Quanex Building Products Corporation

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q2 2024 Quantix Building Products Corporation Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker, Scott Zielke, Senior Vice President, CFO, and Treasurer. Your line is open. You may begin.

Thanks for joining the call this morning. On the call with me today is George Wilson, our Chairman, President, and CEO. This conference call will contain forward-looking statements and some discussion of non-GAAP measures. Forward-looking statements and guidance discussed on this call and in our earnings release are based on current expectations. Actual results or events may differ materially from such statements and guidance, and Quantix undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect new information or events. For a more detailed description of our forward-looking statement disclaimer and a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, please see our earnings release issued yesterday and posted to our website. I'll now turn the call over to George for his prepared remarks.

Thanks, Scott, and good morning to everyone joining the call. I am pleased with our performance during our fiscal second quarter. Quantix's operational model has proven to be highly resilient in both peak and soft demand environments as we continue to achieve profitable growth. Despite a lower volume environment compared to the prior year period and some index pricing pressures in North America, the Quantix team continues to perform well and offer best-in-class service to our customers. Additionally, we are also investing in opportunities to expand our customer base and product portfolio. Our previously announced acquisition of Tymon underscores our commitment to bringing even more value to customers around the world. Now I'd like to take a moment to discuss the macroeconomic factors impacting our businesses. Globally, we are observing a return to a more typical seasonal build and demand pattern across all of our products. Volume has increased each quarter, as expected, and we anticipate this quarterly ramp-up to continue. In North America, there is a sense of optimism regarding improvements in both new construction and repair and replacement models. We anticipate that when the Federal Reserve does take action to lower interest rates, demand for our products will increase as consumers gain confidence and allocate more funds to housing expenditures. We anticipate that this shift will occur in the latter half of the 2024 calendar year, with a more pronounced impact in 2025. However, since our full-year guidance does not hinge on significant Federal Reserve movements, any short-term changes would represent upside for Quantix. Conversely, in Europe, market dynamics pose a greater challenge. Both the UK and continental European markets have experienced significant softness, We anticipate that market improvements in Europe will lag behind North America due to ongoing geopolitical conflict, sustained pressure on energy costs, and various governmental elections. Despite these market challenges in Europe, our performance over the past two years demonstrates that the Quantix operating model can swiftly adapt to drive favorable outcomes. Our operational flexibility coupled with our scale and sourcing initiatives have enabled us to maintain a robust margin profile and consistently deliver world-class service and quality products to our customers. Considering these factors, along with the feedback that we have received from our customers and our proven ability to manage controllable variables, we feel confident in reaffirming our full-year guidance, and we continue to expect another year of strong results from Quantix performance. Before I turn the call over to Scott, I'd like to provide a brief update on our pending acquisition of Tymon. We continue to work toward the completion of this value accretive transaction, which will create a comprehensive solutions provider in the building products industry. We commenced mailing of our US proxy statement this week and expect to publish the UK scheme document shortly. In addition, the regulatory agencies have received all necessary filings. So we're confident in our path to close and remain on track to close in the second half of calendar year 2024. As a result, shareholder meetings are scheduled for July 12th. As we progress our integration planning, we remain excited about the transformative potential that this combination offers. We are confident the combination of Quantix and Tymon will accelerate our journey to becoming bigger and creating a leading supplier of building products with a more diverse geographic footprint product offering, and customer base. I'll now turn the call over to Scott, who will discuss our financial results in more detail.