CVGI

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Transcript Summary

CVG’s Q1 2026 earnings call highlighted a strategic push toward higher-margin electrical systems and aggressive deleveraging. Revenue grew to $171.5 million, driven by a 13.9% surge in Global Electrical Systems and stable performance in Seating, which helped offset a decline in the Trim segment caused by a soft North American Class 8 market. A major operational success was the improvement in adjusted gross margin to 12.2%, up 140 basis points year-over-year, resulting from footprint consolidation and efficiency gains. A pivotal financial move was the sale-leaseback of the Vonore, Tennessee facility, contributing to a $12.8 million debt reduction and lowering the net leverage ratio to 3.8x. Management reaffirmed its full-year 2026 guidance, anticipating roughly 5% revenue growth and a 50% increase in adjusted EBITDA at the midpoint. This optimistic outlook is underpinned by the ramp-up of the Zoox robotaxi program and a projected 9% recovery in North American Class 8 truck production. Despite higher SG&A and interest costs, CVG expects positive free cash flow for the year and remains positioned to capitalize on autonomous vehicle trends and recovering construction markets using its low-cost facilities.

5-year share-count history (top 10 holders by peak, incl. exited) + price

Revenue Segments

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Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc.: Synthetic Profitability Masking Negative Cash Flow and Toxic Financing Terms

Full Earnings Call Transcript — Q1 • 2026-05-06

Operator: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to CVG's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I will now hand the conference over to Michelle Hards, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Michelle Hards: Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone, to our first quarter 2026 conference call. Joining me on the call today are James Ray, President and CEO; and Angie O'Leary, Interim Chief Financial Officer. This morning, we will provide a brief company update as well as commentary regarding our first quarter 2026 results, after which we will open the line for questions. As a reminder, this conference call is being webcast and the Q1 2026 earnings call presentation, which we will refer to during this call is available on our website. Both may contain forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, expectations for future periods regarding market trends, cost savings initiatives and new product initiatives, among others. Actual results may differ from anticipated results because of certain risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties may include, but are not limited to, economic conditions in the markets in which CVG operates, fluctuations in the production volumes of vehicles for which CVG is a supplier, financial covenant compliance and liquidity, risks associated with conducting business in foreign countries and currencies and other risks as detailed in our SEC filings. I will now turn the call over to James to provide some highlights on our first quarter performance.
James Ray: Thank you, Michelle. Good morning, and thanks to all those who joined the call. Before turning to the results, I'm excited to welcome Angie O'Leary, our Interim Chief Financial Officer, to her first earnings call. Angie brings extensive knowledge of CVG to the role and her extensive experience will be critical as we look to sustain our current momentum going forward. Please turn your attention to the supplemental earnings presentation, starting on Slide 3. As we have highlighted on this slide, CVG delivered year-over-year revenue growth driven by strong results within our Global Electrical Systems and Global Seating segments. This is a testament to our efforts to reduce concentration of cyclical North American Class 8 end markets. Combined with the actions taken in recent quarters to improve operational efficiency, CVG is well positioned to capitalize on the recovery in our end markets that we are beginning to experience. During the quarter, we delivered adjusted gross margin of 12.2%, up 140 basis points compared to last year and 250 basis points sequentially from the fourth quarter of 2025. The continued year-over-year and sequential improvement in profitability was again driven by our focus on improvements in operational efficiency. One of our stated objectives over the past year has been to grow our Global Electrical Systems segment. And our success is evidenced by the 14% growth in segment revenues in the quarter. This growth has been driven by the ramp of previously mentioned programs across the North American and international markets. Our Aldama, Mexico and Tangier, Morocco facilities, we have mentioned on previous calls, are serving the growing demand in this segment. Their utilization should increase further as we ramp production under our Zoox contract and other new business wins, which is expected to provide a growth tailwind starting in the second half of this year. Another highlight in the last quarter was the execution of a sale-leaseback transaction of our Vonore, Tennessee manufacturing facility. This facility is strategic for our Global Seating business, and we expect it to support future growth. The transaction, which we will discuss in more detail later in the call, provided us with cash that we used to pay down debt by $12.8 million since the end of 2025, facilitating a net leverage ratio reduction from 4.1x at the end of 2025 to 3.8x at the end of the first quarter. Our goal remains to bring leverage back down to the 2x level over time. Looking forward, while there is still plenty of macroeconomic volatility and uncertainty, we are encouraged by the operational efficiency improvements we've made and the early signs of end market improvement with the Class 8 truck production projected to grow 9% in 2026, while we simultaneously benefit from the ramp-up of new business within Global Electrical Systems. Our focus for the balance of the year remains on continued disciplined execution, prudent cost management and putting CVG in a position to drive accretive growth due to improving demand trends. Turning to Slide 4. I will provide more details on what we're seeing in the Global Electrical Systems segment. I'll get into the drivers momentarily, but we continue to expect our Global Electrical Systems segment sales to increase more than 10% in 2026. Again, this increase is driven by the continued ramp-up of new business wins, which is accelerating the utilization of our recent capacity additions in Mexico and Morocco. The structural improvements to our business model in this segment are helping to drive growth and reduce volatility. The biggest driver of recent performance as well as our expectations for growth in 2026 and beyond is the ramp of new business previously won. We spoke last quarter about the Zoox robotaxi program, and we are starting to ramp production to support that program. This ramp is expected to solidify CVG as a strategic supplier to the autonomous vehicle sector. As Zoox and other programs ramp up, we are seeing improved utilization at our new production facilities in Aldama, Mexico and Tangier, Morocco, helping drive margin expansion. The low-cost facilities have the capability to meet the unique needs of programs such as Zoox and other new programs. As these ramp-ups continue and other programs contribute, we expect to see continued margin improvement throughout 2026 and beyond for the Global Electrical Systems segment. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Angie for a more detailed review of our financial results.
