Welcome to ITT's 2026 first quarter conference call. Today is Wednesday, May 6th, 2026. Today's call is being recorded and will be available for replay beginning at 12:00 P.M. Eastern Time. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions following the presentation. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star 11 on your touchtone phone. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star 11 again. We ask that you please pick up your handset to allow optimal sound quality. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Charlene Savage, Vice President, Investor Relations and FP&A. You may begin.
Thank you, Kathy, and good morning. Joining me in Stamford today are Luca Savi, ITT's Chief Executive Officer and President, and Emmanuel Caprais, Chief Financial Officer. Today's call will cover ITT's financial results for the three-month period ended April fourth, 2026, which we announced this morning. Please refer to slide 2 of the presentation available on our website, where we note that today's comments will include forward-looking statements that are based on our current expectations. Actual results may differ materially due to several risks and uncertainties, including those described in our 2025 annual report on Form 10-K and other recent SEC filings. Except where otherwise noted, the first quarter results we present this morning will be compared to the first quarter of 2025 and include certain non-GAAP financial measures.
The reconciliation of such measures to the most comparable GAAP figures are detailed in our press release and in the appendix of our presentation, both of which are available on our website. As previously communicated during our fourth quarter 2025 earnings call, going forward, ITT will include intangible amortization expenses related to acquisitions as a separate line item within the consolidated statement of operations and in its adjustments to earnings. In 2025, the impact of this reporting change on earnings per share was $0.13 in Q1 and $0.47 for the full year. All adjusted EPS figures presented going forward will be on this basis.
A full reconciliation of the impact of the revision to adjusted operating income and margin, income from continuing operations, and EPS for each quarter in 2025 and the full year can be found in the supplemental materials at the end of our presentation available on our website. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Luca, who will begin on slide 3.
Thank you, Charlene, and good morning. Before I begin, I want to recognize our employees across ITT for delivering a very strong start to the year. In particular, our Middle East teams who delivered despite the ongoing conflict, the supply chain disruptions, and the challenges this has represented to their professional and personal lives. Thank you. In Q1, we demonstrated solid momentum across the portfolio, thanks to the disciplined execution and the tangible benefits of our M&A strategy. We delivered outstanding orders growth, above-market revenue expansion, and robust earnings, exemplified by our 25% EPS growth in the quarter. We are truly pumped up. Here are some highlights. We grew orders 26% at 8% organically. We grew revenue 33% and 11% organically. We expanded margin by 130 basis points. We delivered 25% adjusted EPS growth.
I'm also encouraged by SPX Flow's strong start. In month one, we already produced net earnings, cash accretion, and promising top-line growth. This is all included in our newly formed Flow Technologies segment that now combines Industrial Process and SPX Flow. This was an outstanding quarter. Let's dive into the details. We grew revenue 33% and 11% organically, with all businesses contributing. CCT, up 17%, grew industrial connector sales by 27% and aerospace and defense by nearly 20%. We're already benefiting from the Boeing price negotiation closed last year. MT increased revenue by 15% and 5% organically in an automotive market down 3% as friction outperformed global vehicle production by more than 1,400 basis points. To top it off, Flow Technologies revenue was up 61% or 12% organically.
The team delivered higher project sales, including from Svanehøj, which were up 44%. Well done, Glenn. Show cycle also grew 10% due to market share gains in all product categories. On orders, ITT grew 26% and 8% organically in Q1, showing broad strength across our segments. CCT grew 10% organically on the back of strong aerospace demand and market share gains in industrial connectors. In Flow Technologies, we delivered 44% orders growth and 7% organically, driven by share gains in show cycle, including baseline pumps, aftermarket, and valves, up 24%, continues to benefit from a GLP-1 project that keeps expanding in scope. Friction continued to gain market share with significant platform awards, including in the high-performance segment. Last but not least, our book-to-bill was 1.09.
