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spk_0: you're listening to dave and busters live
spk_1: good afternoon and welcome to the dave and busters entertainment incorporated fourth quarter in fiscal year and twenty twenty two conference call all participants will be in listen only mode should you need assistance please signal conference specialist by pressing the starkey followed by zero after today's presentation there will be an opportunity to ask questions to ask a question you may press star then one on your cell phone keypad to withdraw your question please press star than to please me or so off to one question in one follow up after which your line will be needed and you will get back into the queue please note this event is being recorded oh no way to turn the conference over to korea hadn't vice president of investor relations and treasure please go ahead
spk_2: edu you operator and welcome to everyone on the line leading today's call will be chris morris or chief executive officer and my courts areas are chief financial officer after a prepared remarks will be happy to take your questions let's call is being recorded on behalf of and buzzers entertainment incorporated and it's copyright it before we begin the discussion on our company's fourth quarter as it's clear and twenty twenty two results i'd like to call your attention to the fact that in our remarks and our responses to questions certain items may be discussed with your not entirely based on historical fact any of these items should be considered forward looking statements relating to future events within the meaning of the private securities litigation reform act of ninety ninety five all such forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from most anticipated information on the there is risk factors and uncertainties have been published in our filings with the fcc which are available on our website in addition or remarks today will include references to financial measures that are not defined under generally accepted accounting principles investors should review the reconciliation of these non gaap measures to the comparable gap measure contained in our earnings announcement release this afternoon which is also available on our website also pro forma financials including main event for the trailing four quarters and january twenty ninth two thousand and twenty three are available at the bottom of the events and presentation section of our i our website now it is my pleasure to turn the call every chris rachel corrie good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining our call today we are pleased to report another strong quarter financial results to mark our fiscal your and by strong comparable walk in sales growth and the tailwind of our special dense doesn't continue and it's recovery toward pre pandemic norms as a testament to the strength as well as the confidence we have in our future growth initiatives are bored authorized the share purchase program of one hundred million dollars fresh off the hills of our annual general managers conference are exceptional operators and support center employees are motivated and energize the deliverance on our goals we set for the business and twenty twenty three and beyond to realize or full potential we look forward to sharing our progress with you throughout the course of the years we continue to drive value creation for stakeholders on our last call we discussed or three current focus areas one effectively managing the merger integration to managing cells and profitability the next and the near term to offset the ongoing inflationary pressure of in our business and three long term strategic planning i'm pleased to report we have made meaningful progress in all three areas starting with our merger integration our team has continued their exceptional work on this important focus area we have now implemented all the initiatives necessary to achieve twenty five million dollars of analyze cost synergies exceeding original target by five million dollars we are extremely pleased that we were able that she these synergies and do so ahead of schedule next our teams have continue to work on mitigating inflationary pressures with thoughtful price seen an increase operating efficiencies we rolled out the first days of this work which enabled us to expand store operating margins to thirty percent in the fourth quarter of thirty basis for improvement versus the prior year and a two hundred and thirty days point improvement vs
spk_3: twenty nine team despite the current inflationary environment
spk_2: we are now onto the next phase of works focus on elevating the guess experience through removing complexity and operations primarily back a house and bringing greater focus to peak management a significant portion of ourselves in a given week or generated during busy weekend hours it's paramount we have the right people and the right place at the right time during these peak hours to consistently delivers the gas experience and optimize the revenue opportunities during peak we work closely with are operating team to develop the right staff model reporting tools and management approach to maximize through third during peak time
spk_3: in addition we are in the process of developing in shift reporting and server scorecards to provide our operators with real time information to make real time adjustments and in the moment told seen as needed throughout a shift
