Potbelly Corp (PBPB) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Potbelly Corporation's First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this event is being recorded.

大家下午好，歡迎來到 Potbelly Corporation 的 2023 年第一季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，正在記錄此事件。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Ms. Adiya Dixon, Potbelly's Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer. Please go ahead.

我現在想將會議轉交給 Potbelly 的高級副總裁兼首席法務官 Adiya Dixon 女士。請繼續。

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter 2023 earnings call. Our presenters today are Bob Wright, our President and Chief Executive Officer and Steve Cirulis, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

大家下午好，歡迎來到我們的 2023 年第一季度財報電話會議。今天的主持人是我們的總裁兼首席執行官 Bob Wright 和我們的高級副總裁兼首席財務官 Steve Cirulis。

Please note that we have provided a set of PowerPoint slides that will accompany our prepared remarks. You may access these slides on the Investor Relations section of our website. After our prepared remarks, we'll open the call for your questions.

請注意，我們提供了一套 PowerPoint 幻燈片，將伴隨我們準備好的評論。您可以在我們網站的投資者關係部分訪問這些幻燈片。在我們準備好的評論之後，我們將打開您的問題的電話。

I'd like to call your attention to our cautionary statements on Slide 2. And note that certain comments made on this call will contain forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of the company. Any such statements, including our outlook for 2023 or any other future periods, should be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, nor should they be relied upon as representing management's views as of any subsequent date.

我想提請您注意我們在幻燈片 2 上的警示性聲明。請注意，在本次電話會議上發表的某些評論將包含有關未來事件或公司未來財務業績的前瞻性聲明。任何此類陳述，包括我們對 2023 年或任何其他未來時期的展望，均應視為 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述不是對未來業績的保證，也不應被視為代表管理層截至任何後續日期的觀點。

Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, and events or results could differ materially from those presented due to a number of risks and uncertainties. Additional detailed information concerning these risks regarding our business and the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements and other information that will be given today can be found in our Form 10-K under the headings Risk Factors and MD&A and in our subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at sec.gov.

前瞻性陳述涉及重大風險和不確定性，事件或結果可能因多種風險和不確定性而與所呈現的存在重大差異。有關我們業務的這些風險的更多詳細信息，以及可能導致實際結果與今天將提供的前瞻性陳述和其他信息存在重大差異的因素，請參見我們的 10-K 表格，標題為風險因素和 MD&A以及我們隨後向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件，這些文件可在 sec.gov 上找到。

During the call, there will also be a discussion of some items that do not conform to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or GAAP. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the appendix to the investor presentation and press release issued this afternoon, both of which are available in the Investors tab of our website.

在電話會議期間，還將討論一些不符合美國公認會計原則或 GAAP 的項目。這些非 GAAP 措施與其最直接可比的 GAAP 措施的調節包含在今天下午發布的投資者介紹和新聞稿的附錄中，兩者都可以在我們網站的投資者選項卡上找到。

I'll now turn the call over to Bob.

我現在將電話轉給鮑勃。

Thank you, Adiya. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining our call today. Before we get into this quarter's results, I would like to begin by thanking our Potbelly team for their hard work and commitment to our unique brand. Potbelly employees are instrumental in providing a differentiated and welcoming environment for each of our customers. I'm so proud of our team, from our frontline associates to our support center employees it is the continued efforts of our people that drove our success in the period.

謝謝你，阿迪亞。下午好，感謝您今天加入我們的電話會議。在我們了解本季度的結果之前，我想首先感謝我們的 Potbelly 團隊的辛勤工作和對我們獨特品牌的承諾。 Potbelly 員工在為我們的每一位客戶提供差異化和溫馨的環境方面發揮了重要作用。我為我們的團隊感到驕傲，從我們的一線員工到我們的支持中心員工，正是我們員工的持續努力推動了我們在此期間的成功。

I will begin on Slide 3 with a high-level overview of the first quarter. I'm particularly proud of our results despite continued economic uncertainty and the return of typical first quarter seasonality. We enjoyed strength in traffic across our portfolio, notably exceeding prepandemic traffic levels as a company. Traffic was supported by further recovery in our CBD shops, which continue to serve as a tailwind for our business, strength in airport shops as well as strong engagement with our digital marketing promotions.

我將從幻燈片 3 開始，對第一季度進行高級概述。儘管經濟持續存在不確定性並且典型的第一季度季節性回歸，但我對我們的業績感到特別自豪。我們的產品組合在流量方面享有優勢，特別是超過了公司大流行前的流量水平。我們的 CBD 商店的進一步復甦為我們的業務、機場商店的實力以及我們的數字營銷促銷活動的積極參與提供了支持，這為客流量提供了支持。

Marketing was a major contributor to our traffic and sales performance, notably the implementation of targeted digital advertising, special offerings and growth in our Perks Loyalty Program. We also enjoyed success with our limited time-only menu items, digital-only promotions this quarter, which I will speak to in greater detail, shortly. We continue to make progress and achieve important milestones towards our franchise-focused development goals in the quarter with agreements for 30 new shops. We also signed our first refranchising deal for 8 shops in New York City.

營銷是我們流量和銷售業績的主要貢獻者，特別是有針對性的數字廣告的實施、特別產品和我們的 Perks 忠誠度計劃的增長。我們在限時菜單項和本季度僅限數字促銷方面也取得了成功，我將在稍後詳細介紹。我們在本季度繼續取得進展並實現以特許經營為中心的發展目標的重要里程碑，達成了 30 家新店的協議。我們還為紐約市的 8 家商店簽署了第一份再特許經營協議。

In line with our previously stated refranchising strategy, our New York City agreement was accompanied by a 13 shop SDAA or Shop Development Area Agreement to further establish our brand in the market. We're very excited by our franchise momentum to date as well as the health of our pipeline. We also continue to see the benefits of an ever sharper operational focus on the fundamentals, which resulted in notable improvement in associate and manager staffing and turnover, leading to increased throughput and customer satisfaction scores.

根據我們先前所述的重新特許經營策略，我們的紐約市協議附有 13 家商店 SDAA 或商店開發區協議，以進一步在市場上樹立我們的品牌。我們對迄今為止的特許經營勢頭以及管道的健康狀況感到非常興奮。我們還繼續看到更加關注基本面的運營帶來的好處，這導致員工和經理人員配置和營業額顯著改善，從而提高了吞吐量和客戶滿意度得分。

Finally, we expanded PDK or Potbelly Digital Kitchen implementation into 12 additional locations during the quarter and continue to see the improvements in our associate experiences driven by their ability to more easily handle the growing digital business coming through our second production line. And improvements in our customer experience is driven by orders ready on time, accuracy and food quality scores.

最後，我們在本季度將 PDK 或 Potbelly 數字廚房實施擴展到另外 12 個地點，並繼續看到我們的員工體驗得到改善，這是由於他們能夠更輕鬆地處理來自我們第二條生產線的不斷增長的數字業務。我們的客戶體驗的改善是由按時準備的訂單、準確性和食品質量得分驅動的。

Additionally, we were able to capture labor efficiency with these improvements. And finally, the digital in-line order taking function of PDK is unlocking additional throughput where we previously had capacity constraints during peak periods.

