Hello, everyone. This is J.T. Rick, EVP of Finance and Investor Relations. Welcome to the pre-recorded discussion of Flowers Foods 2025 third quarter results. We will host a live Q&A session Friday, November 7th at 8.30 a.m. Eastern. Further details about the live call, along with our earnings release, a transcript of these recorded remarks, and a related slide presentation are posted on the Investor section of flowersfoods.com. Before we get started, keep in mind that the information presented here may include forward-looking statements about the company's performance. Although we believe these statements to be reasonable, they are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. In addition to what you hear in these remarks, important factors relating to Flowers Foods' business are fully detailed in our SEC filings. Providing remarks today are Riles McMullen, Chairman and CEO, and Steve Kinsey, our CFO. Riles, I'll turn it over to you.
Thanks, JT, and thanks everybody for joining our call. I'm pleased to report our third quarter results, which reflect the continued strong relative performance of our leading brands. Our work to proactively transform our portfolio to better align with consumer preferences is showing promise and gives me great confidence in our longer-term path forward. We continue to invest in innovation to further advance that transformation. There's no doubt that macroeconomic uncertainty and shifting consumer demand are creating headwinds for food companies. These headwinds are evident in the bread category, which continues to underperform, with units declining 2.9% in the third quarter compared to a 1.8% decline for the overall food category. Within bread, traditional loaf, an area to which we are particularly exposed, is under even more pressure, with units declining 6.3%. The generational shift I discussed last quarter referred to that pressure on traditional loaf. Although in its current forum this segment may become a smaller portion of the category over time, we are actively working to mitigate that trend by redefining traditional loaf, incorporating more value and better-for-you attributes that align with shifting consumer preferences. And our leading brands uniquely position us to capitalize on this opportunity and lead the category through this transition. NatureZone is the original cleaner label mainstream bread brand, and we solidified our dominant position in Better For You bread products with the acquisitions of DKB and Canyon Bakehouse. More recently, the introduction of keto, protein, and sourdough bread highlights our leadership in Better For You products, while small lows target the value opportunity. We intend to continue differentiating our brands to further solidify our competitive position in the category. Despite category headwinds, I remain optimistic about our long-term prospects for several reasons. First, we expect category demand to normalize. As the economy strengthens, lower-end consumers may trade up from value-oriented products to more differentiated branded products like Nature's Own and Wonder. Improved consumer confidence should also boost higher-margin premium products, which are outperforming even in the current environment. Second, the initiatives we are taking to align our portfolio with changing consumer demand are gaining traction and driving improvement in key parts of our business. Notably, despite the overall underperformance in the bread category, sales of our differentiated products, particularly those with better-for-you attributes, are encouraging. I'll highlight some of those positive results shortly. To mitigate the current headwinds, we remain focused on innovation to continue transforming our portfolio. This strategic approach allows us to target attractive opportunities within our existing categories while expanding into new adjacencies that promise exciting growth prospects. We're confident that by concentrating on the factors within our control, we can maximize our near-term performance while supporting more consistent long-term growth. Now I'll provide an overview of our third quarter performance in the context of our four strategic priorities, developing our team, focusing on our brands, prioritizing margins, and pursuing smart M&A. Following that, Steve will review our financial results and guidance, and then I'll close with a discussion of key themes moving forward. As we reflect on our performance and the challenges we face, I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to our employees. Their hard work, dedication, and unwavering commitment have been instrumental in driving our results. It is their passion and resilience that enable us to adapt and innovate, positioning us for future success. On that note, I'd also like to recognize and celebrate Steve Kinsey, who will be retiring at the end of this year. Through many years of dedicated service to flowers, Steve has brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our team and truly embodied the core values of our culture, honesty, integrity, respect, and passion. As the longest tenured CFO in the food industry, his leadership has been instrumental in guiding our company through various stages of growth and transformation. He has committed his career to Flowers and has been a valued partner and friend to me personally, as well as the broader leadership team. I am deeply grateful for the significant impact he has made on our organization and the strong foundation he leaves behind. As we bid farewell to Steve, in January, we will be welcoming Anthony Scaglione as our new CFO. Anthony joins us with a remarkable track record of success, having led significant transformations at other companies, navigating challenging situations with skill and strategic insight. In his role as CFO, Anthony will help guide our company's financial strategy and oversee critical functions as we navigate through today's complex and competitive landscape. His extensive experience across a broad range of disciplines, coupled with a proven ability to lead high-performing teams with a solutions-oriented approach, positions him well to drive our next phase of growth. Focusing on our brands is our second strategic priority, and they have never been more important to the success of Flowers Foods. Each of our leading brands either gained or held unit share during the quarter. DKBN Canyon grew unit share by 30 and 10 basis points respectively, while Nature's Own and Wonder maintained