Snap-on (SNA) Q3 2026 earnings call transcript

Thank you, Chloe, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today as we review Snap-on's third quarter results, which are detailed in our press release issued earlier this morning. We have on the call Nick Pinchuk, Snap-on's Chief Executive Officer, and Aldo Pagliari, Snap-on's Chief Financial Officer. Nick will kick off our call this morning with his perspective on our performance. Aldo will then provide a more detailed review of our financial results. After Nick provides some closing thoughts, we'll take your questions.

As usual, we've provided slides to supplement our discussion. These slides can be accessed under the Downloads tab in the Webcast Viewer, as well as on our website, snap-on. com, under the Investor section. The slides will be archived on our website along with a transcript of today's call. Any statements made during this call relative to management's expectations, estimates, or beliefs or that otherwise discussed, management's or the company's outlook, plans, or projections are forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially from those made in such statements. Additional information and the factors that could cause our results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are contained in our SEC filings.

Finally, this presentation includes non-GAAP measures of financial performance, which are not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for their gas counterparts. Additional information regarding these measures is included in our earnings release issued today, which can be found on our website.

With that said, I'd now like to turn the call over to Nick Pinchuk. Nick?

Thanks, Sarah. Good morning, everyone. As usual, I'll give you my thoughts on our markets, our results, and on the way forward. Then Aldo will provide a detailed review of the financials. Well, these really are interesting times. I mean, you don't have to look any further for confirmation of that than the snap-on quarter. It takes some understanding. But our quarter is primarily marked by three major themes. The impact of diesel prices, despite what is fundamentally a stable technician market. The continued rise in the critical industries, reaching new heights. and Snap-on's capability to absorb substantial turbulence and, despite the difficulties, keep margins strong.

The result of it all is that our numbers were mixed, marked by the turbulence, but with rays of light from the underlying strength of our enterprise shining through. Now for the results. For the third quarter, our sales were $1,183.7 million, as reported, representing a 0.6% increase. Adjusting for currency and acquisitions, organic sales were short by 2.8%, with mixed results across the corporation. We'll talk about that later. Opco operating income, or OI, for the quarter was $248.1 million, down from the $278.5 million of last year, which is important to note. Included $22 million from a 2025 non-recurring legal settlement.

The OI margin was 21%, lower by 240 basis points versus last year, but that included 190 basis points from the legal gate. Adjusting for the one-time legal item, the OI margin was down by 50 basis points. Now, the gross margin improved 10 basis points to what I consider a very robust 51%, strong despite the environment. It's a real demonstration of Snap-on's resilience. In effect, our margin combines strong gross margins and a belief in our way forward, impelling continued spending on maintaining and strengthening our advantages in products, in brands, and in people, even in a wave of turbulence.

Executing on the belief that, our belief, that the future holds considerable opportunity and our conviction that we want to attack that potential at full strength.

The financial services operating income of $68.3 million was down slightly from last year's $68.9 million. And the overall as reported OI margin in the quarter, including both financial and OPCO, was 24.7%. quarterly EPS was $4.64, below last year's level of $5.02, which again included a legal item from the prior year, and that was worth a 31-cent boost in the 2025 numbers. Those are results.

Now let's talk to the markets. Vehicle repair is a varying picture with subsectors of players having different perspectives, but the underlying market remains strong. When we visit the shops, As we have during the quarter, the garages are constantly crowded and full, and the owners and managers are always looking for more techs. It's the first thing they mention when you see them.

And the technicians themselves, they're busy and prosperous and seek continued stability in both work and income. So at its core, at the grassroots level, repair is strong, and you can see the numbers. Household spending on fixing cars up mid-single digits and technician wages continuing to rise. It's continuing to rise. It's still a great time to work in a garage.

So in this environment, technicians remain cash strong. They can buy what they want or need. But at the same time, there's still confidence poor. Actually, it's based on a number of articles in, I think, respective publications, papers and magazines. The loss in confidence in the near future is a perspective that appears now to be more commonly present across the economy.

For the tax, this continues to play out as a reluctance for committing to the extended financial obligations that are associated with big-ticket items.

And loan originations are down again this quarter, reflecting that sentiment. So the focus is on quicker payback items like power tools and hand tools. in effect. It's a story you've been telling me for some time. It's a stable story. So vehicle repair itself remains strong, as it has been. But Snap-on's path to our tech customers are the franchisees. And up to this point, they've been relatively unaffected by the environment. But now, the precipitous and unprecedented acceleration in diesel fuel prices has grabbed their attention. The result is that franchisees have built cash to manage the rising fuel costs without stress by reducing inventory. You can see it in our results. Sales to advance or down, while volume off the trucks to technicians is stable.

