Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator

0:00:00

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Mettler-Toledo First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Adam Uhlman, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Adam Uhlman

Head of Investor Relations

0:00:34

Thanks, Rebecca, good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. On the call with me today is Patrick Kaltenbach, our Chief Executive Officer, and Shawn Vadala, our Chief Financial Officer. Let me cover some administrative matters. This call is being webcast and is available for replay on our website at mt.com. A copy of the press release and the presentation that we will refer to on today's call is also available on our website. This call will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, financial conditions, performance, and achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements.

Adam Uhlman

Head of Investor Relations

0:01:19

For a discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please see a recent annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly and current reports filed with the SEC. The company disclaims any obligation or undertaking to provide any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement except as required by law. On today's call, we will use non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is provided in the Form 8-K and is available on our website. Let me now turn the call over to Patrick.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:01:53

Thank you, Adam. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining our call today. Last night, we reported our first quarter financial results, the details of which are outlined for you on page three of our presentation. We are pleased with our first quarter results. We delivered good performance in an increasingly uncertain market environment. Solid execution of our margin initiative supported very good adjusted EPS growth. Our investments in innovation continue to provide tangible benefits. We are well-positioned to capitalize on our customers' investments in automation, digitalization, and onshoring in the future. While we recognize increased uncertainty in the macroeconomic environment, we remain confident in our agility and strong execution of our growth and margin expansion programs to achieve solid adjusted EPS growth this year.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:02:49

Let me now turn the call over to Shawn to cover the financial results and our guidance, and then I will come back with some additional commentary on the business and our outlook. Shawn?

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:02:59

Thanks, Patrick, and good morning, everyone. Sales in the quarter were $947 million, which represented an increase in local currency of 3% or 1% excluding acquisitions, which contributed approximately 1.5% to growth. On a U.S. dollar reported basis, sales increased 7%. On slide number four, we show sales growth by region. Local currency sales increased 2% in the Americas, 1% in Europe, and 5% in Asia rest of world, including 4% growth in China. Excluding acquisitions, local currency sales were flat in the Americas and increased 3% in Asia rest of world. On slide number five, we summarize local currency sales growth by product area. Local currency sales increased 1% in laboratory, increased 5% in industrial, including 1% growth in core industrial and 11% growth in Product Inspection.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:04:02

Food Retail grew 7% in the quarter. Excluding acquisitions and currency, laboratory sales were flat, while industrial increased 2%, including core industrial flat and Product Inspection up 6%. Lastly, service revenue grew 7% and 5% excluding acquisitions. Let me now move to the rest of the P&L, which is summarized on slide number six. Gross margin was 58.7% in the quarter, a decrease of 80 basis points, and was up 10 basis points excluding unfavorable foreign currency and acquisitions. We continue to benefit from favorable price realization and supply chain optimization benefits that helped offset an incremental gross tariff headwind of 90 basis points. R&D amounted to $51 million in the quarter and was up 1% on a local currency basis over the prior period.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:05:02

SG&A amounted to $258 million, a 1% increase in local currency over the prior year and includes sales and marketing investments offset by cost savings. Adjusted operating profit amounted to $246 million in the quarter, up 4% versus the prior year. Adjusted operating margin was 26%, a decrease of 80 basis points versus the prior year or up 40 basis points excluding unfavorable currency. We estimate the gross impact of incremental tariffs reduced our operating profit by 4% and was a 90 basis point headwind to our operating margin. Items below operating profit were $0.13 per share better than our guidance and included benefits due to changes in interest rates and other income. Adjusted EPS for the quarter was $8.91, a 9% increase over the prior year.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:06:04

Incremental tariff costs were a gross headwind to EPS of 4%. On a reported basis in the quarter, EPS was $8.33 as compared to $7.81 in the prior year. Reported EPS in the quarter included $0.27 of purchased intangible amortization, $0.29 of restructuring costs, and a $0.02 headwind related to the timing of stock option exercises. That covers the P&L. Let me now comment on adjusted free cash flow, which amounted to $120 million and was negatively impacted by the timing of tax payments, which were $58 million higher than the prior year. DSO was 35 days, while ITO was 4.2x. Let me now turn to our guidance for the second quarter and for the full year 2026.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:07:02

As you review our guidance, please keep in mind the following factors. First, while we have an immaterial exposure directly to the Middle East, the war has led to higher global energy costs and has increased uncertainty in our end markets, and we experienced customer delays in the first quarter. Second, we acknowledge improving global economic indicators and also see increased activity in our pipeline, which we believe will translate to better growth during the second half of the year. Third, our guidance includes a benefit from changes to U.S. import tariff rates in February, but also assumes tariffs in the second half of the year return to consistent levels with prior IEEPA rates.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:07:48

We have also not included potential tariff refunds from the U.S. government in our 2026 guidance, which could benefit cost of goods sold, and we have also not included potential tariff refunds to our customers, which would reduce sales. We will exclude these items from our adjusted EPS and organic sales growth in future periods. Fourth, our guidance includes higher costs due to inflation related to the war in the Middle East. We seek to mitigate these increases with cost savings initiatives and additional pricing actions, but have taken a cautious approach to guidance given the dynamic nature of the current environment. Lastly, we are very confident in our ability to execute on our growth and productivity initiatives and believe we are well-positioned to gain market share regardless of the macro environment. Now turning to our guidance.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:08:42

For the full year 2026, our local currency sales growth forecast remains at approximately 4%. Our forecast includes a contribution from acquisitions which will approximate 1.5% in the first half of the year and less than 1% for the full year. Adjusted EPS is forecast to be in the range of $46.30-$46.95, which represents a growth rate of 8%-10%. This reflects an increase from our previous guidance of 8%-9% growth. At recent spot rates, foreign exchange is estimated to be a 2% benefit to sales growth and neutral to EPS. For the second quarter of 2026, we expect local currency sales to grow approximately 3%, including a benefit of approximately 1.5% from acquisitions.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:09:37

