Greetings, and welcome to the Leggett & Platt's Second Quarter 2025 Webcast and Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Steve West, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Leggett & Platt's Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. With me today are Karl Glassman, CEO; Ben Burns, CFO; Tyson Hagale, President of the Bedding Products segment; Sam Smith, President of the Specialized Products and Furniture, Flooring & Textile Products segments; and Cassie Branscum, Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis. This conference call is being recorded for Leggett & Platt and is copyrighted material. This call may not be transcribed, recorded or broadcast without our express permission. A replay will be available on the Investor Relations section of our website. Yesterday, we posted our press release and a set of slides that contain summary financial information along with segment details, a tariff overview and a restructuring update. Those documents supplement the information we will discuss this morning, including non-GAAP reconciliations. Remarks concerning future expectations, events, objectives, strategies, trends or results constitute forward-looking statements. Actual results or events may differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these statements. For a summary of these risk factors and additional information, please refer to yesterday's press release and the sections in our most recent 10-K and subsequent 10-Q entitled Risk Factors and Forward-Looking Statements. I will now turn the call over to Karl.

Thank you, Steve, and good morning, everyone. I would like to start by introducing Steve West, who recently joined us as our new Vice President of Investor Relations. Steve brings more than 20 years of experience as both a sell-side equity analyst and a corporate IR leader at multiple companies in the consumer discretionary sector, including Panera Bread Company and DICK's Sporting Goods. We're excited to have him on board, and I know he is looking forward to engaging with all of you. I would also like to announce that Cassie Branscum was promoted to a new senior leadership role as Vice President of our Financial Planning and Analysis Group. With this new focus, Cassie will continue to collaborate closely with Investor Relations while also playing a critical role in the formation and execution of our financial strategy. This appointment reflects her strong cross-functional expertise, strategic insight and continued dedication to advancing our financial goals. Turning to our second quarter results. I am pleased we grew our earnings versus last year and continue to strengthen our balance sheet and cash flow generation. Our team has done a terrific job driving these results through the execution of our restructuring plan and disciplined cost management as well as making progress on our priorities of improving operational execution and paying down debt. In Bedding, activities related to our announced restructuring plan are now largely complete. In Flooring Products, we made steady progress on Phase 2 of our consolidation efforts. In Hydraulic Cylinders, we continued implementation of manufacturing efficiency improvements. We expect company-wide restructuring activity to be substantially complete by year-end. We are also continuing to make progress on our strategic business review and optimization efforts. At the end of May, we sold a small operation in Work Furniture in Mexico, which enables the team to focus on larger core operations. We also remain on track to close the Aerospace transaction this year after the required regulatory approvals. As we execute our strategic priorities, we continue to navigate a very dynamic tariff landscape with discipline and agility across our businesses. Given the prominence of tariffs in the market today, let me provide an overview of how they are affecting our businesses. As a reminder, prior to the recently implemented tariffs, our U.S. businesses sourced approximately $400 million annually from trade and intercompany suppliers located in foreign countries, including approximately $100 million from China. While tariff impacts vary across our businesses, in aggregate, given what we know today, the recent tariff changes are a net positive for us. However, we remain concerned that wide-ranging tariffs will drive inflation, hurt consumer confidence and pressure consumer demand. We continue to be actively engaged with customers and suppliers, taking steps to mitigate tariff impacts, whether by leveraging our global footprint to shift production and sourcing to less impacted regions or implementing pricing actions where appropriate. We're also pursuing increased demand opportunities domestically as a result of increased tariffs. Although reciprocal tariffs have the potential to support U.S. mattress demand by creating a more level playing field between domestic and foreign producers, enforcement remains a key unknown. Historically, duties led to transshipment of mattresses to avoid higher rates, but recent comments by the administration appear to contemplate duties for those activities. This will be an important consideration for actual impact of reciprocal tariffs. Within our Bedding segment, 232 steel tariffs have led to expanded metal margins and increased demand for our steel rod and rod and wire operations, but we have not yet seen a noticeable improvement in our innerspring demand. In contrast, our domestic adjustable bed business continues to face significant tariff exposure. However, our Mexican adjustable bed operation is a strategic asset that should continue to be cost competitive, assuming the reciprocal tariff exemption of USMCA compliant products remains in place. Within Specialized Products, our Automotive business continues to have the largest potential indirect tariff exposure. The implementation of the auto parts tariffs has not directly impacted us but could cause lower demand with our Tier 1 and OEM customers if consumer affordability becomes an issue. They will need to reduce production. Additionally, there is emerging disruption risk of the critical rare earth minerals supply chain which feeds into Chinese sourced magnets used in semiconductors and electronics and vehicles. While this has impacted some of our customers, it has had minimal impact on us to date. In Furniture, Flooring & Textile Products, tariffs impact our businesses to varying degrees. In Home Furniture, we experienced meaningful disruptions early in the second quarter. Our Chinese operations faced shipment delays, order cancellations and customer shutdowns, which began to normalize later in the quarter with the postponement of the tariffs. We are making progress on setting up production within another low-cost country that will help mitigate our tariff exposure and anticipate beginning production later this year. Within our Work Furniture business, our teams are pursuing new opportunities with customers who are looking for regionally supplied finished furniture and components. Finally, our Textiles business continues to mitigate most tariff exposure by shifting to alternative sources in countries with lower tariffs. Our other businesses, including Aerospace, have minimal impact from various tariffs in effect today. We're consistently executing against our priorities of strengthening the balance sheet, enhancing profitability and driving operational efficiency while positioning the company for long-term growth. This focus has enabled us to deliver improved margins and reduce our debt despite softness in many of our end markets and reinforces our confidence in navigating ongoing macroeconomic and trade-related uncertainties. I'll now turn the call over to Ben.

