JOINT Corp Q1 FY2020 Earnings Call

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the First Quarter 2020 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers’ presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker for today, Ms. Julie Cimino. Ma’am, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone. This is Julie Cimino of LHA Investor Relations. On the call today, President and CEO, Peter Holt, will review our first quarter and the impact of COVID-19 on the business. CFO, Jake Singleton will detail our financial results. Then Peter will close with a summary and open the call for questions. Please note, we are using a slide presentation that can be found on the Investor Relations section of the Company’s website. Today after the market closed, The Joint Corp. issued its financial results for the quarter ended March 31st, 2020. If you do not already have a copy of this press release, it can be found on the Investor Relations section of the Company’s website. As provided on slide two, please be advised, today’s discussion includes forward-looking statements, including statements concerning our strategy, future operations, future financial position and plans and objectives for management. Throughout today’s discussion, we will present some important factors relating to our business that could affect these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are made based on our current predictions, expectations, estimates, and assumptions and are also subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the statements we make today. Factors that could contribute to these differences include but are not limited to the continuing impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the economy and our operations, including temporary clinic closures, shortened business hours and reduced patient demand, our failure to develop or acquire company-owned or managed clinics as rapidly as we intend, our failure to profitably operate company-owned or managed clinics and the other factors described in Risk Factors in our Annual Report on Form 10-K that’s filed with the SEC for the year-ended December 31st, 2019 as updated for any material changes described in any subsequently filed quarterly reports on Form 10-Q as they may be revised or updated in our subsequent filings, including the one we anticipate filing on May 8th. As a result, we caution you against placing undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and encourage you to review our filings with the SEC for a discussion of these factors and other risks that may affect our future results or the market price of our stock. Finally, we’re not obligating ourselves to revise our results or publicly release any updates to these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. Management uses EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA, which are non-GAAP financial measures. These are presented because they are important measures used by management to assess the financial performance. Management believes they provide a more transparent view of the Company’s underlying operating performance and operating trends than GAAP measures alone. Reconciliation of net income to EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA is presented in the press release. The Company defines EBITDA as net income or loss before net interest, tax expense, depreciation, and amortization expenses. The Company defines adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA before acquisition related expenses, bargain purchase gain, net gain or loss on disposition or impairment, and stock-based compensation expenses. Turning to Slide 3, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Peter Holt. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Julie. I welcome everybody to our Q1 earnings call and I’d like to begin by thanking extraordinary healthcare workers across this nation as they battle COVID-19. Nothing could be more important than for each of us to do whatever we can to combat this pandemic and minimize its impact. As the CEO of The Joint Chiropractic, I want to reiterate that our primary concern which guides all of our actions is the health and well-being of our patients and those who serve our patients. As we stated last month, The Joint is relying on guidance from national and local chiropractic associations and healthcare organizations to direct our conduct. Most state directors view chiropractic care as an essential healthcare service that can be used by patients with a wide array of health conditions. Therefore, we’ve been committed to remaining open wherever and whenever possible. Additionally, we’ve implemented increased hygiene routines and monitoring and operation protocols which we have detailed on our Company website. As we weather this unfolding crisis, I am so grateful for the compassion of our franchisees, doctors and support teams who are also on the front lines and have continued to provide chiropractic care to our patients. By staying open, we’re able to remove some of the burden from traditional medical resources, allowing our healthcare system to focus on treating those afflicted by COVID-19. The fact that so many of our patients continue to visit our clinics is a powerful testimony to the view that our services are indeed essential to their healthcare. Today, I’ll briefly review our first quarter metrics and discuss how we’ve been managing our response to the coronavirus pandemic, the support resources we offer our franchisees and our plans for the remainder of the year. The Joint continues to revolutionize access to chiropractic care with convenient retail settings, concierge style and membership-based services, attractive pricing and hours, without insurance or appointments. Our hybrid model of company-owned or managed clinics as well as our franchise clinics have fueled our ability to expand in a capital-light fashion. Already, we are the largest and most recognizable provider of chiropractic care in the country, which in 2019 was estimated to be $15 billion and expanding, illustrating our opportunity for continued growth. After four years of robust unit growth and a focus on improving operations and marketing, we entered this crisis better prepared to manage these unprecedented circumstances. Strong momentum continued for the first 2.5 months of the quarter and approximately 95% of our clinics remained open through March 31st. However, since then we’re seeing a significant impact from COVID-19, which will be discussed in greater detail later in the call. For the first quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter of 2019, we continued to deliver solid growth. Systemwide sales grew 24% and comp sales for clinics that have been opened for at least 13 full months were 15%. On March 30, 2020, we had $10.7 million in unrestricted cash, up from $8.5 million, reflecting the $2.2 million drawn from our recently established line of credit. Turning to Slide 4, let’s review our portfolio. At March 31, 2020, we had 530 clinics in operation, up from 513 at December 31, 2019. At quarter-end, the clinic mix remained 88% franchised and 12% corporate. In February, we expanded the Los Angeles regional cluster with a new Greenfield clinic, bringing the total company-owned or managed clinics to 61. During the quarter, we opened 16 franchise clinics, bringing the total to 469. Three of the clinics opened in Q1 2020, including one Greenfield earned the Go Elite status by achieving at least 400 new patients and $30,000 in sales within the first two months of operation. Notably, five of the