2/27/2025

speaker
Conference Call Operator
Operator

Greetings. Welcome to Twin Hospitality Group Incorporated fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 conference call hosted by Chief Executive Officer Joe Hummel and Chief Financial Officer Ken Kiewik. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Please note that this conference call is being recorded today, February 27, 2025. After the market closed, Twin Hospitality issued its quarterly and annual financial results via press release. Please refer to this document, which can be found in the investor section of the company's website at TwinPeaksRestaurant.com, among other places. But before we begin, I must remind everyone that part of the discussion today will include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. and therefore undue reliance should not be placed upon them. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties. Twin Hospitality does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements at a later date. For more detailed discussion on risks that could impact future operating results and financial condition, please see today's earnings release and recent SEC filings. During today's conference call, the company will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which it believes can be useful in evaluating its performance. The presentation of this additional information should not be considered in isolation nor as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures are available in today's earnings press release. I would now like to turn the call over to Joe Hummel, Chief Executive Officer.

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

Hello, and welcome to our inaugural conference call. Today marks another exciting new chapter for us as we begin our journey as Twin Hospitality Group, Inc., a standalone publicly traded company. Thank you to all of our team members, franchise partners, and guests for making this achievement possible. In January, our parent company, Fab Brands, spun out its two polished casual brands, Twin Peaks and Smoky Bones, into a distinct corporate entity. As a result, we now trade separately on the NASDAQ under the ticker TWNP. Our public listing creates an opportunity for shareholders to directly participate in Twin Peaks growth and success while providing us with another source of capital to execute on our robust development plans. Since Twin Peaks has always operated separately within the Fab Branch portfolio, the transition to becoming an independent company has been seamless. And our experienced executive team, most of whom have guided the brand's growth over a decade, remains firmly in place to lead our continued expansion and value creation. For those of you who are new to Twin Peaks, we're an award-winning restaurant that redefines traditional sports bar experience. Our brand's journey began in 2005 with a single location in the Dallas suburb of Louisville, Texas, and has since grown to a system of 115 restaurants across 27 states and Mexico. Twin Peaks' unwavering commitment to an exceptional guest experience defines our brand and drives our continued success. Each of our lodges provide a rugged lodge atmosphere state-of-the-art sports viewing experience, and premium dining. This creates an unparalleled entertainment destination and enables us to generate consistent customer traffic across all day parts, including lunch, happy hour, dinner, and late night. We offer our guests a made-from-scratch menu, craft beverages featuring 29-degree draft beer, signature cocktails, and attentive service from our engaging staff. Our strategic barbell pricing and approach balances accessible entry-level options with premium offerings, enabling us to serve guests across price points while maintaining exceptional value at entry level. Additionally, our extensive beverage offering supports high margin revenue across our restaurant base. We launched our newest bar menu in early February, featuring an updated drink menu that adds 19 premium handcrafted cocktails, creative mixed shots, trending categories, and top tier bourbons and tequilas. The enhancement brings bold flavors and high-end ingredients to the forefront, delivering expertly crafted beverages as Twin Peaks continues continuing to raise the bar on what a sports bar can offer. Currently, alcohol makes up nearly half of all Twin Peaks restaurants' sales, at about two to three times higher than conventional casual dining chains. Our guests exhibit strong brand loyalty as demonstrated by our black box intelligence scores. We analyze several consumer sentiment scores, including consumer perception of our food, beverages, service, ambiance, and consumer intent to return. Per BlackBox Intelligence, our scores are higher in every category relative to the broader casual dining segment, validating our brand strength. Throughout 2024, we expanded our footprint with nine new lodges, including two in the fourth quarter. Looking ahead, we plan to open nine to 11 new units in 2025, with six to seven being franchised. Additionally, we anticipate opening between 10 and 15 new lodges in 2026, and an additional 10 to 15 in 2027, including Smokey Bones