Dole plc

Welcome to Doe plc's second quarter 2026 results webcast. Today's webcast is being broadcast live over the internet and it's also being recorded for playback purposes. Currently, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. For opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to the head of investor relations with Doe plc, James Regan.

Thank you, Derek. Welcome, everybody, and thank you for joining our results webcast. Joining me today is our Chief Executive Officer, Rory Byrne, our Chief Operating Officer, Johan Linden, and our Chief Financial Officer, Jacinta Devine. During this webcast, we'll be referring to presentation slides to supplement the remarks, and these, along with our earnings release and other related materials, are available on the investor relations section of the Dole plc website. Please note our remarks today will include certain forward-looking statements within the provisions of the Federal Securities Safe Harbor Law. These reflect circumstances at the time they are made and the company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Rory Patrick McCann,

Thank you, James, and welcome, everybody. Thank you all for joining us today as we discuss our results for the second quarter and provide an update on the latest developments across the group. So turning firstly to slide four. Well, across the group, we continue to see healthy consumer demand for our products. Fresh produce consumption remains resilient, supported by the long term health and wellness trends. We believe this augurs well for the future of our sector. Our second quarter results was in line with our expectations, reflecting the impact of higher fuel and shipping costs on fresh fruit profitability arising from the conflict in the Middle East. Despite these pressures, the quarter once again demonstrated the resilience of our diversified business model, with the strength of our diversified Americas in particular helping to offset the pressures experienced in fresh fruit. Since our last update, we've been active in advancing our development pipeline while maintaining our disciplined approach to capital allocation. Turning now to slide five and focusing in more detail on this topic. As we said last quarter, our priority remains clear. to allocate capital where we can achieve the best long-term returns for our shareholders. As part of this approach, we were delighted to complete the Ecuador port sale on July 1st. This transaction represents an important milestone, unlocking approximately $95 million of net proceeds, further strengthening our balance sheet and increasing our financial flexibility. We continue to explore an important strategic opportunity to invest in automation, AI and innovative warehouse solutions to better serve our core customer base in Scandinavia. As part of this strategy we were very pleased to complete the acquisition of Green Foods fresh produce division in Scandinavia at the beginning of July. This acquisition strengthens our position in an attractive market where we already have meaningful and successful operational capabilities and it also adds a state-of-the-art distribution facility in Helsingborg that gives us a strong platform for the next phase of this automation and artificial intelligence investment. Alongside these larger projects we continue to look at smaller bolt-on acquisitions that complement and strengthen our existing operations. During the quarter we completed a bolt-on acquisition within our Irish growing operations further strengthening our sourcing capabilities and supply base. The fresh produce market remains fragmented and we continue to see opportunities for disciplined acquisitions that add value across our core markets. Finally, returning capital to shareholders remains an important component of our capital allocation framework. During the quarter, we repurchased just over 700,000 shares for $10 million at an average price of $13.88 per share. as always we weigh share repurchases against the returns available from our development projects and acquisitions we remain focused on balancing investment for growth with returns to shareholders turning now to the operational review and beginning with the fresh fruit slide on slide eight as we flagged on our first quarter call we anticipated higher fuel and shipping costs to arise from the conflict in the middle east and that is how the quarter played out looking at our main product categories Bananas, we saw strong volumes in Europe with pricing broadly in line with the prior year. In North America, volumes were lower, reflecting market conditions and our focus on disciplined profitability, although underlying pricing was slightly higher than the prior year. Pineapples weather affected availability during the quarter, while the continued strength of the Costa Rica colon pressured profitability. These challenges are not unique to Dole and continue to affect producers across the industry. Positively, overall demand for our products remained resilient. To move through the second half we expect to benefit from contractual pricing mechanisms including variable fuel surcharges together with increasing benefits from our recent investments in production and sourcing and the cost saving actions we continue to advance across the segment. Taking together these initiatives are expected to help offset a portion of the cost pressures experienced during the second quarter and support improved fresh fruit performance in the second half of the year relative to the prior year. Turning now to Diversified EMEA, the segment delivered a solid quarter overall with the revenue broadly stable although profitability was slightly below the strong prior year comparative. Sweden was again a strong contributor and we continue to see the benefits of our investments in logistics, infrastructure and automation. The lower year-on-year result was driven largely by South Africa which had our greatest exposure to the disruption in the Middle East during the quarter. Diversified Americas is another strong quarter and was again an important contributor to group performance. The segment benefited from strong category performance, disciplined execution and the continued benefits of investments made over recent years. Its dynamic pricing model continues to support profitability and gives us flexibility to manage changing market conditions. Its strong performance through the first half again highlights the value of our diversified business model and helped offset the pressures of fresh fruit. With that, I'll hand you over to Jacinta to give the financial review for the second quarter.