NASDAQ:FWRG First Watch Restaurant Group Q3 2023 Earnings Report $18.73 +0.26 (+1.41%) As of 04:00 PM Eastern Earnings HistoryForecast First Watch Restaurant Group EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.09Consensus EPS $0.04Beat/MissBeat by +$0.05One Year Ago EPSN/AFirst Watch Restaurant Group Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$219.20 millionExpected Revenue$216.54 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$2.66 millionYoY Revenue Growth+17.30%First Watch Restaurant Group Announcement DetailsQuarterQ3 2023Date11/1/2023TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateWednesday, November 1, 2023Conference Call Time8:00AM ETUpcoming EarningsFirst Watch Restaurant Group's Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Tuesday, May 6, 2025, with a conference call scheduled at 8:00 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Q1 2025 Earnings ReportConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)SEC FilingEarnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by First Watch Restaurant Group Q3 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrNovember 1, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 10 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc. 3rd Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call occurring today, November 1, 2023, at 8 am Eastern Time. Please note that all participants are currently in a listen only mode. Following the presentation, the conference call will be opened for analyst questions and instructions on how to ask a question will be given at that time. This call will be archived and available for replay at investors. Operator00:00:26Firstwatch.com under the News and Events section. I would like to turn the conference over to Steve Marotta, Vice President of Investor Relations at First Watch to begin. Speaker 100:00:39Hello, everyone. I am joined by FirstWatch's Chief Executive Officer and President, Chris Tommaso and Chief Financial Officer, Mel Hope. This morning FirstWatch issued earnings release for the Q3 2023 on GlobeNewswire and filed its quarterly report on Form 10 Q with the SEC. These documents can be found at investors. Firstwatch.com. Speaker 100:01:01Let me cover a few housekeeping matters before introducing Chris. This conference call will include forward looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from these statements. The statements include without limitation statements concerning the conditions, the company's industry and its operations, performance and financial conditions, growth strategies and future expenses. Any such statements should be considered in conjunction with cautionary statements in the company's earnings release and the risk factor disclosure in the company's filings with the SEC, including quarterly report on Form 10 Q for Swatchit. No obligation to update forward looking statements whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law. Speaker 100:01:46Lastly, management's remarks today will include references to various non GAAP measures, including restaurant level operating profit, restaurant level operating profit margin, and adjusted EBITDA margin. Investors should review the reconciliations of these non GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP both contained in the company's earnings release filed this morning. And with that, I will turn the call over to Chris. Good morning. Before we share the details of another terrific quarter of growth, I would like to first note that this earnings season marks our 8th quarter since our IPO. Speaker 100:02:20While we're still early in our journey, I'm proud of how this organization has established itself as a public company, build credibility with investors and consistently produce positive results at a high rate of growth over a multi year time horizon. To everyone listening this morning from the First Watch organization, Thank you. Now on to our Q3. Our organization once again delivered outsized performance top to bottom. In the quarter, First Watch generated $219,200,000 in total revenues, a 17.3% increase versus a year ago. Speaker 100:02:57We opened 13 system wide restaurants surpassing the significant milestone of 500 restaurants ending the quarter with 505 First Watch restaurants across 29 states. Our same restaurant sales increased 4.8%, once again supported by positive dining room traffic. As we've noted in past quarters, expected softness in our off premises channels has persisted as consumer behavior continues to shift and moderate post pandemic. Finally, bottom line growth benefited from easing food and beverage inflation and effective four wall management by our operators. We also continue to outperform the industry, highlighting the benefit of our differentiation to other full service operators through our focus on the breakfast, brunch and lunch dayparts. Speaker 100:03:43As compared to Black Box Intelligence, First Watch bested the industry by nearly 400 basis points, illustrating our ability to grow traffic share. Our share growth is also supported by Placer AI, which showed our consolidated is higher than ever, especially in light of our consistent growth. Of course, given the macroeconomic backdrop, we remain cautious with respect to the state of the consumer. While we have observed and in fact benefited from the strength and resilience of the consumer throughout the year, there's reason to believe that the weight of this environment is beginning to have an impact. But as we have experienced in prior downturns, consumers are less willing to gamble with their discretionary dollars and would rather seek out more familiar and enjoyable experiences that are consistent and deliver value like First Watch. Speaker 100:04:41Given our long standing record of exceeding industry traffic trends, we are well positioned to benefit from the consumer's flight to quality. In times like these, the best operators are winning. By that, I mean brands that relentlessly lean into the basics for the benefit of their teams and their customers are winning. We remain confident and unwavering in our commitment to culinary forward food served by highly trained teams who exemplify our You First mission in a warm and inviting atmosphere and at a tremendous value. We deliver an exceptional dining experience at a compelling per person average of just $16.35 ensuring that First Watch remains a reliable experience as well as in affordable luxury. Speaker 100:05:24Our focus on executing the basics at a high level remains key to our success. Beyond our financial performance, we know we are well positioned when our employees and our customers are happy. And by both measures, we're playing from a position of strength. Both manager and employee turnover have continued to improve throughout the year including during the Q3. Our customer experience scores are also at historical highs and continue to be a great indicator of future performance. Speaker 100:05:53To further illustrate our focus here, in the quarter, we completed our annual Y tour, short for We Hear You, where our Chief People Officer, Laura Sorenson and Chief Operating Officer, Dan Jones, joined me in speaking with hourly team members from every region in the company. For perspective, that's 22 separate 90 minute tours comprising over 1900 minutes with more than 300 hourly team members. There is no more important task that we carry as leaders than to receive feedback and perspective from those that are serving our valued customers every day. We learn what they love about working for First Watch and how we can do better. Their insights and opinions are invaluable as we seek to continuously improve. Speaker 100:06:35But it's our tactical reactions to this frontline information that allows us to effect positive change in real time, so that we're fully supporting our teams and better serving our customers. I finished this year's tour encouraged that our culture in the restaurants and our team's genuine desire to serve our customers and each other is as strong as ever. Our deep bench of human capital gives me confidence in our ability to execute our high growth expansion plans. Double clicking on the topic of culture, I'm also pleased to share that First Watch was once again named to Newsweek's