Kellanova

Good morning. Welcome to the Kellogg Company's first quarter 2023 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 Investor Relations and Corporate Planning for Kellogg 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 first quarter results and an update on our outlook for 2023. I'm joined this morning by Steve Cahillane, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Amit Banati, 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. 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. We're pleased to be able to report a very strong start to the year. In fact, it was stronger than we had anticipated and puts us in the enviable position of being able to raise our outlook for the full year. Our top-line growth momentum continues, as shown on slide number five. This was our fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit organic net sales growth. And beneath the magnitude of our Q1 growth are promising trends. We continue to deliver above our long-term growth target. We continue to deliver broad-based growth across each of our four regions and across each of our four major category groups. Our soon-to-be Kelanova businesses continue to grow strongly, led by snacks in emerging markets, all paced by our highly differentiated world-class brands. Our soon-to-be WK Kellogg Co. businesses continue to show recovery in net sales, consumption, and share. We have continued to execute revenue growth management actions across our businesses, right through the first quarter in order to keep up with high input cost inflation and we have supported our growth with sustained innovation and with the supply improving increased brand building investment so we feel very good about our top line growth momentum and outlook we also feel good about restoring our profit margins we said that this would be a year in which we stabilize and even improve our margins after being pressured the last couple of years by soaring input cost inflation and inefficiencies and costs related to bottlenecks and shortages. The chart on slide number six shows that margins are indeed stabilizing. In fact, better than expected margins are what drove most of the first quarter over delivery versus our expectations. Aside from what we're lapping, what's behind this improving underlying margin performance is what gives us increased confidence in the full year. Firstly, we continue to execute well on productivity initiatives and revenue growth management actions, both of which are starting to more fully catch up with our input cost inflation. Second, we continue to improve our service levels, and the bottlenecks and shortages that had created so much disruption are finally receding. So, while costs remain high, we are pleased with the quickened pace of our profit margin recovery. And it's not just the financials that are off to a good start in 2023. Kellogg's Better Days Promise our social and environmental program continues to be a strategic priority for us. And as shown on slide number seven, we were as active as ever in these areas during the first quarter. From actions visible in the marketplace, shown on the left-hand side of the page, to philanthropic and sustainability activities in the middle column, we continue to take an action-oriented approach. And the far right column shows that these actions continue to be recognized. We believe ESG is one of Kellogg Company's differentiating strengths and will continue to be when we are Kellanova and WK Kellogg. And speaking of Kellanova and WK Kellogg, we are very pleased with how our spinoff work is progressing. Slide number eight offers a high-level timeline of the work we are doing in order to be able to set up both companies for success provide you with the strategic and financial information you need, and execute the transaction. Everything is progressing well. The announcement of new company names has been well received by stakeholders. The organizational design work is finishing up with leadership team members already announced and the remainder of talent placements coming later in the second quarter. The design and setup of systems and processes for W.K. Kellogg is underway and various post-spin transition services continue to be ironed out. Prior year carve out financials are being prepared and we expect to have them audited in the next couple of months. During the third quarter we plan to test run WK Kellogg on its own from procurement to manufacturing to invoicing to financials and best of all employee sentiment and engagement remain very high. We expect to be able to provide you with information via a form 10 sometime in late summer followed by an investor event likely in late third quarter, during which we will be able to share with you the strategies, capital structures, and financial outlooks for both companies. That will all lead to the transaction, which takes place in the fourth quarter. Again, some of this is dependent on timing of regulatory and other customary approvals, but it should give you assurance that the information and transaction are not far away. And most importantly, All of this preparation work has only strengthened our conviction that this spinoff creates value for share owners. We are setting up both companies for success. WK Kellogg Co. will benefit from focus and resource prioritization, and Kellenova will be a higher growth company with 80% of sales coming from snacks and emerging markets. Now, let me turn it over to Amit, who will provide you the financial details of our first quarter and full year outlook.