BellRing Brands, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Bell Ring Brand's fourth quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Jennifer Meyer. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for Bellring Brand's fourth quarter fiscal 2025 earnings call. With me today are Darcy Davenport, our president and CEO, and Paul Rode, 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 support 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 this morning. Fiscal year 25 was a strong year for Bellerin brands. Net sales grew 16% and adjusted EBITDA margin reached 20.8%. We launched our first media campaign since 21, delivering compelling returns, expanded distribution while elevating retailer partnerships, and accelerated our multi-year innovation strategy. We also advanced our savings program, enhancing flexibility to reinvest in future growth. Our strong track record of cash generation continued this year, and we meaningfully stepped up our share repurchases, buying approximately 7% of our shares outstanding. We expect another successful year in fiscal 26, with a softer Q1 followed by a stronger balance of the year. Paul and I will provide additional detail on our guidance and quarterly cadence. Turning to the fourth quarter, the ready-to-drink shake category grew 15%, while premier shake consumption grew 20%. driven by incremental promotion events. Premier continues to have category-leading metrics, including the number one household penetration and the category's highest repeat rate. Notably, both household penetration and buy rate increased during the quarter, reinforcing the brand's unmatched strength and consumer loyalty. Now turning to the category. RTD shakes are one of the fastest-growing CPG categories, fueled by consumer health and wellness trends, functional beverage preferences, and GLP-1 usage. Household penetration of 54% highlights a long runway for growth as it trails mature CPG categories, which are often at 80% to 90%. Retailers are leaning into this opportunity, increasing category space, testing higher traffic to aisle locations, and expanding display space to capture growing consumer demand. The success of this category, which has doubled in retail sales since 2019 to 8.7 billion, has naturally attracted competition. Currently, the two leaders, including Premier Protein, have approximately 50% market share. The other participants include newer insurgent and crossover brands and some declining legacy brands. Of note, legacy brands, which collectively represent approximately 30% of the category, have been meaningful share donors for several years now. Over time, we expect retailers to consolidate the shelf behind a handful of the best performing brands and move them to more heavily trafficked aisles. We believe that mainstream appeal, high repeat rates, and execution capabilities will determine the long-term winners. Premier Protein is well positioned to benefit from these developments and continue to lead the category. Over the next few years, we expect RTD Shake category dollar growth to be high single to low double digits with volume the primary driver. In late 25, a major club retailer significantly expanded their RTD assortment. While we do not know for certainty, we assumed The expanded assortment continues through fiscal 26. We expect pricing benefits to subside and promotional spending to slightly increase as new brands work to establish themselves in the market. These near-term dynamics lead us to expect category growth in the high single digits for 26. In the medium to long term, we expect more marketing spending, expanded shelf space, innovation, and the mainstreaming and affordability of GLP-1s to drive higher household penetration and category growth. We are confident in our continued strength of the category. Premier's deep category knowledge, strong brand equity, scalable manufacturing network, and robust retailer relationships give us confidence that we will continue to be the category leader and capture meaningful share of long-term growth. I'll now turn to our long-term targets. Bellerin began its journey as a public company six years ago with $850 million in revenue. Our total revenue base is now $2.3 billion, and our premier protein shake revenue has tripled. Since IPO, we have delivered a net sales CAGR of 18%. significantly ahead of our long-term revenue growth projection of 10% to 12% shared at the time of our listing. There are multiple ways to achieve strong growth in our business. However, it becomes more difficult to grow at double-digit rates of a larger revenue base, and in the near term, we are expecting a more competitive environment. As a result, we are updating our long-term revenue growth algorithm from low double digits to high single digits. specifically 7% to 9%, with Premier Protein driving our growth. This assumes that Premier Protein, the number one market share brand, will continue to grow relatively in line with the RTD category, while Dymatize slightly weighs down our growth rate. We are maintaining our adjusted EBITDA margin algorithm of 18% to 20%, which embeds higher levels of brand investment enabled by our cost savings agenda. These investments are designed to reinforce our brand strengths and position us for sustained profitable growth over the long term. Our updated revenue growth algorithm is healthy. And together with attractive margins and our asset light model, we expect to continue to generate strong cash flow and create significant value for our shareholders. Turning to our outlook for 26. Our 26 net sales guidance is a range of 4% to 8% growth with adjusted EBITDA margins of 18%. At the midpoint, sales for the year are expected to be modestly below our long-term algorithm because of the softer first quarter driven by specific items and