BJ's Restaurants, Inc.

All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw from the question queue, please press star, then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ronna Shermer, Director of SEC Reporting. Please go ahead. Thank you, Operator.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our fiscal 2023 third quarter investor conference call and webcast. After the market closed today, we released our financial results for our fiscal 2023 third quarter. You can view the full text of our earnings release on our website at www.bjsrestaurants.com. I will begin by reminding you that our comments on the conference call today will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guaranteed the future performance and that undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. These statements are based on management's current business and market expectations, and our actual results could differ materially from those projections in the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or to make any other forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, unless required to do so by the securities laws. Investors are referred to the full discussion of risks and uncertainties associated with forward-looking statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We will start today's call with prepared remarks from Greg Levin, our Chief Executive Officer and President, and Tom Hodick, our Chief Financial Officer, after which we will take your questions. And with that, I will turn the call over to Greg Levin. Greg?

Thank you, Ronna. EJ has delivered another quarter of positive comparable restaurant sales and year-over-year margin expansion. Our total revenues increased a little over 2%, led by a 1.5% increase in our average weekly sales, driven by continued positive comparable restaurant sales and the strong performance of our new restaurants. For the 10th consecutive quarter, our sales results beat the industry as measured by black box. We expanded our restaurant margins to 11.9% represent an increase of 160 basis points from the prior year and generated adjusted EBITDA of approximately 20 million in the quarter, marking a 29% increase over the prior year. In fact, in the first three quarters of fiscal 2023, we have generated over 76 million of adjusted EBITDA, which is roughly equivalent to all of last year with, of course, one quarter to go. Compared to 2022, industry-wide sales trends normalized in the 2023 third quarter. Historically, weekly sales volumes peak in May and June and then come down in July before taking further steps down in August and September. Last year, with consumers freed of COVID restrictions, weekly sales average actually increased in August compared to July with a smaller step down in September. This year, third quarter sales trends reverted to pre-COVID patterns, resulting in a return to an August and September sales slowdown. Tom will provide more details on the quarter, but since regular seasonality returned in the fourth quarter of last year, we have seen our comparable restaurant sales rebound to positive low single digits starting in October. As we mentioned previously, our sales and margin growth strategies are rooted in our in-depth consumer research and focus on building the BJ's brand over the long term, quarter by quarter, and year by year. We know that our guests escape to BJ's for a dining experience featuring familiar food items made Blue House fabulous, the gold standard service and gracious hospitality delivered by our restaurant teams, and packaged in an ambiance that is of higher quality, differentiated, and full of energy compared to mass market casual dining concepts. Therefore, in the third quarter, to enhance our already high service and hospitality standards, we rolled out new server scripts as well as an updated mystery shopper program focused on consistently delivering gracious hospitality to our guests. As a result of these recent programs, we have increased hospitality scores year over year on our guest surveys. Additionally, our hourly and management staffing levels continue to improve year over year as we narrow the gap to pre-COVID levels. In fact, our hourly team member retention rate in September matched our pre-COVID level, illustrating our improving operating environment, which has enabled us to execute at even higher levels of service and efficiency. We also rolled out a new menu that has 15% fewer items and is focused on familiar items made Blue House fabulous based on our guests' research and careful testing in our restaurants. Having fewer items but the right items for our guests resulted in improved pay scores year over year. Our innovation team continues to create new menu items and drinks that provide the familiar yet made Blue House fabulous. In the third quarter, we rolled out our Big Twist Pretzel paired with BJ's Brewhouse Blonde Beer Cheese and the Hickory Brisket Nachos for a limited time, accompanied with a line of Wow Margaritas, including our new White Peach Bovarita. Importantly, our culinary and beverage innovation is working to grow sales, adding both incidents and dollar sales to the appetizer and cocktail categories. In fact, the new innovative cocktails are now our top sellers in that category. We also just rolled out our limited time only Spooky Pizookie with orange colored vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup that guests pour over their dessert, which hardens to make a delicious chocolate shell over our world famous