BJ's Restaurants Inc (BJRI) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings. Welcome to BJ's Restaurants Incorporated Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Release and Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note this conference is being recorded.

問候。歡迎來到 BJ's Restaurants Incorporated 2022 年第四季度收益發布和電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意正在錄製此會議。

I will now turn the conference over to Greg Levin, Chief Executive Officer and President. Thank you. You may begin.

我現在將會議轉交給首席執行官兼總裁 Greg Levin。謝謝。你可以開始了。

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to BJ's Restaurants fiscal 2022 fourth quarter investor conference call and webcast. I am Greg Levin, BJ's Chief Executive Officer and President, and joining me on the call today is Tom Houdek, our Chief Financial Officer; and we also have Greg Lynds, our Chief Development Officer on hand for Q&A. After the market closed today, we released our financial results for the fiscal 2022 fourth quarter, and you can view the full text of our earnings release on our website at www.bjsrestaurants.com.

謝謝你，運營商。大家下午好，歡迎來到 BJ's Restaurants 2022 財年第四季度投資者電話會議和網絡直播。我是 BJ 的首席執行官兼總裁 Greg Levin，今天和我一起參加電話會議的是我們的首席財務官 Tom Houdek；我們還有首席開發官格雷格·林茲 (Greg Lynds) 在場進行問答。今天收市後，我們發布了 2022 財年第四季度的財務業績，您可以在我們的網站 www.bjsrestaurants.com 上查看我們的收益發布全文。

Our agenda today will start with Rana Schirmer, our Director of SEC Reporting, providing our standard cautionary disclosure with respect to forward-looking statements. I will then provide an update on our business and current initiatives, and then Tom Houdek will provide some commentary on the quarter and the current environment. After that, we will open it up to questions.

我們今天的議程將從我們的 SEC 報告總監 Rana Schirmer 開始，提供我們關於前瞻性陳述的標準警示性披露。然後我將介紹我們的業務和當前計劃的最新情況，然後 Tom Houdek 將對本季度和當前環境發表一些評論。之後，我們將公開提問。

So Rana, please go ahead.

所以 Rana，請繼續。

Thanks, Greg. Our comments on the conference call today will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that undue reliance should not be placed on such statements.

謝謝，格雷格。我們對今天電話會議的評論將包含 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述。前瞻性陳述涉及已知和未知的風險、不確定性和其他可能導致實際結果、業績或成就的因素公司與前瞻性陳述明示或暗示的任何未來結果、業績或成就存在重大差異。投資者應注意，前瞻性陳述並非對未來業績的保證，不應過分依賴此類陳述。

Our forward-looking statements speak only as of today's date, February 16, 2023. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or to make any other forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required to do so by the securities laws. Investors are referred to the full discussion of risks and uncertainties associated with forward-looking statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Greg?

我們的前瞻性陳述僅適用於今天，即 2023 年 2 月 16 日。我們沒有義務公開更新或修改任何前瞻性陳述或做出任何其他前瞻性陳述，無論是由於新信息、未來事件或其他情況，除非證券法要求這樣做。投資者應參考公司提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中包含的與前瞻性陳述相關的風險和不確定性的完整討論。格雷格？

Thanks, Rana. BJ's fourth quarter results demonstrated continued growth across key metrics as we beat the industry as measured by comparable sales and comparable guest traffic according to Black Box, and we made further progress improving our restaurant level cash flow margins. Our comparable restaurant sales increased 6.6% over the same quarter a year ago on a 14-week versus 14-week basis. While a slower start to December and late winter storms provided a slight headwind to the industry, BJ's still delivered its highest weekly sales average ever, reaching more than $131,000 the week before Christmas.

謝謝，拉納。 BJ 第四季度的業績表明，根據 Black Box 的數據，我們以可比銷售額和可比客流量衡量超過了行業，並且我們在提高餐廳層面的現金流利潤率方面取得了進一步進展，從而證明了關鍵指標的持續增長。我們的可比餐廳銷售額在 14 周和 14 週的基礎上比去年同期增長了 6.6%。儘管 12 月的開局較慢以及晚冬的風暴給該行業帶來了輕微的阻力，但 BJ's 仍然創造了有史以來最高的每周平均銷售額，在聖誕節前一周達到了 131,000 多美元。

With our focus on staffing our restaurants to ensure we are delivering gold standard service and gracious hospitality in our high-energy lively restaurants, we were able to increase dining room sales while maintaining off-premise sales at twice the pre-COVID levels. Of note, our comparable sales performance has accelerated in fiscal 2023 to-date, driven by growth in the dining room guest traffic and an additional 3.7% of menu pricing, which is 190 basis points more than our pricing round that we took last February. If our year-to-date sales trends continue, first quarter comparable restaurant sales should be in the high single digits.

我們專注於為我們的餐廳配備人員，以確保我們在充滿活力的餐廳中提供黃金標準的服務和熱情好客，我們能夠增加餐廳的銷售額，同時將場外銷售額保持在 COVID 前水平的兩倍。值得注意的是，我們的可比銷售業績在 2023 財年迄今有所加速，這得益於餐廳客人流量的增長和額外 3.7% 的菜單定價，這比我們去年 2 月的定價高出 190 個基點。如果我們年初至今的銷售趨勢繼續下去，第一季度可比餐廳銷售額應該是高個位數。

Currently, we are carrying pricing in the mid-7% range compared to a year ago. Like all consumer-facing businesses, we are closely monitoring customer trends and the broader macro environment. To-date, we have not seen any meaningful change pointing to a slowdown in spending at BJ's. For example, our check-driving incidents for add-ons such as appetizers, drinks and of course, our Pizookie's remain above pre-COVID levels and we are not seeing negative mix shifts towards lower priced or discounted items. The one area that has moderated somewhat has been our alcohol incidents. We are still selling more alcohol per check in our leads to incremental profit and margin expansion.

目前，與一年前相比，我們的定價在 7% 左右。與所有面向消費者的企業一樣，我們正在密切關注客戶趨勢和更廣泛的宏觀環境。迄今為止，我們還沒有看到任何有意義的變化表明 BJ's 的支出放緩。例如，我們的開胃菜、飲料等附加產品的檢查駕駛事件，當然還有我們的 Pizookie's 仍然高於 COVID 之前的水平，我們沒有看到負面組合轉向低價或打折商品。一個有所緩和的領域是我們的酒精事件。我們仍然在我們的銷售線索中每張支票銷售更多的酒，以增加利潤和擴大利潤。

The sales growth we generated in the quarter, coupled with some early success from our margin improvement initiatives and to a lesser extent, the extra week in the fiscal year, helped propel our margins ahead of both the same quarter a year ago as well as the third quarter of 2022. To that end, our focus for 2023 this current year is about expanding our restaurant level margins through our sales-driving initiatives, our margin improvement project and allocating capital to high-returning investments.

我們在本季度產生的銷售增長，加上我們的利潤率改善計劃取得的一些早期成功，以及在較小程度上，本財年的額外一周，幫助推動我們的利潤率超過去年同期和2022 年第三季度。為此，我們今年 2023 年的重點是通過我們的銷售驅動計劃、我們的利潤率改善項目以及將資本分配給高回報投資來擴大我們餐廳層面的利潤率。

Our sales-driving initiatives target capturing even more dining-room traffic through a menu focused on craveable, familiar made Brewhouse fabulous offerings, high return on investment remodels that have proven to lift sales as well as driving additional off-premise sales through our own channels with our new e-commerce platform and through our third-party partners. In regards to our margin improvement initiative and as we've discussed on our third quarter conference call, we are targeting at least $25 million of annual cost savings with 200 basis points of margin improvement.

我們的銷售驅動計劃的目標是通過專注於令人垂涎、熟悉的 Brewhouse 美味產品的菜單來吸引更多的餐廳客流量，高投資回報率的改造已被證明可以提升銷售額，並通過我們自己的渠道推動額外的場外銷售通過我們新的電子商務平台和我們的第三方合作夥伴。關於我們的利潤率改善計劃，正如我們在第三季度電話會議上討論的那樣，我們的目標是每年至少節省 2500 萬美元的成本，並提高 200 個基點的利潤率。

We expect to see savings from sourcing changes where we can enhance and differentiate BJ's high-quality products through our Kitchen technology competitive advantage. So for example, which we touched on last quarter, the change to slow roasting our own wings alone will save us over $4 million annually and benefit our margins by 30 basis points. We continue to test a number of other impactful opportunities to optimize our business, including a simplified menu that is still broad but reduces the menu item count, complexity and SKUs while improving execution and prep hours in the kitchen.

我們希望看到採購變化帶來的節省，我們可以通過我們的廚房技術競爭優勢來增強和區分 BJ 的高質量產品。因此，例如，我們在上個季度提到過，僅緩慢烘烤我們自己的翅膀的變化每年將為我們節省超過 400 萬美元，並使我們的利潤率提高 30 個基點。我們繼續測試許多其他有影響力的機會來優化我們的業務，包括簡化的菜單，該菜單仍然很廣泛，但減少了菜單項數量、複雜性和 SKU，同時改善了廚房的執行和準備時間。

We intend to roll out a menu with approximately 10% less menu items in July, and we will test removing even more items later this year. Additionally, we just started testing AI-driven sales forecasting to provide an additional tool to our restaurant operators to forecast sales more accurately, which then improves labor scheduling efficiency as well as kitchen prep. I am very confident that we will achieve our goal of identifying at least $25 million of annualized restaurant cost savings this year. We also continue to evaluate our menu pricing strategy and expect additional rounds of menu pricing later this year in order to manage ongoing inflationary pressures and manage our margins.

