Perimeter (PRM) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

Image source: The Motley Fool.

DATE

Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chief Executive Officer — Haitham Khouri
• Chief Financial Officer — Kyle Sable

TAKEAWAYS

• Net Sales -- $125.1 million, representing a 74% increase year over year driven by both organic growth and acquisitions.
• Adjusted EBITDA -- $41.2 million, more than double the prior year’s $18.1 million, reflecting contributions from recent M&A and operational execution.
• Net Income -- $72.9 million, or $0.44 per diluted share, compared to $56.7 million, or $0.36 per diluted share last year.
• Adjusted Net Income -- $9 million, up from $4.1 million, with adjusted earnings per diluted share at $0.06 versus $0.03 previously.
• Fire Safety Revenue -- $45.4 million, a 22% increase; adjusted EBITDA for the segment reached $18.7 million, nearly double the $10.1 million last year, with gains across international retardant and suppressants businesses.
• Specialty Products Revenue -- $79.6 million, rising 128%; adjusted EBITDA for the segment was $22.5 million, up significantly from $8 million, primarily due to recent acquisitions.
• Suppressants Contract with DLA -- A new 5-year agreement with the Defense Logistics Agency has a maximum value of $500 million, with approximately two-thirds incremental to current business, and financial impact expected to begin in late 2026 and reach a steady-state run rate by 2028.
• CAL FIRE Retardant Contract Renewal -- The new 5-year term includes a step-up in year 1 pricing to align with other major customers and provides an annual escalator for the contract's duration.
• Service Revenue Baseline -- CFO Sable said, "we've gone from $30 million to a little over $100 million in the run rate, and we do believe that is a new and sustainable baseline," with most contractually fixed for the year and additional uplift expected from further air base conversions.
• Acquisition of MMT -- Completed January 22 for $682 million, funded with cash and $550 million in 6.25% senior secured notes due 2034, adding momentum in new product launches and operational improvements to the Specialty Products segment.
• Capital Expenditures -- $5.8 million in the quarter, below run rate due to timing; management expects full-year spending to reach the higher end of its $30 million to $40 million annual guidance as capacity expansion and productivity investments accelerate.
• Leverage and Liquidity -- Net debt to LTM adjusted EBITDA was 3.2x at quarter-end, below target; the company maintained $92 million in cash and a fully undrawn $200 million revolving credit facility.
• Input Cost Management -- CFO Sable said, "we have pretty strong contractual protections against these price increases," with no material margin impact from rising input costs anticipated this year.
• Operational Disruption at Sauget Facility -- Management cited "the most challenging period of operational performance in the history of our Sauget, Illinois facility" due to third-party mismanagement, but reported that, "our team grew revenue and adjusted EBITDA at PDI slightly year over year."
• Adjusted Interest Expense -- $24.4 million in cash interest for the quarter, including $6.25 million for a bridge facility to close the MMT deal, which will not recur in future quarters.

Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email pr@fool.com

RISKS

• CEO Khouri described continued "substantial unplanned downtime" at the Sauget, Illinois facility, attributing it to "a sustained failure to provide the resources, personnel and operational discipline required," creating a headwind to revenue and profitability for the Specialty Products segment in the quarter.

SUMMARY

Perimeter Solutions (NYSE:PRM) reported first-quarter net sales of $125.1 million and adjusted EBITDA of $41.2 million, reflecting significant acquisition-driven and organic growth. The company secured two major long-term contracts: a $500 million suppressants agreement with the Defense Logistics Agency, which will progressively contribute revenue through 2028, and a renewed 5-year CAL FIRE retardant contract featuring enhanced year-one pricing and escalators. Despite severe unplanned downtime at the Sauget, Illinois facility due to issues with a third-party operator, the Specialty Products segment demonstrated resilience, maintaining growth in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. Management emphasized effective input cost pass-through mechanisms, with no forecast for meaningful margin pressure from rising fertilizer prices or lead times. The acquisition of MMT added operational upside, accelerated new product launches, and is expected to surpass initial full-year expectations, while strong liquidity and leverage metrics support continued capital deployment into expansion and M&A opportunities.

