Selim A. Bassoul
Analyst · Roth Capital Partners
I could tell you that at this moment, nothing is being rolled out. At this moment, all is filled up. Some of them have 60 stores in field. Some of them have 10 stores in field test, all of them have at least 7 in field tests. So we don't have it rolled out yet. So basically, at this moment, the field test is what we expect to roll out. As I always mentioned in the last conference, it's going to take some time. This is not a -- this is a major, major change for somebody. It's not only making sure that they change their procedures, their labors, their training. So as you know, it's a very interesting testing. And I'm going to speak to you so far as well as we say, as a CEO, Interim CEO of Famous Dave, they said there's a company in Chicago called Middleby Corporation. This one's from his April 24, 2014, earnings conference release, "Called Middleby Corporation has some of the best testing technology in the world, and they are partnering with us to do a complete analysis of our kitchen, path to new cooking techniques, new cooking systems with the objective of reducing labor, making our products more consistent and delivering to the customers with a higher level of quality, reducing utility costs, eliminating the use of natural gas to the extent we do today." So if you look at it, this is the advantage and we're working with him, with one of those 16 companies that we're working with. It's coming from the CEO down and we are very optimistic that kitchen efficiency is becoming very important. Because the more efficient kitchens are, the less square footage they need in those kitchens. And with the minimum wage cost going up, labor cost is going up also, which makes our automation and the Kitchen of the Future becomes more relevant. So it's a matter of timing, Tony. So I can tell you it is something that it's here to stay? Yes. It's being implemented at Chili's. I just said to you what's Ed Rensi said as you mentioned, and I look at it I would say literally. So others things that I'm seeing through this is as you get the ebbs and flows during the course of the day when we have casual dining doing lunches, dinner, and through the weeks when you have busier Friday, Saturday versus Monday, you see that their labor basically stays the same because they need to basically start the kitchen whether it's a busy Friday versus a poor Monday. They can't tell on Monday, "I'm sorry, I'm going to offer only 2 menu items." They have to -- offer a similar regular menu items they offer on a Saturday at lunch versus the Tuesday at lunch. What's happened is that people are coming to us saying automation now is becoming key to us. So for this one if you look at the experience in putting a flexible system which is the Kitchen of the Future does that. So to answer your question, I have a roll out, I have 16 chains in field test, not in lab test, not in pre-lab visit. They are in field test. Around, basically right now over -- around 200 stores being field tested right now, I am told, what I call 16 concepts, 16 chains.