We expect adjusted EPS to be in the range of $10.70-$10.85, a growth rate of 6%-8%. Currency for the quarter at recent spot rates would benefit second quarter sales by approximately 2% and would be neutral to adjusted EPS. Some further comments on our 2026 guidance. We expect total amortization, including purchased intangible amortization, to be approximately $78 million. Purchased intangible amortization is excluded from adjusted EPS and is estimated at $28 million on a pre-tax basis or approximately $1.06. Interest expense is forecast at approximately $70 million for the year. Other income is estimated at approximately $25 million. We expect our tax rate before discrete items will remain at 19% in 2026.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:10:36

Free cash flow is expected to be approximately $900 million in 2026, which is an increase of 5% on a per-share basis. Share repurchases are expected to be in the range of $825 million-$875 million. That's it from my side, and I'll now turn it back to Patrick.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:10:57

Thanks, Shawn. Let me start with some comments on our operating businesses, starting with Lab, which had modest growth across most product categories and strong growth in bioprocessing, partially offset by a decline in pipettes due to soft demand from academia and biotech customers. We see a growing need for replacement across both pharma and biopharma customers and expect to see a gradual increase in activity in the second half of the year. Our team has remained very active in identifying opportunities across various hot segments like biopharma, new energy, and semiconductor that will further fuel our growth in the future. Turning to Industrial, core Industrial sales were up 1% or flat excluding acquisitions, as we have seen cautiousness in customers' purchasing patterns across most end markets, given the dynamic geopolitical and macro environment.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:11:55

Product Inspection sales growth was solid as it benefited from innovation and our mid-market strategy despite continued challenges facing the food manufacturing industry. Lastly, Food Retail had strong sales growth against easy year comparisons. Let me make some additional comments by geography, starting in the Americas, where sales grew 2% or were flat excluding acquisitions. Growth in our lab business included strong bioprocessing growth, while Product Inspection also had strong growth. Core Industrial sales were soft this quarter and were impacted by customer delays related to increased market uncertainty. We remain optimistic for growth in the second half of the year. Turning to Europe, strong growth in our Product Inspection and Food Retail was offset in part by softer market conditions, especially chemical.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:12:58

Asia and the rest of the world had good growth this quarter and included 4% growth in China, led by our industrial business. In markets outside of China, we again had very good growth in India, Southeast Asia, and many other emerging markets, which remain an important component of our long-term growth strategy. I'm pleased that our team continues to execute very well in a challenging market environment. We also continue to make important investments in innovation to secure our future growth. Our R&D accelerator and JetStream programs have helped us increase our pace of innovation while better meeting our customer needs. We especially focus on bringing new innovations to high growth segments such as bioprocessing. Our innovation helps our customers generate new insights, improve workflows through automation and digitalization, and to capture more precise and reliable measurements.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:14:02

Our dedication to bringing new innovations to market helps us increase our value proposition, stimulates replacement demand, gain market share, and support our price premiums in the marketplace. I'd like to share with you some exciting examples of new innovative products we have brought to markets recently. First, our AutoChem business recently launched our new EasyMax Advanced automated lab reactor that helps scientists with their process development by automating scale-up experiments. EasyMax controls temperature, stirring, dosing, sampling. It provides precise measurements with smart digital sensors for continuous unattended data capture, increasing throughput and ensuring consistent results. An embedded vision system continuously records experiments and captures critical events automatically, documenting visual context to speed up understanding of reaction behavior. By utilizing plug and play peripherals, researchers can instantly automate complex tasks such as pH-driven dosing or pressure-dependent sampling, ensuring that every protocol is executed with robotic precision.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:15:24

Our lab business also recently introduced our InMotion PX One Autosampler that fully automates density, refractive index, and UV-VIS measurements, expanding our broad portfolio of automation solutions for the lab. The new Autosampler eliminates manual sample handling, reducing variability while increasing measurement repeatability, and while minimizing contact with potentially dangerous or toxic substances. Our powerful sampling, rinsing, and drying features reduce the time for measurement cycles and enables high throughput and full data integrity, and audit trail is enabled when connected to our LabX software. Our liquid handling business also recently became first to market with low retention pipette tips that do not use PFAS or forever chemicals. Our hydrophobic low retention pipette tips minimize retention of viscous liquids, proteins, enzymes, and DNA without the use of forever chemicals, reducing both the environmental impact and compliance uncertainty associated with PFAS.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:16:34

Switching to our industrial business, our recent Product Inspection innovations have led to very strong sales growth and market share gains. We have further expanded our portfolio of X-ray solutions over the past year with additional coverage of the mid-market. We have also had excellent success with our high-end solutions, including our proprietary dual energy X-ray solutions that utilize advanced photon counting technology for precise identification of physical contamination in food and pharmaceuticals. We have also recently introduced metal detection solutions that further expand our market leadership in metal detection. Our new M50 R-Series delivers a 20% increase in detection sensitivity and is engineered to increase productivity in modern production environments. I am very proud of our team's efforts to further build our portfolio of unique and highly competitive solutions.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:17:33

The breadth of our offering, the unique insights from our direct sales force and technical experts, and the critical support of our service team provides, with the largest service network of our main competitors, are very important differentiators. These innovations will also ensure that we are well prepared to capitalize on the many significant growth opportunities over the medium term, including increasing customer demand from automation and digitalization solutions, as well as faster-growing segments like biopharma, semiconductor, new energy, and others. We also look forward to capitalizing on future growth opportunities with customer replacement cycles and investments in on and nearshoring activities over the coming years. We are also fully committed to delivering on our margin expansion targets and have ample opportunity to deliver strong margin expansion this year and beyond.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:18:32

While there is increased uncertainty related to the conflict in the Middle East, our organization has remained highly agile, and I'm very proud of their efforts to balance the need to drive productivity gains and deliver strong EPS growth while investing for the future. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, I'd like now to open the line to questions.

