Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the BRP's, Inc. FY 2018 Second Quarter Results Conference Call. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Mr. Philippe Deschenes.
Please go ahead, Mr. Deschenes.
Thank you, Hugo. Good morning, and welcome to BRP's 2nd quarter conference call for fiscal 2018. 18. Joining me this morning are Jose Bojeli, President and Chief Executive Officer and Sebastien Martel, Chief Financial Officer. Before we move to the prepared remarks, I would like to remind everyone that certain forward looking statements will be made during the call that are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties.
I invite you to read BRP's MD and A for listing of these. Also during the call, reference will be made to supporting slides and you can find the presentation on our website atbrp.com under the Investor Relations section. So with that, I'll turn the call over to Jose.
Thank you, Philippe. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. First, I lost my voice in the last week because of an allergenesis. I will try this morning to go through my script. If I can't Sebastien will take over.
We have had a very good summer so far. We kick it off on a high note with the celebration of the Can Am Spyder 10th anniversary that saw 3,000 Spyder owners from all over the world visit our hometown in Valco. These events are always a great reminder of how fortunate we are to have passionate customers and engage employees that are both at the core of our success. The PEACE came together to deliver another solid performance in the quarter. Our revenue reached 1,000,000,000 and $27,000,000 up 20 percent from last year's Q2 as we continue to see very strong demand for our product, notably for our Can Am side by side and Sea Doo personal watercraft.
Our normalized EBITDA was up 84% to reach $82,000,000 and our normalized earnings per share ended at $0.18 up $0.17 from the Q2 of last year. Also, we had a very strong retail performance with our powersport retail sales up 14% compared to an industry that was up low single digit into the quarter. The growth was solid in both the U. S. And in Canada as the two countries saw double digit retail growth.
Side by side led the way with a 50% retail sales increase in the quarter as customer demand for both the Defender and the Mavic X3 is very strong. And we continue to make market share gain in the Boat, the Utility and the Sports segment. Our Can Amity TV performance was also impressive as we achieved high teen retail growth compared to an industry that was up low single digit. Sidu also performed well continuing to benefit from growing consumer interest for sport. This performance would not have been possible without the contribution of our iEngage dealer network.
We have spent the last few years growing our dealer network as we have some gap to fill in certain region to ensure proper coverage of the market for our brands. After adding 289 dealer over the last 4 years, we have reached the appropriate number of store for the current state of our business. And we have shift our focus from adding new one to improving our performance with them. And to achieve that goal, we have put together a plan to win in the dealership by offering the best value proposition to our dealers, meaning a strong product portfolio, a dedicated sales territory, a flexible order management system, a certification program that rewards dealer for their dedication and a mutually beneficial incentive system based on retail performance that offers the best dealer profitability in the industry. I'm glad to say that our efforts are paying off.
Not only are we receiving positive feedback from the network, but we are also seeing it in the number as so far this year our side by side retail in the U. S. Has grown twice as fast in multiline dealership than in single line dealership. This demonstrates that the strong dealer value proposition is helping us win in the multi line dealership and this success is at the core of the solid retail performance that we are experiencing at the moment. With this, I will turn to the update by product category starting with year round product on Slide 6.
Year round product revenue were up 35% in the quarter driven by higher volume and richer mix of side by side and we continue to meet the growing demand for side by side, notably the Mavic X3. On the retail side, the ETV industry ended its 2017 season at the end of June with the retail down mid single digit. For the same period, Canami TV retail is up mid single digit, driven by the continued market share gain in the mid cc segment. Can Ami TV maintained its number one position in Canada and continued gaining ground on the number 3 position in the U. S.
We also we see also good retail momentum continued at international market driven by Scandinavia, Western Europe and Mexico. In comparison for the quarter, Can Amityv Retail was up 18 percentage compared to an industry that was up low single digit. The growth was primarily driven by market share gain in the high CC segment. Now turning to side by side. The North American industry ended its 2017 season, up mid single digit.
Can Am side by side continued to outperform the industry in the quarter with retail up 50% and ended the 2017 season with retail up in the mid-thirty percent. The demand for the Mavic X3 is strong. Also, the Defender is performing well. It keeps on gaining share every month and we remain focused on improving the awareness for the product as we are still working on establishing ourselves in that segment of the industry. The same trend we are seeing in North America are also visible across the world.
Our side by side year to date retail has grown over 30% in Asia Pacific, over 50% in Europe and over 100% in Latin America. We are pleased with the headway we made with our off road business over the last season. We remain focused on driving growth for that business through building brand awareness, introducing new product and improving our dealers with the best value proposition. Turning to Spyder. The North American 3 wheeled motorcycle industry continue on the same trend as the previous quarter and it's still down low teen percentage season to date.
Spider is performing better than the industry at down mid single digit over the same period. Remember that we have formed a dedicated team in key U. S. States and in these states the retail is up high single digit. The program is providing good results and insight and we intend to deploy it in more states next year.
