트렉스(TREX) 2026년 3분기 실적 발표 콘퍼런스 콜: 매출 26% 증가, 연간 전망치 상향

핵심 요약

• 트렉스 컴퍼니(NYSE: TREX)는 주로 판매량 증가에 힘입어 2026년 3분기 순매출이 전년 동기 대비 26% 증가한 약 3억 6,000만 달러로 분기 기준 역대 최대치를 기록했다고 발표했다.
• 신규 유통 파트너 대상 초기 재고 배치 물량은 분기 성장률에 약 3,000만 달러(약 11%포인트) 기여했다. 경영진은 실질적 기저 수요 성장률을 약 15%로 추정했다.
• 조정 매출총이익률은 노동 비효율성, 감가상각비, 운반비 및 목재 전환 전략의 급격한 확대 영향으로 36.9%로 하락했다. 입고 운반비 증가분은 400만 달러를 초과했다.
• 조정 EBITDA는 10% 증가한 약 1억 달러를 기록했으며, 마진율은 27.7%를 나타냈다. 잉여현금흐름은 약 1억 3,500만 달러에 달했다.
• 트렉스는 2026년 연간 전망치를 순매출 12억 9,600만 달러~13억 600만 달러, 조정 EBITDA 3억 5,500만 달러~3억 6,000만 달러로 상향 조정했다.
• 경영진은 목재 전환, 유통망 확대, 연계 제품 판매 및 PVC 덱과 기타 아웃도어 리빙 카테고리의 성장에 힘입어 2030년까지 연간 매출 20억 달러 달성 목표를 유지하고 있다.

주요 재무 데이터

트렉스는 3분기 유통망 초기 물량 공급을 제외하고 이전 유통업체의 할인 판매를 조정한 최근 12개월 기준 셀인 성장률을 약 8%, 셀아웃 성장률을 약 9%로 추정했다. 경영진은 조정된 3분기 셀인 및 셀아웃 성장률이 모두 10%대를 기록했다고 추정했다.

사업 및 영업 실적

경영진은 3분기 전체 덱 카테고리가 약 6% 성장한 반면, 합성 덱은 약 9% 성장한 것으로 추정했다. 유통망 초기 공급 물량을 제외하면 트렉스의 기저 성장률은 약 15%로 추정되어 시장 점유율 확대와 목재 덱으로부터의 지속적인 전환을 시사했다.

성장은 프리미엄, 중가형, 보급형 덱 전반에 걸쳐 광범위하게 나타났다. 경영진은 3개 가격대 제품군 모두 두 자릿수 성장을 기록했다고 밝혔다. 난간 제품도 두 자릿수 성장을 나타냈으며, 체결 장치는 덱 판매 증가의 수혜를 입었다.

연계 제품 판매율은 2026년 초 20%대 중반에서 3분기 말 30%에 육박하는 수준으로 상승해 500bp 가까이 개선되었다. 트렉스는 난간, 체결 장치, 조명, 펜스 및 기타 조화 제품을 통해 아웃도어 리빙 프로젝트당 지출액을 더 많이 흡수하는 것을 목표로 하고 있다.

현재 트렉스는 전체 라인업을 완비하지 못해 PVC 덱의 기여도가 미미한 수준에 머물렀다. 회사는 2027년에 PVC 제품 라인업을 확대할 계획이다. 경영진은 PVC가 목재 대체재 시장의 20%를 차지한다고 밝혔다.

유통 체제 전환은 차질을 최소화하며 진행되었다. 3,000만 달러의 초기 물량 공급에도 불구하고 분기 말 유통 채널 재고는 전년과 유사한 수준을 유지했다. 경영진은 2026년 4분기에 500만 달러 규모의 최종 유통망 초기 물량 공급이 있을 것으로 예상한다.

아칸소주 리틀록 공장에서 트렉스는 인력 교육과 생산량 증대를 지속했다. 3분기 중 드문 기계적 문제로 인해 초기 가동 비용이 증가했으나, 경영진은 해당 문제가 해결되었다고 설명했다. 회사는 연말까지 공장 덱 생산 능력의 절반을 가동한다는 목표를 차질 없이 진행 중이다. 경영진은 2027년 2분기 중 가동이 안정화되고 2027년 하반기부터 보다 의미 있는 효율성 개선 효과가 나타날 것으로 예상하고 있다.

경영진 가이던스

경영진은 4분기 추정 조정 매출총이익률이 약 34%~35% 수준이라고 시사했다. 전체 생산 네트워크에서 예상되는 두 자릿수 생산량 증가로 고정비 흡수가 개선될 것으로 보이며, 덱 비중이 높은 매출 믹스가 추가적인 하방 지지력을 제공할 것으로 예상된다.

트렉스는 시기를 명시하진 않았으나 2027년 중 가격 인상을 시행할 것으로 예상하고 있다. 회사는 가격 인상을 적용하기에 앞서 확충된 생산 기반을 바탕으로 판매량을 확대하는 것이 최우선 과제라고 밝혔다.

경영진은 수년간의 높은 설비 투자를 거쳐 자본 집약도가 낮아질 것으로 예상한다. 10월 31일 기준 트렉스는 10월에 실시한 4,200만 달러를 포함해 2026년 하반기 목표액 1억 5,000만 달러 중 9,700만 달러의 자사주 매입을 완료했다.

