Q1 2026 LeMaitre Vascular Inc Earnings Call

May 5, 2026

Operator: Welcome to the LeMaitre Vascular Q1 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. As a reminder to everyone, today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Dorian LeBlanc, Chief Financial Officer of LeMaitre Vascular. Please go ahead, sir.

Speaker #1: Please go ahead, sir.

Speaker #2: Thank you. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us on our Q1 2026 conference call. With me on today's call is our CEO, George LeMaitre, and our President, Dave Roberts.

Dorian LeBlanc: Thank you. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us on our Q1 2026 conference call. With me on today's call is our CEO, George W. LeMaitre, and our President, David B. Roberts. Before we begin, I'll read our safe harbor statement. Today we'll be making some forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which is subject to risks and uncertainties. Wherever possible, we will try to identify those forward-looking statements by using words such as believe, expect, anticipate, pursue, forecast, and similar expressions. Our forward-looking statements are based on our estimates and assumptions as of today, 5 May 2026, and should not be relied upon as representing our estimates or views on any subsequent date.

Dorian LeBlanc: Thank you. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us on our Q1 2026 conference call. With me on today's call is our CEO, George LeMaitre, and our President, Dave Roberts. Before we begin, I'll read our safe harbor statement. Today we'll be making some forward-looking statements within the meaning of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which is subject to risks and uncertainties. Wherever possible, we will try to identify those forward-looking statements by using words such as believe, expect, anticipate, pursue, forecast, and similar expressions. Our forward-looking statements are based on our estimates and assumptions as of today, 5 May 2026, and should not be relied upon as representing our estimates or views on any subsequent date.

Speaker #2: Before we begin, I'll read our safe harbor statement. Today we'll be making some forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. private securities litigation reform act of 1995, the accuracy of which is subject to risk and uncertainties.

Speaker #2: Wherever possible, we will try to identify those forward-looking statements by using words such as believe, expect, anticipate, pursue, forecast, and similar expressions. Our forward-looking statements are based on our estimates and assumptions as of today, May 5th, 2026, and should not be relied upon as representing our estimates or views on any subsequent date.

Speaker #2: Please refer to the cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information and the risk factors in our most recent 10-K and subsequent SEC filings, including disclosure of the factors that could cause results to differ materially from those expressed or implied.

Dorian LeBlanc: Please refer to the cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information and the risk factors in our most recent 10-K and subsequent SEC filings, including disclosures of factors that could cause results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. During this call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, such as organic sales growth. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP measures discussed in this call are contained in the associated press release and, if applicable, in supplemental materials, both of which are available in the investor relations section of our website, www.lemaitre.com. I'll now turn the call over to George W. LeMaitre.

Speaker #2: During this call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, such as organic sales growth. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP measures discussed in this call are contained in the associated press release and, if applicable, in supplemental materials both of which are available in the Investor Relations section of our website www.lemaitre.com.

Speaker #2: I'll now turn the call over to George LeMaitre.

Speaker #3: Thanks, Dorian. Q1 featured 11% sales growth, a 72.7% gross margin, and 42% EPS growth. Graphs were up 20%, Valvotomes 15%, and Karate Chunks 11%.

George W. LeMaitre: Thanks, Dorian. Q1 featured 11% sales growth, a 72.7% gross margin, and 42% EPS growth. Grafts were up 20%, Valvulotome 15%, and carotid shunts 11% as each category posted record sales. Our 3 geographies also posted record sales. EMEA was up 20%, APAC 18%, and the Americas 7%. Artegraft has become our largest product, and we're investing in its growth in 3 ways. Number 1, filing more international approvals. Number 2, making longer sizes available for leg bypasses, and Number 3, proving quick stick claims for AV access. Worldwide Artegraft sales grew 36% in Q1. International Artegraft sales in Q1 were $2.1 million, and we expect 2026 sales to be $10 million versus $4 million in 2025.

George LeMaitre: Thanks, Dorian. Q1 featured 11% sales growth, a 72.7% gross margin, and 42% EPS growth. Grafts were up 20%, Valvulotome 15%, and carotid shunts 11% as each category posted record sales. Our 3 geographies also posted record sales. EMEA was up 20%, APAC 18%, and the Americas 7%. Artegraft has become our largest product, and we're investing in its growth in 3 ways. Number 1, filing more international approvals. Number 2, making longer sizes available for leg bypasses, and Number 3, proving quick stick claims for AV access. Worldwide Artegraft sales grew 36% in Q1. International Artegraft sales in Q1 were $2.1 million, and we expect 2026 sales to be $10 million versus $4 million in 2025.

Speaker #3: As each category posted record sales. Our three geographies also posted record sales. AMEA was up 20%, APAC 18%, and the Americas 7%. Our graphs have become our largest product, and we're investing in its growth in three ways.

Speaker #3: Number one, filing more international approvals. Number two, making longer sizes available for leg bypasses. And number three, proving quick stick claims for AV access.

Speaker #3: Worldwide autograph sales grew 36% in Q1. International autograph sales in Q1 were 2.1 million dollars, and we expect 2026 sales to be 10 million dollars versus 4 million in 2025.

Speaker #3: Health Canada has approved Autograph, and the launch is now planned for H2 2026 as we finalize Canadian-specific packaging validations. Additional Autograph approvals are expected in 2027 for Korea, Brazil, Vietnam, and India.

George W. LeMaitre: Health Canada has approved Artegraft, the launch is now planned for H2 2026 as we finalize Canadian-specific packaging validations. Additional Artegraft approvals are expected in 2027 for Korea, Brazil, Vietnam, and India. We are also working to make longer Artegrafts available. Because European surgeons use Artegrafts for leg bypasses, our longest Artegraft, which is 50 cm, is now in high demand, we know we could sell longer sizes. Unfortunately, our current packaging tube is just 53 cm long. The first step is to gain approval for a longer tube, we plan to make these filings in the US and Europe in H2 2026, sales of these longer Artegrafts could start in H2 2027. Separately, we've made a pre-submission filing to the FDA as we seek quick stick AV access claims on Artegraft's US labeling.

George LeMaitre: Health Canada has approved Artegraft, the launch is now planned for H2 2026 as we finalize Canadian-specific packaging validations. Additional Artegraft approvals are expected in 2027 for Korea, Brazil, Vietnam, and India. We are also working to make longer Artegrafts available. Because European surgeons use Artegrafts for leg bypasses, our longest Artegraft, which is 50 cm, is now in high demand, we know we could sell longer sizes. Unfortunately, our current packaging tube is just 53 cm long. The first step is to gain approval for a longer tube, we plan to make these filings in the US and Europe in H2 2026, sales of these longer Artegrafts could start in H2 2027. Separately, we've made a pre-submission filing to the FDA as we seek quick stick AV access claims on Artegraft's US labeling.

Speaker #3: We're also working to make longer autographs available. Because European surgeons use autographs for leg bypasses, our longest autograph, which is 50 centimeters, is now in high demand.

Speaker #3: And we know we could sell longer sizes. Unfortunately, our current packaging tube is just 53 centimeters long. So the first step is to gain approval for a longer tube.

Speaker #3: And we plan to make these filings in the U.S. and Europe in H2 2026. For sales of these longer autographs could start in H2 2027.

Speaker #3: Separately, we've made a pre-submission filing to the FDA as we seek quick stick AV access claims on autographs U.S. labeling. This FDA to develop the pathway for a PMA filing or to design a clinical trial.

George W. LeMaitre: This pre-submission will help us collaborate with the FDA to develop the pathway for a PMA filing or to design a clinical trial. While Artegraft's current US labeling restricts cannulation to 10 days after implantation, peer-reviewed literature indicates that Artegraft can be cannulated 1 to 3 days after implantation. RFA grew 25% in Q1, led by strong US results. We currently distribute tissues in 3 countries: the US, Canada, and the UK. German implants should begin in Q2, and we now expect to receive Irish approval in H2. Our Irish warehouse opened in April, and we'll begin shipping our core medical devices starting in June as we await an audit from the Health Products Regulatory Authority. This audit should enable tissue distribution from our Dublin warehouse to Irish hospitals in H2. Long term, this warehouse will be used for Pan-European distribution.

George LeMaitre: This pre-submission will help us collaborate with the FDA to develop the pathway for a PMA filing or to design a clinical trial. While Artegraft's current US labeling restricts cannulation to 10 days after implantation, peer-reviewed literature indicates that Artegraft can be cannulated 1 to 3 days after implantation. RFA grew 25% in Q1, led by strong US results. We currently distribute tissues in 3 countries: the US, Canada, and the UK. German implants should begin in Q2, and we now expect to receive Irish approval in H2. Our Irish warehouse opened in April, and we'll begin shipping our core medical devices starting in June as we await an audit from the Health Products Regulatory Authority. This audit should enable tissue distribution from our Dublin warehouse to Irish hospitals in H2. Long term, this warehouse will be used for Pan-European distribution.

Speaker #3: While autographs' current U.S. labeling restricts cannulation to 10 days after implantation, peer-reviewed literature indicates that autographs can be cannulated 1 to 3 days after implantation.

Speaker #3: RFA grew 25% in Q1, led by strong U.S. results. We currently distribute tissues in three countries: the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. German implants should begin in Q2, and we now expect to receive Irish approval in H2.

Speaker #3: Our Irish warehouse opened in April and will begin shipping our core medical devices starting in June as we await an audit for the Irish tissue authority.

Speaker #3: This audit should enable tissue distribution from our Dublin warehouse to Irish hospitals in H2. Long-term, this warehouse will be used for pan-European distribution. We filed for Australian approval in April, and we plan to file in Austria, Holland, Belgium, Spain, and Switzerland in 2026.

George W. LeMaitre: We filed for Australian approval in April, we plan to file in Austria, Holland, Belgium, Spain, and Switzerland in 2026. As for our RFA facility transfer, tissue processing is ramping up in Burlington, we should complete the project by year-end. We ended Q1 with 158 sales reps, up 3% year over year, we plan to end 2026 with 170 to 180. We currently have 16 open requisitions for new reps, mostly in the US. We ended Q1 with 35 RSMs and country managers, up 13% year over year. We expect to go direct in Poland in Q4, this project will include an office, warehouse, a GM, customer service team, and several reps.

George LeMaitre: We filed for Australian approval in April, we plan to file in Austria, Holland, Belgium, Spain, and Switzerland in 2026. As for our RFA facility transfer, tissue processing is ramping up in Burlington, we should complete the project by year-end. We ended Q1 with 158 sales reps, up 3% year over year, we plan to end 2026 with 170 to 180. We currently have 16 open requisitions for new reps, mostly in the US. We ended Q1 with 35 RSMs and country managers, up 13% year over year. We expect to go direct in Poland in Q4, this project will include an office, warehouse, a GM, customer service team, and several reps.

Speaker #3: As for our RFA facility transfer, tissue processing is ramping up in Burlington, and we should complete the project by year-end. We ended Q1 with 158 sales reps, up 3% year over year, and we plan to end 2026 with 170 to 180.

Speaker #3: We currently have 16 open requisitions for new reps, mostly in the U.S. We ended Q1 with 35 RSMs in country managers, up 13% year over year.

Speaker #3: We expect to go direct in Poland in Q4, and this project will include an office, warehouse, a GM, customer service team, and several reps.

Speaker #3: Poland will be our 32nd direct country. Higher ASPs geographic expansion and discipline spending produced 11% sales growth and 42% EPS growth in Q1. Full year 2026 also shows op leverage.

George W. LeMaitre: Poland will be our 32nd direct country. Higher ASPs, geographic expansion, and disciplined spending produced 11% sales growth and 42% EPS growth in Q1. Full year 2026 also shows op leverage. Increased guidance implies 12% sales growth and 26% EPS growth. Our new 2030 goals are posted on the walls of all LeMaitre conference rooms. We call them the 2030 planks, and our playbook remains simple: produce quality devices, build our sales force, go direct in new countries, acquire niche products, and focus on profitability, cash flow, and dividends. I'll now turn the call over to Dorian.

