NASDAQ:FAT FAT Brands Q1 2023 Earnings Report $2.68 +0.18 (+7.20%) Closing price 04/25/2025 04:00 PM EasternExtended Trading$2.66 -0.02 (-0.75%) As of 04/25/2025 07:51 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast FAT Brands EPS ResultsActual EPS-$1.43Consensus EPS N/ABeat/MissN/AOne Year Ago EPSN/AFAT Brands Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$105.69 millionExpected RevenueN/ABeat/MissN/AYoY Revenue GrowthN/AFAT Brands Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2023Date5/8/2023TimeN/AConference Call DateMonday, May 8, 2023Conference Call Time4:30PM ETUpcoming EarningsFAT Brands' Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Tuesday, April 29, 2025, with a conference call scheduled on Wednesday, April 30, 2025 at 5:00 PM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by FAT Brands Q1 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrMay 8, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 6 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the FAT Brands Inc. 1st Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen only mode. Please note that this conference is being recorded today, May 8, 2023. Operator00:00:22On the call from FAT Brands are Chairman of the Board, Andy Witterhorn and Co Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Ken Tewick and Rob Rosen. This afternoon. The company made its Q1 2023 financial results publicly available. Call, please refer to the earnings release and earnings supplement, both of which are available in the Investors section of our website at www.fatbrands.com, each contain additional details about the Q1, which closed on March 26, 2023. But before we begin, I must remind everyone part of the discussion today will include forward looking statements. Operator00:01:08These forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance stand, therefore, undue reliance should not be placed upon them. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward looking statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties. The company does not undertake to update these forward looking statements at a later date. Call. For a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact future operating results and financial condition, please see today's earnings release and recent SEC filings. Operator00:01:43During today's call, the company will discuss non GAAP financial measures, which it believes can be useful in evaluating its performance. The presentation of this additional information should not be considered in isolation note as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures are available in today's earnings release. I would now like to turn the call over to Andy Witterhorn, Chairman of the Board. Speaker 100:02:13Thank you, operator, and hello, everyone, and thank you all for joining us on the call today. Quarter. This afternoon, we made our Q1 2023 financial results publicly available. Please refer to the earnings release and our earnings supplement, quarter, both of which are available in the Investors section of our website at www.fatbrands.com. Each contain additional details about the Q1, which closed March 26. Speaker 100:02:35Quarter. Let me begin by thanking our teams, franchisees and their employees for their hard work as we continue to grow this business. Last week, Ken Kuick and Rob Rosen were named Co Chief Executive Officers effective May 5. Both Ken and Rob joined FAT Brands in 2021 and have played an integral role in our strategic growth initiatives, including acquisitions and driving company profitability. Ken and Rob will also continue in their respective roles as Chief Financial Officer and Head of Debt Capital Markets, while assuming the co CEO role. Speaker 100:03:07Together, they will focus on driving forward the company's overarching goals of increasing organic growth through new store openings, growing utilization of our manufacturing facility and bolstering the success of our high growth brands, including Twentiques. I will continue in my new role as Chairman of the Board, which I was appointed to in March of 2023, call, where I will focus on our strategic direction, capital allocation and ensuring that we execute our business plan while maintaining quality restaurant operations. Stepping down from the CEO and President role, my goal is to remove the distraction of the personal investigation tied to me regarding matters from several years ago before our merger with Fog Cutter. Ken and Rob are taking the reins of the company with a fresh slate of directors and support the growth and evolution of FAT Brands, including championing our talented executive team. We have taken the company from 3 brands to 17 iconic restaurant brands with over 2,000 units open or under construction and system wide sales $2,200,000,000 annually over the last 5 years. Speaker 100:04:09Today, Fat Brands is approximately the 25th largest restaurant company by unit count in the U. S. 95% of our restaurants are franchised. We have more than 7 50 different franchise owners, of which approximately half are multiunit operators. Quarter. Speaker 100:04:22We operate in 40 countries and 48 U. S. States. Notably, 10 of our 17 brands were just named to Technomic's 2023 top 500 list, which is determined by key growth metrics such as sales and unit growth. I believe we are creating tremendous long term shareholder value as well as short term dividend yield. Speaker 100:04:43Now turning to Q1 specifically, total revenue grew 8.5% in the Q1 of 2023 to $105,700,000 compared to $97,400,000 in the Q1 of 2022. Quarter. The increase reflects an increase in same store sales and revenues from new restaurants. Same store sales increased 4.3% in the Q1 of 2023. Quarter. Speaker 100:05:08We grew system wide sales 9.9 percent to $550,000,000 when compared to the prior year quarter of $504,900,000 Looking at profitability, we saw over a 26.8% increase in adjusted EBITDA quarter to $19,200,000 from Q1 2022 adjusted EBITDA of $15,100,000 quarter. On a trailing 12 month basis, adjusted EBITDA was $92,900,000 Now I would like to discuss our 2 part growth strategy consisting of organic growth and growth by acquisition. As you know, over the last 2 years, we have had a very robust acquisition strategy quarter by acquiring 9 brands. Similar to 2022, this year our focus will be on building upon our impressive organic growth pipeline. Quarter. Speaker 100:05:57During the Q1, we opened 41 units and for quarter 2 are slated to open 45 units. In total, quarter. We are projecting to open 175 new units this year, representing 25% unit growth from the prior year. Quarter. Our total development pipeline of organic growth remains the strongest in our company's history with agreements for more than 1,000 new restaurants over the next few years. Speaker 100:06:20Quarter. We estimate this growth to be worth approximately $60,000,000 of incremental adjusted EBITDA, which will raise our adjusted EBITDA to approximately $150,000,000 This is also noteworthy as it will naturally delever our balance sheet. Interest in Fat Brands concepts remain high as our franchisees see value in building their portfolio within the Fat Brands family. We have signed 77 new franchise development deals year to date and expect to hit 100 by the end of this quarter. This is evidenced by an agreement to open 10 new co branded Great American Cookies and Marble Slab Creamy locations in Puerto Rico. Speaker 100:06:57These locations are set to open over the next 5 years, the first two locations slated to open by 2024. Additionally, we signed a new development deal to bring 20 additional franchised Johnny Rockets locations to Mexico over the next 10 years. Johnny Rockets has been operating in Mexico since 1991 and currently has approximately 25 restaurants throughout the country. Also, we've signed a development agreement to bring 12 co branded Fatburger and Buffalo's Express Restaurants and 10 Co Branded Marble Slab Creamery and Great American Cookie locations to Iraq, adding to our existing restaurants in that country. We also continue to innovate with our brands, creating additional opportunities for our franchisees. Speaker 100:07:38Quarter. During the quarter, Pretzelmaker opened its 1st drive thru location in Iowa. Since opening, the location has performed incredibly well paving the way for future growth of this store model across the globe. As part of our organic growth strategy, we're also laser focused on the accelerated development of Twin Peaks based on the strong economics and the long term growth potential we see for the brand. Twin Peaks continues to produce industry leading AUVs of around $6,000,000 with some of our highest volume locations in Florida generating AUVs between $9,000,000 $12,000,000 each. Speaker 100:08:11Additionally, these restaurants have very