BJ's Restaurants Inc (BJRI) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to BJ's Restaurants, Inc. Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Release and Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. (Operator Instructions) Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Rana Schirmer, Director of SEC Reporting. Thank you. You may begin.

歡迎參加 BJ's Dining, Inc. 2023 年第二季度收益發布和電話會議。此時，所有參與者都處於只聽模式。正式演講之後將舉行問答環節。 （操作員說明）請注意，本次會議正在錄製中。我現在將會議交給 SEC 報告總監 Rana Schirmer。謝謝。你可以開始了。

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our fiscal 2023 second quarter investor conference call and webcast. After the market closed today, we released our financial results for our fiscal 2023 second quarter. You can view the full text of our earnings release on our website at www.bjsrestaurants.com.

謝謝你，接線員。大家下午好，歡迎參加我們的 2023 財年第二季度投資者電話會議和網絡廣播。今天收盤後，我們發布了 2023 財年第二季度的財務業績。您可以在我們的網站 www.bjsrestaurants.com 上查看我們財報的全文。

I will begin by reminding you that our comments on the conference call today will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. These statements are based on management's current business and market expectations, and our actual results could differ materially from those projections in the forward-looking statements.

首先，我要提醒您，我們今天在電話會議上的評論將包含 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述。請投資者註意，前瞻性陳述並不是對未來業績的保證，並且不應視為對未來業績的保證。不應依賴此類聲明。這些陳述基於管理層當前的業務和市場預期，我們的實際結果可能與前瞻性陳述中的預測存在重大差異。

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.

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、未來事件還是其他原因，除非證券法要求這樣做。投資者應參考該公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中包含的與前瞻性陳述相關的風險和不確定性的全面討論。

We will start today's call with prepared remarks from Greg Levin, our Chief Executive Officer and President; and Tom Houdek, our Chief Financial Officer, after which we will take your questions. Greg Lynds, our Chief Development Officer, is also on hand for Q&A sessions. And with that, I will turn the call over to Greg Levin. Greg?

我們將以我們的首席執行官兼總裁 Greg Levin 準備好的講話開始今天的電話會議；以及我們的首席財務官 Tom Houdek，之後我們將回答您的問題。我們的首席開發官 Greg Lynds 也出席了問答環節。接下來，我會將電話轉給格雷格·萊文 (Greg Levin)。格雷格？

Thank you, Rana. BJ's delivered another solid quarter, growing top line sales and expanding margins year-over-year. Our total revenues increased by more than 6%, led by strong comparable restaurant sales of 4.7%. We are proud that these results once again beat the industry as measured by Black Box, both in terms of sales and traffic for the quarter.

謝謝你，拉娜。 BJ's 再次實現了穩健的季度業績，銷售額逐年增長，利潤率逐年擴大。我們的總收入增長了 6% 以上，主要得益於 4.7% 的強勁可比餐廳銷售額。我們感到自豪的是，根據 Black Box 的衡量，這些結果在本季度的銷售額和流量方面再次擊敗了行業。

Consumer demand trends were generally stable and consistent throughout the second quarter, and the same trends have continued into the first 3 weeks of the third quarter. Importantly, our margin improvement initiatives are also delivering results as we made meaningful progress on this front with restaurant-level margins reaching 14.5%, which was 260 basis points higher than last year and our highest margin level since the pandemic.

整個第二季度消費者需求趨勢總體穩定且一致，同樣的趨勢也持續到第三季度的前三週。重要的是，我們的利潤率改善舉措也取得了成果，我們在這方面取得了有意義的進展，餐廳利潤率達到 14.5%，比去年高 260 個基點，也是疫情大流行以來我們的最高利潤水平。

We still have wood to chop to get back to the high teens pre-pandemic margin levels, but the progress we have made to date confirms the effectiveness of the strategy that we have laid out last year. Our teams are laser-focused on methodically executing against this strategy, which drives our confidence and optimism that we can continue to build margins in the near term and over longer horizons.

要恢復到大流行前十幾歲的高利潤水平，我們仍然有很多工作要做，但我們迄今為止所取得的進展證實了我們去年制定的戰略的有效性。我們的團隊專注於有條不紊地執行這一戰略，這增強了我們的信心和樂觀態度，讓我們相信我們可以在短期和更長期的範圍內繼續創造利潤。

Our sales and margin growth strategy is based on our in-depth consumer research and focuses on building the BJ's brand over the long term quarter-by-quarter and year-by-year. We know that our guests escape to BJ's for a dining experience rooted in gold standard service and gracious hospitality delivered by our restaurant team. Our guests want familiar food items made Brewhouse fabulous, all in an ambience that is of higher quality, differentiated and full of energy compared to mass market casual dining concepts.

我們的銷售和利潤增長戰略基於我們深入的消費者研究，並專注於逐季度和逐年長期打造 BJ 品牌。我們知道，我們的客人來到 BJ's 是為了享受植根於我們餐廳團隊提供的黃金標準服務和殷勤款待的用餐體驗。與大眾市場休閒餐飲概念相比，我們的客人想要在 Brewhouse 製作的熟悉的食品，享受更高品質、差異化且充滿活力的氛圍。

To deliver gracious hospitality and gold standard service, we methodically rebuilt our restaurant teams to make sure we are always delivering memorable experiences for our guests. Our second quarter restaurant manager retention exceeded the same quarter in 2019, and we continue to see improvements in our hourly team member retention as we narrow the gap to pre-COVID levels.

為了提供親切的款待和黃金標準的服務，我們有條不紊地重建了我們的餐廳團隊，以確保我們始終為客人提供難忘的體驗。我們第二季度的餐廳經理保留率超過了 2019 年同一季度，隨著我們縮小與新冠疫情爆發前水平的差距，我們的小時團隊成員保留率繼續有所改善。

As a result of more tenured team members at both manager and hourly ranks, our labor productivity metrics in the second quarter were better than a year ago and better than 2019, highlighting that we cannot only drive record sales but drive those sales very efficiently. We were also able to drive those efficiencies while maintaining our strong Net Promoter Scores.

由於經理和小時級別的終身團隊成員數量增加，我們第二季度的勞動生產率指標優於一年前，也優於 2019 年，這凸顯出我們不僅推動了創紀錄的銷售，而且非常有效地推動了這些銷售。我們還能夠提高效率，同時保持強勁的淨推薦值。

In regard to our culinary strategy, we rolled out our new menu in July that has 15% fewer items and is focused on familiar items made Brewhouse fabulous based on our guest research. Having less items, but the right items for our guests will allow us to improve our daily execution by increasing repetition of guest favorites while reducing prep hours in our kitchen, both of which can, over time, contribute to our sales and margin growth goals.

關於我們的烹飪策略，我們在 7 月份推出了新菜單，菜單中的菜品減少了 15%，並且根據我們的客人研究，重點關注熟悉的菜品，使 Brewhouse 變得非常棒。擁有更少的物品，但為客人提供合適的物品將使我們能夠通過增加客人最愛的重複次數來提高我們的日常執行力，同時減少廚房的準備時間，隨著時間的推移，這兩者都可以有助於我們的銷售和利潤增長目標。

At the same time, we introduced some new items that squarely fit with this culinary strategy, including our new big twist pretzel appetizer served with beer cheese made with BJ's Brewhouse blond beer, hickory brisket nachos, and we upgraded some of our signature cocktails. Demand for these new items is strong, demonstrating our product innovation is connecting with the preferences specific to BJ's guests.

與此同時，我們推出了一些完全符合這一烹飪策略的新菜品，包括我們新推出的大扭椒鹽捲餅開胃菜，搭配用 BJ's Brewhouse 金色啤酒製成的啤酒奶酪、山核桃牛胸肉玉米片，我們還升級了一些招牌雞尾酒。對這些新產品的需求強勁，這表明我們的產品創新與北京客人的特定偏好相結合。

Because we know that our ambience, coupled with our team members' gracious hospitality and higher-quality food profile is key to serving memorable brewhouse experiences for our guests, we continue to invest in our remodel initiative. As you may recall, our remodel program includes a variety of potential improvements including additional seating capacity, an updated bar statement, new lighting, artwork, booths and tables. The new bar statement is amazing and includes a much lighter, more contemporary bar featuring a new 130-inch television that screams Brewhouse theater to all guests.

因為我們知道，我們的氛圍、加上我們團隊成員的殷勤款待和更高品質的食品是為客人提供難忘啤酒廠體驗的關鍵，因此我們繼續投資於我們的改造計劃。您可能還記得，我們​​的改造計劃包括各種潛在的改進，包括額外的座位容量、更新的酒吧聲明、新的照明、藝術品、攤位和桌子。新的酒吧風格令人驚嘆，其中包括一個更輕便、更現代的酒吧，配有一台新的 130 英寸電視，讓所有客人都尖叫著啤酒廠劇院的感覺。

We now expect to remodel 35 to 40 restaurants this year. That's up from our original plan of approximately 30 remodels due to the encouraging results and financial return profile, these restaurant remodels have delivered to date as measured by incremental guest traffic and restaurant profit. When including the 9 remodels we completed last year, we now expect to have remodeled at least 20% of our restaurants by year-end.

我們現在預計今年將改造 35 至 40 家餐廳。由於令人鼓舞的結果和財務回報狀況，這比我們最初計劃的約 30 次改造有所增加，根據增量客流量和餐廳利潤衡量，這些餐廳改造迄今已交付。如果算上去年完成的 9 項改造，我們現在預計到年底將改造至少 20% 的餐廳。

While the best way for us to continue our margin growth is by driving top line sales, since every additional sales dollar earned leverages the fixed elements of our restaurants cost structure, we also laid out a plan last year to identify at least $25 million of 4-wall savings opportunities that will benefit our restaurant operating margins while maintaining our quality standards.

雖然我們繼續利潤增長的最佳方式是推動營收增長，但由於每增加一美元的銷售收入都會利用我們餐廳成本結構的固定要素，因此我們去年還制定了一項計劃，以確定至少 2500 萬美元的 4 -節省牆壁的機會，這將有利於我們餐廳的運營利潤，同時保持我們的質量標準。

I am pleased to announce that during the second quarter, we surpassed the $25 million goal on an annualized basis, which helped reduce food, labor and operating and occupancy costs. While we are proud to have achieved this milestone, the team has identified significant additional savings opportunities, which we expect to realize later this year as we continue to execute against our cost savings initiatives.

我很高興地宣布，第二季度我們超出了年化 2500 萬美元的目標，這有助於降低食品、勞動力以及運營和占用成本。雖然我們為實現這一里程碑感到自豪，但團隊已經確定了大量額外的節省機會，隨著我們繼續執行成本節省計劃，我們預計將在今年晚些時候實現這一目標。

As we continue to build top line sales and expand margins, we also continue to open new restaurants in a balanced manner. To date, in 2023, we opened 2 new restaurants and expect to open 3 more restaurants this year for a total of 5 new restaurants in fiscal 2023, including one of which will be a relocation in Chandler, Arizona.

在我們繼續建立頂線銷售額並擴大利潤的同時，我們還繼續以平衡的方式開設新餐廳。迄今為止，2023 年我們新開了 2 家餐廳，預計今年將再開設 3 家餐廳，到 2023 財年新餐廳總數將達到 5 家，其中一家將搬遷到亞利桑那州錢德勒。

As many of you know, overall new restaurant construction costs, including furniture, fixtures and equipment as well as the related supply chain costs have increased by over 35% since 2019, bringing some of our new restaurant builds to the mid-$7 million range on a gross basis before any tenant allowance funding. As a result, our development department has been busy designing a new prototype that takes the best features of our current restaurant but reduces the cost to build by about $1 million.

