Guzman y Gomez Limited (GYG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our briefing session for the first half of FY '26. We started GYG with the idea that fast food can be done better, food that's real, food that's made fresh, food that is full of flavor and actually good for you, food that's clean with no added preservatives, no artificial flavors, no added colors and no unacceptable additives. It hasn't always been easy, but we have seen relentless -- we have been relentless in the journey to achieve our vision to reinvent fast food and change the way the masses eat. Guests today want it all, quality food, value, speed, customization and a great experience. That's what we deliver every single day through an operating platform built exactly for this. Fresh, clean, delicious food made to order and serve fast. Today, we again released a letter on the ASX, which gives you a good snapshot of what we've been focused on in the first half of FY '26. I encourage you to read it. The first half of FY '26 was another strong period of growth. Highlights include $682 million in network sales, increasing 18% on the prior corresponding period. This was supported by 14 new restaurant openings in Australia and comp sales growth of 4.4% in our existing restaurants. Group segment underlying EBITDA increased to $33 million, driven by a 30% increase in Australian segment underlying EBITDA of $41.3 million, which represented 6.1% of network sales. Finally, our restaurant network is in exceptional health with the average drive-thru achieving $6.9 million in sales at 22% margin. These exceptional economics give us the license to expand at the pace we are. This slide shows the performance of our business on a statutory basis. Taking a look at our underlying results, our financial performance during the half was exceptional. Underlying results are a preferred measure to assess the performance of the business, adjusting for the impacts of AASB 16 leases, AASB 2 share-based payments and other adjustments. Underlying profit before tax for the period was $26.1 million and underlying NPAT was $16.9 million. As you can see, the underlying earnings power of the GYG is very strong. The significant earnings growth is powered by our new restaurant opening track record and substantial sales growth, which has translated into material earnings expansion. This is not a recent phenomenon or a change in our approach. It is simply a function of our business model, which naturally delivers operating leverage as we scale. In the next section, we will go into detail on our Australia segment. I want to share how we think about our business. There are 2 main components: network health and network growth. Network health is a combination of our comp growth, our restaurant economics and the health of our franchisees. We need to maintain our existing strong metrics across these components to have a healthy network. Network growth is our restaurant rollout strategy. It is our network health, which gives us the right to grow by opening new restaurants. I will now hand it over to Erik to talk through our Australia segment performance.

Thank you, Steven, and good morning, everyone. During the half, we continued to deliver significant network sales growth. With Australia growing 17.4% and Asia growing 19.3% versus the prior corresponding period. In Australia, we opened 14 new restaurants and delivered sustained comp sales growth across all dayparts, with transaction growth outpacing comp sales growth. Sales momentum continues to build with Q1 at 4%, Q2 at 4.8% and a further improvement in the quarter-to-date. In Asia, we continue to drive solid sales growth and operational progress with our master franchisees. Our main priorities are delivering more value to our guests, providing a compelling guest experience and driving higher network -- revenue across our network. The strength of our transaction growth reflects our deliberate strategy of disciplined pricing and an uncompromising focus on guest value. Transactions are the clearest measure of network health and relevance. By earning more visits through value, we are strengthening our competitive position and building a more durable business over time. When it comes to driving transaction growth in our business, we focus on 5 key levers. During the half, we made strong progress across all of them. These levers have been central to the sustained performance we have seen in Australia over the last decade and provides the foundation for continued growth in the years to come. The first lever is capacity. We continue to unlock the significant capacity that exists within our restaurants. Our dual linear operating model, our bespoke stickering system and our kitchen delivery system all allow us to absorb higher volumes and convert that into comp sales growth. This has been especially visible in our top 10% of restaurants by AUV, which are delivering outstanding results. Hilton will share more detail on this shortly. The second lever is daypart expansion. Breakfast and after 9:00 p.m. continue to be standout performers with comp sales growth well ahead of the network average. Extending trading hours has played a role in this. We now have 31 restaurants opening 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This was ahead of the expectations we shared in August and was driven by stronger-than-expected franchisee uptake. Our third lever is menu innovation. We continue to invest here throughout the half. Our Caesar menu addition was a highlight, supported by an authentic marketing campaign and strong operational execution. We also launched our first limited time offer in Australia, the Barbecue Chicken Double Crunch Taco, giving guests more excitement and variety. The fourth lever is strengthening our delivery and digital experience. Our own digital channel, which includes our mobile app and website, grew from 19% in the first half of '25 to 21% in this half, supported by continued engagement in the GYG app. We see a long runway in delivery and digital and look forward to driving more momentum with the support of our exclusive delivery partner, Uber. The fifth lever is marketing. Marketing continues to support both brand building and sales growth. While activity was lighter in the first quarter, the second quarter was a highlight with the Caesar campaign performing strongly alongside the $12 brekkie Burrito bundle and the Barbecue Chicken Double Crunch. Taken together, these drivers give us confidence that we can continue to deliver strong sales growth both now and in the years ahead. In the Australia segment, we achieved a strong result of $41.3 million underlying EBITDA. This represents a 30% increase on the prior corresponding period, built on strong network sales growth. Our corporate margins were down 40 basis points on the prior corresponding period, coming in at 17.6%. There are a few things going on here. Firstly, our corporate network is still weighted to non-drive-thru restaurants, particularly those in CBD locations, which tend to operate at lower margins and have higher delivery sales. Comp growth has been weaker in these restaurants, dragged down by lower delivery sales growth compared to the prior corresponding period. As we continue to shift the corporate portfolio toward drive-thrus, our strongest format, we expect corporate margins to strengthen. The overall Australia segment experienced significant operating leverage during the half, reflecting an increase in the implied royalty rate and head office costs growing slower than network sales. Our network continues to strengthen across all formats. Drive-thru performance remained robust during the half with average AUVs of $6.9 million, up from $6.7 million in F '25. When comparing to the prior corresponding period, the drive-thru AUV is flat. This is driven by mix effects as a number of newer restaurants have now entered the network. These restaurants are still ramping and naturally carry lower sales volumes, which bring down the reported average. On a comparable basis, we have seen solid growth in drive-thru AUVs. Drive-thru margins delivered solid growth relative to F '25, reflecting the continued momentum in the format. Margins were slightly below the prior corresponding period, which is largely the mix effect that I described earlier. On a comp basis, we have seen margin expansion in drive-thru supported by comp sales growth, the benefits of our whole chicken strategy and a stable COGS environment. Strip AUVs increased 3.3% on the prior corresponding period, while margins were down slightly due to lower comp sales growth. As shared previously, we plan for approximately 85% of new restaurants to be delivered as drive-thru formats. The AUV and margin performance this half reinforces the strength and scalability of the drive-thru format. I will now hand over to Hilton to talk about the performance of our franchise restaurants.

