Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Jeff Bernstein - Barclays Capital.
Jeff Bernstein - Barclays Capital
Can you perhaps give us a little bit of an update on overall franchisee health, perhaps franchisee sentiment, their desire to grow? It seems like you slowed the range of fiscal ’09 openings not just from your company side but franchisees looks like the number has come down as well. I was just looking for some broad-based color.
Charles M. Sonsteby
We did not reduce the amount of openings for franchisees. Most of those would have been in the pipeline for the last 18 months so they’re well underway. We haven’t heard anything specifically from our franchise partners about backing off on development. Remember too, a lot of our development on franchise locations is not just domestic but also international where they’re seeing very good performance and very good returns.
Our domestic franchisees are only seeing about a 2% decline in comp store sales so they’re not really seeing the same kinds of pressures that we do since we’re in so many subprime states. So far we haven’t heard a lot of commentary around development from our franchisees. I know with the way financial markets are out there that that remains a possibility but as of yet we have not seen it. We’ll continue to look at that as we go forward.
Anything to add, Doug?
Douglas H. Brooks
Yes. In some of this growth franchise are some nontraditional locations which are noncompetitive to the corner of Main and Main suburban locations. For instance, in the next couple months we’ll open an airport location in Oakland; we’ll open one in West Palm Beach. We also are starting to expand on college campuses. We opened one last month at the University of Florida. We’re opening one in a couple months at Virginia Commonwealth. In fact we’re even going into an arena here in Dallas in a couple weeks in the American Airlines Center. So there’s still some brand growth and some very nontraditional locations that have very different economic situations than the traditional ones that Chuck was speaking of.
Jeff Bernstein - Barclays Capital
I think your pricing’s currently in the 3% range. I’m just wondering what your own internal studies say in terms of what you think about pricing over the next few quarters or whether you’re going to let most of the pricing lap without any further increases.
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