Kura Sushi USA Inc (KRUS) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. And thank you for standing by.

女士們、先生們，午安。感謝您的支持。

Welcome to the Kura Sushi USA Inc fourth quarter, 2024 earnings call at this time you have been placed in a listen-only mode and the lines will be open for your question. Following the presentation.

歡迎參加 Kura Sushi USA Inc 2024 年第四季財報電話會議，此時您已處於只聽模式，並且可以隨時提問。介紹完畢後。

Please note that this call is being recorded on the call today. We have Hajime Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Jeff- Chief Financial Officer and Benjamin Porten SVP, Investor Relations and system development. and I would now like to turn the call over to Mr Porten.

請注意，今天的通話將會被錄音。我們有總裁兼執行長 Hajime Jimmy Uba、財務長 Jeff 和投資者關係和系統開發資深副總裁 Benjamin Porten。我現在想把電話轉給波滕先生。

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone and thank you all for joining by now. Everyone should have access to our fiscal fourth quarter, 2024 earnings release. It can be found at www.kurasushi.com in the investor relations section. A copy of the earnings release has also been included in the eight K we submitted to the SEP before we begin our formal remarks. I need to remind everyone that part of our discussions today will include forward-looking statements as to find under the private securities litigation form Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and therefore you should not put undue reliance on them.

謝謝你，接線生。大家下午好，感謝大家現在的加入。每個人都應該能夠訪問我們 2024 年第四財季的收益發布。您可以在 www.kurasushi.com 的投資者關係部分找到資訊。在我們開始正式發言之前，我們向 SEP 提交的 8 K 中也包含了收益發布的副本。我需要提醒大家，我們今天討論的一部分將包括根據 1995 年私人證券訴訟形式法案找到的前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述並不是對未來績效的保證，因此您不應過度依賴它們。

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.

這些陳述也受到許多風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與我們的預期有重大差異。我們建議大家參閱我們的證券交易文件，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'll discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures which we believe can be useful in evaluating our performance. The 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. With that out of the way, I would like to turn the call over to Jimmy.

此外，在今天的電話會議中，我們將討論某些非公認會計原則財務指標，我們認為這些指標有助於評估我們的績效。這些附加資訊的呈現不應被孤立地考慮，也不應作為根據 GAAP 準備的結果的替代品，並且我們的收益報告中提供了與可比較 GAAP 指標的對帳。既然這樣，我想把電話轉給吉米。

Thanks again and thank you to everyone for joining us today.

再次感謝大家今天加入我們。

I'm pleased to report and end the two of his career that has meaningly outperformed the expectations we shared during sarson score and to share that I knew his career is off to a strong start.

我很高興地報告並結束他的職業生涯，這兩次表現明顯超出了我們在薩爾森評分期間共同的期望，並分享我知道他的職業生涯有了一個良好的開端。

The sales pressures beginning in April improved significantly over the course of the quarter, resulting in the in fourth quarter comes of negative 3.1% as compared to the expectations we shared during the prior and score of negative high single digit comps.

4 月開始的銷售壓力在整個季度中顯著改善，導致第四季度的銷售壓力與我們先前分享的預期相比下降了 3.1%，並且得分為負高個位數。

I'm very pleased that in spite of the unexpected sales decline in the BHA of his career, we were able to maintain positive full year accounts of 0.7% and the full year restaurant level operating margins about 20%.

我很高興的是，儘管 BHA 的銷售額在他的職業生涯中意外下降，但我們仍能夠保持 0.7% 的全年盈利，以及 20% 左右的餐廳水平營業利潤率。

This was made possible by the rapid response by our team members throughout the company to find new efficiencies and cost saving opportunities.

這得歸功於全公司團隊成員的快速回應，以尋找新的效率和成本節約機會。

Total sales for the fiscal fourth quarter was $66 million representing comparable sales performance of a negative 3.1%.

第四財季的總銷售額為 6,600 萬美元，可比銷售業績下降 3.1%。

Our cost of goods sold as a percentage of sales was 28.5% representing 100 basis point improvement over the prior year.

我們的銷售成本佔銷售額的百分比為 28.5%，比前一年提高了 100 個基點。

This improvement was made possible by improving the quality of ingredients while also lowering cost labor as a percentage of sales was 31.1% representing an increase of 230 basis points as compared to the prior year due to wage inflation and sales delivery, restaurant level operating profit margin for the fourth quarter was 20.9%. As compared to the prior, you have 24.4% due to service delivery on the development front. We opened one new unit in the group of New York during the fourth quarter for a total of 14 new new unit openings during the fiscal year.

這項改善是透過提高原料品質同時降低勞動成本來實現的，由於薪資上漲和銷售交付、餐廳層級的營業利潤率，銷售額佔銷售額的百分比為31.1%，與前一年相比增加了230 個基點第四季為20.9%。與之前相比，由於開發方面的服務交付，您獲得了 24.4% 的收益。第四季度，我們在紐約集團開設了 1 個新單位，本財年總共開設了 14 個新單位。

Subsequent to quarter end, we have opened five new units. Beaverton, Oregon, Tacoma, Washington, Rockville, Maryland, Carry Hill, New Jersey and Baker Hield, California.

季度末後，我們開設了五個新單位。俄勒岡州比佛頓、華盛頓州塔科馬、馬裡蘭州羅克維爾、新澤西州凱利山和加州貝克希爾德。

We currently have six units under construction. But if they have mentioned that some of these units have just broken ground are we satisfied with the progress of opening new restaurants so far in fiscal year 2025 we expect that the opening of the remaining nine restaurants, especially those that not yet started, construction will be backloaded for Q3 and Q4.

我們目前有六台正在建設中。但如果他們提到其中一些單位剛剛破土動工，我們對 2025 財年迄今為止開設新餐廳的進展是否滿意，我們預計其餘 9 家餐廳的開業，特別是那些尚未開工的餐廳，施工將為第三季度和第四季回載。

As many of you know, there has been our strongest performer since its opening is our most successful unit to be in Washington State.

正如你們許多人所知，自開業以來，我們一直表現最強勁，是我們在華盛頓州最成功的單位。

We have always been excited about the massive potential of the Pacific North waste market.

我們一直對太平洋北部廢棄物市場的巨大潛力感到興奮。

This year, we finally opened our second unit in the Pacific Northwest, Invi button Oregon.

今年，我們終於在太平洋西北地區俄勒岡州因維按鈕開設了第二家分店。

I'm extremely pleased to hear that you are not disappointed following Viva, we opened our new unit in Tacoma, Washington.

我非常高興聽到 Viva 沒有令您失望，我們在華盛頓州塔科馬開設了新單位。

Tacoma has been very strong performer since its opening.

塔科馬自開業以來一直表現強勁。

Well, it's still early days. I'm very happy to see that the new units in the Pacific Northwest have exceeded our already high expectations and I'm very bullish about the long term potential of this market.

嗯，現在還為時過早。我很高興看到西北太平洋地區的新單位超出了我們本已很高的預期，我非常看好這個市場的長期潛力。

Turning to new initiatives. we completed the rollout of our back of house streamlining efforts in early September and results to date of deliver the expected improvements to labor cost, supporting of Japans reservation and sale seating system is proceeding as scheduled, representing further opportunities for labor, labor efficiencies. Later in the year, we have also diversified our marketing efforts so that we have more levers to pull on the heat id correlations.

轉向新舉措。我們在 9 月初完成了後台精簡工作的推出，迄今為止的成果實現了勞動力成本的預期改善，對日本預訂和銷售座位系統的支持正在按計劃進行，這代表了勞動力和勞動力效率的進一步機會。今年晚些時候，我們也多元化了我們的行銷工作，以便我們有更多的手段來拉動熱度 ID 的相關性。

We are going to be more designing with our it collaborations going forward priority prioritizing the quality and the broad based appeal of partnering brands over the number of campaigns.

