JELD - NYSE

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Krista, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the JELD-WEN's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to James Armstrong, Vice President of Investor Relations. James, please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning. We issued our fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings release last night and posted a slide presentation to the Investor Relations portion of our website, which can be found at investors.jeld-wen.com. We will be referencing this presentation during our call. Today, I am joined by Bill Christensen, Chief Executive Officer; and Samantha Stoddard, Chief Financial Officer. Before I turn it over to Bill, I would like to remind everyone that during this call, we will make certain statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, including those set forth in our earnings release and provided in our Forms 10-K and 10-Q filed with the SEC. JELD-WEN does not undertake any duty to update forward-looking statements, including the guidance we are providing with respect to certain expectations for future results. Additionally, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP measures, which we believe can be useful in evaluating our performance. The presentation of this additional information should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable financial measures calculated under GAAP can be found in our earnings release and in the appendix of our earnings presentation. With that, I would like to now turn the call over to Bill.

Thank you, James, and good morning, everyone. Before turning to results, I want to thank the teams across JELD-WEN. The fourth quarter remains challenging and the progress we made required sustained effort in an environment that continued to put volume pressure on the business. Our employees stayed focused on customers, operated with discipline and worked through the realities of the market. I'm grateful for their commitment and their work continues to strengthen the foundation of the company as we move forward. The macro environment remained very soft during the fourth quarter, consistent with what we expected coming into the period. End markets did not improve meaningfully and demand across both new construction and repair and remodel continue to be under pressure. Despite those market challenges, we delivered results at the high end of our expectations. That outcome reflects disciplined execution and sustained effort across the organization to manage through a difficult environment. As seen on Slide 4, we delivered the high end of the sales and adjusted EBITDA range we forecasted through a combination of top line performance and cost actions. Sales came in stronger than we expected, driven by the hard work of our sales team, combined with improving operational execution, including continued progress with on-time in full delivery. At the same time, we took deliberate labor and cost actions to better align the business with market conditions, consistent with what we outlined in November, including reducing full-time positions by approximately 14% or about 2,300 people in full year 2025. These actions were structural and reflected our view that demand is unlikely to improve meaningfully in the near term. While cost actions played an important role, we remain focused on serving customers and securing the long-term health of the business. Adjusted EBITDA also came in better than we expected. The quarter included a few million dollars of in-period items that were timing related and are not expected to recur. However, excluding those items, underlying adjusted EBITDA would have been above our guidance range. Cash performance followed that improvement. Free cash flow came in approximately $20 million ahead of our expectations, even with higher capital spending due to carryover projects, reflecting tighter working capital management and the benefits of the cost actions we have taken. Additionally, we completed the sale leaseback of our Coral Springs, Florida facility in the fourth quarter, giving us net proceeds of roughly $38 million, increasing our liquidity position. However, as the macro environment remains soft, volumes and margins continue to face pressure. And while operational performance is improving, there is more work to be done. For the full year, we delivered sales of $3.2 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $120 million. While that result was at the high end of the guidance we provided after the third quarter, it is well below where we expected to finish the year when we began. The macro environment remained difficult throughout the year, particularly in retail and lower-priced new housing and demand did not recover as we had originally anticipated. At the same time, we experienced more disruption from service challenges earlier in the year than we expected as we work to rightsize the business, reposition our operations and implement more standard ways of working across our manufacturing landscape. That said, the business exits the year in a more stable position than it entered it. Over the second half of the year, we made meaningful progress improving service levels as production transitions from consolidations were completed both in North America and Europe, backlogs worked down and operations stabilized. Our on-time and full performance has improved as equipment ramped and processes have become more consistent, particularly late in the third quarter and into the fourth. We are also implementing a common manufacturing operating system across the North American network, which is allowing us to identify issues faster and balance operations more effectively than we could earlier in the year. While we still have a lot of work to do, service performance is moving in the right direction. As we look ahead, our focus remains on controlling what we can control. Customers continue to tell us that service matters most and where service has improved, we are seeing opportunities to regain volume. We have taken structural actions to align costs with current market realities while being careful not to undermine service. Market conditions remain soft, and we are not counting on a near-term recovery, but we are improving execution and putting in place operating practices that position the business to perform better when demand eventually improves. In addition, we continue to work through the strategic review of our European business. While the process is ongoing and we have nothing to announce at this time, we believe this review or other potential actions could provide meaningful liquidity and help further strengthen the balance sheet. We are evaluating alternatives thoughtfully and deliberately with a focus on improving financial flexibility while preserving long-term value. In addition to the European review, we continue to evaluate other actions, including smaller noncore assets and selective sale-leaseback opportunities as seen with the Coral Springs transaction. Our liquidity position remains strong. At the end of the year, we had approximately $136 million of cash and about $350 million of availability on our revolver. We have no debt maturities until December of 2027. And while those maturities are not imminent, we expect to address them before they become current. Importantly, our only relevant covenant requires a minimum of approximately $40 million in total liquidity, which is well below our current position. Over the past year, we have increasingly focused the business on execution and decisions within our control. We have taken meaningful steps to improve service, simplify operations, align cost with demand and secure our financial position. These actions are beginning to show up in more stable performance and better control of the business. As market conditions eventually improve, we believe JELD-WEN will be operating from a stronger position with better service, greater discipline and a more resilient foundation. With that, I'll hand it over to Samantha to review our financial results in greater detail.

