Acco Brands Corporation

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the second quarter 2019 Echo Brand Corporation earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we'll conduct a question and answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star then zero on your touchtone telephone. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Christine Hanneman. Senior Director of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Good morning. This is Christine Hanneman, Senior Director of Investor Relations. Welcome to ACCO Brands' second quarter 2019 conference call. Speaking on the call today are Boris Ellisman, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of ACCO Brands Corporation, and Neil Fenwick, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Slides that accompany this call have been posted to the investor relations section of accobrands.com. When speaking about quarterly results, we may refer to adjusted results. Adjusted results exclude transaction, integration, and restructuring costs and reflect an adjusted tax rate. Schedules of adjusted results and other non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are in today's earnings release and the slides that accompany this call. Due to the inherent difficulty in forecasting and quantifying certain amounts, we do not reconcile our forward-looking adjusted earnings per share, free cash flow, net leverage ratio, or adjusted tax rate guidance. Forward-looking statements made during the call are based on certain risks and uncertainties, and our actual results could differ materially. Please refer to our press release and SEC filings for an explanation of certain of these risk factors and assumptions. Our forward-looking statements are made as of today, and we assume no obligation to update them going forward. Following our prepared remarks, we will hold a Q&A session. Now I will turn the call over to Boris.

Good morning. We reported record second quarter sales in adjusted EPS, continuing our strong performance of the first quarter. Sales rose almost 7%, excluding currency translation, led by the strong back-to-school sell-in in North America. Profit growth was driven by sales and excellent control of expenses. I'm very pleased by our execution year-to-date, and while we will always have areas to improve, our results show that our strategies are bearing fruit and delivering good revenue and profit growth. Let me remind you of our strategic imperatives to drive profitable growth, the path we've been on for the last few years. We're diversifying our geographies and channels, organically and with acquisitions, to have a larger presence in faster growing countries and channels, and to have less dependency on any one customer. We're focusing more on the end consumer, investing more in consumer-centric brands and categories, organically and through acquisitions, and are choosing routes to market that are more closely aligned with where consumers want to shop. We're developing more products within users-driven innovation, as demonstrated by our recent launches of TruSense air purifiers, Photon 30 automatic laminators, Kensington SD7000 Surface Pro docking stations, and Rixell Momentum and LightsIQ shredders. We're laser-focused on reducing unnecessary costs in the business and improving the productivity of our resources. our Lean Six Sigma-based productivity programs generate substantial savings every year that are either reinvested in the business or returned to shareholders. We're diligent about execution, always the most difficult part of any business, but something that we at Echo Brands do well every quarter and especially this year. And lastly, we're prudent stewards of shareholder capital, ensuring that we invest in areas with good shareholder return and this includes acquisitions, or returning capital to shareholders. We have been working on these strategic vectors over the last few years and have delivered good revenue, EPS, and cash flow growth. Our record results this quarter are another confirmation that our strategies are working and that we're capable of generating profitable growth in a challenging environment. Now let me turn the call over to Neil for a review of segments guidance, and other financial commentary. And then I'll join him in answering your questions. Neil?