list of most loved workplaces. This is especially noteworthy to me because it's largely generated from more than 2,000,000 employee surveys. Speaker 100:07:17We are proud to be the only restaurant brand that made the 2023 list, a remarkable achievement for sure. A strong culture begins and ends with the environment fostered by our general managers in their restaurants a daily basis. I've always viewed the GM position as the most important role at First Watch. While we are one company, we consider ourselves to be a network of individual neighborhood restaurants and each of these are led by a general manager responsible for creating a positive environment for their team and customers. Awards like this demonstrate that we are keeping the culture flame bright as we raise the bar on nationwide expansion. Speaker 100:07:56On the topic of nationwide expansion. I'm excited that the quarter ahead will be one of the most prolific in the company's history and our team is ready. We will open 18 to 21 new system wide restaurants across 16 states in the 4th quarter alone. In total, we have over 100 restaurants in various stages of development and more than 120 promotion ready managers ready to lead them. We believe we are well positioned to capitalize on the white space in front of us. Speaker 100:08:23We're in a select group within the public restaurant space, opening new restaurants at a low double digit pace annually. Our highly portable brand succeeds in both existing and new markets with our top decile restaurants spanning 10 states and 19 DMAs. We're targeting 3rd year AUVs of 2,500,000 with restaurant level operating margins of 18% to 20% and cash on cash returns of 35% or greater. These attractive unit economics achieved in 1 7.5 hour shift support our long term goal of 2,200 domestic First Watch restaurants. Finally, we continue to execute our strategy of complementing strong organic unit growth with the acquisition of certain franchise owned restaurants and related territories. Speaker 100:09:09Earlier this year, we acquired 17 restaurants in the Milwaukee, Omaha and South Carolina Georgia markets. Today, we are announcing an agreement to purchase an additional franchise partner with 6 restaurants in the Florida Panhandle and expect that transaction to close later this month. Following these acquisitions, we will have 11 franchisees remaining who operate 97 restaurants and of those 46 are subject to purchase options. I'll reiterate what I said last quarter. For us, converting franchises to company owned restaurants is compelling from both a financial and strategic perspective and represents a significant growth opportunity for our entire enterprise. Speaker 100:09:49And before I turn the call over to Mel, while we still have 2 more months before turning the calendar on the New Year, the effort and execution necessary to generate more than 30% adjusted EBITDA growth, assuming the midpoint of our updated guidance range, is a point of pride for our entire organization and energizes all of us to double down on our commitment to serving more demand in our restaurants. And with that, I'll turn it over to Mal. Speaker 200:10:15Thanks, Chris, and good morning. As Chris shared, we're proud of our teams who continue to deliver and while traffic declined 1.9% as we expected, our dining room traffic growth remained positive. Total revenues were $219,200,000 a 17.3% increase over the Q3 of 2022, reflecting both same restaurant sales growth as well as the sales in our newly opened and acquired restaurants. Our food and beverage costs were 22.6 percent of sales in the 3rd quarter, which compared to 24.2% in the same period last year. Costs benefited from 220 basis points of favorability across our market basket compared to light last year, which were driven mostly by decreases in pork and avocado costs as well as leverage from our previous menu pricing actions. Speaker 200:11:25Labor and other related expenses were 33.9 and driven primarily by an increase in the number of managers per restaurant. We ended the period with an average of 3.1 managers per restaurant compared with 2.8 a year ago. We view a 3 manager average as a standard of excellence as it provides the bench strength necessary to support our large number of planned new openings. Restaurant level operating profit was $40,400,000 for the quarter with a margin of 18.7%, an increase versus the 17.3 percent restaurant level operating profit margin in the same period last year. The margin improvement reflects increased leverage from our same restaurant sales growth, improvement in food and beverage costs and favorability in other restaurant operating expenses, primarily driven by lower cost of to go supplies. Speaker 200:12:36General and administrative expenses were $25,200,000 approximately $3,500,000 higher than in the prior year, primarily due to higher compensation expense from additional headcount to support our rapid growth. Adjusted EBITDA was Margin we realized in the Q3 of 2022. The quarter benefited from just over $1,000,000 in G and A mostly headcount and departmental projects that's now expected to be incurred in the 4th quarter. We opened 13 system wide restaurants during the quarter of which 10 were company owned and 3 were franchise owned. As we have stated throughout the year, our company owned restaurant development schedule in 2023 is heavily weighted toward the Q4. Speaker 200:13:39This year, we've often been asked about our customer check management. We continue to believe our growing dining room traffic reflects our customers' preference for meaningful experiences. To borrow from one of Chris' statements made earlier this year, the industry wide shift away from off premises appears to be a new indicator of check management. And while declining off Premises occasions remain a headwind to our consolidated traffic growth. Our teams drove profitable growth in the 3rd quarter due in part to the increased in restaurant visits. Speaker 200:14:19Now I'd like to update our full year outlook as follows. We are increasing 2023 same restaurant sales growth expectations to a range of 7% to 8%. That's up from our previous range of 6% to 8%, and now expect our full year traffic will be generally flat. We're carrying price of just below 6% in the 4th quarter compared to the prior year. We now expect to open between 3739 company owned restaurants and 13 to 14 franchise owned restaurants this year with 1 company owned restaurant closure. Speaker 200:15:00On a consolidated basis, we expect a total of 49 to 52 net new system wide restaurants. We now expect total revenue growth in the range of 20 to 21%. That range is an increase from our previous range of 18% to 21%, with Acquisitions contributing about 2.5 percent to total revenue growth. We now expect full year commodity deflation of negative 1% to flat with net commodity cost inflation for the balance of the year. We continue to expect hourly labor cost inflation to remain in the range of 9% to 11% with overall restaurant level labor cost inflation in the range of 8% to 10%. Speaker 200:15:52We're increasing our adjusted EBITDA guidance to a range of $91,000,000 to $92,000,000 from our previous range of $89,000,000 to 92,000,000 Acquisitions are expected to contribute about $3,000,000 to our adjusted EBITDA this year. We now expect a blended tax rate in the range of 26% to 28%. We're adjusting our capital expenditures range, not including the capital allocated to the acquisitions of franchise owned restaurants to $85,000,000 to $90,000,000 This is down from our previous range of $100,000,000 to $110,000,000 mostly due to the timing of new restaurant opening. As a reminder, our fiscal 2023 is a 53 week year and our guidance includes the Extra Week's contribution, which we estimate to be $10,500,000 in total revenues, $2,500,000 in adjusted EBITDA. In as much as we're in the middle of our budget season, it would be premature to furnish expectations for 2024. Speaker 200:17:06However, among our own modeling assumptions for the Q1, we see no reason to expect off premises traffic to reverse its trend. Furthermore, because of the calendar shift, Our most productive week of the year falls into the Q4 of 2023 and out of the Q1 of 2024. For further details on the Q3, please review