GURU Organic Energy Q2 2026 Earnings Call: Complete Transcript

GURU Organic Energy (TSX:GURU) released second-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Thursday. Read the complete transcript below. This transcript is brought to you by Benzinga APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/ for a consultation. Access the full call at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/o8x7475f/ Summary GURU Organic Energy reported a 31.6% increase in net revenue, driven by 46.8% growth in Canadian sales and strong performance from its Zero Sugar product line. The company achieved a gross margin expansion of nearly 4 percentage points and positive adjusted EBITDA of $1.2 million for the trailing twelve months. The U.S. market experienced flat revenue in Q2, but consumer scan sales in the Natural channel grew by 15% and U.S. retail shipments quadrupled year-over-year in May. GURU is expanding its U.S. distribution through a partnership with Sprouts Farmers Market, aiming to leverage Sprouts' health-conscious shopper base. The company supports proposed Quebec legislation to restrict energy drink sales to those 16 and older, aligning with its responsible marketing strategy. GURU plans to continue its focus on zero sugar offerings and innovation, while maintaining financial discipline to support its growth strategy. Full Transcript OPERATOR Welcome to the GURU Organic Energy second quarter 2026 results conference call and webcast being recorded today, June 11, 2026 at 11:00am Eastern Time. At this time all participants are in listen only mode. Following Management's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions with financial analysts. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up for questions. If anyone has any difficulties hearing the conference, please press Star followed by zero for Operator assistance at any time. Uber's press release and DNA financial statements are available in the Investors section of its website and on SEDAR Plus. During the call, the company may refer to certain non GAAP measures. Reconciliations are available in its MD&A. Also note that all financial figures are expressed in Canadian Dollars unless otherwise indic. I would like to remind you that today's presentation may contain forward looking statements about Guru's current and future plans, expectations, intentions, results, level of activity, performance goals, achievements or other future events or developments. Please take a moment to read the disclaimer or forward looking statements on slide 2 of the presentation. I will now turn the call over to Carl Goyette, Guru's Chief Financial Officer. Carl Goyette (President & CEO) Thank you Operator. Bonjour. Good morning everyone and welcome to GURU's Fiscal 2026 Second Quarter Results Conference call. Joining me this morning is our CFO Inji Saraf. Let's turn to slide five. Since establishing our direct distribution model in Canada, we have invested in how we show up at shelf, how we price and how we build the brand that took time. Q2 is where that time has paid off. Net revenue grew 31.6%. Canada sales grew 46.8%. Gross margin expanded by nearly 4 percentage points and on a trailing twelve month basis we achieved approximately 30% revenue growth with positive adjusted EBITDA of $1.2 million. This is the second consecutive trailing twelve months period since Kudu went public where we achieved positive adjusted ebitda. This is what structural improvement looks like. What you are seeing is real and repeatable. Better pricing control, better trade investment, better retail execution and a product lineup that consistently converts consumer demand for GURUd energy into market share. Turning to Slide six Canada is the clearest example of the benefit of controlling your own distribution in this business. Our revenue grew because we improved both our shelf presence and our margin at the same time. We did not have to trade one for the other. The home market is healthy and the Zero Sugar platform is the engine driving its growth. Subsequent to quarter end May, Canadian retail shipments more than triple year over year. The sorbet lineup specifically is outperforming our expectations across every channel. Guru Zero Dragon Fruit Cherry Sorbet, launched in January and activated in the market during Q2 is now a top 5 SKU on guruenergydrink.com the strength of our digital execution also showed up on Amazon. During the Amazon Spring sale, Guru was the number one best seller in the energy drink category on Amazon Canada and we continue to hold the number three energy drink brand in the category. In late May we also activated a first of its kind 18 pack sorbet varieties format with a leading Canadian wholesale club partner. It's the first time that Guru has had this kind of large format limited time offer at a club retailer and the early sales read is Strong. Turning to Slide 7 US revenue was essentially flat in Q2 as distributor inventory levels continued to normalize. However, consumers are telling us a different story. Scan sales in the Natural channel were up approximately 15% over the last 12 weeks and we are growing roughly 1.7 times faster than