Finning International Inc
TSX:FTT
Finning International Inc
In the vast realm of heavy equipment, Finning International Inc. emerges as a stalwart, renowned for steering the machinery landscape primarily through its extensive dealership of Caterpillar (CAT) products. Founded in 1933, this Canadian enterprise has grown into the world's largest Caterpillar equipment dealer. Positioned strategically in robust markets across Canada, South America, and the UK, Finning thrives by providing machinery essential for industries ranging from mining and construction to forestry and energy. The heart of their business lies in not just selling equipment, but also in fortifying customer operations through a comprehensive mix of services, including maintenance, repairs, and equipment rentals. This service-centric approach enhances customer loyalty and strengthens recurring revenue streams, meaning every bulldozer or loader purchase often paves the way for sustained service relationships.
Finning's prowess in adapting to the evolving needs of its clients lies in leveraging the Caterpillar brand’s reputation for durability and innovation. As the company navigates dynamic economic landscapes, it has honed its focus on digital transformation and sustainability. By integrating advanced data analytics, Finning aids its customers in optimizing machinery usage and reducing operational costs. The rise of autonomous machinery and eco-friendly solutions also propels the company to the forefront of the industry, helping clients increase efficiency while meeting regulatory demands for sustainable practices. Through these strategies, Finning not only sells iron but also delivers value-added insights, ensuring its dominant presence in the marketplace is paralleled by strong financial performance.
Earnings Calls
In the first quarter, Finning International posted a 7% revenue growth, reaching $2.5 billion, aided by a diversified business that includes a significant share of international earnings. The equipment backlog rose by $240 million, hitting a record $2.8 billion, driven largely by mining orders. Adjusted EPS reached $0.99, marking an 18% increase year-over-year. Product support revenues climbed 11%. The company plans a 10% increase in its dividend reflecting resilience and solid execution. Additionally, the sale of 4Refuel for $450 million will enhance capital allocation and support further growth initiatives.【4:0†source】.
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Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Finning International, Inc. First Quarter 2025 Investor Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]
I would now like to turn the conference over to Greg Palaschuk, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Finning's first quarter earnings call. Joining me today is our President and CEO, Kevin Parkes. Following their remarks, we'll open the line to questions.
This call is being webcast on the Investor Relations section of finning.com. We've also provided a set of slides on our website that we will reference. An audio file of this call and the accompanying slides will also be archived.
Before I turn it over to Kevin, I want to remind everyone that some of the statements provided during this call are forward-looking. Please refer to Slides 11 and 12 for important disclosures about forward-looking information as well as currency and specified financial measures, including non-GAAP financial measures. Please note that forward-looking information is subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors as discussed in our annual information form under key business risks and our MD&A under Risk Factors and Management and forward-looking information disclaimer. Please treat this information with caution as our actual results could differ materially from current expectations.
Kevin, over to you.
Thanks, Greg, and good morning, everyone. In the first quarter, we continued our positive momentum from 2024, and I'm proud of our employees' positive impact and the strong execution.
I'd like to start with a review of the first quarter before providing a brief recap of our last 12 months performance. I will then turn the call over to Greg, who will provide more detail on our results.
Please turn to Slide 2. We started 2025 with another strong quarter of results, growing net revenue by 7% from Q1 2024 to $2.5 billion. The diversity of our business, both in terms of geographic and end market exposure provides resilience and stability for our earnings, which is particularly important given the uncertainty businesses are facing right now.
As a reminder, approximately half of our revenues are derived from outside of Canada. We are really pleased with the continued growth in our backlog, especially considering we delivered another strong quarter of new equipment sales growth at 7%. Backlog grew from year-end 2024 by $240 million. Order intake was broad-based and solid in all regions. These orders -- the orders received in Canada are especially encouraging, providing us with a good level of confidence in our outlook for new equipment for the rest of the year and for product support opportunities for years to come.
Order intake in the Construction segment was up relative to order intake in Q1 of 2024. The big driver of our backlog increase, however, was related to the Mining segment, where we received orders from several customers, including over 20 ultra-class haul trucks, multiple shovels and a range of support equipment.
