Dave & Buster's Entertainment Inc (PLAY) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Dave & Buster's First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions). Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Cory Hatton, VP of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

下午好，歡迎參加 Dave & Buster 2023 年第一季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）。請注意此事件正在被記錄。現在我想將會議交給投資者關係副總裁兼財務主管科里·哈頓 (Cory Hatton)。請繼續。

Thank you, operator, and welcome to everyone on the line. Leading today's call will be Chris Morris, our Chief Executive Officer; and Mike Quartieri, our Chief Financial Officer. After our prepared remarks, we will be happy to take your questions. This call is being recorded on behalf of Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc. and is copyrighted.

謝謝您，接線員，歡迎在線的每個人。今天的電話會議將由我們的首席執行官克里斯·莫里斯 (Chris Morris) 主持。和我們的首席財務官 Mike Quartieri。在我們準備好發言後，我們將很樂意回答您的問題。此通話是代表 Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc. 錄製的，並受版權保護。

Before we begin the discussion on our company's first quarter 2023 results, I'd like to call your attention to the fact that in our remarks and our responses to questions, certain items may be discussed, which are not entirely based on historical fact. Any of these items should be considered forward-looking statements relating to future events within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

在我們開始討論公司2023年第一季度業績之前，我想提請您注意，在我們的言論和對問題的回答中，可能會討論某些項目，這些項目並不完全基於歷史事實。這些項目中的任何一項均應被視為與 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的未來事件相關的前瞻性陳述。

All such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated. Information on the various risk factors and uncertainties have been published in our filings with the SEC, which are available on our website. In addition, our remarks today will include references to financial measures that are not defined under generally accepted accounting principles.

所有此類前瞻性陳述都存在風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與預期不同。有關各種風險因素和不確定性的信息已在我們向 SEC 提交的文件中發布，這些文件可在我們的網站上查看。此外，我們今天的講話將包括參考公認會計原則中未定義的財務指標。

Investors should review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP measure contained in our earnings announcement released this afternoon. Pro forma financials, including Main Event for the trailing 4 quarters ended April 30, 2023, can be found directly in our earnings release this quarter.

投資者應審查這些非公認會計準則衡量標準與我們今天下午發布的收益公告中包含的可比公認會計準則衡量標準的對賬情況。預計財務數據，包括截至 2023 年 4 月 30 日的過去 4 個季度的主要事件，可以直接在我們本季度的收益發布中找到。

Now it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Chris.

現在我很高興將電話轉給克里斯。

Okay. Thank you, Cory. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining our call today. We are pleased to report record results for the first quarter of fiscal 2023. In Q1, we generated record revenue of $597 million and record adjusted EBITDA of $182 million, resulting in an adjusted EBITDA margin of 30.5%. In a few moments, Mike will walk you through the details of our financial performance.

好的。謝謝你，科里。大家下午好，感謝您今天加入我們的電話會議。我們很高興地報告 2023 財年第一季度創紀錄的業績。第一季度，我們創造了創紀錄的 5.97 億美元收入，創紀錄的調整後 EBITDA 為 1.82 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 30.5%。稍後，邁克將向您詳細介紹我們的財務業績。

In the first quarter, our team did a phenomenal job running the business. Our extremely talented team of operators and support center employees continued to execute on the breadth of strategic opportunities we've identified to unlock significant revenue growth and cost efficiency opportunities in our business. Our operational achievements in the quarter are indicative of the progress on our strategy, and we are also seeing improved guest satisfaction scores as we perfect the service model and optimize the role of our team members play as our most important brand ambassadors.

在第一季度，我們的團隊在業務運營方面表現出色。我們極其才華橫溢的運營商和支持中心員工團隊繼續執行我們已確定的廣泛戰略機會，以釋放我們業務中顯著的收入增長和成本效率機會。我們本季度的運營成就表明了我們戰略的進展，隨著我們完善服務模式並優化團隊成員作為我們最重要的品牌大使的作用，我們也看到了客戶滿意度的提高。

In addition with key enhancements we've made to our culinary team, we are working feverishly to improve our overall food and beverage offering, including improving the quality of the food, simplifying the menu, improving operating efficiencies and upgrading guest-facing technology to simplify the ordering process, amongst other initiatives.

除了對烹飪團隊進行重大改進外，我們還積極努力改善整體餐飲服務，包括提高食品質量、簡化菜單、提高運營效率以及升級面向賓客的技術以簡化流程。訂購流程等舉措。

We remain particularly encouraged by the opportunity for our special event business, which saw significant comp store growth on a sequential basis, returning back to 2019 levels. We are taking full advantage of the recovery. And with the heightened focus we are applying to this important business, we have a clear path ahead to grow meaningfully into the future.

我們對特別活動業務的機會感到特別鼓舞，該業務的比較店環比增長顯著，回到了 2019 年的水平。我們正在充分利用複甦的機會。隨著我們對這一重要業務的高度關注，我們有一條清晰的道路可以在未來實現有意義的發展。

The improved growth has been driven by structural alignment changes to the team, both at the local store and support center level, and these changes are already bearing fruit. As Mike will discuss more in a few minutes, we continue to be laser-focused on implementing efficiencies and reducing costs across all areas of the business.

增長的改善是由本地商店和支持中心層面的團隊結構調整推動的，而這些變化已經取得了成果。邁克將在幾分鐘內討論更多內容，我們將繼續專注於在所有業務領域提高效率並降低成本。

While we previously exceeded our synergy target and have locked in at least $25 million in cost reductions as a result of the combination with Main Event, we have parlayed these efforts into running the business with sharpened cost controls as we believe significant opportunities still exist to reduce our cost base across cost of goods sold, store labor, store operating expenses and corporate overhead.

雖然我們之前超出了我們的協同目標，並因與主賽事合併而鎖定了至少 2500 萬美元的成本削減，但我們已將這些努力用於通過加強成本控制來運營業務，因為我們相信仍然存在重大機會來減少成本。我們的成本基礎涵蓋銷售商品成本、商店勞動力、商店運營費用和公司管理費用。

As you can see, our results this quarter are already benefiting from improved input costs as well as improved labor optimization. In combination with our other initiatives, we expect these cost efforts to drive a lower cost base, expand our margins and improve cash flow generation.

正如您所看到的，我們本季度的業績已經受益於投入成本的改善以及勞動力優化的改善。結合我們的其他舉措，我們預計這些成本努力將降低成本基礎，擴大我們的利潤並改善現金流的產生。

Turning to market initiatives in the quarter. As a follow-on to our fall football campaign, we continue to dedicate a portion of our marketing spend to our watch experience. The out-of-home social sports watch audience is large, and we feel confident in our ability to drive both brand relevancy and visit frequency by building even greater awareness that Dave & Buster's is America's new favorite place to watch sports. Over the spring, we leveraged marquee NBA and college sports watching events to get the word out and were featured in 30 NCAA basketball games during conference championships, appealing to both families and young adults. We also ran over 60 spots in key NBA playoff games to create awareness nationally as well as in those local communities.

