BurgerFi International Inc (BFI) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss BurgerFi International's financial results for the second quarter ended July 3, 2023. Joining us today are newly appointed Karl Bachman, CEO; and Chris Jones, CFO. Following their remarks, we'll open the lines for your questions.

大家早安，感謝大家參加今天的電話會議，討論 BurgerFi International 截至 2023 年 7 月 3 日的第二季度財務業績。今天加入我們的是新任命的首席執行官 Karl Bachman；和首席財務官克里斯瓊斯。在他們的發言之後，我們將開放您的提問熱線。

Before we begin today, I want to remind everyone that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

在今天開始之前，我想提醒大家，本次電話會議可能包含 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》中定義的前瞻性陳述。

These forward-looking statements may be related to BurgerFi's estimates of its future business outlook, liquidity, store opening plans, same-store sales and restaurant operating margin growth plans, prospects or financial results, including projected sales, restaurant EBITDA. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by words such as anticipates, believes, estimates, expects, intends, plans, predicts, projects, will be, will continue, will likely result in similar expressions.

這些前瞻性陳述可能與 BurgerFi 對其未來業務前景、流動性、開店計劃、同店銷售額和餐廳營業利潤增長計劃、前景或財務業績的估計有關，包括預計銷售額、餐廳 EBITDA。前瞻性陳述通常可以透過諸如預期、相信、估計、期望、打算、計劃、預測、項目、將是、將繼續、將可能導致類似表達等詞語來識別。

These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 2, 2023, and those disclosed in other documents that the company files with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

這些前瞻性陳述是基於目前的預期和假設，這些預期和假設受到風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致公司的實際結果與前瞻性陳述中反映的結果有重大差異。可能導致或促成此類差異的因素包括但不限於截至 2023 年 1 月 2 日的年度 10-K 表格年度報告中討論的因素，以及公司向證券部提交的其他文件中披露的因素和交易委員會。

Our subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to BurgerFi or persons acting on BurgerFi's behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements included in this conference call. The company undertakes no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Given these statements and uncertainties, listeners are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Also, the following discussion may contain non-GAAP financial measures.

我們隨後由 BurgerFi 或代表 BurgerFi 行事的人員所做的書面和口頭前瞻性聲明完全符合本次電話會議中包含的警告聲明的要求。除法律要求外，本公司不承擔修改或公開發布這些前瞻性陳述的任何修改結果的義務。鑑於這些陳述和不確定性，聽眾應注意不要過度依賴此類前瞻性陳述。此外，以下討論可能包含非公認會計準則財務指標。

For a discussion and reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures, please see the earnings release for the second quarter 2023. I would also like to remind everyone that this call will be available via telephonic replay for 2 weeks starting today. A webcast replay will also be available via the link provided in today's press release as well as on the company's website at www.burgerfi.com.

有關這些非 GAAP 財務指標的討論和調節，請參閱 2023 年第二季的收益發布。我還想提醒大家，從今天開始，本次電話會議將透過電話重播，持續兩週。也可透過今天新聞稿中提供的連結以及公司網站 www.burgerfi.com 進行網路廣播重播。

Now I would like to turn the call over to BurgerFi's new CEO, Carl Bachmann. Carl, please go ahead.

現在我想將電話轉給 BurgerFi 新任執行長 Carl Bachmann。卡爾，請繼續。

Thank you for joining us today, and we appreciate your interest in BurgerFi. Let me begin by thanking our entire team franchisees and employees for their dedication and hard work in this challenging environment. I am so excited to be here on my inaugural earnings call as the new CEO. I am also joined by Chris Jones, our newly appointed CFO. My plan this afternoon to discuss why I chose to join the company, delve into my intentions at a high level to strengthen the foundation and then discuss recent developments. Following that, Chris will review the quarterly financials in greater detail and comments on our 2023 guidance.

感謝您今天加入我們，我們感謝您對 BurgerFi 的興趣。首先，我要感謝我們整個團隊的加盟商和員工在這個充滿挑戰的環境中的奉獻和辛勤工作。我很高興能夠作為新任執行長參加我的首次財報電話會議。我們新任命的財務長克里斯瓊斯也加入了我的行列。我今天下午的計劃是討論我為什麼選擇加入公司，深入探討我的高層意圖以加強基礎，然後討論最近的發展。隨後，克里斯將更詳細地審查季度財務數據並對我們的 2023 年指引發表評論。

While new to the company, I've been a longtime fan of Anthony's in BurgerFi and I'm a foody at heart. In fact, the chef-driven focus on both brands as part of what validated my decision to assume the leadership role of this exciting organization. Anthony's, BurgerFi are both high-quality brands with strong potential ahead, in my opinion.

雖然我是公司的新人，但我一直是 Anthony's BurgerFi 的忠實粉絲，我內心是個美食家。事實上，廚師對這兩個品牌的關注是驗證我擔任這個令人興奮的組織的領導角色的決定的一部分。在我看來，Anthony's、BurgerFi都是優質品牌，未來潛力大。

I really view this opportunity as a perfect match for my career, and I could not be more thrilled to be here. My industry background spans 40-plus years, and I've been involved in both fast casual and casual dining concepts during that time frame as both a franchisor and franchisee. Most recently, I spent 6.5 years with a large fast casual better burger concept serving as COO before being promoted to President.

我真的認為這個機會與我的職業生涯完美契合，能夠來到這裡我感到無比興奮。我的行業背景跨越 40 多年，在此期間，我作為特許經營商和特許經營商參與了快速休閒和休閒餐飲概念。最近，我在一家大型快速休閒漢堡概念店工作了 6.5 年，擔任營運長，之後晉升為總裁。

Under my leadership, the brand experienced double-digit system-wide same-store sales growth over an extended period, while significantly expanding its corporate and franchise unit footprint. The company's second quarter performance is indicative as to why I'm here today as the new CEO, providing what I believe is a significant opportunity for investors, so much so that I invested heavily into BFI equity when I started. So I'm firmly aligned with our shareholders. With only a little over a month on the job, there is no question we can do better as the challenges both brands face are not new to the industry. To say that I've seen it all before and prevailed is not a stretch.

在我的領導下，該品牌在很長一段時間內實現了全系統同店銷售額兩位數的成長，同時顯著擴大了其企業和特許經營部門的足跡。該公司第二季的業績說明了我今天作為新任執行長來到這裡的原因，它為投資者提供了我認為是一個重要的機會，以至於我在入職時就大量投資了 BFI 股權。因此，我堅定地與我們的股東保持一致。工作時間只有一個多月，毫無疑問我們可以做得更好，因為這兩個品牌面臨的挑戰對產業來說並不新鮮。說我以前見過這一切並取得了勝利，這並不誇張。

To drive our turnaround, I'm going to be using a similar proven playbook that I executed previously at other brands. Furthermore, all decisions will be made by following what we call the 3Ws. It must be a win for the guest, a win for the team members and a win for the shareholders and franchisees. This approach will ensure we are making the right decisions. Since joining the company on July 10, my main priority has been meeting the teams and the franchisees while immersing myself in the restaurants to learn more about the food. I've been so excited to work the pizza oven and flip the burgers as I'm a hands-on leader.

