Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the El Pollo Loco 4th Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity to ask questions following the presentation. Please note that this conference is being recorded today, March 12, 2026. And now, I would like to turn the conference over to Ira Fields, the company's Chief Financial Officer.

Thank you, Operator, and good afternoon. By now, everyone should have access to our fourth quarter 2025 earnings release, which can be found at elplayoloco.com in the Investor Relations section. Before we begin our formal remarks, I need to remind everyone that our discussions today will include forward-looking statements, including statements related to our growth opportunities, strategic and operational initiatives, expectations regarding sales and margins, potential changes to our product platforms, capital expenditure plans, the ability of our franchisees to drive growth, expectations regarding commodity and wage inflation, remodel plans, and our 2026 guidance, among others. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore, you should not put undue reliance on them. These statements are also subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we currently expect. We refer you to our recent SEC filings, including our Form 10-K, for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact our future operating results and financial condition. We expect to file our 10-K for 2025 tomorrow and encourage you to review that document at your earliest convenience. During today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP measures, which we use for financial and operational decision-making and as a means to evaluate period-to-period comparisons, and which we believe can be useful to investors in evaluating our performance. The presentation of this additional information should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP, and reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures are available in our earnings release, which is available in the investor relations section of our website. With respect to the adjusted EBITDA outlook we will be providing on today's call, please note that we have not provided a reconciliation to the most directly comparable forward-looking GAAP financial measure because without unreasonable efforts, we are unable to predict with reasonable certainty the amount of or timing of non-GAAP adjustments that are used to calculate income from operations and company-operated restaurant revenue on a forward-looking basis. Now, I would like to turn it over to our CEO, Liz Williams.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to report strong fourth quarter results that cap off a transformative second year in our brand turnaround journey. In Q4, we delivered a positive quarter of same-store sales growth, including stable traffic, despite the ongoing macroeconomic challenges that persisted across the industry. This top-line momentum, combined with our team's relentless focus on operational excellence, also enabled us to achieve better-than-expected restaurant-level margins. Before we move on, let me quickly recap what we accomplished in 2025. Building on the foundation we established in 2024, we made strategic investments and executed with discipline across our five pillars, achieving meaningful results that we believe position us for accelerated growth in 2026 and beyond. What began as a transformation effort has now evolved into sustained momentum that validates our long-term growth strategy for El Foyol Loco. During the year, we successfully expanded our restaurant-level contribution margins again, demonstrating our ability to drive profitability even while investing in customer value and traffic driving initiatives. We accomplished this through a methodical approach to cost savings and enhanced labor productivity, including leveraging technology and industry best practices. We are also encouraged by the operational transformation that took hold in 2025 to focus more on our unit economics by successfully reducing our new look ahead. our priorities for 2026 are traffic growth across our system while maintaining the margin discipline and unit economic improvements we've accomplished over the past two years and to thoughtfully grow El Coyo Loco across the country. We will achieve this by continuing to execute against our five pillar strategy. Our focused approach will accelerate our growth trajectory and further strengthen El Coyo Loco's position as the nation. Let me provide you details on our pillars. At the heart of Brand That Wins is a breakthrough culinary innovation. Together with value, innovation is critical in driving transaction growth, and I am thrilled to share the exciting momentum in our culinary pipeline. Leveraging our unique fire grilled chicken platform that showcases premium quality and accessible price points, we are able to satisfy our legacy guest preferences while also introducing El Coyo Loco to entirely new consumers across multiple occasions. In the last 18 months, we have identified the opportunities to bring more portable and craveable options to our menu. This is translating to improvements in our core customer feedback scores when asked questions regarding menu variety and have innovative foods i want to try before i discuss how we capitalize on this opportunity further in 2026 i want to take a moment to celebrate the success of our double chicken street corn and queso crunch burrito bowl that we launched in these bowls were instrumental in driving our fourth quarter performance exceeding our expectations in both of guest response and sales contribution. The popularity of these hardy, value-driven, high-quality offerings was so positive that we made the strategic decision to keep both bowls as permanent menu items. This success continues to validate our approach to creating a menu that delivers superior value and portability while maintaining the bowl. In 2026, we are pleased with the momentum from our double tollo salad that launched in January with fresh options to meet new year resolutions. Featuring street corn, Mexican Caesar, and bacon ranch options, we launched double tostadas with bold new flavors and notably double tostadas featuring chicken and shrimp

sending our commitment to quality and flavor.