George LeMaitre: Poland will be our 32nd direct country. Higher ASPs, geographic expansion, and disciplined spending produced 11% sales growth and 42% EPS growth in Q1. Full year 2026 also shows op leverage. Increased guidance implies 12% sales growth and 26% EPS growth. Our new 2030 goals are posted on the walls of all LeMaitre conference rooms. We call them the 2030 planks, and our playbook remains simple: produce quality devices, build our sales force, go direct in new countries, acquire niche products, and focus on profitability, cash flow, and dividends. I'll now turn the call over to Dorian.

Speaker #3: Increased guidance implies 12% sales growth and 26% EPS growth. Our new 2030 goals are posted on the walls of all LeMaitre conference rooms. We call them the 2030 planks, and our playbook remains simple.

Speaker #3: Produce quality devices, build our sales force, go direct in new countries, acquire niche products, and focus on profitability, cash flow, and dividends. I'll now turn the call over to Dorian.

Speaker #2: Thanks, George. Organic sales growth of 10% over Q1 2025 was driven by average selling price increases of 8% in unit growth of 2%. Unit growth was impacted by a lower-than-average quarter in our distribution business, which can be lumpy.

Dorian LeBlanc: Thanks, George. Organic sales growth of 10% over Q1 2025 was driven by average selling price increases of 8% and unit growth of 2%. Unit growth was impacted by a lower than average quarter in our distribution business, which can be lumpy. Excluding distribution, direct sales grew 12.8% organically, comprised of 8.4% price and 4.4% units. Total organic revenue growth excludes a $2 million foreign exchange benefit in Q1 2026 and $1.5 million of Azio distribution sales in Q1 2025. These two items largely offset one another. We discontinued Azio distribution in May 2025. In Q1 2026, we posted a gross margin of 72.7%. The 350 basis point year-over-year improvement was driven primarily by higher ASPs and manufacturing efficiencies.

Speaker #2: Excluding distribution, direct sales grew 12.8% organically, comprised of 8.4% price and 4.4% units. Total organic revenue growth excludes a $2 million foreign exchange benefit in Q1 2026 and 1.5 million of a ZEO distribution sales in Q1 2025.

Speaker #2: These two items largely offset one another. We discontinued a ZEO distribution in May 2025. In Q1 2026, we posted a gross margin of 72.7%.

Speaker #2: The $350 basis point year-over-year improvement was driven primarily by higher ASPs and manufacturing efficiencies. Our Q2 gross margin guidance of 72.1% reflects the impact of our new Baricca warehouse and the manufacturing transfer of our RFA processing to Burlington.

Dorian LeBlanc: Our Q2 gross margin guidance of 72.1% reflects the impact of our new Barrika warehouse and the manufacturing transfer of our TRIVEX processing to Burlington. Operating expenses in Q1 2026 were $30.6 million, an increase of 6% versus Q1 2025. Despite the continued expansion of the sales force, overall company headcount decreased 3% from 662 at 1 March 2025, to 641 at 31 March 2026. Q1 2026 operating income increased 41% year over year to $17.8 million, with an operating margin of 27% compared to 21% in Q1 2025. Fully diluted earnings per share were $0.68, up 42% benefiting from strong operating income and an improved effective tax rate. We believe our effective tax rate will remain lower than our historical rates.

Speaker #2: Operating expenses in Q1 2026 were $30.6 million, an increase of 6% versus Q1 2025. Despite the continued expansion of the sales force, overall company headcount decreased 3% from 662 at March 1, 2025, to 641 at March 31, 2026.

Speaker #2: Q1 2026 operating income increased 41% year over year, to $17.8 million, with an operating margin of 27% compared to 21% in Q1 2025. Fully diluted earnings per share were $68, up 42%, benefiting from strong operating income and an improved effective tax rate.

Speaker #2: We believe our effective tax rate will remain lower than our historical rates. Given the strong growth and high margin international autograph sales and our overall geographic sales mix, a larger share of our income qualifies for the foreign-derived intangible income, or FIDI, deduction, which structurally lowers our tax rate.

Dorian LeBlanc: Given the strong growth in high-margin international Artegraft sales and our overall geographic sales mix, a larger share of our income qualifies for the foreign-derived intangible income or FDII deduction, which structurally lowers our tax rate. Excluding the discrete items in this quarter, we expect an 80 basis point improvement from historical effective tax rate due to the higher FDII deductions, another benefit of our US manufacturing footprint. Cash from operations generated $15 million in Q1 2026 as compared to $9 million in Q1 2025. We paid $5.7 million in dividends to our shareholders during the quarter. We ended Q1 2026 with $367 million in cash and securities, an increase of $8 million in the quarter. The LeMaitre playbook continues to drive broad-based revenue growth supported by our differentiated products, direct-to-hospital model, and strong commercial organization.

Speaker #2: Excluding the discrete items in this quarter, we expected 80 basis point improvement from historical effective tax rate due to the higher FIDI deductions, another benefit of our U.S.

Speaker #2: manufacturing footprint. Cash from operations generated $15 million in Q1 2026 as compared to $9 million in Q1 2025. We paid $5.7 million in dividends to our shareholders during the quarter.

Speaker #2: We ended Q1 2026 with $367 million in cash and securities, an increase of $8 million in the quarter. The LEMAIT playbook continues to drive broad-based revenue growth, supported by our differentiated products, direct-to-hospital model, and strong commercial organization.

Speaker #2: We are affirming our full-year revenue guidance of $280 million representing 12% organic growth. We are increasing our annual guidance for gross margin to 72.3% and operating to 79.8 million, representing 24% growth over adjusted 2025 operating income.

Dorian LeBlanc: We are affirming our full year revenue guidance of $280 million, representing 12% organic growth. We are increasing our annual guidance for gross margin to 72.3% and operating to $79.8 million, representing 24% growth over adjusted 2025 operating income. We are also increasing annual guidance for diluted earnings per share to $3 or 26% growth from adjusted 2025. Historically, Q2 has been one of our strongest quarters. We're expecting revenue of $71.5 million and an operating margin of 30%. Our current guidance assumes a constant euro/US dollar exchange rate of 1.17 and no dilutive impact from our convertible debt. For additional details, please see today's press release. Finally, we'd like to welcome Keith Hinton from Freedom Capital Markets to the call. Keith initiated coverage on LeMaitre on 31 March.

Speaker #2: We are also increasing annual guidance for diluted earnings per share to $3.00, or 26% growth from adjusted 2025. Historically, Q2 has been one of our strongest quarters, and we're expecting revenue of $71.5 million and an operating margin of 30%.

Speaker #2: Our current guidance assumes a constant euro-US dollar exchange rate of 1.17 and no dilutive impact from our convertible debt. For additional details, please see today's press release.

Speaker #2: Finally, we'd like to welcome Keith Hinton from Freedom Capital Markets to the call. Keith initiated coverage on LEMAIT on March 31. With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator for questions.

Dorian LeBlanc: With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator for questions.

Speaker #4: Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced.

Operator: Thank you. At this time, we will conduct a question and answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Keith Hinton from Freedom Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Speaker #4: To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by as we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Keith Hinton from Freedom Capital Markets.

Speaker #4: Your line is now open.

Keith Hinton: Great. Thank you. Thanks for taking the question. I have kind of a high-level question here on the pricing side of things. You know, EMEA has been growing faster than the US for a few years. You know, it's my assumption that the prices there start lower and there's less ability to take price over time. Considering that kind of balanced against the ongoing mix shift towards grafts, where it seems like you do have good pricing leverage in the US, just how should we think about the high sustainability of high single-digit funded pricing increases in the out years?

Speaker #5: Great. Thank you. Thanks for taking the question. I have kind of a high-level question here on the pricing side of things. So EMEA has been growing faster than the U.S.

Speaker #5: for a few years. It's my assumption that the prices there start lower and there's less ability to take price over time. So considering that kind of balanced against the ongoing makeshift towards graphs where it seems like you do have good pricing leverage in the U.S., just how should we think about the high sustainability of high single-digit funded pricing increases in the out years?

George W. LeMaitre: Hi, Keith. This is George W. LeMaitre. Again, welcome to your firm for covering the company, also welcome to the call in terms of asking about price increases and the sustainability. We feel very comfortable with what's going on here. We have another year where I think we're validating all the way into Q1 that we're able to get these price increases. We got 8% in Q1. Did you want me to distinguish between European pricing flexibility and US pricing flexibility? Was that part of your question?

George LeMaitre: Hi, Keith. This is George W. LeMaitre. Again, welcome to your firm for covering the company, also welcome to the call in terms of asking about price increases and the sustainability. We feel very comfortable with what's going on here. We have another year where I think we're validating all the way into Q1 that we're able to get these price increases. We got 8% in Q1. Did you want me to distinguish between European pricing flexibility and US pricing flexibility? Was that part of your question?

Speaker #2: Hi, Keith. This is George LEMAIT, again, welcome to your firm for covering the company. And also, welcome to the call in terms of asking about price increases and the sustainability.

Speaker #2: It's a question you can imagine we get frequently. We feel very comfortable with what's going on here. We have another year where I think we're validating all the way into Q1 that we're able to get these price increases.

Speaker #2: We got 8% in Q1. Did you want me to distinguish between European pricing flexibility and U.S. pricing flexibility? Was that part of your question?

Keith Hinton: Yes, that would be terrific. Thank you.

Speaker #5: Yes, that would be terrific. Thank you.

Keith Hinton: Yes, that would be terrific. Thank you.

Speaker #2: Right. I would say it's not exactly answering it, but on that topic, I would say the pricing floors that we put in are largely in and installed in the United States, and about 55% of our products have pricing floors. And then we change them from year to year, of course.

George W. LeMaitre: Right. I would say it's not exactly answering it, but on that topic, I would say the floors, the pricing floors that we put in are largely in and installed in the United States in about 55% of our products. We have pricing floors, and then we change them from year to year, of course. In Europe, I still think we have a little room to go. I think only about 40% of our products have pricing floors. You can do more. You can add pricing floors to more of the different products over there. Also, in Europe, I think it takes longer for prices to really get installed since, particularly in Southern Europe, a lot of the stuff is sold on 3-year tenders, so you can only change your price once every 3 years.

George LeMaitre: Right. I would say it's not exactly answering it, but on that topic, I would say the floors, the pricing floors that we put in are largely in and installed in the United States in about 55% of our products. We have pricing floors, and then we change them from year to year, of course. In Europe, I still think we have a little room to go. I think only about 40% of our products have pricing floors. You can do more. You can add pricing floors to more of the different products over there. Also, in Europe, I think it takes longer for prices to really get installed since, particularly in Southern Europe, a lot of the stuff is sold on 3-year tenders, so you can only change your price once every 3 years.

Speaker #2: And in Europe, I still think we have a little room to go. I think only about 40% of our products have pricing floors, so you can do more you can add pricing floors to more of the different products over there.

Speaker #2: And also, in Europe, I think it takes longer for prices to really get installed since, particularly in Southern Europe, a lot of the stuff is sold on three-year tenders, and so you can only change your price once every three years.

Speaker #2: So you change it, and then it takes three years for it to fully get implemented. I hope that makes sense to you. So maybe a little more room over in Europe, given the fact that we're not as price-floored over there and that it takes longer once you do do a price to get to a price that takes longer to get to.

George W. LeMaitre: You change it, and then it takes 3 years for it to fully get implemented. I hope that makes sense to you. Maybe a little more room over in Europe, given the fact that we're not as price floored over there and that it takes longer once you do a price, to get to a price hike, it takes longer to get to.

George LeMaitre: You change it, and then it takes 3 years for it to fully get implemented. I hope that makes sense to you. Maybe a little more room over in Europe, given the fact that we're not as price floored over there and that it takes longer once you do a price, to get to a price hike, it takes longer to get to.

Speaker #5: Understood. Great. And then just one specific and again, apologies if I missed this, but can you talk a little bit about the performance for patches in the quarter?

Keith Hinton: Understood. Great. Just, just one specific, and again, apologies if I missed this, but can you talk a little bit about the performance for patches in the quarter? I know there was a bit of a tough comp there. You were lapping some supply issues for a competitor, and I think that was the last quarter of ILUSHA. Just talk a little bit about that and how we should think about patches growth going forward.

