Blue Bird Corporation (“Blue Bird”) (Nasdaq: BLBD), the leader in electric and low-emission school buses, announced today its fiscal 2026 first quarter financial results.

"We delivered an exceptional Adj. EBITDA of $50M / 15% for the first fiscal quarter of 2026, a new all-time first-quarter record for the Company."

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Highlights

“I am incredibly proud of our team in delivering another outstanding quarterly result,” said John Wyskiel, President & CEO of Blue Bird Corporation. “The Blue Bird team continued to exceed expectations, improving operations, navigating tariffs, and expanding our leadership in alternative-powered buses. Unit sales were just above last year, and revenue was up by $19M, driven mainly by pricing, including tariffs. We delivered an exceptional Adj. EBITDA of $50M / 15% for the first fiscal quarter of 2026, a new all-time first-quarter record for the Company.

“In our push to expand our leadership in alternative-powered school buses, we delivered 121 electric-powered buses this quarter. As of the end of the quarter, we had more than 850 EV buses in our firm order backlog, which supports our EV sales target for 2026.

“Based on our strong start to 2026, we are raising our 2026 full-year Adjusted EBITDA guidance to $225 million. We expect 2026 to be a slight improvement of the all-time record result we achieved in 2025, and we look forward to sustained profitable growth in the coming years as we march towards ~$2B in revenue and a 16%+ Adjusted EBITDA margin.”

FY2026 Guidance and Long-Term Outlook

“We are very pleased with our first quarter results, with our highest ever Q1 revenue and Adj. EBITDA,” said Razvan Radulescu, CFO of Blue Bird Corporation. “Our business is in a very strong position and we continue to deliver ahead of the plan we have been messaging. We are reaffirming full-year 2026 guidance for Net Revenue at ~$1.5 Billion and raising our Adj. EBITDA guidance to $225 million. Additionally, we are reiterating our long-term profit outlook towards an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 16%+ on ~$2 billion in revenue. We are confident in our profitable growth plans.”

Fiscal 2026 First Quarter Results

Net Sales
Net sales were $333.1 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, an increase of $19.2 million, or 6.1%, compared to $313.9 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2025. The increase in net sales is primarily due to Bus customer and product mix changes and cumulative Bus pricing actions, including increases that were intended to mitigate the impact of increased procurement costs for certain of our imported inventory as a result of the imposition of tariffs beginning during the second half of fiscal 2025 and continuing into the first quarter of fiscal 2026, which were partially offset by a small decrease in Parts sales.

Bus sales increased $19.5 million, or 6.8%, reflecting a 0.2% increase in unit bookings and a 6.5% increase in average sales price per unit. In the first quarter of fiscal 2026, 2,135 units booked compared to 2,130 units booked for the same period in fiscal 2025. The increase in unit price for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 compared to the same period in fiscal 2025 was primarily due to customer and product mix changes as well as pricing actions implemented to offset increases in inventory costs.

Parts sales decreased $0.3 million, or 1.2%, for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2025. This small decrease is primarily attributed to slight variations due to product and channel mix that were slightly larger than pricing actions that were implemented to offset increases in inventory costs.

Gross Profit
First quarter gross profit of $71.2 million represented an increase of $10.9 million from the first quarter of last year. The increase was primarily driven by the $19.2 million increase in net sales, discussed above, and partially offset by a corresponding increase of $8.3 million in cost of goods sold.

Net Income
Net income was $30.8 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, an increase of $2.0 million from the first quarter of last year. Among other smaller fluctuations, the $10.9 million increase in gross profit, discussed above, was partially offset by an increase of $6.3 million in selling, general and administrative expenses, primarily due to an increase in (a) research and development expense and (b) labor costs. Also offsetting the increase in gross profit was a decrease of $3.1 million in other (expense) income, net, primarily due to $2.6 million in certain state emissions credits that the Company sold during the first quarter of fiscal 2025, with no similar transactions during the first quarter of fiscal 2026.

Adjusted Net Income
Adjusted net income of $32.5 million represented an increase of $1.9 million from the first quarter of last year. The increase was primarily driven by the $2.0 million increase in Net Income, discussed above, when adjusting for the impact of expenses that are excluded in calculating Adjusted Net Income.

Adjusted EBITDA
Adjusted EBITDA was $50.1 million, which was an increase of $4.3 million compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2025. The increase primarily relates to the increase in Net Income, discussed above, that was partially offset by a smaller increase in selling, general and administrative expenses, when adjusting for the impact of expenses that are excluded in calculating Adjusted EBITDA, as discussed above.

Conference Call Details

Blue Bird will discuss its first quarter 2026 results in a conference call at 4:30 PM ET today. Participants may listen to the audio portion of the conference call either through a live audio webcast on the Company's website or by telephone. The slide presentation and webcast can be accessed via the Investor Relations portion of Blue Bird's website at www.blue-bird.com.

• Webcast participants should log on and register at least 15 minutes prior to the start time on the Investor Relations homepage of Blue Bird’s website at http://investors.blue-bird.com. Click the link in the events box on the Investor Relations landing page.
• Participants desiring audio only should dial 646-844-6383 or 833-470-1428. The access code is 173714.

A replay of the webcast will be available approximately two hours after the call concludes via the same link on Blue Bird’s website.