News

Qdoba experiences double-digit growth in catering sales

November 21, 2014

Jack in the Box, parent company of Jack in the Box and Qdoba restaurant brands, announced its Q4 and FY results this week.

Jack in the Box's Q4 same-store sales were up 3.1 percent at both company and franchised locations. This is compared to a decrease of 0.2 percent during the same period last year.

For the fiscal year, ended Sept. 28, Jack in the Box turned in a 2-percent increase in same-store sales at both company and franchised locations.

“Jack in the Box company same-store sales increased 3.1 percent for the quarter, above our expectations,” CEO Larry Comma said in a news release. “The increase was driven primarily by growth in our breakfast and late-night dayparts.”

Jack in the Box system same-store sales growth for the quarter exceeded that of the QSR sandwich segment by 3.3 percentage points for the comparable period, according to The NPD Group’s SalesTrack Weekly for the 12-week time period ended Sept. 28.

Jack in the Box's sister chain Qdoba experienced a 7.1-percent Q4 increase in same-store sales at company-owned restaurants, and an 8.4-percent jump at franchised locations, for a systemwide average of 7.7 percent. This is compared to Q4 2013, which included 1.3 percent growth for company units and 2.8 percent for franchised units.

For the 52 weeks ended Sept. 28, Qdoba's company-owned same-store sales were up 5.7 percent and its franchised units were up 6.3 percent.

The Q4 results marked Qdoba's third consecutive quarter of growth above 7 percent.

“The top-line momentum continued with the conclusion of our Mango Mojo campaign, followed by the return of our popular Queso Diablo as a permanent menu item. In addition, the performance of our Qdoba company restaurants reflected less discounting, as well as double-digit growth in catering sales,” Comma said.

The company said it experienced an improvement in operating margin – 190 basis points. Restaurant operating margin for Jack in the Box restaurants increased 210 basis points to 17.8 percent of sales. The improvement was due primarily to lower food and packaging costs, as well as refranchising. It was partially offset by higher labor costs resulting from an increase in the California minimum wage during the quarter.

Restaurant operating margin for Qdoba restaurants increased 130 basis points to 18.5 percent of sales. The benefits of sales leverage, price increases and less discounting at Qdoba were partially offset by commodity inflation of approximately 4.0 percent, higher incentive compensation for restaurant managers and beverage equipment rental costs.