Latest / Choppin’ It Up by Bloomberg Intelligence / Fogo de Chao’s Employee Investments Fuel Growth

Transcript

Fogo de Chao’s Employee Investments Fuel Growth · Choppin’ It Up by Bloomberg Intelligence

• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Chopping It Up. I'm your host, Mike Hallen,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: the senior restaurant and food Service analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Today we're joined by Barry McGowan, CEO of Happy Belated Birthday.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Barry, Well, gosh, thank you appreciate. Mike, so glad to
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: be part of Chopping Up. A big fan of your
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: your work, so thanks for the kind of invite.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm excited to have you. How did I do
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: with the pronunciation?
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: You did really well. Your Portuguese a little bit more,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: but you're getting there. I would say you'd convinced anybody
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: from Brazil. You're from Brazil, so that's right.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: So working for Fogo, has it made you more of
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: a fan of soccer and mixed martial arts?
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Oh with hey, Yes, and I'd say I've always been so.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: I grew up in Europe, born in Germany. I'm a
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: naturalized US citizen from Ireland, so I would say I'm
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: an Irish gal show. But I've always loved football, real football.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: And yes, I would say mixed martial arts even more
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: than ever before. Obviously, we have a lot of regulars
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: who mixed martial arts based off that they always come
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: in Cole.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Yes the answers, Yes, very cool.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: And you know LinkedIn told me it was your birthday.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: It also told me that you worked for Norman Brinker,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: which I did not know how I was working for Norman.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Oh, I'd say he was.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Prior to Norman. I worked for McDonald's, an owner operator
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: that just inspired me. I was really young, fifteen years old,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: currenting sixteen and thought one day I'd owned my own McDonald's.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: And then got into the industry red press and read
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: about this gentleman named Norman Brinker. So he opened a
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Chili's in Dent in America. We call it Dent in America, Denton, Texas.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: But and I just basically wanted to work for Chili's
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: at the time because I knew of him. And I
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: tell you what a transformational leader, aspiring guy. Still, I
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: would say a lot of the culture attributes thing that
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I believe they were really important. We learned from Norman
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: and his culture, Doug Brooks and the whole Brinker today.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: So yeah, love my time with Breaker and National And
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I have to say I met the man, got to
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: sit in a room and listen to speak, and still
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: very much part of I would say the culture that
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: I believe in in terms of our industry, the things
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: that matter most.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: So yeah, he was an iconic leader. That's very cold.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: Sure was, Sure was.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: So Fogo it's had an oppressive track record of generating
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: positive traffic.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: In the last decade.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: So if you could talk a little bit about what's
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: what's fueling the gains and you know, then the uniqueness.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: Of photo the you bet.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: So you know, we just finished the ninth year Mike
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: of traffic, which is as you know, it is a
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: very big thing in our industry. So taking share is critical,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: but how you do it matters as well. So again,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: this brand's forty five years old. We've been in US
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: for twenty six, but we set out eleven years ago.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Joining was just looking at the consumer that used us
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: and then really asking our Fogo fanatics how they fog
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: and just unlocking that to say, well, how do we
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: make Fogo and understanding how to die in this unique
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: differentiated concept for more people to drive occasions, trial and
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: of course frequency. So I just say this, it was
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: built just on really deliberate small things, but most important
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: thing was just hospitality upfront, never sacrificing labor, focusing on
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Our biggest investment every day is labor, not an expense.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: So changing the mindset to hospitality begins with being staffed,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: well trained, and keeping the guest focus in mind all
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: the time. So I just say we've just leaned into
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: the fundamentals of that and then really created occasions people
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: who've heard about us to try us giving entry points, price, optionality,
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: day parts, and you know, little things like happy hour.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Instead of doing it three to six, we just say
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: it's happy hour all day long at Fogo. Let's give
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: our guest value all the time. And by the way,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: we always believe in it. I still believe today. Value
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: is always critical. And even the last four years, when
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: you looked at some of the analyst supports that you
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: shared and others have talked about pricing, you know, last
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: four years is pretty steep on up to twenty two,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: we averaged about ten percent price from nineteen to twenty two.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: We're about maintaining that going through twenty three, so about
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: two and a half percent price per year, even through
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: the toughest time. And if you look at the industry
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: at over thirty percent during that time, goes back to
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: the guest is always going to appreciate value. Now, doing
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: that and maintaining margin while driving positive traffic is what
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: we've been able to achieve, and that's uniqueness to our
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: operating model. Important thing to us. The first metric we
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: focus on is traffic, then we think about mix with
