Welcome to the GXO Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. My name is Shamali, and I'll be your operator for today's call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. Before the call begins, let me read a brief statement on behalf of the company regarding forward-looking statements, the use of non-GAAP financial measures and the company's guidance. During this call, the company will be making certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws, which, by their nature, involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. A discussion of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially is contained in the company's SEC filings. The forward-looking statements in the company's earnings release or made on this call are made only as of today, and the company has no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by law. The company also may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures as defined under applicable SEC rules during this call. Reconciliations of such non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are contained in the company's earnings release and the related financial tables are on its website. Unless otherwise stated, all results reported on this call are reported in United States dollars. The company will also remind you that its guidance incorporates business trends to date and what it believes today to be appropriate assumptions. The company's results are inherently unpredictable and may be materially affected by many factors, including fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and consumer demand and spending, labor market and global supply chain constraints, inflationary pressures and the various factors detailed in its filings with the SEC. It is not possible for the company to actually predict demand for its services and therefore, actual results could differ materially from guidance. You can find a copy of the company's earnings release, which contains additional important information regarding forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures in the Investors section on the company's website. I will now turn the call over to GXO's Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Kelleher. Mr. Kelleher, you may begin.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the call. Also joining me on our call today are Baris Oran, Chief Financial Officer; and Kristine Kubacki, Chief Strategy Officer. This is my first opportunity to speak with you as the CEO of GXO. I am looking forward to discussing our third quarter results and sharing some early reflections from my first 90 days with the company. I'd like to begin by thanking my predecessor, Malcolm Wilson. Our transition has been very smooth, enabling me to hit the ground running. I've visited many sites across the U.S., U.K. and Continental Europe. Malcolm played a pivotal role in establishing GXO as the global leader, and I am so energized to build on the strong foundation that he set. That strong foundation is evident in our third quarter results. GXO drove record quarterly revenue of $3.4 billion with organic revenue growth across every region. Adjusted EBITDA grew 13% from last year to $251 million. New business wins of $280 million were up 24% year-over-year, including a fully automated win in the U.S. with one of the fastest-growing global sportswear brands. Alongside significant wallet share expansion with existing customers, our visibility to growth continues to improve with nearly $700 million of revenue already secured for 2026, an increase of nearly 50% compared to this time last year. I want to recognize and thank our GXO teammates for these results. Our people make the difference with attention to detail and a passion for providing the very best customer service. And I want to welcome the Wincanton teammates to the GXO family. Wincanton integration is underway and primed to unlock growth opportunities for us across Europe, most notably in the industrial, aerospace and defense sectors. The Wincanton and GXO business units were integrated in October with back-office functions following this month. We are actively collaborating on a range of strategic customer tenders and have already realized our first win as a combined team. Synergy realization remains on track. Looking ahead to next year, further growth in new business wins, coupled with the Wincanton integration now underway, gives us confidence that we'll see growth and margin expansion in 2026. Baris and Kristine will discuss our results and the new business wins in more detail later in the call. Since I joined in August, I've been on the road under the hood of our operations and culture. I've connected with our leaders and operations teams, engaged with investors, customers and prospects and done a lot of listening to understand what's working and where our opportunities exist. As many of you know, logistics is in my blood. Over the past 32-plus years, I've held operational, commercial and management roles across every facet of the supply chain, which has given me a unique view of the operational and commercial landscape and opportunities within it. I've kept a close eye on GXO since the spin. We are a category-defining company that put contract logistics on the map and one that I'm honored to lead. A personal motto that has fueled me and the teams that I have led is even more, even better, and it exemplifies the opportunity that I see at GXO, an impressive track record of growth, nearly doubling the size of the business since the spin and with the attitude of a high-performing team, a clear opportunity to achieve even more. Profitable growth is the priority. Organic growth is a critical element of this, and every decision and action will be taken with an eye to accelerating this engine. I see clear opportunities to expand margins as we focus on profit market verticals and geographies, leverage technology to drive performance and share in the value that we generate for customers. I'd now like to take a moment to share some more detailed views on these two key areas. Number one, first, where I see the opportunity to drive even more organic growth; and second, to ensure even better execution behind it because the two go hand in hand. Despite our global scale, we hold less than 3% of the global TAM, so there's a long runway of growth ahead. With a sharp commercial strategy on where to play and how to win, there are clear near-term opportunities to accelerate in North America, especially and across high-growth customer segments and verticals globally. First, North America. GXO has a strong and well-established position in the U.K. and Europe with meaningful opportunities for continued growth. North America represents a similar opportunity for us, one of the largest and fastest-growing logistics markets globally with a total addressable market in excess of $250 billion. We are energizing our approach to meet its dynamics and opportunities. Michael Jacobs joined us this week as the new President of the Americas and Asia Pacific region. Michael is a 30-year industry veteran whom I've known for more than two decades. He brings terrific experience from Ferguson Enterprises and Keurig. He has a proven track record of managing complex supply chains, increasing productivity through automation and robotics and improving cost and service. To further capitalize on the North America opportunity, we are strategically reallocating resources towards sales, solutions and digital marketing, all to accelerate organic growth. Second, regarding customer segments, technological innovation continues to redefine what's possible within the warehouse. As I visited our sites, I have seen firsthand use cases of AI in large retail operations, including volume forecasting and proactive replenishment. These highlight the opportunity to further improve our cost to serve. This is already a differentiator for GXO, but greater focus in this area will enable us to grow our market share, especially with midsized companies, a market opportunity in excess of $100 billion TAM. Lastly, within our verticals, we are leaders in retail, luxury, technology and CPG to name a few. In recent years, we've made strategic inroads into high-growth sectors like aerospace and defense, data centers, industrial and life sciences. In aerospace and defense, as an example, we have deep competency in North America. And following our acquisition of Wincanton, we are one of the leading supply chain providers to the U.K. defense industry. We leverage our relationships and expertise to export this capability to other markets. In life sciences, our landmark $2.5 billion 10-year deal with the U.K.'s NHS supply chain went live flawlessly last month, and we are already exploring opportunities to expand that relationship as well as our overall growth in the life sciences space. In short, we have all the ingredients for growth. You'll see us doubling down on what differentiates us and being disciplined about where we play and how to win. Turning to operations. Execution is one of our greatest strengths. As I visited our sites, I have seen countless lighthouse examples of operational excellence. And as we accelerate growth, our operating model must keep pace with our growth ambitions. I see significant opportunities to benefit from sharing solutioning best practice globally, increased site-level productivity through our technological leadership and a clear rational and global approach to customer relationships and pricing. That's why we've introduced the Chief Operating Officer role to take the very best of what we already do so well and scale it consistently across our global operations. We believe operational discipline will not only drive margin expansion but also accelerate profitable growth by making us even more competitive. In closing, we are embarking on a new era of growth. GXO is a fantastic company operating in a fast-growing, highly fragmented industry with a path towards higher organic growth, structurally higher margins and strong free cash flow. There is a fantastic opportunity to generate strong shareholder returns. And with this in mind, I will be focused on allocating capital to generate the highest possible returns with organic growth as the priority. Under my leadership, you can expect a sharp commercial focus, strong operational discipline and clear consistent communication about our progress. I look forward to sharing our strategic plan to deliver long-term value for our shareholders in future quarters and at an Investor Day in 2026. With that, I will hand the call to Baris.

