Latham Group, Inc. Common Stock Jefferies Global Industrials Conference 2026

Good morning. Welcome to day 2 of the Jefferies Global Industrials Conference here in New York City. We are on the 7:30 slot here with Latham Group. Ticker is SWIM, which is very nice. I like that. My name is Chirag Patel. I work here at Jefferies, covering the machinery, multi-industry, and distribution spaces, along with Steve Volkmann. Today, we welcome Latham Group. Presenters today are CEO Sean Gadd and CFO Oliver Gloe.

Good morning. We'll do a bit of an overview here to start with, I guess.

For those in the audience who may not be familiar with Latham as much as others, can you just give us a quick overview of the company, just how you would differentiate your key product categories, and then just where you scale within the pool market overall?

Yeah, sure. Latham is a company that's been around for 70 years. From our perspective, we have a number of categories in which we participate in. One is fiberglass. One is vinyl liner pools, which is an entry level pool for us, and it actually also gives us replacement revenue. Then we have accessories around automatic pool covers. So that's essentially the 3 parts of the business. We're leading market share in all 3 categories. We do have a differentiated product and differentiated approach in how we go to market with all 3 of those categories, all allowing us essentially to take share.

The focus is North American based at this point. Any thoughts on international exposures, things of that nature?

Yeah. We are in Australia and New Zealand, and Canada as well. So we are quasi global, but majority of our business, majority of our revenue and EBITDA comes out of the U.S.

Got you. As we think about the overall pool industry and the dynamics that have been facing over the last couple of years here, how would you characterize the market environment currently, some of the challenges that you may be facing, some of the opportunities that you see ahead of you?

Yeah. The market, we believe, is in trough conditions. So when you think about pool starts, estimation for the U.S. is around 58,000 starts last year. We planned this year to be essentially a flat market. I think that's what we're experiencing. So we think it's in trough conditions. You have to go back to 2014 before you saw 58,000 pool starts, so obviously after the GFC. So we do think we're at the bottom, and we expect it to return over time. For us, it doesn't matter, really, at this point. One, we're taking shares, so we're able to grow no matter what the market conditions are, which is a positive for us. Two, we're trying to drive a lot of change and disruption in the industry. So, for me, you're able to do that in soft markets.

It's much harder to do it when the market's flying and people don't want to change because they're sold out. That's not the situation today, so dealers and builders are looking for options, and we're able to provide them.

Got you. I feel like one of the things that we look at is the idea of how consumers. I still view the pool industry as a discretionary spend at the end of the day. Given that framework, affordability comes into a key metric here at this point. Kind of frame for us how consumers are thinking about where we are within the marketplace, what rates have done for them, and then how affordability plays a factor into your opportunity.

Yeah. It is all discretionary spend. So affordability does play a part in the industry, no doubt. I think from our perspective, what we're seeing is essentially almost a K-type economy, right? So, the 58,000 pools that are going in, most of those are cash buyers. It seems like we've lost the bottom part of the market, which is essentially those who use finance. So there's no doubt interest rates are not helping, and the macro is not helping. However, what we're seeing is, one, we're taking share, but two, I think people are getting used to the fact that interest rates are where they are because now they're stable. They're not really moving up or down, so no one's waiting. So we are seeing more people come into, at least on our side, coming into the decision around building a pool.

The challenge you've got with a pool is, while it's discretionary, I mean, everyone knows when you build a pool, you got, like, 18 summers with your kids, right? So you do have a time. So that's still in the back of people's minds.

Got you. That idea of moving everyone to the outdoor living, I do feel post-COVID, that was such a big portion of the opportunity. Certainly a pull forward during that time period. Now there's a more stable 58,000, a little bit lower over market kind of thing. Market conditions are soft. At the same time, it does feel like your products themselves lend themselves to some growth that's outside of just the full construction of a pool and things of that nature.

Yeah. Like I said, I think we've got superior products than our competitive set. The reality is we are the only manufacturer of scale. When I say that, I'm particularly focusing on fiberglass when I say that, but our competitors are essentially private companies, mom-and-pop type shops that don't have the sophistication, they don't have the dollars to invest. The exciting part for me is everything I look at when we look at marketing, when we look at TV ads, when we look at our approach to the marketplace, it's almost white space, right? So we're dealing with a pretty unsophisticated competitor. I say it with respect, but it's just the fact is we've got scale, which is a significant advantage for us, and we've got a scale organization. So those two things allow us to outperform the market.