(QSR) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Restaurant Brands International 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 Kendall Peck, RBI's Head, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

早上好，歡迎來到 Restaurant Brands International 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。我現在想將會議轉交給 RBI 投資者關係主管 Kendall Peck。請繼續。

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Restaurant Brands International's earnings call for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023. As a reminder, a live broadcast of this call may be accessed on the Investor Relations web page at rbi.com/investors, and a recording will be available for replay.

謝謝你，運營商。大家早上好，歡迎來到 Restaurant Brands International 截至 2023 年 3 月 31 日的第一季度財報電話會議。提醒一下，可以在 rbi.com/investors 的投資者關係網頁上觀看本次電話會議的現場直播，以及錄音將可用於重播。

Joining me on the call today are Restaurant Brands International's Executive Chairman, Patrick Doyle; CEO, Josh Kobza; and CFO, Matt Dunnigan. Today's earnings call contains forward-looking statements, which are subject to various risks set forth in the press release issued this morning and in our SEC filings. In addition, this earnings call includes non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures are included in the press release available on our website.

今天和我一起參加電話會議的還有 Restaurant Brands International 的執行主席 Patrick Doyle；首席執行官喬什·科布扎；首席財務官馬特·鄧尼根 (Matt Dunnigan)。今天的財報電話會議包含前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受到今天上午發布的新聞稿和我們提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中規定的各種風險的影響。此外，本次財報電話會議還包括非 GAAP 財務指標。非 GAAP 財務措施的對賬包含在我們網站上提供的新聞稿中。

During portions of the call today, we will be referencing franchisee profitability measures that are based on unaudited self-reported franchisee results. In addition, the consolidated growth metrics discussed during the prepared remarks, including consolidated system-wide sales growth, comparable sales, net restaurant growth and organic adjusted EBITDA growth exclude results from our franchised restaurants in Russia as we did not generate any new profit from restaurants in Russia in 2022 and do not expect to generate any new profits in 2023.

在今天的部分電話會議中，我們將參考基於未經審計的自報加盟商業績的加盟商盈利能力指標。此外，在準備好的評論中討論的綜合增長指標，包括全系統綜合銷售額增長、可比銷售額、淨餐廳增長和有機調整後 EBITDA 增長不包括我們在俄羅斯的特許經營餐廳的結果，因為我們沒有從餐廳產生任何新利潤2022 年在俄羅斯，預計 2023 年不會產生任何新利潤。

And now I'll turn the call over to Josh.

現在我將把電話轉給喬希。

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call to discuss our first quarter of 2023. I've spent the past few months traveling around the world to connect with franchisees, visit restaurants and engage with guests. I've also spent time internally with our teams to hear their views on the opportunities in the business. I'm excited about the path ahead for each of our brands, and I'm incredibly proud to see the hard work of our employees, our franchisees and their team members who are responsible for the results we're sharing today.

大家早上好，感謝您參加今天的電話會議，討論我們 2023 年第一季度的情況。在過去的幾個月裡，我一直在世界各地旅行，與加盟商建立聯繫，參觀餐廳並與客人互動。我還花時間在內部與我們的團隊交流，聽取他們對業務機會的看法。我對我們每個品牌的未來道路感到興奮，看到我們的員工、我們的特許經營商和他們的團隊成員的辛勤工作，他們對我們今天分享的成果負有責任，我感到無比自豪。

We had a good start to the year with first quarter consolidated comparable sales growing 10.3% year-over-year and net restaurant growth of 4.2%. This translated into global system-wide sales growth of 14.7%, organic adjusted EBITDA growth of 15.6% and organic adjusted EPS growth of 22.1%. We delivered strong comparable sales in our home markets, including 15.5% growth at Tim Hortons Canada and 8.7% at Burger King U.S., in addition to 12.3% in our Burger King international business. Popeyes U.S. grew 3.4% and Firehouse U.S. was up 6.7% for the quarter. Importantly, our top line results, coupled with moderation in overall cost inflation, helped drive improvements in restaurant level profitability this quarter. This included particularly good year-over-year improvement in average 4-wall EBITDA at Tim Hortons Canada and Burger King U.S. We feel good about the progress we're making, tackling this key priority and see clear paths to continue improving franchisee profitability across each of our brands' home markets this year.

今年開局良好，第一季度綜合可比銷售額同比增長 10.3%，餐廳淨增長 4.2%。這轉化為全球全系統銷售額增長 14.7%，有機調整後 EBITDA 增長 15.6%，有機調整後每股收益增長 22.1%。我們在國內市場實現了強勁的可比銷售額，包括加拿大 Tim Hortons 增長 15.5% 和美國漢堡王 8.7%，此外漢堡王國際業務增長 12.3%。 Popeyes U.S. 增長 3.4%，Firehouse U.S. 本季度增長 6.7%。重要的是，我們的營收業績，加上總體成本通脹的放緩，幫助推動了本季度餐廳層面盈利能力的改善。這包括 Tim Hortons 加拿大和漢堡王美國的平均 4 壁 EBITDA 的同比特別好改善。我們對我們正在取得的進展感到滿意，解決了這一關鍵優先事項，並看到了繼續提高每個加盟商盈利能力的明確途徑今年我們品牌的國內市場。

From a development perspective, we opened 54 net new restaurants in the first quarter and overall restaurant count grew 4.2%. The first quarter is historically our quietest development quarter, and our results also reflected BK U.S. closures that I'll discuss in a few minutes. Even after taking into account BK U.S. closure activity, we feel confident we can accelerate consolidated net restaurant growth in 2023 with progress more back half weighted. We have plenty of runway to continue growing Burger King International, while Tim Hortons and Popeyes accelerate in key markets like the U.K., India and China. While we're still not where we want to be with Burger King in China, realizing our full potential here is one of our top priorities. I was in China 2 weeks ago and can tell you that we did fall behind our peers in growth during the past 3 years of COVID, primarily due to weakening unit economics and financial constraints, but are focused on charting a path to resuming the growth that Burger King in China deserves and the market demands. I also had the chance to spend time with our Tim Hortons team in Shanghai and can tell you that our red maple leaves are now everywhere in Shanghai, and our team is rapidly expanding to new cities as a leader in the fast-growing coffee market.

從發展的角度來看，我們在第一季度淨新開了 54 家餐廳，整體餐廳數量增長了 4.2%。第一季度是我們歷史上最安靜的開發季度，我們的結果也反映了我將在幾分鐘後討論的 BK 美國關閉。即使考慮到美國 BK 的關閉活動，我們仍然有信心在 2023 年加速餐廳的綜合淨增長，並取得更多的後半權重。我們有足夠的空間來繼續發展漢堡王國際，而 Tim Hortons 和 Popeyes 在英國、印度和中國等主要市場加速發展。雖然我們還沒有達到漢堡王在中國的目標，但在這裡充分發揮我們的潛力是我們的首要任務之一。兩週前我在中國，可以告訴你，在過去 3 年的 COVID 期間，我們的增長確實落後於同行，這主要是由於單位經濟疲軟和財務限制，但我們專注於製定一條恢復增長的道路漢堡王在中國應得的和市場的需求。我還有機會在上海與我們的 Tim Hortons 團隊共度時光，我可以告訴您，我們的紅楓葉現在在上海隨處可見，我們的團隊正在迅速擴展到新的城市，成為快速增長的咖啡市場的領導者。

Now let's get into our details on performance by brand, starting with Tim Hortons Canada. We kicked off the year with a 15.5% increase in comparable sales and 16.6% growth in system-wide sales. Growth this quarter was driven by higher traffic, which benefited from improving mobility, thoughtful calendar initiatives and strengthen our core offerings. These results were further aided by enhanced restaurant operations and pricing. Our new and improved food offerings, including loaded bowls and wraps also are helping us to strengthen our position for growth in the [CAD] 10 billion PM food market. This quarter, we extended our loaded platform to include chipotle steak bowls and wraps, which attracted younger guests and drove trade up from lower ticket lunch foods, resulting in higher check compared to the system average.

現在讓我們從 Tim Hortons Canada 開始按品牌詳細介紹性能。年初，我們的可比銷售額增長了 15.5%，全系統銷售額增長了 16.6%。本季度的增長是由更高的流量推動的，這得益於流動性的改善、周到的日曆計劃和加強我們的核心產品。這些結果還得益於餐廳運營和定價的改善。我們新的和改進的食品產品，包括裝載碗和包裝紙，也幫助我們鞏固了我們在 [CAD] 100 億 PM 食品市場增長的地位。本季度，我們擴展了我們的負載平台，以包括 chipotle 牛排碗和捲餅，這吸引了年輕的客人並推動了低價午餐食品的交易，導致與系統平均水平相比更高的支票。

We grew first quarter sales in our PM food dayparts, 23% year-over-year, including 17% and 13% growth in our lunch and afternoon snack categories, respectively. As a result, our first quarter PM food sales mix grew to 25% versus 23% in Q1 last year. This quarter's cold beverage offerings featured a roasted Hazelnut Cold Brew, which helped cold beverage sales increase 21% and doubled cold brew average volumes versus Q1 2022 levels. Our delicious cold brew offerings have driven our Q1 cold beverage market share to 23%, up from 20% in Q1 last year, and we're working to expand market share further with the launch of our new handcrafted sparkling quenchers this month. We're also pleased to see momentum in our flagship breakfast and baked goods categories. In January, we launched TimSelects, a high-quality, value-conscious breakfast option, which contributed to an 11% year-over-year increase in breakfast food sales, reinforced our breakfast market share of 60% and helped drive us to the #1 position in great value for money for the first time since we started tracking it in 2018.

我們第一季度下午食品時段的銷售額同比增長 23%，其中午餐和下午小吃類別分別增長 17% 和 13%。因此，我們第一季度的 PM 食品銷售組合增長到 25%，而去年第一季度為 23%。本季度的冷飲產品以烤榛子冷萃為特色，這幫助冷萃銷量增長了 21%，冷萃平均銷量比 2022 年第一季度翻了一番。我們美味的冷萃產品已將我們第一季度的冷飲市場份額從去年第一季度的 20% 提高到 23%，並且我們正在努力通過本月推出新的手工製作的起泡劑來進一步擴大市場份額。我們也很高興看到旗艦早餐和烘焙食品類別的發展勢頭。 1 月，我們推出了 TimSelects，這是一種高品質、注重價值的早餐選擇，它使早餐食品銷售額同比增長 11%，鞏固了我們 60% 的早餐市場份額，並幫助我們實現了#自 2018 年我們開始跟踪它以來，它首次在性價比方面排名第一。

We also maintained our leadership position in baked goods with our Easter Dream donut and cookies and [savory] Anytime Snackers, contributing to 34% year-over-year comparable sales growth in the category this quarter. From an operations perspective, following targeted field initiatives and the launch of a dedicated speed of service app, the restaurant teams drove their best speed of service result in nearly 2 years, while also improving guest satisfaction 15% year-over-year. We've built a powerful digital platform at Tim Hortons Canada, including the #1 food and beverage app and #2 e-commerce app in Canada. During the quarter, we saw our 4.8 million monthly active users visit our app an average of 8x per month, helping us to sustain over 33% of sales through digital channels. We know we have a valuable asset and are looking for opportunities to give guests even more reasons to engage with our app, including through new features and offerings like our Roll Up to Win contest, which wrapped up in early April and drove our highest monthly active users ever of 5.8 million.

