Gregg Sengstack
Analyst · Walter Liptak with Seaport
Thank you, Jeff and thank you all for joining us. We are very pleased with our robust performance in the second quarter. From a financial perspective, we delivered record sales, operating income and EPS for any quarter in the history of Franklin Electric driven strong organic sales growth across all of our segments. We continue to benefit from the sustained momentum that delivered record earnings for the last four quarters, thanks to a strong demand environment. At the end of the second quarter, we had record open-order balances. We continue to capitalize on inorganic opportunities as well. In the second quarter, we completed the acquisitions of two water treatment companies Puronics and New Aqua, growing our water treatment position in the US and Canada. We now believe that this platform has reached critical mass north of $150 million in annualized revenues establishing a meaningful foothold in the growing North American water treatment market. As the water treatment market continues to consolidate, our focus on our key factors will help us to stand out among the pack as we continue to build upon our position and add the runway to do so leveraging our expertise to manufacture and distribute complete water systems from the well to the faucet. Despite supply chain and COVID-related headwinds facing much of the globe, we have reached new records and delivered value for our shareholders, customers and other valued stakeholders. We are confident that our current strategy will take us far as we continue to grow as a global provider of water and fuel systems through geographic expansion and product line extensions, while leveraging our global platform and competency in system design. Our Water Systems business had record revenue for any quarter generating overall revenue growth of 39% and organic revenue growth of 23%. In the US, strong housing and agricultural demand combined with continued dry weather drove a 16% increase in groundwater pumping systems revenue in the quarter. Overall organic growth in US Water Systems was 17%. Demand continues to be strong across the globe as well, thanks to a recovery in global commodity prices and robust demand in developing regions. Outside the US, organic water systems growth was 30% led by our businesses in Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East, all of which continue to see pandemic recovery demand. Despite our record revenues, our Water Systems segment had an unprecedented amount of open orders at the end of the second quarter in total over $130 million. This compares to about $40 million at the end of the second quarter 2020 to about $25 million at this time in both 2019 and 2018. Our US distribution business also delivered record performance for any quarter in Franklin's history, producing overall revenue growth of 57% and organic revenue growth of about 41% underscoring this segment's role as a catalyst for future growth for our company. Headwater operating income reached $16 million in the second quarter. Quarter-after-quarter throughout the pandemic, Headwater's topline has grown and profitability improved. When faced with the same supply chain constraints facing much of the global economy, we leverage our expertise in this space to build a strong hold that will translate current success into further opportunity over the long term. Our Fueling Systems business saw increased momentum in the second quarter as well producing overall revenue growth of 29% and organic revenue growth of 27%. This growth was led by strong performance in the US and Canada with revenue up 40% along with sustained strength in our EMEA and Latin American markets. We have a strong business in developing regions and have positioned ourselves to capitalize post-COVID recovery as it occurs in those regions. At the end of the quarter open orders increased to about $45 million from less than $10 million at the end of the last three second quarters. Looking forward, Fueling Systems and Grid Solutions will continue to play a vital role in many regions across the globe over the coming years thanks to growing energy demand and the build-out of the electrical rig globally. Throughout the quarter we generated strong free cash flow that will allow us to capitalize on many opportunities that will emerge while continuing to maintain our strong balance sheet enabling us to reinvest capital in our business. To that end, we see organic and inorganic across every one of our segments and we look forward to continually growing our presence and updating you on future development. I am extremely proud of our global team for this outstanding performance especially considering the significant headwinds and challenges we face. The global supply chain is still recovering from the post-COVID demand surge. Availability of raw materials and other components is a critical issue for us and it appears that it will remain so through the balance of the year. Additionally, we continue to see rapidly increasing input costs both for materials and components and also for freight which is skyrocketed in the current environment. Jeff will address these issues more in a moment, but our Water Systems business in particular was not able to fully offset the inflation we experienced with price in the quarter. This in part explains our Water Systems operating income margin decline. In response, we have announced additional price increases to be effective in the second half of the year. For some of our business units this is a third increase in price so far in 2021. Despite the robust demand environment, we are maintaining our current year earnings guidance of earnings per share before restructuring in a $2.85 to $3.05 range given the rapid increases in cost supply chain uncertainties. Looking forward, we are excited about the strong foundation we have built by staying rooted in Franklin's five key factors for success; quality, availability, service, innovation, and cost. We continue to see customers return due to the elevated experience in superior products we deliver. We are also excited to position ourselves for success over the long term providing innovative products for customers and bringing more sustainable practices to the industry. We believe that our ESG initiatives outlined in our recently updated sustainability report are integral to our future success. We look forward to continually involving our stakeholders in our sustainability journey and providing further updates on our progress over the long-term. Now, before I turn the call over to Jeff, I want to go a little bit off script here, and just recognize John Haines. John, as it has been noted as retired from the company. John started with Franklin Electric in 2008 right before the financial crisis. He steered us through that as our CFO, through a number of acquisitions, the creation of our Headwater Distribution segment, the standup of a new water treatment business, and a number of other acquisitions as well and across our segments. And most recently, John has navigated through the global pandemic. And so I just want to take a moment to say thank you to John. A number of you on this call have been with – following us and with John over the years. So I think I'm saying that thanks for you all as well. And so I just want to do that, before I turn the call over to Jeff. So thank you again, John.