Good morning, and welcome to the Star Group Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Steve Goldman, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. With me is Star's Chief Financial Officer, Rich Ambury. After some brief remarks, Rich will review the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended September 30, 2017. We will then take your questions. Before we begin, Chris Witty of our Investor Relations firm, Darrow Associates, will read the safe harbor statement. Please go ahead, Chris.

Thanks, Steve, and good morning. This conference call may include forward-looking statements that represent the company's expectations and beliefs concerning future events that involve risks and uncertainties, and may cause actual performance to be materially different from the performance indicated or implied by such statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this conference call are forward-looking statements. Although Star Group believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company's expectations are disclosed in this conference call and in our quarterly reports and annual report and Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2017. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements. Unless otherwise required by law, Star Group undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date of this conference call. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Steve Goldman. Steve?

Thanks, Chris. This year served as an important reminder of several key aspects of our business. First, weather is a critical component of our success and profitability, and must remain an important focus for our team, regardless of what aspirations we have for the growth and development of our company. For a second year in a row, weather was much warmer than we expected, while at the same time, we saw a steady increase in the price of heating oil and propane costs. So in essence, we had a year where customers may have lost their appreciation for the true nature of what we deliver, which is excellent customer service. And the rising prices left them wondering whether to change their energy providers at all. We feel strongly that our fundamental business models continues to strengthen and is functioning well despite our EBITDA not reflecting positive results. There are many aspects of financial 2017 we believe are important to discuss. I will focus the rest of my comments on these issues. We have continued our geographic expansion this past year through both acquisitions and organic business development initiatives. In fiscal 2017, we closed on seven acquisitions, including two this past quarter. One of these was a second acquisition in the state of Michigan, which is very exciting as we continue to expand our footprint further westward. Organic account growth has also been very strong. The brands and offerings we've introduced are being positively received, and we are optimistic that continuing in this direction will be beneficial for future growth. We are assessing which areas will provide the quickest return on our investment and that result in additional long-term growth opportunities. Continuing the discussion around strategies to grow business, it is important to address an issue that, for a couple of…

Thanks, Steve, and good morning, everyone. For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, the volume of home heating oil and propane increased by 10% versus the same quarter a year ago to 22.6 million gallons, while the volume of other petroleum products sold increased by 3% year-over-year to 29 million gallons. The higher volumes across all product categories during this non-heating season were largely due to acquisitions. Heating oil and propane margins declined in the base business by more than $0.04 per gallon versus 2016 to approximately $1.09 per gallon, primarily due to lower margins on sales to price-protected customers, which were reflected by an increase in wholesale product cost of over $0.20 per gallon. We posted a net loss for the quarter of $18 million, an improvement of $1.4 million versus the prior year period as a favorable change in the fair value of derivative instruments of $11 million was more than offset by higher operating expenses in the base business of $6 million. The $6 million increase in operating expenses consists of $2.7 million of higher insurance expense, and that was really largely due to the timing of insurance expense accruals as insurance expense over the last three years have been within a range of about $1 million and $1.5 million between the years. We also had $600,000 in higher legal expenses due to the check-the-box exercise and $800,000 more in sales and marketing expenses due in part to a 5,700 account loss improvement. In addition, we spent another $1 million in customer service due to staffing and software costs and another $900,000 in IT and operations. Also impacting net income was higher depreciation and amortization of expense. And our newly-acquired acquisitions had an adjusted EBITDA loss of $700,000. The adjusted EBITDA loss for the quarter increased by…

Thanks, Rich. At this time, we'll be pleased to address any questions you may have. Operator, please open the phone lines for questions.

Thank you for taking the time to join us today and for your ongoing interest in Star Group. We look forward to sharing our first quarter 2018 results with you in February. Have a great holiday season, and we hope it's a very cold one.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.