible. It can be used on a large variety of types of equipment across different vehicle platforms and types of propulsion in the Mobility side, for instance. So this flexibility allows us to reallocate equipment from programs running under capacity to new launches, which, again, is a big part of helping to keep our capital bill down, as you saw again this quarter. Third, we've always run a prudent conservative balance sheet. We target keeping net debt to EBITDA under 1.5x. And in Q1, you certainly saw that. Net debt to EBITDA is 0.6, despite some significant investments and CapEx for new programs and acquisitions over the last year. Our peers are definitely much more heavily indebted with net debt to EBITDA more than 2.5x. I think this really creates financial stress for them and risk in terms of soft markets and limits their flexibility to chase new business, which, of course, we are not restricted in the same way. And I think that gives us a big advantage. Lastly, returning cash to shareholders is a key value creation driver at Linamar as well. You saw that playing out this quarter with our continued repurchase of shares in the market, which we have been steadily doing since November of 2024. Okay. Turning to highlights for Q1. I would say it's been an excellent record-breaking quarter that well represented Linamar as the entrepreneurial, opportunistic and technology-driven business that we are that's really delivering growth both for today and for tomorrow. We saw record sales and earnings in the quarter for our overall business and our Mobility business specifically, despite every market being down and a world that's really devolved into a minefield of tariffs and volatility. Our Mobility business saw earnings growth of nearly 50%, driving partially out of acquisitions, but also launches in our global operations. We saw great success in growing our technology portfolio with another strategically important acquisition of Winning BLW's Remscheid and Penzberg facilities. Through these acquisitions, Linamar significantly expands its forging expertise to include warm forging, expanding our already significant offering of precision gears to include precision bevel and helical gears for both the light vehicle and commercial vehicle markets. Having more products and processes to sell, notably proprietary technologies that our customers are looking for, really expands the pathways of growth potential for us at Linamar. Another key highlight for me of the quarter is the excellent level of new business wins, also, by the way, at record-setting levels for our first quarter. And finally, we're managing that tariff minefield very well indeed with actually more than 90% of our sales at Linamar not impacted by tariffs. I'm going to review the tariff situation in a little more detail in a minute. So turning to the numbers. We saw sales of $2.9 billion, up 16.1% over last year. Sales were up 6% in our Industrial business as the access markets start to recover, offset by continued softness on the ag side. And sales were up 19.2% in the Mobility segment, thanks to our Aludyne and Leipzig acquisitions as well as launching business offsetting those soft markets globally on the light vehicle side. Normalized net earnings were $195.8 million or 6.7% of sales, up 17.1% over last year. Normalized EPS was $3.28, up 18.8% over last year on the back of a very strong Mobility segment performance. And finally, free cash flow was excellent at nearly $220 million, unusual for Q1, which often has negative cash flow. Strong cash flow drove from those strong earnings and a continued focus on reallocating capital to control our capital spending. I would summarize our results this quarter as being most impacted by launches and strong production sales in Mobility, the Aludyne and Leipzig acquisitions, growth in Skyjack sales, which was offset by negative impacts of FX, the majority related to a weaker U.S. dollar in comparison to the Canadian dollar and the peso, as well as weak agricultural markets. Okay. Let's have a look at an update on the tariff side. As mentioned a moment ago, more than 90% of our sales are not impacted by any tariffs. I think that