Portillo's Inc.

Hello, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Portillo's first quarter 2026 conference call and webcast. I would now like to turn the call over to Chris Brannan, Vice President of Investor Relations at Portillo's to begin.

Thanks, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Portillo's first quarter 2026 earnings call. With me today are Brett Patterson, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Michelle Hook, Chief Financial Officer. You can find our 10Q earnings press release and supplemental presentation at investors.portillos.com. Any commentary made here about our future results and business conditions are forward-looking statements, which are based on management's current expectations and are not guarantees of future performance. We do not update these forward-looking statements unless required by law. Our 10Q identifies risk factors that may cause our actual results to vary materially from these forward-looking statements. Today's earnings call will make reference to non-GAAP financial measures, which are not an alternative to GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their most comparable GAAP counterparts are included in this morning's posted materials. Finally, after we deliver our prepared remarks, we will be happy to take questions from our covering sell-side analysts. And with that, I will turn the call over to Brett.

Thanks, Chris, and good morning, everyone. I appreciate you joining my first earnings call as president and CEO of Portillo's. It's an honor to lead this special brand, and as I've observed these past few weeks, talented group of people. What drew me to this company starts with what makes it unique. At its core, Portillo's is about creating memorable experiences for our guests, supported by a strong culture of hospitality, in a differentiated menu that offers craveable food. I want to take a moment to thank our team members for their candor and insights during my first two months, as well as offer my deep appreciation to all that bring this brand to life every day. I started my career in restaurants at age 17, working on the front lines. That foundation helped shape my leadership approach and taught me firsthand that the best restaurant brands have great culture with well-trained and committed teams that genuinely care about the guest experience. My focus now is bringing those elements together into a clear, disciplined strategy that our teams can consistently execute. My key objective these first 60 days has been to listen and learn, spend time with the teams in our restaurants, and understand the business from the ground up. That includes both our new markets as well as here in our backyard of Chicago, where strong performance is important and expected. Over the next several months, my priority is to partner with the leadership team and lean on formal research and insights to build a strategy that will align the entire organization. Getting there will require relentless focus and rigor to stick to what is most important. And that's how we will deliver the memorable experience that has helped us build some of the most loyal guests in the industry for more than six decades. At a high level, that foundation centers around three areas. Operational excellence as defined by a guest-centric mindset, well-trained team members, and high-quality food executed to standard served accurately and on time. An integrated and targeted approach to marketing, leveraging data and insights while fully utilizing the right platforms to drive awareness, trial, acquisition, and frequency. Lastly, a disciplined development strategy that creates value. When we execute those three pillars, we believe the desired outcomes will follow. Consistent year-over-year same-store sales growth and improved restaurant-level profitability. Everything starts with operational excellence. It's essential that we consistently deliver a great experience in all our restaurants, no matter how guests choose to use us. The best insights come straight from the source, our restaurant teams and managers. That's why I have and will continue to make it a priority to spend time with them listening to what they need to ensure the proper tools and resources are in place to deliver on this imperative. We have engaged with outside partners to execute several landmark studies for the brand, led by our Chief Marketing Officer, Denise Lauer. This critical research is focused on customer segmentation, brand positioning, and menu satisfaction, and will give us deeper insights to better inform our marketing strategies and our core markets, as well as new and growing territories. Strong operations and marketing will complement another extremely important initiative, implementing a sound philosophy and approach to ensure a value-creating development strategy. Portillo's has significant long-term growth opportunity, which will be a key piece of our strategic roadmap, but it must be pursued with discipline. We will be measured in terms of where and how we grow with a clear focus on cash-on-cash returns at the restaurant level. We're fortunate that Jennifer Pecoraro-Stripling recently joined the team as Chief Development Officer. She brings vast industry experience in multiple categories to this critical function. She will be focused on evolving our new market playbook, selecting sites that drive healthy returns, exploring prototype formats, and ensuring a more disciplined use of capital by safeguarding responsible building costs. Before closing, I want to briefly touch on the first quarter where we showed improvements in transactions and sales. And while I'm encouraged by these results, our teams are putting their focus and energy into building a sustainable long-term plan that will lean on the aforementioned fundamentals to drive consistent results. Michelle will speak about our first quarter and current trends shortly. But as we look ahead to the next few months, our focus is less about short-term tactics and quick-hit strategies and more about building the right foundation for long-term profitable sales growth. As noted in the press release, we're comfortable with reiterating our fiscal year guidance. But as our strategic work progresses and new finance leadership is brought on board, our expectations may evolve. We will continue to provide updates as appropriate throughout the year. In closing, I developed a passion for operations early in my restaurant career. I've always believed that the top restaurant companies are built on solid fundamentals and disciplined execution, led by teams that take pride in delivering best-in-class guest experiences. Bringing that passion to a brand I've admired since my first visit more than two decades ago is incredibly exciting. Our focus now is to sharpen our priorities, strengthen our ability to execute, and build a credible growth story. Before I pass it over to Michelle, I want to address the announcement we made this morning regarding her decision to depart Portillo's. Michelle has been Chief Financial Officer here since 2020, playing a critical role in leading our finance function, supporting the company's IPO in 2021, and helping expand the business into new markets. We appreciate Michelle's leadership and we will, consistent with our internal succession plan, immediately kick off a search with a leading national executive search firm to identify our next CFO. I'm confident in the long-term opportunity at Portillo's and I look forward to sharing more as our strategy continues to take shape and drive sustained long-term shareholder value. And Michelle, I want to thank you for your dedicated service and partnership and wish you all the best in your next chapter. I will now turn it over to you to walk through our quarter one results in more detail.