AptarGroup, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to APTAR's 2021 first quarter conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. Introducing today's conference call is Mr. Matt Villamaria, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Hello, everyone. Thanks for being with us today. Joining me on today's call are Stephan Tanda, President and CEO, and Bob Kuhn, Executive Vice President and CFO. Our press release and accompanying slide deck have been posted on our website. If you are following along on our website, you can advance the slides by hovering over the presentation screen and clicking on the arrows on the right and left. As always, we will post a replay of this call on our website. Today's call includes some forward-looking statements. Please refer to our STC filings to review factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we are discussing today. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Stephan.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. I hope that you are doing well. Starting on slide three, you will find a few highlights from the quarter. We serve patients and consumers across a variety of end markets, and this makes Apter a resilient business through economic cycles, and the most recent period is no exception. We have the industry's widest range of dispensing systems, active material science solutions, and drug delivery technologies and services that we leverage across our reporting segments. Our customers benefit from our commitment to research and development and the new innovations that allow us to help them grow their own businesses. We have also maintained our strong focus on sustainability, and EFSA was recently named among the top 10 companies for reducing environmental impact by just capital, alongside Dell, IBM, Microsoft, MasterCard, and several other large companies. As you saw in our press release issued yesterday, reported sales increased 8% and core sales increased 1%. This is, of course, compared to the first quarter of 2020 when COVID-19 was not yet a major factor in our quarterly results. We also achieved an adjusted EBITDA margin comparable to the prior year while absorbing the mixed shift within our pharma segment and the relative mix across our three segments. Our food and beverage segment delivered a stellar performance this quarter as consumers continued to cook at home during the pandemic, driving strong demand for our innovative food dispensing closures. Price increases also contributed to our top-line growth as we are passing on increased resin costs to our customers. Demand from the beverage market was below the prior year, though sales grew modestly on the resin price adjustments. In pharma, the increased demand for our injectable components, including supplying some of the COVID-19 vaccine distributions, and increased demand for our active material science solution, including those for COVID-19 test kits, offset declines in the prescription drug and consumer healthcare markets. As we had mentioned when giving guidance for the quarter, fewer non-critical doctor visits and the lower incidence of cold and flu illnesses have resulted in certain pharma customers drawing down inventory levels of allergy and other respiratory treatment delivery devices. We continue to be well-positioned in niche healthcare sectors, and we see these pandemic-related supply chain adjustments as transitory. In beauty and home, sales to the personal care and home care markets increased while sales to the beauty market declined due to the continued low level of retail beauty activity related to the ongoing pandemic-related lockdowns. We are cautiously optimistic that the second half of the year will show a recovery in the beauty market. We are also maintaining initiatives to contain costs and manage inflation that includes raising prices to offset increases in raw material and other costs, while investing in key growth areas, including adding capacity to supply the beauty market in China. Many of our customers remain optimistic that consumers are harboring pent-up demand for their beauty products that will help bring a feeling of normalcy to their lives post-pandemic. In addition to the beauty market, we also expect the hair care category to recover as more consumers go outside and move about, and we are already seeing small but positive trends in sun care in the U.S. Turning to slide four and new product launches, I would like to briefly comment on several product introductions that will highlight the breadth of our offerings. In pharma, our active material science technology was selected to protect two new at-home COVID-19 tests that recently received emergency use authorization from the FDA. These tests provide convenient access to testing without the need to visit the doctor's office. Our technology is integrated into these diagnostic kits to protect against moisture and other environmental conditions that would otherwise impact test accuracy. In the prescription drug market, our unidose powder device is being used in a pivotal trial of intranasal powder-based naloxone by Nasus Pharma. Also, Landmark's new nasal spray treatment, which combines an antihistamine with a steroid to treat allergic rhinitis, was recently approved in Europe with our nasal spray device. This confirms that the ongoing conversion to nasal delivery continues in this important area. In the injectables market, we continue to support various COVID-19 vaccine distributions in all regions, with the most recent project being added in India and Latin America. In beauty and home, our e-commerce-capable high-flow pump was chosen by P&G for their new indie brand shampoo called Native. And our post-consumer recycled resin closure was selected by P&G for their Planet Kind Refreshing Face Wash. We are also supplying a PCR solution to Unilever for their Dove brand purifying charcoal and clove hydrating body wash. In Europe, we are providing the pump for in-store refillable personal care products in aluminum bottles for the body shop. And our fragrance pump is featured on the Flora and Guilty Gucci perfumes by Coty. Finally, L'Oreal is using our airless jar for its Revitalift facial skin care product in China. In food and beverage, Aptar's infant nutrition closure was selected for crème de la crème instant-enriched milk powder for Europe and for hip combiotic in China. Our closures with vows for inverted condiments are the dispensing solutions for several barbecue, mayonnaise, ketchup, and jelly products in Brazil. Also in the condiment aisle, our dispensing food closures are featured on Mike's Hot Honey original sauce and Berman's Hot Sauce original here in the U.S. Finally, in the beverage market, our sports closure is featured on two new flavors of a well-known functional drink beverage in China. With that, I will now turn it over to Bob, who will provide additional comments on our results.