我們還憑藉復活節之夢甜甜圈和餅乾以及 [美味] 隨時零食保持了我們在烘焙食品領域的領先地位，本季度該類別的可比銷售額同比增長 34%。從運營的角度來看，在有針對性的現場舉措和專門的服務速度應用程序推出後，餐廳團隊實現了近 2 年來最好的服務速度結果，同時也將客人滿意度同比提高了 15%。我們在 Tim Hortons Canada 建立了一個強大的數字平台，包括加拿大排名第一的食品和飲料應用程序和排名第二的電子商務應用程序。在本季度，我們看到 480 萬每月活躍用戶平均每月訪問我們的應用程序 8 次，幫助我們通過數字渠道維持超過 33% 的銷售額。我們知道我們擁有寶貴的資產，並且正在尋找機會讓客人有更多理由參與我們的應用程序，包括通過新功能和產品，例如我們的 Roll Up to Win 競賽，該競賽於 4 月初結束並推動了我們最高的月活躍度用戶曾經達到 580 萬。

In addition to being a digital leader, we pride ourselves in being the most trusted and loved restaurant brand in Canada. Our monthly brand tracking continues to show impressive gains across all the metrics we carefully watch even as Canada's market leader, which I think is a testament to the continued focus of the Tim's leadership team to keep brand love at the center of everything they do. Finally, Patrick and I spent time with [Axel] and many of our franchisees across Ontario and Quebec in the past couple of months. hearing their stories and views on the business while sharing some of our own perspectives on Tim Hortons and our commitment to franchisee success. We have some incredible families that run Tim Hortons in their local communities across Canada and a talented, experienced and hard-working Tim Hortons corporate team. Together, we are building sustained momentum in the business.

除了成為數字領導者之外，我們還以成為加拿大最值得信賴和喜愛的餐廳品牌而自豪。我們的月度品牌跟踪繼續顯示我們作為加拿大市場領導者仔細觀察的所有指標的令人印象深刻的收益，我認為這證明了 Tim 的領導團隊持續專注於將品牌熱愛放在他們所做的一切的中心。最後，帕特里克和我在過去幾個月裡與 [Axel] 以及我們在安大略省和魁北克省的許多特許經營商共度時光。聆聽他們的故事和對業務的看法，同時分享我們對 Tim Hortons 的一些看法以及我們對特許經營商成功的承諾。我們有一些令人難以置信的家族在加拿大各地的當地社區經營 Tim Hortons，還有一支才華橫溢、經驗豐富且勤奮工作的 Tim Hortons 企業團隊。我們共同打造業務的持續發展勢頭。

Turning now to Burger King. Starting with the International business, which grew first quarter system-wide sales by 19%, adding over $400 million of incremental sales year-over-year. These results were driven by a 5.2% net unit growth and a healthy balance of traffic and check, resulting in comparable sales of 12.3%. This quarter, we saw a good performance in some of our largest markets like France, Germany, Spain and Australia as well as some sales recovery in China following the easing of COVID restrictions. Digital ordering has fundamentally changed the business over the years and will continue to be a major driver of growth for the next several years.

現在轉向漢堡王。從國際業務開始，第一季度全系統銷售額增長 19%，同比增加超過 4 億美元的銷售額。這些結果是由 5.2% 的淨單位增長以及流量和支票的健康平衡推動的，導致可比銷售額為 12.3%。本季度，我們在一些最大的市場（例如法國、德國、西班牙和澳大利亞）看到了良好的表現，並且隨著 COVID 限制的放鬆，中國的銷售也出現了一些復甦。多年來，數字訂購從根本上改變了業務，並將繼續成為未來幾年增長的主要驅動力。

During the quarter, France and Spain generated over 70% of sales through digital channels. In France, kiosks remained the biggest driver. Meanwhile, in Spain, delivery remained a leading service mode for guests. These unique strengths allow us to bring best practices to some of our other large and fast-growing markets like Australia, where we recently implemented kiosks and have seen strong adoption from guests. I had a chance to see some of the latest digital innovation recently in China, where the front [pounder] POS is becoming less relevant and nearly all orders come via online channels. Some brands are even beginning to sunset their kiosk programs to transition entirely to mobile ordering. Whatever the format in their local markets, what is clear is that quick service restaurants are moving towards automated ordering and the perspectives that come from our international business also allow our U.S. team to watch carefully and potentially adopt digital capabilities in our home market with confidence given the success we're seeing around the world.

本季度，法國和西班牙通過數字渠道產生了超過 70% 的銷售額。在法國，售貨亭仍然是最大的推動力。與此同時，在西班牙，送貨仍然是客人的主要服務方式。這些獨特的優勢使我們能夠將最佳實踐帶到我們其他一些快速增長的大型市場，例如澳大利亞，我們最近在澳大利亞實施了自助服務亭，並得到了客人的廣泛採用。我最近有機會在中國看到一些最新的數字創新，那裡的前端 [pounder] POS 變得不那麼重要，幾乎所有訂單都來自在線渠道。一些品牌甚至開始取消他們的自助服務亭程序，完全過渡到移動訂購。無論當地市場採用何種形式，顯而易見的是，快餐店正在轉向自動點餐，而來自我們國際業務的觀點也讓我們的美國團隊能夠仔細觀察，並有信心在我們的本土市場採用數字功能我們在世界各地看到的成功。

The Burger King international business has really transformed over the past 10 years. David and his team have ambitious goals and are excited to keep working with our partners and their dedicated teams. Shifting now to Burger King U.S., where Tom, the BK corporate team and our franchise partners are generating encouraging early results from the execution of the Reclaim the Flame plan. For the first quarter, BK U.S. delivered comparable sales of 8.7% year-over-year and system-wide sales growth of 8.1%. Our total net restaurants declined 1.7% year-over-year as we work to make important progress improving the overall health of the franchisee base. Our top line performance this quarter was driven by communication of Burger King's most important equity, the [water], compelling value initiatives, including the $5 Your Way meal, over 30% growth in digital sales and benefits from strategic pricing. While traffic was modestly negative this quarter, we did see improved year-over-year traffic trends from Q4 into Q1. For Q1, we spent approximately $7 million of our $150 million Fuel to Flame advertising and digital investment. The team has also been applying improvements to creative messaging and ad testing that have helped further amplify our share of voice and resonate with guests, which is clearly translating into top line momentum.

過去 10 年，漢堡王的國際業務發生了翻天覆地的變化。大衛和他的團隊有著雄心勃勃的目標，並很高興能繼續與我們的合作夥伴和他們敬業的團隊合作。現在轉到美國漢堡王，湯姆、BK 公司團隊和我們的特許經營合作夥伴正在通過執行回收火焰計劃取得令人鼓舞的早期成果。第一季度，BK US 的可比銷售額同比增長 8.7%，全系統銷售額增長 8.1%。我們的淨餐廳總數同比下降 1.7%，因為我們努力在改善加盟商基礎的整體健康狀況方面取得重要進展。我們本季度的頂級業績是由漢堡王最重要的資產[水]的傳播、引人注目的價值舉措（包括 5 美元的 Your Way 餐）、數字銷售增長超過 30% 以及戰略定價帶來的好處推動的。雖然本季度的流量略有下降，但我們確實看到從第四季度到第一季度的同比流量趨勢有所改善。對於第一季度，我們花費了 1.5 億美元的 Fuel to Flame 廣告和數字投資中的大約 700 萬美元。該團隊還一直在改進創意信息和廣告測試，這有助於進一步擴大我們的聲音份額並與客人產生共鳴，這顯然轉化為頂線勢頭。

We also deployed an additional $7 million of capital towards our $250 million Royal Reset program, which includes the $50 million short-term component of the Royal Reset commitment. As a reminder, the short-term portion of the investment targets restaurant technology, like indoor digital menu boards, point-of-sale systems and printers and is matched dollar for dollar by participating franchisees who are investing in upgrading kitchen equipment such as toasters and fryers as well as property improvements like parking lot repairs and lighting. We now expect to touch over 4,000 restaurants with this investment and anticipate seeing benefits from the program beginning in the second half of 2023. We're underway executing the more intensive remodel portion of the program, which provides up to $200 million of cash funding for high-quality projects. We're prioritizing higher scope opportunities with strong operators to deliver the greatest potential returns and view this program as an important proof of concept to drive sustainable remodels by our franchisees. As a result of our more targeted approach, on average, we aim to deliver year 1 uplift ahead of our 12% historical average from remodeled versus nonremodeled restaurants.

我們還為 2.5 億美元的 Royal Reset 計劃部署了額外的 700 萬美元資金，其中包括 Royal Reset 承諾的 5000 萬美元短期部分。提醒一下，投資的短期部分針對餐廳技術，如室內數字菜單板、銷售點系統和打印機，並與投資升級烤麵包機和廚房設備的參與加盟商一美元一美元地匹配。油炸鍋以及停車場維修和照明等財產改善。我們現在預計通過這項投資接觸 4,000 多家餐廳，並預計從 2023 年下半年開始的計劃中受益。我們正在執行該計劃的更密集改造部分，該部分提供高達 2 億美元的現金資金優質工程。我們正在優先考慮與強大的運營商合作的更高範圍的機會，以提供最大的潛在回報，並將該計劃視為推動我們的特許經營商進行可持續改造的重要概念證明。由於我們採用更有針對性的方法，平均而言，我們的目標是在改建餐廳與未改建餐廳之間實現 12% 的歷史平均水平之前的第 1 年提升。

Moving on to operations. We've been increasingly focused on the importance of operations with franchisees over the past couple of years. The data clearly shows that better operators drive better results. Average 4-wall EBITDA of A operators was over 65% higher than the system average in 2022, and this trend of outperformance continued in the first quarter. To further drive this point home, in addition to providing more incentives for better operations with our Royal Reset remodel program, we also recently altered our expansion policy for franchisees. In general, only A and B operators will be allowed to build or acquire existing restaurants with an emphasis on concentrating portfolios to be fewer than 50 units, contiguous geographically and with local ownership. The Burgert King team is having direct conversations with our franchisees about the transformative business results that are possible through strong operations and delivering a great guest and team member experience. Most of our franchisees are embracing these points and are working closely with us to drive execution in their restaurants. I'm pleased to see that their efforts, combined with ours, are delivering results. In fact, since the rollout of our franchise success system plus targeted training sessions, we have seen healthy growth into the A and B operator levels. A ton of effort has gone into driving this outcome and the work does not stop here. We are dedicated to expanding the number of A and B operators in our system, which will set franchisees up for both operational and financial success.