• Service revenue from retardant contracts has reset at more than $100 million annually, with most fixed contractually and further growth anticipated from air base conversions in federal and California contracts.
• Significant capital allocation flexibility persists post-acquisition, with a disciplined approach to assess and pursue new M&A that aligns with recurring revenue, competitive positioning, and targeted return thresholds.
• Management expects annual cash tax rates of approximately 20% or lower, with the first quarter showing a $2 million net benefit from timing effects.
• Wildfire activity remains within normal seasonal ranges, but management anticipates that federal agency strategies for aggressive initial attack will help moderate downside performance volatility, further stabilizing results.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• DLA (Defense Logistics Agency): U.S. government agency managing global supply chains for the military and federal agencies, specifically referenced as a major customer for suppressants in this call.
• P2S5 (Phosphorus Pentasulfide): A chemical used in the manufacture of lubricant additives such as Zinc Dialkyldithiophosphates (ZDDP), core to the company’s Specialty Products segment.
• Vendor-Managed Inventory: A supply chain service model where the supplier manages inventory stock levels and logistics at the customer’s site, highlighted as a capability developed for the DLA contract.
• Full-Service Air Base Infrastructure Model: Contractual structure where Perimeter operates and maintains all aspects of aerial retardant application bases for government customers, underpinned by multi-year service revenue.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Haitham Khouri: Thank you, Seth. Good morning, everyone. We're pleased to report a strong start to 2026 with first quarter adjusted EBITDA of $41.2 million, reflecting both organic and acquired growth. Our Q1 results highlight 2 key points. First, our operational value driver strategy is translating directly to our bottom line. Second, we have built a durable and predictable earnings base. This predictability is driven by 3 things: number one, new and improved contracting structures in both our retardant and suppressants businesses; two, diversification within our Fire Safety segment due primarily to the growth in our suppressants and international retardants businesses. And three, organic and M&A-driven growth in our Specialty Products segment.

As always, I will start with a summary of our strategy, then provide an operational update, after which Kyle will walk through the quarter's financial results and capital allocation in more detail. Starting with a summary of our strategy. Our goal is to fulfill our critical mission by providing our customers with high-quality products and exceptional service while delivering our investors private equity-like returns with the liquidity of a public market. Our strategy is built on 3 key operational pillars. First, we own exceptional businesses. These are niche market leaders that play critical roles in solving complex customer problems, qualities that support high returns on invested capital and durable earnings power.

Second, we rigorously apply our 3 operational value drivers to the businesses we own. We drive profitable new business, achieve continual productivity improvements and provide increasing value to customers, which we share with through value-based pricing. And third, we operate our businesses in a highly decentralized manner, granting our business unit managers full operating autonomy paired with the accountability to deliver results with a tightly aligned incentive structure for our managers to think and act like owners. We believe that our operational pillars will optimize our durable long-term free cash flow. We then seek to maximize long-term per share equity value through a clear focus on the allocation of our capital as well as the management of our capital structure.

Turning to our Fire Safety operations on Slide 4. Our Q1 Fire Safety results are a direct reflection of the 2 themes I highlighted in my opening, the successful implementation of our operational value drivers and the durability and predictability of our earnings. Starting with our value drivers. Fire Safety's Q1 performance was driven by profitable new business. Our international retardant business was strong based on both activity in existing markets and footprint expansion in new and early-stage markets. Our global suppressants business also delivered strong results based on both new wins and higher sales to our large installed base.

In addition to the profitable new business results, we delivered year-over-year productivity across our business units in Fire Safety and our internal investment initiatives translated into value-based pricing. Turning to the predictability of our earnings base. The resilience of our model was clear this quarter. We delivered year-over-year adjusted EBITDA growth in Fire Safety despite lower North American retardant sales stemming from the tough comparisons of the Eaton and Palisades fires in Q1 2025. Moving to Slide 5, where we stay with Fire Safety, but step back from the first quarter. Last week, Perimeter inked 2 milestone Fire Safety contracts that will both grow our earnings and enhance their durability. First, suppressants.

We worked hard over the past several years to align our products and services with the specific needs of the Defense Logistics Agency or the DLA. On the product side, we made significant R&D investments to develop products for the DLA's unique requirements and deployed capital to expand our Green Bay, Wisconsin facility to meet the DLA demand and redundancy needs. At the same time, we also invested heavily in our service capabilities, including standing up a customized vendor-managed inventory service for the DLA and optimizing our packaging to meet the agency specifications. And we did all this with a U.S.-based manufacturing footprint that supports the DLA's need for reliable domestic supply.

