Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. And I'd like to hand the conference over today to Mr. Gerald Bradwell, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Special Projects. Please go ahead.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our earnings call for the second quarter of fiscal year 2021. On the call with me today are Roz Brewer, the Chief Executive Officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance, James Kehoe, our Global Chief Financial Officer, Alec Gurley, Co-Chief Operating Officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance, And our former CEO, Stefano Pessina, is also here for any relevant questions this quarter, as he transitions fully to his executive chairman role. Before I hand you over to Ros to make some opening comments, I will, as usual, take you through the legal safe harbour and cautionary declarations. Certain statements and projections of future results made in this presentation constitute forward-looking statements that are based on our current market, competitive and regulatory expectations. and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to vary materially. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement after this presentation, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions or otherwise. Please see our latest Form 10-K and 10-Q for a discussion of risk factors as they relate to forward-looking statements. And note in particular that these forward-looking statements may be affected by risks related to the spread and impact of the COVID pandemic. In today's presentation, we will use certain non-GAAP financial measures. We refer you to the appendix in the presentation materials available on our Investor Relations website, for reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and related information. In addition to our earnings announcement, this morning we've issued an 8K, providing a recast of our historical financial statements to reflect the pending disposition of our Alliance Healthcare business, as well as our new reportable operating segments. Please be aware that we may, during this presentation and answers to questions, make reference to the information contained in that 8K. You'll find a link to the webcast on our investor relations website at investor.walgreensbritsalliance.com. The earnings announcement, the presentation materials from this call, and the 8K are all available on the website. After this call, the presentation and webcast will be archived on the website for 12 months. I will now hand you over to Roz.

Thank you, Gerald. I want to begin by saying how glad I am to be joining you today for my first earnings call since starting at Walgreens Boots Alliance. After two and a half weeks on the job, I'm optimistic about the future of our company and our ability to drive sustainable long-term value for our shareholders. I accepted this opportunity because of the vast potential that lies ahead for WBA. and my initial impressions have been confirmed even more after spending some early days in the business. During this time, I've met incredible leaders, partners, and customers, and I've been briefed in depth on some of our core initiatives, including our vaccine rollout. I've also gained a greater understanding of our operations by visiting some of our stores and specialty pharmacies. What I've learned already is that we have many incredibly passionate and talented team members who are deeply motivated by our purpose to help people across the world lead healthier and happier lives. And I definitely share their passion. It's truly remarkable how WBA is uniquely positioned with our wide global reach and unmatched expertise to be a force for good in the lives of millions of people every day. Of course, nothing demonstrates our impact more than the leadership we have shown during the pandemic by ensuring personal protective equipment is on shelves, by keeping our doors open to continue providing vital medications, by setting up mobile units in neighborhoods without pharmacy access, by launching new pickup and delivery options, by rolling out extensive testing and vaccination programs in record time. We've played a vital role in the health and wellness of our communities like never before. We now have to take some of the lessons that we've learned in the last year and build on them. When faced with a terrible deadly virus, it's obvious the team moved quickly, thought more creatively, and worked together more closely and with great collaboration. This shared experience allowed the team to appreciate what WBA provides to its customers and patients even more profoundly. And these insights need to continue to propel us forward, along with decisive leadership and clear strategic direction. As a team, we will be intensely focused on accelerating our growth, instilling a culture of agility, establishing new healthcare solutions, and building best-in-class consumer engagement across all of WBA. Our patients and customers have deep loyalty and trust in our brands, and we need to continue to find ways that we can serve and reach them even better. Our latest MAS Personal Innovation Program and omnichannel capabilities are definitely gaining traction. But we are only just beginning to see what can be achieved, particularly with more than 100 million loyalty members in the U.S. We must lead the way to the healthcare of the future with consumer-centric tech-enabled platforms that bring together the best of our physical locations and digital assets and engage with our patients and customers on a one-to-one level. Of course, you'll be hearing much more from me as I continue to spend more time assessing our strengths and our challenges. Some of these challenges can be addressed more immediately and others will take more time to solve. And there are already several major initiatives happening across the business to take on our most pressing challenges you will hear more about later in the call. But with strong positions in core markets, world-class partnerships, and unmatched assets, we have all that we need to overcome obstacles and reach new heights. Overall, we're in a strong financial position to invest in future growth and to deliver shareholder returns. And the earnings we are reporting today show further evidence of that, with Q2 results ahead of expectations and giving us the confidence to raise full-year guidance despite the significant operational impacts from COVID. So with that, I'll turn it over to James and then Alex to take us into more depth on both our results and operation. James?