繼續操作。在過去的幾年裡，我們越來越關注與特許經營商合作的重要性。數據清楚地表明，更好的運營商會帶來更好的結果。 2022年A運營商平均4壁EBITDA較系統平均水平高出65%以上，這一跑贏趨勢在一季度延續。為了進一步推動這一點，除了通過我們的 Royal Reset 改造計劃為更好的運營提供更多激勵之外，我們最近還改變了我們對特許經營商的擴張政策。一般而言，只有 A 和 B 運營商將被允許建造或收購現有餐廳，重點是將投資組合集中在少於 50 個單位、地理上連續且擁有當地所有權。漢堡王團隊正在與我們的特許經營商直接對話，討論通過強大的運營和提供出色的客人和團隊成員體驗可能實現的變革性業務成果。我們的大多數加盟商都接受了這些觀點，並與我們密切合作以推動他們餐廳的執行。我很高興看到他們的努力與我們的努力相結合，正在取得成果。事實上，自從推出我們的特許經營成功系統和有針對性的培訓課程以來，我們已經看到 A 級和 B 級運營商的健康增長。為推動這一結果付出了大量努力，工作並不止於此。我們致力於擴大我們系統中 A 和 B 運營商的數量，這將為特許經營商建立運營和財務成功的基礎。

And finally, we have had a few recent insolvencies in the U.S., and I know a key question is how many more should we expect? And what are the implications of that for potential gross restaurant closures? Historically, we've closed a couple of hundred units at Burger King U.S. each year and had a couple of years in the 300 to 400 range such as 2020. We currently expect gross closures in that 300 to 400 range here for the full year. Though I would emphasize that there is a fair degree of uncertainty regarding exact numbers, and this will depend to some extent on the pace of recovery in the business, which we've already begun to see. Most of these units will be low volume with some sales recapture, so we believe the impact of system-wide sales will be much lower than the percent reduction in restaurant count. Certainly, the team's goal is to improve the overall health of the system, which we're already seeing with improved top line sales and restaurant profitability. One of the most important factors is the willingness of our franchisees who have troubled restaurants to work with us and commit to implementing the changes necessary. If they can't, we have operators ready to step in and do what's required. I do expect a bit more short-term noise as we transition some portfolios into the hands of top local operators, but I think we are moving in the right direction to improve our foundation for the long term.

最後，我們最近在美國發生了一些破產事件，我知道一個關鍵問題是我們還應該期待多少？這對潛在的餐廳關閉有何影響？從歷史上看，我們每年在美國漢堡王關閉數百個單位，並且有幾年在 300 到 400 個範圍內，例如 2020 年。我們目前預計這裡全年的總關閉量在 300 到 400 個範圍內。儘管我要強調的是，確切數字存在一定程度的不確定性，這在一定程度上取決於我們已經開始看到的業務復甦步伐。這些單位中的大多數將是低銷量的，並且會收回一些銷售，因此我們認為全系統銷售的影響將遠低於餐廳數量減少的百分比。當然，該團隊的目標是改善系統的整體健康狀況，我們已經看到收入增長和餐廳盈利能力的提高。最重要的因素之一是那些讓餐廳陷入困境的加盟商願意與我們合作並承諾實施必要的變革。如果他們做不到，我們有操作員準備介入並執行所需的操作。當我們將一些投資組合轉移到當地頂級運營商手中時，我確實預計會有更多的短期噪音，但我認為我們正在朝著正確的方向前進，以改善我們的長期基礎。

Overall, we made good progress in the quarter for the top line as well as the bottom line for our system. Given these results, moderating cost inflation and our investment behind the brand, coupled with strong operating leverage at the restaurant level, we're feeling increasingly positive about BK's path forward this year and into the future.

總體而言，我們在本季度的頂線和我們系統的底線都取得了良好進展。鑑於這些結果、成本通脹放緩和我們對品牌的投資，再加上餐廳層面強大的運營槓桿，我們對 BK 今年和未來的發展道路感到越來越樂觀。

Turning now to Popeyes. We had a solid start to the year, growing comparable sales 3.4% and net restaurants 5.9%, resulting in system-wide sales growth of 9.1% and year-over-year improvements in restaurant-level profitability. Last week, I joined the Popeyes team and nearly 600 participants from our franchise system in Phoenix for our annual convention where CME and the team unveiled a multiyear strategic plan called Easy to Love, designed to accelerate the brand's growth and increase average 4-wall EBITDA to $300,000 by the end of 2025. It starts with making Popeyes easy to run for our franchisees and their team members, which will ultimately drive higher guest satisfaction. This will involve initiatives to make our kitchens easier to run for restaurant managers and team members. We know guests love our food when we get it right, but frankly, it isn't easy to do. Our team members tell us and I've experienced it first hand when working back at house. We know restaurants drive much higher sales, traffic and profitability when they have great operations. So this part of the plan is designed to help more restaurants be in that top tier.

現在轉向大力水手。我們今年開局良好，可比銷售額增長 3.4%，餐廳淨銷售額增長 5.9%，導致全系統銷售額增長 9.1%，餐廳級盈利能力同比提高。上週，我加入了 Popeyes 團隊和鳳凰城特許經營系統的近 600 名參與者參加我們的年度大會，CME 和團隊在會上公佈了一項名為 Easy to Love 的多年戰略計劃，旨在加速品牌增長並提高平均 4 牆 EBITDA到 2025 年底達到 300,000 美元。首先是讓 Popeyes 更容易為我們的加盟商及其團隊成員運營，這最終將提高客人的滿意度。這將涉及使我們的廚房更容易為餐廳經理和團隊成員運行的舉措。我們知道，當我們做得對時，客人會喜歡我們的食物，但坦率地說，做到這一點並不容易。我們的團隊成員告訴我們，我在家里工作時親身經歷過。我們知道，當餐廳經營良好時，它們會帶來更高的銷售額、客流量和盈利能力。因此，該計劃的這一部分旨在幫助更多餐廳躋身頂級餐廳。

The Popeyes team traveled to several international markets over the last 6 months and have embraced best practices from partners around the world. With several new country entries, we have accumulated a lot of learnings and innovations that will be brought back to the U.S. business. Some of those include variations on kitchen equipment and design, simplifying operations procedures and, of course, increasing front and back of house digitization. The good news is that we have a pretty clear and complete blueprint of how Popeyes can be easier to run from international markets such as Spain, France and the U.K. We're now testing these elements in the U.S. and believe many will become core to our operating plan over the next year or 2.

在過去 6 個月中，Popeyes 團隊走訪了多個國際市場，並採納了全球合作夥伴的最佳實踐。通過幾個新的國家進入，我們積累了大量的知識和創新，這些知識和創新將帶回美國業務。其中一些包括廚房設備和設計的變化、簡化操作程序，當然還有增加前台和後台的數字化。好消息是，對於如何更輕鬆地在西班牙、法國和英國等國際市場運營 Popeyes，我們有一個非常清晰和完整的藍圖。我們現在正在美國測試這些元素，相信許多元素將成為我們的核心明年或 2 年的經營計劃。

The next element of the Popeyes plan is easy to crave, building on what we are best known for, bone-in chicken and our chicken sandwich, while leaning into new areas for menu expansion. One great example is the introduction of ghost pepper wings in January. Although this limited time offer sold out in just 2 weeks, it drove higher average check and traffic, attracted a younger guest and helped improve gross profit margins for franchisees. Given the product success, wings are now back on the menu as a permanent item, and you can expect to see more innovation from us in this fast-growing category.

Popeyes 計劃的下一個元素很容易讓人渴望，它建立在我們最著名的帶骨雞肉和雞肉三明治的基礎上，同時涉足新領域以擴展菜單。一個很好的例子是一月份推出的幽靈辣椒翅。雖然這項限時優惠僅在 2 週內就售罄，但它帶來了更高的平均支票和流量，吸引了更年輕的客人，並幫助提高了特許經營商的毛利率。鑑於產品的成功，翅膀現在作為永久項目重新出現在菜單上，您可以期待在這個快速增長的類別中看到我們的更多創新。

The last chapter of the Popeyes plan is making Popeyes easy to access by developing modern and convenient restaurants and helping top operators grow with high-quality locations. In 2022, over 70% of openings had at least 1 drive-thru and were either with [topic] to your existing franchisees or new franchisees. The team aims to maintain development momentum with top operators this year. I know the Popeyes system left the Phoenix convention excited and confident in the direction of the brand for the coming years. We have an unmatched product and brand. And if we can make it a little easier for our team members and guests, I am sure we're going to achieve great things.

Popeyes計劃的最後一章是通過開發現代便利的餐廳並幫助頂級運營商在優質地點發展壯大，使Popeyes易於訪問。 2022 年，超過 70% 的空缺至少有 1 次得來速，並且與您現有的加盟商或新加盟商的 [主題] 相關。該團隊今年的目標是與頂級運營商保持發展勢頭。我知道 Popeyes 系統讓 Phoenix 大會對未來幾年的品牌發展方向感到興奮和自信。我們擁有無與倫比的產品和品牌。如果我們能讓我們的團隊成員和客人更輕鬆一些，我相信我們會取得偉大的成就。

Finally, Firehouse Subs. Before diving into the brand's highlights, I'd like to thank Don Fox for his years of commitment to Firehouse Subs and his 50 years of service in the QSR industry. Don is taking on a new role as Chairman of Firehouse for the balance of this year and will be a valuable resource for the team. He will also stay closely involved with the brand's Public Safety Foundation, which has now made $75 million in grants for life-saving equipment since inception. As Don steps into this new role, we're excited to welcome Mike Hancock as President of Firehouse Subs. Mike has 10 years of experience with our brands, most recently as Chief Operating Officer at Firehouse and also formerly Chief Operating Officer of Tim Hortons. I know Mike is excited to lead Firehouse's next phases of growth.

最後，Firehouse 潛艇。在深入探討該品牌的亮點之前，我要感謝 Don Fox 多年來對 Firehouse Subs 的承諾以及他在 QSR 行業 50 年的服務。 Don 將在今年餘下時間擔任 Firehouse 主席的新職務，他將成為團隊的寶貴資源。他還將密切參與該品牌的公共安全基金會，該基金會自成立以來已為救生設備撥款 7500 萬美元。隨著 Don 擔任這個新角色，我們很高興地歡迎 Mike Hancock 擔任 Firehouse Subs 總裁。 Mike 在我們的品牌方面擁有 10 年的經驗，最近擔任 Firehouse 的首席運營官，還曾擔任 Tim Hortons 的首席運營官。我知道 Mike 很高興能夠領導 Firehouse 的下一階段發展。

In terms of results for the quarter, Firehouse saw comparable sales of 6.1% and net unit growth of 2.3%, leading to a 7.5% year-over-year increase in system-wide sales. Digital represented over 35% of system-wide sales and remains a significant opportunity for us. We recently launched our Canada mobile app to include a new look and feel that provides a better user experience and will allow us to provide more personalized offers to guests. We're in the process of applying the same updates to the U.S. app presently.

