Local Bounti Corporation

Greetings and welcome to Local Bounty's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listening 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 would like to turn the conference call over to Jeff Sonick, Investor Relations at ICR. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good afternoon. Today's presentation will be hosted by Local Bounty's Chief Executive Officer, Anna Fabrega, 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 Anna. Go ahead.

Thank you, Jeff, and welcome to everyone on the call. I'd like to start today's call by highlighting some of our recent accomplishments, and then I'll share some insights on the operational improvements that we are integrating into our business. Kathy will round out the call with her financial discussion before opening the call for your questions. I continue to see incredible opportunity ahead for Local Bounty. We believe our patent-pending stack and flow technology, which combines the best aspects of traditional greenhouse approaches with vertical growing technology, is an efficient solution that can help solve food shortages globally. In early October, we completed the build-out of our Georgia facility with the finalization of Phase Ic. This represents the final phase of construction and was focused on the integration of our vertical plant incubators, which we call stacks. This is a huge milestone for us as it creates, for the first time, a large scaled growing facility that brings together all the technological advancements that our team has developed at our Hamilton, Montana facility. It is also a model for our facilities in Texas and Washington that are expected to open in the coming months. And perhaps most importantly, This greater capacity at Georgia will allow us to double our shipment volume to our large club customer under our offtake agreement, and we expect to see increased deliveries in the coming weeks. Given the significance of the planned increase in shipments, we took the time to thoughtfully calibrate our workflows and optimize our operations while Georgia's Phase 1c stack integration process was underway to account for the larger footprint and 40% greater capacity generated by the stack system. This involved taking an intentional look in the mirror and scrutinizing every level of operations to identify points of friction and how best to resolve them. This is the natural next step for local bounty following the development and integration of our patent-pending stack technology. We are now focused on harnessing the opportunity we have with stack and flow by implementing a production system which is focused on eliminating waste. Some of the key elements that we have put in place as part of our production system are hiring facility-level leadership with operational backgrounds at all levels, setting benchmark productivity goals, implementing standardized workflows for all processes, providing transparency to all associates so there's a clear view of performance, and advancing our ability to execute just-in-time production. I'd like to emphasize the focus that we are bringing to the organization with respect to operational execution. We have made large commitments with these build-outs to support retail partners that are key to lean into this category of fresh, local, and sustainably grown produce. It is absolutely imperative that we identify and implement replicable operating standards across our growing facilities to create the efficiency that underpins our long-term goals. After all, it is because of our unique ability to combine sustainability, efficiency, and quality at scale that we are able to attract leading global retailers like Sam's Club to Local Bounty. In order to achieve our goals of scaling the business and delivering the financial returns we believe are inherent in our model, we need to adapt to ensure that we have the right infrastructure and people in place to position Local Bounty for success. As part of this process, We have optimized our organizational structure and continue to add key talent to help accelerate our strategy. Most recently, we've appointed Bheeml Patel as our Chief Operating Officer. Bheeml brings to our team over 30 years of progressive experience and operational leadership at several global blue chip companies, including Amazon, Whirlpool, Ford, and UPS. Prior to joining us, BMO worked at Amazon for 11 years as its regional director of operations and most recently served as the worldwide director of Amazon Logistics Planning and Engineering. We are leveraging BMO's deep expertise across operations, process engineering, and logistics to ensure that our organization is optimized to drive efficiencies across all facets of our business. providing us with an opportunity to demonstrate how Local Bounty is redefining agriculture. The third quarter marked a transition period for Local Bounty. We continue to work hard to perfect the art and science of our technology, and the result is a standardized and hyper-efficient manufacturing process which we can replicate across our growing footprint. Beginning in the fourth quarter, we enter a new upward trajectory, and with the focus we are putting on our operations, I am confident that we have an organization that is up to the task of generating financial returns in the quickest and most efficient way possible. I look forward to demonstrating our progress in the quarters and years to come. With that, I will turn the call over to Kathy.