six corporate Greenfields that we’ve opened in 2019 and 2020 have achieved the Go Elite status, with one of our corporate Greenfields having the best grand opening performance of any clinic in the history of the Company, as measured by the first two months of growth. Turning to slide five, during the first quarter we sold 24 new franchise licenses compared to 30 licenses sold in Q1 2019. Traditionally, our franchise sales are highest in the second quarter as our annual franchise disclosure document is updated at the end of April and our franchisees often prefer to sign the whole agreement. In April 2019, we sold 30 franchise licenses compared to six in April 2020. Albeit it’s a significant decrease, we believe selling any licenses in this current climate is remarkable and indicative of the positive long-term outlook of our business. Our regional developers or RDs continue to fuel our growth and were responsible for 92% of the franchise sales in Q1 2020 and five of the six sales in April. To further underscore the appeal of our concept, in late March of this year, we saw the new RD rights for Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota, increasing our R&D platform to 22. This new RD has an extensive multi-unit franchise background and currently owns over 30 Great Clips salons. This territory carries a minimum 10-year development schedule of 18 units. Turning to slide six, let’s review how COVID-19 is impacting The Joint, what actions we’ve taken and how we’re prepared for managing the uncertainty caused by the pandemic. To assist us in our decision-making, we are carefully following guidelines from trusted authorities such as the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization, and local and state health authorities. Since the onset of the pandemic, The Joint has been working tirelessly to prepare the Company to meet the challenges in this dynamic situation. Some of these actions include that we’ve increased the frequency of our communication to our franchisees and clinic teams, including weekly all-network town halls to help them navigate the rapidly changing environment and special addition webinars that dive deep into important topics such as marketing in this time of uncertainty, navigating economic relief options, managing HR issues, improving the patient experience and self-forecasting in light of the COVID-19 environment. We instituted an internal hotline to our rapid response team and an FAQ website connecting franchisees with all our published information and documentation related to COVID-19. We’re addressing patient safety concerns by educating them about the enhancements in our policies and our procedures utilized in our clinics to align with the latest facts and best practices related to hygiene and sanitation, patient screening, clinic operations and other critical protocols. We’re adapting our content marketing plan to provide patients with additional safety and support during the pandemic, including what to expect during the visit to The Joint as well as numerous tips in maintaining their health and wellness during this pandemic. And we’re strengthening the supply chain of PPE and cleaning supplies to our clinics, including a new partnership we recently announced with Amazon Business to supply products approved by the CDC. To further support our franchisees during this crisis, we’ve extended several temporary concessions to them. This includes waiving the minimum royalty requirement for all franchisees for the remainder of 2020, the minimum local ad spend requirement through the end of Q2 and the monthly tech fee for clinics closed 16 days or more in that month. We’ll continue to explore opportunities to bring additional relief and support wherever we can and wherever it makes sense for the short and long-term health of our franchisees. To assess the effectiveness of our communication with our franchisees, in mid-April, we conducted the Quick Pulse survey that was executed by Franchise Business Review. The feedback was very positive. Among the highlights, 88% of the franchisees stated that they were either very positive or mostly positive about their association with The Joint and 90% stated that they were either extremely confident or somewhat confident about the long-term future of the business. The survey results validate our effort to-date and provided helpful insights that we’re using to further improve our support of our franchise community. In consideration of the impact of COVID-19, let’s review our current corporate strategies for technology, marketing and overall operations. Regarding technology, we are suspending the launch of our new CRM system access. Successfully rolling out such a foundational platform for our business requires the entire network’s full engagement. Given this, it did not make sense for us to proceed with such a critical project in the middle of the pandemic. We continue to view this as one of the most important projects of our future and we look forward to picking up with the development. For now, we estimate the roll-out will most likely be a 2021 event. Regarding marketing, we’ve shifted our messages to emphasize chiropractic care as an essential healthcare service and to provide content that gives our patients information for maintaining their health and wellness during the pandemic. We’ve encouraged our franchisees to sustain their advertising efforts and to continue nurturing their patient relationships in their communities. Most of our large markets have continued their broadcast and media buys on television and radio and we believe our strong efforts to maintain our marketing outreach during COVID-19 will benefit our brand. We’re taking actions to preserve cash. We’re negotiating with landlords and deferring capital expenditures, developing new greenfields and acquiring clinics are our most significant use of cash. Previously, we had targeted opening between 16 and 20 corporate clinics in 2020. However, due to COVID-19, for the remainder of this year, we’ve chosen to slow down the pace of our corporate clinic expansion. Now, I’ll review the state of our business as of today. Unlike many retail systems that have been forced to close most or all of their operations, we’ve been fortunate that the vast majority of our network remains open for treating our patients. At the end of April, approximately 90% of our clinics were open though 38% had modified their hours of operation. And those patients who have been unable to visit a clinic either because the clinic was closed or because they are in self-quarantine, we’ve instituted a policy that allowed them to temporarily freeze their memberships rather than cancel at no cost to them. In April, in this COVID-19 environment where the majority of the states have some form of shelter-in-place directive, we maintained approximately 60% of our expected patient visits. This reflects the importance of chiropractic care to our patients and validates our point of view that they see us as an essential healthcare service. April gross sales were down over 30% compared to our pre-COVID expectations. Member attrition has been fairly stable. While new patient conversion is up compared to previous periods, we have experienced a significant drop in our new patient counts. The core of our patient base remains engaged and appreciative that we’re open. Going forward, our focus is on the development of our marketing plan that will be launched once we emerge from the pandemic, aimed at our existing patient base as well as new patient growth. And with that, Jake, I will turn it over to you.