此外，我們還能夠通過這些改進提高勞動效率。最後，PDK 的數字在線接單功能正在解鎖額外的吞吐量，而我們以前在高峰期的產能受到限制。

I'd like to turn to Slide 4 to provide a high-level overview of our financial successes in the quarter. Performance metrics included quarterly revenue was $118.3 million, and AUVs were $23,881, driven by robust customer traffic in the period. Shop level margins for the quarter grew to 12%, a 700 basis point improvement year-over-year. Same-store sales grew by 22.2% driven by aforementioned exceptional strength in traffic. And lastly, we reported adjusted EBITDA for the quarter of $5.6 million, an increase of $7.8 million year-over-year.

我想轉到幻燈片 4，從高層次概述我們在本季度的財務成就。業績指標包括季度收入為 1.183 億美元，AUV 為 23,881 美元，這得益於該期間強勁的客戶流量。本季度的商店級利潤率增長至 12%，同比提高 700 個基點。同店銷售額增長了 22.2%，這得益於上述異常強勁的客流量。最後，我們報告本季度調整後的 EBITDA 為 560 萬美元，同比增長 780 萬美元。

Turning to Slide 5, I'll walk you through our digital marketing successes for the first quarter. We enjoyed another outstanding quarter of performance with our digital efforts. 39% of sales were attributed to digital channels, meaningfully contributing to our AUV and revenue expansion in the period. Additionally, our strategic marketing focus continue to support traffic-driven sales growth.

轉到幻燈片 5，我將向您介紹我們在第一季度取得的數字營銷成功。通過我們的數字化努力，我們又享受了一個出色的季度業績。 39% 的銷售額歸因於數字渠道，對我們在此期間的 AUV 和收入增長做出了有意義的貢獻。此外，我們的戰略營銷重點繼續支持流量驅動的銷售增長。

In the period, we launched our digital-only Meatball Madness campaign as well as fan favorite LTOs, including the Cubano sandwich and our Red Velvet cookie. We were excited to announce the return of the Potbelly underground menu and promoted 3 unique meatball sandwiches you can't find on a regular menu. The promotion drove customer excitement and perks engagement supported traffic growth.

在此期間，我們推出了僅限數字的 Meatball Madness 活動以及粉絲最喜歡的 LTO，包括古巴三明治和我們的 Red Velvet 曲奇。我們很高興地宣布 Potbelly 地下菜單的回歸，並推出了 3 種普通菜單上找不到的獨特肉丸三明治。促銷活動激發了客戶的熱情，津貼參與支持了流量增長。

Overall, our marketing and LTOs continue to drive traffic, value and excitement for our customers. And we remain keenly focused on food and marketing innovation to further expand these promotional efforts in the coming quarters.

總體而言，我們的營銷和 LTO 繼續為我們的客戶帶來流量、價值和興奮。我們仍然密切關注食品和營銷創新，以在未來幾個季度進一步擴大這些促銷活動。

With that, I'll now turn the call over to Steve to detail our financial performance for the first quarter. Steve?

有了這個，我現在將電話轉給史蒂夫，詳細說明我們第一季度的財務業績。史蒂夫？

Thank you, Bob. Good afternoon, everyone. Please turn to Slide 6 of the presentation, where I highlight our AUVs and same-store sales momentum over the trailing 4 quarters. Our AUVs of $23,881 and same-store sales of 22.2% improved significantly compared to the first quarter of 2022. While the industry enjoyed the benefits of favorable weather in Q1, our performance was primarily the result of strong customer demand, continued recovery across our shop portfolio, particularly within CBD and airport locations, operations execution and the success of our enhanced marketing programs.

謝謝你，鮑勃。大家下午好。請轉到演示文稿的幻燈片 6，我在其中強調了過去 4 個季度的 AUV 和同店銷售勢頭。與 2022 年第一季度相比，我們的 AUV 為 23,881 美元，同店銷售額為 22.2%，顯著提高。雖然該行業在第一季度享受了有利天氣的好處，但我們的業績主要是由於客戶需求強勁，我們整個商店的持續復甦投資組合，特別是在 CBD 和機場位置、運營執行以及我們增強營銷計劃的成功。

The majority of our same-store sales was attributable to traffic expansion versus average check increases. Our performance improved each period of quarter 1 and continued to build through April. Preliminarily, our period 4 performance registered weekly AUVs of around $25,900, and same-store sales were approximately 15%, reinforcing our customers' continued demand for our brand.

我們同店銷售額的大部分歸因於客流量擴張與平均支票增長。我們的業績在第一季度的每個時期都有所改善，並一直持續到四月。初步，我們第 4 期的業績記錄每週 AUV 約為 25,900 美元，同店銷售額約為 15%，增強了客戶對我們品牌的持續需求。

Turning to Slide 7, I'll walk you through our income statement and specific financial metrics for the first quarter compared to the prior year period. Our results met or surpassed key previously stated guidance metrics for the quarter. During the first quarter, we reached total revenues of $118.3 million, a 20% increase compared to the prior year as we saw demand momentum from our marketing activities and operations-driven customer satisfaction, along with continued recovery in CBD locations and previously implemented price increases.

轉到幻燈片 7，我將向您介紹第一季度與去年同期相比的損益表和具體財務指標。我們的業績達到或超過了本季度先前規定的關鍵指導指標。第一季度，我們的總收入達到 1.183 億美元，比上年增長 20%，因為我們看到了營銷活動和運營驅動的客戶滿意度帶來的需求勢頭，以及 CBD 地點的持續復甦和之前實施的價格上漲.

We reported a net loss of $1.3 million for the quarter, a $6.6 million improvement versus the prior year period. Adjusted net income was $0.6 million compared to an adjusted net loss of $4.4 million in the first quarter of 2022. First quarter adjusted EBITDA was $5.6 million, a significant increase over the prior year by $7.8 million with a margin that was 700 basis points higher. The increase in adjusted EBITDA resulted from top line leverage, continued improvement in labor and input cost and disciplined G&A spending.

我們報告本季度淨虧損 130 萬美元，比去年同期減少 660 萬美元。調整後淨收入為 60 萬美元，而 2022 年第一季度調整後淨虧損為 440 萬美元。第一季度調整後 EBITDA 為 560 萬美元，比上年同期顯著增加 780 萬美元，利潤率提高 700 個基點。調整後 EBITDA 的增加源於頂線槓桿、勞動力和投入成本的持續改善以及嚴格的 G&A 支出。

G&A remained below our target of approximately 9% of total revenues at 8.4% and $10.0 million of spend. This is a 30 basis point improvement over last year as we thoughtfully invest in supporting our growth while also benefiting from top line leverage. Food, beverage and packaging costs or F&P were $32.6 million or 27.9% of shop sales, a 10 basis point improvement versus a year ago in a highly inflationary environment. Proteins, bread and paper plastic products saw the largest input cost increases.

G&A 仍低於我們的目標，即佔總收入約 9% 的 8.4% 和 1000 萬美元的支出。這比去年提高了 30 個基點，因為我們深思熟慮地投資支持我們的增長，同時也受益於頂線槓桿。食品、飲料和包裝成本或 F&P 為 3260 萬美元，佔商店銷售額的 27.9%，在高通脹環境下比一年前提高了 10 個基點。蛋白質、麵包和紙塑製品的投入成本增幅最大。

Labor expenses were $36.5 million or 31.2% of sales, a 290 basis point benefit compared to the year ago period. This improvement is attributed to top line leverage, along with continued optimization of our hours-based labor guide and other labor-saving initiatives like PDK. We continue to see wage rates moderate and expect this to continue to normalize as we move through the year.