眾所周知，自 2019 年以來，新餐廳的總體建設成本（包括家具、固定裝置和設備以及相關供應鏈成本）增加了 35% 以上，使我們的一些新餐廳建設成本達到 700 萬美元左右。任何租戶津貼資金之前的總額。因此，我們的開發部門一直忙於設計一個新的原型，該原型採用了我們當前餐廳的最佳功能，但將建造成本降低了約 100 萬美元。

Because of the significant savings, we are submitting new plans for most of our 2024 new restaurants. Our development team is working closely with planning commissions in each city to get the new plans approved as quickly as possible. However, to be conservative, we expect the timing of approvals of these new prototypes will result in some 2024 new restaurant openings moving later into the year and possibly into 2025. As such, I expect 2024 new restaurant openings to be similar in number to this past year, and then we will see an increase in new restaurant openings in 2025.

由於節省了大量資金，我們正在為大多數 2024 年新餐廳提交新計劃。我們的開發團隊正在與每個城市的規劃委員會密切合作，以盡快讓新規劃獲得批准。然而，保守地說，我們預計這些新原型的批准時間將導致 2024 年新餐廳開業時間推遲到今年晚些時候，甚至可能推遲到 2025 年。因此，我預計 2024 年新餐廳開業數量與此類似。去年，我們將看到 2025 年新餐廳開業數量增加。

As we have said many times, our goal is to reaccelerate our new restaurant expansion and grow restaurant weeks by 5% plus annually. However, we are going to do it with the right quality and at the right investment cost to continue to drive strong new restaurant investment returns. With 5% plus new restaurant growth, consistent comp sales in the low to mid-single-digit range and expanding restaurant margins, we should achieve very strong EBITDA and earnings growth for our shareholders.

正如我們多次說過的，我們的目標是重新加速新餐廳擴張，並將餐廳週數每年增加 5% 以上。然而，我們將以正確的質量和正確的投資成本來繼續推動新餐廳的強勁投資回報。隨著新餐廳增長 5% 以上、公司銷售額持續保持在中低個位數範圍以及餐廳利潤率不斷擴大，我們應該為股東實現非常強勁的 EBITDA 和盈利增長。

In summary, we laid out a plan last year to methodically drive top line sales, grow our restaurant margins and continue our national expansion. Over the last several quarters, we have been consistently executing against this plan and building momentum in our business. I am extremely proud of our restaurant team members who, day in and day out, get to provide memorable experiences for our guests, thus enabling us to drive towards our goal of growing BJ's to $2 billion in sales and beyond.

總之，我們去年制定了一項計劃，有條不紊地推動營收增長、提高餐廳利潤並繼續在全國范圍內擴張。在過去的幾個季度中，我們一直在堅持執行這一計劃，並為我們的業務創造動力。我為我們的餐廳團隊成員感到非常自豪，他們日復一日地為我們的客人提供難忘的體驗，從而使我們能夠推動 BJ's 銷售額達到 20 億美元甚至更高的目標。

With the positive reactions from our guests to all that we are doing, we are 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 midterm overall growth and margin expansion.

隨著客人對我們所做的一切的積極反應，我們越來越有信心，客人對我們的品牌和概念的喜愛，加上我們的業務軌跡以及我們當前的增長和利潤提升計劃將使我們能夠在附近實現有吸引力的目標以及中期整體增長和利潤率擴張。

And finally, I'm excited to announce that we will be hosting an Analyst Investor Day later this year when we will share greater detail around our near-term opportunities and our longer-term growth strategy. Stay tuned for further information in the coming weeks. Now let me turn it over to Tom to provide a more detailed update for the quarter and current trends. Tom?

最後，我很高興地宣布，我們將在今年晚些時候舉辦分析師投資者日，屆時我們將分享有關我們的近期機會和長期增長戰略的更多細節。請繼續關注未來幾週的更多信息。現在讓我將其交給 Tom，以提供有關本季度和當前趨勢的更詳細的更新。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.

謝謝格雷格，大家下午好。我將提供本季度的詳細信息和一些前瞻性觀點。請記住，本評論受到與我們向美國證券交易委員會提交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。

In the second quarter, total sales grew 6.1% to $350 million. On a comparable restaurant basis, sales increased by 4.7% over the prior year. Our restaurant level cash flow margin was 14.5% in the second quarter, an improvement of 260 basis points compared to the prior year. Comparable sales growth in conjunction with improving operating efficiencies and further progress on our cost savings initiatives contributed to our margin improvement.

第二季度總銷售額增長 6.1%，達到 3.5 億美元。按可比餐廳計算，銷售額比上年增長 4.7%。第二季度我們餐廳層面的現金流利潤率為 14.5%，比去年同期提高了 260 個基點。可比的銷售增長加上運營效率的提高以及成本節約計劃的進一步進展，促進了我們的利潤率提高。

Adjusted EBITDA was $31.8 million and 9.1% of sales in the second quarter, which beat the prior year by $8.4 million with a margin that was 200 basis points higher. We reported net income of $11.9 million and diluted net income per share of $0.50 on a GAAP basis for the quarter, both of which were materially higher than year ago levels. Our net income included a $2.2 million income tax benefit, which includes the usual FICA tip credit and applying our estimated annual effective tax rate as compared to a $2.2 million income tax expense from the same quarter a year ago.

調整後 EBITDA 為 3180 萬美元，佔第二季度銷售額的 9.1%，比上年同期增加 840 萬美元，利潤率高出 200 個基點。我們公佈的本季度淨利潤為 1190 萬美元，按 GAAP 計算的每股攤薄淨利潤為 0.50 美元，兩者均大幅高於去年同期水平。我們的淨收入包括 220 萬美元的所得稅福利，其中包括通常的 FICA 小費抵免和應用我們估計的年度有效稅率，而去年同期的所得稅費用為 220 萬美元。

From a weekly sales perspective, we averaged more than 124,000 per restaurant in the second quarter. The second quarter tends to be our strongest sales quarter seasonally, with outsized sales during the celebration weekends of Mother's Day and Father's Day as well as throughout graduation season. In fact, during the week that included Mother's Day, we set a new all-time high weekly restaurant sales average of $140,000, which beat our previous weekly record by nearly $10,000. Our California strength continued as it was again our strongest market, with Q2 comparable sales of 8%, with similar outperformance across all regions of the state.

從每週銷售額來看，第二季度我們每家餐廳的平均銷售額超過 124,000 份。第二季度往往是我們季節性銷售最強勁的季度，在母親節和父親節的慶祝週末以及整個畢業季期間銷售量巨大。事實上，在包括母親節在內的一周內，我們創下了餐廳平均每週銷售額 140,000 美元的歷史新高，比之前的每週記錄高出近 10,000 美元。我們在加州的優勢仍在繼續，因為它再次成為我們最強勁的市場，第二季度的可比銷售額為 8%，該州所有地區的表現也類似。

Moving to expenses. Our cost of sales was 25.9% in the quarter, which was 170 basis points favorable compared to Q2 of 2022 and 70 basis points favorable to Q1 of 2023. Food costs were about flat quarter-over-quarter and slightly deflationary year-over-year, which was moderately favorable to our expectations. The inflation figure would have been approximately 2 percentage points higher, if not for the benefits from the changes we implemented to date across our food basket as part of the cost savings initiative.

轉向開支。本季度我們的銷售成本為 25.9%，比 2022 年第二季度有利 170 個基點，比 2023 年第一季度有利 70 個基點。食品成本環比持平，同比略有通縮，這對我們的預期來說是比較有利的。如果不是因為我們迄今為止在食品籃子中實施的變革（作為成本節約計劃的一部分）所帶來的好處，通貨膨脹率可能會高出約 2 個百分點。

Labor and benefits expense was 36.2% of sales in the second quarter, which was 110 basis points favorable compared to the second quarter of last year. We made further strides improving our labor efficiency in the quarter, which was driven in part by increased labor retention in our restaurants, which was at its best level in more than 2 years. A number of the labor efficiency metrics we track, including items per labor hour were better this quarter than pre-COVID levels from the second quarter of 2019, illustrating the high level our restaurant teams are operating at as well as the effectiveness of our cost savings initiative to date with respect to refining and optimizing our labor model.

第二季度勞動力和福利費用佔銷售額的36.2%，比去年第二季度有利110個基點。我們在本季度的勞動力效率方面取得了進一步的進步，部分原因是我們餐廳的勞動力保留率有所提高，達到了兩年多來的最佳水平。我們跟踪的許多勞動效率指標（包括每工時的物品數）從 2019 年第二季度開始均優於新冠疫情爆發前的水平，這說明了我們餐廳團隊的高運營水平以及我們節省成本的有效性迄今為止在完善和優化我們的勞動力模式方面的舉措。

Operating and occupancy expenses were 23.4% of sales in the quarter, which was 20 basis points unfavorable compared to the second quarter of last year. Marketing was 2.1% of sales, which was 20 basis points unfavorable versus a year ago and 70 basis points unfavorable to last quarter due to a media campaign using new creative with all of the production cost expense in the quarter.

運營和占用費用佔該季度銷售額的23.4%，與去年第二季度相比不利20個基點。營銷佔銷售額的 2.1%，與一年前相比下降了 20 個基點，與上季度相比下降了 70 個基點，這是由於使用新創意的媒體宣傳活動以及本季度的所有製作成本費用。

G&A was $21.2 million in the second quarter. Included in G&A with $600,000 of deferred compensation expense tied to fund performance in our deferred compensation plan, which was $400,000 higher than in Q1. As a reminder, this is a noncash item that has an offsetting entry in other income and expense line in our P&L.

第二季度一般管理費用為 2120 萬美元。包括在一般管理費用中的 600,000 美元遞延薪酬費用與我們遞延薪酬計劃中的基金業績掛鉤，比第一季度高出 400,000 美元。提醒一下，這是一個非現金項目，在我們的損益表的其他收入和支出行中具有抵消條目。

Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $53 million of debt after repaying $7 million of our revolver during the quarter. Note that our ending cash balance of $6 million was impacted by the July 4 holiday falling on the last day of our fiscal quarter. We typically receive credit card transaction funds for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays on the following Tuesday. Since this Tuesday, July 4 was a bank holiday, we had $19 million of cash in transit from credit card sales that was not reflected in our quarter end cash balance.

轉向資產負債表。在本季度償還了 700 萬美元的左輪手槍後，我們本季度末的債務為 5300 萬美元。請注意，我們的期末現金餘額為 600 萬美元，受到本財季最後一天的 7 月 4 日假期的影響。我們通常會在下週二收到週五、週六和周日的信用卡交易資金。由於 7 月 4 日星期二是銀行假日，我們從信用卡銷售中獲得了 1,900 萬美元的現金，這沒有反映在我們的季末現金餘額中。

Looking ahead to the third quarter, we are entering what is typically our lowest sales quarter seasonally. Factoring in recent trends, we expect comparable restaurant sales in the high 3% to low 4% range for the quarter, taking into account less of a pricing benefit once we begin lapping our August 22 pricing round, which equates to sales in the $330 million area.

