Dine Brands Global, Inc.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Dine Brand's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask the question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Matt Lee, Senior Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

Good morning, and welcome to Dime Brands Global's third quarter conference call. This morning's call will include prepared remarks from John Payton, CEO and President of Applebee's, and Vance Chang, CFO. Following those prepared remarks, Lawrence Kim, President of IHOP, will also be available, along with John Advance, to address questions from the investment community during the Q&A portion of the call. Please remember our safe harbor regarding forward-looking information. During the call, management will discuss information that is forward-looking and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which may cause the actual results to be different than those expressed or implied. Please evaluate the forward-looking information in the context of these factors, which are detailed in today's press release and 10Q following. The forward-looking statements are as of today, and we assume no obligation to update or supplement these statements. We will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, which are described in our press release and available on DynBrand's Investor Relations website. With that, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to DynBrand's CEO, John Payton.

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. As usual, I'll start with an overview of Dyn's Q3 performance and key brand updates, and then turn it over to Vance, who'll discuss our financial results in more detail. Afterwards, I'm going to spend some extra time before the Q&A to share more details about our dual brand program, how it's unlocking a new lever to grow, and ultimately, why we're putting our money behind it. Vance will then cover our capital allocation priorities and how our asset-light model is designed to create long-term shareholder value. Now, to provide an overview of the third quarter and trends we've seen in consumer behavior, in Q3, we sustained the sales and traffic momentum from Q2, driven by new menu innovation and targeted marketing campaigns. While we continue to operate in a competitive environment, Applebee's and IHOP held their ground, underscoring the strength and relevance of our brands as guests continue to seek value, variety, and an exceptional dining experience. These are the same expectations that have been driving consumer behavior throughout the year. While spending patterns remained relatively consistent, we're observing slightly higher macroeconomic anxiety, leading to more intentional decision-making, where every dollar spent must feel justified across the entire dining experience. Guests continue to manage their check by trading down to lower-priced or value items on our menus. IHOP's value mix remained at about 19%, while Applebee's value mix slightly increased to about 30% in Q3. Despite the industry headwinds, our focus on everyday value platforms, operational simplification, and high-impact guest-centric marketing is delivering results. Lastly, I'll add that we recently completed our annual franchisee conferences that included participation from the leaders of each of our franchisee councils, and across all three of our brands, the biggest takeaway is that our franchisees are aligned with our strategy and remain committed to growth. Reinforcing this sentiment is the fact that franchisee health remains resilient with clear improvement in Applebee's given the sales growth we're seeing and encouraging momentum at IHOP. Now, while there's still more work ahead, I'm grateful to our team and franchisees for their ongoing dedication and unrelenting belief in the strength and potential of our iconic brands. So with that, I'll walk through our financial results for the quarter. Applebee's reported a 3.1% increase in comp sales and IHOP posted comp sales of negative 1.5%. Notably, positive comp traffic was an important driver for both brands. Our adjusted EBITDA was $49 million compared to $61.9 million in the same quarter last year. And year-to-date adjusted free cash flow was $68.2 million compared to $77.8 million in the same quarter last year. Now I'll share some updates across our portfolio, starting first with some leadership updates at Applebee's. In September, we welcomed our new Chief Marketing Officer, Michelle Chin, and Chief Operating Officer, Jay Wong, to Applebee's. Both leaders are passionate fans of the Applebee's brand, and they bring fresh perspectives to elevate the guest experience, as well as strengthen franchisee and team member relationships. Michelle spent two decades shaping consumer marketing and brand strategy for global brands like Starbucks, Godiva, and Unilever, where she built high-performing teams and launched impactful, insight-led campaigns. And Jay has led global teams and transformations at top-tier brands, including Four Seasons, Starwood Hotels, and exclusive resorts. His focus on seamless guest experiences will help Applebee's further enhance how we serve our guests. I'm looking forward to working closely with both of them to continue to promote innovation, operational excellence, and long-term brand relevance. And now, into the Applebee's results. In Q3, Applebee's achieved its second consecutive quarter of positive comp sales and traffic, continuing the gains in traffic that started in March. New menu items are driving this traffic by appealing to core Applebee's fans while also attracting new guests. Guests should expect to see this continued menu innovation driven by a robust menu pipeline with a new appetizer and a new entree added to our menu each quarter. As we shared last quarter, we're introducing new entrees via the 2-4 section of our menu, which is the pillar of our everyday value platform. In Q3, we launched Chicken Parmesan Fettuccine, which became our best-selling standalone pasta dish, representing approximately 13% of transactions and was a key contributor to our traffic and sales growth. Another important menu innovation from this quarter was the launch of our new Ultimate Trio Appetizer Sampler as part of our second season as the official grill and bar of the NFL. This offer has over 80,000 flavor combinations, highlighting the power of choice that younger guests love without adding more skews or complexity to the kitchen. And it's been wildly popular. The Ultimate Trio has become one of the best-selling