The steady growth in our business, coupled with our improved earnings capacity due to our focus on resiliency provides a strong foundation for continuing our dividend growth this year with an increase of 10%, the 24th consecutive annual increase for Finning.
Moving to product support. Quarter 1 product support revenue grew in all regions, reflecting reinvigorated sales efforts in a more constructive environment. In Canada, mining activity improved. And as I spoke about on our last call, we are totally committed to supporting our customers to lower production costs through strong partnerships, planning and execution.
Revenue grew 10% year-over-year and was up 9% from Q4 2024, helped by normal -- by more normal winter conditions. In South America, product support revenues were up 6% in functional currency on continued strong mining activity, where we continue to deliver new trucks, build capacity and capabilities. Indeed, we added over 100 technicians in the region just in this quarter.
In the U.K. and Ireland, product support revenues were up 4% in functional currency on improved Power segment activity levels as a result of many years of population growth. We will continue to maximize product support revenues across all regions. Building on the momentum of 2024, we continue to execute on our full cycle resilience strategy, which combined with product support growth strengthened and stabilized our earnings capacity.
SG&A as a percentage of net revenue decreased from Q1 2024 by 50 basis points to 16.4%. And we will continue to look for opportunities to build more flexibility into our cost base and invest in sales and service capabilities to drive future growth. We also continued our strong focus on free cash flow, generating $135 million. Execution of our sustainable growth initiatives is progressing strongly. Our Power Systems backlog is up over 50% from this time last year to over $900 million with strong data center activity in the U.K. and South America.
In Canada, our Power Systems backlog is at 18-month highs with strong order intake from both electric power and oil and gas end markets. It is important to consider our Power Systems backlog in the context of our overall backlog, driven by our focus on this secular trend. This population has supported Power Systems product support revenue growth, which was up year-over-year in Canada and the U.K. more than 15%.
Revenue in our used equipment segment decreased this quarter, largely due to lumpy mining business. Margins, however, stabilized and in some cases, improved to levels above our expectations.
Total revenue decreased slightly versus Q1 2024. However, we are encouraged by the improvement in our Cat rental store revenue, which was up 15% in Canada as the leadership and fleet changes we made last year have improved the efficiency and performance of this business in a challenging market. We remain committed to growing this important line of our business.
Please turn to Slide 3. I'd like to spend a few minutes recapping the last 12 months and reiterate some of the progress we've made in executing our strategy. Overall, net revenue has grown 5%, while our equipment backlog is up almost $900 million from this time last year.
Importantly, our backlog is diversified and is larger in each of mining, construction and power. Similarly, product support revenue is up 5% in the last 12 months relative to the same period of the prior year. This includes adding over 400 technicians to meet growing needs of our customers and a larger installed base of equipment.
This growth means our earning capacity has improved and has been supported through the continued improvement in SG&A as a percentage of net revenue, which sits at 16.2% over the last 12 months. Our free cash flow has been a significant $1.2 billion, which is particularly pleasing given the growth.
Our sustainable growth initiatives have also progressed well with used equipment revenue up 8%, Power Systems revenue up 10%, and we will continue to progress these opportunities and allocate resources to these growth initiatives.
Before I turn the call back over to Greg, I'd like to briefly discuss some color, having spent some time in each of our regions recently. And I'm very pleased to see the commitment of our employees to our strategy.
In South America, I was able to spend some time with our employees at our expanded Antofagasta facilities, where we have added more than 20 work base and incremental warehousing capacity and technology to meet the growing product support needs of our customers. I was also able to meet with several customers, many of whom planned for additional equipment investments in the future to meet their growth objectives. The outlook for investment in copper mining from our South American customers remains very positive.
In the U.K. and Ireland, our employees continue to demonstrate their strong commitment to resiliency, particularly in the face of more subdued macroeconomic environment. There is some encouragement in certain areas of the market, and our sales focus is driving rebuild activity, new equipment order intake and backlog growth, the latter of which is up 8% sequentially and 80% versus the same quarter last year.
