Empire Company Limited (EMP.A) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Empire First Quarter 2026 conference call. At this time, online is in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Thursday, September 11, 2025. I would now like to turn the conference over to Katie Brine, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Thank you, Ludi. Good morning and thank you all for joining us for our first quarter conference call. Today we will provide summary comments on our results and then open the call for questions. This call is being recorded and the audio recording will be available on the company's website at empireco.ca. There is a short summary document outlining the points of our quarter available on our website. Joining me on the call this morning are Michael Medline, President and Chief Executive Officer, Costa Befanas, Chief Financial Officer, and Pierre St. Laurent, Chief Operating Officer. Today's discussion includes forward-looking statements. We caution that such statements are based on management's assumptions and beliefs and are subject to uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. I refer you to our news release and MD&A for more information on these assumptions and factors. I will now turn the call over to Michael Medline. Thanks, Katie, and good morning, everyone. Fiscal 26 is off to a solid start. EPS was 91 cents. The core business, which excludes other income and share of earnings from equity investments, improved 14.3% over last year. And while our results on same-store sales are a little softer than we've gotten used to, with our strong ...