Greetings, welcome to the ARKO Corp. First Quarter 2026 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. A reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Jordan Mann, Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to ARKO's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call and webcast. On today's call are Arie Kotler, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Galagher Jeff, Chief Financial Officer. Our earnings press release and quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the first quarter of 2026, as filed with the SEC, are available on ARKO's website at www.arkocorp.com. During our call today, unless otherwise stated, management will compare results to the same period in 2025. Before we begin, please note that all first quarter 2026 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 2026 earnings press release for various factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements made during our call today. All forward-looking statements made during this call reflect our current views with respect to future events. 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 and on a non-GAAP basis.
Descriptions of the non-GAAP financial measures that we use, such as Adjusted EBITDA and reconciliations of those numbers to our results as reported in accordance with GAAP, are detailed in our earnings press release or in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31st, 2026. Additionally, management will share profit measures for our individual business segments along with fuel contribution, which is calculated as fuel revenue less fuel costs and exclude intercompany charges by our GPMP segment. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Arie.
Thank you, Jordan, and good morning, everyone. Q1 marked a clear inflection point for ARKO. The momentum we built late last year accelerated into 2026, and the results this quarter show meaningful progress across the business. Adjusted EBITDA increased approximately 65% year-over-year to $51 million, driven by strong execution across retail, wholesale, and fleet fueling, coupled with disciplined cost control and strong fuel contribution. Importantly, this performance was broad-based and structural, not driven by any single lever. In retail, same-store merchandise sales, excluding cigarettes, returned to growth for the first time in 2 years, reflecting improved execution, sharper pro-promotions, our Fueling America's campaign, and stronger customer engagement. Same-store fuel gallons had the strongest year-over-year trends we've seen in 2 years and outperformed the OPIS U.S. average by roughly a full point.
In fuel, we have navigated the volatile pricing environment effectively, delivering strong cents per gallon that more than offset lower volumes early in the quarter. Notably, fuel transactions and gallon trends strengthened materially in March, even as retail prices increased. We believe that this is evidence that our value messaging and promotional strategy are resonating with customers. Across the organization, we stayed sharply focused on costs. G&A declined 4% year-over-year, reflecting a leaner structure and continued operating discipline. Despite weather disruption from the significant number and intensity of storms in January and early February, the takeaway from the quarter is straightforward. The operational and strategic work we've been executing, dealerization, loyalty, fuel pricing discipline, merchandising focus, and capital allocation, is showing up in our financial results.
The initial public offering of minority interest in our subsidiary, ARKO Petroleum Corp., in February 2026, was an important milestone in our story. We believe that it gives investors a clear view of the strength and value of our wholesale, fleet fueling, and GPMP businesses, their attractive margins, and its cash flow attributes. We believe that ARKO is currently positioned with strong growth opportunities across both operating channels, the retail on the one hand and the wholesale and fleet fueling on the other end. As of March 31st, 2026, ARKO owned 35 million shares of APC, representing an implied value today of roughly $650 million, based on APC's market capitalization of approximately $900 million. We'll keep the APC discussion short. It's important investors recognize both the transparency and the embedded value that APC structure provides.
Turning to the operating environment, the consumer remains value-focused and deliberate, especially in this elevated fuel cost environment. We continue to see customers taking advantage of promotions and actively using our app for savings on both fuel and merchandise. That reinforces the importance of sharp pricing, clear value communication, and compelling in-store offers. Importantly, underlying trends improve as we move through the quarter. After weather-related disruptions early on, traffic, transactions, and gallons all improved in March, reinforcing our confidence in the trajectory of the business. Dealerization has continued to be one of the most powerful levers reshaping ARKO. We converted 41 retail stores to dealer locations in the first quarter, bringing total converted locations to 450 since we adopted our transformation plan in 2024, with approximately 75 additional stores committed either under letter of intent, under contract, or already converted since quarter end.
We expect to complete those plus additional conversions by the end of 2026. The benefits are increasingly evident. Lower operating costs, reduced maintenance CapEx, stronger cash flow generation, and a more focused retail portfolio that is positioned for growth. As we progress through 2026, we believe our reported KPIs will increasingly reflect the quality of the remaining portfolio, something that is already apparent in our Q1 performance. Retail performance clearly improved this quarter. Same-store merchandise sales, excluding cigarettes, returned to growth, marking our strongest results in two years. This was driven by better execution across promotions, pricing, and customer engagement. Merchandise margin grew 70 basis points year-over-year and finished Q1 at 33.9%. This 70 basis points margin improvement is on top of the 70 basis points we grew margin in Q1 of last year.
