Earnings call transcript: Global Industrial Co Q2 2025 shows earnings beat

Global Industrial Co (GIC) announced its second-quarter earnings for 2025, surpassing analysts’ expectations with an earnings per share (EPS) of $0.65, compared to the forecasted $0.50. This 30% surprise in EPS was accompanied by actual revenue of $358.9 million, slightly above the anticipated $351.81 million. Despite this positive financial performance, the company’s stock experienced a 1.02% decline in aftermarket trading, closing at $27.39. According to InvestingPro analysis, GIC appears undervalued at current levels, with a moderate beta of 0.78 indicating lower volatility than the broader market. The company maintains strong profitability, as evidenced by its "GOOD" financial health rating.

Key Takeaways

• EPS of $0.65 exceeded forecasts by 30%.
• Revenue of $358.9 million was up 3.2% year-over-year.
• Stock declined by 1.02% in aftermarket trading.
• Record gross margin of 37.1%, up 190 basis points.
• Strong cash flow generation of $31.8 million.

Company Performance

Global Industrial Co demonstrated solid performance in the second quarter of 2025, with revenue rising 3.2% year-over-year. The company reported a record gross margin of 37.1%, an increase of 190 basis points. Operating income saw a substantial rise of 26.9%, reaching $33.5 million. The company’s strategic focus on expanding its product categories and improving operational efficiency contributed to these results. InvestingPro data reveals the company maintains a healthy current ratio of 2.07 and offers an attractive dividend yield of 3.84%, demonstrating both financial stability and shareholder value creation.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $358.9 million, up 3.2% year-over-year.
• Earnings per share: $0.65, beating forecasts by 30%.
• Gross margin: 37.1%, up 190 basis points.
• Operating income: $33.5 million, up 26.9%.
• Cash flow: $31.8 million.

Earnings vs. Forecast

Global Industrial Co’s EPS of $0.65 exceeded the forecasted $0.50 by a significant 30%, marking a strong quarter for the company. Revenue also surpassed expectations, coming in at $358.9 million against a forecast of $351.81 million, representing a 2.02% surprise. This performance indicates robust operational efficiency and effective cost management.

Market Reaction

Despite the positive earnings surprise, Global Industrial Co’s stock fell by 1.02% in aftermarket trading, closing at $27.39. This decline might reflect broader market trends or investor caution regarding future performance. The stock remains within its 52-week range, with a high of $36.17 and a low of $20.79.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking ahead, Global Industrial Co anticipates continued gross margin expansion year-over-year, although it expects a 100 basis points compression in the second half of the year. The company remains committed to growth initiatives and is open to strategic mergers and acquisitions. It also plans to host its 9th Annual National Trade Show in September, which could drive further engagement and sales. InvestingPro subscribers have access to additional insights, including 6 more ProTips and a comprehensive analysis of GIC’s growth potential. The company’s P/E ratio of 17.19 and strong cash flow generation suggest a balanced approach to growth and profitability. For detailed analysis and valuation metrics, investors can access the Pro Research Report, available exclusively to InvestingPro subscribers.

Executive Commentary

CEO Anissa Chibi emphasized the company’s focus on customer engagement and strategic initiatives, stating, "We need to make it easier for our customers to engage and do business with us." She also highlighted the importance of understanding customer behavior, saying, "We’re getting very smart understanding the behavior of our customers."

Risks and Challenges

• Potential margin compression in the second half of the year.
• Market volatility affecting stock performance.
• Tariff impacts requiring ongoing supplier diversification.
• Competition in the broader industrial equipment and supplies market.
• Need to maintain strategic account growth amidst economic uncertainties.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the drivers behind gross margin expansion, which the company attributed to pricing timing and transportation cost improvements. There was also interest in the company’s focus on strategic, higher-value customer relationships and potential investments in sales team and go-to-market strategies.

Full transcript - Systemax Inc (GIC) Q2 2025:

Conference Operator: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Global Industrial’s Second Quarter twenty twenty May Call. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mike Smargiassi of The Plunkett Group. Please go ahead.

