Earnings Call Transcript - ADV Q3 2025

Operator, Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Advantage Solutions Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Vic Mohan. Thank you. And Vic, you may begin.

Vic Mohan, Analyst

Thank you, operator. Welcome to Advantage Solutions Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Dave Peacock, Chief Executive Officer; and Chris Growe, Chief Financial Officer, are on the call today. Dave and Chris will provide their prepared remarks, after which we will open the call for a question-and-answer session. During this call, management may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Actual outcomes and results could differ materially due to several factors, including those described more fully in the company's annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by such factors. Our remarks today include certain non-GAAP financial measures, which are reconciled to the most comparable GAAP measure in our earnings release. As a reminder, unless otherwise stated, the financial results discussed today will be from continuing operations and revenues will exclude pass-through costs. And now I would like to turn the call over to Dave Peacock.

David Peacock, CEO

Thanks, Vic. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Before we begin, I want to acknowledge the continued focus and dedication of our teammates. Your commitment to delivering for our clients and customers, especially as they navigate a complex consumer environment, remains central to our success. Starting with our third quarter results. Revenues of $781 million were down 2.6% versus the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA was $99.6 million, a decline of 1.4% versus the prior year, a sequential improvement from the second quarter. This was the result of a strong performance in our Experiential segment, where demand remains robust. This partially offset softer trends in branded services and anticipated declines in retailer services due in part to timing shifts. We generated strong cash flow driven by our marked improvement in working capital, resulting in adjusted unlevered free cash flow of $98 million or nearly 100% of EBITDA. As a result of the strong cash flow generation, we ended the quarter with over $200 million in cash, including the proceeds from the sale of our 7.5% equity stake in Acxion Foodservice. During the quarter, we leveraged the benefits of our structurally diversified platforms, pulling levers in real-time across our high-volume labor business and retailer and experiential. We meaningfully increased hiring activity to meet growing customer demand, enabling the business to execute more events in in-store retail work, which drove strong incremental margins. Our ability to respond to rapidly changing dynamics with the right data, systems, and talent provides resilience in the near term, while longer term, we remain well positioned for an improving environment across our network businesses, primarily in branded services. As we move into the acceleration phase of our IT transformation and modernization effort, having implemented our new ERP and enterprise data infrastructure with Phase 1 of our SAP and our Oracle EPM environment in place, we are beginning to leverage these systems to drive efficiency gains, improve workforce optimization, increase cash flow, accelerate data integration, and sharpen visibility into performance. These actions enable us to operate as a truly insights-driven organization even as we continue the remaining phases of our SAP and Workday implementations over the next 15 months. We remain committed to establishing a leading data architecture and system foundation to yield operational savings and better data-driven services for our clients and customers. We're advancing the development of our new Pulse system, an AI-enabled end-to-end decision engine designed to elevate the speed, precision, and impact of our commercial decision-making across sales and merchandising. This next-generation platform will seamlessly integrate Advantage's data intelligence, including unique retail data with dynamic real-time capabilities, augmenting our team's ability to anticipate demand, prioritize actions, and drive efficiency and effectiveness across client workflows. At the same time, we are deepening key strategic partnerships that enhance our technology capabilities and operational reach, most recently through our expanded collaboration with Instacart. By combining their live in-store audit capabilities with Advantage's retail execution network, we are building an alert-based retail model that allows CPG brands to quickly identify and correct on-shelf availability, pricing, and display issues in real time. This approach leverages Instacart's network of more than 600,000 shoppers alongside our execution expertise to reduce out of stocks, improve compliance, and drive stronger ROI for our customers. We closed over 6 million distribution voids and out-of-stocks each year, and this new partnership will enable us to do more of this and do it faster than anyone in the industry. The early results of our 200-store pilot have been encouraging, and the partnership will scale into additional markets in 2026. The partnership reinforces our commitment to data-driven execution and technology-enabled growth. We also continue to roll out our centralized labor model, which we believe will significantly strengthen our high-volume labor businesses in our retailer and Experiential segments