人工費用為 3650 萬美元，佔銷售額的 31.2%，與去年同期相比增加了 290 個基點。這一改進歸功於頂線槓桿，以及我們基於小時的勞動力指南的持續優化和其他節省勞動力的舉措，如 PDK。我們繼續看到工資率溫和，並預計隨著今年的推移，這種情況將繼續正常化。

Other operating expenses were $20.5 million or 17.5% of sales, a 110 basis point improvement versus last year. The year-over-year dollar increase due to expenses that are variable with sales, such as third-party delivery and credit card fees were offset by sales leverage.

其他運營費用為 2050 萬美元，佔銷售額的 17.5%，與去年相比提高了 110 個基點。由於第三方交付和信用卡費用等隨銷售額變化的費用導致的同比美元增長被銷售槓桿所抵消。

Top level margins were 12.0%, an increase of 700 basis points versus the year ago period, driven by top line leverage as previously mentioned, cost discipline and abating inflationary pressures. This continued margin expansion is encouraging. As you recall, our previously implemented price increases were designed to help mitigate the impact of outsized inflation last year.

頂層利潤率為 12.0%，與去年同期相比增加 700 個基點，這主要是受到前面提到的頂層槓桿、成本控制和通脹壓力減弱的推動。這種持續的利潤率擴張令人鼓舞。您還記得，我們之前實施的價格上漲旨在幫助減輕去年過度通貨膨脹的影響。

We have seen further signs of inflation improvement as the first quarter was slightly favorable to our expectations. As a result, we are maintaining our stance on implementing only modest price increases enough to just offset any rise in input costs, which we still see in the mid-single digits. This discipline is in service to our focus on keeping traffic strong by providing a superior price to quality value relationship to our customers.

由於第一季度略有利於我們的預期，我們看到了通脹改善的進一步跡象。因此，我們維持我們的立場，即僅實施適度的價格上漲，足以抵消投入成本的任何上漲，我們仍然看到投入成本處於中等個位數。這一紀律有助於我們專注於通過為客戶提供優質的價格關係來保持強大的流量。

Now turning to Slide 8. I'd like to discuss the breakdown of sales by the various channels, in-shop, digital and drive-thru. Our digital business increased its contribution to total AUVs, now accounting for 39%. Continued strength in our digital channels is a direct result of our improved app interface and dedicated efforts to increase Perks Loyalty Program member acquisition and engagement through targeted offerings and advertisements.

現在轉到幻燈片 8。我想討論各種渠道的銷售明細，包括店內、數字和得來速。我們的數字業務增加了對總 AUV 的貢獻，目前佔 39%。我們數字渠道的持續實力是我們改進應用程序界面和致力於通過有針對性的產品和廣告增加 Perks 忠誠度計劃會員獲取和參與度的直接結果。

Additionally, we saw an uptick in delivery sales this quarter, which also contributed to the digital channel step-up. While we are pleased with Digital's performance and view it to be a key part of our growth. We remain focused on keeping a high-quality, differentiated, in-shop dining experience for our customers.

此外，本季度我們看到送貨銷售有所上升，這也有助於數字渠道的升級。雖然我們對 Digital 的表現感到滿意，並將其視為我們增長的關鍵部分。我們仍然專注於為我們的客戶保持高質量、差異化的店內用餐體驗。

I'll conclude on Slide 9 with our outlook for the second quarter and the full year 2023. For the second quarter, we are expecting average unit volumes between $25,250 and $25,750 to reflect second quarter seasonal tailwinds, same-store sales between 10.0% and 12.0%. Shop-level margin between 12.7% and 14.2% and adjusted EBITDA between $6.0 million and $7.0 million. For the full year 2023, our outlook remains unchanged for record-level AUVs, same-store sales growth in the high single-digit to low double-digit growth and shop level margins in the low teens.

我將在幻燈片 9 上總結我們對第二季度和 2023 年全年的展望。對於第二季度，我們預計平均單位銷量在 25,250 美元到 25,750 美元之間，以反映第二季度的季節性順風，同店銷售額在 10.0% 和12.0%。商店層面的利潤率在 12.7% 和 14.2% 之間，調整後的 EBITDA 在 600 萬美元到 700 萬美元之間。對於 2023 年全年，我們對創紀錄水平的 AUV、高個位數到低兩位數的同店銷售增長以及低十幾歲的店面利潤率的展望保持不變。

With that, I'll pass the call back over to Bob.

有了這個，我會把電話轉回給鮑勃。

Thank you, Steve. Now on Slide 10, I would like to update you on our franchise growth acceleration initiative. New shop development continues to escalate as we further emphasize our franchise focus and build the organization's capability to support growth. We have a highly active and fluid pipeline of qualified Potbelly franchisee candidates from initial leads all the way to our regularly scheduled discovery days.

謝謝你，史蒂夫。現在在幻燈片 10 上，我想向您介紹我們的特許經營增長加速計劃的最新情況。隨著我們進一步強調我們的特許經營重點並建立組織支持增長的能力，新店開發繼續升級。從最初的潛在客戶一直到我們定期安排的發現日，我們擁有一個高度活躍和流暢的合格 Potbelly 加盟商候選人管道。

We continue to invest in our franchise lead generation, sales team and franchising systems. We've made great progress with our franchising efforts, signing agreements for an additional 30 shops in the first quarter with 81 new shop commitments signed since the first franchising announcement finalized in 2022.

我們繼續投資於我們的特許經營潛在客戶開發、銷售團隊和特許經營系統。我們在特許經營方面取得了很大進展，自 2022 年第一個特許經營公告最終確定以來，我們在第一季度簽署了另外 30 家店舖的協議，並簽署了 81 家新店鋪承諾。

In addition to these 81 new shop commitments, we were excited to announce our first refranchising deal of 8 shops in New York City. Further, we have deepened our presence in Florida, and subsequent to quarter end announced an agreement for 16 new shops in Broward County and Gainesville. This increased penetration in Florida serves as another proof point to the substantial white space for additional growth that is still available to potential franchisees across the U.S. I'm highly encouraged by our progress and look forward to sharing more updates this year as more SDAAs or Shop Development Area Agreements are finalized.

除了這 81 家新店承諾外，我們還很高興地宣布我們在紐約市的第一個 8 家店的重新特許經營協議。此外，我們深化了在佛羅里達州的業務，並在季度末宣布了一項在布勞沃德縣和蓋恩斯維爾開設 16 家新店的協議。佛羅里達州滲透率的提高再次證明，美國各地的潛在特許經營商仍然可以獲得額外增長的大量空白。我對我們的進展感到非常鼓舞，並期待今年分享更多更新，因為更多的 SDAA 或商店開發區協議最終確定。

I'll conclude today on Slide 11, where I'd like to remind you of our 2024 growth targets. Our strong brand value, marketing expansion and continued execution of our 5-pillar strategy is creating some exciting momentum. We're already approaching and have, at times, paced above our goal of $1.3 million in AUVs. Our shop level margin target remains 16%, which will be driven by portfolio-wide AUV growth leverage operational efficiencies and cost discipline actions, some of which are already in motion.

