PriceSmart, Inc.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to PriceMarts, Inc.' 's earnings release conference call for the third quarter of fiscal year 2023, which ended on May 31st, 2023. After remarks from our company's representatives, Robert Price, Interim Chief Executive Officer, and Michael McCleary, Chief Financial Officer, you will be given an opportunity to ask questions as time permits. As a reminder, this conference call is limited to one hour and is being recorded today, Tuesday, July 11th, 2023. A digital replay will be available following the conclusion of today's conference call through July 18, 2023 by dialing 1-877-674-7070 for domestic callers or 1-416-764-8692 for international callers and by entering the replay access code 780-477-POUND. For opening remarks, I would like to turn the call over to Pricemart's Chief Financial Officer, Michael McCleary. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator, and welcome to Pricemart Inc.' 's earnings call for the third quarter of fiscal year 2023, which ended on May 31, 2023. We will be discussing the information that we provided in our earnings press release and our 10-Q, which were both released yesterday afternoon, July 10, 2023. Also in these remarks, we refer to non-GAAP financial measures. You can find a reconciliation of our non-GAAP measurement of adjusted earnings in our earnings press release in our 10Q. These documents are available on our investor relations website at investors.pricemart.com, where you can also sign up for email alerts. As a reminder, all statements made on this conference call, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements concerning the company's anticipated plans, revenues, and related matters. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements containing the words expect, believe, plan, will, may, should, estimate, and some other expressions. All forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions as of today, July 11, 2023. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including the risks detailed in the company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K, the quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed yesterday, and other filings with the SEC, which are accessible on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. These risks may be updated from time to time. The company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements made during this call. Now I will turn the call over to Robert Price, Price Mart's Interim Chief Executive Officer.

My sincere thanks and appreciation to our employees here in the United States and in our 12 countries and one U.S. territory for their amazing dedication and hard work. Congratulations for a job well done during the third quarter. Our Chief Financial Officer, Michael McCleary, will soon provide a detailed narrative for our third quarter results. In advance of his remarks, I would like to offer some comments. Our year-over-year increased sales performance was supported by significant strengthening of the Costa Rica currency, the Colón, along with the strong opening of our new location in San Miguel, El Salvador, by improvements in buying and operations, and by growth in online sales. The third quarter results are definitely encouraging. However, I want to remind our investors that price smart markets, the countries in which we operate, are impacted by challenging economic and political events outside of our control. After operating in the region for 26 years, we have the experience and skills required to successfully operate the club business in the region to U.S. standards, but we are often faced with country-specific events that result in risks to our financial results. We continue to address these risk factors with improved risk prevention systems, along with meeting with government officials as needed. One final comment relates to the announcement of the company's plan to repurchase stock. We believe that the decision to repurchase stock is in the best interest of our shareholders. We also want to assure our investors that our company's balance sheet and cash flow support both the stock repurchase and our plans to continue to grow Pricemart. Now, Michael will continue with his presentation.