Mettler-Toledo International, Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Medler Toledo's third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. This time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 in your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mary Finnegan. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good evening, everyone. I'm Mary Finnegan. I'm responsible for investor relations at Mettler Toledo and happy to welcome you to the call. I'm joined today by Patrick Kaltenbach, our CEO, and Shawn Zadella, our Chief Financial Officer. Let me cover just a couple administrative matters. This call is being webcast and is available for replay on our website. A copy of the press release and the presentation that we refer to on today's call is also available on the website. Let me summarize the Safe Harbor language, which is outlined on page two of the presentation. Statements in this presentation, which are not historical facts, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements, to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements. For discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please see our recent Form 10-K and other reports filed with the SEC. All of the forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by reference to the factors discussed under the captions, factors affecting our future operating results, and in the business and management discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations sections of our filings. Just one other item. On today's call, we may use non-GAAP financial information. More detailed information with respect to the use of and differences between non-GAAP financial measures and most directly comparable GAAP measure is provided in our Form 8K. Let me now turn the call over to Patrick.

Thanks, Mary, and good evening, everyone. I am pleased to report another quarter of very strong results. Customer demand was robust, and our growth initiatives continue to be very effective. Our teams throughout the world are executing very well. I want to give a special acknowledgment to our global supply chain team, which is navigating a myriad of challenges with respect to raw materials, components, and transportation. Our ability to continue to meet heightened customer demand while overcoming The dynamic challenges in the supply chain is proving to be a competitive advantage in this environment. Now let me turn to our financial results. The highlights are on page three of the presentation, and you can see we had another very favorable quarter. Local currency sales were 16%, and we had broad-based growth in all regions. Our laboratory business had excellent growth and our industrial product lines also performed very well. Food retail was a headwind to our overall sales growth as we had significant decline in the quarter. With our strong sales growth and good execution, we achieved a 19% growth in adjusted operating income and a 24% increase in adjusted EPS. Cash flow generation was very strong in the quarter. Our end markets remain favorable and our strategic initiatives are very effective at capturing growth. Our spinnaker sales and marketing approach provides the framework to identify and pursue the most attractive market segments while also increasing our sales force exposure to the most strategic customers. We also continue to invest in the strength and breadth of our product portfolio, further extending our technology lead and reinforcing customer trust through our global service offering, which supports customers' productivity. We have successfully navigated the challenges of the global supply chain to date, but are cautious as dynamics remain challenging and conditions can change rapidly. Although pockets of uncertainty exist in the global economy, we believe we are ideally positioned to gain market share. With proven strategies, good demand in our land markets, and continued focused execution on our growth and margin initiatives, we believe we are in an excellent position to deliver strong results in 2021 and 2022. Let me now turn it to Sean to cover the financial and guidance details, and then I will come back with some additional commentary on the business and our outlook for next year.