Caseys General Stores, Inc.

Good morning, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the fourth quarter full year 2023 Casey's General Stores 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 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. 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 fourth quarter and fiscal year ended April 30, 2023. I am Brian Johnson, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Business Development. With me today are Garrett Rivelas, 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, and performance at our stores. 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 the recent acquisitions, our ability to execute on our strategic plan or to realize benefits from the strategic plan, the impact and duration of the conflict in Ukraine 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 cases disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. A reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures referenced in this call, as well as a detailed breakdown of the operating expense increase for the fourth 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 fourth quarter and fiscal year results. Darren?

Thanks, Brian, and good morning, everyone. We're looking forward to sharing our results in a moment. I would like to start by thanking our 43,000 CASES team members for their tireless efforts and contribution to a record fiscal year. As I reflect on the three-year strategic plan that we set out in January of 2020, I'm extremely proud of what we've been able to accomplish. CASES is at the heart of the communities we serve. Our teams give their all, and this shows in the positive guest feedback we receive, the delicious food we make, and the impact we have on our communities. In fiscal year 23, Casey's, along with our generous guests and committed supplier partners, enabled over $5 million of donations. These dollars provided meals, school supplies, new playgrounds and equipment, disaster recovery needs, and services helping veterans and their families. I'd like to offer a huge thank you to our team members, our guests, and our nonprofit and supplier partners that make this all possible. We are proud to do so much good across so many communities. Speaking of good, in early May, we launched an upgrade to our rewards program that's bringing more good to our 6.5 million loyal members. The enhanced Casey's Rewards experience includes a refreshed app design that makes it easier than ever for Casey's Rewards members to track their points, redeem them for rewards, and see how much money they've saved by shopping with Casey's Rewards. The program recently celebrated its three-year anniversary, And what guests love most about our loyalty program is the way they can choose to receive their rewards. Whether it's Casey's cash to help pay for pizza night or extra cents off when filling the family vehicle, members have the flexibility to decide what works best for them. We look forward to continuing to grow membership and participation. Now let's discuss the results of the past fiscal year. Fiscal 23 was a record year for diluted EPS, finishing at $11.91 a share, a 31% increase from the prior year. The company also generated a record $447 million in net income and $952 million in EBITDA, an increase of 19% from the prior year. Inside, same-store sales were up 6.5% or 13.6% on a two-year stack basis, with strong results in both prepared food and dispensed beverage, as well as grocery and general merchandise, with theme store sales up 7.1% and 6.3% respectively. Margins were virtually flat year over year, a tremendous accomplishment as we managed cost increases with our merchandise partners and commodities while still holding our value proposition for our guests. We saw tremendous results across the board. Pizza slices and alcoholic beverages were very strong. We also had a lot of fun with innovative products like bush light beer cheese breakfast pizza that made a positive impact on sales. Fuel gross profit was up 16%, with total fuel gallons sold up 4%, and a fuel margin averaging 40.2 cents per gallon over the course of the year. Our fuel team continues to do an excellent job maximizing gross profit dollars by balancing fuel volume and margins. The macro environment was especially favorable for fuel margins, with two significant wholesale fuel cost declines during the year. We also had a great year in terms of managing costs. Same-store operating expenses excluding credit card fees were up only 2.8%, impacted favorably by a reduction of same-store labor hours of 2.3%. Guest satisfaction scores still improved, which is a testament to our store simplification and store leadership teams. They've been effective at freeing up unproductive and more expensive labor hours, which enables our team members to better serve our guests. During the fiscal year, we also did a tremendous job with unit growth. We built 34 new stores and acquired 47 more, which demonstrates our ability to grow the business both organically and via M&A. We met our annual and our three-year growth targets despite challenges with permitting, as well as delays in construction materials and equipment due to supply chain disruptions. We're successfully integrating the 222 or 228 new units from fiscal 2022 and are meeting our synergy targets from those new stores. All of this wouldn't be possible without our store development, real estate, and integration teams working seamlessly to grow our store base. We're extremely confident in our ability to continue to build and buy new units. We believe consolidation will continue to occur in the industry while rising financing costs are reducing the number of potential buyers. Our private label program continues to be popular with our guests, and we ended the fiscal year above 9% penetration in the grocery and general merchandise category in both units and gross profit. We currently offer over 300 SKUs of private label products, which we believe is a tremendous value proposition for our guests. These record-breaking financial results are a strong reminder that our business model is resilient in all parts of the economic cycle, and that Casey's has a unique ability to provide value and quality to our guests. I'd now like to turn the call over to Steve to discuss the fourth quarter and our outlook for fiscal 24. Steve?