Del Taco Restaurants, Inc. (TACO) CEO John Cappasola on Q3 2021 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

Del Taco Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:TACO) Q3 2021 Earnings Conference Call October 14, 2021 4:30 PM ET

Company Participants

Raphael Gross - IR, ICR, Inc.

John Cappasola - President and Chief Executive Officer

Steve Brake - EVP and Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Alex Slagle - Jefferies

Nick Setyan - Wedbush

Todd Brooks - CL King and Associates

Nicole Miller - Piper Sandler

Operator

Hello and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fiscal Third Quarter 2021 Conference Call and Webcast for Del Taco Restaurants, Inc.

I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Raphael Gross, Managing Director at ICR to begin.

Raphael Gross

Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome. On today's call are, John Cappasola, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Steve Brake, Chief Financial Officer. After we deliver our prepared remarks, we will open the lines for your questions. But first, let me remind everyone that part of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and therefore undue reliance should not be placed upon them. We do not undertake to update these forward-looking statements at a later date and refer you to today's earnings press release and our SEC filings for more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact Del Taco's future operating results and financial condition.

Today's earnings press release also includes non-GAAP financial measures such as adjusted net income, adjusted EBITDA and restaurant contribution along with reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the nearest GAAP measures. However, non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered as alternatives to GAAP measures such as net income or loss, operating income or loss, net cash flows provided by operating activities, or any other GAAP measure of liquidity or financial performance.

Let me now turn the call over to John Cappasola, President and Chief Executive Officer.

John Cappasola

Thank you, Raphael and hello everyone. We appreciate you all joining us for today's call. I'm very proud of our teams who continue to drive strong restaurant level execution in this difficult operating environment. Our third quarter performance was in line with our expectations, which I would characterize as a good outcome particularly in light of well known cost pressures across the restaurant industry. On the top line, we drove positive comparable restaurant sales across company operated and franchise restaurants compared to last year and compared to 2019 as we lapped strong performance driven by our very successful launch of Crispy Chicken. And despite the emergence of the Delta variant, along with well documented staffing challenges in our category.

At the same time, the inflationary headwinds impacting our industry were managed through menu pricing totaling approximately 5%, paired with operational excellence and strong guest satisfaction scores across our drive-thru, takeout and delivery channels. In addition, as you may have read in numerous recent press releases, we have been very active signing four additional new franchise development agreements from Coast to Coast since July, bringing our year-to-date total to seven new development agreements for 53 future commitments. These new development agreements expand our pipeline and further support our ability to deliver 5% system wide new unit growth led by franchising beginning in 2023.

First, I will briefly review our third quarter highlights before discussing the specifics on these new franchise development agreements. During Q3, system wide comparable restaurant sales grew 1.8% over the prior year, consisting of a 2% increase at franchised restaurants and a 1.6% increase at company operated restaurants. During Q3 on a same store basis compared to 2019 company's sales grew at a low single digit rate while franchised restaurants grew at a high single digit rate. Geographically on the same store basis versus 2019, our primarily franchise non California restaurants grew approximately 10% while California grew at approximately 4.6%. Restaurant contribution margin decreased by 150 basis points to 16.5%, which primarily related to normalize advertising expense of 4% of restaurant sales versus 3% last year. In terms of profit, adjusted EBITDA decreased to $14.1 million from $15.3 million. This reduction was primarily due to the dollar impact of the normalized advertising.

Through our quarterly dividend and share repurchases, we returned in aggregate $5.9 million of capital to shareholders and also reduced our outstanding revolver to $106 million from $110 million. Finally, during Q3 we open one company and three franchise restaurants and closed one company and one franchised restaurant to end with 603 system wide restaurants.

Now let's discuss restaurant development, and specifically how our new agreements with experienced restaurant operators provide momentum for our franchise led growth. So far this year franchisees open eight new restaurants and the company has opened three company operated restaurants. Our fourth and final 2021 company opening will be our first new Fresh Flex prototype in our new Orlando seed market. And we expect one additional franchise opening. Following three development agreements for 30 units announced prior to our Q2 call, since July, we have signed an additional four new development agreements for another 23 units. These newest agreements cover future restaurants in four states from Coast to Coast, including the East Coast of Central Florida, and Raleigh Durham, North Carolina, as well as Fresno, California and non traditional casino locations in Las Vegas. These signings demonstrate our growth potential not only in the southeast, which we know has significant room to grow the brand, but also in California and in Las Vegas where even with our current penetration, we believe there are still strong infill growth opportunities.