As you remember, one goal for Spire for this season was to deplete network inventory and so far we are on plan to achieve our goal. Turning to seasonal product on Slide 7. Seasonal product revenue were up 14%, driven by higher volume of personal watercraft. 10 months into the 2017 season, the North American personal watercraft industry retail is up low teen percentage, primarily driven by the entry in new segment by competitive OEMs. Meanwhile, Seadoo retail sales were up high single digit and it performed very well in the segment it competes in.
The Spark continued to grow in its 4th season, notably with the strong success of the Spark Trix that achieved the highest sell through for a seasoned model in our recent history. And we gained market share in the traditional personal watercraft, notably in the Recreational and Performance segment. Internationally, Scandinavia, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and China continue to be growth market for Sea Doo. A quick look at snowmobile. The 17th Scandinavian snowmobile season ended on June 30th with retail down high single digit.
The Ski Doo and Lynx combined retail sales were up low single digit over the same period, driven by the strong demand for the
new G4 platform and we maintained
our number one position into the industry. Now looking at propulsion system on Slide 8. Revenue for propulsion system increased 6%, primarily driven by a higher volume and favorable mix of outboard engines sold. The North American outboard engine industry ended its 2017 season with retail up mid single digit. For the same period, even road retail was also up mid single digit.
We are happy with the progress made over the last season as we expanded our Evenrode Detek G2 engine lineup and continue developing our dealer network. The goal with developing the G2 engine was to provide customer with the best engine to improve their boating experience and we continue to deliver on that objective as we introduce a new docking system, the Evinrude iDock, which allow user to easily maneuver their boat using a joystick for simple docking in even the toughest condition. Because of the Evinrude Etech G2 technology, we are able to offer the iDUC system for a price up to 3 times lower than the competitive product. This is just another example of the great customer benefit offered by the G2 engine. Following the announcement earlier this summer of Alain Wilmer's upcoming retirement, last Friday I welcomed Tracy Crocker to the management committee as Senior Vice President and General Manager, Evan Roop.
Tracey brings over 30 years of experience, 20 in senior executive roles in several global company, most recently in the powersports industry. He is a seasoned business leader who has helped organization connect strategy to action plan and action plan to people. Now looking at parts, accessories and clothing on Slide 9. Revenue of parts, accessories and clothing increased by 10%, resulting from the higher sales of side by side accessories sold as there is a very good demand for the Defender and Mavic X3 lineup of over 400 accessories. We are seeing an excellent level of repeat order from the dealers for these accessories, which indicate a strong take rate at the retail level.
And with that, I will turn the call over to Sebastien and will return for closing remarks.
Thank you, Jose, and good morning, everyone. As Jose highlighted, our 2nd quarter revenues were up 20% over last year, reaching $1,027,000,000 The growth primarily came from the continued good momentum we have with side by side and PWCs, notably in the U. S. And in international markets, where revenues were up, respectively, 27% 20%. The gross profit margin was up 70 basis points to 20.8%, driven primarily by a positive volume and mix impact coming from side by side and PWCs, which was partly offset by unfavorable FX and higher production costs and a higher volume of retail sales program.
We spent $47,000,000 of CapEx and generated $42,000,000 of free cash flow, up $64,000,000 from the same quarter last year. We also successfully completed the $350,000,000 substantial issuer bid, effectively repurchasing 8,600,000 shares. Our balance sheet remains strong following the transaction with a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 1.7. Looking at Slide 12, our normalized net income was up $20,000,000 in the quarter, primarily driven by a positive impact coming from volume, mix, pricing and sales program for $53,000,000 which was partly offset by higher production costs and operating expenses for $12,000,000 a negative impact from net financing costs and normalized income tax expense for $13,000,000 and a negative impact from foreign exchange rates for $8,000,000 This generated a $0.17 growth of normalized diluted earnings per share, which ended the quarter at $0.18 Now turning to Slide 13 for a look at our network inventory, which ended the quarter up 12% from last year. Our network inventory is healthy with the growth being mostly driven by the ramp up of shipments of our new side by side models to meet demand, most importantly, the Maverick X3 and by the growing business of the new dealers we added over the last 4 years.
Also, as expected, we carried a higher than usual snowmobile inventory due to the weak snow conditions last season. We expect to deplete that inventory over the upcoming season. Offsetting these elements were a decline in inventory of older SSV models and the depletion of our Spider non current inventory, which, as Jose mentioned, is progressing in line with our plan. And finally, a quick update of our guidance for fiscal 2018. With the first half of the year behind us, our outlook for the year remains essentially unchanged.
Industries are behaving as we had anticipated. Our operations are running smoothly and the demand for our products remains strong. We have good visibility on our shipment volumes and our operating expenses for the second half of the year. A weaker U. S.
Dollar is expected to be a slight headwind to our financial results, but all in all, we are still aiming at revenue growth of 4% to 8%, our normalized EBITDA growth of 10% to 13% and our normalized net income growth of 10% to 16%. As for the normalized EBITDA cadence between the 3rd Q4, we are forecasting both quarters to be similar to last year. We are reviewing our normalized EPS guidance upward by $0.03 to account for the impact of the lower share count following the SIB. The normalized EPS guidance range is now $223,000,000 to $2.35 representing an increase of 14% to 20% over last year. Note that the previous share count guidance was assuming the repurchase of up to 3,000,000 shares under the NCIB.
