and also in the the public safety piece. You know we've shown that through the wins that we've announced over the past you know six or eight months. You know I talked about FBI win that we're a part of. We've had the BMO, the sensor win. We've also had a that we talked about last time which was a large ballistic seat win overall with GDLS and we've got other ones that are queued up too. So So, you know, we're positive on the outlook.

Okay, that's helpful. And then just as we think about the revenue outlook for the balance of the year, just with the backlog that you have and momentum coming out of Q2 and that end market commentary, just help us think about kind of what occurs to get you to the high end versus the low end of the revenue guidance range at this point.

Yeah. Yeah, I think to get to the high end, you know, there's always a number of what we consider large orders or kind of projects. And, you know, a lot of those are binary, right? You either win it or you don't. And when we think about our range and, you know, putting together the kind of internal forecast and external guidance, it's really risk rating some of those opportunities. And so it's not just one macro driver or one particular business. I'd say the majority of our businesses have the potential to contribute to that high-end guidance. And, again, we have that positive momentum. We've seen that backlog build. So everything points in a very positive direction. But with that said, a lot of these are government procurement-based. There's always the risk that something gets delayed a week or two weeks. Not that we won't get the award, but it gets delayed. And that can shift revenue. So we're taking what we feel is a cautious approach on the outlook, want to ensure we have a high say-do and try to mitigate some of those out-of-our-control risks that could occur.

Okay, that's all very helpful. I'll pass it on. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Next question will be from Jeff Ben Sinti-Grams from V-Reilly Securities. Please go ahead. All right.

Good morning, everyone. Realize it's relatively small revenues, but it sounds like Alien Gear is running strong right out of the gate for you. Can you speak about what's driving that business and then what contribution should we be thinking about going forward from Alien?

Yeah, great question, Jeff. So definitely ahead of expectations. You know, we were cautious. We talked about last, we talked previously about being cautious with the acquisition because it was a company, Alien Gear was a company coming out of bankruptcy, a bit different situation that can send, you know, mixed signals to the customer base. So that's why we started out being cautious with some of those expectations. I feel like the Alien Gear team and the Safari Land duty gear team have done a really, really good job, you know, communicating, you know, the fact that it's business as usual within the businesses overall as we work to do the integration work. Our plans are not to eliminate the Alien Gear brand. We've been very, very clear on that. The Alien Gear brand, we made that acquisition because we do think it is a strong brand in the consumer market and then also within its customer base within the professional side of things. So I feel like the team's done a really nice job out of the gates with that side of things. Now, where can it land? So we're in the early days of integration activities. We've already completed what I call the consumer integration activity where we've taken the Alien Gear team and and analyzed what alien gear does from a consumer side of things we've combined the team with the Safari land consumer team and those teams are fully integrated now and they're executing and on their strategies that they've developed so that one is is done at this point the next one that we've also communicated unfortunately for the team up in Idaho we've made an announcement that we're closing the Alien Gear facility there. That is their only manufacturing location. We completed those discussions and we'll take the next, you know, 12 to 18 months to then move that facility and integrate it into the Safariland manufacturing infrastructure where we have significant scale, you know, globally within Duty Gear around the world. So that one has been communicated. And then the last one is the professional side of things. That one is going to take longer as we work with, you know, both teams at Safariland and also Alien Gear through those strategies. So things are going well. And then where will we eventually land?

You should expect, you know, overall the margins that we see for the Alien Gear business to be more like cadre-type margins as we work on, you know, the various activities that I just talked about. and then jeff as far as expectations for the year for alien gear you know we have them and they did about uh 4.4.8 million in the quarter we haven't baked into the guide at 11 million dollars you know i think you know we're still it's you know been about a quarter with them it's been great out of the gates but still a bit of cautiousness to make sure there's no overhang coming out of bankruptcy.

Okay. Great to hear. And then, can you remind us on the FBI panels, when should we expect the first panels to get delivered to the FBI?