These efforts have driven a steady increase in our business with the DLA, specifically on behalf of the Navy, the Coast Guard and the Army. In line with our efforts to establish mutually beneficial long-term contracting structures within our fire safety business, last week, we entered into a 5-year agreement to provide foams to the DLA with a maximum contract value of $500 million. Since we already provide suppressants to the DLA, we expect the incremental uplift from this agreement to be approximately 2/3 of the total contract value. We expect that the financial impact will begin in late 2026, ramp up through 2027 and reach a steady-state run rate in 2028 and beyond.

We're making further investments to support this ramp-up, including further expansion of our Green Bay facility and a further increase to our staffing levels. These capital and operating investments directly support U.S. job creation. This contract is an excellent example of how our focus on understanding and meeting our customers' needs translates into profitable new business opportunities. Moving to our retardants. Last week, we renewed our CAL FIRE contract for a new 5-year term.

Given the time elapsed since the prior renewal as well as the evolution of our offering on both the product and service sides, pricing on this contract increased relative to the previous CAL FIRE contract, bringing historically lower CAL FIRE pricing in line with our other large retardant customers. No state has more population exposed to wildfire risk than California. We are proud that CAL FIRE has once again trusted Perimeter to protect the lives, properties and environment of their state. Finally, let me comment on the national wildfire landscape. The formation of the U.S. Wildland Fire Service is an important development in the wildland firefighting space.

Our existing federal contract already spans all of the federal wildfire fighting agencies that will be consolidated into this new service, and our contract will carry forward under this new organizational structure. We believe a more unified structure will improve coordination and streamline decision-making, supporting more effective wildfire response over time. Turning to the next slide, which covers our Specialty Products segment and starting with PDI. The first quarter of 2026 was the most challenging period of operational performance in the history of our Sauget, Illinois facility. The plant experienced substantial unplanned downtime.

This disruption is the direct result of a sustained failure to provide the resources, personnel and operational discipline required to run the facility safely and reliably, a failure that has persisted ever since One Rock Capital acquired Flexsys. And as the controlling owner of Flexsys, One Rock is responsible for the strategic and financial decisions governing this facility, and One Rock bears the ultimate responsibility for driving performance to its lowest level on record. We are pursuing all available legal avenues to enforce our contractual rights.

We have a proven track record of operating P2S5 facilities safely and reliably, and we are confident that upon assuming control of Sauget, we will restore operating discipline, safety standards and production consistency for the benefit of the facility, its workers and our customers. Our resolve in this matter is absolute. We are highlighting these operational failures publicly because our investors, our customers and the workforce at Sauget deserve transparency. We have a duty to protect this critical facility from One Rock's sustained mismanagement, and we will actively manage the near-term impacts while pressing our legal rights to their full conclusion. In contrast to Flexsys' performance, we're proud of how Perimeter's PDI team has performed.

Despite the greatest operational headwind the business has ever experienced, our team grew revenue and adjusted EBITDA at PDI slightly year-over-year. This result speaks to the power of the operational value driver model and highlights our team's ability to fight through obstacles and deliver results irrespective of the external environment. Turning to MMT. Integration is proceeding smoothly, and we are making tangible progress across each of our operational value drivers. A key advantage of bringing MMT into Perimeter's forever hold structure is that it immediately unlocks significant new capital and resources for the MMT team. We are actively deploying these resources to implement our value drivers and further accelerate MMT's business.

On profitable new business, this capital is directly supporting the MMT team's innovation pipeline. As a result, new product development has accelerated meaningfully with expected product launches at MMT stepping up from 2 in 2025 to 9 in 2026. On productivity, we are putting these resources to work to eliminate manufacturing bottlenecks and maximize throughput, driving permanent improvements to MMT's cost structure. And on pricing, we are applying our disciplined value-based approach. By combining our pricing frameworks with the MMT team's deep product expertise and strong customer relationships, we are ensuring that pricing fully reflects the exceptional value MMT delivers to its customers. Just as important as the operating model is the team. Cultural alignment has been excellent.

MMT leadership shares our approach to value creation and our partnership is translating directly into performance. MMT is performing very well early in our ownership period. We see strong potential for upside as we back the MMT team and fully deploy our operating model. Turning finally to IMS. Similar to MMT, IMS' acquisitions to benefit from the resources we immediately make available to maximize the potential and value of these acquired product lines. Given the product lines IMS acquires are often orphaned or underinvested in prior to acquisition, the benefits of our forever hold structure can be particularly pronounced at IMS.