轉向本季度的市場舉措。作為秋季足球活動的後續行動，我們繼續將一部分營銷支出用於我們的觀看體驗。戶外社交運動手錶受眾群體龐大，我們對通過提高 Dave & Buster's 成為美國人最喜愛的觀看體育賽事的新場所的認識來提高品牌相關性和訪問頻率的能力充滿信心。今年春天，我們利用大型 NBA 和大學體育賽事觀看活動進行宣傳，並在分區錦標賽期間出現在 30 場 NCAA 籃球比賽中，對家庭和年輕人都有吸引力。我們還參加了 60 多個重要的 NBA 季后賽比賽，以提高全國和當地社區的知名度。

The first quarter is also a spring break season. So in parallel, we ran several digital promotions targeting families in social, paid digital and CRM to keep D&B top of mind and in the consideration for families looking for out-of-home fun during spring break. Running these programs and digital channels allows us to stay nimble by adjusting deals and spend based on performance as well as timing given spring break weeks vary so greatly across the nation. We are very excited about the enhanced digital capabilities with the team that we've assembled to elevate our ability to meet our guests where they are and maximize media effectiveness.

第一季度也是春假季節。因此，與此同時，我們在社交、付費數字和 CRM 方面針對家庭開展了幾項數字促銷活動，以保持 D&B 的首要地位，並考慮到在春假期間尋找戶外樂趣的家庭。運行這些計劃和數字渠道使我們能夠根據業績和時間調整交易和支出，從而保持靈活性，因為全國各地的春假週差異很大。我們對我們組建的團隊增強的數字能力感到非常興奮，該團隊提高了我們與客人見面的能力，並最大限度地提高媒體效率。

Looking ahead, summer is an important time for our brands as both families and young adults look for fun things to do to fill long days with experiences that allow them to connect. As we announced yesterday, at Dave & Buster's, our summer campaign features a high-value, limited time, 5 free games promotion to drive traffic in conjunction with our new highly appealing, You Know You Want To campaign.

展望未來，夏季對我們的品牌來說是一個重要的時期，因為家庭和年輕人都在尋找有趣的事情來度過漫長的一天，讓他們能夠建立聯繫。正如我們昨天在 Dave & Buster's 宣布的，我們的夏季活動以高價值、限時、5 款免費遊戲促銷為特色，以與我們新的極具吸引力的“You Know You Want To”活動相結合來增加流量。

In the quarter, we opened 1 new Dave & Buster's store in Puerto Rico and 3 new Main Event stores in Little Rock, Arkansas; Tucson, Arizona; and Lexington, Kentucky. We also signed 2 international franchise agreements for up to 15 stores in India and up to 5 stores in Australia. We continue to be extremely excited about the future of this organization.

本季度，我們在波多黎各開設了 1 家新的 Dave & Buster's 商店，在阿肯色州小石城開設了 3 家新的 Main Event 商店；亞利桑那州圖森；和肯塔基州列剋星敦。我們還簽署了 2 份國際特許經營協議，涉及印度最多 15 家商店和澳大利亞最多 5 家商店。我們仍然對這個組織的未來感到非常興奮。

We have 2 industry-leading brands in Dave & Buster's and Main Event. These brands have exceptional business models, strong assets and are led by a talented and passionate group of operators. We have a clear line of sight on the strategic opportunities ahead for the business and a management team with a proven track record of superior execution.

我們在 Dave & Buster's 和 Main Event 擁有 2 個行業領先品牌。這些品牌擁有卓越的商業模式、雄厚的資產，並由才華橫溢、充滿激情的經營者團隊領導。我們對業務未來的戰略機遇有清晰的認識，管理團隊擁有卓越執行力的良好記錄。

As evidence of the conviction we have in the long-term success of our business and the value we see in our shares, we have repurchased $200 million of common stock thus far in fiscal 2023, reducing our shares outstanding by nearly 12%. We have an additional $100 million remaining on our share repurchase authorization. We highly encourage you to tune in to our Virtual Investor Day next Tuesday, June 13, at 7 a.m. Central, where we look forward to unveiling more details about our vision and strategy with you.

作為我們對業務長期成功和股票價值的信念的證據，我們在 2023 財年迄今為止已回購了 2 億美元的普通股，使我們的流通股減少了近 12%。我們的股票回購授權還剩 1 億美元。我們強烈建議您收看下週二（6 月 13 日）上午 7 點（中部時間）的虛擬投資者日，我們期待與您一起公佈有關我們願景和戰略的更多細節。

With conclusions drawn from extensive research and field work by a management team with a track record of successful execution, we will specifically outline the numerous levers we have to drive top and bottom line growth as well as cash flow over the next 3 years. You're not going to want to miss this exciting and informative event.

根據具有成功執行記錄的管理團隊進行的廣泛研究和實地工作得出的結論，我們將特別概述我們在未來 3 年內推動營收和利潤增長以及現金流的眾多槓桿。您一定不想錯過這個激動人心且內容豐富的活動。

With that, let me turn the call over to Mike to review our first quarter results. Mike?

接下來，讓我把電話轉給邁克，回顧一下我們第一季度的業績。麥克風？

Thanks, Chris. We're pleased to report strong financial results for the first quarter. We generated record revenue of $597.3 million, record net income of $70.1 million and record adjusted EBITDA of $182.1 million in the first quarter. On a pro forma basis, our first quarter revenue and adjusted EBITDA reflect growth of 3.8% and 4.6%, respectively, relative to our first quarter of fiscal '22.

謝謝，克里斯。我們很高興地報告第一季度強勁的財務業績。第一季度，我們創造了創紀錄的 5.973 億美元收入、創紀錄的 7010 萬美元淨利潤和創紀錄的 1.821 億美元調整後 EBITDA。根據預計，我們第一季度的收入和調整後的 EBITDA 分別比 22 財年第一季度增長了 3.8% 和 4.6%。

We continue to make significant strides optimizing our business model to drive revenue, realizing meaningful cost savings across the company and deploy capital at high ROI opportunities. We produced a 30.5% adjusted EBITDA margin in the first quarter, an improvement of 20 basis points versus the prior year period on a pro forma basis. Our margin profile remains one of our strongest attributes of our business, and we are confident in the levers we have on the cost side to defend it. Also, our strategic investments to lower our overall cost base will be a meaningful catalyst to expand margins as we continue to grow and consumer confidence improves.

我們繼續在優化業務模式方面取得重大進展，以增加收入，在整個公司內實現有意義的成本節約，並在高投資回報率機會上部署資本。第一季度調整後 EBITDA 利潤率為 30.5%，按預計計算，比去年同期提高了 20 個基點。我們的利潤率狀況仍然是我們業務最強大的屬性之一，我們對我們在成本方面擁有的槓桿來捍衛它充滿信心。此外，隨著我們的持續增長和消費者信心的改善，我們為降低總體成本基礎而進行的戰略投資將成為擴大利潤率的有意義的催化劑。

Pro forma comparable store sales decreased 4.1% versus 2022 as we lapped a very robust prior year period. Recall that in March and April of 2022, we saw outsized comp performance of 15% and 26%, respectively, as the country emerged from the Omicron variant. When we look back at a more normalized level of business, we are up 10.3% versus 2019 on a consolidated basis.

由於我們經歷了非常強勁的上年同期，預計可比商店銷售額與 2022 年相比下降了 4.1%。回想一下，2022 年 3 月和 4 月，隨著該國擺脫 Omicron 變體，我們的業績表現分別增長了 15% 和 26%。當我們回顧更加正常化的業務水平時，我們的綜合業務較 2019 年增長了 10.3%。

Our Special Events business continued to grow in Q1 2023 with our combined comps now flat to pro forma 2019 levels. We generated $92.4 million in operating cash flow during the first quarter, contributing to an ending cash balance of $91.5 million for total liquidity of over $581 million when combined with the $490 million available on our $500 million revolving credit facility, net of outstanding letters of credit.

