Burgerfi International, Inc. (NASDAQ:BFI) Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call March 22, 2023 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Ian Baines - CEO

Michael Rabinovitch - SVP, CFO & Principal Financial and Accounting Officer

Conference Call Participants

Operator

Hello, and welcome to the BurgerFi International, Inc. 4Q '22 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions].

I now would like to turn the conference over to Ian Baines, BurgerFi's CEO. Mr. Baines, please go ahead.

Ian Baines

Thank you for joining us today, and we appreciate your continued interest in BurgerFi. Let me begin by thanking our entire team, franchisees and their employees for their dedication and hard work in this challenging environment. My plan is to first recap our fiscal year and fourth quarter performance and then discuss our current initiatives. Following that, Mike will review the quarterly financials in greater detail and reiterate our 2023 guidance.

We are pleased to report that total revenue grew 160% to $178.7 million for fiscal year 2022 when compared to the prior year. The significant increase in revenue was related to the full year impact from the acquisition of 61 corporate-owned Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza and Wings in November of 2021.

We also grew our adjusted EBITDA to $9.2 million, a 141% increase from prior year. Turning to the fourth quarter. Total revenue increased 29% to $45.2 million, primarily driven from Anthony's results being included for the full quarter compared to 9 weeks in the prior year. Consolidated system-wide restaurant sales decreased 2% to $71.6 million as we experienced a 5% decrease of BurgerFi that was only partially offset by a 2% increase at Anthony's.

System-wide comparable same-store sales decreased 4% for the quarter, consisting of a 1% increase at Anthony's and a 9% decrease at BurgerFi. 2022 was a pivotal year for BurgerFi as we integrated the Anthony's acquisition into our system. Notably, we completed our back-office integration of the 2 companies and delivered on our goal of achieving over $2.5 million in annualized synergies.

Over the last year, our teams have been laser-focused on operations and the customer experience with the goal of increased sales and margin improvement at both brands. As a result, Anthony's grew same-store sales 5% when compared to the prior fiscal year. Notably, sales are continuing their recovery to pre-COVID levels both in our home market of Florida and in the Northeast, where we don't have as strong of a brand awareness. This topline momentum has continued throughout the first quarter of 2023 with competitive period trends of 2% to 3% for each brand than those realized in the fourth quarter of 2022.