Wingstop - Q1 2023
May 3, 2023
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Wingstop Inc. Fiscal First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in the listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. Please note that today's event is being recorded today, Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023. On the call today are Michael Skipworth, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Alex Kaleida, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. At this time, I would like to introduce Mr. Kaleida to begin the presentation. Thank you.
Alex Kaleida (VP and CFO)
Thank you. Welcome to the Fiscal First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference call for Wingstop. Our results were published earlier this morning and are available on our investor relations website at ir.wingstop.com. Our discussion today includes forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from what we currently expect. Our SEC filings describe various risks that could affect our future operating results and financial conditions. We use certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe can be useful in evaluating our performance. Presentation of such information should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures are contained in our earnings release.
Lastly, for the Q&A session, we ask that you please each keep to one question and a follow-up to allow as many participants as possible to ask a question. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Michael.
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Good morning, thank you for joining our call. The momentum we saw in our business in the back half of 2022 has continued into 2023 and given us a strong start to the year. While we continue to execute against several multi-year sales drivers, our strong start to 2023 speaks to the resiliency of the Wingstop brand and the staying power of our strategies. This gives us confidence in our ability to deliver another year of industry-leading results. At the foundation of our strategies is people, and I couldn't be prouder of our team and brand partners who are fueling our path to becoming a top 10 global restaurant brand. In the first quarter, we delivered 20.1% same-store sales growth. Substantially, all of our comp was driven by transaction growth, a true demonstration of the underlying strength of the Wingstop brand.
Within our sales growth, we saw further expansion in our digital channels, achieving a record 65% digital sales mix for the quarter. We opened 37 net new units during the quarter, representing a unit growth rate of 11.4%. Global system-wide sales grew by 30%, and we are now approaching $3 billion in system sales. Adjusted EBITDA was $34.6 million, an increase of 60% versus the prior year. This strength in transaction growth fueling our same-store sales is driven by multi-year sales drivers we have been executing against and we believe provides us clear line of sight to growing AUVs north of $2 million. These strategic growth levers consist of building brand awareness, menu innovation, expanding our delivery channel, digital transformation, and data-driven marketing.
In just the last 3 years alone, our AUV has grown by nearly $400,000 and is now approaching $1.7 million. We believe the growth levers we are executing against will continue to increase AUVs, and a huge opportunity within our strategies is to scale brand awareness. Our advertising fund continues to grow at a rate similar to our system sales, which increased 30% in Q1, giving us the fuel to continue making progress against the gap in brand awareness to other national brands. In the first quarter, the ad fund was further bolstered by the conversion of the 1% local advertising requirement to national advertising that became effective at the beginning of Q2 last year.
The growth in our ad fund has allowed us to increase our presence in social, streaming, and digital channels and to be a big buyer in media to include more premium properties such as the NFL and NBA. 2023 will mark our first full year deploying an always-on message, which will keep Wingstop top of mind with consumers throughout the entire year, a strategy we implemented in the back half of 2022 and one that we believe is working. We are making great progress on closing our gap in awareness to other national brands, but there remains a significant opportunity ahead as we look to deliver our 20th consecutive year of same-store sales growth and sustain same-store sales growth over the long term. We recently announced the appointment of our new creative agency, 72andSunny, currently the lead agency for the NFL and many other great brands.
We feel 72andSunny can propel the Wingstop brand into our next phase of growth and help make Wingstop a household name. We're excited about their proven talent and what's in store for our creative later this year. A new creative campaign will further support the growth levers we are actioning against. In fact, we can likely see new creative that focuses on one of our recent menu innovations like Chicken Sandwich, which was introduced in August of 2022. Not only did we launch one Chicken Sandwich, we launched 12 Chicken Sandwiches that showcase our unique flavor profiles to both new and existing guests. This has proven to be a powerful enabler for building awareness, increasing frequency, and winning new occasions.
Chicken Sandwich gives us an opportunity to deliver our Wingstop flavor in a category that has upwards of 2.8 billion servings annually, an opportunity we are just scratching the surface on. Not only is Chicken Sandwich a growth lever, it also advances our supply chain strategy in a meaningful way, where we see a path to 50%+ boneless mix, which we believe could result in a structural change to our long-term food costs, yielding COGS in the low 30% range and would further enhance our already best-in-class unit economics. We also drive innovation through flavor. During the first quarter, we brought back a new fan favorite flavor, Hot Honey Rub, which has been our highest mixing flavor LTO on record.
Flavor LTOs are a proven tactic in our toolkit to drive relevance and repeat occasions with our core, as well as bring in new guests to the brand. We have a pantry full of consumer-tested flavor options with tremendous potential that we can lean into for future LTOs. Another contributor to our AUV growth is the delivery channel. In our case, this channel has not shown any signs of slowing down. The launch of Wingstop on Uber Eats platform in July of last year, combined with continued growth on DoorDash's platform, provides us with an additional base of consumers to build awareness and capture new occasions. We have seen growth in all channels. Expansion in our delivery channel showcases the opportunity we believe we have to continue to scale this channel long term and drive further AUV growth.
We hit a record digital sales mix in Q1, surpassing 65%, and our first-party database continues to grow, now at an incredible 35 million. This database feeds our marketing engine, allowing us to drive improvement in retention rates, increase frequency, and win new occasions. Even with our early success in leveraging first-party data to drive our business, it remains a significant opportunity for Wingstop to further impact retention and frequency. As we continue to lean into innovation and pursue our aspirational goal of digitizing every transaction, we are excited about early results from a test we just completed around AI-enabled phone orders. We are expanding this test to where we convert phone orders, which still represent about 10% of our sales today, into digital orders through AI voice ordering technology.
