Koppers Holdings Inc.

Good morning and welcome to COPPA's second quarter of 2021 earnings conference call and webcast. All participants will be in listen-only mode. If you need assistance, please signal conference specialists by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note that this event is being recorded. I'd like to turn the conference over to Ms. Quinn McGuire, Vice President of Ambassador Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning. I'm Quinn McGuire, Vice President of Investor Relations. Welcome to our first quarter 2021 earnings conference call. We've issued our press release earlier today. You may access this announcement via our website at www.coppers.com. As indicated in our announcement, we've also posted materials to the Investor Relations page of our website that will be referenced in today's call. Consistent with our practice in quarterly conference calls, This is being broadcast live on our website, and a recording of this call will be available on our website for replay through August 7th, 2021. At this time, I would like to direct your attention to our forward-looking disclosure statement as seen on slide two. Certain comments made on this conference call may be characterized as forward-looking statements as defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve a number of assumptions, risks, and uncertainties including risks described in the cautionary statement included in our press release and in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward-looking statements included in the company's comments, you should not regard the inclusion of such information as a representation that its objective, plans, and projected results will be achieved. The company's actual results, performance, or achievements may differ materially from from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during this call. References may also be made today to certain non-GAAP financial measures. The company has provided with its press release, which is available on our website, reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. Joining me for our call today are Leroy Ball, President and CEO of Coppers, and Mike Zuge, Chief Financial Officer. I'll now turn this discussion over to Leroy.

Thank you, Quinn. Good morning. Welcome, everyone. As you may have seen, as shown on slide three, we announced today that Coppers will be hosting an Investor Day scheduled for Monday, September 13, 2021, beginning at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. I sincerely hope that you'll be able to join me and our senior management team for this event, and it'll take place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at a venue location still to be determined. We will, of course, closely monitor health and safety guidelines regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, but are looking forward to bringing back in person to tell our story. The Investor Day will also be available virtually with a live webcast, which will include video, audio, and presentation slides. For those who will be attending virtually, we plan to also give you the opportunity to participate real-time in the question and answer session following the presentations. Finally, for those who are not able to attend, either in person or virtually, we will provide a replay of the webcast on our website following the conclusion of the event. Moving on to slide five, I'm proud to report that COPRRS continues to fulfill its purpose of protecting what matters and preserving the future by transporting critical goods, providing power and connectivity to homes and businesses, and keeping our infrastructure strong and reliable. At COPRRS, we take our responsibilities seriously, knowing that the things we all take for granted every day do not occur without our products and services, and we're incredibly proud to do our part. Now I'd like to start with a zero harm update. As always, after many delays due to the pandemic, our team is happy to get back to deploying our ongoing zero harm training sessions in person and in a safe manner, and it couldn't happen at a more important time as our safety performance during the first quarter lagged our expectations. We need to get our safety professionals back in front of our people in operations to train and reinforce positive behaviors, and that is now happening as COVID restrictions begin to get relaxed. Throughout the year, we will be working to roll out our foundations training, which emphasizes the importance of empathy for fellow colleagues and the criticality of communication as it relates to the presence of hazards or hazardous behavior. Additionally, we recently presented our company's annual Zero Harm Presidents Award, which I'll describe in detail in a few moments. For 2021, we have a welcome challenge to meet or exceed the record setting safety performance that we worked so diligently to achieve last year. Moving to slide seven, it offers an update of the key aspects of our employee health and wellbeing efforts. Regarding COVID-19, we currently have about 13% or 265 employees testing positive with rates dropping significantly over the past six weeks. Sadly, we did have one employee recently pass away having contracted the virus outside of the workplace. It's a terrible reminder that as close as we feel to being out of the woods, the virus is still out there wreaking havoc, and the best way to protect yourself is to get vaccinated. I say that not as a political statement, not to try and enforce my beliefs on others, but as someone who doesn't want to see any more people that are under my care unnecessarily die of a virus that is extremely unpredictable. We implemented a life-saving rule related to COVID some months ago and it remains in effect, demonstrating the importance of this issue and the fact that it remains our single biggest fatality risk. As CDC guidelines are updated, we'll adjust accordingly at our facilities in the U.S. as appropriate. In addition, we've maintained COVID pool testing at four key locations in North America. We're scheduling vaccine clinics at our facilities when possible and offering a $250 incentive to those who are fully vaccinated. In addition, we're using point of dispensary, occupational