Thanks, Patrick. Building on the strong momentum year-to-date, GXO's third quarter performance reflects the power of our resilient business model. With record revenue, higher margins and robust free cash flow, we are delivering on our commitment to drive profitable growth. In the third quarter of 2025, GXO delivered record revenue of $3.4 billion, up 8% year-over-year, of which 4% was organic. Every region delivered organic revenue growth, highlighting the value of our contractual business model throughout a dynamic trade and macro environment. We now have about $800 million of incremental revenue secured for 2025, which, in combination with a retention rate in the mid-90s, puts us in excellent shape to achieve our full year organic growth target. We delivered adjusted EBITDA of $251 million, up 13% from last year. Our margins expanded by 100 basis points sequentially and were up 30 basis points year-over-year. The margin increase was driven by improved site-level productivity and the sizable automated start-ups we discussed last quarter, which matured faster than expected. We recorded net income of $60 million and adjusted net income of $91 million. Our diluted earnings per share was $0.51, and our adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.79. Our free cash flow in the third quarter was $187 million, and we are on track to deliver our target adjusted EBITDA to free cash flow conversion for the full year. We remain disciplined in our capital expenditures and working capital management, which allows us to continue to invest in our business with high returns. Our operating return on invested capital improved further and remains well above our target, driven by improved operating performance. Our leverage levels improved to 2.7x net debt to adjusted EBITDA, even after executing $200 million share buyback in the first half of the year. As Patrick mentioned, the integration of Wincanton is moving at pace, and we are on track to deliver the run rate cost synergy of $60 million by the end of 2026. We also expect to gain significant revenue synergies over the coming years. We remain laser-focused on disciplined capital allocation. We continue to prioritize investments that accelerate our organic growth and drive the greatest returns. Our focus for the remainder of the year will be to deliver strong free cash flow, further delever our balance sheet and set the foundation for 2026. Given our excellent operating performance year-to-date, we are reaffirming our full year guidance. As a reminder, for 2025, we expect to deliver organic revenue growth of 3.5% to 6.5%. Adjusted EBITDA of $865 million to $885 million, adjusted diluted earnings per share of $2.43 to $2.63 and adjusted EBITDA to free cash flow conversion of 25% to 35%. With strong operating performance, a solid financial foundation and a robust sales pipeline, GXO's resilient and predictable business model continues to deliver exceptional value to both our customers and shareholders. With that, I'll pass the mic to Kristine. Kristine, over to you.

