Noodles & Company (NASDAQ:NDLS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Todd Brooks: Okay. Great, thanks Dave. And then final one, and I’ll jump back into queue. Digital menu boards, you gave the concrete example about gift card sales being doubled in stores that had them versus stores that didn’t. Are there other early learnings that you can point to as far as average ticket list, when you’ve got the digital menu boards, items per transaction, you’re starting to get a little bit of meat now behind having this in a period of stores for a period of time here anything else you can share with us on the benefit of this investment? Thanks.

Dave Boennighausen: Yes. So areas that we’re also seeing increasing, such as are making a meal program, which allows people to get a drink, and then a choice of a side or dessert, where we feature that in digital restaurants, I’ve seen about a 50% lift in the uptake in those items, seeing something similar in terms of linguini, because we’re able to be much more compelling with how we communicate that messaging. So across the organization, we feel, certainly digital, many boards aren’t necessarily new in the restaurant space. It’s all about how you use them. And for us, we’ve developed that strong rewards program, that strong knowledge of our guests, as well as the overall digital ecosystem that we see there’s tremendous upside for a brand that thrives on variety.

And that thrives on offering guests customization made to order us being able to connote and really message all of those strengths to our guests, we feel it digital menu boards are just extremely well-tailored for us not to mention the increase in flexibility that they gave you from a pricing perspective, a testing perspective, et cetera. So, we feel that the digital menu boards are really transformative investment for us for 2023. And some of the momentum that you already see whether it’s gift card sales, linguini mix, or make it a meal. As our team continues to evolve and use data and do the A/B testing to really optimize those we feel there’s a nice, nice tail and then we can have some Navy perspective as well as profit.

Operator: And our next follow-up question comes from Jake Bartlett from Truist. Your line is now open.

Jake Bartlett: Thanks for taking my follow-up. On the CapEx, how much of that CapEx you’re guiding to in ’23 is going to be the menu boards or other kind of maybe digital initiative that’s going to be temporary in nature and just kind of wondering, trying to figure out how CapEx would trend after that. And then also no quarrel, if you can tell us whether you think that, given the CapEx slide whether you think free cash flow would be positive or negative, maybe flat in ’23?

Carl Lukach: Sure, so in terms of the CapEx guidance, a majority of this, as you alluded to is our growth initiatives regarding the new restaurant openings, and the anticipated investment in the digital menu boards. Maintenance CapEx is around $5 million to really the majority here is those investments. As we think about our free cash flow position, for 2023, we do anticipate that our operating free cash flow is supportive of these capital investments that we’re making. And having said that, we do feel very good about our liquidity position. We have $75 million available to us and liquidity with our new credit agreement that remains highly favorable, favorable and flexible to us. So, feel like we’re in a good position from a liquidity and, and capital spend perspective.

Jake Bartlett: And just in case, it’d be the menu board rollout that’s just happening in ’23 of it. Is that right or is that something that would spread into ’24? Just trying to figure out when that goes away, what if there’s a way you can you can help us understand what the menu board is how that’s impacted CapEx?

Carl Lukach: Yeah, that’s correct. So, what can you expect from a debt perspective or free cash flow perspective. Q1 naturally is the lowest seasonality that we have throughout the year. So, you can expect that there’s going to be some negative free cash flow here during the Q1. And then as we implement the digital menu boards. As we go forward, beyond the investment, there’s so many boards, we don’t foresee any material type of investment along the lines of the digital menu boards, which are in the neighbourhood of about $10 million, maybe a little bit north of that for 2023. It’s kind of a onetime investment to really bring the restaurants up to speed. That said that investment we feel has a high return based on everything I talked about earlier in terms of our ability to be flexible to be able to drive check to be able to drive traffic and group brand regard, as well as it does reduce some costs, some savings, some costs in terms of the physical menu boards, and all of the investments that occurred every time that you do a physical menu, board layouts change.

Jake Bartlett: Great. Thank you, so much.

Operator: And I’m showing no further questions. I would now like to turn the call back over to Dave Boennighausen for closing remarks.

Dave Boennighausen : Thanks, Justin. And thank you again, everyone for your time we achieved strong same-store sales, significant margin expansion outside of the EBITDA growth in Q4. And we feel we have strong visibility into continued expansion here into 2023. Combined with a strong needed pipeline, we look forward to the balance of the year and discussing our progress in future calls. Have a great day.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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