Parkland Fuel Corp. (TSX: PKI) ended a challenging year with strong earnings in the final quarter of 2010.
The Red Deer-based fuel distributor and marketer has reported net earnings of $10.8 million for the three months ended Dec. 31.
That marked a 140 per cent improvement over the $4.5 million earned during the same period in 2009.
However, the company — which completed its conversion from Parkland Income Fund effective Jan. 1 — ended 2010 with net earnings down 38 per cent from 2009, to $30.2 million from $48.6 million.
“Parkland ended the year with a strong quarter after experiencing an unusual combination of adverse conditions and events during the first three quarters,” said Parkland president and CEO Mike Chorlton in a news release.
“A warm winter across our heating oil and propane markets during the first quarter, refiners’ margins that were depressed below both seasonal and historic norms during the first nine months of 2010 and issues that arose due to the implementation of our enterprise resource planning (ERP) system posed significant challenges for us.”
Chorlton said many of the issues related to the ERP system had been resolved by the fourth quarter, refiners’ margins —which Parkland shares in — had improved, and weather conditions across Canada had returned to a more normal state.
He also noted that Parkland’s fourth-quarter performance benefited from the winter operations of Bluewave Energy, which it acquired last January.
Parkland’s fuel sales volumes for the year were 3.5 billion litres, up 28 per cent from 2.7 billion litres in 2009. In the fourth quarter, the company’s fuel sales volumes jumped 35 per cent to 980 million litres from 728 million litres in 2009.
Parkland said the increased fuel sales volumes reflected its acquisition of Bluewave Energy.
Highlights from the fourth quarter included Chorlton announcing his retirement, with chief operating officer Bob Espey to replace him on May 1, 2011; Parkland acquiring Prince Edward Island heating oil distributor Island Petroleum on Dec. 30 for $23.9 million; and Suncor Energy Inc. issuing notice of its intention to terminate a supply contract with Parkland as of Dec. 31, 2013.
Parkland is Canada’s largest independent marketer and distributor of fuels, with its brands including Fas Gas Plus, Race Trac Gas, Bluewave Energy, Columbia Fuels, Great Northern Oil, Neufeld Petroleum & Propane, and United Petroleum Products.