Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Richelieu Hardware Q3 results conference call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, which will be restricted to analysts only. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on October fifth, twenty twenty-three. Bonjour, mesdames et messieurs, et bienvenue aux résultats du deuxième trimestre de Richelieu. Présentement, vos lignes sont en mode écoute seulement. Suite à la présentation, nous allons procéder à une période de questions et réponses qui sera restreinte aux analystes seulement. Si vous avez besoin d'assistance au cours de l'appel, appuyez sur l'étoile et zéro. Veuillez prendre note que cet appel est enregistré le cinq octobre vingt-vingt-trois. J'aimerais maintenant céder l'appel à Monsieur Richard Lord, président et chef de la direction. La parole est à vous. Merci. Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Richelieu's conference call for the Q3 and first nine-month period ended August thirty-first, 2023. With me is Antoine Auclair, CFO. Our Q3 performance reflects the effectiveness of our initiatives to achieve good sales in our Canadian and U.S. market. Sales are about slightly below the Q3 of 2022, which benefited from exceptional market conditions in the pandemic context. For the nine months to date, we reached sales of CAD 1.3 billion, in line with last year. Our customer-focused business model and our diversified markets in North America are effective assets, as are our innovation and value-added service strategies and our business acquisitions, which partly offset the internal decrease in sales compared to 2022. Our EBITDA margin is lower than last year due to the return to pre-pandemic levels of operating expenses, exceptional external warehousing costs relating to temporarily higher inventories level, and the cost related to expansion and modernization projects of some centers in the U.S. in order to accelerate future growth. Our cash flow from operating activities was strong for the Q3, generating CAD 104 million. Our inventory is currently returning to normal levels, which contributed to a positive effect on cash flow. We ended the period with a financial position that remains very solid. Antoine will now review the financial highlights of the Q3 and the first nine months, then I will conclude and we'll take your questions. Thanks, Richard. Q3 sales have reached CAD 192.8 million, down 2.9%, of which 4.6% from internal decrease and 1.7% from acquisitions. It's important to note that in the Q3 of 2022, Richelieu had achieved strong internal growth of 16%. In Canada, sales amounted to CAD 270.1 million, down 3.4%, of which 6.4% from internal decrease, partially offset by a 2.1% positive contribution from acquisitions. Our sales to manufacturers reached CAD 219.9 million, down 2.6%, and for the hardware retailers, sales stood at CAD 50.2 million, down 2.7%. In the U.S., sales grew to $141.6 million in the U.S. dollar, down 5.6%. Sales to manufacturers reached $151 million, down 6.8%. In the hardware retailers and renovation superstore market, sales reached $10.6 million, up 4.8%. In Canadian dollars, total sales in the U.S. reached CAD 188.9 million, a decrease of 2.3%. For the first nine months, sales reached CAD 1.3 billion, down 0.8%, of which 2.8% from internal decrease and 2% from acquisition. In Canada, sales reached CAD 780.6 million, down CAD 20.6 million or 2.6%, of which 4.5% from internal decrease and 1.9% from acquisitions. Sales to manufacturers reached CAD 635.4 million, down CAD 15.3 million or 2.4%. Sales to hardware retailers and renovation superstores reached CAD 145.2 million, compared to CAD 150.5 million, down 2.5%. In the U.S., sales amounted to $411.2 million in U.S. dollars, down 3.5%, of which 5.5% from internal decrease and 2% from acquisitions. We reached CAD 553.5 million in Canadian dollars, up 1.7%, accounting for 41% of total sales. Sales to manufacturers totaled $379.8 million, a decrease of $12.6 million or 3.2%, of which 5.4% from internal decrease and 2.2% from acquisitions. Sales to hardware retailers and renovation superstores were six... were down 6.5% compared to last year. Q3 EBITDA reached CAD 61 million, down CAD 18.2 million or 23% over last year, resulting from lower sales and higher operating cost and expense. EBITDA margin stood at 13.3% compared to 16.7% last year. For the first nine months, EBITDA reached CAD 171.6 million, down 18.6%. As for the EBITDA margin, it stood at 12.9% compared to 15.7% last year. Q3 net earnings attributable to shareholders totaled CAD 29.8 million, down 34.6%, mainly due to amortization resulting from business acquisitions and extension projects, mainly in the U.S., including higher interest expense on lease obligations. Net earnings per share were CAD 0.53 compared to CAD 0.83 last year, a decrease of 36.1%. For the first nine months, net earnings attributable to shareholders reached CAD 82.9 million, down 31.1%. Diluted net earnings per share stood at CAD 1.47, compared to CAD 2.19 last year. Cash flows from operating activities before net change in non-cash working capital balances was CAD 48.5 million, compared to CAD 60.9 million last year. Net change in non-cash working capital items represented a cash flow inflow of CAD 55.1 million. Excess inventories continued to reduce as planned, with a positive effect of CAD 24.5 million. As a result, operating activities represented a cash inflow of CAD 103.5 million in the quarter, compared to a cash outflow of CAD 2.7 million in 2022. For the first nine months, cash flows from operating activities represented a cash inflow of CAD 192 million, compared to cash outflow of CAD 37.9 million last year. For the Q3, financing activities used cash flow of CAD 16.9 million, compared to CAD 17.2 million last year. Dividends paid to shareholders of the corporation amounted to CAD 8.4 million, compared to CAD 7.3 million in the same period of 2022. For the first nine months, financing activities used cash flow of CAD 52 million, compared to CAD 46.9 million in 2022. Dividends paid to shareholder amounted to CAD 25.1 million, compared to CAD 21.8 million last year. During the first nine months, we invested CAD 42.5 million, CAD 20 million for six business acquisitions, and CAD 22.5 million, mainly for distribution center modernization and extension projects, investments in equipment to maintain and improve