Kura Sushi USA Inc (KRUS) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Kura Sushi USA, Inc. Fiscal Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call.

女士們先生們，下午好，感謝你們的支持。歡迎來到 Kura Sushi USA, Inc. 2023 財年第二季度收益電話會議。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Please note that this call is being recorded. On the call today, we have Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer; Jeff Uttz, Chief Financial Officer; and Benjamin Porten, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Business Development. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Porten.

請注意，此通話正在錄音中。在今天的電話會議上，我們有總裁兼首席執行官 Jimmy Uba；首席財務官 Jeff Uttz；以及負責投資者關係和業務發展的高級副總裁 Benjamin Porten。現在我想把電話轉給 Porten 先生。

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you all for joining. By now, everyone to have access to our fiscal second quarter 2023 earnings release can be found at www.kurasushi.com in the Investor Relations section. A copy of the earnings release has also been included in the 8-K we submitted to the SEC. Before we begin our formal remarks, I need to remind everyone that part of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements as defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore, you should not put undue reliance on them. These statements are also subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect. We refer all of you to our SEC filings for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact our future operating results and financial condition.

謝謝你，運營商。大家下午好，感謝大家的加入。到目前為止，每個人都可以在 www.kurasushi.com 的“投資者關係”部分找到我們 2023 財年第二季度的收益發布。我們提交給美國證券交易委員會的 8-K 中也包含了收益發布的副本。在我們開始正式發言之前，我需要提醒大家，我們今天的部分討論將包括 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》所定義的前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述並不是對未來業績的保證，因此，您不應過分依賴它們。這些陳述還受到許多風險和不確定性的影響，這些風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果與我們的預期存在重大差異。我們建議大家參閱我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件，以更詳細地討論可能影響我們未來經營業績和財務狀況的風險。

Also during today's call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe can be useful in evaluating our performance. Presentation of this additional information should not be considered in isolation nor as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP, and the reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures are available in our earnings release.

同樣在今天的電話會議中，我們將討論某些非 GAAP 財務指標，我們認為這些指標有助於評估我們的業績。這些額外信息的呈現不應被孤立地考慮，也不應被視為根據 GAAP 編制的結果的替代品，我們的收益發布中提供了與可比較的 GAAP 措施的對賬。

With that out of the way, I'd like to turn the call over to Jimmy.

有了這個，我想把電話轉給吉米。

Thanks, Ben, and thank you to everyone for joining us today. It's been an exceptional quarter for Kura Sushi. In the previous earnings call, I had mentioned our 3 goals for this business Kura, maintaining great operations and delivering on (inaudible) value to our guests, continuing our rapid unit expansion and leveraging our G&A investment. It's my pleasure to be able to say that, we are seeing excellent results on each of these goals. We continue to lead the industry with profit growth of 7.4% in our second quarter, and as demonstrated by our profit performance, consumer sentiment remains extremely strong. .

謝謝，本，感謝大家今天加入我們。對於 Kura Sushi 來說，這是一個特殊的季度。在之前的財報電話會議中，我提到了我們對 Kura 業務的 3 個目標，保持良好的運營並為我們的客人提供（聽不清）價值，繼續我們的快速單位擴張並利用我們的 G＆A 投資。我很高興能夠這樣說，我們在這些目標中的每一個上都看到了出色的結果。我們在第二季度繼續以 7.4% 的利潤增長率領先行業，而且正如我們的利潤表現所表明的那樣，消費者信心依然非常強勁。 .

Our unit pipeline is the strongest it has ever been, with 9 units under construction and another 9 executed produces across existing and new markets. Our success in leverage in G&A combined with improvement in different level cost has resulted in a 400 basis point adjusted EBITDA margin expansion over the previous year. Our second quarter sales of $43.9 million represent 40% revenue growth over the prior year. Our restaurants delivered comparable sales growth of 17.4%, which breaks down to 7.4% in traffic growth and 10% in price on the mix. Despite our pricing, our value remains unparalleled and the consumer sentiment and the strength has never been stronger. Our strong sales performance continued into March with revenue of $16.4 million and comparable sales of 11.2%.

我們的單位管道是有史以來最強大的，有 9 個單位在建，另外 9 個在現有和新市場上執行。我們在 G&A 槓桿方面的成功，加上不同級別成本的改善，使調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率比上一年擴大了 400 個基點。我們第二季度的銷售額為 4390 萬美元，比上年增長 40%。我們的餐廳實現了 17.4% 的可比銷售額增長，分解為 7.4% 的客流量增長和 10% 的價格增長。儘管我們定價，但我們的價值仍然無與倫比，消費者的情緒和實力從未如此強大。我們強勁的銷售業績一直持續到 3 月份，收入為 1640 萬美元，可比銷售額為 11.2%。

Turning to operating results. We've seen material improvement in both labor and cost of goods sold. Our labor costs as a percentage of sales have improved by 160 basis points over the prior year, and our COGS as a percentage of sales are approaching the all-time best we saw in fiscal '22. Between the flattening of food cost inflation and our December pricing, we saw COGS as a percentage of sales improved by 150 basis points over the prior quarter. (inaudible) efficiencies continue to be realized resulting in industrial level operating profit margin of 20.3%, a 250 basis point improvement over the prior year.

轉向經營業績。我們已經看到勞動力和銷售商品成本的實質性改善。我們的勞動力成本佔銷售額的百分比比上一年提高了 160 個基點，我們的 COGS 佔銷售額的百分比接近我們在 22 財年看到的歷史最高水平。在食品成本通脹趨於平緩和我們 12 月的定價之間，我們看到銷貨成本佔銷售額的百分比比上一季度提高了 150 個基點。 （聽不清）效率繼續實現，導致工業級營業利潤率為 20.3%，比上一年提高 250 個基點。

In terms of corporate costs, we were able to improve G&A as a percentage of sale by 120 basis points over the prior year. Cumulatively, we were able to grow adjusted EBITDA margin by 400 basis points and net income margin by 370 basis points as compared to the prior year. (inaudible) see our strategy for growing corporate profitability succeed. And we believe this is only an early indication of what we can expect as we continue to grow and achieve our (inaudible) scale.

在企業成本方面，我們能夠將 G&A 佔銷售額的百分比比上一年提高 120 個基點。與上一年相比，我們累計能夠將調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率提高 400 個基點，將淨收入利潤率提高 370 個基點。 （聽不清）看到我們提高企業盈利能力的戰略取得成功。我們相信這只是我們可以期待的早期跡象，因為我們將繼續發展並達到我們的（聽不清）規模。

During our second quarter, we opened 3 new restaurants, (inaudible). We are very pleased with the performance of these restaurants with the Philadelphia and Edison locations, in particular, underscoring the tremendous opportunity that East Coast market represents. In our previous call, we have mentioned unprecedented (inaudible) that impacted the opening of (inaudible) and Philadelphia. We haven't seen any such permitting concerns since, and we believe those are one-off anomalies.

在第二季度，我們開設了 3 家新餐廳（聽不清）。我們對費城和愛迪生分店的這些餐廳的表現感到非常滿意，特別是強調了東海岸市場所代表的巨大機遇。在我們之前的電話會議中，我們提到了影響（聽不清）和費城開幕的前所未有的（聽不清）。從那以後，我們再也沒有看到任何此類允許的擔憂，我們認為這些都是一次性的異常現象。

Looking ahead, our unit pipeline is stronger than it has ever been with 9 references under construction and 9 more executed. We not only feel extremely comfortable about achieving our fiscal 2023 unit growth guidance but also have an excellent head to start on our fiscal 2024 development. As a note on the cadence of unit openings, we expect one opening during the third quarter. with the remainder in Q4.

展望未來，我們的單元管道比以往任何時候都更強大，有 9 個正在建設中，另外 9 個正在執行。我們不僅對實現我們的 2023 財年單位增長指導感到非常自在，而且在開始我們 2024 財年的發展方面也有很好的開端。關於單位開張的節奏，我們預計第三季度會有一個開張。其餘部分在第四季度。

Finally, we have made meaningful progress on the implementation of our new waiter staff, which we believe has the potential to be the biggest (inaudible) driver of our fiscal 2023. As we mentioned in past calls, our current [indsicernible] algorithm provides highly conservative estimate of wait times, particularly growth till the end of the (inaudible). We expect the device algorithm to have 3 major impacts: an improvement in customer satisfaction, reduced attrition and the potential to drive additional profit in off-peak hours. I'm extremely pleased with the progress that we're seeing on our marketing initiatives as well.

