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spk08: Greetings and welcome to the Blumenbrand's Fiscal First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow management's prepared remarks. If you require operator assistance, please press star then zero. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Tara Kurian, Vice President, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations. Ms. Kurian, You may begin.
spk16: Thank you, and good morning, everyone. With me on today's call are David Dino, our Chief Executive Officer, and Michael Healy, our Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President. By now, you should have access to our fiscal first quarter 2024 earnings release. It can also be found on our website at www.bloominbrands.com in the Investors section. Throughout this conference call, we will be presenting results on an adjusted basis. An explanation of our use of non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures appear in our earnings release on our website as previously described. Before we begin formal remarks, I'd like to remind everyone that part of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements, including a discussion of recent trends. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ in a material way from our forward-looking statements. Some of these risks are mentioned in our earnings release. Others are discussed in our SEC filings, which are available at www.sec.gov. During today's call, we'll provide a brief recap of our financial performance for the first fiscal quarter, 2024, an overview of company highlights, and current thoughts on fiscal 2024 guidance. Once we've completed these remarks, we'll open the call up for questions. With that, I would like to now turn the call over to David Dino.
spk15: Well, thank you, Tara, and welcome to everyone listening today. As noted in this morning's earnings release, adjusted Q1 2024 diluted earnings per share was 70 cents, and U.S. comparable sales were down 160 basis points. These outcomes were within our expectations and represent a solid start to 2024. The industry backdrop remained more challenging than expected after the weather-related impact in January. Despite this headwind, we consistently outperformed the industry on both sales and traffic. Combined U.S. comparable sales were 230 basis points better than the industry sales during the quarter, as measured by BlackBox. Importantly, during Q1, we saw a sequential improvement in our performance, and for the quarter, we outperformed the industry. Our top-line performance was driven by Outback and Carrabba's. Driving same-store sales growth and improving traffic at Outback remains our number one priority. As we discussed on our last call, we have done a significant amount of work on our customer. We are well underway in further improving our marketing and guest experience and leveraging our technology. Having said that, we have more to do. The work thus far is contributing to our market share gains. Our goal is to have best-in-class operations. We'll continue to focus on delivering a differentiated guest experience through improved service and consistently great food. All of our technology and equipment investments, such as new grills and server handhelds, have been rolled out, and now our job is to leverage these investments. As we discussed last quarter, all this work has significantly improved our internal customer measures. A couple of key leading indicators we track are stake accuracy and consistency of experience. Over the last year, stake accuracy is up 500 basis points and consistency of experience is up 400 basis points. This is further validated by casual dining industry metrics, which have continued to improve. Friendly service and food quality are now 370 and 240 basis points ahead of our casual dining peers, respectively. We are very confident that our strategy at Outback is working. We are seeing it improve sales and traffic at Outback. Outback sales outperform the industry by 270 basis points in the first quarter and beat the industry in 20 of the last 22 weeks. Importantly, traffic has been this key driver of this sales momentum. Outback traffic beat the industry 240 basis points on average over the last two months of the quarter. Michael will talk to full year and second quarter guidance shortly, but most importantly, we expect second quarter sales at Outback to be positive, and we expect Outback to continue to outperform the industry during the quarter. We feel very good about Outback's performance and the direction of the brand. and we are in a state of continuous improvement. All of our future enhancements will be grounded in the no rules, just right philosophy, and will stay true to the irreverent and adventurous spirit of the Outback brand. As mentioned on prior calls, we are putting more marketing dollars behind these great ideas to improve our share of voice in a highly competitive market. Our multi-channel advertising strategy leverages analytics to ensure strong returns and maximizes our ability to connect with our customers. Specifically, since the holiday season last year, We've had three strong, limited-time offers at accessible price points that have resonated with our guests. We offered the Steak Moss LTO in Q4, followed by the three-course offering in the spring, and now back by popular demand, Steak and Lobster. These steak-centered LTOs are differentiated offerings that can only be found at Outback and represent a great value to our guests. We are equally confident in our marketing calendar in the back half of the year. We are focusing on delivering the right balance between traffic-driving ALTOs while still providing a great return for the company. Now on to some of our other priorities. During 2024, we will continue to make investments to upgrade our assets through new openings, relocating, and remodeling restaurants. We expect to remodel 60 to 65 restaurants and open 40 to 45 new restaurants system-wide this year. 15 to 17 of these new restaurants will open in the United States. We know that upgrading our assets is a big part of improving our traffic trends, especially at Outback. In addition, we are seeing very good returns from our new restaurants and relocations, and we have a robust pipeline. The last priority I'll discuss today is our leading off-premises channel. This business has more than doubled since 2019 and currently represents 23% of our U.S. sales. We need to continue to pursue our off-premises business and grow in restaurant sales. We were pioneers in the to-go space, and we continue to see strong demand in this highly incremental occasion. In addition, the success of our catering business at all of our brands, but particularly at Carrabba's, provides a runway for future growth. Importantly, the sales initiatives I have described are supported by a solid foundation of robust cash flow and a strong balance sheet. This gives us the ability to invest in our marketing and operations initiatives, our technology plans, and asset improvements. These efforts are helping us build a strong business that will thrive for many years to come. I want to stress the first quarter results and all the initiatives that I laid out would not have been possible without the great teams in our restaurants and restaurant support center. Thank you for delivering outstanding hospitality and service to our guests. Before I turn the call over to Michael, I want to provide a quick update on our Brazil business. As included in our earnings release this morning, we are reviewing strategic alternatives for our operations in Brazil. Although we are under no obligation to sell, Discussions with interested parties are ongoing. This is a great business with an outstanding management team that has significant runway for future growth, which we believe warrants a strong valuation. And finally, as you are aware, Michael Healy was appointed as our company's chief financial officer last month. We are very fortunate that Michael is our CFO. He has had several increasingly important positions in finance, supply chain, and general management that prepared Michael to be an outstanding CFO. Michael is a terrific executive, and I know you will enjoy your interactions with him. Before handing over to Michael, I want to take a moment to expand on the announcement of my retirement. When I joined Bloomin' Brands in 2012, my intention was to stay here for five years. While the opportunity to serve as CEO, followed by the pandemic, extended that plan, the time was now right to begin the search for my successor. Discussions with the board directors about the timing of my retirement has been underway for some time, and they are leading the search. I will remain in my role as CEO and director. I will continue leading the implementation of our strategic priorities that are making us a stronger, leaner, operations-centered company until the new CEO is identified and a successful transition is completed. The best day for Bloomin' Brands are ahead with proven leaders at the helm of these great brands. On a personal note, I have worked with several of you for many years and have enjoyed returning to restaurants and the opportunity to work with you again. Thank you for your continued support of Bloomin' Brands. And with that, Over to you, Michael, to discuss our Q1 financial performance and 2024 guidance.