我們打算在 7 月推出一個菜單，菜單項減少大約 10%，我們將在今年晚些時候嘗試刪除更多項目。此外，我們剛剛開始測試人工智能驅動的銷售預測，為我們的餐廳經營者提供一個額外的工具來更準確地預測銷售，從而提高勞動力調度效率和廚房準備工作。我非常有信心，我們將實現我們的目標，即今年確定每年至少節省 2500 萬美元的餐廳成本。我們還將繼續評估我們的菜單定價策略，並預計今年晚些時候會進行更多輪的菜單定價，以應對持續的通脹壓力並管理我們的利潤率。

With commodity and labor costs now each up approximately 30% since 2019, menu pricing will play a role in our expected margin growth this year. To-date, we have priced more conservatively than many peers during the recent period of rapid inflation, which has benefited our guest traffic trends and value scores. As a result, guests continue to see the tremendous price point value provided at BJ's from our lunch specials, daily Brewhouse specials and happy hour offerings, along with our more indulgent favorites still at great prices like our slow-roasted prime rib and fresh Atlantic salmon. Remodels will also play a key role in our sales building initiatives for the next few years.

自 2019 年以來，商品和勞動力成本現在分別上漲了約 30%，菜單定價將在我們今年的預期利潤率增長中發揮作用。迄今為止，在最近的快速通貨膨脹期間，我們的定價比許多同行更為保守，這有利於我們的客流量趨勢和價值得分。因此，客人繼續看到 BJ's 提供的巨大價格點價值，包括我們的特色午餐、每日 Brewhouse 特色菜和歡樂時光產品，以及我們更放縱的最愛，如我們的慢烤肋排和新鮮大西洋鮭魚，價格仍然很優惠.改造也將在我們未來幾年的銷售建設計劃中發揮關鍵作用。

The guest response measured by increased traffic, sales and profit has been excellent. Our remodel program includes adding seating capacity and updating our bar statement where applicable and other highly impactful elements inside and outside the restaurants. To-date, the return profile of these investments has been highly attractive, so we have made additional remodels, an important part of our 2023 capital allocation strategy, which Tom will cover in more detail shortly. Based on our current and expected sales growth trends, our margin improvement progress to-date and expected further margin opportunities and additional pricing, we expect run rate restaurant level cash flow margins in the low to mid-teens as we exit 2023, assuming a continued healthy macro and consumer environment.

從增加的流量、銷售額和利潤來衡量，客人的反應非常好。我們的改造計劃包括增加座位容量和更新我們的酒吧聲明（如適用）以及餐廳內外其他具有高度影響力的元素。迄今為止，這些投資的回報率極具吸引力，因此我們進行了額外的改造，這是我們 2023 年資本配置戰略的重要組成部分，Tom 將在稍後詳細介紹。根據我們當前和預期的銷售增長趨勢、迄今為止我們的利潤率改善進展以及預期的進一步利潤率機會和額外定價，我們預計到 2023 年我們的餐廳水平現金流量利潤率將處於中低水平，假設持續健康的宏觀和消費環境。

Finally, our new restaurant expansion strategy continues to provide strong results and growth. In the fourth quarter, we opened the final three restaurants of the year for a total of six new restaurants opened in 2022. We [tend] to open restaurants in markets with high sales and attractive restaurant cash flow potential. To illustrate, in January, our class of 2022 restaurants had average weekly sales more than 20% higher than the rest of the BJ's system. We are very pleased with the strong sales performance of our new restaurant openings, which reinforces our confidence in the attractive financial returns by allocating capital to new restaurants.

最後，我們新的餐廳擴張戰略繼續提供強勁的業績和增長。在第四季度，我們開設了年度最後三家餐廳，2022 年總共開設了六家新餐廳。我們 [傾向於] 在銷售額高且餐廳現金流潛力有吸引力的市場開設餐廳。例如，在 1 月份，我們 2022 年級餐廳的平均每週銷售額比 BJ 系統的其他餐廳高出 20% 以上。我們對新餐廳開業的強勁銷售業績感到非常滿意，這增強了我們對通過向新餐廳分配資金來獲得可觀的財務回報的信心。

We expect to open another five new restaurants in 2023, one of which is a relocation of our Chandler, Arizona restaurant to a new prime location in the same trade area. Also reflecting prudent portfolio management, we will close two older restaurants in the first half of this year. On the people front, last quarter, I announced that we added BJ's first standalone Chief People Officer, Amy Krallman, to our leadership team early in the fourth quarter. Also in Q4, we welcomed Putnam Shin as our new Chief Growth and Innovation Officer to BJ's.

我們預計在 2023 年再開設五家新餐廳，其中之一是將我們位於亞利桑那州錢德勒的餐廳搬遷到同一貿易區的新黃金地段。同樣反映審慎的投資組合管理，我們將在今年上半年關閉兩家老餐廳。在人員方面，上個季度，我宣布我們在第四季度初將 BJ 的第一位獨立首席人力官 Amy Krallman 添加到我們的領導團隊中。同樣在第四季度，我們歡迎 Putnam Shin 擔任 BJ's 的新任首席增長和創新官。

We are thrilled to have Amy and Putnam join the executive team. They are both already making significant impacts across the organization, and I know they will be strong leaders as we drive the business on our road to $2 billion. So in summary, we are focused on a comprehensive set of initiatives aimed at significantly increasing our average weekly sales, growing our restaurant margins and continuing our national expansion with a controlled pace in top quality sites with a goal of growing BJ's sales to $2 billion and beyond.

我們很高興 Amy 和 Putnam 加入執行團隊。他們都已經對整個組織產生了重大影響，我知道他們將成為強有力的領導者，因為我們將業務推向了 20 億美元的目標。因此，總而言之，我們專注於一套全面的舉措，旨在顯著提高我們的平均每週銷售額，增加我們的餐廳利潤率，並以可控的速度在頂級網站繼續我們的全國擴張，目標是將 BJ 的銷售額增長到 20 億美元，超過。

(technical difficulty)

（技術難度）

All right. Thank you, operator. I believe we had some technical difficulty here. I'm just going to do my last paragraph as I hear that's where we dropped off. And then we'll turn it over to Tom Houdek, our Chief Financial Officer. So sorry about that, everyone. As I was saying in summary, we know the best way to grow margins and profit is to grow sales. Our recent sales trends have been encouraging, and we remain committed to being sales drivers first and foremost. We intend to continue building sales into 2023 with demand for experiential dining remaining strong.

好的。謝謝你，運營商。我相信我們在這裡遇到了一些技術困難。我只想做我的最後一段，因為我聽說那是我們下車的地方。然後我們將把它交給我們的首席財務官 Tom Houdek。很抱歉，大家。正如我總結的那樣，我們知道增加利潤率和利潤的最佳方式是增加銷售額。我們最近的銷售趨勢令人鼓舞，我們仍然致力於成為銷售推動者。我們打算在 2023 年繼續擴大銷售額，體驗式餐飲的需求依然強勁。

And our goal is to grow our sales into $2 billion and beyond by delivering this meaningful earnings growth and shareholder return. In the meantime, we are incredibly increasingly confident that guest affinity for our brand and concept, coupled with the trajectory of our business and our current growth and margin-enhancing initiatives will enable us to achieve attractive near- and mid-term growth and margin objectives.

我們的目標是通過實現有意義的收益增長和股東回報，將我們的銷售額增加到 20 億美元甚至更多。與此同時，我們越來越相信客人對我們品牌和理念的親和力，加上我們的業務軌跡以及我們當前的增長和利潤率提升計劃，將使我們能夠實現有吸引力的近期和中期增長和利潤率目標.

Now let me turn it back over to Tom for a more detailed update from the quarter and current trends. Tom?

現在讓我把它轉回給 Tom，以獲得本季度和當前趨勢的更詳細更新。湯姆？

Thanks, Greg, and good afternoon, everyone. I will provide details of the quarter and some forward-looking views. Please remember this commentary is subject to the risks and uncertainties associated with forward-looking statements as discussed in our filings with the SEC. For the fourth quarter, we reported total sales of $344.2 million, an 18% increase from the prior year. Included in fourth quarter sales were $26.5 million from the extra week in our fiscal year and $3.2 million gift card breakage revenue related to a change in estimated redemptions of gift cards issued prior to 2022, which have yet to be redeemed, resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

謝謝，格雷格，大家下午好。我將提供該季度的詳細信息和一些前瞻性觀點。請記住，本評論受與我們在提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中討論的前瞻性陳述相關的風險和不確定性的影響。第四季度，我們報告的總銷售額為 3.442 億美元，比上年增長 18%。第四季度的銷售額包括我們財政年度額外一周的 2650 萬美元和 320 萬美元的禮品卡破損收入，這些收入與 2022 年之前發行的尚未兌換的禮品卡的估計兌換量變化有關，原因是 COVID- 19大流行。

Excluding the extra week and gift card breakage adjustment, our sales increased approximately 8% versus Q4 2021. On a comparable restaurant basis, which is unaffected by the gift card breakage adjustment, sales increased by 6.6% compared to Q4 of 2021 on a 14-week to 14-week basis. The comparable sales improvement in conjunction with certain savings we began to realize from our margin improvement initiative and, to a lesser extent, the extra week in our fiscal year, helped BJ's improve margins in the fourth quarter. Our restaurant level cash flow margin was 12.9% in Q4.