Speaker #5: I know there was a bit of a tough comp there. You were lapping some supply issues. For a competitor, and I think there was the last quarter of Alusia.

Speaker #5: So just talk a little bit about that, and how we should think about patches growth going forward.

Speaker #2: Right. And I can pull out it was not such a great quarter for patches. Pat Zenisher was up 5%. That's the core patch. And I can get you in a second if you stand by.

George W. LeMaitre: Right. I can pull out, it was not such a great quarter for patches. XenoSure was up 5%. That's the core patch. I can get you in 1 second if you stand by, I can get you the full patch category. If anyone in the room has that, we can do that. XenoSure is the main piece of all this. I'm getting closer here, Keith. I should know this off the top of my head. Let's see. That is No, that's not gonna help me. 1 second, I can do it. Organic growth for the whole category was 2.3% for the quarter. Again, 5% for XenoSure, and 2.3% for the whole category patches.

George LeMaitre: Right. I can pull out, it was not such a great quarter for patches. XenoSure was up 5%. That's the core patch. I can get you in 1 second if you stand by, I can get you the full patch category. If anyone in the room has that, we can do that. XenoSure is the main piece of all this. I'm getting closer here, Keith. I should know this off the top of my head. Let's see. That is No, that's not gonna help me. 1 second, I can do it. Organic growth for the whole category was 2.3% for the quarter. Again, 5% for XenoSure, and 2.3% for the whole category patches.

Speaker #2: I can get you the full patch category. If anyone in the room has that, we can do that. Zenisher is the main piece of all this.

Speaker #2: And I'm getting closer here, Keith. I should know this off the top of my head. Let's see. Let's see. That is new. That's not going to help me.

Speaker #2: One second. I can do it. Organic growth for the whole category was 2.3% for the quarter. Again, 5% for Zeno, and 2.3% for the whole category patches.

Keith Hinton: Excellent. Thank you so much.

George W. LeMaitre: Hope that worked. Yep, no problem.

George LeMaitre: Hope that worked. Yep, no problem.

Speaker #2: If that works. Yep. No problem.

Speaker #4: Thank you. Our next?

Operator: Thank you. Our next-

George W. LeMaitre: We're having some audio problem, you know.

Speaker #2: So we're having some audio problems.

George LeMaitre: We're having some audio problem, you know.

Speaker #4: Okay. I can hear you very well at the moment.

Operator: Okay. I can hear you very well at the moment.

Speaker #2: Great. I think we lost you for a little while. Yep.

George W. LeMaitre: Great.

George LeMaitre: Great.

Operator: Our next.

George W. LeMaitre: I think we lost you for a little while. Yep.

George LeMaitre: I think we lost you for a little while. Yep.

Speaker #4: Oh, I'm so sorry. Our next question is coming from the line of Michael Petoskey from Barrington Research. Your line is now open, Michael.

Operator: Oh, I'm so sorry. Our next question is coming from the line of Michael Petusky from Barrington Research. Your line is now open, Michael.

Michael Petusky: Okay. Thank you. George, I guess, I'm curious, with the stuff of the last, I guess two months in the Middle East, are you guys seeing any impact from that either just in terms of customers that you may have in that part of the world or just in general in terms of the cost of transporting things and so on and so forth? Just wondering, any impact from sort of the international problems. Thanks.

Speaker #6: Okay. Thank you. Good evening. So George, I guess I'm curious with the stuff of the last, I guess, two months in the Middle East, are you guys seeing any impact from that either just in terms of customers that you may have in that part of the world or just in general in terms of the cost of transporting things and so on and so forth?

Speaker #6: Just wondering any impact from sort of the international problems. Thanks.

George W. LeMaitre: Sure. We have a very concrete topic about that, but it's not large. We weren't able to ship $175,000 worth of export towards the Middle East at the end of the quarter. We ended the quarter Q1 without having shipped that. In general, Mike, I would say, no, we're not really being bothered by this. This is a big topic for everyone in the world. For our little world, LeMaitre Vascular, so far we've been okay. Probably as time goes by, the supply chain will put extra costs on us for transportation and things like that. I would say for now, you know, we're crossing fingers and toes, and I think things are okay for us vis-a-vis what's going on in Iran.

George LeMaitre: Sure. We have a very concrete topic about that, but it's not large. We weren't able to ship $175,000 worth of export towards the Middle East at the end of the quarter. We ended the quarter Q1 without having shipped that. In general, Mike, I would say, no, we're not really being bothered by this. This is a big topic for everyone in the world. For our little world, LeMaitre Vascular, so far we've been okay. Probably as time goes by, the supply chain will put extra costs on us for transportation and things like that. I would say for now, you know, we're crossing fingers and toes, and I think things are okay for us vis-a-vis what's going on in Iran.

Speaker #2: Sure. So we have a very concrete topic about that, but it's not large. We weren't able to ship 175,000 dollars' worth of export towards the Middle East.

Speaker #2: At the end of the quarter, so we ended the quarter Q1 without having shipped that. But in general, Mike, I would say no we're not really being bothered by this.

Speaker #2: This is a big topic for everyone in the world, but for our little world, LEMAITRE VASCULAR so far, we've been okay. Probably as time goes by, the supply chain will put extra costs on us for transportation and things like that.

Speaker #2: But I would say for now, we're crossing fingers and toes, and I think things are okay for us vis-à-vis what's going on in Iran.

Speaker #6: Okay. Great. And I don't know if David's there, but if he is, I'd love an update on M&A and any commentary he has there.

Michael Petusky: Okay, great. I don't know if David's there, but if he is, I'd love an update on M&A, any commentary he has there. Thanks.

Speaker #6: Thanks.

David B. Roberts: Hi, Mike. Yeah, it's Dave. Nice to hear your voice.

Dave Roberts: Hi, Mike. Yeah, it's Dave. Nice to hear your voice.

Speaker #2: Hi, Mike. Yeah. It's Dave. Nice to hear your voice. Yeah. So we're out hunting. We're active. We've put out two or three term sheets so far this year.

Michael Petusky: Thanks.

David B. Roberts: We're out hunting, we're active. We've put out 2 or 3 term sheets so far this year. The hunting ground remains the same of open vascular, where there are a couple dozen targets in cardiac surgery, which of course is about 12% of the revenue. And the revenue sweet spot stays in that sort of $15 to 150 million, give or take. We do look smaller, we do look bigger. And certainly we have cash and dry powder to execute. We're just trying to find a good target that's the right fit at the right price.

Dave Roberts: We're out hunting, we're active. We've put out 2 or 3 term sheets so far this year. The hunting ground remains the same of open vascular, where there are a couple dozen targets in cardiac surgery, which of course is about 12% of the revenue. And the revenue sweet spot stays in that sort of $15 to 150 million, give or take. We do look smaller, we do look bigger. And certainly we have cash and dry powder to execute. We're just trying to find a good target that's the right fit at the right price.

Speaker #2: The hunting ground remains the same. Open vascular, where there are a couple dozen targets and cardiac surgery, which of course is about 12% of the revenue.

Speaker #2: And the revenue sweet spot stays in that sort of 15 to 150 million, give or take. We do look smaller. We do look bigger.

Speaker #2: And certainly, we have cash and dry powder. To execute. So we're just trying to find a good target that's the right fit at the right price.

Michael Petusky: Has, you know, obviously you guys were, you know, pretty active for a long time. In the last 5 years or so, it has, you know, been less so. Have you guys, other than maybe looking bigger, I mean, have you guys changed the approach at all in terms of hurdle, you know, internal hurdle rates or anything like that? Is it just, Hey, we're waiting for our pitch and we just aren't seeing our pitch?

Speaker #6: Has obviously, you guys were pretty active for a long time in the last five years or so. It has been less so. Have you guys other than maybe looking bigger, I mean, have you guys changed the approach at all in terms of hurdle internal hurdle rates or anything like that, or is it just, "Hey, we're waiting for our pitch, and we just aren't seeing our pitch"?

Speaker #2: I would say we haven't really changed it. I mean, obviously, the last sizable acquisition we did was Artograft, which was almost six years ago.

David B. Roberts: I would say we haven't really changed it. I mean, obviously the last sizable acquisition we did was Artegraft, which was almost 6 years ago. We did a very small one acquisition, which, you know, some people might have missed in December. It was just a few $100,000 of revenue over in Europe.

Dave Roberts: I would say we haven't really changed it. I mean, obviously the last sizable acquisition we did was Artegraft, which was almost 6 years ago. We did a very small one acquisition, which, you know, some people might have missed in December. It was just a few $100,000 of revenue over in Europe.

Speaker #2: We did a very small one acquisition, which some people might have missed in December. It was just a few hundred thousand of revenue over in Europe.

Michael Petusky: Right. Yeah.

David B. Roberts: High level No, I mean, I would say since Artegraft, we did that, and it was COVID, and then we're integrating, but we've been hunting. I think, you know, one factor is that there just aren't that many targets left in open vascular, so that's piece A. Piece B is, you know, I think it's taken us a little while to sharpen our focus in cardiac surgery, and I feel like we're there now.

Speaker #2: But high level, no. I mean, I would say since Artograft, we did that, and it was COVID. And then we're integrating. But we've been hunting.

Dave Roberts: High level No, I mean, I would say since Artegraft, we did that, and it was COVID, and then we're integrating, but we've been hunting. I think, you know, one factor is that there just aren't that many targets left in open vascular, so that's piece A. Piece B is, you know, I think it's taken us a little while to sharpen our focus in cardiac surgery, and I feel like we're there now.

Speaker #2: I think one factor is that there just aren't that many targets left in open vascular. So that's PSA. And then PSB is I think it's taken us a little while to sharpen our focus in cardiac surgery.

Speaker #2: And I feel like we're there now, which is why I think you hear me saying we're fairly active. With respect to making these non-binding offers.

Michael Petusky: Gotcha

Michael Petusky: which is why I think you hear me saying we're fairly active with respect to making these non-binding offers. We're out there, and yeah, I mean, on the one hand, you know, I'm fully cognizant of the amount of cash we have, but I've done enough bad acquisitions to know that you're really better off waiting for your pitch. We're waiting for our pitch.

Dave Roberts: which is why I think you hear me saying we're fairly active with respect to making these non-binding offers. We're out there, and yeah, I mean, on the one hand, you know, I'm fully cognizant of the amount of cash we have, but I've done enough bad acquisitions to know that you're really better off waiting for your pitch. We're waiting for our pitch.

Speaker #2: So we're out there. And yeah, I mean, on the one hand, I'm fully cognizant of the amount of cash we have. But I've done enough bad acquisitions to know that you're really better off waiting for your pitch.

Speaker #2: And so we're waiting for our pitch.

Michael Petusky: All right, fair enough then.

George W. LeMaitre: Mike, maybe a small add to that from George would be.

George LeMaitre: Mike, maybe a small add to that from George would be.

Speaker #5: Mike, maybe a small add to that from George would be—I think in the last six years, since we did the last big acquisition in June of 2000, I do think, and I think I mentioned this on one of these calls.

Michael Petusky: Sure

George W. LeMaitre: I think in the last 6 years since we did the last big acquisition in June 2000, I do think, and I think I mentioned this on one of these calls, I think we've gotten more self-confident about our ability to grow this company organically. The last 3 or 5 years, the stock price has moved a lot based on organic growth. I think when you prove that to yourself, that you can run a business organically that well, you start feeling less pressure to do acquisitions. I think maybe that sort of implicitly made the bar go up a little bit as well.

George LeMaitre: I think in the last 6 years since we did the last big acquisition in June 2000, I do think, and I think I mentioned this on one of these calls, I think we've gotten more self-confident about our ability to grow this company organically. The last 3 or 5 years, the stock price has moved a lot based on organic growth. I think when you prove that to yourself, that you can run a business organically that well, you start feeling less pressure to do acquisitions. I think maybe that sort of implicitly made the bar go up a little bit as well.

Speaker #5: I think we've gotten more self-confident about our ability to grow this company organically. So the last three or five years, the stock price has moved a lot based on organic growth.

