Parkland’s Burnaby Refinery safely returned to normal operations

CALGARY, AB, April 1, 2024 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Parkland Corporation (”Parkland”) (TSX: PKI) announced today that the Burnaby Refinery (”the refinery”) safely returned to normal operations on March 29, 2024, following an unplanned shutdown originating from extreme cold weather on January 12, 2024.

“I would like to thank the refinery team for their hard work and dedication to safely restore operations,” said Bob Espey, President and Chief Executive Officer. “During this shutdown period, we accelerated maintenance and refining optimization work previously scheduled for the third quarter of 2024. In addition, we have taken proactive steps to improve organization-wide marketing profitability and enhance the refinery’s utilization and profitability for the remainder of the year. I have confidence in our revised operational plan and the proven execution capabilities of our teams. Our 2024 Adjusted EBITDA Guidance range remains unchanged at $1.95 billion to $2.05 billion.”

As a result of this shutdown, we anticipate the refinery will deliver composite utilization of approximately 20 percent and an Adjusted EBITDA loss of between $60 and $65 million for the first quarter 2024. Parkland expects to deliver between $300 to $320 million of total Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2024.

Parkland is an international fuel distributor, marketer, and convenience retailer with operations in 26 countries across the Americas. We serve over one million customers each day. Our retail network meets the fuel and convenience needs of everyday consumers. Our commercial operations provide businesses with industrial fuels so that they can better serve their customers. In addition to meeting our customers’ needs for essential fuels, we provide a range of choices to help them lower their environmental impact. These include renewable fuels sourcing, manufacturing and blending, carbon and renewables trading, solar power, and ultra-fast EV charging. With approximately 4,000 retail and commercial locations across Canada, the United States and the Caribbean region, we have developed supply, distribution and trading capabilities to accelerate growth and business performance.

Our strategy is focused on two pillars: our Customer Advantage and our Supply Advantage. Through our Customer Advantage, we aim to be the first choice of our customers, cultivating their loyalty through proprietary brands, differentiated offers, our extensive network, competitive pricing, reliable service, and our compelling loyalty program. Our Supply Advantage is based on achieving the lowest cost to serve among independent fuel marketers and distributors in the hard-to-serve markets in which we operate, through our well-positioned assets, significant scale, and deep supply and logistics capabilities. Our business is underpinned by our people and our values of safety, integrity, community and respect, which are deeply embedded across our organization.

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information and statements (collectively, “forward looking statements”). When used in this news release, the words “expect”, “anticipate”, ”will”, ”could”, ”would”, ”believe” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements with respect to, among other things, expectations for composite utilization of the refinery, total Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA loss during the first quarter of 2024; expectations regarding our operational plans and execution, including with respect to the refinery; and expectations regarding our 2024 Adjusted EBITDA Guidance range.

These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. No assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this news release. Parkland does not undertake any obligations to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements except as required by securities laws. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of numerous risks, assumptions and uncertainties including, but not limited to: the refinery continuing to operate as expected during the remainder of the first quarter of 2024 and for the rest of 2024; general economic, market and business conditions; Parkland’s ability to execute its business strategy, including without limitation, Parkland’s ability to successfully integrate acquisitions, capture synergies, successfully implement organic growth initiatives and to finance such initiatives on reasonable terms; industry capacity; competitive action by other companies; refining and marketing margins; the ability of suppliers to meet commitments; actions by governmental authorities and other regulators including, but not limited to, increases in taxes; changes and developments in environmental and other regulations; and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Parkland. In addition, the 2024 Adjusted EBITDA Guidance reflects continued integration of acquired businesses, synergy capture, and organic growth initiatives, and the key material assumptions include: an increase in Retail and Commercial Fuel and petroleum product adjusted gross margin of approximately 5 percent and Food, convenience and other adjusted gross margin of approximately 5 percent as compared to the year ended December 31, 2023; the realization of $100 million of run-rate MG&A cost efficiencies by the end of 2024; Refining adjusted gross margin of approximately $45 to $46 per barrel and average Burnaby Refinery composite utilization of 75 percent to 80 percent (factoring in the unplanned outage) based on the Burnaby Refinery’s crude processing capacity of 55,000 barrels per day; the financial impact of the unplanned outage at the Burnaby Refinery and resumption of normal operations; enhancements to operations, utilization and optimization of supply at the Burnaby Refinery during 2024; and implementation of ongoing operating and MG&A cost reductions across the business. See also the risks and uncertainties described under the headings “Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information” and “Risk Factors” in Parkland’s current Annual Information Form, and under the headings “Forward-Looking Information” and “Risk Factors” in Parkland’s Management’s Discussion and Analysis for the most recently completed financial period, each as filed on SEDAR+ and available on Parkland’s website at www.parkland.ca. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.