Hayward Holdings, Inc.

Welcome to Hayward Holdings first quarter 2026 earnings call. My name is Carrie and I'll be your operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. During the question and answer session, if you have a question, please press star then one on your touch tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Kevin Masca, Vice President, Investor Relations, and FP&A. Mr. Mouska, you may begin.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. We issued our first quarter of 2026 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 the earnings slide presentation referenced 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 2026 and future periods. Such statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, including those discussed on our most recent forms 10K and 10Q filed 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. 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. All comparisons will be made on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise indicated. I will now turn the call over to Kevin Halloran.

Thank you, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. It's my pleasure to welcome all of you to Hayward's first quarter earnings call. I'll begin on slide four of our earnings presentation with today's key messages. The headline is clear. We delivered an outstanding first quarter, meaningfully ahead of expectations, highlighted by double-digit sales and earnings growth. Net sales increased 12% against the prior year comparison of 8% growth, driven by strong price realization and positive volume. Adjusted EBITDA grew 15%, and adjusted diluted EPS increased 30%, demonstrating the earnings power of our model. Margins expanded further, with both gross margin and adjusted EBITDA margin rising despite incremental inflation, tariffs, and targeted investments in innovation, operations, and customer initiatives. We also made further solid progress on the balance sheet. Q1 is typically a seasonally low cash flow quarter, yet we reduced net leverage from 2.8 times to 2.4 times year over year. These results underscore the strength of our predominantly installed base aftermarket business model and disciplined execution of our strategic initiatives. Given our strong first quarter performance and confidence in our outlook, we are increasing our full year guidance. For the full year 2026, we now expect net sales to increase approximately 5% and adjusted diluted EPS to increase approximately 9 to 13%. Turning now to slide five, highlighting the results of the first quarter. Net sales increased 12% to 255 million, driven by strong pricing execution, positive volume, and a favorable contribution from foreign exchange. North America and Europe and rest of the world increased 12% and 9% respectively. As demand remained resilient across our installed base aftermarket, we were pleased to see some of our more discretionary products like automation and heaters outpace core categories in the quarter. This top line growth combined with disciplined cost management translated into meaningful margin expansion. Gross margin increased 50 basis points to 46.5%. and adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 60 basis points to 22.1%. Adjusted diluted EPS increased 30% to 13 cents. Overall, this is another quarter of strong execution delivering balanced growth and increased profitability. Turning now to slide six. 2025 marked Hayward's 100th anniversary and 2026 marks the fifth anniversary of our IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. These milestones provide an opportunity to reflect on the significant evolution in the company over the past five years. During this period we've transformed hayward into a more efficient more disciplined and better positioned organization for long term market leadership. We strengthen our senior leadership team with proven operators to guide the next phase of growth innovation remains our engine. We continue to develop industry leading aftermarket focused products and solutions to expand our total addressable market. On the commercial side we've redesigned our commercial excellence programs to support builder dealer and service or conversions to hayward. operational excellence has long been part of hayward's DNA and we further consolidated our manufacturing. and distribution footprint to improve efficiency, better serve customers, and de-risk our supply chain amid geopolitical uncertainty. At the same time, we elevated how we operate day to day, accelerating lean and continuous improvement initiatives to drive productivity across the organization. All of this is underpinned by disciplined financial management. We've strengthened the balance sheet, meaningfully reducing net leverage and increased flexibility to invest through challenging market environments. In parallel, we're increasingly leveraging AI across the organization to enhance decision-making, sharpen execution, and improve productivity. These are not just incremental improvements. Together, they set a strong foundation for Hayward's next chapter of profitable growth. Turning now to slide seven. These accomplishments are important, but what matters most is how they translate into results and support future value creation. When you step back and look at our track record, the results are clear. Over the last several years, we've delivered top-line growth in line with our long-term targets while expanding margins and growing earnings, all in a challenging macro backdrop. Specifically looking back to before the pandemic, our six-year CAGRs from 2019 to 2025 are approximately 7% for net sales and 10% for both gross profit and adjusted EBITDA. That performance underscores the resilience of our organic growth profile. Our position is advantageous and differentiated, with approximately 85% of our sales derived from serving the aftermarket needs of a large and growing installed base built over decades. This mix provides visibility and a significant runway for continued growth. Our pricing discipline, operational agility, and cost control have helped us expand margins despite inflation, giving us the financial strength to fully fund growth and productivity initiatives. Looking ahead, our momentum is supported by an aging installed base requiring continuous maintenance, repair, and upgrade. We are expanding our addressable market through new aftermarket innovations such as OmniX, providing pool owners a low cost path to a connected pool pad and an improved overall experience. By investing in customer care, we are strengthening our competitive position and driving conversions to Hayward. At the same time, we continue to expand our presence in commercial pool and flow control. With durable secular tailwinds in place, we remain confident in our long-term growth trajectory and our ability to deliver compelling value for shareholders. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Avian to discuss our financial results in more detail.