The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ:WEN) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Sara Senatore: Great. Thank you very much. Just wanted a follow up question on the competitive environment. I know, third quarter, you exited, I think with positive traffic. You talked about fourth quarter, you kind of maintained your share and – but traffic, I think dipped negative. So could you just maybe talk about how much of that was the market versus maybe your menu news or marketing and as you think about getting the positive traffic in the year ahead. Not to belabor this, but can maybe if you could press on some of the levers, is it just the marketing dollars or you expecting perhaps some improvement in the operating or competitive environment too?

Kirk Tanner: Good morning, Sara. Yes, the comment on the quarter four, I would say, is really the category. The category was relatively soft. We performed in line with the category. I think we had a pretty decent program out there in quarter four. We pushed breakfast a little bit with the English Muffin and obviously starting to instill the expectation with consumers on a $2, $4 for $3 meal deal that is representing great value. So, I would say the category in the fourth quarter was probably a little bit softer than we thought. We stayed obviously within the sales guidance that we had given of 6% to 7%, but we ended on a slightly lower side, but didn’t obviously miss it. And again be encouraged about the programming for next year.

Breakfast is important and that’s not the only thing we are doing. There is decent amount of innovation across all our main product lines on rest of day that are going to fuel the business on the digital side and together with the breakfast business, that’s kind of enough color I can give on that one.

Kelsey Freed: All right. Thank you, Sara. That was our last question of the call. Thank you Kirk and GP, and thank you everyone for participating this morning. We look forward to speaking with you again on our first quarter call in May. Have a great day. You may now disconnect.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.