Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund

Hello, this is the chorus call conference operator. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Boston pizza's 3rd quarter conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen only mode and the conference is being recorded on November 11th, 2021. After the presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Participants on the call may also pose their questions via email to Boston Pizza's Investor Relations Department at InvestorRelations at BostonPizza.com. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Michael Harbinson, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome to the call, everyone. Today we'll be discussing the 2021 third quarter results for both Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund, or the fund, and for Boston Pizza International, or BPI. For complete details on our financial results, please see our third quarter materials filed earlier today on CDAR, or visit the fund's website at bpincomefund.com. Should you require additional information after the call, you can reach us via the investor relations phone number listed in our press release. The fund is a limited-purpose, open-ended trust established under the laws of British Columbia to acquire, indirectly, certain trademarks and trade names used by BPI and its Boston Pizza restaurants in Canada. BPI pays royalty and distribution income to the fund based on franchise revenues of royalty pool restaurants. For a complete description of the fund and its business, please see the annual information form dated February 9, 2021, which was filed on CDAR.com. Before I turn the call over to Jordan Holm, President of BPI, I would like to note that certain information in the following discussion may constitute forward-looking information. For a more complete definition of forward-looking information and associated risks, please refer to the Funds Management Discussion and Analysis issued earlier today. Forward-looking information is provided as of the date of this call and, as required by law, we assume no obligation to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances. And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Jordan.

Thank you, Michael, and welcome everyone to Boston Pizza's third quarter investor conference call. Today, I'll be discussing our results for the quarter ended September 30th, 2021, and also share a brief outlook. Michael will summarize our key financial highlights. And as usual, we'll leave time at the end of today's call for your questions. The third quarter generated our strongest sales results since the start of the pandemic. In fact, sales were near pre-pandemic levels for the first time, despite COVID-19 continuing to pose significant challenges to our Boston Pizza system. Low COVID case counts during the first part of the quarter allowed government authorities to ease operating restrictions in all provinces. The easing of restrictions led to an increase in our on-premise business in the quarter. At the start of the third quarter, approximately 380 or 98% of all Boston Pizza restaurants were open for on-premise dining as well as takeout and delivery. However, by the end of the quarter, most regions of Canada had implemented vaccination passports, which require guests to show proof of vaccination for on-premise dining. To date, these vaccination passports have resulted in a decrease in customer traffic at our restaurants. Although vaccine passports may enable on-premise dining to remain available, the full impact of vaccine passports on our future sales remains to be seen. Turning to our financial results, the fund posted franchise sales from restaurants in the royalty pool of $213 million for the quarter and $476.9 million year-to-date, representing increases of 14.9% and 2.2% respectively versus the same periods one year ago. Same restaurant sales on a franchise sales basis was positive 15.1% for the quarter and positive 3.1% year to date. Positive results for the quarter and year to date were principally due to increases in guest traffic from the easing of government restrictions, along with increased takeout and delivery sales. We are pleased that these sales results have supported an increase in the funds distribution rate, which Michael will elaborate on further later in the call. COVID-19 first began to adversely affect Boston Pizza restaurants in March of 2020. As a result, the fund believes it's useful to report additional sales metrics that compare sales in 2021 to sales in 2019. Comparing to 2019 results allows investors to gauge Boston Pizza's current sales levels against sales levels on a pre-pandemic basis. If SRS on a franchise sales basis were calculated, By comparing to the same period in 2019, SRS would be negative 1.5% for the quarter and negative 24.7% year to date. SRS for October, the month of October 2021, was approximately positive 8% when compared to the same period in 2020 and approximately negative 15% when compared to the same period in 2019. Total franchise sales and the resulting royalty and distribution income for October 2021 were approximately 109% of the level they were in October of 2020 and approximately 88% of the level they were in October of 2019. While we've been pleased with our ability to mitigate our sales declines throughout the pandemic, we do expect that COVID-19 will continue to have a negative impact on our restaurants. However, we anticipate that sales levels for the second half of 2021 will be favorable compared to the first half of this year. From a marketing standpoint, Boston Pizza began the third quarter of 2021 with our summer patio promotion, which included our patio retraining campaign and a new summer feature menu, both of which were exceptionally well received by our guests. In August, we kicked off our popular BP Kids Cards promotion, This promotion is always a favorite for families where a $5 donation to the Boston Pizza Foundation, they receive a card for five free kids meals at Boston Pizza. We raised over $700,000 and donated that to our national charity partners through the Boston Pizza Foundation. We ended the quarter by introducing our fall feature menu, which featured three new pizzas, all created by staff members in our restaurants across the country. and some menu favourites from the past, our BP Classics. Turning to restaurant development, Boston Pizza opened no new restaurants during the quarter or year to date. Boston Pizza closed no restaurants in the third quarter and has closed two restaurants year to date. Subsequent to the quarter, Boston Pizza closed one restaurant. BPI continues to focus on the safety of our guests and our restaurant staff, serving our communities with takeout and delivery and on-premise dining as permitted, and helping our franchisees to effectively manage through the next phase of the pandemic. I'll now pass it to Michael for a review of the fund's financial performance. Michael?