為了推動我們的扭虧為盈，我將使用我之前在其他品牌執行過的類似的、經過驗證的策略。此外，所有決策都將遵循我們所謂的 3W 原則做出。這必須是客人的勝利、團隊成員的勝利、股東和加盟商的勝利。這種方法將確保我們做出正確的決定。自 7 月 10 日加入公司以來，我的首要任務是與團隊和加盟商會面，同時深入餐廳了解更多有關食物的資訊。我很高興能夠操作披薩烤箱和翻轉漢堡，因為我是親力親為的領導者。

As we learn more, I'll be working with our talented teams on traffic driving initiatives as well as margin expansion. To that point, I've already mapped 5 strategic priorities and have already seen a change for the positive.

隨著我們了解更多，我將與我們才華橫溢的團隊合作開展流量驅動計劃以及利潤擴張。到目前為止，我已經制定了 5 個策略重點，並且已經看到了積極的變化。

Priority #1 infrastructure. It starts with employees. I believe we must have the best team on the field to play, and they need to develop and train them properly. Once they are on the field, you need to keep them engaged to keep them as tenured leadership in the stores and in the field is critical to our success. I, therefore, plan to focus on robust manager development at the restaurant level, where we really need great field generals as the general managers drive the business every day. From a supportive perspective, we have adopted the rally cry. If you aren't serving the guest, you are serving someone that is. This direction will lead to world-class field support which creates a culture of winning and drive significant improvements in performance and turnover. This is relevant to our 2Q results where we have seen pressure from higher turnover. However, at BurgerFi, we've seen meaningful improvement in hourly and management turnover, now just hovering above industry benchmarks.

優先順序第一的基礎設施。這要從員工開始。我相信我們必須擁有場上最好的球隊來比賽，他們需要正確地培養和訓練他們。一旦他們來到現場，您就需要讓他們保持參與，因為商店和現場的終身領導對我們的成功至關重要。因此，我計劃重點關注餐廳級別的經理的穩健發展，因為總經理每天都在推動業務，因此我們確實需要優秀的現場將軍。從支持的角度來看，我們採用了集會口號。如果你不是在為客人服務，那麼你就是在為客人服務。這一方向將帶來世界一流的現場支持，從而創造一種獲勝文化，並推動績效和營業額的顯著提高。這與我們第二季的業績相關，我們已經看到營業額增加帶來的壓力。然而，在 BurgerFi，我們看到每小時和管理人員流動率有了顯著的改善，現在僅徘徊在行業基準之上。

At Anthony's, hourly turnover is better than industry benchmarks, and we are seeing improvements in management turnover. We plan to build upon this during the remainder of the year and expect to see continued improvement in the labor line at BurgerFi stores and consolidated BurgerFi. We know our labor costs are an opportunity, and we are already well on the way to fixing this.

在安東尼，每小時營業額優於行業基準，而且我們看到管理人員營業額有所改善。我們計劃在今年剩餘時間內以此為基礎，並預計 BurgerFi 商店和合併後的 BurgerFi 的勞動力將持續改善。我們知道我們的勞動成本是一個機會，我們已經在解決這個問題上。

Priority #2, Taste and Quality, which are paramount to everything we do and is why we're going to make sure we continue to have the best products and innovative LTOs. As you may recall, in February, BurgerFi launched its award-winning BBQ Rhodium Burger, which is so well that we extended the LTO and rolled it out a new patty melt version. Meanwhile, Andy's launched Mike's hot honey and thick-cut pepperoni pizza and Mike's hot-money wings, which have both been very successful. These are great achievements that we can build upon. With both these brands, one thing that must remain sacrosanct is taste and quality. And while we have some wins, there are also things we need to fix.

優先事項#2，品味和質量，這對我們所做的一切至關重要，也是我們要確保繼續擁有最好的產品和創新的 LTO 的原因。您可能還記得，二月，BurgerFi 推出了屢獲殊榮的 BBQ Rhodium Burger，這款漢堡非常出色，以至於我們延長了 LTO 並推出了新的肉餅融化版本。同時，安迪推出了麥克的熱蜂蜜厚切義大利辣香腸披薩和麥克的熱錢雞翅，都非常成功。這些都是我們可以再接再厲的偉大成就。對於這兩個品牌來說，必須保持神聖不可侵犯的一件事就是口味和品質。雖然我們取得了一些勝利，但也有一些問題需要解決。

At BurgerFi, we have been focused on improving the products and customer experience with several initiatives expected to reach stores during the second half of 2023 and directly address the biggest challenges the brand faces today. Some of these include launching a much-needed new crispy chicken and grilled chicken sandwiches and improving the milk shakes. In both instances, we currently run below industry average in terms of contribution and combined should have a positive impact to top line.

在 BurgerFi，我們一直致力於改善產品和客戶體驗，多項措施預計將於 2023 年下半年進入商店，並直接解決該品牌當今面臨的最大挑戰。其中包括推出急需的新型脆皮雞肉和烤雞肉三明治以及改進奶昔。在這兩種情況下，我們目前的貢獻都低於行業平均水平，綜合起來應該會對營收產生正面影響。

Perhaps the most important opportunity is fixing the French fries, which currently accounts for a number of customer complaints and as simple as changing processes in the kitchen. The bottom line is that we cannot accept performance like Q2 and are committed to driving better results for all of our stakeholders. We will also ensure that our teams are proud of the products that we serve.

也許最重要的機會是修復炸薯條，目前，炸薯條引起了許多客戶投訴，就像改變廚房的流程一樣簡單。最重要的是，我們不能接受像第二季度那樣的業績，並致力於為所有利害關係人帶來更好的結果。我們還將確保我們的團隊為我們提供的產品感到自豪。

Priority #3, Defining our Portfolio and understanding where we're successful and where we're struggling from a real estate, regional or market perspective and then, of course, evaluating the portfolio inside the 4 walls. Is the ambience right? Is the look, feel and value right? Does the platform promote ease of execution? And how the company can best support the franchise community? Having spent much of my time speaking with our franchise partners, I know that we need to do better. I will touch on this later in my prepared remarks and is critical to both brands to accelerate unit growth.

優先事項#3，定義我們的投資組合，從房地產、區域或市場的角度了解我們在哪些方面取得了成功，在哪些方面遇到了困難，然後，當然，評估了 4 堵牆內的投資組合。氣氛合適嗎？外觀、感覺和價值是否正確？該平台是否促進了執行的便利性？公司如何才能最好地支持特許經營社區？我花了很多時間與我們的特許經營合作夥伴交談，我知道我們需要做得更好。我稍後將在準備好的發言中談到這一點，這對於兩個品牌加速單位成長至關重要。

Priority #4, Gold Standards is a term that defines our pride in product, process and facility and creates brand promises. We will establish what defines each and then build our restaurant-level audit process to ensure we deliver consistently. This is how we hold our teams accountable on a daily basis. This alone should be transformational for the company, 40 days on the job, and we've already made great strides in changing this culture. Why is this important? This change will drive employee engagement and also drive efficiencies in everything we do from food cost to support costs.