appetizers, averaging 13.5% of transactions and contributing meaningfully to check growth. As a part of our off-premise strategy, the Ultimate Trito is also available for to-go and delivery, contributing to a 9% increase in off-premise sales in Q3, building on 3.7% growth in Q1 and 7.6% growth in Q2. Our success in the off-premise channel is driven by pairing LTOs with digital promotions to encourage off-premise occasions. Our off-premise remains a growth opportunity for Applebee's, and we're pleased with the momentum and our capabilities to meet guests where they are. An important way to connect with both our dine-in and off-premise guests is reaching them on social media. Throughout the year, we've expanded our marketing capabilities and social media prowess to deepen engagement and reach a broader audience. Since Q3 2024, Applebee's has increased postings by over 300%, And as a result, we've seen a 266% increase in engagement, proving that we are more effectively reaching our guests in real time. And this ties into our ongoing efforts to modernize the brand and elevate the guest experience. Over the past year, guest satisfaction scores are improving, and it's a direct result of our focus on efficiency across both the front and back of house functions. The Lookin' Good remodel program also continues to progress. Franchisees are reporting strong post-remodel sales lifts and an increase in guest frequency. Approximately 80 restaurants have been remodeled to date, and we expect to exceed our 100 remodel target by year end. There's more to do and plenty of opportunity ahead, and we're committed to strengthening the brand's relevance, sharpening our competitive edge, and driving long-term growth. Now, moving to IHOP, where positive traffic trends continue to be the highlight for the brand. IHOP outperformed BlackBox traffic metrics every month in 2025, making Q3 our third straight quarter of traffic outperformance versus industry benchmarks. More importantly, this was IHOP's first quarter of positive traffic in many years. I want to take a moment to fully recognize the significance of IHOP returning to positive traffic comps. This is a big win, especially in a category where traffic has been challenged for years. traffic is a core indicator of customer connection and demand. Our steady industry outperformance, now further supported by positive absolute gains, shows that we're successfully connecting with guests, especially as they seek exceptional value, abundance, and a great dining experience. In fact, recent third-party research on search trends identified IHOP as the most searched diner chain in the U.S., underscoring its continued relevance with consumers. And as it relates to traffic trends, the momentum really accelerated when we launched our IHOP value menu, an expanded and rebranded version of the house phase menu, now available seven days a week. Notably, this is the first time IHOP has introduced an everyday value menu as part of its core offering. Early results are strong, with positive impacts on sales and traffic since its launch in mid-September, and we're seeing continued momentum into the fourth quarter. The IHOP value menu is one of the largest launches in the brand's history, made possible through strong partnership with our franchisees. As always, this platform was designed and tested to be profitable, and we continue working to improve margins and protect profitability for our franchisees. While our value offerings are important for bringing guests through our doors, we're also focused on increasing check and margin. In Q3, our updated barbell strategy improved check month over month by drawing more attention to some of our higher-priced menu offerings, resulting in a decrease in value incidence on weekdays from about 25% of checks to roughly 15%. Looking ahead, we're continuing to optimize check through upselling sides and introduce premium offerings like our limited-time breakfasts in Q4. Operationally, we remain focused on strengthening our foundational basics, As a result, table turn times have reached multi-year lows, and we continue to identify potential for further improvement. And now to discuss Fuzzy's. We saw modest improvements across sales and traffic at Fuzzy's as we worked diligently alongside our franchisees to improve technology, streamline the menu, and enhance the in-restaurant experience for our guests. In Q3, new delivery campaigns exceeded expectations, driving growth in off-premise channels. This is one of the many benefits of our multi-brand platform, the ability to use learnings from one brand and apply it to another to enable further growth. And turning to our international business, we continue to have positive engagement with both new and existing international franchisees around development, and we remain on track to double our total international dual-brand restaurants by the end of the year. The increase in unit growth is helping offset some macroeconomic headwinds impacting sales, and we remain bullish on the growth opportunities across our key international markets. Now I'll quickly touch on our company-owned portfolio. As a reminder, we now have 70 company-operated restaurants, representing approximately 2% of our total restaurant count. Our strategy is to invest in these restaurants to improve the health of our brands, but ultimately re-franchise the restaurants back to our franchisees. We're seeing our strategy deliver results at our company-operated restaurants with sequential comp sales improvement versus Q2. Assuming all restaurants have alcohol licenses, Applebee's locations are now performing in line with the system average, and IHOP locations are now outperforming the system average. Although profitability in the quarter continues to be impacted by temporary closures for remodels and dual brand conversions, and one-time costs related to catch-up of repairs and maintenance, and training, we are optimistic about the upside potential of these initiatives. Twelve restaurants have now been remodeled, and we are seeing traffic-driven sales growth, validating the brand's core strength when paired with refreshed physical environment. Additionally, 60% of restaurants now have alcohol licenses, which is supporting check growth. We also recently completed our first company-owned dual-brand conversion with and while early, are excited to see sales increase to 4x pre-conversion levels. This further adds to our confidence around the potential of dual brands, which I will detail later. And so now I'll turn the call over to Vance.