最後，我們在新服務員的實施方面取得了有意義的進展，我們認為這有可能成為我們 2023 財年最大（聽不清）的驅動力。正如我們在過去的電話會議中提到的，我們目前的 [聽不清] 算法提供了高度等待時間的保守估計，特別是增長到（聽不清）結束。我們預計該設備算法會產生 3 大影響：提高客戶滿意度、減少流失率以及在非高峰時段增加利潤的潛力。我對我們在營銷計劃方面取得的進展也感到非常高興。

The targeted advertising and search engine optimization we began in December are been highly effective in growing past time guest. Our reward members base growth continues to be extremely (inaudible), with the current count of 700,000 members as compared to the 500,000 members we noted during our November earnings call.

我們在 12 月開始的有針對性的廣告和搜索引擎優化在增加過去的客人方面非常有效。我們的獎勵會員基礎增長仍然非常快（聽不清），目前有 700,000 名會員，而我們在 11 月的財報電話會議上註意到的 500,000 名會員。

While the implementation of the new waiter staff is up is a more immediate priority. We are also working on rolling out our updated device program with partners. Additionally, we just began our second (inaudible) campaign in April, which I'm sure will remain from the prior summer as being our most successful brand collaboration yet. As a definitely of things to come, I'm very happy to announce that we will be partnering with DC comics this summer, which is just another indication of the momentum that Kura brand has seen over recent years. It's an honor and a privilege to be able to report such strong results and progress on our initiatives, and I'm incredibly grateful for the consistently spectacular work by our restaurant team members and the corporate support staff to make this possible.

新服務員的實施是當務之急。我們還致力於與合作夥伴一起推出更新後的設備計劃。此外，我們剛剛在 4 月開始了我們的第二個（聽不清）活動，我相信從去年夏天開始，這將是我們迄今為止最成功的品牌合作。毫無疑問，我很高興地宣布，今年夏天我們將與 DC 漫畫公司合作，這再次表明了 Kura 品牌近年來的發展勢頭。能夠報告我們的舉措取得如此出色的成果和進展是一種榮幸和榮幸，我非常感謝我們的餐廳團隊成員和公司支持人員為實現這一目標所做的一貫出色工作。

And with that, I'll turn it over to Jeff to discuss our financial results and liquidity. Jeff?

有了這個，我會把它交給傑夫來討論我們的財務業績和流動性。傑夫？

Thanks, Jimmy. For the second quarter, total sales were $43.9 million as compared to $31.3 million in the prior year period. Comparable restaurant sales performance as compared to the prior year period was positive 17.4% growth with regional comps of 20% in California and 14% in Texas. The variance in regional comparable sales reflects the relatively easier comparison for California due to Texas' faster recovery from the pandemic. This regional difference becomes minimal with a pre-pandemic 3-year comparison against fiscal 2020 Q2 with California comps of 27.3% and Texas comps of 29.4%.

謝謝，吉米。第二季度總銷售額為 4390 萬美元，上年同期為 3130 萬美元。與去年同期相比，可比餐廳銷售業績增長了 17.4%，其中加利福尼亞州和德克薩斯州分別增長了 20% 和 14%。區域可比銷售額的差異反映了由於得克薩斯州從大流行中恢復得更快，因此加利福尼亞州的比較相對容易。將大流行前 3 年與 2020 財年第二季度相比，這種區域差異變得很小，加利福尼亞州的 comps 為 27.3%，德克薩斯州的 comps 為 29.4%。

Turning to costs. Food and beverage costs as a percentage of sales were 30.1% as compared to 30% in the prior year quarter. We are very pleased that with the flattening of the inflation curve, combined with our price increases, we were able to minimize the impact to our food and beverage costs and continue to be encouraged in the trends that we are seeing. Labor and related costs as a percentage of sales decreased to 31.5% from 33.1% in the prior year quarter. This decrease is due to incremental efficiencies created by the implementation of technological initiatives, a favorable comparison in the lapping of the impact of Omicron in fiscal '22 and sales leveraging from increased traffic and pricing. This leveraging was partially offset by wage increases.

轉向成本。食品和飲料成本佔銷售額的百分比為 30.1%，而去年同期為 30%。我們感到非常高興的是，隨著通貨膨脹曲線趨平，再加上我們的價格上漲，我們能夠將對食品和飲料成本的影響降至最低，並繼續為我們所看到的趨勢感到鼓舞。勞動力及相關成本佔銷售額的百分比從去年同期的 33.1% 下降至 31.5%。這一下降是由於技術舉措的實施提高了效率，這是對 Omicron 在 22 財年的影響的有利比較，以及流量和定價增加帶來的銷售槓桿作用。這種槓桿作用被工資增長部分抵消了。

Occupancy and related expenses as a percentage of sales were 7% compared to the prior year quarter 7.4% due to sales leverage. Other costs as a percentage of sales decreased to 13.3% compared to 13.9% in the prior year quarter, also due to sales leverage. General and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales decreased to 16.2% as compared to 17.4% in the prior year quarter. On a dollar basis, G&A expenses were $7.1 million as compared to $5.5 million in the prior year quarter, with the increase largely driven by compensation as we invested in both recruiting and internally developing the management talent.

由於銷售槓桿，入住和相關費用佔銷售額的百分比為 7%，而去年同期為 7.4%。其他成本佔銷售額的百分比從去年同期的 13.9% 下降至 13.3%，這也是由於銷售槓桿。一般和管理費用佔銷售額的百分比從去年同期的 17.4% 下降到 16.2%。按美元計算，G&A 費用為 710 萬美元，而去年同期為 550 萬美元，增加的主要原因是我們投資於招聘和內部培養管理人才的薪酬。

As Jimmy previously mentioned, we are very pleased with the leverage we have seen in our G&A expenses and continue to hold G&A leverage as a main focus going forward. Operating loss was $1 million as compared to an operating loss of $1.9 million in the prior year quarter. As a percentage of sales, operating loss was 2.4% as compared to a loss of 6% in the prior year quarter. Income tax expense was $15,000 compared to $3,000 in the prior year quarter.

正如 Jimmy 之前提到的，我們對我們在 G&A 費用中看到的槓桿率感到非常滿意，並將繼續將 G&A 槓桿率作為未來的主要關注點。營業虧損為 100 萬美元，而去年同期營業虧損為 190 萬美元。營業虧損佔銷售額的百分比為 2.4%，而去年同期為 6%。所得稅費用為 15,000 美元，而去年同期為 3,000 美元。

Net loss was $1 million or $0.10 per diluted share compared to a net loss of $1.9 million or $0.19 per diluted share in the prior year quarter. Restaurant-level operating profit as a percentage of sales was 20.3% compared to 17.8% in the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $2.3 million compared to $0.4 million in the prior year quarter.

淨虧損為 100 萬美元或攤薄後每股 0.10 美元，而去年同期淨虧損為 190 萬美元或攤薄後每股 0.19 美元。餐廳級營業利潤佔銷售額的百分比為 20.3%，而去年同期為 17.8%。調整後的 EBITDA 為 230 萬美元，而去年同期為 40 萬美元。

Turning to cash and liquidity. At the end of the fiscal second quarter, we had $22.3 million in cash and cash equivalents and no debt. Lastly, I would like to reiterate and update the following guidance for fiscal 2023. We expect total sales to be between $185 million and $188 million. We expect to open between 9 and 11 units with average net capital expenditures per unit of approximately $2.5 million, and we expect general and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales to be between approximately 15.5% and 16%. Please note that our guidance assumes no material changes in consumer behavior or broader macroeconomic trends.

轉向現金和流動性。在第二財季末，我們擁有 2230 萬美元的現金和現金等價物，並且沒有債務。最後，我想重申並更新以下 2023 財年的指導意見。我們預計總銷售額將在 1.85 億美元至 1.88 億美元之間。我們預計將開設 9 至 11 個單位，平均每單位淨資本支出約為 250 萬美元，我們預計一般和管理費用佔銷售額的百分比約為 15.5% 至 16%。請注意，我們的指南假設消費者行為或更廣泛的宏觀經濟趨勢沒有發生重大變化。

In addition, as we move on from the pandemic era, at the conclusion of the current fiscal year, beginning with our first quarter earnings call, we will no longer quantify quarter-to-date performance in keeping with pre-pandemic reporting policies.

