You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: I'm joined by John Peyton, CEO; Allison Hall, Interim CFO and Controller; Jay Johns, President of IHOP; and John Cywinski, President of Applebee's.
I'll start by saying it's an honor for me to join Dine Brands.
I believe in Dine Brands because I believe in restaurants.
Restaurants are essential to strong communities and human connection and people appreciate that now more than ever before.
I believe we're on the cusp of the restaurant renaissance.
And as we enter what we expect to be the beginning of the end of the pandemic, all restaurants face the common challenge and that's the eating out in America has changed.
Those will win in the new era of restaurants are those who remained resilient and those who invested in new menu and service innovations and new technology during 2020.
And that's the story of Dine Brands.
We have solid fundamentals, two category-leading iconic brands and certainly the most talented team members and franchisees in the industry.
Let me pause and tell you a bit about my story.
As a teen, I worked in my parent's restaurant.
It was called the [Indecipherable] Philadelphia and I was certainly humbled and stunned by the almost 24/7 demands required at my parents'.
After college, I went on to work as a consultant for PwC, I then was at Starwood Hotels and most recently at Realogy.
I joined Dine because I believe in the power and lure of strong brands.
20 years ago, a mentor of mine who was a marketing wizard, taught me that brands win when they're different, better and special.
And our brands are truly different, better and special.
IHOP, for example, is a pancake obsessed breakfast innovator that makes the most important meal of the day, also the most fun.
And Applebee's embodies what it means to be all American and locally relevant.
We call that Eatin' Good in the Neighborhood.
In other words, Applebee's and IHOP are iconic brands that connect in an emotional way with our guests.
And that's important because we know restaurants are essential to the fabric of community and human connections.
I also like our business model.
We're 98% franchise and asset light.
We are a significant generator of cash.
Our franchise model helps buffer us from fluctuations in the market and our model generally requires less significant investments of capital and it allows those who are best operating restaurants or franchisee owners to do so with our support.
My 20-plus years at Starwood and Realogy taught me that successful franchising requires true partnership and that we work hard every day to ensure that our independent franchisees build valuable businesses that create generational wealth.
So over the last two months, I've been on the move.
I've conducted a deep dive across the Company, learning more and more about our brands and Dine's dynamic corporate culture.
So far, I've spoken with 40 franchisees in the U.S. and around the world and they represent 50% of the Applebee's system and more than a third of our IHOP restaurants.
I've also connected with our suppliers and our vendors and our team members.
I visited our restaurants, and our test kitchens.
And I can report that our network is aligned and is desired to grow and to invest and to win.
Now, despite the impact of the pandemic, Dine's fundamentals remain solid.
You may recall that in March of 2020, S&P placed the Company's whole business securitization notes on credit watch-negative as it did with two other whole business securitizations in our industry at that time.
Six months later, S&P removed our notes in credit watch and reaffirmed our BBB rating.
Dine was the only issuer of the series and not have its notes downgraded or remain on credit watch due to the pandemic.
S&P's decision last fall was a greatest achievement for Dine and illustrates that our fundamentals remain strong.
And because we emerged in 2020 on sound financial footing, we plan to repay in full the $220 million drawn from our revolver last March.
We expect to complete the repayment this month, resulting in interest expense savings of approximately $5 million.
In addition to strong fundamentals, we have passionate franchisees who remain in very good standing.
Our collection rate for royalty and marketing fees stands at approximately 99% and the fees we deferred during Q2 of last year are being paid back according to schedule.
And in addition to our fabulous franchisees, importantly, both brands are led by veteran executive team with exceptional experience and industry knowledge.
You'll hear from Jay and John shortly and it's their expertise and collective wisdom that truly paid off via their extraordinary stewardship of the brands in our franchisees throughout the challenge of 2020.
So looking ahead, we're anticipating rebound in the second half of the year, driven primarily by increases in vaccination rates.
