Griffon Corporation

Greetings and welcome to the Griffin Corporation fiscal first quarter 2026 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 during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Brian Harris, CFO. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Griffin Corporation's first quarter fiscal 2026 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 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 uncertainty that can change as the world changes. Please see the cautionary 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 today. Earlier this morning, we announced Exciting news regarding the creation of a joint venture including AIMS North America and Vinopri Tools, along with other strategic actions related to Griffin. Allow me first to summarize our results for the quarter, then I'll comment further about the strategic actions that are underway. We are pleased with our first quarter results, highlighted by free cash flow of $99 million, continued solid operating performance at home and building products, and improved profitability at consumer and professional products. We're off to a good start and are on track to meet our updated financial targets for the year. For the quarter, home and building products, HBP, revenue increased 3% compared to the prior year, and EBITDA margin was 30.1%. Revenue benefited 7% from strong price and mix. across both residential and commercial products, which was partially offset by reduced residential volumes. Consumer and professional products, or CPP, first quarter revenue increased 2% driven by price and mix, with increased volume in Australia and Canada, offset by reduced volume in the U.S. as consumer demand remained soft. CPP EBITDA in the quarter increased by 19% to $22 million, driven by the increase in revenue. We're pleased to continue to see year-over-year improvement in CPP EBITDA, despite persistently weak demand in the U.S. Turning to capital allocation, during the first quarter, we repurchased $18 million of our stock, or 247,000 shares, at an average of $73.21 per share. At December 31, $280 million remained under the repurchase authorization. Since April 2023 and through December, we've repurchased $578 million of stock or 11.1 million shares at an average price of $52.27 per share. These repurchases have reduced Griffin's outstanding shares by 19.3% relative to total shares outstanding at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2023. Also yesterday, the Griffin Board authorized a regular quarterly dividend of 22 cents per share payable on March 18th to shareholders of record on February 27th, which marks the 58th consecutive quarterly dividend to shareholders. Our dividend has grown at an annualized compounded rate of 19% since we initiated dividends in 2012. These actions reflect the strength and resiliency of our businesses and as well as our continued confidence in our strategic plan and outlook. Let me comment on our strategic actions. Earlier this morning, we announced the formation of a joint venture with ONCAP, the middle market private equity platform of Onyx Corporation, which will create a leading global provider of hand tools, home organizational solutions, and lawn and garden products for professionals and consumers. The joint venture will combine Griffin's AIMS businesses in the United States and Canada with ONCAP's global portfolio of hand tool businesses, including Corona in the United States, Bergen and Ball in the United Kingdom, and Belota Hand Tools operating in Europe and Central and South America. Through this transaction, we're creating a global leader on professional and consumer hand tools, home organizational solutions, and one garden products with sufficient scale and scope to compete in the global marketplace. The joint venture is comprised of leading professional and consumer brands, including Ames, Bellota, Bergen and Ball, ClosetMaid, Corona, Garant, Razorback, and True Temper. OnCap and Griffin both recognize the benefits created by merging leading diversified professional tool brands with global reach. We're very excited about this business combination and the prospects for the joint venture. We see significant opportunities to streamline operations across the businesses and capture the benefits of economies of scale. For Griffin, the formation of the joint venture will generate immediate shareholder value and additional liquidity, as well as provide a path for realizing more value in the longer term through the second lien debt from the joint venture and our significant equity interest. We're looking forward to working with ONCAP to make this joint venture a success. In addition to the joint venture, we also announced three other strategic actions that, once completed, will transform Griffin into a pure-play building products company, positioning us as the leading provider in North America of residential and commercial garage doors, rolling steel doors, and grill products, as well as a leading brand of residential and commercial ceiling fans. So our actions, a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives for AIMS Australia, a review of strategic alternatives for the AIMS United Kingdom, and the combination of Hunter Fan with our home and building product segment. To offer a bit more detail, our AIMS Australia business has grown from a small operation that was part of our original AIMS acquisition into a category leader in Australia. This business is led by an exceptional team with a demonstrated track record of growing both organically and through acquisition while consistently generating solid operating performance. We're confident there are a number of strategic alternatives available for AIMS Australia that will position the business for continued growth while providing value to Griffin shareholders. We'll report back regarding our progress. Finally, we're combining Hunter Fan with our home and building product segment. Both Clopay and Hunter maintain exceptional positions with industry-leading brands and best-in-class technology and innovation. We see many opportunities for the two businesses to leverage their complementary sales channels across residential and commercial building products. The two teams already know each other well, have collaborated over the past three years, and are excited about bringing them together. I'll turn it over to Brian for a bit more detail on the financials, and he'll provide additional detail regarding the strategic actions.