此外，隨著我們從大流行時代繼續前進，在本財年結束時，從第一季度財報電話會議開始，我們將不再按照大流行前的報告政策量化季度至今的業績。

With that, I'd like to turn it back over to Jimmy.

有了這個，我想把它轉回給吉米。

Thanks, Jeff. This concludes our prepared remarks. We are now happy to answer any questions you have. Operator, please open the line for questions. As a reminder, during the Q&A session, I may answer in Japanese before my response is translated into English. Thank you for your attention.

謝謝，傑夫。我們準備好的發言到此結束。我們現在很樂意回答您的任何問題。接線員，請打開問題線路。提醒一下，在問答環節，我可能會先用日語回答，然後再翻譯成英語。感謝您的關注。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Our first question comes from the line of Jeremy Hamblin with Craig-Hallum.

我們的第一個問題來自 Jeremy Hamblin 和 Craig-Hallum 的對話。

Congratulations on the really strong momentum in the business. I wanted to come back to the wait time app and just get an understanding of in terms of the potential for efficiencies in the process. When do you expect the new version to be going live fully? And what do you think is the opportunity based on what you see with initial results to potentially have a positive impact on comps? You mentioned that you think some of the kind of lower volume day parts could really see a benefit. I wanted to get a sense for what you think the potential magnitude can be?

祝賀業務發展勢頭強勁。我想回到等待時間應用程序，只是了解流程效率的潛力。您預計新版本何時全面上線？根據您所看到的初步結果，您認為有什麼機會可能對 comps 產生積極影響？你提到你認為一些小批量的日間部分真的可以看到好處。我想了解一下您認為潛在的規模是多少？

Thank you, Jeremy, for your first question. I was happy to answer this question, but please allow me to speak in Japanese. Ben, if you want to translate. (foreign language).

傑里米，謝謝你的第一個問題。我很高興回答這個問題，但請允許我用日語發言。本，如果你想翻譯。 （外語）。

We're currently testing the updated waitlist in 5 stores, and we expect a full rollout by the end of the fiscal year at the latest.

我們目前正在 5 家商店測試更新後的候補名單，我們預計最遲在本財年末全面推出。

(foreign language).

（外語）。

We're very encouraged by the initial test results. What we've seen is we've seen very concrete improvements in waiting time accuracy. If we were to say prior to implementation, about 70% of the wait times were accurate within 5 minutes. We're now seeing upwards of 85%. In terms of the shoulder periods that you mentioned, we think there's pretty meaningful opportunity, especially at the end of days. Those are when you get the worst attrition rates because it say, you and I go to dinner at 9 O'Clock, the restaurant closes to 10. And the wait time says 2 hours, we're not going to wait because we're not going to get a seat. But because everybody has the same reaction, had we waited we would have gotten the seat. And so just by having that more accurate wait time, that unlocks greater operational efficiencies for that last hour.

我們對初始測試結果感到非常鼓舞。我們所看到的是我們已經看到等待時間準確性的非常具體的改進。如果我們在實施之前說，大約 70% 的等待時間在 5 分鐘內是準確的。我們現在看到超過 85%。就您提到的肩期而言，我們認為這是非常有意義的機會，尤其是在日子結束時。那些是你的流失率最差的時候，因為它說，你和我在 9 點鐘去吃飯，餐廳關門到 10 點。等待時間說 2 小時，我們不會等待，因為我們不會得到一個座位。但是因為每個人都有相同的反應，所以如果我們等待，我們就會得到座位。因此，僅僅通過更準確的等待時間，就可以在最後一小時內提高運營效率。

In terms of the other shoulder periods, 1 big opportunity we see is in weekday lunches. If a dinner wait time is off by 15 or 20 minutes, it's annoying, it's frustrating, but your day is over, and so you could just wait a little bit longer. If your lunch wait times off by 15 or 20 minutes,you've lost your lunch, your meal opportunity. And so we think that once we can really dial in the accuracy and communicate that to our guests, that's a very meaningful opportunity for us.

就其他肩期而言，我們看到的 1 個大機會是在工作日的午餐時間。如果晚餐等候時間縮短了 15 或 20 分鐘，那會很煩人，令人沮喪，但你的一天已經結束，所以你可以再等一會兒。如果你的午餐等待時間減少了 15 或 20 分鐘，你就失去了午餐，你的用餐機會。因此我們認為，一旦我們能夠真正準確地撥入並與我們的客人溝通，這對我們來說是一個非常有意義的機會。

(foreign language)

（外語）

So while we're tremendously excited for the opportunity represented by [wisely], just given the rollout expectations, we haven't built this upside into our existing financial models into our guidance. And so if there is a lift, that's gravy for us.

因此，儘管我們對 [wisely] 所代表的機會感到非常興奮，但考慮到推出的預期，我們還沒有將這一優勢納入我們現有的財務模型中，納入我們的指導。因此，如果有電梯，那對我們來說就是肉汁。

Great. That's helpful color. And then just last 1 for me. In terms of, I think, in April, now you're running the Demon Slayer promo. And could you just talk about that? I think you ran at the end of last summer, bringing it back, I think it's a pretty significant licensing partner. But any color that you might be able to share on that particular license partner in terms of the potential to impact results versus some of the other promos that you've run?

偉大的。這是有用的顏色。然後對我來說只是最後一個。就我而言，我認為，在 4 月，現在你正在運行 Demon Slayer 促銷活動。你能談談嗎？我想你在去年夏天結束時跑了，把它帶回來，我認為它是一個非常重要的許可合作夥伴。但是，就可能影響結果與您運行的其他一些促銷活動而言，您可能能夠在該特定許可合作夥伴上分享任何顏色？

Yes. So I'm sure you remember, we did Demon Slayer in July and August of last year. comps in that quarter were 28%, 14% from traffic, certainly not entirely driven by Demon Slayer, but it was a major component of 1 of our most successful quarters ever. In terms of this April Demon Slayer, it's going to be the same format largely where we have the 15 plates and you get a price. We'll have giveaways like shirts and [Topac], et cetera. One thing that is counterintuitive and is tremendously exciting. So I was speaking with the Marketing Director the other day, you mentioned that the second campaign can actually be more successful than the first campaign. And you wouldn't expect that. But what happens is that you're able to -- because Demon Slayer is such a big property, you expand your fan base through Demon Slayer, the first campaign.

是的。所以我相信你記得，我們在去年七八月份拍了《鬼滅之刃》。該季度的收入為 28%，14% 來自流量，當然不完全由 Demon Slayer 驅動，但它是我們有史以來最成功的季度之一的主要組成部分。就這個四月的惡魔殺手而言，它在很大程度上是相同的格式，我們有 15 個盤子，你會得到一個價格。我們將提供襯衫和 [Topac] 等贈品。一件事是違反直覺的，而且非常令人興奮。所以前幾天我和營銷總監談過，你提到第二個活動實際上可以比第一個活動更成功。你不會想到的。但是發生的事情是你能夠——因為惡魔殺手是一個如此大的財產，你通過惡魔殺手擴大你的粉絲群，第一個活動。

And then when you have that second campaign, you start with that bigger starting base. And so we're very excited for what Demon Slayer can do for us. And as Jimmy mentioned during the opening remarks, I've been sort of alluding to this in past calls, but we are working with DC Comics and that's going to be our first really major mainstream American property, and I'm tremendously excited for that.

然後當你有第二個活動時，你從更大的起始基礎開始。因此，我們對 Demon Slayer 可以為我們做的事情感到非常興奮。正如吉米在開場白中提到的那樣，我在過去的電話中一直在暗示這一點，但我們正在與 DC Comics 合作，這將是我們第一個真正主要的美國主流資產，我對此感到非常興奮.

Our next question comes from the line of Todd Brooks with the Benchmark Company.

我們的下一個問題來自 Todd Brooks 與 Benchmark Company 的對話。

Congrats to all of you on the operating momentum that you're showing this quarter, very exciting to see. I know, Jimmy, you talked about seeing some signs of early success with the new marketing approach and bringing new customers to the Kura brand. I think we could probably point to maybe 200,000 that jump in the loyalty program has some evidence of that. But do you want to track success? And are we far enough into this that we can start to gauge, intend to revisit and how we're converting those customers to additional frequency once they discover the brand? And I have one more after this.

