Papa John’s reports Q2 EPS 59c, consensus 59c

Reports Q2 revenue $514.5M, consensus $532.17..”We are pleased with the solid execution that our teams have demonstrated in what continues to be a challenging operating environment,” said Rob Lynch, President and CEO. “Our company restaurants continued their strong performance with positive comp sales growth and year-over-year margin improvement above and beyond the benefits of moderating food costs. However, this solid performance was not enough to offset the lower-than-anticipated comps our franchisees experienced during the quarter. That being said, our entire system saw sequential sales improvement throughout the quarter with positive North America comp sales in June. This positive momentum has carried over, and accelerated, into the third quarter and we expect it to continue as we optimize our system’s revenue management strategies and expand one of our most popular pizza platforms with the recent introduction of Garlic Epic Stuffed Crust Pizza.” Commenting on the Company’s International operations, Lynch stated, “Our international business is a long-term growth driver for Papa Johns. We’ve recently established a corporate-owned restaurant portfolio in the UK, our largest international market, allowing us to build a similar success model to the one we’ve created in the US. This model accelerates our ability to scale our company’s capabilities with franchisees in the UK, and worldwide, to grow comps and new unit development. While we know there will be macro-economic challenges ahead, particularly in the short term, we’re confident that we can improve sales and profitability within our UK market, and in our international segment overall.”