Encouraging with guests embracing both the limited-time seafood, salads, and testadas, and on the bone, with the return of mango habanero chicken over time, and also the continuation of our $29.99 family. Turning to protein, we are proud of our position as a true protein leader. We further capitalized on the macro trend by launching our version of a protein menu, which is a collection of menu items with more than 20 grams of protein. We did this with a playful nod to the fact that we have been the legitimate place for protein for over 50 years. The February launch culminated with social media content illustrating a drumstick in a protein bar wrapper messaging that our chicken is the original protein bar, a clever way to connect with today's useful and protein-focused consumer mindset. The best part of our protein menu is it requires no new operational list. Rather, it simply showcases what we are known for – high-quality, delicious chicken packed with protein. As we look toward our future innovation pipeline, we are excited about our upcoming Loco Tenders launch in a few weeks. Our all-white meat, boldly seasoned tenders feature our signature dipping sauces – Pollo Loco sauce, Baja lime, and House Ranch represent our entry into the rapidly growing chicken tender category. Loco tenders provide a unique El Toyo Loco twist on a classic tender which we believe will make them a standout and have strong appeal for new and existing customers. We are currently in the five new loaded quesadillas and a crispy grilled chicken sandwich that delivers all the crunch and flavor of a fried sandwich, but it is grilled, not fried. Both entrees are beverages featuring our delicious horchata with notes of cinnamon and vanilla, and cold stone coolers, which are Agua's rustic, creamy, cold, or planned to launch. These are just a few of the products across our innovation pipeline, which is the most robust we have delivered in years. To support all of this menu innovation and growth, we have implemented an internal process with several stage gates to ensure our restaurant operations are minimally impacted and that we can deliver the quality that defines El Coyo Loco. Best of all, our ability to buy our new culinary kitchen strategy works hand in hand with our targeted marketing effort. Let's get Loco Pants advertising to leveraging our passion to build brands as an authority in authenticity. Beyond advertising, this came to life through our brand activation. Like our Loco AI Challenge, the Pollo activation, where we introduced fans to our chicken in the kitchen, which was our version of Elphaba. As we kicked off the new year, where we officially declared Monday as leg and thigh day. A fun play on a leg day at a gym. We did this by providing gym goers and leg and thigh meals. In addition to larger brand activations, we have also shifted our local marketing approach to include more grassroots efforts to support our fundraising and catering programs. This has been especially beneficial in new and growing markets and will become an increasingly important part of our marketing toolkit and growing reach and for your seeing momentum with the younger consumer particularly the 25 to 34 age bracket and marketing efforts there is still much work to do but are gaining traction strategy we'll continue to focus on our passion for chicken and our commitment to across multiple consumer occasions whether we're launching new menu innovations create a differentiator of consumer demand for being the hospitality mindset I want to highlight the immense so operational opportunity to invest in driving standards and accountability through third-party measurement and direct customer feedback and are now outpacing the QSR industry as measured by FMG accuracy to quality room for improvement which will drive additional future growth I want to give special recognition for the improvement we saw in friendliness which was the largest sequential increase by our team members embracing our opportunity and to say thank team members and our franchise partners we are excited about the opportunity to continue raising the bar El Pollo Loco is consistently recognized for our exceptional food we are motivated operational excellence with our focus on operational excellence and fundamentals with applications we will continue to deploy tools systems and new ways of training elevating customer service I would like to note that these strategic investments in operations and technology will naturally translate to an elevated GNA in the near term on which I will provide further