BJ's Restaurants Inc (BJRI) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the BJ's Restaurants Inc. second quarter 2024 earnings release conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Rana Schirmer, our Director of SEC Reporting. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，歡迎參加 BJ's Dining Inc. 2024 年第二季收益發布電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，該事件正在被記錄。我現在想將會議交給我們的 SEC 報告總監 Rana Schirmer。請繼續。

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our fiscal 2024 second quarter investor call and webcast. After the market closed today, we released our financial results for our fiscal 2024 second quarter. You can view the full text of our earnings release on our website at www.bjsrestaurants.com.

謝謝你，接線生。大家下午好，歡迎參加我們的 2024 財年第二季投資人電話會議和網路廣播。今天收盤後，我們發布了 2024 財年第二季的財務表現。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 undue reliance should not be placed on such 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。對未來業績的不適當依賴。

These statements are based on management's current business and market expectations, and our actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. 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 can refer to the full discussion of risks and uncertainties associated with the forward-looking statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

這些陳述是基於管理階層目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有重大差異。我們沒有義務公開更新或修改任何前瞻性聲明或做出任何其他前瞻性陳述，無論是由於新資訊、未來事件或其他原因，除非證券法要求這樣做。投資人可以參考該公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中對前瞻性陳述相關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. And with that, I will turn the call over to Greg Levin. Greg?

我們將首先由我們的執行長兼總裁 Greg Levin 和我們的財務長 Tom Houdek 發表事先準備好的講話，然後我們將回答你們的問題。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 quarter of restaurant-level margin growth and adjusted EBITDA growth of 13% over the same period last year. These solid results again highlight the benefits of the strategies we shared at our Investor Day in November. Our approach focuses on driving sales through our familiar may brewhouse fabulous culinary initiative, increasing and enhancing our brand awareness, improving our operational excellence through our people initiative centered on our gracious hospitality, and enhancing our ambiance through our remodel initiative.

謝謝你，拉娜。 Bj's 餐廳利潤率再實現季度成長，調整後 EBITDA 較去年同期成長 13%。這些紮實的結果再次凸顯了我們在 11 月投資人日分享的策略的好處。我們的方法專注於透過我們熟悉的啤酒廠美妙的烹飪計劃來推動銷售，提高和增強我們的品牌知名度，透過以熱情好客為中心的人員計劃來改善我們的卓越運營，並透過我們的改造計劃來增強我們的氛圍。

Additionally, our holistic top-line approach to driving sales is complemented with our margin expansion initiatives through productivity and cost savings enhancements. These strategies are working and continue to establish a solid foundation for financial and restaurant growth and enhancement of shareholder value.

此外，我們透過提高生產力和節省成本來擴大利潤的計劃與我們推動銷售的整體頂線方法相輔相成。這些策略正在發揮作用，並將繼續為財務和餐廳的成長以及股東價值的提升奠定堅實的基礎。

We finished the quarter with total sales of $349.9 million, while comp sales were slightly negative at 0.6%. However, throughout the quarter, we saw month-over-month improvement in comp sales driven by guest affinity for the BJ's concept and choosing BJ's to celebrate important moments like Mother's Day, Father's Day, and graduations. Reflecting this strong guest affinity to the BJ's concept, 107 restaurants broke either daily or weekly sales records in Q2.

本季末，我們的總銷售額為 3.499 億美元，而同期銷售額略有下降，為 0.6%。然而，在整個季度中，由於賓客對 BJ 概念的熱愛以及選擇 BJ 來慶祝母親節、父親節和畢業典禮等重要時刻，我們看到贈品銷售環比增長。第二季有 107 家餐廳打破了每日或每週的銷售記錄，反映出顧客對 BJ 概念的強烈喜愛。

Furthermore, our restaurant margins continued to expand and rose to 15.5%, representing an increase of 100 basis points from the prior year. Our restaurant-level cash flow per operating week was approximately 19,200 just slightly behind fiscal 2019's restaurant-level cash flow per week of 19,300. So our percentage margins, we're still behind 2019 levels, we close the gap on the dollars per restaurant week. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter rose to $36.1 million and increased to $4.3 million or 13% higher than prior year.

此外，我們的餐廳利潤率持續擴大，升至15.5%，比上年增加100個基點。我們每個營業週的餐廳級現金流約為 19,200 美元，略低於 2019 財年餐廳每週 19,300 美元的現金流。因此，我們的利潤率仍然落後於 2019 年的水平，我們縮小了每家餐廳每週的收入差距。本季調整後 EBITDA 增至 3,610 萬美元，較上年同期增至 430 萬美元，增幅為 13%。

Our teams did an amazing job focusing on driving throughput in our restaurants this past quarter as we rolled out the second phase of our gracious hospitality people initiative. If you recall, the first part of this initiative focused on new server scripting and was launched last year. In April, we initiated our enhanced service model, which balances the number of tables per server, food runners, and quality fast expediter positions in our restaurants.

上個季度，我們推出了熱情好客計劃的第二階段，我們的團隊在專注於提高餐廳吞吐量方面做得非常出色。如果您還記得的話，該計劃的第一部分將重點放在新的伺服器腳本，並於去年啟動。 4 月份，我們啟動了增強型服務模式，平衡了餐廳中每台服務員的餐桌數量、送餐員和優質快速催交員職位。

These changes allow servers to get to our guests sooner so we can get orders into the kitchen and the bar faster. It also frees up our managers, so they have more time to be in the dining room to ensure we are delivering the gold standard level of operational excellence for our guests. And it elevates table turnover, which in essence expands the capacity of our existing platform. The goals of these changes are to improve our pace and throughput in our restaurants and further improve our already high standards of service and hospitality.

這些變化使服務器能夠更快地到達我們的客人，這樣我們就可以更快地將訂單送到廚房和酒吧。它還解放了我們的經理，使他們有更多的時間在餐廳，以確保我們為客人提供黃金標準的卓越運營水平。它提高了餐桌週轉率，這實質上擴大了我們現有平台的容量。這些變革的目標是提高我們餐廳的節奏和吞吐量，並進一步提高我們已經很高的服務和接待標準。

Based on our consumer research, we know that patient throughput is another opportunity for us that will drive top line sales in addition to enhancing our service model, we are also evaluating and testing other technological enhancements that will help us further improve throughput in our restaurants. These include changes to the way our kitchen display system informs our teams when to fire or begin cooking and items. To changes to our server tablets and former team members where the guest is during their dining experience with BJ's.

根據我們的消費者研究，我們知道患者吞吐量對我們來說是另一個機會，除了增強我們的服務模式之外，它將推動營收成長，我們還在評估和測試其他技術改進，這將有助於我們進一步提高餐廳的吞吐量。其中包括改變我們的廚房顯示系統通知我們的團隊何時點火或開始烹飪和物品的方式。更改我們的伺服器平板電腦和客人在 BJ's 用餐期間所在位置的前團隊成員。

I want to thank our team members for diligently implementing the service model changes. It was a large undertaking and our teams executed it flawlessly, knowing that these changes deliver a better guest experience, which ultimately continues to drive top line sales.

我要感謝我們的團隊成員努力實施服務模式變革。這是一項艱鉅的任務，我們的團隊完美地執行了它，因為我們知道這些變化可以帶來更好的賓客體驗，最終繼續推動營收成長。

Our next gracious hospitality phase will be new hourly training for all restaurants, and that is expected to roll later in Q3 and in Q4. This will include additional side-by-side training for all new hourly team members. Overall, we continue to expect these initiatives to take the better part of Q3 and Q4 of this year and have a slight impact on training labor for these quarters.

我們的下一個熱情款待階段將是對所有餐廳進行新的每小時培訓，預計將在第三季晚些時候和第四季推出。這將包括為所有新的小時團隊成員提供額外的並行培訓。總體而言，我們仍然預計這些舉措將在今年第三季和第四季佔據大部分時間，並對這些季度的培訓勞動力產生輕微影響。

These investments in our team are critical elements to driving top line sales, since every additional sales dollar leverages the fixed elements of our restaurant cost structure. As we said on past occasions, the best way for us to improve our restaurant-level cash flow is by driving sales and we have a proven playbook and strategies that are helping us meet this goal. We also continue to execute against our remodel initiative that is similarly driving improved sales and traffic. We have now completed 19 remodels year to date, and we expect to do approximately five more this year.