the category. The brand is performing well at the consumer level. Subsequent to quarter end May, US retail shipments were four times the level recorded in May of last year. Guru set a new all time revenue record on Amazon USA in May 2026 and June. US retail is already tracking two times higher than last year. In Q3 we are expanding US distribution through a partnership with Sprouts Farmers Market. Sprouts operates more than 480 stores across 25 states and Guru will be available nationwide beginning June 22nd. Sprout is exactly the retail partner that fits our strategy, a highly engaged, health conscious shopper base that is already looking for what Guru offers. Once we earn our space there, we have a clear path to the premium conventional grocery channel in priority urban markets. Turning to Slide 8 the Zero Sugar platform is the assets that keep showing up in everything we report six QS in just over two years. All organic, Zero Sugar, no sucralose, no aspartame. There's nothing else in the category that combines these four attributes at scale. Guru Zero Orange Raspberry Sorbet launched in Q2 is performing ahead of internal expectations. In July we will launch another Guru Zero Sorbet in Quebec and online across North America. Innovation will keep driving growth in Canada and building momentum in the U.S. i also want to address Quebec's proposed legislation to restrict energy drink sales to those 16 and older. We support it. That position isn't new. I testified publicly on this issue in 2019 and again in December 2025 and signed the coalition petition well before the current legislative momentum GURU is never marketed to minors. Our brand, our formula and our entire commercial strategy are built for adults. In fact, our entire Zero Sugar line already carries 18 plus adults only labeling on every can. This is who we sell to. Energy drinks should not be marketed to kids and should not be mixed with other powerful stimulants like adhd, drugs or alcohol. We do not expect this legislation to have meaningful impact on our business and frankly, we're proud of our responsible marketing, our consistent public stance and our mission to clean up the energy drink industry. I will now turn the call over to INJI for a deeper look at our financial performance. Inji Saraf Thank you Carl and good morning everyone. Let's turn to Slide 10. I want to walk you through the four things that explain Q2 not just what the numbers are, but also how they came together. First, the revenue story. Net revenue grew 31.6% to $8.5 million, our highest second quarter ever. Canada was the engine, up 46.8%. Growth was driven by continued momentum in the Zero Sugar innovation line, strength in retail execution under the direct distribution model, and seasonal demand acceleration entering spring. In the US reported revenue was down 3% in Canadian dollars, but in US dollar terms we were essentially flat at plus 0.6%. The reported decline was entirely a function of the stronger Canadian dollar, not the underlying business performance. Second, the gross margin story margin expanded 390 basis points to 63.6%. This was achieved despite meaningful pressures, including tariffs and broader geopolitical factors. Despite these headwinds, we expanded our margin by nearly 400 basis points. That is a direct distribution model working better pricing control, more efficient trade investment, and improved promotional discipline. We believe that our gross margin is in a better place now that it is under the old distribution model, and we expect that to hold. Third, the SG&A story. Although SG&A grew 20.3% in absolute dollars, it improved as a percentage of revenue from 84.8% to 77.6%. In other words, revenue grew faster than the cost base needed to support it. This is what we mean by operating leverage. The absolute increase reflects three specific investment decisions taken during the quarter. First, planned marketing behind the guru zero Orange Raspberry sorbet launch. Second, consumer research and strategic planning investments to support our US Expansion priorities and third, unusual professional fees related to the matters described under recent developments in in our MD&A. We expect those fees to normalize once these matters are resolved. On the PEPCO matter, the litigation is progressing as expected. The details are fully disclosed in our MD&A and notes 15 and 16 of the financial statements. We do not view it as material to our long term strategy and we will not comment further on an active legal matter. Fourth, the trailing twelve month picture. This is the one I want you to focus on. The quarter itself shows an adjusted EBITDA loss of $0.8 million. The trailing 12 month picture tells the structural story. Over the last 12 months we have achieved approximately 30% revenue growth and generated $1.2 million of positive adjusted EBITDA. This is now the second consecutive 12 month period since Guru went public where we have combined these two things. Quarterly results will continue to reflect seasonal patterns and the timing of marketing investment, but the trailing twelve month period shows is that the underlying engine is working. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $24.3 million in cash and short term investments, no long term debt and a $10 million undrawn credit facility. Total available liquidity is $34.3 million. That gives us the flexibility to continue investing in growth. Back to you Carl. Carl Goyette (President & CEO) Thank you engine. Let's turn to slide 12. I would like to conclude with what we are focusing on for the remainder of fiscal 2026. We are entering the second half of the year in a strong position. Our gross margin are structurally improved. We have an operating model that has proven it can grow without cost, growing at the same pace. We also have the most differentiated clean label zero sugar portfolio in the category which is about to grow to seven products with a launch in July. On the US Side, we just announced a meaningful distribution expansion. We will continue to invest selectively in brand and innovation and we will continue to do this with the same financial discipline that has now produced two consecutive 12 trading 12 months of positive adjusted EBITDA. Over the past year. We have asked investors to trust that the work that we were doing would show in the numbers today. It has May and June shipments accelerated across both Canada and the US with May US retail shipments four times those of May 2025 and a new all time revenue record on Amazon USA. We are entering the peak selling season in a strong position and we intend to make the most out of it. Merci. Thank you. Operator will now open the call to questions. OPERATOR We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press Star then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press Star then two. At this time, we'll pause momentarily to Assemble our roster. The first question comes from Martin Landry with Stifel. Please go ahead. I apologize. The first question comes from Sean McGowan with Roth Capital Partners. Please go ahead. Sean McGowan (Equity Analyst) Thank you. A couple of questions. I want to start with questions about cost and implications for margins. Pretty impressive improvement in gross margin, but what should we expect to see in terms of improvement given, you know, what we're hearing, Aluminum costs, other input costs, and what can you say about pricing action that can offset some of those costs? Carl Goyette (President & CEO) Hi, Sean. So from a pricing action standpoint, we did not take any price increase in the last year in Canada. So that was a conscious decision that we made as we rebuilt the distribution model. And considering our gross margin at over 63%, we are in a solid position. We remain industry leading, and I believe that we're in a strong position. And it's all due not to pricing, but rather to trade investment efficiencies and. Well, that's it. Trade investment efficiencies. Of course, we are seeing, like you mentioned, like everyone, some cost headwinds. The way we will go about this, of course, is looking at the complete value chain, making sure that it works for every everybody in the chain, not just us, but the retailer and the consumer as well. So we take this, we'll always focus on that. And we take this to heart in our decisions. Okay. Does that answer your question? Yes. Sean McGowan (Equity Analyst) Yes. Well, I guess where I was going with it is should we expect to see further improvement or might some of these headwinds eat away at the improvement that you've made? Carl Goyette (President & CEO) Well, I think we're going to continue to see a strong growth margin. That's something that we're really proud of. And then we'll continue to work on. Of course, we're feeling these headwinds, so we're always making sure through our various suppliers, through our trade investment strategies to kind of make sure it balances out. And we're kind of reconsidering that on a quarterly basis. We review that and make sure that it works. So I can't, of course, make any promises for the future, but our history and our discipline so far has really helped us and it will continue to do so. Sean McGowan (Equity Analyst) Okay, thanks, Carl. Maybe for you, limited time offers are kind of a big part of what some other energy drink companies and other categories as well. Is this a big part of your strategy? How much does LTO kind of stuff contribute to your growth? Carl Goyette (President & CEO) Yes, it's an interesting question. Considering how competitive this industry has become and how much innovations play a role. I would say that our focus over the last few years, especially over the last two years, has really been on permanent innovations and we've been very successful at this. So the first focus is really around completing our zero portfolio. So the zero sugar is driving the growth and we still have some room for some permanent innovations that are driving permanent velocities day in, day out. So that's really the core of the focus. But LTOs I really believe can play a role. Not as as good as a role as a permanent SKU, but I think they can play a role. And what we've seen, we started testing a little bit with LTOs in the multi pack space. And I think this is where when you launch an LTO, if you're getting