展望第三季度，我們正在進入通常是季節性銷售最低的季度。考慮到最近的趨勢，我們預計本季度可比餐廳銷售額將在 3% 的高位到 4% 的低位範圍內，考慮到一旦我們開始完成 8 月 22 日的定價輪，定價收益將減少，這相當於 3.3 億美元的銷售額區域。

Factoring in our sales expectations and cost trends, we expect restaurant level cash flow margins to be in the mid-12% area for Q3, significantly above last year's Q3 margins. Based on the current momentum in our business and our cost savings initiatives, we remain committed and optimistic to deliver low to mid-teens restaurant-level margins on a run rate basis as we exit the year.

考慮到我們的銷售預期和成本趨勢，我們預計第三季度餐廳層面的現金流利潤率將在 12% 左右，顯著高於去年第三季度的利潤率。根據我們當前的業務勢頭和成本節約舉措，我們仍然致力於並樂觀地在今年結束時以運行率為基礎實現餐廳低至中十幾水平的利潤。

We continue to expect G&A in the $80 million to $82 million range for the year. Our CapEx expectations remain in the $90 million to $95 million range for the year, which includes 5 restaurant openings and now the higher 35 to 40 restaurant remodels target. Two of our new restaurants are opened and performing very well, and we expect to open the remaining 3 later in the third quarter, one which will be a relocation.

我們預計今年的一般行政費用將在 8000 萬至 8200 萬美元之間。我們今年的資本支出預期仍保持在 9000 萬至 9500 萬美元的範圍內，其中包括新開 5 家餐廳以及現在更高的 35 至 40 家餐廳改造目標。我們的兩家新餐廳已開業且業績非常好，我們預計將在第三季度晚些時候開設其餘 3 家餐廳，其中一家將搬遷。

In summary, we know the best way to grow margins and profit is to grow sales. Recent sales trends have been encouraging, with demand for higher quality experience of dining remaining strong, especially at BJ's, and we expect to continue making progress with our sales building initiatives. At the same time, we remain committed to productivity and cost savings through our margin improvement initiatives with momentum continuing to build.

總之，我們知道增加利潤和利潤的最佳方法是增加銷售額。最近的銷售趨勢令人鼓舞，對更高品質餐飲體驗的需求仍然強勁，尤其是在 BJ's，我們預計我們的銷售建設計劃將繼續取得進展。與此同時，我們仍然致力於通過提高利潤率的舉措來提高生產力和節省成本，並不斷增強勢頭。

We have a clear path to sales and margin growth ahead and our long-term strategy and stronger consumer appeal for the BJ's concept position us well to continue building on our successes in enhancing shareholder value. Thank you for your time today, and we'll now open the call to your questions. Operator?

我們有一條明確的銷售和利潤增長之路，我們的長期戰略和 BJ 概念對消費者的更強大吸引力使我們能夠繼續在提高股東價值方面取得成功。感謝您今天抽出時間，我們現在將開始回答您的問題。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Joshua Long with Stephens Incorporated.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Stephens Incorporated 的 Joshua Long。

I was curious if you could dive in a little bit more on the top line trends. There's been -- I think you noted some strength across region. Positive to hear that. Curious if you could talk about daypart trends, any sort of other kind of maybe store level trends that you're seeing in terms of trade down or kind of check management. I know you have kind of a holistic approach to both the ambience, the hospitality, menu innovation, a lot of great things that are working. But just curious what you see from the consumer as you parse through all of those initiatives.

我很好奇您是否能更深入地了解一下頂線趨勢。我認為您注意到了整個地區的一些優勢。聽到這個消息很積極。很好奇您是否可以談論時段趨勢，以及您在降價或支票管理方面看到的任何其他類型的商店級別趨勢。我知道你們對氛圍、熱情好客、菜單創新以及許多正在發揮作用的偉大事物都有一種整體的方法。但只是好奇當你解析所有這些舉措時你從消費者那裡看到了什麼。

Josh, it's Greg. I'll let Tom add on here, I'm sure. It's been very consistent across all the dayparts in our business as well as looking at the business both on the weekend and the week days. We haven't seen much trade down or I don't want to say much. I don't think we've seen any trade down at all. I think the way our menu is set up with things like daily Brewhouse Specials seems to be able to bring in people from a traffic standpoint. But we're not necessarily seeing people trade down to daily brewhouse specials.

喬什，是格雷格。我相信我會讓湯姆在這裡補充一下。我們業務的所有時段以及週末和工作日的業務都非常一致。我們還沒有看到太多的交易下跌，或者我不想說太多。我認為我們根本沒有看到任何交易下降。我認為我們的菜單設置方式（例如每日啤酒廠特價）似乎能夠從流量的角度吸引人們。但我們不一定會看到人們轉而購買每日啤酒廠特價產品。

We continue to sell a lot of our higher-end items like our prime rib as well as our ribeye, and alcohol incidence and all those continue to do well for us, especially versus 2019. And as we look through April, May, June and into July, as we said earlier, April was a little choppy to begin with and things got really consistent in June. First week of July was a little choppy. I think just with the way July 4 played. But as we got out of July 4 time frame, again, trends have been consistent. Tom, I anything you want to add to that?

我們繼續銷售許多高端產品，例如我們的上等肋骨、肋眼牛排和酒精含量，所有這些產品都繼續對我們有利，特別是與 2019 年相比。當我們回顧 4 月、5 月、6 月和進入七月，正如我們之前所說，四月一開始有點波動，但六月情況變得非常穩定。七月的第一周有點波濤洶湧。我認為就像 7 月 4 日的比賽方式一樣。但當我們走出 7 月 4 日的時間框架時，趨勢再次保持一致。湯姆，你還有什麼要補充的嗎？

Yes, that's a great summary. Just to build on the incidence side. We continue to track just across our menu, how guests are using BJ's and we're really seeing very similar levels of dessert attachment, appetizer attachment, drink attachment and consistent levels of what types of things that they're ordering. So yes, we're watching to see if we'll see any consumer pressure leading to trade down or even increased usage of our things like daily brewhouse specials and happy hour and all of that. But it still seems very balanced. What we're seeing now is more seasonality driven than anything else, which is great.

是的，這是一個很好的總結。只是為了建立在發生率方面。我們繼續跟踪我們的菜單，客人如何使用 BJ's，我們確實看到了非常相似的甜點依戀、開胃菜依戀、飲料依戀以及他們點的東西類型的一致水平。所以，是的，我們正在觀察是否會看到任何消費者壓力導致我們的產品減少甚至增加使用，例如每日啤酒廠特色菜和歡樂時光等等。但看起來還是很平衡。我們現在看到的情況比其他任何事情都更受季節性驅動，這很棒。

That's very helpful. As a follow-up, when we kind of deconstruct that 4.7% same-store sales results for the quarter, can you talk about price that is embedded there, any sort of other mix or traffic components as well? And then as we think about just the back half of the year, what does that pricing look like? Is there anything planned? And if not, kind of how would that pricing component flow as we get into 3Q and 4Q?

這非常有幫助。作為後續，當我們解構該季度 4.7% 的同店銷售結果時，您能談談其中嵌入的價格、任何其他組合或流量組成部分嗎？然後，當我們考慮今年下半年時，定價會是什麼樣子？有什麼計劃嗎？如果沒有，當我們進入第三季度和第四季度時，定價部分將如何流動？

Sure. So for the quarter, the pricing was pretty similar to check and kind of the high single digits in that 7% or 8% range. We're exiting closer to that -- I think going into Q3, we'll start to lap over a 2% round in August last year. So pricing will come down a little bit going into Q3. So that was embedded in the Q3 estimates there. But traffic was down in the low single digits, a little bit better on the dining room side. But yes, overall, that's about how it worked between the pieces.

當然。因此，本季度的定價與支票非常相似，並且在 7% 或 8% 的範圍內達到高個位數。我們正在接近這個目標——我認為進入第三季度，我們將開始在去年 8 月完成 2% 的融資。因此，進入第三季度，價格將略有下降。因此，這一點已包含在第三季度的估計中。但客流量下降了低個位數，餐廳一側的情況稍好一些。但是，是的，總的來說，這就是各個部分之間的工作方式。

Great. And then last one for me, as we think about the opportunity around the remodel, it's exciting to hear that things are progressing. You found some opportunities there to tick that up a little bit. How are you thinking about that? Or maybe how is -- do you have the units to date flowed in terms of those various styles or approaches to the remodels? You've got everything from bar statements to upgrade and seating to lighting. There's definitely a portfolio or a spectrum of options there. How are you thinking about that? And as we think about the kind of incremental upside there in terms of number of remodels, how would you -- how would you describe kind of the portfolio and how it's shaping up?

偉大的。最後一個對我來說，當我們思考改造的機會時，聽到事情正在取得進展真是令人興奮。你在那裡找到了一些機會來稍微提高這一點。你覺得怎麼樣？或者也許是——迄今為止，您是否擁有各種風格或改造方法的單元？從酒吧聲明到升級，從座位到照明，一切應有盡有。那里肯定有一個投資組合或一系列選擇。你覺得怎麼樣？當我們考慮改造數量方面的增量上升空間時，您會如何描述投資組合的類型以及它是如何形成的？

Yes. Good question, Josh. I think the thing that we've seen out of the remodels is when we spend -- or we take the time to do the bar, you really get--

是的。好問題，喬什。我認為我們從改造中看到的事情是當我們花費——或者我們花時間做酒吧，你真的得到——

We are having technical difficulties. We will resume in just a moment. Once again, we are having technical difficulties, and we'll begin again in just a moment.

我們遇到技術困難。我們稍後再繼續。我們再次遇到技術困難，稍後我們將重新開始。

I'm going to take the assumption that we're back on, Josh, and let me answer your question. Are you there?

喬希，我假設我們已經回來了，然後讓我回答你的問題。你在嗎？

I am here.

我在這裡。

Sorry about that. A little technical difficulties. So what we found in the remodels is we do in the bar get that pop to our guests, and it actually energizes our team members as well. So as we've been going through the remodels, we've been trying to push more for the bar remodel, which does cost more. The bar remodel we said can be anywhere from $400,000 or $500,000 up to $700,000, but we end up getting a higher weekly sales average increase and we see higher profit from it and ends up driving still what we consider to be some good ROIs in the mid to 20% -- mid-teens up to the 20% range.

對於那個很抱歉。有點技術難度。因此，我們在改造中發現，我們在酒吧中所做的就是為我們的客人提供流行音樂，這實際上也為我們的團隊成員注入了活力。因此，當我們進行改造時，我們一直在努力推動酒吧改造，這確實花費更多。我們所說的酒吧改造費用可以從 400,000 美元或 500,000 美元到 700,000 美元不等，但我們最終獲得了更高的每週銷售平均增幅，我們從中看到了更高的利潤，最終仍然推動了我們認為中期良好的投資回報率到 20%——十幾歲到 20% 的範圍。

So as we continue to work through this, we'll continue with barrel booth remodels as we call them, adding, expand capacities and some other remodels. But we're trying to concentrate on getting that bar updated and refreshed for our team and for our guests.

