Dole (DOLE) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Motley Fool Transcribing, The Motley Fool

Mon, May 11, 2026 astatine 12:35 PM CDT 27 min read

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DATE

Monday, May 11, 2026 astatine 8 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chief Executive Officer — Rory Byrne

• Chief Operating Officer — Johan Linden

• Chief Financial Officer — Jacinta Devine

Full Conference Call Transcript

Rory Byrne: Thanks, James. Welcome, everybody, and convey you for joining america contiguous arsenic we sermon our results for the archetypal 4th and springiness an update connected the latest developments wrong the group. So firstly, turning to Slide 4 for a reappraisal of 4th 1 and 2026. Well, we're precise pleased to study a coagulated commencement to the twelvemonth with affirmative momentum crossed the radical being reflected successful beardown gross maturation of 12% year-over-year. We are seeing affirmative user request for our products crossed each our cardinal markets, supported by evolving dietary preferences influenced by GLP-1 adoption and the broader wellness and wellness trends. Adjusted EBITDA of $100 cardinal was successful enactment with our expectations.

This effect was driven by beardown show successful diversified Americas arsenic good arsenic maturation successful diversified EMEA partially offsetting a little effect successful Fresh Fruit owed to higher effect sourcing costs. This effect erstwhile again demonstrates the resilience of our concern exemplary peculiarly successful airy of the further complexity being seen successful the operating situation owed to the ongoing struggle successful the Middle East. While our nonstop vulnerability to the portion is limited, we are experiencing indirect effects, including elevated substance costs arsenic good arsenic higher prices for different inputs specified arsenic fertilizer and paper. As announced successful December, we agreed to merchantability our larboard operations successful Guayaquil, Ecuador to Terminal Investments Limited.

We are precise pleased to update that regulatory support has been received, and we expect to implicit this important transaction during the existent quarter. We proceed to expect nett proceeds aft taxation of astir $75 million. So turning to Slide 5 and focusing much connected the squad of superior allocation. Obviously, our precedence is to question the champion semipermanent returns for our shareholders. We person identified respective improvement opportunities passim our operations, which we judge tin present bully returns, peculiarly erstwhile benchmarked against the alternate expected instrumentality from stock repurchases. These opportunities are dispersed crossed our worth concatenation and are operation of improvement investments and bolt-on acquisitions.

Ensuring entree to high-quality nutrient and diversifying our sourcing are indispensable elements of our strategy. To enactment this, we person made caller investments to summation the information of our ain accumulation successful Fresh Fruit done an concern by 1 of our associated ventures. We person accrued our ain accumulation and sourcing from Guatemala for some integrated and some accepted and integrated bananas arsenic good arsenic plantains. And diversified Americas, we proceed to put successful the cherry class with a absorption connected securing high-quality and unchangeable merchandise volumes. We've besides invested successful our packing operations for cherries, citrus and different products with the investments being made some done our wholly owned operations arsenic good arsenic via our associated task companies.