Local Bounti Corporation

Good morning and welcome to the Local Bounties full year 2022 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please also note today's event is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference call over to Jeff Sonick, Investor Relations at ICR.

Please go ahead. Thank you and good morning. Today's presentation will be hosted by Local Bounties co-CEOs Craig Hurlburt and Travis Joyner, President Brian Cook, and Chief Financial Officer Kathleen Valasek. The comments made during today's call contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts are considered forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Some of these risks and uncertainties are identified and discussed in the company's filings with the SEC. We'll also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures today. Please refer to the press release, which can be found on our investor relations website, investors.localbounty.com. for reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures. With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Craig Hurlburt, Co-CEO. Craig?

Thank you, Jeff, and good morning, everyone. 2022 marked our first full year as a public company. We made significant advancements in the refinement and productivity of our stack and flow technology, which continues to underpin our business model as the optimal capital efficient tool to enhance crop turns and maximize return on investment across a variety of CEA approaches. Beyond our greenfield expansion, this affords us great flexibility to establish greater scale quickly through strategic acquisitions, which we demonstrated with the PEATS acquisition last April. As we approach the anniversary of that transaction, our team is relentlessly exploring new ways to integrate our technologies to further improve upon the productivity of those assets, while also driving the business forward with new product development. With our distribution reach, which surpasses 10,000 doors, combined with our growing capacity that is improving by the day, we've attracted new commercial partnerships and expanded upon others. Most notably, the offtake agreement with the Sam's Club. that we announced in November of 2022 for our leafy greens production. Others are taking notice of our rapid scale up and enhanced capabilities too. As such, our near-term focus continues to be on the completion of our ongoing facilities, including the implementation of our stack systems. This is the critical link in our ability to generate additional capacity while simultaneously driving yield improvements and it is the basis by which we will be able to meet the pent-up demand we are experiencing for fresh, sustainable, and locally grown produce. Looking ahead to 2023, we are in a great position to continue advancing our business across all fronts. As you may have seen, today we announced an aggregate of up to $145 million of new financing. Kathy will speak to this in greater detail but we are pleased with our strategic financing partnership with Cargill and the sale-leaseback transaction, the combination of which are allowing us to execute our growth initiatives despite the challenges presented by the current macroeconomic backdrop. Moreover, with this additional capital, we believe that we have the funding required to drive the business to positive adjusted EBITDA, which will be a major milestone not just for local bounty, but for the entire CEA industry. We are proving that we can continue to drive top-line growth and simultaneously generate healthy margins as we scale the business in a responsible, capital-efficient manner. This is due in large part by the continued gains we are making with our stack and flow technology to drive improving unit economics, which our co-CEO, Travis Joyner, will speak to. And then our president, Brian Cook, will provide some further commentary around our commercial strategies, product development, and an update on our various construction projects before Kathy concludes with her financial review. On a personal note, I would like to extend a huge thank you to the hardworking members of the Local Bounty team. It is an honor to work with each of you, such dedicated and passionate professionals. With that, I'll now pass it over to Travis.