Bloomin’ Brands Announces 2022 Q4 Financial Results

Q4 Diluted EPS of $0.61 and Adjusted Diluted EPS of $0.68

Provides Full Year 2023 Financial Outlook

Declares Quarterly Cash Dividend of $0.24 per Share, an Increase of 71%

Authorizes New $125 Million Share Repurchase Program

TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 16, 2023-- Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLMN) today reported results for the fourth quarter 2022 (“Q4 2022”) and fiscal year ended December 25, 2022 (“Fiscal Year 2022”) compared to the fourth quarter 2021 (“Q4 2021”) and fiscal year ended December 26, 2021 (“Fiscal Year 2021”).

CEO Comments

“We are pleased with our results in 2022 where we delivered profits and margins well above pre-pandemic levels despite significant inflation,” said David Deno, CEO. “All U.S. brands finished the year with positive comparable restaurant sales and our Brazil business achieved record levels of profits and sales. We are off to a good start to 2023 as we continue to elevate the customer experience and drive innovation across the portfolio while remaining focused on healthy top-line growth.”

Diluted EPS and Adjusted Diluted EPS

The following tables reconcile Diluted earnings per share to Adjusted diluted earnings per share for the periods indicated:

Fourth Quarter Financial Results

• The increase in Total revenues was primarily due to higher comparable restaurant sales and the net impact of restaurant openings and closures.

• GAAP operating income margin improved from Q4 2021 due to increases in average check, significant improvement in Brazil, the benefits of productivity initiatives and lower incentive compensation. These gains were partially offset by commodity and wage inflation, higher operating expenses including utilities and an increase in legal reserves.

• All costs above are included in restaurant-level operating margin with the exception of incentive compensation.

• The difference between GAAP operating income margin and adjusted operating income margin relates to Q4 2021 restructuring activities as well as the Q4 2022 impact of the additional legal reserves mentioned above.

Fourth Quarter Comparable Restaurant Sales

The following table includes Company-owned comparable restaurant sales for the fourth quarter ended December 25, 2022 as well as performance relative to 2019 for improved comparability to pre-COVID-19 restaurant sales:

Dividend Declaration and Share Repurchases

On February 7, 2023, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.24 per share, payable on March 15, 2023 to stockholders of record at the close of business on March 1, 2023.

Through February 15, 2023, we repurchased 6 million shares for a total of $124 million under our existing share repurchase authorization. On February 7, 2023, our Board of Directors approved a new $125 million authorization that will expire on August 7, 2024.

“The 71% increase in our dividend as well as our new $125 million share repurchase authorization reflects our confidence in the strength of our cash flows,” said Chris Meyer, CFO. “Importantly, we continue to generate ample cash flow that will fund investments in our people and ongoing growth initiatives.”

Brazil Tax Legislation

Our 2023 financial outlook includes a benefit from a legislative action in Brazil that provides certain industries a 100% exemption from federal income tax and federal value added tax on revenues, known as PIS and COFINS, for a period of five years. The temporary exemptions are for businesses impacted heavily by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our operations in Brazil received a court ruling affirming our eligibility for this exemption.

This annual benefit is specific to results generated by our Brazilian operations. The PIS and COFINS exemption is expected to generate an approximate benefit of $17 million to income from operations in 2023, and this benefit is exempt from federal income tax in Brazil. In addition, the exemption from federal income tax is also expected to generate an approximate tax benefit of $6 million in 2023. The combined impact of these benefits is approximately $23 million to our consolidated 2023 results or approximately $0.25 to diluted earnings per share. Due to the ongoing annual benefit from this legislative action, these amounts will be included in both our GAAP and adjusted financial results.

Fiscal 2023 Financial Outlook

The Company’s financial expectations for fiscal 2023 include the following:

• Addition of a 53rd week at the end of fiscal 2023. This week is one of the Company’s highest sales volume weeks, however; it only has six days due to closure for the Christmas holiday.

• Benefits from the Brazil tax legislation as described above.

The tables below present our expectations for selected 2023 financial reporting and operating results:

Q1 2023 Financial Outlook

The table below presents our expectations for selected fiscal Q1 2023 operating results:

Conference Call

The Company will host a conference call today, February 16, 2023 at 8:15 AM EST. The conference call will be webcast live from the Company’s website at http://www.bloominbrands.com under the Investors section. A replay of this webcast will be available on the Company’s website after the call.

