CrossAmerica Partners LP

Welcome to the Cross America Partners second quarter 2022 earnings call. My name is Darrell and I'll be your operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I'll now turn the call over to Maura Topper. You may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning and thank you for joining the Cross America Partners second quarter 2022 earnings call. With me today is Charles Nifong, CEO and President. Charles will provide some opening comments, a brief overview of Cross America's operational performance, and highlights from the quarter, and then I will discuss the financial results. At the end, we will open up the call to questions. I should point out that today's call will follow some presentation slides that we will utilize during this morning's event. These slides are available as part of the webcast and are posted on the Cross America website. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that today's call, including the question and the answer session, may include forward-looking statements regarding expected revenue, future plans, future operational metrics, and opportunities and expectations of the organization. There can be no assurance that management's expectations, beliefs, and projections will be achieved or that actual results will not differ from expectations. Please see Cross America's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including annual reports on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for a discussion of important factors that could affect our actual results. Forward-looking statements represent the judgment of Cross America's management as of today, and the organization disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements. During today's call, we may also provide certain performance measures that do not conform to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles or GAP. We have provided schedules that reconcile these non-GAP measures with our reported results on a GAP basis as part of our earnings press release. Today's call is being webcast and a recording of this conference call will be available on the Cross America website for a period of 60 days. With that, I will now turn the call over to Charles.

Thank you, Maura. Maura and I appreciate everyone joining us this morning. As always, we thank you for your interest in the partnership. During today's call, I will briefly go through some of the operating highlights for the second quarter. I will also provide some color on the trends in the market and a few other updates similar to what I provided on previous calls. Maura will then review in more detail the financial results. Now, if you turn to slide four, I will briefly review some of our operating results. The second quarter of 2022, our wholesale fuel gross profit increased 33% to $40.5 million, compared to $30.5 million in the second quarter of 2021. This growth was driven by increases in both volume and fuel margin. Wholesale segment gross profit was $55 million, an increase of 24% or $10.8 million when compared to the second quarter of 2021. Our wholesale fuel volume was 342.8 million gallons the second quarter of 2022, an increase of 3% when compared to the same period in 2021. largely due to the acquisition of assets from 7-Eleven, which occurred primarily during the third quarter of 2021. It was a challenging quarter overall for fuel volume. If you look at gasoline demand data from the Energy Information Administration, national gasoline demand was down year over year for every week in the quarter, except one week. Our wholesale fuel volume was not immune from the national trend. We particularly saw a decline in gasoline demand from our wholesale locations as fuel prices rose sharply in late May and into June. Fuel demand continued to remain lower than the prior year after fuel prices peaked in mid-June. Overall, for the quarter, our wholesale same-site fuel volume declined about 6% year-over-year. Moderating fuel prices in the period since the quarter end have aided fuel volumes, but same-site weekly volumes remain at a lower level than in the prior year. We saw an increase in our wholesale fuel margin per gallon for the quarter, reporting 11.8 cents per gallon compared to 9.2 cents per gallon for the second quarter of 2021, an increase of 28%. The year-over-year increase was primarily driven by the following factors. First, we benefited from increased volume across America's company-operated retail sites which we supply on a variable margin basis. Second, we continue to benefit from better sourcing costs due to the execution of certain strategic initiatives, such as our brand consolidation. Finally, we continue to realize higher variable fuel margins than in the pre-COVID period as a multitude of market factors appear to be driving a durable shift in market conditions towards higher overall fuel margins. For the second quarter, RBOB gasoline prices rose throughout the quarter until approximately mid-June. Historically, this type of price movement would have created a difficult fuel margin environment. The fact that it did not and that we have had other similar fuel price environment quarters and similar fuel margin results in the COVID timeframe are indicative of the durability of some of the structural changes in the overall market that are leading to stronger fuel margins. On our wholesale rent, it was another steady, solid quarter for this stable part of our