리스크 및 주의 깊게 살펴볼 항목

• 경유 가격 상승으로 3분기에 400만 달러 이상의 입고 운반비가 추가로 발생했다. 트렉스는 홈센터 사업 부문에 대한 한시적 경유 유류할증료 도입을 논의 중이며, 장기적인 비용 완화 방안을 검토하고 있다.
• 노동 비효율성, 감가상각비 증가, 리틀록 공장 초기 가동 비용이 매출총이익률에 부담으로 작용했다. 경영진은 4분기 감가상각비가 전년 동기 대비 약 3.5%포인트의 부정적 요인으로 작용할 것으로 파악했다.
• 리틀록 공장은 여전히 가동률 증대 단계에 있으며, 경영진은 2027년 하반기 전까지는 공장의 본격적인 효율성 개선 효과를 기대하지 않고 있다.
• 3분기 3,000만 달러와 4분기 500만 달러의 유통망 초기 물량 공급은 2027년 보고 매출의 역기저 효과를 유발할 전망이다.
• 고유가 지속과 지정학적 여건으로 인해 운반비 인플레이션이 높게 유지될 가능성이 있다. 경영진은 이러한 압력이 조만간 완화될 것으로 가정하지 않았다.
• 경영진에 따르면 주요 경쟁사가 PVC 덱 시장의 70% 이상을 점유하고 있는 가운데, 트렉스는 제품 라인업을 완성할 때까지 해당 매출이 제한적인 수준에 머물 것으로 보인다.

애널리스트 Q&A 하이라이트

경영진은 3분기 매출 호조의 주요 원인을 예상보다 큰 유통망 초기 공급 물량이 아닌 기저 수요 덕분으로 돌렸다. 3,000만 달러의 초기 물량 공급은 내부 예상치에 대체로 부합했으며, 조정된 셀인 및 셀아웃 성장률은 모두 10%대로 추정되었다.

트렉스는 고금리로 인해 일부 주택 소유자가 기존 주택에 머물며 미뤄뒀던 보수 및 리모델링 프로젝트를 추진하게 되었을 수 있다고 밝혔다. 회사 후원으로 약 2,000명의 주택 소유자를 대상으로 실시한 설문조사에 따르면 아웃도어 리빙 프로젝트가 투자를 고려하는 영역 중 하나인 것으로 나타났다.

서부 연안, 뉴잉글랜드, 중서부 전역에서 딜러 전환이 진행되고 있다. 경영진은 일부 중하위 딜러들이 3위권 브랜드에서 트렉스로 구매처를 바꾸기 시작했으며, 초기에는 번들 형태나 일부 경우 반 트럭 분량 주문 형태로 진행되고 있다고 밝혔다.

장기 마진율과 관련해 경영진은 현재의 사업 기반 및 사업 믹스 하에서 매출이 1억 달러 추가될 때마다 약 100bp의 매출총이익률 개선이 이뤄질 수 있음을 재확인했다. 다만 리틀록 공장이 여전히 램프업 단계를 거치고 있을 2027년은 이 분석 틀에서 제외했으며, 이는 이 수식이 2028년 이후부터 보다 적합하게 적용될 수 있음을 시사한다.

실적발표 콘퍼런스 콜 전문

전체 실적 발표 컨퍼런스 콜 녹취록

경영진 발표

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Hello, and welcome to the Trex Company, Inc. Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Thank you.

And I'd like to turn the conference over to Lee Coker, Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Mr. Coker, please go ahead.

Lee Coker

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss our third quarter results and outlook. With us on the call are Adam Zambanini, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Prith Gandhi, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

The company issued a press release earlier this morning containing financial results for the third quarter 2026, a copy of which is available on the company's website. This conference call is also being webcast and will be available on the Investor Relations page of the company's website for 30 days.

Before we begin, let me remind everyone that statements on this call regarding the company's expected future performance and conditions constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. These statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, please see our most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q as well as our other filings with the SEC.

Additionally, non-GAAP financial measures will be referenced in this call. A reconciliation of these measures to the comparable GAAP financial measure can be found in our earnings press release at trex.com. The company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

I will now turn the call over to Adam.

Adam Zambanini

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Trex was founded more than 30 years ago with a simple but powerful idea. There is a better alternative to wood decking. Since then, we have helped create and lead the composite decking category, shape the way consumers think about outdoor living, built one of the premier brands in building products and created a powerful combination of brand, innovation, scale and channel reach that sets Trex apart. Today, we see an opportunity to build on that foundation and define the next chapter of Trex. Our ambition is not simply to participate in the growth of outdoor living. It is to expand the category, make the brand accessible and aspirational for homeowners across every income level and build a company capable of reaching $2 billion in annual revenue by 2030.

We are pursuing that ambition from a position of strength. We have an iconic brand, a leading market position and expanded distribution network, substantial new manufacturing capacity, a growing portfolio of innovative products and an organization aligned around a common strategy. Those capabilities give us multiple avenues to drive growth, convert consumers from wood, take share away from tertiary brands, capture a greater share of PVC decking, which represents 20% of the wood alternative market, expand across price points and channels, grow our presence in outdoor living and selectively extend the Trex platform through strategic opportunities.

