Greif, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Greif First Quarter 2026 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 from your touchtone telephone. Please be advised that today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Bill D'Onofrio. Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining Grice Fiscal First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Today, our CEO, Oli Rosgaard, will provide a strategy and market update, followed by our CFO, Larry Hilshimer, with a review of our financial results. Please turn to slide two. In accordance with regulation fair disclosure, please ask questions regarding topics you consider important because we are prohibited from discussing material nonpublic information with you on an individual basis. 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 will be referencing certain non-GAAP financial measures and the reconciliation to the most directly comparable gap metrics that can be found in the appendix of today's presentation. I'll now turn the call over to Ole on slide three.

Thank you, Bill, and thank you all for joining us today. We entered 2026 from a position of strength, despite a still new industrial backdrop. Our Q1 performance demonstrates the progress we are making on two critical fronts. delivering solid financial results in the present, while also making progress on our longer-term built-to-last humanity. During the quarter, volumes performed as anticipated, remaining in line with expectations due to continued softness in the industrial economy. Our EBITDA margin profile continues to improve meaningfully, up 260 basis points year-over-year, which is the result of decisive actions taken on our cost optimization. As a result, adjusted EBITDA increased 24% versus prior year, and our results came in as expected. Based on this performance, we are reaffirming our 2026 guidance. Following the portfolio rationalization we undertook in 2025, our leverage is now historically low, enabling significant capital flexibility to create shareholder value. In Q1, we completed 130 million of the 150 million share repurchase program we announced three months ago. Given our strong free cash flow projection for the year with a conversion ratio of 50%, we fully anticipate remaining well below a leverage of two times. Our strong free cash flow generation and balance sheet strength allows us to fund value-creative organic growth, including growth capex in our existing operations and higher return in markets. As we drive growth externally, we are also accelerating internal transformation. Our one-rate cost optimization is now at 65 million, which reflects primarily SG&A actions taken early in fiscal 2026, which will benefit EBITDA for the majority of the year, as contemplated in our original guidance. As a reminder, our fiscal 2026 year-end run rate commitment is 80 to 90 million. We are confident in the progress we are making and we believe we are demonstrating our ability to manage the present while continuing to shape the future. Please turn to slide four. Our in-market performance reflects the reality of broader economic conditions remaining soft. In customized polymer solutions, demand was essentially flat overall. IPC volumes were up low singles small containers down low singles and large containers down mid single digits due to continued industrial softness. This is consistent with our expectations heading into the year and we expect small containers to sequentially improve into Q2 as ag seasonality picks up. Chewable metal solutions remained under pressure with softness across regions, especially with chemical customers. We continue to focus this business on cost discipline and gas generation. Sustainable fiber solutions saw volume declines in converting due to North America industrial softness, but the mills ran at solid operating rates throughout the quarter. Innovative closure solutions volumes declines high singles from growth from both metal and polymer closure demands, driven by the industrial softness I just spoke on. Importantly, total sales, which reflect sales both direct to third parties and sold through our polymers and metals businesses, were approximately flat due to strong price mix, with volume down only mid-singles. This shows the that our highest performing products remained the most resilient in the quarter. Overall, Q1 performance was consistent with our expectations and reflects our ability to improve margins through discipline, execution, even in a muted industrial environment. With that context, I'll turn it over to Larry to walk through the financials on slide five.