HireQuest, Inc.

Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to HireQuest Incorporated first quarter 2023 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your phone keypad. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Mr. John Nesbitt, Investor Relations. John, over to you.

Thank you and good afternoon. I'd like to welcome everyone to the call. Hosting the call today are HireQuest Chief Executive Officer Rick Hermans and Chief Financial Officer David Burnett. I'd like to take a moment to read the Safe Harbor Statement. This conference call contains four looking statements as defined within Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended. These forward-looking statements in terms such as anticipate, expect, intend, may, will, should, or other comparable terms involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and dependent circumstances that will occur in the future. These statements include statements regarding the intent, belief, or current expectations of higher requests and members of its management, as well as the assumptions on which such statements are based. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance involve risks and uncertainties, including those described in HireQuest's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Except as required by federal securities law, HireQuest undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed conditions. I would now like to turn the call over to CEO of HireQuest, Rick Hermans. Go ahead, Rick.

Thank you for joining us for today's call. To begin with, I will provide an overview of the financial and strategic highlights for the quarter. And then David will share more details surrounding our first quarter results. Our first quarter results were driven by strong performance at our organic locations and the integration of strategic accretive acquisitions into our business. Total revenue grew 40% to $9.9 million. with franchise royalties increasing 41.8% to $9.3 million. System-wide sales for the quarter increased $153.5 million compared to $101 million in the first quarter of 2022, and net income from continuing operations increased 372.1% to $2.3 million, or 17 cents per diluted share. Last quarter, we announced that we had completed our acquisition of MRI Network, a top permanent placement and executive search firm and professional staffing network based in the United States and the third largest executive recruiting network in the world. This was a transformative acquisition for us, adding over 200 franchise offices both in the United States and international to our staffing network. Excuse me. Our acquisition of MRI Network is a perfect example of our broader M&A strategy. We are intently focused on identifying, evaluating, and executing accretive acquisitions that we believe will further enhance the organic growth of our business. MRI Network allows us to add immediate scale in a brand-new vertical focused on the executive search and professional staffing market, and in a way that supports our existing HireQuest Direct and Snelling offerings. As is the case with any acquisition, we also incurred certain expenses related to our purchase of MRI network that are reflected in this quarter's results, particularly in our SG&A. These are near-term, one-off expenses that we planned for as part of the acquisition, and we expect them largely phased out by the end of the third quarter. We will note here that certain expenses related to MRI have been a bit more difficult to eliminate as quickly as we would have wished. That said, we are pleased with the progress we've made this quarter, particularly our ability to efficiently integrate large acquisitions into our business to have a near immediate positive impact on our results. This is especially true in the current economic environment, where many staffing companies have been reporting declining revenues year over year for their U.S. and North American businesses. With the first quarter now closed and a little more visibility into 2023, I'm confident that we are well positioned to continue driving our growth strategy to deliver consistent, improved results as we move through the balance of the year. With that, I'll pass it along to our CFO, David Burnett, who will provide a closer look at our first quarter results. David?