Daniel Schwartz
Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Please go ahead
Thank you, Andrea, and good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I’m pleased to report our results for the first quarter of 2016 at RBI, led by the strong performance at our two iconic brands, Tim Hortons and Burger King. This quarter we reported adjusted EBITDA of $408 million and adjusted diluted EPS of $0.30 per share, setting a solid foundation for the remainder of the year. Starting on Slide 4, we achieved strong comparable sales growth at both brands this quarter. Successful marketing platforms, innovative product launches, and consistent focus on guest satisfaction led to global same-store sales growth of 5.6% for Tim's and a 4.6% for Burger King. Strong sales momentum at both brands contributed to growth in franchisee profitability building on the progress that we made last year to further improve our restaurant operators bottom line. On the development front, our restaurant count grew by 4.1% year-over-year and we added 30 net new restaurants during the quarter. We continue to be encouraged by our strong development pipeline for the full-year at both of our brands and are confident in our ability to accelerate the pace of restaurant growth versus the prior-year. Favorable comparable sales and restaurant development led to first-quarter system-wide sales growth of 7.9% and 10% at Tim's and Burger King, respectively. These strong topline results and consistent cost discipline contributed to RBI’s adjusted EBITDA of $408 million, which was up 23% organically compared to the prior year. Turning to Slide 6, it has been another positive quarter for Tim Hortons. Continued strength in beverages, as well as our food platforms across dayparts led to good results across all regions with global comparable sales up by 5.6% during the quarter. Restaurant count was 3.2%, up year-on-year with 25 net new restaurants added during the quarter. System-wide sales grew by 7.9% in constant currency and Tim's adjusted EBITDA of $228 million grew by 35% organically versus the prior-year results. Moving to Slide 7, we discussed our first quarter highlights in Canada. Same-store sales growth of 5.6% was driven by successful limited time offering such as the Pulled Pork Sandwich and the Croissant Breakfast Sandwich which was added to our breakfast offering. We also continue to experience good results for the relaunch of Nutella product starting in mid-March and drove strength in coffee with another great year of roll up the rim. While we’re very pleased with the Q1 sales performance in Canada, I’d note that there was a benefit to our comps from both the leap year effect and from better weather compared to the prior year and we’re going to be facing some more challenging prior year comparable sales levels as we progress throughout the year. With net restaurant growth of 17, we grew the store count in Canada by 2% versus the prior year and continue to see significant opportunities to create value for all of our stakeholders through accelerated growth across regions and channels in our home market. Lets’ discuss our results for the Tim's business in the U.S on Slide 8. First quarter comparable sales growth of 5.8% was driven by impactful product launches such as the Croissant Breakfast Sandwich and strength in our base coffee business. On the development front, we signed important new development agreements in Columbus and Indianapolis during the quarter, marking further progress in our strategy to build partnerships with well-capitalized strong operators who share our vision for the Tim Hortons brand in the United States. The quick succession of development agreements in Cincinnati, Columbus, and Indianapolis starting the fourth quarter of last year speaks to our commitment in finding the right partners and increasing our presence in the world's largest QSR market. We are excited to continue to bring great Tim's restaurants to our guests in the United States. We look forward to supporting our new partners as they begin developing new restaurants in their respective markets, while we continue to work on putting agreements in place with other attractive markets in the region. In Slide 9, we maintained our topline momentum on TH international with comparable sales growth of 6.8%. Beverages and baked goods contributed to favorable results with local innovation and global platforms like grilled wraps contributing to continued momentum in the region. We've grown the restaurant count by 95% over the last 12 months and now operate in six countries across the Middle East, with strong prospects for further expansion in the region for many years to come. Turning to Slide 11, let's discuss the first quarter results at Burger King. Our balanced approach to menu, marketing, image, and operations led to comparable sales growth of 4.6% while restaurant count grew by 4.3% year-over-year across developed and emerging markets. This led to system-wide sales growth of 10% and adjusted EBITDA growth of 10% on an organic basis to $180 million for the quarter. On Slide 12, we had good results in the U.S and Canada with first quarter comparable sales growth of 4.4%. Performance is driven by impactful new product launches including the launch of Grilled Dogs, which brought our signature flame-grilling technique we've been perfecting for more than 60 years to hotdog. We offered Grilled Dogs at more than 7,000 restaurants and they've quickly become guest favorites. Similar to what I mentioned regarding Tim Hortons, Burger King’s U.S and Canada business positively benefited from better weather and a leap year impact in the first quarter. In addition, as we transition into Q2, we've seen sales levels softened a bit sequentially. However, we remain very confident that we have the right strategy in place to deliver strong results for the year and for the long run. Turning to Slide 13, EMEA recorded comparable sales growth of 3.6% for the quarter with strength in Russia, Spain, and the U.K. Restaurant count grew by 7% year-over-year led by Russia, Spain, France, and Turkey. In Russia, our joint venture has plans to reaccelerate the pace of development in 2016, while in Spain our newest joint venture is up and running and we expect it to be a significant contributor to our full-year growth. On Slide 14, APAC comparable sales growth for the quarter was 4.7%, driven by growth in China where we saw double-digit same-store sales growth, as well as strong performance in Korea and Japan. Restaurant count grew by 18% year-over-year with 24 net new restaurants for the quarter with notable openings in China and India, two of our most important joint ventures that have been formed in the past two years. Moving to Slide 15, we achieved strong same-store sales growth of 10.1% led by excellent results in Brazil and Argentina. Our restaurant count grew by 5% year-over-year mostly driven by Burger King Brazil. I’ll now turn it over to Josh, who will discuss the financial results for the quarter.