Greetings. Welcome to the Eastern Company's Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Ernie Hawkins. You may begin.

Thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning for a review of Eastern's results for the second quarter of 2023. With me on the call are Eastern's President and CEO, Mark Hernandez; and Eastern CFO, Nicholas Vlahos. We issued an earnings press release yesterday after the market closed. If anyone has not yet seen the release, please visit the Investors section of the company's website www.easterncompany.com, where you will find the release under Financial News. Please note that some of the information you will hear during today's call will consist of forward-looking statements about the company's future financial performance and business prospects, including, without limitation, statements regarding revenue, gross margin, operating expenses, other income and expenses, taxes and business outlook. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or trends to differ significantly from those projected in these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to review or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the call. For more information regarding these risks and uncertainties, please refer to Risk Factors discussed in our SEC filings, including Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 14, 2023, for the fiscal year 2022 and Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on August 8, 2023. In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures that we believe are useful as supplemental measures of Eastern's performance. These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from GAAP results. A reconciliation of each of the non-GAAP measures discussed during today's call to the most directly comparable GAAP measure can be found in the earnings press release. With that introduction, I'll turn the call over to Mark.

Thank you, Ernie, and good morning to those who have joined us by phone as well as those participating via the web. I'm going to begin today's call with some high-level observations of our performance and actions during the second quarter. I'll then turn the call over to Nick, who will provide a more detailed review of our financial results. After that, I'll come back and update you on the progress of our plans to transform Eastern's operations and enhance our portfolio of businesses. I'll also provide some thoughts on what we are focused on for the rest of 2023. As you recall, when I became Eastern CEO 7 months ago, the company was facing severe supply chain disruptions and increases in freight and material costs that hurt the performance of all 3 of our divisions. Our new management team immediately undertook a ground-up review of our businesses, their products, the markets in which they operate and the conditions in those markets. Based on that review, we initiated a wide array of changes to our operations, several of which I described in the last earnings call. In the second quarter, we continued implementing those actions and realized some initial benefits from our many improvement initiatives to show that our strategy is beginning to take root. Let's take a quick look at some of the high points of the quarter. First, cash flow from operations for the first 6 months ending July 1, 2023, increased by $16 million as compared to the same period in 2022 as Nick will discuss in more detail. Our balance sheet continued to strengthen due to our operational actions during the quarter, which allowed us to pay down another $5 million in debt during the second quarter. On a year-over-year basis, our backlog was down 9%…

Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everybody. I'll provide a quick review of the quarter's financial highlights. Net sales from continuing operations declined 2% to $68.3 million from $69.5 million in the second quarter of 2022, primarily due to lower demand for returnable transport packaging products. Price increases and sales of new products contributed 2%. New products included various truck mirror assemblies, rotary latches, D-rings and mirror cams. Price increases primarily reflect our efforts to recover increases in raw material and freight costs. Gross margin as a percentage of sales was 22% in the second quarter compared to 23% in the last year's period but up from 21% in the first quarter of 2023. The quarter-over-quarter increase reflected improved price/cost alignment and easing of some raw material and freight costs. Product development expenses were up $0.5 million in the second quarter of 2023 when compared to the corresponding period of 2022, reflecting increased investment in new products at Eberhard and Velvac. As a percentage of net sales, product development expenses were 2.1% compared to 1.4% in the quarter -- second quarter of 2022. Selling and administrative expenses were $11.3 million compared to $10.1 million for the second quarter of 2022, an increase of $1.1 million or 11% primarily due to legal, professional and selling costs and payroll-related expenses. The increase in selling expenses reflects our investment in sales capabilities. Other income decreased $300,000 to $200,000 in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the corresponding period in 2022. This decrease primarily reflected unfavorable pension costs of $300,000 in this year's second quarter, while in the prior year period, the company had a favorable pension cost adjustment of $400,000 and a $1.4 million expense associated with the closure of Associated Toolmakers, partially offset by $1.6 million favorable adjustment for the final…

