Mission Produce, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVO) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call March 9, 2023 5:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Jeff Sonnek - ICR, IR

Bryan Giles - CFO

Steve Barnard - CEO

Conference Call Participants

Gerry Sweeney - Roth Capital

Tom Palmer - JPMorgan

Bryan Spillane - Bank of America

Operator

Good afternoon and welcome to the Mission Produce Fiscal First Quarter 2023 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please also note today's event is being recorded.

At this time, I'd like to turn the conference call over to Jeff Sonnek, Investor Relations at ICR. Sir, please go ahead.

Jeff Sonnek

Thank you, and good afternoon. Today's presentation will be hosted by Steve Barnard, Chief Executive Officer; and Bryan Giles, Chief Financial Officer.

The comments during today's call and the accompanying presentation contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts are considered forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Some of these risks and uncertainties are identified and discussed in the company's filings with the SEC.

We'll also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures today. Please refer to the tables included in the earnings release which can be found on the Investor Relations website, investors.missionproduce.com, for reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures.

With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Steve Barnard, CEO.

Steve Barnard

Thank you for joining us for our fiscal 2023 first quarter earnings call. We produced total revenue of $213.5 million and adjusted EBITDA of $2.3 million in the first quarter. This performance largely reflects the reversal of the strong pricing and low industry volumes that summarized most of 2022. As the new Mexican season kicked in during first quarter of 2023, we were in a great position to drive volumes, and I'm pleased to report that our growth of 14% exceeded that of the industry, which is a testament to our distribution capabilities and infrastructure that supports our global customer base.

However, with these higher industry volumes, the pricing environment reversed, decreasing 27% ultimately outpacing the volume growth we had realized, although the velocity of the price deceleration created unfavorable circumstances to drive per unit margin, the market has since found some pricing stability, which is more conducive to generating improved profitability and looking ahead to the balance of the year we believe conditions exist that make for a more constructive pricing outlook as our fruit season comes online.