spk_2: these tools are just the beginning of the changes we will be making over the long run to unlock a new hospitality model for our business our commitment to the guess experience an unwavering focus on supporting our operators will be one of our greatest competitive advantages as we grow does does us into the future in addition to the work on cost controls and operational execution we are very pleased with the top flight momentum throughout our for folio
spk_3: as indicated by bar fourth quarter results driven by strong walk in broken special events turned into pre pandemic levels just continue to visit and stand a healthy rates are fourth quarter marketing challenger included or fall football program featuring superbowl winning tight and travels chelsea highlighting the second to none sports watch experience a dave and busters
spk_2: as and a modern and relevant way during the most viewed sport season in america in november we return to adjust freiburg even play combo this offer scores high on dow you uniqueness and visit intense especially with our for just this is followed with localized rule cup program in a key select markets we're creating further awareness of our watch product offering with our current spring basketball campaign that tipped off with the nc double a basketball tournament and well extend well into the in the playoffs to amp up the value and appeal this week we launched the twenty nine ninety nine slam dunk deal
spk_3: a twenty dollar power card and choice of entre from our watch menu
spk_2: in addition to above store media we are more aggressively leveraging db rewards and are growing loads a database of four point five million members to efficiently communicate with our gas across all occasions we are building now or data in digital innovation capabilities to drive relevancy media efficiency and tech enabled hospitality with the dave and busters brand
spk_4: focusing on special events
spk_2: we're encouraged by the continue momentum of our special events dozens which initially lagged the rebound a walk and does this coming out of the pandemic in preparation for spring graduation season we have made significant improvements to our data buzzers website which is already making a difference and special events lead generation revenue since launch this coupled with executing structural changes in our special than sales team is yielding advanced dawkins for the que one pureed done ahead
spk_3: of twenty nineteen
spk_2: all of this gives us confidence that this does is will continue to growth above and beyond free pandemic levels finally we then focus on finalizing our long term strategic plan that will further cement our company as the undeniable leader and location based entertainment
spk_3: and dried meaningful shareholder value
spk_2: our strategic route review an ongoing consumer research had reinforce our belief that there is significant upside in this doesn't a during improve focus and several key areas now why we allocate time to execute him his long term initiatives with a strict focus on our why we will never lose sight of maintaining operational efficiency efficiencies in the near term today i'll walk you through some of the key elements of our plan then on may sixteenth we will host or virtual investor day where we will provide you with more detail around our plan and give you an opportunity here directly from the rest of our senior management team our long term planning includes by his key strategic points first dry brand relevancy with ninety percent brand awareness the dave and busters brand is well known and held in high regard by the consumer however as the category has grown and evolved the d brand new study focused more than ever are on articulating it's relevancy second reimagine that guess experience we know that we're only as good as experiences week rate and our stores all over the country we intend to revolutionize the way we deliver on the guest experience through developing and implementing relevant just say scene technology to enable a one of the kind just experience third bleed through innovation our founders day corvo and buster corley created this dozens forty years ago with the spirit of innovation and a desire to do things differently today we operate in a growing robust category with consumers have many different dining and entertainment choices will continue to lead in that category through building a culture of innovation not only and entertainment but throughout all areas of the business fourth free image assets through strategic remodels it's been several years since we last updated our brand image through the through the design of our facilities over the next several years we intend to remodel our fleet a better position our brand for long term sustainable growth or remodel programs will involve more than just a new image
spk_3: and addition so fresh new look on the outside and inside of our stores our plan is to make certain adjustments for improved operational execution just engagements and hospitality and and expanded entertainment product offerings keep in mind these plans are to keep in mind these are just plans at this stage as we move forward we will follow a test and learn models and sure we are maximizing return on capital opportunity through this program
spk_2: this global expansion of our footprint we will continue to grow the business anchored in strategic planning and operational execution and successfully develop the dave and busters brand and main event brian's and new heights domestically and globally our team is already made meaningful progress on all five of these points in his laser focus on continuing this progress and twenty twenty three we look forward to sharing more details with you during our virtual industry day on may sixteenth so in closing we are screaming excited about the future this organization we have to industry leading brands and dave and busters a main event these brands have exceptional business models strong assets and are led by talented and passionate group of operators we had a clear line of sight on the strategic opportunities ahead for those business and are world class management team with a proven track record of superior execution
