Mueller Industries, Inc.

ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Miller Industries first quarter 2024 results conference call. Please note this event is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Mike Goodrow at FTI Consulting. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. I would like to welcome you to the Miller Industries conference call. We are here to discuss the company's 2024 first quarter results, which were released after the close of the market yesterday. With us from the management team today are Bill Miller, Chairman of the Board, Will Miller, President and CEO, Debbie Whitmire, Executive Vice President and CFO, and Frank Madonia, Executive Vice President, Secretary, and General Counsel. Today's call will begin with formal remarks from management, followed by a question and answer session. Please note in this morning's conference call, management may make forward-looking statements in accordance with the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. I'd like to call your attention to the risks related to these statements, which are more fully described in the company's annual report filed on Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Will. Please go ahead, Will.

Thank you. And good morning, everyone. Following our record 2023, we had a strong start to 2024, generating another quarter of record revenues and maintaining our year-over-year improvements and profitability. First and foremost, I'd like to thank our entire team for their continued efforts and dedication. Without them, these results would not be possible. We continue to reap the benefits our strategy to invest during a macroeconomic slowdown doubling down on our investments in our business and in our people at a time when many of our peers were cutting costs as a result of these investments and continued strong demand environment for all of our products we generated record revenues of 349.9 million dollars a nearly 24 percent increase compared to the prior year period We also saw chassis shipments increase significantly during the first quarter as OEMs shipped delayed orders from 2023. While we expect chassis OEM shipments to normalize in the second half of the year, we still anticipate high single-digit top-line growth in 2024 compared to our record year in 2023. Gross profit for the first quarter was $44.2 million, an increase of 45.5% compared to the prior year quarter. while gross margin of 12.6% in Group 108-based supplies. The year-over-year increase is largely due to improved margins across all of our product lines, coupled with higher revenue levels and improvements we have made to our supply chain over the last several years. This includes diversifying our supplier base and insourcing of certain manufactured processes. Our gross margin improvement this quarter was slightly offset by our product mix as the year progresses and our product mix normalizes, we anticipate some expansion of our gross margins in future boards. Lastly, before I turn the call over to Debbie, I want to touch on some of the capital allocation decisions we've made since our last earnings call. Last quarter, we said that given the company's strong financial performance in 2023, and now early 2024, the board felt that our shareholders should share in our success. To that end, we increased our dividend by 5.6% in April and took additional steps to improve shareholder returns. As our board approved a $25 million share repurchase plan to create more value for our shareholders, we believe this plan reflects the board's confidence in our strategy, our balance sheet, and the strength of our end markets. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Debbie, who will review the first quarter financial results in more detail. Following her remarks, I'll provide a market outlook and some closing comments on our priorities for the remainder of the year. Debbie?