Kellanova

Good morning. Welcome to Keller Company's fourth quarter 2022 earnings 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 with publishing analysts. At this time, I will turn the call over to John Renwick, Vice President of the Festivalations Incorporate Planning for Keller Company. Mr. Renwick, you may begin your conference call.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for a review of our fourth quarter and full year 2022 results, as well as our outlook for 2023. I'm joined this morning by Steve Cahillane, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Amit Bhanati, our Vice Chairman and 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 the third slide of this presentation, as well as to our public SEC filings. This is of particular note amidst the current operating environment, which includes unusually high input cost inflation, global supply disruptions, and other uncertain global macroeconomic conditions, all of whose direction, length, and severity 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. The fourth quarter completed what was an excellent year. competitively, financially, and in terms of the grit and skill our organization demonstrated in executing through what were truly extraordinary circumstances. The strength of our snacks portfolio was clearly evident, with double-digit net sales growth across all regions, underpinned by strong in-market performance. We sustained exceptional growth in emerging markets, led by our noodles and other portfolio in Africa, but also posting strong growth in snacks and cereal across EMEA and Latin America. We mitigated the profit impact of unusually high input costs that accelerated during the year, leaning into productivity, and carefully executed revenue growth management actions. We navigated through economy-wide supply bottlenecks and shortages and worked to restore capacity in much of our business, most notably in North America cereal and North America frozen foods. The result of all of this was strong financial delivery that exceeded expectations throughout the year, prompting us to raise guidance more than once this year for net sales, operating profit, and EPS, and still over-deliver that guidance thanks to a strong fourth quarter. We also announced, planned, and made significant progress toward a separation of our company that will not only improve performance of North America Cereal Co., but provide clearer visibility into the strength of the snacks-oriented parent company. With all of this going on and amidst global supply disruptions and high costs, we kept our focus on sustaining momentum in all of our businesses. We stayed true to our Deploy for Growth strategy, leveraging our growth-shaped portfolio, orienting our brand building and innovation toward winning occasions, and sustaining momentum in our biggest world-class brands, all while working to restore service levels and leveraging all levers of revenue growth management in an attempt to keep up with soaring cost inflations. The results of this focus on sustaining momentum are shown clearly in our organic net sales growth, which is shown on slide number six. Not only did our sales come in ahead of expectations every quarter, but our growth accelerated sequentially every quarter. And this growth was impressively broad-based in all four of our regions and in all four of our major category groups, snacks, cereal, frozen, and noodles and other. We also remain committed to our Better Days strategy toward environmental, social, and governance practices. Slide number seven shows some examples of tangible actions taken and recognitions received during the fourth quarter alone, illustrating this continued commitment. And you can expect us to maintain this focus on execution and reliable financial delivery in 2023. Slide number eight shows that you can expect many of the same drivers of this financial delivery as we saw in 2022. Our snacks business, which is roughly half of today's Kellogg company, should see sustained momentum led by truly world-class brands. In our strong emerging markets businesses, we expect to continue to drive growth and manage through what are always interesting macroeconomic conditions. Input cost inflation remains high, which means we will again be focused on realizing productivity and cost savings, supplemented by utilizing all levers of our data-based revenue growth management disciplines around the world. And we continue to progress on our supply recovery in specific businesses. As a result, we are forecasting growth in net sales and operating profit that are above our long-term targets, even as we continue to invest in the enhancement of capabilities, service levels, and the strength of our brands. Meanwhile, we continue to march toward the separation into more focused companies, starting with the spinoff of North American Cereal Company, still scheduled for late this year. Work has progressed on the carving out of financials, the designing of new organizations, and the separation of key systems and processes. Separately, you'll recall that we were exploring strategic options for the plant-based food business, which represents about 2% of our company's net sales. Given current market conditions, as well as our confidence in this business as a long-term growth vehicle, we have decided to retain it as part of Global Snacking Company. We remain as confident as ever in the value to be created by making Global Snacking Company and North American Cereal Company more focused, with better visibility into and valuation of their performance and outlook. In short, we are poised for another good year of results. Before discussing our businesses in detail, let me now turn it over to Hamid for a review of our financials.