HireQuest, Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the HireQuest, Inc. Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for questions and comments following the presentation. If you should require assistance throughout the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad to reach a live operator. At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Brett Moss. Sir, the floor is yours.

Thank you, operator. I would like to welcome everybody to the call. Hosting the call today are HireQuest CEO Rick Hermans and CFO Corey Smith. Please be aware some of the comments made during our call may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Statements about our beliefs and expectations containing words such as may, could, would, will, should, believe, expect, anticipate, and similar expressions constitute forward-looking statements. These statements involve risks and uncertainties regarding our operations and our future results that could cause higher question or higher question results to differ materially from my organization's current expectations. We encourage you to review the safe harvest statements and risk factors contained in the company's earnings release and its filings of the SEC, including without limitation the most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other periodic reports, which identifies specific risk factors that may also cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in the forelooking statement. Copies of the company's most recent reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q may be obtained on the company's website at higherquest.com or at the SEC's website, sec.gov. The company does not undertake to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements after the call or date of this call. I'd also like to remind everyone that this call will be available for replay through August 23rd. A link to the website replay of the call will also be provided in the earnings release and is available on the company's website at hirequest.com. I'd like to now turn the call over to the CEO of HireQuest, Rick Hermans. Rick, the floor is yours.

Thank you for joining us. I'd like to congratulate our franchisees for a successful quarter. This time last year, none of us knew what the next day would bring. But our franchisees have adapted to the evolving business environment. Every day, our franchisees across the country service their clients and provide thousands of people the opportunity to work. Our organic system-wide sales were up 30% for the second quarter, and when you include the acquisitions of Snelling and Link, we were up over 100%, despite some lingering headwinds from COVID. The second quarter was notable due to the fact that it's the first period with significantly reduced impact from external factors. The second half of 2019 was impacted by significant costs related to the merger with Command Center. And in 2020, we, like the rest of the world, were managing through the pandemic. As this past quarter developed, we were largely free from all that noise. The second quarter results are beginning to demonstrate the amount of operating leverage our franchise model can generate. The acquisitions of Snelling and Link are important factors in getting us back to a level of system-wide sales where we can hit our stated target of 3.5% to 4.5% net income, although the additional amortization expense from these transactions may require an adjustment in our targets. System-wide sales are still lagging a bit behind what we would expect non-pandemic levels to be, but that provides an opportunity for further organic growth as the economy continues to rebound in the second half of 2021. One of the benefits of our geographic footprint is that our franchisees are spread across 35 states with a good number in economically dynamic states like Florida and Texas, who have largely resisted mass business shutdowns. We also launched a new franchise offering, DriverQuest, focused on staffing for transportations and logistics industry, long-haul and last-mile trucking, have become a growing industry segment for a number of years in conjunction with the growth of e-commerce. The pandemic accelerated further adoption and growth in this area and exacerbated the supply and demand issues for companies trying to find drivers. This is a specialized industry with specific needs, and we wanted to make sure that we were able to structure an offering that benefits the employees, clients, and franchisees. We're excited about the growth opportunities DriverQuest offers to new and existing franchisees. We believe that our franchise model can be applied across a broader range of service industries, and we continue to evaluate the best avenue to enter these new verticals, internal development, acquisitions, or a combination. Before I turn over the call to Corey to discuss the financial results further, I wanted to mention that the Board of Directors declared our regular quarterly dividend. We will pay a six cent per share dividend on September 15th, 2021 to shareholders of record on September 1st. Our expectation is we will continue to pay a six percent dividend quarterly going forward. With that, I'll turn the call over to Corey. Corey?