spk06: Thank you, Dave, and hello, everyone. I wanted to share how excited I am to work more closely with our investor community and help share our blooming story. I would like to start by providing a recap of our financial performance for the fiscal first quarter of 2024. As a reminder, Q1 this year does not include the high-volume week of December 26th through December 31st that is included in Q1 2023. Additionally, we are lapping the Brazil value-added tax exemption, which affected both our revenue and profitability. Both of these have a negative impact on our results and impact comparability to last year. Total revenues in Q1 were $1.2 billion, which is down 4% from 2023. This was primarily driven by decline in comparable restaurant sales, which includes the negative calendar week shift in December. the negative weather impact in January, the net impact of restaurant closures and openings, and the loss of the Brazil value-added tax exemption benefit that ended in 2023. The decline was partially offset by positive effects of foreign currency translation. US comparable restaurant sales was negative 160 basis points and traffic was negative 430 basis points. Importantly, This reflects a 230 basis point beat versus the casual dining industry on sales, and a 160 basis point beat on traffic. After a difficult January, we saw sequential improvement in our performance, and for the quarter, we outperformed the industry. Average check was up 2.7% in Q1 versus 2023. We are appropriately balancing delivering value to our customers while continuing to support the business in a period of higher inflation. Dave walked you through some exciting LTOs that will bring great value to our guests. From a consumer standpoint, we believe our pricing decisions compare favorably to other competitors in the industry. Q1 off-premises was approximately 23% of total U.S. sales. Importantly, the highly incremental third-party delivery business was 13% of total U.S. sales, which was up from 12% in Q1 2023, driven by growth in catering. Our Q1 GAAP diluted earnings per share for the quarter was negative 96 cents versus positive 93 cents of diluted earnings per share in 2023. This is driven in large part by the loss on extinguishment of debt related to the significant reduction in our convertible note obligation. Our Q1 adjusted diluted earnings per share was 70 cents versus 98 cents of adjusted diluted earnings per share in 2023. The primary difference between GAAP and adjusted diluted earnings per share is due to the loss on the extinguishment of debt, as well as restaurant closing and impairment costs related to the restaurant closing initiative. Q1 adjusted operating margins was 7.5% versus 9.7% last year. There are a number of factors contributing to the margin decline this quarter, and I will lay them out. First, there are approximately 110 basis points from the following events. The calendar shift in January weather negatively impacted margins by approximately 80 basis points. We traded the high volume week between Christmas and New Year's for a week in March, and the weather was 1.3% headwind on comparable sales on the quarter. As discussed previously, we are lapping the Brazil value-added tax benefit, which cost us 30 basis points of margin versus last year. There were additional factors that also contributed this quarter. Inflation levels remained somewhat elevated and drove additional year-over-year margin unfavorability. Labor cost was up, driven by wage inflation of 4.5% in Q1. Other restaurant operating expenses were also up year-over-year, partially due to inflation and partially due to spending $7 million more in advertising this year. Depreciation expense was higher in Q1, consistent with our increased levels of capital spending and our investments in infrastructure to support growth. This was offset by favorability in food and beverage costs from pricing benefits and supply chain productivity initiatives. Commodities inflation was 1.3% for Q1. Most importantly, we have a roadmap to maintain the margin gains that we have made over the past few years, even with difficult market conditions. Turning to our capital structure, total debt was $952 million at the end of Q1. The higher balance is driven by the convertible note and accelerated share repurchase activity earlier in the quarter. We retired approximately $84 million of convertible note, leaving $21 million remaining. This significantly strengthens our financials by removing the variable share dilution underlying the convertible note. While our total debt levels are elevated compared to Q4, we are still very pleased with our leverage metrics and levels of liquidity. Importantly, we remain committed to being at or below our least adjusted leverage ratio of three times. In terms of share repurchases, earlier this quarter, we entered into a $220 million accelerated share repurchase program agreement in connection with our previously announced 2024 share repurchase program. Year to date, through the end of April, we have repurchased a total of 8.4 million shares of stock for approximately $233 million. This included shares associated with the convertible notes that we repurchased. We have $130 million remaining under our share authorization program. The Board also declared a quarterly dividend of 24 cents a share that is payable on May 31st. Now turning to our full year 2024 and Q2 guidance. We are reiterating our U.S. comp sales and adjusted earnings per share guidance communicated on our February 23rd earnings call. We have updated our share count expectations to reflect the convertible note and corresponding share repurchase activity completed during the quarter. Our adjusted diluted earnings per share guidance did not change and we are reiterating the range to be between $2.51 and $2.66. The range provided reflected the uncertainty of the industry trends following the weather-impacted January. Currently, industry trends remain on the lower end of our expectations And should they continue, we would expect to finish on the lower end of both our US comp sales and EPS guidance ranges. There are several critical factors to delivering on this guidance. First, we are very pleased with Outback Trends to date and their ability to outpace the industry in this challenging environment. They have a stronger promotional calendar versus last year, especially in Q3 and early Q4. From a marketing dollar standpoint, we will begin to lap the marketing increase we started a year ago, and therefore the increase will not be as large in the back half. Second, the negative calendar shift experienced in Q1 of $0.06 is largely recaptured in Q4. Third, we pulled forward pricing decisions to earlier in the year, which we expect to increase the check average benefit by 100 basis points. We have seen improving trends in food and service execution at Outback stemming from the investments in technology and operations. We have compelling limited-time offers at Outback that reflect our differentiated equities in steak and seafood while offering great value for our customers. Fourth, we are lowering our commodities inflation guidance from 3% to 4% to 2% to 3% as we are seeing signs of favorability in our beef program. We all know the beef market is somewhat volatile, but we are encouraged by the trends we are seeing year-to-date. Collectively, these actions strengthen our ability to manage through this challenging environment and continue to take share in the industry. As it relates to the second quarter of 2024, we expect U.S. comparable restaurant sales to be flat to up 150 basis points on a comparable calendar basis. The industry continues to be a headwind, and while we expect traffic to be negative for the quarter, the good news is Outback continues to outpace the industry. We expect Q2 adjusted diluted earnings per share to be between 55 cents and 60 cents. Importantly, the removal of the Brazilian tax exemption is a headwind of 12 cents in Q2 versus 2023. We did want to share a critical update on tax legislation in Brazil. New tax legislation was recently passed by both the Brazilian House of Representatives and the Senate. If signed into law by the President, This tax legislation could be a positive benefit for our company in 2024 and into the future. We are still working through exactly what this means, including the impact to our financials. Any potential impact has not been included in our current guidance. We will provide updates when we know more. In summary, we are successfully navigating a challenging environment, and importantly, Outback is taking share. We will remain focused on executing against our strategy in 2024. We will take the necessary steps to preserve our financial momentum, and we will remain disciplined in our capital allocation. And with that, we will open up the call for questions.
spk08: We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one, on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Jeffrey Bernstein with Barclays. Please go ahead.
spk10: Great. Thank you very much. Dave, congrats on the well-deserved retirement. You will be missed. Michael, congrats on your new role. Absolutely. Congratulations. Two questions. The first one just on Brazil and the strategic review. I feel like it's been kind of on again, off again review for a while now. I'm just wondering what has changed with this review in terms of whether it's expectations or otherwise. And I feel like you were in the past maybe more hesitant to consider an actual sale because you wanted to retain... So just curious, what has changed this time around relative to last time? Any thoughts? That would be great. And then I had a follow-up.
spk15: Yeah, sure. On the Brazil piece, we'll still have governance. So what the royalty rate will be and those kind of things are yet to be determined. and we'll take a look at what that looks like for the business. Now, as you know, before COVID, we looked at the possible re-franchising here, and we got pretty far along, and then COVID happened. Now COVID's behind us. The Brazil business is in really great shape. They're growing quickly, and it's time to take a look to see if this is the right time to re-franchise the business. Now, it's a great business, and we don't have to sell it, but we expect the proper valuation for it, but we're taking an active look at it as we speak.
spk10: Understood. And the fact that Bonefish in the U.S., it seems like those comps remain under pressure, and last quarter or two you said they don't necessarily have the right to grow. At this point, I'm just wondering whether that was at all contemplated in terms of considering Bonefish within the Brazil strategic review.
spk15: No, Bonefish is a terrific brand. We've got some more customer work to do, much like we did at Outback. We've got some product in service elements to improve. I think you're going to see that brand come back in same-store sales. It's not a priority for growth for us. It's something that we will continue to improve upon and invest in, but it's not a growth vehicle for us. But where we have strong locations and strong situations, Bonefish does very well. So we don't have any plans to sell that business.
spk10: Understood. And then just my follow-up was on the consumer environment. You mentioned a challenging industry backdrop. Obviously, that's the backdrop, and you're taking shares. That's the focus. But I'm just wondering, have you seen any change in consumer behavior in recent months, whether on traffic or mix shift? What evidence do you have to demonstrate that there has been perhaps a slowdown in trend? Any color, that would be great. Thank you.
spk15: Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Jeff. And thanks for the congratulations, all of you. On my retirement, I must say I've got a job to do to lead the company and have a great succession and transition. So that's where my efforts are totally behind as we go forward. So on the industry itself, we're seeing a couple things. One, as others have discussed, the lower-end consumer, we've seen some check management. We can see it in some of our tax naps and stuff, and we can see it in some of our trends. The more middle- or higher-class consumers, customer and casual dining is still hanging in there pretty well. Again, we can see that in some of our trends. Fine dining is a little weak right now, but boy, that was really frothy there for a couple years. So I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong, shall we say, on the high end. But I'd say on the lower end, consumers are facing some pressure.
spk06: Yeah, I'd just jump in to say as far as Dino mentioned a little softness and mix, but it's holding up pretty good. Our mixed impact is more revenue channel than it is the basket in the restaurant. So certainly softness in the traffic that's coming in the restaurant, but once they're in the restaurant, they're having the full experience.
spk11: Thank you.
spk08: The next question comes from Alex Slagle with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
spk19: All right. Thanks.
spk05: Welcome, Michael and David, congrats. I'm going to echo thoughts there on all you've accomplished. It's been remarkable through some uncertain years, as we all know.
spk25: Thanks, Alex.
spk05: I wanted to just kind of ask on Outback, and it looks like solid progress continuing, and As you look at the top tier of stores in your system that are driving the best traffic growth, what are the commonalities and learnings from that group of stores and what really stands out? Is it the manager and staffing tenure or trade area differences? I'm just kind of curious what you see and which attributes you're able to move the needle on at the underperforming restaurants versus some attributes that maybe are not easily replicated.
