Good Times Restaurants Inc. (NASDAQ:GTIM) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Ryan Zink: Yeah, so we are developing a pipeline. I think less concerning maybe than current operating results, which we believe we can improve upon is really the cost of development and the cost of construction, which we have less control over, outside of reengineering aspects of the concept. We are confident in our ability to develop new units. We do want to take that reasonably slow, both for operating and financial reasons. And so as of last quarter, I think we had said we expected to develop on in fiscal 2025 and I think that’s still our point of view. That said, we’re taking a very measured approach and making sure that the economics, including the development costs make sense.

David Swartz: Yeah, thank you. And maybe I missed this, but what were the stock buybacks in the quarter? Were there stock buybacks?

Ryan Zink: There were. There were. So, we repurchased – let me go back to that page in my prepared remarks. We repurchased 160,772 shares during the quarter.

David Swartz: Alright, thanks a lot. That’s all I had.

Ryan Zink: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Mark Shuler [ph], who is a Personal Investor. Your line is open.

Unidentified Analyst: Hi, Ryan. Welcome Keri. Thanks for taking my questions. So over the last year you’ve made significant investments to include the joint venture purchase, the stock rate purchase, which you just discussed, the purchase of two Good Times. And then you’ve also made some rather significant investments in Good Times. And earlier you mentioned that somewhere around that $6 million in cash flow is kind of a target that you’d probably be looking at running going forward. What in 2024 here are we looking at as far as from a perspective of the kind of the big ticket items where you’re at from a cap extent point on these Good Times redevelopment related activities. Any color you can put to that?

Ryan Zink: Yeah, I would say that in terms of just maintenance CapEx. So we’ll break down the CapEx in a couple of different ways. In terms of maintenance CapEx, we generally budget about 1% of sales for ongoing routine maintenance CapEx. We have had a significant amount of more project CapEx, and we have completed signage at, I want to say seven of our restaurants. We’ve done full remodels of three of those, so just a little over, say 12% of the system. Those remodels are on the order of $80,000 to $100,000 with signage being on top of that. Three of our restaurants need more extensive remodels similar to the one I described in my prepared remarks today. And we are looking to schedule those in over time over the next – over fiscal 2025 and maybe fiscal 2026.

I think my hope would be to be able to get the entire system remodeled by the end of fiscal 2025, but cash flow and other opportunities for capital use will really determine that. So did that answer your question?

Unidentified Analyst : It did. Thank you very much. And then along those lines too, you talked about the stock price and the value as the below book value state of where the stock is right now. Have you discussed in the past, and I’m sure at some point you have. With Bad Daddy’s being the growth vehicle and being the more recognized brand operating in more states, have you ever considered a name change, a stock symbol like BADY B-A-D-Y or something along those lines, something that would draw additional kind of interest or perhaps better reflect where the company is going forward with Good Times doing great things in Colorado right now, but being kind of a limited vehicle going forward.

Ryan Zink: Yeah, so we actually had in the past and we had considered a rename of the company and a change of the ticker symbol just as you described. That was pre pandemic. The pandemic came and things somewhat changed. I think it’s an interesting question, because you are right in terms of our point of view that Bad Daddy’s is the growth vehicle. Nevertheless, Good Times is performing remarkably well. And so I think it’s an ongoing topic of conversation. But I think not something that we think is really, in and of itself is going to drive the business results. It’s really more around, optics around the investment community. And so it’s something that we continue to bat around, but haven’t taken any action on. And I can’t say that we have any specific plans to do something like that in the near future.