Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Carroll's Restaurant Group Incorporated's first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Instructions on how to ask a question will be given at that time. I would like to remind everyone that this conference is being recorded today, Thursday, May 11, 2023, at 8.30 a.m. Eastern Time, and will be available for replay. I will now turn the conference over to Jeremy Watches, Carroll's Senior Director of Finance. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. By now, you should have access to our earnings announcement released earlier today and our earnings presentation that are both available on our website at www.carrolls.com under the Investor Relations section. Before we begin our remarks, I would like to remind everyone that that our discussion, including answers to questions posed to management, may include forward-looking statements or comments with respect to our strategies, intentions, or plans in the future direction of revenues, input costs, or other aspects pertaining to our business. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and therefore undue reliance should not be placed on them. We also refer you to our filings with SEC for more details, both with respect to forward-looking statements as well as risks that could impact our business and results. During today's call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP measures that 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 generally accepted accounting principles. and a reconciliation to comparable gap measures is available with our earnings release. With that, I will now turn the call over to our new president and CEO, Deborah Derby.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Jeremy. I'm delighted to be speaking with you this morning on my first call as Carol's new president and CEO. As I just finished up my first week on the job, so to speak, I will keep my initial comments brief and then turn the call over to Tony and Greta to discuss the details of our spectacular first quarter. First, I want to reiterate how excited I am to be part of the Carol's team during this dynamic period. As some of you may know, I have served on the Board of Directors of Carol's for the past five years, so I am familiar with the opportunities and challenges of the business, as well as the outstanding people that make up the company. I have seen the team persevere during one of the most challenging business environments of our time, and it is great to see the results of their hard work finally beginning to flow through to the bottom line. Second, I want to thank our partners at RBI and Burger King on their recent diligent efforts to reinvigorate and reinvest in the brand and their franchisees. Those efforts are also starting to yield results. I spent my first week in Syracuse meeting with our corporate team, as well as training and working the evening shifts in one of our local Burger King restaurants. From that experience, I have a renewed appreciation and respect for what our team members do. My takeaway from my various interactions last week is that we have an incredible group of talented, engaged, and dedicated employees who are passionate about the company our brands, and our customers. And I am confident that this is the foundation which will serve as the springboard for our continued future success and upon which we will continue to grow our business. Thank you for your time today, and I look forward to our continued dialogue during future earnings calls. I will now turn the call over to Tony Ho, our CFO and Treasurer.