over time through increased utilization, which will drive higher retention and ultimately stronger execution for clients and customers. We see this as providing some benefit in the fourth quarter with acceleration in 2026. Our teams remain laser-focused on the fundamentals, deepening customer relationships, elevating our technology platform, and driving better labor utilization in our highest volume service lines. These actions are helping us to operate with more consistency and improved execution in the market, which leads to a better experience for our customers. Turning to a review of our segments. We are adapting as we continue to operate in a dynamic macro environment. Inflationary pressures and a cautious consumer continue to curb demand. Last quarter, we noted that higher-income shoppers remain more resilient while value-oriented consumers were becoming more selective, and we saw the trend persist in the third quarter. Accordingly, CPG companies and retailers alike are remaining increasingly cautious and sharply focused on stronger ROI on every dollar deployed. Our platform, with its ability to drive efficient execution, informed decisions with data, and improved commercial outcomes, positions us well to help our customers compete and win. In Branded Services, we faced uncertain market conditions as tariffs, channel shifts, and a softening growth environment continue to influence spending. While the decline in revenues and EBITDA eased sequentially, the business continued to face headwinds. The result was a reduction in commission-based revenues through scope and customer retention that was not fully offset by new customer wins and growth in incremental services within our existing client base. While the environment remains challenging, we continue to focus on investing back into this business, strengthening our value proposition and pursuing customers that can benefit from our core offerings, both near and long term. We expect branded services revenues and EBITDA to remain under pressure. However, we are encouraged with a larger pipeline of new business opportunities as we close out the year. Turning to Experiential Services. We had a very strong quarter with solid growth in revenues and EBITDA. Demand for events continued to rise, and we responded with increased staffing levels, resulting in higher revenues and incremental margin. Demo event volume grew strongly in the quarter, up 7% on an underlying basis and execution reached 91%. We continue to see strong demand signals in this business, and we expect improving execution in the fourth quarter as we enhance our talent acquisition processes even more. Retailer Services was down year-over-year in revenues and EBITDA. As we indicated in our last earnings call, this reflected a difficult year-over-year comparison and a shift in the timing of some project activity out of the third quarter. We also experienced a negative impact from ongoing channel shift toward club and mass stores, as well as some pressure from more cautious retailer spending. We remain focused on the controllables as staffing levels and execution rates continued to improve through the quarter, enabling stronger coverage and an ability to satisfy demand for projects. We view these staffing improvements, along with a healthy project pipeline as leading indicators of stabilization and recovery, and are well positioned for improving revenues and EBITDA in the fourth quarter and beyond. While consumer behavior remains challenging, effective execution, transformation-enabled technology, a solid project pipeline, and accelerating customer demand gives us confidence in the long-term trajectory of the business. Our diversified business model, which includes high-volume labor businesses, creates operating leverage, and with disciplined execution, we can redeploy teams and flex staffing to meet customer demand, creating outsized incremental margin growth in the business. We also continue to improve our productivity through AI initiatives, which are accelerating efficiencies in our back office as well as sales tools and data analysis while engaging with vendors to build platforms and applications at scale. Taking into account our expectations for the fourth quarter, we are reiterating our revenue growth guidance of flat to down low single digits for the year. We are updating our EBITDA guidance for the year to include the Acxion Foodservice divestiture as well as the challenging macro environment, especially affecting our Branded Services segment, and now expect mid-single-digit decline. We continue to expect unlevered free cash flow to be greater than 50% of EBITDA. We are encouraged by the strong cash flow performance despite the negative impact from a timing shift of our payroll period weighing on the working capital in the fourth quarter. We expect cash flow generation to remain strong, driven by continued working capital improvements, lower CapEx, and benefits from our labor and efficiency initiatives. Our business is built to generate consistent cash flow. And as the transformation investments taper and our modernization work takes hold, we continue to expect strong cash conversion going forward. We are confident in the trajectory of the business and are taking the right long-term actions to strengthen our position and restore growth. We continue to focus on disciplined execution while improving our systems, technology, and labor capabilities. I'll now pass it over to Chris for more details on our performance and guidance.

