Good morning, and welcome to the Federal Signal Corporation Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ian Hudson, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to Federal Signal's fourth quarter conference call. I'm Ian Hudson, the Company's Chief Financial Officer. Also with me on the call today is Jennifer Sherman, our President and Chief Executive Officer. We will refer to some presentation slides today as well as to the earnings release, which we issued this morning. The slides can be followed online by going to our website, federalsignal.com, clicking on the Investor Call icon and signing into the webcast. We have also posted the slide presentation and the earnings release under the Investor tab on our website. Before I turn the call over to Jennifer, I'd like to remind you that some of our comments made today may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to the Safe Harbor language found in today's news release and in Federal Signal's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These documents are available on our website. Our presentation also contains some measures that are not in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. In our earnings release and filings, we reconcile these non-GAAP measures to GAAP measures. In addition, we will file our Form 10-K later today. Jennifer is going to start today with a recap of the year, and then I will provide some more detail on our fourth quarter and full year financial results. Jennifer will then provide her perspective on our performance and go over our outlook for 2023 before we open the line for any questions. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Jennifer.

Thank you, Ian. I'd like to start by giving my profound thanks to each of our employees and our business partners for their ongoing commitment to the company. As I reflect back on my tenure as CEO, I take great pride in the growth that we've experienced since 2016. Since then, through a combination of organic growth initiatives and M&A, our sales have doubled from a little over $700 million in 2016 to more than $1.4 billion in 2022. That represents a compound annual growth rate of around 13%. With M&A representing about 2/3 of our top line growth since 2016, acquisitions have played a key role in increasing shareholder value. We are committed to remaining disciplined in our approach to both diligence and valuation and have established a reputation as a partner of choice. In fact, of the 11 transactions announced over this time period, 8 have been internally sourced. We have also gained traction on our key organic growth initiatives, which have helped us to further diversify our revenue streams and end market exposures and become a more resilient company. I'm also inspired by the manner in which our businesses have achieved these stellar financial results, which are outstanding, both in absolute terms and in comparison to our specialty vehicle peers while navigating through a series of complex challenges, including a global pandemic, unprecedented inflation levels and worldwide supply chain disruption. Our teams' successful execution against our long-term financial framework and growth strategy has created meaningful value for our stockholders with our cumulative returns outpacing each of the key benchmark indices we monitor. As I look ahead, I remain bullish about our long-term prospects and the ongoing execution of our strategy. I take encouragement from our active M&A pipeline, the additional financial flexibility provided by our increased credit…

Thank you, Jennifer. Our financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2022 are provided in today's earnings release. Before I talk about the fourth quarter, let me highlight some of our full year consolidated results. Net sales for the year were approximately $1.43 billion, a record high for the company and an increase of $222 million or 18% compared to last year. Organic sales growth for the year was $130 million or 11%. Operating income for the year was $160.8 million, an increase of $30.1 million or 23% from last year. Adjusted EBITDA for the year was $215 million, up $34.5 million or 19% compared to last year. That translates to a margin of 15% this year, up 10 basis points from last year. GAAP earnings for the year equated to $1.97 per share, up $0.34 per share or 21% from last year. On an adjusted basis, we reported full year earnings of $1.96 per share, up $0.21 per share or 12% from last year. Orders for the year were $1.69 billion, another company record and an increase of $153 million or 10% from last year. With the strong momentum in customer demand, consolidated backlog at the end of the year was at an all-time high level of $879 million, an increase of $250 million or 40% from last year. For the rest of my comments, I will focus mostly on comparisons of the fourth quarter of 2022 to the fourth quarter of 2021. Consolidated net sales for the quarter were $392 million, an increase of $90 million or 30% compared to last year. Organic sales growth for the quarter was $71 million or 24%. Consolidated operating income in Q4 this year was $46.6 million, up $16.5 million or 55% compared to last year. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA…

