Star Group L.P.

Good day and welcome to the Star Group Fiscal 2023 Third Quarter Results Conference Call. All participants will be in a synonym. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star then zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on a touchtone phone. 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 Vitti, the 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 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 than 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 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 us to discuss our third quarter and fiscal year-to-date results. The weather this year certainly continued to be much warmer than anticipated. Temperatures within STARS' geographic footprint during Q3 were 12% warmer than last year and 19% warmer than normal, which significantly impacted our results. Year-to-date temperatures were the third warmest on record over the past 123 years in the New York metropolitan area. a key market for STAR. While we cannot control Mother Nature, we did take steps to reduce operating expenses and have maintained our focus on customer retention and providing excellent service. In addition, even as weather negatively impacted our performance, we're actually in a very strong position from a liquidity standpoint, given that home heating oil product costs are down approximately 60 cents per gallon from this time last year. As of June 30th, 2023, we now have approximately $57 million in cash on the balance sheet, and our inventory and accounts receivable in aggregate are lower by some $77 million year over year. Our bank borrowings are down approximately $73 million year over year. Therefore, we have approximately $218 million of availability under our bank agreement to fund growth initiatives and our working capital requirements, despite the extremely warm weather this year. We're also trying to make the most of the non-heating season, evaluating a number of possible acquisitions, working on home HVAC repairs and upgrades, controlling operating expenses, and otherwise preparing for the upcoming heating season. Reducing net customer attrition continues to be a critical area of focus for us. As you may recall, we took advantage of market conditions with regard to supply during the first quarter, achieving 1.7 net account growth and our best results in many years. This set us up to achieve gross customer gains and reduce net attrition during the nine-month period as compared to the prior year's period, notwithstanding the unusually warm weather. While there's still room for improvement, we believe our results validate the investment we've made in enhancing the overall customer experience, as well as reflect the strength of our brands and appeal of STAR's product and service offerings. As we near the end of fiscal 2023, we believe the company is well prepared to respond to whatever weather comes our way. With that, I'll turn the call over to Rich to provide additional comments on the quarter's results.