As we said in our last earnings call, our fourth quarter began slowly, but we had expected that traffic would improve in June and July with the onset of the summer travel season. Unfortunately, this didn't materialize, and our restaurant and retail sales performance came in below our expectations.

Sep 13, 2023 / CEO / receipt, needs a key / Sandy Cochran, CEO | earnings call 2023-09-13 | transcript 1c544cf0-8809-472b-9652-159b07dac2a6 | chars 3257-3555 | segment 3

Although we are cautiously optimistic that as the summer travel season unfolds, we will see some improvement to trends in June and July.

Jun 6, 2023 / CEO / receipt, needs a key / Sandy Cochran, CEO | earnings call 2023-06-06 | transcript b866347d-4a12-45bc-943a-0100c05c4280 | chars 3606-3742 | segment 3

Looking back at the fourth quarter, the challenging environment I discussed in June continued to impact us through the end of our fiscal year, including a slower than expected summer travel season, fewer visits from guests 65 and older, and high gas prices and other inflationary pressures that weighed most heavily on lower income guests.

Sep 27, 2022 / CEO / receipt, needs a key / Sandy Cochran, CEO | earnings call 2022-09-27 | transcript dcdb1a1c-7afa-4271-9620-e07b2fab984e | chars 4596-4935 | segment 4

Finally, we believe that high gas prices disrupted traditional spring break travel patterns, resulting in lower travel visits.

Jun 7, 2022 / CEO / receipt, needs a key / Sandy Cochran, CEO | earnings call 2022-06-07 | transcript be8754e3-655d-4b7e-910e-07dc46f7a025 | chars 3926-4052 | segment 4

I think there are a lot of factors driving our catering business up. We've been really pleased with where that has come out, especially in Q2. One, I think just the receding of COVID has enabled a lot of both personal or large family gatherings, and especially B2B or office or other large business gatherings. That structural thing has helped, but we have made some changes to our catering offering in terms of the sizes to better meet consumer demand. We've made it easier for our guests or our customers to calculate the per person pricing, which removes friction from the ordering process. Last year we rolled out the individually boxed catering meals, which I think is really fitting, filling a need, an unmet need, and we've been pleased with how customers have responded to that. And we continue to look at ways to better leverage our van fleet, which is a unique thing that we have. We have approximately 230 catering vans out there that help us meet that. So we continue to build on that, and I think our operators have done a great job stepping up and working - out in their communities to sell catering because our catering is fabulous. Our food travels well. It's probably appealing a lot of variety, good price points. So we think catering is going to continue to grow as this year closes out and well into next year.

Feb 22, 2022 / CEO / receipt, needs a key / Sandy Cochran, CEO | earnings call 2022-02-22 | transcript 3d7c6d7f-5c1d-4162-a856-33298cd9d14f | chars 46377-47707 | segment 46

We believe there were a number of factors that contributed to our softer fourth quarter restaurant sales results, including a summer travel season that did not follow traditional patterns or our own robust expectations, the COVID resurgence, particularly in the areas where our stores are more heavily located, that impacted guest visitation patterns and our employees' ability to consistently work, A general consumer preference coming out of the pandemic for more celebratory higher check occasions than we are known for, as well as industry-wide staffing challenges to fully satisfy guest demand.

Sep 21, 2021 / CEO / receipt, needs a key / Sandy Cochran, CEO | earnings call 2021-09-21 | transcript caf5e7e5-ae66-4ef2-b2e0-55e6b005d49c | chars 4527-5126 | segment 4

Sandy, you mentioned a summer travel season that did not follow normal patterns. I'm just wondering if you could elaborate on what you meant by that specifically.

Sep 21, 2021 / CEO / receipt, needs a key / Sandy Cochran, CEO | earnings call 2021-09-21 | transcript caf5e7e5-ae66-4ef2-b2e0-55e6b005d49c | chars 30910-31072 | segment 30

Yeah, the, you know, the summer travel season, it was strong. We just expected it to be even stronger, given that we, assume that the consumers were really looking forward to getting out and making their summer vacations and doing the trips. So although we did see an increase in the volumes versus Q3, we had hoped to see more of it.

Sep 21, 2021 / CEO / receipt, needs a key / Sandy Cochran, CEO | earnings call 2021-09-21 | transcript caf5e7e5-ae66-4ef2-b2e0-55e6b005d49c | chars 31463-31797 | segment 31

I do hear from some of the stores that were depending on a lot of tourism and especially international travel that they did not feel that the volumes recovered to the degrees that they were hoping and expecting.

Sep 21, 2021 / CEO / receipt, needs a key / Sandy Cochran, CEO | earnings call 2021-09-21 | transcript caf5e7e5-ae66-4ef2-b2e0-55e6b005d49c | chars 32186-32397 | segment 31

As we move through the balance of the year, we look forward to further recovery as people return to their pre-COVID weekday routines and resume more normal summer travel and family vacation schedules.

May 25, 2021 / CEO / receipt, needs a key / Sandy Cochran, CEO | earnings call 2021-05-25 | transcript 7accd173-e3f2-4876-9228-86c87676f37a | chars 5281-5481 | segment 5