Cheesecake Factory Inc Q2 FY2025 Earnings Call

Hello, and thank you for joining us. My name is Tiffany, and I will be your conference operator today. I would like to welcome everyone to The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated Q2 2025 earnings conference call. I will now turn the call over to Etienne Marcus, Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations. Please proceed.

Good afternoon, and welcome to our second quarter fiscal 2025 Earnings Call. On the call with me today are David Overton, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; David Gordon, our President; and Matt Clark, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, let me quickly remind you that during this call, items will be discussed that are not based on historical facts and are considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could be materially different from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements as a result of the factors detailed in today's press release, which is available on our website at investors.thecheesecakefactory.com and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements made on this call speak only as of today's date, and the company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements. In addition, during this conference call, we will be presenting results on an adjusted basis, which exclude acquisition-related items and impairment of assets and lease termination expenses. Explanations of our use of non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures appear in our press release on our website as previously described. David Overton will begin today's call with some opening remarks, and David Gordon will provide an operational update. Matt will then review our second quarter financial results and provide commentary on our financial outlook before opening the call up to questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to David Overton.

Thank you, Etienne. Our second quarter results exceeded expectations, with consolidated revenues and adjusted earnings per share setting new milestones for the company. These solid financial results are fueled by operational excellence and sustained demand across our differentiated high-quality concepts. Second quarter comparable sales at The Cheesecake Factory restaurants increased 1.2%, driving record high average weekly sales and further elevating our industry-leading realized unit volumes to nearly $12.8 million for the quarter. Strategic innovation in our menu has always been a key pillar of our success. Reflecting that ongoing focus, we are now introducing our latest menu, which features 14 new dishes across 2 innovative categories. Tomorrow, in celebration of National Cheesecake Day, we are launching our newest Cheesecake, Peach Perfect with Raspberry drizzle. We believe our continued focus on culinary innovation keeps our menu highly relevant without relying on discounting, and combined with the strength of our best-in-class operators positions us to stand out in a competitive landscape. Thanks to the outstanding execution of our operators, we delivered strong flow-through and meaningful improvement in profitability. In fact, Cheesecake Factory's four-wall restaurant margin increased to 18.5%, up 80 basis points year-over-year and the highest level recorded in 8 years. Turning to development, we successfully opened 8 restaurants in the second quarter, including 2 Cheesecake Factory restaurants, 1 North Italia, 3 Flower Child, and 2 FRC restaurants. Subsequent to quarter end, we opened 1 FRC restaurant and 1 international Cheesecake Factory restaurant in Mexico under our licensing agreement. We are pleased with the progress we've made on new unit growth so far this year and continue to expect to open as many as 25 new restaurants in 2025. Additionally, we anticipate 2 Cheesecake Factory restaurants to open internationally under a licensing agreement. As we look ahead, the strong demand for our distinct dining experiences reaffirms our confidence in the long-term trajectory of our portfolio. Our results clearly demonstrate the strength of our platform and the effectiveness of our strategy to deliver sustainable growth and value. With that, I will now turn the call over to David Gordon to provide an operational update.