我們將透過資訊科技合作進行更多設計，優先考慮合作品牌的品質和廣泛的吸引力，而不是活動的數量。

Our strategy to showcase our unbeatable quality and authenticity will be key to building our long term brand equity as we grow into our national footprint while also being more cost efficient than building it. Collaborations.

隨著我們在全國範圍內的發展，我們展示無與倫比的品質和真實性的策略將是建立我們長期品牌資產的關鍵，同時也比建立品牌資產更具成本效益。合作。

During the fourth quarter, we took an impairment charge of $1.6 million.

第四季度，我們提列了 160 萬美元的減損費用。

This charge is due to due to a changing self environment at our adventure of Florida location where we are required to required to take this in payment charge. This quarter party accounting rules, we will continue to operate this restaurant and we will implement several operational changes that we believe could improve results.

這筆費用是由於我們佛羅裡達州冒險地點的自身環境變化而導致的，我們需要收取這筆費用。根據本季度的會計規則，我們將繼續經營這家餐廳，並將實施一些我們認為可以改善業績的營運變革。

The new fiscal year has started strong and it's clear that we are in a very different place than the last time off course, the cost of saving efforts we began in preparation for the potential of longer term macro heroines have been fully implemented and these initiatives will serve us well as we enter a fully normalized environment.

新的財政年度已經開始強勁，很明顯，我們正處於一個與上一次截然不同的境地，我們為長期宏觀英雄的潛力而開始的節省成本的努力已經得到充分實施，這些舉措將當我們進入完全正常化的環境時，為我們提供良好的服務。

Our new unit openings to date have exceeded expectations and confirmed that the Pacific Northwest is a huge on top of the market for us.

到目前為止，我們新開的單位超出了預期，並證實了太平洋西北地區對我們來說是一個巨大的市場優勢。

In addition to the success we are continuing to see in the Pacific Northwest.

除了我們在太平洋西北地區繼續取得的成功之外。

We are highly anticipating our upcoming openings in smaller markets that we serve as proof proofs of concept for our ability to thrive in the United States. Beyond the largest re indicating even greater white space opportunity while the backup field has been, has only been open for a few days. The strength of its opening has us optimistic about our ability to thrive in smaller DMA's fiscal year 2025 is an opportunity to demonstrate the next level of good potential. And I am incredibly grateful for the excellent work by our team members who have put on us so well for the new fiscal year.

我們非常期待即將在較小的市場中開業，我們將以此作為我們在美國蓬勃發展的能力的概念證明。除了最大的重新表明更大的空白機會，而備用領域已經開放了幾天。其開業的力度讓我們對我們在小型 DMA 2025 財年蓬勃發展的能力持樂觀態度，這是展示下一階段良好潛力的機會。我非常感謝我們的團隊成員所做的出色工作，他們為我們新的財政年度做出了巨大的貢獻。

Yes. Now I'll turn it over to you to discuss our financial results and the grid.

是的。現在我將把它交給您來討論我們的財務表現和電網。

Thank you, Jimmy for the fourth quarter total sales were $66 million as compared to $54.9 million on the prior year period.

謝謝吉米，第四季的總銷售額為 6,600 萬美元，而去年同期為 5,490 萬美元。

Comparable restaurant sales performance compared to the prior year period was negative 3.1% with regional comps of positive 3.9% in our west coast market. A negative 8.9% in our Southwest market turning now to costs, food and beverage costs as a percentage of sales were 28.5% compared to 29.5% in the prior year quarter. Largely due to pricing and supply chain initiatives, labor and related costs. As a percentage of sales were 31.1% as compared to 28.8% in the prior year quarter.

與去年同期相比，我們的西海岸市場的可比餐廳銷售業績為負 3.1%，而區域銷售業績為正 3.9%。我們西南市場的負 8.9% 現在轉向成本，食品和飲料成本佔銷售額的百分比為 28.5%，而去年同期為 29.5%。主要是由於定價和供應鏈措施、勞動力和相關成本。佔銷售額的百分比為 31.1%，而去年同期為 28.8%。

This increase was largely due to sales deleverage and wage increases, occupancy and related expenses. As a percentage of sales were 7% compared to the prior year quarters, 6.6% depreciation and amortization expense as a percentage of sales increased to 4.6% compared to the prior quarter of 3.8% due to sales leverage and the accelerated depreciation of assets being replaced due to planned remodels other costs as percentage of sales increased to 14.7% compared to 13.8% in the prior year quarter.

這一增長主要是由於銷售去槓桿化以及工資、入住率和相關費用的增加。與去年各季度相比，佔銷售額的百分比為7%，由於銷售槓桿和被替換資產的加速折舊，折舊和攤銷費用佔銷售額的百分比為6.6%，而上一季為3.8%，增加至4.6%由於計劃改造，其他成本佔銷售額的比例從去年同期的 13.8% 上升至 14.7%。

Due mainly to utilities, delivery fees, software licenses and operating supplies.

主要是由於水電費、送貨費、軟體許可證和營運用品。

General and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales increased to 20.3% compared to 13.2% in the prior year quarter. Due to a litigation expense, general administrative expenses as a percent of sales excluding litigation expense for the fourth quarter and the full fiscal year were 13.2% and 14.1% respectively. Representing full year leverage over fiscal 2023 of 90 basis points.

一般及管理費用佔銷售額的百分比從去年同期的 13.2% 上升至 20.3%。由於訴訟費用，第四季度和整個財年的一般管理費用佔不包括訴訟費用的銷售額的百分比分別為13.2%和14.1%。2023 財年全年槓桿率為 90 個基點。

Operating loss was $5.8 million compared to operating income of $2.2 million in the prior year quarter, largely driven by litigation expense as well as sales to leverage higher labor costs and incremental other costs associated with a greater number of unit openings and units under construction.

營運虧損為 580 萬美元，而去年同期的營運收入為 220 萬美元，這主要是由於訴訟費用以及利用更高的勞動力成本以及與更多單元開業和在建單元相關的增量其他成本的銷售。

Income tax expense was $19,000 compared to $167,000 in the prior year quarter.

所得稅費用為 19,000 美元，去年同期為 167,000 美元。

Net loss was $5.2 million or a negative 46¢ per share compared to net income of $2.9 million or 25¢ per share. In the prior year quarter, adjusted net income was $1 million or 9¢ per share compared to adjusted net income of $2.9 million or 25¢ per share in the prior year quarter.

淨虧損為 520 萬美元，即每股負 46 美分，而淨利潤為 290 萬美元，即每股負 25 美分。去年同期調整後淨利為 100 萬美元，即每股 9 美分，而去年同期調整後淨利為 290 萬美元，即每股 25 美分。

Restaurant level operating profit as a percentage of sales was 20.9% compared to 24.4% on the prior year quarter, adjusted EBITA was $5.5 million compared to $6.3 million in the prior year quarter.

餐廳層級營業利潤佔銷售額的百分比為 20.9%，去年同期為 24.4%，調整後 EBITA 為 550 萬美元，去年同期為 630 萬美元。

Turning now to cash and liquidity. At the end of the fiscal fourth quarter, we had $51 million in cash and cash equivalents and no debt.

現在轉向現金和流動性。截至第四財季末，我們擁有 5,100 萬美元的現金和現金等價物，沒有債務。

And then lastly, I would like to provide the following guidance for fiscal year 2025.

最後，我想為 2025 財年提供以下指導。

We expect total sales to be between $275 and $279 million.

我們預計總銷售額將在 2.75 至 2.79 億美元之間。

We expect to open 14 units maintaining an annual unit growth rate above 20% with average net capital expenditures per unit of approximately $2.5 million.

