BJ's Restaurants, Inc.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the BJ's Restaurant's first quarter 2026 earnings release conference call. 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 your question, 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 year 2026 first quarter investor conference call and webcast. After the market closed today, we released our financial results for our fiscal 2026 first 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 guarantees of 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 Lyle Tick, our Chief Executive Officer and President, followed by Todd Wilson, our Chief Financial Officer, after which we will take your questions. And with that, I will turn the call over to Lyle. Lyle?

Thank you, Rana. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss our Q1 financial results, operating performance, and outlook. Q1 was another strong quarter for BJ's. We delivered our seventh consecutive quarter of sales and traffic growth, along with our sixth consecutive quarter of profit dollar growth and EBITDA margin expansion. Same-store sales increased 2.4%, driven primarily by 2.2% traffic growth, continuing to outperform black box casual dining benchmarks by roughly 120 basis points on sales and close to 400 basis points on traffic. On the profit side, restaurant-level operating margins were 16%, and adjusted EBITDA margins reached 10.5%, up 30 basis points year over year. Our consistent performance continues to reflect the progress we're making across our four strategic priorities, focused on building a winning culture, improving our food, enhancing our atmosphere, and driving WOW hospitality and executional consistency. A few notable Q1 highlights and context. Valentine's Day performance was exceptional. Approximately half our restaurants set new daily sales records, while 14 set weekly records, reinforcing our strength in the social splurge occasions. We delivered Q1 results with roughly 20% lower media spend year over year as we continue to optimize how we deploy marketing dollars while ensuring we have sufficient resources to drive Q2, or what we call celebration season. This is a testament to the progress our marketing and culinary teams have made on refining our go-to-market strategy and how best to leverage our product news and media. The quarter had its fair share of volatility, including approximately 70 basis points of weather-related headwinds year on year. Importantly, the teams managed this volatility effectively while growing sales and protecting margins. We also are encouraged by the results of some of our tests and recent programming we put into the market. Overall, total beverage sales stabilized in Q1 behind growth in non-alcoholic beverages, our 22-ounce beer upgrade, and a successful seasonal beer offering in our waterfall beer, which was a collaboration with Sapporo Breweries, hitting on growing segment trends like lower ABV, sessionable drinks, and Japanese-style rice beer, which is one of the few growing segments in craft beer. Our chicken sandwich renovations have shown clear positive impact in tests, improving the chicken sandwich and overall handheld performance, and we'll be rolling out as we move into Q3. Our premium Wagyu burger with a custom blend patty has garnered a lot of interest in trial and provides the top of the barbell anchor in the burger category. This has just moved into a full system limited time feature and will become part of our menu burger lineup as we move into Q3 as well. Overall, I'm pleased with our Q1 results and encouraged by the positive momentum in the business as we head into Q2 and our growing outperformance versus black box casual dining benchmarks. 18 plus months into my journey at BJ's, we have a clear roadmap that made material progress in building stronger foundations, and we intend to continue to focus on bringing guests a better BJ's by investing in our food, our people, and our atmosphere, ensuring these elements continue to work in concert to drive performance. While there's still a significant amount of work and opportunity ahead, we have made tangible progress across several areas. We have seen significant improvement across our guest metrics since Q3 of 2024, with our net promoter score improving roughly 10%. Our team member retention continues to be better than pre-pandemic levels and trending positively. Both hourly and management turnover are improving on a trailing 12-month average, and tracking 12-plus percentage points below black box industry benchmarks as we continue to strive to make BJ's a better, easier, and more rewarding place for our team members. The work we're doing to upgrade our menu offerings while still in its early stages is reflected in improvement in our food scores, our momentum with younger guests, and our new product performance. Since the launch of the All-American Smashburger in June of 2025, The burger category is delivering roughly 30% more sales than prior to the launch. Pizza has also performed well since its introduction, with category sales up about 20%, and we're beginning to see encouraging signs that the new pizza is improving repeat visits amongst guests who try it. Seasonal pizookies continue to resonate particularly with younger guests, contributing to both traffic and growth in dessert sales. Our value scores have materially improved behind the Pazuki meal deal and an improved overall experience, reinforcing our complete value proposition. And our marketing strategy continues to evolve with greater emphasis on social and word of mouth to support our new products, complemented by selective use of broader media to deliver value messaging. At the same time, we've materially improved margins over the last 18 months, while making significant investments in our restaurants and guest experience through our remodels and facilities programs. We are, however, still in the early innings, and the vast majority of our opportunity still lies ahead of us. The last six quarters of sales and traffic growth have been driven predominantly by traffic. We have brought a younger, hard-to-reach guest into our restaurants, lifted frequency, and meaningfully reset BJ's relevance in casual dining. As we look ahead, we will continue to build on the drivers of success to date while moving to further balance the model where traffic as well as average check and mix carry weight over time. The Wagyu Burger I mentioned earlier is an example of the category management work we're doing on the menu. Sitting alongside the All-American Smash Burger that remains a hero at the opening price point of the category, the Wagyu Burger gives guests a premium trade-up option building a clear good, better, best strategy within a high-affinity category. In addition, we're moving into a test with a premium tier on the Pazuki meal deal, giving our most engaged guests a path to trade up while still reinforcing two core and ownable BJ's equities in variety and the Pazuki. We continue to work across the menu, extending this structured approach to category renovation. I'll share more information in the coming quarters as we gain more learnings from our market tests. The progress to date, combined with the work ahead, will help us maintain momentum while continuing to allow us to improve flow through over time. I'm confident in our plans and our commitment to investing in our people, ensuring they have the tools and support needed to bring our brands to life every day, advancing operational excellence, making BJ's better and easier for both team members and guests, continuing to improve our food offerings and guest experience, and setting the foundation for future net unit growth. On net unit development, our prototype work is progressing at pace. The two planned openings later this year are in Buckeye, Arizona and Joliet, Illinois, and they will showcase a meaningfully improved guest experience. These markets represent a mix of an established performance market in Buckeye, Arizona, and a development opportunity in Illinois, where we expect proximate restaurants, to benefit from increased brand awareness and operational leverage. As we build the pipeline, we will stay focused on refining the prototype to continue to improve the consistency and financial returns of future openings. Q1 delivered another strong quarter for BJ's and reflects our continued progress, sustained traffic-driven growth, and share gain. While the environment remains dynamic, We enter Q2 with positive momentum, strong plans, and growing out performance versus black box casual dining benchmarks, and a focus on continuing to build on the foundations we've laid across our strategic priorities. Before I close, I would like to thank all our BJ's team members from our restaurants through to the support center for their passion and commitment in bringing our promise to life every day for our guests. Q1 was not without its volatility, navigating multiple severe weather episodes, and our teams took care of each other, our guests, our restaurants, and adjusted real-time to deliver another strong result for BJ's. Thank you, and I will now turn it over to Todd for more color on our financial results and our outlook.