Q1 2024 Good Times Restaurants Inc Earnings Call
Participants
David Swartz; Analyst; Morningstar Research Services, LLC
Mark Schiller
Presentation
Operator
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Good Times Restaurants, Inc., fiscal 2024 first quarter earnings call. By now, everyone should have access to the company's earnings release, which is available in the Investors section of the company's website.
As a reminder, a part of today's discussion will be I'm sorry, will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities law. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and therefore, you should not put undue reliance on them. These statements involve known and unknown risks, which may cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the market price of the Company's stock prevailing from time to time. The nature of other investment opportunities presented to the company, the disruption to our business from pandemics and other public health emergencies. The impact and duration of staffing can change at our restaurants. The impact of supply chain constraints and inflation, the uncertain nature of current restaurant development plans and the ability to implement those plans and integrate new restaurants, delays in developing and opening new restaurants because of weather, local permitting or other reasons, increased competition, cost increases or shortages in raw food products, other general economic and operating conditions, risks associated with our share purchase repurchase program risks associated with the acquisition of additional restaurants, the adequacy of cash flows and the costs and availability of capital or credit facility borrowings to provide liquidity changes in federal state or local laws and regulations affecting the operation of our restaurants, including minimum wage and tip credit regulations and other matters discussed under the Risk Factors section of GoodTimes annual report on Form 10 K for the fiscal year ended September 26th, 2023, filed with the SEC and other filings with the SEC.
During today's call, the company will discuss non-GAAP measures which they believe can be useful in evaluating our performance. The presentation of this additional information should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP and reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures are available in our earnings release.
And now I would like to turn the call over to Ryan. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Christina. And thank you all for joining us on the call today. As mentioned, everyone should now have access to our first quarter earnings release. Joining me today is our recently appointed Senior Vice President of Finance and Accounting Kari August in a few minutes. She will review the quarter's results.
We engaged carry in a consulting arrangement last August, and she immediately impressed me with her ability to quickly understand the Company's structure, identify opportunities within finance and accounting and quickly build relationships with their now peers.
As part of our senior leadership team, I couldn't be more pleased to have her join our team. Top line results this quarter were much the same as we reported last quarter, with good times continuing to generate year-over-year sales growth and strong unit-level margins, while at Bad Daddy's, we continue to work at turning around same-store sales declines. Our results in December were encouraging and even in the first week of the second quarter, we saw exceptional sales results at several stores, which posted single store weekly sales records. January sales have softened in part due to extreme cold and snow in both our Colorado markets, which is experienced with winter weather, but also in Tennessee and Alabama, where the city and county are not equipped to deal with the snow and ice on the roads and interestingly, in Huntsville, even the airport closed due to excess snow on the runways in Colorado, the extreme cold contributed to softer sales at both brands with Denver staying below zero zero degree mark for nearly three full days. Nevertheless, Bad Daddy's performance versus the black box index has improved significantly from November and not only has the gap narrowed, but we have beat the USA comp sales index now the past two weeks in a row in particular, our dinner daypart has recovered nicely with sales now nearly achieving prior year sales on a same-store basis. We attribute this to the extra hour of operations and focus on last, our sales delivering the same experience in the last half hour of dining as in any other hour of the day on January 17, we launched concept wide daily drink specials, along with the last call Happy Hour, where we have discounted apps during the last two hours of each business day. Additionally, our winter seasonal specials began on that same day for seasonal specials or a key way in which we demonstrate the unique culinary capabilities of Bad Daddy's and that extends to our beverage offerings now as well. We're bringing Chile back to the menu for the winter season, which has been a long requested burger topping that we eliminated during the pandemic, and it is featured on our capital crunch Burger and individually, as aside Bad Daddy's bacon hummus and a Charlie cherry chocolate shake round out the food offerings with tequila and rum based middle interpretations called the motorhome yield and the silver blend. Ginger does getting rounded out with the Cranberry impair pretty and pink mock tail does an excellent fit for the season. Our next iteration of culinary innovation will create mass at both the high end and low end of price points for our brokers, providing options for those seeking value and for those who are less price sensitive and are looking for insanely large burgers that Bad Daddy's has become known for. We took a blended menu price increase of approximately 1.1% in January and are currently sitting on about 5% year-over-year menu price in Colorado and 3% year-over-year in the rest of the country with our January price increase being limited to the Colorado and Atlanta markets. Colorado continues to be the highest cost market in which we operate, driven by statutory and market-based wage pressures with our Atlanta market falling in between Colorado and the rest of the system.
