Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Quanex Building Products Corporation Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to our first speaker today, Scott Zuehlke, Senior Vice President, CFO, and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Thanks for joining the call this morning. On the call with me today is George Wilson, our Chairman, President and CEO. This conference call will contain forward-looking statements and some discussion of non-GAAP measures. Forward-looking statements and guidance discussed on this call and in our earnings release are based on current expectations. Actual results or events may differ materially from such statements and guidance, and Quanex undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect new information or events. For a more detailed description of our forward-looking statement disclaimer and a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, please see our earnings release issued yesterday and posted to our website. I'll now turn the call over to George for his prepared remarks.

Thanks, Scott, and good morning to everyone joining the call. I'll begin today's call with a brief strategic overview, followed by some commentary on the quarter and the broader macroenvironment. After that, I'll hand it back over to Scott, who will provide a more detailed financial discussion. As we close fiscal 2024 and reflect on the past year, I am incredibly proud of the progress we've made in executing our strategic plan. At the core of this plan has been the creation of a solid operational foundation that drives strong cash flow and will provide support for our organic and inorganic growth plans. Building this foundation takes time and significant effort and doesn't happen without the right culture. Looking back over the uncertain and challenging macroeconomic environment of the past few years, it is clear that our operational performance has remained consistent and resilient, positioning us well for the next phase of growth. With this strong foundation in place, our profitable growth strategy has been focused on expanding and existing market channels, enhancing our manufacturing capabilities, and opening new addressable markets. To achieve this growth, we have strategically employed both debt and equity financing, all while maintaining a healthy balance sheet. I'm pleased to report that our acquisitions of LMI and Tyman have met all of these objectives. Looking ahead, we are entering the next stage of our evolution. Our overarching goal of continual profitable growth remains unchanged with a heightened focus on strengthening the operational foundation of our newly scaled organization. As part of this evolution, we are restructuring our operating segments. Going forward, our structure will be centered around our core competencies in material sciences and manufacturing rather than the previous geographic and market-based segments. We believe this shift will create the best opportunities to leverage synergies, capitalize…

Thanks, George. On a consolidated basis, we reported net sales of $493.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2024, which represents an increase of approximately 67% compared to $295.5 million for the same period of 2023. We reported net sales of $1.28 billion for the full year, which represents an increase of approximately 13% compared to $1.13 billion for 2023. The increases were primarily driven by the contribution from the Tyman acquisition that closed on August 1, 2024. Excluding the contribution from Tyman, net sales would have declined by 2.3% for the fourth quarter of 2024 and 5% for the full year, largely due to lower volume. We reported a net loss of $13.9 million or $0.30 per diluted share during the three months ended, October 31, 2024, compared to a net income of $27.4 million or $0.83 per diluted share during the three months ended, October 31, 2023. For the full year 2024, we reported net income of $33.1 million or $0.90 per diluted share compared to $82.5 million or $2.50 per diluted share for the full year 2023. On an adjusted basis, net income was $28.6 million or $0.61 per diluted share during the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to $31.2 million or $0.95 per diluted share during the fourth quarter of 2023. Adjusted net income was $80.4 million or $2.19 per diluted share for fiscal 2024 compared to $90.9 million or $2.75 per diluted share for fiscal 2023. The adjustments being made to EPS are primarily for transaction and advisory fees, amortization of the step-up for purchase price adjustments on inventory and AR related to the Tyman acquisition. Expenses related to a plant closure, loss on damage to a manufacturing facility caused by weather, pension settlement expense, and foreign currency translation impacts. On an adjusted basis, EBITDA…

[Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from the line of Steven Ramsey from Thompson Research Group. Your line is open.

Hi, good morning. I wanted to think high-level -- wanted to think high-level a bit given the market remains pretty stagnant and seems pretty well-known out there. I guess, my first question would then be on portfolio adjustments. Now that you've got Tyman in and synergies are coming in at a nice clip, how are you assessing the portfolio broadly? And basically, are you considering any moves to divest anything that maybe is less core now that you have this bigger foundation?

