The Joint Corp. (JYNT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

May 8, 2025

NASDAQ US Health Care Health Care Providers and Services earnings 45 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

operator
#1

Good day, and welcome to the Joint Corp. First Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to David Barnard of Alliance Advisors Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

David Barnard

attendee
#2

Thank you, Drew. Good afternoon, everyone. Again, this is David Barnard with Alliance Advisors Investor Relations. Joining us on the call today are President and CEO, Sanjiv Razdan; and CFO, Jake Singleton. Please note, we are using a slide presentation that can be found at https/ir.thejoint.com under the Events section. Today, after the close of the market, the Joint Corp. issued its results for the quarter ended March 31, 2025. If you do not already have a copy of this press release, it can be found in the Investor Relations section of the company's website. As provided on Slide 2, please be advised that today's discussion includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts may be considered forward-looking statements. Although the company believes that the expectations and assumptions reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can make no assurances that such expectations or assumptions will prove to have been correct. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements due to various risks and uncertainties. As a result, we caution you against placing undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. For a discussion of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, please review the risk factors detailed in the company's reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q as well as other reports that the company files from time to time with the SEC. Finally, any forward-looking statements included in this earnings call are made only as of the date of this call, and we do not undertake any obligation to revise our results or publicly release any updates to these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. The results of operations of the Corporate Clients business segment have been classified as discontinued operations for all periods discussed, and the following comments represent continuing operations unless otherwise stated. Management uses EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA, which are nonfinancial measures. These are presented because they are important measures used by management to assess financial performance. Management believes they provide a more transparent view of the company's underlying operating performance and operating trends than GAAP measures alone. Reconciliation of net income to EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA is presented in the press release. The company defines EBITDA as net income or loss before net interest, tax expense, depreciation and amortization expenses. The company defines adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA before acquisition-related expenses, which includes contract termination costs associated with reacquired regional developer rights, stock-based compensation expense, bargain purchase gain, net gain or loss on disposition or impairment, costs related to restatement filings, restructuring costs and litigation expenses, consisting of legal and related fees for specific proceedings that may arise outside of the ordinary course of our business. Management also includes commonly discussed performance metrics. System-wide sales include revenues at all clinics, whether operated by the company or by franchisees. While franchise sales are not recorded as revenues by the company, management believes the information is important in understanding the company's financial performance because these sales are the basis on which the company calculates and records royalty fees and are indicative of the financial health of the franchisee base. Comp sales include the revenues from both company-owned or managed clinics and franchise clinics that in each case have been open for at least 13 full months and exclude any clinics that have closed. Turning to Slide 3. It's my pleasure to turn the call over to Sanjiv Razdan.

