Ladies and gentlemen, hello and welcome to the Universal Corporation First Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Call. My name is Maxine and I'll be coordinating the call today. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand you to your host Candace Formacek, Vice President and Treasurer to begin. Candace, please go ahead when you're ready.

Thank you, Maxine. And thank you all for joining us today. George Freeman, our Chairman, President and CEO; Airton Hentschke, our Chief Operating Officer and Johan Kroner, our Chief Financial Officer are here with me today and will join me in answering questions after these brief remarks. This call is being webcast live and will be available on our website and on telephone taped replay. It will remain on our website through November 3, 2022. Other than the replay, we have not authorized and disclaim responsibility for any recording, replay or distribution of any transcription of this call. This call is copyrighted and may not be used without our permission. Before I begin to discuss our results, I caution you that we will be making forward looking statements that are based on our current knowledge and some assumptions about the future and are representative as of today only. Actual results could differ materially from projected or estimated results, and we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. This is of particular note during the current ongoing COVID 19 pandemic, when the length and severity of the crisis and results on economic and business impacts are so difficult to predict. For information on some of the factors that can affect our estimates I urge you to read our 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2022, as well as our Form 10-Q for the year ended June 30, 2022. Such risks and uncertainties include that are not limited to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, customer-mandated timing of shipments, weather conditions, political and economic environment, governmental regulation and taxation, changes in exchange rates and interest rates, industry consolidation and evolution, and changes in market structure or sources. Finally, some of the information I have for you today is based on unaudited allocations…

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Ann Gurkin from Davenport and Company.

I wanted to start with operating margin comments if there's anything you'll share. Operating margin for tobacco is lower than we're looking for. To start the year and I understand they're moving pieces, but I was just curious if you can help me think about how operating margin for tobacco for the year should end up. We have it flat right now for fiscal ‘23 versus ‘22, is that achievable?

Ann, it's really early in the year and so we'll have to take a look at how things work themselves out. Of course, there's always a mix factor that comes into play as well as currency. So it's a bit early to go down that route to see where we're going to end up. I think it's a very good start to the year and we're happy where we're at right now.

Okay. And then the same question for ingredients. We were under the impression that ingredients could deliver margin close to what we saw in the fourth quarter, so that high single digit level, understanding the inclusion of Shank’s this quarter and higher cost and freight. How should we think about as how the year should unfold for margin for ingredients?

Ann, we actually think that it held up really well. So we're really satisfied with where those margins are. We saw that, of course and we have been talking about those margin pressures, especially with the addition of freight to get some of the raw materials over to the US, which is in inventory now. So that will roll out. But the orders are really good and the margins are holding up really well. So we're really happy where we're at.

Great. And are you pricing, are you raising prices on that ingredient business or is that a yearly contract kind of pricing mechanism?

No, we are rising -- we're raising prices wherever we can. In some situations, it appears that you you're starting to hit a ceiling, but we are on some of the contracts we're actually doing new pricing every other week.

Great. And then SG&A for the full year I was holding it flat versus fiscal ‘22. Is that still a reasonable expectation given what we were seeing with currency movement?

Yes. That's going to be very difficult to determine, Ann. Last year's first quarter was really low. So -- and our fourth quarter fiscal year ‘22 was about the same what we had, this first quarter but we did have that fairly large FX impact this quarter. So hopefully it will come down a little bit from that, but right now that first quarter last year was really low.

Okay. And then can you help me think about how working capital should progress for this year versus last year? Will we see an improvement in working capital and a benefit to cash flow in fiscal ‘23?

What I can tell you Ann is that, most of this working capital is caught up in inventory at the moment. Of course, only 15% of that is uncommitted. So we're really happy about that. As long as we can shift the stuff, we'll have a nice turnaround and we'll have some nice cash coming in, depending on what, how early we're starting to buy in the March quarter, but all that looks positive. But again, it all depends on, can we get these shipments out? Most of it has been sold or certainly committed being committed to, so we just have to get the shipping.

Great. And then y'all commented that shipments are still -- it's still difficult. So can you any update on vessel availability? Any movement, any improvement there?

Yes, we have seen and it's not the same in every geographic location, but we have seen tremendous improvement in Brazil with container availability and vessel availability. The key for us, as we stated in the previous quarter is to be as proactive as we can working with our customers, wants to inspective is to get these shipping instructions and book the vessels as soon as possible, and we are working in all these different areas. But it still remains a challenge, but we do see a better scenario going forward.

Fantastic. And then, it looks like the share repurchase -- current share repurchase authorization ends expires November of 2022. Any update on the likelihood of the getting renewed? That looks like there is some $96 million - $97 million remaining under that authorization, any update there?

That determination will be made at the next Board meeting, Ann.

Okay. And then Candace make a worldwide uncommitted brief number, please?

Yes. It is updated this time. It's 49 million kilos as of June 30, which is down 13 million from the 3/31/’23 numbers.

Okay. And then any update on the U.S. tobacco crop? How does it look in the field right now? What is your view of the crop, the quality?

Right now the tobacco looks good in the field. Weather conditions have been favorable. We considering that it continues the way it has been forming. This crop should be a good volume crop and also good quality crop. So we still -- and we're going to start buying soon here. But considering no depends on weather conditions, we should give be in a good place in the tobacco, in the U.S. tobacco crop.

We have no further questions. So I hand it back to Candace for closing remarks.

Thank you, Maxine. I appreciate your joining us today. Thank you all. And we will talk to you next time.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.