Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the MGP Ingredients First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call with Julie Francis, President and CEO; and Brandon Gall, CFO. [Operator Instructions] Please also note that this event is being recorded today.

In addition, this call may involve certain forward-looking statements. The company's actual results could differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including the risk factors described in the company's annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call, except as required by law.

This call will contain references to certain non-GAAP measures, which the company believes are useful in evaluating the company's performance. A reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measures is included in today's earnings release, which was issued this morning before the markets opened and is available at www.mgpingredients.com.

At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Julie Francis, President and CEO of MGP Ingredients.

Julie Francis
CEO, President & Director

Good morning. I'd like to thank you all for joining us today on our first quarter 2026 earnings call. Let's kick it off with a review of some of our quarterly results and progress made against our key initiatives, and then Brandon can go into the financial metrics during his comments.

Sales in the first quarter of 2026 came in at $106.4 million, down versus the prior year, but in