Christopher J. Klein
Analyst · customers
Thank you, Brian, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. Our teams executed well and delivered a solid second quarter as the pace of new construction and consumer spending have gradually improved. We continue to gain share and we remain well positioned to deliver strong growth this year. Our 2014 annual outlook has been updated to reflect the U.S. home products market that we now expect to grow at a slower pace in the second half than our assumptions earlier in the year. However, our revised company outlook calls for continued profitable growth based on our share gains and the improving markets for new construction and repair and remodel activity through the balance of 2014. Let me first take you through some of the second quarter highlights, then I will discuss our recent actions to drive incremental growth, and finally, I'll tie it all together with our view of the current U.S. home products market and our updated 2014 annual outlook. Turning to the quarter. Sales were up 10% and EPS was $0.55, up 34% from a year ago. Let me give you some highlights by segment. Sales for our cabinets business were up 19% for the quarter. Cabinet sales growth was led by mid-teens growth in the dealer channel, where big ticket remodeling activity remains strong, as well as nearly 10% growth in home center sales for our brands. We again gained share in the dealer channel, where we continue to see growth across a full range of semi-custom and custom product lines, resulting in a better mix with higher price points. Our share gains are coming from deeper relationships with existing customers, as well as new dealerships. Regionally, the South and the West continue to outpace the North and Midwest, which are improving versus the first quarter but at a more modest pace. We've launched several new products this year, including our refreshed Diamond line, new bath vanity offerings in home centers and the new Omega frameless custom line for dealers. These new products are selling well. Our home center business continues to benefit and gain share from the innovation we are bringing into the category. We continue to leverage our proven structural competitive advantages to generate sustainable momentum. This is a complex business, but our teams execute flawlessly against a business model that is tough to replicate. Our share gains across channels with improving margins reflect the tangible impact of these advantages. If we exclude the sales from WoodCrafters and the impact from last year's planned exit of low-margin builder direct business in the West, underlying cabinet sales were estimated to be up 10%. Plumbing reported sales that were up 5% for the quarter, led by growth in U.S. wholesale and international. In the second quarter of 2014, Moen faced challenging sales comparisons in the wholesale channel versus the second quarter 2013, that saw wholesalers bring inventory and to support projected second half demand. This year is different as wholesalers drew down inventories to some extent, but mix was better and we were able to support some price. Even with these dynamics, our sales grew mid-single digits and margins were strong. Across both retail and wholesale, we are encouraged to see consumers continue to select our innovative new faucet products for their new homes in repair and remodel projects, including new pullout faucets with reflex self-retraction in our Walden, Kinzel and Berkshire lines. Our MotionSense hands-free faucet, which continues to be introduced in additional styles and faucets with our Microban finishes. Overall, we see continued strength in the more premium end of the market, supporting bigger remodel and renovation projects. Moen international sales were led by Canada wholesale and retail sales, which increased high-single digits and improved from the weak first quarter. China sales were up modestly over the prior year as new construction activity was weaker and direct to builder sales softer but our 920 Moen stores continued to generate solid growth. Windows & Doors reported sales were up 9% for the quarter, drove product's healthy sales growth of 11% driven by gains in new construction and ongoing distribution additions. We continue to see an increasing benefit from our distribution improvement and expansion in the Western region that we put in place over the last couple of years. Mix also improved especially with consumer selecting our new decorative glass designs and the door styles like our new recently launched Pulse line of modern entry doors. The Therma-Tru brand continues to perform strongly across all channels. Window sales were up 7% in the prior year with continued double-digit growth in the west and improved growth across the remainder of the country as the northern markets rebounded from the slower first quarter. In the Security & Storage segment, sales declined 5% from the prior-year quarter. Security sales were up 1%, led by increases in U.S. retail and safety, offset by some weakness in international. Store sales decreased by $9 million as we exited some lower margin accounts and the Father's Day promotional season was weaker. Master Lock U.S. retail sales continue to grow with program expansion at retailers. And Master Lock's roll out of new commercial electronic access control solutions designed to secure high value sites, such as cellular telephone towers and other storage facilities, again contributed to our sales gains. So to sum up our results, our teams executed well in a modestly improving quarter. As we move into the balance of the year, we remain positioned to continue our share gains and deliver a stronger full year of sales and profit growth. I would now like to turn to our recent actions to drive incremental shareholder value with our cash flow and balance sheet. First, given the pullback in housing-related equities through the second quarter, we have continued to opportunistically repurchase our shares. As a result, we have now repurchased approximately $375 million of our shares year-to-date. These repurchases, along with our quarterly dividend, reflect confidence in our performance and our ability to drive long-term shareholder value. Second, today, we announced that we have acquired Sentry Safe, a leading producer of personal saves and protective security containers. Sentry will become part of Master Lock. We are thrilled to welcome nearly 500 Sentry associates to the Master Lock family. Sentry Safe's global brand strength in the adjacent safes market enables Master Lock company to broaden its market product offerings and leverage both iconic brands domestically and internationally. Both companies hold similar competitive advantages and produce products that protect people's most valuable assets. I'm excited about the growth opportunities we will now have together to drive innovation and leverage global distribution and manufacturing. These actions reinforce our commitment to create incremental shareholder value by investing in our businesses, pursuing accretive acquisitions that meet our strategic criteria and returning cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. I'm excited that we were able to identify opportunities and execute against our strategic priorities to drive this incremental value. Now let me tie this all together with our updated full year outlook for 2014, starting with our assumptions for the market. The demand for new construction continues to outstrip supply in many markets across the country. Housing inventory remains low. Mortgage rates have remained stable over the past year and single-family homes are at historically affordable levels. We continue to believe that new construction will return to historic levels and that the R&R market will grow at 5% to 6% in a steady-state. In repair and remodel market, which is around 65% of our home products business, we see the continuation of the growth for bigger-ticket semi-custom and custom cabinets, as well as increased project size and stronger demand for more premium of faucets in our Moen wholesale showrooms. However, in the near term, the pace of repair and remodel demand has been recovering more gradually than we expected in half of the country impacted by weather early in the year even as demand has been solid for the remainder of the country. New home construction, where our products are installed in the later stages, has also been slower to reaccelerate since last fall. So while demand for both new construction and repair and remodel should show solid growth for the balance of the year, we expect the overall U.S. home products market growth for the second half will be somewhat lower than we assumed on our last call. Therefore, our updated 2014 annual outlook is built on a revised assumption that the U.S. home products market grows at a combined 6% to 8% annual rate. Based on that U.S. housing market projection, the assumptions we make for our other markets and continued share gains plus the Sentry Safe acquisition, we continue to expect solid top line growth for 2014 with our full year sales increasing at a 9% to 11% rate over 2013 and our home products business is growing faster and again, outperforming the market for our products. Based on this market and sales growth, and the benefit of share repurchases, our teams are focused on delivering full year EPS of $1.88 to $1.96. So to sum up, we remain confident in our ability to continue to outperform the recovering home products market and intend to deliver strong profitable growth in 2014. We believe that our strong brands, management teams and capital structure provides flexibility to both focus on profitable organic growth and drive incremental shareholder value with our strong free cash flow. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Lee, who will review our financial performance and provide more details on our 2014 outlook and on our recent capital allocation actions.