ACCO Brands (NYSE:ACCO) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

0:00 Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to Acco Brands First Quarter twenty twenty six Earnings Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. I will now hand the conference over to Christopher McGinnis, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to the Acco Brands conference call to review our first quarter twenty twenty six results. Speaking on the call today is Tom Tedford, President, Chief Executive Officer of Acco Brands and Deb O'Connor, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Slides that accompany this call have been posted to the Investor Relations section of accobrands.com.

0:46 When speaking about our results, we may refer to adjusted results. Adjusted results exclude amortization and restructuring costs, non cash goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges, bargain purchase gain, and other non recurring items and unusual tax items and include adjustments to reflect the estimated annual tax rate on quarterly earnings. Schedules of adjusted results and other non GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are in the earnings release and slides that accompany this call. Due to the inherent difficulty in forecasting and quantifying certain amounts, we do not reconcile our forward looking non GAAP financial measures.

1:33 Forward looking statements made during the call are based on the beliefs and assumptions of management based on information available to us at the time the statements are made. Our forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and our actual results could differ materially. Please refer to our earnings release and SEC filings for an explanation of certain risk factors and assumptions. Our forward looking statements are made as of today, and we assume no obligation to update them going forward. Now, I will turn the call over to Tom Tedford. Thank you, Chris. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for Acco Brands first quarter earnings call. Last night, we reported first quarter results with sales and adjusted EPS above our outlook.

2:20 We also reiterated full year guidance. We are pleased with the strong start to the year and the results indicate we are executing well on our key operational and strategic initiatives. First quarter consolidated sales grew 8%, higher than our expectations driven by favorable comparable sales and better first quarter performance from the Epos acquisition. Additionally, as expected, exchange had a significant positive impact on revenue in the quarter. In the Americas segment, sales growth was driven by favorable currency translation, computer accessories, and the Epos acquisition. Sales for computer accessories within the segment were strong, reflecting new products and a meaningful end user pipeline.

3:09 In North America, early purchases of back to school products were better than anticipated. While it is still early, we are confident in the upcoming back to school season due to increased listings and the absence of order cancellations due to tariffs in the prior year. For the season, we are expecting back to school sales to be flat to up low single digits. Sales of office products were down across the segment, but the rate of decline improved. In Latin America, sales improved due to a combination of a change in go to market strategies and new products. Turning to the international segment, sales growth of 15% was driven by favorable currency translation and the EPOS acquisition, which I'll discuss in more detail shortly.

3:58 The rate of decline improved in the quarter reflecting the positive impact of price, broad based improvement in core category demand, and favorable mix. Our overall strategy remains focused on expanding our product range in faster growing categories with an emphasis on technology peripherals. Our target for 2026 is for peripherals to grow to represent 25% of the company's projected revenue. In support of our strategy, our acquisition of Epos was completed in the first quarter. We are excited about the potential of this addition to Acco Brands. The integration is on track with expected 2026 sales of approximately $80,000,000 over eleven months of the year and a modest contribution to profit.

4:51 As a result of the acquisition, Yefe Dahlberg Lawson, the president of EPOS, will now lead technology peripherals for Acco Brands. Yefe has over twenty years of experience leading technology peripheral businesses and is a strong operator who will drive our growth initiatives. This change in leadership is another step to better position Acco Brands to execute on our strategy of expanding our global market shares and enhancing our product portfolio and technology peripherals through organic and inorganic initiatives in these large and growing categories. Pivoting to gaming accessories, the global gaming market faced headwinds in the first quarter from broad industry challenges and softer consumer spending. Our Power A brand is well positioned to capitalize on two significant catalysts that we believe will improve performance throughout the year.

5:44 The continued adoption of Nintendo Switch two consoles by the consumer and the expected fourth quarter release of Grand Theft Auto six. Additionally, our product pipeline is robust as we are expanding our gaming portfolio to include simulation as well as a revamped audio offering. Our leading product portfolio, the important work we do with OEMs, and our strong channel partnerships give us confidence in the back half of the year. In computer accessories, The Americas delivered solid sales growth. In the international segment, sales were down versus the prior year as we comped a large government order in The UK in 2025. Normalized computer accessory sales in the segment were up modestly year over year.

6:35 We have an expansive range of new products and an improving pipeline throughout 2026 that will support our growth objectives. Transitioning to our cost optimization work, we continue to execute on our cost reduction and footprint optimization program. We remain on track to achieve the $100,000,000 cost reduction target by the end of the year. Some of our projected savings, however, may be offset by rising costs due to the ongoing conflict in The Middle East. We anticipate fuel costs and certain raw materials to increase globally with the impact weighted towards the back half of the year. The company is carefully monitoring the situation and has taken appropriate steps to mitigate these potential impacts. We have considered these developments in our guidance, however, recognize this is a dynamic situation that is evolving daily.

