Chanticleer Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:
BURG)
(“Chanticleer” or the “Company”), owner, operator, and franchisor
of multiple nationally recognized restaurant brands, today provided
a comprehensive update from its management team, including its new
President Fred Glick, Chief Executive Officer Michael Pruitt, and
Chief Financial Officer Patrick Harkleroad.
Fred Glick - Chanticleer Holdings President
I am very pleased with our progress since I joined the team
approximately three months ago. I indicated when I joined that my
intention was to immediately hit the ground running and that’s
exactly what I’ve done. It’s been a busy, but very exciting and
rewarding few months here at Chanticleer Holdings. I believe this
early groundwork sets the stage for anticipated both tangible and
measurable results for shareholders.
An important part of this strong foundation for the future
included two new additions to our team in the accounting arena. I
could simply not be happier with our additions of both Patrick and
Troy. I am confident they will contribute to elevated financial
processes and accurate and timely financial statements, which
should enable our operations team to elevate Chanticleer’s
profitability targets.
Currently, we are deep in the process of updating the entire
people process, including recruiting, selecting, onboarding, career
pathing, training, ongoing development, retaining and engaging team
members at all levels with the ultimate goal of building loyal
guests and building sales and profits.
We updated our organizational chart and are currently finalizing
all job descriptions at every level of the company. In addition, we
completed an in-depth employee engagement survey where we received
over 400 responses from team members at all levels. Listening
to our teams’ needs is the start of our better managing guest count
trends. We have identified improvements from this survey,
including improving onboarding, training, and development as well
as improving benefits, rewards and recognition systems.
As for the strategic process, my first 30 days were spent
visiting over 50 Chanticleer locations across the country and
listening to as many of our shareholders and stakeholders as
possible. During the next 30 days, we held town hall meetings for
each brand we own with over 100 of our most important team leaders
– our unit level general managers and above store leadership to
determine the why, how and what of our business models as well as
discussing the shared values and behaviors that will be critical to
building operations.
Also, during the past six weeks, 18 of our top leaders and
corporate support team are reading, learning and teaching The 7
Habits of Highly Effective People as we all learn ground rules for
personal accountability, how to lead a principle centered life,
servant leadership, and common language around best in class
communications strategies. Again, we are starting with the
heart and then we will attack the head.
Finally, I am very pleased to announce our formal launch of a
guest segmentation study will kick off for our three burger brands,
including our franchisees within the next two weeks. The key
insights we gain from our guests will be the building blocks for
our core ideology, strategic planning and marketing strategies for
each brand. We are tentatively holding dates for our two-day
strategy sessions to write those strategic plans in April,
intending to roll operations tactics live in time for summer.
For operations, the biggest opportunity I see to build sales and
profits currently for our brands is a coherent strategy for the
growing delivery and take out marketplace. I believe the
biggest consumer trend driving change for our industry is the rapid
evolution from dining in to take out and delivery. Brands in all
segments, from Subway to Ruth Chris, must carefully navigate how to
get consumers their products how they want it, when they want it,
and now where they want it. This demand affects our entire
operation. New kitchen designs and expo areas with pick up
cubbies, timing standards for delivery, POS integration for the
many delivery companies, delivery driver access, short-term
parking, and delivery-specific menus are now table
stakes.
Substantial costs like reworking existing kitchens, up to 30%
delivery fees, delivery to POS integration, phone app and website
development and loyalty programs all must be synergized to develop
a successful program. Brands must choose how to meet the growing
demand for offsite and evolve or face eroding sales as guests
choose new options.
For our brands, the good news is we are already partnered with
Toast POS which has an open API and allows us to plug and play
technology accelerators. We are evaluating best in class loyalty
platforms like Punchh, Paytronix and Thanx that will help us craft
targeting marketing campaigns and build frequency and loyalty. We
are also analyzing platforms like Olo and Restaurant Revolution to
integrate those programs with delivery partners and our POS. We are
bidding our delivery partners and currently have one offer to
substantially reduce our delivery fees while at the same time
promoting our businesses on their platform
Patrick Harkleroad - Chanticleer Holdings Chief
Financial Officer
While still early in my tenure with the company, I’m very
pleased with our progress to date. I’ve been working closely with
Fred to create a culture of accountability and ownership across the
board – both from an operational and accounting standpoint. Troy
Shadoin, our Chief Accounting Officer, is leading the 10K, audit,
and SEC reporting, and already improving the year-end and audit
process significantly. Due to Troy’s leadership, we expect to
better manage our audit and tax fees associated with both the 10K
and audit.
