Earnings Labs

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (CBRL)

Q2 2014 Earnings Call· Tue, Feb 25, 2014

$30.69

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Cracker Barrel Fiscal 2014 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded and will be available for replay today from 2:00 p.m. Eastern through March 11 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern by dialing (888) 203-1112 and entering passcode 5033509. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Coco Kyriopoulos, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Coco Kyriopoulos

Management

Thanks, Danielle. Good morning, and welcome to Cracker Barrel's Second Quarter Fiscal 2014 Conference Call and Webcast. This morning, we issued a press release announcing our second quarter results and outlook for the 2014 fiscal year. In this press release and on this call, we will refer to non-GAAP financial measures for the current quarter, adjusted to exclude proxy contest expenses and the related tax effects. We will also refer to non-GAAP financial measures for the prior year quarter, adjusted to exclude charges and tax effects related to severance and the prior year proxy contests, as well as adjustments related to the retroactive reinstatement of the work opportunities tax credit. The company believes that excluding these charges and tax effects from its financial results provides information that may be more indicative of the company's ongoing operating performance while improving comparability to prior periods. This information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. The last page of the press release includes a reconciliation from the non-GAAP information to the GAAP financial. The press release can be found in the Investors section of our website, crackerbarrel.com. In that press release and during this call, statements may be made by management of their beliefs and expectations of the company's future operating results or expected future events. These are what are known as forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties, and in many cases, are beyond management's control and may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. We urge caution to our listeners and readers in considering forward-looking statements and information. Many of the factors that could affect results are summarized in the cautionary description of the risks and uncertainties found at the end of this morning's press release and are described in detail in our reports that we filed with or furnished to the SEC. We urge you to read this information carefully. We also remind you that we do not comment on earnings estimates made by other parties. In addition, any guidance or outlook we provide or statements we make regarding trends speak only as of the date they are given and we do not update or express continuing comfort with our guidance, outlook or trends, except in broadly disseminated disclosures, such as this morning's press release, filings with the SEC or as otherwise required by law. On the call with me this morning are Cracker Barrel's President and CEO, Sandy Cochran; Senior Vice President and CFO, Larry Hyatt; and Senior Vice President of Marketing, Chris Ciavarra. Sandy will begin with a review of the business and Larry will review the financials and outlook. We will then open up the call for questions for Sandy, Larry and Chris. We ask that you please limit your questions to matters relating to the company's performance, outlook and plans. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Cracker Barrel's President and CEO, Sandy Cochran. Sandy?

Sandra Brophy Cochran

Management

Thanks, Coco, and good morning, everyone. As you can see from today's press release, we increased our operating margins and earnings in the second quarter despite the challenges of extreme winter weather and the continuing uncertain economic environment. I believe these results reflect the strong performance of our field operating teams who executed well during this difficult period and remain focused on the initiatives we laid out at the beginning of the year. Overall, we estimate that weather impacted our traffic, restaurant and retail sales by approximately 2.5% with the greatest impact during the months of December and January. Automobile travelers are an important part of our customer base, and they are particularly important to our business during the second quarter holiday travel season. As a result, we believe the extreme winter weather had a greater impact on our business than many of our competitors. Nevertheless, for the ninth consecutive quarter, we outperformed the Knapp-Track index for comparable store traffic and restaurant sales. We also continued to deliver great guest experience in the quarter. Consumer survey results for calendar 2013 from Technomic, a well-recognized industry research firm, indicate that Cracker Barrel ranked first overall across 34 large restaurant chains Technomic tracks. Some of the attributes that we lead in included our food quality, friendly service and value. This morning, I'll update you on the progress we've made in our long-term strategy to enhance the core business, expand the footprint of our stores and extend the Cracker Barrel brand, and then, Larry will review the financial results in detail. Our long-term strategy is supported by our 5 business priorities for fiscal 2014. To reiterate, those business priorities include: First, focusing on better-for-you menu alternatives and reinforcing everyday value on our menu; second, continued messaging with our Handcrafted by Cracker Barrel theme…

Lawrence E. Hyatt

Management

Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Sandy. I would like to begin by discussing our financial performance for the second quarter of fiscal 2014 and then our outlook for the 2014 fiscal year. For the second quarter of fiscal 2010, we reported -- 2014, we reported net income of $37.1 million, or $1.55 per diluted share. When adjusted for charges related to the proxy contest, our adjusted net income was $1.56 per diluted share, a 9% increase over adjusted earnings per diluted share in the prior year quarter. Our revenue in the quarter was $698.5 million, a 0.6% decrease over the $702.7 million in the prior year second quarter. Our restaurant revenues were $528.4 million, and retail revenues were $170.1 million. Our comparable store restaurant sales decreased 0.6% as traffic declined 2.9% and average check increased 2.3%. The increase in average check reflects menu price increases of approximately 1.8% and a favorable mix impact of 0.5%. Our comparable store retail sales declined 3% for the quarter. The company estimates that the severe winter weather had a negative impact on comparable store traffic, restaurant and retail sales of approximately 250 basis points with the greatest impact during the months of December and January. Our total cost of goods sold in the quarter was 34.8% of revenue, which was flat to the prior year quarter. Our restaurant cost of goods was 28.1% of restaurant sales compared to 27.7% in the prior year quarter. This 40-basis-point increase was a result of the mix shift to higher cost menu items and increases in food waste. We believe that the increase in food waste was caused by the severe winter weather, which made it difficult for our stores to accurately forecast food production. Our commodity costs were up approximately 1.7% in the quarter compared to…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from Jeff Farmer, Wells Fargo.

Jeffrey D. Farmer - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division

Analyst

You did touch on this earlier in the call, but I'm curious if the $5.99 Daily Lunch Special, as well as the Country Dinner Plates are continuing to build mixed momentum for you guys and how important each of those has been in driving some of the pretty impressive market share gains you've seen over the last 2 years.

Sandra Brophy Cochran

Management

Jeff, yes, the Daily Lunch Special program does continue to be strong from -- and lunch was actually a good daypart -- the strongest daypart during the quarter. We're bringing new news into it, so our the Stuffed Beef n' Mushroom Pot Pie and the grilled cheese and green tomato soup special was very popular in the promotion. We're bringing new news on the Country Dinner Plates side as well with the sides, so yes, we think both of those continue to improve to make the concept sort of more appealing as we introduce sort of the better-for-you elements of those and maybe as important or more important, they reinforce our value position in the market, which is very important in the current environment.

Jeffrey D. Farmer - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division

Analyst

And then unrelated, Larry, for you. As one of your big casual dining peers continues to get pressured to possibly pursue a publicly traded REIT structure for its own real estate, I'm curious what your thoughts are on the REIT structure just in general for restaurant companies.

Lawrence E. Hyatt

Management

Yes, Jeff, a couple of things. And as you note because you participated in these conference calls over a number of years, we occasionally get questions about a potential financing structure for the company's real estate because we own over 400 of the 626 restaurants that we operate. Let me talk first about sale leaseback and after that, I'll talk about potential REIT structures. Sale leasebacks are a form of financing. In the current market, it's a relatively expensive form of financing as compared to the other forms of financing that would be available for us. As far as a REIT structure is concerned, what is usually spoken of is a single-tenant, triple-net leased REIT. We have examined that potential structure as I suspect any restaurant company that has as much real estate as Cracker Barrel as would reasonably do. And I'll offer a couple of observations. Of the 50 largest publicly traded REITs in the United States, a Cracker Barrel REIT would be somewhere around number 53. And so there's a concern about whether it would be sufficient to generate any investor interest, and therefore, at the end of the day, if this would be creating value for existing shareholders that can leave the best that we could tell in the entire history of corporate America. I believe that there have been 2 triple-net, single-tenant REITs, and one of those 2 is in bankruptcy. And so it's a structure a lot of people speak about. It is not a structure that many have been successful yet. And third, under the various IRS laws, there would be significant tax recapture. Since this would be a separate public company, it would need its own G&A structure. And the value we get from both those, we believe, would more than offset any possible valuation advantage to our shareholders.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We'll go to Michael Gallo with CL King. Michael W. Gallo - CL King & Associates, Inc., Research Division: Larry, just a question on SG&A. You did a great job against squeezing that down in the quarter. I know some of that was lower incentive comp, but even in the last couple of years, you've done a good job controlling SG&A expenses. Is that at the point where there's more savings to be had or are we at a point where you think from here it'll be hard to sustain the kind of levels that you had in the second quarter?

Lawrence E. Hyatt

Management

Yes, a couple of things. One is the G&A levels in the second quarter, as I commented on in my remarks, were largely the result of reductions in incentive compensation expenses. And the way our incentive compensation works, one of our stock plan, the accounting rules require us to market value to the market at the end of every quarter. And so since -- from the end of the first quarter, the end of the second quarter, our stock change was about $11. And a change in the stock price of $1 is about $200,000 and -- on that expense line alone, so that the $11 change was basically a year-over-year G&A change of about 30 basis points of the 40 basis points. But to answer your larger question, I don't think there's a CFO in America who won't say there is always more cost-saving opportunity. And there certainly is more cost-saving opportunity, but probably, going forward, at a more moderate level than the cost savings you've seen in the G&A line over the last few years. Michael W. Gallo - CL King & Associates, Inc., Research Division: Great, that's helpful. Just as a quick follow-up there, the change in the incentive comp, does that show up or recaptured at all in the interest expense line or just purely -- it's G&A?

Lawrence E. Hyatt

Management

No, it's purely G&A, Michael.

Operator

Operator

And with no further questions in queue, I'll turn the call back to our presenters for any additional or closing remarks.

Sandra Brophy Cochran

Management

Thank you, all, for joining us today. Like I said, I'm pleased with our ability to manage through a challenging period. We look forward to warmer weather and continued progress on our business priorities during the second half of the year. We appreciate your interest and support and look forward to talking with you next quarter and at our Analyst Institutional Investor Day on May 1. Thank you.