Thank you, Erik, and good morning. As you all know, the success of our franchisees is integral to GYG. I'm delighted to share that the median franchisee ROI was a compelling 48%. Median franchisee AUV also demonstrated strong growth, increasing to $6 million. Franchise restaurant margins for the half increased to 21.4%, which continues to demonstrate the strong and growing profitability of our franchisees. Further, the number of franchisees on royalty relief has decreased compared to June 2025. As can be seen, our franchise restaurants deliver outstanding economics built on their love for food, passion for the guest experience and focus on their people. The strength of our growth strategy is most visible when you look at the top 10% of restaurants in our network by average unit volume. These restaurants are delivering more than double the network's comp sales growth with average unit volumes and margins well above network average. 86% of these top performers are drive-thrus. It is also important to note that there is nothing unique or unusual about these restaurants. They are built and designed exactly the same way as the rest of the drive-thru network. Their performance highlights the repeatability and scalability of the format and reinforces our confidence in continuing to prioritize drive-thrus in our real estate strategy. We also continue to invest in making our restaurants easier and simpler to operate. This continually drives the performance of the network and especially these top-performing restaurants. The good news is that AI is increasing the pace at which we can make these investments. We know that AI is front of mind for everyone right now. The world is moving rapidly. We see ourselves as a beneficiary of the developments in AI. Equipped with AI coding tools, our internal technology team of 40 people are now shipping new restaurant and guest-facing technologies significantly faster than we have before. Our GYG Temp food safety system, which we talk about in our co-CEO letter, uses a Bluetooth connected thermometer probe to digitally temperature check every piece of cooked chicken. This launched in 2025 and through AI-generated code, we enabled the project to move from proof of concept to national rollout in just 2 weeks. We think this is just the beginning as we start to apply this technology both to our restaurants and our Hola Central head office. This will allow us to continue to drive better guest experience, help us keep drive value -- keep driving value and ultimately improve overall economics. During the half, we continued to expand the network, opening 14 new restaurants. We are pleased to share that our Australian pipeline continues to grow with extremely high-quality sites. As of the 31st of December, we had 108 Board-approved sites with commercial terms agreed, containing in excess of 85% drive-thru locations. During the half, we added 33 new sites to the pipeline. This level of visibility gives us confidence in our network expansion plans as we work towards our long-term target of 100,000 -- 1,000 restaurants in Australia. The performance and economics of our new restaurants is a key value driver of our business. When we look at how our new restaurants have performed over the past few years, the story is really consistent. Whether a restaurant is opened in FY '23, FY '24 or FY '25, they have settled into a very similar performance band over time, both on sales and restaurant margins and continue to ramp. We are particularly proud of the average returns we are generating across both the corporate and franchise networks. This is what gives us confidence in our rollout strategy. I'll now hand back to Steven. Thank you.

