Spin Master Corp. (TOY) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Spin Master Second Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded today, Thursday, July 30, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tim Foran, VP, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. With me here today are our CEO, Christina Miller; and our CFO, Jonathan Roiter. For your convenience, the press release, MD&A and consolidated financial statements are available on the Investor Relations section of our website at spinmaster.com and on SEDAR+. Before we begin, please note that remarks on this conference call may contain forward-looking statements about Spin Master's current and future plans, expectations, intentions, results, levels of activity, performance, goals or achievements and any other future events or developments. Forward-looking statements are based on currently available information and assumptions that management believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. However, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct and many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. As a result, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. For additional information on these assumptions and risks, please consult cautionary statements regarding forward-looking information in our earnings release dated July 30, 2026. Except as may be required by law, Spin Master disclaims any intention to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether because of new information, future events or otherwise. Please note that Spin Master reports in U.S. dollars and all dollar amounts today are expressed in U.S. currency unless otherwise noted. Also all industry data that we referenced related to toys is from Circana, LLC Retail Tracking Service and relates to data from our G11, which are specified in our Q2 2026 supplementary presentation available on our investors website. Unless noted otherwise, all percentage growth rates refer to the period ending June 30, 2026, relative to the same period in 2025. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Christina.

Thank you, Tim, and good morning to everyone who is joining us for our second quarter call. We had another strong quarter, which has powered our return to profitable growth, and we are making progress on our 3, 2026 priorities and long-term growth strategy, which has us well positioned as we enter the second half of the year. Our financial results came in ahead of expectations we outlined. This was driven by strong sell-in of our core brands, including PAW Patrol, Monster Jam and GUND, and we benefited from growth in our 4D CrystaLynx, Primal Hatch, Cool Maker. We also introduced multiple new products, Magic Jellykins, Bitzee, Aquarium, PCMO and Rubik's Rush. We have an incredible amount of innovation in our 2026 toy portfolio, a credit to our design and development team and increased collaboration across the global organization. We have 3 core priorities for 2026: one, capture the PAW Patrol movie moment across each of the 3 creative centers; two, return Melissa & Doug to growth; and three, fully realize the value of Toca Boca by providing more opportunities for fans to engage with the brand. Starting with PAW Patrol. Dino Movie will hit theaters in 2 short weeks, August 14. The second trailer for the movie dropped on June 11 and had 110 million views in the first week, significantly better than the first 2 movies. Excitement for the movie is building with positive buzz from families and for the new single from the Backstreet Boys follow up. The Dino Movie is well positioned with its target audience and is generally tracking at or above the last 2 movies. The movie is a priority for our partner, Paramount to maximize franchise impact. The marketing team is delivering a unified campaign by leveraging the full breadth of Paramount's ecosystem. Within our own entertainment center, the second quarter, we announced that PAW Patrol and rubble and crew have been renewed with Nickelodeon. This pickup marks Season 14 and 15 for PAW Patrol and Seasons 5 and 6 for rubbling crew. Season 14 of Paw Patrol drops today. The franchise continues to rank as the #1 preschool series year-to-date, and we continue to grow on YouTube, part of our approach to always be where kids are. Within toys, the PAW Patrol movie line launched on Amazon, Target and walmart.com in July and will be in store at Walmart in early August. Early reads are positive. We have curated content and programs for each major retailer in support of the movie toy line. This includes social content for Walmart and Target with key movie talent as well as an integrated marketing campaign with Amazon, featuring close to 1 million branded PAW Patrol Dino boxes for delivery. We sold down our inventory in stores in the first half of the year. Therefore, we believe we have a healthy inventory level to support sales. Within Digital Games, we will officially launch our new PAW Patrol game with marketing support around the movie release. It will be launched