We are testing various promotions, to drive incrementality of visitation and are thinking, of some larger scale more transformational marketing ideas, to take some bigger swings that differentiating our brands. I know that is a bit vague, and it is vague on purpose as I want to ensure that we keep those ideas of differentiation close in an industry, where products and services themselves, are largely similar purely from a menu offering standpoint. And we’re also placing an even greater focus on salon operations and brand standards, given the services nature of our business. It is critical to start streamlining and holding even greater accountability of uniformity in our system, to further strengthen our brands and ensure positive in-salon experiences, as we see from our data that friendliness and stylists skill are amongst the biggest drivers of customer satisfaction.
In addition, we’re kicking off a project that, is focused on high volume salons, with the goal of taking those salons, with solid foundation to the next level, which has the potential to yield returns, for both our franchisees and for Regis. During the quarter, we also took our first step towards getting back on the track of salon growth. While we still have a way to go here, as the focus has been and remains on driving the core business in order, to create the right business case to accelerate new salon builds, we announced the Supercuts brand will be entering India through master franchise partnership with an existing franchisee within our system. As we continue to work on the business domestically, we see opportunity abroad as many markets, are fragmented with lack of a large scale player and haircare is just as much of a need as it is want.
There is opportunity that exists, to bring our systems, processes education tools, technology offerings, price point, and operational know-how to other geographies. And India represents a great country to prove out this thesis. Now per the agreement, our franchise partner will manage their territory locally, and will build a minimum of 100 locations over the next five years. And when built out, this market has the potential to be an incremental contributor to profitability for Regis. We see the success of India as a way to one, enable even further growth in that country. And two, set the standard and model for replication and other international markets. Our partner is aiming to get the first location open by the end of March of 2024. And we look forward to this exciting new development for Regis and the Supercuts brand.
Now before turning it over to Kersten to go through financials in more detail. I want to close by reiterating my confidence in the action we are taking, to best position Regis for the future. By complementing the initiatives we have in place to drive profitability, with a strategic alternatives process aimed to address our balance sheet. We are proactively covering our bases in order to best position Regis for the future, and to maximize value. Thank you for your interest in Regis. And I will now turn the call over to Kersten.
Kersten Zupfer: Thanks, Matt and good morning. The first quarter saw positive system-wide same-store sales, increased operating income, positive net income, positive earnings per share, and improved adjusted EBITDA. Overall, we are pleased with the health of our business. Reviewing the first quarter in more detail and beginning with the income statement. The first quarter revenues were $53.4 million and declined $8.5 million from the prior year. This revenue decline was expected and relates primarily to a reduction in franchise rental income, which is a gross-up of revenue and expense and has no impact on profitability. Additionally, transitioning out of company-owned salons and product sales reduced revenue with minimal impact on profitability.
Royalty and fee revenue of $19.2 million, which represents our core business revenue was down approximately $700,000 versus the prior year’s first quarter due to the number of salon closures during fiscal year 2023. System-wide same-store sales grew 1.8% in the quarter. We reported GAAP operating profit of $7.4 million. The increase in GAAP operating profit of $5 million was driven by our focus on controlling G&A and the wind down of last generating company-owned salons. We continue to produce operating profit each quarter and we expect that trend to continue. We reported positive net income of $1.2 million from continuing operations and earnings per share of $0.03 compared to a loss of $1.8 million a year ago during Q1 of 2023, and a loss of $11.3 million for the full fiscal 2023 year.
