William W. Lovette
Analyst · the company's website at www.pilgrims.com
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We recognized $2.2 billion in net revenue for the second quarter of 2014. Our EBITDA of $338.6 million over 15.5% margin improved over an already strong comparison point of $264.6 million or 12.1% margin for the same period in 2013. Our net income of $190.4 million or $0.73 per diluted share reflects the impact of being a full taxpayer during the current year. Our consistent margin performance is a direct result of the discipline we've demonstrated in applying our strategy. Our partnership with key customers has enabled us to continue to support them with the products in high demand during an extended period of tightening chicken supplies. We're developing innovative offerings to engage consumers, and we're seeing increased demand for small birds at fast food and in the deli case. Our energy and resources will continue to be directed towards further improvement in maximizing the advantage derived from the breadth of our portfolio. We continue to benefit from having a complementary offering of both small bird and large bird deboning products valued by key customers. After a period of rationalizing our Prepared Foods sales volumes, we are now realizing a nice improvement in profitability from sales in this business unit. Our relentless pursuit of operational excellence has resulted in continued improvements to yields, reduced plant costs and improved safety for our employees. In fact, we recently learned that 8 different Pilgrim's facilities will soon be recognized for their excellence by the Joint Industry Safety and Health Council, based on the reported injury and illness rates at these locations over the past 3 years. We are pleased to see our team members' commitment to health and safety acknowledged publicly. We continue to innovate new ways to view our business and optimize our operations. We are seeing a lot of excitement as we roll out new tools and methods to improve sales mix and operational efficiency. Given our results to date, we're very confident that we will exceed our $220 million target for yield and plant cost improvements. This is in large part due to the successful execution and feedback loop that is the foundation of zero-based budgeting. While we recognize the value of efficient plants and equipment, we believe the competencies we've identified are the direct result of our people. Our team has only just begun to create value with the ZBB method, and through the continuous cycle of identifying gaps and then closing them through effective management, we still see plenty of meat on the bone. I should also point out the positive results we generated still include lingering effects of the propane shortage in February and March, as those costs rolled into May. The next component of our strategy, increasing sales of value-added exports, has shown great progress so far this year as well. We have increased both volume and revenue year-over-year in part due to optimized mix value. Whole leg volumes have shown increases while we continue to convert our sales from commodity bulk frozen leg quarters into value-added products that consumers demand in foreign markets. We've also seen development of our Savoro brand and wholesale channels in Mexico. Our chicken franks have found a positive reception in key markets with triple-digit growth year-over-year. And to top it off, we've increased sales to direct customers at the final destination, improving margins on those sales. Export growth continues at a steady pace, and to continue supporting our growth objective, we recently brought on board Alexander Ivannikov to head our Export Business Unit. Alexander brings several years of experience in the global protein space, and we are pleased to have Alex on our team and look forward to his leadership in this role. Our Mexican operations delivered strong margins once again with April and May driving the strength, while June started to show a somewhat counter-seasonal softening. During the third quarter, we typically see a slight downward trend as school holidays impact demand, but the flexibility of the operating environment enables companies to adjust more quickly to pricing volatility. As a case in point, we are now seeing prices for live and processed chicken strengthen again, and believe demand will continue to support solid margins. We view Mexico as a strong center of growth and our efforts to expand in that region are progressing well. Our project in Veracruz has construction underway on both the feed mill and hatchery, and we've already begun signing up contract growers to support the facility. We are on target to begin sales by June of 2015. With that in mind, we're very pleased with the transaction we recently entered into to acquire Tyson Foods' Mexican operating unit. We will pay $400 million in purchase price in cash, free of debt, and anticipate the combined entity will generate incremental sales of $650 million for Pilgrim's. We have a deep expertise in the country, and the acquisition is highly complementary to our existing operations in terms of geography and portfolio. We expect the antitrust reviews to conclude and enable us to complete the purchase before year end. The strategic move is exactly the type of accretive purchase we've been talking about since our Investor Day earlier this year. Looking at the industry progress, we continue to see breeder supply issues impact egg availability, egg production rates and hatchability. We don't expect material improvement until some time in 2015 at the earliest. There are several factors that are influencing this dynamic and it takes time to resolve them. Egg sets are increasing but cumulative placements, year-to-date, continue to lag. We've also seen significant declines in cold storage levels to date. Beef supplies remain lower and pork supplies are limited as well. Recent USDA retail sales data showed choice beef at close to $6 per pound in June, showing the fifth straight month of record highs. Select beef averaged $5.46 per pound in June, a record high for the eighth straight month. With average pork prices above $4 a pound in May and June, the fact that chicken prices have eased off a bit is positive news for our industry. We would expect poultry prices to benefit from the pricing environment across the entire protein complex. Chicken markets have shown continued strength in whole bird, with the second quarter reflective of healthy pricing across the board. Demand pressures have held prices relatively strong and we believe this will continue well into 2015. After a period where wings had a somewhat tepid pricing environment, we're seeing them strengthen once again. Adding to that, the Georgia Dock whole bird market continues to be at record levels. It's important to recognize here that Pilgrim's results don't just follow the full peaks and troughs of pricing trends. Our portfolio effect shields us from some of the lower prices, at the same time means we don't have the volatile spikes in pricing either. The overall impact should be a more stable margin structure over time. On the feed ingredient fronts, we're seeing indications of continued pricing environment for historically high yields for both corn and soybeans. Most of the U.S. has had adequate moisture levels, and there are strong implications from recent acreage and stock reports that stocks to use is more favorable and there will likely be a healthy rebuilding of corn and soybean stocks for the current crop year. While indications are that fewer acres were planted, expectations for high yields imply a crop size similar to last year. As we near harvest, it appears we could be in for record corn and soybean crops in the U.S., coming off large crops harvested from South America as well. As stocks are rebuilt, prices will likely retreat and we see some downside opportunity for feed ingredients. So at this time, I'd like to ask our CFO, Fabio Sandri, to discuss our financial results.