Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining Canada Packers' First Quarter 2026 Financial and Operating Results Conference Call and Webcast. My name is Anne Marie Gerber, and I am the Director of Communications for Canada Packers. This conference call is being recorded today and is also available through an audio webcast on the company's website. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent background noise. Following the speaker's remarks, there will be time for questions. Analysts and investors are reminded that questions can also be directed to Canada Packers at any time to investors@canadapackers.com. This call contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws relating to activities, events, or developments the company believes or expects will or may occur in the future. Forward-looking information reflects the current expectations, assumptions, and beliefs of the company based on information currently available to it.
Although the company believes the assumptions are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance. Forward-looking information is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of the company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking information. Company documents filed from time to time with securities regulatory authorities describe the risks, uncertainties, material assumptions, and other factors that could influence actual results. Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and the company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, except as required by law. Earlier this morning, Canada Packers issued a press release disclosing its first quarter 2026 financial results.
Press release, as well as our first quarter financial statements and management's discussion and analysis were filed on SEDAR+ and also may be accessed on the company's website under the Reports and Filings section of the Investor's tab at canadapackers.com. We also posted the quarterly investor presentation on our website, which can be found under the Investor's tab under Events and Presentations. I would now like to turn the call over to Dennis Organ, President and Chief Executive Officer of Canada Packers. Dennis, the call is yours.
Thank you, Anne Marie, and hello, everyone. We delivered a solid first quarter. The results reflects the same things we have said from the beginning will drive our business. We run a transparent company. The key variables that move our earnings are visible in public market data. Our job is to manage the controllables and execute. This quarter played out that way. Let me start with volume. Canada Packers continues to have a capital-light path to growth because we still have room in our existing plants. In the quarter, hog processing volume grew 2%, supported by continued improvement in on-farm performance and across the supply chain. That brings us to approximately 80% of existing capacity today, with meaningful room to continue growth within our current network.
While hog volume will move quarter -to -quarter with normal seasonality, we remain on track to deliver annual volume growth within our 2026 target range of 2%-3%. Profitability. In the quarter, we delivered an adjusted EBITDA margin of 9.8%, which is within our normal operating range. That reflects strong execution on our farms, in our plants, and across the supply chain, along with the benefits of our premium value-added product portfolio and optimized global sales mix. Commercial execution remains a key driver of our performance. We continue to sell a better mix of products to a better mix of markets by optimizing the whole hog across our customer base and placing each cut with the customer and geography that delivers the best value. Our business is agile, that allows us to shift volumes towards the most attractive markets as conditions change.
That flexibility is what supports durable profitability. That performance also translated into free cash flow, which we use to pay down debt and support a leverage ratio that remains within our strategic range. Disciplined and balanced capital allocation will continue to be a hallmark of Canada Packers. Our priorities are clear. Strengthen the balance sheet, build financial flexibility, and return cash to shareholders in a sustainable way. Overall, this was a solid quarter and another step forward in our chapter one plan. Fill our plants, continue to improve operational execution, and use free cash flow to strengthen the balance sheet and position the business for chapter two opportunities over time. With that, I will turn the call over to Deepak.
Thank you, Dennis, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to report on our financial results for the first quarter 2026. As Dennis mentioned, we delivered strong year-over-year performance in the quarter, demonstrating the durability of our highly profitable business model through market cycles. As a quick reminder, until we reach the anniversary of Canada Packers' independent operations, I will be comparing our current results against estimated pro forma numbers, which we believe better reflect our operating performance. Total sales for the first quarter of 2026 were CAD 428.3 million, a decrease of 0.6% or approximately CAD 3 million when compared to pro forma first quarter 2025 sales. The change in Q1 sales was driven by higher volumes offset by currency headwinds.
