Chemed Corp

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the CAMED Corporation Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Ms. Sherry Warner of Investor Relations. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Our conference call this morning will review the financial results for the second quarter of 2021, ended June 30th, 2021. Before we begin, let me remind you that the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 apply to this conference call. During the course of this call, the company will make various remarks concerning management's expectations, predictions, plans, and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those projected by these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those identified in the company's news release of July 27th and in various other filings with the FCC. You are cautioned that any forward-looking statements reflect management's current view only and that the company undertakes no obligation to revise or update such statements in the future. In addition, management may also discuss non-GAAP operating performance results during today's call, including earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP results is provided in the company's press release date of July 27th, which is available on the company's website at ChemEd.com. I would now like to introduce our speakers for today, Kevin McNamara, President and Chief Executive Officer of ChemEd Corporation, Dave Williams, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of ChemEd, and Nick Westphal, President and Chief Executive Officer of ChemEd's Phytos Healthcare Corporation subsidiary. I will now turn the call over to Kevin McNamara.

Thank you, Sherry. Good morning. Welcome to ChemEd Corporation's second quarter 2021 conference call. I will begin with highlights for the quarter, and Dave and Nick will follow up with additional operating detail. I will then open up the call to questions. Operating two distinct business units during a global pandemic has been exceptionally challenging. Fortunately, we have begun to return to normalcy. The pandemic had created unique problems, logistical hurdles, and forced our operations to make significant changes in field and home office procedures. Many of these changes have been institutionalized and will become part of our normal operating procedures post-pandemic. I could not be prouder of our management team. Both VITAS and Roto-Rooter met these pandemic challenges head-on, produced excellent operating results that are well positioned for growth in the coming years. In April 2020, the first full month of the pandemic, Roto-Rooter experienced an immediate and severe drop in demand for all plumbing and drain cleaning services. This drop was short-lived. Starting in May 2020, Roto-Rooter saw a spike in residential plumbing and drain cleaning demand. This increase in demand was sustained throughout 2020 and has continued unabated in the first six months of 2021. Commercial demand has also improved off pandemic lows and has now normalized close to pre-pandemic levels. For the remainder of 2021, I anticipate Roto-Rooter's residential demand to remain at the current run rate coupled with increased commercial demand as the country returns to normalized pre-pandemic consumer behavior. David will provide more detailed guidance metrics later in this call. Over the past 20 years, the country has faced 9-11, the Great Recession, and now a global pandemic. In each of these crises, Rotorua remained operating and materially increased market share, revenue, and operating margin. Just as important, Rotorua has held on to the increases in revenue, market share, and margins in past crises. Roto-Rooter is well-positioned post-pandemic, and we anticipate continued expansion of market share by pressing our core competitive advantages in terms of brand awareness, customer response time, and 24-7 call centers and Internet presence. For VITAS, the most significant issue remaining from the pandemic is the disruption to senior housing occupancy and the related hospital referrals. Recent admissions data suggests senior housing has entered into the early stages of recovery, and our updated guidance anticipates steady improvement in the senior housing referred hospice admissions in the second half of 2021, with a further acceleration in senior housing admissions anticipated in the fourth quarter. With that, I would like to turn this teleconference over to David.