Earnings transcript

Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. Q2 2026 earnings call

2026-05-07 8 speakers
Executive summary

The call in brief

In fiscal Q2 2026, Spectrum Brands Holdings returned to year-over-year growth for the first time since Q1 2025, with reported net sales up 4.9% (organic up 1.5%) and adjusted EBITDA up 17.8% to $84 million, beating expectations on both the top and bottom lines. Growth was led by Global Pet Care (reported sales +11.2%) and Home & Garden, where key brands gained share in flat-to-declining categories, while Home & Personal Care declined on continued soft U.S. and European consumer demand though its EBITDA improved modestly. Gross margin rose 60 basis points to 38.1% on pricing, cost actions and favorable FX, and the company maintained a strong balance sheet with about $125 million in cash and net leverage of 1.66 turns. Strategically, Spectrum announced a partnership with Oaktree Capital, which is investing $127 million into HPC at roughly 6x LTM EBITDA on a non-recourse basis, advancing the long-stated goal of separating the appliance business. Management reaffirmed its full-year net sales and adjusted free cash flow framework while raising adjusted EBITDA guidance to low-to-mid-single-digit growth, remaining cautious about Middle East tensions, fuel prices and pending summer U.S. trade policy changes.

Key takeaways

What went well & wrong

What went well
  • Returned to year-over-year growth for the first time since Q1 2025, with reported net sales up 4.9% and adjusted EBITDA growing 17.8%, outperforming expectations on both top and bottom lines.
  • Global Pet Care delivered strong results with reported net sales up 11.2% (organic up 7.6%), as key brands Good 'n' Fun, DreamBone, Nature's Miracle and FURminator posted positive POS and gained share in flat-to-declining categories.
  • Maintained a strong balance sheet, ending the quarter with approximately $125 million in cash, less than $30 million drawn on the revolver, and net leverage of 1.66 turns, well below the 2-2.5 turn long-term target.
  • Entered a strategic partnership with Oaktree Capital Management in the HPC appliance business, with Oaktree investing $127 million ($67 million preferred equity plus a term loan) at an implied valuation of approximately 6x LTM EBITDA, non-recourse to Spectrum Brands.
  • Home & Garden and Global Pet Care both showed double-digit growth, with Home & Garden off to a great start in April amid lower retailer inventories supporting replenishment orders.
What went wrong
  • Home & Personal Care top line declined, driven by continued soft consumer demand across both the U.S. and EMEA, in line with expectations.
  • Gross margin gains were partially offset by higher trade spend and higher tariff costs, and operating expenses included additional restructuring and strategic transaction expenses plus unfavorable FX.
  • European HPC business was hurt by elevated customer inventory amid consumer softness, reducing shipments into key customers, and management expects that business to continue declining in the second half.
  • Approximately $9 million of Global Pet Care sales were pulled forward into Q2 (roughly $6 million tied to the GPC EMEA S/4HANA go-live and about $3 million of e-commerce timing), a benefit that will not repeat.
Q&A

Analyst questions

Jen SchultzDivision VP of FP&A and Investor Relations, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Thank you, and welcome to Spectrum Brands Holdings Q2 2026 earnings conference call and webcast. I'm Jen Schultz, Division Vice President of FP&A and Investor Relations, and I will moderate today's call. To help you follow our comments, we have placed a slide presentation on the event calendar page in the investor relations section of our website at www.spectrumbrands.com. This document will remain there following our call. Starting with slide two of the presentation, our call will be led by David Maura, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Faisal Qadir, our Chief Financial Officer. After opening remarks, we will conduct the Q&A. Turning to slides three and four. Our comments today include forward-looking statements which are based upon management's current expectations, projections, and assumptions and are by nature uncertain. Actual results may differ materially.

Due to that risk, Spectrum Brands encourages you to review the risk factors and cautionary statements outlined in our press release dated May 7th, 2026, our most recent SEC filings and Spectrum Brands Holdings' most recent annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Also, please note that we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures in this call. Reconciliations on a GAAP basis for these measures are included in today's press release and slide presentation, which are both available on our website in the investor relations section. Now I'll turn the call over to David Maura. David.

