W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call October 26, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Kyle Bland - Vice President, Investor Relations

D.G. Macpherson - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Dee Merriwether - Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Ryan Merkel - William Blair

Tommy Moll - Stephens Inc.

Jacob Levinson - Melius Research

Christopher Glynn - Oppenheimer & Co.

David Manthey - Robert W. Baird

Nigel Coe - Wolfe Research

Stephen Volkmann - Jefferies

Chris Dankert - Loop Capital Markets

Deane Dray - RBC Capital Markets

Chris Snyder - UBS

Patrick Baumann - JPMorgan

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the W.W. Grainger Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Kyle Bland, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Kyle Bland

Good morning. Welcome to Grainger's third quarter 2023 earnings call. With me are D.G. Macpherson, Chairman and CEO; and Dee Merriwether, Vice President and CFO.

As a reminder, some of our comments today may include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially as a result of various risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in our SEC filings. Reconciliations of any non-GAAP financial measures with their corresponding GAAP measures are found in the tables at the end of this presentation and in our Q3 earnings release, both of which are available on our IR website.

This morning's call will focus on our third quarter 2023 results, which are consistent on both a reported and adjusted basis for all periods presented. We will also share results related to MonotaRO. Please remember that MonotaRO was a public company and follows Japanese GAAP, which differs from U.S. GAAP and is reported in our results 1 month in arrears. As a result, the numbers disclosed will differ somewhat from MonotaRO's public statements.

Now I'll turn it over to D.G.

D.G. Macpherson

Thanks, Kyle. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Today, I'll provide an overview of our third quarter performance and then pass it to Dee to walk through our results in detail. As I typically do, I'd like to start today's call with some reflections on how our Grainger Edge framework continues to drive our success. Unlike last year, our results in 2023 have not benefited from outsized macro tailwinds and we don't expect this to change for the remainder of the year as MRO market volume growth remained slightly negative. This means we must emphasize the value we bring through our customer experience and supply chain network to drive profitable share gain.