我們預計將開設 14 個單位，維持年度單位成長率高於 20%，每個單位的平均淨資本支出約為 250 萬美元。

And we expect general and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales to be approximately 13.5%.

我們預期一般及管理費用佔銷售額的比例約為 13.5%。

And with that, I would 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.

謝謝傑夫。我們準備好的演講到此結束。我們現在很樂意回答您向操作員提出的任何問題。請在問答環節打開問題專線作為提醒，我可能會先用日文回答，然後再將我的回答翻譯成英文。

Thank you. We will now be conducting the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star and then one on your telephone keypad, a confirmation zone will indicate your line is in the question queue.

謝謝。我們現在將進行問答環節。如果您想提問，請按星號，然後按電話鍵盤上的一個，確認區將指示您的線路已在問題佇列中。

You may press star and then two. If you would like to remove your question from the queue for participancy speaking equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys.

您可以按星號，然後按兩個。如果您想從參與發言設備的佇列中刪除您的問題，可能需要在按星號鍵之前拿起聽筒。

One moment please. While we pull for questions, the first question we have is from John Tower of City. Please go ahead.

請稍等一下。當我們提問時，我們收到的第一個問題來自 City 的 John Tower。請繼續。

Great. Thanks for taking the questions. Good evening guys. Maybe just to start, I am curious about the guidance for revenue and based on the the new store openings greater than 20% I think the sales growth would imply something lower than that. You're talking about the current quarter. You're pleased with the start to the fiscal year. So I'm just curious if you could help square that for us, why the revenue growth that looks relatively conservative versus the new store growth? And how bullish you sound on the current state of same store sales.

偉大的。感謝您提出問題。晚上好，夥計們。也許剛開始，我對收入指導感到好奇，並且基於新店開業超過 20%，我認為銷售成長意味著低於這個數字。你說的是當前季度。您對本財年的開始感到滿意。所以我很好奇您是否可以幫助我們解決這個問題，為什麼營收成長與新店成長相比看起來相對保守？以及您對目前同店銷售狀況的樂觀態度。

So thank you John for your first question. Please allow me to speak in Japanese. Thank you for today.

謝謝約翰提出第一個問題。請允許我用日語發言。今天謝謝你。

I know (Spoken in Japanese).

我知道（用日語說）。

So John, as you said, it's true that we are being a little bit conservative. We're very pleased with the performance that we've seen to date as we've been to the fiscal year, September and October. The Q1 is definitely our performance Q4. We're, we're very happy to see that, but it's also true that we're still in mid process in terms of recovery. And so we feel it's proven not to be overly aggressive with our revenue guidance at the beginning of the year. The last thing we want to do is to have to do a repeat of a downward revenue guidance that we did last year. And so we felt that this was the most prudent approach you.

所以約翰，正如你所說，我們確實有點保守。我們對本財年（九月和十月）迄今所看到的表現感到非常滿意。Q1 絕對是我們 Q4 的表現。我們很高興看到這一點，但我們確實仍處於恢復過程中。因此，我們認為事實證明，我們年初的收入指引並沒有過於激進。我們最不想做的就是重複去年的下調收入指引。所以我們認為這是您最謹慎的做法。

Take can.

拿罐頭。

So (Spoken In Japanese).

所以（日文）。

In terms of looking at the, the impact of the post April sales deceleration, we're very proud of how we were able to manage the things that were under our control, namely our cost control efforts, the, the streamlining changes that we made to our back of house in particular, those changes were what allowed us to maintain that restaurant level operating profit margin about 20%. We're also very pleased that we were able to maintain a unit growth rate for fiscal above 20% for fiscal 25. In spite of the fact that we've trimmed some of the LOIS from our pipeline in an effort to minimize cannibalization and you know, reduce compact wins. And so we're very pleased in terms of how we've been able to execute the things that are under our control. But unfortunately, the macro environment is something that is not under our control. Nor is it something that we can predict. And so that's really the thinking behind our guidance at this point. Of course, should the environment continue to prove favorable? Then we look forward to a revision.

就四月份後銷售減速的影響而言，我們對如何能夠管理我們控制下的事情感到非常自豪，即我們的成本控制工作，我們所做的簡化變革特別是對於我們的後台來說，這些變化使我們能夠將餐廳層級的營業利潤率維持在20% 左右。我們也非常高興能夠在 25 財年將單位成長率保持在 20% 以上。儘管事實上我們已經從我們的管道中削減了一些 LOIS，以盡量減少蠶食，你知道，減少緊湊的勝利。因此，我們對如何能夠執行我們控制下的事情感到非常高興。但不幸的是，宏觀環境不是我們所能控制的。這也不是我們可以預測的。這確實是我們目前指導背後的想法。當然，環境是否應該繼續有利？然後我們期待修改。

Okay. So when thinking about the components of growth this year, I can back into slightly positive comp growth. And the I am also trying to figure out the new store productivity implications. Are there anything, is there anything to note? I mean, you just hit on the idea of perhaps being in markets where you're not going to have as much canalization with the existing stores. But are you doing anything with the size of the stores? Are these kind of all on trend relative to what you've been opening the past couple of years?

好的。因此，當考慮今年成長的組成部分時，我可以回到略微正的複合成長。我還試圖找出新商店對生產力的影響。有什麼事情嗎，有什麼需要注意的嗎？我的意思是，你只是突然想到，也許你所在的市場不會與現有商店有那麼多的管道。但是你對商店的規模做了什麼嗎？與您過去幾年開設的產品相比，這些產品是否都處於流行趨勢？

Well (Spoken in Japanese).

出色地（用日語說）。

John in terms of how we look at new stores? One of the things that you know that we really focus on and we, we put a lot of credence in is cash on cash return. And that allows us to be very it allows us to look at a bunch of different sites. We're not dialed into particular cookie cutter size So, you know, we'll build a smaller store if that's a great site that's available.

約翰，我們如何看待新店？你知道，我們真正關注並且非常信任的事情之一就是現金回報。這讓我們能夠查看許多不同的網站。我們沒有規定特定的千篇一律的尺寸，所以，你知道，如果這是一個可用的很棒的網站，我們將建立一個較小的商店。

And we don't necessarily always dial into a particular AUB because if I can get a cash on cash return of 40 or 50% on a smaller restaurant that may do a little bit lower. AUB, we'll do that all day. And then in terms of your comment about, our comp assumption for fiscal '25 you know, we don't, we don't give comp guidance, but to kind of reiterate what Jimmy said as we came out of Q4, I think we kind of saw what everybody else did, you know June wasn't great. And then towards the latter half of July and into August, things started to get better. But in our mind, it isn't quite yet a trend. So we didn't want to get too far ahead of our skis and put an overly aggressive comp assumption in our model. But I can tell you that the comp assumption for next year is not a negative number without quantifying it for you.

我們不一定總是撥入特定的 AUB，因為如果我能在較小的餐廳獲得 40% 或 50% 的現金回報，那可能會低一點。AUB，我們會這樣做一整天。然後，就您的評論而言，我們對 25 財年的補償假設，您知道，我們不提供補償指導，但重申一下吉米在第四季度結束時所說的話，我認為我們看到了其他人的做法，你知道六月的表現並不好。然後到了七月下半月和八月，情況開始好轉。但在我們看來，這還不是一種趨勢。因此，我們不想讓我們的滑雪板走得太遠，並在我們的模型中加入過於激進的補償假設。但我可以告訴你，明年的補償假設不是負數，而不需要為你量化。

Okay, great. Thank you. I appreciate that. And then maybe just in terms of thinking about the digital initiatives, I know you hit on earlier. well actually I'll stop pausing that the going back to the labor initiatives that you did to the store level. Those things should remain in place as volumes kind of return in the future. There's nothing that would suggest as volumes come back to stores. You should anticipate having, having a need to add more labor in the back of the house to you know, meet that demand.

