Blackline Safety Q4 & Fiscal 2025 Earnings Call - Record ARR and Launch of G8 Platform Drive Growth Outlook
Summary
Blackline Safety reported a strong Q4 and record fiscal 2025 results, highlighted by CAD 150.5 million in revenue and CAD 84.5 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), up nearly 30% year-over-year. The company achieved its sixth consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA, reaching CAD 6.1 million for the full year, driven by robust service revenue growth and expanding margins. Despite near-term headwinds from global trade uncertainty, U.S. government shutdown impacts, and cautious hardware refresh cycles, Blackline successfully deployed 2,500 devices for ADNOC under a multi-year agreement expected to scale up to 28,000 devices. The recent launch of the G8, their most advanced connected safety wearable to date, is expected to be an inflection point, enabling new high-margin service apps and boosting recurring revenue growth. Management foresees a gradual transition from G7 to G8 over two to three quarters with an anticipated revenue ramp in H2 2026, supported by increasing service attach rates and global market expansion, particularly in the Middle East.
Key Takeaways
- Blackline Safety achieved record CAD 150.5 million revenue in fiscal 2025, an 18% increase year-over-year.
- Annual Recurring Revenue reached a record CAD 84.5 million, nearly 30% growth from prior year, driven by strong service adoption.
- Adjusted EBITDA was positive CAD 6.1 million for fiscal 2025, compared to a loss in fiscal 2024, evidencing operational leverage.
- Q4 revenue was CAD 39.3 million, marking 35 consecutive quarters of year-over-year growth.
- Service revenue grew 30% in Q4 to CAD 25.5 million, with software services up 26% and rental revenue up 55%.
- Product revenue declined 14% in Q4 due to macroeconomic uncertainty, hardware refresh delays, and the U.S. government shutdown impacting fire and hazmat customers.
- Successfully deployed 2,500 devices in Q4 for ADNOC under a multi-year deal to deploy up to 28,000 devices over approx. two years.
- Launched G8, a next-generation connected safety wearable with enhanced display, integrated communications, and designed as a platform for productivity apps.
- Transition from G7 to G8 expected over 2-3 quarters, with G8 shipments starting February 2026; all variants available at launch.
- G8 expected to drive higher service revenues through new applications and higher attach rates, especially push-to-talk (PTT) features.
- Service margins reached a record 82% due to scale and cost optimization; product margins rebounded to 40% in Q4.
- The company maintains strong liquidity with CAD 46.6 million in cash and CAD 29.8 million available on credit facilities.
- Growth in Middle East strong, with new UAE office to support ADNOC and other customers locally.
- Hardware refresh rates slowed due to economic conditions, but G8 launch is expected to accelerate future refresh cycles.
- Manufacturing ramp of G8 planned with inventory buildup and addition of a second SMT line by late fiscal year, with modest capex under $10 million.
- Management confident in sales pipeline and growth trajectory despite near-term cautiousness in capital spending by customers.
Full Transcript
Alfredo, Conference Operator: Welcome to Blackline Safety’s fourth quarter results conference call. The conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jason Zandberg, Director, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Jude, Investor Relations, Blackline Safety: Welcome, and thank you for joining us. On the call today, we’ll be discussing our fiscal results for the fourth quarter ending October 31st, 2025, which were released earlier this morning. With me today is Cody Slater, CEO and Chair of Blackline Safety Corp, Blackline CFO Robin Kooiman, and Sean Stinson, President and Chief Growth Officer. I will turn the call over to Cody for an overview of our fourth quarter and year-end 2025 results. Robin will then discuss the financial highlights before turning the call back to Cody for closing remarks. I’d like to remind everyone that an archive of this webcast will be made available on the investor section of our website. I would like to note that some of the information discussed in this call is based on information as of today and contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties.
Actual results may differ materially from those set forth in these statements. For discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please review the forward-looking statement disclosure in the earnings news release as well as the company’s SEDAR+ filings. During this call, there will be a discussion of IFRS results, non-GAAP financial measures, non-GAAP ratios, and supplementary financial measures. A reconciliation between IFRS results and non-GAAP financial measures is available in the company’s earnings news release and MD&A, both of which can be found on our website, blacklinesafety.com, and on SEDAR+. All dollar amounts are reported in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted. With that, I will now hand the call over to Mr. Slater.
