Orion Energy Systems - Earnings Call - Q1 2026

Executive Summary

• Q1’26 revenue was $19.6M vs $19.9M in Q1’25 and $20.9M in Q4’25, with GAAP EPS of $(0.04); gross margin expanded to 30.1% (six-year high) on pricing, mix, and cost actions.
• Versus S&P Global consensus, revenue was slightly below ($19.58M actual vs $20.00M consensus*) while GAAP EPS was a material beat (($(0.04) actual vs $(0.55) consensus*)); GAAP EBITDA trailed consensus (actual $(0.53)M vs $(0.10)M consensus*).
• Management reiterated FY’26 outlook: ~5% revenue growth to ~$84M and “approach or achieve” positive adjusted EBITDA; EV charging revenue expected flat to slightly down given funding uncertainty; EV backlog ~$8M.
• Narrative catalysts: sustained >30% gross margin, distribution channel rebuild (TritonPro), electrical infrastructure expansion (up to $7M automotive awards), and Boston Public Schools EV win ($6.5M). A 1-for-10 reverse split announced post-quarter aims to regain Nasdaq compliance, potentially reducing listing overhang.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

• What Went Well

  • Margin inflection: Gross margin reached 30.1% (six-year high) on pricing, mix, and cost reductions; three straight quarters of positive adjusted EBITDA ($0.2M).
  • Segment execution: Maintenance +21% Y/Y to $4.0M; LED +1% Y/Y to $12.9M; EV gross margin steady at ~33.5% despite revenue timing variability.
  • Strategic traction: Electrical infrastructure opportunity expanding (awards up to $7M with three auto OEMs); CEO: “I am…certain” Orion can deliver $84M revenue and positive adjusted EBITDA FY’26.

• What Went Wrong

  • EV revenue headwinds: EV charging down to $2.7M (vs $3.8M Q1’25) on tough comp and project timing; visibility constrained by funding uncertainties.
  • Sequential revenue dip: Total revenue declined from $20.9M in Q4’25 to $19.6M in Q1’26 as EV pulled back versus a strong Q4.
  • One-time costs and liquidity watch: Q1 included ~$0.6M executive sign-on and severance; liquidity declined to $9.8M as revolver was paid down by $1.75M; working capital fell to $6.1M.

Transcript

Speaker 0

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Orion Energy Systems fiscal 2026 first quarter conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press *11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press *11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Bill Jones, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Good morning. Thank you all for joining us today. Sally Washlow, Orion's CEO, and Per Brodin, its CFO, will review the company's first quarter results and its fiscal 2026 outlook, and then we will open the call to investor questions. Today's conference is being recorded. A replay will be posted in the investors' section of the company's website, orionlighting.com. As a reminder, prepared remarks and answers to questions include statements that are forward-looking under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally include words such as "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "project," or similar words. Also, any statements describing future objectives or goals, company plans, and outlook are also forward-looking. These statements are subject to various risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

Risks include, among other matters, those that Orion has described in its press release issued this morning and in its SEC filings. Except as described therein, Orion disclaims any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements made as of today. Reconciliations of certain non-GAAP financial metrics to their nearest GAAP measures are also provided in today's press release. Now, I will turn the call over to Orion CEO, Sally Washlow.

Speaker 4

Good morning, and thank you for taking the time to join today's call. When I became CEO in April, I was confident that we could promptly establish a trajectory of year-over-year growth in revenue, profitability, and shareholder value. Today, less than halfway through my first full quarter as CEO, I can say that I am not just confident of it; I'm certain of it. Here are the three reasons why I am certain of it. Orion Energy Systems is recognized widely for unsurpassed quality in LED lighting and electrical infrastructure for industrial and commercial facilities. Unsurpassed quality. The proof of this is that some of the biggest names in the automotive industry rely on Orion and effectively only on Orion to light up its most critical facilities in North America. Orion Voltrek is recognized particularly throughout the northeastern United States for unsurpassed quality in EV charging and electrical infrastructure.