Thank you, Bill. Turning to the financial results on Slide 6. Fourth quarter net revenue was $802 million, down 10% year-over-year from $896 million in the prior year. Core revenue declined 8%, driven primarily by lower volume. Mix was stable year-over-year following the shift towards lower-cost products we saw in 2024, and pricing was a slight positive. Overall, the revenue performance reflects continued pressure from soft end markets rather than changes in customer mix or pricing discipline. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $15 million or 1.8% of sales compared to $40 million or 4.5% of sales in the fourth quarter of last year. The decline was driven primarily by lower volumes, resulting in unfavorable operating leverage as well as ongoing price and cost pressure. These headwinds were partially offset by continued productivity improvements and lower SG&A costs. The fourth quarter is also seasonally weaker from a margin perspective and adjusted EBITDA was also impacted by approximately $7 million of timing-related items that are not expected to recur. Excluding those items, underlying adjusted EBITDA performance would have been higher. From a cash flow perspective, we were roughly free cash flow neutral in the quarter. Operating cash flow was largely offset by capital spending, and we benefited from a $55 million reduction in net working capital, driven primarily by lower accounts receivable and inventory levels, consistent with normal fourth quarter seasonality. As Bill mentioned, we also completed a sale leaseback of our Coral Springs facility during the quarter, generating approximately $38 million in net proceeds. Overall, our focus during the quarter was on disciplined cash usage and managing liquidity carefully in a very challenging macro environment. As a result of lower EBITDA, net debt leverage increased to 8.6x at year-end. Importantly, this increase was driven by earnings pressure rather than incremental borrowing. We did not add debt or draw on our revolver during the fourth quarter. Reducing leverage remains a priority, and we continue to manage the business with a disciplined focus on cash, cost and balance sheet flexibility. Turning to Slide 7. The year-over-year change in revenue was driven primarily by lower volumes. Fourth quarter sales were $802 million compared to $896 million in the prior year. Core revenue declined 8%, reflecting a $77 million headwind from volume mix, with the impact overwhelmingly volume related. Pricing contributed a modest $2 million benefit in the quarter. The year-over-year comparison also reflects a $41 million reduction related to the court order divestiture of the Towanda operation. Foreign exchange provided a $22 million tailwind driven by the weaker U.S. dollar. Taken together, these factors explain the revenue decline in the quarter and are consistent with the market conditions and operational dynamics we discussed earlier. Turning to Slide 8. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $15 million or 1.8% of sales compared to $40 million in the prior year. The year-over-year decline reflects a combination of volume-related pressure and ongoing price/cost headwinds, partially offset by productivity improvements and lower SG&A. Lower volumes were a meaningful headwind, reducing adjusted EBITDA by approximately $21 million. In addition, price/cost dynamics contributed to an additional $21 million headwind as cost inflation, particularly due to tariffs, glass and metals continued to outpace pricing recovery. The year-over-year comparison also includes a $7 million reduction related to the court order divestiture of the Towanda operation. These headwinds were partially offset by improved execution across the business. Productivity contributed a $12 million benefit in the quarter, reflecting continued operational improvements, although that benefit was muted by lower production volumes. SG&A was also $12 million lower year-over-year, driven by the cost actions we have taken throughout the year and into the fourth quarter to better align the organization with current market conditions. Turning to Slide 9 and our segment results. In North America, fourth quarter revenue was $522 million compared to $640 million in the prior year. The year-over-year decline was driven primarily by lower volumes, along with the impact of the court order divestiture of the Towanda operation. Adjusted EBITDA for North America was $14 million compared to $42 million last year, with adjusted EBITDA margin declining to 2.6% from 6.6%. The reduction in profitability reflects volume-related pressure and continued price/cost headwinds, partially offset by productivity actions taken during the year. In Europe, revenue was $280 million, up from $256 million in the prior year, primarily reflecting the benefit of a weaker U.S. dollar. On a constant currency basis, volumes and mix were lower year-over-year, consistent with continued soft demand across key markets. FX translation accounted for all of the 900 basis point year-over-year improvement in sales. Adjusted EBITDA for Europe was $12 million compared to $17 million last year, with adjusted EBITDA margin of 4.1% versus 6.5% in the prior year. Productivity was slightly positive, but those benefits were more than offset by lower volume mix, along with higher SG&A costs. With that, I'll turn it back over to Bill to discuss our updated market outlook and how we're positioning JELD-WEN for the path ahead.

