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spk01: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Kura Sushi USA Inc. Fiscal First Quarter 2024 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 call is being recorded. On the call today, we have Hajime Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Youse, Chief Financial Officer, and Benjamin Porton, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and System Development. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Porton.
spk10: Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you all for joining.
spk12: By now, everyone should have access for our fiscal first quarter 2044 earnings release. It can be found at www.cursissu.com in the Investor Relations section. A copy of the earnings release is also included in the 8K resubmitted to the SEC. Before we begin our formal remarks, we need to remind everyone that part of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore you should not get under reliance on them. These statements are also subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect. We refer all of you to our SEC filings for a more detailed discussion of the risks that can impact our future operating results and financial condition. Also during today's call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe can be useful in evaluating our performance. Presentation of this additional information cannot be considered in isolation nor is a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP.
spk10: In the reconciliation, the comparable GAAP measures are available in our earnings release. With that out of the way, I would like to turn the call over to Jenny. Thanks, Ben, and Happy New Year to everyone joining us today.
spk08: E-Scar 2024 is often an exceptionally strong start with meaningful improvements in restaurant level operating profit margin and adjusted EBITDA, as well as six new units opened to date with another seven under construction. Our goals for this fiscal year remain the same as last year. Maintain excellent operations, continue to rapidly grow the number of our restaurants, and leverage our G&A against an increasingly large restaurant base. I'm pleased to say that we are continuing to make excellent progress on all three fronts. Total sales for the fiscal first quarter were $51.5 million, representing comparable sales growth of 3.8%, with traffic growth being responsible for 3.3% of our overall comp. Sales momentum has accelerated since our last earnings call as implied by the 110 basis point improvement over the blended September-October comps of 3.7%, with the improvement being driven entirely by traffic growth.
spk10: Effective price was 9% during the fiscal first quarter. As of the first week of December,
spk08: We dropped 7% in price, which we partially offset in January, with pricing of approximately 1%. Our current 3% effective pricing is a return to our historical pricing cadence, which reflects our confidence in the ongoing normalization of our prime costs, as well as a strong strategic decision to best take advantage of current macro factors to maintain traffic growth and capture market share. Community costs have seen a marked improvement over the prior year quarter, with our cost of goods sold as a percentage of sales coming up 29.8% for Q1 as compared to last year's 31.6%. Labor costs have largely remained the same at 31.6% as compared to prior year quarter's 31.9%. Restaurant-level operating profit margins improved from 18.2% in the prior year quarter to 19.5%, and adjusted EBITDA grew from $0.6 million to $1.8 million, representing year-over-year growth of approximately 200%. It bears mentioning that much of the adjusted EBITDA growth was driven by improvements in commodity costs, but it is truly encouraging to see such dramatic growth, even while we face 300 headwinds associated with full 404 compliance and restaurant-level headwinds associated with a record number of new restaurant openings and units under construction. I believe this adjusted growth is only a test of what we can expect in future years as we grow our unit base.
spk10: much as a company, and are even better able to leverage our G&A. In the fiscal first quarter, we opened four new restaurants, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Flushing, New York, Tampa, Florida, and Naperville, Illinois. Subsequent to the quarter end, we opened two more new restaurants in Kansas City, Missouri, and Spokane, Illinois. Originally, we have seven units currently under construction.
spk08: Accordingly, we are excited to increase our unit opening guidance for fiscal 2024, which Jeff will expand on shortly. The incredible reception that we've seen as we establish ourselves in new markets demonstrates the truly national cost-to-cost portability of Kurosushi and the performance of new units in existing markets, is confirming our expectations that the massive consumer appetite for sushi is more than enough to sustain our infill plans. It's been a couple of months since we launched a new version of our reverse program and I'm very pleased to be able to share that. Early momentum that we discussed in our previous earnings call has remained just as strong Registration rates for new members are approximately triple what they are with the previous program, and given that these are all new users, we expect greater engagement on a per-user basis than the overall comfort of the previous reverse program. While it is still very much early days in terms of the new reverse program and our earnings on how to best leverage it, we expect to give more concrete updates in future earnings calls in terms of newly unlocked opportunities and its potential to drive incremental revenue. Our current ID collaboration, Peanuts, has been very well received by our guests. Our next brand collaboration is SkyFamily, and we believe the pipeline for the remainder of the fiscal year is the strongest one we've ever had. As we enter the new year, I would like to thank all of our team members, both at our restaurants and at our corporate support center, for all of their hard work, which has allowed us to share great news, quarter after quarter, on our earnings call.
spk10: And with that, I'll turn it over to Jeff to discuss our financial results and liquidity. Yes? Thank you, Jimmy.
spk12: For the first quarter, total sales were $51.5 million as compared to $39.3 million in the prior year period. Comparable restaurant sales performance as compared to the prior year period was positive 3.8%, with regional comps of 9% in our West Coast market and 1.3% in our Southwest market.
spk10: Turning now to cost. Food and beverage costs as a percentage of sales were 29.8%,
spk12: as compared to 31.6% in the prior year quarter, largely due to pricing and the easing of commodity inflation. Labor and related costs as a percentage of sales decreased to 31.6% from 31.9% prior year quarter. This decrease is due to sales leveraging from increased traffic and pricing, which was largely offset by increased training costs associated with new store openings and general wage increases. Occupancy and related expenses as a percentage of sales were 7.6% compared to the prior year quarter's 7.3% due to incremental pre-opening rents associated with a greater number of units under construction. Depreciation and amortization expenses as a percentage of sales increased to 4.8% as compared to the prior year quarter's 4%. largely due to the additional newly opened units as well as the accelerated depreciation of assets that were being replaced due to planned remodels. Other costs as a percentage of sales increased to 14.7% compared to 13.5% in the prior year quarter due mainly to pre-opening costs associated with a greater number of store openings as well as an increase in marketing costs and general cost inflation. General and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales decreased to 16.7% as compared to 16.9% in the prior year quarter due to greater sales leverage, which was largely offset by incremental public company costs and recruiting and travel costs associated with new unit openings. Operating loss was $2.8 million as compared to an operating loss of $2.2 million in the prior year quarter, largely driven by incremental other costs depreciation and amortization, and occupancy associated with the greater number of unit openings and units under construction.
spk10: Income tax expense was $38,000 compared to $10,000 in the prior year quarter. Net loss was $2 million, or 18 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $2.1 million, or 21 cents per share, in the prior year quarter. Restaurant-level operating profit as a percentage of sales was 19.5% compared to 18.2% in the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.8 million compared to $0.6 million in the prior year quarter. Turning to our cash and liquidity, at the end of the fiscal first quarter, we had $64.2 million in cash and cash equivalents and no debt. And lastly, I would like to update and reaffirm the following guidance for fiscal year 2024.
spk12: We now expect total sales to be between $239 and $244 million. We now expect to open between 12 and 14 units with average net capital expenditures per unit of approximately $2.5 million.
spk10: And we continue to expect general and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales to be approximately 14.5%. Now, I'll turn it back over to Jimmy. Thanks, Jeff. This concludes our previous remarks.
spk08: We are now happy to answer any questions you have. Operator, please open the line for questions. As a reminder, During the Q&A session, I may answer in Japanese before my response is translated into English.
spk10: Thank you for your attention.
spk01: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation cell will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star key. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Joshua Long with Stevens. Please proceed with your question.
spk02: Great. Thank you for taking my question. I was curious if you could share a little bit more about the unit development pipeline and what seems to be a nice strengthening in that. I know in the prior call, you talked about the potential for upside. to the unit, you know, new unit development pipeline for the year. That seems to be coming into fruition. Just curious if this is a function of site selection, maybe if permitting has gotten any better, anything you could share there in terms of just how the new stores are coming together.
spk08: Sure. Thank you, Jeff, for your first question. Please allow me to speak in Japanese. Ben is going to translate for me. First of all, regarding the pipeline, as I mentioned in the Prepaid Remarks, there are currently seven restaurants under construction, and three of them are currently under construction, and they are likely to open soon. Also, regarding the permit delay, we had some experience with it last year, and it has been greatly improved. That's why we have been able to update the guidance this time around.
spk12: So as Jimmy mentioned in the prepared remarks, we have 70 units under construction. We're extremely pleased to be able to say that three of those are pretty far into construction. And so we're very happy with where we are. It's one of the reasons that we were confident in terms of raising our guidance. In terms of the permitting delays that we've mentioned in the past fiscal year, those have meaningfully eased. And so we're very happy with the rollout and how smooth it's been this year.
spk02: Great. That's very helpful. Thank you. And, you know, thinking maybe more about the performance of newer stores, it sounds like that's pretty strong. Could you give a little bit of extra context or color in terms of just how the results for the quarter perform versus your expectations? I know there's always going to be a little bit of difference in between what you all see and how we model it, but I'm thinking particularly in terms of just kind of how average weekly sales growth was growing through the quarter. And, you know, maybe if at some point we kind of get away from looking at this on a, multi-year stack comparison. I know we're getting further away from kind of COVID and some of those disruptions, but just curious if you're starting to see any sort of normalization there and any sort of commentary you could share on how new store performance is unfolding.
spk08: First of all, we opened 23 and 24. Both of them, a lot of stores opened, but especially the Minneapolis restaurant that opened at the New Market, Minneapolis, New York, Also, Pittsburgh, Tampa, and all the restaurants that opened in such a new area are all in good condition, so we are very encouraged to prove our portability in such a new restaurant. Also, in terms of the egg dressing market, Chicago, Georgia, Atlanta, and New Jersey, we opened in the infill area, but we are also going according to the schedule. In terms of new restaurants, Fiscal 23 has been a record year. This year, we've already opened six to date, and so we've had a lot of new openings. In terms of the major new markets that we've hit, we've entered Minneapolis. We've opened a couple of restaurants in New York. We hit Pittsburgh. We're in Tampa.
spk12: It's been a pleasure really to see how warm the reception has been in each of these markets. And every time we enter in a new market, it's just a confirmation of the portability of our concept. And so it's really encouraging for us. In terms of the existing markets, we've opened a couple in New Jersey, Chicago, the Atlanta area. And those are all doing very well as well. As Jimmy mentioned in the earlier prepared remarks, there's abundant appetite for sushi across the United States. And so we feel very confident, but not only in terms of our existing, our new markets, which are gangbusters, but in filling our existing markets as well.
spk08: Um,
spk12: So, and in terms of the multi-year stack, we're not, if I'm being, if we're being totally frank, we're not internally doing a multi-year stack anymore. We've returned to normalcy. And so we're very pleased to be able to say that. Great.
spk02: Thank you. That's helpful. Then one last one for me in terms of the food deflation or just the overall COGS basket that you talked about in your prayer remarks. I think also in the past, there was conversation around the potential to reinvest in food quality or, you know, other areas if, you know, the food cost margin went materially below 30% was just as a kind of a starting point. So I realize it's probably early on in the whole process and there's still a little bit of fluidity there, but could you just remind us how you're thinking about the food cost line and when and where some of the, you know, pivot points or, you know, thought process might lie in terms of the potential for seeing leverage or maybe reinvesting in that line item?
spk10: Hey, Josh and Jeff.
spk12: Yeah, the 30% number on the COGS line is something that we're very happy with. It's something that we would like to see a little bit lower, and it has gotten lower. In terms of deflation, just to give you the numbers of what we've seen this year, year over year our deflation was about 4%, and sequentially quarter over quarter our deflation was about 2%. So that deflation combined with the price increases that we've taken over the last year, and as Jimmy mentioned, we did take about 1% on January 1st. We believe that with the price increases and the deflation that we're going to be successful in having that COGS number show up even below 30. But as we've mentioned in the past, there's a floor to that. If that COGS number were to get somewhere at 27, 28, that may be a little bit too low, and then you do risk hurting your food quality, which is not something we're going to do. So as long as we can keep that number in the very, very high 20s or right around 30%, we're going to be happy. In terms of reinvesting that, some things that we've done have significantly improved the quality of our core proteins, especially tuna and salmon. I'm very pleased to be able to say that we've done that while also lowering our COGS cost, and so that's really been pretty remarkable for us. One other thing that we like to do is our LTOs. For example, in December, we did a crab fair, you know, very high quality crab. Winter is crab season in Japan. And this was one of the most popular LTOs ever. And I, you know, I think our guests really, really enjoyed it and sort of appreciated that we were giving back to our guests through, through crab.
spk10: Great. Thank you so much. Thanks, Josh. Thank you, Josh.
spk01: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jeremy Hamblin with Craig Hallam. Please proceed with your question.
spk04: Thanks, and congrats on the strong results. I wanted to just come back because there's a little bit of a breakup in the audio and some of the commentary around menu pricing as well as same-store sales color. Apologies for going back over some of this, but I wanted to make sure that I understood kind of the cadence of comps color that you shared throughout FQ1. And then two, I think what I heard on the menu pricing was that you're carrying 3% overall in FQ2. And then, you know, kind of the comp on the West Coast versus the other regions or in the Southwest region. If we could start with that, that would be great.
