Brinker, which opened 55 restaurants in the third quarter, plans to develop an additional 20 to 44 new Chili's locations under a development agreement signed recently. In addition, the company has signed three new international development agreements for nine new restaurants and has development commitments to build a total of five new franchised On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina restaurants. The company also has a domestic development agreement with a franchisee to build three new Macaroni Grill restaurants.

The company's expanding list of restaurants has boosted sales, which climbed 3% to $1.12 billion for the third quarter ended March 28, up from $1.09 billion for the same period of fiscal 2006. But net income fell on a year-to-year basis, slipping to $54.6 million and 43 cents per share from $64.8 million and 50 cents per share in the same quarter a year ago. Comparable restaurant sales decrease 4.4% for the quarter.

Expenses bit into the company's earnings. Brinker's cost of sales, as a percent of revenues, increased from 28.1% to 28.3% for the quarter compared to the previous year. "This pressure is due primarily to higher salmon and produce costs," the company said in its earnings statement.

During the quarter, Brinker repurchased 3.2 million common shares for approximately $102.7 million, and year-to-date iot has repurchased approximately 7.7 million shares for $222.1 million. The company said Tuesday that, as a part of its plan to return capital to shareholders, it will repurchase approximately $300 million of its common stock through a broker-dealer.

Brinker owns, operates or franchises 1,756 restaurants under the names Chili's Grill & Bar, Romano's Macaroni Grill, On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina and Maggiano's Little Italy.

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Brinker Plans Include Dozens of Locations

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