Greif, Inc.

good morning my name is chris and i'll be your conference operator today at this time i'd like to welcome everyone to the gripe q4 2021 earnings conference call all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise after the speaker's remarks there will be a question and answer session if you'd like to ask a question during this time simply press star then one on your telephone keypad and to withdraw your question please press star one again thank you matt eichmann you may begin

Thanks, Chris, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Grice fourth quarter and fiscal 21 earnings conference call. My name is Matt Eichmann. I'm joined by Pete Watson, Grice president and chief executive officer, Larry Hilsheimer, Grice chief financial officer, and Ole Rosgaard, Grice chief operating officer. We will take questions at the end of today's call. In accordance with regulation fair disclosure, please ask questions regarding issues you consider important because we're prohibited from discussing material, nonpublic information with you on an individual basis. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question before returning to the queue. Please turn to slide two. As a reminder, during today's call, we will make forward-looking statements involving plans, expectations, and beliefs related to future events. Actual results could differ materially from those discussed. Additionally, we'll be referencing certain non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP metrics can be found in the appendix of today's presentation. And now I turn the presentation over to Pete on slide three.

Hey, thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. As always, we appreciate your interest in Greif. I want to start by recognizing and thanking the global Greif team for outstanding achievement this past year. The team delivered excellent results despite a challenging operating environment that was complicated by the pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and inflationary pressures beyond our control. Fiscal 2021 was an exceptional year with record financial results. We significantly delivered our balance sheet, improved our shareholder returns, achieved top decile colleague engagement, and were recognized as a leading workplace in the United States. Looking ahead, these accomplishments have us positioned for an even stronger future as our fiscal 2022 guidance points to performance in line with the commitments we established in 2019. Finally, this past year, we made meaningful enhancements to our already strong sustainability performance and embedded ESG deeper into our business strategies. I'd like to ask Ole Rosgaard, our Chief Operating Officer, to make a few comments regarding ESG that's on slide four.