Thank you for attending Wajax Corporation 2023 1st quarter financial results webcast. On today's webcast will be Mr. Iggy Domagalski, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Stuart Auld, Chief Financial Officer. Please be advised that this webcast is being recorded. Please note that this webcast contains forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ from expected results. I will now turn the call over to Iggy Domagalski.
Good afternoon, thank you for participating in our 1st quarter call. This afternoon, we will be following a webcast which includes a summary presentation of Wajax's Q1 2023 financial results. This presentation can be found on our website under Investor Relations and Events and Presentations. I will provide you with a general update and will then turn it over to Stu for comments on backlog, inventory, cash, and the balance sheet. To begin, I would like to draw your attention to the cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information on slide two and the non-GAAP and other financial measures on slide three. Turning to slide four. This slide provides an overview of Wajax. The corporation has 165 years of Canadian operating history, operates across 121 branches with a team of over 3,000 employees, including more than 1,100 skilled technicians.
During the quarter, our heavy equipment categories and revenue sources made up approximately 54% of our total revenue, while industrial products and ERS generated approximately 46%. Turning to slide 5. In the first quarter, Wajax saw significant improvement in key financial metrics and TRIF. Revenue of CAD 516.1 million was up CAD 76.5 million, or approximately 17% in the quarter. The increase in revenue resulted from higher construction, material handling, and industrial parts sales in all regions and increased ERS sales in Western and Eastern Canada. EBIT of CAD 28.6 million was up CAD 2.2 million, or approximately 8% in the quarter. The improved EBIT resulted from higher sales volumes, offset partially by lower product support margins and higher selling and administrative expenses.
Gross profit margin of 20.4% decreased 90 basis points compared to the same period of 2022 due to lower product support margins and a lower proportion of product support revenue. This was offset partially by higher equipment margins and a higher proportion of ERS revenue. Selling and administrative expenses as a percentage of revenue decreased to 14.9% in the first quarter of 2023 from 15.3% in the first quarter of 2022.
Selling and administrative expenses in the first quarter of 2023 increased CAD 9.7 million, or 14.4% compared to the first quarter of 2022, due primarily to higher personnel costs as the volume of business increased over the prior year and a CAD 0.9 million unrealized loss on interest rate swaps during the quarter as compared to a CAD 2.1 million unrealized gain on interest rate swaps in the prior year. Adjusted net earnings of CAD 0.83 per share was up approximately 13% or CAD 0.10 in the quarter, noting the adjustments recorded on this chart. At the end of Q1, the TRIF rate was 1.17, a decrease of 18% from the first quarter of 2022.
Safety continues to be Wajax's number one priority, and management is committed to continuously improving our safety programs to improve on this result. We thank everyone on our team for their ongoing dedication to workplace safety. Turning to slide six. Revenue increase of 17% in the first quarter resulted from growth in all regions. Western Canada sales of CAD 238 million increased 15% in the quarter, mainly due to strength in the ERS and industrial parts categories, as well as higher construction and forestry equipment sales, offset partially by lower mining equipment sales. Central Canada sales of CAD 87 million increased 14% in the quarter due primarily to strength in industrial parts sales and higher material handling equipment sales.
Eastern Canada sales of CAD 191 million increased 22% in the quarter due to strength in the industrial parts and ERS categories and higher equipment sales in the construction and forestry and material handling categories. Please turn to slide seven. Update on equipment and product support sales and year-over-year variances are shown on this page. Equipment sales of CAD 132 million increased CAD 15 million or 13% compared to last year, due mainly to strong construction and forestry sales in Western Canada and higher material handling sales in Eastern Canada, offset partially by lower mining sales in Western Canada. Product support sales of CAD 135 million increased CAD 10 million or 8%, due primarily to higher power systems and material handling revenues in all regions and higher mining revenue in Eastern Canada. Please turn to slide eight.
An update on industrial parts and ERS sales and year-over-year variances are shown on this page. Industrial parts sales of approximately CAD 153 million increased CAD 24 million or 19%, due mainly to higher sales in all regions, particularly in Eastern Canada. ERS sales of CAD 85 million increased CAD 25 million or 39% due to strong sales in Western and Eastern Canada. Turning to slide 9. This slide summarizes sales at a category level for our company's overall groupings of heavy equipment and industrial parts and services. In the first quarter, the heavy equipment group increased CAD 27 million or 11%, driven by higher sales in all categories except mining. The increase in the construction and forestry category was due primarily to higher equipment sales of Hitachi Construction excavators.