Thanks, Baris. Good morning, everyone. The third quarter demonstrates the strength of our business. The priorities Patrick outlined, accelerating the organic growth agenda and enhancing our operating model will drive real value creation for customers and shareholders. On growth, we are making significant progress building our global relationships with blue-chip customers and expanding across geographies and into high-growth verticals. During the third quarter, we won $280 million in new contracts, up 24% year-on-year. This brings year-to-date wins to over $800 million with a clear line of sight to exceed $1 billion in 2025. We continue to grow with top brands like Boeing, BMW, L'Oreal, Sephora and Unilever. Last quarter, we highlighted the significant opportunities we see in fast-growing verticals such as life sciences, aerospace and defense and data center infrastructure. These areas remain a strategic focus for us, and I'm excited to share the meaningful progress we've made this quarter. First, in Life Sciences, we reached a major milestone with the launch of our landmark operation with the U.K.'s NHS supply chain in early October. We're gaining good traction in the $34 billion life sciences vertical with another notable win expected to close in Q4 and a robust pipeline of strategic opportunities expected to close before year-end. Second, we're seeing increased activity in industrial, aerospace and defense across all of our regions. During the quarter, we further expanded our partnership with Boeing and with a significant percentage of Wincanton's pipeline concentrated in the industrial, aerospace and defense verticals, we are well positioned to capitalize on high-value opportunities and drive sustained growth in these sectors. Third, we continue to build momentum in the fast-growing data center market, a critical part of the rapidly expanding AI and cloud infrastructure ecosystem. As a key logistics partner in this complex supply chain, we are well positioned to capture share in the $28 billion technology vertical. During the quarter, we secured three new contracts with a leading hyperscaler and expanded our strategic partnership with NetApp, demonstrating our ability to scale with high-growth customers. Turning to our pipeline. Our $2.3 billion sales pipeline is robust and well diversified across our regions and verticals with accelerated activity in strategic sectors. Opportunities in life sciences and aerospace and defense each increased 30% quarter-over-quarter, while technology tripled. These trends reflect our ability to scale with high-growth customers across critical industries. Altogether, our recent wins translate to approximately $700 million in incremental revenue already for 2026. This gives us confidence in reaffirming our full year guidance and provides visibility into our long-term growth trajectory. The second priority Patrick outlined was strengthening our operating model for growth. Core to driving operational excellence is our leadership in automation, technology and AI. As of the third quarter of 2025, we have over 15,000 automated units and cobots deployed at customer sites, rolled out eight proprietary AI modules to numerous sites and secured two large-scale, highly automated contracts during the period, building on the more than 40% of revenues from automated operations. With this strong foundation, we are poised to scale these capabilities further, enhancing execution and serving as a powerful lever for accelerated growth. As we continue expanding our customer base, deepening expertise across high-growth verticals and advancing our technology capabilities, we are well positioned to deliver even greater value. Through seamless digital solutions and sharper customer insights, we see significant opportunities to win new business and grow with existing customers. Looking ahead, we have a strong foundation to drive organic growth, margin expansion and compelling returns in 2026 and beyond. And with that, I'll pass the mic back to the operator for Q&A.