排除額外一周和禮品卡破損調整，我們的銷售額與 2021 年第四季度相比增長了約 8%。在不受禮品卡破損調整影響的可比餐廳基礎上，銷售額與 2021 年第四季度相比增長了 6.6%，增幅為 14-週為14週。可比的銷售增長以及我們開始從提高利潤率計劃中實現的某些節省，以及在較小程度上，我們財政年度的額外一周，幫助 BJ 在第四季度提高了利潤率。第四季度，我們餐廳層面的現金流量利潤率為 12.9%。

After removing the gift card breakage benefit discussed earlier, restaurant-level cash flow margin was 12.1%. Our Q4 2021 restaurant level cash flow margin was 10.1% or 9.6% when removing the $1.6 million employee retention tax credit benefit. When comparing margins, excluding the gift card breakage and ERTC benefits, restaurant level cash flow margins improved by 250 basis points in the fourth quarter compared to the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA was $26.1 million and 7.6% of sales in our fourth quarter, which included the gift card breakage benefit.

除去前面討論的禮品卡破損福利後，餐廳層面的現金流利潤率為 12.1%。除去 160 萬美元的員工保留稅收抵免福利後，我們 2021 年第四季度餐廳層面的現金流量利潤率為 10.1% 或 9.6%。在比較利潤率時，不包括禮品卡破損和 ERTC 福利，餐廳層面的現金流量利潤率在第四季度比去年同期提高了 250 個基點。調整後的 EBITDA 為 2610 萬美元，占我們第四季度銷售額的 7.6%，其中包括禮品卡破損收益。

When again, excluding the gift card breakage benefit from 2022 and the ERTC benefit from 2021, Q4 2022 EBITDA beat the prior year by $10.8 million with a margin that was 260 basis points higher. We reported net income of $4 million and diluted net income per share of $0.17 on a GAAP basis for the quarter. Our Q4 GAAP net income and EPS benefited by approximately 2.4 and $0.10 per share, respectively, from the gift card breakage adjustment discussed earlier when applying our 24.2% effective tax rate.

再一次，排除 2022 年的禮品卡破損收益和 2021 年的 ERTC 收益，2022 年第四季度 EBITDA 比去年同期高出 1080 萬美元，利潤率高出 260 個基點。根據 GAAP，本季度我們報告的淨收入為 400 萬美元，每股攤薄淨收入為 0.17 美元。我們的第 4 季度 GAAP 淨收入和每股收益分別受益於應用我們 24.2% 的有效稅率時討論的禮品卡破損調整，分別為每股約 2.4 美元和 0.10 美元。

From a weekly sales perspective, we averaged more than $112,000 per restaurant in the fourth quarter or approximately $7,000 higher than our Q4 of 2021. We maintained our off-premise weekly sales average in the low $20,000 while generating dine-in sales of more than $92,000 in Q4. Moving to expenses; our cost of sales was 26.8% in the quarter. After removing the gift card breakage benefit to revenue described earlier, our Q4 cost of sales was 27.1%, which was 20 basis points favorable compared to Q3 of 2022 and 30 basis points favorable compared to Q4 of 2021.

從每週銷售額的角度來看，第四季度我們每家餐廳的平均銷售額超過 112,000 美元，比 2021 年第四季度高出約 7,000 美元。我們將場外每週銷售額保持在 20,000 美元的低位，同時堂食銷售額超過 92,000 美元在第四季度。轉向費用；本季度我們的銷售成本為 26.8%。除去前面描述的禮品卡破損收益對收入的影響後，我們第四季度的銷售成本為 27.1%，與 2022 年第三季度相比有利 20 個基點，與 2021 年第四季度相比有利 30 個基點。

Food costs remained high through -- though year-over-year inflation moderated to the low single digits in the fourth quarter. The inflation figure would have been approximately 2 percentage points higher if not for the first round of margin improvement changes we implemented across our food basket, including the new slow roasted wings that Greg highlighted, which were fully rolled out across our system early in the fourth quarter. We did not take any additional pricing in the fourth quarter, and our pricing carried was slightly less than 6% in both the quarter and the full year compared to the year ago levels.

食品成本一直居高不下——儘管第四季度同比通脹放緩至較低的個位數。如果不是我們在食品籃子中實施的第一輪利潤率改善變化，包括 Greg 強調的新慢烤翅膀，這些變化在第四個年初在我們的系統中全面推出，通貨膨脹率數字會高出大約 2 個百分點四分之一。我們在第四季度沒有採取任何額外的定價，與去年同期相比，我們的定價在本季度和全年都略低於 6%。

As Greg noted, we took 3.7% of menu pricing January to combat ongoing inflationary pressures and to recapture additional margins. To-date, we have seen no guest push back to our menu pricing rounds. We are finalizing plans for an additional pricing round early in the second quarter. Labor and benefits expenses were 36.8% of sales in the fourth quarter. After removing the gift card breakage benefit described earlier, our Q4 labor and benefits expenses were 37.1% of sales in the quarter, which was 140 basis points favorable compared to the fourth quarter of the prior year after removing the ERTC benefit.

正如 Greg 指出的那樣，我們在 1 月份收取了 3.7% 的菜單定價，以應對持續的通貨膨脹壓力並重新獲得額外的利潤。迄今為止，我們沒有看到任何客人反對我們的菜單定價回合。我們將在第二季度初敲定額外一輪定價的計劃。第四季度勞動力和福利支出佔銷售額的 36.8%。除去前面描述的禮品卡破損福利後，我們第四季度的人工和福利費用佔本季度銷售額的 37.1%，與去年第四季度相比，除去 ERTC 福利後有利 140 個基點。

We continue to improve our labor efficiency in the quarter, which is driven in part by improving labor retention in our restaurants, which was at its best level over the past two years in Q4. Our overtime and training hours improved as well, which, as a percentage of sales, were 20 basis points better than Q4 of 2021 and within 20 basis points from pre-pandemic levels in Q4 of 2019. Occupancy and operating expenses were 23.5% of sales in the quarter. After removing the gift card breakage benefit described earlier, our Q4 occupancy and operating expenses were 23.7% of sales in the quarter, which was 80 basis points favorable compared to the fourth quarter of the prior year as we leveraged higher sales.

我們在本季度繼續提高我們的勞動效率，部分原因是我們餐廳的勞動力保留率有所提高，第四季度處於過去兩年的最佳水平。我們的加班時間和培訓時間也有所改善，佔銷售額的百分比比 2021 年第四季度高 20 個基點，與 2019 年第四季度大流行前水平相比在 20 個基點以內。入住和運營費用佔銷售額的 23.5%在本季度。除去前面描述的禮品卡損壞福利後，我們第四季度的入住率和運營費用佔本季度銷售額的 23.7%，與去年第四季度相比有利 80 個基點，因為我們利用了更高的銷售額。

We continue to identify O&O savings opportunities as part of our margin improvement initiative with the first round of cost savings rolling out in the coming months, including new leftover packaging containers and changing the frequency of certain maintenance programs. G&A in the fourth quarter was $19.3 million, coming in lower than our prior estimates due to a true-up for annual incentive bonuses, lower deferred compensation expense tied to fund performance in our deferred compensation plan and other savings against our original G&A budget.

我們繼續確定 O&O 節省機會，作為我們提高利潤計劃的一部分，第一輪成本節省將在未來幾個月推出，包括新的剩餘包裝容器和改變某些維護計劃的頻率。第四季度的 G&A 為 1,930 萬美元，低於我們之前的估計，原因是年度激勵獎金的調整、與我們遞延薪酬計劃中的基金業績相關的遞延薪酬費用較低以及與我們最初的 G&A 預算相比的其他節省。

Turning to the balance sheet; we ended the quarter with debt of $60 million and net debt of about $31 million. We are very pleased with the strength of our balance sheet and will remain consistent in our approach of prioritizing growth driving investments by a return profile, including building new restaurants, improving our existing restaurants and funding sales-driving initiatives. We finished 2022 spending $78.6 million in CapEx. CapEx would have been approximately $85 million, but approximately $7 million shifted from the end of 2022 to the beginning of 2023 due to timing of year-end construction payments.