And with that, I'll turn the call back to Jose. Thank you, Sebastien.
The first half of the year was very strong for BRP. The market responded well to our new product and with our solid execution, we're able to deliver results ahead of our expectation. Looking at the back half of the year, our outlook for the industry is positive and we see many markets around the world improving. However, we remain cautious as the global environment continue to be volatile. We keep a close eye on the constantly evolving geopolitical situation, the ongoing NAFTA negotiation and recent rapid movement in currency.
Still, we are confident in our ability to deliver on our guidance as our business fundamental remains strong. Our snowmobile volume is secure and the demand for our new platform is strong. Personal watercraft and spider season are in line with our expectations so far and we are approaching the end of this season with appropriate inventory level. We have seen very solid growth for our Can Am off road vehicle and the demand continued to be robust and operations are running smoothly as we are making the necessary adjustment to be able to meet demand for fiscal year 2019. To conclude, we have a lot of good news to share with you at our upcoming BRP club.
I look forward to seeing many of you there on September 20 21 in Dallas, Texas. And on that, I will turn the call over to the operator for questions.
Thank you very much. The first question is from Mr. Steve Arthur from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Great. Thank you. Just a couple of quick follow-up questions. First on the Spider, it does seem to be stabilizing somewhat and you had interesting comments on the stronger performance in the states with the dedicated teams. Just wondering if you can explain a little bit more about what those teams are and how they're formed your staff versus dealer staff and then what the plans are for rolling those out to other regions?
Good morning, Steve. As I said, basically what we're finding in those states where we have a dedicated team is first the sales funnel on Spider is about 3 times longer than what we see in other product line. The motorcycle license school organization need to be improved. Dedication of the dealership to have a specialist fighter who will take care of the customers and also the all the momentum that we have with the community that we don't leverage enough. Then basically this is the small team this summer was focusing on those elements in the key state and we're very happy with the result going up high single digit in those states.
Now all those insights will be packaged and we'll try to do more in more states next year. Obviously, we're trying to find ways to do it at the cost efficient position when we expand to more state. But we're very happy with the momentum and what the team have done so far this summer.
Okay. And second question, just on CapEx guidance still the same for $240,000,000 to $250,000,000 for the year, but I think we're only around $80,000,000 or so in the first half. Do you still expect that kind of a ramp in the second half? And what kind of what are the key components of that spend?
Yes. And historically, we've always had a larger second half CapEx investment than we've had in the second half. So it's not unusual to see that trend. And the investments are going to be pretty broad. 1, as we've mentioned, we're investing for additional capacity in Queretaro and in Juarez II.
But also with the lineups that we're going to be launching in the next few years requires a lot of tooling. And so tooling is going to require a big amount of CapEx as well for the next 6 months. But it's not unusual to see a much higher investment in the second half.
All of this is within the current footprint of facilities? There's no new facilities being added?
It's all within the current footprint of facilities. We're adding a lot of equipment to increase capacity within the existing footprints that we have.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Mark Petrie from CIBC. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. I just wanted to ask about the trends with the dealers in the U. S. On the off road vehicles. Obviously, very strong, particularly within the multi line dealers.
But I guess, how do you feel about the outlook from here? I mean, where are your biggest opportunities to grow? Is it continuing to take mindshare from the dealers? Is it actually adding more products on the floor? Or is it adding more products to your portfolio?
Good morning, Mark. First, as you know, we intend to continue to introduce new product. I committed 2 years ago to introduce 8 new model in the coming 4 years. I mean, a new model every 6 months for the next few years. And right now, we are halfway.
In September, we'll introduce a new platform at Club and we'll continue to expand the lineup penetrating a wide space in the side by side industry. And this is definitely one area. The other one, obviously, with our success, with our value proposition to the dealers, we're saying many dealers, multi line dealer converting more floor space to our product line. Then it's a combination of continuing to push on new product introduction and with that momentum and with the value proposition gaining a share in the multiline dealership. That's basically the base of our plan.
And how do you feel about the balance between continuing to gain more floor space with additional products being launched versus the risk of cannibalizing the floor space that you already have?
We don't see much risk of cannibalizing floor space. We see that we're coming out with very strong product and it will continue and dealer realized that our products are easier to retail than some of our competitor. And that's how we view that we believe we will continue to gain more share of their dealership and cannibalizing the existing floor space.
Okay, thanks. And then just a question on PWCs. I wonder if you could just provide a little bit more color on the competitive dynamics there. It sounds like you gained share on the traditional side, but maybe the share gains in Spark slowed down a little bit or reversed. And just could you talk about that, the competitive dynamics?
And then anything you're seeing in the used market that might be different?
No, nothing changed in the used market. What happened, Mark, we were the only one in the segment we created direct light and one of our competitor this year have introduced a model to compete against the Spark. Then obviously before we had for 3 years, we had 100% of their share of the Red Light segment. And now this year, they've sold some. We're quite happy overall because we still gain volume in the Spark segment.
