Yunhong Green CTI Ltd.

Good day and welcome to the Yunheng CTI First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. During today's presentation, all parties will be in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, the conference will be open to questions. This conference is being recorded today, April 27th, 2023. The earnings press release accompanying this conference call was issued last night. On the call today is Yunheng CTI's Chief Executive Officer, Frank Cesario, as well as Chief Operating Officer, Jonna Swan. Before we begin, we want to note that you should read the forward-looking statements in the company's earnings press release. During today's call, management will make certain predictive statements that reflect the current views about future performance and financial results. The company bases these statements and certain assumptions and expectations on future events that are subject to risks and uncertainties. The company's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 lists some of the most important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from its predictions. Please also note that the company's earnings press release makes reference to adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure. The company views adjusted EBITDA as an operating performance measure, and as such, the company believes that the GAAP financial measure most directly comparable to it is net income or loss. For further information, please refer to the earnings press release and the company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Frank Cesario, Chief Executive Officer of Young Hung CTI. Sir, please go ahead.

Thanks, Matthew. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate your joining us for our update call today. In considering our comments, I was struck by how much the world has changed since the third quarter of 2022, and that's not a lot of time. But helium pricing had become such a huge issue in our space, ultimately contributing to the largest player in the industry restructuring. And we saw our own revenue drop by more than half from the prior years we fought for bottom line. I'm pleased to share that helium prices have improved. They continue to fall and are approaching normalized levels. We can't wait for that to actually happen, but it's getting closer. This favorable trend, combined with the significant realignment of our operations and strengthening of our balance sheet achieved over the last couple of years, are all reflected in our overall improved financial results for the first quarter and growth in shareholder value. Revenue only trailed the prior year by $0.7 million, going from $5.8 million last year to $5.1 million this year. And despite that, profitability still increased in terms of both percentage and dollar terms. We are relentless in finding more efficient structures as we satisfy our customers, and that starts with our Chief Operating Officer, Jonna Schwan. She played a critical role in strengthening our operations and driving sales in the challenging environments. all of which supported the improved results we reported in Q1. As I believe that's the driving force of today's conversation, I welcome Jonna to share her thoughts on making Yunhong CTI even more profitable. Jonna?

Thanks, Frank, and hello, everyone. We have talked about some of these elements in our prior calls, but they're worth revisiting in terms of efficiencies we have gained from these initiatives. Our incremental approach to automation of certain manufacturing lines have been the correct strategy, and we continue to make gradual investments in this arena. We track and measure our activities every day with a continuous improvement mindset. The discipline has identified opportunities in staffing and workflows that have allowed us to increase throughput year over year. While elevated helium prices reduced balloon volumes, we took advantage of the situation to eliminate costly overtime and inefficient processes. Our vendor relationships are strong and longstanding, We have good insights into their operations and capabilities, which allows us to source efficiently and helps manage our liabilities while keeping our working capital deployment manageable. Finally, I must call out our long-term employees for their leadership and dedication. It makes me proud to see 10, 20, 30 and even 40-year employees. These are individuals who understand everything about what needs to be done every day to achieve our goals and are a driving factor in the efforts to exceed our customers' expectations. Frank?