轉向資產負債表；本季度結束時，我們的債務為 6000 萬美元，淨債務約為 3100 萬美元。我們對資產負債表的實力感到非常滿意，並將繼續堅持我們通過回報率優先考慮增長驅動投資的方法，包括建設新餐廳、改善我們現有的餐廳和為銷售驅動計劃提供資金。我們在 2022 年的資本支出中支出了 7860 萬美元。資本支出本來約為 8500 萬美元，但由於年終建設付款的時間安排，約 700 萬美元從 2022 年底轉移到 2023 年初。

We did not repurchase any additional shares in the quarter, which leaves our availability under our currently authorized share repurchase program at approximately $22.1 million. Looking to the first quarter of 2023; as Greg said, we are encouraged by recent sales trends, and we expect Q1 comparable restaurant sales in the high single digits. Factoring in our current sales and cost trends, I expect restaurant level cash flow margins to be in the 12% area in Q1 and expanding through the year as we grow sales through strategic initiatives, make additional progress on our margin improvement initiative and take additional menu pricing.

我們在本季度沒有回購任何額外的股票，這使得我們目前授權的股票回購計劃下的可用性約為 2210 萬美元。展望2023年第一季度；正如格雷格所說，我們對最近的銷售趨勢感到鼓舞，我們預計第一季度可比餐廳銷售額將達到高個位數。考慮到我們目前的銷售和成本趨勢，我預計第一季度餐廳層面的現金流量利潤率將在 12% 左右，並且隨著我們通過戰略舉措增加銷售額、在提高利潤率舉措方面取得更多進展並採取更多菜單，全年都會擴大價錢。

As Greg noted, we are targeting restaurant level margins in the low to mid-teens on a run rate basis as we exit the year. We are expecting food cost inflation in the mid-single-digit area in 2023. For 2023, we are targeting G&A in the $80 million to $82 million area, taking into account investments in strategic growth areas such as off-premise and catering as well as a step-up back to more regular bonus payout and deferred compensation plan return levels. Our CapEx spend is planned in the $90 million to $95 million range, including the approximately $7 million of construction payments that shifted from late 2022 to early 2023.

正如 Greg 指出的那樣，我們的目標是在今年結束時以運行率為基礎，將餐廳級別的利潤率定在中低水平。我們預計 2023 年的食品成本通脹將處於中個位數區域。對於 2023 年，我們的目標是 G&A 在 8000 萬至 8200 萬美元之間，同時考慮到對場外和餐飲等戰略增長領域的投資作為回到更定期的獎金支付和遞延補償計劃回報水平的升級。我們的資本支出計劃在 9000 萬至 9500 萬美元之間，包括從 2022 年底轉移到 2023 年初的大約 700 萬美元的建設付款。

In 2023, our capital allocation priority will continue to focus on investments with attractive returns, including a mix of new restaurant growth, restaurant remodels and other sales building and margin-enhancing initiatives. This year, we plan to open five new restaurants with the first scheduled to open later this month and the second in early April and to expand our high return on investment remodel initiative to more than 30 restaurants or approximately 15% of our restaurant base.

到 2023 年，我們的資本配置重點將繼續集中在具有可觀回報的投資上，包括新餐廳增長、餐廳改造和其他銷售建設和提高利潤率的舉措。今年，我們計劃開設五家新餐廳，第一家計劃於本月晚些時候開業，第二家計劃於 4 月初開業，並將我們的高投資回報改造計劃擴大到 30 多家餐廳，約占我們餐廳總數的 15%。

Additionally, as part of our margin-enhancing initiatives, we plan to strengthen and optimize our restaurant portfolio by closing three legacy restaurants this year, one of which will be relocated to a great new site in the same trade area, which is included in the five new restaurants. In summary, we know the best way to grow margins and profit is to grow sales. Recent sales trends have been encouraging, and we remain committed to being sales drivers, first and foremost.

此外，作為我們提高利潤計劃的一部分，我們計劃通過今年關閉三家傳統餐廳來加強和優化我們的餐廳組合，其中一家將搬遷到同一貿易區的一個新地點，該地點包括在五家新餐廳。總之，我們知道增加利潤率和利潤的最佳方式是增加銷售額。最近的銷售趨勢令人鼓舞，我們仍然致力於成為銷售推動者，這是首要任務。

We intend to continue building sales into 2023 with demand for experiential dining remaining strong, especially at BJ's. At the same time, we have elevated productivity and cost savings through our margin improvement initiative with momentum continuing to build. We have a clear path to sales and margin growth and our long-term strategy remains intact.

我們打算在 2023 年繼續擴大銷售額，體驗式餐飲的需求依然強勁，尤其是在 BJ's。與此同時，我們通過提高利潤率的舉措提高了生產力並節省了成本，並且勢頭不斷增強。我們有明確的銷售和利潤增長途徑，我們的長期戰略保持不變。

Thank you for your time today, and we'll now open the call to your questions. Operator?

感謝您今天抽出寶貴時間，我們現在將開始回答您的問題。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Alex Slagle with Jefferies.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Alex Slagle。

On the commentary on the restaurant level margin expectations, it sounds like the cadence is sort of a gradual ramp. Is that sort of given the timing of the initiatives or might there be maybe the seasonally strong 2Q, maybe that one could get to the lower mid-teens margin level, just trying to dig into that a little bit more.

關於餐廳層面利潤率預期的評論，聽起來節奏有點像漸進式上升。考慮到這些舉措的時間安排，或者可能會有季節性強勁的第二季度，也許那個人可能會達到較低的中等利潤率水平，只是想深入研究一下。

Yeah. Alex, this is Greg, and then I'll pass over to Tom if he's got other additional commentary. That's generally how we're thinking about the cadence in the sense that as our margin initiatives worked their way through. I do think to your point, Q2 is our strongest weekly sales average. And I think based on where we are today and knowing how those sales can grow, tend to see that number go up. And then to your point, it would go down into Q3 and then accelerate into Q4 and kind of get us onto that trajectory of where we're going.

是的。亞歷克斯，我是格雷格，如果他有其他評論，我會轉交給湯姆。在我們的保證金計劃取得成功的意義上，這通常是我們考慮節奏的方式。我確實認為您的觀點是，第二季度是我們最強的每週銷售平均值。而且我認為，根據我們今天所處的位置以及了解這些銷售額如何增長，往往會看到這個數字上升。然後就你的觀點而言，它會下降到第三季度，然後加速進入第四季度，讓我們走上我們前進的軌道。

The other thing, just when we think about it as well, much like you saw in the news yesterday with producer price indexes and so forth on inflation. We tend to have a certain amount of contracts that get reset on January 1. So in this first quarter, we have some of those resetting contracts, while our menu pricing of 3.7% will help offset that as well as some of our other initiatives. Our next round of pricing somewhere is in that April, May timeframe is really meant to kind of take care of some of this additional pricing or some of that additional inflationary pressure that we're experiencing right now. So that's generally the ramp up that we see. And I don't know, Tom, if you have anything to add to that?

另一件事，就在我們也在考慮它的時候，就像你昨天在新聞中看到的生產者價格指數等關於通貨膨脹的事情一樣。我們傾向於在 1 月 1 日重置一定數量的合同。因此在第一季度，我們有一些重置合同，而我們 3.7% 的菜單定價將有助於抵消這一點以及我們的一些其他舉措。我們的下一輪定價是在 4 月、5 月的時間框架內，實際上是為了處理一些額外的定價或我們目前正在經歷的一些額外的通脹壓力。所以這通常是我們看到的增長。我不知道，湯姆，你有什麼要補充的嗎？

Yeah, I'd agree. The combination of pricing that we've taken some in January, we'll take more later in the year and the margin improvement initiatives that continue to build. So those -- that's how the margin increasing as the year progresses.

是的，我同意。我們在 1 月份採取了一些定價，我們將在今年晚些時候採取更多定價，以及繼續建立的利潤率改善計劃。所以那些——這就是利潤率隨著時間的推移而增加的方式。

Okay. Maybe you could comment on the contract resetting and sort of where you are, how much is contracted for the year at this point?

好的。也許你可以評論合同重置以及你現在的位置，此時今年的合同金額是多少？

Sure. So in January, we have the majority of our contracts come due. So we are about 35% to 40% fixed, which is a little less than we have been in the past. There's some contracts we're staying floating on this year because just the extra premium to lock-in contracts for the full year, we saw it more advantageous for our cost structure to keep them floating, to take the lower cost now and not expecting them to go up as high as some of the fixed costs. So that was the extent of our contract resets that happened in January.

當然。所以在一月份，我們的大部分合同都到期了。所以我們大約有 35% 到 40% 是固定的，這比我們過去少了一點。今年我們有一些合同是浮動的，因為只是全年鎖定合同的額外溢價，我們認為讓它們保持浮動對我們的成本結構更有優勢，現在採取較低的成本而不是期望它們與一些固定成本一樣高。這就是我們在 1 月份發生的合同重置的範圍。

But as Greg mentioned, wings, for example, that's an area where the market is good right now and prices are still low. So we kept that contract floating to get the benefit of the current market as well as where we think the market should go for the balance of the year. So yeah, as we look into the Q1 and gave the forecast margins for Q1, it takes into account the extra cost that we saw come in January. But as we think about pricing, what we took in January, we'll take again in Q2 that should offset that inflation plus extra to get some extra going through margins.