Thank you, Hilton. Turning to the U.S. Our focus has been on building the brand and sales, which are the foundations of our proof-of-concept strategy. Network sales increased by 67% versus the prior corresponding period, driven by the opening of 2 new restaurants in Des Plaines and Bucktown and comp sales growth of 2.9% from our 4 existing restaurants. Comp sales growth in the second quarter was impacted by unseasonable weather conditions, particularly the major snowstorms in late November. We have seen a return to stronger comp sales growth in the current quarter to date, although I want to preempt that this may be impacted as we implement our exclusive Uber Eats partnership in Australia and transition delivery arrangements in the U.S. away from DoorDash. I want to stress that this is a start-up business. Our comp sales base consists of just 4 restaurants today, meaning that the comps will fluctuate in the short term. Despite this, I want to be clear with you all that we view sales momentum as our key measure of progress in the U.S. and that we need to accelerate sales momentum above current levels. The team are working hard every day to drive sales and enhance the guest experience. On the latter, I am pleased with what I am seeing. We have also appointed above restaurant leaders in marketing and catering to drive future growth. These roles will help us continue positioning the GYG brand around flavor, value and culture. I can see our food, unique guest experience and compelling value proposition is a differentiator in the market and is resonating with guests. I am here now, and I'm spending 3 months working closely with the team, better connecting with guests, tweaking our marketing narrative and leading with a founder-led energy, clarity, urgency and speed. It's taken a little longer than I hoped, but we are exactly in the spot we want to be in the U.S. to grow. Building a brand from scratch takes time. I want to remind everyone that it took us from 2006 to 2018 for our Australian restaurants to average $40,000 per week in sales. It then took 7 years for our average weekly sales to go to reach $100,000. I also want to assure investors that we will remain disciplined. We have 8 restaurants today. We will not go beyond 15 until we have a model that works. Erik will provide more detail on our targets later. Now we will move straight on to Slide 22. Over to you, Erik.

Thank you, Steven. Network sales growth was strong during the period, and we continue to invest in building brand in the U.S. During the half, corporate restaurant margins declined, primarily due to the opening of new restaurants. In existing restaurants, increased labor productivity was offset by temporarily elevated COGS in core proteins. Finally, G&A as a percentage of U.S. network sales decreased, reflecting operating leverage on existing above-restaurant infrastructure. As Steven said, our focus remains on driving sales and building brand in the U.S. While we do this, we are also focused on improving profitability in our restaurants. We have made good progress in recent months. We have already negotiated supplier price reductions, and we have also already achieved significant improvements in labor productivity in all restaurants. Both of these will be fully realized in the remaining part of the financial year and our G&A infrastructure remains stable. The one caveat to this progress on restaurant profitability is the potential sales impact that may occur as we transition away from DoorDash in the U.S. Putting all of that together, we expect there to be lower losses in the second half compared to the first half of F '26. And consistent with what we shared in August, U.S. losses are expected to increase slightly in F '26 compared to F '25. I want to reiterate what Steven said earlier. We see the opportunity. It will take time, but we will remain disciplined when it comes to U.S. investment. Turning now to group cash flows. Operating cash flow increased compared with the prior corresponding period, supported by continued earnings expansion across the business. Capital expenditure for the half was $23.1 million, which increased slightly compared with the prior corresponding period and reflects ongoing investment in the expansion of our restaurant network. Payments relating to movements in share capital reflect the buyback program that commenced during the half. The decline in adjusted cash conversion was driven by the timing of insurance prepayments, which were not present in the prior corresponding period. During the half, we invested $16.9 million into the Australian restaurant network or $16 million net of landlord contributions. This supported the construction of 5 new corporate restaurants, refurbishments across the existing network and the development of new restaurants that are currently underway. We continue to see stable cost of opening new restaurants in line with what we disclosed in the prospectus. In the U.S., capital expenditure reflected the opening of 2 new restaurants during the half as well as investments in additional sites that are now in progress. Our cash balance continues to be predominantly held in term deposits. GYG had no debt as of December '25, which reflects the strength of our balance sheet. Lease-related balances increased during the half, in line with the continued expansion of our restaurant network. Given the strength of our financial position, we expect to continue with our capital management initiatives through the remainder of F '26. Back to Steven to cover the outlook and over to questions. Thank you, Steven.

Thanks, Erik. GYG expects FY '26 to be another strong year of growth. We reaffirm our FY '26 restaurant rollout guidance, expecting to open 32 restaurants in Australia, of which 23 to be drive-thrus and 9 to be strips. We expect in FY '26 that Australia segment underlying EBITDA as a percentage of network sales be in the range of 6% to 6.2%, tightening our guidance provided at the full year results. With a strong team and a clear vision for the future, we are confident in our ability to continue to reinvent fast food and change the way the masses eat. I wanted to take a moment to thank our incredible crew, team, franchisees, suppliers and guests for their passion and dedication. We're now happy to take any questions you might have. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Shaun Cousins with UBS.

Just a question regarding same-store sales growth in Australia, the 4.4%. Some questions around that. Was that as strong as budgeted? And maybe was delivery weaker due to the industry? Or was it GYG choosing to do fewer delivery campaigns? And how did cannibalization impact your same-store sales growth? I think about the CBD example of Circular Quay in Australia Square. And I guess more broadly, we're just curious if 4.4% same-store sales growth is enough to justify a very ambitious store rollout.

Maybe I'll start off. Thanks, Shaun. We shared in the full year that we expect comps to build throughout FY '26, which is what we've delivered. The first 7 weeks, we comped at 3.7%, which built to 4% in Q1, 4.8% in Q2, obviously, when we launched the season, the Barbecue Chicken Double Crunch. And we've seen further improvement in the Q3 comps to date, which is obviously fantastic for GYG. I think what's really key is that, obviously, every morning, we wake up to try to do double-digit comps. At mid-single comps, our network is extremely healthy. Our franchisees are more profitable, and we have a very, very healthy network. And this ultimately gives us the right to roll out to 1,000 restaurants across Australia.

And sorry, maybe just the question there around delivery. Is the weakness in delivery because of the industry? Or is GYG doing fewer delivery campaigns and then just the broader how cannibalization, what do you do with cannibalization and I exclude -- sorry, pardon me?