Christopher Growe, CFO

Thank you, Dave, and welcome to all of you joining the call today. I will review our third quarter 2025 performance by segment, discuss our cash flow and capital structure, and expand on Dave's guidance commentary. In Branded Services, we generated $258 million of revenues and $42 million of adjusted EBITDA, down 9% and 15% on a year-over-year basis, respectively. This segment continues to experience challenges, mainly within the sales brokerage business, which we are working expeditiously to address, as well as our omni-commerce marketing business. The softer growth environment for consumer packaged goods companies has weighed on our organic growth performance, and we continue to see some pressure around in-sourcing, which has been a headwind to growth. However, we took cost actions earlier in the year to improve our efficiency. We maintain a robust pipeline of new business opportunities, offering confidence in our ability to move towards stabilization in 2026. In Experiential Services, we generated $274 million of revenues and $35 million of adjusted EBITDA, up 8% and 52% on a year-over-year basis, respectively. Solid execution and the continued improvement in staffing levels enabled our teams to execute more events in the quarter. We were able to pull operational levers during the quarter to accommodate growing demand that was again ahead of our expectations. Events per day increased by 7% versus the prior year on an underlying basis, and we see momentum accelerating into the fourth quarter. Execution rates were approximately 91%. And given strong fixed cost leverage, we saw EBITDA margin improvement of 370 basis points year-over-year and up strongly on a sequential basis. We are beginning the rollout of our centralized labor model for part of our experiential business with the goal of further improving our efficiency, which will also support a better teammate experience as our teammates access an opportunity to garner more hours in the store. In Retailer Services, we generated $249 million of revenues and $23 million of adjusted EBITDA, down 6% and 22% on a year-over-year basis, respectively. As expected, we faced a challenging comparison to the prior year period, and results were impacted by project activity timing. Additionally, advisory and agency work were impacted by channel mix. We are developing more bespoke services to increase our value add to retailers and focusing on expanding our services beyond the grocery store to other retail outlets. We maintain a strong and growing pipeline of new business opportunities in this segment. Across the businesses, shared service costs were down year-over-year in the quarter, which benefited profitability in all segments and reflects the stabilization of costs we expect to continue. Moving to the balance sheet and cash flow. We ended the quarter with $201 million in cash on hand, a notable increase from $103 million in the second quarter, driven by the improvement in working capital, mainly DSOs and the benefit of the $19 million in proceeds from the sale of our stake in Acxion Foodservice, as well as the $22.5 million in proceeds in July related to the first of 2 deferred purchase price installments for June Group. We did not repurchase debt or shares in the quarter. Our net leverage ratio was 4.4 times adjusted EBITDA, which is down from the second quarter, and we expect it to hold at this level in the fourth quarter. With cash on hand, expectations for stronger cash generation going forward and approximately $450 million available on our undrawn revolving credit facility, we have ample liquidity to operate the business in the current macroeconomic climate while investing for growth and opportunistically paying down debt. Turning to cash generation. We ended the quarter at approximately 62 days of sales outstanding, an 8-day improvement from the second quarter as cash collections continue to recover after the transition to our new ERP system. Optimizing DSOs has been a big focus for the organization, and we continue to make progress in reducing DSOs as we move forward into 2026, which will contribute to additional cash flow. CapEx was $11 million in the quarter. We now expect full-year CapEx in the range of $45 million to $55 million, moderately below our previous guidance due to the timing of projects occurring this year and continued efficiency in our spending. Adjusted unlevered free cash flow was $98 million in the quarter, and the conversion rate was nearly 100%, driven by the stronger working capital performance as well as lower-than-expected CapEx. In addition, we made progress on transforming and optimizing our portfolio. During the quarter, we monetized our 7.5% stake in Acxion Foodservice for $19 million in cash proceeds. This divestiture helped streamline our portfolio and boost our liquidity position. We will continue to capitalize on similar opportunities that make strategic sense going forward. As Dave highlighted, our revenue guidance is unchanged, but we are adjusting our full-year EBITDA guidance due to the divestiture of our stake in Acxion Foodservice, as well as the more challenging macro environment. We remain encouraged by the sequential progress in 2025. After a challenging first quarter to start the year, we have seen a steady improvement in our operating performance, which has supported a strong revenue and EBITDA trend for the business. As indicated by our full-year guidance, we expect a stable growth trend in revenue and EBITDA in the second half of the year, supported by strong execution across our labor-related businesses. The diversity and resilience of our business model supports this improved business performance and provides confidence in our path forward. As Dave mentioned, we continue to expect 2025 adjusted unlevered free cash flow to be above 50% of adjusted EBITDA. We lowered our CapEx spending outlook slightly again this quarter to a range of $45 million to $55 million, which will aid unlevered free cash flow growth for the year. Our expectation for interest expense remains in the range of $140 million to $150 million, assuming no additional debt repurchases. Robust cash generation is expected to continue in the fourth quarter. Excluding a $45 million year-end payroll shift into 2025 due to timing, we anticipate adjusted unlevered free cash flow conversion close to 100% and net free cash flow conversion of approximately 30% in the second half. We continue to expect our restructuring and reorganization expenses to be about half the level of the prior year, which is contributing to our stronger net free cash flow performance in the second half and the year. Our business is designed for efficient and consistent cash generation, and we expect to return to our typical net free cash flow conversion rate of at least 25% of adjusted EBITDA next year and beyond as our transformation improves our services and modernizes our processes for more consistent and efficient results. Thank you for your time. I will now turn it back over to Dave.

