Parkland's strategy to drive sustainable growth through the energy transition

CALGARY, AB, Nov. 16, 2021 /CNW/ - Parkland Corporation ("Parkland", "we", the "Company", or "our") (TSX:PKI), a leading convenience retailer, fuel marketer and consolidator, introduced today its refreshed strategy to drive sustainable growth and released its Sustainability Report which includes ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. Parkland will host its 2021 Investor Day later today, where its executive team will outline the company's continued growth and energy transition plans. 

"Parkland's proven business model and resilient base business is uniquely positioned to capture high growth opportunities through the energy transition," said Bob Espey, President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are focused on meeting the evolving needs of our retail customers who are seeking convenience destinations which include high-quality food offers at all times of the day. Furthermore, we are well positioned to partner with our commercial customers to help them decarbonize their operations. We expect our strategy to deliver significant near-term value, sustainable per share returns, and position our business for long-term success."

During today's Investor Day, Parkland's executive team will discuss:

The tremendous opportunity we see through the energy transition. We believe the decarbonization of society is inevitable, but expect it will look different in each channel and region we operate. Our refreshed strategy leverages our existing business which has a long, profitable future, and will generate strong returns and cash flow to enable investment in energy transition opportunities. Underpinned by the strong fundamentals in convenience and food, renewable fuels, and emerging demand for electric vehicle charging, we will meaningfully shift our capital allocation toward these high-return opportunities. Highlights include:

• Developing our existing business; our business model is underpinned by strong market fundamentals, and a track record of delivery through organic growth, acquiring and integrating quality businesses, and capturing supply chain cost advantages. We will continue to consolidate high-quality assets in markets where we expect long-lasting customer demand, seizing opportunities to create additional value and position the business to transition in the future.
• Diversifying our retail business; our retail sites of the future will look different. We will build on our existing capabilities to create convenience destinations, with high-quality stores and significantly expanded all-day-dining food offerings. In addition, we will launch standalone ON the RUN conveniences stores, and enhance our digital capabilities in support of ON the RUN, food, and electric vehicle charging, where we see demand.
• Helping our customers Decarbonize; we will leverage our existing capabilities in supply, trading and refining to provide our commercial customers with a portfolio of low carbon products and services. This includes almost tripling our co-processing volumes by 2025 to over 300 million liters. Our ambition is to deliver 1MT of annual greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions reductions, equivalent to making approximately 350,000 vehicles zero emission.

2022 Guidance

Parkland targets continued growth in 2022. Highlights include:

• Adjusted EBITDA (attributable to Parkland) of $1.45 billion +/- 5 percent. This is up approximately 16 percent from 2021 guidance, and approximately 50 percent from 2020.
• Capital expenditures (attributable to Parkland) of between $475 million and $575 million, comprised of:
• Growth capital expenditures (attributable to Parkland) of between $250 million and $300 million.
• Maintenance capital expenditures (attributable to Parkland) of between $225 million and $275 million.

Parkland Publishes Sustainability Report: 'Drive to Zero'

This morning, we published our latest Sustainability Report. Titled 'Drive to Zero', it reflects our goal to achieve zero safety incidents, zero spills, zero tolerance for racism and discrimination, zero tolerance for corruption, bribery, and unethical behaviour and to help our governments achieve their goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Grounded in meaningful and measurable targets, our report formalizes our enterprise-wide sustainability strategy. Key commitments include:

• Additional ESG performance measures incorporated into executive compensation by 2022
• Conduct proactive sustainability assessments for all acquisitions starting in 2022
• Reduce our customers' GHG emissions by 1MT through low-carbon fuel production by 2026
• Reduce GHG emissions from our marketing businesses by 40 percent per site by 2030
• Reduce GHG emissions from our refining business by 15 percent per barrel processed by 2030

Parkland's Sustainability Report can be viewed here: https://www.parkland.ca/en/sustainability/overview

Investor Day Webcast Details

The Investor Day presentation will be webcast, with video, beginning at 9 a.m. Eastern Time (7 a.m. Mountain Time) on November 16, 2021. For analysts and investors who have already registered to attend in person, or remotely, we look forward to your participation.

