Armstrong World Industries Inc

call all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise after today's prepared remarks we will host a question and answer session it is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to theresa womble vice president of investor relations and corporate communications you may begin

Thank you, Nicole, and welcome everyone to our call this morning. Today we have Nick Grizzle, our CEO, and Chris Calzaretta, our CFO, to discuss Armstrong World Industries' third quarter 2025 results and rest of your outlook. We have provided a presentation to accompany these results that is available on the Investors section of the Armstrong World Industries website. As a reminder, our discussion of operating and financial performance will include non-GAAP financial measures within the meaning of the SEC Regulation G. A reconciliation of these measures with the most directly comparable GAAP measures is included in the earnings press release and in the appendix of the presentation we issued this morning. Again, both are available on the Investor Relations website. During this call, we will be making forward-looking statements that represent the view we have of our financial and operational performance as of today's date, October 28th, 2025. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may differ materially from those expected or implied. We provide a detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties in our SEC filings, including the 10Q we issued earlier this morning. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement beyond what is required by applicable securities law. Now I will turn the call over to Vic.

Thank you, Theresa. And good morning, everyone. And thank you for joining our call today to discuss our third quarter 2025 results, the progress we were making on our initiatives to deliver consistent, profitable top-line growth, and our expectations for the remainder of the year. Today, we announced record-setting third quarter net sales and earnings results with strong mineral fiber average unit value, or AUV, a second consecutive quarter of mineral fiber volume growth, and double-digit net sales growth in architectural specialties. On a consolidated basis, we delivered year-over-year top-line growth of 10%, resulting in record-setting quarterly net sales with robust performance in both our mineral fiber and architectural specialty segments. Consolidated company adjusted EBITDA increased 6%, while adjusted net earnings per share increased 13%, along with strong double-digit free cash flow growth in both the quarter and in the year-to-date period, allowing for execution across all our capital allocation priorities. This includes the increase in our quarterly dividend of 10% we announced last week and our latest architectural specialty acquisition of a Canadian wood ceiling manufacturer, Geometric. These results were driven by our differentiated and resilient business model, along with solid operational and commercial execution across our enterprise that once again allowed us to overcome lingering market softness and some timing-related cost headwinds. I want to take this opportunity to thank our teams across the company that continue to execute at the highest level that make these consistently strong results possible. So thank you. Like the last several quarters, we have remained laser-focused on operational efficiency, commercial execution, and our growth initiatives as we continue to navigate a dynamic and uncertain macroeconomic backdrop. These efforts not only contributed to strong top-line growth, but also continued to support our industry-leading profit margins, even as we dealt with timing-related costs this quarter. While Chris will discuss these in a bit more detail, it's worth noting, without these timing-related expenses, we would again have expanded EBITDA margin in the mineral fiber segment and at the total company level. And we remain poised to deliver margin expansion for the full year on both of these metrics. Despite these timing-related expenses, with our consistent underlying execution, the building blocks of Armstrong's formula for profitable growth remain strong and on full display in the third quarter. And as a reminder of what these building blocks are, they include, first, our focus on delivering consistent AUV growth in mineral fiber, all driven by the innovation and quality that feeds the category dynamic to mix up. and our best-in-class service levels supported by technology that help us earn our pricing in the marketplace. Secondly, our laser focus on achieving consistent annual productivity gains throughout our operations. Thirdly, our investments to expand our product offerings and capabilities to continue our successful penetration in the architectural specialty segment. And lastly, our investments in digital growth initiatives like Project Works and Canopy that drive volume, AUV, and contribute to margin expansion. In the third quarter in our mineral fiber segment, net sales increased 6% versus 2024 results, primarily driven by strong AUV growth and positive contribution from sales volumes. This marks the first time since 2022 that we reported back-to-back quarters of mineral fiber volume growth. This volume result was slightly ahead of our expectations as demand conditions in our markets remain relatively stable compared to our expectation