Our third quarter results show how the strategy is translating into performance. We generated record third quarter revenue with growth driven primarily by volume, while much of our competitors' growth in the market has been driven by price or recent acquisitions. We also successfully executed an important distribution transition, continuing ramping up production at the Arkansas manufacturing facility and raised our full year outlook, reflecting our expectation for double-digit growth for the year.

During the quarter, we completed the initial inventory placements with our new and best-in-class distribution partners with minimal disruption. The transition remains on schedule and the quarter end channel inventory remained comparable with the prior year. Approximately $30 million of our reported revenue growth came from the initial distribution load-in with the balance reflecting underlying demand.

Based on the market information available to us, we estimate that the overall decking category grew approximately 6% during the quarter. This means our underlying growth was more than double the estimated rate of the category. We believe our performance reflects the strength of the Trex brand, continued conversion from wood and the impact of our investments in distribution, innovation and demand generation.

Encouragingly, growth in the quarter was broad-based across the whole product portfolio. Decking grew across premium, mid-tier and entry-level products. That performance reinforces the opportunity to bring more homeowners into composite decking while continuing to serve consumers across a range of styles, performance needs and budgets.

We continue to grow beyond decking with railing, fasteners and accessories, all contributing to performance and benefiting from the strong attachment rates across the Trex portfolio. Our long-term opportunity extends beyond the deck board itself. As we convert more homeowners to Trex decking, we can provide more of the products that complete the outdoor space, including railing, fasteners, lighting, fencing and other coordinated solutions. That gives us an opportunity to increase our participation in each project and deepen our relationships with homeowners and contractors.

We are also expanding the ways homeowners and contractors can access the portfolio. We saw strength in both the professional and home center channels, supporting growth across multiple products rather than a single program or customer. We are seeing strong growth across national accounts, expanding Trex's reach and making our products available to more consumers and contractors across the country.

As we expand our market reach, we are also building the manufacturing capacity to support it. At our Little Rock, Arkansas facility, we began production more than 6 months ahead of original schedule. During the quarter, we began training a new workforce, increasing production and steadily improving throughput and efficiency. As we mentioned in the press release, a rare and high-impact mechanical issue affected the ramp of certain equipment and contributed to greater-than-expected start-up costs during the quarter. That issue has been resolved, and we remain on track to have half of the facility's decking capacity operational by year-end.

Little Rock is more than an incremental source of capacity. This location brings production closer to the attractive Sunbelt markets where wood continues to represent a significant portion of the decking opportunity. Over time, we expect the facility to improve the efficiency and resilience of our manufacturing and logistics network while providing flexibility to add production lines and capacity as demand grows. This capacity will be critical to advancing the wood conversion strategy and supporting Trex's next phase of growth.

We recognize that building the next generation of Trex will require continued investment and disciplined execution. The opportunity in front of us is substantial. Our strategy is clear, and our organization is energized by what we can achieve. We are building Trex not only to lead our category today, but to shape the future of outdoor living and create meaningful long-term value for our shareholders.

With that, I will turn it over to Prith to discuss our financial results and our updated outlook.

Prithvi Gandhi

Thank you, Adam, and good morning, everyone. Unless otherwise noted, all comparisons are on a year-over-year basis. Third quarter net sales increased 26% to approximately $360 million, with growth driven primarily by volume. As Adam outlined, approximately 11 percentage points or approximately $30 million of our growth came from the initial distribution load-in with the balance reflecting underlying consumer demand and continued market share growth. Because the distribution transition temporarily affected both shipments into the channel and reported distributor sell-out, we believe the trailing 12-month view provides better context. Excluding the third quarter load-in benefit and adjusting for discounting by our former distributor, we estimate the trailing 12-month sell-in and sell-out growth were approximately 8% and 9%, respectively.

Turning to profitability. Gross margin was 36%. Adjusted gross margin was 36.9%, down from the levels seen in the prior year. The decline primarily reflected labor inefficiencies, increased depreciation, higher freight costs and rapid growth from our wood conversion strategy. Incremental inbound freight expense was over $4 million in the quarter, driven primarily by higher diesel prices and was a meaningful contributor to the year-over-year margin pressure. Had diesel costs remained comparable to 2025 levels, adjusted gross margin for the quarter would have been 38.2%.

Our freight costs include the cost of moving raw materials into our plants, transferring products across our manufacturing network and delivering finished goods to our retail customers. For sales through the pro channel, outbound freight is charged to our customers. We are currently in discussions about adding a temporary diesel surcharge for our home center business and are evaluating longer-term solutions to offset our exposure to fuel price volatility.

As Little Rock scales and our network becomes more balanced, we expect to improve shipping efficiency and serve key growth markets from a more favorable geographic position, thus improving both our own cost structure and the landed cost to our pro customers. Despite these pressures, adjusted gross profit dollars increased 13% versus the prior year.

GAAP SG&A expense was $56 million, representing 15.7% of net sales, in line with our expectations. SG&A increased $11 million due to an increase in personnel costs, marketing investments and capabilities. Excluding the impact of digital transformation and Little Rock start-up costs, SG&A was $55 million. We continue to invest in capabilities and marketing programs to accelerate consumer demand and drive long-term growth, and we are already seeing the benefits through higher sales. During the quarter, adjusted EBITDA grew 10% to approximately $100 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 27.7%.