因此，當我們繼續解決這個問題時，我們將繼續進行我們所說的桶展位改造，增加、擴大容量和一些其他改造。但我們正在努力集中精力為我們的團隊和客人更新和刷新酒吧。

That's helpful. And maybe just as a follow-up there. As we think about that being maybe the highest priority return opportunity, how much of the current remodels that had the bar refurbed and/or what does that ultimate opportunity look like if you think about all the stores out there that could receive a remodel?

這很有幫助。也許只是作為後續行動。當我們認為這可能是最高優先級的退貨機會時，當前有多少改造對酒吧進行了翻新和/或如果您考慮到所有可以接受改造的商店，那麼最終的機會是什麼樣的？

The bars are right now a little bit on the less. We've done a lot more of the barrel booths and we're going back and doing some of the bars in there. We've expanded the bar movement into -- or the bar refreshes really into the second half this year. And Greg Lynds, our Chief Development Officer, who's leading this initiative might have more on how many you think we can get in total, Greg?

酒吧現在有點少了。我們已經做了很多酒桶攤位，我們將回去做一些酒吧。我們已經將酒吧運動擴大到——或者酒吧真正刷新到今年下半年。領導這項計劃的首席開發官格雷格·林茲 (Greg Lynds) 可能會更多地介紹您認為我們總共可以得到多少個，格雷格？

Well, I think next year, we're thinking about the similar number overall. And the ones where this year, where we didn't do the bar remodel, we'll go back and just come back to do a bar remodel. So I mean, I don't have that number in front of me, Greg, but I would say 70% still we could probably upgrade our bars over time.

嗯，我想明年我們會考慮類似的總體數字。今年，我們沒有進行酒吧改造，我們將回去進行酒吧改造。所以我的意思是，格雷格，我面前沒有這個數字，但我想說 70%，隨著時間的推移，我們仍然可以升級我們的酒吧。

So there's -- I mean you think about the 130-inch plasma or the 130-inch TV that we're putting in there. that is not in any of our restaurants. So you take out the -- what we've been building the last couple of years, we've got probably a good 150 or 160 restaurants that we can do this to.

所以，我的意思是你想想我們放在那裡的 130 英寸等離子電視或 130 英寸電視。這是我們任何一家餐廳都沒有的。所以你把我們過去幾年一直在建設的東西拿出來，我們可能有 150 或 160 家餐廳，我們可以這樣做。

Our next question is from Alex Slagle with Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Alex Slagle。

Congrats on the progress. I wanted to ask on the restaurant level margins. And just to the degree you're seeing the slightly stronger comp trends and the new stores opening well and now exceeding your previous expectations on the productivity cost reductions. I mean it sounds like you're still looking for restaurant level margins next year in that low to mid-teens range like you previously talked about. But I would think that trajectory maybe move a little bit higher and just kind of wondering what some of the other drivers there that we need to think about in terms of pricing and commodity inflation trends that might be offsetting that to some degree, or just the pushes and pulls behind where that goes?

祝賀取得的進展。我想問一下餐廳的利潤率。就在某種程度上，您看到了稍微強勁的競爭趨勢和新店開業情況良好，並且現在超出了您之前對生產力成本降低的預期。我的意思是，聽起來您明年仍在尋找餐廳水平的利潤率，就像您之前談到的那樣，在十幾歲到十幾歲的範圍內。但我認為這一軌跡可能會走高一點，只是想知道我們需要考慮定價和大宗商品通脹趨勢方面的其他驅動因素，這些驅動因素可能會在某種程度上抵消這一趨勢，或者只是推拉後面那去哪兒了？

Yes. Great question, Alex. And as I said, there's still a lot of wood to chop here to continue to move the margins up. Our big wildcard really continues to be where the beef costs are going to be. So we start to look at it going into the second half of this year. We're expecting a little bit more commodity inflation even though we're working on some additional initiatives around the commodity side.

是的。好問題，亞歷克斯。正如我所說，要繼續提高利潤率，還有很多工作要做。我們最大的通配符確實仍然是牛肉成本。因此，我們從今年下半年開始考慮這一問題。儘管我們正在圍繞大宗商品方面採取一些額外舉措，但我們預計大宗商品通脹會有所上升。

And I think that's going to be our biggest challenge from that perspective. As Tom mentioned on his formal remarks, we do have some pricing rolling off, and we'll look and determine what's the right amount of pricing to go into the second half of this year to offset some of those inflationary pressures.

我認為從這個角度來看，這將是我們面臨的最大挑戰。正如湯姆在正式講話中提到的那樣，我們確實有一些定價下調，我們將研究並確定今年下半年的適當定價量，以抵消部分通脹壓力。

And then we continue to work through other initiatives around labor productivity, some of it we've talked about before, like using AI to help us sales forecast and therefore provide a more accurate schedule, which will -- should deliver both labor productivity improvements but also better taking care of the guests if we have the right people on at the right time.

然後我們繼續圍繞勞動生產率開展其他舉措，其中一些我們之前已經討論過，比如使用人工智能幫助我們預測銷售，從而提供更準確的時間表，這應該會帶來勞動生產率的提高，但如果我們在正確的時間安排正確的人員，我們也會更好地照顧客人。

And now that we've just rolled out our smaller menu, we're continuing to work through that and optimize the labor on that smaller menu. And that will take a little bit of time as much as we remove that menu, let's call it July 1. We haven't seen any changes from our guests from that smaller menu, which is the reason we tested it over the last year. We still have to continue to adjust schedules down a little bit based on how this new menu is rolling out, and that should give us additional efficiencies as well.

現在我們剛剛推出了較小的菜單，我們將繼續解決這個問題並優化較小菜單上的勞動力。這將需要一點時間，就像我們刪除該菜單一樣，我們稱之為 7 月 1 日。我們還沒有看到我們的客人對那個較小的菜單有任何改變，這就是我們去年測試它的原因。我們仍然需要根據新菜單的推出方式繼續稍微調整時間表，這也應該會給我們帶來額外的效率。

And I think as we mentioned in our remarks here, as a result, we feel very good about the momentum in our business and the optimism to get into where we want to go from our margins in regards to kind of low to mid-teens exiting this year and then growing margins in the next year.

我認為，正如我們在評論中提到的，因此，我們對我們業務的勢頭感到非常滿意，並且對進入我們想要從低到中青少年退出的利潤率的樂觀態度今年，然後明年的利潤率會不斷增長。

That's helpful. And to clarify on G&A, I guess it's stepped up a little bit from 1Q or maybe you're now tracking more towards the midpoint of the range versus lower end of the range? Is that the right way to think about it?

這很有幫助。為了澄清一般行政費用，我想它比第一季度有所上升，或者也許您現在更多地追踪範圍的中點而不是范圍的下端？這是正確的思考方式嗎？

Yes, Alex, the -- I called out the deferred compensation expense because that did -- just with the market going up, we see that run higher, which pushes G&A up. So that's probably fair. There is an element that's just market-driven that could move it up or down in the second half. But yes, we gave up some of the favorability based on this noncash item that reverses out further down to the P&L. But yes, that's -- we're still targeting at least the midpoint if we could potentially get it lower. But yes, I think the midpoint is a good place to model.

是的，亞歷克斯，我提到了遞延補償費用，因為那確實是隨著市場的上漲，我們看到它上漲，這推高了一般行政費用。所以這可能是公平的。有一個由市場驅動的因素可能會在下半年導致價格上漲或下跌。但是，是的，我們放棄了基於這個非現金項目的一些優惠，這些優惠進一步反轉到損益表上。但是，是的，如果我們有可能將其降低的話，我們仍然至少以中點為目標。但是，是的，我認為中點是建模的好地方。

And then just a final one on the traffic and weather impacts, if you're seeing anything kind of from the heat waves and smoke from Canadian wildfires anything like that impacting your business from what you can tell?

最後一個關於交通和天氣影響的問題是，您是否看到加拿大野火的熱浪和煙霧對您的業務產生了任何影響？

I can't really tell. I mean the trends have been just really pretty consistent throughout our business and throughout different markets. So we're not seeing any major changes one weekend or the other based on, I guess, weather conditions.

我實在說不出來。我的意思是，我們的業務和不同市場的趨勢非常一致。因此，我猜，根據天氣狀況，我們在某個週末或其他週末沒有看到任何重大變化。

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

我們的下一個問題來自奧本海默公司的布萊恩·比特納。

This is Mike Tamas on for Brian. In the second quarter, your same-store sales were kind of where you guided to, but your restaurant margins of 14.5% were well above the low to mid-13% range that you guided to. So the first question is what were the positive surprises relative to what you were thinking internally for 2Q at the time? And was there anything timing-related there? Or how sustainable do you feel some of these movements are?

我是麥克·塔馬斯 (Mike Tamas) 替布萊恩 (Brian) 發言。第二季度，你們的同店銷售額達到了你們所設定的目標，但你們的餐廳利潤率為 14.5%，遠高於你們所設定的 13% 的低至中水平範圍。因此，第一個問題是，與您當時對第二季度的內部想法相比，有哪些積極的驚喜？那裡有什麼與時間相關的事情嗎？或者您認為其中一些運動的可持續性如何？

Mike, it's Greg Levin. A big part of the increase in margins was really on the labor line. And I got to give my hats off to Chris Pinsak, our Chief Restaurant Operations Officer and our Vice President of Operations and really the entire restaurant management team. As we kind of mentioned in the call, the tenure in our management team working through the challenges of rehiring people back and then driving the efficiencies or managing the efficiencies as we increased our weekly sales average week-to-week year from last year really improved.

邁克，我是格雷格·萊文。利潤增長的很大一部分實際上來自於勞動力。我要向我們的首席餐廳運營官、運營副總裁以及整個餐廳管理團隊致敬 Chris Pinsak。正如我們在電話中提到的那樣，我們的管理團隊在解決重新僱用人員的挑戰，然後提高效率或管理效率方面的任期確實有所改善，因為我們每周平均銷售額比去年有所提高。

And ultimately, our restaurant level -- or excuse, our overall labor, I think, came in at 36.2%. And last year, it was like a 36% or 35.9%. So when I started to think about that labor line, it's gotten really, really close to where we were in 2019. And again, hat's off to the operators. They did a really nice job in regards to driving efficiencies in our business. I'll let Tom talk through anything on cost of sales, operating occupancy.

最終，我們的餐廳水平——或者藉口說，我們的整體勞動力，我認為是 36.2%。去年，這個比例大概是 36% 或 35.9%。因此，當我開始考慮勞工線時，它已經非常非常接近我們 2019 年的情況。再次向操作員致敬。他們在提高我們業務效率方面做得非常好。我會讓湯姆談談有關銷售成本、運營佔用率的任何事情。

Yes. And we've also mentioned on food cost. So we are getting some nice benefits from the margin improvement initiative, but also the market has -- was a little better than we were expecting. There were some areas that we saw some deflation across the menu, even from Q1 into Q2 that we weren't expecting. Things like our prime rib, salmon, ribs, we saw some modest upside as well as cheese. We saw go the other direction on things like tri-tip and ground chunks, but there was definitely areas that we saw some modest improvement there to. So we're above and beyond just what we were gathering from our margin improvement initiatives.

