Ruth's Hospitality Group Inc (RUTH) 2011 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Hello, good morning ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to today's Ruth's Hospitality Group First-Quarter 2011 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the formal remarks, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up for questions. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Bob Vincent, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, and good morning. We need to remind everyone that part of our discussion today may include forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and, therefore, undue reliance should not be placed upon them. We refer all of you to our recent filings with the SEC for a more detailed discussions of the risk that could impact future operating results and financial conditions. Finally, I would like to remind you that today's call may not be reproduced in any form without the express written consent of Ruth's Hospitality Group, Inc.

I would now like to turn the call over to Mike O'Donnell, Chief Executive Officer of Ruth's Hospitality Group.

Thanks Bob, and good morning; and thank you all for joining us today, as opposed to watching the wedding of the century. Our first-quarter sales performance at Ruth's Chris Steak House underscores the positive momentum we have experienced over the last several quarters. And these improved sales volumes have allowed us to expand our restaurant operating margins, despite the commodity pressure we faced during the quarter.

Comparable sales at Ruth's Chris Steak House increased 5.2% versus the first quarter of 2010. While comparable sales at Mitchell's Fish Market decreased by 2.7% versus the prior year. Our Mitchell's sales performance was negatively impacted by approximately 50 basis points as Easter was celebrated in late April this year. The calendar shift resulted in 3 fewer Lenten Fridays in March, and those Fridays are typically fish-eating opportunities for those that observe -- those observers of Lent.

Currently, comparable trends in April are positive at both brands. Ruth's Chris sales are up in the mid-single digit range, and Mitchell's sales are flat as the Easter shift I just mentioned is reserved -- is reversed.

By geography, Ruth's Chris 2 largest markets, Florida and California, both generated positive sales, as Florida sales rose 1.1% while California sales improved by 6.8%. Across the entire Ruth's Chris portfolio of 64 company locations, we were pleased that a full 54 restaurants reported positive comparable sales during the first quarter. Entrees, which serves our proxy for traffic, increased by 3.9% during the first quarter, and we have now been positive for 5 consecutive quarters. Our average check was also up 1.2% in the first quarter.

Compared to the Knapp-Track index benchmark for the steak house segment, Ruth's Chris sales were lower relative to the index by 250 basis points, and 380 basis points in traffic. We continue to believe the gap is driven by competitive discounting.

Private dining at Ruth's Chris Steak House increased approximately 13% during the first quarter, continuing the momentum we've experienced during the holiday period. Although we did not employ any major new initiatives during the quarter, we continue to benefit from the interest in our catering business, the use of our professional services, and the hard work of our people.

Within the Ruth's Chris franchise system, domestic comparable franchise-owned restaurant sales increased 8.8%, while international comparable franchise-owned restaurant sales increased 11.7%. System-wide, our franchisees had a blended comparable restaurant sales increase of 9.3%.

Turning to Ruth's Chris brand, we began testing TV spots late in the first quarter as part of our new experienced focused advertising campaign. We believe that the TV campaign, combined with an improved social media presence, will create even more enthusiasm from our broader customer base.

To the extent that we get traction from TV compared to the other media alternatives, we are likely to devote more resources to television in the second half of the year.

In terms of the menu, our Ruth's Seasonal Classics Prix Fixe remains our feature promotion, and continues to comprise roughly 30% of our sales mix. We believe that our diverse guest base appreciates the option of the Prix Fixe Classics, and this strategy has supported our 5 consecutive quarters in traffic growth. With renewed enthusiasm for high-end dining, this pricing strategy only reinforces the value that Ruth's Chris offers its guests.

At Mitchell's, we continue to work on fine-tuning our brand positioning. While sales trends were disappointing, we continue to be positive on the concept, and view menu innovation as one of the factors in determining our long-term success. We currently are featuring a lobster duo for $24.95, which consists of cold-water rock lobster, served with the choice of lobster pot pie, lobster mac and cheese, or sauteed lobster and shrimp cake.

Given the seasonality of seafood, we are using prix fixe features and time-limited offers so that our guests always have something new to experience when dining with us. Our marketing efforts at Mitchell's are primarily focused on online and social media, although we have also increased our grassroots campaign through greater community involvement. More broadly, we are also working on developing and continuing to define a new brand campaign.

