Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK) Q3 2022 Earnings Conference Call August 10, 2022 1:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Chris Brandon - Vice President, Investor Relations

Darin Harris - Chief Executive Officer

Tim Mullany - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Brian Bittner - Oppenheimer & Company

Lauren Silberman - Credit Suisse

Brian Mullan - Deutshe Bank

Gregory Francfort - Guggenheim Securities

Dennis Geiger - UBS

Jon Tower - Citi

David Tarantino - Baird

Alex Slagle - Jefferies

Chris Carril - RBC Capital Markets

Nick Setyan - Wedbush Securities

Jeffrey Bernstein - Barclays

Jim Sanderson - Northcoast Research

John Glass - Morgan Stanley

Operator

Good morning. And welcome to the Q3 2022 Jack in the Box Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session [Operator Instructions]. Chris Brandon, Vice President, Investor Relation, you may begin.

Chris Brandon

Thanks operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining today's conference call highlighting our third quarter 2022 results. With me today are Chief Executive Officer, Darin Harris and Chief Financial Officer, Tim Mullany. Following their prepared remarks, we will be happy to take some questions from our covering sell side analysts. Note that during both our discussion and Q&A, we may refer to non-GAAP items. Please refer to the non-GAAP reconciliations provided in today's earnings release, which is available on our investor relations Web site at jackinthebox.com. We will also be making forward looking statements based on current information and judgments that reflect management's outlook for the future. However, actual results may differ materially from these expectations because of business risks. We therefore consider the Safe Harbor statement in today's earnings release and the cautionary statements in our most recent 10-K to be part of our discussion. Material risk factors as well as information relating to company operations are detailed in our most recent 10-K, 10-Q and other public documents filed with the SEC, and are available on our investor relations Web site. And with that, I would like to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Darin Harris.

Darin Harris

Thank you, Chris and good morning, everyone. I want to start by recognizing the hard work of our operators, team members and franchisees. Despite a tough environment, our strategy is continuing to take hold and prepare us for growth. We look forward to closing out 2022 with the energy and passion that helps make both the Jack and Dell Taco brand so special. Now let's begin with our Q3 performance. Our first full quarter with Del Taco as part of the Jack family and a solid quarter for top line results across the entire company. Both brands delivered excellent two year same store sales performance, rolling over strong comps, record setting AUVs and the remaining lift provided by stimulus from a year ago. With the steady improvement of operating hours, open dining rooms and continued to focus on marketing and product innovation, we saw a ramp up of sales performance exiting Q3, which gives us a favorable sales trajectory heading into the fourth quarter. Of course, we faced challenges too, including the hefty inflation headwinds, battling for share of customers dining out and the risk of recession. But since these macro issues affect the entire industry what truly matters is how we are addressing these headwinds, which I will review as part of our strategic four pillars and our people foundation.