Arko - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Corp First Quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Thursday, May 8, 2025. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jordan Mann, Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Capital Markets, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Jordan Mann (SVP of Corporate Strategy, Capital Market and Investor Relations)

Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to ARKO First Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. On today's call are Kotler, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Robb Giammatteo, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our earnings press release and quarterly report on Form 10Q for the first quarter of 2025, as filed with the SEC, are available on website at www.ARKOcorp.com. During our call today, unless otherwise stated, management will compare results to the same period in 2024. Before we begin, please note that all First Quarter 2025 financial information is unaudited. During this call, management may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Please review the forward-looking and cautionary statements section at the end of our First Quarter 2025 earnings release for various factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements made during our call today. Any forward-looking statements made during this call reflect our current views with respect to future events, and ARKO is under no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements made on this call, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law. On this call, management will share operating results on both a GAAP basis and on a non-GAAP basis.

Descriptions of those non-GAAP financial measures that we use, such as adjusted EBITDA and reconciliations of these measures to our results as reported in accordance with GAAP, are detailed in our earnings release or in our quarterly report on Form 10Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2025. Additionally, management will share profit measures for our individual business segments along with fuel contribution, which is calculated as fuel revenue plus fuel costs and excludes intercompany charges by our subsidiary GPMP. I would like to turn the call over to Arie.

Arie Kotler (Chairman, President and CEO)

Thank you, Jordan, and thank you all for joining. This quarter, the company and our industry faced headwinds from lower traffic and consumer spending to severe weather. Even though we manage the business effectively and deliver results above the midpoint of our guidance, I have higher expectations for the business. We continue to demonstrate that even in a tough environment, we are executing with discipline and remaining focused on what we can control. This quarter, persistent high inflation and high consumer debt put increased financial pressure on lower and middle-income households, especially in the communities where many of our stores are located. Further, the currently unpredictable tariff environment has created uncertainty around spending as customers try to manage their expenses. However, we believe we are well-positioned to deliver on the value that our customer is seeking through our promotional and merchandising efforts.

Like many in our industry, we're seeing consumers stretch their dollars further, increasingly shifting their purchases towards value-oriented options and exhibiting more price sensitivity. This quarter also brought a unique set of external challenges that compounded these microeconomic pressures. The combination of persistent cold weather and widespread winter storms across several key geographies reduced customers' mobility and constrained store visits. In addition to pressure on gallons and merchandise sales trends, the unfavorable weather drove an incremental $1.7 million in operating costs related to snow and ice removal. While inclement weather is expected in the first quarter, the range and intensity of adverse events this year, especially in February, were notably greater than typical seasonal norms.

Looking beyond external factors, our team is committed to the company's transformation strategy, including the ongoing dealerization program, the expansion of high-margin categories like other tobacco products and food service, and targeted promotional initiatives, both in the stores and at the pumps, which we have designed to deepen customer engagement. These actions are helping us navigate the current environment, and we believe they position the business for long-term growth. Our strategies are driven by experienced leadership and executed daily by a committed operation team that prioritizes the customer experience. These strategies are optimizing our retail footprint by dealerizing stores that do not fit within our go-forward operating model, driving value and relevance to our consumers through innovative promotional activities. One example is our Fueling America Future campaign, which provides discounts on fuel up to $2 off per gallon for up to 20 gallons.

Another example is our investment in the tobacco backbar to support shifting consumer demand to OTP products, which we are supporting with elevated value promotion. OTP and cigarettes together represent approximately 39% of sales. Implementing a new consumer-centric remodel centered around a delicious menu of hot and cold grab-and-go food and dispensed beverages. We will be introducing a new brand for this strategy called Fas Craves. Our first store will be in a Fas Mart in Richmond, Virginia, advancing our store remodel program with our first pilot store starting construction this week. Filling the pipeline for the new-to-industry stores in our existing markets and increasing customer trips and spend through our fas REWARDs loyalty program by offering the best deals to our best customers. Now, let me provide an eye-level update for each of these core strategies.