祝賀你們所有人在本季度展示的運營勢頭，非常令人興奮。我知道，Jimmy，你談到了通過新的營銷方法看到一些早期成功的跡象，並為 Kura 品牌帶來了新客戶。我認為我們可能會指出忠誠度計劃中的 200,000 人有一些證據。但是你想追踪成功嗎？我們是否已經深入到可以開始衡量、打算重新審視以及我們如何在這些客戶發現該品牌後將其轉化為更多頻率的程度？在此之後我還有一個。

Sure. I'm happy to answer this question. .

當然。我很高興回答這個問題。 .

(foreign language)

（外語）

And so we've gotten the targeted marketing with Google in December. We're extremely pleased with the early results. It's only been 3 or 4 months, but just seeing the traffic strength, we're -- last quarter, we were 700 basis points above Naptrack. This quarter, we're actually 740 basis points of Naptrack. And so we've even -- we've gotten even further ahead of the pack. We're really happy about that. And in terms of cost effectiveness, it's really been unbeatable. There's been no incremental spend. We just reallocated some of our other digital advertising. And so it's been a home run.

因此，我們在 12 月與穀歌進行了有針對性的營銷。我們對早期的結果非常滿意。只有 3 或 4 個月，但只要看到流量強度，我們 - 上個季度，我們比 Naptrack 高出 700 個基點。本季度，我們實際上是 Naptrack 的 740 個基點。因此，我們甚至 - 我們已經走得更遠。我們真的很高興。就成本效益而言，它確實是無與倫比的。沒有增量支出。我們剛剛重新分配了一些其他數字廣告。所以這是一個本壘打。

(foreign language)

（外語）

And then, well, it's hard to break out what specific whether Google is delivering those new rewards members or it's just the ongoing strength. We've been seeing this sort of this tremendous growth for the last year or 2. But we're really happy to have this ongoing growth from the rewards members. They tend to visit about 6x as frequently as a nonmember. Your average check is about 20% higher because they want to get to the coupon rate points or the giveaway breakpoints and about 1/4 of our sales are done through rewards. And so it's a very meaningful part of our business.

然後，好吧，很難具體說明谷歌是在提供這些新的獎勵會員還是只是持續的實力。在過去的一兩年裡，我們一直看到這種巨大的增長。但我們真的很高興能從獎勵會員那裡獲得這種持續增長。他們的訪問頻率往往是非會員的 6 倍左右。你的平均支票高出約 20%，因為他們想要達到優惠券利率點或贈品斷點，我們大約 1/4 的銷售額是通過獎勵完成的。因此，這是我們業務中非常有意義的一部分。

We're extremely excited to really be able to unlock the potential that the rewards program, especially the data component represents when we move to punch.

我們非常興奮能夠真正釋放獎勵計劃的潛力，尤其是當我們開始打卡時數據組件所代表的潛力。

That's great. And then my second question, and I'll jump back to the queue you after this. 5 units opened in the first half of the fiscal year. It sounds like the pipeline between under construction and executed lease is very strong. What I'm wondering is with 1 unit opening in Q3, are there any operational pinch points in Q4 to how many units you can open? I'm just trying to think with, I think, you guys highlighted that were mostly new centers, which is an easier construction process in the back half of the year. What drives us for where we land between the 9 units and the 11 units for full year guidance?

那太棒了。然後是我的第二個問題，之後我會跳回到隊列中。本財政年度上半年開設了 5 個單位。聽起來在建和已執行租賃之間的管道非常強大。我想知道的是，在第 3 季度開放 1 個單元，在第 4 季度是否有任何操作夾點可以打開多少個單元？我只是想想想，我想，你們強調了大多數是新中心，這在下半年是一個更容易的建設過程。是什麼驅使我們在 9 個單位和 11 個單位之間降落以獲得全年指導？

(foreign language)

（外語）

So certainly, the goal is to open those remaining units in Q4 as evenly as possible to distribute distress on the opening teams and the operational teams. But 1 thing that we're happy about is that some of these openings are in existing units like California, where we can really draw on the support of our existing units there, and so hopefully not have to leverage 1 of our opening teams. And so what we're doing we're trying to get in front of the ball as much as we can, so it's not a manpower issue that's a bottleneck for us in terms of achieving the higher end of that using guidance.

因此，當然，我們的目標是在第四季度盡可能平均地開放那些剩餘的單位，以將壓力分配給開放團隊和運營團隊。但我們感到高興的一件事是，其中一些空缺職位位於加利福尼亞州等現有單位，在那裡我們可以真正利用那裡現有單位的支持，因此希望不必利用我們的一個開放團隊。因此，我們正在做的是盡可能多地站在球的前面，所以這不是人力問題，這不是我們使用指導實現更高目標的瓶頸。

(foreign language)

（外語）

Just to sort of repeat what Jeff said in the prepared remarks, we're very confident about those 9 to 11 units, and we're extremely happy that we've got such a meaningful head start on fiscal '24.

只是重複 Jeff 在準備好的發言中所說的話，我們對這 9 到 11 個單位非常有信心，我們非常高興我們在 24 財年取得瞭如此有意義的開端。

Our next question comes from the line of Joshua Long with Stephens.

我們的下一個問題來自 Joshua Long 和 Stephens 的台詞。

I was curious if we could run through a couple of housekeeping items. The 17.4% comp during the quarter, can we talk about how that progressed through the quarter? I know I think thinking back to January, you had talked about some strong 14% area comps of December? And then also, there was a bit of incremental price taken from 1Q into 2Q. So just curious if you could kind of outlined how that flowed through the quarter and then talk about any sort of acceleration and momentum that you saw in January and February?

我很好奇我們是否可以瀏覽一些家政用品。本季度 17.4% 的補償，我們可以談談整個季度的進展情況嗎？我知道我想回想起 1 月份，您是否談到了 12 月份一些強勁的 14% 面積比較？然後，從 1Q 到 2Q 也有一些增量價格。所以很好奇，您是否可以概述一下整個季度的情況，然後談談您在 1 月和 2 月看到的任何加速和勢頭？

(foreign language)

（外語）

In terms of the difference between Q1 and Q2, the biggest single factor would be the impact of the easier comparison in Omicron that's probably going to be responsible for low to mid-single digits of that comp. Besides that, we're very pleased with the performance of the targeted marketing we began in December, and we as well as the brand collaboration that we did through our partnership with My Hero Academia.

就 Q1 和 Q2 之間的差異而言，最大的單一因素是 Omicron 中更容易比較的影響，這可能會導致該 comp 的中低個位數。除此之外，我們對 12 月開始的定向營銷的表現以及我們通過與 My Hero Academia 的合作所做的品牌合作感到非常滿意。

As a reminder, we've lapped 2% pricing in March. And so don't think of the March results as a deceleration by any means. It's really when you back out the Omicron impact and that pricing lap, it's completely in line with the Q2 results. And so we're very pleased with the results for the quarter to date as well.

提醒一下，我們在 3 月份的定價已超過 2%。因此，無論如何不要將 3 月的結果視為減速。這真的是當你取消 Omicron 的影響和那個定價圈時，它完全符合第二季度的結果。因此，我們對本季度迄今為止的結果也非常滿意。

Great. That's helpful. And then maybe just kind of level setting that pricing conversation. I feel like you had taken -- I think did it turn out to be an incremental 700 basis points from 1Q into 2Q. I think you had taken that in late December, so maybe you didn't get a full 700 basis points for December. But is that where you show out for the quarter? And then as you think about rolling into March, to your point, Ben, you roll off about 200 basis points, so that kind of has about 13% menu price embedded in what we should be expecting for the 3Q period?

偉大的。這很有幫助。然後可能只是設定定價對話的水平。我覺得你已經採取了——我認為結果是從第一季度到第二季度增加了 700 個基點。我想你是在 12 月下旬接受的，所以你可能沒有在 12 月得到完整的 700 個基點。但這就是你在這個季度表現出來的地方嗎？然後當你考慮進入 3 月時，就你的觀點而言，Ben，你降低了大約 200 個基點，所以我們對第三季度的預期中包含了大約 13% 的菜單價格？

(foreign language)

（外語）

So to clarify, we took pricing during the first week of December, not the first day, and so the benefit was so partial, but more meaningful that if you've taken in the last quarter. The effective price that we were carrying throughout Q2 was 14.4%. With us hitting March enrolling of 2%, we'll be carrying around 12.4% for Q3. As we mentioned in the prepared remarks, the traffic being up 700 basis points in Q2, traffic being positive in March as well. We're extremely happy about consumer sentiment. We think we're in a very strong position.