7:27 While consumers and some customers may be more conservative in the near term due to economic uncertainties, our tight cost controls and growth initiatives give us confidence in the year. In summary, I am pleased with our first quarter results. I am proud of our strong execution against our value enhancing initiatives and the progress we are making on our strategy to transform Acco Brands into a more focused, efficient and growth oriented company. I will come back to answer your questions. Now let me turn the call over to Deb. Thank you, Tom, and good morning, everyone. As Tom mentioned, first quarter sales and adjusted EPS were above outlook. Comparable sales improved with a better mix of product sales as well as back to school order timing earlier than anticipated.

8:18 Reported sales in the first quarter increased 8% with comparable sales down less than 3%. Growth in the quarter was driven by FX and the Apos acquisition. Comparable sales reflect growth in Latin America and computer accessories in The Americas, as well as lower declines in several core categories. Gross profit for the first quarter was $107,000,000 an increase of 7% with the margin rate of 31.1%, down 30 basis points. The margin rate decline was attributable to lower priced product mix. Adjusted SG and A expense of $95,000,000 is up modestly to the prior year, with the increase largely due to unfavorable FX and the EPOS acquisition significantly offset by cost savings.

9:16 Adjusted operating income for the first quarter was $12,000,000 up 5,000,000 versus the prior year, reflecting cost savings somewhat mitigated by organic volume declines. Before turning to segment results, let me provide some detail on the bargain purchase gain related to our acquisition of EPOS. This $38,000,000 gain represents the purchase price of EPOS compared to the preliminary fair market value of the business, which is primarily from working capital. As Tom mentioned, the integration of EPOS is on track and our outlook includes $80,000,000 of 2026 sales with a slightly higher gross profit rate than our consolidated average and neutral to adjusted EPS.

10:09 We remain on track to deliver the outlined $15,000,000 in cost synergies in twelve to eighteen months. We recorded $7,000,000 in restructuring charges, primarily related to this acquisition, most of which will be paid out in the next year. Let's turn to our segment results for the first quarter. In the Americas segment, sales were up 3% with comparable sales down 2%. We had good growth in computer accessories and in Latin America, which was offset by our core office products. The early purchase of back to school products was comparable to last year, and we expect the full season to be up modestly.

10:56 The Americas adjusted operating income was $13,000,000 in the first quarter, up approximately 3,000,000 with the margin rate improving 140 basis points to 7.2%. The margin rate improvement was driven by cost savings. In the international segment for the first quarter, sales were up 15% with comparable sales down approximately 3%. The improvement in the rate of the decline in comparable sales was driven by new products. And we also saw increased purchases of office products due to the lower year end buying we highlighted in the fourth quarter. International adjusted operating income was $11,000,000 with the margin rate at 6.7% consistent to the prior year.

11:49 Free cash flow in the quarter was $1,400,000 comparable to last year and in line with our plan. Inventory was up $67,000,000 since the start of the year. Dollars 27,000,000 of that increase was related to EPOs, while the remaining increase was attributable to seasonal inventory build and higher tariff costs. During the quarter, we returned $7,000,000 to shareholders in the form of dividends. At quarter end, we had approximately $252,000,000 available for borrowing under our revolver and finished the quarter with a consolidated leverage ratio of 4.1 times. Now let's move to the outlook.

12:37 For 2026, we are reiterating our expectation for full year reported sales to be flat to up 3% and adjusted EPS to be within the range of $0.84 to $0.89 This outlook reflects a prudent sales expectation in the back half of the year, given the global environment. We also anticipate cost increases in the near term, which we have considered in our guidance. Free cash flow is expected to be within the range of 75,000,000 to $85,000,000 with approximately 25,000,000 in restructuring payments and $15,000,000 in CapEx. Lastly, we anticipate a consolidated leverage ratio within a range of 3.7 to 3.9 times.

13:28 For the second quarter, we expect reported sales to be up within a range of one to 4% with a lesser benefit from FX. We expect adjusted earnings per share to be within the range of $0.24 to $0.28 While the current environment remains dynamic, we are confident in the future of our company. We have no debt maturities until 2029 and a long history of productivity savings and cost management. Our strategy pivot is an exciting opportunity for Acco Brands to accelerate growth and potential value creation for our share owners. Now let's move on to Q and A, where Tom and I will be happy to answer your questions.

14:14 Operator? We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question. And if you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Your first question comes from the line of Greg Burns from Sidoti. Greg, your line is open. Please go ahead. Yes. So with the guidance for the year, given the strong first quarter, why wasn't there more flow through to the rest of the year? I know you talked about maybe some macro uncertainty, but why aren't we seeing maybe a little bit more of a flow through for the balance of the year? And then how much FX and acquisition related growth is baked into that flat to up three percent revenue for the year?

