Cintas Corporation

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the CENTOS Quarterly Earnings Results Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Paul Adler, Vice President, Treasurer, and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, and thank you, everyone, for joining us. With me today is Scott Farmer, CENTOS Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Todd Schneider, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and Mike Hansen, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We will discuss our second quarter results for fiscal 2021. After our commentary, we will be happy to answer questions. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor from civil litigation for forward-looking statements. This conference call contains forward-looking statements that reflect the company's current views as to future events and financial performance. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those we may discuss. I refer you to the discussion on these points contained in our most recent filings with the SEC. I'll now turn the call over to Scott Farmer.

Thank you, Paul, and good morning, everyone. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic remains a significant disruption to the economy. In the final month of our fiscal second quarter, November, the COVID-19 virus counts surged from about 100,000 per day at the beginning of the month to about 250,000 per day now. Not surprisingly, economic indicators such as jobs growth, unemployment, and retail spending reflect an economic recovery that slowed considerably as the fall months progressed and the virus counts increased. Despite the macroeconomic headwinds, I'm pleased with our second quarter financial performance, which exceeded expectations. Our employees, whom we call partners, have not wavered in their passion for getting businesses ready for the workday. They're providing essential products and services to help keep our customers and their places of business clean and safe. These include hand sanitizer services, professionally laundered healthcare scrubs and isolation gowns, first aid products, sanitizing wipes, face masks, gloves, and fire protection services, as well as many others. The conversion of no programmers, the do-it-yourselfers, if you will, remains robust. Our supply chain and service network enables us to increase service to existing customers and add new customers by procuring and providing items in short supply. And our net promoter score, which we use to measure customer satisfaction, has risen dramatically to an all-time high. We find ourselves today, however, at a time of increasing uncertainty. A number of states and municipalities have reinstituted temporary economic restrictions in response to rising COVID-19 cases. Others are considering them. On the other hand, vaccines are being distributed, and the U.S. government continues to discuss additional economic stimulus. The uncertainty of the resolutions of these impactful events makes providing near-term guidance very difficult. Therefore, we're not providing financial guidance at this time. However, if we're able to gain clarity before the end of the quarter, we'll provide an update in advance of our third quarter earnings release. That said, there is much that does remain certain. Our employee partners reflect the steadfast CentOS culture. They're always striving to exceed the expectations of our customers to maximize the long-term value of CentOS for its shareholders, employee partners, and other stakeholders. The result is consistently strong financial performance with CentOS growing revenue and EPS 49 of the past 51 years. I remain certain of our value proposition of getting businesses ready for the workday by providing essential, unparalleled image, safety, cleanliness, and compliance. It has never resonated more than it does today. I remain certain of our addressable market, namely the millions upon millions of businesses that are not currently Cintas customers, many of whom are not in a program with recurring service, but could benefit from at least one Cintas product or service. And I'm certain that Cintas is well positioned for years to come. Now I'll turn it over to Mike for commentary on the financial results of the quarter. Mike?