Lifeway Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:LWAY) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call March 2, 2024 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Julie Smolyansky - Chairman, CEO, & Company Secretary

Conference Call Participants

Operator

Good morning. Welcome to Lifeway Foods' Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2023 Conference Call. On the call with me today is Julie Smolyansky, President and Chief Executive Officer. By now, everyone should have access to the press release that went out this morning. If you have not received the release, it is available on the Investor Relations portion of Lifeway's website atwww.lifewayfoods.com. A recording of this call will be available on the company's website.

Before we begin, we would like to remind everyone that the prepared remarks contain forward-looking statements. The words believe, expect, anticipate, and other similar expressions generally identify forward-looking statements. These statements do not guarantee future performance, and therefore, undue reliance should not be placed on them. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements.

Lifeway assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking projections that may be made in today's release or call. All of the forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this call.

And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Lifeway's Chief Executive Officer, Julie Smolyansky.

Julie Smolyansky

Thank you, John, and good morning to everyone joining us today. As always, we greatly appreciate your interest in Lifeway Foods. I am thrilled to be speaking with you today and to report an outstanding finish to our record-breaking 2023.

Before taking you through the numbers, I would first like to thank the entire Lifeway team, whose excellent efforts all year long allowed us to deliver seamless performance for all of our valued customers. Our strong results this year are a testament to your execution.

With that, I will now review our results for the full year of 2023. Net sales were $160.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, an increase of $18.6 million or 13.1% compared to the prior year and a record high annual top-line result for Lifeway.

The net sales growth was primarily driven by higher volumes of our flagship Lifeway-branded drinkable kefir, and to a lesser extent, the impact of price increases during the fourth quarter of 2022. We are particularly pleased by the consistent volume growth we saw throughout the year, which outweighed the benefit from pricing and was a positive differentiator for us within the broader industry.