Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Krista, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the Haines Celestial Group First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference 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 at that time, simply press star, followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. And if you'd like to withdraw that question, again, press star one. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Alexis Tessier, Head of Investor Relations. Alexis, you may begin.

Good morning. Thank you for joining us for a review of our fiscal first quarter 2026 results. I am joined this morning by Allison Lewis, our Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, and Lee Boyce, our Chief Financial Officer. Slide two shows our forward-looking statements disclaimer. As you are aware, during the course of this call, we may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. These include expectations and assumptions regarding the company's future operations and financial performance. These statements are based on our current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. Please refer to our annual report on Form 10 , quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other reports filed from time to time with the SEC as well as the press release issued this morning for a detailed discussion of the risks. We have also prepared a presentation inclusive of additional supplemental financial information which is posted on our website at haine.com under the investor's heading. As we discuss our results today, unless noted as reported, our remarks will focus on non-GAAP or adjusted financial measures. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP results are available in the earnings release and the slide presentation accompanying this call. This call is being webcast and an archive will be made available on the website. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Allison.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining today's call. I will start by providing commentary on Q1 results and will then discuss the progress we are making on our turnaround journey. Then Lee will provide a more detailed review of our quarterly results along with our outlook. First quarter results were in line with our expectations on the top and bottom line, and we have building blocks in place to drive improved trends in the back half. In the quarter, we demonstrated sequential improvement in organic net sales trends in both of our segments. In North America, beverages, baby and kids, and meal prep all turned to growth, partially offsetting the continued year-over-year decline in snacks. The snacks relaunch entered its execution phase in the quarter, which included the first launch of our revamped garden veggie platform with upgrades to oil, ingredients, and taste profiles, which I'll discuss more in a minute. And an international growth in the meal prep category partially offset the impact from continued industry-wide softness in wet baby food following recent media coverage, which created temporary noise across the category. Ellis Kitchen remains the number one baby food brand in the UK market, reinforcing the importance of our continued leadership in transparency, trust, and nutritional quality through accelerated marketing and innovation. Throughout the quarter, we made tangible progress laying the operational and financial foundations necessary to drive improved performance. Our near-term priorities remain clear. Stabilizing sales, improving profitability, optimizing cash, and deleveraging our balance sheet. Cost discipline and the decisive actions we have taken to streamline our cost structure drove a reduction in SG&A in the quarter. And we are seeing early results from the execution against our five actions to win, including benefits from pricing initiatives beginning to build. As we discussed last quarter, we are committed to improving our financial flexibility through resetting our cost structure to better align with our current business. We have unwound much of our global infrastructure and have implemented an operating model designed to empower the regions and prioritize speed, simplicity, and impact across the organization. We are already beginning to see results with an improvement in forecast accuracy, a reduction in inventory in North America, and an acceleration in the innovation pipeline across the business. The changes to work design have been actioned and should benefit SG&A going forward, particularly in the back half. As previously mentioned, we expect these cost initiatives to drive over 12% cost reduction in people-related FG&A expenses. We expect to have additional opportunities to refine the operating model based on the outcome of the previously announced strategic review work. Further, every dollar spent across the P&L is being scrutinized to eliminate waste and ensure greater return on investment. In the quarter, we drove improvement in rated trade by eliminating poor ROI events and inefficient spent, and we continue to see positive return on ad spend as we shift to a digital-first marketing model. Our turnaround strategy is focused on five key actions to win in the marketplace. Greenlining our portfolio, accelerating brand renovation and innovation, implementing strategic revenue growth management and pricing, driving productivity and working capital efficiency and strengthening our digital capabilities. Complexity has hampered our ability to move with speed and efficiency. We remain committed to building a winning simpler portfolio by exiting unprofitable or low margin tail skews, refocusing resources on brands and categories with the highest growth and margin potential, and managing product life cycles for improved long term values. During the quarter, we executed the previously announced exit of the meat-free category in North America. Looking ahead, we are targeting the elimination of approximately 30% of our SKUs in North America through fiscal 2027, representing low value in our portfolio and enabling us to improve supply chain efficiency and shelf productivity. This includes the SKU reduction in T we discussed last quarter. We have implemented a disciplined portfolio management review process designed to continuously assess, add, or retire SKUs, maintaining an optimized winning portfolio, and eliminating reliance on large episodic rationalization efforts. These actions enable us to sharpen our focus and resources to accelerate growth in our highest potential brands and categories. This year, we have accelerated our innovation pipeline and have new products launching in every category in our portfolio. Let me give you several examples. We recently relaunched Garden Veggie Snacks with the boldest renovation in its history, elevating attributes of high importance to consumers. Our new straws and pots are made with avocado oil. We introduced a fourth straw made from sweet potato, which was the most requested new vegetables and our cheddar recipes are now crafted with real cheese in consumer testing our new garden veggie straws were significantly preferred compared to a leading competitor we debuted the new items in breakthrough new packaging in late september at a key national retail partner and will expand to additional national retailers this winter and into the new year in greek gods momentum is accelerating and the brand pivoted to share growth in the quarter contributing