Charles River Laboratories International Inc (CRL) Q4 2020 Earnings Call

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Charles River Laboratories International Inc (NYSE:CRL)
Q4 2020 Earnings Call
Feb 17, 2021, 8:30 a.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Charles River Laboratories International Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call and 2021 guidance call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode [Operator Instructions] Please be advised, today’s conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]. I’d like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Todd Spencer, Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations for Charles River.

Please go ahead.

Todd Spencer — Corporate Vice President, Investor Relations

Thank you Mary. Good morning and welcome to Charles River Laboratories’ Fourth Quarter 2020 Earnings and 2021 Guidance Conference Call and Webcast. This morning, Jim Foster, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and David Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer will comment on our results for the fourth quarter and full year 2020 and our guidance for 2021, as well as our planned acquisition of Cognate Bioservices. Following the presentation, they will respond to questions.

There is a slide presentation associated with today’s remarks, which will be posted on the Investor Relations section of our website at ir.cariver.com. A webcast replay of this call will be available beginning approximately 2 hours after today’s call and can also be accessed on our Investor Relations website. The replay will be available through next quarter’s conference call. I would like to remind you of our Safe Harbor. All remarks that we make about future expectations, plans and prospects for the company constitute forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated.

During this call, we will primarily discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe help investors gain a meaningful understanding of our core operating results and guidance. The non-GAAP financial measures are not meant to be considered superior to or a substitute for results from operations, prepared in accordance with GAAP. In accordance with Regulation G, you can find the comparable GAAP measures and reconciliations on the Investor Relations section of our website.

In addition, today’s remarks will also include estimates of the COVID impact on the company. Certain methodologies and assumptions related to how we develop these estimates can be found on Slide 3.

I will now turn the call over to Jim Foster.

James C. Foster — Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks Todd. Good morning. I’m very pleased to speak with you today about the conclusion of another extraordinary year for Charles River. Our expectations for 2021 and the expansion of our early stage research and manufacturing support portfolio into a complementary high growth sector. 2020 was an unprecedented year; the COVID-19 pandemic challenged us in many ways, but to-date, we’ve navigated successfully and reinforced our position as the leading non-clinical CRO. Our success in 2020 was due to the resilience of our business model, our comprehensive business continuity plans that enabled us to keep our worldwide operating sites open, and adequately staffed.

Our broad scientific capabilities and flexible outsourcing solutions that support our clients’ needs and our employees around the world to meet client needs through their commitment and dedication. As a result, we have now become even more integral to our value clients and more differentiated from the competition. Despite the short-term impact of COVID related client disruptions, we benefited from robust underlying client demand across most of our businesses. This was largely driven by clients’ intensified use…