conversions. As we continue growing, we're committed to maintaining a 75% to 80% franchise-based system. Our robust growth plans are supported by a pipeline of over 100 signed franchise commitments, with existing franchise partners driving about 75% of that growth. In 2024, we signed four new franchise development agreements, adding a total of 24 new lodge commitments. We then kicked off 2025 with a new five-unit development agreement that will expand Twin Peaks into two new markets, South Dakota and Montana. Based on a 2023 white space analysis by Calibrates Eastside Analytics, we believe the total addressable market for Twin Peaks is approximately 650 lodges in the U.S. and approximately 250 lodges internationally. With the current footprint of 115 lodges, we clearly have significant white space opportunities ahead. We have a flexible real estate strategy and have been highly successful at converting various other restaurants and retail stores into Twin Peaks lodges. This approach, which accounts for approximately 80% of our locations, offers several key advantages. Greater availability of potential sites, faster time to market, approximately nine months for a conversion versus 18 months on a ground up, lower build-out costs, and accelerated return on investment. To help fast-track the brand's growth at the end of 2023, FAP Brands acquired the 60-unit casual dining chain Smokey Bones with plans to convert approximately half to Twin Peaks. These ready-to-convert restaurants provide us with clear visibility into our near-term growth objectives. Our first Smokey Bones conversion took place in Lakeland, Florida last September. The location more than doubled its sales volume, growing from a $3.5 million Smokey Bones in 2023 to a current annualized run rate of approximately $8 million for Twin Peaks. Just last week, we celebrated our second Smokey Bones conversion and our first opening of the new year in Brandon, Florida, part of the greater Tampa area. This is the 16th location in our high-performing state of Florida. We currently have two additional company-owned Smokey Bones conversions planned for the remainder of the year, with more to follow in 2026. Looking at our unit economics, Twin Peaks is currently on a path to a billion dollars in sales over the next three to five years. Last year, average unit volumes reached $5.2 million, with top performing locations exceeding $10 million. When modeling Twin Peaks openings, we target the following average unit economics in the third full year of operations. AUV of approximately $6.5 million, restaurant level contribution margin of approximately 16% for our company owned Twin Peaks restaurants, and cash-on-cash returns of approximately 28.9% for conversions from previous restaurants or retail stores, and 37.1% for new-build restaurants, which equates to an approximately three-year payback period. Twin Peaks' strong union economics are a critical element of our ability to grow and attract franchise interest in developing the brand. Now let's turn to the initiatives we're working on for this year. Our marketing strategy is centered around major sporting events strategically enhanced with additional promotions and programming to create comprehensive calendar, that maintains engagement between these marquee sport events. This year, we've already had exciting new playoff games, the expanded college football playoffs, and UFC matchups that have been good for traffic drivers and are now beginning to see high enthusiasm around NHL and NBA games. Looking ahead, the NCAA college basketball tournament in March will be a key time frame for us to carve back some wins from weather challenges during January and February that we all felt We have developed some exciting new promotions geared towards driving repeat visits throughout the tournament. In the summer, FIFA Club World Cup will have an expanded format during June and July, and we're planning summer soccer promotions to capitalize on this opportunity. Then in the fall, we'll focus on fantasy football, NFL, and college football watch parties. We will complement this program with heavy sports marketing and endorsers to solidify Twin Peaks' position as the ultimate sports lodge for football season. We've been filling in the sports calendar gaps with promotions and unique campaigns around late-night flatbread specials, strong value messaging around summer-driven cocktails such as our Robust Margarita category, along with local specials unique to each lodge. Twin Peaks leverages its local sports lodge feel by building strong connections within each community throughout grassroots markets. This consists of local promo teams activating in and around each lodge, along with unique media tactics crafted for each local market to tap into local sports occasions. In summary, 2025 marks an exciting new chapter for us, and we're just getting started. We have a strong tenured management team, an underpenetrated brand that offers exceptional experiences while providing value to our franchise partners and shareholders. With that, I will now turn the call over to Ken Kuick, CFO of Twin Hospitality Group Bank, to review our fourth quarter 2024 financial information.