Thank you, Karl, and good morning, everyone. Second quarter sales were $1.1 billion, down 6% versus second quarter of 2024, resulting from continued soft demand in residential end markets, Automotive, and Hydraulic Cylinders as well as restructuring-related sales attrition. These declines were partially offset by strength in trade wire and rod sales, Textiles, Work Furniture, and Aerospace. Looking at sales by segment, Bedding Products sales decreased 11% compared to the second quarter of last year. Additionally, Specialized Products declined 5% and Furniture, Flooring & Textile Products sales were down 2%. Digging deeper into Bedding Products, strong trade rod and wire sales were offset by weakness in mattresses and adjustable bases. Innerspring volume was in line with domestic mattress production, which we believe was down mid- to high single digits, but sales weakness at a certain customer and retailer merchandising changes contributed to year-over-year volume declines in specialty foam and adjustable bed. We expect these merchandising changes will remain as headwinds through the remainder of the year. U.S. mattress industry production improved sequentially versus the first quarter. While we are encouraged to see the sequential improvement as the industry continues to look for a positive inflection to the multiyear downturn, second quarter volume remained soft outside of key promotional periods. We estimate total mattress consumption was down low single digits year-over-year. Mattress market volume is still expected to modestly improve on a sequential basis in the second half, resulting in full year volume down mid-single digits and domestic production down high single digits. Within our Specialized Products segment, Aerospace growth of 6% year-over-year was more than offset by sales declines in Automotive and Hydraulic Cylinders. While Automotive sales declined year-over-year, given the challenging industry backdrop compounded by the dynamic tariff environment, we are pleased with our team's efforts to manage our pricing and closely control manufacturing costs. And finally, within our Furniture, Flooring & Textile Products segment, Work Furniture and Textiles showed positive sales growth versus the second quarter of last year, which was more than offset by year-over-year declines in home furniture and flooring products. We expect demand strength in civil construction to continue to support our Geo Components business as we move through the third quarter on normal positive seasonality. However, aggressive competitive discounting, particularly in Flooring and Textiles, has led to pricing adjustments, which began late last year, and we expect to continue through the rest of the year. Second quarter EBIT was $90 million and adjusted EBIT was $76 million, up $4 million versus second quarter 2024 adjusted EBIT, primarily due to metal margin expansion, restructuring benefit, and disciplined cost management, partially offset by lower volume. Second quarter earnings per share were $0.38. On an adjusted basis, second quarter EPS was $0.30, a 3% increase from second quarter 2024 adjusted EPS of $0.29. Second quarter operating cash flow was $84 million, a decrease of $10 million versus second quarter 2024. This decrease was primarily driven by less benefit from working capital and noncash earnings items. We ended the quarter with adjusted working capital as a percentage of annualized sales of 14.7%, a decrease of 20 basis points versus second quarter 2024. Moving to the balance sheet, we reduced total debt by $143 million in the second quarter to $1.8 billion, which includes $297 million of commercial paper outstanding. At June 30, total liquidity