Pyxus Intl Inc New

Thank you. With me this morning are Peter Sickle, our president and CEO, and Flavia Landsberg, our CFO. Before we begin discussing our financial results, I would like to cover a few points. You may hear statements during the course of this call that express a belief, expectation, or intention, as well as those that are not historical fact. These statements are forward-looking and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events and results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are described in detail along with other risks and uncertainties in our filings with the SEC, including our most recent on 10-K. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements made on this conference call to reflect any changes in management's expectations or any change in assumptions or circumstances on which these statements are based. During our call today, we will reference certain financial measures that are not calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. These non-GAAP financial measurements, including earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, commonly referred to as EBITDA or adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, are not measures or results of operations under generally accepted accounting principles in the United States and should not be considered as an alternative to U.S. GAAP measures. A table including a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures the comparable gap measures and other disclosures regarding these non-gap financial measures is included in the appendix to the presentation and in the company's earnings pursuant issued earlier today any replay rebroadcast transcript or other reproduction of this conference call other than the replay as provided by pixis international has not been authorized and is strictly prohibited investors should be aware that any unauthorized reproduction of this conference call may not be an accurate reflection of his content. During the call today, Peter will provide an overview of our operating results and share insights into our ESG efforts. Flavia will then provide details of Pixis's financial results. Now I'll hand the call over to Peter.

Good morning. Thank you for joining our call today. Fiscal year 2024 is off to a strong start with increased demand, higher tobacco prices, and solid margins during the first quarter, driving a 39% increase in revenue and 172% increase in adjusted EBITDA year over year. Our increased sales were driven by high customer demand, increased tobacco prices, and the significant acceleration of customer shipments into quarter one from later in the fiscal year. A favorable customer mix during the quarter boosted margins on tobacco shipped to customers. During the first two quarters of our fiscal year, we typically purchase the majority of tobacco from farmers growing in the southern hemisphere, which we ship to customers later in the year. Also during the second quarter and into the third quarter, we typically purchase tobacco from farmers in the northern hemisphere. We estimate that we reach the peak of our fiscal 2024 purchases during the first quarter. We accelerated our buying significantly, using our geographic footprint to acquire tobacco inventory from multiple markets to meet higher current crop supply requirements and customer demand for the year. At quarter end, we completed most of our purchasing in Africa and South America, well ahead of the typical year, to bring our inventory level to $1 billion. Pixus's uncommitted inventories remain near all-time lows during the quarter. As a result, fiscal 2024 customer shipments will use a higher percentage of the tobacco purchased during the current fiscal year compared to the prior year. During the cohort turn, we continued to focus on the aggressive management of our working capital, which enabled the noteworthy acceleration of our operating cycle and fueled higher sales and stronger results than in the previous year. This provided PIXUS funding and liquidity needed to purchase significantly larger volumes of more expensive tobacco compared to fiscal 2023. Flavia will discuss this further in a moment. Looking across the industry, we anticipate ongoing strong demand and pricing as undersupply conditions are expected to persist throughout the fiscal year. Our teams around the world diligently monitor the weather and other risk factors that could affect our results. and we believe we are ready to adjust our strategies as needed to meet our objectives. Before I turn the call over to Flavia, I'd like to congratulate our teams on an outstanding ESG win for our business. Recently, our joint venture in India commissioned a solar plant with the goal of driving operational efficiencies, mitigating the risk of power outages, and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. The solar plant came online during the closing days of fiscal 2023, And during its first few months of operation, we generated approximately one-third of the energy required to run our tobacco processing facility during daylight hours. Self-generated solar energy can produce an annual cost savings of 30% when compared to electricity purchased from the grid, and its use is expected to reduce the facility's annual emissions by even more than 30%. Thank you to the team members who conceived and executed this initiative. Now, I will turn the call over to Flavia to give details on our results.

Flavia?