我將在今天的幻燈片 11 上結束，我想在其中提醒您我們 2024 年的增長目標。我們強大的品牌價值、營銷擴張和我們 5 支柱戰略的持續執行正在創造一些令人興奮的勢頭。我們已經接近並且有時已經超過我們 130 萬美元的 AUV 目標。我們的商店層面利潤率目標仍為 16%，這將受到整個投資組合範圍內 AUV 增長的推動，槓桿操作效率和成本紀律行動，其中一些已經在進行中。

And lastly, we are working to achieve a franchise unit growth rate of at least 10% through our shop development area agreements. As we accelerate towards our long-term target of 2,000 shops and our shift to a primarily franchise-owned system. I remain excited by and confident in our progress and pipeline thus far.

最後，我們正在努力通過我們的商店開發區域協議實現至少 10% 的特許經營單位增長率。隨著我們加速實現 2,000 家商店的長期目標，並轉向主要的特許經營系統。到目前為止，我對我們的進展和管道感到興奮和自信。

Potbelly's unique brand and shop experience with proven business fundamentals and an experienced team is the foundation of our ability to achieve these goals. And our pipeline of franchisees accurately reflects just that. We also have plans to refranchise approximately 25% of our company-owned units in conjunction with certain SDAAs in those refranchised markets. As I mentioned earlier, we look forward to announcing new refranchise deals and new development deals as they are finalized.

Potbelly 獨特的品牌和店鋪經驗、經過驗證的業務基礎和經驗豐富的團隊是我們實現這些目標能力的基礎。我們的加盟商管道準確地反映了這一點。我們還計劃將我們公司擁有的約 25% 的單位與這些重新特許經營市場中的某些 SDAA 一起重新特許經營。正如我之前提到的，我們期待在新的特許經營交易和新的開發交易完成後宣布它們。

To summarize, the first quarter was an excellent kickoff to 2023 with strong momentum notable traffic growth, healthy return on investment in our marketing programs, continued operational improvements and development success. We look forward to sharing our journey with all of you as we progress further into 2023.

總而言之，第一季度是 2023 年的良好開端，勢頭強勁，流量顯著增長，我們的營銷計劃投資回報豐厚，運營持續改進，發展取得成功。隨著我們進一步邁向 2023 年，我們期待與大家分享我們的旅程。

With that, I'll now turn the call back over to the operator to address your questions. Operator?

有了這個，我現在將把電話轉回給接線員來解決你的問題。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Matt Curtis with William Blair.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自馬特柯蒂斯和威廉布萊爾。

Guys, I'd like to start off with maybe a bigger picture question. I wondering if you could talk about the competitive landscape right now. I mean we just got off another of that period where there have been a lot of closures across the restaurant industry. And specifically, I guess I'm wondering how your menu revamp and other things you've done like the new tech stack have maybe helped you reposition yourselves to take advantage of the new normal?

伙計們，我想從一個更大的問題開始。我想知道你現在是否可以談談競爭格局。我的意思是我們剛剛度過了那個時期的另一個時期，整個餐飲業都有很多倒閉。具體來說，我想我想知道你的菜單改造和你所做的其他事情，比如新技術堆棧，可能如何幫助你重新定位自己以利用新常態？

Yes. Thanks, Matt. It is a different time. I think depending on the data that you look at, there's been phrase I've been using as a bit of a generational reset in the number of restaurants. The pandemic was very hard on a lot of restaurant operators and unfortunately, given a lot of the independents. So the share gains that we talk about and the emphasis that you heard us put on traffic is something that we see as really important in an environment like this for us to be able to not only do that in Q1 as well as we have, but continue to do that throughout the coming future.

是的。謝謝，馬特。這是一個不同的時間。我認為根據您查看的數據，我一直在使用一個短語作為餐廳數量的代際重置。不幸的是，對於很多餐館經營者來說，這種流行病非常艱難，因為有很多獨立人士。因此，我們談論的份額收益以及您聽到我們對流量的重視是我們認為在這樣的環境中非常重要的事情，因為我們不僅能夠在第一季度做到這一點，而且我們已經做到了，而且在即將到來的未來繼續這樣做。

So some things that we believe are working really hard for us, as you mentioned, 2 of them, the menu reset the value relationship that we had with the customer ahead of the hyperinflation over the last couple of years. And it allowed us to be very judicious with the price increases that we took to try to offset that inflation, but not try to use those on price increases to drive our margins, we think margins are much healthier when gained with traffic growth and top line leverage.

所以我們認為有些事情對我們來說真的很努力，正如你提到的，其中 2 個，菜單重置了我們在過去幾年惡性通貨膨脹之前與客戶的價值關係。它使我們能夠非常明智地採取價格上漲來抵消通貨膨脹，但不要試圖利用價格上漲來推動我們的利潤率，我們認為隨著流量增長和收入增長而獲得的利潤率會更健康槓桿作用。

We also implemented a lot of the innovation that we've talked about in the last 2 quarters, whether it's the new products that we've rolled out, the LTOs. We're very excited about the return of the underground menu. And then, of course, the promotional activity that supports it. The tech stack has been working well for us on a number of fronts, their app and the web with 39% of our business coming through those digital channels.

我們還實施了過去兩個季度討論過的許多創新，無論是我們推出的新產品 LTO。我們對地下菜單的回歸感到非常興奮。然後，當然是支持它的促銷活動。技術堆棧在許多方面為我們提供了良好的服務，他們的應用程序和網絡，我們 39% 的業務來自這些數字渠道。

Clearly, our customers are voting with their wallets and using those channels to access the brand in ways that they never did before to see that kind of growth in mix even while growing the top line the way we have been over the last 4 to 5 quarters, we're very excited about it.

顯然，我們的客戶正在用他們的錢包投票，並使用這些渠道以他們以前從未有過的方式訪問品牌，以看到這種混合增長，即使我們在過去 4 到 5 個季度的收入增長方式也是如此，我們對此感到非常興奮。

In addition to that digital access and the e-commerce solutions, the digital advertising efforts and the promotional activity through our Perks Loyalty Program and direct promotional activity through our broader digital channels is working really hard for us.

除了數字訪問和電子商務解決方案之外，數字廣告工作和通過我們的 Perks 忠誠度計劃進行的促銷活動以及通過我們更廣泛的數字渠道進行的直接促銷活動對我們來說真的很努力。

So we think it's important that we have high expectations for maintaining traffic growth for Potbelly and doing so at a rate that's faster than fast casual competition. And we think because we've still got room to invest in similar channels, again, through the digital channels as well as the menu innovation that's ahead of us, the sharpening of our operations that we talked about in our prepared remarks and then finally, the unit growth that gives us broader penetration in the marketplace, there's reason for us to be optimistic about the future.

因此，我們認為重要的是，我們對維持 Potbelly 的流量增長抱有很高的期望，並以比快速休閒競爭更快的速度這樣做。我們認為，因為我們仍有投資類似渠道的空間，同樣，通過數字渠道以及我們前面的菜單創新，我們在準備好的發言中談到的加強我們的運營，最後，單位增長使我們在市場上的滲透率更高，我們有理由對未來感到樂觀。

Okay. Great. Maybe sticking with that theme, I mean now that you're getting a little bit more time under your belt after having made the bulk of those investments in the digital channels. Do you believe that this has really increased your visibility on sales going forward? Or is this something you're still basically getting comfortable with and still a work in progress?