spk_3: we continue to believe there is tremendous upside potential for those companies and our stakeholders and we are working diligently to realize that potential
spk_2: so with that let me turn the call over to my for review of our fourth quarter and fiscal year results
spk_5: like they stress
spk_6: you're pleased with the financial results for the fourth quarter regenerated record revenue of five hundred sixty four million dollars and produced a record one hundred thirty eight billion dollars of adjusted either dead the fourth quarter aligning with guided survive by the fcc you will notice in our release that we changed our definition of adjusted he either we generally believe adjusted the but i should reflect the normalized earnings power of the business as a result in addition to certain one time nonrecurring and noncash items are definition of adjusted ebitda historically excluded pre opened expenses because reopening expenses were not associated with the earnings of the existing base of stores while we still believe exposed the free opposite spencer's from the density that reflect the true normalized earnings power of the existing based stores for self regulatory reasons we will no longer be adding it back to adjust the deep enough please note that we have added credits adjusted either that or disclosures along with the appropriate reconciliations to provide readers with the relevant measure for compliance with our debt covenants credit adjusted even diva includes the at back of free of the fences along with other items as defined in our credit agreed under our new definition we've produced a twenty four forty five percent adjusted ebitda margin in the fourth quarter which represents an increase of three hundred basis points above twenty feet or to pair ability under prior definition which included the outback of reopen expenses adjusted ebitda margin would have been twenty five point two percent for the quarter a two hundred eighty basis points above twenty nineteen levels as chris mentioned we have successfully it are angels energy targets of twenty five million dollars from the combination with main event while we completed this ahead of schedule we remain laser focused on driving operational excellence continuous improvement and additional cost savings all of which are ingrained in what we do every day a dave and busters with regards to pro forma comparable store sales figures are like to direct feature
spk_2: you are supplemental scheduled title
spk_6: march twenty twenty three supplemental pro forma financial data posted at the events of presentation section of our i our website i'd like to highlight the strong top sales figures in the fourth quarter of ninety percent top versus twenty twenty one and fourteen point one percent com first as twenty nineteen on the consolidated basis our special event business continues it's recovery toward pretend damage levels with pro forma combined calms down six point four percent this quarter versus twenty nine teams with the expectation that this will be positive and twenty twenty three along with the recovery of our special events business food and beverage represents an increasing mix of our total rapidly increasing the thirty six point one percent of revenue into for twenty twenty two vs thirty four point one percent on a pro forma basis vs que for twenty twenty one we generated a hundred forty three point five million in operating cash flow during the fourth quarter contributing to and ending cast ballots of one hundred eighty two million for total liquidity of over six hundred and seventy two million when combined with the four hundred and ninety one million available on our five hundred million dollar river
spk_7: all the credit facility
spk_6: we ended the quarter with death total leverage ratio of one point nine times we feel very comfortable deploying cash and are are board at three hundred million dollars share repurchase authorization with our from the fluidity and leverage profile turning to capital spending we invested a total of seventy point two million dollars in capital additions and open one new main event in beaumont texas during the quarter we planned open for me stores during the first quarter of fiscal twenty three to date we have opened one do dave and busters branded store in san juan puerto rico and two main event branded stores one in little rock arkansas the other in tucson arizona and will be opening one additional main event location in lexington kentucky later this week we planned to open a total of sixteen new stores during the school year twenty three including eleven dave and busters and five mean the best locations plus the relocation of our dave and busters burn until store for the full year of fiscal twenty two we reported revenue of two billion dollars an increase of fifty point six percent from fiscal year twenty one and an increase of forty five percent from fiscal year ninety we reported that income of one hundred thirty seven point one million or two dollars seventy nine cents per diluted share in fiscal twenty two that compares with net income of one hundred and eight point six million or two dollars and twenty one cents per diluted share in fiscal twenty one and that income of a hundred point three million or two dollars and ninety four cents per diluted share in fiscal ninety we generated adjusted ebitda of four hundred eighty billion dollars an increase of thirty nine point eight percent from twenty two and an increase of sixty six point one percent from twenty ninety finally let me provide a brief comment on our to one performance today overall operate performance the sport or remain strong as you know to one is up against a strong arm of crime recovery that occurred in to want to twenty two