With respect to Company restaurant development, we remain active in evaluating real estate opportunities for 2012 -- I would say active and aggressive -- but do not have any signed leases at this time. Our Ruth's Chris franchising business is projected to have 2 openings in the second half of the year. Inclusive of these locations, we currently have 17 commitments for future franchise restaurants over the next several years. And this pipeline should allow us to continue to generate consistent franchise income of $11 million to $12 million annually.

I would now like to turn the call over to Bob.

Thank you, Mike.

For the first quarter ended March 27, 2011, we generated total revenues of $98.8 million, an increase of $4.1 million, or 4.4% compared to last year. Total Company-owned restaurant sales increased to $95.3 million, or approximately 4.5% compared to the $91.2 million in the first quarter last year. Restaurant operating weeks were 1,131 versus 1,118 last year.

Average weekly sales for all Company-owned Ruth's Chris Steak House restaurants were approximately $90,000 in the first quarter, compared to approximately $85,600 in the same period last year. Ruth's Chris Steak House comparable sales increased by 5.2%, and consisted of an average check increase of 1.2% combined with an increase in entrees of 3.9% -- as Mike said, our fifth consecutive quarterly increase in entrees.

Average weekly sales at the Mitchell's Fish Market were approximately $68,500, compared to approximately $70,500 in the same period last year. Comparable restaurant sales at Mitchell's Fish Market decreased 2.7%, as our average check increased 3.5% , while entrees decreased 6.1%.

Franchise income increased approximately 4.3% to $3.1 million, from $2.9 million last year.

In terms of our cost structure as a percentage of restaurant sales, food and beverage costs increased 140 basis points year over year in the first quarter, primarily driven by unfavorable beef costs. We also experienced pressure in dairy and produce during the quarter. As we mentioned on our last call, we rolled out a 50 basis point increase in late March, which is helping to mitigate the impact of overall commodity inflation. Although we believe that we have additional pricing power, we intend to be prudent with respect to future increases. Also at this time we have no forward contracts for our 2011 beef requirements.

Restaurant operating expenses, as a percentage of restaurant sales, decreased 190 basis points from the first quarter last year, to 49.4%. This decrease was driven primarily by positive sales leverage. Marketing and advertising costs increased to $3 million from $2.5 million and, as a percentage of total revenue, increased by 30 basis points to 3%. G&A expenditures increased by approximately $300,000 to $5.9 million in the first quarter.

Operating income was $10 million in the first quarter of 2011, compared to $9.8 million in the prior-year first quarter. The first quarter of 2010 included a one-time $600,000 restructuring benefit for which there was no comparable benefit this year. Interest expense was $800,000 in the first quarter, compared to interest expense of $1.3 million for the same period last year.

We had net income available to preferred and common shareholders of $5.9 million, or $0.14 per diluted share, on a share base of approximately $43 million in the first quarter of 2011, compared to $6.5 million, or $0.20 per diluted shares, on a share base of approximately $32.5 million in the first quarter of 2010.

Excluding a one-time $300,000 net benefit in discontinued operations, net income in the first quarter of 2011 was $0.13 per diluted share. Net income for the first quarter of 2010 included a $700,000 income tax benefit and a one-time $400,000 net restructuring benefit. Excluding these adjustments, net income in the first quarter of 2010 was $0.16 per diluted share.

With regards to our balance sheet, long-term debt as of March 27 was $45 million, a reduction of $6 million for the quarter. In terms of our outlook for 2011, based on current information, we are reiterating our previous outlook, which included the following -- price of goods sold of 30.5% to 31.5% of restaurant sales; marketing and advertising spend of 3% to 3.5% of total revenue; G&A expenditures of $23 million to $25 million; an effective tax rate of 25% to 30%.

We fully anticipate diluted shares outstanding between 43 and 44 million shares.

CapEx spending is projected at $10 million to $12 million; and lastly, we are projecting our free cash flow to be in the range of $21 million to $23 million.

I would like to turn the call back to

Thanks, Bob.

Once again, we are encouraged by the traffic gains that our Ruth's Chris brand is experiencing and intend to build on this momentum by continuing to deliver the great sizzling steaks, genuine Southern hospitality, and memorable experiences for our guests .

Our Ruth's Chris franchise partners, which are the heart and soul of the brand, are equally committed to these objectives, and they too stand to benefit from greater interest in upscale dining, from the business person to special occasion diner alike.

And while trends in Mitchell's have been mixed and not necessarily up to our expectations, we still believe strongly in its potential.