was $878 million, comprised of $369 million of cash on hand and $509 million in capacity remaining under our revolving credit facility. This led to a decrease in our net debt to trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA to 3.5x. As a reminder, our credit facility covenant calculation is more favorable than our publicly stated leverage ratio. And I'm pleased to say last week, with the endorsement of our strong and supportive bank group, we amended our revolving credit facility agreement. The amended agreement provides for a borrowing capacity of $1 billion, down from $1.2 billion. We believe the credit facility is appropriately sized to meet our liquidity needs and allows us to optimize borrowing costs. We will continue to use the facility as a backup to our commercial paper program. The financial covenant requires net debt to trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA to be at or below 3.5x. The facility now matures in July 2030. We expect to fully repay our commercial paper balance later this year using a combination of after-tax proceeds from the Aerospace divestiture, which are expected to be approximately $240 million and cash generated by operations. In the near term, we plan to continue to use most of our excess cash flow to reduce net debt, while also considering other uses such as small strategic acquisitions and opportunistic share repurchases. Longer term, our priorities for the use of cash remain consistent, investing in organic growth, strategic acquisitions and returning cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Moving to our restructuring update. We now expect restructuring costs of $15 million to $25 million in 2025, down from our prior estimate of $30 million to $40 million. Total restructuring costs are now projected at $65 million to $75 million, also down from our prior estimate of $80 million to $90 million, all to be incurred by year-end 2025. This reduction is due largely to our decision to retain a small number of facilities that were previously identified for closure. We anticipate $35 million to $40 million in incremental EBIT benefits this year with an additional $5 million to $10 million in 2026, bringing the total annualized benefit to $60 million to $70 million. We also expect $45 million in related sales attrition in 2025 and $5 million in 2026, with total attrition now estimated at $65 million versus our prior expectation of $80 million. And we now estimate real estate proceeds associated with our restructuring to be $70 million to $80 million versus our prior estimate of $60 million to $80 million. To date, we have realized approximately $40 million of proceeds and expect up to $10 million in the second half of 2025 with the remainder in 2026. And finally, as announced yesterday, we maintained our full year 2025 sales and adjusted EPS guidance, including sales in the range of $4.0 billion to $4.3 billion or down 2% to 9% versus 2024. Earnings per share is now $0.88 to $1.17 versus $0.85 to $1.26 previously. Our GAAP EPS includes approximately $0.08 to $0.13 per share of negative impact from restructuring costs, $0.11 per share of fourth quarter impact from a noncash settlement charge related to the termination of a pension plan, and $0.12 to $0.16 per share gain from sales of real estate. Adjusted earnings per share is still expected to be $1 to $1.20. The midpoint reflects metal margin expansion and restructuring benefit, partially offset by lower volume. Adjusted EBIT margin range is expected to be between 6.5% and 6.9%, and cash from operations remains at $275 million to $325 million. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Karl for his closing remarks.