incremental space in a retailer, for example, if you end up in the perimeter instead of the energy drink section, if this creates an opportunity for incremental promotional activity, then I think it's really worth looking at the Costco,. I spoke about the Costco, pack in my remarks as well. This is something that's driving a lot of growth for us. We do have a limited edition pack for the summer in Costco, right now in Quebec and it's performing well, so that's exciting. But it's also in the multipack. Right. So four packs. Multi packs is something that we are really interested in because it drives incremental sales. We want to solidify our permanent zero portfolio first and then obviously we'll look at bringing some LTOs. But that's more to create excitement from a consumer point of view and it gives you a great talk value from a marketing perspective. Sean McGowan (Equity Analyst) Okay, great. And my last question for now is about sprouts. So I mean, it's obviously a perfect fit for the brand. First question is how are you going to be merchandise in the store? Is it cold or warm or both? Second, can you kind of put sprout in context of what portion of the energy drink market might they account for and who else is there already? Are you displacing somebody or are you sitting next to another brand? A little bit about that, yeah. Carl Goyette (President & CEO) We're obviously very excited about this news. This is a really important retailer and they obviously saw our performance, they saw our performance in our velocities increasing in the natural channel. And this was a big gap in our natural channel strategy. So it is significant from the natural point of view, it's going to increase our distribution. When we look at our total weighted distribution or ACV in the natural channel, it's going to give us a significant bump like something around 10% bump in the distribution. Gains in the distribution. So it is significant in terms of gain. With 480 stores, it will become fairly rapidly one of our top retailers in the US So from an importance point of view, it is significant. We're very excited about it. We have built a very aggressive launch plan to make sure we support and we win with them. Obviously I can't disclose all the specifics because usually your competitors are listening on this call, but I can tell you that it's activating multiple touch points in store activation, digital support. So we intend to make this an outstanding success for us, but also for Sprouts by growing their category, bringing new consumers into their stores who are looking for a natural offer. But that has a conventional taste. So that's kind of the long answer on the context. We will have multiple. To your question, we'll have multiple placements in the stores. Right. Cold and war. So that's also really exciting. We will be aggressive on promotions and demos. In the beginning and I think there was another question. Was there another. Sean McGowan (Equity Analyst) Are they. Are they expanding, basically, Are they expanding their presence in energy or are they swapping someone else out for you, replacing somebody who else is. Carl Goyette (President & CEO) I don't know the specifics of that. I haven't seen the final planogram because this is being implemented now. My understanding is that they're not increasing the energy drink category but replacing some other lower performing brands. That's my understanding, but I could be wrong on that. Sean McGowan (Equity Analyst) Thank you very much. Thank you. OPERATOR The next question comes from Martin Landry with SteveL. Please go ahead. Martin Landry (Equity Analyst) Hi, good morning, Carl and Angie. Great performance in Canada. Your sales were up 47% year over year. I was wondering what proportion of that was sell in versus sell through. So can you give us your estimate of scan data at retail in both Trac and track channel during the quarter? Carl Goyette (President & CEO) Yes, it's 15%. So like same. It's coincidence. But the growth in SCAN in Canada and the US has been at the same level in the US and in Canada. So it's 15% in Canada. That's obviously considering tracked and untracked. And untracked is driving most of that growth. It's really coming in these channels exactly like the same last quarter. Martin Landry (Equity Analyst) Okay, so is it fair to say that there's a little bit of channel fill that happened during the quarter? Carl Goyette (President & CEO) Well, there's a distribution model change, if you remember. Right. There was also weaker months last week. So we're comparing to lower comps. And there is spring season. Is the season where we are the most active with our retailers building summer displays. So I wouldn't call it summer channel film. I would call it heavy promotional activity in order to get ready for the summer. Martin Landry (Equity Analyst) And then your comments on subsequent quarter. You're saying that in May, your Canadian shipments more than tripled on a year over year basis. I just want to understand that. Clearly, triple is a big number. Like, are we comping very weak May last year? Can you just give a little bit more color around that