優先事項#4，黃金標準這個術語定義了我們對產品、工藝和設施的自豪感，並創造了品牌承諾。我們將確定各自的定義，然後建立我們的餐廳級審核流程，以確保我們始終如一地提供服務。這就是我們每天讓團隊承擔責任的方式。光是這一點就應該對公司產生變革，工作 40 天，我們已經在改變這種文化方面取得了巨大進步。為什麼這很重要？這項變更將提高員工敬業度，並提高我們從食品成本到支援成本等所有工作的效率。

And finally, priority 5, telling the world about the brand through intentional marketing efforts. We build our loyalty clubs and drive frequency through recognizing our loyal fans. We will continue to drive our digital growth through our website and apps while maintaining our volumes through our third-party delivery partners. We will plan to address opportunities with a barbell approach, focusing on our award-winning products as well as creating value opportunities to help our guests fight inflation.

最後，優先事項 5，透過有意識的行銷努力向世界介紹品牌。我們建立忠誠度俱樂部並透過認可我們的忠實粉絲來提高頻率。我們將繼續透過我們的網站和應用程式推動我們的數位成長，同時透過我們的第三方交付合作夥伴維持我們的銷售。我們將計劃以槓鈴的方式抓住機會，重點關注我們屢獲殊榮的產品，並創造價值機會來幫助我們的客人對抗通貨膨脹。

We will punch above our weight, creating awareness and exude confidence in everything we do. A perfect example that we want to share is that for the third consecutive year, BurgerFi has earned a spot in the top 3 of USA TODAY 10 Best Readers' Choice Awards for the coveted Best Fast casual category. As the highest-ranked burger-related chain among the nominees, we're incredibly grateful to each and every one of you who voted for us.

我們將超越自己的能力，在我們所做的一切事情中提高認識並散發出信心。我們想分享的一個完美例子是，BurgerFi 連續第三年在《今日美國》10 名最佳讀者選擇獎中獲得令人垂涎的最佳快速休閒類別的前三名。作為提名者中排名最高的漢堡相關連鎖店，我們非常感謝每一位投票給我們的人。

While most of my comments today have been focused on the overall strategic level, I did want to spend a little more time on our development pipeline. As of July 3, our portfolio consisted of 174 BurgerFi restaurants, 27 corporate-owned and 87 franchised and 60 corporate-owned Anthonys. During the second quarter, we opened 3 new franchise BurgerFi restaurants, bringing our year-to-date openings to 5. Similar to others in the restaurant industry, permitting and construction delays have affected our franchise partners' ability to open their restaurants on the original time lines.

雖然我今天的大部分評論都集中在整體策略層面，但我確實想花更多時間討論我們的開發管道。截至 7 月 3 日，我們的投資組合包括 174 家 BurgerFi 餐廳，其中 27 家為企業所有，87 家為特許經營餐廳，60 家為企業所有 Anthonys。第二季度，我們新開了3 家BurgerFi 特許經營餐廳，使我們今年迄今新開的餐廳數量達到5 家。與餐飲業的其他餐廳類似，許可和施工延誤影響了我們的特許經營合作夥伴在原來的基礎上開設餐廳的能力時間線。

As a result, for the full year, we now expect new store openings to come in at the bottom end of our guidance of 15 to 20 new restaurants, all of which will be franchised. Of these, 4 planned to open in the third quarter including in this number is the first new franchise Anthony's location. As I just noted, our first-ever co-branded BurgerFi Anthony's location with our franchisee NBM hospitality services is still on track to open in the second half of the year.

因此，我們現在預計全年新店開幕數量將處於我們指導的 15 至 20 家新餐廳的底部，所有餐廳都將採用特許經營。其中，有4家計劃在第三季開業，其中這個數字就是安東尼第一家新加盟店的所在地。正如我剛才指出的，我們與我們的特許經營商 NBM 酒店服務公司合作的第一家 BurgerFi Anthony 聯合品牌店仍有望在今年下半年開業。

As a reminder, our agreement with them calls for 3 franchise Anthony's locations in Florida over the next 2 years. The second and third Anthony's locations through the NBM agreement are expected to both be smaller Anthony's prototypes, one of which is slated to open the Miami World Center development near the Miami Brightline Station. As I stated earlier, I plan to use my background in running successful franchises to help further develop the BurgerFi franchise business and establish the Anthony's franchise business.

謹此提醒，我們與他們達成的協議要求未來 2 年內在佛羅裡達州開設 3 家 Anthony's 特許經營店。 NBM 協議中的第二個和第三個安東尼的地點預計都是較小的安東尼的原型，其中之一計劃在邁阿密 Brightline 車站附近的邁阿密世界中心開發項目中開放。正如我之前所說，我計劃利用我在經營成功特許經營方面的背景來幫助進一步發展 BurgerFi 特許經營業務並建立 Anthony's 特許經營業務。

To that point, one of my priorities this year will be finding well-capitalized franchisees with restaurant, retail and hospitality experience. Bringing these operators into our system result in more disciplined and profitable growth over the long term. I have already begun negotiations with several interested parties for multi unit Anthony's franchise deals. I look forward to sharing more in the coming quarters.

為此，我今年的首要任務之一是尋找資本充足、擁有餐廳、零售和酒店經驗的特許經營商。從長遠來看，將這些營運商納入我們的系統會帶來更規範、更有利可圖的成長。我已經開始與幾個有興趣的各方就多單位安東尼的特許經營交易進行談判。我期待在未來幾季分享更多內容。

In closing, and before I hand the mic to Chris Jones, I will say that having been at the company for roughly a month, I am more confident than ever, that I made the right decision to join the company for 2 reasons. The first is that we have 2 very high-quality brands that are on trend with the consumer. The second is that the challenges both brands face are not new to the industry. Fixing won't happen overnight, but believe it will happen, and these improvements will begin to become evident to you, our stakeholders.

最後，在我把麥克風交給克里斯瓊斯之前，我要說的是，在公司工作了大約一個月後，我比以往任何時候都更有信心，我做出了加入公司的正確決定，原因有兩個。首先，我們有兩個非常受消費者歡迎的優質品牌。其次，這兩個品牌面臨的挑戰對該行業來說並不新鮮。修復不會在一夜之間發生，但相信它會發生，並且這些改進將開始對您，我們的利益相關者變得明顯。

I will now turn the call over to our new CFO, Chris Jones, who will provide commentary on our second quarter 2023 performance. Go ahead, Chris.

我現在將把電話轉給我們的新財務長 Chris Jones，他將對我們 2023 年第二季的業績發表評論。繼續吧，克里斯。

Thank you, Carl, and good morning, everybody. I'm so glad to be here and look forward to working with you. Like Carl, I was drawn to BurgerFi by the strong brands and established financial sponsors that believe in the brands and the opportunity ahead. I also came knowing that there are challenges ahead. I see great potential for the business and have confidence in Carl and the BurgerFi team leading the company to increase profitability and investor returns.

謝謝你，卡爾，大家早安。我很高興來到這裡並期待與您合作。和 Carl 一樣，我被 BurgerFi 的強大品牌和相信品牌和未來機會的金融贊助商所吸引。我也知道前面還有挑戰。我看到了這項業務的巨大潛力，並對 Carl 和 BurgerFi 團隊帶領公司提高獲利能力和投資者回報充滿信心。

I firmly believe that my prior experiences have uniquely prepared me for what lies ahead. Having spent over a decade as a coverage analyst, I know performance, like what we are delivering today isn't going to cut it. Additionally, my time in the industry should allow me the ability to effectively drive and direct change that we can that can deliver the sort of results that are needed. The path to improved profitability is not a complex one. It will require improved execution at the stores and for management, along with improvements on cost controls.