Unsurpassed quality. This, too, is evidenced by yesterday's announcement about our most recent deployment in the Boston Public Schools. Orion is also recognized widely as an ongoing partner of unsurpassed quality in our maintenance services. Unsurpassed quality. Our maintenance services have been integral to our longstanding and new customer relationships. Recent headlines notwithstanding, all three markets for these business lines have tailwinds nationally and regionally. Orion has a timely opportunity to convert its quality leadership into market leadership in all three of them. We further believe that this translates into a parallel growth opportunity for recurring revenue and margin expansion. With a sharpened focus on growth, profitability, and market penetration in each of these areas, we believe we can achieve that market leadership in this fiscal year. I'll have more to say about this with increasing frequency and with increasing granularity throughout this fiscal year.

For now, I believe strongly that we are on track to achieve three milestones for FY 2026. By the end of the third quarter, a positive resolution that enables publicly traded Orion to maximize its opportunity for growth in shareholder value. By the end of the third quarter, the announcement of a growth, profitability, and cost containment initiative that enables Orion to become a recognized long-term market leader in its core businesses. By the end of the fourth quarter, $84 million in revenue at a positive adjusted EBITDA for the full fiscal year. Walking in the door in April, I was fully cognizant that for my fellow shareholders, the Orion saga has been a long journey.

Today, I say only that we see no better growth opportunity in the sector than Orion and that we are now embarking on a mission that is fully capable of fulfilling it, beginning in this fiscal year, and I am certain of that, too. Now, drilling down on Q1, overall, the work we have been doing to enhance margin and reduce costs enabled us to deliver meaningful progress on the bottom line in Q1 2026 and puts us in a solid position for the full year. Our gross profit percentage rose to over 30% for the first time in about six years, and we achieved our third consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA. These improvements were achieved as the EV segment faced a tough year-over-year comparison. The decrease in EV revenue was largely offset by a solid rebound in maintenance revenue and slightly higher LED lighting revenue.

While visibility in the EV segment remains a challenge, we did have the public school bus charging station project start near the end of June. Our gross profit percentage increase resulted from meaningful reductions in the cost of our LED lighting fixtures through re-engineering, plant efficiency efforts, and enhanced sourcing, as well as from both margin and volume increases in our maintenance service business. We were able to reduce total operating expenses by 10.6% to $6.9 million in Q1 2026, from $7.7 million in Q1 2025 through personnel and other cost control efforts, and we expect to benefit from other cost initiatives as we progress through the year. Turning to revenue, we have made great progress in building our pipeline of contracted LED lighting projects, some of which are highlighted in today's release, and we continue to make progress building our footprint within existing maintenance service customers.

We are also taking steps to improve sales performance in our lighting distribution business, which serves a different base of customers. We have had initial success in this channel with the new line of value-based LED lighting fixtures, including Triton Pro, which we designed and engineered in response to feedback from channel partners and end customers. Triton Pro balances high-quality design, components, and energy efficiency at competitive price points that are resonating with customers. Now, with a compelling product line and an investment in personnel to expand our market penetration in this channel, we expect our lighting distribution business to return to a path of growth. Another exciting potential avenue for growth for Orion is in electrical infrastructure, which falls in the sweet spot of our many decades of collective experience from large LED lighting projects, high-voltage EV charging station infrastructure, and a wide range of electrical maintenance services.

Each of our segments is involved in electrical infrastructure, and we have built a nationwide network of certified electricians with deep expertise and major project experience that is ideally suited to meet this need. Increasingly, our customers have been coming to us to bid on electrical infrastructure projects that may or may not involve other areas of specialty. Electrical infrastructure work is both an ideal complement to our existing business as well as a great opportunity to add further value to our customer relationships. Companies across the U.S. are making significant investments in electrical infrastructure for large-scale data centers, alternative energy generation, retail and office complexes, electrified vehicle fleet charging, and other applications. Rapid growth in both the scope and complexity of electrical systems and the range of businesses that rely on them is starting to challenge the available pool of experienced personnel.

Based on customer discussions over the past few months, we believe Orion is in a strong and unique position to serve this nationwide opportunity. We are still in the early stages of creating a roadmap to evaluate this market opportunity. We have invested some time and resources to compete for such projects, and we recently secured an electrical infrastructure project from an existing customer and have submitted initial bids on a few other projects. I don't have much more to say at this time on this matter, but did want to share with investors that we are exploring opportunities and will provide updates as warranted. Now, I'd like to follow up on the reorganization plan we discussed on our last conference call.

