Texas Roadhouse Inc (TXRH) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good evening, and welcome to the Texas Roadhouse Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to introduce Michael Bailen, Head of Investor Relations for Texas Roadhouse. You may begin your conference.

晚上好，歡迎參加德州路屋第四季財報電話會議。今天的通話正在錄音。 （操作員說明） 現在我想介紹一下德克薩斯州路屋投資者關係主管邁克爾·拜倫（Michael Bailen）。您可以開始您的會議了。

Thank you, Rob, and good evening. By now, you should have access to our earnings release for the fourth quarter ended December 26, 2023. It may also be found on our website at texasroadhouse.com in the Investors section.

謝謝你，羅布，晚上好。到目前為止，您應該可以訪問我們截至 2023 年 12 月 26 日的第四季度的收益發布。您也可以在我們的網站 texasroadhouse.com 的投資者部分找到該資訊。

I would like to remind everyone that part of our discussion today will 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 earnings release and our recent filings with the SEC. These documents provide a more detailed discussion of the relevant factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements.

我想提醒大家，我們今天討論的一部分將包括前瞻性陳述。這些陳述並不是對未來績效的保證，因此，不應過度依賴它們。我們請大家參閱我們的收益發布以及我們最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件。這些文件對可能導致實際結果與前瞻性陳述有重大差異的相關因素進行了更詳細的討論。

In addition, we may refer to non-GAAP measures. If applicable, reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures to the GAAP information can be found in our earnings release.

此外，我們可能會參考非公認會計原則措施。如果適用，非公認會計原則措施與公認會計原則資訊的調節可以在我們的收益報告中找到。

On the call with me today is Jerry Morgan, Chief Executive Officer of Texas Roadhouse; and Chris Monroe, our Chief Financial Officer. Following the prepared remarks, we will be available to answer your questions. In order to accommodate everyone that would like to ask a question, we kindly ask analysts to please limit yourself to one question.

今天與我通話的是德州路屋 (Texas Roadhouse) 執行長 Jerry Morgan；和我們的財務長克里斯門羅。在準備好發言後，我們將回答您的問題。為了方便每一位想提問的人，我們懇請分析師只回答一個問題。

Now I would like to turn the call over to Jerry.

現在我想把電話轉給傑瑞。

Thanks, Michael, and good evening, everyone. 2023 was another great year for Texas Roadhouse. We generated over $4.6 billion in revenue and increased average unit volumes to over $7.6 million at Texas Roadhouse. And for the full year, comp sales grew over 10%, with more than half of that increase coming from higher guest traffic.

謝謝邁克爾，大家晚上好。 2023 年對 Texas Roadhouse 來說又是偉大的一年。我們在 Texas Roadhouse 創造了超過 46 億美元的收入，並將平均銷售量增加到超過 760 萬美元。全年酒店銷售額成長超過 10%，其中一半以上的成長來自客流量的增加。

Along with this top line growth, we also reported double-digit increases in restaurant margin dollars, income from operations and earnings per share for full year 2023. Our results clearly reflect the commitment our managing partners have in taking care of their guests and their communities. There are no better examples of this passion than our Veterans Day celebration and our national fundraiser to benefit the tinnitus research.

除了收入成長之外，我們還報告了 2023 年全年餐廳利潤、營運收入和每股收益均出現兩位數增長。我們的業績清楚地反映了我們的管理合作夥伴在照顧賓客和社區方面的承諾。沒有比我們的退伍軍人節慶祝活動和為耳鳴研究造福的全國籌款活動更好的例子了。

On Veterans Day, we honored nearly 700,000 veterans by providing a free meal or voucher for a future meal. And just over a week ago, we raised over $925,000 for the American Tinnitus Association in honor of our late founder, Kent Taylor. These are just 2 of the many ways our operators give back to their local communities.

在退伍軍人節，我們提供免費餐點或未來餐券，向近 70 萬名退伍軍人致敬。就在一週前，我們為美國耳鳴協會籌集了超過 92.5 萬美元，以紀念我們已故的創辦人肯特泰勒 (Kent Taylor)。這些只是我們的營運商回饋當地社區的眾多方式中的兩種。

2023 was a record year for system-wide new store openings. For the full year, we opened 30 company restaurants across all brands. And our franchise partners opened 15 restaurants, including our first 2 franchised Jaggers.

2023 年是全系統新店開幕創紀錄的一年。全年，我們開設了 30 家所有品牌的公司餐廳。我們的特許經營合作夥伴開設了 15 家餐廳，其中包括我們的前 2 家特許經營 Jaggers。

For 2024, we continue to expect to open approximately 30 company-owned restaurants across the 3 brands. Our expectation is that this year's openings will be more evenly distributed throughout the year as compared to last year when 50% of our openings occurred in the last 4 months. Additionally, we expect our franchise partners will open as many as 14 international and domestic locations, including 4 Jaggers.

到 2024 年，我們預計將在 3 個品牌中開設約 30 家公司自營餐廳。我們預計，今年的空缺職位全年分佈將更加均勻，去年 50% 的空缺職位發生在過去 4 個月。此外，我們預計我們的特許經營合作夥伴將開設多達 14 家國際和國內門市，其中包括 4 家 Jaggers。

In 2024, we will also maintain our emphasis on operational efficiencies and improving the guest and employee experience by focusing on technology investments. Based on positive feedback from our operators, we're accelerating the number of digital kitchen conversions to be completed this year. We now expect to convert approximately 200 existing Texas Roadhouses to a digital kitchen in 2024. And we have also standardized this equipment for new openings at all 3 brands. We are also focused on increasing guest awareness of our digital platform, which is the most efficient way for our guests to put their names on the waitlist, to dine in our restaurants and to place their to-go orders.

2024 年，我們也將繼續重視營運效率，並透過專注於技術投資來改善賓客和員工的體驗。根據營運商的正面回饋，我們正在加快今年完成的數位廚房改造數量。現在，我們預計到 2024 年將大約 200 家現有的德州路屋改造成數位廚房。我們還為所有 3 個品牌的新店標準化了該設備。我們也致力於提高客人對我們數位平台的認識，這是客人將名字列入候補名單、在我們的餐廳用餐和下外帶訂單的最有效方式。

In closing, we are extremely excited about the direction of our business and our 3 brands. There are so many things to be proud of, but at the same time, we still have many opportunities to continue building our business going forward.

最後，我們對我們的業務方向和 3 個品牌感到非常興奮。有很多值得驕傲的事情，但同時，我們仍然有很多機會繼續發展我們的業務。

Now Chris will provide some thoughts.

現在克里斯將提供一些想法。

Thanks, Jerry. 2023 was certainly an impressive year. Our restaurants are the busiest they've ever been, but our operators are focused on serving even more guests on every shift. Of course, we expect to continue to face inflationary pressures in 2024, albeit at a lower rate than we have experienced the last several years. Cattle supply will continue to be a challenge in 2024. However, we now expect the majority of the financial impact of this tightening supply to be in the back half of 2024.

謝謝，傑瑞。 2023 年無疑是令人印象深刻的一年。我們的餐廳是有史以來最繁忙的，但我們的經營者致力於在每個班次為更多的客人提供服務。當然，我們預計 2024 年將繼續面臨通膨壓力，儘管通膨率低於過去幾年的水平。 2024 年生牛供應仍將是一個挑戰。然而，我們現在預計供應緊縮帶來的大部分財務影響將在 2024 年下半年出現。

As such, we are updating our full year 2024 commodity inflation guidance to approximately 5% from between 5% and 6%. On the labor side, our guidance for wage and other labor inflation remains unchanged at between 4% and 5%.

因此，我們將 2024 年全年商品通膨指引從 5% 至 6% 更新為 5% 左右。在勞動力方面，我們對薪資和其他勞動力通膨的指導維持在 4% 至 5% 之間不變。

To help offset the impact of inflationary pressures, we will be implementing a 2.2% menu price increase at the beginning of our second quarter. As we typically do, we partnered with our operators to determine the appropriate amount of pricing for each of our restaurants. This process includes looking at traffic trends, state-mandated wage increases and local labor trends as well as comparing our prices to those of other restaurants in their specific community. This level of detail and operator involvement provides us with the confidence that we are taking the right level of pricing without sacrificing our value proposition.

為了幫助抵銷通膨壓力的影響，我們將在第二季初將菜單價格上漲 2.2%。正如我們通常所做的那樣，我們與營運商合作，確定每家餐廳的適當定價。這個過程包括查看客流量趨勢、國家規定的工資增長和當地勞動力趨勢，以及將我們的價格與特定社區的其他餐廳的價格進行比較。這種程度的細節和運營商的參與使我們確信我們在不犧牲我們的價值主張的情況下採取了正確的定價水平。

As Jerry mentioned, we opened 30 company-owned restaurants in 2023, which included 22 Texas Roadhouses, 5 Bubba's 33s and 3 Jaggers. While sales volumes at new Texas Roadhouse restaurants increased, so did the average investment cost in 2023. Part of this was the inflationary pressure on building costs that the industry faced in 2023. But it was also due to our strategic investment in building a larger prototype to be able to serve even more guests. The addition of dedicated to-go areas and more back-of-house space needed to serve higher guest volumes has increased the size of the current prototype by approximately 10% from our pre-COVID prototype. Returns on investment for our portfolio of new restaurants continue to exceed both our cost of capital and our targeted mid-teen IRR.

正如 Jerry 所提到的，我們在 2023 年開設了 30 家公司自營餐廳，其中包括 22 家 Texas Roadhouses、5 家 Bubba's 33s 和 3 家 Jaggers。雖然新德州路屋餐廳的銷量增加，但2023 年的平均投資成本也有所增加。部分原因是該行業在2023 年面臨建築成本的通膨壓力。但這也歸因於我們對建造更大原型的策略投資以便能夠服務更多的客人。為滿足更多客流量而增加了專用外賣區和更多後台空間，目前原型的尺寸比新冠肺炎疫情前的原型增加了約 10%。我們新餐廳組合的投資回報繼續超過我們的資本成本和我們的目標內部收益率。

Before we fully shift our attention to 2024, it's important to recognize the financial accomplishments we had in 2023. We ended the year with $104 million in cash and generated $565 million of cash flow from operations. With this cash flow, we self-funded $347 million of capital expenditures as well as the $39 million acquisition of 8 franchise restaurants.

在我們將注意力完全轉向 2024 年之前，重要的是要認識到我們在 2023 年取得的財務成就。年底，我們擁有 1.04 億美元的現金，並產生了 5.65 億美元的營運現金流。憑藉這筆現金流，我們自籌了 3.47 億美元的資本支出，並斥資 3,900 萬美元收購了 8 家特許經營餐廳。

We also returned over $147 million to our shareholders in the form of dividends, completed $50 million of share repurchases and repaid the final $50 million of bank debt that we borrowed at the onset of COVID.

