Texas Roadhouse, Inc.

Good evening and welcome to the Texas Roadhouse fourth quarter earnings conference call. Today's call is being recorded. All participants are now in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. At that time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. Should anyone need assistance at any time during the conference, please press star zero and an operator will assist you. I would now like to introduce Michael Balin, Head of Investor Relations for Texas Roadhouse. You may begin your conference.

Thank you, Sarah, and good evening. By now, you should have access to our earnings release for the fourth quarter into December 31, 2024. It may also be found on our website at TexasRoadhouse.com in the Investor section. I would like to remind everyone that part of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore, undue reliance should not be placed upon them. We refer all of you to our earnings release and our recent filings with the SEC. These documents provide a more detailed discussion of the relevant factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements. In addition, we may refer to non-GAAP measures, if applicable, reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures to the GAAP information can be found in our earnings release. On the call with me today is Jerry Morgan, Chief Executive Officer of Texas Roadhouse, and Chris Monroe, our Chief Financial Officer. Following the prepared remarks, we will be available to answer your questions. In order to accommodate everyone that would like to ask a question, could everyone please limit yourself to one question? Now I'd like to turn the call over to Jerry.

Thanks Michael and good evening everyone. 2024 was a memorable year for Texas Roadhouse with strong performance in all aspects of our business. Thanks to positive traffic growth at all three brands, revenue grew to nearly $5.4 billion and average unit volume exceeded $8 million for the first time in our history. This was the second consecutive year of double digit increases in restaurant margin dollars income from operations, and earnings per share. 2024 was also special for a number of milestones we achieved, including opening our 750th system-wide restaurant and our first international Jaggers. Additionally, we were named the brand icon by Nation's Restaurant News and celebrated our 20-year anniversary as a public company. There is also no doubt that our people-first mentality was alive and well in 2024 as we continued giving back to the communities we serve. This included partnering with Homes for Our Troops to fully fund their 400th custom-built home, raising over $925,000 for the American Tinnitus Association in honor of our late founder, Kent Taylor, and on Veterans Day, we honored over 1 million veterans with a free meal or a voucher for a future meal. On the development front, we opened 31 company-owned restaurants across all brands in 2024. Our franchise partners also opened 11 international Texas Roadhouse restaurants in addition to three Jagger's. For 2025, we continue to expect approximately 30 company restaurant openings across the three brands. 2025 will also benefit from the January 1st acquisition of 13 franchise restaurants in Indiana, Ohio, and California. Our outlook for franchise development also remains unchanged with an expectation of seven international Texas Roadhouse openings and three domestic Jagger's openings. In 2025, we believe value will remain top of mind for the consumer, and it was a focal point for our operators during our recently completed menu pricing calls. Based on these calls, we will be implementing a 1.4 menu price increase at the beginning of the second quarter. We are confident this level of pricing maintains our everyday value which has always been one of our competitive advantages. Also, to address evolving consumer beverage preferences, we are offering a variety of mocktails at Texas Roadhouse and Bus 33. We are monitoring their performance and contribution to our product mix, and early indications are positive. Our technology initiatives this year will primarily be a continuation of our 2024 projects. We expect to complete the conversions of all locations to a digital kitchen by the end of the year. These conversions are creating a more efficient kitchen and a less stressful environment for our roadies. We will also continue upgrading the guest management system that our restaurants use at the host stand. These upgrades are allowing us to quote more accurate wait times and improve seating utilization. While we are talking today about our 2024 results, our operators turned their attention to 2025 months ago. They remain focused on what we believe is the most important to our guests, fresh, made-from-scratch food, high-level hospitality, and everyday value. We are confident that they will deliver, with a little rowdy enthusiasm, another year that will make our employees, guests, and shareholders proud. Now, Chris will provide some thoughts.