對我們團隊的這些投資是推動營收的關鍵因素，因為每一筆額外的銷售額都會利用我們餐廳成本結構的固定因素。正如我們過去所說，改善餐廳現金流的最佳方法是推動銷售，我們擁有行之有效的劇本和策略來幫助我們實現這一目標。我們也繼續執行我們的改造計劃，該計劃同樣推動了銷售和客流量的改善。今年迄今為止，我們已經完成了 19 項改造，預計今年將再完成約 5 項改造。

By the end of this year, we will have remodeled approximately 70 restaurants since we began this initiative. We will finished fiscal 2024 with approximately half of our restaurants, either recently remodeled or one of our newer prototypes. With the success of our remodel initiatives, we have been effectively and prudently deploying capital. To date, we have opened one new restaurant in Brookfield, Wisconsin, and we expect to open our next two restaurants in August and September of this year. Both new restaurants will feature our new prototype that will cost approximately $1 million less to build, bringing investment cost down to around $6 million on average, and that's net of landlord allowances.

自從我們開始這項計劃以來，到今年年底，我們將改造大約 70 家餐廳。到 2024 財年，我們將擁有大約一半的餐廳，要么是最近改建的，要么是我們較新的原型之一。隨著改造的成功，我們一直有效、審慎地配置資本。到目前為止，我們已在威斯康辛州布魯克菲爾德開設了一家新餐廳，預計將於今年 8 月和 9 月開設接下來的兩家餐廳。兩家新餐廳都將採用我們的新原型，建造成本將減少約 100 萬美元，使平均投資成本降至 600 萬美元左右（這還不包括房東津貼）。

This new prototype also provides greater operating efficiencies and higher and faster returns while incorporating our learnings from our remodel initiative, which includes lighter colors and a more contemporary bar featuring the 130-inch television as the focal point. Our long-term model for our business continues to be to drive top line sales in this 8% to 10% range through a combination of 5% -- 5%-plus percent unit growth and comparable restaurant sales in the low to mid-single digits.

這個新原型還提供了更高的營運效率和更高更快的回報，同時結合了我們從改造計畫中學到的知識，其中包括更淺的顏色和以 130 吋電視為焦點的更現代的酒吧。我們的長期業務模式仍然是透過結合 5% 至 5% 以上的單位成長和中低端可比餐廳銷售額，推動 8% 至 10% 範圍內的頂線銷售數字。

However, as we've communicated previously, we are going to do so with the right quality and at the right investment cost to continue to drive strong new restaurant investment returns that deliver shareholder value. At the same time, we continue to expand margins through sales leverage and productivity and savings initiatives. Our continuous focus on optimizing the business and our solid financial cadence results in significant free cash flow, which we will translate into enhanced shareholder value over the medium and longer term.

然而，正如我們之前所傳達的，我們將以適當的品質和適當的投資成本來繼續推動新餐廳的強勁投資回報，從而實現股東價值。同時，我們繼續透過銷售槓桿、生產力和節約措施來擴大利潤。我們對優化業務的持續關注和穩健的財務節奏帶來了大量的自由現金流，我們將在中長期將其轉化為更高的股東價值。

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

現在讓我將其轉交給 Tom，以提供有關本季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。我將提供本季的詳細資訊和一些前瞻性觀點。請記住，本評論受到與我們向 SEC 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。

For the second quarter, we generated sales of $350 million, which was slightly higher than last year. On a comparable restaurant basis, Q2 sales decreased by 0.6%. From a weekly sales perspective, we averaged more than 124,000 per restaurant. Our strong and efficient restaurant execution, as Greg just outlined, in conjunction with cost savings for our margin improvement initiatives helped BJ's again improved margins in the quarter.

第二季度，我們的銷售額為 3.5 億美元，略高於去年。以可比較餐廳計算，第二季銷售額下降 0.6%。從每週銷售額來看，我們每家餐廳的平均銷售額超過 124,000 份。正如格雷格剛剛概述的那樣，我們強大而高效的餐廳執行力，加上我們的利潤改善計劃所節省的成本，幫助 BJ's 在本季度再次提高了利潤。

Our restaurant-level cash flow margin was 15.5% in Q2, which was 100 basis points better than a year ago, demonstrating again, the benefits of our ongoing initiatives to drive efficiencies and the solid foundation we have built for continued growth. Adjusted EBITDA was $36.1 million and 10.3% of sales in our second quarter. Q2 EBITDA grew by 13% year over year and beat the prior year by more than $4 million, with a margin that was 120 basis points higher. We reported net income of $17.2 million and diluted net income per share of $0.72 on a GAAP basis for the quarter, which were each up more than 40% from a year ago.

第二季度，我們的餐廳級現金流利潤率為 15.5%，比一年前提高了 100 個基點，再次證明了我們持續採取的提高效率舉措的好處以及我們為持續增長奠定的堅實基礎。調整後 EBITDA 為 3,610 萬美元，佔第二季銷售額的 10.3%。第二季 EBITDA 較去年同期成長 13%，較上年同期成長超過 400 萬美元，利潤率高出 120 個基點。根據 GAAP 計算，本季淨利為 1,720 萬美元，攤薄後每股淨利為 0.72 美元，均較去年同期成長 40% 以上。

As Greg mentioned, our comparable restaurant sales improved sequentially through the quarter and finished with a modestly positive comp in June. During the quarter, we set a new weekly sales average record at more than 141,000 across our system in the week that included Mother's Day. Also, we mentioned last quarter we have been scaling back the degree of menu pricing compared to last year.

正如 Greg 所提到的，我們的可比餐廳銷售額在本季連續改善，並在 6 月實現了適度的正成長。本季度，包括母親節在內的一周，我們整個系統創下了新的每周平均銷售記錄，超過 141,000 輛。此外，我們在上個季度提到，與去年相比，我們一直在縮減菜單定價的程度。

In May, we only took a small pricing round of approximately 40 basis points, which was more than 200 basis points lower than our Q2 2023 pricing round, leading to a comp headwind in the quarter as we lapped last year's elevated pricing round. The foundation we are building is allowing us to take a more balanced pricing approach to maintaining our traffic-driving value with adding appropriate menu pricing to deliver profit dollar growth. Our check growth moderated to the mid 2% area in Q2 compared with the mid 4% check growth in Q1. This was driven by our carried menu pricing in the mid 3% area in Q2, down from the mid 5% area in Q1.

5 月份，我們僅進行了約 40 個基點的小規模定價，這比 2023 年第二季度的定價低了 200 多個基點，導致本季度出現競爭阻力，因為我們落後於去年的高位定價。我們正在建立的基礎使我們能夠採取更平衡的定價方法來維持我們的流量驅動價值，並添加適當的菜單定價以實現利潤成長。與第一季 4% 的支票成長相比，第二季我們的支票成長放緩至 2% 左右。這是由我們第二季的 3% 中部區域的菜單定價（低於第一季的 5% 中部區域）推動的。

Moving to expenses, our cost of sales was 25.7% in the quarter, which was 20 basis points favorable compared to a year ago and 50 basis points unfavorable compared to the prior quarter. Food cost increased by more than 2% quarter over quarter, driven by inflation on key items such as bone-in chicken wings and avocados.

說到費用，本季我們的銷售成本為 25.7%，比去年同期有利 20 個基點，比上一季不利 50 個基點。由於帶骨雞翅和酪梨等關鍵食品的通膨推動，食品成本較上季成長超過 2%。

Labor and benefits expenses were 36.1% of sales in the quarter, which was 10 basis points favorable compared to the second quarter of last year. We achieved these gains while introducing a new service model to provide guests with an even better restaurant experience as Greg just outlined. This rollout added onetime costs related to the training and extra scheduled labor, which impacted margins by approximately 20 basis points in the quarter.

勞動力和福利費用佔本季銷售額的36.1%，比去年第二季有利10個基點。正如格雷格剛剛概述的那樣，我們在實現這些成果的同時引入了新的服務模式，為客人提供更好的餐廳體驗。此次推出增加了與培訓和額外安排人工相關的一次性成本，這對本季的利潤率產生了約 20 個基點的影響。

Occupancy and operating expenses were 22.7% of sales in the quarter, which was 70 basis points favorable compared to second quarter of last year. We continue to achieve strong efficiency gains over the prior year from our cost savings initiative and expect further improvements in the second half. G&A was $20.6 million in the second quarter, in line with our expectations.

入住率和營運費用佔本季銷售額的 22.7%，比去年第二季高 70 個基點。透過成本節約計劃，我們繼續在上一年中實現強勁的效率提升，並預計下半年將進一步改善。第二季的一般管理費用為 2,060 萬美元，符合我們的預期。

Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the second quarter with net debt of $47.3 million, comprised of a debt balance of $63.5 million with cash and equivalents of $16.2 million. During the quarter, we repurchased and retired approximately 255,000 shares of common stock at a cost of $8.8 million. We currently have approximately $52 million available under our share repurchase program.