our supplemental materials deck on our Investor Relations at the Investor Relations website beneath the webcast. And we'll open the line now for questions. Operator? Operator00:17:43Yes, thank you. At this time, we will begin the question and answer session. And today's first question comes from Jeffrey Bernstein with Barclays. Speaker 300:18:07Great. Thank you very much. Hi, Jeff. Good morning. Good morning. Speaker 300:18:13Two questions. The first one on the comp trends. It seems like your absolute results for the 3rd quarter close to 5% or modestly above expectation, but yet we don't get to see the granularity within that or any thoughts on the Q4. So I'm just wondering You said you had a strong quarter yet the weight of the macro I think was beginning to have an impact, Chris, I think was your reference. I'm wondering if you could provide some color in terms of what you're seeing, whether it's something specific to First Watch or whether you're just referring to the broader government data and metrics that lead people to believe there's a slowdown, perhaps you're not yet seeing it? Speaker 300:18:50And then I had one follow-up. Speaker 200:18:52Yes. I think to get to your question, I think the industry is seeing some softness overall. But in terms of the guidance on the Q4, I think We've considered what we're seeing in the market today and what we had in the Q3 in terms of the full year guidance. I think you can back into pretty much what our thinking is about 4th quarter. Speaker 300:19:20Okay. But that's not something that And you said the industry is seeing some softness. If you were just looking at your own results through the Q3 and through October, would you say that First Watch is seeing some softness similar to the industry or not yet evident? Speaker 200:19:35Well, we've consistently talked about our traffic, particularly where the off prem traffic is concerned that we've seen that Kind of seeking a new home, don't know exactly where it's going to land at some points, but that traffic has descended throughout the year, while our dining rooms have remain positive. They're probably less positive in the Q3 than they were earlier in the year. So there is a there is that There's some downward pressure and I think that's what First Watch is seeing and that's what the industry is seeing. Speaker 300:20:11Understood. And my follow-up is just on the menu pricing. I think you mentioned that you'll be running roughly 6% in the 4th quarter. Obviously, we're seeing cost pressures abate. So I'm wondering Well, I don't have specific thoughts yet on 2024. Speaker 300:20:25How you think about pricing more theoretically, whether you'd be inclined to take incremental price going into next year or whether based on the caution around the macro you'd perhaps not take that incremental price. I'm just wondering how you think about that outlook going into 2024? Thank you. Speaker 100:20:44Thanks, Jeff. This is Chris. I would just reiterate our previous Plan and approach on pricing, which is to price to cover inflation. Obviously, we have been and continue to be a price laggard. But the basis for that is that we're playing the long game here and we have been and all the decisions that we've made around Staffing and specifically menu pricing have been with that in mind. Speaker 100:21:12So we'll continue to do that. That said, we'll obviously continue to watch The environment watch the consumer. Our focus is on more visits and again a long term view and approach. So that's We're going to stay true to that. Speaker 300:21:30Sounds good. Thank you. Operator00:21:33Thank you. And the next question comes from Sara Senatore with Bank of America. Speaker 400:21:38Hi. This is actually Kathryn Griffin on for Sara. Thanks for the question. I wanted to follow-up just on the same store sales guidance. Just given that it looks like the range tightened a little Higher 7% to 8% versus 6% to 8% prior, but traffic has edged down. Speaker 400:21:55I guess I was just hoping you could elaborate a little bit more on Whether you're expecting more pricing mix, is it benefit from attach or trade up? Any color there would be helpful. Thank you. Speaker 200:22:11The only thing that's really affecting I'm Trying to really understand the question, but at any rate, I think I've already answered the fact that we do expect to see the transaction piece continue under some pressure. The only thing that would be different in the Q4 is that we're rolling a the winter storm Elliott right around last year's holiday period. And so So there's a little bit of that noise in there, but I'm not sure I'm answering your question, but I'm not sure exactly I Speaker 500:22:50understand what the earnings expectation Speaker 400:22:53yes, it's really just the traffic versus price mix Ponent, I think, again, just sort of following up on the first question, but, that I appreciate the answer and That's fine. On the second question though, we were just wondering if you're since you're raising revenue guidance and new store guidance, but lower CapEx. I'm just curious if we should understand that that means you're finding ways to build more efficiently, if you're seeing less inflation in your build costs, any sort of commentary on the build environment as it relates to that guidance? Speaker 200:23:30That's a good question. I think the answer to that though is that really developers have caused us to push out some projects that we get expected to At this time of the year and we've kind of been seeing that leakage throughout the year. So Eric and his team are working hard to manage new projects and have done a really good job of keeping them on track, but they were but we would hope to have more projects Spending more heavily in the projects in the pipeline right now, but it's really the pace of developers delivering our New sites so that we can begin to finish them out and open them faster. So we're Seeing some pace at which we're taking delivery slowdown. Speaker 500:24:20Okay. Thank you. Speaker 600:24:21Yes. Thank you. And the Operator00:24:24next question comes from Andy Barish with Jefferies. Speaker 600:24:30Good morning, guys. Speaker 200:24:30Good morning, Andy. Speaker 600:24:33Just wondering on the commodity basket, the update for this year. And then on some of the key items like eggs and potatoes that you've been contracted on, anything You know provide for 2024 at this point yet? Speaker 200:24:51Really not ready to talk about 2024 and we'll get to that. But We're kind of sticking to the 3rd quarter, 4th quarter guidance right now. Speaker 600:25:02Got you. And then just one additional question On the comps, I'm assuming mix was still positive in the quarter, Is that correct? And any change on sort of alcohol or the coffee beverage attached or anything like that that would have been a change in what you've been seeing? Speaker 200:25:28Yes. Mix remains positive. Our LTOs, Our limited time offers are so popular, and that always falls into our mix category. And so they've remained a real push to our mix. Beverage incidences, particularly our new premium iced coffees creates a little bit of noise for us because we're it's a new line. Speaker 200:26:00And so we're seeing those mix well, but It's really a small cohort that we're looking at since that's a brand new line. Speaker 600:26:12And then just one more follow-up if I could Mel. You guys have been pointing kind of flattish EBITDA for the quarter. You talked about G and A, some deferment into the 4th quarter. Anything else that you would point to in terms of the upside versus your expectations? Speaker 200:26:33In terms of I guess I would say the thing I would caution People are modeling the company about is our pre opening costs in the 4th quarter because we have so many projects that will be coming online So heavily weighted to the Q4, our preopening costs will be a substantial contribution to the adjusted EBITDA formula. Speaker 600:27:02Okay, helpful. Thank you. Operator00:27:05Thank you. And the next question comes from Ella Zhu with Stifel. Speaker 500:27:11Good morning. This is Ella on for Chris. Mel, the company's adjusted EBITDA guidance for the year implies $16,000,000 to $17,000,000 EBITDA for the 4th quarter, which would be a year over year improvement, but