但正如格雷格提到的那樣，例如翅膀，這是一個目前市場良好且價格仍然很低的領域。因此，我們保持該合約浮動，以從當前市場以及我們認為今年餘下時間市場應該走向的方向獲益。所以是的，當我們研究第一季度並給出第一季度的預測利潤率時，它考慮到了我們在 1 月份看到的額外成本。但當我們考慮定價時，我們在 1 月份採取的措施，我們將在第二季度再次採取，這應該抵消通貨膨脹加上額外的利潤以獲得一些額外的利潤。

Great. And I wanted to follow up on the capital allocation commentary, if you could provide a little more color on the remodel ROIs and maybe how many of each type of opportunity you see for '23, whether it's the bar area or the seating, any color there would be helpful.

偉大的。我想跟進資本分配評論，如果你能提供更多關於改造投資回報率的顏色，也許你在 23 年看到的每種機會有多少，無論是酒吧區還是座位，任何顏色會有幫助的。

Alex, it's Greg. So as we mentioned in the call, we're trying to get a minimum of 30 done next year. And I would say it's probably right now evenly split or so between the bar and then what we would call kind of expand capacity around the new seating. Some of those will overlap or we can do both in those restaurants. And what we've seen out of without getting super specific, I guess, is the bar is a higher cost as the bar cap to the back end (inaudible) 130-inch TV and really lightened up the restaurant, and that cost can be from $500,000 to $700,000.

亞歷克斯，是格雷格。因此，正如我們在電話會議中提到的那樣，我們正努力在明年完成至少 30 項工作。我想說現在可能在酒吧之間平均分配，然後我們稱之為圍繞新座位擴大容量。其中一些會重疊，或者我們可以在這些餐廳同時進行。我想，我們在沒有特別具體的情況下看到的是，酒吧的成本更高，因為後端（聽不清）130 英寸電視的酒吧帽確實照亮了餐廳，而且這個成本可能是從 500,000 美元到 700,000 美元。

However, the returns from a sales standpoint on those restaurants have been significantly higher than the return on sales, meaning the amount of sales that we're getting on just adding the three additional booths. While the three additional booths will cost only about $150,000 so it's a lot less of a cost, maybe $150,000 to $200,000 depending on what else we do on there.

然而，從銷售的角度來看，這些餐廳的回報率明顯高於銷售回報率，這意味著我們僅增加三個額外的攤位就獲得了銷售額。雖然三個額外的展位只需要大約 150,000 美元，所以成本要低得多，可能需要 150,000 到 200,000 美元，具體取決於我們在那裡做的其他事情。

The amount of incremental sales there while successful and high in the sense that gets us a good return on investment, doesn't drive the same type of return that we do in the bar does that really I think kind of accentuates the energy within our restaurants. So that's where we are today. We're looking at those returns somewhere where we'd like to be maybe in the 20-plus-percent range for the cost of that investment.

那裡的增量銷售量雖然成功且高，從某種意義上說，這讓我們獲得了良好的投資回報，但並沒有帶來我們在酒吧所做的相同類型的回報，我認為這確實在某種程度上強調了我們餐廳的活力.這就是我們今天的處境。我們正在考慮這些回報，我們希望該投資成本可能在 20% 以上的範圍內。

Our next question is from Brian Bittner with Oppenheimer & Company.

我們的下一個問題來自 Oppenheimer & Company 的 Brian Bittner。

This is Mike Tamas on for Brian. Two quick questions. The first one on pricing. Can you talk about maybe what you're planning on having for the full year 2023 inclusive of the future price increase you were talking about in April? And are you planning any additional price increases beyond April? And just generally, how are you thinking about pricing against a more shaky consumer backdrop now?

這是 Brian 的 Mike Tamas。兩個快速問題。第一個關於定價。你能談談你計劃在 2023 年全年擁有什麼，包括你在 4 月份談到的未來價格上漲嗎？您是否計劃在 4 月之後進一步提價？總的來說，您現在如何考慮在更加不穩定的消費者背景下定價？

Sure. Thanks Mike. So yes, like we said, we took 3.7% in January. The April round is -- we're targeting somewhere in the 2% plus area, and we'll have another opportunity potentially in the September time frame for more pricing. So adding that up, we could be in the 8% plus area for the year.

當然。謝謝邁克。所以是的，正如我們所說，我們在 1 月份取得了 3.7% 的增長。 4 月份的一輪是——我們的目標是在 2% 以上的區域，我們將在 9 月份的時間框架內有另一個機會獲得更多定價。所以加起來，我們今年可能處於 8% 以上的區域。

Okay. And then just a commentary on the low to mid-teens margins exiting '23, I just want to clarify, I mean, does that mean that for full year 2024, you'll definitely be in that range, assuming sales and everything sort of shakes out to where you think it's going to be or is there anything that we need to think about that's different about that run rate exiting '23 and into '24?

好的。然後只是對 23 年退出的中低利潤率的評論，我只是想澄清一下，我的意思是，這是否意味著在 2024 年全年，你肯定會在這個範圍內，假設銷售和一切搖晃到你認為它將會達到的位置，或者我們需要考慮什麼是退出 23 年和進入 24 年的運行率有什麼不同？

Mike, that's our goal. Our goal would be exactly as you laid it out there. And that is as we move our margins up through the year through the margin improvement initiatives. One thing that we didn't mention and Alex asked the question about how it plays out to the cadence. And that is starting in July, we'll have that reduced menu and continue to play with another set of the menu as well that will really help on the prep hours and the efficiency as well as we talked about the labor forecasting from the -- from our AI or artificial intelligence systems that we're working with.

邁克，那是我們的目標。我們的目標將與您在那裡制定的目標完全一致。那就是我們通過提高利潤率的舉措提高了全年的利潤率。我們沒有提到的一件事，亞歷克斯問了一個關於它如何影響節奏的問題。那是從 7 月開始，我們將減少菜單，並繼續使用另一套菜單，這將真正有助於縮短準備時間和提高效率，我們還談到了勞動力預測——來自我們正在使用的 AI 或人工智能係統。

So as we work through those and get ourselves into that run rate as we go into 2024, we'd expect our margins to be in that mid-teen range and move from there. And obviously, it's going to be seasonally adjusted, Q2 would be higher. Q3 would be a little bit lower. But overall, we would see 2024 an area where our margins are in the mid-teens.

因此，當我們努力解決這些問題並在進入 2024 年時讓自己達到那個運行率時，我們預計我們的利潤率將在那個中間的範圍內並從那裡移動。顯然，它會進行季節性調整，第二季度會更高。 Q3 會低一點。但總的來說，我們會看到 2024 年我們的利潤率處於十幾歲左右的區域。

Okay. That's perfect. Maybe just squeeze in a quick model and one on the remodels. Is there anything we need to be thinking about in terms of downtime in terms of impact on either overall sales or comps and margins just as it relates to some of those remodels?

好的。那很完美。也許只是擠進一個快速模型和一個改造模型。就停機時間對整體銷售或補償和利潤的影響而言，我們是否需要考慮與其中一些改造相關的任何問題？

No. Greg Lynds is in here, our Chief Development Officer, who's really -- his team is handling the remodels, and they have perfected it where they can get in there and do them at nighttime. So our restaurants stay open, so we shouldn't be losing any restaurant days or restaurant weeks. And there's really no additional training or any other changes from that perspective. What we've tended to see is that pop might take a couple of weeks just because guests have to see it and then build from there a little bit. But we definitely like the pops that we're seeing. And when you get to the weekend, and you get to the Valentine's today, having that extra capacity really helps us.

不，我們的首席開發官格雷格·林茲 (Greg Lynds) 在這裡，他的團隊正在處理改造，他們已經完善了改造，他們可以在夜間進入那裡進行改造。所以我們的餐廳保持營業，所以我們不應該錯過任何餐廳日或餐廳週。從這個角度來看，確實沒有額外的培訓或任何其他變化。我們傾向於看到流行音樂可能需要幾週的時間，因為客人必須先看到它，然後再從那裡開始一點點製作。但我們絕對喜歡我們看到的持久性有機污染物。當你到了周末，今天又到了情人節，擁有額外的容量真的對我們有幫助。

Our next question is from Drew North with Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自 Drew North 和 Baird。

I was wondering if you'd be willing to share an update on how the comps specifically were tracking quarter-to-date? I appreciate the color on extrapolating the trend through the balance of the quarter but just wondering if you could help quantify the quarter-to-date metric just to level set us here.

我想知道您是否願意分享有關公司如何具體跟踪季度至今的最新消息？我很欣賞通過本季度餘額推斷趨勢的顏色，但只是想知道您是否可以幫助量化季度至今的指標，以便讓我們在這裡保持水平。

Drew, it's an interesting question. And without getting very specific, the first two weeks of January were really strong sales. They were north of 20% as we went over Omicron. And since that time, it's kind of leveled out where we felt comfortable with kind of mid-single digits, which would tend to -- high single digits, I'm sorry, which would tend to be kind of where we expect the next weeks and the other weeks to be. So I think we saw a first couple of weeks of January with some pretty strong sales, and we kind of level set it into where we are today, maybe a tad higher per se.