On our transformation plan, we continue to execute our strategy to convert company-operated stores into dealer sites where we believe the long-term economics are more favorable for those stores under our dealer segment. Year to date, as of the end of April, we converted 77 stores to our wholesale network, and we have more than 130 stores under contract for conversion, with a meaningful number still on our list to convert. As we previously disclosed, at full scale, we continue to expect this initiative to deliver a cumulative annualized operating income benefit in excess of $20 million. Our high-value Fueling America Future campaign kicked off in stores on March 12. This campaign is centered around providing enrolled loyalty customers with both value promotions inside the store and significant discounts at the pump.

In partnership with many of our supplier partners, we are offering our loyalty members up to $2 off per gallon, up to 20 gallons when they purchase select products in store. While the campaign just started, we have seen an increase in our average enrollment per day by 35% and an increase in gallons for previously enrolled loyalty members, taking advantage of this great offer from approximately 6.8 gallons to 9.8 gallons per transaction, with an average basket increase of approximately $2.38 or 16%. Turning to our cigarette and OTP backbar refresh, to date, we have completed this project in more than 900 stores, which is driving improvement in merchandising and assortment for total Nicotine. When combined with our expanded promotional efforts, we're capturing market share across select OTP categories, creating momentum for in-store performance as we broaden our assortment and fine-tune our promotional strategy to drive growth.

Of the approximately 675 stores where we believe we have enough new results to draw conclusions, we are seeing that these resets are starting to improve our total Nicotine performance. We have implemented very strong monthly OTP promotions supplemented by a store manager and district manager sales contest to assist in driving OTP sales. Our OTP mix continues to evolve to meet customer demand and we view it as a lever to drive basket growth amid a challenging micro backdrop. Turning to our remodel program, we started construction on the first of our seven pilot remodels this week and expect to start work on the second remodel in the middle of May.

As a reminder, the pilot store is expected to include an expanded and refined merchandise assortment with an enhanced in-store experience and focus on food centered on hot and fresh grab-and-go foods, bakery, pizza, roller grill, and other prepared foods, including our new branded food offering, Fas Craves. The intent is to take learnings from the pilot stores and implement the right remodels across a larger portion of our retail location through targeted capital deployment. This initiative is fundamental to our long-term retail transformation strategy and represents our commitment to organic growth and store-level reinvestment. In addition to our remodel program, in the first quarter, we open a new Dunkin store and a Fas Market location. Additionally, we currently have four NTIs in development, three have started construction, and one store is awaiting a final permit. These NTIs are expected to open in the second half of the year.

These four stores will. The pilot remodel concept I discussed moments ago. We are pleased with the result of our fas REWARDS loyalty program. Our loyal customers continue to make more trips and spend more per month than our non-enrolled members. In the first quarter of 2025, enrolled fas REWARDS members spent approximately 47% more and visited two and a half times more per month than non-enrolled members. Enrolled loyalty OTP sales now account for 18.5% of OTP sales versus 18.1% in Q4 2024. Enrolled loyalty members are purchasing 23% more gallons per transaction than non-enrolled members. Overall, we added approximately 27,000 enrolled members in Q1, reaching over 2.3 million enrolled members in total, which was up 11% from the end of Q1 2024. We continue to learn and evaluate the rich customer data and adjust our tactics to ensure we provide meaningful value to our most loyal customers.

As adoption grows, we believe loyalty will continue to be an increasingly powerful lever to improve same-store performance over time. The team is executing many initiatives in our retail segment to drive results despite the current microeconomic headwinds. Outside of retail, our wholesale and fleet segments have delivered stable and reliable cash flows, providing meaningful support as we navigate ongoing micro and consumer pressures. Over the past four quarters, these segments have generated approximately $130 million in operating income. Combining all of the positives and the negatives this quarter, we again deliver results above the midpoint of our quarterly guidance. Much of this performance was driven by controlling the things we can control, especially on the expense side as we mitigate higher costs related to snow removal through disciplined management and execution. Turning to capital allocation, we remain committed to a strategic and thoughtful approach.

Based on our stock price in the first quarter, we repurchased approximately 1.3 million shares during the quarter at an average price of $4.01 per share, with almost all of those repurchases executed in March. Additionally, we repurchased approximately 1.3 million additional shares in April. We believe our current market valuation reflects discounts for a scale-convenience stores retailer with a diversified revenue across merchandise, retail fuel, and wholesale and fleet fueling. Our approach to capital allocation will continue to focus on long-term value creation and disciplined capital deployment. We believe in the strength of our plan, the capabilities of our team, and the transformation path ahead, and remain committed to executing step by step to unlock value for our shareholders. With that, I will hand it over to Rob.