Then despite the entry of that competitive product in direct light segment, the Spark did continue to grow in unit, obviously with less on market share. But and also the overall market have grown and we've gained share in the traditional Warcraft. And I think at the end of the day, all of this all those new products that are coming to the industry is bringing new customer to the industry. And I think overall, it's all positive.
Okay. I really appreciate the color. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you
very much. The next question is from Martin Alwy from GMP Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, Jose and Sebastien. You're entering the second half of the year with momentum and your side by side in your ATVs and you've really increased your earnings significantly on a year over year basis in the first half. So wondering a little bit why you're leaving your guidance unchanged? I hear your comments about concern on over the geopolitical issues, but a little bit more color as to what exactly are you seeing or is this a matter of being too conservative Or are you facing real issues that will prevent your earnings from growing materially in the back half?
Good morning, Martin. This is Sebastien. Well, if you recall in Q1 when we announced results, we announced an increase in guidance overall on the profitability side, but also on the year round product side. And we increased guidance by 2% on year round products, which was driven by our expected improved demand for side by side. We knew the Q2 was going to be a strong quarter for side by side on the retail as now we had a full lineup of defenders out there.
We had a full lineup as well of Maverick X3 and the Maverick X3 Max. So demand was strong. Demand has continued to be strong. Our plants are running at full capacity for this year in Juarez 2 and we're going to be increasing capacity for next year. So we're limited in the amount of units we could ship this year on the side by side side.
However, when I look at the overall profit distribution between the first half and the second half of this year, We were expecting a slightly weaker first half, so we delivered better on the results coming from increased volume. The second half is still going to be good. It's going to be in line with what we delivered last year, which was a strong second half. Don't forget that we had shipped a lot of snowmobiles in the Q4 as well. There was a timing there.
But overall, when we look at overall demand, our production capacity, currency rates, which where they're trending, there's no necessarily extra conservatism in our guidance for the end of the year. I think it reflects the reality of the business, of the industries and where we think things are going to land.
Okay. And I know this is a difficult question because you have a lot of moving parts, but any sensitivity for the back half on currency with the U. S. Dollar and Canadian dollar would be helpful. Is that something you can provide us?
Yes. Well, let me try to give you a bit of color. When we issued guidance, we were looking at a U. S. Rate of $1.30 We finished the 6 months at an average rate of $1.32 Our outlook for the remaining 6 months of the year is $1.25 So if things are held up like this, no fluctuation in our guidance.
But as you saw in the Q2, we had an $8,000,000 headwind on currency versus a year ago. And so when you see rapid changes in currencies within a quarter, we might have either positive or negative impacts on our results. But everything holding as it is today, I'd say no fluctuation. But if then if there was going to be a significant drop in the value of the U. S.
Dollar as we had in Q2, it might put a bit of pressure on our ability to achieve guidance for the end of the year.
Okay. Okay, that's helpful. And then maybe just lastly on the watercraft side, you do talk a little bit about introduction in the Rec Light. Is the market moving increasingly towards Rec Light and lower price point in the watercraft market? Is that what we're seeing?
Have you seen a decline in the average unit selling price over the last 3, 4 years in watercraft?
No. The 1st 2 years that we introduced the Spark, obviously, there was significant growth in the Rec Light segment versus the traditional segment. But what we saw in the last 2 years, Martin, is continuous growth in both segments. Then overall, we're very happy with I believe Spark the reason why we introduced Spark was to bring new customer into the industry and bring excitement to the industry. And what is positive is both category traditional and the Rec Light, the Spark segment are growing in the last 2 years and quite positive overall.
And when I look at the ASP for the 1st 6 months of the year, so when we ship a lot of personal watercraft, our ASP for personal watercraft is up low percentage points, but it's still up there. So it means the mix is still pretty calibrated versus what we had last year between traditional and entry level.
Okay, that's helpful. Thank you very much and congrats.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Cameron Dirksen from NBF. Please go ahead.
Yes, thanks. Good morning. Just maybe you can talk a little bit more about your visibility on the snowmobile market. I mean, I think it typically at this point you'll have most
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Cameron Dirksen from NBF. Please go ahead.
Yes, thanks. Good morning. Just maybe you can talk a little bit more about your visibility on the snowmobile market. I mean, I think it's typically at this point you'll have most
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Cameron Doerksen from NBF. Please go ahead.
Yes, thanks. Good morning. Just maybe you can talk a little bit more about your visibility on the snowmobile market? I mean, I think it typically at this point you'll have most your orders kind of locked in, but maybe you can just give us a bit of an update on what you're seeing there?
No. We have like you said, all our orders are in around the world Russia, Scandinavia, North America. Right now, we are in full production in Rovaniemi and in Valcour. The beauty this year versus last year, last year, we were shipping the new platform a bit late, because we had delivered more than what we had planned originally. This year, it's more a normal delivery timing.
All the Spring Break unit that are already retailed or sold to customers will be produced before the end of mid October, then we're coming back on a normal production schedule, then everything is in line.
Okay. And maybe just 2 sort of quick, I guess, modeling items for me. Just wondering if you can talk a bit about the tax rate. I mean, sort of the full year number that you're sticking with sort of implies a material increase in the tax rate in the back half of the year. Maybe you can just talk about that?