medical clinics, and other commercial outlets to make vaccination as easy and convenient for employees as possible. Despite my pleas to employees, we at this point only have about 40% of our U.S. employee base that's been vaccinated, and I don't really expect that rate to change all that much, given that most everyone has been eligible for a while now. Internationally, the rate is much lower at this point, but that has more to do with vaccine availability than indifference. On slide eight, we see an overview of our operations and planning efforts. At our facility in Stickney, Illinois, the tar plant experienced approximately one month of unplanned downtime beginning March 20th. It's been back up and running for a few weeks now, and while it was a major inconvenience operationally and commercially, the impact on our consolidated results for the first and second quarter is expected at less than 5% and already baked into our full year guidance. For employee travel, we continue to limit those to essential only trips, An example of that would be the recent deployment of our zero harm training modules for frontline employees as well as peer-to-peer workshops. Now, as COVID vaccination rates increase, we're resuming this training at selective locations. As always, we closely follow social distancing measures and masking protocols, and also we're conducting hazard assessments for certain tasks in order to protect our employees from the highest job site risks. Regarding office reentry, we're still urging employees who are able to work from home to continue doing that. Those who need to come into the office must use facial masks and observe all social distancing protocols when not located inside an enclosed workspace. We're postponing an official return to the office until September 7th, just after the US Labor Day holiday, with limited office returns starting July 1st for those who would like to choose that option. The pandemic has brought the work-life balance issue to the forefront, so we have asked our employees for suggestions on how to improve that aspect of their lives. And there were many interesting ideas to consider and ultimately we plan to implement certain measures over time. And while we haven't ironed out all the final details as of yet, it's fair to say that we realize that a one size fits all approach is not fitting for an organization as spread out as we are in many smaller employee pockets. What fits for Pittsburgh is not necessarily what fits for Newburgh, Denmark or Sydney, Australia. One thing is for certain though, and that is our approach to flexibility in the workplace will reach heights we wouldn't have ever imagined prior to the pandemic. We had some notable accomplishments during the quarter. In April, we presented the Copper Zero Harm President's Award to our cross-tie recovery facility in Launce, Michigan, as shown on slide 10. The Launce group led all Copper's teams worldwide in practicing proactive leading activities related to safety and had zero lagging indicators. I want to congratulate the team at Launce for earning the President's Award and to the 10 other impressive teams and locations listed in the finals category. Moving to slide 11, that recognizes our launch facility going for three years without any serious injuries, and our plant in Newburgh, Denmark, recently completing 365 days an entire year without any serious injuries, which includes keeping their employees and contractors safe while managing a number of major projects. Slide 12 illustrates a new mobile app introduced by our UIP business to better connect directly with customers on products, technical reports, and poll shipments. It's a great reflection of the different ways we're looking to serve our customers and bring them more value by making our people and the critical information that they need more accessible. By 13, Chief Sustainability Officer Leslie Hyde offered an overview in a local publication, Pittsburgh Magazine, of our sustainability strategy, while Tom Horvat, Performance Chemicals Director of Global Marketing, spoke on the consumer appeal of treated wood products to Building Products Digest. On slide 14, Link Women observed Women's History Month by launching a college scholarship in the name of our late treasurer, Luann Tronsberg-Deal. Eligible participants are female family members of Copper's employees. Link Women encourages professional development for all Copper's employees and has been recently working on a project to look at ways to increase female interest and involvement in the STEM fields. Also in February, we honored Black History Month by highlighting Tracy McCormick, our assistant treasurer, and Mario Franks, a 23-year Copper's lift truck operator veteran at our Florence, South Carolina facility. Also, we challenged employees to recommend ideas to further improve our work-life balance. As a result, we launched Link Parents, a new employee resource group that gives parents and caregivers an outlet to share advice and appreciate diverse perspectives. On slide 15, you'll see highlighted one of the most interesting interactions we had in the community this past quarter, which was the Police Chief Town Hall that was organized and moderated by our own Global Director of Inclusion and Diversity, Lance Hyde. Lance was able to gather six leaders in law enforcement from around the country to engage in a discussion on ways that we can all work better together to help bridge the racial divide. We opened up participation in the event to customers, suppliers, and the community and had approximately 1,200 people join this virtual event to encourage positive change. Finally, during the past quarter on slide 16, our Ashcroft British Columbia team donated funds to a long-term care facility while employees from our Galesburg, Illinois plant assembled food boxes during the pandemic. Bigger Picture Scale Copper celebrated Earth Day on April 22nd by promoting tips on how to conserve energy and water and on how to reduce, reuse, and recycle materials in everyday life. So one more way we demonstrate that we're living out our sustainability principles in practical, actionable ways. Now I'd like to turn it over to Mike Zuge for an overview of our first quarter financials. Mike.