Sorry, Shaun. When Erik spoke about the strip restaurants, obviously, in the CBD, the corporate strips, we obviously had a slightly lower margin. That was basically due to delivery sales year-over-year and running less campaigns. But we still see that segment extremely strong.

Okay. And maybe my second question, just for Erik. I think you disposed a store or a restaurant pardon me, and you had a $50,000 loss, but there was a $1.974 million gain on remeasurement of the lease balance. Where does that contribute to earnings? Does that go into Australian EBITDA? Or is that somewhere else? Or it doesn't go to earnings? Sorry, if you could just clarify that, please?

Thank you, Shaun. It's a good question. Consistent with what we've always done, gains on sales of restaurants and any related items like this gain on the sublease, which, by the way, relates to the landlord incentive that we received for that restaurant. That never hits our Australian EBITDA. It goes below the line in other income and costs in our segment note. So we exclude that from EBITDA because it's a nonrecurring element.

Perfect. And my final question is just around the U.S. Just the risk around disruption from DoorDash to Uber Eats, is your guidance sort of assuming a smooth transition and the guidance particularly around the second half being a lower loss than the first half. Is that assuming a smooth transition? Or does that factor in some bumpiness with that transition?

Erik, do you want to handle that?

Sure. No problem. So we obviously know that at the time of stating that we expect our losses to decrease in the second half. We know that we need to transition our guests from DoorDash on to Uber. So we're planning for that. We've got a very strong plan in place. We've got fantastic support from Uber from the highest levels across the globe and in North America as well. We've got a fantastic set of campaigns and offers lined up to transition those guests. So we've got a strong plan in place, but our forecast also takes into account the risks around that transition, and that's taken into account with our expectation that we expect losses to decrease in the second half.

Your next question comes from Tom Kierath with Barrenjoey.

Mine is on the U.S. as well. I guess, put simply, it's how long do you give this? You've made some structural changes over the past year. The comp growth is still pretty weak. The losses are getting worse. You've got this huge runway in Australia and the Australian business is doing well. So how long do you stick at it before you decide, you know what, we need to pivot here and close it or sell it or make a change?

Yes. Thanks, Tom. I'll answer that. One of the deliberate decisions that the Board and I have made over the last few years is to build up the Australian leadership team to a point where I can spend good chunks of time abroad and do what I do best, which is obviously building brand. And I have absolute confidence in the team in Australia, obviously, with Hilton as my co-CEO and our exceptional leadership team, which obviously has given me the ability to live in the U.S. Just so everybody knows, I'm here now. I'm spending 3 months working closely with the team, better connecting with guests, tweaking our marketing narrative and leading as a founder, right, with that founder energy with clarity, urgency and speed. And you're right, it's taken a little longer than I'd hoped, but we are exactly in the spot we want to be in the U.S. to grow. I mean I can see that our food, our guest experience, our compelling value proposition, it really is a differentiating in the market. When I -- building a brand takes time, as we said. And I want to remind everyone, as I said earlier, I mean, from 2006 to 2018, our Australian restaurants averaged $40,000 per week. In the next 7 years, they were averaging over $100,000. When I think about as the losses, I mean, this is something we watch all the time. I mean, but one thing for me, obviously, from building a brand in Australia and Singapore and Japan and now here in the U.S. is I know the signs of progress. I saw them in Australia, and these signs are showing faster in the U.S. than they did in Australia. And obviously, I'm very passionate about it, and I have a strong view that this will work in the U.S. but I'm also obsessed with the numbers. I know intimately what it takes to build profitability and the financial discipline needed to do that. So as we said, I mean, we currently have 8 restaurants. We won't go above 15. And as Erik said earlier, losses will be improving in the second half. And it's taken a little bit longer, but we are in the right spot. The size of the prize in the U.S. is big. We remain extremely optimistic. And of course, then we'll approach it with incredible financial discipline.

It just looks like you're a long way away from where you need to be. Like on my math, you need a 70% increase in your sales and your comp growth is around about flat at the moment. So is this something that in 2 or 3 years, if you're still losing money, you're going to be still at it? Or do you say, look, in maybe 12 months, we're going to reassess the future here?

Our comps are growing stronger. I mean we believe in the opportunity. And as I said before, we'll be -- we'll have incredible financial discipline, but we remain very optimistic for the U.S.

Your next question comes from Craig Woolford with MST Marquee.

Just if I could start off just following up. You talked about signs of progress there in the U.S. Steven, can you share those? What signs are you seeing that the early signs are exactly what you saw in the U.S.

Yes. So what we're seeing now, I mean, is understanding the market here, obviously, around food and flavor and value and experience. And being back in the U.S. for a period of time, and I get to spend a lot of time in our restaurants. I can see other people's restaurants. And one thing I know we have an outstanding senior leadership team. Our general managers in our restaurants are getting more tenure. The team is obviously more trained, and they're just doing an incredible job of making sure that our food is spot on and delivering to our guests. And I'm seeing the right demographic come more and more into our restaurants. And I'm seeing it in stronger comp growth as well. So when you come here and experience GYG, you understand it. I know it's very difficult when you're looking at numbers like how is this working? Okay, they'll have less losses in the U.S. But when you come to GYG in America, you understand what's on offer and then you understand that the potential is tremendous. It's just going to take us a little bit of time to continue to grow our revenue.

