HNI Corporation Aktie

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to HNI Corporation Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. McCall. Please go ahead.

Good morning. My name is Matt McCall, I'm Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Development for HNI Corporation. Thank you for joining us to discuss our third quarter 2026 results. With me today are Jeff Lorenger, Chairman, President and CEO; and V.P. Berger, Executive Vice President and CFO.

Copies of our financial news release and non-GAAP reconciliations are posted on our website. Statements made during this call that are not strictly historical facts are forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks. Actual results could differ materially. The financial news release posted on our website includes additional factors that could affect actual results. The corporation assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call. I'm now pleased to turn the call over to Jeff Lawrence. Jeff?

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. In the third quarter, we drove volume growth in both segments, while our members continue to demonstrate focus and diligence. In addition to the benefits of operating leverage from the higher volume, cost and expense management, legacy productivity benefits and price cost favorability drove third quarter results that significantly exceeded our expectations.

Encouragingly, our internal leading indicators, preorder activity, orders and backlog continue to provide reasons to be optimistic. The positive momentum of our strategies, both revenue and cost focus, the benefits of our diversified revenue streams, the merits of our customer-first business model and the integration of Steelcase continue to deliver strong shareholder value. And we expect the fifth consecutive year of double-digit earnings improvement in 2026 and full year organic revenue growth in the low single digits in both segments.

On today's call, I will break my comments into three sections. First, our quarterly results surprise to the upside. Second, our revenue backdrop remains strong and is expected to support a solid fourth quarter. And third, we have elevated visibility into profit growth as we look to 2027 and beyond. Following my comments, VP will provide more details about the third quarter, our outlook, cash flow and balance sheet. I will close with some additional commentary before we open the call to your questions.

I will start with some highlights from the third quarter. Non-GAAP EPS of $1.62 exceeded our internal expectations and was up nearly 50% year-over-year. Both segments reported volume and order growth in the quarter, while we continue to effectively manage the middle of the income statement. Profit improvement versus the prior year was driven by the Steelcase acquisition, operational productivity benefits, price cost and organic volume growth. Revenue overall was in line with our projections with building products nicely exceeding our forecast and offsetting a slight miss in Workplace.

In our legacy Workplace Furnishings businesses, our profit transformation efforts are working and revenue is continuing to grow. Third quarter net sales were up 6% year-over-year on an organic basis. We remain optimistic about the industry backdrop and our internal indicators continue to provide reasons to be encouraged about future top line trends. Non-GAAP segment operating margin, excluding Steelcase, expanded 390 basis points year-over-year, reaching a third quarter record of 16.2%. And when including Steelcase, non-GAAP operating income was more than double the prior year level.

For the full year 2026, we continue to expect solid margin expansion in our legacy Workplace businesses, resulting from strategic cost transformation initiatives and leverage on volume improvement, while we continue to invest to drive future growth. At Steelcase, our integration efforts are on track. synergy capture is ahead of plan. Net sales and orders improved on a year-over-year basis, and we saw accretion from Steelcase in the third quarter.

From a synergies perspective, we now expect total capture to reach at least $130 million when fully mature versus our original target of $120 million. And the original target of $120 million is now expected to be achieved by the end of year 4 earlier than previously expected. In Residential Building Products, our organizational realignment and growth initiatives are working and fueled 5% net sales growth in the quarter, strong results given the headwinds in the housing markets. This growth exceeded our expectations communicated on the second quarter call as the benefits of structural changes organizing around the consumer and growth investments drove continued market outperformance.

Revenue from the remodel retrofit business increased double digits and more than offset continued market-driven weakness in the new construction channel. The top line strength and our lean model drove operating profit and margin upside with 180 basis points of margin expansion and 16% profit growth on a year-over-year basis. We remain encouraged about the opportunities tied to our growth initiatives despite expectations of ongoing housing market headwinds. And importantly, we continue to invest to grow our unique operating model and diversified revenue streams, including ongoing go-to-market changes to organize around our customers.

In summary, for HNI overall, the strength of our growth strategies and ability to stay focused on our profit levers despite ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty was evident in our third quarter results, and we expect strong profit growth again in the fourth quarter. That leads to my comments on our outlook for the fourth quarter of 2026. Again, our revenue backdrop remained strong in the third quarter. From a segment perspective, beginning in our legacy Workplace businesses, orders in the third quarter saw a solid increase compared to the prior year period.

As a result, we expect net sales growth again in the fourth quarter versus the prior year in legacy Workplace. Our segment outlook continues to be supported by external industry metrics and by internal pipeline data. Specifically, in addition to strengthening orders in the quarter, preorder metrics remained encouraging, including project funnel, bid quotes and design requests. For Steelcase, order growth exceeded our legacy workplace businesses, consistent with the strong preorder activity and accelerating order momentum we discussed on the second quarter call.

And as I mentioned, our synergy capture is running ahead of plan. In 2026, the synergy upside will be partially offset by temporary price/cost pressure from accelerating inflation. Importantly, we expect our pricing actions will bring price/cost neutrality in 2027. In addition, in Steelcase's international markets, the benefits of our ongoing cost actions and profit improvement plans are being partially offset by geopolitical turmoil, slowing the rate of earnings improvement in 2026.

We will continue to aggressively manage the cost structure with a focus on profitability in these markets. So with the new leadership team in place, a focus on growth and disciplined management, the Steelcase business is positioned for a strong 2027.

In Residential Building Products, our members continue to drive market outperformance. Segment orders grew solidly compared to the third quarter of 2025. For the full year, we continue to expect modest price-driven revenue growth with volume improvement adding to the pricing benefits in the second half. Again, that's despite the persistent housing market headwinds that have been with us all year.

From a profit perspective, we expect Residential Building Products non-GAAP operating margin to significantly expand again in the fourth quarter and for the full year overall. The fourth quarter will mark the anniversary of our Steelcase acquisition and a full year of our consolidated results. This will also mark an operating margin trough for the combined company. As we move forward with substantial revenue and profit opportunities, we expect significant margin expansion ahead.

Now moving on to my third point, our outlook for 2027 and beyond. Cost management initiatives and efforts to streamline priorities across the organization to focus on profitable growth will deliver improved profitability over the remainder of 2026 and in 2027. This is despite expectations of ongoing geopolitical and macro uncertainty. Further, we continue to expect manufacturing network optimization savings in our legacy Workplace Furnishings businesses totaled nearly $30 million. We expect to recognize about 1/3 of the savings in 2026 with the remaining 2/3 benefiting '27 and '28 equally.

In addition, synergies associated with the integration of Steelcase are progressing ahead of plan and are now expected to add at least $130 million of operating profit when fully mature. As a result, from an earnings perspective, we expect double-digit EPS growth again in 2027. And while our outlook for double-digit EPS growth in 2027 is not reliant on top line growth, we do expect net sales improvement again in 2027. Beyond next year, the combination of our disciplined cost management, Steelcase synergies and ongoing legacy manufacturing optimization projects will continue to support our earnings visibility story.

A couple of additional items to note. First, our current synergy projections are focused only on the Steelcase Americas business. Second, we are assuming no benefits from revenue synergies. However, we are increasingly confident in the benefits tied to our HNI portfolio initiative which are focused on increasing sales of the HNI aligned brands across our dealer networks. We'll provide additional commentary throughout 2027 on this topic. And third, as I discussed earlier, we will continue to aggressively manage the cost structure and profitability in Steelcase's international markets. Now I will turn the call over to VP. VP?

Thanks, Jeff. I'll start with some additional comments about the third quarter.

GAAP diluted EPS was $1.23. On a non-GAAP basis, diluted EPS totaled $1.62, which was ahead of our internal expectations. Organic volume rebounded in the quarter with both segments reporting year-over-year volume growth. Workplace net sales increased 6% year-over-year organically with volume up 2%. Residential Building Products net sales grew 5% year-on-year with volume growing 4%. Total net sales in the quarter increased 133% overall. From an organic standpoint, total net sales were up 6% on a year-over-year basis.

Moving to Q3 orders. In the Workplace Furnishings segment, orders in the third quarter increased 6% compared to the prior year period. Order growth rates from contract customers solidly outperformed those from small- and medium-sized businesses and Steelcase order growth was stronger than legacy Workplace Furnishings. Over the most recent five-week period, segment order growth has continued. Orders in the Residential Building Products segment were up 4% compared to the third quarter of 2025. Solid remodel retrofit order growth offset modest declines from the new construction channel. However, both segments continue to outperform the respective markets. Over the most recent five-week period, segment order growth has continued.

Before I discuss our fourth quarter net sales and profit outlook, a reminder that our fiscal 2025 includes an extra week in the fourth quarter. The extra shipping days in the year ago fourth quarter are estimated to create a 3% point revenue growth headwind in the fourth quarter of 2026. For the fourth quarter of 2026, net sales in legacy Workplace Furnishings are expected to increase at a low single-digit rate year-over-year, including the negative impact of the extra week a year ago. Excluding the impact of the extra week, fourth quarter segment sales are expected to increase at a mid-single-digit rate. Including Steelcase, total Workplace Furnishings net sales are expected to nearly double from the prior year period.

In Residential Building Products, fourth quarter 2026 net sales are expected to be roughly unchanged versus the same period in 2025, again, including the negative impact of the extra week last year. Excluding the impact of the extra week, fourth quarter segment sales are expected to increase at a low single-digit rate.

Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share for the fourth quarter of 2026 are expected to increase at a rate in the mid-20% range from the fourth quarter 2025 levels. The addition of Steelcase, productivity savings, expense management and the benefits of tax planning are expected to more than offset modest year-over-year volume pressure, a temporary price/cost drag resulting from the accelerated inflation and continued investments to drive future growth.

As Jeff noted, we saw solid EPS accretion from Steelcase in the third quarter as our synergy capture initiatives gain momentum. However, given the international profit pressures and expectations of temporary price cost headwinds in the fourth quarter, we now expect Steelcase to be neutral to earnings per share for 2026 overall. For consolidated HNI, we continue to expect full year non-GAAP EPS growth of 20% to 25% above 2025 full year of $3.46. As Jeff mentioned, we expect double-digit diluted non-GAAP EPS growth again next year, and we have multiple years of elevated earnings growth visibility beyond 2027.

Next, a few items to assist in your 2026 modeling. Net interest expense is expected to total about $80 million and full year tax rate should be approximately 24%. Finally, from a cash flow and balance sheet perspective, our balance sheet is strong, and we remain committed to maintaining significant financial flexibility to fund ongoing business investments to drive growth and payment of our long-standing dividend.

Strong free cash flow was used to meaningfully reduce net debt levels during the quarter. Quarter ending debt leverage was at 2.0x, down from 2.4x last quarter. We expect leverage to move back to pre-Steelcase acquisition levels at or below 1.5x on an annualized basis within 18 to 24 months of the closing of the deal in December of 2025. I will now turn the call back over to Jeff for some longer-term thoughts and closing comments.

Thanks, VP. Our members continue to manage our businesses well, delivering another strong quarter with improving top line trends and earnings that exceeded our expectations. We reported volume growth in Workplace Furnishings. Residential Building Products segment continued to overdeliver in the quarter, and our order patterns in both segments showed solid year-over-year improvement during the quarter.

The integration of Steelcase is going well with synergy capture progressing ahead of expectations. And a new leadership team, strategic cost resets and pricing actions have the Steelcase business in a great position as we move towards 2027. And we remain confident and expect significant accretion next year and beyond.

The benefits of the Steelcase acquisition, the strength of our strategies and our financial discipline are expected to drive increasing free cash flows even as we manage through worsening inflation and softness in the international markets. And while we remain focused, conservative and ready to adjust as required, our outlook and investment posture continue to demonstrate our confidence in revenue improvement, our ongoing profit growth visibility story and our ability to manage through dynamic economic conditions.

I will finish with some commentary around our demand indicators. The Workplace Furnishings backdrop we have discussed the last few quarters is unchanged, and we are encouraged about the demand environment. In short, our customer interactions indicate the good markets, quality buildings and specific industries are creating real opportunity for us despite the macro noise.

Return to office continues to be a positive driver with Class A peak day occupancy in the top 10 MSAs now back above 95%. Office leasing activity grew for the fifth straight quarter in Q3. Net absorption of office space a historically good leading indicator of future industry demand was also positive for the fifth straight quarter with more than 6 million square feet absorbed in Q3. And nonviable space continues to be removed from the market with 10 million square feet taken offline in the third quarter.

We continue to view this as a positive catalyst for furniture events as more tenants are forced to move. And while the supply of new office space remains subdued, we believe furniture demand only follows occupied seats and lease events, not only construction cranes. Our customer interactions indicate several drivers of demand despite very little new space under construction. Some customers unable to find new space in their existing markets are looking to fit more employees in their existing space. Some are looking for space in suburban areas adjacent to their existing markets, while others are looking to migrate to other primary and secondary markets where space is available. Encouragingly, each of these drivers creates a unique furniture event with the result often being higher furniture spend per square foot.

As I mentioned earlier, these encouraging industry drivers are consistent with recent order patterns and internal preorder metrics in both legacy Workplace and at Steelcase. Our funnel continues to expand with third quarter bid quotes up solidly year-over-year. Customer visits, RFPs and design requests were all strong during the quarter. Our teams are competing well and win rates are improving.

Moving on to housing. Headlines continue to point to a challenging environment, especially in the new build space. Interest rates remain elevated, prices remain high and affordability concerns are not going away. As a result, we expect continued new construction weakness for the remainder of 2026 and that 2027 will be another challenging year. Despite this backdrop, we are confident that our go-to-market initiatives and growth investments will allow us to continue to outperform the market. In remodel retrofit, we are assuming modest market growth over the remainder of 2026 and for that to continue as we head into the first half of 2027. We also expect continued market outperformance in our R&R business. And as was the case for this business in 2026, we expect ongoing margin and cash flow consistency in the Residential Building Products segment.

In conclusion, post the acquisition of Steelcase, we are transformed and fundamentally stronger organization. The early on benefits of the Steelcase acquisition, strength of our strategies and our financial discipline are expected to continue to drive strong free cash flow and help us maintain a strong balance sheet. This will enable us to continue to invest with confidence to grow and deliver exceptional value to our shareholders, customers, dealers, members and communities. I want to thank all HNI members for their continued focus and commitment. Thank you again for joining us. We'll now open the call to your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question will be coming from the line of Greg Burns of Sidoti.

So I just wanted to, I guess, better understand the international dynamics that are occurring in the market. Is there a demand destruction happening there? Or is it mainly a margin issue? And I thought you had mentioned, I don't know if I heard this correctly, but the $130 million of Steelcase synergies are mainly tied to North America, and that's not really considering international. Do you have plans for the international markets maybe to improve the profitability there?

Yes, Great. A lot there. First, let me start with -- yes, we do have plans. Yes, the synergy, the $130 million number is not involving the international markets. It's Americas only. And yes, I mean, really, what's going on over there is there's a lot of turmoil. Markets are disrupted. We got -- and so we're managing it closely for profit looking at our structures and what the demand environment is going to look like. And the bottom line is we've got less profit improvement out of that than we thought. And it's really demand driven, to be candid. The actions we're taking are on track, but the market softened up with the war and some other turmoil that's happening there. So that's really what's going on there, but we'll continue to focus on that as we go forward.

