Standard Motor (SMP) Earnings Call Transcript

Motley Fool Transcribing, The Motley Fool

Thu, February 26, 2026 astatine 11:15 AM CST 22 min read

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Feb. 26, 2026, 11 a.m. ET

• Chief Executive Officer — Eric Sills

• Chief Financial Officer — Nathan R. Iles

Eric Sills: Thank you, Anthony, and bully morning, everyone. We are pleased with our results. The beardown show we person been experiencing continued into the 4th quarter, putting a headdress connected a coagulated twelvemonth with bully momentum heading into 2026. Our apical enactment grew by implicit 12% successful the 4th and implicit 22% for the year, and overmuch of this was from our Nissens acquisition consummated successful precocious 2024. Excluding Nissens, we are up astir 4% for the 4th and the year. Strong income performance, combined with assorted interior initiatives, generated a favorable bottom-line number, some successful presumption of net maturation and EBITDA borderline expansion. All of our segments performed well. Let maine spell done them, starting with North American Vehicle Control.

Sales were up a precise beardown 3.3% year-over-year, with respective cardinal contributing factors. First, our products are non-discretionary and mostly DIFM, and truthful successful general, this class outperforms successful uncertain economical times. On apical of that, we judge our customers’ occurrence with our well-regarded dispersed is evidenced by their beardown sell-through, and their POS was up successful the mid-single digits passim the year. As you look astatine the subcategory of ligament sets, you volition enactment a 27% to 10% drop-off successful the quarter, bringing the full ligament acceptable class down to little than 10% of Vehicle Control. Wire sets are a class successful secular decline.

As such, definite customers chose to reset their shelves successful the 2nd half, rightsizing their inventories for this mature category. It is important to enactment that their ligament acceptable POS for this play was lone down successful the mid-single digits, which is much reflective of ongoing demand. Lastly, our income successful the conception benefited successful the backmost fractional of the twelvemonth arsenic we began to walk done our tariffs astatine cost. Turning to Temperature Control, robust income continued, up astir 6% implicit a precise hard comp, though the 4th fourth is the smallest successful this heat-related business.

In a seasonal class similar this, the cadence crossed orders tin alteration twelvemonth to year, truthful the cardinal measurement is full-year sales, and for the afloat year, the conception was up much than 12%. So what is driving this? As we described connected the past call, the aerial conditioning play seems to beryllium elongating, starting earlier and ending later. Customers are recognizing this and getting their inventory successful spot up of the play to beryllium capable to instrumentality vantage of aboriginal demand. We besides judge a cardinal operator is the occurrence of our AC kit program, wherever we person each you request to bash the repair included successful a prepacked kit.