And then also, can you just maybe just discuss about the R and D expense run rate? Is the Q2 number probably what we should expect for the remainder of the year?
Okay.
On the tax rate, obviously, depending on the regional mix that we where we have sales in the quarter, you'll have some variations in the tax rate and there's sometimes some timing elements as well. And so that's why we had a slightly higher normalized tax rate if I look at just the quarter. But for the end of the year, as we've indicated in the guidance, we're looking at a rate between 28% 29%, which is pretty much in line with what we had last year. In terms of R and D spend and the split between H1 and H2, obviously, when we look at the second half of the year, we are seeing increases compared to a year ago in R and D for Q3 and Q4 and we'll see a higher increase in marketing spend as well in Q3 than we had last year. So when you look at my implied guidance for the second half of the year, you'll have revenues going between, let's say, minus 2% and plus 5% and EBITDA minus 3% and plus 1%.
And most of that is driven because of operating expenses varying between compared to last year. And in terms of margin, we're expecting gross margins to be fairly similar to last year, slightly weaker in Q3 and stronger in Q4.
Okay. Perfect. That's very helpful. Thanks very much.
Thank you. The next question is from Craig Kennison from Baird. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning and thanks for taking my question as well. Wanted to ask about your exposure to the region affected by Hurricane Harvey and whether you have dealers that are closed in that area and what the lost selling day impact may be?
We have about 13 dealers that are in the area that is affected by the hurricane. I would say about half of them are more impacted than the other half. For 50% of them, it's not too severe and they believe their business will restart for the where the hurricane hit in the center, it's more serious than for us, obviously, the exhaust is an important state. Those things happen all the time around the world, but that's basically what it is.
Okay. Thanks. And then with respect to the marine season, what is your take on recent trends? We've seen some data that suggests the marine market may have slowed a little bit in July, but I know that data can be choppy. I'm interested in your take on recent marine trends.
I mean, on the onboard side, we saw a very, very solid quarter. As you know and we said very often that we are good in the e power that is declining and not so good in selling new engine on new boat. And despite that this trend that is still soft for us, we saw our retail better in Q2 than the industry, then we catch up basically the industry in Q2. And this is the fact that we introduced the G2 200 to 300 2 years 3 years ago, the 150 to 200 where there is a volume last summer, we started to ship last fall and many boats have been delivered in Q2 with this then for us. We are somewhat introducing a very popular engine, a very popular G2 in a very high, high number segment.
And that's what we saw very strong retail on our product during Q2.
Thanks. And finally, Sab, a question for you. Debt is a little bit lower than we anticipated after the SIB. How should we think about interest expense for the balance of the year?
Yes, you're right. Debt has is slightly lower driven by currency. We have a U. S. Denominated debt.
And so with the rates going down and that obviously brings down the overall debt. We're looking at, let's say, net financing costs for the full year at about 60,000,000 dollars That's what we're looking at.
Got
it. Hey, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Benoit Poirier from Desjardins Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, gentlemen. If we come back on the Spider, it seems that you've done a very nice job about reducing inventory. So I was wondering if you could be more specific a little bit and provide some color about the magnitude of the change in the Spider inventory.
Good morning, Benoit. First, this was planned from last year and it started with the booking last year. When we were booking our dealers last fall for model year 2017, we were conservative on the new unit that we were selling. And during the year, we've been quite aggressive of with retail promotion, but also moving non current inventory between dealers. We really focus early into the year to try to maximize the movement of non current inventory between dealers and the plan have been we've been basically on plan.
My recall, we are about 75%.
We are slightly lower than that in terms of overall reduction of inventory, but the objective for the end of the season is right 75%. But at the end of Q2, we're at 50% non current reduction. Yes.
Okay. Overall, we are on plan.
Okay. So overall, it's about 75% noncurrent production and you are now at 50%?
Yes.
Okay. That's perfect. Okay. That's great color. And with respect to the iDoc introduction, it seems a very compelling product.
How big can be that market opportunity?
But for us, first, the high dock was planned from the beginning of the development of the G2. And why we can do it for a third of the price of some competitive system is because in the competitive system, you have all the hydraulic cylinder and all the hardware and software around the engine, in our case, everything is integrated into the attachment of the normal G2. Then our system is basically software and the joystick that you attach to the boat. Then that's why we are very efficient. And now you will see a lot of promotion this fall trying to promote twin application on boat.
And we believe that it will be a very, very attractive package for the customer. If you can if you compare 2 engine with their 2 engine from the competition with their system versus 2 gs2 and our 6 ms will have a good price or good value proposal for the customer and we believe it will help us to sell more G2 next year. And very happy about the product and it's so far very well received by the marine community.
Okay. And when we look at your debt situation, obviously, 1.7x debt EBITDA still below the optimal level despite the Dutch auction. Just wondering what's your interest right now about further share buyback at these level. And am I right to say that this is not included in your share account calculation for the year?
Yes. But why you're correct, further future NCIBs are not included in the share count that we that I provided this morning. As you know, we still have the option of purchasing shares on the market. We have the opportunity of We have the opportunity of purchasing about 3,100,000 shares and that's at our discretion. And so we'll be obviously assessing the market and how the business is evolving and making that decision on a monthly basis.