我們還以股息的形式向股東返還超過 1.47 億美元，完成了 5000 萬美元的股票回購，並償還了我們在新冠疫情爆發時借入的最後 5000 萬美元的銀行債務。

In 2024 and beyond, we will continue to make meaningful capital investments in existing restaurants as well as new restaurant development. At this time, our capital expenditure guidance for 2024 remains unchanged at between $340 million and $350 million. As always, investments will be evaluated to ensure we continue to put our capital to work where we create the greatest shareholder value.

2024 年及以後，我們將繼續對現有餐廳以及新餐廳開發進行有意義的資本投資。目前，我們 2024 年的資本支出指引維持在 3.4 億美元至 3.5 億美元之間不變。一如既往，我們將對投資進行評估，以確保我們繼續將資本用於創造最大股東價值的領域。

Overall, our shareholders were rewarded in fiscal year 2023 with EPS growth of 14.3% and a dividend yield of 2.1%. This total return of 16.4% is consistent with our average return over the past 10 years. With a disciplined approach to capital allocation and the excellent results we expect our operators to continue generating, we are confident that we can continue to reward our investors with strong returns for years to come.

總體而言，我們的股東在 2023 財年獲得了回報，每股收益成長 14.3%，股息殖利率為 2.1%。 16.4%的總回報率與我們過去10年的平均回報率一致。憑藉嚴格的資本配置方法以及我們期望營運商繼續創造的優異業績，我們有信心在未來幾年繼續以豐厚的回報回報投資者。

And now Michael will walk us through the quarter results and provide additional 2024 guidance.

現在，麥可將向我們介紹季度業績並提供額外的 2024 年指引。

Thanks, Chris. For the fourth quarter of 2023, we reported revenue growth of 15.3%, driven by a 9.3% increase in average unit volume and 6.1% store week growth. We also reported a restaurant margin dollar increase of 21.4% to $177 million and a diluted earnings per share increase of 21.3% to $1.08.

謝謝，克里斯。 2023 年第四季度，我們報告營收成長 15.3%，主要得益於平均單位銷售成長 9.3% 和商店週成長 6.1%。我們還報告稱，餐廳利潤率增長 21.4%，達到 1.77 億美元，攤薄後每股收益增長 21.3%，達到 1.08 美元。

Average weekly sales in the fourth quarter were over $141,000, with to-go representing approximately $18,000 or 12.6% of these total weekly sales. At this time, to-go has already become, on average, a $1 million business per restaurant with additional room for growth.

第四季平均每週銷售額超過 141,000 美元，其中外送銷售額約為 18,000 美元，佔每週總銷售額的 12.6%。目前，外送業務已成為平均每家餐廳 100 萬美元的業務，並且還有更大的成長空間。

Comparable sales increased 9.9% in the fourth quarter, driven by 5.1% traffic growth and a 4.8% increase in average check. By month, comparable sales grew 9.2% in both October and November and 11.1% in December. And while weather has negatively impacted our year-to-date 2024 sales, comparable sales are still up 6.8%, including 3% traffic growth for the first 50 days of the year, with our restaurants averaging sales of approximately $155,000 per week during that time frame.

在流量成長 5.1% 和平均支票成長 4.8% 的推動下，第四季可比銷售額成長 9.9%。按月計算，10 月和 11 月可比銷售額成長 9.2%，12 月成長 11.1%。儘管天氣對我們2024 年迄今的銷售額產生了負面影響，但可比銷售額仍增長了6.8%，其中今年前50 天的客流量增長了3%，在此期間我們的餐廳平均每週銷售額約為155,000 美元框架。

In the fourth quarter, restaurant margin dollars per store week increased to over $21,600. And restaurant margin as a percentage of total sales increased 75 basis points year-over-year to 15.3%. Food and beverage costs as a percentage of total sales were 34.2% for the fourth quarter. The 88 basis point year-over-year improvement was driven by the benefit of a 4.8% check increase offsetting the 3.2% commodity inflation for the quarter. Commodity inflation for full year 2023 was 5.6%, which was the midpoint of our guidance.

第四季度，餐廳每店週的利潤增加至 21,600 美元以上。餐廳利潤率佔總銷售額的百分比年增 75 個基點，達到 15.3%。第四季食品和飲料成本佔總銷售額的百分比為 34.2%。年成長 88 個基點是由於 4.8% 的支票成長抵消了本季 3.2% 的商品通膨。 2023 年全年商品通膨率為 5.6%，這是我們指引的中點。

Labor as a percentage of total sales decreased 28 basis points to 33.1% as compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. Labor dollars per store week increased 7.9% due to wage and other labor inflation of 5.5% and growth in hours of 2.4%. For the full year, wage and other labor inflation came in at 6.6%, which was the midpoint of our 2023 guidance.

與2022 年第四季相比，勞動力佔總銷售額的百分比下降了28 個基點，至33.1%。由於工資和其他勞動力通膨5.5% 以及工時增長2.4%，每店每週的勞動力美元增長7.9% 。全年薪資和其他勞動力通膨率為 6.6%，這是我們 2023 年指導的中位數。

As Chris mentioned, we continue to expect wage and other labor inflation of between 4% and 5% in 2024. Included within this guidance is approximately $3 million of additional labor expense in the second half of 2024 from enhancements to our equity compensation program, including a move from quarterly to annual grants. Other operating costs were 15.8% of sales, which was 49 basis points higher than the fourth quarter of 2022. Included in the year-over-year change is in an approximately 40 basis point negative impact from adjustments to our quarterly reserve for general liability insurance. These adjustments include $3.7 million of additional expense this year and a $0.9 million credit last year.

正如Chris 所提到的，我們繼續預期2024 年薪資和其他勞動力通膨率將在4% 至5% 之間。本指引中包括因加強我們的股權薪酬計劃而在2024 年下半年產生約300 萬美元的額外勞動力支出，包括從季度撥款改為每年撥款。其他營運成本佔銷售額的 15.8%，比 2022 年第四季高出 49 個基點。年比變動包括一般責任保險季度準備金調整帶來的約 40 個基點的負面影響。這些調整包括今年 370 萬美元的額外費用和去年 90 萬美元的信貸。

Moving below restaurant margin, G&A dollars grew 23.3% year-over-year and came in at 4.3% of revenue for the fourth quarter. The primary driver of the year-over-year increase was higher cash and equity compensation. For 2024, the equity grant enhancement will also add approximately $3.5 million of G&A expense in the second half of the year. Our effective tax rate for the quarter was 10.9%. Our full year 2023 income tax rate of 12.5% was below our guidance due to a lower-than-anticipated state tax rate. And we are updating our expectation for the full year 2024 income tax rate to approximately 14%.

低於餐廳利潤率，一般管理費用年增 23.3%，佔第四季營收的 4.3%。年比成長的主要驅動因素是現金和股權薪酬的增加。 2024 年，股權授予增強還將在下半年增加約 350 萬美元的一般管理費用。我們本季的有效稅率為 10.9%。由於州稅率低於預期，我們 2023 年全年所得稅率為 12.5%，低於我們的指引。我們將 2024 年全年所得稅稅率的預期更新為 14% 左右。

Finally, as we reminded everyone last quarter, 2024 is a 53-week year for us. As such, the fourth quarter will have 14 weeks versus our normal 13 weeks. We estimate that the additional week could benefit full year 2024 earnings per share growth by approximately 4%.

最後，正如我們上個季度提醒大家的那樣，2024 年對我們來說是 53 週的一年。因此，第四季將有 14 週，而正常情況下為 13 週。我們估計，額外的一周可能有利於 2024 年全年每股收益成長約 4%。

Now I will turn the call back over to Jerry for final comments.

現在我將把電話轉回傑瑞以徵求最終意見。

Thanks, Michael. There's no question 2023 was another legendary year for Texas Roadhouse, and we are looking forward to building on our momentum into 2024.

謝謝，麥可。毫無疑問，2023 年對 Texas Roadhouse 來說又是一個傳奇的一年，我們期待在 2024 年繼續保持這一勢頭。

As always, we will be focused on driving sales, controlling costs, taking care of our people and maximizing shareholder value. We are also looking forward to our upcoming Managing Partner Conference in Austin, Texas, where we will be celebrating all of our amazing partners. Additionally, we will be naming our Annual Managing Partner of the Year for Texas Roadhouse and our second ever Bubba's 33 Managing Partner of the Year.

一如既往，我們將專注於推動銷售、控製成本、照顧員工和最大化股東價值。我們也期待即將在德克薩斯州奧斯汀舉行的管理合夥人會議，我們將在那裡慶祝所有出色的合作夥伴。此外，我們也將選出 Texas Roadhouse 年度最佳管理合夥人以及第二屆 Bubba's 33 年度最佳管理合夥人。

I'm very proud of our accomplishments and even more excited for our future. It's a great time to be a Roadie at Texas Roadhouse. That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open the line for questions.

我對我們的成就感到非常自豪，對我們的未來更加興奮。現在是在 Texas Roadhouse 擔任 Roadie 的好時機。我們準備好的演講到此結束。接線員，請開通提問線。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Jeffrey Bernstein from Barclays.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的傑弗裡·伯恩斯坦（Jeffrey Bernstein）。

Great. Two questions. The first one, just thinking about the 2024 restaurant margins. It's pretty impressive. You nailed the cost outlook in 2023 in terms of the ranges you provided for COGS and labor. If you were to do the same in 2024 -- and obviously, you gave us the inflation guidance you expect at this point. But if you came in within those ranges, can you talk about the potential restaurant margin expansion outcomes or maybe the range of outcomes you could see or what you think would be the greatest unknowns in terms of that restaurant margin? And then I had one follow-up.

偉大的。兩個問題。第一個，只考慮 2024 年餐廳的利潤率。這真是令人印象深刻。您根據提供的銷貨成本和勞動力範圍確定了 2023 年的成本前景。如果你要在 2024 年做同樣的事情——顯然，你給了我們你此時預期的通膨指導。但是，如果您處於這些範圍內，您能否談談潛在的餐廳利潤擴張結果，或者您可以看到的結果範圍，或者您認為餐廳利潤方面最大的未知數是什麼？然後我進行了一項後續行動。

Jeff, it's Michael. Thanks for the question. There are a couple of things that you may need to determine on your own, and that really relates to the top line growth, how much traffic you want to assume, what pricing we may take in the fourth quarter. But assuming modest traffic growth, modest additional pricing and kind of hitting the midpoint of our range, I do think you have opportunity to see restaurant margin expansion. And really, the other operating is probably the biggest area for that expansion.

傑夫，這是麥可。謝謝你的提問。您可能需要自己確定一些事情，這些事情確實與營收成長、您想要承擔的流量以及我們在第四季度可能採取的定價有關。但假設客流量成長適度，額外定價適度，並且達到我們範圍的中點，我確實認為您有機會看到餐廳利潤率擴張。事實上，其他業務可能是此次擴張的最大領域。

You may also get some labor. You probably would get some expansion earlier in the year, and then some of those enhancements that we talked about may flatten that out. And then your commodities, we're probably -- with the stair step up in the commodity inflation, you're going to see leverage earlier in the year. And again, that's just with the guidance that we've given how it probably would play out.

