El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:LOCO) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 4, 2023 4:30 PM ET

Company Participants

Ira Fils - Chief Financial Officer

Larry Roberts - President and Chief Executive Officer

Conference Call Participants

Jake Bartlett - Truist Securities

Andy Barish - Jefferies

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the El Pollo Loco First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference call is being recorded today, May 4, 2023. And now I would like to turn the conference over to your host, Ira Fils, the company’s Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Ira Fils

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon. By now, everyone should have access to our first 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 pillars and strategic initiatives, our operational plans, marketing and new product initiatives, cash flow expectations, capital expenditure plans, remodel plans, expected new store openings and 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 formal detailed discussion of the risks that could impact our future operating results and financial condition.

We expect to file our 10-Q for the first 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 non-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.