is the most important takeaway for you on tariffs. And that does include the new 232 tariff scheme that came into effect April 1 on metal product derivatives. That is creating a bigger impact to certain products in our Industrial business than the prior scheme of 232. Obviously, 25% tariff on full equipment value compared to 50% on only non-U.S. metal is quite different. But the good news is the tariffs are only impacting select products in the Industrial segment and not impacting the auto side of the business at all. The impact on the sales that are subject to these tariffs is -- of course, it's detracting from our growth this year, but in no way wiping it out given its impact on a smaller percentage of our sales. We fully expect to grow earnings this year, as Dale will shortly outline for you in our outlook. Meanwhile, we're working on various mitigation strategies to minimize the impacts of the tariffs. And I think this is another great example of the benefit of a diverse business. When all your eggs are in one basket, you are more vulnerable to specific dynamics in that industry. When you've got multiple revenue streams, those same dynamics are not impacting all areas of your business and also have, of course, differing economic cycles. All of that helps to ensure that more consistent, sustainable level of growth as you have seen us deliver quarter after quarter and year after year. Now on the positive side, we are continuing to see customers looking at onshoring into North America parts and systems that they're currently buying from Asia or Europe. We're building up a significant list of new business opportunities and of course, new business wins for our North American plants in all of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. New business win and quoting activity is quite strong in all regions. We're seeing great opportunities for our U.S. plants, particularly our newest acquisition, Aludyne, but also for our other existing American facilities. U.S. new business wins are already at 60% of the total that was won in 2025, and we're only 25% into the year. We are likewise seeing continued very strong new business wins for our Canadian plants, continuing the momentum after a really strong year last year. In our first quarter, we won quite a significant amount of new business for our Canadian plants. In fact, more than 70% of the value of the full year of new business wins last year for the Canadian plants, which in itself was the highest level of business wins we've seen in the last 3 years. And again, we're only 25% through the year. Our strong, highly capable Canadian plants are punching way above their weight in terms of wins compared to their slice of the global footprint, which is great to see. I think it's key to note as well that our portfolio expansion, notably into additional structural components, is really increasing our RFQ activity. This strategy has really played out positively for us. The tariff situation is also adding stress to an already stressed supply base, notably in the U.S. and in Europe. This is leading to acquisition opportunities for us as you've seen us act on and the pipeline of distressed companies just continues to grow. We've so far completed 3 distressed acquisitions over the last 3 or 4 years, significantly adding to our technology portfolio as well as our global footprint and for very reasonable cost. Finally, I wanted to emphasize again that our strong results and positive outlook is very much a result of what I think is an excellent and unique business culture at Linamar. Our culture has been fine-tuned over the last 60 years to be opportunistic, to be entrepreneurial, to find something positive and actionable to grow our business regardless of the circumstances. We are naturally responsive, nimble, move fast. We're innovative and creative and mitigate challenging situations and we get things done. I think those are critical elements to not just survive, but thrive in a challenging time like we are living in right now. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to our CEO, Jim Jarrell, to review industry and operations updates in more detail. Over to you Jim.