of a modest slowdown expected mostly in the more discretionary type renovation activity. That said, the most notable volume growth driver was strong commercial execution and the contribution from our growth initiatives continuing to gain traction, enabling above market growth rates as well as positively contributing to our strong AUV performance. Adjusted EBITDA in the mineral fiber segment also grew 6%, reaching a third quarter record and a continuation of our strong performance in 2025. On a year-to-date basis through September, mineral fiber EBITDA has increased 9%, with margins expanding 160 basis points on a year-over-year basis, in overall flattish market conditions. Importantly, we continue to expect strong mineral fiber adjusted EPIDOT margin performance for the full year of approximately 43%, which would be the highest full year result since our last high watermark in 2019. Now, before moving to discuss architectural specialties results, I'd like to take a moment to highlight some of the ongoing efforts within our mineral fiber plants that contributed to our results as they have all year. First, we continue to generate solid productivity gains in our operations at a similar rate as in the second quarter. And this helped partially offset the timing related expenses I mentioned earlier. We also continued our execution at a high level on quality and service. One measure we use to gauge our quality and service to customers at our mineral fiber plants is called our perfect order measure that combines six different metrics that determine a perfect order in the eyes of our customer. The way it works is if any line item on a customer order misses any of these metrics, it's a zero on the scale of 100% perfect order. These metrics include things like accurate order fill rates and on-time delivery and billing quality. It's a tough measure, and rightly so, as this is what our customers expect and are willing to pay for. I'm pleased to report that our plant teams delivered a record result in this measure of this quarter. It's service and quality results like these that builds customer trust and loyalty that enables the retention of customers and pricing support for the value that we create. Now moving to the architectural specialty segment, our third quarter net sales in this segment increased 18%, driven by the benefits of both our 2024 acquisitions, 3Form and Zaner, along with solid organic growth. Adjusted EBITDA for the segment increased 10%, generating an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 19%. On an organic basis, adjusted EBITDA margins for the segment remained in line with our long-term target of 20% for the second quarter in a row, despite these timing related expenses mentioned earlier. I'm pleased with how we continue to leverage our architectural specialties network and together with our new acquisitions and the benefits of more architectural specialty products incorporated into our project works platform, we continue to improve our ability to win more projects. And this is most evident in the continuation of double-digit growth in orders and backlog for our architectural specialty products. We're also excited to welcome another acquisition, Geometric, to our growing portfolio of products and solutions. Based in British Columbia, Canada, Geometric is a leading designer and manufacturer of wood acoustical ceilings and wall systems that expands the variety of wood species we can offer our customers. With nine complimentary wood species across multiple products, including highly sought after Western hemlock, this company strengthens our wood portfolio and adds geographic diversification to our manufacturing footprint. Geometrics on-trend products and design expand our portfolio with more of the warm wood looks and biophilic designs that are in high demand from architects and owners. Their Western Canadian production location also enhances our ability to serve our customers in Canada and on the West Coast. We're excited to welcome the Geometric team to Armstrong's industry-leading specialties platform. Along with our acquisitions, we continue to be delighted by how our digital initiatives are progressing and making a positive contribution to both our segments. I mentioned Project Works earlier as it continues to gain traction with architects, designers, and contractors by quickly providing visualization of complex designs, eliminating the waste in the design process, and providing a complete bill of goods for clear and simple ordering. With increasing demands on limited construction labor availability, Project Works provides significant productivity value to our customers and strengthens our ability to hold onto project specifications throughout the construction process, and ultimately improves our win rates in the market. again, in both the mineral fiber and architectural specialty segments. Another one of our digital initiatives contributing nicely in the quarter is Canopy. Canopy, like Project Works, benefits both our business segments by providing an easy way for smaller customers to access a wide range of products through an online education and selling platform. And I'm pleased to share that the Canopy platform had both record sales and EBITDA in the quarter and continues to be a key differentiator for Armstrong. Now I'll pause and turn it over to Chris for more detail on our financial results.