Michael Healy: Yeah, there’s a few things as we just think about the full year guide, that our check average, we shared, we updated our guide on the check average to 3% to 4%. Commodities, now more favorable to 2% to 3%. We still have $50 million of productivity layered into our plan. The marketing spend, the first half is heavy and we start to lap that in the back half, so it starts to get relatively in line. And then from a calendar shift perspective, we lost the benefit of the week shift in Q1. That was roughly $0.06, but we get that back in Q4 or almost all of that back in Q4. So that certainly kind of helps think about the first half, back half as well as Dave mentioned the continued strength that Outback gives us a lot of confidence and, in fact, all these items give us collective confidence that we can achieve our full year guide.
Lauren Silberman: Thank you very much.
Operator: The next question comes from Brian Mullan with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.
Brian Mullan: Thank you. A question on Carrabba’s, you’ve seen some relative outperformance from that brand in recent years. Maybe you could just talk about the strategy for this year, your degree of confidence that this can continue? And if you could talk about the off-premise business and the dining room business separately, that would be great to get your thoughts on that brand?
David Deno: Well, Carrabba’s has done a great job in sales, be it the off-premise business especially, as we know, that food forms especially, conducive to the off-premise business, and the team has done a really terrific job addressing that feed through catering, delivery, carryout, et cetera. The team will tell you that we’ve got more work to do in-restaurant dining, we’ve got more trends in front of us that we need to pursue, also improved the guest experience. They’ve had some extremely successful wine dinners at Carrabba’s, and we’ve rolled lunch that is having a lot of success in the brand. So I’d say that from a Carrabba’s standpoint, you’ve got a strong off-premise business, you’ve got lunch being rolled out with their sandwich line, we’ve got some successful in-restaurant initiatives around their wine dinners.
Now, lastly, we talked a lot at length on prior calls about the productivity investment that we made at Outback kitchens. We’ve got the same thing available to us in Carrabba’s. In fact, I’d argue Carrabba’s is one of the most complicated kitchens in the industry. And so, right now, we’ve got about 15% of our fleet has new kitchen equipment and we’re seeing significant savings in utilities and prime costs to help drive that business. And that’s a big element of productivity for us this year and importantly into 2025. So those are the factors that we’re seeing in Carrabba’s and we’ll see if all that warrants further expansion of the brand as we go forward.
Brian Mullan: Okay. Thank you. And then just to follow-up, just on the portfolio of stores in the U.S. broadly with the 2023 closure initiative now complete. My question is whether or not you think, would there be any future closure initiatives you’d consider or has everything really been addressed now at this point, you think?
David Deno: We’ve done a great job over the years managing our portfolio and I would expect that we won’t have more to do, but I think that – we always look at our assets. We always look at where they’re located. We always look at things. But we’ve done a great job being proactive on that over the years.
Brian Mullan: Thank you.
Operator: The next question comes from Dennis Geiger with UBS. Please go ahead.
Dennis Geiger: Thank you, and congratulations, David and Michael. You talked about the three LTOs, which I would consider at compelling price points. I think, David, you spoke a few times to some value add-backs coming. So I just wanted to ask a little bit more on promotional activity, if anything more on sort of how you’re positioned on value and whether the need maybe to increase promotional offerings if that reflects the current consumer backdrop, if it’s relative to the observation that the broader casual dining industry is leaning in more on value, if it’s both, if it’s other, just any additional thoughts there?
David Deno: Yeah, sure. I think what we’ve done is with the last three LTOs at the Outback has been really great, because it offers tremendous food at a great price point, and you’re going to see that from us going forward in future plans. I’m not going to get into details what they might be, but that’s something that has worked for us. On the menu front, we think that we’ve got some opportunity, like I mentioned earlier on the question from John Ivankoe, is there more opportunity to maybe simplify the menu a little bit more? Don’t know for sure. And then, is there an opportunity to put some really interesting Outback high-quality products on the menu that are very indulgent that offer great value, and we’re working through that right now.
That’s how we would go about it. And then, lastly, as it speaks to the industry, yes, we see an increase in promotional marketing activity. We need to respond to that, but we don’t intend to do it in our way, especially at Outback. We don’t expect to do any broad based deep discounting or special promotional offers and things, but we will be offering some value centered LTOs that make a lot of sense for the brand and consistent with the brand heritage.
Dennis Geiger: That’s great. And then just I wanted to ask on Brazil, if anything incremental to share sort of on performance in the quarter, the consumer backdrop, anything impacting results for the quarter itself. And then, if there’s anything incremental on sort of the state of, I guess, maybe the capital markets environment in the country. Or anything else to add on – thinking through – as you think through the strategic review, the conditions in the country right now. Thank you.
David Deno: Yeah. No, Brazil continues to take share, do extremely well. The only thing we had to do in Q1 last year was, the World Cup was in December in their quarter. They had an unbelievably successful promotion, and we’ve had a little bit of carnival timing this year. But overall, the brand continues to do really well. I think the industry there is like the U.S. seeing a little softness, but importantly, we are taking share. As Michael mentioned in his prepared remarks, there was tax, there has been tax legislation that has been approved by the Senate and the House. We don’t know what’s going to happen with that tax legislation. If it does get signed by the President, and once we understand the regulations, there could be a financial upside to the company, but that is not contemplated in our guidance.
Dennis Geiger: Thank you very much.
Operator: The next question comes from Andrew Strelzik with BMO. Please go ahead.
Andrew Strelzik: Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. My first one, I wanted to ask you about the operational improvements at Outback that are contributing to the share gains there. Are there any metrics that you can share to kind of frame the improvements that you’re seeing, and where are the gaps that remain, I guess, on the path to your goal of being a best-in-class operator?