Analysts and Investors who have not yet registered, but wish to attend remotely, are encouraged to email  [email protected]. Analysts and Investors who have not yet registered, but wish to attend in-person, are encouraged to email Melanie Evans at [email protected].

Parkland's Investor Day presentation is available online at https://www.parkland.ca/en/investors/presentations-webcasts. The video webcast of the presentation will be available for replay from November 18, 2021 using the same link.

About Parkland Corporation

Parkland is a leading convenience store operator and independent supplier and marketer of fuel and petroleum products. Parkland services customers across Canada, the United States, the Caribbean region, and the Americas through three channels: Retail, Commercial and Wholesale. Parkland optimizes its fuel supply across these three channels by operating and leveraging a growing portfolio of supply relationships and storage infrastructure. Parkland provides trusted and locally relevant fuel brands and convenience store offerings in the communities it serves.

Parkland creates value for shareholders by focusing on its proven strategy of growing organically, realizing a supply advantage, and acquiring prudently and integrating successfully. At the core of our strategy are our people, as well as our values of safety, integrity, community, and respect, which are embraced across our organization.

Forward-Looking Statements

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", "will", "could", "would", "believe", "continue", "pursue" 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, business objectives and strategies, Parkland's ambition to achieve $2 billion run-rate Adjusted EBITDA by the end of 2025, 2022 Adjusted EBITDA and capital expenditure (growth and maintenance) guidance, strategies for developing our existing business and diversifying our retail business, launching standalone On the Run locations, tripling our co-processing volumes by 2025 to over 300 million liters, deliver 1MT of annual emissions reductions, reduce GHG emissions from our marketing businesses by 40 percent per site by 2030, Reduce GHG emissions from our refining business by 15 percent per barrel processed by 2030, and Parkland's ability to advance its growth agenda.

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 law. 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, general economic, market and business conditions, including the duration and impact of the COVID pandemic; Parkland's ability to execute its business strategies, including without limitation, Parkland's ability to consistently identify accretive acquisition targets and successfully integrate them, successfully implement organic growth initiatives and to finance such acquisitions and initiatives on reasonable terms; Parkland's ability to reduce GHG in its refining and marketing business, Parkland's ability to grow its supply advantage by leveraging its scale and infrastructure; 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 or restricted access to markets; changes and developments in environmental and other regulations; and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Parkland. See also the risks and uncertainties described in "Forward-Looking Information" and "Risk Factors" included in Parkland's Annual Information Form dated March 5, 2021, and "Forward-Looking Information" and "Risk Factors" included in the Q3 2021 MD&A dated November 2, 2021 and the Q4 2020 MD&A dated March 4, 2021, each filed on SEDAR and available on the Parkland website at www.parkland.ca. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This news release refers to certain non-GAAP and other financial measures that are not determined in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"). Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure and does not have a standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS and may not be comparable to similar financial measures used by other issuers. Management considers these to be important supplemental measures of Parkland's performance and believes these measures are frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties in the evaluation of companies in our industry. See Section 14 of the Q3 2021 MD&A for a discussion of non-GAAP measures, the reasons Parkland considers it appropriate for supplemental analysis and their reconciliations to the nearest applicable IFRS measure. Investors are cautioned that these measures should not be construed as an alternative to net earnings determined in accordance with IFRS as an indication of Parkland's performance.

In addition to non-GAAP financial measures, Parkland uses a number of operational KPIs, such as growth and maintenance capital expenditures, to measure the success of our strategic objectives and to set variable compensation targets for employees. These KPIs are not accounting measures, do not have comparable IFRS measures, and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers, as other issuers may calculate these metrics differently. See Section 14 of the Q3 2021 MD&A for further details.

SOURCE Parkland Corporation