Thank you, David. Our performance this quarter reflects the operational strength and disciplined execution of our teams who continue to manage their restaurants with precision and excellence. Notably, both hourly and management retention increased year-over-year, driving improvements in labor productivity, food efficiencies, and wage management. As we've noted previously, our success in staffing continues to be a key driver behind the improvement in guest satisfaction scores. Ultimately, it's our team members who make it all possible, bringing our vision to life and delivering exceptional dining experiences every day. To this point, our internal Net Promoter Score metrics improved across nearly all key areas this quarter, including in both the dine-in and off-premise channels, with notable gains in pace of experience, staff service, and food quality. Record Cheesecake Factory average weekly sales in the second quarter were supported by off-premise sales of 21%, consistent with the average of the prior 4 quarters. Our newest Cheesecake Factory restaurant in Naperville, a suburb of Chicago, opened to remarkable demand, underscoring the strong affinity for the brand and the enduring value of our distinctive dining experience. As David mentioned, strategic menu innovation remains core to our success, and we're bringing that to life with the launch of 2 new menu categories, bowls and Bites. Our new bowl selection includes 6 thoughtfully crafted options, such as the Teriyaki Salmon bowl, Orange Cauliflower bowl, and the Peruvian Chicken bowl. We also introduced a lineup of 8 new bites, smaller plates offered at an attractive price point. These are designed to drive interest and offer new ways to enjoy the menu, with items like New Orleans Cajun shrimp, chicken and biscuits, and meatball sliders. These new offerings reinforce the relevance of our menu and the strength of our innovation strategy. Together with our best-in-class operational execution, they drive sales and traffic and reinforce our leadership in experiential dining. Moving to Cheesecake Rewards, the program continues to perform well with strong member growth and high satisfaction. As we evolve the program, we've shifted from large-scale testing to a more targeted data-driven strategy, delivering personalized offers aligned with member behavior and preferences. This refined approach has driven meaningfully higher engagement and deeper loyalty. Turning to North Italia, second quarter annualized AUVs increased 2%, reaching $8 million. Comparable sales declined 1%, reflecting some continued impact from the Los Angeles fires weighing more heavily on performance due to the concept's smaller comp base relative to the Cheesecake Factory, as well as some sales transfer impact from new restaurants. We also successfully opened a new North Italia in Boise, Idaho during the quarter, marking our entry into another market. Early performance exceeded expectations, with average weekly sales trending approximately 40% above the Q2 system average, reaffirming strong consumer demand for the concept. Restaurant level profit margin for the adjusted mature North Italia locations improved 290 basis points from the prior year to 18.2%. The margin expansion was primarily driven by operational improvements as well as more favorable commodity and labor inflation. Flower Child continues on a strong upward trajectory, with second quarter comparable sales increasing 4%, significantly outperforming the Black Box fast casual dining index, which was essentially flat for the quarter. The improvement resulted in average weekly sales of $91,400 for an annualized AUV of over $4.8 million, a new milestone for the concept. We also opened 3 new Flower Child locations during the quarter, including 2 in new markets. Collectively, these restaurants averaged nearly $82,900 in weekly sales, translating to a solid AUV of approximately $4.3 million annualized. Operational enhancements continue to support strong performance with restaurant level profit margin for adjusted mature Flower Child locations reaching 20.4% in the second quarter. Our strong portfolio performance, fueled by sustained sales momentum, operational excellence, and margin expansion positions us well to deliver on our long-term growth ambitions. And with that, let me turn the call over to Matt for our financial review.