Non-GAAP Measures

In addition to the results provided in accordance with GAAP, this press release and related tables include certain non-GAAP measures, which present operating results on an adjusted basis. These are supplemental measures of performance that are not required by or presented in accordance with GAAP and include the following: (i) Restaurant-level operating margin and adjusted restaurant-level operating margin, (ii) Adjusted income from operations and the corresponding margin, (iii) Adjusted net income, (iv) Adjusted diluted earnings per share and (v) Adjusted segment income from operations and the corresponding margin.

Restaurant-level operating margin is a non-GAAP financial measure widely regarded in the industry as a useful metric to evaluate restaurant-level operating efficiency and performance of ongoing restaurant-level operations, and we use it for these purposes, overall and particularly within our two segments.

We believe that our use of non-GAAP financial measures permits investors to assess the operating performance of our business relative to our performance based on GAAP results and relative to other companies within the restaurant industry by isolating the effects of certain items that may vary from period to period without correlation to core operating performance or that vary widely among similar companies. However, our inclusion of these adjusted measures should not be construed as an indication that our future results will be unaffected by unusual or infrequent items or that the items for which we have made adjustments are unusual or infrequent or will not recur. We believe that the disclosure of these non-GAAP measures is useful to investors as they form part of the basis for how our management team and Board of Directors evaluate our operating performance, allocate resources and administer employee incentive plans.

These non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to replace GAAP financial measures, and they are not necessarily standardized or comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. We maintain internal guidelines with respect to the types of adjustments we include in our non-GAAP measures. These guidelines endeavor to differentiate between types of gains and expenses that are reflective of our core operations in a period, and those that may vary from period to period without correlation to our core performance in that period. However, implementation of these guidelines necessarily involves the application of judgment, and the treatment of any items not directly addressed by, or changes to, our guidelines will be considered by our disclosure committee. You should refer to the reconciliations of non-GAAP measures in tables four, five, six and seven included later in this release for descriptions of the actual adjustments made in the current period and the corresponding prior period.

About Bloomin’ Brands, Inc.

Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. is one of the largest casual dining restaurant companies in the world with a portfolio of leading, differentiated restaurant concepts. The Company has four founder-inspired brands: Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar. The Company owns and operates more than 1,450 restaurants in 47 states, Guam and 13 countries, some of which are franchise locations. For more information, please visit www.bloominbrands.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained herein, including statements under the headings “CEO Comments”, “Fiscal 2023 Financial Outlook” and “Q1 2023 Financial Outlook” are not based on historical fact and are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Generally, these statements can be identified by the use of words such as “guidance,” “believes,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “on track,” “feels,” “forecasts,” “seeks,” “projects,” “intends,” “plans,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “would” and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. These forward-looking statements include all matters that are not historical facts. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company’s forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: consumer reaction to public health and food safety issues; increases in labor costs and fluctuations in the availability of employees; increases in unemployment rates and taxes; competition; interruption or breach of our systems or loss of consumer or employee information; price and availability of commodities and other impacts of inflation; our dependence on a limited number of suppliers and distributors; the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainties about its depth and duration, as well as the impacts to economic conditions, the responses of domestic and foreign federal, state and local governments to the pandemic and consumer behavior; political, social and legal conditions in international markets and their effects on foreign operations and foreign currency exchange rates; our ability to address environmental, social and governance matters; local, regional, national and international economic conditions; changes in patterns of consumer traffic, consumer tastes and dietary habits; the effects of changes in tax laws; costs, diversion of management attention and reputational damage from any claims or litigation; government actions and policies; challenges associated with our remodeling, relocation and expansion plans; our ability to preserve the value of and grow our brands; consumer confidence and spending patterns; weather, acts of God and other disasters and the ability or success in executing related business continuity plans; the Company’s ability to make debt payments and planned investments and the Company’s compliance with debt covenants; the cost and availability of credit; interest rate changes; and any impairments in the carrying value of goodwill and other assets. Further information on potential factors that could affect the financial results of the Company and its forward-looking statements is included in its most recent Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as may be required by law. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

Note: Numerical figures included in this release have been subject to rounding adjustments.

Following is a summary of the financial statement line item classification of the net income adjustments: