MUELLER WATER PRODUCTS

Good morning and thank you for standing by. Your lines are in a listen only mode until the question and answer session of today's conference. At that time you may press star followed by the number one to ask a question. Please unmute your phones and state your first and last name when prompted. Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections you may disconnect at this time. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Whit Kincaid. Sir, you may begin.

Good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us for Mueller Water Products' second quarter conference call. Yesterday afternoon, we issued our press release reporting results of operations for the quarter ended March 31st, 2025. A copy of the press release is available on our website, MuellerWaterProducts.com. I'm joined this morning by Marty Zakis, our Chief Executive Officer, Paul McAndrew, our President and Chief Operating Officer, and Melissa Rasmussen, our Chief Financial Officer. Following our prepared remarks, we will address questions related to the information covered on the call. As a reminder, please keep the one question in a follow-up and then return to the queue. 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. They also 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. 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 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 2 and 3 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 1-800-568-3652. 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 Marty.

Thanks, Witt. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our second quarter earnings call. I'll start with a brief overview of our performance and then turn it over to Paul. We delivered a solid performance this quarter where we achieved second quarter records for consolidated net sales, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted net income per share. Healthy order levels and resilient end market demand supported net sales growth of 3.1%. We exceeded our strong results from the prior year quarter which included benefits from elevated backlogs for service brass and natural gas distribution products. This quarter, we were pleased to see a sequential increase in net sales of repair products thanks to everyone's efforts over the past year. Our focus on delivering exceptional customer service, improving operational excellence, and maintaining cost discipline enabled us to increase both our gross margin and adjusted EBITDA margin compared with our first quarter. Our teams are diligently working through the challenging external environment as we maintain our focus on providing outstanding customer service while closely managing our supply chain. We expect that the recently enacted tariffs will increase costs for many of our products to varying degrees. We are taking appropriate steps to mitigate the higher costs through pricing actions, supply chain mitigation plans, operational initiatives, and cost discipline. We are pleased to be increasing our annual guidance range for 2025 net sales and are maintaining our adjusted EBITDA guidance range due to the higher costs associated with the recently enacted tariffs. Before Paul provides details regarding tariffs and our work to mitigate the impacts for Mueller and our customers, I want to express my continued confidence in our ability to adapt and overcome external challenges. Mueller has been a leading supplier of infrastructure products and solutions for more than 165 years. Approximately 92% of our net sales are in the U.S., and we are largely vertically integrated for our major product categories like iron gate valves, hydrants, and brass products. We estimate that 60 to 65% of our net sales are used for the repair and replacement of municipal water infrastructure. We have leading brands, a large installed base, and a comprehensive distribution network, which gives us a strong foundation. While we are operating in a significantly more volatile external environment, we have teams that have been tested with many challenges before and after the pandemic. With that, I'll turn it over to Paul.