Cigarette sales performed better than expected due to promotional pricing and manufacturer support, while other tobacco products continued to grow strongly, supporting traffic and transactions without undermining margin integrity. Overall, our retail performance reflects a healthier business with improving trends and a more productive store base. We are not trading margin for volume. Fuel was a significant earning contributor in the quarter. We operated through a highly volatile fuel environment and executed effectively, delivering retail cents per gallon of $0.479 and driving same-store fuel contribution up approximately 20%. While gallons were pressured early in the quarter by the weather, they improved throughout the quarter, even in a higher price environment, and fuel transaction increased approximately 7% in March. While fuel volatility was supportive this quarter for CPG, it was not the only driver of improved results.
Higher fuel prices can lead to smaller fill-ups, but it can also drive more frequent visits. This reinforce our strategy, being competitive to drive traffic and offering promotions like the Fueling America's Future discount fuel campaign to give dollars back to the consumer. In honor of America's 250th birthday, Fueling America's Future is now offering $2.50 off per gallon, up to 20 gallons. We remain focused on delivering value as we head into the summer driving season. That bring me to loyalty. Our Fueling America's Future campaign and fas REWARDS platform remain central to our growth strategy, in trip frequency, customer engagement, and basket size. Enrollment increased 98% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, with approximately 53,000 new members.
Notably, almost half of new enrollees joined since the launch of the new app and $10 enrollment program in early March. We believe that these programs are important in any environment, but especially in one where customers are actively looking for value. A relaunched loyalty app on new technology platform positions us to better personalize offers, improve communication, and more deliberately use loyalty as traffic and retention engine, especially as we add into our 100 days of summer promotional season. Remodels and new-to-industry locations also remain key components of our long-term growth strategy. In the first quarter, we opened 2 NTI retail stores and 1 NTI cardlock location, and we remain on track for 3 new Dunkin' stores and 1 NTI retail store, 20 NTI cardlocks and 25 remodels in 2026.
Early performance from recent remodels has been encouraging, reinforcing our conviction that modern food forward formats can drive higher sales, stronger fuel performance, and improved store level economics. On the fleet fueling side, building new cardlocks continue to represent one of our most attractive uses of capital, given the low investment, modest labor model, and compelling returns. Before I turn it over to Gallagher, let me leave you with this. The first quarter was not driven by one-time margin event or a single metric. It reflected structural progress across fuel pricing, dealerization, cost discipline, portfolio quality, and retail execution. We are not going to overstate one quarter. We are encouraged by what we are seeing. Our transformation plan has been gaining traction and promotions are driving sales and loyalty program enrollment, which is visible in our financial performance. With that, I will turn the call over to Gallagher.
Thank you, Arie. We continue to be encouraged by the broad-based performance we are seeing across the business. In Q1, we saw improvement in retail trends, strong fuel margin execution, continued benefit from dealerization, and meaningful cost discipline at both the store and corporate levels. We remain focused on investing growth capital to drive strong returns in remodels, NTI retail stores, and cardlocks. Turning to our first quarter results, net loss of $5.6 million compared with $12.7 million for the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA was approximately $51 million, up roughly 65% from the prior year period, as Arie mentioned. In our retail segment, same-store merchandise sales were down 0.5% for the quarter, while same-store merchandise sales, excluding cigarettes, increased 0.4%, representing the strongest ex-cigarette performance we have seen in two years.
We achieved these results even with disruptions caused by winter storms in our footprint. Merchandising margin was 33.9%, up 70 basis points from the prior year, driven by product mix and targeted customer promotions. This 70 basis points improvement in margin is on top of the 70 basis points improvement we had last year in Q1, as Arie Kotler mentioned. On retail fuel, same-store gallons were down 3.2% year-over-year, but improved sequentially through the quarter, with fuel transactions increasing approximately 7% in March year-over-year. Same-store fuel contribution increased 20%, and retail cents per gallon increased by approximately $0.10 to $0.479 per gallon. That result reflects efficient pricing and strong execution in a volatile market. As mentioned, our merchandising and fuel trends were affected by the winter storms in Q1 across our core footprint.
While difficult to quantify, we estimate same-store merchandise sales volumes would have been approximately 80 basis points stronger absent weather disruptions, reflecting the underlying strength of our base business. Similarly, we estimate the storm-related impact to total company fuel gallons was approximately 160 basis points. While we can't control the weather, we do feel the normalized performance of the business is even stronger than shown, and we expect to build on this momentum. Turning to expenses, we remain focused on disciplined cost management across the business. Total retail site-level operating expenses were down 12% at $155.9 million, compared with $177.2 million for the prior year period, primarily driven by our dealerization strategy.
