Yes, good afternoon. My name is Jenny. I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the A&W Revenue Royalties Income Fund Q1 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press the star followed by the number two. Ms. Susan Senecal, you may begin your conference. Great. Thank you, Jenny, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking the time to attend our call today. I am Susan Senecal, President and CEO of A&W Food Services of Canada and CEO of the A&W Revenue Royalties Income Fund. With me on the call today is Kelly Blankstein, who is the Chief Financial Officer of A&W Food Services and the Fund, and Agatha Tymke, who is the Director of Finance. Today, we're presenting the Fund's results for the first quarter ended March 26, 2023. I'm pleased to report that A&W has started the year off strong, with the Fund achieving royalty pool same-store sales growth of 6.1% in the first quarter. The loyalty of our guests and our mission to become number one with millennial burger lovers, chosen and trusted for truly good food and the convenience they crave, will help us continue to grow successfully. Now I'll turn things over to Kelly, who will touch on the Fund's structure and go through the financial results for the quarter. Thank you, Susan. Good afternoon, everyone. Of course, before we can tell you more about our results, I do need to read the following comment on forward-looking information. Certain statements in this presentation may be forward-looking in nature. These include statements with respect to the recovery of the food service industry and the ability of food services to rebound from the impacts of COVID-19, the food service industry resuming growth, timing for releasing the annual audited financial statements and MD&A of the Fund, as well as the quarterly results, building loyalty and enhancing performance over the long term. Actual results may differ from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this presentation are subject to a number of risk factors, including risks related to COVID-19, the ability of A&W Food Services to implement its strategies as planned, general economic and business conditions, financial and political instability, international conflict, and other factors disclosed previously and from time to time in the Fund's public filings. Any forward-looking statements in this presentation should be evaluated in light of these important factors and, as except as required by applicable securities laws, will not be updated if management's beliefs, estimates, or opinions or other factors should change. Now, I want to just quickly speak to the Fund's structure and then go through the financial results, and after that, Susan will provide an update on A&W Restaurants and some of A&W's key corporate developments. We'll be, of course, happy to answer any of your questions at the end of our call. The Income Fund is a top-line fund, meaning the distributable cash available to make distributions to unitholders is based on the sales of the restaurants in the royalty pool, with only minimal operating expenses associated with operating the Fund. For a more comprehensive description of the Fund's structure, please do refer to the About the Fund section on our Fund website. Next, I will go through our financial results for the first quarter of 2023 as compared to the first quarter of 2022. The news release issued earlier today summarizes the select financial results of the Fund, and the interim unaudited financial statements and MD&A will be released in the coming days. The 6.1% royalty pool same-store sales growth in the quarter was primarily driven by there being no public health restrictions related to COVID-19 in place across Canada during the first quarter of 2023 as compared to the first quarter of 2022. There were no temporary closures of A&W restaurants due to COVID-19 restrictions in Q1 2022. However, many of those restaurants were still required to operate with reduced operating hours and capacity limits on dine-in guests for all or a portion of the quarter in the same period last year. Royalty income for the first quarter of 2023 was CAD 11.4 million, based on gross sales reported by restaurants in the royalty pool of CAD 381.3 million, compared to Royalty income of CAD 10.6 million and gross sales reported by A&W restaurants in the royalty pool of CAD 352.6 million for the first quarter of 2022. The 8.1% increase in Royalty income for the quarter is attributable to the 6.1% royalty pool same-store sales growth and the gross sales from the 22 net new restaurants that were added to the royalty pool on January 5th of this year, January 5, 2023. The increase in Royalty income for the quarter was partially offset by there being one less day in the first quarter of 2023 as compared to the first quarter of 2022. Royalty pool same-store sales growth is based on an equal number of days in the quarter and year. Of significant interest to unitholders is the amount of distributable cash that the Fund has generated to pay distributions as well as the associated payout ratio. Distributable cash generated in the first quarter of 2023 was CAD 8.1 million, compared to CAD 6 million in the first quarter of 2022. This is a CAD 2.1 million increase in distributable cash, and that is generated and attributable to the CAD 0.9 million increase in royalty income and CAD 0.9 million decrease in current tax expense. The decrease in the current tax expense in 2023 is largely driven by a timing difference related to when income from the partnership is captured in Trademark's taxable income. Two monthly distributions totaling CAD 0.32 per unit were declared in the first quarter of 2023, compared to two monthly distributions totaling CAD 0.31 per unit in the first quarter of 2022. The current monthly distribution rate of CAD 0.16 per unit translates to an annualized distribution rate of CAD 1.92 per unit, and that's a new high watermark for the fund. I wanna now turn to discussing the payout ratio, which is a key metric. The fund's long-term objective is to maintain an annual payout ratio at or below 100%. However, the fund strives to provide unit holders with regular monthly distributions, and as a result of seasonality of sales in A&W Restaurants and the timing of current income taxes, the quarterly payout ratio does fluctuate. The payout ratio for the first quarter of 2023 was 112.9%, and that compares