The IMS team is focused on systematically applying our operational value drivers across the product line acquisitions completed in 2025. We are encouraged by our progress and look forward to further investing in these acquired products and to closing future product line acquisitions. In closing, our disciplined operational value driver strategy is delivering strong financial performance across both of our segments, while our commercial and contracting initiatives are driving durable and predictable long-term earnings. With that, I'll turn the call over to Kyle to walk through the financials in more details. Kyle?

Kyle Sable: Thanks, Haitham. Perimeter delivered net sales of $125.1 million in the quarter, up 74% year-over-year, with adjusted EBITDA of $41.2 million, more than doubling from $18.1 million last year. Net income was $72.9 million or $0.44 per diluted share compared to $56.7 million or $0.36 per diluted share in the prior year. On an adjusted basis, the adjusted net income was $9 million, up from $4.1 million, while adjusted earnings per diluted share was $0.06, up from $0.03. Our consolidated results reflect disciplined execution of our operational value drivers, supported by contributions from recent acquisitions. Moving into the details of Fire Safety.

Revenue for the quarter was $45.4 million, up 22% year-over-year, and adjusted EBITDA was $18.7 million, nearly double the $10.1 million in the prior year. This performance was driven by continued execution of our operational value drivers with strength across both our international retardant markets, notably Australia and our suppressants business, each contributing meaningfully in the quarter. Despite North American retardant volume headwinds, Fire Safety delivered strong results, demonstrating that the business can generate meaningful growth in earnings even in periods of weaker retardant demand, a dynamic that would not have been present historically.

This quarter is another example of reported acres burned having low correlation with our U.S. retardant business' performance, given the low acreage but high impact of last year's Southern California fires and the inverse this year, with nearly 900,000 acres burning in Nebraska with minimal retardant used. We increasingly view acres burned as a poor indicator of our financial performance and expect that relationship to continue to weaken over time, given our effort to reduce variability and increase the contribution from our own execution.

Looking forward to the rest of the year, wildfire activity to date is within a range we would consider normal for this point in the season with conditions that remain conducive to fire activity and the full range of outcomes from mild to severe remains possible. As always, we will be prepared to accommodate a more severe than normal fire season should such a season ultimately materialize. Our capacity planning also integrates recent comments from the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture, indicating that the aggressive initial attack strategy employed in 2025 is expected to continue in 2026.

We view this as an important development as that strategy drove more proactive and consistent use of retardant last year and helped support demand even in a lower acres environment and if sustained, should continue to reduce the downside sensitivity of our business to variability in fire activity while supporting more consistent and growing demand over time. As we look ahead, we remain focused not only on demand drivers, but also on ensuring our supply chain is well positioned. We have seen recent increases in fertilizer prices and lead times, but our contracts include mechanisms to address meaningful input cost movements. And combined with our inventory position, we believe that we are well prepared to effectively manage these changing dynamics.

As we exit the quarter, our Fire Safety business is well positioned, driven by continued execution of our operational value drivers, supported by the stability of our contract structure and the diversification of our revenue streams and reinforced by the ongoing shift to more proactive wildfire response. Turning now to Specialty Products. Revenue for the quarter was $79.6 million, an increase of 128% year-over-year and adjusted EBITDA was $22.5 million, up from $8 million in the prior year period. The year-over-year increase was driven primarily by contributions from recent acquisitions. Importantly, the base business also delivered growth in the quarter despite increased operational disruption at the Flexsys-operated Sauget facility.

As Haitham discussed, downtime at that facility was more severe this quarter than in prior periods, creating a headwind to both revenue and profitability. Despite those challenges, the underlying demand environment for PDI remains solid, and the team continues to work through these operational issues while delivering financial growth. Turning to MMT and building on Haitham's remarks, we are encouraged by the early performance of the business. Integration is progressing well, and we are seeing early benefits from the application of our operational value drivers.

As we spend more time in the business and deepen our understanding of its customers and end markets, our conviction in the underwriting case has increased, and we currently expect MMT's full year results to exceed our initial expectations. Taken together, Specialty Products results reflect both the resilience of the base business in the face of operational headwinds and the growing contribution and momentum from recent acquisitions. I'll now turn to our long-term assumptions. Our assumptions are unchanged and with normal quarterly variation, first quarter results are consistent with those expectations. Our framework contemplates annual interest expense of approximately $75 million. And in the first quarter, cash interest expense was $24.4 million.