Okay. So you still you can still acquire about 3,100,000 shares?
Yes.
Okay. Okay, perfect. And last one for me. Could you maybe provide some color about the second half, how Q3 and Q4 will be split in terms of revenue EBITDA? And also if there is any new product introduction that are included that could be made, let's say, at the Club ERP?
Yes. Well, I'll give you a bit of I'll try to help you on the quarterly gating. Obviously, we don't give quarterly guidance, but I'll try to just give you a bit of insights as to how we see things trending. For Q3, we're seeing revenues slightly higher than last year, coming from better shipments with especially the side by side business. Now will be a full quarter of Maverick and that's where you're going to see a pickup there on revenue.
Gross profit, I'm seeing it similar or slightly similar to last year and stronger in Q4. And as I said earlier, marketing is going to be higher in Q3 and R and D as well higher in Q3 and Q4.
Okay. Okay. Perfect. Okay. So EBITDA bottom line
profitability, probably flattish. The better gross margin in the quarter is going to be compensated by higher operating expenses. So I would normalized EBITDA flattish between on both quarters.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from Seth Wolf from Northcoast Research. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I just wanted to start off, I know Sebastian, you said that the Q1 came in a little bit better than you guys or the first half is coming a little bit better than you originally anticipated and currency
is a
bit of a headwind. But if I look at the implied revenue for the second half, it looks like at the low end, it's actually down a bit. Wanted to see, 1, am I missing something? Or 2, did you really have you really expected that at this time last quarter? You thought that was a possibility if you thought through the last three quarters of the year?
Yes. It was. If you look at the implied, we're looking at revenues down 2% to up 5%. A few factors can impact revenue, obviously, currency could be 1, but also, yes, we have good visibility on pretty much all the orders that we have for the second half of the year. But snowmobile business is a big business for us and it's a business that also drives a lot of pack sales and pack is not something where we have firm orders from the dealers.
And so we can experience some variability there on the pack side. If the snow season were to start a bit later as it did last year, that could influence the overall take rate on the part side. And so that's why you're seeing a bit of flattish sales guidance for
the second half of the year.
Okay. Got it. Thank you. And then just if we kind of think back to the last quarter's call, a big topic, the whole Q and A was discussing capacity.
And I seem
to remember you saying there could be an opportunity to make incremental gains if you decided to add a 3rd shift at the Juarez II facility. And given the strong retail demand that we've continued to see, is there any update with respect to potentially adding a 3rd shift even though it's not as efficient?
Good morning. We are right now planning to run the factory at full capacity. We decided to run the the fabrication is running at 3 shift because it's not too many people. In term of assembly, we're running many, many Saturdays, full Saturdays going forward and we feel it's more because of the law and the rules in Mexico and the longer hour per shift then you don't have much additional hour on the 3rd shift then we felt it's more efficient to run 2 full shifts for many Saturdays and all of this is planned on the back half of the year. And that's why we are at the limit right now for U.
S. To production.
Okay. Thank you. And then the last question for me is just turning to marine for a moment, it looks like pretty compelling price point with this with the iDoc. And if I think about the competitive dynamics, you've got some of the big players have captive both brands. So they kind of have a leg up with respect to penetrating the market with those products.
But I was just curious, is there anything you could share with us about how longer term you could drive some demand with the consumer and make inroads and take advantage of the price discrepancy that you were talking about?
Yes. The marine industry in the North America market is very captive. I mean, you have many, many boat brands that are owned by engine OEM and this have been like that for many years. Our strategy with G2 was to come out with a better product to create a pull from the consumer and influence dealers and boat builders because many boat builders have some flexibility to buy from us. And this is what we're doing and working out.
And obviously, we introduced the 200, 300 family G2 3 years ago, but this is quite a low level of units, if you look at the big picture. And that's why we're having quite a lot of success right now with the 150 to 200 where the volume is higher and we believe the high dock which apply on all the engine over 150, if you have a twin engine boat will be a very attractive value proposition for the consumer. Then the dynamic in the industry is just what it is and we're trying to change that by creating that pull from the consumer.
Okay. Thank you. All right. Well, congrats on a good quarter.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Jamie Kots from Morningstar. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning. I'm curious if you could talk a little bit about the selling programs you guys have been implementing. It seems like the promotional cadence in the industry has slowed a little bit relative to last summer and it seems like the programs are working more effectively. So can you talk about what's working and whether you think you can pare back some of that spend maybe next year or whether you plan to continue to spend robustly to facilitate sales?
If you look at Watercraft and Spider, again the motorcycle industry, we believe that this season was similar promotion than what we saw in the last few years. Where it's more aggressive, it's in the off road business.
In the
ATV segment, some OEM has too much inventory out there and they are very, very aggressive with rebate. And this is obviously putting a lot of pressure. What we are very happy with, we have a strong momentum with DTV in North America, despite we are not dropping our price as much as some of our competitors, some of our competition. And we're very, very happy about that. On the side by side front, it's a combination of 2 things, a lot of new model coming to the industry.
