Vintage Wine Estates, Inc.

Good afternoon, thank you for attending today's Vintage Wine Estates first quarter fiscal year 24 financial results. My name is Hannah and I will be your moderator for today's call. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one. I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, Deborah Pawlowski, Investor Relations with Vintage Wine Estates. You may go ahead.

Thanks Hannah, and good afternoon everyone. We certainly appreciate your time today and your interest in Vintage Wine Estates. On the call with me are Seth Kaufman, our new president and CEO, who just recently joined the company on October 30th. Also with us is Chris Johnston, our CFO. You should have a copy of our earnings release that went out after market closed today. The slide deck that will accompany our conversation was also distributed after market. If you do not have these materials, you can find them on our website at ir.vintagewineestates.com. Seth is going to begin with his 100-day plan priorities and an overview of our progress. Then Chris will review financial results, after which Seth will wrap up. We will then open the call for questions. If you would turn to slide two of the quarterly deck, you will find our safe harbor statement on forward-looking statements. As you know, we will make forward-looking statements during this presentation and the Q&A session. These statements apply to future events that are subject to risks and uncertainties, as well as other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we state here today. These risks and uncertainties and other factors were provided in the company's SEC filings that you can find on our website or at sec.gov. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, except as may be required by law. I will also point out that during today's call, we will discuss some non-GAAP financial measures, as well as key performance indicators, which we believe are useful in evaluating our performance. On slide 14 of the quarterly deck, you will find discussion on non-GAAP financial measures and key performance indicators. You should not consider the presentation of this non-GAAP information in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP. We have provided reconciliations of comparable GAAP with non-GAAP measures in the tables that accompany today's slides and release. In addition, we use case volume as a key performance indicator to gauge performance and inform our strategy and tactics. So with that, if you would turn to slide three, I will turn it over to Seth to begin. Seth?

Thanks so much, Deb, and good afternoon, everyone. With just over two weeks in role, I'm very happy to be talking with you today. Before I jump in, though, I'd like to thank John Morimarco for his time as interim CEO and the great work and leadership to establish the critical five-point plan for this transition year. This plan is an essential component of our turnaround, and I truly appreciate the groundwork and progress already being made here. I came to Vintage Wine Estate because I very strongly believe in the future opportunity for this company. VWE has spent the better part of calendar year 2023 working to overcome the distressed position it found itself in after a very challenging 2022. Challenges were varied from increasing macro headwinds to the need to significantly improve internal controls and processes, to the leverage on the balance sheet that stemmed from the years of active acquisition, to many other things in between. Nevertheless, I came here because of the future we can create for VWE. I believe the underlying business is sound. The key is to support our efforts in the critical delivery of our five-point plan during this transition year. This priority is essential and I believe the five-point plan will allow us to materially improve profitability and cash flow. Concurrently, my second priority will be spending the necessary time, energy, and effort to get to know the team and the business in depth. I will also be interfacing with all stakeholders to get this thorough grounding, including with you, our investors and analysts. I believe through questioning, and listening, I can better understand what can differentiate us and what hasn't worked. This will inform our process as we reimagine our future. Finally, I will be working with our team to kick off a foundational piece of strategic work to design our future. We expect the output of this robust strategic planning process to be a comprehensive vision and strategy for defining and addressing our market potential, as well as the go-forward plan to drive execution and create long-term value. This plan will be both data and people informed. We will look both internally and externally to understand how to best prioritize future growth drivers, how to leverage and build capabilities, how to optimize cost, And importantly, how to secure a solid marketplace advantage into the future. I look forward to coming back to you with this output after the work. Now, if you will turn to slide four, I will hit on some critical points and early observations. VWE is in a turnaround situation that truly has great upside potential. We are beginning to demonstrate progress against the immediate intervention plan put in place, or the five-point plan, which we will continue to execute against as we work on our longer-term strategy. The five-point plan is intended to continue driving the relevant action for stabilizing the business. This includes simplification, productivity, prioritizing our key brands, and, of course, building the right team. I believe it is clear we have room for growth. For example, I know from experience that significantly improving our consumer centricity will help us drive better awareness and desirability of our brands, leading to increased pull and importantly, the potential for stronger pricing power, which I believe will translate to the company. There are several structural opportunities we can work on around team alignment, information systems, and of course continuing to step up our discipline around processes. I can also tell you there will be a materially dialed up sense of urgency across our business and teams. You will see a determined focus on VWE making the necessary change quickly through this transition year and of course beyond. We will hold ourselves accountable for both turning the business around and defining the right long-term direction for the enterprise to create the most value for shareholders. On slide five are the priorities of our five-point plan, which you've seen before. We believe this is a solid interim intervention plan for stabilizing the business and transitioning into a more profitable cash-generating enterprise. We intend to rely on the five-point plan through this transition year as we simultaneously reimagine our future. Given where we are today and the significant work remaining to turn the business around while building for the future, we are withdrawing guidance for fiscal 24. I feel it is of paramount importance for us to further advance our efforts solidify our processes, and develop a long-term plan to deliver the most value for our shareholders. I have confidence in our ability to deliver, but believe we need to reimagine our potential and uncover our future opportunity during this transition year, all in service of building a more substantial and sustainable growth enterprise. Chris, I'll turn it over to you.