Item 1A. Risk Factors
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
An investment in our common stock involves risks and uncertainties. In addition to the information contained elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings that we make with the SEC, you should carefully read and consider the risks described below before making an investment decision. The occurrence of any of the following risks could materially harm our business, operating results, earnings per share, financial position, cash flows and/or the trading price of our common stock (individually and collectively referred to as our “financial performance.”) In addition, our actual financial performance could vary materially from any results expressed or implied by forward-looking statements contained in this report, in any of our other filings with the SEC and other communications by us, both written and oral, depending on a variety of factors, including the risks and uncertainties described below. It is not possible for us to predict all possible risk factors or the impact these factors could have on us or the extent to which any one factor, or combination of factors, may materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Risks Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic
The outbreak of, and local, state and federal governmental responses to, the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly disrupted and will continue to disrupt our business, which has and could continue to materially adversely affect our financial condition and operating results for an extended period of time.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted and will continue to disrupt our business for the foreseeable future. Following the imposition of social distancing regulations that curtailed our restaurant operations to an off-premise only model, in late April 2020 certain jurisdictions began allowing the reopening of restaurant dining rooms, and more recently certain jurisdictions have reinstituted off-premise only regulations. We will continue to operate under capacity restrictions in those jurisdictions that permit on-premise dining for some time as social distancing protocols remain in place, and dining rooms that are currently open are subject to closure based on increases in COVID-19 case numbers and the changing rules of various jurisdictions. Additionally, an outbreak or perceived outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic connected to one or more of our restaurants could result in restaurant closures as well as negative publicity directed at any of our brands and cause customers to avoid our restaurants. We cannot predict how long the COVID-19 pandemic will last or whether it will reoccur, what additional restrictions may be enacted, to what extent we can maintain off-premise sales volumes or if individuals will be comfortable returning to our dining rooms during or following social distancing protocols and what long-lasting effects the COVID-19 pandemic may have on consumer behavior and the restaurant industry as a whole. The regulations applicable to the reopening process, along with the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer spending behavior, could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Our restaurant operations could be further disrupted if any of our restaurant staff members are diagnosed with COVID-19, which has occurred at some of our restaurants, requiring the quarantine of some or all of a restaurant’s staff members and the temporary closure of the affected restaurant. If a significant percentage of our workforce is unable to work due to COVID-19 illness, quarantine, limitations on travel or other government restrictions in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, our operations may be negatively impacted, potentially materially adversely affecting our liquidity, financial condition or results of operations. Certain of our suppliers were similarly adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and as a result, we experienced certain shortages of food items and other supplies at our restaurants, none of which had a material impact on our operations. Our supplies may continue to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which could have an adverse effect on our operations. In addition, we furloughed approximately 41,000 staff members, and although a significant number have returned to work, we may need to implement additional furloughs depending on future events. Staff members who are furloughed might seek and find other employment, we may be unable to properly staff and reopen our restaurants with experienced staff members when the business interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic abate or end.
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In addition, while we have taken actions to manage our liquidity position in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we may need to seek additional sources of liquidity. The COVID-19 pandemic is adversely affecting the availability of liquidity generally in the credit markets, and there can be no guarantee that additional liquidity will be available on favorable terms, or at all, especially the longer the COVID-19 pandemic lasts or if it were to reoccur. To this end, on May 1, 2020, we entered into an amendment (the "Amendment") to our Third Amended and Restated Loan Agreement, dated July 30, 2019 (as amended by the Amendment, the "Amended Facility"), that, among other changes, provides for net adjusted leverage ratio and EBITDAR to interest and rent expense coverage ratio covenant relief through the first quarter of fiscal 2021. Following the end of the covenant relief period, a material increase in our level of debt could cause our net adjusted leverage ratio and EBITDAR to interest and rent expense coverage ratios to be outside of permitted levels under the covenants in the Amended Facility. (See Item 1A - Risk Factors - Risks Related to our Business - "Any failure to satisfy financial covenants and/or repayment requirements under our credit facility could harm our financial condition.") To further increase our liquidity given the impact of COVID-19 on our operations, we issued 200,000 shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock on April 20, 2020 for an aggregate purchase price of $200 million. (See Notes 12 and 17 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Part 1, Item 1 of this report for further discussion of these events.)
To further manage our liquidity position in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and considering governmental occupancy restrictions limiting our ability to access and use our leased restaurants, we engaged our landlords in discussions to obtain rent relief. As a result, we entered into a number of lease amendments providing relief in the form of deferred and/or abated rent. If occupancy restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic continue for longer than expected or become more prevalent or more restrictive in connection with a reemergence or worsening of the outbreak, we may again seek to engage our landlords in discussions seeking additional rent relief. If these discussions are not successful, we may incur considerable rental expenses without sufficient offsetting operating income. We also may choose to cease operations at certain restaurants where profitability is particularly impacted by challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic or other factors. Should we do so, we will incur significant costs associated with lease terminations and our winding down of operations at the affected restaurant(s). The COVID-19 pandemic has also adversely affected our ability to open new restaurants. We have delayed some new unit openings and will continue to evaluate the pace and quantity of new unit development until more clarity on the restaurant industry operating environment emerges. Delays in new unit development may materially adversely affect our ability to grow our business, particularly if these delays extend for a significant amount of time.
Risks Related to the Restaurant Industry
The impact global and domestic economic conditions have on consumer discretionary spending could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on global and domestic economies and will likely continue to negatively impact these economies for some time in the future. Dining out is a discretionary expenditure that historically has been influenced by domestic and global economic conditions. In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, these conditions include, but may not be limited to: unemployment, general and industry-specific inflation, consumer confidence, consumer purchasing and saving habits, credit conditions, stock market performance, home values, population growth, household incomes and tax policy. Material changes to governmental policy related to domestic and international fiscal concerns, and/or changes in central bank policies with respect to monetary policy, also could affect consumer discretionary spending. Any factor affecting consumer discretionary spending may influence customer traffic in our restaurants and average check amount, thus potentially having a material impact on our financial performance.
Our inability to grow comparable restaurant sales could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
We strive to increase comparable restaurant sales by improving customer traffic trends and growing average check. Changes in customer traffic and average check amount may be impacted by a variety of factors, including, without limitation: macroeconomic conditions, including the COVID-19 pandemic, that impact consumer discretionary spending; perception of our concepts’ offerings in terms of quality, price, value and service; increased competition; changes in consumer eating habits; the evolving retail landscape, which, for reasons including the COVID-19 pandemic, is becoming increasingly influenced by technology and a growing consumer preference for convenience, value and experience; adverse weather conditions; demographic, economic and other adverse changes in the trade areas in which our restaurants are located and changes in the regulatory environment.
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We compete directly and indirectly for customer traffic with national and regional casual dining restaurant chains, as well as independently-owned restaurants. In addition, we face competition for customer traffic from fast casual and quick-service restaurants, home delivery services, mobile food service, convenience stores, grocery stores and meal kits that are evolving the quality and variety of their food products in response to customer demand. This increased competition, coupled with an oversupply of restaurants, has driven casual dining industry comparable traffic declines in recent years. This backdrop has made it even more challenging to improve customer traffic. We believe that many consumers remain focused on value and if our competitors, many of whom have significantly greater resources to market aggressively to customers, are able to promote and deliver a higher degree of perceived value, our customer traffic could suffer.
We utilize menu price increases to help offset inflation of key operating costs. However, our menu price increases may be insufficient to entirely absorb or offset increased costs and, if not accepted by customers, menu price increases could result in reduced customer traffic.
Our menu mix could be materially adversely affected if our customers purchase fewer menu items or lower cost menu items in order to reduce their spend. Unfavorable menu mix shifts could reduce average check amount, negatively impacting our ability to grow comparable restaurant sales.
In recent years we have generated a higher mix of sales from off-premise channels as a consumer preference for convenience has increased. This shift of sales to off-premise channels has been significantly accelerated in recent months as a result of occupancy restrictions and dining room closures impacting our restaurants and other challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. As challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic subside we may be unable to sustain current off-premise sales volumes. Growing competition in off-premise channels and any reduction in our ability to differentiate our concepts in these channels could negatively impact our comparable restaurant sales performance.
If our efforts to grow comparable restaurant sales are not successful, the effect, over time, would be to spread costs across a lower level of sales, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
If we are unable to protect our reputation, the value of our brands and sales at our restaurants may be negatively impacted, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Our greatest asset is the value of our brands, which is directly linked to our reputation. We must protect our reputation in order to continue to be successful and to grow the value of our brands domestically and internationally.
Negative publicity directed at any of our brands, regardless of factual basis, such as relating to the quality of our restaurant food or consumer packaged goods, the quality of our restaurant facilities, outbreaks of COVID-19 infections at our restaurants, customer complaints or litigation alleging injury or food-borne illnesses, food tampering or contamination or poor health inspection scores, sanitary or other issues with respect to food processing by us or our suppliers, the condition of our restaurants, labor relations, any failure to comply with applicable regulations or standards, allegations of harassment or disparate treatment based upon race, gender, national origin, religion or other class, allegations of sexual harassment, politically motivated accusations or other negative publicity, could damage our reputation. Any failure of our third-party delivery provider to represent our brands in a favorable manner could damage our reputation. These concerns are exacerbated by the speed with which negative information may now be disseminated through social media. (See Item 1A — Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Business — “Any inability to effectively use and manage social media could harm our marketing efforts as well as our reputation, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance”). Negative publicity about us could harm our reputation and damage the value of our brands, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Over the past several years we have experienced and continue to experience significant labor cost inflation. If we are unable to offset higher labor costs, our cost of doing business will significantly increase, which could materially adversely impact our financial performance.
Increases in minimum wages and minimum tip credit wages, extensions of personal and other leave policies, other governmental regulations affecting labor costs and a diminishing pool of potential staff members when the unemployment rate falls and legal immigration is restricted, especially in certain localities, could significantly increase our labor costs and make it more difficult to fully staff our restaurants, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
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We believe it is becoming increasing likely that the United States federal government will significantly increase the federal minimum wage and tip credit wage (or eliminate the tip credit wage) and require significantly more mandated benefits than what is currently required under federal law. Should this happen, other jurisdictions that have historically mandated higher wages and greater benefits than what is required under federal law may seek to further increase wages and mandated benefits. In addition to increasing the overall wages paid to our minimum wage and tip credit wage earners, these increases create pressure to increase wages and other benefits paid to other staff members who, in recognition of their tenure, performance, job responsibilities and other similar considerations, historically received a rate of pay exceeding the applicable minimum wage or minimum tip credit wage. Because we employ a large workforce, any wage increase and/or expansion of benefits mandates will have a particularly significant impact on our labor costs. Our vendors, contractors and business partners are similarly impacted by wage and benefit cost inflation, and many have or will increase their price for goods, construction and services in order to offset their increasing labor costs.
Our labor expenses include significant costs related to our self-insured health, pharmacy and dental benefit plans. Health care costs continue to rise and are especially difficult to project. These costs include very expensive new specialty pharmaceutical products. Material increases in costs associated with medical claims, or an increase in the severity or frequency of such claims, may cause health care costs to vary substantially from quarter-to-quarter and year-over-year. We offer a variety of health plans to our staff members, including lower cost high deductible health plans, with an option for participants to contribute to a personal health savings account. However, given the unpredictable nature of actual health care claims trends, including the severity or frequency of claims, in any given year our health care costs could significantly exceed our estimates, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Any significant changes to the healthcare insurance system could impact our healthcare costs. Material increases in healthcare costs could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
While we try to offset labor cost increases through price increases, more efficient purchasing practices, productivity improvements and greater economies of scale, there can be no assurance that these efforts will be successful. If we are unable to effectively anticipate and respond to increased labor costs, our financial performance could be materially adversely affected.
If we are unable to successfully recruit and retain qualified restaurant management and operating personnel in an increasingly competitive market, we may be unable to effectively operate and grow our business and revenues, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
We must continue to attract, retain and motivate a sufficient number of qualified management and operating personnel to maintain consistency in the quality of our restaurants, both domestically and internationally. Qualified management and operating personnel are currently in high demand. If we are unable to attract and retain qualified people, our restaurants could be short staffed, we may be forced to incur overtime expenses, and our ability to operate and expand our concepts effectively could be limited, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Concerns relating to pandemics and other diseases, food safety and food-borne illness could reduce customer traffic to our restaurants, disrupt our food supply chain or cause us to be the target of litigation, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant adverse impact on our customer traffic and ability to operate our restaurants and may continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Future pandemics and other diseases may have a similar or more severe impact.
We also face food safety risks, including the risk of food-borne illness and food contamination (including allergen cross contamination), which are common both in the restaurant industry and the food supply chain. While we dedicate substantial resources and provide training to ensure the safety and quality of the food we serve, these risks cannot be completely eliminated. Additionally, we rely on our network of suppliers to properly handle, store and transport our ingredients for delivery to our restaurants. Any failure by our suppliers, or their suppliers, could cause our ingredients to be contaminated, which could be difficult to detect and put the safety of our food in jeopardy. We freshly prepare our menu items at our restaurants, which may put us at greater risk for food-borne illness and food contamination outbreaks than some of our competitors who use processed foods or commissaries to prepare their food. The risk of food-borne illness also may increase whenever our menu items are served outside of our control, such as by third-party food delivery services, customer take-out or at catered events.
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Adverse publicity or news reports, regardless of accuracy, regarding food quality or safety issues, illness, injury, recalls, health concerns, government or industry findings concerning food products served by us or our licensees or delivered by a third-party for off-premises consumption, or issues stemming from the operation of our restaurants or bakeries, restaurants operated by our licensees, third parties with whom we may co-brand products or who sell or distribute our products, or third parties we may use to procure materials used in our business or to deliver our products, or generally in the food supply chain, could be damaging to the restaurant industry overall and specifically harm our brand and reputation, which in turn could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
The demand for and availability and price of certain food items may be adversely impacted if a pathogen, such as coronavirus, Ebola, “mad cow disease,” “SARS,” “swine flu,” avian influenza, norovirus or other virus or bacteria, such as salmonella or E.coli, or if parasites or other toxins infect or are believed to have infected the food supply, including the food supply chain for our restaurants or bakery facilities. Additionally, customers may avoid our restaurants and/or it may become difficult to adequately staff our restaurants if our customers or staff members become infected with a pathogen which was actually or claimed to be contracted at our restaurants. Any adverse food safety occurrence may result in litigation against us. Although we carry liability and other insurance coverage to mitigate costs we may incur as a result of these risks, not all risks of this nature are fully insurable and, even if insured, the negative publicity associated with such an event could damage our reputation and materially adversely affect our financial performance.
In addition to selling products throughout the world through various distribution channels, including, without limitation, supermarkets, mass market retailers, club stores and various other food service and retail channels, our two bakery facilities are the only sources of most of our baked desserts to our restaurants. If any of our bakery products becomes subject to a product recall or market withdrawal, whether voluntary or involuntary, our costs to conduct such recall or market withdrawal could be significant, restaurant sales as well as third-party sales of bakery product could be negatively impacted and our reputation could be damaged, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
In addition, any adverse food safety event could result in mandatory or voluntary product withdrawals or recalls, regulatory and other investigations, and/or criminal fines and penalties, any of which could disrupt our operations, increase our costs, require us to respond to findings from regulatory agencies that may divert resources and assets, and result in potential civil fines and penalties as well as other legal action, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Changes in, or any failure to comply with, applicable laws or regulations could materially adversely affect our ability to operate our restaurants and/or increase our cost to do so, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
We are required to comply with various federal, state and local and foreign laws and regulations, including, without limitation, those relating to alcoholic beverage control, public health and safety, access and use by the disabled, environmental hazards, labor and employment, such as, equal wage laws and exempt versus non-exempt employee classifications, data security and food safety and labeling. Changes to these laws or regulations may create challenges for us. While we subscribe to certain services and have established procedures to identify legal and regulatory changes, we cannot be certain to identify and comply with every change on a timely basis. We may incur penalties and other costs, sanctions and adverse publicity by failing to comply with applicable laws, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Our failure to obtain and/or retain licenses, permits or other regulatory approvals required to operate our business could delay or prevent the opening and/or continued operation of any of our restaurants or bakeries, materially adversely affecting that facility’s operations and profitability and our ability to obtain similar licenses, permits or approvals elsewhere, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
In certain jurisdictions, we may be subject to “dram shop” statutes that generally allow a person injured by an intoxicated person the right to recover damages from an establishment that wrongfully served alcoholic beverages to the intoxicated person. Dram shop litigation may result in significant judgments, including punitive damages. A settlement or judgment against us under a dram shop statute in excess of our general liability insurance coverage could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Significant increases in minimum wages, including the tip credit wage in certain states, paid or unpaid leaves of absence, equal wage legislation, mandatory sick pay and paid time off regulations in a growing number of jurisdictions, mandated health and/or COBRA benefits, or increased tax reporting, assessment or payment requirements related to our staff members who receive gratuities, or changes in interpretations of existing employment law, including with respect to classification of exempt versus non-exempt employees, could significantly increase our labor costs, which would materially adversely affect our financial performance.
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We are subject to federal and state laws that prohibit discrimination in the workplace and that set standards for the design, accessibility and operation of public facilities, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. Compliance with these laws and regulations can be costly and failure to comply could create exposure to government proceedings and litigation. Even a perceived failure to comply could result in negative publicity that could damage our reputation and materially adversely affect our financial performance. In addition, various federal, state and local and foreign labor laws and regulations govern our operations and relationships with our staff members, including, but not limited to, minimum wages, meal and rest breaks, overtime, deductions, certain benefits (including health care benefits), safety, predictive scheduling, paid leave requirements, working conditions and citizenship and legal residency requirements. These requirements also extend to independent third-party service providers we engage to perform certain services at our restaurants. While we take precautions to ensure that our third-party service providers comply with applicable laws and to maintain an independent contractor relationship, we cannot be assured such efforts will be successful, and we may incur liability vicariously as a joint employer for failures by our independent third-party service providers to comply with applicable laws. Changes in, or any failure to comply with, these laws and regulations could subject us to fines or other legal actions, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance. Additionally, some jurisdictions have introduced (or may be planning to introduce) legislation seeking to mandate an employment relationship between companies that facilitate third-party delivery services and their service personnel. If these measures are successful, delivery costs will significantly increase and/or these companies may choose to no longer operate within such jurisdictions, either of which result could significantly impede our ability to grow off-premise sales.
Despite our efforts to maintain compliance with legal requirements, including implementation of electronic verification of legal work status, some of our staff members may not meet legal citizenship or residency requirements. In addition, immigration-related employment regulations may make it more difficult for us to identify and hire qualified staff members. Our inability to maintain an experienced and qualified work force comprised of individuals who meet all legal citizenship or residency requirements could result in a disruption in our work force, sanctions against us and adverse publicity, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Our inability to respond appropriately to changes in consumer health and disclosure regulations, and to adapt to evolving consumer dining preferences could negatively impact our operations and competitive position, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Federal law requires restaurant operators with twenty or more locations to make certain nutritional information available to customers. Additionally, some state, local and foreign governments also have enacted legislation regulating or prohibiting the sale of or mandating disclosures relating to certain types and/or levels of ingredients in food served in restaurants, such as trans fats, sodium, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and gluten, and are taxing or considering taxing and/or otherwise regulating high fat, high sugar and high sodium foods. While it remains unclear if and to what extent consumers may reconsider dining preferences in response to such requirements, it is clear that consumer dining preferences continue to evolve, and these preferences may evolve more rapidly in light of these new requirements. We must be able to quickly and effectively adapt to any significant shift in consumer dining preference. Our failure or inability to do so could cause our or our licensee’s restaurants to lose market share, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Labor organizing could harm our operations and competitive position in the restaurant industry, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Our staff members and others may attempt to unionize our workforce, establish boycotts or picket lines or interrupt our supply chains which could limit our ability to manage our workforce effectively and cause disruptions to our operations, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance. These risks have been compounded by worker safety concerns during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Our labor costs may significantly increase if we become unable to effectively manage our workforce and the compensation and benefits we offer to our staff members, which also could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
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Adverse weather conditions, natural disasters and health epidemics could unfavorably impact our restaurant sales, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Adverse weather conditions, natural disasters and health epidemics can impact customer traffic, make it more difficult to fully staff our restaurants and, more severe cases, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, blizzards, other natural disasters or health epidemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have resulted in and may in the future result in restaurant closures and curtailed operations, impediments to availability of staff and supplies and increased commodity costs, sometimes for prolonged periods of time, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance. Climate change may cause adverse weather conditions and natural disasters to become more frequent and less predictable, which could make it more difficult to accurately project year-to-year comparisons in sales and other factors affecting financial performance. Our cash flows may be negatively impacted by delay in the receipt of proceeds under any insurance policies or programs we maintain against certain of these risks or the proceeds may not fully offset any such losses. Any or all these situations could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Acts of violence at or threatened against our restaurants or the centers in which they are located, including civil unrest, customer intimidation, active shooter situations and terrorism, could unfavorably impact our restaurant sales, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Any act of violence at or threatened against our restaurants or the centers in which they are located, including civil unrest, customer intimidation, active shooter situations and terrorist activities, may result in damage and restricted access to our restaurants and/or restaurant closures in the short-term and, in the long-term, may cause our customers and staff to avoid our restaurants. Any such situation could adversely impact customer traffic and make it more difficult to fully staff our restaurants, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Risks Related to Our Business
Our inability to anticipate and react effectively to changes in the costs of key operating resources may increase our cost of doing business, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
We negotiate short-term and long-term agreements for some of our principal commodity, supply and equipment requirements, such as certain dairy products and poultry, depending on market conditions and expected demand. We continue to evaluate the possibility of entering into similar arrangements for other commodities and periodically evaluate hedging vehicles, such as direct financial instruments, to assist us in managing risk and variability associated with such commodities. Although these vehicles may be available to us, as of February 24, 2021, we had chosen not to enter into any hedging contracts due to pricing volatility, excessive risk premiums, hedge inefficiencies or other factors. Commodities for which we have not entered into contracts can be subject to unforeseen supply and cost fluctuations, which at times may be significant. Additionally, the cost of commodities subject to governmental regulation, such as dairy and corn, can be especially susceptible to price fluctuation. Commodities we purchase on the international market may be subject to even greater fluctuations in cost and availability, which could result from a variety of factors, including the value of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies, international trade disputes, tariffs and varying global demand.
While we strive to engage in a competitive bidding process for our principal commodity, supply, service and equipment requirements, because certain of these products and services may only be available from a few vendors or service providers, we may not always be able to do so. Because of this lack of competition, we may be vulnerable to excessive price demands, especially as they relate to the cost of products or services that are critical to our operations or profitability.
Certain products and ingredients commonly used in food preparation have recently come under scrutiny for possibly posing social and environmental risks, such as from an animal welfare and sustainability perspective. We have identified some of these products and ingredients in our supply chain and have adopted a comprehensive Sustainable Sourcing Policy under which we commit to a buying preference in our supply chain by 2025, or sooner where required, for products and ingredients that are sustainably grown and harvested and which do not have negative social impact, and for products from animals that are humanely raised and processed ("sustainable products"). While we are committed to implementing these changes in as timely and commercially feasible manner as possible, there is a risk that some of our products or ingredients may become the subject of adverse media attention before we are able to do so, regardless of factual basis. Additionally, while we make significant efforts to ensure we will have a sufficient ongoing supply of sustainable products at a reasonable cost, since there is currently a smaller market for certain of these products, they may be especially susceptible to cost volatility and supply fluctuations. We cannot be certain that our supply and cost mitigation efforts or commitment to purchase sustainable products will be successful.
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Our international licensees are also subject to commodity price fluctuations. While they too employ strategies to mitigate the impact these fluctuations have on their business, neither we nor they can be assured such strategies will be successful. Commodity price fluctuations could impede our international licensees' profitability and hamper their ability to grow, which could negatively impact our ability to expand our brand internationally.
If we are unable to anticipate and effectively respond to these and other increases in our operating costs, our financial performance could be materially adversely affected.
Our financial performance could be materially adversely affected if we fail to retain, or effectively respond to a loss of, key executives.
The success of our business continues to depend in critical respects on the contributions of David Overton, our founder, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, and our other senior executives. The departure of Mr. Overton or other senior executives for any reason could have a material adverse effect on our business and long-term strategic plan. We have a succession plan that includes short-term and long-term planning elements intended to allow us to successfully continue operations should any of our senior management become unavailable to serve in their respective roles. However, there is a risk that we may not be able to implement the succession plan successfully or in a timely manner or that the succession plan will not result in the same financial performance we currently achieve under the guidance of our existing executive team.
If any of our third-party vendors experiences a failure that affects a significant aspect of our business, we may be subject to certain risks and may experience data loss, increased costs or other harm, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
In order to leverage our internal resources and information technology infrastructure, and to support our business continuity and disaster recovery planning efforts in the event of a physical loss or damage to our corporate facilities, we utilize third-party vendors to assist us with some of our essential business processes. For example, we rely on a network of third-party distribution warehouses to deliver ingredients and other materials to our restaurants. In some instances, these processes rely on technology and may be outsourced to the vendor in their entirety and in other instances we utilize these vendors' externally-hosted business applications.
We also utilize third parties to provide gift card distribution and transaction processing services and to perform food delivery services. We derive substantial revenue from these aspects of our business, which could suffer in the event of any factor that adversely impacts our vendors' ability to provide such services. Such factors may include, without limitation, loss of, or significant change in contractual terms of, key vendor contracts, vendor or processor failures, technology failures, damage to the reputation of any key vendor and mandated employment relationships between companies that facilitate third-party delivery services and their service personnel. (See Item 1A - Risk Factors - Risks Related to the Restaurant Industry - "Changes in, or any failure to comply with, applicable laws or regulations could materially adversely affect our ability to operate our restaurants and/or increase our cost to do so, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.)"
We continue to review options to expand the use of third-party providers in other areas. Our practice is to work with service providers that are leading performers in their industries and with technology vendors that employ up to date and appropriate data security practices and internal control practices. However, we cannot guarantee that failures will not occur. The failure of third-party vendors to provide adequate services, including protection of sensitive data, could significantly harm our operations and reputation, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Any failure to realize the anticipated benefits of our acquisition ("Acquisition") of North Italia and the remaining business of Fox Restaurant Concepts LLC ("FRC") could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
In 2019, we acquired FRC's businesses with the expectation that the Acquisition will result in various benefits including, among others, business and growth opportunities and synergies in supply chain, real estate and other areas over time. Combining independent companies with separate businesses, customers, employees, cultures and systems is a complex, costly and time-consuming process. We may experience material unanticipated difficulties or expenses in connection with the integration of FRC's businesses with ours, and this process may disrupt the business of either or both companies. Some of the difficulties could include: consolidating and retaining management and other key employees; integrating information, communications and other systems; integrating purchasing, logistics, marketing and administration methods; integrating corporate and administrative infrastructures; minimizing the diversion of management's attention from ongoing business concerns; and, successfully managing and coordinating the growth of the combined company.
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Even if we are able to successfully integrate FRC's businesses with ours, there can be no assurances that we will realize some or all of the anticipated benefits of the Acquisitions, within the anticipated timeframes, if at all. In addition, we may experience increased competition that limits our ability to expand our business, we may not be able to capitalize on expected business opportunities, and general industry and business conditions may deteriorate. If any of these or other expected or unexpected factors limit our ability to achieve the anticipated benefits of the Acquisition, or if such business opportunities, growth prospects and synergies are not realized for any other reason, our financial performance could be materially adversely affected.
Any failure to satisfy financial covenants and/or repayment requirements under our credit facility could harm our financial condition.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, on May 1, 2020, we entered into the Amended Facility which provides for, among other things, (i) a covenant relief period (the "Covenant Relief Period") during which we are not required to comply with financial covenants requiring maintenance of the maximum Net Adjusted Leverage Ratio and minimum EBITDAR Ratio, (ii) a substitution of the Net Adjusted Leverage Ratio and EBITDAR to Interest and Rental Expense Ratio covenants with a liquidity covenant during the Covenant Relief Period and (iii) increased limitations on capital expenditures and on our ability to make restricted payments, incur debt and consummate acquisitions during the Covenant Relief Period.
Any failure to maintain debt covenants under the Amended Facility or to have sufficient liquidity to either repay or refinance the then outstanding balance at expiration of the Amended Facility, or upon any violation of the covenants, could materially adversely affect our financial performance. (See Note 12 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Part IV, Item 15 for further discussion of our long-term debt.)
In addition, our increased indebtedness related to the Acquisition and our resulting higher debt-to-equity ratio, as compared to that which has existed on a historical basis, could limit our ability to obtain additional financing in the future and have other material consequences, including: increasing our vulnerability to, and limiting our flexibility in planning for, changing business and market conditions, making us more vulnerable to adverse economic and industry conditions; limiting our ability to use proceeds from any offering or divestiture transaction for purposes other than the repayment of debt; and, creating competitive disadvantages compared to other companies with less indebtedness.
The Series A Convertible Preferred Stock has rights, preferences and privileges that are not held by, and are preferential to, the rights of our common stock. Such preferential rights could adversely affect our liquidity and financial condition, and may result in the interests of the holders of the Series A Convertible Preferred Stock differing from those of the holders of our common stock.
On April 20, 2020, we issued 200,000 shares of the Series A Convertible Preferred Stock, par value $0.01 per share (the "Series A preferred stock"), for an aggregate purchase price of $200 million.
The Series A preferred stock ranks senior to our common stock with respect to dividends and distributions on liquidation, winding-up and dissolution upon which each share of Series A preferred stock will be entitled to receive an amount per share equal to the greater of (i) the purchase price (without giving effect to any commitment fee), plus all accrued and unpaid dividends (the “Liquidation Preference”) and (ii) the amount that the holder of the Series A preferred stock would have been entitled to receive at such time if the Series A preferred stock were converted into our common stock.
The holders of Series A preferred stock are entitled to dividends on the Liquidation Preference at the rate of 9.5% per annum, payable in cash or, at our option, paid-in-kind. Such holders are also entitled to participate in dividends declared or paid on our common stock on an as-converted basis.
