Optical Cable Corporation

Good morning. My name is Maria, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the Optible Cable Corporation second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer period. To ask a question at that time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press the pound key. If you should require operator assistance, please press star zero. Thank you. Mr. Paylash, you may begin your conference.

Perfect. Thank you, Maria. Good morning, and thank you all for participating on Obstacle Cable Corporation's second quarter fiscal year 2021 conference call. At this time, everyone should have a copy of the earning press release issued earlier today. You can also visit www.occfiber.com for a copy. On the call with us today are Neil Wilkin, President and Chief Executive Officer of OCC, and Tracy Smith, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that this call may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The actual future results of Obstacle Cable Corporation may differ materially due to a number of factors and risks, including but not limited to those factors referenced in the forward-looking statement section of this morning's press release. These cautionary statements apply to the contents of the internet webcast on www.occfiber.com as well as today's call. With that, I'll turn the call over to Neil Wilkin. Neil, please begin.

Thank you, Aaron, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin the call today with a few opening remarks. Tracy will then review the second quarter results for the three-month and six-month periods ended April 30th, 2021 in some additional detail. After Tracy's remarks, we will answer as many of your questions as we can. As is our normal practice, we will only take questions from analysts and institutional investors during the Q&A session. However, we also offer our shareholders the opportunity to submit questions in advance of our earnings call. Instructions regarding such submissions are included in our press release announcing the date and time of our call today. OCC second quarter results reflected the hard work of our team and the steps we have taken to protect the business, build on our strong place in the market, and position the companies to succeed as the effects of the pandemic subside. Tracy will speak to this in more depth, but at a high level, our net sales in the quarter benefited from the lifting of some restrictions and reopening of certain markets that had been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. And as we moved through the quarter, we continue to see positive indicators in many of our markets. Additionally, we've taken steps to control costs and improve efficiencies, efforts which are ongoing. This quarter, we signed two important agreements that demonstrate our industry leadership and growth trajectory. The first is a contract to supply certain of OCC's proprietary products to a major defense contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense. We expect to begin manufacturing the products in the fiscal third quarter of 2021, and we now believe that we will continue to be manufacturing these products into next fiscal year. OCC is proud of its long history of designing and manufacturing products for the U.S. military. and we were once again humbled to do our part by applying our innovative technologies and substantial capabilities to supply and support the brave men and women protecting our freedom. We are fortunate to count a number of veterans among our dedicated team, and all of us look forward to delivering the products and solutions on which our military relies and for which OCC is known. The second, related to our valuable intellectual property, is an agreement with CommScope the cross-license portion of both companies' patent portfolios. The cross-license agreement relates to certain copper data communication connectivity patents of both OCC and Comscope, in addition to our in-building wireless patents. The agreement allows both companies to access and implement the other companies' licensed patents and technologies. We are pleased to continue a more than 15-year mutually beneficial relationship with CommScope and are confident that it will deliver benefits in both the short-term and long-term for our customers and users and shareholders. This past quarter, we continue to benefit from our ongoing sales, business development, and cost control initiatives, enabling OCC to be positioned for future growth to operate more efficiently and to control expenses across the organization. Looking ahead, we expect to benefit from continued improvement in our markets in line with a strengthening economic environment. We are confident that OCC is poised for a strong second half of our fiscal year as we provide our customers with mission-critical products and solutions and execute on our strategies to deliver enhanced value for shareholders. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Tracy Smith who will review in additional detail our second quarter of fiscal year 2021 financial results.