Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund (BPFUN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Boston Pizza Fourth Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Michael Harbinson, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome to the call, everyone. Today, we'll be discussing the 2021 fourth quarter results for Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund or the Fund and for Boston Pizza International or BPI. For complete details on our financial results, please see our fourth quarter materials that were filed earlier today on SEDAR or visit the Fund's website at bpincomefund.com. Should you require additional information after the call, you can reach us via the Investor Relations phone number that's listed in our press release. The Fund is a limited purpose open-ended trust established under the laws of British Columbia to acquire indirectly certain trademarks and trade names used by BPI and its Boston Pizza restaurants in Canada. BPI pays royalty and distribution income to the Fund based on franchise revenues of Royalty Pool restaurants. For a complete description of the Fund and its business, please see the Annual Information Form dated February 9, 2022, which was filed on sedar.com. Before I turn the call over to Jordan Holm, President of BPI, I would like to note that certain information in the following discussion may constitute forward-looking information. For a more complete definition of forward-looking information and associated risks, please refer to the Fund's management discussion and analysis issued earlier today. Forward-looking information is provided as of the date of this call and except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances. And with that, I will turn the call over to Jordan. Jordan?

Thank you, Michael, and welcome, everyone, to Boston Pizza's fourth quarter investor conference call. Today, I'll be discussing our fourth quarter results and share a brief outlook. Michael will summarize our key financial highlights and as usual, we'll leave time for your questions at the end of the call. Last year, the business of Boston Pizza restaurants continue to be impacted by government restrictions arising from the pandemic. However, we were encouraged to see our overall results strengthen in 2021 compared to 2020. The back half of 2021 also experienced an improved trend compared to the first half of the year. Nevertheless, by the end of the fourth quarter, the business of Boston Pizza restaurants softened as a result of the Omicron variant driving an increase in COVID cases. Government authorities across Canada implemented various restrictions for in-restaurant dining in many regions, and these restrictions existed in most regions at the end of the year, and they carried on into the beginning of 2022. Recently, many of these government restrictions have been relaxed. Our focus continues to be on the safety of our guests and staff in restaurants, serving our communities with takeout, delivery and in-restaurant dining where permitted and supporting our franchisees during these challenging times. Turning to our financial results. The Fund posted franchise sales from restaurants in the Royalty Pool of $183.2 million for the quarter and $660.1 million for the year, representing increases of 25% and 7.6%, respectively, versus the same periods 1 year ago. Same-restaurant sales was positive 25.5% for the quarter and positive 8.5% for the year. Positive results for the quarter and year were principally due to increases in guest traffic from the easing of government restrictions, along with increased takeout and delivery sales. COVID-19 first began to adversely affect Boston Pizza restaurants in March of 2020. As a result, the Fund believes it is useful to report additional sales metrics that compare sales in 2021 to sales in 2019. Comparing to 2019 results allows investors to gauge Boston Pizza's current sales levels against sales levels on a pre-pandemic basis. If SRS on a franchise sales basis were calculated by comparing to the same period in 2019, SRS would be negative 11.5% for the quarter and negative 21.5% for the year. SRS for January 2022 was approximately positive 29% when compared to the same period in 2021 and approximately negative 28% when compared to the same period in 2019. Total franchise sales and the resulting royalty and distribution income for January 2022 were approximately 129% of the level they were at in January 2021 and approximately 70% of the level they were at in January of 2019. From a marketing standpoint, we began the fourth quarter of 2021 with national media supporting the 2021 NHL hockey season and our call to shop promotion at Boston Pizza. Customers who ordered a pizza flight or Molson Canadian product were eligible for a chance to win prizes by predicting the outcome of NHL hockey games. We also launched our holiday feature menu where guests received a free Toblerone bar when an item was purchased from the feature menu. The year ended with a successful Boston Pizza holiday gift card promotion. Turning to restaurant development. Boston Pizza opened no new restaurants during the quarter or the year and Boston Pizza closed 2 restaurants in the fourth quarter and closed 4 restaurants during the year. BPI continues to focus on the safety of our guests and restaurant staff, serving our communities with takeout and delivery and on-premise dining as permitted and helping our franchisees to effectively manage through the next phase of the pandemic. I'll now pass things back to Michael for a review of the Fund's financial performance. Michael?