business. Our base rent for the quarter was $13.6 million compared to the prior year of $13.3 million, a slight increase due to the reopening of certain previously closed sites. Our retail segment also performed well during the quarter, as gross profit increased 66% or $13.9 million when compared to the second quarter of 2021. Our motor fuel gross profit increased 89% and our merchandise gross profit rose 68% when compared to the same period in 2021. For volume on a same site basis, our company operated retail volume was up 2% for the quarter year over year. This performance was in contrast to the volume decline that we experienced in our wholesale segment and indicates the quality of our retail assets and the strength of our execution at the retail level. The retail segment was not immune, though, from the overall volume pressures nationwide that I mentioned earlier in my comments. Same site year-over-year volumes in June were generally lower than the prior year for the retail segment, and volumes have continued to be lower than the prior year for the weeks since the quarter end. However, retail fuel margins have been significantly better than the prior quarter or prior year and have more than offset volume declines. For inside sales on a same site basis, our inside sales were down 3% relative to last year. However, inside sales excluding cigarettes were up approximately 1% year over year on a same site basis. Despite the decline in sales this quarter, our overall store sales remain at a strong level relative to pre-COVID results. Year to date, our same store sales are approximately 10% above 2019 results and indicate the durability of certain sales channel shifts that occurred during COVID and have remained after COVID restrictions have been eliminated. On the supply chain front, out of stocks in our stores have moderated and are better than in prior quarters, but are still at higher levels than we would like. In terms of inflation, we have seen product cost increases of 68% in certain categories, And we generally expect to receive price increases across all of our inside store merchandise at some point this year. We generally try to pass these increases on in our retail pricing. We have seen some consumer behavior shift as a result of higher prices. Consumers buying a 12-pack down from a 30-pack case, for example. We are closely monitoring these trends and adjusting our product offering to ensure our product mix reflects these evolving consumer behaviors. As a reminder, in reviewing our retail segment financial performance, it is important to remember the wholesale segment supplies our retail segment on a variable margin basis, so the overall fuel profitability of these sites is split between our wholesale and retail segments. The fuel margin to our retail sites recorded in the wholesale segment makes a meaningful contribution to our wholesale segment and our overall profitability that is not apparent in looking at the retail segment financial results in isolation. As we review our expenses for the quarter, we saw an increase in our operating expenses compared to the prior year. The increase in operating expenses was primarily driven by the addition of the 711 sites, which increased our average company operated site count from 150 to 254, a 69% increase year over year. Labor costs at our retail locations have increased, in part due to having more labor in the stores, staffing shortages are not as acute, which is actually a positive, but also due to the overall inflation pressures in the economy. Maura will review our operating expenses in more detail in her commentary. Our G&A expense declined $1.2 million, or 17% for the quarter, year over year, primarily due to a decrease in acquisition-related costs associated with the 711 sites that we acquired. As part of our ongoing initiatives, we continue to evaluate our portfolio and look for opportunities to divest non-core properties. For the second quarter, we had five property sales for $2.3 million in proceeds. We have a solid pipeline of identified opportunities within our portfolio to execute on in 2022 as we continue the process of recycling capital to invest in growth opportunities. As I touched on in my earlier comments, in the period since the quarter end, volumes have generally been lower than in the prior year. In the last few weeks, volume has improved and is trending better, but is still lower than the prior year. However, declining crude oil prices and subsequent fuel price decreases have generated a strong fuel margin environment, the financial impact of which is significantly greater than that of the lower fuel volume. Store sales have generally continued along the trends experienced in the second quarter, and have remained lower than in the prior year. For the team here across America, we were not surprised at the decline in second quarter GDP announced at the end of July. The data our portfolio generates has indicated for a while that economic activity was slowing. Despite these headwinds, we posted strong results for the quarter, the latest in a string of solid quarters for the partnership. Our results are proof of the value of the initiatives and transactions we have executed in recent years and demonstrate that the partnership is well positioned to succeed and provide attractive financial returns across a wide range of economic environments. With that, I will turn it over to Maura for a more detailed financial review.