BellRing Brands, Inc.

Welcome to Bell Ring Brands First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. Hosting the call today from Bell Ring Brands are Darcy Davenport, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Paul Rode, Chief Financial Officer. Today's call is being recorded and will be available for replay beginning at 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. The dial-in number is 800-585-8367. and the passcode is 1-877-6009. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Jennifer Meyer, Investor Relations of Bellring Brands, for introductions. You may begin.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for Bellring Brands' first quarter fiscal 2021 earnings call. With me today are Darcy Davenport, our President and CEO, and Paul Rose, our CFO. Darcy and Paul will begin with prepared remarks, and afterwards we'll have a brief question and answer session. The press release and supplemental slide presentation that supports these remarks are posted on our website in both the investor relations and the SEC filing sections at bellring.com. In addition, the release and slides are available on the SEC's website. Before we continue, I would like to remind you that this call will contain forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties that should be carefully considered by investors as actual results could differ materially from these statements. These forward-looking statements are current as of the date of this call and management undertakes no obligation to update these statements. As a reminder, this call is being recorded and an audio replay will be available on our website. And finally, this call will discuss certain non-GAAP measures. For reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the nearest GAAP measure, see our press release issued yesterday and posted on our website. With that, I will turn the call over to Darcy.

Thanks, Jennifer, and thank you all for joining us this morning. Last evening, we reported our first quarter results, as well as posted a supplemental presentation to our website. The presentation provides more insight into our business, consumption, and key metrics. I'm pleased to report that our fiscal 2021 is off to a good start, with net sales of $282 million and adjusted EBITDA of $61 million, slightly above our internal estimates. Net sales were up 16%, with Premier Protein and Dymatize both growing double digits. As you saw in our press release, we affirmed our sales and adjusted EBITDA guidance for the full year. The quarterly cadence is largely as expected, with some minor tweaks. First, we slightly overperformed both sales and adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter, mainly due to a shift in sales from the second quarter. Second, inflation ramped up in the middle of the first quarter. We have done a good job with our cost-out strategy and have been able to offset a portion of these headwinds. But given the expected surge in freight and additional milk protein inflation, we announced a modest price increase in our shake business starting in Q3. We will experience continued margin pressure in Q2 until the price increase is implemented, but we are confident in our full-year guidance. Now turning to our category, brand highlights, and growth strategies. The overall convenient nutrition category remains stable. Growth in liquids and powders accelerated this quarter and are running above pre-COVID growth rates. The adult and everyday nutrition segments are driving this growth as consumers are increasingly focused on their general health. Most of the increased penetration is coming from everyday nutrition, while growth in adult is primarily the same consumers buying more. Powders are also seeing some strong momentum, resulting from increased at-home consumption. Premier protein shake consumption grew meaningfully this quarter, up 28% across tracked and untracked channels. Growth was broad-based and accelerated in nearly all channels when compared to prior quarter and year ago. Healthy velocities, strong distribution gains, and incremental promotions drove this growth. Food and e-commerce channels led the way, up 69% and 121%, respectively. This strong momentum has continued in Q2, with our first four weeks showing 17% growth across tracked and untracked channels, with impressive gains in food, math, and e-commerce. We continue to make great progress against our growth strategies, Premier Protein's household penetration reached 7%, an increase of 19% over prior year. Our distribution continues to build, with brand TDPs up 17% sequentially, reflecting our Q1 shelf gain. In January, we kicked off our national marketing campaign, which includes TV, digital, and social media. We complemented our proven strategy of having real fans explain why they love our shakes, with spots focused on our key differentiator, Amazing Taste. In the first few weeks of the campaign, our results are encouraging, with search and website traffic exceeding the same period last year. Our new flavors and pack sizes are driving significant growth. Cafe Latte, now in its second year, and Cinnamon Roll, our newest flavor, are performing in the top 15% of the category we're sold. Our upsizing initiative is off to a great start, with our new 12 count driving almost three-quarters of our growth in the mass channel. Premier is also growing outside of shakes, with powders up 129% driven by distribution and velocity. Dymatize had another strong quarter, up 35% domestically. With growth across all key channels, distribution in FDM grew 38% since prior quarter, with strong product expansion in the mass channel. Our new ISO 100 products, Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles, continue to be standouts, driving velocity across all channels and securing significant new distribution. Our international sales were flat year over year. Premier shakes in Canada showed meaningful increases, but softness across the rest of the portfolio offset this growth. The impact of COVID on the global specialty channel continues to affect the Dymatize and Power Bar brands. However, we expect this to slowly recover later this year. I want to take a moment to discuss a business realignment we executed this quarter, which impacts both Dymatize and our international business. Over the last several years, there has become more overlap between Premier Protein and Dymatize in the U.S. As a result, we decided to combine the management of these two brands housed in Emeryville. As part of the realignment, we created a dedicated international team who will drive growth across all of our brands outside the US. Regrettably, these changes result in reductions across our workforce in Dallas and Germany. I believe this was a needed strategic step to position Bellring for the future. but these decisions are not made lightly, and I want to thank our employees for all the hard work and dedication over the past years. Overall, I remain confident in our 2021 outlook. Our supply chain performance is strong, and our ShakeCo man network is well-positioned to support our growth. Our new creative is now running, and our messaging is reaching more households. Our distribution gains are driving meaningful growth, and we are seeing strong brand blocks across most major retailers. Our new products are succeeding in market and our innovation pipeline is building, driving long-term value for the brand. I continue to be energized by our long runway for growth and now believe we have optimized our organizational structure to truly drive those growth strategies. I will now turn the call over to Paul.