BFI - BurgerFi Provides Fiscal Year 2023 Business Update | Benzinga
Sets Initial Business Outlook for Fiscal Year 2024
Focused on Five Key Strategic Initiatives
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BurgerFi International, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFI, BFIIW)) ("BurgerFi" or the "Company"), owner of the high-quality, casual dining pizza brand under the name Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza & Wings ("Anthony's") and one of the nation's leading fast-casual "better burger" dining concepts through the BurgerFi brand, today reported preliminary results for the fiscal year 2023 which ended on January 1, 2024. The Company also set its initial business outlook for fiscal year 2024 as it focuses on five key strategic initiatives.
Management Commentary
Carl Bachmann, Chief Executive Officer of BurgerFi stated, "Since joining the Company in July, I have been working diligently to fix the foundations of both brands, to ensure the next best turnaround story in the restaurant space, is a success. Both these founder brands (Anthony's and BurgerFi) are what attracted me to this opportunity and despite some near-term challenges, my view of the brands and the opportunity hasn't changed. Leveraging my prior experience in turnaround situations at burger and pizza concepts, we have implemented five key strategic priorities that should drive long-term, profitable growth. Notably, we have begun to see early leading indicators that these efforts are already taking hold. Across both brands, we continue to see a decrease in hourly and management turnover, coupled with an increase in consumer satisfaction scores and faster ticket times. We also introduced new menu items at BurgerFi and Anthony's and the feedback has been resounding."
Bachmann continued, "In December, we celebrated the grand opening of our first-ever co-branded BurgerFi and Anthony's restaurant in Kissimmee, Florida. This location, which includes the inaugural Anthony's franchise agreement, is part of a three-unit deal with a new franchisee, NDM Hospitality. We also expanded our footprint through a nontraditional venue with the opening of a BurgerFi within Apple Cinemas in Rochester, New York. This new growth channel helps increase our visibility and brand awareness, and we will look to open additional nontraditional locations in the future. Finally, later this month, BurgerFi will return to New York City with the grand reopening of our flagship, company-owned, BurgerFi restaurant and Better Burger Lab."
Christopher Jones, Chief Financial Officer of BurgerFi, noted, "We have started to see early signs of improvement across the business. During the fourth quarter we saw encouraging trends, despite the larger headwinds that the industry has experienced in Southern Florida, with strong performance from the Anthony's brand during the holidays, including a positive sequential improvement in sales and traffic in 4Q23 vs 3Q23. Performance continues to be volatile at BurgerFi, though followed a similar positive trend with sequential improvement in traffic and comp store sales at both company and franchise locations."
"Looking forward, we expect the BurgerFi concept to generate positive same store sales and EBITDA in the second half of 2024 and for Anthony's to deliver positive same-store sales and EBITDA throughout 2024. We are also in discussions with several interested parties for a multi-unit Anthony's franchise deal."
Preliminary Outcomes for the Fourth Quarter 2023 are as Follows*:
- Total revenue of approximately $42 million;
- Consolidated systemwide restaurant sales of approximately $65 million;
- Corporate-owned same-store sales decreased 3% at Anthony's;
- Systemwide same-store sales decreased 9% at BurgerFi.
Preliminary Outcomes for the Fiscal Year 2023 are as Follows*:
- Total store revenue of approximately $170 million;
- Systemwide restaurant sales of approximately $275 million;
- Corporate-owned same-store sales decreased 1% at Anthony's;
- Systemwide same-store sales decreased 7% at BurgerFi.
- No update to our previously communicated Adjusted EBITDA1 guidance of $6-8 million or capital expenditures of approximately $2 million.
*The fourth quarter and fiscal year 2023 reporting periods for BurgerFi changed to a quarter 4-4-5 calendar with a 52-53 week fiscal year ending on the Monday nearest December 31 of each year to improve the alignment of financial and business processes following the acquisition of Anthony's. We have adjusted for differences arising from the different fiscal-period ends for the quarter and fiscal year 2023 when comparing to 2022.
Restaurant Development
As of January 2, 2024, the Company operated and franchised 168 total restaurants of which 108 were BurgerFi (28 corporate-owned and 80 franchised) and 60 were Anthony's (59 corporate-owned and 1 franchised). During the fourth quarter 2023, the Company acquired two locations from franchisees and opened an additional 3 BurgerFi locations, including a BurgerFi inside Apple Cinemas in Rochester and the first dual-brand franchise location. In January 2024, the Company will reopen a flagship, company-owned, BurgerFi in New York City with the unveiling of its Better Burger Lab experience.
Key Strategic Initiatives
During fiscal year 2024, the Company will continue executing its five key strategic initiatives, which are positioning BurgerFi for sustained long-term, profitable growth.
- Infrastructure