As always, we appreciate your interest in our Company and are now available to take any

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) We'll take our first question from Jeff Omohundro with Wells Fargo.

Good morning, Mike and Bob. Just a question on the pricing strategy. I understand and respect your desire not to be too aggressive there. But when considering the broad commodity price increases that the industry's experiencing, maybe you can share with us a little bit more about the philosophy about what might lead, for example, to you taking additional pricing later in the year? Is it balancing the cost to inputs against traffic? Maybe just expand a little bit more on your thinking on that, please?

Jeff, good morning, and thanks for attending. Let me try to frame it up for you a little bit. In an analogous sort of position, I like being the least expensive house in the wonderful neighborhood. So the idea that we can keep our pricing down is something that we think has been contributing to the increase in traffic. So, while, as Bob said, we think we have some opportunity, we want to use that judiciously. I think that the organization needs to develop all its opportunity to be efficient, and that the last thing I want to do is try and take price or pass that along to the consumer.

Now having said that, if we were to see sort of increasing rising commodity costs, past what we think those opportunities are, then we would rethink that. And we've done some work around that, we have done some testing around that, we think we know what our parameters are. But again, I feel good about the fact that we are having traffic gains, that we are not doing aggressive discounting in order to do that, and that keeping that kind of strategy makes sense. Look, 30% of our revenue is coming out of a promotion that says $39.95/$49.95. So there's clear preference for people that see that price certainty and that sort of a price point as being a good thing. So for us, to be very thoughtful about it, but primarily our bias is to be as modest as we can be.

Okay. On Mitchell's, in terms of the menu strategy there, and the performance in the quarter, I understand, was clouded a bit by the Easter calendar impact. And perhaps I don't know if you've had any sense of it, if there was any shift in seafood preference related to the Japanese crisis. But perhaps you can elaborate a little bit on menu strategy, and opportunities there to pick up traffic? Thanks.

Jeff, I think no. I don't think there was any impact from the situation in Japan. I think that we continue to do a lot of work around this. We are very proud of the work that our people are doing. The people in the field are working very hard.

We have some challenges around sort of non-seafood items, and how much we have done on the non-seafood side. We get very high marks for seafood, but we have historically had a fairly limited amount of non-seafood items on the menu. We're doing some testing around that. We are seeing some menu shift as a result in the tests where we are doing it that we think is favorable. So, sort of answering the veto vote.

I think that we have some speed of service issues that we are working on. I think we have a balance between complexity of some of our items and the simplicity of the ability to deliver. Having said that, again, we still have, as I think Bob said, we are operating in average unit volumes that are pretty substantial numbers. So I still feel very good about where the business is. I think the challenge around menu development -- we are getting closer to figuring out where that balance ought to be.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question will come from Jason West with Deutsche Bank.

Yes, thanks. Good morning, guys. Just a few here. If you could give a little more color, Bob, on the beef inflation -- what you saw in the quarter and what you expect for the full year? And maybe if you have an all-in inflation number, that would be great as well.

Good morning, Jason. I would say on the beef side, I don't think we have experienced any surprises here in Q1. Again, we have spoken about our full-year outlook, which is in the 6% to 7% range. By Q1 itself, specifically, that was the lowest point a year ago in terms of pricing. And so on a year-over-year basis, our tenders were probably up in the mid-single-digit range, and prime cuts were probably up in the low-double-digit range. Kind of blending that keeps us in our defined guidance, if you will, of 6% or 7%.

The first half of the year is going to be the tougher overlaps. As we move into the second half of the year, I think that -- again, if there's nothing crazy that takes place in the marketplace, we should be able to mitigate some of the year-over-year increases. Just as an example, in Q1, tenders were actually probably $1 lower in cost than they were in Q4. So as we come around to overlap that, I think we will get back to our full-year guidance and our 6% to 7% range.

Okay. And then in terms of pricing, what was the effective pricing you guys had in the first quarter? And what would it be now after the 50 basis points? I believe you had said you were running about 20 basis points or so going into the first quarter?

Yes, we had a price increase in August of 2010, approximately on an annualized basis of about 40 basis points. So that's embedded in Q1. The second price increase we took, the 50 basis points was really in the last week of the quarter, so there is nothing -- no real benefit there. On a go-forward basis, we'll start to realize some of that.