Pizookie dessert. Our Spooky Pizookie has exceeded our expectations, becoming our number one selling Pizookie this October and selling out sooner than anticipated. Given the extraordinary guest excitement and demand for this product, Expect to see Spooky Pizookie back next year. We are now looking forward to this holiday season as we plan to feature a new limited-time only Brewhouse Flan Garlic Shrimp Appetizer, a special filet surf and turf entree, and our new Tipsy Snowman and Winter Paradise Pomegranate Margarita seasonal cocktails. All these items fit squarely in our menu strategy of familiar items, again, made Brewhouse fabulous. Furthermore, we know that guests come to BJ's for a better dining experience rooted in what we call brew house theater. Each of these new items provides the guests with more theater and quality than what you find at other mass casual restaurant chains. For example, our tipsy snowman cocktail includes a holiday marshmallow shaped like a snowman and a Belgian beer glass. And the spooky pizookie allows our guests to pour over the chocolate sauce and watch in anticipation as it hardens. All of these items allow guests to trade up and indulge at BJ's while creating a fun, polished, casual experience. Most importantly, for us to do this, we needed to optimize the menu and simplify execution in certain areas so that we can provide our guests an even better culinary experience. All of this has been made possible by our menu optimization process that we began last year and the continuing passion and dedication from our team members. Through our research, we know that a key differentiator in full-service restaurants is ambiance. Guests don't want to visit old, worn-out restaurants with wobbly tables, dirty floors, and broken chairs. Guests want a contemporary, relevant atmosphere that complements team members' gracious hospitality and DJ's delicious food. Our remodel program focuses on that relevant ambiance by providing enhanced seating capacity, an updated bar statement, new lighting, artwork, booths, and tables. As we mentioned before, the new bar statement is amazing and includes a much lighter, more contemporary bar feature featuring a new 130-inch television that screens Brewhouse Theater. We are still targeting between 35 and 40 remodels this year, and we expect to have remodeled at least 20% of our restaurants by year end. While the best way for us to continue our margin growth is by driving top-line sales, Since every additional dollar sales leverages the fixed elements of our cost structure, we also laid out a plan last year to identify at least $25 million of four-wall cost savings opportunities that will benefit our restaurant operating margins while maintaining our high-quality standards. We have now unlocked over $30 million of cost savings on an annualized basis as we reduce food, labor, and operating and occupancy costs. Additionally, the team has identified further savings opportunities, which we expect to roll out late in the fourth quarter, which will continue to improve our margins and our EBITDA year over year. We also continue to open new restaurants in a balanced manner. In 2023, we opened five new restaurants, including the relocation of our Chandler, Arizona restaurant. Our 2022 and 2023 classes of restaurants are doing exceptionally well with weekly sales average of more than $130,000 or approximately 10% higher than our system average and overall margins in the mid to upper teens. As we discussed last quarter, we submitted new plans for the majority of our 2024 openings so that we can roll out our new prototype that will save us approximately $1 million per build versus our current prototype. Additionally, due to a more efficient layout, this prototype should provide an opportunity for labor optimization. Overall, we believe this new prototype will provide even better returns on invested capital by delivering better margins and built at a lower cost. Therefore, I expect 2024 new restaurant openings to be similar in number to this year before we plan for an increase in the rate of new restaurant openings in 2025. As we said many times, our goal is to re-accelerate our new restaurant expansion and grow restaurant weeks by 5% or more annually. However, we are going to do so with the right quality and at the right investment cost to continue to drive strong new restaurant investment returns. With 5% plus new restaurant growth, consistent comp sales in the low to mid single digit range, and expanding restaurant margins, we should achieve very strong EBITDA and earnings growth for our shareholders. But with the continued positive reaction from our guests to all that we are doing, coupled with our increasing margins and EBITDA, we reinstated our share repurchase program this past quarter. We are increasingly confident in our strategy to grow sales, expand margins, open new restaurants, and return capital to our shareholders in both the near and midterm. Finally, I am looking forward to seeing many of you at our Analyst and Investor Day on Tuesday, November 14th, and the welcome dinner the night before. We'll host a special beer dinner featuring some of our most iconic beers, as well as some of our new menu items and cocktails. At the November 14th event in Boston, we will share greater detail around our near-term opportunities and our longer-term strategy. So I hope you can all join us for that event. Now, let me turn it over to Tom to provide a more detailed update from the quarter and current trends. Tom?