Importantly, our steady stream of new franchise development agreements has been aided by very strong interest in QSR drive-thru development and ultimately made possible by a highly desirable Del Taco traits, including our unique QSR plus positioning, ubiquitous menu that drives broad appeal, strong track record of eight consecutive years of franchise comparable restaurant sales growth across 15 states and attractive new Fresh Flex prototype, which expands real estate opportunities to help lower net investment and modernizes the guest experience. On a related note, we recently announced a new delivery only license agreement with REEF, a leader in the growing ghost kitchen space. We expect to open our first REEF outlet in the dense urban Mid City area of Los Angeles later this month, which is the first of several planned outlets. We are excited about this new delivery only partnership to help expand access to the brand where there is strong delivery demand, particularly in high density urban areas.

As a reminder, we expect a modest step up in system wide restaurants in 2022 compared to 2021 as existing franchisees begin to leverage Fresh Flex. However, we believe our growing franchise development pipeline, including seven new agreements for 53 Del Taco restaurants signed this year puts us in a strong position to deliver on our stated goal of system wide new unit growth of 5% beginning in 2023. Regarding our test remodel program, we are currently integrating our Fresh Flex prototype into our remodel design and remain on track to complete up to 20 company operated remodels this year, including 10 extensive remodels of older facilities and 10 remodels in more modern facilities with primarily cosmetic upgrades at a lower investment level. We are excited about the transformative impact these remodels are having on the restaurant and expect to continue to invest in this important brand and AUV driving initiative as we move into 2022.

Turning to sales and marketing; we continue to execute on our five sales acceleration drivers and those are value leadership, menu innovation, brand engagement, digital transformation, and ultimate convenience. These pillars are anchored by our focus for better operations execution strategy designed to ensure that we provide guests and employees outstanding brand experiences.

Let me start with operations. The entire industry is feeling the impact of labor staffing challenges and we are no exception. For certain restaurants with labor availability challenges, we selectively increase wages and in some cases, temporarily closed dining rooms or limit our late night and early morning hours of operation. The need to reduce operating hours increase throughout Q3 and impacted the company operated comparable restaurant sales by slightly under 1% during fiscal Q3. We believe this impact has peaked at approximately 1% thus far during fiscal Q4, based on recent improvements from our efforts to combat the labor challenges. Specifically, we are executing our holistic staffing strategy focused on both recruitment and retention. On the retention side, we are showing appreciation for our teams through things like daily pay, free meals, and doubling our referral bonuses along with special events like Employee Appreciation Month. We have also enhanced our talent acquisition through new digital recruiting efforts to increase our presence on job boards and simplify the application process to reduce friction for applicants.

Recently, our actions have begun to translate into increased applicant flow that is allowing hotspot restaurants to return to more normalized operations. As we add staff to these locations, we are also investing in additional training to set the new team members up for success.

Turning to sales and marketing. In August, we leverage our menu innovation introducing another exciting platform. Stuffed Quesadilla Tacos, which takes our fan favorite Quesadilla and adds creamy Queso Blanco folded into the shape of a Taco shell and stuffed with grilled chicken, carne asada steak or crispy chicken as well as our Fresh Guacamole as an add on. These tacos represent a trade up from our current tacos and have been met with strong consumer demand, mixing it over 6% of sales thus far, which has helped us maintain our positive sales momentum as we lapped a very successful Crispy Chicken launch a year ago. Next month, we welcome the seasonal return of our authentic Tamales menu which we consider a perfect holiday comfort food. Our Tamales are made with seasoned shredded pork and a fire roasted salsa surrounded by a layer of soft stone ground corn masa, and wrapped in an authentic corn husk. We will also offer a Tamale Fiesta pack with 12 Tamales to feed the whole family with a simple trip through our convenient drive-thru or delivery channels.

On the daypart front, delivery remains a key driver of sales growth and representing over 7% of sales during the third quarter. Delivery is particularly well suited to capitalize on guest demand for convenience and value during our late night hours of operation when delivery over indexes. And it's helping to drive outsized one and two year growth in our late night dayparts.

