Superior Plus: Wellsite to Data Center — The CNG Inflection
A new mobile fleet-fueling vertical and growing data center demand lift Certarus to record Q2, while propane waits for winter.
SPB.TO · Earnings Call · 2026-08-07
The Certarus Inflection
Superior Plus' Q2 2026 results are less about the quarter's numbers than about the strategic pivot now underway at Certarus. Adjusted EBITDA rose 10% to $36.8M, with Certarus delivering a record second quarter on record volumes — and the data center business is now unmistakably the growth engine. “Industrial volumes increased approximately 50% in Q2” — Allan MacDonald, President and CEO · 2026-08-07, driven by new data center contracts, expanding power generation work, and mining. Management explicitly frames this as an inflection point:
We're seeing increased demand for CNG as a preferred energy solution across a broader set of industries.
The most consequential announcement is the launch of a Mobile fleet fueling vertical — a capital-light model that brings CNG directly to truck fleets, avoiding the need for permanent fueling infrastructure. The first contract signs up a global logistics company for 100 Class 8 tractors, supplied from a new hub in Houston. As Allan MacDonald explains: “Rather than spending the money and all the permitting to build a permanent tap, we're bringing MSUs in along with our own CNG refueling capability” — Allan MacDonald, President and CEO · 2026-08-07. Dale Winger adds that the economics are immediately accretive, with no notable drag: “Don't expect any notable drag.” — Dale Winger, President of Certarus · 2026-08-07 This is a genuine new vertical, not a rehash of the legacy wellsite business — it's longer-duration, more permanent, and priced at a premium to energy retail.
The hub network expansion underpins this. With 23 hubs now online, including Utah and the imminent Houston opening, Certarus is building the industry's largest footprint. The data center pipeline, meanwhile, keeps growing: a year ago there were no data center awards; now there's a second contract and a funnel of opportunities, with management noting “a lot of the projects that we're working on are things that came to us for the first time in 2026” — Dale Winger, President of Certarus · 2026-08-07. The magnitude of the shift is captured by the sheer scale of potential: more than 3 million tractor trailers on North American roads — a long runway for CNG adoption.
Propane: Slow Season, Structural Progress
The propane segment remains a work in progress, but the direction of travel is clearer than a year ago. Canadian propane EBITDA rose 25% to $15.7M on favorable carbon credit pricing and a stronger procurement strategy, while U.S. propane declined on lower retail volumes. Superior Delivers contributed $5M in Q2 and $17M year-to-date, with management reiterating that the transformation is "real and permanent" even if it's taking longer than originally promised. “The improvements we've made are real and permanent.” — Grier Colter, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer · 2026-08-07 This echoes a recurring theme from prior calls — in February 2026, Grier Colter noted that the free cash flow target would be pushed back as the platform isn't fully intact: “the longer it takes to kind of have the business, the platform or the foundation fully intact to go after new customer growth. That's, again, delayed by about a year.” — Grier Colter, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer · 2026-02-20 The sequencing of the transformation — operational gains first, customer growth later — is consistent with what management outlined back in May 2025: “It's really about design, pilot, scale and then implementation.” — Allan MacDonald, President and CEO · 2025-05-14
The key test for propane transformation is the upcoming heating season. Management has invested heavily in routing optimization, field coordination, and inventory management, and with tank levels now healthy, they're signaling readiness for Q4. The wholesale advantage pillar is also contributing through smarter supply management and better market differentials, particularly in Canada.
Capital Allocation: Investing in Growth, Not Buybacks
The company is deliberately pivoting capital toward high-return growth at Certarus, even at the cost of pausing share repurchases for the quarter. Consolidated CapEx is tracking to $230M for 2026, with a significant portion earmarked for mobile storage units (MSUs) to serve contracted data center work through 2030. “This is not maintenance or the obligatory cost of keeping the business running, it's growth investment” — Grier Colter, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer · 2026-08-07, Allan stated. Leverage stands at 3.6x, down 0.3x sequentially, and management expects it to rise slightly in Q3 as working capital builds ahead of winter's heating season.
This is a deliberate trade-off: near-term leverage goes up, but only against contracted, visible demand. The company has already secured the MSU supply needed for its data center commitments, and it has optionality to expand further. The market context supports this — global trends around AI infrastructure and power generation are creating a tailwind for exactly the kind of data center business Certarus is now winning.
The Bigger Picture
Superior Plus is no longer just a propane distributor with a CNG niche — it's becoming a mobile energy infrastructure provider sitting at the intersection of natural gas, power generation, and digital infrastructure. The launch of mobile fleet fueling is a fresh, company-unique keyword that hasn't appeared in prior quarterly keyword trajectories, signaling a genuine strategic expansion. The company's own rig count reference highlights that wellsite volumes have stabilized, while the new verticals offer higher-margin, longer-duration growth. With 2027 EBITDA growth guidance of ~5% anchored on new data center work, the market is being asked to re-rate a company that is executing on a multi-year pivot, even as the propane turnaround plays out in the background.