We do still, however, remain overall cautious on the U.K. and Ireland market, and our execution is thoughtful. With this in mind, our teams continue to look at ways in the U.K. to generate further efficiencies and optimize the skills of our frontline technicians, including through the use of digital tools to optimize workforce planning and scheduling and workday utilization. We see solid progress from these tools, enabling improved productivity and better visibility to rebuild activity levels.
Turning to Canada. I'm pleased to see our employees embracing resiliency initiatives while at the same time growing our business in the face of a more challenging market conditions. We believe demonstrating attention and responsiveness to our customer needs will allow further wins and growth in market share and expand our customer base.
To date, the impact of enacted tariffs have had limited impact on our business. We have not seen a major shift in our end market activity levels or our product support or new equipment spending from our customers relative to expectations. There remains opportunity to improve the resiliency of our Canadian business, and I'm excited to see what Tim and the team are working on.
Overall, we are encouraged with the strong start to the year, and we remain confident and committed to the execution of our strategy. We are excited about the future as we sharpen our focus and allocate resources to growth opportunities in areas such as product support, addressable market, power generation and rental.
We also plan to invest in future adoption of technology like autonomy and our digital capabilities to enable growth and improve customer outcomes. As you will have seen in our announcement last week, we have reached an agreement to sell 4Refuel for $450 million, and we think this sale is a great outcome for Finning and 4Refuel.
For Finning, this sale advances many of our strategic objectives we set out in our 2023 Investor Day and will allow us to simplify our business and focus on growing our core dealerships.
From a financial perspective, the transaction will allow us to optimize our invested capital position and lower our SG&A costs, and we expect the transaction and allocation of net proceeds to be accretive to earnings per share. We do extend our gratitude to 4Refuel President, Larry Rodo, and all of the 4Refuel employees and team for their partnership, dedication and strong performance, and we wish them future success.
And with that, I'll hand the call back to Greg.
Great. Thank you, Kevin. I'll turn to Slide 4. Our Q1 net revenue of $2.5 billion was up 7% from Q1 of 2024, led by strong growth in product support revenue and new equipment sales.
Our first quarter earnings were adjusted for a $0.22 impairment loss related to the write-down of assets in ComTech in line with the value of the transaction announced last week. Excluding this, EBIT was up 6% from Q1 2024 on strong volume growth. Adjusted EPS of $0.99 was a record for the first quarter and up 18% from Q1 of '24, reflecting higher earnings in South America, as well as the benefit of our share repurchases.
We also continue to generate strong free cash flow in the quarter at $135 million, which compares to a use of cash of $210 million in Q1 of last year. This was driven by higher inventory turns, improving invested capital velocity and reduced working capital to net revenue, which has now declined to 26.5%.
Overall, we're pleased to see our momentum exiting 2024 continue into the first quarter and a strong performance, particularly in mining and the Power Systems sector. This, coupled with our team's diligence on strategic execution and product support and full cycle resilience made a big difference.
I'll now move to Slide 5. We show changes in our net revenue by line of business compared to Q1 2024 and the composition of our equipment backlog by market sector. New equipment sales were up 7%, driven by strong activity across all market sectors in South America. Used equipment sales were down 27%.
In Q1 of 2024, we had large conversions of rental equipment with a purchase option to sales in Canada, which did not repeat this quarter. Product support revenue was up 11% with consolidated growth rate having some benefit from the weaker Canadian dollar. We saw solid growth across all regions led by Canada and across all market sectors. We're proud of the team's strategy execution as we rebuild momentum.
Our equipment backlog reached a new record at $2.8 billion to the end of March, up 45% to the end of March 2024 and 9% from December of 2024. Sequential backlog growth reflected order intake outpacing delivery in mining and power systems with multiple large mining equipment wins in Canada.
Now turning to EBIT performance on Slide 6. Gross profit as a percentage of net revenue was down 70 basis points, primarily due to lower product support margins, partially offset by a higher proportion of product support in the revenue mix in Canada and the U.K.
In Canada, lower product support margins were driven by sales mix and cost to fulfill accelerated demand. Meanwhile, we remain very focused on cost control with SG&A as a percentage of net revenue down 50 basis points to 16.4%. We will continue to build on this progress to build a more resilient cost structure and drive earnings capacity higher going forward. Q1 adjusted EBIT as a percentage of net revenue was 10.6% in South America, 8.7% in Canada and 4.7% in the U.K. and Ireland.