We delivered equally strong margin expansion of 130 basis points, with all businesses contributing. Flow Technologies delivered 23.7% operating margin, up 100 basis points, thanks to significant contributions from volume and, to a lesser extent, price. At 21.1%, MT delivered 130 basis point margin progression as productivity and volume growth more than offset price pressure. Finally, CCT expanded margin to 19.3% as volume growth and price both contributed. Moving to capital deployment. On March 2, we closed the SPX Flow acquisition 1 month ahead of schedule and with a leverage ratio comfortably below 3 at 2.7. The newly created Flow Technologies segment boasts nearly $3 billion in revenue and is a global flow leader with premier brands in pumps, valves, mixers, and other process solutions.
On the first day, the entire ITT leadership team actively participated in person to town hall meetings around the world with SPX FLOW employees. We laid out our vision and our expectations and answered questions from highly engaged employees. I was fortunate enough to be in Delavan, Wisconsin, together with Rudy, our Waukesha Cherry-Burrell leader. I was encouraged by what I saw in the plant, by the enthusiasm of the local team, by their deep knowledge of the business, and their openness to do better and to do more. I also experienced this enthusiasm with Wendy, our Mixing Solutions leader, at our two other sites in Rochester, New York, and Palmyra, Pennsylvania. Their team has been working hard to improve material flows and overall equipment efficiency. Bartek, Wendy, Rudy, and I also share future growth plans.
While still early in the year, I'm heartened by the orders and sales growth we delivered in the first quarter to achieve high single-digit revenue growth for 2026. When it comes to synergies, the Flow Technologies team has been hard at work identifying and implementing actions to secure the $80 million cost synergies. We've executed the first tranche related to corporate G&A cost reductions, and we're on track to deliver a third of the total synergies in year one. We're also working hard to deliver commercial synergies. Last week, the Waukesha Cherry-Burrell business of SPX won its first order for an ITT Bornemann twin screw pump. Well done, Rudy and team. Rodolfo, I expect more. Finally, as part of our capital allocation strategy, we continue to cultivate and be active on smaller-sized M&A opportunities.
In addition, in March, we also deployed $100 million towards share repurchases. Moving on to guidance. Today, we initiate on the new basis our full-year adjusted EPS guidance with a range of $7.70-$8.00, up 9% at the midpoint. We're guiding to 37% revenue growth and 5% organic growth at the midpoint with a book-to-bill above 1. We expect SPX Flow to contribute low teens net adjusted EPS accretion. This guidance builds on the profitable growth ITT has delivered over several years. Let us review our top-line growth trajectory since 2023 on slide 4. Over the past 3 years, we have delivered outstanding top-line growth with orders and revenue up over 9% on average every year.
We expect this strong growth trend to continue in 2026, bolstered by market share gains in our legacy businesses and the contribution of SPX FLOW. In CCT, for example, as defense spending ramps up, we've been awarded large multi-year contracts like F-35 and RSS in the U.S. and ground vehicles, radar, and precision-guided systems in Europe. We're well-positioned to capture a significant portion of the incremental future spend out of our Weinstadt facility in Germany. During my recent visit there, I sat down with our project managers who are collaborating with European contractors on the development of customized connectors for new defense applications. Well done, Marco and Junaid, on fostering this level of customer intimacy.
In MT, our KONI business grew more than 30% over the last 3 years to become a $200 million platform for growth and the shock absorber leader for high-speed trains in China. Our friction business continues to counter platforms and win market share, as demonstrated by the Q1 friction OE outperformance of over 1,400 basis points. At the end of last year, friction reached 32% of the global auto OE market, the share gain journey continues. Flow Technologies has been growing at a 15% revenue CAGR since 2023, in addition to the 12% organic growth and the 61% total revenue growth in Q1 this year. We continue to differentiate our flawless project execution, as demonstrated by Svanehøj's growth of 44% with the book-to-bill over 1.2.
Moving to backlog, we have nearly doubled it in the last 3 years. It will continue to grow in 2026 as we strive towards a book-to-bill above 1 this year as well. With that, let me now turn the call over to Emmanuel to discuss Q1 results in detail on slide 5.