Turning now to cash flow. We generated approximately $135 million of free cash flow during the quarter, giving us the ability to both pay down our revolving credit facility by $83 million, while also returning $55 million to shareholders through additional share buybacks during the quarter.

Through October 31, we have repurchased $97 million of the $150 million we are targeting for the second half of 2026. Following several years of elevated capacity investment, we expect lower capital intensity to support stronger free cash flow conversion. That improving cash generation gives us greater capacity to execute our existing capital allocation priorities. These priorities remain unchanged: investing in the business where we see attractive returns, returning excess capital through share repurchases, and selectively pursuing acquisitions that strengthen or extend the Trex platform while maintaining a strong balance sheet.

Let me close with our updated outlook. Based on our year-to-date performance and expectations for the fourth quarter, we are raising our full year outlook. Our wood conversion strategy is working to drive consumer demand. We now expect full year net sales of approximately $1.296 billion to $1.306 billion, up 11% annually at the midpoint. We are also increasing our adjusted EBITDA range to $355 million to $360 million. We now expect adjusted gross margin of 37.5% to 38% of sales, adjusted SG&A of roughly 17% and capital expenditures of approximately $100 million for the year. For the fourth quarter, we expect net sales of approximately $175 million to $185 million.

In summary, we delivered record third quarter sales, increased adjusted EBITDA and generated strong free cash flow through above-market growth and disciplined execution, and we are, therefore, raising our full year outlook while continuing to invest in long-term growth.

Adam, I'll turn it back to you for a few closing comments before Q&A.

Adam Zambanini

Thank you, Prith. We see significant opportunity ahead, converting more homeowners from wood, capturing more of each outdoor living project and leveraging our expanded distribution network. These opportunities support our ambition to reach $2 billion in annual revenue by 2030.

Our focus is on disciplined execution, translating that potential into sustained growth and long-term shareholder value. But what gives me the greatest confidence is our people. They hold themselves to high standards. They want to win, and they have the genuine desire to achieve greatness.

Trex has climbed the mountain before. Today, we're back at base camp, energized by the opportunity ahead and ready to climb even higher than ever before. And there is no group of people I would rather make that journey than with the Trex team. Operator, we're ready to take questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And we will take our first question from Keith Hughes from Truist.

질의응답

Keith Hughes

So a couple of questions on revenue. You gave us the trailing 12-month sellout, it was 9%. Given some of the past quarters, it seems like the quarterly sellout might have been a little bit greater than that. Can you kind of give me your views on that. And I've got one question about mix afterwards.

Prithvi Gandhi

Yes, Keith, it's Prith. Thanks for the question. Yes, you're right. It is true that the sell-in, sellout numbers in the quarter were higher. And once again, once we adjust for the load-in and we adjust for discounting and so forth, we think they were consistent with each other, and they were in the teens.

Keith Hughes

In the teens. Okay. And on the mix of revenue, you kind of called out Transcend and the release as being strong, it's one of your higher-priced goods. If you could just give within that sellout revenue, however you do it, what is the difference between what you would see at the high end of the product offering versus enhancing the stuff at the low end?

Adam Zambanini

Keith, it's Adam. What's really encouraging about the mix is that we saw double-digit growth across all categories, good, better, best. So very well balanced. Part of that strategy is as we can keep converting wood, we want to keep driving consumers in. We also want to teach them how to trade up to Transcend. And we believe that there's a benefit not just with our decking business with the fastener business, the railing business and so on, which we saw in all categories through the quarter.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Collin Verron from Deutsche Bank.

Collin Verron

I was just hoping that you could talk about sort of the underlying composite decking growth versus maybe some contribution from things like the rollout of PVC decking, railing program and your upgrading lighting program. And then if you could just talk about maybe how things trended in September and October, just given the change in interest rate environment. Did you see any sort of slowdown in your demand? Did things kind of hold steady? Just any characterization how things played out would be helpful.

Adam Zambanini

Yes. So we do our own internal studies. We saw that the market, the decking demand or decking growth for Q3 was about 6%. Composite decking growth was about 9%. So Trex grew more than double than what the category was even when you exclude the load-in. When it comes to PVC, it's pretty de minimis in terms of what sales are. We only introduced this year a groove profile. We're missing the complete line, which means we need to have groove profiles and we need to have fascia profiles and all that.

So our plan is to extend that PVC arrangement of profiles as we move into 2027, remembering that PVC is 20% of the total market, and we have a major competitor that owns over 70% share of that market. So it's a great opportunity for Trex as we dive deeper into there. But I would say it's pretty de minimis at this point.

We saw great growth, once again, double-digit growth in the quarter for railing. And then lighting accessories, we just launched a new lighting system this quarter. So it's pretty early, but I would tell you the takeaway from that was very good in terms of the load-in on the lighting.

Prithvi Gandhi

Yes. Collin, your question on the rate environment and has that created any change in demand. I mean, so ironically, so we ran a proprietary survey through a third party where we surveyed about 2,000 homeowners across the different parts of the country and different prices of homes and so forth. And one of the things that came out of the survey is that there's at least a segment of homeowners now who say, well, rates have gone up so much, house prices are up so much. I'm just going to stay put in the house I'm in, and I'm probably going to be there for a while. And so now let me go look at the projects I've been deferring.