您也可能會得到一些勞動力。您可能會在今年早些時候獲得一些擴展，然後我們討論的一些增強功能可能會消除這種情況。然後是大宗商品，隨著大宗商品通膨的加劇，您將在今年早些時候看到槓桿。再說一遍，這只是我們給予的指導，它可能會如何發揮作用。

Understood. So it sounds like both labor and commodities could be more favorable in the first half, less so in the back half.

明白了。因此，聽起來勞動力和大宗商品在上半年可能會更有利，而在下半年則可能會更有利。

Yes, I would agree with that as far as how we contemplate the inflation playing out.

是的，就我們如何看待通貨膨脹而言，我同意這一點。

Got you. And then just to clarify on the comp strength through the fourth quarter, pretty stable in October, November, accelerated nicely in December. Is there any change in consumer behavior you're seeing, whether traffic or mix shift, how the consumer spending, even going into the first 50 days of this year? I'm just wondering whether you get the sense there's any change in behavior with obviously a lot of people anticipating a potential slowdown or whatnot. But I'm just wondering what you're seeing across your portfolio of brands in terms of consumer spending patterns and behavior.

明白你了。然後澄清一下第四季的比較實力，10 月、11 月相當穩定，12 月加速良好。您看到的消費者行為是否有任何變化，無論是流量還是混合變化，消費者的消費方式，甚至是今年前 50 天的變化？我只是想知道您是否感覺到行為發生了任何變化，顯然很多人都預計經濟可能會放緩或發生其他什麼情況。但我只是想知道您在品牌組合中看到的消費者支出模式和行為如何。

Jeff, it's Michael. Again, I'd say we are very excited about what we're seeing at all of our brands. The consumer behavior does not seem to have changed in the fourth quarter or really changed much in the first 50 days of the year. And a lot of that can be seen by the traffic growth that we put up. I mean we continue to see some negative mix in the alcohol category. I think that's more of an industry behavior than anything directly related to Texas Roadhouse.

傑夫，這是麥可。我想說，我們對所有品牌所看到的一切感到非常興奮。消費者行為在第四季度似乎沒有變化，或者在今年前 50 天確實發生了很大變化。其中很多可以從我們的流量成長看出。我的意思是，我們在酒精類別中繼續看到一些負面的組合。我認為這更多的是一種行業行為，而不是與德克薩斯路屋直接相關的任何事情。

But other than that, I think we continue to see guests trading into us from fast casual or other casual diners. Some of those are probably going more towards the value side of our menu, the 6-ounce sirloin and the other lower-priced items and maybe they're not -- they're getting a soft beverage instead of an alcoholic beverage, but we feel very happy at the consumer right now.

但除此之外，我認為我們繼續看到客人從快速休閒餐廳或其他休閒餐廳轉向我們。其中一些可能更傾向於我們菜單中的價值面，6 盎司牛腰肉和其他價格較低的商品，也許他們不是——他們喝的是軟性飲料而不是酒精飲料，但我們現在對消費者感到非常高興。

Your next question comes from the line of Peter Saleh from BTIG.

您的下一個問題來自 BTIG 的 Peter Saleh。

I didn't want to come back to the conversation around the commodities. You've reduced your outlook or at least the inflation outlook just slightly. I assume you guys are mostly contracted on the first half of the year, so you got some good visibility. Can you just elaborate a little bit on really what you're seeing there and what really caused you to kind of take that down albeit modestly?

我不想回到圍繞大宗商品的談話。您已經降低了預期，或至少稍微降低了通膨預期。我想你們大部分都是在今年上半年簽約的，所以你們有一些很好的知名度。您能詳細說明一下您在那裡看到的情況以及真正導致您謙虛地撤下它的原因嗎？

Peter, it's Michael. It really had to do with, you're right, the first half of the year, what we were seeing in the first quarter and some of the expectation of what will continue in the next several months. And we do then think that tightening really starts to have a bigger financial impact on the industry in the back half of the year. So the change was largely because of the beef outlook in the earlier months.

彼得，這是麥可。你是對的，這確實與今年上半年、我們在第一季看到的情況以及對未來幾個月將繼續發生的情況的一些預期有關。我們確實認為，今年下半年緊縮政策確實開始對該行業產生更大的財務影響。因此，這一變化主要是由於前幾個月的牛肉前景。

You are correct. We have a -- certainly, in the first quarter, a good amount of our beef and our commodities locked. It becomes a smaller percent as we move further out. For competitive reasons, probably not going to get into much more detail as to what percent locked. But again, our beef experts are picking and choosing their moments as to when to lock in and when it's better to be on a formula basis.

你是對的。當然，在第一季度，我們有大量的牛肉和商品被鎖定。當我們進一步移動時，它會變得更小。出於競爭原因，可能不會詳細說明鎖定百分比。但同樣，我們的牛肉專家正在挑選合適的時機，以確定何時鎖定以及何時最好採用配方奶粉。

And Peter, this is Chris. I'll just add to -- I talked last quarter about the other part of our basket is helping to offset the beef inflation. That's continuing, so we're certainly seeing that. But everything Michael just told you about our situation with beef is continuing.

彼得，這是克里斯。我只想補充一下——我上個季度談到我們籃子的另一部分正在幫助抵消牛肉通膨。這種情況仍在繼續，所以我們肯定會看到這一點。但邁克爾剛才告訴你的有關我們牛肉情況的一切仍在繼續。

Great. And then just on the CapEx, I know $340 million to $350 million. I recognize that is obviously much higher than it was several years ago. Can you just help us out in terms of what's really changed over the past couple of years? I know you said your -- the restaurants are a little bit larger, so that's adding some more to the expense. Are you also doing any bump outs this year or any other renovations that we should be aware of that are kind of driving that number that high?

偉大的。然後就資本支出而言，我知道 3.4 億至 3.5 億美元。我認識到這顯然比幾年前要高得多。您能幫我們了解過去幾年發生的真正變化嗎？我知道你說過你的——餐廳更大一點，所以這會增加一些費用。今年你們是否也進行了任何我們應該意識到的突破或任何其他翻修，從而導致了這個數字如此之高？

Peter, it's Michael. I mean we certainly will be doing bump outs like we have done in past years and other remodels. Those higher numbers really are a reflection of the inflation that equipment and labor has seen to get work done over the last several years, coupled with we are -- we're now an older base of restaurants than we were before, and we're busier than we've ever been. So we have equipment that needs to be replaced and getting work done whether it be building a new restaurant or bumping out an existing restaurant costs more than it did in the past. So that's really what has driven those costs higher.

彼得，這是麥可。我的意思是，我們肯定會像過去幾年一樣進行升級和其他改造。這些較高的數字確實反映了過去幾年設備和勞動力的通貨膨脹，再加上我們現在的餐廳基地比以前更老了，而且我們我們比以往任何時候都更忙。因此，我們有需要更換的設備和完成工作，無論是建造新餐廳還是拆除現有餐廳，其成本都比過去更高。所以這確實是導致這些成本更高的原因。

Yes. And the only thing I would add to that -- again, it's Chris. The only thing I would add to that is our investment in some technology like the -- Jerry was talking about the 200 restaurants we're going to put digital kitchen in. So that will add as well. But those are all investments we feel really good about paying off in the future.

是的。我唯一想補充的是──克里斯。我唯一要補充的是我們對一些技術的投資，例如傑瑞正在談論我們將在 200 家餐廳中安裝數位廚房。所以這也會增加。但這些都是我們認為未來能得到回報的投資。

Your next question comes from the line of David Tarantino from Baird.

你的下一個問題來自貝爾德 (Baird) 的大衛塔倫提諾 (David Tarantino)。

I have a couple of questions about the pricing philosophy and the margin outlook. So I guess, first, with the price increase you're planning in March, it does look like the total pricing that you're taking this year is going to be pretty closely matched up with inflation. And I think in the past, the philosophy has been to perhaps underprice versus inflation. So do I have that right? And then if so, is this a change in your philosophy on how you're managing margins going forward?

我有幾個關於定價理念和利潤前景的問題。所以我想，首先，隨著你們計劃在三月漲價，今年你們採取的總定價確實將與通貨膨脹密切相關。我認為過去的理念可能是相對於通膨而言低估價格。那我有這個權利嗎？如果是這樣，這是否會改變您未來管理利潤的理念？

Well, I think we have always taken a conservative approach in how we look at it throughout the country and maintaining value in our menu. So when we gather with our operators and really talk over about mandated wage increases and different things that will affect their business, we still want to have a competitive mindset as we go into keeping our value built into our menu and making sure that we're also keeping value for our consumer in place. Michael can talk to a little bit on the numbers from that.

嗯，我認為我們在全國範圍內看待它並保持菜單價值時一直採取保守的態度。因此，當我們與運營商聚集在一起，真正討論強制加薪以及會影響他們業務的其他事情時，我們仍然希望保持競爭心態，因為我們將我們的價值融入到我們的菜單中，並確保我們還為我們的消費者保持價值。麥可可以談談其中的數字。

Yes. I think, David, what I would mention is it definitely is not a change in our philosophy. We've always said we want to be pricing for the structural component of inflation, which is largely wage inflation. But that doesn't mean that we're always pricing for all of it as soon as we're feeling it. So some of the pricing that we are taking now is to offset wage pressures that we have felt over the last several years as we continue to manage that labor line, both through productivity efforts but the reality of the higher wage rates that we're paying. So definitely not a change in philosophy, still going from a bottom-up approach of talking to each operator and making sure they are absolutely in alignment with what we're doing.

是的。我想，大衛，我要提到的是，這絕對不是我們理念的改變。我們一直說我們希望對通膨的結構性組成部分進行定價，其中主要是薪資通膨。但這並不意味著我們總是在感受到它時就為所有這些定價。因此，我們現在採取的一些定價是為了抵消過去幾年我們感受到的工資壓力，因為我們繼續管理勞動力線，既透過生產力的努力，也透過我們支付的更高工資率的現實。因此，絕對不是理念上的改變，仍然採用自下而上的方法，與每個操作員交談並確保他們絕對與我們正在做的事情保持一致。

Great. That's a helpful explanation. And then on the commodity outlook, stepping up in the second half, does that sort of give us some visibility into next year and that maybe the beef costs or whatever commodity costs are accelerating? I assume it's beef could have a carryover impact from that as you look into next year. I just want to understand how to think about that.

偉大的。這是一個有用的解釋。然後，就大宗商品前景而言，下半年的上漲是否能讓我們對明年有一些了解，也許牛肉成本或其他大宗商品成本正在加速？我認為，當你展望明年時，牛肉可能會產生遺留影響。我只是想了解如何思考這個問題。

Yes. David, it's Michael. I would say it's a little early for us to give you any thoughts on what this could mean for 2025. But the industry reports out there, obviously, are calling for tighter supply into '24 and as of yet not hearing much relief coming in the future but a little early for us to be able to give you any true thoughts about 2025.

是的。大衛，這是麥可。我想說，現在就我們對這對 2025 年意味著什麼進行思考還為時過早。但顯然，行業報告呼籲 24 年供應趨緊，但到目前為止，還沒有聽到任何緩解措施。未來，但我們現在能夠向您提供有關2025 年的真實想法還為時過早。

Your next question comes from the line of Dennis Geiger from UBS.

