MUELLER WATER PRODUCTS

Welcome and thank you for standing by. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. During the Q&A session, if you'd like to ask a question, you may press star 1 on your phone. Today's call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. And now I turn the call over to Mr. Whit Kincaid.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on Mueller Water Products' second quarter 2022 conference call. We issued our press release reporting results of operations for the quarter ended March 31st, 2022, yesterday afternoon. A copy of the press release is available on our website, MuellerWaterProducts.com. Scott Hall, our president and CEO, and Marty Zakis, our CFO, will be discussing our second quarter results and our current outlook for 2022. This morning's call is being recorded and webcast live on the internet. We have also posted slides on our website to accompany today's discussion and to address forward-looking statements and our non-GAAP disclosure requirements. As a reminder, we have changed our management structure and segment reporting effective October 1, 2021. We filed an 8-K in January that provided the recast of historical quarterly results for 2020 and 2021. This is our second quarter reporting with our new segments, Water Flow Solutions and Water Management Solutions. 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. It discloses the reasons 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 three 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 on the 30th of September. A replay of this morning's call will be available for 30 days at 1-800 The archived webcast and corresponding slides will be available for at least 90 days on the Investor Relations section of our website. I'll now turn the call over to Scott.

Thanks, Whit. Thank you for joining us on the call today. I hope everyone is safe and healthy. Before getting started, I would like to comment on the terrible humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, which is having many direct and indirect effects around the world. While we have no sales to Russia or Ukraine, we see the effects on our global supply chain. Most importantly, our thoughts and prayers are with those impacted by the conflict. With that, I will turn to a short recap of our second quarter. We achieved record second quarter net sales and delivered our fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit net sales growth. Our consolidated net sales growth of 16% in the quarter was supported by both improved price realization and continued strong demands. We are encouraged that our price realization more than offset inflation for the first time in more than a year. We experienced solid order growth in the quarter, with end market activity remaining robust in both municipal repair and replacement and new residential construction. With another strong quarter of net sales growth, record backlog at the end of the quarter, and expected realization from price increases, we are again raising our expectations for annual net sales growth. Overall, I am pleased with the diligence and focus of our teams as they continue to secure materials for production, manage our record backlog, and serve the needs of our customers during this challenging operating environment. Our second quarter conversion margins were below expectations, primarily due to operational challenges, which I will address later in the call. However, we anticipate delivering improved conversion margins in the second half of the year, leading to adjusted EBITDA growth for the year. While we believe the operational challenges will continue through 2022, we are confident that our teams can execute initiatives to help offset them and increase margins for the balance of the year and beyond. Before providing more details on our second quarter and updated guidance, I'll turn the call over to Marty to discuss our second quarter results.