好的。偉大的。也許堅持這個主題，我的意思是，在對數字渠道進行了大量投資之後，你現在有更多的時間在自己的腰帶上。您認為這真的提高了您未來銷售的知名度嗎？或者這是否是您基本上仍然感到滿意並且仍在進行中的工作？

Well, I mean, I think we're comfortable with the guidance that we provided on sales going forward. And I think as we continue to get more clear on where we'll be the remainder of this year, we'll continue to sharpen that guidance. You saw us tighten our guidance range on our sales volume this quarter versus last quarter, for example. So I do believe we're getting sharper there.

好吧，我的意思是，我認為我們對我們提供的關於未來銷售的指導感到滿意。而且我認為，隨著我們繼續更加清楚今年剩餘時間的發展方向，我們將繼續加強這一指導。例如，您看到我們收緊了本季度與上一季度銷量的指導範圍。所以我相信我們在那裡變得更加敏銳。

But we've talked about these investments in the past, where we are -- frankly, we're real sticklers for what the returns are on the investments that we make. The methodology that we use, whether it's the digital channels that we're investing in or PDK that we invest in or other investments that we're making in the shops or our people, we're looking for that pre-post net-of-control lift in volume or profitability that ensures that we're getting a return on that investment.

但我們過去曾討論過這些投資，我們現在所處的位置 - 坦率地說，我們真正堅持我們所做投資的回報率。我們使用的方法，無論是我們投資的數字渠道還是我們投資的 PDK 或我們對商店或我們的人員進行的其他投資，我們都在尋找事前事後網絡-控制銷量或盈利能力的提升，確保我們獲得投資回報。

So an example, if you look at our less than 3% of our top line sales that's invested in digital advertising. We've been moving that very steadily but very slowly over the last year or so, we believe that if you get to the industry standard of 4% or 5% and we can continue to prove the returns that we've been proving to ourselves as we've taken those steps in digital advertising investments well then we think there's some -- sure, there is some predictability in how much more sales we can drive with these assets that we have in place.

舉個例子，如果你看看我們只有不到 3% 的收入投資於數字廣告。在過去一年左右的時間裡，我們一直在非常穩定但非常緩慢地前進，我們相信，如果你達到 4% 或 5% 的行業標準，我們可以繼續證明我們一直在向自己證明的回報由於我們已經在數字廣告投資中採取了這些步驟，因此我們認為有一些 - 當然，我們可以使用我們擁有的這些資產推動多少銷售量。

And I want you to know, we're not resting on our laurels when it comes to the digital channels either. This is a perpetual development pipeline under Jeff Douglas, our CIO and David Daniels, our CMO, partnering together on the digital development path. And what comes next in those digital channels so that they can work harder for us, too. So I do think that, that diligence around testing gives us some pretty clear insight at least what our internal expectations are on growth.

我想讓你知道，在數字渠道方面，我們也不會固步自封。這是我們的 CIO Jeff Douglas 和我們的 CMO David Daniels 在數字開發道路上合作的永久開發管道。這些數字渠道接下來會發生什麼，以便他們也可以為我們更加努力地工作。所以我確實認為，圍繞測試的勤奮至少讓我們對增長的內部期望有了一些非常清晰的認識。

Okay. Great. Glad to hear that. I guess shifting gears and looking at the labor environment for a little while. It seems like you're seeing additional improvement there. I mean, Steve, you mentioned some moderating wage pressures that you expect to continue for the rest of the year. But are you actually seeing better application flow? I mean is it easier -- is it getting easier for you to actually source new employees?

好的。偉大的。很高興聽你這樣說。我想換檔並觀察一下勞動環境。看起來你在那裡看到了額外的改進。我的意思是，史蒂夫，你提到了一些緩和的工資壓力，你預計今年餘下的時間會持續下去。但是您真的看到更好的應用程序流程了嗎？我的意思是它更容易——你是否更容易真正找到新員工？

Yes. I think Steve and I can tag team on that, Matt. I'll start with the quality and the quantity of staffing. We're really enjoying much, much better days than we were certainly through the pandemic and even last year. So our applicant flow is stronger. Our turnover is still below the industry standard. We've been able to fully staff our shops.

是的。我認為史蒂夫和我可以在這方面標記團隊，馬特。我將從人員配備的質量和數量開始。與大流行病甚至去年相比，我們真的過得很開心。所以我們的申請人流更強。我們的營業額仍然低於行業標準。我們已經能夠為我們的商店配備充足的員工。

And we -- as we've told you before, we staff for projected sales needs. So we're staffing against what we believe summer sales will be and making sure that we're prepared to handle that. I'm very pleased with Adam Noyes' work in this area at the management level, the associate level, and again, with the quality of our associates, there's also investments being made in their training. We've shared many times now, I think, about 2 or 3 quarters about the digital tipping and its benefit to our associates and our shift leads so on a number of fronts, we're just really pleased with that.

而我們——正如我們之前告訴過你的那樣，我們會為預計的銷售需求配備人員。因此，我們正在根據我們認為的夏季銷售情況配備人員，並確保我們已準備好應對。我對 Adam Noyes 在管理層面、助理層面以及我們同事的素質方面的工作感到非常滿意，他們也在培訓方面進行了投資。我想，我們現在已經分享了很多次，大約 2 或 3 個季度關於數字小費及其對我們的員工和我們的輪班領導的好處，所以在許多方面，我們對此非常滿意。

This is a very important part of the Potbelly experience. whether you're talking about value friendliness, the brand differentiation that comes to life. We love to talk about our digital channels, but the reality is more than half of our customers are still experiencing Potbelly in shop -- and so how we bring that to life with our associates is critical to us. And we're really happy with where we stand today and think it's stable going forward.

這是 Potbelly 體驗中非常重要的一部分。無論您是在談論價值友好性，還是栩栩如生的品牌差異化。我們喜歡談論我們的數字渠道，但現實是我們一半以上的客戶仍在店內體驗 Potbelly——因此我們如何與我們的員工一起將其變為現實對我們來說至關重要。我們對今天所處的位置感到非常滿意，並認為它會在未來保持穩定。

I'll just add Matt, to kind of sharpen the point of what we're seeing and what we expect to see. For us, it looks like labor really kind of peaked early last year. And while the rates are still high relative to history, the increases in our labor rates have really moderated. And we came in better than we thought we would for the quarter. That certainly helped us in terms of margins.

我將添加 Matt，以加強我們所看到的和我們期望看到的觀點。對我們來說，勞動力似乎真的在去年初達到了頂峰。雖然利率相對於歷史仍然很高，但我們的勞動力率的增長確實有所緩和。我們在本季度的表現比我們想像的要好。就利潤率而言，這無疑對我們有所幫助。

And as we look ahead for the full year, we still expect to be kind of in the mid-single digits on labor inflation. But it's kind of trending toward the lower side of that as we look ahead into part of or late through Q2 and as we can see down into the back half of the year. So for all the reasons Bob described, we have some pretty good line of sight into things. And it's certainly a different world than it was about a year ago for us.