Robb Gammatteo (Executive VP and CFO)

Thank you, Arie. Good afternoon, everyone.

Turning to first quarter 2025 results, adjusted EBITDA was 30.9 million for the quarter compared to 33.2 million in the year-ago period, with the decrease caused primarily by lower retail fuel and merchandise contribution. At the segment level, our retail segment contributed approximately 40.2 million compared to 46.5 million in the year-ago period. Same-store merchandise sales, excluding cigarettes, were down 5.2% versus the year-ago period, while total same-store merchandise sales were down 6.9%. Same-store margin rate was up approximately 50 basis points versus the prior year. Same-store fuel contribution was down approximately 3.2 million for the quarter, caused by a 6.2% decline in gallons. Same-store fuel margin of 0.379 per gallon was up 0.01 per gallon year-over-year. Same-store operating expenses were down approximately 1.4% for the quarter. Moving on to our wholesale segment, operating income was 18.6 million for the quarter versus $18.3 million in the year-ago period.

Fuel margin was 8.8 cents per gallon versus 9.2 cents per gallon in the year-ago period. Gallons were up modestly to the year-ago period, driven by our channel optimization program, which contributed close to 14 million gallons for the quarter. Gallons from channel optimization more than offset a gallon decline from comparable sites, which were down 4.6% from the year-ago period, reflecting similar trends experienced in our retail segment. For our fleet segment, operating income was 11 million for the quarter versus 9.8 million in the year-ago period, with total gallons down 4.2% to the prior year. Fuel margin for the quarter was 43.6 cents per gallon, up from 38 cents per gallon in the year-ago period. Total company general and administrative expense for the quarter was 41.6 million versus 42.2 million in the year-ago period.

Net interest and other financial expenses for the quarter were 13.9 million compared to 2.5 million in the year-ago period, with the increase primarily related to roughly 9 million in recorded income in the year-ago period related to settlement of deferred purchase price obligations for our TEG acquisition on favorable terms. Net loss for the quarter was 12.7 million compared to a net loss of 0.6 million for the year-ago period. Please reference our press release for a detailed reconciliation from total company net income to adjusted EBITDA. Turning to the balance sheet, excluding lease-related financing liabilities, we ended the first quarter with 880 million in long-term debt. We maintained substantial liquidity of approximately 847 million, including 265 million in cash on hand at quarter-end, along with remaining availability on our lines of credit. Total capital expenditures for the quarter were 27.4 million.

Turning to forward guidance for our second quarter, we expect total company adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of 70 million-80 million. This guidance is based on the following key segment assumptions. First, for our retail segment, we are estimating our Q2 2025 average retail store count to be approximately 1,300 sites. We expect merchandise sales per average store to be flat to up low single digits, reflecting the higher productivity of retained stores versus the year-ago period, partially offset by same-store merchandise sales performance, which is positioned down low to mid single digits. We expect gallons per average store to be up low single digits, reflecting the higher productivity of retained stores versus the year-ago period, partially offset by same-store gallon performance, which is positioned down mid single digits.

Finally, we are modeling total retail fuel margin in a range of 42.5-44.5 cents per gallon. Moving to our wholesale segment, we expect mid to high single-digit operating income growth driven by our ongoing channel optimization work. For our fleet segment, we expect operating income to be up modestly as we begin to cycle prior-year fuel margin cents per gallon in the mid 40 range. I'll wrap up with our full-year total company adjusted EBITDA guidance, which we are maintaining in a range of 233-253 million. This outlook is based on an average retail fuel margin of 40 cents per gallon on the lower end and 42 cents per gallon on the higher end of our guidance range. With that, I'll hand it back to Arie for closing remarks.

Arie Kotler (Chairman, President and CEO)

Thanks, Rob. To our team members, customers, and investors, we appreciate your continued support.