Sanjiv Razdan

executive
#3

Thank you, David, and I welcome everyone to the call. Turning to Slide 4. I'm excited to speak with you today to review progress we are making. For those new to the call, our mission is to improve the quality of life through routine and affordable chiropractic care. After we execute our strategy to become a pure-play franchisor, grow sales, reduce overhead and improve profitability, we will strive for our new big bold vision to become America's most accessible health and wellness services company. As part of our transformation journey, in April, we hosted an incredibly productive franchisee spring convention during which we discussed next steps and continue to improve franchise relationships. Before I elaborate, I'll summarize our Q1 2025 financial results compared to Q1 2024. System-wide sales were $132.6 million, up 5%, demonstrating resilience in this economic environment. Comp sales for all clinics opened 13 months were 3% for the quarter and 4% in March. Revenue from continuing operations increased 7%. Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations was $46,000 compared to $425,000 in quarter 1 2024. Jake will provide greater detail in a moment. Turning to Slide 5. I want to acknowledge the dynamic consumer environment that we're in. While we monitor the situation closely, we are pushing ahead with our transition plan. As unveiled on our March call, we have constructed a multiyear phased approach. The changes we are making increase the potency and flexibility of our model. To become a pure-play franchisor, we are refranchising. We have signed LOIs for 93% of our corporate clinics, and we are well into the due diligence phase for many. When we reach binding asset purchase agreements, we intend to make public announcements. In the Joint 2.0, we are focused on strengthening our core, reigniting growth and improving clinic and company level profitability. We will initiate dynamic revenue management, strengthen our digital marketing and promotional calendar and upgrade our patient-facing technology. Turning to Slide 6. The franchisee spring convention was aptly named the Pulse Summit. Since I joined, we have been taking a pulse check of the business. At the Summit, we reviewed The Joint's pulse with our franchisees, regional developers and our employees. We seized the opportunity to reinvigorate, to create momentum through collaboration to ensure we're working as one team and to identify ways to become stronger, bigger and faster so we can care for more patients more effectively. And we must always remember that when patients stay at the center of our focus, the business grows, profitability follows and everyone wins. And to do that well, we know we have to level up across the board with a stronger brand, sharper marketing, better operations and higher impact training. During the Summit, our team and franchisees signed a franchise partnership pact that is a shared promise between franchisor and franchisee to lead with clarity, act with integrity and stay true to the values that define The Joint. During the Summit, we discussed near- and longer-term initiatives, including marketing execution with our new marketing agency and strategies to increase new patient leads, our plan to regain patient momentum and our new brand architecture. Operational execution with our priority focus on excellent patient experiences and clinic economics, our new clinic launch best practices and toolkit update and our new clinic report cards that provide quantitative data and diagnostics on patient satisfaction, operational efficiency and sales. As well as training, we are introducing The Joint Chiropractic Elite Academies. Think of it as our version of The Joint University. We have planned the inaugural Academy for Doctors of Chiropractic to be launched in 2025. Events like the Summit enable us to synchronize with our franchisees, improve relationships with them and strengthen our operating culture. Turning to Slide 7. Let's review dynamic revenue management. We must be intentional and balanced when reviewing price increases. We promise affordability as part of our mission, and it's a key determination among our patient demographic. Yet since our last meaningful price adjustment in March 2022, labor costs have increased significantly, squeezing clinic level margins. Working to alleviate the pinch, we have begun testing elasticity for different prices for various packages and wellness plans. We are reviewing the entire model, including legacy plans, nothing is sacred. Our goal is to create an innovative, flexible pricing model that more accurately aligns with treatment plans and patient usage during all phases of care from acute to maintenance. Options include premium memberships with more visits in their first month of care, new price options for our wellness plans and increases for our packages. For example, for patients in acute pain that need to be adjusted more than one time per week per their treatment plan, we will begin offering prepaid visit pricing in the second half of this year. Turning to Slide 8. Let's review strengthening our digital marketing. We are working with our new marketing agency to drive brand awareness and consideration as well as improve our SEO performance with enhanced content and technical strategies. Our new content strategy aims to increase relevance and foster trust. Our new user-generated content is focused on building authority and community validation. The early tests are delivering encouraging results. Turning to Slide 9. Let's review strengthening our promotional calendar. In February, we implemented our new step into wellness promo to encourage target existing patients to buy into wellness plans. We offered them the first month at $45 and then the rest of the membership at the standard rate. Although this impacted revenue in February, we increased active membership conversion significantly during the month. The Joint's buy 5 get 1 wellness promo begins on Monday, June 3, and will provide patients with an affordable way to commit to their treatment plan and stay on the path to good health. This has been a very successful promo in the past, and I look forward to reviewing the results with you next quarter. Turning to Slide 10. Let's review patient-facing technology. We pulled patients, wellness coordinators and Doctors of Chiropractic to ensure the most essential elements for the users are included in our mobile app. Features include clinic finder, which doctor is in clinic, in-clinic check-in and push notifications. Ultimately, all will benefit when we communicate to patients directly using in-app push notifications. For example, we can remind them that they have adjustments x number of adjustments remaining for the month, which would strengthen usage and engagement. Regarding the app, our beta is going well, and we expect to be in the app stores by June 30. With that, I'll turn the call to Jake.

