The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Chef's Warehouse first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone requires operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Alex Aldis, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Government Relations Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. With me on today's call are Chris Pappas, founder, chairman, and CEO, and Jim Letty, our CFO. By now, you should have access to our first quarter 2022 earnings press release. It can also be found at www.chefswarehouse.com under the investor relations section. Throughout this conference call, we will be presenting non-GAAP financial measures, including, among others, historical and estimated EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA, as well as both historical and estimated adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share. These measurements are not calculated in accordance with GAAP and may be calculated differently in similarly titled non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. Quantitative reconciliations of our non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures appear in today's press release. Before we begin our formal remarks, I need to remind everyone that part of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements including statements regarding our estimated financial performance. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore you should not put undue reliance on them. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect. Some of these risks are mentioned in today's release. Others are discussed in our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, which are available on the SEC website. Today we are going to provide a business update and go over our first quarter results in detail. Then we will open up the call for questions. With that, I will turn the call over to Chris Pappas. Chris?

Thank you, Alex, and thank you all for joining our first quarter 2022 earnings call. As expected, 2022 started off with seasonally moderate business activity in January and which was also slightly impacted by the Omicron variant. Revenue trends grew steadily in February and March across our markets as consumer demand for dining out continued to show strength. Moderately improving labor markets facilitated new customer openings and increased restaurant capacity. This, combined with milder winter weather in the Northeast, contributed to weekly sequential sales improvements heading into quarter end. A few highlights from the first quarter as compared to the first quarter of 2021 include 62.9% organic growth in net sales. Specialty sales were up 70.3% organically over prior year, which was driven by unique customer growth of approximately 29.4%. placement growth of 41.6% and specialty case growth of 47.3%. Organic pounds in center of the plate were approximately 26% higher in the prior year first quarter. Gross profit margins increased approximately 191 basis points. Gross margin in the specialty category increased 213 basis points as compared to the first quarter of 2021, while gross margin in the center of the plate category increased 111 basis points year over year. Jim will provide more details on gross profit and margins in a few moments. In April, our team completed a number of key projects that will contribute to our future growth and profitability in the coming months and years. On the distribution center front, we completed the retrofit of our new 230,000 square foot facility in Southern California. We have begun the process of moving in and expect to be fully operational in May. This facility will combine specialty and produce operations with meat and seafood processing capability within the same footprint. Our new South Florida distribution center will operate with a similar design and we expect to begin operations in the third quarter of this year. On the technology and digital front, we introduced our new Chef's Warehouse website and mobile app to a select group of customers, and we will go live with a full-scale rollout over the next few weeks. This digital platform provides an improved online experience for customers as well as enhanced data analytics and tools for our teams focused on driving sales and customer satisfaction. I would like to thank our team members, our customers, and our supplier partners for contributing to a successful start to 2022. All of the Chef's stakeholders have been key players in our ability to navigate the fluid dynamics coming out of COVID, including supply chain challenges, volatile food inflation, and an ever-evolving labor environment. I'm grateful to all the people who make up Chef's Warehouse and their ability to add key talent and partners and at the same time continue to strengthen our position in the industry. We are proud to announce that we have recently been certified by the renowned independent survey company, Great Place to Work. They are a global authority on workplace culture and deploy a rigorous methodology to gather and evaluate employee feedback focused on identifying companies who have built high trust and high performing cultures. We have never been stronger, more focused, or more excited about our future. We look forward to performing as the leading national marketer and distributor of specialty food products to the chef-driven customer base that continues to grow with Chef's Warehouse. With that, I'll turn it over to Jim to discuss more detailed financial information for the quarter and an update on our liquidity. Jim?