Good afternoon, and welcome to Systemax's First Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to management. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome to Systemax's first quarter 2018 earnings call. Today's call will include formal remarks from Larry Reinhold, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Tex Clark, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We will not be hosting a live Q&A session at the end of today's call. If you should have any questions on the results, please contact The Plunkett Group or Systemax. Contact details can be found in the press release issued today and at systemax.com. Today's discussion may include certain forward-looking statements. It should be understood that actual results could differ materially from those projected due to a number of factors, including those described under the Forward-Looking Statements caption and under Risk Factors in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. I would like to highlight the non-GAAP metrics that are included in today's press release. The Company believes that by presenting the entire North American Technology Products Group, and its divested European operations as discontinued operations, as well as excluding certain recurring and nonrecurring adjustments from comparable GAAP measures, investors have an additional meaningful measurement of the Company's performance. Further, unless otherwise specified when discussing revenue changes, management will be referring to constant currency, average daily sales results. This call will include a discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures. The Company has provided a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures in today's press release. The press release is available on the Company's website and will be filed with the SEC in the Form 8-K. This call is the property of and is copyrighted by Systemax, Inc. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Larry Reinhold.

Thanks Mike. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. 2018 is off to a great start for Systemax. Both of our ongoing businesses delivered outstanding financial performance in the first quarter generating double-digit revenue increases, significant gains in operating income, and strong cash flow generation. On a consolidated continuing operations basis, Systemax generated over $355 million in revenue in the first quarter and an increase of over 11% on a daily sales basis and improved operational leverage with non-GAAP operating profit improving 56% to $20.8 million. Starting with our North American industrial products group, the first quarter of 2018 saw a continuation of our strong full year 2017 performance. Sales increased more than 11% over the first quarter of last year. Overall demand remained solid across our diversified customer end markets, our broad product offerings and our multiple sales channels. We delivered operating leverage across the business with improvement in product and gross margins compared to last year primarily due to mix changes. Selling, distribution and administrative spend leverage improved as our 2017 cost reduction and productivity initiatives continue to benefit the business and the business maintained good spend discipline. Overall, industrial's operating income improved approximately 30% to over $16 million. The industrial team continues to focus on a number of projects that will enhance the customer experience and improve long-term profitability. This includes efforts to increase efficiencies and service levels within our distribution centers. In this regard, our first United States warehouse recently completed the initial design and training components of our engineered standards program and is about to launch in operations. This is one of several significant projects which are expected to drive operational excellence throughout our distribution network and improve productivity. We expect to roll out this engineered standards program to our largest distribution…

Thank you, Larry. I will now address our segment financial performance in more detail. Both the 2017 and 2018 first quarters had the same number of selling days in the U.S. while our operations in France and Canada each had one fewer selling day in the first quarter of 2018 compared to the first quarter of 2017. Turning to our results, first quarter consolidated revenue reflects double-digit topline growth in both industrial and France while consolidated gross profit improved 18% year-over-year with gross margin expansion in both segments. Consolidated SD&A improved 120 basis points as a percentage of sales driven by leverage gains in all key functional areas including distribution and logistics, marketing and salaries. Non-GAAP operating profit was $20.8 million an increase of over 56% and margin increased 150 basis points to 5.9% compared to last year's first quarter. Starting with industrial's financial performance in the first quarter revenue increased 11.6% over Q1 of last year, a modest improvement from the 10.6% year-over-year growth reported in the fourth quarter of 2017. The rate of growth expanded each period in the quarter with March growing at the fastest rate in the period. In our Canadian operations, we delivered almost 30% revenue growth this fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit gains. Gains in both the U.S. and Canada were broad-based across our customer segments with core product lines continuing to perform very well. Industrial’s gross profit for the quarter increased to $72.5 million from $63.4 million last year. Gross margin improved 90 basis points from the year ago quarter reflecting both a favorable sales mix between higher margin stock products versus drop shipped items partially offset by lower freight margins. SD&A spending for the quarter was $55.8 million, a 30 basis point improvement as a percentage of sales from last year. The…

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.