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spk00: Good morning and welcome to the Whole Earth Brand's 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 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.
spk01: Thank you and good morning. Today's presentation will be hosted by Albert Manzoni, Chief Executive Officer, and Andy Rusi, Chief Financial Officer. Executive Chairman Erwin Simon is also participating on the call and will be available for Q&A. 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 those 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, investor.wholeearthbrands.com, for reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures. I'd now like to turn the call over to Albert Manzoni, EO.
spk02: Thank you, Jeff, and thanks to everyone for joining the call today. Our business is off to a strong start in 2021. We delivered organic constant currency product revenue growth of 10% for our branded CPG segment and 6% for whole earth brands. This is our second consecutive quarter of double digit growth for our branded CPG segment, demonstrating the strengths of our better for you brands and the impact it is having on our portfolio to generate long-term sustainable growth. We delivered 17.5 million of adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter, driven by strong branded CPG top-line growth and improved the margins as a result of successful cost productivity initiatives. Sales in all our key geographical markets around the world grew double digits versus prior year, as did our portfolio of natural brands, All Earth, Swerve, and Wholesome. I'm also happy to report to you that the integration of the swerve and wholesome acquisitions is complete. A testament to our people's competency, agility, and focus. We're further encouraged by the pace of the economic recovery and the positive implications for the food service industry in North America. We are reiterating our fiscal 2021 guidance. Since going public over the past 10 months, we have been very deliberate in our vision to grow all our friends to a 1 billion revenue global food and beverage company that plays in attractive categories and geographies and delivers sustainable growth. We're achieving our vision by building a portfolio of trusted brands and delicious products and ingredients focused on the consumer preference shift towards plant-based, natural alternatives, and clean label products. Our mission, simply put, is to open up a world of goodness for consumers around the world. We started our journey as a public company in June 2020 with an attractive global portfolio of brands and ingredients. Swerve and Wholesome, which we acquired in less than eight months after going public, helped us double the size of our branded CPG segment and build upon our existing strengths and also added new capabilities. The swerve and wholesome integrations are now complete within a very short period of time since those acquisitions, and we could not be more excited by the growth prospects of each of our brands, the talent of our combined teams, and the significant breadth this provides in North America as well as in our international markets. While in the near term were focused on our organic growth efforts and generating strong free cash flow towards reducing our balance sheet leverage, M&A remains an important part of our growth strategy. We intend to continue to increase penetration in the better for you sweetener and adjacent sweets categories for organic and M&A initiatives. These categories include baking mixes, chocolates, bars, gems, and spreads, to name a few, and represents over 30 billion in addressable market with a projected 8% CAGR in the coming years. Our ability to complete the integrations of Swerve and Wholesome at a fast pace is evidence of the M&A being a core competency of all our brands. is the durable nature of the wellness opportunities we're solving for. What we're experiencing is more than a positive trend. It is a lifestyle shift where food plays a central role in our health and wellness goals, helps manage various health problems, or fits a range of lifestyle choices, including keto, gluten-free, low-calorie, low-carb, or vegan, to name a few. All of these trends provide our business with near-term and long-term tailwinds to support sustainable growth. We're addressing this from our presence in the market,
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