Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending September 30, 2022

October 25, 2022 4:30 p.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Chipotle Mexican Grill Third Quarter 2022 Results Conference Call. Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Cindy Olsen, Head of Investor Relations and Strategy. Please go ahead.

Cindy Olsen - Head of IRand Strategy

Hello, everyone, and welcome to our third quarter fiscal 2022 earnings call. By now, you should have access to our earnings press release. If not, it may be found on our Investor Relations website at ir.chipotle.com.

I will begin by reminding you that certain statements and projections made in this presentation about our future business and financial results constitute forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current business and market expectations, and our actual results could differ materially from those projections in the forward-looking statements. Please see the risk factors contained in our annual report on Form 10-K and in our Form 10-Q for a discussion of risks that may cause our actual results to vary from these forward-looking statements.

Our discussion today will include non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation to GAAP measures can be found via the link included on the presentation page within the Investor Relations section of our website.

We will start today's call with prepared remarks from Brian Niccol, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Jack Hartung, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, after which we will take your questions. Our entire executive leadership team is available during the Q&A session.

And with that, I will turn the call over to Brian.

Brian Niccol - Chairman & CEO

Thanks, Cindy, and good afternoon, everyone. Our third quarter results demonstrated the resiliency of the brand and strength of our organization in managing through a difficult consumer environment along with the inflationary headwinds we have experienced over the past 18 months.

For the quarter, sales grew 14% to reach $2.2 billion, driven by a 7.6% comp. In-store sales grew by 22% over last year. Digital sales represented 37% of sales. Restaurant-level margin was 25.3%, an increase of 180 basis points year-over-year. Adjusted diluted EPS was $9.51, representing 35% growth over last year. And we opened 43 new restaurants, including 30 Chipotlanes.

In the third quarter, we continue to see a widening of trends by income level with the lower income consumer further reducing frequency. Fortunately, for Chipotle, the majority of customers are from higher-income households, which continue to increase purchase frequency. While it is difficult to predict the macro impact on future spending trends, we know our value proposition remains strong and we experienced minimal resistance to our price increase in the quarter.