Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc. Q1 FY2026 Earnings Call

And welcome to everyone on the line. Joining me in the room on today's call are Thudderun Lal, our Chief Executive Officer, and Darren Harper, our Chief Financial Officer. After our prepared remarks, we will be happy to answer any questions. This call is being recorded on behalf of Dave & Buster's Entertainment Incorporated and is copyrighted. Before we begin the discussion on our company's first quarter 2026 results, I'd like to call your attention to the fact that in our prepared remarks and responses to questions, certain items may be discussed which are not entirely based on historical fact. Any of these items should be considered forward-looking statements relating to future events within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated. Information on these risks and uncertainties have been published in our filings with the SEC, which are available on our website. In addition, our remarks today will include references to financial measures that are not defined under generally accepted accounting principles. Investors should review the reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP measure contained in our earnings, released this afternoon. And with that, let me turn the call over to our CEO, Tarun.

Thank you, Corey. Good evening, everyone. I first want to speak directly to our Q1 results, which came in below both our own expectations and the expectations we set with you last quarter. We started the quarter well in February. The spring break calendar shift between March and April played out largely as expected. but the macro backdrop elevated gas prices geopolitical uncertainty and a meaningful softness and consumer sentiment they all were a real headwind in april that said we are not here to make excuses we have a resilient business model and expect to be able to navigate these obstacles our seems to sales growth declined 5.4 percent in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. We found that our dollar-per-day messaging did not resonate as strongly as we hoped, and since then, we have pivoted to more compelling promotions which are resonating with customers. We've also made significant progress in establishing partnerships with IP providers and expect to have exciting entertainment announcements for you in the coming months. We're making significant progress, but want to remind you that we are in the early innings and look forward to providing updates as soon as possible we've seen improvement quarter date in the second quarter despite unfavorable weather with comms down approximately four percent we remain confident in our ability to continue improving in the back half of the quarter we're extremely excited about our summary summer offerings including our new game rollout and the World Cup watch activation which kicked off last Thursday. After nearly a year fully immersed in this business, I remain extremely confident in our ability to dramatically improve operating results. Over the past several years, we have drifted from the core elements that historically drove our success, investment in games, F&B, marketing, and operational excellence. We are systematically restoring each of these pillars now we've also significantly strengthened our leadership team in just the last month we've added top caliber executives a chief marketing officer in jeremy tucker who joins us from auto nation planet fitness world disney and spin master a chief technology and digital officer in kevin fish who joins us from wingstop and a chief legal officer in Rachel Morgan, who joins us from Nextar. We're equally focused on field operations and culture because we know exceptional execution and guest experience traffic and sales. With that in mind, I'm delighted to share that we'll be announcing a new COO by next week. Now, we have the right strategy, the right team, and the right business model to create meaningful value for our guests and our shareholders. Our priorities this year remain clear. Turn same-store sales sustainably positive and generate meaningful free cash flow. This management team is highly confident we will generate positive comparable store sales growth in the remainder of the year, driving revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth and more than $100 million in free cash flow for the full year. Let me now provide an update on each pillar of our back-to-basics strategy. First, on marketing, we are rebuilding our strategy around discipline, a simplified promotional calendar, data-driven media mix modeling, and an optimized balance between TV and digital. Getting the right message to the right audience at the right time is one of our biggest opportunities to improve traffic, sales, and invidia. Our priority is rebuilding brand consideration through culturally relevant promotions and attractively priced offerings. We are still in the early innings of our marketing optimization. We've conducted a number of tests in the first quarter which have shown success and which we expect to roll out nationally this year. On the flip side, we also tested a number of items such as our dollar per day messaging and certain changes to our media spend, mix, and target audience that had less success but have provided us with valuable lessons and learnings for the future. On the earned media side, we've seen a lot of success with bold activations that generate meaningful earned media and put us into cultural conversations for example in May we announced that we did place tickets to the World Cup finals inside our human crane and the response has been extraordinary these shareable moments drive organic awareness beyond that we are activating our loyalty program to drive personalized messaging and increase visit frequency we're building a scalable special events engine that turn events into cultural moments and convert even guests into repeat walk-in visitors. Overall, we are very excited about the evolution of our marketing leadership and look forward to continued progress with Jeremy now at the helm as CMO. Second, our food and beverage business that has seen an early win from our back-to-basics strategy. comparable food and beverage sales grew approximately five percent in q1 driven by our return to the historically proven menu last october and by our strong eat and play combo execution before these changes the share of gaming guests who also bought food had declined significantly as our menu drifted post-covid we've reversed that trend decisively in 2025 five, which has continued in 2026. Our ongoing success in food and beverage has resulted in nine straight months of positive F&B same-store sales. We have additionally exciting LTOs launching in the coming months, which we expect to be highly accrued. Main event rolled out a new menu last month, and we continue to test food-focused promotions, which have shown science