EAT
#<UNK>, it's really interesting, because normally if you were to issue a coupon and it was redeemed at your restaurant there's an expense related to that.
Here we hope everyone would come in and redeem their Plenti points, because when they are redeemed actually it's a revenue source to us, because it's a third-party, the whole Plenti organization, and a coalition of companies that fund the points.
When they are redeemed in any establishment or for any purpose, it's a cash inflow.
So for us that's a great situation as we anticipate that we'll be a net redeemer and use of points for consumers and our guests.
Yes, they would be redeemable for any product that would be on our menu.
As we get closer towards the launch of the program we'll provide a whole lot more details on the structure and how we see it rolling out.
Yes, that's exactly it.
If someone redeemed 100 points, that value we would get back as a cash income.
(multiple speakers) accurate but we just refined our focus this quarter.
What we were referring to last quarter was oil states, and that does include markets that are not really impacted as much by oil.
So we just refined the discussion to looking at specific market areas where restaurants and the whole area is more impacted by the oil and energy economy.
So a little bit different basis, but the sequential numbers I gave you were on this consistent basis.
Yes, we do understand exactly where we stand with all three agencies and where our metrics are, related to the ranges for a BBB- investment-grade credit.
We're basically pretty comfortable with where we're at in that range.
Hey, <UNK>; Wyman.
Again, a lot of it just stayed home.
Again, these markets are under a little bit more economic pressure, so we don't think ---+ we don't have total visibility like we would on a national scale; but based on just anecdotal and what we're seeing in those markets the primary shift wasn't to a competitor.
Because we also have visibility into the whole casual dining performance in these markets, and all casual diners were down.
So it really is a pullback from the consumer perspective just because of the impact that some of those bigger economic issues are having on the community.
Definitely not.
If you're thinking of the traditional sports bar that's not where we would be heading.
That's not core to Chili's equities.
But more of a gathering place, more of a place where people could connect, and again just bringing a little more energy and life to that.
That's really back to the history of the brand and how it really got started.
Well, Maggiano's had a great quarter towards the end.
A great holiday season.
What was really encouraging about the Maggiano's business, ---+ and as you know Maggiano's is, because of their location in malls primarily, holiday season and their banquet space usage, it's a big part of their year.
And they had a really strong holiday season.
Banquets were solid, and as I mentioned their delivery business was also really a bright spot, up double digits.
So that was ---+ it was a great holiday season for Maggiano's and regionally, again, pretty much performed across the board very well.
Thanks, <UNK>.
There are some, but they are pretty nominal in the grand scheme of the program.
There's a small participation fee and some normal, frankly, fees related to marketing that we'd be performing or paying anyway, just to other providers.
So it's really the cost of points we'd be issuing and then the benefit of the redemptions.
Sure.
Yes, Jeff; thanks.
We track our brand, well, obviously internally with some of the best guest metrics in the industry, but also externally through syndicated but also through some proprietary tracking that we have out there and research that we do ourselves.
And all of the data is coming back telling us that the brand is in as good a shape if not better than it's ever been, at least in the last five years.
So we continue to monitor, looking especially close at how our food scores and how our value proposition is holding up.
The value proposition especially in these times.
And we're not just measuring ourselves; we're measuring the competitive set and some benchmark competitors that we think set the standard in some of these aspects of the business.
So that is what is at the base of our thinking that the challenges we're faced with right now really are probably more on the more tactical aspect of the business and then dealing again with some of these regional things.
I think that when you compare, like you just did, to the franchise community, which has not rolled loyalty and has not got some of the regional headwinds that we've talked about, you get a pretty good sense for what the difference could be.
Obviously, we see that in some of our own markets, as <UNK> mentioned, California, Florida.
Now all of them need to close the gap to the industry and perform better, but the absolute difference is encouraging and really, I think, speaks to the strength of the brand.
We don't talk about intra-period results, so won't really talk about what the trends are so far in the third quarter.
But what we have reiterated is as we think about what it's going to take to turn sales trends around in the back half, we've got those more compelling marketing message, less of a headwind with regard to loyalty ---+ actually some tailwind pushing us through ---+ and easier comps to lap over.
So those are probably the three primary things.
We also think some of the regional opportunities are going to be less.
That we've been dealing with them now for a while and some of those will start to lap.
It would be off of the adjusted EPS number, yes.
That's correct.
All right.
Well, we want to thank you for taking time to be on the call with us today.
We've got some work ahead of us, but we have the utmost confidence in our brands.
We've proven time and time again that these brands are powerful and that they can deliver the kind of results that we have in the past and that we're projecting to deliver in the future, specifically our new target with our Vision 2020 of 10% to 15% earnings per share growth through the next few years.
So we're excited about [accounts] seeing those results for our shareholders and we also look forward to talking to you again on our next call in April.
So, thank you very much.
Thank you, Paul and that is it.
We'll talk to everybody on April 19.
Thank you.