Angela O’Leary: Thank you, James, and good morning, everyone. If you're following along in the presentation, please turn to Slide 5. Consolidated first quarter 2026 revenue was $171.5 million compared to $169.8 million in the prior year period. The increase in revenues was primarily due to higher sales in Global Electrical Systems and Global Seating, partially offset by lower sales in Trim Systems and Components. Adjusted EBITDA was $4.8 million for the first quarter compared to $5.8 million in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA margins were 2.8%, down 60 basis points compared to adjusted EBITDA margins of 3.4% in the first quarter of 2025, driven primarily by higher SG&A expenses, partially offset by higher gross margins. Interest expense was $4.1 million compared to $2.5 million in the first quarter of 2025, driven by higher interest rates resulting from our refinancing completed in the second quarter of 2025. Net income for the quarter was $0.9 million or $0.03 per diluted share compared to a net loss of $3.1 million or a loss of $0.09 per diluted share in the prior year period. GAAP net income for the quarter included multiple items worth noting, including a gain on sale of assets of $14 million, a warrant liability revaluation expense of $5 million and a loss on partial extinguishment of debt of $2 million, all on a pretax basis. The gain on sale and loss on extinguishment of debt related to the sale-leaseback transaction of our Vonore, Tennessee manufacturing facility. Adjusted net loss for the quarter was $3.4 million or a loss of $0.10 per diluted share compared to adjusted net loss of $2.6 million or a loss of $0.08 per diluted share in the prior year period. Net income and adjusted net loss were impacted by higher sales and improved gross margin performance, offset by higher SG&A and interest expense. Free cash flow from continuing operations for the quarter was $11.7 million compared to $11.2 million in the prior year period, aided by our recently executed sale-leaseback transaction. At the end of the first quarter, our net leverage ratio calculated as our net debt divided by our trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations was 3.8x, down from 4.1x at the end of 2025. Turning to Slide 6. I want to highlight the year-over-year and sequential adjusted gross margin improvement we saw in the first quarter. Reflecting back to the strategic portfolio and footprint actions taken in 2024, we've shown continued improvement on the gross margin front. We've driven structural improvement in our operations through both footprint consolidation and operational efficiencies. We continue to optimize our supply chain even in the face of tariff changes and input cost increases. We've seen improvement in plant productivity as well, helping to reduce costs and waste. And finally, our focus on driving product mix improvement and recovering tariff and other cost increases through pricing are supporting margins. Our continued focus in these areas should drive additional operating leverage as volumes recover. Turning to Slide 7. I'd like to highlight our progress on our deleveraging efforts. As previously stated, net debt to adjusted EBITDA stood at 3.8x at the end of the first quarter of 2026, down from 4.1x at the end of 2025, aided by our recently completed sale-leaseback transaction involving our Vonore, Tennessee manufacturing facility. This transaction generated $16 million in gross proceeds with the net proceeds of $14.6 million used to prepay a portion of our existing term loan facility. We reduced total debt by $12.8 million in the quarter. Under the terms of the agreement, CVG leases back the Vonore property for a 20-year term with an initial annual base rent of approximately $1.4 million for the first year. This transaction demonstrates our commitment to cash generation and deleveraging to better position CVG driving future growth and shareholder value. We remain focused on achieving our targeted goal of 2x net leverage. Moving to the segment results, starting on Slide 8. Our Global Seating segment achieved revenues of $74.5 million, an increase of 1.5% compared to the year ago quarter, with the increase primarily driven by higher international volumes, offset by decreased customer demand in North America. Adjusted operating income was $3.6 million, an increase of $0.9 million compared to the prior year period as operational efficiencies drove expanded margins on higher sales volumes in the quarter. Turning to Slide 9. Our Global Electrical Systems segment first quarter revenues were $57.4 million, an increase of 13.9% compared to the year ago quarter, primarily due to the ramp of previously awarded new business wins in North America and internationally. Adjusted operating income for the first quarter was $0.5 million, an increase of $0.3 million compared to the prior year period, primarily attributable to increased sales volumes and operational efficiencies. As production continues to ramp in 2026, boosted by the Zoox robotaxi program, we remain well positioned to drive continued growth and margin expansion in this segment. Moving to Slide 10. Our Trim Systems and Components revenues in the first quarter decreased 13.9% to $39.5 million compared to the year ago quarter due to lower sales volume from softening customer demand. As a reminder, this segment solely serves the North American market and is most directly impacted by the reduction in Class 8 production volumes, which were down 27% year-over-year in the first quarter based on ACT data. Adjusted operating profit for the first quarter was $0.1 million compared to $1.6 million in the prior year period. The decrease is primarily attributable to lower demand levels. However, we did see sequential improvement from Q4 of 2025 of 620 basis points in gross margin and 430 basis points in adjusted operating margin, indicating that our previous actions to reduce headcount should position the segment with improved operating leverage as North America Class 8 truck production recovers. That concludes my financial overview commentary. I will now turn the call back over to James to cover our end market outlook, key strategic actions and a review of our 2026 guidance.
James Ray: Thank you, Angie. I will start with our key end market outlook on Slide 11. According to ACT's Class 8 heavy truck build forecast, 2026 estimates now imply a 9% increase in year-over-year volumes. ACT is then forecasting a decline of 2% in 2027 before rebounding 25% in 2028. Similar to last quarter, we also think it is helpful to provide a more granular drill down into the quarterly ACT data and outlook. Q1 2026 production came in at 54,000 with expectations for a meaningful uptick in Q2 and further growth in Q3 and Q4. Moving to our construction market outlook. Based on recent commentary and outlooks from our customers and key market players, we expect the construction market to be up in the low single-digit percentage range, primarily driven by lower interest rates and fiscal stimulus initiatives for 2026. Turning to Slide 12. I will share several thoughts on our outlook for 2026. Our guidance ranges are based on current macroeconomic trends, forecasted Class 8 truck build rates, demand levels in construction markets and the ramp of new business. In spite of continued macroeconomic uncertainty, we are reaffirming our net sales and adjusted EBITDA guidance ranges for 2026. Our net sales guidance range of $660 million to $700 million, which again represents a growth of nearly 5% over 2025 results at the midpoint, remains supported by strong growth in our Global Electrical Systems segment. Our adjusted EBITDA guidance range of $24 million to $30 million represents growth of approximately 50% over 2025 results at the midpoint of the range, reflecting the operational leverage we expect to see as end markets recover, driving increased capacity utilization. Based on our first quarter performance, the expected program ramps and current customer demand levels, we have maintained these ranges. But if ACT Class 8 forecast play out as projected, we'd expect both metrics to come in toward the high end of the ranges provided and plan to give a further update on our second quarter earnings call. Finally, we continue to expect to generate positive free cash flow in 2026, supported by the recent sale-leaseback transaction. We expect to prioritize free cash flow for debt paydown, driving net leverage toward our targeted leverage ratio of 2x. With that, I will now turn the call back to the operator and open up the line for questions. Operator?
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Joe Gomes with NOBLE Capital.
Joseph Gomes: I like the momentum we're seeing. So I just wanted to start out, James, you talked on the Global Electrical Systems about the differentiated solutions and positioning the company to increase content per vehicle. And I was wondering if you could give us a little more color there. I don't want to give exact numbers maybe on percentages. I mean, how much growth could we see in terms of the increased content per vehicle and kind of like what's the timing on that?