of success, and we expect to drive continued growth in the back half of the year. Third, our games offering. This management team strongly believes we need to reinvest in new games after a six-year pullback. New, relevant games and attractions are essential to driving both new and repeat visitation and same-so sales growth. Just a few weeks ago, we rolled out 10 new games the most since 2017 coupled with initial game investments in 2025 this reverses a prolonged period of under investment and we expect to roll out at least five additional new games in the balance of 2026. this is a direct response to an abundance of customer feedback citing a lack of newness on our traditional game floors and we have moved with significant urgency to address it we also know from our inaugural state of fun report that nearly half of the americans say their lives lack fun and more than half would prioritize fun if affordable options existed our strategy is simple give people exciting affordable reasons to reconnect in the real world the new lineup spans highly energy high energy competition immersive gameplay and hands-on skill challenges. Highlights include Hot Wheels, Ultimate Speedway, Icy Slush Rush, John Wick, Continental Pursuit, Odin's Hammer, and Perfect Pump, plus of course The Mandalorian and Grogu and Stranger Things IP alongside guest-tested original concepts. Many of these games are already facing amongst the top revenue generators in their first weeks which is validation of our continued midway investment and this is only phase one we have a lot more in the pipeline including several exciting ip partnerships that i look forward to sharing soon we're equally excited about leveraging our watch offering on massive 40 foot screens and 30 plus TV per location to drive the rotation during the World Cup this summer the World Cup which kicked off on June 11th is a major catalyst for our business we've launched a full 360 degree activation two new soccer inspired arcade games world soccer and kick and win plus exclusive tournament themed food and drinks including sliders inspired by the host countries and as I mentioned they put tickets to major world cup matches inside our human cranes including usa group stages game and all the way through the finals we've also launched our hat-trick watch experience a ticketed watch party for kickoff and championship matches with all you can eat wings and fries and unlimited gameplay all day starting at just 24.99 it has attracted significant crowds for the opening games cheering um the cheering on the mexico 2-0 victory this builds on the playbook we deployed during the summer bowl the during the super bowl and creates a repeatable high engagement format for major watch occasions that we will continue to enhance and make more pragmatic combined with our summer season's pass the world cup activation positions us to capture a significant incremental traffic during an already strong summer season this revitalized product offering represents a meaningful step to forward in quality variety and cultural relevance with combining world-class ip with innovative original concepts in a way that drives per capita spend, and repeat visitation. For full year 26, our ambition is to continue evolving our play experience and position Dave & Buster's as the fund capital of America. Fourth, operations. We are investing in and energizing the field through training that empowers teams to deliver exceptional guest experiences. A collaborative culture supported by our shared service center is reducing turnover and creating an environment where our people and brand can thrive as we discussed at the start of the year our full year 26 obsession metric is feed of service a one minute greet and four minutes drinks packed by coaching and performance management we are sending a clear signal our success is tied directly to execution and to the guest experience finally our revamped remodel program continues to progress they're confident we have identified the right layout to drive traffic improve productivity and deliver strong rois at a reasonable cost we recently opened six remodels and plan to open two more over the next few months early results from this new remodel prototype have been very encouraging driving a strong 7% comp uplift consistent with the far more expensive remodels of full year 24 and 25 as a reminder the new cohort of remodels cost approximately half of what the legacy remodels cost by still contributing a similar sales lift. In fact, these remodels were positive in same-store sales in the first quarter and year-to-date, providing us further confidence that we are executing on the optimal prototype. This renewed remodel strategy highlights the power and importance of continuing to invest in our core business as a key traffic and comp driver for our brands. Taking a step back, after COVID, this company moved away from the core, and often simple elements that made it successful. Marketing and promotions, the F&B offerings, the annual investment in games and entertainment, operational excellence, and store refreshes that preserved what customers love about D&B, all changed significantly. We are now actively going back to basics, restoring those elements piece by piece, and it is working. Armed with direct and candid feedback from the guest, we know that games' innovation and value are of utmost importance, and we are urgently addressing these issues. We know Q1 was disappointing. What I hope you take from tonight is that we understand why and that we are taking the right actions and that the underlying business is already responding. We have made meaningful progress over the past years and expect that progress to convert into financial results more quickly from here. Before I pass the call over to Darren, I want to be clear that we are highly focused on strict capital expenditure discipline, minimum ROI thresholds, and generating significant free cash flow. Net capex for full year 26 remains targeted at no more than $200 million, down from approximately $270 million in full year 25. and we are committed to a very strict ROI thresholds and eliminating inefficient use of capital we dynamically evaluate our capital investments plans including our new store plans and will make adjustments as we weigh the best returns for each dollar of capital we continue to plan to open 11 total new stores in full year 26 if and as we make material adjustments to the same we will communicate them to you very importantly we continue to expect to deliver over a hundred million dollars in free cash flow this year to talk about this more and review our financial results for the quarter let me hand the call over to Darren Harper thank you Tarun and good afternoon everyone as Tarun touched on in his comments there are several areas where we have made solid progress over the past several months that I'll provide highlights on here shortly.