Great. Thanks, Linda, and great to be with everyone listening tonight. As we step back and reflect on Q1, this was clearly a quarter of records for Linamar and more importantly, it was a record quarter that reinforces the strength and durability of our strategy. We delivered record quarterly sales, record quarterly earnings per share and record levels of new business wins for a first quarter since 2014. These records were not driven by a single market or a short-term tailwind. They were the outcome of consistent execution across a diversified global platform. What stands out is how this performance was achieved. It came in a very complex market environment with varied volumes in regions and end markets alongside ongoing trade uncertainty and cost pressures that speaks directly to the resilience of our operating model and the discipline embedded across our teams. Across the organization, we continue to see the benefits of scale, commercial discipline and operational focus translating into sustained earnings momentum and strong cash generation. At the same time, continued success in winning new business reinforces the relevance of our technology footprint and long-term customer partnerships. Equally important, our approach to capital remains deliberate and balanced, returning cash to shareholders, reinvesting organically and preserving balance sheet strength and flexibility. That balance is critical as we navigate the current environment and position the company for future opportunities. All of this ties back to GRIT, growth in revenue, income and our team. This quarter of records is not the objective, it is the result. It reflects how we run the business day-to-day and how we continue to position Linamar for sustainable long-term value creation. So speaking of GRIT, I want to turn to the large issue everyone is rightly focused on, which is the new 232 tariffs announced by the U.S. administration just over a month ago. Linda has already outlined what these tariffs are and their high-level implications. Yes, they're a significant issue for us and we are not taking it lightly. From the moment these measures were announced, our teams have been working actively daily to identify and implement mitigation actions wherever possible. The current impact is concentrated on the industrial side of our business and spans a range of products, HS Codes, derivatives and component parts. While we're not going to outline specific products or classifications publicly, this protects our commercial relationships with customers, supplier governments and all stakeholders. This exposure is being actively and deliberately managed. As you can see, we have taken a multi-lever mitigation approach, includes regulatory and classification reviews, distribution and structural optimization, targeted operational actions using our existing footprint, supply chain and cost initiatives and disciplined commercial actions. Some measures are already in place, others are actively underway and additional options remain under evaluation as we continue to manage this to protect the long-term value. As Linda said, Dale will walk through this in our outlook. Again, this is not a static situation. We'll continue to improve as our clarity improves on this. Okay. With that, let's take a look at Skyjack business and what a great quarter here. Despite the current headwinds stemming from the Section 232 amendments we just spoke about, Skyjack weathered the storm and saw volume increases by 66% over Q1 '25. This incredible performance by our Skyjack team was driven by scissors in North America and booms in both North America and Asia Pacific. Looking at industry expectations for '26, North America is expected to be slightly up 1.4%. Europe is expected to be modest increase of 1% and Asia and Rest of World expected to see a steeper decline of 17% on the backdrop of tariff wars, leading to a global decline overall of 4% approximately. That being said, we're expecting that '27 will see a slight increase across all regions, primarily in North America on the continued growth in data center construction where Skyjack has created the optimal product to service these type of products. As I mentioned last quarter, it's important to note that volume growth doesn't always equate directly to revenue as product mix plays a key role with booms and telehandlers commanding a higher price than scissors. The real story is Skyjack's ability to gain share and strengthen its position in a challenging market. On the innovation side, we're very excited to say that our new SJ3232 E launched in Q1, adding a versatile range of electric slab scissors in North America and European markets. Also excited to say that all the new SJ45 and SJ45 ARJN battery-powered electric slab booms for North America and Europe have also been launched. These products emphasize the innovation capabilities of our Skyjack team to offer consumers with less space and a broader reach, providing solutions for all construction needs. Turning to agriculture. Through the first quarter of the year, expectations are in line with another down year. Despite this, all 3 of our brands continued to see market share growth. MacDon's combine draper globally, Salford's tillage market share has grown over the last 12 months and Bourgault's air seeders saw gains in the U.S. market. Our ag teams have demonstrated resilience and is evidenced through these gains. Looking at the expectations for '26, North America is expected to be down 20% to 15%. Commodity prices remain stagnant. Input costs continue to be high and pressuring farmer profitability. Large dealership groups remain very cautious on whole good inventory stocking levels. And although channel inventory levels are under scrutiny, OEM production levels are purposely underbuilding versus the retail sales level rate in order to shed some of these inventories. In Europe, we have seen some improved outlook for combines, the primary market we participate in for MacDon. The market is seen as being very resilient in the face of geopolitical and commodity pricing headwinds, ultimately resulting in a flat '26. In the rest of the world, particularly Australia and South America, the market is expected to be flat to down. In South America, the market