BrightView Holdings, Inc.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Brightview Holdings Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. After today's presentation, we will begin the Q&A session. To register a question, please press Start, followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press Start, followed by 2. With that, I'll turn the conference over to Chris Stokesko. Please go ahead when you're ready.

Good morning, and thank you for joining Brightview's Second Quarter Fiscal 2024 Earnings Call. Dale Asplen, Brightview's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Brett Urban, Chief Financial Officer, are on the call. I will now refer you to slide two of the presentation, which can also be found on our investor relations website and contains our safe harbor disclaimer. Our presentation and today's call include forward-looking statements subject to certain risks and uncertainties. In addition, during the call, we'll refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please see our press release in 8K issued yesterday for reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures. I will now turn the call over to Dale.

Thank you, Chris, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to begin by briefly reflecting on my first seven months as CEO. We have made incredible progress in such a short period of time, and our organization's ability to absorb these changes has been exceptional. As I sit here today, I am even more enthusiastic than I was on day one about the incredible opportunities ahead of us. I have the utmost confidence that all the changes we are making to transform this business are the right long-term decisions to operate as a unified One Brightview, drive profitable growth, and create shareholder value. I will start today on slide four by emphasizing our achievements and ongoing progress. Along with strategic updates, that will enhance our position to accomplish our objectives. Through the first half of the year, our commitment to executing our strategic vision and focusing on profitable growth has proven successful. As a result, we are reaffirming our full-year EBITDA midpoint in raising our margin in free cash flow guidance, all while selling our franchise business, unwinding our non-core aggregator business, and snowfall coming in at the low end of our original guidance range. We have seen meaningful growth in profitability and margin expansion and are gaining momentum in our business as we continue to implement our strategy of operating as one Brightview. As we move forward, we are confident that the actions we are taking will improve our ability to deliver on our strategic initiative and enhance our position as the number one player in the commercial landscape industry. After a strong beginning in Q1, we continued our momentum in Q2, marked by margin improvement across all our operating segments. This reflects the early returns on our actions and investment in operating as One Bright View. Also contributing to our results and outlook is our focus on the core businesses. while de-emphasizing the non-core. On our Q1 call, we discussed the divestiture of our U.S. lawns business, which we sold at a highly attractive, low-teens multiple. Additionally, we have evaluated and are actively unwinding our non-core aggregator business, known as BES. It's important to note this action will have no impact on our bottom line. Brett will discuss the full impact of this unwind during the financial segment of today's call. Ultimately, this decision stems from our commitment to operate as a unified Brightview, maintain high-quality brand reputation, and focus on our self-performing core businesses. During the quarter, we introduced initial programs aimed at prioritizing the safety and well-being of our employees. notably our Boots program. Additionally, we advanced the One Brightview culture by streamlining our operating structure to reinforce our revitalized go-to-market strategy under a less-is-more approach. These initiatives are designed to inspire our frontline employees, enhance our ability to service customers, and underscore Brightview's dedication and progress towards operating as One Brightview. On slide five, I'll showcase our boots program in partnership with Red Wing Shoes to equip over 18,000 team members with high-quality footwear, further highlighting our investment in our team. Our dedication to providing team members with the best personal protective equipment is not only an investment in their safety and well-being, but also inspires them to deliver exceptional service to our customers. As you can see from the picture on the right, employee reaction has been incredible. This picture reflects Carlos Achoya from our Owners County, California branch receiving his pair of boots and is one example of countless inspirational moments this initiative created where we truly focus on prioritizing our employees. Moving to slide six, let's discuss our streamlined operating structure. So far this year, we implemented significant measures to enhance our go-to-market strategy as we operate as One Bright View. Central to these efforts was the realignment of our operating structure, aimed at ensuring optimal market and customer coverage while maximizing efficiency and effectiveness. This structure allows for fewer layers and removes silos and puts us closer to our customers. by eliminating inefficiencies and aligning under one bright view. This improved structure enhances our capabilities with both new and existing customers. At the market level, our maintenance and development segments are now aligned, fostering meaningful growth opportunities. Our sales and operations are now integrated at the branch level, reinforcing our focus on cross-selling opportunities. Additionally, We also elevated one of our most seasoned leaders into our chief commercial officer, overseeing all aspects of growth. Positioning ourselves for success is paramount, and I am confident these actions will drive us forward and lead to enhanced service and profitable growth. Before turning the call over to Brett to discuss our financial results for the quarter, I want to summarize on slide seven how what we are doing today Brightview is positioning us for sustainable success over the long term. As the nation's largest provider in our industry, there is tremendous opportunity to leverage our size and scale to unlock growth in our business and gain market share. Our streamlined operations and go-to-market strategy as One Brightview will allow us to begin to convert more development services into reoccurring maintenance work. This is a simple example of a previously untapped opportunity. In order to maximize our potential and capitalize on our opportunities, we must be the best at what we do and provide best in class service to our customers. By simplifying our customer satisfaction survey and leveraging predictive AI technology, we have significantly improved our communication with customers and our ability to proactively service their needs. These efforts combined with investments in our employees are aimed at driving higher customer retention. We also have the opportunity to optimize our customer and market penetration as we enhance our footprint and strategic approach to winning large accounts and sales efforts. Clearly, we are excited about our business and the significant opportunities ahead. Our enthusiasm mirrors the meaningful growth and profitability we have achieved through Q2 and our progress towards becoming One Bright View. While there is more to do, I am proud of the team's effort and increasingly confident in our ability to deliver value to our shareholders. With that, I'll turn it over to Brett, who will discuss our financial performance and outlook.