As we add into our historically strongest season of the year, the 100th day of summer, we're energized by the opportunities ahead. We know the journey requires discipline and transparency, and that's exactly how we plan to lead. While the environment remains dynamic, we remain focused on execution and are optimistic about the path forward. Through consistent, deliberate action, we are committed to creating a long-term value for our customers and shareholders. We will now open it up to questions.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now conduct a question-and-answer session. If you have a question, please press Star followed by the number one on your touchstone phone. You will hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request. If you would like to cancel your request, please press Star two. Please ensure you lift the handset before pressing any keys.

Your first question comes from the line of Bobby Griffin from Raymond James. Your line is now open.

Bobby Griffin (Managing Director and Consumer Equity Research Analyst)

Hey, everybody. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. I guess, Arie and Rob, first, maybe just touch a little bit on how the business has performed of late once we got by some of the winter weather. I think the weather issues that impacted the convenience store space are pretty well known by a few different companies that have talked about it. What have you seen kind of maybe more in April and in May, and have you seen anything get better as we've approached normal weather conditions again?

Arie Kotler (Chairman, President and CEO)

Sure. Good afternoon, Bobby. I would start maybe with the recap for first quarter and then maybe talk a little bit about what we see moving forward.

As we started the year, if you're in a, we reported right now that the sales were down 6.9% for the quarter and 5.2% ex-cigarettes. When we started the quarter, the January results were actually 5.8 on total sales, but 3.8% negative on sales excluding cigarettes. That was January. When you go into March, excluding cigarettes, sales excluding cigarettes in March were minus 3.9%. You're talking 3.8% negative in January, minus 3.9% in March. All of a sudden, February hit with severe weather. The sales excluding cigarettes in February were minus 9.3%. That's really the story of the quarter. The weather, we believe that the weather was probably 2-3% drag just because of that. As we move behind March going into April, we see a slightly improvement in sales sales.

Of course, we see elevated fuel margin that, of course, offset some of those sales decline that we see over here. Overall, I'm very optimistic in Q2. As I said, we see slightly improvement in April.

Bobby Griffin (Managing Director and Consumer Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you. That's helpful. Maybe switching gears into the dealerization network, the work you guys have been doing, just honestly, two questions. One, is the savings starting to flow through the P&L as we look at the results today, so in Q1, or is that still to come? Rob, that $20 million number that you're referencing on an annualized basis, what does that assume for the total number of stores?

Is that the number of stores that you—is that the savings from the number of stores you've already done or that are under contract or ultimately the entire program, which I don't think we know the full number of stores you guys have identified yet?

Robb Gammatteo (Executive VP and CFO)

Yeah, that's right, Bobby. The $20 million is going to be at scale when we're done. As you know, we've not shared that total. As Arie mentioned in his prepared remarks, we do have a meaningful number that has still continued in addition to the sites that we have under contract today. That is certainly a total program amount. If you think about this quarter, the channel optimization delivered about $2.4 million, the sites that were transitioned over. On an annualized basis, that's about $10 million at the run rate. We're pretty much roughly halfway through the program.

I would not attribute that necessarily to store counts, but more in terms of the financials that we talked about. This quarter was $2.4 million. The last quarter was $2 million on a quarterly basis. You can see the accretion starting there. Obviously, the wholesale channel, the base business, as I mentioned before, the gallons were down mid single digits. We are hoping to get that base a little bit closer to that flat number and have the channel optimization be accretive on top of it, but still seeing growth out of that channel even with some of the headwinds in gallons.

Bobby Griffin (Managing Director and Consumer Equity Research Analyst)

Yep, that is helpful. I guess lastly, Arie, you touched a little bit on the remodel initiative, kind of making a little progress there. When does that potentially get accelerated?

Is that more 2026 where we can see that actually rolled out across a large portion of your fleet? What is the CapEx that we require on a per-store basis just where we can think about that on a multi-year kind of impact to the model?

Arie Kotler (Chairman, President and CEO)

Sure. Our plan really right now, with respect to those seven pilot stores, our plan is really to finish the seven pilot stores. As I mentioned, we started this week the first store, started construction. We have the second store starting mid-May. We hope to basically continue to see progress over here probably towards the third quarter of 2025. Again, subject to results, we're probably going to start to increase the pace in the regional level, of course, subject to results.

