Universal Corporation

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Universal Corporation first quarter fiscal year 2022 earnings call. At this time, all participants' lines are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, you may press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker for today, Ms. Candice Formacek. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Erica, and thank you all for joining us today. George Freeman, our Chairman, President, and CEO, Ayerson Henchke, our Chief Operating Officer, and Johan Kroner, our Chief Financial Officer, are here with me today and will join me in answering questions after these brief remarks. This call is being webcast live and will be available on our website, and on telephone taped replay. It will remain on our website through November 4th, 2021. Other than the replay, we have not authorized and disclaim responsibility for any recording, replay, or distribution of any transcription of this call. This call is copyrighted and may not be used without our permission. Before I begin to discuss our results, I caution you that we will be making forward-looking statements that are based on our current knowledge and some assumptions about the future. and a representative as of today only. Actual results could differ materially from projected or estimated results, and we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. This is a particular note during the current ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, when the length and severity of the crisis and resultant economic and business impacts are so difficult to predict. For information on some of the factors that can affect our estimates, I urge you to read our 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2021, and form 10-Q for the most recently ended fiscal quarter. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, customer mandated timing of shipments, weather conditions, political and economic environment, government regulation and taxation, changes in exchange rates and interest rates, industry consolidation and evolution, and changes in market structure or sources. Finally, some of the information I have for you today is based on unaudited allocations and is subject to reclassification. In an effort to provide useful information to investors, our comments today may include non-GAAP financial measures. For details on these measures, including reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures, please refer to our current earnings press release. We are off to a good start for fiscal year 2022. Results for our tobacco operation segment improved on higher African carryover tobacco shipments and a favorable tobacco product mix in the three months ended June 30, 2021, compared to the three months ended June 30, 2020. Our ingredients operation segment, which includes our October 2020 acquisition of Silva International, delivered very strong performance in the three months ended June 30, 2021. It is exciting to begin to see the positive outcome from our capital allocation strategy, which we put in place in May 2018 with the goal of ensuring that we are well positioned for the future. Investments in our tobacco business have enabled us to expand the supply chain services we provide our customers and to create footprint rationalization efficiencies, and we are seeing the returns from those investments in our results. Our plant-based ingredients platform is coming together nicely. We continue to believe we are on track for our ingredients businesses to meet our previously announced goal of representing 10 to 20% of our results in fiscal year 2022. We are excited about the performance of our investments thus far and will continue to seek prudent strategic opportunities to enhance our businesses and return value to our shareholders. Turning to our results, Net income for the quarter ended June 30, 2021 was 6.4 million or 26 cents per diluted share compared with 7.3 million or 29 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended June 30, 2020. Excluding restructuring and impairment costs and certain other non-recurring items detailed in other items in today's earnings release, net income and diluted earnings per share increased by 6.8 million and 28 cents respectively. for the quarter ended June 30, 2021, compared to the quarter ended June 30, 2020. Adjusted operating income, also detailed in today's earnings release, of $12.6 million, increased by $8.3 million for the first quarter of fiscal year 2022, compared to adjusted operating income of $4.4 million for the first quarter of fiscal year 2021. Consolidated revenues of $350 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 increased by $34.2 million compared to the same period in fiscal year 2021. The increase was mainly due to the addition of the business acquired in October 2020 in the ingredients operations segment, partly offset by modestly lower comparative leaf tobacco sales volumes. Turning to the segments, Tobacco operations, the first fiscal quarter is historically a slow quarter for our tobacco businesses. Operating income for the tobacco operations segment increased by 3.8 million to 8.9 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2021, compared with the quarter ended June 30, 2020. Although tobacco sales volumes were down modestly, segment results improved on carryover shipments, product mix, and increased supply chain services to customers in the quarter compared to the same quarter in the prior fiscal year. Carryover crop shipments were higher in Africa in the quarter ended June 30, 2021 compared to the same quarter in the prior fiscal year in part due to some shipments that were delayed from fiscal year 2021. Brazil experienced an improved product mix on lower volumes in the quarter ended June 30, 2021 compared to the same period in the prior fiscal year when high volumes of lower margin carryover crops shipped. Carryover tobacco crop shipments were lower and product mix was less favorable in Asia in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 compared to the same quarter in fiscal year 2021. And in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022, we also provided increased supply chain services to customers for wrapper tobacco compared to the same quarter in the prior fiscal year. Selling general and administrative expenses for the tobacco operations segment were lower in the quarter, ended June 30, 2021, compared to June 30, 2020, primarily on higher recoveries of value-added taxes and advances to suppliers. Operating income for the ingredients operations segment was $4.3 million for the quarter, ended June 30, 2021. compared to an operating loss of $0.7 million for the comparable quarter in the prior fiscal year. Results for the segment improved year over year on the inclusion of the October 2020 silva acquisition. For the first quarter of fiscal 2022, our ingredients operations saw strong volumes in both human and pet food categories, as well as some rebound in demand from sectors that have been suffering during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Selling general and administrative expenses increased in the quarter ended June 30, 2021, compared to the same quarter in the prior fiscal year on the addition of the acquired business. Our tobacco and plant-based ingredients businesses are both currently performing according to our plans. Like other industries, we are seeing some logistical constraints around the world with regard to vessel and container availability stemming from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, at this time, we do not know what significant such constraints may have on shipment timing or our results. We are continuing to monitor these and other pandemic-related conditions which affect our operations. And lastly, as part of our ongoing efforts to set high standards of social and environmental performance to support a sustainable supply chain, we have developed targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. which are consistent with the levels required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, limiting global warming to well below two degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels. Our targets were recently approved by the Science-Based Targets Initiative and reflect our commitment to reduce our global greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030. At this time, we are available to take your questions.

The floor is now open for questions. If you have any questions, please press Spar 1 on your telephone keypad. Again, that's Spar 1 on your telephone keypad. We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Anne Gherkin from Davenport & Co. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Good evening, everybody.