Yahoo Finance Sweetgreen, Inc. (NYSE:SG) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
Sweetgreen, Inc. (NYSE:SG) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript February 29, 2024
Sweetgreen, Inc. isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Sweetgreen, Inc., Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I will now hand today's call over to Rebecca Nounou, VP, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Rebecca Nounou: Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Here with me today are Jonathan Neman, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer; and Mitch Reback, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, we have a couple of reminders. Our earnings release is available on our website at investor.sweetgreen.com. During this call, we will be making comments of a forward-looking nature. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied as a result of various risks and uncertainties. For more information about some of these risks, please review the company's SEC filings, including the section titled Risk Factors in our latest annual report on Form 10-K filing. These forward-looking statements are based on information as of today, and we assume no obligation to publicly update or revise our forward-looking statements.
Additionally, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures, which are in addition to and not a substitute for measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of these items to the nearest U.S. GAAP measure can be found in this afternoon's press release available on our IR website. With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Jonathan to kick things off.
Jonathan Neman: Thank you, Rebecca, and good afternoon, everyone. My passion to connect people to real food is why I started Sweetgreen with my co-founders, Nathaniel and Nicolas. In 2007, we began our journey to build a category-defining brand with the goal of serving delicious meals to local communities. What started as a single restaurant in Washington, D.C., now has 225 restaurants in 18 states across the country as well as D.C. We are creating and defining the category of Better for You fast-casual dining while remaining acutely-focused on building an innovative and enduring business that drives both growth and profitability. In 2023, we were aggressive with initiatives that we believe will benefit us for years to come, such as Menu Innovation, Sweetpass and the Infinite Kitchen.
We ended the year with increasing momentum that gives me optimism for the year ahead. We reported sales of $584 million, representing 24% year-over-year growth. Total digital sales represented 59% of our total fiscal year revenue with over 60% of those sales coming via our own digital channels. Restaurant-level margin for the fiscal year was 17.5%. On a full year basis, our adjusted EBITDA loss was $2.8 million, representing a $47 million improvement over the same period in 2022. For 2024, we are guiding adjusted EBITDA profitability. This profitability milestone will allow us to reinvest into the business with the goal of accelerating our growth. Our focus remains on building a category-defining brand that has tremendous value for our customers, team members and our shareholders.
Our strategic priorities are quite simple. One, continue building our brand by creating great products and guest experiences and two, expand our connection to guests by building and operating great restaurants. If we do both of these things well, aided by best-in-class technology, we should continue to amplify our already strong brand, widen our customer reach, drive customer traffic, and in turn continue to drive margin expansion. Our brand has significantly greater reach than our current physical footprint of 225 restaurants. In 2023, we entered 3 new markets, Milwaukee, Tampa and Rhode Island, and we are pleased with how our 2023 class is tracking towards our financial targets. So far this year, we've opened 4 restaurants, including our first of many in Seattle, Washington.
Totem Lake, a suburb of Seattle has been performing in line with our top urban restaurants in recent weeks. Openings like these reinforce our confidence that our brand resonates across the country. The code of Sweetgreen's culture is innovation. We have been consistently ahead of the market in culinary and supply chain development, as well as introducing new technology to drive a better customer experience, both online and in our restaurants. In the fourth quarter, we opened our second Infinite Kitchen in Huntington Beach. The Infinite Kitchen continues to deliver many benefits to our operating model, such as higher throughput, better order accuracy, portioning consistency and substantially lower team member turnover. In addition to these benefits, we've also seen the average ticket at both locations, more than 10% higher than their respective markets.
As a result, we are seeing the Infinite Kitchen continuing to deliver margins well ahead of our internal projections. We are proud that we have built the industry leader in restaurant automation with the Infinite Kitchen. We are confident that it will unlock revenue growth and restaurant-level margin expansion and drive increasing returns for our shareholders. To be clear, we have a clear path to 20%-plus 4-wall margins with our current operating model, and we believe restaurants with the Infinite Kitchen will be accretive to restaurant level sales and margins. We remain focused on traffic-driving initiatives to drive positive same-store sales growth. Our multifaceted approach to driving traffic includes accelerating culinary innovation, continuing to activate our rewards program, improving throughput, focusing on running great restaurants as well as increasing advertising spend in 2024, while maintaining G&A leverage.