就本季度的業績而言，Firehouse 的可比銷售額為 6.1%，單位淨增長率為 2.3%，導致全系統銷售額同比增長 7.5%。數字業務佔全系統銷售額的 35% 以上，對我們來說仍然是一個重要的機會。我們最近推出了我們的加拿大移動應用程序，以包含新的外觀和感覺，提供更好的用戶體驗，並允許我們為客人提供更多個性化的優惠。我們目前正在對美國應用程序應用相同的更新。

Now I'll turn it over to Patrick for some quick thoughts on the business. Patrick?

現在我將把它交給帕特里克，讓他快速了解一下業務。帕特里克？

Thanks, Josh. I think it's pretty clear that we made really good progress this quarter across a number of initiatives, and I personally feel very good about the position we are in to continue executing on our core objectives.

謝謝，喬希。我認為很明顯，本季度我們在多項舉措中取得了非常好的進展，我個人對我們繼續執行核心目標的情況感到非常滿意。

Before I hand it over to Matt to walk you through the financials in more detail, I wanted to quickly comment on our commitment to restaurant profitability and a network of healthy growing franchisees. We've received very positive feedback from key stakeholders, franchisees, investors and employees on our decision to publicly disclose franchisee profitability on an annual basis. When our franchisees make more money from the restaurants they invest in, so will RBI for our investors. And I'm very proud of how quickly we've adapted our mindset internally to make franchisee profitability as the #1 priority, including updating our annual incentive compensation for all employees at the company to put an even heavier weight on this key metric.

在我把它交給馬特更詳細地介紹財務之前，我想快速評論一下我們對餐廳盈利能力和健康成長的加盟商網絡的承諾。對於我們每年公開披露加盟商盈利能力的決定，我們從主要利益相關者、特許經營商、投資者和員工那裡收到了非常積極的反饋。當我們的加盟商從他們投資的餐廳賺到更多錢時，我們投資者的 RBI 也會增加。我為我們在內部迅速調整思維方式以將特許經營商的盈利能力作為第一要務而感到自豪，包括更新我們對公司所有員工的年度激勵薪酬，以更加重視這一關鍵指標。

We're dedicated to building brands and businesses that deliver a great value proposition to franchisees. In its simplest form, our franchisees are our customer as a franchisor. We sell them a business model. And then we work hard to move up the average profitability while the franchisees work hard to always be better than average. Core to making this all work is ensuring we have franchisees who believe in the vision and direction we're taking their brand, which, by and large, we do. The vast majority of our franchisees are dedicated enthusiastic operators working very hard to deliver a great guest experience and wanting to grow their business for long-term success. Our focus is on helping this very large majority of franchisees be better and grow. Like anything in life, there will always be a minority who aren't dedicated enthusiastic operators. And that's okay. We'll work with them to leave the system and move on to do something else. There simply is no room for franchisees who are not willing or able to work hard to operate restaurants that are better than the system average over the long term, but we're talking about a small number here. In these instances, we're working to find partners who are all in. We want partners who take an ownership and an operator mentality, Partners who set the culture visit their restaurants regularly get to know their team members and customers and who are hands-on as an operator, whether they have one restaurant or hundreds. I've seen firsthand the benefits of having locally engaged operators, and we have many fantastic franchisees at each of our brands. I personally feel very good about the progress the team has made over the past few quarters in our home markets, improving operations, franchisee profitability and our franchisee base. More importantly, I feel great about how our teams are working together to execute against their plans, and I'm excited for what's to come in the years ahead.

我們致力於打造能夠為加盟商提供巨大價值主張的品牌和業務。在最簡單的形式中，我們的加盟商是我們作為特許人的客戶。我們向他們出售一種商業模式。然後我們努力提高平均盈利能力，而加盟商則努力工作以始終高於平均水平。使這一切發揮作用的核心是確保我們的加盟商相信我們為他們的品牌設定的願景和方向，總的來說，我們是這樣做的。我們的絕大多數特許經營商都是敬業熱情的運營商，他們非常努力地工作以提供出色的客戶體驗，並希望發展業務以獲得長期成功。我們的重點是幫助絕大多數加盟商變得更好和成長。就像生活中的任何事情一樣，總會有少數人不是熱心的經營者。沒關係。我們將與他們一起離開系統並繼續做其他事情。那些不願意或不能長期努力經營好於系統平均水平的餐廳的加盟商根本沒有生存空間，但我們在這裡談論的是一小部分。在這些情況下，我們正在努力尋找全力以赴的合作夥伴。我們希望合作夥伴擁有主人翁精神和經營者心態，設置文化的合作夥伴會定期訪問他們的餐廳，以了解他們的團隊成員和客戶以及他們的手-作為運營商，無論他們擁有一家還是數百家餐廳。我親眼目睹了與當地運營商合作的好處，我們每個品牌都有很多優秀的特許經營商。我個人對團隊過去幾個季度在國內市場取得的進展感到非常滿意，改善了運營、加盟商盈利能力和加盟商基礎。更重要的是，我對我們的團隊如何共同努力執行他們的計劃感到非常高興，我對未來幾年的發展感到興奮。

In my 5 short months here, I've now had the opportunity to visit international markets, attended Tim Hortons roadshow in Toronto and Montreal, joined the Popeyes franchisees at their convention in Phoenix, meet with leading Burger King and Popeyes franchisees in our offices and visit with the Firehouse team in Jacksonville. I'm very impressed by the motivation and quality of our franchisees. And I remain impressed by the quality of our brand teams. I would put our leadership teams up against any other team in the industry. The strength of those teams is why both Josh and I feel strongly that they should be given more autonomy to run their businesses and quickly make the decisions needed to improve their businesses. We have a lot more to do, most importantly, continuing to further improve franchisee profitability, but the first quarter was another decisive step forward. I'm very bullish on what we can accomplish. So I'll leave things there for now and look forward to taking your questions after Matt walks us through the financial details of the quarter. With that, I'll hand it over to Matt.

在這裡的短短 5 個月裡，我現在有機會參觀國際市場，參加 Tim Hortons 在多倫多和蒙特利爾的路演，參加 Popeyes 加盟商在鳳凰城舉行的會議，在我們的辦公室會見領先的漢堡王和 Popeyes 加盟商，以及參觀傑克遜維爾的 Firehouse 團隊。我們加盟商的積極性和素質給我留下了深刻的印象。我對我們品牌團隊的素質印象深刻。我會讓我們的領導團隊與業內任何其他團隊抗衡。這些團隊的力量是為什麼喬希和我都強烈認為他們應該被賦予更多的自主權來經營他們的業務，並迅速做出改善他們業務所需的決策。我們還有很多工作要做，最重要的是，繼續進一步提高加盟商的盈利能力，但第一季度又向前邁出了決定性的一步。我非常看好我們能取得的成就。因此，我暫時將事情留在那裡，並期待在馬特向我們介紹本季度的財務細節後回答您的問題。有了這個，我會把它交給馬特。

Thanks, Patrick. Good morning, everyone.

謝謝，帕特里克。大家，早安。

For the first quarter, our global system-wide sales grew 14.7% year-over-year and flowed through nicely to our adjusted EBITDA, which grew 15.6% organically and our adjusted EPS, which was up 22.1% organically. Q1 adjusted EBITDA growth included a negative $7 million headwind from our Fuel to Flame investments at BK U.S., which was offset by our strong growth in system-wide sales, a $4 million increase at company restaurants, reflecting similar sales and profit improvements as the broader BK U.S. system and a $4 million year-over-year decrease in bad debt as our additions in the first quarter were smaller than the bad debt associated with Russia in Q1 of last year and included an improvement to $3 million of bad debt at BK U.S. versus $7 million in the fourth quarter. As a reminder, in 2022, we did see quarter-to-quarter volatility in bad debt, including nearly $5 million of net recoveries in Q2 of last year.

第一季度，我們的全球全系統銷售額同比增長 14.7%，並很好地體現在我們調整後的 EBITDA 有機增長 15.6% 和調整後的 EPS 有機增長 22.1% 上。第一季度調整後的 EBITDA 增長包括我們在美國 BK 的 Fuel to Flame 投資帶來的負 700 萬美元逆風，這被我們全系統銷售額的強勁增長所抵消，公司餐廳增加 400 萬美元，反映出與更廣泛的類似銷售和利潤改善BK 美國系統和壞賬同比減少 400 萬美元，因為我們在第一季度增加的壞賬少於去年第一季度與俄羅斯相關的壞賬，其中包括 BK 美國壞賬減少至 300 萬美元。第四季度為 700 萬美元。提醒一下，在 2022 年，我們確實看到了壞賬的季度波動，包括去年第二季度近 500 萬美元的淨回收。

Our first quarter adjusted EBITDA growth also benefited from solid cost discipline. As I mentioned last quarter, we expect our segment G&A growth will moderate in 2023 versus '22, and we saw this begin to translate through in the first quarter with a 3.1% year-over-year growth in segment G&A. During the quarter, we also saw a $21 million year-over-year FX headwind to our adjusted EBITDA. And as a reminder, on average, for every 100 basis point change in the Canadian dollar and euro versus the U.S. dollar, we see a nearly 3 and $1 million quarterly EBITDA impact, respectively.

我們第一季度調整後的 EBITDA 增長也得益於嚴格的成本控制。正如我上個季度提到的那樣，我們預計我們的部門 G&A 增長將在 2023 年與 22 年相比放緩，我們看到這在第一季度開始轉化為部門 G&A 同比增長 3.1%。在本季度，我們還看到調整後的 EBITDA 同比增長 2100 萬美元的外匯逆風。提醒一下，平均而言，加元和歐元兌美元每變動 100 個基點，我們將分別看到近 3 和 100 萬美元的季度 EBITDA 影響。

Shifting to EPS. Our first quarter adjusted earnings per share was $0.75 compared to $0.64 last year, representing an organic increase of 22% year-over-year, excluding an FX headwind of negative 6% or $0.03 per share. Our adjusted EPS also included a $0.04 per share net benefit related to discrete noncash tax items, which was partially offset by a negative $0.01 per share headwind from the impact of our Burger King U.S. Fuel to Flame investment.

轉向 EPS。我們第一季度調整後的每股收益為 0.75 美元，而去年同期為 0.64 美元，同比有機增長 22%，不包括負 6% 或每股 0.03 美元的外匯逆風。我們調整後的每股收益還包括與離散非現金稅收項目相關的每股 0.04 美元的淨收益，這部分被我們漢堡王美國燃料到火焰投資的影響帶來的每股 0.01 美元的負逆風所抵消。

Finally, as I mentioned last quarter, we're expecting a step-up in equity-based compensation for this year and saw the first quarter increase to $45 million. This was primarily driven by recent equity awards related to management transitions, the impact of changes to our incentive framework from 5-year cliff vesting to 3- and 4-year vesting and improved trends in performance metrics. We currently anticipate equity-based compensation to be between 190 and $200 million for 2023.

