Quest Resource Holding Corporation

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Quest Resource Holding Corp. First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions during the question-and-answer session. You may register to ask a question at any time by pressing star and 1 on your telephone keypad. Please note today's call will be recorded, and we will be standing by if you should need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn today's conference over to Dave Mossberg, Investor Relations.

Thank you, David, and thank you, everyone, for joining us on the call. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that this call may contain predictions, estimates, and other forward-looking statements regarding future events and future performance of Quest. Use of words like anticipate, project, estimate, expect, intend, believe, and other similar expressions are intended to identify those forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on Quest's current expectations, estimates, projections, beliefs, and assumptions, and involve certain significant risks and uncertainties. Actual events or Quest results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors which are discussed in greater detail in Quest filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements and to consult our SEC filings for additional risks and uncertainties. Quest forward-looking statements are presented as of the date made, and we disclaim any duty to update such statements unless required to do so by law. In addition, in this call, we may include industry and market data and other statistical information, as well as Quest observations about industry conditions and developments. The data and information are based on Quest estimates, independent publications, government publications, and reports by market research firms and other sources. Although Quest believes these sources are reliable and the data and information are accurate, we caution that Quest has not independently verified the reliability of the sources of the accuracy of the information. Certain non-GAAP financial measures will be discussed during this call. These non-GAAP measures are used by management to make strategic decisions, forecast future results, and evaluate the company's current performance. Management believes the presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is useful to investors' understanding of and the assessment of the company's ongoing core operations and prospects for the future. Unless it is otherwise stated, it should be assumed that any financials discussed in this call will be on a non-GAAP basis. Full reconciliations of non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures are included in today's earnings release. With all that said, I'll now turn the call over to Ray Hatch, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Ray Hatch Thank you, Dave, and thank you for joining us on today's call. We have strong momentum across our business to start the year, One area to highlight is organic growth of new clients. We previously discussed six new client wins last quarter and one large new win early in the second. To put those achievements in perspective, in the past couple of years, we've been averaging approximately one new client win per quarter. We also have strong momentum with our existing client base. I'll talk about this a bit later, but to summarize, we are seeing strong growth with our existing client base, and continue to uncover significant opportunities to expand services even further. We're also having success adding new end markets, having added two in the past couple of quarters. These areas have significant growth potential and we're well positioned to add additional new clients in these markets, as well as new service lines where there is a crossover of services within our existing client base. I will also note that our pipeline of opportunities with new and existing clients has grown and momentum appears to be durable, which bodes well for the next few years. Besides momentum seen during the first quarter, we began to see the benefits from the investments we've made and continue to make in scalability and efficiency of our technology platform and process improvements, increasing operating efficiencies. This is showing up in a number of ways. First is the accelerated pace of adding new business from both existing and new clients through our ability to quote more accurately, more completely, and more timely. Second is the increased efficiency in which we are operating waste programs. We're driving costs down, which benefits our customers and our vendor partners as well as our own business in the form of lower cost of sales. And third, platform investments and process improvements are beginning to deliver operating leverage so that we can significantly scale the business without a correlated increase in overhead costs. For example, during the first quarter, we grew EBITDA at more than twice the pace of gross profit dollars. We expect to demonstrate more and more of that operating leverage in the coming quarters. I'll now turn the call over to our CFO, Brett Johnston.