David MauraChairman and CEO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Hey, thanks, Jen. Good morning, everybody. We wanna welcome you here to our second quarter earnings update. We thank you and appreciate you joining us this morning. I'll kick the call off today with an update of the operating environment that we find ourselves in. I'll tell you about our operating performance. Then we'll hit our strategic initiatives. Faisal will then provide a more detailed financial and operational update, including a discussion on the specific business unit results. If I could have everybody turn their attention to slide six, I think on the investor deck. Let me start today's call by saying that I'm pleased to be here, reporting another strong quarter for Spectrum Brands. Once again, our quarterly results outperformed expectations both on the top and bottom lines.

This is a direct testament to the effectiveness of our strategy and frankly, the dedication of our team. It's quite gratifying for me to see our disciplined approach and focused execution translating into our financial results in such a meaningful way. I am pleased to also report that in the second quarter, both of our reported net sales and adjusted EBITDA increased year-over-year, with net sales increasing 4.9% and adjusted EBITDA growing by an impressive 17.8%. This is a significant milestone for our company as it marks our return to growth for the first time since the first quarter of 2025 prior to the trade policy changes and the overall deterioration in global macroeconomic conditions.

We continue to see signs of stabilization within the broader markets that we serve with a generally resilient consumer despite the dynamic environment, except for some expected consumer demand softness in our Home & Personal Care business. As we look ahead to the balance of the year, we're quite pleased with the overall improving conditions. We're also cautious about the resilience of the consumer, and we will remain vigilant as we run the business going forward, given recent geopolitical tensions, most notably with the recent conflict in the Middle East, increasing global fuel prices, and the potential for more volatility that we expect in U.S. trade policy this summer. On the cost side, we're also mindful of the ongoing challenges and volatility created by the broader macroeconomic landscape.

Since our last quarterly update, geopolitical tensions have escalated. This has resulted in some modest inflationary cost pressures, particularly across some of our commodities and our freight spend. At this time, we do not view this as a significant headwind for the balance of this year. We would expect to largely offset it with recent changes to U.S. trade policy. We will continue to monitor all these developments closely, as we have demonstrated in the past. We will proactively address cost pressures as they arise to ensure our overall profitability. If I could turn your attention back to the 2nd quarter, we made focused investments in our key businesses. We returned to growth, all the while maintaining a strong balance sheet position.

We continue to exercise discipline by optimizing working capital and keeping our net leverage low while also returning capital to our shareholders. We ended the quarter with approximately $125 million in cash. Less than $30 million drawn on our revolver, and our net leverage ratio stood at 1.66 turns, well below the long-term target we've set for the company of 2-2.5 turns. We did repurchase about 100,000 shares in the quarter for about $6.8 million. Since the close of the HHI transaction, we've returned over $1.4 billion of capital to our shareholders through our various share repurchase programs, and we've actually repurchased almost 45% of the entire share count of the company since the closing of that transaction.

We additionally have over $300 million remaining of board-authorized share repurchase programs left. We will, however, be judicious going forward on share repurchases to ensure flexibility as we look to capitalize on market opportunities. We'll talk more about that later. On the strategic front, as we disclosed in our recent 8-K filing Monday of this week, we've entered into an agreement with Oaktree Capital Management to form a strategic partnership in our HPC business. My relationship with Oaktree spans over 20 years. I'm excited to be partnering with a firm with a proven track record of taking businesses similar to HPC and optimizing them for standalone success. Under the terms of the agreement, Oaktree will make a $127 million investment in the HPC business, consisting of $67 million of preferred equity and the balance in the form of a term loan.

Their investment implies a valuation for the HPC business of approximately 6x LTM EBITDA as of Q1 fiscal 2026. Importantly, it is non-recourse to Spectrum Brands Holdings. This transaction represents a meaningful step forward in Spectrum Brands and in our previously communicated strategy to separate HPC from our other business units. For the HPC business, this investment actually accomplishes several goals. It reaffirms our vision for the future of the business through this investment from a sophisticated counterparty. It establishes a separate dedicated platform for HPC to maximize focus and growth potential. Three, it creates optionality for HPC to become the strategic partner of choice for the industry. That's whether through a sale, M&A, or a spin-off. We are excited about our partnership with Oaktree. We now have a well-capitalized standalone vehicle to maximize shareholder value.

If we can turn now to slide seven, I'd like to update you on our strategic priorities for fiscal 2026. These priorities continue to serve as a guide in our decision-making. I'd like to share our progress on each of them individually. First, if we can start with financial stewardship, I'd like to build upon what I shared earlier in regards to balance sheet health. A big part of that health is centered around disciplined inventory management, which has been a focus of ours for the last couple of years. We now have a best-in-class S&OP process. It's yielding results and ensuring that we have the right level and mix of inventory on hand. This isn't just my opinion.