strong margins. Twin Peaks is also set to hit a key benchmark by the end of this month surpassing 100 locations. We anticipate opening 18 to 20 new Twin Peaks 2023, closing the year with approximately 115 lodges and almost 40% growth in unit count in just 2 years since FAT Brands acquisition of Twin Peaks. Our current Twin Peaks pipeline includes over 100 new stores. Quarter. Speaker 100:08:38We see similar unit growth for 2024. Twin Peaks is the only brand where we are materially growing the number of company owned locations in key markets quarter as both the return on invested capital and absolute dollar profit are very high. Traditionally, we've opened 2 to 3 company owned units each year, but we are striving to increase that in 2024 to 5 or 6 units per year and more in the years thereafter. Co branding is another key part of our strategy to help drive sales and leverage margins. We see great value in pairing similar brands in our portfolio together as a way to drive additional revenue growth through a combined menu approach. Speaker 100:09:14We presently have more than 230 co branded locations, quarter, mainly consisting of our Fatburger, Buffalo's Express or Marble Slab Creamery Great American Cookie pairing. Quarter, we brought Fatburger back to Illinois with the opening of co branded Fatburger and Buffalo's Express in the Chicago area in partnership with ADTJ Development LLC, which includes basketball stars Anthony Davis Jr, Derrick Rose and Tim Hardaway Jr. This opening is just the start of our growth in the state as it is tied to a larger multi unit Illinois franchise development deal. Similarly, brand synergies within our portfolio continue to be an important strategy for Fat Brands. In April, we unveiled a new cookie offering Across all Elevation Burgers, we saw an opportunity to enhance Elevation Burgers dessert program with the cookie dough we currently produce at our manufacturing facility in Georgia. Speaker 100:10:08Quarter. Not only will this provide a boost to the Elevation menu, but it will also increase the productivity of our manufacturing facility. Following the Elevation burger cookie launch. We began rolling out cookies across many of the other burger brands in our portfolio, which should be substantially complete by the end of the summer. As you know, our Georgia based manufacturing facility produces pretzel mix and cookie dough for several of our brands. Speaker 100:10:29We believe our factory business today is in its early stages of growth because it only operates at about 35% to 40% of its capacity. We began expanded utilization of the factory Cafe by Chips to Great American Cookies. To date, we have converted approximately 50 stores and expect to complete the remaining 20 conversions by late 2023. Quarter. Now let us turn to FAT Brands' 2nd strategic pillar of growth, that's by acquisition. Speaker 100:11:05When evaluating potential acquisition targets, quarter. Our focus remains on strategic acquisition opportunities of brands with a proven track record of long term sustainable and profitable operating performance. Quarter. And as noted, we are focused on our high growth brands, particularly our sports lodge category and would consider acquiring concepts with locations that can be converted into Twin Peaks. We're also looking at other categories to round out our portfolio such as salad, sandwich or coffee brands. Speaker 100:11:32Quarter. And finally, we are looking at opportunities that would allow us to further expand our manufacturing business. Looking at our balance sheet, we have worked hard to maintain a healthy liquidity position quarter consisting of both cash and marketable securities. Further, we have taken steps to reduce approximately $5,000,000 in corporate G and A for 2023. Quarter. Speaker 100:11:51As we all navigate this challenging interest rate and inflationary environment, we have adjusted our focus to realize long term goals that will yield significant shareholder value and execute our corporate strategy, making sure we have adequate liquidity and runway, nurturing the brands that we expect will generate significant value in the future to reduce debt and growing our EBITDA through new unit openings takes priority in this environment. I want to address recent discussions regarding the state of our financials. FAT Brands has strong liquidity and is in compliance with all of our debt covenants. Quarter. Our securitized debt, which is the only debt we have matures in 2,151. Speaker 100:12:27It begins to amortize a little bit each year for the next couple of years beginning later this summer. Quarter. We are prepared for such amortization. We locked in our fixed interest rate in 2021 at favorable rates before the crazy increase in interest rates We are like many other acquirers of brands using debt and equity to make those acquisitions and then paying down that debt over time. Quarter. Speaker 100:12:49We are focused on getting to a cash flow positive and GAAP net income positive position in the coming quarters. But we are not unlike a number of our peers in this space that are not yet GAAP net income profitable because they are in a high growth state. We are creating tremendous value in our brands, which we expect to realize in the future. Next, I'm proud to share in March that we officially launched a newly formed 501(three) charitable organization, the Fat Brands Foundation. Giving back has always been a part of the Fat Brands DNA. Speaker 100:13:20This foundation was created to amplify the existing charitable efforts of our company. The foundation will partner with local non profit organizations in areas in which Fat Brands has a presence to provide essential programs to help families and communities thrive. As our company continues to grow in size, we want to take our charitable efforts to the next level by launching a new arm that more broadly supports our employees and customers' communities. Call. We are excited to be officially live and to have the opportunity to become more ingrained with local nonprofits that are committed to making a positive impact in the markets where we operate. Speaker 100:13:52Since its launch, the foundation is already funded by local organizations in the following areas: children in poverty, families with special needs, food insecurity, Education and Theater. The foundation was seeded with a $250,000 donation from FAT Brands upon its inception and will continue to receive support from the company, our vendor partners, employees and franchise partners to further the directive and impact of the organization in the years to come. And finally, as announced, we have also made several changes to our Board of Directors in addition to my appointment as Chairman of the Board. In March, we elected control company status under the applicable NASDAQ rules. Further, we expanded the Board from 7 to 10 seats and welcomed 8 new directors, all of whom bring unique valuable skill sets that will aid in furthering the success of FAT Brands as a leader in the restaurant space. Speaker 100:14:40The new director appointments include several current FAT Brands C Suite executives fair Wiederhorn, Chief Operating Officer Taylor Wiederhorn Chief Development Officer Mason Wiederhorn, Chief Brand Officer and Donald Berchtold, Chief Concept Officer. Carmen Vidal, our international legal consultant for FAT Brands is also appointed to the Board. Additionally, we appointed 3 independent directors, Mark Olenowitz, Kenneth Koepp and Tyler Child joining Lynn Collier, who remains on the board and is now the Chair of our Audit Committee. We expect these board changes will save the company $1,100,000 per year. I want to point out that we did not increase our directors' fees, we simply combine the annual and committee fees into a flat rate equal to the same amount. Speaker 100:15:22And further, management team members who serve on the Board do not receive Board fees. Additionally, I want to thank The Baker Tilly firm for 4 years of extremely hard work and professional partnership that helped us grow the company significantly and we will miss working with them. We expect to name and appoint new auditors for the 2023 fiscal year shortly. I also want to thank those board members that chose not to continue to serve on the FAT Brands Board for their dedicated service. Call. Speaker 100:15:46In summary, I am confident we have a very strong leadership team in place and a robust pipeline of growth ahead that will naturally delever our balance sheet. Quarter. Our long term strategy is to create value through the organic growth of our brands, acquire additional brands that are strategic to our portfolio makeup, Realize value when appropriate to manage any debt outstanding and increase long term value for our stakeholders, while giving them a consistent dividend We