Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:LW) Q1 2021 Earnings Conference Call - Final Transcript

Good day, and welcome to the Lamb Weston First Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. Today's conference is being recorded.

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Dexter Congbalay, VP, Investor Relations of Lamb Weston. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thank you for joining us for Lamb Weston's first quarter 2021 earnings call. This morning, we issued our earnings press release, which is available on our website, lambweston.com.

Please note that during our remarks, we'll make some forward-looking statements about the company's expected performance. These statements are based on how we see things today. Actual results may differ materially due to risks and uncertainties. Please refer to the cautionary statements and risk factors contained in our SEC filings for more details on our forward-looking statements.

Some of today's remarks include non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered a replacement for and should be read together with our GAAP results. You can find the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliations in our earnings release.

With me today are Tom Werner, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Rob McNutt, our Chief Financial Officer. Tom will provide an overview of the current operating environment as well as other business updates. Rob will then provide some details on our first quarter results as well as some trends that we're seeing so far in the second quarter.

With that, let me now turn the call over to Tom.

Thank you, Dexter. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call today. I hope that you and your families continue to be well.

Let me just start off by saying that I feel good about our performance in the quarter and how we are executing as a company. This is a testament to the Lamb Weston team, and I want to thank them for their commitment to each other and our company, as well as their continued service to our customers, suppliers and communities.

As we navigate this challenging environment, our first priority remains ensuring the health and safety of our employees. Since the onset of the pandemic, we have instituted more rigorous operating protocols across the company, especially for our production and front-line teams that work to keep feeding the world while keeping our manufacturing facilities and products safe. In some cases, this has created additional burdens for our team members and their families, and I want to thank them for their commitment and understanding.

I continue to be inspired by the spirit of teamwork that our employees show every day, and that makes me proud to be a part of this great company.

In addition to the hard work by our team, our improved financial performance versus our fourth quarter of 2020 reflects two broad factors. First, the operating environment has steadily recovered over the past few months with restaurant traffic and fry demand improving in North America and most of our key markets. Second, we have gotten better at managing through the disruption that the pandemic