Faisal QadirCFO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Thank you, David. Let's turn to slide 10 and review our second quarter results from continuing operations, beginning with net sales. Net sales increased 4.9%, excluding the impact of $22.9 million of favorable foreign exchange. Organic net sales increased 1.5%, primarily driven by strong performance within our Global Pet Care and Home & Garden businesses. In addition to external factors such as the weather and accelerated retailer ordering that favorably impacted our results, our key brands in both businesses continued to perform well and gain market share. As expected, our Home & Personal Care business continues to experience soft consumer demand across both North America and Europe.

Gross profits increased $16.9 million. Gross margin of 38.1% increased 60 basis points, largely driven by pricing, cost improvement actions, and favorable FX, partially offset by higher trade spend and higher tariff costs. Operating expenses of $226.8 million decreased by 3% due to a trade name impairment recognized in the prior year and lower investment spend, partially offset by additional restructuring and strategic transaction expenses and unfavorable FX. Operating income of $43.5 million increased by $24 million, driven by the gross profit increase and lower operating expense I mentioned earlier. GAAP net income and diluted earnings per share both increased, primarily driven by the higher operating income. Diluted earnings per share also benefited from a lower share count.

Adjusted EBITDA was $84 million, an increase of $12.7 million, driven by the improved gross margins. Adjusted diluted EPS increased to $1.25, driven by the higher adjusted EBITDA and a reduction in shares outstanding. Let's turn to slide 11. Q2 interest expense from continuing operations of $7.3 million decreased $200,000. Cash taxes during the quarter of $10.6 million decreased $13.3 million from the prior year. Depreciation and amortization of $24.2 million decreased $300,000 from last year. Separately, share-based compensation increased to $6 million from $5.2 million in the prior year. Capital expenditures were $9.3 million in Q2, about $100,000 higher than last year.

Cash payment to our strategic transaction, restructuring-related projects, and other unusual non-recurring adjustments were $5.3 million versus $6.4 million last year. Moving to the balance sheet, we had a quarter-end cash balance of $125.1 million and $470.8 million available on our $500 million cash flow revolver. Total debt outstanding was approximately $599.7 million, consisting of $496.1 million of senior unsecured notes and $79.6 million of finance leases. We ended the quarter with $474.6 million of net debt. Let's get into the review of each business unit to provide details on the underlying performance drivers of our operational results. I'll start with our Global Pet Care business, which is slide 12.

Reported net sales increased 11.2%. Excluding favorable foreign exchange, organic net sales increased 7.6%. Reported net sales in companion animal increased low double digits, while sales in aquatics increased mid-single digits. In North America, sales increased mid-single digits, primarily driven by strength in companion animal, where our key brands continue to outperform the market. Good 'n' Fun, DreamBone, Nature's Miracle, and FURminator all posted positive POS for the quarter in categories that were flat or slightly down versus the prior year. Sales performance in the e-commerce channel was particularly strong, achieving double-digit growth this quarter. It is important to note that this result includes an acceleration of approximately $3 million in sales that were originally anticipated to be in the third quarter.

Excluding this timing impact, underlying growth in the e-commerce channel remains robust, reflecting continued strong demand and effective execution of our digital strategy. Our quarterly sales results also benefited from the cost-related pricing actions taken during the last fiscal year. Organic sales in EMEA increased in the high single digits with strengths across both companion animal and aquatics. In companion animals, Good Boy is outperforming the competition across major European markets, fueled by expanded distribution in continental Europe and sustained leadership in the U.K. Aquatics growth was driven by market share gains in our globally leading Tetra brand, which is celebrating its 75th year of providing innovative products for consumers' aquatic care needs. In addition, on March 30th, the GPC EMEA business went live on the SAP S/4HANA platform.

In anticipation of the transition, which included ordering and shipping blackout periods during the days leading up to and immediately after go-live, GPC partnered with our retail customers to accelerate certain purchases into the period before implementation to ensure the retailers had adequate supply. This accelerated approximately $6 million of sales into our second quarter results. On the commercial side, our innovation and associated marketing and advertising support are driving incremental growth. As pet owners increasingly focus on health and wellness of their pets, our DreamBone CollaYUMS dog chews, enriched with type 2 collagen for joint health, stands out as a top choice in the market and is driving incremental sales volume for the business.