share. Despite the challenging environment, DKBN Canyon continued to thrive, with overall units increasing an astounding 10% and 6% respectively, while the bread category declined 3%. We're leveraging our leading brands to find pockets of growth in an otherwise soft category, and that investment is paying off, driving growth even in segments that are declining. Our strong performance in specialty premium loaf, sandwich buns and rolls, breakfast and cake highlight those gains. In the third quarter, we grew specialty premium loaf units 4%, achieving our highest share ever, while the subcategory declined 4%. DKB and Canyon drove that performance, growing 6% and 8% in this subcategory and gaining 180 and 30 basis points of unit share, respectively. While sandwich buns and rolls category units declined 2%, flowers grew 7%, gaining 80 basis points of unit share. With a combination of existing differentiated products and innovation, Wonder, Nature's Own, and DKB grew by 4%, 12%, and 60%, respectively. Particularly strong contributors include Nature's Own Perfectly Crafted Brioche, Nature's Own Keto, and DKB Sandwich Rolls. DKB also helped produce strong results in the breakfast segment, where flowers achieved an all-time high in unit share, up 60 basis points to 6.9%. Units increased 6%, while the overall segment declined 4%. Shelf space gains in DKB's premium offerings, particularly bagels, contributed the bulk of that growth. Additionally, consistent with our strategy targeting value opportunities in the bread category, Wunder's recent entry into the breakfast space also contributed to our outstanding performance. After a successful 2024 West Coast launch for Wunder English Muffins and Bagels, we're in the process of expanding distribution nationally and are excited about the possibilities as we leverage the brand's high awareness. Wunder also continued to drive strong performance in the cake category, where we grew 1% despite category units declining 5%. That performance was led by Wonder, which gained 80 basis points of unit share, with Tasty Cake experiencing only minor cannibalization. The ability to increase sales in a declining cake category validates our decision to leverage Wonder's leading consumer awareness. Its success also highlights our ability to find unique ways to maximize our brands and assets to drive growth even in difficult environments. Turning now to small loaves, demand is increasing rapidly with category units up 85% in the third quarter. Our expanded selection of NatureZone and Wonder Brand small loaf offerings drove exponential growth and enabled us to quickly capture the number two market share position. We gained 15 points of unit share in the quarter and remain very optimistic about the potential for these products. To continue our progress, we recently announced an exciting slate of on-trend innovation with an emphasis on better-for-you items that target the strongest pockets of growth in our category. Our newest products build on earlier launches of Nature's Own Keto offerings, an expanded selection of small loaves, wonder snack cakes, and Canyon sourdough-style bread. Among the new products are a higher protein loaf from our Nature's Own Life lineup and DKB Supreme Sourdough. We have a robust pipeline of additional innovation and expect to continue to bring fresh, differentiated options that speak directly to today's consumers. We're making steady progress in our Better For You snacking portfolio. DKB Organic Snack Bars are performing well in the Nutritional Snack Bar subcategory, and our Amped Up Protein Bars are perfect for consumers gravitating to products with protein attributes. The national launch of DKB Organic Snack Bites is progressing well. With a mix of six sweet and savory flavors, we're expanding distribution across the mass, grocery, and convenience channels. Retailer response to the upcoming launch of additional Better for You Snacking innovation has been enthusiastic. Early next year, we're introducing 10 new SKUs featuring exciting new flavors of bars and bites, along with the launch of a new DKB Breakfast Bars platform. Our third strategic priority is margins. Given the difficult industry volume trends combined with additional pressure from tariffs, it is incumbent upon us to adjust our cost base. We're focused on aligning our supply chain with changing demand, and in recent years, we have closed several bakeries while converting others to higher-margin organic production. We will continue to make adjustments when necessary to best adapt our supply chain to current and expected future demand. Perhaps more important for long-term margin growth and cost savings initiatives is the successful execution of our portfolio strategy, whereby we work to increase the percentage of sales of higher-margin branded retail products. Our investments in innovation are crucial to that process and for achieving our long-term financial goals. But new products generally offer lower margins than more mature ones. The increased cadence of new product introductions will temporarily pressure our overall margins as we invest to generate consumer trial and ramp production volumes. Over the long term, we expect these investments to expand our category leadership and drive significant shareholder value. Our fourth priority is Smart M&A. The integration of Simple Mills is progressing well. We're pleased with the brand's continued strong results as it continued to outperform many of its competitors in the overall and natural categories in which it competes. Simple Mills generated particular strength in its largest categories, crackers and cookies, where it grew units and track channels 14% and 23% respectively. Overall growth moderated compared to first-half results, largely due to traffic declines at select retailers and softness in the bar category performance. However, results remain on track with our original estimates and we're excited about its potential to drive growth for many years. Our capital allocation priority is to maintain an investment-grade rating while returning to a more normalized leverage ratio, enabling us to explore further growth investments. As always, we will continue to evaluate our capital allocation strategies to ensure we maximize shareholder value while balancing risk and reward and an appropriate leverage ratio. Now I'll turn it over to Steve to review the details of the quarter, and then I'll close with our outlook for the current business environment.
