KPLTW Q3 2026 earnings call transcript, November 12, 2026

Good morning.

Thanks for taking my questions.

Congrats on getting the merger closed. I know you guys have been very busy. To start off, Cory, I'd love to pick your brain. And just kind of hear how that Erin's business has been doing since she took over as CEO, you know, given it was private, but kind of get an update there in terms of any strategies you maintain, any strategies you shifted and, you know, where call it same store sales has been. Trending. Yeah, just a quick update there if you don't mind.

You know, obviously, since the merger was finalized, we're not breaking out errands on its own, but leading up. To the merger, errands was in a strong place. The focus areas that we had over the past couple of years is really around meeting the customer where they're at. And I think that if you look back over time. The errands company was kind of being run as a retailer. And when I came in, I wanted to shift that focus back to consumer finance, meet the customer where they're at, lean into some of the new products that we put in place. Those being Aaron's Protection Plus and a revamped club program that allowed us to meet more of the customer's needs and then meet them either in our stores or online and focus on. The new way that that customer was coming to us, which was more and more online every year. So a lot of the things that we focused on at Aaron's leading up to the merger, we're continuing on obviously in a short period of time since we finalized the merger and we'll focus on that going forward. And Kyle, this is Russ. You know, I'd say Aaron's is the biggest part of the lease to own and retail segment. And so when you look at the lease to own and retail segment results for the third quarter, you'll see margin expansion and significant. EBITDA growth. And so we're obviously happy with the whole segment, but Aaron's is going to be the biggest part of that segment. Got it. Really helpful. And then wanted to pivot to the debt, the debt refi opportunity. I think you guys had.

Thank you for taking my questions and congratulations on the merger and everything. My first question, I really wanted to kind of go back and learn more. So now the companies are operating together for three months now. So speaking on integration, what initiatives so far have been progressing the fastest and where are you seeing like the earliest like tangible benefits? And then that's all set there. Okay. Yeah. So far, 90 days in, we've identified 30 million of cost synergies in most- of that's been action. So we're really working hard to identify, act upon it, so we can start seeing those results, get the P&L as soon as possible, which we think is- it's going to build over the fourth quarter and largely be included in the run rate by mid- 2027. The areas where we focus to get those synergies so far have been organization changes, consolidating corporate regional offices, the back office functions that- we operate is an area where we're looking at to get into one operational footprint across a new combined business to capture those synergies. I'll say- I'll give an example that HR is the first- this along. We've moved HR to a single team. We have a new system that we're going to put in place January 1st, and we're all kind of set up to hit the ground running January 1st with that new streamlined structure. Another area we- focused on is our marketing groups. Before, we had three distinct marketing groups. We're all focused on the customer that came into their silos. What we've done so far is we brought those three silos into one marketing-

We're excited about all of the businesses, but with respect to CCFI. You know, there's a couple of things that I think give us a real advantage in the marketplace. And the first is really our call, click or come in platform. Corey talked about meeting the customer where they are and that's exactly what. What we do at CCFI, you know, obviously it's a challenging macroeconomic environment out there, but that also creates a lot of top of funnel demand for CCFI. And I think with the, you know, the robust. Underwriting and decision engines that we have, we can really manage that demand to improve margin, to really manage that business for margin. So I think, you know, having brick and mortar locations is an asset. I have having a robust digital. Properties is an asset. And quite frankly, you know, having a really experienced management team, both in the field and our contact centers and online to understand the customer allow us to be more proactive than react. So I think there's a lot of bright sky ahead for CCFI, particularly as we look to innovate new products and new platforms. And again, taking full advantage of the data that's available to the merger. And through the revenue synergies and, you know, an upside that we have through the other businesses. Understood.

Thank you for taking my questions.