Great. Well, thanks everyone for joining us. I'm here with Gunnar Kleveland, President and CEO of Albany International. Will Station, EVP and CFO of Albany. Welcome, guys. Thanks for being here today. Thank you. you. Thanks for having us. Gunnar, maybe just to start out, for someone who's new to Albany, can you just give us a brief overview of the business? Yeah. Albany is well over a 100-year-old company that had been privately owned initially, but been on the New York Stock Exchange for the last 50 years. Started out in making textiles and then specialized in paper machine clothing, which is what goes on the paper machines to make paper, and have expanded that capability of doing weaving and material science to go beyond paper machine clothing in what we continue to have as Engineered Fabrics. There was, at the time, a company called Albany Doors, and other companies that spun out of this. The focus then was to take this capability of weaving and material science to create an aerospace company, and that started about 20 years ago. A vision from the company at the time, selling off some of the other businesses to fund this. A big part of that expansion into aerospace was a collaboration with Safran. The first aerospace business the company got into was making the fan blade for the LEAP engine. Which is not an easy part to make. Essentially what Safran and Albany did together was take what was normally a titanium blade and replace it with a woven three-dimensional shape that had been injected with resin. It has been an absolute success as with the LEAP engine, having the majority of the share, 100% with Boeing and then a large portion of the Airbus content. To expand on the aerospace side, they made some acquisitions, both in Salt Lake City as well as in Boerne, Texas. Today we have several sites around the U.S., Mexico, and Europe, and it's a big growing part of the business, while our machine clothing is definitely a stable, high return, great cash generator for the business. The foundation is the same. It is weaving and material science, which is why these businesses are together even though they're going into two different channels. Yeah. Thanks for that explanation. It's really about that core weaving technology that kind of keeps them together. Yep weaves them together, so to speak. Yep. Weaves them together. Over the past year, you've talked about becoming a more focused and disciplined organization. What has changed most significantly from where the company stood 12-18 months ago? We're definitely more focused on both sides of the business. We're focusing in on areas where we have a competitive advantage, where we can generate a better return. In paper machine clothing, for example, we made an acquisition of Heimbach, which was a significant acquisition in that part of the business. It did not have very good returns. What we've been doing on that side of the business is consolidating our capacity into the key product centers in the U.S., Europe, and in Asia. We've shut down five. We're in the process of shutting down a sixth site, lowering our cost, concentrating our output, and focusing on the most profitable part of that business. We made a sale of a small part of that business, and we actually stopped several of their lines that weren't profitable. significant effort in the last 18 months, 24 months. That business was announced the same day I started. Yeah It's been quite a show. On the aerospace side, I think what a lot of people will be asking about is the Salt Lake City, and our strategic assessment of that business. The foundation of our aerospace business is weaving material science, weaving, braiding, winding, resin transfer molding. What had happened at Salt Lake City was an expansion into what is basically assembly. We're making almost half a helicopter there, and that part of the business is so different from what our competitive advantage is, which is why we're doing the assessment there. We're focusing all of our sales effort on growth in certain businesses. We're looking at engines, missiles, aircraft engines, missiles. We're looking at space. A new area for us is ceramic matrix composites, carbon-carbon, carbon-SiC, which is something that we have invested in heavily, and we're standing very ready to support. At the base of it's weaving, braiding, winding, and resin transfer molding. We'll still do some out-of-autoclave work, but the future of aerospace is in out-of-autoclave components, and that's where we have an advantage. All of that is very much a strategic shift for the business. Yeah. You certainly have been busy since you joined. Yeah. Is this the new baseline, or you think there's more work to be done? There's always more work to be done. Yeah. Continuous improvement. I'm an operator. I've run operations for large corporations, my mindset is that we can always do better. It is a baseline. It is where we want to go. I'm really excited. Tomorrow we're having a strategic business review with our aerospace business back in Rochester. It's a full day. We've set off to do that. I think we will see. Yeah exactly what we're talking about here, where they're putting their effort, where we're investing, what are the people we're hiring. In the end, also over the last 2 years, the whole team is new. We have a lot of people with backgrounds from large OEMs in the aerospace business. I feel that last year was a transition year. Yeah. Now it's all about execution and showing and sharing our strategy. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. I would just add to it, I've been here nine months. Gunnar and I have been touring several of our facilities here in the U.S., internationally, et cetera. I'll say, we have very strong operators. We got a very strong team. We got a strong culture, I think everyone is disciplined and focused about adding value. How do we add value to the shareholders? How do we improve our performance? How we compete and show up in the marketplace. It's evident when you sit and you meet with our teams, even at the factory floor level, they're focused on how do I add value? How do I cut costs? How do I ensure we're producing the best products for our customers? You're seeing it throughout the business. Yeah. That's great. A lot of time spending getting the foundation right and then building from there. Yeah. Let's talk a little bit more about AEC. As you mentioned, a lot of exciting tailwinds within all parts of aerospace and Defense, and Will, you were just mentioning adding value. Gunnar, you've talked a lot about focusing more on higher value applications. What does that mean in practice? It is really about where you have a competitive advantage, and you can find a solution for our customers that they want. I think a great example of that is where we're going on ceramic matrix composites. We made the investment in that for a reason because, one, there's not enough capacity for all of the new missiles and hypersonic missiles out there. Two, we have a technology that is new and much better than the way it used to be. This is perfect example of value. Today, they make a carbon-carbon part as a square part, and then they machine away half of it. It's a very expensive machining operation because it takes away this Well, it's carbon-carbon. It takes a lot to get there. With our weaving and 3D weaving, we're able to make these parts as a near-net-shape, and we can do the same processes with minimal machining at the end of it. The cost of making it is significantly lower, the time to make it is lower, and the cost to the buyer is much lower. That is perfect value. Will we give them all of that cost? No, because we have a technology where we can charge for that, and we're building up that capacity in Rochester. It's the same thing with our 3D woven parts. We currently have well over 200,000 LEAP blades flying. extremely successfully. It is an example of titanium replacement. Titanium has been a great part for the aerospace business. I have dealt with titanium my entire career. I don't necessarily like it. To have a replacement for titanium that is lighter and stronger and does not have the fatigue characteristics of titanium is essentially providing a value to our customers that we need to show them. I think we've been focused on LEAP, which is the right thing. We're delivering 100% to Safran. We've got a good relationship there. We need to evangelize what we have and can offer industry, because titanium, in the end, has fatigue characteristics. I know it both from being an operator of the aircraft and from being a manufacturer of aircraft. We have a better solution, and that's what we bring to the market. Yeah. Let's stick on that munitions theme, given the global conflict that we're seeing right now. I don't think there's ever been a greater focus on missiles and munitions more broadly. You talked a little bit about the carbon-carbon. How should everybody think about what parts of that market you play in? Yeah Specific programs you're chasing or the broader opportunity for Albany in that market? The emerging is the carbon-carbon, and there's a lot of interest there. There's not enough capacity for what they want in the market, so we are a new entrant. I see a lot of opportunity there. I think it'll be good, strong growth for us. I used to say it's a medium to long-term. Today, I'm saying it's a near to medium-term growth opportunity. We also make cases. The case for the JASSM and LRASM is made by us, and it's another example of where we're delivering 100% on time, which is why the Department of Defense came to us and said, "Can you increase output?" We have provided feedback on doubling production. We're currently increasing with our current constraints, but we have provided feedback on doubling the production, and we've provided feedback on quadrupling production. It's opened the eyes for other companies to see how can we use composite as a case for these missiles. Again, there's not enough capacity in the industrial base right now to meet the demand. We have both the technology as well as the capacity to do that. I don't know how big this is going to be, but like I mentioned earlier, missiles and carbon-carbon could be the strongest growth area that we have. Yeah. Yeah. I'll just add, the economics are strong. Yes. If you think about our portfolio and programs we would want to grow, this is definitely one area we would want to grow. Yeah. Gunnar, you said something interesting there. You talked about the benefits of composites more broadly. It sounds like there's a little bit of education that can be done with the customers. When you have those conversations, how do you see that resonating? When I have the conversation with them, they listen, they understand. When we bring them to Rochester or one of our other facilities, and we show them what we do, it completely opens their eyes. I take it back 2 years ago when I came to the company, the reason I came to the company was because I saw what we could do with 3D weaving. I have made a lot of composite parts in my time, or been part of making composite parts. Bell Helicopter makes