Our first question comes from the line of Stephanie Moore with Jefferies.

First, Patrick, welcome. I'm looking forward to working with you as well. I appreciate your comments about the opportunities in North America, particularly in the growth area. Could you provide some perspective based on your observations from the last 90 days? Where do you see the biggest opportunities in North America? Additionally, what changes do you anticipate in terms of go-to-market and execution strategy specifically for North America?

Yes. Thank you, Stephanie. As you point out, I think the North America market is a tremendous opportunity for us, a total market opportunity there over $250 billion. The introduction of Michael Jacobs to the business, I think, is a big catalyst. Michael is a seasoned supply chain veteran, and I think it will have a big impact on operational execution and organic growth in the region. I see a big opportunity for us as we shift focus to add aerospace and defense to continue to build on the great foundation that we have in industrial, particularly with data centers, as Kristine talked about, and life sciences. Our historic business in North America has been very oriented to omnichannel retail, CPG and those historic market verticals that we focus on globally. I think the addition of the market vertical focus in aerospace, defense, industrial and life sciences is a big catalyst for growth in the region. I think additionally, the addition of our Chief Operating Officer and Chief Commercial Officer will go a long way globally to sharpening commercial execution and driving organic growth as well as from an operating perspective, making sure that we're really well positioned to execute against increased organic growth going forward.

Great. And then just a follow-up. I wanted to ask on the 2025 guidance and really the implied 4Q organic growth guidance. If you could just maybe give us what the underlying assumptions are as it relates to this holiday season as well as just underlying demand trends compared to the third quarter.

Stephanie, in Q3, there was an acceleration on organic growth, which was driven by higher new business wins and slightly improved volumes. And on a sequential basis compared to Q2, the volumes were the main drivers. They are higher than last year, but lower than Q2 in Q3. As we switch to Q4, we expect more contributions from new business wins, including the ramp-up of the huge NHS contract we won. We expect the softer trends in volumes to continue, and we fully expect to be within the full year guidance range.

Welcome, Patrick. I want to follow up on Stephanie's first question. It seems like you're aiming to expand into various sectors in North America, particularly in non-consumer areas. It appears that you're not entirely moving away from consumer markets but rather looking to diversify significantly. How should we anticipate the business mix will look in a few years, if you can address that now?

Sure. We are absolutely going to continue to focus on the core of our business that has been in the past with omnichannel retail, CPG and those other various market verticals. We do want to focus in on the ones that I talked about in terms of aerospace, defense, industrial, life sciences, and there are tailwinds in terms of growth opportunities there, particularly in North America that we want to capitalize on. I don't want to predict yet the mix a couple of years out, but that is something that we can speak to in our investor event in early 2026.

Looking forward to that event. I guess, Baris, for you, could you speak to what went well in the third quarter with regard to your EBITDA outperformed our expectation. Could you just speak a little bit more to the success of what drove profitability and maybe some thoughts on EBITDA specifically looking out?

Sure. As forecasted, we have improved our margin sequentially by 100 basis points in Q3. This reflects our usual seasonality and positive contributions from our productivity initiatives at both site level and central level. As you will recall, we have highly automated contracts mature more rapidly than budgeted as it was the case in Q2. And then looking into Q4, we have harder comparisons in the fourth quarter, and we expect a more muted year-over-year margin performance. This is mainly down to phasing of prior year effects. We have delivered ahead of our EBITDA plans three times this year. As Patrick mentioned, we expect margins to rise in 2026 as Wincanton synergies become more material.

Welcome, Patrick. I guess maybe I wanted to pick up on the margin commentary. So you noted in your prepared remarks some of the opportunity for margin expansion. That has been one thing that has been a little bit more difficult to achieve. The top line growth has been pretty solid, but we haven't necessarily seen consistent margin expansion. So I guess I get the Wincanton synergies as we think about 2026, but can you talk a little bit bigger picture about what you think you can do to drive margin expansion across the portfolio?