Now moving to South America results and outlook on Slide 7. In functional currency, new equipment sales were up 42% from Q1 '24, reflecting higher across all market sectors led by construction and mining.
Product support revenue was up 6%, driven by strong demand for mining customers in Chile. EBIT was up 13% in functional currency, and EBIT as a percentage of net revenue was down 40 basis points, reflecting a higher proportion of new equipment sales. SG&A was comparable to Q1 of '24 despite a 17% net revenue growth.
Our outlook for Chile mining remains strong, underpinned by growing demand for copper and strong copper prices as well as solid levels of quoting tender and award activity for mining equipment and product support. While activities and outlook remain positive, we also expect a more challenging labor environment, including higher compensation and union agreement payments and upcoming union negotiations.
In Chile, we continue to see healthy demand from large contractors supporting mining operations, and we expect infrastructure construction activity to remain steady. In the power systems sector, activity remains strong in industrial and data center markets.
In Argentina, we continue to take a low-risk approach and closely monitor the government's new rules and policies. At the same time, we are also positioning ourselves to capture potential growth opportunities in oil and gas and mining sectors and are encouraged by the steps taken by the government to reduce currency restrictions.
Turning to Canada on Slide 8. New equipment sales were down 14% from Q1 of '24 due to timing of power system deliveries and slower activity in the construction sector. Used equipment sales were down 31%, primarily due to large conversions of rental equipment with a purchase option in Q1 of '24 that weren't repeated.
Rental revenue was comparable to prior year. We would also note we are seeing more evidence of price and utilization normalization this quarter in used and rental, which serves as a supportive backdrop for our commitment to profitably grow these lines of business in the long term.
Product support revenue was up 10% with higher spending across mining customers, coupled with strong activity levels in Power Systems sector, primarily in oil and gas. Adjusted EBIT as a percentage of net revenue was down 20 basis points from Q1 of '24 as a percentage of net revenue, primarily due to lower product support margins due to sales mix and cost to fulfill accelerated demand.
In terms of outlook, with the new election results, we expect to focus on infrastructure spending, removing interprovincial trade barriers and promoting growth in the energy sector. Therefore, we continue to expect ongoing commitments from government and private sector projects for infrastructure development, supporting activity in the construction sector.
On the mining side, we expect our mining customers to deploy capital to renew, maintain and rebuild aging fleets. For Power Systems, we continue to see healthy demand for reliable and efficient electric power solutions. Due to higher levels of uncertainty related to tariffs and trade as well as our resilient strategy, we remain focused on managing working capital levels and evaluating opportunities to create further sustainable cost efficiency.
We saw encouraging progress in Q1 as Tim and his team started to execute plans to leverage the U.K. playbook on optimizing the cost structure and reinvigorating sales efforts in Canada. We look forward to seeing further evidence and resilience in our Canadian business going forward.
Please turn to Slide 9 for our U.K. and Ireland results. In functional currency, new equipment was down 10% compared to Q1 of '24 due to timing of power system project deliveries and partially offset by strong sales and execution and deliveries in the Construction segment.
Product support revenue was up 4%, reflecting strong activity levels in the Power Systems sector. EBIT as a percentage of net revenue was up 20 basis points, reflecting higher proportion of product support in the revenue mix and a reduction in SG&A. We expect demand for new construction equipment in the U.K. and Ireland to remain soft, in line with low projected GDP growth. We continue to expect growing contribution from used equipment and power systems and resilient product support as we execute our strategy.
I'll also touch on the global trade landscape as well as our corporate development initiatives. In recent changing tariff-related announcements by the U.S., Canada and other countries globally, it has introduced a level of uncertainty, cost and complexity to operating for many businesses.
To date, the direct impact of announced and implemented tariffs to Finning has been limited and largely centered on our Canadian business. The indirect impact through reduced economic activity, changes to inflation as well as deferred, delayed or canceled investment decisions across our customer base remains unknown and difficult to predict.