Same-store operating expenses increased 3.3% versus Q1 2025, driven by slightly higher labor rates, utilities, and higher credit card fees as retail fuel prices increased in March. On a consolidated basis, G&A expenses were down 4% from the prior year. This is consistent with our transformation plan and reflects a leaner cost structure and tighter operating discipline that we expect to continue. In our wholesale segment, operating income was approximately $23 million. Performance continued to benefit from dealerization and the related expansion of wholesale volume and profit contribution. Gallons were approximately 234 million gallons. Fuel margin was $0.098 per gallon, and we continue to expect dealerization to support both earnings quality and cash flow generation over time.
In our fleet fueling segment, operating income was approximately $12 million, an increase of 9% year-over-year from the strong margin environment. Fleet fuel margin was $0.493 per gallon, while gallons declined 3.2% and were also impacted by weather events in the quarter. Fleet fueling remains a durable cash flow business, and with around 20 cardlocks targeted in 2026, we believe that cardlock expansion continues to represent an attractive capital deployment opportunity given the return profile and modest labor model. On the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with cash of $272 million and total liquidity of approximately $1.1 billion.
In Q1, we paid down $206.7 million in debt using the net proceeds from the APC IPO, with long-term debt now at $704 million, excluding lease-related financing liabilities. On capital allocation, our priorities remain clear. We will continue to execute on dealerization, invest in retail initiatives and remodels, support NTI and high return cardlock growth, all while we maintain balance sheet discipline and a focus on returns. Capital expenditures were approximately $31 million in the first quarter, primarily focused on growth capital as we have 17 cardlocks and 25 remodels underway. The APC IPO has improved our financial flexibility, our framework has not changed. We are focused on the highest return opportunities across the business and on improving cash flow over time. As we progress through 2026, we are encouraged by the momentum in the business.
First quarter results reflected strong execution and improving underlying trends, particularly as the quarter progressed. While we are happy with our Q1 performance and strong start to 2026, we believe there is too much uncertainty in the market now to update our full year guidance at this point. Looking ahead, we remain focused on continuing to execute, capturing the structural benefits of dealerization and allocating capital to deliver strong returns. With that, I'll hand the call back to Arie.
Thank you, Gallagher. We are encouraged by the first quarter results, and our mindset remained the same. April has continued the year-to-date trends across the business. We plan to stay disciplined, keep executing, and continue building on the progress we made through the end of last year and into 2026. Operator, please open the line for questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad and a confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please, while we pull for questions. The 1st question comes from the line of Bobby Griffin with Raymond James. Please proceed.
Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions this morning. Congrats on some of the progress showing up in the business. Good to see. I guess first I wanted to maybe just touch on the dealerization aspect. Now that we really are starting to see the inflection point in the operations, you know, on a consolidated basis, does the end kind of pie of savings still look the same from a G&A standpoint that we've talked about in the past and from the SG&A standpoint? Are you actually now kind of getting in the weeds and seeing that there might be, you know, more low hanging fruit or more upside to some of those original estimates?
Morning, Bobby. Thank you for this question. Thank you for participating. As we mentioned before, Bobby, you know, the transformation plan that we put together in 2024, you know, we, you know, we kept talking about the $20 million upside over there when actually when this transaction is actually gonna take place. So far, as you can see over here, and as we disclose, approximately $30 million benefits already, you know, is in place, you know, given the trailing 12 months. As I mentioned, we have 75 additional locations that we are about, you know, to basically to execute. Some of them are under LOI, some of them are under basically contracts already.
I think the goal is really to complete that with maybe some additional others between now and the end of the year. I think that's really the plan at the moment. You know, if things will actually come later on and we see additional opportunities, of course, we will execute on them. That's something that, you know, we always, you know, take into account. I think we're going to stick to our plan at the moment.
Okay. Ari, that puts you round numbers, puts you call it 1,000 stores at retail. Like, when you get to that level, then kind of what's the go forward, you know, call it I don't know if I wanna call it plan, but the go forward kind of initiatives. You know, you got the remodels that are starting to accelerate, you got some of the merchandising work, you got loyalty. Maybe help us think about once we kind of get to this 1,000 store base at retail with those additional 75 stores to go, you know, what is the moving parts or the initiatives that will be the focus point going forward there for us to grade the business on?