James Ray: Thank you, Joe. That's a good question. And it really varies by the architecture of the vehicle in the end market. So for example, we talked about Zoox autonomous vehicles. Due to the redundant nature from a safety perspective, the electrical content in an autonomous vehicle is almost double because of the redundancy. So that is one indicator that's going to give us a lot of opportunity for growth. Also, in our legacy end markets with construction agriculture and even in the Class 8 market, as vehicles develop more content for either autonomous operation or feature comfort additions, that increases the content in our legacy end markets as well. And there's not really a number I could put on it, but I would say it's incremental to our current share of wallet per vehicle. And then in addition to that, some of the new business that we continue to win, we're focused on these higher content applications, which will allow us to continue to further utilize the capacity we have in place and also plan for additional capacity as time goes on and these volumes continue to ramp up. We have enough capacity to support us in electrical for the next year or so. But this time next year, we'll be planning additional -- potential additional capacity if these programs continue to ramp as planned and if the markets continue to recover as planned.
Joseph Gomes: Okay. Great. And then the Class 8 truck market, we're seeing another -- or we've seen since the beginning of the year, really strong order growth. I think the report came out yesterday, April marked the third straight month exceeding 140% year-over-year growth. Just from where you sit, I know you guys look at the ACT numbers, ACT is talking about 9% growth year-over-year. Do you think maybe that number, if we continue to see these types of levels could be low for the year?
James Ray: Well, as you know, and as you've stated previously, there is volatility in the truck build forecast. And it's not as a result of ACT not fully comprehending what the opportunities are. It's more of a result of external exogenous events that happen, whether it's constraints on supply chain, freight due to geopolitical, whether it's tariffs, whether it's interest rates. So all indications right now based on the inbound orders really over the last 5 months, their forecast, I have a level of confidence in that it will sustain these levels. Now anything can happen, and that's why we're a little cautious on our guidance change right now because we really based our guidance on this customer -- specific customer forecast by end market and by model that we participate on. So we are seeing in our schedules finishing up Q2 and going into Q3, projected build increases from our large Class 8 customers. Also, in addition to that, now that we're formally in production on the Zoox autonomous robotaxi program, we're seeing more firm schedules as they ramp their factory in California to build vehicles. So we're working collaboratively with both Class 8 end markets and our ConAg end markets as well as the autonomous and electric vehicles we're participating on. And that's really probably the heaviest weighting that we put on our guidance. ACT is a data point as well as we look at the industry reports and earnings reports from our large customers, too, as they have projections. And the qualifier I'll put out there, too, Joe, is that there are supply chain constraints that OEMs, Tier 1s, Tier 2 suppliers have to deal with. And the turnaround, if you look sequentially from Q1 to Q2 and then Q2 to Q3 from a projected truck build standpoint, there could be some pressure on the supply chain to be able to respond to that type of increase. The trade issues, the fuel prices, those impact those constraints as well, all the way down to Tier 2, Tier 3, Tier 4 suppliers as well as freight carriers. So we're being cautious right now. And I think as we get through Q2 and have better visibility into Q3, we'll have a better understanding of whether or not there is upside to that ACT forecast.
Joseph Gomes: One more and then I'll get back in queue. SG&A was up about $2.5 million year-over-year. Maybe you could just give us a little more color as to what was behind that increase and whether that the first quarter number is a good number going forward? Or do you think that comes back down for the rest of the year on a quarterly basis?
Angela O’Leary: Yes, I can jump in there. The SG&A increase for the quarter is really driven by our incentive compensation coming back over the prior year. And we have different parts of that program. Part of it is related to a long-term performance awards that are tied to our stock price, and those awards get valued quarterly. And I would expect that we'll continue to see SG&A at this level for the balance of the year.
James Ray: Yes. I'd like to add to that also, Joe, is that as you're aware, we've had a lot of focus really over the past 6 quarters on adjusting SG&A down. And we've eliminated quite a few heads across the globe in response to the market softness, which helped us preserve margin. As we ramp back up as far as like adding shifts to some of our plants, we need more salary people and support people. If those volumes hit that ACT is forecasting in several of our plants, we have to add another shift. We have the floor space. We have the equipment. We're just going to have to bring labor back in, both direct labor and indirect labor as well as salary expense. So we're starting to see that in some of the plants that we're ramping up in. But our intention is to harvest the entitled operating leverage and really look at the SG&A adds very surgically. The compensation and benefits and those things, that's one piece. But the thing that is really our focus is headcount and expense, discretionary expense as well as expense related to starting up. But we would expect that level to hold throughout the year as a percent of sales, if not have some improvement if sales really go up, we'll get more leverage through there.
Operator: Your next question comes from Gary Prestopino with Barrington.
Gary Prestopino: I think you may have answered this question, but when you talked about you have enough capacity through 2026 for what's going on, particularly in the Global Electrical business, you will not have to look for a new facility. You have room in your existing facility to add lines. And I think that you answered that question when you were talking about the last...
James Ray: That's correct.
Gary Prestopino: Okay. All right. So we're not looking at any big major expenses related to new plants.
