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YAY: Positioned for Inflection as International Sales Accelerate

What you need to know:
• THS Maple manufactures and sells maple syrup and maple-flavoured products globally.
• The Company is seeing strong growth due to distribution expansion and demand for natural sweeteners, with management guiding for 25% topline growth. YAY has plenty of excess capacity to meet new demand.
• THS has shown inconsistent profitability since going public, but we foresee this stabilizing going forward.
• The industry is quite fragmented, playing into YAY’s acquisition plans.

THS Maple Holdings Ltd. (YAY:TSXV) is Canada’s largest premium maple gift and souvenir company, bottling, packaging, distributing, and selling maple syrup and maple-flavoured products for nearly five decades. Operating from its 65,000 SF facility in Quebec and a recently established Vermont plant, THS serves customers in over 20 countries across airport retail, gift shops, duty-free, and international markets through four proprietary brands. YAY is now at an inflection point with a facility running at a fraction of capacity, a growing international footprint, and a fragmented acquisition landscape to consolidate. We are initiating coverage on YAY with a BUY rating and a $0.20/share target price.

Investment Thesis Summary
Expanding into New Products & Geographies. Since 2021, THS has grown international sales to over 15% of total revenue across 20+ countries. THS has also launched a retail/DTC partnership and is pursuing co-branding and co-packing opportunities in adjacent edible gift categories. Management guides for base-case organic growth of 10-15%, with total growth of >25% as new channels mature.

Underutilized Facilities. YAY’s Quebec facility can bottle 3-4x current volumes following automation investments in 2019, and its Vermont facility serves the fast-growing U.S. retail channel, where THS faces limited domestic competition. Both facilities hold multi-certifications, positioning THS to absorb meaningful volume growth and bolt-on acquisitions at low incremental cost.

Acquisition Opportunities. The Canadian maple value-added market remains highly fragmented, with 13,500+ producers and many small bottlers lacking scale or distribution. THS is well-positioned to act as a consolidator given its excess capacity, established distribution, and public listing as acquisition currency.

Profitability Should Inflect Soon. THS generated $0.1M in EBITDA in H1/26 and is nearing the scale required for consistent profitability. Management targets 10–12% EBITDA margins, which we model being reached by FY28 (ending June 30th), driven by operating leverage, freight savings, and normalized SG&A.

Increasing Demand for Natural Sweeteners. Maple syrup’s lower glycemic index supports the demand for natural sweeteners, driving industry-wide growth.

Ownership. The Beutel family holds a combined ~39% strategic stake through Debric Holdings (~20%) and Bellwether Capital Partners (~19%), providing long-term aligned capital and capital markets expertise. Management and insiders own ~6%, with the remaining balance held by retail shareholders.

Valuation. YAY currently trades at 17.4x/7.5x FY27E/FY28E EBITDA and 0.8x/0.7x FY27E/FY28E sales compared to its peers at 9.2x/8.8x and 1.4x/1.4x, respectively.