所以要澄清一下，我們在 12 月的第一周而不是第一天進行了定價，因此收益是如此的部分，但如果你在上個季度進行定價則更有意義。我們在整個第二季度進行的有效價格為 14.4%。隨著我們達到 2% 的 3 月入學率，我們將在第三季度實現 12.4% 左右。正如我們在準備好的評論中提到的那樣，第二季度的流量增加了 700 個基點，三月份的流量也是積極的。我們對消費者情緒感到非常高興。我們認為我們處於非常有利的地位。

Understood. That's very helpful commentary. I appreciate that. I was curious if you might be able to talk about the inflation outlook for the year. Obviously, you had gotten some good visibility earlier in the year. It seems like things were cooling down. That sounds to be more or less the case. Is that what is driving kind of much of what we should expect to see over the course of the year?

明白了。這是非常有幫助的評論。我很感激。我很好奇你能否談談今年的通脹前景。顯然，您在今年早些時候獲得了一些良好的知名度。事情似乎正在降溫。聽起來或多或少是這樣的。這是否正在推動我們在這一年中應該看到的大部分情況？

Previously, you talked about maybe some sourcing initiatives maybe longer-term opportunities to optimize the supply chain. Anything you can share there in terms of just how to think about some of these cost line items as we go through the rest of the year would be helpful?

之前，您談到了一些採購計劃，也許是優化供應鏈的長期機會。在今年餘下的時間裡，關於如何考慮其中一些成本項目，您可以在那里分享的任何內容都會有所幫助嗎？

Josh, it's Jeff. In terms of inflation, I think I mentioned at ICR that what we have started to see, we were very happy with, and that came to fruition. As you can see in our results with the cost of goods sold number. The year-over-year inflation is about 7.5%, which is a deceleration from what we have seen in Q1, where we believe the year-over-year at 10%.

喬希，是傑夫。在通貨膨脹方面，我想我在 ICR 上提到過我們已經開始看到的，我們非常高興，並且已經實現了。正如您在我們的結果中看到的那樣，銷售商品的成本數量。同比通脹率約為 7.5%，與我們在第一季度看到的情況相比有所放緩，我們認為同比通脹率為 10%。

So the numbers are improving. They are continuing to show. We continue to be happy with what the where they're coming out. And what we're getting really a double benefit because we're seeing not only a leveling off of the inflation, but because we took the pricing increase, we're kind of getting that benefit and that flows through on both sides of the equation. So going forward for the rest of the year, I'm really happy with where our COGS forecast is.

所以數字正在改善。他們正在繼續展示。我們繼續對他們出現的地方感到滿意。我們得到了真正的雙重好處，因為我們不僅看到通貨膨脹趨於平穩，而且因為我們接受了價格上漲，我們有點獲得了這種好處，而且這種好處在等式的兩邊都有.因此，在今年餘下的時間裡，我對我們的 COGS 預測非常滿意。

Great. That's super helpful. But some of the tech initiatives or efficiencies from technicians have been talked about in prior calls and maybe alluded to a little bit here. Can you talk about the impact of those initiatives in terms of driving the better year-over-year labor margins? I imagine some of that was priced, some of that was operational execution just momentum, but you have had some pretty interesting tools, whether it's robot servers, order the table drinks, I think there had been some discussion of maybe some robot dish washing at some point. But could you remind us kind of -- what is embedded here in the 3Q results and how we might think about the rollout of some of those initiatives over the course of the year?

偉大的。這非常有幫助。但是在之前的電話中已經討論過技術人員的一些技術舉措或效率，並且可能在這里略有提及。你能談談這些舉措在推動更高的勞動利潤率方面的影響嗎？我想其中一些是定價的，一些是運營執行只是動力，但你有一些非常有趣的工具，無論是機器人服務器，訂購餐桌飲料，我想已經有人討論過一些機器人洗碗一些點。但你能否提醒我們——第三季度的結果中嵌入了什麼，以及我們如何考慮在這一年中推出其中一些舉措？

(foreign language)

（外語）

In terms of the labor impact of the tech initiatives that we rolled out last year,the touch panel and plate disposal quarters, the table side payment and the server robots. As we've mentioned in the last call, we we're seeing about 50 to 60 basis points in labor improvement, and we're continuing to see that today. One thing to keep in mind is that when we rolled out the robot servers, that was also a traffic lift as well because of the experientiality, it's one of the reasons our Q4, which was the first quarter we had a full rollout of robot servers, we -- our traffic was up 14% in part because that experiential addition. And so as we lap that rollout in Q3, we'll still have the labor benefits, but we're not going to have the traffic tailwinds that we had from the novelty of the robot servers.

就我們去年推出的技術舉措對勞動力的影響而言，觸摸屏和平板處理區、桌邊支付和服務器機器人。正如我們在上次電話會議中提到的那樣，我們看到勞動力改善了大約 50 到 60 個基點，而且我們今天將繼續看到這一點。要記住的一件事是，當我們推出機器人服務器時，由於體驗性，這也是交通提升，這是我們第 4 季度的原因之一，這是我們全面推出機器人服務器的第一季度，我們——我們的流量增加了 14%，部分原因是體驗增加。因此，當我們在第三季度推出該產品時，我們仍將獲得勞動力福利，但我們不會像機器人服務器的新穎性那樣獲得流量順風。

(foreign language)

（外語）

In terms of the 50 to 60 basis point improvement we just mentioned, we're very -- it's a very hard number, i.e., it's a very concrete number for us. We can see it reflected in the schedules that we've built in the working hours that are required to operate our restaurants. But people like noticed that we didn't get the full leverage flow through from the pricing that we took in December in terms of labor. And that's because we're seeing about 10% labor inflation year-over-year. We're hoping for that to ease, but it's not baked into our expectations. .

就我們剛才提到的 50 到 60 個基點的改進而言，我們非常 - 這是一個非常困難的數字，也就是說，這對我們來說是一個非常具體的數字。我們可以看到它反映在我們根據經營餐廳所需的工作時間制定的時間表中。但人們注意到，我們並沒有從 12 月份的勞動力定價中獲得充分的槓桿作用。那是因為我們看到勞動力通脹率同比增長了 10%。我們希望這種情況能夠緩解，但它並沒有融入我們的期望。 .

And so that's going to be an ongoing factor for us in Q3 and Q4. We're going to do absolutely our best to manage that, but that is the labor market that we're in right now. In terms of the wait list that's going to come -- the labor advantage of that is really going to be coming more from sales leverage, just being able to serve more guests per day, which allows you to spend your labor dollars more effectively.

因此，這將成為我們在第三季度和第四季度的一個持續因素。我們將盡最大努力來解決這個問題，但這就是我們現在所處的勞動力市場。就即將到來的候補名單而言——勞動力優勢實際上更多地來自於銷售槓桿，每天能夠為更多的客人提供服務，這讓你可以更有效地花費你的勞動力。

And in terms of the dishwasher. The technology is live, it's ready to go. It's just a matter of getting certification, but that's a pretty opaque process. Historically, it's been 1 to 2 years given just how much upside we see in it. We're going to be pushing as much as we can. But ultimately, we're at the certification agencies mercy, but the expectation would be that it would have at least the impact of those 3 initiatives, if not more.

而在洗碗機方面。技術是實時的，它已準備就緒。這只是獲得認證的問題，但這是一個非常不透明的過程。從歷史上看，考慮到我們在其中看到的上升空間，已經過了 1 到 2 年。我們將盡我們所能。但最終，我們任由認證機構擺佈，但預計它至少會產生這 3 項舉措的影響，如果不是更多的話。

Great. That's helpful. And last one for me. When we think about the G&A efficiencies, how much of that is being driven by some of the things that you talked about, Jeff, when you onboarded in terms of opportunities to optimize spend and really just think about the timing and cadence of investments versus just some of the near-term sales leverage as we think about sort of the guidance range being given in terms of G&A margins, is there more to come there? How early on are we in terms of really being able to optimize the overall spend in kind of G&A investment pipeline?

偉大的。這很有幫助。最後一個給我。當我們考慮 G&A 效率時，有多少是由你談到的一些事情驅動的，傑夫，當你在優化支出的機會方面入職時，真的只是考慮投資的時機和節奏，而不是僅僅當我們考慮在 G&A 利潤率方面給出的某種指導範圍時，一些近期的銷售槓桿，還有更多嗎？就真正能夠優化 G&A 投資渠道的總體支出而言，我們有多早？

We're very happy with the 120 bps that we -- and leverage that we achieved in this quarter, and that's just the start. We're continuing to work hard. One of the reasons we're being able to see benefits right now is in the last 12 to 18 months, we spent a lot of money investing in the office in terms of C-suite and Vice President level positions, expensive people. We've built that team out now. We're not going to have those additional hires of that magnitude going forward, and that's going to continue to help the G&A leverage.