Thank you, Peter. Turning to slide seven, I will compare first quarter 2020 to first quarter 2019. Systemwide sales for all clinics open for any amount of time grew 24% to $60.6 million. Systemwide comp sales for all clinics open 13 months or more increased 15%. Systemwide comp sales for mature clinics open 48 months or more increased 10%. Please note, these comp sales included clinics that were closed for a portion of March. Buoyed by the strong first 2.5 months of the quarter, the growth rates are still remarkable. However, going forward, we anticipate systemwide comp sales will fall as we manage the impact of COVID-19. Revenue was $13.6 million, up $2.9 million or 28%. Company-owned or managed clinics contributed revenue of $7.3 million, increasing 29% from the same period a year ago. Franchise operations contributed $6.4 million, up 26% compared to the same period last year. Increased revenue for both categories is due to the greater number of clinics and continued organic growth. Cost of revenues was $1.5 million, increasing 23% over the same period last year, due to higher regional developer royalties and commissions, which reflects the success of the RD strategy. Selling and marketing expenses were $2.1 million compared to $1.5 million. General and administrative expenses were $8.7 million compared to $6.6 million. As previously discussed, a significant increase in corporate clinics opened over the course of the year requires additional resources to ensure our high operating standards. We posted net income of $815,000 or $0.06 per diluted share compared to $953,000 or $0.07 per diluted share. Total adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2020 was $1.7 million compared to $1.6 million in the same quarter last year. Our strong efforts to maintain our marketing outreach during COVID-19 will benefit our brand. Franchise clinic adjusted EBITDA increased 19% to $2.8 million. Company-owned or managed clinic adjusted EBITDA was $1.4 million, up 8% compared to last year, even with the expenses associated with the new clinics. Corporate expense adjusted EBITDA loss increased from $2.1 million to $2.6 million due to accounting and legal fees. As Peter noted, we’re conserving cash by deferring capital expenditures including slowing the pace of our corporate clinic expansion, negotiating with landlords for rent deferrals or abatements, and analyzing other opportunities to reduce cost. During and after the quarter, we took measures to fortify our position and increase our financial flexibility. In February, we entered into a non-dilutive line of credit with JPMorgan Chase Bank. The senior secured credit facility of $7.5 million included a $5.5 million developmental line of credit and a $2 million revolving credit line. To prepare for the uncertainty related to COVID-19, in March, we drew the full $2 million from the revolving credit line and at March 31, 2020, our unrestricted cash totaled $10.7 million including the $2 million draw compared to $8.5 million at December 31st, 2019. The $5.5 million developmental line of credit can only be accessed for development, not for general corporate purposes or working capital needs. The accordion feature related to the revolving facility is uncommitted and therefore we are unable to utilize it at this time. By March 31st, 2020, the Company fully utilized the debt financing available to it. In April, meeting the CARES Act PPP loan requirements, we applied for assistance and received $2.7 million through JPMorgan Chase. This two-year loan has an interest rate of 0.98% per annum with initial principal and interest payments deferred for six months. The goal of the program is to maintain jobs in the small business sector and we are using the PPP loan proceeds to ensure we can retain our employees and fund the payroll. The Joint operates one clinic and as a franchisor supports 469 franchise small businesses across 34 states in this country. Because of these PPP resources, we have been able to keep all of our corporate-owned or managed clinics open. To date, we have not furloughed or laid off any of our 150 full-time employees or nearly 250 part-time employees. Based on our current interpretation of the regulations of the program and the ongoing uncertainty of the impact on our business due to COVID-19, we believe we continue to meet the eligibility requirements of the PPP loan. As announced in our press release disclosing the loan, as of April 14, 2020, after giving effect to both loans, we had an unaudited unrestricted cash balance of $13.6 million. In March, we withdrew our financial and clinic opening guidance. Until we have a better understanding of the impact of COVID-19, we will not reiterate guidance. And with that, I’ll turn the call back over to you, Peter.