Okay. And I know the main focus or driver, since you acquired Steelcase has been mostly from a profit cost perspective. Now with the new management team in place, how should we think about maybe the revenue synergy opportunities and the timing of when those might become more evident in the results?

Yes. That's a good question, Greg. I mean, look, we're definitely turning our attention to revenue synergies. I'd say early on, we wanted to kind of look at it organically, and we've seen some encouraging signs. And right now, we're really spinning up some test and learn. We call it the H&I portfolio initiative where we're looking to drive our open line H&I brands across all our dealer networks. It includes a collection of initiatives. Some are in pilot form to sell across those networks, and we'll be focused on testing, learning and quickly scaling those efforts as we see traction. But again, you're right, a secondary benefit and a secondary focus that's now coming online.

Our next question is coming from the line of Reuben Garner of StonerX.

Let's see. So you mentioned pricing actions, a little bit of near-term price cost pressure in the fourth quarter. What pricing actions are you guys taking? Is it largely steel and diesel? Or are there other cost increases that you're facing? And talk about, I guess, the time line of when those pricing actions start to flow through to kind of get you back to neutral?

Yes. Reuben, obviously, this price cost has been dynamic, and we've maintained that we're looking for price cost neutrality over time. We've been able to do that over the last 2 years, even when the tariff started. So the pricing actions started in Q2. We went out with an increased surcharge as well as individual list price changes in all of our businesses based on the best assumption that we had. And we actually got price cost favorable if you remember at the end of Q2 as a positive even after having some headwinds in our legacy business.

So what happened in Q3 is fuel ran more, diesel ran more, steel ran more. So we've gone out again and taken additional actions. Our backlog is the biggest at that point at this time of year. So as a result, we have -- we honor those. So there's going to be a drag in the fourth quarter that we will incur, but our strategy hasn't changed. So there's a $0.10 to $0.15 drag in the fourth quarter that we will we will get back between Q4 actions we're taking as well as Q1 to have 2027 to be price cost neutral. And to answer your second question, it will take a quarter or 1.5 quarters into 2027 to capture. So all the businesses are doing activity here, and it's still a mix between fuel surcharge and lift.

Okay. Great. And then the incremental synergies that you found, can you talk about what buckets those come in? And it sounds like -- well, yes, just what buckets did those come in, sorry?

Yes. You heard Jeff say we're actually ahead of plan. So the day 1 public company costs from SG&A, we made good traction there. We got a little more out of that than we expected. But if you look at where the additional increases going forward are really on the operational side. As we've laid out our project plans, we talked about last quarter, there's more opportunity in procurement. There's more opportunity in logistics and there's more opportunity, obviously, in network optimization. So that gives us confidence to move from the $120 to $130 for net lease. So kind of all four buckets are seeing some benefit, but the real juice in the future will be on the ops side. I think the other key, as a result, we've been talking about $0.60 in year 2 for Steelcase. We're now taking that up to $0.70.

Great. And then last one for me. The HA performance, very strong, obviously, in this environment, especially on the repair and remodel side. Can you just remind us and walk through double-digit growth is pretty impressive. You're not seeing a lot of building product categories see that kind of growth in this market. So can you just remind us the products, the strategies, the investments that you're making and kind of how those benefits are flowing through? Is it new customers? Is it just deeper penetration with existing customers? Just any color would be helpful.

Yes. Look, Reuben, it's a little bit of all of that. I mean we're getting really tight focus. We've done some brand work. We've done some new product work. We've focused on our go-to-market model and a little more intimacy. And I think the other thing that's going on here, we got some benefit from the oil prices of some of our stove business. pellet and wood. So fundamentally, I mean, we are really focused overall in this business, notwithstanding even the new home side on the front end of this business.

And so there's a lot of investments going in and a lot of focus, everything from bringing people into the organization with a different lens to branding work to new product investment and to customer tools to make decisions quicker. So that's really what's driving that. And I would say that we're going to continue to invest with confidence there because we are seeing results and the markets are going to do what they do, but we think there's a lot of opportunity to take share and to grow the category.

Next question is coming from the line of Steven Ramsey of Thompson Research Group.

This is Chris calling in for Steven today. So the difference between workplace contractor and SMB switch this quarter, I believe, where SMB outperformed in Q1 and Q2. This quarter, contractors solidly outperformed you say. So is SMB slowing? Was it timing? Just hoping you can give us a little bit of understanding what the real trend is here.

Yes. I think you're on the trend as it relates to performance. I'd say SMB has been resilient for the last few years. If you look at the growth rates, we've shown 8 quarters where that's hung in there. So that's obviously distribution mix of products and the backdrop of the market.

Jeff talked about the macro indicators and what's happening. We play well in that space. So that's actually, I would say, has continued. What's happened with contract is really the macro of large commercial coming back, the return to office, the absorption. All those things are supportive of what I would call large contract return to office. And as a result, you're seeing that stuff accelerate. And that's generally what's happening both on the steel case as well as the legacy H&I business.

Yes, I would agree. I don't have a lot to add. I think it's less about SMB. It does ebb and flow a little bit. It's quicker to react to -- it's a shorter cycle business. So you'll see it, but it's still resilient. I think BP is the right term there. But this is more about the core commercial contract business getting traction based on all the things we've been seeing in the last couple of quarters, including even some of the verticals. So I think that's really how we think about it and position how you could probably think about it.

Very helpful. And we're also hearing that the return to office is kind of driving growth in some of the other products that we cover like flooring. So just the final follow-up on this question is, is this something that you see extending into 2027 and beyond?

Yes, for sure. We do believe that we're bullish. I mean, short of anything crazy that nobody can see. But yes, I think that has lined up. It started. I think as we commented, there's a lot of lease expirations coming due that we will start to pop over the next 18, 24 months. So at the end of the day, we think we're in a good cycle. We think the combination of steel case in the family gives us even more exposure to play all the bases as the cycle goes, whether it be some of the verticals. So I think that's absolutely what we're competing well on and that's what customers are really talking to us about.

And final one for me. Just wondering if you could speak a little bit about the regionality of both workplace and resi. Are you seeing growth in certain regions? Or are you seeing it pretty much the same across the nation?

That's a good question. I would say in workplace, it's pretty broad-based right now. There's different pockets that kind of come and go. But generally speaking, the trends we're seeing in the activities and the lease expirations and the return to office is kind of across the board. In resi, I do think you see some pockets. It's a little more regionalized and it has been. It was a little weak in the upper Midwest and weaker a little weaker in the Northeast to start. And then the South and West were stronger. That's kind of been how it's played out the last couple of years. Now with the remodel business going, I was kind of talking more new home. You talk about remodel retrofit, that's more like workplaces, pretty broad-based.

Our next question is coming from the line of David MacGregor of Lobo Research.

Congratulations on a strong quarter. Great results, very encouraging. I guess Jeff, I wanted to ask you just how you're thinking about the strong order book and all the strength you're seeing right now in the presale indicators versus your talk about volume pressure outlook in 4Q. And is this just really kind of the project calendar building for 2027? Or just talk a little more about that timing and kind of the mechanics of this.

Yes. It's a good question. I mean we have seen where we've got strength in the presale and the order book is also a large project. And we've seen some project push. Some of what we're hearing kind of across the board is some tightness with labor. Even though we're not talking about new construction, we are talking about labor to do jobs. And so we've seen some of the push there. So we're not really worried about it. It's there. It's just kind of timing on that, and that's the strongest piece of the business right now.

And I would tell you, also, like I said, we've got strength there. We've got strength in what I would call core commercial contracts. SMB has been resilient. Health care is strong. But we also have seen some weakness in the education space in the state and local space. As you can well imagine, post-COVID money and bond money, the education kind of taking a breather right now. We're competing well, but it's taken a breather and state and local governments are also kind of reengineering their budgets as we go. So I think those two things are kind of leaning on some of the softness as well, but those are lesser parts of the business.

Right. No, I appreciate that detail. How much of this do you think is just the impact of cost inflation on customer project budgets and people just kind of running out of budget capacity here in '26 and saying, well, we'll address that in '27 or we'll divide the project up and we'll do the rest of that in '27.

That's good. We hear anecdotal evidence about that from time to time. I think that some of that's out there or a repricing exercise. That's not all bad for us with our open line to be candid, with this revenue synergy piece. So I think people may have started out on one budget and got reduced to another, but it doesn't -- we haven't really seen people saying it's an all stop. It's really, well, we can't maybe do what we thought we wanted to do. So we're going to take another look at this. And that stretches some of this out as well, I think. But again, I think the long game is that's not all bad for us. We don't mind that exercise one bit.

No, I think I understand that. That's good. I also wanted to get you to maybe drill in a little further on that 390 basis points of operating margin in Workplace Furnishings, excluding Steelcase. Can you just bridge that for us and talk about the big pieces just to help us understand the composition of that. I mean it's an impressive number. Just trying to understand the composition.

Yes. I mean if you look at Q3, David, the EPS being up 47%, it wasn't one lever. So there's about $0.60 if I kind of bucket it between pushing off some price cost stuff. Our productivity, Jeff talked about our transformational efforts and resetting our footprint continues to deliver significant value creation. We had volume come back for the first time in both of the businesses. You had volume in residential show up at 4%. You had volume show up at 2% in the workplace side. And then obviously, we got the acquisition you said legacy piece, we got the acquisition of the accretion of Steelcase. We really had 4 or 5 levers coming through, and they came through, if I compare to expectations, even a little bit better on our streamlining our priorities as well as our productivity.

So all of that, I would say, is sustainable. So I think as you look to how do we think about the business in the long term, we did return to growth in the legacy business in '25. We grew again this year, and it's accelerated in the back half. So we're positioned for, to Jeff's point, a strong inflection here in '27 as these things continue to grow.

And that was the last question for today. I would like to go ahead and turn the call back over to Mr. Lorenger for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Great. I appreciate everybody's time today. Thanks for taking the time to join us and look forward to speaking to you again in February. Thanks.

Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the HNI Corporation Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Matt McCall. Please go ahead.

Good morning. My name is Matt McCall. I'm Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Development for HNI Corporation. Thank you for joining us to discuss our second quarter 2026 results. With me today are Jeff Lorenger, Chairman, President and CEO; and VP. Berger, Executive Vice President and CFO.

Copies of our financial news release and non-GAAP reconciliations are posted on our website. Statements made during this call that are not strictly historical facts are forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks. Actual results could differ materially. The financial news release posted on our website includes additional factors that could affect actual results. The corporation assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call.

I'm now pleased to turn the call over to Jeff Lorenger. Jeff?

Good morning. Thank you for joining us. Second quarter demonstrates the focus of our members, indicates an improving demand environment and supports expectations of stronger 2026 earnings growth. Through focused cost management and the net benefits of price cost and productivity, we were able to deliver second quarter results that were in line with our expectations. And encouragingly, our internal leading indicators improved further in the quarter.

The positive momentum of our strategies, both revenue and cost focused, the benefits of our diversified revenue streams, the merits of our customer-first business model and the integration of Steelcase are delivering significant shareholder value. And we continue to expect a strong year in 2026 with a fifth straight year of double-digit earnings improvement and revenue growth in the low single digits in both segments.

On today's call, I'll break my comments into 3 sections. First, our quarterly results. Again, we delivered solid second quarter earnings with EPS in line with our expectations. Second, our back half outlook. Our revenue backdrop strengthened in the second quarter, providing increased confidence in the full year outlook. And third, our outlook beyond 2026. We have numerous sources of margin improvement and EPS visibility, and we project double-digit EPS growth again next year, and we have multiple years of elevated earnings growth visibility beyond 2027. Following my comments, VP will provide more details about the second quarter, our outlook, cash flow and balance sheet. I will close with some additional commentary before we open the call to your questions.

I will start with some highlights from the second quarter. We continue to effectively manage the middle of the income statement, and we're able to deliver solid second quarter results. Non-GAAP EPS was $1.27, and was up 14% year-over-year. Versus the second quarter of 2025, the addition of Steelcase profit, price/cost, including the net impact of tariffs, legacy network optimization savings and productivity benefits combined to double operating profit on a year-over-year basis. Revenue was in line with our expectations in both segments with Workplace up slightly and Building Products down slightly. Encouragingly, and as we expected, second quarter orders strengthened. I will provide more color on the order patterns in a moment.

In the legacy Workplace Furnishings businesses, second quarter net sales were up slightly year-over-year on an organic basis, consistent with commentary we provided last quarter. Growth was fueled by our businesses focused on small- and medium-sized customers. Moreover, a firming industry backdrop became more apparent during the quarter. In 2026, we expect stronger organic revenue growth in the back half and solid year-over-year margin expansion in legacy Workplace while we continue to invest to drive future growth. The integration of Steelcase is going well and synergy capture and accretion are progressing as expected. A new leadership team is largely in place, and we expect the President to be on board in the second half.

We continue to expect modest accretion in 2026 and now expect total synergies will reach at least $120 million when fully mature. In Residential Building Products, revenue decreased 1.6% versus the prior year period. Again, this was consistent with our expectations communicated on the first quarter call. Revenue from the remodel retrofit business increased solidly, but was more than offset by continued market-driven weakness in the new construction channel. In both markets, our members continue to deliver strong relative performance. Second quarter segment operating margin expanded 470 basis points year-over-year, including net benefits of tariffs, reaching a strong 20.4%. Our unique operating model continues to deliver strong profit margins. Despite expectations of ongoing housing uncertainty, we remain encouraged about opportunities tied to the broader markets, and we continue to invest to grow our operating model and revenue streams.

In summary, the strength of our strategies and our ability to manage daily uncertainty through varying macroeconomic conditions, all while remaining focused on investing for the future was evident in the second quarter results. That leads to my comments on our outlook for the second half of 2026. Again, our revenue backdrop strengthened in the second quarter, providing increased confidence for the remainder of the year. In addition to an improving organic revenue growth rate, the Steelcase acquisition and operational productivity gains are expected to continue driving strong results in the second half. From a segment perspective, beginning in our legacy Workplace businesses, we expect volume growth to return in the third quarter, driving mid- to high single-digit net sales growth in the second half.

Our segment outlook is supported by external industry metrics and by internal pipeline data. Specifically, in addition to strengthening orders in the quarter, preorder metrics all remain highly active, including project funnel, bid quotes and design requests. For Steelcase, after a market soft patch to start the year, we saw pre-order activity and order momentum accelerate in late Q1 and continue in the second quarter. As we expect second half revenue -- and we expect second half revenue to increase solidly year-over-year. We project Steelcase will be modestly accretive in the second half and for the full year. In Residential Building Products, our structural changes to organize around the customer, along with our growth investments are expected to drive continued market outperformance. For 2026, we expect modest price-driven revenue growth in the second half despite expectations of ongoing housing market softness. From a profit perspective, we project both our legacy Workplace and our Building Products segments will solidly expand margins in 2026.

Moving on to my third point, our outlook beyond 2026. We have multiple sources of margin improvement and EPS growth visibility, and we project double-digit EPS growth again next year, driven primarily by expected synergies from Steelcase and legacy network optimization projects. Beyond 2027, we have numerous years of elevated earnings visibility driven by multiple factors. During the quarter, we continue to smartly manage costs across all our businesses as we continue to navigate ongoing geopolitical and macro dynamics. Benefits associated with these cost management actions are in addition to the previously announced $30 million of legacy workplace network optimization savings and the synergies associated with the integration of Steelcase, which, as I stated earlier, are on track and now expected to be at least $120 million.