Absolutely, thanks Chris. I think there is a chance for us to improve margins. They have been impacted by the delays in the Wincanton integration, but this should rectify itself by 2026 as we concentrate on achieving the $60 million run rate synergies available. I also see several other areas we can explore to enhance margin performance. Firstly, the verticals we are looking to accelerate will yield higher margins, and we are dedicated to making that happen. There's an opportunity to share best practices across our global operations. I'm particularly focused on enhancing labor productivity through technology and AI, with significant work already underway by the team. Additionally, I believe there’s potential for ongoing cost control and utilizing our existing SG&A as we pursue more organic growth in the business moving forward.

Okay. That's helpful. I guess we'll get more details on that as well on the Investor Day next year. And then maybe a little bit more specific for the fourth quarter. When you think about organic revenue growth, you've given kind of a wide range for the full year still that gives some variability into the fourth quarter, but there should be an acceleration. I'm guessing you have NHS, which started up, so that's a fourth quarter contributor. I think you also mentioned another new opportunity that's starting in the fourth quarter. So can you give us maybe a little bit of sense of expectations around organic revenue growth for 4Q?

Yes, sure. I'm going to pass that to Baris for comment.

Yes. For Q4, we expect more contribution from new business, as I highlighted and softer trends to continue. And we fully expect to be within our full year guidance range. Shape of the peak and volumes will drive the magnitude of the growth in Q4.

Welcome, Patrick. Just wanted to ask you, I guess, a bigger picture question first about deploying technology and how it's implemented across the suite of services. You mentioned a little bit on that earlier, but is there anything different that you're looking at implementing in terms of either sourcing the new technologies, how you're pricing it into some of these contracts and redeploying them and then ultimately, with a look at getting the returns from that. So maybe you can give a little bit more thoughts on how you see that with GXO initially here.

I have been very impressed by GXO's capabilities in robotics, automation, and AI. There is significant expertise within the organization. We see strong opportunities by concentrating on technologies that provide the most value for customers and a robust return on investment, particularly by collaborating with strategic partners to accelerate the deployment of these technologies. Global alignment in developing these solutions and fostering partnerships for co-development will be crucial for our future advancements, especially in AI. It’s essential that we continue building expertise among our team, and we aim to expand the number of people focused on these initiatives. A key platform for this effort is GXO IQ, which we launched in the third quarter, and we will report on its progress later. This platform is designed to facilitate the implementation of AI solutions across our operations. We have already deployed eight AI modules at various sites, and we are continuing to enhance GXO IQ. Additionally, we recognize the opportunity to improve our operational efficiency by using AI for corporate functions like HR, IT, and finance, and this work is also moving forward.

Let me quickly follow up on the NHS contract. It seems to be off to a good start, but it's a significant one. What are your early thoughts on whether it is progressing faster than you anticipated? Also, it appears that this will have a considerable mix impact, particularly in the fourth quarter.

Sure, Patrick. It's Kristine here. Yes, we're very excited. This was a critical milestone, really on track as we expected. We started that contract up in the 1st of October, certainly, and so the teams are doing a great job. Again, this is just the beginning here. As I noted in my prepared comments, we're seeing already a lot of momentum in the pipeline, and it's up 30% quarter-over-quarter. And this is just a huge addressable market for us globally. So over $34 billion opportunity that we're really just getting started at. So we're very excited. More to come here.

Patrick, in your initial kind of introduction, meet and greet conversations with customers. I bet you also got a little bit of a sense of what they're thinking about the current environment. So hopefully, in a world of some level of tariff normalization post de minimis, et cetera. What are they telling you about how they're going into 2026 and what they're thinking here and how GXO can play a part?

Yes, I would say, well, for us, while there's still uncertainty around current tariffs and trade discussions, there hasn't been a material impact on our business. I think our customers as you point out, are working to solve the complexities and challenges that come with that, and we're a big part of helping them do that. I would emphasize that two-thirds of our business is outside North America. We also have no direct exposure to China. We operate long-term contracts with our customers, which protects us on volume volatility. I mean the big thing is the macroeconomic is driving supply chain change that is happening. And we win when there is change because we are so well positioned to help our customers make those changes. As I emphasized on the focus on aerospace defense, the industrial sector, and life sciences. All of those market verticals are seeing additional activity, manufacturing coming back to the U.S. in many cases in those verticals or additional volume and new infrastructure being implemented in the U.S., and that is an opportunity that we're standing in front of with our strategic focus there. Kristine, anything to add to that?

