Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Nortech Systems Incorporated Fourth Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. With me on the line today are Jay Miller, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Andrew LaFrence, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Finance. All lines have been placed on a listen-only mode, and the call will be open for questions and comments following the management presentation. At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Andy LaFrence.

Thank you, John. I would also like to welcome everyone to today's conference call. Jay will begin the call with a review of our operations, recent developments, and business outlook. Then I will review Nortech's fourth quarter 2024 fiscal results before turning it back over to Jay for his closing comments. Then we will be open for your questions. Before we continue, please note that statements made during this call may be forward-looking regarding expected net sales, operating results, future plans, opportunities, and other company expectations. These estimates, plans, and other forward-looking statements involve unknown and known risks, and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied on this call. These risks, including those that are detailed in our most recent SEC filings, may be amended or supplemented. The statements made during this conference call are based on information known by Nortech as of the date and time of this call, and we assume no obligation to update the information in today's call. You can find Nortech's complete Safe Harbor statements in our SEC filings. And with that, I'll turn it over to Jay for his opening comments. Jay?

Thank you, Andy, and good afternoon, everyone. We're glad you could join us today. In our last earnings call, we noted customer order headwinds, which we expected to impact our near-term orders and revenue. Our third and fourth quarter net sales were impacted by a continuing pattern of customers delaying product purchases, reducing their on-hand inventories, and shortening order to fulfillment timelines. These impacts have been a theme at many contract manufacturers over the past couple of quarters. Additionally, fourth quarter results in our aerospace and defense market were negatively impacted by the closure of our Blue Earth facility and the transfer of our customer programs to Bemidji, as we experienced unexpected delays in customer approvals. While we fully expect our aerospace and defense business to get back to normal in the second-half of 2025, we do expect this headwind to continue to impact revenues to a decreasing level in the first-half of 2025. Meanwhile, the imposition of tariffs may significantly impact contract manufacturers with facilities in China and Mexico, including Nortech. While the tariffs with Mexico are currently uncertain, it is important to note that Nortech is not the importer of records into the United States for goods produced in Mexico as we operate under a maquiladora structure for our customers. This reduces our direct exposure to these tariffs. However, this may cause our customers to evaluate their supply chain model. Throughout this period of uncertainty, we remain vigilant, and hand-to-hand with our customers, we are closely monitoring any potential changes that could affect our operations and the operations of our customers. As for China, as we have mentioned on past calls, much of our production work there is built in-country, for-country, and reassuring approach to better serve customers in the global market with reduced shipping costs and time.…

Thank you, Jay. In the next few minutes, I will provide certain details of our financial performance in the fourth quarter of 2024. I would encourage you to review our Form 8K containing our press release and non-GAAP measures, as well as a report on Form 10K filed earlier this morning with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As a continued theme, we have historically noted that our individual quarterly performance can be affected by outside factors. These might include timing fluctuations, including seasonal fluctuations, customer shipments, and supply chain issues. Any of these could materially impact a particular quarter, either positively or negatively. Consequently, we believe it's important and appropriate to review our business on a 12-month basis rather than focusing on quarterly performance. This approach will help normalize these potential anomalies and offer a better gauge of our strategy's long-term success. So, today, while I'll focus most of my comments on our fourth quarter and year-end 2024 results, I will provide some comparisons for the year-ended December 31, 2024, compared with the year-ended December 31, 2023. Net sales for the fourth quarter of 2024 totaled $28.6 million. This represents a decrease of 20.6% from the net sales of $36.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. For the year-ended December 31, 2024, net sales were $128.1 million, as compared with $139.3 million in the same prior year period, a decrease of 8%. During 2024, we realized headwinds with our industrial customers as a result of softness in this market, which is similar to results published by other contract manufacturers, as well as the delayed product launches. In 2024, we have experienced revenue headwinds from our medical customers as they are aggressively reducing their inventory investments. We have also noted several medical product introductions being pushed out. As previously…

Thanks, Andy. Before we open the call to your questions, I want to touch on three related areas that together serve our customers and help advance Nortech's corporate stewardship -- our engineering expertise, product innovation focus, and sustainability plans. As for engineering expertise, we have a dedicated engineering services team that is focused on enhancing manufacturability, serviceability, supply chain risk mitigation, and cost efficiency for our customers. Our three-tier cost structure across the U.S., Mexico, and China allows us to quickly adopt our global engineering resources to fit our customers' changing needs. A core goal of our long-term strategic plan focuses on unique innovation. This is somewhat unusual for most contract manufacturers. Nortech's engineering capabilities and innovation skills further our research and development activities with advancements like the Expanded Beam Extreme Fiber-Optic Technology, or EBX, that we announced in January. EBX is designed for digital data transmission through the very complex custom cable system we manufacture and offers improved speed, reliability, and security when compared to traditional copper. We're also excited about our Active Optical Extreme, or AOX, a hybrid power plus data fiber optic technology that works in sophisticated magnetic environments, a testament to our team's dedication to innovation, hard work, and excellence in the field of digital connectivity solutions. AOX represents a significant advancement in our product offerings and underscores our commitment to providing state-of-the-art solutions that meet the evolving needs of our clients to deliver products that offer lighter weight, lower cost, and ruggedized solutions sustainably. At the simplest level, the vast majority of Nortech's products provide complex, custom, digital connectivity solutions that transmit data and power in various applications. As you may know, the Internet of Things, or IoT, integrates a variety of electronic components such as microcontrollers, sensors, actuators, and connectivity modules. These components, in…

I'd like to turn the floor back to Jay Miller for any closing remarks.

Thank you, John, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. We look forward to talking with you in May when we report our first quarter 2025 results. Again, thank you and goodbye.

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

Thanks, John.

Thank you, gentlemen. Take care.