John Bean Technologies Corporation (NYSE:JBT) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call April 27, 2022 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Kedric Meredith - Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations

Brian Deck - Chief Executive Officer

Matt Meister - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Mig Dobre - Baird

Michael McGinn - Wells Fargo

John Joyner - BMO

Steve Tusa - JP Morgan

Emily Shu - Bank of America

Larry De Maria - William Blair

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to JBT Corporation’s First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. My name is David, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today’s conference is being recorded.

I will now turn the call over to JBT’s Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations, Kedric Meredith, to begin today’s conference.

Kedric Meredith

Thank you, David. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter 2022 conference call. With me on the call is our Chief Executive Officer, Brian Deck; and Chief Financial Officer, Matt Meister.

In today’s call, we will use forward-looking statements that are subject to the Safe Harbor language in yesterday’s press release and 8-K filing. JBT’s periodic SEC filings also contain information regarding risk factors that may have an impact on our results. These documents are available in the Investor Relations section of our website. Also our discussion today includes references to certain non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measure can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website.

Now, I’ll turn the call over to Brian.

Brian Deck

Thanks, Kedric, and good morning, everyone.

Overall, JBT’s first quarter results outperformed what were admittedly modest expectations for the period. On the labor front, we enjoyed a faster than expected bounce back from the extremely high level of absenteeism associated with Omicron in January. That said, we still have pockets of COVID-related absenteeism, particularly in Europe, and are operating in a very tight labor market overall. As for supply chain and inflationary pressures, there are a few areas of improvement, but as a whole, the situation remains extremely challenging and unpredictable. There’s been no improvement in the availability of certain critical materials, particularly electronic components, nor do we anticipate improvement for the year.