more of a desperate improvement compared to the Q3 and the year to date results. And it also appears to imply a lower margin year over year. Why would that be the case? Speaker 200:27:39So I just mentioned the fact that we've got we're heavy enough on preopening costs Q4, which will be part of the story. And then we mentioned during our scripted comments That we have about $1,000,000 of timing favorability on G and A in the Q3 that will slide into the 4th quarter. And then our Q4 generally has other higher costs as well for our national conference and that sort of thing. Speaker 500:28:08Got it. Thank you. Operator00:28:13Thank you. And the next question comes from Brian Vaccaro with Raymond James. Speaker 700:28:18Hi, thanks and good morning. I wanted to circle back on the new unit performance if we could. And could you provide a little more color just on the Sales performance on the Class of 2023. And then on the CapEx side, where is average development costs settling out in 2023? And is that settling out or do you expect that to continue to rise into 2024? Speaker 200:28:39So new restaurants that we built this year, I think the average before tenant improvement Landlords oftentimes give us support when we enter into a lease with them. So I think the average overall is maybe above $1,500,000 and the net is in line with what we've said before, which $1,400,000 or so net of the TI dollars. And then our new restaurants In terms of sales on average, I think they're performing in line with our previous expectations. Speaker 700:29:25Okay. Thank you for that. And then just back to the commodity inflation. Mel, I think I heard you say you expect it tick back into slightly inflationary territory here in Speaker 100:29:36the Q4. Speaker 700:29:37Could you just walk through kind of what items are kind of moving on you back into Speaker 200:29:44The one that sticks out to me right now is avocados are taken up, some of it's just seasonal. But that's we use a lot of avocados. That's the significant mover, I think, in the market basket. Speaker 700:30:01Okay. Okay. And then you mentioned just on preopening costs, obviously understand the dynamic there, but outside looking in, that's a number that's pretty difficult for us to estimate given timing and it's pretty sensitive. Is there any way you could put a little bit of a sharper pencil on your expectation on preopening in the 4th quarter? Thank you. Speaker 200:30:28Well, I don't know exactly what preopening costs are right now for Our Q4 plan, I think if you look at what the average has been and the average number of projects that we have built Through 3 quarters, it's probably not radically different from that. Speaker 700:30:48Okay. Appreciate it. Thank you. Operator00:30:52Thank you. And the next question comes from Brian Moll with Piper Sandler. Speaker 800:30:58Hi, this is Ashley on for Brian. You didn't mention in your prepared remarks, but I believe the KDS system is fully rolled out or is about to be. Can you just talk through some of the benefits you started to see flowing through the system and the expectations of that in 2024? Do they primarily come from traffic Or do you see some benefits in labor as well? Speaker 100:31:22There's a number of benefits from the KDS system starting with opening up the hiring pool for us and reducing training time. And one of the biggest benefits of it is Visibility into our ticket times that we didn't have before. So as I've said, we've been establishing benchmarks. We have dash Boards and other evaluation tools now that we're using to really measure ticket times at peak times. And that's been the goal All along is to improve our performance during peak sales hours and increase those peak sales hours. Speaker 100:32:00So We haven't reported on the impact of that yet. As I've said in the past, the rollout and implementation of that is Ending number 1 as it relates to KDS and we're continuing to learn a lot about it and tweak and refine the system and perfect it. And, but we are seeing some data that shows us that we're getting much better ticket times during those peak sales hours. Speaker 800:32:26That's great. Thank you. Also, I was just wondering what commodity inflation was in this past quarter? Speaker 200:32:35Commodity deflation was about 200 basis points, 220 basis points something like that. Speaker 800:32:43Great. Thank you. I'll pass it back. Operator00:32:47Thank you. And the next question comes from John McNamara with Guggenheim. Speaker 600:32:58Hi, thanks for the question. Speaker 200:32:59I'm just Speaker 100:32:59wondering if you guys I would say our staffing has continued to improve. Mel mentioned we're 3.1 managers per restaurant where previously we were at 2.8. We feel good about where we are there. I think overall Inflation or excuse me, turnover has held pretty steady for us. And we're in a good place from a staffing perspective, specifically with the bench strength that we think we need to support our growth and obviously our continued operations. Speaker 100:33:47Turnover, Speaker 200:33:49I mean, you asked specifically about that. It's actually been taken down for us through the year. I think our teams are doing a really, really good job of training and working with the crews. So as we've seen throughout this year, the coal industry dealt with a lot of turnover right after the worst and first big waves of COVID through the 1st couple of years and we weren't an exception. I think we stayed better than the industry throughout That time, but it was still higher than we like and we've seen it all year long. Speaker 200:34:36We've worked to trying to slow the turnover and it has it's slowed considerably since 2021, it's kind of been stepping down gradually. So we've seen some improvement. We've got I like the momentum there for us. Speaker 600:34:56Thanks. And then just one more, this might have already been asked, but I think I missed it. I know unit growth is heavier in the 4th quarter. Any possibility of any slippage into 1Q of 2024 for that? Speaker 200:35:11Sure. There's always some possibility of that. Once you get kind of close to the holidays, we don't want our trainers to be away from home during holiday times. But if we do have slippage, there might be a couple of projects That would slide, but they for the most part, you would expect them to open within a couple of weeks of the 1st year. They're not going to impact the Overall performance next year or contribution next year. Speaker 200:35:48I would say this that every project that we have that we expect to open this year is under construction today. So it's There's definitely a race on to the finish line on every day all of them. Speaker 300:36:10Appreciate it. Operator00:36:12Thank you. And the next question comes from Andrew Charles with TD Cowen. Speaker 900:36:18Thank you. This is Zach Gogdan on for Andrew. I've got two questions on labor. The first one is that in the 10 Q you called out, Labor inflation is expected to remain in that 8% to 10% range, but sequentially are you seeing that getting better? Speaker 200:36:36On an inflationary basis, not really. I mean a lot of our labor inflation is attributed to regulatory increases in the minimum wage in different states. And so it's fairly reliable. Speaker 900:37:00Okay. Thank you. And then the second question is that, are you at the right level staffing now or should we include the incremental staffing in our models? Speaker 200:37:10Yes, we're at the right level now. Speaker 900:37:13All right, great. Thank you. Operator00:37:17Thank you. And this concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the call to Chris Tomasso for any closing comments. Speaker 100:37:25Thank you for your thoughtful questions this morning. We appreciate it. We look forward to finishing the year strong with our continued focus on serving more demand and making days brighter for every First Watch customer. I hope you all have a joyful and restful holiday season. Thank you. Operator00:37:40Thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.Read moreRemove AdsPowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallFirst Watch Restaurant Group Q3 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xRemove Ads Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) First Watch Restaurant Group Earnings HeadlinesFirst Watch Restaurant acquires three franchise restaurants in MissouriApril 15 at 10:56 PM | markets.businessinsider.comFirst Watch Acquires 3 Franchise Restaurants in MissouriApril 14 at 4:05 PM | globenewswire.comTrump Treasure April 19Thanks to President Trump… A $900 investment across5 specific cryptos… Could gain 12,000% so quickly that, just 12 months later…April 16, 2025 | Paradigm Press (Ad)TD Securities Upgrades First Watch Restaurant Group (FWRG)April 2, 2025 | msn.comFirst Watch Restaurant upgraded to Buy from Hold at TD CowenApril 2, 2025 | markets.businessinsider.comWhy First Watch (FWRG) Stock Is Up TodayApril 2, 2025 | msn.comSee More First Watch Restaurant Group Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like First Watch Restaurant Group? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on First Watch Restaurant Group and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About First Watch Restaurant GroupFirst Watch Restaurant Group (NASDAQ:FWRG), through its subsidiaries, operates and franchises restaurants under the First Watch trade name in the United States. The company was formerly known as AI Fresh Super Holdco, Inc. and changed its name to First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc. in December 2019. 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There are 10 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc. 3rd Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call occurring today, November 1, 2023, at 8 am Eastern Time. Please note that all participants are currently in a listen only mode. Following the presentation, the conference call will be opened for analyst questions and instructions on how to ask a question will be given at that time. This call will be archived and available for replay at investors. Operator00:00:26Firstwatch.com under the News and Events section. I would like to turn the conference over to Steve Marotta, Vice President of Investor Relations at First Watch to begin. Speaker 100:00:39Hello, everyone. I am joined by FirstWatch's Chief Executive Officer and President, Chris Tommaso and Chief Financial Officer, Mel Hope. This morning FirstWatch issued earnings release for the Q3 2023 on GlobeNewswire and filed its quarterly report on Form 10 Q with the SEC. These documents can be found at investors. Firstwatch.com. Speaker 100:01:01Let me cover a few housekeeping matters before introducing Chris. This conference call will include forward looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from these statements. The statements include without limitation statements concerning the conditions, the company's industry and its operations, performance and financial conditions, growth strategies and future expenses. Any such statements should be considered in conjunction with cautionary statements in the company's earnings release and the risk factor disclosure in the company's filings with the SEC, including quarterly report on Form 10 Q for Swatchit. No obligation to update forward looking statements whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law. Speaker 100:01:46Lastly, management's remarks today will include references to various non GAAP measures, including restaurant level operating profit, restaurant level operating profit margin, and adjusted EBITDA margin. Investors should review the reconciliations of these non GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP both contained in the company's earnings release filed this morning. And with that, I will turn the call over to Chris. Good morning. Before we share the details of another terrific quarter of growth, I would like to first note that this earnings season marks our 8th quarter since our IPO. Speaker 100:02:20While we're still early in our journey, I'm proud of how this organization has established itself as a public company, build credibility with investors and consistently produce positive results at a high rate of growth over a multi year time horizon. To everyone listening this morning from the First Watch organization, Thank you. Now on to our Q3. Our organization once again delivered outsized performance top to bottom. In the quarter, First Watch generated $219,200,000 in total revenues, a 17.3% increase versus a year ago. Speaker 100:02:57We opened 13 system wide restaurants surpassing the significant milestone of 500 restaurants ending the quarter with 505 First Watch restaurants across 29 states. Our same restaurant sales increased 4.8%, once again supported by positive dining room traffic. As we've noted in past quarters, expected softness in our off premises channels has persisted as consumer behavior continues to shift and moderate post pandemic. Finally, bottom line growth benefited from easing food and beverage inflation and effective four wall management by our operators. We also continue to outperform the industry, highlighting the benefit of our differentiation to other full service operators through our focus on the breakfast, brunch and lunch dayparts. Speaker 100:03:43As compared to Black Box Intelligence, First Watch bested the industry by nearly 400 basis points, illustrating our ability to grow traffic share. Our share growth is also supported by Placer AI, which showed our consolidated is higher than ever, especially in light of our consistent growth. Of course, given the macroeconomic backdrop, we remain cautious with respect to the state of the consumer. While we have observed and in fact benefited from the strength and resilience of the consumer throughout the year, there's reason to believe that the weight of this environment is beginning to have an impact. But as we have experienced in prior downturns, consumers are less willing to gamble with their discretionary dollars and would rather seek out more familiar and enjoyable experiences that are consistent and deliver value like First Watch. Speaker 100:04:41Given our long standing record of exceeding industry traffic trends, we are well positioned to benefit from the consumer's flight to quality. In times like these, the best operators are winning. By that, I mean brands that relentlessly lean into the basics for the benefit of their teams and their customers are winning. We remain confident and unwavering in our commitment to culinary forward food served by highly trained teams who exemplify our You First mission in a warm and inviting atmosphere and at a tremendous value. We deliver an exceptional dining experience at a compelling per person average of just $16.35 ensuring that First Watch remains a reliable experience as well as in affordable luxury. Speaker 100:05:24Our focus on executing the basics at a high level remains key to our success. Beyond our financial performance, we know we are well positioned when our employees and our customers are happy. And by both measures, we're playing from a position of strength. Both manager and employee turnover have continued to improve throughout the year including during the Q3. Our customer experience scores are also at historical highs and continue to be a great indicator of future performance. Speaker 100:05:53To further illustrate our focus here, in the quarter, we completed our annual Y tour, short for We Hear You, where our Chief People Officer, Laura Sorenson and Chief Operating Officer, Dan Jones, joined me in speaking with hourly team members from every region in the company. For perspective, that's 22 separate 90 minute tours comprising over 1900 minutes with more than 300 hourly team members. There is no more important task that we carry as leaders than to receive feedback and perspective from those that are serving our valued customers every day. We learn what they love about working for First Watch and how we can do better. Their insights and opinions are invaluable as we seek to continuously improve. Speaker 100:06:35But it's our tactical reactions to this frontline information that allows us to effect positive change in real time, so that we're fully supporting our teams and better serving our customers. I finished this year's tour encouraged that our culture in the restaurants and our team's genuine desire to serve our customers and each other is as strong as ever. Our deep bench of human capital gives