Acuity Inc.

Good morning, and welcome to the Acuity Fiscal 2026 Second Quarter Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, the company will conduct a question and answer session. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Charlotte McLaughlin, Vice President of Investor Relations. Charlotte, please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning and welcome to the Acuity Fiscal 2026 Second Quarter Earnings Call. On the call with me this morning are Neil Ash, our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Karen Holcomb, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Today's call will include updates on our strategic progress and our Fiscal 2026 Second Quarter performance. There will be an opportunity for Q&A at the end of the call. As a reminder, some of our comments today may be forward-looking statements. We intend these forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbour provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as detailed on slide 2 of the accompanying presentation. Reconciliations of certain non-gap financial metrics with their corresponding gap measures are available in our 2026 second quarter earnings release and supplemental presentation, both of which are available on our investor relations website at www.investors.acuityinc.com. Thank you for your interest in Acuity. I will now turn the call over to Neil Ash.

Thank you, Charlotte, and thank you all for joining us today. We demonstrated strong execution in our second quarter of fiscal 2026. We grew net sales, we expanded our adjusted operating profit and adjusted operating profit margin, and we increased our adjusted diluted earnings per share. We generated strong cash flow and allocated capital effectively. In Acuity Brands Lighting, we are managing our business aggressively in a soft lighting environment. We are aligning our cost structure to current market dynamics while continuing to serve customers effectively. Over the last five years, we have made meaningful progress accelerating our strategy of increasing product vitality, elevating service levels, using technology to improve and differentiate both our products and how we operate the business, and driving productivity. These efforts have expanded capacity in our manufacturing network and given us greater flexibility to evaluate our production costs. As a result, this quarter we took certain actions including targeted labor cost reductions, which Karen will discuss later in the call. We are managing gross profit margin through the combination of strategic pricing and product and productivity improvements. This enables us to deliver in this market environment and positions us well for the future. Now I want to spend a moment on our growth algorithm, which is designed to ensure that we outgrow the lighting market. We enter new verticals, we take share, and we grow with the market. Last year, we strengthened our floodlight portfolio with the acquisition of M3 Innovation. These solutions are used in education, municipalities, and infrastructure, and are designed to reduce total installation costs and enhance the user experience. We have won several notable projects that include retrofit and new construction across verticals including parks and rec and education. One of our larger projects was an installation at Baldwinsville High School in New York. This project retrofitted an existing football field and installed our solution at a new athletics field. Combined with our lighting controls, we created dynamic control capabilities for a high impact game day environment across both facilities, all managed from a single control device. The industry continues to recognize the strength of our products and the value they bring our customers. This quarter, several products in our portfolio were awarded the Architecture Master Prize by the Farmani Group, including the Eureka Junction, a made-to-order luminaire that can be configured to create custom installations that are compatible with our in-light controls for use in large, shared interior spaces such as lobbies, atriums, reception areas, and event venues. Multiple products were also awarded product innovation awards by Architectural Products Magazine, including the Juno Track Linear Ambient Family in our Design Select portfolio that offers architects, lighting designers, and installers versatile options for combining accent and ambient illumination within a single system, simplifying specification and expanding creative possibilities. Now, switching to Acuity Intelligent Spaces, which continue to deliver strong sales and margin performance. Atrius and Distech control the management of the space, and QSC manages the experiences in the space. And over time, we will use data from both to enhance productivity outcomes through data interoperability. Taken together, this is how we can make spaces autonomous. Both Distech and QSC performed well this quarter. Within Distech Controls, our Eclipse portfolio is a strategic differentiator. It is a comprehensive building automation platform that unifies hardware and software into a cohesive ecosystem for intelligent building management. The portfolio includes hardware devices and software used to manage how a building operates, including HVAC control, lighting, and refrigeration. During the quarter, we released the Eclipse Retrofit solution, a building controls upgrade designed for use in buildings with legacy wiring and control architectures. This solution allows newer Eclipse-based control capabilities to be deployed, providing IP-based performance, embedded edge intelligence, and modern user interfaces without the associated cost or disruption of completely rewiring the space. We are also expanding our addressable market at QSC. Q-SYS is building the industry's most innovative full-stack AV platform that unifies data, devices and a cloud-first architecture to deliver real-time action, experiences and insights. Historically, the Q-SYS solutions were developed for use in large rooms and spaces. This quarter, we expanded our Q-SYS solution into smaller and medium-sized collaboration spaces with the introduction of the Room Suite modular system. This gives customers the option to increase their room capabilities using audio, video, and integrated networking, all supported by Q-SYS Reflect. AIS continues to gain industry recognition. Earlier this quarter, the Q-SYS Room Suite Modular System won the Best of Show Award at the ISE 2026 in Europe, the largest AV trade show in the world. While Q-SYS Loudspeakers won in both the NAMM Best of Show Award and in the NAMM TEC Awards, DISTEC Controls received the 2025 Global Company of the Year for Excellence in Integrated Smart Building Solutions by Frost & Sullivan. and won the Smart HVAC Product of the Year category at the UK HVR Awards for our Recents move. Now, moving to our outlook. Acuity Brands Lighting remains the best performing lighting company in the world. Given our performance year-to-date and our expectations for the lighting market for the remainder of the year, we now expect our full-year ABL sales performance will be flat to down low single digits year-over-year. We will continue to control what we can control. We are focused on product vitality, elevating service levels, using technology to improve and differentiate both our products and how we operate the business, and driving productivity. We are executing on our growth algorithm. We are managing gross profit margin through the combination of strategic pricing and product and productivity improvements. This positions us well for today and for the future. Acuity Intelligence Spaces is strategically differentiated. We have unique and disruptive technologies that are driving productivity for people experiencing spaces and for the people providing those spaces. Our focus will continue to be on growth, and we have the opportunity to expand margins over time. We are confident in the long-term performance of both the lighting and spaces businesses. We have demonstrated that we have dexterity in how we operate, enabling us to continue to execute in dynamic market conditions. Now, I'll turn the call over to Karen, who will update you on our second quarter performance.