Energizer Holdings, Inc.

Good morning. My name is Gary and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Energizer's third quarter fiscal year 2020 conference call. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jackie Berwitz, Vice President, Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. During the call, we will discuss our results for the third 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 uncertainty, 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. A 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 the 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. Let me begin by thanking our colleagues around the world who have demonstrated unwavering commitment amid the most trying circumstances any of us have ever faced. While the pandemic remains a global threat, the team's focus and agility contributed to the health and safety of our colleagues and drove Energizer's strong performance in the third quarter. We continue to operate in an uncertain environment with limited clarity on the length of the pandemic, its severity, and its economic impact. However, to date, our team has acted with urgency and purpose to put us in the best possible position based on what we do know. And looking ahead, our long-term strategies remain intact and continue to drive strong top and bottom line performance. During the quarter, organic net sales grew 3.4%, reflecting strong battery performance and organic growth in auto care. Our strong battery performance was primarily due to distribution gains in North America, pricing actions, and elevated demand for batteries in the U.S. caused by COVID-19. The growth in auto care reflected in improved trends during the quarter as consumers increased vehicle usage, and we benefited from favorable weather conditions. Throughout the quarter, colleagues in our manufacturing facilities and distribution centers did a terrific job responding to the increased demand by delivering overall consistently high fill rates, as did our retail operations colleagues who executed our plans in-store with excellence. Despite headwinds from both currency and incremental COVID-19-related costs, adjusted earnings per share increased 35% to 50 cents, led by the benefits of organic sales growth and continued synergy capture. In addition, we generated strong adjusted free cash flow, further demonstrating the stability of our business. During the quarter, we continued to make progress on our long-term objectives, including executing our integration plans to deliver over $100 million in synergies by the end of calendar year 2021, leveraging the strength of our broad portfolio to gain new and expanded distribution in the U.S. and several international markets, investing in our auto care business to build a robust pipeline of innovation complemented by new, impactful creative that strengthens our brands and resonates with consumers, and implementing our plan to expand the auto care business in international markets. We expect fiscal 2020 to be our fifth consecutive year of organic growth as a result of new distribution, higher demand for batteries in the U.S. because of COVID-19, and improved pricing. Net sales growth should be in the range of 9 to 10 percent, including organic growth of 1 to 1.5 percent. In addition, we expect adjusted earnings per share of $2.45 to $2.55 and adjusted free cash flow in excess of $300 million. As we look to the future, we believe the long-term strategies we shared with you at Invest Today have served us well through the pandemic and will continue to do so in the new normal that follows. We operate in categories which are resilient in challenging times, and have opportunities for growth given changing consumer needs. And we are confident our colleagues will create advantages out of adversity, which will allow Energizer to emerge from the pandemic even stronger. And with that, I'll turn it over to Mark.