Total growth in industrial parts and services categories of approximately CAD 49 million or 26% was driven by increases in both industrial parts and ERS. We continue to see growth in these less cyclical categories. They remain a core element of our broader growth strategy. I will now turn the call over to Stuart.
Thanks, Iggy. Please turn to slide 10 for my comments on backlog and inventory. Our Q1 backlog of CAD 530.8 million increased CAD 62 million or 13.2% compared to backlog of CAD 468.8 million at Q4. Decreased CAD 9.3 million or 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. The sequential increase was due to higher orders in all categories, but most notably in the mining, material handling, ERS, and construction and forestry categories. The year-over-year decrease was due to lower construction and forestry, mining and power systems orders offset partially by higher ERS industrial parts and material handling orders. Overall, strong and relatively stable on a year-over-year basis, backlog reflects continued momentum in our heavy equipment, industrial parts, and ERS businesses.
Inventory increased CAD 122.2 million compared to Q4 2022, due primarily from higher construction and forestry equipment inventory and increased overall parts purchasing due to strong sales activity as well as the receipt of a large mining shovel during the quarter. Inventory increased CAD 175.3 million compared to Q1 2022 due to increases in most categories as a result of strong sales activity. Please turn to slide 11, where I will provide an update on cash flow, leverage, and working capital. Cash used in operating activities in the quarter of CAD 69.6 million decreased CAD 89 million from a cash generated from operating activities of CAD 19.4 million in Q1 2022, mainly due to an increase in cash used in non-cash operating working capital, primarily as a result of an increase in inventory and higher income taxes paid related to 2022.
Our Q1 leverage ratio increased to 1.74 times from 1.13 times in Q4 due to the higher debt level in the current period, driven largely by the Corporation's investment in inventory. The Corporation's leverage ratio is currently within our target range of 1.5-2 times at the end of Q1. Our available credit capacity at the end of Q1 was CAD 236.2 million, which is sufficient to meet short term normal course working capital and maintenance capital requirements, our acquisition program and strategic initiatives. We continue to focus on working capital efficiency, which is a key component in managing our overall leverage targets. The Q1 working capital efficiency was 17.4%, an increase of 70 basis points from December 31, 2022, due to the higher trailing four quarter average working capital.
Please turn to slide 10, and at this point I'll now turn it back to Iggy.
Thanks, Stu. Our 2023 outlook is summarized on slide 12. Wajax delivered revenue of CAD 516 million in the first quarter of 2023, which was up 17.4% over the same period in 2022. We saw adjusted diluted earnings per share grow 13% to CAD 0.80 a share. After the first three months of 2023, we continue to see solid fundamentals in many of the markets we serve, particularly mining, energy, and construction, supported by relatively elevated key commodity prices and sustained budgeting for capital projects. Further, we continue to expect the challenges of 2023 to continue to be similar to those of 2022. Ongoing supply chain volatility, higher interest rates, inflation, and a tight labor market.
We continue to manage these challenges through frequent dialogue with suppliers and customers, as well as through a combination of initiatives designed to help us hire, train, and retain key employees. Overall, we are very pleased with our Q1 performance as it represents a significant improvement over Q1 last year, including strong top line growth in our less cyclical and high priority industrial parts and Engineered Repair Services business. Our backlog continues to be robust, ending the quarter at CAD 530.8 million, representing a sequential increase of 13.2% from an already strong backlog of CAD 468.8 million at the end of last year. The strong and relatively stable backlog continues to support our confidence in the near term future. Our core strategic priorities remain unchanged.
We are focused on continuing to invest in our people and their overall health and well-being, delivering exceptional customer value, organically growing our business, transacting on a robust acquisition pipeline, leveraging our enhanced relationship with Hitachi, prudently managing our balance sheet, deploying our ERP, and entrenching sustainability into the business. The corporation also declared a dividend of CAD 0.33 per share that will be payable on July 5th to shareholders of record on June 15th. I'll now turn it back over to the operator for any questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now conduct question and answer session. If you have a question, please press Star followed by one in your touch-tone phone. You will hear a one-tone prompt acknowledging your request. Your first question comes from the line of Michael Doumet from Scotiabank. Your line is now open.
