Westrock Coffee Company, LLC (NASDAQ:WEST) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call August 9, 2023 4:30 PM ET

Company Participants

Clay Crumbliss - ICR, Investor Relations

Scott Ford - Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Chris Pledger - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Ben Bienvenu - Stephens Inc.

Matt Smith - Stifel

Sarang Vora - Telsey Advisory Group

Todd Brooks - Benchmark Company

Operator

Hello and welcome to the Westrock Coffee Company’s Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Gigi and I will be coordinating your call today. Following prepared remarks, we will open the call to your questions with instructions to be given at that time.

I will now hand the call over to Clay Crumbliss with ICR.

Clay Crumbliss

Good afternoon and welcome to Westrock Coffee Company’s second quarter 2022 earnings conference call. Today’s call is being recorded. With us are Mr. Scott Ford, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Chris Pledger, Chief Financial Officer.

By now, everyone should have access to the company’s second quarter earnings release issued earlier today. This information is available on the Investor Relations section of Westrock Coffee Company’s website at investors.westrockcoffee.com.

Certain comments made on this call include forward-looking statements, which are subject to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs concerning future events and are subject to several risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements. Please refer to today’s press release and other filings with the SEC for a more detailed discussion of the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made today.

Also discussions during the call will use some non-GAAP financial measures as we describe business performance. The SEC filings, as well as the earnings press release, provide reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures.

And with that, it’s my pleasure to turn the call over to Scott Ford, our Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Scott?

Scott Ford

Thank you for joining us this afternoon. Thank you, Clay. In a few moments Chris Pledger, our CFO, will review our second quarter financial performance and preview our thinking on the second half of 2023. Calendar year 2023 carries meaningful costs related to major equipment and systems upgrades and additional overhead expense required to prepare us for the next few years. These impacts are largely transitory in nature and best behind us rather than in front of us as we prepare to open our new Conway facility. At each decision point along the way over the past year, we chose securing our success and launching the new extract and RTD plant in Conway over maximizing this year's earnings.