Dutch Bros Inc. (NYSE:BROS) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Christine Barone: Yes, we’re absolutely still super excited by what we’re seeing with response as we go into new markets, new cities, new states and have just an incredible responsiveness to the brand. We send pictures around of how the awesome long lines that we get to see. It’s really like a party when we open a new Dutch Bros and love to see how excited both the broistas are and the customers are when they get to visit us for the first time. And it’s pretty amazing to be 800-shops in and still have this really awesome reception as we go and enter new markets.

Operator: Our next question is from Sara Senatore with Bank of America.

Sara Senatore: I have a question on the units and then just a follow-up on the pricing and the margin construct. So, the unit growth, I guess, you mentioned that the TAM is unchanged. Does the rate of growth change? I know last year, around this time, you gave forward guidance on unit growth. I was just wondering if this sort of rule you have of increasing the number of new units by 15% every year still holds? Or if having to widen out the development radius, if you will, kind of changes the rate of growth? So that’s the first. And then like I said, just a second question. So, a couple of things. Just on changing kind of the overall TAM. When we look at what we’re doing from a development strategy, it really is just taking a little bit more time, in many cases, maybe just a matter of months as we go into a new market.

And that’s really just to allow that brand awareness to build a little bit. I think the lines are a double-edged sword, right? So, we have that our customers learn about us sometimes from seeing those awesome long lines as we go into a market and then they also become the thing that they want us to change, and they want us to shorten our lines so that they can come more often. But we do think that that’s an important element of brand building as people kind of seeing that brand, seeing others love the brand and coming into the market that way. On the specific some of the unit questions, I’ll hand it over to Charley for some of that.

Charley Jemley: You have follow-ups Sara?

Sara Senatore: Yes, it was about margins. So, I can — the question actually about the margins, and I would be happy to hear both from you, but margins are kind of as high as I’ve seen in the industry, kind of above 30%. So, I guess, maybe you could just talk a little bit about that view. You talked about you have room to reinvest. What is kind of a steady-state margin at the four-wall level?

Charley Jemley: Well, they are elevating, as you’ve noted, and we did note some investments we’re going to make — that we made starting November 1 and will continue through the end of the quarter and all the way through next year. So, you’ll see the margin moderate as a result of that. This is our highest seasonality quarter. So be mindful of that when you’re looking at the shape of our margins. But largely, where we’re sitting today is a general expectation of a good place to be. We also talked about having flexibility and the power of this four-wall model being so strong and allowing us to adapt to conditions changing in the market. And that’s our view of our margin situation right now.

Christine Barone: Yes. And then I wanted to go back and just answer your question on guidance. So, we’re planning on doing holistic guidance at the end of our fiscal year. But we do feel good about our long-term growth targets.

Sara Senatore: And you’ll sort of address the rate of growth then? Just understood the TAM is unchanged, but just the pace of growth.

Christine Barone: Absolutely. Yes, we’ll do that holistically at the end of the year.

Operator: Our next question is from Jeff Farmer with Gordon Haskett.

Jeffrey Farmer: I might have missed it, but as it relates to the Q3 same-store sales number, did you guys share the fortressing driven, I guess, would be the sales transfer impact that was seen in Q3?