Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Sucro Limited's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. Joining us are Jonathan Taylor, Chief Executive Officer; and Stefano D'Aniello, Chief Financial Officer. At this time, I'll turn the call over to Jonathan Taylor. Jonathan, please go ahead.

Jonathan Taylor
President, CEO & Director

Thanks, operator, and good morning, everyone. Before we begin, I'd like to remind listeners that management's comments today may include forward-looking statements. Please refer to our filings for a full discussion of the associated risks and uncertainties. In addition, listeners should note that all figures are in U.S. dollars. Q1 2026 continued to reflect many of the same market conditions we experienced throughout 2025, particularly in the United States sugar market.

Margins remained under pressure across both conventional and organic sugar markets, primarily due to tariffs, logistics costs and additional operational expenses associated with ramping up our new refining capacity. Importantly, these costs were largely not passed through to customers due to prevailing market conditions. At the same time, the quarter also demonstrated the operational progress we have made as a business, most notably, refinery volumes more than doubled year-over-year to record levels.

Both Hamilton and University Park continued ramping commercial production and our integrated supply chain continued to perform effectively despite difficult market dynamics. While adjusted profitability remained below our expectations, we believe Q1 represents the late stages of a transitional period for the industry and for the company. In particular, recent developments in the U.S. sugar market are encouraging. Last week, USDA published its first projections for the 2026/2027 crop year.

Based on