Earnings Call Excerpt
AFC Enterprises, Inc. (AFCE)
F1Q08 Earnings Call
May 29, 2008 9:00 am ET
Executives
Cheryl A. Bachelder – Chief Executive Officer, Director & President
H. Melville Hope, III – Chief Financial Officer
Cheryl Fletcher – Direct of Finance and Investor Relations
Analysts
Michael Gallo – C.L. King & Associates, Inc.
Mickey Schleien – Ladenburg Thalmann & Co.
Dan O’Neill – Prospector Partners
Kenneth Smith – Lenox Equity Research
Presentation
Operator
Good day ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the first quarter 2008 AFC Enterprises, Inc. earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today’s call, Ms. Cheryl Fletcher, Director of Finance and Investor Relations. Please proceed.
Cheryl Fletcher
Good morning everyone. Before I begin I would like to read the following forward-looking statement. Certain statements made on this call regarding future events and developments and our future performance as well as management’s expectations, beliefs or projections relating to the future are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal Securities Laws. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties.
Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are: Competition from other restaurant concepts and food retailers, our ability to franchise new restaurant units and expand our brand, increases in food and labor costs, effects of increased gasoline prices and other general economic conditions and the risk factors detailed in our 2007 annual report on Form 10K and other documents we file with the Securities & Exchange Commission. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements since those statements speak only to the date they are made.
During this call references may be made to non-GAAP terms of EBITDA and free cash flow. The company defines EBTIDA as earnings before interest expense, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The company defines free cash flow as net income plus depreciation and amortization plus stock compensation expense minus maintenance capital expenses. The company’s computations and reconciliation to GAAP measures of the numbers referred for these terms are contained in our earnings press release that can be found on the company’s website at www.AFCE.com.
I would now like to turn the call over to our CEO and President Cheryl Bachelder.
Cheryl Bachelder
Thank you and good morning everyone. We’re delighted to be on our first quarter earnings conference call with you this morning. Today I’m going to review our first quarter financial and operational highlights and update you on the progress made against our four pillars of our new strategic plan outlined on our last conference call in March. Mel Hope, our CFO, will then review the first quarter financials in more detail and provide you an update on our 2008 fiscal guidance.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