sincerely appreciate you joining us today and for your interest in Fat Brands. And with that, I would like to hand it over to Ken to talk about our financial highlights from the quarter. Speaker 200:16:20Thank you so much, Andy. I am extremely humbled to take on this new responsibility as co CEO and drives forward the key goals of the company. We are very fortunate to have such a talented team of FAT Brands and I see great opportunity ahead and building upon our position in as one of the largest restaurant companies in the U. S. Turning to our Q1 results, total revenue during the Q1 increased 8.5 percent to $105,700,000 reflecting increased same store sales and revenues from new restaurant openings. Speaker 200:16:54Quarter. Costs and expenses increased to $105,300,000 in the Q1 compared to 96 point $9,000,000 in the year ago quarter, primarily due to increased activity from company owned restaurants and the company's factory, quarter as well as professional fees related to certain litigation matters. Included in cost and expenses, general and administrative expense increased quarter to $28,400,000 in the Q1 from $24,800,000 in the prior year period, quarter primarily due to increased professional fees related to pending litigation and government investigations. Quarter. Cost of restaurant and factory revenues increased to $59,100,000 in the Q1 of 2023 quarter compared to $54,800,000 in the prior year period, primarily due to higher company owned restaurant and dough factory revenues. Speaker 200:17:50Quarter. Depreciation and amortization expense increased to $7,100,000 in the first quarter quarter from $6,600,000 in the year ago quarter, primarily due to depreciation of new company owned restaurant property and equipment. Quarter. Refranchising losses in the Q1 of 2023 were $200,000 and were comprised of 0 $100,000 in net gains related to the sale or closure of refranchised restaurants, partially offset by quarter, $300,000 in restaurant operating costs, net of food sales. Advertising expense was $10,500,000 in the first quarter quarter compared to $10,300,000 in the prior year period. Speaker 200:18:34These expenses vary in relation to advertising revenue. Quarter. Other expense for the quarter was $30,000,000 compared to $19,700,000 in the year ago quarter quarter and was primarily comprised of interest expense on our securitizations. Our income tax provision for the quarter was $2,500,000 quarter compared to $4,500,000 in the year ago quarter. Net loss for the quarter was $32,100,000 or $0.95 per diluted share compared to a net loss of $23,800,000 or $1.45 per diluted share in last year's quarter. Speaker 200:19:14Quarter. And on an as adjusted basis, our net loss was $23,500,000 or $1.43 per share quarter compared to $18,500,000 or $1.13 per diluted share in last year's quarter. Quarter. Turning to cash flows, it's worth noting that our $32,100,000 net loss for the quarter included $7,100,000 of non cash quarter. Appreciation and amortization, dollars 7,700,000 of non recurring litigation expense, dollars 5,000,000 of non cash interest expense, quarter. Speaker 200:19:50We are pleased to report that we are expense. In the total of these items, Internet loss was $21,300,000 And with that, I'll turn it over to Rob Rosen for a few remarks. Speaker 300:20:07Thanks, Ken. Our focus will be on bolstering the firm's liquidity, decreasing overhead and lowering corporate leverage. Week. We'll look to lower the corporate leverage by investing the time and CapEx necessary to both get the pipeline stores open and to grow and position several of the fastest growing portfolio assets to be sold. Speaker 100:20:29Rob, thanks. And operator, we'd like to open the line for questions at this time, if There are any. Operator00:20:37Yes. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer Your first question is from Joe Gomes from NOBLE Capital. Please ask your question. Speaker 400:21:06Good afternoon and thanks for taking my questions. Speaker 500:21:10Hi, Joe. Speaker 200:21:11Hi, Joe. So question. First, I just wanted Speaker 400:21:15to maybe get a little more color on, you got the new co CEOs, how are you kind of Divving up the responsibilities between Speaker 300:21:24the 2. Speaker 100:21:30Well, I think there's a real division between Ken's responsibilities and Rob's responsibilities. So it's pretty easy for These guys to tackle that. Ken as the Chief Financial Officer is really covering those aspects of the business on Investor Reporting, all of Finance and Accounting roles and Rob running debt capital markets is really all of the balance sheet, all the capital coming onto the balance sheet and the maturities and the cost of capital And the retiring of preferred debt over time. And so those 2 guys working together with Fehr, who's our Chief Operating Officer really running the brands and Taylor, our Chief Development Officer and the rest of his team and the other guys. It's very well divided amongst the entire team, not just Rob and Ken. Speaker 400:22:15Okay. Thanks for that. Question. We were looking at the economy, kind of this 2 part question here. Are your franchisees seeing any slowdowns in their business? Speaker 400:22:33It doesn't appear so from what you've said in the Q1 results. Question. And how's demand and interest for new franchisees? Is it still it's running as quarter. Or maybe that's cooled down a little bit from last year. Speaker 100:22:50I would say to answer the 2 part question with 2 answers, I think same store sales are just a little bit softer as we roll into Q2 than they were in Q1. I think that's consistent across industry, except maybe in the QSR side of things. And we've definitely seen a pickup in business again in the sports lodges, which we're excited about. A lot of activity these days of course with all the different playoff games. And then in terms of new franchise development, it's really on track. Speaker 100:23:17I don't think that we'll have year like we did in 2022, again, where we sell almost 500 new stores, 460 new stores, something like that, maybe 350, it's a big number. And we're hoping to get to 200 this year. We're going to hit 100 by the end of the first half of the year. And in terms of new store openings, we're 25% higher in new store openings than we were a year ago. So franchisees are continuing to build stores at a faster pace. Speaker 100:23:45They're still buying the territory rights for new development, perhaps at a slightly slower pace than last year, but I don't think last year is very, Very good example as a year that we're going to hit every time. Speaker 400:23:58Right, right. Yes, that would be a little difficult to do, but question. You didn't mention anything on the preferreds. Just wanted to give us an update on what is going on there? Speaker 100:24:10Yes. It's in our 10 ks and in our 10 Q. We redeemed about $45,000,000 of quarter. The $137,000,000 of preferred stock that was redeemable last year and some of that preferred stock has been permanently retired. We used our securitization facility to generate bonds. Speaker 100:24:32We used bonds to buy back stock and we used some cash. Quarter. And so, we have reduced the amount of preferred outstanding that is what you'd call potable. The balance of that preferred stock Remains outstanding. It earns a dividend and an extra dividend rate until the time that we retire it. Speaker 100:24:51But in this environment, It's difficult to want to issue common equity given the current stock price. And so we've chosen to use the securitization facilities instead and hope that we'll retire the rest of that redeemable preferred stock in the coming quarters. Okay. Speaker 400:25:12And one more for me and I'll step aside, let someone else get questions here. So I was just looking at your restaurant cost as a percent of the restaurant sales, it came in at about 94.4% For all of 2022, it was just a tad under 92%. Was there something quarter, that hit that 94.4% or could we anticipate that number coming down Speaker 200:25:46quarter. Hey, Joe, it's Ken. I just want to point out In that number that you're talking about, the cost of the cost number you're referring to is the restaurant and factory costs. So You have to on the revenue side add the factory sales and restaurant sales. We're expecting to continue to increase the margins on our company owned restaurants that will be part of Rob and Thayer and Andy, you might focus over the next several quarters. Speaker 400:26:13Okay, quarter. Great. Speaker 100:26:13It's a little bit blended. It's a little bit blended there to try to figure it out when they're together. We're very focused on filling up the factory. We have a large sales in process pipeline of third party manufacturing business as well as rolling out the manufacturing of cookies and pretzels and brownies