Mister Car Wash, Inc. (NYSE:MCW) Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call February 23, 2023 4:30 PM ET

Company Participants

John Lai - Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer

Jed Gold - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Elizabeth Suzuki - Bank of America

Simeon Gutman - Morgan Stanley

Michael Lasser - UBS

Peter Keith - Piper Sandler

Garrett Klingshirn - BMO Capital Markets

Kate McShane - Goldman Sachs

David Bellinger - ROTH MKM

Chris O’Cull - Stifel

Operator

Good afternoon and welcome to Mister Car Wash’s Conference Call to discuss Financial Results for the Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2022. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this call is being recorded and a reproduction of this call in whole or in part is not permitted without written authorization from the company.

Speaking from management on today’s call are John Lai, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer and Jed Gold, Chief Financial Officer. After John and Jed have made their formal remarks, we will open the call to questions.

During this conference call, references to non-GAAP financial measures will be made. A complete reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measures have been included in the company’s earnings press release issued earlier today and posted to the Investor Relations section of Mister Car Wash’s website at ir.mistercarwash.com. As a reminder, comments made on today’s call may include forward-looking statements, which are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the company’s results to actual – to differ materially from management’s current expectations.

Please be advised that the statements made today are current as of this call and are based on our present understanding of the market and industry conditions. While we may choose to update these statements in the future, we are under no obligation to do so unless required by applicable law or regulations. Please review the forward-looking statements disclaimer contained in the company’s third quarter 10-Q as such factors may be updated from time to time in other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

I will now turn the call over to Mr. John Lai. Please go ahead, sir.

John Lai

Good afternoon, everyone. As I reflect on this past year, I’d characterize 2022 as a year of progress and promise, a year where we turned challenges into opportunities, opportunities to strengthen our team, improve our products and services, and differentiate in an increasingly competitive environment. It was a year where we experienced a slowdown in retail frequency, which we believe was primarily driven by the macro economy, while also experiencing inflationary cost pressures across almost every corner of our business, which put downward pressure on margins, but it was also a year where we got stronger and more focused. We reset our labor model and improved productivity and became more cost efficient with a keener eye on managing our expenses while prioritizing projects that have the highest return on invested capital.