The first quarter includes $6.25 million of cash interest expenses related to the bridge facility commitment provided to close the MMT deal, which will not recur in subsequent quarters. We expect tax deductible depreciation and amortization in the range of $60 million to $65 million annually, and first quarter taxable depreciation and amortization was $10.4 million. We expect our cash tax rate to be approximately 20% or better over time. And in the first quarter, cash taxes were a net benefit of $2 million, primarily reflecting timing dynamics. We expect capital expenditures of $30 million to $40 million per year and capital expenditures in the first quarter were $5.8 million, below run rate due to timing.

As we look to the balance of the year, we are accelerating investment in areas, including suppressants capacity expansion and MMT productivity initiatives, which we expect will bring full year capital expenditures towards the higher end of our range. Finally, we expect working capital investment of approximately 10% to 15% of revenue growth and working capital performance in the quarter was consistent with that framework, reflecting seasonal dynamics and the impact of recent acquisitions. Turning to capital allocation. As previously announced, we completed the acquisition of MMT on January 22 for approximately $682 million, funded through a combination of cash on hand and new debt issuance.

MMT represents an important addition to our portfolio and aligns directly with our strategy of acquiring high-quality businesses where we can apply our operational value drivers to drive meaningful value creation. We also continue to invest organically in our business through capital expenditures. These investments are focused on projects that enhance our ability to serve customers while driving productivity improvements and supporting profitable growth. As with all our capital decisions, we underwrite these investments to generate returns above our targeted thresholds, and we see a growing pipeline of opportunities across the business. Looking forward, we have ample capital to allocate even after our robust capital expenditure pipeline is fulfilled. Once CapEx needs are met, our primary focus is M&A.

Our M&A framework remains consistent. We target businesses that provide a small but essential component within a broader solution to a critical customer need, operate in niche markets with strong competitive positioning and exhibit characteristics such as recurring revenue, high returns on capital and opportunities for reinvestment in add-on M&A. Importantly, we believe our value creation comes not from the acquisition itself, but from the disciplined application of our operational value drivers post close as we are already demonstrating with MMT. Our model allows us to repeatedly identify and improve businesses using the same operational value driver playbook, creating a repeatable engine for value creation. From a capital standpoint, we retain significant flexibility.

Even after the MMT acquisition, we remain modestly levered and have ample liquidity with meaningful capacity to deploy additional capital into value-creating opportunities. We remain active in evaluating a robust pipeline of potential acquisitions and are focused on deploying capital into opportunities that meet our returns threshold and strategic criteria. Turning to our capital structure. We maintain a disciplined and flexible capital structure. During the quarter, we issued $550 million of 6.25% senior secured notes due 2034 to fund the MMT acquisition, complementing our existing $675 million of 5% senior secured notes due 2029. As a result, we have a long-dated fixed rate debt structure with no near-term maturities.

At quarter end, we were approximately 3.2x net debt to LTM adjusted EBITDA, remaining below our target leverage level and preserving substantial financial flexibility. We also retained strong liquidity, including approximately $92 million of cash on the balance sheet and a fully undrawn $200 million revolving credit facility, providing significant flexibility to continue investing in the business while pursuing additional M&A opportunities. We ended the quarter with approximately 163.1 million basic shares outstanding. Overall, the quarter highlights the strength of our operational value driver model across both segments. Fire Safety delivered solid performance despite volume headwinds in retardant and Specialty Products demonstrated both resilience in the base business and strong contributions from recent acquisitions, particularly MMT.

These results reinforce the increasing consistency and predictability of our earnings power. A growing portion of our earnings is driven by execution and capital allocation rather than external conditions, which we believe improves the quality of our earnings stream and position the business to compound earnings at attractive rates over time. We will continue to apply our operational value driver strategy across the portfolio and allocate capital towards opportunities that are well aligned to that strategy, further enhancing both growth and earnings stability over time. With that, I'll turn the call back to the operator for Q&A.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Josh Spector with UBS.

Gaurav Sharma: This is Gaurav Sharma filling in for Josh. Congrats on the solid quarter. Can you talk about the new suppressants contract a bit more? Is this effectively you winning share at more military bases? And then you framed this as an incremental $300 million sales opportunity, but how should we layer that in over the contract period?