The decision had been made prior to me becoming CEO, but after further review, both internally and externally, we have decided to retain our existing operational and reporting structure rather than reorganize into two business units. We came to realize that we could achieve the same synergies under the current structure while keeping our team and resources focused on customer priorities and business development dialogues at the core of our growth goals. We are realigning some roles and are working to better integrate our EV charging solutions across our national footprint to create both sales and operational efficiency benefits that were objectives of the prior plan. The most important thing is for our teams to stay in close contact with our customers and prospects and to drive increased collaboration across our segments, and we feel we can best achieve those goals under our current structure.

I believe Orion Energy Systems has built a strong and unique platform of high-quality and industry-leading solutions to meet our customers' goals and needs. We have made significant reduction in overhead, meaningful progress enhancing margin, and have built a diversified pipeline of revenue to support our growth. In the first quarter, we made progress in our goal to return Orion Energy Systems to profitability, trimming our Q1 net loss to $1.2 million from $3.6 million in Q1 2025 and $6.6 million in Q1 2024. As stated earlier, we believe we are on track to achieve the revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA goals of our FY 2026 outlook. I am both excited and confident in Orion Energy Systems' potential to deliver both growth and improving bottom-line performance in FY 2026 and moving forward.

With that, let me turn it over to Orion Energy Systems CFO, Per Brodin, to review our financial performance and outlook.

Speaker 5

Thank you, Sally. Good morning, everyone. Today, we reported fiscal Q1 2026 revenue of $19.6 million compared to $19.9 million in Q1 2025, with two of Orion's three segments growing year-over-year. LED lighting segment revenue increased 1% to $12.9 million compared to $12.8 million in Q1 2025, reflecting increased project activity offset by lower lighting distribution channel sales. Orion's expanded LED lighting project pipeline and efforts to drive growth in the distribution channel are expected to contribute to higher revenues in fiscal 2026 versus fiscal 2025. Lighting achieved a Q1 2026 gross margin of 31.8% versus 22.6% in Q1 2025, with impacts from pricing increases, cost reductions, and sourcing initiatives amplified by a more favorable Q1 2026 project and revenue mix.

Electrical maintenance segment revenue increased 21% to $4 million in Q1 2026 from $3.3 million in Q1 2025, reflecting the benefit of new customer contracts and the expansion of some existing relationships. We achieved a maintenance segment gross margin of 22.4% in Q1 2026 versus 3.8% in Q1 2025, as we were still working through some of the remaining StayLight legacy customer contracts, which were no longer profitable in the prior year period. EV charging solutions revenue was $2.7 million in Q1 2026 compared to $3.8 million in Q1 2025, reflecting expected variability in the timing of larger projects. For example, Q1 2025 benefited from $1.3 million of Eversource-related projects that did not recur in Q1 2026, and we had nominal Q1 2026 revenue from a $3 million public school bus project that commenced in the last week of the quarter and should be completed in Q2.

We expect a sequential revenue improvement in Q2 2026, primarily due to the school bus project and one other significant contract. EV achieved a strong gross profit margin of 33.5% versus 33.4% in Q1 2025. Our overall gross profit margin increased 850 basis points to 30.1% versus 21.6% in Q1 2025, reflecting pricing and cost improvements in all segments, particularly LED lighting and maintenance. We expect our overall gross margin to remain strong in FY 2026, though it will likely vary on a quarterly basis due to revenue mix and volume. Total operating expenses declined to $6.9 million in Q1 2026 from $7.7 million in Q1 2025, reflecting ongoing overhead and personnel expense reductions. We expect continued operating expense improvement from overhead reduction efforts completed or planned in fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026, with some offset by potential increases in variable operating expenses driven by a return to growth.

