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spk00: Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Farrell Gas Second Quarter Fiscal 23 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the conference to your host, Mr. Jim Farrell, CEO. Sir, you may begin.
spk02: Thanks, Valerie. Welcome to our earnings call. This call is for anyone interested in the company. which includes, of course, our employees who are owners of what we call Class A equity through their ESOP. You might like to know what we tell them so you more fully understand what we are doing here. Number one, we are here to produce financial results. In other words, putting it rather crudely, to make money. Second, we do that by simply serving customers with first-class service and running the business right. Third, we're committed to propane. It's the best, most respected brand in the industry that we have. Ferrogas and, of course, Blue Rhino, both woven together. Fourth, this is our long-term game, not a short-term milking game. operation to produce results. Five, we invest in people, technology, plants, vehicles, and more, a long-term focus with short-term results. We need both. Six, consolidation. We believe we are adding selectively quality companies, and we have a great team focused on that. And finally, but not last, developing our people while adding great talent. As a result of all this, morale could not be higher and turnover lower. We are proud. We are focused. We are producing. One of the talent ads is our new CFO. It took us a year to find him, but we are happy that he finally surfaced. Mike Cole, is a seasoned financial executive, and he joined us about three weeks ago. If you want more information on him, read the 8K and our press release. Now I'll hand it over to you, Mike.
spk03: Thank you, Jim. And as an opening comment, I'm excited to join the Ferrell Gas team and excited to be a member of the earnings call this morning. Welcome to our second quarter fiscal year 2023 earnings call, and thank you for joining. I would like to remind you that some statements made during this call may be considered forward-looking, and that various risks, uncertainties, and other factors could cause actual performance to differ materially from anticipated performance. These factors are discussed in our Form 10-K filed on September 30th. 2022, and other documents filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Additionally, we note that the purpose of this call is to discuss the results of our operations for the second fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2023. In the second fiscal quarter, gross profit increased $34 million, or 11%. and cost of sales was favorable with a decrease of $35 million, or 9%. Margin per gallon increased by 13 cents, or 12%, compared to the prior year period. The company continues to realize cost savings through its asset utilization management in redeployment of tanks to locations with higher usage statistics. Revenues were flat with a slight decrease of $1 million for the second fiscal quarter. Gallons sold decreased 1% or 2.6 million gallons compared to the prior year's second fiscal quarter. As a country experienced a warming trend in the month of January 2023, and overall gallons sold during the month decreased 10%. Offsetting a cumulative 10% increase in gallons sold during the months of November and December 2022. Operating income for the second fiscal quarter decreased 12.9 million or 10% compared to the prior year period. Operating income per gallon decreased five cents or 10% compared to the prior year period. Results were impacted by higher fuel costs and planned maintenance and repairs to our fleet. For the second fiscal quarter, 2023 and 2022, the company reported net earnings attributable to FerroGas Partners LP of 98.1 million and 108.4 million, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA. a non-GAAP measure increased by $4.5 million, or 3%. The change was primarily due to EBITDA adjustments related to a $9.6 million decrease in gain on asset sales and disposals and a $6.3 million increase in legal fees related to our non-core businesses. I will now turn the call over to our Chief Operating Officer, Tamria Zertucci, who will provide an operational overview.
spk01: Thank you, Mike. As Jim indicated, we have a goal of consolidating in this great industry. FerroGas welcomed ResBear propane in Harris, New York, as its newest acquisition to the FerroGas family during the second fiscal quarter. We announced Blue Rano's 2023 partnership with the Steak Cook-Off Association, which is the world's largest grilling competition for backyard chefs. This partnership is a natural fit for Blue Rhino, the tank exchange brand of the company. The competition has 650 events scheduled this year in 46 states and 15 countries. We celebrated our employees this quarter, first in a holiday event that included our employees and their families via a virtual gathering. You might know we are still fully work from home for our corporate staff and are enjoying the benefits of that. We then focused on our performance via the Feral Gas Flame Award Program. This award was presented to hundreds of feral gas employees who were nominated by their peers. These employees, along with the almost 4,500 other feral gas employees, are directly responsible for the results that Jim and Mike and I have shared. We acknowledge, fully acknowledge and thank these employees, these employee owners here on this call and every day. When you look into this organization, you see highly engaged employee owners looking for ways to continuously improve on our value proposition. As Jim said at the top of this call, Our value proposition is our winning brands, our best in-class logistics, and the clean, affordable, portable product we provide to our customers. Our strategic initiatives continue to hold our operating costs low, and they specifically, they create opportunities for growth. But at the heart of it all, we put our employees first, and in turn, they put our customers first. We are committed to Fuel Life Simply for every feral gas customer. Jim, back to you.
spk02: Thanks, Andrea. We didn't get any further questions during the period of time when you could have submitted them. And you all know, I hope, that you can submit questions directly to our site. We give you a way to do that. and we'll be happy to answer them, take care of them in due time. So thank you very much for tuning in today and for listening to us.
spk00: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.
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