我們的特別活動業務在 2023 年第一季度繼續增長，目前我們的綜合業績與 2019 年預計水平持平。第一季度我們產生了 9240 萬美元的運營現金流，加上我們 5 億美元循環信貸額度中的 4.9 億美元（扣除未償還信用證），期末現金餘額為 9150 萬美元，流動性總額超過 5.81 億美元。

We ended the quarter with total leverage ratio of 2x. Our strong cash flow generation and conversion gives us the ability to simultaneously invest in our system, grow new stores and repurchase shares. As previously mentioned, we repurchased 3.6 million shares in the first quarter at a total cost of $125.5 million. And subsequent to the end of the quarter, we repurchased an additional 2.1 million shares at a total cost of $74.5 million, bringing the total purchases to the 5.7 million shares totaling $200 million, representing nearly 12% of our outstanding shares as of the end of fiscal '22. And we still have $100 million available on our remaining existing share repurchase authorization.

本季度結束時，我們的總槓桿率為 2 倍。我們強大的現金流生成和轉換能力使我們能夠同時投資我們的系統、發展新店和回購股票。如前所述，我們在第一季度回購了 360 萬股股票，總成本為 1.255 億美元。在本季度末之後，我們以總成本 7,450 萬美元額外回購了 210 萬股股票，使回購總額達到 570 萬股，總價值達 2 億美元，佔截至 2019 年末我們已發行股票的近 12%。財政'22。我們剩餘的現有股票回購授權仍有 1 億美元可用。

Turning to capital spending. We invested a total of $50.8 million in capital additions during the quarter, opening 1 new Dave & Buster's store in Puerto Rico, and 3 new Main Event stores in Little Rock, Arkansas; Tucson, Arizona; and Lexington, Kentucky. We have already opened 2 new Dave & Buster stores during the second quarter, 1 in Lubbock, Texas and the other in Queen Creek, Arizona.

轉向資本支出。本季度我們總共投資了 5080 萬美元的增資資金，在波多黎各開設了 1 家新的 Dave & Buster's 商店，在阿肯色州小石城開設了 3 家新的 Main Event 商店；亞利桑那州圖森；和肯塔基州列剋星敦。我們已經在第二季度開設了 2 家新的 Dave & Buster 商店，其中 1 家位於德克薩斯州拉伯克，另一家位於亞利桑那州 Queen Creek。

Consistent with our prior statements, we are on track to open a total of 16 new stores during the fiscal 2023 period, comprised of 11 Dave & Buster's and 5 Main Event locations, plus the relocation of our Dave & Buster's Vernon Hills, Illinois store.

與我們之前的聲明一致，我們預計在 2023 財年期間開設總共 16 家新店，其中包括 11 家 Dave & Buster's 店和 5 家主要活動店，以及搬遷的 Dave & Buster 伊利諾伊州弗農山店。

To summarize, we're extremely excited about the strong execution in our business, our progress capturing synergies, the numerous growth opportunities for us to pursue and the talent and experience of our team to drive growth despite the challenging macroeconomic environment.

總而言之，我們對我們業務的強勁執行力、我們在協同效應方面取得的進展、我們追求的眾多增長機會以及我們團隊在充滿挑戰的宏觀經濟環境下推動增長的才能和經驗感到非常興奮。

We remain focused on closely managing costs and capital spending to ensure we strategically unlock the maximum value of these 2 great brands and deliver the highest returns possible for our shareholders. We look forward to speaking to you again in next week at our Virtual Investor Day where we'll be discussing our midterm growth strategy in detail.

我們仍然專注於密切管理成本和資本支出，以確保我們戰略性地釋放這兩個偉大品牌的最大價值，並為我們的股東帶來盡可能高的回報。我們期待在下週的虛擬投資者日再次與您交談，我們將詳細討論我們的中期增長戰略。

Now operator, you can open up the line for questions.

現在接線員，您可以開通提問線路。

(Operator Instructions). Our first question will come from Andy Barish with Jefferies.

（操作員說明）。我們的第一個問題將由杰弗里斯的安迪·巴里什提出。

Just a couple from me. Mike, if you can point us towards anything specific in the other operating expense, other store operating expense line. That was certainly, along with other expense areas, one where there was some nice improvement versus our modeling. Anything specific that's starting to show up in that line or different from past periods?

只是我的一對。邁克，您能否向我們指出其他運營費用、其他商店運營費用項目中的任何具體內容。與我們的建模相比，與其他支出領域一起，這當然是一個很好的改進。有什麼具體的事情開始出現在這行中或者與過去的時期不同嗎？

Yes. I'll touch on a couple of things. One, from an inflationary perspective, we're starting to see a little bit of deflation quarter sequential on our hourly wage rates. We're down approximately about 0.5% there. And we're down about 3% quarter sequential on our commodities. So that's benefiting our cost of goods sold at the top line.

是的。我將談幾件事。第一，從通貨膨脹的角度來看，我們的小時工資率開始出現一些連續季度的通貨緊縮。我們在那裡下跌了大約 0.5%。我們的大宗商品環比下降了約 3%。因此，這有利於我們的銷售成本。

Besides that, we are continuing to realize the synergies, which are benefiting our G&A costs. And we have continued to look at the other store operating expenses, whether that's store operating supplies, utilities, things to that effect that we've been able to put some programs in place to help reduce those types of costs.

除此之外，我們正在繼續實現協同效應，這有利於我們的一般管理成本。我們繼續關注其他商店運營費用，無論是商店運營用品、公用事業，還是我們已經能夠實施一些計劃來幫助降低此類成本的事情。

Got you. And then just to follow up, I'm sure we'll hear more on this next week. But where are you kind of in the remodel test and some of the new entertainment, the social gaming aspects and things like that? Are some of those out in stores at this point? Or how do we kind of think about that for the rest of '23 and then into '24?

明白你了。然後跟進，我相信下週我們會聽到更多相關信息。但是你在改造測試和一些新的娛樂、社交遊戲方面以及類似的事情上處於什麼位置呢？其中一些現在已經在商店裡了嗎？或者我們如何看待 23 年剩餘時間以及 24 年的情況？

Yes, Andy, I'll take that. This is Chris. And you're absolutely right. Next week at our Investor Day, we're really excited to be able to walk everybody through the details of our plan. We've got a lot to share with you. Remodels are certainly one of those items. We strongly see remodels as one of the catalysts to -- one of the key catalysts to get our top line moving on a sustainable basis.

是的，安迪，我會接受的。這是克里斯。你是完全正確的。下週的投資者日，我們非常高興能夠向大家介紹我們計劃的細節。我們有很多東西要與您分享。改造肯定是其中之一。我們強烈地將改造視為催化劑之一——使我們的收入可持續發展的關鍵催化劑之一。

Right now, the first remodel to open will be late July, early August. So we don't have a remodel yet in the market. We are -- we have 12 units that are -- we're going through the permitting process, and we expect to have 6 of those 12 done this year. And so really looking forward to getting those in the market, and we'll walk you through a lot more details next week.

目前，第一批改造將於七月底、八月初開業。所以我們在市場上還沒有改造。我們——我們有 12 個單位——我們正在辦理許可程序，我們預計今年將完成這 12 個單位中的 6 個。因此，我們非常期待將這些產品推向市場，下週我們將向您介紹更多詳細信息。

Our next question will come from Jake Bartlett with Truist.