speaker
Ken Kiewik
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Joe. Before I discuss our quarterly results, I'd like to briefly recap our recent spinoff from Fat Brands. On January 30th, Phat Brands distributed approximately 5% of their ownership in Twin Hospitality Group Inc's Class A common stock to current Phat Brands stockholders, while the remaining shares continue to be held by Phat Brands. Twin Hospitality Group began trading on the NASDAQ at the time of the spinoff, and we are excited as we begin this next chapter. Separately, during the fourth quarter, we refinanced our credit facility to a new 30-year securitization facility. The refinancing stabilizes our financial structure and provides for an additional $25 million in new store financing that will allow us to further drive growth. Moving on to our fourth quarter results, I'll start by noting that 2024 was a 52-week fiscal year and 2023 was a 53-week fiscal year. The fourth quarter of 2024 was a 13-week quarter and the fourth quarter of 2023 was a 14-week quarter. So there's one more week of operations in last year's results, and the extra week falls in the fourth quarter. Moving on to our quarterly results, our system-wide sales, which includes both Twin Peaks and Smoky Bones, were $184 million, a 4% decrease from last year's quarter. The extra week in 2023's quarter contributed $13.7 million of system-wide sales. Of the total, Twin Peaks system-wide sales were $148.9 million in the quarter, a slight decrease from $149 million in the prior year quarter. The extra operating week contributed $10.8 million to last year's quarter, which was offset by an increase driven by new Twin Peaks lodges that have opened since the fourth quarter of 2023. Total revenue was $86.5 million in the quarter, an 8.2% decrease from $94.2 million in last year's quarter. This was driven by the incremental operating week in the prior year quarter, which contributed $6.5 million in revenue, lower same-store sales, and the closure of Smokey Bones location for conversion into Twin Peaks Lodges, partially offset by revenues generated by our new Twin Peaks Lodges. Looking at revenue between Twin Peaks and Smoky Bones, Twin Peaks revenue was $51.4 million in the quarter, down $0.2 million from $51.6 million in the prior year quarter. The decrease was due to the extra operating week in the prior year quarter, which contributed $3.6 million of revenue, mostly offset by the opening of new lodges. Smoky Bones revenue was $35.1 million in the quarter, down from $42.7 million in the prior year quarter. Smoky Bones revenue declined as we continue our strategic conversion of Smoky Bones locations into Twin Peaks Lodges, which requires temporary closures. As Jill mentioned, approximately half of our Smoky Bones locations are part of this transition plan. Additionally, we have slowed our Smoky Bones marketing activities during this transition period. And lastly, the extra operating week in the prior year quarter contributed approximately $3 million of revenue to Smokey Bones. Company-owned restaurant sales were $77.6 million in the quarter, a 9% decrease from $85.3 million in last year's quarter. This decline was attributed to the temporary closure of two Smokey Bones locations during their conversion to Twin Peaks, lower same-store sales, and the additional operating week in last year's quarter, which contributed $3 million in company-owned restaurant sales. Twin Peaks same-store sales decreased 0.6% in the quarter, including a 1.9% decrease at company-owned locations and a 0.1% decrease at franchise locations. Similar to others in the industry, same-store sales in January and February of this year were negatively impacted by weather and other macroeconomic factors. As a result, quarter to date, Twin Peaks same-store sales have declined 2.8%. As Joe mentioned, we have a full slate of marketing initiatives in place for the remainder of the year and are excited about the upcoming NCAA college basketball tournament in March as it gives us an opportunity to drive traffic into our lodges. Franchise revenue remained steady at $8.9 million in the quarter compared to last year's quarter as growth from our new Twin Peaks franchise openings offset the impact of the extra operating week in last year's quarter, which contributed $0.6 million in franchise revenue. Turning to costs and expenses, food and beverage costs in the quarter remained flat at 27.4% of company-owned restaurant sales as menu price increases offset higher food costs. Looking ahead, we expect commodity inflation to be in the low single digits for 2025. Labor and benefits costs in the quarter improved 10 basis points to 32.8% over last year's quarter as labor efficiencies and menu price increase offset wage inflation and sales deleverage. Other operating costs increased 210 basis points to 22% in the quarter compared to 19.9% in the prior year quarter. This increase was primarily due to sales deleveraging and costs associated with the closure of two Smokey Bones locations as we prepare for their conversion into Twin Peaks Lodges. Occupancy costs increased 60 basis points to 8.2% in the quarter compared to 7.6% in last year's quarter due to deleveraging from lower sales. Restaurant level contribution margin decreased 170 basis points to 8.1% in the quarter compared to 9.8% in last year's quarter. Looking at individual brand performance, Twin Peaks restaurant level contribution margin decreased 60 basis points to 14.4% in the quarter compared to 15% in last year's quarter. reflecting the cost of managers and training and training teams associated with the opening of new lodges. As Joe mentioned, we target a 16% restaurant level contribution margin for new Twin Peaks lodges three years after opening. Smokey Bones restaurant level contribution margin decreased 410 basis points to 0.5% in the quarter from 4.6% in last year's quarter. As we continue to close higher performing Smokey Bones locations for conversion to Twin Peaks Lodges, we expect continued pressure on Smokey Bones restaurant level contribution margins. Additionally, we have identified nine underperforming Smokey Bones locations that are expected to be closed during 2025. Advertising expense decreased 50 basis points to 5.4% in the quarter from 5.9% in last year's quarter due to the slowdown in advertising activity at Smokey Bones. General and administrative expenses increased to $12.1 million in the quarter from $8.9 million in the year-ago quarter, primarily due to a $5 million store closure reserve recorded in the fourth quarter of 2024 related to the nine Smokey Bones restaurants that are expected to be closed in 2025. Total other expense net, which consisted primarily of interest expense, was $13.3 million in the quarter compared to $8.1 million in last year's quarter. Additionally, in the fourth quarter of 2024, we recognized a $2.4 million non-cash loss on extinguishment of debt related to the refinancing of our securitized debt. Net loss in the quarter was $12 million compared to $8.8 million in last year's quarter. Adjusted EBITDA decreased to $4.1 million in the quarter compared to $6.5 million in last year's quarter. The extra operating week in the fourth quarter of 2023 contributed $0.9 million to adjusted EBITDA. Twin Peaks adjusted EBITDA was $6.2 million in the quarter compared to $7.5 million in last year's quarter, with the extra operating week in last year's quarter contributing $0.8 million. Smokey Bones adjusted EBITDA was negative $1.9 million in the quarter compared to negative $0.6 million in last year's quarter, with the extra operating week in last year's quarter contributing a positive $0.1 million. And with that, I'd like to thank you again for your interest in twin hospitality. Joe and I are now happy to answer any questions that you may have. Operator, please open the line for questions.