Turning now to digital transformation. Last month, we successfully launched our new holistic CRM platform and introduced our new loyalty app called Del Yes! Rewards. Del Yes! Rewards is a point based loyalty program featuring four tiers named Queso, Scorcho, Inferno and Epic that unlock exciting offers, rewards and experiences which increase along with the usage of the app. Del Yes! Rewards also enables us to unlock our customer data to drive personalized and valued experiences by delivering unique messages and offers in a way that members are most apt to respond to. We are very excited by the launch of this loyalty program and look forward to sharing more on its impact to the business on future calls.

Finally, reflecting our commitment to deliver shareholder returns. We paid our third quarterly cash dividend of $0.04 per share in late August and today announced our fourth quarterly dividend of $0.04 per share, which will be paid on November 24. We also repurchase approximately $4.4 million of common stock during the quarter as part of our buyback program. Looking ahead, although the current environment continues to present staffing challenges and inflationary pressure, our relevant QSR plus positioning, use of innovation and ability to deliver value across our barbell menu strategy provides us with significant pricing power that we will utilize to manage inflation as we exit 2021 and enter 2022. This focus along with our strong foundation, which now includes our new Del Yes! Rewards program, and an expanding group of franchisees eager to invest in our brand for the long term have set us up for continued growth and expansion.

Now, I'll turn the call over to Steve to review our Q3 financial results and outlook.

Steve Brake

Thanks John. For the third quarter, total revenue increased 2.9% to $124.3 million from $120.8 million in the year ago period. Company restaurant sales increased 2.2% to $112 million from $109.5 million in the year ago period, which is primarily driven by positive comparable restaurant sales and to a lesser extent, new company operated restaurants. Franchise revenue increased 8.1% year-over-year to $5.6 million from $5.2 million last year. The growth was primarily driven by the increase in franchise comparable restaurant sales, coupled with additional franchise operated restaurants compared to last year. As John said earlier, system wide comparable restaurant sales increased 1.8% consisting of a 1.6% increase at company operated restaurants and a 2.0% increase at franchise restaurants.

Turning to expenses, food and paper costs as a percentage of company restaurant sales decreased approximately 30 basis points year-over-year to 26.2% from 26.5%. This was primarily driven by a menu price increase of approximately 5% and exceeded food inflation of just over 4%. As expected inflationary pressure materialized during the second half of 2021. And our projected Q4 food inflation is approximately 5% resulting in full year inflation of approximately 2%. To help manage this inflation, we accelerated the timing and magnitude of our fall price increase and now expect menu price of 5.5% in the fourth quarter.

Looking ahead, we believe our QSR plus positioning and the attractive price points we offer across our barbell menu strategy drives a compelling value proposition and provides us with a significant pricing power that we plan to utilize in the new year to help manage food inflation that will likely extend into the first half of 2022. Labor and related expenses as a percentage of company restaurant sales increased 80 basis points to 33.2% from 32.4% driven primarily by minimum wage increases in California and Nevada, as well as wage rate pressure from restaurants with labor availability challenges, where we selectively increase wages. These impacts were partially offset by the impact from our positive comparable restaurant sales, including elevated menu pricing, effective management of variable labor and a reduction of workers comp expense based on favorable underlying trends.

Occupancy and other operating expenses as a percentage of company restaurant sales increased by approximately 100 basis points to 24.1% from 23.1% last year. This increase was primarily due to higher advertising expense, which normalized at 4% of restaurant sales compared to 3% in the prior year quarter, and higher utility expense. Restaurant contributions decreased 6.3% to $18.5 million compared to $19.7 million in the prior year, while restaurant contribution margin decreased approximately 150 basis points to 16.5% from 18.0%, primarily due to the aforementioned higher advertising compared to last year.

General and administrative expenses were $11.2 million, up from $10.8 million last year. And as a percentage of total revenue held steady at 9.0% compared to last year. The increase was primarily driven by increased non cash stock these compensation, travel expense and general inflationary trends, partially offset by lower management incentive compensation expense. Adjusted EBITDA decreased 8.0% to $14.1 million, compared to $15.3 million last year, and decreased as a percentage of total revenues to 11.3% from 12.7% last year.