We see menu and culinary innovation as a key lever to expand customer reach, positively impact seasonality and drive traffic. While Sweetgreen has historically been known as a salad company, we're broadening our menu while remaining committed to our ethos of building healthier communities by connecting people to real food. On October 24, we launched Protein Plates, featuring new proteins such as Herb Roasted Chicken and Miso Glazed Salmon. While early, Plates have exceeded internal expectations. Our Plates category with the tagline, "You don't have to be a salad person to be a Sweetgreen person" was designed to appeal to a wide audience. We are pleased with the early data points to broaden our brand appeal. In the first 60 days after introducing Protein Plates, we've seen our dinner daypart grow with Plates.
Plates sales are over-indexing in markets such as Texas and the Southeast. On February 6, we launched our tests of Caramelized Garlic Steak, a slow-roasted marinated tender cut of grass-fed grass-finished tri-tip steak, finished with slow-roasted caramelized garlic and onion in Boston. If state passes our market test process, we will look to roll this out later this year. We've made great strides in marrying customer insights with menu innovation, and we have a multiyear menu innovation roadmap. I'm pleased with the operational strides we have made over the last few quarters and in particular, how it has translated into frontline growth. There is still opportunity to capture additional demand, particularly at peak periods, and we've identified additional areas to drive throughput, including improving labor deployment.
Our average Head Coach tenure continues to improve and stability in restaurants for both our coaches and team members is the highest it's been in recent years. This coupled with our decision to adjust Head Coach schedule to spend more time on the floor is translating into improved operations and margins. Additionally, launching tipping last year has supplemented team member wages by nearly $2 an hour. I want to take a moment to welcome our new Chief Operating Officer, Rossann Williams. Rossann is an accomplished global operations executive, bringing more than 30 years of experience leading international retail businesses. She brings a proven track record in driving sustainable growth of global iconic brands. Rossann's passion for Sweetgreen's mission will further our work of bettering the communities we serve.
I look forward to partnering with Rossann and bringing her incredible skill set to our leadership team as we embark on the next phase of our growth stream. In the fourth quarter, we delivered our 11th consecutive quarter of over 20% sales growth, and significantly expanded our restaurant-level margins year-over-year. We continue to demonstrate operationally and financially, our commitment to building a sustainable business with a category-defining brand known for quality and transparency. What gets me excited today is the innovation you're seeing from the company. The Infinite Kitchen and our expanded menu offerings are just two powerful examples that when coupled with the significant improvements we have made to our operations, have the potential to unlock significant value in the years ahead.
My gratitude to all of our team members who continue to deliver a win-win-win for our customers, communities and stakeholders. Because of our team, we had a great 2023 and we achieved several milestones, including launching Protein Plates, launching 2 Infinite Kitchens and expanding our unit economics. I couldn't be more optimistic and excited for the year ahead. And now I'll turn it over to Mitch to walk through the financials.
Mitch Reback: Thank you, Jonathan, and good afternoon, everyone. In 2023, we set out to strengthen our financial model as we guide towards adjusted EBITDA profitability in 2024. Total revenue for the fourth quarter was $153 million, up from $118.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, growing 29% year-over-year, our 11th consecutive quarter of over 20% year-over-year sales growth. For the quarter, same-store sales grew 6% year-over-year. This consisted of a 5% benefit from menu prices and a 1% benefit from traffic and mix. After a sluggish October, our momentum increased each month in the quarter. Our average unit volume in the fourth quarter was $2.9 million. Restaurant-level profit margin in the fourth quarter was 16.2%, a more than 500 basis point improvement from the fourth quarter of 2022.
Restaurant level profit for the fourth quarter was 25 million, nearly double from a year ago. Our restaurant level profit margin for the year was 17.5%. For a reconciliation of restaurant-level margins to comparable GAAP figures, please refer to the earnings release. This year, we've opened 35 net new restaurants, including one new restaurant in the fourth quarter for a total of 221 restaurants at the end of 2023. In the first quarter of 2024, we opened 4 restaurants, including Totem Lake, a Seattle suburb. In 2024, we anticipate opening between 23 and 27 new restaurants approximately 7 new restaurants will contain the Infinite Kitchen. Our restaurant openings will be weighted towards the back half of the year, with approximately 40% of the openings in the second half containing the Infinite Kitchen.
