Spin Master Corp-sub Vtg Shr Aktie

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Spin Master Third Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

This call is being recorded today, Thursday, October 29, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tim Foran, VP, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. With me here today are our CEO, Christina Miller; and our CFO, Jonathan Roiter.

For your convenience, the press release, MD&A and consolidated financial statements are available on the Investor Relations section of our website at spinmaster.com and on SEDAR+.

Before we begin, please note that remarks on this conference call may contain forward-looking statements about Spin Master's current and future plans, expectations, intentions, results, levels of activity, performance, goals or achievements and any other future events or developments. Forward-looking statements are based on currently available information and assumptions that management believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances.

However, there could be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct, and many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. As a result, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

For additional information on these assumptions and risks, please consult cautionary statements regarding forward-looking information in our earnings release dated October 29, 2026. Except as may be required by law, Spin Master disclaims any intention to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether because of new information, future events or otherwise.

Please note that Spin Master reports in U.S. dollars and all dollar amounts today are expressed in U.S. currency unless otherwise noted. Also, unless otherwise noted, all percentage growth rates refer to the periods ending September 30, 2026, relative to the same period in 2025. Also, all industry data that we reference related to Toys is from Circana, LLC Retail Tracking Service and relates to data from our G11 markets, which are specified in our Q3 2026 supplementary presentation, which is available on our investors website.

I would now like to turn the conference call over to Christina.

Thank you, Tim, and good morning to everyone who is joining us for our third quarter call. Our results demonstrate steady progress against our 2026 strategic priorities, and we again delivered on our stated financial expectations for the quarter.

On a year-to-date basis, revenue is stable and adjusted EBITDA is up 7%, giving us confidence to reiterate guidance for the full year, which Jonathan will cover.

Looking at the quarter specifically, both revenue and adjusted EBITDA were stable, driven by double-digit growth across core brands, PAW Patrol, Melissa & Doug and Toca Boca World. Within Toy, we recorded growth in our owned brands led by a 26% increase in PAW Patrol, 10% in Melissa & Doug and from new products and existing brands.

Within Digital Games, Toca Boca World revenue increased 13% and Piknik revenue grew 6%, driven by an increased player base for both, a direct result of our investment in improving the player experience and expanding partnerships with key global brands.

Finally, revenue in our entertainment center increased by $20 million, the result of distribution revenue we received upon delivery of the PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie. The movie has been a success. It received the highest critical acclaim of the 3 movies to date, delighted global audiences and increased the brand's relevance and franchise strength. I'm proud of the collaboration and execution around the movie across our entire company and with our partners at Paramount Skydance.

By fully aligning our combined creative centers, we have engaged new and existing audiences and extended the movie momentum across the PAW Patrol ecosystem. This includes increasing viewership of our content universe, monetizing our PAW Patrol digital apps, activating the brand across consumer products, music and social platforms and driving toy sales. The latter achievement resulted in us ranking #1 in infant, toddler and preschool in this quarter.

Building on the positive momentum, this week, we announced the green light of our fourth movie to be released in association with Nickelodeon Movies and distributed by Paramount, slated for 2029. The first 3 movies have instantly become family favorites, grossing the combined $0.5 billion in box office revenue. PAW Patrol's success is a great example of building and scaling franchise value across categories and platforms to provide multiple touch points for our fans. We are starting to see the benefits of this approach in other brands in our portfolio, including Melissa & Doug and Toca Boca.

We delivered healthy sales growth for Melissa & Doug in the third quarter. The brand benefited from broader distribution in the U.S. and internationally, marketing innovation in core categories and expansion into new areas of play, including play sets with our new Cheery Lane launch. We are also building Melissa & Doug into a holistic family brand centered around its positioning as a leader in purposeful play.

Like our current collaboration with Van Leeuwen, we are building a pipeline of partnerships and out-licensing opportunities that will lead to other toy collaborations and retail experiences, but also new categories, including publishing, apparel and music. Earlier this month, we began expansion of M&D outside the toy aisle with the launch of a line of branded books and partnerships with Penguin Random House.

In the third quarter, we saw meaningful results of our strategy to fully realize the potential of Toca Boca by driving reach through a digital to physical loop that bridge the real-world and virtual interactions inside and outside the game. We expanded the brand to connect with audiences in new locations and increased social media and fan engagement. This successfully drove players and revenue back into Toca Boca World.

It also amplified the brand's industry position as a leader in tween culture. Our Music Month partnership with artists like Olivia Rodrigo and TWICE broadened our reach and elevated our brand with this demographic. Our Toca Boca by MINISO partnership generated strong fan interest, record level of user-generated content and strong in-game engagement through a physical and digital crossover with exclusive merchandise in more than 400 stores as well as in-game gifts.

And with Adidas, we established a first-of-its-kind lifestyle partnership with in-game style packs and in-store activations. But behind the scenes, we supported this engagement strategy with investments in content quality and technical stability to reduce friction for players. As a result, the game achieved multiyear highs in player engagement and sentiment. Moving into Q4, we are aiming to convert this engagement into increased monetization through more content drops, merchandising and improving live services. Beyond 2026, Toca Boca is one of our brands that we can scale by expanding into other categories, including content and toys.

So we are excited about the momentum of our core brands. In toys, PAW Patrol Dino theme continues to resonate with fans and retailers. In digital games, we are excited about Toca Boca's new collab with KPop Demon Hunters that will bring the best of the movie's music, fashion and characters to life. And in entertainment, PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie has moved to streaming, where it has been in the top 10 across digital storefronts, both domestically and globally.

We are also making progress on our long-term growth strategy, including expanding into high-growth categories. Our new strategic trading card game, Hellbreak has added more studio partners, and we will begin selling the first set of cards this quarter with the game going live to consumers in January.

And with the close of the Hapiko acquisition, we head into the holiday season with one of the industry's leading new products, Stickerbox, a modern creative tool that brings children's ideas to life. Stickerbox has already seen strong results, engagement and momentum. It is on multiple top toy lists, has been nominated for awards and made TIME Magazine's Best Inventions of 2026, an honor it shares with our Rubik's Tetris Cube. Stickerbox has also sold out more than 3 times since we acquired it. Next year, we will expand distribution into wider channels and markets as part of our growth strategy. This will significantly increase the installed base across the world, which in turn drives reoccurring revenue.

We also plan to evolve the offering with our IP, license partnerships and new creative play experiences. In short, we see a much bigger vision for Hapiko as a platform for modern creativity that will help us define the future of play.

With that, I turn it over to Jonathan.

Thank you, Christina, and good morning, everyone. As Christina noted, our financial results in Q3 were in line with the expectations we outlined.

Consolidated revenues were stable with underlying growth in our core brands offset by the impact of the timing issues noted on our last call. Specifically in toy, there was a pull forward of approximately $40 million in gross product sales from Q3 into Q2. And in Digital Games, we generated approximately $12 million in Q3 last year related to the licensing of certain games to partners, the accounting for which was required to be accrued upon delivery as opposed to across the length of the contract.

Gross profit before depreciation and amortization was stable on a dollar and margin basis as the anticipated decline in toy and digital game margins was offset by higher entertainment revenues. Adjusted EBITDA was also stable on a dollar margin basis as operating expenses below gross profit remained flat because our guided increase in marketing expenses was offset by lower selling royalties, while higher product development costs related to internal growth initiatives was offset by lower admin costs.

Both gross margin after D&A and adjusted operating margins decreased by about 200 basis points or in dollar terms around $15 million, due primarily to a $13 million increase in amortization of entertainment content driven by delivery of the PAW Patrol movie.

IFRS operating income declined by a further $24 million related to noncash impairments. These reflected the continued review of our portfolio since we joined as we set the foundation for sustained, stronger profitable growth in the medium term by being more disciplined in our execution.

Over the past 12 months or so, we have simplified our operating model, bringing greater focus on growth areas. In addition to organizing our digital investments across 2 core studios, Toca Boca and Sago Mini and 3 main revenue streams, including Toca Boca World, Piknik and strategic app distribution partnerships. We have wound down some entertainment projects in order to focus, as Christina noted on, content investments within our existing scaled brands.

We've also accelerated manufacturing diversification and implemented cost reduction measures to create a more resilient and flexible platform. These savings have allowed us to reinvest in our long-term growth initiatives, such as advanced technology, both organically and through the recent acquisition of Hapiko as well as our upcoming expansion into high-growth categories such as strategic trading cards and collectibles.

We've also been able to maintain stable marketing expenditures in 2026 by leaning into and enhancing our organic and social marketing capabilities and delivery. And lastly, we are in a transition period between some licenses we have exited and a number of new licenses we have entered into, many of which have been announced this year and still more to come.

Our operating discipline has been reflected in our cash flows. Operating cash flow in the third quarter increased by $40 million. On a year-to-date basis, we have more than doubled operating cash flow through operational execution and working capital management improvements. This has provided us with resources to reinvest in multiple organic and inorganic growth initiatives across the business while returning capital to shareholders through our dividend and active share buyback program, all the while repaying debt.

We ended the quarter with approximately 0.8 turns of net leverage or 0.3 turns when you exclude leases, both approximately 0.4 turns less than last year.

Now turning to our individual creative centers performance. Toy revenues declined by $19 million due to the as noted pull forward of orders into the second quarter. On a year-to-date basis, both toy GPS and revenues are down about 1%, generally in line with POS as growth in PAW Patrol, Monster Jam and other products has been offset by lapping the How to Train Your Dragon and Gabby's Dollhouse movies last year as well as exiting certain licenses. These headwinds will continue in the fourth quarter but roll off in 2027.

From a geographical perspective, positively GPS in the U.S., our largest market, increased 4% in the quarter and 4% year-to-date. Europe has offset this growth, however, as it has relatively higher exposure to Gabby's and significantly less exposure to Monster Jam and GUND, 2 important growth brands for us. Combined with Melissa & Doug, we see this underpenetration in Europe as a significant medium-term tailwind opportunity.

Lastly, within toy, adjusted operating income and IFRS operating income decreased by $9 million as a decrease in gross profit was partly offset by lower operating expenses. Entertainment revenues increased by $20 million, driven by revenues received upon delivery of the PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie. Adjusted operating income increased by $11 million as the increase in revenues was partially offset by higher amortization. IFRS operating income declined slightly due to an impairment expense.

Digital Games revenue declined modestly by $3 million and adjusted operating income decreased by $12 million due primarily to the previously noted large strategic distribution partnership revenues recorded last year. IFRS operating income was further impacted by an impairment expense.

Now turning to our outlook. We reiterated our 2026 guidance today for stable to low single-digit growth in revenues and mid- to upper single-digit growth in adjusted EBITDA. For the fourth quarter specifically, we are targeting modest revenue and similar adjusted EBITDA growth. However, it is too soon for us to provide specifics on where we expect to land within our full year guidance range as 50% of our POS occurs in the fourth quarter, primarily in the holiday period and a healthy majority of our orders in the fourth quarter are domestic replenishment rather than direct import.

With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions]

First question from Adam Shine with National Bank of Canada.

So Jonathan, I'll just -- hand off from the guidance commentary. I'm not going to push you too much. Obviously, year-to-date results are coming in well, and you certainly beat on the Q3 in terms of Street expectations. Any timing issues worth noting as we go into Q4? Any slippage of costs from Q3 into Q4, for example?

And in regards to the comment on replenishment, there's no doubt that could offer some upside subject to timing and most of that tends to come in December. Is there any line of sight potentially to any earlier replenishment that you might be getting signals from in terms of retailers? And then I'll follow up with 1 or 2 others.

Very kind that you're not going to push me. In terms of what can I say? So we did call out, and please do remember that last year in Digital Games, there was the partnership revenue that won't materialize again this year. So that is kind of one-off. You did ask about that.

And look, as we head into the fourth quarter, we are certainly entering a quarter that is -- when I switch over to the DOM, to the toy side, certainly more of a DOM focused quarter, certainly more replenishment, as you called out. And ultimately, how consumers show up in the back half of the quarter will determine the amount of replenishments that we do, both within Melissa & Doug our legacy Spin business. And so with 50% of our POS still to come, if you will, there's a lot of baseball left, and it's really hard to be able to pinpoint down how that last quarter will shape up.

Okay. I'll pivot, Christina, to you on Hapiko. There's no doubt there's a lot of excitement in terms of what you're going to do with this brand going into next year. Is there any sort of potential different seasonality worth noting? Or is this going to be a similar heavily weighted skew to the second half of the year, maybe not necessarily related to usual toy seasonality, but maybe just in terms of how momentum and efforts around the brand that you'll deploy will sort of scale into the back half of this year. Anything around the growth potential and timing would be appreciated.

Good to hear from you this morning. You're asking about Hapiko, right, just to clarify.

Yes.

Great. Yes. I think if you're asking when we'll start to widen our distribution or get to sort of more mass channels, it will be back half of next year. I don't believe that it is necessarily seasonality related, if you mean, like I think the creativity, that category will continue to be an all year-round category. But like a lot of our other products, just the seasonality of the industry tends to be back half weighted. But yes, we will start to ship wider as we get deeper into 2027.

Yes. And Adam, when we talk in late February, we'll give obviously more details on our guidance, and we'll kind of clarify when we think we'll be shipping to the retailers.

Next question is from Brian Morrison with TD Cowen.

The question is when I look at the growth drivers following the PAW movie, can you just touch upon the tail from PAW or the anticipated change next year in contribution? And then the key drivers to more than offset that in 2027. I know you mentioned Europe in Hellbreak, Stickerbox, M&D, but I just want to get a level of confidence that we can offset the PAW benefit from this year.

Yes. So thank you for the question. So from a kind of direct benefit, if you will, on the movie, we expect about $25 million of revenue and EBITDA directly associated with the release of the movie this year. And for modeling purposes, I think you probably want assume that, that doesn't reoccur as we head into '27.

You are right that if you look at our history from a bottom line perspective and EBITDA perspective, post movie releases, there's been stability or even some declines depending if you strip out M&A. That being said, so EBIT, in some ways, is a better metric post a movie. And then from a top line perspective, there's still a lot of growth drivers that we have next year that can offset the movie.

So firstly, beginning with PAW, the PAW toys are doing incredibly well. We think there's long legs with the Dino theme, and we anticipate still being able to sell the product well into next year and consumers still buying well into next year as the movie goes into second window distribution.

And then we have a continuation of growth within M&D. GUND continues to grow. Monster Jam as examples. We have Hellbreak, as you know, Supercell. We just talked about Stickerbox. So there's a breadth of products that we have that we're going to be not only continuing to grow year-over-year, but then introduce as we head into 2027.

Okay. And then maybe a follow-up. And then maybe, Christina, can you just talk about like where do we stand now on this potential tariff deal with China and U.S.? Like what is your view? And what are the levers you would pull if it is finalized? Would you let the benefits flow through the bottom line? Or would you invest in price to drive share?

Yes. Tariffs continues to be a very fluid topic and one that full visibility on continues -- we don't necessarily have. Ultimately, when we -- we don't really have any updates more to say because I mean, like you were waiting to see. We think most toys would qualify though, based on what we've heard. But right now, we don't know the timing when it happens. And so it's just all premature to kind of get into. And obviously, when we meet again in February, if we have more information, we'll certainly share that.

And it's about a $30 million tariff headwind this year, correct?

The tariffs that we paid was about -- yes, in that realm.

Next question from Drew McReynolds with RBC.

Maybe just a follow-up on the Stickerbox and Hapiko acquisition. Maybe for you, Christina. Certainly really interesting to kind of combine the physical and digital. And in your opening remarks, you highlighted that. Just wondering whether it's through innovation of yours or potential other tuck-in acquisitions? Like is this what you see as certainly kind of a growing kind of category here for the company?

I definitely think it's a growing category for the industry and an opportunity for us to lead in that category, both from a creative play standpoint and just a future of play standpoint, right? So Hapiko as a complete acquisition, I think will continue to grow their line. And with the proprietary voice operating system that can be used both on products to come as well as products in our portfolio or things we're unaware of yet. So I think it gives us a real sort of leading edge into that space with a great first product out of the gate for the company.

We're seeing such success already since we've acquired, it sold out another 3 times. And we just see that momentum and buzz continue to build. They've won -- we won a lot of awards around that. It's a must-have item for this fall and think it has a pretty -- just lots more opportunity as we expand out.

So I think from a category of play, from innovation standpoint, in all those cases, yes. And then we have a long history of acquisitions and really being able to both grow those acquisitions as well as integrate them into the company beyond where we started. So I think all of that is possible with Hapiko, and we're super excited about the first item being Stickerbox.

Yes. Fantastic. And just one more on Melissa & Doug, in your opening remarks and obviously, in the release, you talked about the key drivers. Nothing surprising here. This has been a focus for you, and you talked about these key drivers before, whether it's shelf space or your own innovation or global expansion. Is there one driver kind of across the flywheel here that's kind of returning it to growth particularly? And then I'm assuming you have confidence in sustaining that growth in Q4 and into 2027, but just maybe talk to the outlook here.

Yes. I think it always beginning middle end is product, right, really driving great product that is both innovative and long tail for Melissa & Doug in particular, right? So I think the success lies in that. And as we continue to execute against our strategy, expanding our shelf space, growing internationally, what is the fuel to doing that day in and day out, it will be product.

Next question from Ty Collin with CIBC.

To start off, obviously, we're still in a very volatile environment from a commodity standpoint. So I'm just curious, I mean, what's your level of confidence that you've kind of built the appropriate level of cost into your product planning for next year? And how do you approach that just given the level of volatility that still exists?

Let me take that, Ty. I think it's the first time we spoke since your newborn, so congratulations. From a commodity price, well, let's just start with this year. So for this year, we essentially have like full visibility on what our cost will look like as we head into -- as we finish up these last really like 12 and a bit -- 2 and a bit months.

Next year, the good news is we've known about this kind of $100 Brent oil since last April, right, even late March. And so as we've been putting the final touches on what we were showing to our retailers late August, early September in the LA Toy Fair, the mix, the construction, the product themselves were all based on that assumption.

And so as we head into 2027, we can -- we certainly need our heads around and our arms around what the incremental cost will be. And what we tried to do is design product and design the right mix to be able to really to offset the increased cost in our supply chain.

And then lastly, because we've had that 9 months of lead time, the team -- our full supply chain team, whether it be in Asia, whether it be here in North America or Europe, has been working very diligently on where can we improve our processes and improve how we look at our cost structure to eliminate costs or reduce costs as well to be able to offset some of that.

So as we head into '27, I think we are pretty comfortable with the heightened commodity prices, both from an internal perspective, what we've done to reduce costs and then also from how we're building out our product.

Okay. Great. I appreciate the answer and the congratulations as well. Maybe just for my follow-up, sort of on a related note, there's been some headlines around about toy prices kind of rising as we approach this holiday season. I know you guys have been very much focused on continuing to hit those key price points, but I'm sure some of your smaller competitors aren't quite as able to keep costs down. So I mean, do you think that your price positioning has kind of gotten a little bit better relative to your competitors as you approach the holidays? And I mean, how does that all play into what you're thinking about the promotional environment?

Ty, it's Christina. I would say that our prices and our pricing strategy holds steady from earlier in this year. We continue to have about 50% of our product price below the $19.99 range. So where I think create availability for all economic brackets and all parents and people shopping for toys. I don't think that it has changed. And as it relates to our competitors, I always say I don't sit in their chair, so I'm not sure one way or the other if they're increasing prices or not. But I will -- we're keeping it steady.

Next question from Luke Hannan with Canaccord Genuity.