Thanks, John. On the top line, consolidated total revenues increased 10.8% to $216.2 million in Q3 versus $195 million in the prior year, primarily driven by an increase in company restaurant sales offset by a decrease in franchise revenues. Our total franchise revenues decreased 3% to $161.3 million compared to $166.4 million for the same quarter of 2024. Excluding advertising revenues, franchise revenues decreased 3.6%. Rental segment revenues for the third quarter of 2025 decreased $1 million compared to the same quarter of 2024, primarily due to lease terminations. G&A expenses were $50.2 million in Q3 of 2025, up from $45.4 million in the same period of last year, primarily due to compensation-related expenses and an increase in travel and conference expenses. Adjusted EBITDA for Q3 of 2025 decreased to $49 million from $61.9 million in Q3 of 2024. Adjusted diluted EPS for the third quarter of 2025 was $0.73 compared to adjusted diluted EPS of $1.44 for the third quarter of 2024. Now turning to the statement of cash flows. We had adjusted free cash flow of $68.2 million for the first nine months of 2025 compared to $77.8 million for the same period of last year, driven by an increase in additions to property and equipment primarily related to CapEx investments in your company-owned restaurants. Cash provided by operations at the end of the third quarter of 2025 was $83.3 million, compared to cash provided from operations of $77.7 million for the same period of 2024. The increase was primarily due to a favorable change in working capital, due to the timing of federal tax payments postponed due to wildfire relief, and of interest payments postponed in connection with our June 2025 debt refinancing, offset by the decrease in segment profit and higher G&A expenses. CapEx through Q3 of 2025 was $21.3 million compared to $10.3 million for the same period of 2024 due to investments into our company-owned restaurants. We finished the third quarter with total unrestricted cash of $168 million compared with unrestricted cash of $194.2 million at the end of the second quarter. Regarding capital allocation, I'll provide an update and a more detailed overview of our framework later in the call, but I want to mention that we continue to make progress on our key initiatives, including remodeling the Applebee's system, which includes providing an early adopter incentive for franchisees, and remodeling and or converting company-owned restaurants to dual-brand restaurants. On buybacks and dividends, we repurchased $22.5 million in stock and paid $7.8 million in dividends in Q3 of 2025. As a reminder, as a franchisor, we obtained debt financing through the whole business securitization market, which allows us to have investment-grade cost of debt capital. This is evidenced by the successful refinancing a few months ago of our $600 million senior secured notes with a fixed rate coupon of 6.72%. We'll continue to monitor the WBS market and we'll look to refinance our 2023 senior secured notes when the economics are more favorable given the current make-hold premium of approximately $20 million and the par call window does not open until December of 2026. Next, let me discuss Applebee's performance. Q3 saying restaurant sales were positive 3.1%. Average weekly franchise sales in 2025 were $52,600 including approximately $12,000 from on-premise or 22.9% of total sales of which 11.7% is from to-go and 11.1% is from delivery. On-premise saw a positive 9% lift in comp sales in Q3 compared to the same period last year. IHOP's Q3 same restaurant sales were negative 1.5%. Average weekly franchise sales were $36,700, including $7,500 from off-premise, for 20.4% of total sales, of which 7.8% is from to-go and 12.5% is from delivery. Turning to commodities, Applebee's commodity costs in Q3 increased by 0.3%, and IHOP commodity costs increased by 5.7% versus the prior year. Our supply chain co-op CSCS now expects commodity costs in 2025 at Applebee's to be roughly flat versus prior outlook of flat to slightly down due to higher beef and seafood costs. At IHOP, we continue to expect commodity costs to increase by mid-single digits for the full year, driven by elevated egg pricing, pork, coffee as we mentioned on our prior call the tariff situation remains fluid as a result our forecast for commodity costs incorporates the effects from existing tariffs to date but do not reflect the potential impact of future tariff changes or trade policy CSCS continues to work across both systems and to identify additional cost savings opportunities and support restaurant profitability initiatives through both operational improvements and input costs. Today, in 2025, we have implemented projects resulting in over $42 million of annualized savings across both systems, and we continue to partner with CSCS to leverage our scale and make progress on our cross-functional restaurant profitability initiatives. Before turning the call back over to John for a strategic update on our dual brand opportunity and our capital allocation framework, I'd like to add that we are maintaining our four-year financial guidance at this time. Specifically, with our EBITDA guidance, we are anticipating to be on the low end of the range due to investments to improve our company restaurants, which includes remodeling and dual brand conversion process. In Q3, Approximately 10% of our restaurants were temporarily closed due to remodeling and dual brand conversion for a portion of the quarter, impacting our performance, and we expect an even greater number to be temporarily closed in Q4. With that, I'll hand it back over to John.

