Wayne Taylor
Analyst · Evercore
Thanks, Tonya, and hello, Roadies, shareholders and interested folks. Hopefully, you all have all read my Founder Letter and have seen our earnings release. Just wanted to thank our employees for all they are doing to feed America, and specifically, to do it in a safe way. I am proud of how diligent our teams have been on prescreening and taking the temperatures of our employees, keeping our teams and guests safe as we can as possible. In addition to social distancing, cleanliness and continuous sanitizing in our restaurants, all employees, regardless of their position, are following strict guidelines, including wearing gloves and mask. We instituted these measures, along with temperature checks early on. Thankfully, as usual, we chose to lead the pack on safety versus following. As we transition back to full-service dining, guest seating will follow state capacity guidelines and safety, as always, will remain our top priority. In the near term, our primary business focus is our curbside and drive-thru business, where we are offering not only regular items, but also family packs and ready-to-grill steaks. In just a short period of time, our To-Go business has grown by approximately 575% from around $8,400 per week in January to over $56,000 in the last week of April. Make no mistake, Texas Roadhouse is open for business, and our managing partners are working hard to serve their communities. Based upon the sales volumes they are generating, many of our restaurants are bringing folks back to work, along with actively hiring new employees. We know how important it is to take care of our people. Through April, on top of their earned wages, we have provided our hourly restaurant employees with approximately $17 million in additional pay and benefits. Besides our Roadie relief payments to show our appreciation for their commitment, we have also provided sick pay, early access to vacation pay and covered portions of their insurance premiums. Additionally, all of our restaurant managers continue to be paid salaries and bonuses, and we have not laid off or furloughed any full-time Support Center employees. Starting this week, we are beginning to reopen our dining rooms in states that are lifting some restrictions. Today, we are reopening the dining rooms of approximately 25 company-owned restaurants, with limited capacity. And by the end of the week, we expect to have over 125 company-owned restaurants offering dine-in service under the same limited capacity model. We are purposely taking our time when reopening our dining rooms as we want to ensure that we are transitioning in the safest and most appropriate way. I cannot be prouder of the entire Texas Roadhouse family and our vendor partners, who have been part of our extended family and have worked really hard for us during this time. The incredible efforts of our operators and the Support Center teams enabled us to rapidly transition nearly 600 full-service restaurants to To-Go-only operating model. And though - and through their hard work and entrepreneurial spirit, our managing partners have grown average weekly sales with some of our restaurants currently doing over 100,000 per week. Thanks to the selfless efforts of our leadership team, each and every Roadie at the Support Center, our operators have had the time to focus on the safety of our staff, growing sales and the day-to-day operations of their restaurant. And to date, our restaurants have had minimal food supply issues as our supply chain has remained intact, as our vendors have been true partners and have responded quickly to our request and needs. Again, thank you to the entire Texas Roadhouse team for their commitment to the business and continuing to provide service with heart, 6-feet apart. Now Tonya will provide you with our financial update.