15:19 Hi, Greg. It's Deb. First of all, the first quarter for us is a pretty small quarter. As you know, we've typically had the bulk of our profits come in 2Q through the rest of the year. So it's always a difficult quarter to gauge your full year on. We're pleased with how we ended the first quarter, obviously. But in this environment and with all the global uncertainty with the Mideast and everything else, we just prudently left and reaffirmed our guidance for the full year. And that's where we sit. And if you look to the full year, we have about 5% still coming from the EPOS acquisition. So very consistently throughout all the quarters next year, foreign exchange is about a percent.

16:13 So this first quarter had 6%, future quarters have anywhere from 1% to kind of flattish. So we end the year with about a 1% impact. Okay, great. And then in terms of ePost, could you talk about the opportunities to expand that brand globally? The timing of maybe some of the initiatives you have around that? And also, could you just help us better understand Epos' position or position within the prior owners ownership like why wasn't the brand more successful and kind of growing into new markets?

17:04 Yeah hey Greg this is Tom good morning Let me address the first part of your question initially and then we can get into the second piece to the extent that we can. We are early in the integration process with ethos. We are very pleased with what we have learned so far and we certainly have growth synergies that we have targeted as a part of the acquisition thesis. We believe it is very complementary to our Kensington business. We recognize that it is a different product category. However, it likely goes through the same routes to market globally and we think there is opportunities as we look ahead to pair the product along with our robust Kensington portfolio to offer a one stop solution for enterprise attachments when laptops and desktops are deployed. We think there is some significant opportunities as we look ahead to drive growth.

18:02 Clearly we are focused at the moment on integration and delivering the synergies while maintaining the growth initiatives that we have in both businesses. I don't want to comment on the historical performance of ePost. It was under different ownership. I don't know, if it was a highly strategic element of the demand business and I don't want to, speculate as to why they struggled. I just want to reiterate to you that we feel very confident in the business and the products and frankly the leadership of the team that's why we've announced a change in leadership and a change in focus with our organizational structure and we have the update leading it so we're optimistic about the future we're excited about the brand and we look forward to positive business results from you post this year and beyond.

18:52 Great. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Joe Gomes from Noble Capital. Please go ahead. Good morning. Congrats on the quarter. Thank you, Joe. So just to follow-up on EPOS. I don't know, is there anything that you could point out that drove the segment outperforming expectations or did you just kind of go in with low expectations? I don't if there is anything you can point out there, provide a little more color on that ePost outperforming. Yeah that's a good question Joe. Candidly we weren't really sure the uncertainty of an acquired business and the potential disruptions in integration we just found it prudent to be careful with our guidance assumptions for the business. We are learning about it more and more. As I said earlier we are very optimistic about its contributions to our business this year and beyond.

19:52 But candidly it was just our lack of really visibility into their forecast given what we knew. We thought it was a prudent thing to do to be careful with the numbers that we included in our models. Okay. Thanks for that. Then maybe I don't know if you could provide any more color on the early back to school. It sounds like it's performing a little bit better than maybe people had initially anticipated. I don't if you can talk about inventories and what your customers are saying to you, kind of feedback you are getting from them on the whole back to school program. Okay. Yeah, it's early, Joe, obviously. We are in the process of shipping early orders which predominantly are direct import orders from Asia.

20:44 As we spoke in our prepared remarks, we believe the season is going to be up modestly. We feel good about our brands based on their performance last year in which ACCO Brands portfolio of brands took market share in The U. S. And in Canada. So we are optimistic about the season. We have good line of sight to the initial orders. They are at or better than our current forecast. Early indications are strong and we hope that the sell through isn't impacted by some of the uncertainties and potential inflation based on the conflict in The Middle East but given what we know today we feel very good about back to school this year Okay, great. Thanks. I will get back in queue Okay, Joe. Thank you Your next question comes from the line of Kevin Steinke from Barrington Research. You mentioned that you saw growth in Latin America and I know that region was a bit more challenged last year. You talked about consumers trading down, product choices, etcetera. But you mentioned that I think in your prepared remarks that you shifted your go to market strategy. So maybe can you comment on that a little bit more?

22:06 And did that contribute to the growth you saw in the first quarter? Yes, Kevin, good question. Latin America was a good performing part of our business in the first quarter this year and you are right we managed it well. We implemented changes to meet the consumer where they are. We recognize that it's a constrained environment in both Mexico and Brazil. We have adjusted our product assortment. We have adjusted our go to market strategies, our incentive plans for our sales reps, and we have adjusted pricing where it was appropriate. So the combination of the strategies that we deployed in the market at the back half of last year have better positioned our product assortment for growth.

