Lancaster Colony Corporation

Good morning. My name is Andrea, and I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Lancaster Colony Corporation Fiscal Year 2021 Fourth Quarter Conference Call. Conducting today's call will be Dave Cizinski, President and CEO, and Tom Pickett, CFO. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers have completed their prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer period. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad, and questions will be taken in the order they are received. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press the pound key. Thank you. I would now like to hand the call to Dale Donovsky, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer for Lancaster Colony.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for Lancaster Colony's fiscal year 2021 fourth quarter conference call. Our discussion this morning may include forward-looking statements which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, and the company undertakes the obligation to update these statements based upon subsequent events. A detailed discussion of these risks and uncertainties is contained in the company's filings with the SEC. Also note that the audio replay of this call will be archived and available on our company's website, LancasterCollin.com, later this afternoon. For today's call, Dave Szczesinski, our president and CEO, will begin with a business update and highlights for the quarter. Tom Piggott, our CFO, will then provide an overview of the financial results. Dave will then share some comments regarding our current outlook and strategy. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, we'll be happy to respond to any of your questions. Once again, we appreciate your participation this morning. I'll now turn the call over to Lancaster Colony's President and CEO, Dave Szyzycki. Dave?

Thanks, Dale, and good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here with you today as we review our fourth quarter and full year results for fiscal year 2021 and look ahead to fiscal year 2022. I'd like to begin by extending a sincere thank you to the entire Lancaster Colony team for their exceptional efforts and countless contributions throughout fiscal year 2021. The record sales of 1.5 billion and record gross profit of 387 million reflects the commitment and resolve of our associates to overcome the many challenges posed by the impacts of COVID-19. Throughout the pandemic, we've remained steadfast that our mission is fixed. First, to provide for the health, safety, and welfare of our teammates. And second, to ensure that we continue to play our role in our country's vital food supply chain. We continue to monitor the protocols and guidelines provided by government health authorities and make necessary adjustments to promote safe operations at all of our plants and distribution centers. In our fiscal fourth quarter, which ended June 30th, consolidated net sales grew 20.2% to a record $386 million. Net sales in our retail segment grew 11.4%, while net sales in our food service segment surged 33.3%. The 11.4% growth in our retail net sales comes to a strong fourth quarter last year, when retail net sales grew 24.5% as the impact of the pandemic drove increased at-home food consumption. Retail net sales in this year's fiscal fourth quarter was driven by our licensing program led by Chick-fil-A and Buffalo Wild Wing sauces. Chick-fil-A sauces alone accounted for over 14 percentage points of retail sales growth. As planned, a rollout of Chick-fil-A sauces into the retail channel reached national distribution near the end of April. Per IRI data, the household penetration and repeat rates for Chick-fil-A sauces continue to meet or exceed our expectation. From a sales standpoint, IRI scanner data showed that total U.S. sales reached 38.1 million for the 13-week period ended June 27th. we remain extremely excited about the outlook for Chick-fil-A sauces in the retail channel. With respect to our own brands, per IRI data, we continue to grow market share in several retail categories during the quarter. This includes market share increases of 480 basis points for New York Bakery frozen garlic bread, 60 basis points for Marzetti produce dips, and 75 basis points for our branded croutons. I'd also like to note that compared to two years ago, our fourth quarter retail sales were up in nearly all of our product categories. When compared to our fourth quarter ended June 30, 2019, excluding all licensed program sales, our fourth quarter retail sales were up over 10%. In our food service segment, the significant 33.3% increase in net sales resulted from volume gains throughout our customer base. Sales to leading QSR and pizza chain customers remained robust, while sales to mid-scale and casual dining concepts recovered notably, as we lapped last year's weak demand attributed to the impacts of COVID-19. NPD data for food service industry shows that while traffic was lower, industry-wide sales for the month ended June of this year and recovered above pre-pandemic levels, exceeding sales for June of 2019 by 8%. Fourth quarter consolidated gross profit increased 8.5% to a record 96.7 million, driven by the strong sales growth and our ongoing cost savings programs. I'll now turn the call over to Tom Piggott, our CFO, for his commentary on our fourth quarter results. Tom?