Scott A. Minder
Thank you, Rajiv, and good morning. I'll start by covering Q2's results. For Lift Truck, Q2 revenues declined 19% year-over-year, reflecting lower volumes across all product lines. This compares to exceptionally strong prior year results that were driven by record market demand levels. Revenue decline was primarily due to weaker industry booking rates since early 2024, and more recently, tariff-related economic uncertainty and its impact on end customer order patterns. Additionally, our sales mix shifted toward lower revenue Class 3 products. By region, Americas sales volumes decreased, particularly for higher-value Class 4 and 5 internal combustion engine trucks. And in EMEA, product revenues declined year-over-year, primarily due to lower Class 1 electric product sales. Globally, revenues improved 5% sequentially indicating modest positive momentum as we move through the year. In particular, sales of higher-value Class 4 and 5 internal combustion engine trucks grew. Q2 adjusted operating profit was $5 million, marking a significant decrease from prior year. Adjusted Q2 results exclude $15 million in severance and asset impairment costs related to Nuvera's strategic realignment. Lift Trucks adjusted Q2 operating profit declined year-over-year largely due to lower volumes and reduced manufacturing overhead absorption. Q2 product margins were negatively impacted by $10 million worth of tariff-driven material and freight increases. To counter these headwinds, we implemented price increases starting in Q1. Benefits from these measures have a time lag due to our production backlog in various customer-specific programs. Looking at our cost structure, operating expenses decreased year-over-year mainly due to lower employee costs from the early completion of Nuvera's strategic realignment actions and reduced incentive compensation. These benefits were partially offset by continued investments in the information technology systems and customer support programs. Turning to regional earnings performance. Americas operating profit decreased as a result of lower volumes. This was partially offset by reduced warranty costs as recently launched products matured in the field. EMEA's operating loss was driven by decreased volumes, elevated material and freight costs and lower pricing due to increased market competitiveness. Compared to Q1, Lift Truck profit declined reflecting lower product margins from increased costs largely due to tariffs. At Bolzoni, year-over-year revenue declined as expected due to the ongoing phaseout of lower-margin legacy products. While this strategic decision reduces near-term volumes, it's fundamental to our longer-term focus on higher-value products with enhanced profitability. Q2 adjusted operating profit was below prior year levels primarily due to lower production volumes, decreased manufacturing absorption and higher employee-related costs stemming from wage inflation in Europe. Improved material costs and a favorable product mix served as partial gross margin offset. On a sequential basis, Bolzoni's revenue grew due to higher volumes. This improvement was led by increased attachment in fork sales in the Americas as targeted commercial initiatives gained traction. Adjusted operating profit improved as a result of a continued favorable product mix shift and diligent operating expense control. Next, I'll cover the company's tax position. In Q2, the company reported $200,000 of the income tax expense compared to $26 million in the prior year primarily due to lower current year pretax earnings. 2025 year-to-date income tax expense includes the capitalization of research and development costs for U.S. tax purposes as well as the company's inability to recognize deferred tax assets due to its U.S. valuation allowance position. Moving to the balance sheet and cash flow statement. In Q2, we successfully renewed our $300 million revolving credit facility, bringing several benefits to the company, including lower borrowing margins, greater covenant flexibility and a maturity extension to June 2030. During the quarter, we continued to reduce outstanding debt compared to prior year and prior quarter using excess cash generation. As a result, our net debt position improved year-over-year. Sequentially, net debt remained steady as we balanced lower debt with reduced but healthy cash levels. The company maintained its strong liquidity position, increasing unused borrowing capacity by 3% to nearly $260 million at the end of Q2 compared to Q1. Financial leverage, as measured by net debt to adjusted EBITDA, increased versus both prior periods due to lower earnings. We remain focused on liquidity management as we navigate reduced production volumes in the trough of the current industry cycle. These actions underscore our financial adaptability to dynamic market conditions. Moving to cash flow. We generated approximately $30 million in operating cash in Q2, improving versus the previous quarter and prior year. These gains reflect strong working capital management, including enhanced receivables collections and lower manufacturing inventory. Q2 working capital was 21% of sales, down from prior quarter but well above desired levels. Working capital optimization remains a top priority for the organization. Inventory remains the company's largest cash improvement opportunity. Our Q2 results were hampered by geopolitical headwinds as tariffs increased material costs and a weaker U.S. dollar increased foreign inventory values. As of June 30, the combined unfavorable impact of foreign currency and tariffs on reported inventory was approximately $40 million. Excluding these effects, our Q2 inventory decreased by more than $60 million year-over-year and approximately $30 million sequentially. These reductions reflect our ongoing efforts to optimize inventory and align production schedules with material availability. With that, I'll move to our Q3 and full year 2025 outlook. First, I'll outline key assumptions included in our guidance. We use U.S. tariffs in place as of July 9, 2025, as our baseline. Our Section 301 tariff exemption for Lift Truck parts ends on August 31, 2025. No additional product tariffs are put into place. Our demand projections are grounded in bookings, backlog and market trends. We assume no demand decline due to a U.S. or global economic recession. And finally, our proactive initiatives, including price adjustments, global product sourcing changes and cost cutting are expected to reduce negative tariff impacts. Based on these assumptions, tariffs are anticipated to negatively affect our financial results in the second half of 2025, net of our mitigation actions. We're pursuing strategies to further reduce this impact. The tariff rate volatility creates uncertainty and makes it difficult to provide a precise impact estimate at this time. Company will continue to maintain pricing strategies aligned with material cost changes and enforce cost discipline across the organization