Thank you, David. Let me first provide a high-level recap of our second quarter results versus our expectations I outlined last quarter. Total revenues of $956 million and adjusted net income margin of 5.8%, both exceeded the high end of the guidance ranges we provided. Now turning to some more specific details around the quarter. Second quarter total sales at the Cheesecake Factory restaurants were $683.3 million, up 1% from the prior year. Comparable sales increased 1.2% versus the prior year. Total sales for North Italia were $90.8 million, up 20% from the prior year period. Other FRC sales totaled $90.2 million, up 22% from the prior year and sales per operating week were $136,800. Flower Child sales totaled $48.2 million, up 35% from the prior year and sales per operating week were $91,400. External bakery sales were $12.9 million. Now moving to year-over-year expense variance commentary. In the second quarter, we continued to realize some year-over-year improvement across several key line items in the P&L. Specifically, the cost of sales decreased 70 basis points, primarily driven by favorable commodity costs. Labor as a percent of sales declined 20 basis points, primarily driven by the continued improvement in retention, supporting labor productivity gains and wage leverage, partially offset by higher group medical costs. Other operating expenses increased 40 basis points, primarily driven by higher facility-related costs. G&A increased 10 basis points from the prior year. Depreciation remained relatively flat as a percent of sales. Preopening costs were $9 million in the quarter compared to $7 million in the prior year period. We opened 8 restaurants during the second quarter versus 5 restaurants in the second quarter of 2024. And in the second quarter, we recorded a pretax net expense of $1.2 million related to acquisition-related items and impairment of assets and lease termination expenses. Second quarter GAAP diluted net income per share was $1.14, and adjusted diluted net income per share was $1.16. Now turning to our balance sheet and capital allocation. The company ended the quarter with total available liquidity of approximately $515.3 million, including a cash balance of $148.8 million and approximately $366.5 million available on our revolving credit facility. Total principal amount of debt outstanding was $644 million, including $69 million in principal amount of convertible notes due 2026 and $575 million in principal amount of convertible notes due 2030. CapEx totaled approximately $42 million during the second quarter for new unit development and maintenance. During the quarter, we completed approximately $0.1 million in share repurchases and returned $14.3 million to shareholders via our dividend. Now let me turn to our outlook. While we will not be providing specific comparable sales and earnings guidance, we will provide our updated thoughts on our underlying assumptions for Q3 and full year 2025. Our assumptions factor in everything we know as of today, including net restaurant counts, quarter-to-date trends, our expectations for the weeks ahead, and anticipated impacts associated with holiday shifts. Specifically, for Q3, we anticipate total revenues to be between $905 million and $915 million. Next, at this time, we expect effective commodity inflation of low single digits for Q3. We are modeling net total labor inflation of low to mid-single digits when factoring in the latest trends in wage rates and minimum wage increases, as well as other components of labor. G&A is estimated to be about $61 million. Depreciation is estimated to be approximately $28 million. We are estimating preopening expenses to be approximately $7 million to $8 million to support the 2 planned openings in the quarter and early Q4 openings. Based on these assumptions, we would anticipate adjusted net income margin to be about 3.25% at the midpoint of the sales range provided. For modeling purposes, we are assuming a tax rate of approximately 10% and weighted average shares outstanding of $48.5 million. Now for the full year. Based on similar assumptions, and no material operating or consumer disruptions, we anticipate total revenues for fiscal 2025 to be approximately $3.76 billion at the midpoint of our estimates. We currently estimate total inflation across our commodity basket, labor, and other operating expenses to be in the low to mid-single-digit range inclusive of the currently proposed tariff levels. We are estimating G&A to be about flat year-over-year as a percent of sales and depreciation to be about $109 million for the year. Given our unit growth expectations, we are estimating preopening expenses to be approximately $34 million. Based on these assumptions, we now expect full-year adjusted net income margin to be approximately 4.9% of the sales estimate provided. For modeling purposes, we are assuming an 11.5% tax rate and a weighted average share count of approximately 50 basis points lower than 2024. To help with modeling, this implies a Q4 tax rate of 11% to 12% and WASO of $49 million. Regarding development, as David stated earlier, we expect to open as many as 25 new restaurants in 2025. This includes as many as 4 Cheesecake Factories, 6 North Italias, 6 Flower Childs, and 9 FRC restaurants. We would anticipate approximately $190 million to $200 million in cash CapEx to support unit development as well as required maintenance on our restaurants. In closing, we delivered another quarter of strong financial and operational performance with record revenue, continued margin expansion, and earnings growth. Our restaurant teams continue to execute at a high level, and our differentiated experiential concepts remain well positioned to consistently deliver the delicious, memorable dining experiences our guests expect. As always, we remain focused on making steady progress toward our long-term value creation priorities: growing comparable restaurant sales, expanding operating margins, and accelerating accretive unit development. With a stable foundation, a resilient business model, and a clear strategic focus, we believe we are well positioned to continue generating consistent results and driving meaningful long-term shareholder value. With that said, we'll take your questions.

Your first question comes from the line of Brian Bittner with Oppenheimer.

As it relates to the increase in the net income margin for 2025 from 4.75 to 4.9, is this primarily operationally driven at the store level? Do you basically have a different assumption for the 4-wall margin expansion in 2025 compared to the 15 to 25 basis points of increase you had previously assumed?

Ryan, it's Matt. Thanks for the question. That's true. I think our expectations for the four-wall is that it will be better than we had originally expected, clearly demonstrated by our Q2 results being above our expectations. I think we are committed to continuing to take it one quarter at a time, but our outlook has definitely increased based on operational excellence and overall sales trends.

And just lastly, as it relates to the third quarter, the revenue outlook you provided, there's a lot of moving pieces within the model these days. Does it basically assume a base case for Cheesecake Factory same-store sales that's relatively similar to the second quarter?

At the high end, that's right. I would say we've seen very, very stable sales. We continue to have that stable outlook. But I still think there's no reason to get ahead of ourselves and forecast something greater until we see it happen.

Your next question comes from Drew North with Baird.

I wanted to follow up on the topic of labor. My question is focused on labor retention, which has continued to be a good topic and positive for your business in the broader industry. But I was wondering if you could provide some perspective on where retention levels or turnover levels are maybe relative to pre-pandemic or prior peaks to help us understand how much further improvement could be made? Or higher level, how you're thinking about the opportunity to continue to leverage labor across the back half of the year here?

