Myers Industries, Inc.

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining Moist Industries' second quarter 2022 earnings call. My name is Darius, and I will be moderating your call today. Before handing over to your host, Monica Vinay, I would like to remind you, if you would like to ask a question during a Q&A session at the end of the call, please press star for the number one on your telephone keypad. And I'll have the pleasure of handing over to your host, Monica Vinay. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I'm Monica Vinay, Interim Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer at Myers Industries. Joining me today is Mike McGaugh, President and Chief Executive Officer. Earlier this morning, we issued a news release outlining the financial results for the second quarter of 2022. We have also posted a slide presentation to accompany today's prepared remarks. If you've not yet received a copy of either the release or the presentation, you can access them on our website, at www.myersindustries.com under the investor relations tab. This call is also being webcast on our website and will be archived along with the transcript of the call shortly after this event. Please turn to slide two of the slide presentation for our safe harbor disclosures. I would like to remind you that we may make some forward-looking statements during this call. These comments are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Security Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are based on management's current expectations and involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Also, please be advised that certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted operating income, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted EPS may be discussed on this call. Further information concerning these risks, uncertainties, and other factors is set forth in the company's periodic SEC filings and may be found in the company's 10-K and 10-Q filings. Please turn to slide three of our presentation, and I'm now pleased to turn the call over to Mike McGaugh.

Thank you, Monica. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our second quarter of 2022 earnings call. I'm pleased to report another quarter of exceptionally strong results for Meyers Industries. Our transformation is underway. Our strategy is working. Our teams are aligned and working well together. And as a result, we are driving record results for both sales and earnings. Our second quarter performance reflects consistent and meaningful progress against our three horizon strategy and provides additional proof points demonstrating our ability to execute and drive the transformation of Meijer's industries. As the second quarter evolved, we were able to see results from our self-help initiatives. These initiatives have driven our second quarter performance in an outstanding first half of 2022. For the quarter, Meyers delivered a 24% increase in net sales compared to the same period last year. This marks the seventh sequential quarter of double digit top line growth. This performance is remarkable. It would not have been possible without the changes we've made over the past couple of years. The strong top line momentum flowed through the income statement, delivering a 55% increase in our adjusted EPS and a 41% increase in our adjusted EBITDA. I'm pleased with our performance in both the top and bottom line as it demonstrates that our strategy is translating into consistent company-wide growth quarter after quarter. As a result of this performance, we are raising our fiscal 2022 outlook for both revenue and earnings and Monica will outline that later in her talk. Please turn to slide four where we show a more detailed summary of our second quarter results. Our sales growth was the driver of strong results across both the material handling and distribution segments with net sales of $233 million, up 24% versus the same period last year. Just as we did in first quarter, in the second quarter we realized the benefits of the pricing actions taken by our commercial teams throughout 2021 and into 2022. These actions more than offset inflationary pressure in raw materials, freight, and labor. As a result, our margins expanded again, with gross margins improving 260 basis points compared to the year-ago period. In spite of the macroeconomic environment, the resilience of our businesses, the earnings resilience of Meyers Industries is clear and evident in our results. Before I turn the call over to Monica for a more in-depth review of our financials, I want to reiterate how pleased I am with our teammates, our people. Over the past two years, we've brought in new talent, several dozen professionals from global multinationals who know these industries, know these businesses, and know how to run them very well. This injection of new talent coupled with the talent of our legacy teams has proven to be a successful formula. I know I've mentioned this point in the past, but I want to call it out again because it's proving to be so important. We're taking large-cap capabilities and bolting them to a small-cap company. Or said another way, large-cap capabilities with a small-cap growth opportunity. The people strategy we're running works and has set us up for a long-term ramp of improved performance, transforming Myers in a way that I believe will be compelling to all of our stakeholders. The work our teams have done over the past two years to improve our operations, our purchasing, our pricing, and our capabilities in general is driving positive results across all of our business units and functions. I'm really excited to see the improvement, the transformation, and I'd like to thank our entire team for that. Now I'll turn the call over to Monica to review the second quarter financial results and provide our updated 22 outlook. I will then spend a few minutes discussing our progress to date against our three horizon strategy. Monica?