轉向資產負債表，第二季末我們的淨債務為 4,730 萬美元，其中債務餘額為 6,350 萬美元，現金及等價物為 1,620 萬美元。本季度，我們以 880 萬美元的成本回購並退役了約 255,000 股普通股。目前，我們的股票回購計畫擁有約 5,200 萬美元的可用資金。

Moving to more recent trends, comparable restaurant sales started the quarter modestly positive. Our sales-building initiatives, including recent promotions, have been successful at driving incremental traffic as illustrated by our traffic performance far exceeding the black box casual dining index in early Q3. Dollar profit growth is our top success criteria for any promotions. We are very encouraged by the incremental profit flow through, we have been able to generate with recent promotions, including our Pizookie Pass.

轉向最近的趨勢，可比餐廳銷售額在本季度初略有增長。我們的銷售建設舉措（包括最近的促銷活動）成功地推動了客流量的成長，第三季初我們的客流量表現遠遠超過了黑盒子休閒餐飲指數，就顯示了這一點。美元利潤成長是我們任何促銷活動成功的首要標準。我們對增量利潤流感到非常鼓舞，我們能夠透過最近的促銷活動（包括我們的 Pizookie Pass）產生收益。

Looking ahead and assuming recent trends continue, we expect Q3 comp sales in the 1% to 2% range, taking into account recent check and traffic trends and anticipating a regular seasonal pattern. As a reminder, our third quarter tends to be our lowest sales quarter of the year due to seasonality. Factoring in recent trends and expectations for Q3 comp sales, we expect restaurant-level cash flow margin to be in the mid 12% area as we continue to expand our margins over the prior year.

展望未來，假設最近的趨勢持續下去，考慮到最近的檢查和流量趨勢並預測常規的季節性模式，我們預計第三季的複合銷售額將在 1% 至 2% 的範圍內。提醒一下，由於季節性原因，我們的第三季往往是一年中銷售額最低的季度。考慮到第三季比較銷售的最新趨勢和預期，隨著我們繼續擴大去年的利潤率，我們預計餐廳層面的現金流利潤率將在 12% 左右。

This guidance incorporates a higher level of marketing investment to build additional brand awareness and drive traffic to our restaurants as we noted in last year's Investor Day presentation. As a percentage of sales, marketing costs will be approximately 50 to 70 basis points higher than Q3 of 2023. Also, food cost inflation has stepped up on certain items recently, which is reflected in our third quarter guidance.

正如我們在去年的投資者日演示中指出的那樣，該指南納入了更高水平的營銷投資，以建立額外的品牌知名度並增加我們餐廳的客流量。作為銷售額的百分比，行銷成本將比2023 年第三季高出約50 至70 個基點。 。

We expect G&A to remain in the $20 million area for Q3. G&A continues to track toward the higher end of our original full year guidance range of $82 million to $84 million and to the lower end of the guidance range when removing approximately $2 million of extraordinary G&A expenses from Q1, which were previously discussed.

我們預計第三季的一般管理費用將保持在 2000 萬美元的水平。 G＆A 繼續朝著我們最初的全年指導範圍8200 萬美元至8400 萬美元的高端方向發展，並在從第一季度扣除約200 萬美元的非常規G＆A 費用後達到指導範圍的下端（之前已討論過）。

Much like Q1 and Q2 as well as our guidance for Q3, we expect margins to continue to expand in Q4 year over year as we grow sales through the strategic initiatives we've outlined and make additional progress on our margin improvement initiatives. In terms of cost savings, our new disposables distributor will be fully rolled out by the fourth quarter.

就像第一季和第二季以及我們對第三季的指導一樣，我們預計第四季度的利潤率將繼續同比增長，因為我們透過我們概述的策略舉措增加了銷售額，並在利潤率改善措施方面取得了更多進展。在節省成本方面，我們新的一次性用品經銷商將於第四季全面推出。

We are also testing a tool for our restaurant operators that uses our AI based sales forecast at each restaurant and generates a tailored labor schedule down to the hour and day based on expected demand and other criteria that we set. The early results are encouraging, and we expect to expand the usage of the tool by the fourth quarter and drive additional labor efficiencies. Our goal remains to close the gap to 2019 margins by year end.

我們也正在為我們的餐廳經營者測試一個工具，該工具使用我們基於人工智慧的每家餐廳的銷售預測，並根據預期需求和我們設定的其他標準產生精確到小時和天的客製化勞動力計劃。早期結果令人鼓舞，我們預計在第四季度擴大該工具的使用，並提高勞動效率。我們的目標仍然是在年底前縮小與 2019 年利潤率的差距。

In conclusion, with significant cash flow from operations, expanding margins, and healthy balance sheet, BJ's has the financial flexibility to execute multiple initiatives to enhance shareholder value. Specifically, we are focused on delivering value to shareholders through sales and productivity initiatives and through our disciplined approach to capital allocation, including new restaurant openings and restaurant remodels, which both continue to generate strong economic returns as well as our share repurchase activity.

總之，憑藉來自營運的大量現金流、不斷擴大的利潤率和健康的資產負債表，BJ's 具有財務靈活性，可以執行多項舉措來提高股東價值。具體來說，我們專注於透過銷售和生產力計劃以及嚴格的資本配置方法（包括新餐廳開業和餐廳改造）為股東創造價值，這兩者都將繼續產生強勁的經濟回報以及我們的股票回購活動。

We have a clear path to sales and margin growth ahead in our long-term strategy. And the strong consumer appeal for the BJ's concept positions us well to continue building on our successes in enhancing shareholder value.

在我們的長期策略中，我們有明確的銷售和利潤成長之路。消費者對 BJ 概念的強烈吸引力使我們能夠繼續在提高股東價值方面取得成功。

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

感謝您今天抽出時間，我們現在將開始回答您的問題。

Operator?

操作員？

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Alex Slagle, Jefferies.

亞歷克斯·斯萊格爾，杰弗里斯。

All right. Hey, guy, thanks. I want to see if you can talk more about what you experienced through the May and June holidays, both in terms of consumer demand and the steadiness of that special occasion and dining piece? And then, also just your experience driving throughput. I mean, it, I guess, is early stages as you are rolling out the elements of the new service model, just any early learnings from what you saw there during those Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduation periods?

好的。嘿，夥計，謝謝。我想看看您能否多談談您在五月和六月假期期間的經歷，無論是在消費者需求方面還是在特殊場合和餐飲的穩定性方面？然後，也只是您推動吞吐量的經驗。我的意思是，我想，這還處於早期階段，因為您正在推出新服務模式的要素，只是您在母親節、父親節、畢業期間看到的任何早期經驗？

Good question there, Alex. And I think first off, as we've kind of mentioned in the call, we saw improving trends throughout the quarter coming out of April into May and June. I would tend to say that around the holidays, specifically, there was definitely demand within our restaurants, driving some traffic and average check as consumers came out to celebrate at BJ. So Mother's Day, Father's Day graduation, weekends were strong for us. And we mentioned setting those records.

好問題，亞歷克斯。我認為首先，正如我們在電話會議中提到的那樣，我們看到從 4 月到 5 月和 6 月整個季度的趨勢有所改善。我傾向於說，特別是在假期期間，我們的餐廳肯定有需求，隨著消費者到北京慶祝，增加了一些客流量和平均支票。所以母親節、父親節畢業典禮、週末對我們來說都很重要。我們提到了創造這些記錄。

And as Tom mentioned as well, we did over 140,000 I think is -- [141,000] in weekly sales average. So when there is -- and we said this before, when there is a reason to dine out for a celebratory event as consumers come out they want to go out and celebrate. There's an emotional attachment to coming sit-down restaurants. And I think BJ's -- I know BJ's provides that for many, many consumers and that's why we saw it in our business.

正如湯姆也提到的，我們每週平均銷售量超過 140,000 [141,000]。因此，當有——我們之前說過，當消費者有理由外出就餐慶祝活動時，他們想要出去慶祝。人們對即將到來的坐下餐廳有一種情感依戀。我認為 BJ's - 我知道 BJ's 為很多很多消費者提供了這種服務，這就是我們在我們的業務中看到它的原因。

In regards to your second part your question, we are at the very beginning. We have those inefficiencies that we had to go through. I think you understand our restaurants and the size of our restaurants. To put more servers on the floor require more hiring that we had to do. And in one sense, it ends up with sometimes more people in the kitchen running and grabbing food and working those transitions out.