Speaker #5: And I think when you prove that to yourself that you can run a business organically that well, you start feeling less pressure to do acquisitions.

Speaker #5: So I think maybe that's sort of implicitly made the bar go up a little bit as well.

Speaker #6: All right. Makes sense. Thanks, guys.

Michael Petusky: All right. Makes sense. Thanks, guys.

Speaker #4: Thanks.

George W. LeMaitre: Thanks a lot, Mike.

George LeMaitre: Thanks a lot, Mike.

Speaker #2: Thanks a lot, Mike.

Speaker #4: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Sarconi of Jefferies. Your line is now open.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Saccone of Jefferies. Your line is now open.

Speaker #7: Good afternoon and thanks for taking the question. Just wanted to start, George, you opened up the call talking about some opportunities and growth drivers for Artograft.

Michael Saccone: Good afternoon, and thanks for taking the question. Just wanted to start, you know, George, you opened up the call talking about some opportunities and growth drivers for Artegraft. Wanted to hone in on the Quick-Stik claim. Maybe, you know, was hoping you could help us frame the volume opportunity. I believe GORE ACUSEAL is kind of the primary competitor there. You know, help us frame the opportunity for what you could gain in share or volume growth if you did get the Quick-Stik claim.

Michael Sarcone: Good afternoon, and thanks for taking the question. Just wanted to start, you know, George, you opened up the call talking about some opportunities and growth drivers for Artegraft. Wanted to hone in on the Quick-Stik claim. Maybe, you know, was hoping you could help us frame the volume opportunity. I believe GORE ACUSEAL is kind of the primary competitor there. You know, help us frame the opportunity for what you could gain in share or volume growth if you did get the Quick-Stik claim.

Speaker #7: And wanted to hone in on the Quick-Stick claim. Maybe I was hoping you could help us frame the volume opportunity. I believe Gore Acucel is kind of the primary competitor there.

Speaker #7: Help us frame the opportunity for what you could gain and share or volume growth if you did get the quick stick claim.

David B. Roberts: Michael, it's David Roberts. I'm going to jump in on this, and George LeMaitre can add color. Yeah, you're right in identifying the GORE ACUSEAL. Whenever you buy a GORE-TEX raincoat, you support ACUSEAL. There's that. You know, there are Flixene, there are other Quick-Stik grafts on the market. Of course, Quick-Stik really is focused on dialysis access, and not peripheral bypass. Artegraft, it's funny, over in Europe, as George LeMaitre mentioned, it's being used primarily for peripheral bypass. A Quick-Stik indication, unless the Europeans take up using grafts as part of their algorithm for dialysis access, the Quick-Stik feature will really just help us in the US. Last year, our Artegraft sales in the US were around $40 million.

Dave Roberts: Michael, it's David Roberts. I'm going to jump in on this, and George LeMaitre can add color. Yeah, you're right in identifying the GORE ACUSEAL. Whenever you buy a GORE-TEX raincoat, you support ACUSEAL. There's that. You know, there are Flixene, there are other Quick-Stik grafts on the market. Of course, Quick-Stik really is focused on dialysis access, and not peripheral bypass. Artegraft, it's funny, over in Europe, as George LeMaitre mentioned, it's being used primarily for peripheral bypass. A Quick-Stik indication, unless the Europeans take up using grafts as part of their algorithm for dialysis access, the Quick-Stik feature will really just help us in the US. Last year, our Artegraft sales in the US were around $40 million.

Speaker #2: Well, Mike, it's Dave Roberts I'm going to jump in on this and George can add color yeah, you are right in identifying the Gore Acucel whenever you buy a Gore-Tex raincoat, you support Acucel.

Speaker #2: So there's that. And then they're flexing their other quick stick graphs on the market. Of course, quick stick really is focused on dialysis access.

Speaker #2: And not peripheral bypass. Artograft it's funny. Over in Europe as George mentioned, it's being used primarily for peripheral bypass. So a quick stick indication unless the Europeans take up using graphs as part of their algorithm for dialysis access, the quick stick feature will really just help us in the US.

Speaker #2: And last year, our Artograft sales in the US were around 40 million dollars. We don't really speak in TAMs too much around here. Do we think that quick stick will expand our sales of Artograft?

David B. Roberts: You know, we don't really speak in TAMs too much around here. You know, do we think that Quick-Stik will expand our sales of Artegraft? We do. You know, because we see these competitors, we know there's a market. You know, we feel also like this regulatory path is long for us. It could be 2 years, but it could be 5 or 6 years. We know the market is big enough that it completely justifies us investing the dollars to pursue that indication. In terms of exactly how much bigger we expect the market to be, I don't think we're prepared to say that. We do think it will be materially bigger than our US Artegraft sales today.

Dave Roberts: You know, we don't really speak in TAMs too much around here. You know, do we think that Quick-Stik will expand our sales of Artegraft? We do. You know, because we see these competitors, we know there's a market. You know, we feel also like this regulatory path is long for us. It could be 2 years, but it could be 5 or 6 years. We know the market is big enough that it completely justifies us investing the dollars to pursue that indication. In terms of exactly how much bigger we expect the market to be, I don't think we're prepared to say that. We do think it will be materially bigger than our US Artegraft sales today.

Speaker #2: We do. And because we see these competitors, we know there's a market. And so but we feel also like this regulatory path is long for us.

Speaker #2: It could be two years, but it could be five or six years. And so we know the market is big enough that it completely justifies us investing the dollars to pursue that indication.

Speaker #2: But in terms of exactly how much bigger we expect the market to be, I don't think we're prepared to say that. We do think it will be material bigger than our US Artograft sales today.

Speaker #2: But beyond that, I'm not so sure we're ready to say exactly how much bigger.

David B. Roberts: Beyond that, I'm not so sure, we're ready to say exactly how much bigger.

Dave Roberts: Beyond that, I'm not so sure, we're ready to say exactly how much bigger.

Speaker #7: Got it. That's helpful. Thanks, Dave. And I guess just another one on Artograft just about the 53 centimeters, the longer length. How much I guess I'm trying to pricing for you?

Michael Saccone: Got it. That's helpful. Thanks, Dave. I guess just another one on Artegraft, just about the, you know, the 53 centimeters, the longer length. How much I guess I'm trying to figure out, what does that do for pricing for you? You know, obviously, as George mentioned, one of the central focuses here is sustainability of pricing. You know, what kind of ASP bump do you get as you elongate the length of some of these grafts?

Michael Sarcone: Got it. That's helpful. Thanks, Dave. I guess just another one on Artegraft, just about the, you know, the 53 centimeters, the longer length. How much I guess I'm trying to figure out, what does that do for pricing for you? You know, obviously, as George mentioned, one of the central focuses here is sustainability of pricing. You know, what kind of ASP bump do you get as you elongate the length of some of these grafts?

Speaker #7: Obviously, as George mentioned, one of the central focuses here is sustainability of pricing. So, what kind of ASP bump do you get as you elongate the length of some of these grafts?

George W. LeMaitre: I think there's a good market out there. We've proven it with our Omniflow II product, which we've had out there for 5 or 8 years now. That's the ovine-based device out there, Mike. When we get to the longer Artegraft, and we'll get there at some point, we've already proven the 50 centimeter has significantly premium pricing versus the rest of the entire Artegraft portfolio of catalog numbers, if you will, the other lengths. I would say when you get up to 53, 55, 58, you are gonna be able to get into premium pricing there. As good as possible, and some other good news is that when we went into Europe, our manager over there put pricing above the American pricing, which is kind of rare, and it seems to be working.

Speaker #2: I think there's a good market out there. And we've proven it with our Omniflow 2 product, which we've had out there for five or eight years now.

George LeMaitre: I think there's a good market out there. We've proven it with our Omniflow II product, which we've had out there for 5 or 8 years now. That's the ovine-based device out there, Mike. When we get to the longer Artegraft, and we'll get there at some point, we've already proven the 50 centimeter has significantly premium pricing versus the rest of the entire Artegraft portfolio of catalog numbers, if you will, the other lengths. I would say when you get up to 53, 55, 58, you are gonna be able to get into premium pricing there. As good as possible, and some other good news is that when we went into Europe, our manager over there put pricing above the American pricing, which is kind of rare, and it seems to be working.

Speaker #2: That's the ovine-based device out there. Mike, and so when we get to the longer Artograft and we'll get there at some point. We've already proven the 50-centimeter has significantly premium pricing versus the rest of the entire Artograft portfolio of catalog numbers, if you will, the other lengths.

Speaker #2: So I would say when you get at the 53, 55, 58, you are going to be able to get into premium pricing there. So as good as possible.

Speaker #2: And some other good news is that when we went into Europe, our manager over there put pricing above the American pricing, which is kind of rare.

Speaker #2: And it seems to be working. So it should be nice gross margin devices when we get there.

George W. LeMaitre: You know, should be nice gross margin devices when we get there.

George LeMaitre: You know, should be nice gross margin devices when we get there.

Speaker #7: Great. Thank you.

Michael Saccone: Great. Thank you.

Michael Sarcone: Great. Thank you.

Speaker #2: Thank you.

George W. LeMaitre: Thank you.

George LeMaitre: Thank you.

Speaker #4: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of threat Fishbin, from Key Blank Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Brett Fishbin from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Speaker #5: Hey, everyone. This is Will on for Brett. Quick question on gross margin. You expanded around 350 basis points, and you called out higher pricing as well as some manufacturing efficiencies.

Will: Hey everyone, this is Will on for Brett. Quick question on gross margin. You expanded around 350 basis points, and you called out higher pricing as well as some manufacturing efficiencies. Could you just speak a bit to the split between those two items? Then can you just double-click on some of the manufacturing efficiencies? How much more room do you see to take out costs?

Will Korner: Hey everyone, this is Will on for Brett. Quick question on gross margin. You expanded around 350 basis points, and you called out higher pricing as well as some manufacturing efficiencies. Could you just speak a bit to the split between those two items? Then can you just double-click on some of the manufacturing efficiencies? How much more room do you see to take out costs?

Speaker #5: Could you just speak a bit to the split between those two items? And then can you just double-click on some of the manufacturing efficiencies?

Speaker #5: And how much more room do you see to take out costs?

Speaker #7: Yeah. This is Dorian. Thanks for the question. The 350 bips year over year, it's largely the pricing. It's also driven by some positive mix we talked about the distribution business being down a little bit.

Dorian LeBlanc: Yeah, this is Dorian. Thanks for the question. You know, the 350 BPS year-over-year, it's largely the pricing. It's also driven by some positive mix. You know, we talked about the distribution business being down a little bit. That's a lower margin business overall. We also talked about the, you know, the success of Artegraft, and that's a very high margin business. That price and that positive mix helped to that 350. The manufacturing efficiencies, you know, we've talked about this on several calls now, you know, it's hard to identify really one single individual thing that we've done in the operations.

Speaker #7: That's a lower margin business overall. We also talked about the success of Artograft, and that's a very high margin business. So that price and that positive mix helped to that 350.

Speaker #7: And the manufacturing efficiencies—we've talked about this on several calls now. It's hard to identify really one single individual thing that we've done in the operations.

Speaker #7: But other than really maybe the theme of consolidating here in Massachusetts, which we do think long-term gives us a better operational efficiencies, but we have seen really good Trent Camp, who runs our operations, Ryan Conley at our engineering team, Andrew Hodgkinson, who runs quality regulatory.

Dorian LeBlanc: You know, other than really maybe the theme of consolidating here in Massachusetts, which we do think long term gives us a better operational efficiencies. We have seen, you know, really good. You know, Trent G. Kamke, who runs our operations, Ryan H. Connelly and our engineering team, you know, Andrew Hodgkinson, who runs quality, regulatory, I think have done a nice job of just building a culture of continuous improvement here. We've seen that come through in a lot of just discrete, you know, what you'd call lean or Kaizen projects. Maybe the best way to, you know, articulate it is at the end of 2023, we had 211 direct labor employees in the company. At the end of 2025, we had 175.

Speaker #7: I think I've done a nice job of just building a culture of continuous improvement here. So we've seen that come through in a lot of just discrete what you'd call lean or Kaizen projects.