Operator

0:19:29

Your first question comes from Michael Ryskin with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Michael Ryskin

Analyst

0:19:36

Great. Thanks for taking the question. Let me just start with the high-level on the full-year guide. You reiterated the 4% LC sales growth, I believe you bumped up the M&A contribution a little bit. I think it was previously 1% in the first half, you know, 0.5 for the year. Now it's like 1.5 for the first half, a little less than one for the full-year. On the one hand, you know, the deals contributions trending nicely, and we'd love to talk about that, but also wanna see what's going on in the organic business. Is this something that you saw in the first quarter? Is this just adding a little bit of caution given the macro?

Michael Ryskin

Analyst

0:20:15

If you could, you know, expand a little bit on if it's more in lab or industrial where you're taking down your assumptions, that'd be great.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:20:22

Okay. Hey, Mike, this is Shawn. Hey, maybe I'll take that. Yeah, you're right. Like, in terms of the acquisitions, we're really pleased with how they're, you know, performing. The teams are really doing well. Very good focus on integration. You know, it was about a 1.5% contribution in the first quarter. We expect a similar contribution in the second quarter. When you kind of get into roundings, it, you know, it's still gonna be less than 1%, but it's gonna be more than the 0.5% that we were thinking at the beginning of the year. Of course, that implies, you know, maybe a modest reduction in the organic number.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:20:58

You know, I think that largely reflects a little bit of this uncertainty in the first half of the year, you know. You know, we, you know, we're taking still a cautious approach to the, to the second quarter, just given the environment. You know, we still feel very good about growth for the second half. I mean, we'll talk a little bit more about that throughout the day, I mean, you know, you kind of see a lot of positive indicators out there externally in terms of, you know, PMI. You see, you know, just global indicators looking positive. When we look at our own pipeline, we also feel good about that as well.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:21:31

You know, if we kind of like get into the businesses themselves, maybe I'll just kind of go through it just to, so that everybody has it. For the full year, you know, we're looking at Lab at low to mid-single digit, which is similar to before. For the second quarter, we're also thinking low to mid-single digit, on an organic basis, that's maybe more like low single digit for the Lab business. One of the things we're kind of looking at for Q2 is maybe a little bit more in Europe. You know, there's you know, when we just think about topics like bioprocessing, we see that as something that we expect to see a little bit better results in the second quarter in Europe.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:22:13

When we get into core industrial, you know, core industrial for the full year, we're still at like this low to mid-single digit, but on organic basis, it's low single digit. This one has maybe a couple of dynamics to it. You know, on one hand, we're seeing our Chinese business really showing good improvement, and we feel good about that. On the other hand, we had maybe some more softness, you know, in the first half of the year in some of our Western markets. In terms of Product Inspection, we're at mid-single digit for the full year. That's maybe a little bit better than we were before. On an organic basis, low single digit frankly reflects the strong results we saw in Q1.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:22:56

On the geographies, you know, for the second quarter, that one would be low single-digit, which is down a little bit on an organic basis, and that kind of reflects a little bit the timing. We had a very, very strong start to the year, especially in the Americas, and we'll see maybe some of the other side of that in Q2. Overall, the business is executing extremely well. On the Americas, we're thinking kind of low single-digit for the full year, and also for Q2. On a Q2 basis, that would be a flattish. You know, there's a few dynamics there.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:23:34

We can talk more about it in a minute, you know, one of the things is our retail business, you know, can be a little bit lumpy, and that's gonna be down there in the second quarter. If you look at our European business, we're still at low single-digit for the full year, with low to mid-single-digit in the Q2 guide. That's a little bit of a step up. This is a little bit this lab topic that I was talking about before. China has been a bright spot, you know, in the quarter, and we just feel like there's actually very good momentum there. You know, we went through this period where they kind of went through this reset.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:24:08

We've now had a few quarters in a row of good growth on the industrial side with momentum continuing to build. We're gonna increase our growth expectations for China for the full year to mid-single digit. A lot of it's gonna do with this industrial business, which we kind of see building into the second half of the year. The guidance for Q2 is low to mid-single digit, which is a little bit more similar to what we saw in the first quarter.

Michael Ryskin

Analyst

0:24:35

Okay. I mean, that's like seven questions worth of answers there. I'll just stop there.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:24:42

Yeah, yeah.

Michael Ryskin

Analyst

0:24:43

Thanks. No follow-ups.

Operator

0:24:47

Your next question comes from Luke Sergott with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Luke Sergott

Analyst

0:24:55

Thanks for the questions, guys. You mentioned the 2Q dynamics in the Americas. You mentioned some retail comps and issues there. Can you just kind of double-click in there and give us a sense of what's going on and your outlook and how that's changed?

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:25:11

Yeah. Retail's always a lumpy business, you know? It's, you know, it's, it always has been, always will be. You know, if you kind of like look at Q1, you know, I think it was like down double-digit in the, in the U.S., but we had like really strong growth in, in Europe, you know? Overall retail was up, I think, high single-digit in the quarter. That's the business. You know, you just have these kind of swings. There's nothing to read into it. You know, I think when I step back from it, actually, I feel very good, like in the sense of like how the team's competing.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:25:45

We, you know, we've introduced a lot of new innovation in the last few years, and it's really well-received in the market. I think our team actually just won an award on one of the products. Yeah, a lot of good things going on. We're competing well, but it's just very lumpy. Yeah.