for combines is slightly negative with elevated market risk with tighter credit and government-backed financing. In Australia, concerns over increased fuel and fertilizer costs, coupled with hotter and drier conditions are causing some concerns among farmer sentiment. We'll continue to monitor global trade tensions, government bridge payments and channel inventories to react to those market signals. As always, our focus at Linamar Agriculture will be on maintaining our market-leading positions. And how we do that is really through innovation. Some innovation highlights from our agricultural team. The MacDon Group has launched its all-new MyMacDon app. The app directly connects users to their dedicated MacDon equipment, putting software updates, support documents and videos right into their pockets. Our MacDon owners can now access all resources, locate their nearest dealer, check active fault codes and view real-time data. From the Bourgault team, they've launched the all-new CDi50. This product is not only transport-friendly, but it is designed to deliver unmatched efficiency and agronomic flexibility. The product is 50 feet. Yes, 50 feet. You can imagine how difficult it would be to transport a piece of equipment that size, but Bourgault team has done this very well. Finally, looking at the automotive industry, we're seeing some tempered expectations quarter-over-quarter for '26. In North America, '26 expectations are for light vehicle production down 2% with higher fuel costs, affordability pressures and uncertainty weigh on demand. In Europe, production is expected to decline as elevated energy and manufacturing costs, rising imports from China and limited export opportunities continue to impact projected output. Finally, in Asia-Pacific, growth is expected to slow in '26 as weaker domestic demand, geopolitical disruptions and rising input costs are weighing on output despite continued support from export activity in the parts of the region. In 2027, however, early projections indicate that we will see a small rebound across all major continents. Turning to Linamar's CPV performance for the quarter. Our key strategic acquisitions of Aludyne North America, Leipzig and beginning in Q2 with the Winning Group's Remscheid and Penzberg facilities are driving strong share gains in existing and new customers. North American CPV was up 24%. Europe was up 10.2% and Asia Pacific saw growth of 3.4% year-over-year. Globally, our CPV grew an outstanding 20% to $99.47. Looking at our new business wins for the quarter across both Mobility and Industrial, Linamar saw a new business win value of $758 million, a Q1 record going back to 2014. Through our strategic acquisitions and takeover work, we saw significant new program wins for components such as cylinder blocks, cylinder head assemblies. Our propulsion-agnostic new business wins on knuckles emphasizes Linamar's structural and chassis expansion, allowing Linamar to expand its propulsion-agnostic portfolio across all powertrain types. Now looking at some recent news on the Mobility side. As you have seen, Linamar completed its third acquisition with the latest Remscheid and Penzberg facilities from the Winning Group. This acquisition aligns directly with our strategy to grow our capabilities, customers and expertise. The acquisition significantly expands Linamar's forging expertise to now include the warm forging, which drastically grows our already significant offering in precision gears to include both the bevel and helical gears. These 2 facilities are incredible strategic fit for Linamar. Not only do they strengthen the technology capabilities of Linamar, they build on our manufacturing capabilities and products where we are already strong, deepen our relationships with core customers and position us for continued growth by growing our content vehicle across multiple markets. We're also extremely excited about the performance of both our Leipzig facility acquisition and our Aludyne North American acquisition. Both have integrated seamlessly into the Linamar family and are truly paying dividends. Leipzig, now known as Linamar Casting Solutions Leipzig in conjunction with the traditional Linamar facility have collaborated to win a major award of a fully machined heavy-duty truck axle for a highly attractive European on-highway OEM. The core capabilities we acquired at the facility of iron casting solutions and the state-of-the-art installation with 3D printed sand cores are propelling our operations to be able to expand further into the on-and off-highway markets through a broader offering. Finally, our largest acquisition of the 3 we've recently announced. Aludyne North America has been a tremendous success so far. In just a few months since acquiring Aludyne, our teams have been able to generate over $250 million in additional opportunities. Leveraging the vast selection of casting solutions, we're able to support a deep product depth and provide solutions for mobility applications we hadn't been able to do before. As mentioned -- as I mentioned last quarter, Linamar services 8 different mega markets in our 2,100-year plan, which you can see displayed. The 2 segments I wanted to focus on today are robotics and defense. We've had some exciting new developments that people are recognizing we are an advanced manufacturing and product development company capable of delivering to any of these markets. In robotics, we've signed an LOI to be the contract manufacturer in North America for cobots. We partner with 2 separate parties to build humanoids and are also working with software companies on artificial intelligence development for the brains of those humanoids. It's incredible to see our teams drive the growth and we're extremely excited of the progress we're making. In the defense, the strides we made are nothing short than exceptional. Our traction with the key defense primes, not only in Canada, but in the U.S., Europe and other regions, continue to grow. The takeaway is simple. Linamar is not defined by one industry. Automotive is proof of our capabilities, not the limit of them. We are a global advanced manufacturing and product development partner. With that, I'll turn it over to Dale to take us through the financial overview.

