American Vanguard Corporation

Greetings ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the American Vanguard fourth quarter 2020 and full year earnings call. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to our first speaker Bill Kuser, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Well, thank you very much, Diego, and welcome everyone to American Vanguard's fourth quarter and full year 2020 earnings review. Today's presentation includes a number of PowerPoint slides and two very informative videos. For those of you who may be on the phone and audio only, if you would wish to see these materials during the presentation, You can access by going to our corporate website, www.american-vanguard.com, at which time you would simply click on the clearly marked webcast section and connect with this visual content. These materials following the presentation will be posted to our website and available for your future reference. With that said, let's have our usual cautionary reminder. In today's call, the company may discuss forward-looking information. Such information and statements are based on estimates and assumptions by the company's management and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from management's current expectations. Such factors can include weather conditions, changes in regulatory policy, competitive pressures, and various other risks that are detailed in the company's SEC reports and filings. All forward-looking statements represent the company's best judgment as of the date of this call, and such information will not necessarily be updated by the company. With that said, let me introduce today's speakers. Mr. Eric Wintemute, Chairman and CEO of American Vanguard, Mr. David Johnson, the company's chief financial officer. And to assist in answering your questions, Mr. Bob Tregell, the company's chief operating officer. With that said, I turn the call over to Eric. Thank you, Bill. Good afternoon, everyone.

First, let me start by thanking our entire workforce for dedicating themselves to high performance during the global pandemic. 2020 was a year that was fraught with changing demands and conditions, and our people weathered the storm admirably. We met our critical objective of keeping the workplace safe and healthy for our employees with virtually no work-related transmission. This in turn enabled us to operate continuously and to serve our customers reliably in all regions. Second, I would like to thank all of you as stakeholders for your continued support of American Vanguard. As you will have seen in today's earnings release, despite a slight decline in our top line, our net income increased by 12% during the period. By comparison, the top five public companies in our sector were on average flat on both the top and bottom line. While David will be giving you more detail on this, and other aspects of our financial performance, I would like to cover a few highlights. Over the course of 2020, we committed to improving our balance sheet, and I'm pleased to report that we succeeded in doing so. We generated a ninefold increase in cash from operations versus the prior year, due in part from inventory and factory management, controlled operating expenses, and record high customer early pay participation. This, in turn, enabled us to pay down debt and improve borrowing capacity. We were able to make these improvements while, at the same time, concluding two key strategic acquisitions, Agnova, for market access in Australia, and Agrinos, a green solutions company. Further, we defined an environmental, social, and governance platform which includes extremely promising products and technology solutions. Now I would like to turn to David for his comments on our financial performance with a focus on matters of particular interest to our investors. I will then give you my thoughts on our growth platforms and a particular focus on green solutions and precision application. I will then close with my 2021 outlook and then take questions from our listeners. David? Thank you, Eric.