關於你的第二部分問題，我們才剛開始。我們必須經歷那些效率低下的問題。我想您了解我們的餐廳以及我們餐廳的規模。為了放置更多的伺服器，我們必須僱用更多的員工。從某種意義上說，有時最終會導致更多的人在廚房裡奔跑、搶食物並完成這些過渡。

What we do know is when we get to our guests sooner and we get that first order in sooner, our net promoter scores go up. They have a better dining experience with us. And that's one of the main reasons for having more servers on there. We hope to get their food and faster, obviously the entire experience should be faster.

我們所知道的是，當我們更快到達客人並更快地收到第一筆訂單時，我們的淨推薦值就會上升。他們和我們一起有更好的用餐體驗。這是在那裡擁有更多伺服器的主要原因之一。我們希望更快地獲得他們的食物，顯然整個體驗應該更快。

I would tend to say on this specific initiative, we are probably in the second or maybe the top of the third inning or sell a lot more for us to do. A lot of it comes down to the teams getting even more and more mature in this process and getting their sea legs under them. And then we continue to now monitor it in regards to as we call fire first reports and other things to see how we're doing on our productivity.

我傾向於說，就這個具體舉措而言，我們可能處於第二局，或者可能是第三局的頂部，或者賣掉更多的東西給我們做。這在很大程度上取決於團隊在這個過程中變得越來越成熟，並在他們的領導下取得成功。然後，我們現在繼續監控它，即我們所說的火災優先報告和其他事項，以了解我們的生產力表現如何。

I think myself and our operations team are excited about this, because it really unlocks the throughput in our restaurants and makes us more productive. It gets us thinking about how we can turn the tables at a speed that makes sense for our team members and for our guests. So we're going to continue down that path.

我認為我自己和我們的營運團隊對此感到興奮，因為它確實釋放了我們餐廳的吞吐量並提高了我們的生產力。它讓我們思考如何以對我們的團隊成員和客人有意義的速度扭轉局面。所以我們將繼續沿著這條路走下去。

Great. And just a question on the 3Q same-store sales outlook and maybe the quarter to date. Are there any dynamics with the calendar shift like July 4 holiday, how are they moving around and then potential dynamics at play with the Olympics and collections and things like that that you're looking out for?

偉大的。只是關於第三季同店銷售前景以及迄今為止的季度的問題。日曆變化是否有任何動態，例如 7 月 4 日假期，它們是如何移動的，然後是與奧運會、收藏品以及您正在尋找的類似事物有關的潛在動態？

Yeah. Look, I'll give you like my perspective on this. Where we are right now, as Tom mentioned, the 1% to 2% seems to be our regional guidance. The calendar itself is not a great calendar in the sense that, July 4 moved to a Friday, so move over into the weekend, we had the hurricanes kind of in our numbers there. It will obviously, as we go through the quarter becomes less impactful. At the same time and we said this conventions, political conventions are not great for dining out. Certain amount of consider consumers always want to see. certain people speak at conventions, so it has become challenging times during the middle of the week.

是的。聽著，我會給你我對此的看法。正如 Tom 所提到的，我們現在的情況是，1% 到 2% 似乎是我們的區域指導。日曆本身並不是一個很好的日曆，因為 7 月 4 日轉移到了星期五，所以轉移到週末，我們那裡的數據中有颶風。顯然，隨著我們度過這個季度，它的影響力會變得越來越小。同時我們也說過，這次會議、政治會議不適合外食。消費者總是希望看到一定程度的考量。某些人在大會上發言，因此周中變得充滿挑戰。

And the Olympics usually opening and closing ceremonies are more challenging days overall. For us. as again, I think people are really interested in seeing what the fashion is at the different countries walking into opening ceremonies and what the fashion is on the closing. But I think you take those out and look at the underlying consumer, it's pretty consistent with what we saw in Q1. The lower end consumer year over year, like kind of at that 50,000 range has kind of reduced their purchasing. We continue to see that aspect of it. But looking to Q2 versus Q1, as we go and even into Q3, we're not seeing any real change in the consumer. We just have to be wary of the calendar.

總體而言，奧運會的開幕式和閉幕式通常更具挑戰性。對於我們來說。再說一次，我認為人們真的很想知道不同國家參加開幕式和閉幕式時的時尚是什麼。但我認為你把這些拿出來看看潛在的消費者，這與我們在第一季看到的情況非常一致。低端消費者（例如 50,000 人左右）的購買量逐年減少。我們繼續看到它的這一方面。但看看第二季和第一季度，甚至第三季度，我們沒有看到消費者有任何真正的變化。我們只需要警惕日曆。

Got it. Thank you.

知道了。謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Jeffrey Bernstein, Barclays.

傑弗裡·伯恩斯坦，巴克萊銀行。

Great. Thank you very much. Two questions. The first one, just following up from a comp perspective, it does look like I guess you're saying in July, you were modestly positive and you're assuming a one to two for the full quarter. So seemingly a little bit of an uptick. I'm just wondering if you could talk about maybe the industry backdrop behind that, because it does seem like peers are being more aggressive with value offers, and it does seem like broader industry trends are slowing. So just wondering how you think about the outlook for the rest of the quarter?

偉大的。非常感謝。兩個問題。第一個，只是從比較的角度來看，我猜你在 7 月份說過，你是適度積極的，並且你假設整個季度的業績是一比二。所以看起來有一點點上升。我只是想知道您是否可以談談這背後的行業背景，因為同行似乎在提供價值方面更加積極，而且更廣泛的行業趨勢似乎正在放緩。那麼只是想知道您如何看待本季剩餘時間的前景？

And within that, just California in particular, we've now heard from a variety of restaurants that they've actually seen pretty significant pullback in California, maybe consumer bidding more cautious at the single these price increases that maybe some of the fast food chains have been taking. So I'm wondering if you've seen any change in your California performance in recent months relative to the rest of the country? I had one follow-up.

其中，特別是在加州，我們現在從各種餐廳那裡聽說，他們實際上在加州看到了相當大的回調，也許消費者在這些價格上漲時更加謹慎，也許一些快餐連鎖店一直在服用。所以我想知道加州最近幾個月的表現相對於全國其他地區是否有任何變化？我進行了一次後續行動。

Yes, Jeff, I'll So I'll take some of that and I think Tom can probably provide a little bit more detail, maybe how we're thinking about comp sales in the quarter as well. When you take a step back on California. I think California had to take a step back in April is slowly moving itself back. There's two things that I think played in April for the consumer, I think you mentioned one of them. And that is the California minimum wage put sticker shock across all consumers. Whether you're in casual dining or QSR, fast casual, the fact that matter is there different dining occasions, and if you went to one place and said, wow, that seemed expensive, then you pullback from another. And I think that initially played into consumers and they had to adjust to it.

是的，傑夫，我會的，所以我會考慮其中的一些，我認為湯姆可能可以提供更多細節，也許我們也如何考慮本季的比較銷售。當你退一步看加州。我認為加州在四月不得不後退一步，正在慢慢地向後退。我認為四月對消費者來說有兩件事，我想你提到了其中之一。加州的最低工資讓所有消費者感到震驚。無論您是在休閒餐廳還是快餐、休閒快餐，重要的是有不同的用餐場合，如果您去了一個地方並說，哇，那看起來很貴，那麼您就會從另一個地方撤退。我認為這最初對消費者產生了影響，他們必須適應它。

I also believe and this is something that doesn't get talked about as much, California -- and I find this we are being a Californian, by the way, California in 2023 had what they call historic range. Even though we have these felt like the same range in 2024. And as a result, every tax returns were delayed until September of 2023.

我也相信，加州，這一點很少被談論——我發現我們是加州人，順便說一句，2023 年的加州有他們所說的歷史範圍。儘管我們感覺 2024 年的範圍相同。

This year, everybody in California had to file their taxes in April, but they didn't last year. That on top of maybe the minimum increase could have impacted California consumers early on. And a little bit of that goes into our thinking about how comp sales will play out through this quarter. Because in California, most people have now already paid their taxes in September might not be a drag as it would have been a year ago. So that comes into our overall cadence in our business.

今年，加州的每個人都必須在四月報稅，但去年他們沒有這樣做。除了最低漲幅之外，這可能會在早期對加州消費者產生影響。其中一點涉及我們對本季公司銷售情況的思考。因為在加州，大多數人現在已經繳納了 9 月的稅款，這可能不會像一年前那樣成為拖累。這就是我們業務的整體節奏。

And then, we continue to monitor the landscape and the value. I think the issue with the value that we face and becomes I think more challenging converges driving comp sales is not necessarily value per se, but it's the amount of media and marketing dollars that people are spending to tell that message. So you're fighting for your voice to be heard out there with the consumers.

