Leggett & Platt, Incorporated

Greetings and welcome to the Leggett & Platt Second Quarter 2021 Webcast and Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Susan McCoy, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Daryl. Good morning, and thank you for taking part in Leggett & Platt's second quarter conference call. We are conducting this call from different locations again this quarter. Please bear with us if you experience minor delays or mixed audio quality. On the call today are Carl Vossman, Chairman and CEO, Mitch Dulles, President and COO, Jeff executive vice president and CFO, Steve Henderson, EVP, and president of the specialized products and furniture, flooring, and textile product segments, Cassie Branscombe, senior director of IR, and Tara Sherwood, director of IR. The agenda for our call this morning is as follows. Carl will start with a summary of the main points we made in yesterday's press release, Mitch will discuss operating results and demand trends, and Jeff will cover financial details and address our updated outlook for 2021. This conference call is being recorded for Leggett and Platt and is copyrighted material. This call may not be transcribed, recorded, or broadcast without our express permission. A replay is available from the IR portion of Leggett's website. We posted to the investor relations portion of the website yesterday's press release and a set of PowerPoint slides that contain summary financial information along with segment details. Those documents supplement the information we discuss on this call, including non-GAAP reconciliations. I need to remind you that remarks today concerning future expectations, events, objectives, strategies, trends, or results constitute forward-looking statements. Actual results or events may differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these statements. For a summary of these risk factors and additional information, please refer to yesterday's press release and the sections in our most recent 10-K and subsequent 10-Q entitled Risk Factors and Forward-Looking Statements. I'll now turn the call over to Carl.

Good morning, and thank you for participating in our second quarter call. Yesterday, we reported all-time record quarterly sales from continuing operations and record second quarter adjusted EBIT and EBITDA. These outstanding results are a testament to the dedication and hard work of our employees around the globe. Second quarter sales were $1.27 billion, EBIT was $172 million, and earnings per share were 82 cents, all significantly higher than the second quarter of 2020. Excluding the real estate gain noted in yesterday's press release, adjusted EBIT was $144 million and adjusted EPS was 66 cents. Strong year-over-year results reflect recovery in most of our businesses from the significant impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. When comparing to the pre-pandemic results of second quarter 2019, trade sales grew 5%, adjusted EBITDA was up 9%, and adjusted EBITDA margin improved 60 basis points, and adjusted EPS increased 12%. During the quarter, we made two strategic acquisitions, expanding our capabilities and product offerings in our work furniture and international bedding businesses. At the end of May, we acquired a small manufacturer of bent metal tubing used in office and residential furniture located in Poland that has been an important supplier to our local work furniture operations. On June 4th, we acquired a leading provider of specialty foam and finished mattresses, primarily serving customers in the UK and Ireland. The company, KFoam, is located near Dublin and has two manufacturing facilities with combined annual sales of approximately $80 million. KFoam expands the capabilities of our European bedding business and establishes a platform in foam technology and finished mattress production. Similar to our U.S. bedding business, this acquisition allows us to support our European bedding customers anywhere in the value chain from innerspring and foam components to finished products including private label mattresses, toppers, pillows, and other bedding accessories. We increased our full-year sales guidance as a result of continued material cost inflation and sales related to the acquisitions just mentioned. Increased EPS guidance is largely due to metal margin expansion in our steel rod business. Jeff will provide more detail on updated guidance later in the call. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mitch.