Overall weekly sales trends for both brands have also improved since the week ending January 3 of 2021, Applebee's improving by approximately 8 percentage points and IHOP posted gains of about 6 points.
We're also encouraged by our off-premise business.
Both brands maintained off-premise sales of approximately one-third of total sales during the fourth quarter and we view off-premise dining as a new consumer behavior that will live beyond the pandemic.
We're continuing to invest in technology to support our growing off-premise business and we're certainly optimistic about the outlook for Applebee's and IHOP because during times of crisis, guests just like me, and just like you look to brands we trust and if restaurant guests return to indoor dining, guests will trust that our franchisees and restaurant team and IHOP and Applebee's are committed to their health and safety.
So taken collectively, these fundamentals uniquely position Dine Brands to endure the challenges brought on by the pandemic and position us for long-term sustainable growth.
Our team is focused on three objectives over the next 12 months to 24 months.
The first is to navigate what we believe is the beginning of the end of the crisis.
The second is to win the recovery and win the new normal that follows.
And the third is to evaluate long-term growth vehicles.
So allow me to share a bit of my thinking about each of those.
First is to navigate the beginning of the end of the crisis.
Of course, we'll continue to monitor and protect cash and we will also focus on continuous improvement in operational health and safety standards in our restaurants.
We're preparing compelling marketing campaigns and new products to drive the recovery growth and we are working intensely to ensure the financial health of our franchisees.
Second, we'll win the recovery and win the new normal by leveraging our recent investments in business and consumer insights, CRM and digital to reactivate our guests via one-to-one and highly targeted marketing and we'll realign our menu to reflect learnings in the past 12 months and we'll reset the channel mix to reflect those earnings as well.
And third, we'll continue to evaluate long-term growth vehicles both traditional and non-traditional development, which includes everything from new prototypes for both brands, virtual brands and ghost kitchens, both of which we have the efforts under way and we'll take a look at international expansion opportunities in key markets and possibly explore incorporating a third brand at the right time.
So as I wrap up, I want to emphasize the Dine views the crisis as both a threat and an opportunity.
And while we knew it was important to play defense to protect our liquidity and our flexibility, we also played offense so that we would emerge from the crisis in a position to serve more guests both inside and outside of our restaurants.
Because we played offence in 2020, we continue to invest in new digital and CRM products that are coming online early this summer as well as innovative menu items like IHOPPY Hour and Burritos & Bowls at IHOP and Applebee's new virtual brand, Cosmic Wings.
And while we were investing in new technology and menu offerings, our franchisees invested in supporting the local communities by feeding and sheltering frontline workers and those in need.
And so if all of these investments combine, that will pay off as our guests return to indoor dining.
I'll begin with a business update, then review our results for the fourth quarter and the full year.
Lastly, I'll discuss our financial performance guidance for 2021.
During a very challenging year, we took steps to maintain our financial flexibility, including drawing down $220 million in March 2020 from our revolving credit facility, all of which remain outstanding as of December 31.
As John just mentioned, we plan to repay the $220 million during the month of March.
Due to this proactive measure, we continue to have very strong liquidity.
We ended 2020 with total cash and cash equivalents of $456 million, which includes restricted cash of $72.7 million.
Excluding the $220 million drawn from our revolver, cash on the balance sheet was $64 million higher at the end of 2020 compared to year-end 2019.
The increase was primarily due to the temporary suspension of both our quarterly cash dividends and our share repurchase program.
These steps were taken in response to COVID-19 pandemic and the need to maintain financial flexibility.
Additionally, we maintain tight G&A management during the year of austerity and we're able to lower compensation costs following the difficult decision to furlough approximately one-third of our corporate staff for several months during 2020.
Turning to our financial results, I'll begin with the notable changes on our income statement.
For the fourth quarter, adjusted earnings per share of $0.39 compared to $1.78 for the same quarter of 2019.
For 2020, adjusted earnings per share was $1.79 compared to $6.95 in 2019.