Thank you, Vance. Now, I know we've talked about our dual brand strategy before, but today I'd like to provide more insight into the opportunity we see, what it is, why it's unique, and why we and our franchisees are excited about it. We've done extensive research into how exactly dual brands fit into our long-term growth without cannibalizing the independent growth trajectories of the individual brands. The results, as I'll walk through today, are compelling. To start, we are the only franchisor with two iconic full-service brands that serve guests across all day parts, IHOP in the earlier hours of the day and Applebee's in the later hours. Our thesis is that combining these two complementary day part brands into one dual-branded restaurant will drive higher sales and create efficiency, resulting in increased profits for our franchisees and growth for dine through higher system sales and unit growth. After an early prototype in Detroit, we began testing this idea in earnest internationally two years ago. And since then, we've opened 20 international dual-branded restaurants that approved our thesis. These restaurants are delivering 1.5x in sales versus single-branded restaurants and are generating significant incremental margin. This year, we're on our way to doubling our international dual-branded restaurant count to 40. With these compelling results, we brought this concept to the U.S. in February. For those who haven't yet had a chance to see it, from the exterior, both brands are prominently displayed around the building, and there is one shared entrance. Inside, the aesthetics and seating for each brand are represented in different sections, one being Applebee's iconic red and the other is IHOP's iconic blue. The guest can choose to sit on either side and is presented with one menu, organized by day part, that has been simplified to include the best of both brands. The menu also includes some dual brand exclusive items, like our popular buffalo chicken omelet. To experience our dual brand concept, you can find a video explaining and touring the first two domestic locations on the Dine Brands Investor website. There are several key highlights that support our belief in this opportunity. First, from the restaurant operator's perspective, there is one kitchen, one POS, a cross-trained staff, and the same number of menu items as a single branded restaurant. The simplification of operations allows our team members to focus on our guests, and ensure they have a great experience that is representative of both brands' core values. From a guest perspective, feedback is strong. In particular, they're enjoying the expanded choice provided by the combined menu from both brands. In fact, for each day part, the off-brand represents at least 15% of sales. For example, Applebee's items represent at least 15% of sales in the morning, and IHOP items represent at least 15% of sales in the evening. And so far, in terms of financial performance, we have seen sales performance approximately 1.5x to 2.5x higher post-conversion. Sales are relatively consistent throughout the day, with no day part exceeding one-third of total sales, further showcasing the complementary nature of the two brands. We're seeing a meaningful increase in franchisee profitability, with four-wall margins nearly doubling, And we've seen a reduction in construction costs and timelines for dual brand conversions as the process becomes more efficient and standardized, which we expect will result in a payback period of less than three years. Our initial target was to have 12 to 14 domestic dual branded restaurants open in 2025. And as of today, we can share that we expect to have approximately 30 opened or under construction by year end, and that we expect to achieve at least 50 dual brand openings in 2026. From a long-term perspective, our internal analysis of the U.S. white space opportunity shows potential for approximately 900 dual-breaded restaurants over the next decade. While near-term openings will primarily be conversions, we also see potential for approximately 50% of these opportunities to be new builds. It's important to note that dual-branded restaurants are only one strategic development lever for us. It's not a solution for all markets, and we continue to greenlight single-brand restaurant concepts. To summarize, the dual-branded opportunity is a big one. Guest and franchisee feedback is strong. It significantly enhances the unit economics for a franchisee by potentially doubling four-wall revenue and margin. It represents an approximately 900-unit white space opportunity. We expect to have approximately 30 open or under construction by year end, and we expect to achieve at least 50 dual branded openings in 2026. Now I'll pass the call back to Vance, who will discuss our updated capital allocation.

Thanks, John. Given that we are one of the largest franchisors in the full service restaurant segment, our asset line model generates best-in-class return on invested capital and margins. We take a disciplined approach to capital allocation to drive shareholder value, focusing on three key priorities, organic investments, balance sheet management, and returning capital to shareholders. This financial strength gives us the flexibility to invest in our brands, our company-owned restaurant portfolio, and development pipeline, while also returning meaningful capital to our shareholders, something we have consistently done over the past several decades, and that will not change. At the current time, however, We believe our stock price is currently undervalued, which represents a unique opportunity to be more aggressive with share repurchases to create long-term shareholder value. As a result, the Board has declared the reduction of our dividend from $0.51 per share per quarter to $0.19 per share per quarter, which would imply an annual dividend yield of approximately 3% based on today's stock price. This will continue to generate one of the highest yields amongst our peers. If we allocate our capital towards a larger share repurchase program, we will commit to buy back at least $50 million of shares over the next two quarters, which would represent a share reduction of approximately 11% to 13% at the current price. This is on top of the approximately 8.5% shares that we have repurchased year-to-date, which would total a nearly 20% reduction in shares versus the beginning of 2025. We're maintaining our current investments into the franchise system either as an ongoing or as-needed basis, such as our Applebee's Looking Good remodel incentives or the IHOP franchisee egg subsidy earlier this year. I want to reiterate that a dividends reduction, increased share repurchases, and investments into our businesses our proactive changes we're making to our shareholder return strategy to drive increased shareholder value. It demonstrates confidence in our plan and our principal view that the stock is undervalued, affirming the board's alignment with investors. With the momentum that we continue to see in the business and the alignment and shared excitement from our franchisees, now is the right time to be aggressive in investing in our own stock. And I'll pass it back to John to close.