Thank you and good morning. As Luca highlighted, we kicked off the year with a very strong quarter. In Q1, we delivered outstanding growth across the business in orders, revenue, margin, and EPS. Our teams delivered $1.2 billion in revenue, up 33% in total and 11% organically. CCT grew 17% organically, fueled by strength in aerospace and defense and industrial, which were up approximately 20%. We're also realizing the benefit of the Boeing contract renewal. Flow Technologies grew 61% in total and 12% organically, driven by strong project shipments, including Svanehøj, which is up 44%, and short cycle market share gains, especially in valves, which is up 19%. MT grew 5% organically, a significant achievement in a down market.
Friction OE outperformed global automotive production by over 1,400 basis points, with all regions above 1,000 basis points. SPX FLOW added 17 points of growth to ITT. On profitability, operating income grew 42% and margin expanded 130 basis points, primarily driven by strong operational performance in our legacy businesses and the SPX FLOW contribution. MT operating income grew 22% for a margin of 21.1% as the team drove net productivity of 220 basis points. Flow Technologies expanded margin 100 basis points to 23.7%, driven by price and volume leverage. CCT delivered 20% income growth to a margin of 19.3%, driven by aerospace volume growth and Boeing contract benefits. As previously stated, intangible amortization expense related to acquisitions is now excluded from adjusted operating income, including in the segments.
EPS of $1.98 on the new basis was up an outstanding 25% versus the prior year. You will note the immediate net accretion of the SPX FLOW acquisition. Lastly, free cash flow of $14 million was impacted by $71 million of one-time acquisition-related expenses. Excluding these impacts, free cash flow was up 10% year-over-year. Let's now turn to the Q1 EPS bridge on slide 6. The 25% EPS growth was primarily driven by strong operational performance delivered by all businesses, compounded by the month 1 net contribution of SPX FLOW. Included in the SPX FLOW contribution is income from operations partially offset by the higher interest expense and tax rate, as well as the dilution from the December equity issuance and the equity given to Lone Star as part of the acquisition consideration.
There were 4 additional working days in Q1 versus the prior year that will be reabsorbed in Q4. Finally, we continue to invest in strategic programs such as VIDAR, Flaara, our friction high-performance segment, and the Geopad to sustain growth for the long term. On to slide 8 to discuss our 2026 outlook. With the SPX FLOW acquisition closed, we are now initiating our full year outlook. We expect 37% total revenue growth and 5% organic at the midpoint, driven by aerospace and defense demand, strength in both flow projects and short cycle, and continued friction OE outperformance following an outstanding Q1. Contribution from previous acquisitions continue to be ahead of expectations. We expect to de-deliver roughly 70 basis points of margin expansion to approximately 20% at the midpoint, fueled by top line growth, favorable price costs, and productivity gains.
We expect SPX FLOW to deliver high single-digit revenue growth in 2026 and net adjusted EPS accretion in the low teens. Cost synergies are expected to be approximately $15 million in 2026. Regarding the Middle East, as a reminder, our overall exposure to the region is approximately 4% of total revenue, and the conflict had minimal impact in our Q1 results. Finally, on cash, we expect to generate free cash flow of roughly $560 million at the midpoint, resulting in a free cash flow margin between 10% and 11%. Let's move to slide 9 to finish with the EPS outlook detail. As you can see, the 9% EPS growth at the midpoint, much like Q1, will come from our differentiated execution comprised of above-market growth and productivity savings compounded by the SPX FLOW accretion.
The SPX FLOW contribution is net of higher ex-interest expense due to the $2.9 billion debt we contracted in March, as well as a higher combined tax rate of 24.9%. It also includes a projected 90 million share count over the next 3 quarters. We will continue to invest part of the incremental profit generated to fund long-term growth initiatives. I'd now like to briefly discuss our Q2 outlook. EPS is expected to be up high single digits in Q2 compared to the prior year. We anticipate organic revenue growth in the mid-single digits with Flow Technologies in the low double digits organically, CCT in the mid-single digits, and NT in the low single digits. Operating margin should extend by around 50 basis points compared to the prior year, and approximately 20%.
