SpartanNash Company

Good morning and welcome to the Spartan Nash Company third quarter 2020 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 presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Chris Mandeville, Managing Director of Investor Relations at ICR. Please go ahead.

Good morning and welcome to the Spartan Nash Company third quarter fiscal year 2020 earnings conference call. On the call today from the company are Tony Sarsom, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Mark Schamber, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. By now, everyone should have access to the earnings release, which was issued yesterday at approximately 4.30 p.m. Eastern time. For a copy of the earnings release, please visit Spartan Nash's website at www.spartannash.com forward slash investors. This call is being recorded, and a replay will be available on the company's website for approximately 10 days. Before we begin, we would like to remind everyone that comments made by management during today's call will contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements discuss plans, expectations, estimates, and projections that may involve significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results discussed in these forward-looking statements. Internal and external factors that may cause such differences include, amongst others, disruption associated with COVID-19 pandemic, competitive pressures among food, retail, and distribution companies, the uncertainties inherent in implementing strategic plans and integration operations, and general economic and market conditions. Additional information about the risk factors and uncertainties associated with Spartan Nash's forward-looking statements can be found in the company's earnings release, most recent annual report on Form 10-K, and in the company's other filings with the SEC. Because of these risks and uncertainties, investors should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Barton Nash disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. This presentation includes certain non-GAAP measures and comparable period measures to provide investors with useful information about the company's financial performance. a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure and other information as required by Regulation G is included in the company's earnings release, which was issued yesterday. And it is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Tony.

Well, thank you, Chris, and good morning. It is a pleasure to be speaking with many of you for the first time as President and CEO of Spartan Nash. I am proud to be part of this organization, and I'm energized to address the opportunities we have ahead of us. Let me begin by thanking my predecessor, Dennis Edson, for what he and his team have done over the past year since he stepped back into the CEO role on an interim basis. His leadership, through an extraordinary time in our country and our world, is a legacy I plan to build on. I look forward to working with him and the other members of the board of directors as he resumes his role as chairman. As I reflect on my journey ahead, I realize what a privilege it is to lead a Fortune 500 company a top grocery distributor, and a company that takes great pride as a leading supplier to our brave men and women in the military. Throughout my career, I've maintained a focus on building people-first organizations and have maintained a strong commitment to transparent communications. I believe that this combination builds trust with our associates, customers, and suppliers and is imperative to our collective success. During my first nine weeks on the job, I've had the pleasure of meeting hundreds of associates at our stores and distribution centers. In those visits, my first objective was to listen and understand what drives their success and challenges on a daily basis. I'm inspired by the level of passion we have within this organization and our unrelenting commitment to serve our customers. I plan to share more specific objectives for the organization over the coming months. However, my immediate goal is to ensure that we are leveraging our existing competencies to yield improvements in our operating performance. Our financial results have underwhelmed in recent years, and I am confident that together we can achieve more. I will work to pair the insights I have gained with the operational strategies to unlock the true potential of our organization. Among other areas of focus, I believe that we need to act with a certain level of urgency to make meaningful improvements in our supply chain. We will make investments in human capital, in our facilities, and other resources to ensure our supply chain has the support it needs to operate with efficiency and a high level of execution. I've had the opportunity to lead many fine organizations in similar industries and will draw upon that experience as we work to make the most of the opportunities in front of us. In my three decades of leadership in the food industry, I've developed a deep understanding of every facet of the consumer packaged goods and food distribution businesses. Over 35 years, my experiences have ranged from packaging machine operators to plant manager and a great many GM and functional leadership roles. My most recent role as CEO of both Borden Dairy and Ready Pack Foods, I succeeded in developing people-first cultures and supporting our teams to renew our commitments to innovation and customer service. In both roles, I was able to lead our teams to be best-in-class operators in the industry. In short, I'm no stranger to challenges, and as CEO here at Spartan Nash, I certainly intend to apply my supply chain and organizational development expertise to transform our company into a world-class operator and one that can deliver on sustainable growth over the long term. Let me end by thanking you for your well wishes and support. I'm thrilled to be here and very excited about the journey ahead. With that, I will now turn the call over to Mark to review our third quarter performance and provide an updated guidance for the remainder of the year.