McDonald's Corporation

Hello, and welcome to McDonald's Third Quarter 2021 Investor Call. At the request of McDonald's Corporation, this conference is being recorded. Following today's presentation, there will be a question and answer session for investors. At that time, investors only may ask a question by pressing star 1 on their touchtone phone. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Mike Seplak, Investor Relations Officer for McDonald's Corporation.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. With me on the call today are President and Chief Executive Officer Chris Kempczynski and Chief Financial Officer Kevin Ozan. As a reminder, the forward-looking statements in our earnings release and 8-K filing also apply to our comments on the call today. Both of those documents are available on our website, as are reconciliations of any non-GAAP financial measures mentioned on today's call, along with their corresponding GAAP measures. Following prepared remarks this morning, we'll take your questions. Please limit yourself to one question and then reenter the queue for any additional questions. Today's conference call is being webcast and is also being recorded for replay via our website. And now I'll turn it over to Chris.

Thanks, Mike, and good morning, everyone. As the largest restaurant business in the world, our size and scale are a competitive advantage that we've built and nurtured for over six decades. Our 40,000 restaurants in over 100 countries are predominantly run by local owner-operators, connecting the business to the 40,000 communities in which we operate. These local connections embed a level of agility that complements our size and scale, enabling local teams to adapt and adjust to operating conditions that vary by country, community, and even restaurant in real time. It's what makes McDonald's special. It's also how we're able to use scale and agility, how we can be both big and nimble, to achieve something truly unique. And thanks to the resilience across all three legs of our stool, franchisees, suppliers, and the company, and the scale and agility that we deploy collectively, I'm confident in our ability to meet whatever challenges may confront us. From restrictions driven by new COVID variants to supply chain pressures and labor shortages across industries, to any other unknown unknowns. We're approaching the one-year anniversary of Accelerating the Arches, which took shape in response to changing customer needs early in the pandemic. Rooted in the inherent strengths of the McDonald's system and brand, it's proving to be the right strategy with the right focus at the right time. We're evolving the customer experience in ways both large and small to meet changing customer needs and maintain our market leadership. Our three growth pillars, known as our MCDs, marketing, core menu, and the three Ds of digital delivery and drive-through, guide our business. This includes amplifying contactless channels like delivery and drive-through and creating digital experiences that are seamless, personalized, and easy to use. We've continued to make excellent progress this past quarter, and I want to thank the McDonald's people all over the world who are performing under trying conditions. Let me turn it over to Kevin to walk through our top line results.