Okay. Shifting tack on the Australian business, the G&A cost line was very well managed, only 3.3% growth. Just trying to get a handle, is that sort of the new run rate we should expect? Is this the kind of cost bucket that's a little bit lumpy? Can it maintain a low rate of growth even as you open more stores in the Aussie market?

Yes. Thank you, Craig. I'll jump in there. Look, we -- like everything we do approach G&A with a lot of discipline. We are still very much in the investment phase across our network expansion. And so we will continue to invest in supporting that network growth, particularly in the operators in our restaurant and the coaches that support those restaurants. So there's been no change in our philosophy around that. And so we do expect G&A to continue to grow, but very much at a slower pace than our total network sales. So we're now in that phase of realizing operating leverage on G&A. And so that is taken into account in our guidance. We previously stated that we expect over time, G&A to gradually decrease to about 5% of network sales over time. For the remainder of the financial year, that's taken into account into that guidance of 6% to 6.2% EBITDA to network sales. So continued investment, but taking into account that we are generating operating leverage on that investment.

Okay. That's fairly clear. It does seem like the rate of G&A growth might reaccelerate a bit. So maybe to flip it around, was there something that was a source of cost saving that was quite specific to the first half to lead to only 3% growth in G&A?

No, we just continuing to work very hard. And sometimes we realize efficiencies and sometimes the phasing of restaurants means that the appointment of coaches works slightly differently. So yes, we do expect to maintain a lot of discipline around that, but there was nothing unusual in the first half relative to second half.

Your next question comes from Bryan Raymond with JPMorgan.

Look, just on -- I just mentioned in the 2Q performance. I just -- it would be great to reflect on some of the menu innovation you put through. There's obviously a few elements to it, but particularly Caesar. Like how much do you think that contributed to your same-store sales growth during the period? There's a lot of marketing that we observed and looked like some interest there, but the comp growth acceleration from the first quarter was somewhat modest given there was some sort of push out there and some marketing investment. So I'd just be interested if how that went versus expectations, if you do anything differently in hindsight there.

Yes, I'll take the food question. Menu innovation is a great way to bring guests into restaurant, and it obviously drives both frequency and basket. People sometimes said to me, "Oh, I thought you never do LTOs." We never ruled out LTOs. We just don't do them where they add unnecessary complexity to our restaurants and supply chain. I also said in the past, I wouldn't do fries. And obviously, we all know we make the best French fry in Australia. So the fun part for GYG because our restaurants are built and we look at GYG as fast food for this generation. So obviously, we'll always have our clean philosophy. That's what we do. We're just also having fun with food. And our demographic, that younger demographic that loves GYG, we're just giving them and basically, everybody loved it. I'm talking about the Barbecue Chicken Double Crunch. When I'm thinking about the Caesar, I mean, results were strong. We had record guest counts and transactions. And what that is, is just driving frequency over the long term. We introduced 3 products, there were 3 reasons to come in. And because of that, we've added full time to our menu. So that will continue to build. And as I said earlier, our comps continue to build in strength. And a big part of it is exciting our guests with menu innovation. And I'm really excited about the LTOs. We have a few, obviously, in the pipeline. It's just an exciting way to bring people more often in GYG and the products are amazing.

Okay. And then just on 24/7, the conversions there so I think there was $8 million in the quarter -- in the second quarter. Is that sort of the fastest pace that you think you can go to? I'm sure there's a lot of complexity operationally and transferring in converting to 24/7. But I'd just be interested in how that sort of contributed to same-store sales growth, how much sales uplift you got from in those restaurants? I think you said it was positive on profitability as well. So I'd just be interested in a few metrics there because I could see that as a real key to improving same-store sales growth if it could be accelerated from that kind of high single-digit store pace.

Yes. So Bryan, I'll take that one. So we're delighted with the performance of our 24/7 restaurants. As we called out, our growth in comp after 9:00 p.m. continues to be a standout. And as you mentioned, that comes with improved profitability as well. So this is not just a sales tactic, it's adding to the profitability of our restaurants. So we have outperformed the expectations of our rollout, which is, as we mentioned, because of our franchisees being very excited about adding this to their business as well and participating in that profitability. Now there's going to be a lot of factors that influence the timing of restaurants going 24/7, whether that's local council restrictions, whether that's the operational bench strength of those restaurants being ready. And so we work very closely with our franchisees and with our corp restaurants to make sure that we are stage gating those elements as closely as possible with the focus being on having an exceptional guest experience across the 24/7 hour period. So yes, we will continue to see a rollout of 24/7. The pace of that will vary from time to time. But as we said, in time, we expect all of our drive-thrus to be 24/7, and that's what we're working towards.

And how many of those 24/7 are corporate versus franchise?

So we started, as you know, more corporate, and now it's about half-half.

Your next question comes from Caleb Wheatley with Macquarie.

Just wanted to dig into sort of the Aussie comps number a bit more, particularly on the daypart side, also back to some of the discussion on menu innovation. Just keen to hear how you're thinking about sort of particularly that lunch daypart comp still seems like sort of the part of the day that is relatively lagging. I appreciate it's also the most mature and probably the hardest to see again. But yes, just sort of keen to hear how you're thinking about sort of driving that given it is still the largest portion of your kind of overall network sales mix relative to the bookings of the day, please?

