Caseys General Stores, Inc.

Today's conference is scheduled to begin shortly. Please continue to stand by, and thank you for your patience. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Casey's General Store's third quarter fiscal year 2022 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Brian Johnson, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Business Development. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss the results from our third quarter ended January 31st, 2022. I am Brian Johnson, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Business Development. With me today are Darren Robelas, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Steve Bramlage, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'll remind you that certain statements made by us during this investor call may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include any statements relating to expectations for future periods, possible or assumed future results of operations, financial conditions, liquidity and related sources or needs, the company's supply chain, business and integration strategies, plans and synergies, growth opportunities, performance at our stores, and the potential effects of COVID-19. There are a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements, including but not limited to the integration of recent acquisitions, our ability to execute on our strategic plan or to realize benefits from the strategic plan, the impact and duration of COVID-19 and related governmental actions, as well as other risks, uncertainties, and factors which are described in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q as filed with the SEC and available on our website. Any forward-looking statements made during this call reflect our current views as of today with respect to future events, and Casey's disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements, whether a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. A reconciliation of non-gap-to-gap financial measures referenced in this call, as well as a detailed breakdown of the operating expense increase for the third quarter, can be found on our website at www.caseys.com under the Investor Relations link. With that said, I would now like to turn the call over to Darren to discuss our third quarter results. Darren.

Thanks, Brian, and good morning, everyone. We're looking forward to sharing our results in a moment, but I would like to start by thanking our 43,000 Casey's team members for their tireless efforts as we continue to overcome the ongoing challenges with COVID-19 and the resulting supply chain issues, as well as challenging weather conditions in our geography. Our team members have done an outstanding job navigating through these difficult situations, and the team's ability to perform under the circumstances is something I'm especially proud of and grateful for. At Casey's, our purpose is to make life better for our communities and guests every day. As a rural Midwestern operator, we play a significant role in the towns we operate in. It is a privilege and a responsibility we take to heart. In February, we once again activated our hunger campaign in partnership with Feeding America. This partnership raises funds that support 52 local food banks in the communities where we operate. Hunger continues to be a real issue in our communities. We appreciate Monster Energy's partnership in this year's campaign and all our team members and guests who supported the effort. The campaign raised over $500,000 and will fund over 5 million meals. In the third quarter, we closed our third strategic acquisition of the year, with the 40 pilot stores in the Knoxville, Tennessee market, underscoring our commitment to accelerating unit growth. These stores will help us further build out our footprint in Tennessee and will be supplied from our existing distribution center in Terre Haute, Indiana. I would like to personally welcome those employees to the Casey's family. We're excited to become a part of the Knoxville community and appreciate your partnership as we integrate those stores into our network. We're also excited about the strong progress we've made integrating our two previous strategic acquisitions of Bucky's and Circle K, which are on track to realize expected synergies. Overall, we're highly confident in our ability to deliver on our strategic commitments and manage through the near-term challenges presented by the current environment as evidenced by our third quarter results. As you've seen in the press release, we delivered an outstanding third quarter. Diluted earnings per share was a record-breaking $1.71, up 64% from the prior year. Total gross profit dollars increased $124 million to $664 million compared to the prior year. Net income was $64 million, up 66% from the prior year. Same-store sales were strong for both inside sales and fuel as guest traffic continued to improve. Inside same-store sales were up 7.6%, while fuel gallons increased 5.7%. Our inside margin remained relatively flat versus the prior year, despite supply chain and price inflation issues. In fuel, margin increased over 38 cents per gallon, despite a volatile cost environment during the quarter. I would now like to go over our results and share some of the details in each of the categories. Inside same-store sales were up 7.6% for the third quarter, compared to the prior year with an average margin of 39.4%. Same-store grocery and general merchandise sales were up 7.7%, and the average margin was 32%, an increase of 130 basis points from the same period a year ago. We've been able to expand margin due to the great work our team has done navigating supply chain and inflation challenges by making prompt price adjustments and leveraging strong supplier-partner collaboration. We performed well across all categories with non-alcoholic beverages and salty snacks continuing to perform exceptionally well. Non-alcoholic beverages in total were up over 24% on a two-year stack basis. Alcohol same-store sales were up mid-single digits despite challenging comparisons and remain up over 23% on a two-year stack basis. This growth is being driven by approximately 1,500 stores that sell hard alcohol. We've significantly broadened our assortment of spirits in these stores, and it shows in our results. This scale in liquor licenses is a unique competitive advantage to Casey's relative to the rest of the industry. Same store prepared food and dispensed beverage sales were up 7.4% in the quarter. The average margin for the quarter was 58%, down 260 basis points from a year ago. Pizza slices continued to perform well, up 24% for the quarter, while hot breakfast sandwiches were up close to 49% as part of the company's breakfast menu relaunch that began in September. Margin has been adversely impacted by supply chain challenges and inflation, partially offset by menu price increases. During the third quarter, same-store fuel gallons sold were up 5.7%, with a fuel margin of 38.3 cents per gallon, up approximately 5.4 cents per gallon compared to the same period last year. The fuel team continues to do a tremendous job balancing fuel volume and margin to optimize the profitability of the category. Fuel margins remain strong, which we view as a long-term favorable trend, as the industry remains reliant upon fuel margins to offset higher operating costs. I'd now like to turn the call over to Steve to go into some detail on the financials.