BJ’s Restaurants Inc. said late Thursday that the impact of two hurricanes hurt both sales and profits in what the company called a “challenging” third quarter.
Same-store sales at the California-based casual-dining chain declined 1.7 percent in the period that ended Oct. 3. Revenue in the quarter increased 5.7 percent to $247 million, while net income fell 67 percent to $2.4 million, or 11 cents a share, from $7.2 million, or 30 cents.
With one-time events factored out, however, net income was $3.2 million, or 15 cents. Both earnings and revenue fell short of investors’ expectations, according to information from the financial site Earnings Whispers.
In a statement, BJ’s CEO Greg Trojan called the quarter “a challenging time for us, and the overall restaurant industry.”
He said the company lost about $1.7 million in sales from hurricanes Harvey and Irma, while damage from the stores cost the company $900,000. The company estimates that the hurricanes hurt same-store sales by 60 basis points, and earnings per share by 3 cents.
But the company also said that things have started to pick up so far in the fourth quarter. The company said that, factoring out the hurricane, same-store sales rose 1 percent in September, and so far same-store sales are up 2 percent in October.
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