details we view this investment as a critical foundation that will allow our brands to scale efficiently and maintain our high standards. This brings us to our next pillar, enhanced capabilities with our digital first mindset. We are pleased that our digital business continue to gain momentum during the fourth quarter. Our more aggressive approach, offering app-based promotions and targeted value through our local rewards program drove significant engagement and transaction growth. The 12 Days of Pollo campaign in December exemplified this strategy perfectly, delivering exclusive daily deals. This limited-time promotional event not only generated immediate sales lift, but it also attracted new app users and increased the frequency among existing customers that introduced advertising with these platforms. We successfully grew delivery by 12% year-over-year in 2025, advertising in 2026, as our data suggests that these transactions are incremental and do not cannibalize existing traffic. We also made several substantial technology investments in our restaurants in 2025 that will continue to enhance customer and team member experience of technology and lead increasing across all facets of our business just about every project team depends increasingly on technology for a program success with this rapid increase in technological needs and analogy leadership with the addition of a new chief technology officer the Dean joins us with Taco Bell Allergan and investment to provide a powerful foundation pivot now to growth through new development we are a brand that is ready to grow again full of opening nine new restaurants in 2025 including our 500 El Pollo loco restaurant in two million annually driven by our strong franchise partners and our new restaurant training teams we opened restaurants in two new states Washington and New Mexico, bringing our footprint to nine states in total. Of the nine restaurants opened, six were outside of California, and seven of the nine were built leveraging second-generation restaurant assets, with significantly lower build costs than traditional ground-up units. Let me highlight a few standout locations that showcase the breadth of our success across the country. In Dallas, we opened a company-owned location in a former Arby's site with a build cost of $1.4 million with early sales results in line with our expectations of how we are de-risking our capital outlay through second-generation sites. Our franchise partners have also delivered exceptional recent openings in Colorado, Texas, Second-generation site construction costs were in the mid-million-dollar range, and all have been averaging above $2 million in annualized sales. These successes reinforce our confidence as we look toward 2026, where we are targeting approximately 18 to 20 new restaurant openings. The vast majority of the 18 to 20 new openings in 2026 are a growth trajectory is being supported by key organizational enhancements. new VP of Franchise Recruiting, who will help accelerate our franchise development efforts. Turning to our restaurant remodeling program, we continue to progress as planned. For the year, we completed the 69 planned remodels, and we continue to see consistent mid-single-digit sales lists in company-operated locations. For 2026, we plan to remodel 20 operated restaurants and operated remodels, putting us on track to meet our goal of updating approximately half of our total system overall. The combination of successful remodeling programs and the strong performance of recent openings has positioned us well for continued expansion in 2026 and beyond. ...growth that delivers strong returns while building lasting brand presence in new markets across the country. Before I turn the call over to Aira, let me provide you with one more update that is more long-term in nature. In addition to the day-to-day hires we've made, we've also maturely reshaped our board with substantial industry expertise over the past two years with the addition of four new board members with extensive restaurant experience. These industry leaders are not only strengthening our corporate governance, but also providing valuable best practice sharing and guidance on all topics, from marketing to operations and development strategies. With the support of our board and the momentum we've built across our strategic drivers, we have tremendous confidence in our ability to accelerate growth over the next several With that, let me turn the call over to Ira for a more detailed discussion of our fourth quarter financial results.