The early results are promising as we see an improvement in the team member experience, order time, guest satisfaction, and an increase in ticket size with the ability to capture this guest digitally. This also allows team members to focus on taking care of our guests that is picking up their order in the restaurant. The transaction growth fueling 20% same-store sales in Q1 is bringing a lot of new guests into the brand, winning new occasions with these guests, and moving them up the frequency curve, which is a powerful unlock for our continued AUV growth. We know how important it is to provide a great guest experience. A key to that is operating with excellence, something we have been extremely focused on. We are encouraged by the progress our restaurants are making to deliver a best-in-class guest experience, and the results back it up.
We know there continues to be opportunity to further enhance the guest experience that we know will contribute to further top-line growth. The multiyear sales levers we are executing against give us confidence in our goal to drive AUVs above $2 million. Even at our current AUVs of almost $1.7 million and an initial investment in the mid $400,000 range, we are generating best-in-class returns for our brand partners. A good proxy for our system is our company-owned restaurants, which in Q1, we saw our unit economics strengthen to margins of 27.6%. We're not resting on our laurels and remain committed to executing our supply chain strategy to become less reliant on the historically volatile spot price for wings and deliver a more predictable food cost for our brand partners.
The combination of our size and scale combined with our strategy has enabled a fundamental change in how we go to market from a supply chain standpoint and is allowing us to make great progress towards moving more of our buy away from the spot market to longer-term pricing arrangements. Our brand partners are excited by our progress and the strength in our business, and this is translating into significant growth in our development pipeline, setting the backdrop for another strong development year in 2023. Based on the strength of our pipeline and the visibility we have today into approved sites and stages in our construction pipeline, we are reiterating our guidance for 2023 of approximately 240 net new restaurants, which would be another record year for Wingstop.
As we exited 2022, a year where we surpassed more than 200 net new restaurants for the first time, we have an energized base of brand partners that are ready and willing to acquire and develop more territory. As of the end of the first quarter, we now have a record global development pipeline that's approaching 1,200 restaurant commitments. We also are seeing a record number of approved sites through the start of the year, which supports our outlook for openings in 2023. This strength and momentum and development helped us hit an exciting milestone for the brand, opening our 2,000th restaurant this past month. Truly exciting times for Wingstop, with an accelerated pace of development and the incredible opportunity we have in front of us to scale to more than 7,000 global restaurants.
We're making great progress in our international markets, where we see an opportunity to open more than 3,000 restaurants. Our U.K. market, which serves as a playbook for future market launches, continues to expand AUVs past $2 million, while unit economics are at levels comparable to our domestic business. Our Canada market launched in June last year, and we're thrilled by the consumer response. We opened the first Wingstop in Korea during Q1, and most recently, we signed a 30-restaurant commitment to bring our flavor to Puerto Rico, another example of the strength of our business development pipeline. This week, Raj Kapoor, new head of international, joined my leadership team. Raj is a tremendous business leader, and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with him as we scale Wingstop globally.
He brings a wealth of experience and an eagerness to shepherd our international business into our next phase of growth. Wingstop is well-positioned for another industry-leading year. I'm excited by our start to 2023, and our sights clearly set on a 20th consecutive year of same-store sales growth. With a strong start to the year, we are raising our full year 2023 outlook to high single-digit same-store sales growth from our prior guidance of mid-single digits. Our brand partners are seeing some of the strongest unit economics in our history. We believe this positions us to deliver upon our target of approximately 240 net new units. Wingstop is well-positioned as an asset-light, high-growth brand supported by best-in-class unit economics with unique, sustaining same-store sales growth drivers and an industry-leading pace of restaurant development.
We believe this really highlights the opportunity we have in front of us here at Wingstop and positions us well to deliver best-in-class shareholder returns. Before I hand it off to Alex, I want to thank our brand partners, our team members in the restaurant, and the team members at the Global Support Center for all their incredible work and commitment. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Alex.
Alex Kaleida (VP and CFO)
Thank you, Michael. As you just heard from Michael, the first quarter demonstrated the strength of our long-term strategies. We delivered 30.4% growth in system-wide sales in the first quarter, which now total $2.9 billion on a trailing twelve-month basis. Total revenue increased to $108.7 million from $76.2 million in the prior year fiscal first quarter. Royalty revenues, franchise fees, and other revenue increased by $13.1 million in Q1, driven primarily by 199 net franchise openings since the prior year comparable period and a 20.1% increase in domestic same-store sales. The transaction growth we experienced in the second half of the prior year continued, and the majority of our first quarter comp was driven by transaction growth.
Company-owned restaurant sales totaled $23.1 million in Q1, an increase of $4.5 million, primarily due to a 10.3% increase in company-owned same-store sales, driven entirely by transaction growth in 6 net new restaurants versus the prior year comparable period. Cost of sales as a percentage of company-owned restaurant sales improved by more than 1,100 basis points compared to the prior year, mainly driven by a 1,000 basis point reduction in food, beverage, and packaging costs. We are pleased to see this continued improvement in restaurant margins, which for the first quarter benefited from a 53% decrease in the cost of bone-in chicken wings.
