Christopher J. Klein
Analyst · Zelman
Thank you, Brian, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. We had an excellent fourth quarter and a terrific first full year as an independent public company. Our quarter performance was driven by strong sales and profit growth, which came in slightly ahead of our expectations. We again outperformed the market for our products and continued to drive profitable growth as the market recovers. Let me first spend some time on the fourth quarter highlights and then I'll discuss our 2013 guidance. First, with regard to the market, new construction was again strong in both single-family and multifamily starts, and the pace of Repair & Remodel continued in the same 3% to 4% range despite consumer caution for big-ticket purchases like cabinets and windows. Importantly, we feel confident about our performance in this market and the execution of our strategies as we enter 2013. Turning to our performance in the quarter. Sales were up 8% and EPS was up 35% from a year ago with all segments performing well. Cabinet sales grew 12% ahead of our estimates for cabinet market growth in the fourth quarter driven by new construction. Importantly, our profits in cabinets were up $15 million in the quarter and more than doubled for the full year. Moen continued its strong performance with sales growth of 15%, slightly stronger than the prior 2 quarters, and profit was up 7%. Windows & Door sales were up 1% and as expected, the segment generated strong profit gains. Security & Storage sales were down 4% while profit was up 22%. Taking out the benefit of 53rd week in 2011, segment sales were flat to prior year, and security sales were up mid-single digits. Now let me give you some top line highlights by segment. Sales for our Cabinet business were up 12% for the quarter and exceeded our expectations. We continued to perform well as a market leader in cabinets with strong results across the business. The pace of new construction was a key driver as we saw, again, strength with dealers and builders in our new construction mines, while big-ticket Repair & Remodel continued to lag. In the dealer channel, where we're the clear market leader, we grow by leveraging our portfolio of brands and our strong product and service reputation. We also achieved solid growth in home centers, where we focused on sustainable long-term growth opportunities. We believe innovation and our designer services continued to be competitive advantages in this channel, especially as we remain restrained in our promotional activity. Relatively, we grew our Cabinet profits by $15 million in the quarter. This performance again reflects our ability to successfully target growth in channels, markets and product segments that are not as promotionally driven, while enhancing our supply chain efficiency to improve profitability. We believe that our market leadership combined with a world-class operating platform and service levels provides us the strategic flexibility to drive profitable growth today and into the future as the cabinet market recovers. Plumbing sales were up 15% in the fourth quarter. Moen again saw sales gains in both U.S. retail and wholesale and in our international businesses, particularly China. Gains were strongest in our U.S. wholesale business where we saw volume increases driven largely by the pace of new construction. Our leading market share with the top builders and wholesalers, expansion in the multifamily segment and upgraded showroom displays continued to yield strong results, driving sales and profits again in the fourth quarter. Moen is also seeing strength from our steady pace of consumer-driven innovations like MotionSense, a unique hands-free electronic kitchen faucet. The rollouts of retail and wholesale was significant with investments in displays and an increase in overall brand spending. Internationally, sales in China, where there are now nearly 750 Moen branded stores were, again, up strong double digits over the prior year, driven by new construction growth and our continued expansion. The team in China continues to build our business with a wider range of price points and with [audio gap] for the Chinese market. Windows & Door sales were up 1% for the quarter. Door products saw mid-single digit sales gains driven heavily by new construction, partially offset by exiting some less profitable programs. We also benefited from our private-label relationship with a major Windows & Door company and growth with our wholesale distributors. Windows sales were down 2%, driven by continued softness in the Repair & Remodel side of the window market. Importantly, of our 3 housing-related segments, we saw our total sales increased 11% for the fourth quarter, ahead of the overall market for our products. In Security & Storage, our sales were down 4% for the quarter. Security sales were relatively even with the prior year, again taking out the 53rd week in 2011, segment sales were flat to prior year and security sales were up mid-single digits. Security gains were driven by solid growth in global safety solutions and innovative new products. The Master Lock brand is strong and our innovation continues to hit the mark with our new electronic combination lock dial speed and our new line of commercial electronic access control solutions, which are having success at securing cellular telephone towers and other storage facilities. So to sum up the fourth quarter, the market continues to be led by significantly stronger new construction and Repair & Remodel market that while growing is not yet as strong as the new construction market. I remain very pleased with our performance across the portfolio. Now let me turn to our top line outlook for 2013, starting with our assumptions for our market. Lee will then take you through the specific full year guidance for 2013 in a few moments. From a market perspective, we see ongoing signs of improvement in the overall market as we enter 2013. While consumer-related challenges in the housing market remain, new construction was again strong in the fourth quarter as demand for new homes continued to outstrip supply in many markets. However, concerns about the general health of the economy are still weighing on consumers' confidence and their willingness to embrace larger-ticket Repair & Remodel projects. So while Repair & Remodel has sustained moderate growth, large-ticket items like cabinets, windows have yet to fully benefit from this growth. Our 2013 plans are built on our assumptions that the U.S. home market, including with Repair & Remodel and new construction grows at a combined 6% to 8% range. Based on that market assumption, we expect our 2013 full year sales to increase at a high single-digit rate over 2012, again outperforming the market for our products as we continue our disciplined approach to profitable growth throughout the businesses. Within the businesses, we believe cabinets will see an increase, driven by new construction momentum, innovation and investments in new programs. For faucets, we'll continue to invest in the Moen brand and launch innovative new products that consumers want. We expect to leverage our market share gains with builders, which should position us well for new construction. And we plan to further invest to expand our innovation, distribution and footprint in China where we have nearly 750 storefronts throughout the country. In the Windows & Door segment, we believe both the windows and doors businesses are now better positioned to lever common growth opportunities managed together and doors should see ongoing growth for new construction. Security & Storage should benefit from investment in new product innovations, including digital electronic padlocks, other electronic products and services and further expansion into commercial safety. So to sum up, driven mostly by new construction, the overall market remains firm. We again had strong results, and we're confident in our ability to outperform our market in 2013. We believe that our strong brands, management teams and capital structure provides flexibility to focus on profitable growth and there -- should, therefore, position us to create value at any pace of recovery as we prepare to enter 2013. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Lee, who will review our financial performance and provide more details on our 2013 guidance.