Jake Singleton

executive
#4

Thank you, Sanjiv. And let's turn to Slide 12. Let's discuss our operating metrics. When reviewing our quarterly results, I want to remind you of 2 factors. First, in 2024, it was a leap year and included an extra sales day in February compared to 2025. Then in February of 2025, we conducted a promotion targeted at our existing non-wellness plan members that lowered the first month membership rate to $45, which impacted sales in dollars while securing more patients for the medium term. In Q1 2025, system-wide sales were up 5%, as Sanjiv mentioned, showing resilience while consumer sentiment is wavering. Comp sales for all clinics opened 13 months were 3% in Q1 of 2025. They increased to 4% in March of 2025. Comp sales for mature clinics opened 48 months were negative 2%. Turning to Slide 13. Let's discuss our clinics. As previously indicated, we expect franchise license sales to be impacted by our refranchising strategy. We sold 9 licenses in Q1 2025 compared to 15 in Q1 2024. During Q1, we had 16 regional developers covering approximately 56% of the network, and we had 146 franchise licenses in active development. In Q1 2025, we opened 5 franchise clinics, refranchised 2 corporate clinics and closed 1 corporate clinic. At March 31, 2025, we had 969 clinics, of which 847 or 87% are franchise clinics. Turning to Slide 14. Let's discuss our financials. As discussed in March, 2025 will be a year of transition as we conclude the refranchising efforts. We are recording the company-owned or managed clinics as discontinued operations. Please note, we have not yet experienced the financial benefit from our corporate clinic revenues transitioning to franchise royalties and fees, nor have we yet fully reduced our G&A expense. We are critically focused on reducing our G&A and will shed more overhead than what is currently reported in our continuing operations. This will improve the bottom line in the coming years. In 2026, we expect to further grow net new clinic openings, system-wide sales, comp sales and adjusted EBITDA. Now I'll review continuing operations for Q1 2025 compared to Q1 2024. Revenue reached $13.1 million compared to $12.2 million, increasing 7% due to the greater number of franchise clinics in operations and offsetting the effects of the 2024 leap year and the 2025 February promotion. Cost of revenues was $3 million, up 10% over the same period last year, reflecting the associated higher regional developer royalties and commissions and the greater number of franchise clinics in operation. Selling and marketing expenses were $3.5 million compared to $2.2 million. The increase reflects the costs related to carrying 2 marketing agencies, while we ensure a smooth transition to our new team engaged to strengthen our digital marketing strategy. Depreciation and amortization expenses increased 10% compared to the prior year period due to depreciation expenses related to development of an internal use software deployed in 2024. G&A expenses were $6.9 million or 53% of revenue compared to $7.3 million or 60% of revenue in the same period last year, reflecting lower payroll and stock-based compensation. Income tax expense was $13,000 compared to $9,000 in Q1 2024. Net loss from continuing operations was $506,000 or $0.03 per basic share compared to a loss of $399,000 or $0.03 per basic share in Q1 2024. I'll provide adjusted EBITDA for 3 categories for continuing operations, discontinued operations and consolidated operations. Adjusted EBITDA for continuing operations was $46,000 compared to $425,000. Adjusted EBITDA for discontinued operations was $2.8 million compared to $3.1 million. And adjusted EBITDA for consolidated operations were $2.9 million compared to $3.5 million. On to Slide 15, I'll review our balance sheet and cash flow. At March 31, 2025, our unrestricted cash was $21.9 million compared to $25.1 million at December 31, 2024. Cash used in operations for the quarter was $3.7 million, which included the previously discussed legal settlement payment and annual employee bonuses, both of which were accrued as of December 31, 2024. The line of credit with JPMorgan Chase grants us immediate access to $20 million through February of 2027. On to Slide 16. we are reiterating 2025 guidance. While The Joint provides services within the U.S. and is not directly impacted by potential tariffs, many of our patients are concerned about the impact to their lives. After the tariffs were announced in April, shifts in consumer confidence and spending did begin to affect The Joint. System-wide sales are expected to be between $550 million and $570 million compared to $530.3 million in 2024. Comp sales for all clinics opened 13 months or more are expected to be in the mid-single digits compared to an increase of 4% in 2024. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA to be between $10 million and $11.5 million compared to $11.4 million in 2024. The 2025 consolidated adjusted EBITDA estimate includes an adjustment for approximately $4.4 million related to, among other things, stock-based compensation and depreciation and amortization. The company will factor in any additional impairments or restructuring charges related to the refranchising should they occur. New franchise clinic openings, excluding the impact of refranchised clinics, are expected to be between 30 and 40 compared to 57 in 2024. In 2025, franchise license sales and clinic openings are likely to be less than 2024 as we are working through the impact of our refranchising efforts. Further, we see the impact of economic headwinds, stubborn inflation and volatile consumer sentiment impacting the beginning of 2025. That said, as clinics shift from company-owned or managed clinics to franchise clinics, there will be a transformative financial impact. Our franchise royalties and fees will increase, and we will rationalize our unallocated G&A expenses and The Joint Corp. will be more profitable. And with that, I'll turn the call back over to you, Sanjiv.