Thank you, Jim and good afternoon, everyone. Linda covered a high level of the financial performance in the quarter, so I'll jump directly into the business segment review, starting with Mobility. Mobility sales increased by $365.3 million or 19.2% over Q1 last year to $2.3 billion. This growth was mainly due to the increased sales from the Q4 acquisitions, which made a significant contribution during the quarter. Additionally, the higher launch and mature program volumes further boosted sales. However, these gains were partially offset by the negative impacts of FX rate changes, lower volumes of certain ending programs and reduced demand for some EV programs that continue to experience weaker market conditions. Q1 normalized operating earnings for Mobility were up 46.3% over last year to $183.5 million. The improvement was driven by the increased earnings from the higher volumes on launching mature programs, the Q4 acquisitions and operational efficiencies, though partially offset by lower volumes on the ending programs and EV programs and the negative impact of FX. Turning to Industrial. Sales increased by 6.6% or $42 million to $675.4 million in Q1. The increase was driven by the higher access equipment sales supported by global market share growth for scissors, booms and telehandlers. This was partially offset by lower agricultural sales in a significantly down market despite global market share gains on key products such as draper headers and air seeders. Additionally, there was a negative FX impact in the quarter. Normalized Industrial operating earnings in Q1 decreased by $20.9 million or 16.5% over last year to $105.7 million. The decline reflects the lower agricultural sales, the FX impact and a moderate impact from tariffs on certain industrial products, partially offset by the increased earnings from the strong access equipment sales. Starting with our overall cash position, which came in at $1.2 billion on March 31, an increase of $281.5 million compared to March last year. During the first quarter, we generated $281.6 million from cash from operating activities, which was used partially to fund Q1 CapEx and share buybacks. Turning to leverage. Net debt to EBITDA was 0.6x at the quarter, an improvement from 1x a year ago. The amount of available credit on credit facilities was $805.6 million and our liquidity at the end of Q1 significantly increased to $2 billion. Free cash flow in the quarter was $218.6 million. Our current NCIB program was launched at Q3 '25 earnings call and will expire on November 16. This program authorized the purchase and cancellation of up to 3.9 million shares. To date, we have returned nearly $59 million to shareholders through the repurchase of approximately 696,000 shares. This brings our total cash returned to shareholders since November 2024 to $159 million with the purchase and cancellation of approximately 2.4 million shares. This initiative reflects our disciplined capital allocation strategy of maintaining a strong balance sheet, investing in growth and returning excess cash to shareholders. Turning to the outlook. I will outline Linamar's expectations for Q2, focusing on Mobility and Industrial segments, in addition to highlighting the changes in our outlook for 2026 from what was announced at our last earnings call. Please note, we're not providing segment-level guidance for the full year '26 at this time due to the elevated volatility in global markets and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, which makes segments forecast less reliable. Regarding Mobility segment, our outlook for the second quarter is highly positive. We've anticipated double-digit growth in both sales and normalized operating, driven by ongoing program launches, recent acquisitions and continued operational improvements. Second quarter margins are projected to expand further within our normal range, reflecting strong sales performance, effective launch execution and consistent cost control. In the Industrial segment, agriculture markets remained weak entering Q2. We anticipate Industrial sales growth -- but expect it to -- sorry, we anticipate agricultural sales growth, but we do expect normalized operating earnings to decline by double digits with margins below our typical 14% to 18%. Sales gains from access markets will partially offset agricultural softness, but margins will be pressured by the new amended 232 tariffs that began in April of '26. As a result, on a consolidated basis, we expect double-digit sales growth, growth in normalized EPS and a modest contraction on normalized net margins, as well as positive free cash flows. For the full year '26, our latest outlook is largely consistent to what we provided on the Q4 call with a few key updates. We are now expecting stronger sales growth in the double digits and we continue to expect growth in normalized EPS. We now anticipate a modest reduction in normalized net earnings margins, primarily due to the newly amended 232 tariffs as we continue to evaluate and pursue mitigation strategies. We continue to expect CapEx to increase from prior year while remaining below our normal range as a percent of sales. And we continue to expect a very strong balance sheet with low leverage alongside strongly positive free cash flow. This outlook reflects the strong Mobility growth driven from launches, a full year contribution from Aludyne North American operations and the Leipzig casting facility and the newly announced Winning facilities, all supporting top and bottom line performance in Mobility. The ag market rate of decline is moderating though the conditions remain soft with stabilization expected later this year with access markets showing signs of growth. Overall, the external environment remains mixed and visibility is limited, but Linamar's fundamentals remain strong. We have a very strong balance sheet, significant liquidity and we continue to expect strongly positive free cash flow, which gives us flexibility to invest and execute. At the same time, Mobility is supported by launches and growth from acquisitions, which positions us well for growth as we work through the impact of the amended 232 tariffs. In summary, Linamar delivered a very strong quarter, delivering record sales and record normalized EPS, a very strong balance sheet, excellent liquidity. We are well-positioned to invest in growth, navigate this volatility and continue to return capital to shareholders. Thank you and now I'd like to open up for questions.