Mike Smargiassi, Investor Relations, The Plunkett Group: Thank you, and welcome to the Global Industrial second quarter twenty twenty five earnings call. Today’s call will include formal remarks from Anissa Chibi, 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 10 ks and quarterly reports on Form 10 Q.

The press release is available on the company’s website and has been filed with the SEC on a Form eight ks. This call is the property of Global Industrial Company. I will now turn the call over to Anissa.

Anissa Chibi, Chief Executive Officer, Global Industrial: Thank you, Mike. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We delivered an excellent second quarter performance with record profitability. I’m pleased with the execution of the entire organization, specifically considering the market disruption and uncertainty from the current tariff environment. The team has done a great job mitigating the risk, enabling us to continue to serve our customers.

In the quarter, revenue increased 3.2 to $358,900,000 We grew the top line each month during the period and have seen growth continue into July. Performance was driven by our largest strategic accounts, partially offset by a reduction in our smallest and more transactional customers. Gross margin was a record 37.1% for the second quarter, an increase of 190 basis points over the 2024 and two twenty basis points over the 2025. Operating income improved over 26% to $33,500,000 which represents a quarterly record for the company. Operating margin was 9.3%, and we also had strong cash flow generation in the quarter.

Overall, our results reflect the benefits of modest price capture and the timing of FIFO inventory. While some of this margin expansion may be temporary, we believe it highlights our ability to proactively manage the business and focus on what we can control. This includes ensuring product availability and providing the products our customers rely on us to deliver. As I noted on the last call, Global Industrial has outstanding foundation

Conference Operator: for growth with an exceptional platform and the ability to scale the business organically. Noted

Anissa Chibi, Chief Executive Officer, Global Industrial: We have an opportunity to broaden who we serve, expand existing account relationships and accelerate our growth initiatives. During the past several months, we have gained alignment throughout the organization on how we can better position Global Industrial to grow and to pursue new opportunities. We will drive simplification in how we operate and create a sense of urgency within the organization to better serve the customer. We are empowering our teams to make real time decisions and continually challenging the way we work to find creative solutions to address customers’ needs. Core to our efforts will be the continued transformation of the business model to place the customer at the center of everything we do.

Not just thinking about the customer and our actions, but realigning and building the organization and the solutions we provide around our customers. We need to make it easier for our customers to engage and do business with us, allowing us to deliver greater value to them and become an extension of their teams. Moving forward, our growth strategy will be anchored in specialization and expansion. On specialization, we will become more focused in the identification and targeting of key customers and align sales in the broader organization to serve the specific needs of each type of customer. We will reframe our go to market strategy to become much more intentional in how we approach and attract new customers.

We see significant opportunity to deepen existing relationships, gain greater share of wallet and acquire new customers. On expansion, we will broaden the product categories we offer and enhance our overall offerings to ultimately improve our customer stickiness. We will do this focused on driving profitable growth. In summary, we were very pleased with our second quarter performance. We have more work to do as we look to accelerate our success and mitigate the impacts of tariffs on our business and for our customers.

As we become more intentional on how we go to market and operate the business, we believe we have the opportunity to open the aperture of the total addressable market that we pursue. There’s a lot of positive activity across the company, and I’m excited by what the future holds. We remain well positioned to continue to invest in our growth initiatives and to evaluate strategic M and A. Finally, in September, we will host our ninth Annual National Trade Show in Orlando, Florida. This event allows us to showcase our extensive product offering of national and proprietary brands as well as the knowledge and solutions we bring to market.

We look forward to connecting with our customers and vendor partners at the show. Now I will turn the call over to Tex.

Tex Clark, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Global Industrial: Thank you, Anissa. Second quarter revenue was $358,900,000 up 3.2% over Q2 of last year. U. S. Revenue was up 3% and Canada revenue improved 7.4% in local currency.

Sales grew each month during the quarter and we have seen growth accelerate to mid single digits through the first July. Results were strongest amongst our largest strategic accounts which continued to see good momentum and sales progress as they grew on both total dollar and order volume basis. Price was positive in the quarter and includes some initial pricing actions implemented in April. This was partially offset by a decline in total volume, which reflects an intentional effort to limit certain promotional activities that previously targeted customer segments with historically lower retention rates and ultimately a lower lifetime value. The tariff environment remains highly fluid and the cumulative impact of incremental tariffs remains significant.