amazing composite parts the traditional way. Our approach to making a composite part is just simply better. I've used the word evangelize. It's actually Christopher Stone's using it because we have to be out there and showing what we can do and the benefits of this. It's like any new technology. It takes a while to grab on, but the fact that we have well over 200,000 parts flying on the front of the aircraft that probably all of you came here in, is a testament to the technology that we're bringing into the market. I think it's largely untapped. Yeah. Maybe now pivoting more towards commercial aerospace. Congratulations on the new contract with Pratt & Whitney. Can you talk a little bit more about that? What does it mean, not only in terms of current scope, but future potential with Pratt? You want to do that one, Will? Yeah, I could talk it. One, it's an exciting win. It's aligned around our strategy. Martine did a really nice job negotiating that contract, and the agreement has some really solid economics, some solid returns for us. Being part of the geared turbofan and supporting that, I think it's exactly where we want to play. It's leveraging our capabilities, work that we have done, and demonstrated what we can do. The team is excited for this opportunity, and I think we're well positioned to perform on this effort. Pratt & Whitney has already come back to our facility and talked about additional work that we can perform for them. Overall, it's a win-win for both sides, and I think we're well positioned to perform on this effort. Yeah. I just want to add that this is our first contract with Pratt & Whitney. Yeah. Yeah. I think a lot of people have looked at us as Safran-bound. Engine is an area that we want to grow. It takes a little bit to get in with a new OEM. It is definitely expanding our opportunities. We do some work with Rolls-Royce, as well, and with GE. Like Will said, this is a growth area for us- Yes in engines. High-volume. We're good at high volume. Yeah. Yeah. Congratulations. Significant milestone, for sure, breaking in with Pratt. Yeah. How many other programs like this are you bidding on? There's a lot. We're in a high-bid environment, we're trying to be very selective of where we're bidding. I can't tell you. There are several. There's a lot of both new entrants and new programs that we are engaged with. We're trying to focus our conversation around our technology rather than more traditional parts. I think there is a case for us continuing to utilize the capacity that we have to make traditional parts, but that is our entrance into some of the new customers that we have. Once we're in there, we take them to Rochester, we show them what we can do, and again, eyes wide open. "We had no idea anyone could do this." We had one OEM that I know very well that came in and said, "We didn't think RTM could be used for high volume." That's exactly how you use it. Yeah. It's an exciting time. I think we can easily get overwhelmed, and we don't want to get in a position where we're not delivering to our customers, because that is the essence of our value proposition. We'll be selective, and we'll make sure that we continue to expand our margin as we go through this transition. Yeah. Very much a land and expand strategy. Once the customer sees what you can do- Yeah it seems to be runway- Yep intended for future opportunities. As I mentioned, I've been an OEM. I've had many suppliers. The suppliers that weren't performing, which sadly happens a lot in aerospace, we didn't give more business. The ones that were delivering to us and I wanted over 90% on-time delivery. In aerospace, that's not very common. Very sad to say, us delivering at an average of above 98% brings our customers back. Yeah. We want to continue to do that. We're not going to overwhelm it, but I see significant growth at the same time, possible with our current capacity. Yeah. Schedule predictability has become even more of an emphasis for OEMs. Yes. I'm sure as you deliver on time, that's something they notice. Yes award. Yes, they do. AEC, over the past two quarters, has been doing roughly $140 million range. I think your guidance is roughly $155 million-$160 million. What are the biggest growth drivers? A lot of that is the performance. It's several things. I look at it in two ways. One is performance of the team. When you think of programs such as CH-53K, even though it's been a challenge historically, as we set the new baseline for that team, they're performing to that new baseline. We're continuing to deliver and meet our commitments to the customer on that program. Other parts of it is demand is just coming in higher than what we were anticipating. You think about the LEAP program, think about Boeing 787, throw in BETA. We're seeing more demand, greater than what we had originally planned. Again, to Gunnar's first point, we're delivering on time. We're performing. The team is executing, and it's allowing us to capture that demand and perform and deliver. We're excited about what we're seeing in the AEC space. We're growing on the programs where we would like to grow on. They have strong economics. The team is just doing an outstanding job performing to our commitments. There could be additional opportunity in the future for us as we think about that business and growth prospects. Yeah, absolutely. When you think about the industry as a whole coming out of COVID- Yeah production obviously constrained. The aftermarket was very active, and now it seems like the pendulum has shifted back as you see build