The resulting ripple drove significant variations in our results, you know, as the reduction wave is passing. So while the numbers look turbulent. The underlying core tech market remains as it has been for some time. On the upstream portion of the vehicle repair, repair shop owners and managers, the market is mixed again. Independent shops are reasonably optimistic, recognizing what could be called, I think, the great days of automotive repair. Abundant opportunities for more work as the car park evolves to even more complex vehicles. And they fully understand the need for more sophisticated systems that match those challenging trends. And Snap-on is just the products for the tasks. For OEM dealerships, the view is quite different. The repair bays are full, but dealerships tend to be heavily influenced by new car sales.

And that picture isn't as positive. Volume is down. I guess impacted by the reduced numbers of number of new car model launches. Car buyers are not so enthusiasm about buying older models. And as you might expect, the trials of those lower volumes spill over into repair departments, kind of attenuating the appetite for shop upgrades. At the same time, lower vehicle introductions mean fewer tool-up programs to support new models, you know, taking our already lumpy program business to lower levels. And you can see it in RS&I numbers.

You know, in their numbers, overall volume is down, but much of that shortfall is driven by decreases in the EQS project driven business, the lumpy business. So overall, vehicle repair is robust, but various sectors have been influenced by end-period challenges, I guess you could call it. Now to the critical industries. This is where C&I operates, and I can tell you, it's looking good.

Experts in this interlude are regularly declaring the economy is strong. Well, this is part of all that. Military, general industries, natural resources, places where the penalty for failure is high and the need for repeatability and reliability justifies a snap-on level product. It's a segment where the growing emphasis on precision and efficiency is driving demand for greater and greater customized products. And this is the snap-on sweet spot.

It's music to our ears, and you can see why when you look at the encouraging C&I numbers. It's not just this period. C&I keeps taking full advantage of the favorability, racking up gains quarter after quarter. So that's the market. Vehicle repair mixed, but with a strong core. And the critical industries, booming.

Now let's move to the segments. Let's talk about CNI. It was an encouraging demonstration of strength. Sales were $404.3 million, an organic sales gain of 7.4%, and that excludes the $10 million from the recent high force acquisition. It's an all-time high. It's a robust increase fueled by innovative new product launches and by the gains piling up in the industrial business, driven by growing demand for our custom solutions in the military and general industries and the natural resources, broad volume progress across critical industries.

From an earnings perspective, the CNI results get even better. Operating income of $74.7 million improved $17.2 million, improved $17.3 million, or 29.9%, and the operating margin was 18.5%, up 290 basis points. Another record for the group, gangbusters.

And once again, the primary force was the industrial division. division continuing to forge the path for taking snap out of it to out of the garage very profitable and I quarter was about leveraging customer connection observing work in identifying complexity and engineering solutions that make work easier and I'm working North Carolina power power tool plant executed that process would with precision our power tools are designed to match specific repair tasks not a broad range of industries for instance In September, the team launched the first of its kind, a CTR 851 14.4-volt 3-inch drive flex head cordless ratchet.

Unlike any other tool in its category, the head pivots forwards and backwards 30 degrees, 60% of total movement, specifically developed for tight engine compartments. Techs love this tool. Modern engines are packed in, often requiring additional work to remove the barriers to access the components that need replacement or repair. Now, this gem is vertically narrow, sliding between the hoses and frame rails with the pivoting head, enabling the tech to set just the right angle of approach to reach the fastener. And once engaged, 60 foot-pounds of torque and 275 RPMs make quick work of extracting or installing a bolt.

And the tool also has a ring of fire LED system illuminating the workplace. Another idea, especially powerful in confined spaces. The CTRA51, a quick payback item, just what the techs are looking for. It's a great addition to our lineup for Murphy.

Another Murphy special is the CT9055 half-inch 18-volt drive cordless impact. It's a beast in a small frame. Access in power.

And this tool is packing 1,400 foot-pounds of torque, surpassing even pneumatic tool levels. This is the strongest half-inch tool we have ever built. It makes lightning work of suspension jobs and heavy-duty applications, and it's fueled by our new Accelerate Tabless battery platform. Longer run time and increased power. It's another innovation that's improving productivity and making complex tasks simple, and our customers are impressed.

Well, that's the overview of CNI. Raising the bar. Organic sales up 7.4%. OI up 29.9%. An operating margin, a new all-time high, 18.5%, a bottle quarter.

C&I launching customized solutions, maintaining its strong momentum in the critical industries, extending out of the garage and reaching new heights in profitability.

Now let's turn to the tools group. Sales were 471.5 million, down 7% organically. Franchisees pulling down their inventory, freeing up cash, responding to the onset of accelerating fuel, responding to offset accelerating fuel prices, even while technician spending remained stable.

