NCR Voyix (NYSE:VYX) executives used the company’s fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call to highlight progress in a multi-year technology transformation, early customer traction for newly launched platform offerings, and the financial implications of a major shift in its hardware business model set to take effect in 2026.
Management highlights platform transition and leadership changes
CEO James Kelly said 2025 results reflected the company’s positioning “as a platform-led business,” supported by services and integrated payments. Kelly noted that one of his initial priorities was strengthening leadership in retail and product, calling retail “70% of our revenue.” He appointed Darren Wilson as President of Retail and Payments and named Nick East as the company’s first Chief Product Officer across both retail and restaurant.
The company also reiterated that the phased transition of its hardware business to Ennoconn began in early January and is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter.
Product launch momentum and deployment timeline
East said the company’s platform launch generated strong interest from customers and analysts, and that the National Retail Federation show in January served as a major introduction for its “microservices-based applications.” He said the company demonstrated a fully integrated modern cloud platform leveraging an internal library of “more than 30,000 unique features” built over three decades.
According to East, customer discussions are increasingly centered on adopting a comprehensive set of capabilities spanning point of sale, self-checkout, supply chain, back office, integrated payments, and support services. He said the capabilities previewed at NRF will be “lab-ready by the second quarter,” with initial deployments scheduled for the back half of the year.
Kelly and East both emphasized early commercial traction, noting the company has signed more than 20 platform contracts, including three in the fourth quarter. Kelly said those include two new retail customers in the Philippines and Belgium, and what he described as the first enterprise restaurant platform customer, Chipotle.
East said the signed contracts create a backlog expected to be deployed over the next 9 to 18 months. He also highlighted “store-in-a-box” offerings for major fuel and said restaurant and grocery offerings are expected in the second half of the year, with self-deployment in under 15 minutes.
Payments strategy: gateway expansion and integration
Wilson said Voyix Connect, the company’s proprietary payments gateway, is being positioned as the “single integration layer” for the platform, with third-party integrations routed through the gateway to improve security and scalability. In the U.S., he said NCR Voyix achieved certification with Corpay in January and expects certification with WEX in the second quarter to support commercial fuel payments. He also said the company completed migration of remaining customers from the JetPay front-end platform and noted that the U.S. payments offering now includes both gateway and processing, with NCR Voyix registered as an acquirer.
Internationally, Wilson said the company is expanding Voyix Connect integrations with local acquirers and pursuing referral partners, citing a recently signed referral agreement in Mexico and expected similar relationships in Canada and Europe later in the year. He also said the company is implementing pricing escalators on certain retail and restaurant contracts upon renewal, with the impact expected to build gradually over time.
Segment metrics: retail growth, restaurant SMB headwinds
In retail, Wilson said the business signed 40 new customers in the fourth quarter, with platform sites up 6% and payment sites up 12%. He said software ARR increased 8% and total ARR increased 4% during the quarter. He pointed to two new enterprise wins in Q4 and highlighted a six-year agreement with 7-Eleven Philippines to implement Voyix POS for convenience, beginning later this year across more than 4,500 stores, as well as a long-term agreement with Colruyt Group to implement Voyix POS for grocery across more than 850 stores.
In restaurants, President Benny Tadele said the business signed more than 150 new customers in the fourth quarter. Platform sites increased 11% and payment sites rose 3%. Software ARR increased 3%, and total ARR increased 6% excluding the SMB business. Tadele said enterprise and mid-market performed steadily, while SMB results were pressured by market dynamics and the “legacy nature” of the current SMB offering.
Tadele highlighted a renewed and expanded five-year agreement with Red Robin that includes service desk operations and “wall-to-wall technology support,” and said Red Robin will be the first enterprise table service brand to adopt Aloha OrderPay, the company’s next-generation handheld solution. He also discussed progress on Chipotle, stating the Aloha Next rollout remains on schedule and is in Chipotle’s lab, and said NCR Voyix is in two additional enterprise restaurant labs. Tadele said Menu will begin rolling out to multiple enterprise customers next month, and Smart Manager is in pilot with multiple customers. He reiterated that “Aloha Next for SMB,” a cloud-native store-in-a-box solution, is expected to launch in the second half of the year.
Financial results and 2026 outlook
CFO Brian Webb-Walsh said fourth-quarter revenue increased 6% to $720 million, driven by higher hardware sales. Reported recurring revenue rose 1% to $422 million, and 3% excluding a divestiture and other non-core items. Platform sites increased 8% to 80,000 and payment sites rose 4% to 8,600. Adjusted EBITDA increased 17% to $130 million, with margin expanding 170 basis points to 18.1%, which he attributed primarily to cost containment actions, partially offset by lower TSA fees. Non-GAAP EPS increased 48% to $0.31, while GAAP EPS was $0.49, including a $65 million tax benefit tied to a legal entity restructuring completed in Q4; Webb-Walsh said the cash from that benefit will likely be received in the first half of 2027.
By segment, retail revenue increased 9% to $501 million and segment adjusted EBITDA rose 12% to $114 million. Restaurant revenue was flat at $212 million, while segment adjusted EBITDA fell 3% to $66 million, with margin pressure tied to lower one-time software and services revenue versus the prior year.
Webb-Walsh said adjusted free cash flow excluding restructuring was $136 million for the year, about $40 million below expectations due to timing items including a delayed tax refund and higher working capital use from increased hardware sales in Q4. He also said restructuring cash outflows totaled $109 million and that the company invested $165 million in capex for the year, including accelerated product investments. The company ended the quarter with net leverage of 2.1x.
For 2026, management guided for reported revenue of $2.21 billion to $2.325 billion, down 13% to 18% due to the hardware ODM implementation, and said it expects to complete the transition by March 31. After the transition, hardware will be sourced through Ennoconn and NCR Voyix will earn a commission rather than carry inventory. On a pro forma basis adjusting for the hardware revenue recognition change, the company expects revenue to range from down 2% to up 3%. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be $440 million to $445 million, and non-GAAP adjusted EPS is expected to be $0.93 to $0.96. Adjusted free cash flow is expected to be $190 million to $220 million, reflecting partial-year working capital benefits from the ODM model offset by anticipated cash outlays for severance, stranded costs, ODM transition costs, infrastructure investments, and an accrued litigation matter.
In Q&A, Kelly and East emphasized backlog as a key indicator given enterprise deployment timelines, which they described as generally 9 to 18 months and sometimes longer, depending on complexity and retailer blackout periods. Kelly also addressed SMB pressures in restaurants, pointing to competition, product fit, and the planned launch of Aloha Next as a path to improvement. Wilson said the move toward integrated payments and a unified gateway can simplify deployments for customers and shift payments economics from third parties to NCR Voyix as part of an end-to-end proposition.
About NCR Voyix (NYSE:VYX)
NCR Voyix is a technology company formed through the spin-off of NCR Corporation’s financial and digital commerce business. The company designs, manufactures and supports self-service solutions for banking and retail environments, with core offerings that include ATMs, kiosks, point-of-sale terminals and payment software. By blending hardware, cloud-based applications and managed services, NCR Voyix aims to help financial institutions and merchants modernize customer experiences and streamline transaction processing.
Building on more than a century of heritage under the NCR name, NCR Voyix leverages decades of engineering expertise and innovation in transaction automation.
