J. Alexander's Holdings, Inc. Reports Results for Fourth Quarter and Full Year Ended December 29, 2019

J. Alexander’s Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: JAX) (the Company), owner and operator of J. Alexander’s, Redlands Grill, Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill and other restaurants, reported results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 29, 2019.

Fourth Quarter 2019 Highlights Compared To The Fourth Quarter Of 2018

• Net sales for the fourth quarter of 2019 were $63,439,000, up from $63,205,000 reported in the fourth quarter of 2018.
• Income from continuing operations before income taxes totaled $1,753,000 for the fourth quarter of 2019, including the impact of transaction, contested proxy and other related expenses of $410,000 related to the ongoing evaluation of strategic alternatives. This compares to a loss from continuing operations before income taxes of $470,000 in the fourth quarter of 2018, which included the impact of transaction, contested proxy and other related expenses of $4,715,000, of which $4,560,000 related to the termination fee for a consulting agreement between Black Knight Advisory Services, LLC (“Black Knight”) and the Company.
• The Company recorded net income of $2,030,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to net income of $934,000 reported in the final quarter of 2018, which was impacted by the same factors as previously noted affecting income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes. Results for the most recent quarter included an income tax benefit of $330,000 compared to an income tax benefit of $1,524,000 in the fourth quarter of 2018.
• Basic and diluted earnings per share were $0.14 for the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to $0.06 for the fourth quarter of 2018.
• Average weekly same store sales per restaurant ⁽¹⁾ for the fourth quarter of 2019 were down 0.4% to $114,100 for the J. Alexander’s/Grill restaurants and down 2.0% to $83,700 for the Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill restaurants compared to the final quarter of 2018.
• Adjusted EBITDA ⁽²⁾ was $6,960,000, or 11.0% of net sales, in the fourth quarter of 2019, compared to $7,364,000, or 11.7% of net sales, in the fourth quarter of 2018.
• Restaurant Operating Profit Margin ⁽³⁾ was 12.2% in the most recent quarter compared to 12.8% for the fourth quarter of 2018.
• Cost of sales as a percentage of net sales in the fourth quarter of 2019 was 32.9% compared to 32.7% in the final quarter of 2018.

The Company’s restaurant labor and related costs as a percentage of net sales were 30.5% in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to 30.4% of net sales in the fourth quarter of 2018. Other restaurant operating expenses were 19.6% of net sales in the last quarter of 2019 compared to 19.5% of net sales in the same quarter of 2018.

The average weekly guest counts within the same store base of the Company’s J. Alexander’s/Grill restaurants were down 2.2% in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to the fourth quarter of 2018. Guest counts within the same store base at the Company’s Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill restaurants were down 1.6% for the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to the final quarter of 2018. With respect to average guest checks, which include alcoholic beverage sales, the average guest check within the J. Alexander’s/Grill same store base of restaurants during the fourth quarter of 2019 was $33.06, up 1.7% from $32.51 recorded during the fourth quarter of 2018. The average guest check within the same store base of Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill restaurants was $43.92 during the last quarter of 2019, down 0.3% from $44.05 recorded in the final quarter of 2018.

On a consolidated basis, average weekly guest counts within the Company’s J. Alexander’s/Grill locations in the fourth quarter of 2019 were down 2.8% from the fourth quarter of 2018, while average weekly guest counts within the Company’s Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill locations decreased 2.2% for the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to the same quarter a year earlier. Average guest checks on a consolidated basis for the J. Alexander’s/Grill restaurants increased 1.8% from $32.52 in the last quarter of 2018 to $33.10 for the fourth quarter of 2019. Average guest checks for the Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill restaurants decreased 0.7% from $43.72 in the fourth quarter of 2018 to $43.42 in the fourth quarter of 2019.

The effect of menu pricing for the fourth quarter of 2019 was estimated to be a 1.7% increase for the J. Alexander’s/Grill restaurants and a 2.2% increase for the Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill restaurants compared to the last quarter of 2018. For the J. Alexander’s/Grill restaurants, management estimated that inflation in total food costs was 1.9% for the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to the same quarter in 2018, and beef costs were determined to have increased by an estimated 7.6% compared to the same quarter of the prior year. For the Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill restaurants, inflation for the fourth quarter of 2019 was estimated to total 2.3%, with beef costs up by 8.6% from the comparable quarter of 2018.