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: our innovation, and then we look at price. Last.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: We never focus on price the very last thing we'll do.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: So that's kind of how we got here. Put it
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: that way.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: And I'll just say this too. And you know this
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: micro you've been around you. You know we're small. Now
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: we're building restaurants. Ten years ago, eleven years ago, we
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: had one market with multi units and that was not
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Paula Brazil. Now in the US we have twelve markets
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: we have multi units. So awareness is growing, trial is growing,
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: and frequency is growing all at the same time. So
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: that tailwind goes back to brand building. And I would
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: say this for operations team and every GM it's executing,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: the moment of truth is every time the guest drives
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: up to your parking lot. So that's where we were
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: really focusing on again to continue to make sure the
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: guest wins.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: All the time.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you're in an enviable position for sure, and
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: you touched on a few topics that I'd like to
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: hit on today for sure. I guess one of them was,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: you know, let's just start about talking about twenty twenty three.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: You know, it wasn't a great year for a lot
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: of your competitors.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: Traffic fell, there was.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: A mixshift to a less expensive items. Did you see
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: some of that in your business?
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Well, we, you know, we we saw mixshift, and I
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: go back some of his normalization, you know, going through
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: the curve of you know, access to working at home,
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: to people coming back to work. Also just normalized school travel,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: all those things. So some of that I think we
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: were expecting. Now we were lapping big numbers I would say,
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: bigger than peers, but we still cut through it and
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: basically ended the year positive and traffic and revenue, and
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: even with the inflationary pressure more inflation last year, we
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: did a lot more work internally with new product mixshift.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: We didn't contract down, we stayed nimble with thirty day rolling,
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: and we're able to really pick up overhang and do
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: select different cuts. Same thing with our market table. Basically,
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: our margin in twenty three was the same as it
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: was in twenty nineteen, with only two and a half
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: percent price carry, which was I think a testament to
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: the team, the uniqueness to operating model that we're able
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: to do both. So I would say everybody faced the same.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: I would say adjusting, And I tell everybody, you know
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: why traffic is important when you have capacity gains during COVID,
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: the pasty gains when people were coming in shoulder periods
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: because they weren't working or staying at home, their schedules changed.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Now as you see that shift, you demand for peak
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: areas are the same.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: So good news as we have capacity internal and we
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: have the place to keep building on that. But it
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: was a challenge.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: To be honest, it was adjustment, and I would say
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: the last four years have been adjustment, as you know
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: you're reporting to it. But I go back to now
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: we're back in the whole basis of the consumer is
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: at the forefront, and you hear everybody talking about I
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: can't take as much price. A lot of people are
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: going to have to roll off a pretty big price.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: So we're very grateful that we thought long you know,
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: we weren't thinking about the short term and even during
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: the pandemic, and you and I have talked about this,
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: You know, we always told everybody, look, the pandemic is
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: going to end. Let's don't make decisions based off the
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: crisis in front of us. Always make sure you know
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: you're thinking beyond the issue. And that paid off. The
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: same thing with pricing. We believed ultimately inflation between two
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: and three percent long term, and we just got to
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: stay in that range or we would give it up
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: somewhere else. And we don't want to ever give up
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: is traffic. We never want our value proposition to be
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: out of play. And I do believe why we finished
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: thirteen or two twenty three strong is our value proposition.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: During those four years, it actually strengthen, It got better
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: with our peers. Our ppa spread between peers went from
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: amount of twenty percent spread to close to thirty. So
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: we kept holding on that knowing that and by the way,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: we're challenged can you take more price? And we just say,
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: you know, let's hold let's be smart with it. And
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: it also challenged us to work harder on our leaning
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: harder into our model about how much more value can
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: we give the guests but maintain margin. That's what I
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: call real innovation and real creativity. On the culinary side,
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: I'm really proud of our team for all the work
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: they did to achieve that.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: So all right, good stuff. Yeah, the service model when
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: you look at the s one that you filed in
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: the past, right that the labor you know, labor cost
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: is really stick out in terms of you know, outperforming
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: your peers. So if you can talk a little bit
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: about the service model and what it does for your
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: p and L. Sure.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: So it's all based and rooted in a century's old
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: culinary art form cultural hospital. So it starts in the
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: product input of high quality product, the butchering of it,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: and the resting and preparing simply seasoning and slow roasting.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: And the unique thing is that is a very i
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: would say, very strong skill that it takes. It's a
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: lot of skills in one. So you're taking a chef
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: that has those attributes basically a butcher and then a
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: grill master, and then you're asking me to do one
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: other thing. Then they go out and serve of that
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: cut to the guest. So I tell everybody we have
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: a fast casual operating model. We just customize to a
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: plate versus a bowl or a burrito or whatever the.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Thing you do.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: We have more skews. So that simple model of three
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: rolls in one really does two things. During a busy night,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: I like to say, if you're next to a peer,
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: the kitchen's you know, fifteen people in the kitchen, there's kds,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: there's people calling tickets, there's assembly where it's a lot.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: It's a beautiful thing. By the way, ours all of
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: our chefs, our fifteen chefs, are basically in a dining
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: room serving a guest, along with our servers, our primary service,
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: our back servers. So our restaurant's full of people just
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: looking after people. So that distinctive difference operationally just takes
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: one big lever of complexity out and drives real productivity
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: with basically a lot less people. And as you know,
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: our turn times are also about an hour, so the
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: immediacy pays off for the guests, gives them full control,
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: and it keeps it simple. And it's protein base which
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: is even more dynamic. So we take big risks when
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: we do it. So I always tell everybody this model
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: sounds simple, but a lot of people lose a lot
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: of money in this business.
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: We've just done it for.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Forty five years, and we know the culinary art form
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: and we really invest heavily in training, skills and development
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: and finding the right people for the role, because ultimately
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: it's the guest we're trying to please. But the operating model,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: like you said, the structural advantage is that we just
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: are much more productive. And probably the most powerful part
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: is the guest gets all the benefit. And that's why
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: it's so targeted and powerful. And yes, it shows up
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: in the versus the very best in class fast casual.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: You know, our restaurant level margins are about seven hundred
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: basis points the very best in class full service. And
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: I'm talking when I say best in the class. You
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: know you got Darden, You've got a Texas Roadhouse. We're
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: close to the basis points more productive. So it's it's
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: pretty powerful, not just I would say, in the labor
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: but it also goes down into what I just explained
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: also in the cost of sales for protein centric brand
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: to run, you know, twenty eight to sub twenty eight
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: percent cost of sales is pretty pretty strong. Our prime
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: cost to a prime costs about between fifty and fifty
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: two percent. It's pretty awesome model.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. And I'd imagine the cooks make more
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: if they're you know, also participating in the tips in
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: the tip pool, and then you know, i'd imagine that
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: also contributes to the very low turnover that you see.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Mike, you hit the head. So it's a skilled role,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: but we can train it. It's a lot of training.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: So it also broadens our audience because it's an aspirational role.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: And yes, we've actually great minimum wage we pay for
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: chefs go you. As you know, wage isn't only just
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: tip credit. So these guys make more than tip credit
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: most of the time and they get tips, and we
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: have some states with no hip credit. So we'd like
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: to say, look, labor is an investment. We just put
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: the dollars where it matters, and they make great money
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: and they learn great skills. And by the way, it's
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: very rewarding. And I go back to when you find
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: the right person the right skills and they mature in
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: that and they're serving a guest, it's really proud. If
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: you're a chef, you love what you make and you
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: serve it and you get this satisfaction from the guest
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: right there, and not they'll fix it right away, so
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: they need to see again. So that's where it plays
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: to the culture and to your point, the retention. It's
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: very enjoyable for them and it's fun to watch and
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: great to see them in their art form.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: It's it's exciting.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd imagine that's rewarding being able to see your
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: guests actually enjoy the food that you're cooking, right, Yeah.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: Instead of sitting back in the line wondering I made
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: the plate, how are they liking the food? You know,
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: when I used to cook, I used to ask, Hey,
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: how's the guest or do they like me? So now
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: you get the chef walk would go around and you
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: see the table. I would come out and talk to
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: the tables. But now today to know that our chefs
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: are always in the dining room, that's where they should be,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: are they anyhow, it's fun.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: It's a lot of fun. Yeah, it's awesome. I'm a
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: fan of it for sure. It's still early days. But
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: how's the partnership with bane Capito going so far?
