Valmont Industries, Inc.

Greetings. Welcome to Valmont Industries Incorporated Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one brief follow-up question and return to the queue. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn this conference over to your host, Renee Campbell, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, and Treasurer. Ms. Campbell, you may begin.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. With me today are Abner Applebaum, President and Chief Executive Officer, Tom Liguori, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Tim Francis, Chief Accounting Officer. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release announcing our second quarter 2025 results. Both the release and the presentation for today's webcast are available on the investor's page of our website at valmont.com. A replay of the webcast will be available later this morning. To stay updated with Valmont's latest news releases and information, please sign up for email alerts on our investor website. We'll begin today's call with prepared remarks and then open it up for questions. Please note that this call is subject to our disclosure on forward-looking statements, which is outlined on slide two of the presentation and will be read in full after Q&A. With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Abner.

Thank you, Renee. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'd like to start with second quarter highlights and key messages summarized on slide four. We delivered solid results operationally this quarter, reflecting the dedication, and resilience of our global downline team. I want to thank our employees for delivering our core values and delivering for our customers every day. Sales grew modestly, driven by strength in utility, telecom, and international agriculture. Our teams executed well, driving volume growth in key markets while advancing our long-term strategy. We remain deeply confident in the end markets we serve which are supported by powerful long-term growth drivers. Secular megatrends, including the energy transition, infrastructure investment, and global demand for food security, offer significant potential for our business. We have intentionally aligned our unique strengths with these trends. When I became CEO two years ago, we laid out a clear strategy. Simplify the business. focus where we lead flatten the organization and direct our resources to the areas with the best long-term returns that framework has not changed and we've executed consistently against it this quarter represents the final step in the realignment work we began in july 2023 we exited unprofitable parts of solar took a hard look at access systems and completed targeted changes across the company, removing layers, reassigning talent, and sharpening accountability. These actions resulted in $112 million of non-recurring charges. But they were decisions that are fully aligned with the strategy we set from the start. Having now finished the realignment work, we have the right structure in place, and our teams are focused. we're in a stronger position to scale and execute more effectively and drive long-term value creation. With that foundation set, we're focused on what's next, accelerating growth, driving greater efficiency, and advancing innovation to deliver greater values to our customers. That mindset is already part of how we operate, from adapting to changing market needs, to evolving our products. With a strong balance sheet and track record of consistent cash flow generation, we're investing in organic, high-return initiatives that enhance customer impact and improve returns. Turning to slide five, I'd like to provide an update on the progress we've made on our 2025 critical objectives. In utility, we're capturing the infrastructure waves. We're scaling capacity staying close to the long-term customer plans, and improving execution. This is a business that's growing, and we're investing to stay ahead. With an infrastructure backlog approaching $1.5 billion, demand for our products continues to outpace current capacity. We're operating in an unprecedented utility investment cycle. According to a Jefferies Utilities report issued in June, U.S. CapEx is expected to exceed $212 billion this year, a 22% increase driven by electrification, data center expansion, and grid modernization. The next five-year cycle is also accelerating to record levels. Capital is shifting toward transmission and generation, while distribution and substation spending remain strong. We are well positioned to meet this demand with our engineered structures and coding services. Our $100 million growth CapEx target for this year is on track, focused on scaling utility operations and improving workflow across the footprint. At the same time, we're addressing areas that require operational improvement. In lighting and transportation, we've made leadership and organizational changes to improve performance. This is a broad business. with diverse end markets, some of which are experiencing softer demand. However, we remain confident in the long-term fundamentals. Our focus is on improving execution so that we're ready to capture growth as demand returns. Second, in agriculture, we've reshaped the business to be more resilient and globally balanced. We've streamlined the team out of dedicated aftermarket resources and we're executing well across key international markets. Brazil is a very important market for us and is showing signs of stabilization. Our international project pipeline is stronger than ever. The EMEA region continues to show momentum, and we recently were awarded $20 million of project work in Africa. While North America remains challenged, we're building for long term with better agility, stronger margins, and technology advancements for our growers. And across the company, we're focused on doing more with what we have, from smarter scheduling, to piloting AI at eight of our infrastructure facilities, or scaling throughput without scaling costs. We're looking across systems, teams, and assets to make sure we're running as efficiently as we can and setting ourselves up to support growth without adding complexity. This also helps us execute with focus and invest in high-value innovation to best serve our customers. Finally, Belmont's strength lies in our people, their resilience, values, and commitment to a strong safety culture. Last month, we published our 10th Annual Sustainability Report, highlighting many of our team's accomplishments. sustainability remains central to our purpose of conserving resources and improving life and a strategic competitive advantage that continues to shape our business. In summary, we've taken the hard steps, refined the portfolio, realigned the structure, and tightened our focus. I'm proud of how this team has advanced and sharpened our strategy over the past year. We're executing with more precision, more discipline, and clear returns. Now we move forward from a stronger foundation. Our priorities are the same, but our ability to deliver on them is better than ever. I'll now turn the call over to Todd to discuss our second quarter financial results and updated outlook.