MSA Safety Incorporated

Good day and welcome to the MSA fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Chris Hepler. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to MSA Safety fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings conference call. This is Chris Hepler, Executive Director of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. With me today are Nish Vartanian, Chairman, President, and CEO, Lee McChesney, Senior Vice President and CFO, and Steve Blanco, Segment President for Americas. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that matters discussed during this call may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, all projections and anticipated levels of future performance. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those discussed today. These risks, uncertainties, and other factors are detailed in our SEC filings. MSA Safety undertakes no duty to publicly update any forward-looking statements made on this call except as required by law. We have included certain non-GAAP financial measures as part of our discussion this morning. The non-GAAP reconciliations are available in the appendix of today's presentation. The presentation and press release are available on our investor relations website at investors.msasafety.com. Moving on to today's agenda. First, Nish will discuss the key highlights of the quarter and full year. He will then turn the call over to Lee to discuss our financial performance and outlook. Nish will then conclude with closing remarks. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the call for questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Nish.

Thanks, Chris, and good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. I'll start on slide four. MSA delivered another strong year with exceptional results in the fourth quarter. This was made possible by our team's unwavering commitment to our mission. Our purpose-driven culture and dedication to protecting the world's workers is at the core of everything we do. and sets the foundation for our strong performance. I want to thank all of our associates for their focused execution and hard work to get MSA's leading safety technologies and solutions in the hands of our customers around the world. And thanks also to our shareholders and other stakeholders for helping us build MSA into a global safety leader that is making a positive impact on the health and safety of workers and our communities around the world. Moving to slide five, Our team delivered outstanding results for the quarter and full year, including record sales and robust margin expansion through strong operational execution. Incremental operating margin was on the high side of our target for the year, and we generated strong cash flow. Even with ongoing supply chain challenges and inflation headwinds, we achieved broad-based growth across our platforms of firefighter safety, gas detection, and industrial personal protective equipment. This growth was enabled by our laser focus on driving improved throughput and executing our strategic plan. We continue to advance our strategy by developing and launching innovative safety solutions like the Altair IO4 gas detector with full cloud connectivity, seamless integration into MSA's grid software, and our proprietary XL sensors. And the latest derivation of our V-Guard hard hat, the C1, with its patent-pending thermal barrier to help reduce worker heat stress, which has become a major focus for workplace safety. Notably, MSA's V-Guard brand hard hat has recently celebrated its 60th anniversary, and the V-Guard, with its iconic design, has garnered strong commercial success around the world and across many industries. These types of new technologies and connected solutions address customers' unmet needs and enable them to improve worker safety, enhance productivity, and simplify compliance. And these innovative and differentiated solutions have also helped us strengthen market share across our portfolio in 2022. As the safety company, our commitment to corporate social responsibility begins with our mission, which has been unwavering since our founding in 1914 and is the basis for our key CSR pillars, our products, our people, and our planet. And we are focused on advancing our programs across each of these pillars to make MSA fit for the future. Our continuous progress around environmental sustainability, talent development, diversity and inclusion, and product stewardship has been recognized both locally and nationally. MSA is proud to have been named one of America's most responsible companies by Newsweek for the second consecutive year. I believe that our advancements in this area have differentiated MSA as an employer of choice when it comes to our existing associates and prospective talent, and a preferred supplier when it comes to our customers. Before I turn the call over to Lee, I also want to recognize an important team accomplishment from 2022. I'm proud to share that our 5,000 associates operated 12 consecutive months without a lost time injury. At MSA, we're living our mission of protecting workers' health and leading by example. MSA is well positioned from our leading product platforms, diversification across end markets and geographies, to our talented associates across the globe. I'm proud of the progress we've made and excited for the prospects ahead. With that, I'll pass the call on to Lee to discuss their financial results and 2023 outlook.