FAT Brands Inc. (NASDAQ:FAT) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Now something to note during the summer for the sports bars, there’s not a ton of sports on like there is once football gets going and then basketball is going again and so on. So we’re really in that — those dog days this summer for just another couple of weeks, more UFC fights, things like that. But we’ll get that behind us very quickly here and football should be rocky. And that also helps the casual dining category because those restaurants are 25% alcohol and people are going into the casual landing restaurants to watch sports, just like they’re going into Twin Peaks. And so we’re very excited about getting back into the swing of that whole thing.

Operator: The next question comes with Roger Lipton with Lipton Financial.

Roger Lipton : Yes. Good afternoon. Just a couple of follow-up questions on Joe and the gentleman from Loop. Prior to raising the $105 million, what was this cash on the balance sheet as of the end of the quarter, you would have that number, Andy?

Kenneth Kuick: I do, Joe, it’s Ken. $31 million in unrestricted cash at the end of the quarter, approximately. Prior to the rate.

Andrew Wiederhorn: Plus there’s also, the new cash raise but also receivables for additional ERC credits. So those are U.S. government receivables.

Roger Lipton : Okay. And where in the financials, do we see the $156 million of marketable securities?

Kenneth Kuick: Yes, Joe, it’s Ken again. You won’t see it on the balance sheet, so it was issued by us and owned by us. So from a consolidated financial statement perspective, you will not see it.

Andrew Wiederhorn: It also was issued after the quarter end.

Kenneth Kuick: That’s correct.

Andrew Wiederhorn: Yes, it was issued in July. So you won’t see it on the balance sheet of this quarter, but you will see a footnote and reference it as a subsequent event.

Roger Lipton : I see. So it won’t show up in the cash or in the payable. It will just be netted out to 0, but it will be shown in the footnote. Got it. And relative to Twin Peaks, which is a great interest to everybody, has the size of the stores changed at all as the system builds out, the volumes are much higher? Are the stores getting any larger or not? And what is the — I know the cost of building stores must vary a great deal depending on whether it’s especially built through a renovation. But what’s the ballpark, If you wanted to build the new Twin Peaks in a mall, for instance?

Andrew Wiederhorn: So the size of the stores has gotten bigger wherever we can. As we talk about average unit volumes of $6 million store and then we talk about like Florida, where we’re seeing $9 million to $12 million of store, they’re just outstanding. Now part of that is the weather and accessibility to outdoor dining patios. And wherever we can build a second bar in one of the Twin Peak restaurants, we’re getting the opportunity to do that. That just means we have more throughput and on large sporting event days or nights, we can handle more guests. So we want to build larger restaurants. In the fast-casual business, you want to build smaller restaurants. In the polished casual business, you want to build bigger restaurants because if you can manage the throughput, you really take advantage of that and especially having a second bar.

Roger Lipton : Right. And typically, if I’m a Twin Peak franchisee, what am I thinking about investing as where – the cost acknowledging that it can vary a great deal. But what’s it going to go 5 million to build a store?

Andrew Wiederhorn: So if you’re able to buy the real estate, you might pay $2 million for the real estate and $5 million or $5.5 million to build the building on the real estate. So $7.5 million, you could then do if you want a sale-leaseback of sometime and get out $5 million and then you can even finance your equipment and take out another $1 million. So really, you might have $1.5 million in it at the end of the day if you want to finance your project and you’re going to make, knock on wood, you might make $1 million a year. So depending on your margin. So it’s a very, very good cash-on-cash return, but that all depends on all of the variables we just discussed. It also depends on the wages in the state you’re operating in. Texas or Florida versus California is a big difference.