Darling Ingredients Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Darling Ingredients, Inc. conference call to discuss the first quarter 2026 financial results. After the speaker's prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer period 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 Ms. Sue Ann Guthrie, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go.

Thank you for joining the Darling Ingredients first quarter 2026 earnings call. Here with me today are Mr. Randall C. Stewie, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Bob Day, Chief Financial Officer. Our first quarter 2026 earnings news release and slide presentation are available on the investor page of our corporate website and will be joined by a transcript of this call once it is available. 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 today'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 will hand the call over to Randy.

Thanks, Sue Ann. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. Over the last few years, public policy uncertainty and deflationary and volatile commodity markets created a challenging operating environment. During that time, Darling Ingredients remained laser-focused on controlling what we could control. We prioritized operational excellence and maintained strict, disciplined capital allocation with a goal to achieve a meaningful debt reduction. Headwinds have now shifted, and the results we share today confirm a much more favorable operating environment. We're moving forward with significantly improved earnings power, stronger cash flow potential, and a more robust foundation for long-term value creation. For the first quarter of 2026, we saw the operating environment allow for expected EBITDA growth and sequential gross margin improvement. Darling's core ingredients business really delivered this quarter with improved global operations, margin expansion, and focused commercial execution. Combined adjusted EBITDA for first quarter was $406.8 million, including $255.6 million from our global ingredients business and $151.2 million from Diamond Green Diesel. Our feed ingredient segment had a fantastic quarter. We saw steady volumes with a strong global poultry volumes, offsetting stagnant North American cattle herd. Operational excellence remained a key focus this quarter, driving improvements in throughput, cost reduction, and product quality that translated into stronger gross margins. At the same time, Our commercial agility allowed us to pivot sales to higher priced markets. While fat prices were softer earlier in the quarter, our disciplined risk management approach combined with spot sales helped us mitigate the typical lag impacts we would see in that environment. The renewable volume obligation announced at the end of March has been extremely constructive for Darling and DGD. We're already seeing a favorable movement on fat prices as renewable diesel demand grows. DGD overcame a shutdown at Port Arthur that briefly interrupted our supply chain. As those dynamics continue to play out, we anticipate this to be a nice tailwind for our feed segment for the remainder of 2026. Turning to our food segment, we're seeing nice growth in collagen, particularly in Europe and Asia. Sales in both collagen and gelatin improved year over year. reflecting not only increased customer demand, but new applications for collagen in food, nutrition, and health products. Our Nexthida glucose control product is currently pending a patent in both in the U.S. for production processes and the use of Nexthida as a dietary supplement ingredient, offering a non-pharmaceutical option targeting lower blood glucose. With an interest in food as medicine and increased demand for protein, collagen continues to be positioned well for growth. Now, as you can see in our results, our fuel segment is at an inflection point as renewables margins turned a corner with finalization of the renewable volume obligation. With a very constructive RVO and now a clear path forward, we expect DGD's results to continue to strengthen throughout the year. Diamond Green Diesel delivered a strong quarter with $151.2 million of EBITDA, or around $1.11 EBITDA per gallon. Our non-DGD green energy businesses continue to deliver stable earnings and will have the opportunity for a slight tailwind due to increased energy prices in Europe. Now with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Bob to take us through some financials. Then I'll come back and discuss my thoughts on the second quarter.