Operating income was 84.8% compared to the $84.8 million, compared to the $109.9 million last year. Lower volumes and continued investments in brand and product and people authored that margin. Operating margin was 18%, down 370 basis points. Now, again, this quarter, we did see customer connection playing out in the tools group. For instance, our Alvona Iowa tool storage plan rolled out the new – people often ask us, can we – you know, is the pivot going to keep going? Yes, it will.

Albona, Iowa Tools Storage Planet rolled out the new KHP 430A roll cart. It's available in nine colors. And it's a small, compact footprint that's ideal for moving tools around the shop floor with six drawers and a deep nine top compartment that organizes large items and a power strip for chargers lights and electrical devices It quite versatile And when I say maneuvering tools I mean a lot of tools The one welded frame weighs in at 248 pounds but it has a load capacity of 2 pounds We aren't kidding when we say this will hold a ton of tools. Plus, the two-piece sliding bed liner top glides under lifted vehicles, positioning the tech's arsenal of tools right at the workplace, improving productivity and reducing wasted motion, going back to a larger box to retrieve an aided tool.

And it's at a price point that qualifies as a faster payback item. Tools Group is stretching quick payback to a wider array of products. Another example of customer protection centers on a task, I think, that seems pretty simple to everybody, but it can quickly become a bigger problem. Take wheel-bearing dust caps. They're small, basic components that help keep the grease in a hub assembly while keeping the dirt out, enabling the wheel to do its job and roll smoothly down the road. You get the picture.

But replacement is usually a routine job. But when a dust cap doesn't seep properly, headaches start. A simple repair turns into damaged parts and rework and potential failure. Observing that challenge, our engineers developed our new A1310 DCT, especially for dust caps. It includes three different size adapters that can be used with a drive handle or paired with an air hammer. So it gives techs a wide range of flexibility depending on the application. What makes the tool effective is its simplicity. The adapter cradles the metal cap and distributes the force evenly, helping push the part into place without the form in the outer shell.

The result is an easier, more reliable seeding of the component, but it creates a better seal with less risk of problems down the road. The kind of product that addresses common frustrations that technicians run into every day. Nothing flashy. Just a smarter way to get the job done right, saving a lot of time, and it's based on feedback we received.

The technicians have noticed it. They like it. Well, that's the tools group. Soaring diesel costs. Franchisees leveraging inventories. Tech spending steady. and the group wielding insights and observations to design application-specific products.

Now let's turn to RS9. Sales in the quarter were $454.7 million, down 2.2%, including $15.6 million from the recent diesel laptops acquisition, and an organic shortfall of 5.5%, primarily due to the low and lumpy volumes in the OEM segment that derived from fewer new model release programs. But we did see progress with our database and shop management solutions.

And reflecting that somewhat, OI in the quarter was $116.1 million compared to the $141.3 million last year, but that included $22 million from the legal settlement, from the legal payment. Now, the group's operating margin was something else. It was 25.5%. A strong number, but down 490 basis points from last year. But that 490 basis points included 490 basis points due to the legal settlement in 2025. Actually, margins were quite robust. Gross margin was 48.1%, up 110 basis points from last year. And the OI margin was 25.5%, comparing pretty closely to last year's 25.6% as adjusted for the legal settlement. And that's all despite the reduced volume.

You can see the core strength. You can see RS9's core strength coming to life on our new electronic parts catalogs, our EPC, built by our team in Richfield, Ohio. This software helps dealership parts counters run much more smoothly. You see a big parts department challenge is that every component on a vehicle could be described in at least a dozen different ways.

You've got technician jargon. You've got OEM descriptions, parts numbers, stock numbers, and repair manual terminology, and more. And they rarely line up. So when the phone rings, how does the department take the tech speech and translate it into a barcode that's on the shelf that translates something on the shelf? Well, that's where we have an edge, a real edge, utilizing our 3.4 billion proprietary repair records.

We employ large language models to connect all those dots. A parts representative can enter the phrase or terminology given and presto, they locate just the part, just the SKU, regardless of nomenclature. And just as importantly, the system sees the part that's proposed and recommends related items that should also be replaced or installed at the same time, making sure the repair is done right the first time. I guess it's a great efficiency driver, and it's fast becoming a must-have, making RS&I a vital cog in driving dealership success.

We have great confidence in our RS&I business, and our customers and NAC partners share the same belief. That fact was on display as the Professional Tools and Equipment News, P10, announced the esteemed 2026 Innovation Awards and People's Choice Awards.

And the group, you know, ours and I was well-representative on that front with winning products like our Triton handheld diagnostic platform, our ProLink heavy-duty diagnostic platform. Mitchell One's Manager SE Inspections feature, and Challenger's Adapter Card, all recognized as winners by the techs who actually use the tools every day. In fact, collectively, the corporation was honored with a total 23 P10 awards across the 54 possible categories.

We believe it's a true testament to our competitive advantage in product across the corporation. R&S and I, expanding its reach with repair shop owners and managers, confronting the increasing complexity, focusing on developing innovations that simplify the difficult, and helping shops prosper along the way.