我們的下一個問題將由傑克·巴特利特和 Truist 提出。

Great. My first is on the quarter-to-date. In the recent quarters, you've talked about giving us some quarter-to-date trends on sales. So I'm hoping you can do that this quarter as well. And that's one part of the question. The other is on the -- versus '19, the same-store sales versus '19, has decelerated the last 3 quarters. Kind of it looks like there's building pressure, maybe momentum is declining. I guess your answer on the quarter date is going to help with that question. But what would you attribute that slowdown to? And do you have a view into reaccelerating that?

偉大的。我的第一個是本季度至今。在最近幾個季度中，您談到向我們提供一些季度至今的銷售趨勢。所以我希望您本季度也能做到這一點。這是問題的一部分。另一個是 - 與 19 年相比，同店銷售額與 19 年相比，過去 3 個季度有所放緩。看起來壓力似乎越來越大，也許動力正在下降。我想你在季度日期的回答將有助於解決這個問題。但您將這種放緩歸因於什麼呢？您是否打算重新加速這一進程？

This is Chris. Let me -- I'll take the first part of that question, then I'll let Mike take the second part. So with respect to providing intra-quarter sales figures, in our last call, we let everybody know that going forward, that's a practice that we're just moving away from. We want to keep our focus just on more a longer-term approach.

這是克里斯。讓我——我將回答這個問題的第一部分，然後我將讓邁克回答第二部分。因此，關於提供季度內銷售數據，在我們上次的電話會議中，我們讓每個人都知道，展望未來，我們將放棄這種做法。我們希望將重點放在更長期的方法上。

But -- so we're not going to be able to provide commentary on how we're doing just for the first few weeks of this quarter that we're currently in. But what I will tell you is our year-to-date comps through May versus our year-to-date comps through April, there's really no material difference between those 2.

但是 - 所以我們無法就我們目前所處的本季度的前幾週的表現提供評論。但我要告訴你的是我們今年迄今為止的表現5 月份的比較與 4 月份迄今為止的比較，這兩者之間確實沒有實質性差異。

But I wouldn't read too much into that because the month of May is just really such a small month for us. June and July is when the business really picks up just from a seasonality standpoint. The month of May typically represents about 25% of our sales during the quarter. So we're really looking forward to get it into the summer months here in June and July. Both of our brands typically do very well during those months. And so we're -- our focus is just more on the longer term.

但我不會對此進行太多解讀，因為五月對我們來說確實是一個很小的月份。僅從季節性角度來看，六月和七月是業務真正復甦的時期。 5 月份通常占我們本季度銷售額的 25% 左右。所以我們真的很期待六月和七月進入夏季。我們的兩個品牌通常在這幾個月裡表現都非常好。所以我們——我們的重點更多地放在長期上。

Yes. I think in regards to the second part of your question -- I would say just in regards to the second part of your question about looking back to '19. One thing we did note during this quarter, we did see, versus '19, every month, we progressively improved. So although there is some decline when you're looking at from quarter sequential, I think that's just more about the pent-up demand in the economy with excess dollars around COVID relief and all the stimulus that was in the system that was just being burnt off.

是的。我認為關於你問題的第二部分——我想說的是關於你問題的第二部分，即回顧 19 年。我們在本季度確實注意到一件事，我們確實看到，與 19 年相比，我們每個月都在逐步改進。因此，儘管從季度環比來看出現了一些下降，但我認為這更多是因為經濟中被壓抑的需求，圍繞新冠疫情救濟的美元過剩，以及系統中剛剛被燒毀的所有刺激措施離開。

Great. Great. I appreciate that, and I understand on the quarter-to-date point. My other question was about the cadence of marketing. And you've launched the 5 games for free promotion. But this lapsed, I believe, the Summer of Games, which was relaunched last year. So I'm wondering if in terms of cadence and what we compare against on a promotional perspective, do you expect whatever you're -- what you're doing this summer to be more impactful? I mean is there a reason to think that your approach this year is going to have a more of a -- would be more of a traffic driver than last year's approach?

偉大的。偉大的。我對此表示讚賞，並且我理解本季度至今的情況。我的另一個問題是關於營銷節奏。您已經推出了 5 款免費促銷遊戲。但我相信，去年重新啟動的夏季奧運會已經過去了。所以我想知道，就節奏以及我們從促銷角度進行比較而言，您是否期望今年夏天您所做的事情會更具影響力？我的意思是，是否有理由認為今年的做法將比去年的做法更多地推動交通？

Well, I'll -- just generally speaking, we -- our goal is that every year, we intend to do better than we did in the prior year. So generally speaking, we fully expect that this campaign is going to outperform prior year's campaign. That's just a standard that we hold ourselves to. What I'll tell you is Summer of Games, that's a promotion that the brand has done typically during the summer months.

嗯，我會——一般來說，我們——我們的目標是每年都比上一年做得更好。所以總的來說，我們完全預計這次活動將優於去年的活動。這只是我們堅持的一個標準。我要告訴你的是“夏季遊戲”，這是該品牌通常在夏季進行的促銷活動。

And when we looked at -- our team has dug in really deep and looked at the performance of all the marketing activities over a really long period of time. And our opinion is, last year, that was one of the weakest campaigns of the year. And when we went back and we looked at time, we didn't really see Summer of Games really moving the needle in a big way when we looked at the results before and after the marketing spend.

當我們觀察時，我們的團隊非常深入地研究了很長一段時間內所有營銷活動的表現。我們的觀點是，去年這是今年最弱的競選活動之一。當我們回過頭來看看時間時，當我們查看營銷支出前後的結果時，我們並沒有真正看到夏季奧運會真正取得了重大進展。

Other than in the 2018 year, when we did Summer of Games and we tied in with the launch of our new VR attraction with Jurassic Park. But aside from that, it didn't really move the needle. But we do know that our guests are looking for value during this period of time. We know that our guests are very eager to come in and take advantage of the entertainment offering.

除了 2018 年，當時我們舉辦了《夏季遊戲》，並與《侏羅紀公園》一起推出了新的 VR 景點。但除此之外，它並沒有真正起到推動作用。但我們確實知道，我們的客人在這段時間正在尋找價值。我們知道，我們的客人非常渴望進來並享受娛樂活動。

And so we felt strongly that we needed to lead with entertainment, and we needed to bring more -- bring some interest into the game room. And based on all of our concept testing, the offer that we're running, by far, outscored anything else in our concept testing. So we're pretty optimistic just based on all the research that we did, but it just launched yesterday, and so time will tell.

因此，我們強烈地感覺到，我們需要以娛樂為主導，我們需要帶來更多——給遊戲室帶來一些興趣。根據我們所有的概念測試，到目前為止，我們正在運行的報價超過了我們概念測試中的其他任何產品。因此，根據我們所做的所有研究，我們非常樂觀，但它昨天剛剛推出，所以時間會證明一切。

Great. Great. And then last question real quick. On the share buybacks, [nice and] aggressive, I'd like to see that. It looks like what you've repurchased quarter-to-date is about where your cash balance was at the end of the quarter. I know you've been generating -- or likely generating free cash flow since then. But are you -- is your approach to -- would you take down debt in order to buy back shares? I just want to make sure I understand your approach to the balance sheet.

偉大的。偉大的。最後一個問題很快。關於股票回購，[良好且]積極，我希望看到這一點。看起來您本季度至今回購的金額大約是您季度末的現金餘額。我知道從那時起你一直在產生——或者可能產生自由現金流。但你會——你的方法——會減少債務以回購股票嗎？我只是想確保我理解你們處理資產負債表的方法。

That would be conversations we have back and forth with the Board. But rest assured, given our liquidity and the future cash flow generation that we're able to produce and what we've done historically on the free cash flow conversion from EBITDA, we're very comfortable taking either approach, either using just the cash on the balance sheet or to take out a piece of debt on the revolver to do so.

