An increase in transactions and strong sales across all dayparts helped drive a systemwide same-store sales increase of 7.3 percent for the Jack in the Box chain during the July 5-ended third quarter, parent company Jack in the Box Inc. said Wednesday.
At Jack in the Box’s company units, same-store sales increased 5.5 percent, with a 7.9 percent increase posted by franchise restaurants.
Transactions drove about 30 percent of the company growth, and sales were strong at all dayparts, but particularly at breakfast and dinner, followed closely by late night, the company said.
Sister brand Qdoba Mexican Grill reported a same-store sales increase of 7.7 percent systemwide, with company units up 6.6 percent and franchised locations up 9 percent.
Qdoba benefited from the shift to a simplified pricing structure that drove up the average check, along with double-digit increases in catering sales.
Transactions for Qdoba, however, were down 1.1 percent for the quarter, the company said.
Lenny Comma, Jack in the Box Inc.’s chair and CEO, said in a statement, “We’re pleased with our third-quarter performance, which culminated in a 17-percent increase in operating earnings per share resulting from solid same-store sales growth and margin expansion at both Jack in the Box and Qdoba Mexican Grill. We continued to use our growing free cash flow to return cash to shareholders, and recently amended our credit facility to provide us with more than $400 million of additional borrowing capacity to support our strategic priorities.”
Net earnings were $26.8 million, or 71 cents per diluted share, up 8.5 percent from $24.7 million, or 61 cents per diluted share, a year ago.
Adjusting for charges related to the closure of 62 Qdoba restaurants in late 2013, earnings from continuing operations were $28.4 million, or 75 cents per diluted share, compared with $26.1 million, or 64 cents per diluted share, a year ago.
Revenues totaled $359.5 million, compared with $348.5 million a year ago.
For the year, the company expects same-store sales to increase between 5 percent to 5.5 percent at Jack in the Box company restaurants, and 8 percent to 8.5 percent at company-owned Qdoba units.
Between 15 and 20 new Jack in the Box restaurants are expected to open in 2015, as well as 40 to 45 new Qdoba units. Of the latter, 15 to 20 will be company owned.
Jack in the Box Inc., based in San Diego, ended the quarter with 2,248 Jack in the Box and 648 Qdoba restaurants in the U.S., Guam and Canada.
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