to the acceleration was expanded regional availability of a larger 48 ounce format in a key club partner in the quarter more recently we started shipping our new single serve offering to a key retailer and are supporting the launch with expanded digital advertising Single serve represents nearly 30% of the category, so the potential opportunity is large. In EarthBest, we are continuing to build upon our strength in snacks with the launch of the Big Kid Snacks platform in the second half. We are expanding into new backpack territory with snacks designed to bridge the gap between toddlerhood and Big Kid independence. With organic Power Bites, organic Veggie Ways, organic Krispy Sticks, we deliver protein and fiber for high-density nutrition, while balancing portability, taste, and fun. In formula, we will be sponsoring a leading retailer's baby registry, the number one registry destination in the second quarter. And we are leaning into the brand's commitment to quality. EarthBest recently received the Discerning Clean Label Project Purity Award across its full line, underscoring trust with parents and caregivers. Additionally, the brand was highlighted by Consumer Reports in August as one of the most transparent baby food brands. These accolades are important claims for our marketing to parents and caregivers. In international, Hartley's juicy jelly on-the-go pouches launched in the first quarter, with strong retailer support helping to drive share growth in the first full four weeks of launch. In addition, we launched new Covent Garden 1kg value pack designed to recruit larger families and rolled out flavor refreshes across the soup brand. We've extended our successful soup and risotto innovation into more retailers, delivering sales growth over 25% for Cully and Sully, along with share gain. Innovation plans for the back half in International include Ella's Kitchen Nutty Blends, a range of three fruit and vegetable blends with a touch of nuts, perfect to stretch taste or provide a more filling snack for six months and up. In addition, we're launching Ellis Kitchen Kids, aimed at older kids from 18 months up. The range extends the brand into new occasions with strong nutritional standards for better-for-you alternatives. A 10-SKU range of Odie Bars, Wild Crackers, and Crispy Sticks will hit the shelves in the back half of the year. We also have two exciting non-dairy beverage launches for Joyop Protein. We are upgrading our existing protein range to include even more protein per serving, and we are launching ready-to-drink protein in two delicious flavors. With accelerated pipelines and launches, innovation will be a much larger part of our story going forward. We will support these launches with marketing funded by margin improvements from our revenue growth management and productivity cost savings initiatives. We are encouraged that we have one of the strongest innovation pipelines in our recent history as we aim to significantly increase our contribution from innovation to growth. As discussed, this year we have pricing actions planned across every category in our portfolio, following a long period where pricing did not keep pace with inflation, particularly in North America. Our international price increases implemented in late Q4 are overall delivering on plans. While there are some puts and takes by subcategory and skew, elasticities are generally in line with expectations. In North America, as noted in our last earnings call, we are actively accelerating pricing and revenue growth management as critical levers to cover inflation, a meaningful shift from prior years. We are beginning to see the benefits, contributing to T and baby and kids turning to growth in the quarter. While we executed our T and baby and kids pricing in Q1, we have accelerated revenue growth management activities for meal prep and snacks through a combination of pricing, price pack architecture, and premiumization. We expect the benefit from pricing to ramp up throughout the fiscal year. Further, we are making headway in optimizing trade spending. In the quarter, we reduced trade spend as a percentage of gross revenue by 40 basis points year over year. We expect to deliver improvement in our trade for the rest of the year as we actively analyze growth-to-net opportunities to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of our trade investments. Generating operational productivity and improving working capital management have been bright spots for Haines. Last year, we delivered operational productivity savings of approximately $67 million. We have a strong productivity pipeline and are targeting more than $60 million in fiscal 2026. In addition to that operational productivity, we expect to realize substantial future cost savings from our realignment of our overhead structure that we began to implement during the quarter. From a working capital perspective, we have been deliberate in our focus on inventory reduction for the fiscal year, resetting weeks of coverage for both raw and packed and finished goods. In North America, we reduced net inventory by nearly 10% from Q4 as a result of our improved internal forecast accuracy. Further, we continue to make progress on extending terms with strategic suppliers. As I mentioned earlier, our shift to a digital-first marketing model is delivering positive return on advertising spend overall. We are engaging in new digital partnerships to drive community relationships and household penetration. New this quarter are programs like Earth's Besties, a digital CRM community marketing program, leveraging best practices from the successful Ella's Kitchen program and providing advice, support, and resources to parents. And we are piloting an Ibotta partnership, utilizing performance marketing and incentives with promising early results in driving new users and incremental sales across key snack brands and soon formula. We are heightening our e-commerce focus and continue to expect sales growth at or above category rates in fiscal 2026. In the international segment, we are growing Hartley's Jelly Pots and Sun Pot, with overall performance and momentum accelerating in September behind back-to-school executions. And in North America, tea and yogurt are growing double digits at key online retailers. We are encouraged by the early progress we are making. We have taken decisive action to strengthen our financial health, streamline operations, and energize our brands, balancing near-term financial flexibility with future growth. We are focused on consistent delivery and building momentum. Our near-term priorities remain clear, stabilizing sales, improving profitability, optimizing cash, and deleveraging the balance sheet. We will achieve this by creating greater financial flexibility, enabling us to invest in our brands, and by executing our turnaround strategy anchored in the five actions to win in the marketplace. In parallel, we continue to make good progress on our previously announced strategic review work with Goldman Sachs. We have completed our analysis and evaluation of the portfolio. We have a large number of brands with strong value where we have a right to win, and we have other areas that we are actively addressing that could further streamline our portfolio. We look forward to updating you when we are in a position to provide further detail. Now I'll hand the call over to Lee to discuss our first quarter financial results and outlook in more detail.

