ADDvantage Technologies Group, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Advantage Technologies first quarter 2020 earnings conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. Brett Moss. Hayden, I are. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator. We're joined today by Joe Hart, President and CEO, as well as Kevin Brown, Chief Financial Officer, Scott Francis, Chief Accounting Officer, and Don Kennison, President of Telecom Segment, Colby Empry, the President of Wireless Segment. Before we begin today's call, I'd like to remind you this conference call may contain four looking statements which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These four looking statements include, among other things, statements regarding future events, such as the ability of advantage technologies and its subsidiaries to maintain strategic relationships and agreements with certain original equipment manufacturers and multiple system operators, as well as future financial performance of ad technologies. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Participants are cautioned these forward-looking statements are only predictions and may materially differ from the actual and future results or results due to varying factors, such as those contained in Advantage Technologies' most recent report on Form 10-K and 10-Q unfollowed the Securities Exchange Commission. Financial information presented on this conference call should be considered in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes included in the company's press release issued today earlier, and included in Advantage Technologies' most recent report on Form 10-K and 10-Q. Guidance regarding anticipated future results on this call is based on limited information currently available on Advantage Technologies, which is subject to change. Although any such guidance and factors influencing it may change, Advantage Technologies will not necessarily update the information. These companies will only provide guidance at certain points during the year. Such information speaks only as of the date of this call. During the call, we may also present certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as non-GAAP net income and certain ratios that are used with these measures. In our press release and in the financial tables issued earlier today, which are located on our website at advantagetechnologies.com, you will find a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures with the closest GAAP financials and a discussion as to why we believe these non-GAAP financial measures are relevant. These financial measures are included for the benefit of investors and should be considered in addition to and not instead of GAAP measures. I'd like to now turn the call to Joe Hart, President and Chief Executive Officer of Advantage Technologies. Joe, please go ahead.

Thank you, Brett, and thank you to everyone joining us today. We begin fiscal year 2020 as expected with solid revenue growth, and we continue to make progress with the company's transformation. We did experience seasonal challenges across all of our companies that we typically face in our first quarter related to weather, the holiday down period, and our customers' budget cycles. Our focus continues to be on growing our business by capturing a meaningful share of opportunities related to the nationwide rollout of 5G. We believe the steps we have taken in the second half of calendar 2019 to reposition our business, coupled with the expected acceleration of 5G rollout by all major US carriers later this year, will be the catalyst for improved top and bottom line results in the second half of our fiscal 2020. As part of our repositioning, we launched our wireless infrastructure services business last year with the acquisition of Fulton Technologies, which was responsible for a large portion of our growth in the first quarter of fiscal 2020. Through these acquisitions, we are building our core infrastructure, talent, and range of offerings to pursue and compete aggressively for new growth opportunities in 5G. This is evidenced by the strong pipeline of opportunities that we are currently pursuing. As a reminder, the Fulton business, more than our other businesses, is impacted by seasonality due to weather and the major carrier's fiscal calendars. While we have equipped our crews to work with comfort and optimal safety in cold conditions, efficiencies are impaired and projects are delayed from time to time. As a result, we did experience some challenges in the beginning of fiscal 2020. At Fulton, one major carrier completed its build plan ahead of schedule in the southwestern United States. significantly reducing the backlog of sites in our southwest region. We proactively repositioned many of our crews to the Midwestern states to mitigate the circumstances and to take advantage of the increased workload experienced in our northern region. We were able to shift resources rather seamlessly, despite the process taking several weeks, which resulted in compressed margins and lost revenue. Most importantly, we do not feel that this is representative of the future business as we are looking forward to substantial growth during the business's high season in the warmer months. Our wireless business is positioned to be a positive contributor to fiscal year 2020. We are forecasting strong double-digit revenue growth for the full fiscal year. For reference, Fulton's revenue was $6.7 million this quarter compared to $3.8 million for the same quarter last year prior to the acquisition. In our TOCO segment, our business continues to benefit from the realignment of operations that we implemented last year. With more organized and tightly managed inventories and more streamlined order fulfillment at May, The telco business is running more smoothly and our team is better positioned to focus on growth. For the first quarter of fiscal 2020, gross margin dollars were up 20% for NAVE communications. We remain focused on optimizing operations, further building our repair services business, and growing our recycle operations. We are pleased with the positive contributions NAVE is making and have recently begun an inventory oversight program, allowing us to more efficiently manage our inventory levels and drive towards lower inventory volume. At Triton, the consolidation of our warehouse and operations center into a single location last year, as well as our transition to a more efficient operations team have driven increases in productivity and capacity for growth. Revenue at Triton was up 7.5% for the first quarter of fiscal 2020. There were approximately $100,000 of one-time costs related to the company's move during the quarter. We are planning to add additional manufacturers to our product lines throughout this year to increase the number of product offerings and are in the process of redesigning our website with a focus on search engine optimization. We expect solid improvement in both our top and bottom line results for the full year as a direct result of improved operating efficiencies, better practices, and the opportunities related to 5G across all of Advantage's businesses. We are also encouraged by the recent Sprint T-Mobile merger decision by the Justice Department, which will stimulate activity in the industry, as well as pave the way for a network build-out of a fourth entrant, DISH Networks. With that, I'll now turn the call over to our CFO, Kevin Brown, for a more detailed review of our financial results. Kevin, please go ahead.