Potbelly said Tuesday that its fourth-quarter earnings soared 76 percent as the sandwich chain benefited from higher sales and kept a lid on costs.
By the numbers: The Chicago-based company earned $1.2 million, or 5 cents per share, compared with $702,000, or 2 cents per share, in the final quarter of last year. Revenue rose 12 percent to $95.1 million. So-called comparable-store sales, or sales at company-owned stores open at least 15 months, rose 3.7 percent. That metric is a key gauge of a restaurant chain’s health because it strips out the benefit of newly opened stores.
Quote you on that: “We continue to execute on our new unit development plan and bring Potbelly to new neighborhoods,” CEO Aylwin Lewis said in a statement. “For the year, we opened 53 shops, with 43 company-operated and 10 franchised, which is approximately 12 percent net unit growth. The men and women across the Potbelly Nation continue to do great work and were the driving force behind our strong results in 2015. The underlying fundamentals of the business remain strong.”
What’s ahead: The company expects to ramp up openings a bit next year, aiming to open between 55 and 65 stores. It also sees earnings chugging higher, with an earnings forecast of between 33 and 36 cents per share for the full year, compared with earnings of 20 cents per share for all of 2015.
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