For your benefit today, the investment in a remodel store is anywhere between, I would call it, $700,000 to 1 million, 1.1 million. That's probably the cost per location. Again, it's all about how we feel about those pilots, if we need to tweak anything with respect to those pilots. The idea is really to take the initial learning and then basically apply them across a full region, and then we're going to continue to go. I think if your question, I think the assumption is that probably towards the end of 2025, we'll have better results, and we will probably see this up-ticking, assuming we enjoy from the results and happy with the results, probably going to see an uptick in 2026.

Bobby Griffin (Managing Director and Consumer Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you. I appreciate it. Best of luck going forward.

Arie Kotler (Chairman, President and CEO)

Thank you very much, Bobby.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Anthony Bonadio from Wells Fargo. Your line is now open.

Anthony Bonadio (VP and Equity Research)

Yeah, hey, guys. Thanks for taking our questions. I want to start with fuel margins. It seems like you guys are seeing quite a bit of strength into Q2, just given your guidance and some of your comments in response to Bobby's question. I guess, one, is that reflective of what you guys are seeing out there today? Two, can you just talk about what's driving those fuel margins as we think about price dynamics, break-evens, that kind of thing?

Robb Gammatteo (Executive VP and CFO)

Sure. Good afternoon, Anthony. We're driving the fuel margin. I think the number one, of course, is the volatility in the market. You saw what happened in the last probably four or five weeks.

Prices of fuel dropped, and they dropped all the way to, at some point, I think it was like $57 or $55, which of course reflects. Volatility is the first thing that, of course, reflects those things. The second thing besides volatility that increased fuel margin, my belief, this is Arie's belief, I believe that the pressure that everybody's seeing inside the store, they're going to have to, they're going to need to pay for their expenses. People are going to need to run their businesses, and this is what we're doing over here. Everybody's trying to be, of course, competitive as much as we could. Given that 63% of this industry, it's mom and pop, and we are also selling fuel to many of them. We have almost 2,000 locations, including the dealerization that we're doing right now.

I believe that some of it is just shifting basically cost. I mean, when you have soft sales inside the stores, given the microeconomic pressure and the weather, etc., etc., I believe that people need to figure out a way how to make changes in order for them basically to be profitable. Changing the price at the pump is probably the fastest and the easiest way to do so. We saw something very similar to it, if you remember, during COVID. It was very, very similar. That is really my belief. I think those two components are the one that is driving basically fuel margin.

Anthony Bonadio (VP and Equity Research)

Thanks. That is helpful.

Arie Kotler (Chairman, President and CEO)

And Anthony, just for reference, we have seen $0.46 per gallon in April, and maybe one has kind of been sticky. Pleased with that so far.

Anthony Bonadio (VP and Equity Research)

Got it. Super helpful.

Just on the repo, you guys bought back quite a bit of stock in the quarter. You're still sitting on a lot of cash. I think you've got another 20 million under the authorization. Can you just talk about how you're thinking about the cadence of buybacks at this point and just maybe more broadly how you're thinking about capital allocation?

Robb Gammatteo (Executive VP and CFO)

Yeah. We repurchased, like you mentioned, 1.3 million shares in May. We repurchased something similar to that. At this time, I can't really comment on the cadence of the stock repurchase at this time.

Anthony Bonadio (VP and Equity Research)

Thanks, guys.

Arie Kotler (Chairman, President and CEO)

Thank you.

Anthony Bonadio (VP and Equity Research)

Your next question comes from the line of Ben Wood from BMO. Your line is now open.

Ben Wood (VP Equity Research)

Hey, guys. This is Ben on behalf of Kelly and BMO. Thank you for taking our questions. Wanted to do two follow-ups on Bobby's line of questioning.

Just the first on the dealerization, it seems like the language you guys are using is pretty consistent to Q4, but can you talk about the pace of dealerizations in Q1 and how that tracks relative to internal plans? What's kind of the visibility on the pace that these could happen? Is there anything in the current environment that might make it harder to progress through kind of the outlined targeted numbers?

Robb Gammatteo (Executive VP and CFO)

Sure. Thank you for being over here, Ben. And fellow to Kelly, of course. We are actually moving in accordance to our plan over here. We closed in Q1, 59 locations and additional 18 up until May 1. The reason that we closed 77 versus 100 that were on our plan, it's really all subject to licensing and permits that some of those dealers.

