Jeff Edwards
Analyst · Roth Capital. Your line is open
Thanks Roger and good morning, everyone. The fourth quarter of 2016 marks the ninth consecutive reporting period in which we’ve delivered year-over-year improvement in adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin. It also caps off the best full year performance in our company’s history. We’re very proud of our accomplishments in 2016 and we’d like to thank our team of more than 30,000 employees around the world for their engagement in our strategic initiatives, which are driving excellent results. The charts on slide five, I would like some of the key annual financial measures. In 2016, we reached a record high of $3.47 billion in sales that was a year-over-year increase of 5.6% when adjusted for foreign exchange. Adjusted EBITDA for the year was a record $417 million that's up 15% over last year. And we generated $199 million in free cash flow the highest level in our company’s history. Turing to slide six, here we highlight some of major operating measures and accomplishments in 2016 that makes the record financial results possible. We’re pleased to have added $398 million of annual new business awards, which was driven by a combination of break through innovations and excellence in customer service, especially as it relates to our ability to support global platforms. We successfully launched 161 new programs in the year, while at the same time achieving $85 million in operating cost reductions. Improving product quality by 79% and improving employee safety by 33% versus 2015 levels. Finally, we are very proud to have been recognized for two prestigious awards for innovation. Turning to slide seven, none of these achievements would be possible without the dedication and commitment to excellence of our global manufacturing teams. As part of our effort to achieve world class operations we've installed stringent measures for plant performance across several key operating measures including employee safety, customer service and satisfaction, success, organization, improvement in operating efficiency, scrap rate and launch execution. In 2016, 15 of our manufacturing facilities reached world class levels across all measures and were awarded our Diamond Plant status. This is up from four locations in 2015, which was the first year of the program. So congratulations to 15 Diamond Plants who are clearly setting the pace for all of our plants to become world class. In addition we also had 14 plants either achieved platinum or gold level performance and miss the top tier by just a few points. Moving on to the slide eight, we continued the successful introduction of several important product innovations during the year and we ended 2016 with $244 million in annual book business. This business will roll out over the next several years and continue to drive both top and bottom-line improvements. To-date we have five development contracts for our Fortrex line of products, in addition to the first Fortrex contract that went into production during the fourth quarter. Looking ahead we still have $54 million in open quotes for our product innovations and nearly - and over $450 million in targeted new quotes that hope to convert into sales in the near future. Our innovation team continues to fill the pipeline with the exciting new technology. We have currently 55 additional active innovation projects and we expect will add significant value to our product portfolio. We believe that our culture of innovation is a clear competitive advantage that continues to add value for our customers and our shareholders. Turning to slide nine, we're very pleased with the improvement in our operating performance over the past few years is driving shareholder value. As you can see in the chart on the left, our stock price was up 35% during the course of the year. In addition, we're able to dramatically reduce the private equity overhang and our share ownership resulting in a more balanced and diversified shareholder base. And taking a slightly longer term view the chart on the right highlights that over the past three years the total return on our stock has vastly outperformed both our peer growth and the broader S&P 500. We're proud of our performance in 2016 and we certainly remain very focused on executing all elements of our strategic plans to add even greater value for our shareholders going forward. The good news here is as we have a lot more opportunity to attack as we strive to become world class operating company. Moving on to slide 10, so additionally another important element of our ability to continue creating value is our commitment to the highest levels of corporate responsibility. For this reason we're extremely proud to be issuing our first corporate responsibility report, which comes at an important time in our profitable growth journey. The report lays out our roadmap for sustainable growth and puts it in the context of our strategic initiatives. Listening to the voice of our customers, producing superior products, achieving world class operations and providing a culture for employee engagement; listening to our customers and understanding their priorities is critical to meeting and exceeding their needs in quality, costs, delivery, launch and global platform management. Our concentration on our four product lines enables us to focus on innovations that are creating breakthrough technologies in material science and product design aimed at light weighting, durability, part consolidation and improved fit and finish. We've made good progress in implementing the Cooper-Standard operating system and installing best business practices, which are delivering savings from operating improvements. Above all, our values, culture, and engaged employees continue to be the greatest drivers of our success. I hope you have an opportunity to review the report, which will be posted on our website later today. So you can see firsthand how our employees bring our values to life and execute our strategic initiatives each and every day. Now, let me turn the call over to Matt.