The Greenbrier Companies, Inc.

Hello, and welcome to the Greenbrier Company's fourth quarter and fiscal 2024 earnings conference call. Following today's presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. Each analyst should limit themselves to one question with a follow-up if needed. Until that time, all lines will be in a listen-only mode. At the request of the Greenbrier Company, the conference call is being recorded for instant replay purposes. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Justin Roberts, Vice President and Treasurer. Mr. Roberts, you may begin.

Thank you, Chuck. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our conference call today. I am joined by Lori Ticorius, Greenbrier's CEO and President, Brian Comstock, Executive Vice President and President of the Americas, and Michael Donfris, Senior Vice President and CFO. Following our update on Greenbrier's 2024 performance and our outlook for fiscal 25, we will open up the call for questions. Our earnings release and supplemental slide presentation can be found on the IR section of our website. Matters discussed on today's conference call includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Throughout our discussion today, we will describe some of the important factors that could cause Greenbrier's actual results in 2025 and beyond to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement made by or on behalf of Greenbrier. Throughout the call today, you will hear us referring to recurring revenue. We define that as leasing and management services revenue excluding the impact of syndication activity. And with that, I'll hand the call over to Lori.

Thank you, Justin, and good afternoon, everyone. Greenberg's positive momentum in 2024 expanded during our fourth quarter. We're advancing our multi-year Better Together strategy focused on three key areas, maintaining our manufacturing leadership position in all our geographies, improving our manufacturing gross margin, and doubling recurring revenue in our leasing business. I'm pleased with the results and achievements since we launched this three-part strategy just two years ago. In Q4, Greenberg generated our second highest quarterly EBITDA of $159 million, and aggregate gross margin expanded to 18.2%. This is 310 basis points of sequential margin growth. Full-year aggregate gross margin of 15.8% is 460 basis points higher than fiscal 2023. Q4 was our fourth consecutive quarter in gross margin in the mid-teens or higher. driven by strong manufacturing and syndication execution, as well as recurring revenue growth. In less than six quarters, we achieved the long-term target we provided during our investor day in April 2023. And I want to recognize everyone at Greenbrier from the shop floor to the boardroom for their actions in executing our ambitious strategy and helping us reach this important milestone well ahead of schedule. Operating efficiencies continue to improve, and we're advancing key initiatives across the organization, such as insourcing and lease fleet expansion. And since we announced plans to expand our own rail car lease fleet, we've increased recurring revenues from leasing activities by 25% and are on track to double them within the next four years. We're also nearing our targeted range for return on invested capital, which we originally expected would take until 2026 to reach. And while these key performance indicators are favorable, hard work remains. Another highlight in the quarter was commemorating Greenberg's 30th anniversary as a public company by ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange with my colleagues. This celebration and our robust operating and financial performance in Q4 ended the year on a high note. As you may have seen in our earnings release earlier today, we issued guidance for fiscal 2025. Michael will provide more color shortly, but you can expect enhanced aggregate gross margin from fiscal 2024 levels and strong bottom line results by leveraging the operational efficiencies we've achieved and remaining highly focused on execution. This is consistent with our primary strategic imperative to ensure that Greenberg can deliver sustained tire performance across a range of market conditions. Greenbar will also continue to enhance our market-leading position by executing on innovation. For example, our engineering team recently designed a high-sided gondola using ultra-high-strength steel and a new anhydrous ammonia tank car. Our team continues to leverage our deep industry experience to grow Greenbar's share of customer spending for rail cars, wheels, parts, maintenance, and management services. This integrated approach will continue to differentiate Greenbrier from our competitors and position us well for the future. Our commercial team, with its strong lease origination capabilities, continues to perform well. This gives us excellent visibility for manufacturing and steadily builds our stream of lease revenue. We start the new fiscal year with a multi-year backlog valued at $3.4 billion and tremendous optimism about Greenbrier's future. And with that, let me turn the call over to Brian Comstock, who will discuss our operating activities and market conditions in greater detail.