展望全年，我們仍預計勞動力通脹將處於中等個位數。但隨著我們展望第二季度的一部分或後期，以及我們可以看到下半年，它有點趨向於下降。因此，出於 Bob 描述的所有原因，我們對事情有一些很好的看法。對我們來說，這肯定是一個與大約一年前不同的世界。

Okay. Great. So with turnover, I guess, trending down, and staffing also ramping up as you get into this in advance of the seasonally higher volumes you typically see during the summer. I mean, what improvement do you expect to see perhaps on throughput? And how much of a boost can that give to your top line?

好的。偉大的。因此，我想隨著營業額呈下降趨勢，並且隨著您在夏季通常會看到的季節性較高的交易量之前進入這一階段，人員配備也會增加。我的意思是，您希望在吞吐量方面看到什麼改進？這能給您的收入帶來多少提升？

Yes. We haven't quantified that, and we won't offer that publicly, but I can tell you, we are very pleased with the efforts and the results that we're getting in throughput. And we measure that the way we measure it anyway is entrees per half hour. And we're measuring that daily. We know where the records are in each of our shops. We know where we can unlock more. In fact, the ops team with both company and franchise operators all the way to the GM level. We're doing throughput workshops earlier this week to sharpen our focus on throughput.

是的。我們還沒有對此進行量化，也不會公開提供，但我可以告訴你，我們對我們在吞吐量方面所做的努力和取得的成果感到非常滿意。我們衡量我們衡量它的方式無論如何是每半小時主菜。我們每天都在測量。我們知道我們每個商店的記錄在哪裡。我們知道在哪裡可以解鎖更多。事實上，運營團隊包括公司和特許經營商，一直到總經理級別。本週早些時候，我們將舉辦吞吐量研討會，以加強對吞吐量的關注。

It's a big part of getting the most labor leverage that we can and the more business that we have, the more we can stretch those lines and get the throughput that we're looking for back to some record levels in many shops. We did indicate and this is a small part of it because we only have about 40 PDKs that have been installed of what we discussed previously would be about 100 by the end of this year.

這是獲得盡可能多的勞動力槓桿的重要組成部分，我們擁有的業務越多，我們就越能擴展這些生產線並使我們正在尋找的吞吐量恢復到許多商店的創紀錄水平。我們確實指出了，這只是其中的一小部分，因為我們只有大約 40 個 PDK 已經安裝，而我們之前討論的到今年年底將達到大約 100 個。

But in those capacity-constrained shops, we're seeing another gear of throughput unlock with PDK because PDK includes a digital ordering tablet that allows us to go deeper into the line with our traditional customers. And we've got lines back to the doors the way they were with Potbelly before the pandemic. And that really creates a lot of efficiency and throughput, and we're very, very pleased with what that means for those PDK shops, especially.

但在那些容量受限的商店中，我們看到 PDK 解鎖了另一種吞吐量，因為 PDK 包括一個數字訂購平板電腦，使我們能夠更深入地了解我們的傳統客戶。就像大流行之前與 Potbelly 一樣，我們已經排起了長隊。這確實創造了很多效率和吞吐量，我們非常非常高興這對那些 PDK 商店意味著什麼，尤其是。

I won't say high volume, it's capacity constrained. You can have a mid-volume shop that's got significant amount of lunch business or certain days of the week where dinner is very, very strong. And that in-line order taker solution is helping us a great deal.

我不會說高音量，它的容量受限。你可以有一家中等規模的商店，那裡有大量的午餐業務，或者一周中的某些日子晚餐非常非常豐盛。在線接單解決方案對我們幫助很大。

And Matt, Bob mentioned earlier in the prepared remarks about our traffic versus '19, right? We look at traffic in a couple of ways, but let's -- we often think about it on an entree basis. I mean this is the second quarter in a row where we've seen higher average unit entrees than we had in 2019. The capacity for us to kind of handle that volume is in place, and as Bob described, for things like with PDK, we get better and better at it. And as we expect to drive even more traffic that's part of our strategy. We want to make sure that we've got the productivity foundation in place to handle that throughput.

還有馬特，鮑勃早些時候在準備好的評論中提到我們的流量與 19 年相比，對嗎？我們以多種方式看待流量，但讓我們 - 我們經常在主菜的基礎上考慮它。我的意思是，這是我們連續第二個季度看到比 2019 年更高的平均單位主菜。我們處理該數量的能力已經到位，正如 Bob 所描述的，對於 PDK 之類的事情，我們在這方面做得越來越好。正如我們期望推動更多流量，這是我們戰略的一部分。我們希望確保我們已經具備了處理該吞吐量的生產力基礎。

Okay. And it does sound like you're seeing a wide variety of benefits at the locations that have PDK but am I correct in saying that you're not prepared to share any quantitative metrics around it just yet?

好的。聽起來您確實在擁有 PDK 的地點看到了各種各樣的好處，但我說您還沒有準備好分享任何圍繞它的量化指標，我說得對嗎？

Not quite yet. The areas that I spoke about in the prepared remarks are all quantitatively, again, pre-post net-of-control better than the control group and with a measure of difference that we're really comfortable that PDK is the variable that's making the difference. And that is in orders ready on time, order accuracy, it's actually affecting quality of food scores because of those things. We're not only ready on time, but we're not ready too early.

還不完全是。我在準備好的評論中談到的領域都是定量的，再一次，前後控製網絡比對照組更好，並且有一個我們真的很舒服的差異度量，PDK 是產生差異的變量.那就是按時準備好訂單，訂單準確性，它實際上會因為這些因素影響食品質量評分。我們不僅準時準備好，而且還沒有準備得太早。

It's -- the associate experience in those PDK shops is significantly different and improved. Not only are they enjoying a much easier time of managing all that digital business. The system feeds those orders to our associates in the proper order. And it's smart enough to know that a very large order needs to get fed to them sooner than a small order, even if they both need to be delivered at the same time.

它是——那些 PDK 商店的員工體驗明顯不同並且得到了改善。他們不僅可以更輕鬆地管理所有數字業務。系統以正確的順序將這些訂單提供給我們的員工。它足夠聰明地知道，一個非常大的訂單需要比一個小訂單更快地送達給他們，即使它們都需要同時交付。

So it's doing all of that sorting and all of that calculation. It has also given us the chance to give our customers a little more clarity if there's a massive amount of digital business going through the back line and it's happening in a lot of shops, it will give the customer variable response to their estimated order ready on time and how long that will take. So the customer has a very good sense of where they are.

所以它正在做所有的排序和所有的計算。它還讓我們有機會讓我們的客戶更加清楚，如果有大量的數字業務通過後線，並且它發生在很多商店中，這將使客戶對他們的估計訂單準備就緒做出不同的反應時間以及需要多長時間。因此，客戶非常清楚自己所在的位置。

It is because of the efficiency on the back line, we have successfully removed some labor out of those PDK shops. It makes the return on investment very solid for us. We haven't released that number yet, but we will in the future. And then, as I said, those capacity-constrained shops are seeing provable lift in overall traffic coming through the front line, which is very exciting for us.

正是由於後台的效率，我們已經成功地從那些 PDK 車間中減少了一些勞動力。它使我們的投資回報非常可觀。我們還沒有公佈那個數字，但我們會在未來公佈。然後，正如我所說，那些容量受限的商店正在看到通過前線的整體流量得到證明的提升，這對我們來說非常令人興奮。

Okay. Sounds great. And then lastly for me, I guess. Could we talk about pricing for a moment. It sounds based on -- I think, Steve, you said that or indicated essentially that you're open to taking pricing, if necessary, through the balance of the year. So a, do you have any concrete plans to take price later this year, if so, how much? And basically, could you just walk us through what your price benefit by quarter is going to look like for the remainder of 2023?