Our Q1 hog processing volumes improved to 1.07 million hogs, a 2% increase compared to the prior year. In the first quarter, about 49% of our hogs processed were internally sourced, and 51% were purchased from external suppliers, compared to 46% and 54% respectively in the prior year. We reported adjusted EBITDA for the quarter of CAD 42.1 million, representing a decrease of approximately CAD 2 million or 4% when compared to pro forma first quarter of 2025 adjusted EBITDA. The Q1 adjusted EBITDA margin of 9.8% was a 50 basis point s decline over our Q1 2025 pro forma margin of 10.3%.
Despite significant currency headwinds in the quarter, a slight decline in year-over-year profitability underscores the durability of our business as we benefited from increased hog volumes, strong on-farm and supply chain performance, and targeted sales of our global customers. During the first quarter, we invested CAD 5.3 million in capital, compared with CAD 7.9 million in the first quarter of prior year, while generating free cash flow of CAD 14.8 million. On to the balance sheet and in line with stated priorities, net debt at the end of Q1 2026 was CAD 428.6 million, including lease obligations of CAD 88.3 million, as strong cash flow from operations allowed us to repay CAD 10 million towards our bank loan.
This resulted in a leverage ratio of 2.3x based on trailing 12 months pro forma adjusted EBITDA and is within our strategic range. We are pleased to announce our Q2 dividend of CAD 0.23 per share to be paid out on June 30th, 2026. This reflects the durability of our profitability and our continued focus on managing the controllables to generate strong free cash flow and deliver value to our shareholders. I'll now turn the call back over to Dennis.
All right, thank you, Deepak. Overall, our first quarter performance reflects disciplined commercial and operational execution and continued progress on the commitments we have made to all stakeholders. As we continue to execute, how we do it matters. Proudly raised; Responsibly made is our purpose, and it guides the decisions we make across the business. We will continue to run a transparent business focused on durable earnings, conservative financial management, and doing exactly what we said we would do. With that, we will open the call for questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star then the number one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. To ensure everyone has a chance to participate, we ask that you ask your questions in particular order. Your first question comes from Irene Nattel with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Thanks, and good morning, everyone. Couple questions just sort of around the production itself. The target for this year's 2%-3% increase in hogs processed. We had 2% in Q1. How should we be thinking about the evolution as we go through the year? Secondly, just in terms of operational efficiency, and initiatives there, if you could talk us through, you know, where you are at this point in the year and how, what we should be expecting as we move through the year. Thank you.
Morning, Irene. Yeah, so hog volumes, remember, it's gonna be a little lumpy just because of the timing to bring in, you know, live animals and things like that. We're really comfortable with our 2% or 3%. The thing we wanna remind you is Q4 has an extra week, so Q4 will be even higher this year. Feel good about the total number and there could be some shift back and forth in quarters, but we're in really good shape for that and that number. Operational efficiencies, the way I would think about it is mostly lots of initiatives, but mostly inflation offsetting initiatives at this point. We're not signing up for any significant cost reduction things. Well in line, feeling really good about our internal improvements and new management team coming together.
That's great. Can I ask a follow-up on the inflation offsetting? How should we be thinking about the increase in fuel prices and any impact on the business?
Fuel, we knew this question was coming. It shows up in two different places. One, there will be some short-term pressure on fuel when it comes to customer deliveries and the fuel we use on the farms, and we'll sort of talk some more about that as it plays out. Working really hard to pass on what we can, and there's some realities about timing there. Two, as far as the impact that it'll have on the feed, the input futures, I would just point you to the futures, 'cause that'll tell you sort of what the market's thinking and that's the best indicator going forward.
The other place it can show up as an inflationary pressure is on packaging items. We feel like this is some short-term positioning over the next, this quarter and maybe the next as we figure some things out, pass on what we can. There'll probably be some short-term impacts that we'll overcome long term, some of the bigger things you'll show up, you'll see show up in the futures markets.
Thank you.
Thanks, Irene.
Your next question comes from Luke Hannan with Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open.
