Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Steven Kron - Goldman Sachs
Steven Kron - Goldman Sachs
Just to make sure that I understand your comments on so far to date, you are slightly ahead of forecast, is that the forecast that the first half would be worse, is that an internal forecast or is that your forecast of down 6 to 7 average weekly sales?
Robert Vivian
That’s our internal forecast and again, we expect sales trends in the first half to be worse then the second half.
Steven Kron - Goldman Sachs
Taking a step back, as you’re looking or expecting for continued pressure in your business and as you think about changes that the consumer is making in their behavioral patterns, and others have talked about this being a little bit more on the back end, can you talk about the strategies that you are employing on positioning of the brand, on assessing the store portfolio, on changing cost structure at the Bistro on a go forward basis, how are you thinking about those things.
Richard Federico
Obviously we’ve got very different strategies going on at the respective brands. At Pei Wei we are spending an awful lot of time tugging on the three levers that we think are going to help improve that business, obviously one being cost and one being margins and the other being sales. We’re starting to look at the Pei Wei business through slightly different filters.
One of the things that I think Pei Wei has suffered from in hindsight is it has tended to look at its value equation and its positioning in relationship to being an alternative to casual dining and may not have been as focused on its relationship within its competitive set within the quick serve segment.
So if you look at the way the menu is structured, the way the food is designed, the way its priced, the way its presented, it tends to have a little bit more of feel of a casual dining experience then a little bit less of a quick casual and I think in that, we’ve created a bit of a competitive disadvantage. So we’ll be focused on being able to accelerate our menu innovation. We’ll be focused on accelerating the value equation within the brand whether it be through introduction of new product or reformulation of existing product.
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