BJ’s Restaurants & Brewhouse reported same-store sales declines of 1.7% as the Calif.-based family-friendly pub chain faced difficult weather in January and continued tough margins. As the casual-dining chain attempts to get back to pre-pandemic levels of profitability, traffic trends are improving steadily, and went from negative traffic levels in January to flat in March.
“Our improving results reflect the benefits of the strategies we shared… focusing on driving sales through our familiar-made brewhouse fabulous culinary initiative, building our awareness over time, our people initiative around hospitality, and gold standard level of operational excellence and a welcoming contemporary ambiance to our remodel initiatives,” Greg Levin, CEO and president of BJ’s said during Thursday’s earnings call.
On the journey toward improving store-level margins, BJ’s has put forth a few different initiatives, including new server scripting which is meant to enhance service efficiencies, through balancing the number of tables per server, food runners, and adding expediter positions in the restaurant, Levin said. This new server structure will be rolling out in Q2 and Q3. The company has also been focused on its previously announced store remodel program, and by the end of 2024, approximately half of the stores will be remodeled.
The next part of the BJ’s profitability plan is to continue balanced, steady, and smart expansion: the company opened its first store in Wisconsin this past quarter and plans to eventually move into more new markets with at least 425 more restaurants.
On the financial side of the business, BJ’s has been focusing on improving traffic and check growth through marketing and continued awareness of the brand. While pricing will be a part of that strategy, it will paly a smaller role as the company has been taking more moderate pricing increases than it had in the past, including a 1% price increase in January, despite the tailwinds from poor weather patterns.
Currently, BJ’s strengths are in on-premises dining, late-night guests, and bar sales from the brewhouse portion of the business, and leadership wants to lean into that to encourage continued positive traffic and returning guests.
“You have to lean into areas that you have authority in your business,” Levin said. “For us, that’s late night and that bar business, that's something that's very unique and differentiated to BJ's that a lot of other concepts can't necessarily talk about, especially in the casual dining space. So, as we continue to think about our awareness amplification and what we do differently, those are areas that we're going to continue to lean into to drive that part of our business, because again, it's a differentiating factor.”
BJ’s revenue for the first quarter of 2024 decreased 1.2% to $337.3 million. Net income increased to $7.7 million or $0.32 earnings per share in the first quarter of 2024, as compared to $3.5 million or $0.15 in the first quarter of 2023. BJ’s opened one new restaurant in the first quarter and is on track to open another two in the second half of 2024 with net restaurant counts up to 217 systemwide.
Contact Joanna Fantozzi at [email protected]