The combination of our disciplined cost management, Steelcase synergies and ongoing legacy network optimization projects continue to support our earnings visibility story. Of note, additional items may provide incremental benefits. For context, our current synergy projections are focused on the Steelcase Americas business only, and we are assuming no benefits from revenue synergies. In addition, our outlook for double-digit EPS growth next year does not rely on improved volume from current levels.

Now I will turn the call over to VP. VP?

Thanks, Jeff. I'll start with some additional comments about the second quarter. GAAP diluted EPS for the second quarter was $0.70. On a non-GAAP basis, diluted EPS totaled $1.27, which was ahead of our internal expectations. The net tariff impact on operating margin in the quarter was about 150 basis points, and we expect approximately 40 basis points of benefit for the full year. From an EPS perspective, the net tariff benefit in the second quarter was approximately $0.25. Organic volume in the quarter was negatively impacted by geopolitical pressures to begin the year, especially in the Workplace Furnishings segment. However, the addition of Steelcase profit, price/cost benefits, including the net impact of tariffs, expense control and productivity savings offset the volume softness and continued investments in initiatives aiming to drive future growth.

Total net sales in the quarter increased 121% overall. From an organic standpoint, net sales were up slightly on a year-over-year basis. Moving to Q2 orders and backlog. In the Workplace Furnishings segment, organic orders in the second quarter increased 5% compared to the prior year period. Legacy order growth rates from small- to medium-sized customers and from contract customers were comparable in the quarter. Legacy Workplace backlog also ended the quarter 5% higher than the year ago period. Steelcase order growth was slightly better than legacy Workplace Furnishing trends. Over the most recent 5-week period, the year-over-year segment order growth rate accelerated above the 5% average in the second quarter.

Orders in the Residential Building Products segment were mostly unchanged compared to the second quarter of 2025. Solid remodel retrofit order growth essentially offset modest declines from the new construction channel. However, both segments continue to outperform the respective markets. Over the most recent 5-week period, segment orders grew at a low single-digit pace on a year-over-year basis. For the third quarter of 2026, we expect net sales in legacy Workplace to increase to a high single-digit rate year-over-year. Including Steelcase, total Workplace Furnishings net sales are expected to increase approximately 175% to 180% versus the prior year period. In Residential Building Products, third quarter 2026 net sales are expected to be roughly unchanged versus same period in 2025.

Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share in the third quarter of 2026 are expected to increase at a rate in the mid- to high 20% range from the third quarter 2025 levels. Steelcase accretion, productivity savings, volume growth and price costs are expected to fuel the EPS increase. Our new outlook for 2026 full year earnings reflects expectations of 20% to 25% non-GAAP EPS growth from 2025 full year of $3.46, with accelerating double-digit earnings growth in the second half of the year. As we look at the second half, we now expect non-GAAP diluted earnings per share in the third quarter to be approximately 15% above the fourth quarter. This is primarily tied to the expected timing of revenue and investments.

As Jeff mentioned, we expect double-digit diluted non-GAAP EPS growth again next year, and we have multiple years of elevated earnings growth visibility beyond 2027. The combination of Steelcase synergies, cost management actions and legacy workplace network optimization initiatives are expected to yield a total cumulative savings exceeding $70 million in 2027 and more than $150 million when fully mature. Next, a few additional items to assist you in your 2026 modeling. Combined depreciation and amortization are expected to be approximately $170 million to $180 million, excluding purchase accounting impact of approximately $100 million. Net interest expense is expected to total about $80 million, and our tax rate should be approximately 25% to 26%.

And finally, from a cash flow and balance sheet perspective, our balance sheet is strong, and we remain committed to maintaining significant financial flexibility to fund ongoing business investments to drive growth and payment of our long-standing dividend. Free cash flow was used to reduce net debt levels by approximately $100 million during the quarter as we continue to decrease leverage following the Steelcase acquisition. Quarter ending debt leverage was at 2.4x, down from 2.5x last quarter. We continue to expect leverage to move back to pre-Steelcase acquisition levels within 18 to 24 months of the closing of the deal in December of 2025. Leverage is expected to trend lower as the year progresses.

I will now turn the call back over to Jeff for some long-term thoughts and closing comments. Jeff?

Thanks, VP. Our members continue to manage our businesses well, and we delivered another solid quarter. Order patterns showed noticeable improvement during the quarter as expected, especially in Workplace. As a result, as we look forward to the remainder of 2026, we expect year-over-year volume growth in Workplace Furnishings, while Building Products volume pressure is expected to moderate. More specifically, our updated outlook calls for accelerating revenue and operating profit growth in the Workplace Furnishings segment. This view is supported by both external macro and industry demand metrics, internal preorder, order and backlog data and multiple cost and expense initiatives.

In Residential Building Products, we anticipate revenue to be flat year-over-year in the second half, and we expect both of our segments to solidly expand margins in 2026. While we remain focused, conservative and ready to adjust as required, our new outlook demonstrates our growing confidence in revenue growth, our ongoing visibility story and our proven ability to manage through dynamic economic conditions. From a demand indicator perspective, the workplace furnishing spec pattern we have discussed the last few quarters is unchanged, and we remain bullish about the segment's demand environment.

Return to office continues to be a positive driver. Office leasing activity grew for the fourth straight quarter in Q2 with trailing 4-quarter leasing activity now up 27% year-over-year. Net absorption of office space, which has historically been a good leading indicator of future industry demand was positive for the fourth straight quarter with more than 11 million square feet absorbed in Q2. This brings the trailing 4-quarter total to nearly 31 million square feet absorbed, the highest level since 2019. And finally, sublease activity has returned to pre-COVID levels, another indication of the improving health of the office market. While supply of new office space will remain a headwind, we see multiple cyclical drivers of growth outside of new construction.

As I mentioned earlier, these encouraging industry drivers are consistent with recent order patterns and internal preorder metrics in both workplace -- legacy Workplace and Steelcase. Our funnel continues to expand with second quarter bid quotes up solidly year-over-year, and the number of large dollar projects continues to increase. Customer visits, RFPs and design requests were all strong during the second quarter. We are competing well and win rates are improving as market momentum continues to accelerate.

Moving on to housing. Headlines continue to point to ongoing softness, especially in the new build space. Interest rates remain relatively elevated, prices remain high and affordability concerns persist. As a result, we expect continued new construction weakness in 2026. However, new single-family permits surprised to the upside in June and were up 4% year-over-year with each region either flat or up. Our go-to-market initiatives and growth investments will allow us to continue to outperform the market. In remodel retrofit, we are assuming modest market growth in 2026. We also expect to continue to outperform the market in our R&R business. And importantly, we expect ongoing margin and cash flow consistency from the Residential Building Products segment.

In conclusion, post the acquisition of Steelcase, we are a transformed and fundamentally stronger organization. The benefits of the Steelcase acquisition, the strength of our strategies and our financial discipline are expected to continue to drive strong free cash flow and allow us to maintain a strong balance sheet. This will enable us to continue to deliver exceptional value to our shareholders, customers, dealers, members and communities.

I want to thank all HNI members for their continued focus and commitment. Thank you again for joining us. We will now open the call to your questions.

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from Reuben Garner of Benchmark.

So the subtle tweak to the language on the Steelcase synergies, I think there was something similar several quarters after the Kimball acquisition. Can you just talk about why the tweak and what you're seeing there so far in the integration process? And then, I guess, any potential upside to that figure as we move forward?

Sure, Reuben. I think there's 2 parts to it. We went in with a target of $120 million that we've said we've been confident in. That was pure analytics. That was before we even got in and start working with the teams, and that was based on KI's history as well as taking the Steelcase EBITDA business to the legacy targets. They were just over 8%, and we were driving over 13.5%. So our confidence was high. And what's happened in the last 7 months is we've put the integrated management office teams together. Their bottom-up project lists have started in SG&A, logistics, procurement, network optimization. And we now have a view of a list of projects that are larger than $120 million, which is very consistent to Kimball.

So now what we'll do, which is why you heard Jeff say at least. Now what we'll do over the next 60 days is put project time lines on those and finalize our confidence levels. And with that, we'll come back to a new adjusted target. So I think we're kind of -- you called it well. It's similar to what we did with Kimball. And I'd say we're on track, and we're encouraged that the number is going to be higher than $120 million.

And then a little help on the gross margin line. I think you guys -- your accounting maybe a little bit different than the way Steelcase accounted gross versus SG&A or cost of goods versus SG&A expenses. Can you just talk about on a like-to-like basis, what gross margins have been doing and what you expect for the balance of the year kind of embedded in your guide?

Yes. The way you would have looked at the Steelcase margin would not mirror against the legacy workplace because of what's in there in freight and distribution. So to answer your question on what to expect on the workplace side, we still have high confidence of 150 basis point increase this year from 10.5% to 12% before the tariff refund that happened. So those projects, and Jeff talked about improving margins in both the businesses, those projects are in place, and we still have high confidence there. On the residential side on margins, we feel the same. There's a 90-basis point plan for incremental improvement this year, and that's before the tariff refund.

And then if you look at actual Steelcase, you follow P&L throughout the year, you'll see that it's now aligning with the way we did with legacy, and you'll start to see the benefits of the synergies. We will have synergies hit in the third and fourth quarter that will start to improve those margins. And ultimately, analytically, the $120 million, that will incrementally improve margins for Steelcase and overall Workplace, each quarter for the next several years.

And I'm going to sneak one more in. The mid-single-digit order growth, the 5-week comment about it accelerating. Just to clarify, I don't know if that was the last 5 weeks of the quarter or if that was essentially the month of July. But either way, what mid-single-digit kind of growth rate last quarter in orders, your outlook is for high single-digit revenue growth for the balance of the year in that segment. What gives you the confidence that, that acceleration is to come?

There's 3 parts to that, Reuben. Yes, that -- it's a good catch. So there's 3 parts. First, backlog at 5% going into a quarter and order growth rates at 5% going into -- coming out of the quarter support it. The second thing is the order acceleration that happened after the quarter. You heard Jeff mention that orders accelerated. That was at a much higher percentage than 5%, specifically on the contract side of our business. That was a lot stronger. So that supports the high single digits. And then the third thing is a weighted funnel. So the mention of preorder metrics, we can see what's out in front of us that's actually going to come in, in the quarter. So we have a good feel because our customers order based on our lead times. So those 3 things give us confidence in the high single digits for the third quarter.

And our next question comes from Greg Burns of Sidoti. We'll go to our next question. Our next question comes from Steven Ramsey of Thompson Research Group.

I wanted to continue the thoughts on workplace strength. And you talked about win rates improving. Maybe you can put into context the drivers of better win rates, dissect where it's coming from, if it's legacy and/or Steelcase and if the marketplace around you is being rational as we see the backdrop improve.

Yes, good question. I think, Steven, it's kind of across the board, both legacy and Steelcase, teams are competing well. There's been -- it's a lot of project business, small, medium and large kind of across the board by business. And so there's not like a standout. It's kind of universal. I think it kind of goes to these macro drivers, I believe, that are happening with the leasing activity and the absorption and the dealer surveys are trending positive. And so that's the bottom line. And I don't really -- the marketplace seems to be rational at this point. I know we've all been through our periods as we've been in this space long enough. But right now, it seems everyone is -- there's nothing that pops as being unusual relative to how the market is behaving or how our customers and our sales teams are addressing those behaviors.

And then on the resi side of things, I want to make sure I understand this. The pricing-driven revenue growth in the second half, is there an implication that volumes are negative in the second half? And maybe you can talk to mix in that picture.

Yes, Steven, the volume in the second half in the residential is low single digits negative. So there's a little bit of pressure. The price is going to offset that to make it relatively flattish for the second half or low single digits. So the point is even in a challenging housing market, we're going to hold revenue flat.

Yes, Steven, I think I would add that I kind of made the comment, we believe we're outperforming the markets we're in, given kind of the macro and the cyclical and the headwinds that we are seeing. But I think we're pretty happy with that performance relative to our specific investments. We've done a lot with focusing on builders specifically, the service model that we continue to build out and work on our RDC and our service model and our lean process with the vertical integration. So all that is being ramped with some more new product development because like I said, we're bullish on this space long term. And so we're taking this time to make investments when the market does turn in the meantime, kind of outperform while the markets are flattish or slightly down.

And our next question comes from Greg Burns of Sidoti.

Can you hear me now?

We can hear you now.

All right. Great. So a lot of the focus on the Steelcase acquisition has been on the cost side of the equation. I just maybe wanted to get your thoughts on the longer term maybe revenue synergy opportunities. Any early indications of how the brands are working together across your dealer network? And maybe any plans on putting specific programs in place to maybe accelerate any of that activity that you might be seeing in the network?

Yes, it's a great question, Greg. I mean I think that as you well know, none of that was programmed into our thinking going in. And so we're kind of watching that. I would tell you, some of that is occurring naturally in the ecosystem. And so that is -- there was a lot of excitement at Design Days this year, a lot of customers and dealers visiting all the spaces going to the Hans space, going to the Kimball space, what have you. So I think that's been really positive. I think the teams are excited about the opportunities. We have focused a lot. The sales force, we're going to continue to invest in selling. That's a critical element as we build this potential revenue synergy out. I will say we're not going to -- we haven't forced it at this point because this first year in these kind of transactions, we're very pleased with where we're at. And there's a lot of moving parts.

So we kind of want to get through the transition year. But you are right, there will be -- there are opportunities that we have kind of studied relative to how we're seeing the natural ecosystem respond and where we could program in some benefits in order to help that to happen. And the other thing I've said in the past, too, is the whole price mixing and blending of the floor plate in a lot of these opportunities. That's the way the market is kind of developing over time. And we have -- this all goes to how we can configure the network in order to take advantage of not only our assets, but to meet the market where the market is headed anyway.

And our next question comes from David MacGregor of Longbow Research.

Congratulations on the progress. Yes. I guess on your third quarter outlook, can you just talk in greater detail about what you're seeing in the presale indicators? Obviously, it's giving you a lot of confidence in the outlook.

Yes. David, I think us sharing more about preorder activity and presale indicators, we're seeing all of them increase. We're seeing RFPs increase. A little bit about the question earlier about win rate. Some of the investments that we made over the last few years when volume wasn't helped in the front and more salespeople on the street allowed us to sophisticate some of these systems to see it. So you think of -- not just win rates, the amount of bids and size of bids, all of those are what's given us confidence to lean into the third quarter. And I think the last is the point on the weighted funnel. We can actually see in working with our clients that this preorder metric of won but not ordered is going to get ordered.

So I think as this evolves, we'll just get more confidence to how that weighted funnel plays inside the quarter. That's obviously our internal. Certainly, Jeff mentioned a lot of the macro items, specifically absorption and leasing activity. All of those are green, and it's not accelerating as well. So market health plus our sales management systems give us confidence there.

And then the third quarter adjusted EPS guidance of up mid- to high 20s, how much of that is the improving demand fundamentals versus how much is acceleration in cost synergies, execution versus maybe how much is just push forward from the January, February pause in purchase orders?