Depreciation and amortization was $6.0 million down from $6.1 million last year, due to the impact of fully depreciated assets and decreased 20 basis points to 4.8% as a percent of total revenue. Interest expense was $0.7 million compared to $0.9 million last year. The decrease was due to a lower average outstanding revolver balance and lower interest rate compared to 2020. During the third fiscal quarter, our outstanding revolving credit facility borrowing was reduced from $110 million to $106 million, and the remaining availability under the revolving credit facility was $130.6 million. Along with this debt reduction, we also repurchased 449,324 shares of common stock at an average price of $9.87 per share during the third quarter, for a total of $4.4 million and paid our third quarterly cash dividend totaling $1.5 million. At the end of the fiscal third quarter, approximately $10.6 million remained under our $75 million repurchase authorization.

Net income was $3.8 million or $0.10 per diluted share, compared to $5.8 million or $0.15 per diluted share last year. We also reported adjusted net income which excludes items identified in our earnings release in the financial tables. Adjusted net income was $4.2 million or approximately $0.11 per diluted share compared to $6.0 million or $0.16 per diluted share of last year. In today is earnings press release we formally announced our fourth quarterly dividend of $0.04 per share of common stock that will be paid on November 24, 2021 to shareholders of record at the close of business on November 3, 2021.

Finally, through the first five weeks of our 16 weeks fiscal Q4, our company operated comparable restaurant sales are up approximately 3% and franchise comparable restaurant sales are up over 4% despite the impact from reduced operating hours that John referenced. Please refer to today's earnings press release for our fiscal 2021 guidelines. That concludes our formal remarks. As always, thank you for your interest in Del Taco and we are happy to answer any questions.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Alex Slagle with Jefferies.

AlexSlagle

Right, thank you. On a same store sales, just wanted to walk through some of the drivers and I am trying to think through some of the biggest tailwind and headwinds, and it sounds like the trends improved pretty good here, quarter-to-date, but maybe first just on the intro of the CRM platform and loyalty program and just how we should think about that in terms of directly impacting the comps in the early stages, if at all, or how should we think about that piece?

JohnCappasola

Yes, it's early, Alex, and we're seeing some really good directional trends, but we're only four weeks in. So as a reminder, we launched on September 9. And then we did the hard launch, which was point of purchase materials at the restaurant, starting to do some of the marketing on September 16. So just a few weeks ago, and then really our second wave campaign, which was really a focus on marketing, and acquisition and getting folks to transition not only get new members to get folks to transition from the old app to the new app kicked off here on October 4, with some tags on television and radio and promoting it through our direct mail and FSI drops. And we've also got some digital media acquisition going so it's early days, but what I would say is that directionally it's what's happening is kind of what we wanted to have happen, which was you look at the motivation that occurs with both current and new members related to the point based system, and that structure designed to motivate and reward behavior.

So we've seen these unique active users already in the first four weeks, perform at a similar level that we had with our old app. And that's before we've even completed the migration, right, you still got guests that are moving into the new app from the old app. The other kind of piece that we thought was really telling and interesting was that nearly 40% of the new member of the -- members coming into Del Yeah! Rewards are actually new members. So these are folks that were not in the old app. So again just kind of speaks to the motivation around that app, not just being an offer engine, or there's reasons to be involved with the brand and engage with the brand. And that and certainly be able to earn points and move up into loyalty tiers is a big part of that. So we feel great about the first four weeks, execution has been good and a lot more marketing to come in regards to that app, as we move to the back end here of Q4 and into obviously 2022.

AlexSlagle

Okay, and how many members are you up to now?

JohnCappasola

So we have nearly 250,000 members in the first four weeks, so again, that's a combination of those new folks, I referenced nearly 40% and then folks migrating over from the old app into the new app. So, again, just to underscore when you see the unique active users performing at a similar level in the first four weeks in aggregate in totality of that, on that 250,000 member compared to the 1.5 million that we had in the old app that's pretty impressive. And I think it speaks to the frequency and usage that's happening within that, within the new loyalty program.

AlexSlagle

Okay, then, thinking about some of the other drivers staffing, obviously, that you talked about that being 100 basis point sort of impact, and I guess working that down, and then just in terms of menu innovation and promotional -- I mean, what would you call out is the biggest driver for us to think about in terms of changing the trajectory and accelerating the comps?

