Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jon Tower: Great. Thanks for squeezing me in. I guess just going back to the breakfast conversation earlier, it does sound like, Darin, you’re emphasizing the need for checks under $8 there and it sounds like in the period some items being removed hurt the sales. So, one, was that specific to the fourth quarter? Meaning, it didn’t happen in the prior periods, so it’ll persist going forward? Then, two, how do you think about balancing the need to drive traffic at that day part without compromising profits at that day part? Is there something else you can do with respect to labor management during that time of day in order to ensure that profits don’t continue to kind of sink during that day part?

Darin Harris: Yeah, I think that’s one of the reasons why we removed items. We actually had a margin lift by removing some of those items even though we had a sales decline. So that’s exactly part of the strategy we’re looking at. I think we’re taking a look at where are some other ways that we can increase value during that day part. I know often in times when the market gets tight economically, breakfast is one of the first things that may disappear quickly. And so we want to make sure we’re offering the right value offers at the right time. And for us, we also saw last year at this time, we ran French Toast Sticks, which is always a hit for us. And we tried to do a new breakfast roll out with our breakfast taco. And quite frankly, it just did okay.

It really didn’t move the needle. And so between removing items, having the breakfast taco and some innovation there, we just didn’t have the right offer at the right time. And so, but margins did improve even though we were down or we are flat in sales at the breakfast day part.

Jon Tower: Great, thank you.

Operator: I would like to thank our speakers for today’s presentation and thank you all for joining us. This now concludes today’s call and you may now disconnect.