spk15: Yeah, we're very pleased with the trends at Outback. I think what we're doing is really paying off. And we've talked about that going forward too. We've talked about the work we've done. But if you look at where we do well, A, we have a great market presence, right, in the southeast, especially Florida. So we've got good trade areas, good presence. We've got refreshed assets. We've got tenured partners that are leading the restaurants over a long period of time. and you look at other parts of the country like the mid-Atlantic where we've had a really long, tenured, really terrific group of people running those restaurants, and we've got good scale up there, you can clearly see the difference. And our job is to make sure we bring that to all parts of the country and some locations that are underperforming right now. But overall, when we look at the work we've done on the customer, when we look at the marketing stuff, the marketing programs we've been doing at Outback, when we look at the improvement in operations, When we look at, you know, really being irreverent and no rules just right, and you look at those things that we're trying to do to drive traffic at Outback, that's paying off, and you're going to see more of that from the company going forward.
spk04: Got it. Thank you.
spk08: The next question comes from John Ivanco with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
spk03: um hi thank you very much dave it was uh great to have you in the industry uh for so long but most importantly i hope the next chapter is a great and fulfilling and fun one for you um thank you you know the the question um you know outback outperformance relative to the casual downing cut category but i'd like you know to kind of you know drill in a little bit about your performance relative to your near and state competition i know you know, sometimes hard data to kind of get, but, you know, like, listen, I mean, there are public companies that are out there and, you know, you see their traffic and, you know, when you survey consumers of, you know, why you're choosing brand X or Y over Outback, what is commonly coming back to you in terms of that consumer preference? And, you know, are there any learnings from competition? I know it's not always ideal to talk about, but are there any learnings from competition that you can directly apply to the brand to maybe, you allow you, your Outback brand, to perhaps perform in line with some of your near-end peers? Thanks for that.
spk15: Yeah, absolutely, John. I won't speak to any specific numbers, but I think Outback is closing the gap versus some of the competition, but I'll leave it at that. Everybody sees the numbers. First of all, what do we see that we can make sure that we learn from, right? And also what we have with our Outback heritage and what we control. But it's the best-in-class operations, right? It's the value that we provide our guests. And there are things that we can do on the menu to provide even more value for our guests at some great price points. Making sure that we have a great experience, consistent execution in our operations day to day to day. And we've been talking about, in my remarks, John, some of the progress that we're making against the industry in our operations today. And then finally, continuing to upgrade our assets. So consistent execution with a great experience, with value coming in great service, but also some products that are really terrific that offer great value and continue to upgrade our assets. That's what we're trying to do, and I think we're going to continue to close the gap.
spk03: Could you remind us where we are in terms of editing down the menu, simplifying the menu, making the menu maybe a little bit more focused? Has that begun to go into the system overall on a test basis? And just give us a sense of how much actual opportunity you may have, I guess, to use a simple phrase, being better at doing fewer things.
spk15: Yeah. Before COVID, I can't remember the exact number of menu items, John, but I think before COVID and after COVID, we were down probably 15%-ish in the number of menu items. We're looking at that right now to see if we can make things simpler for our guests. I'm not going to get into, for competitive reasons, some specifics as far as the number of items that we may be looking at and things. But I think if we continue to look at what really drives the business and at the menu items that we can edit. Now, having said that, you probably will see from us some new menu items that are really terrific that offer tremendous value and abundance to the customer. Again, I don't want to get into that, but you'll see potentially some more edits to help with operations, but also potentially some add-backs to really address some value and abundance opportunities that we have. Thank you so much. You're welcome.
spk08: The next question comes from Sharon Zakvia with William Blair. Please go ahead.
spk18: Hi, good morning. Going back to kind of what we're hearing throughout the industry on the lower income consumer, are you seeing the consumer that's more mid to high income actually increase traffic year over year? Or is it just kind of better than what we're seeing at the lower end? And are you also seeing, it sounds like you're seeing the more affluent customer kind of hold check and not kind of mix around on their ticket? I just want to confirm if that's the case, because we're also hearing talks of kind of more normalized alcohol consumption across the industry.
spk15: Yeah, I think, Sharon, I guess the best way to describe our middle and higher-end customer and casual dining is the words hanging in there. I think the trends are pretty consistent from what we see. As I mentioned, it's more the lower end that's experiencing some difficulties there. On menu mix and alcohol, I haven't really seen anything really change that much in it. In our mix there, as Michael alluded to, we don't really see much mix and decreases in our alcohol mix.
spk06: Yeah, our mix is relatively stable across all of the basket items, so that piece is encouraging.
spk18: Great. And then on Brazil, and I apologize if you address this. My cell cut out for about two minutes. if you do sell it or re-franchise it, what would you use those proceeds for? Are there any strategic initiatives that you'd like to accelerate and use that cash for? Or would this primarily be something where you would look to return, you know, value to shareholders in terms of, you know, dividends or share repurchases or what have you?
spk15: Yeah, I think that's, that's for another day when we, when we, uh, decide if we have an offer that's interesting to us. But needless to say, it will provide significant cash allocation opportunities for the company going forward, whether it's some debt pay down, whether it's some share repurchases, whether it's anything we want to do to address some of the things in our U.S. business. Those are all great options for us. And I think that's to be addressed when we see what comes together.
spk17: Fair enough. Thank you. Thank you.
spk08: The next question comes from Brian Harbor with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
spk20: Thanks. Good morning. Congratulations to both of you. I want to echo those sentiments. I had a question more on the margin side as you think about 2Q. And I guess as we kind of think about putting the pieces together for the full year, is this more of You know, would you expect kind of still a significant change in labor, in kind of marketing costs? Are those some of the pressures that you would still expect on a year-over-year basis in 2Q or anything else we should keep in mind just as we think about margin progression this year?
spk06: Yeah, from a margin perspective, you know, we certainly still have the Brazilian tax exemption component, which costs us 40 basis points year-over-year. Other than that, we'll be up a little bit in depreciation as we continue to invest in our restaurants. COGS will be, you know, similar to Q1, will be favorable. Labor pressure is going to continue. That's been pretty sustained. We expect that to be similar to Q1 for the remainder of the year. And as you mentioned with advertising, we were up $7 million in Q1. We'll be similar to that in Q2, maybe a little less. And then it should start to flatten out in the back half because we started to increase our advertising in Q3 of last year. But... But we have the roadmap to continue and maintain our margins, even in a difficult environment, but that should give you some color.
spk20: Okay. Yeah, thanks. And I think you mentioned pull forward of some pricing. Was that mainly at Outback? Is it across the brands? What's the timing of that?
spk06: It's across the brands, and so it doesn't get pulled forward in one large chunk, so it sort of kind of just evenly spreads out through the back half. Okay.
spk15: One thing I've got to mention a little bit is one thing I'm particularly pleased about is achieving these results with modest pricing increases versus others in the industry. And that gives us A, improves our value equation, and B, it gives us dry powder in case we need to do something. But I'm very pleased that we maintain that discipline.
spk06: Given that the beef basket is such a significant part of of who we are. You know, we always take as little pricing as necessary, but obviously also have to manage that inflationary environment.
spk20: Okay, thanks.
spk08: The next question comes from Sarah Senator with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
spk22: Oh, thank you.
spk23: I wanted to, I guess, a follow up on that, your comment about pricing and then And then a question. The one about the pricing, I know you said you pulled forward pricing even though you've lowered your commodity guidance. I understand that your view is you've taken less price than competitors, and your insights on that is probably better than mine. But do you – I guess if you think about taking more or pulling forward price when commodities are disinflating – So what was, I guess, the thought behind that and the idea of maintaining your relative value? And then, like I said, I have another question, please.
spk15: Yeah, we do a deep look at value whenever we look at our pricing and our mix, and we're in really good shape there versus competition, and we've made a lot of progress in value. We still are a beef-centered basket here at Blooming Brands, and so we have to always watch that. But we've tried to be extremely careful and extremely modest on any pricing that we're doing.
spk23: So it's just more of a timing issue.
spk06: Absolutely. Yeah, the pricing was contemplated. I think we just pulled it forward a little bit earlier. But to Dave's point, it's always something that we study very deeply to understand what's the little amount of pricing that we can take to continue to support value with our guests. But we have other ways to drive value with our guests, whether it's our compelling LTOs. And obviously, Dave spoke to some of the improvements in the guest experience at Outback, and so that certainly contributes to the overall value for us.
spk23: Got it. And the decision to pull it forward, was that based on anything specific?
spk15: No. Just as we looked at the year and the forecast and everything, we just tried to make sure that we have commitments out there. We're just trying to manage them the best we can.
spk23: Got it. Okay. And then a quick question on the consumer, and I know we've talked to this at length. So is a low-end consumer, is that consumer doing worse or spending less? I mean, it feels like that's been something that that dynamic has been in place for the better part of maybe even the last two years. So as you think about softness in the industry versus expectations, is there some kind of sort of measurable change? And To that point, I always think of your average consumer as probably seeing higher income than the country as a whole. So is that low-income consumer a meaningful part of your customer base?