as a stand-alone game and available to play for free with in-app purchases. Turning to Melissa & Doug. During the second quarter, revenues were down, but this was anticipated. As you will recall, unlike Spin Master Toys, Melissa & Doug had a challenging comp this quarter. Its revenues increased almost 40% last Q2 2025 as it held considerable domestic inventory last year that we were able to monetize. We supported retail partners through heightened promotional activity to drive share and strategically move inventory into off-price and discount channels to meet retailer demand onshore product availability. Positively, Melissa & Doug's gross profit was stable year-over-year due to the expansion in gross margin. The team is executing well on our return to growth strategy. This includes reclaiming market share through innovation with new items for the fall such as Cherry Lane and new licensed product, both of which are tracking well out of the gate, Cherry Lane is a new toy collection featuring place apps, vehicles and figures designed for the way kids play to help encourage developmental skills for toddlers and preschoolers. Our growth strategy also includes strategic partnerships. In the quarter, we announced collaborations with Cold favorite ice cream brand, Van Leen for a limited edition collection of toys. The Van Loan ice cream counter has been our #1 D2C item since launch. Through our partnership with Penguin Random House, we will also be expanding the brand beyond the toy aisle into publishing. With Alina Melissa & Doug Doug Books anticipated to launch this fall. Additionally, we have increased our shelf space with key retailers. Finally, fully realizing the potential of Toca Boca by providing more opportunities for its millions of fans to engage with the brand, we are bringing the brand off the screen and into stores with the launch of an exclusive lifestyle collection in more than 350 Miniso stores across the U.S., available next month. Just in time for back-to-school. With Toca Boca world itself, we are also providing kids more opportunities to express themselves. During the quarter, we advanced our music strategy by bringing tweens closer to the music they love with hit songs from popular artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Ciena Spiro and Twice, providing a personalized sound track for players. The immersive experience creates a powerful new way for artists to connect with our fans across 173 countries. It also underscores the importance of music as a key driver of identity and self-expression for kids and tweens. Building on proven success and prior music collaborations with Cone & Gray, Casa and WICED. In the second half of the year, you can expect to see more high-profile collaborations between Toca Boca and global brands and entertainment franchises. Toca Boca World's underlying operational performance was stable in the second quarter with a decline in monthly active users essentially offset by improved conversion percentage and increased average revenue per paying user. We remain focused on optimizing the user experience, testing new opportunities to increase conversion, increase the frequency of content drops and adding more high-profile partnerships. The number of paying users increased from Q1, resulting from these changes. We are also planning to expand mobile monetization with the launch of our D2C web store on Toca Boca world this quarter, which will help us keep more of the net revenue from direct purchases while also enabling us to potentially increase conversion, retention and lifetime value. For Piknik, we have increased subscribers since the end of the year, due in part to a new title screen user experience, which has increased free trial conversion and retention. We are rolling it out to additional apps in the bundle. Post quarter, we are excited to add Gabby's Dollhouse, Cat games to our subscription bundle. This adds another game featuring high-profile IP to go along with PAW Patrol and Toca Boca Jr. Beyond 2026, a key aspect of our long-term growth strategy is accelerating our expansion into high-growth categories. This includes collectibles and strategic trading cards, both of which are extremely popular with Sands and the consults demographics. In May, we announced a global licensing agreement with Mobile Games Giant, Supercell. Supercell games include Clash of Clans, Clash Royale and Ball stars have been downloaded around the world billions of times and reached 290 million monthly active users. As part of a multiyear agreement, we will create toys and collectibles that bring the iconic characters, battles and adventures from the digital screen to fans around the world. The collection is targeted to launch next summer. As it relates to strategic trading cards, earlier this month, we announced we were deepening our lineup of new studio collaborators, AMC, Blumhouse and Lionsgate to bring their her icons to our new game hell break. And there are more studios to come. The game is set to unleash late this fall. I now turn it over to Jonathan.

