Parkland Corporation

Good morning. My name is Lara, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Parkland Q4 Analyst Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star, followed by the number two. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Valerie Roberts, Director, Investor Relations for Parkland. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. With me today on the call are Bob Espy, President and CEO, and Marcel Tunison, Chief Financial Officer. This call is webcast and I encourage listeners to follow along with the supporting slides. We will go through our prepared remarks and then open it up for questions with the investment community. Please limit yourself to one question and a follow-up is necessary. And if you have other questions, re-enter the queue. We would ask analysts to follow up directly with the investor relations team afterwards for any detailed modeling questions. During our call today, we may make forward-looking statements related to expected future performance. These statements are based on current views and assumptions that are subject to uncertainties which are difficult to predict. These uncertainties include, but are not limited to, expected operating results and industry conditions, among other factors. Risk factors applicable to our business are set out in our annual information form and management's discussion and analysis. We will also be discussing non-GAAP and other financial measures, which do not have any standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS. These measures are identified and defined in Parkland's continuous disclosure documents, which are available on our website or on CDAR. Please refer to these documents as they identify factors which may cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements. Dollar amounts discussed in today's call are expressed in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted. I will now turn the call over to Bob.

Thank you, Val, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today. I'm excited to share our successes from the past year and our plans going forward. 2023 was an excellent year for Parkland. The entire team did exactly what we said we would do. We advanced our strategy, served our customers, delivered organic growth, and captured synergies. Each part of our business contributed to our record year, and this gives me confidence in the quality of our strategy and our ability to deliver the ambitious targets we have set for ourselves. Before I highlight some specific accomplishments, I want to talk about safety, which, as you know, is a core value at Parkland. Since 2017, we have significantly improved our total recordable injury frequency. However, our progress last year was overshadowed by the tragic loss of one of our team members in a workplace accident. This loss was felt across Parkland and has strengthened our resolve to continuously improve our safety practices and culture so that every employee goes home safely to their family at the end of their day. Let's move to slide three. I would like to start with the highlights from the past year, which demonstrate the way we continue to deliver on our commitments. As a result, our shareholders enjoyed a total return of approximately 50% through 2023. Our financial performance was outstanding. We grew our marketing business by 30% year over year through integration, synergy capture, and organic growth. This growth more than offset a year-over-year reduction in our refinery EBITDA due to the successful completion of a planned turnaround at the Burnaby Refinery, where we have a long-term target of less than 20% adjusted EBITDA contribution. We delivered $1.9 billion of adjusted EBITDA in the year, which is nearly $300 million higher than last year and exceeded our initial guidance by 10%. This included $112 million of adjusted EBITDA from our renewables business, which nearly doubled from the prior year. In 2023, we suspended M&A and focused on organic growth and synergies. We invested $200 million of growth capital in conversions and rebrands, expansions of co-processing capacity at the Burnaby Refinery, strategic supply infrastructure, and our Journey Rewards program, including our partnership with Aeroplan. The remaining capex was for maintenance, which included the planned turnaround at the refinery. Through these investments, we expanded our on-the-run brand to more than 700 stores, grew our Journey Rewards loyalty program to nearly 6 million members, and have seen significant organic growth in our international and Canada segments. Operationally, we have streamlined processes that have resulted in increased efficiency and cost savings, We are seeing the benefits in the turnaround of our U.S. business. In 2023, we clearly demonstrated the cash generation of the business. We have reduced our leverage ratio to 2.8 times, which is now well within our target range. We also increased our dividend and repurchased $26 million of common shares for cancellation in Q4. The success is a testament to the dedication of the Parkland team, and again, I want to express gratitude for their exceptional work They are instrumental in delivering these results. With that, I will hand it over to Marcel to discuss our Q4 highlights on slide four.