Casella Waste Systems, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the 2024 3rd Quarter Casella Way system conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Charlie Walherter, Director of Investment Relations. Please go ahead.

Charlie Walherter All right. Thank you, Marvin. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. We'll be discussing our third quarter 2024 results, which were released yesterday afternoon. Here with me today are John Casella, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Casella Waste Systems, Ned Coletta, our President, Brad Helgeson, our Chief Financial Officer, and Sean Steeves, our Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Solid Waste Operations. After a review of these results and an update on the company's activities and business environment, we will be happy to take your questions. But first, please be aware that various remarks we may make about the company's future expectations, plans, and prospects constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of the safe harbor provisions under the private securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in the risk factors section of our most recently filed Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, which are on file with the SEC. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing our views in any subsequent date. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so even if our views change. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to today, October 31st, 2024. Also during this call, we'll be referring to non-GAAP financial measures These non-GAAP measures are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, to the extent they are available without unreasonable effort, are included in our press release filed on Form 8K with the SEC. And with that, I will now turn the call over to John Casella to begin today's discussion.

Thanks, Charlie. Good morning everyone and welcome to our third quarter 2024 conference call. Once again, it was a busy but very exciting quarter as we continue to execute against our strategic growth plan. I will review these highlights and provide comments on our results. Brad and Ned will then discuss details on the financials and our strategies. As we announced in our press release last last night, completed our sixth acquisition of the year, closing Royal on October 1st. This is a company that we've known and respected for decades. They're focused on delivering excellent customer service, taking care of their team, and supporting their local communities are admirable and aligned with how we operate. We'd like to welcome all of our new team members to Casella and look forward to serving our new customers with the same outstanding customer service that has helped make Royal successful for nearly 70 years. As always, our initial focus is on integration, which I'm happy to share is going well at the three larger acquisitions we completed this year, LMR, Whitetail, and now Royal. With nearly 5,000 employees, I'm very excited about what the future holds. Shifting to our results for the third quarter, revenue topped 400 million while we generated over 100 million of adjusted EBITDA for the first time in a quarter. These achievements reflect the power of the hard work at all levels and underscore the strong foundation of our company. Beginning with our landfills, volumes were down year over year. C and D tons remain the driver for almost the entire decline. Special waste was down marginally and MSW tonnages were mostly flat in the quarter. While this has presented a recent headwind, our strategy has not changed as we remain dedicated to preserving our valuable airspace for the long term. To this point, our average price per ton at our landfills increased over 7% year over year. And just recently, we received support from the state of Maine on the expansion of our Jupiter Ridge landfill. This is a critical asset for the communities in Maine and will continue to provide a dedicated disposal outlet. Moving to the collection side, I'm especially happy to report the strategic investments in our frontline operations are making positive impacts. Adjusting the bid and margins, we're up 130 basis points in a quarter on same store basis. This is impressive and a testament to the strong operating program Sean Steeves and his team have developed. With plans for continued automated truck conversions rollout of onboard computers, and leveraging Power BI tools, we see further opportunities across our base business and acquisitions for more value creation. These benefits also flow through to our recruiting efforts, employee safety, and turnover trends as well. In some cases, these are at the best levels in the company's recorded history. Applications are strong, and both TRIR and turnover rates are moving lower. In resource solutions, we also posted strong results across both adjusted EBITDA growth and margins. On the same store basis, margins were up 90 basis points year over year and a quarter. We've worked very hard at making strategic investments that answer the demand for sustainable solutions while generating strong returns. In the broad base, strength in the results shows it. Beginning with our MRFs, results benefit from higher commodity prices. This provided a tailwind to our performance. However, this was only part of our success. The equipment upgrades at certain facilities have increased productivity, throughput, and safety levels, while material recovery and quality have also improved. Our Boston MRF is a great example for how technology can enhance our operations. and is a blueprint we are applying to other facilities, namely our Willimantic facility. This facility is offline now, but is expected to be up and running early next year. Our national accounts business remains strong, and it's a very strong area of growth. We want new commercial, municipal, industrial businesses in the quarter, and now entry into the Hudson Valley with Royal provides opportunity to target commercial, and institutional customers with a focus on sustainability, much like our strategy in the Mid-Atlantic. Speaking of sustainability, in late September, we published our 2024 sustainability report, highlighting our vision and achievements in creating and sharing value with the customers and communities that we serve. Our sustainability strategy is deeply rooted in our company, from building our first MRF in the state of Vermont back in 1977, To further investments across our MRF network, our resource solutions segment is one part of our focus. The other key areas are the resources we are devoting to our people in safety, training, recruitment, and retention. These investments support the backbone of our company and allow us to better serve our customers and communities. Finally, I'd like to emphasize the solid waste results our team has delivered. The strength of our base business positions us very well as I look forward, and the recent acquisitions we completed add to this foundation. I'm looking forward to a strong finish in 2024, and it's set up for 2025 and beyond. The outlook is very promising, giving the opportunities in front of us and our continued potential to grow the business. I'll now pass it on to Brad to walk through the details from a financial standpoint.