Speaker #7: Maybe the best way to articulate it is at the end of 2023, we had 211 direct labor employees in the company. And at the end of 2025, we had 175.

Speaker #7: So we continue to increase the number of devices that we're manufacturing, and we can continue to do it with fewer and fewer direct labor heads.

Dorian LeBlanc: We continue to increase the number of devices that we're manufacturing, and we can continue to do it with, you know, fewer and fewer direct labor heads. That's really a result of these, you know, automation projects, these lean Kaizen type projects. You know, we've also elsewhere in the cost structure, tried to drive cost out over the last year. We did do some initiatives around freight and logistics in the back half of last year that really helped margins. We have been building out that footprint of warehouses across Europe in particular, where we used to ship all the products from our German facility in Sulzbach to cover the European customers. We now have operations with warehouses in Switzerland, in Italy, in Spain, in France, and in the UK.

Speaker #7: And that's really a result of these automation projects, these lean Kaizen type projects. And then we've also elsewhere in the cost structure tried to drive cost out over the last year.

Speaker #7: We did do some initiatives around freight and logistics in the back half of last year. That really helped margins. We have been building out that footprint of warehouses across Europe in particular, where we used to ship all of the products from our German facility in Salzburg to cover the European customers.

Speaker #7: We now have operations with warehouses in Switzerland, in Italy, in Spain, in France, in the UK. And just being closer to the customer has a lot of commercial benefits, but it also has a lot of cost benefits around freight.

Dorian LeBlanc: Just being closer to the customer has a lot of commercial benefits, but it also has a lot of cost benefits around freight. I think we're just trying to continuously improve and drive cost out, and I think there continues to be opportunity, you know, for us there. It really has been a great story, you know, gross margin with the pricing and the abilities to just keep trying to continuously improve the operations.

Speaker #7: So I think we're just trying to continuously improve and drive cost out. And I think there continues to be opportunity for us there. But it really has been a great story gross margin with the pricing and the abilities to just keep trying to continuously improve the operations.

Will: I really appreciate that color. Maybe just sticking with the theme of margins, the guidance implies material ramp up in operating margin to hit 29% for the year. How should we think about the next few quarters, and eventually getting to a net Q4 exit rate?

Will Korner: I really appreciate that color. Maybe just sticking with the theme of margins, the guidance implies material ramp up in operating margin to hit 29% for the year. How should we think about the next few quarters, and eventually getting to a net Q4 exit rate?

Speaker #5: I really appreciate that, caller. And then maybe just sticking with the theme of margins, the guidance implies a material ramp-up in operating margin to hit 29% for the year.

Speaker #5: How should we think about the next few quarters and eventually getting to a 4Q exit rate?

George W. LeMaitre: You know, I think material here is that we have a 30% op margin coming at us in Q2, which is historically one of our better sales quarters. That one's a little bit more obvious. You know, 29%, I don't know, what do we have keyed in here for H2?

George LeMaitre: You know, I think material here is that we have a 30% op margin coming at us in Q2, which is historically one of our better sales quarters. That one's a little bit more obvious. You know, 29%, I don't know, what do we have keyed in here for H2?

Speaker #2: I think material here is that we have a 30% op margin coming at us in Q2, which is historically one of our better sales quarters.

Speaker #2: So that one’s a little bit more obvious. But 29%—I don’t know, what do we have keyed in here for the back half? We have 29 for the H2.

Dorian LeBlanc: Twenty-nine.

George LeMaitre: Twenty-nine.

George W. LeMaitre: 29 for the H2. That implies H2 at 29%, but we're not splitting the quarters exactly right now. I hope that's clean enough. I mean, 30 is very close to 29, so it's a nice exit rate in any event. What are we at this quarter? We're at 27 right now, so, you know, a little bit better.

George LeMaitre: 29 for the H2. That implies H2 at 29%, but we're not splitting the quarters exactly right now. I hope that's clean enough. I mean, 30 is very close to 29, so it's a nice exit rate in any event. What are we at this quarter? We're at 27 right now, so, you know, a little bit better.

Speaker #2: So that implies H2 at 29%, but we don't we're not splitting the quarters exactly right now. I hope that's cleaned up. But I mean, 30 is very close to 29.

Speaker #2: So it's a nice exit rate in any event. And what do we have this quarter? We're at 27 right now. So a little bit better.

Dorian LeBlanc: This is Dorian, just to jump in a little there. I think we did just, you know, talk through some of the investments that we plan to make in H2. Some of the investments around Artegraft. Talked about the Billerica warehouse and the Burlington manufacturing transition for TRIVEX. Also, we do expect to ramp the sales force in H2 and make other commercial investments. 2025 was a year where H1 had a little more expense, and we had a little less expense in H2. 2026 will probably be a more normal year, where you'll see H2 have a little bit more OpEx than H1.

Speaker #7: And this is Dorian, just maybe just to jump in a little there. Again, I think we did just talk through some of the investments that we plan to make in the back half of the year, some of the investments around Artograft.

Speaker #7: Talked about the BuildRico warehouse and the Burlington manufacturing transition for RFA. But also, we do expect to ramp the sales force in the back half of the year.

Speaker #7: And make other commercial investments. So 2025 was a year where the front half of the year was had a little more expense, and we had a little less expense in the back half.

Speaker #7: 2026 will probably be a more normal year, where you see the second half of the year have a little bit more OPEX than the first half.

Will: Yeah. Thank you very much.

Will Korner: Yeah. Thank you very much.

Speaker #5: Yeah. Thank you very much.

Speaker #2: Thanks, William.

George W. LeMaitre: Thanks, Will.

George LeMaitre: Thanks, Will.

Speaker #4: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rick Weiss from Stifel. Rick, your line is now open.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rick Wise from Stifel. Rick, your line is now open.

Annie: Hi, this is Annie on for Rick. Thanks for taking our question. My first one is just on the Q1 OUS Artegraft performance. I think I heard you call out $2.1 million in sales this quarter, which would sort of imply this annual run rate that's a bit below your $10 million target for the full year. I guess I'm just curious how you're thinking about the sales cadence through the rest of the year, if you're expecting sales dollars to continue stepping up each quarter, or if there are any sort of seasonal dynamics that we should be conscious of, and how you're expecting to sort of get to that $10 million target. Thanks.

Annie Ponsi: Hi, this is Annie on for Rick. Thanks for taking our question. My first one is just on the Q1 OUS Artegraft performance. I think I heard you call out $2.1 million in sales this quarter, which would sort of imply this annual run rate that's a bit below your $10 million target for the full year. I guess I'm just curious how you're thinking about the sales cadence through the rest of the year, if you're expecting sales dollars to continue stepping up each quarter, or if there are any sort of seasonal dynamics that we should be conscious of, and how you're expecting to sort of get to that $10 million target. Thanks.

Speaker #8: Hi. This is Annie on for Rick. Thanks for taking our question. So my first one's just on the first quarter OUS Artograft performance. I think I heard you call out 2.1 million in sales this quarter.

Speaker #8: Which would sort of imply this annual run rate that's a bit below your 10 million target for the full year. So I guess I'm just curious how you're thinking about the sales cadence through the rest of the year if you're expecting sales dollars to continue stepping up each quarter.

Speaker #8: Or if there are any sort of seasonal dynamics that we should be conscious of. And how you're expecting to sort of get to that $10 million target.

Speaker #8: Thanks.

George W. LeMaitre: Sure, sure. If you go on a day adjusted look at this, Annie, 2.1 in the first quarter winds up being an 8.6, not an 8.4. We did do the math on that. You have plenty coming at you. Q1 is always your lightest quarter at this company, always. Canada has approval. We should be shipping devices in Q4 or I think we're saying H2 here at some point in the back half. You also have the Southern European region ramping up right now. We, you know, we felt good about that. We put that number out there at the last quarter, so we're validating again this quarter. Makes sense to us. The ramp makes a lot of sense to us to get to $10 million.

George LeMaitre: Sure, sure. If you go on a day adjusted look at this, Annie, 2.1 in the first quarter winds up being an 8.6, not an 8.4. We did do the math on that. You have plenty coming at you. Q1 is always your lightest quarter at this company, always. Canada has approval. We should be shipping devices in Q4 or I think we're saying H2 here at some point in the back half. You also have the Southern European region ramping up right now. We, you know, we felt good about that. We put that number out there at the last quarter, so we're validating again this quarter. Makes sense to us. The ramp makes a lot of sense to us to get to $10 million.

Speaker #2: Sure, sure. And if you go on a day-adjusted look at this, Annie, $2.1 in the first quarter winds up being an 8.6, not an 8.4.

Speaker #2: So we did do the math on that. But you have plenty coming at you. Q1's always your lightest quarter at this company. Always. Canada has approval.

Speaker #2: We should be shipping devices in Q4 or Q1—I think we're saying H2 here, at some point in the back half. And you also have the Southern European region kind of ramping up right now.

Speaker #2: So we felt good about that. We put that number out there at the last quarter, so we're validating again this quarter. Makes sense to us.

Speaker #2: The ramp makes a lot of sense to us to get to 10 million.

Speaker #8: Okay. Great. And then maybe just one on restore flow Allograft. I heard you highlight that you're beginning distribution in Germany. In the second quarter, I believe, and you're expecting RFA to be approved in Ireland in the second half.

Annie: Okay, great. Then maybe just one on RestoreFlow Allograft. I heard you highlight that you're beginning distribution in Germany in Q2, I believe, and you're expecting RFA to be approved in Ireland in H2. Maybe you could just share your latest thoughts about the European RFA market opportunity and sort of the potential speed of adoption and revenue ramp there?

Annie Ponsi: Okay, great. Then maybe just one on RestoreFlow Allograft. I heard you highlight that you're beginning distribution in Germany in Q2, I believe, and you're expecting RFA to be approved in Ireland in H2. Maybe you could just share your latest thoughts about the European RFA market opportunity and sort of the potential speed of adoption and revenue ramp there?

Speaker #8: Maybe you could just share your latest thoughts about the European RFA market opportunity. And sort of the potential speed of adoption and revenue ramp there.

Speaker #2: Right. That's a good question. I would say it's been a little the Artograft thing happened so suddenly, it sort of took front and center stage at the company.

George W. LeMaitre: Right. That's a good question. You know, I would say The XenoSure thing happened so suddenly, it sort of took front and center stage at the company last year and then this year. I think TRIVEX's kinda not had as much focus from a regulatory perspective, but I think now the focus is on that, and these things will start coming soon. I would say it's been a little bit slow to start with, and that we should see it speed up as we get more regulatory focus on that product line. Also, in Germany, we got the approval, if you remember, in October, and we have not done one implant yet, and we're still sort of building our supply of quote-unquote German approved items, and they're slightly different technical reasons.

George LeMaitre: Right. That's a good question. You know, I would say The XenoSure thing happened so suddenly, it sort of took front and center stage at the company last year and then this year. I think TRIVEX's kinda not had as much focus from a regulatory perspective, but I think now the focus is on that, and these things will start coming soon. I would say it's been a little bit slow to start with, and that we should see it speed up as we get more regulatory focus on that product line. Also, in Germany, we got the approval, if you remember, in October, and we have not done one implant yet, and we're still sort of building our supply of quote-unquote German approved items, and they're slightly different technical reasons.

Speaker #2: Last year and then this year. And I think RFAs kind of not had as much focus from a regulatory perspective. But I think now the focus is on that.

Speaker #2: And these things will start coming soon. So I would say it's been a little bit slow to start with and that we should see it speed up as we get more regulatory focus on that product line.

Speaker #2: Also, in Germany, we got the approval, if you remember, in October, and we have not done one implant yet. And we're still sort of building our supply of, quote-unquote, "German-approved items." And they're slightly different for technical reasons.

Speaker #2: They're slightly different than the American approved items. And so it's taken a little bit longer for us to build up stock there. And then maybe the Irish approval and audit by the tissue authority there.