spk_2: quarter today for pop store sales are roughly flat to down very low single digits relative to the same period last year which is still up nicely versus the pre pandemic serious
spk_6: to surprise we're extremely excited about the strong execution or business our progress capturing synergies the numerous growth opportunities for us to pursue and the talent and experience of our team to drive growth despite the challenging macro economic environment we remain focus on closely managing costs and capital spending to ensure we strategically unlocked the maximum value of these two great brains and deliver the highest possible returns for shareholders now operator please open up the line for question
spk_1: thank you will now begin the question and answer session test question you may press start within one on your touched on phone if you're using the speaker phone please pick up your handset before pressing the keys to withdraw your questions please press star then to let me remind you that you're limited to one question and one follow up question at this time with has momentarily to similar roster i first question comes from anti virus from jeffries please go ahead
spk_8: take it afternoon guys
spk_9: can you give it a little faster
spk_10: the fourth quarter and folder
spk_2: obviously starting out you don't know back around the up three percent some counter chef and then you know our system collar you don't terms of we're saw you know outside vs your expectations and
spk_6: the threat that kind of continuing into the swagger yeah any other sort of started with is it is not it's november seem to be a little lighter them when we were expected december played out as we were expecting given the calendar shift and that was some of the commentary we made on the prior call when you looked at the number of days leading up on the special event business prior to the christmas holiday having the christmas holiday on the saturday and sunday the provided that in know a bit of a headwind i would say on a curb their ability perspective for december but we knew all of that would come through in early january as return the calendar given the timing of the holidays spring sorry the holiday when a break for students
spk_5: so from that perspective we saw great results in january
spk_6: february continued that momentum and we've been pretty much relatively flat to this very low single digits number that we've seen on the porter to day basis through the end of last week
spk_2: and then it's only thing i would i was out a couple thomas of that's handy by the way and
spk_3: so as to as mike mentioned that when we started the quarter we we we communicated to the street that there is a mismatch and weeks
spk_2: the relative to the time in a special vets and so the one thing i'd i'd point out is that the fourth quarter played out when it with respect to that shift the fourth quarter played out exactly the way we anticipated and so at the time of the call we we had a lot of confidence in our business we saw a lot of momentum and even though the beginning a quarter started off slow you know we we could tell that it was due to those calendar cs and that momentum when you look through that shift there was pretty steady momentum throughout the entire quarter in and things did kind of pick up a little bit towards the end of a corner where we sit today it's almost it's a very similar story there's just a lot of noise and our numbers as we're starting this quarter just with time in the spring breaks and you're laughing and omer crime that the return the oh come on our own the crime last year and there's a lotta noise and and the numbers early and two key one hour but looking through all that noise it's yet we still have just tremendous confidence in this business we're excited about the when the moment and that we've created with a very good about yeah
spk_3: where we're going to end our long term strategies and you know there's with we feel great about things
spk_6: thanks thanks to the collar prison one once with of the unit opening cadence a horde of started here it
spk_2: fantastic have actually think about the the other twelve better to open for the rest of your
spk_11: yeah we just think about it
spk_6: six in the first half of the year ten in the back as the with for big one will have to plan store openings and que tu as the remaining ten stores will be equally split between que three euphoric five of these included in for will also have the relocation of the run until store
spk_12: our next question comes from jeff farmer from gordon get please go ahead like you and good afternoon so just a little bit of a follow up on some of the other have a nice conversation but flat down low single digits court date same for sales of sort of given where the comparisons are for the balance of the quarter you called out some other noise what ultimately does that mean for que one seems for sale so just to give you a little bit of context republican for of although two percent comp is is that and play based on what you guys have already seen and and understanding what the comparisons are for the balance of the quarter
spk_2: well yeah i'll take that this is chris yeah we as you know we don't provide quarterly cancerous cells guys but here's what i can tell you is and
