Ingredion Incorporated

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the third quarter 2020 Ingredion Incorporated Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participant lines are in listen-only mode, so if you require operator assistance, please press star, then zero. 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, then one. Please be advised that today's conference may be recorded. I'd now like to hand the conference over to your host today, is Tiffany Willis, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Liz. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Ingredion's third quarter 2020 earnings call. I'm Tiffany Willis, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Officer. On today's call are Jim Valli, our President and CEO, and Jim Gray, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We issued our results yesterday in a press release that can be found on our website, ingredient.com, in the investor section. The slides accompanying this presentation can also be found on the website and were posted yesterday for your convenience. As a reminder, our comments within this presentation may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties. These statements include expectations and assumptions regarding the company's future operations and financial performance. including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Actual results could differ materially from those predicted in the forward-looking statements, and Ingrediana sees no obligation to update them in the future as or if circumstances change. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed during today's conference call or in yesterday's presentation press release can be found in the company's most recently filed annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports on Form 10-Q and 8-K. During this call, we also referred to certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted earnings per share, adjusted operating income, and adjusted effective tax rates, which are reconciled to U.S. GAAP measures in Note 2, non-GAAP information included in our press release and in today's presentation's appendix. Now, I am pleased to turn the call over to Jim Valli.

Thank you, Tiffany, and good morning, everyone. As societies around the world enter new phases of the pandemic and continue to grapple with its impact, we at Ingredion remain guided by our values and three priorities that we established at the beginning of the crisis. As part of our Care First value, Our employees' safety, health, and overall wellness remains our top priority. We've taken measures and applied learnings throughout the year to keep our employees safe. And as a result, I'm pleased to say that to date, we've had no We have also been supporting our employees' needs to balance their personal and professional obligations which has allowed us to productively progress both our operational and strategic agendas. Our second priority has been to support the communities in which we operate, and I'm proud to say that our employees have really leaned in. Consistent with our value of everyone belongs, our employees around the world have shown tremendous support for racial justice as we've elevated our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. As a company, we have enhanced our internal programs, clarified what community involvement and financial contributions. As an integral part of the food supply chain, we're also working to do our part to address the growing problem of food insecurity in the communities in which we operate, and again, I'm proud of our company's and employees' efforts to give back through charitable donations and volunteerism. All of this is in alignment with our purpose to make life better. Lastly, we've maintained an intense focus on business continuity on behalf of our customers, which has served them and, in turn, served us. lines and SKUs, and this has allowed us to get even closer to them during periods of swings in consumer demand. We understand the critical role we play in the food supply chain for our customers, and we strive to deliver on their behalf with each shipment we make. One example we'd like to highlight during the quarter is from our customer, Mondelez, who was recognized for its sustainable supply chain. We are proud to be a trusted, sustainable supplier who played an important role in enabling their success. We have also quickly pivoted to collaborate and co-create in real time. This has afforded us the ability to quickly and economically deliver on new concept and reformulation requests. as shown by our work for Chetty's, a low sugar, all natural cheddar cracker where we helped improve their margins by leveraging our technical expertise on reformulation. Now, turning our attention to the third quarter, we were pleased with our operational execution and financial results in the face of a challenging global environment. For the quarter, Our global net sales were down 5% compared to the year-ago period. Net sales were down 2% versus prior year. Quarter three results were sequentially better than the second quarter's 13% year-over-year decline in net sales. Adjusted operating income for the quarter was down 7% year-over-year, and down 4% absent foreign exchange translation impacts. Hey, Jim, let me just pardon you.