Within stain and odor, Nature's Miracle continues to outperform the market, driving growth in a declining category, in part fueled by our innovative product design with ready-to-use packaging and incremental sales growth in our cat cleaning products. Our Good Boy brand, the number one brand in dog chews in the U.K., is gaining market share through consistent innovation. Outside of the U.K., the expansion of Good Boy across continental Europe continues to be a priority and has garnered strong support from our retail partners with expanded distribution. We continue to support our brands through targeted marketing and advertising investments that are generating positive POS results across key retail partners. Based on consumer research and market insights, we are in the process of refining our price pack architecture across the portfolio.

David MauraChairman and CEO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Thanks, Faisal. Thank you, everybody, for joining us on the call today. Let's take a few minutes and just recap key takeaways. I think that's on slide 18. I'd like to start by highlighting the first half performance, actually. Despite a dynamic and challenging environment, we delivered solid results, underscored by a return to year-over-year growth in the second quarter. Net sales increased 4.9%, and adjusted EBITDA grew nearly 18%, reflecting disciplined execution across the company. Our ongoing momentum in Global Pet Care and Home & Garden is evident, with consistent share gains across our portfolio. This underscores the effectiveness of our innovation strategy as we continue to support with targeted investments.

In Home & Personal Care, the top line did decline, and that was driven by continued consumer softness across the U.S. and EMEA, which was anticipated and in line with our expectations. Despite HPC's lower net sales, adjusted EBITDA actually improved modestly as we remain focused on maximizing the profitability of the business. As we look forward to the second half of the year, the focus is clear for us. We are mindful of the evolving macroeconomic environment and continued pockets of consumer softness. Our priorities and strategic focus remain unchanged, and we are firmly centered on execution and financial discipline. We will continue to monitor closely inflationary pressures and geopolitical uncertainties and are prepared to address proactively any challenges to protect our profitability and sustain our growth trajectory.

With these factors in mind, we are reaffirming our full-year earnings framework for net sales and adjusted free cash flow, but we are, however, raising our outlook for our adjusted EBITDA. We now expect adjusted EBITDA to grow low and to mid-single digits compared to the prior year. On the strategic front, the recent announcement of our partnership with Oaktree Capital in our Home & Personal Care business is a meaningful milestone in our long-term objective of separating HPC from our other businesses. While little will change in the day-to-day operations of HPC, we are confident that this partnership will help the team pursue new growth opportunities and deliver lasting value. Our teams will continue to operate with the same dedication and focus, ensuring continuity and stability to our customers and employees.

Outside of the appliance business, we continue to seek strategic M&A opportunities within both the pet and Home & Garden segments. With that said, we will continue to exercise discipline and prioritize the strength and stability of our balance sheet. We firmly believe that maintaining a healthy balance sheet provides us with a distinct competitive advantage, especially as new opportunities and deals emerge in the marketplace. This approach ensures we are well-positioned to act decisively and capitalize on attractive prospects while safeguarding our long-term financial health. Before I turn the call over for Q&A, I'd like to thank our team for their exceptional commitment and focus in a dynamic market environment.

The results we achieved this quarter are a testament to the team's adaptability and determination, and I'm confident that our collaborative spirit will continue to drive us forward as we embrace new challenges and opportunities. I thank you all for your hard work and for supporting our shared vision as we move ahead together. Now back to you, Jen, and we can start the Q&A.

Jen SchultzDivision VP of FP&A and Investor Relations, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Thank you, David. The operator, we can go to the question queue now.

Peter LukasAnalyst, CJS Securities

Yes. Hi, good morning. It's Peter Lukas for Bob. You guys covered a lot in the prepared remarks. Maybe more just a general question. If you could talk a little bit about the characteristics of your fastest-growing brands in pet and H&G. Is there an opportunity to replicate that across the rest of the brand portfolio?

David MauraChairman and CEO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

You know, I think what you see this quarter, I mean, you know, we've got our balance sheet healthy. We've got our operations running tight. You saw double-digit growth in both pet and Home & Garden. We haven't seen that growth in a long time. I think, you know, hopefully, these are early indicators that, you know, the fewer, bigger, better strategy of taking real innovation and storytelling and marketing that is actually yielding some good results. You know, we see that with the Wasp and Hornet Trap, you know, in the Home & Garden sector to just pick on one. You know, Faisal commented on collagen. So we have a type 2 collagen that we put into the dog bones, you know, for our Good 'n' Fun lineup, and DreamBone, sorry.

