GURU Organic Energy Corp. (GURU.TO) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: Welcome to the GURU Organic Energy Third Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call and Webcast being recorded today, September 10, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. [Operator Instructions] GURU's press release, MD&A and financial statements are available in the Investors section of its website and on SEDAR+. During the call, the company may refer to certain non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations are available in its MD&A. Also note that all financial figures are expressed in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated. I would also like to remind you that today's presentation may contain forward-looking statements about GURU's current and future plans, expectations, intentions, results, level of activity, performance, goals, achievements or other future events or developments. Please take a moment to read the disclaimer on forward-looking statements on Slide 2 of the presentation. I will now turn the call over to Carl Goyette, GURU's Chief Executive Officer.

Carl Goyette: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to GURU's Fiscal 2026 Third Quarter Results Conference Call. Before we get into the results, I would like to briefly address the leadership transition we announced yesterday. After 12 years with GURU, including the last 6 as President and CEO, I am concluding my tenure as CEO. With our foundation in Canada strengthened, record momentum in the business and significant potential ahead, GURU is now entering its next chapter of growth. As a result, the Board has initiated a search for a new CEO. I will remain a director of the company and a shareholder. I am also committed to supporting the team through this transition and as GURU pursues its long-term growth potential. Patrick Charbonneau has also been promoted to Chief Revenue Officer. Patrick and Ingy Sarraf, our CFO and COO, will co-lead GURU's operations under the direction of our Board Chair, Tyler Ricks, who will serve as Executive Chair through the transition. I am immensely proud of what this team has accomplished. We have been in the trenches together through many milestone moments in GURU's history. From our public listing to bringing Canadian distribution back in-house, we have celebrated important achievements and worked through challenges always moving forward together. What makes me the proudest is the strength of the team and the brand we have built, a brand with deep roots in Quebec that has grown across Canada and made meaningful inroads in the U.S. market. I hand over the leadership of GURU with confidence in the team, the business and the opportunity ahead. Tyler is with us on today's call, and Ingy will join me for the Q&A. Now let's turn to the third quarter results. Starting on Slide 5. This was a record quarter for GURU. Net revenue reached $11.5 million, up 10.3%, which is the highest quarterly net revenue in our history. Last year's third quarter carried a onetime benefit. Excluding it, revenue grew about 27% on a comparable basis. This is how fast this business is really growing. And we grew profitably with net income of $0.5 million and positive EBITDA of $0.9 million. Ingy will take you through the trend over time. On a trailing 12-month basis, net revenue is about -- is approximately $39 million, up about 23%, with adjusted EBITDA of roughly $0.5 million. This is the third consecutive trailing 12-month period with a positive adjusted EBITDA since GURU went public. More than a year ago, we took back control of our distribution in Canada. This quarter, four full quarters into it, it shows what that control produces. Turning to Slide 6. Because of last year's onetime benefit, net revenue in Canada was essentially flat year-over-year at $8.7 million. But if you exclude the onetime item, Canada actually grew about 19% on a comparable basis. We invested in trade and promotion to win back shelf space, and it's showing up in stronger distribution and consumption. The Zero Sugar platform is doing the heavy lifting. Our Sorbet line keeps outperforming. We ran our first ever large-format Sorbet limited time offer with a leading club retailer this past quarter, and it's sold through in weeks. We launched GURU Zero Tropical in July and followed with a new 4-pack in August. And we added shelf space across Canada's major grocery and convenience banners, choosing the accounts where our shoppers already shop. The consumer response is showing up where people actually shop. During Amazon Prime Day, GURU was the #1 sports energy drink on Amazon Canada. Turning to Slide 7. The U.S. has turned the corner. U.S. net revenue grew 59.8% to $2.8 million. This is the growth we have been building toward and momentum we intend to build upon given the vast potential of the American energy drink market. As a reminder, in this market, our focus is on securing leadership position in the natural food stores, online growth and profitability where we consistently stand out as the #1 organic energy drink and continuing to pursue our expansion efforts in wholesale clubs. Looking at the natural food channel. On June 22, we launched nationwide across 490 Sprouts stores in both their in-line and forager sets and have since expanded into their cold box. This represents a major milestone for GURU and directly supports our U.S. growth strategy. As one of the most trusted natural grocery destinations in the U.S., Sprouts provides us with direct access to the health-conscious consumer we want, which is already aligned with our values and mission and looking for what GURU offers. As previously discussed, building our presence in this channel will also serve as a platform to then turn our focus on the premium conventional grocery channel in priority urban markets. Our velocities across the natural channel keep climbing with strong repeat purchase in our listed accounts, including Whole Foods and Erewhon, and the pipeline is full. In addition, we have a growing set of confirmed listings with both leading natural food and wholesale club partners heading into next year. Each one builds our position in the U.S. market we care most about. Our online sales performance continued to be sustained with our U.S. Amazon Prime Day, GURU dollar sales growing 14% year-over-year. Together, these gains reinforce the U.S. as a key future growth engine for GURU and a priority market for future investments and expansion. Turning to Slide 8. All of this comes back to our Zero Sugar platform. In just over 2 years, we have built 7 products, all organic, Zero Sugar, no sucralose; no aspartame. Nothing else in the category combines those four things at scale. Zero Sugar is where our money works hardest in Canada and increasingly in the U.S. Our newest launches, Orange Raspberry Sorbet and Tropical are both performing ahead of plan, and innovation will keep driving the business through the rest of the year. I will now turn the call over to Ingy for a deeper look at our financial performance.

