John Bean Technologies Corporation

Good morning, and welcome to JBT's Corporation's first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. My name is David, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press the star key followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, press star one once again. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the call over to JBT's Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations, Kadric Meredith, to begin today's conference.

Thank you, David. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter 2022 conference call. With me on the call is our Chief Executive Officer, Brian Deck, and Chief Financial Officer, Matt Meister. In today's call, we will use forward-looking statements that are subject to the Safe Harbor language in yesterday's press release in 8K filing. JBT's periodic SEC filings also contain information regarding risk factors that may have an impact on our results. These documents are available in the investor relations section of our website. Also, our discussion today includes references to certain non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measure can be found in the investor relations section of our website. Now, I'll turn the call over to Brian.

Thanks, Kendrick, and good morning, everyone. Overall, JBT's first quarter results outperformed what were admittedly modest expectations for the period. On the labor front, we enjoyed a faster than expected bounce back from the extremely high level of absenteeism associated with Omicron in January. That said, we still have pockets of COVID-related absenteeism, particularly in Europe, and are operating in a very tight labor market overall. As for supply chain and inflationary pressures, there are a few areas of improvement, but as a whole, the situation remains extremely challenging and unpredictable. There's been no improvement in the availability of certain critical materials, particularly electronic components, nor do we anticipate improvement for the year. The tragic invasion of Ukraine has caused additional disruptions for JBT and our customers. For us, it has directly impacted the price of stainless steel. Our customers, it's led to rising prices and shortages of key commodities, such as grains and sunflower oil. Additionally, the recent COVID-related shutdowns in China add stress to supply chain and logistics. We continue to adjust pricing as we are able. And the other actions we are taking, such as reducing the time a customer quote is valid, sourcing alternative parts and suppliers, and buying inventory earlier, have also helped narrow the price-cost gap as well as improved surety of supply. All that said, JBT continued to enjoy a healthy commercial environment. Food tech orders in the first quarter topped 400 million. Aerotech orders were well ahead of 2021 fourth quarter and the year-ago period, reflecting continued strength of the infrastructure and cargo side and ongoing recovery and demand from the commercial airlines. And recently, we've experienced higher defense equipment inquiries from Western Europe. The backlog continued to build for both Futek and Aerotech, now collectively at 1.1 billion. Looking ahead to the full year, with JVT's record backlog, we remain optimistic about generating strong top-line growth with sequential margin improvement as we progress through the year. I'll turn the call over to Matt, who will provide a detailed analysis of the first quarter results and refine our outlook for 2022.