Before that, as a reminder, on a weather-adjusted basis, Q4 FY25 comparable store sales were down one and a half percent with sequential improvements throughout the quarter. February, our first period of Q1 FY26, continued this improvement in trend, however, given broader macroeconomic challenges that intensified in March and April during our highest seasonal time of the year due to spring breaks, our Q1 FY26 comparable store sales decreased 5.4 percent versus the prior year. As Drew mentioned, despite some unfavorable weather, our comps quarter to date in Q2 have improved to down approximately 4 percent. Despite this consumer headwind, there are several areas of the business, we have seen improvements, which coupled with our strong unit economics and cash flow generation led to an overall $84 million improvement in free cash flow in Q1 FY26 as compared to Q1 FY25. This in turn allowed us to reduce our outstanding debt, all while still continuing to invest in new stores, remodels, and a fresh set of high-quality games. During the quarter, we've continued our trends of F&B same-store sales growth with an increase of over 5 percent, special events grew approximately 3 percent, and our remodeled locations continue to outperform the balance of the system, nearly 700 basis points led by our most recent and significantly more cost-effective remodel prototype. During the first quarter, we generated total revenue of $559 million, net income of $6 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, adjusted net income of $8 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, and adjusted EBITDA of $123 million, resulting in an adjusted EBITDA margin of 22%. As Tarun mentioned, we expect to generate positive COPS sales in the remainder of FOA 26, leading to EBITDA growth and a steady improvement of our margin profile. As a reminder, reconciliations of all non-GAAP financial measures can be found in today's press release. We believe we can meaningfully improve our margins over time by continuing improvements in our cost management. We have put significant additional effort into further improving our internal processes and controls around costs and remain steadfast in identifying material cost savings across all aspects of the business. As you know, we have reworked our D&D store remodel strategy to bring down costs by half versus the store remodels FFY24 and FFY25, and I'm pleased to report that we've recently completed six of these new remodeled prototypes with an additional two scheduled to open in the coming months. As a reminder, despite costing half of our prior remodels, our new cohort generates the same nearly 700 basis points about performance versus the rest of the system. And as Teru mentioned, we're positive in both the first quarter and year to date in this new cohort. We are very encouraged by their initial performance and particularly robust return profile due to the efficiencies we have found on our costs. We believe this new prototype will maximize the impactful elements of our successful store remodels while eliminating previously ineffective spend. We expect to remodel another 10 to 20 locations in FY27. Our new store development continues to deliver strong returns, and we have a solid pipeline of upcoming store openings. In the first quarter, we opened one new domestic store, and already in the second quarter, we have opened three additional domestic stores. We continue to anticipate opening 11 new stores at FY26. Looking beyond FY26, we continue to identify optimal sites, but will remain extremely judicious in maximizing return on every dollar of capital spending. We see merits in potentially redirecting new store capital to further invest in our core through remodels, deleveraging, and other forms of returning capital to shareholders. And as Tarun mentioned, we will communicate material adjustments to our capital strategy to you. On the international front, we opened our fifth international franchise location during Q1, which is in Australia, and our sixth international franchise location opened in Q2, which is in Delhi, India. We expect at least one more international opening in the balance of the year in Mexico City, Mexico. As a reminder, we have secured agreements for over 30 additional international franchise stores in the coming years, and we see international franchising as a driver of highly efficient growth, increasing our customer base around the world with minimal investment and risk. We have a sizable opportunity internationally and see strong upside from this asset-light growth model.