Thank you, Ian. Overall, our fourth quarter results represented a strong finish to a record year. Within our Environmental Solutions Group increased sales volumes, contributions from recent acquisitions and strong price realization contributed to a 33% year-over-year net sales increase and 300 basis point improvement in EBITDA margin. During the fourth quarter, production and shipments at our Streator and Elgin manufacturing facilities improved by approximately 20% as compared to the third quarter. The production improvements are encouraging and demonstrate that we are benefiting from the actions taken to mitigate the global supply chain shortages, including investing in additional safety stock inventory, bringing additional suppliers online, reengineering products and in-sourcing where possible. With its supply chain continuing to improve, our Safety and Security Systems Group also delivered impressive results during the quarter, including 18% top line growth and an EBITDA margin of approximately 20%. This performance was achieved despite a week-long plant shutdown at our University Park facility in December due to a power outage. The management team worked tirelessly to bring production back online, and I cannot express enough gratitude to the hardworking employees at our University Park facility for their efforts to partially mitigate these impacts and deliver essential equipment to customers, including working substantial overtime and on previously scheduled holidays. With its consistently strong performance over the last several quarters, at this time, we are increasing the EBITDA margin target for our Safety and Security Systems Group to a new range of 17% to 21% from the previous range of 15% to 18%. Demand for our product offerings continues to be as strong as ever as demonstrated by our outstanding fourth quarter order intake of $444 million, contributing to another record backlog entering the year and reflecting strength across our end markets. This order strength has continued so…

[Operator Instructions]. Our first question is from Mike Shlisky with D.A. Davidson.

I guess, the first question is probably the one you pin down to answer once the Q&A starts. The most obvious one is, I'm glad you raised one segment's margin targets. What kept you from raising the other one, what should we be watching for in '23 to hopefully make that second jump there?

Yes. As we talked about last year, we saw supply chain started to improve in our SSG segment earlier than the supply chain improvement started traction in our ESG segment. So we want to make sure when we increase these margin targets that we're going to hit the targets. And so although we're encouraged by the supply chain improvement we saw in Q4 for ESG will still need -- we need -- still need some time to make sure that, that's going to stick. And supply chain improvement has not been linear in our world. We have good days and bad days. And the good news is, we're having more good days than bad days. But we go a little bit forward, a little bit sideways, a little bit backwards and we move towards the top. So it's really driven by the improvement -- the sustainable improvement that we've seen in supply chain where SSG predated ESG. But we're watching it carefully, and we're committed to increase them.

Great. I didn't hear much commentary this quarter around chassis supply. I'm just curious, is there a reason, was it just things are kind of best normal for you? Or it's just not something that's been as much of a focus as it had in the past couple of quarters?

Yes. So let me start with TBI. Chassis supply is still a problem. In terms of prioritization for our TBI customers, we don't own the chassis in that situation. So typically, we're lower in the queue, and it is a constraint right now. Based on the public comments made by some of the chassis OEMs, we're hopeful as we get to the second half of the year that we're going to see improvement. On our non-TBEI vehicle businesses, we're still on allocation, but we've gotten better at allocation. We've been able to go out and procure some additional chassis. Our dealers have been able to procure chassis. Some of our customers have been able to procure chassis. Would we like more chassis, absolutely, but we've done a pretty good job of maneuvering our way through this. And again, we're hopeful that we see more chassis availability in the second half of the year, but we don't control that.

Yes. And I think, Mike, just to build on Jennifer's point, obviously, the -- having -- we've made a strategic decision to provide more chassis. When you look at our inventory on a year-over-year basis, about $13 million of that increase is because we've invested in chassis. And we're doing that really to try and serve our customers, but it's come with a headwind to our gross margin. In Q4, for example, but it was a headwind of about 70 basis points of our gross margin was because we supplied more chassis. So I think that is something that, overtime, we would like to go back to kind of more steady state. But given the environment we're operating in, we've made the decision to provide more chassis than we typically would.

Great. I want to throw one more and then perhaps a 2-part question on the Trackless deal. Can you share -- does that company use an off-the-shelf engine or a large company brand engine in their machines and an opportunity to get any purchasing synergies there with other businesses like your street sweepers, et cetera? And the other part of the question is, I noticed, is that an industrial mowing business [indiscernible] maintenance. That's not been a focus on Federal Signal in the past in my knowledge, nothing tremendous. Are you looking to expand more into the green parts of the infrastructure going forward?

Yes. Let me start with, this is a deal that I've been working on. Our team has been working on since 2015. We have -- our JJE team, as we talked about in the prepared comments, is the largest distributor of Trackless equipment. So we know the company well. It's just an outstanding company. With respect to -- yes, they do purchase large engines from a large engine supplier. Yes, we believe there are synergies there, and we're excited about that. This acquisition, although is smaller, is a -- I just think has great growth opportunities. We're planning on having a kind of winter attachments package and a summer attachments package. The summer attachments package would include the mower attachment that you referenced. And we believe, again, that this particular company very well managed, it just a great company. We'll be able to offer depending on the geographies, either summer, winter, I mean, or both or either or. And it really helps our customers reduce their carbon footprint also because instead of having several multi-purpose vehicles, they can have one vehicle with multiple attachments. And then again, we believe with our footprint, the opportunity to grow their aftermarket business that attachment is great. So just -- I was absolutely thrilled, the management team is fantastic, and we really think there's a ton of opportunity going forward.

