Universal Corporation

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

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. With me today are President Wigner, our Chairman, President, and CEO, and Steve Deal, our recently appointed 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 the 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 reports we filed with the ICC and under cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements in our current earnings price release. Finally, some of the information we have filled 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 these measures, including the reconciliation of these 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 August 29, 2026, and by telephone through June 12, 2026. This call is copyrighted and may not be used without our permission. Other than the reference replay, we have now authorized and disclaimed responsibility for any recording, replay, or distribution of any transcription on this call. I would like now to turn the call over to Preston.

Thank you, Woosh. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Our fiscal year 2026 performance reflected solid execution across much of our business. operating in a market environment that shifted meaningfully from the prior year. We saw oversupply in certain tobacco styles and continued market headwinds in our ingredients business, which impacted volumes and margins. Amidst these challenges, our teams around the globe demonstrated the resilience of our tobacco operations, and we continue to focus on the progress we are making to support the long-term growth of our ingredients operations. However, Our financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year were impacted by a non-cash goodwill impairment related to our universal ingredient shanks operation and by inventory write-downs primarily related to non-wrapper dark air cured tobacco. We remain confident in our tobacco and ingredient strategies and the steps we've taken to adapt to current market conditions and position the business for the future. With more than 100 years of operating experience and a market-leading position, our leaf tobacco business has demonstrated its durability across market cycles. At the same time, we believe our ingredients strategy, which focuses on innovation and solution-based products, is well aligned with customer needs and long-term value creation. We have invested over several years to build a scalable ingredients platform with necessary capacity and capabilities, and we believe the platform is well positioned for future growth. Supporting both these priorities is our continued advancements in sustainability, which remains an increasingly important expectation across our global value chain. During the fourth fiscal quarter, Universal advanced from an A- to an A rating in the Carbon Disclosure Project's Supplier Engagement Assessment. In addition, we were recognized as a CDP Supplier Engagement Leader and named to CDP's Supplier Engagement A-List, underscoring the strengths of our governance, admissions management, and collaboration with suppliers. Strong financial discipline and leadership are critical to executing across both our operating segments. In February, we announced the appointment of Steve Deals, our Chief Financial Officer, effective April 1st. Steve has been with Universal since 2018 and has more than 25 years of experience across finance, corporate development, and business strategy. He is a trusted Universal leader with significant financial expertise, a deep understanding of our operations, and a proven record of strategic execution. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Steve to review our financial results in more detail.