We are now actively going back to basics, restoring those elements piece by piece, and it is working. Armed with direct and candid feedback from the guest, we know that games' innovation and value are of utmost importance, and we are urgently addressing these issues. We know Q1 was disappointing. What I hope you take from tonight is that we understand why and that we are taking the right actions and that the underlying business is already responding. We have made meaningful progress over the past years and expect that progress to convert into financial results more quickly from here. Before I pass the call over to Darren, I want to be clear that we are highly focused on strict capital expenditure discipline minimum roi thresholds and generating significant free cash flow net capex for full year 26 remains targeted at no more than 200 million dollars down from approximately 270 million dollars in full year 25 and we are committed to a very strict ROI thresholds and eliminating inefficient use of capital. We dynamically evaluate our capital investments plans, including our new store plans, and we'll make adjustments as we weigh the best returns for each dollar of capital. We continue to plan to open 11 total new stores in full year 26. If and as we make material adjustments to the same, we will communicate them to you. Very importantly, we continue to expect to deliver over $100 million in free cash flow this year. To talk about this more and review our financial results for the quarter, let me hand the call over to Darren Harper.

Thank you, Tarun, and good afternoon, everyone. As Taroom touched on in his comments, there are several areas where we have made solid progress over the past several months that I'll provide highlights on here shortly. Before that, as a reminder, on a weather-adjusted basis, Q4 FY25 comparable store sales were down 1.5% with sequential improvements throughout the quarter. February, our first period of Q1 FY26, continued this improvement in trend. However, given broader macroeconomic challenges that intensified in March and April, but during our highest seasonal time of the year due to spring breaks, our Q1 FY26 comparable store sales decreased 5.4% versus the prior year. As Tarun mentioned, despite some unfavorable weather, our comps quarter to date in Q2 have improved to down approximately 4%. Despite this consumer headwind, there are several areas of the business we have seen improvements, which coupled with our strong unit economics and cash flow generation led to an overall $84 million improvement in free cash flow in Q1 FY26 as compared to Q1 FY25. This, in turn, allowed us to reduce our outstanding debt, all while still continuing to invest in new stores, remodels, and a fresh set of high-quality games. During the quarter, we've continued our trend of F&B same-store sales growth with an increase of over 5%. Special events grew approximately 3%, and our remodeled locations continue to outperform the balance of the system, nearly 700 basis points, led by our most recent and significantly more cost-effective remodel prototype. During the first quarter, we generated total revenue of $559 million, net income of $6 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, adjusted net income of $8 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, and adjusted EBITDA of $123 million, resulting in an adjusted EBITDA margin of 22%. As Tarun mentioned, we expect to generate positive comp sales in the remainder of FY26, leading to EBITDA growth and a steady improvement of our margin profile. As a reminder, reconciliations of all non-GAAP financial measures can be found in today's press release. We believe we can meaningfully improve our margins over time by continuing improvements in our cost management. We have put significant additional effort into further improving our internal processes and controls around costs and remain steadfast in identifying material cost savings across all aspects of the business. As you know, we have reworked our D&B store remodel strategy to bring down costs by half versus the store remodels of FY24 and FY25, and I'm pleased to report that we have recently completed six of these new remodel prototypes with an additional two scheduled to open in the coming months. As a reminder, despite costing half of our prior remodels, our new cohort generates the same nearly 700 basis points of outperformance versus the rest of the system, and as Teru mentioned, we're positive in both the first quarter and year-to-date in this new cohort. We are very encouraged by their initial performance and particularly robust return profile due to the efficiencies we have found on our costs. We believe this new prototype will maximize the impactful elements of our successful store remodels while eliminating previously ineffective spend. We expect to remodel another 10 to 20 locations in FY27. Our new store development continues to deliver strong returns, and we have a solid pipeline of upcoming store openings. In the first quarter, we opened one new domestic store, and already in the second quarter, we have opened three additional domestic stores. We continue to anticipate opening 11 new stores at FY26. Looking beyond FY26, we continue to identify optimal sites, but will remain extremely judicious in maximizing return on every dollar of capital spending. We see merits in potentially redirecting new store capital to further invest in our core through remodels, deleveraging, and other forms of returning capital to shareholders. And as Tarun mentioned, we will communicate material adjustments to our capital strategy to you. On the international front, we opened our fifth international franchise location during Q1, which is in Australia, and our sixth international franchise location opened in Q2, which is in Delhi, India. We expect at least one more international opening in the balance of the year in Mexico City, Mexico. As a reminder, we have secured agreements for over 30 additional international franchise stores in the coming years, and we see international franchising as a driver of highly efficient growth, increasing our customer base around the world with minimal investment and risk. We have a sizable opportunity internationally and see strong upside from this asset-light growth model. We generated $25 million in free cash flow during the first quarter, which, as previously noted, is an $84 million improvement to the negative free cash flow in Q1 FY25 of $59 million. As a result of this free cash flow generation, we ended the quarter with $20 million in cash and $499 million in total liquidity, combined with the availability under our $650 million revolving credit facility, net of $20 million in outstanding letters of credit. We remain committed to generating meaningful free cash flow while continuing to invest in new store growth, new games, and our revamped remodel program. In the first quarter, we invested approximately $71 million in CapEx on a net basis when factoring in payments from landlords. We continue to make progress converting our strong operating cash flow to free cash flow through more strict management on capital spending by eliminating inefficient capital spend. As Jordan mentioned, this year we continue to expect this net CapEx figure to be no greater than $200 million. For FY26, our entire team is squarely focused on driving savings to expand EBITDA margins while tightly managing capital spending to generate significant free cash flow. Given our plans, management is highly confident in its ability to generate comp store sales growth for the balance of the year. Coupled with our capital expenditure discipline, we continue to expect to generate more than $100 million in free cash flow during FY26, which we believe position us well to continue investing in the business. Our financial foundation is strong, underpinned by high returns, strong unit economics, disciplined cost management, and clear potential to generate meaningful cash flow. This was demonstrated by a generation of $25 million in free cash flow in Q1, despite over $70 million in net CapEx investment and a 5.4% comparable store sales decline. Leadership in the board remained focused on driving same-store sales growth and significant cash flow generation. And with that, operator, please open the line for questions.