Thank you, Jordan. The Fund posted royalty income of $7.3 million for the quarter and $26.4 million for the year compared to $5.9 million and $24.5 million, respectively, for the same periods 1 year ago. The Fund posted distribution income of $2.4 million for the quarter and $8.8 million for the year compared to $2 million and $8.1 million, respectively, for the same periods 1 year ago. Royalty and distribution income for the quarter were based on 387 Boston Pizza restaurants in the Royalty Pool that reported franchise sales of $183.2 million for the quarter and $660.1 million for the year. For the same period in 2020, royalty and distribution income were based on the Royalty Pool of 395 Boston Pizza restaurants reporting franchise sales of $146.6 million and $613.2 million, respectively. The Fund's net and comprehensive income was $12.6 million for the quarter compared to net and comprehensive income of $19.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2020. The $7 million decrease in the Fund's net and comprehensive income for the period compared to the fourth quarter of 2022 was primarily due to a $9.2 million decrease in fair value gain, partially offset by higher royalty and distribution income of $1.9 million and a decrease in interest on Class B units of $0.4 million. The Fund's net and comprehensive income was $37.4 million for the year compared to $9.6 million in 2020. The $27.8 million increase in the Fund's net and comprehensive income for the year compared to the same period in 2020 was primarily due to a $26.3 million increase in the fair value gain, higher royalty and distribution income of $2.5 million and a decrease in administration expenses of $0.1 million, all partially offset by higher interest on long-term debt of $0.5 million, higher interest on Class B units of $0.4 million and higher current income tax expense of $0.2 million. While net and comprehensive income is the measurement of the Fund's earnings under international reporting standards or IFRS, the Fund is of the view that net income or loss does not provide the most meaningful measurement of the Fund's ability to pay distributions because the calculation of net income contains noncash items that do not affect the Fund's cash flow. Noncash items include the fair value adjustments on the investment in Boston Pizza Canada Limited Partnership, Class B unit liability, interest rate swaps and changes in deferred income taxes. Consequently, the Fund reports cash flows generated from operating activities and the non-IFRS metrics of distributable cash and payout ratio to provide investors with, in the Fund's opinion, more meaningful information regarding the Fund's ability to pay distributions to unitholders. The Fund's cash flows generated from operating activities was $8.5 million for the period compared to $7.9 million for the quarter of 2020. The increase of $0.6 million was primarily due to an increase of royalty and distribution income of $1.9 million, partially offset by a decrease in changes in working capital of $1.1 million and an increase in income taxes paid of $0.2 million. The Fund's cash flows generated from operating activities was $30.5 million for the year compared to $22.9 million for the same period in 2020. The increase of $7.6 million was primarily due to increased changes in working capital of $5.7 million and an increase in royalties and distribution income of $2.5 million, partially offset by an increase in income taxes paid of $0.6 million. The Fund generated distributable cash of $6.1 million for the period compared to $5.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2020. The increase in distributable cash of $0.7 million or 12.7% was primarily due to an increase in cash flow generated from operating activities of $0.6 million and an adjustment to income taxes of $0.1 million, partially offset by increased BPI Class B unit entitlement of $0.1 million. The Fund generated distributable cash of $20.4 million for the year compared to $16.3 million in 2020. The increase in distributable cash of $4.1 million or 25.4% was primarily due to an increase in cash flow generated from operating activities of $7.6 million, an adjustment to income taxes of $0.5 million, partially offset by higher contractually required debt repayments of $3.1 million, an increase in interest paid on long-term debt of $0.5 million and increased BPI Class B unit entitlement of $0.3 million. The Fund generated distributable cash per unit of $0.282 for the period compared to $0.25 per unit for the fourth quarter of 2020. The increase in distributable cash per unit of $0.032 or 12.8% was primarily due to the increase in distributable cash outlined above. The Fund generated distributable cash per unit of $0.95 for the year compared to $0.756 per unit in 2020. The increase in distributable cash per unit of $0.194 or 25.7% was primarily due to the increase in distributable cash as outlined just now and fewer units outstanding compared to the same period in 2020 due to the Fund's normal course issuer bid that was then in effect. The Fund's payout ratio for the period was 90.4% compared to 77.9% in the fourth quarter of 2020. The increase in the Fund's payout ratio for the period was due to distributions paid increasing by $1.3 million or 30.8%, partially offset by distributable cash increasing by $0.7 million or 12.7%. The Fund's payout ratio for the year was 109.5% compared to 68.2% in 2020. The increase in the Fund's payout ratio for the year was due to distributions paid increasing by $11.3 million or 101.3%, partially offset by distributable cash increasing by $4.1 million or 25.4%. The payout ratio is calculated by dividing the amount of distributions paid during the applicable period by the distributable cash for that same period. Accordingly, the payout ratio for the year factors in the $0.20 special distribution that was paid on January 29, 2021, even though the cash generated to fund the special distribution was generated during 2020. If the special distribution was excluded from the calculation of payout ratio for the year, the payout ratio would be 88.4%. The Fund's payout ratio is typically higher in the first and fourth quarters compared to the second and third quarters since Boston Pizza restaurants generally experience higher franchise sales levels during the summer months when restaurants open their patios and benefit from increased tourist traffic. The effects of COVID-19 may materially affect the Fund's payout ratio. On February 8, 2022, the trustees of the Fund approved a cash distribution for the period of January 1, 2022 to January 31, 2022 of $0.085 per unit, which will be payable on February 28, 2022 to unitholders of record on February 21, 2022. The trustees' objective in setting a monthly distribution amount is that it be sustainable. Trustees will continue to closely monitor the Fund's available cash balances given the continued volatility and economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19. While COVID-19 persists, the trustees expect that franchise sales and same-restaurant sales and the resulting royalty and distribution income, along with distributable cash available for distribution to unitholders, will all continue to be adversely affected. With that, I will now turn the call back over to Jordan. Jordan?