我們對我們在本季度實現的 120 個基點和槓桿率感到非常滿意，而這僅僅是個開始。我們正在繼續努力。我們現在能夠看到好處的原因之一是在過去的 12 到 18 個月裡，我們花了很多錢在辦公室投資於 C-suite 和副總裁級別的職位，昂貴的人。我們現在已經建立了那個團隊。我們不會再有那麼多的額外員工，這將繼續幫助 G&A 發揮槓桿作用。

The other thing that's going to help the leverage on the regional side is to continue to infill markets with additional restaurants, we'll be able to be much more efficient with our area managers instead of an area manager having say, 5 or 6 restaurants maybe in 4 or 5 states, we'll be able to compartmentalize them more into restaurants that are closer and we'll be able to save on travel and always make their time much more efficient as well. So those are the 2 things going forward that I believe are really going to deliver more G&A leverage. There is more to come. We haven't given a time line on when we're going to get down to a single-digit number. However, what we've seen so far has been really, really encouraging, and there is more to come.

另一件有助於區域方面槓桿作用的事情是繼續用更多的餐廳填充市場，我們將能夠通過我們的區域經理而不是區域經理說，5 或 6 家餐廳來提高效率在 4 或 5 個州，我們將能夠將他們更多地劃分到更近的餐館，我們將能夠節省旅行費用，並始終使他們的時間更有效率。因此，我認為這些是未來真正會提供更多 G&A 影響力的兩件事。還有更多。我們還沒有給出何時降到個位數的時間表。然而，到目前為止，我們所看到的確實非常非常令人鼓舞，而且還會有更多。

Just to add on that. The G&A spend in terms of operations like the regional managers, that spend is going to sort of follow a bell curve. So as Jeff mentioned, as we infill, we'll be able to assign more units to each regional manager, but the opening teams are a pretty meaningful part of our G&A as well. We've got 2 right now. Each costs about $1 million per year to operate. And when we were talking about the pipeline before we mentioned how (inaudible) markets like California, you don't need an opening team. And so as we continue to infill those very meaningful G&A investments become unnecessary and can actually post the hope is eventually, those teams will just -- they'll become store managers or regional managers and we won't need opening teams once you reach a certain point.

只是為了補充這一點。 G&A 支出在區域經理等運營方面的支出將遵循鐘形曲線。因此，正如 Jeff 提到的那樣，隨著我們的填補，我們將能夠為每個區域經理分配更多的單位，但開放團隊也是我們 G&A 中非常有意義的一部分。我們現在有 2 個。每個每年的運營成本約為 100 萬美元。當我們在提到像加利福尼亞這樣的（聽不清）市場之前談論管道時，您不需要開放團隊。因此，隨著我們繼續填補那些非常有意義的 G&A 投資變得不必要，並且實際上可以發布希望，這些團隊將只是 - 他們將成為商店經理或區域經理，一旦您達到某一點。

And also, while the expensive G&A hires have ceased, we've filled most of those positions. We're going to -- not going to cut back on making sure that we have a development and real estate team in place that we need in order to keep the pipeline as robust as it is. As Jimmy mentioned in the prepared remarks, we have 9 restaurants under construction and 9 more executed leases. And we need to continue to add to that pipeline, and we want to make sure that we have the right teams in place in order to keep it as robust as we need it to be in order to continue the growth pattern that we've seen in the number of units.

而且，雖然昂貴的 G&A 招聘已經停止，但我們已經填補了其中的大部分職位。我們將 - 不會減少確保我們擁有一個開發和房地產團隊，我們需要這樣的團隊來保持管道的穩健性。正如吉米在準備好的評論中提到的那樣，我們有 9 家餐廳正在建設中，還有 9 家已執行的租約。我們需要繼續增加該管道，我們希望確保我們擁有合適的團隊，以使其保持我們需要的穩健性，以繼續我們所看到的增長模式在單位數量上。

And then the other areas that we just talked about is recent management. As we add restaurants, we are going to have to continue to add area managers to make sure that we continue to support the restaurants and provide the best customer guest service that we possibly can and that we're known for.

然後我們剛才談到的其他領域是最近的管理。隨著我們增加餐廳，我們將不得不繼續增加區域經理，以確保我們繼續支持餐廳並提供我們可能提供的最好的客戶服務，這是我們眾所周知的。

Our next question comes from the line of Sharon Zackfia with William Blair.

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

Myself actually went out for a part of Jeff's commentary. So I apologize if you talked about this. But in terms of the development pipeline, how far out now are you working? Are you working on kind of fiscal '25 at this point? And can you talk about kind of the quality of the kinds of sites that you're able to get now and maybe contrast it to, I don't know, 2019 or before the pandemic?

實際上，我自己出去聽了 Jeff 的部分評論。所以如果你談到這個，我很抱歉。但就開發管道而言，你現在工作了多遠？你現在正在研究某種財政'25嗎？你能談談你現在可以獲得的各種網站的質量嗎？也許可以將其與我不知道的 2019 年或大流行之前進行對比？

(foreign language)

（外語）

Generally speaking, the units in our pipeline, there for fiscal '24, there's a couple of fiscal '25 sprinkled in there. But what we're looking at is mostly '24.

一般來說，我們管道中的單位，那裡有 24 財年，那裡有幾個 25 財年。但我們關注的主要是 24 歲。

(foreign language). .

（外語）。 .

The quality of the sites that are being brought to us, just they're improving every day. Jimmy he tried to personally visit as many of the sites as possible. And it's obvious, the quality of the sites are amazing. One thing that's been really fun is some of the sites that Jimmy and I have been looking at for the last 5 years, been waiting to get into, we've been able to get into them, and they've been just as successful as we hope. And so that's been really fun to see. I know for people that are familiar with the story, we mentioned how during the pandemic, we made very aggressive investments in terms of real estate.

提供給我們的網站質量每天都在提高。吉米他試圖親自訪問盡可能多的網站。很明顯，網站的質量非常好。一件真正有趣的事情是吉米和我在過去 5 年裡一直在關注的一些網站，一直在等待進入，我們已經能夠進入它們，而且它們和我們希望。所以這真的很有趣。我知道對於熟悉這個故事的人來說，我們提到在大流行期間我們如何在房地產方面進行非常積極的投資。

We built that $45 million revolver with the parent. We hired our first Chief Development Officer, who's opened thousands of units, and we aggressively signed leases in places that we would have otherwise been inaccessible to us at that point, like Westfield. But because we have 1- to 2-hour dinner lines, we're great tenants now Westfield wants everywhere. And so at the time of the -- when we first site these leases, we were extremely excited, but there was an internal concern that this boost will be limited to the fiscal '21 and '22 stores. But what we're seeing is that this success is really just -- it's snowball. It's just getting better and better. And so our expectation is that our AUVs are going to stay just as strong, if not even stronger. The development is the strongest it's ever been. We're very pleased.

我們與母公司一起製造了價值 4500 萬美元的左輪手槍。我們聘請了我們的第一位首席開發官，他開設了數千個單位，並且我們在當時我們無法進入的地方積極簽署租約，例如 Westfield。但是因為我們有 1 到 2 小時的晚餐排隊，我們現在是很棒的租戶，現在 Westfield 到處都需要。因此，在我們首次租用這些租約時，我們非常興奮，但內部擔心這種提振將僅限於 21 財年和 22 財年的商店。但我們所看到的是，這種成功真的只是 - 它是滾雪球。它只是變得越來越好。因此，我們的期望是我們的 AUV 將保持同樣強大，甚至更強大。發展是有史以來最強勁的。我們很高興。

(foreign language)

（外語）

I had a follow-up question, but Jimmy, I didn't know if you had more to add.

我有一個後續問題，但是吉米，我不知道你是否還有更多要補充的。

No.

不。

Okay. Just 1 follow-up. I mean the traffic growth remains very impressive. I guess I'm curious, are you seeing consumers try to manage the check at all, though, when they come in? Are you seeing fewer plates or lower beverage attach or anything that might suggest any kind of check management starting to creep into the business?