Thank you. Again, if you would like to ask a question, press star 1 on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the queue, simply press star 1 again. And we do ask for today's session that you please restrict yourself to one question and one follow-up. Your first question comes from the line of Andy Barish of Jefferies. Your line is open. Good afternoon.

Just wondering on the second half sort of inflection on same-store sales, I mean, are you assuming anything changes sort of in the external environment, you know, just given that that's been a challenge you noted, you know, today on the call?

I think that, you know, we have more confidence in our internal strategy and execution than, you know, be really dependent on the external environment. And we can't say anything about the external environment. Of course, you know, we are highly optimistic that things will improve in terms of consumer sentiments. But I think what really gives us a sense of confidence is the fact that a lot of things that we have put into motion are now becoming reality from a from a guest perspective, from new games to new watch experiences to new IP partnerships. So I think that's what is giving us confidence as we get into the second half of the year. Gotcha.

And then just to follow up, are we still, I guess, seeing sort of incremental investment in labor and the value initiatives that's, you know, kind of weighing on margins? Or is that, you know, starting to be, you know, lapped from, you know, from the year now that you've been there, Tarun?

Okay, Andy, I'll take this.

Yeah, overall, you know, we feel like we've managed our margins well in terms of the key elements that are impacting the value equation with cost of sales and labor. From what we've been able to do from a cost improvement standpoint on cost of sales, as well as what we've seen from margin improvements on our new menu enhancements, as well as driving more attach, we've really been able to elevate that offering and manage our margins well. And again, on the labor side, you know, we continue to be as effective as we can with our scheduling at key peak times, you know, where we're really delivering on that guest experience, particularly coupled with our F&B offering. So, yeah, look, we don't anticipate any material changes to those items as we go out through the balance of the year. And believe we've got the structure in place to deliver on the growth that we need.

Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Sharon Zakfia of William Blair. Your line is open.

Hi, thanks for taking the question. I guess first on World Cup, so I wanted to ask if you're doing anything there with special events as well and kind of what your insight is on to what that demand generation could be.

And then as you think about that guest that might be coming in that could be lapsed or even new to Dave & Buster's, what is the plan that you have to kind of create more durability with that revenue stream following the World Cup? that's a that's a great question and you know that's exactly our our objective that once you get this special events guest in how do you build a durable business by getting them back again and again so first of all it's a it's it's a big part of our business is growing and of course you know even such as World Cup does kind of help promote that part of the business even more in in with With regards to what's really driven this is that we have invested in an incredible organization. We've got an outstanding leader who leads our special events business. We call him R.J. Robert Jenkins. He's got a team of people in the field who are speaking to corporates and different institutions at all times. They're leveraging a massive database that we have. uh in in making calls this is like a this is like this is the kind of business that requires massive amount of uh you know getting into details uh a lot of hard works making a lot of cold calls i think in terms of uh the durability of the business that's where i i believe and i strongly believe that the investments we are making into new games and the investments we are making into food and beverage and experiences matches so much because when these guests come in and they see the difference as far as the arcade area is concerned they see they see how you know exciting

the new menu is they see the value promotions we have that brings them back and share that with regard to the to the world cup we did launch a full 360 um activation we have a couple uh new soccer-inspired games, tournament-themed food and drinks. We had a ticketed event on Thursday, some Human Crane. We're really leveraging Human Crane to offer some free tickets to the World Cup, some influencer-driven watch content. So, yeah, so I think we're pleased with how we've executed that. And to your point, and leveraging what Turin said, once we get those people in, they get to taste our food, get to experience our 40-foot wall wall, you know, we really hope they now, it becomes part of the consideration set for them.

