Superior Gr of Cos (NASDAQ:SGC) released first-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Monday. Read the complete transcript below.
This content is powered by Benzinga APIs. For comprehensive financial data and transcripts, visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/.
View the webcast at https://event.choruscall.com/mediaframe/webcast.html?webcastid=8WHfrg1X
Summary
Superior Gr of Cos reported a 3% increase in first-quarter revenue, with a gross margin improvement of 30 basis points and EBITDA rising to $4.8 million from $3.5 million last year.
Branded Products, the largest segment, saw a 5% revenue growth driven by volume gains, while Healthcare Apparel also grew 5%, aided by a new leadership strategy.
Contact Centers experienced an 8% revenue decline due to prior client attrition, but sequential improvement was noted, and the opportunity pipeline remains strong.
The company maintains a strong balance sheet with $23 million in cash and expects further growth across all segments, projecting 2026 net sales of $572 million to $585 million and EPS of $0.54 to $0.66.
Management expressed confidence in navigating uncertain environments, with a focus on execution, AI implementation, and potential M&A opportunities in Contact Centers.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good morning and welcome to the Superior Gr of Cos First Quarter 2026 Conference Call with us today are Michael Benstock, Chief Executive Officer, and Mike Kempel, President and Chief Financial Officer. Jake Himmelstein, President of the Company’s Branded Products segment, will join today’s call for the Q and A session. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. This call may contain forward looking statements regarding the Company’s plans, initiatives and strategies and the anticipated financial performance of the Company including but not limited to sales and profitability. Such statements are based on management’s current expectations, projections, estimates and assumptions. Words such as expect, believe, anticipate, think, outlook, hope and variations of such words and similar expressions identify such forward looking statements. Forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties are further disclosed in the Company’s periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to, the Company’s most recent Annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Shareholders, potential investors and other readers are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward looking statements made herein and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update the forward looking statements except as required by law. And now I’ll turn the call over to Michael Benstock.
Michael Benstock (Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you Operator. Good morning and thanks everyone for joining us. We had a good start to the year. First quarter revenue was up 3%, gross margin rate improved by 30 basis points, SG&A came down as a percent of sales by nearly a full point and EBITDA increased to $4.8 million from $3.5 million last year. EPS was $0.06 compared to a $0.05 loss in the first quarter of 2025. What I’m pleased with is that the improvement didn’t come from just one place. We saw progress across the business and that tells us the work we’re doing is starting to show up in a mean that the environment is still uncertain, including the added uncertainty around the Iran conflict. But we’re staying focused on execution and we’re encouraged by what we’re seeing. Overall, the company is in a strong position. We have a broad business mix, good customer relationships and supply chain flexibility. Those are all important in a market like this and that gives us confidence in our underlying strategies. Starting with branded products which is our largest segment, revenue grew 5% year over year for the second quarter in a row driven by volume gains within existing customer accounts. We also improved gross margin and held SG&A near 27% of sales which helped EBITDA grow nicely versus last year. Our pipeline and backlog remains strong and we’ll keep investing in sales, talent and technology to support growth in this part of the business. Moving to Healthcare Apparel, I want to welcome Chris Hein who recently joined us as President of that segment. Chris has deep multichannel apparel experience and a strong history of building successful teams and driving results. We’re excited to have him with us and look forward to what he brings to the business. In healthcare apparel, revenue grew 5% versus last year’s first quarter. That was driven by volume growth in existing wholesale accounts and continued progress in direct to consumer. Mike will discuss in more detail our lower EBITDA for the quarter. We continue to see good potential in the segment and are focused on improving execution from here with new strategies and leadership in place. Turning to Contact Centers, revenue was down 8% versus the first quarter 2025 mainly because of prior year client attrition. On the other hand, revenue did improve sequentially from the fourth quarter, helped by existing customer expansion. The Opportunity pipeline is still at a historical high and with easier comparisons ahead, we’re focused on converting the pipeline into year over year growth. We also made real progress on the cost side with SG&A down more than 200 basis points as a percent of sales compared to the year ago quarter. This reflects the benefits of last year’s cost reduction work, including our continued focus on implementing AI and other technologies. As a result, Contact Center’s EBITDA was down only slightly year over year, but the margin rate improved which should help profitability going forward. We also maintained a strong balance sheet which gives us the flexibility to keep investing where it makes sense while also repurchasing shares when we see the opportunity. So overall this was a solid start to the year. We’re encouraged by the progress we made and we think the work underway across the business is putting us in a better position as we move through the year. With that, Mike will walk you through the first quarter financial results and then we’ll open it up for questions.
Mike Kempel (President and Chief Financial Officer)
Thank you Michael and thanks everyone for joining us today. We grew consolidated revenue by 3% in the first quarter to $141 million. As we have mentioned before, our business is typically back half weighted with sequential improvement through the year and that’s reflected in our 2026 guidance looking at the segments branded products, our largest segment grew 5% year over year to $91 million. Healthcare apparel, our second largest segment also grew revenue by 5% to $29 million. Contact centers revenue declined 8% year over year as anticipated to $22 million. But we did see improvement sequentially from the fourth quarter and we expect that to continue as the …
This post was originally published here
