Wendy’s sales strong in second quarter
The rollout of robots taking orders at Wendy’s is going to take a little bit longer.
The Dublin-based burger giant reported secondquarter earnings Wednesday and noted that about 300 stores will add kiosks, which are autonomous ordering stations, by the end of the year. That’s far off the 1,000 estimated earlier this year.
Instead of pushing kiosks, Wendy’s said it will add mobile-ordering capabilities to 75 percent of its locations by the end of the year and could start expanding delivery in the coming months.
The company tested delivery in Columbus, and that test went well, CEO Todd Penegor said during the quarterly earnings call with analysts.
Results from delivery, for which Wendy’s partnered with DoorDash, were “encouraging,” Penegor said. Delivery orders had higher average checks than in-store visits and represented additional sales, especially in the evening hours.
The decision to slow the installation of kiosks is to allow Wendy’s to take a hard look at where the stations will work best, Penegor said. Feedback on current kiosks remains good.
“Customers prefer them,” Penegor said.
Wendy’s reported strong results for its second quarter, although it lost $1.8 million because of a one-time charge related to the sale of stores from one franchisee to another.
Wendy’s agreed to buy and sell the stores of longtime franchisee DavCo, but took a $43 million charge on the deal.
The buyer of the DavCo stores, NPC, is the largest Pizza Hut franchisee. It has agreed to an aggressive remodeling campaign, will build more than a dozen new stores and and promised to actively take part in national promotions run by Wendy’s.
Wendy’s reported a same-store sales gain of 3.2 percent, a strong mark and the company’s 18th straight quarter of sales growth.
Revenue fell to $320.3 million from $382.7 million as a result of its strategy of shedding company-owned stores. The sales figure beat Wall Street estimates by about 7 percent. Earnings per share for the quarter came to a loss of 1 cent, compared with earnings of 10 cents a share a year ago.
Without the loss from the DavCo sale, earnings were 15 cents per share, again better than Wall Street estimates.
The company’s shares closed Wednesday at $15.81, up 59 cents or 3.9 percent.