JohnCappasola

Yes, I think it's important to remember that Q3 was positive, going over positive for both the company and franchise, same store sales trends and Q4 thus far, as we noted, is also positive going over positive for company and franchise. So it's important to remember that we were able to achieve same store sales growth in Q3 and Q4, 2020, despite the pandemic and we just happen to roll over in Q3 one of our more, the more successful product launches in the history of the company, which was the Crispy Chicken Taco or the Crispy Chicken menu in 2020. I think overall, what I'd say on this front as the product launches with Stuffed Quesadilla Tacos and Double Cheese Breakfast Tacos, along with Del Yeah! Rewards, which will continue to build momentum are driving improved year-on-year same store sales trends as we look at the first five weeks of Q4 compared to Q3 and that's really despite those operating in a more challenging environment year-on-year, due to some of those staffing challenges that we referenced in those hotspot stores. So overall we expect to finish 2021 with six consecutive quarters of same store sales growth in both the company and franchise. And that's basically going back to obviously the last negative quarter was Q2 of 2020, which was the first quarter of the pandemic. So overall, we feel good about the trend and the programs that we launched recently. And we think that's -- they're going a long way in helping us continue to drive same store sales growth.

AlexSlagle

Okay. Just then last question just wanted to see on delivery, you're seeing any changes in demand or anything now that we're kind of moving past the potential benefits of stimulus and extended unemployment benefit, did you see anything there?

SteveBrake

We continue to see delivery through the system, both company and franchise continue to grow moderately, both company and franchise were north of 7% during fiscal Q3, which we view is a good sign, especially since we did implement another slight uptick to our menu price premium for delivery on the company side, company restaurants and about 22.5% franchisees also in that low to mid-20% area. So we feel good about the model and the trend.

Operator

Our next question is from Nick Setyan with Wedbush Securities.

NickSetyan

Thank you. What was the overall average check in the quarter, Steve?

SteveBrake

It was in the mid high 9s.

NickSetyan

Got it. And 5.5% pricing in Q4 assuming you're kind of stayed in that 5% range, like in first half of '22. You guys kind of gave us 5% food cost inflation in Q4. I mean, does that imply like we should see COGS as a percentage of sales come down in Q4 versus Q4 of last year or is there some mix shift that we should think about?

SteveBrake

Well, the commentary is looking at both food inflation and menu price, both being in that five plus percent area, which would imply flattish for Q4 on a year-over-year basis, which is I think directionally correct. As you know, your waste and inefficiencies can somewhat play into the food line as well not to mention the product mix. But in general, that would be a flattish implication for Q4 year-over-year.

NickSetyan

And I guess the same question on labor. Q3 you said about 5% assuming 6% inflation. We saw about 80 bps of labor deleverage, just given the level of pricing perhaps I would have thought it would have been a little less. Is there like overtime pay? Is there been - just kind of maybe go through the puts and takes on labor that we should think about in terms of how to think about the overall maybe hourly growth versus just inflation. How should we think about that, as we kind of think about how to model the labor line?

SteveBrake

Yes, on labor as you know, typical with our California heavy and Nevada heavy footprint the main driver of inflation is California and Nevada minimum wages, they are that, it's working against us. I would say the operational efficiency has been very good at the restaurant level. So that's been a positive operators are executing that very well. But again, back to minimum wage, that's the main driver, and John touched on it is certainly, it's more on a limited basis but there are kind of hotspot restaurants, if you will, which are among minority, but those are situations where we are paying a higher prevailing wage as appropriate. And then in addition, some of the labor availability challenges that John touched upon. That, of course, does play into not just some curtailment of operating hours, but also indeed to hit the nail on the head and increase uptick in overtime. So all that serves to boost up average effective wage which includes the impact of overtime, any given year average wage will continue to tick up during the course of the year.

This year that additional rate of growth has been higher in for a year than we've seen before. That's on a long term basis as you know average wage with a California footprint, we are on a path towards $50 an hour where minimum wage culminates in California. Starting January 1, just a few months from now, in fact, that $15 level will then maintain through 2023. So it's certainly possible at some of this end year uptick in wage we're experiencing may be more of a timing issue, when you think about the long term, that said it was pressuring us a bit in Q3, it plays into 80 bps of deleverage that you saw, and given the trend that'll continue into Q4 but we'll again expect deleverage on that line and again with a low single digit call it same store sales trajectory that's what leads to the deleverage overall.