最後，正如我在上個季度提到的那樣，我們預計今年基於股權的薪酬會有所增加，第一季度增至 4500 萬美元。這主要是由於最近與管理層過渡相關的股權獎勵、我們的激勵框架從 5 年懸崖歸屬到 3 年和 4 年歸屬變化的影響以及績效指標的改善趨勢。我們目前預計 2023 年基於股權的薪酬將在 190 至 2 億美元之間。

Turning to cash flow and capital allocation. Q1 is traditionally our seasonally lowest quarter and was further impacted this year by a few additional timing items related to ad fund activity, our BK U.S. investments, including $7 million of marketing toward Fuel to Flame and $7 million of capital toward Royal Reset and our Firehouse area representative buyouts, which we completed in April. In addition, the increase in market interest rates resulted in higher cash interest for the quarter. While we've effectively locked in fixed rates on 80% of our debt over the next 6 years, our free cash flow metric does not reflect the positive impact of our hedges, which created an offsetting cash benefit of approximately $40 million in the first quarter.

轉向現金流和資本配置。第一季度傳統上是我們季節性最低的季度，今年受到與廣告基金活動、我們的 BK 美國投資相關的一些額外時間項目的進一步影響，包括用於 Fuel to Flame 的 700 萬美元營銷和用於 Royal Reset 和我們的 Firehouse 的 700 萬美元資本區域代表買斷，我們在 4 月份完成。此外，市場利率上升導致本季度現金利息增加。雖然我們在未來 6 年內有效地鎖定了 80% 的債務的固定利率，但我們的自由現金流量指標並未反映我們對沖的積極影響，這在第一季度創造了約 4000 萬美元的抵消現金收益.

During the quarter, we also returned $243 million of capital to shareholders through our dividend, which we declared for Q2 at $0.55 per common share unit with a full year target of $2.20 per share. We ended the quarter with available liquidity of approximately $2 billion, including over $1 billion of cash, and our net leverage ratio was 5.1x with a clear path to reach our target of mid 4x over the next couple of years.

在本季度，我們還通過股息向股東返還了 2.43 億美元的資本，我們宣布第二季度的股息為每股普通股 0.55 美元，全年目標為每股 2.20 美元。本季度結束時，我們的可用流動資金約為 20 億美元，其中包括超過 10 億美元的現金，我們的淨槓桿率為 5.1 倍，並且有明確的途徑在未來幾年內達到我們 4 倍中期的目標。

With that, I'd like to thank everyone again for your support and for joining us this morning, and we'll now open the line for questions. Operator?

有了這個，我想再次感謝大家的支持和今天早上加入我們，我們現在將開放提問熱線。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Dennis Geiger from UBS.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自瑞銀集團的 Dennis Geiger。

Great. Thanks for the question. Very helpful transparency on the BK U.S. business and encouraging progress so far for the brand, including that number of A and B operators now that's increasing. Wondering if you could give some additional thoughts on sort of what the most impactful investments or strategic decisions have been to improving the momentum there? And if that's at all changed the plan initially outlined to be that investment levels or any points of focus, et cetera?

偉大的。謝謝你的問題。 BK 美國業務的透明度非常有幫助，並且該品牌迄今為止取得了令人鼓舞的進展，包括現在正在增加的 A 和 B 運營商數量。想知道您是否可以就哪些最有影響力的投資或戰略決策來改善那裡的勢頭提出一些額外的想法？如果這完全改變了最初概述的計劃，即投資水平或任何重點，等等？

Yes, Dennis, thank you for the question. I think there are a few pieces of the plan that have been most important, and they've been consistent from the beginning. I think first and foremost is the focus on restaurant operations. Tom has really brought that home and made it front and center. He's focused a lot on franchisee success, and we think that, that translates a lot to restaurant operations, and we've made a lot of progress there, and I think it's really impactful to the momentum we're seeing.

是的，丹尼斯，謝謝你的提問。我認為計劃中有幾部分是最重要的，而且它們從一開始就是一致的。我認為首先是對餐廳運營的關注。湯姆真的把它帶回家，並把它放在了前面和中心。他非常關注加盟商的成功，我們認為，這對餐廳運營有很大影響，我們在那裡取得了很多進展，我認為這對我們所看到的勢頭確實有影響。

I think the second piece I would highlight is advertising. I think that was a very important part of the Reclaim the Flame plan. It is allowing us to generate early momentum in the business. And I think you saw that starting in Q4 and into Q1. It's flowing through to the bottom line, and it's impacting franchise profitability. And that's the other thing I would highlight is that franchise profitability is really started to move in the right direction. I think that it's really impactful to the momentum in the system. But as we mentioned, it strongly impacts our restaurant operators' ability to reinvest in their businesses, whether it's in labor or in the remodels that we need to do to make the assets more modern. And I think the last piece is the remodels. We're earlier in that. But I do feel that is absolutely critical. We need to see more and more of the Burger Kings that you drive by when you drive down every street in America, they need to be modern, they need to be appealing and they need to be competitive. And I do think that's one of the most important things that we need to drive here over the next few years.

我想我要強調的第二部分是廣告。我認為這是 Reclaim the Flame 計劃中非常重要的一部分。它使我們能夠在業務中產生早期動力。我想你看到了從第四季度開始到第一季度的情況。它正在流向底線，並且正在影響特許經營的盈利能力。我要強調的另一件事是，特許經營的盈利能力真的開始朝著正確的方向發展。我認為這對系統的勢頭確實有影響。但正如我們所提到的，它強烈影響我們餐廳經營者對其業務進行再投資的能力，無論是勞動力還是我們需要進行的改造，以使資產更現代化。我認為最後一塊是改造。我們在這方面比較早。但我確實覺得這絕對是至關重要的。當你在美國的每條街道上行駛時，我們需要看到越來越多的漢堡王，它們需要現代，需要有吸引力，需要有競爭力。我確實認為這是我們在未來幾年需要推動的最重要的事情之一。

Our next question comes from David Palmer from Evercore ISI.

我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 David Palmer。

A question on unit growth, 4% growth globally this quarter. I think you'll want to get back to 5% plus, maybe even higher over time. And I would imagine Burger King China is going to be one key swing factor for on unit growth, but I would imagine there's other segments, combinations of brands and regions that you think could contribute or most contribute to an improvement in unit growth over time. So I'm wondering which brands are those? And if you were to think about getting back to 5% plus, what sort of time frame would you have us thinking about?

關於單位增長的問題，本季度全球增長 4%。我想你會想要回到 5% 以上，隨著時間的推移可能會更高。我想漢堡王中國將成為單位增長的一個關鍵搖擺因素，但我想還有其他細分市場、品牌和地區的組合，你認為隨著時間的推移，它們可能或最有助於單位增長的改善。所以我想知道這些是哪些品牌？如果您要考慮回到 5% 以上，您會讓我們考慮什麼樣的時間框架？

David, thanks for the question again. Yes, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, Q1 is generally the quietest quarter for us on development, but we do feel good about the overall outlook. I think that's a balance of a couple of dynamics going on. One is the closures that I mentioned in BK U.S. That will be a bit of a drag year-on-year. But the reason that we feel good about improving the pace of restaurant growth around the world for the full year is exactly what you mentioned. There are an awful lot of drivers, especially in our international business that are helping us to pick up the pace of growth. I had a chance to spend time over the last few weeks in both India and in China, and we have a lot of great things going on there. We just opened Popeyes in India. We just opened Tims in India, and both of those are off to a good start. Our Burger King business in India is also picking back up the pace of development. So there's a lot of great stuff going on there. And then in China, we have had a slow couple of years, but the team is focused on picking back up the pace of growth at Burger King. And now we have Tim Hortons, which is growing really fast. And we just announced that Popeyes is going to be reopening there in just the next few months.

大衛，再次感謝您的提問。是的，正如我幾分鐘前提到的，第一季度通常是我們開發中最安靜的季度，但我們確實對整體前景感到滿意。我認為這是兩種動態的平衡。一個是我在美國 BK 提到的關閉。這將比去年同期有所拖累。但我們對全年改善全球餐廳增長速度感到滿意的原因正是您提到的。有很多驅動因素，尤其是在我們的國際業務中，它們正在幫助我們加快增長步伐。在過去的幾周里，我有機會在印度和中國度過了一段時間，我們在那裡發生了很多很棒的事情。我們剛剛在印度開設了 Popeyes。我們剛剛在印度開設了 Tims，這兩家公司都有一個良好的開端。我們在印度的漢堡王業務也在加快發展步伐。所以那裡發生了很多很棒的事情。然後在中國，我們經歷了緩慢的幾年，但團隊專注於加快漢堡王的增長步伐。現在我們有了 Tim Hortons，它發展得非常快。我們剛剛宣布 Popeyes 將在接下來的幾個月內重新開業。

So the growth is very broad-based. It goes beyond India and China. And that's, I think, what gives us a lot of comfort, a lot of excitement about the long-term development outlook. We're really seeing a lot of good progress from David and the team across the newer brands, especially Popeyes and Tims, they're going to a lot of new markets and those markets are doing increasingly well. So there's a lot of great things, pretty broad-based that give us confidence in where we can go both this year and probably more importantly, have the potential in the medium to long term for restaurant growth around the world.

因此，增長的基礎非常廣泛。它超越了印度和中國。我認為，這就是讓我們對長期發展前景感到欣慰和興奮的原因。我們確實看到大衛和團隊在新品牌方面取得了很大進展，尤其是 Popeyes 和 Tims，他們將進入許多新市場，而且這些市場的表現越來越好。因此，有很多偉大的事情，基礎相當廣泛，讓我們對今年的發展充滿信心，而且可能更重要的是，從中長期來看，全球餐廳的增長潛力巨大。

Our next question comes from Brian Bittner from Oppenheimer & Company.

我們的下一個問題來自 Oppenheimer & Company 的 Brian Bittner。

Josh, a question for you. One of your first priorities as CEO seems to be providing greater autonomy to the 5 business segments, reducing the centralized groups and giving more resources back to the brand level leaders around QSR. Can you just talk about where you are in this process? It seems like maybe we're still early on. And can you speak about how this could be a catalyst for improving operating results across the company?

喬希，問你一個問題。作為首席執行官，您的首要任務之一似乎是為 5 個業務部門提供更大的自主權，減少集中的團隊，並將更多資源回饋給 QSR 周圍的品牌級領導者。你能談談你在這個過程中的位置嗎？似乎我們還處於早期階段。你能談談這如何成為改善整個公司經營業績的催化劑嗎？

Yes, Brian. Thanks for the question. I would characterize it as a journey that was already happening before I became CEO. We've been moving more and more of the resources to directly report into the business unit heads that had happened across some of our operational teams already. We just moved all of our supply and distribution, a lot of those resources back into their respective brands. And we're working on a couple more things right now that we're doing as we speak. And some of those are things like technology and digital resources and some of the real estate groups as well. So there's quite a lot of areas where we're moving back to the business. I think it's going to allow the teams to move faster and allow the business unit presidents to have greater control over everything that needs to happen. It allows each of those functional areas to be much closer to their respective businesses and their franchisees very importantly. And I think we're already seeing the benefits of some of those movements.