Next question is from Felix Boeschen with Raymond James.

I was just curious on the topline guide, if we could maybe talk about some of the key puts and takes. As I think about going from '22 to '23, I think there's going to be obviously some M&A impact, some price impacts, you mentioned aftermarket being a growth source. I'm wondering, Ian, could you bucket those for us? And maybe talk about what you're implying on sort of core volumes in the guide?

Sure. So I think, obviously, the guide is a year-over-year increase at the aggregate level of between 10% and 20%. The organic component is around about 6% to 16% with the delta obviously been the acquisition contribution. So of the organic growth component, it's a pretty wide range, I think, and that's reflected mainly of supply chain, particularly on the dump truck side of the business. So I think when you look at the organic growth of 6% to 16%, on the lower end, price would probably be about half of that with volumes making up the difference. And then obviously, as you go further up the range, that's going to be mainly volume-driven.

Okay. Got it. Super helpful. And then you talked about adding to the rental fleet, and I think you talked about doing it in the first quarter. And I guess maybe this is just a bigger picture question. But how do you think about utilization of that rental fleet today? And sort of what do you think the fleet size could go in the next coming years here just as we think about, obviously, infrastructure being a driver and so on?

Yes. So let me start with, quotes are up so far this year pretty meaningfully. So we're expecting to have a good year on rentals. Number two is, we have strong rental partners. So we're not, as you know, the only entity that rents our equipment. We have several strong rental partners. And our expectation is to continue and invest in those rental partners. We expect the fleet partly because of supply chain challenges. There's a tremendous amount of demand for used equipment in 2022. So we're replenishing in Q1 to kind of get back to where we are -- where we were. And it's important, we do that in Q1, because as we get into the summer, particularly in areas of Canada, in the northern half of the U.S., so that equipment has pretty high utilization. I'll share with you that our utilization has been strong throughout 2022, and we expect that to continue into 2023. In terms of the size of the rental fleet, we don't have plans to dramatically grow the fleet. We're going to respond to customer demand and continue to be disciplined, and we're also going to rely upon our rental partners.

Okay. Okay. And then maybe just my last one, and maybe this is better for Ian, but I'm curious if we could talk about free cash flow conversion into next year and maybe beyond. But obviously, CapEx is stepping down post the facility additions. Working capital is obviously been a big headwind in 2022. So I guess, a, I'm just curious, how you think about the conversion into 2023? And then just to confirm, there really wasn't anything baked in from either a repurchase or debt pay down perspective in the guide. Is that right, Ian?

There's a little bit of debt pay down assumed, just based on what we're expecting from a kind of a cash generation standpoint. I think if you look at the full year, obviously, our cash conversion was impacted with some of the investments we have to make in inventory levels mainly. So our conversion was below our target. We typically target conversion of 100% on a net income basis. I think for this year, we were about 60%. We are expecting that to improve as we go into '23. I don't think it will be all the way back to our target because I think what we're trying to do is balance the needs to have inventory supply chain, as Jennifer mentioned, is not solved. It's improved, but we still are fighting through challenges kind of on a regular basis. So I think we will be up from where we were in '22, but maybe not all the way back to our target level because we still have record backlogs that we're actively trying to work down those backlogs and reduce lead times. So I think we'll still see some investment in inventory.

Yes. For example, Ian referenced the investments we're making in chassis and that's an important investment in terms of serving the needs of our customers. But our teams are focused in terms of both balancing the inventory we need to support our backlogs and supply chain challenges with some -- we have inventory reduction goals at each of our businesses for '23.

[Operator Instructions]. The next question is from Greg Burns with Sidoti & Company.

What is the interest expense for next year?

So we're guiding to between $18 million to $20 million on a full year basis.

Okay. Great. And then you mentioned production being up, I guess, I don't know if this is in dollar or units, but up 20% sequentially. Where are you in terms of your capacity utilization? I know you've added a lot of -- added capacity over the last year or so, but obviously, you've been production constrained because of the supply constraints. So how much more capacity do you have if you could produce to demand, how many more units or how much more revenue could you be generating per quarter?

Yes. So what we were talking about -- when we were talking about the increases we saw in production that was at our Vactor and Elgin facilities. And depending on the quarter, we were running between 60% and 70% depending on the quarter last year. So there's plenty of room for future growth.

Okay. Okay. And then with the Trackless acquisition, just so I understand the platform, do they sell those attachments solely for their own units? Or do they -- are these attachments sold to other? Can someone just buy like their attachments and then attach it to their own trucks?