The year-over-year decrease was due to a significant decline in customer traffic resulting from governmental capacity restrictions on dining room operations.
This led to declines in domestic comp sales at both brands and a decrease in the number of Applebee's and IHOP effective restaurants and lower gross profit.
The impact of the pandemic on franchise operations resulted in an increase in bad debt.
For 2020, our bad debt was approximately $12.8 million as compared to virtually no bad debt for 2019.
Switching gears to G&A.
Given our asset-light business model, G&A remains an important lever for us.
In 2020, it constituted 30% of our total revenues excluding advertising revenues.
G&A for the fourth quarter of 2020 improved to $39.4 million from $41.7 million for the same quarter last year.
The decline was primarily due to lower travel and compensation costs.
G&A for the fourth quarter was lower than our guidance of approximately $45 million, primarily due to our ability to tighten G&A controls in response to the resurgence of coronavirus cases.
G&A for 2020 was $144.8 million, including $4.3 million related to the company restaurants segment.
This compares to $162.8 million in 2019.
The decline was primarily due to G&A tighter management around that, which included a decrease in compensation and travel-related costs.
Now turning to the cash flow statement.
Cash from operations for 2020 was $96.5 million compared to $155.2 million in 2019.
The change was primarily due to a decrease in total revenue, resulting from the decline in guest traffic at our restaurants as previously discussed.
Our highly franchised model continued to generate strong adjusted free cash flow of $106.6 million in 2020 compared to $148.8 million in the prior year.
The decline was primarily due to the decrease in cash from operations just discuss, primarily offset by lower capex compared to 2019.
We believe that our cash on hand, cash from operations and the steps we've taken to mitigate the effects of the pandemic will allow us to continue to remain with strong liquidity throughout the year as our business continues to improve.
Now regarding capital allocation, we continue to reevaluate our capital allocation strategy as industry conditions continue to improve and normal restaurant operations resume.
As previously discussed, we plan to repay the $220 million drawn last March.
Additionally, we will review reinstating our quarterly cash dividends and resumption of our share repurchase program.
We will also reevaluate investments in our existing brands to enable both -- platforms for both organic and non-organic growth.
Now for an update on our franchisee assistance program.
Dine Brands provide approximately $55.7 million in royalty, advertising fees and rent payment deferrals to our franchisees and continue to provide assistance on a case-by-case basis.
In total, we provided approximately $61 million deferrals to 223 franchisees across both brands, of which 61 have repaid their deferred balances in full.
Overall, a total of approximately $32 million of the original subsequent deferrals have been repaid and repayments are on track.
Regarding adjusted EBITDA, our consolidated adjusted EBITDA for 2020 was $158.7 million compared to $273.5 million for 2019.
The decrease was primarily due to a significant decline in customer traffic resulting from a governmental mandated dine-in capacity restrictions discussed earlier.
This led to decreases in both revenues and gross profit in 2020 compared to 2019.
Because of our asset-light model and low capex requirements, we continue to have very high quality adjusted EBITDA as capex represented only 7% of 2020 adjusted EBITDA.
Lastly, I will review our financial performance guidance for fiscal 2021, which reflects the projected impact over the pandemic on our guidance as of today.
Due to ongoing uncertainty created by COVID-19, we clearly cannot provide a complete business outlook for the year.
As our business conditions continue to improve and dining capacity restrictions are lowered, we will evaluate providing additional performance guidance as necessary.
We're not offering guidance around development comp sales because of the uncertainty of the recovery this year.
However, I can tell you, G&A is expected to range between approximately $160 million and $170 million including non-cash stock-based compensation expense and depreciation of approximately $45 million.
Please note that this range includes approximately $5 million of G&A related to the company restaurants segment and capital expenditures are expected to be approximately $14 million inclusive of approximately $5 million related to the company restaurants segment.
