Franklin Electric Co., Inc. (NASDAQ:FELE) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call April 26, 2022 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Jeff Taylor - Chief Financial Officer

Gregg Sengstack - Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer

Conference Call Participants

Mike Halloran - Baird

Matt Summerville - D.A. Davidson

Walter Liptak - Seaport Global

Chris McGinnis - Sidoti

Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Franklin Electric Reports First Quarter 2022 Sales and Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Jeff Taylor, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Jeff Taylor

Thank you, Kim and welcome everyone to Franklin Electric’s first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. With me today is Gregg Sengstack, our Chairperson and CEO. On today’s call, Gregg will review our first quarter business highlights and I will review our first quarter financial results in more detail. When we are through, we will have time for questions and answers.

Before we begin, let me remind you that as we conduct this call, we will be making forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. A discussion of these factors maybe found in the company’s annual report on Form 10-K and in today’s earnings release. All forward-looking statements made during this call are based on information currently available and except as required by law, the company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

And with that, I will now turn the call over to our Chairperson and CEO, Gregg Sengstack.

Gregg Sengstack

Thank you, Jeff and thank you all for joining us. Picking up right where we left off in 2021, we again delivered record results, which included the highest consolidated net sales, operating income and EPS for our first quarter and by segment in Franklin Electric’s history. I would like to take this moment to thank our teams across the globe for their relentless commitment to our customers clustering in another great quarter.

Demand remains high for our products across the business with considerable strength in all end markets resulting in our manufacturing open order balance, increasing materially from year end. Our open order balance grew from $175 million at year end to approximately $290 million at the end of the first quarter, which included an approximate $50 million increase from large dewatering pumps and Water Systems in addition to increases in other Water Systems and Fueling Systems products. This strong demand signal and open order balance give us confidence in our outlook for 2022 and our expectations for robust demand throughout the remainder of the year.