George W. LeMaitre: They're slightly different than the American approved items. It's taken a little bit longer for us to build up stock there. Then maybe the Irish approval and you know, audit by the tissue authority there, is a little bit slower in coming than we expected. It took us a little bit longer to set up our Irish office, and you're not allowed to ask them to inspect your facility until the facility is truly open. A couple of those items there. You know, to go back to this, we just filed in Australia, and then there's five European filings, which will take place in H2 of 2026. Austria, Holland, Belgium, Spain, and Switzerland. It's starting to happen here, but we would admit it's been a little bit light over there, till now.

George LeMaitre: They're slightly different than the American approved items. It's taken a little bit longer for us to build up stock there. Then maybe the Irish approval and you know, audit by the tissue authority there, is a little bit slower in coming than we expected. It took us a little bit longer to set up our Irish office, and you're not allowed to ask them to inspect your facility until the facility is truly open. A couple of those items there. You know, to go back to this, we just filed in Australia, and then there's five European filings, which will take place in H2 of 2026. Austria, Holland, Belgium, Spain, and Switzerland. It's starting to happen here, but we would admit it's been a little bit light over there, till now.

Speaker #2: It's a little bit slower in coming than we expected. It took us a little bit longer to set up our Irish office. And you're not allowed to ask them to inspect your facility until the facility is truly open.

Speaker #2: So a couple of those items there. But to go back to this, we just filed in Australia. And then there's five Europeans filings, which will take place in H2 of 2026.

Speaker #2: Austria, Holland, Belgium, Spain, and Switzerland. So it's starting to happen here. But we would admit it's been a little bit light over there. Till now.

Annie: Got it. Thanks so much for the color there.

Annie Ponsi: Got it. Thanks so much for the color there.

Speaker #8: Got it. Thanks so much for the color there.

Speaker #2: Thanks, Annie.

George W. LeMaitre: Thanks, Annie.

George LeMaitre: Thanks, Annie.

Speaker #4: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Danny Sodder from Citizens JMP. Danny, your line is now open.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Daniel Stauder from Citizens JMP. Danny, your line is now open.

Speaker #5: Yeah, great. Thanks for the questions. Just my first one on Artograft—specifically on the point about making the longer sizes for limb bypass. Could you talk about this decision?

Daniel Stauder: Yeah, great. Thanks for the questions. Just my first one on Artegraft. Specifically on the point on making the longer sizes for leg bypass. Could you talk about this decision? I mean, it sounds like it's higher dollar in terms of the sell point, and maybe it's more common in Europe, but are there any more recent trends from vascular surgeons that you're seeing that's leading to higher demand for these longer sizes? I guess in summation, the question is why now and why are you pursuing this at this point? Thank you.

Danny Stauder: Yeah, great. Thanks for the questions. Just my first one on Artegraft. Specifically on the point on making the longer sizes for leg bypass. Could you talk about this decision? I mean, it sounds like it's higher dollar in terms of the sell point, and maybe it's more common in Europe, but are there any more recent trends from vascular surgeons that you're seeing that's leading to higher demand for these longer sizes? I guess in summation, the question is why now and why are you pursuing this at this point? Thank you.

Speaker #5: I mean, it sounds like it's higher dollar in terms of a sell point than maybe it's more common in Europe. But are there any more recent trends from vascular surgeons that you're seeing that's leading to higher demand for these longer sizes?

Speaker #5: I guess, in summation, the question is: why now, and why are you pursuing this at this point? Thank you.

Speaker #2: Right. I think it's always been very clear to our European colleagues that a 50-centimeter wasn't going to make them happy and that it just barely qualified for what we'll call fem-pop bypasses, which is just below the knee.

George W. LeMaitre: Right. You know, I think it's always been very clear to our European colleagues that a 50 cm wasn't gonna make them happy, and that it just barely qualified for what we'll call fem-pop bypasses, which is just below the knee. They've always told us, Yeah, we can sell a 50, but George, we want 60s and 58s and 53s, just like you provide us with that Omniflow graft. Again, I'm talking again about what I said. We sell ovine Omniflow over there, and they're longer, and that's the market. They don't really do AV access in general in Europe. In the US, where we sell mostly AV access XenoSure, 50 cm has always been sufficient for the whole entire history of this device. We figured, Oh, let's get going in Europe, but then we always knew.

George LeMaitre: Right. You know, I think it's always been very clear to our European colleagues that a 50 cm wasn't gonna make them happy, and that it just barely qualified for what we'll call fem-pop bypasses, which is just below the knee. They've always told us, Yeah, we can sell a 50, but George, we want 60s and 58s and 53s, just like you provide us with that Omniflow graft. Again, I'm talking again about what I said. We sell ovine Omniflow over there, and they're longer, and that's the market. They don't really do AV access in general in Europe. In the US, where we sell mostly AV access XenoSure, 50 cm has always been sufficient for the whole entire history of this device. We figured, Oh, let's get going in Europe, but then we always knew.

Speaker #2: They've always told us, "Yeah. We can sell a 50, but George, we want 60s and 58s and 53s just like you provide us with that Omniflow graft." Again, I'm talking again about what I said.

Speaker #2: We sell ovine Omniflow over there. And they're longer. And that's the market. They don't really do AV access in general in Europe. And so in the US, where we sell mostly AV access Artograft, 50-centimeters has always been sufficient for the whole entire history of this device.

Speaker #2: So we figured, "Oh, let's get going in Europe." But then we always knew. So this has been a project that's been on our drawing board for a while.

George W. LeMaitre: This has been a project that's been on our drawing board for a while, but it's starting to get real now that we've got that CE mark.

George LeMaitre: This has been a project that's been on our drawing board for a while, but it's starting to get real now that we've got that CE mark.

Speaker #2: But it's starting to get real now that we've got that CE mark.

Speaker #5: And I would add, Danny, this is Dave Roberts. The backdrop, if a patient has peripheral vascular disease, especially distally, down the calf towards the foot, the smaller diameter the artery the more likely it is that an endovascular intervention, whether it's an angioplasty or stent or atherectomy or whatever you have, isn't going to be durable over the long haul.

David B. Roberts: I would add, Daniel, this is David B. Roberts. The backdrop, you know, if a patient has peripheral vascular disease, especially distally, you know, down the calf towards the foot, the smaller diameter the artery, the more likely it is that an endovascular intervention, whether it's an angioplasty, or stent, or atherectomy, or whatever you have, isn't going to be durable over the long haul. That's why we always see with our Valvulotome, a long bypass is what surgeons want to do. With our allografts here in the US, and in Canada, and the UK, we've always seen the most demand for the longest allograft. Clinically, there's a very good reason for it. As George W. LeMaitre said, for us, our US autograft business has been mostly dialysis access.

Dave Roberts: I would add, Daniel, this is David B. Roberts. The backdrop, you know, if a patient has peripheral vascular disease, especially distally, you know, down the calf towards the foot, the smaller diameter the artery, the more likely it is that an endovascular intervention, whether it's an angioplasty, or stent, or atherectomy, or whatever you have, isn't going to be durable over the long haul. That's why we always see with our Valvulotome, a long bypass is what surgeons want to do. With our allografts here in the US, and in Canada, and the UK, we've always seen the most demand for the longest allograft. Clinically, there's a very good reason for it. As George W. LeMaitre said, for us, our US autograft business has been mostly dialysis access.

Speaker #5: So that's why we always see with our valvulotome along bypass is what surgeons want to do with our Allografts here in the US. And in Canada.

Speaker #5: And the UK. We've always seen the most demand for the longest allografts. So clinically, there's a very good reason for it. But as George said, for us, our US ArtoGraft business has been mostly dialysis access.

Speaker #5: It's only since we got into Europe where they're really adopting it for peripheral that it's highlighted the need for a longer Artograft. That's really helpful.

David B. Roberts: It's only since we got into Europe, where they're really adopting it for peripheral, that it's highlighted the need for a longer autograft.

Dave Roberts: It's only since we got into Europe, where they're really adopting it for peripheral, that it's highlighted the need for a longer autograft.

Daniel Stauder: That's really helpful. Just following up on that line of questioning, just in terms of the market opportunity, how much would approvals here expand your total addressable market for this business? Like, are there certain procedures that this unlocks? It sounds like it might be more so in Europe, but any more detail on patient population sizing or growth here would be great in terms of what this could offer you. Thank you.

Danny Stauder: That's really helpful. Just following up on that line of questioning, just in terms of the market opportunity, how much would approvals here expand your total addressable market for this business? Like, are there certain procedures that this unlocks? It sounds like it might be more so in Europe, but any more detail on patient population sizing or growth here would be great in terms of what this could offer you. Thank you.

Speaker #5: And just following up on that line of questioning, just in terms of the market opportunity, how much would approvals here expand your total addressable market for this business?

Speaker #5: Are there certain procedures that this unlocks? It sounds like it might be more so in Europe. But any more detail on patient population sizing or growth here would be great in terms of what this could offer you.

Speaker #5: Thank you.

Speaker #2: Right. Slightly complex answer. But the answer is we've given you a TAM. And I think we upped it the last time we met to $30 million for biologic grafts in Europe—or international, rather, OUS, let's call it.

George W. LeMaitre: Right. Slightly complex answer, but the answer is, we've given you a TAM, and I think we upped it the last time we met at $30 million for biologic grafts in Europe or international rather, OUS, let's call it. That always included the ovine graft. We sold something like $6 million last year of ovine, and we plan to sell $10 million worth of this bovine graft, Artegraft. That's 16 of the $30 million TAM. In knowing that we are already selling. This is a little complex. In knowing that we're already selling ovine for the distal bypasses, for these longer bypasses, we already felt that was part of the TAM. In the very short run, does this affect our TAM of $30 million?

George LeMaitre: Right. Slightly complex answer, but the answer is, we've given you a TAM, and I think we upped it the last time we met at $30 million for biologic grafts in Europe or international rather, OUS, let's call it. That always included the ovine graft. We sold something like $6 million last year of ovine, and we plan to sell $10 million worth of this bovine graft, Artegraft. That's 16 of the $30 million TAM. In knowing that we are already selling. This is a little complex. In knowing that we're already selling ovine for the distal bypasses, for these longer bypasses, we already felt that was part of the TAM. In the very short run, does this affect our TAM of $30 million?

Speaker #2: And that always included the ovine graft. And we sold something like $6 million last year of ovine. And we plan to send 10 sell $10 million worth of this bovine graft Artograft so that 16 of the 30 TAM, but in knowing that we were already selling it's a little complex.

Speaker #2: In knowing that we were already selling ovine for the distal bypasses for these longer bypasses, we already felt that was part of the TAM.

Speaker #2: So in the very short run, is this affect our TAM of $30 million? No. Though we should think about it for a while and come back to you guys on it.

George W. LeMaitre: No, though we should think about it for a while and come back to you guys on it. In the short run, no, let's stay with $30 million as the TAM.

George LeMaitre: No, though we should think about it for a while and come back to you guys on it. In the short run, no, let's stay with $30 million as the TAM.

Speaker #2: But in the short run, no. Let's stay with $30 million as the TAM.

Speaker #5: Great. Appreciate it. And sorry for making it more complex than it used to be. Thanks a lot.

Daniel Stauder: Great. Appreciate it, and sorry for making it more complex than it needed to be. Thanks a lot.

Danny Stauder: Great. Appreciate it, and sorry for making it more complex than it needed to be. Thanks a lot.

George W. LeMaitre: Not at all.

George LeMaitre: Not at all.

Speaker #2: Not at all. Thank you very much.

Operator: Thank you.

George W. LeMaitre: Thank you very much.

George LeMaitre: Thank you very much.

Speaker #4: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Nathan Threebeck from Wells Fargo. Your line is now open.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Nathan Treybeck from Wells Fargo. Your line is now open.

Nathan Treybeck: Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. You know, just thinking about capital allocation, I guess as we think about your opportunity set, either organically or through M&A, are there any product categories you would call out in open vascular, open cardiac, where, you know, you're seeing outsized momentum or maybe strategic underinvestment?

Speaker #5: Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. Just thinking about capital allocation, I guess as we think about your opportunity set either organically or through M&A, are there any product categories you would call out and open vascular or open cardiac where you're seeing outsized momentum or maybe strategic underinvestment?