我堅信，我之前的經驗為我未來的發展做好了獨特的準備。作為一名覆蓋分析師十多年，我知道性能，就像我們今天提供的那樣，不會削減它。此外，我在這個行業的時間應該讓我有能力有效地推動和指導我們能夠實現的變革，從而提供所需的結果。提高獲利能力的途徑並不複雜。這將需要改善商店和管理的執行力，以及改善成本控制。

Rewarding success when it's earned while also demanding accountability from all members of the team will be central to this effort. 40 days into the job, and there are themes already starting to emerge. One example is to further yield operational efficiencies from the merged operations between BurgerFi and Anthony's. At the same time, existing operations, including supply chain have not fully embraced technology and analytics that could help drive meaningful improvements in productivity.

這項工作的核心是在獲得成功時給予獎勵，同時要求團隊所有成員承擔責任。入職 40 天后，一些主題已經開始顯現。一個例子是透過 BurgerFi 和 Anthony's 之間的合併營運進一步提高營運效率。同時，包括供應鏈在內的現有營運尚未完全採用有助於推動生產力有意義提高的技術和分析。

Of course, Carl has already touched on improved labor productivity. I'm not in a position to quantify these opportunities today, but I would fully expect to discuss them on our next call or potentially even sooner.

當然，卡爾已經談到了提高勞動生產力的問題。我今天無法量化這些機會，但我完全希望在下次電話會議上甚至可能更早的時候討論它們。

Now briefly looking at key highlights of the second quarter. Second quarter total revenues were $43.4 million, decreasing 4% from $45.3 million for the same quarter last year. Anthony's contributed $31.9 million to revenues in the current period. The decrease in revenues was the result of a decrease of 15% in same-store sales at the BurgerFi company stores and a 1% increase in same-store sales at Anthony's restaurants. Restaurant level profit margin came in at 13.8% or down 50 basis points year-over-year.

現在簡要回顧一下第二季的主要亮點。第二季總營收為 4,340 萬美元，比去年同期的 4,530 萬美元下降 4%。 Anthony's 本期貢獻了 3,190 萬美元的收入。收入下降的原因是 BurgerFi 公司商店的同店銷售額下降了 15%，而 Anthony's 餐廳的同店銷售額增長了 1%。餐廳利潤率為 13.8%，較去年同期下降 50 個基點。

During the quarter, the company saw a positive improvement in food, beverage and paper cost, a trend that we believe will continue with the possibility for further improvement. As you've heard from others in the industry, inflation is weighing on all commodities, except for beef and new contracts are yielding lower forward pricing. These positive trends were more than offset by higher labor and other expenses, unfortunately, largely due to lower sales volume in the period.

本季度，公司食品、飲料和紙張成本出現積極改善，我們相信這一趨勢將持續下去，並有可能進一步改善。正如您從業內其他人那裡聽說的那樣，通貨膨脹正在對牛肉以外的所有商品造成壓力，而且新合約的遠期定價較低。不幸的是，這些積極的趨勢被勞動力和其他費用的增加所抵消，這主要是由於該時期銷售的下降。

Shifting to our individual brand results. The BurgerFi corporate-owned restaurant sales decreased 12% to $8.9 million, reflecting a decrease in same-store sales. System-wide sales for BurgerFi in the second quarter decreased 9% to $38.8 million compared to $42.5 million in the year ago quarter, primarily due to a decline in same-store sales, coupled with the transfer of unperforming company stores. BurgerFi system-wide same-store sales decreased 10% for the second quarter compared to the same period in 2022. For corporate owned, BurgerFi same-store sales decreased 15% and franchise restaurant same-store sales decreased 8%.

轉向我們的個人品牌成果。 BurgerFi 公司自營餐廳銷售額下降 12% 至 890 萬美元，反映同店銷售額下降。 BurgerFi 第二季全系統銷售額下降 9%，至 3,880 萬美元，而去年同期為 4,250 萬美元，這主要是由於同店銷售額下降，加上業績不佳的公司商店的轉讓。與 2022 年同期相比，BurgerFi 第二季全系統同店銷售額下降了 10%。對於企業自有來說，BurgerFi 同店銷售額下降了 15%，特許經營餐廳同店銷售額下降了 8%。

BurgerFi restaurant level operating experiences increased 500 basis points to 94.7% for the quarter compared to 89.7% in the prior year second quarter due to lost of leverage on fixed costs due to same-store sales declines. As mentioned earlier, food and paper margins continue to be a positive story, a trend we expect to continue despite the continued pressure on beef prices. While we are not immune to these price increases, we don't expect to see the same level of increases that others have seen largely as we recently diversified at our beef distributors as we look to drive higher utilization with local and regional providers affording freight efficiencies.

由於同店銷售額下降導致固定成本槓桿喪失，本季 BurgerFi 餐廳層級的營運體驗成長了 500 個基點，達到 94.7%，而去年第二季為 89.7%。如前所述，食品和紙張利潤仍然是一個積極的故事，儘管牛肉價格持續面臨壓力，但我們預計這一趨勢將持續下去。雖然我們不能免受這些價格上漲的影響，但我們預計不會看到其他人看到的同樣水平的上漲，這主要是因為我們最近在牛肉分銷商上實現了多元化，因為我們希望透過提供貨運效率的本地和區域供應商來提高利用率。

I would also echo Carl's earlier comments about labor starting to move in the right direction. There are also additional opportunities as previously noted by Carl, where we expect that a handful of menu updates and additions, this should be a positive for the top line, while also addressing some of the most reviewed issues within our restaurants, namely the fries.

我也同意卡爾之前關於勞工開始朝著正確方向發展的評論。正如卡爾之前指出的，還有其他機會，我們預計會有一些菜單更新和添加，這應該對營收產生積極影響，同時也解決了我們餐廳內一些最受關注的問題，即薯條。

Turning to Anthony's. Restaurant sales were $31.9 million in the second quarter compared to $31.8 million in the prior year. The increase was driven by a 1% increase in same-store sales when compared to the second quarter of 2022. Staying with Anthony's restaurant profitability, Anthony's restaurant-level operating expenses improved 60 basis points to 83.8% for the quarter compared to the prior year second quarter.

轉向安東尼。第二季餐廳銷售額為 3,190 萬美元，去年同期為 3,180 萬美元。這一增長是由於同店銷售額與2022 年第二季度相比增長了1%。在Anthony 餐廳盈利能力不變的情況下，本季Anthony 餐廳層面的營運支出比上年同期提高了60 個基點，達到83.8%第二季。

We continue to benefit from positive trends in fresh chicken wing prices, a trend we expect to continue through third quarter and into early fourth quarter. Additionally, we continue to see better pricing in Mozzarella imported can tomatoes, flower, oil, onions, all key ingredients for a company that makes premium Italian food. We do expect to see some modest offset from higher anthracite coal prices collectively, this should be a positive trend for the third quarter and potentially the fourth quarter.