Thank you, Vance. I'll end the call by summarizing our key initiatives that will create long-term value for our shareholders. At the brand level, our focus is on menu innovation, high-impact marketing and social media, simplified operations, and enhanced guest experience. In terms of development, we will drive unit growth by capitalizing on our dual-branded opportunity, continuing to open single-branded restaurants, especially at IHOP, which has for over a decade consistently opened double-digit restaurants every year, and introducing a new lower-cost Applebee's prototype. And last, we will remain prudent with our capital allocation and accelerate share buybacks to take advantage of a significant discount in our valuation, which we believe will be highly accretive to our shareholders. And now with that, we'll turn the call back to the operator and open up the line for Q&A.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder to ask the question, please press star 11 on your telephone, then wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. We ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Eric Gonzalez with KeyBank. Your line is open.

Thanks for taking the question. And congrats on the positive traffic in both brands. I want to ask about the company-owned stores. You know, you had a decent-sized loss, maybe $4 million or $5 million in the quarter. You know, I recognize that you had some catch-up expenses in repair and maintenance and training and remodels, et cetera. But do you have a sense of how much of a drag we should expect from these stores going forward and maybe when that maybe goes away?

Thanks, Eric. Good morning. Vance can address that question.

Good morning, Eric. Just to give you a little bit more context on the disruption. Year to date, we had close to 50 restaurants without liquor license for 30 plus weeks per restaurant. Then on the construction side, year to date, we had approximately 500 days of construction closures across 30 plus restaurants, or if you do the average math, roughly 15 days of closure per restaurant. That's what happened. I point that out to let you know that although that's noise and headwinds this year, by and large, those factors won't be there next year. So it's a one-time investment that we're making to improve the restaurants. For this year, we're expecting roughly $9 million to $10 million of segment profit hit from company restaurants, to answer your question specifically. And then that includes about $2 million of DNA.

So hopefully that helps. That's very helpful. Thank you for that. And then maybe just a question on the IHOP side. Again, congrats on the positive traffic. But the overall comps, you know, they were down a little bit. So, you know, just wondering, you know, you're leaning pretty heavily on value. What are you doing to address the check side? And do you think you can get that mix up in the quarters ahead?

Thanks, Eric. Lawrence will take that. Eric, how's it going?

Yeah. So as I shared probably in earlier calls or earnings calls, we have a three-prong approach when it came to driving transactions and traffic. The first was, of course, launching the value platform, which we did last October. And actually, we've now evolved, as John shared earlier, where we launched an everyday value menu this past September. So we're continuing to drive that transactions. And as John shared, You know, we've continued to do so since the beginning of this year. But to your question in regards to check and overall sales, the third phase of it is actually balancing the value and the transaction growth from that with our barbell strategy to drive check. And so we're doing that in multiple ways from upsell strategies with our tablets and our servers, but of course also featuring some premium priced items such as our premium priced pancakes like our pumpkin spice and our coffee cakes. pancakes, in addition to combo features, which are primarily displayed in our restaurants with POP, like our recent breakfasts, which performed really well last year. So we brought them back this past September, a few weeks ago as well. So this is helping to already drive our check balance, improve check flow and overall profitability for restaurants. And we're going to continue to drive this as we drive value in the next quarter.

Hey, Eric, it's John. I would just add one more point to what Lawrence said, which is since they've moved into phase three, which is driving the barbell strategy and featuring the higher priced items in the restaurants, the incidence of the value was 25% of checks weekdays. And since they started this new program, it's fallen to 15%. So we're seeing a good response to the program to upsell once they're in the restaurants.

Great, and maybe just the last one for me. I think you said 3Q momentum sustained. Did you talk about fourth quarter at all yet? I think you said momentum sustained, but I couldn't tell if that was either an Applebee's and IHOP comment or both. Vance?

Eric, so what we're seeing is that the sales volume for Applebee's really sustained from Q3 into Q4, and then it's accelerated for IHOP from Q3 into Q4. Got it. Very helpful. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Dennis Geiger with UBS. Your line is open.