Thank you, Ben. As we near completion of our restructuring plan, which is strengthening our profitability and balance sheet, the question I often get is, what's next? I'm proud of what this company has achieved in a short amount of time. It hasn't been easy, and the tariff volatility has only added to that challenge. As you all know, it's hard to predict the future. That said, when the consumer reengages, I am extremely confident this company is in a position of strength to leverage all the hard work that has been done. We are more efficient, more agile, and more financially sound. We are well-positioned for long-term profit and cash flow growth, and we are ready to take advantage of our strengthened position. As we continue to deleverage, we will utilize our cash to reinvest in organic growth. We will also look for strategic acquisitions and evaluate the merits of returning cash to shareholders by reengaging our existing share repurchase program. I would like to thank all of our shareholders who have supported us on this journey and our employees for all their hard work and dedication to this great company. Operator, we're now ready to begin Q&A.

The first question is from Bobby Griffin from Raymond James.

Steve, official welcome to the IR function there at Leggett. Look forward to working with you. I'll probably give you a few days before I start doing the line-by-line modeling questions quite yet but good to meet you over the phone. Karl, I guess to start, I wanted to kind of maybe zero in on the Bedding business. You guys, I think, called out a consumption number that you kind of estimate for the quarter. If there's a way you can connect that consumption to your U.S. volume number and kind of what was the difference there? I understand there's some sales attrition from the restructuring, but just anything there to help us kind of connect the two figures would be helpful to start.

Bobby, thanks for the question. It is complicated because there's moving parts between the U.S. innerspring side of things and specialty foam and aggregating it through and rolling it up to a segment. But Tyson, if you don't mind, would you try to unwind all of that.

Sure, let's begin with U.S. Spring, which is most comparable to the U.S. domestic production market. We reported a year-over-year volume decrease of 9%. This has been negatively affected by grid volume, as we've mentioned over several quarters. In terms of mattress cores, the decline was slightly less than 9%, but approximately one-third of that decrease is attributed to sales attrition from our restructuring, particularly in our Mexican spring operation. Overall, U.S. Spring going into mattress cores is experiencing a mid-single digit decline, which aligns closely with our estimates for the domestic market, possibly leaning towards the higher end. When we look at our specialty foam and adjustable bed business, several specific factors have impacted them. First, we have a common customer who's faced sales challenges, and this customer is significant for both sectors. Additionally, we have another shared retail customer where we've encountered difficulties in the adjustable bed segment, particularly related to promotional supplies sourced from Asia. This includes inventory reductions and a shift in how these products are being promoted. Furthermore, in our specialty foam business, we have a private label finished mattress transitioning to internal production, which may create a future component opportunity for us, but it represents a decline for finished mattresses and specialty foam in the near term.

Yes. And Bobby, I think it's important what Tyson said. When we look at it strictly from a U.S. Spring standpoint, it may look like we're losing share. We are not losing share. It's the melt-off of the Mexican business, which was a good decision for us to get out of that operation was relatively small. But if anything, I think we're starting to regain share.

That's good to hear about regaining share. Can we talk about the metal margin, which seems to be a positive aspect? I noticed it was mentioned in the EBIT bridge. Are you seeing it gain momentum today? Is it benefiting from the tariffs on imported rod, or are we still at the previous level of the metal margin before these tariff effects take place, with potential growth still ahead?

I think it's expanding sequentially. It's expanding year-on-year now. It's expanding as we enter the third quarter. It is being impacted by the 232 tariffs, and I don't want anybody to think that the metal margins are usurious in any way. It's finally back to a point where it makes sense for the U.S. steel manufacturers, and Bobby, we think that the metal margin expansion is sustainable. That as the administration has talked about tariffs, obviously, a lot this week, that the one thing that seems to be sacred is the 232 steel, aluminum-related tariffs. So we would expect for the duration of the current administration that the U.S. steel industry for defense purposes will continue to be protected.

Very good. And lastly for me, Karl. I noticed in the prepared remarks that there was mention of keeping a few facilities that were possibly for sale or divestiture in the original restructuring plan. Could you provide any additional details on what might have changed? Is it due to improved demand or changes in customer demographics, or what influenced that decision?

Yes, there were small adjustments. One was in the Bedding segment and another in Hydraulics. As we keep assessing customer relationships, we will focus on those regions.

Yes, Karl, I guess I'll throw out just from Bedding, which is the largest part of this. We're just looking at the landscape and all the changes that are happening in the market and things are moving in a pretty dynamic way. And looking at our plan and then how we think about the longer term and balancing out the risk and opportunities that we have, we felt like they were the right decisions. So it's just really updating our thinking on where we saw the market and our opportunities and risks, and it made sense for us to make some adjustments.

Yes, it's just indicative that the market is ever-changing, Bobby. The restructuring plan was developed in the fourth quarter of 2023, the business changes.

The next question is from Susan Maklari from Goldman Sachs.

This is Charles Perron on for Susan. First, I want to talk about what you're seeing on the health of the consumer. What are you hearing from your key customers as the macro uncertainty remains elevated? And how does this inform your expectations for volume and demand through the second half across your businesses?