With our supply chain strategy and based on what we know today with leading indicators for our core commodities, we believe we have line of sight to predictable food costs for 2023 in the low 30% range. As a result, we anticipate company-owned restaurant cost of sales to be approximately 75%. Combined with this deflation in our core commodity, our supply chain strategy to reduce the volatility in our food costs is paying dividends and is generating quite a bit of excitement among our brand partners as unit economics have strengthened to near record levels.
In the first quarter, SG&A increased by $5.6 million versus the prior year comparable period to a total of $23.6 million, driven by investments in strategic projects to support the long-term growth of the business and an increase in performance-based stock compensation and incentive compensation as a result of the business's performance. We will continue to make investments in strategic areas of our business, such as in technology, development, and international, to allow us to sustain these industry-leading results. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, was $34.6 million during the quarter, an increase of 60% versus the prior year. Adjusting for non-recurring items, we delivered adjusted earnings per diluted share, a non-GAAP measure of $0.59, an 80% increase versus the prior year. Our highly franchised asset-light model continues to deliver strong free cash flows.
As of the end of the first quarter, we had $513.3 million in net debt. Our net debt to trailing 12 months Adjusted EBITDA was at 4.3 times, which is a half turn lower than at the end of the fourth quarter, underscoring our ability to quickly delever through a combination of Adjusted EBITDA growth and a strong free cash flow generation. We are maintaining a strong cash balance that stands at over $200 million, it allows us to be opportunistic as we navigate any uncertainty in the macro backdrop in the back half of this year. We will also continue to explore opportunities with this cash to maximize shareholder returns. We remain committed to driving shareholder value and returning capital to shareholders through our regular quarterly dividend.
Today, we announced a dividend of $0.19 per share of common stock, a demonstration of the strength of our model. This dividend, totaling approximately $5.7 million, will be paid on June 9, 2023 to stockholders of record as of May 19, 2023. Shifting to our outlook for 2023. With the strong start to the year, we have increased our outlook to high single digit same-store sales growth for 2023 from mid-single digit same-store sales. Based on the visibility we have in our pipeline at this point in the year, we are reiterating our development outlook of approximately 240 net new units, translating to a unit growth rate of more than 12% versus the prior year. We also anticipate our pace of openings to be weighted more towards the second half.
SG&A guidance is estimated to be between $85.5 million and $87.5 million, including $2.8 million in consulting projects to support our strategic initiatives and an estimated $12 million-$13 million of stock-based compensation expense. We are excited by the momentum in our business, the underlying health of the Wingstop brand, and the opportunity that lies ahead for 2023 and beyond. Our growth strategies, a unique part of the story for Wingstop, have staying power and give us the confidence in delivering our outlook for 2023. With that, I'd like to now turn to Q&A. Operator, please open the line for questions.
Operator (participant)
Yes. Thank you. At this time, we will begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. We do ask that in consideration of the others, you limit yourself to one question and a follow-up. If you have additional questions, please re-enter the question queue. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble the roster. The first question comes from David Tarantino with Baird.
David Tarantino (Director of Research and Senior Research Analyst)
Hi, good morning and congratulations on such a strong start to the year. My question is related to the strength you're seeing in the domestic comps or AUVs. I guess the way we look at it on a seasonal basis, it looked like you had a pretty strong surge in volumes relative to normal seasonality. I was wondering, Michael, if you could maybe talk about the factors that drove that step up from the last quarter and whether you think those are structural or whether you think there was some temporary benefit in the first quarter. I have a follow-up.
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Hey, David. Good morning. Yeah, I think we mentioned this on our last call, how we did acknowledge that we saw the comp momentum build as we progressed through Q4, and that continued into Q1 this year, giving us a really strong start to the year, as you mentioned. We really believe, you know, it is structural, not a seasonal change in our business, in that these growth levers that we're executing against, putting us in a pretty unique spot to have so many different levers that are not only continuing to drive repeat visit with our core consumers.
They're bringing a lot of guests into the brand, whether that's through just expanding brand awareness through the growth in our national ad fund or expansion in the delivery channel or winning occasions with Chicken Sandwich, just to name a few that we've been executing against. We saw that momentum build as we progressed through the quarter. You know, obviously, as we think about the rest of this year and kind of how it's gonna shape up, everyone's trying to get their arms around the back half of the year, the consumer. We feel pretty confident in the strategies that we're executing against and our ability to deliver on our outlook, which would result in the 20th consecutive year of same-store sales growth.
David Tarantino (Director of Research and Senior Research Analyst)
Great. Thank you for that. Michael, you know, I did wanna ask about the guidance. I guess the guidance assumes, you know, your comps moderate pretty significantly and maybe even your, you know, seasonally adjusted volumes moderate pretty, you know, significantly from what you just reported for Q1. I guess
First question is, are you already seeing that or are you seeing something or is this just maybe a bit of conservatism as you think about the second half of the year?
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Yeah, David, I think it's probably more of the latter. you know, obviously, there's still a fair amount of uncertainty with the macro environment, the consumer recession. Everyone's trying to really understand, you know, what's gonna happen later today with the Fed, as an example. We're all trying to get our arms around exactly what that means to the overall consumer. That said, and I mentioned it just a second ago, we feel like we're in a pretty unique spot as a brand to be able to raise our guidance this year, even considering that overall macro backdrop, and deliver a really strong year.
David Tarantino (Director of Research and Senior Research Analyst)
Great. Makes sense. Thank you.
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question comes from Jeffrey Bernstein with Barclays.