Interest expense is expected to increase meaningfully due to the acquisition of SPX Flow. I'll now turn the call over to Luca to wrap up on slide 10.
Thanks, Emmanuel. Few points before Q&A. As you can see, we are pumped up for 2026. Our legacy business is firing on all cylinders. In Q1, we delivered 13% orders growth, 16% revenue growth, and continued margin expansion. SPX Flow provided a boost with 5% orders growth in Q1, 14% revenue growth, and a fast start in synergy capture. This is our strategy in action. Organic value creation through market share gains and relentless execution driving sustained margin expansion compounded by M&A. This is the commitment we made during our Capital Markets Day. It remains our commitment today. We do what we say. Q1 proves it. This is ITT. Before opening the line for Q&A, there is one more thing that I would like to share. It's made even more bittersweet by the great results that we share with you all today.
Emmanuel, our CFO for the last six years and my partner here at ITT for almost 14 years, has told me that he's ready to take a break and will be leaving the company. Dear Emmanuel, thank you for everything you've done. As I told you, in the last 14 years, I probably spent more time with you than with my wife. I do not know if this says more about our partnership or about my marriage. It has been a fantastic ride, full of challenges and achievements. I have so many memories from the very first day we met. You have always been there on my side in the perform and in the transform journey, and we transformed this company indeed. In these 14 years, you made us better. I always knew I could count on you.
You have been a real thought partner, a co-pilot to discuss with, to work with, to debate, agree, disagree with, a real partner to bond with. In these 14 years, you made me much, much better. I'm so grateful as I was very fortunate to have found you that day in Milan and work with you side by side for 14 years. Emmanuel will stick around in an advisory role until the end of June, helping to ensure a seamless transition for us. Michael Savinelli, Vice President, Treasurer, Chief Tax Officer, and Assistant Secretary, has been appointed to serve as interim CFO. Thanks, Mike. To the people connected to our call, thank you for joining us today. As always, I appreciate your time and continued interest in ITT. Kathy, please open the line for Q&A.
Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. At this time, if you do have a question or a comment, please press star 11 on your touchtone phone. If your question has been answered, you may remove yourself by again pressing star 11. Again, we do ask that while you pose your question, you pick up your handset to provide optimal sound quality. Please limit your questions to one question and one follow-up. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Joe Giordano. Your line is now open.
Hey, guys. Good morning.
Hi, Joe. Good morning.
Yeah, Emmanuel, I know you don't like the spotlight, you know, you've been a great partner for all these years, I think we're all sad to see you go. Best of luck to you in the next.
Thank you, Joe.
Let's start. Luca, you never know everything about a deal, I guess, until you own it. As SPX came into the portfolio, what was like a pleasant surprise to you versus what your initial views were? Was there anything there that you kind of realized, all right, maybe we have a little bit more work to do. Maybe this was a little different than what we thought.
That's, this is very true, Joe Giordano. I think that, don't forget that we cultivated the SPX FLOW for three years. We visited all the plants, we went deep dive on the due diligence. We really have met many people and, therefore, we were able to find many things before the acquisition. I would say one thing that surprised me even more positively as I've been able to walk the plant, to talk to the people on the shop floor, for example, in Delavan, is to see the commitment and engagement of our workforce in the Delavan plant, in the Rochester plant, in the Palmyra plant in Pennsylvania.
The engagement of the workforce on the shop floor is something that I was able to experience, and that definitely surprised me positively. I also was positively surprised by the growth potential that we have on the revenue synergies. We work hard on those. It's going to take more time because those are revenue synergies, but definitely they are there and more, and these are opportunities. Same on the cost side. I think that all of those is good, and you start seeing good in the results. Good orders growth 5%, revenue growth 15%, accretive to EPS, good pipeline visibility, and moving fast on the synergies. I think that from a cultural point of view, similar, but, you know, there are aspects that they do differently that both of us, we will have to adjust.
Yeah. Then maybe, your defense business has been doing great for a while now. If we have a larger trend here over the next several months towards like an ending of global hostilities, does that create any sort of potential air pockets for you anywhere?
