Joseph Armes
Analyst · CJS Securities
Thank you, Tom. Good morning, and thank you for joining our fiscal Q1 conference call. I'll start today by providing a high-level recap of our first quarter results, followed by an update on our capital allocation activities before touching on our end markets, and then passing the call off to Gregg for a closer look at the numbers. To start, our fiscal first quarter consolidated revenue of $89.6 million was slightly higher compared to the year-ago period. Higher revenue resulted from modest growth in our Industrial Products segment, partially offset by a slight decline in Specialty Chemicals. Our fiscal 2019 adjusted operating income from continuing operations was $15.9 million compared to the prior year period of $17.8 million. This decline was primarily driven by an unfavorable product mix, increased commodity cost driven by uncertainties surrounding tariffs, change in the revenue recognition accounting standards and increased spending to fund efficiency projects, which are expected to positively impact our profitability during the second half of the year. By segment, and beginning with Industrial Products, the underlying trend in commercial and residential construction remains positive, although our growth rate for the quarter moderated as a result of a cooler spring and a slower start to the HVAC season. Amplifying this effect in the quarter was strong preseason stocking activity by contractors and distributors in our fiscal fourth quarter of 2018, which led to elevated inventory levels at the distributors. As we look ahead, we do expect recent warmer weather will serve as a benefit in the balance of the year. In our architecturally specified building products business, the change in accounting standards affected our revenue and operating income. The change in the accounting standards adversely affected our segment revenue by $800,000 and our operating income by approximately $240,000. Gregg will walk you through the details in a moment, but it's important to note that this issue only impacts the timing and the optics of these revenues, and this decline will be made up as each contract progresses, and ultimately, concludes. Operationally, in our architecturally specified building products, project and bidding activity remains elevated, but we have noted several developing trends which have affected our run rate and profitability. On the sales side, we are seeing more projects slipping to the right as a result of labor shortages in the market. On the cost side, aluminum is up around 17% year-over-year, which is a primary raw material cost for Greco. And we have also been navigating through some higher rework as a result of staffing issues and turnover that parallels the labor shortages seen elsewhere in the market. While we closely monitor our raw material cost, we have not been able to pass through those costs with respect to previously committed contracts that's impacting us on the cost side. To mitigate this in the future, we are shortening the amount of time that a bid will be good for, and we're adding surcharges to our future contracts to offset the raw material absorption on our end. We are continuing to see an uptick in new quotes and backlog as a result of our sales integration efforts, which enables us to broaden our geographic reach and our product offering on each project bid. Turning to our Specialty Chemicals segment. Sales in the first quarter declined just under 1% compared to the prior year. Lower sales were driven by lower HVAC and mining, partially offset by energy and rail. Segment-level adjusted operating income was $ 5 million or 13.7% of sales compared to $6.4 million or 17.7% of sales in the prior year. Compared to the prior year, lower segment operating margin was a result of 2 discrete factors: firstly, negative product mix on the sale shipped; and secondly, upfront costs of efficiency programs. Importantly, we did see a nice sequential uptick from the 9.3% operating income margin reported in the fourth quarter, and we continue to view that as a low watermark for the segment as we work to gradually improve margins back above 15%. During the quarter, we executed several projects to expand segment margins that should benefit -- begin to benefit our results in the second half. First, we consolidated our Jet-Lube and Whitmore entities in Europe into one facility, and we've reduced headcount related to this. The bulk of this project has been completed, and we expect to begin recognizing marginal benefits in Q2, followed by a more pronounced improvement in the second half of fiscal year 2019. We also have been working to in-source and optimize our small fill products at Jet-Lube, where nearly all of our small packaged products has been packaged and distributed by a third party. By bringing this in-house, we will be able to optimize our freight and manage inventory more tightly. We expect to complete this process towards the end of Q2 or early Q3, with benefits in the back half of 2019. We are also reviewing our pricing on these products and we are adjusting them where appropriate. Next, I'd like to touch on our capital allocation initiatives. Our primary capital allocation objective is to direct capital to the highest risk-adjusted return opportunities. We continue to view inorganic growth opportunities as one of our better tools for return maximization, although our disciplined approach and lofty valuations have tempered our recent activity. Together with our board, we are actively working on a strategic plan, which is a comprehensive review of our opportunities to maximize returns through organic and inorganic growth, geographic expansions, product introductions and the return of cash to shareholders. As we continue to progress on this project, we look forward to sharing incremental results as they become available. During the first quarter, we returned excess cash to shareholders by repurchasing approximately 146,000 shares for an aggregate price of $7.3 million. As of the end of the quarter, we still have $26.5 million remaining on our board-authorized share repurchase program. Next, I would like to give an update on our end markets. Beginning with HVAC, while we enjoyed nice growth throughout fiscal 2018, the start of fiscal '19 was softer than expected. As I noted, we attribute this softness to a cooler spring compared to the prior year, with expected improvement over the balance of the year as weather has normalized. On a macro level, we continue to see strength in residential, driven by demand from aging systems installed during the peak housing construction in the early 2000s. We do not see any reason for a fundamental change in this area of sustained demand. Turning to plumbing. We are seeing modest growth for our broad-based product portfolio, driven by our unique offerings and our strong distribution channels. In architecturally specified building products, the commercial construction backdrop continues to remain strong. However, project delays across the industry have tempered our growth rates. We are continuing to execute on our Eau du Soleil project at Greco. And on a year-over-year basis, we are seeing strong bids and bookings as we have integrated our sales force and continue to emphasize cross-selling in our businesses. In our energy-related end markets, rig count was relatively flat in the first quarter, but we have seen a slight rig count increase as we began fiscal Q2. While the rig count was relatively flat in the quarter, we did experience improving demand for Jet-Lube products. We pushed through a price increase in the first quarter, and we should realize the benefits from that during the balance of the year. Finally, we continue to monitor the market to ensure that we fully participate in an improving energy backdrop. In our rail end markets, we saw strong growth, driven by share gains with new customers and their corresponding initial stocking orders. The share we captured was primarily within our consumable products, specifically our trackside rail lubricants. Although we will continue to enjoy growth from these new accounts, we do expect order rates to moderate as we shift from larger initial orders to normalized restocking based on our customers' consumption. While our results for the first quarter of fiscal 2019 contained some noise, we are committed to taking the right steps within our business to drive further shareholder value through our operational improvements. Several of these actions presented discrete headwinds to our margins this Q1, but we expect incremental improvements through the balance of 2019. In addition, today, we announced that we've closed on the divestiture of the Coatings business for an undisclosed amount. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Gregg for a closer look at our financials.