Okay, that's perfect. I'm a little confused about the Knapp numbers that you guys give every quarter? It seems like you're always kind of lagging the industry on sales and traffic. And I know there's some discounting and things going on out there. But is there anything unusual about that index that you guys are giving us? Does it include some lower-end concepts maybe? Because it seems like your comps have been pretty solid relative to the public companies that we see out there. I don't know -- it's not good to see market share losses, but I don't know if that index is a great representation of the upscale steak houses.

Jason, this is Mike. First, I'll go back to what we said earlier, and that is that I think that some of our competitors -- it's a very small segment, the specific steak house category is a very small segment in terms of the people that make up that category. And there has been some much more aggressive discounting from some of our competitors. And some of the people that are in that are non-public companies. So I can tell you that I can see where some of their comp-store sales have improved, but I can't tell you what's happening in their profitability.

And in terms of whether it's true market share, that's not necessarily the case. It's not clear that because you're going down and they're going up, it may actually be coming in or out of independents. There's other places that that goes. We clearly think about it, we clearly look at it, we're thoughtful around it, or we wouldn't talk about it. But I'm comfortable with the fact that we are showing high-mid-single digits, that our margins have expanded, and that our customers continue to show increase in traffic, and that's been a five consecutive-quarter basis.

And then the frequency by which you dine at the fine dining, in a steak house, the frequency of our customer purchase pattern. Some of the decisions you make around pricing, you're not going to see the benefit or the detriment for a long period of time. So it may be six months later that somebody doesn't come back because of the pricing. I think as you look across the universe today, there's a great deal of concern around value, and no matter whether it is in the food business or whatever it may be. And I think that we are trying to be very consistent around that.

And while again I think it's important to look at, and we look at, and talk about what's going on in the marketplace, but I have competitors that I'm getting direct mail pieces from American Express that if you spend $150, you get a $50 discount. Now if that drives traffic, than that drives traffic. That's not something that I would care to do.

Okay, that's helpful. And then just the last thing. The Florida number looked a little low for the quarter. Just wondering what happened there, if that's a new trend in Florida, or if that was some anomaly this quarter?

Yes, it is hard for us to draw a conclusion on one quarter. There is the Easter shift, which has an impact on some of the spring break vacations, so a little unclear. It looks like probably the spring breaks got moved, again, according to the Easter or consistent with the Easter holiday. So I think it's probably some noise around that, but I think it's too early to draw any conclusions.

And I think further, that we had some restaurants that performed really well, and we had some that showed some surprising weakness, that had historically not been. But again, 54 of the restaurants were up in positive comps, so we had very good -- we felt like there was great distribution around that. As Bob said, depending on where Easter comes is when the snow birds migrate back and forth between the north, and then further you have the spring break issue. Obviously there's a difference, and we pay attention to it. But I don't think there's anything that's specific. There has been greater challenges in Florida and in California around real estate value. Again, I don't think that there's anything significant in what that's telling us.

Is Florida a bit better in April, back more in line with the average or not?

Jason, you know we don't talk about that kind of stuff.

Okay.

We are, as I said, we are continuing to see mid-single digits across the board, and feel good about that.

All right, thanks, guys.

Thanks, Jason.

Thank you, our next question comes from Andy Barish from Jefferies.

Good morning, guys. Just a couple of things on some of the tests you are working on. TV, it sounds like maybe you're getting some data that might move you ahead to make some shifts in marketing in the back half? Or is it still premature to assume that? And then on the price fix, some of the menu changes you have looked at there, is that still something you want to keep in your back pocket as you evaluate as well?

Andy, relative to television, again, it's early. But clearly, television has always been a powerful medium, and to the extent that we have markets that have ended up benefiting from that, then I clearly would make that investment. But I think it's too early to say that. At this point I wouldn't say that it's conclusive at all, and there is just as good a chance that we're going to continue on our same path as there is that we're going to make a change. But if it does show to be favorable, we will.

And in terms of pricing, there's a substantial amount of pricing opportunities. Well, the pricing opportunities exist by market. It's not the same. For instance, in New York City, which we were just up in New York, very vibrant, very good. And there may be more opportunities for pricing in New York City than there is in some of the other markets that we are in.

So we are really evaluating that on a market-by-market basis. We think the [prefix] continues to be a very strong proposition for us. It's particularly good when we talk about our private dining and catering business and things like that. And so maybe in some markets we make some small price changes there. But the philosophy sort of stays the same.

