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| Statement |
|---|
| Our newly acquired businesses and continued momentum with our in-store merchandising efforts served to mostly offset lower gallon demand |
| I believe the pizza program, by the way, that I mentioned earlier, it’s a great opportunity |
| We believe that rapid return and integration of Pride reflects the acquisition of good assets at a good price |
| We believe that Rob’s experience in directly relevant financial and transformation roles in retail and convenience will be extremely additive to the company that Don Bassell, our former CFO, has helped build over the years and will help drive enhanced financial performance as we continue to strengthen our business |
| I would also like to thank Don for his contribution to the company, which have enabled the company to achieve significant growth and excellent performance |
| We have seen very positive customer reaction to the pizza with over 70% of those surveyed saying they will definitely purchase again |
| I am very proud of our team and their incredible work to successfully integrate these assets |
| We are confident that we bought attractive assets at attractive prices, delivered meaningful cash-on-cash return and provided us with scale and related synergies that have improved our relative competitive positioning |
| This was driven by our successful integration, including the addition of over 1,000 items on average to the stores and the transition of Pride loyalty members to our fas REWARDS program |
| We believe this background underpins the opportunity of our loyalty program |
| So, I think we did a very good job on that |
| So, I think we are doing a good job with that |
| We are pleased with what we are seeing from our loyal customers and believe there is significant untapped opportunity as we continue to evolve our loyalty program |
| I believe that the increase in loyalty and loyal members over here is a tremendous opportunity for us to walk with those members |
| Same-store merchandise contribution was up 3.9% to the year ago period, reflecting the strong underlying organic margin expansion related to our ongoing merchandise assortment work |
| I will close by saying that I’m extremely proud of the team here for all of its hard work in identifying, executing, and integrating five acquisition over the past 18 months |
| And again, this is a great quality sandwich |
| Many of our 2023 initiatives continue to show momentum due to our focus on our 3 key merchandising and marketing pillars: our fas REWARDS loyalty program; growing sales in core destination categories; and expanding our food and beverage service |
| These new stores will offer a great customer experience, including food service |
| We were able to increase merchandise margin in our Pride location by approximately 260 basis points from Q1 2023 to Q4 2023 |
| We’ve been doing that this year, and with that, we were able still to increase margin quarter after quarter, year-over-year |
| Merchandise sales and merchandise contribution were up 10.8% and 19.6%, respectively, reflecting a 240 basis point expansion in margin rate |
| And if you go back, and I’m finished with that, if you go back just between 2022 to 2023, we were able to increase margin 140 basis points |
| We continue to work to accelerate new member enrollment and are leveraging our recently launched pizza program to deliver meaningful value for our enrolled loyalty members |
| Same-store merchandise sales were up 0.4% with same-store merchandise contribution up over 4% |
| Nice to meet you as well |
| We delivered $290.4 million in adjusted EBITDA for 2023, holding performance within 3.5% of 2022, which had a record retail CPG of over $0.41 per gallon |
| And then, next, I’m very excited about our most recent food service launch |
| First, on our fas REWARDS loyalty program, we exceeded the 2 million enrolled member mark in the fourth quarter, and we continue to invest to drive new enrollment growth, deepen our relationship with existing customers, and offer our enrolled members valuable discounts that help address the ongoing inflationary pressure they’re facing |
| I think 2022 was a very high CPG, a record CPG year of over $0.41 for the year |
| Statement |
|---|
| Our Retail operating segment delivered approximately $72 million in adjusted operating income for the quarter, which was down 3.3% from a year ago period |
| Total company adjusted EBITDA of $65.5 million for the quarter was down $6.9 million from the prior year period, with the decline primarily due to reduced same-store fuel contribution |
| As Arie referenced earlier, total company EBITDA of $290.4 million was down just over 3.5% from 2022 |
| Same-store fuel margin of 38.2 CPG was down 2.7 CPG from a record 2022 |
| As I said, when you see the fuel demand down in the first quarter, we just see some softness in the market |
| Same-store fuel margin of 38.6 CPG was down 2.7 CPG from a record 2022 |
| Same-store fuel gallon demand was down 5.3% for the year compared to national OPIS, which was down 3.4% |
| Same-store fuel gallon demand was down 7.5% for the quarter compared to national OPIS, which was down 4.6% |
| The same-store sales were down low-single digits, the gallons were down high-single digits |
| The combined impact of lower fuel gallons and reduced CPG resulted in a same-store fuel contribution decline of approximately $14 million from the year ago period |
| And then on the merchandising side, quarter to date, same-store sales are down mid-single digits |
| Same-store merchandise sales, excluding cigarettes, were down 1.8% versus the year ago period, while total same-store merchandise sales were down 2.8% |
| The combined impact of lower fuel gallons and reduced CPG resulted in a same-store fuel contribution decline of approximately $46 million from full year 2022 |
| So you know that for last year, our fuel margin was off – CPG was off modestly versus the prior year, and our gallons were down 5% for the year |
| Can I just ask one more about fuel? I think the comment was that you’re planning for gallon demand at retail down about mid-single digit, and with the midpoint of the CPG range down about $0.01, that’s another 2%, so a high-single-digit decline in retail fuel profits from the same-store perspective |
| We delivered this result in the context of a 3.4% decline in national OPIS fuel gallon demand, with a more pronounced decline in the fourth quarter |
| Everybody knows that cigarette consumption is down, and that’s by the way, one of the reason that quarter-after-quarter you see that the percentage of cigarette contribution inside basically our total contribution continue to actually to come down |
| Arie Kotler In terms of? Mark Astrachan Well, in terms of just the correlation, right? It seems from the outside-in that if fuel gallons are weak, fewer people are visiting stores, and therefore, the merchandise sales in-store are weaker |
| The stock obviously would suggest that there are challenges seen by the market, which isn’t necessarily the right or the wrong thing |
| But related to fuel, as you know, Bobby, OPIS national is down close to 7% for the first quarter |
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