But also the third quarter results. Tools Group. Sales below our standards. Impacted by accelerated diesel turbulence. Tech demand remaining stable. Launching new product and maintaining the network. C&I, above a quarter, standing resilience, 7.4% organic increase, operating margin that represents a new record of 18.5%, up 290 basis points, making great strides in releasing our compelling power tools and precision torque products, purpose-built to make work easier, and an expanding array of customized solutions driving growth in the critical industries worldwide.

RSI, gross margins up 110 basis points. Operating margins, 25.5%. Balancing the headwinds, about equal to last year despite the turbulence. And overall, the corporation has reported sales about slack. Gross margins, though, 51%, strong, and up 10 basis points versus last year. And OI margin, 21%. Snap-on, navigating the wave of diesel turbulence, holding steady against the wind.

Now I'll turn the call over to Aldo. Aldo?

Thanks, Nick. Our consolidated operating results for the third quarter are summarized on slide six. Net sales of $1,183.7 million in the quarter represented a decrease of $7.1 million from 2025 levels, reflecting a 2.8% organic decline, partially offset by $25.6 million of sales from acquisitions. Heightened turbulence related to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, including the rapidly escalating price of diesel fuel during the quarter, dampened the sales in our automotive repair markets, which led to lower sales to our mobile band network. With respect to our repair systems and information group, substantial changes to the rollout of new OEM vehicle platforms impacted sales in the quarter. These declines were moderated by continued higher activity in our industrial-facing end markets, within our commercial and industrial sector, or the C&I group.

Consolidated gross margin of 51% remained steady and compared to 50.9% in the third quarter last year. The improvement of 10 basis points primarily reflected savings from the company's RCI initiatives, partially offset by higher material costs. Operating expenses as a percentage of net sales of 30% rose from 27.5% last year, primarily due to 190 basis point non-recurring benefit from a legal settlement in 2025, as well as from our continued investments in support of our brand and other business opportunities. Operating earnings before financial services of $248.1 million in the quarter compared to $278.5 million in 2025, which included a $22 million benefit from the legal settlement.

As a percentage of net sales, operating margin before financial services of 21%, compared to 23.4% reported last year, including the 190 basis point benefit that occurred in the third quarter of 2025. Financial services revenue of $98.6 million in the third quarter, compared to $101 million last year, while operating earnings of $68.3 million compared to $68.9 million in 2025.

Consolidated operating earnings of $316.4 million compared to $347.4 million last year, which included the benefit from the legal settlement. As a percentage of revenues, the operating earnings margin of 24.7% compared to 26.9% in 2025, which included the benefit from the legal item. Our third quarter effective income tax rate was 22.3% in 2026 and 22.6% last year. Net earnings of $243 million, or $4.64 per diluted share, compared to $265.4 million, or $5.02 per diluted share in 2025, which included a $16.2 million, or $0.31 per share after-tax benefit from the legal settlement.

Excluding the $31 legal benefit, earnings per share as adjusted in the third quarter of 2025 was $4.71. Now, let's turn to our segment results for the quarter. Starting with C&I Group on slide 7.

Sales of $404.3 million rose $36.6 million compared to 2025 levels, reflecting a 7.4% organic gain and $10 million from acquisitions. Sales to customers in critical industries rose mid-single digits in the period, including robust activity with the U. S. military and continued higher sales in general industry and markets. The group also benefited from another quarter of double-digit gains in our specialty torque business, which included a strong performance from our high-precision, electronically-controlled mountains product line.

Our Asia-Pacific operation also grew in the quarter, registering a high single-digit increase, advancing in both their cross-border activities and in their local markets. Overall, the CNI Group continues to make progress with gains across North America, as well as in Asia and other emerging markets.

Gross margin improved 60 basis points to 41.5% in the quarter from 40.9% last year, mostly due to the increased sales and savings from the segment's RCI initiatives. Operating expenses as a percentage of sales of 23% in the quarter improved 230 basis points from last year, primarily reflecting the higher sales volumes and a 130 basis point benefit associated with the sale of a building, partially offset by a 40 basis point impact from acquisitions. Operating earnings for the C&I Group were $74.7 million compared to $57.5 million in 2025, and the operating margin of 18.5 percent improved, 290 basis points from last year.

Carrying down to slide eight, sales in the Snap-on Tools Group of $471.5 million compared to $506 million last year, reflecting a 7% organic sales decline. The organic decrease was due to a high single-digit decline in the U. S. and a low single-digit reduction in the segment's international operations. During the quarter, we believe the deepening economic uncertainty and rapid increases in diesel fuel prices impacted franchisees' willingness to expand their purchases. leading to a drawdown in man inventory as they used destocking to generate cash.