我們繼續受益於新鮮雞翅價格的積極趨勢，我們預計這一趨勢將持續到第三季和第四季初。此外，我們繼續看到馬蘇里拉進口罐頭番茄、花、油、洋蔥的價格上漲，這些都是生產優質義大利食品的公司的關鍵原料。我們確實預期無菸煤價格上漲將帶來一定程度的抵消，這應該是第三季甚至第四季的正面趨勢。

Labor was flat on rate and down on dollars relative to the first quarter '23, we expect these trends to improve in the back half of the year. Assuming trends stay consistent in the north, and we see this typical seasonal uplift in the South in the coming weeks, we expect restaurant operating profit margins to improve in the back half of the year at Anthony's.

與 23 年第一季相比，工黨利率持平，美元匯率下跌，我們預計這些趨勢將在今年下半年有所改善。假設北方的趨勢保持一致，並且我們在未來幾週內看到南方的這種典型的季節性增長，我們預計安東尼餐廳的餐廳營業利潤率將在今年下半年有所改善。

Back to consolidated results. We reported a net loss of $6 million in the second quarter compared to a net loss of $60.4 million in the year ago quarter. This year's net loss included $0.5 million of share-based compensation expense, $3.3 million of depreciation and amortization, $2.2 million of interest expense, $1.1 million of restructuring costs, $0.3 million of merger integration costs and $0.2 million of legal settlements, with the latter 2, all inclusive within general and administration expenses.

回到綜合結果。我們報告第二季淨虧損 600 萬美元，去年同期淨虧損 6,040 萬美元。今年的淨虧損包括50 萬美元的股權激勵費用、330 萬美元的折舊和攤提、220 萬美元的利息費用、110 萬美元的重組成本、30 萬美元的合併整合成本以及20 萬美元的法律和解費用，其中後2 項是，全部包含在一般費用和管理費用內。

Adjusted EBITDA was $2 million in the second quarter compared to $2.6 million in the prior year second quarter. Moving on to the balance sheet. Our cash balance on July 30, 2023, was $10.7 million compared to $11.9 million in January 2, 2023. When considering our available but undrawn $4 million line of credit, we had $14.7 million of liquidity at the end of the quarter. The decrease in cash was the result of term loan in line, line of credit repayments and capital expenditures and by cash used in operations due to payments for legal settlements, professional services, primarily in connection with expenses for obtaining financing under the credit agreement.

第二季調整後 EBITDA 為 200 萬美元，而去年第二季調整後 EBITDA 為 260 萬美元。繼續看資產負債表。 2023 年7 月30 日，我們的現金餘額為1,070 萬美元，而2023 年1 月2 日為1,190 萬美元。考慮到我們可用但未提取的400 萬美元信貸額度，我們在本季度末擁有1,470 萬美元的流動資金。現金減少的原因是定期貸款、信貸償還額度和資本支出以及由於支付法律和解費用、專業服務而在營運中使用的現金，主要與根據信貸協議獲得融資的費用有關。

We are also in compliance with all of our covenants at the end of the quarter. Now turning to our fiscal 2023 outlook. We are maintaining our 2023 guidance. However, we are guiding to the low end of the previously provided range and those ranges are as follows: total revenue of $175 million to $180 million, which assumes a low single-digit increase in same-store sales and the addition of 15 to 20 new franchise restaurants, including 1 new Anthony's, adjusted EBITDA of $10 million to $12 million and approximately $2 million in CapEx for the year.

在季度末，我們也遵守了所有契約。現在轉向我們的 2023 財年展望。我們維持 2023 年指導方針。然而，我們指導的是先前提供的範圍的低端，這些範圍如下：總收入為 1.75 億至 1.8 億美元，假設同店銷售額出現低個位數增長，並增加 15 至 20新的特許經營餐廳，包括1 家新的Anthony's，調整後的EBITDA 為1,000 萬至1,200 萬美元，本年度資本支出約為200 萬美元。

With that, operator, please open up the call for questions.

那麼，接線員，請撥打電話詢問問題。

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions). At this time, we will take our first question, which will come from Peter Saleh with BTIG.

我們現在開始問答環節。 （操作員說明）。現在，我們將提出第一個問題，該問題將由 BTIG 的 Peter Saleh 提出。

Carl, I just want to start -- I recognize it's early, but maybe you can just give us a brief assessment on maybe some of the low-hanging fruit that you see primarily on the menu. I think you mentioned barbell approach in your prepared remarks. Maybe if you could just elaborate a little bit more on that and just -- just give us a little bit more color on where you see some of the holes in the menu and the opportunities going forward.

卡爾，我只想開始——我知道現在還為時過早，但也許你可以給我們一個簡短的評估，看看你主要在菜單上看到的一些容易實現的目標。我想你在準備好的發言中提到了槓鈴法。也許你能詳細說明這一點，然後給我們更多的信息，告訴我們你在菜單中看到的一些漏洞以及未來的機會。

Sure. My pleasure. Nice speaking with you. Yes. I think -- let's start with BurgerFi. I think that there are some opportunities process-wise in the menu. So we really felt that there was a lot of guest feedback around the quality of our french fries and how it was delivered to the guest. So we're really working on process there to fill that gap. I believe we've solved the process problem that will deliver a much crisper fresh French fries. And that was a large part of guest feedback. So I think it was really vital. That was a big gap I also think there's a gap. We don't offer really what I think is a compelling crispy chicken sandwich. So we have elevated that in the first 30, 40 days we've worked on a lot of R&D around the new Crispy Chicken sandwich as well as a new grilled chicken sandwich, which is a complete gap in the menu in our segment.

當然。我的榮幸。很高興與你交談。是的。我想——讓我們從 BurgerFi 開始。我認為菜單中存在一些流程的機會。因此，我們確實感覺到，對於我們的炸薯條的品質以及如何將其交付給客人，有很多客人的反饋。因此，我們正在努力開發流程來填補這一空白。我相信我們已經解決了工藝問題，可以提供更脆的新鮮炸薯條。這是客人回饋的很大一部分。所以我認為這非常重要。這是一個很大的差距，我也認為有差距。我們並不真正提供我認為引人注目的脆皮雞肉三明治。因此，我們提高了這一點，在前 30、40 天裡，我們圍繞著新的脆皮雞肉三明治和新的烤雞肉三明治進行了大量的研發工作，這是我們細分市場菜單上的一個完整空白。

So those 2 items alone should bring some incrementality and really cover us on that veto vote item. So it really broadens the menu. So those are the first 2 big areas that we focused on, on the BurgerFi side. On the Anthony's side, I think there are some gaps in the menu as well. we want to be clear and focused and keep a streamlined menu, but I think it's important that a classic Italian restaurant delivers certain things. And one of the opportunities that we're working on is to launch here in the near future, a fresh beginning meat balls dish as well as an Alfredo Pasta Dish. And that will also help us launch a new Alfredo based artichoke and Alfredo based pizza. So those were gaps in the menu that we identified right away. And I think that will just broaden our guests interest in our brands.