然後，我們繼續監控景觀和價值。我認為我們面臨的價值問題，並且變得更具挑戰性，推動公司銷售的集中不一定是價值本身，而是人們為傳達這一訊息而花費的媒體和行銷資金的數量。因此，您正在努力讓消費者聽到您的聲音。

It's one of the reasons as we look at this quarter that we're going to be increasing that marketing spend this year versus quarter over quarter from a year ago. We need to be heard from the consumer standpoint to make sure they continue to come to our restaurants, so we can leverage that additional sales. It was part of actually our plan all along was to step up in Q3, but it's probably worth about 20 to 30 bps more than what we were thinking before as we entered this quarter. Tom, if you have anything to add?

這是我們回顧本季的原因之一，我們今年的行銷支出將比去年同期逐季增加。我們需要從消費者的角度傾聽他們的聲音，以確保他們繼續光臨我們的餐廳，這樣我們就可以利用額外的銷售額。實際上，我們一直以來計劃的一部分就是在第三季度加大力度，但它的價值可能比我們進入本季度之前的想法高出約 20 至 30 個基點。湯姆，你還有什麼要補充的嗎？

Hey, Jeff. Yes, digitally road, California, and we're not seeing any different trends. We've been stronger in California. So we're lapping that. But as we look across the dynamics in our markets, there's nothing noteworthy in California. If we look to Black Box, we're used to outpacing the industry in the home turf. So I think really report and one other thing, Greg mentioned a lot of the moving parts in California. Gas prices have come down a bit, too. So when you think of just money disposable income in in the consumers' pockets, I think we're seeing that tailwind coming in here too.

嘿，傑夫。是的，加州的數位化道路，我們沒有看到任何不同的趨勢。我們在加州更強大。所以我們正在研磨它。但當我們縱觀市場動態時，加州沒有什麼值得注意的地方。如果我們有在關注 Black Box，就會發現我們已經習慣了在本土領域超越產業。所以我認為真正的報告還有另一件事，格雷格提到了加州的許多活動部件。天然氣價格也有所下降。因此，當你想到消費者口袋裡的可支配收入時，我認為我們也看到了這種順風車的到來。

Understood. And then my follow-up is just on the unit opening side. I think you mentioned you did one this year so far, you'll do another two, so that should have three for this year. And but I know, Greg, you mentioned the long-term algorithm. The ideal scenario would be to get to mid-single digit unit growth. And with remodels, presumably, I guess you're saying half the system will be at the new prototype by the end of the year.

明白了。然後我的後續行動就在單位開口一側。我想你提到今年到目前為止你做了一個，你會再做兩個，所以今年應該有三個。但我知道，格雷格，你提到了長期演算法。理想的情況是實現中個位數的單位成長。透過改造，我想你是說到今年年底一半的系統將採用新的原型。

So just wondering how you think about 2025, and you haven't given formal guidance yet, but presumably you have some line of sight into openings for next year. Where the next year is a year of a big uptick from the three to get you anywhere close to that kind of 5%, which presumably you need 10% or more. So any thoughts around the unit growth outlook looking into '25 or when you think you'd get to that kind of 5% level? Thank you.

所以我想知道您如何看待 2025 年，而且您還沒有給出正式的指導，但想必您對明年的職位空缺有一定的了解。明年是這三年大幅上升的一年，讓你接近 5%，大概你需要 10% 或更多。那麼，對於 25 年的單位成長前景或您認為何時會達到 5% 的水平，您有什麼想法嗎？謝謝。

Yes, great question. So we continue to build our pipeline. We've said one thing consistently at BJ's, getting back to 5% where we want to go was never going to be a one step forward, just because we want to make sure we do it with quality. So getting to think about it being 10, 11, 12 restaurants, we would -- our goal would be to stair step that we'd have to move to five and in the seven to eight, and kind of move ourselves into that direction and make sure that we're bringing in the right quality in regards to the people, so that we can execute at that gold standard level that we talk about.

是的，很好的問題。所以我們繼續建造我們的管道。我們在 BJ's 一直說過一件事，回到我們想要的 5% 永遠不會是向前邁出的一步，只是因為我們想確保我們高品質地做到這一點。因此，考慮到有 10、11、12 家餐廳，我們的目標是逐步增加到 5 家、7 家到 8 家，然後朝著這個方向前進，確保我們為員工提供適當的素質，以便我們能夠按照我們所說的黃金標準水準執行任務。

So as we continue to build our pipeline, we'll evaluate where we want to go for next year. We want to make sure that the two prototype restaurants that we're doing right now as well hit their returns. So when we get into really the September, I guess the end of this quarter, in October, we'll have more of our plan put together. And we'll kind of give a broader range from there.

因此，當我們繼續建造管道時，我們將評估明年的目標。我們希望確保我們現在正在做的兩家原型餐廳也能實現回報。因此，當我們真正進入 9 月時，我想在本季度末，即 10 月，我們將製定更多計劃。我們將在此基礎上給出更廣泛的範圍。

That plan then goes to the Board for the Board approval. So we're kind of working through that way, but we continue to build our pipeline. But I think for us to get to the 5% growth, it wouldn't have been in 2025 year even to begin with as we wanted to continue to step it up. It's actually coming off of our current run rate of three.

該計劃隨後將提交董事會批准。因此，我們正在以這種方式開展工作，但我們仍在繼續建造我們的管道。但我認為，要達到 5% 的成長，一開始就不會是在 2025 年，因為我們希望繼續加快腳步。實際上，我們目前的運行速度是三。

Understood. But it seems like you're on the path to at least absolute number to be greater than three next year, if you're even heading anywhere towards that, like you said?

明白了。但看起來你明年的絕對數字至少會超過三，如果你甚至朝著這個目標前進，就像你說的那樣？

Yes. And that's right now within our plans. We continue to evaluate that is remodels because it comes down to the fact that we've got this ability to use our cash flow in numerous ways. One, remodels, obviously, building restaurants and to enhance shareholder value. So ultimately, as remodels come down, as we've mentioned over time, that additional capital then can be funneled into trying to stair-step up our restaurant growth with the right quality or if we in the short term, how to do it more in share repurchases, that's what we would do it as well.

是的。現在這就在我們的計劃之內。我們繼續評估這是改造，因為這歸結為我們有能力以多種方式使用我們的現金流。第一，顯然是改造餐廳，以提高股東價值。因此，最終，隨著改造的進行，正如我們隨著時間的推移所提到的，額外的資本可以被用來嘗試以適當的質量逐步加快我們餐廳的增長，或者如果我們在短期內，如何做得更多在股票回購方面，我們也會這樣做。

Thank you very much.

非常感謝。

You're welcome.

不客氣。

Todd Brooks, The Benchmark Company.

托德·布魯克斯，基準公司。

Thanks for taking my questions. Just two quick questions, if I may. One, Tom, you talked about closing the gap 2019 restaurant-level margin levels by year end. Can you just elaborate on what you're meaning there? I know Q4 of '19, I think was a 16% margin quarter four. Can you kind of put a framework around this so that we don't get too far over our skis for the magnitude of restaurant-level margin recovery you're looking for in that quarter?

感謝您回答我的問題。如果可以的話，我只想問兩個簡單的問題。第一，湯姆，您談到在年底前縮小 2019 年餐廳利潤水平的差距。能詳細說明一下您的意思嗎？我知道 19 年第四季度，我認為第四季的利潤率為 16%。您能否圍繞這個問題制定一個框架，以便我們不會超出您在該季度尋求的餐廳級別利潤恢復太多？

Sure. We would give more specific guidance for Q3. But as we look forward into Q4, that there's going to be -- we need to see what the backdrop is at that point. But we want to if you look at last year and where we want to grow it to, we definitely want to see year over year improvement continue. So is it all the way back up to 16%, so we have to see what the backdrop is. And we want to keep continuing to close that gap and get as close to that number as we can.

當然。我們將為第三季提供更具體的指導。但當我們展望第四季時，我們需要看看當時的背景是什麼。但我們希望，如果你看看去年以及我們希望將其發展到什麼程度，我們肯定希望看到逐年持續改進。那麼是不是一路回到了16%，所以我們得看看背景是什麼。我們希望繼續縮小這一差距，並盡可能接近這個數字。

So we're not giving a more specific number to guide to it at this point. But given the backdrop, given what we see in both our margin improvement initiatives and what we're able to have line of sight on for margin improvement as well as the initiatives we have to grow top line, we do -- you'll see that path to getting definitely above last year and something closer to where we were in '19.