spk12: Yeah, so the pricing that we ran, Jeremy, in Q1 was 9%. We did take the one – we lapped the 7% pricing in December, and then we took the 1% at the beginning of January. So we're currently at 3% pricing. We're very, very happy with where the comp number came out, and what we really want to point everybody back to is that traffic number, the traffic of 3.3% that we saw in Q1. And as you know, listening to conference calls still, you know, throughout the year, very few concepts have been able to have positive traffic. And we looked at that number, and as long as we can keep people coming back in the door and keep our existing guests coming back, we're going to be very happy. And that's one of the things that we can control through great service and great food quality. We continue to do that. We believe that our guests are going to keep coming through that door and keep that traffic positive. And if we can do that, we're very positive that we can. It's going to be a good year for us. And just to add on the cadence, given that the audio broke up a little bit, we gave September and October comps last earnings call, it was 2.7%. And, you know, so you can assume that the comps for November were much stronger, given that we came in at 3.8% for the full quarter. And given that we didn't take any price during that quarter, or, you know, the acceleration was driven solely due to traffic. So back to Jeff's earlier point, we're very, very pleased to see that we're operating, executing so well that more deaths than ever coming in through our doors. Got it.
spk04: And I think there was some commentary on the West Coast versus the Southwest market comps also just want to clarify.
spk12: Yeah. Give me one second. I have the numbers here. Great. I just don't remember what's on my head, Josh. 9% in the West Coast and 1.3% in the Southwest markets.
spk04: Got it. And so then just coming back to the comp overall, in terms of where the menu pricing was, you know, traffic up really strong, 3.3%. Are you still seeing a little bit of reduction then in average plate consumption? Go ahead.
spk08: On a sequential basis from Q4 to Q1, plate consumption per person has actually gotten up. And on a year-over-year comparison, it's about flat. And so we're really happy with where plate consumption is.
spk12: Got it.
spk04: And then I wanted to shift gears to your labor costs. And, you know, you had some nice 30 basis points of leverage year over year. I think minimum wage in California on January 1 is up about 3.2%. But wanted to get an outlook of, you know, what you're thinking about, Jeff, on kind of the labor market here in calendar 24 as we're moving forward. Are you seeing a little bit less pressure? I think there's also, in April, the impact of the potential large-scale fast food wage laws that are going into effect, the $20 wage. But just wanted to get a sense for what you were expecting. And again, pretty nice leverage that you got on a 3.8% comp.
spk08: I'm happy to answer this question, Jeremy.
spk12: So in past earnings calls, we've mentioned that about I think until about Q3 of last year, the year-over-year labor inflation was about 10%. It's since moderated to mid-single digits, and that is including the annual minimum wage increases in California. With the 1%-ish pricing that we took as of January, We believe that that's enough to offset the labor increases and really keep our margins flat year over year. You'd asked about AB 1228, previously known as the FAST Act. We're very pleased to be – I think we're pretty much the only concept that is saying that we see this as an opportunity. In terms of our California markets, our employees are already making wages that are competitive with the $20 that people are going to be making at QSR. And so, you know, obviously, QSRs need to take an aggressive price to be able to offset that. And so we see this as a meaningful opportunity to grow market share as, you know, up until now, the conversation has really been, do we go to Kurosushi or do we go to other casual dining places? Now it's, do we get a combo meal at the burger place or do we get Kurosushi? And that's one of the reasons that we're running 3% prices. We really want to demonstrate to the world at large, not just our existing guests, how great a value for us sushi is.
spk04: Got it. That's a great point. Last one for me, and I'll hop out of the queue. Just wanted to ask about some of the recent collaborations. You've partnered with Peanuts and Snoopy in December here into January. I wanted to get a sense for how That promotion was performing. It seems to be generating a decent amount of buzz.
spk12: Yeah, we're really pleased with the December results. And, you know, P&S collaboration is certainly a big part of it. Our PR team gets better and better with every collaboration that we cycle through. And this time they did a really spectacular job with what we call the space collaboration, not just the toys or the animes. But, you know, we had photo ops where the restaurants were decked out like a Charlie Brown Christmas. We had little big Snoopy figures on our Mr. Fresh Gomes, and those would go mysteriously missing. And so if guests were, you know, a part of that, you know, you really can't get higher praise than that. Certainly not encouraging guests to do that, but it was nice to see people were so that excited about it. And as Jimmy mentioned earlier, you know, we've got Spy Families, our next collaboration, and then We've got two more after that for the remainder of the fiscal year. This is the best pipeline we've ever had. I could not be more excited. I wish I could tell you what they were right now, but you're going to have to wait until the next call.
spk04: Great.
spk10: Thanks for taking all the questions, and best wishes. Of course. Thank you. Thank you, David.
spk01: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Sharon Zaxia with William Blair. Please proceed with your question.
spk07: Thanks for taking the question. Jeff, I have to confess I was a little surprised that you raised revenue guidance this early in the fiscal year. But I'm curious on the million-dollar raise. Was it anticipated in initial guidance? Was it the opening schedule? Or is it just in the business?
spk12: You're cutting out a little bit on my end, but I think I got the gist of your question. As Jimmy mentioned earlier on one of the questions that was asked, the cadence of the opening is going quicker than we expected, which is why we decided to raise the guidance. We feel that we're going to have some more operating weeks and have an additional unit come in at the end of the year, which is why we raised it a million and not more than that. To talk about some of the things that have been happening with the openings in the markets that we're opening in, we have seen some of the permitting problems that we did have last year ease, and some of the site selection has been really good. And landlords are excited about getting us in. And I was talking to our chief development officer recently, in fact, last night, and he was telling me that these landlords are getting their work done quicker because they want to get us in. And they're excited about having Kurosushi as part of their portfolio. And the quicker that they can get their work done, the quicker that we can get our work done and we can get open. And we're seeing that happen, which is why we raised the guidance a little bit and wanted to get through the first quarter and kind of see how that played out. We thought that that's how it would be, but we wanted to get through the first quarter and kind of watch what happened before we, we raised the guidance. So that's, that's why we are where we are now.
spk07: Very helpful. And then on the, um, the traffic improvement you saw in November, hopefully pretty meaningful. We can all kind of do the math. I mean, is there anything in particular you attribute November to, or, In hindsight, that you attribute prior two months to being a little bit in November.
spk08: November. We would attribute the acceleration traffic in November largely for our new rewards program. We're very pleased with its capabilities. Part of it was in November we were just making a push to migrate
spk12: more of our existing users, sort of a final push. And so we had a promotion around that. In December, we started a promotion where this was the first time we've ever done this and something that we could only do because we have a rewards program that can track this kind of thing. But we made an offer where if you come twice in December, you get a 20% off coupon for January. And so that was very good for driving traffic in December. And obviously, it's going to be a traffic driver in January as well when people come to redeem that coupon.
spk07: The robotic dishwasher, which I know we're all very excited about, I think in the spring. I'm just wondering if that's still on plan and went really well. What could the timeframe look like for a rollout into new units going forward?
spk12: Yeah, so we are still on pace for a test in spring. I'm very much looking forward to it. I'd say that the technology is largely ready. It's just a matter of getting it battle-tested. It's a little bit tricky to go from the prototype to the mass-produced model, just given that there are some material changes. And so I think it's safe to assume that it's going to be at least 12 months from when the mass-produced model is finalized. And, you know, at that point, I can get the actual parts list and bring it to the regulatory organizations. But that's a pretty opaque process. And so it would probably be, you know, 12 months minimum from testing. And then, you know, it would just be the timing for which stores we can, you know, plan ahead in terms of a layout to accommodate the robot dishwasher.
spk07: Thank you, and Happy New Year.
spk10: Thank you. Happy New Year.
spk01: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jeffrey Bernstein with Barclays. Please proceed with your question.
spk06: Great. Thank you very much. A couple of questions on the comp trend. The first one, I think, for the fiscal quarter, you did a 38. And I think you said the pricing was nine and the traffic, if I heard right, was a 3.3. So that would imply, I guess, a negative eight or so mix. And I think you said the plates were flat. So I guess it sounds like an ongoing, maybe non-sushi check management. I'm just wondering how you think about that negative offset, whether you see that as a concern or whether that concern is abating, kind of that missing component of um you know presumably the meaningfully negative mix shift kind of how you think about that um
spk08: I don't think it's a negative thing. I think it's a benefit for customers to receive our service model. I think it's a benefit for customers to receive our service model. I think it's a benefit to receive our service model.
spk12: So in terms of the negative mix, it's certainly there, but we don't really think of it as a concern. Our focus remains traffic. Our marketing is geared around that. Our overall strategy is geared around that. We think that that's the hardest part and really where we shine brightest, especially in comparison to our peers. In terms of average check management, we think of that actually as a unique feature for our guests that comes from our service model. You know, guests can come in no matter what their budget is. And that's one of, you know, we never price people out, and that's one of the reasons that our traffic's doing so strongly. But in spite of, you know, that mixed pressure, our restaurant-level operating profit margin is 19.5%, a meaningful improvement over the 18.2% last year. And so our thought, again, is, you know, traffic is our focus. We can leverage our fixed costs against traffic, and that gets us the margins that we like.
spk08: That being said, of course, you know, we love it when our guests do have greater attachments, side menu items, et cetera. And so we do have some promotional campaigns in the pipeline that are geared towards improving guest spend.
