Global Industrial Company

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Global Industries' first quarter 2024 earnings call. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mike Smarjasi of Plunkett Group. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome to the Global Industrial first quarter 2024 earnings call. Leading today's call will be Barry Litwin, Chief Executive Officer, and Tex Clark, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Formal remarks will be followed by a question and answer session. During the call, we will reference both GAAP and organic metrics. Organic reflects the performance of the global industrial business exclusive of the May 2023 INDOF acquisition. Today's discussion may include certain forward-looking statements. It should be understood that actual results could differ materially from those projected due to a number of factors, including those described under the forward-looking statements caption and under risk factors in the company's annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The press release is available on the company's website and has been filed with the SEC on a Form 8-K. This calls the property of Global Industrial Company. I will now turn the call over to Barry.

thanks mike good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us first quarter revenue improved to more than 323 million dollars and on an organic basis we posted our third consecutive quarter of growth with revenue up 4.2 percent these results reflect the continuation of the cautious customer purchasing behavior we have seen for the past several quarters overall Our performance was consistent through the period. E-commerce was once again our leading channel, and we are seeing strong growth in our enterprise business as it benefits from new account generation and healthy retention rates. Order and volume trends were solid and partially offset by continued price headwinds. We remain pleased with gross margin performance, which was 34.3% in the quarter. On an organic basis, gross margin of 35.8% was essentially flat on both a prior year and sequential quarter basis. As I outlined on our last conference call, in 2024, we are focused on championing the customer experience across every facet of the business. This includes enhancing the quality and value we provide to elevating our position as a solutions provider and problem solver for our customers. Across the organization, we are executing against multiple initiatives to help us continuously improve and deliver an exceptional end-to-end shopping experience. One of the key performance indicators we utilize to measure the impact of these efforts is our customer satisfaction scores. Our voice of the customer process evaluates everything from product, fulfillment, and quality to overall experience. Satisfaction scores run greater than 90% each week, and this tells us that the customer service, same-day shipping percentage, order fill rates, and post-sales support are working well, as evident by our high customer retention rates. Customer retention drives the total lifetime value of our customers and ultimately enables us to capture market share. The gains we are seeing are a direct reflection of the efforts of our associates and recognition across the company that everything we do impacts the customer. Overall, we have been pleased with our execution against the key pillars of our customer-centric strategy. We continue to differentiate our position in the market through an exceptional experience, a leading assortment of national brands and global industrial exclusive branded products, and a one-to-one managed sales approach that delivers significant value to customers. we are making continued investments in sales, marketing, merchandising, and customer service that will help us drive operating efficiencies, accelerate customer engagement, and strengthen our competitive position and capture market share. While the current demand environment is not as robust as we would like, we believe Global Industrial is improving its position as an indispensable business partner, and in turn, strengthening its ability to drive its long-term performance. The industrial distribution market remains highly fragmented and we have numerous opportunities for growth as we drive sales enablement across our channels, expand current relationships, and acquire new customers. With an exceptional balance sheet and strong cash flow from operations, we are well positioned to execute on our strategy, invest in our growth drivers, and evaluate strategic opportunities while we build long-term value for our stakeholders. I will now turn the call over to Tex.