Sanjiv Razdan

executive
#5

Thanks, Jake. Turning to Slide 18. We've been reviewing the chiropractic care market and testing brand concepts. The bottom line is that America is suffering from pain. And we've got the data to prove it. 74% of our new patients cite aches and pains as at least one of the reasons for coming to The Joint. In fact, back pain is the third most frequent cause for visiting a doctor, the leading cause of job-related disability and one of the top reasons people miss work. But the good news is we are starting to see an important shift. Across the country, people are thinking more about longevity, healthy aging and how to take care of themselves before something breaks. With a growing focus on holistic fitness and sustainable well-being, people are changing their approach to health. Turning to Slide 19. The Joint is in a position to set the pace and shape the pulse of the future of care. Pain is the trigger bringing patients to our clinics. So we are shifting our external messaging to be pain-centric. Once in the system, we start educating patients on the efficacy of chiropractic care for wellness and teach them the benefits of chiropractic care on an ongoing basis. Our new brand creative will empower individuals to reclaim their lives through transformational relief. People can move from pain to a life unpaused. We are excited to launch this new campaign in the second half of the year. Turning to Slide 20. I'll reiterate when we place patients at the heart of everything we do, the business grows, profitability follows and everyone wins. People are highly motivated to relieve pain. Our hypothesis is that pain relief is more resilient than other purchases in times of economic pressure. As discussed, we are pivoting our marketing to target those in pain. Our team is dedicated to doing the work to improve our system. We are advancing our initiatives to strengthen our core, reignite growth and improve clinic and the company level profitability. Turning to Slide 21. Before we open for questions, I have a few updates and comments. On the corporate side, we welcome Andra Terrell, in the newly created role of SVP Legal, an innovative legal strategist with 2 decades serving franchise systems. Andra is experienced in strategic planning, refranchising, acquisitions, turnarounds and more. We also welcome our new SVP, Operations and Patient Experience, Eric Wyatt, to the executive team. Eric has 30 years of franchise operations experience at numerous national brands and joins us to improve quality and economics of our clinics, reduce variability of the patient experience and help us reignite growth. On the business side, as stewards of chiropractic, we support and encourage the success of future professionals. In March, we announced our latest scholarship at Northwestern Health Sciences University. Additionally, we received awards from Entrepreneur Magazine. The Joint has been named one of the 150 fastest-growing franchises ranked #37 of the Franchise 500 and added to the 10-plus Club. On the investor side, I invite you to meet us at the B. Riley Securities Annual Investor Conference in Beverly Hills later in May or the Virtual Oppenheimer Annual Consumer Growth and E-Commerce Conference in June. With that, operator, I am ready to begin Q&A.

Operator

operator
#6

The first question comes from Jeff Van Sinderen with B. Riley Securities.

Jeff Van Sinderen

analyst
#7

Sanjiv, I wonder if you can start maybe or Jake, whoever has got the info, maybe speak about the new patient add metrics and retention metrics and trends around those that you're seeing lately.

Sanjiv Razdan

executive
#8

Yes, Jeff, I'll take that one. Yes, we made reference to the overall consumer sentiment. I think we are seeing that reflected in our new patient volumes. When we look at the gross number of volume, new patient leads that we're getting, those have been affected, especially as we think about the organic leads that are coming through. So critically focused on those marketing strategies that Sanjiv alluded to. From a retention perspective, we're holding on to our patients at a similar rate that we always have. So that metric is holding up well for us.