In terms of wage pressure, our Madison restaurant, Huntsville, weather, notwithstanding, continues to perform remarkably well. As we discussed in the press release a couple of weeks ago. We have a highly capable, very dedicated team in that restaurant. And our Madison restaurant was one of the very few restaurants in Huntsville that did not close during the extreme weather. We're working on the development pipeline and are looking at opportunities both in Birmingham and Charlotte. We're currently negotiating two leases and have several other LOIs that are under negotiation at Good Times. We are focused on customer adoption of our loyalty platform, GT. rewards. We continue to believe that digital engagement with our customers at Good Times is critical to continuing our sales momentum by reducing friction at all points in the transaction, we can improve speed, accuracy and ultimately customer satisfaction. We've installed digital boards at the walk-up windows that are company owned restaurants, eliminating all print merchandising across the company-owned system. We have yet to realize the full capability of the digital boards, which will enable day-part merchandising strategies, weather enabled pricing and product decisions and other opportunities to adjust pricing, promotion and general merchandising in near real time, six franchise restaurants still do not have digital walk-up boards, two of which are co-branded with Taco. John's of those, we have commitments to install digital walk-up boards, but three franchise restaurants and the commitment of the last Colorado franchisee with a legacy drive-thru board to convert to digital. This year. We bring a Model three of our Good Times Restaurants, including murals by local artists, new offerings and new signings. We expect to complete one more remodels this year, a more extensive one in the Denver suburb of Lakewood. This is one of three good times that has never had a prior remodel and has an older kitchen layout that is less efficient. We expect this remodel to include the closure of the restaurant for three to four weeks. We purchased just over 160,000 shares during the quarter at an average price of $2.70 per share. We believe that the share repurchase program, particularly at current trading prices for our stock generates a good return for shareholders. Good Times continues to generate reliable cash flow, and we have confidence in our turnaround strategy for Bad Daddy's. Our stock is currently trading below book value per share and a low multiple of cash flow. And we believe that the true value of the business is greater than what the market's currently valuing it at the end of the quarter, we had approximately $1.3 million remaining under the as authorized under the current repurchase program.
I will now turn the call over to Carrie to review our performance for the quarter.
Thank you, Ryan, and thanks for your kind words earlier, and I'm happy to be here today and happy to be part of the team. I'll now review this quarter's results. Total revenues decreased approximately 0.8% for the quarter to $33.1 million. Total restaurant sales for Bad Daddy's restaurants decreased $1.1 million to $24.1 million for the quarter. The sales decline was a combination of reduced sales associated with the closure of the Cherry Creek restaurant in prior year, reduced customer traffic in several key markets, partially offset by an approximate 4.2% menu price increase as well as sales from the Madison, Alabama restaurants, which opened during fourth quarter of 2023. Same-store sales declined 6.2% for the quarter, with 39 Bad Daddy's in the comp base at quarter end. Cost of sales at Bad Daddy's were 31.5% for the quarter, a 20 basis point decrease from last year's quarter with benefits from costs versus the prior year period across our basket though we have experienced lower purchase prices for food and paper goods. Recently, we expect ground beef and other food based commodities to increase in the second half of fiscal 2024. Bad Daddy's labor cost increased by 100 basis points compared to the prior year quarter to 35.8% for the quarter. This increase as a percentage of sales reflects higher wage rates and the deleveraging impact of lower sales on management costs. Occupancy costs at Bad Daddy's increased 20 basis points to 7.1% and Bad Daddy's Other operating costs increased by 80 basis points compared to the prior year quarter, 14.8% for the quarter, primarily the result of increased repair and maintenance technology and utility expenses offset by lower delivery commissions.
