Okay, good morning. Our next presenting company is Mattr Corp, trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol MTTR. Here today to present on behalf of the company is their CEO, Mike Reeves. With him in the audience is Meghan MacEachern, their investor relations, and Tom Teachen, who is Vice President, correct, of Xerxes, which will be one of the companies that Mike will tell you about here in a minute. Mike?
Good morning, everybody. I will take a few minutes to orient you to the organization, talk a little bit about what's happening within our organization, and about our view of the future, then happy to take as many questions as you may have for us. I'll start with the usual legally required statement, which I'm sure you've all read thoroughly. Mattr, we are an infrastructure products manufacturing company. We are global in reach, but we are primarily North American in focus and in workforce, and in manufacturing footprint. A little over $1.3 billion in trailing 12-month revenue, and a growth rate over the last several years that I think we are proud of and looking to replicate as we roll forward. Our focus are those niches in a wide variety of critical applications where temperatures are extreme, pressures are extreme, radiation or corrosion or mechanical load is extreme.
Where others are challenged to produce products that will survive, where our customers' cost of failure is highest, where the competition is lowest and where the opportunity to be paid full value for your products is highest. We're operating out of two business segments, connection technologies and composite technologies, which pursue two macro themes that we are very bullish on for the decades to come. Connection technologies is an electrification-driven business segment. Composite technologies is a segment focused on the transition, from traditional steel and concrete materials to composite materials in the management of a variety of liquids. This organization has come through massive transformation over the last four years. Four years ago, if I stood in front of you, the company name would be different. It would be Shawcor. We would have 12 businesses, most of which were focused on offshore oil and gas pipelines.
We would have been complex, incredibly volatile, horribly over-levered, a Canadian small-cap holding company with no specific direction. That is not what we are today. Over the last four years, we have divested or shut down eight businesses. We have acquired one meaningful business. We have concentrated our efforts on the end markets that I have just described to you. We have fixed the balance sheet, positioning ourselves to invest aggressively in the businesses that we think have enormous potential for growth over the years to come. Within connection technologies, we have two general business areas. You see them listed here, engineered wire, cable, and assemblies. We serve the engineered wire and cable market through two brand names, Shawflex, that's primarily Canadian-focused, and AmerCable, a business we acquired earlier this year, that is predominantly U.S.-focused.
We serve the heat- shrink tubing market, which is effectively a product used to protect connection points in wire and cable networks globally. DSG-Canusa is the brand name, and it is the only business that we own that has manufacturing footprint outside of North America. They operate from China, from Germany, and from the U.S. Composite Technologies, we offer effectively two brand names serving three end markets. Flexpipe produces multi-layer composite spoolable pipe, that is used by customers in the traditional oil and gas industry to connect a newly completed oil or gas well into their existing physical infrastructure. Xerxes is the largest producer of underground fuel storage tanks in North America, serving the retail fuel market, standby fuel for power generation and underground storage of water. Xerxes also has an extended range of products that serve water management applications, stormwater, wastewater.
Regardless, in FlexPipe and in Xerxes, our play is to replace steel and concrete that has for decades been used to accomplish the outcomes I just described. The market in North America is rapidly moving to composites, because they have longer life, they are fastest to install, they have lower risk, they [do not] corrode. We are playing that theme in these businesses. Ultimately, the reason that we have the businesses we do, the reason we reorganized the portfolio the way that we did, is to address these three long-cycle critical infrastructure macro themes that we believe will prevail for decades to come. In the electrification space, we are convicted that North America requires greater power generation, power distribution, and the ability to consume that electrical power efficiently. As I said before, we play that space through engineered wire and cable, and heat- shrink tubing.
We look across North America, and we see an aging physical infrastructure, whether that is utility networks, water distribution, the list goes on and on. The need to expand and refresh infrastructure across North America is there, and will be there for the rest of my lifetime. We believe our products play a role in that. Environmental infrastructure expansion. The need for clean water, the need to manage pollution risk is only growing. Regulations are tightening across North America. The need to be responsible in the management of fuel, [polluted] water, stormwater management is not going to go down. As I mentioned, two segments playing two different end macros, sharing commonality of manufacturing process, sharing commonality of supply chain. While they serve different end markets and different customer bases, they're connected in the background. Most of our products are extrusion-based manufacturing processes. We share knowledge.
