Q1 2026 Jack in the Box Inc Earnings Call Transcript
Key Points
- Jack In The Box Inc (JACK) successfully closed the sale of Del Taco, allowing for a significant paydown on debt.
- The company marked its 75th anniversary with positive customer response to anniversary activations, driving increased sales.
- Early results from the JACK on Track plan show progress in simplifying the business and strengthening the brand.
- The company is seeing improvements in same-store sales, particularly in January, with a positive response to new marketing initiatives.
- Efforts to modernize restaurants with cost-effective refreshes have shown modest sales lifts, indicating potential for future growth.
- First quarter same-store sales decreased by 6.7%, with franchise restaurant sales down 7% and company-owned sales down 4.7%.
- Restaurant level margin percentage decreased significantly from 23.2% to 16.1%, impacted by commodity inflation and labor costs.
- Labor costs increased due to challenges in the Chicago market, which is still facing elevated labor expenses.
- Franchise-level margins decreased due to lower sales and a decrease in the number of restaurants.
- The company faces ongoing challenges with beef inflation, which is expected to remain a pressure point throughout the year.
Thank you for standing by. My name is Jordan, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Jack in the Box first quarter 2026 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) Thank you.
I'd now like to turn the call over to Rachel Webb, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thanks, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you joining today's conference call, highlighting results from our first quarter of fiscal 2026. With me today are Chief Executive Officer, Lance Tucker; our Chief Financial Officer, Dawn Hooper; and our Chief Customer and Digital Officer, Ryan Ostrom. Following their prepared remarks, we will be happy to take questions from our covering sell-side analysts. Note that during both our discussion and Q&A, we may refer to non-GAAP items.
Please refer to the non-GAAP reconciliations provided in the earnings release, which is available on our Investor Relations website at
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