這就是我們與董事會進行的反復對話。但請放心，考慮到我們的流動性和我們能夠產生的未來現金流，以及我們歷史上在 EBITDA 自由現金流轉換方面所做的工作，我們非常願意採取任何一種方法，或者只使用現金資產負債表上的債務或在左輪手槍上扣除一筆債務。

Our next question will come from Brian Vaccaro with Raymond James.

我們的下一個問題將由布萊恩·瓦卡羅和雷蒙德·詹姆斯提出。

I just wanted to circle back to the comps in the first quarter and ask about it on a year-on-year basis. And I mean it looks like both brands were down around 4% based on your 10-Q disclosures. And just trying to keep in perspective, quarter-to-date, you had said it was down low singles. It implies a sharper decline in April.

我只是想回到第一季度的比較並詢問同比情況。我的意思是，根據你們披露的 10 季度數據，這兩個品牌的股價似乎都下跌了 4% 左右。只是為了保持正確的態度，從本季度至今，你曾說過單曲銷量下降了。這意味著四月份的跌幅更大。

And could you just provide more color on what you think is driving that decline? I mean is it primarily the difficult lapse? Or are there any sequential changes in behavior beyond normal seasonality that might be worth highlighting, like low amounts being loaded on cards or how consumers are navigating the menu on the F&B side or just anything across the incumbents? Just any color would be helpful there.

您能否提供更多關於您認為導致這種下降的原因的信息？我的意思是這主要是困難的失誤嗎？或者，除了正常的季節性之外，是否存在任何值得強調的行為連續變化，例如卡上的金額較低，或者消費者如何瀏覽餐飲方面的菜單，或者其他現有企業的任何內容？任何顏色都會有幫助。

Yes. Sure, Brian. I'll start and let Q wrap it up. I mean, the short answer is no, there's nothing that's noticeable that happened between March and April. There was a considerably higher compare in April. So we're lapping a much stronger number in the prior year. And so that's definitely a consideration. As Mike mentioned earlier, when we compare our results to the 2019 year, the prepandemic year, we actually saw a sequential improvement going from March to April. But we've spent a lot of time looking at our numbers to see if there's any trends that we should be aware of, changes in consumer behavior or anything along those lines, and there was nothing noteworthy there.

是的。當然，布萊恩。我先開始，然後讓 Q 來結束。我的意思是，簡短的回答是否定的，三月到四月之間沒有發生任何值得注意的事情。四月份的比較要高得多。所以我們去年的成績要強得多。所以這絕對是一個考慮因素。正如邁克之前提到的，當我們將我們的結果與 2019 年（大流行前的一年）進行比較時，我們實際上看到了從 3 月到 4 月的連續改善。但我們花了很多時間查看我們的數據，看看是否有任何我們應該注意的趨勢、消費者行為的變化或類似的事情，但沒有什麼值得注意的。

Yes. I think the only other thing to add on to your point regarding Power Card loads, we haven't seen any decline in that dollar value. So the health of the customer is still there. So I think it's really more around it's a very tough comp when you're lapping over 26% growth, which is 9% higher than what we had in the March period of 15% on a combined basis.

是的。我認為關於電源卡負載的唯一需要補充的一點是，我們沒有看到美元價值有任何下降。所以顧客的健康還是有的。所以我認為，當你的增長率超過 26% 時，這實際上是一個非常艱難的競爭，這比我們 3 月份期間 15% 的綜合增長率高出 9%。

Okay. That's helpful. And then on the margin front, I just wanted to go back to the comments on labor specifically. And you saw, I think it was about 40 bps of deleverage, but comps being down 4%. I guess it looks like the cost per week is running down 1% to 2% year-on-year by my math. And I'm just trying to frame how you're achieving that. If you could provide more color on how you're optimizing the labor that you're deploying in the units. And Mike, could you also just give us what was year-on-year wage inflation in the quarter?

好的。這很有幫助。然後在邊際方面，我只想回到對勞工的具體評論。你看，我認為去槓桿化程度約為 40 個基點，但綜合指數卻下降了 4%。根據我的計算，我猜每週的成本同比下降了 1% 到 2%。我只是想描述一下你是如何實現這一目標的。如果您可以提供更多關於如何優化在單位中部署的勞動力的信息。邁克，您能否告訴我們本季度的同比工資通脹率是多少？

Yes, sure. So I'll start with the beginning. How are we controlling labor right now is really a testament to Tony and the operating team that we have. Very much a diligent view of looking at the weekly forecast for sales, analyzing that on a per day basis in order to get the staffing right where you're getting that staffing out of Monday through Thursday to really hone it in on the weekend when we're peaking the peak is driving the labor overall down. But also having the right labor at the right time and the right place allows us to improve our overall scores with our guests and our guest satisfaction. So I think from that perspective, it's really about driving that discipline into it on a weekly basis, on a daily basis, on a per shift basis, and that type of rigor is really paying off for us.

是的，當然。所以我將從頭開始。我們現在如何控制勞動力確實是對托尼和我們擁有的運營團隊的證明。非常勤奮地查看每週的銷售預測，每天進行分析，以便在周一到週四的工作人員配置正確的情況下，在周末真正磨練它。高峰正在推動勞動力整體下降。而且，在正確的時間和正確的地點擁有正確的勞動力可以讓我們提高客人的整體評分和客人滿意度。所以我認為從這個角度來看，這實際上是要在每週、每天、每個班次的基礎上推動這種紀律，這種嚴格性確實為我們帶來了回報。

In regards to the wage inflation, give me one second. Overall, wages in Q1 from an hourly perspective, Q4 was roughly $13.14, and we're seeing now closer to just over $13 and with a couple of pennies above that. So continued focus on as we replace employees who have learned -- or had left, and so we're getting the new employees on that turnover ratio, we're able to bring people in at a little slightly lower rate just based on the controls that we see and the discipline around our hiring practices.

關於工資上漲的問題，請等一下。總體而言，從每小時的角度來看，第四季度的工資約為 13.14 美元，現在我們看到的工資接近 13 美元多一點，而且還比這個數字高出幾美分。因此，當我們更換已經學習或離開的員工時，我們將繼續關注這一點，因此我們會根據流動率來招募新員工，我們能夠根據控制措施以略低的速度引進人員我們所看到的以及我們的招聘實踐的紀律。

Okay. Great. That's helpful. And I just wanted to go back to the -- last one for me, just on the share repurchases and capital allocation. Can you just touch on the decision to buy back stock versus paying down debt with the rate on your term loan, now I think, above 10%? And I was just also curious where you are in the process of potentially refinancing some or all of your debt.

好的。偉大的。這很有幫助。我只想回到最後一個，關於股票回購和資本配置。您能否談談回購股票與用定期貸款利率（現在我認為高於 10%）償還債務的決定？我也很好奇你在為部分或全部債務進行再融資的過程中處於什麼階段。

Yes. We go through the exercise of looking at how we view the, I would say, the extreme undervalue of our shares in relation to that 10% debt and just believe that the shares have a greater value of upside in order to repurchase that $200 million that we felt comfortable with. In regards to refinancing potential, the soft call does come off June 29. And so we would be looking to take advantage of the market, assuming there is a market, which we're all knocking on wood that there would be, to be able to reprice that debt accordingly and yield interest savings off of that.