That's helpful. And then in April, when you saw kind of a shift in the business, is there anything to call out in terms of trends by household income and anything that you've been able to come up with subsequently that might kind of attract that customer back?

Consistent with what we have seen here recently, certainly that lower-end consumer is where we've seen most of that pressure. You know, the higher end middle consumer is consistently, you know, trading, but, you know, we're seeing more of that pressure on the low end. And that's, you know, part of really what we've been trying to focus on with our value offers, how we have really focused on revamping our rate cards with our games, how we've offered half price games, what we've done with the eat and play combos. I was really trying to highlight that value component so that, you know, those lower end consumers can still have an occasion at even busters, you know, that is that that is economical for them. So so we're very focused on that, but but but not trying to over discount the business and cannibalize ourselves as well. So we're really pleased with the, you know, what we've seen, particularly on the eat and play combo side. We're really starting to promote the ability to have an entree for $4.99. You come in, buy any denomination of power card, and you can attach food and beverage to it. And so we're really starting to see some really nice attach that we've never seen before. And so those are elements that we think could be really helpful in targeting this lower end consumer.

Okay, thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Strelzik of BMO. Your line is open.

Hey, thanks for taking the question. My first one, I was hoping maybe you could be a little bit more specific about what you're learning around the marketing messaging, the customer targeting, maybe why some of the stuff you tried recently didn't work, and how that's framing your approach going forward?

Yeah, Andrew, that's a great question. You know, let me kind of first take a step back and share with you what our guests have been saying to us. I think, one, they've been saying that, listen, you've got to, you know, elevate your product. And by that, I mean that you need to elevate your games. you need to elevate your um your food and beverage um now with both of them we've responded in you know by investing in in in a ton of games but that's only happened in the last you know almost like what i i would say 30 days uh you know we've talked about food and beverage you know that investment has gone really well that happened in october of last year and we have seen a significant increase in our tax and growth in our F&B business. I think that's kind of like the first thing that, you know, the guests told us. I think the second thing the guests have told us is that, hey, from a, you know, value perspective, you know, consumers are craving for value today, right? And they have been for some time. If you look at, you know, the comparative, you know, marketplace, there's a lot of offerings around value. And so, again, we have, you know, promoted our half of games. It went off really well. We've talked about dollar a day. Now, that didn't really hit, you know, the bullseye. But our new version of EPC has tested tremendously well, and we plan to launch that in the next 30 days. I think in terms of learning, I think we, as far as media is concerned, I think what we've learned is that you can't swing in one direction. So what we did at some stage, we spent all the money on television. And then, you know, then we swung the other way around and we invested all the money on digital. I think consumers, you know, our consumers consume media in different ways. And therefore, we need to have a very data-based, you know, media planning and investment. And I think that's where we had gone wrong in the past. now in the month of february or march we have invested in in in an mmm with the the media modeling uh and you know that's really now helping us learn faster on what kind of uh target audience should you go after what channels you know you know which whether you know how much money should be investing linear tv how much money should we be investing in ctv uh and so on and so forth so basis that learning we have now deployed our media a lot more effectively I think in finally in terms of I think you know messaging you know this is like you know we are we are now you know working in a very structured disciplined approach of there being a primary message and then there being a secondary message and so we invest a lot more money of course on the primary messaging so And, you know, if you think about the current calendar construct, our primary messaging is 10 new games. So we want every guest in the U.S. to know that there are 10 new games with exciting IP partnerships that, you know, are on Dave & Buster's arcade. Our secondary messaging is that, hey, if you, you know, the World Cup, you know, soccer event is on. And, you know, if you want to watch it on massive screens and enjoy exceptional food and beverage and enjoy, you know, playing during, you know, during breaks, you know, come to Dave and Buster. So that's our kind of secondary messages. So we now are becoming more and more disciplined, one, in creating, you know, messages based on, you know, what consumers are saying they want, and secondly, using real data to define what media channels to invest behind.

Got it. Okay. That's very helpful. And maybe my follow-up, I guess based on your comments about, you seem maybe a little bit more open to potentially shifting dollars between the new store capex and the internal investments. You had talked about, you know, taking a disciplined approach previously, but maybe this sounded a little bit more like it's in the consideration set, even though no formal decision has been made.

But so how are you evaluating that decision at this point?

Is it more about the site selection you're able to find or internal performance, something else? Just a little more color around that would be great. Thanks.