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: Sure?
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: I tell you we're thrilled their engagement. One the cultural alignment,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: I would say, this is what when we went through
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: the process with them, we chose Baine to be Frank.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: We pursued them because the cultural alignment. We knew who
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: they were, we knew what they had to offer. Getting
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: their attention was always the biggest thing. We're a small brand, look,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: they're big company, massed experience, but we're glad to at
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: least have their tension, get it and then go through.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: The process with them.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: And going through the whole diligence actually validated why we
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: wanted to partner with them. So I said, it's early
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: days of September, but I tell you we're from day one.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: They've been engaged with our entire team. We went to
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Brazil how our first board meeting the entire team came,
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: which was a lot of fun and just we communicate
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: on WhatsApp, the Fogo Mundo we call the folk communication channel,
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: what's up there, And that's all by the team, the
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: general managers and managers.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: We don't do it. We just get to see it.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: They blew up and loved it.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Whenever Bane people are in our restaurants, that goes wild,
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: you know, socially, goes viral within our own communication platforms,
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: which we love. So they're connected with the team already.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: Again.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: We'll have our global leadership conference coming up this next
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: week in San Antonio, with all our international partners, all
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: our gms and sales managers and the bin teams coming
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: to it, which again just shows their commitment to their
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: portfolio companies, their engagement from the tip of the spear
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: to the executive team. I couldn't say anything more that
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: we're just excited about this next chapter of growth with
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: bank capital, really excited.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: And can you comment on when they would like to
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: take the company public?
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Sure, you know, I would say they're long, they know
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: the business. We're both mutually aligned that Look, let's just
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: build a business and we'll know the right time. I
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: think that's the way we approach it. But I would
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: say this personally. You know, after a minute, for two
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: years trying to s one, I just told the team,
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: look for the next twenty four months, let's just keep
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: continuation of our brand. So when you look back, you know,
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: five years, six years, you keep going, Look, we're everything
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: we're telling you, we have already achieved, and we can
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: show you a clear path. So for us, we'll have
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: plenty of new restaurants, a lot more restaurants ramping. We'll
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: hit some key milestones upcoming, and I'd like to time
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: that by time we go publicly close to if Bane's ready,
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: and we're in alignment obviously, but we'll have our restaurants
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: in the next two or three years. We'll have more
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: new restaurants ramping than our core. We'll have three year visibility,
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: which you already have today, three visibility to pipeline.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: We'll have over ten.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Thousand team members, we'll be close to our first billion
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: in revenue, and we'll be close to our fiftieth year anniversary.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: So all those things are really big for a small
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: company that's looking to the next fifty years. And we
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: know we have a very clear plan for the next
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: thirty years growth that our algorithm long term algorithm of
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: ten to fifteen percent earnings growth. We feel very comfortable
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: we're achieving that and better, we still feel like the
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: next twenty five thirty years we have visibility of that.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: So that's what's great. By the way, it's all free.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Cash flow or cash flow generation. We grow organical, we
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: always have, so you know, we're not trying to grow
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: into earnings. We are driving earnings, and our GNA leverage
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: is all improving as we talked about before. Our brand
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: building is also just coming to lights. Our tailwind is
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: only going to get stronger, but we want to just
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: make sure our value creation.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: Plan is all in place.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: We're aligned with Bain and you know, really focus discipline, growth,
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: and when we're ready, I'll call you first and let.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: You know I appreciate it. Let's get into the development plans.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: How many restaurants do you have today? What's a split
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: between company owned and franchised, and what do you think
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: the preferred split is?