spk15: Yeah, it's not as meaningful as some other concepts, but it is. It's a part of our business, so we have to watch it. But yes, there has been somewhat of a pullback on the low end in our company, in our concepts. We still see... really strong demand during special occasions, you know, on the holidays and things like that. So people are still celebrating at all levels of the, you know, income stream, income status. But I think we have seen some slowdown on the low end, like we talked about earlier today.
spk23: Even sequentially versus maybe what you saw late last year or sometime last year.
spk15: It's been pretty consistent. Hasn't really, there hasn't been a dramatic, you know, change.
spk23: Got it. Okay. Thank you very much.
spk08: The next question comes from Lauren Silberman with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
spk12: Thanks for the question, and I also share my congratulations. I wanted to ask about the earnings guide. 2Q came in a bit below street. You're maintaining full year. It looks like the back half guide implies EPS is more heavily weighted in the back half of the year than what would normally be expected. So can you just expand a bit more on just what's expected in the back half of the year in terms of cadence?
spk15: Sure. I'll take the first piece, and I'll turn it over to Michael. But, A, outperformance of Outback versus the industry, clearly we expect that to continue. We've got a stronger promotional calendar at Outback, especially in Q3, and therefore our compares, both from a sales and profitability standpoint, in Q3 and Q4 are much easier, and as we look at it. Four, we've got our guest experience work that we continue to make progress on, and we expect to see, help us continue to take share as we move forward, especially at Outback. So those are the things from a sales standpoint, be it our experience, be it some of the marketing programs we have, be it some of the softness from last year that give us confidence about our guys on the sales side.
spk06: Yeah, there's a few things as we just think about the full year guide. Our check average, you know, we shared, we updated our guide on the check average to 3% to 4%. Commodities, you know, now more favorable to 2% to 3%. We still have $50 million of productivity layered into our plan. The marketing spend, you know, the first half is heavy, and we start to lap that in the back half so it starts to get, you know, relatively in line. And then from a calendar shift perspective, we lost the benefit of the week shift in Q1. That was roughly $0.06, but we get that back in Q4, or almost all of that back in Q4. So that certainly kind of helps think about the first half back half. As well as Dave mentioned, the continued strength at Outback gives us a lot of confidence. And in fact, all these items give us collective confidence that we can achieve our full year in guide.
spk12: Thank you very much.
spk08: The next question comes from Brian Moen with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.
spk07: Thank you. A question on Carrabba's. You know, you've seen some relative outperformance from that brand in recent years. Maybe you could just talk about a strategy for this year, your degree of confidence that this can continue, and if you could talk about the off-premise business and the dining room business separately, that would be great. Great to get your thoughts on that, Brent.
spk15: Well, Quarters has done a great job in sales, be it the off-premise business especially. As we know, that food form is especially conducive to the off-premise business, and the team has done a really terrific job addressing that, be it your catering, delivery, carryout, et cetera. The team will tell you that we've got more work to do in in-restaurant dining. We're We've got more trends in front of us that we need to pursue. Also improving the guest experience. They've had some extremely successful wine dinners at Carrabba's. And we've rolled lunch that is having a lot of success in the brand. So I'd say that from a Carrabba's standpoint, you've got a strong off-premise business. You've got lunch being rolled out with their sandwich line. We've got some successful in-restaurant initiatives around their wine dinners. Now, lastly, we talked at length on prior calls about the productivity investment that we made at Outback Kitchens. We've got the same thing available to us in Carrabba's. In fact, I'd argue Carrabba's is one of the most complicated kitchens in the industry. And so right now, we've got about 15% of our fleet has new kitchen equipment, and we're seeing significant savings in utilities and prime costs to help drive that business. And that's a big element of productivity for us this year and importantly into 2025. So those are the factors that we're seeing in Carrabba's, and we'll see if all that warrants further expansion of the brand as we go forward.
spk07: Okay, thank you. And then just to follow up, just on the portfolio of stores in the U.S. broadly, you know, with the 2023 closure initiative now complete, My question is whether or not you think, would there be any future closure initiatives you'd consider, or has everything really been addressed now at this point, you think?
spk15: I think we've done a great job over the years managing our portfolio, and I would expect that we won't have more to do. But I think that we always look at our assets. We always look at where they're located. We always look at things. But we've done a great job being proactive on that over the years.
spk08: Thank you. The next question comes from Dennis Geiger with UBS. Please go ahead.
spk09: Thank you, and congratulations, David and Michael. You talked about the three LTOs, which I would consider at compelling price points. I think, David, that you spoke a few times to some value add-backs coming. So I just wanted to ask a little bit more on promotional activity, if anything more on sort of how you're positioned on value and whether – the need maybe to increase promotional offerings if that reflects the current consumer backdrop, if it's relative to the observation that the broader casual dining industry is leaning in more on value, if it's both, if it's other, just any additional thoughts there.
spk15: Yeah, sure. I think what we've done is with the last three LTOs at Outback have been really great because it offers tremendous food at a great price point. And you're going to see that from us going forward in future years. in future plans. I'm not going to get into details what they might be, but that's something that has worked for us. On the menu front, we think that we've got some opportunity, like I mentioned earlier on the question from John Ivanko, is there more opportunity to maybe simplify the menu a little bit more? Don't know for sure. And then is there an opportunity to put some really interesting Outback high-quality products on the menu that are very indulgent and offer great value. And we're working through that right now. That's how we would go about it. And then lastly, as it speaks to the industry, yes, we've seen an increase in promotional marketing activity. We need to respond to that, but we tend to do it in our way, especially at Outback. We don't expect to do any broad-based, deep discounting or special you know, promotional offers and things, but we will be offering some value-centered LTOs that make a lot of sense for the brand and consistent with the brand heritage.
spk09: That's great. And then just I wanted to ask on Brazil, if anything incremental to share sort of on performance in the quarter, the consumer backdrop, anything impacting results for the quarter itself, and then if there's anything incremental on sort of the the state of, I guess, maybe the capital markets environment in the country or anything else to add on, you know, thinking through, as you think through the strategic review, the conditions in the country right now. Thank you.
spk15: Yeah, no, Brazil continues to take share, do extremely well. The only thing we had to do in Q1 last year was the World Cup was in December in their quarter. They had an unbelievably successful promotion there. And we've had a little bit of carnival timing this year. But overall, the brand continues to do really well. I think the industry there, like the U.S., is seeing a little softness. But importantly, we are taking share. As Michael mentioned in his prepared remarks, there has been tax legislation that has been approved by the Senate and the House. We don't know what's going to happen with that tax legislation. If it does get signed by the president and once we understand the regulations, there could be a financial upside to the company, but that is not contemplated in our guidance.
spk08: Thank you very much. The next question comes from Andrew Strelzyk with BMO. Please go ahead.
spk13: Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions.
spk14: My first one, I wanted to ask about the operational improvements at Outback that are contributing to the share gains there. Are there any metrics that you can share to kind of frame the improvements that you're seeing? And where are the gaps that remain, I guess, on the path to your goal of being a best-in-class operator?
spk15: Yeah, I think we clearly have seen it in steak recooks and food quality, number one. Steak accuracy has gone up 500 basis points versus past trims, and that has been a direct result of the investment that we've made in the kitchen. I'm very, very pleased about that. Consistency of experience is up 400 basis points. So serving a hot meal on time with great service remains the most important thing we can do at Outback Steakhouse. Now, where are some of the gaps? What I'd like to see us do, is there more that we can do to maybe enhance our service and enhance the guest experience? We don't think it would take a lot of money to do that, but how our servers interact with our customers and things like that. There might be some ideas there, which I won't get into, but there might be some things that we can look at to be more interactive with our guests at Outback while serving the food in a hot, quick way. David Morgan, Manor that our guests have come to come to enjoy So those are the things that we're looking at it out back i'm very pleased with stake accuracy being up so much and consistency of experience being up so much.
spk14: David Morgan, Okay, great that's helpful and just my second one, which wanted to ask about the commodity inflation outlook. with about 1% in the first quarter, I think you said favorable again in the second quarter, would apply a little bit of a ramp at the back half. What's your visibility to that, and is it all beef, or is there anything else kind of within that drive and the acceleration, if I'm right?
spk06: Yeah, you're right as far as kind of where we land in Q1 will be maybe a little bit better in Q2, and then we do experience a ramp in the back half. A lot of that is actually driven by seafood. As we burn through some deflationary inventory, we actually come upon inflationary inventory in the back half. Beef itself is relatively stable as far as how we plan for it. the inflation. However, as we mentioned and when we lowered our commodities guide, you know, we are seeing some favorability in beef, you know, that we can take advantage of with our current contract. And how we, you know, reflect that favorability, you know, is a little bit TBD based off of the market. But directionally, we will see an uptick in commodities in the back half.
spk11: Great. Thank you very much.
spk08: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Dave Dino for any closing remarks.
spk15: Thank you very much. We appreciate the questions today. And I personally appreciate the kind words. It means a lot to me. But I want to invite everybody back for our Q2 call later in the year. Take care, everyone.