And then, just wondering, are the DEA or some of these other agencies, are they aware of that product? absolutely um you know when you look at that program as i mentioned the prepared remarks it it you know other agencies can buy off of that that program so that idiq that i mentioned covers you know multiple agencies so they are aware of that in terms of when shipments will begin we've already uh received demand um on that program so it's already started we're not in what I would call a stabilized demand environment at this point. The Safariland team's working with predictive ballistics that, you know, that won the award on nailing down what that demand looks like, you know, overall with the FBI for, you know, at least the next six months out. Keep in mind that 60 plus million dollar IDAQ is over a five and a half year period.

So that's that's the uh that's the length of time for it okay that's helpful uh thanks for taking my questions thanks jeff thank you thank you our next question comes from the line of andrew from bank of america please go ahead good morning uh this is andron for ron thank you for taking our questions uh given the higher margin expectations in the second half uh you know near those 20 levels what products are driving that expansion? Is it armor or duty gear or something else in particular?

No, I would say it's nothing in particular. The back half will be, you know, margin, gross margin, even a rate consistent with what we saw in Q2. So if you're looking at the first half, that pressure is really Q1-based and really based upon volume. So as those volumes have ticked up to normal rates, you know we look ahead and say you know frankly you know margins that someone asked the question earlier we gross margins kind of slightly down even a margin slightly down q3 and then q4 a similar profile to q2 so when we look at it looks very normalized it's just that that q1 was you know a bit of a tougher quarter based on volume and mix so it's nothing nothing abnormal in fact i would say it's it's more normal mix than gotcha gotcha um and if i could just speak in second one um you know it seems like the m a pipeline is strong and obviously the company is positioned

financially to capitalize on the right opportunity uh what specific add-on capabilities or market access really interests you guys uh is there a certain region or type of product um i'd appreciate any color there thanks yeah so you know it's when we look at regions or products so first of all we're focused on the the two uh in markets that we're in today so on the nuclear front and also on public safety you know we do get the questions sometimes you know are we done with public safety the answer is no there's plenty of additional opportunities out there in the public safety side of things um but we're looking for those same characteristics that uh you know the that we've talked about in the past in terms of emanate criteria so we look for you know replacement cycle type revenue recurring revenue obviously you know how margin that meets our margin thresholds we're not scared of what we call fix-it type businesses but if we do those we have to make sure that we've got a clear path to you know to the cadre level type margins overall you know high you know cash flow is also important on our list so that we can obviously use that to continue to fund additional M&A and pay down debt as we go along so that's the generic criteria that we have you know and it applies whether it's on the nuclear side or the public safety side so we're excited about the funnel we're excited about what's in there keep in mind that you know similar to the prepared remarks that you know alien gear was a nice smaller bolt-on that we feel like we can leverage our you know our scale that we have within the Safari land brand within duty gear and then radar our holster company over in Italy and you know that's also an option for us as we go forward you know potential bolt-ons that we can add and you know feel like that we can add its significant value to so that's what we look for thank you very much thank you

Thank you. And our last question is from Matt Coranda from Roth Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Thanks for squeezing me in. On the, I guess, the 5% organic growth in the second quarter, can you just parse out, I guess, organic growth between nuclear and the public safety side of the business? And also, I guess, just further to that, I was wondering, I guess, you guys were talking last quarter about some headwinds in container solutions, I think, around some of the alpha products, but it doesn't sound like maybe that's the case anymore. Maybe can you just talk a little bit about what has changed in that end market, I guess, in the last couple of months that's driving improvement?

Absolutely. Thanks for the question, Matt. On organic, public safety was just a touch below 5%. Nuclear was actually high singles, low double digits. So for nuclear, we had essentially two months and a quarter of Zircaloy baked into the organic just those first couple weeks of April as inorganic. And then distribution had a good quarter as well. Right. So they were right there at mid single digits. So it wasn't an outsized contribution from any one particular space, but kind of broadly strength across the public safety, nuclear and distribution side. So, you know, again, that gives us a lot of confidence that we're, you know, it's broad based and it helps support the back half.