Yes. So I'll jump in on the daypart specific question. So firstly, as Steven mentioned, we're delighted with the way that comps continue to build throughout the year and particularly that being transaction growth driven. The fact that we are -- transaction growth growing faster than comp growth means that we're attracting guests with more frequency and attracting new guests into our restaurants. And a big part of that is price. So we think a lot about the value that we give to our guests and lunch and dinner is no exception. Now these dayparts are performing well. We are continuing to realize growth in all dayparts. And price is a big factor. Menu innovation is a big factor. It's all the factors that I outlined earlier when we think about those drivers of comp growth. So we know there's lots of levers to lean on, and we're executing across all of them, and we expect to continue to realize strong growth across all dayparts. And it's very important for us to continue to drive all dayparts, especially lunch and dinner, which is the core of the business.

Maybe, Caleb, I might jump in here as well, just adding on to what Erik said. As we called out in our co-CEO letter, we've done a lot of work around obviously making sure that from a platform perspective, we're able to continue to execute and drive volume through peak periods. You would have seen the work that we've done in relation to our new order management system, making sure that we can continue to drive more volume during peak periods. We obviously achieved significant operating leverage through that. So that is a very big focus for us in terms of obviously continuing to make it easier for our crew to execute and from an operational perspective, driving technology into our business to be able to make sure that we can drive more volume during peak periods, making sure that from a guest perspective, we're delivering on our key metrics.

Okay. Great. That's helpful. And then just as a sort of broader question, what are you sort of seeing in terms of competitive dynamics out there? I mean, obviously, you're seeing your comp numbers moving the right way and stepping up as you spoke to. But more broadly, just in terms of competitive dynamics and the broader market, do you think you're sort of gaining share as your comps are accelerating, particularly a bit of press around these "newer fresh players" beginning to come in? Any sort of comments you can make on the broader market dynamics in Australia would be great, please.

Yes. Maybe I'll jump in on that. I mean as you can see, I mean, GYG just goes from strength to strength. And I think to add to what Erik said, our transaction comp is higher than our sales comp, and that's shown a frequency play. So one thing GYG has done very well is to keep pricing really low. I mean we raised pricing 1% in 6 months, which is below inflation. And at GYG, that's the last thing we do is raise price. What I'm seeing sometimes in the market, people that have good comps, their transaction comp is so poor because they've done it all by price. So for GYD, as we grow and as Hilton said, I mean, our drive-thrus get stronger, our strips are getting stronger. And obviously, there will be new brands that come to market, but it's great to see that the frequency of our guests that come to are increasing. And I'm not sure what the rest of the industry looks like.

Your next question comes from Sam Teeger with Citi.

Can you hear me okay?

Yes, we can hear you.

Great. Just on aggregators, can you help us think about the magnitude of the uplift that the Uber deal will have on Australian sales and margins?

Yes, of course. I'll jump in there. So we're obviously delighted with the new exclusive arrangement that we've got with Uber. Maybe as a starting point, I have to say, unfortunately, the terms of that agreement is incredibly commercially sensitive. So I will not be able to share any additional color on our margin commission arrangements with Uber. However, I can say that the deal is designed to drive sales over the long term. And that's in having more offers to our guests, a more compelling value proposition and just being more front of mind with our guests on the Uber Eats platform. So that's really the focus of our attention over the next few days as we transition on Sunday, we're very excited, but then also in the years to come. And so we expect delivery as a percentage of sales to grow, and we expect to realize incremental sales over the years to come as we bed into that exclusive arrangement with Uber. So we're very excited.

Right. Without getting into the specifics because I do appreciate it's commercially sensitive, should it be margin accretive as well as sales accretive?

Yes, absolutely.

Okay. Great. And just in the U.S., when are you terminating that DoorDash agreement? When does that take place?

It's in early March.

Okay. Cool. And then on the D&A, it was less than expected in the first half. Can you help us think about what we should expect for the second half?

Yes. So our guidance framework is very much focused on providing guidance on a total EBITDA to network sales basis. And that's because each one of the individual lines will vary and the progress will not necessarily be linear. But that's up to us to manage that on a month-to-month, year-to-year basis and make sure that we are managing the business for success over the long term. So embedded in our as I mentioned earlier, embedded into our forecast around 6% to 6.2% of network sales. Our guidance is the fact that we will continue to invest in G&A and continue to invest in network expansion, but we're also staying disciplined and make sure realizing the efficiencies that we can as we go. And we're particularly excited about the potential of AI to have a significant impact on those efficiencies as well. And that's something we're paying close attention to. So continued investment, but in a disciplined manner.

Right. Just in case my question is unclear, D&A, depreciation and amortization.

Yes, yes. So depreciation really moves in line with the investment we make into our restaurant network because the investment that we make into our restaurant network is effectively the capital expenditure we incur on opening new sites. They are long-dated assets that we depreciate. So our depreciation profile basically mirrors our PPE investment profile. So that's for -- I've obviously described that traditional depreciation. Then we have our right-of-use amortization, which again will go with the amortization of our lease profile, which again is tied to an opening of new restaurants. So as we open new restaurants, we will sign leases. Those leases will amortize and so depreciation will step up. So the best guidance I can give, and obviously, our accounts provide some further detail on useful lives, et cetera. But the best guidance I can give on depreciation is that it moves in line with the network growth, corporate network growth.