So fundamentally, at the highest level, you know, Andrew, our belief is that our number one priority is to drive same-store sales growth in our core stores. So our core business is definitely priority. And so if there's requirement of CapEx, you know, as far as remodel is concerned, you know, that would be definitely a priority for us. You know, as far as new unit growth is concerned, it's not something that we are kind of taking it like, you know, we're kind of turning our backs on. What we are now very, very clear is that we must be very responsible with our capital. and so only when we have supreme confidence in a new site are we going to go put put capital behind it that we are going to be a little bit more risk averse as far as new capex deployment for on new stores are concerned and so again in summary our you know our our core priority our key focus is going to be our core business we will continue to build new stores but only when And we have supreme confidence in the returns that we are going to get from the CapEx investment. Darren, anything you wish to add there?

Yeah, no, I think you covered it well. Yeah, I think interpret it less as we haven't lost confidence in new store growth. In fact, we continue to get really, really great returns there. But we do want to reallocate capital to our core business. And so that in turn allows us to be even more discriminating on what sites to open. So more to come there, but we feel like this reallocation of capital is going to be really meaningful for us.

Yeah. And Andrew, you know, once again, I just want to reiterate that between Darren and I, the one number that we are very, very fixated on is the $200 million of CapEx. And so that's a finite amount of money that we have. And we need to just decide where to kind of allocate that money.

Very clear. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Andrew.

Your next question comes from the line of Eric Wald of Texas Capital. Your line is open.

Thanks. Good afternoon. So a couple of questions. I guess first sort of clarify the comment around your expectation for positive things or sales for the balance of fiscal 26. Is that starting today or does that kind of include the quarter to date decline of 4% in that you would expect a reversal in the remainder of the quarter to get back to your positive comps for Q2?

Yeah, Eric. I think the best way to look at that is starting today through the balance of the year is how we're looking at it from a same-store sales growth perspective. So hopefully that clears that up a little bit. Yes, that's perfect.

And then my second question is on the games and the installation of kind of the ten new games to date and, you know, I guess five more for the remainder of the year. When you install a new game and market a new game and kind of promote that and hopefully drive traffic for that new game production, are you seeing a lift in gameplay outside of the new games as people come in there and kind of are on the midway and trying everything? Or is it really more of a focus or is the gameplay more focused on the new games and you're not really seeing a broader lift?

Yeah, I could take this, and Tarim can add any color to it. The best way to look at it is how these games complement the overall entertainment experience. So from the perspective of, you know, these new, you know, 10 to 15 games that we're rolling out this year, you know, that's 10% plus of our game room floor. So we really look at it as it's refreshing our game room floor, it's keeping it relevant, it's giving us that new relevant news to talk about, to message to our guests and to drive visitation. It's less about, hey, can we get incremental spend while they're in our stores? That can happen, and certain games investments will do that. Human Crane is a great example. You know, based on the type of experience it is, there's incrementality to that. So it's more about traffic driving, relevancy, messaging, getting lapsed customers in, getting repeat visitation, than it is about driving more growth when they're there. But that being said, more to come. But as we, you know, as Trina's mentioned, you know, some proprietary type of entertainment that we're working on, we believe that can unlock more, you know, check growth. And lastly, I guess what I'll say is as we've coupled with these new games, as we continue to find the right way to optimize the dwell time of the guest when they're in the box, we have also found that that leads to more F&B sales, which is incremental to our check growth. So that's broadly the right way to think about it.

Yeah, absolutely. I completely concur, Taryn. And Eric, just to add, you know, I think that if you just look at the current consumer sentiment, you know, one of the, you know, positive highlights, you know, for us is that we have lost, we haven't lost ticket. It's not that consumers are spending less. Consumers actually spending more time on our games floor. And that's what's also helping us actually drive our F&B revenue. And so I think the key challenge for us remains how do we market these games more effectively to consumers so that we drive footfalls. And that's kind of our primary area of focus, that how do we drive awareness? Like what's the best use of media? And I think that, you know, there was an earlier question, I think, from Andrew on this. you know which is a which is a great question and you know it's a very very competitive you know you know marketplace out there there are lots of messages going on going out from different companies i think you know we remain singularly focused on finding the most effective way to communicate with our consumers that hey there are 10 new games that they're really exciting they're very different to what we had on on the games floor and and you know our belief is that hey you You know, the message will land with consumers, but as we continue to invest and bring new games, this is all kind of have a compounding impact on the brand image of Dave & Buster's as a place to go to. It's a brand that will suddenly be back, you know, in consideration, be back in conversation, be back in culture.

