Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Richelieu Hardware third quarter results conference call. At this time, all participant lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session, which will be restricted to analysts only. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. Note that the call is being recorded on October 6th, 2022 .
Merci. Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Richelieu's conference call for the third quarter and first nine months of fiscal 2022. With me is Antoine Auclair, CFO. As usual, note that some of today's issues include forward-looking information, which is provided with the usual disclaimer as reported in our financial filings. In line with previous periods, we achieved a strong third quarter with a 26.7% increase in total sales to which our Canadian market segment contributed, as well as our U.S. manufacturer market, where we realized a sharp rise of 51% in U.S. dollar, of which 32% came from acquisitions. We posted an EBITDA increase of 23.8% with an EBITDA margin of 16.7% and a net earnings per share increase of 18.8%.
This performance helped drive our total sales for the nine months up 29.1% to CAD 1.3 billion. Net earnings per share increased by 27.2% to CAD 2.19. We ended the period with a sound financial position, including a return on average equity of 24.1%. Richelieu has always been careful to maintain an actual ability to react and adapt to market conditions, which contributes to our sound financial track record over the years. Furthermore, we are driven by a combination of key strengths, including the efficiency of our business model, specially designed to meet the needs of our Canadian and U.S. customers and anticipate their expectation through our obsession with service and our resolute focus on innovation. The diversification of our market segment is also a great strength.
We continue to have strong leverage with our acquisitions in North America, where 80 have been completed since 1988. In this regard, we recently concluded a fourth acquisition of the fiscal year, Quincaillerie Deno in Anjou, Quebec. We also signed three agreements in principle for two acquisitions in Canada and one in the U.S. Together, these four transactions should add approximately CAD 23 million in annual sales. I will now hand over to Antoine for a review of the quarterly results and the financial situation.
Thanks, Richard. Third quarter sales reached CAD 472.9 million, up 26.7%, of which 15.8% from internal growth and 10.9% from acquisitions. At comparable exchange rates to last year, sales increase would have been 24.9%. In Canada, sales amounted to CAD 279.6 million, up 14.8%, mostly from internal growth. Our sales to manufacturers reached CAD 228 million, up 15.7%, of which 14.5% from internal growth and 1.2% from acquisitions. As for the hardware retailers, sales stood at CAD 51.6 million, up 11.2%, entirely from internal growth.
In the U.S., sales grew to $150 million in U.S. dollars, up 43.7%, 15.2% from internal growth and 28.4% from acquisition. Sales to manufacturers reached $141 million in U.S. dollars, up 50.7%, 18.7% from internal growth and 32% from acquisitions. The hardware retailers and renovation superstores market sales reached $9.1 million. In Canadian dollars, total sales in the U.S. reached CAD 193.3 million, an increase of 48.9% and representing 41% of our total sales. For the first 9 months, sales reached CAD 1.3 billion, up 29.1%, of which 16.2% from internal growth and 12.9% from acquisitions.
In Canada, sales reached CAD 801 million, up CAD 116.5 million or 17%, of which 12.8% from internal growth and 4.2% from acquisitions. Sales to manufacturers reached CAD 650.7 million, up CAD 98.2 million or 17.8%. Sales to hardware retailers and renovation superstores reached CAD 150.5 million compared to CAD 132.2 million, up 13.8%. In the U.S., sales amounted to $426.1 million, up 49.2%, of which 20.3% from internal growth and 28.9% from acquisitions. They reached CAD 544.1 million, up 52.2%, accounting for 40.4% of our total sales.
Sales to manufacturers totaled CAD 393.6 million, an increase of CAD 143.9 million, or 57.6% of which 24.8% from internal growth and 32.8% from acquisitions. Sales to hardware retailers and renovation superstores were down 9.7% compared to last year. Third quarter EBITDA reached CAD 79.2 million, up CAD 15.2 million or 23.8% over last year resulting from increased sales. Gross margin declined slightly due to acquisition and the EBITDA margin stood at 16.7% compared to 17.1% last year. For the first nine months, EBITDA reached CAD 210.8 million, up 29.2%. As for EBITDA margin, it stood at 15.7% compared to 15.6% last year.
Third quarter net earnings attributable to shareholders totaled CAD 46.4 million, up 19.6%. Net earnings per share were CAD 0.83 basic and CAD 0.82 diluted compared to CAD 0.69 basic and diluted last year, an increase of 20.3% and 18.8% respectively. For the first nine months, net earnings attributable to shareholders reached CAD 123.4 million, up 27.1%. Diluted net earnings per share stood at CAD 2.19 compared to CAD 1.72, up 27.3%. Third quarter cash flow from operating activities before net change in working capital amounted to CAD 60.9 million or CAD 1.08 per share, an increase of 23.5%, resulting primarily from net earnings growth.