Luke Sergott

Analyst

0:26:04

All right. Just follow up here on China, the particular strength. We've heard this other from peers as well, but you have a slightly more industrial lean. How much of this is due to the middle market strategy within the PI business and that kind of picking up and, also, you know, leading to what you guys have been seeing there in that business over the last year and a quarter?

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:26:28

Hey, hey, this is Patrick. Let me take that, Luke. I mean, we again, as Shawn said, we are very pleased with the momentum in China, but the strength is not coming necessarily out of the Product Inspection business. It's really the core automation business in our core industry business that has really nice momentum. There's a lot of investment going on in automation in China across many of their markets, that is probably the primary momentum that is building up there and also has contributed to have a good Q1 growth. On top of that, I would say in the pharma space, with the recent pharmacopeia changes, we see also good opportunities and good momentum for high-end balances and others where customers are replacing stuff in their QA, QC labs and R&D labs.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:27:11

These two are the more important vectors. It's not a PI. This is really industrial automation and also a good piece of the pharma.

Luke Sergott

Analyst

0:27:22

Oh, great. Thanks.

Operator

0:27:25

Your next question comes from Catherine Schulte with Baird. Please go ahead.

Catherine Schulte

Analyst

0:27:33

Hey, guys. Thanks for the questions. Maybe first, you talked about increased activity in your pipeline supporting, you know, maybe some improved growth in the back half. Can you just elaborate on that a bit? I know you typically only carry a month and a half or so of backlog, but maybe talk through what you're seeing from a funnel indicator standpoint. Thank you.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:27:55

Yeah. You're right. You know, we normally kind of deflect these types of questions with our one and a half months of backlog, which is very true. You know, kind of sitting here today, you know, we've been kind of hearing for the teams for a while, there's a lot of you know, different KPIs in the pipeline from the whole funnel, right? From opportunities all the way through orders. I don't want to get too specific, you know, we have a lot of ongoing reviews with our teams. We, Patrick and I spent a lot of time with the Executive Team earlier this week, kind of going through those details. We reviewed it with the Board yesterday.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:28:30

Just kind of coming out of that, we feel like there's, you know, you kind of compare that to what you see on some of these headlines and, you know, it kind of helps us feel better about like this, you know, this growth in the second half of the year versus what we are seeing with the uncertainty in the first half of the year. I think we all kind of felt like the year would start off a little slower when we guided initially, despite all the arrows pointing in a more positive direction exiting last year with, you know, the more favorable MFN agreements, biotech funding, macro indicators. We did expect the year to start slow. You know, of course, what we didn't expect was some of the geopolitics, which created even more uncertainty in the quarter.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:29:13

We're not seeing any cancellations from that. We're just seeing, you know, it feels like things are just getting pushed out a little bit. When we look at the funnel, you know, we're, you know, we need to still convert those into sales. You know, and absent, you know, things deteriorating on a geopolitical scale, you know, we're actually feeling pretty good.

Catherine Schulte

Analyst

0:29:34

Okay, great. Then you called out some chemical softness in Europe. We've heard some other companies calling out similar dynamics. Can you just unpack a bit what you're seeing there, when that softness started? You know, is it Ukraine related? Is it Middle East related? Is it something else? Maybe just talk through the outlook there. Thanks.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:29:53

Hey, Catherine. This is Patrick. Again, this is more related to, I would say in general to higher energy cost in chemical. So many of these customers are actually seeing the pressure of high energy cost in Europe. They are really more cautious with their investments and also more cautious in expanding their facilities. I would say it's not the Ukraine, it's a combination of the Ukraine and the Middle East. I mean, the oil prices, as we all know, went up quite significantly. That, that weakness in chemical, actually, we saw some of that in our process analytics business, which is very strong on the biopharma side. On the chemical side, it has been a bit softer. Then also in the lab business, that actually had some impact.

Catherine Schulte

Analyst

0:30:42

Great. Thank you.

Operator

0:30:44

Your next question comes from Dan Arias with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Dan Arias

Analyst

0:30:52

Good morning, guys. Thanks for the questions. Shawn, can you maybe talk about cost management in the current environment? It'd be great to just sort of hear about offsetting freight and then oil and input costs for the Rainin business. Maybe just sort of a refresher on sensitivity in general there and then the impact that you see here.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:31:09

Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Dan. Yeah. Hey, so of course our team is highly focused on all these topics. It's a very dynamic environment. You know, we have topics like fuel, transportation costs. We're looking at input costs as well too. You know, we certainly have a strong culture of agility, which always helps us during these times. There's a lot of things that we can do on the cost side. There's things that we're looking at in terms of price mitigation as well too. We've been a little bit cautious with how we've, you know, kind of factored that into our guidance, because, you know, in addition to all that, we have some, you know, we'll have some benefits on the tariff side a little bit.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:31:54

You know, if you think about these IEEPA, the tariffs going away and then kind of going to the 10%. Of course, we have new news yesterday. We'll see how that plays out. You know, we're assuming the IEEPA, the tariffs go back to what they were before kind of midyear. You know, in that few month period, there's a little bit of a benefit. The way we're kind of thinking about it is like we'll have that benefit, we'll have some of these headwinds, they probably are in a similar kind of a range. On top of that, of course, we're gonna look at trying to do some mitigation, which could be an upside here.