As a matter of fact, we have 130 stores under contract right now. It is just a matter of those dealers getting licenses and permits. It is very, very important for us, given that we are moving some of those stores from our company-operated stores to dealers. It is very important for us that those guys are going to continue to maintain the sales. They are going to continue to be profitable. In order for that to happen, they must have liquor licenses, for example. That is usually what takes a little bit longer, to get liquor licenses from different municipalities. Of course, some of those guys are interested to close even earlier, but for us, it is very, very important that the minute they take over, they will have all of their licenses and permits in place so they will not leave basically any sales on the table.

It is really just a matter of permits and just a matter of licenses that I believe because of the winter and because of the bad weather in February, some of those municipalities will probably close or something like that. Everything is moving along in accordance to plan. As I mentioned, behind the 77 locations that we closed up until May 1, we have another 130 locations under contract already, and they are going to continue to close as soon as they receive permits and licenses.

Arie Kotler (Chairman, President and CEO)

In terms of possible cadence, I mean, I think you saw in Q4, we did 100 sites, right? To Arie's point, there are counterparties we are dealing with. There are licenses. There are states that are involved. That number is going to ebb and flow. If you are saying, "Hey, what is possible?" We have done 100 in Q4.

Again, ranging up to that level, I think, is reasonable.

Ben Wood (VP Equity Research)

No, that's very helpful. Just kind of going back to the remodel initiative conversation we were having, between now and when you start to get feedback on those and think about rolling them out more aggressively, what's the pipeline of maybe some smaller initiatives that you guys can take on and spread throughout the store base? Is the idea once we get a remodel that we like, that we'll stick with the remodels, or is there an opportunity to pull bits and pieces of that pilot program and spread them to the base a little bit faster? Just trying to get a sense of kind of your pipeline of different organic growth initiatives you guys have.

Robb Gammatteo (Executive VP and CFO)

Sure. No, no. That's a great question. The seven pilot stores should have everything from soup to nuts.

That's, I think, what we're trying to basically explain over here. For example, every one of those stores needs to have an improved back bar. I'll give an example. The back bar is just an example of the things that we are not waiting. We are basically getting very heavily into the OTP category. We believe that in this environment, when the consumer has a lot of pressures, when consumption of cigarettes is down, we believe that OTP is one of the growing categories. As you remember, we mentioned that we invested in 900 stores in the back bar. This is just one lever that we already start to move forward. The second thing, of course, is the Fueling America Future campaign that we started. That campaign, of course, involved between the beverage promotion that we're putting out there.

At the same time, we continue to add food service features, for example, grab-and-go, hot and cold in stores that we basically know that we're going to need to invest in that when the minute we finish the remodel. There are small things that we're doing. There are big things that we're doing. As I said, the largest one was really the backbar that it was very important for us to finish as we're moving into a 100-day summer.

Ben Wood (VP Equity Research)

Great. Thank you, guys.

Robb Gammatteo (Executive VP and CFO)

Thank you, Ben.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Guglielmo from Capital One. Your line is now open.

Daniel Guglielmo (Equity Research Analyst)

Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. As a part of the transformation plan, y'all mentioned targeted capital allocation towards strategic retail stores. What are some of the characteristics of retail stores that are in that strategic bucket?

Is there anything from a quantitative or a qualitative standpoint? Can you explain a little bit more your question?

Robb Gammatteo (Executive VP and CFO)

Yeah. All right. I'll take that one. Sorry. We look at sites that are in what we consider strategic markets. Markets where obviously there's favorable demographics, favorable competitive, and favorable physical plant that's existing, Daniel. For markets that are heavily competitive, where our physical plant may not be as competitive currently and where there's subpar demographics, that's the way we look at this. We had a strategic engagement with a consulting leader beginning of last year. We looked at this market by market, where physically we think markets are growing, where our physical plant with location and existing physical plant has a right to win, where we think it makes sense to invest.

That's how we've broken this down and why we've determined how we determine which stores we would be investing in and which would behave more appropriately in our wholesale channel.

Daniel Guglielmo (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. That's really helpful. I appreciate that. One more on the transformation plan. A risk that y'all have laid out was the ability to realize benefits from the new dealer fuel supply contracts. Now that it's been another quarter, can you talk about how that benefit realization has played out versus your expectations?