Thank you, Alison, and good morning, everyone. As Alison mentioned earlier, our first quarter's net sales of $368 million and adjusted EBITDA of $20 million were consistent with our expectations of a quarter that would be similar in absolute dollars to Q4 2025, as discussed on our last earnings call. For the first quarter, we saw an organic net sales decline of 6% year-over-year, driven by lower sales in both the North America and international segments. While not yet where we want to be, results were in line with our expectations and represented a sequential improvement from the 11% decline in Q4. The decline in organic net sales growth reflects a 7-point decrease in volume mix and a 1-point increase in price. Adjusted gross margin was 19.5% in the first quarter, a decrease of approximately 120 basis points year-over-year. The decrease was driven by a lower volume mix and cost inflation, partially offset by productivity and pricing and trade efficiencies. SG&A decreased 8% year-over-year to $66 million in the first quarter, driven by a reduction in employee-related and non-people cost discipline as we began to implement overhead reduction actions. SG&A represented 17.8% of net sales for the quarter, as compared to 18.1% in the year-ago period. During the quarter, we took charges totaling $14 million associated with actions under the restructuring program, including employee-related costs, contract termination costs, asset write-downs, and other transformation-related expenses. To date, we have taken $103 million in charges associated with the Transformation Program, which is comprised of $100 million of restructuring charges and $3 million of expenses associated with inventory write-downs. Of these charges, $35 million were non-cash. Restructuring charges excluding inventory write-downs are expected to be $100 to $110 million by fiscal 2027. These charges are excluded from adjusted operating results. Interest expense rose 13% year-over-year to $15 million in the quarter, primarily due to high financing fees related to the amendment of our credit agreement. We have hedged our rate exposure on more than 50% of our loan facility, with fixed rates of 7.1%. We continue to prioritize reducing net debt over time. Adjusted net loss, which excludes the effect of restructuring charges, amongst other items, was $7 million in the quarter, or $0.08 per diluted share, as compared to adjusted net loss of $4 million, or $0.04 per diluted share in the prior year period. We delivered adjusted EBITDA of $20 million in the first quarter, compared to $22 million a year ago. The decline was driven by a decline in volume mix and cost inflation, partially offset by productivity, a reduction in SG&A, and pricing and trade efficiencies. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 5.4%. Turning now to our individual reporting segments. In North America, organic net sales declined 7% year-over-year. The decrease was primarily driven by lower volume in snacks, partially offset by growth in beverages, baby and kids, and meal prep. First quarter adjusted gross margin in North America was 22.7%, a 200 basis point increase versus the prior year period. This improvement was driven primarily by productivity savings and pricing and trade deficiencies, partially offset by lower volume mix and cost inflation. Adjusted EBITDA in North America was $17 million, an increase of 37% from the year-ago period. The increase resulted primarily from productivity savings, a reduction in SG&A expenses, and pricing and trade deficiencies, partial offset by the impact of lower volume mix and cost inflation. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 8.3%. In our international business, organic net sales declined 4% in the quarter, primarily driven by lower sales in baby and kids, partial offset by growth in meal prep. International adjusted gross margin was 15.7%. approximately 530 basis points below the prior year period. An adjusted EBITDA was $13 million, or 7.7% of net sales, reflecting a decrease of 38% compared to the prior year period. These decreases were primarily driven by lower volume mix and cost inflation, partially offset by productivity savings and pricing and trade efficiencies. We expect our margin in international to improve, particularly in the second half, behind three key drivers. One, improved performance of our higher margin L's business with accelerated marketing and innovation to drive improvement in the category behind our trusted, high-quality, and nutritious products. Two, operational efficiency initiatives in our manufacturing network. And three, the full realization of benefits from our focus on revenue growth management. Now, turning to category performance, organic net sales growth in SNACs was down 17% year-over-year, driven