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: Thank you, Jude. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Blackline Safety’s fourth quarter and fiscal 2025 conference call. I’m very pleased to report that Blackline delivered another strong quarter and capped off a record fiscal year highlighted by record annual recurring revenue, strong net dollar retention, and our sixth consecutive quarter of positive Adjusted EBITDA. For the fourth quarter, revenue reached a record CAD 39.3 million, marking our 35th consecutive quarter of year-over-year top-line growth. For the full fiscal year, revenue reached CAD 150.5 million, an all-time high. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was CAD 2.2 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the full year reached CAD 6.1 million, compared to a loss of CAD 2.4 million in fiscal 2024, clearly demonstrating our ability to generate full-year positive Adjusted EBITDA. Annual recurring revenue reached a record CAD 84.5 million at year-end, up almost 30% from last year, providing strong visibility and a solid foundation for future growth.
This performance continues to validate the demand for our hardware-enabled SaaS business model. Net dollar retention remained extremely strong at 128% in the fourth quarter, reflecting ongoing expansion within our existing customer base as customers continue to see value in our hardware and services, adding devices, services, and functionality to their deployments. Our NDR figure has been above 125% for 10 consecutive quarters now. Our connected safety product portfolio continues to resonate across a broad range of industries. Demand for our EXO-8 area monitor remains strong, as did demand for our G7 and G6 products, particularly in the Middle East, as our long-term purchase agreement with ADNOC starts to scale. We not only delivered the initial 1,000 devices stated in our press release in August but deployed almost 2,500 devices in the fourth quarter.
An excellent start on our path to fulfill our multi-year purchase agreement with ADNOC, which could see up to 28,000 devices deployed with associated services. As a flagship customer in this region, we have already seen expanded interest from other leading companies in the Middle East. The growth in the Middle East region will be supported by the previously announced new international office in the UAE, providing localized training, rentals, and service. We did face some near-term headwinds in the fourth quarter in product revenue due to global trade uncertainty and overall economic conditions impacting our energy and industrial sector customers. The U.S. government shutdown also impacted our business with the funding disruption slowing purchase activity among fire and hazmat customers. As the U.S. government shutdown ended in November, we believe funding will begin flowing again in the near term, supporting our strong pipeline in that industry vertical.
On Tuesday, we announced the G8, our next-generation connected safety wearable and the most advanced product we’ve built to date. G8 brings together gas detection, lone worker protection, and real-time communication in a single, rugged, intrinsically safe device, all connected to the cloud through Blackline Live. It builds on the strong foundation of our G7 but with meaningful enhancements, including a larger full-color display, expanded connectivity, and integrated communications so workers can stay connected without needing multiple devices. Importantly, we see the G8 as an inflection point for Blackline Safety. With over four years in development, the G8 represents a technological leap over the G7, which defined the category since 2017.
The G8 is designed as a true platform that will become a hub for workforce productivity, hosting applications to enable teams to streamline workflows, reduce downtime, and maintain compliance in the field, all of which we believe will increase the service revenues associated with each device. We’re currently taking orders, with our first commercial shipments expected to begin in February 2026. I’ll now turn the call over to Robin to review our financials in more detail.
Robin Kooiman, CFO, Blackline Safety: Thank you, Cody, and good morning, everyone. I’ll start with a review of our fourth quarter results and then provide a summary of full-year fiscal 2025 performance. Total revenue in the fourth quarter was CAD 39.3 million, up 10% year-over-year. This growth was driven by a 30% increase in service revenue, which reached CAD 25.5 million. Within services, software services revenue grew 26% to CAD 21.5 million, while rental revenue increased 55% to CAD 4 million, reflecting strong demand in industrial turnarounds, maintenance, and project-based environments. Product revenue in the quarter was CAD 13.8 million, down 14% year-over-year, as customers continued to exercise caution on capital purchases amid global trade and macroeconomic uncertainty, the U.S. government shutdown, and a delay in certain customer hardware refreshment activity. Gross profit in the fourth quarter increased 21% to CAD 26.3 million, and gross margin improved to 67% compared to 61% in the prior year quarter.
Service margins remained strong, reaching a record 82%, benefiting from scale efficiencies, optimized connectivity, and infrastructure costs, while product margins rebounded to 40% from 35% in Q3. Total quarterly operating expenses represented 68% of revenue, excluding a one-time charge reported in general and administrative expenses and foreign exchange. Within this, G&A expenses accounted for 20%, sales and marketing for 32%, and product research and development costs represented 16%. The one-time charge relates to a U.S. sales tax assessment for prior periods. EBITDA for the quarter was CAD 1.4 million, and adjusted EBITDA was CAD 2.2 million, reinforcing the scalability of our operating model. Turning to full year, total revenue for fiscal 2025 was CAD 150.5 million, up 18% year-over-year. Service revenue increased 30% to CAD 90.5 million, while product revenue increased 4% to CAD 60 million.
Gross margin improved to 63%, up from 58% in fiscal 2024, driven by a favorable revenue mix, pricing discipline, and operating leverage. Total operating expense for the year represents 67% of revenue, consistent with the prior period, and reflected continued cost discipline as the business scales. Adjusted EBITDA improved significantly to positive CAD 6.1 million compared to a loss of CAD 2.4 million in fiscal 2024. We ended the year with CAD 46.6 million in cash and short-term investments. We have available capacity on our senior-secured operating facility, including its accordion feature, of CAD 29.8 million as of October 31st, 2025, for total available liquidity of CAD 76.4 million. This compares to CAD 60.4 million at the end of fiscal 2024. Our fiscal 2025 results reflect the strength of our recurring service revenue base, expanding margins, and disciplined execution in a dynamic global environment.
On a personal note, I’ll be temporarily stepping away from Blackline Safety for maternity leave effective February 2nd. I’m proud to do so at a time when the company has achieved record revenue, ARR, and has a very strong balance sheet. I have full confidence in Chris Curry, our VP Finance and Accounting, to work as interim CFO with the strong team at Blackline to continue delivering ever greater results while I spend time with my growing family. With that, I’ll turn the call back to Cody for closing remarks.
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: Thank you, Robin. We wish you and your family all the best. As we close out fiscal 2025, I’m extremely proud of what the Blackline team has accomplished. We’ve delivered record total revenue, record annual recurring revenue, and sustained positive adjusted EBITDA, all while continuing our track record of innovation and global expansion, redefining the connected worker category. Today, Blackline protects workers across more than 75 countries, supporting customers in energy, utilities, industrials, infrastructure, and emergency response. Our growing recurring revenue base, strong customer retention, and expanding global footprint position us well as we enter fiscal 2026. To close, we’re particularly excited about the opportunities ahead as we launch the G8. We believe G8 represents a meaningful step forward for connected workers, both in terms of the value it delivers to customers and the long-term growth potential it creates for Blackline.
The G7 created the connected industrial safety market and has taken Blackline from a company of CAD 12 million in revenue to over CAD 150 million today. The G8 will redefine the connected industrial worker market and be the key driver to accelerate our trajectory as we continue on our path to connect the global industrial workforce, creating a modern, more efficient workplace while ensuring more workers have the tools to get their job done and return home safe at the end of the day. I’m deeply grateful to our customers for their trust, to our employees for their dedication, and to our shareholders for their continued confidence. Thank you all for your ongoing support. I’ll now turn the call back to the operator for questions.
Alfredo, Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the analyst question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you’re using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. The first question comes from Martin Toner with ATB Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Martin Toner, Analyst, ATB Capital Markets: Thank you very much for taking my question. Congrats on a great start to the year, and congrats to Robin too.
Thank you.
My first question, maybe you can help us get our head around the timing of G8 revenues. How long does it take to ramp sales efforts? How easily are you able to move customers in the pipeline for the G7 over to the G8? And then what kind of near and long-term impact do you think the G8 can have on service revenue and service revenue growth? Thank you.
Sean Stinson, President and Chief Growth Officer, Blackline Safety: Hey, Martin. This is Sean here. I will address those in sequence. So first off, how quickly can we start to realize G8 revenue? We anticipate the G8 shipping in late February. What we’ve modeled is a roughly two-quarter, two- to three-quarter transition between G7 to G8. So what I expect is that if customers have very tightly budgeted and spec’d the G7 in, they may be more likely to stay with the G7. We’ll start to introduce G8 to everybody, but I don’t believe that the entire pipeline will flip over to G8 right away. And part of that will be because of budgetary requirements. The price of the G8 will be a little bit higher on hardware, but we do anticipate a full switch over within about two quarters. So I think that’s kind of related to your second question about how do we move people over.
The G8 is a significant improvement from the G7. It’s clearly the same concept. It’s one of the only instruments in the world that can actually save a life. It’s a voice-powered, extremely sophisticated device that helps people save lives in the case of an accident and helps them deliver proactive safety. Behind that, it’s a platform that will deliver years of continued expansion. We will see initially, I think the biggest impact on services will come from the PTT growth. The G8 has a very significantly improved push-to-talk experience, and that’s a crucial tool for people who work in the industries that we serve, both in terms of collaboration to get a job done, which is, I would say, more productivity than safety, but also safety and productivity are very much linked.