Hey, good afternoon, guys.
Hey, Michael. How are you doing?
Good. Good. Thanks, Iggy. Pretty impressive growth. It's in particularly in IP and ERS, Iggy, which you mentioned. You know, I'm assuming ERS had a pretty easy comp because of Omicron last year. Was there anything particular in the quarter that you wanna call out that drove, you know, maybe outsized growth? The reason why I'm asking is, you know, since there isn't much seasonality to those businesses, annualizing Q1 sales would imply, you know, plus 15% growth for the balance of the year. Just looking for comments to help set expectations there.
I think other than executing our business strategy, Michael, there hasn't really been anything that's materially different. Our team's working hard to get gear out the door. We did have some COVID problems as you mentioned last year, which put a dent into our business last year, and we've fully moved on from those. There's always continuous improvement happening in the ERS business. Nothing to particularly call out. It was just a strong quarter, and we expect strength in that business going forward.
I'd add one thing, Michael. It's just, you know, if you look at the chart on backlog, we have a pretty strong backlog in both IP and ERS, much higher than it was last year. That's another kinda component.
That's really impressive, guys. Okay. Thanks for the color. Then maybe turning to the equipment side. You know, in recent months we've seen Hitachi, you know, go out and set some pretty ambitious targets, I believe wanting to nearly triple the market share in the next five years. I think for Wajax, you know, you guys have always done a little bit better than the US dealer peers. In terms of market share, I don't assume it's a triple for you guys, but I wonder what levers, you know, you've seen so far or you expect going forward from Hitachi that will help you drive profitable growth.
Thanks for the question, Michael. Yeah, Hitachi has come out with some very aggressive growth plans, which we are thrilled to be a part of. They have their four key strategies that they've publicly released. The third piece of that is expanding business in the Americas. It's a huge focus for them. Canada's obviously part of the Americas. In, in the Americas, Wajax is by far Hitachi's number one partner with the highest market share. I don't think tripling our market share is something that we would be able to do in the near term, but certainly we have very ambitious growth targets in that area. The, the way that we plan to do that is it's a multi-pronged approach.
Hitachi's first key strategic priority is delivering innovative solutions for customer needs, which they are already starting to do. They released their Dash-7 Series for their construction excavators and loaders at ConExpo in Las Vegas last month. Lots of really great product features and changes that further distinguish the Hitachi units from the Deere units. A few ways that we see profitable growth happening is selling a differentiated whole goods product, so differentiated units. We see additional opportunities in aftermarket. We see big opportunities in product support, and service and Hitachi is fully supporting us. It's, you know, it's just so wonderful to have a partner that really, really wants us to win.
That's great. Thanks. Thanks for the color. I'll get back with you.
Okay. Thanks, Michael.
Your next question comes from the line of Michael Tupholme from TD Securities. Your line is now open.
Hey, Mike.
Hey, good afternoon. Thank you. First question relates to, material handling. Seems like that was a key source of growth this quarter, at least in Central and Eastern Canada. Wondering if you can comment, provide a little bit more detail on the demand that you're seeing in that area.
you know, I think it was similar to ERS. It was a matter of our team just executing well this quarter. We haven't seen any particular changes in the market. It remains stable and fairly robust, but there's no big underlying changes in the reason for our outperformance. It was just a good quarter.
Okay. I guess similarly, I know it's a much smaller part of the business, but on the equipment rental side, again, very strong growth there. Is it the same thing, just strong performance and nothing unusual in that level of revenue you saw in equipment rental? Is that sustainable?
Well, part of the rental increase was, which we don't talk about a lot, was in our power generation business, which is a pretty small part of the business. Given some of the ice storm stuff, that really got a bunch of equipment that we have, albeit a smaller portion, out the door. I'd say our rental business in general has been strong.
Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. Within the backlog it seems as though on a sequential basis, one of the drivers to the improvement was some mining orders. I know there were other areas as well of strength. With that in mind, I'm wondering if you can comment on what you expect in terms of, in terms of large mining shovel deliveries over the balance of the year, how we should think about that?
Sure. I can comment on what we have currently in the backlog. We've got two large mining shovels in the backlog. We have an 8,000, which would be our largest unit with a planned delivery in Q2. We have a 5,600, which is our second largest unit, which will be on rental purchase order, which we anticipate to convert in late to Q2 or sometime in Q3.
Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. Then, just last one for me. In terms of working capital, a fairly large outflow in the first quarter, which, I think you explained is a lot of that is due to higher investments in inventory. Maybe this is for Stu. How do we think about expected changes in non-cash working capital as we look out over the balance of the year?
Yeah, I'll start that one off, Michael. You know, when we think about our inventory, it's got a couple pieces, and I think I'll talk about the parts first. We've invested significantly in parts to support our growth and to make sure we're meeting our customers' needs, and we measure that through fill rates. And we see the positive results in increased revenue in our parts categories. We feel pretty good about that. As mentioned, you know, there's two shovels in backlog now. The eight thousand was not expected. That one was a nice positive surprise for us. The majority of that increase was in equipment, and the majority is Hitachi. A good part of it is already sold.
The units just need to be PDI'd and sent out the door, and we've just got a backlog of units that need to get out the door. We're really fine-tuning the cadence with Hitachi. That relationship with buying from Japan is still fairly new, so we're figuring it out. It still may be a little bit lumpy, but we're getting better at it. Overall, we're pretty good with the inventory levels. We feel good that our inventory levels are appropriate for how our sales are growing and what our backlog looks like. From our end, you know, we look at things like turns, which remain at great levels.
We look at obsolescence, which is at very low levels, and we're we shy away from buying speculative inventory. We when we, when we load up on inventory, we buy the things that we know our customers are going to buy. When we load up on parts inventory, we load up on the fastest moving parts inventory. We feel pretty good about the, the quality of the inventory that we have. Stu, would you have anything to add? Good. That's everything, Mike.
Are you able to just? That's very helpful. Are you able to talk at all about how we should expect things to look then over the balance of the year? Given these investments and given your comments about a lot of the equipment being pre-sold, I mean, do you expect changes in non-cash working capital to turn into a source of cash as we move through the year? Or is this more of a more of a neutral level kind of in future quarters through the balance of the year?
I would say neutral to positive. you know, there's just a lot of moving pieces with the inventory. As mentioned, we're still getting used to the cadence with Hitachi. They are our largest manufacturer. The timing of their shipments affects things. How quickly we can get things out the door, that really affects things. We expect it to be neutral to positive, but it likely will be lumpy.
Okay. Okay. I'll leave it there. Turn it over. Thank you.
Thanks, Mike.
Your next question comes from the line of Bryan Fast from Raymond James. Your line is now open.
Yeah, thanks. Good afternoon.
Hey, Bryan.
Hey. As we look at your end markets and you called out specifically strength in mining, energy, and construction, could you highlight some of the areas or end markets where you're seeing maybe the most pronounced headwinds or even softness?
Bryan, thanks for the question. When we look at forestry, and the, you know, the associated pulp and paper mills, we do see some weakness in those areas, which has an effect on us. With that said, you know, we distribute the Tigercat brand for forestry equipment in all of Canada except BC. The areas that we are exposed to are non-BC related forestry. You know, an area that is, that we see slowing down a little bit is residential construction. With that said, our exposure to residential construction is fairly minimal. The excavators that we sell are usually sold to commercial and industrial type customers.
Thanks. That's helpful. I know Hitachi recently started providing their own branded financing offering. Could you maybe discuss kinda customer uptake and maybe how this has impacted your ability to sell your work?
Yeah, yeah. We started, I'm gonna say sort of the end of March or early April. It's been pretty positive. A little bit of slow out of the gate 'cause it was brand new. Our guys are getting used to it, the salesmen are getting used to it. You know, as with anything that's Hitachi, you know, they keep fine-tuning that. You know, we have a long way to catch up from the way that Deere did it. They had a pretty positive program. We think we'll get there over the next several months.
Great. That's it for me. Thank you.