BJ's Restaurants, Inc. Reports Financial Results for the Third Quarter of Fiscal 2009

BJ's Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ: BJRI) today reported financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 ending Tuesday, September 29, 2009.

Total revenues for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 increased approximately 8.5% to $103.9 million compared to $95.8 million for the same quarter last year. Comparable restaurant sales decreased by 1.6% during the third quarter of fiscal 2009 compared to a decrease of 1.0% during the same quarter last year. Net income and diluted net income per share for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 increased approximately 55% to $3.2 million and 50% to $0.12, respectively, compared to the same quarter last year.

"Our leadership team was very pleased that BJ's continued its forward momentum during the third quarter, despite the significant pressures created by the ongoing economic recession," commented Jerry Deitchle, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We were also pleased that our comparable restaurant sales once again outperformed the widely-followed Knapp-Track(TM) benchmark survey for casual dining comparable sales, which we believe will report an estimated decrease of at least 6% for the third quarter. We believe that our comparatively strong sales are the result of our steadily improving restaurant level operational execution, combined with favorable consumer response to our marketing and promotional programs that focus on the communication of BJ's everyday value and our new products and services.'

'We expect that the tough economy will continue to keep pressure on guest traffic for the upcoming quarter and into 2010, particularly when considering that approximately two-thirds of our restaurants are located in states with unemployment rates that are currently higher than the national average,' said Deitchle. 'Nevertheless, BJ's will work hard to control what we can control and to outperform our peers. We will continue to make prudent investments in the quality of our food, beverages, facilities and - most important - our restaurant management talent. By doing so, we intend to emerge from the recession as an even stronger concept and company. With only 89 restaurants opened today, we remain confident in BJ's ability to achieve steady market share gains over time in the estimated $80 billion casual dining segment of the restaurant industry."

The Company has successfully opened seven new restaurants to date during fiscal 2009. Three additional new restaurants are under construction and all are expected to open before Thanksgiving. As such, the Company will achieve its originally targeted 15% to 16% increase in total restaurant operating weeks for the year. Based on the current status of its new restaurant development pipeline, the Company expects to open as many as 10 to 11 new restaurants during fiscal 2010 and has thereby set a preliminary targeted increase in total restaurant operating weeks in the range of 13% to 14% for next year. 'We believe that BJ's is one of just a few publicly-held casual dining restaurants companies that achieved double-digit capacity growth during 2009, and that also plans to achieve that level of growth during 2010,' commented Deitchle. Investors are reminded that the actual number and timing of new restaurant openings for any given period is subject to a number of factors outside of the Company's control, including weather conditions and factors under the control of landlords, contractors and regulatory/licensing authorities.

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