Gross margin of 46% in the quarter compared to 46.8% last year. The 80 basis point decline primarily reflected the lower sales volume. Higher material costs were offset by 60 basis points of favorable foreign currency effects. Operating expenses as a percentage of sales, 28% compared to 25.1% in 2025. This increase was mostly due to the lower sales, but also include a continued investment in supporting the Snap-on brand. Operating earnings for the Snap-on Tools Group of $84.8 million compared to $109.9 million in 2025. The operating margin of 18% compared to 21.7% last year.

Turning to the RS&I Group shown on slide 9, sales of $454.7 million compared to $464.8 million a year ago, reflecting a 5.5% organic decline, partially offset by $15.6 million of acquisition-related sales. The organic decrease largely reflects lower sales to OEM dealerships. This resulted from a sharp reduction in program-related activity in the period, particularly across North American OEMs, as they adjust rollouts of new vehicle launches. Gross margin for the RS&I group of 48.1 percent improved, 110 basis points from last year, primarily due to the favorable business mix.

Operating expenses is a percentage of sales of 22.6% compared to 16.6% in 2025, which included a 480 basis point benefit from the legal settlement. The remaining year over an increase of 120 basis points is mostly due to the lower sales volume. Operating earnings of 116.1 million compared to 141.2 million last year, which included the $22 million benefit from the legal settlement. The operating margin of 25.5% compared to 30.4% reported in 2025. Excluding the full 180 basis point benefit from the legal item in 2025, operating margin as adjusted declined 10 basis points versus last year.

Now turning to slide 10 revenue from financial services of million decreased million from last year primarily due to the lower interest income resulting from a year decrease in the size of the average finance receivable portfolio in the period. Financial services expenses of $30.3 million decreased from $32.2 million in 2025, mostly due to $2.3 million of lower provisions for credit losses. As a result, financial services operating earnings of $68.3 million compared to $68.9 million last year. In the third quarters of both 2026 and 2025, the average yield on finance receivables was 17.7%, and the average yield on contract receivables was 9.1%. Total loan originations of $270.6 million in the third quarter represented a decrease of $3.5 million or 1.3% from 2025 levels.

Moving to slide 11, our quarter-end balance sheet includes approximately $2.5 billion of gross financing receivables with $2.1 billion from our U. S. operation. For extended credit or finance receivables, the U. S. 60-day plus delinquency rate of 2.1% is up 10 basis points from the third quarter of 2025. Sparrowing 12-month net losses for the overall extended credit portfolio of $70.1 million represented 3.63% of outstanding at quarter end, down sequentially from 3.7% in the second quarter of this year.

We believe that these portfolio performance metrics remain relatively balanced considering the current environment. Now, turning to slide 12, cash provided by operating activities of $247.7 million in the quarter compared to $277.9 million last year. Net cash used by investing activities of $18.3 million in the quarter included capital expenditures of $24.7 million. Net cash used by financing activities of $205.3 million included cash dividends of $126.1 million and the repurchase of 220,500 shares of common stock for $87.1 million under our existing share repurchase programs. As of quarter end, we have remaining availability to repurchase up to an additional $431.2 million of common stock under our existing authorizations.

Turn to slide 13. Trade and other accounts receivable of $922.1 million represented an increase of $40.7 million from 2025 year-end levels, including $12.2 million from acquisitions. Daily sales outstanding were 68 days at the end of the third quarter and compared sequentially to 70 days at the end of the second quarter and to 67 days at 2025 year end. Inventories, including $18.5 million from acquisitions, increased by $54.4 million from 2025 year end. Trailing 12-month basis, inventory turns at 2.3 times at the end of the period compared to 2.4 at the end of last year. Our quarter-end cash position of $1,670,000,000 compared to $1,624,000,000 at the end of 2025.

That concludes my remarks on our third quarter performance. I'll now review a few outlook items for the remainder of 2026. As a reminder, the fourth quarter of 2025 contained an extra week of operating results associated with the company's fiscal calendar. In 2026, we returned to a 52-week fiscal year with 13 weeks in the fourth quarter. While the impact of this additional week was not material to its consolidated fourth quarter 2025 total revenues or net earnings, our financial services segment did earn an additional full week of interest income from its financing portfolio. At the consolidated level, the net earnings benefit from the additional week of financial services interest income is largely offset by a corresponding additional week of fixed expenses, primarily personnel-related costs.

We expect the capital expenditures for the year will be approximately $100 million, and we currently anticipate that our full year 2026 effective income tax rate will approximate 22%. I'll now turn the call back to Nick for his closing thoughts. Nick?

Well, thanks, Aldo. Well, that's a snap-on quarter marked by three large themes. First, the accelerating seemingly limitless rise in diesel during the quarter and the franchisees reducing inventory as a reaction to that unprecedented wave, despite the fact that technician markets remain stable. And you can see that in a toast group result. Sales to the vans down 7%, even as the volume off the franchise trucks was stable.

