Griffon Corporation

Greetings and welcome to the Griffin Corporation Fiscal First Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Brian Harris, Chief Financial Officer. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to Griffin's first quarter fiscal 2025 earnings call. Joining me for this morning's call is Ron Kramer, Griffin's chairman and chief executive officer. Our press release was issued earlier this morning and is available on our website at www.griffin.com. Today's call is being recorded and the replay instructions are included in our earnings release. Our comments will include forward-looking statements about Griffin's performance, These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that can change as the world changes. Please see the questionary statements in today's press release and in our SEC filing. Finally, some of today's remarks will adjust for items that affect comparability between periods. These items are explained in our non-GAAP reconciliations included in our press release. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ron.

Thanks, Brian. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. Fiscal 2025 is off to a strong start. In Q1, we delivered robust free cash flow of $143 million, maintained solid operating performance at home and building products, and saw continued profitability improvements at consumer and professional products. With this momentum, we are on track to achieve our financial targets for the year. For the quarter, HBP revenue was consistent with the prior year, and EBITDA increased by 2%. Revenue benefited from increased residential volume, which was offset by reduced commercial volume. EBITDA benefited from reduced material costs, partially offset by increased labor and distribution costs. In CPP, first quarter revenue decreased 4%, primarily due to decreased volume, as all the CPP home markets, except for Australia, continued to see reduced consumer demand. Australia benefited from increased product offerings sold through the retail channel and revenue contributed by the Pope acquisition. CPP EBITDA in the first quarter increased by $13 million to $18 million. This increase in profitability reflects the positive effects of the Global Sourcing Expansion Initiative and increased volume in Australia. Turning to capital allocation, during the first quarter, we repurchased $42 million of our stock, 610,000 shares at an average price of $69.40 per share. At December 31, 390 million remains under our repurchase authorization. Since April 2023 and through December, we have repurchased $468 million of our stock, 9.5 million shares. at an average price of $49.09. These repurchases have reduced Griffin's outstanding shares by 16.7% relative to the total shares outstanding at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2023. Also yesterday, the Griffin Board authorized a regular quarterly dividend of $0.18 per share, payable on March 18th to shareholders of record on February 25th. marking the 54th consecutive quarterly dividend to our shareholders. Our dividend has grown at an annualized compounded rate of more than 18% since we initiated dividends in 2012. These actions reflect the strength and resiliency of our businesses, as well as continued confidence in our strategic plan and outlook. I'll turn it back to Brian for a few more details on the quarter. Thank you, Ron.