rates increasing. I suspect that's all good news for your business. It's great news for us. Yeah, it's great news, and the team is performing well. That's great. Yeah. Engines have been depressed through the Boeing issues. Yeah. Right now, it's all about how do we expand and stay on track with our OEMs. Yeah. You talked a little bit about the Pratt contract before. Is there any update you can share with LEAP? We're following exactly what Safran E&E is doing. We're expanding quickly. All of our factories are running. We're actually starting to look at 2027 and 2028 because the expansion continues to go through there. I think we are being careful. In 2025, we were ahead of the curve. I don't want to be behind, but I also don't want to be too far ahead. We're going to very carefully monitor what the output of Airbus and Boeing is to make sure that we stay on track with that. All the signals are good. At some point, is there going to be another bottleneck in aerospace? It is likely. Can they get to 70 a month at Airbus? What's the next level for Boeing? We are expanding based on what they are saying they're going to do, but we're also looking at what Safran is pulling every week. Yeah from us and making sure that we do not end up in an inventory position. One thing you mentioned in one of your earlier comments is around the strategic review. Can you provide an update on that? The strategic review we announced after third quarter last year, and it's really an assessment of the site in Salt Lake City. We have two sites in Salt Lake City. Part of the strategic review is that one site, we make JASSM, LRASM, LRSO, and we have an MRO business there for the waste tanks for Boeing. Great business, separated from the other Salt Lake facility, and we're absolutely keeping that, and in fact, right now expanding. The Salt Lake City facility's got four programs, the AED, Amelia Earhart Drive. It's got the Boeing 787 frames. It's a good program for us. We just renegotiated a contract with Boeing there. It has the Joint Strike Fighter program, good steady program. It has BETA, which is new and exciting and growing significantly. Then it has the CH-53K. CH-53K, we make all the composite parts for what we deliver to Sikorsky, but we also do all of the assembly there. The assembly part is a separate business. We have to buy all the parts, we have to store and present to the line, and we have to assemble, which is completely different from making parts. I'm going to be a little bit flip here, but what we do is we buy string, tape, and glue, and we put it together to amazing parts. That is very different from buying thousands of parts and assembling it. My position is we should not be doing that. We're working with Sikorsky about how we can do that. The reason why we're doing it was because of the forward loss that we had to take on that program because it just doesn't fit in. It's not that we're not performing, because we are. It's just not a good contract for us. A 10-year fixed price contract. All of you that have been in aerospace have heard about these. While Sikorsky might feel good about it, that they got a good price, it's not good for the program or for us. We are looking for a solution with Sikorsky, and we're looking at a solution to sell. The site itself has value because it has three very good programs and one losing program, but overall, it has value. Yeah. The interest in this site is significant. We have said previously that we had well above 10 entrants into this process. That continues. We're taking the next steps through. All marketing material is out there. We'll get bids, and we'll weigh our options here in the short term. The project is following our path. Yeah. I would say we're on schedule. This was all about how do we maximize value for our shareholders. As Gunnar said, the CH-53K statement of work just doesn't align with where we want to go as a business, and that's what it really boils down to. The strategic review is going as planned. We got both strategics and non-strategics who are interested in that site. It's a well-capitalized site. We got over 11 autoclaves in that facility, so we're still working to our schedule, and so far things are going as planned. Will, following that strategic review, what do you see as the margin potential for AEC more broadly? Our goal is to get to the mid to upper teens. Part of getting there, we divest the site, we will definitely have to work through those stranded costs, and we're working through those stranded costs today. We're not waiting to divest this idea and to pivot and say, "Okay, now let's get after the costs." We are constantly working our cost structure and making sure we're being disciplined about our costs at all times. We're working the cost structure today. Working through the stranded cost is going to be key to getting to that mid to upper teen margins, which is where we're aiming to be, or even higher. Thank you. To knock once more or even higher. We're working to get there. As he said earlier, the work never stops. The work never stops. The work never stops. Maybe now we'll pivot towards Machine Clothing. It seems like volume stabilized in Q1. Can you discuss what you're seeing in each of your primary regions, and then maybe even more specifically, a little bit more color on China? Yeah. Machine Clothing continues to be a very profitable, high cash-generating part of our business. We did, in the second half of last year, see some erosion in China, primarily because of our production in the paper mills, and then followed by reduced