Drew, this is David Gordon. We continue to be very pleased with our progress around staff and management retention. Our staff level retention today is as good as it's been historically in the company, even exceeding pre-pandemic levels, and the same thing for management retention, which is best-in-class across the industry. We believe this is because of the enduring culture of Cheesecake Factory and how we care for our staff and managers, offering them opportunities to be more productive and learn new stations, which improves productivity for us over time. We think we'll continue to see the benefits of this ongoing retention in lower overtime, lower training costs. We don't see why that's going to change in the near term based on the current environment. Certainly, if things change in the macro environment beyond our control, we'll see what happens. Our management team continues to provide terrific career opportunities for people as they progress in their careers within the company, allowing them to reach as high as they want to go. We continue to be an employer of choice due to the stability of our restaurants, allowing our staff to earn consistent tips along with best-in-class benefits. Our challenge to the operators is to keep this up and to ensure that we make it through the second half of the year, maintaining the type of retention we've seen thus far.

Very helpful. And then one on the comp, if I could. On Cheesecake Factory, can you share the Q2 breakdown related to price and mix and the implied traffic, I guess? And then how we should think about the cadence of pricing as we think about the second half?

Sure, Drew, this is Matt. The net effective pricing in Q2 is about 4% for Cheesecake. Traffic was a negative 1.1%, and the mix was the balance. That's effectively what's encompassed in the guidance for the back half. We anticipate that with the value we're putting on the menu, we might continue to see that level of mix continue, but we're really focused on getting that traffic back to the positive side.

Your next question comes from Jeff Farmer with Gordon Haskett.

You guys touched on it, but with that February menu update, you did shine a brighter marketing light on the new menu items. So I guess the question would be, did you see a customer response to that in terms of just in terms of the innovation aspect of the new menu?

Jeff, this is David again. Our approach with this next menu is very similar to the last menu change. We are taking all of the new menu items and putting them on a separate card to ensure that guests see them and they don't get lost in the menu early on in their life. We feel good about the stickiness of the menu items that we put on that previous menu change, and as Matt touched on, we think that this new menu, from a price point value perspective and also from a flavor profile perspective, should be as successful, if not more successful than the rollout that we had in February.

Okay. And then just as a follow-up to that, as it relates to some of the lower price point menu items you put out there, do you think, two things that the consumer is aware of the lower prices or the lower price points? And are they responding to those lower price points?

Sure. Well, certainly, again, the fact that they're outside of the menu, if you're a guest that's already coming into the restaurant, you're going to see that lower price point right away. We can see the order rates from the previous new menu that guests are responding to that. As Matt touched on in the mix, we're anticipating that there'll be some impact to the mix that we're planning on. We do think that it will continue to resonate, and it's the right strategy. People want to come in and add a bite to their meal, just like they did when we rolled out small plates and snacks. We had guests who were introduced to a new category, adding something that they weren't planning on ordering. We think this will happen with the bites as well, as someone adds something like chicken and biscuits along with an appetizer and an entree, whereas before they may have just gotten an appetizer and an entree.

Your next question comes from Sara Senatore with Bank of America.

I have a quick follow-up and then a question about Flower Child. I wanted to confirm my understanding. At the end of the last quarter, you expressed some caution regarding the operating environment. It seems that those concerns did not materialize. Is it correct to say that the operating environment is perhaps a bit healthier than you initially thought, in light of some of the recent headlines?

Sure, Sara. This is Matt. Just to start with the environment. I mean I think certainly for Cheesecake Factory, Flower Child, and all of our concepts, the environment has been very, very steady for us. I don't know that it's better, and it's certainly not true for everybody, but I feel like we are weathering this environment in a very strong way. I think it's a testament to our execution as well as the brands that we have. So I think it's prudent just to continue taking a cautious approach. We feel really good about where we're sitting today.

With regards to Flower Child and sort of the unit economics, as David Gordon mentioned in the prepared remarks, we're seeing exceptional performance. The mature unit margins cresting over 20% at 20.4% is a high mark for our company at the moment, and the AUV is getting up to in the quarter of $4.8 million. So we're looking down at $5 million up there, maybe in the near-term future. Certainly, the returns that we're getting today are in the mid-30s, and we feel really positive about that and look forward to continuing to grow the concept and it seems to be working everywhere that we've been opening. Okay. I apologize I missed the prepared remarks on that. But as you think about it as potentially a driver, do you see an inflection point in terms of moving the needle on your results? Just because you haven't broken it out yet, and yet it seems very, very attractive.