spk_3: yeah we've that there is there's tremendous momentum in this business way with we continue to be very pleased with the what we see in our trends
spk_2: we've we've gone through we've looked at ourselves figure to try to understand that there's anything more than just time in a spring breaks and and laugh in a difficult comparison we're not seen anything that would suggest that there's there's a change and a significant change and the fundamentals of this doesn't us and so you know our best guess is where things are going to play out his you know we we think that when we get through this the stuff comparison that's yeah that the does this is gonna continue to perform nicely and in the near term and over the long term but you know at this point i'm it's just really hard to get a bead on it just because the sales numbers are so choppy with ya the tough comparisons and the shift and spring breaks and so there's just a little bit of uncertainty around yeah exactly what that baseline is going to be but based on everything that we know everything that we see we still feel very good
spk_12: okay are in the fall of his of the mid mid may virtual duster day so what what investors are are looking for some gave us that the unit development guidance for twenty three ah it doesn't sell like there's anything beyond that are that you're offering today but when we get through this mid may investor day is there she should investors be expecting to get over them more for some level or degree of of sort of either shorter term or long term guidance across units same for sales margin sorts pure etc
spk_10: how our approaches to provide
spk_6: reasonable guard rails for what we're going to call the near term long term fan of view of the company what we really want to be accomplishing with investor they is to really lay out the strategy and how we view the company on a longer term basis and we realize that i don't you guys all have models you're all are desperate looking for a specific data point but the reality of his we have a great business that has some near term opportunities in front of us that we are executing against and we feel like there's tremendous opportunity on the upside on a bit to longer term basis and that's what we want to be able to highlight for you guys
spk_1: or next question comes from chris a call from stiefel please go ahead
spk_13: i could have two guys
spk_14: just as a follow up
spk_3: micro chris get can you help us understand how traffic has turned it in the quarter today period as you can a last is the more normalize comparison there are maybe least give us what was the check or pricing is and for this period
spk_6: ah shirt so lucky we we've always have given the the overall perspective of the company we haven't gotten into the details of of traffic vs price we see overall strength in the business and it's relative against the be almost ron paul things are moving in tandem so it's not that we're seeing a dramatic drop off in traffic say like at the lower end consumer yup that's when i saw seen that at this point i saw some our perspective it's else that the business is performing and its elle ne it weekly noise that we see is is sporadic and relatively unless a consistent in that it's across the board and not tied to any one specific
spk_15: compounded of the business itself
spk_16: come in and i had a question about development i know you guys are clearly accelerating unit develop and here so can you walk us through the unit economics or how they've changed to day relative to maybe twenty nineteen and i'd like to understand is what are you targeting for averaging a ball yams margin and maybe investment call today versus what the company was doing and in two thousand and eighteen twenty eighteenth of the like that
spk_6: yeah that that that type of color will do something that will cover added thus does today but when we do look at just the overall business itself on the landscape around development
spk_17: we don't see any
spk_6: diminishment in the return profile that we have today versus while we had a nineteen or what we had a of ten years prior to that the in a while i'll call inflationary concerns you would have from a construction perspective or more than offset by the inflationary pricing that stupid able to build into the market
spk_1: our next question comes from interstellar from the ammo please go ahead
spk_6: a good afternoon maybe i'll just round and some of the near term sales questions here and encouraged if you can parse out are you see any change in spend levels either on reloads or enough and be
spk_18: that may be
spk_2: if you're not seen that maybe that should be sweetie some of your your confidence when she gets around that would be great
spk_19: yeah of
spk_6: try to the l l awestruck and then i'll let crist i mean if he wants to anything else that the one thing we are seeing and highlighted this before it as special events become a bigger component of the business and we are seeing that returned back to twenty nineteen levels the a business scuse higher to the food and beverage side of the business that it does to the abused so we are seeing an uptick in food and beverage as a percentage of the overall revenues as you know that food and beverage grabbed it does have a slightly lower gross margins then abuse medicine just the pure mixed shift we'll put a little bit of pressure on the overall margins are the status quo basis like given the operational team that we have in place and things that tony you're doing of were more than upsetting that impact in our numbers
spk_20: okay that's awful thank you and then
