Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the floor is now open for questions. (Operator Instructions). Our first question is coming from John Glass from Morgan Stanley. Your line is live.
John Glass - Morgan Stanley
Hi, thanks very much. A couple of questions. First, Chuck if you just look at the restaurant margin sequentially, your revenues were lower, your comps were lower and yet you got over 100 basis points improvement in margins. I hear what you are saying about changing the business over the past year. What happened specifically in this quarter versus say last quarter, which got you the improvement in expenses?
Chuck Sonsteby
Again, we did a good job with actual versus theoretical on our food cost. We got some benefits on the food cost line versus last quarter. We also worked on labor and labor efficiencies; we did a better job there too. Then we also saw the increase in franchise restaurants on a year-over-year basis helped us get better margins. That is a year-over-year benefit. We have controlled the G&A spending, so it has really been good cost control.
John Glass - Morgan Stanley
So, if you think about the 15% restaurant margin that you were in this quarter, you think that given the negative mid-single digit comps, its been running that for a sustainable level for the next couple of quarters?
Chuck Sonsteby
Well, John, I think we have adapted to being down this much in comp store sales. If it continues for several quarters, obviously we can not maintain that. I think in the short-term, we have made the necessary adjustments throughout the system to try and hold margins where they are.
John Glass - Morgan Stanley
Okay. A question on the cash flows. I think just backing into it, you generated about $40 million from cash from operations this quarter. Can you talk about, what the impact year-over-year was on gift cards? Was that a negative to the cash flow? I know it has been generally a source of cash during this quarter?
You said during the commentary it does not include the tax benefit. Last quarter you talked about generating roughly $380 million in cash. Including that tax benefit in 2009- fiscal 2009, is there any update to that number given this quarter?
Chuck Sonsteby
So, you are asking if there is an update to that.
John Glass - Morgan Stanley
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