Thank you, Liz, and good afternoon, everyone. For the fourth quarter ended December 31st, 2025, total revenue was $123.5 million compared to $114.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Company-operated restaurant revenue increased 7.1% to $102.4 million from $95.6 million in the same period last year. The $6.8 million increase in company-operated restaurant sales was driven by a 0.4 percentage growth in company-operated comparable restaurant sales, as well as $5.3 million of sales from the additional operating week in 2025. As a reminder, in the same period last year, an increase in average check size partially offset by a 2.3% decrease, franchise revenue increased 15.5% to $13 million during the fourth quarter, driven by a 3.2% increase in comparable restaurant sales, $0.5 million from the additional operating week in 2025, $0.4 million in revenue franchise development agreement and revenues in the 26 sales momentum has continued into the first quarter system-wise comparable quarter to date 2026 have a 1.8 increase in company operated restaurants and a 2.8 turning to expenses food and paper costs as a percentage of company restaurant sales deep 100 basis points of commodity deflation was partially offset by higher discounting We expect commodity inflation to be in the 1% to 2% range for the full year. Labor and related expenses as a percentage of company restaurant sales decreased about 90 basis points year-over-year to 31.5% as we continue to benefit. Wage inflation during the fourth quarter was 0.6% in 2026. In 2006, we expect wage inflation and other operating expenses year-over-year for maintenance Restaurant contribution margin for the fourth quarter improved to 17.5% compared to 16.7% in the year-ago period. As we continue our path of margin improvement, we expect our restaurant level margin for the full year 2026 to be between 18 and 18.5%. In addition, we expect our margins in the first quarter of 2026 to be between 17.5% and 18%. General and administrative expenses increased to $13.1 million compared to $11.1 million in the prior year. The increase was primarily due to $1.2 million in incremental labor and related costs, $0.7 million in severance and executive transition costs, 0.8 million in other general and administrative costs, partially offset by 0.7 million in lower management bonus expense. As a percentage of sales, DNA increased to 10.7% or 100 basis points. As we move into 2026 to achieve our accelerating new store growth objectives, we are continuing to strategically invest in resources to drive new store development, operations excellence, and technology to enable our growth in 2026 and beyond. During the fourth quarter of $2.8 million for an effective tax rate of 30%. This compares to a provision for income taxes of $1.8 million and an effective tax rate of 23.5%. We reported gap net income of $6.5 million or $0.22 per diluted share in the fourth quarter compared to gap net income of $6 million or $0.20 per diluted share in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $16.9 million compared to $14.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Results for 2025 included 14 weeks of operation compared to 13 weeks in 2024. The impact of the extra week of operation increased adjusted EBITDA by approximately $770,000. Adjusted net income for the fourth quarter was $7.3 million or $0.25 per diluted share compared to adjusted net income of $5.9 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter. Please refer to our earnings release for a reconciliation. In regard to our remodeling efforts, during the fourth quarter, we completed 25 franchise restaurant meat remodels and 10 company remodels, bringing our total completed remodels for the year to 17 company and 52 franchised remodels. In terms of liquidity, as of December 31st, 2025, we had $51 million of debt outstanding and $6.2 million in cash, consequent to the end of $3 million on our revolver, resulting in our debt outstanding of $48 million. I'd like to provide you with the following guidance for 2026. System-wide comparable store sales growth of 2% to 3%. The opening of three to four company-operated restaurants and 15 to 16 franchised operated restaurants. Capital spending between $37 million to $40 million, G&A expenses between $52 million to $54 million, excluding one-time charges and including approximately $6.5 million in stock compensation expense. Adjusted EBITDA between $66 and $68 million, and an effective income tax rate of approximately 29%. In addition to our guide for 2026, we are introducing the following guidance for 2027 and 2028. System-wide comparable in the low single. System-wide in the mid-single digits. and adjusted EBITDA growth percent in the high single. This concludes our prepared remarks. We'd like to thank you again for joining us on the call today. And we are now happy to answer any questions that you may have. Operator, please open the line for questions.

