Park Lawn Corporation

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Park Lawn Corporation first quarter 2022 earnings call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, and we will open up the floor for questions and comments after the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Jennifer Hay, General Counsel at Park Lawn. Ma'am, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Holly, and good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining us on today's first quarter 2022 earnings call. Today's call is being recorded and a replay will be available after the call. Please be aware that certain information discussed today is forward-looking in nature. Any such information is subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please see our public filings for more information regarding forward-looking statements. During the call, we will reference non-IFRS financial measures. Although we believe these measures provide useful supplemental information about our financial performance, they are not recognized measures and do not have standardized meanings under IFRS. Please see our public filing for additional information regarding our non-IFRS financial measures, including for reconciliations to the nearest IFRS measures. Finally, as a reminder, and as we previously announced, beginning with this first quarter in 2022, we have changed our reporting currency to U.S. dollars. Therefore, all figures referred to in today's call will be in U.S. dollars. I will now hand the call over to Parkland CEO Brad Green to open our discussion today.

Thank you, Jennifer, and good morning, everyone. In addition to Jennifer, with me on the call today is our CFO, Dan Millett. We had another solid quarter that was in line with our expectations shared with you during our last earnings call in March. We are proud to have exhibited a strong operating performance, yielding positive results to begin 2022 in spite of a difficult year-over-year comparison to the first quarter of 2021 where COVID-related deaths had a more pronounced impact. For the quarter, we experienced revenue growth of approximately 17.5% to $83.2 million, and revenue growth from our comparable businesses was essentially flat relative to Q1 2021. Also for the quarter, Park Lawn achieved an 11% increase year-over-year in adjusted EBITDA to $21.4 million at an approximate 25.7% margin. We continue to believe that we are returning to a more normalized operating environment and saw same-store call volumes decrease by 2% relative to the COVID-impacted Q1 2021. However, unlike the first quarter of 2021, we demonstrated strong revenue averages as same-store average revenue per call increased approximately 7% year over year. This increase can likely be attributed to less jurisdictional restrictions, as well as the continued strong desire of our families to celebrate and memorialize the life of their loved ones. Also, we implemented some pricing changes during the quarter in some of our businesses to help offset the impact of inflation. From the cemetery perspective, property sales have continued to grow. However, post-sale supply chain delays have begun to impact merchandise and service revenue as items that would have historically taken six to eight weeks to deliver and install are now taking six to eight months to receive and install. As a result, the recognition of the revenue associated with the delivery and installation of this merchandise is being delayed, but we expect that this revenue will grow relative to Q1 as the year progresses. On the acquisition front, subsequent to the quarter's end, we announced the completion of the Chancellor acquisition in Mississippi, which added one standalone funeral home and one combination funeral home and cemetery. And just last week, we announced that we have entered into a definitive agreement to purchase the Hudson business, a standalone funeral home in Durham, North Carolina, which we expect to close following regulatory approval in early June. Both of these acquisitions consist of premier businesses and high-growth markets that fit well within our existing operating footprint. As we look towards the rest of 2022, our acquisition pipeline remains robust, and we continue to strategically evaluate opportunities to partner with select premier businesses in both Canada and the U.S. In addition to our growth through acquisition, we also continue to deploy resources to support our internal growth. For example, in the quarter, we continue to place a heavy emphasis on the improvement of our technology. We have continued to roll out and integrate FACTS into our cemetery businesses and still expect that by the end of the year, all of our businesses will be operating with the support of FACTS. In addition, we partnered with a full suite digital marketing agency to support our businesses with things such as search engine optimization, web design, graphic design, and general social media and marketing support. On the inventory side, during the quarter, we completed the construction of and delivery of a mausoleum in one of our Michigan cemetery businesses. And finally, construction of our onsite funeral home in Waco, Texas has begun, and we continue to explore new strategic opportunities for the placement of similar onsites. I'd now like to turn the call over to Dan, who will review our Q1 financial results in more detail.