We don't share manufacturing facilities, but we share technology and w e share [supply chain]. When we look at how this translates into performance, here you see the transformation from 2021 to year-to-date annualized, of the portfolio of businesses that we own now. As you can see, strong growth in both segments and in the corporation overall, i t is a good time to pause and say, "2026 is not going to reflect this growth rate." We are, as an organization, exposed, as many are, to the disruption that comes from substantial trade friction. The fact that some of our revenue comes from Canada, which is seeing economic slowing, is going to mean that 2026 will be a more challenging year than most of the last several. That's okay. Our focus is on the things we can control.
What you'll see from inside this organization over the coming 12 months is an aggressive focus, not just on cost control, but on driving fundamental efficiency into our manufacturing centers, enhancing our margins, even if top-line growth is somewhat restricted by some of the conditions that we face in the marketplace. It's important to recognize that when you operate a business within which every single product line received virtually no capital, virtually no attention until three years ago, you can imagine the amount of opportunity there is for optimization. We are in the early innings of optimizing these businesses, and moving through that process on a constant basis. If you're a short-term investor looking to make a quick gain in the next two quarters, you should probably leave now.
We are looking for investors that have a three to five-year time horizon, believe in the macro themes that I've just shared with you and recognize that there is enormous value to be created, by growing within those themes and driving efficiency within the organization. If you look back through recent history, you'll see that our capital spending has been inflated over the last several years. You can see bottom left, the progression. Important to recognize that a normalized capital spending program for this organization, which 2026 will be, has about 1% of revenue going to maintenance CapEx, so somewhere around $15 million and then between 2%-3% of revenue going into growth CapEx. It'll be at the low end of that in 2026. In the years recent, you can see we've been spending well above those levels, not on maintenance, but on growth.
As I said earlier, that is the consequence of turning our attention to businesses that have had little to no focus in decades. The four businesses that we kept that had been legacy part of ShawCor had received virtually no capital in the last 10 years. The one business we acquired, AmerCable, had been declared non-core by its previous owner five years ago and it had no CapEx. What you see here is the consequence of a decade of underinvestment being addressed. [audio distortion] a dvanced manufacturing capabilities of these organizations, multiple new facilities, the relocation of some existing facilities and the upgrade and refurbishment of others. The introduction of automation into several facilities and the physical expansion of production floor, with plenty of space to add low incremental CapEx, additional production as the years roll by.
We now have effectively a pre-invested North American manufacturing footprint that will require very limited capital to support substantial growth rates as we roll forward. As I said at the very beginning, an organization that has now emerged from transformation, able to focus both its time, its attention, and its capital on a limited number of end markets and drive growth, both in terms of revenue and margin expansion as we roll forward. 2026 will be a challenging year, but I expect EBITDA margins to move up year- over- year, even if revenue is somewhat challenged year- over- year. Ultimately, when we look at these businesses, there is not a shadow of doubt in my mind that they are capable of combining to deliver a corporation with EBITDA margins north of 20%, revenue growth rates north of 10% and a free cash flow conversion rate north of 70%.
Two years ago, I would have told you that we would probably hit two of these three in 2026. The way the world has evolved, that I do not think is a realistic expectation anymore. The time horizon has shifted a little, but the opportunity is there and we are driving towards it. Net debt has moved up with the acquisition of AmerCable early this year. Important to note that we stress test our balance sheet against a COVID-like environment, to ensure that we never put the company at risk from a covenant perspective. We ran those stress tests prior to the acquisition of AmerCable, and were entirely comfortable with an elevated level of net debt for a period of time. That net debt will move down over the course of 2026, and I am not even slightly concerned about the balance sheet.