Sure. Sure. You know, first of all, you know what we did, like I said, going back to the transformation plan since 2024, when we actually put the plan together. You know, the goal was to basically to move approximately 500 plus stores from basically from the retail business to the wholesale business. Concentrate on areas that we are, you know, we have economy of scale. Concentrate on areas that we can win. Concentrate in areas that, you know, it's, I'll call it, you know, more competitive for us, you know, in terms of scale, in terms of, you know, basically where we operate. Concentrate on promotions. As you can see right now, you mentioned 1,000 stores.
As you can see right now, the portfolio that we actually kept are the jewel of the jewel of the jewel when it comes to those stores. The goal will be moving forward to continue to grow and to continue to invest in those stores. As you can see, you know, we are basically remodeling an additional 25 stores this year. The goal will be to build NTI around those stores. The goal will be to continue to actually to, you know, to execute around those stores. I can tell you that, you know, if you think about that, you know, the majority of the portfolio or a large portion of the portfolio is basically across Mid-Atlantic states, Southeast and Southwest.
That's basically the concentration, and that's where we would like probably to continue moving forward and just build around that. There is no question about that. You know, we are very well-capitalized when it's come to it, as Gallagher mentioned, over $270 million basically just cash on hand. We have plenty of liquidity up to $1.1 billion to continue to actually grow the business.
Okay. Two final questions.
Just to add-
Oh, go ahead, Gallagher. Sorry about that. Go ahead.
Really quickly. No, it's okay. Arie covered it well. There are three big benefits we are starting to see in the business. One is operating expenses. You know, as those stores get dealerized, it lowers our operating expenses. Second is G&A. As you mentioned, we are more focused. Lean organization, G&A. The third, which I think you hit on with Arie, is it focuses our investment on retail stores that are positioned to win. Whether it's remodels, merchandising initiatives, fas REWARDS, the approximately 1,000 stores that are left can focus the capital on those and hopefully return very quickly to growth. We are almost there this quarter, it really allows us to focus the investments to drive growth in those retail stores.
That's helpful. That's actually to dovetail into my final 2 questions. I mean, on the remodels, you know, I think we took that number up a little of what we're targeting to now do. Can you share any of the early stats you're seeing as the lift from these remodels? You know, we've talked in the past about the capital for kind of a soft remodel versus a hard remodel, so I'd imagine that's roughly about the same. What about just the lifts, now that you got maybe a little bit more data on what you're seeing?
Sure. Sure. I can just talk about the early performance from the recent remodel. Like, you know, like we mentioned, we are very, very encouraged with that. You know, it's of course it's proved that the minute you actually invest in food service and you put food service formats forward that drive higher sales, stronger, basically fuel performance. As a matter of fact, when people come into the stores, they're actually, you know, leaving the stores and going to the pub. And it just help us with better store-level economics. There's no question. The plan for 2026, which we mentioned, you know, approximately 25 stores remodeled, the whole idea is that to continue concentrating on adding food service into those stores.
The minute you invest in food service and you add food service into those stores, you're bringing more traffic, you have better customer engagement, and there is other items that are actually being attached to the food service when people are actually coming to the store. That, that's really going to be the goal moving forward, to make sure that in all of those stores that we are touching right now and we are remodeling right now, you know, we're gonna be adding food service. In addition to all of those promotions that we mentioned earlier, all of those promotions are very beneficial for us, especially in this environment when fuel prices are actually going up.
You know, all of those promotions, you know, attached to Pack Bed, for example, you know, when you purchase food, you know, we talked about Fueling America. You know, think about it, Bobby, when you buy, you know, 2 Gatorade right now and get $0.50 off per gallon, in this environment, you're talking about $10 off, when you purchase 20 gallons over here. This is really important. Again, all of those things will be very beneficial for us, into 2026.
Arie, I'm gonna try to pin you down a little more, basically when you remodel a store, you put in the fast craves and that stuff you're working on, do you see a lift in merchandise, same-store merchandise sales as well as same-store merchandise gallons?
Yeah. Bobby, I'll jump in on that one. Yeah. You know, the first ones we did last year, we saw about 12% increase in merchandise sales overall and 14% in gallons versus the pre-period. Some categories were up 20%, 30%. We continue to see really good results, which is why we're accelerating the program. Every store is different. The level of remodels are different, but we're very happy with what we're seeing, which is why we're trying to do it more.
Very good. I've taken enough time.