Perfect.

Your next question comes from the line of Brian Vaccaro of Rimm & James. Your line is open.

Good afternoon. I have a question on the adjusted free cash flow guidance. Can you help us just bridge that guide? You're maintaining it over $100 million despite the weaker than expected first half. So just could you walk us through the moving pieces that allows you to maintain that guide? Yeah, sure.

Hey, Ryan. Yeah, I think what it demonstrates is, you know, despite same-store sales performance, we've got a lot of other levers in order to drive free cash flow. And so, you know, really the simplest way of looking at it is our operating cash flow less gross capex adjusted for, say, at least back proceeds. Again, as demonstrated by our ability here in Q1, despite comps down 5.4 percent and 70 plus million dollars in net capex. you know, we're still able to generate $25 million in free cash flow. So we're able to do it through how we're managing our capital spend, how we're managing working capital, how we're managing other costs in the business. And that's what gives us the confidence to be able to reiterate that guide.

Okay. And I know, Darren, on the last call, you spoke about adding some resources. I think a senior resource is how you put it, to look at cost savings, et cetera. Are there additional cost savings that you've identified? Can you give some color on that if that's the case, you know, versus the prior call that could be helping that free cash flow outlook?

Yeah. Yeah, really, really excited about a number of areas that we're focused on right now. And it's really across the P&L from cost of sales optimization, not lessening the product for the guest, but being smarter and more efficient with our spend, how we're looking at our utility costs, insurance costs, et cetera. There are a number of areas that we've identified some very significant cost opportunities. And so without quantifying or getting into any more detail, yeah, that's another great area that we're leaning into to be able to deliver on the $100 million free cash flow guide.

All right. And then a quick follow-up, just on the capital allocation and new unit growth conversation, we ran some quick math on your non-comp stores, and we arrive at a non-comp AUV in sort of the mid to high $7 million range. Can you confirm that that's about right? And if so, what's the average cash investment on those units? Or maybe you could help us sort of sketch out the cash-on-cash ROI that you've seen on the current non-comp base at these AUVs. Thanks very much.

Yeah, sure. Yeah, look, you're in the right ballpark with the AUVs. Keep in mind, a lot or a good chunk of this latest cohort are some of our smaller prototype locations that we underwrote at those volumes. But we have continued to deliver, you know, strong circa 30 percent plus cash on cash returns, even at those those volumes. So so still still good returns for us that that that we remain confident in, you know, on on that that topic as well. I guess just maybe to put a finer point on the discussion that we had, we are in a redeployment of capital. I would anticipate that we will have about half the number of new units in FY27 and probably FY28 for now. So you're looking at circa five new units. um and so just just wanted to to sort of firm up sort of how to think about that um so hopefully that answered all your questions there brian yeah very helpful thank you your next question comes from the line of michael hickey of stonex your line is open hey guys thanks for taking our questions uh we've got to we've kind of hit on this one but just given your back record here over the last year and quarter to date on same-store sales.

It's just sort of perplexing that you're so highly confident that as of today it's going to inflect positive on comp sales here, especially when macro is a factor that took down April and took down your first quarter, but you won't give a view on it. So just curious if there's any specific evidence you can point to as to why your confidence get given that backdrop. And the second question, over the last year, it's pretty clear that not having a refresh on your games was a problem. But, you know, so far over the last year, you've only refreshed about 8% of your arcade. So when you think about capital allocation and resetting your business, especially on the entertainment side, which I think you're about eight quarters in a row of down year-over-year growth, why haven't you been more aggressive in terms of refreshing that area of your business, which is clearly a concern that you've already illustrated to us? Thanks, guys.

Michael, Michael, great questions. So I will kind of address both. um so i think our our confidence and optimism comes from the fact that there are a lot of things that we have set in motion in terms of improving our execution uh you know whether it's marketing operations or investment in games that are all now kind of coming together uh and and so that's kind of one the second piece is really that we you know we have kind of partnered with some very exciting IPs that we can't kind of announce just now, but we will announce in the months to come. That, again, gives us tremendous confidence that we will be a brand that will be in conversation. And, you know, once brands get into culture, into conversations, you know, you see that, you know, business and traffic kind of follows. So that kind of gives us, you know, optimism about the future. I think your second question on why have we not invested in, you know, earlier and like why are we slowing, you know, why are we slow? You know, I think that is, I think it's a very, very fair question. And, you know, one of the learnings I've had is that if you just go to buy any games from any of the suppliers you know you could get you know a very similar game that you currently have already in your arcade just skinned differently and therefore there's actually a a significant lean lead time in developing proprietary games especially those that come with ips because you