Assessing consumer health is challenging. In our residential sectors, particularly Bedding and Furniture, and to some extent Flooring, we noticed that as we moved out of the first quarter, business was relatively slow. April was particularly difficult. Following Liberation Day, there was uncertainty regarding demand, as consumers were unsure about the impact of tariffs, which caused many to halt their purchases. April's performance was weak. However, in the second quarter, we began to see a slight improvement, likely due to a boost in consumer confidence and concerns about potential long-term tariff effects around Memorial Day, which turned out to be strong. It’s worth noting that while holidays tend to show strong performance, they also have subsequent low periods that often go unnoticed. During the 4th of July holiday, we had a promotional environment, and consumer activity was notably better. As we closed the second quarter, we were certainly feeling more optimistic about the third quarter compared to our outlook at the end of the first quarter. Nonetheless, consumer confidence has increased slightly, but the overall impact will still rely on how inflation driven by tariffs plays out. Consumers have not yet felt these effects; instead, they have recently experienced lower input costs related to energy. Overall, we believe the consumer's health is significantly more positive now than it was three months ago.

Got it. That makes a lot of sense. Second, I just want to touch on the price cost dynamics you see across the different segments. Obviously, you've talked a lot about the impact of tariffs and how you're mitigating those impacts through sourcing strategies. But how do you approach the decision to implement pricing to offset some of those and protect your price cost relationship across segments?

On purchased product, we're working with the suppliers, trying to get them to absorb as much of that tariff exposure as possible. When that doesn't work, we're passing through that pricing. We do not believe in any way that tariffs will be negative, actually counter to that tariffs, as we said in the prepared remarks, should be positive to us in total, but it varies by each one of our business units. But I don't want anybody to think that we don't have pricing power as it relates to tariff impact. Our customers understand that pass-through, and we're very active in engaging in those conversations.

Got it. That's good color. And maybe lastly, maybe for Ben. I appreciate all the color you provided in your prepared remarks, but can you help us walking through the guide by segment and your expectations for operating margin specifically?

Yes. Sure thing, Charles. I'll kind of hit the sales volume and margins for you by segment. So first, in Bedding, we'd expect the midpoint sales to be down low double digits with volume down mid-teens. But our margins, we would expect to be up 150 basis points. On the Specialized side, we'd expect sales and volumes to both be down mid-single digits and our margins to be up about 100 basis points. And then in Furniture, Flooring & Textiles, we would expect sales and volume to be down low single digits and margins to be down about 100 basis points.

The next question is from Peter Keith from Piper Sandler.

I want to start with Bedding. There are many numbers being discussed regarding the quarter, including comparisons between the total industry and U.S. production. So, I have two questions: do you believe the bedding industry improved in Q2 overall? And it seems, Karl, that you are a bit more optimistic about the consumer looking ahead, yet the Bedding guidance is being lowered in terms of volume. Is this decrease a result of the customer changes you've mentioned?

Yes, we believe that bedding demand was indeed stronger in the second quarter compared to the first quarter. Our guidance reflects those adjustments. But Tyson, is there anything you would like to add?

Sure. Peter, agree with Karl. Second quarter was definitely better than the first. The first quarter was very challenged, and we talked a lot about that in our last call with the tariff uncertainty and coming off a better end to 2024. But at least kind of walking you through the quarter. In April, it was still pretty weak. Momentum wasn't great exiting the first quarter. We saw that in the early part of April. But we did start to see the market improve towards the end of April and definitely going through May, leading up to Memorial Day and did hear it from a lot of our customers, they felt better about Memorial Day and the promotion than we had from some prior holiday periods, especially President's Day. And then the follow-through post-Memorial Day was still improved from definitely what we saw in the first quarter. So felt more positive about the market for sure in the second quarter, but we do expect additional headwinds like Karl mentioned in the back half of the year in adjustable bed and specialty foams from the factors you mentioned. But general mattress consumption, similar in the third quarter, probably to what we saw in the second quarter and then the seasonal slowdown in the fourth quarter, but also has improved from what we saw in the first quarter.