No, we don't, we don't see that, Joe. I think that we have a portfolio that is broad in defense, and so we are on a lot of different applications. There's a lot of defense modernization. There's a large defense modernization trend that is happening both in the U.S. and in Europe. We think that this is here to stay, and this is a long-term trend.
Thanks, guys.
Thank you, Joe.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Julian Mitchell with Barclays. Your line is now open.
Oh, yes. Hi, good morning, and thanks very much, and wish you all the best, Emmanuel. If we think about the first question really around the selling days dynamics, sorry for the fiddly question, but maybe help us understand, you know, how much of a contribution that was to sales or EPS in the first quarter, and how we should think about the seasonality of EPS over the balance of the year as that selling days tailwind goes into reverse.
Yeah, Julian. The contribution of the additional 4 selling days was around 5%, 5 points of growth in the quarter from a revenue standpoint, and then a little less than $0.10 from an EPS standpoint in Q1. When we think about the cadence of EPS, I would say that the next few quarters are gonna be, you know, around the $1.90 to $1.95 EPS for Q2, Q3, and Q4.
That's really helpful. Thank you. Then my follow-up would just be around, if we're thinking about operating margins kind of, you know, moving around a lot year-over-year. You know, I think you guided up 50 basis points in Q2. They were up over 100 in Q1, and you've got a pretty wide margin guide range for the year as a whole. Maybe is there any phasing of investment spend to be aware of in the year? What are you assuming for the Flow acquired operating margin for the year as a whole, including those synergies you mentioned, please?
Yeah. I would say that from an operating margin standpoint, we expect continued progression during the year, and this is because of obviously, the productivity improvements that we're driving in all the businesses, as well as some of the price actions that we're taking, and that will have a full impact starting in Q2. As you've come to expect of ITT, we drive margin progression year-over-year. That is really key to our success. From an SPX Flow standpoint, we expect we had a really strong margin in Q1.
The reason for that is that we only had the month of March in there, March had 5 weeks, which is unusually large, so disproportionate impact in the quarter. We don't expect that margin to be the same in Q2, Q3, and Q4. However, we do expect that margin will continuously improve as we roll out our productivity plan as well as our growth initiatives.
That's great. Thank you.
Thanks, Julian.
We're ready for the next call.
Yes.
Got it.
Your next question comes to the line of Jeff Hammond with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is now open.
Hey, good morning, everyone.
Hi, Jeff.
Best of luck to Emmanuel. We're sad to hear you're leaving. As it sounds like, Luca, you are too. Just staying on SPX FLOW, can you dig in a little more on, you know, the order trends in that business just from a market standpoint? Then it seems like, you know, shorter term, you may be getting some early revenue synergies, but, you know, just the opportunities around, you know, leaning in on commercial excellence and starting to drive out growth. I think, you know, one of the early concerns with the acquisition was the legacy growth rate and how do you accelerate that? Thanks.
Sure. Thanks, Jeff. When you look at the orders growth, was a good order growth of 5%. Now, when that is overall for SPX FLOW in the quarter. When you look at the different businesses, you have Waukesha Cherry-Burrell, our engineered pumps, their orders were up double-digit. Nutrition and Health Solution, their orders were up 3%, Mixers up 7, and the pumps up 2. All the different businesses were up actually in terms of orders. And all of the four businesses were up also in revenue, with the Nutrition and Health and Waukesha double-digit, and Mixer and pump in the low single-digit. Overall, 15%, okay? We expect also the book-to-bill for the full year to be above 1 for SPX FLOW.
This is very similar to what we said at the very beginning because during the due diligence, we saw that pipeline, and we believe in this growth. This, to be honest, has got nothing to do with ITT. This is the good work that the SPX FLOW employees have done since nothing really has changed during the month of March. If you top this off together with our approach, you know, going after the 100%, not the 80/20, be more granular and be more decentralized, I will expect the performance to continue to improve.