是的。我們仔細研究了我們如何看待我們的股票相對於 10% 債務的極度低估，並且相信這些股票具有更大的上漲空間，以便回購那 2 億美元我們感到很舒服。至於再融資潛力，軟調用確實會在 6 月 29 日結束。因此，我們將尋求利用市場，假設存在一個市場，我們都在敲木頭，以便能夠相應地重新定價該債務並從中節省利息。

Our next question will come from Jeff Farmer with Gordon Haskett.

我們的下一個問題將由傑夫·法默和戈登·哈斯克特提出。

Just looking for a follow-up to a couple of earlier questions. Specifically, the first one would be additional color on your guest trends in general. You touched on it, but I am curious if there's anything more notable across weekend, weekday, family, young adult income demographics. Any way you want to slice it, but is there anything that you've noticed in terms of shift changes in recent months as the consumers come under a little bit more pressure?

只是尋找之前幾個問題的後續內容。具體來說，第一個將是您的客人總體趨勢的額外色彩。你提到了這一點，但我很好奇週末、工作日、家庭、年輕人的收入人口統計數據是否有更值得注意的事情。不管你想怎麼切分，但近幾個月來，隨著消費者面臨更大的壓力，你有沒有註意到班次變化？

Jeff, sorry. Q and I were just pointing to each other like who wants to take that one, and so I'll start. So again, I'll tell you the short answer is there's no -- there has been no material shift throughout the quarter in consumer behavior trends. So it was pretty consistent throughout all 3 months of the quarter.

傑夫，對不起。 Q 和我只是互相指指誰想拿那個，所以我就開始吧。所以，我再次告訴你，簡短的答案是，整個季度消費者行為趨勢沒有發生重大變化。因此，該季度的所有 3 個月的情況都非常穩定。

Some of the items that you mentioned, look, we just don't get into that level of granularity in our disclosures. And so if there's something that really is material that pops up, we'll -- at that point in time, we'll share it with you. But throughout the quarter, it was -- throughout all 3 periods, it was pretty consistent.

你提到的一些項目，我們只是沒有在披露中深入到這種程度的粒度。因此，如果出現一些真正重要的東西，我們會在那時與您分享。但在整個季度中，在所有 3 個時期中，情況都非常穩定。

Yes. And just to add on top of that, it's not only at the demographic level from an income perspective for our guests, we also look at across the spectrum of all the geographies and the DMAs that we're in. And there's not any particular area that's falling off more than anything else. So everything's been staying relatively consistent.

是的。除此之外，這不僅是從我們客人的收入角度來看的人口統計層面，我們還關注我們所在的所有地理位置和 DMA。並且沒有任何特定區域這比其他任何東西都更容易脫落。所以一切都保持相對一致。

Okay. And this was also touched on, but a lot of us are sort of looking at that same-store sales metric versus 2019. It's already been asked about. But I am curious sort of one thing that sort of popped up and has been a conversation with investors is that perhaps the strength of the NFL campaign in September, October into early November was sort of stronger than everyone appreciated.

好的。這也被提及，但我們很多人都在關注同店銷售指標與 2019 年的比較。這已經被問到了。但我很好奇突然出現並與投資者交談的一件事是，也許 NFL 運動在 9 月、10 月到 11 月初的實力比所有人想像的要強一些。

And as you rolled off of that -- again, this is all sort of theoretical. As you rolled off of that, potentially, that became a little bit of a traffic headwind or you just lost that tailwind. So do you subscribe to that at all? Do you think that there was just so much strength around or resonance with the NFL campaign that once you sort of rolled off of that, you saw this, I won't call it normalization, but a downshift as it relates to traffic trends?

當你擺脫這一點時——再說一次，這都是理論上的。當你擺脫困境時，這可能會成為交通的逆風，或者你就失去了順風。那麼你是否同意這一點呢？你是否認為 NFL 運動有如此強大的力量或共鳴，一旦你擺脫了這一點，你就會看到這一點，我不會稱之為正常化，而是與流量趨勢相關的減速？

I don't think I'd go that far. What I'll tell you is that we were pleased with the success of the campaign. And we learned a lot doing that. It was the first time that we had, on a national level, promoted the watch side at that level and then to have someone like Travis Kelce endorse it was a big win for us. And that actually helped inform our decision to do the Slam Dunk Deal and then take advantage of -- at the national level, take advantage of March Madness as well as NBA finals.

我想我不會走那麼遠。我要告訴你的是，我們對此次活動的成功感到高興。這樣做我們學到了很多東西。這是我們第一次在全國范圍內提升手錶方面的水平，然後得到像 Travis Kelce 這樣的人的認可，這對我們來說是一個巨大的勝利。這實際上幫助我們決定進行灌籃交易，然後在全國范圍內利用瘋狂三月以及 NBA 總決賽。

So very pleased with the results there. But I don't think I would go as far as to attribute that as the difference maker in our sales. I think we -- at this point in time, we're not seeing material shifts throughout the quarter. We didn't see those material shifts one way or the other within the granular aspects of the business. We -- there is -- I think just lapping a really challenging period last year has certainly made it more difficult, and we're going to know a lot more during these several months.

對那裡的結果非常滿意。但我認為我不會將其歸因於我們銷售的差異化因素。我認為，目前，整個季度我們沒有看到重大變化。我們沒有看到這些重大變化在業務的具體方面發生了這樣或那樣的變化。我們——有——我認為去年經歷了一個真正具有挑戰性的時期肯定會讓事情變得更加困難，而且在這幾個月裡我們將了解更多。

Yes, I think what we're -- the summer months are very important to us. As I mentioned, June and July, that's when young adults want to come to us as well as families. And so it's a really high volume period of time for us. And what the consumer does over the summer is going to be very, very interesting.

是的，我認為夏季對我們來說非常重要。正如我提到的，六月和七月是年輕人和家庭想要來找我們的時候。所以這對我們來說是一個非常高容量的時期。消費者在夏天所做的事情將會非常非常有趣。

And so right now, we're focused on everything that we can control. We're focused on the things that we know. And next week, we're going to walk you through why we're so enthusiastic about our plan. And we've got a number of levers that are available to us to grow this business, and we really look forward to walking you through all of those.

所以現在，我們專注於我們可以控制的一切。我們專注於我們所知道的事情。下週，我們將向您介紹為什麼我們對我們的計劃如此熱情。我們擁有許多可以用來發展這項業務的槓桿，我們真的很期待引導您完成所有這些。

And when we're done walking you through that, there'll be no mistake that there is considerable upside in this business. So right now, we're still trying to figure out exactly the consumer environment and top line. We'll know a lot more at the end of the summer, and we're really excited about our plan.

當我們向您介紹完這一點後，毫無疑問，這項業務有相當大的優勢。所以現在，我們仍在努力準確地弄清楚消費者環境和營收。夏天結束時我們會了解更多，我們對我們的計劃感到非常興奮。

I appreciate that. And just one more, again, another follow-up, I apologize for being long-winded here. But -- so the margin performance -- and I'm getting sort of real-time e-mails about this, how impressive it was in the backdrop of the comp that you guys delivered. And the question now becomes, are you guys sort of full tilt or maximizing the margin efficiencies that this business can drive at this state and that sort of the best we can hope is that you hold on to these margin efficiencies as you move forward?

我很感激。再一次，再一次，另一次後續行動，我為在這裡囉嗦而道歉。但是——所以利潤率表現——我收到了一些關於這方面的實時電子郵件，在你們提供的補償的背景下，這是多麼令人印象深刻。現在的問題是，你們是否全力以赴或最大化該業務在這種狀態下可以推動的利潤效率，我們所能希望的最好的結果就是你們在前進時保持這些利潤效率？

Or is there sort of additional margin opportunities that lie ahead above and beyond just revenue growth? Is there other levers that you guys have out there that you think can continue to drive margin improvement above and beyond what you guys have already done?

