Good morning. And welcome to the CrossAmerica Partners Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. This call is being recorded on Tuesday, February 27, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Maura Topper, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning. And thank you for joining the CrossAmerica Partners fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings call. With me today is Charles Nifong, CEO and President. We will start off the call today with Charles providing some opening comments and an overview of CrossAmerica’s operational performance for the quarter and full year, and then I will discuss the financial results. We will then open up the call to questions. Today’s call will follow presentation slides that are available as part of the webcast and are posted on the CrossAmerica website. Before we begin I would like to remind everyone that today’s call, including the question-and-answer session may include forward-looking statements regarding expected revenue, future plans, future operational metrics, and opportunities and expectations of the organization. There can be no assurance that management’s expectations, beliefs and projections will be achieved or that actual results will not differ from expectations. Please see CrossAmerica’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including annual reports on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for a discussion of important factors that could affect our actual results. Forward-looking statements represent the judgment of CrossAmerica’s management as of today’s date and the organization disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements. During today’s call, we may also provide certain performance measures that do not conform to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or GAAP. We have provided schedules that reconcile these non-GAAP measures with our reported results on a GAAP basis as part of our earnings press release. Today’s call is being webcast and a recording of this conference call will be available on the CrossAmerica website for a period of 60 days. With that, I will now turn the call over to Charles.

Thank you, Maura. As always, Maura and I appreciate everyone joining us this morning. We thank you for making the time in your schedule to be with us today. During today's call, I will go through some of the operating highlights for the fourth quarter and full year 2023. I will also provide commentary on the market and a few other updates, similar to what I have done on our previous calls. Maura will then review in more detail our financial results. Now if you turn to Slide 4, I will briefly review some of our operating results. For the fourth quarter of 2023, our wholesale segment gross profit increased 1% to $33 million compared to $32.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. The increase was driven by an increase in fuel margin, partially offset by a decrease in fuel volume and rental income. Our wholesale order fuel gross profit increased 3% to $19.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 from $18.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. Our fuel margin increased 8% from $0.087 per gallon in the fourth quarter of 2022 to $0.094 per gallon in the fourth quarter of 2023. The increase in our wholesale fuel margin per gallon was primarily driven by our success in our efforts to improve our fuel purchasing costs and to beneficial market conditions. For the quarter, the average spot price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil decreased 5% from $82.79 per barrel in the fourth quarter of 2022, $78.53 per barrel in the fourth quarter of 2023. Historically, a decline in WTI for the quarter relative to the prior year would lead to a lower wholesale fuel margins per gallon and a year-over-year comparison. The fact that it did not for the fourth quarter is additional evidence of…

Thank you, Charles. If you would please turn to Slide 8, I would like to review our fourth quarter results for the partnership. We reported net income of $16.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to a net income of $17.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, with the slight decline broadly driven by higher interest expense for the fourth quarter of 2023, offsetting higher operating income for the quarter compared to the prior year. . Adjusted EBITDA was $47.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2023, up 8% from adjusted EBITDA of $44.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2022. Our distributable cash flow for the fourth quarter of 2023 was $35.8 million, up 7% from $33.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2022. The increases in adjusted EBITDA and distributable cash flow were primarily due to the operating income increases in both our wholesale and retail segments driven by the strong fuel and merchandise margin results Charles reviewed in his comments. Our distribution coverage for the current quarter was 1.8 times compared to 1.67 times for the fourth quarter of 2022. During the fourth quarter of 2023, the partnership paid a distribution of $0.525 per unit. Charles discussed some of the primary drivers of our top line and gross profit performance for the quarter earlier. Turning to the expense portion of our operations. Operating expenses for the fourth quarter increased $5.2 million compared to the 2022 fourth quarter. This increase was almost entirely in our retail segment, which was primarily due to the increased site count in that segment compared to the prior year due to the classic trade conversions that Charles referenced in his comments. Retail segment operating expenses for the fourth quarter of 2023 increased approximately 15% from the prior year, while our…

[Operator Instructions]

Well, it appears we don't have any questions today. Should you have any questions later, please feel free to reach out to us. Again, we thank everyone for joining us today. Have a good day.

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Have a lovely day.