Jeffrey Bernstein (Equity Research Analyst)
Great. Thank you very much. 2 questions. The first one just on the unit growth. Clearly, there are concerns of macro easing and rate increases and just over the past month or two, a lot of small bank concerns. I'm just wondering if any or all of those factors you think are having any impact on your unit growth outlook. I know you've reiterated the guidance for this year, for 12% plus, but just trying to get some color on whether you think that has any impact at all. I think you mentioned your pipeline is 1,200 units. I'm just wondering, maybe that could provide some color. Maybe what was that pipeline last year and the year before? Any kind of color in terms of the any headwinds on that unit growth outlook based on the current macro.
I had one follow-up.
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Hey, Jeff, good morning. The pipeline as we sit here today, we mentioned is at a record level, 1,200 strong. Just to provide some perspective, that was close to 1,000 this time a year ago. You layer on top of that the openings we had over the past year of 200 roughly. It really speaks to the demand that we're seeing from our brand partners to reinvest in Wingstop and their desire to continue to grow. As we sit here today, you know, we have pretty good visibility into our pipeline. In fact, the number of sites that we need to deliver on that outlook that we reiterated of 240 net new units is sitting in our pipeline today.
We feel pretty confident regardless of what happens in the overall macro to be able to continue to deliver industry-leading unit development. A lot of that has to do, if you think about financing, the rate environment or these regional banks, there's not a lot of lending or leverage conversations we have with our brand partner community. A lot of their growth is fueled by cash flow from operations. Then on top of that, compared to other brands, it's a relatively modest initial investment to open a Wingstop. I think all those things help position us to be able to sit here today with confidence in delivering another industry-leading return from a unit development perspective.
Jeffrey Bernstein (Equity Research Analyst)
Understood. The follow-up is just on the commodity cost outlook. Clearly, the deflation of 50% plus on the bone-in wings is incredible. Just wondering your outlook for that for the second quarter or the back half. Just wondering when you would think it might turn into a headwind. I think you mentioned something about from a supply chains perspective, you're shifting more to long-term buys versus spot market. If there's any incremental color you could provide in terms of new details, that would be great. Thank you.
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Yeah, Jeff. We're really encouraged by the commodity backdrop that we see today. You know, as we look at some of the leading indicators around the price of that lead to the price of wings, those are favorable as well. Seems to signal to a little bit of softness maybe out there from a more macro perspective, but obviously nothing we're seeing in our business. We're seeing some pretty favorable pricing as we sit here today in the Urner Barry. We do expect that to normalize, the Urner Barry to revert back to what I would describe as a more seasonal trend, which if you get into the back half of the year, football season, you see the price of wings usually tick up a little bit.
Even that, with that environment in front of us, we still see a pretty favorable overall food cost, not only for our company-owned restaurants that we guided to in the overall margin there, but for our brand partners, something that we think is gonna continue to fuel overall demand for growth. You mentioned it, and we talked about it in our prepared remarks. The combination of our size and scale, and then just the continued execution against our overall supply chain strategy is allowing us to shift more and more of our buy away from the spot market and be able to negotiate longer-term pricing arrangements that give us more predictability in food costs as the further we look out.
some of these arrangements are actually giving us some comfort and confidence into what 2024 is starting to shape up as well.
Jeffrey Bernstein (Equity Research Analyst)
Understood. Just to clarify, in your response there, I think you mentioned, right, the macro outlook maybe softening a little bit, but not anything you're seeing in your results. I think it was questioned earlier, but is that safe to assume then, without giving specifics, that the momentum you saw through the first quarter, there really hasn't been a change in trend, at least through the month of April?
Alex Kaleida (VP and CFO)
Jeff, I can jump in here. One of the leading indicators is around frozen inventory levels on wings and breast meat. I think that's the one that we're pointing to that signals some softness as suppliers are rebalancing that equilibrium between demand and supply right now.
Jeffrey Bernstein (Equity Research Analyst)
I'm sorry. I was talking about the comp momentum with the 20%+ in the first quarter, and I think you've indicated you really haven't seen a slowdown from a top line comp perspective thus far in the second quarter, despite the macro concerns. I wasn't sure if that was the message you were trying to convey about April.
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
I don't think we were trying to be intentional about April, but more just around some of the leading indicators that influence the outlook and what the Urner Barry will do. As it relates to our business and overall demand, I think all of that factored into kind of our outlook for the balance of the year, which resulted in us raising our guidance for the year from mid-single digits to high single digits.
Andrew Charles (Managing Director and Consumer – Restaurants Research Analyst)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question comes from Jon Tower with Citigroup.
Jon Tower (Director of Equity Research)
Great. Thanks for taking the questions. one question and then a follow-up. Just curious on the Chicken Sandwich where that mixed in in the quarter, more importantly, just looking at the LTO, you'd talked about the Hot Honey Rub doing quite well. I'm curious if you could speak to how a product makes its way from an LTO to a permanent menu item, especially given the success that this product seemed to have during the quarter.
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Hey, Jeff or John, I'm sorry. Good morning. You know, I would say as it relates to the LTO, and maybe I'll start there. You know, as we reflect on Wingstop as a brand over our almost 30 years, there hasn't been a significant amount of menu innovation and specifically related to flavors. I think we've eliminated 1 and added 2. It is a decently high bar to make it on our menu permanently. That said, obviously we look at and listen to the overall consumer sentiment and demand for a flavor like Hot Honey Rub, which has been significant. We'll continue to evaluate that and monitor it, John.