speaker
Conference Call Operator
Operator

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. And for participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment while we poll for questions. Our first question is from Roger Lipton with Lipton Financial Services. Please proceed.

speaker
Roger Lipton
Analyst, Lipton Financial Services

Yeah, hi, Joe. Hi, Ken. Good evening, Roger. Welcome aboard. Welcome to the great unwashed publicly held marketplace.

speaker
Ken Kiewik
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you.

speaker
Roger Lipton
Analyst, Lipton Financial Services

Pricing. What kind of pricing have you taken in the last 12 months, and what do you contemplate needing to take to maintain or potentially improve your margins this year?

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Our rolling price, you know, as of 2020, 12, 2024 was just slightly over 200 basis points. Going into Q1, you know, we're looking at taking, we took the price on some targeted markets that had wage increases just due to the state wage increases that occurred at the beginning of the year. We're still evaluating pricing opportunities with the current environment, but we're really just going to focus on other means of efficiency to focus on the margins. We want to really emphasize the barbell strategy that we have with the menus across all the Twin Peaks restaurants. We really we provide a compelling price to value proposition that appeals to a diverse range of guests. So we're going to be very mindful and avoid pricing if possible. We believe the consumers a bit tired of pricing. And so we want to make sure that we drive efficiencies in other areas besides just menu price.

speaker
Roger Lipton
Analyst, Lipton Financial Services

OK, thank you. And you mentioned the the cost of conversion is lower, less than building from scratch. And now that you've got a couple of smoky bones conversions under your belt, what do you think is a good estimate of what they'll cost?