Thanks, Samantha. Turning to Slide 11. I want to provide our market outlook for 2026 and the assumptions that underpin our guidance. We continue to see a challenging and uncertain environment, and our outlook reflects disciplined actions rather than any expectation of a meaningful near-term recovery. In North America, we expect the overall market for windows and doors to be down low to mid-single digits. Within that, we anticipate new single-family construction to be down low single digits with repair and remodel activity down mid-single digits. Multifamily activity in the U.S. is expected to be relatively stable, while Canada remains under pressure. We continue to expect high single-digit declines in the Canadian market, reflecting the ongoing economic slowdown and weaker housing activity. In Europe, we are seeing signs of stabilization. We expect volumes to be broadly flat year-over-year with no material improvements, but also no further deterioration from current levels. Demand remains subdued, but year-over-year conditions appear to be more stable than what we have experienced earlier in the current cycle. Importantly, our company volume expectations are more conservative than the underlying market. As we move through the last year, we have taken pricing actions to cover cost inflation. As a result, we do expect to lose some volume and are prioritizing pricing discipline. That share pressure is intentional and reflected in our guidance. While we are seeing improving service levels and have actions in place to regain share over time, we are not assuming any benefit from service-driven volume recovery in our outlook. Taken together, this framework reflects a cautious view of the market and a disciplined approach as to how we are managing the business. Our guidance is built on our view of current demand levels with pricing actions largely already implemented and a focus on protecting margins while improving execution rather than relying on external market volume improvement. Turning to Slide 12. I'll walk through our full year 2026 guidance. Our outlook reflects continued uncertainty in the market and disciplined assumptions around demand, pricing and execution. For the year, we expect net revenue in the range of $2.95 billion to $3.1 billion. Core revenue is expected to decline between 5% and 10%, driven by a combination of macroeconomic pressure and a continued competitive market as we work towards a more neutral price/cost position. While pricing remains slightly negative relative to cost inflation, much of our pricing action has already been implemented and our guidance assumes continued pricing discipline, consistent with how we have managed the business historically. We expect adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $100 million to $150 million. The range is driven primarily by volume uncertainty rather than execution risk. Our outlook reflects current demand levels and does not assume a material improvement in the market over the course of the year. On cash flow, we expect operating cash flow of approximately $40 million and capital expenditures of approximately $100 million, resulting in a free cash flow use of approximately $60 million for the year. Capital spending at this level is largely maintenance in nature. Cash usage is expected to be weighted toward the first quarter, which is typically our seasonally highest period for working capital. Restructuring cash outflows are not likely to be of similar magnitude compared to prior year, and we would expect working capital to improve as the year progresses. Our guidance assumes no portfolio changes and reflects Europe continuing to operate as part of the company. At the same time, we continue to evaluate a range of strategic options, including our ongoing review of the European business, as well as additional actions to improve liquidity, such as selective sale-leaseback opportunities and reviews of other select parts of the portfolio. Finally, we expect to use our revolver during the first quarter due to normal seasonal working capital needs and would expect to pay down much of that usage by year-end. Overall, our guidance reflects a cautious view of the market, disciplined pricing and cost management and a continued focus on executing through uncertainty. Turning to Slide 13. This chart bridges our 2025 adjusted EBITDA of $120 million to the midpoint of our 2026 guidance of $125 million. Moving from left to right, the first headwind reflects market volume and mix, which we expect to reduce EBITDA by approximately $25 million, consistent with the continued pressure we see across our end markets. We also expect a $60 million headwind from share loss driven by a combination of pricing discipline and the lingering impact of prior service challenges. As we discussed earlier, we have taken pricing actions to address ongoing cost inflation. And at the same time, we are continuing to work through the residual effects of poor service performance earlier in the cycle. This share impact is assumed to persist through the year and is reflected in our guidance. Price and costs represent an additional $10 million headwind as cost inflation, particularly in tariffs, glass and metals continues to modestly outpace pricing. Much of our pricing action has already been implemented, and this assumption reflects a more normalized price/cost relationship than we have seen in recent years. These headwinds are more than offset by