您的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團 (UBS) 的丹尼斯·蓋革 (Dennis Geiger)。

Great. Appreciate it. Wondering if you could talk a little bit more to sort of thinking about the labor situation as it relates to labor relative to traffic for '24. Does that look more like the historical relationship let you look better than the historical relationship? Maybe if you could just kind of touch on what that looks like and perhaps how digital kitchens and tech more broadly may be able to help out from that perspective?

偉大的。欣賞它。想知道您是否可以多談談對勞動力狀況的思考，因為它與勞動力相對於 24 年的交通量有關。是不是看起來更像是歷史關係讓你比歷史關係更好看呢？也許您能談談它是什麼樣子的，以及數位廚房和更廣泛的技術如何能夠從這個角度提供幫助？

Dennis, it's Chris. Yes, I'll start. I mean I think we were really encouraged in the fourth quarter. Our labor hours grew less than 50% of traffic growth. And that was -- it's been -- that's been difficult to achieve since the pandemic. And so there's a focus by our operators on that line item, and the fact that we have employees staying with us, our turnover is at or better than it was pre-COVID. And all of those things provide some encouragement on that particular line item. But again, to have achieved it in the fourth quarter, we're projecting that we can do it again in the first quarter. And so I think all that's very positive.

丹尼斯，是克里斯。是的，我要開始了。我的意思是，我認為我們在第四季度確實受到了鼓舞。我們的工時成長不到流量成長的 50%。自大流行以來，這一直是很難實現的。因此，我們的營運商非常關注該項目，事實上，我們有員工留在我們身邊，我們的營業額等於或高於新冠疫情之前的水平。所有這些都為該特定訂單項提供了一些鼓勵。但同樣，為了在第四季度實現這一目標，我們預計我們可以在第一季再次實現這一目標。所以我認為這一切都是非常正面的。

And I'll speak to the digital kitchen. This is Jerry. We've opened -- we -- all of our new stores opened with the digital kitchen this year. We converted 20. We've really been talking strategically about how to get the whole Roadhouse concept on that digital kitchen format because of the many benefits that we see not only for the commotion in the kitchen itself but even the ability to track our cook times and so many features that we believe will enhance our experience for our employees in the back of the house and it'll impact in a positive manner the cook times for our front-of-the-house table turn.

我將談談數位廚房。這是傑瑞。今年我們所有的新店都配備了數位廚房。我們轉換了 20。我們一直在策略性地討論如何在數位廚房格式上實現整個 Roadhouse 概念，因為我們看到的許多好處不僅體現在廚房本身的騷動方面，甚至還體現在跟踪烹飪時間的能力方面我們相信許多功能將增強我們後廚員工的體驗，並對我們前台餐桌的烹飪時間產生積極的影響。

So the digital kitchen is a huge commitment. The feedback from our operators has been incredible, and the demand and desire is there. So we -- and the number is a pretty big number for us, but we've got a great game plan. And I think strategically, we're going to execute at a high level to do that. All of Jaggers and Bubba's are already on the digital kitchen format.

因此，數位廚房是一項巨大的承諾。我們營運商的回饋令人難以置信，需求和願望就在那裡。所以我們——這個數字對我們來說是一個相當大的數字，但我們有一個很棒的遊戲計劃。我認為從戰略上講，我們將在高水平上執行來做到這一點。 Jaggers 和 Bubba 的所有餐廳均已採用數位廚房格式。

Your next question comes from the line of Sara Senatore from Bank of America.

您的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Sara Senatore。

Just 2 clarifications. The first is on the labor point. You made the point that you grow hours less than traffic. I guess I was under the impression that maybe as we think about fiscal '23, you were kind of getting to full staffing over the course of the year across most of the restaurants. So while your wage inflation maybe was highest in the first half, maybe your hours were not. And so I was just curious if that -- if there is sort of an opportunity in the second half of this year to maybe have more labor leverage from that perspective, even if wage inflation is perhaps more moderate and whether the technology may also contribute to that. So that was the first clarification, just sort of the staffing approach through 2023.

只是 2 點澄清。首先是關於勞動點。您指出，您增加的時間少於流量。我想我的印像是，也許當我們考慮 23 財年時，大多數餐廳在這一年中都會配備滿員。因此，雖然你的薪資通膨可能在上半年最高，但你的工作時間可能不是最高。所以我只是好奇，從這個角度來看，今年下半年是否有機會獲得更多的勞動力槓桿，即使薪資通膨可能更為溫和，以及該技術是否也可能有助於那。這是第一個澄清，只是到 2023 年的人員配置方法。

Sara, it's Michael. Yes, I do think what Chris talked about, that -- those labor hours growing at less than traffic is something that could certainly continue into Q2 and into Q3 and into the fourth quarter as well. Our operators are focused on that productivity. People are staying around longer. So that is certainly an expectation or something that we are going to be working on all year along, getting that better productivity on the labor hours.

薩拉，是麥可。是的，我確實認為克里斯所說的——那些以低於交通量的速度增長的勞動時間肯定會持續到第二季​​、第三季和第四季。我們的操作員專注於這種生產力。人們停留的時間越來越長。因此，這肯定是我們的期望或我們將全年努力的事情，以提高勞動時間的生產力。

Great. Okay. And then other question was about your mix has been very consistent. They're just modestly negative, even though we seem to keep hearing that the industry is getting more focused on value. So are you seeing anything that would suggest that your relative value proposition is -- that gap is narrowing or people are making different decisions just because it doesn't appear to be showing up in your comps at all? But curious on your thoughts on that.

偉大的。好的。然後另一個問題是關於你的組合非常一致。儘管我們似乎不斷聽說該行業越來越關注價值，但它們只是適度的負面影響。那麼，您是否看到任何表明您的相對價值主張是——差距正在縮小，或者人們只是因為它似乎根本沒有出現在您的比較中而做出不同的決定？但很好奇你對此的想法。

Yes. I think, just like to your point, it's not showing up glaringly for us either. I think our value has always been built into the menu and the consumer feels very good about our offerings. And from that standpoint, whether it be our stake or chicken or -- all of our offerings are country dinner. So we feel very good about where we're placed, but we don't see anything to indicate that there's a lot of movement within that menu pricing.

是的。我想，就像你的觀點一樣，它對我們來說也沒有明顯地表現出來。我認為我們的價值一直融入菜單中，消費者對我們的產品感覺非常好。從這個角度來看，無論是我們的股份還是雞肉，或者——我們所有的產品都是鄉村晚餐。因此，我們對自己的定位感到非常滿意，但我們沒有看到任何跡象表明菜單定價有很大的變化。

Your next question comes from the line of David Palmer from Evercore ISI.

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

An amazing quarter-to-date comps, really amazing.

令人驚嘆的季度至今的比較，真的太棒了。

Thank you so much.

太感謝了。

I wanted to ask you about KDS. You just comment a little bit about some of the things that it does for you. And the good news, I guess, is that you're not -- you don't have to be pioneers on KDS. You've seen it in some of your brands already. Can you maybe give us a sense of what it can do to the metrics that the Wall Street nerds would be following, comps, margins, things like that? Maybe even this is something that will help you on that labor leverage where you might be able to add less hours because of table turns and you make the shift work better. I don't know. But is there any metrics that you could share what it does for you?

我想問你關於KDS的事情。您只需評論一下它為您所做的一些事情即可。我想，好消息是您不必成為 KDS 的先驅。您已經在您的一些品牌中看到了這一點。您能否讓我們了解一下它對華爾街的書呆子們所遵循的指標、比較、利潤率等有何影響？也許這甚至可以幫助您提高勞動力槓桿率，您可以因為輪班而增加更少的工作時間，從而使輪班工作更好。我不知道。但是有什麼指標可以分享它對您的作用嗎？

Well, David, thanks for -- I think that -- this is Jerry. I -- the benefit for us is really about the efficiency of the overall kitchen. And the way that the digital kitchen organizes through the screens versus through the tickets creates a lot less chaos, I guess, you could say. There's no doubt we can track our cook times. There's some real positives from that side of it, as we've already seen. And again, we're only 40 or 50 in, but we are very committed.

好吧，大衛，謝謝你——我想——這是傑瑞。我——對我們來說的好處實際上是整個廚房的效率。我想，你可能會說，數位廚房透過螢幕進行組織的方式與透過門票進行組織的方式相比，減少了很多混亂。毫無疑問，我們可以追蹤烹飪時間。正如我們已經看到的那樣，這方面有一些真正的積極因素。再說一次，我們只有 40 或 50 歲，但我們非常投入。

Every indicator that we have -- and Michael will talk to your Wall Street nerd thing. But I will just talk to you as a kitchen guy. What I see in those kitchens is communication, a consistency. It just organized it, so people don't stress out when you got a whole bunch of tickets in front of you and all of that, and we can clearly monitor how long our cook times are. So that will be a big win for us going forward. And then I think Michael has a couple of comments.

我們掌握的每一項指標——麥可都會和你的華爾街書呆子談論事情。但我只是以廚房人員的身份來和你談談。我在那些廚房裡看到的是溝通和一致性。它只是組織起來，所以當你面前有一大堆門票之類的時候，人們不會感到壓力，而且我們可以清楚地監控我們的烹飪時間有多長。因此，這對我們未來來說將是一個巨大的勝利。然後我認為邁克爾有一些評論。

Yes. Thanks, Jerry. Yes, I do think, again, that calmer kitchen does lead to a happier Roadie who has been less likely to seek other employment. So maybe your turnover improves because of that, and you're keeping that efficient productive employee for longer. But as far as what it may do to the front of the house, I think we have found that the digital kitchen does time the food out a little bit better. So maybe those salads get out as an appetizer to the guests a little bit quicker, and the entrees are getting out there a little bit quicker.

是的。謝謝，傑瑞。是的，我確實再次認為，更平靜的廚房確實會讓路迪更快樂，他不太可能尋求其他工作。因此，也許您的營業額會因此而提高，並且您可以更長時間地保留高效的生產力員工。但就它對房子前面的影響而言，我認為我們已經發現數位廚房確實可以更好地安排食物的時間。因此，也許這些沙拉作為開胃菜更快地送到客人面前，而主菜也更快地送到那裡。

So you couple that benefit with our Roadhouse Pay, our pay-at-the-table system, which is speeding up the check and change portion of the dining experience. And then maybe you -- at the guest discretion, you have shortened the table turn time and which allows you to quote a shorter wait time to that next guest. So by the end of the night, maybe somebody who was previously being told they could be sat at 8:30 is now being told 8:10 or 8:15, and that may make all the difference in their willingness to stay and us getting another table turn out in the restaurant.

因此，您可以將這一優勢與我們的「Roadhouse Pay」（我們的餐桌付款系統）結合起來，該系統可以加快用餐體驗的結帳和更改部分。然後也許您——根據客人的判斷，您縮短了餐桌週轉時間，這使您可以為下一位客人提供更短的等待時間。因此，到了晚上結束時，也許之前被告知可以在8:30 就座的人現在被告知可以在8:10 或8:15 就座，這可能會對他們留下來的意願產生很大的影響，而我們得到的結果可能會有所不同。餐廳裡出現了另一張桌子。

And do you -- is this something that you'll ramp the deployment of? I know you wait for it to be pulled, but I would imagine at this point that it's being pulled heavily. I mean how fast can you roll these out? Can this be done by the end of 2025 for example? Any sense of that?