德魯，這是一個有趣的問題。不用說得很具體，1 月的前兩週銷售非常強勁。當我們越過 Omicron 時，它們在 20% 以上。從那時起，它有點趨於平穩，我們對中等個位數感到滿意，這往往是 - 高個位數，對不起，這往往是我們預計未來幾週的水平和其他幾週。因此，我認為我們在 1 月份的前幾週看到了一些非常強勁的銷售，我們將其設置為今天的水平，本身可能略高一些。

Okay. That's helpful and understood. One follow-up on the margins, specifically related to the commodity inflation outlook, up mid-single digits, I believe you mentioned. I was hoping you could share some perspective on the cadence of that inflation through the year based on your existing contracts and what you may be cycling?

好的。這是有幫助和理解的。關於利潤率的後續行動，特別是與大宗商品通脹前景有關，上漲中等個位數，我相信你提到過。我希望你能根據你現有的合同以及你可能騎自行車的方式，就全年通貨膨脹的節奏分享一些看法？

Sure. There was a step up, as we mentioned in Q1 when the fixed price contracts most reset. We do have a little more loaded in the back half for beef and steak items, there's forecast out saying, given herd sizes that we could see some higher prices in beef later in the year. So that's loaded in the forecast as well. But otherwise, it's -- I think this first reset was the new pricing, and there's going to be some markets somewhat up or somewhat flat. But those are the -- I think beef was the only one worth highlighting beyond that.

當然。正如我們在第一季度提到的那樣，當固定價格合同最重設時，價格有所上漲。我們確實在後半部分裝載了更多的牛肉和牛排產品，有預測稱，鑑於牛群規模，今年晚些時候我們可能會看到牛肉價格上漲。所以這也包含在預測中。但除此之外，它是——我認為第一次重置是新的定價，一些市場將會有所上漲或持平。但那些是 - 我認為牛肉是除此之外唯一值得強調的。

Our next question is from Sharon Zackfia with William Blair.

我們的下一個問題來自 Sharon Zackfia 和 William Blair。

It was really good to hear about how the new units are performing and I understand the capital allocation strategy for this year. But as you think beyond kind of 2023, how are you, I guess, dividing the thought process between further remodels and accelerating growth because it seems like the ROI on new units would be pretty healthy given the productivity that you outlined in the press release or maybe just juxtapose that with what you're seeing with construction costs and if that's been a major factor in kind of the thought process this year?

很高興聽到新單位的表現，我了解今年的資本配置策略。但是當你想到 2023 年之後，我猜你是如何在進一步改造和加速增長之間劃分思維過程的，因為考慮到你在新聞稿中概述的生產力，新單位的投資回報率似乎相當健康也許只是將其與您所看到的建築成本並列，這是否是今年思考過程中的一個主要因素？

Yeah. Sharon, great question and sorry to jump in that. We're excited to get one open in (inaudible) shortly in the Chicago area. That will be our kind of our next sales.

是的。莎倫，問得好，很抱歉插話。我們很高興很快在芝加哥地區（聽不清）開一家店。那將是我們的下一次銷售。

I will single-handedly boost your incidence rate of alcohol so.

所以我會單槍匹馬地提高你的酗酒率。

That and if you can get some (inaudible), we'll be really happy. But you kind of hit upon it at the end there, and that is the cost to build new restaurants has moved higher than we anticipated coming out of COVID. As we were building restaurants last year, they were kind of in the mid-6s to maybe upper 6s. As we went out and got bids year, those bids started to come in with the $7 million handle there or starting with the $7 million handle. And I can let Greg Lynds jump in here for a second.

那如果你能得到一些（聽不清），我們會很高興。但是你最後突然想到了，那就是建造新餐廳的成本已經高於我們對 COVID 的預期。去年我們建餐廳的時候，它們大概在 6 歲左右到 6 歲以上。當我們出去並獲得出價年時，這些出價開始以 700 萬美元的價格出現，或者從 700 萬美元的價格開始。我可以讓 Greg Lynds 插話一下。

But him and his team have gone out and rebid that, and we're trying to bring those costs down. And while our sales to investment ratio is actually pretty good at 1:1 because our new restaurants have opened up the sales closer again to 5-plus-percent I think we do that, we drive comp sales in the kind of 3% to 5% range. You can start to look at 8% to 10% revenue growth and then leveraging and building margins allows us to grow earnings at above 10%.

但他和他的團隊已經出去重新投標，我們正在努力降低這些成本。雖然我們的銷售額與投資比率實際上相當不錯，為 1:1，因為我們的新餐廳的銷售額再次接近 5% 以上，但我認為我們這樣做了，我們將 comp 銷售額提高到 3% 到 5% ％ 範圍。你可以開始考慮 8% 到 10% 的收入增長，然後利用和建立利潤率使我們的收入增長超過 10%。

That, I think at that time, we've thrown off some decent free cash flow as well, allows us to start to think about how we want to prioritize our excess cash for our shareholders. So that's the longer-term cadence in our business. Even though right now, we're doing a little bit of a pivot towards remodels because of that high investment cost. And I don't know, Greg, if you want to add anything here.

我認為那時候，我們也放棄了一些可觀的自由現金流，讓我們開始考慮如何為我們的股東優先考慮我們的過剩現金。這就是我們業務的長期節奏。儘管現在，由於高昂的投資成本，我們正在做一些轉向改造的工作。 Greg，我不知道你是否想在這裡添加任何內容。

I would just kind of add to what you said that with our current initiatives going on, we think, in 2024, we can get our total cost, and that's our all-in cost. So that's construction, FF&E, soft costs, site work, everything back to that $6 million -- our target is in that $6 million range which still gives us great ROIs in that 20% to 30% range depending on landlord contributions and that kind of thing.

我想補充一下你所說的，我們認為，通過我們目前的舉措，到 2024 年，我們可以獲得總成本，這就是我們的全部成本。所以這就是建築、FF&E、軟成本、現場工作，一切都回到了 600 萬美元——我們的目標是在 600 萬美元的範圍內，這仍然給我們帶來了 20% 到 30% 的巨大投資回報率，這取決於房東的貢獻和那種事物。

And then just two quick clarifying questions. The mid-single-digit commodity inflation for this year, was that a gross or net of anticipated kind of cost savings that you identify? And then did you give traffic for the fourth quarter, could we get that?

然後是兩個快速澄清的問題。今年的中等個位數商品通脹，是您確定的預期成本節約總額還是淨額？然後你給了第四季度的流量，我們能得到嗎？

I'll do the traffic one because that is simple. So for the fourth quarter, we ended up with 6.6% comp and our traffic was around 2.5% or so and the rest was the average check going up. And just to jump into the average check though, we had mid-5 pricing. I think below the industry, our checks are a little bit lower. And that is really due to the fact that we've seen an outsized growth in lunch in the fourth quarter and the late night business. So those areas have tended to have a little bit lower overall average check, and that's why our average check is more in the 4% range versus our 5% pricing. And then again, our traffic was positive in the 2.5-plus-percent range. Tom, you want to hit on the commodities?

我會做交通方面的，因為那很簡單。因此，對於第四季度，我們最終獲得了 6.6% 的補償，我們的流量約為 2.5% 左右，其餘的是平均支票上升。只是為了跳入平均檢查，我們有 5 中定價。我認為在行業下方，我們的支票要低一些。這實際上是因為我們看到第四季度午餐和深夜業務的大幅增長。因此，這些地區的總體平均支票往往略低，這就是為什麼我們的平均支票在 4% 的範圍內，而我們的定價為 5%。再一次，我們的流量在 2.5% 以上的範圍內是正的。湯姆，你想打商品嗎？

Sure. And then on the commodity inflation question, the mid-single digits was a net number. There is possible for upsize, just depends on what else we're able to achieve in the margin improvement initiative. But right now, the mid-single digits was net. But again, we're still evaluating a number of other attractive opportunities to save there. So there could be some upside on top of that.

當然。然後在商品通脹問題上，中間的個位數是淨值。有可能擴大規模，這取決於我們在提高利潤率計劃中還能取得什麼成就。但現在，中間個位數是淨值。但同樣，我們仍在評估其他一些有吸引力的機會來節省開支。因此，除此之外可能還有一些好處。

Our next question is from Todd Brooks with The Benchmark Company.

我們的下一個問題來自 The Benchmark Company 的 Todd Brooks。

Good to talk here. A couple of questions. There's one variable, and Greg, you hinted that in your comments, but in talking about the recovery in the restaurant level margin and an exit rate for the year in the low to mid-teens, what's the assumption of sales -- as far -- you talked about that as being your best driver of margin recovery. I know we've got the margin improvement program. I know we've got some pricing coming in. But what's the assumption for what you need for same-store sales growth as a component of reaching that target or are you not expecting much on that front beyond Q1? And any increment there would be -- put you higher into that targeted range?