Thank you for your kind words, Riles. It has truly been an honor to work alongside such an exceptionally talented and passionate team. Together, we have navigated through a period of significant change for the bread category. I take great pride in all that we have accomplished as Flowers has evolved through innovation, transformation, and acquisition. I am also deeply grateful for the support of the investment community and the relationships I have built with many of you. As I enter this next chapter, I am filled with confidence in our incredible team's ability to continue executing on our strategic priorities and driving shareholder value. Turning to our third quarter 2025 results. Net sales increased 3% from the prior year period. Price mix declined 2.3%, impacted by greater cake sales, lower food service sales as a percentage of total sales, and an increase in contract manufacturing. Our performance was stronger in the early and middle parts of the quarter, but weakened toward the end as expected due to difficult comparisons from hurricanes in the prior year. Volume declined 0.6%, largely due to continued weakness in the fresh packaged bread category, and to a lesser extent, increased hurricane-driven demand in the prior year quarter. That softness was partially offset by growth in more premium branded products, as well as contract manufacturing and vending. The Simple Mills acquisition added 5.9%. Gross margin as a percentage of sales, excluding depreciation and amortization, decreased 190 basis points to 47.9% over the same quarter last year. Increased outside purchases of product, sales with no associated ingredient costs, due to the Simple Mills acquisition, and lower sales price mix along with reduced production volumes drove the decline, partially offset by lower ingredient costs as a percentage of sales. Selling distribution and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales were 38.8%, a 10 basis point increase over the prior year period. The increase was due to higher workforce-related costs as we converted to an employee-based model in California. Wage inflation from lower sales price mix and the restructuring-related implementation costs partially offset by lower distributor distribution fees. Excluding matters affecting comparability, adjusted SDNA was 38.3% of net sales, a 30 basis point decrease. GAP diluted EPS for the quarter was $0.19 per share, a $0.12 decrease over the prior year period. Excluding the items affecting comparability detailed in the release, adjusted diluted EPS in the quarter decreased $0.10 over the prior year period to $0.23. The Simple Mills acquisition contributed $70.7 million in net sales, $11.1 million to adjusted EBITDA, and a $0.01 adjusted diluted loss per share. Turning now to our balance sheet, liquidity, and cash flow. We remain confident in our overall financial position. At quarter end, net debt to trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA stood at approximately 3.4 times, increasing over the year-ago period due to the acquisition of Simple Mills. Year-to-date, cash flow from operating activities increased $38 million to $321 million, benefiting from deferred tax benefits from recently passed legislation, and improved working capital performance. Capital expenditures decreased $6 million to $80 million, and dividends paid increased $5 million to $157 million. With one quarter remaining in our fiscal year, we are narrowing the range of our 2025 financial outlook to net sales of $5.254 to $5.306 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $515 to $532 million, and adjusted EPS of $1.02 to $1.08. This guidance does not incorporate any impact from potential SNAP benefit disruptions. As we focus on returning to a more normalized leverage ratio, we are adjusting our expectations for capital expenditures to $120 to $130 million from our prior estimate of $135 to $145 million. Our estimate for the portion of CapEx related to our ERP initiative also decreased from $4 to $6 million to $3 to $5 million. We are reducing our tariff impact expectations for 2025. Our current estimate of the end-year tariff impact is $11 to $14 million for our legacy business and $2 to $4 million for Simple Mills. That compares to prior guidance, which assumed an end-year tariff impact of $15 to $18 million from our legacy business and $2 to $4 million for Simple Mills. Approximately 100% of our key raw materials are covered in 2025. Based on that coverage, our guidance incorporates inflationary headwinds for the remainder of the year. To minimize volatility and provide adequate visibility into cost, we have maintained our historical hedging strategy in which we attempt to increase the certainty of our key ingredient costs six to 12 months out. In the third quarter, we continued the bakery rollout of our ERP system with successful go-lives of three bakeries. We plan to complete an additional four bakeries in the fourth quarter, bringing our total to 10. To minimize the risk of operational disruptions, we are proceeding prudently and are confident in our ability to execute the transition smoothly. Thank you, and now I'll turn it back to Riles.