Thank you, Nick. Because our team strategy is so key to everything we do, I want to briefly reiterate it for you today. As you recall, it's made up of 4 categories: First, disciplined operations that deliver consistent results. We continue to scrub the cost side of the business making sure that the cost of goods sold and operating expenses meet internal profitability targets and shifting Eastern's focus to high-volume, high-margin products. These efforts are evidenced by the reduced working capital and increased cash flows, enabling us to pay down debt. Second, a strong commercial business focus. In this area, we are focusing on improving return on investment -- invested capital through pricing actions and margin discipline. During the second quarter, we continued our evaluation of the margin of each product as part of our overall portfolio optimization exercise and have been pinpointing areas where we're missing opportunities to enhance margins through pricing or where we need to change our approach. We have been renegotiating pre-pandemic contracts rationalizing SKUs and making sure every segment has positive margins. We've begun to see some of the fruits of these efforts as evidenced by the start of the sequential improvement in gross margin. Third, effective capital allocation and utilization. Our divestiture of Associated Toolmakers announced in the beginning of May shows that we won't go on doing business whose ROIC is not favorable to Eastern. Fourth, value-added acquisitions. The Sureflex assets we added in June are a small acquisition but smartly done, in addition, will have a very positive impact on Velvac. Our Eastern M&A committee is currently reviewing additional opportunities. Our goal for this year remains to ensure that all aspects of Eastern operations, our cost structure, capital management and pricing strategy meet profitability, return on invested capital thresholds so that each…

Thanks, Mark. Operator, I'd like to open the line for questions. I see that we have questions from the webcast. We will address those questions first and then turn to questions on the line.

First question. How much of today's backlog reflects the old pricing versus current renegotiated pricing?

So approximately 80% of our current backlog reflects our new pricing strategy.

Second question. There were a lot of moving parts in the income statement in the second quarter. Should we expect more of the same in Q3?

As we move forward in Q3, the bulk of the adjustments that we had to make to operations have been undertaken and been reflected in our results. However, there will be no other future impacts of the order of magnitude of what we've seen on our balance sheet so far.

And the third question from the web. EV impact on commercial trucking. Overall, is it good or bad?

The impact of electric vehicles in the commercial vehicle space continues to move forward. We don't see signs of softening as the total cost of ownership of certain segments within the commercial vehicle space, particularly Class 5 through 7 begin to take hold, starting with school buses, getting into small delivery trucks, distribution deliveries and regional hauls. The biggest drain on the implementation of EVs across the commercial vehicle segment is the infrastructure to charge the vehicles. So it's really picking and choosing those segments that can take advantage from a total cost of ownership perspective. It's my opinion that we have not slowed down or nor have we sped up. It’s just going through the course that it’s been going for the last 2 or 3 years.

I'm not seeing any other questions via the webcast. So operator, I'll turn it over to you.

At this time, we will take phone questions. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Ross Davisson with Banneton Capital.

Sorry about that. A couple of questions on growth. So what is driving -- what are you seeing in the returnable packaging segment that you think is driving the lower demand? Is it more about just a strong year last year that you're comping? Or what are you seeing in terms of end market demand?

On returnable packaging, it has a lot to do with the new program launches as new automotive assemblies, vehicles come out, electric vehicles, ICE vehicles going forward. We haven't seen signs of the automotive OEMs or the commercial vehicles OEMs delaying the launch of these products. So we're seeing consistent demand through the transition of the programs. When you launch a new vehicle, they require unique racks that are made specifically for those programs. So we're looking at a strong demand going as these programs get launched at the OEMs.

Right. And that makes sense. But then it sounds like in the most recent quarter, you -- the business was down, I think, it sounds like from what you said. Is that right?

Yes.

And what's changing, if anything?

So there was some fears out there of a recession in 2024. So some of the larger OEMs delayed some of their releases of their purchase orders but that is behind us now as the fears of a strong recession are put aside and now it looks to be just a softening, not a full-on recession. So they're more positive about what's going to...

Great. And then the other segments beyond just Big 3, beyond the returnable packaging business, are those growing? Or are those facing challenges of their own in terms of growth?

