The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

From a short-term outlook, we would expect to have by the end of the year, about 48, 45 to 50 restaurants in the U.K. We’re building company restaurants and obviously, we have signed up several franchise partners that’s very excited investing in the business help us develop that market. We’ve always said that U.K. is a key strategic market for us, is kind of the beachhead for the rest of Europe. We absolutely expect that over time, that market should yield 400 restaurants for us. We’ll see how long that takes us, but that we believe is our fair share in that market. As you also know, we are exploring Continental Europe with the prime candidates that we’ve always talked about Ireland and Spain. So that’s kind of what we have on that. Kirk, do you want to add anything?

Kirk Tanner: Yes. No, I think you nailed it GP. The opportunity is there for us. I think we have a great deal of potential — the U.K., as GP mentioned, is a beachhead, and we continue to work across Europe right now. So we do think that that is a significant opportunity for us. And we think by getting the U.K. right, we’re in a great position to continue to grow in the U.K. to 400 units. That’s the potential. And then outside the U.K., leveraging the business there to be the beachhead for the rest of Western Europe. So we feel really strong about that opportunity. Thanks for the question.

Kelsey Freed: Thanks, John. That was our last question of the call. Thanks everyone for participating this morning. We look forward to speaking with you again on our second quarter call in August. Have a great day. You may now disconnect.