Patrick, you summarized it well. We have an opportunity with the complexity of the long value-added services we can provide to our customers, which include restickering, rebagging, tagging, and services related to free trade zones. This is definitely something our customers are seeking to help address their complex operations. It's another potential area for growth, driving accelerated growth for GXO.

That's really helpful. And as a follow-up, maybe for you, Kristine. The AI hyperscaler opportunity sounds really interesting. Can you expand on that a little bit? How different is this business versus your kind of, I'd say, if I would use the word regular industrial or consumer-based customer in terms of margin, complexity, automation and if we can kind of maybe size the TAM there?

Thanks, Ravi. It's Kristine here. You've covered everything. This is a highly valuable strategic sector for us, not only in the U.S. but worldwide. The total addressable market is $28 billion today and is rapidly expanding. The supply chain here is quite intricate. While we aren't directly involved in the construction of data centers, we are offering complex, long-term logistical services to support them and help our customers grow and scale. Partnering with GXO, which has a global footprint, is essential for scalability. This is a crucial aspect of our pipeline. To put it into perspective, we saw the pipeline in this sector triple quarter-over-quarter, and we anticipate continued global growth opportunities.

Patrick, I wanted to go back to your comments about expanding the long-term margins. You spoke about pushing into some higher-margin verticals. I was wondering if you could talk about the difference in terms of these new verticals and your legacy business in terms of the margins? And then also, can you maybe expand on what are the things GXO needs to do to penetrate these verticals going forward? And then I have a follow-up on 4Q.

Sure. I could say in the first 100 days here, I've been in a number of operations and was very, very excited about what I saw in terms of our capabilities and competencies, especially in aerospace, defense and industrial, where I feel like we're just getting started, but we have lighthouse examples of operations that we've already implemented and can build on. The complexity of those operations and the value-added services associated with the services out of those operations really lends itself to being profitable market verticals for us. We certainly see from a total business perspective, the margin expansion opportunity from our participation in those verticals going forward. And it really is about continuing the great execution that we have demonstrated already there, and that is why the focus for the Chief Operating Officer is so important to make sure that we're sizing our operations and our capacities there to meet the organic growth that we're going to generate in those market verticals going forward so that we can ensure we capture the margin expansion opportunities associated with that growth.

And in terms of trying to size the difference in the margins between those verticals in the legacy business?

Yes. I would say just from a portfolio perspective, marginally higher than what we've seen in our current business.

Fair enough. I wanted to jump back to the 4Q outlook. I guess I was a little surprised you guys didn't raise the bottom of the guide, given what you did in 3Q, which you exceeded our estimates pretty easily. You called out a little bit of softness, I think, as we head into 4Q here. I was wondering if your views on peak season has really changed any? Or is this just you being a little cautious given what you're seeing?

Yes, I'll start and then maybe Baris can comment. We're experiencing a normal peak season going right to that. It's not strong but not weak and right now in line with our full year expectations of flat customer volumes. We've done a lot of work early in this year to position customer inventory in the right place for peak. A lot of that activity happened earlier than in years past. Customer inventories right now are at a level where our customers' peak season expectations can be fulfilled. We need to see the demand come through for that. In line with that, we've got the labor in place in order to deliver against that. And as you point out, the impact of the ramp-up of the NHS contract and the pace of that will have an impact as well.

From a numbers perspective, for Q4, as I highlighted, NHS is coming online. That's going to improve our new business contributions in Q4. We do expect softer trends in volumes to continue, but we are confident on achieving our full year EBITDA guidance of $865 million to $885 million despite FX weakening marginally in the recent weeks and the volume environment being dynamic as we head into peak.

And Patrick, let me echo others in congratulating you on the new role. So I'm curious, Patrick, you've held a number of roles across the supply chain. As you said, you have extensive experience in this area. I was hoping you could speak to what attracted you to GXO? How do you think about GXO's place in the market? What does GXO do differently or better than its competitors or anyone else in the industry?

