Star Group L.P.

Good morning, and welcome to the STAR Group fiscal 2022 fourth quarter results conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need any assistance during the call, 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 a question, please press star, then two. Please do note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Chris Witte, the Investor Relations Advisor. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, and good morning. With me on the call today are Jeff Woosnam, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Rich Amberry, 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, It 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, 2022, 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. Thank you for joining our year-end conference call. It's amazing how time passes so quickly, and here we are concluding another fiscal year and at the start of a new heating season. Looking back, fiscal 2022 was certainly a year full of unique challenges, including warmer than normal temperatures, product cost volatility, and higher operating expenses, but one in which I believe the range of STARS offerings, depths of our resources, and dedication to customer service set us apart from our competition. During fiscal 2022, we experienced temperatures that were on average 9% warmer than normal, saw heating oil costs on the New York Mercantile Exchange that ranged from a low of $2.06 per gallon to an historic high of $5.14 per gallon, and paid premiums over NYMEX prices to ensure prompt delivery of heating oil products. Higher product costs drove greater expenses in areas such as bad debt reserves, credit card fees, and fuel for our vehicles. In addition, like so many businesses, we face rising wage and related inflationary pressures. Despite these headwinds, we were able to deliver $110 million in adjusted EBITDA and were successful in reducing overall net customer attrition to levels slightly below last year. We also repurchased 3 million common units during fiscal 2022 as part of our ongoing stock repurchase plan, which we believe further enhances long-term shareholder value. In addition, our acquisition program remains an important component of our growth strategy. And in total, we completed five separate transactions during fiscal 22, adding nearly 8 million gallons of heating oil volume annually. While no acquisitions were completed during the fourth quarter, we closed on two small heating oil companies after the end of the fiscal year, one in October and another in November. We've also taken steps to better position STAR for the future. As part of our ongoing evaluations of our operations and core markets and the resources and capital required to optimize the company's potential, we sold our heating oil and propane assets in New Hampshire and Maine during October. Our business in these markets was small and somewhat geographically detached, making it difficult for us to achieve certain operational efficiencies and the desired level of profitability. We ultimately decided it was best to divest ourselves of these assets and direct our internal focus and capital in areas that produce greater and more consistent returns. Our long-term goal of expanding our heating oil and propane business, both organically and through acquisitions, remains unchanged. To that end, reducing net customer attrition continues to be a critical metric for our team. While there's still much progress to be made, I believe that this past year's net customer attrition further validates the investments we've made in improving the overall customer experience as well as the strength and appeal of STAR's product offerings. I'm very proud of the way our team navigated through the external market forces we faced in fiscal 2022. Given our strong operating platform and recently expanded credit facilities, we believe STAR is prepared and well-positioned for the heating season ahead. So with that, I'll turn the call over to Rich to provide additional comments on the quarter and year-end results. Rich?

Thanks, Jeff, and good morning, everyone. For the fiscal 22 fourth quarter, Our home heating oil and propane volume decreased by 1.5 million gallons, or about 7% to 19 million gallons, as the additional volume provided from acquisitions was more than offset by the impact of net customer attrition and other factors. Our product growth profits decreased by $2 million, or 5% to $35 million, largely due to lower volume of liquid products sold. Delivery branch and G&A expenses increased by $1.4 million, or just 2%, to $79 million. Our net loss increased by $27 million for the quarter to $50 million as an unfavorable non-cash change in the fair value of derivative instruments of $35 million and an increase in the adjusted EBITDA loss of $3 million, more than offset an increase in the company's income tax benefit of $12 million. The adjusted EBITDA loss rose by $3 million to a loss of $31 million, reflecting lower sales volume, a 2.4% decline in home heating oil and propane per gallon margins, and an increase in operating costs of 2%. For fiscal 2022, our home heating oil and propane volume decreased by 10 million gallons or 3% to 296 million gallons at slightly warmer temperatures, net customer attrition and other factors more than offset the impact from acquisitions. Temperatures and STARS geographic areas of operations for the fiscal year were about a half a percent warmer during the prior year comparable period and 9% warmer than normal. Our product gross profit increased by $9 million, or 2%, as an increase in home heating oil per gallon margins and higher motor fuel gross profit more than offset the impact from a decline in liquid products sold. Operating expenses did rise by $26 million, reflecting a $2 million lower benefit recorded under the company's weather hedge program. additional costs from acquisitions of $5 million, and an $18 million, or 6%, increase in expenses within the base business. As mentioned on previous calls, higher petroleum costs drove an increase in credit card fees reserved for doubtful accounts and higher vehicle fuels totaling $9 million in the aggregate. Higher medical expenses accounted for an increase of $2.5 million, and other areas in the base business rose by $6.5 million per 2%. Net income declined by $52 million to $35 million as an unfavorable, again, non-cash change in the fair value of derivative instruments of $53 million to and a decrease in adjusted EBITDA of $17.6 million was only slightly offset by a decrease in the company's income tax expense of $20 million. Adjusted EBITDA for fiscal 2022 declined by $17.6 million to $110 million as lower home heating oil and propane volumes sold and an increase in operating expenses more than offset the impact from higher per-gallon margins. And now I'd like to turn the call back over to Jeff.

Thanks, Rich. At this time, we'd be pleased to address any questions you may have. Joe, please open the phone lines to questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you're using your speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. At this time, we will pause just momentarily to assemble a roster. And again, as a reminder, if you have a question, please press star then one to join the question queue. Our first question here will come from Tim Mullen with Littleton Management. Please go ahead, sir.

Hey, thanks for taking the question. Can you speak to how product margins are impacted by the absolute price level. Do you see as prices rise, the ability to take more margin is diminished?

No, not necessarily. For the most part, rising energy costs for us become a little bit of a challenge because there's greater price sensitivity, customer price sensitivity in the marketplace. you know, in times like these, it's very important that we employ, you know, very strong margin management, and I think we've done that this year. Okay. Thank you.

Makes sense. And, you know, I'd just like to add, even though the margins were down in the quarter a couple of pennies, they were up for the year, which is more important. They were up by you know, 5.6 cents per gallon, and you get into a, you know, a summer quarter where you don't sell very much volume, you can easily get, you know, a two or three cent increase or decrease in margins. Yeah.

Again. If you have a question, you may press star then 1 to join the queue. And if you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. And this concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Jeff Woosnam for any closing remarks.

Well, thank you for taking the time to join us today and your ongoing interest in Star Group. We look forward to sharing our 2023 fiscal first quarter results in February. In the meantime, have a wonderful holiday. Thank you, everybody.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you very much for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.