Richelieu Hardware Ltd. (OTCPK:RHUHF) Q3 2024 Earnings Conference Call October 10, 2024 2:30 PM ET

Company Participants

Richard Lord – Chief Executive Officer
Antoine Auclair – Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Hamir Patel – CIBC Capital Markets
Zachary Evershed – National Bank Financial

Operator

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Richelieu Hardware Third Quarter Results Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, which will be restricted to analysts only. [Operator Instructions] Also note that this call is being recorded on October 10, 2024. [Foreign Language]

Richard Lord

Merci. Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Richelieu’s conference call for the third quarter and first nine months ended August 31, 2024. With me is Antoine Auclair, CFO.

As usual, note that some of today’s issues include forward-looking information which is provided with the usual disclaimer as reported in our financial filings.

Overall, we had a good third quarter where we achieved sales growth and maintained a healthy and solid financial position, considering the soft demand in the R&R and the new housing market.

Total sales growth for the quarter reached 1.9%, partially fueled by our strong performance in the U.S. manufacturers market where sales increased by 7.5% in U.S. dollar, driven by the significant impact of our acquisitions. As for the retailer and renovation superstore market, we continued to see lower sales compared to last year, mainly due to the price deflation and lower demand in this market.

Our margins continued to be under pressure from temporary factors as it was the case in previous quarters, notably, the charge of inventory purchased at higher than current costs, lower selling prices for certain products and operating expenses related to our expansion projects. During the quarter, we pursued