Great. Thank you, guys. And encouraging to hear some of the insights there on the dual branded concepts. Appreciate that. And what sounds like good franchisee demand. Can we unpack a little more the franchisee demand? Are there certain characteristics for those that have kind of signed up already for the dual branded box? And then maybe what are the biggest hurdles that you're finding from those that you feel should but aren't yet? Do they just want to see the proof point? Anything on that, John, would be great.

Yeah, sure, Dennis. Happy to talk about that. So in terms of franchisee demand, I would characterize the initial wave of dual brand restaurants as number one, conversions versus new build, which makes sense. Number two, more IHOPs than Applebee's. And we attribute that to the fact that Applebee's, I'm sorry, that IHOP is currently open for dinner, right? And dinner has always been a challenge for that brand. So to add an Applebee's solves a existing challenge for that brand. For Applebee's, they're not open for breakfast. So they're not trying to, quote, fix an issue. And so it's a different decision for an Applebee's to add the IHOP and grow the revenue. What we're seeing now and what I would call sort of phase two as we move toward a robust pipeline of at least 50 for next year is we're seeing our Applebee's franchisees begin to explore one or two opportunities among the more major franchisees. In terms of the hurdles, I think it's less about the franchisee and more about what we're learning as we go. So for example, we're learning that IHOP franchisees who don't typically have bar experience. We need to give them extra training and support to run a really great bar, which is a key element of an Applebee's. And so we're learning things like that along the way, which is the kind of things we expect it to learn and that we can address with our training and our coaching.

That's helpful. Thanks, John. I appreciate that. And then one more, if I could. Just more broadly, I guess, you touched on it some, but in thinking about franchisee sentiment more broadly in this environment that we're in, you touched on the commodities piece. Just if you could touch on that, both across Applebee's as well as IHOP right now, and maybe just tying broader new open demand in and how you're kind of thinking about net growth, maybe longer term, if there's anything to share there across either closures as well as gross opens. Would appreciate anything there. Thank you, guys.

We're not putting a firm date or timeline on net unit growth, Dennis, but we're getting close, that's for sure. What we like about our program now is we have multiple products and almost a product to fit every situation. So to develop a single unit IHOP, which we've been doing 30 to 40 a year for the last several years, 80% of those are conversions. So IHOP is a great conversion brand and a good solution for opportunities to repurpose buildings. As I mentioned, Applebee's, we've got a new prototype that takes about a million dollars in cost out of it for a much better return. And we're going to build one of those next year to prove that out. On the international side, same thing. We've been opening about 40 restaurants a year consistently, increasingly dual branded restaurants there. And now we have the dual brand concept here in the U.S. And each market is unique and each solution has to make sense for that market. But the dual brand is giving us a catalyst to get back to net unit growth sooner rather than later.

Hey, Dennis, one more point I would add is that even without net development growth, just the context is that the closures that we've had are obviously lower AUV boxes, right? So they're averaging sort of 1.2, low ones. And then the new restaurants we're opening are $1.82 million. So it's not a one-to-one ratio. even though the net development number, as you pointed out, has not been positive. So just want to make sure that point is clear. Makes good sense. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. Please stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Jeffrey Bernstein with Barclays. Your line is open.

Great. Thank you very much. First question is just on the broader consumer backdrop. hearing from lots of restaurants as they look at their data. More and more companies, I guess, have data on the age of their consumer, the income level, the ethnicity, and there's been seemingly a big change in trend in recent quarters. I'm wondering, one, whether you have any degree of data on any of those cohorts and whether you've noticed any change in trend among any of those, for better or for worse. And then I had a follow-up.

Yeah, sure, Jeff. It's John. I can take that and speak to both brands because our observations are consistent with both IHOP and Applebee's. And we're seeing a slight shift in the guest mix this quarter. We've had more higher income guests joining us than lower income guests leaving us, which is what's, you know, the net of that is what's driving our traffic growth. You know, so that is good news. You know, the two cohorts that we're seeing who are most price sensitive right now are are the lower income guests and Gen Z. They're dining out less than they have in the past. But all of our guests, that being said, are hyper focused on value. And that hasn't changed all year or for last year as well. And that's our plans for the future is we think that that focus on value is what's going to be on consumers' minds throughout the rest of this year and into next. And that's why we believe the everyday value program at IHOP and the two-for-25 program enhanced at Applebee's is driving our traffic right now because it's the match that consumers are looking for.

Understood. And then just following up on that value mix, I think you kicked off your commentary by saying Applebee's was at 30% mixed, depending on the way you define it. But you said that was up modestly, so just curious what that was up from. And IHOP at 19%, I think you said, was unchanged, which was surprising considering the negative impact

check which seems significant so just wondering um you know how to kind of balance the significant negative check with no increase in their um value sales mix so applebee's uh is at 30 which is pretty close to where it's been it's been 28 29 last quarter so you know you can consider that about about flat we define value we calculate that as the 2 for 25 menu plus lto's so any incidence of those as a ticket is about a third, 30% of what we see. At IHOP, just to clarify, the value mix grew to 19%. It wasn't down. It grew to 19% during the quarter because of the rollout of house faves, you know, and then turning that into everyday value. So it grew to 19% and we expect that 19% to be a little bit higher next quarter because we're going to seven days a week and that only happened the last two weeks of the quarter.

grew to 19 from what was the number that you most recently talked about?