因此，僅這兩個項目就應該帶來一些增量，並真正涵蓋我們的否決投票項目。所以它確實拓寬了菜單。因此，這些是我們重點關注的前兩個大領域，即 BurgerFi 方面。在安東尼方面，我認為菜單上也存在一些空白。我們想要清晰、專注，並保持精簡的菜單，但我認為經典的意大利餐廳提供某些東西很重要。我們正在努力的機會之一是在不久的將來在這裡推出新鮮的肉丸菜餚以及阿爾弗雷多意大利麵菜餚。這也將幫助我們推出新的阿爾弗雷多洋薊和阿爾弗雷多披薩。因此，我們立即發現了菜單中的空白。我認為這只會擴大我們的客人對我們品牌的興趣。

Great. And then I just wanted to ask on the footprint, the units that you guys have in the ground, say -- when you look at it, do you feel like you need to shrink to grow? Or do you feel like you have the right size currently in the right penetration in certain markets? What is the -- again, I know it's early, only a month or so, but -- how do you envision the strategy from here to grow the base at both BurgerFi and Anthony's?

偉大的。然後我只是想問足跡，你們在地下的單位，比如說——當你看到它時，你是否覺得你需要縮小才能成長？或者您認為目前您在某些市場的規模和滲透率是否合適？再次強調，我知道現在還為時過早，只有一個月左右，但是，您如何設想從這裡開始的策略，以擴大 BurgerFi 和 Anthony's 的基礎？

Well, I mean 2 different brands and 2 different parts of -- in their history and where they're at. I think on the BurgerFi side, we have a great opportunity to kind of grow and work ourselves up the I-95 corridor. And I guess both brands do that as well. There's so much opportunity to build out of Florida. We've built a great reputation as a leading burger brand in Florida and I think it's time for us to expand our horizons. There's a lot of great franchise operators out there that are looking for the next big brand. So I think it's very smart of us to strategically work our way up the East Coast and work that is one of the primary strategies around BurgerFi and looking for the right franchise partners that have -- again, I think I mentioned it in the call earlier, the right operators with the right background and experience. We need true restaurant operators to help grow our franchisees on the BurgerFi side.

嗯，我的意思是兩個不同的品牌和兩個不同的部分——在他們的歷史和他們所處的位置。我認為，在 BurgerFi 方面，我們有很好的機會在 I-95 走廊上發展和努力。我想這兩個品牌也都是這麼做的。佛羅裡達州有很多建設的機會。作為佛羅裡達州領先的漢堡品牌，我們已經建立了良好的聲譽，我認為現在是我們擴大視野的時候了。有許多優秀的特許經營商正在尋找下一個大品牌。因此，我認為我們在東海岸策略性地開展工作是非常明智的，這是圍繞BurgerFi 的主要策略之一，並尋找合適的特許經營合作夥伴——我想我在之前的電話會議中再次提到過這一點，具有適當背景和經驗的適當操作員。我們需要真正的餐廳經營者來幫助我們發展 BurgerFi 方面的特許經營者。

On the Antony's side, I think it's time and you talked about footprint, we can talk about it strategically from a geographic perspective, but I also think you need to think about Anthony's from a physical footprint and we have remodeled in [Espoca] Anthony's that performs very well, smaller footprint, much easier to operate. And I think this is kind of the launching pad that we'll work on to create a very, very inviting opportunity for new franchisees. So that will be more of a strategy around finding right franchisees to help us grow in our existing markets and in new markets. I think from a franchise perspective, there's 2 strategies that you employ.

在安東尼方面，我認為是時候了，你談到了足跡，我們可以從地理角度策略性地談論它，但我也認為你需要從物理足跡來考慮安東尼的足跡，我們已經在[Espoca]安東尼的足跡中進行了改造性能非常好，佔地面積更小，操作也更容易。我認為這是我們將努力為新加盟商創造一個非常非常有吸引力的機會的發射台。因此，這將更多是圍繞著尋找合適的特許經營商來幫助我們在現有市場和新市場中發展的策略。我認為從特許經營的角度來看，您可以採取兩種策略。

You go to strong markets where we have brand awareness from corporate as well as franchise and you create like what I would call a fortressing strategy around those markets. Where we already have brand awareness. And I think that is probably the smartest strategy. I always say when we're growing franchise business, we should grow like a bush not like a [buying] so that we can really get the economy of scale we can get the economy of scale when I talk about guests, talks about operations, talk about supply chain and as well as market penetration. So I think those are the strategies that we'll employ over the next few months as we kind of jump into this thing.

你進入強大的市場，在那裡我們擁有企業和特許經營的品牌知名度，你可以圍繞這些市場制定我所說的堡壘策略。我們已經有了品牌知名度。我認為這可能是最明智的策略。我總是說，當我們發展特許經營業務時，我們應該像灌木叢一樣成長，而不是像[購買]那樣成長，這樣我們才能真正獲得規模經濟，當我談論客人、談論運營時，我們才能獲得規模經濟，談供應鏈以及市場滲透。所以我認為這些是我們在接下來的幾個月裡當我們進入這件事時將採取的策略。

Great. Very helpful. And then, Chris, just -- you come in with fresh eyes and you get to see this business for the first time. Just curious as to if you see any lowing fruit on the cost side. I think you mentioned diversified some of the beef distributors or suppliers. Any other opportunities that you see going forward in the back half of the year?

偉大的。很有幫助。然後，克里斯，你帶著新的眼光進來，你第一次看到這個行業。只是好奇你是否看到成本方面有任何下降的結果。我想你提到了一些牛肉經銷商或供應商的多元化。您認為下半年還有其他機會嗎？

Absolutely. So I would reiterate what we said on the call, which was we do see food costs to continue to be a positive trend. We have also seen from a labor perspective, include improving trends. One of the things that's happened over the last couple of months as we've seen an improvement in employee turnover, particularly on the hourly labor front. And so we see dramatic reduction in training hours, which has been pretty significant. And we think that trend is going to continue. I would say that there's also a lot of work to be done just in sort of the analytics in terms of getting better analytics on overall food costs there as well, I don't think that the organization is fully adopted and embraced sort of the technology that the industry really uses today. So from that perspective, I think we greatly reduce food waste, be more active with our ordering. All those things, I think, are sort of things to come.

絕對地。因此，我要重申我們在電話會議上所說的話，即我們確實認為食品成本將繼續呈現正面趨勢。我們也從勞動力的角度看到了包括改善的趨勢。過去幾個月發生的事情之一是，我們看到員工流動率有所改善，特別是在小時工方面。因此，我們看到培訓時間大幅減少，這是相當顯著的。我們認為這種趨勢將會持續下去。我想說的是，在分析方面還有很多工作要做，以便更好地分析總體食品成本，我不認為該組織已完全採用和接受這種技術該行業今天真正使用的。所以從這個角度來看，我認為我們大大減少了食物浪費，更積極地點餐。我認為所有這些事情都是即將發生的事情。

And our next question will come from Mike Albanese with EF Hutton.

我們的下一個問題將來自 EF Hutton 的 Mike Albanese。

Chris, welcome to the company. Glad to have you. I won't talk for you with too many questions to a specific segment. I know it's still early. I wanted to ask more specifically on the BurgerFi side. I mean, we were arguably seeing some improving trends. And then this quarter, obviously, really tough same-store sales, comps. I just wanted to see if you could add some color. And it seems like really the decrease in the top line that was driving the weaker unit level contribution, but if there's anything kind of also contributing to that if we talk about that a little bit. But just any color really in terms of what you're seeing in the top line with BurgerFi what's driving these significant decreases? Is it purely macro? Is it more under the hood?

