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. This call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I'll now turn the call over to Whit Kincaid.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on Mueller Water Products' first quarter 2023 conference call. We issued our press release reporting results of operations for the quarter ended December 31st, 2022, yesterday afternoon. A copy of the press release is available on our website, www.muellerwaterproducts.com. Scott Hall, our president and CEO, and Marty Zakis, our CFO, will be discussing our first quarter results and outlook for 2023. 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, which address our forward-looking statements and 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. 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 our 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 September 30th. A replay of this morning's call will be available for 30 days at 1-800-876-4955. 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, Witt. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our first quarter earnings 2023 call. I'm pleased with our solid start to this year. We again generated a double digit increase in consolidated net sales as we benefited from past pricing actions taken to help offset inflationary pressures. The improved price realization was partially offset by a modest decrease in overall volumes in the quarter. Although our brass production levels did improve sequentially, Lower production levels compared with the prior year contributed to the decrease in volumes. We believe the municipal repair and replacement market remained resilient and helped partially offset the slowdown in residential construction activity. As our end markets evolve in this economic environment, we are working closely with our channel partners to manage inventories and order levels. We sequentially improved gross margins in the quarter as higher price realization combined with a lower level of inflation and better manufacturing performance more than offset lower volumes. While the inflationary pressures have eased, they are still elevated compared with the prior year, leading us to implement additional price increases. Our teams remain focused on delivering the benefits from our large capital projects, particularly the ramp-up of our new brass foundry. We are seeing operational improvements at our Kimbell facility as our specialty valve products deliver the strongest year-over-year growth in the quarter. We believe we are on track to achieve the operational improvements needed to increase margins in the second half of this year. While we are pleased with our first quarter results, we also remain vigilant in this environment and are reiterating our annual guidance. After Marty discusses our financial results, I'll provide more color on our first quarter performance and markets and outlook for 2023. Now, I'll turn the call over to Marty.