Welcome to the annual meeting for Boyd Group Services, Inc. Our host for today's call is Dave Brown, Independent Chair of the Board. At this time, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. I will now turn the call over to your host. Mr. Brown, you may begin, sir.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Dave Brown, and I am the Independent Chair of the Board of Directors of Boyd Group Services Inc. On behalf of the entire board, our officers, and our employees, I would like to thank you for attending our annual meeting of shareholders. We are hosting our meeting virtually again this year. We are of the view that a virtual meeting allows us to reach a greater number of our shareholders and offers all of our shareholders the same meeting experience to participate in the meetings and to submit questions to management. I would like to now take a moment to introduce Boyd's executive officers, who are here with us today.
Participating today is Tim O'Day, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Murray, our Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Secretary Treasurer, and Peter Toni, Assistant Secretary and Corporate Counsel. The annual meeting of the shareholders of Boyd Group Services, Inc. will now officially come to order. I will preside as chair of the meeting, and Tim O'Day, our President and CEO, will act as secretary. Boyd has appointed Rita Gutierrez-Fernandez of Broadridge Financial Services to act as scrutineer. The secretary has filed with me proof of mailing of the notice of meeting and accompanying documents to all shareholders of record as of March 25, 2024. The consolidated financial statements of Boyd Group Services, Inc. for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, together with the report of the auditors, have been mailed to our shareholders.
It is not a requirement to do so, we do not propose to ask shareholders to approve the financial statements. Copies of the statements, along with the auditor's report thereon, are available on our website. Prior to the meeting, proxies representing 18,876,623 shares were received by Boyd. The requisite quorum of shareholders is present, and I therefore declare that this meeting is properly constituted for the transaction of business. To start, I would like to remind shareholders how voting will occur and how shareholders can ask questions during our virtual meeting.
In order to vote at the meeting, registered shareholders should have logged into the website by entering a 16-digit control number on their proxy form, and proxy holders, including beneficial owners who appoint themselves as a proxy holder, should have logged into the webcast by entering their appropriate name and eight-digit appointee identification number they received from the registered shareholder or beneficial shareholder who appointed them. If you have logged on properly, when you click the Vote Here button on your screen, the meeting resolutions will be displayed.
To vote, click on one of the voting options. Voting will be open until the end of the formal voting portion of the meeting. You may vote on all agenda items, and you may change your vote at any time during this period. You must, of course, click Submit for your vote to be counted.
If you have logged on as a guest, you will not be able to vote at the meeting unless you exit the meeting and log back in using your 16-digit control number or appointee name and eight-digit appointee identification number. Shareholders and proxy holders can ask a question by typing it in the Ask a Question field at the bottom of the webcast screen and clicking Submit. Your question will be read aloud at the meeting at the appropriate time. We will address questions that directly relate to any particular motion at the appropriate time in the meeting, and we will save general questions for the question- and- answer period, which will follow the formal portion of the meeting.
Before we turn to the first voting item, I'd like to remind you that some of the statements made at this meeting may be considered forward-looking.
Boyd cautions investors that results of future operations may differ from those anticipated. We urge you to review the cautionary statements and other information contained in Boyd's filings on SEDAR, including our annual report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, which identifies certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements made during this meeting. Copies of the annual report and other filings are available through the company or online. Today, there are four proposals to be considered at the meeting, all of which are described in detail in our management information circular that has previously been distributed to shareholders. To expedite matters today, Jeff Murray has agreed to move all motions, and Peter Toni will second all motions with respect to the business of today's meeting.
The first item of business is fixing the number of directors to serve on the board of directors of Boyd. Boyd's articles provide for a minimum of three directors and a maximum of 15 directors. It is proposed that the board of directors of Boyd be fixed at 10 directors. Would someone please move this resolution?
I move the resolution.
Thank you, Jeff. May I have the resolution seconded?
I second the resolution.
Great. Thank you, Peter. Are there any questions on this resolution?
Mr. Chair, there were no questions on the resolution.
