BJ’s Restaurants Inc. (Nasdaq: BJRI) announced first quarter results today reporting total revenues up 34% to $298.7 million. Net income was $1.5 million compared to net loss of $3.1 million a year ago.
The Huntington Beach-based restaurant chain’s revenue result beat analysts’ average estimate of $297 million for the quarter ending March 29. Shares rose 2.9% to $30.11 in afterhours trading, with a market cap of $685 million.
“Our weekly restaurant sales average steadily increased from $96,000 in January to $110,000 in February and $118,000 in March as we added more team members and were able to accommodate more guests with our gold standard level of service,” CEO Greg Levin said in a statement.
Levin noted that this improvement was possible despite inflationary pressures and last December’s Omicron impact, and has continued into April.
BJ’s has opened two new restaurants since January and is on track to open as many as eight this year according to officials. The chain will continue to focus on increasing weekly sales, doubling restaurant locations to 425 nationwide and growing sales to $2 billion.
“With BJ’s unique positioning, high standard of execution and improved restaurant staffing levels, we are working aggressively to build back even more dining room traffic, while benefiting from off premise sales that are double pre-pandemic levels,” Levin said.