to 145% for the first quarter of 2022, which was higher due to the timing impact of current income taxes. I'm gonna pass things back over to Susan. Thank you, Kelly. Food Services believes that its mission to become number one with millennial burger lovers, chosen and trusted for truly good food and the convenience they crave, will help it continue to grow. Strategic initiatives, including repositioning and differentiating the A&W brand through the use of natural ingredients, continued new restaurant growth, and delivering an industry-leading guest experience, have all contributed to A&W's strong appeal and the trust it has built with Canadian consumers over many years. These strengths will be key to delivering strong results as the quick service restaurant industry and the QSR burger market continue resumed growth post-pandemic, but in the face of more challenging general economic conditions. A&W's brand positioning remains strong. Growth of new locations, industry-leading innovation, a safe and stable supply chain, and continued efforts to consistently deliver great-tasting food and a better guest experience are all expected to contribute to building loyalty and enhancing performance over the long term. Food Services is committed to the long-term health and success of its franchise network and the fund. Three new A&W restaurants opened in the first quarter of 2023, and an additional 10 restaurants were under construction as of March 26th, 2023. In 2022, Food Services signed an agreement to introduce the Pret brand within A&W restaurants in select markets in Canada for a two-year pilot project. As at March 26th, 2023, eight A&W locations, three in Vancouver and five in Toronto, were offering Pret products in their restaurants. The royalty payable to the fund applies to Pret products sold within A&W restaurants to the extent that such restaurants are in the royalty pool. Thank you for your attention. We would now be happy to answer your questions. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you wish to ask a question, please press the star followed by the one on your telephone keypad. Should you wish to withdraw your question, you may press star two. Your first question is from Ed Sollbach from Spartan. Please ask your question. Good day. Nice to see the same store sales growth again. You know, as a long-term unit holder, I can't help but notice, there seems to be less promotional activity and less advertising, less new product introductions than pre-pandemic, and it does seem to affect the results if you look at, y ou know, we're barely back to where we were in 2019, and obviously there's been a lot of inflation in terms of food products and prices. What are your thoughts around promotional activity and new products, and what do you have in the pipe, and what can you do there to get the same store sales growth going again like it was pre-pandemic? Yeah. Thanks for the question, Ed. There is certainly lots of innovation in our pipeline and in our restaurants. Our biggest initiative right now is the launch of the Brew Bar, which is, you know, an expanded beverage program that we now have in over 500 of our locations across Canada. We see that as a great way to appeal to more guests and give them different options. Particularly, we're looking forward to the summer and the hot weather with frozen root beer available and frozen, you know, drinks. Lots of different ways to enjoy A&W. That's one of the big examples of an innovation that's currently rolling out and underway. We've launched a number of different advertising and promotional campaigns during that same time period. We're pretty proud of the relationship that we've developed with the Blue Jays, and we see. I see lots of us in a promotional way, but certainly we're continue to be focused on reaching, you know, the guests where they are and experimenting with different ways of building A&W's appeal and awareness in every market that we operate in. What, what's the feedback on the Brew Bar that you've, I've seen that in some stores? Mm-hmm. How's that going? Been really good. A lot of guests have already found that they have a new favorite beverage. In fact, as we were sort of rolling out, you can't flip a switch and have it in every single restaurant on the same day. We were hearing from our operators like, you gotta hurry up and get me my Brew Bar because guests are coming in saying, I had one at a different A&W location, and I'd love to have it available here. I think that's going really well, and we're getting a positive re-response on both the taste and flavor and excitement of the beverages, but also from our franchisees who have been, well, big supporters of the program from day one. Well, the franchisees, That's a good endorsement 'cause they probably know the best on how things are going. I like to think so. On, on like promotions, like, where are you in terms of an app? I know you used to do emails. Like, I get your emails occasionally, but that seems to have quieted down. Like, where are you in terms of those kind of promotions? Yeah, we are doing work as well on a mobile app, that is. We've had a mobile app of course for some time, but we think that there's an opportunity here to revamp the ways that we reach guests so that they are able to interact with us. We've seen lots of interest in digital through the pandemic was really accelerating, and we've used that opportunity to take a step back and figure out how we want to come forward as A&W. That's something that's certainly in the cards. All right. What's the timeline for that? Say, you know, don't stop looking at your phones. It could be very soon. Okay. Well, thanks for the update and look forward to some new initiatives. Yeah. Well, thanks for your loyalty and for your question. You're welcome. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, that is star one should you wish to ask a question. There are no further questions at this time. Please proceed. Thank you, and thanks to everyone for attending our call today. We look forward to updating you on our results after the second quarter of 2023. In the meantime, if anyone does have questions that weren't answered on our call today, please feel free to call either Kelly Blankstein or myself at area code 604-988-2141. Have a good rest of the day. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our conference for today. You may all disconnect.