News

Sonic’s daypart, product strategies drive 5.3% lift in sales

June 24, 2014

Sonic Corp. turned in a 5.3 percent systemwide increase in same-store sales during Q3. Results were announced Monday and also included:

• Net income per diluted share was $0.30 compared with net income per diluted share of $0.26 in the third fiscal quarter of 2013;
• Company drive-in margins improved by 40 basis points;
• Ten new drive-ins were opened; and
• The company repurchased approximately $11 million of stock bringing total repurchases for the year to $69.4 million, representing more than 6 percent of its outstanding shares as of the beginning of the fiscal year.

CEO Clifford Hudson said in a news release that the strong sales performance was driven by new product news, layered daypart promotional strategy and increased media efficiency.

“The multiple initiatives we have in place to increase sales, profits and new drive-in development are working together nicely to optimize shareholder value,” he said. “We have implemented our new point-of-sale system in all of our company drive-ins and expect to have the new digital point-of-purchase technology implemented in all of our company drive-ins by the end of summer. Our multi-year implementation of these systems in franchisee-owned drive-ins will begin this fall. Going forward, these technology initiatives to improve operational efficiency and enhance customer engagement will be an important contributor to increased sales and profits for our entire system.”