Star Group L.P.

Good day and welcome to the STAR Group fiscal 2022 first quarter results conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Chris Witty, Investor Relations Advisor. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning. With me on the call today are Jeff Woosnam, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Rich Ambury, Chief Financial Officer. I would now like to provide a brief safe harbor statement. This conference call may include forward-looking statements that represent the company's expectations and beliefs concerning future events that involve risks and uncertainties and may cause the company's actual performance to be materially different from the performance indicated or implied by such statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this conference call are forward-looking statements. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company's expectations are disclosed in this conference call, the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2021, and the company's other filings with the SEC. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements. Unless otherwise required by law, the company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, after the date of this conference call. I'd now like to turn the call over to Jeff Woosnam. Jeff?

Thanks, Chris, and good morning, everyone. Despite the company facing temperatures that were 6.3% warmer than last year and 18.6% warmer than normal, negatively impacting demand, I'm pleased with our overall performance for the first quarter of fiscal 2022. We were able to overcome the weather-related volume shortfall with solid margin management and strong expense controls, particularly in the face of certain inflationary pressures, to deliver adjusted EBITDA in line with the prior year. Our customer retention also improved as our net change in accounts was almost equally driven by both an increase in customer additions as well as a decrease in losses versus the prior year, further supporting our focus on the customer experience. In addition, I'm happy to report that our acquisition program remained active during the period as we purchased three heating oil businesses that brought with them approximately 3 million gallons of annual product sales. We continue to evaluate interesting opportunities that support our strategic growth plan. A recap of our results would not be complete without mentioning how grateful I am to our employees who, while despite the unique circumstances over the past year, have remained entirely focused on servicing our customers. Most notably, their willingness to step up and, in many cases, work extended hours to meet the added demand brought on by much colder weather in January is further evidence of our team's dedication to our customers. It's too early to say how fiscal 2022 will play out, but we are encouraged to see cooler temperatures over the past month and believe we are well positioned to address whatever challenges or opportunities might present themselves for the remainder of the heating season. With that, I'll turn the call over to Rich.