To wrap up, Dine Brands has significant cash on the balance sheet and has maintained strong financial flexibility despite the adverse conditions in 2020.
Comp sales of both brands have improved significantly since the onset of the pandemic.
Although there is a lot of work that's still ahead of us, we believe accomplishments this year have laid a solid foundation for growth.
I'm very proud of what this Applebee's team accomplished in 2020 and remain extremely optimistic about our business prospects here in '21.
In partnership with our franchisees, we fundamentally altered our business model to adapt to this new environment.
Applebee's comp sales progressed from minus 49.4% in Q2 to minus 13.3% in Q3 to minus 1.9% in the month of October when we last spoke.
Almost immediately thereafter, the country experienced a rather abrupt resurgence of COVID directly impacting our Q4 trajectory.
As a result, November comp sales were minus 15% while December came in at minus 30.1%.
Now the good news is that business is now improving as comp sales for January and the first three weeks of February combined were minus 18.1%, rolling over a very strong 3.3% increase from the same timeframe last year.
Additionally, given COVID-related restrictions, we scaled back our media spending in December, January and February.
It's also important to note that not all casual dining brands are impacted equally by these restrictions given each brand's geographic distribution.
Applebee's has a disproportionately heavy penetration of its restaurants in the Northeast and Midwest, two geographies, obviously hardest hit by dining restrictions.
While reflected in these recent results, this will ultimately and disproportionately benefit us as restrictions are eased over the coming months.
For context, at the end of December, 412 of our dining rooms were closed due to government imposed mandates.
In many respects, our current operating environment feels very similar to late summer of last year if you recall when we saw Applebee's sales momentum accelerate as restrictions were eased, including our first positive sales week at the end of September.
And barring unforeseen circumstances, I anticipate a similar dynamic to unfold very soon here in '21.
Now for the month of February, Applebee's sales mix consisted of 63% dine-in, 22% Carside To Go, and 15% delivery.
On the off-premise front, we continue to enhance Carside To Go with the upcoming introduction of a third-party app called FlyBuy that notifies restaurant teams through geofencing the moment our guest arrives on the lot.
Also, our franchise partner in Arkansas recently opened Applebee's first drive- thru window.
In addition to being very well received by team members and guests, this dedicated drive-thru lane eliminates weather challenges, improves throughput and importantly extends our late night to-go operating hours.
From a delivery perspective, our tamper-evident packaging is now fully deployed throughout the brand as another visible point of guest reassurance.
Without question, our off-premise investments over the past year have broadened Applebee's reach and relevance across this important convenience-driven occasion.
Now with respect to Applebee's on-premise business.
I anticipate our 63% sales mix to naturally elevate this year, as indoor dining gradually returns.
And I firmly believe dining room service will be an unmistakable core strength for Applebee's, as guests look for that long overdue escape from home, where they can once again connect with one another over a good meal and perhaps a drink.
Most importantly, these guests will naturally gravitate to brands that have earned their trust and loyalty throughout the pandemic.
On this front, we're confident Applebee's is exceptionally well positioned.
This optimism is supported by our very strong brand affinity and visit intent metrics, which have proven to be reliable leading indicators of brand performance.
And as the year progresses, we'll continue to deploy guest-facing digital technology such as our pay-and-go initiative designed to provide easy mobile payment options without the need for a server.
Now, I'd like to take a moment to discuss our virtual brand evolution.
As you may know, we just launched Cosmic Wings nationally on February 17, introducing a fully differentiated virtual brand, targeting a younger audience around the wings meal occasion.
At the moment, Cosmic Wings remains an online delivery-only concept available via Uber Eats and fulfilled through approximately 1,250 Applebee's kitchens.
In addition to craveable wings, tenders, waffle fries and onion rings, the team has developed a proprietary menu of Cheetos original wings, Cheetos Flamin' Hot wings as well as Cheetos cheese bites.
This innovation work is exclusive to Applebee's and the culmination of our ongoing partnership between our culinary and marketing teams, franchisees, PepsiCo and Frito-Lay.