Jeff Van Sinderen

analyst
#9

Okay. Great. And then as we're thinking about you becoming a pure franchise business, and I don't know if you're ready to share this or not, but I know you mentioned in your prepared comments that you'll become more profitable. But just wondering if there are any metrics that you're prepared to share around that, how much you might remove from overhead? What level of margins you think are feasible? Is it the level of margins of similar companies? Just wondering anything new to add on that?

Sanjiv Razdan

executive
#10

Yes. I don't think we're ready to provide a forward guide on that yet, Jeff. As we look at last year's adjusted EBITDA on a consolidated basis, we did about $11.4 million of adjusted EBITDA. As we reach the coming years. You've seen our guide for '25. But as we think about 2026 as that pure-play franchisor, we do expect profitability both on a gross dollars and on a margin basis as a percentage to be higher than we've seen historically. The way that we accomplish that is by shedding the necessary G&A. And so that's where our critical focus will be. So as we get closer to announcing some of these refranchising deals as they reach those asset purchase agreements, we'll be able to give a better sense for kind of where we're going in the future.

Jeff Van Sinderen

analyst
#11

And given that I think you said 90-some-odd percent are basically sort of in the due diligence process, I think that was what you said. What do you think the time frame is to be through the refranchising process at this point, just based on the pace that it's been going so far?

Sanjiv Razdan

executive
#12

Jeff, we have 93% of the remaining corporate clinics, which are now under LOI. And most of them are in the process of due diligence. I think it is our intent to exit 2025 as a pure-play franchisor. And we'd hope that we can accelerate this process as much as we possibly can, even intra-year, but that is the time line that we're working towards.

Operator

operator
#13

The next question comes from George Kelly with ROTH Capital Partners.

George Kelly

analyst
#14

Maybe just to start with a follow-up from the prior question. Has the refranchising process slowed at all just with some of the macro noise? It's been a pretty crazy last 6 weeks. I had thought that coming out of the last quarter, the goal was for most of it to be complete sometime in 2Q. Maybe I misremember that, but just curious if things have slipped at all.

Sanjiv Razdan

executive
#15

Jordan, we are not seeing any meaningful slowdown of the refranchising process. It's the nature of this in terms of due diligence, lease reassignments, et cetera, that it's very difficult to put a firm time line to that, but we're not seeing any slowdown to the process and definitely not seeing any connection between our process of refranchising and the macroeconomics.

George Kelly

analyst
#16

Okay. That's great. And then second topic I wanted to cover is just going back to your comments about comp growth. I guess the 2 specific questions are, can you share what comps were in April? And then secondly, can you disclose quarterly franchise versus owned comp performance?

Jake Singleton

executive
#17

Yes. We won't give an April number at this point. We did see a slight uptick from February into March. February had the leap year and the promo that I mentioned, but we are back to 4% by March. So those are the figures that we gave there. What was the second part of your question there, George?

George Kelly

analyst
#18

If you could give Q1 franchise versus owned comps.

Jake Singleton

executive
#19

Yes. As of right now, because 87% of our clinics are franchise clinics, their comp relatively mirrors the consolidated comp. The corporate clinic comp is positive, but it does trail the franchise comp for the period.

George Kelly

analyst
#20

Okay. And then last question for me. Well, I guess 2 last quick ones. Dynamic pricing, I understand it sounds like you want to take a measured approach. How much of -- like how much just all in, if you look at the pricing opportunity? I know it's going to range by geography, and it's maybe not easy to just put a number to. But is this like a high single-digit opportunity for pricing? Or where do you see it all kind of shaking out when it's all been implemented?

Sanjiv Razdan

executive
#21

Here's what I can say. We're exploring, as I tried to give a sense on our prepared remarks, that really every single lever in our pricing model. So in the current climate, we're just wanting to be thoughtful and test the various iterations and make sure that whatever we scale nationally is something that helps us strike that balance between affordability and optimizing for price. So that's why the comment. I'm not sure that we provided guidance on what the pricing impact is to our overall numbers, but it certainly has the capacity to be double digit in terms of dollar value in millions to add to our total system-wide sales.

George Kelly

analyst
#22

$500 million system, that's like a -- at least a low single digit. Am I thinking about that right?

