- There is some evidence that Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD +5.3%) is paying attention to the unsolicited advice from activist investor Marcato Capital by focusing on margins.
- "Our goal is to achieve a 20% restaurant level margin by the end of 2018 and we've identified several opportunities in cost of sales, labor, and operating expenses for 2017," CEO Sally Smith said on the earnings call yesterday. Restaurant-level margin was 17.6% in Q3 and is 18.3% YTD.
- "We negotiated reduced pricing on our boneless wings and other chicken that will improve our cost of sales as a percent of restaurant sales by 20 basis points in 2017," she added.
- "On cost of sales, we're focusing on waste reduction at the restaurant level and this will improve cost of sales as a percentage of restaurant sales by another 20 basis points," Smith pointed out.
- Here's the Marcato Capital letter to BWLD as a refresher.
- Earnings call transcript