David Peacock, CEO

Thanks, Chris. We believe our expertise and range of services position us well to navigate the current macroeconomic environment with resilience and agility. We continue to execute with discipline and advance the foundational work of the company. We are making measurable progress in improving our systems and workforce efficiency, strengthening the backbone of our operations and competitive positioning. At the same time, we continue to make progress toward completing the strategic initiatives that will enable Advantage to reach its full potential as a technology-driven industry-leading service provider and generate meaningful cash flow for our shareholders. Operator, we are now ready for a Q&A session.

Operator, Operator

Our first question comes from Lucas Morison from Canaccord.

Lucas Morison, Analyst

So maybe just to start here, discussing the EBITDA outlook and the minor trend there. Can you just frame how much of that change was related to the divestiture versus core operations?

Christopher Growe, CFO

Yes, I can go. Luke, good to speak to you. Welcome to Advantage. In the fourth quarter, we had an EBITDA contribution from that stake, like we do with other joint ventures that we have. It's a relatively small piece of the fourth quarter. And outside of that, obviously, you have this overall challenging macro backdrop that I'd say. But I'd just say we're bringing down a little bit, and there's one element of business mix, never seen stronger growth from experiential versus branded as an example. So there's a little bit from the divestiture and a little bit from that general macro environment that we're incorporating into the guidance here.

Lucas Morison, Analyst

Got it. Makes sense. And then maybe just like thinking bigger picture longer term, it sounds like experiential continues to outperform. Branded services and retailer are kind of softer and lagging. Can you just talk about how you see the overall portfolio mix evolving as we enter 2026? Do you expect experiential to remain the primary growth driver? And do you see stabilization in branded and retailer returning the model to a more balanced footing?

David Peacock, CEO

Yes, Lucas, this is Dave. Yes, we do see experiential continuing to perform well, and we see continued demand in that segment. And then as it relates to branded and retailer, and we talked about it in the second quarter and just here again, retailer is really facing a little bit of an anomaly in the third quarter. We feel very good about the retailer segment and its outlook as we move into 2026, especially the merchandising services, which is the largest component of that business. And then on the branded side, we expect sequential improvement as we move through 2026. Obviously, the macro backdrop affects that segment more than the others. But we recognize that the efforts we're undergoing to kind of get the business back where it needs to go are starting to pay off. And our pipeline for the fourth quarter as we end the year of new business is very strong. So we have optimism of a more stabilized branded services as we move into 2026.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Greg Parrish from Morgan Stanley.

Gregory Parrish, Analyst

Maybe to start, I just thought it would be good to hear maybe an update on the market and the consumer. Obviously, hearing a lot of softness out there, especially on the lower-income side this week even from some restaurants. So maybe kind of just update us on what you're hearing from your clients in-store.

David Peacock, CEO

Thank you, Greg. I'm glad you asked that. We meet regularly with leadership from most of our clients on a quarterly basis, and there's been a lot of focus on the consumer and retail sectors recently, which appear to present mixed results. While some are seeing positive outcomes, many are facing decreased guidance or a more negative outlook regarding consumer behavior. We have two key realities: higher-income consumers remain resilient and continue to shop, but on the other hand, many consumers, especially those on the lower end, are dealing with rising prices that emerged in many businesses during late Q2 and early Q3. Factors like tariffs, commodity prices in significant categories, and the impact of GLP-1 on food demand contribute to these challenges. Long-term, we're also seeing a trend of constrained population growth driven not only by immigration but also by a declining birth rate. I believe these factors have shaped the current environment. However, there's some expectation of cyclical changes in these dynamics. For instance, the effects of GLP-1 will eventually level out, and the pace of its adoption will likely slow down. Moreover, many consumer packaged goods brands and private labels are investing in innovation, which could drive growth in various categories. Different product categories have varying performance; those centered on proteins, expandable consumption, and health orientations continue to grow strongly, while others may be struggling. Looking ahead to 2026, I remain cautiously optimistic. The upcoming year could be challenging for consumers, but there's hope that some of the pressures affecting lower-income individuals will ease as we progress into 2026.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Faiza Alwy from Deutsche Bank.

Faiza Alwy, Analyst

You mentioned timing related to retailer services, and it seems like you're a bit more optimistic about that business as we look ahead. Can you elaborate on the timing issues and provide more insight into the visibility and pipeline you anticipate for next year?