是的。我們還提到了食品成本。因此，我們從利潤改善計劃中獲得了一些不錯的收益，而且市場也比我們預期的要好一些。我們在菜單的某些領域看到了一些通貨緊縮，甚至從第一季度到第二季度也是如此，這是我們沒有預料到的。像我們的上等肋骨、鮭魚、排骨，我們看到了一些適度的好處以及奶酪。我們看到在三尖頭和地面塊等方面朝另一個方向發展，但肯定有一些領域我們看到了一些適度的改進。因此，我們的表現超出了我們從利潤改善計劃中獲得的成果。

So yes, to Greg's point, the labor side really helps when we can get these big sales weeks and get some great leverage off of them while driving those top sales. But yes, across the food cost as well, it was better than expected there as well.

所以，是的，就格雷格的觀點而言，當我們能夠獲得這些大銷售週並在推動這些最高銷售量的同時從中獲得一些巨大的槓桿作用時，勞動力方面確實會有所幫助。但是，是的，在食品成本方面，也比預期要好。

And then in your release and in your prepared remarks, you talked about getting past the $25 million in cost savings. You also highlighted some additional cost savings that you're now attacking. So what are those new areas? And can you put any guardrails around either timing or dollar amount for us?

然後，在您的新聞稿和準備好的發言中，您談到了節省 2500 萬美元的成本。您還強調了您現在正在努力節省的一些額外成本。那麼這些新領域是什麼？您能為我們在時間或金額方面設置任何護欄嗎？

So I don't know if they're necessarily new areas in the sense that we're always going after the commodity basket, we're always going after labor and we're always going after operating occupancy costs. And as we've mentioned before, supply chains have normalized. We've been able to find additional opportunities to work with vendors to take on additional items or different product for us that has helped to come in at a lower cost that have not run through our system yet, but hopefully, we'll get these in, in Q3 or Q4.

所以我不知道它們是否一定是新領域，因為我們總是追求商品籃子，我們總是追求勞動力，我們總是追求運營佔用成本。正如我們之前提到的，供應鏈已經正常化。我們已經能夠找到與供應商合作的更多機會，為我們提供額外的物品或不同的產品，這有助於以較低的成本進入我們的系統尚未運行的產品，但希望我們能得到這些中、第 3 季度或第 4 季度。

I mentioned earlier in regards to the new menu that we just rolled out with 15% less menu items. That should help us going into the back half of the year as we get our sea legs under us in regards to those menu items and what the new par levels will be and so forth. On top of that, I also mentioned some artificial intelligence in regards to helping us labor schedule.

我之前提到過我們剛剛推出的新菜單減少了 15% 的菜單項。這應該有助於我們進入今年下半年，因為我們在這些菜單項以及新的標準水平等方面都取得了進展。除此之外，我還提到了一些人工智能可以幫助我們安排分娩。

And then in the operating occupancy side, we're just being able to go out and bid things like takeout containers, things we use for to-go containers as well, looking at the way we do some of the facilities work and so forth. It's a lot of small rocks that we're moving, or as I said earlier, a lot of wood that needs to be chopped. There's nothing that I would say is huge dollar savings. It's a bunch of little things that we just have to continue to execute and be disciplined against.

然後在運營佔用方面，我們只能出去投標諸如外賣集裝箱之類的東西，我們也用於外賣集裝箱的東西，看看我們做一些設施工作的方式等等。我們正在移動很多小石頭，或者正如我之前所說，需要砍伐大量木材。我想說的是，沒有什麼可以節省大量資金。這是一堆小事，我們必須繼續執行並遵守紀律。

And then just one quick follow-up. I think you originally expected inflation -- commodity inflation to be like in the mid-single-digit range. Is that still fair? Or is there anything that has changed on that front? For the full year, I'm sorry.

然後只是一個快速跟進。我認為您最初預計通脹——大宗商品通脹將在中個位數範圍內。這還公平嗎？或者說這方面有什麼變化嗎？整整一年，我很抱歉。

It's probably a little lighter than that now. It's probably more in the kind of low to mid-single digits. So it's -- we still are expecting some inflation in the back half of the year, especially around beef and the different items we sell there. But to Greg's point, we're still going against a lot of these ideas of ways to bring the cost down. So we definitely -- even looking into Q3, we've seen some items stepping up as we went into the year, but we've also negotiated and got some lower rates elsewhere. So there's reasons for optimism. But yes, still where we came in for the year, it's modestly better, but we are still expecting inflation going into the back half of the year.

可能比現在輕一點。它可能更多是低到中個位數。所以，我們仍然預計今年下半年會出現一些通貨膨脹，特別是在牛肉和我們在那裡銷售的不同產品方面。但就格雷格而言，我們仍然反對許多降低成本的想法。因此，我們肯定 - 即使進入第三季度，我們也看到一些項目在進入今年時有所增加，但我們也在其他地方進行了談判並獲得了一些較低的利率。所以我們有理由樂觀。但是，是的，我們今年的表現仍然略有好轉，但我們仍然預計通脹將持續到今年下半年。

Our next question is from Andrew Wolf with CL King.

我們的下一個問題來自 Andrew Wolf 和 CL King。

On the sales side, I just wanted to focus on the traffic trends kind of in the context of you all expressing, it's been consistent most of the quarter and into the current quarter. So I just wanted to basically ask you that. If you take out the low of the July 4th week and probably the high traffic, I guess, Mother's Day week, has it been pretty close to that kind of low single -- negative low single-digit traffic trends? Is that sort of what your expectation for this quarter is too?

在銷售方面，我只是想關注流量趨勢，大家都表示，本季度的大部分時間和本季度的流量趨勢都是一致的。所以我只是想問你這個問題。如果你去掉 7 月 4 日這一周的低點以及可能的高流量，我猜，母親節那一周，它是否非常接近那種低單 - 負低個位數流量趨勢？您對本季度的預期也是如此嗎？

You kind of summed it up, Andrew. I would say, as we talked about that April was a little choppy. And I don't know if it was the shifting of spring break and Easter, tax returns. But as we exited April and we got into May and June, our traffic trends, frankly, improved a little bit, still negative low single digits per se. And again, take out the first week of July 4 and look at the last we call it, 2 weeks here in July. It's again, kind of lowest single digits. It's flattened out a little bit here and there, but we're kind of expecting, as I said, kind of consistent low single digits negative.

你總結得很好，安德魯。我想說，正如我們所說，四月有點波濤洶湧。我不知道是否是春假和復活節的納稅申報表發生了變化。但當我們離開四月並進入五月和六月時，坦率地說，我們的流量趨勢有所改善，但本身仍然是負的低個位數。再次，取出 7 月 4 日的第一周，看看我們所說的最後一周，即 7 月的兩週。這又是最低的個位數。它在這里和那裡有點趨於平緩，但正如我所說，我們預計會出現持續的低個位數負數。

And on the some of the sequential deflation and just the lower expectations for food cost inflation. Could you give us sort of your thinking? I know you at least last reported, you were about 1/3 forward brought. I guess you were expecting the market to be friendlier than it has been. Is that still the case? Are you still kind of a below normal forward bought position? Or are you starting to enter into some more forward contracts as you see some more potential for some more inflation? Or do you expect it to continue to slow and deflate in certain categories?

以及一些連續的通貨緊縮和對食品成本通脹的較低預期。您能給我們介紹一下您的想法嗎？我知道你至少在上次報告時，大約有 1/3 的前移。我猜你原本期望市場會比以前更加友好。現在還是這樣嗎？您仍然處於低於正常水平的遠期買入頭寸嗎？或者，當您看到更多通脹潛力時，您是否開始簽訂更多遠期合約？或者您預計某些類別的增長將繼續放緩和萎縮？

It's a great question. There are a couple of items that I'm thinking of that we probably will be entering into some more contracted positions than we have recently. But it has worked out for us. I think the going into the year, the risk reward on where the markets were and what you had to pay to lock, it's worked out. We've seen some items move in the right direction, but it does seem like that there is a shift happening, at least in some markets where we can lock in things now at some attractive rates and ways to get some -- take some of the risk off the table. So yes, percentage-wise, I don't have that for you, but I would say just more conceptually, there are a couple of areas that we are circling that we think that it does make some sense to enter into some contracts.

這是一個很好的問題。我正在考慮一些項目，我們可能會簽訂比最近更合同的職位。但這對我們來說已經成功了。我認為進入今年，市場狀況的風險回報以及鎖定所需支付的費用已經解決了。我們已經看到一些項目朝著正確的方向發展，但似乎確實發生了轉變，至少在一些市場上，我們現在可以以一些有吸引力的價格和方式鎖定一些東西——採取一些將風險排除在外。所以，是的，就百分比而言，我沒有為您提供這個信息，但我想說的是，從概念上講，我們正在考慮幾個領域，我們認為簽訂一些合同確實有意義。

Okay. I think last quarter, you said some of the premium or whatever you want to call it, the premium, your vendors were asking was just too much. So it sounds like they're seeing things normalize and lowering their risk premium to lock in longer term, is that right?

好的。我認為上個季度，您說過一些溢價或無論您想怎麼稱呼它，溢價，您的供應商要求的太多了。因此，聽起來他們看到事情正在正常化，並降低了風險溢價以鎖定長期目標，對嗎？

I think it's some of that, and it's some of just more supplies coming to market. So when -- in the past where there might have only been 1 or 2 suppliers talking now there's more. So more competition is better for us and other restaurants. So I think it's some of what you said and just some of -- just a little more balance in the market where we can be more creative and work with our great partners to find win-win scenarios for both of us. But I think when there's more competition, it just make sure there's the right type of balance there.

我認為這是其中的一部分，而且只是更多的供應進入市場。因此，過去可能只有 1 或 2 家供應商進行談判，現在有更多供應商。因此，更多的競爭對我們和其他餐廳來說更好。所以我認為這是你所說的一些內容，只是市場中的一些平衡，我們可以更具創造力，並與我們偉大的合作夥伴合作，為我們雙方找到雙贏的方案。但我認為，當競爭更加激烈時，只需確保存在正確的平衡即可。

Got it. If I can ask just a follow-up on the labor question or the labor area, I could say. So labor was up to -- the benefits was up, I think, 2.8% year-over-year, obviously, leveraged up to sales. Can you kind of maybe unpack that a little between what was the rate of wage inflation versus what was the partial offset, I would imagine, from the battery cost efficiencies or productivity, your being able to do more with the amount of labor hours that you have. In other words, I would assume the wage rate inflation would be higher than that figure, and there would be an offset from improved productivity. And what does that mean going forward? I assume you keep the productivity, can you increase that as wages inflation, stays the same, or even goes down. Just some flavor for that.

知道了。如果我可以問有關勞工問題或勞工領域的後續問題，我可以說。因此，我認為，勞動力的效益上升了，同比增長了 2.8%，顯然，槓桿化了銷售。你能否從工資通脹率與部分抵消額之間稍微解釋一下，我想，從電池成本效率或生產率來看，你能夠用你的勞動時間做更多的事情有。換句話說，我認為工資通脹率將高於該數字，並且生產率的提高將會抵消這一影響。這對未來意味著什麼？我假設你保持生產力，當工資上漲、保持不變甚至下降時，你能提高生產力嗎？只是一些味道。

Yes. In terms of the inflation on the hourly side, it was in the 4% to 5% range. So pretty similar or even a little bit less than it was in Q1. So right in line with expectations there. So yes, that's right. We do -- we did get the benefit of the efficiencies on top of this -- what we're paying on the hourly front.