Thanks for the question, Steven. The answer is, yes, we are evaluating the entire portfolio. I think the scale of the acquisition gives us an opportunity to do that. The approach that we'll take is we're going to obviously look at this from a customer perspective and see what pieces of the portfolio add value to our customers and can help them grow. Secondly, then we'll look at what that means to potential growth as well as the profitability. I think we will use it as an opportunity to potentially divest non-core assets that do not add value to our customer, that can drive margin improvement through just subtraction of the revenue. So nothing too specific at this point, but I think it is fair to say that that will be a priority in some of our views as we go forward here in 2025.

Okay. That's helpful. Also wanted to think about the EU segment, you've had two consecutive years with margin in the 23%, 24% range, very strong. Do you view this as kind of the normalized level to operate from or even build-off of or would you say there are some -- this is maybe a peak level for current dynamics that's helping that?

Yeah. No, it's a great question. I'm extremely proud of what our teams have done over the past years on margin improvement and really operational performance. I think as we re-segmented these businesses into these new segments, we were trying to accomplish a few things. One was to really address -- most of our businesses take a global approach and by separating or segmenting them the way we did in the legacy Tyman business -- excuse me, legacy Quanex business, we kind of split them up geographically, which I think made it difficult or limited the opportunities to maybe get some sharing of best practices or synergies internally. So although we did a good job, I think it potentially put a little governor on those opportunities. I think taking more of a global approach and for example, our spacer business or some of the new businesses from Tyman and looking at it from a global perspective, it gives us the opportunity to set these things up, share best practices across the globe. So my anticipation, Steven, long answer here is that I don't think we're tapped out on margin improvement opportunities driven by internal projects. I think that there's still some runway. And that was part of the reason that we've established these segments the way we did. One, focused on what best delivers for our customer; and then, two, how can we continue to tap into the opportunities to improve margin organically. That was the basis around our restructure.

The only thing I'll add there, Steven, as markets improve around the world and volumes tick up, at some point, you're going to get operating efficiency gains that will help margin longer-term as well.

So I think you can see we're pretty excited about the potential that these new segments can drive, more to come, but we're pretty optimistic about that.

No, that's great perspective. Maybe something to quickly ask there, Scott, that you alluded to better volumes and the margin benefits from that. Can you maybe talk to the kind of historic incremental margins from legacy Quanex and given as you put these two businesses together, where could incremental margins get better as volume starts to improve?

That's a very difficult question to ask only because you would have to go product line by product line to see fixed cost versus variable costs and where we could -- where the operating leverage is better, obviously is -- as volume ticks up in a fixed -- more fixed cost, you're going to reap the rewards better than you would a variable cost.

I think if you look at the way we've segmented in extruded solutions segment, for example, the nature of extrusion process alone kind of lends itself is very much a volume-driven type of business. So I think you would see the most volume benefits in that type of segment and that type of product process as markets improved.

That's a great color. I'll leave it there. Thanks.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Adam Thalhimer from Thompson Davis. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, guys. Congrats on a record year.

Thank you.

I wanted to ask first about the Tyman synergies. How comfortable are you getting to the $30 million of synergies? And do you still think it takes two years to capture those?

Great question. So as we've as we've embarked on this, I think you're always apprehensive about giving a number when you go into such a transformative type of deal. But as we progressed and now that we've launched the new segments, I think our comfort level around the stated $30 million is very strong and high. We have very strong confidence in achieving those levels. I think as the teams move through, the focus has started. We focused on the consolidation of the corporate offices, which we've talked about already and that's gone according to plan and maybe a little quicker than anticipated. Now that the divisions are starting to operate within the new segments, I think, we're very pleased at the results that we're seeing these newly created teams generate and the amount of opportunities that they're creating helps to offset any potential downsides and unknowns that you don't know. And then finally, I think we become even more convinced that longer-term commercial types of growth synergies that are created from this combination will be there. So again, another long answer to your question, but I think we're extremely confident in meeting and hopefully beating the guidance that we've given.

Okay. And, George, you talked about sluggish demand over the holiday season and in the winter, I'm curious, what -- is that a continuation of the trends you've seen in fiscal year '24 or are you contemplating incremental weakness?