We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star and the number one on your telephone keypad. The confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star and the number two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment while we poll for questions. And our first question comes from Jake Bartlett with Truist Securities. You may proceed with your question.

First question was on the consumer. You guys are enough, I think, because of your regional, you may have less weather than we've had on the East Coast. And, you know, one of the phrases that we talk about these days is underlying demand, and I think you guys might be in a good position to tell us about what you think kind of the underlying demand is out there without weather. So, you know, what are you seeing? I know you're doing a lot to influence your results, which is encouraging, but I'm hoping you can kind of talk about your confidence in the consumer, you know, which direction you think the consumer has been moving in the last few months and few quarters.

Thanks for the question. So the consumer is still looking for great food at a great value. So wanting to have a meal that is healthy, better for them, quality ingredients, all indulgent at times, but wanting to do it within their budget. So certainly more budget conscious. So we're seeing that we're able to serve that for the consumer. We are seeing increasingly the consumer You know, in Q4, we saw the consumer responding to value, particularly with our burrito bowls and with some of our offers in our app, and then also with third-party delivery. And then as we've gotten into the beginning of this year, you know, the consumer, where we are predominantly on the West Coast, we are lapping some of the activity from last year where the consumer stayed home more, whether it was because of they didn't have the money to come out as much, but then there were also some of the events going around with just ice and everything else out there. So not seeing as much of that this year. So the consumer is certainly still looking though for just a great experience at a great value.

Great. That's good to hear. And the other question was, it sounds like you're doing a lot. You're testing a lot. You're coming up with some nice menu innovation. You're adding a lot of items or, you know, a number of new items to the permanent menu, adding a little complexity. So I'm wondering whether, you know, what you're taking off the menu, for instance, but also, you know, how you're going to market all this effectively. It seems like there's a lot to talk about and, you know, the limited, maybe a limited voice. So what's the approach to marketing in terms of trying to accomplish all that you're trying?

Sure. Thoughtfully pacing and sequencing is really key and doing a lot of testing, which is what we're doing right now. And if you think about having also a nice mix of products that we've had before that consumers love and then just doing a twist on some of those menu items. As an example, our tosadas that are wildly popular. The twist right now is the Baja lime element with shrimp and with chicken, whereas in the past we've done that with mango habanero or we've done that without flavoring. Same thing is true with the burrito bowls that we launched in Q4. We had a twist there with the queso crunch. We had always had burrito bowls on our menu. however we innovated on two new flavors and those some have unique ingredients some use ingredients we already have in the restaurant and so when we made the decision to keep those on the permanent menu what we did is we looked at the burrito bowl lineup and said does this replace a burrito bowl on there and indeed it did and so in many instances as we're adding we're also removing or or as an example on the double pollo salad, we made an update to one of the salads where we made a small enhancement, but it was one in, one out in that sense.

Great, I appreciate it, thank you.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Todd Brooks with Benchmark Stonex. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, thanks for taking my questions and congrats on really strong results and solid momentum carried here into the new year. So congrats on that. Thanks, Todd. Two questions, if I may. One, you talked about work and getting the prototype costs down and the success with the second-generation locations, and you gave guidance for, I think it implies, 14 to 17 new franchisee locations in 26, can you talk about the mix of growth with existing franchisees versus new to brand partners? And are we to the point yet that you feel like you're ready to give us color into what the franchising pipeline looks like so that we can start to understand what you're building on to drive that flywheel of longer-term unit growth that you guys guided for for 27 and 28?

Sure. So, and as we go along throughout the year, we'll certainly provide more detail in the richness of that pipeline in terms of, you know, where those units are and, you know, with different franchise partners and company units. So, you know, we figure at least 20% of those new builds will be with company capital. And in terms of the franchise partners, I'm excited because it's a lot of our existing franchise partners who have seen the improvement that we've made with the economics, and they have that enthusiasm and love for the brand, and they know how to grow with the brand. They have the infrastructure to grow with the brand. So we have a healthy pipeline of existing franchise partners, but then there's also new franchise partners. So as an example, we've got new partners up in Washington that are driving growth, new partners in New Mexico is an example. So it really is a mix. And then, you know, we're not done. We, as I mentioned, we just brought on a new leader guiding our new franchise recruitment. And, you know, we have a good amount of interest, But I think there's more interest out there as we tell the story of the brand and we work our way across the United States. So simple answer is it's a nice combination of new but also existing complemented by corporate growth.

