BellRing Brands, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Bellring Brand's first quarter fiscal year 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will 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 that today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Jennifer Meyer, Investor Relations for Bellring Brands. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for Bellring Brands' first quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call. With me today are Dorothy Davenport, our President and CEO, and Paul Rohn, our CFO. Dorothy 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-GATT measures. For reconciliation of these non-GATT measures to the nearest GATT measure, see our press release issues today and post it on our website. With that, I will turn the call over to Darcy.

Thanks, Jennifer, and thank you all for joining us this morning. The first quarter delivered a solid foundation for the year as we continue to execute our plans. Results were ahead of our expectations with favorability primarily driven by the timing of customer orders. The RTD Shake category remains healthy, and Premier continues to hold a leadership position with 22% market share and best-in-class household penetration, brand equity scores, and repeat rates. Today, we have narrowed our range of our 26 net sales guidance to between 4% and 6% growth. While much of our key selling periods remain ahead, we have observed more frequent promotional events from insurgent brands than expected. As a result, we have appropriately factored this into Premier's consumption trends in our balance of your outlook. We are continuing to execute on our strategies of growing distribution, increasing brand investments, and launching innovation, which are progressing as planned. Many of these initiatives are ramping up and are starting to positively impact consumption. We were encouraged by the growth in consumption during January, up 6% in all channels and 16% excluding clubs. We expect Q2 premier consumption to be generally in line with net sales and expect these growth strategies to be more meaningful contributors to growth in the second half of the year. As Paul will discuss in more detail, we have updated adjusted EBITDA guidance to 425 to 440, 400 million. This range incorporates our updated sales outlook and the impact of higher way costs on our powder business. Turning to our category. We continue to expect RTD-shaped category growth in the high single digits for 26, primarily driven by volume. In the medium to long term, we expect more marketing spend, expanded shelf space, innovation, and the mainstreaming and affordability of GLP-1s to drive higher household penetration and category growth. Retailers are fully behind the category and are increasing category space, testing higher traffic aisle locations, and expanding and expanding display space to capture growing consumer demand. As I discussed on our last call, the success of the category has attracted competition. As insurgent brands work to establish themselves in the market, we expected promotional spending would increase. However, as I briefly mentioned earlier, year to date, the number of events is tracking modestly ahead of our initial expectations. Over the longer term, we expect, we continue to expect retailers to consolidate the shelf behind a handful of the best performing brands and move them to more heavily trafficked aisles. We remain confident in our ability to continue leading the category, though we anticipate some near-term transitional impacts until these competitive dynamics play out. We believe that mainstream appeal, high repeat rates, and execution capabilities will determine the long-term winners. Turning to our first quarter performance, I'd like to highlight that our supplemental presentation and corresponding metrics now reflect a change in category definition from convenient nutrition to wellness, with the U.S. category size increasing to 24 billion from 21 billion. The broader definition includes the same brands and products as our historical category, along with additional products that our research shows consumers consider in the category. This change does not impact any of our previously reported tract consumption or household penetration metrics. The wellness category grew 7% in Q1, and RTD shakes also up 7%, with growth driven by volume. Premier RTD shake consumption was down 2% in the quarter, lapping 23% consumption growth in the first quarter of 25, which included very strong club consumption with the smallest number of new brand entrants in a non-recurring promotion. Consumption outside of club was strong, up 11% in the quarter. Premier Q1 consumption growth came in slightly below our prior outlook of flat, primarily due to the timing delays in activating promotional display at a mass retailer, as well as a modest impact from greater than expected promotional activity by insurgent brands. First quarter net sales increased 1% with Premier net sales down 1% and Dymatize net sales up 16% on strong international growth. Paul will go into more detail in the quarter later. Now I'll provide a review of our operating plans, which will continue to provide momentum as we progress through the year. We are on track with our plans to one, continue growing our distribution both in and out of the aisle, Two, increase advertising investment while elevating its impact. And three, launch innovation that provides consumer excitement, adds occasion, and drives trial. Distribution, both in and out of the aisle, is a major opportunity. Starting with CLEB, we launched new products and formats, as well as increasing sampling and promotional spending. which is expected to improve our performance in this channel as we move through the year. Our premier shake TDPs increased at strong double-digit rates in fiscal 25, primarily driven by mass, food, drug, and e-commerce channels. And we remain on track