That has really resonated with the consumer and has resulted in tremendous growth. It's continued focus on. It's the basics of commercial operations. You know, focus on innovation, use consumer insights, bring things to market that the customer wants that helps meet a need or provides greater efficacy or lets them create a greater emotional bond with their pet. Tell that story more effectively. Quite frankly, I'm really pleased with the price pack architecture we're doing in pet, too. I think that's gonna bring real clarity to shop, a good, better, best strategy at the point of sale. I think it's gonna actually help our retail partners, because right now the merchandising in a lot of these stores is actually quite messy and opaque. Consumers go there, they're confused by the shelf.

I think if we really bring some clarity and focus, you know, to the optical shelf situation, I think that's gonna lift all ships for the category. Looking forward to the benefits of that activity as well. Faisal, you have others to that or?

Faisal QadirCFO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

No, I think you've covered it.

Peter LukasAnalyst, CJS Securities

Very helpful. Thanks. Just one follow-up. Maybe you could discuss a little bit the how HPC international business is doing and the impacts that you're seeing from tariffs and the conflict in the Middle East.

Faisal QadirCFO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Like I said in the prepared remarks, our international business, specifically in Europe, has been impacted by certain customer dynamics where because of consumer softness, inventory with certain key customers was high, which effectively reduced our ship into the customers, sale into the customers. We believe that's evened out, which means our shipments to the customers and our ship out or POS would generally align better in Europe, which drives some clarity in our supply chain. I think the consumer and overall environment in Europe still remain challenged for us. We'll continue to be cautious about that. Like I said, this year, we expect some pressure to continue in the second half. As you think about comparison to last year, I think about this time last year, we had started to see a lot of the consumer sentiment degrade.

our comparisons to last year become a lot better in the second half. as I said before, still expect that business to decline in the second half. That's kind of the consumer that we see in Europe. Our business in LATAM is actually doing really well. Our HPC business has done really well in LATAM, and we've got really strongly positioned brands and really good distribution and customer relationships. we expect to continue to grow that business in the second half. I think that's kind of the consumer health overall from an international HPC business. Do you have a second part to that question?

Peter LukasAnalyst, CJS Securities

No, that was it. That's it for me. Thank you.

David MauraChairman and CEO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Thank you.

Faisal QadirCFO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Thank you.

Chris CareyAnalyst, Wells Fargo Securities

Hi, everyone. Thanks for the question.

David MauraChairman and CEO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Good morning, Chris. How are you doing?

Chris CareyAnalyst, Wells Fargo Securities

I'm doing great, thanks. I wanted to get a sense of just the outlook, right? Profitability outlook now better, which was certainly screens unique in this environment where inflation is moving, but revenue unchanged. I think you're mindful of some of the drivers in the back half can always evolve, like weather, the consumer. I think you also mentioned some timing dynamics in fiscal Q2, obviously still solid underlying, but maybe just give us a sense of whether you're factoring any of that into your consideration for revenue. Yeah, maybe just take a step back, this concept of revenue be it maintained and higher profit in this kind of a backdrop, just maybe a bit more detail on some of your thinking going into the back half of the year, then follow up.

David MauraChairman and CEO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

I think if we zoom out, right? We talked about tariffs in 2025 being really disruptive to the business. I think if you tuned into kind of our Q3, Q4 calls last year, I talked about the business starting to heal. You know, we did have to take some pricing. We did have to work with some suppliers. I think if you look at Q1 and Q2 this year, we've beaten both quarters, right? We're trying to do what we say we're going to do and hopefully do a little bit better. You know, we clearly have, you know, greater vitality in our NPD. We clearly are taking market share in our two fastest-growing higher margin businesses, which is Global Pet Care and Home & Garden.

We've just attracted a strategic investment in our appliance business, which we think is gonna produce a lot of value for us and them going forward. I think, you know, if you look at this quarter, I think we beat on both the revenue and EBITDA and EPS lines for Q2. That's a good thing, right? If I look forward, I'm just trying to maintain vigilance because I think, you know, Middle East turmoil, you know, higher prices at the pump, you know, that will generally hurt discretionary income. I think the U.S. administration's, you know, tariff policy, you know, Supreme Court knocked some stuff down. They're gonna redo some stuff on 301. I would anticipate that to be later in the summer.