Haitham Khouri: Gaurav, it's Haitham. Let me take the first part of your question, and Kyle will handle the second part of your very good question. So yes, this is us taking share in the suppressant space. It's a continuation of a trend, which has been quite pronounced to us taking share in the suppressant space, both with the DLA and with commercial customers over the past 3 or so years. If you rewind 3 years, we did almost no business on the foam side with the DLA. We identified that as a commercial hole and spent a tremendous amount of time, effort and capital addressing it.

As we typically do, the crux of that is listening very closely to our customers, understanding their needs very clearly and then moving heaven and earth internally to be responsive and meet their needs. And the hope is that, that ultimately translates into profitable new business. And that's exactly what you're seeing here. Again, we went from almost no business with the DLA. We listened to their needs. Our R&D team, which is an excellent R&D team in Green Bay, delivered a completely unique and bespoke formulation to meet the DLA's existing needs. We invested significant CapEx in our Green Bay facility to build capacity and redundancy required by the DLA.

We spent a lot of capital, OpEx and effort building a vendor-managed inventory service from scratch, which we never had before for the DLA. As you can imagine, the logistics needs of the DLA are very complex and therefore, standing up the vendor-managed inventory to manage $500 million of product is a very complex undertaking. We have that up and running and humming. We upgraded our packaging to meet the DLA's needs, and we staffed up on the customer service side to best serve the DLA.

And when you do all of that, you end up with a customer that very much wants to work with you that shifts meaningful share to you and that's ultimately not only willing, but eager to enter into this kind of long-term framework agreement that gives us the visibility into future volumes that allows us to continue to invest. So that's sort of the history there, and I'll let Kyle handle the second part of the question.

Kyle Sable: Yes, Gaurav, as Haitham mentioned, we've already been doing business with the DLA, and so we're trying to frame our guidance to you as the amount of uplift. So we'll have another strong year with the DLA this year, but there will be minimal uplift relative to last year. As we look forward to 2027, we expect roughly $50 million of incremental revenue above our current run rate with the DLA in 2027. And then the balance of the contract value will come over the remaining years.

Gaurav Sharma: That was super helpful. And then just a follow-up. Is this just a volume element? Or is there an annual price factor that's built in on the suppressants as well? And then on the CAL FIRE deal, the comment in the slide say price increase to align with other major buyers. So does that mean you expect a step up in year 1? And is that material? And then how would you talk about price increases beyond year 1?

Haitham Khouri: Yes, Gaurav, it's Haitham again. We -- both contracts will have annual or do have annual price escalators in there throughout the 5-year term. And for CAL FIRE specifically, there is a step-up in year 1, which is this year to bring them sort of in line with our pricing structure, which they've been a little out of line with historically.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Dan Kutz with Morgan Stanley.

Daniel Kutz: Congrats on all the progress and updates this quarter. So just wanted to circle back on a few things that you guys have already kind of commented on in the prepared remarks and see if we could get a little incremental color. First one would be on input costs. Again, I know that you guys had commented that there's some level of contractual kind of cost protection or pass-through. But with everything going on in the world and specifically fertilizer or MAP or some of the key cost components in the Perimeter cost structure, seem like they've seen some pretty significant upward pressure.

Just wondering if you could expand a little bit on what types of protections you have in place, how much that could be weighing on margins currently and whether in theoretical scenario where the Middle East conflict came to a resolution and those costs came down, whether that would be a margin tailwind or whether that's kind of already kind of protected in the cost structure and therefore, wouldn't change things too much. But yes, just wondering if you could expand a little bit on the input cost dynamics.

Kyle Sable: Sure, Dan. It's Kyle. Thanks for the question. You're right. As we alluded to in the script, we have pretty strong contractual protections against these price increases. Our operational team has been running way out ahead of the changes that have been happening on, making sure we have adequate inventory as lead times have lengthened. And as we look forward, we don't see any material impact to our margins from these price increases this year.

Daniel Kutz: Great. That's very clear. Then maybe on the preemptive fight strategy that some of the federal wildfire fighting agencies are alluding to. I was just wondering -- so I think, again, in your prepared remarks, you kind of flagged that this is definitely a hedge against, I guess, a below severity wildfire season. Last year was absolutely a testament to that. But just wondering, across a broader range of wildfire scenarios, below severity, normal trend above severity, is the preemptive strike strategy an incremental earnings tailwind or retardant demand tailwind across different wildfire season severity scenarios? Or is it more kind of a downside hedge? Just wondering if you could expand on that, on those comments as well.