because. Yeah, just trying to understand what that means. Carl Goyette (President & CEO) Exactly. Yes, we're comping. It's on a lower comp, but it's still a strong month. We were on the tail end of our previous distribution partnership. We were just starting our new distribution model last year in May. So, yes, you're comping on the lower May, but May was also a very strong month. Martin Landry (Equity Analyst) Okay. So, I mean, we should expect June and July shipments to revert back to normal levels. Right. Carl Goyette (President & CEO) We should expect to continue to see growth, but not necessarily in the same four times as you saw or two times, three times the numbers that you saw that we quoted in our remarks. Yes, you should normalize growth. Yes. Martin Landry (Equity Analyst) Yeah. And just on your. You said your scan retail sales were up 15% year over year during the quarter. How does that compare to the industry? Carl Goyette (President & CEO) It's a little bit faster than the industry. I'd say twice as fast. Martin Landry (Equity Analyst) Twice as fast as the industry. Carl Goyette (President & CEO) If industry is growing in the seven, 8% in the last time I checked. Martin Landry (Equity Analyst) Okay. Wanted to touch a little bit on Sprout, your new listing there. You've obviously been looking at Sprout and have that retailer on your radar for several years. Can you give us a little bit of color as what triggered the listing to happen now? Carl Goyette (President & CEO) Yes. Well, there's a great job from our sales team, so I want to congratulate them. The sales team did a great job in building relationships with them and making, you know, making Sprouts realize that there was a gap in their portfolio. But there was also, honestly, even the greatest sales team, if you don't have the supporting numbers to support why a retailer should carry your brand and it's not going to really, it's not going to work. So they're seeing, you know, they're seeing the same numbers that we're disclosing. They're seeing increased velocities in all of their. In all of the natural retailers we are partnering with. They are seeing a brand that's actually growing their category where they're seeing a brand that can perform not Only with the natural consumer, but that offers natural ingredients with a mainstream taste. So for them it's really an opportunity to grow their energy drink category. It's also an opportunity for them to bring new consumers in, which is critical. All natural retailers want to bring more of the conventional energy drink consumers because it's such a, such a big category outside of the natural stores that the guru offers them a tool to bring energy, artificial energy drink consumers into natural stores and sell them a better product. Martin Landry (Equity Analyst) And you know, you mentioned that you're going to have, you know, pretty active promotional campaign around the launch. Do you expect this to be margin dilutive in the near term? In G, what's the business case? And maybe you want to speak about that. Inji Saraf Yeah, well, of course for the initial launch there's a lot of investments like you pointed out. So beyond that, however, yet it will be margin accretive. We expect it to be profitable and we do do business cases for all of them. So there's always an initial period which we're all conscious of. And you know, it's to make sure the brand is known and then after that it must be positive for us to continue. And it is. Martin Landry (Equity Analyst) Okay, so just to be clear, how long is the initial investment? Are we talking about Q3 or could it spill into Q4? Inji Saraf Yes, it could still into Q4. Martin Landry (Equity Analyst) Okay. Okay. Q3 and Q4. Okay. That's it for me. Best of luck. See? Nothing. Thank you. OPERATOR Here's a follow up question from Sean McGowan with Roth Capital Partners. Please go ahead. Sean McGowan (Equity Analyst) Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. Just wanted to kind of clarify something that was just referring to. Are you seeing anything in the May numbers that might be triggered by Prime Day being a little earlier or is that still too far out to matter for May? Are your shipments in May affected by the Prime Day being moved up two and a half weeks or something this year? Carl Goyette (President & CEO) Angie, you want to take that? Sorry, I didn't understand the question. Sean McGowan (Equity Analyst) The question was if sales in May were impacted by Prime Day being being a little bit earlier this year. Inji Saraf Oh, not yet. That's going to be in June. Prime Day is going to be in June, right? Sean McGowan (Equity Analyst) Yes. There's no impact? Inji Saraf No, no, there will be in June. We hope it's going to have a big impact on June though. But not in May. Yeah. Sean McGowan (Equity Analyst) Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. OPERATOR This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Carl Goyette for any closing remarks. Carl Goyette (President & CEO) Thank you, operator. And thanks everyone for joining and choosing GURU Organic Energy. Have a great day. Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.