Kellanova

Good morning. Welcome to the Kellogg Company's second quarter 2021 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Please note, this event is being recorded. At this time, I will turn the call over to John Renwick, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Planning for Kellogg Company. Mr. Renwick, you may begin your conference call.

Thank you, Gary. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for a review of our second quarter 2021 results, as well as an update regarding our outlook for the full year 2021. I'm joined this morning by Steve Cahillane, our Chairman and CEO, and Amit Banati, our Chief Financial Officer. Slide number three shows our forward-looking statements disclaimer. As you are aware, certain statements made today, such as projections for Kellogg Company's future performance, are forward-looking statements. Actual results could be materially different from those projected. For further information concerning factors that could cause these results to differ, please refer to this third slide of the presentation as well as to our public SEC filings. This is a particular note during the current COVID-19 pandemic when the length and severity of the crisis and resultant economic and business impacts are so difficult to predict. A recording of today's webcast and supporting documents will be archived for at least 90 days on the investor page of KelloggCompany.com. As always, when referring to our results and outlook, unless otherwise noted, we will be referring to them on an organic basis for net sales and on a currency-neutral adjusted basis for operating profit and earnings per share. And now I'll turn it over to Steve.

Thanks, John, and good morning, everyone. I hope you and your families are doing well. There is no question that we are still managing through a pandemic. In this environment, keeping employees safe remains job number one, and aiding our communities is more important than ever. We also continue to supply the world with food, though this remains challenging as the pandemic persists. A reacceleration of COVID cases has brought on new restrictions, causing temporary shutdowns of production in some countries. Meantime, we and the vendors that supply us are having to manage through bottlenecks and shortages of materials, labor, and freight, all created by demand-supply imbalances that are also pushing up costs. So 2021 is shaping up to be anything but business as usual, and I'm extremely proud of how our organization continues to persevere and succeed in such challenging conditions. I'm also pleased with how well we continue to execute against our strategy, Deploy for Balanced Growth, which is depicted on slide number six. From a business perspective, demand in eating occasions at home remained elevated in quarter two, but they are gradually shifting as consumer mobility returns. In the second quarter, this was reflected in an as-forecast continuation of decelerating at-home demand growth, as measured by two-year compound annual growth rates in our cereal and frozen categories around the world. We also saw signs of gradual recovery in away-from-home channels in an on-the-go snacks and pack formats. These channels grew year-on-year and better than forecast, even if they remain below 2019 levels. Our Deploy for Growth boosters are working effectively, from focusing on ever-evolving occasions to leveraging our reshaped portfolio to driving momentum in our world-class brands and to investing in our supply chain to better serve our customers. Our Better Days boosters, which further our ESG efforts, continue to work effectively as well. A few Better Days highlights are shared on slide number seven. During the second quarter, we continued to progress toward our ongoing Better Days commitments. The slide calls out a few of our actions and achievements of the quarter. The key message is that this remains a critical element of our strategy, a clear focus of management, and a part of the DNA of Kellogg Company. And we turned in another quarter of strong business performance in the second quarter, as discussed on slide number 8th. Overall, at-home demand remained elevated, and we saw continued recovery in our away-from-home channels. Most encouraging has been the momentum demonstrated by key long-term growth engines for us. Our world-class snacks brands sustained their momentum, with many continuing to outpace their respective categories. Our plant-based protein businesses continued to show strong growth. Our emerging markets businesses sustained their rapid growth and continued to excel even amidst challenging business conditions. Meanwhile, we continue to manage through the global supply challenges I referred to earlier, even as we continue to bring on our planned capacity increases. From a financial standpoint, our second quarter continued the balanced delivery that we returned to in 2020. Specifically, comparing to pre-COVID 2019, we realized another quarter of strong organic top-line growth and operating profit growth, as well as improved cash flow generation. We are affirming our full-year guidance today. Like so many others, we are currently facing increased cost inflation and supply hurdles, and that is factored into our second half assumptions. Nonetheless, the business is showing good momentum, and just as we work through these challenges in the second quarter, we're confident we can work through them in the second half as well. Let me now turn it over to Amit so he can take you through our financial results and outlook in more detail.