Thanks, Jake. Turning to Slide 8. While no one can accurately predict how ultimately this will unfold, we do know that people will continue to seek more non-invasive holistic ways in which to manage their pain, and we’ll be ready to treat them. We’re confident in the long-term viability and the value proposition of our business model. In closing, I would like to once again express my deepest gratitude to all of The Joint Corp. IT teams who’ve continued to serve in this unprecedented pandemic. Their dedication to our mission is awe inspiring. To our franchise community, our RDs, our corporate team and The Joint colleagues across the country, I thank you. We are in uncharted waters and you are truly making a difference in all the lives that we touch. Julia, I’m ready to open-up the Q&A.

Your first question comes from the line of Oliver Chen.

Hi. Thank you. Regarding your remarks on new patient counts, what are your thoughts about what’s ahead and what you’re monitoring as a catalyst for that improving and things that you may be able to control versus ones that you cannot? And would also love your take on member attrition, which looks like it’s been fairly stable and your thoughts on managing that as well. And I had one to follow-up. Thank you.

Hi, Oliver. Good to hear your voice. Thank you for those questions. As we’ve talked about in the call, it’s clear that the metric we’ve had the greatest negative impact on is new patients. This makes sense, as we have a core patient base that continues to come in to see us. If you are questioning whether you want to try chiropractic care for the first time, it makes sense that in this pandemic you may hesitate before you do that. We are monitoring very closely the impact that’s having on our overall business and that we are preparing for a program to relaunch once we get further past this pandemic to reeducate those consumers that they should feel safe coming in. We think actually that with chiropractic care during this pandemic, with our doctors serving patients, we are in a position better than ever before to truly educate consumers about the power and efficacy of chiropractic care. On the attrition rate, I was a little surprised at how unaffected it was; it’s only a few points higher than our traditional attrition rate. This reflects that patients who are already part of our system and using our services continue to do so, seeing us as part of their essential healthcare.

Thank you. And my follow-up was, you’ve done a really proactive job managing liquidity. What were some of the trade-offs you made and deferring the capex? Also, as we think about your SG&A, are there fixed versus variable costs, how you’ve been managing some difficult choices? Thanks.