In 2025, we plan to reaccelerate our unit growth. Food, beverage and packaging costs were 28% of revenue for the quarter, a 100-basis point improvement from the fourth quarter of 2022. This improvement was primarily due to menu price increases and a decrease in both chicken and fish costs. Labor-related expenses were 29% of revenue for the fourth quarter, a 300 basis point improvement from the comparable period in 2022. This improvement is primarily attributable to Head Coach schedule optimization we began implementing in the spring. Occupancy and related expenses were 9% of revenue, down 100 basis points from the fourth quarter of 2022. General and administrative expense was $35.5 million or 23% of revenue for the fourth quarter of 2023, as compared to $43.5 million or 37% of revenue in the prior-year period.
This decrease in general and administrative expenses was primarily due to a $6.4 million decrease in stock-based compensation expense. Stock-based compensation for fiscal year 2023 was $49.5 million, down from $78.7 million in 2022. We anticipate it declining to the mid-$30 million range in 2024 and mid-teens in 2025. The significant reduction is primarily related to the accounting treatment of pre-IPO-related grants. Our net loss for the quarter was $27 million compared to a loss of $49 million in the prior year period. The $22 million improvement in net loss is primarily due to a $12 million increase in our restaurant-level profit, a $6.4 million decrease in stock-based compensation expense, as previously discussed, partially offset by an increase in depreciation and amortization associated with additional restaurants.
Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes stock-based compensation and certain other adjustments, was a loss of $1.8 million for the fourth quarter, an improvement of $16.1 million from the fourth quarter of 2022 loss of $17.9 million. This $16.1 million improvement was primarily due to an increase in restaurant-level profit and a decrease in general and administrative expenses as described previously. Adjusted EBITDA for the fiscal year 2023 was a loss of $2.8 million, representing a $47.1 million improvement over the same period in 2022. We ended the year with a cash balance of $257 million. Now turning to our 2024 outlook. For the fiscal year 2024, we anticipate the following, 23 to 27 net new restaurant openings, revenue ranging from $655 million to $670 million, same-store sales growth between 3% and 5%, restaurant-level margins of 18% to 19.5%, and adjusted EBITDA between $8 million to $15 million.
Our guidance is based on new restaurant opening pipeline being weighted to the back half of the year. Additionally, we plan to renovate 3 to 4 large urban restaurants with the Infinite Kitchen. These restaurants will be off-line for some period of time, and we have built this revenue adjustment into our guidance. We expect these stores to grow significantly in revenue and margin in 2025 to higher throughput as well as provide significant second order benefits including better customer satisfaction with accuracy and lower team member turnover. Based on what we know today, we expect the Infinite Kitchen to cost between $450,000 and $550,000 and generate at least 7 points of margin improvement as well as deliver significant second order benefits, previously described.
For the first quarter, we anticipate 5 to 6 net new restaurant openings. Revenue ranging from $150 million to $154 million. Same-store sales growth of approximately 3%. Restaurant level margins of 16% to 17% and an adjusted EBITDA loss between $4 million to a loss of $2 million. Our same-store sales guidance reflects timing shifts for New Year's and Easter, both of which did not fall in the comparable base of Q1, 2023. Additionally, January was impacted by weather throughout much of the country, as weather has normalized, our sales trends have strengthened. I am pleased with the progress we've made strengthening our financial model in 2023. We're committed to building a durable company that balances both growth and profitability. In 2023, we grew revenue 24%, expanded 4-wall margins nearly 300 basis points and improved adjusted EBITDA by $47 million, as we remain committed to disciplined capital efficient growth.
We're guiding 2024 to be our first year of adjusted EBITDA profitability. We believe this profitability milestone, coupled with a healthy balance sheet will set us up for growth and expansion in the years to come. With that, I'll turn the call back to the operator to start Q&A.
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