me confidence in our ability to execute our high growth expansion plans. Double clicking on the topic of culture, I'm also pleased to share that First Watch was once again named to Newsweek's list of most loved workplaces. This is especially noteworthy to me because it's largely generated from more than 2,000,000 employee surveys. Speaker 100:07:17We are proud to be the only restaurant brand that made the 2023 list, a remarkable achievement for sure. A strong culture begins and ends with the environment fostered by our general managers in their restaurants a daily basis. I've always viewed the GM position as the most important role at First Watch. While we are one company, we consider ourselves to be a network of individual neighborhood restaurants and each of these are led by a general manager responsible for creating a positive environment for their team and customers. Awards like this demonstrate that we are keeping the culture flame bright as we raise the bar on nationwide expansion. Speaker 100:07:56On the topic of nationwide expansion. I'm excited that the quarter ahead will be one of the most prolific in the company's history and our team is ready. We will open 18 to 21 new system wide restaurants across 16 states in the 4th quarter alone. In total, we have over 100 restaurants in various stages of development and more than 120 promotion ready managers ready to lead them. We believe we are well positioned to capitalize on the white space in front of us. Speaker 100:08:23We're in a select group within the public restaurant space, opening new restaurants at a low double digit pace annually. Our highly portable brand succeeds in both existing and new markets with our top decile restaurants spanning 10 states and 19 DMAs. We're targeting 3rd year AUVs of 2,500,000 with restaurant level operating margins of 18% to 20% and cash on cash returns of 35% or greater. These attractive unit economics achieved in 1 7.5 hour shift support our long term goal of 2,200 domestic First Watch restaurants. Finally, we continue to execute our strategy of complementing strong organic unit growth with the acquisition of certain franchise owned restaurants and related territories. Speaker 100:09:09Earlier this year, we acquired 17 restaurants in the Milwaukee, Omaha and South Carolina Georgia markets. Today, we are announcing an agreement to purchase an additional franchise partner with 6 restaurants in the Florida Panhandle and expect that transaction to close later this month. Following these acquisitions, we will have 11 franchisees remaining who operate 97 restaurants and of those 46 are subject to purchase options. I'll reiterate what I said last quarter. For us, converting franchises to company owned restaurants is compelling from both a financial and strategic perspective and represents a significant growth opportunity for our entire enterprise. Speaker 100:09:49And before I turn the call over to Mel, while we still have 2 more months before turning the calendar on the New Year, the effort and execution necessary to generate more than 30% adjusted EBITDA growth, assuming the midpoint of our updated guidance range, is a point of pride for our entire organization and energizes all of us to double down on our commitment to serving more demand in our restaurants. And with that, I'll turn it over to Mal. Speaker 200:10:15Thanks, Chris, and good morning. As Chris shared, we're proud of our teams who continue to deliver and while traffic declined 1.9% as we expected, our dining room traffic growth remained positive. Total revenues were $219,200,000 a 17.3% increase over the Q3 of 2022, reflecting both same restaurant sales growth as well as the sales in our newly opened and acquired restaurants. Our food and beverage costs were 22.6 percent of sales in the 3rd quarter, which compared to 24.2% in the same period last year. Costs benefited from 220 basis points of favorability across our market basket compared to light last year, which were driven mostly by decreases in pork and avocado costs as well as leverage from our previous menu pricing actions. Speaker 200:11:25Labor and other related expenses were 33.9 and driven primarily by an increase in the number of managers per restaurant. We ended the period with an average of 3.1 managers per restaurant compared with 2.8 a year ago. We view a 3 manager average as a standard of excellence as it provides the bench strength necessary to support our large number of planned new openings. Restaurant level operating profit was $40,400,000 for the quarter with a margin of 18.7%, an increase versus the 17.3 percent restaurant level operating profit margin in the same period last year. The margin improvement reflects increased leverage from our same restaurant sales growth, improvement in food and beverage costs and favorability in other restaurant operating expenses, primarily driven by lower cost of to go supplies. Speaker 200:12:36General and administrative expenses were $25,200,000 approximately $3,500,000 higher than in the prior year, primarily due to higher compensation expense from additional headcount to support our rapid growth. Adjusted EBITDA was Margin we realized in the Q3 of 2022. The quarter benefited from just over $1,000,000 in G and A mostly headcount and departmental projects that's now expected to be incurred in the 4th quarter. We opened 13 system wide restaurants during the quarter of which 10 were company owned and 3 were franchise owned. As we have stated throughout the year, our company owned restaurant development schedule in 2023 is heavily weighted toward the Q4. Speaker 200:13:39This year, we've often been asked about our customer check management. We continue to believe our growing dining room traffic reflects our customers' preference for meaningful experiences. To borrow from one of Chris' statements made earlier this year, the industry wide shift away from off premises appears to be a new indicator of check management. And while declining off Premises occasions remain a headwind to our consolidated traffic growth. Our teams drove profitable growth in the 3rd quarter due in part to the increased in restaurant visits. Speaker 200:14:19Now I'd like to update our full year outlook as follows. We are increasing 2023 same restaurant sales growth expectations to a range of 7% to 8%. That's up from our previous range of 6% to 8%, and now expect our full year traffic will be generally flat. We're carrying price of just below 6% in the 4th quarter compared to the prior year. We now expect to open between 3739 company owned restaurants and 13 to 14 franchise owned restaurants this year with 1 company owned restaurant closure. Speaker 200:15:00On a consolidated basis, we expect a total of 49 to 52 net new system wide restaurants. We now expect total revenue growth in the range of 20 to 21%. That range is an increase from our previous range of 18% to 21%, with Acquisitions contributing about 2.5 percent to total revenue growth. We now expect full year commodity deflation of negative 1% to flat with net commodity cost inflation for the balance of the year. We continue to expect hourly labor cost inflation to remain in the range of 9% to 11% with overall restaurant level labor cost inflation in the range of 8% to 10%. Speaker 200:15:52We're increasing our adjusted EBITDA guidance to a range of $91,000,000 to $92,000,000 from our previous range of $89,000,000 to 92,000,000 Acquisitions are expected to contribute about $3,000,000 to our adjusted EBITDA this year. We now expect a blended tax rate in the range of 26% to 28%. We're adjusting our capital expenditures range, not including the capital allocated to the acquisitions of franchise owned restaurants to $85,000,000 to $90,000,000 This is down from our previous range of $100,000,000 to $110,000,000 mostly due to the timing of new restaurant opening. As a reminder, our fiscal 2023 is a 53 week year and our guidance includes the Extra Week's contribution, which we estimate to be $10,500,000 in total revenues, $2,500,000 in adjusted EBITDA. In as much as we're in the middle of our budget season, it would be premature to furnish expectations for 2024. Speaker 200:17:06However, among our own modeling assumptions for the Q1, we see no reason to expect off premises traffic to reverse