And on top of it, again, some OEM has too much inventory and they are extremely aggressive on the promotional front. We didn't change our strategy. Our strategy for ATV and side by side is about the same. We have we are less aggressive than some of our competitor and we believe we can continue on that offering going forward. That's what we're planning for.
Okay. And then can you articulate, I don't know if there's a quantitative way to think about this, but given that Arctic Edge has gone through sort of this ownership transition, was there any sort of qualitative benefit that you can share with us from the period of time that they went through that transition that may have helped you take a little bit of incremental share in the quarter, if you think that that's what happened?
It's so contrary. I mean, the new owner have had very, very aggressive promotion during the quarter to clean out the inventory and it didn't affect too much our retail. We had good retail during the quarter then. The new owner is very aggressive to clean out the Arctic Cat inventory. And this is ongoing, continuing in Q3.
Long term, the brand Arctic Cat have been removed from the off road product. We'll see how the new owner will do with their new brand strategy. And on snowmobile, they kept the same brand and we don't see much the dynamic there change much going forward.
Excellent. Thank you so much. Have a good quarter.
Thank you. Thank
you. Thank you, Matt. The next question is from Gerrick Johnson from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning. I just want to follow-up on the sales promotion question. Has there been much of an impact from your strategy to provide dealers with back end money for better performance?
No, no impact. Obviously, the strong retail that they've had, some of that was built within our within the, let's say, the program that we had established with them. So we were compensating for the retail beat that they got. So that was already built in. But no significant variation within versus our plans.
That money has been provided for and it's been built into our guidance.
Okay. And on product costs, they were called out as higher. You see your systems are running pretty smoothly. So what's driving that? Is that increased input costs?
No, mainly operational costs. There is obviously more overtime being paid for employees working in Mexico. There is a bit of competitiveness on the labor workforce as well in Mexico. So we had to increase labor rates there slightly, but still impacting profitability. And we have a bit of warranty more warranty expense versus a year ago as normal when you're launching a new snowmobile platform.
It's normal that you've accrued for a bit more expenses for new platforms. So these
would be the main elements. Also to add there is we obviously we're increasing capacity in Queretaro and new allies and there is some item you cannot capitalize and this is going through the P and L.
Yes.
Okay. And what's going on with the steel, aluminum, all those input costs?
We're not seeing big variations. We are obviously exposed to some commodities, but not significantly, which would create a headwind there. There's exposures that could vary between, let's say, $20,000,000 $30,000,000 on commodities, but we're not exposed to, let's say, dollars 500,000,000 on steel. And so when there's movements, we have long term agreements with suppliers, which allow us to smooth the impact of those changes in our results.
Okay, great. And lastly on channel fill on Defender and X3, is there still space room there or are you now on a one for one kind of replacement on those models at the dealers?
No, there's still room for increasing inventory. Obviously, as you're taking a greater mind share within the dealer networks, we are working with our floor plan partners to adjust credit limit. And so there's still capacity to increase inventory as retail demand would dictate.
Great. Thanks a lot, gentlemen. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from Tim Conder from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Yes, gentlemen, a few things. 1, first of all, if you would on Slide 6 to 8 of your presentation, I just wanted to clarify your industry share comments. So Off Road and Evinrude, is that related to June, the June month or are you talking your July quarter end, When you're talking industry share?
Yes, it's quarter end.
Quarter end July. Okay. Yes. Okay. And Jose, same question for the PWC, I think you said 10 months, which would also imply for the season there that being September in the 10 months, correct?
Yes. Okay. Okay. Thank you.
We had a couple of questions on that this morning. Then the multi line share gains, a little more color here. Is that predominantly coming from North American competitors, Japanese competitors or kind of equally balanced?
It's a very good question. We've done a deep analysis in our review with the division in July, where it's coming from because obviously we wanted to adjust our strategy if we saw some trend. It is funny because it's coming from everyone at the same rate roughly. Then we don't see more from Japanese or North American. It's coming from the same level from everywhere, everyone.
Okay. Okay.
And then I guess in conjunction with that, your order management system ability. Maybe just kind of refresh this by product line, the sort of the timeframe that that gives you the ability to dealer sells X unit of Defender or you know fixed spark or whatever, the ability to replenish that in is it a couple of weeks or just the timeframe just by product line, if
you would? Yes. In here I will talk about Nautomilico because international is a bit different. But if you take off road vehicle, every month we're taking an order to be delivered in 2 months. And here the dealer have full flexibility, can order more Extreme, more Defender, more of that model, full, full flexibility on that.
And this we're doing it on a monthly basis and it's running extremely well. The thing that we do on off road like we will introduce new product at club in a few weeks and when you introduce a new product, you're going with allocation for the 1st few months. But after those first few months are passed, it's full flexibility for the dealer on a monthly basis for delivery to be done in 2 months. On watercraft, we will introduce the product new lineup model European at Club in September. The dealer will see it and they will give us a Club a preliminary order.
And after that, they go back in their store, they digest, they see the attraction of their customer in the area and they will finalize the order about 2 months later. Then we'll have final read on the watercraft order by November. In terms of snowmobile, right now we have everything on hand for what we're producing, but it's the same phenomenon than watercraft. We introduced the new snowmobile lineup in February. Dealers see it, give us a club preliminary order.
