Optical Cable Corporation

Good morning. My name is Reed, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the Optical Cable Corporation first quarter 2022 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. You may queue to ask a question at any time by pressing star and one on your touchtone phone. Please note today's call may be recorded. I will be standing by if you should need any assistance. Mr. Paylesh, you may begin your conference.

Terrific. Thank you. Good morning, and thank you all for participating on Obstacle Cable Corporation's first quarter of fiscal year 2022 conference call. By this time, everyone should have a copy of the earnings 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 Optical 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 Neal Wilkin. Neal, please begin.

Neal Wilkin Thank you, Aaron, and good morning, everyone. I will begin the call today with a few opening remarks. Tracy will then review the first quarter results for the three-month period ended January 31st, 2022, and 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 other 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. Our first quarter results reflect the OCC team's solid execution in a market environment that is still directly and indirectly affected by COVID-19, including significant supply chain constraints. During the quarter, net sales were up 21.6% and gross profit up 75.2% in each case compared to the same period last year. We are pleased to continue seeing strong demand for our full suite of mission critical cabling and connectivity products and solutions, reinforcing our confidence in the strengths of our offerings, growth strategies, and competitive position in the market. It's worth reiterating that thanks to the hard work of our team, OCC remains uniquely positioned in our industry and we appreciate the opportunity to meet the evolving and unique needs of our customers, installers, specifiers, and end users. At OCC, we have differentiated core strengths and capabilities that not only enable us to offer top tier solutions, products, applications, and technical expertise, but also to successfully compete against much larger competitors. Moreover, our enviable market position, brand recognition, and the loyalty of our customers and end users helps us distribute to a broad... Neil, are you still there? I'm still here. Okay. So what was the last thing you heard?