I wanted to start with the licensing business, if we can, Jonathan, you had mentioned, clearly, you guys are in a bit of a transition period where some of the licenses that you had previously are rolling off. There's also some new licenses that I'm sure you guys will be announcing in short order. Can you just -- and maybe it's a 2-part question. First is, can you just confirm the overall mix of licensing revenue as a percentage of overall GPS that that's not really going to change?

And maybe secondly, what is Spin Master's positioning or has Spin Master's positioning changed at all as being the licensee of choice, I guess, within the toy space more broadly?

Luke, I'll answer kind of the numeric question and then pass it on to Christina. Last year, our license mix was -- so the industry is kind of, call it, 1/3, 2/3, if you kind of take a full step back. Last year, we were certainly higher than that rate. I think long term, we will continue to be kind of like the average of the industry. And so this year, we certainly are closer to the average of the industry in terms of licensed and non-licensed and own brands.

As it relates to sort of licensee of choice, I believe we still are. What I would say is that what you see this year versus last year is last year, we were heavily indexing in licensed movies. And this year, we're not. But when you look at where we are -- where we continue to deepen our relationships, it's with our partners like Universal. We recently announced Preschool Jurassic Park and core Plush expanding our licenses with them as a core partner.

You see us building deeper into our Hellbreak partnerships with other studios and then obviously, the extension of [ Cell ] that we announced earlier this year. So when you just look at the day-to-day, it's like we have very deep ongoing day in and day out partnerships this year, in particular, slightly lighter on movie-based partnerships.

And then if you just look at the -- a little bit of the reshaping of the industry, you see that there's more licenses by segment than Master, if you will. So you look at something like KPop Demon Hunter, where we have a nice piece of it as it relates to our platforms or our core products and brands, I think you're going to see more of that. But where there is a big license, a big moment, we will be at the table to pitch every time.

That's helpful. And then for my follow-up, and this is a bit of a broader question on the Digital Games segment. And I realize the impairment that you guys recorded this quarter is not something related to necessarily a new property or anything it's from decisions that you had made previously.

But I guess my question is, more broadly, if we look 3 to 5 years out, I think what most investors are focused on is the ability for you guys to be able to deliver sustained above-average growth, we'll say, within the Digital Games segment as a function of you guys monetizing some of the existing IP that you have within toys.

What is the plan over the course of the next 3 to 5 years to be able to bring that level of growth up, I guess? Is it more of a focus on having the internal capabilities to be able to monetize that IP? Do you maybe entertain the idea of licensing out some of that to some partners in order to get there? I'm just trying to wrap my head around basically what does the Digital Games look like 3 or 5 years from now? And what do you need to put in place in order to achieve what you're envisioning here?

Luke, let me start off. So first of all, just from a kind of numerical perspective this year, remember, we have 2 focus areas, but 3 revenue streams. And the third revenue stream around partnership revenue creates headwinds or creates noise, if you will, on looking at the underlying performance of our studios. The performance of our studios, we grew. We expect them to grow this year. We expect them ultimately to be able to grow at rates that are combined higher than our overall business. That's what the beauty, if you will, of the Digital Games creative center.

Within Toca, this was the year where we said we wanted to begin to fully realize the potential of Toca. We've done that. We've shown the proof points that Toca can be taken out of the digital world and brought into the physical with our partnership with MINISO that has exceeded our expectations and will lead to some very interesting announcements as we go into -- as we're in '27, excuse me.

So we really do believe that Toca continue to expand outside of the digital world. And that's where you will see the above rate of growth being driven by. It's an at-scale business. It's got 60 million active users. It's a very large business. So that's where you'll see the outsized growth rate.

Piknik is still -- I call it in its infancy, like we're still building out the capabilities. We're still building out the content. We're still building out the reasons for parents to stay on the platform. Lylli was a recent acquisition that will help with that. We're at about 0.5 million subscribers, growing to ultimately to keep growing at above rate on our subscriber rate and keeping families longer because we have better content will drive the above-average rate of growth in our business within that platform.

Yes. And the only thing I would add to that is that when you look at Toca Boca, really, we talk a lot about fully realizing its potential, both in and out of game and continuing to grow and monetize that platform. And I think you see us doing it with lots of partnerships as well. If you were to go in today, you noticed KPop Demon Hunters is a big partnership. We did a really big partnership with Adidas. So I think seeing that like, leaning fully into that position, #1 with tweens is core to the strategy today and as we go to the future.

In addition, you look at something like Gabby's Dollhouse and what we were able to build there across our Piknik business. You can look for moments like that, but we are very focused. We spent a lot of time saying, hey, we're going to clean up our business models and be focused about how we go to market in digital. Build our own IP in Toca Boca and build out that platform and live capabilities there, Piknik to be a subscription-based business and then know that we have a downstream revenue to tap into as we create more and more. So I think fully realizing those business models and building IP inside of them is really where we drive the future value.

Next question from Martin Landry with Stifel...

To know how you're approaching Black Friday at retail. Trying to understand a little bit how is your shelf space allocation right now versus last year? Do you have any specific promotions like end caps or pallet that you want to highlight? Just trying to understand a little bit what's your strategy with Black Friday coming up in less than a month.

Martin, we work with each of our partners, our retail partners. We work with them to ensure that our brands are properly displayed, whether it be on end caps, whether it be on pallet drops, whether it be in shelf and have the right level of marketing and promotion associated with it.

When you look at kind of the growth brands that we have this year, whether it be Monster Jam, Primal Hatch, Hatchin' Yoshi, GUND, CrystaLynx, 4D, I mean this is where our retail partners are going to Rubik's, Cool Maker. This is where our retail partners are going to lean in because we see a lot of positive momentum, Melissa & Doug, a lot of positive momentum with our brands.

So we'll work with our retail partners. We'll make sure that they have the product, we'll make sure they have the right prices, and we'll make sure they have the right promotional dollars associated with it so that we can be successful bringing -- helping them be successful, bring our product to the end consumer.

Okay. And I'm sorry, you may have touched it earlier on. I didn't fully understand, but can you talk a little bit about your inventory levels at retail? How does it compare versus last year? How do you look at them right now?

Both our inventory and at the retail level, I think you would see like on our balance sheet, you see how healthy our inventory levels are. And then at the retailer as well, as you know, that there was that shift last year from FOB to DOM. That means that ultimately, we're more in Q4 of a replenishment business. And so we like how we're positioned from a retailer kind of health of inventory position across all of our -- or most of our retail partners.

Okay. And then just lastly, any color on how October has trended so far?

Yes. From -- October is kind of playing out as we expected, both from a GPS perspective, both from a digital games and from a POS perspective. I mean, I think one nice thing that we saw so far is in the pay-per-view of the movies, it's done exceptionally well. I think it was in the top 3 at one point. It's certainly in the top 5 on the pay-per-view of choice that families have. So I think that's been -- I won't say a pleasant surprise, but that certainly has been something we liked as we began October and we're ending October.

There are no further questions at this time. I'll turn the call back over to Christina for closing remarks.

Christina Miller, Chief Executive Officer, Spin Master Corp.

Thank you all for being with us today. We look forward to talking to you again on our year-end call in February. Have a good day.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Spin Master Second Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded today, Thursday, July 30, 2026.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Tim Foran, VP, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call.

With me here today are our CEO, Christina Miller; and our CFO, Jonathan Roiter.

For your convenience, the press release, MD&A and consolidated financial statements are available on the Investor Relations section of our website at spinmaster.com and on SEDAR+.

Before we begin, please note that remarks on this conference call may contain forward-looking statements about Spin Master's current and future plans, expectations, intentions, results, levels of activity, performance, goals or achievements and any other future events or developments. Forward-looking statements are based on currently available information and assumptions that management believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances.

However, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct and many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. As a result, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. For additional information on these assumptions and risks, please consult cautionary statements regarding forward-looking information in our earnings release dated July 30, 2026.

Except as may be required by law, Spin Master disclaims any intention to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether because of new information, future events or otherwise. Please note that Spin Master reports in U.S. dollars and all dollar amounts today are expressed in U.S. currency unless otherwise noted. Also all industry data that we referenced related to toys is from Circana, LLC Retail Tracking Service and relates to data from our G11, which are specified in our Q2 2026 supplementary presentation available on our investors website.

Unless noted otherwise, all percentage growth rates refer to the period ending June 30, 2026, relative to the same period in 2025.

I would now like to turn the conference call over to Christina.

Thank you, Tim, and good morning to everyone who is joining us for our second quarter call. We had another strong quarter, which has powered our return to profitable growth, and we are making progress on our 3, 2026 priorities and long-term growth strategy, which has us well positioned as we enter the second half of the year.

Our financial results came in ahead of expectations we outlined. This was driven by strong sell-in of our core brands, including PAW Patrol, Monster Jam and GUND, and we benefited from growth in our 4D CrystaLynx, Primal Hatch, Cool Maker. We also introduced multiple new products, Magic Jellykins, Bitzee, Aquarium, PCMO and Rubik's Rush. We have an incredible amount of innovation in our 2026 toy portfolio, a credit to our design and development team and increased collaboration across the global organization.

We have 3 core priorities for 2026: one, capture the PAW Patrol movie moment across each of the 3 creative centers; two, return Melissa & Doug to growth; and three, fully realize the value of Toca Boca by providing more opportunities for fans to engage with the brand.

Starting with PAW Patrol. Dino Movie will hit theaters in 2 short weeks, August 14. The second trailer for the movie dropped on June 11 and had 110 million views in the first week, significantly better than the first 2 movies. Excitement for the movie is building with positive buzz from families and for the new single from the Backstreet Boys follow up. The Dino Movie is well positioned with its target audience and is generally tracking at or above the last 2 movies. The movie is a priority for our partner, Paramount to maximize franchise impact. The marketing team is delivering a unified campaign by leveraging the full breadth of Paramount's ecosystem.

Within our own entertainment center, the second quarter, we announced that PAW Patrol and rubble and crew have been renewed with Nickelodeon. This pickup marks Season 14 and 15 for PAW Patrol and Seasons 5 and 6 for rubbling crew. Season 14 of Paw Patrol drops today. The franchise continues to rank as the #1 preschool series year-to-date, and we continue to grow on YouTube, part of our approach to always be where kids are.

Within toys, the PAW Patrol movie line launched on Amazon, Target and walmart.com in July and will be in store at Walmart in early August. Early reads are positive. We have curated content and programs for each major retailer in support of the movie toy line. This includes social content for Walmart and Target with key movie talent as well as an integrated marketing campaign with Amazon, featuring close to 1 million branded PAW Patrol Dino boxes for delivery. We sold down our inventory in stores in the first half of the year. Therefore, we believe we have a healthy inventory level to support sales.

Within Digital Games, we will officially launch our new PAW Patrol game with marketing support around the movie release. It will be launched as a stand-alone game and available to play for free with in-app purchases.

Turning to Melissa & Doug. During the second quarter, revenues were down, but this was anticipated. As you will recall, unlike Spin Master Toys, Melissa & Doug had a challenging comp this quarter. Its revenues increased almost 40% last Q2 2025 as it held considerable domestic inventory last year that we were able to monetize. We supported retail partners through heightened promotional activity to drive share and strategically move inventory into off-price and discount channels to meet retailer demand onshore product availability.

Positively, Melissa & Doug's gross profit was stable year-over-year due to the expansion in gross margin. The team is executing well on our return to growth strategy. This includes reclaiming market share through innovation with new items for the fall such as Cherry Lane and new licensed product, both of which are tracking well out of the gate, Cherry Lane is a new toy collection featuring place apps, vehicles and figures designed for the way kids play to help encourage developmental skills for toddlers and preschoolers.

Our growth strategy also includes strategic partnerships. In the quarter, we announced collaborations with Cold favorite ice cream brand, Van Leen for a limited edition collection of toys. The Van Loan ice cream counter has been our #1 D2C item since launch. Through our partnership with Penguin Random House, we will also be expanding the brand beyond the toy aisle into publishing. With Alina Melissa & Doug Doug Books anticipated to launch this fall.

Additionally, we have increased our shelf space with key retailers.

Finally, fully realizing the potential of Toca Boca by providing more opportunities for its millions of fans to engage with the brand, we are bringing the brand off the screen and into stores with the launch of an exclusive lifestyle collection in more than 350 Miniso stores across the U.S., available next month. Just in time for back-to-school. With Toca Boca world itself, we are also providing kids more opportunities to express themselves. During the quarter, we advanced our music strategy by bringing tweens closer to the music they love with hit songs from popular artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Ciena Spiro and Twice, providing a personalized sound track for players.

The immersive experience creates a powerful new way for artists to connect with our fans across 173 countries. It also underscores the importance of music as a key driver of identity and self-expression for kids and tweens. Building on proven success and prior music collaborations with Cone & Gray, Casa and WICED.

In the second half of the year, you can expect to see more high-profile collaborations between Toca Boca and global brands and entertainment franchises. Toca Boca World's underlying operational performance was stable in the second quarter with a decline in monthly active users essentially offset by improved conversion percentage and increased average revenue per paying user. We remain focused on optimizing the user experience, testing new opportunities to increase conversion, increase the frequency of content drops and adding more high-profile partnerships.

The number of paying users increased from Q1, resulting from these changes. We are also planning to expand mobile monetization with the launch of our D2C web store on Toca Boca world this quarter, which will help us keep more of the net revenue from direct purchases while also enabling us to potentially increase conversion, retention and lifetime value.

For Piknik, we have increased subscribers since the end of the year, due in part to a new title screen user experience, which has increased free trial conversion and retention. We are rolling it out to additional apps in the bundle. Post quarter, we are excited to add Gabby's Dollhouse, Cat games to our subscription bundle. This adds another game featuring high-profile IP to go along with PAW Patrol and Toca Boca Jr.

Beyond 2026, a key aspect of our long-term growth strategy is accelerating our expansion into high-growth categories. This includes collectibles and strategic trading cards, both of which are extremely popular with Sands and the consults demographics.

In May, we announced a global licensing agreement with Mobile Games Giant, Supercell. Supercell games include Clash of Clans, Clash Royale and Ball stars have been downloaded around the world billions of times and reached 290 million monthly active users.

As part of a multiyear agreement, we will create toys and collectibles that bring the iconic characters, battles and adventures from the digital screen to fans around the world. The collection is targeted to launch next summer.

As it relates to strategic trading cards, earlier this month, we announced we were deepening our lineup of new studio collaborators, AMC, Blumhouse and Lionsgate to bring their her icons to our new game hell break. And there are more studios to come. The game is set to unleash late this fall.

I now turn it over to Jonathan.

Thank you, Christina, and good morning, everyone. As Christina noted, our financial results in Q2 came in ahead of the expectations we outlined. Consolidated revenues increased 9% or $36 million driven by 12% growth in toys, ahead of our expectations to a pull forward of approximately $40 million in gross product sales from Q3, in part as retailers prepared for the PAW Patrol, Dino movie release.

Due to the volatility in retail order patterns last year, the first half change in revenues is a better indicator than either the Q1 decline of 9% with a Q2 increase of 9% Adjusted EBITDA increased by 80% in the second quarter or $23 million. This was driven by a $24 million increase in gross profit excluding depreciation and amortization and tariff refunds that we received.

Marketing expense was $12 million less than last year. This is primarily timing related, and we expect to see a similar quantum of increase in Q3.

Adjusted operating income in Q2 was $19 million, an increase of $20 million driven by the increase in adjusted EBITDA, partially offset by a small increase in depreciation and amortization. IFRS operating income in the second quarter was $46 million compared to a loss of $52 million last year. The increase was due to the increase in adjusted operating income and impairment that was recorded last year, a reduction in nonrecurring cash costs, currency fluctuations and the $38 million in IEEPA tariff refunds received late in the quarter, which we recorded an offset to cost of sales.

The tariff refunds have been excluded from adjusted EBITDA, adjusted operating income and adjusted net income due to their onetime nature. However, the amount added back is just the refund received and does not add back tariff expenses.

In 2025, we expensed approximately $30 million in tariffs and we anticipate a similar level this year, excluding the refund due to the proposed introduction of new higher tariff rates. Our operating cash flows increased by $32 million to $58 million due to the increase in IFRS profit, partially offset by changes in working capital flows. For the first half, operating cash flows increased $110 million to $160 million due to improved profitability, effective working capital management and tariff refunds received.

CapEx in the first half was $70 million, which includes the IT investments we are making to improve and automate our data quality and processes, have facilitated tighter integration with our core centers. In order to avoid any disruption in the fourth quarter this year, which is our busiest period, we are now planning to launch next year. In the current macro environment, we have maintained a balanced approach to capital allocation in the first half of the year, prioritizing growth investments, including CapEx, returning capital to shareholders through our dividend and share buyback and reducing debt.

We ended the quarter with approximately 20 turns of net leverage, including leases or 0.3 turns excluding leases. Since the acquisition of M&D, we have reduced gross debt by more than $350 million while returning almost $200 million of capital to shareholders.

Now turning to our individual creative centers performance. Both toy GPS and revenues increased by 12% or $39 million, as I previously noted. Both toy adjusted EBITDA and adjusted operating income increased by $25 million driven by the increase in gross margin with adjusted SG&A being stable. IFRS operating income was $34 million compared to a loss of $40 million last year.

For the first half, toy revenues increased by 1%. Year-to-date toy POS was close to H1 revenues with a small decrease of approximately 1% as an anticipated decline in June offset a modest increase that we have been seeing through May. We expect POS to be negative in June and July as we're lapping the, How to Train your Dragon and Superman movies released in June and July, respectively, last year.

Additionally, M&D POS in Q2 was impacted by less in-store promotional items compared to last year, as Christian noted. Entertainment revenues were generally stable, declining by just under $1 million. Adjusted operating income declined by just under $2 million, driven by an increase in amortization expense stemming from a dilutive impact that occurs when we deliver new content. IFRS operating income was stable.

Digital Games revenue declined modestly by $2 million. However, adjusted operating income was stable as the revenue decline was offset by a reduction in adjusted SG&A. IFRS operating income increased to $6 million, a $22 million increase due to the impairment that was taken last year.

Now turning to our outlook. We reiterate our 2026 guidance today for stable to low single-digit growth in revenues and mid- to upper single-digit growth in adjusted EBITDA. Obviously, we are a back half-weighted company. Last year, the second half comprised of 64% of our full year revenues and all of our profits. So it is too early to change guidance or provide specifics on where we expect to land within the range.

The top end of our range reflects the growth drivers I outlined on our past calls, with the downside reflecting conservatism to the uncertain economy, the geopilical situation, including the conflict in the Middle East. From the latter, we ballparked on our last call the increased cost for us in the second half to be $15 million, assuming $100 a barrel of oil. Originally, we anticipated offsetting up to 2/3 of the additional cost through price increases, which would have benefited our revenues.

However, with the reception of the tariff refunds, we decided to utilize those refunds to counter the increased costs without having to increase pricing. We intend to do the same to counter the proposed new tariffs coming into place later this month. For modeling purposes, this will impact what we would have otherwise expected to report in revenues and adjusted EBITDA. But obviously, there's a benefit to our IFRS profits and cash flows.

As it relates to the third quarter, we are targeting general stability in consolidated revenues. This is due to the pull forward of orders into the second quarter. Also, we are anticipating a high proportion of domestic replenishment toy orders in 2026 than 2025, which will result in Q4 comprising a larger percentage of the full year. In terms of puts and takes for the third quarter, we anticipate benefiting from the Paw Patrol moving entertainment. In toy, Melissa & Doug has an easier comp and the PAW movie will be a tailwind, which offsets being that we don't have How to Train your Dragon, Superman and Gaby Dollhouse movies that we had last year.

