MillerKnoll, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to Miller-Knowles Quarterly Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Stutz.

Good evening and welcome to our first quarter fiscal 2025 conference call. I'm joined today by Andy Owen, our Chief Executive Officer. Also available during the Q&A session are John Michael, President of the America's Contract Segment, and Debbie Probst, President of our Global Retail Segment. Before I turn the call over to Andy, please remember our safe harbor regarding forward-looking information. During the call, management may discuss information that is forward-looking and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results to be different than those expressed or implied. Please evaluate the forward-looking information in the context of these factors which are detailed in today's earnings press release. The forward-looking statements are as of today, and we assume no obligation to update or supplement these statements. We may also refer to certain non-GAAP financial metrics, which are reconciled and described in our press release that is posted on our investor relations website at MillerKnoll.com. With that, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Andy.

Thanks, Jeff, and good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. Before we get into our Q1 results, I wanted to take a moment to remember Bud Bugach. Bud served as a research analyst covering our company for many, many years. And while we will miss the deep knowledge and insight that he brought to the contract industry, we will also miss the energy and enthusiasm that he brought to everything he did. Bud was a great man. Our deepest condolences go out to his family. And with that being said, Bud would probably say, Let's get back to earnings. Miller & Noll entered fiscal year 2025 with momentum. I'm happy to say that, again, orders are up year over year and demand is improving. First quarter order growth was largely driven by the America's contract segment, where orders gained momentum throughout the quarter. Importantly, customers are placing large orders, and the indicators that we discussed last quarter, such as project funnel additions, customer mock-up requests, and new contract activations continue to be up year over year, all of which underscore an improving demand picture. Orders also grew in our international and specialty segment, largely driven by Asia, where we saw large orders from both global accounts and local technology companies. While this is encouraging, customers have also increased the time between their order entry and requested shipment times. This has pushed revenue into subsequent quarters, and we are carefully managing operating expenses to align with sales levels. Across the company, we are focused on growth. This quarter, we launched several initiatives to support our contract business, meet our clients' evolving needs, and set us up for success as demand trends accelerate. Our Insights team launched new research behind the importance of relationship-based work. It's part of our Design with Impact platform that helps customers redefine their workspace and create environments that support well-being, community, and productivity. We also bring our research to life within our own space. This quarter, we introduced two new Miller Knoll flagship locations in London and New York that include both contract showrooms and retail stores, as well as working space for our associates. Miller Knoll London is the first Miller Knoll destination outside of the United States. and marks just one step we're taking to offer an enhanced experience to our customers across the United Kingdom and Europe. Miller Knoll New York is our largest flagship with 11 floors and 77,000 square feet. Located in the heart of the Gramercy Design District, it features dedicated space for Knoll, Herman Miller, Geigerd A. Zweizer, Meharam, and Muto. We also continue to deliver unique solutions for our customers through our product selection. In the first quarter, we launched dozens of new products across the collective and introduced new sustainable materials, including a bamboo-based leather alternative, eelgrass, and BioPure foam, all reinforcing our commitment to design a better world. In addition, our work in healthcare design was recently recognized in Fast Company's Innovation by Design Awards for our partnership on sensory seating with Jefferson Health's Honickman Center in Philadelphia. Turning to our retail segment, we focused on capturing demand, as summer is typically softer for the industry as consumers shift more of their spend to travel. By capitalizing on the strong operational foundation that the team has built, we delivered orders faster and held sales flat to last year in a difficult environment. At the same time, we continue to execute against our growth initiatives, including product assortment expansion, design services, and more targeted customer engagement throughout their purchase journey. In North America, We estimate that our retail business outperformed year-on-year retail industry comparisons by approximately six points during the quarter. We are confident in the strong growth potential for our retail segment and optimistic that in the near future, real estate and housing market rebounds will fuel demand. We've made Design Within Reach the destination to shop our brands in North America by offering a larger Knoll assortment as well as Hay and Muto. This strategy is gaining traction. during the quarter would drive higher sales for these brands in North America. The interplay between online and store experience is key. We know that many of our customers start online and then work with associates and stores utilizing their design services. Our retail growth plans include store expansion within North America. Work is underway now to begin opening several new stores in the second half of fiscal year 2025, with plans for more stores in fiscal year 2026. Now that interest rates have dropped slightly, We anticipate that customers and trade partners will start placing the orders they've paused. We've invested marketing to capture their attention and to support the upcoming cyber and holiday season. We believe our first quarter financial results demonstrate the advantage provided by our collective of brands, diverse business channels and global footprint, and have positioned us to seize opportunities as trends improve. Across the company, we focused on growth and positioning ourselves for the future. Our most important asset is our team, and we continue to strengthen our associate experience. I'm pleased to share that Miller & Old has been certified as a 2024 U.S. Great Place to Work. In addition, we've added new talent to our board of directors. Following the retirement of two board members last year, we recruited and recently announced three new directors. We're excited to welcome John Mehta, Tina Edmondson, and Jeannie Gay, who bring expertise in technology, architecture, design, and hospitality. Their dynamic perspectives will benefit our board and our management team as we partner together to drive long-term success. With that, I'll close by saying I am optimistic about the year ahead. Our hard work and focus are building momentum in our business. I'll now turn it back to Jeff for a closer look at our financials.