Fresh headlines questioning the future of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement cast a shadow of doubt over BRP Inc.‘s upbeat financial outlook, even as the Ski-Doo maker surpassed earnings expectations and brightened its forecast for the year.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said President Donald Trump could opt to pull out of the free trade pact next year, according to news reports Thursday — which BRP chief executive José Boisjoli addressed during a conference call.
He told analysts the powersports vehicle manufacturer has been laying out its point of view to industry associations and “some governments” about renewing the trade deal.
“We’re not reacting to news every day, because it will be too painful,” he said, giving a wry chuckle.
Nonetheless, uncertainty around cross-border trade remains a source of angst at the Quebec-based Ski-Doo maker, given that roughly 60 per cent of its revenue comes from the United States.
All BRP vehicles made in Canada and Mexico are compliant with the USMCA, Boisjoli has said, which allows American buyers to avoid 25 per cent tariffs.
Maintaining that compliance is key. Most of the inventory sold in the U.S. is made in Mexico — 70 per cent of total production happens south of the Rio Grande — or Canada, where Ski-Doos and some of BRP’s Can-Am three-wheeled motorcycles roll off the line.
In its latest quarter, BRP continued to ride out dips and swerves in powersports demand, exceeding earnings predictions despite a recent trough in dealer orders and the question mark dangling over trade.
The Valcourt, Que.-based Sea-Doo maker boosted its third-quarter profits by 150 per cent year-over-year to $76.5 million on the back of off-road-vehicles. Its revenue grew 14 per cent to $2.25 billion. And it raised its revenue forecast for the year to $8.3 billion versus earlier projections of $8.15 billion to $8.30 billion.
Shares rose 6.5 per cent or $6.38 to close at $105.03 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
“Our chief remaining concern for the stock is the risk of substantive changes or threats around the USMCA agreement,” said National Bank analyst Cameron Doerksen in a note to investors.
Boisjoli acknowledged that anxious consumers are watching their wallets, particularly when it comes to lower-end products, but said he expected demand to pick up, especially if interest rates decrease as expected in the U.S.
“Dealers are obviously always concerned with the macroeconomic. Have we reached the trough? Some speculate that we have,” he said.
“Obviously as we see rates come down … the level of appetite from dealers is also increasing to take on more inventory.”
The company earns the bulk of its revenue via wholesale orders from its vast network of dealers, though retail purchases are an essential indicator of what they will buy from BRP.
In October, BRP notched record retail sales for that month in side-by-side and all-terrain vehicles, driven by the latest Can-Am Defender, a new generation of side-by-side with beefed-up shocks and horsepower, Boisjoli said Thursday.
However, overall retail revenue in North America fell four per cent amid lower snowmobile sales — several competitors heavily discounted their unsold vehicles, he said — after BRP finished the spring with 60 per cent market share.
Early snowfall across much of the country could help boost motor sled sales, said the CEO.
“It’s very dependent on snowfall … Every inch of snow is more units that get retailed.”
After 22 years at the helm, Boisjoli announced in May he planned to step down at the close of BRP’s fiscal year, which ends Jan. 31.
The board’s hunt to find a new CEO is ongoing, and likely to wrap up at the end of next month, he said.
Boisjoli leaves amid a tough economic climate for BRP, which has known no other chief executive.
An engineer by training, he piloted BRP from a struggling powersports outfit spun off from Bombardier Inc. in 2003 into a brand with worldwide reach that seized on growing demand for side-by-side vehicles, snowmobiles and personal watercraft.
But after an urge for outdoor activity sparked a sales boom during the COVID-19 pandemic, buyers responded to inflation and interest rate hikes by pulling back from pricey recreational purchases.
Now, tit-for-tat tariffs have raised costs and fostered a wait-and-see approach to consumption. Meanwhile, the pullback has left inventory idling on the showroom floor, prompting big discounts from rivals to sell last year’s gear.
“This environment will be here for maybe another few quarters, and that obviously impacts the profitability of everybody’s business,” Boisjoli said.
The average household income of BRP customers sits at US$175,000 per year, which insulates the outfit from big drops in sales of more expensive vehicles, he added.
“The high-end products are selling well, but the lower-end models — the more entry-level models — traffic is lighter.”
On Thursday, BRP reported its normalized earnings for the quarter ended Oct. 31 amounted to $1.59 per diluted share, up from $1.20 per diluted share a year earlier and beating analysts’ expectations of $1.24, according to financial markets firm LSEG Data & Analytics.
The company said it now expects normalized earnings per diluted share to amount to $5, up from earlier projections of $4.25 to $4.75.
It continues to target revenues of $9.5 billion and $8 per share in normalized earnings by the end of its 2028 fiscal year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 4, 2025.
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