好的，太好了。謝謝。我很欣賞這一點。然後也許只是在考慮數位化措施方面，我知道你很早就想到了。好吧，實際上我會停止暫停，回到你們在商店層級所做的勞工計畫。隨著未來銷量的回升，這些事情應該保持不變。隨著銷量重新回到商店，沒有任何跡象表明。您應該預見到需要在房子後面增加更多的勞動力來滿足這一需求。

(Spoken in Japanese).

（用日語說）。

John, the changes that we've made in terms of operational streamlining or structural. It's the combination of multiple make patients into a single one. And so an increase in sales would not require an increase in labor while it's still very much early in the fiscal year. Our belief is that our full year labor numbers, percentage of sales should be better than fiscal 24.

約翰，我們在營運精簡或結構上所做的改變。它是將多個患者組合成一個患者。因此，儘管現在還處於本財年的早期階段，但銷售額的成長並不需要增加勞動力。我們相信，我們全年的勞動力數量、銷售額百分比應該比 24 財年好。

(Spoken in Japanese).

（用日語說）。

And of course, if the macro environment recovers as we hope, then there's further offside to the labor line. But even without that we expect our labor to be an improvement year over year. it you know between the operational streamlining and whatever pricing that we take.

當然，如果宏觀環境如我們所希望的那樣復甦，那麼勞動力界限就會進一步越位。但即使沒有這些，我們預期我們的勞動力也會逐年改善。你知道營運精簡和我們採取的任何定價之間的關係。

Great and maybe my last one pricing fourth quarter in the mix in the quarter as well if you wouldn't mind. And, and what the pricing is to start the year in 25.

太棒了，如果您不介意的話，也許我的最後一個定價是本季第四季的組合。以及 25 年初的定價是多少。

Yeah. So we're. Running about for Q4, we're running about 4% price in the numbers we just released. And then as we think about the upcoming year, John, in terms of pricing typically we've always taken pricing in January, but we're thinking about taking pricing sooner than that this year, simply because we determined that if you take a little bit earlier in January, you can really capture a lot during that December holiday period and capture a lot of those sales. So you'll probably see a price increase, which we haven't quantified yet. Coming up shortly before the end of the officially, I mean. I'm sorry before the end of the calendar year.

是的。所以我們是。從我們剛發布的數據來看，第四季的價格大約上漲了 4%。然後，當我們考慮即將到來的一年時，約翰，就定價而言，通常我們總是在一月份定價，但我們正在考慮比今年更早定價，僅僅是因為我們確定，如果你採取一點在1月早些時候，您確實可以在12 月假期期間獲得大量收益並獲得大量銷售。因此，您可能會看到價格上漲，但我們尚未對其進行量化。我的意思是，在正式結束前不久出現。在年底之前我很抱歉。

Got it. Thanks.

知道了。謝謝。

Pass it along. I appreciate you taking the questions.

傳遞下去吧感謝您提出問題。

Thank you, Jon.

謝謝你，喬恩。

The next question we have is from Jeffrey Bernstein of Barclays. Please go ahead.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的傑弗裡·伯恩斯坦。請繼續。

Hi, good evening.

嗨，晚上好。

Thanks for taking my question. this is product guys ,Just a quick question on development. You've already opened five and you know, you've alluded to a pretty decent pipeline with six under construction just wondering on why there isn't more upside to the 14. I know anecdotally we've heard that maybe the approval and permitting process is a little bit better these days, but maybe not yet exactly where it needs to be, but just anything you can provide on just the availability of quality sites, the the ability to get permits approval. Just are there any kinds of headwinds you're seeing there that lead you to be a little bit more conservative on the unit level? Thank you.

感謝您提出我的問題。這是產品人員，只是一個關於開發的簡單問題。您已經開通了 5 條管道，而且您知道，您已經提到了一條相當不錯的管道，其中 6 條正在建設中，只是想知道為什麼 14 條管道沒有更多的優勢。我知道，有傳聞說，現在審批和許可流程可能稍微好一點，但可能還沒有完全達到需要的程度，但只要你能提供優質網站的可用性、能力，就可以提供任何東西。 。您是否看到了任何阻礙您在單位層面上變得更加保守的因素？謝謝。

(Spoken in Japanese).

（用日語說）。

So this product, this is Ben in terms of development. We, they're really, there aren't any issues with providing or construction that we're seeing. This is really more a reflection of us taking in, you know, taking seriously the site selection, strategic changes we've mentioned in the last earnings call, we did prune a number of LOIS. It's, there's nothing wrong with the sites per se. It was just not the right timing in terms of cannibalization headwinds. and so we decided to either cancel them or hold them for future years. And so part of the middle of the year pipeline got approved. And so that, that's really what it is. And the reason that we've got a, you know, 14 instead of a range is just, you know, looking at our lease timing, that's really what we're led to believe. And so we felt that just made the most sense to give you guys what we're actually expecting.

所以這個產品，這就是 Ben 開發的。我們，他們確實，我們所看到的提供或建設方面沒有任何問題。這實際上更反映了我們認真對待我們在上次財報電話會議中提到的選址和策略變化，我們確實削減了一些 LOIS。是的，這些網站本身沒有任何問題。就蠶食逆風而言，現在還不是正確的時機。因此我們決定要么取消它們，要么在未來幾年保留它們。因此，年中管道的一部分獲得了批准。所以，事實就是如此。我們之所以選擇 14 個而不是一個範圍，是因為看看我們的租賃時間，這確實是我們所相信的。所以我們覺得向你們提供我們真正期望的東西是最有意義的。

Got it. I appreciate that color and then just turning to the commodities. I know you have a very different basket than most in the industry. But, you know, what is a good inflation level that you're assuming in fiscal 25? I know it's early but things can change pretty easily, but just, you know what you're assuming in fiscal 25 and just how easily you can kind of pivot in and out of different items on the menu. If the need arises.

知道了。我欣賞這種顏色，然後轉向商品。我知道您的購物籃與業內大多數人截然不同。但是，您知道 25 財年的合理通膨水準是多少嗎？我知道現在還為時過早，但事情很容易改變，但是，你知道你在 25 財年的假設是什麼，也知道你可以多麼容易地在菜單上的不同項目之間進出。如果有需要的話。

Yes, our commodity basket, as you know, is pretty varied, right? Things that we do buy in terms of what we look at for next year. You know, there were so many moving parts, some of that was solidified last night as to what's going on, you know, we do have the fed tomorrow. So we got a lot of things going on. There is an assumption of, of low single digit in commodity inflation in the budget just, you know, comparable to what the CPI increase would be nothing super aggressive in terms of inflation assumption. But yeah because our baths so diversified, we can pivot quickly that if for some reason, we have a problem getting particular fish product, we can pivot to an LTO or something with a different product. And the other thing that I've talked about too, which is great is with our two broad liners, they overlap each other. So if one of our broad liners happens to run out of a product, we can go to the other one and most likely they will have it. So there we do have redundancy in our supply chain process. And because of that, very rarely do. We run out of things. And the process has been very streamlined over the last year. to two years.