您會加大部署力度嗎？我知道你在等待它被拉動，但我可以想像此時它正在被猛烈地拉動。我的意思是你能以多快的速度推出這些產品？例如，這可以在 2025 年底之前完成嗎？有什麼感覺嗎？

Well, I think we're going to try to get through this year and see how these 200 go. And then obviously the intention is to get the whole concept done. I think it might take a little longer than that, but we want to do it strategically, and we want to execute at a high level for our partners. So we'll be as fast as we possibly can because we're committed to it and believe in it, but I don't want to put a date on it yet.

嗯，我想我們會努力度過今年，看看這 200 人表現如何。顯然，我們的目的是完成整個概念。我認為這可能需要更長的時間，但我們希望策略性地做到這一點，並且我們希望為我們的合作夥伴高水準地執行。因此，我們將盡可能快地進行，因為我們致力於並相信它，但我還不想確定具體日期。

Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Farmer from Gordon Haskett.

你的下一個問題來自戈登哈斯克特的傑夫法默。

Just some quick modeling follow-ups. Assuming the 2.2% menu pricing takes place in March, what would Q1 and Q2 menu pricing be?

只是一些快速的建模後續工作。假設 2.2% 的菜單定價發生在 3 月份，那麼第一季和第二季的菜單定價是多少？

Sure. Jeff, it's Michael. And again, that pricing will go into effect our first day of our second quarter. So for the first quarter, you won't get any benefit from it, but we'll have between 4.8% and 4.9% pricing in Q1. And we'll have basically the same thing in Q2 and Q3, about 4.8% to 4.9% for both those quarters. And obviously, if we didn't do anything in the back half of the year in the fourth quarter, we would only have the 2.2% in Q4, but we'll reevaluate what's appropriate as we get later into the year of what we may want to add on to that.

當然。傑夫，這是麥可。同樣，該定價將於第二季的第一天生效。因此，在第一季度，您不會從中獲得任何好處，但我們第一季的定價將在 4.8% 到 4.9% 之間。第二季和第三季的情況基本上相同，這兩個季度的成長率約為 4.8% 至 4.9%。顯然，如果我們在第四季度的後半段不採取任何措施，那麼我們在第四季度就只能獲得2.2% 的利潤，但我們將重新評估什麼是合適的，因為我們將在今年晚些時候進入我們可能會做的事情。我想補充一下。

And the weather impact on the quarter to date same-store sales in the Q1, did you share that?

天氣對第一季迄今同店銷售的影響，您分享了嗎？

Yes, that's -- this is Chris, Jeff. January, we had -- and we talked about that in the prepared remarks, but January had 2 really tough weeks, and it impacted the guest counts by about 2.5%. And so if you take that -- extrapolate it into the first 50 days, we were down about 1%. So the 3% growth that Michael shared with you, if you take that weather out, would have been 4%. So there was a lot to be proud of in those first 50 days. And our operators, they slog through those 2 very difficult weeks and took care of the customers that were able to show up and serve them well. But it was a great first 50 days in spite of those 2 weeks.

是的，那就是──這是克里斯，傑夫。一月份，我們在準備好的發言中討論了這一點，但是一月份經歷了非常艱難的兩週，它對客人數量造成了約 2.5% 的影響。因此，如果你將其推斷到前 50 天，我們下降了約 1%。因此，如果排除天氣因素，邁克爾與您分享的 3% 成長率將是 4%。因此，在最初的 50 天裡，有很多值得自豪的事情。而我們的營運商，他們艱難地度過了這非常困難的兩週，並照顧到能夠出現並為他們提供良好服務的客戶。儘管有兩週的時間，但前 50 天還是很棒的。

It was, definitely. And just last one for me. Q4 check, I think you shared was 4.8%, but just some quick breakdown of pricing and mix for the Q4?

確實如此。對我來說只是最後一件。第四季度檢查，我認為您分享的是 4.8%，但只是第四季度定價和組合的一些快速細分？

Jeff, we had 5.5% pricing in Q4, so therefore, we had about 70 basis points of negative mix, giving us that check, up 4.8%.

傑夫，我們在第四季度的定價為 5.5%，因此，我們有大約 70 個基點的負面組合，為我們帶來了 4.8% 的支票。

Your next question comes from the line of Lauren Silberman from Deutsche Bank.

您的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Lauren Silberman。

Congrats on the results. I wanted to ask first just on the other OpEx. It's been growing pretty steadily, even if it excludes some of the onetime items that you talked about. Can you just help us understand how to think about OpEx growth or on the other OpEx side in '24?

祝賀結果。我想先問一下其他營運支出。它一直在相當穩定地增長，即使它排除了您談到的一些一次性項目。您能否幫助我們了解如何思考 24 年的營運支出成長或營運支出的其他面向？

Lauren, it's Michael. You are right that those -- even though we did get some -- been getting some leverage overall in that line, it is -- the underlying pressure has remained and there are a lot of inflationary items in there, a lot of services in there. But repair and maintenance cost is a big one on top of the general liability insurance costs even absent some of the reserve adjustments we've had.

勞倫，是麥可。你是對的，那些——儘管我們確實得到了一些——在這方面總體上獲得了一些槓桿作用，是的——潛在的壓力仍然存在，那裡有很多通膨項目，那裡有很多服務。但即使沒有我們進行的一些準備金調整，維修和維護成本也是一般責任保險成本之外的一大筆費用。

So moving into 2024, I do think that on a dollars per store week, we will continue to see an increase, but it should not be at the rate that you -- that we have seen. Probably -- you probably start a little bit higher in Q1, but mid-single-digit growth in those dollars per store week and then maybe coming on a little bit from that as you move through the year. That's obviously without knowing what other kinds of reserve adjustments we may have or not have. But what we know right now, that would be my expectation.

因此，進入 2024 年，我確實認為，以每家商店每週 1 美元計算，我們將繼續看到增長，但不應該以我們所看到的速度增長。可能 - 你可能會在第一季開始稍微高一些，但每家商店每週的收入會出現中等個位數的增長，然後隨著你全年的發展，可能會有所增長。顯然，這還不知道我們可能有或沒有哪些其他類型的準備金調整。但我們現在所知道的，那是我的期望。

Great. Very helpful. On the to-go side, you saw sales per week accelerate, it looks like, throughout the year in terms of growth. Can you just provide a little bit more color on what you're seeing on that to-go side? And why you're seeing, I guess, positive growth at least over the last 3 quarters now?

偉大的。很有幫助。在外賣方面，您可以看到每週銷售額都在加速成長，看起來全年都在成長。您能否為您在外帶方面看到的內容提供更多顏色？我想，為什麼您至少在過去三個季度看到了正成長？

Yes, I'll start off. I just really believe that it's our ability to execute full dining rooms and continue to keep the level of service through our to-go experience. So I think as our operators have gotten used to that volume at the high level that we are at, it has allowed us to continue to take more orders and be more available to our guests.

是的，我要開始了。我真的相信我們有能力提供完整的餐廳並透過我們的外送體驗繼續保持服務水準。因此，我認為，隨著我們的運營商已經習慣了我們所處的高水平的數量，它使我們能夠繼續接受更多訂單並為我們的客人提供更多服務。

Yes, this is Chris. I'll just add on. I mean -- and I know you watch us every quarter, but you saw that it sort of spiked during the pandemic. Then it began to come down over time, and now it is kind of coming back up again. So this is -- just to Jerry's point, our folks know how to execute it, and it's definitely a popular thing for our guests. So we're looking forward to continuing to see that do well over time.

是的，這是克里斯。我就補充一下吧。我的意思是——我知道你每個季度都會關注我們，但你會發現它在大流行期間有所飆升。然後隨著時間的推移它開始下降，現在又回來了。所以這就是——就傑瑞的觀點而言，我們的員工知道如何執行它，而且這絕對是我們客人受歡迎的事情。因此，我們期待著隨著時間的推移繼續看到它的良好表現。

Great. And just last one for me. Can you just clarify -- and I appreciate the color on all the quarter to date -- what you're running in terms of comp as the weather passed? Just to clarify.

偉大的。對我來說只是最後一件。你能否澄清一下——我很欣賞迄今為止整個季度的顏色——隨著天氣的過去，你在補償方面的表現如何？只是為了澄清。

Sure, Lauren. It's Michael. So within that 50 days, I guess, I can tell you our January comp was a 4.2%, and then the last 3 weeks plus a day was a little over 10%.

當然，勞倫。是麥可。所以在這 50 天內，我想，我可以告訴你我們 1 月份的收入是 4.2%，然後最後 3 週加上一天略高於 10%。

Your next question comes from the line of Andy Barish from Jefferies.

您的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Andy Barish。

Most of my stuff has been asked. Just could you quantify in the 4Q sort of the holiday benefit of the Christmas shift? And then the Lenten season is upon us and started a week earlier for 1Q. Any commentary around that for the rest of the quarter? Or is it kind of minor?

我的大部分事情都被問到了。您能在第四季量化聖誕節輪班的假期收益嗎？然後四旬齋季節即將到來，第一季提前一周開始。對於本季剩餘時間，對此有何評論？或者說是小事？

Listen, I can -- the first quarter, obviously, we just had Valentine's Day yesterday, which gives us a great indication that we're off and running strong and solid. So that's hard to -- all the other things that you asked about, I do know we have some promotional stuff going on at Jaggers, but I think right now, without the weather, the momentum is very solid into the first quarter.

聽著，我可以——第一季度，顯然，我們昨天剛剛度過了情人節，這給了我們一個很好的跡象，表明我們正在強勁而穩健地運行。所以這很難——你問的所有其他事情，我確實知道我們在賈格斯正在進行一些促銷活動，但我認為現在，如果沒有天氣，第一季的勢頭非常強勁。

Yes. And Andy, it's Michael. I don't know if I have any numbers at my fingertips regarding the benefits around the holidays. We definitely saw some benefit in that time frame, but I'm not going to be able to put a number on that right now. But again, the numbers we've been putting up go beyond just a couple of days with the calendar shift. We saw strength for quite a while.

是的。安迪，是麥可。我不知道我是否掌握了有關假期期間福利的任何數字。我們確實在這段時間內看到了一些好處，但我現在無法給出具體數字。但同樣，我們公佈的數字超出了日曆變化的幾天。我們在很長一段時間內看到了力量。

Understood. And then just circling back on the CapEx with the 200 digital kitchen conversions coming in but total CapEx staying the same. What's the offset there? Were there some idiosyncratic things that kind of hit last year? Or how should we think about that staying flat, although clearly spending some more capital on this -- on the KDS?

