AgroFresh Solutions, Inc.

Good afternoon and welcome to the Agrofresh Solutions first quarter 2021 conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please also note today's event is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference call over to Jeff Sonick, investor relations at ICR. Sir, please go ahead.

Thank you and good afternoon. Today's presentation will be led by Clint Lewis, Chief Executive Officer, and Graham Mio, Chief Financial Officer. Comments during today's call and the accompanying presentation contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts are considered forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Some of these risks and uncertainties are identified and discussed in the company's filings with the SEC. We'll also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures today. Please refer to the tables included in the slides that accompany this presentation as well as the press release, which can be found in the investor relations section of our website, agrefresh.com, for reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures. I'd now like to turn the call over to Clint Lewis.

Thank you, Jeff. I'd like to extend a warm welcome to everyone on the call. I'd also like to thank our AgRefresh colleagues around the globe for their efforts, hard work, and patience as I continue to work to get up to speed. and to our shareholders and the investment community for your continued support and interest in our company. This is an important time in the company's journey, and I'm thrilled to join you this afternoon for my first earnings call as AgriFresh's new CEO. This is an opportunity that is especially exciting for me. The company has an excellent foundation, and our prospects for the future are bright. AgriFresh is a trusted brand in the post-harvest industry. known for our commitment to providing quality products and solutions. Our reputation is supported by our experienced sales and technical teams that deliver a high-touch service model that customers have come to rely on. We're an innovative organization that provides end-to-end solutions, not a provider of commodity products. This is visible in the diversity of our portfolio, our attractive margin profile, and our geographic breadth. Our close proximity to our customers is the cornerstone of our market leadership in the post-harvest industry, which we aim to reinforce and grow in the quarters and years ahead. While it's still early in my onboarding process, with just four weeks since my appointment, I want to be very clear. The company's strategy to drive growth through diversification is sound and has my full support. My mandate is also very clear. to help this great organization identify and execute an operational plan that will provide consistent, profitable, top-line growth for years to come. Like all businesses, we have our own unique set of challenges that I'll be working on overcoming, but let me be clear. There are many opportunities that I'll be focused on seizing. We have a global footprint with operations in over 50 countries that support a diverse base of more than 3,500 customers. This is a very attractive foundation that we will leverage and grow from in the future. Before I provide a brief summary review of our first quarter business drivers, I want to share some perspective on my background and what attracted me to this position. While I'm still coming up the curve in the post-harvest industry, I do bring a deep appreciation for agriculture following 12 years of executive leadership experience in animal health at Pfizer and subsequently Zoetis, the largest animal health company in the world and the market leader following the carve-out of that business from Pfizer to the public markets in 2013. Over the course of my career, I've always come back to my early experience in sales and commercial leadership. I have a great deal of appreciation for the customer, their challenges, and how they partner with companies to solve those challenges. This takes a solution-based philosophy, which the team here at AgriFresh has been building on for decades. Keep in mind, the animal health industry is more than just companion animal or pets like dogs and cats. In fact, over 50% of the global animal health industry is represented by animal agriculture or livestock. In many ways, that industry is similar to the post-harvest industry. where we're advancing technologies to support farmers and retailers that feed an ever-growing global population by effectively and sustainably enhancing food production while reducing waste. In my experience, I've worked with farmers, ranchers, and retailers, large and small, all over the world. And I aim to leverage those experiences with our AgriFresh commercial team to build upon the great relationships we already have in place across the industry and to bolster our competitive prowess as we pursue our diversification strategy. In the coming weeks and months, I will continue studying our business, engaging in deep reviews with our team, and meeting with our customers to accelerate our action plan to ensure consistent, profitable revenue growth. Naturally, there will be many questions from the investment community in this regard, and I look forward to discussing those with you in greater detail to help inform your understanding of the steps that we are going to take to achieve greater growth, diversification, and value in the company. With that, I'll transition to a review of the first quarter business drivers before passing the call to Graham for his financial review. But before I begin, I'd like to bring to your attention that starting this quarter and moving forward, we are providing you with some additional disclosure on both the geographical and product solutions basis to further assist you in understanding our business, our strategy for growth, and for monitoring our progress. Please continue to remember that it is best to measure our performance in halves versus quarters to align with the seasonal nature of our business and the regions we serve. You can expect this new presentation format going forward, the details of which can be found in our supplemental earnings deck on the Investor Relations website. with the general idea that we'd like you to think about the categories of solutions we provide and how these fold together towards our broader goal of enhancing diversification. I'm pleased to begin by sharing that our southern hemisphere is off to a strong start. Net sales for the quarter of 2021 increased 18.1% versus