Global Industrial (NYSE:GIC) reported first-quarter financial results on Tuesday. The transcript from the company’s first-quarter earnings call has been provided below.
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Summary
Global Industrial reported a 9.2% revenue increase in Q1 2026, with operating income up 13.2%, driven by solid execution and growth in both assigned accounts and e-commerce channels.
The company is progressing with strategic initiatives, including customer vertical realignment and expansion of e-procurement and e-commerce capabilities, aimed at improving customer engagement and retention.
Canada showed strong performance with a 24% revenue increase, marking the third consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, attributed to effective market strategies.
Gross profit was $121.9 million with a gross margin of 34.8%, slightly impacted by fuel surcharges and product mix; management is focused on maintaining a price-cost neutral margin profile.
Future outlook includes continued revenue growth into Q2, though moderated by pricing lags and holiday timing, with strategic focus on MRO and consumables expansion.
The company maintains a strong balance sheet with $61.7 million in cash, no debt, and active share repurchase and dividend programs.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Global Industrials first quarter 2026 earnings call. this time I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Mike Smarjossi of the Plunkett Group. Please go ahead sir.
Mike Smarjossi
Thank you and welcome to the Global Industrial first quarter 2026 earnings call. Today’s call will include formal remarks from Aneesa Chaibi, Chief Executive Officer and Tex Clark, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Formal remarks will be followed by a question and answer session. Today’s discussion may include certain forward looking statements. It should be understood that actual results could differ materially from those projected due to a number of factors including those described under the forward looking statements caption and under risk factors in the company’s annual report on Form 10K and quarterly reports on Form 10Q. The earnings release is available on the Company’s website and has been filed with the SEC on a Form 8K. This call is the property of Global Industrial Company. I will now turn the call over to Aneesa.
Aneesa Chaibi (Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you Mike. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us. I was very pleased with our first quarter performance. We delivered a strong start to 2026 as we benefited from solid execution and continued momentum across the business. First quarter revenue improved 9.2% with an average daily sales growth of 7.6% and operating income improving 13.2%. We generated growth each month during the period and have seen this top line momentum carry into the second quarter. Our results benefited from both price and volume with gains across both assigned accounts and e-commerce channels. While our largest strategic accounts continue to grow at an accelerated pace. Canada once again delivered strong results. Revenue increased 24% in local currency with continued growth across the business. This marks the third consecutive quarter of double digit top line growth highlighting the exceptional work of our team in Canada and reinforcing the significant potential we see in that market. From a strategic standpoint, we are making progress and are encouraged by the actions we have taken to refine our value proposition and reposition the business for growth. This includes aligning the business around the customer to better serve their needs and being more intentional and focused in our go to market approach. Our sales realignment into customer verticals is progressing well allowing us to better meet our customers needs through deeper specialization and tailored experiences. As we have previously shared, this will allow us to improve and drive more targeted engagement and broaden customer relationships. We are also pleased with the rollout of our outside sales initiative where the team is actively developing a pipeline and uncovering new opportunities while still in the early stages. The initial response from customers has been positive and we’re encouraged by the potential opportunities ahead. We are also continuing to expand our e-Procurement and integrated e-commerce capabilities which are helping us to deepen relationships, improve retention and position us to capture greater share of wallet. Over time, our focus on continuously enhancing our digital experience has improved our customer engagement and satisfaction. It has enabled us to highlight our broad solutions offering and has allowed us to build direct sticky relationships with our customers procurement teams. This is an area where Global Industrial has a strong offering and we have seen significant growth in the number of eprocurement platform customers in the last year. In merchandising, we are advancing our Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) and consumables expansion as we broaden our assortment to better serve customer needs and support incremental revenue opportunities. We remain focused on providing the right solutions and products that help customers solve their problems and keep their operations running. This remains a meaningful opportunity for us and an important component of our long term growth strategy. Finally, in April I had the opportunity to join our team at the Modex Trade Show, one of the largest manufacturing and supply chain events of the year. We had a very successful show. Our booth generated strong traffic and engagement and we saw solid lead generation across our product categories. The event allowed us to showcase our refined value proposition, the strength of our product offering and our new alignment across our sales, marketing and merchandising teams. I also connected with our supplier partners in discussions that reinforce the value we bring to market and the positive change taking place across the company. Overall, we are encouraged by the progress we are making. The business is performing well, our strategic initiatives are gaining traction and we are building a solid foundation to drive sustainable, profitable growth. Now I will turn the call over to Tex.
Tex Clark (Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Thank you Anissa. First quarter revenue was $350.4 million with average daily sales growing 7.6%. In line with our fourth quarter performance, US revenue was up 8.1% and Canada revenue improved 24.4%. In local currency, we recorded growth throughout the quarter with gains across all sales channels. Performance benefited from price capture and volume improvement. We have now delivered volume improvement for our second consecutive quarter and continued to see strong results from our largest and most strategic customers. As of today, we’ve seen revenue growth in the mid to high single digits continue into the second quarter. Gross profit for the quarter was $121.9 million. Gross margin was 34.8%, an improvement of 30 basis points from the fourth quarter. Our year over year gross margin was slightly down by 10 basis points reflecting the impact of incremental fuel surcharges within our outbound transportation in the back half of the quarter as well as product mix, which was impacted by an increase in …
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