GEN Restaurant Group, Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the GEN Restaurant Group, Inc. Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode, and the lines will be open for your questions following the presentation. Please note that this conference is being recorded today, November 14, 2023, and now I would like to turn the conference over to Tom Kroll, the company's chief financial officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon. By now, everyone should have access to our third quarter 2023 earnings release. If not, it can be found at www.genkoreanbbq.com in the investor relations section. Before we begin our formal remarks, I need to remind everyone that our discussions today will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws, including, but not limited to, statements regarding growth plans and potential new store openings, as well as those types of statements identified in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the third quarter of 2023 and our subsequent reports filed with the SEC. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and therefore you should not put undue reliance on them. These statements represent our views only as of the date of this call and are also subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we currently expect. We refer you to our recent SEC filings, including our registration statement on Form S-1, for a more detailed discussion of the risk that could impact our future operating results and financial condition. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. We will file our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the third quarter of 2023 later today and would encourage you to review that document at your earliest convenience. During today's call, we will discuss some non-GAAP financial measures which we believe will be useful in evaluating our performance. The presentation of this additional information should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most current directly comparable GAAP financial measures are available in our earnings press release and in our SEC filings, which are available in the investor relations section of our website. Now, I would like to turn it over to our board chair and co-CEO, David Kim.

Thank you and good afternoon, everybody. Since the last time we spoke, we've had many accomplishments, including completing our first full quarter as a public company and opened another successful restaurant in Houston, Texas, with two more restaurants expected to open by the end of the year. Starting with our new restaurants, we're proud of the results we're seeing from our four new restaurants in Chandler, Manhattan, Miracle Mile, and Webster. These restaurants are collectively generating annualized average unit volumes of around 5 million and currently on track for an average payback period of approximately 2.1 years in line with our expectations. Our outlier for us is Fort Lauderdale. as the opening was delayed to the summer months, which is seasonally slower time in that marketplace. Importantly, while this restaurant opening is slower than normal, it is still better than breakeven today. Let me now provide you an update on our expansion plans. In the fourth quarter, we expect to open three new restaurants, including Houston, Texas, which opened in October. For 2024, we currently have three additional restaurant units under construction, all of which are expected to open in the first or second quarter of next year. In addition, we have 12 leases signed or in final signing stages for new units and an additional eight locations in the LOI stage of negotiations for a total of 20 expected future locations. With leases for the majority of our new 2024 locations signed or in final stages of negotiations, we are now in the process further expanding our unit pipeline as we secure our 2025 and 2026 locations. We remain committed expanding our number of restaurants, and achieving our growth targets. With our unit returns among the best in the industry, we believe the opportunity ahead of us is substantial. Next, I want to touch on our transition to Cisco as our distribution partner. The switch from US Foods is going, and we are making great progress. The transition is currently approximately 80% complete, and we expect it to be complete by mid-December. We continue to be excited to have Cisco as a partner to support our growth as they will allow us to seamlessly expand across all 50 states while minimizing potential additional disruptions. Once the Cisco transition has been complete, we will be introducing new menu items. In addition, we've recently signed a new agreement with Coca-Cola, which will provide co-marketing incentives and consistent pricing. As a result, we'll offer new promotional drink products at our restaurants on an ongoing basis. Finally, in the coming months, we will introduce Korean Capri Soju as a new alcohol option under our new beer and wine licenses. All of these changes will help improve our customer experience. In closing, let me reiterate that we remain focused and steadfast in the long-term trajectory of the company. We will stay on course with our development and growth plans, meeting the expectations that we laid out during our IPO process. Our team at Gen Korean BBQ has already demonstrated our ability to succeed through many different economic environments and regions in the United States, and we believe we can succeed in any macroeconomic conditions. I've never seen sure of our ability to capture the opportunity ahead of us, and we're thrilled to share our story and unique dining experience for years to come. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to our CFO, Tom Krull, to discuss our results.