and things like that to our other brands, so that uses up capacity to generate some more earnings. And then of course, the growth at Twin Peaks is extraordinary and that's really where we've elected to invest capital to build more company on stores or convert Other brands into Twin Peaks. Speaker 100:26:47And so I think you're going to see us be able to put a mark on the value of those assets as we roll in to the back half of twenty twenty three and into twenty twenty four and that will be what we earmarked to reduce significant debt in the future and very strong way to look at how our business will play out with realizing some value from a couple of assets that will Leave us closer, if not 100 percent debt free with a lot of free cash flow over the next 2 or 3 years. We all thought going into 2022 after all the acquisitions we made in 2021 that we would be able to issue common equity at a good price in the markets and also refinance our Debt Portfolio. And of course, the market changed. And so It made it more difficult to do those things and it made us shift our focus towards a long term solution instead of a short term solution to paying down our debt and the organic growth we have that's inherent in the portfolio where EBITDA will grow from $90 something million to $150,000,000 naturally delevers us, but These additional assets and having the ability to realize value on those assets, I think will be a telling sign in the future. Speaker 100:28:01Joe, thank you very much. Anyone else that has a question? Operator00:28:08Yes. The next one is from Roger Lipton from Lipton Financial Services. Please ask your question. Speaker 500:28:14Hi, Andy. Hey, Roger. Andy, any of you can answer. Is there any more room in the securitization facility? You used it, I think, at quarter. Speaker 500:28:26Is there further room to take down funds if you Mike? Speaker 100:28:35Rob, why don't you address that? Speaker 300:28:38Roger, there is the amount that can be issued is based on ratios and covenants and performance of the underlying portfolios. And without getting into Too much detail on which ones have the room in it. There is room in the portfolios to continue to issue some More what we refer to as TAP facilities. Speaker 100:29:00Roger, one way to think about it is that today we have cash and marketable securities already on our balance sheet that we haven't sold. So issuing more securities, we just generate even more available for sale to raise cash. We already have $40,000,000 of bonds or $43,000,000 month sitting on the balance sheet alongside of our cash available today and then issuing more. It's a big number that's available if we need it as we have runway here to execute on these brands. Speaker 500:29:28Okay. And have you yet been able to increase the utilization rate in the manufacturing facility or is that about to Speaker 100:29:38It's definitely up because Again, we bought the Nestle Tollhouse brand and then also we are rolling out cookies across all of our restaurant platforms and some brownies and pretzel items. So Speaker 200:29:53our goal is Speaker 100:29:53to get that up that number up in the 50s here right away, 50% utilization from 33. And we have a lot of 3rd party contracting that we're negotiating right now where we have sales in process or RFPs that we're responding to That I think will utilize a good portion of the capacity. The thing to think about is, we want to utilize capacity for very profitable manufacturing, not just for marginal manufacturing. And so we're trying to be thoughtful about it. If we're going to take on a 3rd party contract or we're going to expand into a channel, We want to make sure we're soaking up capacity with extra margin business, so that we can maximize the amount of margin that factory can generate before We look towards long term sale of the factory and some sort of a long term supply contract. Speaker 500:30:39Okay. So is it Safe to project that the EBITDA from that facility will be moving up in the course of this year? Speaker 100:30:49It is safe to project that. And furthermore, our goal is to try to utilize as much capacity as possible between now and the end of the year, so that we're in a position to perhaps list the factory business for sale sometime in Speaker 500:31:11And the company Twin Peaks that you're building, My assumption is that the Feds generally built to suit capital is available to you. You don't need too much of your own As well as those stores are doing, their AUVs being so high that there's the capital out there from developers, So that you don't have to use too much of your own, which is That's right. Speaker 100:31:34I mean, essentially what we do is we use our capital to build the store, buy the land, build the store, We get some financing for that along the way and then we might turn around and do some sort of a sale leaseback of the asset and maybe have some long term financing in place like a lease or something for equipment on the store. So we're minimizing the amount of long term capital that's invested and that just makes the return on invested capital very, very high and very attractive. And Jojomo and his team have done an excellent job of managing these stores. They have the team in place to really grow that company owned platform. It's the only part of our business we're letting that happen and because quarter. Speaker 100:32:12And as we've talked about before, we really want to see the EBITDA in that business go from a $40,000,000 run rate this year to a $50,000,000 and then a $60,000,000 and so on. And that will enable us to really realize the long term value of Twin Peaks in the next 3 years or so at a very big number. Speaker 500:32:31And what about the value, which there is no doubt Substantial amount in Fizoli's or Roundtable or Fatburger. I mean presumably those brands quarter. Worth us considerable amount of money as well. Speaker 100:32:45Absolutely. I mean, each one of those brands is worth a lot of money. It's not our goal to sell off every brand that we have. It's our goal to decrease our leverage to either to a very manageable level or no leverage and that's just a function of when we see the brands ready to harvest value, which ones do we do? Do we spin out one of the brands publicly, do we sell it to another private equity firm for all cash and reduce debt, which is more likely? Speaker 100:33:12Those are all options that are available to us or Raise some cash and some sort of a partial IPO or something. We have all those levers available. We can also always refinance, call and reissue our securitized debt like many other private equity firms and issuers do. We're just we're very fortunate In an unfortunate environment, we're very fortunate that we issued this debt in 2021 with a 30 year fixed rate. We thought we'd all be able to refinance it for less in 2022. Speaker 100:33:43That didn't happen. We had to look further down the road towards a long term solution. But look refinancing those existing securitizations is certainly not off the table. It's just it's more expensive to do it today. So what you get out of it would be a negative number in in terms of savings, but we're creating so much value. Speaker 100:34:01It's just sort of an annoying fact that we have to live with right now that rates have gone up as much as they have and we can't harvest those short term savings, but it's not changing the value of inside each brand that we're creating. We're still opening lots of new stores and improving EBITDA or just cash flow generated by those brands. So you're right, you can look at a number of other brands in our portfolio besides Twin Peaks and besides the factory and point to a round table of Fatburger, Johnny Rockets, something like that or if it's always is having substantial value if we wanted to do something with one brand or another. Speaker 500:34:34Okay. Thanks very much. Speaker 100:34:36Thank you. Any other questions? Operator00:34:42No further questions at this time, sir. Please continue. Speaker 100:34:45Great. Operator, thank you very much. Call. And at this time, I'd like to complete the call and thank everyone for joining us today and wish you all a good day or good evening and good week. Take care. Operator00:34:57Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now ended. Thank you all for participating. You may all disconnect.