Glatfelter Corporation

Good day, and welcome to the Gladfelter Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Release Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. Ramesh Shetekar. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Anna. Good morning, and welcome to Gladfelter's 2024 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. This is Ramesh Shetekar, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer. On the call to present our second quarter results is Thomas Fahneman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Glapfelter, and myself. Before we begin our presentation, I have a few standard reminders. During our call this morning, we will use the term adjusted earnings as well as other non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these financial measures to our GAAP-based results is included in today's earnings release and in the investor slides, both of which are available on our website. We will also make forward-looking statements today that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Our 2023 Form 10-K, which has been filed with the SEC and today's release, disclose factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. These statements speak only as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update them. I will now turn the call over to Thomas. Thanks, Ramesh.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Club Felder's second quarter 2024 investor call. I'm pleased with the continued progress of the proposed merger with Barry's HHNF business during the second quarter, as we plan for the closing of the transaction later this year. The team continued to diligently progress the various legal and regulatory activities in preparation for when the business will operate under the name of McNaira, with Kurt Begley as CEO, currently president of Barry's HHNS division. For today's earnings call, I will focus on Gladfelder's steadfast second quarter performance as we position the business to successfully launch McNaira. The highlights of our performance included several meaningful outcomes. We achieved $25.6 million of adjusted EBITDA for an $8.3 million improvement compared to the same quarter last year. The composite fibers and spun lace businesses achieved higher EBITDA of approximately $5 million and $3 million respectively compared to the same quarter last year. The results were driven by higher shipments, increased production, and rigorous management of price-cost gaps. The air-laid material segment continued to experience softer demand, and therefore we adjusted production downward, resulting in a $2 million decline in EBITDA compared to the same period in 2023. When combined, the segment's performance contributed to improved adjusted free cash flow, which was approximately $43 million higher compared to the second quarter of last year. While our markets remained mixed, especially in Europe, I'm pleased with the ongoing contributions and disciplined way of managing our business that resulted from our multi-year turnaround efforts. The improvements we are seeing in the performance of both composite fibers and spun lace are trending in the right direction. I'm particularly pleased that spun lace has delivered 20 million of adjusted Ipita on a trailing 12-month basis. Also, we are actively working to expand our Airlate product portfolio through new product innovation to address continued demand challenges, which I will speak to toward the end of today's call. For these reasons, I remain confident in our ability to contribute for the long-term success of McNaira. I will now turn the call over to Ramesh.