Sure. I've shared with many I watched GXO for a long time with a lot of admiration, maybe even a little bit of envy, especially since the spin-off in 2021. GXO has continued to be a leader in the technology space, particularly around automation, robotics and AI. The people and the culture at GXO is really what differentiates the organization. This is a performance-oriented culture. And stepping in has been really excited just to be around the people at GXO and the attitude that people bring to work every day around creating amazing customer experiences, delivering great customer service and a passion for growth and performance. I would say, from an operational execution perspective, I've seen so many great examples, and I talked about a few in aerospace and defense. I would add the capabilities that we have in GXO Direct in our multi-customer network presents a great opportunity for us to service midsize customers, who I think can really benefit from our value proposition, the investments that we're making in technology, automation, AI and especially our people in a way that midsized companies can't invest at that level for themselves. I think we've got a great value proposition for that marketplace. The geographic breadth that we bring as a business, 27 countries that we're operating in today allows us to truly be a global partner for customers. We have 50% of our customers who are doing business with us in two regions and a handful that are in all three. So for me, the excitement is that the foundation is there. We've got great operational execution. We have the very best people and for me, the organic growth opportunity here is something that has really excited me coming in, and that's been a big part of my career in the past and something that I really thrive on and looking forward to driving forward.

That's great. We're definitely excited to see you execute on that. If I could just for my follow-up, I'm curious, you've mentioned a desire to hire a COO and that's obviously a big focus area. What is it that you are hoping a COO brings to the organization? If you could talk a bit about the extent to which best practices have or have not been kind of shared between regions or between customers and what the kind of margin opportunity that could be created from that might look like?

We have a specific way of operating known as the GXO way, and we aim to enhance our operational maturity in executing this approach. This includes our integration of technology, automation, and AI into our processes, creating an optimal environment for our employees, and ensuring that the GXO way provides excellent service to our customers. The Chief Operating Officer will concentrate on improving productivity in operations, enhancing quality, and ensuring that best practices are shared seamlessly worldwide. It is also crucial that we position our operational capacity to meet the demands of our anticipated organic growth consistently across the globe. Overall, we want to ensure that our operations are adequately prepared as we enter this new phase of growth.

Do you have a sense on what the margin uplift could look like from that? I mean are we talking like 100 bps? Are we talking more or less? Or is it too early to say?

As I'm in early, I think that will be something I'll be well positioned to talk to when we get to the Investor Day in 2026.

Wincanton has been performing well, showing strong year-over-year EBITDA results. We initiated integration in the third quarter and have reorganized our structure while beginning to merge support functions. We anticipate that procurement benefits will be more noticeable starting in 2026. This year, we expect integration benefits to reach approximately GBP 10 million, with a full run rate of $60 million by the end of 2026. These benefits will primarily come from cost savings, and we also expect significant revenue synergies. You can clearly see how we have been able to grow other businesses we've acquired, including substantial NHS contracts. Our healthcare business is expanding rapidly, and we’ve successfully entered various new markets through acquisitions. However, it's still too early to provide specific figures. It would be best to wait for the Investor Day in 2026, where we will present detailed information and discuss the numbers with you.

Nice to have you on the call here, Patrick. Just another follow-up on Wincanton, especially now that you've had a quarter or so of it fully under your belt. Maybe first, just to clarify, I'm assuming that any legacy pipeline in Wincanton has been kind of included in the numbers that you're quoting today? And then, Patrick, you talked about sharing of best practices a couple of times. Just specific to Wincanton, can you remind us what the margin differential looks like between those two businesses? And maybe also comment on the level of automation in that acquired portfolio and what opportunities you see going forward to maybe deploy some of your capabilities into those legacy contracts?

It's Kristine. I want to provide some context regarding the pipeline. Our pipeline as a consolidated company stands at $2.3 billion, which is very robust, particularly with the $280 million in wins this quarter. In terms of Wincanton, a significant portion of their pipeline is generated from aerospace and defense, which presents exciting opportunities for us. As Baris mentioned, we are just beginning this journey. When considering the overall global aerospace, defense, and industrial market, there are hundreds of billions of dollars available. Notably, our aerospace and defense pipeline has already started to gain traction, showing a positive momentum with a 30% increase quarter-over-quarter.