22:52 We will continue to refine it as things continue to change, but we feel really good about where we are today in Latin America. Okay, great. And just following up on gaming accessories, you talked about the expectation of a stronger second half of twenty twenty six and the reasons why it makes sense. You did mention some industry challenges currently. Is that just related to software consumer spending? Or is there anything else that you would mention in terms of just the challenges you mentioned for the industry? Yes. We believe it's largely related to software consumer.

23:40 In the first quarter, if you think about the sequencing of car annual sales, a lot of it is reliant upon holiday. And holiday was relatively weak for gaming in Q4 which left some inventory opportunities for retailers which presented some challenges for us in Q1. But what I do feel good about is our brand. Our brand is taking share each month in the first three months of the quarter. We think we're well positioned as we discussed in our prepared remarks for the balance of the year. And candidly, we're excited about our new product assortment. So we think a lot of good things are in store for Power A in 2026. Okay, understood.

24:27 And as you mentioned, you're kind of factoring the potential for softening in customer demand, given the macroeconomic uncertainties, which makes sense to be prudent. But have you actually seen any noticeable signs of softening demand yet? Or is that just at this point just trying to be cautious given the environment? Yes. We haven't to date. We think if there is a challenge with demand it won't be felt until later in the year. And as Deb mentioned in her prepared remarks we have seen some early indications of some cost increases predominantly driven by fuel and we are taking the necessary steps internally to protect profitability and to position ourselves to deliver the year based on what we see today. But from a demand perspective, we have not seen pressures on demand yet.

25:40 Okay. So do you have planned price increases in the pipeline currently or just kind of monitoring the situation on the cost front? Yes, a good question. It is actually both. We do have some planned price increases that we are going to market in different geographies across the globe and we will continue to monitor the cost environment and we will take actions if necessary. Okay, makes sense. Thanks for taking the questions. Okay, Kevin. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of William Rauter from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

26:28 Good morning. My first one, clearly you guys had some tariff cash payments last year. Can you share with us the magnitude of those? And in the event that you do get a refund, guess, guess, have you applied for refunds? If you do get that, how would you allocate that cash? Yeah. So we have talked in the past about our claim and how we have put it forth and that we feel very comfortable with the amounts. And you know, we're talking somewhere in kind of the $25,000,000 range. We don't expect anything in 2026. And, you know, we'll we'll watch it as it goes. Okay.

27:14 And then on that not expecting anything in '26, is that based upon the status of your claim, whether it was liquidated or not liquidated, and the timing of what that may be? Because I think that there are a lot of signs that indicate some refunds may be be paid this year. So is it just conservatism on your point your part or based upon the the unique attributes of your claim, you just know it won't be this year? Yeah. You know, it's interesting. I would say maybe a little bit of both. But, you know, to be paid this year, there's a lot that has to happen at the government and different places like that. So who knows to your point? And then we do have some claims that are a little more complicated that we anticipate coming in later.

28:04 Got it. That's helpful. And then, as you see things now, I know that you manufacture a portion of your products and you also have third parties that manufacture others. Is there any sort of, a sense for what the headwind based upon current oil prices may be this year in the back half? We have built our best thinking into our current guidance. That may be why you don't see us taking guidance up for the full year based on the over delivery in Q1. We have done our best to project what we think the impacts are going to be but as you know this has been a dynamic situation. We are optimistic that it ends relatively soon but we have taken into account a prolonged disruption based on the conflict in The Middle East and our guidance.

28:58 Got it. And then just lastly for me, is there anything any commentary about this computer peripherals growing to 25%? I'm not even sure what products you're including in that, but, any comments about the competitive dynamics of of, those categories? It would seem to me you may be going up against some big companies, but I'm certainly not, a tech, analyst. So anything you could share. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. Happy to. So technology peripherals, let's start there. It consists of our brands Kensington, PowerA, LucidSound and Epos. So it's not just computer accessories. It's computer and gaming products that we sell globally.

29:44 We think those are large TAMs, growing TAMs, and TAMs in which we have relatively small shares in. And so we think the dynamics for future growth are very positive. And we are working hard to position our brands to take market share in each market that we compete in globally. Got it. Okay. Will pass to others. Thank you. Thank you. At this time, there are no further questions. I will now turn the call over to Tom Tedford for closing remarks. Thank you everyone for joining us. We are pleased with our first quarter results and expect the combination of the EPOS acquisition, momentum from growth initiatives and positive foreign exchange to drive revenue improvement in 2026.

30:33 Our commitment to operational excellence through continued cost management and productivity programs position us to deliver improved profits and cash flow. With our optimized operational structure and momentum with leading brands, we have a strong platform to generate consistent free cash flow while strategically repositioning Acco Brands towards faster growing technology peripheral categories. I want to thank our dedicated team and recognize their efforts and congratulate them on a strong first quarter. We appreciate your interest in Acco Brands. I look forward to talking with you when we report our second quarter results in July. This concludes today's call. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect.