Logan's reports profit: $1.09M in 3rd quarter

Nation's Restaurant News, Dec 9, 1996

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Logan's Roadhouse Inc. reported that its third-quarter profit of $1.09 million was more than double the earnings of $530,000 in the comparable period a year earlier. Sales were up 47 percent, to $10.14 million, from $6.89 million.

Profits for the nine months ended Oct. 6 rose 125.4 percent, to $2.93 million, from $1.3 million in the same period in 1995. Sales increased 49.5 percent, to $30.12 million, from $20.15 million.

Logan's president and chief executive, Edwin W. Moats Jr., attributed the improved performance from the year-ago period to "an improved restaurant operating margin" plus the addition of six new restaurants. The chain had a total of 14 restaurants at the end of the third quarter.

Pointing to the lull in sales during the summer Olympics, Moats said the six stores in the company's same-store-sales base had a 2.3-percent drop compared with the year-earlier quarter. Toward the end of the latest quarter, he said, same-store sales trended higher and appeared to be on track for fourth-quarter growth.

Moats said the company also is on track to open six new company-owned units through this year and "seven or eight" in 1997.

He said restaurant operating margins averaged 20.2 percent for the latest quarter, up from 17.6 percent in the 1995 third quarter.

He attributed the improvement to "lower food and beverage expenses, which reflected better produce and beef prices and the switch in the fourth quarter last year to a new food distributor."

Another factor in the improvement was a decline in occupancy costs resulting from the purchase of formerly leased properties.