或者，除了收入增長之外，是否還有其他利潤機會？你們認為還有其他手段可以繼續推動利潤率的提高，超越你們已經做到的嗎？

Yes. So we see further improvement. And that's one of the items that we'll walk you through next week. So if you could just hold off a week, we're going to give you a ton of information on it, and I believe you're going to be very pleased.

是的。所以我們看到了進一步的改進。這是我們下週將引導您完成的項目之一。因此，如果您可以推遲一周，我們將為您提供大量相關信息，我相信您會非常高興。

Yes. The one thing I'll add, Jeff, you know there is a seasonality nature to our business when it -- especially when it comes through just your top line and then how that flows through. So in this period of Q1 and Q4, we've historically always had our best margins. Q2 has been pretty much about average.

是的。我要補充的一件事是，傑夫，你知道我們的業務具有季節性，尤其是當它只通過你的營收以及其流動方式時。因此，在第一季度和第四季度的這段時期，我們一直擁有歷史上最好的利潤率。第二季度幾乎處於平均水平。

And then obviously, when Q3 -- when kids go back to school, it's our general seasonally low period of time, and then you just see that margin drop accordingly because you just don't have the top line flow-through that you typically would see in these higher periods of Q1 and Q4. So to Chris' point...

顯然，當第三季度——當孩子們回到學校時，這是我們普遍的季節性低谷時期，然後你就會看到利潤率相應下降，因為你沒有通常會獲得的頂線流量參見第一季度和第四季度的較高時期。所以對於克里斯來說......

Correct. I'll just say that like -- I was just going to say, I think the investor clearly understands the seasonality aspect of it. It's just the improvement in the margin, which was the thing that's getting the attention. So I hear you loud and clear and more to come at the Investor Day. So I appreciate it, guys.

正確的。我只是想說——我只是想說，我認為投資者清楚地理解它的季節性方面。這只是利潤率的提高，這才是引起關注的事情。所以我在投資者日聽到了你們響亮而清晰的聲音以及更多的內容。所以我很感激，伙計們。

You got it.

你說對了。

Our next question will come from Sharon Zackfia with William Blair.

我們的下一個問題將由莎朗·扎克菲亞和威廉·布萊爾提出。

So on the last earnings call, you talked about a choppy kind of sales environment. I think part of that was related to the movement in spring breaks. And it's always kind of tough in mid- to late March to kind of know where things are going to lie. Do you feel like now there's more predictability in your sales trends?

因此，在上次財報電話會議上，您談到了不穩定的銷售環境。我認為部分原因與春假期間的運動有關。三月中下旬總是很難知道事情會發生在哪裡。您是否覺得現在您的銷售趨勢更具可預測性？

And I'm also curious as to kind of how you're viewing the competitive environment at this point, whether you're seeing any more incremental pressure from new competitors opening, kind of like we used to hear about with Dave & Buster's back before the pandemic?

我也很好奇你如何看待此時的競爭環境，你是否看到新競爭對手的出現帶來更多的增量壓力，有點像我們之前在戴夫和巴斯特那裡聽到的那樣大流行？

Let me go in reverse order. So with respect to the competition, I mean, there's -- that's not something you're going to hear from this team. We're focused on maximizing the opportunities that we have in front of us with Dave & Buster's, and we're going to walk you through our plans next week. We're super excited about it. As I said a minute ago, we have so many levers that we believe we're going to be able to effectively pull to get this business moving, that our plan is to outcompete. So that's our plan.

讓我按照相反的順序走。因此，關於競爭，我的意思是，這不是你從這個團隊中聽到的。我們致力於最大限度地利用戴夫和巴斯特的機會，下週我們將向您介紹我們的計劃。我們對此感到非常興奮。正如我一分鐘前所說，我們擁有如此多的槓桿，我們相信我們將能夠有效地推動這項業務的發展，我們的計劃是在競爭中脫穎而出。這就是我們的計劃。

With respect to the predictability of sales relative to that period of time that you just referenced, the answer is yes because that period of time, last quarter, the last time we had our call, it was very confusing to understand the underlying trend in the business because there's so many mismatches in spring break. And so that was just kind of reeking havoc with our numbers.

關於相對於您剛才提到的那段時間的銷售可預測性，答案是肯定的，因為那段時間，上個季度，也就是我們上次接到電話時，了解銷售的潛在趨勢非常令人困惑。因為春假期間有很多不匹配的事情。所以這對我們的數據造成了嚴重破壞。

And so obviously, we don't have that same level of mismatch happening at this point in time. And so relatively speaking, it's -- we're in a better environment to get a feel for sales. But at the same time, I'll also tell you that with all the chatter happening in the macro environment around the consumer and what's going to happen to consumer spending during the summer and in the fall, all of that stuff kind of weighs on our ability to effectively predict sales.

顯然，我們目前還沒有發生同樣程度的不匹配。相對而言，我們處於一個更好的環境中來感受銷售。但與此同時，我還要告訴你，隨著圍繞消費者的宏觀環境以及夏季和秋季消費者支出將發生什麼變化，所有這些都對我們的經濟造成壓力。有效預測銷售的能力。

And so as I mentioned a minute ago, we try not to get bogged down on that. We just try to stay really focused on the things that we can control and be as efficient as we can and to aggressively execute the strategic initiatives that we've identified.

正如我一分鐘前提到的，我們盡量不要陷入這個困境。我們只是努力真正專注於我們可以控制的事情，並儘可能高效地執行我們已經確定的戰略舉措。

And then one question on the Amusement comp, down 6.5-ish percent. Is that a proxy for kind of the traffic on the Amusement side? Or are you seeing kind of lower loads per card than you would have seen in the year ago period?

然後是關於娛樂類的一個問題，下降了 6.5% 左右。這是娛樂方面流量的代理嗎？或者您是否發現每張卡的負載比一年前有所下降？

Yes, I'll take that. Actually, we're actually seeing an increase in some of the card loads. So there is the concept of as you give customers that opportunity to trade up in value, that you do get this nuance of a parent buying the higher-value card and splitting it between their kids as opposed to buying the 2 individual cards. So there is a little bit of that, but it is also one of the indicators that we're always watching for as we measure that is for traffic and any other, call it, the ability to kind of measure how our marketing campaigns and other value opportunities that we have to offer to our customers.

是的，我會接受的。事實上，我們確實看到一些卡負載有所增加。因此，當你為客戶提供價值交易的機會時，你就會明白父母購買更高價值的卡並將其分配給他們的孩子而不是購買兩張單獨的卡的細微差別。所以有一點，但它也是我們在衡量流量和任何其他指標時始終關注的指標之一，即衡量我們的營銷活動和其他活動如何進行的能力。重視我們為客戶提供的機會。

Our next question will come from Chris O'Cull with Stifel.

我們的下一個問題將來自克里斯·奧卡爾和斯蒂菲爾。

I had a follow-up question regarding that. Chris, given a lot of the comp performance has been coming from check build or pricing, how are you thinking about that moving forward, especially given the transaction performance? Is it maybe a little pause about maybe trying to raise the check with a higher entry point with the Power Card? Or do you feel like you can still raise that check going forward?