It's -- I mean, theoretically, I guess you could buy their attachments and attach it to their own trucks. But the purpose of it is for the tractors they manufacture.

Next question is from Steve Barger with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

If we look at the midpoint revenue guide, it implies high-single or low double-digit unit volume growth, but the midpoint of EPS suggests about a 20% incremental margin and I know there's still supply chain challenges. But when you think about footprint and mix, how do you think the portfolio should flex in a perfect state on volume increases?

Yes. I think in a perfect state, Steve, I will -- [indiscernible] I will caveat this by saying our guide wasn't a perfect state. But in a good state, we typically with the backlogs where they are right now, we typically can generate some decent operating leverage anywhere from 20% to 30%, I think we've seen in the past. So I think we would be expecting somewhere within that range from an operating leverage standpoint for both groups.

But again, when we put the guidance together, we did not assume a perfect state.

Sure. I Understood. Yes. I know, there's still challenges out there. And going back to the conversation on cash flow conversion, over 5 years, you've averaged 97%, free cash flow conversion has been around 66% with the last 2 years below that. As you pursue this acquisition-driven strategy, should we assume that you just become more capital intensive over time? Or will there be opportunities to kind of take some of those acquired assets and consolidate them? And just can you talk about how you think about that?

Yes. I think, Steve, the last couple of years have been unusual because that it would include 2 large building purchases. So we bought both University Park and our Elgin facilities. So that's caused our CapEx to be elevated the last couple of years. So that would be -- if you normalize for those 2 things, which we wouldn't expect to recur going forward, I think that would be more in line with what we would expect.

Okay. And if I look back at the acquisition track record, the deals have gotten a little more expensive, trending closer to 2x price to sales. Has the margin profile gotten better as well? Or are you just seeing more expensive deals because of financial conditions or scarcity value or whatever the case may be?

I think the couple that we've completed in the last couple of quarters, I think the margin profile is attractive, and that's really what's been of interest. And when you look at it on the percentage or a multiple of sales, that's what's driven -- driven that increase. But I think the margin profile of what we've acquired in the last several quarters is towards the upper end of that target range, and that's one of the things that when we look at increasing those target ranges for ESG. That's one of the factors that is in play.

Yes. And I'll add there. If you look at the last couple of acquisitions, they have been sustainable through cycle margin profiles. So we like that part of -- we like that part of the business. And we also believe that the aftermarket parts of those businesses, is an important part of the valuation equation.

Understood. And I know this can be tricky to know for a private company, but -- or before you drive synergies, what has the cash flow profile or the cash flow conversion for those acquisitions mirrored what you target for Federal Signal? Or is there anything that can keep you from getting there?

It absolutely mirrors what we target for Federal Signal. All of these businesses have been relatively low CapEx. A great example would be Trackless. They've invested in best-in-class equipment. There's very little investment that's required on our part in terms of to grow that particular business.

The next question is from Chris Moore with CJS Securities.

Maybe just back to the revenue guide for a second, so the organic range is 6% to 16%. Is there any significant difference in the assumptions in the overall health of the economy at the lower and higher ends? Or is it really more just a function of how the supply chain treats you?

I think it's mainly a function of supply chain, Chris, because I think, obviously, the backlog at the end of the year that gives us great visibility. I think what we've seen so far this year, the orders have been pretty strong as well. So I think in terms of the visibility, the backlog provides -- it gives us great visibility. So supply chain is the primary driver of the size of the range. And again, it's mostly on the dump truck side of the business.

Got it. That's helpful. I think Jennifer talked about supply chain -- excuse me, lead time still being something of an issue. Vactor seems to be a good barometer on lead times, my understanding last fall, they were 10 to 11 months there versus a normal 6 to 9. Has that changed much at all?

About the same, and it's -- we've increased the output in the production, but at the same time, the demand has remained really strong.

Got it. And maybe just one last for me. So I guess, everyone is kind of waiting for the new normal to return. It doesn't look like that's going to happen. So just maybe you could talk a little bit about some of the things that you were kind of forced into doing that you're not going to go back on whether that might be sourcing or making internally? Just trying to understand kind of how the -- how Federal Signal is positioned a little bit better post pandemic?