While it's far too early to draw any conclusions, Cosmic Wings averaged $510 of incremental sales per restaurant last week in its first full week of operation, showing a steady build from day to day.
We're very pleased with these initial results, and we'll certainly be in a better position to quantify the ultimate financial impact of Cosmic Wings on our next call.
We've also been active in piloting our first ghost kitchens in partnership with our franchisees, with two in Philadelphia, one in Los Angeles and another soon to open in Miami.
To clarify, these are low capital investment, small footprint kitchens without a street front presence designed to satisfy online delivery demand for Applebee's, where we currently don't have restaurant penetration.
The business model here appears attractive in the right geographies, where a brick-and-mortar presence may not be feasible.
Now, as I reflect upon this past year, I know our guests genuinely trust Applebee's perhaps now more than ever.
Whether it's in their family rooms or in our dining rooms, there is no more relevant brand positioning for this environment than Eatin' Good in the Neighborhood as John referenced.
To this point, last week, we launched our latest national event, 5 Boneless Wings for $1 with the purchase of any burger, which is resonating extraordinarily well.
In fact, last week, Applebee's achieved our single highest sales volume week since the pandemic outbreak in mid-March of last year, that's 50 weeks ago.
It's also worth noting that we are strategically and tactically aligned with our franchisees around our full-year marketing and innovation plan along with contingencies, given the obvious need for agility in this environment.
In closing, I believe Applebee's is near an inflection point, and that America's pent-up demand for dining out is indeed very real.
We saw this trajectory last year up until the resurgence of the virus, and I'm confident we'll see it again this year very soon.
And when this does occur, our franchise partners are very well positioned to not only return to sustained growth, but to thrive in a post-pandemic environment as they unlock the full potential of the Applebee's brand.
With that, I'll turn it to Jay.
We are very optimistic about the road ahead for IHOP for several reasons.
First, our quarterly comp sales improved meaningfully from a decline of 59.1% for the second quarter to a decline of 30.1% for the fourth quarter, reflecting a net increase of 29 percentage points since the pandemic began.
Second, the brand is well positioned to benefit from pent-up demand when restrictions on the dining room capacity are eased and we have a strategy in place to capture it.
Lastly, our development pipeline remains strong and new opportunities are being pursued.
As we closed out the fourth quarter, IHOP's comp sales declined 30.1%, which is on par with the family dining category.
Our performance, especially the final six weeks, was adversely impacted by the resurgence in coronavirus cases.
We were particularly impacted in California and Texas, which collectively comprised approximately 25% of our domestic restaurants.
Our results for January 2021 improved to minus 26.8%, representing a gain of 10 percentage points from December.
February comp sales through week ending February 21 were down 27.6%.
For the same period, our sales mix consisted of 66% dine-in, 16.9% to-go and 17.1% delivery.
As we continue to navigate the ever-changing environment, we have four strategies to help the brand drive growth.
Number 1, focusing on our PM daypart; Number 2, value; Number 3, maintaining our gains in off-premise sales; and Number 4, development growth.
We believe this new value platform will not only play an important part of the strengthening and expanding our PM business, but also drive off-premise sales in locations where it's available.
IHOPPY Hour is driving incremental sales in the mid to high teens and approximately 20% incremental traffic compared to the rest of the day.
This equates to a low- to mid-single-digit lift in both sales and traffic for the whole week.
IHOPPY Hour is consistently four times more effective at driving traffic than any window we've had during that time.
Our third strategy is growing our strong off-premise business.
As consumer sentiment is shifting and off-premise is becoming more accepted around the country, our mix has remained strong.
For the fourth quarter, off-premise was 33.3% of total sales, compared to 32.4% for the third quarter.
To provide more color, to-go accounted for approximately 17% of sales mix and delivery accounted for approximately 16%.