spk_6: yeah maybe the your future longer term when he talked about
spk_2: some of the operational improvements that you're implementing in this next phase potentially unlocking this new hospitality model which is i guess he said more like a longer term opportunity can you just described how you envision that playing out what is what is their hospitality mileage remind look like overtime when you try to achieve
spk_3: yeah sure and your of happy to do that allowed what i'll do is i'll give you just a general sense i'll give you more color and our thinking about it but it's certainly on may sixteenth
spk_2: as during investor day
spk_21: this is an area we're we're both stenson considerable time on and so you'll be all with that all i'll touch it again on may sixteenth you hear directly from our chief operating officer and you're here from our chief information officer
spk_3: the essentially a we house what are we have very large assets just so you have thirty to forty thousand square feet in some cases thirty thousand square feet and we do a considerable amount of volume and a very short period of time and so when you think about a hospitality models you know i think in our business as we have to think about it definitely
spk_2: then yeah certainly definitely than what a restaurant without to it and so we really challenge ourselves you know how to how do we make sure that we create an environment where we're able to manage gas flows all that traffic through and our center and all of our different than yours is as efficiently as possible and it then away way were catering to the gas needs every step of the way and so we we intend to work closely with our operators and with our had a technology on developing he does proprietary tools to be able to stay engaged with the guest throughout the entire guess journey and so again will walk you through this and a lot more details yeah this is worth that we were already starting at on the main event side that we've carried over and said dave and busters but it's it's that intersection of the human service model and the technology model where word maniacal he focused on enabling in the hospitality experience and so we we think that there is just tremendous upside
spk_3: as we as we developed us and were able to stay more engaged with the gas throw every step of that journey
spk_2: then you're that gives us the advantage of been able to collect a tremendous amount of data on those particular guests to be able to tailor eyes are service for approach just to meet their specific needs
spk_3: so it'll help us on managing throughput it'll help us on growing averages just checked it will help us on building a more engagement with our gas which could lead to more loyalty team were frequency and
spk_2: and in an overall better enhanced experience
spk_1: so we have an entire plan that's kind of staged year by year on how this is going to unfold again if you have a question please press star than one
spk_22: or next washing comes from brian's a car or from raymond james please go ahead hi thanks and good evening i'm just a quick clarification on the quarter to date of it sounds like qualitatively you don't believe you seen a change in behavior for the tip of the underlying is relatively stable correct me if i heard that incorrectly but of does that mean that your comps versus night teens were similar in february and
spk_6: march at each brand as the the overall trend in the business that we saw versus nineteen continues have from the is if there was anything i would say of of don't have any one of the two brands
spk_22: dramatically under performing or over performing that would thrive in the overall results we would specifically call that out lt does
spk_3: okay and then he he mentioned spring break sheds a in your view had of those shifts impact sales in march and april does that help marks and her april or maybe it's the other way around
spk_2: yeah i can take that sobel the a couple of things so i mentioned that yeah it's really tough to get a bead on cells right now and it's a combination of the timing of calendar mismatches as well as laughing yeah the return to to does is coming out of omer crime last year
spk_3: and so as a result is just created lot of volatility and the numbers week to week
spk_2: yeah there's certain spring breaks are different all over the counter and so there are some markets where your april's going benefit and march was negative in so you know once we get through that period of time organ have a much better feel for what the underlying trend is in the business so it's just a little choppy right now you know it's tough to get it to the read on it and that's that's the disadvantage of looking at our business over a very short period of time and so you know we'd we'd like to keep our focus more on the longer term aspect we've just still pulled together to very strong quarters we feel very good about you our performance we still feel very good about the underlying trends in the business we think coming out of this this period of mismatch that you were going to continue to out to grow the business but time will tell
spk_3: whoa whoa been a better position and armed us today on may sixteenth because will be over that period of mismatch and you know if there's something that material that that we should should be reporting than we can use that as an opportunity to to update you that our plan as of right now we we believe you know that the business is gonna work it's way through this mismatch of we're going to wear to get back to the year grown the business or the way that we have done we take a lot of comfort that we continue to do really well against twenty nineteen and so you know we think that that's that's still a measure of health of of this doesn't us