Absolutely. Thanks, Oliver. You’re right. We were in a pretty rapid period of growth, so we first looked at those capital expenditures and the greenfield development or acquisition of franchise units. We had a lot of dollars earmarked for that, but we’re able to slow the pace and watch how this unfolds. We’ve gone down line by line through the P&L analyzing the rest of those variable expenses. As we mentioned, because of some of the liquidity choices that we made, we’ve been fortunate to not have to make some difficult decisions yet. All of the actions we’ve taken so far are geared toward preserving liquidity at the moment and we’ll watch and see how this unfolds, but there’s such a great deal of uncertainty that we’re being very mindful and going through this line by line.

Your next question comes from the line of David Bain.

Thank you. I hope you and your family are doing well. Peter, I understand the reduction in capital expenditure in the current situation. However, looking ahead, how does the ongoing impact of COVID influence your strategic approach or the possibility of further beneficial buybacks? There must be several opportunities that have come up, and regarding rents, which you mentioned, they are likely lower in prime locations. Considering your cash position and the current COVID situation, could you provide a general overview of your corporate-owned strategy moving forward? When do you anticipate having enough clarity to leverage what many of us see as a very effective business model?

David, thank you very much for your question. To answer in the broadest terms, what I think COVID impact would have on our overall strategic vision, our strategy remains sound. I believe that having both corporate units with our franchise unit is the right approach. The challenge we face is that predicting what’s going to happen between now and the end of the pandemic is uncertain. One of the levers we have to preserve cash is our greenfield development and acquisition. There could be certain opportunities that would make sense as we respond to the COVID impact. But we will continue to manage and ensure resources are directed appropriately as we navigate this.

Right. Okay, perfect. And I guess one more. I think you mentioned 2020 guidance. I know I’m trying to choose; 2020 guidance is obviously prudent, and I think we all appreciate you did it right away. I don’t believe you suspended the calendar 2023 metric guidance of 1,000 units. Based on your commentary just now, can I assume that that at this point is still intact?

Yes, it is. We absolutely have not backed away from the idea of getting to a 1,000 units by 2023. I can reiterate that we believe in the soundness of this business model. Even in the midst of this pandemic, the numbers we’re posting indicate that we believe while we may have some catching-up to do due to this year’s impact, we still believe we can reach the 1,000 unit goal by the end of 2023.

Your next question comes from the line of Clarke Murphy.

Hey, thanks for taking my questions, guys. I know you mentioned the slowing of corporate store growth from the 16 to 20 range that you initially guided. I was looking to see, is there going to be a similar decrease in franchise unit growth?

Yeah, that’s a logical leap of faith, Clarke, it’s good to talk to you. We do have a pretty robust pipeline right now. The question is really as everyone’s kind of waiting to see how this unfolds. We will likely see some pent-up demand, but there’s no doubt that our overall numbers will be impacted.

Okay, thank you. And then if you could just provide any additional color. I know you mentioned that all of your corporate-owned clinics are still open. Do you have any visibility into how many franchise clinics are still open and kind of what the impact to patient visits to those clinics has been like?

Absolutely. The overall system was affected by about 90%. So if you take that 10%, that’s between 50 and 60 franchise units that were affected. We’ve had quite a few others that have modified their hours to try to accommodate during this time, and those metrics are difficult to capture right now as we assess impacts.

Your next question comes from the line of Frank Takkinen.

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I’m going to follow-up on Clarke’s a little bit here on the 60% trigger you were speaking to. I thought that was pretty impressive that you are even able to hold on to 60% of your business. So I was hoping you could talk a little bit more about some of the trends you saw across April, maybe comparing the first half of April versus the second half of April and maybe even potentially the first week of May, to see if you’re starting to see any early signs of a potential trough in some geographies.

Hey Frank, another great question. I want to clarify that the 60% is in visits. While we saw approximately 60% of expected patient visits, gross sales were down about 30% compared to our pre-COVID expectations. We’ve been monitoring these metrics closely, and we're starting to see a slight uptick as we move towards the end of April and into May. However, that still needs to be assessed over a more extended period.

Got it. And then following up on that same area of thought. I was wondering if you’re also seeing any differences in patient stickiness when you’re thinking about your clinics that have been open for maybe 48 plus months versus your 13 months to 48 months and then your newest less than 12 months, just trying to get a gauge for stickiness across your different more established clinics versus some of your more recent new clinics?