We will make sure that we protect it no matter what happens in the world around us. As we sit here today, I'm entirely comfortable with where we are. Obviously, you are going to see us dedicate the vast majority of our available capital to debt reduction, as we roll forward to ensure that the balance sheet is fully protected and to make sure we have as much optionality as possible rolling forward. To that end, we have recently paused share repurchases. We've been aggressive into the NCIB over the last two and a half years. We've repurchased about 15% of the outstanding shares of this company.
While I think the share price today is a remarkably good entry point, and you will have seen some internal buying here recently, for the company, the most important thing is that we preserve our cash to ensure that if there is more disruption in the world around us, our balance sheet remains strong and stable. We have paused NCIB activity briefly. This is not a change in long-term strategy. It is simply us using flexibility in capital allocation, which has always been our play. To summarize, an organization that's been through massive transformation, all of the major strategic steps are now completed.
The North American manufacturing footprint has been invested in, and is now functioning and rising, moving through the gears in terms of operational efficiency, end markets that we believe in passionately, products that our customers have high demand for, and a business that has lots of opportunities through modest capital investment to drive organic growth in the years to come and a business, quite frankly, that trades well below other engineered product manufacturers that you may find in the open market. One that I think is worth looking at. What questions can I answer for you? Yes, sir.
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Yeah. The ones I can foresee, I think we keep an eye on the U.S. economy, as everybody does. [ Job's] report this morning was surprisingly good, but I still think there is some potential that we see, meaningful slowing of the U.S. economy. We need to be prepared for that. Most of the end markets that we serve in the U.S., I think would be relatively unimpacted by modest slowing of the U.S. economy. I do not expect to see any decline in utility activity. I do not expect to see any decline in data center activity. You never know. We keep an eye on that. The other piece that we are watching closely are any extension of tariff activity. As a wire and cable manufacturer, our biggest single- purchased item is copper. I should have said this earlier.
While the world has been insane around us, I could not be prouder of how this organization has navigated that insanity. By positioning new manufacturing facilities in the U.S., we have effectively reduced our risk of cross-border tariffs dramatically. On the copper supply chain, on the 1st of August, almost 100% of our copper supply came from a source that is now tariffed. Within three weeks, we had converted to non-tariffed s ources.
In that process, we had eliminated the risk of probably $50 million of tariff costs a year in the company. I am very proud of how we are nimble, and manage our way through some of these external factors. If there were to be enhancements of tariffs that were to apply directly to our wire and cable products crossing the border, that is something we would have to navigate. The last piece would be, if there were a disruption in the USMCA.
Today, there's a lot of tariff exemptions for USMCA- compliant products, which all of my products are, but there are still quite a lot of products that move north and south of the border for us. If the USMCA were to be suspended or no longer exempted from tariffs, then we would have to navigate that. Those are the ones that we watch closely. Yes.
[audio distortion]. Second, are data [audio distortion] an end user?
They are. Maybe I'll start with the second piece and work back into the first. In the biggest of pictures, we view the data center construction boom as an opportunity, but not one that we're counting on for the long term. I may be wrong, but I suspect that there's a bubble to burst there and that we will see a more normalized level of activity in data centers at some point. As long as there is demand, we play it through primarily two businesses. AmerCable, our U.S. wire and cable business, sells medium voltage product into data center construction applications and is increasingly growing that revenue stream.
Xerxes, our underground tank business, sells very large tanks to data center construction sites that are used for underground storage of diesel fuel for backup generation and also to store cooling liquids. Through those two businesses, we're seeing our exposure to data center construction rise from near zero two years ago to, I'd say, run rate right now, we're probably $30 million-$40 million a year and rising.
I think data centers will continue to be a source of growth for this organisation for at least the next 12 months. Let's see what happens after that. I would say all of the manufacturing equipment that we use to make products that go into data centers is entirely fungible, and can be used to make products that go into other applications. We're not betting the company on data centers forever. In connection technologies broadly, the DSG heat- shrink tubing business effectively has two global competitors, TE Connectivity and 3M. We do not see consolidation as a likely outcome in that market, and they are both very good competitors. They do not lead with price. They lead with technology, as do we. We have the advantage of being a little smaller, a little more nimble.