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

Sure. You know, both of them were great pieces of real estate. Every second-generation building has different scopes of work, but after the two, Lakeland ran us about $4.3 million of total conversion. That would be leasehold improvements and FF&E. where Brandon was a little higher. It was a little more in-depth. It's a bit of a bigger building, and it ran us 4.7, but we think that 4.3, you know, 4.7 range is a very strong range to stay in, whereas a ground-up, you know, with dirt will run you between 6.5 and 7.5, so considerably less capital on a second-generation building, and what we're finding in the Smoky Bones is going to be very similar. We've reviewed all the locations that we're wanting to contemplate converting, so we kind of have a good understanding of what that cost is going to range. Obviously, when you open the walls up of a second-generation building, there's some different things about them, but nothing we really haven't seen considering over 80% of our unit count is conversions.

speaker
Roger Lipton
Analyst, Lipton Financial Services

Right. And when you open a conversion, or for that matter, open a build from scratch, do you typically advertise a great deal locally or do you, I mean, it's a soft opening or an aggressive advertising.

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

Uh, we, uh, we approach it as a soft opening, even though they don't appear that way. Um, when you have a strong piece of real estate, everybody sees you building it for six to eight months. So that's advertising in its own right. But we try to stay out of, you know, the normal marketing for the time being. We want to go soft, but, um, soft doesn't seem to be happening nowadays. There's a lot of excitement around the new openings.

speaker
Roger Lipton
Analyst, Lipton Financial Services

And the Brandon is only open how long?

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

Two weeks now? Yeah, we're in our second week, so we're very excited. Very strong reception from the greater Tampa area and the Brandon. Brandon's obviously a little bigger market than Lakeland, but the reception was fantastic.

speaker
Roger Lipton
Analyst, Lipton Financial Services

Okay. And when would be the next one, the next opening, conversion or otherwise?

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

Well, our next opening is actually going to be in Algonquin, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago. One of our franchise partners is in the process of doing that, and they're in the final stages. Our training team is getting ready to leave. So we're very excited about that. It is a second generation. It's not a Smokey Bones. It's another brand that was out there. And then from a Smokey Bones perspective, we're in Demo in Kissimmee, Florida, which is Orlando. And then we have a couple other that we're in the middle of permitting review with different cities.

speaker
Roger Lipton
Analyst, Lipton Financial Services

Got it.

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

And the one in Chicago, is that a new market for you or do you have... No, that will be our... We have a store in Oak Brook, Illinois, Warrenville, Illinois, and then there's one just in the DMA of Chicago, which is Shearville, Indiana. So this will be, I guess I would call it our fourth in the Chicago DMA. We're very excited about it. We're trying to get close to Ken's hometown.

speaker
Roger Lipton
Analyst, Lipton Financial Services

Okay. Do you have a strategy in terms of out of... the 10 or 11 that will open this year, how many do you target? X percentage in new markets and X percentage in existing markets, or don't you worry too much about that?

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

No, we really just target the best real estate within our franchise community and within our corporate development areas. We don't necessarily concern ourselves if it's a new DMA or an existing DMA with multiple Twin Peaks, obviously we want to be mindful of any kind of cannibalization. So we have that in thought in mind if we're too close or not too close. So it doesn't really come into effect. We just want to make sure that we have the best piece of real estate and then we go from there with it.

speaker
Roger Lipton
Analyst, Lipton Financial Services

I hesitate to ask a question, but I'll take a chance and say over the, how many stores have you closed in the, in the, last 12 or 15 years that you've been building this brand?

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

You know, Roger, I'd have to give you the exact number. I don't have many off of the top of my head, but I don't have the exact number, but I certainly can get that to you later. But it's not many.

speaker
Roger Lipton
Analyst, Lipton Financial Services

Well, that's what a shareholder would be hoping, right?

