Good morning, this is Aaron Broholm, Vice President, Investor Relations for The J. M. Smucker Company. Thank you for listening to our prepared remarks on our Fiscal 2024 Fourth Quarter Earnings. After this brief introduction, Mark Smucker, Chair of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer, will provide a business and strategy update.

Tucker Marshall, Chief Financial Officer, will then provide a detailed analysis of the financial results and our fiscal 2025 outlook. Later this morning, we will hold a separate, live question-and-answer webcast. During today’s discussion, we will make forward-looking statements that reflect our current expectations about future plans and performance.

These statements rely on assumptions and estimates, and actual results may differ materially due to risks and uncertainties. Additionally, please note we will refer to non-GAAP financial measures management uses to evaluate performance internally.

I encourage you to read the full disclosure concerning forward-looking statements and details on our non-GAAP measures in this morning’s press release. Today’s press release, a supplementary slide deck, management’s prepared remarks, and the Q&A webcast can all be accessed on our Investor Relations website at jmsmucker.com.

We invite all interested parties to join us at 9:00 am Eastern Time today for a live question-and-answer session with management to further discuss our fourth quarter results and next year’s outlook for fiscal year 2025. I will now turn the discussion over to Mark Smucker..

Continued to invest in Uncrustables sandwiches. In fiscal year 2024, we grew the brand by over $100 million, expanded distribution, including introducing the brand in Canada, launched the brand’s first national marketing campaign, and made progress on our latest manufacturing facility in McCalla, Alabama.

In dog snacks and cat food, we grew both dollar and volume share for our category-leading Milk-Bone and Meow Mix brands. We also continued to build on our successful innovation track record and have an exciting pipeline planned for fiscal 2025.

In coffee, we extended our portfolio into new formats to continue meeting evolving consumer preferences, with the launch of Dunkin’ and Café Bustelo offerings that provide a customized cold coffee experience at home.

The Dunkin’ brand has quickly grown to the number two position in the shelf-stable liquid coffee concentrate category and Café Bustelo Espresso Style Multi-Serve began shipping in May. And, in sweet baked snacks, we expanded our leadership in donuts with the opening of our latest facility in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.

This new facility is dedicated to producing Hostess Donettes and supports future growth for the brand. Turning to our fourth quarter results, we delivered comparable net sales growth of 3%, which included volume/mix growth, continuing our positive trend through the fiscal year.

Net sales growth was slightly below expectations, driven by competitive dynamics within the coffee category. Our continued focus on superior execution, cost and productivity savings, and several unplanned benefits drove adjusted earnings per share that exceeded our expectations, resulting in a 1% increase versus the prior year.

In Coffee, net sales decreased driven by a list price decline, as we continued to pass through the benefit of lower coffee costs to consumers, and a decreased contribution from volume/mix. In the quarter, we saw volume/mix growth for our key coffee growth drivers, the Café Bustelo and Dunkin’ brands, as well as K-Cups.

Folgers mainstream roast and ground coffee declined due to increased competitive activity and lapping strong promotions in the prior year as we passed through the benefit of lower coffee costs. The coffee category continues to experience commodity volatility and overall meaningful inflation.

In response to recent higher green coffee costs that we will begin to incur during the first quarter, we are taking a list price increase across parts of our portfolio in early June.

As always, we will continue to manage our coffee business through a strategy that demonstrates a balance between recovering inflationary input costs, while providing consumers with attractive options ranging from value to premium.

We expect the coffee category to remain resilient, despite recent inflationary pressures and volume declines, given consumers’ love of daily coffee rituals and continued strength in at-home consumption. 70% of all coffee drinking occasions continue to be at home. This trend largely benefits us as the number one at-home manufacturer in the U.S.

retail coffee market, with three of the top seven brands in the category. Turning to our Frozen Handheld and Spreads business, comparable net sales grew 1%. U.S Retail net sales for Uncrustables sandwiches grew double-digits, primarily driven by volume/mix growth.

Total Company net sales for Uncrustables increased 17% this quarter, including the Away From Home and International businesses. For the full fiscal year, the brand grew to approximately $800 million. Operations for our third Uncrustables facility are anticipated to begin later this calendar year.

This expanded capacity will enable continued growth across all channels and growing the brand to approximately $1 billion in annual net sales by the end of fiscal year 2026. In peanut butter, net sales for the Jif brand were in-line with the prior year.

