WESCO International, Inc.

Hello and welcome to today's West Coast first quarter earnings call. I would like to remind you that all lines will be on listen only mode throughout this presentation. If you would like to ask a question, please press start followed by one on your telephone keypad. Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now hand the conference call over to Will Ruff Ruff, Director of Investor Relations to begin. Will, over to you.

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. Additionally, today we will 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, WESCO's Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Dave Schultz, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Now I'll turn the call over to John.

Well, thank you, Will, and good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be with you. Our first quarter results speak volumes about Wesco's foundation for accelerating growth and profitability. After delivering exceptional performance in 2021, we're off to an even more impressive start in 2022. Once again, we outperformed the market, and we achieved new company records for sales, profitability, and backlog. Each of our three global business units delivered double-digit sales and profit growth, with results that are now well above 2019 pre-pandemic levels. We also continued our rapid deleveraging, which now stands at 3.6 times adjusted EBITDA, compared to 5.7 times when we closed the annex or acquisition just seven quarters ago. This is by far the strongest quarter since the new Wesco was formed by the transformational combination of Wesco and Anixter in June of 2020. With each quarter, the power of Wesco's increased scale, expanded portfolio, and industry-leading positions becomes more evident as we build momentum and deliver superior value to all of our customers. As a result of our standing start to the year and the accelerating momentum across our business, we are substantially raising our outlook for 2022, as well as increasing our cumulative sales synergy target through the end of 2023. Importantly, we are continuing to invest in our digital transformation effort, which will raise WestGear to an even higher level of performance, operating efficiency, and customer loyalty. Overall, our results continue to prove the extraordinary value of the West Atlantic combination and point to a future of sustained growth and market outperformance. Dave will review our financial results and address our substantially higher full-year outlook in more detail shortly. But before I hand it off to Dave, I want to address three additional items. First, it's the WESCO results versus pre-pandemic levels. Second, our uniquely strong position to capitalize on the attractive secular growth trends in our end markets. And third, our new company, our new co-brand identity that we launched earlier this year. Turning to page five. The strength of the new WESCO and our accelerating growth and profitability are best measured by comparing our results to pre-pandemic levels in 2019. This page spotlights those comparisons versus Wesco plus Anixter's 2019 pro forma results. Sales, sales are up 21% to over 4.9 billion in the first quarter. Adjusted EBITDA nearly doubled from 187 million to 364 million with a trailing 12-month rate of 1.32 billion. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 280 basis points to 7.4% in the first quarter. And this reflects outstanding execution of our integration program and delivery of our costs, sales, and margin synergies. And finally, we've deleveraged over two turns to 3.6 times since the Anister closing in June 2020, which is well ahead of our external target. These results clearly demonstrate the power of the transformational combination of Lesko plus Anister. Now moving to page six. Our focus on providing our global customers with the products, services, and supply chain solutions that they need is what drives us each and every day. We're executing at a very high level and we're exceptionally well positioned to capitalize on the strong secular growth trends and increasing investments in public sector infrastructure outlined on this page. These long-term growth drivers positively impact each of our three global business units. As I previously said, the new Wesco is becoming a growth company. We have a record backlog, an accelerating cross-sell program, a growing opportunity pipeline, and very positive momentum overall. And most importantly, we are only in the early stages of unlocking our total growth potential. Now turning to page seven. The transformational combination of Wesco and Attix during June 2020 created a new company with increased scale, a higher growth portfolio, and significantly expanded capabilities. We launched a new brand platform to better reflect our new company and amplify the key attributes that describe the new Wesco. Outlined on this page are four statements that are central to our new brand. First, our mission. Our mission is that we build, connect, power and protect the world. Second, our vision. Our vision is to be the best tech-enabled supply chain solutions provider in the world. Operative words being tech-enabled. Third, our purpose. Our purpose is for life to run smoothly. It should run smoothly so we can create a world you can depend on. And finally, our promise. And our promise is ingenuity delivered. I'm very proud of our team's continued commitment to realizing the vision and mission of the new Wesco. Our exceptional results are a testament to the ingenuity and solutions-driven mindset that are hallmarks of our culture. Our new logo in the center of this page is more than a change of design. It is a W with an embedded A, and it provides a visual representation of the coming together of Wesco and Anixter to drive growth and innovation. responsibly, and sustainably. We're utilizing our new brand to engage with our customers and suppliers, as well as in our new employee recruiting campaigns. I encourage you to visit our new website, which was launched a little over a week ago, to experience our exciting new Wesco brand. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Dave.