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: Sure?
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Right now, we're eighty five restaurants. At the end of
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: the year globally, eleven were franchised, so, you know, franchises
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: everything besides Brazil in the US, we're from Brazil, a
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: Brazilian company growing in the US, and now we're planning
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: flags internationally with really strong operating and strategic partners. We're
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: not trying to open a bunch of restaurants. We're trying
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: to find a great partner that loves our brand like us,
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: who wants to operate and execute, and we're long term
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: and have facilities. So we'd like to say we're leveraging
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: now the Americas. We got Canada through Central South America
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: lined up, We've got our first partner in Asia opening up,
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: and then we've already got a partner in the Middle
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: East who's growing, and we've signed a partner in Turkey.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: So we feel like the major international markets that align
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: with our brand that we know will do well, will
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: basically grow organically there and you'll start to see those
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: come up to South America Central. But i'd say the
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: proper mix for US, we go, look, it's going to
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: be ten year, but I would say five years from
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: now you might be opening We might be opening just
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: as many international capital light restaurants as we are domestically.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: But really the cash generation is going to be from
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: our domestic growth. But this to us is about brand positioning.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Today we're the category leader in this space. We're kind
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: of leading the category, and then really our view is
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: these strategic cities we're going to is about being a
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: category leader Globally. We are already an international brand. We're
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: not concerned about international. We're just basically growing organically international,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: like we have been doing for twenty six years in America.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: So I think the mixed long term will probably you know,
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: when you get you know, fully built out, it's thirty
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: thirty percent international franchise. But as you know, we also
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: think opportunistically that some point now in the future could
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: also be an opportunity to buy back strategic buybacks as well.
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: That's how we think of it.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Right now, we're using our focus as our free cash
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: flow is really driving stronger terms in America, in Brazil.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Brazil is growing organically, so as America yep.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: And then international business. You know, obviously it's very high margin,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: which is nice and i'd assume it allows you to
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: grow a little bit faster, you have less headaches in
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: terms of regulation.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: You're a copper cap everything. You know, on a balance,
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: she just gets stronger.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: And look, one reason we want to go public, and
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: you know we want we feel very good, you know Bain,
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: we're aligned with Bain on value creation. But look post
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: public and Bain's monetization. You know, we always look to
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: the future, and this is why we always say we
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: would love to just be an alpha in somebody else's
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: portfolio and just really we get to that organic growth
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: like we're talking about curve. You know, six, seven, eight
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: years from now will be we should be buying back shares,
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: issuing dividends and growing at fifteen percent. And that's what
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: we think we can do if we do this right.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Along with like you said, the international mix, capital light piece,
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: along with our all that just adds up to high
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: efficient capital generation and just strong earnings growth long term.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: What's the development plans for this year? How do smaller
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: units fit into that plan? And what do you think
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: the total white space opportunity is? Sure?