operational efficiency, as well as for IT infrastructure development. We continue to benefit from a healthy and solid financial position with a working capital of CAD 606.1 million, for a current ratio of 3.4 to 1, and an average return on equity of 15.5%. I now turn it over to Richard. Thank you, everyone. The integration of recent acquisitions is in progress, as are the expansions and consolidation projects underway in our network. We have finalized the consolidation of our centers in the Atlanta and Nashville regions, and our Seattle center is now fully operational. We are also progressing with the Continental center expansion and plan to complete the consolidation of our centers in the Bay Area in the Q1 of 2024. We expect to end the year on November 30, 2023, with a sustained performance and a solid position by relying on successful strategy that have always served us well, mainly ongoing innovation, value-added service, market penetration, and business acquisitions, which are our key growth driver. Thanks, everyone. We'll now be happy to answer your questions. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star followed by the one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request, and your questions will be pulled in the order they are received. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. Your first question comes from Ariana Milin with CIBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Hi, good afternoon. Richard, can you speak to what kind of organic decline you saw in September and when you expect to return to positive organic growth? What we see so far this year, I think it's very encouraging. If we remember well, you know, from the 2019 to the end of 2022, our sales have increased by 70%. The current performance is a clear demonstration, though, that we keep up to those market shares that we had gained during the pandemic, and we're very happy about this, and we consider our performance very satisfactory in the circumstances for the current market. Thanks. That's helpful. Richard, can you speak to the M&A pipeline and whether you've seen any moderation in vendor expectations? Yeah, the pipeline is quite healthy and in the U.S. and in Canada as well. So we're working on some opportunities as we speak. But the M&A environment is still very positive for us. Okay, thank you. And then just with respect to your excess inventories, when do you expect to work through them? And what are the risks of further price deflation as you look to normalize inventories? Yeah, I'm trying to answer for the deflation. Regarding deflation, there's gonna be some deflation for certain products, mainly for those that come from Asia. As a percentage, though, our gross margins should be maintained after we have... We are past that, we went through the excess of inventory. Basically, we look forward to make sure that we stabilize the situation with new inventory at the new cost, and then we're gonna see a growth for the margins and everything else coming in the future. In the short term, we have to live with that situation, but I think at the end of the first half of 2024, we should be through everything at one. Regarding inventory, we were down CAD 65 million since the beginning of the year so far. We've mentioned that we were expecting CAD 60 million-CAD 80 million in 2023. It's gonna be closer to CAD 80 million, and we should probably see another CAD 20 million somewhere in the first half of next year. So the inventory should come to a more reasonable level in the middle of next year. Okay, great. Thank you. Just the last question I had was, Antoine, are you able to provide us with some perspective on what type of EBITDA margins you're targeting for 2024? Yeah, 13%. We're currently at 13%, and with the market conditions that we're seeing now, I think that the 30%, 13%, is a reasonable level of EBITDA. Okay, thanks. That's all I have for now. I'll get back in the queue. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press star followed by the one. Your next question comes from Zachary Evershed with National Bank Financial. Hi, good afternoon. It's actually Thomas calling in for Zach. Consolidation of Nashville and Atlanta, and when do you expect that shows up in the results? Yeah, we just ended the consolidation of our Atlanta and the Nashville centers. That our Seattle center is now fully operational. So we should start to see benefit from those initiatives early next year. Okay, thank you. Do you feel the environment has stabilized enough that we can call a bottom here? Well, I think that's what I would say, I would say that we have visibility up to middle of next year, and we see the environment staying pretty flat, as it is today. Okay. Yeah, I think that's the, the right answer from Antoine, because what we see the current situation, we don't, we don't see any positive sign as to-- I don't think it's gonna get worse, but we don't think it's gonna get better anyways. But we, as I explained at the beginning of the meeting, the fact that we maintain the market share that we gained during the pandemic, I think it's a very, very, very positive for us. So I think that our, that our, our sales have increased and, and it can have been compensated, compensated by the economy, which is not a, a, as good. But our goal is to continue to work hard in order to increase on the market penetration, you know, and to make sure that the sales decline, that it's minimal, as we've seen so far. But that's really the goal of our team, both in U.S. and in Canada. There is a lot of work that's going to be doing in order to keep up with those market share. Thank you. Last one from me here. I think previously you mentioned CAD 15 million in inventory reduction next year. You just called out CAD 20 million in the first half. Is CAD 50 million still the number for the full year? Yeah, the... Basically, this year is gonna be slightly on the, on the high side. So with the, the level of, of sales that, that we see today, CAD 20 million for, for the first half is reasonable, reasonable, and I think we'll see, what happens after, after it. Great. Thank you so much. There are no further questions. Please proceed. If there's no more questions, thanks again. It's always a pleasure to talk to you and meet with you at your convenience. Thank you very much, and have a nice day. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect the lines.