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

Right. And generally, if there's a closure within the life of Twin Peaks, it's generally if the market has shifted and the lease extensions have run out and we've chose to relocate to a fresher market, or a fresher building, whatever it may be. And so that's generally the reason a market would close. And so, sure, there have been. The brand nearing 20 years. There's some leases that are out there that are coming up on 15, 20 years. So there might have been some market shifts. So that would drive some of that.

speaker
Roger Lipton
Analyst, Lipton Financial Services

Yeah, yeah. Well, I wasn't so concerned about a 20-year lease that expired. I was more concerned about it sort of just not doing the numbers to carry the real estate.

speaker
Management Representative
Unspecified Management Team Member

Sure, yes.

speaker
Roger Lipton
Analyst, Lipton Financial Services

Okay, thanks very much, Joe.

speaker
Management Representative
Unspecified Management Team Member

Yeah, thank you, Roger.

speaker
Conference Call Operator
Operator

Our next question is from Peter Salah with BTIG. Please proceed.

speaker
Peter Salah
Analyst, BTIG

Great, thanks, and congrats on a successful spin. I had a couple questions maybe on 2025 guide. You know, just for clarity, you know, the 9 to 11 twin peaks that you guys highlighted earlier, in 2025, is that all U.S., or are there any units that we should be expecting internationally?

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

We're anticipating approximately two in Mexico. We have seven currently now, and our partners down there are constantly working different real estate deals, but we anticipate two locations in Mexico if everything pans out with the lease negotiations.

speaker
Peter Salah
Analyst, BTIG

So that's seven to nine U.S.?

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

Domestic.

speaker
Peter Salah
Analyst, BTIG

Yes, sir. Got it. Correct. And then two in Mexico. Got it. And then does the conversions, there's two conversions that you're planning. Are those included in the seven to nine or are those in addition to the seven to nine?

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

Those are included in the seven to nine. I think as we were talking about it, there were just two more corporate conversions that we were anticipating after we opened a corporate conversion two weeks ago in Brandon, Florida. So that's what that was referencing. And then So it's a part of the seven and nine domestics.

speaker
Peter Salah
Analyst, BTIG

Got it. Okay. And then just as we think about, you know, the smoky bones, I see the EBITDA for that brand, you know, slightly negative. Should we anticipate any more closures in 2025? I suspect if you close some of those really underperforming units, that could be a boost to EBITDA and cash flow.

speaker
Ken Kiewik
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I'll take that one. So as we've talked about, there are about 60 original Smokey Bones restaurants. We'll convert half of them in the Twin Peaks locations. The ones that we won't convert really because there's a Twin Peaks down the street, so we don't want to cannibalize an existing Twin Peaks or that Smokey Bones location sits in a mall that restricts alcohol sales. Of the 30 that we are not going to convert, So far, we've identified nine that will close in 2025. We're always watching the operations of the restaurant, so it is very possible that we would close additional restaurants. It will continue to be a drag on our margins. We broke out the margins by concept on the call, and those restaurants will be a drag for a period of time. But Joe and I and the team are working to close those as quickly as possible.

speaker
Peter Salah
Analyst, BTIG

Understood. Okay, very helpful. Just maybe a couple more in terms of on the development. Anything we should be aware of on the cadence of the development, particularly in the U.S., the 7 and 9? Is it more back-end weighted? Is it kind of evenly spaced? How should we be thinking about that?

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

You'll see probably a bit of a gap in Q2 because a lot of construction will be starting. So we'll see Q3, Q4. Obviously, we just opened Brandon. We're getting ready to open Algonquin, Chicago, the Chicago market. And then you'll probably see something start popping again in late Q3, Q4, and then it will start popping them open again. You get some of those delays sometimes with permitting and what have you.

speaker
Peter Salah
Analyst, BTIG

Right. And then just on same-store sales, I know we started off the year down to eight here, January, February, kind of consistent with what we're hearing from others in the industry today. How do you anticipate the year to progress? Expect some improvement from there sequentially? Are there some easier compares or tougher compares we should be aware of? Any calendar shifts? Anything that we should be aware of on that front?