Ingy Sarraf: Thank you, Carl, and good morning, everyone. Let's turn to Slide 10. I want to walk you through the four things that explained the quarter and how they came together. First, revenue. Net revenue grew 10.3% to $11.5 million, our highest quarterly net revenue ever. Excluding last year's onetime benefit, that represents about 27% growth on a comparable basis. Canada was $8.7 million, roughly flat as reported or about 19% on a comparable basis. The United States grew 59.8% to $2.8 million, led by our natural channel expansion. Second, gross margin. Margin was 61.9% compared to 71.3% a year ago. Most of that difference is not operational. Last year's third quarter included a onetime change in estimate tied to the termination of our previous Canadian distribution agreement. Excluding that item, prior year margin was 65.9%. So the comparable decline is about 400 basis points, and it is deliberate. It reflects heavier trade and promotional spend in the quarter, along with client mix since new listings carry higher upfront trade costs. We are now a full year into direct distribution. And this quarter, we ran a fuller promotional calendar than the prior year period when several windows were missing during the transition. We view the trailing 12-month basis as the better read on margin, which is currently at 63.3% Third, SG&A was $6.7 million. As a percentage of revenue, it improved to 58.5% from 60.6% last year. This is operational -- operating leverage. Within that, sales and marketing rose to $3.8 million, reflecting planned investment behind our U.S. distribution expansion and our product innovations. The balance reflects professional fees tied to matters described in our MD&A, which we expect to normalize. Fourth, the trailing 12-month picture, which is the one I want you to focus on. Net income for the quarter was $0.5 million or $0.02 per share, and adjusted EBITDA was positive at $0.9 million. Both compare against the prior year quarter that included a onetime item I mentioned. Over the trailing 12 months, net revenue is approximately $39 million, up about 23% with positive adjusted EBITDA of roughly $0.5 million. That is the third consecutive 12-month period of positive adjusted EBITDA since we went public. Quarterly results will move with seasonality and the timing of trade and marketing. The trailing 12-month trend is the one that tells you where the business is going and it keeps improving. For the 9 months, net revenue was $28.9 million, up 17.3% or about 24%, excluding the onetime benefit. Net loss improved about 41% to $0.8 million, and adjusted EBITDA turned positive at $0.1 million compared with a loss a year ago. On the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $25.6 million in cash and short-term investments, no debt and an unused $10 million credit facility for total available liquidity of $35.6 million. That gives us the flexibility to keep investing behind growth. Back to you, Carl.

Carl Goyette: Thank you, Ingy. Let's turn to Slide 12. GURU is entering its final quarter of the year, fall 2026 with real momentum. The business has set record revenue and posted three consecutive trailing 12-month periods of positive adjusted EBITDA. The benefits of taking back Canadian distribution are showing up in the numbers. Our U.S. business has grown nearly 60%, and we have the most differentiated clean label zero sugar portfolio in the category. As I said in the outset, I am proud of what we have built. Today's leadership announcement marks an important next step in GURU's evolution, but it does not change the business focus or priorities. The team remains fully committed to executing our strategy, finishing the year strong and realizing the significant potential ahead of us. I will remain engaged through the transition. And as a director and shareholder, I look forward to continuing to support GURU's growth. We will continue to scale up Zero Sugar, expand distribution in channels that matter and maintain discipline on pricing and trade so that margins return to their structural level. We will continue to grow our brand in Quebec and Canada while building our momentum to methodically scale our presence in the U.S. That concludes our formal remarks. Operator, we'll now open the call to questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] The first question today comes from Martin Landry with Stifel.