NickSetyan

Understood and just last question, you kind of commented that more recently you've seen some of the labor pressure come down. First, is that a correct interpretation? And second, understanding that you don't really have a crystal ball but I guess what's your internal estimate or expectation or how you're strategizing for what -- when the timeframe for when that may normalize. Is it by the end of Q4? Is it more like the middle of '22 in terms of the staffing issue?

JohnCappasola

So it remains very fluid, it's hard to predict exactly what's going to happen but I'll say we've got a very holistic strategy that we've talked about on a couple of calls now in regards to how we're thinking about both acquiring quality talent as well as you know keeping quality talent and making sure that we're training and developing them and overall I think our operators and our franchisees are just doing an outstanding job leading in this environment with our people first focus and navigating kind of a very challenging time. That said the hotspot restaurants where we've reduced operating hours by an hour or more so that roughly represented somewhere in the kind of mid to high teens as a percent of restaurants, kind of as you look at it week to week, it changes a little bit week to week depending on the situation with the restaurants, we are managing it or operators and our franchisees are managing a daily and weekly but the commentary around it peeking so for in Q4 at about 1% that's due to a really nice improvement in applicant flow coming into the system in the last few weeks.

And that is related to a digital recruitment campaign that we are investing into that we have the ability to kind of really target on a zip code basis and put extra dollars into stores that need more help and take some dollars away from stores that don't need quite as much help. And that's actually improved the applicant pool for us by 4x over the last few weeks so those quality applicants coming into the system that's step one for these hotspot restaurants, then getting those folks trained properly and developed properly to create great guest experiences. That's step two, but certainly, we've seen some of these hotspot restaurants start to return back to more normalized operating hours, I should say in recent weeks.

Operator

And our next question is from Todd Brooks with CL King and Associates.

ToddBrooks

Good afternoon, guys. Good job navigating a tough environment here. I wanted to lead off with just kind of same store sales progression for the comparison, obviously, Crispy Chicken a massive platform for you guys. Good success with new products during Q3 allowing you to still comp positively even with the headwinds from labor. How does the kind of comparison look across the back half of the fourth quarter relative to what you've talked about, comparing against them that 3% to 4% range so far in the quarter. Does it ease at all if you move farther into the Crispy Chicken launch?

SteveBrake

For the system, Todd, both the company and franchise, we have a 16 week fourth quarter, the second the later eight weeks did perform better year ago than the first eight weeks. So the compare if you will, we'll get a little bit more difficult as we round out the back half of the quarter.

JohnCappasola

But I think at the same time as you know that the burn off from crispy chicken started to occur. We were maintaining higher sales mix but that initial excitement around Crispy Chicken really was burning off in September and now obviously having some of these new platforms that we've launched and hope you continue to see gaining momentum along with our Tamales LTO that happens kind of in November, we think we're in a pretty good position to obviously have a positive same store sales on the company and the franchise business in Q4 and put up the nice result.

ToddBrooks

Pretty and you do have the benefit of Del Yeah! Now you did not have last year as a driver so.

SteveBrake

Definitely.

ToddBrooks

Okay, great. Secondly, can you give some details behind the REEF partnership? How does that work? Is that a royalty arrangement? And I guess if you look at the markets that you're operating, I know you're about to open the first later this month. But what's the potential of kind of densely urban markets that you can see if this works dropping of REEF ghost kitchen bento?

SteveBrake

Yes, we're excited about it. The first outlet, it will open later this month, a very dense urban or dense urban area of LA really the purpose here is expand access to the brand, in particularly in dense areas where there's a lot of guests and occasions that we're just not servicing today. So we're excited about that. As we mentioned there are several more planned, overall to your question, it really is very akin to franchising, it's a license deal. Very similar to franchise arrangements, although it does feature a reduced marketing contribution, which is appropriate based on the nature of this delivery only channel. So really focus right now is having a good successful launch here, moving forward with the additional planned openings down the road, and really learn from it, and then decide from there in partnership with REEF what the future looks like. So we're excited a lot more to come, including performance out of the first of several outlets.

ToddBrooks

Okay. Great. And then final one for me. Real acceleration in your franchising activity here in the third quarter with larger scale partners to which is great to see, I guess two questions on this front, how does kind of the pipeline look behind it? Are there people that are conditioning their decision to go on seeing kind of the first Fresh Flex come out of the ground of Florida this quarter? And secondly, with the types of partners that you're signing with, my sense is the bandwidth is there that a signed deal if it works could grow pretty dramatically? Could you talk about maybe other brand name plates that these partners are running and a 10 year deal and the potential for it to grow into something if it really works for them? Thanks.