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

Well, obviously, we started with that 2728 number with 1% of it roughly being weather. We all experienced some fun weather that wasn't so fun for all of us. But as the weather starts to improve, the excitement we're seeing as we got into P3 here recently, and with all the excitement building around March Madness, NBA playoffs, NHL, we're optimistic of how the traffic and the sales will continue to go. Always rollovers exist. There is some shift in the Easter rollover, but there's the bigger thing for us is shifts in the sports calendar and different games and the success and not-so-success of the home teams and what that affects the store. So we always pay attention to that. We're always studying the calendar and who's winning and who's losing. So that's what we play with in the sports bar world. But we're feeling a lot of that.

speaker
Management Representative
Unspecified Management Team Member

We are feeling a lot of energy with the basketball playoffs coming.

speaker
Unnamed Investor
Investor/Participant

Got it. Best of luck.

speaker
Conference Call Operator
Operator

Thanks, guys.

speaker
Management Representative
Unspecified Management Team Member

Thanks, Peter. Thank you.

speaker
Conference Call Operator
Operator

Our next question is from Greg Fortunoff, private investor. Please proceed.

speaker
Greg Fortunoff
Private Investor

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. I have a couple of questions. So there's been a number of things written about Hooters in relation and in sort of conjunction with Twin Peaks. Can you just talk about how the closing or the bankruptcy of Hooters is affecting Twin Peaks, good, bad, or nothing, or how that works?

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Obviously, you know, we operate somewhat in the same segment. From our brand perspective, we have an all-female weight staff just like they do. But I think outside of that, the comparison's not very close. We have great buildings, unbelievable TV packages, a scratch kitchen, a very expensive bar, and you can't match the 29-degree beer. So, We're not really feeling the effects of them. We'll probably start picking up some clientele, but I think their numbers are pretty low, so I'm not sure how big of a clientele lift we'll get off of it. As far as real estate goes, we're always evaluating their real estate or anybody's real estate that is the best real estate that could be a possibility for a conversion for us. So that's kind of how we look at Hooters. We look at all the casual dining brands similar. Everybody has an aspect of their brand that is competitive with us, and we attack that and try to out-operate and operate with excellence on those parts of their success or not. So basically no major effect one way or the other.

speaker
Greg Fortunoff
Private Investor

That's the long answer.

speaker
Ken Kiewik
Chief Financial Officer

Okay. I would add, Greg, that there's a lot of workers out there. So as we're opening restaurants, we're always looking for front-of-house, back-of-house folks, and this probably gives us a bigger population to go pick from.

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

That's a very good point, Ken. Yeah, that is a good point. There'll be some possible influx of potential candidates for us.

speaker
Greg Fortunoff
Private Investor

Okay, that makes sense. Just out of curiosity, what percentage of yearly sales does March Madness account for? Is it outsized? I'm sorry, what was that last part of the question? Is it like an outsized percentage, like the two weeks of March Madness? Is that an account for a certain percentage of sales that's outsized versus anything else, or is it? Are there other things?

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

No, no, it's not outsized. I mean, we, we, we really play within the whole sports calendar. As you're aware, the sports calendar is so stretched out nowadays, the expanded college football playoffs, the NFL playoffs, all the pay-per-views with, with our friends at UFC and any kind of boxing. There's one this weekend will be exciting. Um, you, you just see some energy levels go up and down, but I don't see heavy lopsided percentages for March madness versus other sports. Um, And the sports watchers spreading their eyes out on so many different things. Soccer is starting to drag into our stores. We're seeing a lot of good positive wins with that, with Champions League and Premier League. And we have the FIFA Club World Cup getting ready for the World Cup in 2026. So there's so many different sporting events. March Madness does not lopside us.

speaker
Greg Fortunoff
Private Investor

Okay. A couple more easy ones, then I'll get to the hard ones. So nowadays there's so many – You know, sports betting apps and all these things. Has it ever come up to do a partnership with anyone or some kind of promotions with any of these, or you're trying to just stay neutral and not pick a side?