And what comes out from that work is that the outdoor living space is one of the first places they go to invest because that allows them to enjoy their existing home more. It actually provides value back when you sell the house. Like a lot of listings will say we have Trex decking and so forth.

So in some ways, I think that's part of -- we've been telling you for the last 2 years, there's pent-up demand. I think in some cases, at least the interest rate environment is actually forcing that pent-up demand to actually become realized demand.

Collin Verron

Interesting. That's really helpful color. And then just a quick question on the fourth quarter. Any color as to if there's any initial distribution load-in in the 4Q sales just from maybe more recent wins like Do it Best? And then just comment on how you guys are thinking about channel inventory levels maybe as you exit the year.

Adam Zambanini

Yes. So we have $30 million of load-in in Q3, and there's $5 million of load-in in Q4, and that's the end in terms of like when you look at the load-in for the year. So $30 million in Q3, $5 million in Q4.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of John Lovallo from UBS.

Matthew Johnson

This is Matt Johnson on for John. Appreciate the time. I guess, first off, if I could just clarify on that $30 million of initial distribution load-in this quarter. I think you guys also mentioned that overall channel inventory was still flat year-over-year. I guess how should we kind of think about those factors offsetting? I mean, presumably, there's some headwind from the wind down at Boise. I don't know if that is an offset to the $30 million or just how we should kind of think about the net impact there?

Adam Zambanini

Yes. So when we look at the comparable year-over-year, that includes legacy distribution. When we started our transition into this year, we actually had a lower inventory position with some of our other distributors outside of our legacy distributor. So from that perspective, there was a delta there as we started in that load-in at the beginning of Q3. And therefore, we've had to catch up throughout Q3. And there were several different new distributors that we had to load-in and additional locations in some of the current existing distribution base.

So when we looked at like where the load-ins were from those locations, which there was minimal takeaway demand in Q3, the number we came up with was $30 million. And the good news is, when I look at it is to be sitting there with $30 million load-in and still have comparable inventory and knowing that the dealers are still in a pretty good position as we exited the quarter from an inventory perspective, you saw we raised the guidance in Q4 because we feel good about where we stand moving into Q4 from the inventory position and the transition. And there was one distributor that kind of -- the last part of their load-in came in at the very beginning of Q4, which is the $5 million. So that's kind of how I put context around that.

Matthew Johnson

That's great. Appreciate all the color. Then if I could just ask about on gross margin. I think adjusted gross margin in the quarter was down somewhere around 400 basis points from last year. You guys called out a number of headwinds with higher transportation costs, higher depreciation. I think the implied 4Q gross margin based on the outlook is roughly flat year-over-year if you back out the warranty reserve calc from 4Q '25. I guess, assuming that math is right, is there any kind of help you can give on kind of what's driving that improvement in the fourth quarter, presumably those headwinds are still in place?

Prithvi Gandhi

Yes. So thanks for the question. So look, yes, based on the updated guidance, as you said, the implied gross margin for Q4, you'll end up somewhere in the 34% to 35% zone. And then -- so you're right. So what I do is exactly what you did is start with a normalized base. So as you said, in Q4 last year, we took the warranty reserve of about $6 million. That's 3.7% of sales from Q4 '25. Add that back, you'd get a Q4 '25 gross margin of about 34.4%.

So directionally, look, depreciation is the biggest year-over-year headwind. It's about 3.5%. And then we've got -- we talked about some of the other things, inflation and freight and some labor inefficiencies and the like. The main driver of improvement is production. We expect to produce double-digit growth in output across the network versus Q4 2025. And so that massively increases the fixed cost absorption.

And then the second piece is mix is also a tailwind in Q4 '26. It's more decking weighted, while Q4 2025 was more railing weighted. And so -- because remember, we had said that at the start of the year, we would do a railing price increase. So those are some of the factors that enable us to overcome both the depreciation and the other headwinds that we talked about.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Michael Rehaut from Melius Research.

Michael Rehaut

Congrats on the results. Just wanted to understand a little bit with the sales upside in the quarter. Obviously, you highlighted the load-in. But curious kind of in 2 ways. One, if that $30 million that you identified was above expectations because I would assume you had something baked in going into the quarter or if the upside was just more driven by a stronger underlying market growth?

And secondly, with the load-in itself, $30 million this past quarter, $5 million next quarter. Should we be thinking about that as a headwind or kind of exclude that from a base sales in '26 as we look to '27?

Adam Zambanini

Yes. I think you have to look at that as you comp the '27 numbers, that load-in. We've done this historically several times. I think that we've done a very good job identifying upfront what that load-in number is, and we've learned over time how to track that number. So we feel very comfortable, and that's pretty much in line with where our expectations were.

When you look at the market growth, kind of going back to some of my earlier comments, the decking market grew in Q3 at about 6%, and we grew about 15% when you look at underlying demand. So we more than doubled what the decking growth was for the quarter. Now the composite decking growth was about 9% growth. So from our perspective, Trex is doing a pretty good job taking market share right now. And then the other 11% growth for the quarter was the $30 million load-in. So yes, it's all underlying performance is really how I would look at the Q3.

Michael Rehaut

Okay. It's really driving the upside then.