JohnCappasola

Yes, sure, Todd. So first off from a pipeline perspective, we've been building obviously building pipeline with a great group of existing franchisees for some time now. And I think our existing group that really is the foundation of our pipeline has done a nice job and is really excited about fresh flax and continues to build opportunities and especially now as you look at having with our menu strategy, more and more assets to grow with than we had before, it's not the old kind of cookie cutter model anymore and we've expanded the asset group to be drive-thru only, which is a smaller footprint, perhaps gives you the opportunity to access trader is you couldn't have access before, all the way up to more of a standard prototype with a dining room. So that existing group has been and will continue to build pipeline and be a big part of our growth story.

And then what you referenced is the seven new deals for 53 units that we signed this year. Obviously, those will start to come to fruition here over the next 18 to 24 months, as these initial stores are opening and to your point we are absolutely taking a quality over quantity type of an approach with these groups, we certainly see some operators that we've signed that have some big brand, nameplates to your point and have capability and the current store counts and the multi dozen range and more and we know that with success begets biggest excitement and more success and that's what we're intent on delivering and supporting our partners to do so. To your point, there's definitely some upside, but we need to execute we need to deliver the brand and we need to give our new partners that support for them to be able to kind of get to that next level of growth, if you will.

Operator

Our next question is from Nicole Miller with Piper Sandler.

NicoleMiller

Thank you so much and good afternoon. Just a couple quick ones. On the fourth quarter price, 5.5% did that start day one for 4Q is that coming now?

SteveBrake

It'll evolve slightly throughout the quarter. But throughout the quarter, we will be maintaining somewhere between 5% and 6% based on the timing of what we're rolling over. So essentially, day one, we're in the five plus area.

NicoleMiller

Okay, I was just trying to true it up to the commentary of the quarter-to-date comp. So I appreciate that to see how much more prices on a comp against difficult compares, given the earlier question. And then second on comp. And this is probably maybe just nuanced, but company owned improvement could reflect easing compares. But franchise comp gets more challenging and they're doing much better. We know price could be a factor. Is there anything else you would point to any other channel daypart, regional trend that we should be aware of?

SteveBrake

Yes, we still have a very fairly pronounced theme of geographic differences. So company is heavily California, Southern California, specifically and Las Vegas, whereas franchisees are operating across the 15 state footprint so we continue to see on one and three year basis really upsized, very strong performance, particularly outside of California, which is largely in favor of our franchise community, where we share markets with franchisees in Southern California, performances are much more aligned with much more modest franchise outperformance. So they're really that geographic theme continues to be a fairly pronounced in favor of franchise.

NicoleMiller

Okay, thanks. And then just the last one, I mean, I was just kind of listening to the presentation. And thinking at a very high level, this is really about swapping and re-franchising some stores for a high flow through EBITDA stream, right. And so I know there's mentioned of like, 2% revenue growth, but I'm looking at what was like 5%, a total system sales growth, and up almost or more than 10% versus 2019. So have I characterized that properly? And the system's probably growing faster than just looking at that total revenue line, right?

SteveBrake

Yes, something a metric like system wide sales, which capture firewall sales in the 600 unit system, it certainly would reflect the more robust growth, you're describing where is on the company P&L that the revenue line is so heavily influenced by company restaurant sales that are certainly comping positive and growing but at a lower rate compared to franchise where's franchise revenue does show that robust growth that you alluded to.

NicoleMiller

Yes, and you've left off some stores, right? And that's the plan. So again, in favor of a recurring royalty stream. So I guess I just want to make sure like, we're all making that comparison as well. So I'm just taking in time and I think that's it for me. Thank you for taking my questions and I appreciate it.

Operator

And we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. And I'll now turn the call back over to management for closing remarks.

John Cappasola

Okay, thank you, operator. And we certainly appreciate everyone taking the time today with us. And we thank you for your interest in Del Taco. It's exciting to accelerate growth and we feel great about our prospects on that front. So we look forward to sharing our progress on future calls. Have a great day.

Operator

Thank you for joining us today. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you and have a good day.