Within Digital Games, we are targeting improvements in our core platforms, Toca Boca World and Piknik, with an offset being that we generated approximately $12 million in the third quarter and $9 million in the fourth quarter and high-margin revenues related to the delivery of certain games to partners, which do not repeat this year.

In terms of costs, we expect gross margin to be approximately 2 percentage points lower due to the higher toy costs I noted. Higher entertainment amortization relates to the ease of the movie and those digital game partnership revenues last year.

Operating expenses below gross profit are anticipate generally stable, except for the additional marketing spend that was not spent in the second quarter.

And now with that, I'll pass it back to Christina.

Thank you, Jonathan. In closing, we are extremely proud of the execution of our teams as we return to profitable growth. We have achieved this by focusing on consistent foundational improvements, applying greater executional discipline and executing our 3-part growth strategy: increasing innovation in our toys and digital games, accelerating our expansion into high-growth categories, including collectibles and strategic trading cards, and collaborating across our creative centers to unlock the full potential of our brands.

With that, operator, please open the line for questions

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Adam Shine from National Bank.

Lots of good color there already, but maybe you could just a little -- we're a little bit into the Q3 already. Can you elaborate maybe a little bit further on how retailers are adjusting to what we'll call it, a new resetting of the equilibrium. And as Jonathan referred to earlier, maybe a bit more domestic replenishment dynamic, but maybe talk about the nature of shipments in general and in as much as there was the $40 million of pull forward, are we still seeing a good level of demand already being exhibited in the Q3?

Adam, lots of questions in there. I don't think I'll be equal to remember every single one, but I'll give you some -- obviously, you're asking for some color into the second half of the year. And so what's nice about 2026 is that the retailers have returned to their historical PAUSE set patterns for fall. And so as we speak today, I think they're in the final throws, one retail and final, final throes of they're set. And so that is -- we're pleased to see that. I think we want to not lose sight of that last year, June and July, there were 3 theatrical releases that we had to products -- strong toy products that we were selling against.

And so when you look at early July until our PAW movie comes out in mid-August, we don't have that tailwind benefit on our toy sales. So from a kind of a sell-through. There is a headwind that we're facing. But as we headed to mid-August is obviously when we launched the movie that we've had the pleasure of seeing. It's a fantastic movie, a lot of really exciting buzz around it, and that will start the catalyst of the drive of return to POS growth in the second half.

Can you talk about any early retailer receptivity to hell break? I know it's coming late fall, but just any initial feedback commentary?

Adam, it's Christina. Yes, it's a little too early to tell as we sit here. It's a specialty launch, so it will be more late fall. So I think we will have more to tell you as we get into the fourth quarter. To date, we're super excited about it, and we'll have a little special launch on Friday the 13th in November.

Jonathan, just one quick point of clarification. Very clear in terms of marketing and the tie in Q2 and into Q3. But on the administrative line item, I know that one sometimes has some timing factors involved with it. It did step down. I'm just curious if that's an area where perhaps you're tackling some cost savings? Or again, is that a timing factor as well?

I think -- so the short answer is that you should consider timing. The longer answer is that there is the team because it's worth mentioning the work the team is doing. There is a significant investment in people's time and energy in looking at where we are spending money and ensuring that we're getting the returns that we would like. If we're not getting those returns, there is a reduction, but then there is reinvestment in other areas of the business.

Your next question comes from Ty Collin from CIBC.

So I mean you kind of characterized the Q2 toy growth as being mostly timing related. It sounds like the expectation that Q3 is going to be kind of flattish to a softer Q3 last year and you're expecting more domestic replenishment in Q4. I mean, is it fair to sort of summarize those comments as you not really expecting any material restocking at this point heading into the holiday season or exiting this year?

Well, we've just started to sell in for the for the third and fourth quarter. So it's a little early to say whether we expect material restocking or not. We've had some great new products start to ship. We're at the very early stages of PAW Patrol. So I think it's just a bit too early to say to talk through restock at this point.

Yes. And I think, Ty, not to lose sight that our second quarter certainly benefited from -- we quantified there was around $40 million of Q3 orders that shipped late in Q2. A lot of those orders were PAW related as the retailers want to stock their shelves. And so it's certainly Q3 going to be a less positive year -- less positive quarter than you saw in this quarter that you saw here.

Okay. Got it. And yes, I mean I appreciate it's obviously early days, but just wondering if you could comment a little bit on how the initial sell-in and sell-through some of that PAW movie-related product has gone compared to your expectations heading into this year.

Yes. I think it's meeting our expectations. Again, it's kind of early, but we have some great product out already across all retailers, 1 retailer left to set in-store, and we're seeing movie product start to get a real lift as we market the movie as we get closer to the release date. There's lots of retail promotions curated to each one of the retailers. So we're seeing the product that is included in that see a nice lift. We're 2 weeks out from the movie. So we will certainly have more to tell you next quarter.

Your next question comes from the line of Gerrick Johnson from Seaport Research.

Great. On the $40 million pull forward, this is not incremental. This is just pull forward. It's not a retailers increasing orders.

No, Gerrick, I mean, we're maintaining our full year guidance. And when we look at the order patterns that came in versus what we were expecting when we built out our guidance, we can attribute essentially $40 million of pull forward orders.

Okay. Okay. And then do you have to kick back any of your refund to your retail partners? I assume you increased price. So is Walmart, Target, are those guys coming back to you for part of your refund? Or is that why you're funding some promotions in the back half.

I think, Derek, one the pieces we have to look at is we are still in an inflationary environment. We called out on our last call, and it's worth mentioning again, that when we look at oil at current rates versus our budgeted rates, there's about $15 million we've that we believe that our costs will go up, and those will be in H2. So we anticipate those costs coming through in H2.

When we talked last time, we were contemplating, offsetting the vast majority of that through price. Looking at where we stand, looking at where the consumer stands looking at our products, looking at our peer set, we ultimately elected not to move forward with price and as a result, we look in the back half of the year, we have the $5 million incremental costs that are going to come through.

Okay. So your price decision is totally independent. That's your decision. It's not the retailer is putting pressure on you to do that because we...

No, it was totally independent.

The next question comes from Drew McReynolds from RBC Capital Markets.

Yes. 3 for me, maybe starting with you, Christina. Just with respect to the full pipeline of or innovation in the new products. So obviously, great to see, and it's been a priority of yours. Are you able to just kind of quantify or qualify just the strength of that new innovation and new product pipeline relative to previous years. And I guess the more important question, the success and traction you're seeing this year versus previous years, obviously, hard for us to get a good glimpse of that. So that would be helpful.

Second, just on the Toca Boca world MAUs. I recall, I think last quarter, the expectation of return to MAU growth in the back half year. And I think I still got that from your opening remarks, but just maybe some comment there. And then just lastly, maybe for you, Jonathan, on just the M&A appetite here. It looks as if certainly the industry is finally normalizing and settling down. You've got a great balance sheet. You're obviously doing a great job returning excess capital to shareholders. Just wondering any updated thoughts on that?

So there's a few questions in there, I'll go into new product pipeline. So we have a great new product pipeline, and you're seeing it in Magic Jellykins launched you're seeing in pico seeing it in CrystaLynx and one. So it's also about category entry. In some of those cases, it's collectibles. In some of its cases, it's electronics and then you're seeing it across our existing line as well. So it's hard to parse out year-on-year because, especially when we came off of a year where we had win for best Toy of the Year for Primal Hatch, and we have a great follow-up coming to that.

So I think it's about innovation in more categories and launching a lot of new products in addition to driving that innovation in our existing lines like Monster Jam, Kinetic Sand, for the GUND. So it's really about all boats rising is what I would say. When I look at some of the exciting new products that is tracking well at retail. I would say things like Magic Jellykins are doing well. CrystalLynx is doing well. We've just rolled out one. So those are all new categories, and then we have murder phone that just launched, which is a new game, that's at retail and are already looking like it's going to perform well.

So I think it's across all categories, you see it, and that's the goal is really to inject it in existing core brands, which powered us in this quarter. And then really pushing into some new categories and finding some new play systems that we can keep growing year after year, not just quarter after quarter.

I think your second question was around Toca Boca and MAUs and we are still looking at returning to or growing our MAUs in the back half of the year. We have a really strong pipeline of featured content that is set to drop that is really impactful over the back half of the year if the summer was music, I'd say big partnerships or what we're looking at for the back half of the year. We've done a fair amount of tests, and we will continue on conversion. So we're working both sort of the top of the funnel and conversion. That's what we're focused on trying to be really disciplined about for Toca Boca.

And then as it relates to M&A, I think, Jonathan.

Sure. I'll jump in. And yes, I think with Toca the underlying metrics of that business are stable, which is what we expected. So revenue, obviously, you didn't see that there. Last year, there was in the quarter, some onetime elements in that first quarter that we were here. We probably should have called that out in our first quarter. There was a lot going on. So that's the reason ultimately why the underlying stable metrics you're not seeing that in the revenue figure. But as Christina laid out, H2, there's each month, an incredible amount of content and features coming out and some really exciting partnerships that we're going to announce as the fall makes its way through.

Turning to M&A. M&A has always been core to Spin Master. We have an incredibly attractive balance sheet and teams looking card on freeing up capital through our working capital -- sorry, through our balance sheet. To ultimately give even more flexibility. When we look at M&A, I kind of -- we put it kind of in 2 very easy buckets in the toy field.

One would be around are the brands out there that ultimately allow us cost synergies when we bring them together or are there brands out there that allow us to enter new categories and go into categories that are much higher growth. And we certainly are looking at both of those. And look forward to keep on updating you as we make progress in that area.

The next question comes from Kylie Cohu from Jefferies.

I guess to start off, you highlighted that most on Doug revenue performed basically as expected, even with the difficult comparison. Gross profit was stable, shelf space expanded with key retailers. I was just curious a little bit of update on that business? And when do you expect sell-through and sales to return to being positive?

So I think that, Kylie, said that we know that we had a Easter this year lead up that helped Q1. But -- and we also have a lot of promotional space that we were comping. But as we look into Q3, we believe that it's going to be expanded space growth in international and innovation in the toys that is really going to help us drive that return to growth. We have a new product line in Cherry Lane that is hitting shelves and seeing some early signs of strong performance.

Got it. Super helpful. And then to kind of beat a dead horse on the call about just retail inventories. But I guess focusing in a little bit more on PAW Patrol specifically. Obviously, across the space, they're lean, but just kind of curious how you're thinking about having enough to support the business in case there's any upside? Is that something that you could chase into? Just any color there would be helpful.

Sure. I think you noted that we strategically and deliberately sold down some inventory to clean out space for the movie line that is now launching. And we're getting some early reads, and we will be in a position to chase that product and the product that's performing, that is definitely part of the plan.

Next question comes from Andy Zhang from TD Cowen.

I just had a quick question for -- on the shift back to Fort is it back to historical levels in Q2 following like the general shift to Dom last year? And just some thoughts on the toy revenue strength being attributable to demand strength as opposed to like fob shift back to port. Any color on that would be great.

Yes, Andy. What we see this year is some stability year-over-year when you look at the full 12 months within our direct import and domestic replenishment. There may be a little bit over the course of the year movement up on the DM side. But ultimately, we're sitting in H2. There's -- if you look last year, about 65% of our revenue was HD. So there's still a lot left to go. And so to be able to come down to that exact percentage. I don't think we're not positioned. But I would call it stable with possibility of a little bit of increase in the down side, which would shift revenue more into Q4.

Your next question comes from Eric Zhu from Canaccord.

This is Eric on for Luke Hannan. I just have a few questions on PAW Patrol. I don't know how much you could share on this, but how exactly does the profit sharing kind of work for the movie from the box office. So first on an we see a big box office gross amount. How does that translate into the company's P&L? That's the first one.

I mean, I will take that -- I mean, we're not going to get into our contractual agreements with our partners. What I would say is that we are this is a movie that we produce. It's a movie that we write, that we direct that we put together. We have production partners, and then we have distribution partners. And we share, obviously, in the upside directly with them on the upside of the movie.

And so look forward to having another third movie, a record movie that outperforms the [indiscernible] outperforms the first. That's ultimately what we'd like to see. And then you see that flow through both from an entertainment perspective. you see a flow-through from a toy perspective. And because of the launch of our recent PAW Patrol game, you'll see that flow through in our digital side. So the 3 create centers would benefit ultimately from an overperformance.

Yes. If you're asking, Eric, I think you were asking directly about box office in that question. And the box office revenue will flow through our entertainment line, but it will not be broken out specifically.

Great. And then the last question for me is, historically, you've talked about the second window of product and distribution sales. I'm assuming the answer is yes, but just checking if that's already baked into your outlook? Or is it that kind of incremental amount of sales.

It's -- the second window streaming is about -- is always timing related, but it would be baked into our entertainment revenue as well.

Your next question comes from Martin Landry from Stifel. PAUSE.

It's Jesse on for Martin. Can you hear me?

Yes.

So I was wondering how your shelf space compared to the last PAW Patrol movie as you can recall.

Yes. I would tell you that it's probably at the same. Again, each retailer has curated programs, and we have out-of-aisle placement around it that is specific to the movie. And so it is definitely at the at or above, I would say, the last couple of movies.

Okay. And maybe you've talked about in the past seeing a roughly 25% bump. Would you expect something similar this time around?

25% bump about what?

I'm not sure what that bump is directly in reference to what?

I'm talking to revenues, sorry.

For what for the movie?

Toy, I'm sorry.

Go back to the PAW Patrol movie, sorry, about that.

So what we said is in the last call, I'm not sure about the 25%, but what we said is that last year, there's a $20 million at our last movie, where we recognize when we give the movie to our production partner, we are then able to recognize -- last movie, we recognized $20 million of revenue 2023 actually -- in 2023, excuse me.

It's related to the timing of the delivery of the movie since we deliver the movie to Paramount and they distribute it for us.

And then there is amortization -- and then there's amortization that pretty much offsets that revenue base.

Your next question comes from Gerrick Johnson from Seaport Research.

Right. Can you tell us what you're anticipating in terms of revenue amortization for the moving to third quarter?

I can tell you what we did last time. And what I just add, Eric, which it was $20-ish million of revenue, and the vast majority of that, we had amortization expense.

Yes. Okay. All right. Great. And then can you discuss the fourth quarter again? Is a larger proportion of the back half? Was that because of the shift in FOB to domestic? Or is there more going on there?

So my comment before was that DAM and FOB, so direct import and domestic refinance PAUSE for the year will be closer to 2025 than historical, with the possibility of there being more domestic replenishment and at the very tail end of that question, I kind of referenced that that you would see in Q4. And so when you look at our Q3 numbers with the pull forward that took place, obviously, that has an implication for what our revenue and ultimately, our profits will be in Q3.

Okay. And I realize you didn't increase your guidance. So feeling I know the answer, but retailers have been talking very positively about toys have had good same-store sales talking about the publicly traded U.S. retailers like Target, Walmart and so forth. And it just seems to me we've been getting worried out from the field that they're feeling more optimistic. So are you seeing any increases in orders for the back half, maybe ramping up back-to-school a little bit?

Yes. Gerry, I ultimately cause guidance is something that we've reiterated. Just to remind you, revenue last year, of the revenue within the back half, all our profits last year were in the back half of last year. The movie has not yet come out. When you look at our year-to-date performance, we are tracking 1% growth so far. And so there's just a lot of baseball left to be played. It's when the consumer shows up. And we think we have winning products. We think we have winning entertainment content.

We think we're winning digital content, but ultimately, the consumer shows up in the second half of the year. And this is where we stand from a reiterating our -- why are we reiterating our guidance on this call.

There are no further questions at this time. I'll turn the call back over to Christina for closing remarks.

Thank you all for being with us today. We look forward to talking to you again on our call in the fall Q3. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Hello, and welcome to the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Spin Master Corp. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded.

If you participate in today's meeting and disclose personal information, you will be deemed to consent to the recording, transfer and use of same. If you disclose personal information of another person in today's meeting, you will be deemed to represent and warrant to Computershare and the company that you first obtained all required consents for the disclosure, recording, transfer and use of such personal information from all appropriate persons before your disclosure.

It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to the Chair of the meeting, Ms. Christina Miller. Ms. Miller, the floor is yours.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Spin Master Corp. I am Christina Miller, a Director and the CEO of the company. Before proceeding with the formal business of the meeting, I would like to welcome our new independent director standing for election, Ms. Yael Vizel, who will bring her experience and expertise in technology, retail innovation and digital commerce to the company.

I will now turn the meeting -- I will now turn to Ms. Alison Desipio, Corporate Secretary of the company, to review some formalities.

Thank you. This year, as was last year, the meeting is being held as a virtual meeting. This allows registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders to be able to attend the meeting, ask questions and vote regardless of their geographic location as well as being a more cost-efficient and environmentally friendly arrangement for the company and shareholders. Holding our meeting virtually means there are some differences from the way an in-person meeting is usually conducted. However, our goal is to replicate as best we can the experience you would have if you were meeting in person.

We request that shareholders or duly appointed proxy holders who have specific comments or questions on a formal item of business to make such written submissions now, clearly identifying the item of formal business. During the course of the meeting, at the appropriate time, such submissions will be addressed prior to voting on the applicable motions.

Following the formal business of the meeting, we will have a question-and-answer session. Members of management are in attendance at the meeting and can address your questions. If you have any questions not specifically related to an item of formal business to be discussed at today's meeting, please feel free to submit those questions at any time, and we will do our best to ensure that the questions are addressed following the conclusion of the meeting. If for any reason, we are unable to answer your questions during the Q&A, we will endeavor to follow up with you after the meeting. You can submit questions by clicking on the Q&A icon, typing them in and submitting your questions.

We have four matters of formal business to conduct today: one, the election of directors; two, the presentation of our 2025 financial statements; three, the reappointment of the company's auditors for the coming year and authorization of the directors of the company to fix such auditor's remuneration; and four, the approval of a nonbinding advisory resolution on the company's approach to executive compensation.

While in practice generally adopted at shareholder meetings is for a motion to be made by one person and seconded by another, such a process is not necessary in all cases. Accordingly, for this virtual meeting, we will forgo having seconders for the formal business specified in the notice of this meeting.

I will now turn to the Chair to commence the meeting.

This meeting is now called to order. I will preside as Chair of this meeting and Ms. Alison Desipio, Corporate Secretary of the company, will act as Secretary of the meeting. With the consent of the meeting, I hereby appoint Computershare Investor Services, Inc. through its representatives to act as the scrutineer for the meeting.

I would now ask Ms. Desipio to report on certain procedural matters.

The notice calling this meeting together with the form of proxy and management information circular and annual report containing the financial statements of Spin Master Corp. for the financial year ended December 31, 2025 and the auditor's report thereon have been properly sent to the requisite recipients. Additional copies of these materials are also available online on the company's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.com.

I will dispense with the reading of the notice of the meeting. The scrutineer has provided me with its preliminary report on attendance at this meeting, and I confirm that the requisite quorum of shareholders is present in person or represented by proxy.

Given this is a virtual meeting, the voting at today's meeting will be conducted by online ballot for all matters. If, as a registered shareholder or duly appointed proxy holder, you have used your control number to log into the meeting and accepted the terms and conditions, you will be provided the opportunity to vote by online ballot. If you have already voted by proxy and you vote again by ballot during the meeting, your online vote will revoke your previously submitted proxy. If you have already voted by proxy and do not wish to revoke your previously submitted proxy, do not vote again during the online ballot.