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallFAT Brands Q1 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) FAT Brands Earnings HeadlinesPretzelmaker® Rolls Out Free Pretzel Bites for National Pretzel DayApril 21, 2025 | globenewswire.comGreat American Cookies and Marble Slab Creamery Reach 80th Location Milestone in Houston AreaApril 21, 2025 | globenewswire.comElon Set to Shock the World by May 1st ?Tech legend Jeff Brown recently traveled to the industrial zone of South Memphis to investigate what he believes will be Elon’s greatest invention ever… Yes, even bigger than Tesla or SpaceX.April 26, 2025 | Brownstone Research (Ad)Fat Brands opens new location in South CarolinaApril 9, 2025 | markets.businessinsider.comGreat American Cookies Rewards Fans with Free Cookie Cake Slices for Tax DayApril 7, 2025 | globenewswire.comFAT Brands Announces Amendments to Fazoli's SecuritizationApril 4, 2025 | globenewswire.comSee More FAT Brands Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like FAT Brands? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on FAT Brands and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About FAT BrandsFAT Brands (NASDAQ:FAT), a multi-brand restaurant franchising company, acquires, develops, markets, and manages quick service, fast casual, casual dining, and polished casual dining restaurant concepts worldwide. It owns restaurant brands, including Round Table Pizza, Marble Slab Creamery, Great American Cookies, Hot Dog on a Stick, Pretzelmaker, Fazoli's, Fatburger, Johnny Rockets, Elevation Burger, Yalla Mediterranean, Buffalo's Cafe and Buffalo's Express, Hurricane Grill & Wings, Ponderosa Steakhouse/Bonanza Steakhouse, Native Grill & Wings, Smokey Bones, and Twin Peaks. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. 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There are 6 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the FAT Brands Inc. 1st Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen only mode. Please note that this conference is being recorded today, May 8, 2023. Operator00:00:22On the call from FAT Brands are Chairman of the Board, Andy Witterhorn and Co Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Ken Tewick and Rob Rosen. This afternoon. The company made its Q1 2023 financial results publicly available. Call, please refer to the earnings release and earnings supplement, both of which are available in the Investors section of our website at www.fatbrands.com, each contain additional details about the Q1, which closed on March 26, 2023. But before we begin, I must remind everyone part of the discussion today will include forward looking statements. Operator00:01:08These forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance stand, therefore, undue reliance should not be placed upon them. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward looking statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties. The company does not undertake to update these forward looking statements at a later date. Call. For a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact future operating results and financial condition, please see today's earnings release and recent SEC filings. Operator00:01:43During today's call, the company will discuss non GAAP financial measures, which it believes can be useful in evaluating its performance. The presentation of this additional information should not be considered in isolation note as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures are available in today's earnings release. I would now like to turn the call over to Andy Witterhorn, Chairman of the Board. Speaker 100:02:13Thank you, operator, and hello, everyone, and thank you all for joining us on the call today. Quarter. This afternoon, we made our Q1 2023 financial results publicly available. Please refer to the earnings release and our earnings supplement, quarter, both of which are available in the Investors section of our website at www.fatbrands.com. Each contain additional details about the Q1, which closed March 26. Speaker 100:02:35Quarter. Let me begin by thanking our teams, franchisees and their employees for their hard work as we continue to grow this business. Last week, Ken Kuick and Rob Rosen were named Co Chief Executive Officers effective May 5. Both Ken and Rob joined FAT Brands in 2021 and have played an integral role in our strategic growth initiatives, including acquisitions and driving company profitability. Ken and Rob will also continue in their respective roles as Chief Financial Officer and Head of Debt Capital Markets, while assuming the co CEO role. Speaker 100:03:07Together, they will focus on driving forward the company's overarching goals of increasing organic growth through new store openings, growing utilization of our manufacturing facility and bolstering the success of our high growth brands, including Twentiques. I will continue in my new role as Chairman of the Board, which I was appointed to in March of 2023, call, where I will focus on our strategic direction, capital allocation and ensuring that we execute our business plan while maintaining quality restaurant operations. Stepping down from the CEO and President role, my goal is to remove the distraction of the personal investigation tied to me regarding matters from several years ago before our merger with Fog Cutter. Ken and Rob are taking the reins of the company with a fresh slate of directors and support the growth and evolution of FAT Brands, including championing our talented executive team. We have taken the company from 3 brands to 17 iconic restaurant brands with over 2,000 units open or under construction and system wide sales $2,200,000,000 annually over the last 5 years. Speaker 100:04:09Today, Fat Brands is approximately the 25th largest restaurant company by unit count in the U. S. 95% of our restaurants are franchised. We have more than 7 50 different franchise owners, of which approximately half are multiunit operators. Quarter. Speaker 100:04:22We operate in 40 countries and 48 U. S. States. Notably, 10 of our 17 brands were just named to Technomic's 2023 top 500 list, which is determined by key growth metrics such as sales and unit growth. I believe we are creating tremendous long term shareholder value as well as short term dividend yield. Speaker 100:04:43Now turning to Q1 specifically, total revenue grew 8.5% in the Q1 of 2023 to $105,700,000 compared to $97,400,000 in the Q1 of 2022. Quarter. The increase reflects an increase in same store sales and revenues from new restaurants. Same store sales increased 4.3% in the Q1 of 2023. Quarter. Speaker 100:05:08We grew system wide sales 9.9 percent to $550,000,000 when compared to the prior year quarter of $504,900,000 Looking at profitability, we saw over a 26.8% increase in adjusted EBITDA quarter to $19,200,000 from Q1 2022 adjusted EBITDA of $15,100,000 quarter. On a trailing 12 month basis, adjusted EBITDA was $92,900,000 Now I would like to discuss our 2 part growth strategy consisting of organic growth and growth by acquisition. As you know, over the last 2 years, we have had a very robust acquisition strategy quarter by acquiring 9 brands. Similar to 2022, this year our focus will be on building upon our impressive organic growth pipeline. Quarter. Speaker 100:05:57During the Q1, we opened 41 units and for quarter 2 are slated to open 45 units. In total, quarter. We are projecting to open 175 new units this year, representing 25% unit growth from the prior year. Quarter. Our total development pipeline of organic growth remains the strongest in our company's history with agreements for more than 1,000 new restaurants over the next few years. Speaker 100:06:20Quarter. We estimate this growth to be worth approximately $60,000,000 of incremental adjusted EBITDA, which will raise our adjusted EBITDA to approximately $150,000,000 This is also noteworthy as it will naturally delever our balance sheet. Interest in Fat Brands concepts remain high as our franchisees see value in building their portfolio within the Fat Brands family. We have signed 77 new franchise development deals year to date and expect to hit 100 by the end of this quarter. This is evidenced by an agreement to open 10 new co branded Great American Cookies and Marble Slab Creamy locations in Puerto Rico. Speaker 100:06:57These locations are set to open over the next 5 years, the first two locations slated to open by 2024. Additionally, we signed a new development deal to bring 20 additional franchised Johnny Rockets locations to Mexico over the next 10 years. Johnny Rockets has been operating in Mexico since 1991 and currently has approximately 25 restaurants throughout the country. Also, we've signed a development agreement to bring 12 co branded Fatburger and Buffalo's Express Restaurants and 10 Co Branded Marble Slab Creamery and Great American Cookie locations to Iraq, adding to our existing restaurants in that country. We also continue to innovate with our brands, creating additional opportunities for our franchisees. Speaker 100:07:38Quarter. During the quarter, Pretzelmaker opened its 1st drive thru location in Iowa. Since opening, the location has performed incredibly well paving the way for future growth of this store model across