by velocity challenges and distribution losses in North America. As Alison mentioned, we have entered the execution phase of our SNACs turnaround plan with the relaunch of Garden Veggie, which will be rolling out to additional retailers throughout the fiscal year. Additionally, our price pack architecture work on Garden Veggie multi-packs is driving early velocity improvements at key retailers, and we've seen strong performance from our Garden Veggie seasonal offering, particularly ghosts and bats. Lastly, Garden Veggie is seeing encouraging momentum in the convenience channel, where sales are up 24% as distribution expands. In baby and kids, organic net sales growth was down 10% year over year, driven primarily by industry-wide softness in purees in the UK that Allison mentioned. In North America, we have continued to see strength in Earth's best snacks and cereal. With dollar sales growth, of high single digit and low double digit percent respectively in the beverages category organic net sales growth was two percent year over year driven by tea in north america celestial seasonings bag tea gained distribution in the quarter in part due to the recent launch of wellness innovation In meal prep, organic net sales growth was flat year over year, as strength in yoga in North America was offset by softness in meat-free products in the UK and soup in North America. Greek gods grew dollar sales in the quarter by mid-teens percent, shifting to cash flow and the balance sheet. Free cash flow for the quarter was an outflow of $14 million. dollars, compared to an outflow of $17 million in the year-ago period. The improvement was primarily driven by improved inventory delivery, partially offset by lower recovery of accounts receivable, and a decline in cash earnings. We continue to be pleased with the progress we have made improving our days payable outstanding. Days payable outstanding was 57 days in the quarter, down from 65 days in Q4 2025, but an improvement from 55 days in the year-ago period. We have made significant progress towards our goal of 70-plus days payable outstanding by fiscal year 2027. Inventory is an opportunity for improvement and an area of focus for fiscal 2026. Today's inventory outstanding improved to 83 days in the quarter, from 88 days in Q4 2025, though it is up from 80 days in the year-ago period. CapEx of $5 million in the quarter was down from $6 million in the prior year period. We continue to expect capital expenditures to be approximately $30 million for fiscal 2026. Finally, we closed the quarter with cash on hand of $48 million and net debt of $668 million, as compared to $650 million in the beginning of the fiscal year. The increase in net debt was driven by seasonal funding of working capital and capital expenditures. Paying down debt and strategically investing in the business continue to be our priorities for cash. Our net leverage ratio, as calculated under our credit agreement, increased slightly to 4.8 times, comfortably below the 5.5 times maximum. Our long-term goal is to reduce balance sheet leverage to three times adjusted EBITDA or less, as calculated under our credit agreement. Turning now to the outlook. As stated last quarter, we are not providing numeric guidance on fiscal 2026 operating results at this time, given the uncertainty around the outcome and timing of the completion of our strategic review, other than to say we expect free cash flow to be positive. With respect to the shape of the year, we continue to expect aggressive cost cutting and execution against our five actions to win in the marketplace to drive stronger top and bottom line performance in the second half of the year as compared to the first half. To put a finer point on it, I want to call out some of the dynamics that are driving the shape of the year. First, we are stepping up our marketing investment in the second quarter of 2026 compared to the first quarter of this fiscal year, and by approximately $2 million from the year-ago period. This will support the accelerated innovation across the portfolio throughout the year that Allison discussed. Investment in our brand is a critical element for improved performance as we move into the second half. Second, we have an approximately $3 million dollar headwind in the second quarter from our bonus accrual this year that was zeroed out last year. Third, the benefits from both the SG&A work we have actioned and pricing we have taken should build throughout the year. And lastly, Ellis Kitchen, one of our highest margin businesses, has been under pressure driven by industry-wide category softness. We expect our accelerated marketing efforts and innovation to drive improvement in Ellers in the second half. Now I'll turn it back to Allison for some closing remarks.