Last quarter, I'm going from memory.

It was like 18.9% to 19.1% is a slight increase.

But pre-everyday, pre-house faves, it was more like 10% right before we introduced it.

Yeah, about low to mid-teens last year is where we're averaging.

And just lastly, just to clarify, you said the dual brands, that there would be 30 open or under construction by year end this year. So I'm just curious how many actually you think would be open by the end of this year. And then you said something about 50 for next year. I wasn't sure if that's just the cumulative total number or whether that's incremental openings. So just trying to get a sense for how many actually will be open end of this year and how many in total will be open end of next year. Thank you.

So it's 30 plus 50 for a total of 80. And in terms of this year, The vast majority of that 30 will be open, but as you know, sometimes opening dates slip from December to January, so not giving a precise number, but the openings will be much closer to 30 than not.

Understood. Thank you.

Thank you. Please stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Brian Vaccaro with Raymond James. Your line is open.

Hi, thanks, and good morning. I just had a quick question on the guidance, Vance. I just wanted to confirm, has there been any change to your previously communicated comp guide at either Applebee's or IHOP or any change to your unit growth expectations that you gave us in the second quarter?

No, those are staying the same.

Okay. No change to guidance, yes. Okay, and I guess I heard some of your comments about how IHOP is accelerated and Applebee's seems to be holding in. I guess if I do the quick math on Applebee's, and I think my notes are right on this, but I think your previous guide on comp was down two to up one at Applebee's, if I have my notes correct. So that would embed, I think... Go ahead, sorry. Basically trying to get at what is... Yeah, what's a reasonable expectation for 4Q on cons just to level set because we didn't have the guide in the release?

Yeah, the Applebee's guidance, we actually bumped it up from positive one to positive three. So that didn't change. We changed that last quarter. And then for IHOP, it's negative one to positive one. And we didn't change that either. So that implies sort of a decent Q4 for Applebee's and a strong Q4 for IHOP.

Okay, great. Thank you. And you also obviously highlighted the traffic being positive at both brands. Could you firm up just the components within that sort of where average check was versus traffic for each brand in Q3?

Yeah, so for Q3, I think our check, so let's see. So traffic was positive for both brands. We have negative PMIC for both. for IHOP and sort of flat P mix. No, actually negative P mix for Applebee's as well. And then about two-ish percent menu price increase. So that kind of gives you the rough breakdown.

Okay, great, great. And then last one for me, you talked about the Applebee's remodel program with over 100 planned for this year, I think you said. I'm just curious how you see that potentially accelerating into 26 and beyond, what sort of a reasonable rate on remodels might be. Thank you.

Yeah, Brian, it's John for that question. Yeah, it's over 100 this year, and we expect to do at least that number next year, if not more. And our goal is to have two-thirds of the portfolio renovated by the end of 2017. Great, thank you.

Thank you. Please stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Nick Setnan with Mizuho. Your line is open.

Thank you. Just on the remodels, I'm not sure if I missed this, but did you say the kinds of lists you're seeing?

Hey, Nick. Good morning. It's John. Welcome back. We're glad you're here. Vance will take that question.

Nick, so it's obviously early days, right? A lot of the restaurants that's been remodeled are pretty new, but franchisees are very happy with what they're seeing. And from company restaurants, the ones that we've done, we're seeing sort of double-digit lifts for our own portfolio. Now, again, one caveat is early. Two is that I think the starting point for our restaurants are a little bit lower than system average. So I'm not underwriting that sort of lift for the entire portfolio. But so far, we're very encouraged by what we're seeing, as well as the franchisees.

And Vance, it's fair to say that the franchisees that have renovated recently following the renovation package that we have are seeing lifts that more than cover the cost. The return is good. Definitely.

Thank you for the kind words, John. It's good to be back.

Yeah, good to have you back, Nick. You've had a couple quarters to think about it. Nick, you've had a couple quarters to think about it. So this has got to be like the question of all time now.

Well, I mean, Forex on the dual conversion, that's a great number. You know, in terms of just the... The number of, like, actual conversions where it gives you confidence that that kind of lift is possible, is that something that we can commit to? Or is that also kind of too early and the numbers of conversions are too small to really be able to project that out?

Well, we can't speculate on forward-looking data, right? And we can't make a firm commitment. All we can do is report on what we've seen so far. What we've seen so far in the first 40 international dual brands is a 1.5x improvement in revenue or more. And what we're seeing here in the 15 or so that are open in the U.S., we're seeing a range of 1.5 to 2.5 in sales lists. But again, it's a sample set of 15 in the U.S.