因此，我們目前不會給出更具體的數字來指導它。但考慮到這種背景，考慮到我們在利潤率改善計劃中所看到的內容、我們能夠看到的利潤率改善計劃以及我們必須增加收入的舉措，我們確實這樣做了——你會看到這條道路肯定會超過去年，更接近我們19 年的水準。

Yes, I think, Todd, I think the big wildcard that we continue to look at is really on the commodity side. Even as we go into the third quarter, commodities are getting -- are inflating more than we would have expected originally. And that was kind of in our guidance here as well as the additional marketing that we talked about. Depending on how those commodities play, I think is the big wildcard there is in regards to the difference on the margins in the fourth quarter. But as Tom said, we continue to make improvements on our margin, keep moving forward.

是的，托德，我認為我們繼續關注的大通配符實際上是在商品方面。即使進入第三季度，大宗商品的通膨率也超出了我們最初的預期。這就是我們這裡的指導以及我們討論的額外行銷。根據這些商品的表現，我認為第四季利潤率差異存在很大的通配符。但正如湯姆所說，我們繼續提高利潤，並繼續前進。

Greg, my second question. Greg, you were talking about the throughput initiative and kind of second third inning and in the process. Can you talk to maybe where you stand now on table turns at peak periods relative to before you started the initiative? And then when you look to the end of the road after all the work is done with this initiative, just can you frame up a magnitude for us of how much you would look for table turns to be improving from it? Thanks.

格雷格，我的第二個問題。格雷格，你在談論吞吐量倡議以及第二第三局和過程中的情況。您能談談您現在在高峰時段的輪桌情況與您開始該計劃之前相比處於什麼位置嗎？然後，當您看到這項措施的所有工作完成後，您能否為我們確定一個幅度，看看您希望由此帶來的桌輪次數改善多少？謝謝。

That’s a great question. I actually don't have our table turn information in front of us -- in front of me, especially at the peak periods. What I would tell you is our goal is really not so much on the peak periods, but it's to expand the shoulders. So that you know that you go to BJ's and it's not an hour and five dinner experience. When you get our eight o'clock thinking, I'm coming home at nine 30, but that we can reduce that down into kind of and somewhere in the 45 minutes give or take a little bit.

這是一個很好的問題。事實上，我面前並沒有我們的轉桌訊息，尤其是在高峰時段。我要告訴你的是，我們的目標其實不是高峰期，而是擴展肩膀。這樣你就知道你去 BJ's 並不是一個小時五個小時的晚餐體驗。當你想到我們八點鐘的想法時，我會在九點三十分回家，但我們可以將時間減少到 45 分鐘內的某個時間。

We know some of the areas that we have an opportunity on, believe it or not. And I think people understand this one is pay at the table. We know in a couple of restaurants or putting down a device and we know people that use them that use the QR code, they save anywhere from 7 to 10 minutes on the experience. We know when our servers get to our guests sooner, somewhere in four-minutes time, we're also saving somewhere in the three to four minutes.

不管你信不信，我們知道一些我們有機會的領域。我認為人們明白這是在餐桌上付錢的。我們知道在幾家餐廳或放下設備的人都使用二維碼，他們可以節省 7 到 10 分鐘的體驗。我們知道，當我們的服務器更快地（在四分鐘內）到達客人處時，我們也可以在三到四分鐘內節省一些時間。

And then we're also, as I said, looking at our kitchen display system and where things are lined up for firing within the kitchen. So that all the food comes out at the same time. There was a couple of areas there. There are some big unlocks that are actually going to take one to two to three minutes off of that. So we're tending to look at that overall cook time and trying to move that down versus purely on the table turns. I'm looking at table turns directly at peak meal periods.

然後，正如我所說，我們還會查看廚房顯示系統以及廚房內用於點火的物品排列位置。這樣所有的食物都會同時出來。那裡有幾個區域。有一些大型解鎖實際上需要一到兩到三分鐘的時間。因此，我們傾向於專注於整體烹飪時間，並嘗試將其降低，而不是純粹根據餐桌轉動時間。我正在直接查看用餐高峰期的餐桌輪流情況。

We know some of the changes that we made. We made specifically for Mother's Day and Father's Day, because we knew how the guests have come in from the prior there. And as I said, not only were able to grow average check on those days, which is great. We grew traffic -- significant traffic on those days by making a couple of adjustments. That's what we want to continue to kind of follow through here over the next couple of months before we roll these out.

我們知道我們所做的一些改變。我們專門為母親節和父親節製作，因為我們知道客人是如何從前面進來的。正如我所說，那些日子不僅能夠增加平均支票，這很棒。透過進行一些調整，我們增加了流量——那幾天的流量非常大。這就是我們希望在接下來的幾個月內繼續跟進的內容，然後再推出這些內容。

Okay. That's great.

好的。那太棒了。

Thanks, I'll jump back in queue.

謝謝，我會插回隊列。

Nick Setyan, Wedbush Securities.

Nick Setyan，韋德布希證券公司。

Thanks, guys. So just kind of want to walk through Q3 and Q4. Any pricing expectations?

謝謝，夥計們。所以我想簡單介紹一下第三季和第四季。有什麼定價預期嗎？

Sure. We will have another round of pricing in late September of about 90 bps, and that's rolling over something in the 2% area from a year ago. So as we walk through Q3, we'll be in the mid or call it low 3% area. And then in Q4, we'll be carrying a kind of mid 2% is the timing works in terms of rolling on and rolling off pricing.

當然。我們將在 9 月底進行另一輪約 90 個基點的定價，較一年前的 2% 區域滾動。因此，當我們走過第三季時，我們將處於中間或稱為低 3% 區域。然後在第四季度，我們將在滾動定價和滾動定價方面採取 2% 的中間稅率。

Hey, Nick. The other thing just bigger picture is and we've seen this throughout this year is the way our shift in our business is happening as well, there's a little bit of a negative mix shift or drag on our total pricing. And the reason for that is we're seeing improved traffic and sales trends at late night. a little bit in the mid-afternoon. And that ends up with a lower average check than what we're seeing at the dinner time side of things. We start to look at that we've seen a little bit of a kind of a 50 bps or something even a little bit more on times on average check. And we would expect that to continue this year.

嘿，尼克。另一件事是，我們今年全年都看到了這一點，那就是我們業務的轉變方式也發生了，有一點負面的混合轉變或拖累了我們的總定價。原因是我們看到深夜的流量和銷售趨勢有所改善。下午一點點。最終的平均支票數量比我們在晚餐時間看到的要低。我們開始觀察，平均檢查次數有 50 bps 甚至更多。我們預計今年這種情況將持續下去。

And for this 40 to 60 bps uptick in terms of year over year marketing spend, does that continue into Q4 as well? Are we expecting elevated level of marketing in Q4 versus '23 Q4?

行銷支出年增 40 至 60 個基點，這種情況是否也會持續到第四季？我們預計第四季的行銷水準是否會比 23 年第四季有所提升？

It balances out more in Q4. It'll still be a little bit up, but nothing like Q. three year over year.

第四季的平衡更加平衡。它仍然會有所上升，但不會像去年同期的第三季那樣。

The cog inflation commentary. I mean, is that just mainly cheese, what else is going on?

齒輪通脹評論。我的意思是，這主要是起司嗎，還有什麼情況嗎？

Right now, the two big ones are, but in chicken wings and avocados. So those are the two that -- because as you know, a lot of our a lot of our food is fixed for the year or for the quarter. There are certain produce and some of our raw floats to market. So there's the two that we've seen step up to a degree. We will also be as we step in the Q3, we've got a new big contracts.

現在有兩個大的，但是是雞翅和酪梨。這就是兩個 - 因為如你所知，我們的許多食物都是按年度或季度固定的。我們有一些產品和一些原料投放市場。因此，我們已經看到這兩者在某種程度上取得了進步。當我們進入第三季時，我們還將獲得一份新的大合約。

So if we look year over year, we're still seeing some really nice savings in red meat. But as that we have contracts that we are able to fix that for some periods of time, but we'll see that resetting in a month or so. So we'll see a little tick-up there as well.

因此，如果我們逐年觀察，我們仍然會看到紅肉的一些非常好的節省。但由於我們有合同，我們可以在一段時間內修復這個問題，但我們將在一個月左右的時間內看到重置。所以我們也會看到那裡有一點點上升。

Okay. And then I guess like in terms of just labor, it sounds like maybe a little bit less leverage than we were expecting going into this quarter. Is that simply just the spending around the labor training investments?