Reflecting stronger gross margin and lower operating expenses, Orion's Q1 2026 net loss improved to $1.2 million or $0.04 per share from a net loss of $3.8 million or $0.12 per share in Q1 2025. Adjusted EBITDA improved to positive $0.2 million in Q1 2026 versus a negative $1.8 million in Q1 2025, reflecting cost control and financial discipline. Cash used in operating activities improved to $0.5 million in Q1 2026 from $3 million in the prior year period, primarily due to the improved bottom-line performance. We also reduced our revolver credit borrowings by $1.75 million during Q1 2026 to $5.25 million at the close of the quarter, compared to $7 million at year-end. Net working capital was $6.1 million at Q1 2026 versus $8.7 million at year-end, primarily reflecting the use of cash to pay down the revolver. Available financial liquidity was $9.8 million versus $13 million at year-end.

Post-quarter end, we issued $1 million of common stock and made a $500,000 cash payment to partially satisfy the Voltrek earnout obligation. Turning to our fiscal 2026 outlook, we have reiterated the fiscal 2026 revenue growth expectation of 5% to approximately $84 million that we initiated in June. We have also reiterated that our revenue growth outlook positions Orion to approach or achieve positive adjusted EBITDA for the full fiscal year, depending on revenue mix. This growth outlook anticipates modest growth in LED lighting and electrical maintenance revenues and flat to slightly lower EV charging revenues due to current uncertainty around near-term funding availability for EV charging projects, despite significant long-term infrastructure requirements and other opportunities. With respect to tariffs, the LED components that we source from Asia make up a small proportion of our cost of sales.

We've been working to diversify our sourcing efforts in order to mitigate supply and tariff risks. Because we manufacture a large portion of our finished product in Wisconsin, we feel we are better positioned than competitors who source most or all of their products from overseas. Given this, we believe there's enough room to adjust our pricing to cover as much or all of the cost increases that we currently expect from tariffs. At this point, we expect to manage tariffs to a net neutral impact for the business. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, would you please commence the question and answer session?

Speaker 0

Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press *11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press *11 again. We ask that you limit yourself to two questions and then please rejoin the queue if you have more. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Eric Stein from Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Your line is now open.

Speaker 3

Hi, Sally. Hi, Per.

Speaker 1

Hey.

Speaker 3

Hi there.

Speaker 1

Hi.

Speaker 3

Good morning. You clearly now have the cost structure set up to drive profitability, just a number of revenue growth initiatives. I am interested in the electrical infrastructure piece, and I know you kind of said you're somewhat limited as to what you can say, but as we think about that, is that something where you would potentially bring that under your turnkey offering, leverage those relationships with electrical contractors out there, subcontract out? I guess I'm just trying to get at what is entailed in building that out. Is there much of an investment needed on your side to do it? Any details you can share would be great. We are in the early stages of it. With growth, there'll be more investment, but we feel our current infrastructure can probably manage it, and then we can scale appropriately.

This could also come from some of the EV work that we do as well. Think of it beyond traditional, even turnkey lighting, EV as well. Got it. Okay. I guess I'll stay tuned on that one. Secondly, I know your pipeline, you've been optimistic on that for some time, and we have seen a pickup in orders. I know that it takes time for that pipeline to flow through to actual awards, but do you expect that as you get into fiscal 2027 and beyond, you start to see the impact of that growing pipeline and start to see the leverage from that revenue growth? Yeah, we do think that it'll go beyond this year and into next year, absolutely. Some of the projects or things that we're working on now will continue into next year.

Speaker 1

They will benefit in the current year and then years beyond.

Speaker 3

Right. The pipeline, what you've got now gets you into part of 2027, but closing the pipeline to drive further growth to see further operating leverage.

Speaker 1

Correct.

Speaker 3

Correct.

Speaker 1

Is that how we should think about it? Okay, thank you.

Speaker 0

Thank you. Our next question comes from Bill Dezellem from Tieton Capital Management. Your line is now open.

Speaker 3

Thank you. I'm probably going to break the rule of two question limit here. Let's start with the electrical infrastructure, if we could. You mentioned that you have an initial project, and to help us understand really conceptually what it is that you're talking about when you say electrical infrastructure, would you discuss kind of the actual activities that you all are doing with this contract win, please? Sure. We'll discuss more of it in further releases. We're in the early innings of this project, but it is beyond our retrofit lighting and doing a lot more of the electrical infrastructure work and setting up areas to even on EV do a lot more work surrounding that. Like I've said, this has just started, and we'll be back with more details. I think you'll see an increase in announcements from us on all the work that we're doing.

