CPK outlined its growth expectations as it reported strong comparable sales Thursday despite what company executives called difficult conditions during the first quarter ended April 1. The company's executives said that the chain achieved "one of the strongest comparable restaurant sales and traffic count increases in our sector despite a mixed economy and unfavorable weather patterns across many parts of the country." For example, the chain suffered 35 days of closings during the quarter, compared with zero closings during the same quarter the previous year, co-CEO Rick Rosenfield noted during the company's conference call with financial analysts Thursday. The comparable restaurant sales increase of 4.7% on top of a 6.4% increase the year before came as the chain posted net income of $3.6 million and 18 cents per share for the first quarter ended April 1, against income of $4.6 million and 23 cents a share in the same quarter the year before. Total revenues grew 15.2% to $149.4 million.
"We're comfortable with our development schedule of 16 to 18 new full-service restaurants" for fiscal 2007, Rosenfield said. He noted the company has already begun construction of nine of the remaining 13 to 15 stores on the schedule and has acquired 14 building permits out of the 16 to 18 stores that it will open this year.
CPK executives reported that the company added two new full-service restaurants in Austin, TX and San Francisco during the quarter as well as two CPK/ASAP restaurants in Anaheim, CA and Kailua, HI. The company's franchise partner WDI Corp. also opened its second full-service restaurant in Japan. For the second quarter of 2007, the company has added one full-service restaurant and one domestic franchise and expects to add another full-service restaurant and one international franchise location.
Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax, co-CEOs of CPK, both spoke during the conference call and said that new full-service restaurant openings will continue to be the focus for the company in 2007, although the growth of Kraft's CPK-branded business is becoming a larger component of the company's financial model. They also mentioned the prospects of increased international franchising.
As of May 10, the CPK chain operated 212 restaurants, of which 181 were company-owned and 31 operated under franchise or license agreements.
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