the globe. As part of our organic growth strategy, we're also laser focused on the accelerated development of Twin Peaks based on the strong economics and the long term growth potential we see for the brand. Twin Peaks continues to produce industry leading AUVs of around $6,000,000 with some of our highest volume locations in Florida generating AUVs between $9,000,000 $12,000,000 each. Speaker 100:08:11Additionally, these restaurants have very strong margins. Twin Peaks is also set to hit a key benchmark by the end of this month surpassing 100 locations. We anticipate opening 18 to 20 new Twin Peaks 2023, closing the year with approximately 115 lodges and almost 40% growth in unit count in just 2 years since FAT Brands acquisition of Twin Peaks. Our current Twin Peaks pipeline includes over 100 new stores. Quarter. Speaker 100:08:38We see similar unit growth for 2024. Twin Peaks is the only brand where we are materially growing the number of company owned locations in key markets quarter as both the return on invested capital and absolute dollar profit are very high. Traditionally, we've opened 2 to 3 company owned units each year, but we are striving to increase that in 2024 to 5 or 6 units per year and more in the years thereafter. Co branding is another key part of our strategy to help drive sales and leverage margins. We see great value in pairing similar brands in our portfolio together as a way to drive additional revenue growth through a combined menu approach. Speaker 100:09:14We presently have more than 230 co branded locations, quarter, mainly consisting of our Fatburger, Buffalo's Express or Marble Slab Creamery Great American Cookie pairing. Quarter, we brought Fatburger back to Illinois with the opening of co branded Fatburger and Buffalo's Express in the Chicago area in partnership with ADTJ Development LLC, which includes basketball stars Anthony Davis Jr, Derrick Rose and Tim Hardaway Jr. This opening is just the start of our growth in the state as it is tied to a larger multi unit Illinois franchise development deal. Similarly, brand synergies within our portfolio continue to be an important strategy for Fat Brands. In April, we unveiled a new cookie offering Across all Elevation Burgers, we saw an opportunity to enhance Elevation Burgers dessert program with the cookie dough we currently produce at our manufacturing facility in Georgia. Speaker 100:10:08Quarter. Not only will this provide a boost to the Elevation menu, but it will also increase the productivity of our manufacturing facility. Following the Elevation burger cookie launch. We began rolling out cookies across many of the other burger brands in our portfolio, which should be substantially complete by the end of the summer. As you know, our Georgia based manufacturing facility produces pretzel mix and cookie dough for several of our brands. Speaker 100:10:29We believe our factory business today is in its early stages of growth because it only operates at about 35% to 40% of its capacity. We began expanded utilization of the factory Cafe by Chips to Great American Cookies. To date, we have converted approximately 50 stores and expect to complete the remaining 20 conversions by late 2023. Quarter. Now let us turn to FAT Brands' 2nd strategic pillar of growth, that's by acquisition. Speaker 100:11:05When evaluating potential acquisition targets, quarter. Our focus remains on strategic acquisition opportunities of brands with a proven track record of long term sustainable and profitable operating performance. Quarter. And as noted, we are focused on our high growth brands, particularly our sports lodge category and would consider acquiring concepts with locations that can be converted into Twin Peaks. We're also looking at other categories to round out our portfolio such as salad, sandwich or coffee brands. Speaker 100:11:32Quarter. And finally, we are looking at opportunities that would allow us to further expand our manufacturing business. Looking at our balance sheet, we have worked hard to maintain a healthy liquidity position quarter consisting of both cash and marketable securities. Further, we have taken steps to reduce approximately $5,000,000 in corporate G and A for 2023. Quarter. Speaker 100:11:51As we all navigate this challenging interest rate and inflationary environment, we have adjusted our focus to realize long term goals that will yield significant shareholder value and execute our corporate strategy, making sure we have adequate liquidity and runway, nurturing the brands that we expect will generate significant value in the future to reduce debt and growing our EBITDA through new unit openings takes priority in this environment. I want to address recent discussions regarding the state of our financials. FAT Brands has strong liquidity and is in compliance with all of our debt covenants. Quarter. Our securitized debt, which is the only debt we have matures in 2,151. Speaker 100:12:27It begins to amortize a little bit each year for the next couple of years beginning later this summer. Quarter. We are prepared for such amortization. We locked in our fixed interest rate in 2021 at favorable rates before the crazy increase in interest rates We are like many other acquirers of brands using debt and equity to make those acquisitions and then paying down that debt over time. Quarter. Speaker 100:12:49We are focused on getting to a cash flow positive and GAAP net income positive position in the coming quarters. But we are not unlike a number of our peers in this space that are not yet GAAP net income profitable because they are in a high growth state. We are creating tremendous value in our brands, which we expect to realize in the future. Next, I'm proud to share in March that we officially launched a newly formed 501(three) charitable organization, the Fat Brands Foundation. Giving back has always been a part of the Fat Brands DNA. Speaker 100:13:20This foundation was created to amplify the existing charitable efforts of our company. The foundation will partner with local non profit organizations in areas in which Fat Brands has a presence to provide essential programs to help families and communities thrive. As our company continues to grow in size, we want to take our charitable efforts to the next level by launching a new arm that more broadly supports our employees and customers' communities. Call. We are excited to be officially live and to have the opportunity to become more ingrained with local nonprofits that are committed to making a positive impact in the markets where we operate. Speaker 100:13:52Since its launch, the foundation is already funded by local organizations in the following areas: children in poverty, families with special needs, food insecurity, Education and Theater. The foundation was seeded with a $250,000 donation from FAT Brands upon its inception and will continue to receive support from the company, our vendor partners, employees and franchise partners to further the directive and impact of the organization in the years to come. And finally, as announced, we have also made several changes to our Board of Directors in addition to my appointment as Chairman of the Board. In March, we elected control company status under the applicable NASDAQ rules. Further, we expanded the Board from 7 to 10 seats and welcomed 8 new directors, all of whom bring unique valuable skill sets that will aid in furthering the success of FAT Brands as a leader in the restaurant space. Speaker 100:14:40The new director appointments include several current FAT Brands C Suite executives fair Wiederhorn, Chief Operating Officer Taylor Wiederhorn Chief Development Officer Mason Wiederhorn, Chief Brand Officer and Donald Berchtold, Chief Concept Officer. Carmen Vidal, our international legal consultant for FAT Brands is also appointed to the Board. Additionally, we appointed 3 independent directors, Mark Olenowitz, Kenneth Koepp and Tyler Child joining Lynn Collier, who remains on the board and is now the Chair of our Audit Committee. We expect these board changes will save the company $1,100,000 per year. I want to point out that we did not increase our directors' fees, we simply combine the annual and committee fees into a flat rate equal to the same amount. Speaker 100:15:22And further, management team members who serve on the Board do not receive Board fees. Additionally, I want to thank The Baker Tilly firm for 4 years of extremely hard work and professional partnership that helped us grow the company significantly and we will miss working with them. We expect to name and appoint new auditors for the 2023 fiscal year shortly. I also want to thank those board members that chose not to continue to serve on the FAT Brands Board for their dedicated service. Call. Speaker 100:15:46In summary, I am confident we have