I'll start off and then I can let Scott to add any color too. One, I think what we've said, this is not an abnormal type of thing that we see every year in terms of softness in our fiscal Q1. I think in certain markets, for example, the cabinet market that we serve, I think you see our customers using it as an opportunity to adjust their inventory levels and using the holidays as an opportunity to reconcile volumes before the build. So I think that has had a little bit of an incremental impact. I think it's a continuation on -- for the most part, it's a continuation on what we've seen this year just and being emphasized on our normal seasonality pattern. It's nothing that we've not anticipated. And I think it's playing out exactly as what we've modeled and anticipated previous. Scott?

Yeah. I mean, I would agree with everything George just said and we are expecting volumes to be down year-over-year in 1Q '25 versus '24, but not by a significant amount. And we do expect markets to tick up starting in the spring selling season, once we feel like consumer confidence improved.

I'm not sure we've talked to one customer at this point that doesn't have that same, I think that there is a fairly strong optimism that the back half of the year will see it. Again, the market indicators and the need for housing as the Fed continues or it's anticipated that they'll continue to cut rates as inflation starts flattening a little bit and hopefully turning the other way. I think we will see consumer confidence grow and the market, both R&R and new-build, there is pent-up demand that's ready to be released. And I think we're hearing that optimism from almost every customer that we talk to.

Okay. Thanks, guys. See you in New York.

Thank you.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Reuben Garner from Benchmark. Your line is open.

Thanks. Good morning, guys, and congrats on the strong…

Good morning, Reuben.

Close to your fiscal year.

Thank you.

To start, tariffs has been a big question of late. I think last go around, you guys might have saw some benefit in your cabinets business from kind of reshoring opportunities. With the timing acquisition coming along, can you just talk about any exposure that they have to imports and whether or not maybe any competitors that they have would be at risk, I guess, from bringing products in overseas?

I think as we look at the Tyman organization, we spend a lot of time talking about the risks from tariffs as well as the opportunities. The Tyman team has done a phenomenal job of building a supply chain organization that is built to capitalize on those opportunities as well as provide opportunities to source locally. Should there become any sort of retaliatory or any sort of tariff war. So I think we feel very good about the steps that the Tyman team had taken and feel that we've got a pretty good balance on to really address situations, should it become a trade war or should any of the tariffs provide opportunities. I think we're ready to capitalize on that and are well protected for any of the negatives. Obviously, Reuben, you know our business well. And I think from the cabinet side of the business, specifically in the North America, tariffs have tended to help that market and I don't see anything changing that -- should that -- so that would be a potential opportunity for our business, should there be any additional tariffs on wood type of products.

Got it. And then from just a big-picture pricing perspective for you guys. Scott, I know you gave some pieces about this quarter and this year and you had a couple of things working against you. Like when we think about the full year going forward and I know you're not ready to give guidance yet, but would you expect at this point that pricing would be like neutral to up even or is there more kind of headwinds on the way?

I mean, there is potential for pricing to be neutral to up. I mean, the way we usually model is we don't bake in a lot of expectation that pricing is going to go up or down. It's more driven by volume expectations. But it's really good, it's going to depend on what's going on with the macro and raw material by raw material.

Yeah, I think this goes right back to your first question. We're being pretty cautious on any sort of pricing guidance because the impact of tariffs, anything there. What that does to any sort of inflationary pressure and the impacts that potentially have on labor wages and anything there. There is so many moving pieces. I think we're being very cautious in terms of our guidance around price. I think over the past few years, I think we -- and it's proven out in the legacy Quanex numbers that where we have been able to get price, we've done it. We're not abusing our ability and I think will be a focus on being a fair supplier in the world, but it will be dictated by the input prices of what we see.

Got it, congrats again. Thanks guys, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas to you as well.

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Julio Romero from Sidoti & Company. Your line is open.

Thanks. Hey, good morning. I wanted to ask about the macro a little bit here. Some of your peers have called out affordability constraints. You talked about waning consumer confidence and kind of mortgage rates kind of persisting higher. Can you guys just talk about what you're seeing on that front and maybe help us think about why your viewpoint might be a little nuanced compared to some peers?

