Hayward Holdings, Inc.

Excuse me, Mr. Maxa, you may begin. Thank you, and good morning, everyone.

We issued our first quarter 2024 earnings press release this morning, which has been posted to the investor relations section of our website at investor.hayward.com. There you can also find an earnings slide presentation that we will reference during this call. I'm joined today by Kevin Halloran, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Ivian Jones, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that during this call, the company may make certain statements that are considered forward-looking in nature, including management's outlook for 2024 and future periods. Such statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, including those discussed in our most recent form 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. that could cause actual results to differ materially. The company does not undertake any duty to update such forward-looking statements. Additionally, during today's call, the company will discuss non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations of historical non-GAAP measures discussed on this call to the comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release and the appendix to the slide presentation. I would now like to turn the call over to Kevin Halloran.

Thanks, Kevin. Good morning, everyone. It's my pleasure to welcome all of you to Hayward's first quarter earnings call. I'll start on slide four of our earnings presentation with today's key messages. I'm pleased to report first quarter results in line with expectations. We executed well during the quarter, delivering robust profitability and improved cash flow. Net sales increased 1% year over year through modest contributions from both price and volume. Gross margins expanded 260 basis points to 49.2% This matches the record we achieved in the fourth quarter last year at lower sequential sales volumes and represents the fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year gross margin expansion. Cashflow also improved year-over-year during a seasonally soft period. I'm proud of the performance of the entire Hayward team during the quarter. Strong profitability and cashflow enable us to reinvest in the business to drive growth and productivity. As an innovation leader in the industry, we are introducing a number of exciting new products this year. I'll share details on another launch in a moment. Subsequent to quarter end, we completed a voluntary early debt repayment, reflecting confidence in our outlook for business performance and cash flow generation. Ivan will provide details later in the presentation. Finally, we are maintaining our full year guidance. For full year 2024, we continue to expect a return to sales and earnings growth, with net sales increasing approximately 2 to 7 percent and adjusted EBITDA increasing approximately 3 to 11 percent. Turning now to slide five, highlighting the results of the quarter. Net sales in the first quarter increased 1% year-over-year to $213 million, consistent with expectations. By segment, net sales increased 7% in North America and declined 17% in Europe and the rest of the world. Incoming orders were healthy in Europe during the quarter, but volumes were impacted in part by delays related to consolidating our manufacturing operations in Europe. The footprint actions are complete, and production has ramped up to expected levels in the second quarter. We're focused on driving growth in the commercial segment of the market, and commercial pool sales in North America increased double digits for the quarter, continuing the multi-year trend. As I mentioned, gross profit margins expanded 260 basis points year-over-year to 49.2% in the first quarter, matching the quarterly record. Adjusted EBITDA margin in the first quarter was 21.2%, and adjusted EPS was 8 cents. Turning now to slide six for a business update. End demand for Hayward products was consistent with our expectations in the quarter with our largest market, the U.S., performing solidly, but the overall near-term demand environment remains uncertain. Non-discretionary aftermarket is resilient, but demand for discretionary new construction, upgrade, and remodel has been impacted by current economic conditions and higher interest rates. As we approach the peak pool season, we expect more normal seasonal demand trends with improvements sequentially in the second quarter. In recent quarters, our channel partners were rebalancing the level of inventory relative to the current economic outlook, normalized OEM lead times, and higher costs of capital. As we commented previously, inventory levels have normalized and the post-pandemic reset is largely behind us. But the channel is taking a prudent approach, continuously recalibrating the level of inventory on hand to be appropriately positioned to support their expected customer demand. Historically, the pool industry has been very disciplined on price, and we previously implemented annual price increases for 2024 to maintain price cost neutrality. We continue to expect positive net price increases. realization of approximately 2% for the year with the actual contribution modestly below this level in the first quarter as expected due to the mix of customer early buy sales on discounted terms. We initiated a plan last year to consolidate facilities in Europe to get closer to key customers, better leverage of modern facility in Spain and support margins. As I mentioned, this project is now complete and we are achieving full production rates in the second quarter. In April, we announced the appointment of Eric Cesarine as Chief Global Operations Officer, succeeding John Collins, who was appointed Chief Commercial Officer. Operational excellence has historically been a competitive advantage for Hayward, and Eric brings more than 30 years of experience in global operations, lean manufacturing, and supply chain leadership to advance Hayward's strategies for a world-class end-to-end supply chain. Finally, we were honored to receive the 2024 Energy Star Partner of the Year Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, our fourth consecutive year of Energy Star recognition. This is a testament to our commitment to innovation and sustainability as we strive to produce the most energy efficient solutions for our customers. Turning now to slide seven. On the fourth quarter call, we highlighted some key new product technologies being introduced in early 2024. Building on that momentum, today I'll share more exciting news as we showcase two new robotic cleaners to our automatic cleaner line. The pool cleaner R110 and R130 robot models target the in-ground residential market, complementing our Tiger Shark series of robots. With advanced features such as smart navigation, interchangeable filters, and on the R130 model, active scrubbing of all pool surfaces, these units represent the best in both quality and speed of cleaning for the whole pool. Both units feature an easy-to-use, programmable user interface for convenience and simplicity. Over the past seven years, the U.S. robotic cleaner market has grown at a double-digit kegger, outpacing other automatic cleaner technologies such as suction and pressure. These pool cleaner models represent an initial step in a longer roadmap for robotic cleaners. We look forward to sharing more information about our plans for this important product category and other new product technologies later this year. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Avian, who will discuss our financial results in more detail.