Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our first quarter 2022 earnings webcast. With us today are Marcelo Rava, our Chief Executive Officer, Luis Raganato, our Chief Operating Officer, and Mariano Tannenbaum, our Chief Financial Officer. Today's webcast, which is being recorded, will consist of prepared remarks from our leadership team, which will be accompanied by a slide presentation, also available in the Investors section of our website, www.arcosdorados.com. As a reminder, to better view the presentation on the webcast platform, please scroll over the upper left-hand part of the screen and click on the arrows to maximize the slides. After we conclude our opening remarks, we will answer your questions, which you can submit using the chat function on the left-hand side of the screen. You will need to minimize the slides to access the chat function. Today's call will contain forward-looking statements, and I refer you to the forward-looking statements section of our earnings release and recent filings with the SEC. we assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new or change events or circumstances. In addition to reporting financial results in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, we report certain non-GAAP financial results. Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial results as compared with GAAP results, which can be found on the press release Marcelo, over to you.

Thank you, Dan. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, we have another quarter of record sales and profitability to report. You will see that these results are broad-based and sustainable, thanks to the focused execution of our three Ds, digital, delivery, and drive-through strategy. Our balance sheet and cash generation are as strong as ever, and we are on track to exceed the guidance we provided for investments and restaurant openings in 2022. After the quarter ended, we also executed a historic liability management transaction, becoming the first quick service restaurant operator in the world to issue a sustainability-linked bond. Let's start with the key highlights from our record-setting first quarter of 2022. System-wide sales exceeded $1 billion and total revenue reached nearly $790 million. Compatible sales grew 42% on the back of strong volume growth and continued market share gains within a consolidating marketplace. Digital sales, which includes delivery, mobile app, and self-order kiosks, reached their highest ever U.S. dollar total. Digital contributed 38% of the quarter's sales and included the highest ever U.S. dollar sales totals for delivery, self-order kiosks, and order ahead. This outstanding sales performance generated significant operating leverage across all cost and expense line items. In fact, the $79.6 million of adjusted EBITDA was a record for the first quarter. Revenue management, including pricing, product mix, and segmentation, plus a highly localized supply chain and efficient operation, drove both EBITDA and the bottom line, with net income of almost $26 million, or 12 cents per share in the quarter. We also started the year with a strong pace of growth, with 16 restaurant openings, including 14 freestanding units and 10 new restaurants in Brazil. More on that later on the call. Over to Luis for a closer look at our sales results. Thanks, Marcelo.

All Arc of Dorado's divisions generated excellent sales results in the first quarter. We have said it before and we will say it again. This is a testament to the structural competitive advantages we're maximizing with a flexible restaurant portfolio and a 3D strategy. Once again, guests responded to the industry benchmark quality and convenience of the McDonald's experience throughout the region. All divisions improved guest perception of key brand attributes, including favorite brand, and continue to grow market share faster than their closest competitors. Brazil's system-wide comparable sales grew 39%, rebounding from tough results last year when a spike in COVID led to a resumption of government imposed operating restrictions in both March and April. Revenue in Brazilian REITs grew by more than 25% versus the pre-pandemic first quarter of 2019. nearly offsetting the significant depreciation of the currency in that period. Digital sales channels remained strong in Brazil, where they generated almost half of system-wide sales. Marketing activities in Brazil included the Make It Easy campaign featuring some of Brazil's top music celebrities describing their favorite McDonald's orders, We also sponsored Big Brother Brazil, the country's most popular reality show, helping fuel sales growth across the treaties. Finally, the family business benefited from the exclusive Disney 50th Anniversary Collection in the Happy Meal. Know that, which is now composed of nine markets, generates resulting U.S. dollars, euros or relatively stable currencies system-wide comparable sales grew 24.1 percent in the quarter driven mainly by guest volumes with especially strong results in mexico and panama marketing activities in nola mostly focused on core menu items in the quarter Mexico reinforced the chicken category with the introduction of spicy chicken McNuggets and the Mac Crispy Spicy Deluxe. Costa Rica dropped customer excitement with the El Incomparable Big Mac campaign. And after a two-year hiatus, we successfully reintroduced a seasonal favorite, the Filet-O-Fish, in Costa Rica, Panama, and Puerto Rico. System-wide comparable sales in SLAT rose 64.3%, more than double the blended inflation in the period. Performance was strong across the division, especially in Argentina, Chile, and Colombia, where volume growth was robust. First quarter marketing activities in SLAT also centered on core offerings, In Argentina, the Mas Sabor campaign drove an increase in Big Mac sales, while markets like Chile and Colombia focused on strengthening the chicken category. Most markets' family businesses benefited from our exclusive licensing agreement with Disney. Finally, drive-through and delivery remained very strong in the division, reaching all-time sales records in many markets. Speaking of records, let's take a closer look at the digital sales Marcelo highlighted. Mobile app downloads now exceed 69 million, with the highest number of active users in the industry by far. record quarterly delivery sales included the highest ever monthly sales for the segment in March. And we set another delivery sales record in April. In other words, we have the right strategy to continue taking share as we grow this important sales segment. The unparalleled experience and convenience of MAC delivery continues driving volume growth despite recovering on-premise sales. Delivery sales grew more than 29% in constant currency with similar growth levels in all divisions. This performance proves that delivery is truly a new consumption occasion that has helped generate structurally higher sales per unit. Self-order kiosk sales also set a record in the quarter. More than half of the on-premise volume in experience of the future restaurants now goes through this digital channel. Importantly, this highly efficient and customizable channel generates a 15 to 20% higher average check compared with the front counter. Order Ahead is still in its infancy and has not yet been fully implemented in all markets. But it is showing the value of allowing guests to choose where, when, and how to enjoy their McDonald's menu favorites. Sales through the Order Ahead functionality were almost seven times higher than the first quarter last year. Among the benefits of operating the region's largest freestanding restaurant portfolio is the unmatched availability of McDonald's drive-thru in our markets. Drive-thru sales rose almost 13% in constant currency versus the first quarter of 2021, with positive results in all divisions, especially slag. Values remain high, and we're gaining new drive-thru guests on a daily basis. The drive-through based loyalty program has now grown to 4 million identifiable members. Later this year, we plan to introduce a more comprehensive loyalty program, leveraging our digital capabilities and insights to drive additional visit frequency and profitability. In line with expectations, the off-premise channels of delivery and drive-through have remained sticky and generated 46% of total sales in the quarter, even with on-premise sales much closer to normal. For a closer look at how profitability responded to the sales growth we generated around the region, I will turn the call over to Mariano.