Manitowoc Company, Inc. (The)

Good day and welcome to the Montala Company, Inc. First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in the tsunami mode. Should you need assistance, please schedule a conference specialist for 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 telephone keypad. To answer a question, please press star, then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ian Warner, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our earnings call to review the company's first quarter 2026 financial performance and business update as outlined in last evening's press release. Joining me this morning with prepared remarks are Aaron Ravenscroft, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Brian Regan, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Earlier this morning, we posted our slide presentation to the investor relations section of our website, www.manitowoc.com, which you can use to follow along with our prepared remarks. Please turn to slide two. Before we start, please note our safe harbor statement in the material provided for this call. During today's call, forward the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 are made based on the company's current assessment of its markets and other factors that affect its business. However, actual results could differ materially from any implied or actual projections due to one or more of the factors, among others, described in the company's latest SEC filings. The Manitowoc Company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether the result of new information, future events, or other circumstances. And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Aaron.

Thank you, Ian, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to take a moment to thank the Manitowoc team for their unwavering commitment to serving our stakeholders. Over the last 12 months, the team has continued to execute our Craneslip 50 strategy, enabling us to weather the downturn in the crane cycle and be better positioned for the next leg up. Although there is a great deal of uncertainty in the Middle East, Ukraine, and even in the United States with respect to tariffs, The overall market has been resilient. Our orders during the first quarter were almost $650 million, and our backlog ended the period at $940 million. In addition, order rates in April remained strong. Please turn to slide three. Starting with the Manitowoc Way, I recently challenged our organization to eliminate hammers, similar to what we did with ladders a few years ago. We are simply too reliant on hammers. They create quality problems and are a major source for city-state risk. In Katie Grove's plan alone, we had over 1,200 hammers in use. Thus far, we've eliminated 264. As you can see on the slide, the organization has quickly developed a variety of improvements, ranging from simple to ingenious solutions. Eliminating hammers not only helps create a safer workplace, but also supports the Manitowoc Way culture, as we consistently drive for continuous improvement and innovation. Ultimately, our goal is to have zero injuries. In terms of new product development, in March, we unveiled an 80-ton boom truck and an 800-ton 8-axle all-terrain crane at ConExpo. Both received outstanding feedback from customers and crane operators. The eight-axle crane was a real head-turner at the show, and I really look forward to getting the first units into the field in 2027. Please move to slide four. Turning to our Cranes Plus 50 strategy, our non-new machine sales for the quarter grew 3% year-over-year. On our trailing 12-month basis, we improved 8% to $696 million. Growing this part of our business, which is less impacted by economic cycles and produces higher returns, is a key part of our strategic plan and is working well. As I preach to our teams, for us to continuously grow our non-new machine sales, we have to focus on four major buckets. Number one, we are adding more service locations. For example, in Australia, we doubled the capacity of our Sydney facility, and we recently approved new service centers in Brisbane and Melbourne. Brisbane will host the 2032 Olympics, and we are preparing for a lot of activity in the region. Number two, we are adding more aftermarket sales representatives and field service techs. We ended the first quarter with 567 field service techs, up 50 techs in just three months. The growth was driven by two major actions. First, we reorganized our approach to talent acquisition in North America by enhancing our recruiting team. And second, in India, we transitioned from a dealer model to a direct model and ordered better service to our customers. The third bucket, we are increasing sales of complimentary lifting accessories. In Europe, our tower crane team has introduced anti-intrusion panels to reduce theft and to discourage curious social media influencers during the off hours. In addition, the team has introduced urinals to replace the less than desirable traditional bucket system. In the UK, our mobile team has started selling outrigger pads and a rear-mounted storage compartment, which stay designed in-house. Our goal is straightforward. We want to make our customers' lives easier so they can focus on executing lists. And the fourth bucket is the fact that we are leveraging technology. I've mentioned our implementation of ServiceMax a few times. This tool has several different modules to help us better track machines and more effectively fix and build crane repairs. In April, we completed the implementation of ServiceMax asset management system. We are now on to the development of the dispatching and work order module, which increases our visibility to service work and enables us to capture more incremental revenue opportunities. Please move to slide five. For my regional update, let's start with the Americas. First and foremost, overall customer sentiment at Conesto was very positive. Crane rental houses were quite optimistic about the market outlook. While everyone is unhappy with tariffs, customers told us project work is abundant. In addition, dealer inventory levels declined during the first quarter, which is a great sign that folks are buying again. For example, altering crane inventory levels are at a 10-year low. In Europe, the crane business feels pretty good. Demand for tower cranes continues to grow with new machine orders up 76% year-over-year, and mobile demand has remained relatively steady. In the Middle East, many big projects like the new Dubai airport continue to move forward. Not surprisingly, Saudi Arabia has pulled back on Neom and Georgiana, but considerable development activity remains underway in Riyadh. Given the circumstances around the Iran conflict, we find ourselves in a wait-and-see mode as we monitor the situation, and I am very encouraged by the level of optimism in the region, with construction companies eager to get back to business. Finally, Asia Pacific continues to gain momentum, with increasing demand in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Australia, and South Korea. I recently visited the new SK Hynix and Samsung semiconductor projects, where roughly 100 TOTON power cranes are currently operating. Korean construction companies continue to leave me in awe of their scale and speed. The Samsung site alone will reach 70,000 workers at its peak. I left South Korea very optimistic about demand in the coming quarters. With that, I'll hand it over to Brian to walk you through the financials before I make a few closing remarks.