Yes. So I think there are silver linings in everything. And the silver lining has come out of this pandemic supply chain is Mark Weber has really led a great initiative in terms of coordination among our businesses for critical parts. So we've had several examples. One is our Elgin business had a problem with a part to China and our Jetstream business stepped in and is now manufacturing that part. Our sewer cleaner business had a problem with the part and our SSG business stepped in and was able to manufacture that part. We have examples across the enterprise, where given the various capabilities that we have, we can step in and help sister businesses. That's been very beneficial. We've started to in-source more in terms of we need to make sure that we've got in certain situations, critical parts, and that's been an important part of the success that we had in 2022.In general, our supply base because of our exposure to public revenue stores, we've had -- our supply base is primarily a North American supply base and it has been historically. That has benefited us through the tariff situation through the pandemic and through the supply chain challenges. Our teams -- we have great suppliers and our teams have done a great job in terms of -- we continue to pay our suppliers timely through the pandemic. And in the supply chain environment, they partnered with us to work through, and we've often been at the top of the queue. So I do believe we, as a company, are much more nimble. We've qualified additional suppliers, which is important and I think we're incredibly well positioned for 2023.

The next question is from Walt Liptak with Seaport.

Great quarter, great long-term, too. That was impressive hearing about the CAGR over the long-term. I wanted to ask about the first quarter. You talked about it being seasonally lower, but you also said that you're going to be adding to the fleet. And so I think we can work out the numbers from the guidance, but I wonder if you could just provide a little bit more details on what's going on seasonally, why you can't get more trucks out the door?

So I think what we are trying to signal is, we are -- the production is still, we're not expecting a big drop in production, but a lot of that production are going to rental units of our own that go in our own rental fleets. So we're using production for essentially units that won't generate that immediate income because they go into our own rental fleet, so it's almost like an intercompany transaction. So that's the main reason that we were just calling that out, because while we're not expecting production to drop off, a lot of that production will be for units that go in our own rental fleet. So that was the primary message we were trying to just indicate there, because with the strong used equipment sales that we've seen throughout 2022 and with the continued high demand for rentals in both the U.S. and Canada, we need to replenish our rental fleet. So that's typically what happens during Q1, and that's typically one of the reasons Q1 is a softer quarter for us. But what we're trying to say is, this quarter it might be more pronounced than it was last year.

And I would just add is, the historical seasonality of our business, Q1 is our softest quarter.

Okay. And what do you expect the operating leverage to look like in the first quarter?

So in the first quarter -- I mean, for the full year, I think we're looking at leverage in the 20% to 30% range as we talked about. I'd have to get back to you on the first quarter.

Okay. All right. And then if I can ask one on inflation and selling prices. Are you still seeing inflationary pressure? And what are the pricing strategies? Are you still finding that you need to increase prices in 2023?

Yes. We are still seeing inflationary pressure, particularly on the various component parts that we buy, often without a lot of notice, and we have made it clear that both to our dealers and our customers that we will react when needed and pass those costs on as necessary.

Yes. We've seen steel has come down. We have seen that to the some relief, but some -- as Jennifer said, for some of the other components, we haven't seen much relief to this point and as we typically have an annual price increase that goes into effect. So that's something that we will be considered as well. For the -- for overall in '22, what we saw was sequential improvement on a year-over-year basis in that kind of price cost dynamics. So for the full year, we were favorable. Most of that came in Q4. So we're encouraged with the actions that we've taken in response. And this is obviously in absolute dollars, not necessarily back to the margins that we were at before, but we were favorable on a year-over-year basis during '22.

Okay. Great. Okay. And then the last one for me is just on the EV products. And it sounds like some of the products are getting commercialized, are you taking orders? Or are those orders somehow tied to some of the government infrastructure programs and other sorts of government funding that may still be in the pipeline?

We started to take some orders on certain product lines. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we have a program that's available on -- for example, in our street sweeping business that identifies public funding that's available to assist customers in purchasing EV equipment. We've launched that. We're starting to get some traction on that. And then certain products were in the demo phase, as we talked about that. But I'm pleased with the progress that we've made, and it's an important part of our new product development pipeline.

[Operator Instructions]. The next question is from Dave Storms with Stonegate Capital Markets.

Excuse me, I actually meant to withdraw my questions.

Okay.

Showing no further questions, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Jennifer Sherman for any closing remarks.

In closing, I'd like to reiterate that we are confident in the long-term prospects for our businesses and our markets. Our teams are performing at a high level and remain focused on delivering high-quality results. We continue to aggressively address supply chain challenges, and we believe we are winning in the marketplace with our customers. We remain committed to investing in our businesses and our people to generate sustained long-term success for our shareholders. Our foundation is strong and we are focused on delivering profitable long-term growth through the execution of our strategic initiatives. We would like to express our sincere thanks to our stockholders, employees, distributors, dealers and customers for their continued support. Thank you for joining us today, and we'll talk to you next quarter.

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