好的。僅 1 次跟進。我的意思是流量增長仍然非常可觀。我想我很好奇，您是否看到消費者在進來時嘗試管理支票？您是否看到更少的盤子或更少的飲料附加或任何可能表明任何類型的支票管理開始滲透到業務中？

(foreign language)

（外語）

We're extremely pleased with consumer sentiment. As we mentioned earlier, of the Q2 comps, 14.4%. 10 of that -- we saw that 10% pricing mix, and so that's great. Last quarter of our 6.9% comps, only 2.9% was from price and mix. And so we're seeing even better flow-through than before. The guests treating more -- more plates per person than they were over the prior quarter, and our average checklist has grown to about $28. And so in spite of the pricing that we're seeing, guests are actually eating more. It's been very encouraging to see.

我們對消費者的情緒非常滿意。正如我們之前提到的，在第二季度的 comps 中，佔 14.4%。其中 10 個——我們看到了 10% 的定價組合，這很好。在我們 6.9% 的上個季度，只有 2.9% 來自價格和組合。因此，我們看到比以前更好的流量。與上一季度相比，客人每人招待的盤子更多，我們的平均清單已增至約 28 美元。因此，儘管我們看到的價格很高，但客人實際上吃得更多了。看到這一點非常令人鼓舞。

(foreign language)

（外語）

We believe Kura has fundamental advantages as a concept even when consumer sentiment is weak certainly, we're not saying that it is, but we -- just given what we've seen, it has been extremely strong. But if there is a downturn, we do have some structural advantages.

我們相信，即使在消費者情緒肯定疲軟的情況下，Kura 作為一個概念也具有根本優勢，我們並不是說它是這樣，但我們 - 就我們所看到的情況而言，它非常強勁。但如果經濟低迷，我們確實有一些結構性優勢。

I mean, you're reducing the frequency of times that you're dining out, you want your entertainment dollars to go as far as possible. And so you can make a sandwich at home, you can even drill us take it home, nobody makes sushi, certainly not with a conveyor belt. And so that's one of the reasons that our traffic has been so strong. Initially, the way that we build our -- the way the guests experience the mill where they build it plate by plate means that nobody has ever priced out. And so we're in an excellent position. We're very pleased to be where we are.

我的意思是，你正在減少外出就餐的次數，你希望你的娛樂錢花得盡可能多。所以你可以在家裡做三明治，你甚至可以鑽我們帶回家，沒有人做壽司，當然不是用傳送帶。這就是我們的流量如此強勁的原因之一。最初，我們建造我們的方式 - 客人體驗他們建造它的工廠的方式意味著沒有人會定價。所以我們處於一個很好的位置。我們很高興能成為我們所在的地方。

Our next question comes from the line of George Kelly with Roth Capital.

我們的下一個問題來自 George Kelly 與 Roth Capital 的對話。

So just a couple for you. The first one, I was curious if you could update us on a couple of sourcing initiatives that you've talked about in prior calls, specifically the potential for Japanese sourcing and then the utilization of broad liners?

所以只給你一對。第一個，我很好奇你是否可以向我們介紹你在之前的電話中談到的幾個採購計劃的最新情況，特別是日本採購的潛力以及廣泛的襯墊的利用？

Yes. We've started that process. We're starting to work with Cisco on it. We're testing some of the deliveries in some markets. That's something that we're just not going to flip the switch on because getting the products in at the right time efficiently and effectively is so important that we have to take this slowly and make sure that we're completely dialed in before we flip the switch to the whole company. We do have some initiatives that are coming up.

是的。我們已經開始了這個過程。我們開始與思科合作。我們正在測試某些市場的一些交付。這是我們不會打開開關的事情，因為在正確的時間高效且有效地獲取產品非常重要，我們必須慢慢來，並確保在我們打開之前完全撥入切換到整個公司。我們確實有一些即將推出的舉措。

We've got shrimp and salmon that we have been able to purchase at a much more favorable price that will be coming in, in May and June. So that's upcoming. I think we've talked about that in the past, but that's an exciting development. And one thing that I'm really excited about, too, is it will be much easier for us to forecast where we're going to be in terms of COGS because in the past, we've kind of been right in the market.

我們已經能夠以更優惠的價格購買到蝦和鮭魚，它們將在 5 月和 6 月上市。這就是即將到來的。我想我們過去已經討論過這個問題，但這是一個令人興奮的發展。我也非常興奮的一件事是，我們將更容易預測我們將在 COGS 方面的位置，因為在過去，我們在市場上一直是正確的。

The markups were kind of around across the board. And once we get everything into more of a broad line system, we'll be able to do exactly what the market is, exactly what we're paying and we'll be much in a much better place in terms of forecasting, not to mention our actual results going forward should be better as well. So it's in process, but we're taking slowly to make sure that we're really dialed in before we roll it out system-wide.

加價是全面的。一旦我們將所有內容都納入一個更廣泛的系統中，我們將能夠準確地做市場是什麼，我們支付的是什麼，我們將在預測方面處於更好的位置，而不是提到我們未來的實際結果也應該更好。所以它正在進行中，但我們正在慢慢地確保在我們將它推出全系統之前我們真的撥入了。

So if I were to just attempt to repeat what you just said, is this something that you're still kind of assessing and uncertain as to whether you'll kind of roll it out across the base? Or would you expect this to be in you fully implement by maybe the start of next fiscal year? .

因此，如果我只是試圖重複您剛才所說的話，您是否仍在評估並且不確定是否會在整個基地推出它？或者您是否希望在下個財政年度開始時全面實施？ .

I believe by the start of the next fiscal year, it will be implemented. And this is something we are doing. We're just taking it slowly to make sure it's being done properly.

我相信到下一個財政年度開始時，它將得到實施。這就是我們正在做的事情。我們只是慢慢來，以確保它正在正確地完成。

Okay. Understood. And then second question for me. Just curious if you are contemplating taking additional pricing this year? And then another question is just the timing of the DC Comics partner. When is that stuff? Is that in July and August if you could specify that? And that's all I had.

好的。明白了。然後是我的第二個問題。只是想知道您今年是否考慮採取額外定價？然後另一個問題就是 DC Comics 合作夥伴的時間安排。那是什麼時候的東西？如果您可以具體說明，是在 7 月和 8 月嗎？這就是我的全部。

(foreign language)

（外語）

But we have no specific plans at this point, but there are a couple of things that are useful to consider. One would be that we're going to be lapping 6% price in July. We'll longer have that benefit. We are still seeing that 10% labor inflation that Jimmy had mentioned, and there are typically minimum wage increases in July,in (inaudible) especially in our Los Angeles markets. And while COGS inflation is easing, we are seeing ongoing inflation in non-COGS expenses. And while we have no current plans, we're going to be flexible in terms of making sure that we're able to make the best decision possible for that point in time.

但目前我們還沒有具體的計劃，但有幾件事值得考慮。一個是我們將在 7 月份將價格降至 6%。我們將不再有這種好處。我們仍然看到 Jimmy 提到的 10% 的勞動力通脹，而且 7 月份通常會增加最低工資，（聽不清），尤其是在我們的洛杉磯市場。雖然 COGS 通脹正在緩和，但我們看到非 COGS 費用持續上漲。雖然我們目前沒有任何計劃，但我們會保持靈活性，以確保我們能夠在那個時間點做出可能的最佳決定。

What we'd like to reiterate is that this -- whatever pricing we take would not be a margin driver. That's not why we take price. It would be purely to offset increased costs.

我們想重申的是，無論我們採取什麼定價，都不會成為利潤驅動因素。這不是我們接受價格的原因。這純粹是為了抵消增加的成本。

(foreign language)

（外語）

We're really excited about DC Comics. We think it's going to get us in front of a new and different audience from what the past collaborations have done. We haven't baked it like baked in a bonanza. And we'd be really pleased to see it beat Demon Slayer. But 1 thing is that DC will be starting in August, where Demon Slayer had July and August.

我們對 DC Comics 感到非常興奮。我們認為這將使我們站在新的和不同的觀眾面前，與過去的合作所做的不同。我們還沒有像在富礦中烘烤那樣烘烤它。我們真的很高興看到它擊敗了惡魔殺手。但一件事是 DC 將於 8 月開始，惡魔殺手有 7 月和 8 月。

We have a follow-up question from the line of Todd Brooks with the Benchmark Company.