很高興在這裡說話。幾個問題。有一個變量，格雷格，你在評論中暗示了這一點，但在談論餐廳利潤率的複蘇和今年中低端的退出率時，銷售額的假設是什麼——到目前為止—— - 你談到這是你恢復利潤率的最佳驅動力。我知道我們有提高利潤率的計劃。我知道我們已經有了一些定價。但是，作為實現該目標的一個組成部分，同店銷售增長所需的假設是什麼，或者您在第一季度之後對這方面的期望不高？並且任何增量都會 - 讓您更高地進入目標範圍？

Yes. It's a good question, Todd. And I think when we look at our business and think about the fact that we're looking somewhere in the 7% to 8% menu pricing, so thinking about from the 7% to 8% menu pricing. I think we're thinking comp sales and revenue growth in the kind of maybe mid-single digits or so, hopefully a little bit better. But we feel that there's opportunities that we can drive that margin by looking at our cost improvement initiatives to help manage that down. So I think we've got to get that pricing to come through in our business to kind of continue to move ourselves in the direction of those margins.

是的。這是個好問題，托德。我認為當我們審視我們的業務並考慮我們正在尋找 7% 到 8% 的菜單定價的事實時，所以從 7% 到 8% 的菜單定價考慮。我認為我們正在考慮 comp 銷售和收入增長可能是中個位數左右，希望好一點。但我們認為，我們有機會通過研究我們的成本改進計劃來幫助降低利潤率，從而提高利潤率。所以我認為我們必須在我們的業務中通過定價來繼續朝著這些利潤率的方向發展。

Okay, great. And then just a quick follow-up and I'll hop back in the queue as well. Is there a way with the early experience with the remodels and what you're seeing for lifts out of -- if you blended out the bar program and the incremental free booth program. What type of structural same-store sales do you see as we get into the program? So as we do the first 30, there should be a lift because that is a meaningful piece of the overall chain from these efforts. How do we start to think about maybe a structural same-store sales tailwind from this program?

好的，太好了。然後只是快速跟進，我也會跳回到隊列中。如果您將酒吧計劃和增量免費展位計劃混合在一起，是否有一種方法可以利用改造的早期經驗以及您所看到的電梯。當我們進入該計劃時，您看到什麼類型的結構性同店銷售？因此，當我們做前 30 次時，應該會有提升，因為這是這些努力的整個鏈條中有意義的一部分。我們如何開始考慮可能從該計劃中獲得結構性同店銷售順風？

I think the -- well, a couple of things here. One, we're definitely seeing the lift, and we talked about the bar program, giving us sales somewhere in the $2,000 a week level -- I'm sorry, the expand capacity is what we've mentioned. We're still working through the bar. The bar we've done, I want to say, three restaurants right now. Two are performing really well. One was just going to say one was just completed last week. So we're watching that one. And it tends to be a sales number above that.

我認為 - 好吧，這裡有幾件事。第一，我們肯定看到了提升，我們談到了酒吧計劃，使我們的銷售額達到每週 2,000 美元的水平——對不起，我們已經提到了擴大產能。我們仍在通過酒吧工作。我們做過的酒吧，我想說，現在是三個餐廳。兩個表現非常好。有人只是想說一個上周剛剛完成。所以我們正在看那個。而且它往往是高於該數字的銷售數字。

We will come back to the investors or to the investment community after the first quarter, and we've kind of finished up with more of the expand capacity, which is the additional booths and then have more of the bar in front of us and come back and give you kind of where we think they blend out what type of lift we're seeing. Right now, as I said, we're targeting a 20% return on that cash. So we can be spending $200,000 on the additional booths, and then we could be spending $500,000 to $700,000 on bar and other areas just depending. So you can kind of back into that a little bit, but we want to see where it kind of plays out the rest of this quarter.

我們將在第一季度後回到投資者或投資界，我們已經完成了更多的擴展能力，這是額外的展位，然後我們面前有更多的酒吧，來吧回來給你一些我們認為他們融合了我們所看到的升力類型的地方。現在，正如我所說，我們的目標是獲得 20% 的現金回報。所以我們可以在額外的展位上花費 200,000 美元，然後我們可以在酒吧和其他區域花費 500,000 到 700,000 美元。所以你可以稍微回顧一下，但我們想看看它在本季度剩餘時間裡的表現。

Our next question is from Teddy Farley with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗的 Teddy Farley。

Two quick ones from me. First, would you be able to call out any differences maybe you're seeing in same-store sales in tech-heavy areas maybe versus the rest of the system? Anything along those lines?

我的兩個快速的。首先，您能否指出技術密集型地區的同店銷售與系統其他部分的任何差異？沿著這些線有什麼嗎？

Yeah. So in regards to like looking at the first quarter, and this is not unexpected, I think, because of what we've seen over the last couple of years. The Bay Area now is outperforming in regards to comp sales. It's a pretty strong contributor right now. Actually all of California is doing well, but the Bay Area is definitely coming back, and we're seeing some nice comp sales up in that area. I think across the board, we are seeing good comp sales in many areas, but we've talked at many times at Bay Area and Northern California being a little bit more of a drag in our business short term. And right now, it's turned a little bit and given us a little bit of a tailwind.

是的。所以關於喜歡看第一季度，我認為這並不意外，因為我們在過去幾年中看到的情況。灣區現在在比較銷售方面表現出色。它現在是一個非常強大的貢獻者。實際上，整個加利福尼亞州都做得很好，但灣區肯定會回來，我們看到該地區的銷售量不錯。我認為從整體上看，我們在許多地區都看到了良好的銷售，但我們在灣區和北加州多次討論過，這在短期內對我們的業務造成了更多的拖累。而現在，它發生了一點變化，給了我們一點順風。

Awesome. And then just one last one for me. Good to hear that you're able to get some staffing resolved. Can you talk to how much you're seeing for that as being macro-driven versus maybe what you're doing in the restaurant to help bring people in applications or retaining existing staff?

驚人的。然後給我最後一個。很高興聽到您能夠解決一些人員配置問題。你能談談你認為這是宏觀驅動的，還是你在餐廳所做的，以幫助吸引人們加入應用程序或留住現有員工？

Yes. Teddy, I think it's a combination of both. We're hearing across the industry that finding people is easier today than it was a year ago. And definitely, we've seen that. We placed an emphasis within BJ's to make sure we're taking the time to do the things to onboard our people correctly to make them part of the culture and part of the BJ's family to grow our business. And that seems to have really helped us from that standpoint. And it's something that we continue to do.

是的。泰迪，我認為它是兩者的結合。我們聽說整個行業現在比一年前更容易找到人。當然，我們已經看到了。我們在 BJ's 中強調要確保我們花時間做正確的事情來讓我們的員工入職，使他們成為文化的一部分和 BJ 家族的一部分，以發展我們的業務。從這個角度來看，這似乎確實幫助了我們。這是我們繼續做的事情。

One of the things that will also help us going forward, we don't talk about it as much from a recruiting standpoint is as we continue to work through some of our margin improvement initiatives, especially around the smaller menu, that helps bring people on board into an already complex business where we have 145-plus menu items, learning our menu is going to be more challenging than getting a menu or getting a position in fast casual or QSR or other casual dining restaurants.

也將幫助我們前進的一件事，從招聘的角度來看，我們並沒有過多地談論它，因為我們繼續通過一些提高利潤率的舉措，特別是圍繞較小的菜單，這有助於吸引人們進入一個已經很複雜的業務，我們有 145 多個菜單項，學習我們的菜單將比獲取菜單或在快餐店、QSR 或其他休閒餐廳找到職位更具挑戰性。

So doing some of those things as well as some of the other initiatives that we've done in regards to our value statement and other things that we rolled out this last year, I think it's helped bringing more people on board for us and continuing to improve our staffing at our restaurants. And it's a real emphasis for us. And I got to give them -- my hats off to our general managers have spent a lot of time rebuilding our restaurants and doing a great job beat people in there so that we can deliver gold standard level of operational excellence and that we can deliver gracious hospitality to our consumers that come in and visit us for our guests.

因此，做一些這些事情以及我們就我們的價值聲明和去年推出的其他事情所做的一些其他舉措，我認為這有助於吸引更多人加入我們並繼續改善我們餐廳的員工配置。這對我們來說是一個真正的重點。我必須向他們致敬——我要向我們的總經理致敬，他們花了很多時間重建我們的餐廳，並且做得很好，擊敗了那裡的人，這樣我們就可以提供黃金標準的卓越運營，我們可以提供親切的服務款待前來拜訪我們的客人的消費者。

Our next question is from Nick Setyan with Wedbush Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自 Wedbush Securities 的 Nick Setyan。

This is actually [Michael] on for Nick. Just two quick ones for me. Did you provide what wage inflation was in Q4? And then just the opening cadence for next year, it sounds as though you've got one in the first quarter, one in the second. Do you have any idea as to the timing of the relocation? Is that going to be Q3, Q4?

這實際上是 [Michael] 替 Nick 做的。對我來說只有兩個快速的。您是否提供了第四季度的工資通脹情況？然後就是明年的開場節奏，聽起來好像第一季度有一個，第二季度有一個。你知道搬遷的時間嗎？那會是Q3，Q4嗎？

So on the openings, the relocation will tend to be Q3. So we're looking at kind of one is here in Q1, one in Q2. And then we start to finish off the year hopefully with the remaining three. We'd like to get the main thing in Q3, but probably we'll end up with one to two in Q3 and then one to two or however it falls out into Q4.