spk08: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect. Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you. Greetings and welcome to the Blumenbrand's Fiscal First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow management's prepared remarks. If you require operator assistance, please press star then zero. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Tara Kurian, Vice President, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations. Ms. Kurian, You may begin.
spk16: Thank you, and good morning, everyone. With me on today's call are David Dino, our Chief Executive Officer, and Michael Healy, our Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President. By now, you should have access to our fiscal first quarter 2024 earnings release. It can also be found on our website at www.bloominbrands.com in the Investors section. Throughout this conference call, we will be presenting results on an adjusted basis. An explanation of our use of non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures appear in our earnings release on our website as previously described. Before we begin formal remarks, I'd like to remind everyone that part of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements, including a discussion of recent trends. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ in a material way from our forward-looking statements. Some of these risks are mentioned in our earnings release. Others are discussed in our FCC filings, which are available at www.fcc.gov. During today's call, we'll provide a brief recap of our financial performance for the first fiscal quarter, 2024, an overview of company highlights, and current thoughts on fiscal 2024 guidance. Once we've completed these remarks, we'll open the call up for questions. With that, I would like to now turn the call over to David Dino.
spk15: Well, thank you, Tara, and welcome to everyone listening today. As noted in this morning's earnings release, adjusted Q1 2024 diluted earnings per share was 70 cents, and U.S. comparable sales were down 160 basis points. These outcomes were within our expectations and represent a solid start to 2024. The industry backdrop remained more challenging than expected after the weather-related impact in January. Despite this headwind, we consistently outperformed the industry on both sales and traffic. Combined U.S. comparable sales were 230 basis points better than the industry sales during the quarter, as measured by BlackBox. Importantly, during Q1, we saw a sequential improvement in our performance, and for the quarter, we outperformed the industry. Our top-line performance was driven by Outback and Carrabba's. Driving same-store sales growth and improving traffic at Outback remains our number one priority. As we discussed on our last call, we have done a significant amount of work on our customer. We are well underway in further improving our marketing and guest experience and leveraging our technology. Having said that, we have more to do. The work thus far is contributing to our market share gains. Our goal is to have best-in-class operations. We'll continue to focus on delivering a differentiated guest experience through improved service and consistently great food. All of our technology and equipment investments, such as new grills and server handhelds, have been rolled out, and now our job is to leverage these investments. As we discussed last quarter, all this work has significantly improved our internal customer measures. A couple of key leading indicators we track are stake accuracy and consistency of experience. Over the last year, stake accuracy is up 500 basis points and consistency of experience is up 400 basis points. This is further validated by casual dining industry metrics, which have continued to improve. Friendly service and food quality are now 370 and 240 basis points ahead of our casual dining peers, respectively. We are very confident that our strategy at Outback is working. We are seeing it improve sales and traffic at Outback. Outback sales outperform the industry by 270 basis points in the first quarter, and beat the industry in 20 of the last 22 weeks. Importantly, traffic has been this key driver of this sales momentum. Outback traffic beat the industry 240 basis points on average over the last two months of the quarter. Michael will talk to full year and second quarter guidance shortly, but most importantly, we expect second quarter sales at Outback to be positive, and we expect Outback to continue to outperform the industry during the quarter. We feel very good about Outback's performance and the direction of the brand. and we are in a state of continuous improvement. All of our future enhancements will be grounded in the no rules, just right philosophy, and will stay true to the irreverent and adventurous spirit of the Outback brand. As mentioned on prior calls, we are putting more marketing dollars behind these great ideas to improve our share of voice in a highly competitive market. Our multi-channel advertising strategy leverages analytics to ensure strong returns and maximizes our ability to connect with our customers. Specifically, since the holiday season last year, We've had three strong, limited-time offers at accessible price points that have resonated with our guests. We offered the Steak Moss LTO in Q4, followed by the three-course offering in the spring, and now back by popular demand, Steak and Lobster. These steak-centered LTOs are differentiated offerings that can only be found at Outback and represent a great value to our guests. We are equally confident in our marketing calendar in the back half of the year. We are focusing on delivering the right balance between traffic-driving ALTOs while still providing a great return for the company. Now on to some of our other priorities. During 2024, we will continue to make investments to upgrade our assets through new openings, relocating, and remodeling restaurants. We expect to remodel 60 to 65 restaurants and open 40 to 45 new restaurants system-wide this year. 15 to 17 of these new restaurants will open in the United States. We know that upgrading our assets is a big part of improving our traffic trends, especially at Outback. In addition, we are seeing very good returns from our new restaurants and relocations, and we have a robust pipeline. The last priority I'll discuss today is our leading off-premises channel. This business has more than doubled since 2019 and currently represents 23% of our U.S. sales. We need to continue to pursue our off-premises business and grow in restaurant sales. We were pioneers in the to-go space, and we continue to see strong demand in this highly incremental occasion. In addition, the success of our catering business at all of our brands, but particularly at Carrabba's, provides a runway for future growth. Importantly, the sales initiatives I have described are supported by a solid foundation of robust cash flow and a strong balance sheet. This gives us the ability to invest in our marketing and operations initiatives, our technology plans, and asset improvements. These efforts are helping us build a strong business that will thrive for many years to come. I want to stress the first quarter results and all the initiatives that I laid out would not have been possible without the great teams in our restaurants and restaurant support center. Thank you for delivering outstanding hospitality and service to our guests. Before I turn the call over to Michael, I want to provide a quick update on our Brazil business. As included in our earnings release this morning, we are reviewing strategic alternatives for our operations in Brazil. Although we are under no obligation to sell, Discussions with interested parties are ongoing. This is a great business with an outstanding management team and a significant runway for future growth, which we believe warrants a strong valuation. And finally, as you are aware, Michael Healy was appointed as our company's chief financial officer last month. We are very fortunate that Michael is our CFO. He has had several increasingly important positions in finance, supply chain, and general management that prepared Michael to be an outstanding CFO. Michael is a terrific executive, and I know you will enjoy your interactions with him. Before handing over to Michael, I want to take a moment to expand on the announcement of my retirement. When I joined Bloomin' Brands in 2012, my intention was to stay here for five years. While the opportunity to serve as CEO, followed by the pandemic, extended that plan, the time was now right to begin the search for my successor. Discussions with the board directors about the timing of my retirement has been underway for some time, and they are leading the search. I will remain in my role as CEO and director. I will continue leading the implementation of our strategic priorities that are making us a stronger, leaner, operations-centered company until the new CEO is identified and a successful transition is completed. The best day for Bloomin' Brands are ahead with proven leaders at the helm of these great brands. On a personal note, I have worked with several of you for many years and have enjoyed returning to restaurants and the opportunity to work with you again. Thank you for your continued support of Bloomin' Brands. And with that, Over to you, Michael, to discuss our Q1 financial performance and 2024 guidance.