At the moment, we have not seen major shifts in customer purchasing decisions, supply chain environment or changes in the competitive dynamics in the market that we serve. Our teams remain cautious and continue to closely monitor the situation while actively engaging in contingency planning and mitigation initiatives. We believe our business is well positioned to remain resilient given the diversity of our end markets, momentum in our product support business and the strength of our record backlog and momentum in our product support business.
Summarized on Slide 10 is our sale of 4Refuel, and I'll comment on a few details. We reached an agreement to sell 4Refuel for up to $450 million. The purchase price, subject to customary closing conditions, comprises of $330 million of cash, $50 million of notes receivable that will match the term of the buyer's senior credit facility and bear escalating interest and contingent consideration of up to $20 million based on 4Refuel achieving certain financial performance metrics over the next 2-year period.
Including leases and other indebtedness is approximately $50 million, the total implied transaction value is $450 million. Through a combination of proceeds from this transaction and substantial free cash flow generation over the last 6 years, 4Refuel has provided a strong return on investment for Finning and our shareholders.
We expect the transaction to close in Q3 of this year. And through a combination of share repurchases, debt repayment and reinvestments to our core dealership, we expect the transaction to be accretive to earnings per share.
Overall, we are very pleased with the team's performance in the first quarter. Our strong start to 2025 comes at a very important time with double-digit product support growth and record backlog levels in Q1 being an excellent platform to demonstrate our improved resilience and earnings capacity in 2025.
We remain focused on steady execution of our strategic plan to maximize product support, continuously improve our cost and capital position to drive full cycle resilience and grow prudently in used rental and power.
Operator, I'll now turn the call back to you for questions.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question today is from Yuri Lynk with Canaccord Genuity.
Congrats on the quarter. Nice numbers. Big backlog growth in Canada. Just wondering, if you can help us with the cadence of that backlog burn in terms of how much of it is in 2025 and if any of it spills into the outer years?
Yes. We're definitely pleased to have a few wins with a few customers in the quarter and a couple that were pretty strategic actually. So really pleased with that, but it's a really solid cadence. Some are delivering as we speak, and some will extend out all the way into the middle of next year.
Okay. And given what we saw with the order intake in Canada and also the good product support, was there an element of catch-up in terms of some deferrals that I think you referenced last year on behalf of some customers? Just any additional color would be helpful.
Yes. I mean, I don't think we mentioned deferrals, Yuri. I mean there's a general sentiment that spending, particularly in the oil sands was -- the pattern was a little different last year. We're not in control of that. As I've said a number of times, our job is to stay close to customers, understand what their requirements are, help them to meet their objectives and be right by this side as their mine plans develop and their fleet utilization changes.
So for sure, 2024, we saw some different situations or different conditions. And I would say that, through this course of this winter, it was probably what you class as a more normal season. We can't comment on whether there was catch-up or not. We just -- we want to be right there by the side of our customers to support them. And I think that's what you saw in Q1.
The next question is from Devin Dodge with BMO Capital Markets.
Look, the balance sheet is in really good shape here. It seems like 2025 should be another year of strong free cash flow. And obviously, the sale of 4Refuel will unlock even more capital there. So beyond just returning capital to shareholders, I think Kevin touched on this a little bit in his remarks, but just can you speak to where you see opportunities to invest in the core dealership operations going forward?
Yes, for sure. Thanks, Devin. So I mean, firstly, I mean, it's completely aligned with our strategy. So firstly, it's around product support capabilities and ultimately, inventory to support that. And you can see despite the -- including the free cash flow, I should say, our inventory did go up in the quarter as we support the growth that we're articulating in our outlook. And so we need cash to be able to invest in that growth and make sure we have the right inventories and workshop capabilities to support that product support growth.
And then you just turn to our sustainable growth initiatives, used rental and power. And we believe that there's opportunity. Our used equipment inventories did come down in the quarter. But there's always opportunities to grow in that space as there is in power systems capabilities. And then finally, rental. And so whether that's RPOs or heavy rents, but particularly Cat rental services, which is the Cat rental store, we see opportunities to grow profitably in that space, too. We'll continue to look at if there are any opportunities or good adjacencies to be able to support that 3-pronged strategy.
