Business
Noodles & Company Releases Preliminary Unaudited Fiscal Third Quarter 2020 Sales Results
Company-Owned Comparable Year-Over-Year Restaurant Sales Increase 1.1% During 5-Week Fiscal Period Ended September 29th; Balance Sheet Strengthened to Support
About this update from Noodles & Company
[{"type":"text","content":"Company-Owned Comparable Year-Over-Year Restaurant Sales Increase 1.1% During 5-Week Fiscal Period Ended September 29th;\n Balance Sheet Strengthened to Support Accelerated Unit Growth BROOMFIELD, Colo., Oct. 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Noodles & Company (Nasdaq: NDLS) today released preliminary unaudited sales results for the third fiscal quarter ended September 29, 2020. “I continue to be proud of the outstanding efforts of our teams and the resiliency of the Noodles & Company brand that has been demonstrated during the past several months,” said Dave Boennighausen, Chief Executive Officer. “Our return to positive comparable sales, aided by impressive digital growth, is evidence of our strong brand positioning to meet the needs of today's consumer for great tasting healthy food served conveniently where and when guests want it. We also took steps during the third quarter to further strengthen our balance sheet during the quarter and have set our business up for accelerated new unit growth.” Boennighausen concluded \"I am particularly proud of our sales performance in this environment given that only in the past few days have many of our restaurants re-opened for in-restaurant dining to complement our off-premise and patio dining efforts. As of September 30th, over 90% of our restaurants have opened their dining rooms.\" The cadence of comparable restaurant sales and average unit volumes during the third quarter are as set forth below. Company-owned restaurants were closed July 4 and 5, 2020 in appreciation of our teams’ efforts during the pandemic. All restaurants were open during that time frame in 2019, negatively impacting comparable restaurant sales during the same period in 2020: Comparable Restaurant Sales 4 Weeks EndedJuly 28, 2020 (1) 4 Weeks Ended August 25, 2020 5 Weeks Ended September 29, 2020Company-owned (8.4)% (4.6)% 1.1%Franchise (7.2)% (5.1)% (3.2)%System-wide (8.2)% (4.7)% 0.4% _____________________ (1) Company-owned restaurants were closed July 4 and July 5, 2020. Expected Fiscal Third Quarter 2020 Sales Highlights Full third quarter system-wide comparable sales decreased 3.8%, comprised of a 3.6% decrease at company-owned restaurants and a 5.0% decrease at franchise restaurants.Full third quarter company-owned average unit volumes were flat versus prior year at $1.2 million.Company-owned comparable sales in...