Thanks, Lee. Our first quarter results were consistent with our prior indication that Q1 performance would be broadly comparable to Q4 in absolute dollars. In North America, we delivered margin and profit growth despite top-line headwinds in our largest category in the region that's which we are relaunching to restore both growth and profitability over time internationally the baby food category remains soft industry-wide however as category leader we have accelerated marketing and innovation to drive category momentum over the balance of the year across the portfolio we are seeing encouraging contribution to revenue and margin as we take disciplined RGM and pricing action. And we continue to execute strongly on productivity, delivering consistent savings that will build as the year progresses. In addition, we have implemented a step change in our overhead cost reduction, ensuring our organization is right sized for the current business. We are moving with speed and determination to strengthen our financial flexibility and lay the groundwork for improved performance as we move from the first half of the fiscal year to the second half. We remain focused on executing our five actions to win, streamlining our portfolio, accelerating brand renovation and innovation, implementing strategic revenue growth management and pricing, driving productivity and working capital efficiency, and strengthening our digital capabilities. We are executing with focus and discipline, placing HANE firmly on the path towards sustainable growth. Before I close, I want to thank the entire HANE team for their commitment to our mission, our brands, our consumers, and our customers, and for driving meaningful progress against our five actions to win.

That concludes our prepared remarks, and we are now happy to take your questions operator please open the line thank you we will now begin the question and answer session if you would like to ask a question please press star 1 on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue and if you'd like to withdraw that question again press star 1 we also ask that you limit yourself to one question in one follow-up for any additional questions please re-queue and your first question comes from the line of Andrew Lazar with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks so much. Good morning, everybody. Morning. I think you, Lee, you laid out some discrete dynamics to keep in mind that impact EBITDA for the most part in 2Q. As you think about organic sales in 2Q, would you anticipate, just given the incremental investment and such, that the year-over-year rate of decline in organic sales can continue to moderate sequentially in 2Q versus what you saw in the first quarter, even though I realize there are some discrete issues around EBITDA?

Yeah, I mean, I think you can see some moderation. I would say the biggest focus is on the second half versus the first half, and we kind of outlined that, but you would see, especially as you go into the second half you know an improvement in areas such as uh in snacks or moderation of declines there um the other thing we kind of outlined in the call is in baby and kids particularly in ella's so we would you know based on the the programming we put in we would expect to see an improvement uh in baby and kids you know moderation in earth's best and then um also looking at beverages you know we would expect an improvement uh in tea and then private label non-dairy beverage. I'd say meal prep overall has been stable. So, you know, our big focus is really on the second half versus the first half. That's where you'll see, you know, see that improvement.

