El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the El Pollo Loco 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 2nd, 2023. And now, I would like to turn the conference over to Ira Films, 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.elpoyoloco.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, including statements related to our growth opportunities, strategic and operational initiatives, expectations regarding sales and margins, potential changes to our product platforms, capital expenditure plans, expectations regarding kiosk rollouts, the ability of our franchisees to drive growth, expectations regarding commodity and wage inflation, remodel and expansion plans, and our 2023 guidance, among others. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore, you should not put undue reliance on them. These statements 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 Form 10-K, for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact our future operating results and financial condition. We expect to file our 10-Q for the third quarter of 2023 tomorrow, and we would encourage you to review that document at your earliest convenience. During today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP measures, which we believe can 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 and reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures are available in our earnings release, which is available in the investor relations section of our website. With respect to the restaurant contribution margin outlook we will be providing on today's call, Please note that we have not provided a reconciliation to the most directly comparable forward-looking GAAP financial measure because without unreasonable efforts, we are unable to predict with reasonable certainty the amount of or timing of non-GAAP adjustments that are used to calculate income from operations and company-operated restaurant revenue on a forward-looking basis. Now, I would like to turn it over to Bill Floyd, our Chairman of the Board.

Thank you, Ira. As we position the company for growth going into the new year, the Board of Directors has been assessing the best way to support the execution and acceleration of El Pollo Loco's long-term strategy. In doing so, The Board has named Maria Hollingsworth our Chief Operating Officer to the additional role of Interim Chief Executive Officer replacing Larry Roberts. This change will be effective at the end of the day tomorrow. In light of Maria's new incoming role, She is joining us on today's call, and I'm pleased you'll be able to hear from her directly on our strategic initiatives. Larry was an important part of El Pollo Loco's history as a public company thus far, from serving as our CFO during our initial public offering in 2014 to leading the company as our CEO for the past two years. On behalf of the board, I want to thank Larry for his valuable leadership and contributions to the company over the past 10 years. Now, let me be abundantly clear for everyone on this call. It is the board's belief that El Pollo Loco has a tremendous opportunity to create value for all its stakeholders. In order to capitalize on this opportunity, we believe the company should remain focused on what makes us unique, our flame-grilled chicken, while continuing to improve our profitability through the implementation of technology such as kiosks and our ongoing process optimization efforts. Finally, we will accelerate unit growth, expanding into new markets to realize the immense potential of the oil local brand. The board firmly believes in our strategic direction, and we are excited to accelerate the pace in which we will achieve it. The board has engaged a nationally recognized executive search firm to help identify our next CEO to lead the company forward. The board will consider both internal and external candidates to ensure we find the right person with the necessary skills and experience to ensure that we capitalize on our opportunity. As I mentioned earlier, to help ensure a smooth transition, our current COO, Maria Hollingsworth, will assume the additional role of interim president and CEO until a new CEO is identified. Maria has been in the restaurant industry for approximately 30 years. with extensive experience driving operations for multiple franchised quick service brands. Maria understands our customers, our franchisees, and our people, making her well suited to step into this role. Maria will be supported by the rest of our world-class leadership team and our engaged and experienced board of directors. I look forward to working more closely with Maria to capture the immense opportunity ahead of us. With that, I turn it over to our incoming interim president and CEO, Maria Hollingsworth. Maria?