Dan Arias

Analyst

0:32:28

Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Maybe just to follow up on Mike's question and then your answer there. When you were going through the moving pieces, I don't know, it just kind of felt like there was at least as much uptick stuff as there was downtick stuff. You guys have a pretty good track record of leaving yourselves room to beat, and you have some pricing power. I know we're only talking about a couple of dips of organic, but can you just maybe pinpoint where it is that you found yourself needing to adjust the outlook? Thanks.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:32:55

Yeah, I mean, these things get kind of into rounding sometimes. You know, like, you know, you know, of course we, when we kind of look through it, you know, you debate of is it this or that? In the end, sometimes they're rounding. I wouldn't try to read too much into the precision of it. I'd say like, you know, where we felt like we had good momentum going into the second half of the year, was this China situation. Modestly that kind of is offset by some of the other geographies.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:33:27

You know, it might not change exactly how we say, you know, low single-digit for this country or that country, but in the end, there's just kind of nuances between the countries and, you know, it didn't change in terms of how we maybe speak to the range, but modestly a little bit better in China. We have good momentum, I'd say in emerging markets in general, like, you know, countries like India, is a very good example. Then just modestly, you know, a little bit lower in the Western markets and more so in the first half of the year, you know. I think in the U.S. we see it as much as anywhere here in terms of Q1 in terms of customer behavior.

Dan Arias

Analyst

0:34:11

Okay. Helpful. Thank you.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:34:14

Yeah.

Operator

0:34:14

Your next question comes from Patrick Donnelly with Citi. Please go ahead.

Patrick Donnelly

Analyst

0:34:22

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Maybe just to follow up, I know you talked about the chemical side, Patrick. Can you just talk about just that core industrial piece? It sounds like China's maybe a little bit better, but on the Western side, you know, how have those conversations changed with customers? What are you hearing given the macro backdrop and just the right way to think about this impact and the visibility you guys have for that business going forward?

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:34:45

Yeah. Very good. Hey, Patrick. Clearly as that China is, has already, I would say, taken a very nice uptick there in terms of the automation piece in our industrial portfolio. When you ask me what's shifting in core industrial, it's while in the past, we have sold probably a lot more discrete, you know, industrial balances and stuff like that to end users. We see an increasing demand for automation and digitalization, and this is also done for our customers by a lot of automation partners. We see a lot of more engagement with OEMs and others that are really using our portfolio to build higher automated manufacturing lines, et cetera.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:35:34

We have an outstanding portfolio there and see a lot of engagement in China, but also increasingly in the western part in Europe, where we have seen good momentum. Also in the U.S. I mean looking forward, what I anticipate is also there the, with the build out of manufacturing capacities in the U.S., whether it's in pharma and industrial pieces, you will see also better momentum in industrial. Now with our industrial automation solutions going through these automation partners that build out manufacturing lines and other automation solutions for end customers. I'm actually really optimistic about our solutions. We have put a lot of innovation in our products over the last years, it really plays out nicely now that we have a very strong portfolio in this place.

Patrick Donnelly

Analyst

0:36:22

Okay. That's helpful. Then Shawn, maybe one for you just on the guide. Can you talk about the price versus volume? I think the previous guide was 250 basis points of price, maybe 100-ish of organic volume. Can you just update where we are there? Then, you know, staying on the topic of price, just how you're thinking about the moving pieces of margins with price and maybe some of the input costs. Thank you, guys.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:36:44

Price came in pretty much as expected in Q1, and we're in that kind of 3.5% kind of a range. Feel really good about the value proposition in the company. I mean, Patrick talked a lot about innovation earlier in the prepared remarks. I mean, that's ultimately the key, right? When you're providing value to your customers, there's a willingness to pay, and I think our organization does a great job articulating that and so that we can, you know, kind of be compensated for the value. As we think about the rest of the year, Q2 will probably be in the 2.5% range or so, maybe a little bit better.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:37:24

You know, things start to step down now because we lap some of the midyear pricing that we put in place last year, with some of the different topics from last year. For the second half of the year, we're still kind of holding this, like, normalized 2%. Frankly, I could see a little bit of upside here as we kind of think about inflation in this environment, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't, you know, raise anything quite yet. We'll see what we'll do, and we'll kind of evaluate that. For the full year, we're still kind of in that, like, 2.5% range or so. Yeah.

Patrick Donnelly

Analyst

0:38:00

Okay. Thank you, guys.

Operator

0:38:03

Your next question comes from Vijay Kumar with Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

Vijay Kumar

Analyst

0:38:11

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Patrick, maybe my first one for you on, looking at Q1 performance, it looks like lab was where all the challenges happened. You did call out Middle East, maybe some customer delays. Talk about, you know, how Q1 phasing played out. Do you see trends improving exiting Q1? Like, what was the issue in labs, and was it all tied to Middle East?

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:38:38

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Hey, thanks. On the lab side, yes, we had a bit slower than expected start with some headwinds. The headwinds were mainly, say, in the research area, academia with pipettes. Our pipette business actually was negative in the first quarter. On the chemical side, it also, you know, was these delayed customer investments that we have seen in Europe that affected somewhat lab there. These were the two key areas. Where we saw good momentum and continuously very good momentum is bioprocessing. That continues to be very strong. We are also really well-positioned there with our strong lab portfolio with LabX as, you know, a workflow enabler and key differentiator against many of our competitors.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:39:23

We expect, after this, I would say, slower start in Q1, we expect conditions to gradually improve throughout 2026 for lab. Again, on the pro side, anyway, bioprocessing really strong. We see also, really good investments, as I said before, in, for example, in China with the Pharmacopeia role. We see there also lots of investments, you know, of companies that build out manufacturing capacities for GLP-1s and others. Our team is really well connected to this build-out. I think lab will gain momentum and, when Shawn referred to, the pipeline activity, that also of course includes to some extent, what our lab team is working with our customers on some of the better projects for the second half.