We continue to actively monitor the situation and are focused on supplier diversification, price management and strategic cost negotiations. We concluded the second quarter with a healthy inventory position and continue to prioritize availability for our customers. We anticipate implementing additional pricing actions as inventory affected by tariffs moves through our cost of sales. Gross

Mike Smargiassi, Investor Relations, The Plunkett Group: profit for

Tex Clark, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Global Industrial: the quarter was $133,000,000 Gross margin was 37.1%, up 190 basis points from the year ago period and two twenty basis points sequentially. Gross profit improvement reflects both price capture and temporary favorability of inventory valuation, which flows through the cost of sales on a FIFO basis. In addition, our gross margin rate benefited from transportation and freight cost improvements in both our small parcel and LTL environments as well as quality initiatives that reduce freight claims and customer returns. Management of our margin profile remains a key area of focus. As we move through the current cycle, we have started to see the timing benefit of pre tariff inventory decline.

While our goal is to manage price cost neutral, we are seeing sequential headwinds in our margin rates given the timing dynamics of on hand inventory, market inflation associated with the tariff related cost increases and efforts to continue to diversify our supply chain. Selling, distribution and administrative spending for the quarter was $99,500,000 an increase of 3.5% from last year. However, as a percentage of net sales, SD and A was 27.7%, nearly flat with last year. SD and A reflected strong general and discretionary cost control and modestly lower marketing expenses. These savings were partially offset by year over year increase in variable compensation expenses with both selling commissions and our bonus pool accrual increasing compared to last year.

While marketing CPC inflation remains, we continue to drive efficiencies in our investment and have seen some nice productivity and efficiency gains within our sales teams as we continue the implementation of our new CRM. Operating income from continuing operations was a record $33,500,000 an increase of 26.9 in the second quarter and operating margin was 9.3%. Operating cash flow from continuing operations was $31,800,000 In the quarter, we closed on the purchase of a small services company that provides a value additive service wrapper extension to one of our product lines. This company represents less than 1% of total revenue. Total depreciation and amortization expense in the quarter was $1,900,000 including approximately $800,000 associated with the amortization of intangible assets, while capital expenditures were 1,400,000 Cash flow from investing activities includes the $4,300,000 purchase price of the previously mentioned service business.

We continue to expect twenty twenty five capital expenditures in the range of 2,000,000 to $3,000,000 which primarily reflects maintenance related investments and equipment within our distribution network. Let me now turn to our balance sheet. We have a strong and liquid balance sheet with a current ratio of 2.1 to one. As of June 30, we had $55,100,000 in cash, no debt and approximately $120,000,000 of excess availability under the credit facility. We maintain significant flexibility to fully execute on our strategic plan and continue to fund our quarterly dividend.

As a result, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.26 per share of common stock. This concludes our prepared remarks today. Operator, please open the call for questions.

Conference Operator: We will now begin the question and answer session. Our first question comes from Brian Merkel with William Blair. Please go ahead.

Brian Merkel, Analyst, William Blair: Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to start with a big surprise, which was gross margin. And could you help us with the bridge, the 200 basis points increase year over year? How much of that was FIFO and then how much of it was freight and the other things that you talked about?

Tex Clark, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Global Industrial: Hey, Ryan, thank you for the question. I’ll go ahead and jump in there. So when we think about that expansion, a lot of times I like to look back at what we saw in the back half of 2021 and leading into 2022 when we were going through a similar inflationary environment with the cost of ocean freight going up and we saw a similar ramp up. So when you think about that 200 basis points of expansion, it’s about half of that is going to be that price timing that we looked at with pricing, with our COGS working through. And the other half of that is going to be things like we mentioned, where we were seeing favorable cost in transportation and some other areas that drove benefit into our gross profit rate.

So again, we have started to see that benefit that we recorded in the second quarter already start to wane in the third quarter. So we would expect some sequential headwinds into the third quarter. But again, we still think we’ll be able to manage our gross margin favorably on a year over year basis.