Yeah. I think the more established the clinic, the more established their active member base is. The clinics that have a robust active member base are likely to see less impact on attrition. The younger clinics are still building that member base and, consequently, face a longer ramp as new patient counts have dropped. It’s critical that we develop and maintain marketing programs to address this.

Got it. And then if I could just squeeze one last one in. I appreciate you taking all my questions. Just given the fragmented nature of the overall market, could you talk to the thought process around your financial strength as a larger network when you do come out of this and maybe curtail it into how you’re thinking about your marketing spend in the potential case that you could start to take some share from some of the less financially strong competitors in this fragmented market?

This is a great question. The mom-and-pop operations are likely to face challenges, and many may not survive. Those franchise systems that can sustain a strong marketing presence are going to be the ones that thrive post-COVID. We believe we can attract more independent practitioners who are struggling and showcase the advantages of joining The Joint as we emerge from this pandemic.

Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Van Sinderen.

Good afternoon. I guess my first question is just thinking about this and a lot of people have been deferring going out anywhere, and some of them deferring getting chiropractic work done on them. I’m just wondering how you’re thinking about the potential for pent-up demand for those that have been suffering with pain during COVID.

Yeah, it’s certainly a possibility. We are an essential business that provides care. It is important for us to maintain our marketing presence, so patients know we are available to them. There is potential for pent-up demand, but the uncertainty makes it hard to predict.

We’ve advised our franchise community and corporate clinics to stay fully engaged with their patients, whether they’re closed or operating on limited hours. This engagement will help with reestablishing trust and drawing patients back into clinics as things normalize. We’re preparing marketing campaigns to reach out to those patients who need care again.

Okay. And then you mentioned webinars; I’m wondering if maybe you can touch on a little more about how the process of regional directors adding new franchisees is evolving, if at all, during the COVID paradigm and then maybe how we should think about the pace of adding new franchisees this year.

There is no question that we’re seeing an overall negative impact on our franchise sales. However, our interest level has remained strong even during these challenging times. We sold six franchises in April, capturing potential investors who believe in our business model's long-term viability. While we do expect a drop in the numbers of openings this year, we are confident about the future.

Your next question comes from the line of Linda Bolton Weiser.

So can you just remind us if you have franchisee groups that kind of have multiple units or are they more individual-type situations? And can you also give us some feel for how you are viewing the financial strength of the franchisee groups? Is there any way of saying, a percentage that you think is leveraged versus a percentage that might have higher financial flexibility? Can you just give us a little color for that?

Sure, Linda. Of the 469 franchise clinics, all of them are supported by our team of regional developers or franchise business consultants. They maintain a close relationship and understand the health of the franchisees. We have a range of multi-unit operators, with two operators managing about 50 clinics and the remainder distributed across about 160 different franchise groups. Most of our franchisees have also applied for relief loans, ensuring their ability to maintain operations during this time.

I want to emphasize the financial security of our franchise community. Many of our franchisees are applying for relief loans and successfully obtaining them. This helps maintain their operations and keep their employees off unemployment. We’re committed to supporting their recovery as we all navigate through this together.

Sure. Can you tell us what metrics you will use to decide when to reopen corporate clinics? Will it be based on new member numbers or the percentage of appointments kept?

Yeah, that’s a great question, Linda. The timing for opening clinics again will be based on regional KPIs and the prevailing health directives. We want to ensure that when we open our doors, we can do so with a strong presence and full engagement from our clientele. Monitoring patient traffic and patient willingness to book appointments will guide these decisions.

We also have to be mindful of our financial position. Some clinics have signed leases and are preparing to move forward, and we want to ensure we can support them adequately with resources when the time is right. It’s all contingent on the recovery of our key metrics and overall market conditions.

I missed the beginning of the call because I was on multiple calls today. Regarding your corporate-owned clinics, I assume there is a system in place to ensure that proper physical distancing and PPE are being used by both staff and chiropractors. For the franchisees, are they adhering to corporate guidelines, or is it up to each franchise owner to determine how best to implement those guidelines and ensure patients feel safe with the procedures in place?

Anthony, that’s a great question. There’s no question that the franchisees are being held to the same standards as our corporate units to ensure the safety of our patients and staff. Compliance with enhanced cleanliness and operational protocols is essential. We also align with local directives to make sure that practices are consistent and robust across the network.

This concludes today’s conference. You may now disconnect.