是的，如您所知，我們的商品籃子種類繁多，對吧？我們確實購買的東西是根據我們明年的預期而購買的。你知道，有很多變動的部分，其中一些昨晚已經固化，關於正在發生的事情，你知道，我們明天確實有美聯儲。所以我們發生了很多事情。有一個假設是，預算中的商品通膨率處於低個位數，與消費者物價指數 (CPI) 的成長相比，就通膨假設而言，這並不是什麼超級激進的事情。但是，是的，因為我們的浴場如此多樣化，我們可以快速轉向，如果由於某種原因，我們在獲取特定魚類產品時遇到問題，我們可以轉向 LTO 或其他產品。我也談到的另一件事很棒，那就是我們的兩條寬襯裡，它們彼此重疊。因此，如果我們的一個大班輪碰巧有一個產品用完，我們可以去另一個大班輪，他們很可能會有它。因此，我們的供應鏈流程確實存在冗餘。正因為如此，很少人這麼做。我們的東西用完了。去年，這個流程已經非常精簡。到兩年。

That's great, Just sneak one last one in just on the labor line just you know, you've spoken to all these efficiencies that are going to yield some dividends. And it looks like you're going to laugh A B 1,228 as well later on in the year. Although it doesn't look like, you know, your concept really saw much of an impact but just what, what is a more normalized rate of inflation on the labor line going forward once kind of like all these prior year nuances are lapsed, like is there something like around mid single digits that we should expect?

太好了，只需在勞動力線上偷偷地添加最後一個，您就知道，您已經談到了所有這些將產生一些紅利的效率。看起來今年晚些時候你也會笑 A B 1,228。雖然看起來，你知道，你的概念確實產生了很大的影響，但一旦所有這些前一年的細微差別都消失了，未來勞動力線的通膨率會更加正常化，就像我們應該期待大約中間個位數的東西嗎？

I know, (Spoken in Japanese)

我知道，（用日文說）

Historically labor inflation on an annual basis has been about low single digits for fiscal 24. But it was closer to mid single digits with the operational improvements that we put into place. We're confident that we're, we'll be able to exit fiscal 25 with a four year labor line that is superior to fiscal 24. And obviously, if the macro environment improves and we get further sales leverage, then that's additional opportunity there.

從歷史上看，24 財年的年度勞動通膨率一直在個位數左右。但隨著我們實施的營運改進，這一數字已接近中個位數。我們相信，我們將能夠在 25 財年結束時獲得優於 24 財年的四年勞工線。顯然，如果宏觀環境改善並且我們獲得進一步的銷售槓桿，那麼這就是額外的機會。

Thank you so much. I'll pass it on guys. Appreciate it.

太感謝了。我會把它傳給大家。欣賞它。

Thank you.

謝謝。

The next question we have is from Brian Mullan of Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

我們的下一個問題來自 Piper Sandler 的 Brian Mullan。請繼續。

Hi, this is Alison Arvan for Brian Mullen. Thank you for taking the question. In regards to the 20.9 restaurant level margin this year, I'm curious how you're thinking about the range for next year and what some of the headwinds and tailwinds might be that we should consider.

大家好，我是布萊恩·馬倫的艾莉森·阿爾文。感謝您提出問題。關於今年 20.9 的餐廳水平利潤率，我很好奇您如何考慮明年的範圍以及我們應該考慮的一些逆風和順風。

(Spoken in Japanese).

（用日語說）。

In terms of restaurant level operating profit margin, we've never provided guidance. But one thing that we said very consistently is that one of our primary goals is to maintain our restaurant level operating profit margins above 20% on a full year basis. We're very pleased to see that. In spite of the headwinds that we saw in terms of sales leverage, beginning in April we were able to maintain restaurant level, offering profit margins above 20% and we absolutely expect to do that again in fiscal 25 hopefully without the headwinds that we saw beginning in April.

就餐廳層面的營業利潤率而言，我們從未提供過指導。但我們一直強調的一件事是，我們的主要目標之一是將餐廳層級的全年營業利潤率維持在 20% 以上。我們很高興看到這一點。儘管我們在銷售槓桿方面遇到了阻力，但從4 月份開始，我們能夠維持餐廳水平，提供高於20% 的利潤率，我們絕對希望在25 財年再次做到這一點，希望不會出現我們開始時看到的阻力四月。

Thank you.

謝謝。

The next question we have is from Jeremy Hamblin of Craig Hallum Capital Group. Please go ahead.

我們的下一個問題來自克雷格·哈勒姆資本集團的傑里米·漢布林。請繼續。

Thanks for taking the questions and congrats on the improved results. Wanted to dig in a little bit on the other operating cost. You know, line item which has been, you know, a bit more challenging to control here in recent years. And just get a sense, you know, we know some of that is due to utilities, inflation has been higher, insurance, inflation has been higher. But wanted to get a sense for what you are seeing here at the start of this fiscal year related to that line item. And you know, I know embedded within that is some of the, you know, the delivery cost fees. And just understand how, you know how that, you know, the door dash deal is kind of progressing.

感謝您提出問題並祝賀結果有所改善。想深入了解其他營運成本。您知道，近年來，控制訂單項目變得更具挑戰性。感覺一下，我們知道其中一些是由於公用事業、通貨膨脹較高、保險、通貨膨脹較高所致。但想要了解您在本財年開始時所看到的與該訂單項目相關的內容。你知道，我知道其中包含一些交付費用。只要了解一下，你知道，門衝撞交易是如何取得進展的。

Yeah let me hit the operating supplies and then, but Jimmy and Ben will talk about the doordash, deal in terms of the operating supplies. You're right, Jeremy. I mean, utilities are up, software licenses. Everything has gone up when you call a plumber into the restaurant to fix something just more than it was in prior years. One thing to remember as we think about the year of coming in terms of the cadence of that line is that while a lot of it is variable, there are some fixed costs in there. So if you, you know, Q1 is in terms of sales is our, you know, seasonality wise, our lowest quarter. So when you look at some of those fixed costs that are in other costs, you'll see a trend in that direction. What we're seeing as the year started is pretty similar to what we've seen in past years. We're continuing to push and work as much as we can to renegotiate contracts and, and you know, and widen our vendor list of people that come in. We do use Ecotrac, which is a great software that the facilities department uses in order to work with multiple vendors when something goes down in the restaurant, in order to find the vendor that not only has the best response time. So we're not down but also has the best pricing. And we're looking at all of those things to try and do what we can. You know, unfortunately, things like utilities are a little bit out of our control, but we're looking line by line by line and other costs on the or the things that are under our control to do what we can to continue to chip away at that cost line.

是的，讓我談談操作用品，然後吉米和本將討論門板，以及操作用品方面的交易。你是對的，傑里米。我的意思是，實用程式、軟體許可證都已啟動。當你叫水管工到餐廳修理一些東西時，一切都比前幾年有所改善。當我們考慮即將到來的一年的生產線節奏時，需要記住的一件事是，雖然其中許多都是可變的，但其中也有一些固定成本。因此，如果您知道，第一季的銷售額是我們的，您知道的，從季節性角度來看，是我們最低的季度。因此，當您查看其他成本中的一些固定成本時，您會看到朝這個方向的趨勢。我們年初看到的情況與過去幾年非常相似。我們將繼續推動並盡最大努力重新談判合同，並擴大我們的供應商名單。我們確實使用 Ecotrac，這是一個很棒的軟體，設施部門使用它來在餐廳出現問題時與多個供應商合作，以便找到不僅具有最佳響應時間的供應商。所以我們不僅沒有降價，而且還擁有最優惠的價格。我們正在考慮所有這些事情，並盡我們所能。你知道，不幸的是，像公用事業這樣的事情有點超出我們的控制範圍，但我們正在逐行查看我們控制範圍內的成本和其他成本，以盡我們所能繼續削減以該成本線。

I say that Jeff really covered 99% of what there is to discuss in terms of other costs for the delivery costs. That, that's a reflection of the promotional campaign where we subsidize part of delivery fees for first time orders on door dash. And so it's not a typical fee. I wouldn't expect it to be a recurring fee.

我想說，傑夫確實涵蓋了 99% 的討論內容，包括其他運輸成本。這反映了促銷活動，我們為上門儀表板上的首次訂單補貼部分送貨費。所以這不是典型的費用。我沒想到它會是經常性費用。

And can you quantify what the impact of that promotion was on on that line? Item?

您能否量化該促銷對該產品線的影響？物品？

I don't have that number on me but not huge.