So if there is any communication that needs to happen in order to properly assess a situation for safety, that can happen much more easily. So we expect that to be a significant pickup. And if you followed Blackline for a while, you know that the G7 has roughly an 11% attach rate on PTT. We see that going significantly higher. I think I got them all, Martin. Did I miss one there? You dropped three questions.
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: No, I got it. Maybe Martin, I’ll just throw in an ad. It’s Cody here that the other difference with the G8 is with the G7, what we’ve seen is that customers acquire a certain stack of service. On refresh, we might move them up a service tier or so, but usually they’re pretty good at picking those safety elements. Is a platform for more productivity, more workforce efficiency, more other elements of different think about them like apps that we’ll be starting to add through 2026 and beyond, and that will give us a base of if the unit goes in the field, that gives us really a base of customers to service new opportunities, new value to, and drive that service revenue growth through the life cycle of the product rather than at the refresh points.
So a really significant difference in the business model for the company and a significant difference for our customers too, because everything we’re talking about here is something that will make their jobs easier and safer.
Martin Toner, Analyst, ATB Capital Markets: That’s great. Thank you very much. So you have two interesting forces colliding here: macro-driven caution and an exciting new product. How do you see that playing out in numbers in 2026?
Sean Stinson, President and Chief Growth Officer, Blackline Safety: Yeah. We’ve surfaced the G8 to a number of core customers. So over the last period of time, and we’ll say the response has been excellent across the board. That’s going to push some near-term work into renewals or refresh units into the second quarter as we start shipping G8s in the second quarter. So maybe a bit of a headwind in Q1, but starting to really see that flow through from Q2 forward. The nice thing is, as Sean mentioned, the G8’s a phenomenal technological leap above the G7, but the idea of connected safety is no longer new. When we launched the G7, it was entirely new. No one had done anything like this before. A lot of caution and customers adopting the tech.
This is just something that they’re going to see as a significant improvement and can see that visibility of what they could do with it in the future. So we’re not going to see that kind of a challenge. We will see some customers wanting to do trials or tests or get it in their hands before they deploy. It’s always a bit of noise on the launch of a new product of this scale, but the trajectory will be exceptionally strong. We feel throughout the year, particularly throughout the second half of the year.
Martin Toner, Analyst, ATB Capital Markets: Super. That’s great. Thank you. Why don’t I pass the line?
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: Thanks.
Alfredo, Conference Operator: The next question comes from Doug Taylor with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Doug Taylor, Analyst, Canaccord Genuity: Yeah. Thank you. Good morning. I’ll ask a couple more questions on the G8, and it’s an exciting milestone. Now that it’s official, can you speak a little bit more on how we should think about the manufacturing cutover from the G7 as the current plan stands? What we should think about in terms of the overlap? I mean, is the G7 going to continue to be produced for some of those more cost-conscious customers for a period of time? Can you talk about the mechanics of that a little bit and inventory and working capital mechanics as it relates to that?
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: Sure. Cody here. I mean, we anticipate a full shift over, as Sean had mentioned, from the G7 to the G8 by the end of the fiscal year here. So scaling down the G7 manufacturing while we’re scaling up the G8 manufacturing. We’ve already seen from some of our inventory numbers, etc., an investment in the G8 inventories. You’ll continue to support the G7 customers, so there’ll be nominal manufacturing G7 for a number of years as we go forward. But what you’re going to see is a shift over over the next three quarters to be fully G8. During that time, I will say there’s usually introduction of a new product that puts some downward pressure on hardware margins for those first introductory periods. Your outputs, your throughputs are going to just scale up as we’ve seen that over the time with the G7.
The G8’s designed to be exceptionally manufacturable, but again, we’ll have some caution as we’re entering into the new manufacturing of the new line, and we will be, as we expand down the line, expanding our manufacturing capacity as well too. We’ll be adding a second surface mount line to the production. Timing on that’s probably late this fiscal year. There is some capital investment there, but not significant in the overall, particularly given the strength of the balance sheets here, so yeah, ramp up over the next three quarters, shift over a bit of time. The other thing I think you’ll see with the G8 is when you talk about from the hardware standpoint, is we’re going to see more accessory sales with the G8. Sean’s mentioned the pickup. We anticipate in PTT.