As it relates to Chicken Sandwich, you know, what's exciting for our brand and kind of what we've seen is we've seen growth in all channels. If you, if you look at, you know, digital carryout, non-digital carryout, you look at delivery, you name it. We saw growth across all channels. In Chicken Sandwich, we saw that mix sustain from what we've seen in prior quarter of about a mid-single digit mix range. And we're encouraged by that because it's a bit of a halo effect in that we're seeing bone-in wings, boneless wings, tender sells, all categories, you know, rise as we're, as we're experiencing some of this strength in the overall business.
We're encouraged by that and really excited to see that we, you know, continue to see that Chicken Sandwich sales mix sustain, which means we're winning more occasions and bringing new guests into the brand, as we mentioned earlier, which we're really excited about what that can mean for the brand long term.
Jon Tower (Director of Equity Research)
Got it. Thank you. Just going to, I think thinking about the consulting projects that you talked about, can you give us a little color as to what's going on? Is that going back to the supply chain side of the business and looking at the opportunities there, or is there something else happening that you're looking at right now that might impact the business going forward?
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Jon, I think as we take a step back and sit here, we kind of feel like as a brand, this is another one of those put our foot on the gas moments. We've known us over the years to make some strategic investments in areas where we think we can continue to advance our growth strategy and continue to deliver industry-leading results. I would kind of generally put this in that bucket where we're leaning in just to make sure we are taking advantage of the momentum that we have in the brand today. We're playing offense and leaning in to position the brand for this next phase of growth that's in front of us that we're excited about.
Jon Tower (Director of Equity Research)
Okay. This is not to do with the supply chain, examination you've done previously.
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Yeah. It's not specifically related to that, to that overall supply chain strategy that we've talked about historically. Correct.
Jon Tower (Director of Equity Research)
Great. Thanks. I'll pass it along.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question comes from Andrew Charles with TD Cowen.
Andrew Charles (Managing Director and Consumer – Restaurants Research Analyst)
Great. Thanks. Michael, following 1Q's impressive comps with your higher 2023 outlook, what's the plan with the surplus in the ad fund that comes on top of what was already a robust, you know, planned 20% ad fund increase that followed the 40% increase in 2022? You know, is the plan to deploy this later in 2023 or are you able to hold on to the surplus to beef up 2024 TRPs?
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Hey, Andrew. Good morning. I think it ties back a little bit to my comment I just made to Jon about, this feeling like a little bit of a put our foot on the gas moment. We are leaning in and finding opportunities to strategically invest any surplus that we do see coming into the ad fund to continue to drive growth and take advantage of these growth levers we have in front of us that are bringing a lot of new guests into the brand that we mentioned in our prepared remarks.
We're really excited about what we're seeing, you know, not only within the four walls of the restaurant, but how we're able to retain more of those guests and see them move up the frequency curve, with the brand, which is what you want to see. We think, you know, to tie back to an earlier comment, is part of an overall structural change that we're seeing in AUVs for the brand.
Andrew Charles (Managing Director and Consumer – Restaurants Research Analyst)
Okay. Great. I wanted just to check in as well just on the opportunity to mitigate bone-in wing volatility. You know, you described that you're very flexible in the approach here. You know, roughly a year later after first detailing the project, just kind of wanted to see, you know, the progress that's been made, just kind of where your head is, you know, with this. Obviously, when you did the recap a year ago, you took on about $130 million of cash on the balance sheet to help fortify.
You know, is that something that you still view as really needed to help you with your efforts, or is there perhaps more of a lower intensity, lower cash usage approach here that may be able to lead to the cash to be deployed to shareholders?
Alex Kaleida (VP and CFO)
Good morning, Andrew. This is Alex. Thanks for the question. Yeah, you know, I think as you recall, our supply chain strategy included multiple tenets of the strategy, which include, you know, more of a cost-plus pricing model, moving our buy away from the spot market, potential co-investment scenario, an acquisition of a complex or a, you know, potential build scenario. We've been working that first element of our strategy really hard, you know, as Michael mentioned on the call, just with our articulation of our strategy, that has fundamentally changed conversations that we're having, on our buy year in, year out.
You're starting to see some of that come into our outlook, and I think this is really the first one of the first years we've been able to articulate the visibility we have in the food costs in that low 30% range for 2023. We're gonna work that, you know, continue to work that less capital intensive approach, as we continue to see the benefits from that. Then, you know, as you mentioned, we are positioned with the cash on our balance sheet to be opportunistic, whether it is something in our supply chain strategy or a return of capital to shareholders down the line.
Andrew Charles (Managing Director and Consumer – Restaurants Research Analyst)
Very good. Thanks, guys.
Operator (participant)
Thank you.
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Okay. Thank you. Next question comes from Brian Harbour with Morgan Stanley.
Brian Harbour (Executive Director, Equity Research Analyst of Restaurants & Food Distribution)
Thanks. Good morning, guys. Can you talk about just demographic exposure a little bit? You know, I know about a year ago, we had talked about kind of some of the lower-end customers pulling back. I think the higher-end customers have since, you know, come to you in quite a strong way, especially given kind of delivery. What have you observed more recently? Has some of the lower end improved or what have you seen just from a demographic perspective?
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Hey, hey, Brian. Good morning. You know, if you recall, several years ago, we had a stated strategy where we saw an opportunity to broaden kind of the top of the funnel and go after this heavy... We described it as a heavy QSR user, and this QSR user represents about 60% of all QSR visits and it does skew a little bit more higher income, a little bit less ethically diverse than our core. We're pretty excited about the progress we've made over the years as it relates to bringing those heavy QSR users into the brand. Call it 4 or 5 years ago, you know, that lower income consumer was over half of our business, and today that's roughly less than 30%.