Yes. I mean a lot of it, when we just -- if I talk dollars just at the highest level, David, the Steelcase profit is going to drive a lot of it. Our productivity is increasing. And then everything we just talked about on volume, we're back to volume growth. We haven't talked about that in a few quarters. And that's obviously a significant driver. And actually, the one that we're probably most excited about because that's the better indication of what the market is doing and it's getting momentum.

And then you noted the double-digit EPS growth you expect in 2027. How much of that is kind of the strong pattern of growth you're seeing in new orders versus Steelcase cost synergies?

Yes, minimal. We've been conservative on that approach. Our visibility story for '27 of the $70 million is Steelcase network and the network optimization. And those numbers have been consistent. Those projects are in place, and we're building them. So growth on top of that is not in the economics, and certainly, that would be upside.

So I just want to be clear, VP, you've got synergies in there, obviously, you just mentioned that. You probably have some pricing in there as well, price cost, but you just don't have any volume. I just want to make sure I'm clear on that.

Price cost is assumed neutral and there is no -- there's minimal volume in there, David. That would be upside.

So there's quite a bit of upside here if the strength you're seeing in the market right now should continue.

Yes.

And then can you just talk about how the mix of business you're seeing is changing with the Steelcase acquisition? And given they typically play in a space where I guess the project sizes are typically larger than what the legacy HNI was used to seeing. And also, what are you learning from that in terms of how you reinvest back in the business going forward?

Yes, it's a good question. We are -- this first year is a year of, I would say, transition. There's a lot of moving parts. But their exposure, obviously, is to larger opportunities than we typically have been operating kind of the standard deviation. It makes it a little lumpier, I would say. So we're kind of getting our arms around predictability. That's kind of why we're talking a lot about the funnel and the activities because that's kind of a precursor. But some of the pace of some of these from one to order and kind of in the funnel is -- we're working with the Steelcase team to make sure we have a -- we can predict that more accurately.

But that's the beauty of this, though, it's exposure to pieces of the market we didn't have before and Steelcase does a great job. Their sales team does a great job, and they're really connected in with their customer base. So -- and this has gone well. I would say the team has responded well. We will probably look to reinvest more in the NPD. As you recall, last quarter, we talked about one of the surprises we had was this -- they had a BT project, and we kind of came in and made a fairly good deep assessment that we needed to stop that. We thought there was another way to do that was kind of holding back some other areas of business. And now the team has responded well. We're diverting those resources and some of this into actions in product development, supporting the sales force, all to kind of what I call win at the point of attack in the market.

And so I think we get through that, and we've got that kind of retriggered going into the back half now, that's -- we really like where we're positioned as we look out into '27 with those moves.

Yes. I mean you talked about the investment. One of the things that we picked up in our dealer checks this quarter was just a lot of dealers investing in their showrooms right now. I guess we should interpret that as an indication of confidence.

Yes, I think so. I think the dealers are bullish, and we're spending a lot of time there. And they're investing, we're investing. That's the beauty. And I think that's what it's going to take to win the race long term. And that, again, goes to this -- goes to the transaction in general. And look, it's only 7 months in, but seeing -- couldn't be more pleased with how everyone's responded relative to that kind of the Steelcase ecosystem, super excited. People have been great, and we're hitting at the right time with some of the macro drivers.

And I guess just you were referencing earlier a little bit about NeoCon this year. Just what did you take away from the NeoCon experience in terms of the commercial synergy potential?

I took away that there's a lot of opportunity. There is a lot of -- to get to know you, it's an exploration -- that's why some of this is -- will happen naturally. There's early adopters. There's other people that are comfortable with where they're at. So you kind of got -- you got to kind of look at the whole network. But the bottom-line takeaway is there's a lot of opportunity as our businesses cover the entire floor plate, like we've said, and the mixing and matching that's potentially available to some of our dealer partners is starting to be recognized. It's early days, but it's starting to be recognized. And all it takes is 1 or 2 experiences to win a job. But you also got to understand you don't snap your fingers.

I mean we have sales forces. We have people getting to know each other. Some of this is just natural matriculation of the system. And at the right time, we can then -- I got the question earlier, you can then kind of program in some of that, but you want to make sure you do that when people are ready and understand the program.

And do you think you're making progress with the international Steelcase business and how you can better sort of leverage that asset?

That -- international, it's early days there. I was -- I've gotten more visibility. I did a trip over there, and there's opportunities to uncover there, the fresh eyes. But look, I mean, the international piece is there's 2 segments for us. We've got the EMEA and the APAC -- and so those even operate a little differently. But yes, there clearly is opportunities there to configure that network to maybe even be more potent than it is, but they have nice coverage. EMEA, obviously, is -- they've got some headwinds with the local economics and the war that too shall pass. And we've got good teams over there and people that are eager to contribute. So that's all you can ask for in the early days.

Last question for me. I just -- you mentioned the Steelcase hiring of a President in the second half. I guess I'm just curious, how does that second half hire impact the synergies cadence? Do we see an acceleration shortly thereafter? Or how are you thinking about that?

No, I don't think so, David. I think we've got, as VP mentioned and we mentioned, we got the IMO structure. We pretty much tipped that up and it's operating without a President. I mean, I think the President will spend more time in the market with dealers, with the sales force, winning business and getting to know the ecosystem well because we kind of have the IMO kind of locked down. It doesn't mean it won't -- they'll be involved, but we want to kind of focus on the front and focus on selling to start with.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn it back to Mr. Lorenger for closing remarks.

Well, great. Thanks for taking the time today. I know it's always a busy time of the year. So I really appreciate everybody joining us for the summer call, so to speak. Thanks so much.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.

Thank you for standing by. My name is Kate, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the HNI Corporation First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. McCall. Please go ahead.

Good morning. My name is Matt McCall. I'm Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Development for HNI Corporation. Thank you for joining us to discuss our first quarter 2026 results.

With me today are Jeff Lorenger, Chairman, President and CEO; and VP Berger, Executive Vice President and CFO.

Copies of the financial news release and non-GAAP reconciliations are posted on our website. Statements made during this call that are not strictly historical facts are forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks. Actual results could differ materially. The financial news release posted on our website includes additional factors that could affect actual results. The corporation assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call.

I'm now pleased to turn the call over to Jeff Lorenger. Jeff?

Thanks, Matt. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Our members delivered solid first quarter results that exceeded our internal expectations in a difficult and dynamic environment. The momentum of our strategies, the benefits of our diversified revenue and profit streams, our ongoing focus on items within our control and the merits of our customer-first business model continued to deliver strong shareholder value.

The takeaway from today's call is we expect a strong year in 2026 with the fifth straight year of double-digit earnings improvement and modest revenue growth in both segments. On today's call, I will break my comments into 3 sections. First, our quarterly results. Again, we delivered solid results despite ongoing geopolitical and macro uncertainty. Second, the remainder of 2026. Despite softer-than-anticipated revenue patterns to start the year, we expect net sales to grow in 2026 with another year of double-digit non-GAAP EPS growth anticipated. And third, our outlook beyond 2026. We project double-digit EPS growth again next year as we maintain multiple years of elevated earnings visibility beyond 2027.

Following those comments, VP will provide more details about the first quarter, our outlook and our cash flow and balance sheet. I will close with some additional color commentary before we open the call to your questions.

I will start with some highlights from the first quarter. Our members continue to focus on controlling the controllables through focused cost management and benefits from price cost and [Audio Gap] this was despite demand softness to begin the year, especially in Workplace Furnishings, amid concerns related to the conflict in the Middle East, the U.S. economy broadly and the impact of tariffs specifically.

In our legacy Workplace Furnishings businesses, first quarter net sales were down about 5% year-over-year on an organic basis with modest growth in our businesses focused on small- and medium-sized customers. We saw weakness early in the quarter with large corporate customers as the impacts of global macro uncertainty were most prevalent during January and February. However, we saw organic segment orders turn positive in March with additional acceleration thus far in the second quarter. This supports our bullishness for the remainder of the year, which I will discuss more in a moment.

As we finished the quarter, it is important to note the integration of Steelcase is going well. Synergy capture and accretion are on track and our cultures are melding nicely. Including Steelcase, Workplace Furnishings segment non-GAAP operating profit in the first quarter totaled almost $49 million, nearly double the prior year level. We continue to expect modest accretion from Steelcase in 2026 and we remain confident in our projected total synergy-driven accretion of $1.20 when fully mature.

In Residential Building Products, revenue increased more than 2% versus prior year period. These are strong results given the ongoing weakness in the new home market. Our growth investments are bearing fruit, and we are outperforming the market. Our new construction revenue was down mid-single digits year-on-year which compares favorably to single-family permits, which declined in the high single digits. Our remodel retrofit revenue was up 13% on a year-over-year basis.

First quarter segment operating profit margin expanded 190 basis points year-over-year, reaching 17.6%. Despite expectations of ongoing uncertainty, we remain encouraged by our opportunities and we continue to invest to grow our operating model and revenue streams.

In summary, HNI's first quarter performance demonstrates the strength of our strategies, our ability to manage daily uncertainty through varying macroeconomic conditions, all while remaining focused on investing for the future. And we continue to expect strong results in the full year, driven by margin expansion and modest revenue growth.

That leads me to my comments on our outlook for the remainder of 2026. I will start with legacy Workplace Furnishings, where we expect segment revenue to increase at a low single-digit pace for the full year, with high single-digit growth in the back half. Additionally, for the Steelcase business, we expect full year revenue to grow slightly. Our outlook is supported by external industry metrics and by our internal pipeline data. Specifically, in addition to strengthening orders over the past 1.5 months, our order funnel, bid quotes, design activity, all improved later in the quarter.

From an earnings perspective, we expect Steelcase to be net neutral in the first half and turn modestly accretive in the second half and for the full year.

In Residential Building Products, our structural changes organizing around the customer and consumer, along with our growth investments, are expected to drive continued market outperformance. For 2026, we expect modest price-driven revenue growth in the second half despite expectations of ongoing housing market softness. From a profitability perspective, we expect both our Workplace Furnishings and our Residential Building Products businesses to expand margins in 2026.

While we are optimistic about the year and expect another year of double-digit non-GAAP EPS growth, we will remain focused, conservative and ready to adjust as required. Our earnings outlook is supported by the anticipated benefits of our ongoing visibility story and our proven ability to manage through changing economic conditions.

Moving on to my third point, a few comments on our outlook beyond 2026. We project double-digit EPS growth again in 2027, driven primarily by expected synergies from Steelcase and legacy network optimization projects. Further, we continue to have multiple years of elevated earnings growth visibility beyond 2027. During the first quarter, we made certain key decisions pertaining to the Steelcase integration that will have positive longer-term implications.

As an example, we terminated Steelcase's multiyear ERP implementation project. This move is part of a broader effort at Steelcase to streamline priorities to focus on profitable growth while also avoiding disruption, eliminating substantial future ERP investment and redeploying resources back into the business toward customer-focused initiatives.

Also during the quarter, we began smartly managing costs across all our businesses in response to a softer start to the year, driven by the current geopolitical backdrop. These new actions are in addition to the previously announced $120 million of synergies associated with the integration of Steelcase, which as I stated earlier, are on track. At the same time, our current synergy projections are focused on the Americas business only and assumed no revenue synergies. And importantly, we remain laser-focused on minimizing any front-end disruption across our Workplace Furnishings businesses.

Finally, as we discussed last quarter, we continue to expect an additional $30 million of savings from network optimization in our legacy Workplace Furnishings businesses over the next 3 years. The combination of our disciplined cost management, Steelcase synergies and our ongoing legacy network optimization projects continue to strengthen our earnings visibility story.

Now I will turn the call over to VP to provide more details about the first quarter, our outlook and our cash flow and balance sheet. I will then provide a longer-term perspective on the opportunities surrounding our businesses before we open the call to your questions. VP?

Thanks, Jeff. I'll start with some additional comments about the first quarter [Audio Gap] of $0.55. On a non-GAAP basis, diluted EPS totaled $0.34 which was slightly ahead of our internal expectations. Our non-GAAP results exclude several items totaling $88 million, the majority of which was tied to the impacts of purchase accounting associated with the Steelcase acquisition.

While volume activity was negatively impacted by the geopolitical conditions, especially in the Workplace Furnishings segment, expense control, price cost and productivity benefits offset volume softness and continued investment in initiatives aimed at driving future growth. Total net sales in the quarter increased 125% overall or down 3% on an organic basis.

From a Q1 orders perspective, in our Workplace Furnishings segment, orders from small- to medium-sized customers were up low single digits. Orders from contract customers, including both legacy Workplace and Steelcase were down mid-single digits versus the first quarter of 2025 levels. As Jeff mentioned, we saw order patterns improve late in the quarter.

Orders in the Residential Building Products segment increased 4% compared to the first quarter of 2025. Remodel retrofit orders outperformed those from the new construction channel. The year-over-year average order growth rate over the final 5 weeks of the quarter was in line with the rate for the quarter overall.

Looking ahead, we expect second quarter 2026 net sales in the legacy Workplace Furnishings to increase at a low single-digit rate year-over-year. Including Steelcase, total Workplace Furnishings net sales are expected to grow approximately 155% to 160% versus the prior year period. In Residential Building Products, second quarter 2026 net sales are expected to decrease at a low single-digit rate compared to the same period in 2025. The impact of the recent order strength includes increased long lead time orders versus the prior year. These orders will ship in the fall and benefit the back half results.

Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share in the second quarter of 2026 are expected to decline modestly from 2025 levels. The addition of Steelcase is expected to be net neutral to moderately accretive to dilutive -- modestly accretive to diluted non-GAAP earnings per share in the quarter. The year-over-year non-GAAP earnings pressure is expected to be driven by lower organic volume and continued investment.

Our outlook for 2026 full year earnings reflects expectations for mid-teens percent non-GAAP EPS growth from 2025 full year of $3.53, with accelerating double-digit earnings growth in the second half of the year. Given the timing of synergy recognition and cost management savings, we now expect non-GAAP diluted earnings per share to be roughly equal in the third and fourth quarters. Productivity, cost management, network optimization initiatives, Steelcase accretion and price/cost benefits are expected to more than offset operating profit headwinds associated with volume pressure and continued investments.

As we look to 2027 and beyond, as Jeff mentioned, we expect double-digit non-GAAP EPS growth again next year and we have multiple years of elevated earnings growth visibility beyond 2027. Steelcase accretion and legacy Workplace network optimization initiatives continue to support elevated levels of visibility. In total, these items are expected to yield savings exceeding $70 million in 2027 and more than $150 million when fully mature. These totals do not include the benefits of our new cost management saving efforts.

Next, a few additional items to assist you in your 2026 modeling. Combined depreciation and amortization are expected to be approximately $150 million to $155 million, excluding purchase accounting impacts of approximately $105 million. Net interest expense is expected to total between $75 million and $80 million. Our tax rate should be approximately 25%.

Finally, from a cash flow and balance sheet perspective. The benefits of the Steelcase acquisition, the strength of our strategies and our financial discipline are expected to drive free cash flow, which will help us quickly deleverage our balance sheet over the next couple of years. As a result, leverage is expected to return to pre-deal levels in the 1 to 1.5x range within 2 years of the deal closing.

Finally, we remain committed to payment of our long-standing dividend and continuing to invest in the business to drive future growth. I will now turn the call back over to Jeff for some longer-term thoughts and closing comments.

Thanks, VP. In the first quarter, our members remain focused on our strategies. We managed our businesses well, and we delivered a solid quarter that modestly exceeded our internal expectations. Looking forward, we remain focused on driving growth and expanding margins and we will continue to invest for the future with confidence. As I mentioned, we saw a slower start to the year than we had anticipated, particularly in the Workplace segment where demand activity was clearly impacted by the conflict in the Middle East and U.S. macro uncertainty.

However, from a demand indicator perspective, the fact pattern we have discussed in the last couple of quarters is unchanged, and we remain bullish about the segment's demand environment. Return to office continues to be a positive driver of activity with levels of remote work expected to fall further in 2026. Office leasing activity grew for the third straight quarter in Q1 with annual leasing activity up more than 7% year-over-year. Net absorption of office space, which has historically been a good leading indicator of future industry demand, was also positive for the third straight quarter with nearly 3.5 million square feet absorbed.

Thus, while supply of new office space will remain a headwind, we see multiple cyclical drivers of growth outside of new construction. These encouraging external industry drivers are consistent with our recent order patterns and internal preorder metrics in both legacy Workplace and Steelcase. Our funnel continues to expand with bid quotes up year-over-year and with the number of large dollar projects increasing versus the prior year period. Design activity also strengthened during the first quarter, and jobs won, but not yet ordered, are up double digits as well. Customers remain engaged, activity is robust with both dealers and end users and our businesses are positioned to win.

Moving on to housing. Headlines continue to point to ongoing softness, especially in new build space. Interest rates remain relatively elevated. Prices remain high and affordability concerns persist and we expect continued new construction weakness in 2026. However, our structural go-to-market initiatives and growth investments will allow us to continue to outperform the market. In remodel retrofit, we are assuming modest market growth in 2026. This is consistent with LIRA projections. In addition, we expect continued market outperformance in our R&R business and we expect ongoing margin and cash flow consistency from this segment.

In conclusion, as we discussed in detail last quarter, we are a transformed and fundamentally stronger organization. Upon recognition of all targeted Steelcase synergies, network optimization savings and cost management benefits, HNI will have substantially higher earnings, stronger margins, greater cash flow and a continued strong balance sheet. This will enable us to continue to deliver exceptional value to our shareholders, customers, dealers, members and communities.

I want to thank all HNI members and specifically the Steelcase employees as they have engaged enthusiastically to begin their HNI journey. Thank you again for joining us. We will now open the call to your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Reuben Garner with The Benchmark Company.

Maybe to start, the change in the Workplace outlook for the full year, it sounds like things actually got better later in the quarter and to start the second quarter. Can you just walk through, I guess, the progression of orders through Q1 and what you saw in April? And if things are improving of late, what kind of other internal indicators that are making you take that outlook down? Or is it just the slower start that's going to be hard to catch up? Or is it conservatism? So just any thoughts there would be helpful.

Sounds good, Reuben. I'll kind of walk you through. Jeff mentioned the actual order numbers. So if we looked at the first quarter, overall legacy Workplace side was down 3%. The contract side was off a little bit more both for Steelcase as well as the legacy HNI closer to 5%. But the important point, it was a slower start, which, for sure, has taken our full year expectation down a little bit. But in March, it did pick up. And as it continued to progress through the quarter, it actually got stronger. And if I look at the last 5 weeks, that momentum has continued across the different segments.

So the way we're thinking about it, Reuben, that we're going to kind of show this first quarter down 5%. And then in the second quarter, we're going to pivot back to growth. So we're -- we've got low single digits pivoted for the second quarter, which is supported by our recent order trends, as well as how we finished the [ third ] (sic) [ first ] quarter. And I think as we think about the full year, we have enough indicators and Jeff will talk to the internal metrics and some of the other external metrics, that say the back half actually has strong high single-digit growth. So we think we caught an air pocket and the order trends that are coming in now are supporting growth for the second quarter as well as even stronger growth for the back half.

Yes. I think that's a good summary. I think the other thing, Reuben, is some of these order trends with the Steelcase business, some of the larger projects are -- they're spaced out a little bit more. They just -- so we're kind of dialing in timing on when the revenue hits. I had mentioned that our order book is solid. Some of the ship dates are kind of moving around. The other thing we've noticed, though, once we kind of -- it's kind of like we got out of this air pocket and customers have concluded -- they learned their lesson during COVID is like we can't wait. We're going to have to -- we got capital deployed, and we want to get moving. And so that's really what we saw. But it definitely was a slower start to the year than we had anticipated. But we think we're behind that now.

Okay. And then embedded in your second quarter outlook, how much kind of near-term price/cost noise is there from the quickly rising transportation and energy situation? And how quickly can you offset? Or can you talk about what pricing tactics you use to offset those costs?

Sure. I think, Reuben, consistently our goal is to offset whether it's tariff costs or general inflation over the periods of time. Your specific question, there's about $2 million of headwind in Q2 that we will catch back up in Q3 and Q4 through price surcharge, similar to what we've done in the past. So I know it's dynamic. I mean things are changing. If you think even the IEEPA piece came off, and then they added the new Section 232s, even with all that, we expect to offset it, and we'll probably have a couple of million dollars of headwind in Q2.

Okay. And then last one for me. The comments about the cost management efforts tied to the slower environment. Can you elaborate on some of the moves that you're making there? And then if I heard you correctly, I think you used the word terminate for Steelcase's ERP project, it wasn't delayed. Just a little more detail on what's going on there, why that move and what the benefits of the change will be to the organization?

Yes. I'll hit ERP, Reuben, I mean, a couple of things drove that. One, now that we're a combined entity, we wanted to step back and take a look at it, what the best program was going to be for the HNI network. Two, they had quite a ways to go in that project, and we felt like stepping back from that and kind of resetting, reexamining was the best for the business. And also those take a lot of effort, and we have a lot in front of us that we can make -- we can redeploy assets to grow the business, whether it be in product development or sales, just other network optimization, et cetera, across the network. So we stepped back from that.

We think it's going to be an unlock relative to being able to focus the business on customer-centric growth initiatives. And that's really without a lot of downside to be candid.

Yes. And I think the second part of your question about cost management, similar to what we've done in the past is we want to control the controllables. We got out of the gate slow with some revenue pressure. So yes, where? It was in all areas of the business, actually, Reuben, it's in all the business segments. We all looked at open headcount. We looked at discretionary spend. Obviously, with the termination of -- the business transformation going on with Steelcase. We actually had some headcount adjustments. So it's never in one spot. And the whole idea of that is to still protect our goal and our target of double-digit EPS growth.

So if you try to -- you delever what's happening if you're pulling sales down, mid-single digits was the forecast for Workplace, we're coming down to low single digits. We adjusted our cost structure to ensure that we can still have the double-digit EPS over the prior year, non-GAAP.

Your next question comes from the line of Greg Burns with Sidoti & Company.

Was the impact from the war in the Middle East localized to that region? Or did it create a more global impact for your office business? I just wanted to kind of better understand the commentary about how that impacted demand in the quarter.

Yes. I think it's a little of both, Greg. I mean we're watching the international businesses closely in monitoring that -- those impacts. But I think it was more of a general kind of feeling that customers just kind of hit pause but all our channel checks now are consistent that we're back in the game, just -- the optimism is there. But -- so it's hard to pinpoint exactly where it hit other than it kind of was broad-based across all our businesses. We have -- we play in most markets. We play in all the verticals. We play small, medium, we play large corporate and with the short -- with a little bit of exception being some of the small business stuff continued on, but everything else kind of took a step back in January and February.

So -- but we believe it was a combination of the war, just kind of uncertainty. And then as I stated earlier, in engaging with customers, they're like, yes, the boss said to slow down for a minute and now he or she is like let's keep this moving. And so that's really the bottom line. It was kind of a broad-based kind of macro kind of slowdown that now seems to be behind us.

Your next question comes from the line of David MacGregor with Longbow Research.

Jeff, I guess I wanted to just explore during January and February, it seems like people, as you say, hit pause on releasing purchase orders. Can you just talk about what you were seeing otherwise underneath that in the market? Was quoting activity continuing? Or people still doing mockups? I mean was it kind of business as usual there that would give you a little more confidence in the longer-term view?

Yes, David, that's right on. I mean, it was a little bit of a feeling that we first saw when we -- out of COVID, I think where people were still active. I think the difference in this case is they've been through that now, and they were ready to go. It was more of a slight delay, but -- in placing the PO, but orders were rolling. I mean, quoting was rolling, activity was high at dealers, activity was high in the sales force. Optimism was kind of still there. It never really muted. It's just the order book didn't flow like we had anticipated. So that's why we're pretty bullish here based on all the indicators. And now based on what we're seeing start to flow for the full year.

Great. And did you see any order cancellations? Was there much -- any activity there?

No. No, we really did not. We did not. That's a good question. We monitor that as well. If anything, we saw this general slowdown. And then we got our normal project delays with construction and things like that, but no, no cancellations.

Okay. Great. And then are you conducting any repricing of backlog orders?

We are not. So we confirm the orders, David, we let them flow out. That creates a little bit of the headwind of a couple of million bucks in the short term, but our process has it covered that we catch it back up.

Okay. And then are you far enough along now in terms of your thinking around Steelcase that you can talk about international and just what actions you may be contemplating aimed at achieving higher levels of profitability from that business?

David, we're actually getting more and more up to speed on that business every day. We understand the go-to markets now. We're locked in with how we forecast their business. And I think the key there is what we talked about before. They had already started some pretty significant profit improvement plans, which included some restructuring and transformation. They were in the late innings of that. And we feel good about the overall profit improvement year-over-year that, that business is actually going to drive shareholder value.

Okay. Last question for me is just on the RBP business. Can you just talk about the brand consolidation and how that's being received in the channels? And will there need to be sort of clearance of any inventory? And if so, how should we think about the potential margin headwind both in terms of maybe magnitude and timing?

Are you speaking specifically on the stove side, David?

Yes. Yes, I am.

Yes. We're in a -- it's actually going really well. It's been an introduction 18 months ago to put an overarching brand called Forge & Flame over top of all of our biomass products. So that was more of a digital way to get to the consumer. So we're in the journey now to actually talk about how we're going to badge those different brands and then use their names as technology. So we don't see any downside with this. It certainly makes us -- we already were the industry leader. Now we're clearly the industry leader from a digital standpoint. But it will take us probably another 18 months to get all the way through, and we're not going to strand inventory.

We're taking our time with it. It's actually that business is performing very well. If we look at year-over-year, we continue to take market share. It's where a lot of our initiatives are. So I think you'll just see this kind of play out behind the scenes.

Your next question comes from the line of Kathryn Thompson with Thompson Research Group.

Could you talk a little bit more about what you're seeing in terms of demand trends for non-office verticals in the quarter and really, if you could break it down, not just by end market but by geography, U.S. versus Europe and how it is expected to shape through the year? And is there any ways where you can benefit more specifically as we look at the broad reindustrialization trend in the U.S.?

A couple of points in there, I guess. On the office verticals, we're seeing positive trends, obviously, in health and education. We're getting lots of higher ed businesses that are leaning in to not only our Steelcase but our Allsteel side. We're actually positioned well with the federal government on the Steelcase side. We're seeing positive trends there. As it relates to international, year-over-year, their orders are actually up. So they're hanging in there across both in market, for market as well as the global business accounts.

Yes. The longer-term outlook that, Kathryn, that is -- it's a little early to tell, but we're pretty agile on our thinking about where we ship resources. What we have is we have breadth and depth to cover all these -- all these markets, all the verticals, core customer. We got geographies covered now. We've got really strong distribution. So we're kind of monitoring that. You listen a lot about enterprise, networks and where people are making investments. Manufacturing is actually doing pretty well right now.

We're -- so we're -- we've got strong research and we got strong ability to pivot as those markets develop right now. We're playing all the bases, and we haven't really went overweight on any of them, but we will when the hot hand appears. That's kind of been our history. And with the Steelcase adder to the HNI network, it gives us a lot more geographic coverage for diversity to do that.

Yes. And so when you -- kind of following up on that, when you think about like a different type of construction projects, beyond kind of what I would say traditional. What we are seeing in the market are different type of players. So for instance, it could be a company that had made racking systems for hospitals that are now pivoting to data centers. But working creatively with builders and importantly with developers, the end market, have you changed or have you thought about doing anything differently in terms of winning different types of business kind of this dynamic market that we're in?

One thing I would say is probably the way we get at that a bit is co-development. We have some teams that engage with customers early and businesses early. I mean you're upstream of that when you talk kind of construction, but that sometimes leads to how people are thinking, how they want their workspace to be branded. What I will say is we're seeing a lot more engagement from customers the last couple of years, it's less cookie-cutter and more dynamic around what they need, whether it be to get members and employees back in the office or what they want their brand to be or the new ways of working.

And so what I would say is we have shifted resources to what I would call more dynamic codevelopment and setting up manufacturing flows in order to be more versatile and agile around making product that is maybe, let me say, nonstandard, if you will. So I'd say that's kind of how we're evolving our business model a bit to be more dynamic and play these different elements as they appear because they shift and move and they're shifting and moving fairly quickly.

Yes. That's helpful. Final question, [ you said ], Steelcase following up on their small midsized business growth initiatives is ongoing. Can you compare how they're doing in that segment versus what core HNI is doing and how or if you're making -- adjusting any Steelcase's strategy to that end market?

Yes, very, very similar businesses. We definitely are not adjusting strategy related to the Steelcase SMB and the legacy SMB and they're both -- they're performing very similar. I mean the SMB business has been resilient in both Steelcase as well as the legacy HNI if you look over the last few quarters. So I think when they're going to continue to win on those smaller projects, the difference -- the main difference in the Steelcase SMB is they play in some cases, on seats that are more than our traditional SMB plays on. But other than that, they're very similar in how they go to market and actually how they're performing.

Yes. And long term, I mean, we'll obviously look for opportunities as we go. I think VP did clarify that a bit and to say again, is their SMB metrics, size, type of job, order book, average order size is a little bit higher than our traditional, so they're both called kind of SMB to start, but I would think that -- what it's really done is stretch the coverage model. So we have no gaps in what we -- what someone -- depending on how you define SMB.

So that's the benefit. That's why we're not making any sudden adjustments to that till we kind of see how that all flows and where there's leverage and where there's just a nice new business that we didn't have or obviously, they didn't have.

Your next question comes from the line of David MacGregor with Longbow Research.

I guess I just wanted to think about second half of this year. It seems as though there's going to be some push forward benefit against some fairly stiff compares from last year, and that will help you. But I'm thinking about the government shutdown in 2025, and you should be comping against that, that should be a source of benefit as well. Is there any way to dimension that for us?

Yes, David, I don't know if we specifically thought about it that way. I think if we just think about how the volume is going to play out, you're right. We'll have some comps that if I get into the fourth quarter, we could see mid-single-digit volume year-over-year versus just price in the third and fourth quarter. So whether it's through government, whether it's through SMB or whether it's through large global or corporate accounts, we do believe that sets us up for a strong back half and actually supports what we're saying with a relatively flat first half and mid-single digits in the second half.

Okay. That's helpful. And then secondly, I'm just wondering, and it's still early, obviously, but I'm wondering to what extent you may be seeing, if at all, any kind of cannibalization between Steelcase and Allsteel?

