MLR Earnings Call

OperatorGood day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Miller Industries First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. Please note this event is being recorded, and at this time I would like to turn the call over to William Miller at Miller Industries. Please go ahead, sir.

William MillerThank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our First Quarter 2026 earnings call. I want to begin by thanking our employees around the world for their dedication and support. Our first quarter results and strategic progress reflect the commitment and passion of our team, our suppliers, our customers, and our shareholders.

William MillerAs always, our remarks today will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially Please refer to our SEC filings and the safe harbor statement included in today's presentation.

William MillerI would like to start with a brief overview before I hand the call over to Debbie, who will review our results in greater detail.

William MillerWe entered the year with strong momentum. The actions we took in 2025 to reduce field inventory, improve the health of our distribution channel, and strengthen our supply chain positioned us to capture rising demand across the business. As that demand materialized, we strategically increased production to deliver solid sequential revenue growth.

William MillerLate in the quarter, escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East introduced additional uncertainty and led to higher diesel prices, creating pressure on retail demand. In response, our team remained disciplined and focused proactively pausing our North American production increase at current levels to maintain balanced distributor inventory. We believe this was the right decision to best position the business for future success. Despite the reduction in retail activity that we saw throughout 2025 and the recent effects of the conflict in the Middle East, we remain confident in the strength of our business and the structural demand opportunities ahead.

William MillerOur core philosophy remains exactly as it has been since day one. Miller Industries has the best people, the best products, and the best distribution network in the towing and recovery industry. That philosophy is the backbone of Miller Industries' 35-year history and will continue to be our philosophy moving forward. Our 1,500+ employees across Tennessee, Pennsylvania, France, the UK, and Italy. And our distribution footprint gives us unmatched reach, capability, and reliability that continues to position the company for future growth.

William MillerI want to recognize all of our teams across the US, Europe, and the UK for their dedication to support the company throughout difficult periods. Their commitment allows us to stay agile in the near term while building the foundation for longer-term growth and value creation. I'll now turn the call over to Debbie, who will provide an update on our financial results in more detail, before returning with some more specific thoughts on our markets in 2026, capital allocation priorities, and guidance.

Deborah WhitmireThank you, Will. Before I begin, I would like to note that this was our first full quarter of contribution from Omars— from the Omars acquisition.

Deborah WhitmireWe are encouraged by the smooth integration thus far and expect Omars to be an increasingly meaningful contributor to our results going forward. For the first quarter, revenue was $180.9 million, down 19.8% year over year and in line with our expectations for the quarter. This decline reflects the institution of lower production levels in the second half of 2025. Earlier this year, we started to accelerate production to meet increasing retail activity and order intake. This drove quarter-over-quarter revenue growth of 5.7%. Gross profit was $25.7 million or 14.2% of sales, and diluted EPS was 5 cents per share. Higher SG&A expenses for the quarter were primarily attributable to the inclusion of Omar's. Based on preliminary valuation estimates, we recorded certain non-cash acquisition-related expenses associated with Omars during the first quarter, primarily related to fair value adjustments on equipment sales and the amortization of estimated intangible customer relationship assets.

Deborah WhitmireThese items reduced first quarter results by approximately $0.13 per diluted share. At this time, we expect this amount to represent roughly half of those total one-time acquisition-related expenses anticipated to be recognized over the balance of 2026. We are continuing to work closely with our third-party valuation specialists, and the final amounts will be recorded upon completion of the valuation process. We remain confident that the acquisition will be accretive in the first year after recognizing these non-cash acquisition-related expenses. Earnings per share was also impacted by higher consolidated taxes, primarily as a result of a conservative tax approach to the acquisition-related expenses for Omars, as well as nondeductible executive compensation. I'd like to now shift to a discussion of our balance sheet. At the end of the first quarter, We had a cash balance of $53 million, up $8.3 million from the end of last year as we continue to convert receivables at a faster pace.

Deborah WhitmireOur strong cash position provides increased flexibility to deploy capital in the most efficient and value-creating ways for our investors. Now I'll turn the call back to Will to discuss our markets and our outlook.