Speaker #2: I mean, for us, Nathan, this is Dave. It's a great question. I think the first level consideration is open vascular versus open cardiac. And for us, open vascular is still the center of the fairway.

David B. Roberts: I mean, for us, Nathan, this is Dave, it's a great question. I think, you know, the first level of consideration is, you know, open vascular versus open cardiac. For us, open vascular is still the center of the fairway. Like I've said, there are limited targets set in open vascular. When you get to cardiac, we're generally steering away from capital equipment. Never say never, but the more important attribute for us is the niche market. George emphasized that when he rattled off, I think five of the key tenets of the LeMaitre playbook. We're looking for these niche-y markets where we can acquire into a leadership position. We really like physician preference items that are differentiated, that the surgeons are going to gravitate towards over time.

Dave Roberts: I mean, for us, Nathan, this is Dave, it's a great question. I think, you know, the first level of consideration is, you know, open vascular versus open cardiac. For us, open vascular is still the center of the fairway. Like I've said, there are limited targets set in open vascular. When you get to cardiac, we're generally steering away from capital equipment. Never say never, but the more important attribute for us is the niche market. George emphasized that when he rattled off, I think five of the key tenets of the LeMaitre playbook. We're looking for these niche-y markets where we can acquire into a leadership position. We really like physician preference items that are differentiated, that the surgeons are going to gravitate towards over time.

Speaker #2: But like I've said, there are limited targets set in open vascular. When you get to cardiac, we're generally steering away from capital equipment, never say never.

Speaker #2: But the more important attribute for us is the niche market. And George, emphasize that when he rattled off, I think, five of the key tenets of the LEMAIT playbook.

Speaker #2: We're looking for these niche markets where we can acquire into a leadership position. We really like physician preference items. They are differentiated. The surgeons are going to gravitate towards over time.

David B. Roberts: you know, the cardiac surgery market devices is, I would say, at least four times the size of the open vascular surgery market. There are a lot of targets there. I'm not gonna get specific for obviously competitive strategic reasons about the targets we're interested in, but there are plenty of these interesting niches that we could acquire into, and then hopefully, they would exhibit the same financial characteristics over time that our organic products are these days.

Speaker #2: So the cardiac surgery market, devices is, I'd say, at least four times the size of the open vascular surgery market. So there are a lot of targets there.

Dave Roberts: you know, the cardiac surgery market devices is, I would say, at least four times the size of the open vascular surgery market. There are a lot of targets there. I'm not gonna get specific for obviously competitive strategic reasons about the targets we're interested in, but there are plenty of these interesting niches that we could acquire into, and then hopefully, they would exhibit the same financial characteristics over time that our organic products are these days.

Speaker #2: I'm not going to get specific for obviously competitive strategic reasons about the targets we're interested in. But there are plenty of these interesting niches that we could acquire into.

Speaker #2: And then hopefully, they would exhibit the same financial characteristics over time that our organic products are these days.

Speaker #5: Thanks for that. How are you thinking about the RestoreFlow German launch in Germany? How are you thinking about the ramp and the contribution to growth this year?

Nathan Treybeck: Thanks for that. How are you thinking about the RestoreFlow launch in Germany? How are you thinking about the ramp and the contribution to growth this year?

Speaker #2: I mean, this is George again. It's all baked into guidance. But I think we're being quite cautious with what we're baking into guidance.

George W. LeMaitre: I mean, this is George again. It's all baked in at guidance, but I think we're being quite cautious with what we're baking into guidance, 'cause we don't know. We've had one European launch over there, and it went fantastic. It was the UK. You know, we haven't seen it yet. We have less supply. We didn't have supply issues the last time. The Americans and the British accepted for acceptable tissue was the same, so we didn't have a distinction. Now we have a distinction. Every single tissue that we send to Germany has to be sort of German qualified, if you will. We don't know. We've got very cautious numbers baked into guidance. We shall see. Maybe there's a little upside for everyone in this launch.

George LeMaitre: I mean, this is George again. It's all baked in at guidance, but I think we're being quite cautious with what we're baking into guidance, 'cause we don't know. We've had one European launch over there, and it went fantastic. It was the UK. You know, we haven't seen it yet. We have less supply. We didn't have supply issues the last time. The Americans and the British accepted for acceptable tissue was the same, so we didn't have a distinction. Now we have a distinction. Every single tissue that we send to Germany has to be sort of German qualified, if you will. We don't know. We've got very cautious numbers baked into guidance. We shall see. Maybe there's a little upside for everyone in this launch.

Speaker #2: Because we don't know. We've had one European launch over there, and it went fantastic. It was the UK. But we haven't seen it yet.

Speaker #2: We have less supply. We didn't have supply issues the last time. The American and the British—what the Americans and the British accepted for acceptable tissue was the same, so we didn't have a distinction.

Speaker #2: Now we have a distinction every single tissue that we send to Germany has to be sort of German qualified, if you will. So we've had a slower time.

Speaker #2: So, we don't know. We've got very cautious numbers baked into guidance. We shall see. Maybe there's a little upside for everyone in this launch.

Speaker #5: Okay. And I could squeeze one more in. As we think about your guidance philosophy, I mean, we see 10% organic growth. And there was this distribution dynamic in Q1.

Nathan Treybeck: Okay. If I could squeeze one more in. You know, as we think about your guidance philosophy, I mean, we see 10% organic growth and there was this distribution dynamic in Q1. Your guidance implies an acceleration through the rest of the year. I guess, how de-risked is this guidance at this point?

Speaker #5: Your guidance implies an acceleration through the rest of the year. I guess how de-risked is this guidance at this point?

Speaker #2: I mean, if you look at tough comps, easy comps, I think the summer quarter is an easy quarter to beat up on. So you have that going for you.

George W. LeMaitre: I mean, one, if you look at tough comps, easy comps, I think the summer quarter is an easy quarter to beat up on. You have that going for you. In general, maybe even Q4 is something that we can do better than what we had here. You know, you look at our guidance history, I think, Dave, what do we hit, like 77% of the quarters for a sales guidance?

George LeMaitre: I mean, one, if you look at tough comps, easy comps, I think the summer quarter is an easy quarter to beat up on. You have that going for you. In general, maybe even Q4 is something that we can do better than what we had here. You know, you look at our guidance history, I think, Dave, what do we hit, like 77% of the quarters for a sales guidance?

Speaker #2: And in general, maybe even Q4 is something that we can do better than what we had here. But you look at our guidance history, I think, Dave, what do we hit?

Speaker #2: Like 77% of the quarters for sales guidance. We have it written on the investor preso out there. I think it's something like that, Nathan.

David B. Roberts: Investor presentation

Dave Roberts: Investor presentation

George W. LeMaitre: the investor preso out there. I think it's something like that, Nathan. You know, this is like our 78th call, so we're getting better and better at doing guidance, I think. Yeah, there's always risk. I don't think you would accuse us of sandbagging if we're only, quote-unquote, "Only making it 75% of the time." We try to give you the best, the right number, and then we, you know. We chase it too. We'll chase those numbers. They mean a lot to us.

George LeMaitre: the investor preso out there. I think it's something like that, Nathan. You know, this is like our 78th call, so we're getting better and better at doing guidance, I think. Yeah, there's always risk. I don't think you would accuse us of sandbagging if we're only, quote-unquote, "Only making it 75% of the time." We try to give you the best, the right number, and then we, you know. We chase it too. We'll chase those numbers. They mean a lot to us.

Speaker #2: So we've been doing this is like our 78th call. So we're getting better and better at doing guidance, I think. But yeah, there's always risk.

Speaker #2: I don't think you would accuse us of sandbagging if we're only "only making it 75% of the time." So we try to give you the right number.

Speaker #2: And then we and we chase it too. We'll chase those numbers. They mean a lot to us.

Speaker #5: Thanks for that.

Nathan Treybeck: Thanks for that.

Speaker #2: Yep.

George W. LeMaitre: Yep.

George LeMaitre: Yep.

Speaker #4: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jim Sadoti from Sadoti & Company. Your line is now open.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of James Sidoti from Sidoti & Company. Your line is now open.

James Sidoti: Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. Can you tell me what the operating cash and the capital expenditures were in the quarter?

Jim Sidoti: Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. Can you tell me what the operating cash and the capital expenditures were in the quarter?

Speaker #5: Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. Can you tell me what the operating cash and the capital expenditures were in the quarter?

Speaker #6: Sure. This is Dorian Jim. Cash from operations was 15.1 million. And the capex was 2.8 million.

Dorian LeBlanc: Sure. This is Dorian. Jim, cash from operations was $15.1 million, and the CapEx was $2.8 million.

Speaker #5: Okay. And you talked about the consolidation of the Chicago plant. Is that something you expect to be done by the end of this year?

James Sidoti: Okay. You talked about the consolidation of the Chicago plant. Is that something you expect to be done by the end of this year?

Jim Sidoti: Okay. You talked about the consolidation of the Chicago plant. Is that something you expect to be done by the end of this year?

Speaker #2: Yes.

Dorian LeBlanc: Yes.

Speaker #5: Okay. And then I feel like I'd be missing something if I didn't ask an autograph question on the call. It seems like that's the topic of the day.

James Sidoti: Okay. I feel like I'd be missing something if I didn't ask an Artegraft question on the call. It seems like that's the topic of the day. You brought up Korea, Brazil, Vietnam, India. When do you expect those approvals?

Jim Sidoti: Okay. I feel like I'd be missing something if I didn't ask an Artegraft question on the call. It seems like that's the topic of the day. You brought up Korea, Brazil, Vietnam, India. When do you expect those approvals?

Speaker #5: You brought up Korea, Brazil, Vietnam, India. When do you expect those approvals?

George W. LeMaitre: 2027.

George LeMaitre: 2027.

Speaker #2: 2027.

James Sidoti: Those are all 2027. Early, late? You know, will they be contributors?

Jim Sidoti: Those are all 2027. Early, late? You know, will they be contributors?

Speaker #5: Those are all 2027? So, early or late? Will they be contributors?

George W. LeMaitre: I mean, I wrote in the script H2, but I bet you get one of them in H1 and three of them in H2, something like that.

Speaker #2: I mean, I wrote in the we wrote in the script H2. But I bet you get I bet you get one of them in H1 and three of them in H2, something like that.

George LeMaitre: I mean, I wrote in the script H2, but I bet you get one of them in H1 and three of them in H2, something like that.

Speaker #5: Okay. So they'll be moderate contributors in 2027?

James Sidoti: Okay. They'll be moderate contributors to 2027.

Jim Sidoti: Okay. They'll be moderate contributors to 2027.

George W. LeMaitre: You know, we haven't even thought that through. We're thrilled to get them, and that would make us have 56 approvals instead of 52. They're okay countries for us.

George LeMaitre: You know, we haven't even thought that through. We're thrilled to get them, and that would make us have 56 approvals instead of 52. They're okay countries for us.

Speaker #2: We haven't even thought that through. We're thrilled to get them. And that would make us have 56 approvals instead of 52. But they're okay countries for us.

Speaker #5: Okay. All right. Thank you.

James Sidoti: Okay. All right. Thank you.

Jim Sidoti: Okay. All right. Thank you.

Speaker #2: Thanks, Jim.

George W. LeMaitre: Thanks, Jim.

George LeMaitre: Thanks, Jim.

James Sidoti: Jim.

Dorian LeBlanc: Jim.

Speaker #6: Jim.

Speaker #4: Thank you. Our question our next question, rather, comes from the line of Frank Takinen from Lake Street Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question rather, comes from the line of Frank Takkinen from Lake Street Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Speaker #5: Great. Thank you for taking the questions. I was hoping to follow up on the distributor. Is there a chance that swings back in Q2 and the back half of the year?

Frank Takkinen: Great. Thank you for taking the questions. I was hoping to follow up on the distributor. Is there a chance this swings back in Q2 and H2? Is this potentially a geography where you may elect to go direct?

Speaker #5: And then, is this potentially a geography where you may elect to go direct?

Speaker #2: Okay. So you're talking about when we talked about export in Q1 being a little bit light. Yes, there's a very good chance it'll swing back.

