Omni-Lite Industries Canada Inc. ($OML)

Thank you for standing by. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Omni-Lite Industries, Inc. First Quarter 2026 Investor Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Amy Vetrano-Palmer, CFO. The floor is yours.

Thank you. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. With me today is our Chief Executive Officer, Dave Robbins. Our call is being recorded and will be available for playback, the details of which are in our press release issued yesterday. The purpose of this call is to provide an update on Omni-Lite's financial performance and operations as we filed our first quarter 2026 results yesterday, May 27. After our remarks, we will open up the line for any Q&A. If you have not received a copy of our press release, which was issued yesterday morning, you can find it on our website at www.omnilite.com or e-mail at [email protected] to request a copy. Before we get started, I would like to remind you that today's discussion will and may include forward-looking statements, including information regarding Omni-Lite's performance based on our views of the company's business and the environments in which it operates, our future plans, objectives, business prospects and anticipated financial performance. These forward-looking statements are subject to future risks and uncertainty and could cause our actual results or performance to differ materially. We are also mindful of the risks and impacts of changes in the health of our general economy, including the effects of the current U.S. financial market, U.S. global commercial aerospace markets and the U.S. Defense Department. All forward-looking statements should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statements contained in our press release and risk factors included in Omni-Lite's SEDAR filings. The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements that may be discussed during this call. I will also mention that in addition to reported financial results in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, or IFRS, during our call, we may also discuss or reference some non-IFRS financial measures, specifically adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. A reconciliation of these non-IFRS metrics, if applicable, is included in our filings. Lastly, unless otherwise noted, any reference or discussion of our financial results or metrics are in U.S. dollar. I would like to now turn the call over to Dave. Dave?

Thanks, Amy. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us. I'd like to make a few comments about our first quarter 2026 performance, followed by comments on our current business. First quarter 2026 revenue of $4.4 million was an increase of 33% compared to prior year first quarter. The adjusted EBITDA in the quarter came in at $858,000, representing a 110% increase compared to prior year first quarter. The strong quarterly performance resulted largely from a healthy mix of production at our electronics and forming operations, notably from their respective top customers. Bookings for the first quarter of $4.9 million translates to 1.11:1 book-to-bill, our third successive positive book-to-bill and pushes the backlog to $9.1 million, which is a record for the company. Omni-Lite metal forming bookings in the quarter were particularly strong, driven by large reorders for high-strength structural forged collars used on commercial air transport and military airframe and fuselage as well as annual release for munition components for NATO forces. Given the global demand for security, of which missile and drone defense and air superiority are major components as well as strong air transport levels and expanding new plane build rates, there is an increasing number of part qualification opportunities for both new designs and supplier replacement efforts, starting with electronics, but also for metal forming and casting components. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Amy. Amy?

Thanks, Dave. Dave has addressed our revenue and outlook, and I'll just make a few comments regarding our cash. Adjusted free cash flow is defined as cash flow from operations minus capital expenditures and any lease expenses was a source of approximately $173,000 in the quarter, which is an increase of 18% over the prior year. We did use approximately $45,000 for CapEx purchases for improvements in our manufacturing process during the quarter. We finished the quarter with $3 million in cash and no borrowings, which is up from $2.8 million at year-end. This now completes our prepared remarks. We would like to open the call up for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from [ Reuben Dugle with Chandard ].

Dave, Amy, we've had quarters with similar revenue levels before, but never with margins like this. In Q1, our gross margin was 33% versus 24% a year ago, and our EBITDA margin hit 20%, the best it's been in 8 quarters by a wide margin. Can you talk through what specifically drove that this quarter, especially given that it looks like DP Cast is still losing money. And how much of it reflects the Monzite and DP Cast shipments that you had mentioned slipped from Q4 to Q1?

Yes, [ Ruku ], you never have just a simple question, but I appreciate that. Let me see if I can -- I'll get to it all. So I think if you look back at Q1 of 2024, you'll see some similar numbers. And actually probably it's similar performance. So -- but you're right, it's been a little bit rare. And really all that's going on there is that -- and I noted in the press release is that it's a pretty good proportion of mix. So a lot of production. Leading up to that was a lot of good bookings. So I pointed to that in Q4 and in Q3, increasing backlog. It's a lot of production stuff. So we like to see a mix of new products because that's what's driving growth for future. But you also like to see healthy production. And so -- and I think we also just had a quarter -- we're building performance parts, precision parts, everywhere across the company. And we -- I think part of it was mix, good proportion of production. And we executed pretty well in the quarter. I think a combination -- I don't think it's any more complex or less complex than that.

That's helpful. And does electronics and forging look front-end loaded this year? Or are you expecting more of a steady cadence as we go through 2026?

That's a difference between 2024 and 2026. 2024 was a lot of front-end loaded, and it's different. The cadence of bookings have been now steady for 3 straight quarters. My expectation from my comments and my -- just my expectation is that, that's going to continue. Yes, that's probably the difference between the start of 2024 and where we are in 2026.

That's great. And I just wanted to talk about DP Cast a little bit. If you can talk through what the path is to breakeven at DP Cast. And when should we expect the renegotiated pricing to show up? I mean if you could talk through some of the operational and contract levers you have there? And what margin profile should DP Cast have if it were at a steady normalized reasonable revenue run rate?

Well, as we noted, it's more back-nded in the year. It just happens that a lot of the parts for that contract happened to be in the second half of the year. So we're not going to get the benefit in these first 2 quarters, but it's there. And the level, I think I mentioned this, at least our expectation when we announced that the price increase is -- we didn't have total visibility, but our expectation was that the level at increased prices, the level of numbers of parts and quantity of parts was not going to go down as a result of the price increase. It was either going to be flat or up. Now at that time, we didn't have any real data, but it was an expectation. We do have an expectation now. I mean, more than expectation. The reality is the number is healthy. It's at least flat in terms of quantities of parts, but -- and actually a bit more. So it's more, but it is back-end-loaded in the year. So we won't enjoy the majority of the benefit of that until later in the year.