Kyle Sable: Sure, Dan. Kyle again. And thanks for the question. I think you've hit on 2 important points for the more aggressive initial attack. You're correct in that it can actually drive more retardant usage through a variety of wildfire season scenarios. We think that it will put increased emphasis on growth in the air tanker fleet. And by the way, that same memo that highlighted the initial aggressive attack also highlighted a number of other moves they're doing across the wildland firefighting landscape to support growth in the aerial tanker fleet, which is also a little bit of a tailwind for us. So we think that's a clear positive.

The second element, as you started to hit here to the downside protection, I think you're exactly right. What we experienced last year and if we are again to experience a more mild acre season this year is that, that aggressive initial attack provided an increased retardant usage in that scenario, which did cap the amount of downside from a more mild season. Dan, the other thing I think I'd be remiss to not mention here as we think about the different scenarios as they play out is that we've really reduced our variability and exposure to that wildfire season.

And at this point, if you look at a normalized season to a relatively mild season, that fluctuation in our EBITDA is something like mid-teens percentage. And when we look at the various tailwinds we have across our business, that really means that we should be able to grow EBITDA year-over-year even with a moderate decline in the fire season year-over-year in any given year. There may still be some more extreme scenarios where we can't always grow EBITDA, but for most of the scenarios, we're going to be growing EBITDA.

Daniel Kutz: That's great to hear. And maybe if I could sneak one more in kind of along the same along the same comments there. So I think for the last quarter or 2, the 5-year contract with the U.S. Forest Service, which you guys confirmed today will extend to the new U.S. Wildland Fire Service, which includes the DOI agencies as well. I guess on the service component of that contract, you report product versus service revenue for the Fire Safety segment. And we can see that, that number was in the ballpark of $30 million a few years ago, and it's been trending closer to $100 million in the last couple of years.

The question is basically, first of all, is there a suppressant component to service? Or is the lion's share of that retardant? And then how much does the new contract structure kind of lock in that service revenue at this higher revenue run rate from, I think, what you guys call the full-service air base infrastructure model. And I guess the question would be at the federal level, but then also see on the slide with the CAL FIRE contract that there's a service revenue component to that. So yes, just wondering if you could -- anything you could share on what has been a pretty substantial ramp in service revenue for the Fire Safety segment?

And how much of that should be viewed as a new run rate? And I guess, any potential growth either from the service model expansion or just from kind of the normal growth trend that you guys seem to be putting out despite the wildfire season severity. Yes, anything you can share on that service revenue component?

Kyle Sable: Dan, so a couple of points on here. One, the majority -- in fact, virtually all of that service revenue is, in fact, tied to retardants. There's a little bit of suppressants, but largely retardants. The second point I would make in there is that, that includes all service revenue for all of our various contracts, Forest Service, CAL FIRE and others. And then when you think about that uplift in the run rate, I think you're right, we've gone from $30 million to a little over $100 million in the run rate, and we do believe that is a new and sustainable baseline. Within that, the vast, vast majority of it is contractually fixed in any given year.

And then we do expect to see another uplift, although not of the same magnitude that you just saw over the last few years going forward as we continue to convert more of the bases in the Forest Service contract from government run to Perimeter run.

Daniel Kutz: Awesome. Sorry, one last real quick one. Product versus service margins, are they similar ballpark, one meaningfully different than the other?

Kyle Sable: Yes, Dan, we think about those as just as a bundled suite when we think about margins. So while we separate them out for reporting purposes, we think of it all as kind of like one consolidated solution with one margin.

Operator: Thank you. At this time, I would like to turn the floor back to Haitham Khouri for closing comments.

Haitham Khouri: Thank you, LaTanya, for running a great call. Gaurav and Dan, thank you for the excellent work you do, and thank you to all our shareholders, as always, for all your support.

Operator: Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a great day.

This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. Parts of this article were created using Large Language Models (LLMs) based on The Motley Fool's insights and investing approach. It has been reviewed by our AI quality control systems. Since LLMs cannot (currently) own stocks, it has no positions in any of the stocks mentioned. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.

The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.