Vijay Kumar

Analyst

0:40:13

Understood. When you think about that back half, step up, Patrick, is that assuming academic and government improves? You know, you said it was down in Q1. Are you assuming the delayed orders from Q1 maybe catching up or perhaps a step up in bioprocessing, right? I think you mentioned something around automated chemistry as well doing, performing well. Just what are the moving pieces?

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:40:40

Yeah

Vijay Kumar

Analyst

0:40:42

You know, from a, from a end product, perspective?

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:40:46

Yeah, again, the bigger moving pieces is probably what you will see with our industrial automation solutions. Core Industrial will be strong. Again, we see lab improving, but on academia, we do not factor in a big of improvement. I mean, I think we'll continue to compete even better in that space and forecast probably more flattish for the instead of declines for the second quarter and the rest of the year. Given the, also the strong portfolio that we launched, we just launched a very interesting new product on the pipette side with the Vero pipette. We again relaunched these new pipettes with PFAS free coating, et cetera. We have a lot of good stuff going there as well.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:41:31

The step-ups, again, will be more driven by industrial. A lot of it is also coming out of China in general, more across the business. PI remains to be strong. That, that's a good move for us in the, in the second half as well. I think these are the key pieces, Shawn. Was there anything you wanna add?

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:41:52

No. I think that's good. Yeah. I think, like you said, I think there's, you know, softer market conditions. Things will gradually improve, but there's also some things going on inside the company. That will help too.

Vijay Kumar

Analyst

0:42:08

All right. Thank you.

Operator

0:42:11

Your next question comes from Kallum Titchmarsh with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Kallum Titchmarsh

Analyst

0:42:19

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Maybe just talk us through the demand you're seeing on the service front and any stats you could just give us on the attach rate on the current installed base. Just a refreshed view there would be helpful given some of the bullish commentary in the past.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:42:34

Yeah. Thank you. Of course, we're really proud about the service growth. I mean, we have you have seen us growing 7% in the first quarter. 2% of that was driven also through acquisitions we have done. Even the core underlying growth of 5% in this environment, it really speaks to our incredible strength and service, and our great connection of our customers through our service business. I, as I said before, I see our service business to continue to outgrow products, as we have ample of headroom to grow, to connect more of the installed base that is currently not under service contract or even not covered today by our service organization.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:43:11

We launched about two years ago now, or two years in, dedicated service growth initiative that we continue to fund to cover more of that installed base with not only going after the, you know, uncovered installed base, but also increasing the connect rate of services at the point of sales, which is different across the product portfolio. I cannot give you, like, an average number here because as you can imagine, for example, a business like Product Inspection, which is end-of-line inspection, fully automated, it's a very high connect rate because these customers cannot afford any downtimes in their food manufacturing environment. Whereas in other areas like in lab or academia, it's lower. We have dedicated programs in place to increase these connect rates, and we see continued improvement there as well.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:44:01

Again, I'm very optimistic about our service business. Internally, my team hears me a lot speaking about, you know, how important it is for us to drive higher customer loyalty. Our NPS scores and services are outstanding, when I compare this with the rest of the industry. Again, I think there's a lot of good stuff to come.

Kallum Titchmarsh

Analyst

0:44:24

Great. Just any update on the reshoring theme. Maybe just talk us through those discussions with customers, if you've had any, and just the refresh on the timelines there. Thanks a lot.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:44:35

Look, the reshoring, we know all excited about it, but it's still early innings for us. Remember, about 50% of our business is related to manufacturing, then another 20% QA, QC, I would say, which if you think about manufacturing expansion is probably the biggest opportunity. These reshoring activities, while they're all the news, and I just read an article this morning news in from Switzerland that one of the companies in Switzerland actually decided to not expand the line in Switzerland, but build it out in the U.S. This is exciting, but again, this will take time. I mean, it's early innings, and I think it's a great opportunity for us moving forward to help our customers as they build out capacity with our highly automated digitalized solutions.

Operator

0:45:26

Your next question comes from Josh Waldman with Cleveland Research. Please go ahead.

Josh Waldman

Analyst

0:45:34

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Patrick, I wondered if you could comment on how durable you expect recent higher growth in PI could be. Any reason to think this, like, mid-single-digit growth for 2026 could be sustainable into 2027 when you think about kind of the upgrade cycle opportunity across mid-market and now the dual X-ray? I guess, have you guys?

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:45:56

Yeah

Josh Waldman

Analyst

0:45:57

started to roadmap out what you think the upgrade cycle could be?

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:46:03

No, look, we're not looking. This is also a constant replacement business in many areas. I mean, these systems here, a lot of wear and tear in some areas. We are even more excited about, you know, getting deeper in the mid-range markets. We've changed that strategy about one, two years ago, expanding our portfolio in the mid-range where we're attacking very successfully with a new expanded portfolio. I'm actually quite optimistic that there's a lot of headroom for us to continue to grow. The team puts out a lot of great innovation on all fronts, whether it's check lane, whether it's the metal detection, as I talked about in my earlier remarks, or with the photon counting and X-ray to drive even more sensitivity and with that also more application spaces for us. I think this thing has a long run in.

Josh Waldman

Analyst

0:46:50

Good to hear. I wonder if you could talk through what you're seeing in core industrial, more at the product level. You know, any pockets of recent acceleration or decel? Any more color on where the delays hit? I thought a portion of this business was kind of tied to, you know, kind of component sales, maybe to bioproduction equipment OEMs. Is that right? If so, can you remind us kind of the size of that business and trends you've seen there?