William MillerThank you, Debbie. In the domestic market, we started 2026 with strengthening retail activity and order intake. Due to geopolitical tensions and rising fuel costs towards the end of Q1, we saw a significant reduction in the overall market. At the same time, costs of manufacturing in the United States have continued to increase. While we implemented an initial surcharge in April 2025 to offset tariff-related costs, Continued cost increases have exceeded the coverage that our surcharge provided.

William MillerAs a result, we have implemented an additional 3% price increase on all manufactured products to better align pricing with our current cost environment and support our continued investment in U.S. manufacturing. Effective August 1st, 2026, all manufactured products will begin invoicing at the updated pricing structure. Orders invoiced on or after this date will reflect new pricing regardless of order placement date.

William MillerImportantly, more recent data suggests that the underlying demand that was present at the beginning of the year remains intact, as we have seen a rise in chassis sales over the past few weeks. We remain optimistic that retail activity will increase in the second half of the year, which would enable us to continue to accelerate production. With systems in place to closely monitor demand signals, we are well positioned to respond quickly as market conditions improve.

William MillerWith backlog levels elevated, our international facilities' production rates remain consistent as they work to meet steady customer demand. We remain encouraged by the outlook for our export business, driven by growing international sales and a robust pipeline of global military RFQs. These positive trends should provide a strong multi-year growth tailwind. The acquisition of Omars and our €8 million expansion at Jige in France, which remains on track to be completed by mid-2027, will both play significant roles in the success of our global initiatives.

William MillerWe continue to build a strong pipeline of military RFQs. Continuing long-term growth in our overall business. We began 2026 with more than $150 million in military commitments, with production scheduled to begin in 2027, with the majority of revenue to be recognized in 2028 and 2029. We continue to work diligently with militaries around the globe and anticipate that defense-grade recovery vehicles will be an important contributor to our financial results in the years to come.

William MillerTo serve future demand, we are focused on being production ready in Ooltewah's new 200,000+ square foot manufacturing facility by late 2027. Site preparation for the capacity expansion remains on schedule, and we are targeting facility construction to begin by late summer. As we shared last quarter, this investment will streamline heavy-duty workflow and enhance our manufacturing efficiencies. The new facility will be key to providing— producing global high-volume defense-grade recovery vehicles, as well as meeting increased demand for our global export markets while maintaining the ability to service our North American customer base. Our strong ongoing cash flow generation positioned us to fund the majority of this expansion organically through operating cash flow over the next several years.

William MillerWe remain disciplined in how we allocate capital, focusing on 5 key priorities: paying a consistent industry-leading quarterly dividend of 21 cents per share. We reduced our credit facility by $10 million, bringing the total debt balance to approximately $21 million at the end of the quarter. Share repurchases, including $2.2 million in the first quarter and approximately $14 million remaining under our current authorization, selective M&A opportunities, and ongoing investment in capacity expansion, automation, and innovation. We're extremely proud that we paid our dividend for 62 consecutive quarters. In the first quarter, we returned approximately $4.6 million to shareholders between our dividend and share repurchase program. This balanced approach strengthens the company while also returning value directly to shareholders. As Debbie said earlier, our strong cash generation allows us to execute on each one of these priorities without the need for additional financing.

William MillerAt this time, we remain optimistic that we are on track to generate between $850 million and $900 million in revenue for full year 2026 and expect earnings per share to be generally in line with full year 2025 results.

William MillerWhile demand remains consistent, higher diesel prices and heightened uncertainty stemming from geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are leading customers to push orders. As a result, we expect production volumes and revenue to be increasingly weighted towards the second half of 2026. As external pressures on our industry lessen, We remain confident in our ability to approach $250 million in quarterly revenue by the second half of the year. We also continue to expect that gross margins will return to historical levels in the mid-13% range for full year 2026, with product mix shifting towards historical levels of bodies and chassis.

William MillerWe look forward to meeting with investors to speak about these exciting developments throughout 2026 at the Three Part Advisors conferences in New York, Chicago, and Dallas, D.A. Davidson's Industrial Conference, and additional non-deal roadshows to be scheduled. We welcome continued dialogue with our shareholders.

William MillerIn closing, the entire management team and I would like to thank all of our employees, suppliers, customers, and shareholders for their continued support of Miller Industries. We are exceptionally well positioned to manage near-term uncertainty and capitalize on long-term global growth. Thank you again for joining us. Operator, please open the line for questions.

