Mission Produce, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Mission Produce third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. You may press star one at any time to be placed in the question queue. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Jeff Sonick, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Jeff.

Thank you and good afternoon. Today's presentation will be hosted by Steve Barnard, Chief Executive Officer, and Brian Giles, Chief Financial Officer. The company's President and Chief Operating Officer, John Pawlowski, will also be available on today's call for participation during the Q&A session. 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. And with that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Steve Barnard, CEO.

Steve? Thank you for joining us today. Our momentum in fiscal 2024 continued with another strong financial performance in the third quarter. We grew revenue by 24% year-over-year to a record $324 million and generated a 49% increase in adjusted EBITDA to $31.5 million. Combined with our solid working capital management, these results translated into a $62.7 million improvement in our year-to-date operating cash flow performance versus the prior year period. which showcases our team's remarkable execution this year. We are particularly excited about these results given the challenges we faced on our farming operations in Peru this year, with El Nino resulting in poor growing conditions across the region. Our ability to pivot and ultimately capitalize during this environment underscores the enhanced alignment we fostered between our sales, operations, and sourcing teams. This enabled us to effectively leverage the advantages of our global sourcing network to meet customer demand while simultaneously maximizing per unit margins. While the industry shortage of Peruvian fruit created headwinds for our farming operation, it created opportunities in our marketing and distribution segment to really shine. The market experienced strong consumer demand during the quarter, and coupled with the supply shortages, this helped support continued strength in the pricing versus our prior year. The industry's more constrained supply environment overall, both in Peru and Mexico, was an opportunity for our team to bring Meshen's comprehensive capabilities to bear to service customer demand globally. For instance, we were able to leverage our deep relationships and sourcing capabilities to supplement the lower industry volumes with California fruit, where harvest yields were over 50% larger than the prior year. Our team's agility in quickly identifying the opportunity in California gave us a competitive advantage in meeting customers' needs, resulting in a record share of the California source market for mission. Although our marketing and distribution segment was the highlight of the quarter, we were pleased with our ability to mitigate the impacts from the smaller crop in our international farming segment. As I mentioned, the market supported a healthy pricing environment during the quarter, and combined with cost optimization initiatives, we were successful in and largely offsetting the lower volumes of owned avocados sold to generate positive adjusted EBITDA at a rate similar to the prior year. Looking ahead, we've taken proactive steps to ensure the long-term health and productivity of our orchards following this weather cycle. We're encouraged by the signs of improvement and look forward to the return of a more normalized weather condition. As I noted earlier, our cost optimization efforts played an important role in helping mitigate the challenges from this growing season, and we expect them to translate into improved operational efficiencies when growing conditions normalize. Turning now to blueberries, where we are approaching the start of the harvest season in our fiscal fourth quarter. Our exceptional cash flow performance this year has put us in a position to accelerate our expansion plans. As a result, we are pulling forward several projects that were originally slated for future periods. This underscores our commitment to growing this promising segment of our business. The blueberry business not only complements our existing offerings, but also aligns perfectly with our strategy of delivering high-quality, differentiated products across multiple growing seasons. I'm also pleased to report that our strategy to drive market share growth in the UK is well underway. In fact, our UK facility achieved profitability this quarter for the first time since opening just a year ago. This is a direct reflection on our team's focus on being nimble. We have been working hard on penetrating this market in a fashion that's sustainable and profitable. This required a refinement to our approach as the team successfully adapted to the local market dynamics, fine-tuning our strategies to better align our customer relationships. Looking forward, we are excited about the opportunities that this facility and our investments in additional capacity afford us. In closing, I want to thank our team for an outstanding performance we achieved this quarter. Their hard work has not only delivered exceptional results, but has also reinforced the mission's position as the industry leader. Our diversified network of global assets continue to be a key point of differentiation for us, providing us the flexibility to successfully meet our customers' supply needs. Looking ahead, we remain well-positioned from a competitive standpoint, while our growth strategy and sound balance sheet with modest leverage provide us the tools to drive value for our shareholders. With that, I'll pass the call over to our CFO, Brian Giles, for his financial commentary.