Overall restaurant-level operating profit, a non-GAAP measure for Bad Daddy's was approximately $2.6 million for the quarter, or 10.7% of sales compared to $3.2 million or 12.7% last year. Total restaurant sales for Company-owned Good Times Restaurants increased approximately $0.8 million to $8.8 million for the first quarter compared to the prior year first quarter. The average menu price increase for the quarter was approximately 4.6% over the same prior year quarter. Same store sales increased 4.1% for the quarter was 25 Good Times Restaurants in the comp base at quarter end. Food and packaging costs for Good Times were 30.8% for the quarter, a decrease of 210 basis points compared to last year's quarter as we experienced lower purchase prices in our commodity basket compared to the prior year period. As is the case with Bad Daddy's, the longer term forecast indicates resumed pressure on beef and other food prices from current levels. Total labor costs for Good Times decreased to 33.8%, a 110 basis point decrease from the 34.9% we ran during last year's quarter due to the 4.6% menu price increase as well as increased productivity and productivity, partially offset by higher wage rates. Occupancy costs at Good Times were 8.9%, a decrease of 20 basis points from the prior year quarter good times. Other operating costs were 13.0% for the quarter, an increase of 90 basis points primarily due to increased delivery commissions as well as increased repair and maintenance in utility expenses good times. Restaurant-level operating profit increased by $0.3 million for the quarter to $1.2 million as a percent of sales. Restaurant-level operating profit increased by 240 basis points versus last year to 13.5% due primarily to the improvement in food and packaging costs. Combined, general and administrative expenses were $2.3 million during the quarter, or 7% of total revenues, a 10 basis point decrease from last year. Our net loss to common shareholders for the quarter was $0.6 million or a loss of $0.05 per share versus net loss of $0.1 million or $0.01 per share in the first quarter last year. Approximately $0.1 million of income tax expense was reported during the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $0.3 million compared to $0.7 million for the first quarter of 2023. We finished the quarter with $3.5 million in cash and $1.3 million of long-term debt.
With that, I will turn the call back to Ryan.
Thank you, Carrie.
Cristina, we can now open the call for questions.
Question and Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question at this time, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Again, the floor is now open for questions. If you have a question or comment, please press star one and your telephone keypad at this time and please hold while we poll for questions.
Thank you.
Our first question comes from Sanjay Rapida, who is in a personal investor. Please go ahead, sir.
Her own home. So I wanted to talk about I think you touched on the cash flow aspect of it on so I think fiscal year 23 on operating cash flow was about $8 million. Is that on kind of the projection for this year? How is it looking for this year?
Yes. So I think in terms of adjusted EBITDA on last year was it was a little bit less than that. I'm going from the top of my head to say that full year was on the order of between $5 million and $6 million. I think for this year, obviously, we have started off the year on behind last year's cash flow and adjusted EBITDA. I do expect for improvement in future quarters from what we hear from what we have produce this quarter. And so I think my best projection for that, although we're not offering any official guidance is really that on the same order of last year as probably reasonable to expect for this year.
Okay. And for bad debt is up, are you still expecting same-stores sales increase in the second half of the fiscal year.
So I think on the last call that we had I had and I said that I wasn't making any official projections, but that I had hoped that by the second half of the year that that might be possible.
I think one of the things that we've noticed in the black box numbers, which is a a benchmarking service that's specific to the restaurant industry. And also if you're familiar with Knapp-Track, is that there's been some deterioration in the casual dining segment. And so that's somewhat affected my point of view around that. However, I do think that our performance relative to Black Box, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, it has improved. And I do attribute a substantial amount of that improvement compared to the index to the initiatives that we talked about earlier on this call and some on our last call, and so while I'm not I are prepared to prognosticate that we're going to get back to positive comps by the back half of the year. I think directionally, we see comp sales improving from where we reported them after this quarter.
Okay. And I mean for Bad Daddy's, do you feel like operationally you've been able to identify them where things slipped a bit and are all of those you feel being addressed now?
So that during the call last quarter, we did address several things specifically related to hospitality and our focus on and the bar aspect of the business that we had felt had slipped a bit, I would say in terms of both of those, we have programs in place to improve those going forward.
I think we have already made progress it specifically with the bar and the return of happy hour or daily drink specials, I think was one big aspect that we have been missing for quite some time. We have new bar training as well as a new beverage menu that is very soon to be released. That's another element of what we're doing to improve the operations, in particular in the front of the house. And then we have, as mentioned on the prior call, invested in training, learning and development resources in terms of people that we believe are going to help our operating teams improve in their assessment of their front-of-house, but also in their training and development in their servers, their hosts and their bartenders.
And so yes, this is a bit of a process and not an flip of a light switch, but I think we have the right programs in place to continue to make advancements. And I believe that we already have in terms of a mindset shift really changed the point of view of our operators in terms of where performance has been at and where it needs to be.
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of David Swartz from Morningstar. Your line is open.
David Swartz
It's thanks for taking my question. So looking at the restaurant level operating margins that you just reported given and given that expenses are higher than they have been in past years, is there any reason why you cannot reach historical restaurant-level operating margins? And what would be the same-store sales numbers that you wouldn't need to report to reach the at historical higher levels?