Chief Executive Officer’s Comments

“Several of the issues addressed in our last quarterly release, including continued competitive intrusion into certain markets, disruption of traffic patterns in selected locations related to ongoing construction surrounding our restaurants and the switchover from OpenTable to the Resy platform for our reservation system, continued to impact our total top line performance in the fourth quarter of 2019,” said Mark A. Parkey, President and Chief Executive Officer of J. Alexander’s Holdings, Inc.

“On the positive side,” Parkey pointed out, “we continue to be pleased with the progress and sales trends of our newer J. Alexander’s/Grill restaurants, all of which posted significant guest count increases in the fourth quarter of 2019. We are also encouraged with the strong initial performance of our newest restaurant, Merus Grill, which opened in Houston, TX, in November of 2019.”

Parkey explained that the Company’s new Resy reservation system operated for its first full quarter in the three months ended December 29, 2019. “While we estimate guest counts were negatively impacted by approximately 0.3% in the last quarter due to this initiative, we also estimate savings of approximately $225,000 in our operating expense line for the fourth quarter as a result.” Parkey said that the Company anticipated some short-term interruption in guest counts from the changeover in certain markets, but that the impact is not expected to have a long-term impact on guest counts and should result in significant long-term margin expansion from the related cost savings.

Parkey said that beef input prices were up during the fourth quarter of 2019 as compared to the prior year fourth quarter for both the J. Alexander’s / Grill and Stoney River concepts. “We experienced pressure on certain input prices, particularly for beef, which contributed to increased cost of sales. We took a small price increase in certain markets on beef products late in the fourth quarter in order to combat these increased input costs, and we believe we have room to take additional increases in most of our markets in fiscal 2020.”

Parkey continued, “While our long-term outlook remains positive, we, along with others in our industry, are concerned about the disruption to the business that the COVID-19 outbreak has caused and will continue to closely monitor the impact on the financial markets, business travel, spending patterns, and overall consumer confidence. We remain cautiously optimistic that the impact to our top-line performance will be relatively short-term, but cannot predict with certainty how any actions taken by government officials, including mandatory quarantines, may affect our results for fiscal 2020 . Fiscal 2020 will be a 53-week year, and will contain the benefit of New Year’s Eve, which is typically one of our highest volume days of the year, in both the first quarter and the fourth quarter of the year.”

Parkey further stated that the Company has elected not to provide formal guidance for fiscal 2020 in light of both the ongoing evaluation of strategic alternatives as well as the uncertain consumer environment. “The Company’s management and Board of Directors remain committed to working to maximize value for our shareholders. As part of the Board's most recent efforts in evaluating strategic alternatives for the Company, the Company retained Piper Sandler as its financial advisor. Since August, the Board's directive to Piper has been to focus its efforts primarily on finding a buyer for the entire Company. While the Company remains engaged in discussions with several interested parties, the Board believes that the uncertainties in both consumer sentiment and the financial markets caused by the COVID-19 outbreak make it relatively less likely that a satisfactory agreement with respect to both price and conditionality will be reached imminently. The Company expects to continue discussions and provide information to these interested parties and is hopeful that an agreement will be reached as these uncertainties are resolved. Of course, there can be no assurance that a transaction agreement will ultimately be reached. In recognition of this period of uncertainty, the Board has extended the timetable for shareholder nominations for the two Board seats up for election at this year‘s annual meeting. The new deadline will be April 21, 2020, a 30-day extension from the current date.”

Full Year Highlights For 2019

For the full year ended December 29, 2019, the Company recorded net sales of $247,269,000, up 2.1% from $242,264,000 posted in the previous full year. Within the J. Alexander’s/Grill restaurants, average weekly same store sales per restaurant were $113,400 for the year ended December 29, 2019, a decrease of 0.4% from $113,800 achieved for fiscal 2018. For the Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill restaurants, average weekly same store sales per restaurant were $79,500 for fiscal 2019, the same as posted in fiscal 2018.

