MSA Safety Incorporated

Good day and welcome to the MSA Safety Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in 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 Tyler Herzing. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to MSA Safety's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. This is Tyler Herzing, senior manager of investor relations. I'm joined by Steve Blanco, president and CEO, Julie Beck, senior vice president and CFO, and Stephanie Sciullo, president of our America segment. During today's call, we will discuss MSA Safety's second quarter 2026 financial results and provide an update on our full year 2026 outlook. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that the matters discussed during this call may include forward-looking statements within the meeting 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 statement 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. Steve will first provide an update on the business. Julie will then review our second quarter 2026 financial performance and 2026 outlook. Steve will then provide closing remarks. He will then open the call for your questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Steve Blanco.

Steve. Thanks, Tyler, and good morning, everyone. Again, we appreciate your continued interest in MSA safety. I'm on slide six. The team performed well in the second quarter as we continue to serve our singular mission of protecting workers around the world While advancing the commitments outlined in our accelerate strategy. For the second quarter, we achieved 6% reported sales growth and delivered robust margin expansion with adjusted earnings per share of $2.40, up 24% from last year. We also generated strong free cash flow, which enabled 47 million of returns to shareholders via buybacks and dividends. In addition, we completed the acquisition of Atronica Fire and Security in early July. Looking at sales by product category, organic detection sales were consistent with the prior year as mid-single digit growth in portable gas detection was offset by a low single digit decline in fixed monitoring, where demand and shipment activity were impacted by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. In the Americas, we saw strong growth in fixed and portable gas detection Delivering high single-digit growth on top of a double-digit growth comparison from the prior year. In fire service, organic sales decreased 2% year-over-year primarily due to lower SCBA sales as 2025 AFG grant-related orders in the Americas have materialized slower than initially expected in the first half. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security remained closed until late May and created order choppiness in the quarters. Moving forward, we remain very encouraged by order momentum that accelerated through the end of June. An international SCBA growth in EMEA was offset by softness in APAC. Organic sales and industrial PPE were up 16%, reflecting healthy demand across our core industrial markets and the broad underlying strength of industrial activity. In America, strength was driven by demand tied to the ongoing market adoption of our Type 2 safety helmets. The H2. In international, growth in protective ballistic helmets remained robust, benefiting from the ongoing shift toward defense-related spending in Europe. Our organic orders were strong with a book-to-bill of approximately one time, which is above second quarter seasonal patterns. Year-over-year order growth was broad-based across our segments and product categories. Sequentially, we saw similar growth trends. Moving to slide seven, The progress we're making across the business reflects the strategic actions we've taken to strengthen our portfolio, expand our technology capabilities, and position MSA for long-term growth. Let me highlight a few examples from the quarter demonstrating that execution in action. First, growth in our H2 safety helmet, which protects workers against vertical and lateral impacts, reflects our commitment to continued leadership in the premium safety markets we serve. Combining the most comprehensive head protection product line in the industry, unmatched brand recognition, and our ability to support large, customized orders at scale, we continue to differentiate ourselves in the market and strengthen our competitive positioning with customers. We also continue to make progress with MSA Plus, where connected solutions represented more than half of portable gas detection growth in the quarter and now account for 14% of total portable sales versus 10% last year. We're encouraged by the ongoing adoption of MSA Plus and early performance indicators of our newly launched Altair IO6 solution as well as the growth we're seeing in the traditional portable gas detection business. Additionally, the advancement of the MSA business system continues to improve the way we execute across the company by creating greater discipline and consistency across the enterprise Our teams are finding better ways to serve our customers and enhance productivity. As expected, positive price cost was a contributor to performance in the first half, reflecting the benefits of strategic pricing actions and improved productivity enabled by MBS. While our continuous improvement journey is ongoing, the benefits of those efforts are increasingly evident in the strength of our operating performance and the financial results we delivered in the first half of the year. Our strong balance sheet and disciplined approach to capital allocation continue to provide meaningful strategic flexibility. In the first half, we returned $118 million to shareholders, a 45% increase from the prior year, and increased our dividend for the 56th consecutive year. With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Julie to walk through the financial results for the second quarter in more detail and our 26th outlook.