Yes, good question. We really haven't seen that, David. I mean, our premise going in, and it seems to be playing out is they both are in the contract space, but Steelcase plays with a certain type of customer and has strength in markets where we historically have maybe not been as strong. They're stronger with large corporate, big customers, global customers with large networks and still -- Allsteel and some of our contract brands are maybe a little clip down from that. So we haven't really seen -- not saying there isn't some out there on a project here or there. But on an 80/20 macro basis, I mean, it's complementary and that was the pre-deal kind of going in premise, and that's what we've seen so far.

I'll now turn the call back over to Mr. Lorenger for closing remarks.

Thank you for joining us today. We're going to look forward to speaking to you again in July. I appreciate your time. Thanks so much.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

Hello, and thank you for standing by. My name is Bella, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to HNI Corporation Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year-End 2025 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Matt McCall. You may begin.

Good morning. My name is Matt McCall. I'm Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Development for HNI Corporation. Thank you for joining us to discuss our Fourth Quarter and fiscal year 2025 results. With me today are Jeff Lorenger, Chairman, President and CEO; and V.P. Berger, Executive Vice President and CFO.

Copies of our financial news release and non-GAAP reconciliations are posted on our website. Statements made during this call that are not strictly historical facts are forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks. Actual results could differ materially.

The financial news release posted on our website includes additional factors that could affect actual results. The corporation assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call. I'm now pleased to turn the call over to Jeff Lorenger. Jeff? .

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. 2025 was a seminal year for HNI Corporation. Our members delivered excellent results as we reported a fourth straight year of double-digit non-GAAP EPS growth despite persistent soft and uncertain macro conditions.

The positive momentum of our strategies, the benefits of our diversified revenue streams, our ongoing focus on items within our control, and the merits of our Customer First business model continued to deliver strong shareholder value. And late in the year, we completed the acquisition of Steelcase. This combination will not only transform our company but also the workplace furnishings industry.

On today's call, we will review our fourth quarter and full year 2021 results and provide some commentary around our expectations for 2026 and beyond including the benefits of the Steelcase acquisition.

Before I discuss our recent performance, I want to reflect on the fundamental improvements we have driven at HNI. Our transformation has taken multiple steps in years. I will begin with Workplace Furnishings where margins have been reset. Three years ago, our legacy Workplace Furnishings business launched a profitability improvement initiative that was instrumental in expanding operating margin nearly 1,000 basis points. In 2023, price/cost recovery following the period of elevated inflation drove the first phase of expansion.

Since then, multiple portfolio management moves, ongoing network optimization efforts KI synergies and the benefits of ramping our Mexico facility have supported consistent profitability improvement. Based on the initiatives already underway, including the recently announced plans to close our Wayland New York manufacturing facility, we have line of sight to continued operating margin expansion in the coming years.

And our margin expansion story is increasingly supported by affirming macroeconomic picture in our workplace furnishing segment. I will provide more macro commentary later in the call. Shifting to our Residential Building Products segment. Our evolution started with the strategic shifts following the great financial crisis.

Since then, we have adjusted our cost structure, fully embraced lean manufacturing and continue to pursue a vertically integrated business model with the leading brands in all product categories. The result was more than 1,000 basis points of operating margin expansion over the decade post 2009.

In addition, since 2019, the efficiency, nimbleness and uniqueness of our Building Products business have supported consistently strong profitability with sustained operating margins in the mid- to high teens. This consistency of both margins and cash flow our foundational elements to HNI's financial strength.

We expect this profitability and cash generation to continue into 2026 and beyond. More recently, our focus in residential building products has shifted to the front end of the business and on driving top line growth. Structural changes have been implemented to organize around the customer and ensure we have laser-focused go-to-market strategies to support our growth initiatives.

These front-end investments are paying off in the absence of cyclical support. In 2025, we reported segment revenue growth of 6% despite continued weakness in the new home market. We expect to outperform again in 2026. This historical context helps set the stage as we enter the next exciting chapter of the H&I story.

The acquisition of Steelcase unites 2 industry leaders to meet the dynamic marketplace and evolving needs of the workplace and accelerating in office work trends. We have brought together 2 highly respected companies with shared values talented teams, strong financial profiles and highly complementary capabilities, innovation, thought leadership and operational excellence, chief among them.

This strong foundation combined with expected synergies will accelerate our ability to invest in long-term operational enhancements, digital transformation, customer-centered buying experiences and products to meet evolving customer needs.

Our integration efforts are underway, and we are leveraging a disciplined and proven approach informed by recent experience, while continuing to build on the iconic brands for which both companies are widely respected. HNI will now have total revenue of more than $5.8 billion, including all synergies, total adjusted EBITDA will be nearly $750 million and annual free cash flow will approximately be $350 million.

We are now the market leader in both of our industries, Workplace Furnishings and products. I can report that the integration of the Steelcase acquisition is off to a strong start. Six months following the announcement, we're even more confident in our move to add steel case to the HNI family.

The complementary go-to-market nature of the 2 businesses from a capability, product, brand, customer and cultural perspective, has been reinforced as we have begun to work together. We also remain confident in our ability to deliver the targeted synergies of $120 million and drive margin expansion at Steelcase.

Our current synergy projections are focused on the Americas business and do not include any revenue synergies. And importantly, we are laser-focused on minimizing any front-end disruption across our Workplace Furnishings businesses. As we have consistently stated, there are no plans to change dealer partnerships, sales forces or brand distribution.

And as I've been traveling and engaging with our teams, it is clear that this continuity is being received positively by customers industry influencers and our dealers. Now I will turn the call over to VP to provide some additional detail about 2025, discuss our outlook for the first quarter of 2026 and give some thoughts on how we see the full year playing out. I will then provide a longer-term perspective on the opportunities surrounding our businesses before we open the call to your questions. VP?

Thanks, Jeff. I will start with some additional comments about 2025. Fiscal 2025 non-GAAP diluted earnings per share for our legacy business was $3.74, which increased 22% from 2024 levels. Again, this was our fourth consecutive year of double-digit earnings growth with the average annual growth rate exceeding 15%.

Total net sales for the year increased 12% overall and 6% on an organic basis. Excluding all impacts from Steelcase, full year adjusted operating margin for H&I expanded 80 basis points, reaching 9.4%. The improvement was driven by volume growth, productivity gains, Kimball International synergy capture and price cost benefits.

From a segment perspective, in our legacy Workplace Furnishings business, Full year organic net sales increased 6% year-over-year, fueled primarily by the strength of our contract brands and the benefit of an extra week in fiscal 2025.

Full year profitability, excluding the Steelcase stub period benefit from volume growth, our profit transformational efforts, KII synergy capture while we continue to invest in future growth initiatives. Full year non-GAAP operating profit margin expanded 100 basis points year-over-year to 10.5% as we delivered on our previously stated goal of achieving double-digit operating margin.

Non-GAAP operating margin has expanded nearly 900 basis points over the past 3 years. Looking ahead, we expect revenue growth and margin expansion in our legacy workplace furnishing business for the full year 2026 even as we continue to invest to drive growth.

In Residential Building Products, fourth quarter revenue grew more than 10% versus the same period of 2024. Driven by the strength in the remodel retrofit market and the benefits of the extra week. For the full year, revenue increased nearly 6% versus 2024. New construction revenue was flat with the remodel retrofit up a double-digit pace with solid volume improvement. Segment non-GAAP operating profit margin in 2025 expanded 60 basis points year-over-year to a strong 18.1%. We remain encouraged about the long-term opportunities tied to the broader housing market, and we continue to invest and grow our operating model and revenue streams.

As we look to 2026, we expect modest segment revenue and profit growth despite ongoing challenges in the new construction market. Overall, as Jeff mentioned, 2025 was an outstanding year for HNI.

Before I move to our outlook, a couple of comments about Steelcase's impact on the quarter. We completed the acquisition of Steelcase on December 10. Thus, we consolidated Steelcase's performance for the final 3 weeks of December into our reported results. The second half of December is a lower shipment and production period for our industries.

Consequently, that stub period included seasonally lower levels of daily shipment activity while were more than offset by the recognition of full cost and expenses for the period. We excluded this impact from our adjusted results as it does not provide any fundamental insight into our performance.

And as Jeff mentioned, the expected timing and magnitude of our projected $120 million of synergies and $1.20 of accretion are unchanged and unimpacted by the stub period. For the fourth calendar quarter, Steelcase generated strong results. Revenue grew approximately 5% year-over-year, and earnings grew about 9% from the fourth quarter 2024 levels absent purchase accounting, restructuring and acquisition-related costs.

Now I'll transition to our outlook. For 2026, as Jeff mentioned, we expect a fifth year of double-digit non-GAAP EPS growth. Revenue growth is expected to continue while we drive bottom line improvement. In addition, our network optimization efforts continue to support our ongoing earnings visibility story we've been discussing with you.

Our favorable fourth quarter '25 results included accelerating the benefits of these efforts. Looking forward, these initiatives, which include KII synergies, the ramp-up of our Mexico facility, the closure of Hire and the planned closure of Wayland are expected to yield an incremental $0.25 to $0.30 over the next 3 years.

Approximately $0.10 of this will be recognized in 2026. Finally, we now are expecting modest EPS accretion from Steelcase in 2026, excluding the impact of purchase accounting.

Finally, a few additional comments to assist you with your 2026 modeling. Combined, depreciation and amortization is expected to be approximately $175 million to $180 million. Interest expense is expected to be between $75 million and $80 million, and our tax rate should be approximately 25%. For the first quarter of 2026, we expect total net sales to increase by more than 130% year-over-year. Non-GAAP EPS is expected to decrease slightly from 2025 levels.

Temporarily, first quarter earnings pressure is expected to be driven by revenue and expense recognition timing and the increased investment. Modest year-over-year revenue pressure in workplace is expected to be limited to the first quarter and we expect mid-single digits for the full year.

Building Products revenue is expected to be up low single digits for the first quarter and the full year, and we expect year-over-year adjusted earnings per share to return in the second quarter and accelerate as the year progresses.

Finally, a comment on cash flow and the balance sheet. Post the closing of the Steelcase acquisition, our balance sheet ended the year with a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 2x. We expect our cash flow strength to continue and accelerate with the addition of Steelcase.

As a result, leverage is expected to return to pre-deal levels in the 1 to 1.5x range in the next 18 to 24 months. Finally, we remain committed to payment of our long-standing dividend and continue to invest in the business to drive future growth. I will now turn the call back over to Jeff for some long-term thoughts and closing comments.

Thanks VP. Our fourth quarter and 2025 results demonstrate the strength of our strategies and our ability to manage through uncertain macroeconomic conditions, while we remain focused on investing for the future. We expect strong results to continue in 2026 driven by our margin expansion efforts, synergy recognition and continued revenue growth.

As we look forward, the timing was right for the acquisition of steel case from a strategic, financial and cyclical perspective. We are increasingly bullish about the workplace furnishing demand dynamics as the macroeconomic picture continues to firm. Return to office continues to be a positive driver of activity with levels of remote work expected to continue to fall in 2026.

Office leasing activity established a new post-pandemic high in the fourth quarter with annual leasing activity up more than 5% for the full year 2025 and net absorption of office space, which has historically been a leading indicator of future industry demand was meaningfully positive in the second half of 2025.

In fact, JLL believes a new expansionary cycle in the office space has begun. While new supply of office space will remain a headwind, we see multiple cyclical drivers of growth outside of new construction.

Moving to housing. Headlines continue to print -- to point to ongoing softness, especially in the new build space. Interest rates remain relatively elevated, prices remain high and affordability remains low. As a result, we expect continued new construction weakness in 2026. However, our structural changes and growth investments should allow us to continue to outperform the market. In remodel retrofit, we are assuming modest growth in 2026.

This is consistent with the lira projections. In addition, we expect continued market outperformance in our R&R business. And importantly, we expect ongoing margin and cash flow consistency in this segment.

Finally, our optimism continues to build around the addition of Steelcase to the HNI family. As I stated earlier, we are confident in our projected synergies of $120 million and accretion of $1.20. And as VP mentioned, we now expect modest accretion in 2026.

We entered 2026 a transformed and fundamentally stronger organization. Upon recognition of all targeted synergies, the profile of HNI will include substantially higher earnings stronger margins, greater cash flow and a continued strong balance sheet. This will enable us to deliver exceptional value to our shareholders, customers, dealers, members and communities. Thank you again for joining us. We will now open the call to your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Reuben Garner with the Benchmark Company.

Maybe to start just the clarification about the outlook for the year, given the stub period and your efforts to kind of show what the underlying business in the fourth quarter. Are the revenue and double-digit earnings growth comments for next year? Are they off of the base without Steelcase or the base with Steelcase? .

Perfect, Reuben. I kind of walk through the pieces. If you look at the -- on the face of the 346, that's including the Steelcase stub as well as all the purchase accounting, which is close to $4.6 million headwind -- if you take out the purchase accounting, it's $3.53, that's what you're going to want to compare to for the future years because that's what ran through the P&L. And if that specific number could actually be up 16% if you talk about the growth -- and then if you look at the $374 million, that's excluding purchase accounting and the Steelcase stub period. .

And the double-digit growth for '26 would be off of which 1 of those 3 numbers.

353.

Perfect. okay. And then your comments about Workplace Furnishings in the first quarter. I don't think I heard you mention weather just seeing what's happening in some of the major cities in the Northeast and knowing that New York in particular is playing a role. Is that in the recovery? Is that driving the kind of flattish, I think you said first quarter?

And what gives you confidence about the acceleration that you're expecting as the year progresses in the mid-single-digit full year guide, is there any kind of backlog or order numbers from Steelcase and H&I legacy that kind of gives you confidence in a pretty meaningful acceleration as the year moves on.

Yes, Reuben, that's a good question. I mean, weather is always can impact. We don't really hang our hat on that. I mean I think it probably has some impact. It's been a little choppy. Even in the fireplace business, the heart business because they are outside and getting the homes to install. So there's a little pent-up there probably at a little headwind.

But the bottom line is both when you look at legacy and Steelcase we've got really strong, healthy activity, bid counts, both number and dollars, particularly in the contract side or in the high teens. The funnel, our funnel metrics are up in count and in dollars and particularly in large projects, over $5 million.

And I'd say these are consistent across what I would call both legacy and the Steelcase business if you look at it. And that's what's kind of driving our confidence in addition to the macro topics that I talked about firming up on office and net absorption and things like that. So you got that going on macro and micro internally, we see these big numbers and presale activity numbers all trending nicely positive.

And then, Jeff, you've had a little over 60 days, I think, if the math is right since the deal is closed as you've been able to kind of get in and meet with people see how they do things. What are you learned what kind of surprised you to the upside or downside what opportunities do you think you've kind of developed or seen over the last couple of months? .

Yes, it's a good question, Reuben. I spent a lot of time with the teams in Grand Rapids and a lot of time -- a lot of time in the market. And I would say first of all, confidence continues to grow on why we did the transaction. If you look at the customer reach and the complementary nature of the brands and the geographies go to markets, the talented teams are working well together.

We're out of the gates quick. And then I would tell you that the positive response we've seen from customers, dealers, sales force, influencers, basically, people in the value chain as I've gone out in the market and talk to them are very positive on this combination.

