Operator

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast for Hamilton Beach Brands. Earlier today, after the stock market closed, we issued our first quarter 2026 earnings release, which is available on our corporate website. Our speakers today are Scott Tidey, President and CEO; and Sally Cunningham, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer.

Our presentation today includes forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in either our prepared remarks or during the Q&A.

Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties is available in our 10-Q, our earnings release and our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025. The company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, which may not be updated until our quarterly conference call, our next quarterly conference call, if at all. The company will also discuss certain non-GAAP measures. Reconciliation for Regulation G purposes can be found in our earnings release.

And I'll now turn the call over to Scott. Scott?

R. Tidey
CEO, President & Director

Thank you, Brendan, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. We are pleased to report first quarter profitability that exceeded our expectations. First quarter revenue was expected to be down year-over-year as we are up against a challenging comparison. And while it declined slightly more than planned, we delivered exceptional gross margin expansion of 510 basis points, which drove operating profit growth of 115% to $5 million.

Sales