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Text: As usual, Wyman and Joe will first make prepared comments related to our operating performance and strategic initiatives.
During our call, management may discuss certain items which are not based entirely on historical facts.
And of course, on the call, we may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that management uses in its review of the business and believes will provide insight into the company's ongoing operations.
Q2 was a dynamic quarter, and Joe is going to walk you through the details.
You know, as we think about all the craziness 2020 brought across our industry and our world, we're also appreciative of the invaluable lessons we gained.
We learned we have the right team in the field and here at the restaurant support center.
Our operators are working tirelessly every day to deliver great experiences for our guests and team members as we aggressively pursue opportunities to grow our business organically.
We learned that we can drive our business and increase market share despite the hurdles brought on by a global pandemic and widespread civil and political interest.
In the second quarter, Chili's increased its two-year trend of taking share and leading the category with an 18% beat in sales and a 25% beat in traffic according to KNAPP-TRACK.
We learned that our strategies work.
The ways we leveraged our scale and our ownership model and the investments we continue to make in technology and improving our operational systems, they were working well for us prior to the pandemic and continued to work even more effectively throughout the year.
Leveraging those competitive advantages, open up opportunities for us to grow our business in unique and innovative ways, like elevating our digital guest experience at both brands and leaning into virtual brands.
Those things are hard to execute and even harder to replicate.
So we're taking those lessons into 2021 as we prepare to accelerate organic growth in a post-vaccine environment.
We believe like most others that a widespread vaccine will indeed release pent-up dining room demand, and our operators are excited to return to full capacity and deliver more great guest experiences in person.
But we don't expect a return to the old normal.
2020 fundamentally changed us as consumers.
We were forced to use technology to enjoy our favorite restaurants in new ways like third-party delivery.
Crop side takeout, QR code menus, and mobile payment.
And now that we've experienced greater convenience and control over our experience, we're not likely to give it all back.
The Brinker team knew that convenience was a big opportunity even before the pandemic.
2020 just accelerated our commitment to embrace consumers' gravitation toward digital interaction and meet them where they are.
We believe digital sales and traffic will continue to be a strategic driver of our results in both the near and long term.
So in preparation for fiscal '22, we're dedicating even more time, effort, and capital to accelerate in our competitive advantage as a digital leader in the category and aggressively pursuing opportunities to drive our top and bottom line.
At Chili's, we're testing a fully integrated digital experience that gives our guests control over the pace of their experience and level of interaction with our team, whether they're dining in or off-premise.
It's still early, but the team is making tremendous progress, and the guests and our test restaurants are responding really well.
We anticipate a rollout beginning fourth quarter.
We've also spent a great deal of time and effort systematizing what goes out the side door at both our brands.
We got really good at takeout and delivery during the height of quarantine.
So while our dining rooms are still at limited capacity, we're ensuring we have strong systems in place to support our operators and execute a robust off-premise business even as our dining rooms returned to full capacity.
Delivering a best-in-class off-premise experience also supports virtual brands, which is a key component of our growth strategy.
Our scale and our ownership model, coupled with our ability to mine data and develop systems, is proving very effective in this new world of virtual brands.
It's Just Wings is on track and performing well.
We believe there's significant upside.
So we're focused on building it into a strong, sustainable brand.
Some of the biggest brands in the world right now are virtual.
So we know the model resonates with consumers as long as you deliver a great product.
Right now, we have a one-channel solution.
We're working to optimize that channel through incremental marketing opportunities and expanded consumer touchpoints.
We're also going to grow the brand through additional channels like takeout.
We're ensuring we have the right systems in place that will best support our operator's ability to execute at a high level, especially as dining rooms reopen.
Once we know we're consistently delivering a great guest experience and our operator at -- from our operators at full volumes, we'll move strategically to launch another virtual brand.
I anticipate that by the end of this fiscal year, we'll have a clear line of sight and be able to share more details with you.
Listing 2020 was a crazy year, but through it, we confirm that our strategies are working and that we have an outstanding team in the field and at the restaurant support center.
Every day, they demonstrate their ability to adapt for severe and win.
As vaccines roll out and our country begins to leave their homes once again, I firmly believe we'll continue to win.
Let me finish our prepared comments by providing some detail and context to our second-quarter results, as well as offer a few insights for our January's period's sales performance.
The second-quarter fiscal 2021, Brinker delivered adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.35.
Brinker's total revenues were $761 million, and consolidated reported net comp sales were negative 12.1%.
A couple of items to note for the quarter.
First, let me highlight impacts to the consolidated quarter resulting from Maggiano's performance, which was highly constrained by COVID restrictions and appropriate consumer reactions to the pandemic.
As a reminder, the second quarter is traditionally their highest performing quarter.
However, this year, COVID eliminated most of their typically robust banquet and corporate catering channels, both of which tend to overdeliver to results for their second quarter.
The brand's operating profit was $22 million below last year, constituting virtually all of the reduction in consolidated operating profit for Brinker.
The impact on consolidated comp sales and restaurant operating margin were also outsized with the brand reporting net comp sales of negative 47% and a restaurant operating margin of 5.5%, down more than 11% from prior year.
With the second quarter now behind us, we expect the impact from Maggiano's to the consolidated performance of Brinker to be more muted as we head into the rest of the fiscal year, particularly as the brand recovers from both an improved operating environment and the implementation of performance driving initiatives.
Now, moving on to Chili's.
The brand continued its relative strong performance, although also impacted by COVID restrictions during the latter half of the quarter.
Operating income for the brand was relatively close to last year and only $1.6 million.
Chili's reported net comp sales for the second quarter of negative 6.3%.
This result does contain a holiday flip, which benefited the brand by approximately 100 basis points as Christmas moved out of Q2 and into Q3.
The brand continues to meaningfully outperform the Casual-Dining sector with our gap strengthening in both sales and traffic through the second quarter.
Traffic gaps in the KNAPP index exceeded 20% throughout the quarter.
Performance relative to the competition was strong throughout the country, with double-digit sales gaps recorded in regions from East to West Coast.
Included in the consolidated adjusted net income for the quarter with a tax benefit of approximately $2.4 million, primarily driven by employment tax credits.
Part of this benefit is a $1.8 million catch-up related to Q1, which was over accrued relative to our current expectations for our annual tax liability.
The consolidated restaurant operating margin for the second quarter was 10.7%.
Most of the variance to prior year is the result of the lower-than-normal contribution from Maggiano's, which impacted the consolidated margin by 130 basis points.
The leverage due to top-line softening in November and December was the secondary influence.
A food and beverage expense was unfavorable year over year by 40 basis points primarily a result of menu mix, some higher costs from items such as cheese and produce.
Labor costs were favorable 10 basis points with savings in hourly expenses, offset by deleverage.
Included in this performance is a consistent level of manager bonus compared to last year's second quarter.
We remain committed to retaining our restaurant leadership teams as they are critical to our success, both in the short term and as the operating environment returns to more normal conditions.
Restaurant expense was unfavorable year over year by 170 basis points, driven by top-line deleverage, increased delivery, and packaging, partially offset by lower advertising and restaurant maintenance expenses.
Even with the volatile operating environment, Brinker has delivered solid cash flow, generating $130 million of operating cash flow year to date.
After capital expenditures of $37 million, our free cash flow for the first six months totaled nearly $93 million.
As I mentioned last quarter, we first used our cash to invest in the business.
Unit expansion is progressing with six new or relocated restaurants opened year to date.
We also continue to invest in restaurant reimages, technology, and equipment to further enhance our guest experience and allow for better execution as our sales volumes, both on and off-premise grow.
Our second priority is to pay down debt.
So far, during this fiscal year, we have retired over $66 million of revolving credit borrowings, and plan for further meaningful reductions as we progress through the second half of the year.
As I've indicated during prior earnings calls, we are strengthening our balance sheet by deleveraging to below 3.5 times lease-adjusted debt, which we anticipate achieving next fiscal year.
From a total liquidity perspective, we ended the quarter with $64 million of cash and total liquidity of just under $658 million.
While we are not providing specific guidance for the third quarter due to the ongoing operational environment, I do want to offer some perspective on January.
While the first week of January was negatively impacted by the holiday flip of Christmas moving to our third quarter, top-line results for Chile's strengthened as we move through the remaining four weeks of the period.
Underlying this performance is improvement in the net comp sales to a range of negative 5% to negative 6% for the last four weeks combined.
These results obviously included the impact of ongoing COVID-related restrictions, particularly dining room closures in our No.
3 and 4 markets of California and Illinois.
Factoring out these two markets, the rest of the brand during the last four weeks of the January period should record net comp sales of approximately positive 2%, again, clearly indicating the brand's ability to perform in a strong positive sales manner with dining rooms open.
Also supporting the January results is the performance of It's Just Wings.
As you might expect, the brand does well in conjunction with sports, and our ability to market on the delivery platform around major events allowed highly incremental sales and set a number of sales records during the period.
Overall, we are hopeful for an improved operating environment as we move through the quarter with the opportunity to return to recovery level performance we delivered in the early fall.
In March, we start to lap at the initial pandemic outbreak, which we anticipate will create meaningful year-over-year positive net comp sales comparisons.
Looking beyond the short-term volatility caused by the ways of COVID restrictions to the solid long-term strategy being executed by our operators, I'm confident as to what this company can deliver for our shareholders.
Our focus and execution will enable our continued performance as a leader for the Casual-Dining sector for the rest of this fiscal year and the years ahead.

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qtrly adjusted earnings per share $0.35.
qtrly brinker company owned comparable restaurant sales down 12.1%.
brinker international qtrly total revenue declined due to capacity limitations,personal safety preferences,partially offset by increased off-premise sales.
qtrly chili's company-owned comparable restaurant sales decreased 6.3%.

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