David Peacock, CEO

Sure. Thanks. To be clear, so the third quarter was a combination of a difficult comp due to the timing of project work last year, not all of which is going to be repeated this year. And then also the timing of some project work, as you saw in the second quarter, retailer had a pretty strong quarter, and we do anticipate improvement in the fourth quarter. When we zoom out and look at the year, because I know we all look quarter-to-quarter, but I like to look at the year, the retailer segment will be for us, I think, largely in line with expectations, but for some of this kind of macro consumer impact that's obviously affected retailers that hit probably a little bit of our advisory business, a little bit on the merchandising services side, only in the retailers will pull back investment a bit on the project work. The continuity work continues, but it is important to understand that the continuity work is also funded by a flow-through of revenue for the retailer. And then when we talk about the pipeline as we go into 2026, our business development team, and we've really redoubled efforts there, has really done a nice job building a pipeline really across, if you will, all our segments, but especially the branded segment. And we're seeing just better success as it relates to closing on opportunities. So we're optimistic as we look out into '26 and the ability as we lean into this business development effort. And it's a byproduct of all the work that's been done by our teams around talent upgrades, which is a combination of some new people, but a lot of training, investment in technology, and our data lake is now paying off with more robust and faster data at the fingertips of our sales teams because, as you can imagine, that's the most critical factor in helping drive client performance is having deep and what I'd say, fast insights relative to what's happening with brands and SKUs so that they can make decisions around promotion schedules, merchandising plans, what have you.

Faiza Alwy, Analyst

Understood. And then I guess just a similar question on branded because I think you're saying that you're expecting declines to moderate into 2026. Is that because of, again, some of these business development efforts that you're talking about? Or do you think like market conditions or the macro environment is likely to improve into 2026?

David Peacock, CEO

It's largely about the work I mentioned earlier, focused on business development and enhancing what I refer to as the sales machine that supports our Branded Services segment. A key part of this involves how we represent our clients to retailers on the sales front and in headquarters selling support. Additionally, on the retail merchandising side, our partnership with Instacart allows us to showcase the ROI of our services while effectively addressing stock shortages. We noted in our prepared remarks that we face close to 6 million out of stocks each year. By leveraging our relationship with Instacart to identify and resolve these issues more swiftly, we can increase sell-through, benefiting both us and our clients. I believe there are cyclical elements in the industry this year that are unlikely to recur, and as companies adapt to the new environment and the uncertainties discussed more in the first half than in the second half, they are learning to navigate this reality. I remain optimistic that the macro market will improve for consumers as we approach 2026.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Greg Parrish from Morgan Stanley.

Gregory Parrish, Analyst

Okay, thanks for coming back, Chris. I want to clarify on the EBITDA guidance. You mentioned a stable second half, and with mid-single digits, there are various numbers you could consider for the fourth quarter. You've seen improvement in year-over-year EBITDA each quarter, but in the third quarter, you're down one. So, it's a similar level, maybe slightly better or flat. How should we view the year-over-year fourth quarter EBITDA in relation to the third quarter?

Christopher Growe, CFO

Yes. And I think relative to the third quarter, Greg, obviously, there's some nuances year-over-year. We do expect experiential to have a very good quarter. We mentioned retailer gets better in the quarter. There's a tougher comp on the branded services side, just given some of the activities of a year ago in the fourth quarter. That mid-single-digit growth is meant to have a range, and it would get you to a relatively flat second half overall, certainly for revenue and then like a flat to down level of EBITDA overall. And I think that's just where we keep it right now is right at that level and gives us a little bit of flex for the fourth quarter here.

David Peacock, CEO

Yes, Greg, I'll jump on Chris' response, too. If you really look at our year, without digging in detailed fourth quarter, let's talk about second and third, we all know we had a rough first quarter, and there were a couple of things. We knew when we implemented SAP that, given our business and the fact that working capital is really driven for us by DSO and the impact that implementing SAP can have on cash collection and what have you, that from a DSO standpoint, it would be a rough period. We also knew we were transitioning to more centralized talent acquisition and workforce planning. And with any transition, you're going to have bumps. So we had that hiring shortfall. What I'm excited about is the team is hiring for us at a record pace and doing a great job in bringing in more and more talent to address the increasing demand we have in the labor parts of our business. I'm also excited, and I think we don't always acknowledge we have had a very good SAP implementation. And we've had a team that's really pulled together even amidst a challenging broader environment and done a great job, and to see our DSOs kind of back to close to where we were at the end of last year, basically realizing about a six-month challenge just given the implementation. We've all seen some of the other stories of more difficult or challenged SAP implementations. And I just want to note that our team has done a phenomenal job in implementing that amidst everything else going on in the industry. And I think it's an example of the ability to execute both projects but also on a day-to-day basis in driving the business.

