MGP Ingredients, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the MGP Ingredients Second Quarter Earnings Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's remarks, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Amit Sharma, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to MGP Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. I'm Amit Sharma, Vice President of Investor Relations. And this morning, I'm joined on the call by Julie Francis, our new Chief Executive Officer and President, who will introduce herself and make some initial observations. Brendan Gall, our Chief Initial Officer, and Mark Davidson, our VP, Corporate Controller and Head of Treasury. They will provide an overview of our quarterly results and outlook. As customer review, we will begin the call with management's prepared remarks before opening the call to analyze questions. Before we begin, this call may involve certain forward-looking statements. The company's actual results could differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including the risk factors described in the company's quarterly and annual reports filed with SCC. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call, except as required by the law. Additionally, this call will contain references to certain non-GAP measures, which we believe are useful in evaluating the company's performance. A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAP measures is included in today's earnings release, which was issued this morning before the market opened and is available on our website, .mgpingredients.com. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Brendan for opening remarks.

Thank you, Amit. Good morning, everyone. As we announced last week, after a thorough search, our board of directors appointed Julie Francis as our next president and CEO. I strongly believe that Julie is the right person to lead us forward during this important time for the company. She brings a strong strategic lens, deep commercial expertise, and a proven ability to build and lead teams. Her fresh perspectives and track record of success at global industry-leading CPG companies, particularly in the beverage segment, will be critical as we advance our long-term vision of becoming a premier branded spirits company. Julie has taken the reins during a challenging time for our industry, and she's wasting no time diving into all aspects of our business. There is no doubt she's the right person for the job, and I look forward to partnering with her during this next chapter. Julie, welcome aboard.