Thanks. Good morning. Dennis, I want to follow up on that last line of questioning, I guess just on the futures. We know, of course, that corn is a big input for you guys. We have seen corn costs or the corn futures tick up a little bit from here. We know that you have a pretty robust risk management program in place, but can you just, I guess, explain for us or help us understand, even though corn costs are higher, you guys are a little bit hedged, but what else are our farmers contending with beyond just higher costs of corn? In other words, what other potential levers would they have to offset higher costs of corn that could ultimately maybe make the spike in corn costs come in lower than expected?
Yeah, that's a great question because one thing we say is a structural differentiator that we have is our location. We're located in the prairies around feed and around a lot of supply. Where that shows up is our ability to procure grains in close proximity to our production is an advantage. Their ability to get more bushels per acre or plant more acres. I guess what I would point to is look at Manitoba acres planted year-over-year, you'll see some positive things there. Look at bushels per acre, you'll also see a lot of positive things there. All with the potential to offset any cost impact. Productivity could potentially offset all cost impact.
That's great. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Luke.
Your next question comes from Etienne Ricard with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Thank you and good morning. It's interesting to see the increase in internally processed volumes this past quarter. Can you help us understand what is driving this improvement between better farming practices relative to procurement efforts?
Yeah. Okay, that's exactly it. you know, our goal is to grow at 2% or 3%. We've always said we feel really comfortable about that. Most of the early wins are operational improvements over the last so many years showing up in the marketed hogs. We also feel just as equally positive about our ability to procure incremental hogs going forward. short-term or the most recent quarters have been internal operational excellence, but we also feel good about our ability to procure outside things as well.
Is the 49% achieved in Q1 a sustainable rate going forward?
We're not I wouldn't get so fixed on that mix. Roughly right, it's the mix that we want. It can be somewhere between 45% and 55%, up to obviously 49 % and 51%. It's timing that's going to have the biggest impact on those. The thing to think about is we need to make sure that we're raising hogs in a competitive way, and that is showing up in the markets that we have. In order to achieve our plan, we need to be able to procure hogs on the outside, and that is happening as well. Don't get so focused on exactly that number, especially on a quarter-over-quarter basis, because it will float a little bit, but we're in the neighborhood we want to be in.
Okay. A longer-term question. We know Packers is targeting a utilization north of 90% over time. What are the implications from a labor perspective? As I presume this implies adding some shifts or maybe making additional hires. What is your confidence level that Canada Packers will have the labor force to achieve this target over time and how do you think about the marginal labor cost?
Yeah. Let me be clear on this. The reason it's such a compelling growth, it's a capital-like growth, meaning we will not have to invest capital, and it's causing inefficiencies today because the labor is there and it's not fully utilized. The reason it's so compelling to capture this growth is the cost is, for the most part, already there. We're not committing to any number where this initiative is gonna end. We're really comfortable that this 2% or 3% growth is gonna continue for the next three years or so. We'll continue to revisit to make sure that it's accretive to our cash flow generation desires. It's really a unique opportunity for a pork company, a public pork company, especially in North America. It's something that significantly differentiates us from the other offerings.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from Michael Van Aelst with TD Cowen. Your line is open.
Hi there. Can you talk a little bit about the demand, how you're seeing consumer demand hold up globally in the current turmoil that we're seeing globally? Like, where you talked about, you know, your ability to maneuver and kinda move to other geographies if needed. Where are you seeing the positives and where are you seeing some negatives?
Yeah. I think what's important in as far as pork is concerned, it's a time of stability. I know depending on which way you're thinking about the world right now, you could describe it as turmoil, but in pork, we're very much in normalized relationships and the spreads that we always talk about. There's not a lot going on in the markets. There's good North American demand at home in Canada, in the U.S. and Mexico. Some stabilized realities in Southeast Asia. Or things like that. The way I would think about it is if you can look past some of the other headlines relative to pork, it's a stable time.
Okay. It's not forcing your hand, you know, the currency movements or the geographic, you know, what's going on out there is not changing where you're selling your product right now?