The polls are currently open, allowing you to vote on each item immediately or if you prefer, you may wait until the conclusion of discussion on each item prior to casting your vote. The items of business to be voted on and your available voting options will be visible on the voting panel on your screen. To submit a vote, please click on the voting choice displayed on your screen. Once discussion has concluded on all items of business, we will provide a few additional moments for you to enter your votes.

Thank you, Ms. Desipio. I declare that the meeting is duly and properly constituted for the transaction of business. I direct that confirmation -- I direct the confirmation of mailing of the notice of the meeting received from Computershare Investor Services, Inc. and the scrutineers' complete report on attendance, the annex to the meetings -- the minutes of the meeting.

The first item of business is the election of directors. The number of directors to be elected at this meeting has been set by the company's Board of Directors at 10. May I please have the management's nomination of candidates for election to the Board?

Madam Chair, I nominate each of the persons specified in the Management Information Circular delivered with the Notice of Meeting being Jeffrey Cohen, Kevin Glass, Ronnen Harary, Christina Miller, Anton Rabie, Christi Strauss, Ben Varadi, Gary Vaynerchuk, Yael Vizel, Charles Winograd, serve as directors of the company, to hold office until the close of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successors are duly elected or appointed in accordance with the articles and bylaws of the company.

As the company did not previously receive timely notice of any further nominations of persons for election as directors of the company as required by the advance notice provisions of the company's bylaws, I declare the nominations closed.

Mr. Foran, can you please advise whether any questions have been received on this matter from participants of this meeting?

Madam Chair, I will pause for a moment to allow for questions to be submitted.

I can confirm that we have not received any questions from shareholders specifically on this item.

Thank you. We will now conduct the vote by way of online ballot, and registered shareholders or their duly appointed proxy holders can vote by online ballot by selecting the applicable voting option on the voting panel displayed on their screens. If you have previously submitted a complete proxy, you have voted, and it is not necessary to vote again.

[Voting]

The next item of business is the presentation of the company's consolidated financial statements and the auditor's report thereon. We will dispense with the reading of the auditor's report.

The next item of business is the reappointment of the auditors of the company. May I have a motion on this matter?

Madam Chair, I move that Deloitte LLP, chartered professional accountants, chartered accountants, licensed public accountants be reappointed as auditors of the company until the close of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until a successor is appointed and that the Board of Directors be authorized to fix the auditor's remuneration.

Mr. Foran, can you please advise whether any questions have been received on this matter from the participants of this meeting?

Madam Chair, I'll pause for a moment to allow for questions to be submitted.

I can confirm that we have not received any questions from shareholders specifically on this item.

Thank you. We will now conduct the vote by way of online ballot.

[Voting]

The next item of business is an advisory vote on the company's approach to executive compensation, also known as say-on-pay advisory vote. As this is an advisory vote, the results will not be binding upon the Board. However, the Board will take the results of the vote into account as appropriate when considering future compensation decisions. The text of the resolution is set forth in the Management Information Circular dated March 9, 2026. We will dispense with the reading of the resolution to the meeting.

May I have a motion on this matter?

Madam Chair, I move that a resolution in the form of the resolution on Page 45 of the Management Information Circular sent to the shareholders with the notice of this meeting approving the company's approach to executive compensation be passed as a nonbinding resolution of the company.

Mr. Foran, can you please advise whether any questions have been received on this matter from the participants of the meeting?

Madam Chair, I'll pause for a moment to allow for questions to be submitted.

I can confirm that we have not received any questions from shareholders specifically on this item.

Thank you. We will now conduct the vote by way of online ballot.

[Voting]

We will now proceed with the process of completing the vote on the items of the business of the meeting. Mr. Foran, have any further questions come in from shareholders specifically on any of the matters of formal business?

No, I can confirm that we have not received any questions from shareholders specifically on the matters of formal business.

Thank you. The polls on all items of business will remain open for a few more moments.

[Voting]

I confirm the polls are now closed, and the scrutineer has tabulated the results. I am pleased to confirm that the scrutineer has reported to me that all matters put to a ballot have been passed with the requisite level of shareholder approval. Accordingly, as a result, I hereby declare the nominated directors elected, the auditors reappointed with the Board being authorized to fix such auditor's remuneration and the nonbinding advisory vote on the company's approach to executive compensation approved.

I can also report that further to our majority voting policy, each nominated director received more votes in favor of their election than votes withheld. A report disclosing the number of votes cast in favor of, withheld from voting or voted against as applicable each item of business at this meeting will be reported as part of the report of voting results to be filed on SEDAR+ and disclosed in a press release promptly following this meeting.

As there is no other business that may properly come before the meeting, I declare the meeting terminated. Thank you.

We would now like to invite any supplemental questions from any shareholders or proxy holders present. As with the physical meeting, we will observe the same protocols of appropriateness and relevance to the meeting. As previously noted, to the extent we are unable to respond to a submitted question, we will endeavor to follow up with you. If you wish to ask a question, please click on the Q&A icon and submit now.

On behalf of the Board and management of the company, I would like to thank all our shareholders as well as others who have joined us today for your support and attendance. Thank you.

This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Spin Master First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded today, Thursday, April 30, 2026.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Tim Foran, VP, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. With me here today are our CEO, Christina Miller; and our CFO, Jonathan Roiter. For your convenience, the press release, MD&A and consolidated financial statements are available on the Investor Relations section of our website spinmaster.com and on SEDAR+.

Before we begin, please note that remarks on this conference call may contain forward-looking statements about Spin Master's current and future plans, expectations, intentions, results, levels of activity, performance, goals or achievements and any other future events or developments. Forward-looking statements are based on currently available information and assumptions that management believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. However, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct and many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements.

As a result, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. For additional information on these assumptions and risks, please consult cautionary statements regarding forward-looking information in our earnings release dated April 30, 2026. Except as may be required by law, Spin Master disclaims any intention to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise. Please note that Spin Master reports in U.S. dollars, and all dollar amounts today are expressed in U.S. currency, unless otherwise noted. Also, all industry data that we reference related to toys is from Circana, LLC retail tracking service and relates to data from our G11 markets, which are specified in our Q1 2026 supplementary presentation also available on our website. Unless noted otherwise, all percentage growth rates refer to the period ending March 31, 2026, relative to the same period in 2025.

I would now like to turn the call over to Christina.

Thank you, Tim, and good morning to everyone who is joining us today for our first quarter call. We delivered a solid start to the year, which is a direct result of our disciplined execution against our core strategic priorities. Our financial results were ahead of our expectations. More importantly, our underlying operational performance this year gives us confidence that while there is near-term macro uncertainty, we are successfully positioning the company to return to sustainable growth.

Our focus on product innovation, the expansion of evergreen properties like Monster Jam and the stabilization of Melissa & Doug is yielding positive results. And we are strategically managing our portfolio by investing in our creative capabilities, reimagining how fans engage with our brands in both the physical and digital worlds and expanding our audiences, laying the groundwork for future growth.

In terms of Q1, our POS in toy was up, driven by healthy consumer demand for many of our items, including Primal Hatch, DreamWorks Dragons, Monster Jam, Melissa & Doug and GUND. We recently announced the extension of our partnership with Feld Entertainment for more than another decade. Since 2019, together, we have grown Monster Jam for 7 consecutive years, driving it to the #2 brand in vehicles, and we have more exciting innovation and category expansion planned for the future.

We stabilized Melissa & Doug and achieved POS growth in March. The team is executing well on our return to growth strategy. One, reclaiming market share through innovation, competitive pricing on certain evergreen SKUs and strategic partnerships; two, by expanding both internationally and outside the toy aisle. We continue to see growth in GUND, our premium Plush brand. We have improved the brand's health and awareness, reconnecting it with young parents by crystallizing GUND's core positioning, streamlining the portfolio to 3 segments: core, baby, top-tier licenses and applying our signature innovation.

We have also significantly enhanced our online content and experience, which has driven e-commerce into GUND's largest channel. During the quarter, our team continued to execute on our long-term growth strategy by: one, investing in innovation; two, expanding into high-growth categories; and three, accelerating collaboration across the business to unlock the full potential of our portfolio. Why this matters? Creativity, storytelling and innovation are core to Spin Master. By investing in our creative capabilities and improving collaboration among our team across the globe, we are improving our ability to sustain a strong pipeline of innovation.

This year, consumers will see exciting new products with our KPop Demon Hunters line, extensions to our award-winning Primal Hatch, new iterations of CrystaLynx and our Surprise Collectible Plush Magic Jellykins. And we are seeing an overwhelming response to Hatchin' Yoshi tied to the Super Mario Galaxy movie. The movie is the highest grossing film of the year, and our Hatchin' Yoshi has sold out numerous times already, and replenishments are on the way.

We are infusing innovation into Melissa & Doug, expanding our WOW tech to other items, including our Easter egg decorating stack, which sold out this spring as well as launching new concepts in pretend play. Last quarter, we outlined our strategic expansion into the high-growth category of trading cards. Italian Brainrot and collectible cards will be available in May, and we've seen tremendous enthusiasm from retailers, both mass and specialty.

The team also continues to drive towards the launch of Hellbreak this fall, and we'll be announcing the addition of new partners to the game joining our cornerstone partner, Universal. We are continuing to accelerate our collaboration to maximize the value of brands by bringing them to kids and families wherever they are. Our top priority for 2026 is capturing the PAW Patrol movie moment across our creative centers. We've been building excitement for the August release of PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie, with the initial teaser released on March 30, which hit 10 million viewers online in the first 24 hours.

The movie will feature a new song from the Backstreet Boys, their first since 2019. On a related note, we recently hit a major milestone as PAW Patrol's theme song officially reached Platinum status, driven by more than 150 million streams, placing it in the top 1% of all TV-related music on streaming platforms. This achievement reflects the Pup's global reach, their staying power and the incredible engagement we continue to see across touch points. Beyond entertainment, this month, we unveiled our PAW Patrol toy line inspired by the movie's Epic Dino Charged Adventures.

The collection will be available in July and features towering dinosaurs, heroic vehicles and interactive play experiences. And we are on track to release our new PAW Patrol digital game later this year. We are leveraging the power of our creative centers with licensed partners as well. We are teaming up with Hidden Pigeon Company to bring Mo Willems popular characters to life across Melissa & Doug, GUND, Piknik and Sago Mini, reaching new audiences across physical and digital play. In a similar fashion, we are broadening our digital reading offering by expanding Lylli's e-book library with notable Spin Master IP, starting with an exclusive title from Melissa & Doug.

Beyond leveraging our extensive IP to grow Lylli's catalog, we will be launching it in new markets, beginning with North America later this year. Finally, we're building on Toca Boca's fan base of close to 60 million active users, bringing this powerful digital brand to the real world with Toca Boca Collectibles launching at MINISO this summer. This is one of the many ways we are extending its reach in meaningful new ways across physical products, license partnerships and content to further unlock value.

With that, I turn it over to Jonathan.

Thank you, Christina, and good morning, everyone. As Christina noted, our financial results in Q1 came in ahead of the expectations we outlined. Consolidated revenues decreased 9% or [indiscernible] million due to the significant pull forward of retail orders into the first quarter of last year, as noted on our last call. In that period, direct import orders increased 75% as retailers try to secure inventory ahead of the implementation of tariffs. This resulted in toy revenue increasing in Q1 2025 by 21%, thus making it a challenging comp.

Conversely, due to the shift in retail ordering patterns, Q2 and Q3 are therefore anticipated to have easier comps for us to lap. Revenues and adjusted EBITDA in Q1 2026 actually came in better than expected, primarily driven by the pull forward of some toy orders in Q1, the earlier Easter timing and some FX benefits. Adjusted EBITDA declined by approximately $4 million as the revenue decline was partially offset by a reduction in cost of sales and operating expenses. Adjusted operating loss increased by approximately $18 million due to a $4 million decline in adjusted EBITDA and a $14 million increase in depreciation and amortization expense.

This was primarily related to an increase in entertainment amortization and cost of sales stemming from the delivery of new content. IFRS operating loss increased by $12 million, also due to the increase in depreciation and amortization. Our operating cash flows increased significantly to $103 million due to effective working capital management, the reception of some tax refunds and lower cash operating expenses. The working capital inflow is partly timing related and while we, therefore, expect outflows in Q2 and Q3, we are pleased with the results of our enhanced execution and are now targeting a reduced overall outflow on a full year basis.

In the current macro environment, we maintain a balanced approach to capital allocation between CapEx, dividends and share buybacks. We used the remainder, a little over $40 million to reduce our debt, so this may revert in Q2 as we anticipate the quarter may be a cash outflow period as it has been in prior years. We ended the quarter with approximately 0.9 turns on net leverage, including leases.

Now turning to our individual creative centers performance. Both toy GPS and revenues decreased by 12% for the reasons I noted. Despite this, adjusted EBITDA loss actually decreased by $2 million due to a reduction in cost of sales and operating expenses. Operating loss also decreased by $2 million for the same reason. Entertainment revenues increased by 8% or $3 million, primarily due to the delivery of new content, including Unicorn Academy and higher music revenues. However, operating income declined due to the $12 million increase in amortization expense, stemming from the dilutive impact that occurs when delivering new content as well as an increase in marketing expense behind the upcoming PAW Patrol movie.

Digital revenues declined 2% or $1 million due to lower in-game purchases of Toca Boca World, partially offset by increased strategic distribution partnerships and Piknik revenues. Operating income declined due to the decrease in revenues and an increase in amortization expense. Toca Boca World revenues were below our expectations. However, player engagement remains strong, and the app is routinely listed at the top of the chart for kids in major markets on both Android and iOS per Sensor Tower. Additionally, our efforts to improve the user experience has resulted in improved ratings over the past year.

So to improve our monetization, we are tweaking the ecosystem with multiple initiatives, including increased proportion of paid content, more content with high-profile licenses and are aiming to see the benefits of that in the second half of this year. Within Piknik, we continue to see the benefits of our strategy to showcase the value proposition of the full bundle to users of the individual apps to encourage annual versus monthly subscriptions and to make the bundle more accessible to subscribers. While that impacted our year-over-year subscribers, it was more than offset through improved ARPU, retention and LTV.

Turning to our outlook. We reiterated our 2026 guidance today for stable to low single-digit growth in revenues and mid- to upper single-digit growth in adjusted EBITDA. The top end of our range reflects the growth drivers I outlined on our last call with the downside reflecting conservatism due to the uncertain economy and geopolitical situation, including the conflict in the Middle East. The blockage of the Straits has resulted in a significant increase in oil prices, which ultimately has an impact on our freight, resin and packaging costs.

To date, the impact has been de minimis due to the lag that occurs from us having contracted costs in place, and it takes some months for increased input costs to be reflected in new inventory. This situation is not unusual for us, though. We have experienced similar prices in '21, 2012 and 2014. In the past, we've utilized pricing and other measures to mitigate the impact. As it relates to Q2, we are targeting stable to low single-digit revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth on a consolidated basis in the quarter, driven by toy as a lap, an easier comp with approximate stability in our other revenues. In terms of cadence, toy revenue seasonality is now expected to be just under 1/3, 2/3 split between H1 and H2.

And with that, operator, please open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Adam Shine from National Bank.

Obviously, great efficient rundown to kick things off. Jonathan and Christina, can you talk maybe in terms of how Q2 might be pacing? I know, Jonathan, you just touched on a few metrics for Q2. But just any additional color. We heard Mattel, of course, yesterday talking about North American net sales potentially growing in Q2. Actually, they said they expect them to grow and that U.S. retailer ordering patterns appear to be stabilizing. So maybe we can start there.

Thank you for the question. Yes. So when we look at Q2, we -- in our prepared remarks, we called out that the -- we saw from a consolidated perspective, we saw that stable to low single-digit revenue and bottom line growth year-over-year. And when you bifurcate that down to just component parts, we like the progression we're seeing on toy. We obviously have some easier comps this year than last year based on -- as you know, there were some very high tariffs early in the second quarter in 2025.

So toy ultimately will be the driver of it. We are seeing -- we're very pleased with our sell-through as we started the year. We obviously benefit from an earlier Easter than last year, but we certainly are pleased with that. We're pleased with the new innovation, new products that are being launched throughout the year. And so specifically in the second quarter, Tinkerbell and Toy Story with really stable entertainment. And as we talked about in our initial guidance in digital, we said modest growth, but that was really in the back half of the year.

Okay. I think somewhere in the financials, Note 3, I think it was, there was about $10.8 million recognized in terms of previously deferred revs. Can you just talk about that and where it came in because it was a bit higher than prior quarters.

So deferred rev, I'll have to circle back with you on that one.

Okay. No problem. And just lastly, as we go back to Melissa & Doug and Christina has been talking about this, I think, ever since she got into the seat in terms of really trying to turn that around. I think she highlighted a few things at the outset of the call. But anything else to elaborate further? Maybe we can also touch while we're at it on some of the other discount channels as well, how that's progressing?

Yes, you're right. I have definitely been consistent with my comments and messaging around M&D. And I think that you see our POS began to improve in the fourth quarter, then we've seen improvements each month of the first quarter and reaching growth in March. So there's -- we benefited a bit from an early Easter, but also from some great product.

We had the viral success in the Easter egg decorating kit that's sold out, and we have big plans to expand that in -- next year as well. But overall, we're optimistic about the POS that we're seeing. We believe that it leads to GPS growth this year, which is our core priority to really build the underlying health and to expand both in international, continue to expand there as well as our retail shelf space.

Your next question comes from the line of Kylie Cohu with Jefferies.

First one, I guess, is on just the stabilization that we're seeing in Melissa & Doug. Curious kind of what's driving this March improvement? Is it distribution, velocity or promotional cadence? Any color there would be helpful.

It's Christina here. I'm going to take this one. I think it's a little bit of building on what I was saying to Adam just a minute ago, really that it's one, it is just product development and really starting to see the innovation extending into a lot of our lines like growing in infant and places leveraging the trusted brand across really compelling products and just thinking about the ability to add more play value to what already is some great toys.

And I think you're seeing all of that start to roll its way out. We've said for at least the last few calls that I've been part of that, we're driving innovation that we're looking to expand in international, that we're looking to expand on shelf. And I think you're seeing that. You're seeing the return of health to the brand and that it's always been an incredibly high-quality product line and the trademark Spin Master innovation. I think those two coming together really have put us on a path to growth.

Got you. No, that's super helpful context. And then just a little bit on the timing of costs and flow-through. You highlighted that higher freight resin and packaging costs take some months to show up into inventory. How should we think about that risk as a lot of your product is skewed to second half? Could we begin to see this pressure results in Q3? Just any type of additional color there would be helpful.

For sure. Thanks, Kylie, for the question. And you pretty much have -- gave the answer. So really, when we look at what's happening in the Middle East, there's obviously been an increase in oil that started early March. We benefit. We work with our suppliers. We have hedging programs, collaboration with them. And so the actual cash that we have to start paying out, depending whether it's going to be on freight or on resin, it's going to be sequenced between, say, now, throughout the summer and late summer. And then we have to then turn our inventory.

And the average turns on our inventory through the full year is probably around that 3 to 4 turns. And so you're thinking -- like you're looking at really more of a Q3 and Q4 impact. And one data point that could be maybe helpful as you're thinking through this is and why we're comfortable with reiterating our guidance is that the impact that we see this coming year because of higher input costs related to oil is in that $15 million mark. And it's certainly H2 is where we would see that impact.

Your next question comes from the line of Drew McReynolds from RBC.

Yes. Maybe just shifting here. On the Digital Games side, just in the opening remarks, you alluded to performance coming in below expectations. Just wondering if you can unpack that a little bit more. Is it -- was it an execution issue or just more broadly an industry issue? And then just second, Jonathan, just on 2026 guidance and macro assumptions that's embedded perhaps to the lower end of the range. Like is there -- I guess, said it a different way, a scenario here where there is kind of material downside specifically related to the Middle East? Or it sounds by your opening remarks that you have a relatively high degree of confidence that you can navigate this as we go forward.

Thanks for the question. I think I'll start with the last -- second half of your question because it does tie in a little bit to what Kylie was asking, and I didn't fully answer. So I did reference how we're -- the value that we're putting if you use $100 a barrel throughout the rest of the year. And that being that $15 million, we have mitigating plans, and we're implementing those actions proactively to address that $15 million.

So we're comfortable with our guidance based on the kind of current rates that we're seeing. Obviously, we have to monitor and I'd be very conscious that the situation can change very quickly. And so -- but based on what we're seeing today and based on the mitigating plans that we have started to enact, we're comfortable with our guidance. On the higher end, we've talked on the initial guidance call on the drivers. It starts with entertainment, followed by digital and then ultimately on toy.

And so we think we have a balance -- we think we're quite balanced. We think we have upside, and we think we can properly mitigate the risk that we're seeing right now in the Middle East. So that hopefully answers the second question. And then turning to -- I'll start off, just continue talking, and then I'll let Christina jump in. But with regards to Digital Games -- like we entered the year expecting modest growth. We certainly said it was more back half loaded. I would call this quarter kind of stable, right, negative 2%. So it's roughly in line with our expectations.

We certainly were focused this quarter and a little bit as we entered into the quarter, so a little bit last year, on driving more engagement with the brand in a worldwide basis. There are a phenomenal amount of activities that are coming as part of bringing Toca outside of the digital world and bringing into the physical world and expanding into our 2 other creative centers. And so we consciously made that effort to continue on expanding the reach and the broad reach, and that's through free content. Now we're going to start dialing that in and start managing that to work on the monetization lever as I walked through in the -- on my prepared remarks. So that's -- Toca is performing as we essentially expected, and it's really a back half story.

Yes. Just adding a little bit more context to that. I would just say the headline there is user experience across the board on our digital, both Piknik and Toca Boca. So what I would say is you see us consistently improving the user experience in the app and driving now. And then what we need to focus on, I think, the remainder of the year is conversion. And we have a lot of programming plans and partnerships and drops of content in Toca Boca that I think you'll start to notice and then we will see the lift from there.

But really, we're trying to make sure that the underlying health of the community is the focus at the moment, right? Growing, making sure the tech stack is working, making sure that user experience is really strong and then layering on the content drops partnerships through the rest of the year. And Piknik, we released a -- we had a very active quarter in releases. And the biggest thing would be the hub, so that you can really see the value of the product and that we can drive retention. So I'd say first quarter was really about setting those 2 things up to drive the balance of the year.

I'm just going to jump in here. My mom when I was growing up said I mumbled and now Tim is telling me I mumbled as well. So when I was saying the impact of oil, it's 1-5, $15, not $50 million, so 1-5.

Your next question comes from the line of Catherine Sung from TD Cowen.

Can you please provide some color on how we should think about the cadence of D&A throughout the remainder of the year? I know [indiscernible] has a big lift in Q3, but just how to think about total for the year and by quarter if you have?

Yes. So depreciation and amortization really two components, right? There's the what I'll call the normal that we run our business and as we amortize and depreciate our fixed assets. What's different this year is the release -- there was 2 releases, the release of Unicorn Academy in Q1. And so that had an impact on our amortization this quarter.

And the next big increase that we're going to see will be in Q3 when we release the PAW movie. So the way I would think about it is there's some -- a little bit of decline as we head into Q2 spiking back up in -- or going higher in Q3 as we release the movie, higher than Q1. And then ultimately falling back probably in Q4 closer to the second quarter that we're going to come into right now. So a total of about $160 million, $150 million.

And just a follow-up. Can you also elaborate on the strength of your Q1 free cash flow? Clearly, benefited from working capital, but just wondering.

Yes. Thank you for the question. I couldn't be prouder of the efforts of the team, and it really shows how the teams are coming together because it's not a finance, it's not -- it's finance, supply chain and sales. It's everyone coming together and recognizing the power of capital and cash. And so you see the strength of our inventory. We're really, really incredibly healthy inventory levels.

In fact, so healthy that when we look at opportunities for the rest of the year, we collectively can say, hey, we're comfortable going a bit longer on some of these growth and runners. Because our inventory position is so healthy. And then when we look at the AR and AP, the team is doing a phenomenal job of collecting capital -- collecting our receivables. And we're working with our suppliers on what the right cadence of timing of payments are. And so you put all that together, and it just continues to increase now 2 quarters in a row that we're increasing high single digit, the cash conversion cycle.

Your next question comes from the line of Gerrick Johnson from Seaport Global.

I kind of want to go back to Kylie's question, maybe a little bit more detail on the dynamics of how it all works. You're buying finished goods, so you don't have direct exposure to resin per se. I assume you're locked in from a price perspective early in the year? Or do those prices change?

Yes, I think you do -- I mean, every contract will be different. So we'll talk in generalities, but you pretty much hit it, which is we make -- we enter into agreements with our suppliers, and that locks in a certain price for the product. And so we -- that's why we have visibility for a longer period of time on the resin front than freight, where, as you know, in freight, you ultimately will have fuel surcharges that start getting charged through.

Okay. So when you do buy from third-party manufacturers, were those prices set before February 28 or after?

Yes, Gerrick, I mean, every contract -- we're a fluid business, right? So it's not like the business begins to stop. There's certainly a large amount of our contracts that were set before the increase in oil. And as we start thinking about 2027, you would imagine that would be contracts that would be based on current oil pricing. So it's a constantly fluid environment.

But I go back to what I said before, that the impact at current rates, if this continues for the full year is $15, so I don't mumble. We've gone through this multiple years in the past where we had -- I think 2012, 2014 and 2021, the organization -- our supply chain team is incredible here. And so we've gone through this multiple times. We're able to have mitigating plans. We've already started to action those. And we think the net impact on our cost after mitigation is going to be de minimis as we act against the plans that we set out.

Okay. That was very clear. And I just want to ask one more on retail POS. What was it in the quarter? It was up -- was it up mid-single digit? I kind of missed that. But more importantly, what is it year-to-date to include that Easter shift?

Yes. I'll start off and sorry, Christina can jump right in. From a POS perspective, it's LSD, we are growing. We're certainly in certain categories taking share. So Wheels & Action will be an example. And we're pleased that we started the year on a positive swing, including M&D.

For the year -- year-to-date?

Well, obviously, April Easter swung and but -- so there's going to be a shift. But overall for our whole business, we continue to be in the positive category.

There are no further questions. I'll turn the call back over to Christina. Please continue.

Thank you all for being with us today. We look forward to talking to you again on our Q2 call later this summer. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Spin Master Fourth Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded today, Thursday, March 5, 2026.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Tim Foran, VP of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. With me here today are our CEO, Christina Miller; and our CFO, Jonathan Roiter. For your convenience, the press release, MD&A and consolidated financial statements are available on the Investor Relations section of our website at spinmaster.com and on SEDAR+.

Before we begin, please note that remarks on this conference call may contain forward-looking statements about Spin Master's current and future plans, expectations, intentions, results, levels of activity, performance, goals or achievements and any other future events or developments.

Forward-looking statements are based on currently available information and assumptions that management believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. However, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct and many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. As a result, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

For additional information on these assumptions and risks, please consult the cautionary statements regarding forward-looking information in our earnings release dated March 5, 2026. Except as may be required by law, Spin Master disclaims any intention to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise.

Please note that Spin Master reports in U.S. dollars, and all dollar amounts today are expressed in U.S. currency, unless otherwise noted. Also, all industry data that we referenced related to toys is from Circana LLC retail tracking service and relates to data from our G11 markets, which are specified in our Q4 2025 supplementary presentation. And unless noted otherwise, all percentage growth rates refer to the period ending December 31, 2025, relative to the same period in 2024.

In terms of an agenda for the call, Christina will start with a review of the year 2025 and then an overview of our strategy and priorities for 2026 and beyond. Jonathan will then provide a financial review of the year, Q4 and our financial outlook for 2026.

I would now like to turn the conference call over to Christina.

Thank you, Tim, and good morning to everyone who is joining us today. 2025 was a challenging year for our U.S. toy sales as we navigated a difficult tariff macro environment. And while we achieved many of our goals, our results did not meet our expectations we wet at the beginning of the year. However, I'm pleased with how the team responded and made adjustments to set us up for a return to profitable growth in 2026. Most notably, we focused on execution, investing where it matters most and making clear choices to drive growth.

In Digital Games, we focused our investments on improvements to our 2 core platforms, Toca Boca World and Piknik by optimizing the user experience and increasing content releases. We also expanded the reach of our brands through exposure on third-party platforms. This strategy led to more than 20% growth in revenues and adjusted operating income in 2025. In entertainment, expanding the reach of PAW Patrol was our top priority. We introduced new tent-pole specials to build towards the summer release of the third PAW Patrol movie, and we invested in a broader content slate and new IP development. In Toys, we increased our POS driven by consumer demand across our key categories, products and licenses. We invested in strengthening our core brands, driving innovation and expanding into higher growth categories. And we have diversified our supply chain responding to the evolving tariffs.

At the corporate level, we've been investing in material IT improvements to enable efficient, scalable and future-ready business operations. It has been a significant amount of change, and I'm proud of the team's commitment and resilience. Now in terms of specific results for our creative centers. In Toys, we started 2025 strong with a solid first quarter, reflecting momentum in our core brands, innovation and licensed brands. However, driven by economic uncertainty following the introduction of tariffs, the remainder of 2025 was challenging, notably in the U.S. As I noted, our POS was up in 2025. However, our sales to retailers were negatively impacted as they reduced their inventory levels. But this does set us up well for 2026. Melissa & Doug was the most impacted by these shifts, given almost all of the sales entering 2025 were in the U.S. and manufacturing for the brand was primarily in China.

As I outlined on our last call, we are executing on a plan to stabilize M&D and return it to growth. We had a solid start to the international expansion and the team successfully optimized inventory levels for 2026, a year in which we aim to gain more retail space in the U.S. and in Europe. In 2025, we deepened our position with partners. Jurassic World Primal Hatch was the top selling in youth electronics, Ms. Rachel was the #1 absolute growth license in infant, toddler and preschool category and Monster Jam continued to take market share in vehicles, remaining the #2 property in the category.

Quality innovation also helped drive growth in our core brands, Hex Bots Wall Crawler was the #1 item in remote control vehicles. Cool Maker Heishi Bracelet was a top-selling new item in arts and crafts in the U.S. and Europe and our new Melissa & Doug WOW products helped the brand become #1 in craft kits. We remain a preschool leader and gained market [indiscernible] which moved us up to the #1 manufacturer in our infant, toddler, preschool and plush category. PAW Patrol was #1 here.

Looking ahead to 2026. We've had very positive feedback from retailers on our toy line. Our PAW Patrol movie line is filled with exciting new transformation for preschoolers. Grounded in our mission of purposeful play with Melissa & Doug, we are introducing new pretend play experiences and adding infant and play sets. Primal Hatch won the Toy of the Year and Action Figures Toy of the Year in 2025. Now we are extending the line with new iterations across multiple price points. We continue to launch new innovation-driven concepts, including Magic Jellykins and [indiscernible]. Gund had strong POS growth in 2025. And in 2026, we will continue to broaden its appeal with great new licenses and a unique brand promise Forever Friends, plush that can last the lifetime.

And we have a portfolio of exciting new products for popular licenses, including Monster Jam, Ms. Rachel, Gabby's Dollhouse, as well as KPop Demon Hunter, Hello Kitty and a key item for the upcoming Super Mario Brothers movie with Hatchin' Yoshi. We also recently announced our expansion into strategic trading card games, a category that nearly doubled in size in 2025. We are taking a two-pronged approach here. The first is a distribution partnership in North America, Australia and other markets with Italian brainrot, a series of collectible trading cards that has successfully tapped into this wonderfully weird viral trend. And this fall, we are launching Hellbreak, a fast, competitive and highly collectible game for an older demographic. This is a multiyear initiative to build out a one-of-a-kind horror crossover universe that will include characters from across the horror genre from Universal and other major studios.

In summary, our focus on toy going forward is to expand our leadership position in our major categories, create new categories from white space through our innovation and enter and compete in high-growth categories where we have the right to win with compelling products.

Moving to Entertainment. We have an exciting year ahead with the global release of the PAW Patrol movie in August and we are investing ahead of that. We continue to build the PAW Patrol universe with new content and expanded distribution to ensure the pups remain a global preschool leader with the next generation of children and their parents. We've been reaching new audiences by adding previous seasons and movies on Netflix, which have driven strong engagement. In 2025, hours viewed on Netflix of PAW Patrol increased by 10% to almost 1 billion hours, a testament to the relevance of the brand.

In 2026, we have new seasons of PAW Patrol and Rubble & Crew being released on Nickelodeon and Paramount+ and other global channels with future seasons in development. In addition to PAW, we are continuing to create new IP including the development of our animated 4-quadrant movie. The release of the new season of Unicorn Academy also begins globally on Netflix this month. In Digital Games, our focus on Toca Boca and Sago Mini Piknik subscription bundle is paying off. We have created value in the Toca Boca community by increasing the frequency of free and paid features, content releases and collabs, including Universal's Wicked: For Good and Hello Kitty, enhanced our Piknik subscription offering, including through the addition of Crayon Club and extended the reach of our brands by licensing to third-party platforms.

In 2026, we plan to put the Toca Boca user experience first by continuing to invest in improving the tech platform to support faster production, more content and live service and we will be bringing this playful world to fans with Miniso this summer, and we have a pipeline of other partnerships coming.

With Piknik, our strategy is to drive growth in subscribers and increase retention by showcasing the value proposition of the deep bundle of titles included. As part of this, we have a content pipeline to fuel subscriptions, including the first quarter release of the new reading app Superfonik. We also have a new UX launch planned in the coming months that will make it easier for parents to access the full Piknik offering within their subscription, a key driver of higher retention. And we are continuing to expand our partnerships.

In the first quarter, we launched Jinja's Garden, Sago Mini's first-ever immersive 3D game on Apple Arcade. Finally, the integration of Lylli s going well, and it is an example of how we can drive value across our creative centers. We are utilizing Lylli as a platform to make reading part of our brands, including PAW Patrol and Melissa & Doug.

In summary, we have clear priorities for 2026, as I outlined in detail on our last call. The first is capturing the movie moment for PAW Patrol across all creative centers. The second is fully realizing the potential of Toca Boca digitally in the physical world and through content. And the third is returning Melissa & Doug to growth. Beyond 2026, we are setting the stage to reignite a new growth cycle by investing in innovation in our toy portfolio and digital platforms, expanding into high-growth categories and accelerating collaboration across our creative centers to unlock the full potential of our portfolio and brands.

With that, I turn it over to Jonathan.

Thank you, Christina, and good morning, everyone. As Christina noted, the 8% decline in our Toy gross product sales in 2025 and was driven by an approximate 12% reduction in retailer inventory levels. And because we don't expect significant more reductions, we believe we have a healthy setup going into 2026. We have successfully reduced our own inventory levels in the year by about 20% due to our sell-through efforts with Melissa & Doug successfully reducing its age inventory as well as a reduction within Spin Master of licensed products that we are exiting. Our improved days inventory outstanding, combined with improved payable management, help us decrease our consolidated cash conversion cycle by 7 days.

During the year, we generated $308 million in operating cash flow despite the headwinds in the U.S., illustrating the cash generating power within our model. CapEx was approximately $185 million, which included certain projects that I outlined on our third call. Specifically, approximately $24 million related to our IT investments to upgrade our enterprise software across our global organization and approximately $33 million, which was attributed to our new [ Lylli ] office and showroom of which about $15 million was funded by our landlord. After CapEx and lease payments, our free cash generated was used to purchase Lylli in the fourth quarter. We also returned about $80 million of capital to shareholders through our quarterly dividends and by maximizing our share buyback program for the second year in a row.

We have now reduced our TSX listed shares outstanding by approximately 7% over the past 3 years through our buyback programs. Net debt, excluding lease liabilities, was held flat year-over-year as we prioritize return of capital. We ended the year with one turn of net leverage, including leases.

Now digging into our fourth quarter results by segment. Toy GPS declined by 5%. This was a significant improvement over the 20% decline we experienced in the third quarter, which was driven by the delayed timing of retail orders as many had moved from direct import to domestic replenishment. In the fourth quarter, we lapped much of that timing issue as domestic replenishment sales surged in December by 50%, making up for some of the reduced import sales that we experienced in prior months. A special thank you to our sales, supply chain management and fulfillment teams for navigating us through such an abrupt tariff-driven change in retail order patterns in 2025.

In the fourth quarter, we support our retail partners and invest in sell-through to optimize our inventory, which resulted in Toy revenues and gross profits declining faster than GPS. The quantum, however, was not unusual and sales allowance percentage and gross margins were in line with levels we have seen in the fourth quarter of 2024 and 2023. As much of our promotional efforts in Toy were above gross profit, we reduced our marketing expense and OpEx, which helped protect EBITDA. As we noted on our last call, Melissa & Doug was negatively impacted in 2025 due to the tariff-driven environment and increased competition. While we are executing our plan to stabilize and return the brand to growth, the change in dynamics led us to take a noncash goodwill impairment charge.

Turning to Entertainment. Revenues increased 3% driven by higher distribution revenues stemming from deliveries of content. However, adjusted operating income declined due to a $12 million increase in amortization of content development within cost of sales, reflecting the in-period dilutive impact from content delivery.

Within Digital Games, revenues increased 16%, driven by increased partnership revenues, increased engagement and monetization on Toca Boca World and improved retention and higher ARPU in Piknik. The revenue increase drove a 24% increase in adjusted operating income.

So now turning to our outlook for 2026. We are guiding for a stable to low single-digit growth in revenues and a mid- to upper single-digit growth in adjusted EBITDA. The top end of our range reflects growth drivers with a downside reflecting conservatism due to the uncertain economy and its impact on the U.S. consumer demand. In terms of drivers, we expect healthy growth in Entertainment, through the release of PAW Patrol movie and more modest growth in Digital Games as it faces a challenging comp in '25 when it grew by more than 20% and benefited from significant partnership revenues.

As it relates to Toy, we expect drivers to include the third PAW Patrol movie, M&D improvements, continued innovation through the portfolio, exciting new licenses as well as the potential to recapture some shipping revenue that we lost in the prior year. Headwinds to growth will be the lapping movie years for DreamWorks Dragons, Gabby's Dollhouse as well as exiting certain licenses, notably D.C.

In terms of top line cadence throughout the year, we anticipate year-over-year results in Entertainment to be relatively stable in the first half, with growth in the second half following the release of the PAW Patrol movie. This would be a combination of revenues of approximately $20 million, followed by additional distribution revenues thereafter.

Within Digital Games, we're aiming for modest growth in each quarter with rates increasing in the second half partially driven by the launch of our new PAW Patrol digital game and improvements we are making to our platforms. And in Toy, we anticipate an approximately 30-70 split in Toy revenues between the first and second half of the year with the first quarter anticipated to be in the low double digits and the second quarter high teens. Year-over-year results through the quarters in Toy are anticipated to be volatile to a significant shift in retail order patterns last year. Retailers pull forward orders in the first quarter last year in anticipation of the introduction of tariffs, which makes it a challenging comp.

Therefore, in the first quarter, we are expecting a significant year-over-year decline in Toy, which in turn is anticipated to result in a double-digit decrease on a consolidated basis. For the same reason, of course, we should have easier comps in Toy in the following quarters, notably in the third quarter. In terms of gross profit, I'll note that the current geopolitical climate may result in certain higher cost of sales such as freight. It is too soon to quantify these. We do expect approximately $22 million of increase in depreciation and amortization within cost of sales, primarily related to amortization of entertainment content development. In the first quarter specifically, we expect a year-over-year decline in gross margin due to a $12 million increase in entertainment amortization. In terms of operating expenses, we anticipate efficiencies in certain areas to help us pay for increased technology investments. The increased adjusted EBITDA margin implicit in our guidance is consistent with the 50 to 100 basis point general target, I outlined on previous calls.

As it relates to adjusted EBITDA cadence, we expect seasonality to be similar to last year and '24, with the second half representing more than 85% of our full year results. In the first quarter specifically, we anticipate negligible EBITDA due to the anticipated decrease in gross profit. Below adjusted EBITDA, we are anticipating depreciation and amortization in 2026 to be approximately $160 million, with the increase driven by entertainment, as I previously noted. Finance costs are anticipated to be similar to 2025.

Now turning to our cash flows. Lease payments are anticipated to be just under $40 million annually and our CapEx is anticipated to be approximately $150 million in 2026. Now about $25 million of this relates to investments we are making to upgrade our enterprise software, which we expect to launch by the end of the year. This includes leveraging the latest technology to prove and automate our data quality and processes and facilitate tighter integration within our creative centers.

The remainder is primarily investments in 3 areas: first, new entertainment content of which 70% is earmarked to continue to expand the PAW Patrol universe, where we generate strong cash-on-cash returns with much of the remainder on our new animated original IP film. Secondly, [ tooling within toy ]. Apple intensity in toy continues to remain in the low single digits. And thirdly, digital game projects. Specifically, the majority will be spent on Toca Boca with a focus on driving growth through next-generation game development, additional content, features and platform upgrades. The remainder will be spent on driving retention in Piknik by investing in new game launches, content expansion and live service development, and we'll be completing our new PAW Patrol digital game.

In terms of capital allocation, we remain focused on first investing and driving growth, both in OpEx and CapEx. With the free cash we generate after CapEx and lease payments, we expect to continue to look for M&A to further our strategies. We are maintaining our dividend. We are also renewing our share buyback program.

So in summary, we'll look to maintain a balanced capital allocation approach with prudently [indiscernible] conservative leverage.

With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Adam Shine from National Bank Financial.

And of course, thanks for the outlook and a lot of details, Jonathan. If I could go back, one item that I didn't hear was on the sales allowance front. And maybe you can talk a little bit more in terms of the nature of promotional activity that you think might transpire during the course of this year, let alone perhaps still in Q1.

Thank you for the question. I'm glad that you appreciate the details on the guidance, return to guidance. In terms of sales allowances, we finished this year I didn't -- sales allowance in Q4, I'd point out that those are similar to levels that we had in '23, '24. And so really, when you look at the overall year of '25, it's not necessarily an anomaly. And so heading into 2026, I think we're expecting similar levels. We're really early in the year. Sales allowances really are determinant of your products. And when we look coming out of New York Toy Fair, there's a lot of excitement around our core new products. And so ultimately, sales allowances, we are expecting it to be similar to 2025.

As you reflect on some of the latest dynamics around the tariffs, I think we were moving from 10% into 15% perhaps other changes are afoot. How do you read the landscape. Is this another year where you effectively pass pricing on to the consumer to wash the tariff impact? One part to the question. And then secondarily, are there other benefits to be extracted by virtue of some of the supply chain management issues you pursued last year?

Yes. Thanks, Adam. It certainly is a dynamic environment. You're right, we're currently at 10%. I think there's some expectation from the Treasury Secretary that next week we'll move up to 15%. Bear in mind, those are lower than the previous years. If we just step backward for a moment in 2025, tariffs themselves were not -- the actual dollars that we paid were not material. The net dollars that we paid versus price was not material. Really tariffs, the element that was material was how the consumer ended up showing up and how the retailer bought throughout the year. So we don't expect a movement from 10% to 15% or thereabouts to have a material impact on the net dollars going out. Obviously, the bigger question mark is, does that impact the consumer? And does that impact the retailers? So far, as we began Q1 and 2 months in, we have not seen changes in the retailer purchasing behaviors with the change in the tariff environment.

And just one last one, and I'll queue up again. Just to confirm and clarify with respect to the PAW Patrol movie expected distribution, I think you said $20 million. And is that something that hits the Q3? Or is that $20 million figure the -- a figure for all of 2026?

No. So when we release the theater -- release the move, there's contractual responsibilities. And of those, we received $20 million, and that will be a Q3. How the movie performs, then there's additional funds that we would receive.

Perfect and this is as per the last 2 movies.

Your next question comes from Kylie Cohu from Jefferies.

First, just thinking about the industry as a whole, what are you expecting from preschool infant and toddler category? And then also just like the broader toy industry as a whole for 2026 in terms of sales growth?

I think that what we -- just looking at the category overall for us, we see that the consumer sentiment like towards the end of last year was a little bit softer, but improved by the time we got into December slightly. And that toys continue to -- people still continue to shop for toys, even if it's on a promotional basis, right, that they're looking for discount or otherwise. So our approach going forward and even towards the end of last year is to make sure that we have a balanced mix on pricing that across all of our brands that we're bringing value to the consumer.

So more than 50% of our products are still priced below $19.99. So I think we have that kind of mix between driving innovation, helping grow that category and then also making sure that we have price points that work. And on top of that, I would add that we have some of the stronger brands in the space as well. So whether it's PAW Patrol being in a movie year or continuing to see growth in Ms. Rachel or Gabby's Dollhouse had a good year coming off the movie. So I think when we move into next year, it's about what else can we bring into that category, given our strength in that category and creating products for that category and then how do we continue to drive the products that we -- brands we have.

Super helpful color. And then I guess last one for me is just kind of what needs to go right in order for the results to end up at the high end of your EBITDA guide?

Thanks, Kylie. Well, if we go back to kind of our prepared comments, there are really 3 focuses that we have, right? The first is capture the PAW Movie moment. And so ultimately, not just success at the theater, but also the toys that we have launched that are associated with the movie. We've had really strong response coming out of New York. And so we're really feeling bullish and positive about those products. The second is realizing the full moment of Toca and fully realizing the Toca's potential. So that is a multiyear journey. And we're going to start seeing over the course of this year, increased content, increased features, increased Toca being outside of the digital realm.

That is a multiyear journey and executing on that will certainly help on the high end. And then lastly, we talked about for a number of quarters now, returning M&D to growth, and that is a focus of the team. We have -- we brought back innovation to the pretend play category. There's some new areas that we're launching products around and the feedback that we received, again, from the Toy Fair was positive. And so ultimately, those are the 3 elements that would bring us to the top end, plus the consumer showing up and plus stability with how retailers are ordering throughout the year.

Your next question comes from Gerrick Johnson from Seaport Research Partners.

Given the Supreme Court tariff ruling, has that changed conversations with dealers? And just in general, how are they wanting this to be fulfilled in the first half? Are they shifting back to FOB or still pretty much domestic fulfillment?

It's still too early to tell, right? The changes are coming daily at this point. So being able to react to them before the next one comes, I think people are just taking a wait-and-see approach at the moment. So we're not seeing any drastic changes.

Okay. And how are they wanting to be fulfilled? Last year that we talked a lot about that shift from FOB to domestic and have we shifted back to normal shipping patterns? Or are we still in that domestic preferred over FOB?

Domestic continues to be about at the same rate as it was. We don't see a big swing back immediately.

.

Yes. I think it will take a number of years for that change. And if anything, there may be more domestic than FOB over the course of the year.

And then on channel inventory, I heard a couple of numbers. Was it down 12%, down 20%? What was the channel inventory number?

Sure. So the channel is down 12%. So that certainly positions us well kicking off the year. And we were down 20% year-over-year. And so from a working capital perspective and again, also positioning us well for next year with the quality of our inventory on hand.

Okay. Is there still any excess out there in the channel that needs to be cleared or inhibiting first quarter -- first half shipments?

I think there's always going to be some level of access. I would just revert back to we're starting the year in a great position, both from our own inventory position, down 20% and the market -- the retailers down 12% that is a strong position to start from.

Your next question comes from Jaime Katz from Morningstar.

I hope you guys can give us some insight. Maybe I missed it in the prepared remarks, but do you have any insight to the POS momentum coming out of the quarter? We're in March already. So hoping to get a little bit more recent visibility.

I mean I think right now, at this moment, it's slightly up is what we're seeing for the POS getting into the first 8 weeks of the year.

Okay. And then we haven't really talked too much about this trading card market. But for horror specifically, I'm not very in the weeds in the space. I think there are some other brands in this space. So can you talk a little bit about what the total addressable market there is for you guys to tap into? How you expect the rollout of that to go and sort of when you expect it to start contributing to the P&L?

Sure. A couple of pieces there. I think in the prepared remarks, you would have heard us talk about a two-pronged approach, right? So we have a distribution partnership with Italian brainrot, which is a trading card brand out of Italy. And that will be the first one to go to market and that will be more of a mass trading card play. And then when you look at Hellbreak, which is the strategic trading card game that we're putting into the market later this year, and that's a multiyear growth initiative. So it will start at specialty and really look to permeate that channel and grow with the fan base that older demo.

Right now, there's a big show going on in the trade show market called GAMA in Kentucky. And that's like one of the first legs of really revealing it to the specialty channel and to building fandom for the game. The game is there this week. It's doing really, really well. That's that first leg. So I think that really, at this point, it will be about -- we will not see huge growth from this category in 2026. It will start to grow more for us in '27 and '28.

Your next question comes from Brian Morrison from TD Cowan.

Maybe just you mentioned the key to returning M&D to growth. In New York, we saw the expanded product line beyond [ wood ], the expanded addressable market and your international expansion opportunity. But what's the strategy to gain market share following the tariff heightened impact last year? Is it product differentiation? Will you have to use price? How do we gain more market share back?

There's a couple of paths to returning M&D to growth, right? It's never going to be one thing. I think it is regaining retail space right across the channels, doing that through both category expansion into things like infant as well as continuing to grow our space with WOW products and driving some of the innovation you saw, also really digging into the pricing of our products as well and really making sure that the value is there for both our consumer and our retail partners.

And then last but not least, of course, is international expansion. You saw us track towards model at the end of last year with growth into our international channels and growing further there will help us really expand the brand. And then beyond that, I think anyone that was able to spend time with us at Toy Fair will see the way that there's definitely other adjacencies that Melissa & Doug can grow into from an experiential standpoint and really looking at seeing how else we can make sure that the people that love Melissa & Doug can spend time with Melissa & Doug beyond just having a toy in their hands.

Okay. And then maybe, Jonathan, can you clarify? I mean, obviously, growing Toca digital content is a priority next year or this year, pardon me. Maybe just reconcile the monthly active users in Slide 19, it appears that the ending MAU is down, but the average MAU is up. Can you just clarify how that works?

Sure, Brian. I mean the simple answer is the -- 2 numbers are different. One is an ending number and the second as an average for the period. And so what you see is the trend, I guess, ultimately, in terms of what is transpiring. When we look at Toca, they really -- you really do have to look at it across the 3 core metrics: monthly active users, the conversion of those users and then ultimately, what people are paying. And we are not managing just for 1 of those metrics. We are managing across all 3, and we're comfortable to have some variability in our MAU, in our monthly active users as we try different ways to increase our conversion and increase our, what we call, our ARPU. So we're very comfortable with the trend that you're seeing there. And we're really trying to focus on all 3 of the variables at play.

So is it safe to say it's a bigger basket from a more concentrated base of users?

Yes, Brian, I think what you're seeing is that it's both, right? And same thing that Jonathan was saying about the difference of its MAUs. It is there. Yes, we're trying to grow the top of the funnel and you see lots of releases -- content releases, both free and premium. And we are converting at the bottom of the funnel well. And I think that's one of the differences for Toca Boca versus competitors, right, is that the markets that we're going to and our ability to convert at the bottom of the funnel. So it's a little bit of both.

Your next question comes from Martin Landry from Stifel.

Jonathan, I just want to talk about the impairment charge you took on Melissa & Doug, it's pretty large. I just want to understand when you did your cash flow analysis to write down the goodwill, was the write-down driven by a lower revenue profile? Or is it more from a lower profitability profile?

Yes. Thank you, Martin. The math on any time you're looking at your CGUs and ultimately, the goodwill associated with it is driven first by your top line. And then what -- how does that translate into cash? Clearly, in 2025, we talked about a number of times. M&D was a brand that was disproportionately impacted by the tariff environment as the vast, vast majority of its production was coming out of China and the vast majority of the sales were to the U.S. And so it had a disproportionate impact.

So when you take that in consideration, you rerun your model, ultimately, the baseline of where you're starting from is lower, and that's what drives the impairment. What's important is what we're doing going forward. And I think Christina walked through the growth drivers quite clearly. We're really excited to see a path to having more doors and more shelf space in 2026 than we had in 2025. And couple that with the innovation, the right pricing and continued international expansion. We think that we're -- our aspiration and our goal to bring back Melissa -- M&D back to growth, we're well underway on that.

Okay. And switching gears, I mean, in the past, there were lots of discussions and efforts and resources dedicated to the development of IP internally like Unicorn Academy, for instance. But we don't hear you talk about or maybe I've missed it, but is this a strategy that you're still pushing to develop IP internally? And what's the pipeline of the IP developed internally, if there is any?

Thanks, Martin. I think that we did discuss it a little bit in the prepared remarks around, one, obviously, we are continuing to invest in PAW Patrol, and we talk a lot about that. I think that's definitely one of the things you're noticing. And then other than that, we do have a pipeline of content, whether it's the 4 quadrant movie that's in development. Whether it's relooking at [ Bakugan ] which is an internal property talking about how we're going to develop Toca Boca. Again, when we look at driving and unlocking value for our portfolio, it's about getting it to its full potential.

So I think one of the things you're noticing is the pipeline is filled with some of our very core brands that we have the ability to pull through across all of our creative centers. And then we always have a robust development slate where we're looking at what are the new content we can create. And as we get further along with that, we will obviously share it.

Okay. So is it fair to say that there's more focus on your core brand and trying to develop new stuff at the moment? [indiscernible]

No. I think that, again, I'm going to take a chance of just sort of repeating myself. But I think that, obviously, the core brands inside our portfolio are the brands that we are focused on giving and unlocking -- giving attention to and resources and unlocking their potential. Not in -- it's not binary. It's not just doing that. I think the development brands are just that. The same way we're developing over 500 toy products that we will bring far less of those to market.

So we have a strong development pipeline. We're constantly looking at what else we can bring to market and when. But as you're probably aware, it's a pretty long process between when we start to develop the property and when we bring it to market. So no less development currently, what's closer in sight is the development or the shows that we're talking about.

Yes. And there's a healthy -- 30% of our entertainment CapEx budget is outside of PAW. So there's a healthy amount of dollars that are being placed on those items that Christina just walked through.

Yes, we will always be a company that's in the active creation, right, that we're always looking at building and adding to our portfolio, and developing franchises across the business, whether they come from digital or they come from toy or they come immediately from content. So I think it's about looking left and right around us to bring what can we pull into content and then where are there those new content ideas. So we are, in fact, doing both. We are committed to doing both.

Your next question comes from Luke Hannan from Canaccord.

I wanted to follow up on the PAW movie contribution. I think I heard you correctly, it should be $20 million that's going to be recognized in Q3. Is the accounting for that similar as in the past where it will show up -- 100% of that revenue shows up in the EBITDA line and then there's the associated charges against that? And then if so, so just a clarification, so that $20 million then is included in the adjusted EBITDA guidance. And then if we break that out, it's more like flat to up low single digits on the year rather than mid- to high single digits?

I missed the second part. But on the first part, I think it was muffled when I mentioned before. So similar to historical practices when we release content, if we're within a partnership, there's contractual -- we've met some contractual responsibilities and therefore, there is -- we can tell you the number that we're going to receive. And so we're going to receive $20 million of revenue. There will be amortization associated with that against that $20 million as we release content. I didn't get the second part of your question. I apologize.

Maybe -- so I'll just clarify that. So in the past, like in 2023, for example, the number was in and around $15 million, and that showed up -- 100% of that revenue showed up in the adjusted EBITDA line as well. So in effect, it's almost like the margin on adjusted EBITDA was a little bit higher relative to where it should be because you have the amortization showing up below the EBITDA line. So I guess I'm just trying to think of, if we're thinking about it on a like-for-like basis, we're thinking of the margin expansion in '26 versus '25, should we be then excluding that $20 million of contribution from 2026 EBITDA?

Yes. So it's -- I mean, I thought I addressed it, sorry. It's no different than in the past. So the $20 million, there's amortization associated with it. So therefore, EBITDA, you do see a flow through, through the EBITDA, where you won't see it flow through, excuse me, fully is to the [ EBITDA ].

Yes. Got it. Okay. Appreciate that. And then just as a follow-up, you talked about there are certain dynamics, obviously, geopolitical dynamics going on right now that make it very difficult to figure out what the impact is of higher freight costs on what your COGS is going to be going forward. Can you just give us an idea of what it is that you're seeing as far as changes in freight rates currently?

Well, I mean, currently none. But I mean we're 4 days into the spike in oil. And so ultimately, I think it will come down to how high does oil go and how long does it stay at those rates. We're 4 days into the increase in prices. So right now, there's, what I'll say, no material impact. Of course, if this continues for an extended period of time, you will -- we will start seeing that. And there's probably a 3- or 4-month lag in terms of our freight costs and then ultimately hitting our P&L through our COGS.

Your next question comes from Drew McReynolds from RBC.

Two for me. First, on the Digital Games side, just in terms of profitability. Obviously, we saw a little bit of a margin lift here in Q4 on pretty good performance. I think margin is stable overall in 2025. Just as you continue to grow the top line here, and invest in the platforms, how do you see margins unfolding going forward?

And then second question on the M&A environment. Just maybe for you, Jonathan, just what areas of focus at a 30,000-foot view, are you looking at, at the moment?

I'll start on the first one on the margins on Digital. There's really -- like when you think about Digital, there's 3 revenue streams ultimately that are in that business, there's the Toca stream, the Piknik stream and the partnership stream. Partnerships are very accretive. And so that's why you sometimes see some variability, upward variability on our margins is when we get to -- when we recognize partnership revenue. Some deals, we get to recognize all at once. Some deals are over, of course, a number of years. And if they're material, we do on the call, I'd like to point out the accounting treatment associated with it.

Then when you look at Toca and Piknik, they're both in very different stages of their journey. Toca has hit what I'll call scale, and so it's a very accretive business. And our focus is to continue to manage all 3 of those metrics that I talked about before and bring -- and further bring Toca to life outside of the Digital realm.

Piknik, we're scaling that business, and so there are certainly more investments associated with the Piknik business. And so the accretion around Piknik is smaller than you would see at Toca. So those are the 3 variables at play when you look at the Digital business.

