AstroNova, Inc.

and welcome to Asher Nova's first quarter fiscal 2022 financial results conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. I would like to now turn the conference over to David Kell, who's the dean of the company's investor relations firm, Sharon Merrill Associates. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. Hosting this morning's call are Greg Woods, Astronova's president and CEO, and David Smith, the company's chief financial officer. Greg will discuss the company's operating results. David will comment on the financials. Greg will make concluding comments, and then management will be happy to take your questions. By now, you should have received a copy of the earnings release that was issued today. If you do not have a copy, please go to the investors' page of the Astronova website, www.astronovainc.com. Please note that statements made during today's call that are not statements of historical fact are considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions that could involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, actual results could differ materially, except as required by law. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of today, June 10, 2021. The company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. For further information regarding the forward-looking statements and the factors that may cause differences, please see the risk factors in Astronova's annual report on Form 10-K and the other filings the company makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission. On today's call, management will review occurring to non-GAAP financial measures, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and share-based compensation, or adjusted EBITDA. Astranova believes that the inclusion of this measure helps investors gain a meaningful understanding of the changes in the company's core operating results and also can help investors who wish to make comparisons between Astranova and other companies on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis. A reconciliation of this non-GAAP measure to its most directly comparable GAAP measure is available in today's earnings release. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Greg.

Thank you, David. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. For the first quarter of fiscal 2022, revenue came in at $29.1 million, down 6% from the prior year, as top-line growth in our product identification segment partly offset continued softness in the aerospace portion of our test and measurement segment due to the effects of the pandemic and the slow recovery in 737 MAX shipments. Although the global economy is still challenged, we're beginning to see signs of recovery in certain areas, as economies begin to open up and air travel increases. Our product identification segment posted record bookings for the quarter, and bookings for the aerospace portion of our test and measurement segment were up 45% sequentially, delivering the first aerospace positive book-to-bill quarter since fiscal 2020. On the cost side, our team members have done an excellent job over the past year and bringing down our expenses as reflected in our higher margins and increased profitability in the quarter. Operating expenses were essentially flat from the prior year's first quarter, and operating profit was up nearly 11%. Turning to our Q1 performance by segment, product identification revenue was up 3% to $23.1 million, with solid contributions across the product line. the T3 OPX, our wide-format, durable, direct-to-package printing system, continues to surpass expectations. Brand owners, OEMs, and commercial printers are profiting from the product's many benefits in terms of greater efficiency and a high return on investment. As a result, the T3 OPX continues to attract new customers in new markets around the world. From a geographic standpoint, The recent enhancements to our EMEA sales organization paced a nice uptick in international revenue in Q1. The international channel accounted for nearly 43% of total revenue, up from 36% in the first quarter of fiscal 2021. Domestic sales accounted for 57% of total revenue in the quarter versus 64% in Q1 last year. On our year-end call, I talked about our recent expansion in China with the addition of a new office in the southern port city of Guangzhou. Since then, we have stepped up by hiring experienced sales and support team members for that location. With sales locations now in both Shanghai and Guangzhou, we're in a much stronger position to grow our business in the Asia-Pacific region. We are reinforcing our APAC investment with a stronger trade show presence, having recently participated in four regional shows in niche industries, including food and cosmetics. Looking ahead to the fall, we will have a booth this year at the PAC Expo Exposition in Las Vegas, where we will be demonstrating our latest product lineup. And of course, we continue to invest in our digital marketing initiatives, expanding our e-books, case studies, support videos, and other tools to attract new customers and to help our existing customers optimize our technology. Looking at our test and measurement segment, first quarter revenue was down 30% from the same period in fiscal 2021, as the effects of the pandemic and the 737 MAX slow restart continue to be felt across the commercial aerospace industry. I talked a moment ago about the positive indicators we are seeing, and while those may be improving a bit faster in certain areas, overall, industry analysts say it will still take many months for commercial aerospace to return to the 2019 levels, and correspondingly, for us to see substantial benefits from that recovery, since our products are designed to nearly the full range of commercial and business jet aircraft used worldwide. We recently entered into a Tier 1 supply agreement with Airbus to ship Astronova manufactured printers for the A320 family of passenger aircraft. The Tier 1 designation enables us to supply flight deck printers directly to Airbus rather than through a third-party intermediary. A third-party supply agreement has been in place since 2017 when we acquired an exclusive worldwide license from Honeywell International to manufacture the PTA-45B narrow-format cockpit printer for the Airbus A320 portfolio. This direct supplier status means that we have achieved all of Airbus' rigorous qualification standards across the areas of quality, engineering, manufacturing, and global aftermarket support as well as program management. We are honored to be part of the Airbus Direct Supplier Network and look forward to expanding our relationship further in the future. Now let me turn the call over to David for the financial review.