Okay. Good color. Maybe just sticking with rental. It looks like dollar utilization may have been stronger year-over-year. Kevin, I think you've mentioned in the past, there's more diversity in your rental fleet than maybe some others in the sector. But within your rental operations, which parts of the business are doing really well where you're looking to deploy more growth capital in the near term and which parts are maybe a bit more challenged and the focus is more on realigning or optimizing the offering?
Yes. So I think -- and our rental business is a little more complicated. So this time last year, we would have had more RPOs in the heavy equipment and even in the mining space. And that -- in the mining space, that's lumpy, and it's very much customer-specific and lumpy demand related.
In terms of heavy rents, that's a little softer for us right now as we recalibrate the fleet and reorganize the fleet, and that's directly linked with the lack of major infrastructure projects that we're seeing still. We're optimistic that the new government will start to kick that off, and we stand ready to invest in that heavy rents fleet. It's a good business for us. But in the heavy rent side, that RPO side in terms of facilitating sales and winning new customers and growing market share. That's something we're absolutely committed to investing in.
And then we are really encouraged by our Cat rental store. Revenues were up 15% year-over-year. And whilst it may have been from a low base, that's encouraging from a -- and that's all driven by utilization. And so that's an area that we continue to look at and refine the fleet, make sure it's a complete and market differentiated service. And there'll be more opportunities to invest in that area.
The next question is from Steven Hansen with Raymond James.
Greg, I think, Kevin, you both referenced, I think, the more normal weather pattern is helping contribute to the product support growth. Have the customers given you any sort of indication as to how the balance of the year is going to play out? Should we continue to expect to see growth through the balance of '25?
Yes. Steve, it's Kevin. Yes. I mean we're -- part of what we're trying to do with our major customers is sit down with them and plan more effectively so that we can provide better physical availability of their assets and ultimately lower our cost of execution in terms of logistics and supply chain.
The outlook -- the precise outlook for that outside of major components is more challenging. But from a major components side, and you've been to our OEM facility a number of times where we rebuild the engine, the visibility there is good, and we would see that remaining encouraging for the rest of the year.
In terms of the timings of major rebuilds, that can change with mine plans. And so that's a little more difficult. I would say that, as we look forward, we expect that business to grow in line with the publicly disclosed production growth figures that all of the public oil sands producers have disclosed.
And we do believe that more trucks are required to meet those production requirements as the mine plans change and the haul distances get longer. And I think that's what you're seeing in the equipment backlog, Steve. So I mean, you might not see it immediately, but adding -- adding trucks to the oil sands is a long-term positive encouragement for our company. Hard to what's going to happen in the next 3 months or 6 months, but we're totally committed to that region and the backlog supports that.
Okay. That's helpful. And then just on the cadence of buyback, you've consistently funded the buyback here for a while now through cash flow from operations and free cash flow. You've got this inflow coming in from the 4Refuel deal. Should we expect the cadence of buybacks to change at all going forward, Greg? Or should it be more consistent, ratable? How do you think about that?
Yes. I mean, for quite a while now, we've done about 1% per quarter as we just did this last quarter. So we'd expect that in kind of -- that would be the typical pattern. And then, of course, we have the proceeds coming in that we'd expect to put the majority in that direction. So we just renewed our NCIB, and that gives us about 10% of capacity, and we think we've got the capacity to do both.
The next question is from Cherilyn Radbourne with TD Cowen.
I wanted to start with a bigger picture question. Regarding the new federal government in Canada and the potential for renewed nationalism in Canada, if you want to call it that, if you could send a policy wish list that would be supportive of growth in Western Canada, what would be some of the key items on that list?
Yes. That is a very good question, Cherilyn. I think that as we look forward, I mean, #1 policy would be resource development and -- and changes to the approach to pipelines. That would be a huge -- I just think we need a rethink on that after the last 10 years, and that would be top of the list.
I think as the administration already talked about, removing into provincial trade barriers would be great for all of Canada and to increase trade and economic prosperity. And I think a policy and an approach around energy supply and production and potentially data center development participating more in that sector would be on the list as well as a more helpful immigration strategy to support the growing demands of technician base that we have.