And then in terms of M&A, we're -- I would say the current management team continues to have the same focus as the previous management team around the importance of M&A to our growth platform. Areas that we continue to be looking at are areas that can boost up our core competencies within Toy, areas that we're not necessarily playing in and are high growth in Toy, regions that we can benefit from as well. And then we continue to be actively looking and you saw our last acquisition was in the digital space in the digital realm where we can add more content and more capabilities.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Ty Collin from CIBC.

I just want to circle back to the discussion around margins. So the 2026 guidance implies probably somewhere between 50 and 100 bps of EBITDA margin improvement. As discussed in a previous question, it sounds like a fair bit of that is going to be coming from Entertainment and Digital rather than the Toy business. So I guess my question is just what's it going to take to kind of get core Toy profitability back to 2024 levels? What does that pathway look like? And are there any other sort of self-help levers available to the company to get there?

Thanks, Ty. It's a great question. The challenge when you have kind of these high-level numbers, you don't see kind of all the different pluses and minuses underneath each. What I can tell you is that there is accretion and there is margin improvement within the Toy business. It's the biggest part of our business, right? It's 80-ish percent of our overall business. We are -- and we've talked about in the past, ensuring that we are setting up this company to have a new growth cycle and a sustained growth cycle and a profitable growth cycle.

So there are investments that we're making on the increased margin because we are getting -- from a portfolio approach, we are getting accretion on entertainment. So this is a year where we could certainly put dollars back to work to set ourselves up for success, '27, '28 and '29 on that journey of continuing to grow the top line and expanding our margins. I've talked in the past that I see this business being able to consistently add 50 to 100 basis points a year for a number of years, and we're doing it. And so we're making sure we can do it this year, and we're going to make sure we can keep on doing it going forward.

And there are no further questions at this time. I will turn the call back over to Christina for closing remarks.

Thank you all for being with us today. We look forward to talking to you on our Q1 call on April 30th.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect. Thank you.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Spin Master Corp. Third Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded on Thursday, October 30, 2025.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Tim Foran, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. With me here today are our CEO, Christina Miller; and our CFO, Jonathan Roiter. For your convenience, the press release, MD&A and consolidated financial statements are available on the Investor Relations section of our website at spinmaster.com and on SEDAR+.

Before we begin, please note that remarks on this conference call may contain forward-looking statements about Spin Master's current and future plans, expectations, intentions, results, levels of activity, performance, goals or achievements and any other future events or developments. Forward-looking statements are based on currently available information and assumptions that management believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. However, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be correct, and many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. As a result, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

For additional information on these assumptions and risks, please consult the cautionary statements regarding forward-looking information in our earnings release dated today, October 30, 2025. Except as may be required by law, Spin Master disclaims any intention to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise.

Please note that Spin Master reports in U.S. dollars, and all dollar amounts today are expressed in U.S. currency, unless otherwise noted. Also note that unless noted otherwise, all percentage growth rates refer to the 3 months ending September 30, 2025, relative to the same period in 2024.

I would now like to turn the conference call over to Christina.

Thank you, Tim, and good morning to everyone who is joining us today. In terms of an agenda for the call, I will start with a review of the quarter and how things are shaping up for the holiday season. Then I will provide a high-level overview of our strategy and priorities before passing it to Jonathan to provide a financial review of the quarter.

This quarter, Toys, Entertainment and Digital Games once again captured the imagination of kids and parents, reflecting our focus on innovation and storytelling. However, underlying performance was not matched in our financial results, but this was anticipated.

Toy revenues have been negatively impacted this year by the shift in retailer buying patterns stemming from tariffs. At the POS level, we performed significantly better in Toys in Q3 than our revenues reflect. Based on Circana, we grew our market share within key categories globally. Our overall POS was down 1% compared to an industry decline of 2.5% in our TAM as consumer demand declined in the U.S., notably in September. Spin Master Toys recorded positive POS. This was offset by a decline in Melissa & Doug. We grew our market share within Preschool, Infant, Toddler and Plush, driven by strong performance from Ms. Rachel and GUND. We were #1 in Preschool, where PAW Patrol remains a top property. Within Wheels & Action, our POS growth was 7x higher than the rest of the industry, driven by Monster Jam in vehicles and How to Train Your Dragon in action.

Turning to Entertainment, we continue to create new and original IP. We delivered our first of five new PAW Patrol specials this quarter, and we greenlit our first original IP film. This is a major milestone for our Entertainment studio. The animated four-quadrant film is directed by David Soren. This adds to our upcoming feature film slate, including Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie next summer and the live action Bakugan movie in development.

Within digital Games, we had a strong quarter with growth in Toca Boca and Piknik, driven by improved monetization of our platforms. Toca Boca conversion and average revenue per paying user were on track. Monthly active users were down. This was due to competition and our focus on higher spending markets. Piknik subscribers were up, as was retention and ARPU. We also benefited in the quarter from the delivery of Toca Boca Jr classic games to a third-party platform. Looking ahead to Q4 across our three creative centers, we are well positioned going into the holiday season.

Within Toys, in Q3, we were the only manufacturer to have three new toys leading their super category in the U.S. per Circana. We also have a broad range of brands featured on the retailers' top toys list. In terms of consumer demand, Circana expects 2025 holiday shopping season to be less predictable and more spread out this year than ever before.

Now turning to Entertainment, we're celebrating the holiday season with our PAW Patrol Christmas special. It is set to air in the U.S. on Paramount+, Nickelodeon and for the first time ever on CBS primetime on Black Friday. We've also secured international distribution on streaming platforms and other major networks. There will also be a theatrical screening in 3,600 theaters across 17 countries and territories.

In Digital Games, we have a robust lineup planned for Q4 of new features, content releases and strategic partnerships, including the recent collaboration with Sanrio.

Looking into 2026 and beyond, I believe we have a sound strategy focused on monetizing our core brands and franchises and developing new IP across our three creative centers. However, to date, our execution has not met our ambition. I see an opportunity to increase our baseline of success by focusing on consistent foundational improvements applying greater executional discipline and never forgetting that innovation is core to our DNA.

Beginning with Toys, we have fantastic core brands, including PAW Patrol, Melissa & Doug, GUND and Kinetic Sand, we are investing to grow these brands through creativity and innovation. A great example is how we created an all-new brand with our digital pet, Bitzee. We have since extended the brand to Bitzee Hamster Ball and licensed versions with Harry Potter, Jurassic World and Disney with more to come. This approach to brand innovation and extensions drives reoccurring revenues and ultimately helps us grow market share.

We are taking the same approach with Melissa & Doug, the market leader in early learning. The business is primarily evergreen, which is complementary to Spin Master's core toys. Melissa & Doug was in line with expectations in 2024, but it faced challenges in 2025 due to impact of tariffs and competitive pressure. We are executing on a plan to return to growth by driving more innovation and new introductions in 2026 in core categories where we have leadership share, including developmental toys, puzzles and pretend play. We are also moving M&D into adjacent categories, leveraging its strong brand trust with parents. This includes new extensions like Sticker WOW!, which has performed very well, as well as extending into partnerships and licenses, including Disney and Ms. Rachel. And we have begun international distribution of M&D using our global infrastructure and expertise to provide retailers with a curated line.

Beyond our core brands, we are partnering with the leading entertainment companies and continuing to maximize existing long-term relationships. Our current TAM is $50 billion, and we still only have 4% of it. So there is a tremendous opportunity for growth. When we look further out, we are exploring opportunities to move into adjacent high-growth categories, focused on areas where we have the right to win and be an innovation leader.

Within Entertainment, our focus is simple: Develop and own our IP, be platform agnostic and meet kids where they watch, play and engage. We're continuing to invest in PAW Patrol as a priority franchise and expand its universe. 2026 will see the release of the biggest movie yet. We're taking advantage of this across all business lines, including an amazing line of toys and products around the Dino Movie theme, a series of specials and new seasons of PAW Patrol and Rubble & Crew to build excitement for the movie release and a new digital PAW Patrol game. We're also building the next wave of original IP, including a big year for Unicorn Academy content in 2026 and a reinvention of Bakugan.

Within Digital Games, we have taken deliberate actions to sharpen our focus and concentrate resources on our core two platforms, Toca Boca and Piknik. In Toca Boca World, we are strengthening the overall experience through investing in our tech stack, more frequent features and content drops and more timely strategic collaborations. This year, we've delivered more content, features than ever before. And as a result, we're seeing strength in the bottom of our funnel, specifically in ARPU. And we're bringing Toca Boca to retail, including a collaboration with MINISO in 2026. This is the first step in fully realizing the brand.

Within Piknik, our efforts are centered on subscriber growth and retention. We are continuing to improve the user experience and adding more value to our bundle for parents, soon to include a new app in the reading category. We are diversifying and growing revenue by licensing gains to third parties.

In summary, our focus across Spin Master will be ensuring creativity, storytelling and innovation return to being the core of our business. We'll support this by prioritizing funding for product development, innovation and the overall creative pipeline, being disciplined in our investments and putting engagement of kids and families at the forefront. We've been successful in establishing a presence everywhere kids are through our three creative centers, Toys, Entertainment and Digital Games. Now it's time to unlock the value across all three and realize the full potential of our brands.

With that, I turn it over to Jonathan.

Thank you, Christina, and good morning, everyone. As Christina noted, our Toy POS was down only 1% in the third quarter. However, in large part due to the continued shift in retail behavior, stemming from tariffs, we saw a more negative impact on our reported Toy sales. In the third quarter, specifically, Toy gross product sales or GPS, declined 20% or $180 million.

The primary drivers of the delta between our POS and our GPS performance were: First, we saw a decline of $160 million in FOB orders as retailers move more orders to domestic replenishment, primarily due to tariffs. And two, retailers globally have been managing their inventory tightly, which reduced domestic replenishment orders. This also applies to distributors in countries where we use third parties in certain cases, due to not wanting to carry high inventory in the current economic and geopolitical climate.

Now some of the shift in retailer ordering is timing. We expect to recapture some of these orders in coming quarters via domestic replenishment assuming the current FOB to domestic ordering proportions remain in place. However, as I noted in our second quarter, a portion could be considered as lost sales as opposed to timing unless we were to see a restocking benefit next year.

Positively, our belief is that retailers are now at a lean inventory level. So the industry should have a relatively healthy setup going into 2026. Our own inventories declined versus a year ago due to sell-through efforts, which reduced our inventory, excluding tariffs, by $36 million. Our reduced days inventory outstanding, combined with improved working capital management, helped us decrease our consolidated cash conversion cycle by 11 days. We've also continued to make strides in our supply chain diversification for the U.S. market. We expect China to represent approximately 30% of our U.S. cost of goods sold in 2026 compared to 64% in 2024.

Melissa & Doug will still have a high proportion due to its high-quality wood products. As a premium brand in a price competitive market, quality and costs are the most important factors and further diversification will occur as these two can be maintained.

Turning to our revenues. The decline of 17% was driven by the decline in Toy for the same reasons impacting GPS. This was partially offset by a strong increase in Digital Games for the reasons Christina mentioned. We recorded an incremental $10 million in partnership revenue in Digital Games in the quarter. The actual games launch is happening in the fourth quarter, but delivery and revenue recognition came through this quarter. As there is no associated platform costs with this revenue, this drove an increase in our gross profit margin.

Below that, adjusted SG&A was stable versus last year with efficiency initiatives offsetting general inflation and higher royalties and IT costs. Adjusted EBITDA, operating income and net income declined due to the reduction in Toy revenues with margin compression, reflecting negative operating leverage.

We recorded strong operating cash flows, driven in part by improved working capital management. CapEx increased by $11 million due to leasehold improvements, IT investments and an acquisition of certain Toy assets. On a year-to-date basis, CapEx has increased by $33 million, primarily due to leasehold improvements, IT investments and investments in Entertainment content. CapEx includes our new Los Angeles office and a Toy showroom, we anticipate approximately $7 million in CapEx related to this in both '25 and 2026.

Additionally, following the acquisition of Melissa & Doug, we are upgrading our enterprise software across our global organization. We expect to spend $20 million to $25 million in CapEx this year and a similar amount next year related to this. In both cases, these initiatives are already in the capital intensity expectations we outlined earlier in the year. CapEx for these will complete next year, freeing up cash in 2027.

As it relates to IT investments, we expect this to help us improve our demand forecasting and planning, operate more efficiently, including within our supply chain; scale our business without adding incremental cost; and lastly, optimize our cost structure.

Our free cash in the quarter was focused on buying back our shares. Post quarter, we completed an acquisition of a digital reading and storytelling company for preliminary total considerations of $20 million, which includes significant contingent considerations. This is consistent with our focus on building core learning skills in our Piknik bundle to drive acquisition and retention. Reading is a critical learning skill and that their technology will be a valuable addition to Piknik. It is also an acquihire of a talented development team for our Digital Games business. We'll be able to provide more color on plans for this in the coming year.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, due to the unresolved tariff situation, we have not reinstituted guidance for the year. However, as I noted, due to the timing of our orders, we're aiming for an improvement in our year-over-year financial results in the fourth quarter compared to what we saw in this quarter. Our adjusted SG&A is anticipated to be approximately $60 million less this year than what we had originally planned at the beginning of the year or what was reflected at the high end of our originally provided guidance range. This stems from efficiency initiatives we have undertaken, including M&D synergies as well as avoiding new headcount costs and reducing discretionary costs.

Similarly, our CapEx is anticipated to be [ $40 million ] less than our originally budgeted plans for the year. This reflects our focus on returning to profitable growth, which enables us to invest in creativity and innovation while driving higher returns on our investment and delivering attractive shareholder returns.

With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] And your first question comes from Kylie Cohu with Jefferies.

You mentioned that this holiday season is going to be unpredictable, choppy. I was just kind of curious what you've seen from retail ordering so far as well as consumer demand. You mentioned the Q3 POS, what we're seeing so far quarter-to-date? And then also how you're adjusting your marketing and promotional strategies to these shifts?

Kylie, thanks for the question. I think the -- early on, what we're seeing in Q4 is strong POS in our key categories where, as we talked about in Q3, we're up significantly in Wheels & Action. We took some market share there, and that GPS is not necessarily the gauge for our Toy performance at the moment. In Preschool, Infant and Toddler, we continue to take market share. The category was down a little bit, but we continue to be the market leader there. In Activities, we're seeing a POS decline due to some underperformance in games in our arts and crafts. Though Melissa & Doug has actually done well in the latter category. Sticker WOW! has been a really top performer for us.

So I think in the current environment, what we're seeing is there are some lower-priced competition that's doing well in the wooden toy category. And for M&D, we're improving our position in this category through innovation. And we're seeing that across the Spin Master products. It's really where we are driving innovation that we're seeing good performance in top new toys. Our Stack'd Bracelet Studio is another good example of that.

As it relates to marketing, I think you see a couple of things, right? Across the top toys, all of the materials that have gone out by retailers were included in all of that. In some cases, we have some -- we have more top toys than most of the other manufacturers. So I think that that's a great starting point. As it relates to the marketing shift from Q3 to Q4, I think our spending is increasing in Q4 against our toys as the retailers continue to set.

Yes. Thank you, Christina. Maybe I would just add a couple of comments here. I mean certainly, it's too early in the quarter to shape up how the consumer is going to turn up. I mean, the next 10 weeks are critical in the year. We're certainly targeting an improvement in our year-over-year Toy results versus Q3. And we have -- we think we have the products -- the right products, the right price points, right? More than 50% of our products are below that $20 mark. But as Christina mentioned in her introductory comments, the industry believes this is going to be a little bit choppier season, so kind of saying that the consumer sentiment and intentions that this could be a less predictable and more spread-out season than we've recently seen.

So while we're -- we think we have the right products, we know we have the right products. We're showing up at the right places. We have more products on the top -- retailer top list -- toy list than in recent memory. We have more new products leading super categories, as Christina mentioned, than any other manufacturer. We're also recognizing that this is a unique Q4, and that Q4 will be an important part of our year.

Got you. All that color is super helpful. And I hate to be so shortsighted. But I guess just one follow-up from that would be, how are your average selling prices relative to last year and kind of your assortment -- how do you feel about your assortment in that lower-priced categories?

I'd say that we feel comfortable at this point that we have about -- we have more than 50% of our price points below the $19.99 price point. And then even some of the higher, more giftable price points such as Primal Hatch and the new Gabby dollhouse, we're seeing early signs of good POS around that. And that, again, some great innovation and some great marketing around those items are definitely -- create a real giftable moment while we make sure we maintain that price point that is below $19.99 for a lot of items as well. So we feel good about the mix.

Your next question comes from Martin Landry with Stifel.

I'd like to touch on Melissa & Doug quickly. The sales were down this quarter, and I think they've been down year-to-date as well. I'm just wondering, is it a function of losing shelf space at retail? Or is it a function of more slower velocities at retail?

I think it's more than one thing, Martin. I think it's -- again, we are -- I think we're seeing that the tariffs have impacted Melissa & Doug, a little more than our core brands, just given that more of our toys were coming out of China through the course of the year. So I think that's one of the reasons. The other is that there have been lots of competition, lower price point competition in the marketplace that has, on the lower end, taken some of our share.

So you see us -- we look at POS going into the fourth quarter, and we're seeing signs of recovery, and we're really confident about what's to come in 2026. But those two things, between the tariffs and the lower price competition, they ate some market share from us this quarter.

Yes. And Martin, what that lets you see is if you bifurcate M&D and if you bifurcate the legacy Spin -- legacy Spin POS, we're very pleased with that POS. And Christina kind of laid out the issues that we're facing with M&D this year. When we look forward into next year, we're really confident of the plan that we have to address the issues. We're seeing in some of the shelf space that we're in, higher productivity, in fact, than we had last year. And the innovation that's coming for next year, the new product categories, the new lines are -- there's a lot of excitement from the retailer perspective because it's different than what's the competitive landscape that's out there.

Okay. That's helpful. And I'd like to hear a little bit about Black Friday coming up. Black Friday is bigger and bigger in terms of dollar spends for the holidays. What is your strategy? How are you preparing for Black Friday? Are you intending to be a bit more promotional than previous years? Just a little bit about your strategy ahead of that would be great.

Yes. Martin, I would say that I wouldn't put it all on Black Friday, either. I think Cyber Monday becomes bigger and bigger as well. So I think ultimately, yes, the entire weekend will be a big moment across retail sales. And as we see the uncertainty, meaning when people are going to start buying, there's lots of reasons to believe that it will happen around that window.

I think one of the things you'll notice is really how we have a solid plan in place around PAW Patrol in particular around that window with our new Christmas special airing. It will be airing on Black Friday in the U.S. on CBS, the first time it's in broadcast, will also be in theaters from a promotional standpoint. So I think you see us lining up all of the content marketing around these windows. It's not targeted towards one specific day. We're working with all of our retail partners globally to make sure that we are part of all of the initiatives that are ongoing and then we're lining up our media around that, both from an organic social standpoint as well as a traditional media standpoint.

So I feel good about our plans for that window. And I'd say the extra special for this year about that day, in particular, would be PAW Patrol Christmas special airing in broadcast.

Your next question comes from Luke Hannan with Canaccord.

Jon, I wanted to follow up on something you had mentioned in your prepared remarks talking about the Digital Games business. I believe you had mentioned that there was an incremental $10 million of revenue that you recognized during the quarter from partnership revenue. So first, if you could confirm that?

And then second, how much of that fell to the bottom line? And what are the opportunities that you have in Digital Games for future partnerships going forward?

