Earnings

Aebi Schmidt Cuts 2026 Sales and EBITDA Outlook

The Tip Desk · November 12, 2026 · 3 min read

Third-quarter net sales were $493 million, up 4.6% from a year earlier, as the specialty-vehicles group lowered full-year sales to $1.95 billion–$2.00 billion.

Aebi Schmidt Group (AEBI), a specialty-vehicles maker, cut its full-year 2026 sales outlook to $1.95 billion to $2.00 billion from $1.95 billion to $2.15 billion, and lowered Adjusted EBITDA guidance to $170 million to $180 million from $175 million to $195 million.

The company said the update reflected market headwinds and supply-chain disruptions. Year-end leverage guidance moved to below 2.5 times from 2.0 times or slightly above.

Third-quarter net sales were $493 million, up 4.6% from a year earlier, after 9% growth in the second quarter. Order intake was $528 million, up 2.0% from the third quarter of 2025, after 16% growth in the second quarter. Order backlog stood at $1.3 billion as of September 30, 2026, expanding 16.4% from a year earlier.

The company attributed the third-quarter order-intake increase to North America, despite softness in select end markets and weaker demand from China and the Middle East on geopolitical conflicts. Backlog growth, it said, was driven by Airport and Municipal and a growing Walk-in-Van backlog extending into 2027.

North America net sales rose 7.9% organically from a year earlier, after 11% organic growth in the second quarter, reflecting Municipal improvements and Walk-In Van operations. Europe and Rest of World net sales decreased 3.6% from a year earlier, after 7% year-over-year growth in the second quarter. The company said weaker Rest of World results were partially countered by core European markets but also impacted by supply-chain disruptions.

Gross margin was 19.2%, down 80 basis points from the third quarter of 2025, which the company attributed to ongoing high inflationary pressure and delayed materialization of executed sales-price increases.

Adjusted EBITDA was $44.2 million, up 4.9% from a year earlier and equal to an unchanged 9.0% of net sales, after 22% growth in the second quarter. The company said it overcame the gross-margin decline with accelerated synergy realization and cost management.

North America Adjusted EBITDA was $37.2 million, up $2.9 million or 8.4% from the prior-year quarter, after a 22% increase in the second quarter. The company said synergy realization more than compensated temporary gross-margin pressure. Europe and Rest of World Adjusted EBITDA was $7.0 million, down $0.8 million or 10.6% from the prior-year quarter, after a 25% increase in the second quarter. The company said disciplined cost management mitigated supply-chain disruptions.

Net income was $10.8 million, up $9.6 million from $1.2 million in the third quarter of 2025. Diluted earnings were $0.14 a share.

Net debt was $446 million at September 30, 2026, down $22 million or 4.8% from a year earlier. Leverage was 2.66 times, improving more than half a turn from 3.24 times a year earlier. Net working capital was $465 million, up 3.0% or $13 million from a year earlier.

The company said leverage is expected to further improve toward year-end on usual seasonal fourth-quarter cash flow. Guidance assumes a stable macroeconomic and political environment, with no further escalation of inflationary pressures or supply-chain disruptions, and includes payments for acquisitions.

Aebi Schmidt also announced a planned acquisition of O.J. Watson Company Inc, a Denver municipal and commercial upfitter generating around $28 million in net sales in its last fiscal year, which the company said would give it a direct presence in the Rocky Mountains.

Group CFO Marco Portmann said the company is executing sales-pricing measures that will drive margin recovery in 2027. Chairman and Group CEO Barend Fruithof said the company is compensating for temporarily reduced gross margins with strict cost management and accelerated measures.

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