TH International Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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August 29, 2023

There are 4 speakers on the call.

Operator

Since we opened our first Tim's store, innovation has been in our DNA. Driven by the demands of our customers, we need to give them a reason to keep coming back. Last year, we launched a new product every 5 days from our otto coconut cold brew, watermelon drink series, to our cheese mochi croissant. Let's take a closer look at some of our innovations. From our beloved almond milk latte to refreshing iced cappuccino, like grape, avocado, and honeydew, to a variety of waffle flavors, cinnamon rolls, even a Sichuan spicy beef sandwich.

Operator

We tailored our menu to satisfy local tastes from our quartet latte to a picking duck roll. We offer innovation at an excellent value, which our customers love. We welcome our customers throughout the day, from breakfast with our signature bagel series to lunch with our freshly made bagel sandwich, wraps, and pizza to afternoon tea with a wide selection of fresh Shbaked Goods. We launched 71 new products last year alone, And we plan to introduce even more this year. Underpinning all of our innovative products is a focus on quality and our customers.

Operator

Our coffee is always brewed with quality beans. We take great care to source the best Arabica beans worldwide. Handpicked to ensure freshness and great taste and prepared with the intention and creativity that our customers demand. Nothing makes us happier than seeing our customers smile. Thanks for sharing a cup of work with us today.

Speaker 1

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to THE International Limited's 2nd quarter 2023 earnings presentation. My name is Ting Zhao, Head of Investor Relations. TAH International Limited announced its Q2 2023 financial results earlier today, a press release as well as an accompanying presentation which contains operational and financial highlights are now available on the company's IR website ir. Teamschina.com. Today, you'll hear from Yunchan Lu, our CEO and Director, and Mr.

Speaker 1

Albert Li, our CFO. You can also find the webcast of this presentation on our IR website. Before we get started, I'd like to remind you that our earnings presentation and investor materials contain forward looking statements, which are subject to future events and uncertainties. Statements that are not historic effects including but not limited to statements about the company's belief and expectations are forward looking statements. Forward looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, and our actual results may differ materially from these forward looking statements.

Speaker 1

All forward looking statements should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary statements in our earnings release and risk factors included in our filing with the SEC. This presentation also includes certain non GAAP financial measures, which we believe can be helpful in evaluating our performance. However, those measures should not be considered substitutes for the comparable GAAP measures. The company's reconciliation information related to those non GAAP and GAAP measures can be found in our earnings press release issued earlier today. With that said, I would now like to turn it over to Mr.

Speaker 1

Yungchun Lu, our CEO and Director. Please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Dean. We are very pleased with our accomplishments during Q2 2023 and believe that that Teams China has never been stronger. On the top line, we delivered 129.7% year over year growth, achieving a record quarterly revenue of over RMB400 1,000,000. This was driven both by new store openings and continued strong same store traffic and sales growth. We also benefit greatly from the rapid growth of our Lolli Club, which now totals 14,700,000 registered members, representing 95.4 percent year over year growth.

Speaker 2

We continue to pursue profitable growth. We have achieved positive store level EBITDA continuously and have increased store level EBITDA by 31.6 percentage points from Q2 2022 to 5% in Q2 2023. From a store development standpoint, we continue to build density in our existing cities while also penetrating new cities such as Shenyang, Yantai and Changzhou, etcetera. To highlight some of the new cities we entered recently on the opening days of our first stores in Shenyang, Yantai and Changzhou, we generated RMB163,000,

Speaker 3

204,000

Speaker 2

in sales, respectively, while scoring 132,000,000,102,000,000 and 4,000,000,000 impressions respectively. We are also achieving greater capital efficiency via increasing franchise development, notably through the rapid and expansion of TeamSpecs Express, our most compact store format. This is enabling us to enter into meaningful partnerships with reputable companies like Sinopec Easyjoy, Century 21st, which have contributed to our NELC expansion. Our new product launches, were among our best selling products during the quarter, demonstrating our ability to innovate and launch offerings that strongly appeal to our customers. Recall also that our differentiated and highly successful coffee plus growth strategy is based upon offering creative and customized beverage and food combos at compelling values, this initiative has enabled us to further improve our labor and capital as example by the percentage of orders with food increasing from 43.7% in Q2 2022 to 50% in Q2 2023.

Speaker 2

We have also seen increasing popularity of our bagel products, with the number of bagels sold reaching $4,800,000 in Q2 2023, tripling from the same quarter in 2022. The digital realm remains a crucial part of our business as our e commerce and retail sales grew by 210.5 percent from RMB10.4 million in Q222 to RMB32.3 million in we also continued driving growth through new retail channels like co branded coffee products and at home coffee products, such as Tim's and Ortelli's Relate to June coffee, packaged liquid coffee and freeze dried coffee products. Throughout the peak summer season, which falls in our Q3, we execute a series of fresh new products that are being supported by exciting marketing campaigns and ample resources to capture increased market opportunities. More specifically, we are introducing a new beverage or food product at least every 2 to 3 weeks. These are all designed to attract new customers while keeping our loyal customers coming back.

Speaker 2

Lastly, by leveraging Teams' infrastructure and operating expertise, we opened our first Popeyes restaurant in China in August 19th, less than 5 months after we acquired the exclusive right to develop Popeyes brand restaurant in Mainland China. We were thrilled to have achieved these major milestones in our longer term strategy to establish a growing presence for this iconic brand across the country. We believe that adding Popeyes to the Teams China portfolio will deliver economies of scale and supply chain synergies for both brands, driving further growth for our company. We plan to open at least 10 Popeyes Restaurants in Shanghai in the coming quarter and 1700 across China over the next decade. Popeyes offers a fried chicken recipe that Chinese diners will love and our brand identity based on Louisiana's signature, Joy de Vera, that will appeal to younger consumers increasingly seek seeking new dining experiences.