spk06: Thank you, Dave, and hello, everyone. I wanted to share how excited I am to work more closely with our investor community and help share our blooming story. I would like to start by providing a recap of our financial performance for the fiscal first quarter of 2024. As a reminder, Q1 this year does not include the high-volume week of December 26th through December 31st that is included in Q1 2023. Additionally, we are lapping the Brazil value-added tax exemption, which affected both our revenue and profitability. Both of these have a negative impact on our results and impact comparability to last year. Total revenues in Q1 were $1.2 billion, which is down 4% from 2023. This was primarily driven by decline in comparable restaurant sales, which includes the negative calendar week shift in December. the negative weather impact in January, the net impact of restaurant closures and openings, and the loss of the Brazil value-added tax exemption benefit that ended in 2023. The decline was partially offset by positive effects of foreign currency translation. US comparable restaurant sales was negative 160 basis points and traffic was negative 430 basis points. Importantly, This reflects a 230 basis point beat versus the casual dining industry on sales and a 160 basis point beat on traffic. After a difficult January, we saw sequential improvement in our performance, and for the quarter, we outperformed the industry. Average check was up 2.7% in Q1 versus 2023. We are appropriately balancing delivering value to our customers while continuing to support the business in a period of higher inflation. Dave walked you through some exciting LTOs that will bring great value to our guests. From a consumer standpoint, we believe our pricing decisions compare favorably to other competitors in the industry. Q1 off-premises was approximately 23% of total U.S. sales. Importantly, the highly incremental third-party delivery business was 13% of total U.S. sales, which was up from 12% in Q1 2023, driven by growth in catering. Our Q1 GAAP diluted earnings per share for the quarter was negative 96 cents versus positive 93 cents of diluted earnings per share in 2023. This is driven in large part by the loss on extinguishment of debt related to the significant reduction in our convertible note obligation. Our Q1 adjusted diluted earnings per share was 70 cents versus 98 cents of adjusted diluted earnings per share in 2023. The primary difference between GAAP and adjusted diluted earnings per share is due to the loss on the extinguishment of debt as well as restaurant closing and impairment costs related to the restaurant closing initiative. Q1 adjusted operating margins was 7.5% versus 9.7% last year. There are a number of factors contributing to the margin decline this quarter, and I will lay them out. First, there are approximately 110 basis points from the following events. The calendar shift in January weather negatively impacted margins by approximately 80 basis points. We traded the high volume week between Christmas and New Year's for a week in March, and the weather was 1.3% headwind on comparable sales on the quarter. As discussed previously, we are lapping the Brazil value-added tax benefit, which cost us 30 basis points of margin versus last year. There were additional factors that also contributed this quarter. Inflation levels remained somewhat elevated and drove additional year-over-year margin unfavorability. Labor cost was up, driven by wage inflation of 4.5% in Q1. Other restaurant operating expenses were also up year-over-year, partially due to inflation and partially due to spending $7 million more in advertising this year. Depreciation expense was higher in Q1, consistent with our increased levels of capital spending and our investments in infrastructure to support growth. This was offset by favorability in food and beverage costs from pricing benefits and supply chain productivity initiatives. Commodities inflation was 1.3% for Q1. Most importantly, we have a roadmap to maintain the margin gains that we have made over the past few years, even with difficult market conditions. Turning to our capital structure, total debt was $952 million at the end of Q1. The higher balance is driven by the convertible note and accelerated share repurchase activity earlier in the quarter. We retired approximately $84 million of convertible note, leaving $21 million remaining. This significantly strengthens our financials by removing the variable share dilution underlying the convertible note. While our total debt levels are elevated compared to Q4, we are still very pleased with our leverage metrics and levels of liquidity. Importantly, we remain committed to being at or below our least adjusted leverage ratio of three times. In terms of share repurchases, earlier this quarter, we entered into a $220 million accelerated share repurchase program agreement in connection with our previously announced 2024 share repurchase program. Year to date, through the end of April, we have repurchased a total of 8.4 million shares of stock for approximately $233 million. This included shares associated with the convertible notes that we repurchased. We have $130 million remaining under our share authorization program. The Board also declared a quarterly dividend of 24 cents a share that is payable on May 31st. Now turning to our full year 2024 and Q2 guidance. We are reiterating our U.S. comp sales and adjusted earnings per share guidance communicated on our February 23rd earnings call. We have updated our share count expectations to reflect the convertible note and corresponding share repurchase activity completed during the quarter. Our adjusted diluted earnings per share guidance did not change and we are reiterating the range to be between $2.51 and $2.66. The range provided reflected the uncertainty of the industry trends following the weather-impacted January. Currently, industry trends remain on the lower end of our expectations And should they continue, we would expect to finish on the lower end of both our US comp sales and EPS guidance ranges. There are several critical factors to delivering on this guidance. First, we are very pleased with Outback Trends to date and their ability to outpace the industry in this challenging environment. They have a stronger promotional calendar versus last year, especially in Q3 and early Q4. From a marketing dollar standpoint, we will begin to lap the marketing increase we started a year ago, and therefore the increase will not be as large in the back half. Second, the negative calendar shift experienced in Q1 of $0.06 is largely recaptured in Q4. Third, we pulled forward pricing decisions to earlier in the year, which we expect to increase the check average benefit by 100 basis points. We have seen improving trends in food and service execution at Outback stemming from the investments in technology and operations. We have compelling limited-time offers at Outback that reflect our differentiated equities in steak and seafood while offering great value for our customers. Fourth, we are lowering our commodities inflation guidance from 3% to 4% to 2% to 3% as we are seeing signs of favorability in our beef program. We all know the beef market is somewhat volatile, but we are encouraged by the trends we are seeing year-to-date. Collectively, these actions strengthen our ability to manage through this challenging environment and continue to take share in the industry. As it relates to the second quarter of 2024, we expect U.S. comparable restaurant sales to be flat to up 150 basis points on a comparable calendar basis. The industry continues to be a headwind, and while we expect traffic to be negative for the quarter, the good news is Outback continues to outpace the industry. We expect Q2 adjusted diluted earnings per share to be between $0.55 and $0.60. Importantly, the removal of the Brazilian tax exemption is a headwind of $0.12 in Q2 versus 2023. We did want to share a critical update on tax legislation in Brazil. New tax legislation was recently passed by both the Brazilian House of Representatives and the Senate. If signed into law by the president, This tax legislation could be a positive benefit for our company in 2024 and into the future. We are still working through exactly what this means, including the impact to our financials. Any potential impact has not been included in our current guidance. We will provide updates when we know more. In summary, we are successfully navigating a challenging environment, and importantly, Outback is taking share. We will remain focused on executing against our strategy in 2024. We will take the necessary steps to preserve our financial momentum, and we will remain disciplined in our capital allocation. And with that, we will open up the call for questions.
spk08: We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one, on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Jeffrey Bernstein with Barclays. Please go ahead.
spk10: Great. Thank you very much. Dave, congrats on the well-deserved retirement. You will be missed. Michael, congrats on your new role. Absolutely. Congratulations. Two questions. The first one just on Brazil and the strategic review. I feel like it's been kind of on again, off again review for a while now. I'm just wondering what has changed with this review in terms of whether it's expectations or otherwise. And I feel like you were in the past maybe more hesitant to consider an actual sale because you wanted to retain... So just curious, what has changed this time around relative to last time? Any thoughts? That would be great. And then I had a follow-up.
spk15: Yeah, sure. On the Brazil piece, we'll still have governance. So what the royalty rate will be and those kind of things are yet to be determined. and we'll take a look at what that looks like for the business. Now, as you know, before COVID, we looked at the possible re-franchising here, and we got pretty far along, and then COVID happened. Now COVID's behind us. The Brazil business is in really great shape. They're growing quickly, and it's time to take a look to see if this is the right time to re-franchise the business. Now, it's a great business, and we don't have to sell it, but we expect the proper valuation for it, but we're taking an active look at it as we speak.
spk10: Understood. And the fact that Bonefish in the U.S., it seems like those comps remain under pressure, and last quarter or two you said they don't necessarily have the right to grow. At this point, I'm just wondering whether that was at all contemplated in terms of considering Bonefish within the Brazil strategic review.
spk15: No, Bonefish is a terrific brand. We've got some more customer work to do, much like we did at Outback. We've got some product in service elements to improve. I think you're going to see that brand come back in same-store sales. It's not a priority for growth for us. It's something that we will continue to improve upon and invest in, but it's not a growth vehicle for us. But where we have strong locations and strong situations, Bonefish does very well. So we don't have any plans to sell that business.
spk10: Understood. And then just my follow-up was on the consumer environment. You mentioned a challenging industry backdrop. Obviously, that's the backdrop, and you're taking shares. That's the focus. But I'm just wondering, have you seen any change in consumer behavior in recent months, whether on traffic or mix shift? What evidence do you have to demonstrate that there has been perhaps a slowdown in trend? Any color, that would be great. Thank you.
spk15: Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Jeff. And thanks for the congratulations, all of you. On my retirement, I must say I've got a job to do to lead the company and have a great succession and transition. So that's where my efforts are totally behind as we go forward. So on the industry itself, we're seeing a couple things. One, as others have discussed, the lower-end consumer, we've seen some check management. We can see it in some of our tax naps and stuff, and we can see it in some of our trends. The more middle- or higher-class consumers, Customer and casual dining is still hanging in there pretty well. Again, we can see that in some of our trends. Fine dining is a little weak right now, but boy, that was really frothy there for a couple years. So I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong, shall we say, on the high end. But I'd say on the lower end, consumers are facing some pressure.
spk06: Yeah, I'd just jump in to say as far as Dino mentioned a little softness and mix, but it's holding up pretty good. Our mixed impact is more revenue channel than it is the basket in the restaurant. So certainly softness in the traffic that's coming in the restaurant, but once they're in the restaurant, they're having the full experience. Thank you.
spk08: The next question comes from Alex Slagle with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
spk19: All right. Thanks.
spk05: Welcome, Michael and David, congrats. I'm going to echo thoughts there on all you've accomplished. It's been remarkable through some uncertain years, as we all know.
spk25: Thanks, Alex.
spk05: I wanted to just kind of ask on Outback, and it looks like solid progress continuing, and As you look at the top tier of stores in your system that are driving the best traffic growth, what are the commonalities and learnings from that group of stores and what really stands out? Is it the manager and staffing tenure or trade area differences? I'm just kind of curious what you see and which attributes you're able to move the needle on at the underperforming restaurants versus attributes that maybe are not easily replicated.