We're clearly making progress there. That said, we have a unique position as a brand with these, our core, and that is it's not a high frequency occasion. The average frequency is once a month or three times a quarter, and they engage with our brand as almost an indulgent occasion. We've talked about the unique position that puts Wingstop, whether it's in a recessionary environment or just the consumer is feeling overall pressure from inflation in their pocketbook, is that they'll have a tendency to pull back more on high frequency QSR occasions. It's almost as though they get towards the end of the month and feel like they should reward themselves. As long as we're driving top of mind awareness and presenting them with value, we've demonstrated an ability to retain those indulgent occasions.
I think that's exactly what we've seen, throughout the first quarter and is our ability to retain those indulgent occasions with our core.
Brian Harbour (Executive Director, Equity Research Analyst of Restaurants & Food Distribution)
Great. Thank you. I mean, related to that, is there anything you can quantify just in terms of the increase in frequency more recently too? You sort of alluded to this. You know, certainly I think elsewhere in the industry, we are seeing some of the higher frequency QSRs holding on or even building frequency at this point, but it kind of depends on the brand. What have you seen with that more recently?
Alex Kaleida (VP and CFO)
Hey, Brian, this is Alex. I can jump in here. You know, as we mentioned, we've attracted this new guest, that comes in that's, you know, into Wingstop at a lower frequency than our core average. Yet we've been able to sustain that average overall of about three times a quarter. I think that demonstrates the, you know, the continued focus to build frequency with our core as well as move our new guests along the frequency curve.
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
I'll just add to that, Brian. We mentioned our comp in Q1 of 20.1% was entirely driven by transaction growth. I think that just further supports the point Alex is making about bringing in a lot of new and new users and new occasions into the brand while retaining those indulgent occasions with our core.
Brian Harbour (Executive Director, Equity Research Analyst of Restaurants & Food Distribution)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question comes from Joshua Long with Stephens Inc..
Joshua Long (Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Great. Thank you for taking my question. My first question was more of a clarification on some of the build-out costs that you mentioned. I understand that the pipeline is very strong. That's very exciting. Curious if you could talk about some of the construction cost inflation or just maybe permitting things that may have been kind of pushing and pulling on the development pipeline. Understand that your stores and your format is advantage versus many others of your peers, but just curious what kind of pressures and you're feeling in the current environment. Then I have one follow-up.
Alex Kaleida (VP and CFO)
Thanks for the question, Josh. This is Alex. you know, I think, you know, what you've seen is we've been able to sustain that initial investment of about $450,000 for brand partners, and while building our AUVs to now approaching $1.7 million. That yields a payback of less than 2 years. While we're not certainly immune to inflation, we've been doing things very strategically behind the scenes to stage inventory, buy forward equipment, you know, in order to mitigate some of the, you know, smaller headwinds they see on some of their purchases.
I think, you know, with the growth and the expansion in our margins, with what you're seeing in the pipeline and the level of commitments, that we've continued to build on, and that low upfront investment, that's got our brand partner base energized to continue to grow and open more Wingstops.
Joshua Long (Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Great. Thank you for that. That's very helpful. Maybe shifting gears, when we think about the goals you set forward in terms of becoming a top 10 global restaurant brand, scaling to more than 3,000 stores internationally, can you talk about some of the near-term opportunities with that? You know, Michael, you mentioned kind of using the U.K. as a kind of jumping off point for how you can think about going into new markets. I believe you've also made some, you know, key hires here recently on the human capital side to help propel that. Could you kind of frame up how we should be thinking about some of the near-term opportunities internationally as you start to work towards that 3,000 unit target?
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Yeah, absolutely. I think you've heard us refer to our international business in a position that's supercharged for growth. We have a significant amount of demand in the, in our business development pipeline for new territories. We've mentioned a few that we've recently opened that are starting to build the pipeline there and will continue to expand. We noted in our prepared remarks that we just secured a partner for Puerto Rico, just to speak to the overall business development pipeline and demand there. Really excited about what's in front of us. Obviously, you mentioned it, bringing in Raj, is a big hire and someone we're really excited about in him leading our international business and that growth strategy.
We talked about the overall unit outlook and target for this year of roughly 240 net. Within that number is another record year for international, and something we're really excited about, and I think speaks to the momentum. As we bring new territories online, the way those development agreements are written is they start out with a little bit of a slower pace, but then as they get up to the pace of what we see in the U.K. today, which is opening, you know, roughly mid-teens units a year, more territories get to that pace is when it becomes a more meaningful contribution to the overall unit growth story. We're pretty excited about what we see today, the demand for the brand outside of the U.S., and obviously Raj joining our team.
Joshua Long (Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Great. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question comes from Jeff Farmer with Gordon Haskett.
Jeff Farmer (Senior Analyst)
Craig, good morning, and thank you. I'm curious, where did the 20% Q1 same-store sales performance stand or come in relative to what you guys were thinking, in terms of internal expectations heading into the quarter?
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Jeff, I think in full transparency, it exceeded our expectations. We knew we exited 2022 with some great momentum. We were, call it low, low, low double digits and kind of expected we could continue to execute at that level. Obviously, as I mentioned earlier, saw that momentum continue to build as we progress through the quarter. We're encouraged by the how the team rallied together and how effective the strategies have been, and we're gonna continue to put our foot on the gas.
