Q1 2024 Noodles & Co Earnings Call Transcript
Key Points
- Improvement in traffic and sales trends, particularly in April where traffic increased by 0.3% and same-store sales exceeded industry benchmarks.
- Successful limited-time offers (LTOs) such as 'Steak Stroganoff' which performed well above expectations, indicating strong customer response to menu innovations.
- Progress in strategic priorities including operations excellence, digital ecosystem leverage, and menu transformation aimed at increasing guest satisfaction and operational efficiency.
- Strong cost management and favorable commodity costs contributed to restaurant contribution margin and adjusted EBITDA exceeding expectations for the quarter.
- Enhanced focus on digital sales and marketing, including a successful test on connected TV which showed a 2.8% lift in incremental traffic and solid ROI.
- Overall decrease in total revenue by 3.7% compared to the previous year, with a net loss of $6.1 million for the quarter.
- Continued decline in company comp traffic by 7.3% during the first quarter, although this was an improvement from previous quarters.
- Challenges with the Easter holiday shift, which negatively impacted first quarter comp sales by approximately 30 basis points.
- Restaurant level contribution margin decreased to 13.1% from 13.7% in the first quarter of 2023, primarily due to sales deleverage.
- Operational complexities and the need for further improvements in catering services to fully capitalize on potential sales contributions.
Good afternoon, and welcome to today's Noodles & Company first-quarter 2024 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions)
As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce Noodles & Company's Chief Financial Officer, Mike Hynes.
Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our first-quarter 2024 earnings call. Here with me this afternoon is Drew Madsen, our Chief Executive Officer. I'd like to start by going over a few regulatory matters.
During our remarks, we may make forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of the company. Any such items should be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Such statements are only projections and actual events or results could differ materially from those projections due to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those referred to in this afternoon's news release and the cautionary statement
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