Together, Troy and I met recently with our third-party
bookkeeping firm to evaluate the entire accounting process and have
collectively outlined opportunities where our team can improve our
internal processes to create more efficiencies and accountability.
We continue to evaluate all our policies and procedures to
determine where we can add value for Chanticleer.
Additionally, I am focused, side-by-side with Fred, on enhancing
our internal communication across departments, as well as building
a shared operational and accounting informational platform that
will build the institutional knowledge and idea-sharing across the
entire Chanticleer organization to drive consistency and a best
practices culture. Lastly, I am evaluating and reviewing all vendor
relationships to determine where there are opportunities to create
efficiencies and lower costs.
With our strong unit growth currently and in the future, I have
also been focused on understanding the weekly cash flow in detail
across all of our concepts. As such, we have developed a weekly
cash flow budget that will allow us, as a management team, to make
better, more informed decisions on managing the business.
We, as a management team, are also in the process of developing
a weekly dashboard that will support our partners in the field to
provide them more robust, real-time financial information to manage
each of their businesses more effectively.
I believe that in the short time that Troy and I have been at
Chanticleer, we are taking the right steps to move towards the goal
of building an, institutional level accounting and finance
department, that will be a resource for all our Stakeholders, from
our partners in the field to our Shareholders.
Mike Pruitt – Chief Executive Officer
I’d like to thank Fred and Patrick for the substantial value
they have already brought to Chanticleer. They have already proven
themselves as highly complementary to our existing team. I can
without hesitation say that never in the history of Chanticleer,
have I personally felt better about our executive team and the
value I believe we have the potential to create together. What Fred
has accomplished in just three short months is nothing less than
remarkable. His enthusiasm is infectious, and his hands-on
leadership has dramatically and favorably impacted employee morale.
From me personally, to our store level employees, there’s a sense
of empowerment and unity that we’ve never previously
experienced.
Complemented by our new CFO Patrick and our new CAO Troy
Shadoin, I believe we have put together an outstanding executive
team capable of stewarding the company’s future growth both
operationally and financially. Our new team will allow us to not
only reach much greater scale, but also to manage it absent a
considerable increase in SG&A.
I believe that the best days for Chanticleer are just ahead of
it. I look forward to continuing to work in concert with my fellow
members of our management team and board of directors, all on
behalf of our employees and shareholders.
Lastly, I’d like to congratulate our friend and Little Big
Burger partner Denny Hamlin on his recent victory in the Daytona
500. We appreciate him taking us along for the ride with mentions
of us during his Victory Lane speech as well as on CNBC’s The
Closing Bell. We look forward to continuing our relationship with
Denny, working together to market and expand the Little Big Burger
brand.
About Chanticleer Holdings, Inc.
Headquartered in Charlotte, NC, Chanticleer Holdings owns,
operates, and franchises fast, casual, and full-service restaurant
brands, including American Burger Company, BGR – Burgers Grilled
Right, Little Big Burger, Just Fresh, and Hooters. For more
information, please visit:
www.chanticleerholdings.com.
Forward-Looking Statements:
Any statements that are not historical facts contained in this
release are “forward-looking statements” as that term is defined
under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA),
which statements may be identified by words such as “expects,”
“plans,” “projects,” “will,” “may,” “anticipates,” “believes,”
“should,” “intends,” “estimates,” and other words of similar
meaning. Such forward-looking statements are based on current
expectations, involve known and unknown risks, a reliance on third
parties for information, transactions or orders that may be
cancelled, and other factors that may cause our actual results,
performance or achievements, or developments in our industry, to
differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or
achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially from anticipated results include risks and uncertainties
related to the fluctuation of global economic conditions, the
performance of management and our employees, our ability to obtain
financing or required licenses, competition, general economic
conditions and other factors that are detailed in our periodic
reports and on documents we file from time to time with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements
contained in this press release speak only as of the date the
statements were made, and the companies do not undertake any
obligation to update forward-looking statements. We intend that all
forward-looking statements be subject to the safe-harbor provisions
of the PSLRA.
Contact Information:
Investor Relations Jason Assad 678-570-6791
Ja@chanticleerholdings.com
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