actions within our control. We expect approximately $75 million of benefits from rightsizing the business and improving base productivity, reflecting actions that are largely already executed and fully realized over the course of the year. In addition, we expect about $35 million of carryover benefit from our multiyear transformation program. This carryover reflects automation, footprint changes and system improvements and represents a transition from a discrete program to a more steady-state operating model. The remaining items include approximately $10 million of headwind from compensation and other timing-related items, reflecting a more normal incentive compensation environment and reversal adjustments from prior periods, partially offset by foreign exchange and other items. Taken together, these factors bridge us to the midpoint of our 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance. This bridge reflects both the reality of the continued market pressure and the impact of disciplined actions we have taken to adapt the business. As we noted earlier, the range around our guidance is driven primarily by volume sensitivity rather than execution risk. Before we close, I want to step back and talk about how we are improving execution and building greater consistency into the business. In the past, we operated under what we call the JELD-WEN Excellence Model, or JEM. While that framework brought structure, it was largely a one-size-fits-all approach. It relied heavily on top-down driven metrics and did not consistently trigger structured problem solving tied to local daily management routines. As a result, issues were often identified but not always addressed with the speed, rigor and accountability required to sustain improvement. We have now moved to a more disciplined A3 operating system across our manufacturing network. This is a practical management system designed to improve how we define problems, identify root causes and execute countermeasures. Unlike the prior model, it adapts to the specific needs of each site. It uses multiple KPIs across safety, quality, delivery, cost and growth and connects hourly, daily and longer-term work streams into a single layered operating rhythm. This structure creates clearer ownership and faster escalation when performance drifts. Slide 14 shows what this looks like in practice at our Kissimmee, Florida facility, which was one of the first three plants to implement the new operating model. In 2024, our on-time in full right first-time performance at that facility was approximately 55%. Through 2025, that improved steadily. And by year-end, the plant was consistently operating above 95%. Importantly, that improvement has been sustained. The system allowed teams to identify disruptions early and correct them before they materially impacted customers. The same discipline is reflected in past due performance and inventory control. We entered 2025 with more than $5 million of past due orders at the facility. And by December, that had been reduced to approximately $200,000. Inventory accuracy and material flow have also improved, supporting more stable production and better day-to-day execution. While Kissimmee is one example, this is not isolated. We have rolled out or are in the process of rolling out this operating model across North America, and we are seeing similar improvements as it takes hold. Our customers are beginning to see the impact of service becomes more consistent and reliable. Moving to Slide 15. I want to close by stepping back and putting the quarter and the year into perspective. In the fourth quarter, we performed at the high end of our expectations even as conditions remain challenging and demand did not materially improve. That performance did not come from a change in the environment. It came from tighter execution across the business. As we look ahead, our focus is on continuing what we've already put in motion. We are sizing the business to current market realities, not to a recovery that may take time to materialize. We are managing the company with a high degree of discipline, particularly around cost and cash, recognizing the importance of preserving flexibility in a soft and uncertain macro environment. These are not short-term measures. They reflect how we intend to run the business going forward. At the same time, we are continuing to drive improvements in customer service and reliability. As you heard about the operating system example and the work underway at Kissimmee, we are deploying systems that improve consistency and allow us to respond more quickly when performance drifts. Our goal is to rebuild trust and position JELD-WEN as the door and window supplier of choice by being dependable, responsive and disciplined every day. We are encouraged by the early signs that customers are beginning to see the difference, but we know this must be proven over time. I want to briefly recognize the work of our teams across the organization. The progress we are making is the result of focused execution and a willingness to address difficult issues. There is more to do, and we are clear-eyed about that. We remain committed to running this company with consistency, accountability and discipline. The environment may remain challenging, but we are taking responsibility for the outcomes we can influence and continuing to strengthen how JELD-WEN operates. With that, I will turn the call over to James for questions.