I think it would be overly optimistic to not assume additional, you know, distortion or challenges that are on the horizon. We wanna continue to do what we say we're gonna do and hopefully do better. I think that's I'm trying to answer your question. Isn't that what you're asking me, what my outlook is and relative to short-term performance or?

Chris CareyAnalyst, Wells Fargo Securities

Well, yeah, I get the context of being, you know, reasonable given the unknowns and wanting to exceed. I guess the spirit of the question was whether there were any, you know, tangible offsets that you would be thinking about into the back half of the year or if it's more, look, you know, good progress. Let's see where it goes, but we feel good about the visibility that we're establishing today.

David MauraChairman and CEO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

I'll let Faisal take that.

Faisal QadirCFO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Yeah, look, if you just kinda look at our businesses, GPC, we've talked about how we're most of our key brands are now outperforming the market, but we still remain cautious about the category overall. We've shown growth in categories this quarter that are either flat or declining. The category outlook is what determines some of our cautious outlook for the top line. And on the H&G business, most of the season's ahead of us, right? It'll be premature based on our second quarter early really good results to call the year up. I think we're being cautious. We're gonna continue to monitor what happens. Again, the key takeaway here is our brands are outperforming the market. We are definitely gaining share.

There's a lot of strength going into the second quarter, but there's a lot of caution around, as David said in his prepared remarks, in the macro economic environment and what it does to the consumer.

Chris CareyAnalyst, Wells Fargo Securities

Okay. Yeah. That checks and makes a lot of sense. One follow-up would be on the HCC partnership, can you give us a sense of just, you know, thought process over the years of thinking through strategic options for the business, and maybe just give us the sense of how you got to this point. Obviously, this creates more flexibility, which is very interesting. I just wanted to get a bit more sense of, you know, how this came to be and how you were assessing various alternatives. Thanks so much.

David MauraChairman and CEO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Yeah. Again, I think we've heard from our shareholders that they would prefer to see this business separate from the faster-growing, higher-margin Pet & Home & Garden businesses that we own. You know, look, we have looked at a lot of options for this business over the years. It's been unfortunate that when we've attracted, you know, strategic and financial interest for it, that we, you know, got into a trade policy situation and which actually derailed the process. If you look at the competitive set, you know, other than SharkNinja, which is an amazing company doing exceedingly well, most of our competitors in this space are either over-levered, underperforming, suffering with negative sales growth, and don't have a lot of optionality. If you look at our business, it's a strategic platform.

You know, we believe that the business is gonna generate, you know, $60 million, hopefully more. You know, EBITDA should start to climb as we get into the back half, quite frankly. Oaktree has picked a good time to come in because we expect EBITDA to actually grow from here. You know, I've known Oaktree for 20 years. They are very astute credit investors. They are exceedingly good capital allocators. They probably could have invested in any appliance company on the globe if they wanted to. They chose us. Frankly, we see tremendous dislocation in this space, and we believe that with Oaktree, we can initially look at, you know, higher organic growth opportunities and going forward, you know, over time, look at inorganic growth opportunities with them.

We're gonna be very judicious, and we're gonna look to make a lot of money together with them.

Chris CareyAnalyst, Wells Fargo Securities

Okay. All right. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

Madison CallinanAnalyst, Canaccord Genuity

Hi, this is Madison Callinan on for Brian. Thanks for taking our questions. First, how has the garden season started in April? Industry peers said yesterday that on-hand retailer inventories were low, which is a replenishment. Just give us any color on how committed retailers are to the category. Thanks.

David MauraChairman and CEO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Yeah, look, we think, you know, as opposed to last year, retail inventory started out, you know, much more prudent. April's off to a great start. I will tell you that, you know, we're very bullish on, you know, that business right now. I think Faisal, you know, made the comment, which is correct. The bulk of the season is yet to be. You know, until you get through May and June, you really don't know what you got. You know, all the weather forecasts look favorable, but, I mean, you and I know the weatherman, you know, they can be wrong half the time and still keep a job. Look, we wanna be conservative in the outlook, but the business is having a great April.

I agree with you that retail inventory has been lower than last year, which means more replenishment orders for us.

Madison CallinanAnalyst, Canaccord Genuity

Great. Second, do you think we've bottomed in pet, both for Spectrum and the industry as a whole, and that we're now set up for sustainable growth from here? Just anything on how pet ownership and buyer rates are trending. Thank you, guys.

