Miller Industries, Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Miller Industries fourth quarter and full year 2023 results conference call. Please note this event is being recorded. And now at this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Mike Goodrell 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 2023 fourth quarter and full year 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 to your attention the risks related to these statements, which are more fully described in the company's annual report filed on Form 10-K and other to turn the call over to Will. Please go ahead, Will.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to start off by saying thank you to our team and our amazing employees for an exceptional year. It is with great pride that I am here with you today, having concluded our fiscal year 2023 on a tremendous high note. The fourth quarter marked the culmination of a record-breaking year, as we surpassed the annual expectations we set a year ago by a wide margin. When stepping into this role, I had a clear vision of what Miller Industries could become, and I am proud that we are now realizing the potential of our capital investments and long-term strategy. During my tenure as CEO, Miller Industries has undergone a transformation, investing over $100 million in projects since 2014 focused on increasing our capacity, improving our productivity, and enhancing our supply chain. most recently with the acquisition of Southern Hydraulic Cylinder, as well as investing in and attracting the best talent in our sector. These efforts intensified over the last two years in particular, as I became sole CEO during a period of global market volatility and macroeconomic uncertainty. Instead of cutting back, as we saw many of our peers do, we doubled down and continued to invest in our business regardless of the headwinds. We knew that with the right investments in our business and the right team in place, once macroeconomic factors normalized, Miller Industries would emerge stronger than ever. Our financial results this year are proof that our strategy is bearing fruit. Additionally, we focused on improving productivity by reinvesting in automation and productivity initiatives. One such example is the acquisition of Southern Cylinder, or SHC. We'd like to again reiterate that SHC is integrating seamlessly into our broader business and has immensely improved production efficiency as custom hydraulic components have historically had long lead times. Our ability to insource this production is a significant advantage for us. Finally, we place significant emphasis on investing in our talent. We not only dedicate resources to training and retaining a highly skilled workforce, but also prioritize safety and sustainability in our facilities. These efforts aim to enhance the health and safety of our employees while optimizing operations, and thus far they have been working, evidenced by a turnover rate which is 10.4% below the industry average. With the improvements to our supply chain and ability to meet the significant demand we have seen for our products over the last three years, Our financial results are starting to reflect the underlying strength of our company and our end markets. Resulting from these initiatives was a fourth quarter where we generated revenues of $296.2 million, an increase of 31.2% year over year. Strong execution throughout the year on our backlog drove 2023 revenues to approximately $1.15 billion. well ahead of the target we set at the end of last year for over $1 billion in annual revenue. Gross profit for the fourth quarter was $38.6 million, an increase of 51.4% compared to the prior year quarter. Again, well ahead of even our own expectations for significant improvements in year-over-year profitability. Lastly, I want to also touch on capital return to shareholders. Our dividend has always been a big part of our identity as a company, and we are extremely proud to have paid the dividend for the 53 straight quarters. Even during some challenging moments in our business, today we are pleased to announce that the board has approved an increase in our quarterly dividend to $0.19 per share, a 5.6% increase, underscoring the confidence we have in our long-term outlook. Debbie will get into our capital allocation priorities and more specifics. However, as our results improve, we believe it is only right that returns to our shareholders grow as well. We talked about our efforts to improve liquidity and took these steps to increase the dividend. But I want our shareholders to know that as the core business continues to grow, we're spending more time looking at optimizing capital returns. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Debbie, who will review the fourth quarter and full year financial results in more detail. Following her remarks, I'll provide a market outlook and some closing comments. Debbie?