是的。就每小時的通脹而言，在4%至5%的範圍內。與第一季度非常相似，甚至有點少。所以符合那裡的期望。所以是的，沒錯。我們確實——我們確實獲得了除此之外的效率優勢——我們按小時支付的費用。

Can you comment on how you see things evolving in the back half? Pretty much the same? Or do you think there's some improvement on either the wage inflation side or the productivity side?

您能評論一下您如何看待後半場的發展嗎？基本上一樣？或者您認為工資通脹方面或生產率方面是否有所改善？

Well, I think, Andrew, as I mentioned before, we are expecting to get improved productivity in the restaurants because we have 15% less menu items. So as we look at our current menu items and make sure that our new menu is focused on our guests and what our guests want, you should be able to continue to drive sales, but then we would have less prep hours because of certain items that were no longer prepping. So that would be another step of improved productivity.

嗯，我想，安德魯，正如我之前提到的，我們期望餐廳的生產力得到提高，因為我們的菜單項減少了 15%。因此，當我們查看當前的菜單項並確保我們的新菜單專注於我們的客人以及客人的需求時，您應該能夠繼續推動銷售，但由於某些項目，我們的準備時間會減少我們不再準備了。因此，這將是提高生產力的又一步。

Now that being said, as you look through it, we just came off our highest weekly sales average. So we start to think about it as purely as a percentage of sales. We're not expecting Q3's weekly sales average to be nearly what it was in Q2 at 124,000. And even in Q4, where weekly sales averages go back up, it's still not as high as Q2 numbers. So that's going to play a little bit into the percentage side.

話雖這麼說，當你仔細查看時，我們剛剛擺脫了最高的每周平均銷售量。因此，我們開始將其視為純粹的銷售額百分比。我們預計第三季度的周平均銷量不會接近第二季度的 124,000 輛。即使在第四季度，每週銷售平均值回升，但仍然沒有第二季度那麼高。所以這會對百分比產生一點影響。

But generally speaking, we would expect to continue to see, I think, mid-single-digit labor inflation. Labor is still challenging out there as much as it's normalized. Everybody still wants to get and hire good team members. We want to hire hard and manage easy by bringing in the right people within BJ's from that perspective, but that's still going to be kind of that low to mid-single-digit labor side of it. And then we've got to continue to do our job to drive efficiencies with this new menu, less items to continue to drive overall good labor percentage in our business.

但總的來說，我認為我們預計將繼續看到中等個位數的勞動力通脹。儘管已經正常化，但工黨仍然面臨著挑戰​​。每個人仍然希望獲得併僱用優秀的團隊成員。從這個角度來看，我們希望通過在 BJ 內部引入合適的人才來努力招聘並輕鬆管理，但這仍然是勞動力方面的中低個位數。然後我們必須繼續努力通過這個新菜單提高效率，減少項目，以繼續提高我們業務中整體良好的勞動力百分比。

Our next question is from Jeffrey Bernstein with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的杰弗裡·伯恩斯坦。

Just following up on a couple of the points mentioned earlier. The menu pricing, I think you said high single digit or I think you said 7% to 8% for the second quarter, which was similar to the average check, which I guess is similarly encouraging that there hasn't been any consumer pushback or much negative mix. But I think you mentioned you're lapping a couple of points in August. So I'm just wondering what your thought process is as you think about going beyond August, whether you're comfortable to the thought process of fully replacing that or maybe not keen to remain at that level as the fruit at home cost eases. I'm just wondering, it seems like peers are talking about maybe taking a little bit less price going forward, but just wondering your thoughts, especially as inflation prevails.

只是跟進前面提到的幾點。菜單定價，我認為你說的是高個位數，或者我認為你說的是第二季度的 7% 到 8%，這與平均支票類似，我想這同樣令人鼓舞，因為沒有任何消費者的抵製或很多負面的混合。但我想你提到過你在八月份取得了幾分。所以我只是想知道，當你考慮超越八月時，你的思維過程是什麼，你是否願意完全取代它，或者隨著國內水果成本的下降，你可能不熱衷於保持在這個水平。我只是想知道，似乎同行們正在談論未來可能會降低一點價格，但只是想知道您的想法，尤其是在通貨膨脹盛行的情況下。

Yes, Jeff, it's a really good question. We're always trying to make sure that we provide the right amount of value and balance on our menu. And while we continue to look at it and haven't determined the exact amount of pricing quite yet, we'll look at certain areas where maybe we have the ability to take pricing up. It could be something around some of the daily brewhouse specials, where we're giving some really great value at an unbelievable price point because they include starters and desserts and so forth, that is just, frankly, a great discount compared to if you're going to piece them individually.

是的，傑夫，這是一個非常好的問題。我們始終努力確保我們的菜單提供適當的價值和平衡。雖然我們會繼續關注它，但尚未確定確切的定價金額，但我們將關注某些我們可能有能力提高定價的領域。這可能是一些日常啤酒廠特色菜，我們以令人難以置信的價格提供一些真正物超所值的東西，因為它們包括開胃菜和甜點等等，坦率地說，與如果你相比，這只是一個很大的折扣。我們要把它們單獨拼湊起來。

We'll also continue to look at how that barbell and the good, better, best strategy lines up. So we will look at another round of pricing. We want to make sure we're doing on things that are unique and differentiated to BJ's that also sit in a position where they're not necessarily known value items that you're competing on from a commodity standpoint. And thankfully, we have a lot of unique and differentiated items.

我們還將繼續研究槓鈴和好的、更好的、最好的策略如何結合起來。因此，我們將考慮另一輪定價。我們希望確保我們所做的事情與 BJ 的產品是獨特的、有區別的，而且它們不一定是從商品角度來看你所競爭的已知價值產品。值得慶幸的是，我們有很多獨特且與眾不同的產品。

And we also, at the same time, which I think is really important and it gets missed at times, is we're investing back into our restaurant. We've talked about the fact that people are coming to BJ's for a social dining experience and price point and value are so important, but we're not necessarily competing on the pop-in guest that is just looking for a burger versus a burger.

與此同時，我認為非常重要但有時會被忽視的一點是我們正在重新投資我們的餐廳。我們已經討論過這樣一個事實，即人們來 BJ's 是為了社交用餐體驗，價格點和價值非常重要，但我們不一定會與那些只是尋找漢堡的臨時客人進行競爭。

So we want to continue to evolve that, and that will be some of that pricing. At the same time, we continue to look at certain menu items that we put on that are uniquely differentiated for us and have a little bit more what we call the Brewhouse theater, that brewhouse fabulous that allows us to have some pricing we can move the guests around on our average check.

因此，我們希望繼續發展這一點，這將是定價的一部分。與此同時，我們繼續關注我們推出的某些菜單項，這些菜單項對我們來說是獨特的差異化，並且有更多我們所說的啤酒廠劇院，那個啤酒廠很棒，使我們能夠有一些定價，我們可以移動周圍的客人對我們的平均檢查。

So long-winded answer. There will be additional pricing. Don't know if it's going to be exactly where it is there. I think we also have some other areas that we've been very cautious on that can give us a little bit more ability to take pricing that's not necessarily directly on the menu becomes to things like our daily brewhouse specials, lunch specials and so forth.

這麼長篇大論的回答。將會有額外的定價。不知道它是否會在那個地方。我認為我們還有一些其他領域我們一直非常謹慎，這可以讓我們更有能力接受不一定直接在菜單上的定價，比如我們的每日啤酒廠特色菜、午餐特色菜等。

Understood. And clearly, it's encouraging that you're not seeing any change in consumer behavior thus far. Just wondering if you were to see any kind of slowdown, the levers that you'd be comfortable to pull, whether it would be to ramp up advertising or again, bump up the discounting or maybe there's further cost cuts? Like how do you think about that in a slowdown?

明白了。顯然，令人鼓舞的是，到目前為止，您還沒有看到消費者行為發生任何變化。只是想知道您是否會看到任何形式的放緩，您願意拉動哪些槓桿，是否會增加廣告力度，或者再次提高折扣，或者可能會進一步削減成本？就像在經濟放緩的情況下你如何看待這個問題？

Obviously, we've gone through slowdowns before. I'm assuming you have some learnings on that front, but just wondering what you would consider to do versus what you'd avoid doing if and when we were to see a slowdown in the back half of the year.

顯然，我們之前也經歷過經濟放緩的情況。我假設您在這方面有所了解，但只是想知道如果下半年我們看到經濟放緩，您會考慮做什麼，以及避免做什麼。

Again, another good question, Jeff. And while we haven't necessarily gone to this playbook yet, we do know that in the past, pushing things around our lunch specials, pushing things around the daily specials that I just talked about, generally have been great place from a value perspective that have been able to drive guests into our restaurants when it's been more challenging times.

又是一個好問題，傑夫。雖然我們還沒有必要閱讀這本劇本，但我們確實知道，在過去，圍繞我們的午餐特價商品，圍繞我剛才談到的每日特價商品，從價值角度來看通常是很棒的地方，在困難時期能夠吸引客人進入我們的餐廳。

Both when I think back to the Great Recession, lunch totals worked really well for us. We also introduced snacks to small bites. So we introduced kind of lower-priced appetizers that have worked well for us to allow guests to kind of splurge without spending a lot. We still have those aspects on our menu so we can lean into that side of it.

當我回想起大衰退時，午餐總量對我們來說非常有效。我們還推出了小份零食。因此，我們推出了一些價格較低的開胃菜，這些開胃菜對我們來說效果很好，可以讓客人在不花太多錢的情況下揮霍。我們的菜單上仍然有這些方面，所以我們可以傾向於它的這一面。

At the same time, we've always been saying this as well is it's really important that we continue to invest into our restaurants and into our people. Because during challenging times, guests want to go out for better. And what we're trying to do is make sure we're positioning BJ's as a better alternative and not an alternative that's going to just compete on the lowest price point that's out there.

與此同時，我們也一直在說，繼續投資於我們的餐廳和員工非常重要。因為在充滿挑戰的時期，客人想要出去尋求更好的生活。我們正在努力做的是確保我們將 BJ 定位為更好的替代品，而不是僅僅在現有的最低價格點上進行競爭的替代品。

So again, as we continue to think about how to play to our strengths and play to the guests that come to BJ's, we want to have great price points. We want to have a good, better, best that we are continuing to evolve. But we also want to make sure that that's being matched with the gracious hospitality and gold standard level of service, and frankly, the remodel. So that you're going out to a place that's got energy, ambience and it becomes that dining experience.

因此，當我們繼續思考如何發揮我們的優勢並為來到北京的客人提供服務時，我們希望擁有優惠的價格。我們希望擁有一個好的、更好的、最好的，我們正在不斷發展。但我們也希望確保這與親切的款待和黃金標準的服務水平相匹配，坦率地說，與改造相匹配。這樣你就會去一個充滿活力、氛圍的地方，這就是用餐體驗。

Understood. And lastly, just because you mentioned the ideal scenario getting back to the high teens, restaurant margin, obviously, there's lots of -- I think you said wood to chop. But just wondering, I mean, from a realistic perspective, I mean the range of stores that you have that are already achieving this? I mean is it a target you think you can achieve across the system in the short to medium term? Or maybe you already have some stores that are doing well above that and there's some commonalities that you'd like to apply to the rest of the system. But just trying to get a sense for the opportunity to really get back to that high teens level, what gives you the confidence you can achieve that over time.