James Ray: Not for another year or so, Gary.
Gary Prestopino: Not for another year?
James Ray: Yes. We will not be looking at adding additional floor space for at least another year or so. But it depends on how volumes ramp, but we should be good until the end of '27 before we start adding another rooftop for electrical based on floor space and capacity we have.
Gary Prestopino: Well, if you do, that means everything is going real well.
James Ray: That's a good problem to have.
Gary Prestopino: It sure is. In terms of the Global Electrical, can you maybe break down for us just what percentage of that business is going to -- strictly to the EV market and then further break it down as to the percentage that's going to North America and Europe? Because obviously, the North American market on the EV side is getting hit. But what I'm hearing is that Europe and China are still going full bore at building and selling EVs.
James Ray: About 10% to 12% of our business goes into the EV market to date. The majority of it is in EMEA. And we have some programs here in North America, but Zoox will become the largest EV end market as it ramps. And that percentage of revenue -- of total revenue for EV will grow pretty substantially as a percent of the total EV as Zoox ramps up in North America. And we still have business that we won in EMEA that has not launched. So as that business ramps, we would expect the EMEA percentage to also increase as a percent of their total sales.
Gary Prestopino: Okay. So you're still launching some business in EMEA as well. All right. I think I may have asked Michelle's question a while back. But in terms of Zoox, how long is that contract for?
James Ray: Well, we have agreements with Zoox that really take us through the end of the decade here. We have supply agreements and statements of work that carry us over the next few years. Zoox has a number of programs in the future that they will continue to bring new models to market. That's their plan. I can't speak for Zoox or what the timing is or what the configuration of those models are, but we have been in close collaboration with them on both the current model that just started production as well as the next-generation models that they're starting to evaluate.
Gary Prestopino: Okay. And then lastly, just getting back to -- just talking about Global Seating. How does that break out between aftermarket and OEM? Or is it mostly OEM? I'm not -- I just want to get clarification on that.
James Ray: Yes. Aftermarket sales are approximately $50 million to $60 million. It depends on the volume and the promotional and the seasonality. But in general, it's in that range of the total Seating business. The positive things that we're seeing in that Aftermarket business, as we've talked about in prior earnings calls, we were putting a lot of focus on our field sales rep organization and the management of that as well as bringing out new configurations as shown in the slide deck for the presentation to promote certain aspects of the current market interest. whether it's the 250th anniversary or whether it's a Hunter special that you've seen on the slide. And we're seeing orders to date up about 20% on our Aftermarket orders. Obviously, they're timed at different points for delivery. But one of the things that has enabled us to generate higher orders year-over-year is our capacity alignment and getting fast turnaround on shipments. So we're really focused on getting seats out within 5 to 7 days of the order, if not sooner. Sometimes it's a little longer depending on the configuration. But we see that as a growth driver, especially with the Class 8 truck production to date has been low. We've been really putting a lot of focus on that. So not only when the production comes back to higher levels, there is an opportunity to continue to drive further aftermarket orders as well. So we're really excited about that segment. It's had a lot of success, and we're going to continue to invest in it because from an earnings profile, it's very attractive to us from a mix standpoint. We have more promotional opportunity, and we have more margin opportunity as well.
Gary Prestopino: Okay. And just lastly, when we're talking about commercial and off-highway seats, the OEM market, that runs anywhere from Class 8 to things like Volvos or stuff like that?
James Ray: Yes, that's correct. But it's primarily Class 8. We do have seating products globally, not just in North America, but in EMEA and in APAC outside of heavy-duty truck. And most of our business outside of North America is tied to ConAg and other end markets, office seating, stadium seating, bus seating. There are a number of categories when you look at our footprint outside of North America that we have a lot more traction in outside of heavy-duty truck. So that also opens up the window for us to put more emphasis on growing heavy-duty truck in some of those areas as well as here in North America, kind of a cross-sell looking at can we get into other end markets in North America. And we do have ConAg seats that we produce in our Vonore, Tennessee plants as well. So with the sale leaseback, that's now a very strategic long-term portion of our footprint. And we're really excited about continuing to invest in that site for future growth in the Seating business.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] This concludes the Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to Mr. Ray for closing remarks.
James Ray: Thank you. Thank you all for joining today's call. I also want to thank the employees of CVG who really helped deliver strong results and are excited about our growth prospects going forward. We continue to execute and deliver on our goals of driving operational efficiency, improving our revenue mix and driving accretive growth. We've made substantial progress operationally, and we are positioned to drive both growth and margin improvement as end markets recover. We look forward to updating CVG's progress next quarter. Thank you.
Operator: This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.