Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund

Hello, this is the conference call operator. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Boston Pizza's first quarter 2024 conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen only mode and conference is being recorded on May the 10th, 2024. 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 will signal an operator by pressing star, then 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 2024 first 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 first quarter materials filed earlier today on CDAR Plus, 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 the 13th, 2024, which was filed on CDAR+. 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 the associated risks, please refer to the Fund's Management Discussion and Analysis issued earlier today. Forward-looking information is provided as of the date of this call and, except 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 will now turn the call over to Jordan. Jordan?

Thank you, Michael, and welcome everyone to Boston Pizza's first quarter investor conference call. Today, I'll be discussing our first quarter results and share a brief outlook. Michael will summarize our key financial highlights, and as usual, we'll leave time for your questions at the end of today's call. The first quarter of 2024 presented certain macroeconomic challenges for the full service industry. Prevailing economic conditions characterized by high interest rates and inflationary pressures have influenced consumer behavior, impacting discretionary spending and leading to a cautious approach toward dining out. The fund posted franchise sales from restaurants in the royalty pool of $222.0 million for the quarter, representing a decrease of 1.0% versus the same period one year ago. Same restaurant sales was negative 1.0% for the quarter. SRS for the quarter was principally due to macroeconomic challenges faced by the full service industry, partially offset by menu price increases. From a marketing standpoint, we began the first quarter of 2024 with our pasta Tuesday all month long promotion, where guests were able to enjoy pastas every day of the week, starting at $11.99 and gourmet pastas for $15.99 all month long in January. The promotion was supported by significant TV, digital, and social media channels, along with in-restaurant promotions at participating Boston Pizza restaurants across the country. Boston Pizza also celebrated Valentine's Day with its Paper Hearts fundraising program and Heart Shaped Pizza promotion, where $1 from each pizza sold went to help local charities. These charitable initiatives combined to raise over $570,000 for local charities. Also in the first quarter, Austin Pizza unveiled new flavors for our New York Sicilian square footer pizza lineup, garnering positive feedback from our guests. Turning to restaurant development, one restaurant opened during the first quarter and three restaurants closed permanently, and seven restaurants completed full renovations during the quarter. We have some fantastic initiatives planned to drive sales and guest traffic in the second quarter of 2024, which I'll speak about in a moment. First, however, I'll turn the call back to Michael for a review of the fund's financial performance.