是的，布萊恩。謝謝你的問題。我會把它描述為在我成為 CEO 之前就已經發生的旅程。我們一直在轉移越來越多的資源，以直接向業務部門負責人報告，這已經發生在我們的一些運營團隊中。我們剛剛將我們所有的供應和分銷，其中很多資源轉移回各自的品牌中。我們現在正在做一些我們正在做的事情。其中一些是技術和數字資源以及一些房地產集團。因此，我們在很多領域都在回歸業務。我認為這將使團隊能夠更快地行動，並允許業務部門總裁更好地控制需要發生的一切。它使每個功能區域都更接近各自的業務及其特許經營商，這一點非常重要。我認為我們已經看到了其中一些運動的好處。

Our next question comes from Chris Carril from RBC Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自 RBC Capital Markets 的 Chris Carril。

So again, encouraging results here at BK U.S. And maybe just to follow up on Dennis' earlier question. Just on the Reclaim the Flame plan. Just given the strong momentum you are already seeing, I mean, does that change how you're thinking about the pacing or the magnitude of the investment spend here? And is there anything in the operating or competitive environment today that would cause you to accelerate certain investments such as advertising?

所以再次，在美國 BK 取得了令人鼓舞的結果，也許只是為了跟進丹尼斯之前的問題。就在回收火焰計劃上。鑑於你已經看到的強勁勢頭，我的意思是，這是否會改變你對這裡投資支出的節奏或規模的看法？在當今的運營或競爭環境中，是否有任何因素會促使您加速某些投資，例如廣告？

Chris, thanks for the question. I would say, overall, we're really pleased with how the Reclaim the Flame plan is working. I think it was set out in a very thoughtful way with the right sequencing of operational and advertising investments, followed by the longer-term investments in remodels. So I would say no change to those plans at this point based on how they're going. We're pleased with how they're going and nothing in the competitive environment that's changing our perspective on that.

克里斯，謝謝你的提問。我想說，總的來說，我們對回收火焰計劃的運作方式非常滿意。我認為它以一種非常深思熟慮的方式著手，對運營和廣告投資進行了正確的排序，然後是對改造的長期投資。所以我會說，根據他們的進展情況，目前這些計劃不會改變。我們對他們的進展感到滿意，在競爭激烈的環境中沒有任何事情改變我們對此的看法。

Our next question comes from Lauren Silberman from Credit Suisse.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Lauren Silberman。

So Tim Hortons Canada continues to just demonstrate really strong performance. It looks like it's accelerating on a multiyear basis. Can you just help us understand what you think the biggest drivers of the underlying acceleration are? And you talked about market share gains across key categories. Where do you think that market share is coming from?

因此，Tim Hortons Canada 繼續表現出非常強勁的表現。看起來它在多年的基礎上加速。您能否幫助我們了解您認為潛在加速的最大驅動因素是什麼？你談到了關鍵類別的市場份額增長。您認為市場份額來自哪裡？

Lauren, yes, we were very pleased with the progress at Tims this quarter. I think it goes back to fantastic work that Axel and his team have done over a number of years. They worked on the basics. They did the hard stuff and they did it the right way. And I think that's translated to strengthen our core products and core platforms. It's translating to some of the strength in the brand metrics that I cited. We're seeing really great improvements across the board and our brand health. And I think the team is also doing really excellent innovation work. Chef Tallis and [Victoria] across food and beverage are launching fantastic new products in some of the target categories that we've talked about a lot over the last couple of years, particularly around cold beverage and PM foods. And those products are resonating with guests. I think people are really excited to see the new innovations coming out of our test kitchen and going across our restaurants. So I think pretty broad-based success there. And I think we're going to keep working towards growing cold beverage market share and our PM food daypart. And that will be the focus for the rest of the year, and I expect beyond.

Lauren，是的，我們對 Tims 本季度的進展感到非常滿意。我認為這可以追溯到 Axel 和他的團隊多年來所做的出色工作。他們在基礎上工作。他們做了困難的事情，而且他們以正確的方式做到了。我認為這可以轉化為加強我們的核心產品和核心平台。它轉化為我引用的品牌指標中的一些優勢。我們看到了全面的巨大改進和我們的品牌健康。而且我認為團隊也在做非常出色的創新工作。食品和飲料領域的主廚 Tallis 和 [Victoria] 正在針對我們在過去幾年中經常討論的一些目標類別推出出色的新產品，尤其是冷飲和 PM 食品。這些產品引起了客人的共鳴。我認為人們真的很高興看到新的創新從我們的測試廚房中出現並進入我們的餐廳。所以我認為那裡取得了相當廣泛的成功。而且我認為我們將繼續努力增加冷飲市場份額和我們的 PM 食品時段。這將是今年餘下時間的重點，我預計會更久。

Our next question comes from Andrew Charles from TD Cowen.

我們的下一個問題來自 TD Cowen 的 Andrew Charles。

A question for Josh or Patrick. You called out that A operators had 65% higher EBITDA than the BK U.S. system average in 2022, helping you contextualize the challenges that C&F operators face. As you look ahead and as you work to get stores in the hands of stronger U.S. operators, what is your willingness as the franchisor to take ownership of underperforming BK U.S. stores on a temporary basis to help accelerate the turnaround and perhaps attach a development agreement once refranchised.

喬什或帕特里克的問題。您指出 A 運營商的 EBITDA 比 2022 年 BK 美國系統的平均水平高 65%，幫助您了解 C&F 運營商面臨的挑戰。當您展望未來並努力將商店交到更強大的美國運營商手中時，作為特許人，您是否願意臨時獲得表現不佳的 BK 美國商店的所有權以幫助加速周轉並可能附加一次開發協議重新特許經營。

Yes. Andrew, great question. I'd say we cite a lot of the statistics on the A operators because it really shows the potential of the business and like the transformative impact of having incredible operators running in those restaurants. And that's really our north star is we want to really drive operational quality, move more of those restaurants into A and B operators because we know it's going to drive the business. In terms of our willingness to own restaurants and run restaurants to do it, we're absolutely willing and happy to be part of that solution. You likely saw that in one of the recent insolvencies where we're taking over 17 of the stores. Our ultimate goal is to have fantastic operators running the stores in the system, but we have some really great operators within our company restaurant business. And so we're happy to be part of facilitating the transfer. We're happy to run the restaurants for a while as long as that's contributing towards the long-term vision that we really want to achieve.

是的。安德魯，好問題。我想說我們引用了很多關於 A 運營商的統計數據，因為它確實顯示了業務的潛力，並且喜歡在這些餐廳經營令人難以置信的運營商所產生的變革性影響。這真的是我們的北極星，我們想要真正提高運營質量，將更多的餐廳轉移到 A 和 B 運營商中，因為我們知道這將推動業務發展。就我們擁有餐廳和經營餐廳的意願而言，我們絕對願意並樂於成為該解決方案的一部分。您可能在我們接管 17 家商店的最近破產案中看到了這一點。我們的最終目標是讓出色的運營商在系統中運營商店，但我們公司的餐廳業務中有一些非常出色的運營商。因此，我們很高興成為促進轉移的一部分。我們很樂意經營餐廳一段時間，只要這有助於實現我們真正想要實現的長期願景。

Andrew, the only thing I'd add on it is, I think what you're seeing us doing with the Burger King business in the U.S. is the same, laying the same foundations that we did in the international business and importantly, in Tims in Canada. And the results of Tims in Canada are a result of doing fundamentally everything right, right? It's great advertising, it's great operations. It's making sure that we've got terrific engaged franchisees. It's continually renovating the assets so that they look really good. It's getting the pricing and promotion right. And we're really following that blueprint with BK in the U.S., which is, look, we want our restaurants run by people who are going to run them incredibly well. And if we've got to step in and use our balance sheet or run a few restaurants for a while to make sure that they are ultimately winding up in the right hands, we're willing to do that. But there are no shortcuts (technical difficulty) on how you're running the business. And we are focused on doing everything right around the BK business and that includes getting the restaurants into the right hands.

安德魯，我唯一要補充的是，我認為你看到我們在美國的漢堡王業務所做的是一樣的，奠定了我們在國際業務中所做的相同基礎，重要的是，在蒂姆斯在加拿大。蒂姆斯在加拿大取得的成績是從根本上把所有事情都做對了的結果，對吧？這是偉大的廣告，這是偉大的運營。它確保我們擁有非常敬業的特許經營商。它不斷翻新資產，使它們看起來非常好。它正在獲得正確的定價和促銷。在美國，我們確實在遵循 BK 的藍圖，也就是說，看，我們希望我們的餐廳由能夠出色地經營餐廳的人經營。如果我們必須介入並使用我們的資產負債表或經營幾家餐館一段時間以確保它們最終落入正確的人手中，我們願意這樣做。但是，您如何經營業務沒有捷徑（技術難度）。我們專注於圍繞 BK 業務做好每一件事，包括讓餐廳交到合適的人手中。

Our next question comes from Brian Harbour from Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的布賴恩港。

Yes. Maybe just a couple of specific questions on Reclaim the Flame. When we think about the advertising spending, I know it looks like it was higher in the fourth quarter, a bit lower in the first quarter. Could you comment on, is that kind of just like the seasonality of that spending? And how should we expect it to be deployed going forward? And then maybe the same question on just the Royal Reset spending. And then lastly, just kind of on remodels. I think you've talked about discussions with some landlords in the past to have them participate in the remodel process. I'm curious how those are going and when do you expect kind of the remodel pace to start to pick up?

是的。也許只是幾個關於 Reclaim the Flame 的具體問題。當我們考慮廣告支出時，我知道第四季度看起來更高，第一季度略低。您能否評論一下，這是否有點像該支出的季節性？我們應該如何期待它在未來的部署？然後可能只是關於皇家重置支出的相同問題。最後，只是一種改造。我想您過去曾與一些房東討論過讓他們參與改造過程。我很好奇這些進展如何，您預計改造步伐何時開始加快？

Yes. Brian, I'll take that one. I think you should expect to see some variation in kind of quarter-to-quarter ad spend. A lot of that is driven by the calendar and kind of seasonality of revenues as well as when some of the biggest ad campaigns that we really want to dial up the GRPs are going to come through during the calendar. So I'd look at it more on a full year basis and expect to see a bit of volatility going forward just as you look quarter-to-quarter on that spend.

是的。布賴恩，我要那個。我認為您應該期望看到季度與季度之間的廣告支出有所不同。這在很大程度上是由日曆和收入的季節性以及我們真正想要撥出 GRP 的一些最大的廣告活動何時會在日曆期間完成所驅動的。因此，我會在全年的基礎上更多地關注它，並希望看到未來會出現一些波動，就像你對支出的逐季調查一樣。

On the Royal Reset kind of the shorter period, $50 million, I'd expect we'll see the rest of that spend over the course of 2023. So we've already spent some of it in Q4 of last year, a little bit more in Q1. So I expect that to come through the next 3 quarters, and we should be done with that, I hope, this year.

