Caseys General Stores, Inc.

fiscal year 2025 Casey's General Storage 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 that 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 first speaker today, Brian Johnson, Senior Vice President of Business Development and Investor Relations. Please begin.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss the results from our fourth quarter of fiscal year ended April 30, 2025. I am Brian Johnson, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Business Development. With me today are Dan Rebellos, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of 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 potential impact of the FIPS transaction, expectations for future periods, possible or assumed future results of operations, financial conditions, liquidity, and related sources or means, 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 that 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. In case it 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 the detailed breakdown of the operating expense increase for the fourth quarter, can be found on our website at www.kc.com under the investor relations link. With that said, I'd now like to turn the call over to Darren to discuss our fourth quarter fiscal year results.

Darren? Thanks, Brian, and good morning, everyone. We're excited to share our outstanding results, but before I begin, I'd like to talk about some of the good Casey's is doing. Casey's is here to make life better for our guests and communities every day. That's our purpose, and it shows in the positive guest feedback we receive, the delicious food we make, and the impact we have on our communities. This fiscal year, Casey's and our partners gave back $6 million in our communities in the areas of education, veterans and first responders, and food insecurity. This resulted in thousands of donations to schools, PTOs, 4-H clubs, veterans organizations, food pantries, and more. Local teachers and students benefited from the 80 Cash for Classrooms grants we were able to give, and we helped provide 8 million meals to those in need. Thank you to our 49,000 team members, guests, supplier partners, and the nonprofits that make this all possible. I know I speak for the entire Casey's team when I say we're proud to be part of the fabric of the towns we call home. Before we dive deeper into the financial results for the year, I want to highlight our strategic pillar of unit growth. Fiscal 2025 was the largest store growth year in the company's history. with 35 new builds and 235 units acquired. This included the largest transaction in KC's history with the Fife's wholesale acquisition and its 198 Sefco convenience stores. I'm incredibly proud of our team's ability to produce record financial results while also integrating the new units. Fiscal 2025 is a testament to our two-pronged approach of both building and acquiring stores which ensures predictable, rateable growth while still capitalizing on great opportunities like Fikes when they come along. Now let's discuss the results of this past fiscal year. Fiscal 2025 was another record year for diluted earnings per share, finishing at $14.64, a 9% increase from the prior year. The company also generated a record $547 million in net income and $1.2 billion in EBITDA, an increase of 13% from the prior year. Our top line growth was impressive. Total inside sales grew 10.9% during the year, while inside same-store sales were up 2.6%, or 7.1% on a two-year stack basis. Total prepared food and dispensed beverage sales grew 10.3%, and same-store sales were up 3.5%, or 10.5% on a two-year stack basis. Total grocery and general merchandise sales were 11.2%, and same-store sales were up 2.3%, or 5.8% on a two-year staff basis. Inside margin expanded 50 basis points year-over-year to 41.5%, as our merchants have done a tremendous job working with our vendor partners to get the right products on the shelves while maintaining a strong value proposition for our guests. We saw excellent results throughout the year in non-alcoholic beverages, as well as hot sandwiches. Our food innovation team remained hard at work, both creating new menu items and improving existing ones. A great example of this is the chicken wing and fry platform we're currently testing, with encouraging early results. Fuel gross profit was up 11%, with total fuel gallons sold up 13%, and a fuel margin averaging 38.7 cents per gallon over the course of the year. Our fuel team continues to grow market share, focusing on gross profit dollars while balancing fuel volume and margin. Our operations team continues to run the stores efficiently while integrating a significant number of new stores this year. Same-store operating expenses, excluding credit card fees, were up only 1.7% for the year, impacted favorably by a reduction of same-store labor hours of 2.4%. The fourth quarter marked the 12th consecutive quarter of same-store labor hour reduction. At the same time, guest satisfaction scores improved and team member engagement scores hit an all-time high, once again showing that operational excellence and store simplification efforts are driving efficiency to benefit guests and team members alike. The strong results in fiscal 2025 show the strength and durability that are a strategic advantage of KC's business model, and we're confident that we can succeed in a variety of economic climates. I'd now like to turn the call over to Steve to discuss the fourth quarter and our outlook for fiscal 2026. Steve?