One of the really cool features with the 8 is it has a custom, what’s called remote speaker mic, or RSM, the kind of thing you’d see a fireman or police officer having on their lapel. That really makes the PTT experience even greater, and so things like that will actually probably accelerate a little bit of the accessory revenues as well too.
Alfredo, Conference Operator: Yeah. And hey, Doug, I’ll just jump in with one more point on that investment in our manufacturing facility. You can think about that as single-digit millions later this year.
Doug Taylor, Analyst, Canaccord Genuity: That’s fantastic color. And so when you’re launching the product here, the G8 next month, I mean, are all variants, all the different gas configurations and the PTT and the related service, the speaker mic, all that, are they all going to be available, or is that kind of staggered over the course of the year?
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: Nope. 100% of everything there is available day one. One of the real advantages of our product system and our design is that cartridge base that you’re familiar with, I think, with the G7. So the gas cartridges are really where a lot of the flexibility in the device comes from, whether it be five gas, four gas, pumped instruments, unpumped instruments. Everyone works with the G8. Everyone’s approved in all the regions that we’re functioning and working in around the globe. The speaker mics in production, the multiple charger docks, the rest of the stuff, everything’s ready to go. What you are going to see with the 8, though, is those new service apps that I’m talking about. Those will start to roll out later this year, and those will be something that we’ll be able to talk a bit more about later in the year.
But that’s one of the real keys with the G8 is this new platform with this big full-color screen and the additional interface access to it through the different side buttons that will allow customers to do a lot more on the device. And those are things that we’re going to be able to just keep adding and adding as customer demand and as we focus in different areas from the software side. But to your point, from the hardware end, everything’s available day one on the G8.
Doug Taylor, Analyst, Canaccord Genuity: Okay. Thank you for that. One further question for me, and maybe just to back into the quarter that you just reported and talk about that a little bit, because the services revenue certainly stood out and how resilient the growth and how that’s been in all market conditions, but also the margins. So I just wanted to touch on that a little bit. Is that the margin expansion there, I mean, a function of the rental growth currency? I mean, can you just help us as we think about modeling that into the start of this year and as the G8 rolls out and becomes a bigger part of the mix?
Alfredo, Conference Operator: Thanks, Doug. It’s a great question, so one of the biggest drivers of the service growth margin this quarter is really the scalability initiative that we’ve been focused on achieving in the business. And we’re really pleased with the result this year. At over 80%, as you think forward from here, I just keep in mind that gains will still very much be available but are probably generally smaller, so we’re going to continue to focus on optimizing things like connectivity services and data expenses, but as always, when you launch a new product, I think it’s important just to keep in mind that there can be a little bit of variability.
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: The other thing I’d just add on the services growth is one of the core drivers of the lower hardware numbers is a slower refresh rate. A lot of our customers are just taking longer to replace their fleets. The devices are working. Capital’s a bit constrained. Why would I replace them at this point in time? So even though that hardware number has been lighter, what you’re seeing is still a lot of new customer adoption, and that’s what’s driving that growth there as well. And from our standpoint, frankly, there’s some real positive in that because of those customers who’ve delayed their refresh, will be refreshing on a platform that we can over the next five years continually add new services to. So that’s been part of the driver of the growth of the services, that new customer adoption, really.
Doug Taylor, Analyst, Canaccord Genuity: Okay. Thanks. Before I pass the line, I’ll echo the congratulations, Robin, on the upcoming addition to your own family product line, so to speak.
Alfredo, Conference Operator: Thanks, Doug. The next question comes from Sean Jack with Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Sean Jack, Analyst, Raymond James: Hey, good morning, guys. Just wanted to hop on and ask again about the G8. Wondering if you guys can give a bit of color on how we should expect service growth margins to change now with the G8, just keeping in mind some of the more kind of technical and data analytics-based things that are probably going to be enabled by this device. Should we expect to see prices move meaningfully upwards? Any sort of color would be great.
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: Sure. First, I’d say for 2026, I think you’re going to see a pretty similar model as we start adding, but it is a good point, as we start adding some of these new services that think about them again like apps on the devices. In fact, those will carry a good strong margin because we already have the data channel. We already have the connectivity. We already have a lot of the backend. So it’s not adding as much load as additional features might as the base does, if that makes sense in that context. So long term, I think there’ll be some upward pressure on the margin, upward movement on the margins. But again, to Robin’s point, in the shorter term, I think I’d be looking at something pretty similar to where we’re at.