a very strong leadership team in place and a robust pipeline of growth ahead that will naturally delever our balance sheet. Quarter. Our long term strategy is to create value through the organic growth of our brands, acquire additional brands that are strategic to our portfolio makeup, Realize value when appropriate to manage any debt outstanding and increase long term value for our stakeholders, while giving them a consistent dividend We sincerely appreciate you joining us today and for your interest in Fat Brands. And with that, I would like to hand it over to Ken to talk about our financial highlights from the quarter. Speaker 200:16:20Thank you so much, Andy. I am extremely humbled to take on this new responsibility as co CEO and drives forward the key goals of the company. We are very fortunate to have such a talented team of FAT Brands and I see great opportunity ahead and building upon our position in as one of the largest restaurant companies in the U. S. Turning to our Q1 results, total revenue during the Q1 increased 8.5 percent to $105,700,000 reflecting increased same store sales and revenues from new restaurant openings. Speaker 200:16:54Quarter. Costs and expenses increased to $105,300,000 in the Q1 compared to 96 point $9,000,000 in the year ago quarter, primarily due to increased activity from company owned restaurants and the company's factory, quarter as well as professional fees related to certain litigation matters. Included in cost and expenses, general and administrative expense increased quarter to $28,400,000 in the Q1 from $24,800,000 in the prior year period, quarter primarily due to increased professional fees related to pending litigation and government investigations. Quarter. Cost of restaurant and factory revenues increased to $59,100,000 in the Q1 of 2023 quarter compared to $54,800,000 in the prior year period, primarily due to higher company owned restaurant and dough factory revenues. Speaker 200:17:50Quarter. Depreciation and amortization expense increased to $7,100,000 in the first quarter quarter from $6,600,000 in the year ago quarter, primarily due to depreciation of new company owned restaurant property and equipment. Quarter. Refranchising losses in the Q1 of 2023 were $200,000 and were comprised of 0 $100,000 in net gains related to the sale or closure of refranchised restaurants, partially offset by quarter, $300,000 in restaurant operating costs, net of food sales. Advertising expense was $10,500,000 in the first quarter quarter compared to $10,300,000 in the prior year period. Speaker 200:18:34These expenses vary in relation to advertising revenue. Quarter. Other expense for the quarter was $30,000,000 compared to $19,700,000 in the year ago quarter quarter and was primarily comprised of interest expense on our securitizations. Our income tax provision for the quarter was $2,500,000 quarter compared to $4,500,000 in the year ago quarter. Net loss for the quarter was $32,100,000 or $0.95 per diluted share compared to a net loss of $23,800,000 or $1.45 per diluted share in last year's quarter. Speaker 200:19:14Quarter. And on an as adjusted basis, our net loss was $23,500,000 or $1.43 per share quarter compared to $18,500,000 or $1.13 per diluted share in last year's quarter. Quarter. Turning to cash flows, it's worth noting that our $32,100,000 net loss for the quarter included $7,100,000 of non cash quarter. Appreciation and amortization, dollars 7,700,000 of non recurring litigation expense, dollars 5,000,000 of non cash interest expense, quarter. Speaker 200:19:50We are pleased to report that we are expense. In the total of these items, Internet loss was $21,300,000 And with that, I'll turn it over to Rob Rosen for a few remarks. Speaker 300:20:07Thanks, Ken. Our focus will be on bolstering the firm's liquidity, decreasing overhead and lowering corporate leverage. Week. We'll look to lower the corporate leverage by investing the time and CapEx necessary to both get the pipeline stores open and to grow and position several of the fastest growing portfolio assets to be sold. Speaker 100:20:29Rob, thanks. And operator, we'd like to open the line for questions at this time, if There are any. Operator00:20:37Yes. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer Your first question is from Joe Gomes from NOBLE Capital. Please ask your question. Speaker 400:21:06Good afternoon and thanks for taking my questions. Speaker 500:21:10Hi, Joe. Speaker 200:21:11Hi, Joe. So question. First, I just wanted Speaker 400:21:15to maybe get a little more color on, you got the new co CEOs, how are you kind of Divving up the responsibilities between Speaker 300:21:24the 2. Speaker 100:21:30Well, I think there's a real division between Ken's responsibilities and Rob's responsibilities. So it's pretty easy for These guys to tackle that. Ken as the Chief Financial Officer is really covering those aspects of the business on Investor Reporting, all of Finance and Accounting roles and Rob running debt capital markets is really all of the balance sheet, all the capital coming onto the balance sheet and the maturities and the cost of capital And the retiring of preferred debt over time. And so those 2 guys working together with Fehr, who's our Chief Operating Officer really running the brands and Taylor, our Chief Development Officer and the rest of his team and the other guys. It's very well divided amongst the entire team, not just Rob and Ken. Speaker 400:22:15Okay. Thanks for that. Question. We were looking at the economy, kind of this 2 part question here. Are your franchisees seeing any slowdowns in their business? Speaker 400:22:33It doesn't appear so from what you've said in the Q1 results. Question. And how's demand and interest for new franchisees? Is it still it's running as quarter. Or maybe that's cooled down a little bit from last year. Speaker 100:22:50I would say to answer the 2 part question with 2 answers, I think same store sales are just a little bit softer as we roll into Q2 than they were in Q1. I think that's consistent across industry, except maybe in the QSR side of things. And we've definitely seen a pickup in business again in the sports lodges, which we're excited about. A lot of activity these days of course with all the different playoff games. And then in terms of new franchise development, it's really on track. Speaker 100:23:17I don't think that we'll have year like we did in 2022, again, where we sell almost 500 new stores, 460 new stores, something like that, maybe 350, it's a big number. And we're hoping to get to 200 this year. We're going to hit 100 by the end of the first half of the year. And in terms of new store openings, we're 25% higher in new store openings than we were a year ago. So franchisees are continuing to build stores at a faster pace. Speaker 100:23:45They're still buying the territory rights for new development, perhaps at a slightly slower pace than last year, but I don't think last year is very, Very good example as a year that we're going to hit every time. Speaker 400:23:58Right, right. Yes, that would be a little difficult to do, but question. You didn't mention anything on the preferreds. Just wanted to give us an update on what is going on there? Speaker 100:24:10Yes. It's in our 10 ks and in our 10 Q. We redeemed about $45,000,000 of quarter. The $137,000,000 of preferred stock that was redeemable last year and some of that preferred stock has been permanently retired. We used our securitization facility to generate bonds. Speaker 100:24:32We used bonds to buy back stock and we used some cash. Quarter. And so, we have reduced the amount of preferred outstanding that is what you'd call potable. The balance of that preferred stock Remains outstanding. It earns a dividend and an extra dividend rate until the time that we retire it. Speaker 100:24:51But in this environment, It's difficult to want to issue common equity given the current stock price. And so we've chosen to use the securitization facilities instead and hope that we'll retire the rest of that redeemable preferred stock in the coming quarters. Okay. Speaker 400:25:12And one more for me and I'll step aside, let someone else get questions here. So I was just looking at your restaurant cost as a percent of the restaurant sales, it came in at about 94.4% For all of 2022, it was just a tad under 92%. Was there something quarter, that hit that 94.4% or could we anticipate that number coming down Speaker 200:25:46quarter. Hey, Joe, it's Ken. I just want to point out In that number that you're talking about, the cost of the cost number you're referring to is the restaurant and factory costs. So You have to on the revenue side add the factory sales and restaurant sales. We're expecting to continue to increase the margins on our company owned restaurants that will be