Ultralife Corporation

Good day and welcome to this Ultralife Corporation first quarter 2022 earnings release conference call. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I'd like to turn the call over to Ms. Jody Berfling. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Aisling, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us this morning for Ultralife Corporation's earnings conference call for the first quarter of fiscal 2022. With us on today's call are Mike Popolek, Ultralife's president and CEO, and Phil Fain, Ultralife's Chief Financial Officer. The earnings press release was issued earlier this morning. If anyone has not yet received a copy, visit the company's website, www.ultralifereport.com, where you'll find the release under Invest News in the Investor Relations section. Before turning the call over to management, I would like to remind everyone that some statements made during this conference call contain forward-looking statements based on current expectations. Actual results could differ materially as projected as a result of various risks and uncertainties. The potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially include the impact of COVID-19, potential reductions in revenues from key customers, acceptance of new products on a global basis, and uncertain global economic conditions. The company cautions investors not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements which reflects the company's analysis only as of today's date. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements that reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Further information factors and other factors that could affect Ultralife's financial results included in Ultralife's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the latest annual report on Form 10-K. In addition, on today's call, management will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that management considers to be useful metrics and differ from GAAP. These non-GAAP measures should be considered as supplemental to corresponding GAAP figures. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Mike. Good morning, Mike.

Good morning, Jody, and thank you everyone for joining the call. Today, I'll start by making some brief overall comments about our Q1 2022 operating performance after which I'll turn the call over to Phil, who will take you through the detailed financial results. After Phil is finished, I'll provide an update on the progress against our 2022 revenue initiatives before opening it up for questions. For the first quarter of 2022, strong demand drove our battery and energy products medical revenues up 9% and oil and gas revenues up 20% year over year. Organically growing our battery and energy products business And when combined with the revenue boost from our XL Battery Group acquisition, more than offset continued supply chain impacted government defense revenues in both battery energy products and communication systems. This resulted in a 17% total company revenue increase over the prior year. We also exited Q1 2022 with approximately $92 million in backlog, an increase of 45% from the end of the previous quarter. Operating earnings in Q1 continue to be pressured by global supply chain challenges with seemingly daily raw material and input component price inflation not yet fully recovered with our price increases to customers. Other gross margin headwinds included substitute product identification, qualification, and procurement costs, long lead time and manufacturing inefficiencies, and new product transitions. Nevertheless, through price increases, cost control, and the positive earnings contribution of Excel, our team significantly narrowed the operating loss from the fourth quarter. In a few minutes, I'll give you further updates on our revenue initiatives, but first I'd like to ask Ultralife CFO Phil Fain to take you through additional details of the first quarter 2022 financial performance. Phil?