I could go on, but there's a long list there. But if you think about it in the context of our business, we've got to get the economy moving in the first instance, and then we've got to make sure that we've got the opportunity to build the capabilities to have the productivity gains to have an investment-friendly environment and to have the right people and employees, and union strategies to drive our business forward. It just got to get a lot more friendly.
Great. And then my second question is just you flagged the potential for labor cost inflation in South America. Just what do you think your ability is to pass that through as you progress through those union negotiations later in the year?
Yes. So we have a few of our unions coming up in the back half of the year. We've been fortunate that the last round, we actually did proactively. So we've had a good 18-months, 2-year gap since our last negotiation. But as we see across the industry, across the mining landscape, some higher compensation in deals that are struck as well as some of the upfront payments increasing.
So we're being proactive again, and we're going through those discussions, but we do expect higher rates. Those obviously flow through a lot of the contracts, but we need to be mindful that it's all online with industry benchmarks and standard.
[Operator Instructions] The next question is from Maxim Sytchev with National Bank Financial.
Actually, I just wanted to build on Sean's question around Chile, the labor dynamic. How does it factor in, in terms of your SG&A targets, I guess, like over the medium term? How do you think about the potential offsets, et cetera?
Sure. So at the end of the day, we have labor costs. A lot of the business in South America at Investor Day, we highlighted about 70% is contracted. So a lot of those will be back to back in the contracts. Of course, there's some business that's non-contracted and some training and other costs that aren't recoverable.
So in general, there'll be some inflation. We tend to have a price increase each year that absorbs some of that. But everywhere else, we're absolutely looking for productivity gains. We've had a number of them over the last 5 years. We look at areas that leverage shared service centers. And then just general administration, we continue to march down the cost curve.
We also continue to make investments like in our warehouse in Antofagasta that you would have seen the beginnings of. It's now a full auto store operation. Obviously, that continues to drive productivity, and we continue to look to up just many more opportunities for that. And so resilience is top of mind for everybody, and we know that there's cost to offset. We've been doing it for the last few years, and we'll continue to do so.
Yes. And actually, we -- in the back end of last year, we -- or start of this year, actually, we -- Dino Moll joined us. He's a 30-year veteran of the mining industry. He joined us in Chilean, and I was very fortunate to spend some time with him about 3 weeks ago. And we're very confident that through his expertise and experience, there's tons of process and productivity improvements. I mean that's where the big gain is.
As you mentioned, as labor cost goes up, we need to -- and it gets up to the levels we've seen more so in the fully developed world, then we need to see productivity improvements to match that as well. And there's -- you've been down there, Max, there's lots of opportunity there. And we feel like through the mixture of technology investment and strong expertise in the -- from the -- directly from the Mining segment, we can try and find out some of those opportunities.
Yes, absolutely. And I guess kind of staying with the geography, like around Argentina, I mean, it feels like it's becoming a little bit more sort of business as usual dynamic. Do you mind providing a bit of an update in terms of where we are? Can you start deploying a bit more equipment there? Just maybe any data points that we should be tracking?
Yes. Thanks, Max. So we certainly see a lot of activity right here and now in the oil and gas sector. So that's certainly picked up. But as you know, we've taken a low-risk approach because there's been lots of challenges.
I would say, the government has made a lot of progress a lot of incentives for businesses to make large-scale investments in structural -- the structural advantages with the time line. And so you'll see a lot of the mining projects moving pretty fast to qualify for those criteria.
And so we're seeing a lot of activity there. Of course, the deal with the IMF in the last month here was super important and the resulting removal of a lot of the FX restrictions certainly helps us in terms of speed and risk in terms of currency has gone down a lot. So that's been super helpful.
Of course, there's elections in the fall where we need to make sure that the current administration continues its momentum and support. I think that's the next major milestone. But certainly, whether it's customs timing or cash flow timing, that's improved a lot and make it a lot helpful for us to make lower risk decisions. And so that is all encouraging. But of course, we want to see the evidence and the replication for more than just 6 months before we go too far into it.
The next question is from Jonathan Goldman with Scotiabank.