Thank you, Michael. Looking forward, Boston Pizza has begun the first quarter of 2022 with our Budweiser NFL Playoff Meal Deal and our new winter feature menu. These promotions are designed to pair well with the sporting events that are coming up this winter, including the Super Bowl this Sunday. And the following day, we're also looking forward to our popular Valentine's Day promotion on February 14 when heart-shaped pizzas will be sold across the country at all the restaurants and $1 from every pizza sold will go to help local charities selected by those restaurants. BPI management continues to monitor the evolving COVID-19 situation and modify the operating procedures of Boston Pizza restaurants to ensure the safety of our guests and staff. We are starting to see the current trend in COVID case counts improve and government restrictions begin to relax. These are positive developments. However, our current outlook remains cautious as COVID-19 could continue to have a negative impact on the business of Boston Pizza restaurants during the year. Our top priority is to responsibly and safely operate the dining rooms, sports bars and patios of Boston Pizza restaurants across Canada. We'll continue to maximize our takeout and delivery business while also adapting other areas of our business to responsibly address the future challenges and opportunities presented by COVID-19. We continue to be extremely pleased with the efforts of our team and of our franchisees during these challenging times. With that, I will turn the call back to the operator so we can begin the question-and-answer session. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Nick Corcoran with Acumen Capital.

Just my first question has to do with the trend you've seen in system sales through the end of Q4 and into January. Can you give any color on whether it's been flat or improving or what we should expect there?

And Michael, do you want to comment on the trend?

Sure. Yes. So the trend, Nick, is kind of, and as we found throughout COVID, it really kind of tends to be following the kind of broader trend of what's happening in the pandemic itself. And towards the end of the year, as Omicron itself, as the variant became more and more severe and the resulting government restrictions, therefore, started to ramp up, we saw our total sales start to kind of reflect negatively. And so that's a pattern that we've seen throughout the pandemic. Just as the government lockdowns become kind of more severe or are put in place, then we've got a negative reaction on our total franchise system sales. And that carried into January, so we released our January sales results, total franchise sales for January and the resulting royalty and distribution income for January 2022 compared to 2019, which is a pre-COVID level. Total franchise sales were at about 70%, 7-0, of that pre-COVID level. So I think we were, as Jordan was saying, we're kind of happy with our ability to kind of mitigate the sales declines. But yes, so that kind of brings us up to where we stand today. And as Jordan was saying in his update today, from the government restriction perspective as it relates to restaurants, the short-term outlook anyway look certainly positive in terms of the easing of government restrictions in different regions across Canada.

Great. And then in the fourth quarter, did you see any challenges from labor or within the supply chain that might be of note?

Yes. Good question, Nick. Both areas have been a struggle for Boston Pizza, but also for the entire industry. The restaurant industry certainly was one of the hardest kind of impacted by both kind of supply chain challenges as well as labor challenges. So those were a factor. They continue to be kind of a factor that is having a limiting degree to some respect on our kind of system results. And so that's just the current reality and some of that will likely continue into the first quarter just as things start to settle down.

And then moving to your delivery, have sales continued to be strong there? Are you seeing normalizing with that channel?

Yes. They continue to be strong. For January, this January that just passed, sales were certainly over-indexing where we were pre-COVID. During the depths of COVID, our takeout and delivery sales doubled compared to pre-COVID levels. Now in January, we didn't quite get to that doubling level because we had a decent amount of in-restaurant sales still taking place. But yes, our takeout and delivery sales do continue to certainly over-index versus where we were in pre-pandemic. Jordan, anything to add to this one?

No, that's definitely the trend. Coming into the pandemic, even pre-pandemic, we felt that this was a growth area certainly for the industry and for Boston Pizza. Even though we've been in takeout and delivery for 50 years, the consumer demand for the convenience of dining out, pickup or having food delivered was evident before, and we've invested significantly in the kind of off-premise part of our business, but certainly didn't expect to see the volume that we've put through during the COVID period. But we do expect it to continue to be a growth area of our sales going forward.

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I'd like to hand the conference back over to Jordan Holm for closing remarks.

All right. Thank you, operator. And as there are no further questions, I'd like to thank everyone for taking the time to listen in. We look forward to safely welcoming back more of our guests into our restaurants. Please continue to stay safe and healthy, and we look forward to speaking with you all again at our first quarter conference call in May of 2022. Thank you.

Thanks, everyone.

This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.