Thanks, and then just one quick one on remodels. Obviously, you did a big remodel in New York. Any other, I guess I would term, major remodel projects on restaurants this year?

Well, Andy, yes, we have a number of -- consistent with our brand repositioning, really, is the work that we are doing around our remodel work. And some of it is significant, like New York was, that we're very excited and proud of. Some of it is based on the fact that the restaurant may be a newer restaurant, and only needs lesser amounts.

But we're systematically going through the entire system to determine which restaurants need that, and we expect that we will do probably in the neighborhood of 12 to 15 restaurants this year in terms of remodels at various levels. And like I said, some of them rather modest, and some of them more significant, but inside of the CapEx structure that we've given. And to the extent that we have less, or do not have CapEx needs for the new builds, then that's where maybe some additional remodels may take place.

But some of the remodels, let me make sure I'm real clear about this, some of the remodels are very defensive. Meaning that, in a place like New York, where it's a high-volume restaurant for us, it's done very well, our remodel there, while we expect it will see returns and feel very good about that restaurant, and I know that you have been in there. It's something that it needed to be refreshed and needed to have part of a revitalization take place. So, we are doing what we should do on an ongoing basis to the entire system.

Thanks.

Thank you, we will take our next question from Bart Glenn with D.A. Davidson.

Bart, you there?

Oh, sorry. Yes, I was curious, could you maybe give us a little more color on why the franchise comps were so much stronger than the Company-owned comps? I was just curious if maybe they're taking the greater pricing?

Bart, I think that is a very good question. I think there is a number of things that take place. First of all, we all recognize that we don't dictate what the franchisees charges. We don't dictate their pricing. We share with them what our philosophy is, they adopt, follow, they change, they make their own decisions.

In some cases, our franchise community has been in a lot of smaller markets, and has historically had pricing that was below where we were. In some cases they have pricing that has been at par, and some at a premium. So in some cases, they have elected to make some decisions around pricing that have been a little bit more aggressive. Traffic numbers are relatively the same. But when we are talking about pricing, and they take a little more aggressive pricing increases.

Now again, I would caution, as I have cautioned them, I would say the same thing that I said earlier, that some of the decisions we make around pricing, maybe we don't see that until the tail end, or six months or so later.

Now having said that, our franchisees are smart people, they're thoughtful, they know their markets very well, they were aggressive in taking price corrections, and in doing the things that we did in terms of prefix, et cetera, during the economic downturn. As things have gotten stronger, or some of the markets have gotten stronger, and they feel really good about where their traffic patterns are, they think like they can take a few more and a little more pricing.

So really, the longer or the shorter answer to it is that the traffic comparables are about the same. The pricing piece has been more aggressive on their side.

That's very helpful. And just as a follow-up. If maybe six months from now you see that the incremental pricing that some of the franchise stores have taken isn't negatively impacting traffic. When you have a greater period of time to kind of monitor that, would that provide you with increased confidence to maybe reconsider taking a little bit more pricing on the Company-owned locations?

Again, Bart, you have to go back to the notion of, are you taking price for the moment, or are you taking price for the long-term building of the enterprise? And there's a lot of different variables to that, and then given what is going on in the economy at that time. But I'm not opposed to taking price.

But again, I like the notion that I have consistent traffic growth, that we are resonating with our customers around that. They have the notion of prefix and price certainty is something that we get a lot of feedback -- it's very favorable. So I think we -- a week does not go by we are not in conversation around pricing on almost a market-by-market basis, and we'll continue to make those decisions as we go.

That's great. And then just one follow-up. Just wanted to clarify the gross margin guidance, would that be based on not taking additional price the rest of the year?

Yes, our overall outlook, Bart, does in fact include just what we've done to date.

Okay, wonderful. Thanks a lot, guys.

Thank you. We will take our next question from Howard Penney with Hedgeye Risk Management.

Thanks very much. When you think about TV, I was wondering if you could sort of articulate how you are looking at the returns that you get from the money spent. And more importantly, I don't think I've ever seen a company that hasn't flipped the switch on TV, and it hasn't been a benefit in year one, but the problem comes in year two, when you can't comp the comp, so to speak, because you can't raise enough money to increase the spending. So I was wondering if you could talk about that philosophically? But also if there is a return metric, or how you are looking at the money spent and the returns you get from that? Thanks.