Maybe just one on the U.K., the SG&A down 5% year-on-year. I mean sales were down 2%, but product support up nicely. Are there any initiatives going on in that region? Or how should we think about expense levels for the balance of the year?
Yes. I think that what you're seeing there, Jonathan, is the impact of the work that Tim and the team did in the -- towards the end of the second quarter last year. Obviously, as we've said before, 2024 well, the end of 2023 and 2024, we saw a softening in the U.K. business, and it's so important that we retain our agility and ability to flex our cost base to continue to in a resilient way.
And so I think that -- those cost-saving initiatives really started to take hold in the third quarter last year. And so you're seeing the impacts of that work that carried through the end of the year, and it's against the comp of the higher cost base at the start in Q1 last year.
Good examples of that, and it plays through to some of the work that Tim is doing in Canada right now. I mean it starts -- we are a people business, and it starts with organizational effectiveness and design, delayering and combining well. Tim is very passionate about having no more than 2 layers from his direct reports to the front of the house.
And so where everything I'm saying there, you can read through into some of the initiatives that Tim is working on in Canada, too. So organizational design spans and layers. There's also within the organization design, there are some things that we've challenged ourselves and stopped doing, things that we determined don't support the strategy to the level that we require.
And so there's an organization design piece, and there's an operational execution and discipline piece. A lot of that comes in terms of the cost of execution. And really simple examples of that would be costs of emergency expediting parts and people and overtime to execute the business. as well as looking for opportunities for automation as we've talked about in Chile there in answer to Max's question about labor costs increasing. So lots of automation activities.
I also mentioned in my remarks, we've launched a program called case and workforce management, which is really helping us to go to manage a customer experience in terms of a repair from start to finish. It helps with the administration of that work. It helps with expediting the invoicing of that work at the end, and it helps us with productivity improvements, so we can make sure we've got a longer-term plan for our technicians moving out.
And then ultimately, there's the good old stuff as well. When you're in an uncertain environment, which we were in the U.K. and we are in Canada to a certain degree that the discretionary spend. It's just the tightening of the belt. It's prioritizing travel, prioritizing where we spend money, being really effective in terms of how you run the business. So there's a couple of examples, and you can expect that to flow through into the work that Canada -- Tim is doing in Canada also.
That's great color. Very fulsome. I appreciate that. And maybe, I guess, in the same vein then, Kevin, or Greg, whoever wants to take this. The working cap was pretty amazing, nominal drop in a seasonally quarter that takes a lot of investment. I mean, how much of that can we read into the initiatives you've done and are ongoing to unlock invested capital versus maybe some other dynamics that are going on in the quarter?
Sure. No, I think it's just the accumulation of a number of initiatives. And as you know from Investor Day, some are just pure unlocks, right? Some have been real estate sales, some have been pension reorganizations. And some has just been improvement of supply chain where we've invested in automation and looking to make the turns go faster.
So I wouldn't say it's something that happened exactly in Q1, but it's the building up and the execution of the plan, which is why we looked over the last 12 months in the recap because $1.2 billion over 12 months is what we're trying to do, right? If you're looking at the $450 million of invested capital unlock from Investor Day, getting our sales working capital back down to pre-COVID levels, it all triangulates and it's all the accumulation of literally dozens of projects and investments. And Q1 just happened to be lining up of a few stars, which we're pleased with. But I think what's different is we're also growing at the same time.
We invested in inventory within the quarter. The backlog grew and we generated the cash. So that's what's most pleasing, but that's what we're trying to do.
Yes. And just coming back, I'll just add one thing to that. Greg mentioned the inventory is down. So that working capital release is coming from the right areas, because we're growing and producing free cash flow. And one of the data point I'll share with you that our service work in progress is up 8% over the previous peak, which was March 2023.
If I look back 2 years to March 2023, that was the highest service work in progress balance we had for the last 2 years. And today, service work in progress is 8% higher than that. So that bodes well for some of the other questions that we've had around continuation of that activity level.
No, it's great work and definitely showing up in the results.
This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Greg Palaschuk for any closing remarks.
Great. Thank you, operator, and thanks for everyone for joining today. And I hope you have a very safe day.
This brings to an end today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.