Article Excerpt:
TWST: We last spoke about a year ago. What has gone on over the past year or so at Rubio's that investors should focus on?Ms. Miksa: It has been busy. In fact, in June 2004 we introduced our Fresh and Affordable MenuSM. The Fresh and Affordable Menu was designed to provide more affordable options to more people. Specifically, we have the expectation of attracting traditional fast food eaters, or QSR eaters, who want to trade up for high quality, healthful, flavorful and distinctive food. We wanted to bring those people into Rubio's on a more frequent basis. We also want to offer a variety of affordable options that meet the needs of traditional fast-casual users who may, in fact, want the freshness, quality, distinctiveness and healthfulness of most fast-casual menus, but don't want to have to spend as much. With the introduction of this menu, we actually created a new category called the 'Affordable Fast-Casual Fresh Mexican Grill' segment. So with affordable fast-casual, we really found the sweet spot; we recognized the need and the opportunity to provide a menu which allowed guests to trade-up from fast food while maintaining the fast-casual quality. We offer 'craveable' Rubio's products that are affordable every day.
TWST: What has been the effect on your results?
Ms. Miksa: We extensively tested the menu and researched it before we
rolled it out and, consistent with those tests, we found that we have
driven transactions and gotten more guests into the restaurants more
frequently. And we have done that while maintaining our check average.
As you may know, we recently reported our fourth quarter and full year
results, and in 2004 we drove 4.3% comp sales, which is the highest full
year increase since we became a publicly-traded company in 1999. In Q4,
we also posted our 13th consecutive quarter of positive comp sales as a
result of rolling out the Fresh and Affordable Menu in June 2004.
Finally, we posted record earnings results in 2004 with the Company's
highest net income of $3.0 million and $0.32 eps.
Tickers included in this excerpt: RUBO
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