to expand at similar levels in 26. We're encouraged by the early performance with our new broker and internal retail sales team. In particular, our sales of single bottles have more than doubled in January, effectively increasing trial. Our improved store activations are already meaningfully impacting our FDM channel results, with strong share increases in feature and display. In late Q1, we launched a partnership with a major mass retailer, which included extensive displays and end caps across pharmacy and grocery aisles in the first launch of our Coffeehouse Shake innovation. Due to the timing of the retailer's holiday merchandise transition, program execution was modestly delayed. Our programming is now fully in place, and we are seeing strong double-digit consumption growth as traction builds. We're also encouraged by the early performance of Coffeehouse, where Caramel Macchiato is one of the highest velocity four counts in January. Our second priority is advertising. We saw a strong return on investment in fiscal 25 and have decided to further invest and elevate our creative in 26. Our Go Get Em campaign was launched in late December and is designed to drive household penetration, strengthen emotional connections, and bring fresh energy and relevance to the premier brand. Premier Protein has always been a brand that celebrates the everyday go-getters, not just those who work hard in the gym, but those who work seriously hard in life. As the original mainstream RTD brand, this campaign is perfectly positioned to bring in new households as the category continues to mainstream. This omnichannel campaign was developed with a new agency and runs across linear TV, streaming, podcasts, and social, as well as retail media and out-of-home locations, including gyms. GoGetEm has tested better than any other prior campaign, and we expect it to drive further awareness and conversion as we move through the year. Turning to innovation. In 26, we are intensifying our focus on innovation across flavors, formats, consumer segments, and occasions. To expand Shake Occasions, last year we kicked off the year with our Indulgence line. And this year, our new year, new you focus is on our new coffeehouse line. Coffeehouse meets the protein and energy consumer need with 30 grams of protein and the caffeine equivalent of one cup of coffee and targets a sweeter taste palette versus our core cafe latte shake. Early results are promising, and we're excited about adding a coffeehouse variety pack in bottles as an incremental item at a club retailer later this month. Premier is known for its flavor innovation, and we will continue to bring flavor excitement to the category throughout the year. Our LTO strategy remains highly successful, with Winter Mint Chocolate performing at the top tertile. In January, we launched Strawberry Powder, and in our third quarter, we will offer an exciting new seasonal shake flavor. Lastly, I'm pleased to announce that we have two new shake lines. Two new lines. We are readying for launch in the second half. The first line, is a continuation of our strategy to expand our portfolio across protein levels. In addition to minis, which provides a smaller-sized product with lower protein levels that are perfect for snacking, we will launch a product with higher protein for those consumers looking for more protein in their ready-to-drink shake. I'm especially excited about our second line, launching late in the year. It offers consumers a completely different drinking experience versus our core products. It tested well above industry benchmarks and targets both incremental consumers and incremental occasions. In closing, the first quarter was a solid foundation for the year, and consumption is ramping up. We have conviction around the category, the strength of our brands, and our demand drivers. Premier remains the number one brand with record high household penetration and repeat rates. We have deep expertise in one of the fastest growing categories in retail and continue to expect strong category growth. We are investing in our brands, sharpening our execution and innovation plans, and driving our savings agenda to deliver our 26 outlook. Our operating plans are on track and we continue to expect an acceleration in growth in the balance of the year. I remain highly confident in our future and our ability to create sustained long-term value for shareholders. Before turning the call over to Paul, I want to discuss the leadership transition plan we announced this morning. As you saw from this announcement, I've decided to retire from my role as President and Chief Executive Officer later this year. The transition will take place on or before the end of our fiscal year on September 30th, 2026. The Bellring Board of Directors has started a national external search to identify the company's next CEO. I remain fully committed to helping Bellring Brands achieve its full potential. Following the appointment of our new CEO, I will serve in an advisory role to ensure a smooth transition of leadership responsibilities and to provide strategic support to the company. I'm incredibly proud of all that we have achieved during my time with the company and the roadmap we have established in the future. It has been an unbelievable ride. 17 years ago, I joined a privately held company with approximately $20 million in sales. Today, we are a publicly traded global $2.3 billion business with significant runway still ahead of us. While the growth is remarkable, what I'm most proud of is the culture we have built along the way A special thank you to all of our employees who put their hearts and souls in our purpose every day, changing lives with good energy. The foundation of Bell Ring is strong, and I look forward to helping the board and the company's new CEO advance toward its next chapter of growth. Thank you for your interest in the company. I will now turn the call over to Paul.