Hubbell Inc

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Hubble Incorporated first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you'll need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. If you'd like to remove yourself from the queue, simply press star 1-1 again. As a reminder, today's program is being recorded. And now I'd like to introduce your host for today's program, Dan Imarato, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thanks, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release announcing our results for the first quarter of 2023. The press release and slides are posted to the Investor section of our website at hubble.com. I'm joined today by our Chairman, President, and CEO, Gervin Bakker, and our Executive Vice President and CFO, Bill Sperry. Please note our comments this morning may include statements related to the expected future results of our company, and our forward-looking statements is defined by the Private Security Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Therefore, please note the discussion of forward-looking statements in our press release and consider it incorporated by reference into this call. Additionally, comments may also include non-GAAP financial measures. Those measures are reconciled to the comparable GAAP measures and are included in the press release and slides. Now let me turn the call over to Gervin.

Great. Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss Hubble's first quarter 2023 results. Hubble is off to a strong start to the year. Our first quarter results exceeded our expectations, driven primarily by three factors. Stronger stick rates and realization on incremental price actions, effective ramp-up of recent capacity investments, and improved operational productivity. We are raising our full-year outlook this morning to account for this outperformance while maintaining a balanced view of risks and opportunities as we navigate a more uncertain second half. Our investments in capacity, innovation, and productivity are yielding strong returns and enabling us to effectively serve strong customer demand for Hubble's critical infrastructure solutions. Most notably, utilities continue to actively harden and upgrade aging infrastructure while also investing to facilitate renewables and electrification through new interconnections and enhanced smart grid applications. We achieved double-digit sales growth in the first quarter as improved production output enabled continued volume growth while leading service levels supported continued demand strength and price realization. Operationally, we achieved over 600 basis points of adjusted operating margin expansion in the quarter, driven by favorable price cost and productivity, in addition to volume growth. While utility solutions continue to perform exceptionally well in a strong market environment, we are also very pleased with the operating performance of electrical solutions, which achieved strong margin expansion in a more modest market backdrop. We're executing well in our strategy to compete collectively as a unified HES operating segment, and we'll talk more about that later. Before I turn it over to Bill to give you more details on the financial performance in the quarter, I want to highlight a few recent accomplishments which demonstrate that our strategy and the investments we are making into our business are driving value for all our key stakeholders. First, Hubble Power Systems and Burndi are proud to have been named supplier of the year by two of our largest electrical distributors in 2022. With strong demand and tight supply chains in the utility, T&D, and industrial markets, delivering on commitments to get customers the product they need when they need it while maintaining consistent quality, reliability, and service is critically important. While the supply chain environment remains challenging, Our ability to execute and our willingness to invest in production capacity and working capital has helped strengthen our long-term relationships with major customers. In our electrical segment, we're also pleased to have been recognized with Product of the Year Award by Major Trade Publication for two innovative product launches. Edge Connect Screwless Termination Wiring Devices is a product line we launched last year with Innovate on a 100-year-old product design eliminating the need for installation tools and delivering 80% labor savings for installers. Burnish QuickShare Bolt is a new product for solar and wind markets, which eliminates the need for compression tooling and manual torque wrenches, simplifying conductor installation and saving the contractor time in the field. These are just a couple of examples of the investments we are making into innovation to accelerate Hubbell's organic road profile in core markets as well as strategic growth verticals. And finally, for the third consecutive year, Hubbell was named one of the world's most ethical companies by Ethisphere, a distinction that recognizes all of our employees for their dedication in upholding our core values each and every day. One aspect of those core values is our commitment to sustainability. And as many of you will have seen, in March we released our annual sustainability report with refreshed multiyear goals to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, and hazardous waste by 2030. These new goals supersede our initial 2025 goals, which we achieved ahead of schedule. Sustainability is a core component of our business strategy, not just in our own manufacturing and operations, but through the impact of our products in making critical infrastructure safer, more reliable, and more efficient. We continue to accelerate our investments in areas like D&D infrastructure, renewables, utility automation, electric vehicles, and broadband communications, each of which offer attractive growth opportunities for shareholders while enabling Hubbell to further its mission to energize and electrify our economy and our communities in front and behind the meter. Now let me turn it over to Bill to give you some more details on our performance.