我身上沒有這個號碼，但不是很大。

Okay. Got it. And then could you just, you could you provide a bit more color on some of the upcoming technology initiatives just in terms of the timing of when you would expect, you know, some impact on those, right? it sounds like you're expecting, your labor line, which I think was 31.9% of sales to be a little bit better this year. I'm sure that's not kind of a straight line shot but can you help us just understand the context of, timing on those initiatives and, and, and how you expect that to play out, to get to that target?

好的。知道了。然後，您能否就您預計對這些技術產生一些影響的時間安排，對即將推出的一些技術舉措提供更多的信息，對嗎？聽起來你預計，你的勞動力產品線（我認為佔銷售額的 31.9%）今年會好一點。我確信這不是一個直線的鏡頭，但您能否幫助我們了解這些舉措的背景、時機以及您期望如何實現該目標？

Yeah. Yeah, I'm more than happy to discuss the, the biggest opportunity in terms of fiscal '25 is the new reservation and self seating system. I've been working in lockstep with Japan to bring to port that system translated into, you know, you know, not just English, but how may make it appropriate for American use? It's going up very much on track and we expect our first store implementation in early spring. That for fiscal 25 is definitely the biggest opportunity. There's maybe a maximum of 50 basis points to be saved with its implementation.

是的。是的，我非常樂意討論 25 財年最大的機會是新的預訂和自助座位系統。我一直在與日本同步努力，將該系統翻譯成，你知道，你知道，不僅僅是英語，但如何使其適合美國使用？它的發展非常順利，我們預計我們的第一家商店將在早春實施。對於 25 財年來說，這絕對是最大的機會。其實施可能最多可節省 50 個基點。

But that (Spoken in Japanese).

但那個（用日語說）。

being said,

話雖這麼說，

Jimmy's earlier comments in terms of our expectations about being able to produce labors percentage of sales in fiscal 25 that is lower than last year. That doesn't contemplate the upside represented by the reservation system. So should that that'll be gravy for us on the labor line and restaurant level operating profit margin line as well.

吉米早些時候的評論是，我們預計 25 財年勞動力佔銷售額的比例將低於去年。這並沒有考慮預訂系統所帶來的好處。因此，這對我們的勞動力線和餐廳層面的營業利潤率線也將是有利的。

Great helpful color. Last thing, just a little bit more color on the $4.7 million litigation expense.

很有幫助的顏色。最後一件事，只是對 470 萬美元的訴訟費用再添一點色彩。

Any more details you can share on that?

可以分享更多細節嗎？

It's just give me the typical wage an hour. Claims that restaurant companies unfortunately have to deal with from time to time around really liberty to get into the details of it. But it's your run of the mill. you know, pretty I don't know, a restaurant company. that hasn't had to deal with these types of claims over the last 7 to 10 years. so it's, It is wage an hour.

這只是給我一個小時的典型工資。不幸的是，餐廳公司不得不時不時地處理一些真正自由的問題，以了解其細節。但這是你的常態。你知道，我不知道，一家餐飲公司。在過去的 7 到 10 年裡，他們不必處理這些類型的索賠。原來如此，這是時薪。

Thanks for the color. Best wishes.

謝謝你的顏色。最好的祝愿。

Yeah, sure. Thank.

是的，當然。感謝。

You, Jeremy.

你，傑瑞米。

Ladies and gentlemen, just a reminder. If you would like to queue for a question, you may press star and then one, the next question we have is from Sharon Zackfia of William Blair. Please go ahead.

女士們先生們，只是提醒一下。如果您想排隊提問，可以按星號，然後按一個，我們的下一個問題來自威廉·布萊爾的莎朗·扎克菲亞。請繼續。

Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question, I guess and I apologize. My phone is a little bit muffled but it sounds like trends have improved more in November in the November quarter and certainly in improved as the August quarter progressed. I guess as you do like the post modem on kind of what happened in April through August. Do you really think it was the promotional tie in? Do you think it was fast act? I mean what is your best insight now on kind of what caused that swoon.

嗨，下午好。謝謝你提出這個問題，我猜，我很抱歉。我的手機有點低沉，但聽起來 11 月季度的趨勢有所改善，而且隨著 8 月季度的進展，趨勢肯定有所改善。我想你確實喜歡後調製解調器關於四月到八月發生的事情。你真的認為這是促銷活動嗎？你以為動作很快嗎？我的意思是，你現在對造成這種暈眩的原因的最佳見解是什麼。

(Spoken in Japanese).

（用日語說）。

In terms of our thinking on the, the the sales acceleration starting in April through August. I think we're pretty much aligned with the rest of the industry. And that initially, we thought a lot of it was coming from sticker shock with the implementation of AB 1228. Our thinking changed once it became clear, was a wider national macro factor which has been corroborated by the earnest calls of our peers. And then to your comment on IIT collaborations that certainly could have played a role as well. Our August benefited from one piece which was a very successful campaign ran from August to September. As we entered October we've been working with techman, which is a Nintendo property also we're very pleased with the results there. November, you know we just entered. So it doesn't really make too much sense to comment on the first five days, but we're hopeful that these trends continue. But just given the opacity, we felt it was appropriate to be prudent with our revenue guidance. Going back to Jimmy's earlier comments.

就我們的想法而言，銷售從四月到八月開始加速。我認為我們與行業的其他公司非常一致。最初，我們認為其中很大一部分來自於 AB 1228 實施後的價格衝擊。當我們認識到這是一個更廣泛的國家宏觀因素時，我們的想法就發生了變化，這一點也得到了同行的熱切呼聲的證實。然後是您對 IIT 合作的評論，這當然也發揮了作用。我們的八月受益於一件從八月到九月非常成功的活動。進入十月以來，我們一直在與 techman 合作，這是任天堂的財產，我們對那裡的結果也非常滿意。十一月，你知道我們剛剛進入。因此，對前五天的評論並沒有多大意義，但我們希望這些趨勢能持續下去。但鑑於不透明性，我們認為謹慎對待我們的收入指引是適當的。回到吉米之前的評論。

That's really helpful. I guess one other question. Then you just talked about the reservation self seating system coming in next year and maybe being able to get 50 BPS from that are these savings? And I know you continue to get more and more efficiencies, more and more savings. Ultimately, how do we think about that kind of in harvesting to the bottom line versus reinvesting in the business? To continue to deepen the competitive.

這真的很有幫助。我猜還有一個問題。然後您剛剛談到明年推出的預訂自助座位系統，也許可以從中獲得 50 BPS，這些節省是多少？我知道您將繼續獲得越來越多的效率、越來越多的節省。最終，我們如何看待這種收穫利潤與對業務進行再投資的情況？要繼續深化競爭。

(Spoken in Japanese)

（用日文說）

So, but yeah in terms of the opportunities presented by the implementation of the the reservation system and you know, really any future technologies, our expectation is that this will certainly help us get back to the waiver levels that we saw in fiscal 23. We think that's an appropriate level for us to be at. And so that'll probably be the first thing that you see.

所以，但是，就預訂系統的實施所帶來的機會而言，而且你知道，實際上任何未來的技術，我們的期望是，這肯定會幫助我們回到我們在23 財年看到的豁免水平。我們認為這對我們來說是一個合適的水平。所以這可能是您看到的第一件事。

Great last question. Hey, Jeff, could we, could we get the traffic in the quarter?

最後一個問題很好。嘿，傑夫，我們能不能獲得本季的流量？

Oh, yeah It was minus, it was negative 2.4. so 0.7.price traffic down 24 for a count. down of -3.1.

哦，是的，是負數，負數2.4。因此 0.7.price 流量下降了 24。下降-3.1。

Tank you.

坦克你。

The next question we have is from Todd Brooks of Benchmark Company. Please go ahead.