Jeff Farmer (Senior Analyst)
Okay, that's helpful. Just one follow-up, really a clarification on the Q1 same-store sales components. You said largely all traffic, but you might have said this or given this detail already, but so virtually no menu pricing, no mix impact at all in the Q1 same-store sales number?
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
I think the right way to think about it, Jeff Farmer, is we mentioned this, I think, last quarter, we expect to get back towards our more historical approach to pricing, which is 1 to 2 points of price in two windows throughout the year at a very strategic level. We enacted that pricing in Q1. That said, we had been experiencing a little bit of ticket impact from success with the Chicken Sandwich, which does tend to mix a little bit more towards that lunch day part and have a little bit of a lower overall average check, which is a good thing and we like. I would say those two components largely washed within the quarter, resulting in substantially all of the comp growth being driven by transaction growth.
Jeff Farmer (Senior Analyst)
Understood. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question comes from Nick Setyan with Wedbush Securities.
Nick Setyan (Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Thank you. You guys talked about 75%, you know, cost of sales for 2023, even with, you know, the food basket being in the low 30s. Assuming, you know, labor is flattish to, you know, slightly lower, you know, what's driving that uptick in other OpEx? Is it just a delivery mix?
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
In Q1 alone, really what you're seeing is the 1% ad fund contribution that changed year-over-year. I think as we progress through the years, as we mentioned, you know, there is some seasonality associated with the Urner Barry that's contemplated in our food cost outlook, and then embedded in our approximately 75%. We see some small seasonality within some of the OpEx components that come into play. But I think we're really excited about what that means with that type of outlook and how our brand partners feel about that type of margin profile.
Nick Setyan (Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Got it. It's not necessarily, you know, it's more of a signpost than a hard line in terms of the 25%, you know, level margin. Is that fair?
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Yes. That's right.
Nick Setyan (Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Would you guys be willing to break out the international part of system-wide sales in Q1?
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
That's not really anything we've done yet as it still continues to build. Obviously as we progress and it becomes more of the growth story, that's something we'll break out. You know, I'll say this, the comp for our international business was really strong in the first quarter, somewhat similar to what we saw in the overall domestic business.
Nick Setyan (Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Okay. Thank you very much.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question comes from Andrew Strelzik with BMO.
Speaker 15
Hi, thanks for taking my question. This is Daniel on for Andrew Strelzik. I was hoping you could provide some details on the domestic franchise base. How many units does your average franchisee operate, and what is your philosophy around partnering with larger, well-capitalized partners? Also regarding your new unit pipeline, what would be the split between new and existing franchisees?
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Hi, Daniel. Yeah. You know, we've seen that gradually the count per brand partner tick up, and I think it's something we've talked about over the years as we've had single operators take the opportunity to exit and, you know, having the willingness to grow around the trade areas. That number is around seven and a half restaurants per brand partner. The unique part of Wingstop is the growth we're seeing, 90% plus of our development is from existing brand partners reinvesting that cash they're generating from their business. We do see some new brand partners that come into the system, but we're very selective about who those are and strategically where they fit within our geography.
Speaker 15
That's very helpful. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question comes from Andy Barish with Jefferies.
Andy Barish (Managing Director)
Hey, guys. Thanks for the question. Just wondering, you've mentioned a couple of times that kind of momentum built and exceeded your expectations. Just wondering, you know, historically, the brand, you know, didn't focus as much on sports or be driven by sports, but just kind of putting those comments together with March Madness and the bundle deal you did with new flavors as well. Was March kind of outsized and, you know, is this a bit of a shift just to, you know, make sure you're getting your fair share around major sporting events now?
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Hey, Andy, this is Michael. Good morning. You know, I think we've clearly talked about as we, as we looked at our media placement and media strategy for television, we felt the most eyeballs were going to be on live sports, and so that is where our TV buy has been focused. We really leaned into that last year, back half of last year, and that continues to be our strategy this year. I wouldn't say a huge change year-over-year, but I'll say the thing we're also doing is making sure that we're being really smart about how we as we scale the brand and become, you know, a national brand, a household name, that we continue to lean into culturally relevant moments that we can resonate with the guests there as well.
I think what you saw in Q1 wasn't anything I would point out around a pivot in our media strategy or advertising, but just continuing to execute against these unique growth initiatives that we have in place that are bringing a lot of new guests into the brand and retaining those indulgent occasions with our core.
Andy Barish (Managing Director)
Got you. I mean, can we assume March was the strongest month of the quarter, or is that not correct?
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
That is correct. It was.
Andy Barish (Managing Director)
Okay. Appreciate the color.
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
My pleasure.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question comes from Michael Tamas with Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.
Michael Tamas (Director and Senior Analyst of Restaurants)
Hi. Thanks. you know, you mentioned a couple of times some of the strategies that you're executing on to drive your business, and obviously you put some of those pretty powerful strategies in place in the back half of 2022. Can you talk about maybe what some of the incremental drivers are as you roll against those tougher comparisons in the later part of 2023? Thanks.
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Yeah, Michael, I appreciate the question. You know, I think that's a kind of a reaction we often hear, is how are you gonna lap these levers that you pull? I think it's really important to understand that these are not single year, one-time drivers for our business. We've demonstrated over the years, and I don't think 2022 and 2023 will be any different, in our ability to be really intentional about how we pull these levers, when we pull them. Take the launch of Uber Eats as an example. We've seen some really strong growth in that channel, but even as we sit here today, you're talking low single digit of eaters on Uber Eats have engaged with our brand.