Your next question comes from Ben Gilbert with Jarden.

Just appreciate not giving guidance for the second half. But just if you could give us some sense of how to think about the puts and takes for the next sort of 3 to 6 months in Australia. Specifically, do you envisage any drag on sales near term as you move exclusively to Uber Eats domestically? Also then around pricing, I know you took some modest price increases through last year and more planned through this year early on. And then around NPD, you said a lot of NPD in second half of last calendar. Is there any plan in the near term in Australia?

Yes, sure. I can cover some of those without giving a blow-by-blow account of how we expect comp to move. So in terms of the Uber transition, we've got a very strong plan in place to transition the DoorDash guests over from DoorDash on to Uber. It's not a material part of our business in Australia. And so we're confident we can offset those in the near term. In terms of the price changes, I mean, that's something we always look at from time to time. We expect small incremental movements when we do it. But we're very happy with the value equation in our restaurants at the moment. We have exceptional economics. Our franchisees are very healthy, and we're building sales momentum. So profitability continues to build, which gives us the ability to return more value to our guests. So if you do see them, there will be small incremental changes. And in terms of marketing and LTOs, we've got a few things up our sleeve. We're very excited.

We're not telling you.

Yes, it's right. Steven, we have to wait and see.

So I look forward to it. And just final one for me. Just around shopping consumer behaviors. There's a lot of chat around GLP-1. It's you got 700,000 people in Australia on it now. There's evidence of people trading down, talk about whether people saying to eat at home, given it's a bit more expensive to eat out. Just interested in what you're seeing in terms of behaviors. Are you seeing more evidence of trading down? Are people looking for some of the smaller products? Are they shopping more on promotion, shopping more Mondays? Just in broader view on the consumer as it pertains to your business and the behaviors.

Maybe I'll take that one. I mean, as we were saying, comp growth continues to build, transaction comps continue to build and people are coming to GYG. I mean I think when you look at our menu, and we were talking about price increases, how little price GYG is taken. So people look at the quality of food at such incredible value. You can have a burrito, you can have a mini burrito. I mean that product continues to sell. And what's great is that we have no throughput issues in our kitchens. So all that revenue if it's a regular burrito, it's a mini burrito, it's mini nachos or reginizers is coming through. So we have something on our menu for everybody, and that's why I think our comps are strong and our transaction comps are strong.

Your next question comes from Michael Toner with RBC.

Look, on the breakfast numbers, it has decelerated a little bit relative to FY '25. I appreciate it's becoming a bit more mature. But is there something you can do with the menu innovation or promos to kind of restart that growth back towards the 20% level? Or is mid-teens sort of the new normal for breakfast now because it is obviously a very strong part of your menu?

Yes. Maybe I'll answer it. Nothing at GYG has matured. I guess I got to start there. And our breakfast, have you had a breakfast before?

I'm almost a daily consumer.

There we go. So that's the thing as more people try it, yes, obviously, it was 20% comps might have come off a little bit, but this is a long-term play. We're highly confident we have the best breakfast offering out of any sort of QSR concept in Australia, and we truly believe that will continue to build into the future. It's just I mean for the quality and the value, there's nothing like it in the market. So we'll continue to see our breakfast grow. And of course, there's some things we may add to breakfast as well, which we're very excited about, especially coffee. You look at one thing that we're really proud of I can add to is our coffee offering. So obviously, we had -- obviously, the bundle, the $12 brekkie Burrito bundle. I mean that's obviously something our guests are really resonating to. But the coffee and how we execute on the range of coffee will be the next big move for GYG.

Great. Sorry if this is somewhere in the presentation. But in terms of your app originated sales or I think owned digital, as you call it, what is that running at now as a proportion of your Australian network sales? I think it was around 19% to 20% in FY '25. I'm sort of curious how that performed through the 2Q. Is that still growing at a relatively strong clip?

It is. It is growing. It's -- we're now at 21%. It's a fantastic value mechanism for our guests, and it continues to grow at a faster pace than the rest of the network. And we're excited that we will be able to continue to build that loyalty program out. We've got some exciting things in the works.

Okay. Great. And then just one more. On Australia, could you maybe touch on -- and I appreciate if you can keep it very high level, but if you talk about the marketing and promotional cadence sort of heading into the 2 half because you sort of -- I think you're running up against like a sort of roughly like a 9.8% comp in the 2 half. How would you describe that marketing and promotional intensity heading into the 3Q, for example? Is it strong, as strong as the PCP?

Yes. I mean we wake up every morning to try to do double-digit comp at GYG. We've got some very exciting things on the horizon for GYG. And as always, our marketing team will deliver and make sure it resonates with our guests to drive traffic.

Your next question comes from Sean Xu with CLSA.

I'm hoping to see if you can provide some color around your Aussie segment performance by state with any states outperforming during the first half '26 and coming into Q3, please?

Yes, sure. So one of the things that we've seen across our geographic performance is really that there's been quite a good consistency across our network. The only exception is WA is doing exceptionally well. That's because the network is less mature there, and we're still securing some great real estate over there, which means our awareness and brand is continuing to build there. And so that in WA, we are comping ahead of the rest of the network. But other than that, there's a broad degree of consistency between states.