[Operator Instructions] And your first question comes from Ty Collin with CIBC.

Appreciate all of the color and commentary around tariffs in the prepared remarks. I'm just wondering, can you actually quantify the impact of the changes to the Section 232 tariffs within the Industrial business? And is the guidance factoring in any of the mitigating actions that you're looking at? Or would those mostly fall outside of 2026?

I mean, we're not quantifying the impact of the tariffs. It's a moving target. I can tell you that we considered the tariffs in our estimate of growing our earnings next quarter and for the year. I'll reiterate that more than 90% of our sales has no tariff impact whatsoever. We have some mitigation in there, but there's more work that we are working on.

Yes. What we've done to date is in, right? So the mitigation that we've done on sort of Phase 1 is in. But then as I've mentioned, in the area of mitigation ideas and things we're working on, I mean and sort of reiterate, like, I mean, we're looking at HS Code classifications to review to see if we can engineer that. Certainly, government, you've seen the government of Canada come out recently and say, "Hey, we're going to get tariff relief with loans." The other thing that also helps is the SRF funds that we've been working on as well. And this also talks about working with the U.S. side, too, right? So we're working with the U.S. side, certainly distribution models, right, that you have. So we've done a step 1 on that. Again, we're not going to move production, like big levels of production. But what I can say is we'll do things that have low effort, easy to implement, right, and use existing infrastructure. Things like flashing software, right, doing some calibration, those all have cost elements that we could play with. And certainly, supply chain rebalancing, right, look at things that are not tariffed and can I meet our product somewhere where we have an existing facility to not have a tariff impact. And then obviously, commercial discussions with customers. We got to remain competitive. We've got very good competition globally on this stuff. But can we actually have customers say, hey, reallocate some of the orders into Canada, right, reposition stuff. So those -- a lot -- some of those things that I just mentioned are not in, right? And so as I mentioned, things should get better, right? But those are things that we would sort of update as you go.

Okay. Got it. And obviously, the consolidated net margin guidance went from expansion to a modest contraction. But it seems like sales have been stronger than expected to start the year. Is it fair to say that but for the incremental tariff impacts, the margin outlook would have been in line with or even a little bit better than your initial outlook at the start of the year?

I think that makes sense, right? I mean -- from the -- we had the expansion there last time. The big change was the impact of the 232.

And you're correct. Sales are stronger than expected. Like, I mean, you noticed that we increased our guidance for sales outlook for the Industrial segment. So sales are a little stronger and we've got a bit of a headwind on the tariff side. So it's impacting margins, but not significantly, okay? It's a modest impact.

Okay. That's helpful. And then if I can just ask one more just around the Iran war. Can you maybe just comment on whether you're seeing any cost pressures in the business today related to that? And what sort of hedges or contractual protections you have in place to offset or mitigate those costs, particularly in Europe?

Yes. We haven't really seen anything on the cost side. We've seen supply concerns, challenges around the world sort of thing from the Strait of Hormuz stoppage there. So we currently are working at the supply chain side, but no cost issues. Our obvious concern is as it continues, if gas prices keep going up or stay there, it'll have an impact on other things.

Your next question comes from Brian Morrison with TD Cowen.

Good quarter. Maybe I can start with the Mobility side. The distressed acquisitions, they really seem to be contributing in a positive manner, both from a technology standpoint and financial performance. I mean, with your balance sheet and free cash flow being a staple, is there an -- I assume there's an appetite, but is it fair to say there's many more opportunities to pursue out there?

There is endless. Like, I mean, it's incredible, Brian, to see it. And I think North America, maybe not as much as there was. There's still a few things out there. But Europe, to me, is just a whole place of uncertainty and it's in a real tough position. The issue with Europe, though, is speed. It just seems slower and -- to react to these changes, right? So we've been talking to a lot of customers about different issues and it just seems to take a lot longer for them to come to that decision, right? But for sure, there's a lot of things out there that we keep focused on. But really, it's sort of customer-driven with us.

Okay. Just sticking with Mobility, 8.1% margin. Is there any recoveries in there? Or is it just fair to say this is operational efficiency and leverage driven by a large increase in sales?

