Steve Kaniewski
Analyst · CJS Securities and I will just open your line now
Thank you, Renee. Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us. Yesterday afternoon, we announced another record quarter of results, delivering on our commitments and growing both our top and bottom line as strong demand continued across our portfolio, driven by higher volumes and improved profitability. Despite ongoing supply chain volatility, we have continued to deliver products and solutions to our customers as they strive to meet robust demand across global infrastructure and agriculture markets. During these volatile times, we are taking specific steps to control what we can. For example, our Procurement teams are partnering with Engineering to identify and qualify alternative source, reducing our dependency on single-source products to mitigate the impact of supply chain disruptions. We have also leveraged our global footprint to expand manufacturing of certain key components in other facilities, such as Dubai and Brazil, often with the added benefits of localization. We're doing a good job of attracting and retaining the talent we have, maintaining stability in the workforce and reducing costs. While our actions do not eliminate challenges, they have positioned us better to manage through the volatility that we face. Returning to our second quarter performance on Slide 4. Sales grew 27% year-over-year due to continued strong end-market demand, our team's focused efforts to increase volume across our footprint and continue pricing actions. This quarter marks the seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit year-over-year sales growth. Robust demand trends in Infrastructure and Agriculture markets show no signs of abate as evidenced by our growing backlog and we continue to deploy an operating model that drives improvements across the organization. In addition, we are committed to a disciplined and strategic pricing framework to ensure that we adequately capture the value we provide to our customers. I believe our results demonstrate that our strategy is working and I am very proud of the performance of our Valmont team around the world. Turning to the segments. Infrastructure sales grew 24% year-over-year with double-digit sales growth in all product lines led by higher volumes, primarily in Renewable Energy, Telecommunications and TDS, as well as favorable pricing globally. Ongoing electrification of power infrastructure continues to lead investments in the utility grid and in renewable energy sources. And recent announcement of funding for domestic solar panel production and a pause on tariffs are driving demand well into next year. Additionally, we expect to begin seeing the benefits of the U.S. Infrastructure Bill in 2023. And with the addition of our newest acquisition, ConcealFab which I will discuss in more detail shortly, we are well prepared for continued growth in the Telecommunications market, offering industry-leading products and outstanding service to our valued customers. Turning to Agriculture. Sales grew 34% year-over-year with strength from all regions as global agricultural markets remains strong. We recognized double-digit volume growth in both North America and also in international markets, notably in Brazil and Western Europe, with strong demand for irrigation equipment and ag solar projects in those regions. Ag tech sales also improved year-over-year. Enhancing food security and strengthening local economies remains a priority for many nations and customers around the world. A recent World Bank study showed that global grain supplies, including corn and wheat, have tightened for the second year in a row and the aggregate stock feeds ratio is expected to drop for a third consecutive season. We are in a unique position to supply irrigation, solar and technology solutions to improve land productivity and reduce input costs for the grower, with a global reach that provides us with a more resilient business model to adapt to these market dynamics and cycles. Despite current economic volatility, we believe our current demand environment will continue to be very positive. And with our aligned management structure and centralized operational framework, we are rising to the challenge to deliver results through a greater customer focus, improved productivity and increased efficiency in our factories. We are a stronger organization today and have demonstrated that we are better positioned to navigate ongoing macroeconomic challenges. Turning to Slide 5. During the quarter, we acquired a majority interest in ConcealFab. This exciting transaction aligns well with our strategy to invest in high-growth market sectors and enhances our portfolio of Telecommunication solutions. ConcealFab is a fast-growing industry leader in 5G infrastructure and passive intermodulation, or PIM Mitigation. PIM interference arises when signal at the cell site are mixed which can degrade system performance and lead to unreliable coverage and spotty data speeds. ConcealFab's portfolio of PIM solutions helps both identify these issues and solve the problem to improve performance. Joining the Valmont team provides immediate commercial benefits, as we are now able to accelerate expansion in telecom markets in partnership with the industry leader Ericsson who remains a minority owner of the business. This is a tremendous step toward enhancing our access to markets and carriers around the world. With our combined experience in the space and leveraging Valmont's engineering expertise and global manufacturing footprint, we are positioned to address critical pain points and further accelerate the delivery of 5G technology to the market. We are excited to welcome the ConcealFab team to Valmont. Turning to Slide 6 and an update on our ESG initiatives. For Valmont, our project for sustainability begins with our tagline, Conserving Resources, Improving Lives. It's at the core of everything we do. It includes our commitment to our 2025 environmental and diversity goals and the four United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that naturally align with our business. Today, I would like to share with you a couple of examples that exemplify our progress towards those goals. We recently opened a new spun concrete pole factory in Bristol, Indiana. This plant expands production of concrete utility products and gives us an important presence in the northern part of the U.S. The transmission poles manufactured here will be used by our customers to help build a more reliable and resilient electrical grid. At this site, we are in the early stages of installing a 500-kilowatt solar array using our single access tracker solution. This installation complements the production of highly-engineered low-carbon concrete transmission poles. We have also signed a net metering agreement with the local power provider that will allow us to net meter at retail price, demonstrating that ESG initiatives, when done right, are good for business. Upon completion, the solar field is expected to fully offset all of the site's electricity consumption, an example of a real 0 emissions plan. We worked with partners and formed agreements that make these capital investments compelling and enhance profitable growth, a true win-win. Elsewhere, Valmont was recently recognized by the Department of Energy for our Alternative Energy-Mobile Source Project. We successfully replaced 100 gasoline vehicles with electric vehicles at our Valley, Nebraska campus. This has reduced the site's Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions by more than 130 metric tons annually with an associated annual fuel cost savings. For the project, we were presented with the Better Projects Award as a part of the DOE's Better Building Initiatives. This annual award recognizes organizations for outstanding accomplishments in implementing industrial energy, water and waste projects at individual facilities that improve efficiency or reduce emissions and waste. These efforts have led to the launch of our Green Fleet Initiative across all of Valmont and we plan to use this project as a model to enhance sustainability throughout our global footprint. Before turning the call over to Avner, in summary, we performed well in the second quarter, achieving record revenue, EPS and backlog. Our team is delivering innovative solutions to our customers. End market demand in both Infrastructure and Agricultural markets remain strong. As Avner will detail in a few minutes, we are also raising our 2022 outlook. Our financial strength enables us to support strategic growth initiatives while returning cash to our shareholders to further expand shareholder value. I am pleased with our results and excited about our future. With that, I will now turn the call over to Avner for our second quarter financial review and updated outlook.