spk06: Understood. And then as we look forward, I think I pieced together from an outlook perspective on comps. Based on the September, October, it seems like the November was roughly a 6%. And I guess if the pricing was similar, for sure, that's a nice uptick. So I'm just wondering, one, I want to confirm that was right. And then I think on December, I thought you said that you were really pleased. I wasn't sure if that was a reference to the overall comp. or how we should just think about the outlook, whether or not it's fair to assume a mid-single-digit type comp sustains with still positive traffic and the pricing in that 3% range. Just trying to figure out the outlook first on the December, and then kind of what we should be thinking about for the rest of the year based on those components.
spk08: First of all, December 6% is correct. So, in total, it's 3.8%. After December, pricing will drop, but we will continue to reach the same level as we have achieved so far. I have confidence that I can do competitive comp and traffic. In order to do that, I have the confidence to maintain competitive sales momentum, competitive traffic, and competitive sales. Thank you.
spk12: So, yeah, in terms of the November coming in at about 6%, your math is right there. Looking at December, we did lap that 7% pricing in the first week. But as we said, we were very pleased with our traffic performance, our overall comp performance. We're confident that with our ongoing traffic strength, our marketing efforts, the IP pipeline that we have, menu development, that we'll be able to maintain this very strong momentum through the remainder of the fiscal year. We're very happy.
spk06: Understood. Now that's encouraging, despite, I guess, concerns of a slowing consumer. So good to hear. My last question was on the cost side of things. Just a clarification, I think you said the commodities were 4% deflation in the first quarter. I'm just wondering what the labor was for the first quarter and maybe the expectation for each of those for full year fiscal 24.
spk08: In terms of labor, we've seen about mid-single digits in inflation year over year, but
spk12: We were able to come in 30 basis points below the prior year, 31.6% against last year's 31.9%. And so we're feeling that, you know, the operational efforts that we've made, as well as the pricing that we've taken, all, you know, come into play there. And we're very pleased that we were able to not just stay flat, but actually improve our way from August. And then in terms of food defaults, You're right. From quarter one fiscal 23 to this year quarter one, it was about a 4% deflation. And then sequentially from Q4 of this past fiscal year to Q1, it was about 2%. Got it.
spk06: And just to clarify, Ben, did you say, I mean, I know depending on how we look at restaurant margins, it varies. But based on your calculation, it was 130 basis points of expansion. But as you said, do you expect the restaurant margins flat in fiscal 24 with the 3% price for the rest of the year? Or were you referring to the labor line? I think that prior question, someone was asking about labor. But I thought you had mentioned that you were comfortable with the restaurant margins flat. So just wanted to clarify if you have any kind of forward-looking thoughts on the remaining three quarters from an overall margin perspective. Thank you.
spk12: Yeah, if you look at our historical margins, they tend to lever pretty meaningfully every quarter. And so you can just assume that You know, the same as historically, they're going to continue to improve as we have greater traffic and greater sales that we can leverage against our fixed costs. The comment about, you know, the 3% pricing that we took, we felt was enough to offset, you know, not just our labor costs, but our, you know, well, we've got a cog's tail when we do have some other costs, general inflation, but the 3% that we thought was enough to pretty much offset all those inflationary pressures. And I'll also add, too, Jeff, on the restaurant-level operating profit as a percentage of sales, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we had 130 basis points of leverage there from 18.2 to 19.5. So, you know, with a lot of tailwinds, our pricing, the commodity deflation, the easing of labor inflation. So the tailwinds have been great this past quarter, and we fully expect that to continue for the remainder of the year.
spk10: Sounds great. Thank you very much. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you.
spk01: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of John Tower with Citigroup. Please proceed with your question.