Okay. Great. Second question, just around Chipotle will have its first shop in Singapore this year. I'm interested in your view of the impact on your local competition in Asia? And what's the potential impact on your Aussie business if Chipotle decide to entering Australia, please?

Maybe I'll answer that Obviously, I have a view. I mean our Singaporean operations are just doing an absolutely fantastic job in going from strength to strength. We know who the local operator we for Chipotle. We're not worried here in the U.S. and what GYG offers here in the U.S., in Australia, I mean if probably wants to come to the market, we welcome them and because we believe that our food is far superior and so is the experience that we give our guests.

Your next question comes from Peter Meichelboeck with Select Equities.

Just a couple of questions. Can I ask around Fitzroy was advertised as going to be opening just before Christmas last year. I think it has yet. Just wondering sort of what's happened there and if it has any implications for your future rollout plans elsewhere?

Thanks. I'll take that. So with regard to Fitzroy, there has been a slight delay on that site just as a result of the development and the landlord. That site will be opening. We're just waiting to finalize a few outstanding matters. There's been a few issues in relation to a number of builders that have been involved in that site and -- but we're confident that, that site will open. And as we said, we remain confident about our ability to open 32 sites this year.

And just as a follow-up on that, the developer associated with that, are they on any of your other sites? Or is it just that one?

Just that site.

It's a site-specific issue that has no relevance on the broader network.

Okay. Great. And the other question I just had was around the strategy around drive-thru. Obviously, there's a long-term target for sort of 85% of new openings, et cetera. You're obviously below that this year so far and sort of the guidance that you've provided for the rest of the year. I'm just wondering how much of the sort of the lower number on drive-thru is due to sort of infilling in sort of Sydney and Melbourne in suburban areas where you're sort of getting access to larger sites. Is that proving to be a problem for the drive-thrus?

So as we've said before, from a network perspective, our strategy is always to look for AAA drive-thrus. When you look at the pipeline, we've got 108 sites that are Board approved commercially agreed sites, of which 85% -- in excess of 85% of those are drive-thrus. We're not having any problems finding sites. When you look at the economics of our business and our drive-thrus, those are best-in-class in the market, particularly around our revenues. As a result of that, we are that preferred tenant of choice when it comes to landlords and developers in terms of their ability to get the right cap rates with us. And obviously, based on our revenues, we're in a position where we can pay for those AAA sites. But that being said, we don't overpay on rents. Our occupancy costs run at 5% to 6%. So we are not having any issues in relation to finding sites. We never compromise on the quality of our real estate. And as you've seen, we've added 33 sites to our pipeline over the course of the last 6 months.

Your next question comes from Bryan Raymond with JPMorgan.

Just I couldn't see the 10% EBITDA margin target on a 5-year view. Maybe I missed it. I'm just checking if that's still in place or if that's just not the messaging you want to give to the market at the moment.

No. So that outcome that we expect as we continue to realize our strategies over the next 5 years is still very much our target. There's been no departure from that. We're just not reiterating every 6 months. So you'll hear us say it in future periods.

Right. So it's still in place. It just wasn't today.

Absolutely.

Yes. Okay. Great. Okay. And then just the buyback, I'm just -- I mean, it's obviously you're partway through -- you're about 1/4 of the way through that. Just on reflection, do you think that's the best use of capital -- there's obviously other things you could be spending money on at the moment. Do you intend to continue doing that once you come out of this, I guess, dark period pre- results? Is there anything else you could be using money on that's probably more accretive than an EPS diluted buyback?

Yes. Thanks, Bryan. So as you say, our first and foremost, our priority will be deploying capital into our restaurants. As we've outlined today over the last -- for the restaurants and drive-thrus that we've opened in recent years, we're achieving an 82% return on investment currently on a running basis, last 12 months on those restaurants. Of course, our first and foremost priority is to deploy capital back into our restaurant network. Once we've done that and we've considered alternate uses of our capital, and we have excess capital, which we're very much in the position of being in that position at the moment. Really, the only alternative is having it on a term deposit, and we don't think that's a good use of shareholder funds. And as a result, the Board has announced the buyback program, which, as you know, is underway. So we do intend to continue to conduct that buyback program, subject obviously to market conditions. But because we believe it's a way of making a very attractive return to our shareholders by repurchasing shares. So we're very happy with that strategy at the moment.

Your next question comes from Craig Woolford with MST Marquee.

Just a quick follow-up around store opening run rate. Second half infers 18 stores. Are we likely to see an acceleration on the annual run rate of store openings from here?

Thanks, Craig. I'll take that. So as we said when we IPO-ed the business that we would open 30 restaurants in the first year. And then over the next 5 years, we would build up to 40 restaurants. So the answer is yes, you will see an acceleration as far as rollout is concerned. And that is obviously borne out in the fact that our pipeline is growing, and we're now seeing at 108 restaurants with 33 sites approved in the past 6 months.

That does conclude our question-and-answer session for today. I will now hand back for any closing remarks.

Just want to thank you all for taking the time to obviously spend with us on our earnings call, and we look forward to chatting with you all soon. Have a great day. And don't forget, you know where to go for lunch today. Love you.

That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.