Darling Ingredients Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Darling Ingredients conference call to discuss the company's first quarter 2021 results. After the speaker's prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session and instructions to ask a question will be given at that time. Today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Jim Stark. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Tom. Welcome to the Darling Ingredients Q1 earnings call. Participants on the call this morning are Mr. Randall C. Stewie, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Brad Phillips, our Chief Financial Officer, and Ms. Sandra Dudley, Senior Vice President of Renewables and Strategy. Mr. John Bullock is attending a college graduation today, and family comes first. There is a slide presentation available, and you can find that presentation on the investor page under the events and presentations link on our corporate website. During this call, we will be making forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could materially differ because of factors discussed in yesterday's press release and the comments made during this conference call and in the risk factors section of our Form 10-K, 10-Q, and other reported filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward looking statement. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Randy.

Thanks, Jim. Good morning, everyone. Glad you could join us on the call this morning. A year ago, like many other management teams, we all had the deer in the headlights stare happening as a result of the pandemic. Today, we see a very clear future for Darling Ingredients as our dedicated global team of 10,000 plus employees continued to execute our business strategy in a safe and efficient manner. Our earnings for the first quarter of 2021 were certainly energized by a rising commodity price environment, which undoubtedly had a positive impact and enabled Darling to report a record $284.8 million of combined EBITDA for the quarter. The feed segment's EBITDA was $124.4, which was $34 million better than the fourth quarter of 2020, and 54 million higher than the first quarter of 2020. Protein and fat prices averaged in the range of 40 to 60% higher than the year-ago period and have continued to move higher into the current period. Our food segment turned in a solid performance to start 2021 with an EBITDA of 46.4 million, which was approximately 18% higher than a year ago. We continue to see solid growth in our collagen peptide sales and look forward to our biomedical products having an impact in the future on this segment's earnings. In the fuel segment, we continue to see solid results from our European bioenergy business, which reported another solid quarter producing 20.5 million of EBITDA on Q1. Diamond Green Diesel generated another outstanding quarter with a 277 EBITDA per gallon on 78 million gallons sold. Darling's half was 108.2 million of EBITDA, plus our bioenergy results produced a strong 128.7 million of combined EBITDA in Q1 for our fuel segment. As we noted in the earnings release yesterday, both DGD expansion projects remain on time, on budget, and on target. We continue to experience a favorable commodity pricing environment as the U.S. economy recovers with more and more states lifting COVID restrictions. As travel increases, we are seeing energy prices go higher as ultra-low sulfur diesel is trading above $2 a gallon in a NYMEX spot for the first time in a couple years. Higher levels of economic activity here and abroad, we believe, will support continued strength in the demand-driven commodity cycle that I'll discuss a little later on the call. Now I'd like to hand it over to Brad to take us through the financials, and then I'm going to come back and discuss the outlook and our increased guidance for 2021. Brad?