spk12: Great. Thanks for taking the questions. Just a few, if I may. And I apologize if you might have hit this earlier. I had a hard time hearing some of the stuff. But on the loyalty program, I'm curious, how have registrations hit versus your own expectations? And, you know, how is it, it seems as if, per Ben's comments earlier, at least around the promotion in December where you can come in twice and get 20% off in January. One, I don't know if that was only reserved for loyalty members or not, but how is this working overall, the loyalty program to drive frequency, ticket, and or frankly any sort of customer insights that you might not have had previously? Yeah, so generally speaking, whenever we talk about a promotion, you can assume that it's limited to our rewards members. I don't know if you recall, in the last earnings call, it was November, our rewards program had just been out for a couple weeks, and we mentioned that the registration rate had doubled as compared to the prior program. And we sort of assumed that would level off, that that was due to the initial excitement. But I'm not sure if you heard in today's call, because the audio is a little bit garbled, but the registration is actually tripled. in comparison to the last program. So it hasn't leveled off. It's actually accelerated. So I think it's very fair to say that it's far exceeded our expectations. We're very pleased with it. I think it's still a little bit premature to be discussing guest insights, but just engagement is great. The things that we can do, the kind of campaigns that we can deploy are at a completely different level. Certainly the next earnings call will have a lot of good news that we'll be able to share with you. Yeah, and the visiting twice in December to get that 20% off in January, that's only for rewards members. In fact, the improved rewards platform is what enabled us to actually do that for the first time. Got it. Thank you. And just I know last quarter you'd also discussed the idea about communicating kind of some of the upgrades on the waitlist system and or kind of the rolled out cell phone ordering at the table to consumers as a potential lever. Did you guys push that during the quarter at all? And if so, what was the uptake of either? Yeah. In terms of the waitlist app, so guest attrition has dropped from 25% to below 20%. A very meaningful improvement. We're very, very happy with it. We think it's one of the reasons that our traffic is continuing to improve. In terms of the mobile phone ordering, that is still limited to two restaurants. We're going to start testing later. The testing is complete. It's feature complete. Really, I think the biggest factor is that we've had some trouble figuring out exactly what to name it. When we have a button called mobile ordering, I think our guests are assuming it's like a takeout button. And so we're changing it to smartphone ordering, which I think is a clear explanation of exactly what it can do. And for people that are new to this on the call, this program allows you to use your cell phone to place orders as well, which doesn't sound very exciting until you've been at a restaurant with a party of four or more and you're sitting on the outside and you can't order from the panel and you don't want to reach over people and grab stuff. And so We're very excited about this, especially in terms of, you know, mix. We think it's a meaningful opportunity for side menu attachment rates to go up. And so, yeah, that's the rollout is starting in January, and it's going to be on a rolling basis. My expectation is that it'll be done in the next two quarters, hopefully the next quarter. Got it. Thank you. And then just, I guess, following up. on the US TAM. I know you previously talked about the idea of getting to about 300 stores and it seems like new store productivity volumes and certainly traffic all seem to indicate that your brand is resonating particularly well with consumers despite whatever the macro had been doing over the past 24 months and obviously prior to that as well. So I'm curious if and when you guys think about that number. It appears dated at the moment. Do you guys have any more thoughts on where that should go over time?
spk08: It appears dated at the moment. Do you guys have any more thoughts on where that should go over time?
spk12: So it still remains a topic of discussion in terms of when we're going to commission the new white space study. Obviously, we know that people are excited for that. And so we're excited to share that with the street whenever we do decide to commission the white space study. We communicated many times in the past that the 300 units that we initially gave at the time of the IPO we think is conservative. Not just because it was a conservative number to begin with, but because of the market fragmentation and the sheer number of restaurant closures in the Japanese segment as a result of COVID. We think that's fundamentally changed our opportunity in the United States. But, you know, again, as you mentioned, we're rolling along. We've got 56 units against that initial 300. And so we're not in a rush necessarily. We don't see a need to see, you know, however many hundreds of units into the future, but I don't think anybody, certainly not anybody on this call expects 300 to be our ceiling.
spk10: Got it. Thank you for taking the questions. Of course. Thank you.
spk01: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Todd Brooks with Benchmark Company. Please proceed with your question.
spk03: Thanks for taking the question. Just a couple left here. Jeff, on the other cost line, given the success in accelerating the opening pipeline, is it safe to take the kind of Q1 level of spend and then obviously apply a little leverage as the volumes increase in the back half? But how should we be thinking about that level of spend as we go forward through the year?
spk12: That's exactly how you should think of it, Todd. We're going to continue our opening phase. As you know, we raised the guidance to 12 to 14 units. So we're going to continue to open units as quickly as we can. So we're going to continue to see those large pre-opening expenses. And that's really what impacted other costs the most throughout the quarter was the pre-opening expenses associated with opening these restaurants. As you know, a lot of restaurant companies in the past have broken out pre-opening expenses as a separate line item on the financials, which is looked down upon now. So we don't do that. But you can see what our pre-opening expenses were and our adjusted EBITDA reconciliation in the queue. So as we continue to open restaurants and we have more top line revenue to get the leverage, you're thinking about it exactly right. It's going to leverage a little bit, but they're still going to remain elevated. I wouldn't think about a lot of leverage going forward necessarily this year on the pre-opening costs. But as we get through the year, you will get some. And again, next year more, next year more. Similar to G&A, really. is how I'm kind of thinking about it. Because unless we start opening 50 stores sometime, we're going to continue to have enough stores where that additional revenue from the stores we have open will significantly offset that. But right now, it is giving us some higher costs in the other cost line and in the labor line as well. Our pre-opening costs are sprinkled throughout our P&L. They're not stuck in just one line. It's in labor. It's in occupancy. That's another reason the occupancy was high, too. Nobody asked about occupancy yet, but we have to start booking rent expense on restaurants when we take possession of the building. So when it takes four or five months to build the restaurant, we're having non-cash rent expense hit our books. And because of the accelerated openings, that's why you see our occupancy line a little bit higher than I think some people expected it to be this quarter as well. But it's a good thing. We're opening restaurants, and they're going to start pushing through revenue and make profits, and we're excited to see this happening.
