MUELLER WATER PRODUCTS

Welcome and thank you for standing by. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode until the question and answer session of today's conference. At that time, you may press star one on your phone to ask a question. I would like to inform all parties that today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Whit Kincaid. Thank you. You may begin.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on Muir Water Products' fourth quarter and fiscal year-end 2021 conference call. We issued our press release reporting results of operations for the quarter ended September 30th, 2021, yesterday afternoon. A copy of the press release is available on our website, www.muirwaterproducts.com. Scott Hall, our president and CEO, and Marty Zackins, our CFO, will be discussing our fourth quarter and full year results and markets, and expectations for fiscal 2022. This morning's call is being recorded and webcast live on the Internet. We have also posted slides on our website to go along with today's discussion and address forward-looking statements and our non-GAAP disclosure requirements. At this time, please refer to slide two. This slide identifies non-GAAP financial measures referenced in our press release on our slides and on this call. and discloses why we believe that these measures provide useful information to investors. Reconciliations between non-GAAP and GAAP financial measures are included in the supplemental information within our press release and on our website. Slide 3 addresses forward-looking statements made on this call. This slide includes cautionary information identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in forward-looking statements. please review slides two and three in their entirety. During this call, all references to a specific year or quarter, unless specified otherwise, refer to our fiscal year, which ends the 30th of September. A replay of this morning's call will be available for 30 days at 1-800-834-5839. The archived webcast and corresponding slides will be available for at least 90 days in the investor relations section of our website. I'll now turn the call over to Scott.

Thanks, Whit. Thank you for joining us today. I hope everyone listening to our call continues to stay safe and healthy. The fourth quarter was a disappointing end to a strong year, which we achieved despite the ongoing pandemic and other challenges. In addition to the pandemic, We have faced many obstacles over the past year, including significant raw material and other cost inflation, supply chain disruptions, and labor availability challenges, which impacted fourth quarter operations and results. I want to thank all of our team members for their perseverance and dedication throughout this past year as they continue to execute in this unprecedented operating environment. Our consolidated net sales increased 11.4% for the fourth quarter. and 15.2% for the full year. Following record sales growth in the third quarter, we experienced continued strong demand in the fourth quarter, driven by both new residential construction and municipal repair and replacement activity. Fourth quarter orders remained elevated compared with pre-pandemic levels, and we ended the year with record backlog for our infrastructure products. While our fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA decreased primarily due to the challenging operating environment, we still achieved 6.8% growth for the year. Although we realized improved pricing in the quarter for the majority of our products, it was not enough to offset the continued higher inflation. We do expect that our current pricing actions will more than cover anticipated inflation in 2022, assuming material costs do not increase beyond current levels. Additionally, during the quarter, our specialty valve product portfolio experienced longer delivery time for parts, delaying shipments, and our ongoing plant restructuring has been impacted by the supply chain disruptions and labor challenges. I am especially pleased with our cash flow for the year, where we generated $94 million of free cash flow. We ended the year with a stronger cash position compared with the prior year after acquiring I2O Water for $19.7 million and allocating $44.8 million to shareholders. We repurchased $10 million of common stock during the fourth quarter and recently announced a dividend increase of approximately 5.5%. In summary, while we had a disappointing finish to the year from a conversion margin perspective, we delivered strong top-line growth and remain focused on overcoming the operational challenges. We believe that the record backlog across our short-cycle products coupled with the expected realization from higher pricing, have positioned us to deliver net sales and adjusted EBITDA growth in 2022. Additionally, we are nearing the completion of our three large capital projects, which we expect to drive gross margin benefits once they are up and fully running. I am confident that we are in a great position to accelerate our strategies and improve our culture of execution as we become a world-class water technologies company. bringing solutions to critical water infrastructure. With that, I'll turn the call over to Marty to discuss our 2021 fourth quarter and full year results.