Jake Singleton

executive
#23

Correct. Correct. Yes. From a timing perspective, really the only wholesale increase that we've pushed to the full network to date is an increase to our single visit pricing. So that's only about 4% of our gross sales. The rest that are in test now, you won't really see the impacts of those until the second half of the year, right, as we conclude the evaluation of those test markets and then roll those out to the full system. So some of that will be backloaded, but that is factored into the full year guide.

George Kelly

analyst
#24

So that double-digit millions, $10 million plus is just a partial year. That's the impact for the full year, but it's really just based on mostly partial year pricing?

Jake Singleton

executive
#25

That's correct.

George Kelly

analyst
#26

Okay. And then I guess one last one. Selling and marketing expense, I understand you were paying 2 different agencies in the quarter, $3.5 million, I think, was the middle line.

Jake Singleton

executive
#27

Correct.

George Kelly

analyst
#28

When do you expect that to normalize? And what kind of range should we expect when you're down to 1 agency?

Jake Singleton

executive
#29

Yes. I definitely wouldn't use Q1 as the run rate figure for that. We have a lot of front-loaded costs. I think you'll see a similar burden for Q2, right, as we continue that kind of dual transitioned approach. By Q3, I think you'll start to see that more normalize. And then kind of by Q4, you'll get a better sense for overall run rate.

Operator

operator
#30

The next question comes from Jeremy Hamblin with Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

Jeremy Hamblin

analyst
#31

So I just want to go back and revisit the same-store sales guide for a second here. As we look ahead, I think your compares are a little bit tougher in the second half of the year, maybe I think about 5% in the second half of '24 versus lower single digit in the first half of the year. I mean, have you seen a meaningful uptick here over the last 5 or 6 weeks that's providing some confidence of that mid-single-digit guide? Or is there another factor, maybe the pricing that is playing into the mid-single-digit guide because obviously, it would imply a pretty healthy acceleration from run rate -- current run rates.

Sanjiv Razdan

executive
#32

Yes. The guide is probably more so predicated on some of those dynamic revenue management kind of pricing increases in the second half of the year. You're right, the comp -- the rollovers get a little tougher. We had a 6% comp in Q4 of '24. So it's largely predicated on the pricing initiatives that factor into that full year guide.

Jeremy Hamblin

analyst
#33

Got it. And then just in terms of rolling out the dynamic pricing and kind of testing around that, obviously, it sounds fluid. But in terms of thinking how long you might take to refine, given that it's a new process for you, is it a quarter? Is it a couple of quarters? Is it -- I mean, obviously, it's an ongoing process overall, but any more insight you can share there?

Sanjiv Razdan

executive
#34

Jeremy, clearly, by nature of its name, it is ongoing and also because a lot of our plans, right, like for example, if you go into our membership plans, there's a minimum purchase requirement of 2 months. So in order to understand the impact of some of the things that we're trying to pay a pull, I think at the bare minimum, we're talking 2 to 3 months to understand the impact of test sales at the very least. So just think about it in that way, anything that we test, the earliest we can get a read on is in that sort of time frame, particularly as it relates to our wellness plans and packages.

Jake Singleton

executive
#35

And because we're looking at the full pricing structure, we just have to be mindful that the changes to certain parts of our pricing mix have a tail impact to other elements of our pricing. So it does take some time to evaluate to make sure you're not only evaluating that core piece of the pricing mix that you've put into test, but also how it affects conversions to other elements of our pricing structure. So just -- I wouldn't describe it as fluid. I'd describe it more as strategic to make sure that we're understanding the full range of impacts and making sure that it's best for the system before rolling it out.

Jeremy Hamblin

analyst
#36

Understood. And so do you sense that in the current environment, you're having clients that are looking more at kind of the monthly membership model versus the -- like the June 2025 5 to 1 package type promo that you're looking at?

Jake Singleton

executive
#37

Yes. I mean we still see approximately 85% of our gross sales coming in the form of our monthly recurring products. So that's always the vast majority of our revenue. As we think about things like our single visit pricing or our package pricing, we have to be very careful of how that impacts the overall wellness. We aren't seeing defection away from those core recurring products. In fact, we're trying to do the opposite, right, encourage people to move into those recurring products that better fit their treatment plans and ongoing care.