Yeah. I think we see the same things and in talking to our customers, I think the R&R market has been hit hard, especially in certain segments like for us, our cabinet business, which tends to be much more of a discretionary item than a window or door. With that being said, as interest rates start dropping, I think -- and potentially the overall affordability of housing, if the price flattens and the interest rates drop, that type of movement does tend to spur on R&R and then people buying new homes will do more of the discretionary projects, the kitchens or the bath remodels so on. So, yes, I think to answer your question, Julio, we are seeing it. I think that there are -- it has been sluggish in all of 2024. I think that that's built into our forecast and why we're saying that we think volumes will be sluggish over the next few months. But I think most of the macro indicators are when that affordability comes down a little bit and the interest rates drop, it will spur on some pretty pent-up demand. It -- we see it and we're pretty confident in it.

Got it. That's very helpful there. And then can you maybe just compare where consumer confidence is right now in North America versus Europe maybe compared to like three months ago?

I think what we've started to see is that there is a little more confidence coming back in certain parts of Europe. I think we've seen signs that the UK, which led the downfall, to be honest, they started seeing a slowdown much earlier than North America did. I think we've seen maybe slight signs of improvement there. The hard part there is that, that will always be tempered by some of the geopolitical things going on in Eastern Europe with Russia and Ukraine. If for whatever reason that conflict were to come to an end, I think you're going to see probably the European markets improve fundamentally faster. But again, I quantify -- or I just qualify that based on there are things happening over there that are out of normal market controls. I think that the European markets are a little further along in potential recovery. But North America, the market is so large and the consumer mentality here is a little quicker to take risks and be a little more open with spending. So any sign of improvement, I think could spur on a faster recovery in North America than you would in Europe.

Very helpful there. And maybe turning to your re-segmentation. You've obviously been very thoughtful about the new segment structure. Can you maybe peel back the onion a little bit about the strategic rationale for the three new segments? And then secondly, in the prepared remarks, I believe you called out maximizing synergy ops and positioning for growth as two key items there. Are those two kinds of the North Star for the new segments and the new leaders?

So as I peel this back a little bit, one, we do try to -- our strategy all along is trying to let people know, yes, we serve the window and door markets and yes, we serve the cabinet markets and they're a big part of what we do, but we're not -- we make not one window or door or not one finished cabinet. That's not who we are. We are a manufacturing company that has a broad set of core competencies. And so our segmentation is really based on that. We don't even want our internal organization to sit here and look and view ourselves as a window and door company or cabinet company. It limits our potential to go after new markets, new systems, new opportunities. So I think for us, segmenting in this way, one, I think it opens our development teams to think much bigger than we currently are. Two, it gives us the opportunity to really build off of what is the strength of Quanex and that's our manufacturing capabilities. And I think we've proved that over the last five to seven to eight years, that we're pretty good operators. So it gives us an opportunity to capitalize on that, which when done that way, then it fuels the inorganic opportunities much faster. So I think that's the way we approach this, Julio, is really, one, what's going to drive the fastest growth, and then two, how do we use that -- those new segments to really optimize what we do. And I feel really good about the new segments. Each one of these then combines some of the legacy Tyman and some of our legacy Quanex. So when you've got people from both organizations working together, you're able to see and create new things rather than being so blindfolded into what you've always done. So each of these segments include a little bit from both organizations and we think that was really important. We're -- and we're extremely excited about the potential that that's going to drive.

Thanks for all the color, George. And if I could sneak one more in maybe for Scott here is, I appreciate the first quarter kind of outlook of interest expense of $15 million. Is that kind of a fair quarterly run rate to maybe assume for now for fiscal '25? And then are you kind of assuming any debt pay down at this point for fiscal '25?

We absolutely assume we are going to pay down debt throughout the year. I mean, that's a clear priority for us. So $15 million for the first quarter, trending down a little bit thereafter and we'll give more detail on the -- at the Investor Day. But I think $15 million will be the high watermark for interest expense this year.

Excellent. Thanks very much, guys. I'll pass it on.

Thank you.

Thank you. And with that, I would now like to turn it back over to George Wilson for any closing remarks.

Thanks, everyone, for joining. We're extremely excited about the future of Quanex and look forward to providing more details about the combined company at our Investor and Analyst Day at the NYSE on February 6th, 2025. I'd like to wish you all a safe and happy holiday. Thank you.

Thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.