Gregory Parrish, Analyst

Yes. Okay. And maybe one more each on the segments here. Regarding experiential, you’ve been recovering from labor shortages. How much of this relates to staffing versus actual demand increases? Also, how should I view this moving into 2026? How sustainable is the growth, especially considering the recovery from COVID and the staffing adjustments afterward? As we reach a state of normalcy, what will sustain growth in the future? How should we think about that?

David Peacock, CEO

Events per day increased by 7%, but our execution was only at 91%. This indicates that while we were able to handle around 850 additional events each day during the quarter, we could have achieved even more. This is why I'm optimistic about the fourth quarter as we approach 2026, since our hiring and onboarding processes are getting better every day. Additionally, demand is present; I believe there was unmet demand in the third quarter that we could have addressed even with a strong talent acquisition and onboarding process. There are further opportunities to explore. Another point to highlight is that the impact of COVID is now clearly in the past. Some retailers have the chance to return to their COVID levels, while others are already at or exceeding those levels. We are no longer comparing our performance to the COVID period as we used to; instead, we are focusing on the underlying growth and demand for this business. Part of this growth is driven by innovation in the industry, particularly in consumables, along with sampling initiatives in general merchandise. For instance, we have a program this year with one retailer involving toys, allowing kids to engage with them as their parents plan for the holidays, which could boost these categories for retailers. This segment is expected to keep growing, and I am very proud of our team for meeting the demand while also constantly encouraging them to improve the experience for our team members and to recruit more employees to meet this demand.

Christopher Growe, CFO

Greg, I want to emphasize that the investments made by retailers and consumer packaged goods companies tend to yield a return. With a positive return and significant activity, there is a strong motivation to engage further. This also contributes to increased traffic, enhancing the attractiveness of the retailer. Additionally, we've maintained solid pricing that allows us to counterbalance some of the rising labor costs. When I consider the increased demand along with our pricing strategy, which helps cover the additional expenses related to wages and our team, we're seeing a notable improvement in our margins. This has been evident in this quarter, and I believe we will continue to benefit from enhanced margins as this business expands.

Gregory Parrish, Analyst

Yes. Okay. That's all very helpful. And maybe just to wrap here, touch on branded and some of the comments you made. With the backdrop, I know it's been a very challenging market there. You called out some new customer losses. And then I think you mentioned in-sourcing on the call here as well. If you could unpack those two. Are the losses to competitors? Or is that losses to in-sourcing? Or is both happening? And then is there an uptick of in-sourcing that you're seeing? I just wanted to maybe clarify that.

David Peacock, CEO

I believe the comments refer to a longer-term trend we've observed regarding in-sourcing. Like many trends, we expect this to eventually stabilize as we reach a point where we in-source the accounts we wish to pursue. We've certainly seen some of that this year, experiencing losses to competitors, but also achieving wins against those same competitors. In fact, this year has been quite successful in terms of wins. We constantly evaluate our net losses and gains, and we've implemented a sales action plan that started in earnest early this summer to address the underlying causes of these issues. Our focus has been on being the fastest in the industry in identifying and addressing the root causes of any sales challenges or opportunities for our brand or SKUs. Additionally, we are enhancing our technology and talent to support this effort. With some optimism regarding a potentially improved macro environment next year and the positive results from our business development initiatives, we believe we can stabilize and improve our business as we move into 2026.

Christopher Growe, CFO

I want to add a quick comment on a couple of dynamics. We discussed in-sourcing, which I believe is the main area of loss. Additionally, there has been some softness in organic growth. We've talked enough about the challenging macro environment, which has definitely weighed on the quarter and has been a factor throughout the year. We cannot overlook this as it is a significant contributor. Dave mentioned the large pipeline, which has actually accelerated in the third quarter. We need to focus on how we can execute that pipeline. This aspect gives us a lot of optimism about the business moving forward. I also want to mention another element regarding omni-commerce. There is a marketing component within this that has faced challenges, which has contributed to our softer revenue growth performance in this business.

Operator, Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I want to turn the call back over to David Peacock for closing comments.

David Peacock, CEO

Yes. We want to thank everybody for joining, and we look forward to connecting with this group on next quarter, and we will talk then.

Operator, Operator

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for participating.