Okay. That's very helpful. And Karl, you were talking about mattress imports and how tariffs could help slow that. I think we've all been wanting to see import activity slow for a number of years. And I do agree that the enforcement is the key. Could you maybe expand on what you're seeing? I think you're referencing duties and there's tariffs kind of mixed in. I was getting a little bit confused. So maybe you could unpack if you think import flow is going to come down or kind of hold steady?

Peter, we are really optimistic as regards the impact that the recently announced, as recently as last night, tariffs may have on the finished mattress imports. So think of it this way, that of the mattresses that are imported into the U.S. in recent months, greater than 50% of them have come from Indonesia. There is not an antidumping tariff or duty on Indonesia at this point. So if the Indonesians have to pay now a 19% duty, and as you know, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, are all in that 19% to 20% range. South Korea at 15% and Laos at 40%. All significant exporters of product into the United States. What's most important to us though is, I don't believe, and I'll say I on this one that very many of those mattresses are produced in those countries. They are Chinese produced. They are transshipped, and the administration's focus on transshipment even in the executive order of last night, this proposed 40% penalty for transshipment. If the administration has the ability through customs or commerce to really control that process, the fact that they're focusing on it and they are, let's call it, threatening those countries to stop that facilitation is really important.

And Karl, I want to mention another point that could be very helpful, which is the change in the exemption on de minimis shipments into the U.S. It’s difficult to determine how many mattresses were coming in below that threshold, but clearly, there were many. This change could also provide a significant benefit to the U.S. market.

Peter, I have to dig a bit deeper here. I apologize for that. We estimate that around 75% of mattresses tested have not met U.S. flammability laws upon entering the country. The CPSC has tightened its enforcement of these regulations. Not only are these products being transshipped and abandoned, but they also fail to comply with U.S. flammability standards. The CPSC is becoming more proactive in its enforcement. All we, and the U.S. manufacturing industry, want is a fair competitive environment, and we may be starting to see improvements in the near future.

Okay. That's very detailed and encouraging. Maybe I'll address my last question to Ben. Within the model, the SG&A leverage in the quarter was notable. It's the first time you've levered SG&A in several years. The SG&A stepped down from Q1. Anything to call out there in terms of changes that you might be able to hold this lower level for a while?

Yes, Peter, thanks for the question. So you might recall, late last year, we talked about some G&A reductions that we've made as part of our overall restructuring plan. So what you're starting to see is that flow through. And so yes, we feel really good about that continuing to hold, and as we move through the year, I would expect that to be consistent and maybe even expand a little bit as we go forward.

My question is in the Home Furniture. Since your restructuring a couple of years ago, they have been performing better than Bedding cousins. It took a little bit of a step down in the second quarter. Could you talk more of what's going on and what you're kind of expecting in the next 6 months or so?

Yes. Thanks for bringing that up, Keith. Sam, why don't you dive into it?

Thank you for the question. Our volume increased significantly in Q2. In the Home Furniture business, there is currently a clear division. Customers who sell higher-priced furniture are performing quite well, maintaining a positive outlook. Our business with them in both the U.S. and Europe is strong. However, as we look at lower price points, the market appears very different. Several factors affected our volume in Q2. For our major mid-price point customers in the U.S., year-over-year, they sold less, which had a notable impact on us. Additionally, the tariffs introduced on April 2 affected our operations significantly. When those tariffs were announced for Southeast Asia and China, business in Asia came to a halt. We have a large operation in China serving primarily Asian clients, with some exports to the U.S. Those tariffs led our U.S. customers who source from China to slow down their orders, as U.S. retailers indicated they would not pay the high tariffs due to having sufficient inventory. Within a week, the tariffs on Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, were reduced from 46% to 10%. This prompted Southeast Asian manufacturers to resume operations, and our Chinese customers began shifting production from China to Southeast Asia. Business started returning to normal. However, as we approached late May and into June, some retailers chose to delay shipments again to avoid potential high tariffs on goods in transit. Therefore, our operations in Asia experienced fluctuations throughout the quarter. Currently, with the changes in trade policy regarding Vietnam and Southeast Asian countries, the situation seems to be stabilizing, and we expect improvements as we progress through the latter half of the year.

Okay. Well, that's really complicated.

It's super complicated.

This concludes the question-and-answer session and today's teleconference. You may all disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.