Caseys General Stores, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the first quarter FY 2025 Casey's General Store's 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 need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised, 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 first quarter ended July 31, 2024. I'm Brian Johnson, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Business Development. With me today are Darren Rabelas, Board Chair, 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 the ability to consummate the FIX transaction, the potential impact of the consummation of the FIX transaction on the relationship with third parties, 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 Casey's 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 first 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 to Darren to discuss our first quarter results. Darren?

Thanks, Brian, and good morning, everyone. We're excited to discuss the first quarter results in a moment. First, however, I wanted to thank our team for their hard work and dedication, which enabled us to start the fiscal year off strong. I also look forward to welcoming the FIKES team to the Casey's family, and we will discuss that later in the call. As the school year begins, Casey's is proud to see projects funded by its Cash for Classrooms grants in action. Last year, we donated over $1 million in grants to schools across our footprint. We're grateful to our team members and guests for raising nearly $600,000 in this August campaign. This will allow us to continue to have a positive impact on schools and children in our community. Now let's discuss the results from the quarter. Diluted EPS finished at $4.83 per share, a 7% increase from the prior year. The company generated $180 million in net income, an increase of 6%, and $346 million in EBITDA, an increase of 9% from the prior year. The first quarter was another great example of the strength and resiliency of the Casey's business model as we were able to expand gross profit dollars while growing the store base. Inside the store, we saw continued strength with our prepared food innovation, as well as margin expansion driven primarily by the grocery and general merchandise category. On the fuel side, the team is doing a tremendous job balancing volume and margin with positive same-store gallons combined with fuel margins over 40 cents per gallon. We continue to show that our three-year strategic plan is credible and achievable, and that our team is doing a great job both inside and outside the store. 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 2.3% for the first quarter, or 7.9% on a two-year stack basis, with an average margin of 41.7%. Same-store prepared food and dispensed beverage led the way, as sales were up 4.4%, or 10.6% on a two-year stack basis, with an average margin of 58.3%. Hot sandwiches continued its momentum from the fourth quarter, and bakery also performed well. Margin was comparable to the prior year as favorability and waste was offset by a modest cheese headwind. Same-store grocery and general merchandise sales were up 1.6%, or 6.9% on a two-year stack basis, with an average margin of 35.4%, an increase of approximately 130 basis points from the prior year, primarily due to good costs of goods management. We saw positive momentum in the category, notably in both non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages, specifically liquor. Our 1500 liquor licenses continue to be a strategic advantage for cases. For fuel, same store gallons sold were up 0.7% with a fuel margin of 40.7 cents per gallon. We continue to outperform our geographic region on volume as Opus Fuel gallons sold data shows the mid-continent region down approximately 5 percent in the quarter, indicating that we are taking share in the category. Our fuel team is doing a tremendous job balancing volume growth and margin, and the results continue to show it. We prudently managed operating expenses with an increase of just 0.7 percent on a same-store, excluding credit card fee basis. Our continuous improvement team is doing a great job identifying areas to be more efficient and it shows the same store labor hours were down 2%. I'd now like to turn the call over to Steve to discuss the financial results from the first quarter. Steve? Thank you, Darren, and good morning.