regardless of tariff developments. With that as a foundation, I'll provide our outlook for the coming quarters, starting with the Lift Truck business. As Rajiv discussed, we saw sequential bookings decline in Q2, and as a result, reduced our revenue, production and shipment expectations for the remainder of the year. Second half revenue and production are still anticipated to outpace the first half 2025 results. Our revenue outlook reflects continued market uncertainties and along with our proactive measures to adapt, striking a careful balance between recovering tariff-related costs and positioning ourselves to seize new opportunities as market conditions improve. In this difficult environment, we remain committed to selling units with healthy margins by launching innovative, flexible products and maintaining pricing and cost discipline. We expect product margins to remain above targeted levels, but declined year-over-year due to heightened competitive intensity in a softer market. As the global tariff landscape evolved, we initiated a monthly price adjustment process that better reflects actual material costs in our inventory. This approach helps protect our profit margins during unstable times. We'll maintain this process as changing tariff rates continue to impact our product costs. We're also investing in projects to streamline manufacturing, making our operations more efficient to capitalize on our modular and scalable design philosophy. Year-to-date, we spent $1.4 million on these efforts. We plan to spend an additional $4 million to $7 million in 2025 and $10 million to $23 million in 2026. Overall, total project spending aligns with earlier estimates with some costs moving from 2025 to 2026. In line with prior expectations, benefits realized in late 2025 and into 2026 and are likely to be offset by reduced production volumes year-over-year. Once fully implemented in 2027, these programs should generate annualized savings of $30 million to $40 million which will help to further insulate the business from future market downturns. Operating expenses should decrease modestly in 2025 versus prior year, mainly due to Nuvera's restructuring actions. We expect annualized run rate savings of $15 million to $20 million in the second half of 2025 from this effort. Additionally, $10 million to $15 million of Nuvera's costs are being absorbed by the Lift Truck business as we fill open roles and accelerate battery and charger product development. We expect Q3 operating profit to improve sequentially as a result of stronger sales and better manufacturing efficiency as less truck consumer demand improves. For full year 2025, we anticipate operating profit to decline significantly compared to prior year and be slightly below our previous guidance. This is mainly due to lower bookings and production as well as the timing of our tariff mitigation efforts. Turning to Bolzoni's outlook. Bolzoni's Q3 revenues are projected to improve modestly compared to Q2 as higher attachment sales are mostly offset by reduced legacy component sales. Q3 operating profit is expected to increase moderately versus Q2 as a result of lower manufacturing costs and improved factory utilization. Full year 2025 revenues are anticipated to decline year-over-year, reflecting weaker demand across Bolzoni's customer base. Product mix and cost control improvements are not likely to fully offset the impact of lower sales. As a result, 2025 operating profit is projected to be below 2024s adjusted operating profit level. Summing up our consolidated outlook, we expect modest sequential improvements in Q3's revenue and operating profit. The consolidated revenue increase relates to stronger performance in both the Lift Truck and Bolzoni segments. Q3 adjusted operating profit improvement reflects the positive impact of higher sales and increased production volumes. Looking ahead, our full year 2025 expectations remain below 2024 levels. Revenues, production output and profits are expected to fall short of the prior year's robust results. Our recent outlook has deteriorated somewhat, primarily due to the effects of higher tariffs on material costs and a greater-than- expected year-over-year demand decline in the second half of 2025. Global trade dynamics and geopolitical uncertainties remain significant variables in our outlook. Actual results may differ materially from our current projections as a result. Our commitment to resiliency built over several years is driving improved liquidity and stronger, more consistent profitability across market cycles. We're focused on achieving a 7% operating profit across the business cycle. During periods of robust backlog-driven production like we saw in early 2024, we expect to outperform that target. Conversely, when markets decline, we're determined to limit profit degradation through financial and operational discipline, aiming to perform better than in previous downturns. Our progress on strategic product and manufacturing initiatives is encouraging. We expect these efforts to deliver increasing benefits over time, creating strong growth opportunities while reducing our financial breakeven point, ultimately, increasing long-term shareholder value. I'll round out our profit outlook with taxes. Tax legislation signed into law on July 4 contains various provisions that could benefit the company, particularly through the immediate expensing of research and development costs. While we're currently evaluating the impact of the recent legislation, we anticipate lower tax expense and related cash outflows as we leverage these new provisions. These benefits should favorably impact 2025's financial results, becoming increasingly visible through the second half of the year. They were not reflected in our Q2 results as the law was enacted in Q3. Turning to cash flow. The company continues to prioritize strong operating cash flow generation and strategic capital deployment. As our 2025 Lift Truck demand outlook continues to evolve with global economic uncertainty, we're focused on aligning production schedules while optimizing working capital levels. We expect these actions to yield strong cash flow generation despite the projected significant net income decline. Strategic and effective capital allocation is central to our ongoing transformation, including capital investments in advanced products, manufacturing efficiency initiatives and critical upgrades to information technology systems. For 2025, we expect capital expenditures to range between $50 million and $60 million reflecting continued project prioritization as we navigate this dynamic market environment. We'll adjust investment levels and project timing as our visibility improves. As we generate cash, our capital allocation approach remains disciplined. We plan to reduce leverage and make targeted investments to support profitable growth, delivering sustained long-term value and strong returns to our shareholders. Now I'll turn the call over to Al for his comments.