Thank you, Christina, and good morning, everyone. As Christina noted, our financial results in Q2 came in ahead of the expectations we outlined. Consolidated revenues increased 9% or $36 million driven by 12% growth in toys, ahead of our expectations to a pull forward of approximately $40 million in gross product sales from Q3, in part as retailers prepared for the PAW Patrol, Dino movie release. Due to the volatility in retail order patterns last year, the first half change in revenues is a better indicator than either the Q1 decline of 9% with a Q2 increase of 9% Adjusted EBITDA increased by 80% in the second quarter or $23 million. This was driven by a $24 million increase in gross profit excluding depreciation and amortization and tariff refunds that we received. Marketing expense was $12 million less than last year. This is primarily timing related, and we expect to see a similar quantum of increase in Q3. Adjusted operating income in Q2 was $19 million, an increase of $20 million driven by the increase in adjusted EBITDA, partially offset by a small increase in depreciation and amortization. IFRS operating income in the second quarter was $46 million compared to a loss of $52 million last year. The increase was due to the increase in adjusted operating income and impairment that was recorded last year, a reduction in nonrecurring cash costs, currency fluctuations and the $38 million in IEEPA tariff refunds received late in the quarter, which we recorded an offset to cost of sales. The tariff refunds have been excluded from adjusted EBITDA, adjusted operating income and adjusted net income due to their onetime nature. However, the amount added back is just the refund received and does not add back tariff expenses. In 2025, we expensed approximately $30 million in tariffs and we anticipate a similar level this year, excluding the refund due to the proposed introduction of new higher tariff rates. Our operating cash flows increased by $32 million to $58 million due to the increase in IFRS profit, partially offset by changes in working capital flows. For the first half, operating cash flows increased $110 million to $160 million due to improved profitability, effective working capital management and tariff refunds received. CapEx in the first half was $70 million, which includes the IT investments we are making to improve and automate our data quality and processes, have facilitated tighter integration with our core centers. In order to avoid any disruption in the fourth quarter this year, which is our busiest period, we are now planning to launch next year. In the current macro environment, we have maintained a balanced approach to capital allocation in the first half of the year, prioritizing growth investments, including CapEx, returning capital to shareholders through our dividend and share buyback and reducing debt. We ended the quarter with approximately 20 turns of net leverage, including leases or 0.3 turns excluding leases. Since the acquisition of M&D, we have reduced gross debt by more than $350 million while returning almost $200 million of capital to shareholders. Now turning to our individual creative centers performance. Both toy GPS and revenues increased by 12% or $39 million, as I previously noted. Both toy adjusted EBITDA and adjusted operating income increased by $25 million driven by the increase in gross margin with adjusted SG&A being stable. IFRS operating income was $34 million compared to a loss of $40 million last year. For the first half, toy revenues increased by 1%. Year-to-date toy POS was close to H1 revenues with a small decrease of approximately 1% as an anticipated decline in June offset a modest increase that we have been seeing through May. We expect POS to be negative in June and July as we're lapping the, How to Train your Dragon and Superman movies released in June and July, respectively, last year. Additionally, M&D POS in Q2 was impacted by less in-store promotional items compared to last year, as Christian noted. Entertainment revenues were generally stable, declining by just under $1 million. Adjusted operating income declined by just under $2 million, driven by an increase in amortization expense stemming from a dilutive impact that occurs when we deliver new content. IFRS operating income was stable. Digital Games revenue declined modestly by $2 million. However, adjusted operating income was stable as the revenue decline was offset by a reduction in adjusted SG&A. IFRS operating income increased to $6 million, a $22 million increase due to the impairment that was taken last year. Now turning to our outlook. We reiterate our 2026 guidance today for stable to low single-digit growth in revenues and mid- to upper single-digit growth in adjusted EBITDA. Obviously, we are a back half-weighted company. Last year, the second half comprised of 64% of our full year revenues and all of our profits. So it is too early to change guidance or provide specifics on where we expect to land within the range. The top end of our range reflects the growth drivers I outlined on our past calls, with the downside reflecting conservatism to the uncertain economy, the geopilical situation, including the conflict in the Middle East. From the latter, we ballparked on our last call the increased cost for us in the second half to be $15 million, assuming $100 a barrel of oil. Originally, we anticipated offsetting up to 2/3 of the additional cost through price increases, which would have benefited our revenues. However, with the reception of the tariff refunds, we decided to utilize those refunds to counter the increased costs without having to increase pricing. We intend to do the same to counter the proposed new tariffs coming into place later this month. For modeling purposes, this will impact what we would have otherwise expected to report in revenues and adjusted EBITDA. But obviously, there's a benefit to our IFRS profits and cash flows. As it relates to the third quarter, we are targeting general stability in consolidated revenues. This is due to the pull forward of orders into the second quarter. Also, we are anticipating a high proportion of domestic replenishment toy orders in 2026 than 2025, which will result in Q4 comprising a larger percentage of the full year. In terms of puts and takes for the third quarter, we anticipate benefiting from the Paw Patrol moving entertainment. In toy, Melissa & Doug has an easier comp and the PAW movie will be a tailwind, which offsets being that we don't have How to Train your Dragon, Superman and Gaby Dollhouse movies that we had last year. Within Digital Games, we are targeting improvements in our core platforms, Toca Boca World and Piknik, with an offset being that we generated approximately $12 million in the third quarter and $9 million in the fourth quarter and high-margin revenues related to the delivery of certain games to partners, which do not repeat this year. In terms of costs, we expect gross margin to be approximately 2 percentage points lower due to the higher toy costs I noted. Higher entertainment amortization relates to the ease of the movie and those digital game partnership revenues last year. Operating expenses below gross profit are anticipate generally stable, except for the additional marketing spend that was not spent in the second quarter. And now with that, I'll pass it back to Christina.