Yes. It's a little small from an accounting perspective in terms of segment reporting for sure. But our intention when we started this journey about 6 months ago was to continue to provide more information every quarter. So we're continuing to add data to the ability for people to see the progress. Certainly, we would continue to expect to provide even more information, and the performance has inflected over the past 18 months with all the work that the team has done, whether it's with a KDS system or the operational dashboards or catering. It has all come to fruition, and it is on a very strong trajectory. I suspect that it will play a bigger and bigger role as we go forward.

Your next question comes from Jim Salera with Stephens.

To ask a couple on North Italia, if I could. First, just some housekeeping; if you could give us the comp breakdown there, price, volume, and mix for North Italia for the quarter? And if I recall correctly, there were some headwinds from the fires in L.A. and some regional weather. Just any comments on kind of continuing to contribute to softness there for North?

Jim, this is Etienne. I'll just give you the breakdown here. So price was 4% in the second quarter. Mix was negative 1, traffic was negative 4%.

Let me just give some extra color there, Jim, because it's important for everybody to understand the performance at North is actually very, very strong. If you look at the AUVs of $8 million, they're actually outpacing the comps because the new units are performing stronger. We delivered 18.2% on the mature margins, right? The higher sales and higher margins are making for great returns. What we are seeing is a little bit of sales transfer in some markets, which is what's weighing on it. If you take Charlotte as a good example, we have 2 Cheesecake Factories there that are doing $25 million, $26 million, near the system average. We just opened our third North Italia in that market, and the first full quarter was Q2, and it did on an annualized basis, $10 million. The three of them are averaging around $8 million, and the mature margins there are in the low 20%. They're great investments. However, when you open such strong units, you're just moving a little bit of sales. When we net that out, it's performing pretty much in line with Cheesecake Factory. When we net out the sales transfer, it's probably a 1% comp with a negative on traffic, and we're actually really pleased.

Got it. That's super helpful. And maybe if I could just have one quick follow-up there. Just any color that you guys have on North in terms of trends by income bracket, if there's anything that you've noticed in some locations with lower-end consumers to the extent that an aspirational consumer would go to North as kind of an elevated experience.

Yes. I think it's similar to Cheesecake Factory, but maybe a little more narrow. It's probably slightly higher income on average, but certainly, aspirational guests can still visit North and use the menu however they see fit. They can get pizza, pasta, and salads, all in the low 20s. There's opportunity there. In every market we're entering now, we're seeing really strong demand. We noted that opening in Boise being 40% above the system average tells us that guests of all walks of life are going to North. You don't open up doing $10 million and 6,500 square feet, if that’s not the case.

Your next question comes from Brian Vaccaro with Raymond James.

I wanted to ask about menu pricing at Cheesecake Factory. I think you've been running around 4%, maybe the low 4s. Margins have obviously exceeded your expectations, but it still seems to be a pretty intense value environment, just broadly thinking about the consumer. So I guess how does that feed into your current thinking on your fall menu rollout, and I guess, why not let year-on-year pricing roll off a bit, given the tailwinds that you're seeing?

Yes, Brian, this is Matt. In fact, we are taking less pricing going into the back half of the year. We're also introducing some items that have inherently lower prices. The effective pricing we are taking is actually going down quite a bit more. David Gordon mentioned bowls and bites, which are predominantly items at lower price points. The bowls are in the $15 to $16 range with Cheesecake Factory portions. From a value perspective, we're driving significant value for the consumer.

Okay. Sorry, I might have misunderstood previous comments on the pricing. But what type of year-on-year pricing at Cheesecake would be reasonable for the second half?

Probably on a headline basis. But again, I would just reiterate that with the new menu items, there's probably another 100 basis points of negative mix inherently built into that. So the real pricing is probably going to be more like 2% to 2.5% in terms of what the consumer feels.

Great. And then just last quick clarification on North Italia comps. You mentioned the negative impact on the LA unit. Is it possible to quantify that and kind of what the comp would have been ex the LA?

It would have been flat without the LA impact.

Your next question comes from Andy Barish with Jefferies.

More of a high-level question. I’d love to hear your perspective on it. Casual dining seems to be having a moment right now, especially experiential. What do you guys think and see as going on and obviously helping the success of your business?