The other point is that when you talk about costs, the base costs are all staying the same. The different service features we have now are all the same price. What we’re really going to be able to do is add new features like, say, permitting on site or different apps that we can add, and those will be individually priced and priced based on the value proposition to the customer, but again, they’re not ones that are going to really add a lot of additional cost from our standpoint, so it should be high-margin elements.
Alfredo, Conference Operator: Yeah. And then Sean, just to jump in, it’s Robin here. The other thing I’d keep in mind is I wouldn’t be necessarily just analyzing the service growth margin in a vacuum, right? One of the key messages today is that we see the G8 as a product that’s going to unlock more service revenue over time. And so that overall gross margin is an important one to think about there too.
Sean Jack, Analyst, Raymond James: Okay. Perfect. And I know that we’ve never really talked about specific guidance with you guys or anything, but just kind of headed back to Martin’s questions. There are these kind of two conflicting forces here. Can you give us kind of any sort of sense of how we should expect product sales headed into the first half of the year here? Are you guys very confident with the pipeline that you set up in front of the G8? Any sort of extra detail would be great.
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: I think we’re very confident in where we see the year, particularly. Again, as I mentioned, we announced the G8 two days ago. Customers have been seeing it now for a few weeks. That’s definitely going to shift some of the business we’d expect in Q1 into Q2, I would say, and then strength going from Q2 throughout the rest of the year.
Sean Jack, Analyst, Raymond James: Okay. Perfect. Well, I appreciate all the color, guys. Thanks.
Alfredo, Conference Operator: The next question comes from Amr Ezzat with Ventum Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Amr Ezzat, Analyst, Ventum Capital Markets: Thank you. And good morning, Robin, first and foremost, with our best wishes and all the very best to you and your family. If we could zoom in on product revenues, I think last quarter you guys had flagged that Q4 would be sort of weakish, but I still expected a small increase, nonetheless, Q on Q. And I think you spoke to a couple of factors. First, on the U.S. government shutdown impacting fire and hazmats, are these orders simply delayed? Is that the way to think about it? Then can you size it for us? Are we talking about one, two, three million, maybe more, maybe less?
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: Sure. Yes, these orders are just delayed. When you’re looking at that marketplace, that’s a market that three years ago, for us, didn’t really exist. Today, it’s one of our fastest growing markets. And you are talking single-digit millions here in the low end as far as the fire and hazmat pipeline for what we would have expected to be in Q4. And I’d expect to see that sort of coming through Q2, Q3. I think the bigger for us, we’ve talked a little bit about some of the different headwinds. But as I mentioned before, the other thing really is we have some of the lowest refresh rates that we’ve ever seen in the last really two quarters, where customers would normally refresh their hardware every four years, and they’re just extending that out. And is some of that because they know the G8’s coming? Probably.
But some of it’s also because the unit’s functioning, working, and it’s the services that give that real value. And you can see by the net dollar retention, it’s not that we’re losing customers. It’s that they’re just taking longer to refresh their hardware. And that’s probably been the biggest headwind for us. The teams are still acquiring new customers. And again, as I mentioned earlier, that’s what’s driving that ARR growth and the services growth.
Amr Ezzat, Analyst, Ventum Capital Markets: I suspect as you launch the G8 as a sort of platform technology where you can add apps and so on into it, you’ll have that refresh headwinds more and more going forward. Do you feel the same way?
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: Actually, I actually look at it for the midterm. I’d actually say I think the G8 will be a tailwind to the refresh. I always use the analogy of the iPhone. Right now, for our customers, we’re selling with the G7, we’re selling an iPhone 11. They bought it four years ago. We’re still selling an iPhone 11. Why would I refresh the device? Now we’re moving from an 11 to a 17, so the G8 is going to give our current installed base reason to look to accelerate that refresh rate, so for the next couple of years, I think it’s actually a tailwind for us on the G8.
Amr Ezzat, Analyst, Ventum Capital Markets: Oh, yeah. I thought I was talking about moving out of the G8 eventually.
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: Into the G9? We’ll leave that discussion for a little while. Our tech teams have spent four years on what is the biggest technological leap in this industry, I’d say. I’m going to leave them a couple of months before we start talking about the G9.
Amr Ezzat, Analyst, Ventum Capital Markets: I’m sure it’s well deserved. Now, did I hear you correctly, Cody? So are we currently at 3,500 devices in total sold to ADNOC in the fiscal year?