克里斯，歡迎來到公司。很高興有你。我不會針對某個特定的部分向您提出太多問題。我知道現在還早。我想更具體地詢問 BurgerFi 方面的問題。我的意思是，我們可以說看到了一些改善的趨勢。然後，本季的同店銷售情況顯然非常艱難。我只是想看看你是否可以添加一些顏色。看起來收入的下降確實導致了單位層級貢獻的減弱，但如果我們稍微討論一下的話，是否有任何因素也對此做出了貢獻。但是，就您在 BurgerFi 的頂線中看到的任何顏色而言，是什麼推動了這些顯著的下降？是純粹的宏觀嗎？是不是更多的是在幕後？

Yes. I think I kind of referred to a little bit in the last question, but I think we have a whole missing segment in the menu. That really kind of narrows the funnel. And I think we need to open that up, and that's why we want to launch. I mean we're not anyone in the chicken wars and we need to get into the chicken wars. We -- burger brands should run 10%, 12%, 15% of chicken mix. And so we have an opportunity there. It's really a veto vote item so that you have really a select option of proteins on these great builds that we have.

是的。我想我在上一個問題中提到了一點，但我認為菜單中有一整個缺失的部分。這確實縮小了漏斗。我認為我們需要開放這一點，這就是我們想要推出的原因。我的意思是，我們不是“小雞大戰”中的任何人，但我們需要參與“小雞大戰”。我們——漢堡品牌應該使用 10%、12%、15% 的雞肉混合物。所以我們在那裡有機會。這實際上是一個否決票項目，因此您可以在我們擁有的這些出色的構建中真正選擇蛋白質。

So we think that -- I think that that's a huge opportunity for us to broaden really, again, the guest funnel, and draw new guests in. So I think that's an opportunity on the BurgerFi side. We are seeing a little bit of improvement now and I think we'll continue to see that as we progress. We've also [shored] up our management teams and our leadership teams as well in the last 30 to 40 days. So I think execution wise, we will continue to improve there. So I think those are really good signs of the future for the BurgerFi side.

所以我們認為——我認為這對我們來說是一個巨大的機會，可以再次擴大客人管道，吸引新客人。所以我認為這對 BurgerFi 來說是一個機會。我們現在看到了一些改進，我認為隨著我們的進步，我們將繼續看到這一點。在過去 30 到 40 天內，我們也[支持]了我們的管理團隊和領導團隊。所以我認為在執行方面，我們將繼續改進。所以我認為這些對 BurgerFi 來說都是未來的好兆頭。

Okay. Great. And then are you seeing any differences kind of regionally previous leadership team talked a little bit about how basically, the impact of COVID, Florida seeing a big boost as Northern has moved down to Florida and then as things kind of normalize, as some attrition there and then kind of a normalization up in the Northeast, excuse me, I mean just are you seeing that trend? Is that still playing out? Is that behind us?

好的。偉大的。然後你是否看到任何地區差異，以前的領導團隊談到了新冠病毒的影響，佛羅裡達州看到了巨大的推動，因為北方已經搬到了佛羅裡達州，然後隨著事情的正常化，那裡有一些人員流失然後東北地區的情況正常化，請問，我的意思是，您看到這種趨勢了嗎？那個還在玩嗎？那是在我們後面嗎？

I think it is behind us. And I think it's even reversing a little bit. I think people are getting back to maybe the normal lifestyles normally where they were. I don't think you're seeing quite as much traffic in Florida as you did even last year. But a good example of this would be on the Anthony's side. We see the northern restaurants outperforming the southern restaurants currently. So we see that kind of a resurgence of people coming back into normal patterns and moving back to normal lifestyles, albeit people are still working hybrid or remote more people are travel and more people are going back to the offices slowly but surely. So we're seeing a transition back. So probably transversely from what you saw in the last year or so. So I think they are normalizing and reversing a bit, which I think bodes well for us in the long term.

我認為它就在我們身後。我認為情況甚至出現了一點逆轉。我認為人們可能正在恢復正常的生活方式。我認為佛羅裡達州的交通量甚至沒有去年那麼多。但安東尼這邊就是一個很好的例子。我們看到目前北方餐廳的表現優於南方餐廳。因此，我們看到人們重新回到正常模式並回歸正常生活方式，儘管人們仍在混合工作或遠端工作，但更多人正在旅行，更多人正在緩慢但肯定地回到辦公室。所以我們看到了回歸的轉變。所以可能與你去年左右看到的情況相反。所以我認為他們正在正常化並且有所逆轉，我認為從長遠來看這對我們來說是個好兆頭。

Got it. Got it. All right. Appreciate it. And then just one more for me. Kind of as all we just talked about as it relates to your guidance, basically holding guidance the same, just targeting kind of the low end of the range. I mean, can you just tell me a little bit what's baked in there in terms of, I guess, same-store sales and growth moving forward? Or are you really kind of -- is it new store openings that are going to help drive those numbers? Probably a combination of both, but any additional context would be helpful.

知道了。知道了。好的。欣賞它。然後再給我一個。就像我們剛才談到的那樣，因為它與您的指導有關，基本上保持指導相同，只是針對範圍的低端。我的意思是，您能告訴我一些同店銷售和未來成長方面的情況嗎？或者你真的認為——新店開幕有助於推動這些數字嗎？可能是兩者的結合，但任何額外的上下文都會有所幫助。

I think that's about right. I think that's a combination of that. We certainly, as you know, we do have a back -- our new store growth is back-end loaded. We also get some benefit of some closing of some underperforming stores in the quarter and last quarters as well. We do expect to see a sequential improvement in comp store sales. We actually get easier comparisons there as well. So we do think we'll start to see better trends there as well. So Carl actually acknowledged a little earlier that we are seeing better trends from the Anthony's stores in the North. We expect that trend to sort of pick up in the South, particularly as we start to see sort of the snowbirds coming back, from a seasonality perspective. And as you said, we are seeing mixed performance but growing and directionally improving performance from BurgerFi as well.

我認為這是正確的。我認為這是兩者的結合。當然，如您所知，我們確實有後台——我們的新店增長是後台加載的。我們也從本季和上幾季關閉一些表現不佳的商店中獲益。我們確實期望看到比較商店銷售的連續改善。實際上，我們也可以更容易進行比較。因此，我們確實認為我們也會開始看到更好的趨勢。因此，卡爾實際上早些時候承認，我們從北部的安東尼商店中看到了更好的趨勢。我們預計這種趨勢會在南方有所回升，特別是當我們開始看到雪鳥從季節回來時。正如您所說，我們看到 BurgerFi 的性能好壞參半，但性能也在不斷增長和定向改善。

(Operator Instructions). Our next question will come from Eric Dusansky with Inflection Partners.