Speaker 2

Our high traffic location in Shanghai and our sensational grand opening featuring a Just BAND and lots of Louisiana flavor are already creating significant buzz around the brand, which is providing momentum for our upcoming expansion. The Popeyes Shanghai Flexible Store features a select menu and store design tailored to the Chinese market, its grand opening set and opening day record with 1761 orders generating RMB 142,000 in sales and 110,000,000 media impressions, the Kim's China team has leveraged its deep local expertise in China's quick serve restaurant industry to adapt Popeyes' menus, restaurant design and dining experience for the Chinese consumers. The localized menu features new options that blend Cajun traditions with local Chinese tastes, including sweet chili chicken, golden cheese and chicken nuggets and Longjing tea based It also features Popeye's signature items, including Liu Audience style spicy chicken, Louisiana style seafood such as Cajun popcorn shrimp and sides including mashed potatoes with Cajun gravy, Popeyes chicken is marinated in a unique blend of Louisiana Cajun spices for 12 hours, then battered, breaded has slow cooked to perfection, enhancing its rich and savory flavor. At this time, I would like to turn it over to our CFO, Mr.

Speaker 2

Albert Li, to discuss our Q2 2023 financial performance in more detail. Albert?

Speaker 3

Thank you, Yongqian. As said earlier, total revenues grew by 129.7 percent year over year to a record RMB 411.7 million. The growth was primarily driven by an increase in the number of system wide stores from 440 as of June 30, 2022 to 700 as of June 30, 2023 and a 20.4% quarterly same store sales growth for the company owned and operated stores. Overall, monthly average transacting customers were 2,800,000 during the Q2 of 2023, representing an increase of 167.2 percent from 1,000,000 in the same quarter of 2022. Overall ticket count was 181 0.3% higher year over year driven by the rise of both dining and delivery and takeaway orders.

Speaker 3

We continue to strengthen our digital capabilities to meet the growing demand for delivery and take away services, digital orders as a percentage of total orders increased from 80.2% in the Q2 of 2022 to 80.6% in the Q2 of 2023, while our delivery and take away orders, including those from Meituan, Elem and our own WeChat Mini program, increased by 182.9 percent in the Q2 of 2023 from the same quarter of 2022. Concurrently, we have attracted more dining customers to enjoy our welcoming environment as the number of dining customers increased by 193.9% from the same quarter of 2022. As we continue to scale, we have also demonstrated meaningful expansion in store profitability and leverage in general and administrative expenses adjusted store EBITDA margin and adjusted corporate EBITDA margin improved by 31.6 percentage points and 56.1 as a percentage of revenues from company owned and operated stores decreased by 1.8 percentage points from 35.8% in Q222 to 34.0% in Q2222023 as we continue to benefit from greater economy of scale and higher efficiencies in our supply chain, we expect further cost improvements on the back of our strong bargaining power with suppliers and RBI's initiative to open a TIM HAWTON's coffee bean grocery in Malaysia this past June.

Speaker 3

Our rental and property management fee as a percentage of revenue from company owned and operated stores decreased by 14.1 percentage points from 34.9 percent in Q222 to 20.8% in Q2 2023. This is because we took advantage of lower rent levels during COVID, secured more favorable lease terms and built a strong pipeline for the future. Payroll and employee benefits as a percentage of revenue from company owned and operated stores decreased by 17.2 percentage points from 39.1 percent in Q222 to 21.9% in Q2 2023. This was primarily due to the refined staffing arrangement of our store operational personnel and the optimization of our labor structure, including hiring more part time employees. Delivery costs as a percentage of revenue from company owned and operated stores remained flat at 8.1% in the 2nd quarters of 20222023.

Speaker 3

Other operating expenses as a percentage of revenues from company owned and operated stores decreased by 1.5 percentage points from 10.5% in Q222 to 8.9% in Q2 2023. This was due to our continuous efforts to optimize our cost structure and drive operating leverage through revenue growth and store network expansion. Marketing expenses as A percentage of total revenue decreased by 4.4 percentage points from 10.7% in Q222 to 6.3% in Q2 2023. Our adjusted general and administrative expenses as a percentage of total revenues decreased by 21.9 percentage points from 35.2% in Q222 to 13.3% in Q223. We expect our operating leverage to continue improving and our general and administrative expenses as a percentage of total revenue to decline over time.

Speaker 3

Turning to liquidity, as of June 30, 2023, our total cash and cash equivalents and short term investments were RMB392.0 million US54,100,000 dollars compared to RMB 611,500,000 as of December 34 1st 2022, the change was primarily attributable to the settlements with investors who entered into an equity supported agreement with us and cash disbursements as a result of the rapid expansion of our business and store network nationwide. Managing our cost structure prudently is very important to us but particularly as it relates to new store development expenses as we are seeking to achieve a shorter payback period. Given the traction we have already made to date, we are highly confident in executing our long term new store development plan. Looking ahead, our top near term financial priorities are to continuously deliver robust revenue growth, improved profitability at both the store and corporate level, and achieve operating cash flow breakeven by leveraging Team China's strong brand recognition and positive consumer perception along with growing brand and loyalty, continuous innovation, ever expanding store network and disciplined execution, we are confident in our ability to further optimize our cost structure, improve operational efficiency and achieve profitable growth. We are sincerely thankful to our shareholders and investors for your continuous support and we are committed to delivering long term value to our shareholders.

Speaker 3

We look forward to updating you on our progress in the coming quarters and continuing to build a bright and successful future for Teams China.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Yong Chan and Albert. That concludes our earnings presentation for today. We thank you for your participation and look forward to providing you with regular business and financial updates again next quarter.

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