... Okay. Thank you, Peter. Okay, hearing no questions, we will put the resolution to the meeting. Please proceed to vote now on this resolution. The second proposal is the election of directors. The persons listed in the information circular for election as directors for the current year, each of whom has agreed to serve as a director if elected, are as follows: myself, Dave Brown, Brock Bulbuck, Robert Espey, Christine Feuell, Robert Gross, John Hartmann, Violet Konkle, Timothy O'Day, William Onuwa, and Sally Savoia. Would someone please make the nominations?
I nominate those ten individuals be elected as directors of Boyd to serve until the conclusion of the next annual meeting of Boyd.
Thank you, Jeff. May I have the nomination seconded?
I second the nominations.
Thank you. I now declare nominations closed. Are there any questions with respect to the election of directors?
There are no questions with respect to the election of the directors.
Okay, thanks, Peter. Hearing no questions, we will now put the resolution to the meeting. Please proceed to vote on this resolution now. The third proposal relates to the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte LLP as auditors of Boyd for the fiscal year, ended December 31st, 2024, and thereafter until the close of the next annual meeting of Boyd, and to authorize the board of directors to fix the auditors' remuneration. Will someone please move this motion?
I move the resolution.
Thanks, Jeff. May I have the resolution seconded?
I second the resolution.
Thank you. Are there any questions on this resolution?
There were no questions on the resolution.
Thanks, Peter. Okay, there being no questions, we will now put this resolution to the meeting. Would you please proceed to vote now? We'll now proceed with the business of the non-binding advisory resolution on Boyd's approach to executive compensation, as described in detail in our Management Information Circular. The board believes that Boyd shareholders should have an opportunity to understand how and why the board makes its executive compensation decisions, and provide input to the board on executive compensation if they so choose. As this is an advisory resolution, the results will not be binding on the board. However, the board will take the results of the vote into account when considering future compensation policies, procedures, and decisions, and in determining whether there is a need to increase engagement with our shareholders on compensation and related matters.
Would someone please move the non-binding advisory resolution on Boyd's approach to executive compensation?
I move the resolution.
Thank you. Would somebody please second the resolution?
I second the resolution.
Thank you. Are there any questions on this resolution?
There were no questions on the resolution.
Okay, hearing no questions, we will now put the resolution to the meeting. Would you please proceed to vote on this resolution now? Okay. I declare that voting for this meeting is now closed. Those shares being voted by proxy, consisting of a majority of the shares represented at this meeting, have voted in favor of, first, the resolution to fix the number of directors at 10. Second, the election of each of the 10 directors nominated for election. Third, the appointment of the auditors for the ensuing year and the authorization for the board of directors to fix their remuneration.
Fourthly, the advisory resolution on Boyd Group Services Inc's approach to executive compensation. Accordingly, I declare that each of the resolutions to have been passed, each of the nominees for director to have been duly elected, and the auditors to have been duly appointed.
The final tabulations of the votes cast at this meeting will appear in our SEDAR filing, which will be filed tomorrow. Before proceeding to questions, I would like to take a moment and highlight the impressive 2023 results delivered by our very strong and dedicated management team. For 2023, the Boyd delivered record-high sales, profitability, and unit growth. Sales increased 21% to CAD 2.9 billion. Adjusted EBITDA increased 35% to CAD 368 million, and our EBITDA margin expanded by 130 basis points, or roughly a 12% year-over-year margin expansion, which is very impressive indeed.
Looking at the beginning of 2024, although the North American auto body repair industry has seen a decrease in demand in Q1, following years of demand exceeding capacity, we do expect that this is a temporary, weather-driven blip that will reverse in the near term. Although I can assure you that we are confident that industry will see continued growth in the quarters and years to come, our management team is, of course, prepared to take steps to address the situation should this softness unexpectedly continue into the future. On behalf of the entire board, I would like to thank our management team and each and every one of our employees for their continued commitment and very, very hard work and the delivery of the above-noted results. I would like to thank our shareholders for their continued support.
Before considering if there is any new business to be conducted, we should confirm whether any questions have been posted by shareholders. Mr. Toni, were any general questions received from the shareholders?
Mr. Chair, there were no general questions received.
Okay. Is there any further business to come before the meeting? Okay, hearing no further business, this concludes our annual meeting of shareholders. I would like to thank you all for attending, and I declare the meeting to be adjourned. Thank you very much.
Everyone else has left the call.
The meeting has now concluded. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.