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: So you know, i'd say this this year we have
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: obviously the pipeline's full. I think we put announcement. We
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: got visibility through twenty six. Actually some in through twenty six,
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: but definitely twenty four to twenty five is pretty much done.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: We say we're going to open ten to fifteen units
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: a year. We opened eleven last year company for international,
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: so we'd see that algorithm staying. So we feel very
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: confident we'll achieve that. But our small unit, first one
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: in the US, we open the first one in Rio
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: and Rio Baha and them all was five thousand square
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: foots doing really well. The returns in Brazil and that
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: are doing tremendous. We have international partners all be opening
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: and we're from four to six thousand square foot units
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: based off that unit, and then the return hurles on
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: that initially are strong. Then we're going to open our
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: first domestic five thousand square foot unit at the World
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: Trade Center, so you're going to be invited at to
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: see that, see what that experience looks like. We're opening
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: a six thousand square foot this year in downtown Seattle
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: along with a rooftop lounge on a tenth floor, so
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: again driving different occasion, leveraging the same asset, great economics
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: in that box, huge demand that we look to capture,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: so we go back to the site is the most important,
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: the demographic and the demand, and then we really work
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: hard on the economics to make sure that we are
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: minimum hurdle is a forty percent return, so all that
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: has to go through that rigorous process to get the underwriting.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Good news is in twenty three all of our new
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: classes at restaurants, we've averaged about fifty seven percent return,
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: So our outperforming our demand hurdle. We're investing where we
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: say we're going to invest on average about four million,
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: and we're driving great returns. So we see more of that,
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: and the proof points of the smaller box just goes
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: back to how deep we can penetrate an urban market.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: As you know, we have eighteen thousand square foot.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: Location in midtown doing really well, so going down the
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: World Trade Center is another proof point of capture rate
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: and brand leverage, and then we're excited about that. And
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: so that leads to the white space question and the
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: s one we have it. I would say we'd say
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: we'll have well over three hundred in the white space.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: We think long term we could be six hundred. But
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: I go back to it still early stage, but we
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: still feel very good about how we're building. And remember
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: we don't have prototypes. We're not constrained by prototype. I
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: don't need three acres of land in an eighty five
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: hundred square foot box. We think about, hey, how much capital,
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: how what's the demand? How much capital we should spend
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: in minimum we should minimum it to two times revenue
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: to investment, and how do I drive the best experience?
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: And that's the creative part we use.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: That's where we really work hard at to give the
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: guests the best experience where they most likely are going
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: to be gravity and how does that map out for
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: what we call the market planning, so we can build
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: a brain and leverage the brand equity and improve our.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: Asset utilization at the same time.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: And all that it has been eleven years of work
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: and give you an example that in La market, we've
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: just opened our tenth location, so that's the biggest market,
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: most saturated. In that same market, I think there's over
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: twenty two cheesecakes, So we're not trying to overpenetrate, but
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: that market, every time we open a unit, we have
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: record sales in that market. So it goes back to
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: the awareness is growing. Since we're convenient, trial is growing
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: in frequency. So that's all part of the strategy of development.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: If you would brand.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, as you know, I visited the Willibrook location.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: It's beautiful. So so it sounds like you don't have
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: you know, a prototype, which which is pretty cool is
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: do you use an AUV number or do you talk
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: about a sales per square foot or maybe kind of both,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: just you know for our listeners.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: Sure so well, so generically, look, you've seen you twenty
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: three and we shared an ICR. Look we you know
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: twenty nineteen reverenced seven point seven. We're averaging about ten
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: point four million right now. Our demand hurdles. We're looking
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: at a demand of well over eight million before we
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: build a restaurant. So we're not trying to just plant flags.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: We're just brand building to make sure that those restaurants
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: do high volume. A lot of work goes into that,
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: and this is why we know our pipeline takes three
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: years to develop, and now we have three years of visibility.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: And you know, everything we just spoke to has been working.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: It's been in the works for eleven years. Nobody just
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: showed up and did it, and again for twenty six
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: years in America, and for brand leverage forty five years.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: So all that is just a continuation that we'd like
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: to say incrementally improving. So if you think about that,
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen or even before ten years ago, our
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: restaurants averaged about fourteen thousand square foot our eighteen thousand
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: square foot location in Manhattan. Now we're averaging about between
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: seven and eight thousand a foot and we're doing higher volumes,
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: so asset utilization's gone up. We've invest a lot of
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: design and engineering around redoing our entire kitchen to put
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: our attributes up front, the culinary attributes you see the
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Peninsula grill up front. We've layered some of the materials,
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: simplified our back of the house operation, built beautiful bar fogos.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Even if you've been to paramus, we've got the next
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: level lounge, so we use We've gone from about fifty
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: percent of our space being back of the house to
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: about twenty to twenty five percent, so our whole revenue
