Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Systemax Inc.'s Fourth Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Mike Smargiassi of The Plunkett Group. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you and welcome to the Systemax fourth quarter 2018 earnings call. Today's call will include formal remarks from Barry Litwin, 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 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 and European Technology Products Groups as discontinued operations, as well as excluding certain recurring and non-recurring adjustments from comparable GAAP measures, investors have an additional meaningful measurement of the Company's performance. This call will include a discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we will identify as such. The Company has provided a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures in today's discussion and press release. The press release is available on the Company's website and will be filed with the SEC in a Form 8-K. This call is the property of and is copyrighted by Systemax Inc. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Barry Litwin.

Thank you, Mike. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. In 2018, Systemax delivered another year of strong sales and operating performance, with our Industrial Products business generating almost $900 million in revenue, an increase of 13% over the prior year and resulting in more than $60 million in operating income from continuing operations. Systemax also successfully divested its France IT business, which generated gross proceeds of almost $270 million. With that sale, we established a single strategic focus on the industrial MRO market. I am delighted to have joined Systemax in early-January and my first two months have been a very busy and exciting time, as I have met and listened to senior executives and associates across all of our facilities. I believe Systemax is well-positioned to win within the rapidly changing and competitive market for industrial product distribution. We have talented and engaged associates, strong industry expertise, specifically in core branded and private label products a high touch, multi-channel sales strategy, a scalable technology platform and the back office and sales support to successfully drive long-term performance. Our foundation for success in 2019 is built on growing our customer engagement and generating operating leverage from current operations and investments. Systemax will focus on serving our customer's need, for higher service levels and end-to-end transaction transparency. By championing a stronger customer centric culture, we will better serve our business customer and build greater competitive advantage. To accomplish this, we are carefully listening to our customer's voice and adopting a continuous improvement mindset at every level of the Company, to simplify automates and speed the processors that serve our customers. We're investing in our leading e-commerce platform, as well as our sales and product assortment. Over time, we believe this should result in revenue growth, improved profitability…

Thank you, Barry. I will now address our performance in more detail and would like to note that both the 2017 and 2018 fourth quarters and full years had the same number of selling days in the U.S. and Canada, respectively. Starting with Industrial's financial performance, in the fourth quarter, revenue increased 11.9% on a GAAP basis and 12.1% on an average daily sales constant currency basis over Q4 of last year. Revenue was $217.7 million with growth in the U.S. of 11.4%, while Canada delivered its eighth consecutive quarter of strong double-digit gains, generating revenue growth of over 29% in local currency. Revenue performance was broad-based across product categories, with growth led by many of the newer product lines we have invested in over the past several years. We also had growth across all of our sales channels, specifically managed sales where we are benefiting from increased productivity, supported by the implementation of a new sales force training program in 2018. Industrial's gross profit for the quarter increased to $73 million, up from $65.3 million last year. Gross margin was 33.5%, essentially flat to the prior year, reflecting continued positive product margin, which was offset by freight pressures both domestically and through ocean freight surcharges, which we noted on our third quarter call. Ocean freight surcharges were lifted in January 2019 and we anticipate that this impact will stabilize over time. Selling, distribution and administrative spending for the quarter was $53.6 million, a 160 basis point improvement as a percentage of sales from last year. This improvement of SG&A leverage was primarily the result of certain one-time items incurred in the period. In the fourth quarter, a net gain of $3.1 million was recorded related to the settlement of previously disclosed state audits, partially offset by an impairment charge…

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Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your line.