Okay, great. My second one, and I'll jump back in after this. I don't ever remember this type of annual guidance from Logo in the past. and certainly not a multi-year framework. It's great to get. Thank you for it. But what do you see in the business that gives you the confidence to actually give us this, given the current consumer environment?

It's a great question. You know, I now are going in or concluding the second year of the turnaround, heading into year three, have a really terrific leadership team alongside me, and also, you know, just team around us. And we've all been at this for, you know, decades, and we've seen a lot of restaurant growth, turnarounds, you know, turbulent times. And we see in our business, we've worked through so much over the last couple of years. We have gotten this brand to a place that's so much healthier than where it was. We've stabilized, you know, and improved, dramatically improved the margins and the profitability of the brand. We've figured out what works in terms of driving sales, what formula works when it comes to innovation or value. Now, there's always the consumer element, which is the big surprise, like you mentioned. You know, it's harder, you know, to predict what's going on with macros and consumers. But there's just some fundamentals that I think I'm more comfortable and our leadership team's more comfortable knowing that formulas that drive growth. And so now as we look out to a longer term, we're able to make longer term decisions, such as investing some very thoughtful G&A in places that we know is going to drive growth. And so when we put that all together and you've got a great CFO like Ira and team with him, you feel more comfortable being able to articulate that two- to three-year plan.

That's great. Thanks, Liz.

Yeah, thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Jeremy Hamblin with Craig Hallam. Please proceed.

Congratulations on a really strong year and the momentum you have in the business. I thought I would start by just understanding in terms of the system, really strong results from the franchise business in Q4, but about a 300 basis point difference between your company-operated locations and franchised on traffic. And wanted to get a sense for why you think that difference exists. It does sound like in Q1 that gap has closed, but likely still some sort of a gap there, given that franchises is trending a bit higher. Any color you might be able to share and what you might be able to learn from, you know, kind of the franchise operators?

Yes. So I wouldn't read too much into it as it does go back and forth, you know, from time to time or quarter to quarter. Sometimes some of the factors, we do pick it apart and look at it. Some of the factors can be geographies, But they also could be lapsed in terms of amount of pricing that either franchise or corporate might have taken and then lapping that and implications that house with transactions. It also, at times, can be the geography piece has some of the weather implications as well. And then, in addition, it can occasionally be operationally driven. I do think our franchise partners are terrific operators. And in some instances, they have operated more strongly than corporate restaurants. But I wouldn't say in this case, it's any one of those, you know, like that's the defining reason. It's usually a multitude of factors.

Understood. And then coming back to the point about, you know, menu innovation, That really stands out where it looks like you guys are testing more and more frequently. In terms of what is in place from a corporate level to drive that type of innovation, what's changed on that front? And in terms of thinking about what your pipeline looks like, you've had a lot of exciting launches and successful launches here. Should we expect this type of innovation in the number of new products to continue here as you go into 27 and 28 as well?

I think we should expect that. We have a belief that the category loves innovation. The consumer loves to try new things, and we think that our brand leans into that exploration. And some of the things that we've done from the restaurant support center standpoint is to build back that muscle of being able to do innovation and do it well and within our operational footprint. Because the worst thing is when, you know, companies go and try to do innovation, they don't do it well, and operationally it just breaks the restaurant. And so some of the things that we've put in place, we have an ops services team that we didn't have a couple years ago, led by Rick Pepper, outstanding team. They really work closely with our operations team to field test. I've talked many times about our culinary team, led by René, Chef René. He does a fabulous job on the innovation side. That team was not as robust a couple years ago. And then I spoke briefly in the prepared remarks about having a culinary kitchen. We recently moved our corporate headquarters after 20 years, and our number one priority in looking for space was having a culinary kitchen at the center, the heartbeat, really, of the support center. And even, you know, little things like that signal to the organization how much we care about culinary and about innovation.