我們的下一個問題來自 Benchmark 公司的托德布魯克斯。請繼續。

Hey, thanks for squeezing me in, wanted to explore on the regional spread in the same store sales performance that you highlighted. And I I know a lot of investors kind of focus on this number as a proof of portability of the concept. But is that weakness in the kind of Southwestern market? Is that more of the two year stack that you were lapping tougher same store sales or is there an element that Texas got hit by barrel during the quarter? And that was an artificial drag on that region versus the West coast region?

嘿，謝謝您的邀請，我想探討一下您強調的同一家商店銷售業績的區域分佈。我知道很多投資人都關注這個數字，作為這個概念可移植性的證明。但這是西南市場的弱點嗎？這是否是您兩年來同店銷售表現更強勁的原因，還是德州本季受到打擊的因素？與西海岸地區相比，這是對該地區的人為拖累嗎？

No, (Spoken in Japanese).

不，（用日語說）。

So the biggest thing that we really want to emphasize in terms of comps is that it's not nesses, the looking at the regional comps, it's not necessarily an indication of our performance or our popularity or the demand that we see in those markets, but really just an artifact of the way that we've grown over the last 10 years. And so our comp base has about 45 units, about half of those are in California got low, we've got over TED in Texas. Outside of those markets, they're pretty much all single unit markets which have recently gone into, you know, multi unit markets. And so obviously that has a very meaningful impact on comps and it has nothing to do with, you know, demand. It just has to do with the fact that it's the first infill looking to the Southeast in particular, there was one infill in Dallas and one infill in Houston which impacted a store each in those markets, which had largely been not impacted by prior infills. And so that was a headwind there.

因此，在比較方面，我們真正想強調的最重要的事情是，這不是本質，查看區域比較，它不一定表明我們的表現或我們的受歡迎程度或我們在這些市場中看到的需求，但實際上這只是我們過去 10 年發展方式的產物。所以我們的補償基地大約有 45 個單位，其中大約一半在加州，我們在德州已經超過了 TED。除了這些市場之外，它們幾乎都是單一單位市場，最近又進入了多單位市場。顯然，這對競爭產生了非常有意義的影響，而且與需求無關。這與以下事實有關：這是第一個針對東南部的填充物，達拉斯有一個填充物，休斯頓有一個填充物，這影響了這兩個市場中的各一家商店，而這些市場基本上沒有受到之前填充物的影響。所以這是一個逆風。

(Spoken in Japanese)

（用日文說）

And just to give you some, some additional thinking on the way that we've approached cannibalization since the last earnings call. We've been very proactive in terms of our pipeline and starting in fiscal 26 that's when you'll really start to see a greater number of new market units being included, which obviously don't play into canalization whatsoever. In terms of fiscal 25 with lead times, it's pretty lit. You, options are pretty limited in terms of adding new places. And so our approach for fiscal 25 is really removing places which were in existing markets would have been first infills. But looking at the early success of Bakersfield, that's, you know, a meaningfully smaller DMA than we typically enter and we're doing great there. So it, that really opens up a lot of options in terms of what we would consider in terms of new markets. And so our ability to manage our info strategy against comps that's really going to come into full gear in fiscal 26 which we're very excited about.

只是為了讓您對自上次財報電話會議以來我們採取的蠶食方式進行一些額外的思考。我們在管道建設方面一直非常積極主動，從第 26 財年開始，您將真正開始看到更多新的市場單位被納入其中，而這顯然對運河化沒有任何影響。就 25 財年的交貨時間而言，情況相當光明。在新增地點方面，您的選擇非常有限。因此，我們對 25 財年的做法實際上是消除現有市場中本來可以首先填補的地方。但看看貝克斯菲爾德早期的成功，你知道，這是一個比我們通常進入的市場規模小得多的 DMA，但我們在那裡做得很好。因此，這確實為我們考慮新市場提供了許多選擇。因此，我們針對競爭對手管理資訊策略的能力將在 26 財年真正全面發揮，對此我們感到非常興奮。

That's great and just one follow up if I may not follow up an additional question.

這太好了，如果我不能跟進其他問題，那麼只需一個跟進。

Ben, you talked about a lower frequency per perhaps of the IP collaborations. Can you walk us through maybe some detail behind it? Is it the fewer events? Is it shorter duration of event? Just how do you see this evolving? And are you tying yourself to a specific number of collabs per year anymore? Or it's when the right partner comes along? You guys would work that into kind of your calendar of what you're looking to do. Thanks. Yeah.

Ben，您談到了 IP 合作的頻率可能較低。您能否向我們介紹背後的一些細節？難道是活動少了？活動時間是否較短？您如何看待這種演變？您是否還把自己每年的合作次數限制在一定範圍內？或是合適的合作夥伴出現的時候？你們可以將其納入你們想要做的事情的日曆中。謝謝。是的。

Yeah I so that's an interesting way of putting it. But that pretty similar to our thinking as well. Where before the thinking was, you always wanted to have an it collaboration. That's what Jimmy was referring to with the rolling collapse in his prepared remarks. But every branded property collaboration is expensive and not every single one is worth the associated cost. and so the thinking now is really, let's go for the ones that we think are really going to be big hits. And so before we had, you know, six guarantee, that's no longer the case, it, we're really just going after targets that we think we'll really move the needle from a comp perspective.

是的，我認為這是一種有趣的表達方式。但這也與我們的想法非常相似。在這個想法之前，你一直想進行 IT 合作。這就是吉米在他準備好的講話中所說的滾動崩潰所指的。但每一次品牌地產合作都是昂貴的，而且並不是每次都值得相關成本。所以現在的想法是，讓我們選擇那些我們認為真正會大受歡迎的產品。因此，在我們擁有六項保證之前，情況已不再如此，我們實際上只是在追求我們認為從競爭角度真正會取得進展的目標。

(Spoken in Japanese)

（用日文說）

And of course, you know, we're not just reducing the number of collaborations with nothing to replace it. We have a huge advertising pipeline, our VP or new VP of marketing, which I think we've mentioned on every call since we've hired him is doing a really great job. And if you're listening, we're very pleased. And, and so September and October, we've been seeing pretty strong results. The IP campaigns are part of it, but another big part would be the new advertising efforts that we, we put into place, especially the food focused ones. We're excited to see the performance in upcoming months where we don't have it collaboration so that we can see just how successful these campaigns are with without that additional variable. And just as some additional context when we aren't doing a brand collaboration, that doesn't mean we're not going to be giving out the big truck on prizes, they just won't be branded prices.

當然，您知道，我們不僅僅是減少合作數量而沒有任何東西可以替代。我們有一個巨大的廣告管道，我們的副總裁或新的行銷副總裁，我認為自從我們僱用他以來我們在每次電話中都提到他做得非常出色。如果您正在傾聽，我們將非常高興。因此，九月和十月，我們看到了相當強勁的結果。智慧財產權活動是其中的一部分，但另一個重要部分是我們實施的新廣告工作，尤其是針對食品的廣告工作。我們很高興看到未來幾個月我們沒有合作的表現，這樣我們就可以看到這些活動在沒有額外變數的情況下有多成功。正如我們不進行品牌合作時的一些額外背景一樣，這並不意味著我們不會發放放大卡車獎品，它們只是不會是品牌價格。

Understood. And then finally, just in the, the revenue guidance, which you talked about a lot of the reasons for the maybe the conservancy to start the year. Is this a part of it as well as we're kind of weaning ourselves to programs that make sense versus six programs a year. and that's you want to leave yourself a little bit of room. there is kind of the new advertising mix kicks up.

