BJ’s Restaurants, Inc (NASDAQ:BJRI) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call July 27, 2023 5:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Rana Schirmer - Investor Relations

Greg Levin - President and Chief Executive Officer

Tom Houdek - Chief Financial Officer

Greg Lynds - Chief Development Officer

Conference Call Participants

Joshua Long - Stephens Incorporated

Alex Slagle - Jefferies

Mike Tamas - Oppenheimer & Company

Andrew Wolf - CL King

Jeffrey Bernstein - Barclays

Mary Hodes - Baird

Todd Brooks - The Benchmark Company

Nick Setyan - Wedbush Securities

Operator

Greetings. Welcome to be BJ’s Restaurants Incorporated Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Release and Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Rana Schirmer, Director of SEC Reporting. Thank you. You may begin.

Rana Schirmer

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone and welcome to our fiscal 2023 second quarter investor conference call and webcast. After the market closed today, we released our financial results for our fiscal 2023 second quarter. You can view the full text of our earnings release on our website at www.bjsrestaurants.com.

I will begin by reminding you that our comments on the conference call today will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that undue reliance should not be placed on such 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.

We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or to make any other forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required to do so by the securities laws. Investors are referred to the full discussion of risks and uncertainties associated with forward-looking statements contained in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

We will start today’s call with prepared remarks from Greg Levin, our Chief Executive Officer and President and Tom Houdek, our Chief Financial Officer, after which we will take your questions. Greg Lynds, our Chief Development Officer is also on hand for Q&A session.

And with that, I will turn the call over to Greg Levin. Greg?

Greg Levin

Thank you, Rana. BJ has delivered another solid quarter growing top line sales and expanding margins year-over-year. Our total revenues increased by more than 6% led by strong comparable restaurant sales of 4.7%. We are proud that these results once again beat the industry as measured by Black Box both in terms of sales and traffic for the quarter. Consumer demand trends were generally stable and consistent throughout the second quarter and these same trends have continued into the first 3 weeks of the third quarter.