我對此有一個後續問題。克里斯，考慮到很多補償性能都來自支票構建或定價，您如何看待未來的發展，特別是考慮到交易性能？是否可能會稍稍停頓一下，嘗試使用 Power Card 以更高的入口點提高支票？或者您覺得您仍然可以繼續提高支票嗎？

We still believe that there's opportunity to grow check. But I hear you loud and clear that it's something that we need to proceed with caution just because we always want to protect the value proposition. I think in these types of businesses, these low frequency, high experiential businesses, the guest is looking for -- they think about value differently than they might think about value on a restaurant chain.

我們仍然相信有機會增長支票。但我清楚地聽到你們說，我們需要謹慎行事，因為我們總是想保護價值主張。我認為，在這些類型的企業中，這些低頻、高體驗的企業，客人正在尋找——他們對價值的看法與他們對連鎖餐廳價值的看法不同。

And so we're really focused on the overall experience. We believe that there's still room on price in certain aspects of the business. We believe that there are certain ways for us to be smart about growing check, but at the same time, giving the guests something in return for value. And so again, all of that will be -- we'll walk through all of that next week. And you'll -- I think you're going to be pleased with what you hear.

因此，我們非常關注整體體驗。我們認為，該業務的某些方面仍有價格空間。我們相信，我們可以通過某些方法來明智地增加支票，但同時也可以為客人提供一些有價值的回報。再說一次，所有這些都將是——我們將在下週討論所有這些。我想你會對你所聽到的感到滿意。

Great. And then Michael, I just had a question regarding some of these recent Main Event openings. Can you give us an idea of how much you're spending to open these stores in terms of just the cash outlay and the building costs and some of those things? Because you haven't opened that many Main Events. I'm just curious to see what the investment cost is for that business.

偉大的。然後邁克爾，我只是有一個關於最近的一些主賽事開幕的問題。您能否向我們介紹一下您開設這些商店的支出（僅包括現金支出和建築成本以及其中一些費用）？因為你還沒有開啟那麼多主賽事。我只是想知道該業務的投資成本是多少。

Yes. I mean, just to give you perspective, historically, Main Event would use developer financing when they selected the site. Would have entered into that sale leaseback at the time of closing and then use those proceeds to offset the capital outlay. So in general, you would look at a Main Event as costing a little over $20 million, $22 million given that it's a 55,000-plus square foot location. With bowling, it has a higher cost to construct.

是的。我的意思是，只是為了給您提供一個視角，從歷史上看，主賽事在選擇場地時會使用開發商融資。會在成交時簽訂售後回租協議，然後用這些收益來抵消資本支出。因此，一般來說，一場主賽事的成本略高於 2000 萬美元，考慮到場地面積超過 55,000 平方英尺，就需要 2200 萬美元。對於保齡球來說，建造成本更高。

Use those proceeds from the developer financing and then having net investment of about $8 million into it. Where we are looking at it today, given the strength of our balance sheet and the free cash flow conversion, we're looking at actually putting in that excess amount and funding the full amount of the CapEx upfront with our existing balance sheet and liquidity.

使用開發商融資所得的收益，然後進行約 800 萬美元的淨投資。考慮到我們今天的資產負債表和自由現金流轉換的實力，我們正在考慮實際投入多餘的資金，並用我們現有的資產負債表和流動性為資本支出的全額提供資金。

What that does is that it will inflate your CapEx spend. But in turn, we then will enter into sale leasebacks once the store is open. And in doing so, by having it as an operating asset, we'll get a far better return on the cash proceeds from that sale leaseback that makes it worth the time and effort to go ahead and utilize our balance sheet and protect ourselves from an overall perspective.

這樣做會增加你的資本支出。但反過來，一旦商店開業，我們將進行售後回租。這樣做，通過將其作為運營資產，我們將從售後回租中獲得更好的現金收益回報，這使得我們值得花時間和精力繼續利用我們的資產負債表並保護自己免受整體視角。

So as it stands right now, the pipeline of what's opened is all -- was in place with Main Event at the time of the transaction. So we haven't had to utilize our balance sheet yet, but Murfreesboro will be our first one. So you'll see probably about a $30 million uptick in CapEx from our historical levels when you combine the 2 companies. But again, that increase is merely timing, and we get a far better return on doing the sale leaseback once that store is an operating asset.

因此，就目前情況而言，所有已打開的管道均已在交易時與主賽事一起就位。因此，我們還沒有必要利用我們的資產負債表，但默弗里斯伯勒將是我們的第一個資產負債表。因此，當您合併這兩家公司時，您會發現資本支出可能比我們的歷史水平增加約 3000 萬美元。但同樣，這種增長只是時機，一旦該商店成為運營資產，我們通過售後回租可以獲得更好的回報。

Is your expectation that you'll have kind of a sales to investment ratio below 1 with the margin -- the high margin will result in the higher 25% maybe plus cash-on-cash returns? Or how are you thinking about the unit economics for that business?

您是否期望銷售與投資比率低於 1，並且利潤率高——高利潤率可能會帶來更高的 25% 加上現金回報？或者您如何看待該業務的單位經濟效益？

You're thinking of it correctly.

你的想法是正確的。

Our next question will come from Dennis Geiger with UBS.

我們的下一個問題將來自瑞銀集團的丹尼斯·蓋格。

Great. One quick follow-up sort of on the lack of changes in consumer behavior. And you kind of touched on it a bit here. But is there any updated thoughts on the resiliency of the brands into the tougher macro relative to prior? Just given what you've seen and kind of the lack of any of those notable changes as you look ahead over the coming quarters or so?

偉大的。對消費者行為缺乏變化的一種快速跟進。你在這裡觸及了一點。但與之前相比，對於品牌在更嚴峻的宏觀環境下的彈性有什麼更新的想法嗎？考慮到您所看到的以及在您展望未來幾個季度時缺乏任何顯著變化的情況？

Yes. I mean I think we'll get into this a little bit more on Investor Day. But when we go back and look at prior uncertainty in the market, whether that's the '08, '09 crisis, the company performed extremely well. Although comp store sales would have been down, but the amount of adjusted EBITDA decline was far less than what the comp store sales are.

是的。我的意思是，我想我們會在投資者日進一步討論這個問題。但當我們回顧過去市場的不確定性時，無論是08年還是09年的危機，該公司的表現都非常好。雖然比較店銷售額會下降，但調整後的 EBITDA 下降幅度遠小於比較店銷售額。

So from that perspective, there's a very much of a protective environment that we have. And as we get further into these types of situations or these environments, that's when the trade down from the more expensive vacation into the staycation, which then yields into that Dave & Buster's trip, helps protect us in that type of an environment.

所以從這個角度來看，我們擁有一個非常有保護性的環境。當我們進一步了解這些類型的情況或這些環境時，從更昂貴的假期到居家度假的交易，然後產生戴夫和巴斯特的旅行，有助於在這種環境中保護我們。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Chris Morris for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回克里斯·莫里斯（Chris Morris）發表閉幕詞。

All right. Thank you, operator. In closing, we'd like to again commend our team for the exceptional results they continue to produce at our stores across the country. Thank you all for joining. We look forward to keeping you apprised of our continued progress on our growth initiatives and revealing more details about our long-term strategic plan at our Investor Day next week. Thank you.

好的。謝謝你，接線員。最後，我們要再次讚揚我們的團隊在全國各地的商店中不斷取得的卓越成果。感謝大家的加入。我們期待讓您隨時了解我們在增長計劃方面的持續進展，並在下週的投資者日上透露有關我們長期戰略計劃的更多細節。謝謝。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連接。