Second, the continuing rise of our critical industries business, wielding our advantages in customized products to a stronger effect. And that trend was quite visible in C&I's encouraging results. Sales up 10%, as reported. Organic activity rising by 7.4%. 34%. CNI volume reaching an all-time high. And the group sold by a margin, 18.5%, up 290 basis points, another all-time high.

The CNI story again this quarter was a reminder of the robust and rising potential in the critical industry sector, of our growing power to take advantage of that opportunity, and and of the capability our team brings to bear in rolling the snap-on brand out of the garage with strong profitability.

Finally, the quarter is a demonstration of our ability to hold strong margins, even in the midst of considerable and unusual headwinds. And that's all visible in our gross margins, strong in an absolute and relative sense. 51% for the corporation, up 10 base points despite the varying environment. And looking forward, we believe we have a continuing opportunity to progress.

The diesel wave appears to have flattened. And our principal markets, vehicle repair and critical industries, are both fundamentally strong. And we have the ability to capitalize, wielding our advantages in product, brand, and people. strengths in which we have kept investing in the midst of turbulence. And as such, our product line keeps expanding, and the offerings really do make work faster and easier.

Our brand stands alone. It really does represent the outward sign of pride and dignity working men and women take in their profession. We hear that every day. And our people really are experienced, battle-tested, and committed to snap-on success. So as we proceed on our path forward, we believe that with our markets and our clear advantages and product and brand and people, we will meet the turbulence and return to our well-established positive trajectory throughout the quarters and the years ahead.

Now, before I turn the call over to the operator, I'll speak directly to our franchisees and associates. I know many of you are listening, and our resilience in these particularly challenging times is deeply rooted in your endeavors. So for your contributions to the advancement of our enterprise, you have my great respect. For the energy and capability you bring to bear every day, you have my admiration.

And for your unwavering dedication to our team and its future, you have my thanks. Now I'll turn the call over to the operator. Operator?

Good morning, Scott. Just wanted to dig into the commentary about sales off of the truck. When you say stable, are we talking flattish in the quarter? And then you also talked about how the diesel wave seems to be flattening. Have you seen a reversal in October of orders? First of all, we don't give guidance. I won't comment on October. I'll tell you this, though, is that the sales off the truck are up, but not by much.

You know, but they're positive. So that's where you see all this playing out is the negative in the tools group and the sales off the van that are kind of as they were. That's what we call stable. And if you're talking about, yeah, flattening, all you've got to do is look at the diesel prices. The diesel prices have flattened. So I don't know where they're going, but I think our people have mentally absorbed where the diesel prices are now. I don't know what they're going to do about that going forward, because if they stay at the current level, they'll still want to have some cash to make it easier when they stay at that level.

If it comes down, I don't know what will happen. It's hard to predict what they'll do with the inventory, but it does create a future potential at some time. but the timing of that potential is not necessarily clear.

uh yeah look i think power tools power tools the power so i'm talking about power tools because they seem to be incandescent these days they're really good we have a good product line and we've had a series of uh you know i showed a guy at the sfc who uh something i didn't mention that long neck ratchet he sold 115 of them and i don't know how many customers he had but that seems like every other customer or so so power tools selling well they sold well in a quarter and you know these carts are selling okay. And so, like the carts I talked about, which is kind of reaching up, making them semi-quick payback items, and they tend to be popular.

Well, I think we say that, you know, in our – basically, anything associated with the OEM dealers didn't do that well. The parts catalog business, which is associated with – they did okay. But generally, it was sort of that. I mean, there was a lot of mixed diagnostics. It didn't have its most robust quarter. It didn't launch anything this quarter. Mitchell One did great. You know, so you look at those kinds of things. So I think we say in our notes that sales to the OEM dealerships were down, and, you know, maybe to the independent shops was kind of flattish in this situation.

Okay, sure.

You mean our franchisees?

No, I don't think so. I mean, look, who knows? They don't seem that way. We just met with a bunch of franchisees.

During the quarter, we met with a bunch of them in the Northeast, franchisees and shop managers and technicians, and then we just met with a bunch of franchisees from the, what we say, the North Central region, around St. Louis. And they, first thing out of their mouths was diesel prices, and then they started waxing eloquent about some of the power tools and some of the products we were taking out. So I didn't get that feeling. I got the feeling that it's just as I described.

The underlying business was pretty good in repair. I do think, as I said, you probably know this better than I do, that I'm not sure that dealerships are doing that well because they always pay attention to new car sales. I don't know. I've read a bunch of articles, and we kind of hear talks about that from my dealer friends, about the lack of new models making a difference. And I do think, isn't car sales down this year? Are car sales down this year in the United States? A couple, three percent?

So you're seeing – You're talking about the dealerships?