orders to us. That has stabilized. First quarter, we're happy to see that. We are monitoring that continuously. In fact, Will and I came back from China last week. We have three facilities there. They are completely locally run. Our sales team is local. We have every opportunity to compete well in that market. We spent time there both to look at our facility, and meet our team, but also to meet with our sales teams on how do we compete both in China and in Asia. We intend to take this as an opportunity to get a stronger position as a supplier to the paper makers there. I think that the oversupply has continued. If you look at the paper makers there, they're not really making money. There's only one that's making money. It'll continue for some time. I can't right now predict how long that is going to be. If you look at Europe, we came out of the slump following the higher production, and then followed by overproduction following COVID. Europe is pretty strong for us right now, and we're there with both Heimbach and Albany brands and that's a good position to be in. Americas remain, I would say, stable. The reason I'm saying stable is that the paper makers in the U.S. are making good decisions about curtailment of older machines and putting more of effort onto their higher performing machines. While we're seeing some loss of revenue on the curtailments, we're seeing increase in revenue on the higher performing machines, because that's where we outperform our competition. We are 1%-2% of the cost of making paper. The highest cost is fiber, obviously, energy, water, and chemicals. Our product helps the paper makers reduce their cost of all the high-cost input. When a paper machine is large and running at full speed, they need our product. Yeah. Where do you see the best opportunities for growth in this business? In this business, we have paper machine clothing, and we have Engineered Fabrics. Engineered Fabrics is used in making anything from nonwovens, diapers and the like, to compressed wood, to fiber cement, to tanneries, and the list goes on. We have a very good position in that market, but it's eroded because our focus has been on paper machine clothing. Engineered Fabrics is a large portion of our business, so our effort over the last probably 12 months have been R&D in that area, so that we can go into new positions in that market, work with the OEMs, the machine makers, to get our product on there as the prime product because we believe that we have a better solution for them there as well. I see that as a growth area. I'm not ready to share exactly where it is today, but we will. Paper machine clothing, if it's stable, 1%-2% growth. It kind of depends on the region that we're in. Tissue, we have the best product in tissue, wherever there is a growth in tissue, including Asia, we see growth. We put a machine into, or we put capability that we saw last week. to make a product that is specialized for tissue into Asia so that we don't have to ship it from the U.S. Maybe I'll pause. I'll see if there's any questions from anyone in the audience before I keep going. Nobody? Okay. Will, maybe I'll come back to you. Yes, sir. Albany has historically been a strong cash generator. How do you think about capital allocation decisions going forward in terms of growth capital, share repurchase, dividends? Yeah. I'll say, as you mentioned, we've been a strong cash generator, and we're going to continue to be that. As we think about capital allocation, it's probably one of the most important aspects of Gunnar's and my job. We're being disciplined around how we allocate that capital. We're setting ROIC targets that are absolutely necessary for our business and ensure that we're putting capital into the right programs, into the right efforts. We're going to continue to make sure that we continue to pay our dividends, and when the economics make sense, we'll do share repurchasing. Capital allocation is something that, as Gunnar was saying earlier, it's ongoing. Right? The work never stops. It's something that we talk about on a constant basis, and we're holding our teams accountable to their returns. We're also trying to accelerate those returns. For me, it's the speed in which we can get to breakeven and start to get the payback period for those investments. We're looking at ways that we can go faster there as well. It's a big effort for us, and we got clear targets. The team understand what the ROIC needs to be. We got a disciplined approach about how we're getting after it. Yeah. Yeah. Gunnar, maybe I'll go to you with the last question here. For any investors that hasn't followed the Albany story closely, why is now an interesting time for them to take a look? Yeah, I think it's kind of where I started. Don't look back at what Albany was, but look at what we have reset and where we're going as a company. We are a material science company that has an amazing capability in weaving, that we have two different channels that we can do. We had an innovation program last year. There's so much innovation in the company that I see expanding what we do using that material science, using that weaving as a growth, and not only in machine clothing or in aerospace. There's a lot happening, a lot of effort. I'm looking forward to the next month or so where we're going through our strategic reviews and to share that as we come back to new conferences and our earnings calls. Yeah. Exciting times ahead. Gunnar, Will, thank you both very much- Thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank Thank you, Michael.