Yes, I think you're spot on. The notion that television advertising and advertising itself become like heroin -- you need more and more every year it comes down the pike. And that is really part of the fundamental test. Meaning that, we are looking at how television, and in this case we have 15-second spots that we're using, and how efficient we can be in terms of cable buys that can support the other efforts that we have. And does it give us the kind of boost that would be a bed to lay underneath other advertising. Not to be a strategy in and of itself, but to be part of something else, so that we would not get ourselves in that position.

And so, what we're doing now, honestly, is looking at what does it do to traffic? What does it do to sales? And more importantly, by virtue of doing work around attitude and usage, what does it tell us our consumer says? Because we would be one of the few high-end restaurants that are out there advertising. We don't want to sort of de-value the brand by doing that.

So we are doing research around that. There a lot of moving parts that make that make sense. I don't want to suggest that, for instance, we find that this works and all of a sudden we now are going to advertise like a major casual-themed restaurant. That's not the case. This is an issue around -- does this fit as part of the strategy that has community outreach, that has other methods of delivering our brand.

And all of this, and even the television, is around the brand experience. It's not at all around anything that has to do with price. And so it's really an underlier to a strategy.

Thank you.

Thank you, and we will take our final question from Nicole Miller with Piper Jaffray.

Nicole, are you on mute?

(Operator Instructions)

Sorry about that.

Nicole, you're usually the first question.

What's that?

You are usually the first question.

Oh, I know, I know. A little slow today, I have to tell you, it's difficult that you are hosting this call during the Royal wedding.

I said that in the beginning. Thanks for joining.

So I waited until the first kiss, and then I logged in for my questions. So, here we go. It sounded like you said 13% up on the banquet sales in the quarter. Was that the figure?

Yes.

Okay, so can you give us a little color -- how does lunch compare to dinner, weekday to weekend, and what's the next catalyst for banquet sales?

Well, Nicole, good morning. In terms of some of the day parts, if you will, at Ruth's Chris we have very limited restaurants who serve lunch, so it's really not a meaningful factor. In terms of dinner, early-week versus weekend, last year we kind of saw a shift. In the beginning of 2010, we had a stronger Sunday through Wednesday segment than the weekends. But probably in late summer, early fall that started to shift a bit, and we started to get an equal distribution between the Sunday through Wednesday and then the Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And that's kind of continued here in the first quarter.

So we view that very -- as a good indicator. And it's really, as we've said before, we have three different buckets of consumers, if you will, be it the business traveler, be it the affluent or our regulars, and be it special occasion diners. And we think all three are actually growing pretty well. And so those splits, the Sunday through Wednesday, the Thursday, Friday, Saturday, support that thesis that we really are getting growth in all of our customer segments.

And when you look at some of your peers exiting the market completely, like by closing stores, and that some of the recovery -- the corporate side is during lunch, would you consider opening anymore of your restaurants for lunch?

Nicole, we have less presence than some of our competitors in urban markets. And that's really where we've had the small number of restaurants that we open for lunch. We have some restaurants in California that open for lunch on Fridays, and we do a compressed amount of business -- if we open five days, we do the same business we would've done on Friday. So we try to be efficient with that.

We evaluate it, again, market-by-market. We are currently not planning on opening any other restaurants for lunch, but clearly downtown markets like New York and Boston, we are open for lunch because there's business there. But to the extent that we are in other markets outside of that sort of business opportunity, we really wouldn't contemplate that.

That actually makes sense. That helps.

Let me go back to just one other thing, and one of the other questions that you asked, and I think that Bob answered a great deal of it, but I think that the catalyst for the continued growth in our private dining and catering business, really we have spent the last year and a half or so really putting some great sales and marketing people into the restaurants that are out developing that business.

And so the groundwork, a lot of that groundwork has been laid. We're now doing repeat business. We're seeing people come back to do further meetings, and private dining, and benefits in the satellite program. So when you'd asked about what is the impetus, I thought part of your question was around the catering and private dining business, and that continues to grow. And it's really not that we have new initiatives, it's that we are staying consistent with our old.

Very helpful. Thank you so much.

And at this time I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Vincent for any additional or closing remarks.

Thank you, operator, this is Mike O'Donnell. Thanks, everybody, for participating. Thanks, Nicole, for coming in after the kiss, and as always it's a great day to go out and eat steak and fish. Thank you very much.

Thank you, that does conclude today's presentation. Thank you for your participation.