its trend. Furthermore, because of the calendar shift, Our most productive week of the year falls into the Q4 of 2023 and out of the Q1 of 2024. For further details on the Q3, please review our supplemental materials deck on our Investor Relations at the Investor Relations website beneath the webcast. And we'll open the line now for questions. Operator? Operator00:17:43Yes, thank you. At this time, we will begin the question and answer session. And today's first question comes from Jeffrey Bernstein with Barclays. Speaker 300:18:07Great. Thank you very much. Hi, Jeff. Good morning. Good morning. Speaker 300:18:13Two questions. The first one on the comp trends. It seems like your absolute results for the 3rd quarter close to 5% or modestly above expectation, but yet we don't get to see the granularity within that or any thoughts on the Q4. So I'm just wondering You said you had a strong quarter yet the weight of the macro I think was beginning to have an impact, Chris, I think was your reference. I'm wondering if you could provide some color in terms of what you're seeing, whether it's something specific to First Watch or whether you're just referring to the broader government data and metrics that lead people to believe there's a slowdown, perhaps you're not yet seeing it? Speaker 300:18:50And then I had one follow-up. Speaker 200:18:52Yes. I think to get to your question, I think the industry is seeing some softness overall. But in terms of the guidance on the Q4, I think We've considered what we're seeing in the market today and what we had in the Q3 in terms of the full year guidance. I think you can back into pretty much what our thinking is about 4th quarter. Speaker 300:19:20Okay. But that's not something that And you said the industry is seeing some softness. If you were just looking at your own results through the Q3 and through October, would you say that First Watch is seeing some softness similar to the industry or not yet evident? Speaker 200:19:35Well, we've consistently talked about our traffic, particularly where the off prem traffic is concerned that we've seen that Kind of seeking a new home, don't know exactly where it's going to land at some points, but that traffic has descended throughout the year, while our dining rooms have remain positive. They're probably less positive in the Q3 than they were earlier in the year. So there is a there is that There's some downward pressure and I think that's what First Watch is seeing and that's what the industry is seeing. Speaker 300:20:11Understood. And my follow-up is just on the menu pricing. I think you mentioned that you'll be running roughly 6% in the 4th quarter. Obviously, we're seeing cost pressures abate. So I'm wondering Well, I don't have specific thoughts yet on 2024. Speaker 300:20:25How you think about pricing more theoretically, whether you'd be inclined to take incremental price going into next year or whether based on the caution around the macro you'd perhaps not take that incremental price. I'm just wondering how you think about that outlook going into 2024? Thank you. Speaker 100:20:44Thanks, Jeff. This is Chris. I would just reiterate our previous Plan and approach on pricing, which is to price to cover inflation. Obviously, we have been and continue to be a price laggard. But the basis for that is that we're playing the long game here and we have been and all the decisions that we've made around Staffing and specifically menu pricing have been with that in mind. Speaker 100:21:12So we'll continue to do that. That said, we'll obviously continue to watch The environment watch the consumer. Our focus is on more visits and again a long term view and approach. So that's We're going to stay true to that. Speaker 300:21:30Sounds good. Thank you. Operator00:21:33Thank you. And the next question comes from Sara Senatore with Bank of America. Speaker 400:21:38Hi. This is actually Kathryn Griffin on for Sara. Thanks for the question. I wanted to follow-up just on the same store sales guidance. Just given that it looks like the range tightened a little Higher 7% to 8% versus 6% to 8% prior, but traffic has edged down. Speaker 400:21:55I guess I was just hoping you could elaborate a little bit more on Whether you're expecting more pricing mix, is it benefit from attach or trade up? Any color there would be helpful. Thank you. Speaker 200:22:11The only thing that's really affecting I'm Trying to really understand the question, but at any rate, I think I've already answered the fact that we do expect to see the transaction piece continue under some pressure. The only thing that would be different in the Q4 is that we're rolling a the winter storm Elliott right around last year's holiday period. And so So there's a little bit of that noise in there, but I'm not sure I'm answering your question, but I'm not sure exactly I Speaker 500:22:50understand what the earnings expectation Speaker 400:22:53yes, it's really just the traffic versus price mix Ponent, I think, again, just sort of following up on the first question, but, that I appreciate the answer and That's fine. On the second question though, we were just wondering if you're since you're raising revenue guidance and new store guidance, but lower CapEx. I'm just curious if we should understand that that means you're finding ways to build more efficiently, if you're seeing less inflation in your build costs, any sort of commentary on the build environment as it relates to that guidance? Speaker 200:23:30That's a good question. I think the answer to that though is that really developers have caused us to push out some projects that we get expected to At this time of the year and we've kind of been seeing that leakage throughout the year. So Eric and his team are working hard to manage new projects and have done a really good job of keeping them on track, but they were but we would hope to have more projects Spending more heavily in the projects in the pipeline right now, but it's really the pace of developers delivering our New sites so that we can begin to finish them out and open them faster. So we're Seeing some pace at which we're taking delivery slowdown. Speaker 500:24:20Okay. Thank you. Speaker 600:24:21Yes. Thank you. And the Operator00:24:24next question comes from Andy Barish with Jefferies. Speaker 600:24:30Good morning, guys. Speaker 200:24:30Good morning, Andy. Speaker 600:24:33Just wondering on the commodity basket, the update for this year. And then on some of the key items like eggs and potatoes that you've been contracted on, anything You know provide for 2024 at this point yet? Speaker 200:24:51Really not ready to talk about 2024 and we'll get to that. But We're kind of sticking to the 3rd quarter, 4th quarter guidance right now. Speaker 600:25:02Got you. And then just one additional question On the comps, I'm assuming mix was still positive in the quarter, Is that correct? And any change on sort of alcohol or the coffee beverage attached or anything like that that would have been a change in what you've been seeing? Speaker 200:25:28Yes. Mix remains positive. Our LTOs, Our limited time offers are so popular, and that always falls into our mix category. And so they've remained a real push to our mix. Beverage incidences, particularly our new premium iced coffees creates a little bit of noise for us because we're it's a new line. Speaker 200:26:00And so we're seeing those mix well, but It's really a small cohort that we're looking at since that's a brand new line. Speaker 600:26:12And then just one more follow-up if I could Mel. You guys have been pointing kind of flattish EBITDA for the quarter. You talked about G and A, some deferment into the 4th quarter. Anything else that you would point to in terms of the upside versus your expectations? Speaker 200:26:33In terms of I guess I would say the thing I would caution People are modeling the company about is our pre opening costs in the 4th quarter because we have so many projects that will be coming online So heavily weighted to the Q4, our preopening costs will be a substantial contribution to the adjusted EBITDA formula. Speaker 600:27:02Okay, helpful. Thank you. Operator00:27:05Thank you. And the next question comes from Ella Zhu with Stifel. Speaker 500:27:11Good morning. This