Brian Merkel, Analyst, William Blair: And on that last point, Tex, about 100 basis points do you think comes off as we think about the second half?

Tex Clark, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Global Industrial: Yes. Mean I think that’s a fair way to look at it. Obviously, there’s still some unknowns out there as tariff rates are continuing to change and mix could change. We’ll be continuing to look at market based pricing. But yes, I think that’s a fair assessment to where we stand today.

Anissa Chibi, Chief Executive Officer, Global Industrial: It. Ryan, this is Anisa. Just to chime in real quick. I would just say we have numerous initiatives that are in flight, and we’re watching it very closely. So we’ll do we’ll read and react as we go through.

But I would say that Texas is spot on with what we anticipate at this juncture.

Brian Merkel, Analyst, William Blair: So just in my own words, 37% is a little punchy. You don’t expect to continue that, but you do expect year over year expansion to continue.

Tex Clark, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Global Industrial: Yes, absolutely. That’s fair.

Anissa Chibi, Chief Executive Officer, Global Industrial: Yes.

Tex Clark, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Global Industrial: Okay.

Anissa Chibi, Chief Executive Officer, Global Industrial: My

Brian Merkel, Analyst, William Blair: next question was just on the July commentary, up mid single digits. I mean, it’s a bit of acceleration. This might be hard to answer, but is that market driven? Is that price? Is that company specific share gains?

Tex Clark, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Global Industrial: Yes, Nisa, do want to jump in on that? Go ahead.

Anissa Chibi, Chief Executive Officer, Global Industrial: Go ahead, Ted. That’s fine.

Tex Clark, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Global Industrial: Yes, sorry. Yes, I mean, when we look at it, Ryan, we’re seeing it fairly broad based. So we’re seeing good growth across different customer segments, both our managed customers, our strategic customers. But the biggest growth has been the strategic accounts that we’ve been putting the most effort to really target those customers and be very intentional with how we’re servicing those customers. So it’s been fairly strong growth.

We saw growth each month in the quarter during the second quarter and that has accelerated into the early part of the third quarter, it’s four weeks in at this point.

Anissa Chibi, Chief Executive Officer, Global Industrial: So it’s on all fronts, Ryan. And we’ve got some things that we’re piloting right now strategically on go to market that are premature at this point, but we’re starting to see some incremental positive momentum, but we’ll be in better position to speak to it when the next time we have our subsequent third quarter call.

Brian Merkel, Analyst, William Blair: Okay. Maybe one more for Anisa. It’s a two parter too. You mentioned being more intentional about attracting new customers. Can you be a little bit more specific what you mean by intentional?

And then am I reading this right? Are the new customers that you want, are you going to be shifting more to the strategic accounts? Or are you equally trying to get small and medium businesses as well?

Anissa Chibi, Chief Executive Officer, Global Industrial: Yes. No, thank you for the question. The intentionality is just really aligning ourselves and putting the customer at center of what we do. And that is a pivot and a shift for us. But really trying to understand what the customer needs are across various industry segments and sectors.

So we’re getting very smart understanding the behavior of our customers along those lines. And then the second part of your question is, I would say that global industrial in the past targeted customers that were more price sensitive or really looking for applying coupons and discounting and what have you. And it’s just being very intentional on who we’re targeting, where we’re going to look for growth opportunities and then in kind of doubling down and investing in those arenas.

Brian Merkel, Analyst, William Blair: Got it. All right. I’ll pass it on. Best of luck.

Tex Clark, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Global Industrial: Thank you, Ryan.

Anissa Chibi, Chief Executive Officer, Global Industrial: Thank you.

Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Anthony Lebiedzinski with Sidoti and Company. Please go ahead.

Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst, Sidoti and Company: Good afternoon and thank you for taking the questions. Certainly nice to see the strong profitability in the quarter. So first, just wanted to go back to your comments about the fact that you saw your smallest account smallest accounts or SMB clients kind of being softer in the quarter. Just wondering if that changed in July as you’ve seen an acceleration in your sales trends?

Tex Clark, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Global Industrial: Yes, Anthony. Hi, Dan. This is Texas. I’ll take that one. Again, for joining us today.

