Mission Produce, Inc.

Good afternoon and welcome to the Mission Produce Fiscal Fourth 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 over to Jeff Sonick, Investor Relations at ICR. Sir, please go ahead.

Thank you and good afternoon. Today's presentation will be hosted by Steve Barnard, Chief Executive Officer, and Brian Giles, Chief Financial Officer. The 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 earnings release, which can be found on our investor relations website investors.missionproduce.com for reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures. With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Steve Barnard, CEO.

Thank you for joining us for our fiscal 2021 fourth quarter earnings call. Our business remains in position despite some obstacles in the fiscal fourth quarter, and our global presence continues to expand. In the fiscal fourth quarter, the industry faced supply challenges, brought about by the delayed start of the New Mexican harvest combined with the trailing effects of a smaller California crop, which was only partially offset by the increased supply from Peru. This combination resulted in lower than expected market volumes, which put temporary pressure on our per box margins and in turn our adjusted EBITDA results. The widespread port delays and the congestion have been a global challenge, permission that nearly doubled some of our normal shipping times, especially those from our own farms. The long delays with late season fruit stretch the age of inventories adversely, pressing on our anticipated earnings for the Peruvian season. However, despite these headwinds, I'm pleased with our ability to drive fruit volume amid a set of complex market variables. Our model is focused squarely around generating source volume and marketing and distributing that volume to retail and food service customers globally. Our unique combination of utilizing third-party growers and leveraging our own farms in Peru for diversified source volume is particularly valuable in environments such as this. Our owned production in Peru performed in line with our expectations and produced record volumes in fiscal 2021 of 101 million pounds, representing a 38% increase to service our global customer base. We think that this really demonstrates the quality of our farming operations and the focus that our team has on executing such a large-scale international operation. This also continues to be a highly valued benefit to our customer base. From their perspective, buying directly from the source guarantees supply, creates more efficiencies, and provides higher quality. In my view, this is an exceptional long-term competitive advantage that is not easily replicated, particularly when paired with our global network of ripening and distribution assets. Expanding on our network is a key element in our design to expand our industry leadership position, and our new Laredo, Texas mega facility is a key piece of our strategy. During the fiscal fourth quarter, we are already seeing the benefits of our strategy as the Mexican production season starts to take hold. As I've said before, the Laredo facility is a game changer for us. It provides us 16% more ripening capacity and 14% increase in cold storage capacity. We are especially excited about the upcoming seasonal ramp-up around the Super Bowl, where our distribution network has historically been stressed. The facility will allow us to alleviate seasonal pressure in our other North American facilities, effectively rebalancing our network while adding new capabilities and capacity. To put this in perspective, in the two weeks leading up to the event, we anticipate that the volume moving through our North American network will increase by more than 50% as compared to pre-Super Bowl periods. This increase leads the industry and only Mission Produce has the capability to handle such a load. During fiscal fourth quarter, we also solidified our European operations with the opening of an additional office, which builds upon our existing distribution and ripening facility in the Netherlands. We brought on a team of seasoned professionals with a high avocado IQ that will help us drive improved service to the region and expands our capabilities to create a direct link back to our source markets which will bring more consistency to the category, improve quality for customers, consumers, and help drive consumption rates in this exciting growth market. Through our continued focus on long-term and reinvesting in our business, we are ensuring that our customers have the product they need, which is paramount for us to continue dominating as the industry leader. While our long-term strategy to support growing global per capita consumption trends is intact, The recent environment has been rather fluid given pandemic-related variables that have shifted consumer shopping patterns. In fact, some of the retail metrics that we track demonstrate that the environment that we faced in this year's fiscal fourth quarter looks very similar to two years ago in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019. We are seeing this household penetration, purchase frequency, units purchased per trip, and so on, all mirror the pre-COVID environment of 2019. Nonetheless, the secular trend supporting industry and our business continue to be decidedly favorable. The demographics are advantageous, and our ability to help retailers and food service customers capture demand for avocados will be a key element of driving consumption trends in growth markets such as Europe and Asia that are fractions of what we experience here in North America today. Investing in our own production to ensure year-round global sourcing is the key to maintaining long-term organic growth. and we aim to expand upon our lead by building upon our strategy. In summary, our business remains resilient despite Mexico's challenging supply dynamic and the variability in consumer shopping patterns due to the ever-changing COVID conditions. Our own production in Peru continues to perform in line with our expectations and produce record volumes in fiscal 2021 to service our global customer base. We continue to stay focused on our long-term strategy of generating consistent growth and enhancing market share by increasing capabilities and capacities while continuing to mitigate and adapt to industry forces. We're excited about what's ahead, and we believe we have an undisputed advantage with our global network of value-added assets that will drive sustainable long-term shareholder value. With that, I'll pass the call over to our CFO, Brian Giles, for his financial commentary.