spk03: That's very helpful. Thanks, Jeff, and agree that if it's tied to accelerated unit openings, it's a great thing. Just one follow-up there, and then I'll hop back in the queue. Within the other expense, you talked about marketing costs being up. Is this just pre-opening marketing for new units, or is there something that you're doing additionally on the marketing side that would bump that cost line up?
spk08: This Q1 is just a matter of comparison. In fact, we started targeted marketing from December last year, and it's an incremental cost, but that's why the competition is so strong. I think it's going to be a great success. So if we get into Q2, there's no marketing effort compared to last year. So in conclusion, we haven't added anything from this quarter, and we've been increasing marketing since December last year.
spk12: So as in context, last year in December, we started investing in targeted marketing search engine optimization with Google across its channels. It's been exceptionally – it's been very cost-effective. We're very happy with it, which is why we kept it as part of our marketing suite. So this is really just a year-over-year comparison given that we started in – This was the first and last Q1 where we didn't have that cost last year. As of, you know, Q2, we're going to be doing an apples-to-apples flat comparison. So, it's not like we started something new in Q1. This is really just the tail of a year-over-year comparison.
spk10: Perfect. Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you, Todd. Thanks, Todd.
spk01: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of George Kelly with Roth Capital Partners. Please proceed with your question.
spk09: Hey, everyone. Thanks for taking my question here. So most of my stuff's been asked, but just one last one for you related to capex. And I was curious, what's a good sort of percent of sales to use just generally for maintenance capex? I know it's two and a half per restaurant, but wondering about maintenance capex. And if we look back over the last year or two, has there been kind of a post-COVID Catch up on on some maintenance capex or just curious if there's been anything sort of not normal in the more recent periods So a couple things George hi So we're maintenance capex.
spk12: We've said in the past it runs about a hundred thousand dollars per rest once a restaurant is open your ongoing maintenance stuff that we're capitalizing and In terms of catch up, there's not necessarily so much of a catch up, but when you look at our depreciation line on the P&L, what you're seeing is a lot of accelerated depreciation in there because we've done several remodels. We changed our logo sometime before I joined the company, but we haven't changed the signage yet. So we're changing a lot of our signage to the new logo. And when we make that decision and we have a date for when that sign is coming down, we have to accelerate the depreciation. We also have a lot of protective equipment that we have in the restaurants for COVID. that we kept on the books just so we made sure the COVID emergency was over. And now that it's over, we have to write those off as well. So there are some several unusual things hitting our depreciation line. But that's kind of how I think you should look at it. Like I said, $100,000 or so per restaurant for me is capex.
spk09: Okay. Sounds good.
spk10: That's all I had. Thank you. Thanks, George. You're welcome.
spk01: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mark Smith with Lake Street Capital. Please proceed with your question.
spk05: Hi, guys. Similarly, I think most questions have been asked here, but just one for me. As we look at G&A, there's a little bit of litigation accrual. Did that fall in there, and was there anything else that was kind of one-timish? It looks like you're expecting some pretty good leverage there. I just wanted to see if there was anything else that was maybe one-timish in nature.
spk12: Yeah, the litigation accrual of $205,000 was the biggest one-time piece. And if you back that out, the number seemed almost exactly where we expected it to come out for the quarter. The thing that you're going to see going forward for the rest of the year, and if you look at our guidance, we're projecting about 50 basis points of leverage when we had 80 basis points last year. And the reason we're not expecting as much leverage this year is this is our first year because this is our sixth year as a public company, which means that we now have to be 404B compliant. which has created quite a bit of additional auditor costs and some consulting costs to make sure that we are completely 404B compliant when we need to be. So the additional public company costs create a little bit of a headwind there, but you know what? 80 last year plus 50 this year, 130 BIFs over two years is pretty good.
spk10: Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Thank you.
spk01: Thank you. We have reached the end of our question and answer session. And with that, this will conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
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