It's not one particular business unit. okay and then matt your question on the nuclear side of things just to kind of go back what we talked about previously it was with reference to alpha safety and a portion of the alpha safety business that there was an executive order around down blending that reduced some of the volume that we have in the container side of things you know to be clear on that that affects less than 8% of the revenue within our nuclear portfolio of businesses overall. There was more of effect on mix from a margin perspective, but from a demand perspective, you know, it's not concerning to us. You know, when we look at the pickup and demand that we've seen in other areas, for example, I think we may have touched on it, but, you know, manual manipulators within the Weiss-Miller business in Germany is running really hot right now, you know, in terms of nuclear fuel type applications where manual manipulators are being used within those applications for hot sales. So, you know, just to put it in perspective again, it's less than 8% that we saw the executive order effect from a top-line perspective, and then we're seeing an offset within other types of applications within nuclear. And then just to keep in mind that, you know, when we're talking the nuclear cleanup side of things, I mean, there are still, you know, you can take different estimates, but 50, 60 plus years of cleanup activity that still has to take place, you know, within the U.S. and within other countries. So even though the downblending executive order came out, there's still work that's being done for that cleanup, and then there's a volume of that cleanup that will continue to increase over time.

Okay. Very clear. And now full on that one, Brad. And then I guess shifting gears to tier, I was curious if you guys are finding any new or interesting commercial synergies now that you've been integrating that business for a bit. Just curious to hear, I guess, a little bit about the growth trajectory of that business and any successful sort of rotation activity you've had.

Yeah, there's actually we're having fun, quite frankly, with the tier business and the Safariland teams coming together. When you look at the strengths that both teams have and how those can be leveraged across the board And there's four or five projects that have been kicked off among the teams that they're working together on. Some of those I can't go into great detail because, you know, it, you know, externally can affect, you know, what we're doing at both of those companies. But in general, what we're seeing is some products within the tier portfolio that the team's working on, you know, future steps on, you know, those products that can be sold within the Safariland channels, which would be great. So they fill some gaps within the Safariland side of things, keeping in mind that the Safariland revenue, as we've talked about in the past, and the makeup, the customer makeup of that revenue is the polar opposite of tiers. So it gives a really good opportunity to take any products that Tier has that there might be some gaps in product lines within Safariland and use those to fill those gaps. So that's one. We actually have some opportunities within the Med-Eng business. You probably wouldn't have thought that, where, you know, we have ballistics within the Med-Eng product portfolio within our bomb suits and other products. And so with TIER's capital capabilities that we've referenced in the past, you know, they're one of very few folks around the world that have the type of capital that they have and the capability, it gives us an opportunity also then to use TIER to potentially be involved in various new product development projects with MedEng, for example, which is one active project that's going on today. i could go on and on matt um there's a list of uh five or six items that the team has on being executed as as we speak and and working through and then when we get to the point that those become visible externally uh we can we can reference those more and talk about those

okay all right that's helpful um maybe just last one if i could sneak one more in And on the acquisition front, maybe does the level of net leverage that you have right now constrain you to doing tuck-ins? Is that the way to think about M&A activity for the rest of the year? Or are there bigger items that you could kind of get done that maybe we're just not thinking creatively enough?

Yeah, good question, Matt. You know, we've said our upper end of leverage is really three and a half, right? So that gives us, you know, quite a bit of dry powder for acquisitions. We've also said, right, to get into that kind of three times leverage kind of area, you know, we'd have to have – we have to be really comfortable with a quick kind of pay down. So, yeah, I think that's, you know, a bit of status quo. We would look at it and say, you know, we've closed here, right? We've delevered from there. We've picked up the earnings the last quarter and a half, and we have lots of capability. But the right tuck-in is always compelling. Alien Gear is a great example of that, where a fairly small deal, just over $10 million, but really very compelling when you think about it post-synergy. So we're going to be obviously doing our diligence. We're going to be a bit opportunistic. I think if the right, you know, bolt-on or tuck-in comes along, you know, those become a, you know, very easier to do with a high level of confidence. And at the same time, we have the dry powder to look at, you know, bigger deals in the back half of the year.

Okay.

I appreciate it, guys.

Thanks, Matt.

Thank you. I will now hand the call over to Mr. Brad Williams for closing remarks.

Thank you, Operator. I'd like to thank everyone again for joining us on today's call and for your continued interest in cadre.

Thank you for joining the call today. You may now disconnect.