And so that's -- that's been a real -- I mean, we predicted that to be the case, but actually going to talk to customers in their locations. And here in the questions they ask and the enthusiasm they've shown for this. It's been really strong. .

All right. And I'm going to sneak one more in. I'm not going to count that first 1 is a full question. So the building products space. Your outlook for low single-digit growth is super encouraging, very impressive given how you performed in '25. It looked like you changed some things up about how you're selling or displaying the product down at the builder show a couple of weeks ago.

I guess, talk about what's driving your outperformance of the industry. There's not a lot of categories in building products, talking about kind of even flattish volume environments for this year. So for you guys to do it on top of what you did in '25, something has to be working for you. Can you just kind of dig into what you're doing there? .

Yes, we can -- VP can comment on us as well. I mean I think we've started to talk about this a while ago, Reuben, which is really getting closer to the builders and the customer engaging in the market being laser-focused on what we can bring to the table for our customers. And it's been -- it's early days, but it's being really well received. I mean, we've got a great product lineup. We hit all price points, all fuel types. And as we get in and engage more specifically from a manufacturer side alongside our industry best-in-class distribution partners, the 2 things are really starting to have an impact.

And combine that with the service model that we have in our large installing distributors, independent and our FHH. What I would tell you is it's is moving the needle. And so we got a good product pipe we're talking about in the electric category.

And all these things are really starting to catch hold. And I think that's really what's going on. I mean it's it's nothing more than really customer intimate focus where customers want to be met, whether it be in the R&R segment or in the new home segment. I don't know VP if you've got any.

Yes, Jeff, I'd add and the way we measure this, Reuben, is you can -- everybody sees the news of permits down 7% year-to-date, and they see contracting markets. We actually measure it market by market and the initiatives that Jeff is talking about the intimacy, we can see that we're seeing better results on that. So those are share gains and in some cases, get more fireplace spec.

So it's the controlling the controllables. And on the remodel side, we've done a nice job on the spoke side of our business. We've gone to a single brand to consolidate it. We've been able to get a lot more reach a lot more reach into the retail in the big box. So that was an area for growth that's inside the numbers as well. So the long-term investments are paying off. We still have a lot more to do to get to more markets and more builders, but we certainly are not pulling victim to a down 7% permit number.

Great. Thanks for the detailed guys. Congrats on the strong close to the year and the strong outlook at the stock markets being a bit rational today, but I assume all this will work itself out and good luck in '26. .

Your next question comes from the line of Steven Ramsey with Thompson Research Group. .

Good morning, everyone. I wanted to start on the synergy number, $120 million being Americas focused. A couple of things on that. First, I would -- given your past execution, I think there could be upside to that. I'm curious kind of what points or targets you would need to reach to potentially raise that down the road?

And then secondly, it being America's focused seems to imply that Steelcase International is still projected to be a negative offset -- could that be a source of upside in the future?

Steven, I'll take it kind of in 2 pieces. The first $120 million that we originally announced is through our disciplined approach that we've learned through the KI process. You heard Jeff say we're still comfortable with that number. It takes every bit of 3 to 6 months to get the team working on the specific projects of how we're going to go execute it, which is why I talked about accretion of $0.60 in the second year once these projects are up and running.

And so to your question about timing, 6 months in, if we've learned more, we'll share more. But right now, we're focused on making sure we understand the buckets between procurement logistics, SG&A and network optimization, and that we'll share with you as we learn more as we go.

But I think the key thing from the last time we talked is we expected it to be neutral in year 1. And now that we're in there, this is actually going to be modestly accretive in year 1.

And that's really good considering the capital structure and the additional shares that were issued that it doesn't change our total target, but it shows that we'll start seeing the benefits of a little quicker. That's kind of question one.

Question 2 on international, that is not offsetting anything. This $1.20 stands on its own. The international business has very good assets, as Jeff said, with the business and the team is working together, we're getting up to speed on that business, whether it's APAC or EMEA. We're getting a lot of insight of how the business is going to go to market and their advantages. And I'd tell you, the teams are are energized right now to drive profit improvement plans. They're in place in all of those areas, and that will not be a drag on the $1.20.

Okay. That's great color. Wanted to think about the resi growth investments, and you talked about that being a consistent margin. Is the implication that 2026 resi margin is flattish with sales up? And is there a cadence for the year on the resi margin profile? .

Yes. I think that's the right way to think about it, Steven. That business is extremely flexible in profitability as you've seen it from whether it's $500 million or $850 million, it tracks between the 17% 18%. We are going to continue to make the investments Jeff was talking about with builder and getting closer to the builder. So we would expect those margins with the revenue growth to stay right around the same area. .

Okay. And then maybe you could share a bit more on the resi growth investments and if those have shifted in the last year or so as you've started making those, it's clearly working and your it sounds like you're saying it's geared towards builders yet R&R is the growth drivers. Maybe you can kind of connect the dots there on the investments being more to builders, but the growth being from R&R.

Yes. I think there's a couple of things on this one, Steve. One, when we talk about investments, this has been a 3-year journey. The operational excellence of this business is what's allowed us to deliver the results -- in the last 3 years, we've moved to a front-end structure. We brought in leaders running each of these business units that bring those front-end points of view. And they're the ones leading the charge in each of the intimacy models in both new home and existing.

We've also made a significant amount of investments in product and innovation. Part of this success and our offset against the market is we are entering new categories and new areas. Specifically, an example would be Woodstone and DIY-- that's a large market. We didn't have a place in. So we're making investments with go-to-market there. It's allowing us to do it as well as what Jeff said on the electric side. So I think you're seeing investments on the new home and the remodel side as well. and they just pace to how they come in through the revenue streams are not always at the same time. .

Yes, I think it's a great point. I also would -- we're getting really good. I think someone else mentioned at the IBS show is a different look from what we've had in the past. We're connecting more to designers, interior designers. I mean there's a lot of focus there relative to design as well, Steven. So it's kind of across the board -- and I lump it all back to getting much closer and intimate with our geographic areas, design trends, customer intimacy in all the while working that with the changes VP talked about. It's been a couple, 3-year run, and it's starting to pay dividends, and we're going to keep investing.

Your next question comes from the line of Greg Burns with Sidoti & Company. .

I was just hoping to get a little bit more color on the profit headwinds in the first quarter. What exactly are they? And why are they going to be rolling off as we move through the balance of the year? .

Yes, Greg, it first starts with just some timing of the revenue. It's a little choppy on kind of how some of the contract side of the business, everything that Jeff talked about on the backdrop is all good and favorable for us. And if I look at even how orders came in, in the fourth quarter, the workplace was actually up 5% and Steelcase's actually showing up good order trends as well.

It's just the timing of when that stuff is going to ship. So -- the revenue is the first piece, and we have a couple of comps just from last year that we're up against. That's why we do believe it's a short-term issue and the full year is more important.

I think on the expense side, there's really 2 things happening bringing in the Steelcase family, there's a comp timing that's hitting in the first quarter that would have hit in the second quarter under their P&L. So that's a little bit of expense pressure. And we're still balancing our investments. We're still making sure that we're thinking about the long game and the macroeconomics tells us still to keep investing.

So I think the revenue growth, the timing of the expense and that's continuing investment puts the short-term pressure -- but more importantly, as we go through the year, you're going to see the double-digit EPS growth accelerate in Q2, Q3 and Q4 based on not only volume but the visibility story we're talking about. .

Okay. Great. I think last quarter, you called out some hospitality orders or the timing on hospitality orders. Could you just maybe update us on the hospitality market and if there's any any change there? .

Yes. No, there is not. The hospitality market is solid. We were up against the comp. But look, say similar to the contract market, pipeline is strong. Our business is making investments performing well. They have a market leader position in in-room furniture. And so we like that business a lot, and we expect that it will perform at or above prior year.

Your last question comes from the line of David MacGregor with Longbow Research.

I guess from our dealer conversations this quarter, it's pretty clear that demand for design support has accelerated pretty dramatically. And so just wondering if you can talk about the amount of work that you believe is developing in the pipeline, but maybe not yet in the order backlog -- and how you're thinking about the timing of that were converting to orders and then to sales dollars?

Yes, that's the question, isn't it, David. I think you're hearing the same stuff that we're seeing, which is there's a lot of activity. It's -- I believe it's real. And we're actually -- just to get upstream on that a little bit, a lot of our businesses are deploying additional resources to help dealers and customers get things through the pipe because that does become a backlog area relative to the ability to get things designed. We're also working on some AI tools and some other digital tools to be able to help that as well for the long game. .

But look, we -- historically, this business has had a pretty stable conversion kind of spec to order cycle. And post- COVID, it's been a little bit all over the map, and it hasn't really settled down. But I would tell you that once these things start and you see the commitment, particularly on the larger projects, they come in.

It's just sometimes they don't fall perfectly in the areas. And the other thing that we're seeing with the Steelcase acquisition is their exposure to the large stuff that once it gets let, it goes it's robust. Now we're still working with them on how they view their timing and predict the order to revenue cycles and the spec to order cycles.

So I can't really give you a great answer on -- it's 90 days or 60 days or it's 30 days. But it's real and it's volatile relative to when it gets put in. But we're bullish.

Yes, it's out there. There's no doubt about it. Second question, really just around the discussion around synergies and you talked about the $120 million -- it seems like you're bumping the '26 expectation a little bit. And I'm mindful that you haven't any change to the 120. But I guess the question is, is the better outlook on '26 a function of maybe incremental synergies that you've identified? Or is it really timing? And then I guess, related to that is the whole discussion on commercial synergies, which I fully understand why you don't want to get into too much detail around that at this point.

But I'm wondering if you can just discuss it at a very high level kind of the actions you're taking to facilitate the eventual capture of those commercial synergies.

Yes, I'll take the first part of that, David. The timing and the dollar of year 1 actually hasn't changed as it relates to the -- we had predicted a little bit more transition costs and some offsets in our original accretion analysis as you put the businesses together. So it's just -- as a result, we'll just get a little bit more of that that 2-year look of $0.60 a little bit earlier. So I would tell you that our philosophy hasn't changed, and our approach hasn't changed as we've set that number.

Yes, David. And then on the synergies, yes, you're right, it's early days. And we -- what I would tell you, though, as I've traveled, we're seeing some nice, what I would call, organic connections between our networks to support revenue synergies, particularly with some of our open line brands. And so that when that formalizes more and gets more structured to it. We're going to kind of let it play out a little bit and see kind of how the natural system works, and then we can look more at that. But look, I mean it's going to -- we see some organic pull for some of that revenue. And it's early days, but we'll probably be talking about that down the road. But right now, it's -- I'm encouraged by what I see. .

Can I squeeze maybe 1 more in. And just maybe for the model, if you will, working capital in 2026 and how we should be modeling working capital. .

We're going to -- we benefited with the pooling on the Steelcase balance sheet. We're actually sequentially improved a little bit. And just with the timing of expenses, we're going to need to make a little bit of an investment, David, but not significant when you think about the net working capital as we go into 2026 and beyond. .

So -- but I think 1 more comment there, though. The operational discipline inside of the HNI piece as we bring into that balance sheet, I would tell you there's opportunity as we get into the out years. .

That concludes our Q&A session. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Lorenger for closing remarks. .

Thank you for joining us today and your interest in HNI. We look forward to speaking with you again in April. Have a great day. .

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our conference call for today. Thank you all for joining, and you may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to HNI Corporation Third Quarter Results Conference Call. Please note that this call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I'd now like to hand the floor over to Mr. Matt McCall. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning. My name is Matt McCall. I'm Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Development for HNI Corporation. Thank you for joining us to discuss our third quarter 2025 results. With me today are Jeff Lorenger, Chairman, President and CEO; and VP Berger, Executive Vice President and CFO. Copies of our financial news release and non-GAAP reconciliations are posted on our website.

Statements made during this call that are not strictly historical facts are forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks. Actual results could differ materially. The financial news release posted on our website includes additional factors that could affect actual results. The corporation assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call. I'm now pleased to turn the call over to Jeff Lorenger. Jeff?

Thanks, Matt. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I'm going to divide my commentary today into 3 sections. First, I will provide some comments about our third quarter results. Non-GAAP earnings per share increased 7% year-over-year, driven by a record third quarter non-GAAP operating margin. Next, I will discuss our expectations for the fourth quarter of 2025. Our full year earnings outlook is unchanged from what we provided on last quarter's call. We continue to anticipate a fourth consecutive year of double-digit non-GAAP earnings improvement.

And finally, I will provide additional detail about recent demand activity and how we see our markets playing out in the fourth quarter and as we move into 2026. Following those highlights, VP will provide additional color around our fourth quarter outlook. He will also comment on the strength of our balance sheet, both currently and what we anticipate after the completion of the pending acquisition of Steelcase. I will conclude with some closing comments, including some additional thoughts on our Steelcase transaction before we open the call to your questions.

I'll begin with the third quarter. Our members delivered another strong quarter despite ongoing tariff-driven volatility and continuing macro uncertainty. The positive momentum of our strategies, the benefits of our diversified revenue streams, our focus on items within our control and the merits of our customer-first business model continue to deliver strong shareholder value.

For the quarter, we delivered non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $1.10. EPS grew 7% versus last year, which was modestly ahead of our internal expectations. Total net sales in the third quarter increased 3% organically over the same period a year ago and profit margins in the third quarter were strong. Our non-GAAP operating margin expanded 10 basis points year-over-year to 10.8%. This non-GAAP EBIT margin was the highest on record for the third quarter. In the Workplace Furnishings segment, organic net sales increased 3% year-over-year, fueled by growth across all major brands. We delivered similar organic growth rates in our brands focused on small- and medium-sized businesses and on contract customers.

From a profitability perspective, Workplace Furnishings' non-GAAP segment operating profit margin expanded 40 basis points year-over-year and exceeded 12%. Third quarter profitability benefited from our profit transformation efforts, recognition of KII synergies and modest volume growth.

In Residential Building Products, third quarter revenue was roughly unchanged versus the prior year period. New construction revenue was down slightly, while remodel retrofit sales grew modestly, both on a year-over-year basis. We delivered this top line performance despite continued challenging housing market dynamics as we continue to compete well and our internal growth investments are bearing fruit.

Consistent with expectations discussed on last quarter's call, third quarter segment operating profit margin contracted year-over-year driven by continued investment. However, segment operating margin still came in at a strong 18%. Despite expectations of ongoing uncertainty, we remain encouraged about the opportunities tied to the broader housing market, and we continue to invest to grow our operating model and revenue streams, and the consistently strong profit margins in this segment are evidence of the business' unmatched price point breadth and channel reach, along with the benefits of its vertically integrated business model and overall operational agility.

To summarize, our third quarter performance demonstrates the strength of our strategies and our ability to manage through varying macroeconomic conditions while remaining focused on investing for the future. We expect strong results to continue, driven by our margin expansion efforts and continued volume growth. That leads to my comments about our outlook for the fourth quarter. Overall, we expect our margin expansion efforts and continued revenue growth will support ongoing year-over-year EPS improvement, all while we continue to invest to drive future growth.

In Workplace Furnishings, segment orders increased 2% after excluding the estimated impact of prior quarter pull-forward activity and hospitality orders. We are again excluding hospitality from our adjusted order growth and backlog metrics as the business has experienced meaningful tariff-related volatility over the past 2 quarters, which has temporarily skewed results. Adjusted orders from contract customers performed better than those from small- to medium-sized businesses. Our adjusted segment backlog at the end of third quarter was up 7% from the third quarter of 2024.