Okay, great. Just from a modeling standpoint, Emmanuel, you gave kind of the organic trends in 2Q by segment, but how should we think about that within the 4-6? Just on the tax rate, is there an opportunity to bring that down over time? That was a little bit of a surprise that the tax rate's going up. Thanks.
For the full year, Jeff, we expect both IP and CCT to lead the charge from a organic growth standpoint in the high single digits. Motion Technologies is in the low single digits for the full year because obviously there's a decline in the automotive production and friction is really outperforming very, very nicely as we saw in Q1. You know, nonetheless, there's a global production that is down. From a tax rate standpoint, today we stand at almost 25% at 24.9. This is the impact, this is directly the impact of SPX FLOW.
Mike and the team will work on tax opportunities in order to bring that tax rate down, but I think with limited impact in 2026 and more to come in the years after.
Okay. Thank you.
Thanks, Jeff.
Thank you. Your next question comes to the line of Nathan Jones with Stifel. Your line is now open.
Good morning, everyone. I'll add my best wishes to Emmanuel.
Morning, Nathan.
First question here on CCT margins. It seems over the, you know, last few years, you guys have done the work on improving the value proposition to customers there. I mean, I'm talking outside of the aerospace stuff. Improving the productivity, improving the on-time delivery. I guess my question is about value-based pricing in CCT and where you are in that process outside of the commercial OEM stuff, and how much do you think that could contribute to margins over the next, you know, two or three years?
Thanks, Nathan. This is fair. I think that price has been also a good tailwind when you look at CCT in the last couple of years, exactly for the reason that you said. The price negotiation with Boeing that we closed last year is an actual proof of what you just said. Having said that, I think that there is more to do on the pricing on the CCT front, this is what the team is working on. I would say the largest opportunity, to be fair, Nathan, is probably in Casaria. I think that Casaria is providing a great service to our customers, I think that there is more to be done specifically in that part of CCT.
I guess, follow-up question. I'm always interested in revenue synergies out of this kind of deal. I'm sure there is a lot of plans going on there. I know they take longer to generate, I'm not gonna ask you what they contribute to 2026. Maybe if you could just provide a little bit more color on the things that you're working on, where you see the opportunities to generate revenue synergies and kind of if you have any target over time of what that could add to the overall growth for ITT. Thanks.
Sure. Let's try to be specific. When I was in Delevan together with Rudy, and we were on the shop floor, going around, we know that the Waukesha Cherry-Burrell doesn't have the twin screw pumps. As a matter of fact, we were spending money in Cherry, in Waukesha, to really develop a new twin screw pumps. We did the assessment. Bornemann twin screw pumps are super good, very well recognized in the market, therefore, you know, Waukesha will sell Bornemann twin screw pumps. That was just a small order that we had, it's a start. Not only that we start selling, we will also localize our production of the twin screw in our plant in Delevan.
That is a specific activity that I'm sure will deliver quite a bit of synergies. Latin America, on the mixing front, Nico, who's our leader in Latin America, is working hard together with the leaders of the different units from SPX Flow. I'm sure that as we localize more the decision-making, we speed it up the decision and the action in the region, Latin America, and we get more intimate with the customers just be the fact that we are there. That will provide, you know, good revenue synergies. The Middle East is another area where we're working on, but as you can imagine, that probably at this point in time is more planning and discussion.
There are potential synergies happening just because now we have a base in Xidu, Shanghai, where we never had a plant before in the local, in the legacy Flow Technologies, in the legacy AP, and a plant in Poland, where we never had in Europe a low-cost base manufacturing. We are working hard on all those fronts, Nathan.
Thanks for taking the questions.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes to the line of Vladimir Bystricky with Citigroup. Your line is now open.
Morning, guys. Thanks for taking my call. I echo the sentiment, congratulations, Emmanuel. We'll miss working with you, tremendously, obviously.
Thank you.
I guess my first question, just when I look at the organic growth outlook for the year, the +4% to +6%, it seems very consistent with what you were thinking coming into the year. Can you talk about whether there's been any sort of moving pieces underneath that, businesses or regions that are trending better or worse, versus 3 months ago? I guess specifically, whether you're baking in any incremental headwinds in the Middle East associated with conflict there.