is Ella on for Chris. Mel, the company's adjusted EBITDA guidance for the year implies $16,000,000 to $17,000,000 EBITDA for the 4th quarter, which would be a year over year improvement, but more of a desperate improvement compared to the Q3 and the year to date results. And it also appears to imply a lower margin year over year. Why would that be the case? Speaker 200:27:39So I just mentioned the fact that we've got we're heavy enough on preopening costs Q4, which will be part of the story. And then we mentioned during our scripted comments That we have about $1,000,000 of timing favorability on G and A in the Q3 that will slide into the 4th quarter. And then our Q4 generally has other higher costs as well for our national conference and that sort of thing. Speaker 500:28:08Got it. Thank you. Operator00:28:13Thank you. And the next question comes from Brian Vaccaro with Raymond James. Speaker 700:28:18Hi, thanks and good morning. I wanted to circle back on the new unit performance if we could. And could you provide a little more color just on the Sales performance on the Class of 2023. And then on the CapEx side, where is average development costs settling out in 2023? And is that settling out or do you expect that to continue to rise into 2024? Speaker 200:28:39So new restaurants that we built this year, I think the average before tenant improvement Landlords oftentimes give us support when we enter into a lease with them. So I think the average overall is maybe above $1,500,000 and the net is in line with what we've said before, which $1,400,000 or so net of the TI dollars. And then our new restaurants In terms of sales on average, I think they're performing in line with our previous expectations. Speaker 700:29:25Okay. Thank you for that. And then just back to the commodity inflation. Mel, I think I heard you say you expect it tick back into slightly inflationary territory here in Speaker 100:29:36the Q4. Speaker 700:29:37Could you just walk through kind of what items are kind of moving on you back into Speaker 200:29:44The one that sticks out to me right now is avocados are taken up, some of it's just seasonal. But that's we use a lot of avocados. That's the significant mover, I think, in the market basket. Speaker 700:30:01Okay. Okay. And then you mentioned just on preopening costs, obviously understand the dynamic there, but outside looking in, that's a number that's pretty difficult for us to estimate given timing and it's pretty sensitive. Is there any way you could put a little bit of a sharper pencil on your expectation on preopening in the 4th quarter? Thank you. Speaker 200:30:28Well, I don't know exactly what preopening costs are right now for Our Q4 plan, I think if you look at what the average has been and the average number of projects that we have built Through 3 quarters, it's probably not radically different from that. Speaker 700:30:48Okay. Appreciate it. Thank you. Operator00:30:52Thank you. And the next question comes from Brian Moll with Piper Sandler. Speaker 800:30:58Hi, this is Ashley on for Brian. You didn't mention in your prepared remarks, but I believe the KDS system is fully rolled out or is about to be. Can you just talk through some of the benefits you started to see flowing through the system and the expectations of that in 2024? Do they primarily come from traffic Or do you see some benefits in labor as well? Speaker 100:31:22There's a number of benefits from the KDS system starting with opening up the hiring pool for us and reducing training time. And one of the biggest benefits of it is Visibility into our ticket times that we didn't have before. So as I've said, we've been establishing benchmarks. We have dash Boards and other evaluation tools now that we're using to really measure ticket times at peak times. And that's been the goal All along is to improve our performance during peak sales hours and increase those peak sales hours. Speaker 100:32:00So We haven't reported on the impact of that yet. As I've said in the past, the rollout and implementation of that is Ending number 1 as it relates to KDS and we're continuing to learn a lot about it and tweak and refine the system and perfect it. And, but we are seeing some data that shows us that we're getting much better ticket times during those peak sales hours. Speaker 800:32:26That's great. Thank you. Also, I was just wondering what commodity inflation was in this past quarter? Speaker 200:32:35Commodity deflation was about 200 basis points, 220 basis points something like that. Speaker 800:32:43Great. Thank you. I'll pass it back. Operator00:32:47Thank you. And the next question comes from John McNamara with Guggenheim. Speaker 600:32:58Hi, thanks for the question. Speaker 200:32:59I'm just Speaker 100:32:59wondering if you guys I would say our staffing has continued to improve. Mel mentioned we're 3.1 managers per restaurant where previously we were at 2.8. We feel good about where we are there. I think overall Inflation or excuse me, turnover has held pretty steady for us. And we're in a good place from a staffing perspective, specifically with the bench strength that we think we need to support our growth and obviously our continued operations. Speaker 100:33:47Turnover, Speaker 200:33:49I mean, you asked specifically about that. It's actually been taken down for us through the year. I think our teams are doing a really, really good job of training and working with the crews. So as we've seen throughout this year, the coal industry dealt with a lot of turnover right after the worst and first big waves of COVID through the 1st couple of years and we weren't an exception. I think we stayed better than the industry throughout That time, but it was still higher than we like and we've seen it all year long. Speaker 200:34:36We've worked to trying to slow the turnover and it has it's slowed considerably since 2021, it's kind of been stepping down gradually. So we've seen some improvement. We've got I like the momentum there for us. Speaker 600:34:56Thanks. And then just one more, this might have already been asked, but I think I missed it. I know unit growth is heavier in the 4th quarter. Any possibility of any slippage into 1Q of 2024 for that? Speaker 200:35:11Sure. There's always some possibility of that. Once you get kind of close to the holidays, we don't want our trainers to be away from home during holiday times. But if we do have slippage, there might be a couple of projects That would slide, but they for the most part, you would expect them to open within a couple of weeks of the 1st year. They're not going to impact the Overall performance next year or contribution next year. Speaker 200:35:48I would say this that every project that we have that we expect to open this year is under construction today. So it's There's definitely a race on to the finish line on every day all of them. Speaker 300:36:10Appreciate it. Operator00:36:12Thank you. And the next question comes from Andrew Charles with TD Cowen. Speaker 900:36:18Thank you. This is Zach Gogdan on for Andrew. I've got two questions on labor. The first one is that in the 10 Q you called out, Labor inflation is expected to remain in that 8% to 10% range, but sequentially are you seeing that getting better? Speaker 200:36:36On an inflationary basis, not really. I mean a lot of our labor inflation is attributed to regulatory increases in the minimum wage in different states. And so it's fairly reliable. Speaker 900:37:00Okay. Thank you. And then the second question is that, are you at the right level staffing now or should we include the incremental staffing in our models? Speaker 200:37:10Yes, we're at the right level now. Speaker 900:37:13All right, great. Thank you. Operator00:37:17Thank you. And this concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the call to Chris Tomasso for any closing comments. Speaker 100:37:25Thank you for your thoughtful questions this morning. We appreciate it. We look forward to finishing the year strong with our continued focus on serving more demand and making days brighter for every First Watch customer. I hope you all have a joyful and restful holiday season. Thank you. Operator00:37:40Thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.Read moreRemove AdsPowered by