Steady as she goes: New BRP CEO says Ski-Doo maker will stay the course

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VALCOURT — Denis Le Vot, the new head of BRP Inc., says he has no plans to veer the Ski-Doo maker off its profitable track after a big jump in earnings last year.

On the job for less than two months, Le Vot said Thursday that it’s steady as she goes at the company, given its seven per cent year-over-year revenue growth to $8.44 billion in the 12 months ended Jan. 31. Its net income for the year leaped 427 per cent to $340.4 million.

“I don’t see the point to make changes,” he told analysts on his first conference call following the departure of 22-year chief executive Jose Boisjoli. Until last month, Boisjoli was the only CEO the Sea-Doo maker had known.

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Le Vot also pointed to the manufacturer’s forecast of revenue increases between roughly five and 8.5 per cent this year on the back of new snowmobile and off-road vehicles -- side-by-sides in particular, with BRP’s latest Defender model a runaway success.

“We can hardly produce (enough) as the demand is going,” Le Vot said.

“I don’t think that it’s the moment for very quick and short-term changes,” he added, expressing faith in the company’s strategic plan through 2028.

“It gives me a little time in order to prepare with the team the next, longer-term plan, and this is where potentially there could be novelties. But this will come in due time.”

Before then, the former top executive at French carmaker Renault Group will have to keep an eye on skyrocketing oil prices sparked by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the war in Iran, about to enter its fifth week.

“Our clients are rather wealthy households,” Le Vot said, citing an average income above US$170,000 a year.

Given that insulation, there’s been no effect on demand so far, executives said. Nonetheless, BRP broadened its financial outlook for the coming year to accommodate a possible demand downturn and baked the higher price of oil into that guidance.

“There is probably a distance between what’s happening short-term and what the reaction of the market will be,” Le Vot said.

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The company is “pretty much hedged” when it comes to its own fuel supply. But the higher cost of shipping -- “an important part of our business,” with 12 factories serving 2,700 dealerships across the globe -- will cut into its bottom line, said chief financial officer Sebastien Martel.

On Thursday, BRP reported a fourth-quarter profit of $45.8 million and a 16 per cent increase in revenue compared with a year earlier.

Revenue for the fourth quarter of the company’s 2026 financial year totalled $2.46 billion, up from $2.12 billion a year ago.

On a normalized basis, BRP said it earned $2.21 per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with a normalized profit of $1.05 per diluted share a year earlier and analysts’ expectations of $2.03.

The Valcourt, Que.-based company also increased its quarterly dividend to 25 cents per share, up from 21.5 cents per share.

In its guidance for its 2027 financial year, BRP said it expects revenue to total between $8.90 billion and $9.15 billion. Normalized earnings per diluted share for the year are expected between $5.50 and $6.50.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 26, 2026.

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press