BJ's Restaurants Inc. Q4 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

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2009-02-12 19:52:07.0

Tags: Development, Call Transcript, Earnings, Jefferies & Co., BJ's Restaurants Inc., Sales Strategy, Sales Force Management, Strategy, Sales, Management, Seeking Alpha

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Jeff Farmer with Jefferies & Company.

Jeff Farmer - Jefferies & Company

Great. Thank you. Going back to the center sales in the first seven weeks of the quarter. Do you control for that, I believe the new year shift, would you still be looking at positive comps for the first seven weeks of the quarter?

Greg Levin

We probably would. I would tell you that to your point there Jeff we did have a strong first week in January because of that New Year shift. Since that time it's probably come back down to what we have experienced for 2008 maybe slightly better than that, but there is no doubt that that our first week has helped us.

Jeff Farmer - Jefferies & Company

Okay. And then I guess this might be for Greg, but as it relates to the 9 to 11 planned unit openings in '09, what does it look like in terms of new versus existing retail developments and has it mattered in recent years in terms of being in established retail developments versus brand new sort of the greener developments?

Greg Lynds

Yes. For 2009, I'm looking at our list here; everything is really in kind of a mature densely populated area with no real co-tenancy risk and that's been our strategy going forward. Our strategy back from really 2005 has been dense mature areas and existing centers. So, I don't know, Jerry, do you have anything to add?

Jerry Deitchle

No. I would agree with that as I look at the potential list of openings for this year. I really only see one out of the 9 to 11 that might be characterized as somewhat of a new project, although it's in a very, very densely populated trade area. The vast majority of them are in established projects either additions or remodels, very densely populated retail trade areas with proven levels of retail sales and that's why we selected these to move forward.

Jeff Farmer - Jefferies & Company

Okay. That's helpful. Then, as it relates to development past '09, is it safe to assume that it's probably too early in 2010 to start reaccelerating this. You are probably set through the current '09 run rate in terms of absolute unit development?

Jerry Deitchle

Jeff, I don't think we've really targeted a specific number of new restaurants for 2010 yet. As you know in this business you have to build your pipelines anywhere from 18 months to 24 months in advance.

 

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