This is the sort of status quo right now. There's no real -- nothing like that.

Yes. I mean, it's a reflection of launches, more of our launches continue to play out and the acquisitions that are rolling in. So it's a combination of factors that have taken us to this point. But we're in our normal range, right, 7% to 10%, we're right in the middle.

Yes. No, it's best-in-class. I guess on Industrial, is there any actions you can take -- and I'm speaking with -- on agriculture, pardon me. Is there any actions you can take with the dealers, I realize it's a challenged market, just in order to position yourself to take advantage of an eventual turn? Or is it just an overall industry destock?

Yes. I think we're sort of ready with the dealers. I mean, from our standpoint, it's just the whole good inventory levels. They're just very cautious. When you even think about farmer sentiment, like, they want to purchase. We were just talking about this earlier. They want to purchase and they probably have the capacity to. They just don't feel confident because there's been -- input costs are higher. The government payment stuff plan has been slow. So I think that uncertainty, Brian, is just like everybody is just watching inventory and not ready to position. But there is pent-up demand out there. And -- but we're positioned, I think, really well when this dial turns. I think we're going to be really well-received because, I mean, we create the value on the field, right, the farmer field, which is really the critical thing.

Yes. I think we just need to see that we're feeling a little more confident. And I think there's still just a little too much uncertainty out there for them in terms of their farm income and where things are going because as Jim said, there's pent-up demand there. So as soon as they start to feel a little more comfortable with the status quo and where things are going, I think we're going to see them getting out there and buying.

Yes. And I think we sort of said and I think the market said this, most OEMs, like CNH and AGCO and the others, John Deere, they thought this year we'd probably see a recovery sort of back half, people starting to buy. I mean, CNH, I think, just came out with their and said the ag, this is a historical low point in North America demand. So like it's hard to know when this thing starts to bounce back. But I think those are the different things we're watching.

Your next question comes from Michael Glen with Raymond James.

Maybe just to start, Linda, you're probably very close to what's happening with the USMCA negotiations. Are you able to just shed a bit of insight into your expectations regarding any future tariffs that might come into place, anything along those lines, how you think those talks will go?

Yes. I mean, I think that it's not something that's going to get resolved quickly. Obviously, all the parties are in discussions, but we're not far away from this midyear time frame. I have a feeling that's going to end up being extended. But the point is, I think that USMCA is way too important to both the United States and Canada for anybody to decide to withdraw from it. I think that the negative implications of that would be quite significant to the U.S. And as a result, I think are there going to be things that we need to negotiate? Yes, of course. There are things that are irritants to the U.S., probably the same on the Canadian and Mexican side. So let's have some discussion around that and try and work through to solidify our commitment to this agreement so we can move on from that. I think my feeling is that's where we'll end up. I think it'll take a little bit of time to get there.

Okay. And then just to go back to the M&A, these are distressed acquisitions. You only recently closed them. So are they dragging on the overall segment margins at this point in time?

I don't know which you're referencing. Like the acquisitions that we've made over the last year have all been distressed. Like, they've been distressed.

Are they dragging...

We bought them.

Are they dragging on this?

No, not at all. They were all accretive right out of the gate. I mean, the assets were distressed, but we negotiated ahead of acquisition to make sure that they'd be accretive day 1.

Yes. So we worked with basically the seller, we worked with customers and then we brought forward our own, like, operating efficiencies sort of they come day 1 with that positive accretive side. So it was like sort of 3-pronged, work with the seller, work with the customer to make sure -- but then bring the Linamar sort of way inside, like day 1, the operating efficiencies, leverage the supply chain stuff, work those -- so it was sort of 3-pronged. But yes, every one of those distressed were accretive. And each one of the customers sort of came to us to say, "Hey, can you guys jump in and help out?" And we're a trusted partner. So we were able to sort of work that system.

Okay. And then just finally on agriculture. Do you have any insights into what the used equipment market looks like in some of your core products at all?

I don't really have a good feel of that right now. Yes, I'm not sure.

Michael, most on MacDon side on headers is a little high. I think we saw on Bourgault and seeders, it seemed to be dropping.

Yes, if you recall on sulfur products.

Sulfur would be very low.