關於較短時期的皇家重置，5000 萬美元，我預計我們會在 2023 年期間看到剩餘的支出。所以我們已經在去年第四季度花費了一些，一點點第一季度更多。所以我預計這將在接下來的 3 個季度內實現，我希望今年我們應該完成它。

On the remodels, we're still early in that program. We haven't spent a huge amount of that capital yet, so we're still working through a lot of those discussions with landlords and the franchisees. I expect that will pick up more in the back half of '23 and then the heavier into '24 would be my expectation on the pacing of that.

在改造方面，我們仍處於該計劃的早期階段。我們還沒有花費大量資金，所以我們仍在與房東和特許經營商進行大量討論。我預計在 23 年的後半段會增加更多，然後到 24 年會更重，這將是我對它的節奏的期望。

Our next question comes from Sara Senatore from Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Sara Senatore。

This is actually Katherine Griffin on for Sara. We wanted to ask just about the sort of the difference between the order of magnitude for general and administrative expense and franchisee expense this quarter. It looked like the former was a lot higher than expected, whereas the latter was a little bit lower. So I just wanted to sort of understand how we should be thinking about where the different brand investments are going? And then more generally, sort of why G&A came in a lot higher than expected since I think the expectation was that, that pace of growth was going to slow.

這實際上是 Katherine Griffin 代替 Sara。我們想問的是本季度一般和管理費用與特許經營費用的數量級之間的差異。看起來前者比預期高了很多，而後者則低了一點。所以我只是想了解一下我們應該如何考慮不同品牌投資的去向？然後更一般地說，為什麼 G&A 的收入比預期高很多，因為我認為預期是增長速度將會放緩。

Yes. Thanks for the question. Matt here. I'll take the question. So on G&A, I think there might be some comparability differences in terms of the numbers that you're looking at. So we shared some commentary here on segment G&A I think you may be including some additional G&A items that make that comparability a little bit different. But on segment G&A, we saw the growth rate at just a touch above 3% year-over-year in the quarter, which was a pretty significant moderation from what we were seeing in '22 and '21, which was double digits. So I think we talked about the last couple of quarters that we expect to see a reduction in segment G&A growth this year. We did see that start to flow through in the first quarter. We have invested a lot over the past year or 2 to elevate our resources in critical areas of the business. And we feel like we're in a good position and on track to continue to see that year-over-year moderation of G&A in '23 versus '22. And then as it relates to F&P expenses, I think part of that would be related to the bad debt shift year-over-year. which we called out was a positive benefit year-over-year given the significant bad debt that we incurred in Q1 of '22 related to Russia. Within that, we also saw an improving trend in the BK U.S. bad debt, which was about $7 million in the fourth quarter and down to $3 million in the first quarter here. As Josh and Patrick talked about, we feel good about the progress in the BK U.S. business. And based on the current environment and the improvements that we're seeing, we would expect 2023 bad debt to come in below 2022. Thanks for the question.

是的。謝謝你的問題。馬特在這裡。我來回答這個問題。因此，在 G&A 上，我認為就您正在查看的數字而言可能存在一些可比性差異。所以我們在這里分享了一些關於 G&A 部分的評論，我認為你可能會包括一些額外的 G&A 項目，使這種可比性有點不同。但在 G&A 細分市場，我們看到本季度的增長率僅略高於 3%，與我們在 22 年和 21 年看到的兩位數相比，這是一個非常顯著的放緩。因此，我認為我們談到了過去幾個季度，我們預計今年細分市場的 G&A 增長會有所下降。我們確實看到第一季度開始出現這種情況。在過去的一兩年裡，我們投入了大量資金來提升我們在關鍵業務領域的資源。而且我們覺得我們處於有利位置，並且有望繼續看到 23 年與 22 年相比 G&A 的同比放緩。然後，由於它與 F&P 費用有關，我認為其中一部分與壞賬同比轉移有關。鑑於我們在 22 年第一季度與俄羅斯相關的巨額壞賬，我們稱之為同比正收益。其中，我們還看到 BK 美國壞賬呈改善趨勢，第四季度約為 700 萬美元，第一季度降至 300 萬美元。正如 Josh 和 Patrick 所說，我們對 BK 美國業務的進展感到滿意。根據當前的環境和我們看到的改善，我們預計 2023 年的壞賬將低於 2022 年。謝謝你的提問。

Our next question comes from Jon Tower from Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗的 Jon Tower。

Great. Another one on BK U.S. So traffic was negative still in the quarter, and that was despite, I think, the weather being favorable [on laps] year-over-year. I think the Reclaim the Flame kind of showing up somewhat in the period. So where did you see the weakness either dayparts or weekdays? And more importantly, when do you expect the Reclaim the Flame plan to start translating into positive traffic growth for the brand?

偉大的。 BK US 上的另一個所以本季度的交通量仍然是負的，儘管我認為天氣 [on laps] 同比有利。我認為 Reclaim the Flame 在此期間有所體現。那麼你在哪裡看到白天或工作日的弱點？更重要的是，您預計 Reclaim the Flame 計劃何時開始轉化為該品牌的正流量增長？

Yes, Jon. Thanks for the question. Yes, as I mentioned a little bit earlier, traffic was modestly negative for the quarter. And we are very focused on moving the traffic to the positive category over the course of this year. I think what's encouraging to us is that we are seeing sequential improvements. The traffic was more negative in Q4 and got a little bit better in Q1. And we're seeing a stabilization in sort of our monthly traffic levels, which is very encouraging to us. I think the team is highly focused on growing traffic as we move through the remainder of this year. I think we're expecting to see some moderation in pricing increases. We're focused a lot on operations. That's going to be kind of a big driver of improvements in traffic. And we're focused on continuing to deploy the Fuel to Flame agreement. As I mentioned a little bit earlier, we're still very early in that. We haven't spent that much of it in the first quarter. And I think the advertising, both the dollars and the quality of the advertising are one of the big drivers that we expect as we move into the latter half of this year.

是的，喬恩。謝謝你的問題。是的，正如我之前提到的，本季度的流量略有下降。在今年的過程中，我們非常專注於將流量轉移到積極類別。我認為令我們鼓舞的是我們看到了連續的改進。第四季度的流量更為負面，第一季度有所好轉。我們看到每月流量水平趨於穩定，這對我們來說非常鼓舞人心。我認為在今年餘下的時間裡，團隊會高度關注增加流量。我認為我們預計價格上漲會有所放緩。我們非常關注運營。這將成為改善交通的一大推動力。我們專注於繼續部署 Fuel to Flame 協議。正如我之前提到的，我們還處於早期階段。我們在第一季度還沒有花那麼多錢。而且我認為廣告，無論是美元還是廣告質量，都是我們進入今年下半年時預期的主要推動力之一。

Our next question comes from Jeffrey Bernstein from Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的杰弗裡伯恩斯坦。

Great. Just a follow-up on that broader traffic question. It does feel like most are expecting a broader consumer slowdown as we move through this year. We're hearing some talk about early signs already, including perhaps your largest burger peer to a certain degree. Just wondering how you think about the fast food segment broadly or perhaps restaurant brands in particular. I think, Josh, you actually just mentioned the traffic may be actually stabilizing of late. So I'm just wondering, within RBI, are there any signs of a change in consumer behavior, perhaps less delivery, less add-ons, pushback from pricing? Any kind of sign that we're seeing early signs of slowdown or maybe, Patrick, you can compare it to what you think the resiliency of the pizza category, kind of how fast food broadly compares to pizza?

偉大的。只是對更廣泛的交通問題的跟進。確實感覺大多數人都預計隨著我們今年的到來，消費將出現更廣泛的放緩。我們已經聽到一些關於早期跡象的討論，包括在某種程度上可能是您最大的漢堡同行。只是想知道您如何看待廣泛的快餐行業或特別是餐廳品牌。我想，喬什，你實際上剛剛提到交通最近可能實際上正在穩定。所以我只是想知道，在 RBI 內部，是否有任何跡象表明消費者行為發生了變化，可能是交付量減少、附加組件減少、定價推遲？任何跡象表明我們看到了放緩的早期跡象，或者帕特里克，你可以將它與你認為的比薩類別的彈性進行比較，快餐與比薩的廣泛比較？

Yes, Jeff, thanks for the question. A couple of thoughts. One, from a macro perspective, we feel like we're really well positioned in any macroeconomic environment. What we do is in quick-service restaurants, we provide convenient and affordable food every day. And so I think just overall from a big picture perspective, we're in a good spot regardless of the macro environment that we're in. In terms of what the key drivers are of traffic and sales in our industry, I think the biggest one really is employment. That's really what drives our guests having money in their pockets and being out in the belt. And so that is probably the kind of the highest correlation item that we see towards our sales and traffic. And the fortunate thing is that employment in the U.S. continues to be really good. And I think that's reflecting a bit in some of the industry momentum. So overall, we feel pretty good about where we are. As I said, we're very focused on growing traffic as we move through the course of this year in those U.S. businesses.

是的，傑夫，謝謝你的提問。幾個想法。第一，從宏觀角度來看，我們覺得我們在任何宏觀經濟環境中都處於有利地位。我們做的是快餐店，每天提供方便實惠的食物。因此，我認為從大局的角度來看，無論我們所處的宏觀環境如何，我們都處於有利地位。就我們行業的流量和銷售的主要驅動因素而言，我認為最大的一個是就業。這才是真正促使我們的客人口袋裡有錢並大賺一筆的原因。因此，這可能是我們看到的與銷售和流量相關性最高的項目。幸運的是，美國的就業狀況一直很好。我認為這在一定程度上反映了行業的發展勢頭。所以總的來說，我們對自己的處境感覺很好。正如我所說，今年我們非常關注這些美國企業的流量增長。

Yes. And Jeff, the thing I'd add to that is, first of all, remember, Tims is 40% of our earnings. And if anything, there's still a tailwind from increased mobility year-over-year in Canada. So that business generating really nice traffic growth. We feel pretty and are optimistic about because you're continuing to have more mobility year-over-year in Canada. And I would just emphasize, you're saying how does it compare to pizza, I'd emphasize what Josh said, which is this category is driven by employment more than anything else. So people are working, then the convenience of what our category offers is compelling. And so even if there's a slowdown, if you have employment levels continue to be strong as they've been, then I'm pretty optimistic about the category overall. But again, I would hold Tims kind of separate from that. Employment is also important there, but you also have the added tailwind of year-over-year increases in mobility.

