Bloomin’ Brands Provides Interim Business Update Related to COVID-19

Reports Strengthening Sales Trends and Cash Flow

Announces 2020 Q2 Financial Results

TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul. 24, 2020-- Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLMN) today announced a business update related to COVID-19 as well as second quarter 2020 financial results.

Statement from David Deno, Chief Executive Officer

Our priorities remain unchanged as we continue to address these challenging times. We are focused on taking care of our people and serving food in a safe environment that protects both our Team Members and customers.

The investments made over the past several years to enhance the customer experience and rapidly pursue the emerging delivery opportunity have been critical to our success in navigating this pandemic. At the onset of this pandemic in March, we were able to quickly pivot to an off-premises only business model as dining rooms were forced to close. The rapid growth we experienced in off-premises sales allowed us to keep substantially all of our locations open during this time.

Starting in May, states began the process of partially re-opening their economies. Our decision to not furlough any employees during this pandemic has allowed us to quickly prepare our restaurants to re-open dining rooms in a safe and efficient manner. As of July 19, 2020, 928 company-operated restaurants (approximately 92% of U.S. restaurants) have reopened with limited in-restaurant dining capacity. At Outback Steakhouse, we had 527 restaurants open for dine-in service at limited capacity during the full week ended July 19, 2020. Comparable restaurant sales at these locations were down 10.7% from the prior year. Across our U.S. portfolio, we experienced consistent weekly sales momentum throughout the second quarter as we adapted to this evolving environment. This improved sales recovery, coupled with disciplined cost management, enabled us to generate positive cash flow for the month of June.

Recently, there has been a significant increase in reported COVID cases in certain states, including Florida and Texas, where we have a total of 286 company-owned locations. This has resulted in some local governments responding by taking additional measures, including implementing a further reduction of in-restaurant capacity in certain locations. Although this is a developing situation, to this point these capacity reductions have had a minimal impact on our overall sales trends. We continue to monitor and adhere to local restrictions and are maintaining elevated safety measures, including additional sanitation and disinfecting practices, use of gloves and facial protection for our employees, as well as contactless payment options for our consumers.

Despite these recent developments and the challenging environment that remains, we are looking forward to emerging as a better, stronger, operations-focused company. I am more convinced than ever of the important role that full-service restaurants will continue to play in the lives of our customers and our communities.

Recent Sales Results

The following table includes U.S. company-owned comparable restaurant sales metrics for both restaurants open for in-restaurant dining and restaurants with off-premises only dining for the full weekly periods ended as indicated:

The following table includes estimated comparable restaurant sales by concept for our U.S. company-owned restaurants for the periods indicated:

Cash Utilization and Liquidity Update

As of yesterday, our total liquidity position was $502 million, which includes approximately $138 million of domestic cash and $364 million of capacity on our revolving credit facility. Our liquidity position over the last several weeks has improved due to increased sales performance and working capital inflows.

Second Quarter Diluted EPS and Adjusted Diluted EPS

The following table reconciles Diluted (loss) earnings per share attributable to common stockholders to Adjusted diluted (loss) earnings per share for the second quarter 2020 (“Q2 2020”) compared to the second quarter 2019 (“Q2 2019”).

Our second quarter results on a GAAP and adjusted basis included $11 million of relief pay (net of credits) provided to hourly employees impacted by the closure of our dining rooms.

Second Quarter Financial Results

• The decrease in total revenues was primarily due to: (i) significantly lower comparable restaurant sales principally attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, (ii) the net impact of restaurant closures and openings, (iii) lower franchise revenue and (iv) the effect of foreign currency translation of the Brazil Real relative to the U.S. dollar.

• GAAP and Adjusted restaurant-level operating margin decreased due to: (i) significantly lower comparable restaurant sales and costs incurred in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, including incremental delivery related costs and relief pay net of tax credits and (ii) higher labor costs and commodity inflation. These decreases are partially offset by: (i) reduced operating, advertising and utilities expense and (ii) cost savings from waste reduction initiatives.

• GAAP operating income margin decreased due to: (i) a decline in restaurant-level operating margin discussed above, (ii) sales deleveraging in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic across depreciation and amortization and general and administrative expense and (iii) asset impairment charges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. These decreases are partially offset by cost savings from our restructuring and transformation initiatives. Item (iii) from above was excluded from our adjusted operating income margin.

Second Quarter Comparable Restaurant Sales

2020 Financial Outlook

As announced on March 20, 2020, the Company withdrew its 2020 financial guidance for the fiscal year ending December 27, 2020. Due to the current global market and economic conditions as a result of COVID-19, the Company will not provide guidance for the remainder of the year.

Conference Call

The Company will host a conference call today, July 24, 2020 at 8:30 AM EDT. 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) Adjusted restaurant-level operating margin, (ii) Adjusted (loss) income from operations and the corresponding margin, (iii) Adjusted net (loss) income, (iv) Adjusted diluted (loss) earnings per share, (v) Adjusted segment restaurant-level operating margin and (vi) Adjusted segment (loss) income from operations and the corresponding margin.

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, and six 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 operates more than 1,450 restaurants in 47 states, Puerto Rico, Guam and 20 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 “Statement from David Deno, Chief Executive Officer” and “Cash Utilization and Liquidity Update” 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: the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainties about its depth and duration, as well as the impacts to economic conditions and consumer behavior, including, among others: the inability of workers, including delivery drivers, to work due to illness, quarantine, or government mandates, temporary restaurant closures and capacity restrictions due to reduced workforces or government mandates, the unemployment rate, the extent, availability and effectiveness of any COVID-19 stimulus packages or loan programs, the ability of our franchisees to operate their restaurants during the pandemic and pay royalties, and trends in consumer behavior and spending during and after the end of the pandemic; consumer reaction to public health and food safety issues; competition; increases in labor costs; government actions and policies; increases in unemployment rates and taxes; local, regional, national and international economic conditions; consumer confidence and spending patterns; price and availability of commodities; the effects of changes in tax laws; challenges associated with our remodeling, relocation and expansion plans; interruption or breach of our systems or loss of consumer or employee information; political, social and legal conditions in international markets and their effects on foreign operations and foreign currency exchange rates; our ability to preserve the value of and grow our brands; the seasonality of the Company’s business; weather, acts of God and other disasters; changes in patterns of consumer traffic, consumer tastes and dietary habits; the cost and availability of credit; interest rate changes; and compliance with debt covenants and the Company’s ability to make debt payments and planned investments. 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.

Restaurant-level Operating Margin Adjustments - Following is a summary of unfavorable (favorable) adjusted restaurant-level operating margin adjustments recorded in Other restaurant operating expense (unless otherwise noted below) for the following activities, as described in table five of this release:

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

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Mark Graff
Group Vice President, IR & Finance
(813) 830-5311

Source: Bloomin’ Brands, Inc.