spk15: Yeah, we're very pleased with the trends at Outback. I think what we're doing is really paying off. And we've talked about that going forward, too. We've talked about the work we've done. But if you look at where we do well, A, we have a great market presence, right, in the southeast, especially Florida. So we've got good trade areas, good presence. We've got refreshed assets. We've got tenured partners that are leading the restaurants over a long period of time. and you look at other parts of the country like the mid-Atlantic where we've had a really long, tenured, really terrific group of people running those restaurants, and we've got good scale up there, you can clearly see the difference. And our job is to make sure we bring that to all parts of the country and some locations that are underperforming right now. But overall, when we look at the work we've done on the customer, when we look at the marketing stuff, the marketing programs we've been doing at Outback, when we look at the improvement in operations, When we look at, you know, really being irreverent and no rules just right, and you look at those things that we're trying to do to drive traffic at Outback, that's paying off, and you're going to see more of that from the company going forward.
spk04: Got it. Thank you.
spk08: The next question comes from John Ivanco with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
spk03: um hi thank you very much dave it was uh great to have you in the industry uh for so long but most importantly i hope the next chapter is a great and fulfilling and fun one for you um thank you you know the the question um you know outback outperformance relative to the casual downing cut category but i'd like you know to kind of you know drill in a little bit about your performance relative to your near and state competition i know you know, sometimes hard data to kind of get, but, you know, like, listen, I mean, there are public companies that are out there and, you know, you see their traffic and, you know, when you survey consumers of, you know, why you're choosing brand X or Y over Outback, what is commonly coming back to you in terms of that consumer preference? And, you know, are there any learnings from competition? I know it's not always ideal to talk about, but are there any learnings from competition that you can directly apply to the brand to maybe, you allow you, your Outback brand, to perhaps perform in line with some of your near-end peers. Thanks for that.
spk15: Yeah, absolutely, John. I won't speak to any specific numbers, but I think Outback is closing the gap versus some of the competition, but I'll leave it at that. Everybody sees the numbers. First of all, what do we see that we can make sure that we learn from, right? And also what we have with our Outback heritage and what we control. But it's the best-in-class operations, right? It's the value that we provide our guests. And there are things that we can do on the menu to provide even more value for our guests at some great price points. Making sure that we have a great experience, consistent execution in our operations day to day to day. And we've been talking about, in my remarks, John, some of the progress that we're making against the industry in our operations today. And then finally, continuing to upgrade our assets. So consistent execution with a great experience, with value coming in great service, but also some products that are really terrific that offer great value and continue to upgrade our assets. That's what we're trying to do, and I think we're going to continue to close the gap.
spk03: Could you remind us where we are in terms of editing down the menu, simplifying the menu, making the menu maybe a little bit more focused? Has that begun to go into the system overall on a test basis? And just give us a sense of how much actual opportunity you may have, I guess, to use a simple phrase, being better at doing fewer things.
spk15: Yeah. Before COVID, I can't remember the exact number of menu items, John, but I think before COVID and after COVID, we were down probably 15%-ish in the number of menu items. We're looking at that right now to see if we can make things simpler for our guests. I'm not going to get into, for competitive reasons, some specifics as far as the number of items that we may be looking at and things. But I think if we continue to look at what really drives the business and at the menu items that we can edit. Now having said that, you probably will see from us some new menu items that are really terrific. that offer tremendous value and abundance to the customer. Again, I don't want to get into that, but you'll see potentially some more edits to help with operations, but also potentially some add-backs to really address some value and abundance opportunities that we have. Thank you so much. You're welcome.
spk08: The next question comes from Sharon Zakvia with William Blair. Please go ahead.
spk18: Hi, good morning. Going back to kind of what we're hearing throughout the industry on the lower income consumer, are you seeing the consumer that's more mid to high income actually increase traffic year over year? Or is it just kind of better than what we're seeing at the lower end? And are you also seeing, it sounds like you're seeing the more affluent customer kind of hold check and not kind of mix around on their ticket? I just want to confirm if that's the case, because we're also hearing talks of kind of more normalized alcohol consumption across the industry.
spk15: Yeah, I think, Sharon, I guess the best way to describe our middle and higher-end customer and casual dining is the words hanging in there. I think the trends are pretty consistent from what we see. As I mentioned, it's more the lower end that's experiencing some difficulties there. On menu mix and alcohol, I haven't really seen anything really change that much in it. In our mix there, as Michael alluded to, we don't really see much mix and decreases in our alcohol mix.
spk06: Yeah, our mix is relatively stable across all of the basket items, so that piece is encouraging.
spk18: Great. And then on Brazil, and I apologize if you address this. My cell cut out for about two minutes. If you do sell it or re-franchise it, what would you use those proceeds for? Are there any strategic initiatives that you'd like to accelerate and use that cash for? Or would this primarily be something where you would look to return, you know, value to shareholders in terms of, you know, dividends or share repurchases or what have you?
spk15: Yeah, I think that's for another day when we – decide if we have an offer that's interesting to us. But needless to say, it will provide significant cash allocation opportunities for the company going forward, whether it's some debt pay down, whether it's some share repurchases, whether it's anything we want to do to address some of the things in our U.S. business. Those are all great options for us. And I think that's to be addressed when we see what comes together.
spk17: Fair enough. Thank you. Thank you.
spk08: The next question comes from Brian Harbor with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
spk20: Thanks. Good morning. Congratulations to both of you. I want to echo those sentiments. I had a question more on the margin side as you think about 2Q. And I guess as we kind of think about putting the pieces together for the full year, is this more of You know, would you expect kind of still a significant change in labor, in kind of marketing costs? Are those some of the pressures that you would still expect on a year-over-year basis in 2Q or anything else we should keep in mind just as we think about margin progression this year?
spk06: Yeah, from a margin perspective, you know, we certainly still have the Brazilian tax exemption component, which costs us 40 basis points year-over-year. Other than that, we'll be up a little bit in depreciation as we continue to invest in our restaurants. COGS will be, you know, similar to Q1, will be favorable. Labor pressure is going to continue. That's been pretty sustained. We expect that to be similar to Q1 for the remainder of the year. And as you mentioned with advertising, we were up $7 million in Q1. We'll be similar to that in Q2, maybe a little less. And then it should start to flatten out in the back half because we started to increase our advertising in Q3 of last year. But, you know, But we have the roadmap to continue and maintain our margins, even in a difficult environment, but that should give you some color.
spk20: Okay. Yeah, thanks. And I think you mentioned pull forward of some pricing. Was that mainly at Outback? Is it across the brands? What's the timing of that?
spk06: It's across the brands, and so it doesn't get pulled forward in one large chunk, so it sort of kind of just evenly spreads out through the back half. Okay.
spk15: One thing I've got to mention a little bit is one thing I'm particularly pleased about is achieving these results with modest pricing increases versus others in the industry. And that gives us A, improves our value equation, and B, it gives us dry powder in case we need to do something. But I'm very pleased that we maintain that discipline.
spk06: Given that the beef basket is such a significant part of of who we are. You know, we always take as little pricing as necessary, but obviously also have to manage that inflationary environment.
spk20: Okay, thanks.
spk08: The next question comes from Sarah Senator with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
spk22: Oh, thank you.
spk23: I wanted to, I guess, a follow up on that, your comment about pricing and then And then a question. The one about the pricing, I know you said you pulled forward pricing even though you've lowered your commodity guidance. I understand that your view is you've taken less price than competitors, and your insights on that is probably better than mine. But do you, I guess, as you think about taking more or pulling forward price when commodities are disinflating, So what was, I guess, the thought behind that and the idea of maintaining your relative value? And then, like I said, I have another question, please.
spk15: Yeah, we do a deep look at value whenever we look at our pricing and our mix, and we're in really good shape there versus competition, and we've made a lot of progress in value. We still are a beef-centered basket here at Blooming Brands, and so we have to always watch that. But we've tried to be extremely careful and extremely modest on any pricing that we're doing.
spk23: So it's just more of a timing issue.
spk06: Absolutely. Yeah, the pricing was contemplated. I think we just pulled it forward a little bit earlier. But to Dave's point, it's always something that we study very deeply to understand what's the little amount of pricing that we can take to continue to support value with our guests. But we have other ways to drive value with our guests, whether it's our compelling LTOs. And obviously, Dave spoke to some of the improvements in the guest experience at Outback, and so that certainly contributes to the overall value for us.
spk23: Got it. And the decision to pull it forward, was that based on anything specific?
spk15: No. Just as we looked at the year and the forecast and everything, we just tried to make sure that we have commitments out there. We're just trying to manage them the best we can.
spk23: Got it. Okay. And then a quick question on the consumer, and I know we've talked to this at length. So is a low-end consumer, is that consumer doing worse or spending less? I mean, it feels like that's been something that that dynamic has been in place for the better part of maybe even the last two years. So as you think about softness in the industry versus expectations, is there some kind of sort of measurable change? And To that point, I always think of your average consumer as processing higher income than the country as a whole. So is that low-income consumer a meaningful part of your customer base?
