Star Group L.P.

Good day, and welcome to the STAR Group Fiscal 2023 First Quarter Results Conference Call. All participants will be in a 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 touchtone phone. And 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 Mr. Chris Witte, 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 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, 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. The first quarter of fiscal 2023 was somewhat unusual in that during one month, October, temperatures were 130% colder than the prior year period. However, October is typically a transitional month for our customers with a lower overall impact on volume sold. And it also falls outside of our weather hedge contract. The rest of the quarter's weather was only slightly colder than fiscal 2022, resulting in a $0.4 million charge against our weather hedge program. As a reminder, our weather hedge runs through March 31st, so this charge could be reversed depending on second quarter results. We were currently experiencing warmer than normal temperatures throughout our operating footprint. We were well prepared for the start of the heating season, and I'm pleased with our overall performance, which included delivering adjusted EBITDA that was $4.6 million higher than the same period a year ago, as well as an encouraging net gain in accounts. Specifically, we achieved net account growth of 1.7%, or a total of 7,000 customers, representing our best such results in years. The ongoing volatility in product costs, some isolated concerns over supply availability, and the cool temperatures in October created a great deal of new account activity during the quarter. While largely temporary in nature, we were pleased to be in a position to take advantage of this increased market activity. And we believe that our ongoing efforts in improving the customer experience, combined with the reputation of our brands, as being among the most reliable and trusted within the markets we serve also contributed to the strong net gain performance. A recap of our results would not be complete without mentioning how grateful I am to our talented staff, who have not only supported but taken true ownership in effectively executing our strategy of differentiating Star from the competition through outstanding customer service. This team has remained completely committed to providing the absolute best service possible to our customers, and I could not be more proud of them. During the period, we also acquired two heating oil dealers that added roughly 1.5 million gallons of oil and other petroleum products annually to our company. We continue to evaluate a number of opportunities that support our strategic growth plan. While it's too early to say how fiscal 2023 will play out, We are managing through the milder temperatures encountered in the month of January with a focus on expense control, operational efficiency, and solid margin management. And we believe we're well positioned to address whatever challenges or opportunities might present themselves over the remainder of the heating season. With that, I'll turn the call to Rich to provide additional comments on the quarter's results. Rich?