Sure, Andy. This is David. I think that people want their dollars spent in the most productive way possible, as you mentioned experiential dining. We believe we will continue to be leaders in experiential dining. People want to go out to eat for great, wonderful, delicious food, but also as an experience. They want to be in an environment that has a lot of energy. We feel we provide that at all our concepts, from Cheesecake Factory to a higher-end fast casual, Flower Child, which is very much an experience and not just a transaction. As younger people may move away from transactional purchases, they want to spend time together, which our highly designed and hospitality-focused restaurants cater to. Today's consumers are more sophisticated than they've ever been about food, and we're making all our food from scratch every day. We believe we can take market share and have been taking market share because of that sustained quality, a consistent level of great operations, and all the way leading back to the retention numbers we've seen at Cheesecake that have led to all-time high NPS scores, demonstrating that consistency that people appreciate.

Got it. And then, if you're willing to share, I guess, an early look at the '26 development pipeline, at least directionally, I'm assuming you're going to open more units? Is that something that you're honing in on as we sit here with only 4 or 5 months to go in 2025?

Yes. We anticipate opening more units in ’26 than we will in ’25. We feel good about the pipeline and the cadence of openings. So you can anticipate that the percentage unit growth we've shared in the past is what we're going to continue to be able to hit moving forward.

Your next question comes from Sharon Zackfia with William Blair.

Sorry, we have new phones. Can you hear me now? Okay, I have to learn to unmute. It's 2025. Sorry if you mentioned this. I wanted to ask about the rewards program for Cheesecake. I think you mentioned it, but I was hoping to get some more kind of context in terms of percent of transactions that involve rewards or incremental lift on spend for rewards members versus non-rewards. If you have any data on frequency, kind of how that customer is visiting Cheesecake before they joined rewards versus now or just versus the overall non-rewards population?

Sure, Sharon. This is David. I think we're going to continue to keep things at a high level. What I will share is that we continue to see month-over-month acquisition exceeding our internal expectations. So that's good to see; people are still enthused about the program, continuing to sign up at a higher level than we anticipate. Members continue to show higher frequency, higher check average, and higher NPS scores than non-members. All are positive signs. As we moved from the broad approach we took in 2024 with about a 1% redemption rate across a very large audience to this year, we moved to more personalized offers aligned with behavior and timing. We're seeing those redemption rates of about 4% or higher, significantly better than the broad-based approach we took before. We now have our internal team fully intact and have brought on a Director of Rewards to continue doing the necessary analysis to ensure that redemption rates moving forward are positive, accretive, and in line with the margin profile around what we want to spend on the program overall.

Can I ask a follow-up? When you have the rewards with Flower Child as well, are there any similarities or differences you'd point out between how the customer interacts with the Flower Child rewards versus Cheesecake?

Flower Child is much more of a traditional rewards program. It's an app-based program that has points for visitation and for spend, so we're really not comparing them because they are so different. We're happy with the program at Flower Child and believe it is driving behavior for guests in the program. You can order within the app, order ahead, and do all the typical things you'd be able to do in a fast casual. So far, it's had a positive response from guests, but it's completely different from the Cheesecake program, which is more of that published/unpublished non-points program.

Your final question comes from Jim Sanderson with Northcoast Research.

I wanted to follow up a little bit more on Flower Child. I was wondering if you could give us a sense of where you think the store capacity could end up, given your success in average weekly sales growth? I think you've more or less doubled sales volume over the past 7 years, but wondering where you think this brand can actually end up given the opportunity for catering and for off-premises?

Jim, it's Matt. It's a really interesting question. I don't think we know 100%. The reason I say that is because the operating team just keeps getting better, and they're able to drive more throughput. You mentioned catering, and they figured out a way to squeeze those sales in early before the store opens sometimes and maximize total throughput. I can tell you we have locations doing between $6.5 million and $7 million. So we know there's a pretty good runway still for the overall brand to continue to grow.

You mentioned those locations doing $6.5 million to $7 million. Are those the most mature locations or anything specific about those sites?

Yes. They are some of the more mature locations that have been building business for a longer period. Sometimes, it's the idiosyncratic nature of the site that works particularly well. In general, the business keeps growing, and the longer the sites have been around, typically, the more traffic they have.

And just a couple of questions on traffic trends. I think in the past, you'd mentioned sometimes your patio capacity is at risk when you have heat waves, things like that. Is there any change in traffic trends you've noticed in the second quarter or in July to date related to weather or something unexpected?

No, it's been very steady across our company. Certainly, we do watch the weather. You could have some pockets where it can impact it for a week here or there. But if you take the bigger picture, it's been very steady and predictable.

There are no further questions at this time. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. We thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.