明白了。然後回到資本支出，進行了 200 次數位廚房改造，但總資本支出保持不變。那裡的偏移量是多少？去年是否有一些特殊的事情引起了轟動？或者我們應該如何看待保持平穩，儘管顯然在這方面花費了更多的資金 - 在 KDS 上？

Yes. Andy, without getting too much into the details, it's fair to say that our initial estimate that we put out there gave us some room -- some wiggle room for other projects and things to come in there, and the acceleration of the digital kitchens filled some of that space. So again, we left ourselves some room for that. So it was not that we did this and had to replace it with -- take something else out.

是的。安迪，在沒有過多討論細節的情況下，可以公平地說，我們在那裡提出的初步估計給了我們一些空間——為其他項目和事物提供了一些迴旋餘地，並且數字廚房的加速充滿了一些空間。所以，我們再次為自己留了一些空間。所以並不是說我們這樣做了就必須用其他東西來取代它。

Yes. And I'll just -- Andy, it's Chris. I'll just add into that. I mean it's about $45,000 a store to put the KDS in, and so you're talking about roughly $9 million. And on that big of a budget, we can find a way to get it in there.

是的。我只是──安迪，我是克里斯。我就補充一下。我的意思是，每家商店安裝 KDS 的成本約為 45,000 美元，所以您所說的大約是 900 萬美元。在如此大的預算下，我們可以找到一種方法將其投入其中。

Your next question comes from the line of Chris O'Cull from Stifel.

您的下一個問題來自 Stifel 的 Chris O'Cull。

Jerry, are you seeing any signs that are growing -- that a number of your restaurants may be getting closer to capacity during peak hours? I'm just wondering if you're seeing a need for additional bump outs or maybe any other approach that could increase sales headroom?

傑瑞，您是否看到任何正在增長的跡象 - 您的許多餐廳可能在高峰時段接近滿載？我只是想知道您是否認為需要額外的突破或任何其他可以增加銷售空間的方法？

Yes, Chris, thanks for the -- I think the bump outs -- and we're doing cooler expansions, which really -- that's part of what the costs are, is giving these folks that are really serving a lot of guests is really more storage in the back to be able to get more food in their building. The other -- the upside to -- even at our elevated average unit volume at over $7.5 million, we've got a large group of restaurants that are doing significantly more than that.

是的，克里斯，謝謝你——我認為是突破——我們正在做更酷的擴張，這確實是成本的一​​部分，為這些真正為許多客人提供服務的人提供了真正的幫助。後面有更多的儲存空間，以便能夠在建築物中獲得更多的食物。另一個好處是，即使我們的平均單位銷售超過 750 萬美元，我們有一大批餐廳的業績遠遠超過這個數字。

And so as I've said in the past, they're the ones leading the way that show us that even our average unit volumes can increase year after year if we continue to execute and do the things that our operators need to be able to get more people through their building. And there's definitely a demand there. We just got to continue to execute more people, more product, and we'll be just fine.

正如我過去所說，他們是引領潮流的人，他們向我們表明，如果我們繼續執行和做我們的運營商需要能夠做到的事情，即使我們的平均單位數量也可以逐年增加讓更多人參觀他們的建築。那裡肯定有需求。我們只要繼續執行更多的人員、更多的產品，我們就會沒事的。

And Chris, this is Michael. I just want to add on to what Jerry said, which, I think, is quite impressive. Those highest volume restaurants, ones that are above average or well above average, continue to comp at or at least at the average, if not, better than average, and that certainly happened throughout 2023. So we haven't seen those busiest restaurants come up against a lull as far as growth, so that gives us quite a bit of confidence for even our -- the room that our average stores have for future growth.

克里斯，這是麥可。我只是想補充一下傑瑞所說的話，我認為這令人印象深刻。那些營業額最高的餐廳，即高於平均水平或遠高於平均水平的餐廳，將繼續保持或至少達到平均水平，如果不是，也會好於平均水平，而這種情況在2023 年全年肯定會發生。因此，我們還沒有看到那些最繁忙的餐廳出現面對成長的停滯，這讓我們對我們的平均商店未來成長的空間充滿信心。

That's impressive. And then could you provide some additional color around what unit economics you're targeting at Jaggers and then maybe how many development commitments that you have right now for Jaggers?

這很讓人佩服。然後您能否提供一些額外的資訊來說明您對 Jaggers 的單位經濟效益目標以及您現在對 Jaggers 有多少開發承諾？

Yes, go ahead, Michael.

是的，繼續吧，麥可。

Chris, it's Michael again. I would say it's a little early for us to get into specifics on returns. Clearly, we have a couple of franchisees already who have opened stores and will be opening more stores. So I don't want to put words in their mouth, but I would say they are pleased with what they are seeing, and there are continued conversations with future partners as well. So I'm not going to get into returns, either on the company side or the franchise side, but we are very pleased with what we are seeing and what we believe Jaggers can do going forward.

克里斯，又是麥可。我想說，現在討論退貨細節還為時過早。顯然，我們已經有幾家特許經營商已經開設了商店，並將開設更多商店。所以我不想讓他們說什麼，但我想說他們對所看到的感到滿意，並且與未來的合作夥伴繼續對話。因此，我不會討論公司方面或特許經營方面的回報，但我們對我們所看到的以及我們相信賈格斯未來可以做的事情感到非常滿意。

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Strelzik from BMO.

您的下一個問題來自 BMO 的 Andrew Strelzik。

I was hoping you could start maybe by giving some color on Bubba's. I know you've done a lot of work on the brand over the last 2 years or so. So where are you seeing progress or other areas that need more work, opportunities? Thoughts around where Bubba's is today would be great.

我希望你可以從給布巴的一些顏色開始。我知道您在過去兩年左右的時間裡為該品牌做了很多工作。那麼您在哪些方面看到了進步或其他領域需要更多的工作和機會？想想布巴今天的處境就太好了。

Yes. Thank you, Andrew. I feel really good about Bubba's. We put a lot of investment in the last couple of years not only on the people, getting the right people, the leaders, the support all the way around it. We've done some -- what I think are really solid structural parts of the building to keep the cost down and we see our sales growing.

是的。謝謝你，安德魯。我對布巴的感覺真的很好。在過去的幾年裡，我們不僅在人員上進行了大量投資，還獲得了合適的人員、領導者和全方位的支援。我們已經做了一些——我認為這些是建築物的真正堅固的結構部分，以降低成本，並且我們看到我們的銷售額正在增長。

So all of the indicators are that people are loving the food, with the burgers and the pizzas and the energy that we have with our rock and roll and -- but I think the biggest thing is about having leadership, having consistency and the ability to execute and people identifying who Bubba's 33 is. So all indicators are very positive, and we're very happy with the continued progress that Bubba's is making.

因此，所有指標都表明人們熱愛食物，喜歡漢堡和披薩，喜歡搖滾樂所帶來的能量，但我認為最重要的是擁有領導力、一致性和能力。執行人員並確定Bubba 的33 是誰。因此，所有指標都非常積極，我們對 Bubba’s 所取得的持續進展感到非常高興。

That's great to hear. And then just following up on some of the commodity inflation or food inflation outlook. You noted the kind of more modest increases in the first half of the year and then the step-up in the back half. Can you be a little more specific kind of either front half, back half or by quarter kind of how you're expecting that to progress?

聽到這個消息我很高興。然後只是跟進一些商品通膨或食品通膨前景。您注意到上半年的成長較為溫和，然後下半年的成長。您能否更具體地說明前半部、後半部或按季度的情況，以及您期望的進展？

Yes. Andrew, it's Michael. I'd say Q1 is definitely kind of our expectation to be at the low point where maybe you're in the 2% to 3% inflation range and then it grows from there. And I don't know necessarily -- I don't have any -- that the Q2, 3 and 4, that's dramatically different than each other. It is a stair step up certainly from probably Q2 into the back half, but that Q1 is really the one that stands out as being a little bit lower.

是的。安德魯，這是麥可。我想說，我們的預期肯定是第一季處於低點，通膨率可能處於 2% 至 3% 的範圍內，然後從那裡開始成長。我不一定知道——我沒有任何資訊——Q2、3 和 4 彼此之間有很大的不同。從 Q2 到後半部肯定是一個階梯，但 Q1 確實是一個稍微低一點的台階。

Okay. Maybe if I could just squeeze one more in. A question on buybacks and your appetite there. You noted paying off the last bit of the debt there, I know now the CapEx is going to be up, but I'm just curious, your appetite for share repurchases at this point for '24.

好的。也許我可以再擠一個。關於回購和你的胃口的問題。你注意到還清了最後一點債務，我知道現在資本支出將會上升，但我只是很好奇，你對 24 年股票回購的興趣。

Yes, Andrew, it's Chris. Look, our operating cash flow and our balance sheet are major advantages for us. And so we are going to continue to take this balanced approach over the long haul like we have. And you saw the increase to the dividend that our Board approved with Jerry and that -- we're happy to have that out there. And we'll look at share repurchases.

是的，安德魯，是克里斯。看，我們的營運現金流量和資產負債表是我們的主要優勢。因此，從長遠來看，我們將繼續採取這種平衡的方法，就像我們現在所做的那樣。您看到了我們的董事會與傑瑞一起批准的股息增加，我們很高興看到這一點。我們將關注股票回購。

Obviously, the first place we go is to think about bringing in the dilution. But as we have opportunities to continue to invest, we'll look at that first. But then if there is cash left over, we're going to be looking at continuing the share repurchase program.

顯然，我們首先要考慮引入稀釋。但由於我們有機會繼續投資，我們將首先考慮這一點。但如果還有剩餘現金，我們將考慮繼續股票回購計畫。

Your next question comes from the line of Gregory Francfort from Guggenheim Securities.

您的下一個問題來自古根漢證券公司的格雷戈里·弗蘭克福特。

I had 2 quick ones. The first is just -- I know you answered the question on capacity earlier. I'm curious for your appetite to maybe accelerate unit growth beyond the kind of 5% to 6% range. I mean you guys are running really healthy traffic, and I'm wondering if you -- what would it take to maybe expand that pace of unit growth a little bit.

我有兩個快的。第一個是——我知道您之前回答了有關容量的問題。我很好奇您是否有興趣加速單位成長，使其超出 5% 至 6% 的範圍。我的意思是，你們的流量非常健康，我想知道你們是否需要做些什麼才能稍微擴大單位成長的速度。

Well, thank you. It's important for us to keep a cadence of how many openings that we can do a year and be balanced in our approach, and we have to do it right. We have to get every store open with incredible energy. It takes a lot of folks inside.

嗯，謝謝。對我們來說，保持一年可以開設多少空缺職位的節奏並保持方法的平衡非常重要，而且我們必須做得正確。我們必須以令人難以置信的精力讓每家商店開業。裡面需要很多人。

So we like our number of what we're doing for Roadhouse and the other 2 brands. So you'll probably see us stay very close to that. If we get an opportunity to increase a couple here and there, we might take that opportunity, but I don't think we're going to change our overall strategic goal or game plan on growth.