明白了。最後，僅僅因為你提到了回到十幾歲的理想情況，餐館的利潤率，顯然，有很多——我想你說的是砍木頭。但只是想知道，我的意思是，從現實的角度來看，我的意思是您擁有的商店範圍已經實現了這一目標？我的意思是，這是您認為在中短期內可以在整個系統中實現的目標嗎？或者，也許您已經有一些商店的表現遠遠高於此水平，並且您希望將一些共性應用到系統的其餘部分。但是，只要嘗試了解真正回到青少年高水平的機會，是什麼讓您有信心隨著時間的推移可以實現這一目標。

Yes. Look, we've got strong belief and optimism in our ability to get there. One is we're seeing great momentum in our business consistently, month-to-month right now, things we're doing inside our restaurants that I just mentioned around the remodels, taking our menu and being more focused on who the BJ's guest is. So we're giving them the right things, but that also drives efficiency because it's less items to produce. And then right now, we have seen less inflation, and that less inflation allows us to adjust our numbers up.

是的。看，我們對實現這一目標的能力充滿信心和樂觀。一是我們現在每個月都看到我們的業務持續強勁的勢頭，我們在餐廳內所做的事情我剛才提到的圍繞改造，採取我們的菜單，並更加關注 BJ 的客人是誰。因此，我們為他們提供了正確的東西，但這也提高了效率，因為生產的物品更少。現在，我們看到通貨膨脹有所減少，而通貨膨脹的減少使我們能夠上調我們的數字。

When we think about over the last several years for the BJ's concept specifically, being a little bit concentrated in California, that was taking the dollar minimum wage increase to some of the challenging times going through COVID, hurt our restaurants and hit our restaurants pretty hard as well as the fact that we had a very large menu and complex menu.

當我們考慮過去幾年的 BJ 概念時，具體來說，它有點集中在加利福尼亞州，這使得美元最低工資上漲到了經歷新冠疫情的一些具有挑戰性的時期，損害了我們的餐館，並對我們的餐館造成了相當大的打擊以及我們有一個非常大的菜單和復雜的菜單這一事實。

As we continue to work through that to concentrate on our core -- and California is now more CPI tied -- it's given us the ability to kind of manage against the inflation side of it. And then as Tom talked earlier, just the normalization of supply chain has allowed us to be able to go out to bid on certain products that we couldn't a year ago. You've heard us talk about the Wing story many times before. The Wing story came because we couldn't get wings. It just didn't exist a year ago. If we were probably in this same environment today, we might not have made the move on wings that we had done that saved us a lot of money and made a better product for us because we would have been able to get supplies at a lower cost.

當我們繼續努力解決這個問題，專注於我們的核心業務時——加州現在與消費者價格指數的聯繫更加緊密——它使我們有能力應對通脹方面的問題。正如湯姆之前所說，供應鏈的正常化使我們能夠對某些產品進行競標，而一年前我們還無法競標。您以前曾多次聽我們談論過 Wing 的故事。翅膀的故事之所以出現是因為我們無法獲得翅膀。一年前它還不存在。如果我們今天可能處於同樣的環境中，我們可能不會採取我們所做的那樣的行動，這為我們節省了很多錢並為我們製造了更好的產品，因為我們能夠以更低的成本獲得供應。

Now we've taken that same mindset though and started to ask ourselves what else can we do internally that's different to save us money and drive up our margins. That's a lot of where the new menu is coming from. I guess it's again, it's based on consumer research of who our guest is. But then we continue to look at how can we do something a little bit differently that we weren't doing before that allows us to drive improved margins and frankly have an improved product.

現在，我們已經採取了同樣的心態，並開始問自己，我們內部還能做些什麼不同的事情來節省資金並提高利潤。這就是新菜單的大部分來源。我想又是這樣，它是基於對我們的客人是誰的消費者研究。但隨後我們繼續研究如何做一些與之前沒有做的事情稍有不同的事情，從而使我們能夠提高利潤率並坦率地改進產品。

Our next question is from Mary Hodes with Baird.

我們的下一個問題是瑪麗·霍茲和貝爾德提出的。

On the traffic, you're running down low single digits. So I guess can you talk a little bit about how you're thinking about traffic driving initiatives in the current environment? Are there any internal initiatives other than maybe ramping up the focus on brewhouse specials that you're excited about for the second half of the year?

在交通方面，你的交通量已經下降到了低個位數。所以我想您能談談您如何看待當前環境下的流量驅動舉措嗎？除了加大對下半年啤酒廠特色菜的關注之外，還有其他內部舉措嗎？

Well, I think the big one we've talked about is remodels. Remodels have a tendency to drive improved traffic into our restaurants. So remodels is one that's a pure traffic driver for us inside the restaurants. We also continue to work on our loyalty program and doing updates on our loyalty program through our customer relationship management. And I think as we go into next year, we'll end up with some changes to the mystery program, to our loyalty program, -- mystery shopper program.

嗯，我認為我們談論的最重要的事情是改造。改造往往會增加我們餐廳的客流量。因此，改造對於我們餐廳內部來說是一個純粹的交通驅動力。我們還繼續致力於我們的忠誠度計劃，並通過客戶關係管理對我們的忠誠度計劃進行更新。我認為，當我們進入明年時，我們最終會對神秘計劃、我們的忠誠度計劃——神秘顧客計劃做出一些改變。

And then the other one, which we continue to work on, is still building back that late night business. And we've talked about on prior calls, adding the additional half hour back in there and driving the late night business, which is a guest traffic part of our driving business as well. And the other area, which has been a big surprise because we haven't talked about a lot this year has been catering and catering has been driving a lot of traffic for us in the off-premise side of our business and helping continue to keep consistent from the sales numbers in that 21,000, 22,000 range.

然後，我們仍在繼續開發的另一個項目仍在重建深夜業務。我們在之前的電話中討論過，增加額外的半個小時返回那裡並駕駛深夜業務，這也是我們駕駛業務的客流量一部分。另一個領域，這是一個很大的驚喜，因為我們今年沒有談論太多，一直是餐飲，而餐飲為我們的場外業務帶來了大量流量，並幫助我們繼續保持與 21,000 至 22,000 範圍內的銷售數字一致。

And on the remodels, would you be willing to dimensionalize the sales uplift you've seen for those that have been completed to date?

在改造方面，您是否願意將迄今為止已完成的改造所帶來的銷售提升具體化？

We've talked about that sales lift go from anywhere from 1,500 plus if we just were doing kind of a brewhouse remodel or I say brewhouse remodel, a barrel booth model where we add the capacity. As we expand that and do bar remodels and some of the others, we'll see, obviously, that 1,500 number come up even higher. So that we're seeing high teens trying to target around 20% cash-on-cash returns on that.

我們已經討論過，如果我們只是進行啤酒廠改造，或者我說啤酒廠改造，即我們增加容量的桶攤模型，那麼銷量將提升 1,500 以上。當我們擴大這一範圍並進行酒吧改造和其他一些改造時，我們顯然會看到 1,500 個數字會更高。因此，我們看到青少年試圖將現金回報率設定為 20% 左右。

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

我們的下一個問題來自 Benchmark Company 的托德·布魯克斯 (Todd Brooks)。

Congrats on the margin progress in the quarter. I wanted to follow up on some of the earlier restaurant level operating margin discussion. Obviously, over-indexed performance-wise in Q2 forward commodity outlook. I know you mentioned maybe being worried about beef, but the full year, you're bringing it kind of down to low single to mid-single. You're exceeding your cost save goals on the $25 million. I guess, and I think Alex asked about this earlier, that low to mid-teens type of target, I guess, what keeps us from hitting the mid-teens relative to the setup right now on the cost side as we're exiting the year?

祝賀本季度利潤率取得進步。我想跟進一些早期餐廳層面的營業利潤率討論。顯然，第二季度遠期商品前景的表現過度指數化。我知道你提到可能擔心牛肉，但全年，你將其降低到低單到中單。您已經超出了 2500 萬美元的成本節省目標。我想，我想亞歷克斯早些時候問過這個問題，我想是什麼讓我們在成本方面無法達到中十幾歲的目標，因為我們正在退出年？

Todd, the business is always predicated on driving top line sales. And our formal remarks, and we've always talked about it on this call is about sales driving initiatives and cost savings initiatives. We're not going to get to our margins nor will any company get to their margins if they're not paying attention to top line sales and driving top line sales. So when you think about the back half of the year, we have to have the viewpoint that the consumer is going to hold up, and it looks like based on GDP numbers and so forth that have come out that the consumer continues to be in a good position.

托德，該業務始終以推動營收為基礎。我們在這次電話會議上一直談論的正式言論是關於銷售推動計劃和成本節約計劃。如果我們不關注營收並推動營收，我們就無法達到利潤，任何公司也無法達到利潤。因此，當你考慮今年下半年時，我們必須有這樣的觀點，即消費者將保持穩定，並且根據 GDP 數據等得出的結論是，消費者繼續處於位置好。

And then I think the biggest challenge for us separately would probably be around commodities. We've seen a shift in the consumer that's really much more kind of into maybe the red meat and indulgent menu items. And those are areas that we aren't as locked. So that would be a little bit of a hit on commodities. I think those are the 2 bigger areas for us within our business.

然後我認為我們面臨的最大挑戰可能是大宗商品。我們已經看到消費者的轉變，他們實際上更喜歡紅肉和放縱的菜單項。這些領域我們並沒有那麼封鎖。因此，這將對大宗商品造成一點打擊。我認為這些是我們業務中兩個更大的領域。

I think our teams have done an outstanding job on labor. And I'm really excited about the smaller menu to help us there. Some of the AI forecasting and so forth to maintain our labor standards and our labor efficiencies to take care of our guests and deliver gracious hospitality. So I like that aspect of it, but I really think it comes down to the commodity side and the consumer side, you got to drive the top line sales. We're always doing our best to manage operating occupancy costs.

我認為我們的團隊在勞工方面做得非常出色。我對較小的菜單能夠為我們提供幫助感到非常興奮。一些人工智能預測等是為了維持我們的勞動標準和勞動效率，以照顧我們的客人並提供親切的款待。所以我喜歡它的這一方面，但我真的認為這取決於商品方面和消費者方面，你必須推動頂線銷售。我們始終盡力管理運營佔用成本。

I'd probably tell you right now if you haven't been thought about it, we're running pretty high energy bills right now with the air conditioning being used because of the heat out there. And that puts a lot of strain on our air conditioning units, puts a lot of strain on the equipment in our restaurants that we use to cool down things and keep things temp. So that's an area that I know our facilities team looks at every day. I know our restaurant managers are looking at that every day and our Vice President of Operations are looking at that every day. I think that's a short-term challenge for us from just a utility standpoint and the heat that's going on there. We seen the same thing in winter months with cold weather and gas usage and so forth. But taking those out of it, it's really, I think, where commodities go and where the consumer goes.