Off-premise comp sales for the fourth quarter grew by 130%, driven primarily by traffic.
We believe that we can retain a significant amount of this growth even as dining room capacity restrictions are eased over time.
Conducive to this is our -- is the high portability of IHOP's menu and our proprietary off-premise packaging, which keeps our food warm approximately 40 minutes after leaving the restaurant.
Additionally, we implemented curbside to-go quickly at the onset of the pandemic and continue investments in our IHOP and Go platform.
IHOP's latest menu innovation is our all-new signature, Burritos & Bowls, which is introduced this past January.
The six new Burritos & Bowls were designed with creative flavor combinations and easy portability in mind for guests to enjoy wherever they please and appeal to guests across all dayparts.
The results since the launch are very encouraging, with Burritos & Bowls capturing approximately 8% of check at order incidents based on our soft launch without a full media and marketing campaign.
Switching gears to our fourth strategy, development.
As we look at growth heading into 2021 and beyond, we will grow our IHOP brand with four different platforms.
First, traditional development, of which we have a stable pipeline as a result of franchisee obligations that were deferred as part of our assistance during the pandemic.
Second, non-traditional development, which is led by our largest agreement in our 62-year history, with TravelCenters of America for 94 restaurants over five years.
Third, the resumption of work on our Flipped by IHOP concept, which we expect to open our first location this year.
And fourth and finally, we've developed a new small prototype that we intend to test this year.
We expect it to provide new opportunities for franchisee growth with a higher return on investment, allowing us to go into areas we might not have been able to penetrate previously.
For 2021, we expect to continue to reinvigorate our growth that was hindered by the pandemic.
Now, for an update on our domestic restaurants open for business.
As of December 31, 1,174 restaurants or 70% of our domestic system was open for in-restaurant dining with restrictions.
This compares to 1,425 restaurants or 85% as of September 30.
The decline in locations open for in-restaurant service was primarily due to the spike in coronavirus cases discussed earlier.
Turning to the unit guidance for restaurant closures we provided in October.
As a reminder, given the impact of the pandemic on individual restaurant level economics, we evaluated only greatly underperforming restaurants that we determine had a greater chance of not being viable coming out of the pandemic.
These restaurants were generally some of the lowest performing units in the system, based on sales and franchisee profitability.
This program concluded with 41 closures over the last six months, which is well below our initial projection of up to 100 restaurants.
We remain confident that we'll eventually replace these severely underperforming locations and grow our footprint with better performing restaurants that had volumes closer to our pre-COVID AUV of approximately $1.9 million.
To close, we're executing against our four strategies to drive our growth which includes PM daypart expansion, value, maintaining our gains and off-premise sales and development growth.
We've done the heavy lifting to position the brand for long-term success and build an insurmountable lead in family dining.
I'm pleased with what our franchisees and team members have accomplished during a very challenging year and I'm very optimistic about the road ahead.
It's truly because of their leadership, particularly during the pandemic, that Dine and its brands are poised to enjoy significant upside potential in 2021 and beyond.
Understandingly through meaningful change in performance trajectory will not happen immediately, but I am confident in our ability to restore sustainable same restaurant sales momentum in the second half of 2021 as more people are vaccinated and guests [Indecipherable] dine out return to restaurants.
I have absolute faith in our franchisees and our talented team members will lead us into a new restaurant renaissance.
Our strong fundamentals remain intact.
We're positioning Dine for long-term growth and continuing to evolve as a guest-centric data-driven organization.

user
compname reports q4 adjusted earnings per share $0.39.
q4 adjusted earnings per share $0.39.
ihop's comparable same-restaurant sales decreased 30.1% for q4 of 2020.
consolidated financial results for 2021 could continue to be materially impacted by global impact from covid-19.
company currently cannot provide a complete business outlook for fiscal 2021.
dine brands - capital expenditures expected to be about $14 million, inclusive of approximately $5 million related to company restaurants segment for fy 2021.

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