near-term competitive dynamics. We expect performance to strengthen with the remainder of the year at the top end of our algorithm. Adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to be at the lower end of our range, primarily due to significant commodity inflation and tariffs, along with the lagged revenue impact of increased brand investments. For Q1, we expect flat consumption for Premier RTD shakes, with October and November lapping the toughest club channel comparisons, including a non-recurring promotion. For context, We are lapping 23% consumption growth in the first quarter of 25, which included very strong club consumption with the smallest number of new brand entrants and an incremental promotion. Q1 net sales largely follows consumption with some additional timing-related headwinds impacting sales, resulting in a roughly 5% decrease in net sales. Paul will provide more detail later. We expect consumption along with net sales to accelerate starting in mid-December. As we move through the year, our FDM merchandising initiatives, advertising, and innovation become more meaningful contributors to our growth and club comparisons ease as we lap expanded assortment. Now I'll provide additional details on our operating plans for 26. Our priorities for this year include one, continuing to grow our distribution both in and out of aisle. Two, increase advertising investment while elevating its impact. And three, launch innovation that provides consumer excitement, adds occasions, and drives trial. Distribution both in and out of the aisle is a major opportunity. Starting with Club, we intend to bolster our position in Club channel with new products, increased sampling, and additional promotional spending. We expect our performance in club to improve as we move through the year. Our premier shake TDP increases, driven primarily in mass food, drug, and e-commerce channels, grew by more than 20% in 25, and we have strong plans to expand at similar rates in 26. As I mentioned last quarter, we have partnered with a new broker to significantly expand store-level coverage and launched an internal retail sales team focused on securing in-store displays, especially singles and entry price point multi-packs. In late Q1, we will launch a partnership with a major mass retailer that includes placements across pharmacy and grocery aisles, plus extensive displays and end caps. This program will also include the first launch of our new Shake innovation targeting incremental occasions, which I'll discuss later in my remarks. Our second priority is advertising. We saw a strong return on investment in fiscal 25 and decided to further invest and elevate our creative in 26. Premier has the highest unaided brand awareness in the category, though it remains significant opportunity for expansion. We have strengthened our agency roster and will be launching a new creative campaign designed to drive household penetration, strengthen emotional connections, and bring fresh energy and relevance to the brand. The campaign kicks off in late December and includes national TV and strong digital components. Turning to innovation. In fiscal 25, we conducted a comprehensive demand study and incorporated the results into our multi-year innovation strategy. The study validated our product focus for 26 and identified several white space opportunities, some of which have accelerated, that we have accelerated launching in late 26 and early 27. Specifically in 26, we are intensifying our focus on innovation across flavors, consumer segments, and occasions. In June of 25, we launched Almond Milkshakes, our first non-dairy protein offering, with the strategy of bringing new consumers into our brand. Although early, it is already the number two turning four count in the non-dairy RTD set. We are seeing strong incrementality with nearly half of the buyers new to the brand. Almond milkshakes are expanding distribution throughout 26 and supported by advertising. About a year ago, we launched our indulgent line with the goal of driving incremental occasions. It worked. In 26, we will build on that success as well as the success of our cafe latte core shake flavor with our new coffee house or profi shake line. Each shake provides 30 grams of protein and the caffeine equivalent of one cup of coffee, meeting the protein and energy consumer need, which is incremental to our core baseline. It will be offered in caramel macchiato and mocha, targeting a sweeter taste palette. Coffeehouse launches in mid-December in both mass and e-commerce channels. The launch will be fully supported with paid media, influencer partnerships, and in-store signage and sampling. And lastly, Premier is known for its flavor innovation, and we will continue to bring flavor excitement to the category throughout the year. In closing, Premier has a history of strong growth and is the number one brand in one of the fastest growing categories in retail. The power of the brand is evident in our record high household penetration and repeat rates. Our first mover advantage lies in being a scaled, pure play company with attractive margins and a deep category expertise. Retailers see the category's potential, and they are partnering with Premier as they develop their growth plans. Q1 has some unique dynamics that are causing near-term challenges, but growth in the balance of the year is strong. The brand and business fundamentals are robust, and I have confidence in delivering the year. We are investing in our brands, sharpening our execution and innovation plans, and driving our sales, our savings agenda to enable our next phase of growth. I remain confident in our future and our ability to create sustained long-term value for shareholders. Thank you for your interest in the company. I will now turn the call over to Paul.