Yes, I think there are a couple of elements to that. One is the labor pressures, particularly in Colorado, although to a certain extent, we have also seen wage pressure, particularly among salaried managers in our arm in our other markets. And so I think depending upon what you're referring to, if you're referring to say the peak in 2021, I don't know that that the peak margins that we attained in 2021 are realizable. I think that was a moment in time, but I would say that our vision is to improve restaurant-level operating profit from that restaurant level margins closer to 15%, particularly in the southeast part of the country. We're wage pressures are less and maybe a little less so so blended in the 13% to 14% range. That is going to take same-store sales on the order of 3.5% to 4% from.
I think the other element of this, which applies to same-store sales as well is that as we discussed in prior calls, we have a handful stores that have had sequential declines in same-store sales and turning those around or identifying other solutions for those restaurants, it would be part of our approach to improving restaurant-level margins.
David Swartz
Thank you. That's helpful. And I'm looking at it, the development plan. Are you are you holding off on opening more Bad Daddy's until the results improve or what's the current outlook for new stores over the next couple of years?
Yes. So we are developing a pipeline. I think less concerning maybe even than current.
Then current operating results, which we believe we can improve upon is really the cost of development and the cost of construction, which we have less control over outside of while reengineering aspects of the concept, we are confident in our ability to develop new units. We do want to take that reasonably slow, both for operating and financial reasons. And so as of last quarter, I think we had said we expected to develop one in fiscal 2025, and I think that's still our point of view. That said, we're taking a very measured approach and making sure that the economics, including the development costs. Makes sense.
David Swartz
Yes. Thank you. And maybe I missed this, but what were this the stock buybacks in the quarter?
Were there stock buybacks there were there were so, um, we repurchased we go back to that page in my prepared remarks. We repurchased 160,772 shares during the quarter current.
David Swartz
Thanks a lot. That's all I had.
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Mark Schiller, who is a personal investor. Your line is open.
Mark Schiller
Hi, Ryan. Welcome, Terry. Thanks for taking my questions. So over the last year, you've made significant investments to include the joint venture purchase, the stock repurchase, which you just discussed, the purchase of two good times. And then you've also made some rather significant investments in good times. And earlier you mentioned that somewhere around that $6 million and cash flow is kind of a target that you'd probably be looking at running going forward. What in 2024 here are we looking at as far as from a perspective of the kind of the big ticket items where you're at from a CapEx standpoint on these good times, redevelopment or related activities, any color you can put to that?
Yes, I would say that in terms of just maintenance CapEx, so we'll break down the CapEx in a couple of different ways in terms of maintenance CapEx. We generally budget about 1% of sales for ongoing routine maintenance CapEx. And we have had a significant amount of more project CapEx and we have completed signage at I want to say seven of our restaurants, we've done full remodels of three of those. So just a little over say 12% of the system at those remodels are on the order of 80,000 to 100,000 with signage being on top of that, three of our restaurants need more extensive remodels, similar to the one I described in my prepared remarks today, and we are looking to schedule those in over time over the next yes, over fiscal 2025 and maybe fiscal 2026, I think my hope would be to be able to get the entire system remodeled by the end of fiscal 2025. But cash flow and other opportunities for capital use will really determine that some So did that did that answer your question?
Mark Schiller
Thank you very much. And then along those lines too, you talked about the stock price and the value of the below book value a state of where the stock is right now. Have you discussed in the past and I'm sure at some point you have with Bad Daddy's being the growth vehicle and being the more recognized brand operated in more states. Have you ever considered a name change, you know, a stock symbol like bad ABADY. or something along those lines something that would draw additional kind of interest or perhaps better reflect where the Company is going forward with good times doing great things in Colorado right now, but be in kind of a limited vehicle going forward?
Yes. So we actually had in the past and we had considered rename of the company and to change the ticker symbol, just as you described that was pre pandemic, the pandemic came and things somewhat changed. I think it's an interesting question because you are right in terms of our point of view that Bad Daddy's is the growth vehicle. Nevertheless, good times is performing remarkably well. And so I think it's an ongoing topic of conversation, but I think not something that we think is really, you know, in and of itself is going to drive the business results. It's really more around optics around the investment community. And so that's a it's something that we continue to battle around but haven't taken any action on. And I can't say that we have any specific plans to do something like that in the near future.
Mark Schiller
Okay. Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. And with no further questions, I'd like to turn the floor back over to Ryan.
I remain confident in both of our brands, and I'm encouraged by recent performance at Bad Daddy's and believe that the investments at Good Times we've been making are a large part of the strong performance that brand is generating. I would again like to thank the more than 2,500 team members, managers and leaders throughout our organization to create great experiences and great food for our guests every day. Thank you all for joining our call today.
Yes.
Operator
Thank you. Once again, this does conclude today's conference call. You may now disconnect.
