Business
Bloomin’ Brands Provides Interim Business Update Related to COVID-19
Reports Strengthening Sales Trends and Cash Flow Announces 2020 Q2 Financial Results TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLMN)
About this update from Bloomin' Brands, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\nReports Strengthening Sales Trends and Cash Flow\n\n\nAnnounces 2020 Q2 Financial Results\n\n TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nBloomin’ Brands, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLMN) today announced a business update related to COVID-19 as well as second quarter 2020 financial results.\n\n\nStatement from David Deno, Chief Executive Officer\n\n\nOur priorities remain unchanged as we continue to address these challenging times. We are focused on taking care of our people and serving food in a safe environment that protects both our Team Members and customers.\n\n\nThe investments made over the past several years to enhance the customer experience and rapidly pursue the emerging delivery opportunity have been critical to our success in navigating this pandemic. At the onset of this pandemic in March, we were able to quickly pivot to an off-premises only business model as dining rooms were forced to close. The rapid growth we experienced in off-premises sales allowed us to keep substantially all of our locations open during this time.\n\n\nStarting in May, states began the process of partially re-opening their economies. Our decision to not furlough any employees during this pandemic has allowed us to quickly prepare our restaurants to re-open dining rooms in a safe and efficient manner. As of July 19, 2020, 928 company-operated restaurants (approximately 92% of U.S. restaurants) have reopened with limited in-restaurant dining capacity. At Outback Steakhouse, we had 527 restaurants open for dine-in service at limited capacity during the full week ended July 19, 2020. Comparable restaurant sales at these locations were down 10.7% from the prior year. Across our U.S. portfolio, we experienced consistent weekly sales momentum throughout the second quarter as we adapted to this evolving environment. This improved sales recovery, coupled with disciplined cost management, enabled us to generate positive cash flow for the month of June.\n\n\nRecently, there has been a significant increase in reported COVID cases in certain states, including Florida and Texas, where we have a total of 286 company-owned locations. This has resulted in some local governments responding by taking additional measures, including implementing a further reduction of in-restaurant capacity in certain locations. Although this is a developing situation, to this point these capacity r...