But, you know, Brett, the dealerships, the repair shops are, you know, you feel like the management is a descendant of Jesse James when you go in there anytime and get pricing. People are pushing back all the time, I think, really. I mean, people have complained about it. It's why independent shops have held so long robustly against the dealerships. It's because the pricing drives everybody to independent shops once it's off a warranty. This is not new.

No, what I meant by that, a good example of that is in tool storage, you've got the big boxes. You know, these things are monsters. You know, there's a lot of sheet metal. There's a bunch of features in it. They go for, I don't know, five figures, you know, stuff like that. And then we're making a robust expansion. We're making robust expansions in the cart side of that. Less sheet metal, you know, cheaper. So more within the reach. So if people need tool storage, they're not going to be paying a huge amount of money. They can buy a cart. By the way, the cart I talked about holds two tons of tools.

So, I mean, I think, or a ton of tools, rather. Sorry, a ton of tools. So that's what I meant by that. We're stretching the designs to come down some in places and categories where we used to, people would say, oh, they're definitely a big ticket. We're trying to get, maybe you could argue, middle ticket out of that.

Yeah, no, we look at a bunch of different things, but a lot of the things are, you know, imprecise because they don't have to report everything on all these things. So generally, my best feeling is when I talk to them. And so I feel I always feel pretty good about I felt pretty good about talking to him lately Except for the diesel thing I think the diesel thing shook him up If you look at diesel if you put yourself back in the third quarter it was looking like it was going to the moon Is their response to hire diesel visiting their customer less frequently?

No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think so. You would think maybe. I mean, look, there are thousands of franchisees, so probably someone aren't doing that, but I don't think it's a common phenomenon.

Well, we already ate it. But the thing is that, look, the pullback, I don't expect them to go further, although those could be famous last words. I don't know. But I think the way that, you know, if I look at the numbers in the pullback this quarter, that's got them okay for some time. So I don't think that's going to happen in an eardrum. I don't see them doing that. Look, I think, I don't think they think, franchisees like inventory.

You know, they like to have it. And the reason is, John, is because it allows them to strike while the iron's hot. If they go out and somebody says, oh, I'd like a new two-storage box, and I want a blue one, if they don't have a blue one and they order one, by the time they get back, the guy's wife may have talked them out of it or something like that, or he may have had second thoughts. And so they like the strike, so they like more inventory.

I don't see them being satisfied with this level necessarily. I'm not saying they're wildly dissatisfied. I didn't get along without it, but it isn't as powerful as when you have, you know, a fairly robust inventory on the van and in some place, maybe in a warehouse.

Actually not. It was pretty much across the board.

You know, material costs, I think it's primarily associated with steel when we talk about material costs. I mean, there's some freight involved there, you know, freight costs when you're shipping. But, look, I think our guys have managed over that. So while we have it in the discussion material costs, really, if you look at the gross margins, it doesn't appear we're suffering, I'd say. I think we're managing them. We have offsets, like from rapid continuous improvement and other things.

Good morning, Nick.

Look, the SFC in Washington is always by population weaker. It isn't the most popular. You know, if you go to Orlando, more people go. That's simply it. It's on the margins, but so on. The SFC, you know, I know that people give different views of it, but the SFC orders weren't that strong. They were already down. People were pulling back at the SFC. So we came out of that somewhat lower than we might have expected, and that's what you're seeing. there. Now, I will say that the franchisee, you know, if you talk to the franchisees and you didn't look at the order numbers, you might say, well, okay, everything's hunky-dory. They were pretty positive. But the numbers ended up metastasizing in that way, you know.

And I think when we talked to people afterwards, which is why we went out and talked to people, was about diesel prices.

Also, I wouldn't say good ticket response. I would say, you know, it was okay, you know, but it wasn't up to our standard. I would say we're – I don't like to use words like disappointment or anything like that, but the thing is, it wasn't where we hoped.

You know, I don't think they're any different, actually, in this situation. So this is not higher cancellations or anything.

I mean, we started to see this. You never know. Third quarter's squirrely, you know? So you never know an order pattern as you go through the months. But when you get to the SFC and you see not where you think it should be, you start to know that something's amiss.

You know, yeah, it can. but, you know, the franchisees, like I said, the sales off the van aren't down.

They're okay. So I don't think, I don't know, you know, I'm not sure. I realize there's a lot of turbulence floating around and people could say, oh, yeah, I want out or I get tired. Mostly people retire at a certain age. That's what tends to drive this, and it tends to be the classes that drive a lot of it. Of course, as you say, marginal franchisees get under pressure, but a lot of those guys probably wouldn't have made it anyway.

So I don't think we see that. What drives the up and down, I think, is the aging.