Adam Zambanini

Yes. And that's where I look at Q4. And I go -- I think that as we're raising that, once again, it's underlying performance. We definitely are taking share away from wood, and we feel very comfortable with the raise in Q4 because of underlying performance. It really has nothing to do with the load-in.

Prithvi Gandhi

Yes. I mean we see the inventory turning at distributors. And so they continue to order. I mean another interesting data point just to highlight what Adam said. So looking at what inventory our former distributor held at 9/30 versus looking at what SBP held at 9/30, which now remember, SBP is -- SBP, they used to sell to us last -- we used to sell to them last year, but they're now SBP plus our former distributor. Their inventory position at September 30 was lower than our former distributors last year at 9/30. So there is a healthy market kind of trend is kind of how we read it.

Michael Rehaut

Okay. No, I appreciate that. And then just a couple of clarification questions, if I could. You had mentioned earlier in the prepared remarks, share repurchase, I think implying some continued repurchase in October. If you could just kind of review that as well as -- and I know that in terms of sell-in, you kind of said -- I think you said sell-in in the most recent quarter was in the teens. I don't know if that was sell-in or sellout both. If you just could clarify both of those comments.

Prithvi Gandhi

Okay. So on the share repurchase, remember, we said the second half of the year, we were planning to buy about $150 million of shares versus that goal through the end of October, we've purchased $97 million, of which we bought $55 million in Q3. So in October, we bought around $42 million. On the sell-in, sellout for the quarter, that -- again, this is our best estimate adjusting for the load-ins and all of that. We think it's in the teens for both sell-in, sellout and pretty close to each other.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Susan Maklari from Goldman Sachs.

Susan Maklari

My first question is on the branding and the marketing side of the business. As you think about having the shift in your channel partners fairly well positioned going into 2027. And just given the macro and the recent outperformance that you've seen, can you talk about how you're positioning the business from a branding and a marketing perspective next year and how you can perhaps leverage some of the digital and the technology investments that you've been making more recently to really make sure that you're honing in on those key points.

Adam Zambanini

Susan, that makes me feel really good considering I've used to work in marketing and sales. So I really appreciate that comment. When I look at it, we're going to keep putting our foot on the gas in terms of investment into the marketing program. We've really hammered home Performance-Engineered for Your Life Outdoors. We believe we're the best in heat mitigation technology. We should be the best in marine, the best in fire.

And the one thing is, while the story is happening on wood conversion, don't forget my comments earlier this year on innovation. So innovation will be continuing down here, and I want game-changing innovation longer term from where Trex is. So we haven't lost sight of that, and we do believe Performance-Engineered for Your Life Outdoors we should be #1 in each and every single category. So I will make sure, no matter whether it's a tertiary brand or a national brand in any part of this country, Trex has a #1 position, and that's all investing in this iconic brand and making sure that we're hammering that home with consumers.

The other thing is we will not let a consumer on the sideline. We do not participate in the K-shaped economy. We want everybody with every budget and every income to buy Trex. And that is what our focus is moving forward. So you're going to see, once again, a lot more investments with Trex in a lot of these different areas and territories, and we do believe the strategy has been working.

Susan Maklari

Okay. That's great. And then maybe shifting to Little Rock. It sounds like that is progressing the ramp there according to your plans. Can you just give us an update on how you're thinking about that fully coming up online next year and what that will mean for the business?

Adam Zambanini

Yes. So starting in greenfield is not easy. We mentioned we had this mechanical issue that we worked our way through on the quarter. And so we're good in terms of like where we said we're going to land 50% capacity utilization by the end of the year. That's still unchanged. The way I view Little Rock is, hey, through the end of Q1, there's still going to be a lot of work that goes into this thing to kind of level us up.

As we move through Q2, that's where we should start to see us getting closer to where we produce in some of our other parent or sister facilities, let's say. And then I think you'll start seeing some of the benefits of Little Rock in terms of the OEE capacity utilization, rate yield uptime in the back end of 2027.

So when you start to look at the upside of Little Rock, because it's a greenfield, it will take us a little bit of while, but I look at this ramping in, working on this through Q1, leveling out in Q2. And then I look at some of those benefits that we've been talking about in Little Rock to really to start hitting home in the back half of 2027.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Phil Ng from Jefferies.

Philip Ng

Congrats on really strong results. I guess, first, a question for Prith and me, even you, Adam. Certainly, you're seeing a lot of inflation, whether it's diesel freight. You talked about potentially surcharges, loan prices have taken off from railing as well. How are you thinking about price as we kind of think about 2027? Is that a lever that we should think as a potential good guy to kind of help drive margins higher?

And then you talked about Little Rock. Certainly, there's going to be a phasing effect in the first half. When we think about '27 at large, are you back to a spot where we could get back to incremental margins on the EBITDA side in the mid-30s? I'm just trying to get a sense how we should think about margin and operating leverage as we think about 2027.

Prithvi Gandhi

Okay. So a lot of questions there. Look, around pricing, look, we always evaluate pricing as a lever, and it's in the context of inflation, in the context of competitive action and what the demand-supply balance is. And so certainly, that is something that we will look at and implement when we see the opportunity.

In terms of the gross margin improvement and so forth, look, it's -- we're not giving guidance on 2027 at this point, right? But I mean, if we are in a healthy demand environment as we currently are, and as Adam said, Little Rock begins to produce at the levels of efficiency in line with the rest of the network. All else equal, we should expect an improvement in margin next year.