I will discuss our outlook for our workplace markets, including hospitality more in a moment. Moving to Residential Building Products, orders in the third quarter increased 2% year-over-year. Remodel retrofit orders outperformed and were up mid-single digits from third quarter 2024 levels, while new construction orders were down low single digits.

Overall, year-over-year segment order growth accelerated towards the end of the quarter. Builder sentiment has weakened in recent months and continues to reflect the impacts of elevated interest rates, ongoing affordability issues and weaker consumer confidence. And housing trends have broadly followed builder sentiment with permits moving lower. Despite expectations of ongoing uncertainty and headwinds, we remain encouraged about the opportunities tied to the broader housing market, and we continue to invest to grow our operating model and revenue streams.

I will finish by making a few comments about our markets and provide additional detail around our elevated EPS growth visibility. On our last few calls, we highlighted an increased focus on investing to drive growth in both segments. Our 2025 to-date revenue strength and encouraging leading indicators have provided added support for our growth initiatives and investments. As we look at our Workplace Furnishings segment, we are encouraged about the developing fundamentals of this business.

The macro and industry backdrops have shown consistent improvement in recent months. Return to office data appears to be indicating an inflection. The castle card swipe data following Labor Day reached post-COVID highs with Class A buildings in the top 10 markets approaching 98% peak day occupancy. Further, in a recent KPMG survey, nearly 80% of CEOs surveyed now expect employees to be full time in office over the next 3 years. This is up from fewer than 40% in the April 2025 survey.

And according to CBRE, nonviable space is being converted at record levels. This positively impacts our business in 2 ways. First, it results in more forced moves as landlords encourage current tenants of this nonviable space to relocate. And second, it will accelerate the expected Class A square footage shortage, which will either drive the addition of new space or increased investment in upgrading existing Class B space. Each of these dynamics result in more furniture events.

Finally, calendar year 2025 is expected to see the highest net absorption of office space since 2019. Historically, absorption has been an important indicator of office furniture demand. JLL estimates more than 6 million square feet was absorbed on a net basis in the third quarter of 2025 alone. This compares to total negative net absorption of more than 100 million -- 150 million square feet over the past 5 years. Office vacancy rates are falling for the first time in 7 years as we enter what JLL has deemed a new office growth cycle.

In New York City alone, businesses leased 23 million square feet of additional office space during the first 9 months of 2025. This is the largest amount of new workspace rented for that period in 2 decades. And in total, 18 of the largest U.S. markets are exceeding pre-pandemic leasing activity over the past year. The macro and industry backdrops are clearly improving, and we expect our contract business to disproportionately benefit from these trends as much of the industry growth cycle to date has been in secondary and tertiary markets.

Finally, I will comment on our hospitality business. As I mentioned earlier, compared to our other businesses, this vertical has seen more tariff-related demand volatility over the past 2 quarters. Despite this pressure, we expect revenue in this business to be relatively flat in 2025 overall. We have seen recent improvement in preorder activity, and our pipeline continues to build, pointing to a solid growth year in 2026. Looking ahead, we believe we are particularly well positioned to benefit as the workplace furnishings market continues to improve. We have strong market positions and offer compelling value to our targeted customers with a diversified portfolio of brands.

Moving to Residential Building Products. We believe in the positive long-term market fundamentals. We continue to perform well despite an ongoing soft new construction environment, and we acknowledge a market-driven revenue recovery will take some time. We are, however, optimistic about our opportunities to increase revenue through our growth initiatives. Specifically, we continue to invest in developing market-leading new products that offer customers more options and features.

We are driving new programs to increase homeowner and homebuyer awareness of their fireplace options, ensuring our products are considered in all remodel and new construction projects. And we are strengthening our already strong relationships with builders across the country, helping them deliver the best overall value to the homeowner. Encouragingly, we are outperforming the market in this segment despite still being in the early days of each of these initiatives. And while we invest in growth, we will continue to deliver high-margin results and strong profits in this business.

Longer term, single-family housing remains undersupplied and demographics will support additional demand growth. The results of our ongoing investments, which will enhance our connection to customers and build on our leading brands will fortify our position of strength in the industry. Finally, and importantly, we continue to have elevated earnings visibility this year and next. Our outlook for 2025 revenue continues to include full year growth in both segments.

Our outlook for 2025 earnings reflects expectations for mid-teens percent EPS growth. In addition to increased profits and volume growth, KII synergies and the ramp of our Mexico facility are expected to continue to drive significant savings. These 2 initiatives are expected to contribute a total of $0.75 to $0.80 of EPS in 2025-2026 period. I will now turn the call over to VP to discuss our outlook for the remainder of 2025 and our balance sheet. VP?

Thanks, Jeff. I'll start by discussing our outlook for revenue and profit. Beginning with the top line. Fourth quarter revenue in Workplace Furnishings is expected to increase at a high single-digit rate year-over-year organically. The impact of divestitures is expected to reduce the year-over-year organic revenue growth rate in Workplace Furnishings by a little less than 100 basis points.

The benefits of our order and backlog growth, along with an extra week in our fiscal year are expected to drive solid revenue growth in the fourth quarter. For Residential Building Products, fourth quarter net sales are also projected to increase at a high single-digit rate compared to the same period in 2024. Pricing actions are expected to be the primary driver of growth.

However, we also [Audio Gap] borrowing capacity will continue to provide us with significant financial flexibility. Moreover, while we expect our initial post-closing net leverage to approximate 2.1x, we continue to project our debt levels will return to our targeted range of 1 to 1.5x within 18 to 24 months of closing.

In the meantime, we remain committed of payment of our long-standing dividend and continuing to invest in our business to drive future growth. I'll now turn the call back over to Jeff.

Thanks, VP. During the third quarter, we remained financially disciplined, managing the middle of the income statement to drive profit improvement while pursuing revenue growth. As we look forward, several positive secular trends and our HNI-specific initiatives will help offset macro-related risks and continued tariff-driven volatility.

We will remain focused, conservative and ready to adjust as required. And as a result, our earnings outlook for the full year is essentially unchanged, and we continue to expect the fourth consecutive year of double-digit non-GAAP EPS growth. This outlook demonstrates the benefits of a stronger-than-expected third quarter, our ongoing visibility story and our proven ability to manage through changing economic conditions.

Before we take your questions, I wanted to provide some thoughts on the pending Steelcase acquisition. As we approach the closing, we are excited about the future of bringing together our combined capabilities to create new career growth opportunities for our team members, deliver more value for our customers and dealer networks and further support and invest in the communities in which we operate. The deal is right from a strategic, financial and cyclical perspective, and our 2 companies are highly complementary on many fronts.

We currently expect synergies to reach $120 million and ultimate accretion to total $1.20 per share when fully mature, excluding purchase accounting. And as VP highlighted, our anticipated strong free cash flow will help us quickly deleverage our balance sheet. The addition of Steelcase will further strengthen the tenets of the HNI investment thesis, and we are positioned for continued success.

We have elevated earnings growth visibility for several years, broad and diverse product and market coverage in Workplace Furnishings, market-leading positions in Residential Building Products, and we continue to invest to drive growth. All this is supported by our strong balance sheet and the ability to generate continued free cash flow. I want to thank each HNI member for their continued dedication and congratulate them on another excellent quarter. We will now open the call to your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Greg Burns of Sidoti & Co.

That $1.20 of accretion from Steelcase that you just mentioned, is that considering just the synergies that you've already outlined? Or is that...

Yes, Greg, that's the $120 million that we talked about on the investor call back in August. So that number has not changed. And just the way the share count works, that now converts to about $1.20 in accretion.

Okay. So that's just your initial outlook, maybe there's potential upside to that if you get your hands around the business and drive additional savings.

Greg, I think for that -- I think just one comment there. That's a number that we're really confident in. And we're going to use our disciplined integration process. And once we get in there and if there's more, we'll look for more. But that's what we're on record for right now.

Okay. Great. And then where are you in terms of the $0.75 to $0.80 from KII and Mexico? How much have you gotten so far and what remains?

Yes. We had said that $45 million to $50 million would be recognized between '25 and '26. We had mentioned kind of splitting it half and half. We're seeing a little bit more come forward of '26 in the last quarter here of '25. So I would tell you, maybe a little bit more in '25 and '26. But I think more importantly, to Jeff's point on visibility, we do see the $45 million to $50 million coming through.

Okay. And you gave us a lot of data points around kind of some of the positive industry level fundamentals in the office space. We've seen kind of this slow and steady demand improvement happening over the last couple of years, kind of low single-digit growth. But when we think about the -- where the industry is at relative to maybe pre-pandemic levels, I know you've passed along a lot of pricing.

Where are we in terms of volume, like relative to maybe where we were pre-pandemic? Like where are we in terms of industry-wide volumes? I'm just trying to get a sense of where we're at in the cycle and maybe what the potential uplift from here could be if we do get a more positive demand environment going forward?

Yes, Greg. I think we're probably -- with all the pricing, it's a little tough to say. But I think confidently, we probably are 30% to 35% on the volume side, still down just given pricing actions and tariffs. But -- so that's kind of -- I think as you think about that, that's how we think about the post-COVID kind of cycle and some of these other macro backdrop items starting to turn around. So that's how I think about, that's how we think about, and that's why we're bullish about the space.

Yes. Even if it returns half that, Greg, you're looking at mid-single-digit volume growth for a significant number of years. So the backdrop is set up, even if it doesn't get back to the 30% more, there's still a lot of volume growth opportunity.

Your next question comes from the line of Reuben Garner of Benchmark.

Can we -- can you kind of give us a compare and contrast about your full year guidance? I guess, what's embedded in the fourth quarter now versus maybe how it looked a few months ago? It looks like maybe the top line is a little higher, but there's some more cost in there as well. Can you just kind of give us the breakout of that?

Yes, I can walk you through that, Reuben. Starting with revenue, I think it's probably -- if I look at Workplace and Residential revenue, it's mostly actually in line with prior expectations. Both are expected to be in the fourth quarter, up high single digits with the extra week. So I think where we're seeing a little bit of the pressure is the product mix. When we look at what's come through in backlog and the pipeline, there's more project-driven business and systems.

So that's really a timing issue. It draws a little bit lower margin, but on the backside of that comes other business that goes with that with ancillary products that will come probably in Q1. So a little timing there. I think the second part of our Q3 beat is going to be timing of investments. Some of it slid in the fourth quarter or into the fourth quarter, and it's part of that actually saved in the third quarter. So those are going to come back.

I think the key there is our second half is still unchanged. So I think you got a little bit going between the 2 quarters. And I think a couple of other things to mention. Jeff mentioned, I mentioned insurance-related pressure year-over-year. That's hitting us on the SG&A side. And I think we probably need to update our tax rates. Our second half tax rate is now at 24.4%. That's about 80 bps higher than we talked about prior in the year that gets us to a full year tax rate of 23%. So when you boil that all together, the back half is really not changing. It's got a little bit of timing and dealing with some onetime expenses.

Okay. That's really helpful. And then on the residential building products side, you guys have definitely outperformed kind of what the end markets have been like so far this year. And I know you've got some investments ongoing there to drive growth. How much runway do you have on that front? I guess maybe to ask it differently, if we're looking at kind of a flattish environment next year, like can you -- do you think you can still grow above and beyond the market on the volume side?

Yes, Reuben, it's a good question. I think we can. It's all relative to the macro environment, right? I mean -- but we -- I think given the investments we're making, like right now, the new construction business -- I'll give you an example, we're outperforming, for instance, in October, our orders were flat and permits 90 days prior to that were down high single digits, and that's kind of the lag time we've been seeing.

So that tells you we believe we can outperform this market. The question is where is the market ultimately going? And your guess is as maybe good as ours, but we definitely we can outperform. We got retail performing well. Our gas inserts are up year-over-year. We've got stoves now going into the big box channel, and that's early innings. Our wholesale business is actually up year-over-year because the operating model is strong in that part of the world to support smaller independent dealers.

And just overall investments in our superior service model, our vertical integration and builder intimacy efforts are starting to take shape. So these are in the early innings, but they are bearing some fruit. So we do believe we'll be able to stay ahead of the demand curve, if you will. The question is, where is that macro demand curve and what gap can we put on top of that.

Okay. And I'm going to sneak one more in on the contract business. It seems like some good momentum on that side and the timing of you guys adding Steelcase seems nice. Can you talk about any risks out of the gate as you're integrating the company? And if we did see an acceleration in demand, just kind of what gives you confidence that you'd be able to kind of, I guess, participate in that upswing as you're putting the 2 companies together?

Yes. That's a great point, Reuben. Let me start with, first of all, we're going to -- there's really no change on the front. Our dealer partnerships are going to remain intact as they are. The brand distribution is going to remain intact. Sales force is intact, both for HNI and Steelcase companies. So I think our approach there will avail us the ability to take advantage of some of those trends because everybody's heads down in that regard. And the cultures are good.

We're out of the blocks. And so we're bullish about being able to work on what we need to work on, as we've talked about, cost synergies in some of those areas while keeping the front end of these businesses separate and focused on their unique brand position so that we continue to work to build on those. So we would anticipate being able to participate in any of this as these trends continue to evolve, particularly in some of these larger markets.

Question comes from the line of Steven Ramsey of Thompson Research Group.

This is Brian Biros on for Steven.

Sure.

On the resi side, I guess, sales were flat. Orders grew 2% and really accelerated at the end of the quarter, it sounds like. So I guess can you just parse out maybe like why orders grew and if there's anything to call out really that drove the acceleration into the quarter end?

Yes. And are you talking about the resi side or Workplace, Brian, just to make sure I'm...

Sorry, the resi side.

Yes. Yes. You kind of nailed it. So the -- if you look at orders for the quarter, we're up 2% for the segment. The actual remodel retrofit was up 7%, and it actually was accelerating as we went through the quarter. We actually grew backlog to 13%. So that's given us confidence in the high single digits for the quarter. The backdrop of everything that Jeff just talked about is supporting that, which is allowing us to outpace the market.

We're starting to see good signs for a retail season in most of the country outside the West Coast. All those support our high single digits with the extra week. So when we look at that business for the full year, I think it's more important, we're going to grow mid-single digits in a very tough market that didn't grow. And although most of it will be price, we actually are going to show unit volume growth in the fourth quarter and a bit for the full year.

Got it. Helpful. And secondly, I guess, just on the Workplace segment, the opportunity set there, maybe by sector, is there a way to think of how much that reflects return to office compared to non-office verticals?

So yes, I think that's -- it's pretty hard to parse that. I think it's some of both. The verticals have been holding up well. You look at education, you look at health care. Obviously, federal government is in kind of in a weird spot right now. But I think the return to office stuff, if I had to say, is probably in the earlier innings definitely than some of the other vertical plays. But we do see some of those verticals as we look out into the future that's still staying strong. But I'd say verticals have been a little stronger than return to office and return to office is just really getting going.

I'd now like to hand the call back to Mr. Lorenger for final remarks.

Great. Appreciate it. Thanks -- thank you for taking an interest in HNI, and have a great day. Appreciate the time.

Thank you so much for attending today's call. You may now disconnect. Goodbye.