Calavo Growers, Inc.

Good afternoon and welcome to the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022 Calavo Growers Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. If you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Julie Kegley, Investor Relations for Calavo. You may begin.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Calavo Growers' financial results for the fourth quarter in fiscal year 2022. This afternoon, we issued our earnings release, and it is available in the investor relations section of our website at ir.calavo.com. With me on today's call are Brian Cooker, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Shawn Mansell, Chief Financial Officer. We will begin with prepared remarks and then open up the call for your questions. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that today's comments will include forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are identified by words such as will, be, intend, believe, expect, anticipate, or other comparable words and phrases. Statements that are not historical facts, such as statements about expected improvement in revenue and operating profit, are also forward-looking statements. Our actual results may vary materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. A discussion of the factors that could cause a material difference in our results compared to these forward-looking statements is contained in our SEC filings, including our reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q. With that, I will now turn the call over to Brian Cooker.

Thank you, Julie, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for the call. Today, we reported fourth quarter earnings that demonstrated continued momentum as gross profit and EBITDA both improved sequentially and versus the fourth quarter of last year. Continued recovery in the prepared segment with better performance in both the fresh cut and guacamole divisions led our improvement by generating a segment margin of over 9%. Earnings were moderated by a slower than expected recovery in the grown segment, as the excess Peruvian fruit that pressured market pricing at the end of Q3 remained in the market well until October. Gross profit was down sequentially for Grown, but higher than the prior year quarter. Just as a reminder, Grown is the new name of the segment formerly known as Fresh, and Prepared is the new segment which represents the combinations of the old RFG and food segments. When providing a little more detail on the prepared segment, you may also hear us refer to fresh cut as the former RFG and guacamole as the former food segment. Looking at the full year, almost every relevant financial metric improved versus fiscal 21. Sean will discuss in more detail, but as some highlights, Earnings improved compared to 21, with gross profit up $16 million to $74 million, adjusted EBITDA up $8 million to $35 million, and adjusted EPS up 15 cents to 50 cents a share. Gross profit increased in both segments, but particularly in prepared, where most of the Project UNO benefits have been concentrated. Prepared gross profit more than doubled to $23.7 million for the year as significant turnaround progress in the fresh cut division overcame lower profit from the guacamole division caused by input cost pressure. Grown gross profit increased by $2.4 million to about $50 million for the year as higher gross profit per carton, resulting from our margin management efforts, more than offset volume declines caused by lower supply from Mexico. In addition to the financial improvements that we achieved in fiscal 22, it was also an important foundation-setting year where we had some notable accomplishments. Among those, we reduced the size of our board of directors while increasing its diversity and independence. The board also imposed minimum stockholding requirements for directors and officers that significantly increased our key leaders' personal financial commitment to Calabo. We completed our executive leadership team and have aligned our compensation programs to company performance so that at least 50% of our named executive officers' total compensation is performance and or stock-based. We implemented controls, processes, and procedures to run the company more efficiently and effectively. We also refreshed the Colavo brand, logo, and website to support our one Colavo vision, and future growth plans. In Mexico, our Jalisco avocado packing facility was officially certified for exportation to the U.S. and immediately began providing us with more optionality when buying fruit from Mexico. And most importantly, we are building a culture and a team that prioritizes continuous improvement. Although announced after the fiscal year end, I'd also like to take a moment to talk about the long-term ESG goals we published last week. The goals are focused on four pillars, climate action, social responsibility, sustainable agriculture, and sound governance. The overall ESG efforts embedded in these four pillars cover more than half of the United Nations global goals for sustainable development. Some of the key highlights include reducing our carbon footprint, reducing food waste, investing in our communities, supporting sustainable agricultural practices, and transitioning to sustainable packaging. To embed these practices into our business, our governance structure, and our enterprise risk management systems, we are committed to transparent ESG reporting. And we have committed to future independent third-party audits or verifications of our ESG disclosures. We're fortunate that we operate in an industry and service product lines that are inherently sustainable and responsible. So it is very easy for me to emphasize that our commitments to ESG are identical to and will complement our commitment to shareholder return and capital allocations discipline. Colabo can and should play a role in transforming the sustainability of the food industry. and we believe these ESG goals will help us do more than our fair share. In other exciting news, I'd like to share that Colabo has entered a licensing partnership with General Mills as the exclusive U.S. manufacturer of old El Paso brand fresh guacamole and salsas. The product launched this fall, and we're proud to be involved with the iconic number one Mexican brand in the U.S. About a third of all U.S. households purchase old El Paso products on a regular basis. And these new fresh products are a great brand extension for old El Paso, as well as a consumer differentiator that Colabo can leverage for growth. While 2022 had its share of challenges, I'm proud of all the work from the entire Colabo team that enabled us to deliver meaningful, improved financial results and set a solid foundation for growth in 23. We are committed to achieve our strategic and financial goals, and we're excited about the future and about expanding our leadership position in both prepared foods and avocados. And now, I'll turn the call over to Sean Munsell to report on the financials.