Robb Gammatteo (Executive VP and CFO)

Yeah. I think, again, as we talked about before, there are going to be some puts and takes with the timing of dealerization, right, based on counterparties and some state regulations. In terms of the expectations, the stores that we've pushed the wholesale channel are performing in line with our expectations.

As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, there's about 14 million incremental gallons, so a significant amount of volume that's starting to come over to this channel, performing in line generally with our expectations. What we're hoping to see, again, is that baseline prior year business and comparable accounts getting closer to zero versus the negative mid-single digits. We're pleased with what channel optimization has been doing so far. I mean, that's one of the reasons, Daniel, before you covered us, why we significantly expanded the count that we were looking at for that channel because we've been very pleased with performance to date.

Arie Kotler (Chairman, President and CEO)

Just to add one more thing for what Rob just said, which is everything is accurate. Every one of those deals that we did was accretive from day one.

We did not have to change something and waste a period of time to see if this is going to change anything. All of those deals were accretive from the minute we actually convert them into dealers, just to be clear.

Daniel Guglielmo (Equity Research Analyst)

Appreciate it. Thank you.

Arie Kotler (Chairman, President and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from the line of Kyle Martenson from Jefferies. Your line is now open.

Good afternoon. This might be simplistic, but just housekeeping. When you do the dealerization, does that loyalty member stay within the program? Are they still able to access the program's benefits?

Arie Kotler (Chairman, President and CEO)

Yeah. When we actually dealerize the store, the loyalty program does not stay with the store that we dealerize. They do not have the systems and the bands. Usually, those customers will travel or will move to some other location that we basically have the loyalty program.

The loyalty program is only beneficial in our retail stores.

Okay. It is with you because I was just wondering, you're growing, but you're also taking customers, in theory, out from locations from that perspective. In terms of liquidity here, your bonds are kind of in the high 70s, 11-12%. How do you balance kind of the share buybacks versus the potential for bond buybacks here?

Like I mentioned earlier, everything is being analyzed by the company, by our board, and this is not something that I'm prepared to answer at the moment.

All right then. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Hale Holden from Barclays. Your line is now open.

Hale Holden (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Hi. Good afternoon.

I just had one big picture question, which is, since you gave your guidance on the fourth quarter call, the one thing that's changed is the price of crude has come down a lot and the price of retail fuel has come down a lot. I was wondering how that flows into the guide that you gave that you just reaffirmed and puts and takes around that in terms of positives or negatives.

Robb Gammatteo (Executive VP and CFO)

Yeah. Sure. Yep. As you mentioned, we have taken a more constructive view on fuel margin for the year. As I mentioned, we're running $0.46 from April through first week of May. That is obviously something we've factored in. We've taken a step back a little bit in terms of some of the expectations for inside sales and gallons. We've taken those down a bit from our prior view.

We have also taken down OPEX, as you might imagine. We are being very, very careful with OPEX in this environment, as well as G&A. One of the things we have not spoken about in detail yet is our G&A is attached to the dealerization program. Arie hinted about this in prior quarters that we do intend to lean out the G&A structure as we push more retail sites to the wholesale channel. If you look at our press release, you will see that the G&A, excluding an accrual on legal, was down a couple of million dollars year-on-year. Again, I do not want you to be taking that specific number, but you should be expecting us to be a little more aggressive on G&A as well. A little bit back on gallons and merch sales, more constructive on CPG, and more aggressive on OPEX and G&A.

Hale Holden (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Just as a follow-up, the inside sale and gallons, that's more of a weaker consumer view. And then the G&A is something, as you get further into the dealerization plan, maybe that gets a little bit more heavy in terms of cutting there.

Robb Gammatteo (Executive VP and CFO)

I think that's a fair way to look at it. Yes.

Hale Holden (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Thank you so much. I appreciate it, fellows.

Robb Gammatteo (Executive VP and CFO)

You're welcome. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Arie Kotler. Please proceed.

Arie Kotler (Chairman, President and CEO)

Thank you very much, everybody, for participating this afternoon. I really appreciate that. As I mentioned earlier, Fueling America campaign that we started in stores on March 12. This is a big initiative for us, especially as we move into a 100-day summer.

As I said, with those promos and with those campaigns, we hope to see more customers in our stores, at the pump, and we hope to see you guys soon. Thank you very much. Have a good evening.

Operator (participant)

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