El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call August 3, 2023 4:30 PM ET

Company Participants

Larry Roberts - President and CEO

Ira Fils - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Todd Brooks - The Benchmark Company

Jake Bartlett - Truist

Andy Barish - Jefferies

Jen North - Baird

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to El Pollo Loco, Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode and the lines will be open for your questions following the presentation. Please note that this conference is being recorded today, August 3, 2023.

And now I would like to turn the conference over to Ira Fils, the company's Chief Financial Officer. You may begin.

Ira Fils

Thank you, Operator. And good afternoon. By now, everyone should have access to our second quarter 2023 earnings release. If not, it can be found at www.elpolloloco.com in the Investor Relations section. Before we begin our formal remarks, I need to remind everyone that our discussions today will include forward-looking statements, including statements related to our strategic and operational initiatives, expectations regarding cash flow, sales and margins, potential changes to our menu platforms, capital expenditure plans, future share repurchases, expectations regarding commodity and wage inflation, remodel plans, expected new store openings, franchise partnerships and our 2023 guidance, among others.

These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore, you should not put undue reliance on them. These statements are also subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we currently expect. We refer you to our recent SEC filings, including our Form 10-K for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact our future operating results and financial condition.

We expect to file our 10-Q for the second quarter of 2023 tomorrow and would encourage you to review that document at your earliest convenience. During today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP measures, which we believe can be useful in evaluating our performance. The presentation of this additional information should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP, and reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures are available in our earnings release, which is available in the Investor Relations section of our website.

With respect to the restaurant contribution margin outlook we will be providing on today's call, please note that we have not provided a reconciliation to the most directly comparable forward-looking GAAP financial measure because without unreasonable efforts, we are unable to predict with reasonable certainty the amount of or timing of non-GAAP adjustments that are used to calculate income from operations and company-operated restaurant revenue on a forward-looking basis.