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: That would be 2,500. The first order was shipped in Q4 as well too. So there was a total of 2,500 shipped as of Q4. We continue to see orders coming from ADNOC, so that number just keeps growing and growing, and we’ll keep some visibility on that, partially just because of the scale. But I do think ADNOC really exemplifies the kind of customer we see becoming more and more a part of our standard business, where it’s a company who’s just simply said, "We’re converting entirely to this platform," and they’re doing it not only for safety, but for efficiency and operations. And that’s what’s really exciting about ADNOC, and as we start adding more logos in that same context, that would be a big driver for us going forward.
Amr Ezzat, Analyst, Ventum Capital Markets: And then can you give us the split of these 2,500 between G6 and location beacons? Then I know you spoke.
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: So all G6?
Amr Ezzat, Analyst, Ventum Capital Markets: Sorry. The numbers there, the 2,500 are all body-worn devices. So it’s a mix of G7s and G6s. It’s not including the beacons. Those are only revenue-generating. Those are only service revenue-generating devices. Okay. Then one last one on the ADNOC. The number of devices you potentially spoke to was 28,000, correct?
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: That’s correct. Yeah.
Amr Ezzat, Analyst, Ventum Capital Markets: And is that number, that’s an internal estimate, or is it validated with Al Masaood or ADNOC?
Jude, Investor Relations, Blackline Safety: That’s validated directly with ADNOC, Amr.
Amr Ezzat, Analyst, Ventum Capital Markets: Fantastic. Any sort of color you could give us on the pace of follow-on orders? Is that over four years, five years, two years? Best guess?
Jude, Investor Relations, Blackline Safety: Yeah. My best guess is that it’ll roll out over about the next two years. We’re seeing continued velocity. ADNOC is such a large organization. And so we’re looking at it operating unit by operating unit, by plant by plant, and working very closely with them to make sure that the units are properly deployed and that everybody’s happy as we move along. And there’s some integrations behind the scenes there as well. We’re integrating with the software package that they have. So it’ll be a really best-in-class solution when it’s all fully deployed.
Amr Ezzat, Analyst, Ventum Capital Markets: Fantastic. Then maybe one last one on the product gross margin. I was very surprised to see it’s over 40% despite lower hardware volumes this quarter. Anything in particular happening there that’s a one-off?
Alfredo, Conference Operator: I wouldn’t say anything in particular that’s a one-off. Product gross margin has a number of factors in it, including how busy the factory is. And obviously, you would have seen inventories growing a little bit this quarter as well as we prepare for the launch of the G8. So a few different factors just contributing to the strength.
Amr Ezzat, Analyst, Ventum Capital Markets: Fantastic. Congrats again on all the customers.
Alfredo, Conference Operator: Thanks.
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: Thanks.
Alfredo, Conference Operator: Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. The next question comes from David Kwan with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
David Kwan, Analyst, TD Cowen: Hey, good morning. David, just on that last question as it relates to the product gross margins, you talked about it sounds like there might be some weakness here. Just as you kind of wrap up the G8, similar to kind of a weakness in product gross margins when you’ve launched other products. So I guess where do you think the product gross margins could go to in the coming quarters as you wrap up the G8?
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: I mean, we’re not talking massive differences, but a few points drop is a good potential to look at. Again, so many things, as Robin mentioned, impact that product mix, all kinds of other aspects. But yeah, I would expect to see that if you’re modeling it, David. I’d say model a little bit of a drop for a couple of quarters and then getting back to the 40%. And then long term, we still believe there’s opportunity to see the hardware margins move north of that. But I think that’s more going to be a late 2026, maybe more like a 2027 story.
David Kwan, Analyst, TD Cowen: Oh, that’s helpful. Thanks, Cody. And then on the services gross margins, it sounds like you’ve done almost as much as you can do in terms of kind of cost optimization. So maybe see a lot more measured or steady hopeful increases. But I was wondering on the PTT side, I guess my understanding was, I think as the G8 launched, and hopefully you see some significant pickup in that uptake and adoption rate of PTT, that there could be some notable incremental upside on the services gross margin. So I was wondering if you could talk about that.
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: No, I wouldn’t look at PTT as carrying a higher gross margin than the other core services, really. There’s so many factors that impact that, whether it be data, whether it’s the backend storage, because we store all the data for the customers in the PTT base. So the cost based on the PTT. I don’t believe the expansion of the PTT is going to be a real upward pressure on the margins. What will be long term, I would say, is more of the kinds of app-like services we’re talking about adding, because a lot of those are ones where we don’t really, some of them are even realistically SDKs tying into another company’s systems. So those will be ones that I think we can talk more about towards the end of the year about their higher gross margins themselves.