Martin Landry: I would like to touch, as I usually do on your scan data at retail in Canada. Wondering if you could provide us with the growth on a year-over-year basis. And also, if you could comment on the industry growth in Canada, that would be super helpful.

Carl Goyette: Ingy, you want to take that since you made the calculations, and I'll add if required.

Ingy Sarraf: Yes, sure. So for our scan growth, it's very similar to last quarter that we mentioned. So overall, with tracked and untracked channels, we're up about double digits at 10% from a scan growth. And then the other you had -- sorry, Martin?

Carl Goyette: And it's driven mainly by untracked. So that's similar to last quarter. The other part of the question was the industry growth, Ingy.

Ingy Sarraf: Yes. The industry growth is in the higher -- low -- one digit. So it's more around 7%, 8% in Canada, a bit lower than in the U.S. So we're above the industry growth.

Martin Landry: Okay. That's helpful. So just to be clear, so there was -- that implies that there was a bit of a channel filling in the quarter because I think you said your revenues on a comparable basis are, I think, up. Did -- I get 19% in Canada and your scan is up double digits. So a little bit of channel fill, would that be fair?

Carl Goyette: We could call it channel fill, we call it better execution, like maybe the last -- if you look at last summer, we were -- this was our first quarter post our ending our prior distribution partnership. So this year, we were full into force, building our retail programs, running all the full promotional calendar. So the combination of that, if you want to call it channel filling, which is probably true, we like it better as just better execution, making sure the stores are really fully stocked, fully prepared for the summer.

Martin Landry: Okay. No, that's fair. You mentioned in your opening remarks that you have a growing number of listings in the U.S. heading into next year. I was wondering if you could give us a little bit of color on that. I don't know if you can give us maybe an order of magnitude in terms of number of doors or timing of that launch. Is this early in the year, later in the year? And also on SKUs, if possible or which flavor are going to be listed?

Carl Goyette: Yes. As usual, I'll try to give you as much as I can, right? But this is the type of information that we don't want -- I would love to give it to you, but not to our competitors. So it's going to be focused. On the SKUs, that's easy, right? Most of the new listings are coming on the Zero Sugar side of things, right, which is the line that has really driven the growth. Most of the listings are coming through California, which has been a real focus. But there are some other opportunities as well in the natural channel that we're still looking at, right? So I don't have the number of doors because some of that are in progress, in negotiations, in finalization, but there's real progress, real momentum, both in the natural channel and some conventional and club stuff that's coming up, right, in the Zero Sugar. I don't know if Ingy, you want to add if I'm missing anything or if you add anything that?

Ingy Sarraf: No. That's exactly it.

Carl Goyette: That's as much as we can give you now.

Martin Landry: Any details on timing, Carl? Like are we talking earlier in the year, later in the year?

Carl Goyette: Most of that, like it's similar to in the past. There's a few exceptions to this. There are some banners that do resets in the fall, right? So there could be some small changes late fall, beginning of the year, but the typical resets are all spring resets.

Tyler Ricks: Carl or Martin, this is Tyler Ricks. I would just add that a big part of our ability to continue to expand in the U.S. will be the success we're seeing at Sprouts and Sprouts' reporting in the natural channel in the U.S. So as we build that successful business, it will unlock other opportunities across natural and better-for-you grocery customers in the U.S.

Carl Goyette: Absolutely.

Martin Landry: Okay. That's helpful. And Carl, just best of luck in your future projects. It's been great working with you since the IPO.

Carl Goyette: You've been an awesome partner.

Operator: The next question comes from Sean McGowan with ROTH Capital Markets.

