Bed Bath & Beyond, Inc.

Welcome to the Bed Bath & Beyond Fiscal 2022 First Quarter Earnings. My name is Sylvia and I'll be your operator for today's call. At this time, all participants in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. During the question and answer session, if you have a question, please press 01 on your touchtone phone. As a reminder, the conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Suzy Kim, Head of Investor Relations. Suzy Kim, you may begin.

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our fiscal 2022 first quarter earnings call. Joining us today are Harriet Edelman, Independent Chair of our Board of Directors, Sue Gove, Director and Interim Chief Executive Officer, and Gustavo Arnal, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, let me remind you that our fiscal 2022 first quarter earnings release and slide presentation can be found in the investor relations section of our website at bedbathandbeyond.com and as exhibits to our related Form 8-K. This conference call and the slides we refer to may contain forward-looking statements, including statements about or references to our outlook regarding the company's performance, our internal models, and our long-term objectives. All such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we say during the call today. Please refer to our most recent periodic SEC filings for more detail on these risks and uncertainties, including the risk factor section in our annual report on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Additionally, the information we will discuss today contains certain financial measures that exclude amounts or are subject to adjustments that have the effect of excluding amounts that are included in the most directly comparable measure prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. For a reconciliation to the most comparable measures presented in accordance with GAAP, please refer to the table in our earnings release available on our website and included as an exhibit to our Form 8-K filed later today. I would now like to turn the call over to Harriet.

Thank you, Susie, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Before Gustavo covers this quarter's financial results in detail, I will spend a few minutes on the announcement we shared earlier. Today, we announced significant changes to our executive leadership team. Sue Gove, independent director and chair of the strategy committee, has been named interim chief executive officer, replacing Mark Tritton, who is leaving the company. and Mara Serhal has been appointed Chief Merchandising Officer, taking over for Joe Hartzig, who is no longer with the company. Sue has a pivotal role in overseeing this transition and making sure we take swift action. Sue has served on our board since 2019 and is a deeply experienced board member and business executive across a number of senior financial, operating, and strategic roles, Leading the strategy committee has given her strong insight into the potential of the company and her deep experience in corporate retail transformations will enable quick, decisive actions during this transition. She and I have worked together closely for the past few years. Sue is an insightful, intelligent, and influential leader. I know she will quickly make a significant impact. As for Mara, having most recently served as Bed Bath & Beyond Senior Vice President and General Manager for Harman, she will be responsible for driving the company's omnichannel merchandising, planning, and own brand strategies, while also retaining her position as General Manager for the health, beauty, and consumables business. On behalf of the entire board, I want to recognize and thank Mark for his many contributions over the past two and a half years. Mark's accomplishments include launching our transformation strategy, introducing own brands, investing in technology and infrastructure, repositioning Bye Bye Baby, and building out our omni-channel and digital capabilities. In addition, he led the company through the COVID-19 pandemic and was dedicated to keeping our associates, customers, and communities safe and served. I'd also like to thank Joe for his hard work and dedication in developing and implementing our overall product strategy and, in particular, own brands. Our performance today requires an adjustment to strategy and a deep focus on basic operational execution. The results that Gustavo will discuss in a few minutes are not reflective of our capabilities and potential. We should be achieving so much more. Board members and management came to our company because we believe that our unique place amongst customers' many options is as compelling today as it was at its founding. And the opportunity to drive growth and unlock the value of our banners is what we are here to do. The macro environment right now presents a number of challenges for our business. A convergence of factors and the serial nature of them is unparalleled in my years of experience in the consumer sector. Still, we recognize, first and foremost, that our results will be improved by our making important changes in how we serve customers, operate our business, and deliver against the premise mentioned earlier. I will also share a few comments regarding the update provided on the Strategy Committee. As you know, our strategy committee has been evaluating options for Bye Bye Baby. The committee is working closely with both strategic and financial advisors to properly assess the business's inherent value potential. That work is ongoing, and it is important to underscore that the board sees significant value in Bye Bye Baby. It is a highly relevant banner with a strong market position and favorable demographics. Before I turn this over to Sue, who will discuss her near-term priorities in more detail, I will close by emphasizing on behalf of the Board that we are united behind the priorities needed to stabilize the company and create value for shareholders. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Sue for some quick introductory remarks. Sue?