In the overall category we are lapping industry supply disruptions and experiencing increased competitive activity from private label. We expect these dynamics to normalize over time. We will continue to drive growth for the brand as we invest in marketing and innovation, including our recent launch of a Jif Peanut Butter & Chocolate Flavored Spread.

Smucker’s fruit spreads net sales declined due to lapping elevated shipments in the prior year following the resolution of supply chain constraints on the brand. Volume for consumer takeaway was positive, and we gained more share than any competitor in the quarter.

In Pet Foods, comparable net sales increased double digits versus the prior year, including strong growth for our Meow Mix and Milk-Bone brands. For Meow Mix, supply has significantly improved, and net sales grew double-digits in the quarter. Milk-Bone continued to drive growth, driven by elevated innovation and continued investment in brand-building.

Our refocused pet portfolio is performing well from both a sales and margin growth perspective and continues to highlight the benefits of focusing on brands and categories where we have a leading market share position.

Turning to the Sweet Baked Snacks segment, we are overall pleased with the progress of the integration and our performance in the market, even though net sales and profit were slightly below our expectations.

The Hostess brand gained volume share in the quarter, and long-term snacking trends continue to be favorable, providing tailwinds for our business.

We have exciting and significant opportunities to grow the brand including a strong innovation pipeline, joint merchandising with our legacy brands, and expanded distribution leveraging our strength in retail and away from home channels.

These opportunities continue to give us confidence in the business and its future contributions to our growth objectives, including anticipated net sales growth in fiscal year 2025.

The integration is on-track and, with the majority of our cost synergy analysis and organization design completed, we were able to begin recognizing synergies in the quarter, which is earlier than originally anticipated. We continue to anticipate cost synergies of approximately $100 million to be achieved by the end of fiscal year 2026.

In International and Away From Home, strong comparable net sales growth was primarily due to a double-digit increase in the Away From Home business, driven by Uncrustables sandwiches, portion control, and coffee.

Our Away From Home business demonstrated dollar share growth across the majority of our categories in the quarter, including record high dollar share for fruit spreads and peanut butter portion control products. We will continue to leverage our key retail platforms to drive future growth in the Away From Home channels.

Looking ahead, fiscal year 2025 will be a year of investment behind our brands and capabilities, these investments are essential to support sustainable long-term growth for the Company.

For fiscal year 2025 we expect another year of solid comparable net sales growth in line with our long-term algorithm, with year-over-year growth of 2% at the mid-point of our guidance range, inclusive of a 1% headwind from reduced contract manufacturing sales related to the divested pet food brands.

Reported net sales will be up approximately 10% at the mid-point of our guidance range. This growth will be supported by a full-year of sales from the Hostess acquisition and the continued momentum of our brands, including favorable volume/mix growth for the total company.

Adjusted earnings per share is expected to be $10.00 at the mid-point of our guidance range. This reflects net sales growth, a full-year of income from the Hostess acquisition, realization of synergies, and benefits from our transformation efforts.

These benefits will be partially offset by elevated investments for the Uncrustables brand, incremental marketing spend, and higher interest expense and shares outstanding related to the Hostess acquisition.

Looking beyond this fiscal year, we anticipate adjusted earnings per share growth in fiscal year 2026 above our long-term algorithm, supported by base business momentum, cost and productivity savings, relief from stranded overhead, full realization of acquisition synergies, and continued debt paydown.

Our ability to deliver continued growth and increase shareholder value is grounded in our focus on the execution of our strategic priorities and continued performance across our key platforms. We remain confident in our strategy, and we are well positioned in attractive categories with leading brands and offerings ranging from value to premium.

In closing, I would like to extend my gratitude to all our employees for their unwavering focus, dedication, and outstanding contributions. Together we will continue to deliver on our commitment to achieve long-term sustainable growth, while making a meaningful and positive impact on society.

With that, I’ll turn it over to Tucker for additional insight on our financials and fiscal 2025 outlook..

depreciation expense of approximately $300 million, amortization expense of approximately $225 million, share-based compensation expense of $35 million, and other non-cash charges of $45 million.

In closing, we continue to be encouraged by the momentum of our business and leading brands, and we remain confident in our strategy and ability to deliver on the commitments we outlined today. We are in a strong financial position to deliver sustained profitable growth and increased shareholder value.

And, I would like to express my appreciation for our employees. They have demonstrated their commitment to executing with excellence, and their passion for our Company positions us for continued success. Thank you..

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