Sure. No, no major, no major change from what we were expecting, Vladimir Bystricky. Now, as a matter of fact, sure, the Middle East is something to watch. Now just to give you a perspective of the Middle East, which is 4% of total year revenue, we have an input in Q, in Q2, but the input in Q2 is probably less than 1% of the ITT revenue. It's probably between 0.5 and 0.7 of the sales when it comes to the Middle East. I think that there is a very strong performance in the short cycle when you look at the spare parts, the baseline, I want to tell that growth is not nominal growth. That is real growth. This is volume growth.
There was a little bit of price, but that was minimum. The connectors industrial sales, both with the OEM and distribution, those, Vlad, those are market share gains in flow and also on the connector side.
That's really helpful, Luca. I guess just following up on that one on the industrial connectors. You know, when you talk about market share gains there, can you give us any more color on, you know, what specific end markets or verticals, you're seeing share gains, and any notable regional differences to call out there?
I think that there is a very good performance on the in Asia Pacific, where the team has worked really hard on the medical side. Medical has been growing incredibly hard. Also on the HVOR. Asia Pacific and China has been definitely a good tailwind. Whereas I would say when you look at Europe on the others front, is really working hard on the defense because of the defense ramp up that is happening in Europe. In North America, you have really the distribution is wider, so it will be difficult to really pointing out to any specific market.
Got it. Thanks. I'll hop back in queue.
Thanks, Vlad.
Thank you. Your next question comes to the line of Brad Hewitt with Wolfe Research. Your line is now open.
Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions.
Hi, Brad.
Good morning.
You mentioned that your friction business outgrew auto build by 1,400 basis points during the quarter. Curious if you expect that outgrowth versus builds to compress through the rest of the year, or could there perhaps be upside this year to the typical algorithm of 400-500 basis points of outgrowth?
I would say, listen, this is an exceptional performance and allowed us in a market that was down 3.4 in the quarter actually to grow. Show the resilience of the team, the resilience of the business. I would say for the time being, this is only one quarter. I would say we stick to our usually forecast of an outperformance between 500 and 700 basis points for the full year. What I really like about this outperformance was that it was spread, it was in every region. It was in China, it was in Europe, where we already had a high market share, and was also in North America.
Last but not least is, you know, we won 39 platforms, electrified platforms in the quarter, which will speed, you know, future market share gains. Whilst production will be down this year to 91 million vehicles, the production of hybrid and the production of EV will actually grow double digits, and this is where we are particularly strong.
Okay, great. As we think about at the total company level, can you walk through your assumptions for the year in terms of the net price cost equation as well as some of the moving pieces related to tariffs and material inflation? Thank you.
Sure. On the price cost, you really have the usual dynamic in terms of you have a very good price cost equation when it comes to IP and CCT, because we've got more pricing power, less so in Motion Technologies where we feel, you know, the price pressure. Overall, for the full year at ITT, the price cost is gonna be positive. When you look at the tariff, the situation is very fluid. I'm pretty sure the next few weeks it's gonna be different what it is today. We are actively pursuing any opportunity to recover any tariffs that we already paid, but we think that process will be long and who knows how it's gonna pan out.
What I would like to highlight is that as we demonstrated in 2025, we were able to offset all the tariffs with commercial and productivity actions. We think that that will be a similar scenario in 2026.
Great. Thanks, Luca.
Thanks, Brad.
Thank you. Your next que- at Summerville with D.A. Davidson, your line is now open.
Thanks. Echo similar sentiment, Emmanuel. Just 2 quick ones for me. Can you talk about the core sort of Industrial Process funnel as you look ahead relative to maybe what you were seeing 90 days ago or a year ago, whatever makes sense to drive the most informed sort of comparison as to how that's evolving? I have a follow-up.
