MillerKnoll, Inc.

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, Wendy Watson, Vice President of Impressor Relations.

Good evening and welcome to our first quarter fiscal 2026 conference call. On with me are Andy Owen, Chief Executive Officer, and Kevin Veltman, Interim Chief Financial Officer. Joining them for the Q&A session are Jeff Stepp, Chief Operating Officer, John Michael, President of North America Contract, and Debbie Probst, President of Global Retail. We issued our earnings press release for the quarter ended August 30th, 2025, after market closed today. And it is available on our investor relations website at millernull.com. A replay of this call will be available on our website within 24 hours. Before I turn the call over to Andy, please remember our safe harbor disclosure 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 press release. The forward-looking statements are made as of today's date, And except as may be required by law, we assume no obligation to update or supplement these statements. We also refer to certain non-GAAP financial metrics, and our press release includes the relevant non-GAAP reconciliations. With that, I'll turn the call over to Andy.

Thanks, Wendy. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us tonight. We are very pleased with our strong start to fiscal 2026. Our Q1 results significantly exceeded our expectations. Before we get into the financial details, I'd like to recap a few highlights from the quarter, including leadership news, progress in our strategic initiatives, and an update on what we're seeing in our markets. First, I want to touch on our recently announced board chair succession plans and leadership changes. I'd like to thank Mike Volkma, our outgoing board chair, for his dedication and leadership for the past 25 years. and to congratulate John Hoke as he prepares to succeed Mike as board chair. John has served on our board since 2005, and I'm looking forward to working closely with him in his new role. We have a strong bench of talent at Miller Knoll, and I'm thrilled to congratulate Jeff Stubbs on his well-deserved promotion to chief operating officer. Jeff has impacted nearly every corner of our business during his 25 years with the company, including as chief financial officer for the past 10 years. As Chief Operating Officer, Jeff is responsible now for our international contract business, our Europe-based brands, and our global manufacturing and distribution operations. And this evening, Kevin Beltman is joining us as Interim CFO. Many of you know Kevin from his prior roles with Miller Knoll over the past 10 years, serving in a variety of leadership positions, including investor relations and as the integration lead for the Knoll acquisitions. When we spent last quarter, I set out our priorities for this fiscal year. We are focusing on accelerated product creation and innovation, consistent execution, and prudent cost management while investing for profitable growth across our businesses. In the four years since we combined the strengths of Herman Miller and Knoll, we've had the time to perfect how we go to market with the full strength of our collective, to integrate our world-class dealers, who are now well-versed in our unmatched product portfolio. And we are now capitalizing on our opportunities. Every day, we're presenting our customers with state-of-the-art solutions for what's possible in their spaces, implementing our geographic and channel expansion plans, and developing innovative new products. We have a balanced, long-term approach to our businesses, with the cash flow and balance sheet strength to capitalize on our multiple opportunities. Now on to the quarter. As I just mentioned, we outperformed our expectations and delivered strong revenue and profitability, with consolidated net sales growing almost 11% and adjusted EPS increasing 25%. Our results underscore the strength of our business model, strong execution by our team, improving conditions in several key markets, and continued progress on our strategic growth initiatives. In our contract businesses, we believe growth momentum is building. More and more companies are recognizing the benefit of bringing their employees together and looking to refresh their spaces. Office leasing activity for Class A space continues to be robust in many markets, with Manhattan leasing activity in August well above the 10-year monthly leasing average. Orders in the industry and dealer optimism are up, and we are continuing to see strength in our own pre-order metrics with our 12-month funnel up year-over-year in both North America and international contract. On the product side, in addition to healthcare solutions from Herman Miller, private office solutions from Geiger Datesweiser, and the new workspace solutions from Knoll that were all introduced at design days, we launched an electrostatic discharge version of one of our icons, the Aeron Chair, allowing it to be used in data center clean room environments. We are excited to see such strong interest in and opportunity for this product globally. Turning to our global retail business. First, a reminder that our growth strategy of this business is currently focused on the North America region and comprised of four levers. Opening new stores, expanding our product assortment, growing e-commerce sales, and increasing our brand awareness. Kevin will discuss the segment financials. but I want to share some North America retail-specific performance for the quarter, which includes all of our North American operations with the exception of Holly Hunt. Net sales in the North America region were up 7% compared to last year, and North America orders were up over 5%. Web traffic in North America was up a strong 17% over last year. We opened four stores during the quarter, two new DWR locations in Sarasota, Florida, and Las Vegas, and new Herman Miller stores in Chicago and Philadelphia. In the second quarter, we expect to open four additional stores, a DWR in Salt Lake City and Herman Miller stores in Nashville and in El Segundo and Walnut Creek, California. For the full fiscal year, we anticipate opening a total of 12 to 15 new stores in the U.S. as we execute on our strategy to more than double our DWR and Herman Miller store footprint over the next several years. On to our retail assortment expansion initiatives. This year we're launching 50% more product newness than we did in fiscal 2025. And new product is already positively impacting our performance with new product order growth of over 20% in the quarter. This bodes well for the future. First, as you might expect, we see a direct correlation between categories with the most newness and overall growth. Second, New products are driving outsized demand from customers who are brand new to Miller Knoll, so assortment expansion fosters new customer acquisition and provides a platform for building long-term customer lifetime value. Before I turn it over to Kevin, I want to thank and recognize our associates around the world for their hard work and dedication to Miller Knoll. Our performance this quarter reflects their commitment to outstanding execution. Our people are the key to our success. And I'm proud that Miller Knoll was recognized by SAS Company as the best workplace for innovators and also named overall as a great place to work. Kevin, welcome, and I'll hand it over to you.