好的。然後我想就勞動力而言，聽起來槓桿率可能比我們對本季的預期要低一些。這僅僅是圍繞勞動力培訓投資的支出嗎？

Yes. I mean, Tom mentioned at 20 to 30 bps of labor improvement that was lost and kind of the inefficiencies of the new system. I would tend to say that the numbers for inefficiency are looking significantly better here. And P7, which is July for us from that standpoint. But we want to make sure, again, we're taking care of the guests driving top line sales. This is the system that were put in place was put in place for labor savings. So you never has come on the call and say we're making X. Y, and Z, you can save X dollars.

是的。我的意思是，湯姆提到了 20 到 30 個基點的勞動力改善損失以及新系統的低效率。我傾向於說，這裡的低效率數字看起來明顯更好。從這個角度來看，P7 對我們來說是 7 月。但我們想再次確保我們照顧到推動營收成長的客人。這是為了節省勞力而建立的系統。因此，您永遠不會在打電話時說我們正在賺取 X、Y 和 Z，您可以節省 X 美元。

This is about driving throughput, driving top line sales, getting continuing to improve on gracious hospitality and our gold standard level of operational excellence. I think as they get their sea legs and we'll continue to get that.

這是關於提高吞吐量、推動營收、持續改善熱情好客和卓越營運的黃金標準水準。我認為，當他們取得成功後，我們也會繼續取得成功。

As we go into Q3 and Q4, we do now start to lap the smaller menu because if you remember the smaller menu rolled out in July of a year ago. So some of the benefits that we are getting there with less profit, et cetera, we lap year over year. But generally speaking, we continue to see what I would call improvements in our productivity measures around labor. And we want to make sure again, we're doing it at the right level that's driving improved and guest service and hospitality.

當我們進入第三季和第四季時，我們現在開始採用較小的菜單，因為如果您還記得一年前 7 月推出的較小菜單。因此，我們以較少的利潤獲得的一些好處等等，我們逐年下滑。但總的來說，我們繼續看到我所說的圍繞勞動力的生產力指標的改進。我們想再次確保，我們正在以正確的水平開展工作，從而推動改善賓客服務和接待。

Thank you very much.

非常感謝。

Welcome.

歡迎。

Sharon Zackfia, William Blair.

莎朗·扎克菲亞，威廉·布萊爾。

And hi, good afternoon. Can you talk about the labor environment? And I know in California you are worried that you might see an uptick in your labor costs, even though you're not directly impacted by (inaudible) Act. And I'm also curious, just kind of a broader country, are you seeing better quality labor? And I know there's increased labor availability, but I'm wondering of the quality of the labor you're getting?

嗨，下午好。可以談談勞動環境嗎？我知道在加州，您擔心勞動成本可能會上升，即使您沒有直接受到（聽不清楚）法案的影響。我也很好奇，在一個更廣闊的國家，你是否看到了更高品質的勞動力？我知道勞動力供應量增加，但我想知道您所獲得的勞動力品質如何？

Sure. I'll take that one, Sharon. And yes, we mentioned this last quarter. We didn't mention it this quarter, so I can bring it up now, we continue to measure our California of labor to see our retention rates to make sure with the California Fast Act were no minimum wage stepped up in other types of restaurant companies to see if we've seen any change in either our turnover rates or wages, anything like that.

當然。我想要那個，莎倫。是的，我們在上個季度提到這一點。我們本季沒有提到這一點，所以我現在可以提出來，我們繼續衡量加州的勞動力，以了解我們的保留率，以確保根據《加州快速法案》，其他類型的餐飲公司的最低工資不會提高看看我們的流動率或工資是否有任何變化，諸如此類。

Happy to report, we're still as we track it looking year over year and back to even '19 levels on both California and the rest of the system is still in a better place than we were in 2019 as well as last year. And in terms of wage growth, we did talk about the food cost inflation, we're actually -- and I didn't mention on the hourly side, but we're still sitting in kind of in that 3% to 4% range, and that's consistent with Q1. So we saw very little wage inflation from from Q1 into Q2.

很高興地向大家報告，我們逐年追蹤這一情況，加州的情況甚至回到了 19 年的水平，系統的其他部分仍然比 2019 年和去年更好。就薪資成長而言，我們確實討論了食品成本通膨，實際上，我沒有提到每小時的通膨，但我們仍然處於 3% 到 4% 的範圍內，這與 Q1 一致。因此，從第一季到第二季度，我們看到的薪資通膨非常小。

So all signs pointing to this is -- this has worked for us as we've given some increased wages to -- some certain elements of our restaurant. But it's balanced out and we have a really great retention rates. And to your point on quality that the longer team members are with us, the better execution we see. And that's some that's the case. So we have less reasons to be hiring all the time. But yeah, I think the pool out there is stronger, but we're able to retain our team members more. So it is, I would say, as good of a bit of a labor hiring environment as we've seen in the recent past.

因此，所有表明這一點的跡像都是——這對我們有用，因為我們已經增加了一些工資——我們餐廳的某些部分。但它是平衡的，我們的保留率非常高。至於您關於品質的觀點，團隊成員在我們身邊的時間越長，我們看到的執行力就越好。也有一些是這樣的。所以我們沒有那麼多理由一直在招募。但是，是的，我認為那裡的人才庫更強大，但我們能夠更多地留住我們的團隊成員。因此，我想說，這與我們最近看到的勞動力招募環境一樣好。

And then, Greg, just a question. I know you haven't committed to when you're going to reaccelerate growth, but how far in advance of acceleration do you have to start building the manager pipeline?

然後，格雷格，只是一個問題。我知道您還沒有承諾何時重新加速成長，但是您必須提前多長時間開始建立經理人才梯隊？

Yeah. somewhere in the 12 month timeframe, you really have to look at it. It's the challenge on the pipeline is a little bit different. A perfect example being out there in Illinois or in the Chicago market that's going to be more challenging to build that manager pipeline. So we wanted to be more ahead of that in a 12 month timeframe. So the team really understands BJ's trying to find somebody to move to a new market or satellite market is always more difficult, we'd love to build that in.

是的。在 12 個月的時間範圍內的某個時間，你真的必須看看它。管道上的挑戰有點不同。伊利諾州或芝加哥市場就是一個完美的例子，建立經理人管道將更具挑戰性。因此，我們希望在 12 個月的時間範圍內更加領先。因此，團隊真正理解 BJ 試圖找到人進入新市場或衛星市場總是更加困難，我們很樂意將其納入其中。

Building restaurants in Texas, California, Arizona, some of those markets, the pipeline timeframes that little bit shorter. So on average and I know some routine average, you're looking at somewhere in a minimum of six months, but more likely you are going to be about 12 months out.

在德克薩斯州、加利福尼亞州、亞利桑那州以及其中一些市場建造餐廳，籌備時間會稍微短一些。因此，平均而言，我知道一些常規平均值，您會在至少 6 個月內尋找某個地方，但更有可能是在 12 個月左右。

Okay.

好的。

And then last question for me. There was kind of a big jump in other income in the quarter. Was there something unusual in there, it was kind of a $2 million sequential increase?

然後是我的最後一個問題。本季度其他收入出現了大幅增長。是不是有什麼不尋常的地方，例如連續增加了 200 萬美元？

Yeah, there was an out of period release that we had of some accrual related to tax credits. So yeah, we'll align it with more detail in the QUEUE, but that some. Yes, just out-of-period benefit there.

是的，我們有一些與稅收抵免相關的應計費用，已經過時了。所以，是的，我們將把它與隊列中的更多細節對齊，但有些。是的，只是過期福利。

Okay.

好的。

Thank you.

謝謝。

You're welcome.

不客氣。

Jon Tower, Citigroup.

喬恩·塔爾，花旗集團。

Hey, this is Karen Holthouse on for Jon evening. Just two for me. One is it looks like mix is still running a little bit negative. Is that still really being attributed to just to shift in dayparts with late-night coming back? Or is there something new coming into that in terms of track management? And then, does that presume the promo, how should we think about the accounting behind that? Is the kind of give away a free Pizookie Pass is going to be reflected in that spike in advertising spending or would it be showing up more on like a sales call -- as part of it like a sales cost to build dynamic?

嘿，這是凱倫·霍爾特豪斯為喬恩之夜做的節目。對我來說只有兩個。一是看起來混合還是有點負面。這真的還是僅僅歸因於白天的轉變和深夜的回歸嗎？或者在賽道管理方面有什麼新的東西出現嗎？那麼，這是否以促銷為前提，我們該如何考慮背後的會計處理？這種免費 Pizookie Pass 的贈送是否會反映在廣告支出的激增中，還是會更多地出現在銷售電話中——作為建立動態的銷售成本的一部分？

Thanks.