Thanks, Bill. Operator, we are now ready to begin Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Susan Maklari with Goldman Sachs.

My first question is around that price versus volume dynamic that you spoke to in your prepared remarks. Can you talk a bit more about how we should think of the amount that price may decelerate as we move through the year? And how much of that you're willing to give up in relation to volume as you continue to face some of those cost headwinds that you mentioned?

Yes. Thanks for the question, Susan. So as we signaled in the prepared remarks, our pricing actions are more or less into the market. So there was a lot of negotiation and work with our customers through the last number of months to get ourselves ready for 2026. So as you can see on the bridge and where we're showing the look forward in 2026, we still expect headwind from a price/cost standpoint, mainly due to some tail inflation and some of the input cost increases that we're seeing on glass. But we believe that, that brings us back into a reasonable pocket, which clearly we have not been in through the last few years. So we feel fairly good headed into this year about where we are and the partnerships with our customers to drive performance and make sure we're delivering what we need to for our customers.

So, just on that, Susan, from a phasing standpoint on price. So with price being implemented and being put in already, we're expecting that to be fully into our financials in Q2. So we do expect Q1 to be down year-over-year with slightly positive EBITDA, and that's really because of the price dynamic that I just spoke about, which you'll see that pick back up in Q2. In addition, the year-over-year headwinds from Towanda being included in the majority of January 2025 and not in '26 and then some of the winter storms. So I just wanted to give you kind of that pricing phasing as well.

Yes. No, that's very helpful, Samantha. My second question is moving to the slide that you walked us through outlining the efforts at the Kissimmee facility. It sounds as if there's been some very basic blocking and tackling that's happened across your operations. And can you talk a bit about where you are in terms of implementing this across the business? And how we think about that freeing you up to then tackle some of the larger productivity and efficiency projects that are sitting out there and also that ability to eventually regain share?

Yes. So thanks for the question. That's exactly why we wanted to share this progression, Susan, to make it very clear that we are making progress. And of course, in a down market environment, it's challenging because, obviously, the volume reductions have eroded a lot of the efforts that we are making behind the scenes. So the first message is we have a system that is working and is being implemented. I'd probably say we're 85% of the way there through 2025, meaning spreading it across to all of our sites, really having the leadership and the layered audit structure and an ownership at site level on controlling their own destiny and serving the customer. So great progress there, and we're very happy with that. I think the second fact is it still remains a challenging environment, but we are controlling what we can control. And a lot of the things that we're doing here are to shop floor-based improvement activities and layered structuring of problem solving and less requiring large capital expenditures to drive scale improvement. Of course, we think we'll get there when the volume returns. But again, this is more us focused on controlling what we can control. And I think the third lever is productivity. There's also a lot of opportunity on productivity. Clearly, if the volume does recover, it's a lot easier for us to gain productivity benefit across our North American and European network. And right now, that's one of the biggest challenges that we have, the scaling up of the volume is not allowing that productivity drop through.

So, Susan, your comment is spot on about the blocking and tackling. And I think Bill highlighting and showing some of that improvement will give color into some of the guidance bridge that you see. And that's the slide that we have in 13, it's the 2026 guidance. So the two large green bars add up to about $110 million. 50% or just more than 50% of that is structural cost actions that we executed. So that is in the bag that were done in '25, especially in Q4 that then carries over into '26. You have about 25% of it that are executed actions that need to be scaled full year. This is exactly what Bill is talking about when it comes to the operating model and scaling that from a full year standpoint. And then the remaining 25% is productivity projects that are identified and are in progress using this simple model that is really driving root cause and solving some of the challenges even despite the operating headwinds of lower volumes.

And that concludes our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the conference back over to James Armstrong for closing comments.

Thank you for joining our call today. If you have any follow-ups, please reach out, and I would be happy to answer any questions. This ends our call, and please have a great day.