Kura Sushi USA, Inc. (NASDAQ:KRUS) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Jeff Uttz: So our eye is always on the 20% restaurant-level margin price. That’s pretty much the gold standard in the restaurant industry. And in fact hitting the 20.2% that we did in Q2, I believe is one of, if not our highest Q2s of all time. And we’re very happy with that because Q2, our seasonality is Q1 is our slowest quarter of the four, and then they get sequentially better from there. Q2 is better than one, three better than two and Q4, which is our summer is our best quarter. So to be able to hit a 20% restaurant-level margin in Q2, we’re very happy with. We’ll continue to chip away at it, but that number is a pretty good number and we’re not going to sacrifice guest service or food quality in order to drive that margin much higher than that. But there is a little opportunity, I believe as we continue to leverage, but we’re happy with the number where it is.

Todd Brooks: A few things to add on that €“ I’m sorry, go ahead, Jimmy.

Jimmy Uba: I can give you additional explanation.

Benjamin Porten: As a reminder that labor inflation that we mentioned, we do expect that to continue through Q3 and Q4, and potentially pass that. And so please be mindful of that as well. A couple other notes just from my end, thinking about exit rates might not be super helpful for your modeling purposes just because of the seasonality that Jeff mentioned. Q4s restaurant-level operating profit margin and Q1s restaurant-level operating profit margin are materially different. If you go through any of our past things, I’m sure you’ll see that. And just to echo Jeff’s note, we’re very happy with that 20% plus, it’s one of the industry bests. It’s great to see ongoing improvement. But in terms of the major opportunity for top and bottom line, that’s going to be the ongoing unit expansion and leveraging of our G&A.

Todd Brooks: Great. Thank you all.

Benjamin Porten: Thanks, Todd.

Jimmy Uba: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is a follow-up question from Joshua Long with Stephens. Please proceed with your question.

Joshua Long: Great. Thanks for squeezing me in for the follow-up. I was just curious, it looks like there were maybe a couple remodels during the quarter of maybe some of your older units. Just curious if that was maybe one-off €“ a one-off opportunity or a remodel or something a bit more comprehensive is in the works. Just curious on either set up for that and/or what you learned by touching €“ going back and looking at some of those, I think it was in your California market?

Benjamin Porten: So at the time of the IPO, our parent company actually worked with a very famous designer. He’s the guy who did the unique logo. It’s probably what he is best known for the west, but he’s the guy who did our new updated logo and he developed an interior design update as well. And so we’ve been doing those updates since 2019, 2020. We only have six left. They cost on average maybe $200,000 to $300,000. But after those six, we’re caught up.

Joshua Long: Great. Thank you.

Jimmy Uba: Thanks.

Operator: That concludes our question-and-answer session. That also concludes our conference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.

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