News

Famous Dave's FY2018 revenue falls 15%

March 5, 2019

Famous Dave's reported that the company's total revenue for fiscal 2018 fell 15 percent from the previous year to $54.9 million, while franchised location annual comp sales dropped 1.4 percent. The chain's company-owned locations, however, saw comp sales grow 2.7 percent, a news release said.

As it released its performance numbers from last year, the chain also announced it named Kanen Wealth Management Managing Member David L. Kanen as non-executive board chair. Kanen joined the group in October 2018, and is also president and portfolio manager of Philotimo Fund, LP, a hedge fund focused on small-cap value and activism, according to Bloomberg. 

In Q4 2018, Famous Dave's reported its net income grew to $1.1 million, or $0.12 per share, while consolidated adjusted EBITDA fell 6.7 percent to $1.2 million. Company-owned comp sales grew 2.2 percent over the quarter with traffic up 6.3 percent while franchise comp sales dropped 1.5 percent over the period. 

Fiscal year 2018 results revealed: 

• Company-owned restaurant-level operating margin as a percentage of sales, net, fell from 3.7 percent in 2017 to 1.2 in 2018. 
• Net income grew to $4.9 million, or $0.57 per share. 
• Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA increased 36.7 percent to $7.7 million.

The decline in restaurant-level operating margin was attributed mostly to higher food and labor costs. 

"During fiscal 2018 our team completed many initiatives designed to drive traffic to our stores and refresh our brand value proposition," CEO Jeff Crivello, said in the release. "We launched a new menu, a loyalty program with a mobile app, deployed additional optimization technologies in restaurants and continued to test initiatives aimed at maximizing restaurant efficiency. We believe that further training and operational efficiency surrounding the new menu will improve food costs as a percentage of restaurant sales, net, in fiscal 2019. "

Famous Dave's has 124 franchised locations and 17 company-owned stores in 33 states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Canada and the United Arab Emirates.