Follow on to that question. Just to confirm, you said that the full launch of tenders is coming in a few weeks, and then I wanted to get that confirmed. And then just thinking about when, you know, with the chicken sandwich, kind of the rollout of that.

Yeah, so we'll see our tenders later this spring. I haven't released the exact date yet, but later this spring we're really excited. And then the sandwich is still in test and we're testing other types of sandwiches. So that's something we're looking at later this year, so in the second half of the year. Got it.

Last one for me. The balance sheet really improved in 2025. I think your net debt now is down to like $45 million. dollars, and you're continuing to build cash, or cash flow, I should say, is the plan to get that down to no debt, and then after that point, as you have a bigger system in total, as you grow units, thinking about other things that you might be able to do with that cash flow on a go-forward basis, or any insight you might be able to share into the kind of the multi-year plan on that?

Yeah, I think that's a great question, Jeremy. So as you move into 2026, the good news of us, you know, being able to have so much cash available, we are turning around and are investing that in the business as we move into 2026. As Liz talked a lot about, we are increasing our pace of new unit development on the corporate side. We are investing it, you know, as we're in this kind of second year of, you know, our image and look and feel of the brand. We're upping the pace of our remodels. We're taking these dollars, and we're investing it into operational improvements in the restaurant to help us drive both sales and drive margins. And so we're going to spend a little more in CapEx this year, as we talk about in 26. And so that's one thing we're doing with it. And as we continue to move forward, we will also be evaluating ways how we can, from a capital allocation standpoint, potentially return that to shareholders as well. So I think we are comfortable with our level of debt, but we're also looking for ways to take those dollars and invest it in the business to continue to drive, you know, profit growth over time.

Great. Thanks so much, and best wishes this year.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Andy Barish with Jeffries. You may proceed.

Hey, good afternoon, guys. You guys are kind of in the, I guess, unenviable position of having reported after the Middle East stuff has erupted. Have you seen sort of a consumer reaction with gas prices above $5 in California? Just kind of wondering, you know, sort of what you're willing to discuss there, and just given you guys have been one of a few, if only, reporters since everything sort of started up.

Yes, thanks for the question, Andy. You know, surprisingly, we haven't. You know, we're all very familiar that typically QSR and fast casual are tightly correlated with gas prices. so you know we we are watching closely but haven't I wouldn't say we've seen anything of note as of late good to hear I don't know trickle through or if it does people adjust you know hopefully fairly quickly and get back I get back to prior spending patterns which I guess has been sort of what we've seen historically, at least in terms of food away from home.

On the same-store sales composition, can you kind of go through that with us? I know traffic is a focus, but I'm assuming, you know, pricing is going to kind of be in line with inflation, which looks like it's, you know, it's kind of two to three when you combine commodities and labor. Just any more color on price? And then is the goal to get traffic positive this year?

Yeah, well, that's always our number one goal is to drive traffic positive. And, you know, hey, we feel good so far about our trend that we've seen in the quarter. you know we were a little soft that first week of the quarter with we had some holiday timing and some weather issues but we've been very pleased with the way the quarter has played out with us so far and again to the second half of your question we are going to keep pricing similar to last year we were I think we came in at about three and a half percent last year and our pricing will be similar to that as we move forward into 26 and you know obviously subject to how the year plays out, but we feel a combination of the innovation that we have going and the products that we're bringing to bear and where the business is right now, we feel like we do have the ability to take a little bit of pricing as we move forward this year.

Gotcha. And then on, just on the assumption, you know, kind of starting in 27, it looks like adjusted EBITDA growth will be higher than, you know, revenue growth, you know, just on a high level. So is that still kind of moving restaurant-level margins, or do you expect, you know, G&A to start to lever a little bit maybe in 27 again after the investment spend in 26?

Yeah, no, great question. You know, we've always said we believe this business can get into the 18% to 20% range from a store-level margin standpoint, and this year we're guiding 18 and 18 and a half. So, we believe we have continued opportunities to drive our margins higher, and that is reflected as we think about, you know, the 27 and the 28 guidance.