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: per square footage has just gone up by fifty percent.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: But we focus on revenue and experiences in space, So
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: we like to say we transform space with great design,
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: too great to make experiences more enjoyable. The operating model
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: overa is dove where we lack. Before there were big
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: boxes and the experience was lacking. So that's what we've
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: transformed the last six years in a new box. Like
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: you said, Willebrook and all that, those are timeless, warm
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: and approachable designs and they're more in a more suitable environment.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: What I love is you get to see the grill
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: and the chef do their art form and come out
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: and serve you. That's the part that we love.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Very cool. You know, we touched on the low turnover
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: rates that you have, So what percentage of the new
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: store gms are brought in from other Phogo restaurants.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: That's a great question every one of us all. So
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: we promote from within, even if we bring outside talent.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: We look they got to want to be part of it,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: to join the culture, be part of it. Because our
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: model is different. It's not like any other restaurant model.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: You've got to learn the guest flow, you got to
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: understand how the model works.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: It's very nuanced.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: So once you get it, it's a maturity curve and
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: I would say an experienced curve to get up there
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: to proficiency. Now we have high potential talent from outside
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: that gets it really quick. So it's really dependent on
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: an individual. But I'd say remember our GM's average with
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: us or over ten years. Our area directors are over
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: twenty years. Regional directors have been with us thirty so
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: that retention rate, a skill set and tho those we
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: call anybody who don GM or mentors, so that mentoring
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: is really critical. And that's why we say is we
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: don't our industry. We talk about labor. I always talk
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: about labor as an investment. We never talk about labor
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: as a cost. It's a percentage of P and L.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: But we every the way we think of as our
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: first dollar revenue goes to people. That's training, hiring, staffing,
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: and just what you said, how do you become a GM?
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: You got to invest in it every day, and because
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: we're growing, we can pull talent up from within and
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: it's really exciting to see.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: And I tell you we talked about development.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: So getting back to your human capital retention, we don't
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: build our human We don't build a site pipeline until
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: we have visibility for three years of our GM pipeline.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: The GM has to have succession underneath them. The assistant
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: manager has to have team members stepping up to their role.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: And so the continuity of leadership at every level cultivates
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: our culture, the experience, and then we open the restaurant.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: That's what we say.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: First dollar goes to team people, second dollar revenue goes
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: to guest experience. Third dollar, Hey, what are we doing
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: our community, our local store? And then we always say
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: what's left is we'll go back to Bay and ask
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: permission to a rigorous process to reinvest in a new restaurant.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: That's kind of how we approach the business. And by
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: the way, our gms know that model. That's why revenue
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: is the most important thing.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: That's very smart. And you know I work with publicly
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: traded companies, so I don't think they have the luxury
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: maybe of planning out their people plans before their actual
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: development plan. So kudos to you and the team that
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: that's very cool and not something I don't think I've
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: ever heard, and I've been in this business for quite
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: some time.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: It's as you know, we're in hospitality. People are most
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: important metrics. That's the thing that I think people forget.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: You can't engineer that out and say you've hit your margin.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: Well you got to fix your model, and you sterioally
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: need people to do it. If you take people out,
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: that's fine. Then go in the vending machine business.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: That's awesome for sure. Let's change years a little bit.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: How are you planning to boost Seamstar sales and traffic
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: this year? You have anything new in the pipeline?
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Sure, well, I would just say, you know, we've got
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: innovation that keeps coming. So the seasonal stuff we do. Obviously,
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: our indulgent platform we rolled out right before COVID with
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: our dry age Tomahawk took off like crazy and we
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: hit the pandemic. Now we'd also then we had wagu
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: and the pipeline, and again we did the opposite during
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: during COVID. We didn't take things away. We actually added
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: Wagoo and went upstream and just said, look, we're going
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: to focus on hospitality. We didn't change our dining rooms.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: We just focused on that. So that platform indulgent took
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: off during COVID, we expanded it, we had a Rabbi strip,
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: and then that platform just again really strong. So if
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: we think about that ramping, it's ramping into this year.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: Every year it's getting better. We're going to add a
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: new attribute to that. So we're testing this year whole
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: fresh seafood again. Our culinary attribute of slow roasting over
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: open flame creates a salty bark because all we do
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: is salt. Simply about how we butcher, We rest the meat,
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: we age it properly, and then slow roasted with salt.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: So that's the craveability that salty bark is a culinary
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: attribute we own. What we want to own is fresh
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: seafood is doing the same thing with oil and salt
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: and just blistering fish. So blistering and salty bark are
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: those cravable attributes that drive differentiation. So seafoods our next
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: big unlock fresh seafood. Excited about that. We're looking at Brenzeno,
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: but I'll keep you post on that. So we think
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: that's another I would say, a frequency driver, another way
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: to indulge and or just have a pescatarian and you
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: know this might be our product line.