Net change in non-cash working capital used cash flow of CAD 58.2 million, mainly reflecting increase in inventories of CAD 92.6 million, resulting from higher demand, cost of supply increase, and reduced delivery delays from Asia. Change in accounts receivable and other items represented cash inflow of CAD 24.4 million. Consequently, operating activities represented a cash inflow of CAD 2.7 million. For the first nine months, cash flow from operating activities before net change in working capital were up 28.9% totaling CAD 162 million or CAD 2.91 per share. Net change in non-cash working capital balances used cash flow of CAD 202 million, primarily representing changes in inventory that use cash flows of CAD 190.9 million, and accounts receivable and other items use cash flow of CAD 11.1 million.
Consequently, operating activities used cash flow of CAD 37.9 million compared to a cash inflow of CAD 90.3 million last year. For the third quarter, financing activities used cash flow of CAD 17.2 million compared to CAD 18 million last year. Dividends paid to shareholders of the corporation amounted to CAD 7.3 million compared to CAD 3.9 million in the same period of 2021. For the first nine months, financing activities used cash flow of CAD 46.9 million compared to CAD 41.8 million in 2021. Dividends paid to shareholder amounted to CAD 21.8 million compared to CAD 15.5 million last year.
During the first nine months, we invested CAD 59.2 million for the two distributor acquisitions made in the first quarter and CAD 16.8 million for the purchase of equipment to maintain and improve operational efficiency as well as investment in IT infrastructure and network expansion projects. We continue to benefit from a healthy and solid financial position with a working capital of CAD 525.7 million for a current ratio of 2.8 to 1 and an average return on equity of 24.1%. I now turn it over to Richard.
Thanks, Antoine. To conclude in the U.S., in addition to the ongoing expansion of our Fort Myers, Atlanta, and Chicago centers, we have started the expansion of our Pompano and Nashville distribution centers, and we'll open new centers in Carlstadt, New Jersey and Minneapolis. Regarding the recent event in Florida, I'm talking about the hurricane. We are happy to report that our location suffered minimal damages and everyone is safe, and we are fully operational. We are pursuing the integration of our recent acquisition while remaining on the lookout for opportunities in the acquisition market that fit our short and long-term criteria. We are still working on penetrating strategic market, and we continue to adapt as efficiently as possible to market condition, whatever they will be. We expect to end the financial year with good results. Thanks, everyone. We'll now be happy to answer your questions.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request. If you would like to withdraw from the question queue, simply press star followed by two. If you're using a speakerphone, we do ask that you please lift the handset before pressing any keys. Again, a reminder that Q&A is restricted to analysts only. Your first question will be from Hamir Patel at CIBC.
Hi, good afternoon. Richard and Antoine, could you comment on the growth rates you've seen in September with manufacturers and retailers?
What we're seeing, as we speak, is still over a double-digit growth in the U.S. and I would say about a 6%-7% growth in Canada. That's about for the month of September.
October should be all right as well as November, when we have to expect the month of December and January usually are our slowest month. As usual, the first three months of the year of the fiscal that we show you is always slower because of vacation, Christmas season, and everything else. So far, so good.
Okay. No, that's helpful. Richard, was that sort of consolidated, or was that just the manufacturer's piece? Maybe if you'd comment how the retailer's business is operating as well.
I was speaking about manufacturers, but the retailer's growth is about the same that we've seen since the beginning of the year. It's rather low, but it's still positive.
Okay, great. Antoine, are you able to break down the 16% organic growth? How much of that was price versus volumes?
I would say that the price would be like 12%-13%. 12%-13% is price.
Okay. Are you seeing any signs of prices starting to moderate as you've moved into Q4?
What do you mean? In terms of sales price?
Yes. Yeah.
Yeah. Sales price, it's all behind us. What you see now is what you're gonna get in Q4, if nothing else change.
Okay. Just the last question I had was just on the EBITDA margin side. You know, very strong quarter, 16.7%. I know on the last call, you said you expected them to normalize in the high 14s-15% range. The longer you're staying over 16%, are you starting to reassess where you see long-term margins?
No. My comments will be the same. As long as we stay around those 15%, 16%, 17% internal growth, we will continue to see strong 16% margin. In a more normalized environment where we'd have a more normalized growth of high 14%-15% should be the norm.
Okay, great. Thanks. That's all I had. I'll turn it over.
Thank you. Next question will be from Meaghen Annett at TD. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good afternoon.
Good afternoon.
The inventory balance is up substantially year-over-year. Can you just break down some of the key drivers of that growth? Can you also talk about how you're thinking about inventory planning the coming year, just in light of the potential for change in consumer purchase patterns and whatnot? You know, looks like there was also investment in inventory in the quarter. Just wanna get a sense of how you're thinking about inventory planning.