That in concert with we are making a lot of G&A investments this year, and we'll start to see some G&A leverage as we move into 27 and 28 as well. and some of those gna investments as we remarked uh you know are across the business and things like new unit development so as we're building corporate restaurants and also all the training to make sure franchise restaurants open successfully we see those investments as having a direct payback technology things that drive not only innovation but productivity are also areas of investment. So things that are very laser-focused that over time, you know, have a strong return.

Great. Thanks for the color.

Absolutely. Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Tanya Anderson with William Blair. Please proceed.

Hi. Good afternoon. I was just wondering if you could talk about the cadence of the openings this year.

You know, we've got a couple open. the great news is we've already got two open so far this year and as we move forth through the year it will be not as back-loaded as we've had our openings last year but typically as you move forth it will be a little back-loaded as we move kind of through the year but we're excited we have I think we have eight stores under construction right now so we feel really good about about our new unit development this year okay and then previously you talked about having some like input and cogs initiatives that were going to happen this year if you talk about the physics there yeah no we you know we this has been a multi-year project for us in regards to you know leveraging what we're buying to improve margins and as we think about the focus for 2026 it's taking things and having the supplier do some of the prep we do a lot of prep today in our restaurants and having our suppliers do some of that prep for us taking some of that labor and complexity out of the restaurant and the combination of that will drive efficiency and margin for us and so that's our big and these are the main focus of our initiatives this year to help us drive the margin improvement okay thank you thank you a question comes from matt

Curtis with D.A. Davidson. Please proceed.

Hi, good afternoon. I just wanted to ask some questions about the new markets you've entered recently, like Washington and New Mexico, as well as some of the other openings outside of California. I was just wondering if you could share what initial sales volumes have been like and what you've been doing to support these new openings, either in terms of marketing support or in other areas.

Great. Thanks for the question. We're really proud of these new openings, in particular the Washington, so in Kent, Washington is where this unit is, and it has just exceeded every expectation, you know, more well, well, well above our system average lines to the point where we've had to dial back some of our hours so that we could make sure we had chicken for everyone we haven't turned on this will tell you something we haven't turned on the third-party delivery partners because we have so much demand in the restaurant we want to serve the customers that are in front of us rather than even turning on delivery now this is the first unit in the state but it just shows you how much pent-up demand there is for El Pollo Loco and when we support the restaurant well and we find great franchise partners it's it's a magical combination and so the training that we're doing is you know many months in advance we spend a lot of time with with folks training we send teams up to these restaurants and there's a lot of ongoing support New Mexico also a new franchise partner also performing really well above average, so much so that the franchise partner has been looking for additional sites in the market because, you know, they have so much excitement and are very pleased with the results. So I think that's the very testament that one unit isn't enough, they want to do several in the DMA, to me is a testament of growing outside our home market.

Okay. Well, that's certainly encouraging to hear. So I guess the next obvious question is where do you think the pent-up demand is coming from given the busier initial sites in those states?

I mean, would this be basically demand coming from California expatriates or something else?

I think that certainly helps with the familiarity of the brand, but there's certainly not enough. As many people as might have left California, I don't think there's that enough to substantiate all this demand. So I do think it's the fact that we really don't have a true national competitor. And when you think about fire grilled chicken, when we open in these markets, we serve our chicken in the delicious way that everyone knows and loves it. There's just the same consumer type that loves the food, whether they're in California or Arizona or Nevada they love it in New Mexico and Washington and eventually across the country so back to your other part of the question in terms of how we're marketing things you know we're using local marketing we're using digital marketing all different types of marketing tools to you know drive awareness interesting thanks very much thank you ladies and gentlemen we have reached the end of today's question and answer session i would like to turn the call back over to liz williams for closing remarks okay interesting thanks again everyone for your interest in el feo loco we look forward to talking to you again next quarter have Have a great evening.