SunOpta, Inc.

To remove your question, press star 1 again. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Reed Anderson with ICR. Thank you. You may begin.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us on Synopto's fourth quarter fiscal 2023 earnings conference call. On the call today are Joe Ennin. former chief executive officer, retired at the end of 2023, and is serving in an advisory role through the end of the first quarter. Brian Cooker, who was appointed chief executive officer effective at the start of 2024, and Greg Gaba, chief financial officer. By now, everyone should have access to the earnings press release that was issued earlier this afternoon and is available on the investor relations page of Synopta's website at www.synopta.com. This call is being webcast and its transcription will also be available on the company's website. As a reminder, please note that the prepared remarks which follow contain forward looking statements and management may make additional forward looking statements in response to your questions. These statements do not guarantee future performance, and therefore, undue reliance should not be placed upon them. We refer you to all risk factors contained in Synoptics' press release issued this afternoon, the company's annual report filed on Form 10-K, and other filings with the Securities Exchange Commission for a more detailed discussion of the factors that could cause action results to differ materially from those projections and any forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly correct or update the forward-looking statements made during the presentation to reflect future events or circumstances, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. Finally, we would like to remind listeners that the company may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures during this teleconference. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures was included with the company's press release issued earlier today. Also, please note in the prepared remarks to follow, unless otherwise stated, the company will be referring to the continuing operations portion of the business, and all figures are in U.S. dollars occasionally rounded to the nearest million. Given Joe's tenure as CEO fully encompassed the fourth quarter, Joe will speak to quarterly results before turning the call over to Brian. Joel?

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. As most of you know, this will be my last Synopta earnings call. It's been great getting to know all of you over the past several years, and I've enjoyed our interactions. Today, Synopta is a much different business than when I started in 2019. The journey from beginning to end was incredibly rewarding, and it is exciting to be reporting a strong fourth quarter today, along with a solid outlook for 2024. Our results demonstrate the power of our platform, and it's clear that the new Synopta is a highly focused growth company that leverages its differentiated model to participate in some of the industry's most attractive categories. For today's call, I'm going to cover the highlights from Q4 and then turn it over to Brian to discuss his views of the business, priorities, and the outlook. Greg will follow with a review of the financials, and then we'll take your questions. Now let me offer some key takeaways from the fourth quarter results. Overall revenue growth was volume-driven and very strong. For the quarter, revenues increased 14% year-over-year, a sharp sequential acceleration from the 6% increase we delivered in Q3 and in line with our long-term growth algorithms. Growth continued to be broad-based. We continued to see similar growth rates from each of our three primary growth levers, share gains with existing customers, adding new customers, and expanding our total addressable market. Plant-based melts, led by oat-based offerings, had another strong quarter of growth, including significant gains in food service. Of all our product groups, fruit snacks had the highest growth rate for the quarter at 31%, reflecting strong customer demand that leveraged our expanded capacity. Adjusted EBITDA increased 17.5% to over $22 million, as higher utilization of capacity investments further leveraged our volume-driven revenue growth to increase profitability. We had the best quarter of the year in terms of plant operations, as all four of our plant-based milk facilities performed well in meeting the strong customer demand. Last week, we signed an agreement to sell our frozen smoothie bowl business for $6 million. This small business was our last remaining frozen asset, and the supply chain had become highly inefficient after the divestiture of frozen fruit. Lastly, we continue to have a strong pipeline of additional growth opportunities. Now let me offer some additional color on the Q4 results. In the beverage and broth product group, revenues increased 19% to $147 million. The growth was over 100% attributable to volume and mix, reflecting share gains with existing customers, the addition of new customers, and CAM expansion. This product group represented 81% of our Q4 revenue. Growth in oat milk was incredibly robust and remains a key driver, as it has been for over three years. We also delivered sizable gains in creamers and tea, along with continued ramp up of our protein shake business. By the end of Q2, we should be close to our end state run rate on this line. The operations and R&D teams have done an outstanding job in scaling our new plant in Texas. Truly an impressive accomplishment. In fruit snacks, revenue was up 31% to over 27 million, driven by volume growth, which was enabled by our capacity expansion in OMAC Washington that came online late in Q3. This was our 14th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth for our fruit snacks business. From a go-to-market perspective, Trends remain similar to what we've seen throughout the past several quarters. Our own brand continues to deliver the highest growth rates, followed by our contract manufacturing business. Private label was down in Q4 due to competitive dynamics in the broth category, as we foreshadowed on the Q2 call. The decline in our ingredient revenue stemmed from the strategic shift we have discussed several times. prioritize the internal use of oat-based versus selling it externally as an ingredient. We continued to see the P&L benefits of that shift, and it was a major contributor to the 19% in beverage and broth growth. Now I'd like to touch on overall category performance for our major businesses. Looking at the plant-based milk category in tracked and untracked channels, we estimate the category grew mid-single digits. Recall that much of our revenue is derived from untracked channels. In Q4, we continue to see very strong trends for plant-based milks in the food service channel, which as a reminder, we estimate to be at least four times larger than all of tracked channels. Also, protein shakes continue to show very robust growth in tracked channels, up 40% in the last 13 weeks versus prior year. In closing, I'd like to thank investors for your support and all of our employees for your passion and tenacious execution of our strategies. When reflecting on the past five years, I'm extremely proud of the transformation of the company. We optimized the portfolio by divesting our commodity-based businesses to focus and invest in high-growth, competitively advantaged businesses operating in very attractive categories. We have built a great team with a great culture, and we live our sustainability values every day. We have delivered results. On a pro forma basis, over the last five years, the new Synopta has more than doubled revenue and adjusted EBITDA has quadrupled. I look forward to the continued success of the new Synopta under Brian's leadership as we continue to fuel the future of food. With that, I'm going to pass the call over to Brian. Brian?