Jeremy Hamblin

analyst
#38

Got it. Okay. And then just one last thing. The spring convention that you did with franchisees and what was the cost of that? And then what line item? Did it flow through G&A? Or is some of that allocated to sales and marketing?

Jake Singleton

executive
#39

Yes, that full burden comes through the sales and marketing line. We did slightly scale back the convention this year in terms of the number of days that we typically do. So it's not the same level of cost impact that you see when we do our every other year full national conference agenda, but that did impact the second quarter sales and marketing line as well.

Jeremy Hamblin

analyst
#40

Okay. Can you call out what the cost was?

Jake Singleton

executive
#41

I don't have that off the top of my head, Jeremy. In a given year, with the full-scale agenda, some of that pass-through is as much as $0.5 million. This was a much smaller production. So it was south of that.

Operator

operator
#42

The next question comes from Jeremy Pearlman with Maxim Group.

Jeremy Pearlman

analyst
#43

So maybe if you could help us connect the dots between the reported comp sales, which were up 3% for clinics that were open at least 13 months, but then for clinics to open in at least 48 months, I think you said on the call that they were down 2%. So maybe what do you think that is? And then also, are there any specific strategies you're implementing or you plan to implement for the more mature clinics to help them get back to comp sales growth?

Jake Singleton

executive
#44

Yes, Jeremy, that's a typical spread that we've seen over the last 5 to 6 quarters in terms of that mature comp versus the system comp. So no real widening in terms of that gap. So I would say that's been consistent for us. We're always looking at ways to continue to strengthen all clinics within our system. So a number of the operational strategies and marketing tactics will certainly be geared towards that existing patient or existing clinic profile as well.

Jeremy Pearlman

analyst
#45

Okay. And then you mentioned to answer one of the questions that the guide for your system-wide sales and your comp sales for 2025, it was underpinned by this dynamic revenue pricing. Is there anything else that's going -- any other assumptions that you are -- that go behind the guide? And is that best case scenario? Because considering the macroeconomic risks and the consumer sentiment that you talked about on the call, it could affect higher prices. Is that baked into the guide? Or that would maybe cause you to pull back a little bit?

Sanjiv Razdan

executive
#46

Well, let me start and then Jake can add to this. Dynamic revenue management is one of a few different strategies that I had outlined, which go into driving our comp sales growth, right? Just to recap, we are looking at promotional activity that we feel is stronger than what we've done before. We are looking at in the second half of the year being much more pointed in our external communications. And I referenced that 74% of our patients cite pain of some kind when they come to us. So our external messaging is going to be single-mindedly focused on pain as we transition into the back half of the year, which will help us get more patients into the funnel. The third thing we're doing is stronger digital marketing. That's the new agency we brought in. And just so that you understand specifically what that does is it allows us to do much better media planning and buying so that all our clinics are buying media in a way that's relevant for their specific patient demographic and psychographics, including those mature clinics, right? Then we referenced patient-facing technology. We're expecting that our mobile app, our first ever, will be in app stores by June 30, which whilst does not drive comps, but we believe over a period of time, that helps to drive patient engagement and usage and therefore, lifetime value. And then finally, clearly, one of the dynamics that we anticipate helping our comps is dynamic revenue management because we have not taken any meaningful pricing since March of 2022. And that we're working through, and we do expect to take some pricing in 2025. So hopefully, that gives you a sense for what is underpinning our assumptions on comp sales.

David Barnard

attendee
#47

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Sanjiv Razdan for any closing remarks.

Sanjiv Razdan

executive
#48

Thank you, David. Thank you all for joining us. I look forward to getting to know you at conferences and non-deal roadshows. Have a really good day and know that at The Joint, we always have your back.

Operator

operator
#49

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

This call discussed

For developers and AI pipelines

Programmatic access to The Joint Corp. earnings transcripts and 32,000+ others is available through the EarningsCalls.dev REST API. Plans from $24.99/month — full transcripts, speaker segments, full-text search, and the recently-added /api/v1/transcripts/recent polling endpoint for ETL pipelines.