So I think that’s one area that, again, as we’ve gone into July, we’ve seen, again, fairly broad based growth, but again, it’s still concentrated in those largest customers that we tend to serve. When we think about some of that intentionality and some of that targeted marketing is, obviously, we pulled back some promotional activities in the second quarter, which, again, in the past, were a little bit higher proportion of our mix, our customer mix. While that did impact some volume metrics that we looked at in the period, overall, we think we drove more profitable growth in a healthier customer mix for ourselves.

Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst, Sidoti and Company: Got you. Okay. Yes. Thanks for that. And then, Anisa, you spoke about having more of a sense of urgency in terms of just driving the business forward.

Where would you say are the greatest kind of near term opportunities? And where would you say it’s something that will take longer to achieve in terms of just wanted to go back to that comment where you talked about having that greater sense of urgency.

Anissa Chibi, Chief Executive Officer, Global Industrial: Yes. No, that’s a great question, Anthony. Thank you for it. What I mean by that is I would say there are some operational elements that will enable us to be more nimble, more flexible and responsive to our customers. I would say on the customer experience side, being empowered more so to be able to make real time decisions if a customer calls in and needs some assistance and so forth.

So that’s what I was referring to and implying.

Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst, Sidoti and Company: Got it. Okay. And then as you look to grow the business, can you also speak to the addressable market opportunity that you referenced in the press release?

Anissa Chibi, Chief Executive Officer, Global Industrial: Yes. I guess I don’t have a specific number in mind, if that’s what you’re asking relative to the TAM. I believe that there is just a tremendous opportunity. And I think during one of our last meetings, we had discussed that briefly. But I would say, we have been doing intentionally throughout the quarter as well as expanding our assortment and the products and the SKUs that we’re taking to market.

And that’s also enabled us and enhanced our growth and some of the momentum we’re seeing as well. So it’s really honing in on that. Again, back to the specialization comment, it’s understanding the customer at a more intimate level to then align the organization to be able to serve it and to be able to fulfill what they’re expecting from our capabilities. So that’s really what we’re trying to align to do. And I’m convinced that that total addressable market of where we’re currently anchored on infrastructure with operational type of industrial equipment will broaden to industrial equipment and supplies, MRO in a broader sense and so forth.

But we’re in the nascent stage of that as we’re looking to further expand the assortment, the progression and everything that we take to market.

Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst, Sidoti and Company: So as you look to execute this strategy to be more intentional and more specialized, Do you think need to grow your sales team or other parts of the business in terms of people? Or do you think you’re in the right you have the right group of people to execute this strategy?

Anissa Chibi, Chief Executive Officer, Global Industrial: Yes. I believe we will need to make some investments. And yes, we will need to look at how we go to market on the sales side. So there will be investments in the sales organizations. And that’s really what we’re doing right now currently to do some piloting, some testing, and we’ll be launching some things incrementally in various markets so that we can quickly learn and then determine just what we’ll do differently going into 2026.

Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst, Sidoti and Company: Got you. Okay. All right. And then you made a small acquisition that you talked about. What is your appetite for additional acquisitions going forward?

Anissa Chibi, Chief Executive Officer, Global Industrial: Yes. Yes. No, great question. As Tex highlighted, we have zero debt or minimal debt, if at all. And so the opportunity for strategic M and A is absolutely available to us.

We’re going to be very mindful and prudent. And as we go through some of this piloting and testing that we’re doing right now real time, the back half of this year, I think that will help provide clarity on the strategic direction that we want to take. I already have some perspective at this point, but I want to validate a few things before really aggressively going after it. But that opportunity is there for us to scale and grow, especially along the lines of some of the broad being able to go after some broader MRO capabilities and to live up to the fulfillment expectations of customer base, depending on the segment or the industry or the vertical.

Anthony Lebiedzinski, Analyst, Sidoti and Company: Understood. Well, thank you very much and best of luck.

Anissa Chibi, Chief Executive Officer, Global Industrial: Thank you.

Tex Clark, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Global Industrial: Thank you.

Conference Operator: This concludes our question and answer session. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.

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