Okay. That's very helpful. And I wanted to just talk about the backlog a little bit because I think in Q1, we exited with a backlog of about $9.1 million. And I think the general algorithm has been roughly half of the backlog converts to revenue the next quarter plus the spot market, which kind of held this quarter because, I mean, last quarter, the backlog was $8.8 million and our revenue is $4.4 million, which is roughly half the backlog. So applying that same math and looking forward, the $9.1 million in backlog suggests about $4.5 million in Q2 revenue before spot. Is that sort of the right way to think about it? Or are there longer lead time items in the current backlog?

No, that formula is still there. I mean, of course, there's noise around that formula, but that general formula is still -- there's nothing really that's deteriorated or changed from that. We have a little bit of backlog that's maybe on a disproportionate that's in '27 on a comparative basis to '25, let's say, or late '25, but not enough to matter. That general formula is pretty good.

Okay. That's great. And if we look at some of the levers to the gross margin and the EBITDA margin that we saw in Q1, given sort of what our expectations for revenue are? Do you expect the same kind of throughput through plant going into Q2 that we managed to take advantage of in Q1?

Well, I think in the same zone. When we're operating at those operating levels and with good mix, yes, we should be -- I think that was a particularly, probably -- particularly everything-went-well quarter. They don't always go that well. But within the same ZIP code and region, yes, there's no reason -- I think we've got a fairly healthy mix. Our backlog now consists of a pretty healthy mix of production versus new starts. So I would expect that we can continue on our profit margin target that we're targeting.

Dave, and just in terms of production versus new starts, it seems like the operating leverage is clearly showing up as the top line grows. And it seems clear that the company has the capacity to support growth. Can you talk through your sales initiatives to qualify on as many programs as you can with the primes, maybe cross-selling on new programs, positioning for second-sourcing opportunities. At least as a company, what's the push vector to try and increase as many program counts as we can from here?

So it's a little bit different at each technology, it's slightly different, but they also have some similarities. We're putting high-performance components on high-value asset on platform. So you've got to get qualified. That's probably the unique -- not the single thing, but it is one thing that it is across the board. You don't put things on missiles and jets and different type of applications without going through an exhaustive qualification process, which means that it's all about a customer relationship. So the majority of our business, I wouldn't say exclusively, is the cycle to get more business is where you've performed and your customer expects you're a known entity, you don't have bad quality, you're on time. That's you right to say, okay, let's go back for some more. So I would say, number one, same customer, sometimes even same platform, new product where they might be having trouble with another vendor or a new platform itself where it needs a new part. So that's number one, our biggest funnel, where we start to fill the funnel is where we've built that track record. If we were making more commoditized parts and it wasn't such a -- qualification wasn't such a big deal, it might be different. But -- and we were also looking strategically at new customers that have high-value platforms that we'd like to start cultivating a new customer. And we've had a few of those. I think 2 or 3 quarters ago, I mentioned, for example, some Inconel, a new family of Inconel fasteners. That was a new customer. It's taken a while for that, let's say, to mature into a full production at the same kind of quantities that we're seeing with some of our other -- our #1 customer, let's say, but it's growing. So -- and I think that where we've kind of hit, at least with -- at electronics and Inconel fasteners, I think we've hit some level of critical mass where we have enough platform wins, enough wins that we're sort of opening up the aperture for more product, it's getting less -- there's less resistance, right? So I would say that -- but now I would say -- and that's particularly strong for fasteners. With electronics, it's slightly different. I think the opportunity is more for new -- brand-new platform, brand-new customer because there's a lot of development going on to counter new threats that are happening. So that's an opportunity. So we're aggressively visiting customers and trying to introduce our products where we have somewhat unique products in the marketplace to get on new platforms as well as doing more, the same style of business is doing more on the existing platform. So for example, we might be on something on a PAC-3 where we're doing a certain content, and we're going to expand that content. So those are really outbound marketing efforts, but starting with our key customers. That's where it starts. And then in casting, it's still similar. They've got a good footprint at its #1 and #2 customer. So again, it's look for the platforms that have the highest growth opportunity where they have a need for precision and get in front of them with our capability.

That's super helpful. Final question for me, and then I'll leave the floor. So in the segmentation in one of your filings, it looks like the Canada segment, which is DP Cast, if I understand it, had a net loss of about $262,000 this last quarter. So I'm assuming on an EBITDA basis, I mean, that loss is probably larger. And we did sort of $858,000 in EBITDA with a 20% margin. Is the right way to think about it that if DP Cast even gets to a breakeven level by the end of the year and maybe even a little bit better than breakeven, that the incremental sort of P&L should sort of make our margins look sort of even better as we round into the end of the year and going into next year? Is that just as a framework, is that the right way of thinking about it?

Well, you got to remember, there are some costs in Canada that aren't related to specifically the DP, but I think you know that, right? So it almost appeared like you answered your own question. I mean -- yes, if they do better, that will help our margin. I don't know if I oversimplified what you were asking.

Yes. No, no. I mean that's very helpful. Sometimes it's easier to have you answer the questions or me answer my own question just because it gives me a little bit more confidence. That's...

[Operator Instructions] That concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to our presenters for any further remarks.

Thank you. Thank you again for joining us today. We look forward to discussing our Q2 results in August. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Thank you.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect, and have a wonderful rest of your day.