The Joint Corp. (NASDAQ:JYNT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Peter Holt: Yeah, we don’t guide on comps, so I probably won’t go into that level of detail. the, the build is fairly sophisticated both on our corporate clinics and our franchise segment. And that’s KPI driven in terms of building those things from the ground up as really as well as recognizing some of the macro pressures that are out there which creates some of the ranges within the guide. And so as we progress, we continue to see great momentum as we mentioned at the end of 2022, really seeing that corporate portfolio especially get back into those low double digit comps. So we’re hoping that those, those trends continue. As I look at the core KPIs that build, we’re still seeing great traction in the conversion metric, getting people onto our subscription model.

We’re retaining our patients, we’re seeing improvement and the length of membership. And we’re still having some headwinds as it relates to new patients, and that’s a critical focus of ours. So, all of those things factor in into the model and the guide and we’re trying to just make sure we’re, we’re remaining conservative in a 23 period that has some uncertainty.

Operator: Thank you. Next question will come from Brooks O’Neil, Lake Street Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Brooks O’Neil: Good afternoon guys, and thanks for providing all the detail you do. We really appreciate it. I’m hoping you could just talk a little bit about what you’re seeing in terms of strength and weakness and new store opening performance particularly the second half of 22 compared to historical performance.

Jake Singleton: Yeah, great question Brooks. As I look at the openings. Yeah, great question Brooks. As I look at the openings we continue to see strength in the top line performance. And so some of that aided by the price increase that went into effect. So, year-over-year, year-by-year cohort, we continue to see strengthening in that top line performance. What I will tell you is that we’ve probably seen a slight step back in our time to break even, and that’s really driven by those continued wage pressures that we talk about. So when you have labor that’s 40% to 45% now of your overall cost of your clinics, those continued wage pressures really have an impact into your overall time to break even. So I would say, historically you were talking breakevens in the 25 to 28,000 range, that’s probably 30 to 33,000 per month now in monthly costs that you have to overcome in order to turn that corner.

And so what that creates is maybe while we were breaking even in six months or less historically, now you’re probably in that six to nine month range as you reach that time to break even. And so, just like you’re seeing in our corporate portfolio performance, we’re seeing those wage pressures impact our margins along with all those new clinics. But really as I think about the top line and how these clinics are ramping out the gate our grand opening marketing program continues to be a success. And we’ve got, franchisees and our corporate units that are really continuing to break records in terms of how quickly some of these units can open. And that’s the beauty of a franchise system as we can take those best practices and continue to roll those out and further improve the whole network.

So we still see strength in terms of our, our top line revenue performance.

Brooks O’Neil: Great. And I appreciate all that detail, Jake. So I’ll ask one more. I think you mentioned in your prepared remarks that you’re seeing some improvement in attrition, which I think is a key metric. And I’m curious if you can pinpoint any things you’re doing or do you think it’s just overall solid execution at both the corporate clinics and the franchise?