Yes, sure. Thank you, Luke. So as you know, our Digital Games strategy really centers around two core platforms. Within one of those platforms, within the Piknik platform, we are developing apps that continue to drive up our subscriber base and driving revenue growth. In addition to monetizing the value through our own platform, we have the ability to partner with others, and we'll announce who that is in the fourth quarter when it actually goes live. So we sold it in Q3. We revenue [ rec-ed ] it in Q3. Ultimately, it goes live in mid-November, so we can obviously talk to you about that then.

But we like these opportunities. We continue to believe there's more of these opportunities. Why we like it is, not only is it incredibly accretive to the point that I think you were asking where most of that revenue flows to the bottom line. There is some support costs that you have on a year-over-year basis for it. But why we like it, an additional reason is that it actually drives the awareness higher on our core Piknik platform. So we see a correlation when we launch these. This is not our first and it won't be our last. We see a correlation with increase in subscribers.

So it really supports the whole ecosystem and allows us to re-plow some of those incremental dollars back into development, more apps that then makes Piknik even more attractive, et cetera. So it becomes this kind of virtuous circle.

Got it. I want to ask also about the Entertainment segment as well and specifically L&M opportunities. I think this will probably something -- probably be a topic that's more relevant when we get to the latter portion of next year and the third PAW movie is going to be released, but just want to get a better understanding of -- I know historically, it's a pretty lumpy line item to model, but you do have quite a bit in the entertainment pipeline. I mean, just broadly speaking, how should we be thinking about L&M opportunities over the course of at least the next couple of quarters?

Yes. I mean, look, it's a good question, a fair question. It's one where without -- the fact that we're not giving guidance, it kind of limits my hand to give a huge amount of detail around it, except to say that as we release content, so as there's more content being released, and as you know, we entered -- at the beginning of the year, we announced that we're entering into a heightened investment in additional content, and we're seeing it as an example, on Black Friday, the PAW show coming out on CBS, as well as in, I think, 3,600 theaters worldwide.

So as we have more and more content being released, you naturally have L&M, which is obviously incredibly accretive, an important part of the Entertainment revenue stream and profit stream. So you can imagine that over time, that should correlate with the increased distribution revenue that we have as we release more and more content. Of course, there's some choppiness to it. And I think what we will do is really call out so it's really clear for you when there is these onetime benefits so that you're able to build that into your model.

Okay. Last one for me, and then I'll pass the line. But I just wanted to follow up on the commentary earlier on there being lower price competition in the wooden toy category. Is that from the other large player in the category? Or is that from other competitors?

That's been from a lot of private label. So we're seeing at retail that some lower-cost private label competitors were coming in on some key items that were causing some pricing pressure.

Your next question comes from Adam Shine with National Bank.

Maybe for you, Jonathan. The -- if we look at last week, we heard Mattel maintaining the guidance and certainly implying a big lift to their toy sales in the Q4. And I think even Hasbro followed up saying that even they're expecting some growth out of their toy business, I think ex licensing, in Q4. Can you give us a little bit of help in terms of -- I know it's going to be an improvement on Q3, as you said. I think the question is how big an improvement is? Is maybe Melissa & Doug a bit of a gatekeeper in terms of a little more optimism around growth? Any color around the cadence of toys in the Q4?

And then also, if you don't mind, maybe also for Christina, how U.S. retailers have come back to you in terms of orders because certainly, Mattel and Hasbro acknowledged an acceleration of retail orders following some of the timing issues in Q3.

Yes. So -- thank you, Adam. Maybe I'll start with it. Look, I think you were really trying to assess kind of how does Q4 shape up and we have to kind of recognize that we're not giving specific guidance in that we are still -- and the reason for it is that we feel that we're still in a time of great -- a significant uncertainty in the market. And so being careful of how we manage expectations and how we set those expectations, I think that is the certain prudence on our part in terms of the statement that we made versus some of those peers that you've laid out.

What I can tell you is when we look at the year-over-year Toy reserves compared to Q3, we certainly are targeting improvement. You'll recall that I think in Q2, I mentioned that GPS for Q3 was going to be around 36% of our GPS. So I think that's still -- we're still comfortable with that. We -- from an adjusted SG&A perspective, we certainly think those costs will be stable to slightly down as we look into the fourth quarter. So seeing a clear path to operating leverage in the fourth quarter.

Going back to kind of the initial question from Kylie, we have we believe the right product at the right price point. We're hearing that from our retail partners. We're seeing, in some cases, higher productivity on shelf space than we saw early in the year. And now we have to wait and see how this ultimately plays out over the next 2 months.

Yes. Adam, I just -- I go back to, I believe we're well positioned, right? When I look through the POS week-on-week, I see there being growth week-on-week on our POS. I see some key items moving through the register, and I'm confident that we have the ability to get product to shelf. So we have to see how the uncertainty plays out, but I still believe we're well positioned.

Okay. I appreciate that. And then maybe one follow-up, Jonathan. You talked about the additional investments. I think you had talked about that, frankly, a few months back, so going into next year and the savings that will come. A number of questions that came up last week on those other calls spoke to, obviously, ongoing concerns about how the tariff implications going into next year? Are they at 2x to reflect upon in terms of the full year? And I think the commentary from other management teams has been no, don't think of it that way and acknowledge that we're continuing to push on our mitigation actions.

So from your perspective, Spin Master has never been very aggressive on annual cost cutting. Can you maybe speak to -- you already talked about the progress on SG&A earlier in this call, but can you speak to further initiatives as you get more comfortable in the seat in terms of pursuing as a regular cadence going forward?

Yes. So -- sorry, we're just moving the phone. We need to invest in a more conducive conference call.

Adam, I think how I would look at it is, one thing we called out in our prepared remarks is there is investments in our internal tech stack to help us be not only more effective around, say, supply chain planning, around our forecasting, but also be more efficient in how we operate internally. And you're going to start seeing some of those -- that heightened CapEx roll off at the end of next year. And then we'll ultimately leverage that -- there'll be some benefits that we can -- that we'll be able to leverage into the business.

My philosophy, and I think our philosophy as a wider management team is that we grow the top line, and we deliver operating leverage. We make the right capital decisions to get the right returns and ultimately, we drive TSR. So like it all goes together, Adam. I think there's an opportunity to continue to -- we know there's an opportunity to keep driving operating leverage in this business and that's going to come through multiple levers that as we head into next year, we'll keep on executing against.

Your next question comes from Jaime Katz with Morningstar.

I guess I have a theoretical sort of follow-up to that last question, and the opportunity for operating leverage. If we can think about next year, and I know this is early, as maybe a flat sales year, given that we know ordering pattern is a little bit better now, would we still be able to think about capturing EBITDA expansion? Or is -- do we need to have top line growth to really offset the incremental tariffs we're looking at next year?

Jaime, look, this -- like let me break that down in a couple of different ways. I mean the first way is that this business, just structurally, there's operating leverage, right? So as you grow, structurally, we have a fixed cost base. And I talked about in the last question, some of the things that we're doing to take -- be even more effective with the current cost base that we have to grow -- to support a higher growth, higher top line. So this business fundamentally has a structure that has fixed cost leverage and therefore, operating leverage.

When we look into next year, again, there's certainly not any guidance this year. We're not giving guidance now for 2026. But when we look at next year, having operating leverage is something that I think this management team feels confident that we can deliver. And when I look at my past life, like in the past life, I used to say like a business should be able to deliver 50 to 100 basis points in any given year, some years more, some years less. And I think that's kind of the range that there's no reason why this business doesn't do the same.

Okay. And then do you guys have any internal data that you want to share on what you expect the PAW Patrol contribution to be from the October and the holiday specials embedded in the fourth quarter?

Yes. I mean, I can take it. So the special itself is not a huge entertainment revenue driver, what it is, is a phenomenal marketing tool to keep PAW central in the hearts and minds of our consumer base. And we believe that there's a way to kind of replicate this on an annual basis as well. So this becomes a kind of perennial event.

It's more next year, Jaime, to think about how the release of the movie, that happens in the third quarter. As you know, like if I take the PAW movie 2, when we released it, there was a $20 million production revenue release that we would have. So it's really a Q3 story next year. That continues in Q3, Q4 and then into -- a little bit into the following year.

Yes. The one thing I would add to that is that when you think about the movie and even our Netflix distribution, really, it becomes about wider awareness for the brand and bringing brand health to the brand just to make sure that gross viewing minutes are up across the brand and that we're bringing more and more people into it on a regular basis. So it's really almost top of funnel for the Entertainment.

Your next question comes from Ty Collin with CIBC.

Maybe just first one, I'm wondering if we could drill down a little bit more on the POS performance in Q3 by geography, just maybe the difference between North America and the U.S. versus international? And could you also just maybe clarify the comments made at the top of the call about how POS trends were in September?

Yes. So why don't I start off with that. I might have missed your second part of the question, Ty. So please don't hesitate to ask it again.

Let's kind of bifurcate POS into, like you said, international and the U.S. We certainly took share in the U.S. from a POS perspective. And as I think in the prepared comments or in one of the questions, we talked about there's a little bit of bifurcation between M&D and what I'll call legacy Spin, where Spin, the POS was -- we're quite pleased with it in the third quarter. And we're addressing -- we laid out how we're addressing the M&D situation as we head into next year. And then internationally, that POS was not as strong as our overall share, overall versus the North American market.

I missed your second part of your question, I apologize.

Yes, sorry. The second part, I just wanted to clarify the comments made on how POS trended in September, specifically. I think there was a comment, I wasn't sure if I heard accelerating or decelerating in September specifically?

Ty, it's Tim here. We just kind of called out that in September, yes, consumer demand in the U.S. specifically weakened. As you probably would have seen, there's macroeconomic uncertainties weighed on the consumer sentiment in the Q3. So as we indicated at your conference in July and August, I think our POS was kind of -- the market wasn't down as much, but it ended up being down about 2.5% for the quarter, and that was primarily due to deceleration for the TAM in September, specifically.

Okay. Got it. And then just for my follow-up, circling back to Digital Games. So I mean, some pretty decent top line improvement even ex the $10 million in partnership revenues that you recognized in the quarter. I mean, was that driven by any specific changes or adjustments at the product level or to the approach around promotion and monetization? Anything to call out there in terms of how you approach that creative center?

Yes, absolutely. I think one of the things is you see us really being focused this year on ensuring profitability as we go forward in Digital Games. And being focused on subscriptions in Piknik and on monthly active users and ARPU in Toca.

So what was different, I think, is that our users -- we had more releases of features, collaboration -- and collaborations in that particular product. than we've had before. And we had a great -- just recently, we had a great collaboration with Sanrio. And we're seeing that the bottom of the funnel is performing really, really well, and we've had some focus on that as opposed and -- to higher spending markets.

We're really happy with the team in place. They're -- we're seeing an acceleration of growth obviously from last year. When I look at H2, certainly expect that double-digit growth for H2 as a whole. And when we look into next year, really excited about from the content that examples that -- accelerating our content and our partnership within Toca and then within Piknik, even adding more apps that will just drive a higher subscriber base, keep them longer, have a longer TAM, and provide more value ultimately to the consumer. So we're really excited with the Digital creative center and the team that we have there.

Your next question comes from David McFadgen with Cormark.

A couple of questions. So I was just wondering what drove the Digital Games revenue up, despite the fact that MAUs were down? Like how did you just drive that increased monetization?

Well, there's -- so there's more than one lever, right? Look, so if we take Digital, there's more than one lever. There's top of funnel and then ultimately, if you use Toca, the conversion. So you have 50-plus million monthly active users, how many of those are actively participating in buying content? And then ultimately, what's the purchase price that they're buying? So there's more than one lever to play within Toca. Our focus this year has been very much, to be frank, focusing on that bottom part of the funnel. We're going to obviously shift towards having a more balanced approach in 2026.

And then Piknik, there is subscriber growth and the same thing, you keep customers longer. And then there's ultimately a higher ARPU that you would have with those individual customers.

And the last piece around the ability to further monetize the apps that we develop. But again, not just from a onetime revenue base, but more from the ecosystem supporting the overall ecosystem of Piknik and driving attention to it that would then ultimately feeds into subscriber growth. So multiple levers to play. This year, we've been very focused on ensuring the monetization and the unit economics are working, focus on that and then next year, continue to drive that top of funnel.

Yes. I think we've been really levering up on our conversion for average revenue per paying user, and we're seeing the results of that. And that's very much coming through the content deliveries, the feature deliveries and the collaboration. So giving more relevant content to our fans more frequently that we know that they want, and we're seeing that performance.

And then, again, as Jonathan was just saying, we're very much focused on the bottom of the funnel to make sure that we're seeing that conversion. And then the same thing with Piknik, we're seeing both retention and ARPU up. And we'll also benefit from diversifying our revenue, as mentioned earlier in the call by selling some of our games to a third-party gaming platform. So last quarter, we talked a little bit about the benefit of having focus in these key areas; here, you see us executing.

Now based on those comments, it would seem that what we've seen in Q3 should continue into Q4 and then into '26, right?

I would -- well, I think -- yes, on the underlining elements of the unit economics. Remember that, that partnership revenue was about $10 million. And when we were thinking about our -- internally our planning, I mean, the ability to -- the revenue recognition happened in Q3 versus Q4. So I think you got to just keep that in mind as you're thinking about the overall growth for Digital.

And I would just stand by kind of my previous comment, which we continue to expect double-digit growth in H2. But Q4, because that partnership revenue materialized in Q3 versus Q4, it's probably more like single digit. That doesn't take away our bullishness as we head into the long term with our Digital creative center.

Okay. And that's helpful. And then just looking at the Preschool segment. So given the comments you made about Melissa & Doug, you lost some share, increased competition and so on, is it safe to assume that Melissa & Doug's revenue performance or the decline was greater than the overall Preschool segment?

Well, the POS, yes, we indicated that Melissa & Doug's POS was down and Spin Master Toy's was up. So yes...

Yes. I'm just talking about revenue in the quarter. Like I'm just wondering if Melissa & Doug's revenue decline was greater than the overall segment for Preschool.

Well, I would answer it this way. I would say that I would take a step back from the Infant, Toddler, Preschool category. We -- per Circana, we continue to be very stable in terms of our share. So that's at the macro because we always see more than one brand that we have, and we have multiple levers to play within that category. And that's how we look at it. We look at it from a portfolio approach. Some years, some will be up, some years will be down.

Specifically with M&D, the narrative that we shared is that, yes, this year, there is heightened -- there's multiple factors at play. And this year, the revenue performance is not at the levels that we would like it to have. We believe that we have the plan in place. There's a new management team here, quite frankly, the leader of M&D has been with the organization for about a year, she's doing a phenomenal job. We have -- she has a great plan, and we have a great plan to execute next year to ultimately return that brand to growth.

Okay. And then you called out a couple of buckets of CapEx or various CapEx initiatives. Can you just give us what you expect the total CapEx to be for 2025, including the spend on intangibles?

Yes. I think we -- I'm just going through. I think we gave the number that we said we think it's going to be around $70 million less than we initially expected, Tim, right? That's what I think we said -- sorry, $60 million or $70 million. So...

Somewhere around $175 million, thinking about it, is kind of ballpark.

So less than what we initially thought. And so about $175 million this year.

Your next question comes from Brian Morrison with TD Cowen.

Lots of good color on the call here that's to be digested. I appreciate that. But I do want a point of clarification, Jonathan. In the prepared remarks, it says we're aiming for improvement in our year-over-year financial results in the fourth quarter compared to what we saw in this quarter. Can you just clarify for me because I haven't really digested. Does that mean that you think you're going to have better results relative to Q4 last year or for Q3 this year?

So when I said that, what I -- I mean, here was my thinking. We were down year-over-year revenue in Q3 by 17-ish percent, yes. And when I look at Q4, I see a marked improvement of that number. So I hope that provides a little clarity, Brian.

Yes. No, I'll play with the math. I now understand it. I guess just bigger picture -- a lot of the questions have been answered here, but bigger picture, I guess, Christina and/or Jonathan, you've been in the seat for, call it, a year or half a year to a year for -- depending on...

No. 4 months and 6 months, but yes.

Okay. Half a year. You're making progress on core properties, your capital allocation, your cost efficiency, it seems like things are really starting to go the right way here. I'm just curious, to put you on the spot, do you have a north star here in terms of financial performance or like mid-cycle EBITDA? We get back to a normalized industry environment, what is reasonable in your view, you threw out -- prior to you arriving, the prior management team threw a $500 million in EBITDA ballpark. Like is that an achievable number in a normalized cycle for the industry?

Well, I mean, of course, $500 million is an achievable number. The question is time frame. Like -- so I don't know what was that, I would have to go back and look. So I mean, to answer your question directly, yes, and then it becomes time frame. We will see next year in February or March when we have our fourth quarter call, we'll be able to provide more insights into 2026 and how we see the long -- and then perhaps how we see kind of the long-term trends in this business.

That -- going back to what we said before, like we fundamentally believe we can return this business to profitable growth. We have -- as we're starting to shape up our plans for 2026 specifically, seeing the phenomenal products that we have; seeing how this organization is coming together around everything related to PAW, supported by the movie; seeing the plan for M&D's turnaround; seeing the trajectory of the Digital Games business and seeing the focus on ensuring that we're really effective with both our OpEx and our CapEx. We're very -- I can only say we're really excited about the future and believe that we can provide attractive TSR to our shareholders.

Your next question comes from Drew McReynolds with RBC.

Two for me. First on back to the Digital Games. Christina, you alluded to, and you've done so in prior quarters, competition on the Toca Boca World side. Is that just generally a generic comment with respect to all the proliferation of platforms out there? Or is there something more nuanced in that competitive dynamic?

And then second question, I guess, for you, Jonathan, on the IT investments into the kind of better demand forecasting and planning, can you give us a sense of, I guess, how much this can move the needle in terms of your ability to essentially forecast and predict what is obviously a seasonal and somewhat lumpy business. Just want to see kind of where the yardsticks are currently and where they're going?

Sure. Thanks for the question. Yes, I think on Toca Boca, what you hear us saying is, of course, there's, what you alluded to, the macro environment where we're always fighting for attention and there's lots of other games and platforms that are out there. But there are specifically some gains that are giving away an awful lot of free content on a regular basis that are driving some competition in MAU, and we are definitely focusing on both, driving MAU but as well as converting that. So I think our strategy is a little bit different, but there are competitors in the space, definitely competing with us for that top-of-funnel attention on a more free basis.

And Drew, on the IT side, we -- I think one of the catalysts to looking at our IT stack certainly was the M&D acquisition and seeing the benefits of having one platform and more up-to-date platform. We can't ever get away from this business being an H2 business. That is an underlining factor. What this will do, though, is allow us to make better and more -- and quicker decisions. And I think that's the key here. So to be able to better adapt to that H2 and quick -- in a quicker manner adapt to the trends in the second half, whether it be chasing inventory, hot products or whether it be adapting to a slowdown in any given product.

It also allows the organization as a whole to work as one team. And we talked a little bit in our first call where we saw an opportunity of bringing the three creative centers to work stronger together and really unleashing the full potential of our owned IP by leveraging the three creative centers. This actually also will help bringing the team together, right, bringing clearer information so we can make better decisions at a holistic enterprise level. So it could also help drive that top line, which is ever so important.

That's helpful. And then just the time frame for getting all of that done where you internally begin to see a big difference on what you described. Is that all kind of kicking off in 2026? Or is the real kind of flow-through benefit, I know it's ongoing, but is that a 2027 thing?

Yes. So like the -- I mean, the heightened CapEx and some heightened OpEx that we have is this year and next year. So you would imagine the benefits really start flowing through after that.

There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call over to Christina Miller.

Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. We appreciate your interest in Spin Master, and we look forward to speaking with you again in the new year. Thanks.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.