Brady Corporation

good day and thank you for standing by welcome to the q1 2023 brady corporation earnings conference call at this time all participants are in a listen-only mode after the speaker's presentation there will be a question and answer session to ask a question during the session you will need to press star 1 1 on your telephone please be advised that today's conference is being recorded I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Ann Thornton, Chief Accounting Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to the Brady Corporation Fiscal 2023 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. The slides for this morning's call are located on our website at www.bradycorp.com slash investors. We will begin our prepared remarks on slide number three. Please note that during this call, we may make comments about forward-looking information. Words such as expect, will, may, believe, forecast, and anticipate are just a few examples of words identifying a forward-looking statement. It's important to note that forward-looking information is subject to various risk factors and uncertainties, which could significantly impact expected results. Risk factors were noted in our news release this morning and in Brady's Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K, which was filed with the SEC in September. Also, please note that this teleconference is copyrighted by Brady Corporation and may not be rebroadcast without the consent of Brady. We will be recording this call and broadcasting it on the Internet. As such, your participation in the Q&A session will constitute your consent to being recorded. I'll now turn the call over to Brady's President and Chief Executive Officer, Russell Schaller.

Russell? Thank you, Anne, and thank you all for joining us today. This morning, we released our fiscal 2023 first quarter financial results, which was another quarter marked by solid execution across all of our businesses. Overall, we had a good quarter with organic sales growth of 6.9%. Much of this organic growth was ultimately offset by foreign currency translation, resulting in total sales growth of 0.3%. Although we can't control currency translation, we can control organic sales and we can control our cost structure in an effort to offset currency headwinds. And that is precisely what we did, which led to our strong GAAP earnings per share growth of 17.9%. We once again improved profitability while investing in R&D, expanding our sales force, and improving our digital capabilities. I'm proud of how the entire Brady team worked together through this challenging macro environment. all the while delivering for both our customers and our shareholders. More specifically, as it relates to the macro environment, we're starting to see some changes. For instance, hiring is improving, but still remains somewhat challenging. We are seeing more qualified candidates and we're filling open positions quicker than we had in the past. International shipping rates have monitored, moderated, and our supply chain is improving. There are still certain products that are challenging to source in a cost-effective manner, but for the most part, the supply chain is loosened up to the point where we're getting the critical parts that we need to meet our customer demands. However, these positive signs have not yet translated into reduced inflation. We're experiencing increased energy costs, increased wage rates, and weaker currencies in relation to the U.S. dollar which are squeezing margins in regions outside of North America. While there are a number of economic uncertainties, we continue to experience a solid demand environment for Brady's products, and our team continues to do a great job serving our customers. We've effectively managed these marketplace disruptions and supply chain constraints to ensure that we could serve our customers. However, it's made supply chains more expensive and lead times have been elongated versus pre-pandemic periods, which you can see in our increased inventory levels. Our balance sheet gives us the flexibility to withstand these type of macro events and ensure that we can meet the needs of our customers by supplying them with the products they need to get their jobs done. I can't tell you what the macroeconomic future holds. My view of the future is formed based on the data that many of you see, as well as what I'm hearing from our customers, our suppliers, and the Brady sales force. Even though our order patterns currently remain robust, we are prepared for a softer calendar 2023. Brady's priorities remain clear. First and foremost is to continue our evolution into a faster growing company. Second is to improve our capabilities to ensure our customers' automation initiatives. which is an area that we believe will give us a tailwind for years to come. Third is to take the necessary actions to offset impacts of this inflationary environment, all the while meeting customer demands and providing the best possible service. Fourth is to reinforce Brady's culture of operating sustainably with a long-term view which encompasses our approach to ESG and ensuring that we are supporting all of our stakeholders from our customers to our employers to our communities and, of course, our shareholders. And finally, we're focused on deploying our capital in order to drive long-term shareholder value, be it organic investments, acquisitions, or returning funds to our shareholders. We are in a position of strength. Our printer lineup is strong, and we have a pipeline of highly innovative printers on the way. Placing printers in the marketplace is incredibly important for Brady as this results in repeat purchases and deepens our customer relationships. We're continuing to make investments in our future. We have a rock solid balance sheet and we have a fantastic team at Brady that is delivering for our customers every single day. I'll now turn the call over to Aaron to provide more details on our financial results. Then I'll return to provide more specific commentary about our identification solutions business and our workplace safety business.