One more thing, Bobby. One more thing, since you got me excited about that. When we talk about food service, it's not just the word food service, it's also to make sure that we have delicious volume meal. I mean, we launched in Q1, we launched meals at $3, $4, $5, $6. I mean, think about it. You come to our stores in the afternoon to buy a chicken sandwich and a drink for $5. I mean, you can actually come to our stores and buy a drink, you know, like coffee or a cold drink and a sandwich, breakfast sandwich for $4. You know, those are very, very important component. It's not just to add food service, it's also to make sure that you actually bring value to the consumers.
Thank you. I appreciate the details. Best of luck here in 2Q, guys.
Thank you very much, Bobby.
Thanks, Bobby.
The next question comes from the line of Daniel Guglielmo with Capital One Securities. Please proceed.
Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. Broader consumer trends have been mixed in this kinda complex macro environment. Can you just dig in a little more into your retail customer trends? Are you seeing strength in certain regions? Do you have any additional insights on April trends?
Sure. Sure. Let me start with the first one about consumer, basically trend. You know, I'm putting the weather aside for a second. I can tell you that, before the volatility in price, in gas prices, you know, January started very, very strong. Sales excluding cigarettes were basically, above 5%. Then, of course, we got impacted by the weather. Then, you know, going into March, with the volatility of fuel pricing, you know, we actually see customers' trips actually increasing because of that, just because the price of fuel is up. You know, customer trips are up. We see, you know, basically, increase in penetration inside the store because, you know, customers are coming more often because of that.
That bring me to, basically the consumer and Fueling America promotions and all of the promotions activities that we are doing over here when it come to cigarettes and OTP, you know, everything. I mean, you know, I mentioned earlier today that cigarettes trend are actually up. I believe this is the first time for a long period of time that cigarettes actually trend are up. Cigarette trends were actually down. I believe the promotions are, promotional activity, Daniel, that we are actually having over here in our stores, along with all of the other promotions that we're doing actually bring traffic. You know, for me, traffic means that we are grabbing market share from somewhere else. The same thing goes to fuel.
You know, we mentioned that, you know, fuel for This is like first time for a long period of time, you know, we've been trending even a little bit better than basically the OPIS average. Again, I just think that that's a mix of all of the other things and all of the initiatives that we are doing in the stores to bring those customers in while, you know, everybody feel the pressure.
Dan, let me just jump in a little bit. The customers are under pressure, and I think we are having to take action to keep that traffic up, as Arie mentioned. Provide promotions, provide discounts that they can get in the store and using fuel. You do see, you know, especially as gas retail price elevates, we need to differentiate, and we're continuing to put our promotions out there that will continue to drive the traffic, hopefully in store and with fuel through Fueling America's Future. We had some really strong pockets of geography. We did have that weather noise, but, you know, some Indiana, Kentucky, parts of Ohio were very strong. Our southeast continues to be very strong. Some of what we call our Texarkana regions, which is Arkansas, Louisiana, are also continuing to be performing.
We had a lot of very positive parts of the country and some that are a little more sluggish. Like Arie said, we're taking action now and not waiting on the customer. We're trying to drive value for them as they continue to bring their trips, both gallon and merchandise, to ARKO.
That's great. I really appreciate all that color. That's really helpful. Just as, I guess, a follow-up to that, can you talk about how the dealers have been able to navigate this complex environment? I know they're kinda smaller entrepreneurs with less resources, so I'm curious if they've seen more headwinds in their businesses this year.
Well, there is no question that, you know, those dealers are having the same challenge like everybody else. Remember, the environment that we are living in is that almost 65, 70% of the stores in America are operated by, you know, basically by those dealers. I think all of those guys are just, you know, basically in, you know, in the same boat. You know, when price, you know, goes up and we see volatility, there is no question that, you know, they probably gonna have a little of a decline in gallons, but that's gonna be offset by an increase in CPG. You know, that's the way they're managing the business, and this is the way they've been managing their business for, you know, for the last probably 50 years.
There is no question, Daniel, that prices of fuel have to come down at some point. You know, we saw that, you know, for the past, you know, we are here for, you know, a public company for the past five years, you know. I've been around the block for over 20 years. It's a cycle. It's a cycle and, you know, we, you know, at some point, the price, you know, will come down and consumers and, you know, and basically and those dealers gonna continue to drive gallons, drive sales as they have before.
Great. I appreciate all that insight. Thank you.
Thank you, Daniel.
Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. I'd like to turn the call back over to Arie Kotler for closing remarks.
Thank you, everyone for participating this morning. It was a great talking to you guys and hope to see you in our stores. Have a great morning.
This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.