US Foods Holding (USFD) Q3 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

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US Foods Holding (NYSE:USFD)
Q3 2021 Earnings Call
Nov 08, 2021, 10:00 a.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the quarterly earnings call conference call. [Operator instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker for today, Ms. Melissa Napier.

Please go ahead.

Melissa Napier — Senior Vice President, Investor Relations, andTreasurer

Thank you. Good morning, and happy Monday. I’m joined for our call today by Pietro Satriano, our CEO; and Dirk Locascio, our CFO. On today’s call, we will provide an overview of our results for the third quarter and first nine months of fiscal 2021.

We’ll take your questions after our prepared remarks conclude. [Operator instructions] During today’s call and unless otherwise stated, we are comparing our third quarter and nine-month results to the same period in fiscal year 2020. Our earnings release issued earlier this morning and today’s presentation slides can be accessed on the investor relations page of our website. In addition to historical information, certain statements made during today’s call are considered forward-looking statements.

Please review the risk factors in our 2020 Form 10-K for those potential factors, which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in those statements. And lastly, during today’s call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. All reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP financial measures are included in the schedules on our earnings press release, as well as in the appendices to the presentation slides posted on our website. I’ll now turn the call over to Pietro.

Pietro Satriano — Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Melissa. Good morning, everyone. Third quarter results were in line with expectations. Volume for the quarter was up 18% over prior year and 6% below 2019 as the industry continued to recover.

EBITDA margins were up slightly as we continue to successfully manage through both higher-than-normal product and labor inflation. This performance resulted in strong cash generation, which contributed to further deleverage from the prior quarter. Since the industry is demonstrating that it is well on its way to recovery, we are shifting our discussion and our goals to be more in line with our pre-pandemic strategy. First, to profitably grow market share with our Great Food.

Made Easy. differentiation; second, to optimize gross profit margins; and third, to execute with an intense focus on operational efficiency. But first, let me start, as I usually do, with a brief update on the industry on Slide 3. Industry foot traffic at restaurants in the third quarter was largely in line with the prior quarter despite the surge in COVID cases due to Delta.

This underscores our view that industry demand is resilient…