We have been working with the dealers to see how we can help with our product that they have in regards to assisting on doing some reconditioning and that to be able to move the used stuff off because obviously, if there's more used, they're forced to buy new, which is what we want to see.

Your next question comes from Etienne Ricard with BMO Capital Markets.

On Skyjack, the volume outperformance relative to the industry continues to be quite notable. What have you done right from a distribution standpoint?

I think it's our product. I think our product -- again, when you think about the big beautiful bill that was passed in the States, I think AI distribution mega centers are a big part of the market that we're supplying and that market is obviously quite good and our product line really fits into that nicely. And it was interesting. We were at CONEXPO, American Rental Association and that product was like really well focused from a lot of the customers. And so to me, I think it's really product-based. And when you think about just the results that Linda highlighted here, like we've launched 6 new products sort of in 2026. And our efficiency bringing things to the market has been faster. And so we're getting that recognition on the sales side.

Interesting. And staying on Industrial and tariffs, are there ways for Linamar to leverage the footprint that you have on the Mobility side in the U.S. to manufacture maybe a bit more industrial equipment that would be tariff-free?

Yes. I mean, as we -- as Jim outlined earlier, the idea of us tooling up to make product in the U.S. is -- like, it's a huge investment. What we could do is, like, things that are on the fringe, right, that we're not going to need an investment for to just reduce the value of the unit going across the border, which is some of the stuff that Jim was talking about.

Yes. I think to me, our view of this is low effort, easy to implement, which means minimal cost to do that. And we do have footprint in the U.S. So, I think, for example, if you have a part that's tariffed, but I can then put that part and it's not tariff going in the U.S., I meet my machine over the border, put that part on. Now I've reduced the cost going across the border, right? And so there's things like that. Software flashing, we do -- you can maybe do software flashing or calibration over the border. That reduces, again, the transfer cost going over the border. So those are things that are sort of no cost, low effort, easy to implement that I think our focus is on those because, again, moving footprints around, it costs, like, huge money and the time and disruption that would have created, it'd be really, really significant.

Okay. And you've mentioned multiple times the importance of culture and best practices. How do you make sure these are adopted across firms that you acquire, especially given you've been more active recently?

Yes. I mean, that's a great question and I could spend about 2 hours with you on that. We do -- there's a great book called from Erin Meyer, it's called Cultural Mapping (sic) [ The Culture Map ]. Every time we do an acquisition, we do a cultural mapping. And Linamar has a very specific culture. These are 8 different categories that you map. And you then do the mapping to the acquisition target. And then you say, okay, what is the gap analysis and how do we fill the gap? And then basically that's how you ingrain the culture and then through training, right, and having integration discussions, meetings. And in fact, when we went to Aludyne, Linda and I go to every facility and we do a welcome, right? And we really ingrain that Linamar culture day 1 and that's not negotiable.

And I think it's more than just words on a slide and words on a wall for us. It's how we live the business every day. Like, when Jim and I go in to visit and talk to them about how they're running their business and where the improvements can come from, when we go in and do a cat exercise to look for ways to improve, we're living that culture real time with them. So it becomes ingrained because it's sort of -- it's hard coded into the systems that we have, the processes that we use to improve the tracking of how we track our performance and so many -- in how we evaluate the performance of our people, it's hard coded in. So it's not just some poster we put up on the wall. It's how we live and interact with them every day. And it takes work for sure. But we've got a pretty good system for doing it because we've done quite a few acquisitions over the last 10 or 15 years and I think we've learned a lot.

There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Linda Hasenfratz.

Thank you so much. Okay. To wrap up, I'd like to leave you with our key message for the quarter, which, frankly, is identical to what we started out with. So we are thrilled to see record sales and earnings in the quarter overall, thanks to those record Mobility earnings, up nearly 50% over last year. We are very happy to continue to acquire great technology companies like Winning to enhance our product offering to our customers. We're excited by the excellent level of new business wins that we're seeing with record levels achieved here as well in the quarter. And lastly, despite a crazy tariff world, we still have more than 90% of our sales not impacted at all and we are not letting the tariffs that do impact and impede our promise to grow top and bottom line again this year. So thanks very much, everybody and have a great evening.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.