所以我們喜歡我們為 Roadhouse 和其他兩個品牌所做的事情。所以你可能會看到我們非常接近這個目標。如果我們有機會到處增加一些，我們可能會抓住這個機會，但我認為我們不會改變我們的整體策略目標或成長計劃。

Got it. And then just maybe -- I may have missed it earlier. But any thoughts on where the turnover environment looks like or the quit rates or what that might be doing to your training and ability to train workers? Any thoughts on the labor market? That would be helpful.

知道了。然後也許——我可能早些時候就錯過了。但是，您對人員流動環境、離職率或這可能對您的培訓和培訓員工的能力產生什麼影響有什麼想法嗎？對勞動市場有什麼想法嗎？那會有幫助的。

Yes. Thank you. We feel really good. We put a lot of work into it in the last couple of years, and we look at it at 3 levels, our managing partners, our managers and our Roadies. And all 3 of those indicators are that turnover is coming down, which also means that we're getting more reps and running these shifts that are at a higher volume. So all of those indicators are pretty solid. There are folks -- applicant flow has been pretty solid for us.

是的。謝謝。我們感覺真的很好。在過去的幾年裡，我們投入了大量的工作，我們從三個層面來看它：我們的管理合夥人、我們的經理和我們的Roadies。所有這三個指標都表明營業額正在下降，這也意味著我們正在增加更多的代表並以更高的數量進行這些輪班。所以所有這些指標都非常可靠。有些人－申請者的流動對我們來說相當穩定。

So from that standpoint, the work and the effort that we put in has really benefited, and I think we're creating an environment where our employees want to work and be a part of something that's really special. So I believe it's a very positive environment out there, and we are benefit. The longer our folks can stay around and we keep Roadie Nation happy, they're going to keep taking care of us.

因此，從這個角度來看，我們投入的工作和努力確實受益匪淺，我認為我們正在創造一個讓員工願意工作並參與真正特別的事情的環境。所以我相信這是一個非常積極的環境，我們受益匪淺。我們的家人待在我們身邊的時間越長，我們讓 Roadie Nation 開心的時間越長，他們就會繼續照顧我們。

Winners win.

勝利者獲勝。

Yes.

是的。

Your next question comes from the line of Brian Vaccaro from Raymond James.

您的下一個問題來自 Raymond James 的 Brian Vaccaro。

Just circling back on the topic of table turns and Roadie Pay, et cetera, and I guess tying it into comps a little bit. Obviously, your comps have been impressive for a long time now. But I'm curious, as you dig into your comps a little bit, are you seeing outsized growth or even maybe a little bit of an acceleration in peak demand period that you might be able to tie back to table turns? Or more broadly, are there any other daypart or regional differences in your recent trends that might be worth highlighting?

回到桌子轉彎和 Roadie Pay 等話題，我想將其與比較結合。顯然，你的比賽長期以來一直令人印象深刻。但我很好奇，當你稍微深入研究一下你的比較時，你是否看到了巨大的增長，甚至可能在高峰需求時期出現了一點加速，你可以將其與表格週轉聯繫起來？或者更廣泛地說，您最近的趨勢是否還有其他值得強調的時段或區域差異？

Yes. Brian, it's Michael. Good to hear from you. Some of that is a little difficult to parse out. But I can tell you, geographically, we are seeing similar results across the country. By age of our restaurants, we're seeing similar results. And then as far as the daypart, we are seeing a little bit more strength earlier in the day and into the power, what we call the power hours, that 6:00 to 8:00 time frame. So whether that's coming from the technology investments, hard to tell you, but we're certainly doing everything we can to give that guest a good experience, give them the opportunity to get in and get out at their pace. And I think that's what we'll continue to focus on going forward.

是的。布萊恩，這是麥可。很高興聽到你的消息。其中一些有點難以解析。但我可以告訴你，從地理上看，我們在全國各地都看到了類似的結果。根據我們餐廳的年齡，我們看到了類似的結果。然後就白天而言，我們看到當天早些時候有更多的力量進入功率，我們稱之為功率小時，即 6:00 到 8:00 的時間範圍。因此，這是否來自技術投資，很難告訴你，但我們肯定會盡一切努力為客人提供良好的體驗，讓他們有機會按照自己的步調進出。我認為這就是我們未來將繼續關注的重點。

Your next question comes from the line of Brian Harbour from Morgan Stanley.

你的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的布萊恩哈伯（Brian Harbor）。

Yes. Maybe just one for me. Michael or Chris, what -- do you have any view on kind of G&A this year either in growth terms or percent of sales as you think about leverage there?

是的。也許對我來說只是一件。邁克爾或克里斯，當你考慮那裡的槓桿時，你對今年的一般行政費用（無論是增長還是銷售額百分比）有何看法？

Brian, it's Michael. Yes, G&A, as a growth company, we're going to continue to invest in our people and our systems. I think our philosophy remains the same, that we would like to see those G&A dollars grow less than revenue growth and continue to see if we can get some leverage there. But we were at 4.3% of revenue in '23. That's come down significantly from where we are.

布萊恩，這是麥可。是的，G&A 作為一家成長型公司，我們將繼續投資我們的員工和系統。我認為我們的理念保持不變，即我們希望看到這些 G&A 美元的成長低於收入成長，並繼續看看我們是否可以在那裡獲得一些槓桿作用。但 20 年我們佔營收的 4.3%。這比我們現在的情況顯著下降。

So we'll see what happens in '24. I can tell you that you probably would see -- in Q1, I think we have the most opportunity to not see a lot of increase. But then after that, you will start to see some increase. Again, being a 53-week year, you could see us having the need to accrue for additional bonus compensation. And again, you would then lap that into '25. And we talked a little bit about some of the equity compensation enhancements that we've made and that will impact the second half of the year.

所以我們會看看 24 年會發生什麼。我可以告訴你，你可能會看到——在第一季度，我認為我們最有可能不會看到大幅成長。但在那之後，你會開始看到一些成長。同樣，由於一年有 53 週，您可能會發現我們需要累積額外的獎金補償。再說一次，你會將其計入 25 年。我們討論了一些我們已經做出的股權薪酬增強措施，這將影響今年下半年。

So I think you'll continue to see those G&A dollars grow, and maybe it's not a year where we get a lot of leverage. Some of that will depend upon what the top line ends up doing, but yes, definitely investments to be made in the business.

因此，我認為您將繼續看到這些 G＆A 美元增長，也許今年我們不會獲得很大的影響力。其中一些將取決於營收最終的表現，但是，肯定是對業務的投資。

Your next question comes from the line of Jim Sanderson from Northcoast Research.

您的下一個問題來自 Northcoast Research 的 Jim Sanderson。

Congratulations on a great quarter. I wanted to go back to the mix issue. It seems to me that's improving, not as negative as it has been. Do you expect that to pretty much iron itself out, so to speak? And is there an opportunity to actually see that become an upsell opportunity to make that positive, as we go into the back half of the year?

恭喜您度過了一個美好的季度。我想回到混合問題。在我看來，情況正在改善，而不是像以前那樣消極。可以這麼說，你認為這會自行解決嗎？當我們進入今年下半年時，是否有機會真正看到這成為一個追加銷售的機會，從而發揮積極作用？

Jim, it's Michael. I mean you are correct. Q4 with the 70 basis points was a little bit less than what we have been seeing in the last couple of quarters. There were a few things in there that benefited us in the fourth quarter around the holiday time. You see maybe an increase in bread sales and as such that can offset some of -- some other areas.

吉姆，這是麥可。我的意思是你是對的。第四季的 70 個基點比我們在過去幾季看到的要少一些。第四季假期前後，有一些事情讓我們受益匪淺。您可能會看到麵包銷量的增加，因此可以抵消其他一些領域的影響。

It'll be something we'll be watching here into 2024 of whether that trend continues. Entrees, again, if we continue to see people trading into us and growing our traffic, but maybe they're hitting the value side, you could have a little bit of negative mix there. And that alcohol is a little bit of a question mark. I'll be honest with you. Will that flatten out or just kind of the societal trends right now of, I think, a little bit less alcohol sales may stay with us? That's just one we'll have to wait and see what happens on.

我們將在 2024 年關注這一趨勢是否會持續下去。再說一遍，如果我們繼續看到人們與我們進行交易並增加我們的流量，但也許他們正在觸及價值方面，那麼那裡可能會出現一些負面影響。酒精是個有點問號的東西。我會誠實地告訴你。這種情況會趨於平緩，還是只是目前的社會趨勢，我認為，酒類銷售可能會減少一些？這只是我們必須等待並看看會發生什麼的一個。

Okay. So probably a little bit of a headwind going forward, just not as bad. Is that the right way to look at it?

好的。因此，未來可能會遇到一些阻力，但沒有那麼糟。這是正確的看待方式嗎？

It's a hard one to fully answer. But I think in the economic consumer environment we're in, it would not surprise me for it to be a little bit of a headwind. But again, it's one that until you really see what's going on, it's hard to fully predict.

這是一個很難完全回答的問題。但我認為，在我們所處的經濟消費環境中，如果出現一點阻力，我不會感到驚訝。但同樣，除非你真正了解正在發生的事情，否則很難完全預測。

Your next question comes from the line of Rahul Krotthapalli from JPMorgan.

您的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Rahul Krotthapalli。

I just wanted to follow up and expand a bit more on Bubba's. Can you discuss the store margin growth year-on-year and help us get some confidence in the longer-term store margin profiles for this concept? Is there a potential for this to be at or above Roadhouse? Can we expect an inflection at some point? Or are there any structural costs like prime cost for this concept lower versus Roadhouse as we go forward? And I have a follow-up.

我只是想進一步跟進並擴展佈巴的內容。您能否討論一下商店利潤率的同比增長情況，並幫助我們對這個概念的長期商店利潤率有一些信心？是否有可能達到或超過 Roadhouse 的水平？我們可以期待在某個時刻出現轉折點嗎？或者，隨著我們的發展，這個概念的主要成本是否會比 Roadhouse 更低？我有一個後續行動。

This is Michael. I can answer some of that, but I'm probably not going to give you all the information that you're maybe looking for. I can tell you, we feel very good that Bubba's can generate those mid-teen returns that we're looking for. We believe Bubba's can generate a very strong restaurant margin. Your point of can they be in line with Roadhouse, if they were doing similar sales volumes, yes, absolutely, that is possible.

這是邁克爾。我可以回答其中一些問題，但我可能不會向您提供您可能正在尋找的所有資訊。我可以告訴你，我們非常高興布巴能夠產生我們正在尋找的中等青少年回報。我們相信 Bubba's 可以產生非常強勁的餐廳利潤。你的觀點是，如果他們的銷量相似，他們是否可以與 Roadhouse 保持一致，是的，絕對有可能。

But the reality is Roadhouse performs at a higher level than Bubba's and a higher level than most restaurant concepts. So that is going to benefit Roadhouse from a margin perspective. But the menu items that we have at Bubba's would lend itself to a very strong margin as compared to Roadhouse on similar volumes. I think that's about as far as we're probably going to go on that one right now.