Wait a minute. I don't know. I don't think I said more cautious about the franchisees. I'm not sure. I don't think the franchisees are more cautious. I think this is a very specific phenomenon. They looked at this diesel price and they said, this thing is bad. It's going to cost me more money. I don't want to give up. I would still want to give my son the G. I. Joe with the Kung Fu grip, as they say, for Christmas. and so therefore I don't want to cut back anything else. I just soon pull back a little bit now and give myself a little cushion for the future. But I think their attitudes aren't really that bad.

I don't think anything's changed at the basic – fundamentally one of the things we try to convey here, not much actually changes the tools group except for the diesel price.

Well, I think, look, I think we – you know what we say, our capital allocations. We're working capital intense, so therefore you need it for that. We like acquisitions. We like the dividends. It's in perpetuity, so we're looking at what dividends we're going to – and we look at share buybacks. We look at them all.

Sure.

Morning. Question on tools group operating margins. Just the decremental margin there seemed kind of sharp. Wondering if you could just split out how much was just lower volume versus the brand building and other cost factors you called out. And would you expect to moderate some of your investment if the environment continues to remain somewhat challenging, or do you see attractive enough? Look, I think the tools group, there were a bunch of things that happened in the tools group. There's some product mix that's driving through that.

You know, in other words, they had, if you look at gross margins, they had better sales of power tools and torque as part of its sale to the vans. And for those products, they split the margins with C&I. So while the margins are great for the corporation, they aren't as good for any one particular division. So you had some of that rolling through. There was a volume component in gross margin and a volume component in the OE. I think gross margins were down like 80 basis points, 60 basis points, something like that. And so that wasn't bad given the volume. You saw volume and mix there. If you look at the big kahuna in that was OE margins, and there was volume, and we continued spending in things like training.

You roll out the product. You roll out. See, one of the things we found out is in trying to do the pivot for lower payback, you've got to keep rolling out a lot of new products, and you need to train the field to be able to deal with this. You need to jack up the training. And so that's part of the cost. The SFC, even though I talked about it being a little bit down, we spent money on the SFC, and maybe we could have pulled back on that. But we considered – in fact, I think the numbers were pretty high for a Washington event. So we kept that up there because we wanted the brand build.

I mean, if you're selling the top-of-the-line product, I think it's somewhat questionable whether you should pull back on investing in product and brand and people. So you won't see us pull back, I don't think. I don't foresee that right now.

Visibility is kind of limited because I think the OEMs are kind of, you know, trying to figure out what they want to do around this. And having worked for Ford myself, you know, in engineering and finance, it's, you know, there's a lot that goes into launching one of these programs. So we know about programs, but we don't know about the timing when they launch.

We're not confident in that timing because there's a whole bunch of variation. And secondly, more than that, we don't know when they pull the trigger on the programs. It doesn't necessarily happen on a day of the timing. So we have that in place. I think we'd expect it to improve somewhat, but I think we're in a flatter period for that business.

Sure.

Hey, Nick. Hi. In your experience with running the company, X-ing out what happened during the pandemic, have you ever had something of this magnitude like an exogenous shock on the franchise channel that impacted their purchasing power? And if you did, how long did it take to correct that?

I never saw anything like this. So concentrate. I mean, diesel prices have gone up before, but these things rose 40% in the third quarter. That's like a rocket ship, you know? And that's actually, look, a lot of this, Gary, wasn't, I don't think it was that they needed the cash. It was that they're pretty savvy small businessmen, and they say, this thing is getting out of control, this diesel. And by the way, if you look at it, third quarter is about the time when I think America started thinking, wait a minute, this Iran thing looks like it has no resolution.

And so I think this kind of psyche surrounding the diesel got to them and they said, gee, I want to get some cushion. It's not so much purchasing about the fact that they wanted cushion. So, you know, they took back more inventory than they needed to pay one month's worth of higher diesel prices. But I think when you talk to them, they're cushioning against this going on for a while.

No, no, no. Wait a minute. No, no. Wait.

No, no. So wait, wait. Let me try to explain. Sales were down because they decided not to, you know, in general, it's kind of a group thing. says, I want to get ahead of this diesel thing, so I'm not ordering that much. But they still sold to the van driver. They still sold to the technicians. And the sales to the technicians were up slightly year over year. So that's the thing. They pulled back despite the fact there wasn't any emergency in the technician market.

Well, no, I don't think they'll be short. But inventory is kind of flexibility about what you sell. I can strike now. Inventory is about, you know, they have a catalog, and they have all kinds of electronic things to show people the tools. But the inventory is there so they can hit the guy right away. You know, you want this, I put it in your hand.

And so if you reduce your inventory, you've got less capability to do that. The effect on an individual franchisee is quite variable, and it varies from time to time, you know, depending on the situation that presents themself, presents them in the garage.

Sure.

Thank you all for joining us today. A replay of this call will be available shortly on . com. As always, we appreciate your interest in . Good day.