Chili’s restaurants are feeling the effects of COVID restrictions as company-owned stores went from capturing 99 percent of sales in late October to 88 percent last week.
On October 28, 92 percent of Chili’s restaurants and 90 percent of Maggiano’s restaurants had open dining rooms. But as of December 9, roughly 77 percent of Chili’s stores and 69 percent of Maggiano’s stores had open dining rooms. In the past month and a half, California, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, Minnesota, New Mexico, Michigan, Kentucky, New York City, Baltimore, St. Louis, and parts of Colorado have shut down indoor dining.
Here’s a look at how company-owned Chili’s and Maggiano’s same-store sales have trended since October:
Week ending October 28
- Chili’s: –1 percent
- Maggiano’s: –34 percent
- Company-owned: –4.9 percent
Week ending November 4
- Chili’s: –3.9 percent
- Maggiano’s: –44.1 percent
- Company-owned: –8.9 percent
Week ending November 11
- Chili’s: –5.7 percent
- Maggiano’s:–42.4 percent
- Company-owned: –10.3 percent
Week ending November 18
- Chili’s: –6.5 percent
- Maggiano’s: –44.5 percent
- Company-owned: –11.4 percent
Week ending November 25
- Chili’s: –13.3 percent
- Maggiano’s: –39.4 percent
- Company-owned: –16.4 percent
Week ending December 2
- Chili’s: –13.8 percent
- Maggiano’s: –53.8 percent
- Company-owned: 21.1 percent
Week ending December 9
- Chili’s: –12.3 percent
- Maggiano’s: –63.9 percent
- Company-owned: –21.7 percent
The added closures should place an even bigger spotlight on Chili’s new virtual brand, It’s Just Wings, which rolled out to more than 1,000 stores at the end of June. In August, CEO Wyman Roberts estimated that the brand was earning more than $3 million per week, which was on pace to meet the brand’s expectation of $150 million per year. In October, Roberts said that stores reaching pre-pandemic dine-in volumes were retaining a 30 to 35 percent off-premises mix, so the channel has remained strong throughout the year.
“We feel very optimistic or very comfortable that the convenience experience by the broad market now isn’t going to revert back to where it was pre-pandemic,” Roberts said in October. “We’re going to see significantly higher takeout/delivery, and that’s without virtual brands. So obviously as we throw virtual brands into the mix that adds to that mix.”
Brinker International, parent of Chili’s and Maggiano’s, continues to have adequate liquidity with $646 million as of December 11, including revolver availability of $593 million and cash availability of $53 million.
“While positive Chili’s traffic in October generated a strong start to the quarter, the recent rise in COVID-19 cases has resulted in dining room closures and capacity limitations that will prevent us from achieving our plans for the second quarter,” Roberts said in a statement. “As we work through this short-term change in the operational environment, we are confident in our continued ability to outperform the sector and the ability of our strategies to deliver long-term growth.”