所以在開口上，搬遷將傾向於Q3。所以我們正在看第一季度的一種，第二季度的一種。然後我們開始滿懷希望地用剩下的三個來結束這一年。我們希望在第三季度獲得主要的東西，但可能我們最終會在第三季度以一比二結束，然後以一比二結束，或者它會落入第四季度。

And let me answer the question for wage growth inflation. In Q4, on the hourly front, we saw about a 7% year-over-year increase in the wages.

讓我回答工資增長通脹的問題。在第四季度，在小時方面，我們看到工資同比增長約 7%。

And our final question is from Andrew Wolf with C. L. King.

我們的最後一個問題來自 Andrew Wolf 和 C. L. King。

I might have missed this. I don't know if you mentioned or could quantify if there -- what the impact might have been from the terrible monsoon like rains that occurred in California during the quarter?

我可能錯過了這個。我不知道您是否提到或可以量化是否存在 - 本季度加利福尼亞州發生的可怕的季風降雨可能會產生什麼影響？

Andrew, we did not quantify it. It definitely was a headwind -- going over COVID from a year ago with Omicron from a year ago. And those rains were the kind of the last of December and the first couple of weeks of January that that was coming through. It got masked a little bit because of just the challenge a year ago from Omicron that really, I think, hit our industry and a lot of other industries strongly, I guess, or impactfully.

安德魯，我們沒有量化它。這絕對是一個逆風——從一年前開始與 Omicron 一起討論 COVID。那些雨是 12 月的最後一個和 1 月的前幾週下的雨。它被掩蓋了一點，因為一年前來自 Omicron 的挑戰，我認為，我認為，這真的對我們的行業和許多其他行業產生了強烈的打擊，我猜，或者影響很大。

We did mention because there was somebody else that asked the question about how the year started, I think it was Drew over up there. We kind of said the first couple of weeks of January our comp sales were north of 20% per se in that kind of double digits. So we started the year really strong. They probably would have been even higher if we didn't have the rains in California.

我們確實提到了，因為還有其他人問了關於這一年是如何開始的問題，我想是德魯在那邊。我們有點說 1 月份的前幾週，我們的 comp 銷售額本身就超過了 20%，達到了那種兩位數。所以我們今年開局非常強勁。如果加利福尼亞沒有下雨，它們可能會更高。

Okay. That's good color. I appreciate that. And now you're saying high single digit is sort of the current trend and is that against a normal -- is there any Omicron benefit in that? I guess it's really the straight question -- or is that, I guess, a non-Omicron compare?

好的。這個顏色好我很感激。現在你說高個位數是當前趨勢，這是否與正常情況相反——Omicron 在這方面有什麼好處嗎？我想這真的是一個直截了當的問題——或者，我想，這是一個非 Omicron 的比較？

Not really. I think as we've seen from other companies as well if you look at Black Box and other data, it definitely comes -- it's kind of like a ski slope, maybe a black diamond ski slope or double black diamond [sunset]. The first couple of weeks of January were really impactful. And then you kind of move through January, things start to normalize and companies built their sales, we did as well from a year ago. As we stand to look at ourselves here in the February timeframe it's much more of a normalized operation. It was, again, at this time last year about staffing up and we're able to drive dining room sales, and that's where we think we are today. But that big impact of (inaudible) was kind of the end of December into the first few weeks of January.

並不真地。我認為，正如我們從其他公司看到的那樣，如果你查看 Black Box 和其他數據，它肯定會出現——它有點像滑雪坡，可能是黑鑽石滑雪坡或雙黑鑽石 [日落]。一月的前幾週真的很有影響力。然後你有點過了一月份，事情開始正常化，公司建立了他們的銷售，我們從一年前開始也是如此。當我們在 2 月的時間框架內審視自己時，這更像是一種正常化的操作。去年的這個時候又是關於人員配備，我們能夠推動餐廳銷售，這就是我們認為今天的情況。但是（聽不清）的巨大影響是在 12 月底到 1 月的前幾週。

Got you. And the other question I wanted to ask was I think you plan -- well, you said you're planning a 10% menu item reduction. And you kind of obviously mentioned that it will help the P&L. But could you maybe give a little more color? I'm sure the operating cost that simplifies that as I was sort of thinking about it, there must be items that selling so good, so you might save some shrink and procurement might get better. So just a sort of a sense of how that helps at the restaurant level? And also, the flip side, how do you think about and plan for potential lost sales and sort of work that -- support that all out.

明白了我想問的另一個問題是我認為你計劃——好吧，你說你計劃減少 10% 的菜單項目。你顯然提到這將有助於損益表。但是你能不能給點顏色？我確信運營成本簡化了我正在考慮的事情，一定有賣得這麼好的東西，所以你可以節省一些損失，採購可能會變得更好。那麼，這只是一種對餐廳層面有何幫助的感覺？而且，另一方面，您如何考慮和計劃潛在的銷售損失以及全力支持的工作。

Yes. Andrew, first of all, that's a great question, very insightful question and that is it's much easier to grow sales when you're adding items especially growing sales when you take items away. And so we've been testing the smaller menu for a while right now, trying a couple of things with different placements, trying to see how we lose between if we're losing anything on add-ons or if we're losing it in the entree side or how we can mix guests from one item to the next. And based on our testing to-date, it looks like we're able to pretty close hold on to our current average check and our trend based on what we are removing from our restaurants.

是的。安德魯，首先，這是一個很好的問題，非常有見地的問題，那就是當你添加商品時增加銷售額要容易得多，尤其是當你拿走商品時增加銷售額。所以我們現在一直在測試較小的菜單，嘗試一些不同位置的東西，看看如果我們在附加組件上丟失任何東西，或者如果我們在主菜方面或我們如何將客人從一個項目混合到另一個項目。根據我們迄今為止的測試，看起來我們能夠非常接近我們當前的平均支票和我們基於我們從餐廳移除的東西的趨勢。

And then we continue to look at them exactly, as you said, what are the high sellers, what's their reach and their frequency to the consumer because it's something that might have low frequency like perfect take out. But if it's got a broad reach to consumers, you end up losing those consumers. So as much as we would like to say (inaudible) the way we manage against it as we test it. And then on those tests, we've done a couple of different iterations where we move different items in different places on the menu.

然後我們繼續準確地研究它們，正如你所說，什麼是高賣家，它們對消費者的影響力和頻率是多少，因為它可能具有低頻率，如完美外賣。但如果它對消費者有廣泛的影響，你最終會失去這些消費者。因此，儘管我們想說（聽不清）我們在測試它時對其進行管理的方式。然後在這些測試中，我們進行了幾次不同的迭代，將不同的項目移動到菜單的不同位置。

So that when we come into the July timeframe and roll it out, we'll feel comfortable what it does to topline sales and feel comfortable what it does to the restaurant operations. And your restaurant operations is twofold. One is it will help with prep because you won't have as many items as most of you talk about menu items that we're removing, it's really about the prep hours and reducing more SKUs around prep than actual items for the guests -- and that's one area that we go after when we look at it. And then the other side of it is the ability to cut something or just the memorization and repetition from less items will make our current products that much better.

因此，當我們進入 7 月的時間表並推出它時，我們會對它對銷售收入的影響感到滿意，並對它對餐廳運營的影響感到滿意。您的餐廳運營是雙重的。一是它會幫助準備工作，因為你們不會像大多數人談論我們正在刪除的菜單項目那樣擁有那麼多的項目，這實際上是關於準備時間和減少比客人實際項目更多的準備工作的 SKU --這是我們審視它時所追求的一個領域。然後它的另一面是削減某些東西的能力，或者只是從更少的項目中記憶和重複將使我們當前的產品變得更好。

So we'd rather serve a little bit less items but make sure every single item is perfect, time is really the goal there. The other thing I do want to bring up is as much as we work this down, BJ's is for having a broad menu. We're not looking over time to get down to 60 items or 70 items, a competitive advantage and a differentiator for BJ's is to have a broader menu than traditional mass casual concepts. So we will always continue to have that as we continue to go forward, and we'll continue to kind of prune where it's appropriate and make sure what we're putting on matches the Brewhouse fit for the BJ's concept.

所以我們寧願少點菜品，但要確保每一件菜品都是完美的，時間才是真正的目標。我確實想提出的另一件事是，儘管我們正在努力解決這個問題，但 BJ's 的菜單很豐富。我們不希望隨著時間的推移減少到 60 件或 70 件，BJ's 的競爭優勢和差異化因素是擁有比傳統大眾休閒概念更廣泛的菜單。因此，隨著我們繼續前進，我們將始終保持這一點，我們將繼續在適當的地方進行修剪，並確保我們放置的東西與 Brewhouse 相匹配，適合 BJ 的概念。

And that was our final question. So we can conclude today's conference. Thank you, everybody, for your participation, and have a wonderful evening.

這是我們的最後一個問題。這樣我們就可以結束今天的會議了。謝謝大家的參與，祝大家度過一個愉快的夜晚。

Thank you.

謝謝。