WESCO International, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the WESCO Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Leslie Hunziker, the Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Before we get started, I want to remind you that certain statements made on this call contain forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance and by their nature are subject to inherent uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Please see our webcast slides as well as the company's SEC filings for additional risk factors and disclosures. Any forward-looking information relayed on this call speaks only as of this date and the company undertakes no obligation to update the information to reflect the changed circumstances. Today we'll use certain non-GAAP financial measures. Required information about these non-GAAP measures is available on our webcast slides and in our press release, both of which are posted on our website at Wesco.com. On the call this morning, we have John Engel, our CEO, and Dave Schultz, Wesco's Chief Financial Officer. Now I'll turn the call over to John.

Thank you, Leslie, and good morning, everyone. We had an exceptional quarter and delivered outstanding results across the board. In just one year after closing a transformational combination of Wesco and Anixter, the substantial value creation of the new Wesco is clear and powerful. We're capitalizing on our scale and industry-leading positions. We're generating significant integration synergies at a pace exceeding our initial expectations. As a result, our margin performance and backlog are records for the company. And we're de-levering our balance sheet at a rapid rate. Most importantly, we are only in the early stages of unlocking the power and performance of this new LESCO. Moving to page four. We are seeing accelerating sales and margin momentum across our entire business and delivered second quarter sales that are 4% above 2019 pre-pandemic levels and also delivered second quarter EBITDA margin that is up 110 basis points versus 2019 pre-pandemic levels as well. Each of our three business units is making strong contributions to the growth of our company. Our comprehensive product and value added service offerings, our broad and deep supplier relationships, and our technical expertise are proving to be critical differentiators for our customers. We're also ensuring continuity of supply to our customers, which is especially critical as the economic recovery accelerates. now shifting the margin and operating leverage we build a foundation for sustainable margin improvement through our increased global scale value-based pricing program and the realization of cost synergies at a pace and scale that continues to exceed our expectations increased earnings power that we're generating has been a key catalyst for rapidly delivering our balance sheet since our june 2020 acquisition of annixter In just one year since closing a transaction, we've improved our leverage ratio by 1.2 turns, which is well ahead of schedule and highlights the power of our business model. As a result, we now expect to reach our targeted leverage range of 2.0 to 3.5 times by the second half of 2022, which is significantly ahead of our original outlook. Year to date, we've experienced upside to our forecast on all of our key operating metrics, And as such, we've raised our sales, margin, and profit guidance for the second time this year. In addition, we've raised our three-year sales and cost synergy targets on the continuing strength of our integration execution. Our employees have done an absolutely outstanding job on delivering on our commitments in the first year of the transformational combination of Lesko and Anixter. I would like to recognize and thank each and every one of them for their drive, dedication, resilience, and strong results. Now moving to page five. Our dramatically increased scale and expanded portfolio positions us very well to capitalize on a secular growth trend that will sustain the current economic recovery and are foundational for the global economy in the years ahead. Our future growth opportunity is amplified by the six secular growth trends outlined on this page. You'll recall that we previously had a wheel of 12, and we've collapsed into these six major secular trend categories. I'd like to take a few moments to highlight two specific examples today. First, grid hardening. When it comes to power generation, transmission, and distribution, the overall infrastructure of that power chain, so to speak, today's utilities face numerous challenges from new environmental regulations, evolving technologies, and aging infrastructure and increased storm activity. Sixty percent of U.S. distribution lines have surpassed their 50-year life expectancy. and it's estimated that $1.5 to $2 trillion will need to be spent to modernize the grid just to maintain reliability. As ongoing and significant infrastructure upgrades are required, we're supporting our customers with advanced products and, more importantly, with integrated supply chain management services. We're onsite with many of our utility customers, helping with product selection. We're providing application and technical support. resourcing materials, and we're handling material staging and logistics. Through a single interface, our platforms are digitally integrated with our customer systems for efficient project management. As the leader in utility distribution, we are well positioned to continue to partner with all the major utilities as they implement the critical work for grid modernization. Second highlight area I wanted to highlight was rural broadband. World broadband network development is a huge growth opportunity for Westcom. Today, there are more than 30 million people in the U.S. who don't have access to broadband, or 30 million homes, that is, who don't have access to broadband. The pandemic put a spotlight on this challenge as working from home and learning from home became necessary. The FCC has committed $20 billion to support the broadband build-out in the U.S. through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, or better known as RDoS. There's another $65 billion within the proposed infrastructure bill. We're partnering with electric utilities, co-ops and municipals, as well as telecom providers to help bring broadband to these rural markets. Specifically, we're supplying end-to-end fiber solutions for the build-out of broadband networks and last-mile Internet access. Projections are that the build-out will take place over the next 10-plus years. We are in an absolutely outstanding position to leverage our broadband capabilities for customers as a leader in both utility and broadband supply chain management. So in summary, our mission is to build, connect, power, and protect the world. One year into this journey, we are confident that the results we are seeing are just the beginning of the value creation opportunity that the new Wesco represents. The value creation potential of WESCO plus annexure has started to emerge, but we have only just begun. With that, I'll turn it over to Dave to walk you through the details of the second quarter, as well as our updated guidance. Dave?