speaker
Joe Hummel
Chief Executive Officer

Well, you bring up a good point. We have been approached and we've looked at it. Obviously, different states have different laws, so that prevents a national-wide sporting app within the stores. What we see is by us having three to four views of TVs for sports, everybody has their sports betting app. They're more in tune to watching all the different games, whether it's Red Zone or the multiple different games we have on with 12 different satellites. And so we want to just stay focused. We're there for them to have all their games that they're betting to be able to watch. And we try not to be the gambler advisor. That would not be prudent on our part. And so we want to just let them be able to see everything they're betting on. That's what we see mostly of. And the different states with different rules and laws around it makes it a little complicated.

speaker
Greg Fortunoff
Private Investor

Okay. Are you able to give an EBITDA forecast for 2025? Are you guys doing that? I mean, I haven't heard it, but can you?

speaker
Ken Kiewik
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, we're not at this time, Greg, but I think by the second quarter we will. What Joe and I and the team are working through really is the conversion of Smokey Bones and the impact on the margins. of those restaurants we want to close and what restaurants we're going to close. So as that becomes more firm for us, which we believe it will in the next two or three months, then we'll be in a position to provide much more clarity. Okay.

speaker
Greg Fortunoff
Private Investor

So on the last call, and I'm not sure if I heard this right or wrong, I thought Andy said you were considering doing an offering. I'm assuming... there's something other than equity or is it possible? I just want to make sure, let me say differently, that you're not going to be doing an equity offering anytime soon or at this price.

speaker
Ken Kiewik
Chief Financial Officer

When we refinanced our securitization facility, this is Twin Peaks, we agreed with our bondholders that we would raise $100 million of Twin Peaks equity between now and October, the end of October. There's a piece of it at the end of April. and that we would use 75% of those proceeds to buy down debt. So there will be an equity raise between now and October of 100 million. What happens from there? You know, it obviously depends on price. And Joe and I are speaking with our board of directors and our bankers and where the market's right. And if it provides additional shareholder value, we have a public security available to do that.

speaker
Greg Fortunoff
Private Investor

Are you talking about equity or something else that, that equity, I mean, because, because selling stock at this price, I mean, it just doesn't seem, I mean, this is, you know, supposed to have a billion, a billion dollar valuation. If you're selling stock at a $400 million valuation, it doesn't seem very, you know, shareholder friendly.

speaker
Ken Kiewik
Chief Financial Officer

Agreed. What we don't want to do is sell shares at a, at a low price. So there are options for us to raise that financing could be a, Preferred security, structure preferred. There are options for us to do that. So where the market's not favorable for us, we won't sell into the market.

speaker
Greg Fortunoff
Private Investor

Okay. So last question, a little personal. You can tell me you don't want to answer it on my business. But since the stock has dropped precipitously, I'm just wondering if there's been any discussion amongst you and your team about, you know, buying stock when you're allowed.

speaker
Management Representative
Unspecified Management Team Member

As a management team?

speaker
Greg Fortunoff
Private Investor

Or you, I mean, I'll ask you, but I would imagine that you're only looking at your chops. What's that? No, I meant individually as an insider buyer. I mean, you know, the stocks, you know, it would seem like everyone would be looking at their chops to own the stock, you know, five-year horizon, big growth and all that. I would be careful of...

speaker
Ken Kiewik
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I'll be careful how I answer it because I don't want to answer it in a way I shouldn't answer it. I'll say this. I believe, and I think it'll be hard for us to find a CEO or CFO that thinks their stock is overvalued. I believe there is a significant value to momentum play in Twin Peaks. There's a pipeline of over 100 units built in, signed, paid for. We've got the real estate for Smokey Bones. So, yes, I believe that if you ask me if I would be a buyer at this price, I would personally. but I can't make that recommendation to anybody out there.

speaker
Greg Fortunoff
Private Investor

Well, I look forward to seeing your buys in the filings, and that's it for me. Congratulations on getting public, and I wish you the best.

speaker
Unnamed Investor
Investor/Participant

Thank you, Greg.

speaker
Conference Call Operator
Operator

It looks like there are no more questions. I would like to turn the call back over to Joe Hummel for his closing remarks.

speaker
Management Representative
Unspecified Management Team Member

I'd like to thank everybody for joining us on our inaugural call, and we look forward to our next earnings call.

speaker
Conference Call Operator
Operator

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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