David MauraChairman and CEO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

I mean, I think your question refers to we had a big boom during COVID. You know, post-COVID, you saw the pet industry really take a break. I can tell you that I think pet specialty is definitely recovering where they had a really hard time. You know, for us, you know, again, I can just comment on what we're doing, and we're launching new products. We're bringing new packaging. We're bringing new claims, and we're bringing new marketing techniques. We are growing our biggest brands at faster than category growth, and we're gonna continue to do that.

Madison CallinanAnalyst, Canaccord Genuity

Great. Thank you.

Olivia TongAnalyst, Raymond James

Great. Thank you. Good morning. I wanted to get a little bit more of your perspective on the sales growth this quarter and the sustainability of that and whether you think there maybe was some benefit from either destocking last year or tax refunds this year because clearly sales improved, though you left the full-year sales outlook unchanged despite, you know, the stop shipments in the year ago that hit second half and some FX favorability. Is there something that benefited Q2 that you don't expect to repeat, or are you being just mindful of the uncertain overall environment, and that gives you some pause as you think about second half? Thanks.

David MauraChairman and CEO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Yeah, I'll go first, and I'll let Faisal clean it up. I mean, we did have a little bit of pull-in in pet. You know, I think we mentioned a $6 million number, which, you know, it's not material, but, you know, we had some S/4 going live in EMEA, and we wanted to give customers a heads-up and just make sure that we kept everything flowing smoothly there. Again, I think the main thing that you guys should be modeling is we're putting out better product. We're putting out a price pack architecture. We're supporting our brands with new marketing campaigns. We got better packaging and better callouts, and we're launching products that the consumer wants based on consumer insights, and we're taking market share.

I mean, listen, a year ago, I was dealing with some of my biggest brands comping down 5%. You know, this year they're comping up that amount or more. You know, that is just fundamental improvement in the base business, period, end of story.

Faisal QadirCFO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Yeah, I'll just add, we called out last year Cutter as a brand that needed some more support and recovery. We're actually seeing that happen this year. In our H&G space, basically all of our key brands are showing growth and gaining share, which is pretty amazing. Same thing on our Global Pet Care business. Our brands are, again, outperforming the market and really strong performance overall. There is some pull-in, as David said, in the second quarter. We continue to believe that we'll grow our Home & Garden and Global Pet Care business. At this point, we're growing above the category. A lot of our cautiousness has comes from the fact that in Home & Garden's case, a lot of the season is still ahead of us.

Overall, if you just look at the consumer health and consumer confidence, there are a lot of negative externalities that are keeping us cautious about the balance of the year.

Olivia TongAnalyst, Raymond James

Got it. Just point of clarification, the only sort of pull forward was that $6 million in pet?

Faisal QadirCFO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Yeah, it was $9 million in total in the Global Pet Care business.

Olivia TongAnalyst, Raymond James

Okay. Got it. Then my second question is just around the Oaktree investment. Is there any structure in place to enable full change in control? Does this preclude other potential bidders from making a go at HPC if something were to come along?

David MauraChairman and CEO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

I mean, we own 73% of it on a fully diluted basis. You know, if we wanna sell to somebody that wants to pay a big number, we're fully able to do that.

Olivia TongAnalyst, Raymond James

Got it. Just last question around the commodities outlook. Can you help us sort of quantify the impact of higher oil for fiscal 2026 and what potentially is delayed until fiscal 2027 just because of inventory on hand or what have you? Any rule of thumb you could offer in terms of, you know, if oil was at 80, 90, 100, what have you, what kind of impact that might have on you?

Faisal QadirCFO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

For the year, as we said before, I think we're reasonably covered. We'll see some inflation. Really Q4 is when we'll feel some inflation. I think with the tariffs being down, I think we kinda offset that. It's a little too early to talk about next year and how much inflation we actually capitalize into next year. I would point to the fact that our recent experience with inflation has been that we're able to offset it either through productivity and price. We'll continue to monitor. Our goal would be to just hold our margin profile and offset that inflation as we see it.

Olivia TongAnalyst, Raymond James

Great. Thank you. Best of luck.

David MauraChairman and CEO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Thank you.

Jen SchultzDivision VP of FP&A and Investor Relations, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Excuse me. Thank you. With that, we will conclude our conference call. Thank you to David and Faisal. On behalf of Spectrum Brands, thank you for your participation this morning.

David MauraChairman and CEO, Spectrum Brands Holdings

Thanks, everybody. Have a good day.

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