So on the other businesses, we're closely tied with the commercial vehicle space and the demand -- the replacement demand is still there and it's very strong. We're getting indications from all the commercial vehicle manufacturers that they want to increase capacity. Now whether other suppliers like frame rails, which is a commodity across the commercial vehicles can keep up, we're going to be paced along with them. But the demand is there to replace the vehicles that have been in the field for 3 years going forward. So we see a modest 5% to 10% increase in segments of the commercial vehicle space going into next year.

Okay. Great. And then in terms of pricing and just cost recovery actions, it sounds like you've had some real success there. As you think about the sort of inflection or the improvement you're saying we'll see in the second half of 2023 in terms of the efforts coming to fruition, are these actions that are done like they've been agreed to? It sounds like the backlog is largely priced already. But I just wanted to check, like is there a risk that some of the actions you're still pursuing won't come through? Or do you feel like a lot of this is baked because you've had success in going back to customers and recovering some of those costs?

Yes. So from a customer perspective, we're probably 95% done and the customers have agreed. There's still some stragglers out there that we're working on. And those customers are priced into our backlog currently. And so it's really, really difficult to take existing business and increase pricing.\ It's easier to do it when you're launching a new program or a new product for a new model. So we took -- we undertook this effort and it's an emotional drain doing these negotiations and talking about macroeconomic factors and how they affect the business. But the customers are professional, and we treat them professional, and we just want to be a good, strong supplier for the customers, and they appreciate that.

Yes, no doubt. And I'm sure it's been really tough for the team and so congratulations on realizing that. And given this 95% done with the customers, I don't know if the -- it doesn't seem like the dynamic with these raw materials and freight are anywhere close to the swings you've seen in the past, do you feel like you're going to see some recovery in the second half year as you've said based on these conversations based on these new programs you're rolling out with new pricing? And after that, you expect more stability in gross margin? Or do you see opportunities beyond just these near-term actions you've taken to sort of keep improving gross margin as you go forward into 2024 and 2025?

Yes. So the -- we factored into the price increases the current situations in logistics and raw materials. Raw materials are going to continue to fluctuate, and we'll work with the OEMs on how to deal with that going forward. This doesn't preclude us from kind of making that a neutral to our gross margins. We do see opportunities on the onshoring side to reduce our transportation costs and be less exposed to long distance shipments of parts as we onshore our materials. So we think there's opportunities on the transportation side that will add to or reduce our cost of goods sold as well as add to our gross margins.

Okay. Great. And last question. You talked about the sales capability investments that you've made as part of the increase in SG&A. I'm just curious if you could elaborate a little bit on what those are and kind of what you're seeing or how you expect those to help, I guess, sales going forward.

So we take a look at the SG&A and also the R&D side of it, and we're investing in new models that are coming out. So you see our engineering costs are slightly higher than they have been historically. But we have quite a few programs that are going to launch in 2024 going forward. Once they get off the ground and we'll start seeing the revenue, and you'll see the percentages of SG&A and R&D actually go down as we -- we reflected an incremental revenue growth and the percentage of SG&A and R&D will actually fall as a percentage of revenue.

And just to add to that a little bit about the SG&A percentage as well, we did incur cost during the quarter for our contract renegotiations, and we view those more as a onetime cost that we will not have consistently going forward.

So that's like costs that you might -- that might -- like customer costs like some sort of concession in order to realize the renegotiation that kind of cost or legal costs -- incurring legal costs renegotiated?\

Correct.

There are no questions remaining in the queue. So at this moment, I will turn the call back over to Ernie Hawkins.

Okay. So with that, I'll turn the call over to Mark for closing remarks.

Thanks, Ernie. Thanks again for joining us today. To sum up, I'm confident that our strategy and focus will bring positive changes and improved results in 2023, putting Eastern on a strong path for the future. We look forward to sharing more signs of progress with you after the third quarter. If you need more information in the meantime, please reach out to us. Thank you for joining the call.

This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.