No. No, but we do have optionality. I do think that is something that differentiates us is our agility is we do have two or three options of where to place product, and we tend to pick the one that makes the most sense. Not always the one that's the highest margin just because of the way our business works. Sometimes it's longer stable supply that we'll consider. No, this is a really good time for pork.
Okay. Just secondly on the foreign exchange impact this quarter, it seemed like it was somewhat meaningful, considering pork markets were pretty solid. Your operating performance was quite solid. FX was definitely a negative. What can be done over time to offset that? Is that just, you know, a function of how you operate in the market you're in and that you know, and pork is, and hogs are priced in U.S. dollars, so you just don't really have much you can do about it when you're operating in Canada?
Yeah. There is an element of that, Mike. I mean, certainly from a risk management perspective, we'll look at ways to, you know, de-risk currency exposure. We do have an element of that we execute today. There is a function of currency as it works through the markets, right? Both packer spread and vertically integrated spread. You know, when you think about the currency headwinds that we faced in this quarter, it's really a one quarter isolation, right? Like, last year in Q1 of 2025, the U.S. exchange rate was CAD 1.44 versus CAD 1.37 in this quarter. It really is isolated just to this quarter, right?
We don't necessarily have that same impact going forward as well as its currency kind of settled down in Q2 of last year and been relatively stable from that, from that point on.
I would think of it as risk management working.
Yeah.
We took advantage last year of a currency move that was in our favor. That just opportunity didn't exist this year. It's a year-over-year situation.
All right. Thank you.
Yeah. Thanks, Mike.
Your next question comes from George Doumet with Ventum Financial. Your line is open.
Yeah. Good morning, Dennis and Deepak. I just wanted to follow up on the higher farm costs and packaging. Maybe to what extent do you think that would be material for our margins for Q2 and Q3? Without quantifying any amounts, can you talk a little bit about our hedging, where it's focused mainly?
Well, on the first one, I think I said all we're going to say. If I thought it was meaningfully material, we would obviously be talking about it. It's something, but it's not to a point that I feel like we need to call it out specifically. What was the other question? Fuel. What was your second question?
If you can just talk, yeah, I was hoping you could talk a little bit about the hedging. What specifically are we hedging? Is it the corn? Any areas there you can help with?
Well, again, here's the things we could hedge. We inputs, we could hedge hogs, we can hedge currency, and obviously we can hedge fuel. We're not gonna make any specific comments about our positions just to tell you we have a really robust risk management program. We got a tenured team with over 30 years of experience, and we're active as you would expect a company that to be active that's sort of a conservative-minded management team focused on long-term shareholder value.
Okay. I had one for Deepak. It was a working capital drag in the quarter. It was meaningful compared to last year. Can you talk a little bit about where that came from? If we look for the rest of the year, should you expect working capital to be flattish?
You're, you're gonna have, so George, a couple of things. Working capital, certainly, you know, had an impact. I think it was about CAD 10 million, what we, what we showed there. Large of that is driven by inventory, right? You know, relative to kind of Q4 of 2025, inventory tends to build at this time of the year as we kind of get into our summer months, so that's fairly normal from that perspective. You will have some fluctuations in working capital quarter -to -quarter are largely tied to, you know, our valuation of hogs on farms as an example, right? Our biological assets. You will see that fluctuation that will happen quarter -to -quarter, good and bad.
It tends to work itself out through the year, but you will have some fluctuations quarter -to- quarter.
Okay. For the year, is it fair to assume that you would expect it to be kind of flattish?
Correct. It's not that meaningful on a full year basis.
Okay. Appreciate it. Thanks, guys.
Yeah. Thanks, George.
That concludes our Q&A session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Dennis Organ, President and CEO, for closing remarks.
Thank you all for joining us today. As you've heard, our team continues to execute on chapter one. We are filling our plants, delivering consistent cash flow through a better mix of products and markets, paying down debt and strengthening the business for long-term growth. We said this would be a transparent, executable story, and this quarter was another example of exactly that. Thank you very much.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful rest of your day.