Adam Zambanini

Yes, Phil, I'll add a little bit more context on it. We do have a pricing strategy in place. There will be pricing next year. You probably will see some benefit at some time frame next year on pricing, but we're being very strategic on it. I've been really clear that I want to build the foundation in Trex. And building the foundation is pumping volume through these factories. And you've seen that come through.

If you look at our performance versus everybody else, I think we're really the only ones really driving volume through these factories. Everybody else is taking pricing. So I don't think that strategy has really worked well for Trex the last several years. When you look at us, we need to run these assets. We've made a significant investment, and that's the idea to get these factories rolling and then layering in pricing, which is something I've been pretty consistent with this year as we move out into 2027. But we've really not communicated anything around the timing of that.

Philip Ng

Okay. Helpful. And Adam, how is the transition to perhaps some of these new regional distributors? I mean, SBP you've done business with them for a long time, right? So no change there. The education process in terms of sell-through. And how is the channel thinking about inventory as we think about '27 with winter buys and whatnot?

Adam Zambanini

Yes. First of all, shout out to my team. I'm going to call it this, which is a high bar, flawless execution. The plan and how we've identified the distributors that we were aligned with, with our strategy. I think what the market is missing is how much went into the preparation behind it, the research that we did amongst these people, whether they're national or regional distributors. But from a regional context, we got the best ones.

And when I say the best ones, they're very aligned with Trex and the strategy moving forward, and we're seeing success in several of the regional players early on. And a lot of the success right now early on has definitely been through a lot of the tertiary brands. So we're seeing a good conversion rate out of the gates, which remember, I said there's $100 million opportunity over 2 years away from tertiary brands moving over to Trex. And I'm kind of surprised at how immediate that impact hit as we saw some conversions even in Q3 as we move into Q4.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Bouley from Barclays.

Matthew Bouley

I wanted to ask about the production benefit to margin. I think I heard you say that Q4 margin benefits from, I guess, "massively" increased fixed cost absorption. I think you have the load-in benefit here in Q3 and a little bit in Q4, perhaps some share gain from tertiary competitors this year. And so I guess all of that said, when you think about production going forward a year from now, how do you think about the level of production year-over-year and what that means for gross margin next year?

Prithvi Gandhi

Again, Matt, just kind of what I said before, if we're in a healthy demand environment, we do expect production to increase again next year. And yes, we will build some inventory here in Q4 heading into the beginning of next year. But -- and if that environment holds and as we ramp up production in Little Rock, we would expect to see improvement in gross margin year-over-year.

Matthew Bouley

Okay. And then I guess, secondly, on the point of the share gain, your 2 large public competitors have been certainly putting up some fairly substantial growth as well. So presumably, that means the tertiary competitors are shrinking, and correct me if I'm wrong. But how do you think about as you get into next year, what's sort of left from the tertiary competitors and sort of your overall share positioning?

Adam Zambanini

I think there's still plenty of growth from the tertiary competitors. But I also think longer term, when you start to think of the share gains, at some point, it can all be pricing. We're in repair, remodeling. We're not in new construction. So you can't price your way to get there forever. You're going to get to the point where the consumer will look at the boards and say, I'm not going to end up paying $15, $20 a foot for a deck board.

So when you look at this and the things that Trex is really good at is driving those manufacturing efficiencies. We believe we're the low-cost manufacturer. We believe we have plenty of pipeline on continuous improvement. We have to drive down our cost structure in order to take share. And so from that volume perspective, I think when you look at longer term and the Trex's opportunity there, gaining that share, leveraging that volume, lowering the cost structure is going to create greater opportunity even further for market share.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Pettinari from Citi.

Anthony Pettinari

I was wondering if you could put any finer point or quantification on attachment rates in railing and fencing or fasteners in the quarter and where you think that could go?

Adam Zambanini

Yes. So we saw significant growth in railing in Q3, which has been consistent with the last several years, significant double-digit growth. We also saw a pretty strong growth in the fasteners as we've seen the decking sales rise. I don't know, do we have the attachment here? Here we go.

So when we look at the attachment rates, they've been increasing from mid-20s to almost around 30% as we go through the end of Q3. So we've seen attachment rates rise about almost 500 basis points from the beginning of the year to the end of Q3. So pretty good rise in attachment.

Anthony Pettinari

Got it. That's very helpful. And then just stepping back, I think you've talked about wood to composite conversion kind of averaging 80 to 100 bps a year. As you kind of look back on '26 and the strong volume growth that you're having, do you think that, that is maybe a higher conversion year for whatever reason or maybe too hard to tell kind of in real time? I'm just wondering kind of perspectives on that.

Adam Zambanini

No, I definitely think it's a higher conversion year. And now that Trex is kind of back to basics and converting the wood, once again, 1% share away from [ wood is ] $80 million in revenue. We also see competition focusing more on that. And so I think right now with these higher interest rates, more people are involved in repair and remodeling, we've definitely seen more conversion away from wood this year as a category. And I think it's definitely been higher than that 80 to 100 basis points historical average.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Rafe Jadrosich from Bank of America.