好的。聽起來不錯。最後對我來說，我想。我們能談談定價嗎？這聽起來基於——我認為，史蒂夫，你說過或基本上表明你願意在必要時在今年餘下時間進行定價。那麼，您是否有任何具體計劃在今年晚些時候定價，如果有，是多少？基本上，您能否向我們介紹一下您在 2023 年剩餘時間內的季度價格收益情況？

Yes, sure. Look, I think, again, like I mentioned in my prior comments, it's a different year this year than it was last year as we've seen inflation come down. We still want to make sure that we stick to our strategy of only taking price as necessary to outrun cost. And so as we've seen the cost FERC come down, our need to take price has also mitigated quite a bit. We expect to take price overall and have the flexibility to take it in the low single digits. And I would argue we'd be sort of on the low end of that as we've kind of seen inflation come in the way it has been.

是的，當然。看，我想，就像我在之前的評論中提到的那樣，今年與去年不同，因為我們看到通貨膨脹率下降了。我們仍然希望確保我們堅持我們的策略，即只在必要時採用價格以超過成本。因此，當我們看到 FERC 的成本下降時，我們對價格的需求也大大減輕了。我們期望整體價格，並可以靈活地將其控制在較低的個位數。而且我認為我們有點處於低端，因為我們已經看到通貨膨脹已經過去了。

We did take one pricing action already this year at about 1.5%, and that's about how we see the year going, maybe even lower than that for us. And in terms of the price benefit, like I said, for the full year, we aim to be about where we see inflation going. So we want to be close to 0 in terms of a pricing benefit to offset inflation. We may be a little higher than that in first quarter because we had some carryforward from last year in terms of the price increases. But that benefit will step down through the year as we then get, like I said, closer to kind of net neutral, maybe slightly positive overall.

我們今年確實已經採取了大約 1.5% 的定價行動，這就是我們對今年的看法，甚至可能低於我們的水平。就價格收益而言，就像我說的那樣，全年，我們的目標是與我們看到的通脹走勢保持一致。因此，我們希望在抵消通貨膨脹的定價收益方面接近於 0。我們可能會比第一季度略高一些，因為我們在價格上漲方面有一些去年的結轉。但是，就像我說的那樣，隨著我們變得更接近淨中性，整體上可能略微積極，這種好處將在今年逐漸減少。

Okay. So basically, you would be -- all else equal, you would expect to exit the year with very low single-digit number amount of price or effectively 0?

好的。所以基本上，你會 - 在其他條件相同的情況下，你會期望以非常低的個位數價格或實際上為 0 退出這一年？

Yes. Yes. In terms of the benefit on the margin side, like I said, we just want to basically outrun the inflation. So pricing's benefit to margin would be fairly 0 to barely positive for the year.

是的。是的。就保證金方面的好處而言，就像我說的，我們只想基本上跑贏通貨膨脹。因此，今年定價對利潤率的好處將是 0 到幾乎為正。

With that, I'd like to hand the call over to Lisa Fortuna of Alpha IR for a few additional questions. Lisa?

有了這個，我想把電話轉給 Alpha IR 的 Lisa Fortuna，再問幾個問題。麗莎？

Thank you, operator. As we have done in previous earnings calls, we have offered our investors the opportunity to complement William Blair's very thoughtful questions. First question, do you expect to be readmitted to the Russell 2000 index?

謝謝你，運營商。正如我們在之前的財報電話會議上所做的那樣，我們為投資者提供了補充威廉布萊爾非常深思熟慮的問題的機會。第一個問題，您是否期望重新被納入羅素 2000 指數？

I'll take this. Yes, listen, the performance that we've seen in the stock price in the last quarter, even in the prior 2 quarters, has really pushed up the market cap to a point where we -- from all indications, we expect to be readmitted into the Russell 2K. It's a welcome kind of event for us as we've been out of it during COVID. And our situation now in terms of what we've been able to understand the cutoff might be, our market cap puts us well beyond that. So we're looking forward to kind of getting formal word on it, but it's a nice milestone for us as we continue to recover and grow out of COVID.

我要這個。是的，聽著，我們在上個季度看到的股價表現，即使是在前兩個季度，也確實將市值推高到了我們 - 從所有跡象來看，我們預計會重新入場的程度進入羅素2K。這對我們來說是一種受歡迎的活動，因為我們在 COVID 期間已經退出了。而就我們能夠理解的截止點而言，我們現在的情況可能是，我們的市值遠遠超出了這一點。因此，我們期待就此發表正式聲明，但這對我們來說是一個很好的里程碑，因為我們將繼續從 COVID 中恢復和成長。

Next question. Can you describe any efforts to gain access to nontraditional locations such as airports?

下一個問題。您能描述一下為進入機場等非傳統地點所做的任何努力嗎？

Yes. Thanks, Lisa. I think one of my prepared remarks was that we've been making investments in lead generation in our sales team and in the franchising systems that have been driving that. We've mentioned before that we really enjoy some very high volumes in some of the airport locations that we're in. And we think that not just airports, but nontraditionals in general, hold a lot of promise.

是的。謝謝，麗莎。我認為我準備好的評論之一是，我們一直在對我們的銷售團隊和一直在推動這一點的特許經營系統中的潛在客戶開發進行投資。我們之前提到過，在我們所在的一些機場位置，我們真的很享受一些非常高的流量。而且我們認為，不僅是機場，而且一般來說，非傳統機場都有很大的希望。

One of the great things about the Potbelly brand is we already have great success in suburban locations, drive-through locations, urban, airports in our CBDs, of course. And so we feel that we've got the flexibility to go into a lot of these locations and nontraditionals that we don't currently have a presence in.

當然，Potbelly 品牌的一大優點是我們已經在郊區、免下車地點、城市、CBD 的機場取得了巨大成功。因此，我們覺得我們可以靈活地進入我們目前沒有涉足的許多這些地點和非傳統地點。

So we have put some of our G&A where our mouth is here. I mentioned the sales team just in the last quarter, we've added a Director of Nontraditional Sales who does this type of work. We've got another leader on our team who has expanded their responsibilities and will be personally responsible for airports and other types of nontraditionals that require RFPs. These are very sharp leaders, experienced in the space and know how to put the Potbelly best foot forward.

所以我們已經把我們的一些 G&A 放在我們嘴邊的地方。我剛剛在上個季度提到了銷售團隊，我們增加了一名從事此類工作的非傳統銷售總監。我們的團隊中有另一位領導者擴大了他們的職責，並將親自負責機場和其他類型的需要 RFP 的非傳統項目。這些都是非常敏銳的領導者，在這個領域經驗豐富，知道如何讓 Potbelly 發揮最大的作用。

We've also added a traditional sales leader as well as some franchise recruitment support and sales specialist support. That's where that lead generation vetting and generation comes from. So nothing to announce today on non-trad, but in addition to all of the traditional development work that we're doing, we actually think this is a very ripe area for additional unit growth for the brand.

