Kimberly-Clark Corporation

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience and holding. We now have your presenters and conference. Please be aware that each of your lines is in a listen-only mode. At the conclusion of the presentation, we will open the floor for questions. At that time, instructions will be given as to the procedure to follow if you would like to ask a question. It is now my pleasure to introduce our first presenter, Mr. Paul Alexander. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Kimberly Clark's first quarter earnings conference call. Today, you'll hear from Mike Hsu, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Maria Henry, our CFO. We have a presentation of today's materials in the Investors section of our website. As a reminder, we will be making forward-looking statements today. Please see the Risk Factor section of our latest quarterly report on Form 10-Q and our annual report on Form 10-K for further discussion of forward-looking statements. Lastly, we'll be referring to adjusted results. which excludes certain items described in this morning's news release. That release has further information about these adjustments and reconciliations to comparable GAAP financial measures. Now I'll turn the call over to Mike.

Thank you, Paul. Good morning, everyone. We join you today during an unprecedented time, and we hope all our stakeholders are staying healthy and safe. The COVID-19 crisis is severely affecting individuals and society at large, and it's forcing companies like ours to adapt to overcome near-term operating challenges and uncertainty. Kimberly-Clark's vision is to provide the world with essentials for a better life, and we know our consumers are counting on us now more than ever to fulfill that vision. We take this responsibility seriously, and our teams are working around the clock to ensure our essential products get to our consumers who depend on us. The Casey Foundation and our brands have launched programs to support COVID-19 relief efforts. And thus far, we've provided donations of more than $8 million to organizations including UNICEF, the Red Cross, and the United Way. We're also donating millions and millions of our products to other organizations in need. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we've taken decisive action to manage our business effectively through this crisis. We have three key operating priorities. Priority number one, protect the health and safety of our employees and our consumers. Throughout our 148-year history, this has never been more important than right now. We've taken aggressive action to protect our employees around the world, no matter where they work. That includes implementing extensive sanitization, quarantine, and social distance protocols in our manufacturing facilities, work-from-home policies, and of course, travel restrictions. We're also recognizing our manufacturing employees with well-deserved bonuses in appreciation of their efforts. Party number two, proactively manage our global supply chain to ensure supply of our essential products to our consumers. Our supply chain teams are meeting multiple times each day to effectively navigate the dynamic environment. They're doing a great job in keeping our global supply chain largely operational, in many cases delivering record output. We're running our assets flat out and greatly simplifying our assortment to improve product availability. We're working with raw material suppliers and distribution partners to ensure continuity and maximize deliveries. In some cases, we are incurring additional costs to keep the supply chain rolling. We have experienced some disruption, including temporary manufacturing slowdowns and shutdowns, but none have had material impact to date. The supply chain environment is dynamic and we expect ongoing challenges in the near term. However, we're encouraged with our team's ability thus far to manage effectively in the current environment. Party number three, prudently manage the business through near-term volatility while continuing to strengthen the long-term health of Kimberly-Clark. We'll continue to operate with a balanced perspective on both the top and bottom line as we assess both risk and opportunity. We'll continue to invest in our products, our brands, and our commercial capabilities to maintain the near-term health of our business and position us for long-term success. That said, some investment in brand support, including promotion activity, will be deferred temporarily because it isn't effective or appropriate in the current environment. We'll also manage our discretionary overhead even more tightly. And as Maria will describe, we've taken additional steps to further strengthen our balance sheet and enhance our financial flexibility. While the environment continues to evolve rapidly, our teams are managing our priorities and our business well. I'm extremely proud of our entire KC team and want to express sincere thanks for how they are fulfilling our vision. Maria will take you through the results of the quarter, but as you can see from the release, we're performing well, have a strong balance sheet, and are delivering solid cash flow. In a few minutes, I'll discuss the outlook and then open the call for your questions. But for now, I'll turn it over to Maria.