Thank you, Jonathan. In closing, we are extremely proud of the execution of our teams as we return to profitable growth. We have achieved this by focusing on consistent foundational improvements, applying greater executional discipline and executing our 3-part growth strategy: increasing innovation in our toys and digital games, accelerating our expansion into high-growth categories, including collectibles and strategic trading cards, and collaborating across our creative centers to unlock the full potential of our brands. With that, operator, please open the line for questions

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Adam Shine from National Bank.

Lots of good color there already, but maybe you could just a little -- we're a little bit into the Q3 already. Can you elaborate maybe a little bit further on how retailers are adjusting to what we'll call it, a new resetting of the equilibrium. And as Jonathan referred to earlier, maybe a bit more domestic replenishment dynamic, but maybe talk about the nature of shipments in general and in as much as there was the $40 million of pull forward, are we still seeing a good level of demand already being exhibited in the Q3?

Adam, lots of questions in there. I don't think I'll be equal to remember every single one, but I'll give you some -- obviously, you're asking for some color into the second half of the year. And so what's nice about 2026 is that the retailers have returned to their historical PAUSE set patterns for fall. And so as we speak today, I think they're in the final throws, one retail and final, final throes of they're set. And so that is -- we're pleased to see that. I think we want to not lose sight of that last year, June and July, there were 3 theatrical releases that we had to products -- strong toy products that we were selling against. And so when you look at early July until our PAW movie comes out in mid-August, we don't have that tailwind benefit on our toy sales. So from a kind of a sell-through. There is a headwind that we're facing. But as we headed to mid-August is obviously when we launched the movie that we've had the pleasure of seeing. It's a fantastic movie, a lot of really exciting buzz around it, and that will start the catalyst of the drive of return to POS growth in the second half.

Can you talk about any early retailer receptivity to hell break? I know it's coming late fall, but just any initial feedback commentary?

Adam, it's Christina. Yes, it's a little too early to tell as we sit here. It's a specialty launch, so it will be more late fall. So I think we will have more to tell you as we get into the fourth quarter. To date, we're super excited about it, and we'll have a little special launch on Friday the 13th in November.

Jonathan, just one quick point of clarification. Very clear in terms of marketing and the tie in Q2 and into Q3. But on the administrative line item, I know that one sometimes has some timing factors involved with it. It did step down. I'm just curious if that's an area where perhaps you're tackling some cost savings? Or again, is that a timing factor as well?