the prior year to $39 million, and adjusted EBITDA increased 26.3% to $14.2 million. From a geographical perspective, our largest region, Latin America, performed well, increasing 18% versus the first quarter of 2020, and contributed $3.2 million of growth, with a return to normal crop size in Brazil and higher fungicide sales across the region. As you may recall, in last year's first quarter, we were met with a seasonal delay to the harvest in Latin America, while this year we are back to a more normal seasonal cadence. So, on a comparative basis, we have an advantageous comparison in the first quarter and expect a difficult comparison in the second quarter relative to the same quarter in 2020. The Asia-Pacific region was also strong. Our second largest contributor to growth, increasing 24% versus the prior year quarter, led by New Zealand, which was driven by the first year launch of Harvista, the timing of which was advantageous. as the region experienced labor disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We also experienced growth in our North American region, increasing 91% relative to the prior year period as a result of the recovery in Ethelblock, which I'll cover in a moment. Finally, we experienced some modest growth in our Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, with improved citrus production in Spain following a difficult season last year that was impacted by severe weather. From a product solutions perspective, our portfolio of other 1MCP solutions, which primarily consists of SmartFresh diversification for crops other than apple, Harvesta, and Ethelblock, was our largest contributor to growth versus the same quarter last year, increasing 37% for $3.1 million. As you may recall, last year we gained access to the Brazilian market with our Harvesta solution And after a year of seeding the market with customers, we grew Harvista sales by nearly threefold in the market. Additionally, as I mentioned, we had significant success with our first-year launch of Harvista in New Zealand following our registration there. These are both great examples of the power of our regulatory registration platform. We're also seeing a resurgence in our Ethelblock product, which is our solution for fresh-cut flowers. This was one area that was more directly exposed to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. While sales are still muted, we are in the recovery stage with the developed economy slowly finding normalcy. The global flower business is improving in kind, and as a result, we are seeing improved demand for our freshness solutions. Our fungicides and disinfectants business increased 51% for the first quarter versus the prior year period, driven by volume of new and existing fungicides throughout the Latin America region. Notable improvements in fungicide penetration in Argentina with our ActiSeal product and the first-time sales of ActiMist in Chile drew results. Codings grew 20% in the quarter relative to the first quarter of 2020 through increased penetration in Latin America, along with increased citrus production in Europe and the Middle East. The coating business largely represents our Technodex franchise today, but is expanding through the recent launch of VitaFresh Botanicals, which is our plant-based edible coating solution to preserve inner freshness, extend shelf life, reduce food loss and waste, and result in superior eating experiences. We are very pleased to announce that Camposol is the first customer to adopt VitaFresh Botanicals for use in their avocado shipments in Europe. Camposol, headquartered in Peru, is the leading vertically integrated produce grower, marketer, and distributor of avocados, blueberries, grapes, mangoes, and mandarins. This is a great start for VitaFresh Botanicals as we continue to promote adoption to other major fresh produce companies around the world. Finally, some commentary on our SmartFresh Apple business. Our core SmartFresh Apple business grew 6% during the first quarter, and was driven by return to normal crop size in both Brazil and Australia, which helped increase volume. However, as I mentioned earlier in my remarks, the shift in harvest timing this year versus the 2020 southern hemisphere season is expected to create a more difficult comparison in the second quarter, which we'd expect to translate to a modest year-over-year decline in the sales of SmartFresh apples for the first half of 2021 Southern Hemisphere season. That said, we expect our total business to generate consolidated revenue growth for the first half of 2021 relative to the same period last year, thanks to the success of our ongoing diversification strategy. Naturally, SmartFresh is an important brand and business for us and has provided us incredibly deep understanding of the 1MCP technology. This technology is proven and continues to permeate throughout the post-service industry. We want to make sure that we continue to lead the industry with value-added innovations that help our customers improve their crops. To that end, we will continue to invest in our R&D and regulatory capabilities to drive commercialization of novel solutions, but our vision extends beyond one MCP to include technological advancements with analytics, which we are commercializing with fresh products. We've had several key wins with marquee industry participants that we are excited about and validate our platform. These include Hortech, which is utilizing FreshCloud HarvestView with apple growers in South Africa, Montague in Australia, which is utilizing FreshCloud quality inspection across its network, and our first U.S. customer contract signed in February with Blue Star Growers, a leading pear grower in the Pacific Northwest. To summarize, I believe we're on the right path, and we will be continually driving towards greater diversification to enhance our growth profile. If you look at our business, excluding SmartFresh Apples, which captures all of the crops, solutions, and technologies, this represents approximately 40% of total revenues on a trailing 12-month basis as of the first quarter of 2021 and generated growth of approximately 14% on a similar basis. This is the metric that we are orienting our organization around to drive future profitable growth, and I'm excited to be here at AgriFresh to help lead that charge. I'm very encouraged by all the activity we have going on and look forward to updating you in the future on our progress. I'll now pass the call to Graham to review the rest of our financial highlights. Graham?