spk_6: and so that that gives us confidence as well plus else as added the upside as we continue to see our special event business drive the that just provides more fuel for
spk_1: i would say type of protection of there's a downturn from a walk in perspective and it just provides further feel that there's nod for this is to expand even further
spk_6: or next question comes from jake bartlett from truest securities please go ahead
spk_22: ray thanks for taking my questions and still in force the i'm going to start with another one about feel that the first quarter your friends and i apologize for that but i think it's important i think one thing that's you that you're looking at in april of last year was very strong
spk_6: twenty one percent pop in february was flat marches of twelve percent so looks like it was difficult since the weekend wonder where those you with that typical compare my question is you is the marketing plan looks similar so i think april was with will be boosted by the even play coming back by can of picking the peak with with advertising now
spk_2: you have the on a slam dunk meal on feel you should we think about is what you have can for a flaw in what your last years is similar to that we shouldn't see kind of is a huge it's not as difficult to compare so to speak as as one might think otherwise the as i think that's very fair that the structure the deal is essentially the same structure so even play combo as i said my prepared remarks and have you been following the company for a long period of time he already knows as didn't play combo is yeah that that steady at eight thirty value driven promotion that that that has worked well for the brand over time when used correctly
spk_3: what we've learned yeah not only in our own research but going back and looking at your house performed over the years is that that message and that that there are certain amount of fatigue that comes and it's if when the company uses that message over and over again and so the the message of the and play combo
spk_2: it is better served whenever we believe it's better served when we do once a year but we still wanted to take advantage of the structure of that combining food and an entertainment at for great value and so what you're seeing us do this quarter is just simply yo introduce that with a fresh seasonal driven message and and at the same time leveraging the strength of the basketball season and continue to build awareness around your all the great asset the we have on the watch side of our business which we know again from all of our research that there's a big opportunity to build more awareness around that side of the business but but the structure the deal is is essentially the same when we looked at see the the results last quarter we we believe our i'm sorry when we looked at their results and april last year of even play combo
spk_3: we actually don't see that big of a difference between our perform in april versus how performed in november the business over all did much better in april but that was also appear to time when you're coming out of omer crime in there is a lot of pent up demand and we believe that that really fueled field our business and so we don't think he the promotion was as big of a driver
spk_22: last year and but will you know where where keep an eye on it you know the a week to week ends yeah we we always have the ability to pivoted if necessary but as of right now you know that that's our plan we forget about it and
spk_23: yeah again we'll know more on your as next time
spk_22: we give you an update
spk_6: right it's helpful and snow want to switch to some questions and margins you can you talk about inflationary pressures to you to tell us what's been your how much was goons food inflation from beverage inflation homeless and labour inflation in twenty two and and what are your expectations for twenty three
spk_5: ah i'll take down so with we're looking at
spk_6: almost are with labour inflation we are see some relief there
spk_2: look at the hourly wages quarter sequential they've stayed relatively flat
spk_6: so we've we feel that we've got that stabilized and same with the commodities we've actually seen a nice decline so when you're looking at college corner sequential inflation we went from about seventeen for said ah versus twenty wanting to to seventy percent came down the knife for send you three and a few for we saw that top down to roughly four percent so the what's that the procurement team is done in combination with this as well as the synergy is that we were able to achieve would be able to get
spk_24: commodity inflation down the biggest importer the commodity inflation that we've seen relief on is really around proteins which is really the college chicken
spk_1: of chicken breast a chicken wings
spk_2: this concludes our question and answer sessions are like to turn the conference back over to chris morse chief executive officer for any closing remarks alright thank you operator in closing weird lights again commander our team for the exception a result they continue to produce that our stores across the country for all the hard work that was done at our dallas support center to integrate the main event deserts and optimize the infrastructure to support the bright future these two phenomenal
spk_1: and thank you all for joining we look for to keep in your price of our continued progress on growth initiative in revealing a more details about a long term strategic plan at our investor day may thank you very much
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