I think -- so the short answer is that you should consider timing. The longer answer is that there is the team because it's worth mentioning the work the team is doing. There is a significant investment in people's time and energy in looking at where we are spending money and ensuring that we're getting the returns that we would like. If we're not getting those returns, there is a reduction, but then there is reinvestment in other areas of the business.

Your next question comes from Ty Collin from CIBC.

So I mean you kind of characterized the Q2 toy growth as being mostly timing related. It sounds like the expectation that Q3 is going to be kind of flattish to a softer Q3 last year and you're expecting more domestic replenishment in Q4. I mean, is it fair to sort of summarize those comments as you not really expecting any material restocking at this point heading into the holiday season or exiting this year?

Well, we've just started to sell in for the for the third and fourth quarter. So it's a little early to say whether we expect material restocking or not. We've had some great new products start to ship. We're at the very early stages of PAW Patrol. So I think it's just a bit too early to say to talk through restock at this point.

Yes. And I think, Ty, not to lose sight that our second quarter certainly benefited from -- we quantified there was around $40 million of Q3 orders that shipped late in Q2. A lot of those orders were PAW related as the retailers want to stock their shelves. And so it's certainly Q3 going to be a less positive year -- less positive quarter than you saw in this quarter that you saw here.

Okay. Got it. And yes, I mean I appreciate it's obviously early days, but just wondering if you could comment a little bit on how the initial sell-in and sell-through some of that PAW movie-related product has gone compared to your expectations heading into this year.

Yes. I think it's meeting our expectations. Again, it's kind of early, but we have some great product out already across all retailers, 1 retailer left to set in-store, and we're seeing movie product start to get a real lift as we market the movie as we get closer to the release date. There's lots of retail promotions curated to each one of the retailers. So we're seeing the product that is included in that see a nice lift. We're 2 weeks out from the movie. So we will certainly have more to tell you next quarter.

Your next question comes from the line of Gerrick Johnson from Seaport Research.

Great. On the $40 million pull forward, this is not incremental. This is just pull forward. It's not a retailers increasing orders.

No, Gerrick, I mean, we're maintaining our full year guidance. And when we look at the order patterns that came in versus what we were expecting when we built out our guidance, we can attribute essentially $40 million of pull forward orders.

Okay. Okay. And then do you have to kick back any of your refund to your retail partners? I assume you increased price. So is Walmart, Target, are those guys coming back to you for part of your refund? Or is that why you're funding some promotions in the back half.

I think, Derek, one the pieces we have to look at is we are still in an inflationary environment. We called out on our last call, and it's worth mentioning again, that when we look at oil at current rates versus our budgeted rates, there's about $15 million we've that we believe that our costs will go up, and those will be in H2. So we anticipate those costs coming through in H2. When we talked last time, we were contemplating, offsetting the vast majority of that through price. Looking at where we stand, looking at where the consumer stands looking at our products, looking at our peer set, we ultimately elected not to move forward with price and as a result, we look in the back half of the year, we have the $5 million incremental costs that are going to come through.

Okay. So your price decision is totally independent. That's your decision. It's not the retailer is putting pressure on you to do that because we...

No, it was totally independent.

The next question comes from Drew McReynolds from RBC Capital Markets.

Yes. 3 for me, maybe starting with you, Christina. Just with respect to the full pipeline of or innovation in the new products. So obviously, great to see, and it's been a priority of yours. Are you able to just kind of quantify or qualify just the strength of that new innovation and new product pipeline relative to previous years. And I guess the more important question, the success and traction you're seeing this year versus previous years, obviously, hard for us to get a good glimpse of that. So that would be helpful. Second, just on the Toca Boca world MAUs. I recall, I think last quarter, the expectation of return to MAU growth in the back half year. And I think I still got that from your opening remarks, but just maybe some comment there. And then just lastly, maybe for you, Jonathan, on just the M&A appetite here. It looks as if certainly the industry is finally normalizing and settling down. You've got a great balance sheet. You're obviously doing a great job returning excess capital to shareholders. Just wondering any updated thoughts on that?