OperatorThank you.

OperatorIn a moment, we will open the call to questions. The company requests that all callers limit each turn to 2 questions from each analyst. If you would like to ask a question, please press 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press *2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star key. Your first question comes from Mike Shlisky with DA Davidson. Please go ahead.

Mike ShliskyYes. Hi. Good morning. Let's take my questions here.

William MillerGood morning, Mike.

Mike ShliskyHow are you? I'm great. Thank you. So let's see. The one-time items that you mentioned, Debbie, in your comments, were those in the— on the SGA line in the quarter? And maybe more broadly, you added SG&A about $3 million quarter over quarter because of the Omars deal. First of all, is that the right number that Omars is a run rate or were there one-time items in there? And do you anticipate any synergies over time to reduce some of that SG&A?

Deborah WhitmireGood morning, Mike. Some of the one-time charges were at the gross margin line and some were at the SG&A line. About $600,000 is on the SG&A line that is related to those acquisition costs. The remaining amount will be pretty much the current run rate with a full quarter of Omars. The additional was the conservative approach that we took from a tax standpoint as we continue to understand the deductibility under Italian tax law of those acquisition-related costs.

Mike ShliskyExpenses.

Deborah WhitmireSo it's a combination of the three.

Mike ShliskyGreat. And the synergies? What was that?

William MillerOpportunities to reduce SG&A in the future.

Deborah WhitmireOh, yes. You know, Omars was a standalone company, so they had a full staff of, you know, engineering, HR, accounting. We feel like the leverage that we can get is the synergies between the three European companies. As we go forward to either enhance efficiencies or combine that with the US for reductions of cost.

Mike ShliskyGreat. Thank you for that. I also want to ask about your comments, Will, on the military opportunities out there. Did anything move closer to the commitment phase during the quarter? In other words, how is the pipeline looking as far as— getting closer to being able to book things?

William MillerYeah, we've seen some movement, in positive directions from a few RFQs throughout the quarter.

William MillerAt this time, there's nothing specifically to add on any specific RFQ, but we're hoping that when we release Q2 earnings next quarter, that we'll have some additional information that we can provide to you and shareholders, uh, more specifically about, uh, some of the RFQs that we have commitments for and some that are in the pipeline that we believe will, uh, move forwards, uh, throughout the quarter.

Mike ShliskyGreat. And, uh, okay, if you'll indulge me in one more here, uh, I want to ask about— okay, yeah, they said two questions, but usually there's very few other folks on this call here. Asking many questions. So I appreciate the time. Just want to also ask the underlying reasons for a consumer to use a tow service. Are most of those kind of still intact? You know, the average age of a car remains an all-time record, number of cars on the road, miles driven. Most of those things are still trending in, you know, Miller's favor, you think, in 2026?

William MillerUh, I believe so. I think, uh, what we're seeing today is, um, individuals as they're looking to, you know, make that purchase of $100,000 to $1 million with, you know, diesel price ranging anywhere from $5 to $9 a gallon here in the United States, that a little bit of uncertainty, uh, with the current geopolitical, um, tensions and waiting to see how that all levels out before they make that commitment. Obviously, we're still seeing some, some solid retail activity, but not at the levels where they were prior to 6 or 8 weeks ago. So I think that will quickly return once things in the Middle East settle down.

Mike ShliskyAnd your view of maybe the average tow fleet truck is somewhat elevated.

William MillerIt's still in line. If anything, over, you know, last year's lower retail activity, if anything, the age of the fleet has aged out slightly more, which is a positive trend for us as customers look to replace fleets.

Mike ShliskyGreat. That was where my question was going. I appreciate the call, everybody. I'll pass it along.

William MillerAbsolutely, Mike. Thank you very much.

Deborah WhitmireThanks, Mike.

OperatorThank you.

OperatorWe have reached the end of the question and answer session, and I will now turn the call over to William Miller for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

William MillerThank you. I'd like to thank you all again for joining us on the call today, and we look forward to speaking with you on our second quarter conference call. If you would like information on how to participate and ask questions on the call, please visit our investor relations website, millerind.com/investors, or email investors.relations@millerind.com.

William MillerThank you, and may God bless you, and may God bless our troops.

OperatorThank you. This concludes today's conference, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you all for your participation.