Yeah. Inventory has increased materially since the beginning of the year, CAD 200 million increase. If you wanna break that out a bit, fifty million comes from price increase. Just the increase of the price increase of our product explains CAD 50 million of this increase. CAD 30 million is coming from acquisition and other expansion project. The rest is growth and supply chain disruption. We definitely are in an excess inventory position as we speak. The delays in getting the inventory is reducing in Asia, the material is what we placed nine months ago is coming in.
We should be at this level until the end of the year, and it will start reversing early 2023.
In evaluating potential acquisition targets, are you seeing any changes in valuation at this time, or any change in the willingness of targets to sell?
No. Valuation is pretty much the same as what you've seen in the past, 4x-6x. If we enter into a more difficult position, this would probably create more opportunities on the acquisition front. The network, the pipeline is still healthy, and we will otherwise. It's still good.
Okay. Just last question. With regards to, you know, some of the damage that might have been incurred in Florida, you know, can you just talk to how your business performs, you know, when there are potential opportunities, you know, created by unfortunate events such as this?
Well, that will certainly create some opportunities, but we don't expect any turbulence in this market in our market in Florida because of that. I think we have quite a big share of the market in Florida. We have nine distribution centers over there. Whatever business that is gonna be available in addition to what we already have will be captured by us. Usually, you know, that kind of storm, you don't destroy. You know, the good houses are not going to be destroyed. Usually, this is where you find a nice kitchen cabinet, a nice closet, nice bathroom as well. Basically, we don't expect much from that, but we're ready. If there are some opportunity, we'll be there to capture them.
That's all for me. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, to all analysts, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your touchtone phone. Your next question will be from Zachary Evershed at National Bank.
Are contractors still in high demand given the strength that you're seeing in manufacturers? Is there still a shortage of skilled labor among your customers?
Yes. There is a labor shortage for them. I meet many customers personally.
Usually what they really choose the orders that they wanna make because they have less employees. See, they're gonna choose to go for the kitchen cabinet or the bathroom or the closet they're gonna go for the more expensive project, so where they can make more money. The more expensive is the project kitchen cabinet, closet, and the vanity furniture in the bathroom. It's because there is more Richelieu content. That does create good sales for us for the higher end products. Basically this is positive and this is what we see now and that should continue for a while. The customer speaking to our sales force, we know that they're still busy for a few months.
As I said earlier, though, they can be a slowdown in December and January as usual because this is our first quarter is always the weakest. We expect the business to continue to be good because there's still a lot of commercial projects as well on the go here in Canada and in the U.S. that should bring interesting sales as well because we have to keep in mind that commercial projects account for 25% of our sales. This is fast, the growth in this market as we speak is something like 15%, which is good.
Great color. Thanks. If we think about that busyness that they have for a few months of sales visibility, accounting for, of course, the December and January slowdown. If we compare that to what they were thinking and saying last quarter before the Fed kind of took people by surprise with higher rate hikes. Obviously, that doesn't translate directly to renovation and remodel. How is the, I guess, the delta, the change in the backlog that your clients are seeing?
Our clients, they don't have much backlog. They usually have work for about three months in advance. That's all what we can see. I don't think that the interest rate or whatever happened in the economy has changed the need for some consumers to change their kitchen cabinet or improve their house. We don't have that feeling yet, but we will. Like you, I think we are realistic. You know, we don't know what's coming. As we said earlier, we can have a smoother growth in a few months to come, but we never know. We capture new business.
I have personally met a couple of retail customers last week that are going to give us, you know, a few million-dollar additional business. We see the big manufacturers also are still busy. They keep calling in. They come with their product. We just add the new customers. I already mentioned to you that we had a big customer in the U.S. in the closet industry that has 500 stores. Actually, we're just about to have a new deal with a similar company in the U.S. as well in the closet business. Basically we have a lot of positive news regarding increased sales and additional market penetration. We have to keep walking in that direction.
That's actually a great point. You guys made a good tactical decision to keep inventory in stock.
Yeah.
That won you a ton of market share.
Sure.
When supply chains were crimped. Are you seeing any of those new customers going back to their old suppliers as supply chains untangle?
Yes. They will certainly go back to their former suppliers, some of them. They will continue to deal with us because they have discovered that we have the largest variety of products as well as probably the best service available in North America as we speak. That should continue on. We have a big sales force in the U.S. as well as in Canada. The job of these guys is to make sure that the customers they stay loyal to Richelieu.
Fantastic. Just one last one for me. In the past you've said that U.S. margins were trending at about two-thirds of what Canada was. Does that still hold true today?
Yep.
Excellent. Thanks. I'll turn it over.
Okay. Thank you.
At this time, if you allow, we have no further questions. Please proceed.
Thank you very much for attending. It's always a pleasure to talk to you. Do not hesitate to call us for more information. Bye-bye.
Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. At this time, we do ask that you please disconnect your lines.