Sean McGowan: Carl, I suppose. A couple of questions. If we could talk a little bit about the efforts -- the success rather that Alani Nu has had has attracted some additional competition from Monster and Bull and others. Have you seen any impact in that category, in that subsegment, call it, female, age 25 to whatever? Has the competitive response to Alani's success had any impact so far on GURU's success either in the U.S. or in Canada?

Carl Goyette: No. Speaking specifically of the competition, like Alani for sure, right? Alani for sure has seen impressive growth. So that's impacting, I think, everybody in the category. They have driven a lot of category growth. Our product is very differentiated from that. We target a very different consumer with a very different product. So we haven't seen a measurable impact from the additional competition, right, if that's your question, right? For example, some other brands have reacted to this specific consumer. But so far, their success has been limited.

Sean McGowan: Okay. That's helpful. Another question about competition. Are you seeing any kind of step-up in promotional activity from competitors that is suggested you need to be more promotional over the next several months or quarters? Like when you talk, Ingy, about this being deliberate increase in trade investment, was that in any way driven by what you're seeing the competition do?

Ingy Sarraf: Well, most of it is driven by, of course, our miss last year at the same period because we were just coming off the distribution agreement, and we had missed a lot of the windows for promotional activity. So we were kind of going full out like we usually do in the summer with displays, like Carl mentioned, making sure the stores have stock and being out there. Of course, we're also seeing the big players, right? Going much more into multipacks, offering variety packs and some other options available. But we're not focused on price. We're really focused on displays, our innovations, making sure our consumers are really seeing our products in the right doors and in the right locations.

Sean McGowan: That's helpful. Just my last competitive question. Is Costco doing their Kirkland Signature energy drink in Canada yet?

Carl Goyette: No, we haven't seen it in Canada, right? So we have no idea on their plans, but it's -- I think it's -- I don't have visibility on how successful it's been in the U.S. It's -- you know it was developed targeting a very specific brand and a very specific consumer. So again, it might launch in Canada at some point, but we feel our product is very differentiated from that. Our consumer is looking for something with real ingredients that are natural and with plant-based caffeine. It doesn't mean we're immune to competition, right? We've -- there has always been a lot of competition in this industry, and there will always be. But having a very different product, a very different consumer profile, I think, really helps us. I also want to build on your previous question on the brands that are growing because one of the things that I think is important to mention, it's a segue into what Tyler's point, right, is that a lot of the growth we've seen in the U.S. has been driven lately by Sprouts and the natural channel where these brands are not, right? So it's -- I think the momentum in these banners shows that there is a consumer that's looking for something that's obviously different. Right now, they're shopping mainly in the natural channel for options like this. But that momentum, we are confident we will build the success outside of the natural channel into conventional retailers who will also want to be part of that growing opportunity.

Sean McGowan: Great. I'm glad you brought that up because it segues into my last question, which is -- I know you say in the slide deck that it's not kind of channel fill or loading the shelves that's driving that increase in the natural channel. But still you go from not selling them to selling them a lot, that there's got to be at least some of that. So can you help us understand how much of the growth that you saw in the U.S. might be kind of onetime, just kind of loading it up for the initial load in that channel?

Carl Goyette: Yes. Ingy, do you want to take that one?

Ingy Sarraf: For the -- what we're seeing in Sprouts you mean?

Sean McGowan: Yes.

Ingy Sarraf: Yes. Well, no, most of the growth is coming from all across the U.S., right? Like we mentioned Amazon and our other customers, whether Whole Foods or the other natural banners. But of course, there is a small impact that's coming from Sprouts from setting up the stores. So I wouldn't say at all, it's the majority. It's the minority of the growth. But of course, like setting up any new banner, there is some of that, right, like making sure the stores are filled and the stores are ready for the launch.

Sean McGowan: Okay. That's helpful -- it isn't like just a big onetime slug that comes from Sprouts and then you have to lap that in a year. Very helpful. And I'll echo Martin's comments, Carl, it's been a joy working with you. And hopefully, our paths will cross many times. Maybe our bike paths will cross many times.

Carl Goyette: I hope. I'll miss our French conversations.

Sean McGowan: [Foreign Language]

Carl Goyette: [Foreign Language]

Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ingy Sarraf for any closing remarks.

Ingy Sarraf: Thank you, operator, [Foreign Language]. This was a record quarter for GURU, and we look forward to continue to build on this momentum. [Foreign Language] Thank you. Have a nice day. Bye.

Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.