Columbus McKinnon Corporation

Greetings. Welcome to the Columbus McKinnon Corporation fourth quarter fiscal year 2021 financial results call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. If we have a question and answer session, we'll follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require our assistance during the conference, please press star zero from your telephone keypad. Please note that this conference is being recorded. At this time, I'll now turn the conference over to Deborah Palowski of Investor Relations. Ms. Palowski, you may now begin.

Thanks, Rob, and good morning, everyone. We certainly appreciate your time today and your interest in Columbus McKinnon. Here with me are David Wilson, our president CEO, and Greg Rustwitz, our chief financial officer. You should have a copy of our fourth quarter fiscal 2021 financial results, which we released this morning before the market. If not, you can access the release as well as the slides that will accompany our conversation today at our website, columbusmckinnon.com. David and Greg will be reviewing the results of the quarter, our strategy, and outlook. Then after the formal presentation, we will open the line for Q&A. We kindly ask that you ask only one question with a follow-up question, and then please get back in the queue to allow for a continuous flow and adequate time. If you'll return to slide two in the deck, I will first review the Safe Harbor Statement. You should be aware that you may make some forward-looking statements during the formal discussions as well as during the Q&A session. These statements apply to future events that are subject to risks and uncertainties, as well as other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from what is stated here today. These risks and uncertainties and other factors are provided in the earnings release, as well as with other documents filed by the company with Securities and Exchange Commission. These documents can be found on our website or at sec.gov. During today's call, we will also discuss some non-GAAP financial measures. We believe these will be useful in evaluating our performance. You should not consider the presentation of additional information in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP. We have provided reconciliation of non-GAAP measures with comparable GAAP measures in the tables that accompany today's release and the slides for your information. With that, if you'll turn to slide three, I will turn it over to David to begin. David?

Thanks, Deb, and good morning, everyone. Fiscal 2021 was an unprecedented year, and we were happy to end on a high note. We believe the excellent execution of our strategy by the team and the development and deployment of our enhanced Columbus McKinnon Business System, or CMBS, were crucial to our success. As markets have been recovering, we have responded with agility to increasing customer demand. As a result, sales grew 12% sequentially to $186 million, which was at the higher end of our updated guidance. Our team worked hard to drive efficiencies against headwinds as well. Fourth quarter adjusted operating margin was 10.1% compared with 10.7% last year. Our 80-20 tools continue to contribute to our earnings power. 80-20 provided approximately 2.9 million in operating income in the quarter to help offset the headwinds that both COVID and the supply chain presented. Despite the pandemic, we were able to achieve 11.8 million in contribution to operating income during fiscal 2021. While not as visible in the year because it offset the operational headwinds associated with volume declines, we expect our efforts to be rewarded as volume returns. We generated $27 million of cash from operations during the quarter and nearly $21 million in free cash flow. By year end, we had dropped our leverage ratio to nearly 0.6. In the wake of our recently successful debt refinancing, which Greg will address in a moment, our net debt leverage ratio is about 3.4. We expect to get that back down to our target ratio of two times within two years, excluding any additional acquisitions. A strong sequential increase in quarterly order flow drove backlog up 13% over the trailing fiscal third quarter and up 31% year over year. As you look at slide four, our focus on 2.0 led us to identify and pursue the acquisition of Dorner Manufacturing, which we completed just following the end of the fiscal year. This acquisition created an additional platform from which we can expand our intelligent motion solutions in higher growth and markets. Specialty high precision conveying puts us at the center of the industrial automation equation. Backlog for Dorner at the end of April more than doubled over the same time last year to nearly $40 million. This is slightly ahead of our expectations when we closed the acquisition at the beginning of the month. Our organic efforts were successful as well and accelerated in contribution throughout the year. Despite the pandemic, new product revenue, or N-3 revenue, which is revenue from products introduced in the recent three years, was up 22%. This is the second year in a row we have exceeded 20% growth with our vitality index. I should point out that new product innovation is also key to Dorner's growth. We are prioritizing efforts to bring their ingenuity and precision conveying to a broader customer base while continuing to introduce new conveying solutions to the market. With that, let me turn it over to Greg for a review of our financials.