While adjusted EBITDA of $76 million declined 12% and declined 9% excluding divestitures, reflecting several one-time factors and mixed performance across our segments. Experiential Services delivered another very strong quarter, and both demand signals and execution continued to improve across this business, giving us confidence in second half growth. Retailer Services revenues increased 3% year-over-year, but adjusted EBITDA was down approximately 25% year-over-year, reflecting project timing and costs associated with early-stage project work that we do not anticipate repeating. In Branded Services, revenue declined 13% year-over-year and was down 11% excluding divestitures, as the recovery is taking longer than expected, and we are impacted by the same persistent challenges as our CPG clients.

Cash generation remains solid, with $19 million in adjusted unlevered free cash flow, despite an incremental working capital impact from our SAP final phase implementation. Turning to our growth initiatives, clients continue to prioritize programs that can demonstrate clear ROI, support trial and discovery, and convert demand into purchases. Demand for product demonstrations continues to exceed our expectations, with meaningful opportunities to expand event volume across existing customers and support growth with new customers. We are adding capacity where demand signals are strongest and remain confident in our ability to recruit and staff as needed.

We have seen strong growth across the spectrum of customers we serve, both in the U.S. We are focused on scalable, high-return opportunities that can become durable, long-term relationships as we deploy a highly trained and experienced team against what we see as recurring issues in out-of-stocks at retail. Together, these initiatives are designed to manage costs prudently, improve execution quality, and create capacity to support growth. Our centralized labor model continues to enhance labor planning and execution, which is critical as Experiential Services demand and Retailer Services project activity increase.

What went well
  • Experiential Services delivered another very strong quarter, with revenue up 19% to $296 million and adjusted EBITDA up 32% to $34 million on 18% higher event volumes and execution rates of approximately 95%, with healthy demand across existing and new customers in both the U.S. and internationally.
  • Net revenues rose 3% year over year to $757 million (up 4% excluding divestitures), and CPG merchandising projects within Branded Services were a relative bright spot.
  • The private-label business within Retailer Services delivered a solid quarter as the industry backdrop became more favorable and channel-mix drag eased modestly.
  • Health-insurance cost trends turned more favorable after a year of pressure, and management lowered its interest expense and capital expenditure guidance slightly.
  • The company advanced its AI agenda, establishing a governance structure and a newly created Chief AI Officer role and launching multiple workforce-operations pilots (event-manager compliance, photo verification, cart-list automation, and a supervisor intelligence dashboard).
What went wrong
  • Adjusted EBITDA declined 12% to $76 million (down 9% excluding divestitures), reflecting several one-time factors and mixed segment performance.
  • Branded Services revenue fell 13% to $224 million (-11% excluding divestitures) and adjusted EBITDA fell 36% to $22 million (-30% excluding divestitures) as recovery took longer amid client insourcing, soft CPG spending, and select client losses.
  • Retailer Services adjusted EBITDA declined about 25% to $20 million on project timing, a difficult prior-year comparison, and higher execution costs on a new project.
  • Cash generation was pressured, with adjusted unlevered free cash flow of only $19 million (25% conversion) as elevated DSO from the final SAP implementation weighed on working capital; cash fell to $102 million and net debt rose to approximately 4.5x trailing adjusted EBITDA.
  • Value-seeking consumer behavior broadened across income groups in a K-shaped economy, with intensifying price competition among large retailers seeking traffic and share.

More on Advantage Solutions Inc.

Reported 2026-08-05 · figures from the Advantage Solutions Inc. Q2 2026 earnings call.

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