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: No menu.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: We can accommodate any diet tribe. They're vegetarian, you're keito,
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: your pescatarian. We're just rounding that out and that's part
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: of the joy. And again that goes back to our
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: demographic eighty seven percent millennial gen Z, forty two percent female,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: a very ethnic group. And we have a family segment
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: of it too, about twenty six percent of our uses family.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: So all that demographics opposite of steakhouse. So when you
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: drive this innovation goes back to Cajun celebration. Again, food
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: discovery all the time within what we do. So that's
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: a ramp, indulgent ramp. And then we do we're doing
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: wine dinners. This is only our second year. This is
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: starting our third year and twenty four wind dinners. Those
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: are growing immensely. We do four year, We're probably going
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: to eventually go to six. But those wine dinners and
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: our bar events we do monthly are bringing in about
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: forty to fifty percent of the use. It's our new people,
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: new to our new trial. So that's a huge I
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: would say strategic advantage of driving occasions for somebody who
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: is aware but hadn't tried, so it becomes an entry
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: point of trial. And again you take those bar events
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: of wine and wagou whiskey and dry age, or you
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: go to you know, our VK Wind Dinner which is priced,
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: you know, value pricing compared to everybody else's wind inner,
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: and you get the full complement, strong value. But you
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: learn about great South American minds or great California wines,
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: and those are still ramping and they're meaningful because as
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: you know, our our liquor mix is about fourteen percent
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: because of our velocity, right we turn a table in
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: an hour, but our bar foco platforms new and growing,
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: so fourteen percent liquor mix. And our new restaurants like
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: Wilbrook and you tried that and Paramise, they're averaging close
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: to twenty. So the new design, the new training, so
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: we know that's a ramp lift. Our private I would
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: say large group is about fourteen percent as well. We
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: have peers doing twenty twenty five percent. So we're just
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: now starting on that with the new design, a better.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: Space, new new equipment.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: And fully staffed sales team, which we staffed during the COVID.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: We totally ramped up with that and all that's paying off.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: So we think that's going to grow to about twenty
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: percent as well. So all that is, you know, tailwinds
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: to the brand. So excited about that side.
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: Of the innovation.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Good stuff. Everybody loves a good wine dinner.
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: I know I do. That's right by the way.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: South America wind is all half price. You got to
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: try a bottle of Milkala, It's ninety seven rated, it's
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: half price. It's best way to have wine. So all day,
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: happy are on South America.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: All right, I have to check that out. That's good stuff.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: All right. I think we're going to wrap it up there.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Thanks again, Where where can the audience go to find
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: a nearboat nearby? Fogo? And what social media platforms is
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: the brand big on?
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: So we're big on Instagram again. Brand love is big
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: and again and well I love it. You'll see our
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: consumer's voice advocates of our brand. So just you know,
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: you could see a lot of brand on socially, so
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: obviously Instagram is big for us. And then I would
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: just say for the best way is just go fogo
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: dot com and you know we'll put all the latest
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: news and where we're going next and love to host
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: you there. Look forward to seeing you, Mike. You're going
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: to get an invite to all these openings opening up,
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: but you're welcome anytime. But appreciate all your time and
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: thanks for all you do for our industry and you
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: always appreciate your insights.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Sure thing. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that World Trade
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: Center opening for sure. I'd like to thank the audience
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: for tuning in. If you like the episode, please share
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: with your friends and colleagues. Check back in a couple
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: of weeks. I'll be having a discussion with executive consultant
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Ray Johnson.