Sure, Matt. The funnel is very healthy, is elevated, and is actually up year-over-year, Matt. It's also up sequentially too. What is interesting is that if you want to go a little bit more granular and you look at the region, I would say the region where the funnel is up the most is North America. Which is interesting because this is where we had our largest orders growth in North America. Despite that, this funnel is up tremendously, which tells us something about the replenishment speed of the opportunity in North America. The funnel is down when you look at Europe and the Middle East for obvious reasons, because all the commercial conversation, the investment that we had with Saudi Aramco, for example, all of those are frozen.
We expect those to start quickly if, you know, the situation normalize.
Thank you. I was wondering if you could help sort of cadence out the flow accretion you expect for the year. If we were at $0.04 in Q1, obviously you're assuming something more conservative on the look ahead out 3 quarters. Maybe help me understand kind of the logic behind that. Maybe it's just conservatism, ultimately how we should be thinking about that cadence.
Yeah. When you think about Q1, you know, as I mentioned, in Q1, you have an outsized contribution from SPX Flow. The reason for this is because basically March is so disproportionate compared to the rest of the quarter. Then you also have less interest expense as well as a smaller share count. As, you know, you ramp that in Q2, Q3, and Q4, you get your interest that increases roughly by $30 million a quarter. You get your share count that goes to 90 million shares. As a result, SPX Flow continues to deliver really strong performance, but is kind of impacted by these variables and the normalizing of the fact that we don't have just 1 month with 5 weeks.
I would say, we continue the progression of the performance of SPX FLOW from a growth standpoint, as Luca said, but also from a margin standpoint.
Preparing the ground for further productivity as we hit 2027, including cost synergies.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you, Matt.
Thank you. Your last question comes to the line of Scott Davis with Melius Research. Your line is now open.
Hey, good morning. It's Jake on for Scott.
Yes.
Congrats on getting the SPX deal across the goal line and, congrats, Emmanuel, as well. We appreciate all your help over the years, and hopefully you'll be on the beach in a few months with a nice Cabernet or actually, I don't know what your drink is, but. Just on the Middle East, you made a few comments on that, but I'd have to imagine when you start turning on some of this production that's been shut in, you're gonna add a lot of valves and pumps and other products that probably won't work as they should, and to say nothing of some of the infrastructure that's been destroyed.
I guess, is there a way to think about what the upside might be on the other side of this conflict?
Yeah. What you said is absolutely true. I think that we expect that the investment that was supposed to happen, the conversation to start super quick, and then there should be some good service work that comes out of it. This is where our team, headed by, you know, Kalim in, by Khaled and by Hamdi to be able to perform because the service business is actually very, very good. The Saudi expansion that we made will be perfect at that time. One thing I also want to remind is the incredible performance also that we had of our Habonim valves in Israel.
As, despite what's going on and the war, this business has been able actually to grow orders despite the war, to grow revenue despite the war. Sure, we had the pressure on the margin because the cost of the containers, because of the transportation, et cetera, and the disruption on the operations, as you can imagine. A great performance from the Habonim team over there in the Middle East as well.
Okay. That's a good color. Thanks. Just on a different topic, I was surprised to hear you mention small bolt-on deals on the call, just given all you have on your plate with SPX and seemed like a very deliberate comment, but I'm not sure if that's an indication that maybe there's some deals in your pipeline that you feel are actionable. Do you feel like you have the organizational capacity to be able to take on those?
Sure
some more from here?
Sure. Yes, Jake. Yes, we do. When you think about the SPX FLOW, it involves our business units that are self-standing. The pumps of SPX FLOW, of course, will be integrated well with our pumps business. There are area where the business and the business leader are running very well. They got the capacity to really add to it. Think about Sulzer. Sulzer is performing incredibly well, 44% revenue growth, book-to-bill of 1.2. You know, the fundamentals are strong. They've been practically untouched by the SPX FLOW acquisition. That management team, that business have the capacity to really do a little bit more. This is also why we kept that ratio to 2.7, to really have that flex, that flexibility.
We got the financial capacity to do small bolt-ons and also the management capacity. Obviously, they're gonna be small in size, right? You know, nothing large.
Okay. I appreciate it, Luca. Thank you. I'll pass it on.
Thank you, Jake.
Thank you. This is today's teleconference. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.