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:47:22

Maybe just giving you a couple of shades of flavor here. Like, I think the thing that stands out to me the most is that the portfolio still seems to perform really well, and you see higher growth in the areas that support themes around automation and digitalization. Like, we talked a lot about the portfolio strength in this area. We definitely see the opportunities globally. We see customers shifting into this direction, and that continues to do really well. You know, in other parts of the portfolio, you know, sometimes there can be some lumpiness, like we saw in Q3 of last year, you know, with some project activity and some of the dimensioning solutions that we provide for logistical people and things like that, or companies.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:48:10

I'd say overall, the team is competing well. Now, when you think about the end market exposures, about 60% of core industrial is sold to a combination of pharma, food manufacturing, and chemical. You know, out of those three, I'd say the one that's probably the softest right now is the chemical, you know, for kind of the obvious reasons, you know, with the impact of higher energy costs on their facilities and just probably kind of delaying. I'd say in general, there was just some caution in, you know, in the broader end market space for industrial.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:48:51

Similar to how we started the year, we just felt like after all the When there's uncertainty, people pause a little bit, right? That's how we expected the year to start. It definitely happened and, you know, with the increased uncertainty, I think that was a factor. The other side of this business, of course, is, you know, we talked a lot about that it's less cyclical than the past, but of course, you know, improving PMI is something that we, you know, we look at favorably as well too for the future. You know, when you factor in, and I'm not talking You know, timing of these things always is You know, we'll see how it plays out.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:49:27

You know, as we kind of even go into the medium term, you know, we'll have broader opportunities with this onshoring theme that Patrick talked about. At some point I think we'll see more on the replacement cycle. What we're also seeing is like in some of the hot segments, like, you know, if you kind of look into China, like, you know, China has a lot of very exciting hot segments that seem to be really picking up momentum, like the battery segment being a good example there. You know, these are things that, you know, again, play well to the portfolio.

Josh Waldman

Analyst

0:50:03

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

0:50:07

Your next question comes from Doug Schenkel with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

Doug Schenkel

Analyst

0:50:14

Good morning. Two questions, or really two topics. First on pacing. Some of this has been covered in some of your answers to other questions, but I'm just curious if you'd be willing to distill a little bit when it comes to any product categories or geographies that got, you know, notably better or worse in April versus March. You know, I think it was Dan Arias' question earlier where, you know, he kind of pointed out, you know, lots of moving parts, but that's, you know, fairly normal and there's some good guys and bad guys in the quarter. It would be helpful to just see if there were areas where things changed, you know, over the last couple of months as we think about trends into the rest of the year. That's the first one.

Doug Schenkel

Analyst

0:51:01

The second is specific to China grants. Could you elaborate a bit more on the grant proceeds recognized in the quarter? That seems like it could be something important in terms of being indicative of broader improvement and sentiment in the region, but I just wanna make sure we're not putting too much emphasis on that. Thank you.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:51:26

Yeah, sure. Hey, in terms of getting into more granularity, Doug, hey, we usually don't talk about months and certainly wouldn't wanna talk about too much color. I think you can, you know, just the fact, you know, that we try to lay out what we thought for Q2 by product area and, you know, division and region and the full year. You know, you can kind of see directionally, you know, how we're thinking of things in terms of Q1 to Q2 and then Q2 to the full year and, you know, wouldn't wanna kind of repeat kind of what I went through there before.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:52:00

In terms of like the China grant, you know, this is a grant from local government. They're, you know, I The way I would read it is like they're just encouraging us from, you know, in terms of expanding our capacity there in the Shanghai area. They're also, you know, encouraging us for local manufacturing for things and also for research, you know. These are things that have always been priorities of the Chinese government and so for us it's consistent with our strategy. We're not necessarily, you know, doing things significantly different here in terms of how we think about our footprint.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:52:43

I think everybody knows we have a very important Chinese business, you know, that we think has got a great growth opportunity for the future and we have a great China for China story. I'd say this is another chapter in that China for China story, you know, in terms of how there's investment in China for China and, you know, this one's nice because the local government's encouraging it. There's two dynamics to the grant. There's some of it's CapEx related and some of it's OpEx related. You know, the OpEx is mostly on the research side.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:53:27

You know, from a cash flow perspective, there's gonna be timing differences between when we receive grant funds and when we actually spend against the grant. We'll exclude both of those from our cash flow statement as we kind of report on our NCO, our free cash flow going forward.

Doug Schenkel

Analyst

0:53:44

Okay. Super helpful. Thank you very much.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:53:47

Yeah. Thanks.

Operator

0:53:49

Your next question comes from Tycho Peterson with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Tycho Peterson

Analyst

0:53:57

Hey, thanks. I wanna actually hit on the customer delays again. Can you quantify, you know, how large those were and, you know, how you think about the path to recoup? Then the chemical softness, is this a push out? I mean, or is it more CapEx, you know, budgets getting cut, which obviously has longer term implications?

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:54:18

Yeah. Hey, Tycho. Hey, on the customer delays, I mean, it's not like we have a quantification of that. It was a general theme that we saw, in, you know, some of the Western markets in the quarter, you know, especially earlier in the quarter. You know, I can't put a specific number on that. You know, as we kind of like provided some of the insights to our pipeline and stuff like that, I think you can read into that, you know, we're feeling more confident about things converting here as we kind of like go towards the second half of the year. In terms of chemical, you know, I think it's a, you know, we'll see how it plays out.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:54:58

You know, I think it's still too early to kinda, to judge, like, exactly how it's gonna play out. Certainly out of the core end markets, it's the softer one, certainly out of the big three for us. I mean, China chemical, to put it in perspective, is about 10 to, you know, low teens, kind of a percent growth. Most of it's specialty chem for us. There's also sectors of that that also participate in some of these hotter segments too. It's not necessarily all bad, you know, in terms of how we think about. Yeah, I think we'll have some easier comps here in the second half on chemical as well too.

