Portillo’s Inc. (NASDAQ:PTLO) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Gregory Francfort: Got it. Thanks for that perspective. Maybe, Michelle, can you remind us, there’s been very different situations in the beef markets between maybe hamburger meat and steaks. I just don’t have an appreciation for where beef flat is sitting at. Can you just give me an understanding of maybe, are those inflationary right now? Or just any thoughts on overall contracting? Thanks.

Michelle Hook: It’s a good question, Greg. Obviously, as you saw, we were up 4.8% in Q1. But our beef products are our hotdogs, our burgers and then the beef flats, which we use to make our Italian beef sandwiches. We’re seeing inflation in all those line items. The burgers in particular are a little bit more pressured because that’s going to use a leaner cut and so that lean market we do feel a little bit more pressure on the burgers, which is what I called out as part of the Q1 headwinds. We are hedged on our flats though about 60% for the full year. I feel good about derisking that line item. We continue to look at ways to mitigate costs on the other beef products on our burgers, our hotdogs. But our other line items as well, we saw a little bit of pressure on pork and produce in Q1, but some other items are helping to mitigate some of those pressures. But, beef in particular as we called out at the beginning of the year, we think will be a pressure for us all year.

Gregory Francfort: That makes sense. Thanks for the color, Michelle.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of John Polaitis [ph] with Polaitis Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Unidentified Analyst: Hi. Good morning and thanks for taking my question. When we look at the restaurant-level margin guidance for this year, it implies a modest decline from 2023. Inclusive in that decline, I imagine, is the impact of a larger number of immature restaurants in the base compared to a year ago. I was wondering if you could help us by quantifying how big of a headwind those new restaurants are in the restaurant-level margin? As we look multiple years into the future and think about the complexion of the restaurant base changing outside of Chicagoland into newer markets, do you still anticipate restaurant-level margins in that 23% to 24% range? How are you thinking about that? Thank you.

Michelle Hook: Yes, John. We haven’t and we’re not going to quantify the impacts on those newer units on that margin for this any specific year and this specific year in general. I think ideally, yes. Our goal is to keep our restaurant-level margins within generally that range. How we do that is, as Michael talked about getting to scale quickly in markets that we’re operating. And so that’s the goal is to continue to build that scale quick within those markets to buffer against the natural margin degradation that you have as the new restaurant, when the new restaurants open up, because we know that scale matters and that there’s benefits on the distribution cost. Michael mentioned leveraging the marketing, getting more awareness and just getting in people’s decision sets early on and having that scale so that you become part of their routine within those markets.

That’s the strategy on how we believe we can keep margins within that range, but absolutely that continues to be the goal.

Operator: Thank you. We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session and with that, the conclusion of today’s teleconference. You may now disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation and have a wonderful day.

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