Energizer Holdings, Inc.

Good morning. My name is Chad, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Energizer's second quarter fiscal year 2020 conference call. After the speaker's remark, there will be a question and answer session. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. Later on, when you're ready to ask a question, you may do so by pressing stars and one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jackie Berwitz, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. During the call, we will discuss our results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2020. This call will be available for replay via the Investor Relations section of our website, energizerholdings.com. Also available on our website is a slide presentation providing details about results for the quarter. On the call with me this morning are Alan Hoskins, Chief Executive Officer, Mark Levine, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Tim Gorman, Chief Financial Officer. During the call, we will make forward-looking statements about the company's future business and financial performance. These are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risk and uncertainties. which may cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements are included in today's presentation slides and in the reports we file with the SEC. We also refer to non-GAAP financial measures. The reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP measures is shown in the press release issued earlier today, which is available on our website. Information concerning our category and market share discussed on this call relates to markets where we compete and is based on Energizer's internal data, data from industry analysis, and estimates we believe to be reasonable. Unless otherwise stated, all comparisons are to the same period in the prior year. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Alan.

Thanks, Jackie, and good morning, everyone. I want to start by first expressing our deepest sympathies for those affected by COVID-19. the global disruption and loss of life are truly devastating and unprecedented. In over 36 years with Energizer, I have seen this company face adversity time and again, but I have never seen our colleagues rally together as they have during this crisis. The work by our colleagues and business partners has been remarkable and driven by a shared passion, resiliency, and collaboration. We are exceptionally proud of this organization and everything it has endured and accomplished. Early in the pandemic, we established two principles to guide our response. Protect the health and well-being of our colleagues and preserve business continuity in order to ensure we can provide our customers and consumers with our products at a time when they need the most. The safety and health of our colleagues are Energizer's top priorities. We reacted quickly to implement safety guidelines and health protocols across all Energizer locations, in many instances, ahead of government requirements. As with natural disasters, there was a surge in demand for batteries as governments around the world implemented shelter-in-place orders and consumers prepared by stocking up on the critical products they needed. The ongoing demand is driven by increased consumption as consumers shelter in place and interact even more with their devices, which require the power our products provide. Even with the challenges presented by operating in this environment, all of our manufacturing facilities and distribution centers are operational, and we are consistently achieving overall fill rates of over 90%. This is critically important because demand for our batteries has remained elevated beyond the initial spike in mid-March, and we continue to support our auto care customers for the upcoming peak selling season. Our strong second quarter results demonstrate how we continue to execute our strategies and operate with excellence to achieve strong organic sales growth of 2.7% driven by our performance in batteries. The organic growth ongoing cost controls, and synergy capture from our integration efforts helped drive adjusted EBITDA growth of 22% and adjusted earnings per share of 37 cents compared to 20 cents in the second quarter of last year. And while managing through the early days of the crisis, we also continued to make significant progress in our integration efforts, which benefited the quarters. Given the uncertainty in the operating environment today, we have taken prudent actions to strengthen our liquidity as a precautionary measure and currently have nearly $600 million of cash on hand globally and access to approximately $200 million of additional liquidity through our revolver. As of today, our business remains strong and our strategic initiatives, including integration, are on track. These strategic plans are expected to help deliver EBITDA in excess of $700 million and adjusted free cash flow above $400 million by the end of fiscal 2022, consistent with what we provided at Investor Day last November. We are confident in our ability to execute the strategies in place. However, the uncertainty around the length of the pandemic, the shape of the recovery and its ultimate impact on the global economy are variables we cannot quantify with clarity at this time. But for the uncertainty related to COVID-19, we remain on track to achieve our EBITDA and cash flow goals. We have a strong global team responding to the crisis with an extraordinary level of dedication, creativity, and resiliency. We will continue to do what we always do in times of crisis, take care of each other, and work with customers to ensure our products are available to consumers. I am more than confident in our organization's ability, and we are ready for the challenges that lie ahead. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Mark.