spk15: Yeah, it's not as meaningful as some other concepts, but it is part of our business, so we have to watch it. But, yes, there has been somewhat of a pullback on the low end in our company, in our concepts. We still see... really strong demand during special occasions, you know, on the holidays and things like that. So people are still celebrating at all levels of the, you know, income stream, income status. But I think we have seen some slowdown on the low end, like we talked about earlier today.
spk23: Even sequentially versus maybe what you saw late last year or sometime last year.
spk15: It's been pretty consistent. Hasn't really, there hasn't been a dramatic, you know, change.
spk23: Got it. Okay. Thank you very much.
spk08: The next question comes from Lauren Silberman with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
spk12: Thanks for the question, and I also share my congratulations. I wanted to ask about the earnings guide. 2Q came in a bit below street. You're maintaining full year. It looks like the back half guide implies EPS is more heavily weighted in the back half of the year than what would normally be expected. So can you just expand a bit more on just what's expected in the back half of the year in terms of cadence?
spk15: Sure. I'll take the first piece, and I'll turn it over to Michael. But, A, outperformance of Outback versus the industry, clearly we expect that to continue. We've got a stronger promotional calendar at Outback, especially in Q3, and therefore our compares, both from a sales and profitability standpoint, in Q3 and Q4 are much easier, and as we look at it. Four, we've got our guest experience work that we continue to make progress on, and we expect to see, help us continue to take share as we move forward, especially at Outback. So those are the things from a sales standpoint, be it our experience, be it some of the marketing programs we have, be it some of the softness from last year that give us confidence about our guys on the sales side.
spk06: Yeah, there's a few things as we just think about the full year guide. Our check average, you know, we shared, we updated our guide on the check average to 3% to 4%. Commodities, you know, now more favorable to 2% to 3%. We still have $50 million of productivity layered into our plan. The marketing spend, you know, the first half is heavy, and we start to lap that in the back half, so it starts to get, you know, relatively in line. And then from a calendar shift perspective, we lost the benefit of the week shift in Q1. That was roughly $0.06, but we get that back in Q4, or almost all of that back in Q4. So that certainly kind of helps think about the first half back half. As well as Dave mentioned, the continued strength at Outback gives us a lot of confidence. And in fact, all these items give us collective confidence that we can achieve our full year in guide.
spk12: Thank you very much.
spk08: The next question comes from Brian Mullen with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.
spk07: Thank you. A question on Carrabba's. You've seen some relative outperformance from that brand in recent years. Maybe you could just talk about the strategy for this year, your degree of confidence that this can continue, and if you could talk about the off-premise business and the dining room business separately, that would be great. Great to get your thoughts on that, Brent.
spk15: Well, Klaus has done a great job in sales, be it the off-premise business especially. As we know, that food form is especially conducive to the off-premise business, and the team has done a really terrific job addressing that, be it your catering, delivery, carryout, et cetera. The team will tell you that we've got more work to do in in-restaurant dining. We're We've got more trends in front of us that we need to pursue. Also improving the guest experience. They've had some extremely successful wine dinners at Carrabba's. And we've rolled lunch that is having a lot of success in the brand. So I'd say that from a Carrabba's standpoint, you've got a strong off-premise business. You've got lunch being rolled out with their sandwich line. We've got some successful in-restaurant initiatives around their wine dinners. Now, lastly, we talked at length on prior calls about the productivity investment that we made at Outback Kitchens. We've got the same thing available to us in Carabasas. In fact, I'd argue Carabasas is one of the most complicated kitchens in the industry. And so right now, we've got about 15% of our fleet has new kitchen equipment, and we're seeing significant savings in utilities and prime costs to help drive that business. And that's a big element of productivity for us this year and importantly into 2025. So those are the factors that we're seeing in Carrabba's, and we'll see if all that warrants further expansion of the brand as we go forward.
spk07: Okay, thank you. And then just to follow up, just on the portfolio of stores in the U.S. broadly, you know, with the 2023 closure initiative now complete, My question is whether or not you think, would there be any future closure initiatives you'd consider, or has everything really been addressed now at this point, you think?
spk15: I think we've done a great job over the years managing our portfolio, and I would expect that we won't have more to do. But I think that we always look at our assets. We always look at where they're located. We always look at things. But we've done a great job being proactive on that over the years.
spk08: Thank you. The next question comes from Dennis Geiger with UBS. Please go ahead.
spk09: Thank you, and congratulations, David and Michael. You talked about the three LTOs, which I would consider at compelling price points. I think, David, that you spoke a few times to some value add-backs coming. So I just wanted to ask a little bit more on promotional activity, if anything more on sort of how you're positioned on value and whether – the need maybe to increase promotional offerings if that reflects the current consumer backdrop, if it's relative to the observation that the broader casual dining industry is leaning in more on value, if it's both, if it's other, just any additional thoughts there.
spk15: Yeah, sure. I think what we've done is with the last three LTOs at Outback have been really great because it offers tremendous food at a great price point. And you're going to see that from us going forward in future offerings. in future plans. I'm not going to get into details what they might be, but that's something that has worked for us. On the menu front, we think that we've got some opportunity, like I mentioned earlier on the question from John Ivanko, is there more opportunity to maybe simplify the menu a little bit more? Don't know for sure. And then is there an opportunity to put some really interesting Outback high-quality products on the menu that are very indulgent and offer great value. And we're working through that right now. That's how we would go about it. And then lastly, as it speaks to the industry, yes, we've seen an increase in promotional marketing activity. We need to respond to that, but we tend to do it in our way, especially at Outback. We don't expect to do any broad-based, deep discounting or special marketing. you know, promotional offers and things, but we will be offering some value-centered LTOs that make a lot of sense for the brand and consistent with the brand heritage.
spk09: That's great. And then just I wanted to ask on Brazil, if anything incremental to share sort of on performance in the quarter, the consumer backdrop, anything impacting results for the quarter itself, and then if there's anything incremental on sort of the the state of, I guess, maybe the capital markets environment in the country or anything else to add on thinking through, as you think through the strategic review, the conditions in the country right now? Thank you.
spk15: Yeah, no, Brazil continues to take share, do extremely well. The only thing we had to do in Q1 last year was the World Cup was in December in their quarter. They had an unbelievably successful promotion there. And we've had a little bit of carnival timing this year. But overall, the brand continues to do really well. I think the industry there, like the U.S., is seeing a little softness. But importantly, we are taking share. As Michael mentioned in his prepared remarks, there has been tax legislation that has been approved by the Senate and the House. We don't know what's going to happen with that tax legislation. If it does get signed by the president and once we understand the regulations, there could be a financial upside to the company, but that is not contemplated in our guidance.
spk09: Thank you very much.
spk08: The next question comes from Andrew Strelzyk with BMO. Please go ahead.
spk13: Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions.
spk14: My first one, I wanted to ask about the operational improvements at Outback that are contributing to the share gains there. Are there any metrics that you can share to kind of frame the improvements that you're seeing? And where are the gaps that remain, I guess, on the path to your goal of being a best-in-class operator?
spk15: Yeah, I think we clearly have seen it in steak recooks and food quality, number one. Steak accuracy has gone up 500 basis points versus past trims, and that has been a direct result of the investment that we've made in the kitchen. I'm very, very pleased about that. Consistency of experience is up 400 basis points. So serving a hot meal on time with great service remains the most important thing we can do at Outback Steakhouse. Now, where are some of the gaps? What I'd like to see us do, is there more that we can do to maybe enhance our service and enhance the guest experience? We don't think it would take a lot of money to do that, but how our servers interact with our customers and things like that. There might be some ideas there, which I won't get into, but there might be some things that we can look at to be more interactive with our guests at Outback while serving the food in a hot, quick way. manner that our guests have come to enjoy. So those are the things that we're looking at at Outback. I'm very pleased with stake accuracy being up so much and consistency of experience being up so much.
spk14: Okay, great. That's helpful. And just my second one, I just wanted to ask about the commodity inflation outlook. with about 1% in the first quarter, I think you said favorable again in the second quarter, would apply a little bit of a ramp at the back half. What's your visibility to that, and is it all beef, or is there anything else kind of within that drive and the acceleration, if I'm right?
spk06: Yeah, you're right as far as kind of where we land in Q1 will be maybe a little bit better in Q2, and then we do experience a ramp in the back half. A lot of that is actually driven by seafood. As we burn through some deflationary inventory, we actually come upon inflationary inventory in the back half. Beef itself is relatively stable as far as how we plan for it. the inflation. However, as we mentioned and when we lowered our commodities guide, you know, we are seeing some favorability in beef, you know, that we can take advantage of with our current contract. And how we, you know, reflect that favorability, you know, is a little bit TBD based off of the market, but directionally we will see an uptick in commodities in the back half.
spk11: Great. Thank you very much.
spk08: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Dave Dino for any closing remarks.
spk15: Thank you very much. We appreciate the questions today. And I personally appreciate the kind words. It means a lot to me. But I want to invite everybody back for our Q2 call later in the year. Take care, everyone.
spk08: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
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