Benchmark 公司的托德·布魯克斯 (Todd Brooks) 提出了後續問題。

Just going back to the commodity side. I believe across the course of last year when demand was robust. Your supply chain had issues keeping up. So your vendor base got a little deconsolidated. As we're looking towards that predictability, Jeff, that you talked about with COGS forecasting going forward. Can you maybe review how the process of reconsolidating with fewer vendors more volume and then maybe the scale advantages that you're finding as you do that? And then my follow-up to that one is, given the improvement that we're seeing with the commodity inflation side and the strong sales results. Is there a way to think about an exit rate with the initiatives that are in place for this year for where restaurant level margin should be targeted that as we're thinking about going into '24?

回到商品方面。我相信在去年需求旺盛的整個過程中。您的供應鏈跟不上問題。所以你的供應商基礎有點分散。當我們正在尋找可預測性時，傑夫，你談到了未來的 COGS 預測。您能否回顧一下與更少的供應商進行更多數量的重新整合的過程，以及您在這樣做時發現的規模優勢？鑑於我們在商品通脹方面看到的改善和強勁的銷售業績，我對該問題的後續行動是。有沒有一種方法可以通過今年實施的舉措來考慮退出率，以便在我們考慮進入 24 年時將餐廳級別的利潤作為目標？

So -- and I'm going to let Jimmy and Ben also elaborate on kind of last year as well because I wasn't with the company last year. But my understanding, during the pandemic, what happened is we were coming out of the pandemic because a lot of our suppliers had stopped supply having on hand as much product as they did because they ended up throwing so much away during the pandemic, they were a little bit shy in terms of how much they had on board. So we have to go to some other suppliers. And that really grow their COGS last year because we had to go to a new supplier, we weren't able to really negotiate with them. We kind of had our backs against all a little bit and they had to go to them and say, we need this product, they were able to provide it at the quality we needed, but we did pay for that. So there were no vendors that I know of that we really -- any of our large [technology] base, especially that we really lost, it was just more of a shortage of the supply they were supplying. And we're back to buying our products from the pre-pandemic suppliers for the most part. Is there anything additional?

所以——我要讓 Jimmy 和 Ben 也詳細說明去年的情況，因為我去年不在公司。但我的理解是，在大流行期間，發生的事情是我們正在擺脫大流行，因為我們的許多供應商已經停止供應手頭上的產品，因為他們在大流行期間最終扔掉了太多東西，他們就他們在船上有多少而言有點害羞。所以我們必須去找其他一些供應商。去年他們的 COGS 真的增加了，因為我們不得不去找一個新的供應商，我們無法真正與他們談判。我們有點反對，他們不得不去找他們說，我們需要這個產品，他們能夠以我們需要的質量提供它，但我們確實為此付出了代價。因此，據我所知，沒有供應商我們真的 - 我們的任何大型 [技術] 基地，特別是我們真正失去的，只是他們供應的供應短缺。而且我們大部分時間又回到從大流行前供應商那裡購買我們的產品。有什麼額外的嗎？

No. I think you explained everything.

不，我想你解釋了一切。

Okay. And then, Todd, I'm sorry, can you ask your second question again 1 more time, please?

好的。然後，托德，對不起，你能再問你的第二個問題 1 次嗎？

Just I'm listening to the commentary on the call and the normalization that we're seeing in inflation and the sequential improvement and scale benefits, the Cisco rollout proceeding over this year. I'm just trying to get my mind around kind of what you guys are thinking maybe for an exit rate for restaurant-level margins kind of going into fiscal '24, so we could start to think about earnings power in that year?

我只是在聽取關於電話會議的評論，以及我們在通貨膨脹、連續改進和規模收益方面看到的正常化，以及今年思科的推出。我只是想弄清楚你們在想什麼，也許餐廳級利潤率的退出率會進入 24 財年，這樣我們就可以開始考慮那一年的盈利能力了嗎？

So our eye is always on the 20% restaurant level margin price. That's pretty much the gold standard in the restaurant industry. And in fact, hitting the 20.2% that we did in Q2, I believe, is 1 of, if not our highest Q2s of all time. And we're very happy with that because Q2, our seasonality is Q1 is our slowest quarter of the 4, and then they get sequentially better from there. Q2 is better than 1, 3 better than 2. And Q4, which is our summer is our best quarter. So to be able to hit a 20% restaurant level margin in Q2, we're very happy with. We'll continue to chip away at it. But that number is a pretty good number, and we're not going to sacrifice guest service or food quality in order to drive that margin much higher than that. But there is a little opportunity, I believe, as we continue to leverage, but we're happy with the number where it is.

因此，我們的目光始終集中在 20% 的餐廳級別保證金價格上。這幾乎是餐飲業的黃金標準。事實上，我相信，達到我們在第二季度所做的 20.2%，即使不是我們有史以來最高的第二季度，也是其中之一。我們對此感到非常高興，因為第二季度，我們的季節性是第一季度是我們 4 季度中最慢的季度，然後他們從那裡開始依次好轉。 Q2 比 1 好，3 比 2 好。而 Q4，也就是我們的夏天，是我們最好的季度。因此，能夠在第二季度達到 20% 的餐廳級利潤率，我們感到非常高興。我們將繼續努力。但這個數字是一個相當不錯的數字，我們不會為了提高利潤率而犧牲客戶服務或食品質量。但我相信，隨著我們繼續發揮槓桿作用，機會很小，但我們對目前的數字感到滿意。

(foreign language)

（外語）

As a reminder, that labor inflation that we mentioned, we do expect that to continue through Q3 and Q4 to potentially pass that. And so please be mindful of that as well. A couple of other notes just from my end, thinking about exit rates might not be super helpful for your modeling purposes just because of the seasonality that Jeff mentioned, Q4's restaurant level operating profit margin in Q1's restaurant level operating profit margin are materially different. If you go through any of our past things, I'm sure you'll see that.

提醒一下，我們提到的勞動力通脹，我們確實預計它會持續到第三季度和第四季度，並有可能超過它。所以也請注意這一點。就我而言，還有一些其他的注意事項，考慮退出率可能對您的建模目的沒有太大幫助，只是因為 Jeff 提到的季節性，Q4 餐廳級別的營業利潤率與 Q1 餐廳級別的營業利潤率存在重大差異。如果你經歷過我們過去的任何事情，我相信你會看到的。

And just to echo Jeff's note, we're very happy with that 20% plus. It's 1 of the industry best -- it's great to see ongoing improvement. But in terms of the major opportunity for top and bottom line, that's going to be the ongoing unit expansion and leveraging of our G&A.

為了回應 Jeff 的說法，我們對這 20% 的收益感到非常滿意。它是業界最佳之一——很高興看到持續改進。但就頂線和底線的主要機會而言，這將是正在進行的單位擴張和利用我們的 G&A。

Our next question is a follow-up question from Joshua Long with Stephens.

我們的下一個問題是 Joshua Long 和 Stephens 的後續問題。

I was just curious, it looks like there were maybe a couple of remodels during the quarter or maybe some of your older units. Just curious if that was maybe a one-off opportunity or a remodel or something a bit more comprehensive is in the works? Just curious on either set up for that and/or what you learned by touch on going back and looking at some of those, I think it was in your California market?

我只是好奇，看起來本季度可能有幾次改造，或者您的一些舊單元。只是好奇這是否可能是一次性機會或改造或更全面的工作？只是好奇為此設置和/或你通過觸摸回頭看看其中的一些而學到的東西，我認為它在你的加利福尼亞市場？

At the time we IPO, we -- our parent company actually worked with a very famous designer. He's the guy who did the unique (inaudible) logo, it's probably the best one for the West. But it seems the guys who did our new updated logo when he developed an interior design update as well. And so we've been doing those updates since 2019, 2020. We only have 6 left the cost, on average, maybe $200,000 to $300,000. But after those 6 were caught up.

在我們首次公開募股時，我們——我們的母公司實際上與一位非常著名的設計師合作。他是製作獨特（聽不清）標誌的人，這可能是西方最好的標誌。但似乎那些在他開發室內設計更新時也做了我們新更新徽標的人。因此，自 2019 年、2020 年以來，我們一直在進行這些更新。我們只剩下 6 個，平均成本可能在 200,000 美元到 300,000 美元之間。但是在那6個人被追上之後。

That concludes our question-and-answer session. That also concludes our conference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我們的會議也到此結束。感謝您的參與。此時您可以斷開線路，度過美好的一天。

[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

[此記錄中標記為 [已翻譯] 的部分由現場通話中的口譯員說出。]