Income from continuing operations before income taxes for fiscal 2019 increased to $8,485,000 from $2,862,000 reported in fiscal 2018. Included in results for fiscal 2019 were transaction, contested proxy and other related expenses of $1,178,000. This compares to transaction, contested proxy and other related expenses of $5,648,000 in fiscal 2018, which included the previously discussed termination fee of $4,560,000 related to the management consulting agreement with Black Knight. In addition, fiscal 2018 included non-cash profits interest expense of $2,644,000 and consulting fees of $703,000 associated with the now terminated Black Knight consulting agreement. No such expenses were recorded in 2019.

The Company recorded net income of $8,817,000 in fiscal 2019, up from $3,999,000 reported in fiscal 2018. Adjusted EBITDA for 2019 totaled $25,616,000, or 10.4% of net sales. This compares to $25,622,000, or 10.6% of net sales, achieved in 2018. Basic and diluted earnings per share totaled $0.60 in 2019 compared to $0.27 for both basic and diluted earnings per share in 2018. See attached “Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation” for our definition of Adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation to net income.

The average weekly guest counts within the same store base of J. Alexander’s/Grill restaurants decreased by 1.9% for fiscal 2019 and decreased by 0.2% within the Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill restaurants during 2019. The average guest check within the same store base at the J. Alexander’s/Grill restaurants increased 1.5% from $31.97 for 2018 to $32.44 for 2019. The average guest check within the same store base at the Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill restaurants increased by 0.1% from $42.77 in 2018 to $42.82 in 2019. The effect of menu price increases for 2019 was estimated to be 0.9% at J. Alexander’s/Grill restaurants, and 1.3% at the Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill restaurants compared to 2018.

Cost of sales as a percentage of net sales for 2019 was 32.1% compared to 31.9% for 2018. The estimated effect of inflation in food costs for 2019 was 1.4% for the J. Alexander’s/Grill restaurants, with beef costs up by 3.9% compared to 2018. For the Stoney River Steakhouse and Grill restaurants, the effect of inflation in food costs for 2019 was estimated to be 1.6% with beef costs up by 4.4% compared to 2018.

Restaurant Development

During the fourth quarter of 2019, the Company opened one new J. Alexander’s/Grill restaurant in Houston, TX. This restaurant, located in Uptown Park, marks the first location opened by the Company operating under the name Merus Grill.

The Company also has plans to open a new Redlands Grill in San Antonio, TX, at the end of the third quarter of 2020. Early in the first quarter of 2020, the Company signed a lease to build and operate a new J. Alexander’s Restaurant in Madison, AL, one of the fastest growing markets in the state. This new J. Alexander’s restaurant is scheduled to open during the fourth quarter of 2020.

(1) Average weekly same store sales per restaurant is computed by dividing total restaurant same store sales for the period by the total number of days all same store restaurants were open for the period to obtain a daily sales average. The daily same store sales average is then multiplied by seven to arrive at average weekly same store sales per restaurant. Days on which restaurants are closed for business for any reason other than scheduled closures on Thanksgiving and Christmas are excluded from this calculation. Sales and sales days used in this calculation and amounts of other “same store” figures in this release include only those for restaurants in operation at the end of the period which have been open for more than 18 months. Revenue associated with reduction in liabilities for gift cards, which is recognized in proportion to guest redemptions based on historical redemption rates and commonly referred to as gift card breakage, is not included in the calculation of average weekly same store sales per restaurant. Average weekly same store sales are computed from sales amounts that have been determined in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

(2) Please refer to the financial information accompanying this release for our definition of and a reconciliation of the non?GAAP financial measure Adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss). Management uses Adjusted EBITDA to evaluate operating performance and the effectiveness of its business strategies.

(3) “Restaurant Operating Profit Margin” is the ratio of Restaurant Operating Profit, a non-GAAP financial measure, to net sales. Please refer to the financial information accompanying this release for our definition of and a reconciliation of the non?GAAP financial measure Restaurant Operating Profit to Operating Income. Management uses Restaurant Operating Profit to measure operating performance at the restaurant level.

About J. Alexander’s Holdings, Inc.

J. Alexander’s Holdings, Inc. is a collection of restaurants that focus on providing high quality food, outstanding professional service and an attractive ambiance. The Company presently operates 47 restaurants in 16 states. The Company has its headquarters in Nashville, TN.