I think that's why we are finding ourselves in a position to gain share as time goes by. In the wiring cable space, most of the large wiring cable manufacturers focus their attention on higher volume products. If you look at organizations like Nexans, for example, they've really dedicated themselves to high and medium voltage transmission and distribution lines. Whether they're above ground, below ground, undersea, that tends to be where they focus. We see most of the large companies focus on a specific end market in high volume. There's very little attention in large wiring cable companies given to the type of high- touch, highly engineered products that are serving smaller niches the way that our products do. Our competition tends to be small companies that are private, often family- owned.
It is absolutely a marketplace where over time, I think consolidation can and probably will occur. Our acquisition of AmerCable was our first step on that journey. At the appropriate moment, if the right opportunity at the right price is presented, certainly we would lean into further consolidation, provided the balance sheet is in a place where we can do so responsibly. Yes.
[audio distortion] backlog orders for your underground tanks that are used for new installations versus [audio distortion].
Certainly does on pricing. This is a great question. John has the advantage of, he has just visited our newest tank manufacturing facility in South Carolina. The Xerxes business, I think is not well understood. If you'll bear with me, let me give you two minutes on why I think it's a great business. Xerxes has been around for decades, and has been the leader in the production of underground fuel storage tanks for most of that time.
There has been a belief, I think in the investing community and elsewhere, that the advent of electric vehicles would make liquid fuels irrelevant and therefore a business like Xerxes irrelevant. Nothing could be further from the truth. Clearly, we are seeing a slowing of growth, and a resetting of expectations around electric vehicle adoption in North America. Regardless of that, if you drive across this country, you will see a huge volume. There are well over 500,000 open convenience stores in North America. Most of them are very old.
Most of them are poorly lit, small or zero convenience store footprint, offering one or two, or three fuel types and not more than that. Most of them are owned by families. More than 50% of the operating gas stations in North America today are owned by people who own three stores or less. Our customers are primarily operators that have 500 stores or more. There are different brands across the country and in different regions. That population are building new convenience stores with fueling capabilities as fast as they possibly can. We are in the early innings of a multi-decade massive renewal of the U.S. fueling network. What they are building are larger stores with larger convenience footprints, offering fresh food and a variety of other convenience items. They are offering many different fuel types, and sometimes they have EV charging stations there as well.
When they put a new footprint in place, it attracts the traffic that previously went to the old stations and the old stations close. We are not seeing an increase in the number of fueling stations. We are seeing a replacement cycle. What that is leading to is enormous demand for Xerxes underground fuel tanks. Nobody digs up a tank from one site and moves it to another one. Every new site gets brand new tanks. A new site built 40 years ago might have had two tanks. A new site built today will have anywhere from four to 10 tanks. They are bigger, and they are more complex. We cannot keep up with demand. We have not kept up with demand for the last three years. That is why we invested the best part of $50 million to build a brand new tank production site in South Carolina.
It's the first tank production site built anywhere in North America in the last 40 years. It will be the largest in our network when it's fully ramped up. We will make about 4,000 tanks this year. If I could have built 6,000 tanks, I could have sold them all. The 4,000 tanks that we build this year, about 90% of them will go to fuel applications and 10% will go to water applications. In both cases, we're starving our customers. In the fuel space, about 75% go to support new fuel station construction, and 25% go to allow customers to replace older tanks. Historically, fueling stations were outfitted with steel tanks, which corrode. Under federal and state and local regulations, a fuel spill into the environment is a catastrophic [risk].
As these tanks get older, they get annual inspection and eventually they need to be replaced. Some stations will get retired, so they will not replace the tanks. They will just dig them up and fill in the hole. In most cases, they will replace the tank. When it is time to do that, it tends to sneak up on them with relatively short notice. We get the emergency phone call, and emergency phone calls are really expensive. As we roll forward here, what you will see in Xerxes is us driving greater productivity because not only is there more demand than we can serve in the water space and more demand than we can serve in the new-to-industry store construction, but many of our customers have chosen to put off proactive replacement of aging tanks, and they are starting to allocate capital into proactive replacement.
