Welcome to the fourth quarter investor call. My name is Adrienne, and I'll be your operator for today's call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I'll now turn the call over to Ms. Draper. Ms. Draper, you may begin.

Thank you, operator, and welcome, everyone. I would now like to read the statements about use of forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures during this call. Statements made in the course of this call that state the company's or management's hopes, beliefs, expectations or predictions of the future are forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those projections. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in our SEC filings, including our Form 10-K, our 10-Qs and our press releases. We undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. We are holding this call to review our fourth quarter results and to answer any questions you might have. If you have an additional follow-up question after the call, please call me at (650) 589-9445. Joining me today is the Chief Executive Officer of Core-Mark, Thomas Perkins; and Chief Financial Officer, Stacy Loretz-Congdon. Also in the room is Chris Miller, our Chief Accounting Officer; and Greg Antholzner, our Vice President of Finance and Treasurer. Our line up for the call today is as follows: Tom will discuss the state of our business and our strategy going forward; followed by Stacy, who will review the financial results for the fourth quarter; we will then open up the call for your questions. Now I would like to turn the call over to our CEO, Tom Perkins.

Good morning, everyone. I would like to go over the state of our business and briefly review the results of the fourth quarter and the year and to discuss our core strategies. 2013 was a very good year for Core-Mark. We were focused on our core objectives: Gaining market share, making our independent retailers more relevant and profitable and growing our earnings. Our focus has been and continues to be increasing sales in the critically important non-cigarette categories. We believe these categories are vital to the success of our customers and necessary to improve their relevancy to the consumer. We are a service-oriented organization with a history of finding creative solutions for our customers and the industry. Our 4 strategies: VCI, Fresh, FMI and acquisitions, are the driver of our sales growth and profit improvement. We have taken costs out of the supply chain with our Vendor Consolidation Initiative and have added Fresh products to our customer stores. Focused Marketing Initiative has helped us to partner with our customers in providing category management expertise, and we have and plan to continue to expand our footprint and our market share through acquisitions. We have had a very good year executing our core strategies, and we plan to improve upon them in 2014. It is clear to me these strategies are resonating with our customers, and we plan to further refine and expand these creative solutions for the markets we serve. With our approach, we have taken additional market share as we continue to create momentum in the industry. Since our last call, we have won the bids of 4 new small chains, which represent approximately $65 million in annualized revenues. In addition, we are planning the expansion of our initial rollout to the large alternative retailer we mentioned on the last…

Thanks, Tom, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to start my comments with a brief discussion of our earnings per share. Diluted EPS for the fourth quarter was $1.29 compared to $0.83 last year. Or for those of you who model EPS, excluding LIFO expense, this translates to $1.28 for the quarter compared to $0.90 last year, a 42% improvement. Normalized for unusual and one-time items, LIFO EPS for the quarter was up 32%, driven primarily by the growth in our non-cigarette sales and related margin improvement. For the year, diluted EPS grew 23% to $3.58 compared to $2.91 for 2012. We had guided to a range of $3.35 to $3.45 and beat that expectation due to our LIFO expense coming in lower than expected. As a reminder, our LIFO expense is tied to the Producer Price Index and reflects inflation, or lack thereof, in the various product categories we carry. Excluding LIFO expense, we earned $4.04 this year compared to $3.55 last year, a 13.8% increase. We are pleased to see this fall in between our guidance of $4 to $4.10. Free cash flow per diluted share was $4.52 compared to $4.27 for 2012. Our year-end inventory buildup was approximately $7 million higher than the end of 2012, which roughly translates to about $0.60 of free cash flow per share. More on free cash flow later. For 2014, we are guiding to an EPS range between $3.50 and $3.65, which includes an estimate of $13 million of LIFO expense, $7 million of cigarette price increase, a 39% tax rate and 11.7 million diluted shares outstanding. These 4 key assumptions compared to 2013's results equate to a reduction of approximately $0.48 per share. On a FIFO basis, we are guiding to an EPS range of $4.15 to $4.30, compressed by…

[Operator Instructions] And we have John Lawrence of Stephens on line with a question.

Tom, would you start off just a little bit and talk a little bit about, I guess, a couple of things. When you look at the growth of all the new business and the new industry rollout, can you talk a little bit about that, and maybe the costs associated with that? Anything else you can put around that and how -- what's the scope of the extension of that sort of test or whatever?

Yes. So we've been in operation for approximately 3 months with the test of stores on the alternative retailer, and we are in conversations today to expand that. And based on where we are in the discussions, I can't go into any more details, but the cost has been minimal for that, to begin with. So -- but I anticipate as we continue that rollout, that will be -- that will grow. I think as for the other business, I think the business we've added, I think, again, it shows that our strategies and how we go to market and what we provide to our customers is resonating. And I think it just goes to show with not only large chains like at Turkey Hill or Esso, but also with our small-pocket chains at the -- in our different regions of the country that are looking for what we bring to the table and offer them to help them grow their businesses profitably.

Right. And secondly, the new tools with the new sort of the team laid out, I assume, is there anything measured strategically different or are we just sort of putting, we gather, and naming that? What's really different on how they're going to go to market everyday?

We definitely, when we started the FMI process, our strategy about 3.5 years ago, it was really focused on data, coupled with demographics, to help build a marketing and category management plan for individual retailers. But I think what we've noticed, and I think you see it in the press all the time, is the power of data, right? And so, what this group has done has been able to harness all this data we collect, which probably is the most extensive in North America for convenience stores, and then be able to provide that in an easy-to-use format for our salespeople to go into a customer and help them say, "Here's where your sales are, here's where your competitors are and here's what we need to do to help you get up to those levels." Second thing, the CRM is really going to help us, one, with market intelligence; and then two, to really provide a concerted and directed effort on gaining market share and independence throughout our territories. And so, I think both of those are just expansions of the group. And really, it goes back, again, to this data and the power of data and using that to grow our sales profitably.

And the last question. Stacy, does the guidance at all reflect any type of challenges weather-wise, getting to certain places in January and February?

Not specifically, John. I would just say that first quarter, we know, is generally softer, so our plans would reflect some of that softness in the first quarter as we go out. But we didn't adjust it for the weather that we've been seeing in the news.

[Operator Instructions] And we have no questions at this time.

That's it? All right. Well, thank you for your participation in our conference call and for your interest in Core-Mark. We are pleased with the results for the year and believe that 2014 will be another terrific year for the company, as we leverage our competitive advantages and continue to grow sales in higher-margin categories. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to call me at (650)589-9445.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.