Eguana Technologies Inc.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Iguana Technologies, Inc. first quarter 2023 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity for analysts to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and 0. If you're participating through the webcast, you can submit a question in writing by using the form in the lower section of the webcast frame. I would now like to turn the conference over to Brent Harris, COO of Iguana Technologies. Please go ahead, sir.

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for Iguana's first quarter 2023 earnings and update call. My name is Brent Harris, Chief Operating Officer of Iguana. On the call today, we also have the Iguana team, Justin Holland, CEO, Madison Duncan, Controller, and our newly joined CFO, Hansine Allberg. Please note that today's call is being recorded and participants will be in listen-only mode. If you have any questions during the presentation, please type them into the Q&A box at the bottom of your Zoom screen, and we will address them at the end of the call. Alternatively, if you're on a phone, you can follow the operator's instructions at the end of the call to ask any questions. Before we begin, please note that certain remarks may constitute forward-looking statements. Although we believe these statements reflect our best judgment based on factors currently known to us, actual results may differ materially and adversely. Please refer to the company's filings on CDAR for a more inclusive discussion of risks and more details related to the uncertainty of forward-looking statements. Please also note these statements are being made as of today. and we disclaim any obligation to update or revise them. All financial data is represented in Canadian dollars and on an unaudited, consolidated basis, unless otherwise noted. Some of you may have joined us for the fiscal year-end call just a month ago, and some of our comments may seem like a bit of a repeat of that recent information. In any event, thank you for attending, and over to Justin for the overall update.

Thank you, Brent, and thank you, everyone, for joining us again on the call today. The March quarter, although typically the slowest quarter of the year in residential renewables, was the second highest revenue quarter in company history and by a significant margin coming in at $5.9 million, which represents an increase of nearly 2,000% when compared to the same quarter of the prior year. Gross margins for the three months ended March 31st remain relatively flat at 2.6% compared to 3.9% in the December quarter. A slight variance was driven by changes to the product mix. We do expect to see up to 8% margin improvement later this year coming from the following. 2% from freight cost stabilization, which has now occurred through the logistics networks. 4% from battery module price reductions to pre-pandemic levels. and 2% from import tariff reductions as a result of supply chain relocation of certain components and sub-assemblies outside of China. Longer term, cost reduction objectives with battery modules and advanced power electronics are expected to deliver an additional 12% to 15% gross margin over the next 18 months. The Iguana mission is to be a global leader in grid-tied energy storage. We believe this will be a critical component of the power grid transformation to a distributed grid, which is necessary for electrification. Electricity needs are set to double in the next 20 to 30 years, which present a two-stage problem. One is generation. The second is transmission. Renewable energy assets and the transition to a distributed grid solves both of these problems. Iguana's combined product line approach with energy storage solutions and microinverters, along with the Iguana Cloud, provide a three-pillar approach to revenue generation inside of the residential marketplace. Revenues will be generated from the roof, the wall, and the cloud. We are now in position to aggressively grow all three of these revenue streams, which are in line with our strategic plan. Additionally, on the hardware side, We have one of the widest product portfolios in the market for both microinverters and energy storage solutions. At Iguana, we're trying to solve complex problems, which open up big opportunities, and our strategic growth focus includes the following key initiatives, business development and strategic sales. The company continues to expand key hardware and software development team members to support growth initiatives of new white label partnerships, to achieve regional and country certification requirements, and to improve Iguana Cloud's battery management solutions and battery integration and development. We strongly believe we have the best and the brightest on our team, with top-tier partners on the supply and demand sides of our business. Our recent partnership with VirtualPeaker is an outcome to some of these strategies. With the goal of integrating best-in-class software and hardware technologies while at the same time opening up recurring revenue streams through virtual power plant development. The company also continues to grow our trained installer network. The more boots on the ground, the deeper and broader our sales channels will be. It's the installer base that sells at the consumer kitchen table. They influence not only consumer buying decisions, but feature selections driving consumer choice. Iguana University is our online training and toolkit for distributors and installers. We continue optimizing and tweaking our modules and tools to continue simplifying working with our company, creating the best user experience. Training modules are inclusive of selling, installing, commissioning, design, and product knowledge for both energy storage systems and microinverters, along with a number of additional tools for our installation partners. Launching in late November, we have already had over 400 unique module logins to date, with the target to train the first 1,000 installers by the end of this calendar year. Efficiency and scale of manufacturing. This includes our state-of-the-art inverter functional test stations, or IFTs. These stations define Iguana's manufacturing capacity. Each IFT can test up to 400 energy storage systems per month across a two-shift operation. With the IFPs procured and commissioned and installed to date, provide an annual capacity of over 24,000 systems. This allows us to accelerate focus on system test process, which will continue to increase production capacity without further IFT investments. Cost efficiency. This includes supply chain optimization in both availability and cost. We see our alternative parts program and strategic inventory levels of the right products in the right regions as important positive contributors. By shifting certain materials outside of China, we also see margin improvement by managing import tariffs. As mentioned, we have executed a number of supply chain changes, which will result in a plus 2% gain in gross margins, once current materials have been consumed through the manufacturing and sales processes. Prudent financial management. Our financing activities in 2022 with outstanding long-term partners is contributing to a strong liquidity. Last year, we increased our cash balances and working capital flexibility to deliver on our growth objectives. With a couple of strong quarters under our belt and a positive outlook for the second half of 2023 and onwards, We have begun increasing our investor relations activities to get the Iguana story into the minds of additional investors and shareholders alike. At this point, I'll turn it over to Madison, who will once again lead us through our Q1 financial results.