但現實是 Roadhouse 的表現比 Bubba 的水平更高，也比大多數餐廳概念更高。因此，從利潤角度來看，這將使 Roadhouse 受益。但與類似數量的 Roadhouse 相比，我們在 Bubba's 的菜單項目將具有非常高的利潤。我想這就是我們現在可能要做的事了。

That's helpful. And on the follow-up, I know you guys talked about having a total of 900 stores TAM for the company as a whole. And I think like Roadhouse was targeted at 700 to 800 over time. I know you guys discussed a lot of new -- like digital kitchens, like new store formats and whatnot. I'm just curious if there is an updated thought on this number and how you are looking at this going down the line?

這很有幫助。接下來，我知道你們談到了整個公司總共有 900 家 TAM 商店。我認為隨著時間的推移，Roadhouse 的目標是 700 到 800。我知道你們討論了很多新的話題——比如數位廚房、新的商店模式等等。我只是好奇這個數字是否有更新的想法以及您如何看待這個問題？

Yes. Thank you. We believe that's a great target for us. We adjusted that, I believe, just a little over a year ago after a lot of research and just thinking about our business going forward. So there's no adjustment to that number now. We're still focused on being responsible to all of our partners out there, but we believe we can get to that number.

是的。謝謝。我們相信這對我們來說是一個偉大的目標。我相信，就在一年多前，經過大量研究並考慮我們的業務未來發展後，我們對此進行了調整。所以現在這個數字沒有調整。我們仍然專注於對所有合作夥伴負責，但我們相信我們可以達到這個數字。

Your next question comes from the line of Jon Tower from Citigroup.

您的下一個問題來自花旗集團的 Jon Tower。

Just real quick, first on the G&A side. The grant changes that you're talking about in the second half of '24, I'm assuming those are not onetime in nature and something that will carry forward into '25. So just wanted to first confirm that.

速度很快，首先是一般行政費用方面。你在 24 年下半年談論的補助金變化，我假設這些變化不是一次性的，並且會延續到 25 年。所以只是想先確認一下。

It's Michael. On the G&A side, those are a little bit more onetime in nature. It's really an acceleration of the grants. So we'll still be expensing grants that we've -- been given quarterly over the last several years, and we'll now be pulling up and granting all at one time some grants that would have been happening over the next several quarters. So we'll feel that onetime in Q3, Q4 and then some into the beginning of next year. The majority of it will then not have an impact on us after that.

是麥可。在一般行政費用方面，這些本質上是一次性的。這確實是撥款的加速。因此，我們仍然會支出過去幾年中每季提供的贈款，現在我們將一次性發放一些將在接下來的幾個季度發生的贈款。因此，我們會在第三季、第四季以及明年年初感受到這一點。在那之後，其中大部分不會對我們產生影響。

How about the labor line that you had mentioned earlier as well?

您之前提到的勞工線怎麼樣？

The labor line is more of -- is not as much onetime in nature. While you do have that acceleration going on, the other enhancements of us increasing the amount of grants to some store-level employees is part of it but also including additional manager levels in the granting of equity compensation. So that is one that will stay with us going forward.

勞工線本質上更多的是——而不是一次性的。雖然確實在加速，但我們的其他增強措施包括增加對某些商店級員工的補助金額，但還包括授予股權薪酬的額外經理級別。因此，這將是我們前進的動力。

Great. And then just curious, your business has obviously got very strong demand from a traffic standpoint. And I know you've had some success earlier in terms of expanding some of the Early Dine options during the week days. I think you, since COVID, added about an extra hour or so to that during the weekdays if I'm not mistaken.

偉大的。然後只是好奇，從流量的角度來看，您的業務顯然有非常強勁的需求。我知道你們早些時候在擴大工作日的一些早晚餐選擇方面取得了一些成功。如果我沒記錯的話，我認為自新冠疫情以來，您在工作日增加了大約一個小時左右的時間。

So curious, do you feel like there's more opportunity perhaps to extend that further? I think it's mostly 3 p.m. to 6 now. Could you push it further to 2:30 or 2:00? Or is that just something that kind of not contemplated today to meet that demand?

很好奇，您是否覺得還有更多機會進一步擴展這一點？我想大部分時間都是下午 3 點。現在到6了。你能把時間推遲到 2:30 或 2:00 嗎？或者這只是今天沒有考慮到的東西來滿足這種需求？

Yes. Thanks, Jon. I think it really is open to a 5:30 or 6:00, so if they open it 2:30, 2:45, but most of the stores are opening at 3:00. So as soon as they open that, Early Dine kicks in. I think that's where we'll stay for now. I don't see us getting any earlier than that, but there might be a few out there.

是的。謝謝，喬恩。我認為它確實營業到 5:30 或 6:00，所以如果他們營業時間為 2:30、2:45，但大多數商店都在 3:00 營業。因此，一旦他們打開，早晚餐就開始了。我想這就是我們現在要住的地方。我認為我們不會比這更早，但可能會有一些。

Your next question comes from the line of Jake Bartlett from Truist Securities.

您的下一個問題來自 Truist Securities 的 Jake Bartlett。

Mine is about development. And first, maybe a clarification. You said today that you expect to open or you continue to expect to open 30 company-owned stores across the 3 brands. My reading of the last earnings call was that it was 30 with Texas Roadhouse and Bubba's but then 3 Jaggers. But just to confirm, is there any change in the company-owned development outlook in '24?

我的主題是關於發展。首先，也許需要澄清一下。您今天表示預計將開設或繼續預計開設 30 個品牌的 30 家公司自營店。我對上一次財報電話會議的解讀是，Texas Roadhouse 和 Bubba's 的人數為 30，但 Jaggers 的人數為 3。但想確認一下，24年公司的發展前景有沒有改變？

Jake, I don't think there's any change at this time. We're definitely after the massive amount of openings we had in the last 4 months of 2024. We are trying to strategically spread that out a little bit. But as of right now, we are focused on that number between the 3.

傑克，我認為目前沒有任何改變。我們肯定是在尋找 2024 年最後 4 個月的大量職缺。我們正在嘗試從策略上將其分散一些。但截至目前，我們關注的是 3 之間的數字。

Yes. And I would just -- Jake, this is Michael. It does say approximately 30, so we just put all of those into there. The Jaggers timing, whether we get 3 open, we will see and those could be later in the year, but we just felt it was cleaner to give you all that number all in one.

是的。我只想──傑克，這是麥可。它確實說大約有 30 個，所以我們就把所有這些都放在那裡。賈格斯的時機，我們是否能獲得 3 個空位，我們會看到，這些可能會在今年晚些時候，但我們只是覺得把所有這些數字都集中在一起會更乾淨。

Got it. And you also mentioned that you expect the cadence to be more balanced over the year. Maybe if you could dig into that a little bit, maybe comments on the development environment, the headwinds we've been hearing about and seeing for 3 or 4 years now. Is that -- are you starting to see signs that that's easing and that's what gives you more confidence in a kind of evenly spaced development in '24?

知道了。您也提到，您預計這一年的節奏會更加平衡。也許您可以深入研究一下，也許可以對開發環境以及我們三、四年來聽到和看到的逆風發表評論。您是否開始看到這種情況有所緩解的跡象，這讓您對 24 年的均勻發展更有信心？

Yes, Jake, it's Chris. And I think we are seeing that smoothing out a little bit. And Jerry oversees our development team himself. And so that's something he may want to speak to. But I will say that a lot of the jurisdictional issues, the permitting issues, things that you've been hearing from us and others are largely behind us.

是的，傑克，是克里斯。我認為我們看到這種情況有所緩和。傑瑞親自監督我們的開發團隊。這就是他可能想要談論的事情。但我要說的是，許多管轄權問題、許可問題以及您從我們和其他人那裡聽到的事情基本上都已經過去了。

There are still occasional problems in the supply chain. But for the most part, we're getting work done, although at a higher cost. And so that's definitely -- seems to be with us as we go. But we do feel good about the way that we've got this -- we're calling this cadence that we've built, and we feel very good about that as it's flowing through. I don't know if you have anything you wanted to add, Jerry.

供應鏈中仍不時出現問題。但在大多數情況下，我們正在完成工作，儘管成本較高。所以這肯定是——似乎在我們前進的過程中一直伴隨著我們。但我們確實對我們的方式感覺很好——我們稱之為我們建立的節奏，當它流動時我們感覺非常好。我不知道你是否還有什麼要補充的，傑瑞。

Yes. Thanks, Chris. Just it's a matter of a lot of work being put into this time line and building in the -- what -- the times that it takes to get all of these set up and then we can make the decision. So I think there's been a lot of work and effort. It's looking really good right now for '24 and '25, and we really want to keep that cadence going forward. It takes a lot of pressure off of our crew to get the most of the openings in the first 3 quarters versus jamming everything into the fourth quarter. So we've been working really hard on that, and we're going to keep -- try to keep that cadence going forward.

是的。謝謝，克里斯。只是需要在這個時間線上投入大量工作，並在——什麼——時間裡完成所有這些設置，然後我們才能做出決定。所以我認為我們做了很多工作和努力。現在看來 24 和 25 年的情況非常好，我們真的希望繼續保持這種節奏。我們的工作人員在前三節充分利用空檔，而不是將一切都塞到第四節，這減輕了我們的工作人員很大的壓力。因此，我們一直在努力做到這一點，我們將繼續努力保持這種節奏。

Great. And then last little kind of nitpicky modeling question. If I look back at the extra operating week in '19, the fourth quarter of '19, it was about a 60 basis points benefit to restaurant margins. Is that where we're getting the 4% impact for the year when math could tell you 2% for an extra week? But is that about right, 60 basis points boost in the restaurant margins and that's really where the outsized earnings from that week comes from?

偉大的。最後是一個挑剔的建模問題。如果我回顧一下 19 年第四季的額外營業週，就會發現餐廳利潤率提高了約 60 個基點。這就是我們今年獲得 4% 影響的地方，而數學可以告訴你多一週影響 2% 嗎？但這是否正確，餐廳利潤率提高了 60 個基點，而這確實是那週巨額收入的來源？

I mean -- Jake, it's Michael. I don't have the numbers right in front of me for this call. But certainly, you are getting margin expansion that -- as part of the reason why you're getting 4% -- an estimated 4% benefit for approximately 2% increase in store weeks. So that's probably as much as I can give you on that. Some of the benefit does come outside of restaurant margin as well. But there is a benefit -- there surely is a benefit in there from that high-volume extra week.

我是說——傑克，我是麥可。我面前沒有這個電話的號碼。但可以肯定的是，您將獲得利潤擴張——這也是您獲得 4% 利潤的原因之一——預計商店週增加約 2% 時將獲得 4% 的收益。這可能就是我能給你的全部資訊了。一些好處確實也來自餐廳利潤之外。但這是有好處的——額外一周的高訓練量肯定有好處。

This concludes our question-and-answer session for today. I would like to turn the call back to Jerry Morgan.

我們今天的問答環節到此結束。我想把電話轉回給傑瑞摩根。

Thank you and all for being on our call tonight, and to Roadie Nation, yeehaw to an incredible year, thank each and every one of you. Let's go.

感謝你們和大家今晚接受我們的電話，感謝 Roadie Nation，感謝你們每一個人，這是令人難以置信的一年。我們走吧。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的出席。您現在可以斷開連線。