Universal Corporation

Thank you for standing by. My name is Jordan and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Universal Corporation third quarter fiscal year 2026 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. And if you'd like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I'd now like to turn the call over to Wu Shima, Vice President and Treasurer. You may begin.

Good evening, and thank you for joining us. With me today are President Wigner, our Chairman, President, and CEO, and Johan Kroner, our Chief Financial Officer. During the course of this call, we will be making forward-looking statements that are based on our current knowledge and some assumptions about the future. These are representative as of today only. Actual results performance or achievements could differ materially from anticipated results, prospects, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. And we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law. For information on some of the risks and uncertainties related to these forward-looking statements, please refer to the report we filed with ICC and under cautionary statements regarding forward-looking statements in our current earnings price release. Finally, some of the information we have for you today may be based on unaudited allocations and may be subject to reclassification. Our comments today may also include certain non-GAAP financial measures. For details regarding those measures, including reconciliation of those non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures, Please refer to our current earnings price release and other public materials. This call is being webcast live and will be available for replay on our website through May the 9th, 2026, and by telephone through February 23rd, 2026. This call is copyrighted and may not be used without our permission. Other than the reference to replay, we have not authorized and it is claimed responsibility for any recording, replay, or distribution of any transcription of this call. I would like to now turn the call over to Preston.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Fiscal year 2025 was an extraordinary year for Universal. We're following that year with solid performance to the end of our third quarter of fiscal year 2026. I'm proud of our company's dedication and commitment to delivering results for all our stakeholders. During the third quarter of our fiscal year, our team executed well and advanced the strategic priorities that support long-term value creation. I'll start with our tobacco operations segment, which generated solid quarterly results in comparison to a robust third quarter last fiscal year. Customer demand remained firm for most tobacco styles following several years of undersupply. We continue to leverage our diverse global footprint, long-standing customer relationships, and deep local expertise to optimize results as the market transitions into an oversupply environment. Turning to the ingredients operations segment, we continue to advance our strategy in order to build durable commercial and operational fundamentals that support sustained growth. Sales revenue for our value-added products has started to make up a significant portion of our overall ingredients revenue. However, our segment results reflect higher fixed costs from the significant investments we made, which have compressed margins. Additionally, market headwinds, such as the broader softness in the consumer packaged goods sector, weighed on our business, directly and indirectly, and tariff impacts were more pronounced during this quarter. These headwinds reinforce the importance of our disciplined and deliberate approach to investing in the resources and capabilities needed to provide resiliency and grow our ingredients business for the long term. While our global commercial and operational teams focused on delivering strong results, we also took several meaningful steps to strengthen our company and position ourselves for the future. We refinanced, upsized, and improved our corporate credit facility which significantly expanded our liquidity and improved financial flexibility. And earlier today, we were excited to announce the appointment of our new CFO, Stephen S. Diehl, effective April 1st. Steve brings strong financial, business, and strategic expertise to his new role, and I look forward to working closely with him to advance our company's strategies and deliver value to our stakeholders. I will now turn the call over to Johan to review our financial and operational performance in more detail, after which I'll share a few additional thoughts.