Proto Labs, Inc.

Greetings. Welcome to ProtoLabs' fourth quarter 2021 earnings call. At this time, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. The question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero from your telephone keypad. Please note that this conference is being recorded. At this time, I'll turn the conference over to Jason Frankman, Vice President and Corporate Controller. Jason, you may now begin.

Thank you, Rob, and welcome, everyone, to Protolab's fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings conference call. I'm joined today by Rob Bedore, Protolab's president and chief executive officer, and Dan Schumacher, interim chief financial officer. This morning, Protolab issued a press release announcing its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2021. The release is available on the company's website. In addition, a prepared slide presentation is available online at the web address provided in our press release. Our discussion today will include statements relating to future performance and expectations that are, or may be considered, forward-looking statements and subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Please refer to our earnings press release and recent SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K for information on certain risks that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially and adversely from any forward-looking statements made today. The results and guidance we will discuss include non-GAAP financial measures consistent with our past practice. Please refer to our press release and the accompanying slide presentation at the investor relations section of our company website for a complete reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP results. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Rob Bedore. Rob?

Thanks, Jason, and good morning, everyone. During 2021, like many companies, Protolabs faced our fair share of disruptions, external and internal. Throughout the year, we overcame these disruptions and continued to invest in strategic areas that will drive further and future profitable growth, including our employees, hubs, Protolabs 2.0, and new customer offerings. Despite the challenging operating environment and external shocks over the past two years, our business fundamentals and market opportunity remain very strong. As we enter 2022, Protolabs is a profitable, growing, technology-enabled digital manufacturer with strong cash flow. The combination of Protolabs' best-in-class rapid manufacturing services and HUB's outsourced manufacturing partner network is truly a unique model in this market, a market that is growing rapidly with the continued digitalization of manufacturing. The external disruptions to our business in 2021 are well known. The global pandemic and new variants continue to add uncertainty and complexity to all businesses. Supply chains have been massively disrupted due to labor and material shortages. Brexit added additional logistics and import-export complications for companies that operate in the region, particularly Protolabs, given the quick-turn nature of our manufacturing services. And last, but certainly not least, the United States recently experienced its fastest rate of inflation in four decades. However, despite the challenging operating environment, 2021 was one of the most transformative years in our company's 22-year history. We executed on our top priorities to create an industry-leading digital manufacturing platform, to expand our portfolio of customer offerings, and to invest in our employees. The year was highlighted by two game-changing transformations for us. First, we completed the largest acquisition in our history and joined forces with hubs to expand our offerings and serve more customer use cases. We are very excited about providing an integrated offer to customers through one seamless digital quoting and ordering platform, fulfilling orders through our internal manufacturing facilities or our network of premium manufacturing partners. I want to reiterate that this hybrid model combining Protolabs industry-leading in-house manufacturing capabilities and an outsourced network is unique in our market. It allows us not only to offer our customers virtually any type of part size or geometry, quantity, and lead time, but also to effectively manage through economic cycles with supply shortages or excess capacity. Our second game changer was the launch of Protolabs 2.0, a revamped customer-facing digital quoting platform and upgraded internal operating systems. The launch of Protolabs 2.0 in the Americas and Europe was made possible by the efforts of hundreds of Protolabs employees. This is an incredible example of what the power of team can do. Customer response has been very positive and we continue to gain traction. In order to transform our company in 2021 and set ourselves up for success in 2022 and beyond, we adapted and overcame challenges while continuing to delight our customers and delivering record revenue. we also launched two major new offerings to our customers. The first, flexible lead times in our CNC machining, and the second, an enhanced digital quality offering in injection molding. During the year, we received significant external recognition of our industry leadership and best-in-class digital manufacturing capabilities. First, the World Economic Forum announced our induction into the Global Lighthouse Network, recognizing our leadership in implementing Industry 4.0 technologies. We joined this network as one of only 10 lighthouse manufacturing facilities in the United States, and we share the honor with Fortune 500 companies like BMW, HP, Siemens, Micron, and Foxconn. Protolabs was also recognized with awards in the software and digital manufacturing categories of Design World's Leadership in Engineering Awards, And most recently, we were recognized as one of five finalists for Plastics News Annual Processor of the Year Award for 2021. As a customer-centric organization, external recognition is not the primary goal. However, it is very rewarding to have these widely respected global organizations validate our innovation, transformation, and market leadership. I am energized by what this company can do, and the number one reason for this is our deep and talented team of employees. I want to recognize and thank Protolabs and Hubs employees for their tireless efforts in 2021. Our team is our most important asset, which is why we continue to invest in our employees and their health and safety. We're furthering our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, prioritizing our safety programs, supporting new work environments, and providing development opportunities with personal and professional educational offerings. The global contract manufacturing market is a multi-trillion dollar industry, and we are still in the early days of digitalization, which is bringing manufacturing online and driving growth for all players in the space. Within the $100 billion digital manufacturing industry we've identified, we are the largest the most technologically advanced, and we have strong cash flows and profitability. In addition, Pertolabs is the only manufacturer with a truly hybrid fulfillment capability that combines the fastest in-house capabilities in the world with a global curated network of manufacturing partners. Our hybrid model is built to withstand economic cycles and continue to grow profitably. Our internal rapid manufacturing offer outperforms the market during periods of high demand for innovation and growth, while the hubs model with longer lead times and lower prices performs well during periods of dampened innovation or supply chain disruptions. As we begin to unite the two offers in a single e-commerce experience in 2022, we will become a one-stop shop, enabling us to serve all customer needs and capture the large opportunity ahead of us. In summary, 2021 was a transformational year for Protolabs and set the foundation for profitable growth for years to come. With that, I'll turn the call over to Dan Schumacher to take you through our financial results in detail. Dan? Thanks, Rob. Good morning, everyone.