The PTT, I think, will be in a similar context to where we’re at with their other margins. I think the other thing to think about the PTT, though, is how much stickier you become with this customer. This is now their core safety device, but it’s now also their core communication device. What Sean mentioned on that, how they work on their sites, how they communicate their operations, we just become an even stickier product at the end of the day.
Alfredo, Conference Operator: Yeah. David, just to jump in, the other thing I want to reiterate is, while maybe push to talk doesn’t necessarily come at a higher gross margin, the more services we sell for every dollar of product that we sell is really impactful to the overall gross margin of the business. And that’s part of the reason we’re so excited about the G8.
David Kwan, Analyst, TD Cowen: Yeah. So just more of a revenue mix benefit, sounds like.
Alfredo, Conference Operator: Exactly.
David Kwan, Analyst, TD Cowen: I guess, yeah. And I guess last question, the MD&A referenced some weakness in the U.S. due to the lower energy prices. I assume that was just customers extending the life of their devices that Cody mentioned earlier and/or renewing, but for fewer devices, similar to what I think we saw in the last downturn. So just wanted to confirm that, number one. And then number two, are you seeing any signs of similar behavior amongst your Canadian customers?
Jude, Investor Relations, Blackline Safety: Yeah. We were seeing similar patterns in both Canada and the U.S. And really, it was the upstream clients that were heavily affected. That’s a lot of our core energy customer profile in Canada. Years ago, the satellite product that we came out with, which was the first really industrial-grade satellite lone worker device on the market, that established a lot of our early Canadian energy companies in the upstream market. So what we’re seeing is it’s a bit of a double whammy in that case, David. It’s like renewals are sliding out a little bit, and then it’s harder to acquire clients in the upstream market right now. So good conversations in the pipeline, just it stretches it out a little bit more. In a lot of cases, we’ve got companies saying they’re going to buy, but they’re just stretching out their buy timeline.
So you might see the pipeline extending from a six-month sales cycle up to an eight- or a nine-month sales cycle, ultimately close them in the end. But that stretch out is something that ultimately you have to backfill that by more leads in the pipeline. So that’s something that we focused on a lot going forward, is just really working on the pipeline strength. That’s kind of the only way you can counteract a slower market. So that’s what we’re really focused on for 2026, obviously G8 and so on and so forth.
David Kwan, Analyst, TD Cowen: No, that’s helpful, Sean, and are you seeing a similar dynamic in the Middle East? Obviously, you’ve got the ADNOC win that seems like it’s going quite well and looks like there’s some good future potential there. But just curious to see the dynamic in the Middle East if that’s also maybe pushing out sales cycles.
Jude, Investor Relations, Blackline Safety: No, it’s very strong in the Middle East. And I do believe that a lot of that has to do with the lower incremental cost of production in the Middle East. I believe Aramco has published numbers like this is a few years ago. So look this up before you quote me on it. But at some point, I think they quoted that their cost of production for barrel of oil is $19, and that’s significantly higher in North America. So I view the Middle Eastern energy market as a hedge to the North American market, just as I view the downstream refining market as a hedge to upstream. We’re making significant inroads in refining. So typically, when the price of energy is low, refining will still buy. Upstream might suffer a little bit. So we look at ways to naturally hedge the business by getting into different vertical markets.
Just like I said, even a geographical split can help us, even when you’re in the same vertical.
David Kwan, Analyst, TD Cowen: No, that’s great, Geller. Thanks, Sean. That’s it for me.
Alfredo, Conference Operator: We have a follow-up question from Martin Toner at ATB Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Amr Ezzat, Analyst, Ventum Capital Markets: Thanks, folks. At what point would G8 shipments run into capacity issues, if at all?
Cody Slater, CEO and Chair, Blackline Safety: Our ops teams are so strong that we just don’t see that as a challenge. We’re planning for growth, and we’re planning for growth, and we have the capabilities there to meet whatever demand we see.
Amr Ezzat, Analyst, Ventum Capital Markets: Perfect. Thank you very much. That’s it for me.
Alfredo, Conference Operator: This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Cody Slater for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.
Amr Ezzat, Analyst, Ventum Capital Markets: Thank you, Alfredo. And thank you, everyone, for your attention and your time today. I look forward to talking again throughout 2026 as we launch the G8 and take the next steps on connecting the industrial workforce. Thanks again, everyone.
Alfredo, Conference Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.