Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator instructions). Your first question comes from the line of Michael Gallo - C.L. King & Associates
Michael Gallo - C.L. King & Associates
Revenue guidance for 09, particularly on the company unit side, obviously there was the 25 units refranchised, it sounds like early 09. So pretty much completely out of the first quarter or almost out of the first quarter?
Nelson Marchioli
Well they happened by now.
Michael Gallo - C.L. King & Associates
Can you let us know what the proceeds for those were? It looks like the revenues on those stores might have been a little higher than the basket of stores you sold overall in 08?
Nelson Marchioli
No, I don’t think that’s the case at all and we’re not going to get into anything that’s happened so far in this quarter from a proceeds standpoint, but again, when you go back to the revenue guidance, we’re trying to follow amongst a lot of moving factors. What end of the comp do you have? How many FGI’s do you have? We’re trying to target in the middle and that’s where our revenue guidance is.
Michael Gallo - C.L. King & Associates
So it sounds like you have some additional FGI’s built into the number even though it’s hard to put a number on it?
Mark Wolfinger
Depending on which end of the spectrum you go, we’re certainly hoping to do more. We have demand to do more. The problem is having any confidence so you can get that financed right now.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Reza Vahab-Zadeh from Barclays Capital.
Reza Vahab-Zadeh - Barclays Capital
Nelson, I wasn’t sure if the strategy in 09 is focused more on building traffic or protecting your margins. Can you talk about that?
Nelson Marchioli
The simple word would be yes. It’s both. We have to find a balance, but it is about sales, traffic count, and margin, and we have to achieve all three. One can’t offset the other.
Reza Vahab-Zadeh - Barclays Capital
What can be done to improve traffic counts? Is it just the promotions that you touched on in the first quarter and more of that?
Nelson Marchioli
You may have heard me say this before the Super Bowl or maybe after. We talk about it as a executive management team here. One is about surviving this incredible economic environment that we’re in, but it’s also about outlasting competition and ultimately taking back share. So we’re going to be competitive. We have to still share. It’s about real breakfast versus sugary and candy breakfast and it’s about new unique products. One of the things the customer has told us in our private research last year was they didn’t come back to Denny’s because there wasn’t anything new. Well we’ve got new this year. We’ve got a grand slam which we introduced the first week in December. We have build your own grand slam and this year we’re going to introduce it with healthier options, because we know that’s a concern of our customers and we’re going to address that extremely aggressively. Sometime this year, you’re going to see a new product introduction we’re already testing on the west coast and that’s the grand slam burrito. We’re going to continue aggressive trial promotions. That’s how we’re going to protect margins. That’s how we’re going to drive additional traffic, just as we did after the Super Bowl event.
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