如果你沒有考慮過的話，我現在可能會告訴你，我們現在的能源費用相當高，因為外面很熱，所以需要使用空調。這給我們的空調裝置帶來了很大的壓力，也給我們餐廳用來冷卻和保持溫度的設備帶來了很大的壓力。據我所知，這是我們的設施團隊每天都會關注的一個領域。我知道我們的餐廳經理每天都在關注這一點，我們的運營副總裁每天也在關注這一點。我認為，從公用事業的角度以及那裡正在發生的熱度來看，這對我們來說是一個短期挑戰。我們在冬季也看到了同樣的情況，天氣寒冷，天然氣使用量等等。但我認為，除去這些因素，這確實是商品的去向和消費者的去向。

That's great. And then just following up on that, Greg. If you look at where things seem to be tracking for this year, you're probably looking at a couple of hundred basis points of improvement in restaurant level margins. As you roll to '24 and you think about all the work that you've done on the cost side, how does the next step function look as far as the operating margin recovery? I know it's top line dependent certainly, but there are improvements that you've made as well. Just kind of walk us through maybe what you're looking at as the slope based on some of the early wins that you've had and the upside that you saw in the second quarter here for restaurant level margin recovery in '24.

那太棒了。然後繼續跟進，格雷格。如果你看看今年的情況，你可能會發現餐廳利潤率提高了幾百個基點。當您進入 24 世紀並考慮您在成本方面所做的所有工作時，就營業利潤率恢復而言，下一步功能看起來如何？我知道這當然取決於營收，但您也做出了一些改進。請帶我們了解一下您所看到的斜率，這是基於您所取得的一些早期勝利以及您在第二季度看到的 24 年餐廳水平利潤恢復的上行空間。

Well, I think it kind of continues to move up in that regards to where the consistency of mid-teens is there for next year versus kind of the bouncing up and down that we've seen now, right? We started in the 12s and moved to the 14s. It's going to go down because of weekly sales average and move back up. Where I'd like to see us as an organization move to next year, and we continue to work on that is while we'll have those ups and downs, but those ups and downs will see the floor on all those ups and downs will be at least a teen number, if not and moving up versus now being in the 12% range. I don't want to be there next year.

嗯，我認為明年青少年的一致性與我們現在看到的上下波動相比，它會繼續上升，對嗎？我們從 12 年代開始，後來到了 14 年代。由於每周平均銷售量的影響，它會下降，然後又會回升。我希望看到我們作為一個組織進入明年，我們將繼續努力，雖然我們會經歷這些起伏，但這些起伏將在所有這些起伏中看到底線如果不是的話，至少是一個十幾歲的數字，並且比現在的 12% 範圍內有所上升。明年我不想再去那裡了。

So I think that's where we continue to move it forward. And I think we've got things in there from a productivity initiative as we talked about on labor, getting some other things coming through on the operating occupancy that will continue to bring those numbers down. And then we'll be able to offset that with better commodities going forward.

所以我認為這就是我們繼續推進的地方。我認為，正如我們討論的勞動力問題一樣，我們已經從生產力計劃中得到了一些東西，並在運營佔用率方面取得了一些其他進展，這將繼續降低這些數字。然後我們將能夠通過未來更好的商品來抵消這一影響。

If you think about our business and where we used to be, we still need to move labor or not labor, I'm sorry. We need to move cost of sales really into the mid-25s and that should be more of a consistent number for next year. So there's an additional 50 bps that we've got to go after. So I think you start to move those things in there into the numbers. It starts to move us more towards a low teens in the slower quarters and more in the mid to upper teens in the other quarters.

如果你想想我們的業務以及我們曾經在哪裡，我們仍然需要轉移勞動力或不轉移勞動力，我很抱歉。我們需要將銷售成本真正降低到 25 多歲，明年這個數字應該更加穩定。因此，我們還需要追求額外的 50 個基點。所以我認為你開始將這些東西轉移到數字中。它開始使我們在較慢的季度中更多地向低十幾歲的方向移動，而在其他季度中更多地向中高十幾歲的方向移動。

And then one follow-up for -- or a separate question for Tom. Tom, you kind of implied with the August pricing rolling off to think about 6% for the third quarter before any other pricing actions with upcoming menus. Where do we stand on the test of the third-party delivery pricing? I know that BJ's has been one of the few that had not taken a menu pricing premium. I think you were testing a couple of different tiers. I guess where does that stand? And how should we factor that into pricing across Q3 and Q4?

然後是湯姆的一個後續問題或一個單獨的問題。湯姆，你暗示 8 月份的定價會下降，在對即將推出的菜單採取任何其他定價行動之前，要考慮第三季度的 6%。我們在第三方配送定價的考驗中處於什麼位置？我知道 BJ's 是少數沒有收取菜單溢價的餐廳之一。我認為您正在測試幾個不同的級別。我想這是什麼意思？我們應該如何將其納入第三季度和第四季度的定價中？

So just to be clear on the overall pricing, the 2% rolls off in August. So it's not purely the entire quarter that we'll be at that kind of 6%. So I think we'll still be more in that, call it, 7% or so level into Q3 as we carry pricing forward. And yes, we continue to test in terms of the third-party delivery pricing. I know we're one of the last in casual dining that hasn't taken that price yet. And so we'll update once we have something new to report there. But tests, I would say, are going well.

因此，為了明確總體定價，8 月份將下調 2%。因此，我們並不只是整個季度都處於 6% 的水平。因此，我認為隨著定價的推進，我們在第三季度仍將達到 7% 左右的水平。是的，我們繼續測試第三方交付定價。我知道我們是最後一批還沒有接受這個價格的休閒餐廳之一。因此，一旦我們有新的情況要報告，我們就會更新。但我想說，測試進展順利。

And does anything roll off after the August price increase? Or should the 7% carry through Q4 as well?

八月漲價後，有什麼東西會下降嗎？或者 7% 也應該延續到第四季度嗎？

So as Greg mentioned, we do have another menu print that's happening at the end of September. So nothing else from last year that will roll off. It's just a question of exactly what we end up doing for our late September pricing or menu that could have some more pricing in it.

正如格雷格提到的，我們確實會在九月底推出另一份菜單印刷品。所以去年的其他事情都不會發生。這只是一個問題，我們最終會如何制定九月底的定價或可能有更多定價的菜單。

The final question is from Nick Setyan with Wedbush Securities.

最後一個問題來自 Wedbush Securities 的 Nick Setyan。

I hate to belabor this point, but do we exit Q4 with cause under 26%?

我不想詳述這一點，但我們是否會以低於 26% 的理由退出第四季度？

Nick, well, we got it under 26% in Q2. I hope we get there and I hate to use the word hope. We've got plans in place, I guess, to look at items in regards to commodities, as Tom has talked about before on today's call where we're looking at many different things that we have input into commodities, into like soup, sauces, dressings, some of the other things we're doing and trying to see if we can get other vendors to help us here, work with vendors from a commodities market perspective and continue to work that side of it.

Nick，嗯，我們在第二季度的佔比低於 26%。我希望我們能夠到達那裡，但我討厭使用“希望”這個詞。我想我們已經制定了計劃來研究與商品有關的項目，正如湯姆之前在今天的電話會議上談到的那樣，我們正在研究我們投入到商品中的許多不同的東西，比如湯、醬汁，敷料，我們正在做的其他一些事情，並試圖看看是否可以讓其他供應商來幫助我們，從商品市場的角度與供應商合作，並繼續在這方面開展工作。

The real wildcard is, I think, beef on us. And I want to say like ribeye steaks are now one of our #1 selling items for BJ's. It's something that's changed really coming out of COVID. And that product, we don't have locked. So we see the same thing with our prime rib. Our prime rib weekends are huge. And again, that's a product that floats on the market. So when we think about cost of sales and where it is, a lot of that is dependent on some of the market dynamics in regards to commodities.

我認為真正的通配符是我們的牛肉。我想說的是，肋眼牛排現在是我們 BJ's 的第一暢銷產品之一。新冠疫情確實改變了這一點。而那個產品，我們還沒有鎖定。所以我們在上肋骨上看到了同樣的情況。我們的上等肋骨週末很豐盛。再說一遍，這是市場上流通的產品。因此，當我們考慮銷售成本及其位置時，很大程度上取決於商品的一些市場動態。

As I mentioned earlier, even to Todd, our goal, as you just kind of mentioned, is we would like to get cost of sales to be really in the mid-25s. And while we're happy to have 25.9% in Q2, the next step is to move that down to the mid-25s. And that's why we're working with our suppliers. We have some great suppliers that are helping us try and think through this, that we can figure out ways to bring that down, that provides the same quality and differentiation that we do at BJ's.

正如我之前提到的，甚至對托德來說，我們的目標，正如您剛才提到的，是我們希望銷售成本真正達到 25 多歲。雖然我們很高興第二季度達到 25.9%，但下一步是將其降低到 25% 左右。這就是我們與供應商合作的原因。我們有一些優秀的供應商正在幫助我們嘗試和思考這個問題，我們可以找到降低這種情況的方法，從而提供與 BJ's 相同的質量和差異化。

We've mentioned many times on this call, things that we have just said no to. We're not using frozen salmon. We're staying with our fresh salmon. Like those things make a difference for us in what we're trying to do is a differentiated concept out there that's focused on what our guests want and what our consumers want. And we heard loud and clear from our consumers that we provide a better quality dining experience and that comes with better quality products. So we're going to continue to do that in the right way to move our margins in the right direction.

我們在這次電話會議中多次提到了我們剛剛拒絕的事情。我們不使用冷凍鮭魚。我們留下來的是新鮮的三文魚。就像這些事情對我們產生影響一樣，我們正在嘗試做的是一個差異化的概念，專注於我們的客人想要什麼和我們的消費者想要什麼。我們從消費者那裡清楚地聽到，我們提供更優質的用餐體驗，並提供更優質的產品。因此，我們將繼續以正確的方式做到這一點，以使我們的利潤率朝著正確的方向發展。

That's very helpful. And then on labor, with all the productivity, et cetera, year-over-year, the seasonality is pretty much the same, but like why can't we see the similar amount of leverage year-over-year in Q3?

這非常有幫助。然後在勞動力方面，所有的生產率等等，同比，季節性幾乎相同，但為什麼我們在第三季度看不到類似的槓桿水平呢？

I think year-over-year, we'll see decent leverage there. It's really that weekly sales average and then you lose the ability to leverage your fixed cost and labor. So you're going to not be able to leverage and manage your labor. So that's why you won't see that as much versus Q2. You're not going to leverage your hospitality desk as much as you do in Q2.

我認為，與去年同期相比，我們將看到那裡有不錯的槓桿作用。這實際上是每週的平均銷售額，然後您就失去了利用固定成本和勞動力的能力。所以你將無法利用和管理你的勞動力。這就是為什麼你不會看到與第二季度相比那麼多的原因。您將不會像第二季度那樣充分利用您的接待服務台。

Yes. I'll give a little more background, too. So when we launched our margin improvement initiative in Q3 of last year, we did make some changes to our labor table starting then. So we're going to start lapping some of those efficiencies that we put into place. We've done more since then.

是的。我也會提供更多背景知識。因此，當我們在去年第三季度推出利潤改善計劃時，我們確實從那時開始對勞動力表進行了一些改變。因此，我們將開始提高我們所實施的一些效率。從那時起我們做了更多。

But it won't -- when you think about Q2 year-over-year versus Q3 year-over-year, we will start going over some of those efficiencies that we implemented last year as well.

但事實並非如此——當你考慮第二季度同比與第三季度同比時，我們將開始審視我們去年實施的一些效率措施。

We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. We will close the conference. We want to thank everybody for their participation, and to have a great day.

我們的問答環節已經結束。我們將結束會議。我們要感謝大家的參與，並祝您度過愉快的一天。