So there's a few questions in there, I'll go into new product pipeline. So we have a great new product pipeline, and you're seeing it in Magic Jellykins launched you're seeing in pico seeing it in CrystaLynx and one. So it's also about category entry. In some of those cases, it's collectibles. In some of its cases, it's electronics and then you're seeing it across our existing line as well. So it's hard to parse out year-on-year because, especially when we came off of a year where we had win for best Toy of the Year for Primal Hatch, and we have a great follow-up coming to that. So I think it's about innovation in more categories and launching a lot of new products in addition to driving that innovation in our existing lines like Monster Jam, Kinetic Sand, for the GUND. So it's really about all boats rising is what I would say. When I look at some of the exciting new products that is tracking well at retail. I would say things like Magic Jellykins are doing well. CrystalLynx is doing well. We've just rolled out one. So those are all new categories, and then we have murder phone that just launched, which is a new game, that's at retail and are already looking like it's going to perform well. So I think it's across all categories, you see it, and that's the goal is really to inject it in existing core brands, which powered us in this quarter. And then really pushing into some new categories and finding some new play systems that we can keep growing year after year, not just quarter after quarter. I think your second question was around Toca Boca and MAUs and we are still looking at returning to or growing our MAUs in the back half of the year. We have a really strong pipeline of featured content that is set to drop that is really impactful over the back half of the year if the summer was music, I'd say big partnerships or what we're looking at for the back half of the year. We've done a fair amount of tests, and we will continue on conversion. So we're working both sort of the top of the funnel and conversion. That's what we're focused on trying to be really disciplined about for Toca Boca. And then as it relates to M&A, I think, Jonathan.

Sure. I'll jump in. And yes, I think with Toca the underlying metrics of that business are stable, which is what we expected. So revenue, obviously, you didn't see that there. Last year, there was in the quarter, some onetime elements in that first quarter that we were here. We probably should have called that out in our first quarter. There was a lot going on. So that's the reason ultimately why the underlying stable metrics you're not seeing that in the revenue figure. But as Christina laid out, H2, there's each month, an incredible amount of content and features coming out and some really exciting partnerships that we're going to announce as the fall makes its way through. Turning to M&A. M&A has always been core to Spin Master. We have an incredibly attractive balance sheet and teams looking card on freeing up capital through our working capital -- sorry, through our balance sheet. To ultimately give even more flexibility. When we look at M&A, I kind of -- we put it kind of in 2 very easy buckets in the toy field. One would be around are the brands out there that ultimately allow us cost synergies when we bring them together or are there brands out there that allow us to enter new categories and go into categories that are much higher growth. And we certainly are looking at both of those. And look forward to keep on updating you as we make progress in that area.

The next question comes from Kylie Cohu from Jefferies.

I guess to start off, you highlighted that most on Doug revenue performed basically as expected, even with the difficult comparison. Gross profit was stable, shelf space expanded with key retailers. I was just curious a little bit of update on that business? And when do you expect sell-through and sales to return to being positive?

So I think that, Kylie, said that we know that we had a Easter this year lead up that helped Q1. But -- and we also have a lot of promotional space that we were comping. But as we look into Q3, we believe that it's going to be expanded space growth in international and innovation in the toys that is really going to help us drive that return to growth. We have a new product line in Cherry Lane that is hitting shelves and seeing some early signs of strong performance.

Got it. Super helpful. And then to kind of beat a dead horse on the call about just retail inventories. But I guess focusing in a little bit more on PAW Patrol specifically. Obviously, across the space, they're lean, but just kind of curious how you're thinking about having enough to support the business in case there's any upside? Is that something that you could chase into? Just any color there would be helpful.

Sure. I think you noted that we strategically and deliberately sold down some inventory to clean out space for the movie line that is now launching. And we're getting some early reads, and we will be in a position to chase that product and the product that's performing, that is definitely part of the plan.