Got it. And then just in terms of pricing and how we're thinking about just menu price versus mix, you know, going into 2026, is there any kind of early indication you can give us in terms of what we can think of as the right price number in 2026 for both brands?

Vance can provide an update there.

You know, Nick, as you're seeing... As we're seeing with menu pricing right now, both sets of franchisees are in the low single-digit range, which we do expect that to be the case going forward, given the fact that commodity costs have come under control. Egg pricing is still elevated, but it's come under control and it's getting better. That's what we're expecting. Obviously, the disclaimer we always have is that we don't control pricing, so it's the franchisees that said this, but we're not anticipating any outsized menu pricing for next year, though, having said that.

Rick, thank you so much.

Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, that's star 11 to ask the question. Please stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Todd Brooks with the Benchmark Company. Your line is open.

Hey, thanks for taking my questions. Vance, I wanted to start off with the capital allocation update and just walking me through why we needed to cut the dividend to fund the $50 million in share repurchase. Is there a third component around additional franchise keeping firepower drive for additional franchisee location acquisitions? I think you guys said you'd be willing to take that portfolio up to maybe a couple hundred at a premium, or just kind of walk me through why one lever had to be pulled to accomplish the share repurchase.

Sure, Todd. You know, so first of all, you know, our dividend yield implies that the dividend yield approximately 3%, as we said, and it's still one of the highest amongst our peers, right? And second, you know, our asset light model really generates healthy free cash flow. So, you know, it allows us to return meaningful capital to shareholders consistently, and that's not going to change. So it has nothing to do with cash flow or ability, concerns on that matter. And lastly, the goal, you know, to hit your point, the goal is always for us to deliver strong returns to shareholders. Currently, given how undervalued the stock is, right, especially given what we're seeing with, you know, with the momentum with our business, the best way to increase TSR over time is through buybacks. And while we invest in company restaurants and franchisee restaurant remodeling and development. So we just think at this point in time, this is the most efficient way to increase shareholder return over time.

Okay, so price dependent, obviously, but you've just signed up for the two-quarter commitment, but it sounds like share repurchase is a bigger component of returning capital to shareholders going forward.

Price dependent, but that's a fair statement, price dependent, yes.

Okay, great, thanks. And then I wanted to ask Lawrence about with house faves expanding to seven days a week, How has the brand been able to handle that operationally? I know that typically those weekend periods or peak periods for IHOP to begin with, now you're bringing potentially a value-seeking customer to try to get to the box during those peak periods as well. How are the units handling it? And is there an efficiency gain to happen as we get more than six weeks into having the menu available seven days a week?

Yeah, so as, thanks for the question, Todd. One thing that we're very methodical about is ensuring our franchisees and our restaurants are equipped to handle any new type of promotion, and especially when it comes to something like an everyday value menu. So we tested this across several months and across different markets to ensure not just is it a transaction and traffic driving, but also profitable program for the franchisees. And also that ties to your question, which is the operational capabilities. So the main focus of our value platform in particular is leveraging core items. So, you know, I cook a lot in the restaurants and, you know, it's back with the cooks and the chefs back there. And we want to make sure they focus on our core items, you know, pancakes, eggs, bacons, omelets, items that from a speed standpoint could be managed thoroughly and have no impact whatsoever in terms of speed. And so that's why, as John alluded earlier, our speed has actually improved continuously, even with the everyday value menu, because we've optimized it based on our core. And so from a cooking standpoint, they're just masters of the trade there.

Okay, and just to follow up there, Lawrence, if customers were coming anyway on the weekend and the house faves is focused around core items, that kind of transference into the value bucket, is that greater on the weekends at peak periods? Is it less? Is it pretty consistent with what you've seen during the week?

It's still early, as we've only been in the everyday value menu launch since mid-September, and so we're continuously tracking. But even throughout the test data, as we did it for several months, it's fairly consistent. Actually, with the barbell strategy, we are seeing, you know, potentially value increasing on the weekends, but the check counter, which is our barbell strategy, introducing new premium items and featuring them on the table with POP and even with the menu inserts, we're seeing a good balance in terms of check growth, even including on weekends. Okay, great, thanks.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to John Payton, Dime Brands CEO, for closing remarks.

Thanks to Wanda for taking such good care of us, as you always do, and thanks, guys, for your questions. I'll just sum up with a few key points. We know we've got more work to do, but we are pleased with the effects of the retooling and the refocus that both brands have put in place. We're pleased with the performance from the last two quarters. We're pleased with the potential that dual brands is posing to accelerate our return to net unit growth. And as Vance mentioned, you know, our stock is undervalued in our opinion, and we are directing our shareholder return strategy through this buyback program because we believe in our strategy. We believe in the future of the company, and we think that's a very good investment right now. So appreciate your questions and look forward to talking to you later today.

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.