Thank you, Steve. Now I'd like to discuss the key trends shaping our performance and outline the proactive steps we're implementing to maximize present and future opportunities. I'll begin with an update on the competitive environment, followed by an overview of consumer trends. The competitive environment remained consistent with the second quarter as producers grapple with rising input costs due to tariffs. Traditional loaf has been one of the most pressured parts of the category, with units declining 6% compared to a 3% decline for bread overall. Low-priced, branded offerings continue to capture unit share from private label and mid-price branded products, highlighting the importance of our initiatives to introduce differentiation into the category. We continue to increase promotional activity in the quarter. To better target areas of category strength, promotions focused on differentiated, better-for-you products with relatively low-based sales. We're committed to driving trial and repeat purchases of our innovative new items that align well with consumer demand. We expect our commitment to these areas will further solidify our leading market positions. Guided by enhanced trade promotion capabilities, we remain prudent in our use of promotional spending, carefully monitoring the return on investment to ensure sustainable growth. Turning to consumer trends, as inflation has risen, consumer sentiment in the third quarter reached the lowest point this year, exacerbated by greater fears about the economy and the job market. That lack of confidence is pressuring consumer spending, with the largest impact on discretionary items. Lower-income consumers have cut back the most, though their food and beverage spending remains resilient, continuing to grow overall, though at lower rates, while volumes have turned negative. Unsurprisingly, food service traffic has remained negative in this environment. Bread category sales declined stabilized for much of the third quarter before softening in the final weeks due to difficult comparisons in the prior year. Sales were strongest in the mass and club channels. We've observed a continued bifurcation of demand with notable strength in premium value products, both within food and beverage overall and bread specifically. We are strategically adapting our portfolio to align with these consumer trends, focusing on better for you and value-oriented items to ensure we meet consumer preferences. To accomplish this transition, we've identified five key areas of focus that align with evolving consumer demands and market dynamics. One, aggressively innovating unique premium products alongside value-oriented offerings, an area we're addressing with new products that feature differentiated attributes including protein, sourdough, and keto-friendly, as well as small loaves. Two, leveraging our top brands to move into faster-growing segments like snacking. Three, enhancing our growth and margin profile with M&A, once we return to a more normalized leverage ratio, as we did with Simple Mills. Four, stabilizing the cake business by leveraging the power of the Wonder brand, a process that's off to a great start. And five, optimizing our supply chain and path to market to deliver industry-leading operations and service, including aligning our bakery network with demand. As we look ahead, we remain steadfast in our commitment to navigating the challenges of today's market while positioning ourselves for future success. Our proactive approach to transforming our portfolio through innovation and strategic acquisitions is already yielding positive results. Despite the headwinds facing the bread category, we're focusing on growth opportunities that appeal to today's health-conscious and value-focused consumers. While the economic landscape remains uncertain, we believe that as consumer confidence rebounds, we will be well-positioned to grow market share and enhance our profitability. Our dedicated team is committed to executing these initiatives with precision and passion, ensuring that we not only meet the current challenges head-on, but also lay a strong foundation for sustainable growth. Thank you for your continued support as we work diligently to drive long-term value for our shareholders, and that concludes our prepared remarks.