part of Rob and Thayer and Andy, you might focus over the next several quarters. Speaker 400:26:13Okay, quarter. Great. Speaker 100:26:13It's a little bit blended. It's a little bit blended there to try to figure it out when they're together. We're very focused on filling up the factory. We have a large sales in process pipeline of third party manufacturing business as well as rolling out the manufacturing of cookies and pretzels and brownies and things like that to our other brands, so that uses up capacity to generate some more earnings. And then of course, the growth at Twin Peaks is extraordinary and that's really where we've elected to invest capital to build more company on stores or convert Other brands into Twin Peaks. Speaker 100:26:47And so I think you're going to see us be able to put a mark on the value of those assets as we roll in to the back half of twenty twenty three and into twenty twenty four and that will be what we earmarked to reduce significant debt in the future and very strong way to look at how our business will play out with realizing some value from a couple of assets that will Leave us closer, if not 100 percent debt free with a lot of free cash flow over the next 2 or 3 years. We all thought going into 2022 after all the acquisitions we made in 2021 that we would be able to issue common equity at a good price in the markets and also refinance our Debt Portfolio. And of course, the market changed. And so It made it more difficult to do those things and it made us shift our focus towards a long term solution instead of a short term solution to paying down our debt and the organic growth we have that's inherent in the portfolio where EBITDA will grow from $90 something million to $150,000,000 naturally delevers us, but These additional assets and having the ability to realize value on those assets, I think will be a telling sign in the future. Speaker 100:28:01Joe, thank you very much. Anyone else that has a question? Operator00:28:08Yes. The next one is from Roger Lipton from Lipton Financial Services. Please ask your question. Speaker 500:28:14Hi, Andy. Hey, Roger. Andy, any of you can answer. Is there any more room in the securitization facility? You used it, I think, at quarter. Speaker 500:28:26Is there further room to take down funds if you Mike? Speaker 100:28:35Rob, why don't you address that? Speaker 300:28:38Roger, there is the amount that can be issued is based on ratios and covenants and performance of the underlying portfolios. And without getting into Too much detail on which ones have the room in it. There is room in the portfolios to continue to issue some More what we refer to as TAP facilities. Speaker 100:29:00Roger, one way to think about it is that today we have cash and marketable securities already on our balance sheet that we haven't sold. So issuing more securities, we just generate even more available for sale to raise cash. We already have $40,000,000 of bonds or $43,000,000 month sitting on the balance sheet alongside of our cash available today and then issuing more. It's a big number that's available if we need it as we have runway here to execute on these brands. Speaker 500:29:28Okay. And have you yet been able to increase the utilization rate in the manufacturing facility or is that about to Speaker 100:29:38It's definitely up because Again, we bought the Nestle Tollhouse brand and then also we are rolling out cookies across all of our restaurant platforms and some brownies and pretzel items. So Speaker 200:29:53our goal is Speaker 100:29:53to get that up that number up in the 50s here right away, 50% utilization from 33. And we have a lot of 3rd party contracting that we're negotiating right now where we have sales in process or RFPs that we're responding to That I think will utilize a good portion of the capacity. The thing to think about is, we want to utilize capacity for very profitable manufacturing, not just for marginal manufacturing. And so we're trying to be thoughtful about it. If we're going to take on a 3rd party contract or we're going to expand into a channel, We want to make sure we're soaking up capacity with extra margin business, so that we can maximize the amount of margin that factory can generate before We look towards long term sale of the factory and some sort of a long term supply contract. Speaker 500:30:39Okay. So is it Safe to project that the EBITDA from that facility will be moving up in the course of this year? Speaker 100:30:49It is safe to project that. And furthermore, our goal is to try to utilize as much capacity as possible between now and the end of the year, so that we're in a position to perhaps list the factory business for sale sometime in Speaker 500:31:11And the company Twin Peaks that you're building, My assumption is that the Feds generally built to suit capital is available to you. You don't need too much of your own As well as those stores are doing, their AUVs being so high that there's the capital out there from developers, So that you don't have to use too much of your own, which is That's right. Speaker 100:31:34I mean, essentially what we do is we use our capital to build the store, buy the land, build the store, We get some financing for that along the way and then we might turn around and do some sort of a sale leaseback of the asset and maybe have some long term financing in place like a lease or something for equipment on the store. So we're minimizing the amount of long term capital that's invested and that just makes the return on invested capital very, very high and very attractive. And Jojomo and his team have done an excellent job of managing these stores. They have the team in place to really grow that company owned platform. It's the only part of our business we're letting that happen and because quarter. Speaker 100:32:12And as we've talked about before, we really want to see the EBITDA in that business go from a $40,000,000 run rate this year to a $50,000,000 and then a $60,000,000 and so on. And that will enable us to really realize the long term value of Twin Peaks in the next 3 years or so at a very big number. Speaker 500:32:31And what about the value, which there is no doubt Substantial amount in Fizoli's or Roundtable or Fatburger. I mean presumably those brands quarter. Worth us considerable amount of money as well. Speaker 100:32:45Absolutely. I mean, each one of those brands is worth a lot of money. It's not our goal to sell off every brand that we have. It's our goal to decrease our leverage to either to a very manageable level or no leverage and that's just a function of when we see the brands ready to harvest value, which ones do we do? Do we spin out one of the brands publicly, do we sell it to another private equity firm for all cash and reduce debt, which is more likely? Speaker 100:33:12Those are all options that are available to us or Raise some cash and some sort of a partial IPO or something. We have all those levers available. We can also always refinance, call and reissue our securitized debt like many other private equity firms and issuers do. We're just we're very fortunate In an unfortunate environment, we're very fortunate that we issued this debt in 2021 with a 30 year fixed rate. We thought we'd all be able to refinance it for less in 2022. Speaker 100:33:43That didn't happen. We had to look further down the road towards a long term solution. But look refinancing those existing securitizations is certainly not off the table. It's just it's more expensive to do it today. So what you get out of it would be a negative number in in terms of savings, but we're creating so much value. Speaker 100:34:01It's just sort of an annoying fact that we have to live with right now that rates have gone up as much as they have and we can't harvest those short term savings, but it's not changing the value of inside each brand that we're creating. We're still opening lots of new stores and improving EBITDA or just cash flow generated by those brands. So you're right, you can look at a number of other brands in our portfolio besides Twin Peaks and besides the factory and point to a round table of Fatburger, Johnny Rockets, something like that or if it's always is having substantial value if we wanted to do something with one brand or another. Speaker 500:34:34Okay. Thanks very much. Speaker 100:34:36Thank you. Any other questions? Operator00:34:42No further questions at this time, sir. Please continue. Speaker 100:34:45Great. Operator, thank you very much. Call. And at this time, I'd like to complete the call and thank everyone for joining us today and wish you all a good day or good evening and good week. Take care. Operator00:34:57Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now ended. Thank you all for participating. You may all disconnect.Read morePowered by