Just a significant amount of opportunity for us to continue to lean in there and partner with Uber Eats as well as DoorDash in ways that we can continue to expand the delivery channel, which we mentioned this last quarter. We are encouraged with where our mix level is today, but see an opportunity for that to almost double. You take Chicken Sandwich mixing mid-single digits, something we're excited about. Those are highly incremental occasions that we're winning there. There's $2.8 billion Chicken Sandwich servings a year in the U.S., we think there's huge opportunity, and we're just scratching the surface. We really think about these strategies that we're executing against, the levers that we pulled specifically in the back half of 2022 as being multi-year drivers for our business.
I think kind of that statement is supported by the fact that 2022 was our 19th consecutive year of same-store sales growth. Based on our outlook for this year, we think we're well on our way to our 20th.
Michael Tamas (Director and Senior Analyst of Restaurants)
Thank you. Makes sense. Then I think last quarter, you know, there was an implication that EBITDA in 2023 would be somewhere around $122 million. Do you have any update on that or thoughts about where that might shake out? Thanks.
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
I think we did signal to a growth rate last quarter, but obviously if you take Q1 results, which were well above even our own expectations, but clearly consensus expectations, and you take our updated outlook where we've raised same-store sales guidance, it would clearly imply a higher number.
Michael Tamas (Director and Senior Analyst of Restaurants)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question comes from Peter Saleh with BTIG.
Peter Saleh (Managing Director and BTIG Restaurants and Food Distributors Analyst)
Great. Thanks for taking the question, and congrats on a great start to the year. I just wanted to come back to the conversation around delivery. I don't know if I missed it, but can you just tell us what the mix was on delivery in the first quarter? If you could just provide a little bit more color on what type of guest is using you guys for delivery through the two third-party platforms. Are they lower income, higher income, younger, older? Are you seeing, you know, growth in unique users through these third-party platforms?
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Hey, Peter, appreciate the question. You know, what we're encouraged about and what we're excited about is we saw growth, as we mentioned, within the delivery channel as an overall mix perspective within Q1, but that's on top of seeing growth across all channels. It just, I think, really speaks to the opportunity that we have there. That growth was in all platforms, whether it was DoorDash or Uber Eats, we saw growth across the board, and we were encouraged by that. Obviously, we don't have a ton of visibility into the users on their platforms, but I think we view those, since we saw growth in every other channel in our business, as being highly incremental.
Again, as I mentioned before, just we see a ton of opportunity within that delivery channel to continue to drive growth long term.
Peter Saleh (Managing Director and BTIG Restaurants and Food Distributors Analyst)
Great. Just lastly, I think I know what the answer to this is, I will ask it anyway. Is there any thought or change in your real estate strategy given how important delivery has become over the past 2 years? Are you guys looking at different types of sites or kinda sticking with the same strategy going forward? Thank you.
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Yeah, Peter, it's a good question, I think, you know, even if we reflect back to 2020 where we saw, you know, meaningful growth in our business, I think I referenced in the prepared remarks how our AUV over the last 3 years alone has grown about $400,000. I really think what's behind that is Wingstop was built for this. You sit here today 94% of our sales are off-premise. Whether that's carry out or delivery, our model was built for this. As it relates to our overall strategy around real estate, I wouldn't say that there's anything that's changed significantly there. We clearly understand where we play well.
We've master planned every key market in the U.S. and have a clear line of sight to expanding our footprint today, which globally we just crossed 2,000, but in the U.S. see a line of path to a line of sight to a path of over 4,000 units in the U.S. and know pretty much exactly where those will be. No real change to call out.
Peter Saleh (Managing Director and BTIG Restaurants and Food Distributors Analyst)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. The next question comes from Jim Sanderson with Northcoast Research.
Jim Sanderson (Managing Director and Research Analyst)
Hey, thanks for the question. I just wanted to get a little bit more detail on what drove traffic growth in the first quarter. Wondering if you can comment on any noticeable improvement in daypart mix based on traffic or late night. I had a follow-up question about the Full Court Meal.
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
Good morning, Jim. Yeah, it's been interesting. Very consistent across all channels, all days of the week. Nothing to call attention to. You know, we're seeing this new guest come in. We're seeing the frequency continue to build across our business with new and core. Fundamentally, you know, digital, non-digital channels are growing. I think the one that we've pointed to before to call your attention to is how Chicken Sandwich mix shows up. It does index a little higher with at the lunch occasion as well as maybe a little more of individual eater. You know, it's I think what Michael mentioned earlier, there's this a bit of a halo effect on the rest of the business as we've, you know, attracted this new guest into our business.
Jim Sanderson (Managing Director and Research Analyst)
All right. Just a quick question about the Full Court Meal. I think that was at a bit of a higher price point. Any commentary on how the consumer reacted? Did you see it mix as strongly despite the higher price point for the promotion?
Michael Skipworth (President and CEO)
I think a bundle like that, we saw an opportunity where we knew guests were gonna be gathering in group occasions to watch college basketball, and so it mixed well. We were encouraged with the results that we saw. You know, nothing I would call out. It really speaks to the unique position we have with our menu and how we can use piece count and protein mix to create value for consumers. Even if that was at a higher price point, it did include meaningful value, we think, for guests, if you look at it on a per person basis. Something we're pretty intentional about, and we were encouraged with what we saw from that promotion.
Jim Sanderson (Managing Director and Research Analyst)
All right. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. This concludes both the question-and-answer session as well as the event itself. Thank you so much for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.