我們還增加了傳統的銷售主管以及一些特許經營招聘支持和銷售專家支持。這就是領先一代審查和一代的來源。所以今天在非貿易方面沒有什麼可宣布的，但除了我們正在做的所有傳統開發工作之外，我們實際上認為這是該品牌額外單位增長的一個非常成熟的領域。

And next question, can you provide more color on how you expect the top line traffic and same-store sales to unfold throughout the year?

下一個問題，您能否提供更多關於您對全年頂線客流量和同店銷售額的預期情況的顏色？

Yes, I'll kick that off, and then we can kind of break it out for you a little bit. Look, I think this is similar to the question that Matt asked, as in a macro sense in this space in fast casual and restaurants in general, there are some macro tailwinds. There's been a lot of share donated with closed restaurants and our expectation internally is to take advantage of that restaurant demand and drive the business.

是的，我會開始，然後我們可以為您稍微分解一下。看，我認為這與馬特提出的問題相似，因為從宏觀意義上講，在快速休閒和一般餐廳的這個空間中，有一些宏觀順風。關閉的餐廳已經捐贈了很多份額，我們內部的期望是利用餐廳的需求來推動業務發展。

Ops is always essential. It's the middle pillar of our 5-pillar strategy to create experiences that bring customers back. And that includes the speed, throughput, taking advantage of those lines, when we have our customers back in our shops. We're not at all unclear about how much leverage we see in the future in marketing. It's an investment in digital marketing. It's in the channels themselves. It's an investment in the e-commerce of the web and the app and the frictionless experience we can keep expanding on for the customers. And of course, focus on value with our promotions and digital promotions.

操作始終是必不可少的。它是我們 5 支柱戰略的中間支柱，即創造可讓客戶回頭的體驗。這包括速度、吞吐量、利用這些線路，當我們讓客戶回到我們的商店時。我們一點也不清楚未來在營銷方面的影響力有多大。這是對數字營銷的投資。它在頻道本身。這是對網絡電子商務和應用程序的投資，也是我們可以為客戶不斷擴展的無摩擦體驗。當然，通過我們的促銷活動和數字促銷活動關注價值。

So those are the drivers. I mean, we've been transparent about our strategy and what our strategy can do to drive that. We've offered guidance on where we think same-store sales will be this quarter. We think we're still going to be in a record territory for AUVs. And as we mentioned in the remarks, I know we said our 2024 goal would be $1.3 million, and there have been many times already. We've been pacing at that number.

所以這些是驅動因素。我的意思是，我們一直對我們的戰略以及我們的戰略可以做什麼來推動這一點保持透明。我們已經就我們認為本季度的同店銷售情況提供了指導。我們認為我們仍將處於 AUV 的創紀錄領域。正如我們在評論中提到的，我知道我們說過我們 2024 年的目標是 130 萬美元，而且已經說過很多次了。我們一直在按這個數字走。

So we -- look, top line growth and traffic-driven growth is always the healthiest way to grow the restaurant space. And so rest assured, we're focused on it.

所以我們 - 看，收入增長和流量驅動的增長始終是擴大餐廳空間的最健康方式。所以請放心，我們專注於此。

Yes. I would just add to that. We've been careful, right, with pricing. And we just had the conversation with Matt about what we have for this year. We know that we want to protect demand. So we think about that very carefully, which is why our price increases will be fairly modest this year.

是的。我只想補充一點。我們一直很小心，對，定價。我們剛剛與馬特討論了今年的內容。我們知道我們想要保護需求。所以我們非常仔細地考慮了這一點，這就是為什麼我們今年的價格上漲會相當溫和。

And secondly, we continue to increase not just our marketing activities, but our spend on marketing as we know our peers spend up to 4%, 5% of their sales on marketing. We're not there yet, which is great because we're driving record sales and continuing to drive traffic growth and taking share and still have more marketing dollars that we could spend as long as we continue to prove out their effectiveness.

其次，我們不僅繼續增加營銷活動，還繼續增加營銷支出，因為我們知道我們的同行將銷售額的 4%、5% 用於營銷。我們還沒有到那一步，這很好，因為我們正在推動創紀錄的銷售並繼續推動流量增長和份額，並且只要我們繼續證明其有效性，我們仍然可以花費更多的營銷資金。

So that gives us a lot of confidence, even in a bit of uncertainty as it relates to the economy, which we always have to be mindful of. But we feel like we've got some control over our destiny as it relates to being able to kind of help support traffic throughout the year.

因此，這給了我們很大的信心，即使在與經濟相關的不確定性中也是如此，我們始終要注意這一點。但我們覺得我們對自己的命運有一些控制，因為它與能夠在某種程度上幫助支持全年的交通有關。

If you look at the first quarter EBITDA -- adjusted EBITDA and the second quarter guidance, should we double first half to get to the second half and therefore, kind of extrapolate on that for the full year expectations?

如果你看一下第一季度的 EBITDA——調整後的 EBITDA 和第二季度的指導，我們是否應該將上半年翻一番才能到下半年，從而推斷出全年的預期？

Yes. I don't think it's quite that simple. Ultimately, as we look at our performance throughout the year, quarter 1 typically is a lower volume quarter in terms of seasonality. So we expect to be kind of following that seasonality curve a little more closely this year than we have in past years. So we would expect our volumes to build throughout the year.

是的。我不認為這很簡單。最終，當我們審視全年的業績時，第 1 季度通常是季節性銷量較低的季度。因此，我們預計今年會比過去幾年更緊密地遵循季節性曲線。因此，我們預計我們的銷量將在全年增加。

As well, to remind folks, this quarter is also carrying a little bit more cost in terms of an additional payroll cycle bonus and those kinds of things, which all accrued for, obviously, but kind of hit us harder in this quarter. And then as we think about some of the initiatives that we have in place to help improve shop margin even further and we work to expand shop margin we expect the EBITDA profile to also change. So it's not quite as simple as just doing the straight math and extrapolating out from this quarter.

同樣，提醒人們，本季度在額外的工資週期獎金和類似的事情方面也帶來了更多的成本，顯然，這些都是累積的，但在本季度對我們的打擊更大。然後當我們考慮我們已經採取的一些舉措來幫助進一步提高商店利潤率並且我們努力擴大商店利潤率時，我們預計 EBITDA 概況也會發生變化。因此，這並不像直接計算並從本季度推斷出那麼簡單。

That was the last submitted question. So I'll now turn the call back to Bob for closing comments.

那是最後提交的問題。所以我現在將電話轉回 Bob 以徵求意見。

Yes. Thank you, Lisa, and thank you to Matt and our investors that submitted those questions. We appreciate it. Thank you all again for your time this afternoon. Hopefully, you hear from us, we remain very excited by the direction and the growth of our company this year, and we're highly confident in our ability to further execute against our goals and ultimately drive shareholder returns. We look forward to sharing our progress with you when we talk again soon. Thank you.

是的。謝謝 Lisa，也感謝 Matt 和我們提交這些問題的投資者。我們很感激。再次感謝大家今天下午的時間。希望您能收到我們的來信，我們對公司今年的發展方向和發展仍然感到非常興奮，並且我們對我們進一步執行目標並最終推動股東回報的能力充滿信心。我們期待很快再次交談時與您分享我們的進展。謝謝。

That does conclude today's conference. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

今天的會議到此結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連接。