Hexcel Corporation (NYSE:HXL) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call April 25, 2023 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Patrick Winterlich - CFO

Nick Stanage - Chairman, President and CEO

Conference Call Participants

John McNulty - BMO Capital Markets

Robert Spingarn - Melius Research

Ken Herbert - RBC

Myles Walton - Wolfe Research

Kristine Liwag - Morgan Stanley

Pete Skibitski - Alembic Global

Sheila Kahyaoglu - Jefferies

Richard Safran - Seaport Research

Michael Ciarmoli - Truist Securities

David Strauss - Barclays

Gautam Khanna - Cowen

Ron Epstein - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Operator

Good morning. My name is Rob, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Hexcel First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute, to prevent any background noise. After the speaker’s remarks there'll be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions].

Thank you. Patrick Winterlich, Chief Financial Officer, you may begin your conference.

Patrick Winterlich

Thanks, Rob. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Hexcel Corporation's first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Before beginning, let me cover the formalities. I want to remind everyone about the safe harbor provisions related to any forward-looking statements we may make during the course of this call. Certain statements contained in this call may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. They involve estimates, assumptions, judgments and uncertainties caused by a variety of factors that could cause future actual results or outcomes to differ materially from our forward-looking statements today. Such factors are detailed in the company's SEC filings and last night's news release.

A replay of this call will be available on the Investor Relations page of our website. Lastly, this call is being recorded by Hexcel Corporation and is copyrighted material. It cannot be recorded or rebroadcast without our express permission. Your participation on this call constitutes your consent to that request.

With me today are Nick Stanage, our Chairman, CEO and President; and Kurt Goddard, our Vice President of Investor Relations. The purpose of the call is to review our first quarter 2023 results detailed in our news release issued yesterday. Now let me turn the call over to Nick.

Nick Stanage

Thanks, Patrick. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today as we share our first quarter 2023 results. Our first quarter results reflect a strong recovery in demand with overall sales up 18% year-over-year, bolstered by a 30% increase in Commercial Aerospace sales. We delivered strong margin leverage on the increased production volumes, leading to a robust operating income for the fourth quarter.