We've seen a market step up in demand for tanks for replacement activity this year versus last year, and I think we'll see the same again next year. When I think about the Xerxes business and I think about it over a 15, 20, 25-year basis, the exact mix of what the tanks are used for might adjust slightly. I think we'll see replacement tanks slowly become a bigger percentage, but the total volume is going to continue to rise. 16,000 tanks a year cross their nominal end of life, and I can make 4,000 and my competitor can make 2,000. T here's some steel tanks that nobody really wants to use, but they do if they have to. It's a market where the dynamic is very heavily in our favor, and I think it will stay that way. Question?
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A composite tank, we offer a warranty for 30 years, and b y and large, that's what people assume the life to be. It can be extended a little further, but in many cases, customers will struggle to get insurance or at least affordable insurance, if they have a gas station that's got tanks older than 30 years. Steel tanks have a 20-year lifespan. Question?
[audio distortion]
Here's the manufacturing process. I said earlier that our businesses are all in the relatively early innings of being optimised. Xerxes is a great example, and Tom spent really his entire adult life in the Xerxes business and we're grateful for his service. The manufacturing process in Xerxes hasn't changed in that time, until very recently. It's a highly manual process. If you were to walk into one of our factories, even our newest factory, you will see individuals in self-contained breathing apparatus manually spraying molds to create the shells, manually grinding and cutting, and then assembling these tanks.
It's a process that works, but it only works efficiently if you have experienced people. You open a new factory, by definition, you don't have experienced people. That factory will move through the gears as its people become more experienced, but I can't rely on years and years of experience to be the driving force behind a business that needs more production yesterday. We are investing, have invested, will continue to invest in automation.
If you were to go to the South Carolina site, you'd see that we have got robots starting to do the spraying process to create the molds. The next step will be robots to do the cutting and grinding. While it won't eliminate humans, it will take the work that the humans have to do into areas where I can train them to do it in a couple of weeks instead of two years. It's a journey. We're on it. It'll accelerate, and we'll get there as fast as we can. Yeah. Any other questions?
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I think they're the ones that I mentioned earlier. There was originally supposed to be a second announcement related to tariffs on copper products, that would come out on October the 28th. The date came and went. There was no announcement. Will there be an announcement? If so, when? If so, what will it say? That's a risk. It's a relatively short-term risk, but it's a risk that if particularly my Shawflex Canadian-made products are subjected to a direct tariff coming across the border, we sell those products into U.S. utility applications, then it's going to impact my margins for a period of time.
The good news is I have a U.S. manufacturing footprint that we recently acquired, and we already have a plan to migrate that manufacturing process into the U.S. if we need to, but it doesn't happen overnight. We will have to live with some lower margins for a period of time in that business, if that tariff gets levied. I think far less likely is some disruption of the USMCA Accord. My biggest risk there would be to the Xerxes business. We have six manufacturing sites in North America, two in Canada, four in the U.S.
The consumption of tanks is overwhelmingly in the U.S. The vast majority of tanks we make in our two Canadian sites come across the border for sale. They are USMCA- compliant. They are exempted from all tariffs. If USMCA were to be disrupted, that would change. As I've described the dynamics in the market to you, I want to serve my customers. I'm certainly not trying to make their lives harder, but they don't have anywhere else to go. We would come to an arrangement that would at least keep me whole in that process. There would be friction, and it's probably a little bit of disruption for a short period of time. The third piece of course is the U.S. economy. We are assuming that the U.S. consumer stays in a place where they are at least modestly active.
If the U.S. economy were to face severe contraction, obviously we'd see it play out in lower commodity prices that probably impact oilfield-related activity, perhaps mining-related activity, other consumer-related activity that might drive broad industrial consumption. We keep an eye on that. Those are probably the three I watch for, and it's that first one, the direct tariff on Shawflex products that I have the most concern about, which may prove to be totally unfounded.
[audio distortion]
Me too . Yeah, i s there anything else?