是的。傑夫，我要補充的是，首先，請記住，蒂姆斯占我們收入的 40%。而且，如果有的話，加拿大的流動性逐年增加仍然是一個順風。因此，該業務產生了非常好的流量增長。我們感覺很好並且很樂觀，因為您在加拿大的流動性逐年增加。我只想強調，你是說它與比薩餅相比如何，我要強調喬希所說的，即這個類別是由就業驅動的，而不是其他任何東西。所以人們在工作，那麼我們類別提供的便利性就很有吸引力。因此，即使經濟放緩，如果你的就業水平繼續保持強勁，那麼我對整體類別非常樂觀。但同樣，我認為蒂姆斯與此不同。就業在那裡也很重要，但你也有流動性逐年增加的額外順風。

Our next question comes from Eric Gonzalez from KeyBanc Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自 KeyBanc Capital Markets 的 Eric Gonzalez。

Congrats on the strong improvement this quarter. Maybe a comment on a recent investor conference, the BK U.S. gross margins were about 200 basis points in the first quarter. Can you talk about what that might mean in the context of your target to get back to that 175K by the end of 2024 and how much more margin expansion would you need to get there? And how much maybe was driven by the reduction in discounts? And then on the topic of profitability, clearly, you had some really strong results at Tims. Anything you can tell us about the profitability in the quarter relative to that 220K that you mentioned last year.

祝賀本季度的強勁進步。也許在最近的一次投資者會議上發表評論，第一季度 BK 美國毛利率約為 200 個基點。您能否談談您的目標是到 2024 年底回到 175K 的背景下這可能意味著什麼，以及您需要將利潤率再擴大多少才能實現？折扣的減少可能推動了多少？然後關於盈利能力的話題，很明顯，你在 Tims 取得了一些非常好的結果。您可以告訴我們與您去年提到的 220K 相關的本季度盈利能力的任何信息。

Yes. Thanks, Eric. I'm happy to take that. We did see some meaningful improvement in gross profit margins and also in overall franchisee EBITDA in the first quarter for Burger King U.S. As Matt had mentioned, some of that was driven by gross margin evolution. I think Tom and the team have done some really thoughtful things in trying to get gross margins back to a much healthier place. And that's reflecting itself in the 4-wall EBITDA improvements that we're seeing there. That gives us a lot of encouragement to see both sales and profits moving meaningfully in the right direction for BK U.S. I think it gives a lot of confidence to our franchisees now seeing the early results of the Reclaim the Flame plan. So good evolution overall. We'll be focused on keeping that up through the remainder of the year. I also did mention the results at Tims, vast majority of that was driven by the sales growth. We were in the healthy double digits for same-store sales. And that also translated into much better 4-wall EBITDA at Tims in Canada in the first quarter of 2023. We had a bit of a soft quarter last year with a bit of gross margin pressure in the prior year because of some of the commodity cost increases that had come through. So we are pleased to see that turn around. And I think our franchisees are feeling better about that momentum, too.

是的。謝謝，埃里克。我很樂意接受。我們確實看到第一季度漢堡王美國的毛利率和整體特許經營商 EBITDA 有了一些有意義的改善。正如馬特所提到的，其中一些是由毛利率變化推動的。我認為湯姆和他的團隊做了一些非常周到的事情，試圖讓毛利率回到一個更健康的水平。這反映在我們在那裡看到的 4 壁 EBITDA 改進中。這給了我們很大的鼓勵，讓我們看到銷售和利潤都朝著 BK 美國的正確方向有意義地發展。我認為這給我們的特許經營商帶來了很大的信心，現在他們看到了回收火焰計劃的早期結果。整體進化如此之好。在今年餘下的時間裡，我們將專注於保持這一點。我也確實提到了 Tims 的業績，其中絕大多數是由銷售增長推動的。我們的同店銷售額處於健康的兩位數。這也轉化為 2023 年第一季度加拿大 Tims 的 4 壁 EBITDA 好得多。去年我們有一個疲軟的季度，由於一些商品成本，前一年的毛利率壓力有點大已經實現的增長。所以我們很高興看到這種轉變。而且我認為我們的加盟商也對這種勢頭感覺更好。

Our next question comes from David Tarantino from Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自 Baird 的 David Tarantino。

Another question here on Burger King U.S. Can you maybe frame up what percentage of the system is in that kind of A and B category from how you score your franchisees, just so we can understand what the potential upside is as you move towards your goal? And maybe where are you today versus where you ideally want to be on that percentage? And then maybe a secondary question is, can you maybe share some details on how that cohort, the A and B stores performed on a year-over-year basis in Q1 relative to the lower cohorts?

關於美國漢堡王的另一個問題。您能否根據您如何為加盟商評分來確定係統在 A 類和 B 類中的百分比，以便我們了解您朝著目標邁進時的潛在優勢是什麼？也許你今天在哪裡，而不是你理想中想要達到的那個百分比？然後可能還有一個次要問題是，您能否分享一些細節，說明該隊列、A 和 B 商店在第一季度相對於較低隊列的同比表現如何？

Yes. Thanks, David. I'll try to hit on a number of those. So the A and B operators within BK U.S. are the vast majority of the overall franchisees and stores. But there's still a big opportunity in the lower ranked ones. I would say ideal state is nearly all of our restaurants are in that A and B category. So that is absolutely our North Star. That's what we're driving towards. And I can tell you that the performance recently of those A and B stores on both the same-store sales, same-store traffic and their EBITDA levels are all meaningfully higher than the D&F. So we see a big performance dispersion between those groups of stores, which is why we're so focused on moving more of our stores and more of our franchisees into those higher rankings.

是的。謝謝，大衛。我將嘗試解決其中的一些問題。因此，BK U.S. 內的 A 和 B 運營商佔整體加盟商和商店的絕大多數。但是排名較低的仍然有很大的機會。我想說理想狀態是我們幾乎所有的餐廳都屬於 A 類和 B 類。所以那絕對是我們的北極星。這就是我們的目標。我可以告訴你，最近那些 A 店和 B 店在同店銷售額、同店客流量和 EBITDA 水平上的表現都明顯高於 D&F。所以我們看到這些商店組之間存在很大的績效差異，這就是為什麼我們如此專注於將更多的商店和更多的特許經營商轉移到更高的排名。

Last thought I would just share with you on this front. Interesting one, an important one with respect to a more inflationary environment. When you step back in our industry, a decent rule of thumb that people often use is as you take pricing, if you take 1% of price, you probably lose about 0.4% of traffic. So you get kind of a 60% flow-through on that. And what's really interesting that we see that just reinforces our focus on operations is that our A and B operators see significantly higher flow-through rates of price increases than our lower-ranked operators. And it makes sense. Guests are willing to pay more when they get a great experience and less so when it's not. And it just reinforces our focus in this environment and making sure that all of our restaurants are operating at a high level, and that's what drives the results of those restaurants and the results of the franchisees.

最後想到我會在這方面與您分享。有趣的是，一個關於通貨膨脹環境更重要的重要問題。當你回到我們的行業時，人們經常使用的一個體面的經驗法則是當你進行定價時，如果你收取價格的 1%，你可能會損失大約 0.4% 的流量。所以你得到了 60% 的流量。真正有趣的是，我們看到的只是加強了我們對運營的關注，我們的 A 和 B 運營商看到價格上漲的流通率明顯高於我們排名較低的運營商。這是有道理的。客人在獲得良好體驗時願意支付更多費用，而在體驗不佳時則願意支付更少。它只是加強了我們對這種環境的關注，並確保我們所有的餐廳都在高水平上運營，這就是推動這些餐廳和特許經營商取得成果的原因。

Our final question comes from Gregory Francfort from Guggenheim Partners.

我們的最後一個問題來自 Guggenheim Partners 的 Gregory Francfort。

I just wanted to follow up on Burger King U.S. Can you update us on any metrics that are showing the operational improvements in the Burger King U.S. because I think you guys have talked about some of the complaints ratio statistics, but maybe either updating that number or speed of service or turnover, menu complexity. What metrics are you most focused on judging that improvement? And what's the update there?

我只是想跟進美國漢堡王。您能否向我們更新顯示美國漢堡王運營改進的任何指標，因為我認為你們已經討論了一些投訴率統計數據，但也許更新該數字或服務或營業額的速度，菜單的複雜性。您最關注哪些指標來判斷這種改進？那裡有什麼更新？

Yes, Greg, a couple of points there. One, we look at a metric called ACR or it's our all complaints ratio. It's essentially kind of how many guest complaints that we get indexed by transactions at our restaurants. And so that's a big focus. It's one of the metrics that's most highly correlated with restaurant performance and particularly same-store sales of restaurants. So if we have fewer complaints, generally means we're giving a much better guest experience and tends to be highly correlated with improved same-store sales. We've seen that ratio improve for 7 quarters straight. And I think Tom and the team have been very focused on it and have gotten the whole system focused on that. And that ACR all complaints ratio metric is one of the important components of our franchisee success system. So those franchisee success scores that we talk about and that produced those letter grades that I mentioned. Franchise success captures a few other metrics that we look at. just the things you mentioned, things like speed of service, retention of team members, training of team members, and we've also seen essentially all the components of franchise success move in the right direction over the last few quarters. So pretty universal progress there across those, and we're seeing that in higher franchise success scores for the system.

是的，格雷格，有幾點。第一，我們查看稱為 ACR 的指標，或者它是我們的所有投訴率。它本質上是我們在餐廳的交易中得到索引的客人投訴數量。所以這是一個很大的重點。這是與餐廳業績尤其是餐廳同店銷售額最相關的指標之一。因此，如果我們的投訴減少，通常意味著我們提供了更好的客戶體驗，並且往往與同店銷售額的提高高度相關。我們已經看到該比率連續 7 個季度提高。我認為 Tom 和團隊一直非常專注於此，並且讓整個系統都專注於此。 ACR 所有投訴率指標是我們加盟商成功系統的重要組成部分之一。因此，我們談論的那些加盟商成功分數產生了我提到的那些字母等級。特許經營的成功體現了我們關注的其他一些指標。只是你提到的事情，比如服務速度、團隊成員的保留、團隊成員的培訓，我們也看到在過去幾個季度裡，特許經營成功的所有要素基本上都朝著正確的方向發展。在這些方面取得了相當普遍的進步，我們在該系統的特許經營成功分數更高的情況下看到了這一點。

Thank you. That is now the end of the Q&A session. So I will now hand back over to the management team for closing remarks.

謝謝。問答環節到此結束。因此，我現在將交還給管理團隊作結束語。

Great. Well, thank you, everyone, for joining us for our earnings call this morning. We really appreciate you participating. I appreciate the questions. We're happy with the performance for the quarter and are very thankful to all of our team members, restaurant team members, franchisees around the world for their hard work. We look forward to updating you again soon on our Q2 call. Thanks, everyone, and have a great day.

偉大的。好吧，謝謝大家今天早上加入我們的財報電話會議。我們非常感謝您的參與。我很欣賞這些問題。我們對本季度的表現感到滿意，並非常感謝我們所有的團隊成員、餐廳團隊成員、世界各地的特許經營商的辛勤工作。我們期待在我們的第二季度電話會議上再次為您更新。謝謝大家，祝你有美好的一天。

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的加入。您現在可以斷開線路。