明白了。最後，就在收入指導中，您談到了許多可能是保護協會開始今年的原因。這是其中的一部分嗎？那就是你想給自己一點空間。新的廣告組合開始出現。

(Spoken in Japanese)

（用日文說）

So in terms of revenue guidance, we've always in past years, when we've given guidance, it doesn't contemplate the impact of IT collaborations, basically whenever we have a collaboration, that's opportunity for upside. And so that's the same thinking here. It does not contemplate like a collaborations.

因此，就收入指導而言，過去幾年，當我們提供指導時，我們總是沒有考慮IT合作的影響，基本上每當我們進行合作時，這就是上漲的機會。這也是同樣的想法。它不像合作那樣思考。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Let me, can I just have to say that on those additional marketing campaigns that Jimmy talking about that will be in between the IT collaborations. What's really great about those? And then alluded to this too is that they come with a fraction of the cost of the IT collaborations and they can be just as the top line. So a lot of that will flow down to the bottom line and also kind of ties into a question we were asked by another analyst earlier about. other costs. the cost with these IT collaborations flow into other costs. So as we continue to put marketing campaigns in that are just as good for the top line that don't that other cost line that flows straight to net income. So we're, we're really looking forward to having some of those mixed in with the it collaborations as well.

我只能說，吉米談到的那些額外的行銷活動將在 IT 合作之間進行。這些到底有什麼好處？然後也提到了這一點，它們只需要 IT 協作成本的一小部分，並且它們可以作為頂線。因此，其中許多內容將流向底線，也與我們先前另一位分析師提出的問題有關。其他費用。這些 IT 協作的成本會轉化為其他成本。因此，當我們繼續進行行銷活動時，這對營收同樣有好處，而不是其他直接流入淨利潤的成本線。所以我們真的很期待將其中一些與 IT 合作結合。

That's very helpful. Thanks, Jeff.

這非常有幫助。謝謝，傑夫。

The next question we have is from Jim Sanderson of North Coast Research. Please go ahead.

我們的下一個問題來自北海岸研究中心的吉姆·桑德森。請繼續。

Hey, thanks for the question. I just wanted to follow up a little bit more detail on G&A spending. I think you reported a slight improvement over prior year. so going forward, maybe you can walk us through what type of line item leverage you would expect and how that can flow through to the bottom line.

嘿，謝謝你的提問。我只是想進一步了解更多一般行政費用支出的細節。我認為您報告的情況比去年略有改善。因此，展望未來，也許您可以向我們介紹您期望的行項目槓桿類型以及它如何影響利潤。

The, the biggest leverage will be. on our support center salaries. really that's the biggest line item in G&A and the entire team in our support center has done a great job in determining how do we do things more efficiently and how do we do things better without adding people? and that's where we're going to continue to see that leverage. And our guidance of about 13.5% for next year would represent 60 basis points. And we came down from 15.8% 2 years ago to 15% last year to 14.1% this year. And we get into next year. That's, that is much better than I anticipated when joining the company. It is because of the efforts of everyone in the support center to just look at how we do things and use technology and software rather than having to add people every time we open 10 restaurants and we're going to continue that, that cadence throughout next year.

最大的槓桿將是。關於我們支持中心的工資。這真的是 G&A 中最大的項目，我們支持中心的整個團隊在確定如何更有效地做事以及如何在不增加人員的情況下做得更好方面做得很好？這就是我們將繼續看到這種槓桿作用的地方。我們對明年的指導約為 13.5%，相當於 60 個基點。我們從兩年前的 15.8% 下降到去年的 15%，再到今年的 14.1%。我們進入明年。也就是說，這比我加入公司時的預期要好得多。這是因為支援中心的每個人都努力專注於我們如何做事以及如何使用技術和軟體，而不是每次我們開 10 家餐廳時都必須增加人員，我們將繼續這種節奏，整個接下來年。

Okay.

好的。

Can I can I add something?

我可以添加一些東西嗎？

Did just comment? Of course, it is Jimmy, but I know about it.

剛剛評論了嗎？當然是吉米，但我知道。

(Spoken in Japanese)

（用日文說）

And to add on to this comment over the last year for the two years, pre the two preceding years, we've had a lot of infills and unfortunately, you know, the way that the point of discussion in terms of interms has been cannibalization for the last in the last call, but really the other side is synergy. and so now that we have these infill markets, we can have area managers handle more restaurants. and so for fiscal 25 even though we're adding 14 units, you don't expect to add any area managers. so salary savings, travel savings with greater density. Our facilities teams don't have to travel as far. We have proprietary equipment, teams that deal with all of our patented technology that we get leverage there and So there are a lot of regional G&A costs that are an opportunity for fiscal 25 and beyond as well.

在過去的兩年裡，在前兩年之前，我們已經做了很多填充，不幸的是，你知道，就中間術語而言，討論點的方式已經被蠶食了對於最後一次通話中的最後一次，但實際上另一面是協同作用。因此，既然我們有了這些填充市場，我們就可以讓區域經理管理更多的餐廳。因此，對於 25 財年，即使我們增加了 14 個單位，您也不會期望添加任何區域經理。所以薪資節省、差旅費節省的密度更大。我們的設施團隊不必走那麼遠。我們擁有專有設備和團隊，負責處理我們在那裡利用的所有專利技術，因此，有大量的區域管理和行政費用，這也是 25 財年及以後的機會。

All right. Thank you for that. I also just wanted to follow up and make sure I understood the feedback about the same store sales and traffic for the quarter. I think you said 4% price negative 2 4 on traffic. So that would imply a little bit of a worse negative mix in the quarter, any feedback on what's driving that.

好的。謝謝你。我也只是想跟進並確保我了解有關本季同店銷售和流量的反饋。我想你說的是 4% 價格負 2 4 流量。因此，這意味著本季會出現一些更糟糕的負面組合，任何關於推動這一趨勢的反饋。

But actually we're really happy with where the mix came out. If you go back a year, you go back two years. Our negative mix had been in the high single digits. So really where we're looking at it now is is we're really happy because we're looking at it compared to last year. So I think that the change is really negligible. It's not anything that can necessarily be identified last year. We think pe people weren't having maybe a drink or maybe they weren't adding an additional side attachment, but that's come back this year. And we're happy with where the mix landed for Q4.

但實際上我們對混音的結果非常滿意。如果你回到一年，你就會回到兩年。我們的負面組合一直處於高個位數。所以我們現在真正看到的是我們真的很高興，因為我們正在與去年相比。所以我認為這個變化真的可以忽略。這並不是去年就能確定的東西。我們認為體育人士可能沒有喝酒，或者可能沒有添加額外的側面附件，但今年這種情況又回來了。我們對第四季的混合效果感到滿意。

Okay. Last question for me just wanted to a brief update on door dash if you can provide maybe with the mix for delivery sales was in the quarter and if your pricing is set on marketplace equal to in store pricing.

好的。我的最後一個問題只是想簡單介紹一下門儀表板的最新情況，如果您可以提供本季的送貨銷售組合，以及您在市場上設置的定價是否等於店內定價。

Yes. So our mix is 3.2% of overall sales. Our pricing is the same as it is in restaurant. With the so we added door dash in March just to give you some context on how we've grown. our mix in Q1 which would have been September through November of calendar 23. The off premises mix at that point was 2%. And so it's grown meaningfully with the additional door dash.

是的。所以我們的組合佔總銷售額的 3.2%。我們的定價與餐廳的定價相同。因此，我們在三月添加了門破折號，只是為了向您提供一些有關我們如何成長的背景資訊。我們在第一季的組合是日曆 23 的 9 月到 11 月。當時的場外混合比例為 2%。因此，隨著車門儀表板的增加，它的發展意義重大。

All right. Thank you very much.

好的。非常感謝。

Thank you.

謝謝。

At this stage. There are no further questions and with that, this concludes today's conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.

在這個階段。沒有其他問題了，今天的會議到此結束。感謝您加入我們。現在您可以斷開線路。