From a margin perspective, as I highlighted before, Wincanton margins are lower than GXO as a less scale, and they are extremely capital light. Their return on invested capital has been very high. They're almost working capital neutral. As we get more and more synergies, cost synergy benefits, we do expect a margin uplift in 2026 and onwards from Wincanton and the revenue contributions will follow that.

Patrick, you've mentioned organic growth in most of your responses today, which clearly indicates it's a focus for your time here. Looking ahead to the next two to three years, could you rank the main factors that will drive bottom line growth for GXO, considering organic optimization, efficiency, and possibly absorption? Additionally, is M&A part of your strategy?

Sure. Without specifics, which we'll talk to in Investor Day 2026. In terms of advancing the bottom line, as you point out, that is a blend of a focus on organic top line growth being cost disciplined around SG&A. We absolutely see productivity improvement opportunities in our current operations. On top of that, as we've talked about, the Wincanton contributions that come as we continue to integrate that business going forward. From an M&A perspective, and you highlighted it, organic growth is the primary area of focus. M&A is not in our short-term agenda. We will be doing M&A in the future. We're going to be very disciplined about M&A. We've done a fantastic job as GXO over the last four years in assembling the combination of companies through M&A that have given us the platform that we deserve organic growth now and we can deliver against that, and we want to capitalize on the M&A that has been done. Our M&A strategy will be focused on especially North America and the key verticals that we want to participate in. But again, not in our short-term agenda as we look forward. We really want to emphasize the organic growth engine and driving for performance there.

Just as we think about the Investor Day, do you have a sense of what the right timing is? Or maybe a better way to ask that is what sort of operational learnings and key personnel you need in place before you can have that discussion with the investment community?

Yes. I think you just pointed it out there. The key is getting the executive leadership team assembled and filling the recruiting efforts that are currently underway for our CFO, COOs and the Chief Commercial Officer, I expect those to be completed late this year, by the end of this year or January of next year latest. And then from there, we'll identify the best timing for Investor Day in 2026.

Patrick, you set your focus on accelerating organic growth in the U.S. and raising margins. We start with the U.S. growth initiatives. What do you think is achievable in terms of scaling the U.S. business, perhaps relative to the business you have in Europe? I mean looking at your U.S. business, about half the size of your U.K. business right now looking at relative market size, is there any reason it couldn't be substantially bigger than the U.K. business in the medium term? And then on margins, looking at some of your peers in Europe, that's been operating, albeit with different vertical mix that at least a couple of percentage points higher EBIT margins through the cycle. So would you see that as a useful benchmark for us to start thinking about your margin potential? And if not, why not?

Sure. In terms of the North American market, again, I see substantial opportunity here. I don't want to predict in the future what percentage North America will make of the total portfolio. And it's really important to point out, we're going to be growing all regions that we participate in. So the denominator will change there as we move forward. But I will emphasize the $250 billion market in North America. We are really well positioned to capitalize on that opportunity through organic growth, and we're positioning the resources and teams in place to make that happen. From a margin perspective, as it relates to our peers and so forth, we have line of sight to being high performing, and we'll share more in the Investor Day 2026 in terms of our specific aspirations there and what we're targeting. So more to come on that.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is all the time we have for questions today. I'd like to hand the call back to CEO, Patrick Kelleher for any closing remarks.

Great. Thank you, operator. Before we close, I just want to leave you with a few takeaways from me. First, we delivered a solid quarter with a record quarterly revenue delivered. Our sales pipeline is strong. It's a diversified and scaling in high-growth sectors. Wincanton integration is on track and thanks to solid revenue visibility and our resilient model we're reaffirming our full year guidance. Second, in my first 30 days, I've seen firsthand the depth of talent and potential across GXO, and I've talked a lot about that today. This company is so well positioned to grow going forward. with that strong foundation and now the opportunity to achieve our full potential, we are entering a new era of growth. This is one where we realized GXO's promise to be even more, even better. That means even more growth driven by commercial focus and customer intensity, even better execution powered by the innovation and operational excellence that has defined us. I really appreciate your questions today. I'm looking forward to meeting many of you in person in the weeks ahead. I'm confident in the path, and I look forward to sharing our continued progress as the quarters come. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Have a wonderful day.