Tycho Peterson

Analyst

0:55:41

Okay. Follow up just on Europe. You know, you've had a couple months of, you know, PMI in expansionary territory. I know you took up kind of the near term guide a little bit. You know, is there a chance that that could actually come back sooner?

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:55:57

Yeah, we'll see. I mean, right now in the short term, we're still a little bit more taking a more cautious profile, you know. You know, we'll see how it plays out. We'll see how it plays out. Yeah.

Tycho Peterson

Analyst

0:56:13

Okay. Thank you.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:56:17

Yes.

Operator

0:56:17

Your next question comes from Evie Koslosky with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Evie Koslosky

Analyst

0:56:24

Hey, thanks for taking the questions. I think in the past you've talked about your exposure to the semiconductor industry with the ultra pure water business. Can you remind us what your exposure there is as a percentage of revenue, and then how that business tended to start the year?

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:56:40

Percentage.

Adam Uhlman

Head of Investor Relations

0:56:40

Is it like low single digits?

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:56:42

Yeah. So Evie, this is Patrick. I mean, if you think about, it's part of our process analytics portfolio, and I think in total is a low single-digit contribution in revenues.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:56:53

It's doing extremely well. I mean, all these build-outs in semiconductor, including, by the way, data centers, where these things are also used for cooling systems. This is a great business opportunity for us, and we have a really strong go-to-market team there and a really strong connection to customers. That's growing really well. In total revenue contribution, I mean, we, of course, it's one of the hot segments that I highlighted, but it's low single digits in total.

Evie Koslosky

Analyst

0:57:22

Okay, great. On bioprocessing, think that saw good growth in the quarter. I guess, what sort of demand are you seeing for your bioreactor sensors as people look to drive automation in their facilities? How do you feel your portfolio is competing relative to the broader market?

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:57:39

The growth rate?

Adam Uhlman

Head of Investor Relations

0:57:40

How are we competing on bioprocessing?

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:57:42

Well, we're competing extremely well. We also launched, we continue to launch also new products. We just launched also recently a new glucose sensor, for example. We are very strong there. Also with all our digital sensors for like our integrated or Intelligent Sensor Management systems. Fully digital, which really is highly differentiated from our competitors. We see good demand, I would say across the world, around the world in bioprocessing. No slowdown there, I would expect that with the build-out for, you know, major important drugs like GLP-1, that continues.

Evie Koslosky

Analyst

0:58:22

Great. Thank you.

Operator

0:58:25

Your next question comes from Brandon Couillard with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Brandon Couillard

Analyst

0:58:33

Hey, thanks. Good morning. Patrick, did I hear you break out lab versus industrial within China in the quarter? Are there any pockets of lab that are doing better, like bioprocess there, or are they all kind of generally in the same sort of similar flattish range? Thanks.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

0:58:52

No, I'm looking at numbers here.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:58:54

Yeah. Hey, maybe let me, I'll start with the numbers, then Patrick can answer the question. In terms of the quarter, you know, we were up, Hold on a second. I'm looking at the wrong thing here. I just want to make sure I'm giving you the right number. Yeah, we were up 4% in China in the quarter. You know, industrial was up high single-digit, you know, to put it in perspective, this is like the third quarter in a row with good growth on the industrial side in China. You know, the second quarter in a row with like, more like, you know, high single-digit kind of growth here.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

0:59:36

You know, lab was, you know, just down slightly. Some different dynamics going on there, but, you know, dependent a little bit on the product category. I'd say, you know, overall, you know, the, you know, the market is a little bit softer than the industrial side, but I think that, you know, we're kinda optimistic as we kinda look into the second half of the year here. Maybe you can add a little more color, Patrick.

Patrick Kaltenbach

CEO

1:00:02

Look, I mean, just specifically to lab, I mean, when the pharma, let's say the pharma markets as well, the pharma, biopharma piece is doing well. The small molecule market, or some people call it chemical pharma in our area is softer at the moment. That has impact on some of the product categories that we have. For example, if you think about in lab, about our AutoChem business, has been also impacted by that. Two vectors there. One vector is, I would say the softer end market in small molecule chem. Also we launched a new product and some customers knew about that, so that also probably caused a little bit of delay in terms of growth there as well.

Brandon Couillard

Analyst

1:00:47

Got it. Thanks.

Operator

1:00:49

Your next question comes from Casey Woodring with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Casey Woodring

Analyst

1:00:57

Great. Thanks for fitting me in. Maybe I'll just ask one, last one. I want to clarify the incremental tariff piece. Is the March change in Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes included in that? Maybe just unpack the tariff component a little bit more. Thank you.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

1:01:12

Yeah, sure, Casey. You know, so yeah, there's kind of like two dynamics here. On one hand, we have like a good guy with the lower rate from February in tariffs. We'll see some of that kind of in the second quarter. We assume that that kind of goes back to the, you know, the previous, like, rates similar to the previous IEEPA rates, you know, kind of in the summer here. On the other side of that, we also have higher inflationary pressures, as I mentioned before, like of course we're working on different mitigation actions, but we're a little bit cautious about putting that all into the guide.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

1:01:50

The way I kinda think about it is you have like some of these inflationary topics kind of largely offsetting the tariff benefit with an upside on how, you know, how we approach some of the mitigation kind of in the second half of the year.

Casey Woodring

Analyst

1:02:07

Got it. Thanks, guys.

Shawn Vadala

CFO

1:02:09

Yep, thanks.

Operator

1:02:11

This concludes the Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to Adam for closing remarks.

Adam Uhlman

Head of Investor Relations

1:02:18

Hey, thanks, Rebecca, and thanks everybody for joining us this morning. If you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to reach out to me, and I hope you all have a great weekend. Take care.

Operator

1:02:28

This concludes the call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

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