Snow is a bit different because we have spring break sales where customer can give a deposit to lock their unit and the dealer finalized their order by the end of May mid May end of May. Then that's the way we work on off road watercraft and snowmobile. Spider, same phenomena than watercraft, I should have combined there. We'll show them the lineup in September at club. They have 2 months to adjust.
Outboard engine takes a monthly basis. We constantly take order from the dealer then. We have introduced our Model Year 18 lineup in June. Now the team is doing with many boat builder dealer meeting for their brand, their boat brand. And over there, dealers are giving us orders, but the dealers, it's a bit different in the marine business.
They are not locked in with their numbers. It's the best forecast that they can do, but they are not legally locked in and we taking order on a monthly basis. And basically that's our system that we have for year round product versus seasonal product.
Okay, okay. Very helpful. And I guess the last question I have sort of segues from the marine commentary. And how is the momentum there going for G2 Asian versus other outboard manufacturers? Is it balanced?
Some as you've mentioned earlier in your discussion have more ties to or more captive in with certain boat brands. So is that more balanced? And then also you talked about the cost differential versus 4 stroke competitors with the iDoc system. Is that largely driven by the cost of the engine itself or do you have something it would seem to be just given the order of the magnitude versus the cost of the docking systems?
Yes. 2 things. First on the onboard business, our share is about 10% worldwide. And right now we're gaining and it's very difficult to see from where. I mean, it's coming from everywhere and it depends also in which country.
In North America, some brand are stronger than international, it's others than it's coming from everywhere. Why we are able to offer the High Dock at this price level is because again, if you look to the G2, what is unique to the G2 obviously is the Etech technology on the engine, but it's the way that we attach the engines on the boat where the vertical up or down movement and left or right is all integrated into the mounting system. Then for us, the High Dock is just an electronic box with a joystick on the boat that are activate this integrated system that you sell with the engine. And that was planned from the get go when we designed the G2 engine family. But that's why we can offer it at a very competitive price.
And if you were to buy off aftermarket system, well, you need a full hydraulic system and actuators and that's why the cost differential is much higher.
Then we're selling our system from $59.99 and competitive system can go anywhere between $15,000 to $25,000
Okay, okay. Okay, gentlemen, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The last question is from Robin Farley from UBS. Please go ahead.
Great, thanks. A couple of questions. One is just circling back to the idea that your full year guide is unchanged with Q2 coming in, I think, higher than expectations. Is it was it just really sort of a timing difference with shipments? In other words, was retail in the quarter sort of as you expected?
Yes. As I highlighted, yes, we were expecting strong retail in the quarter, especially on the ORP side, Side by side up 50% is a great result, but we knew that with a full lineup of Maverick X3 this quarter, which we had none last year, we were expecting strong results. And yes, it came the overall financials in better, slightly higher shipments and also tighter tight management of operating expenses produced these results. Obviously, when we look at the end of the year, as I mentioned, we are going to be investing more in R and D and in marketing. And that's why we're seeing profitability flat compared to last year for the second half of the year.
Okay. That's helpful. Thanks. And then just looking at the off road market overall, what do you think is sort of driving if you look at the industry growth in both ATV and side by side, it's better in the July quarter than kind of season to date had been in the 1st 9 months of the season. Is it do you think it's better demand from the agriculture sector or oil or is it just sort of others introducing new competitive product also or what do you think is sort of overall driving that?
Well, first, the spring, as you know, was pretty bad. Then the month of April, May was very bad in term of weather. And I think some people had delayed their purchase to Q2. The other thing is some of the competitor because we are on the tail end of the season 2017, some competitor were very aggressive with promotion. And that's why I believe overall Q2 was better than the rest of the season 2017.
So you're not necessarily it sounds like both of those factors, the weather shifting and maybe competitors doing some aggressive things with promos, not necessarily in your view a change in sort of overall market demand outside of the quarter, right, not sustainable things, is that
how you interpret?
No, I
don't see much. The only thing I would say to give you some color is Western Canada has improved a lot in Q2. Maersk and Canada have done better than the EASE in the motorcycle industry was better in ETV than last quarter and watercraft, the Western Canada was equal to Eastern Canada. Then the only thing that I would see have changed overall in North America is maybe Western Canada in Q2 have done a very good quarter.
Okay. And then my last question is just for the motorcycle business. There's been chatter in the media about a motorcycle brand that may be for sale. And I'm just curious whether it would make any kind of strategic sense in your view for BRP to do something in the 2 wheeled motorcycle segment knowing that there's a very established brand out there for sale?
I mean, as we said, Robin, in many occasion, obviously, we know that DUKEI is for sales. But as we said, we cannot comment on the rumors or M and A activity and nothing we can add to
this. Okay.
All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. So I would now like to turn the meeting back to you, Mr. Deschenes.
Thank you, and thanks everyone for joining us this morning and for your interest in BRP. We look forward to speaking with you again in December for our Q3 conference call. Thanks again, everyone, and have a good day.
Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time and we thank you very much for your participation.