Okay. And then, Allison, you talked about elasticities so far with the pricing you've taken in international being, again, broadly on average sort of in line with your expectations. I know it's still early around some of the pricing actions you're taking in North America, but where you've gotten some of the pricing in, what are you seeing around elasticity as a starting point, I think you'd mentioned last quarter, you would anticipate elasticities in North America being around one and around, I think, 0.5 in international. So I guess what are you seeing in North America so far and maybe how have those announced price increases gone over with respect to your key retail partners?

Good morning and thank you. Yes. I mean, the pricing on tea and baby flowed through in North America in the quarter and on tea were We're pretty much flowed through with all retailers, and the price points that are on the shelf are in line with what we expected. Baby has been a little bit slower to roll through only because we have multiple categories, but again, pricing that we've seen so far flow through on Baby is in line with the category. You're right, it's early days on elasticities, but we are able to get an early read. On T, we're seeing that it's generally in line with the 1% elasticity expectation that we set. I mean, obviously, you know that elasticity is a dynamic thing because it depends a lot on sort of the overall competitive dynamic, the marketing and innovation that you do, etc. So we'll continue to monitor, but so far in line with what we expected. On baby, it's a little harder to read right now, again, because it hasn't flowed through quite as quickly. But what we are seeing, again, early data, is it looks like it is in line. We are seeing more competitive dynamics in the baby category. So, again, we're going to be monitoring both closely. And, you know, as you know, you need to sort of be dynamic in the marketplace, and we'll be dynamic as we need to in order to protect what we have in terms of our expectations on the growth of those businesses.

Great.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Kamil Gajrawala with Jeffries. Please go ahead.

Hey, everybody. Good morning. If we could just talk a little bit about, you know, the consumer seems to be getting increasingly challenged period to period to period. And because so many of, you know, because the bulk of your portfolios and health and wellness often can also have a price premium to maybe the non-health and wellness items. So how do you think through that calculus in today's consumer environment, especially in the context of what you just talked about related to taking additional pricing?

Yeah, so I would say, you know, overall, you're right. The consumer dynamic is one where we have more value-seeking behavior as consumer pocketbooks are a little tighter than usual. I think what we're seeing in the market is broadly what we've always seen when we hit these kind of speed bumps where we see a movement in terms of shopping patterns. So fewer, fewer, you know, more trips, less dollars per trip. We see a shift to some of the more value channels, whether that is club, mass, dollar. We see a shift in terms of the packages that they're buying, again, looking at kind of lower overall price point. But the thing that I would say about our portfolio is that, you know, it brings value to the consumer in terms of those better for you credentials. So the other thing that we're seeing in terms of the behavior is that when a consumer is putting a dollar down, they want to make sure that they're getting something that has value to them. And because our Better For You brands have value to them because they taste great, they've got better nutritional profile, you know, they're willing to stay in those brands. And so that's probably why we see sort of relatively low private label development across our categories. And then as you look at the private label where there is private label, there is some growth in private label, but it's not, you know, you're not seeing substantial shifts in private label. It's small increases or in some categories, actually, you're seeing decreases. So, again, I think the most important thing that we can do is continue to deliver value to the consumer, value that consumers are willing to pay for, and then ensure that our price pack architecture has price points across various sizing that allows for everyone to participate, no matter what the disposable income level is.

Okay, I got it. Thank you.

If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. We have no further questions in our queue at this time. I will now turn the conference back over to Allison Lewis for closing comments.

So thank you for joining us today. I'll just reiterate a few things we said in our overall messages. But overall, as an organization and company, we're moving with speed and determination to strengthen our financial flexibility and lay the groundwork for improved performance As we move from the first half to the second half, we remain focused on our five actions to win, and we're executing with focus and discipline to put pain firmly on the path to sustainable growth. So thank you, everyone, for joining today.

And ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.