（操作員說明）。我們的下一個問題將來自 Inflection Partners 的 Eric Dusansky。

Both of you, we're in the early stages of a turnaround, and you both are probably still trying to find out where the men's room is. But if I may, are you seeing -- starting to see some potential green shoots of a turnaround? And if so, if you can kind of articulate that a little bit, that would be great.

你們倆，我們正處於扭虧為盈的早期階段，你們倆可能仍在試圖找出男廁所在哪裡。但請容許我問一下，您是否開始看到一些潛在的扭轉局勢的萌芽？如果是這樣，如果你能稍微闡明一下，那就太好了。

Yes. I think we are starting to see something different from both the top line and from a cost perspective. I think shoring up our operational prowess around the right leadership in the teams, connecting the leadership here, creating a culture here of winning I think has got people excited. I think we've kind of adopted this rally cry here in the sports center that if you're not serving the guests, you're serving someone who is -- and that's important because we've sent a message to our franchisees and to our employees across the country that we're here to support them. And I think they're responding really well to that.

是的。我認為我們開始從營收和成本角度看到一些不同的東西。我認為，圍繞著團隊中正確的領導力來增強我們的營運能力，連結這裡的領導層，在這裡創造一種獲勝的文化，我認為這讓人們感到興奮。我認為我們在體育中心採用了這種集會口號：如果你不為客人服務，那麼你就是在為客人服務——這很重要，因為我們已經向我們的特許經營商發送了一條信息，我們全國各地的員工都知道我們會為他們提供支援。我認為他們對此反應非常好。

That's important to me, and I think it drives the business. literally, you've seen same-store sales improving in BurgerFi on the corporate side and the franchise side in the last month or so. Anthony's, I alluded to on an earlier question, the northern stores have positive comps and continuing to grow. So we see that as a really a strength for us. And really, as you get into kind of August, end of August and you get kind of out of that dog days of summer and you get kind of into the fall, I think you're going to see, like Chris alluded to, the snowbirds coming down here, and we're going to be launching new items to excite these people that haven't seen it since the earlier last year.

這對我來說很重要，我認為它推動了業務發展。從字面上看，您已經看到 BurgerFi 在公司和特許經營方面的同店銷售額在上個月左右有所改善。安東尼的，我在之前的問題中提到過，北部商店有積極的競爭並且持續增長。所以我們認為這對我們來說確實是一種優勢。事實上，當你進入八月、八月底，你就會擺脫夏季的三伏天，進入秋天，我想你會看到，就像克里斯提到的那樣，雪鳥飛到這裡，我們將推出新產品，讓這些自去年早些時候以來還沒有見過它的人們興奮不已。

So we're really excited about that side for the south side of Anthony's. So I think there are quite a few green shoots there. And I also think the opportunity to increase the funnel, like I mentioned earlier, with new items that are traditional. I mean, we've got to have a great spaghetti and Meatballs and an Italian restaurant that delivers such great products. So I think that was a miss for us and an opportunity. So I think that will open up a new a new guest again, increase that guest funnel and create new trial. On the BurgerFi side, we have a gap in the menu. We don't have a grilled chicken offering. And once we have the grilled chicken offering, it opens all kinds of opportunities around what we do with that grilled chicken product. So I think it's important to offer different proteins. We've done a great job having the Beyond Burger, having VegeFi, having a great beef product with a never ever and now we're adding that grilled chicken protein, which was a huge gap.

所以我們對安東尼南側的那一側感到非常興奮。所以我認為那裡有不少萌芽。我還認為有機會增加傳統的新項目，就像我之前提到的那樣。我的意思是，我們必須擁有美味的意大利麵和肉丸，以及一家提供如此優質產品的意大利餐廳。所以我認為這對我們來說是一次錯過，也是一次機會。所以我認為這將再次開闢新的新客人，增加客人管道並創造新的嘗試。在 BurgerFi 方面，我們的菜單有一個空白。我們不提供烤雞。一旦我們提供了烤雞產品，它就為我們如何處理烤雞產品帶來了各種機會。所以我認為提供不同的蛋白質很重要。我們在 Beyond Burger、VegeFi、前所未有的優質牛肉產品方面做得非常出色，現在我們添加了烤雞肉蛋白，這是一個巨大的差距。

And finally, such huge amount of guest feedback around our French fries and our process. We use a fresh-cut potato and it's a phenomenal product but our process was flawed. So our ability to change the process already is impacting our guests day 1 just in our testing. So I think there's quite a few opportunities that we've identified in the first 30 days. And as we kind of go down that path, I'm sure there be other things that we'll launch when we speak again. But absolutely, there's a lot of big opportunity on the horizon.

最後，關於我們的炸薯條和流程的大量客人回饋。我們使用鮮切土豆，這是一種非凡的產品，但我們的工藝有缺陷。因此，我們改變流程的能力在第一天的測試中就已經影響了我們的客人。所以我認為我們在前 30 天內發現了很多機會。當我們沿著這條路走下去時，我確信當我們再次講話時我們還會推出其他東西。但絕對的是，有許多巨大的機會即將出現。

Eric, I might add to that as well and say I think that you've seen a pretty much a sea change here in the corporate office as well in the restaurant support center, definitely a much more engaged employee base. I think people are very excited by Carl's presence as well. So I think that's really an important element. People seem really ready to go and really want to make this work.

艾瑞克，我還可以補充一點，我認為您已經看到公司辦公室和餐廳支援中心發生了翻天覆地的變化，員工隊伍絕對更加敬業。我認為人們也對卡爾的出現感到非常興奮。所以我認為這確實是一個重要的因素。人們似乎真的已經做好了準備，並且真的想讓這項工作成功。

I think -- another thing we might want to add to that, just discipline around our decision-making process. And again, I alluded to it in the script, but I think it's important to stress that we're making very educated smart decisions using a very simple formula, and that is it has to be a right decision and a win for our guests, a win for our team members and a win for our stakeholders, which are our franchisees and our shareholders. And every decision will really have to fit that rigor. And I think that alone, to me, is a huge green shoot because we're going to make good, educated smart decision moving forward, and that's how we build our strategy. So I really think that, that's a huge opportunity for the organization.

我認為——我們可能想補充的另一件事是，圍繞我們的決策過程的紀律。我在劇本中再次提到了這一點，但我認為重要的是要強調，我們正在使用一個非常簡單的公式做出非常有根據的明智決策，這必須是一個正確的決定，並且對我們的客人來說是一場勝利，這是我們團隊成員的勝利，也是我們的利害關係人（即我們的特許經營商和股東）的勝利。每個決定都必須符合這種嚴格要求。我認為，對我來說，這本身就是一個巨大的萌芽，因為我們將做出良好的、經過教育的明智決策，繼續前進，這就是我們制定策略的方式。所以我真的認為這對該組織來說是一個巨大的機會。

And this concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Carl Bachmann for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回給卡爾·巴赫曼（Carl Bachmann）做總結發言。

Yes, I'd just like to thank everybody for listening to today's call. We look forward to initiating our plans over the next few months and really excited to speak with you when we report our third quarter results in November of 2023. Thanks again for joining.

是的，我只想感謝大家收聽今天的電話會議。我們期待在未來幾個月內啟動我們的計劃，並且非常高興在 2023 年 11 月報告第三季度業績時與您交談。再次感謝您的加入。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。現在您可以斷開線路。