Speaker 1

Sally, did we hear correctly that you have embarked on expanding the activities that you're doing in this electrical infrastructure by request from your customers?

Speaker 3

Yeah. It started from a request of a customer that we've worked with, requesting us to fulfill some other services within the work that we were doing with them, and it's further expanded.

Speaker 1

That's helpful. Thank you. The Northeast bus activity, I believe that in the past you all had, I think it was the Boston Public Schools, and I think that contract probably was completed. Would you kind of relate or tie together the contract of the past versus this new win that started the last week of June, and you know if they're somehow related, if they're unrelated, what tie or link there is between them, please?

Speaker 3

Sure. It is further expansion of what they're doing across Boston in terms of electrification of their public school bus system. Yesterday we announced the work within this realm. It's further expansion of the electrification of their fleet. Leading from the great work that we did, there's a continuation and award of more business.

Speaker 1

The announcement yesterday of $6.5 million for the Boston Public Schools, that is a new win. That's not the current win plus the win of the past?

Speaker 3

It is an ongoing win. We've started some of the work, and it will continue throughout the year, but it had not been previously released.

Speaker 1

It did not include the revenues we recognized in the prior year for Boston, for what I'll call the first two phases of that project.

Speaker 3

Per, to help us scale this, what were the first two phases, what was the revenue amount with those two?

Speaker 1

Phase one was approximately $1.3 million, and I believe phase two was another $1 million, give or take. I'm not certain of that piece of it.

Speaker 3

This is a meaningful expansion. I mean, we go from $1.3 million to $1 million, and then phase three now is $6.5 million. Is that the right way to think about this?

Speaker 1

Yes.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 1

It may be another way to give it more context that those first two phases I mentioned were the same location. If you think, you know, it was $2+ million for that location, then as they're expanding to other locations, that's when the amounts can add up pretty quickly.

Speaker 3

That begs the question of how many different locations do they have?

Speaker 1

That, I don't know.

Speaker 3

More than two?

Speaker 1

Yes.

Speaker 3

Okay. Great. Thank you. One additional question for now, please. In the past, you all have talked about the fluorescent bulb bans that are to take place in certain states. Would you bring us up to speed on the dynamics of that and whether any of those have been pushed out this year or pulled in? Where do we stand, please? We probably need to get back to you with a complete answer on that. I haven't seen any walked back, but we can certainly follow up with you on that.

Speaker 1

Do you foresee that being a driver to business for you all? If so, when would you think that you would start to see the benefits from that?

Speaker 3

I think it's one of the drivers of the business for us, you know, another big driver for the business is the ROI that these projects provide to the customers that we deliver them to.

Speaker 1

From a timing standpoint, a number of the states began the beginning of this calendar year. It will have started to make an impact, but others, it's not until the beginning of calendar 2026.

Speaker 3

Are you sensing that the states are enforcing the law at all, or is this a case where businesses will just naturally deal with their lighting situation as they have problems, breakage, et cetera? I think it's too early to tell on enforcement.

Speaker 1

Great. Thank you both for taking all the questions, and congratulations on the nice margins.

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Speaker 1

Me too.

Speaker 0

Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. I would now like to turn it back to Sally Washlow for closing remarks.

Speaker 4

I want to thank everyone again for taking the time to join us today. We look forward to updating investors on our second quarter call in early November. In the interim, we hope to have the opportunity to meet in person or virtually with many of you. We will be conducting some individual investor meetings, as well as participating at the H.C. Wainwright Conference on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 9th and 10th in New York, and will present at the Singular Research Alpha Leaders Conference, also in New York, in September. We will announce details via press releases. Please also reach out to our Investor Relations team with any questions or to set up a meeting. Their contact information is at the bottom of today's press release. Thank you again for your interest in Orion. I look forward to updating you on our progress next quarter.

Operator, I'll turn it back to you.

Speaker 0

Thank you, everyone, for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.