George W. LeMaitre: Okay. You're talking about when we talked about export in Q1 being a little bit light. Yes, there's a very good chance it'll swing back. Maybe if we look at maybe one fact that didn't come out yet, which is if you look at April, you guys We usually don't do this, but just to give people some comfort there. In April, sales growth was 13%. It was 7% price and 6% units. That's a big hint that, yeah, it was a, it was a temporary passing phenomenon. One little step further here, Frank, the export business, interestingly enough, because, you know, we run around touting ourselves as a direct-to-hospital company. Lo and behold, if you really look at the facts, the export business of this company has a CAGR of 20% since 2019.

George LeMaitre: Okay. You're talking about when we talked about export in Q1 being a little bit light. Yes, there's a very good chance it'll swing back. Maybe if we look at maybe one fact that didn't come out yet, which is if you look at April, you guys We usually don't do this, but just to give people some comfort there. In April, sales growth was 13%. It was 7% price and 6% units. That's a big hint that, yeah, it was a, it was a temporary passing phenomenon. One little step further here, Frank, the export business, interestingly enough, because, you know, we run around touting ourselves as a direct-to-hospital company. Lo and behold, if you really look at the facts, the export business of this company has a CAGR of 20% since 2019.

Speaker #2: Maybe if we look at maybe one fact that didn't come out yet, which is if you look at April, you guys we usually don't do this, but just to give people some comfort there.

Speaker #2: In April, sales growth was 13%. It was 7% price and 6% units. And that's a big hint that, yeah, it was a temporary passing phenomenon.

Speaker #2: And one little step further here, Frank, the export business, interestingly enough, because we run around touting ourselves as the direct to hospital company. And lo and behold, if you really look at the facts, the export business at this company has a CAGR of 20% for the last since 2019.

George W. LeMaitre: Skipping over the pandemic, starting in 2019, the 7-year CAGR, if you will, is 20%. That business continues to just do fantastic. All it says to me is that the world's a very big place. We ignore it, and the business keeps coming in, and then we use that to pick off places to go direct. You can see Poland, Mexico, and Greece. If you were in our building, you would look at the walls at all these 2030 plank sets. It says Poland, Mexico, and Greece. You're probably gonna see that happen over the next 2 or 3 years. Certainly Poland this year, and then Mexico and Greece coming after that. You know, very excited about the export business always.

Speaker #2: So skipping over the pandemic, starting in 2019, the seven-year CAGR, if you will, is 20%. And so that business continues to just do fantastic.

George LeMaitre: Skipping over the pandemic, starting in 2019, the 7-year CAGR, if you will, is 20%. That business continues to just do fantastic. All it says to me is that the world's a very big place. We ignore it, and the business keeps coming in, and then we use that to pick off places to go direct. You can see Poland, Mexico, and Greece. If you were in our building, you would look at the walls at all these 2030 plank sets. It says Poland, Mexico, and Greece. You're probably gonna see that happen over the next 2 or 3 years. Certainly Poland this year, and then Mexico and Greece coming after that. You know, very excited about the export business always.

Speaker #2: And all it says to me is that the world's a very big place. We ignore it. And the business keeps coming in. And then we use that to pick off places to go direct.

Speaker #2: You can see Poland, Mexico, and Greece. If you were in our building, you would look at the walls at all these 20-, 30-plank sets.

Speaker #2: It says Poland, Mexico, and Greece. So you're probably going to see that happen over the next two or three years. Certainly, Poland this year, and then Mexico and Greece coming after that.

Speaker #2: But not worried, very excited about the export business always. And we have four export managers right now—or three, and one being filled right now.

George W. LeMaitre: We have 4 export managers right now, or 3 and 1 being filled right now. On our plan set, we plan to get to 8 export managers by 2030. A place where we heavily invest because of the growth of the business as well as it produces great opportunities for us to go direct.

George LeMaitre: We have 4 export managers right now, or 3 and 1 being filled right now. On our plan set, we plan to get to 8 export managers by 2030. A place where we heavily invest because of the growth of the business as well as it produces great opportunities for us to go direct.

Speaker #2: And on our plank set, we plan to get to eight export managers by 2030. So a place where we heavily invest because of the growth of the business as well as it produces great opportunities for us to go direct.

Frank Takkinen: Perfect. Helpful. Thanks for the April bonus. On the Artegraft R&D projects you mentioned, my assumption to this answer is no, is this at all kind of marking a transition to maybe looking more internally at the portfolio for other R&D opportunities in light of maybe the M&A lack of appropriate M&A currently, or is this just kind of one-off because Artegraft has had so much momentum?

Speaker #5: Perfect. Helpful. Thanks for the April bonus. And then on the autographed R&D projects you mentioned, my assumption to this answer is no. But is this at all kind of marking a transition to maybe looking more internally at the portfolio for other R&D opportunities in light of maybe the M&A lack of appropriate M&A currently?

Speaker #5: Or is this just kind of one-off because the autograph has had so much momentum?

George W. LeMaitre: That's a good question, good way to look at it. I mean, one of the nice things about being a company that doesn't do too much R&D is that the R&D projects scream at you and you can't ignore them for too long. Maybe we could put that in that category. This is very, very obvious stuff. Also, you're allowed if you don't do too much R&D, you're allowed to do some really low risk, low beta projects. You know, making a longer tube is a very low risk projects where we have high confidence that we'll get that approved by Europe and the US. I hope that gives you some color on the choice of R&D projects. Probably, I think we said this before, it's again, it's on these plank sets.

George LeMaitre: That's a good question, good way to look at it. I mean, one of the nice things about being a company that doesn't do too much R&D is that the R&D projects scream at you and you can't ignore them for too long. Maybe we could put that in that category. This is very, very obvious stuff. Also, you're allowed if you don't do too much R&D, you're allowed to do some really low risk, low beta projects. You know, making a longer tube is a very low risk projects where we have high confidence that we'll get that approved by Europe and the US. I hope that gives you some color on the choice of R&D projects. Probably, I think we said this before, it's again, it's on these plank sets.

Speaker #2: That's a good question. It's a good way to look at it. I mean, one of the nice things about being a company that doesn't do too much R&D is that the R&D project scream at you.

Speaker #2: And you can't ignore them for too long. So maybe we could put that in that category. This is very, very obvious stuff. And also, you're allowed if you don't do too much R&D, you're allowed to do some really low-risk, low-beta projects.

Speaker #2: Making a longer tube is a very low-risk project where we have high confidence that we'll get that approved. By Europe and the US. So I hope that gives you some color on the choice of R&D projects.

Speaker #2: Probably I think we said this before. And again, it's on these plank sets. We do plan to do a little bit more R&D around here.

George W. LeMaitre: We do plan to do a little bit more R&D around here. I think in the old days, we were targeting 10%. Now we're maybe targeting 8% just because we're at 6 and saying 10 seems false. We should do more R&D around here. There's a lot of projects. The larger you get, the more helpful a little bit of R&D is to each one of your 160 sales reps, and I think we're becoming conscious of that.

George LeMaitre: We do plan to do a little bit more R&D around here. I think in the old days, we were targeting 10%. Now we're maybe targeting 8% just because we're at 6 and saying 10 seems false. We should do more R&D around here. There's a lot of projects. The larger you get, the more helpful a little bit of R&D is to each one of your 160 sales reps, and I think we're becoming conscious of that.

Speaker #2: I think in the old days, we were targeting 10%. Now we're maybe targeting 8% just because we're at 6 and saying 10 seems false.

Speaker #2: But we should do more R&D around here. There are a lot of projects. The larger you get, the more important and the more helpful a little bit of R&D is to each one of your 160 sales reps.

Speaker #2: And I think we're becoming conscious of that.

Speaker #5: Perfect. Very helpful. Thank you for taking the questions.

Frank Takkinen: Perfect. Very helpful. Thank you for taking the questions.

Speaker #2: Thanks a lot, Frank.

George W. LeMaitre: Thanks a lot, Frank.

George LeMaitre: Thanks a lot, Frank.

Speaker #4: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Kit Hinton from the Freedom Capital Markets. Your line is now open, Kit.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Keith Hinton from Freedom Capital Markets. Your line is now open, Keith.

Speaker #5: Great. Thanks for taking the follow-up. I just have a high-level question on business development. If you do decide to execute on a sizable deal in the cardiac space, just beyond the purchase price, kind of how should we think about the potential need for incremental investment to just bolster your commercial presence in cardiac?

Keith Hinton: Great. Thanks for taking the follow-up. I just have a high-level question on business development. If you do decide to execute on a sizable deal in the cardiac space, just beyond the purchase price, kinda how should we think about the potential need for incremental investment to just bolster your commercial presence in cardiac? Is there kind of a level of near-term margin dilution that you're willing to live with in order to bring in another growth driver for the outyears?

Speaker #5: Is there kind of a level of near-term margin dilution that you're willing to live with in order to bring in another growth driver for the out years?

David B. Roberts: Keith, it's Dave. It's a good question, and the answer is it depends. What it primarily depends on is if the cardiac surgery product is a product that's also used in vascular surgery because there are 5 or 7 crossover products like surgical sealants, ligating clips, and atraumatic occlusion devices like that, and they're a relatively easy, short learning curve. The answer might be no. We may not need a dilutive cardiac sales force. If the product is a product that's used exclusively in cardiac surgery, then I would say it's much more likely. The way we look at that is, okay, so maybe there is the need to establish some size of a cardiac sales force. Depends, of course, on the size of the acquisition and its geographic reach.

Dave Roberts: Keith, it's Dave. It's a good question, and the answer is it depends. What it primarily depends on is if the cardiac surgery product is a product that's also used in vascular surgery because there are 5 or 7 crossover products like surgical sealants, ligating clips, and atraumatic occlusion devices like that, and they're a relatively easy, short learning curve. The answer might be no. We may not need a dilutive cardiac sales force. If the product is a product that's used exclusively in cardiac surgery, then I would say it's much more likely. The way we look at that is, okay, so maybe there is the need to establish some size of a cardiac sales force. Depends, of course, on the size of the acquisition and its geographic reach.

Speaker #2: Keith, it's Dave. It's a good question. And the answer is, it depends. And what it primarily depends on is if the cardiac surgery product is a product that's also used in vascular surgery, because there are five or seven crossover products, like surgical sealants and ligating clips and atraumatic occlusion devices, things like that.

Speaker #2: And they're relatively easy—short learning curve. The answer might be no. We may not need a dilutive cardiac sales force. But if the product is a product that's used exclusively in cardiac surgery, then I would say it's much more likely.

Speaker #2: And the way we look at that is, okay, so maybe there is the need to establish some size of a cardiac sales force. Depends, of course, on the size of the acquisition.

Speaker #2: And its geographic reach. But if that's the first step into cardiac surgery, then future cardiac acquisitions would leverage that channel to derive sales. So we're always taking a very long-term view around here.

George W. LeMaitre: You know, if that's the first step into cardiac surgery, then future cardiac acquisitions would leverage that channel to derive sales. We're always taking a very long-term view around here. We've done vascular acquisitions for almost 30 years, and I think we would have a long runway of cardiac acquisitions. We pay attention to it, but it doesn't really deter us because we have a long-term viewpoint.

George LeMaitre: You know, if that's the first step into cardiac surgery, then future cardiac acquisitions would leverage that channel to derive sales. We're always taking a very long-term view around here. We've done vascular acquisitions for almost 30 years, and I think we would have a long runway of cardiac acquisitions. We pay attention to it, but it doesn't really deter us because we have a long-term viewpoint.

Speaker #2: We've done vascular acquisitions for almost 30 years. And I think we would do we would have a long runway of cardiac acquisitions. So we pay attention to it.

Speaker #2: But it doesn't really deter us because we have a long-term viewpoint.

Keith Hinton: Great. That's helpful. Thank you.

Speaker #5: Great. That's helpful. Thank you.

Speaker #2: Thanks a lot, Keith.

George W. LeMaitre: Thanks a lot, Keith.

George LeMaitre: Thanks a lot, Keith.

Speaker #4: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's conference. I would like to thank you all for your participation. And you may now disconnect. Have a great day.

Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's conference. I would like to thank you all for your participation, and you may now disconnect. Have a great day.