謝謝。

Sure. So on the check side, so we actually the dynamic we saw in Q1 on pricing to check, we saw that gap shrinking into Q2. We are still seeing bettered the comp dynamics in our late-night daypart and there's about a $10 average check difference lower in late night. So great that we're growing the traffic, but there is some check headwind to that is it averages in.

當然。因此，在檢查方面，實際上我們在第一季看到的定價動態需要檢查，我們看到差距在第二季縮小。我們仍然看到深夜時段的補償動態有所改善，並且深夜的平均支票差異較低約 10 美元。太好了，我們的流量不斷增加，但平均流量有些阻力。

The other pieces of alcohol where we check it year over year as well as back to '19, and we continue to see some headwind in terms of what we sold last year, but more kind of normalizing back to 2019 levels than anything else. So those are the two main pieces that are the delta between our check growth and the pricing.

我們逐年檢查其他酒精飲料，並追溯到 19 年，我們繼續看到去年銷售的一些阻力，但更多的是回歸到 2019 年的水平。這些是我們的支票成長和定價之間的增量的兩個主要部分。

And to your second question, on Pizookie Pass, there is a modest amount of sales income we take when the membership is paid for the month. But then going forward, it is just cost of sales. So the idea is and what we're seeing this that most, when these are used, they'll come in and they'll spend on whatever they want to eat, plus the get their position for free. So we'll you don't have the sales for the rest of their meal, then they'll have the costs associated with the Pizookie that that gets added to their check. So we'll see the incremental sales off of the whole of check that they spend, but then the Pizookie just will flow through cost of sales.

關於你的第二個問題，在 Pizookie Pass 上，當月支付會員費時，我們會收取少量的銷售收入。但展望未來，這只是銷售成本。所以我們的想法是，我們看到的是，大多數人，當這些被使用時，他們會進來，他們會花在他們想吃的任何東西上，再加上免費獲得他們的位置。因此，我們不會為他們剩餘的餐點進行銷售，然後他們將把與 Pizookie 相關的費用加到他們的支票中。因此，我們將看到他們花費的全部支票的增量銷售額，但隨後 Pizookie 只會流過銷售成本。

So. Okay. And to that point, Karen, it's a great question. And that is that type of promo drives traffic into our restaurants. And as Tom mentioned, they end up with a free Pizookie on their meals. So it's a lower average check. So we start to think about that mix and mix would probably be would continue to be negative in Q3 like it was in Q1 or Q2. But we get that increasing frequency and increasing gas to drive overall throughput in our restaurants.

所以。好的。就這一點而言，凱倫，這是一個很好的問題。這就是那種促銷活動帶來的客流量進入我們的餐廳。正如湯姆所提到的，他們最終在餐點中獲得了免費的 Pizookie。所以這是一個較低的平均檢查。因此，我們開始考慮第三季的混合和混合可能會繼續呈現負值，就像第一季或第二季一樣。但我們的頻率和燃氣量不斷增加，從而推動了餐廳的整體吞吐量。

That's everything on everything from me. Thank you.

這就是我的一切。謝謝。

Andrew Wolf, Loop Capital Markets.

安德魯沃爾夫，Loop 資本市場。

Thanks. I'm actually with CL King. I wanted to ask about the increased marketing spend, the sequential increase and just tie that into what you've called out and discussed at the Investor Day. Just with the plans you talked about at the Investor Day, both in the amount, is it about the same?

謝謝。我其實是跟 CL King 在一起的。我想詢問行銷支出的增加、連續增加的情況，並將其與您在投資者日所呼籲和討論的內容聯繫起來。就你在投資人日講的計劃，兩者的金額是差不多的嗎？

And secondly, the nature of it, if I recall back then it was going to be a lot of digital marketing and create trial. And I just wanted to check to see -- basically, what I'm getting at. Is it higher or is the nature of the spending a little different given the promotional environment and the amount of spending and maybe competitors are putting out there in marketing as well. So I am just trying to get to the nature of the spending and the amount?

其次，它的本質，如果我回想當時，這將是大量的數位行銷和創造​​試驗。我只是想看看——基本上，我得到了什麼。考慮到促銷環境和支出金額，或競爭對手也在行銷方面投入的資金，它是否更高，或者支出的性質是否略有不同。所以我只是想了解支出的性質和金額？

Yes. So Andrew, great question. And yeah, I'd probably say it could be a tad of all the above. It's the same channels in the sense of where we were from TV, connected TV and digital. If you think about also the Investor Day, we talked about this word of making Pizookie a household name, our dessert there. So we've got additional funding going around our Pizookie Pass looking past that goes into Q3 because we're trying to build on that on the Pizookie brand and ubiquity that we have in that. So that drives top of mind awareness for BJ's.

是的。安德魯，好問題。是的，我可能會說這可能是以上所有內容的一部分。從電視、連網電視和數位電視的意義上來說，它們是相同的頻道。如果你也想想投資者日，我們談到了讓 Pizookie 家喻戶曉的名字，我們那裡的甜點。因此，我們在第三季的 Pizookie Pass 周圍獲得了額外的資金，因為我們正在努力以 Pizookie 品牌和我們在其中的普遍性為基礎。因此，這提高了 BJ 的首要意識。

And then as we looked at it as well, we also looked at a couple of other markets that we've decided to kind of add in there. So there's a little bit of an expansion of one additional market and a couple of additional digital areas or different digital markets that we have from year over year. So that plays into it. But a lot of this is actually kind of in our plans to begin with.

然後，在我們研究它的同時，我們也研究了其他幾個市場，我們決定將其添加到其中。因此，我們逐年擴大了一個額外的市場和幾個額外的數位領域或不同的數位市場。所以這就發揮了作用。但其中很多其實是我們一開始的計劃。

And then as we think about it, because we're still kind of crafting some of the communication there. The question will be where that communication is going to be. Some will be under the Pizookie Pass, the Pizookie ubiquity that we talked about it. It will be more price points specific on some of the great value that we already have in our business, whether some of the everyday value our daily Brewhouse Specials.

然後當我們思考這個問題時，因為我們仍然在那裡進行一些溝通。問題在於溝通將在哪裡進行。有些會在 Pizookie Pass 下，也就是我們談到的 Pizookie 無所不在。這將是更多的價格點，具體針對我們在業務中已經擁有的一些巨大價值，無論是我們每日啤酒廠特價的一些日常價值。

I think in today's environment, you're seeing that that price point be very, very important. So instead of it being more of a branding type commercial, which we would use that Pizookie per se. It would be a little bit more price point specific around Daily Brewhouse Specials or everyday value menu items that we have.

我認為在今天的環境下，你會發現這個價格點非常非常重要。因此，我們不會將其更多地視為品牌類型的廣告，而是使用 Pizookie 本身。圍繞著每日釀酒廠特價或我們擁有的日常價值菜單項目，價格會稍微高一些。

And it is the latter, maybe a bit of it change or adaptation to what's going on, you know, probably more price point than you might have planned earlier?

是後者，也許它會發生一些變化或適應正在發生的事情，你知道，可能比你之前計劃的價格更高？

Yeah, probably I mean and the reason I said somewhat hasn't really is we don't necessarily plan what the exact message is going to be a year out because we have different things that we can look at. But I think based on the kind of consumer environment, as I mentioned earlier, seeing hopefully a lot of media being spent to drive awareness, most of it is around a value play. We're not going to be doing a crazy deep BOGO value play or something like that out there, but it's probably around a little bit more price certainty on some of the menu items that we have in our restaurants.

是的，我的意思可能是，我說的原因並不是真的，因為我們不一定計劃一年後的確切信息，因為我們可以看到不同的東西。但我認為，基於消費者環境，正如我之前提到的，希望看到大量媒體被用來提高意識，其中大部分都是圍繞著價值遊戲。我們不會做瘋狂的深度BOGO價值遊戲或類似的事情，但它可能是圍繞我們餐廳的一些菜單項目的更多價格確定性。

Got it. Thank you.

知道了。謝謝。

You're welcome.

不客氣。

And this will conclude our question-and-answer session, also, concluding our two or today's call. We'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation. And at this time, you may now disconnect.

我們的問答環節也將結束，我們的兩次或今天的電話會議也將結束。我們要感謝您參加今天的示範。此時，您可以斷開連線。

Thank you, everyone.

謝謝大家。

Thank you.

謝謝。