Rafe Jadrosich

Prith, you called out some of sort of on the gross margin side, some onetime headwinds in '26. I was wondering if you could sort of pull it all together and then how we should think about those for '27. So the freight charges, the rare mechanical issue, I think there were some inefficiencies that you called out last quarter. How do we sort of think about like as you anniversary those into next year, like how much you would get back just from those?

Prithvi Gandhi

Yes. So -- Rafe, it's Prith. Listen, like the mechanical issue that we called out at Little Rock, like we took care of that as an adjustment in the start-up cost. So assuming -- so that shouldn't repeat next year. In terms of freight and the inflation on that front, look, we're doing all the things we can do to mitigate. But in terms of budget assumptions and so forth, we're going to look at the environment we're in.

And currently, with the geopolitical situation, we're still at elevated oil prices and so forth. So we don't see that abating anytime soon. But remember, what we always strive to do at Trex is to have a portfolio of productivity projects and then pricing, as we talked about, to offset inflationary pressure. And so that's generally how we try to manage further margin degradation year-over-year. So I mean, that's kind of what I can say at this point.

Rafe Jadrosich

And then on the D&A, as we are thinking about the D&A for '27, should we think about the 4Q '26 exit rate as sort of the right level for the quarters in '27?

Prithvi Gandhi

Yes. I think that's right.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Ketan Mamtora from BMO Capital Markets.

Ketan Mamtora

Adam, first question, can you give us an update on how some of the dealer conversions are progressing? And what kind of mile markers would you have us think, let's say, over the next 6, 12 months in terms of dealer conversions?

Adam Zambanini

Yes. So I think -- I mean, the conversions have been very positive. But if I just kind of pause and take a step back, my first thing that I was concerned about is interruption in service. So when I look at it and I look at our major customers at the dealer base or at the home center, what I feel really good at is there was really no interruptions from Trex from a service level perspective. So all of our major accounts in that we were able to service throughout the quarter, and that just speaks volumes for our new distribution network. They did a tremendous job because to me, that's your bigger risk there.

Now to move on to the conversions, we're seeing, I would say, Trex has probably the largest dealers in the network that we do business with, but it's that middle to lower-tier dealer network where we can improve. And what I'd like to see, especially from a lot of the regional guys is they've done some business with some of these tertiary brands that are out there, and they're starting to unlock those doors.

Now when I say unlock those doors, sometimes they take bundles or a couple of bundles along the way. They don't even take truckloads yet. But we did start to see them start to move away or give us indications that they're moving their programs over towards Trex. And as we moved into Q4, we've seen some locations step up their purchases in terms of moving from bundles to maybe half truckloads.

So that makes me feel good as we move into 2027 that as we continue showing them that we're progressing, we're growing their business, and that's going to translate into truckloads as we move into 2027. So we're seeing that on the West Coast. We're seeing that in New England, and we're also seeing that in the Midwestern territories. So I would say throughout the network, we're having success at those middle to lower-tier dealers, which we can do better as a company.

Ketan Mamtora

That's great color. And then just as a follow-up, Adam, what is your sense of inventories at the dealer level, right? Are you concerned at all that because of this ongoing distribution realignment that channel inventories at the dealer level are elevated at all? Or is that not your sense?

Adam Zambanini

That's not my sense. We're still getting dealer orders today that are still ordering at full truckload quantities because they need inventory. So from our perspective, we're not really seeing a lot of inventory being built at that dealer level right now. Let's -- just looking at the weather in general, it's been pretty good, pretty positive over the last several months. And so we still see pretty good takeaway right now.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Ryan Merkel from William Blair.

Ryan Merkel

Nice job this quarter. First question, Adam, can you comment any early thoughts on the winter buy and if terms will be different than in the past or terms maybe just the same?

Adam Zambanini

Yes. I would say that we have started those discussions. We've definitely been with our distributors and now that start to be rolled out with dealers. I'd say they're pretty similar in nature when you look at the terms. Of course, the terms change or vary a little bit from year-to-year, but I don't see anything significant when I look at it from a year-over-year basis.

Ryan Merkel

Got it. Okay. And then stepping back, just a bigger picture gross margin question. Is 43%, 44% gross margin still the right long-term range? And just talk about the big drivers. I assume volume leverage and then Arkansas ramping are the big drivers, but anything else you'd add?

Prithvi Gandhi

Yes. And then -- yes. So look, in the near term, those are the drivers for gross margin improvement. In terms of your question on what's the kind of long-term picture. I think, again, I'd point to with the current footprint and the current sort of production mix and sales mix, et cetera, what we communicated, right, in our investor materials is that about every $100 million of sales should generate about 100 basis points in gross margin improvement. I would exclude 2027 in that because we're still doing the start-up of Little Rock, and we'll see really the benefits in the second half of the year. So I would say, starting in 2028, that's kind of how I would think about it.

Adam Zambanini

I've also told everybody that -- well, the margin percentages can be important and they've been for Trex in the past. We're really focused on EBITDA dollars and return on invested capital. So as you start to look at Trex, and we're trying to grow this profile and we start to consider other ways that we want to grow the company outside of organic growth, those are also going to be major drivers and what we're paying attention to.

Operator

We have reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now turn the call back over to the management for closing remarks.

Adam Zambanini

Thank you, everyone. Prith and I look forward to speaking with you at the conferences and events in the coming weeks and months.

Operator

The meeting has now concluded. Thank you all for joining, and you may now disconnect.