On and after October 20, 2027, holders of Series A preferred stock have the right to require redemption of all or any part of the Series A preferred stock for an amount equal to the Liquidation Preference. Upon certain change of control events, we are required to redeem, subject to conversion rights of the holders of Series A preferred stock, all of the outstanding shares of Series A preferred stock for cash consideration equal to the greater of (i) the Liquidation Preference and (ii) the amount that such holder would have been entitled to receive at such time if the Series A preferred stock were converted into common stock. If a redemption is required, we may not have sufficient funds to satisfy our obligation to pay the Liquidation Preference.
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Each holder has the right, at its option, to convert its Series A preferred stock, in whole or in part, into fully paid and non-assessable shares of our common stock at a conversion price equal to $22.23 per share, subject to customary anti-dilution adjustments, including in the event of any stock split, stock dividend, recapitalization or similar events and certain antidilutive offerings if they occur on or prior to April 19, 2021. Pursuant to the terms of the Certificate of Designations, unless and until approval of our stockholders is obtained as contemplated by Nasdaq listing rules (the “Stockholder Approval”), no holder may convert shares of Series A preferred stock through either an optional or a mandatory conversion into shares of common stock if and solely to the extent that such conversion would result in the holder beneficially owning in excess of 19.9% of then outstanding common stock. We have the right to settle any conversion at the request of a holder in cash. As of December 29, 2020, the Series A preferred stock was convertible into approximately 17.1% of our outstanding common stock, on an as-converted basis.
The dividend and redemption provisions of the Series A preferred stock could impact our liquidity and reduce the amount of cash flows available for working capital, capital expenditures, growth opportunities, acquisitions and other general corporate purposes. Our obligations to the holders of Series A preferred stock could also limit our ability to obtain additional financing or increase our borrowing costs, which could have an adverse effect on our financial condition. The preferential rights could also result in divergent interests between the holders of Series A preferred stock and those of the holders of our common stock.
The issuance of the Series A preferred stock has effectively reduced the relative voting power of holders of our common stock, may dilute the ownership of such holders, and may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
As of December 29, 2020, the Series A preferred stock was convertible into approximately 17.1% of our outstanding common stock, on an as-converted basis. As holders of the Series A preferred stock are entitled to vote, on an as-converted basis, together with holders of our common stock as a single class on generally all matters submitted to a vote of our common stockholders, the issuance of the Series A preferred stock has effectively reduced the relative voting power of the holders of our common stock.
In addition, the conversion of the Series A preferred stock to common stock would dilute the ownership interest of existing holders of our common stock, and any sales in the public market of the common stock issuable upon conversion of the Series A preferred stock could adversely affect prevailing market prices of our common stock. We have granted the holders of the Series A preferred stock registration rights in respect of the shares of common stock issued upon conversion of the Series A preferred stock. These registration rights would facilitate the resale of such common stock into the public market, and any such resale would increase the number of shares of our common stock available for public trading. Sales by the holders of the Series A preferred stock of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that such sales might occur, could have a material adverse effect on the price of our common stock.
We may incur additional costs if we are unable to renew our restaurant leases on similar terms and conditions, or at all, or to relocate our restaurants in certain trade areas, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
We currently lease all our restaurant premises and, although we may consider other arrangements, we currently plan to continue to lease our restaurant locations in the future. Some of our leases have terms that will expire in the next few years and beyond. Many of these leases include renewal options; some do not. While lease expirations allow us to opportunistically evaluate the possibility of relocating certain restaurants to higher quality sites and trade areas over time, doing so may involve additional costs, such as increased rent and other expenses related to renegotiating the terms of occupancy of an existing lease, and the costs to relocate and develop a replacement restaurant if we choose not to renew a lease, or are unable to do so, on favorable terms in a desirable location. In addition, we may elect to terminate certain leases prior to their expiration dates, and we may be unable to negotiate favorable terms for such early terminations. Additional costs related to expiring restaurant lease terms, our inability to terminate certain restaurant leases under favorable terms or the unavailability of suitable replacement locations could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Any inability to effectively use and manage social media could harm our marketing efforts as well as our reputation, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Social media provides a powerful medium for consumers, staff members and others to communicate their approval of or displeasure with a business. This aspect of social media is especially challenging because it allows any individual to reach a broad audience with an ability to respond or react, in near real time, with comments that are often not filtered or checked for accuracy. If we are unable to quickly and effectively respond, any negative publicity could "go viral" causing nearly immediate and potentially significant harm to our brand and reputation, whether or not factually accurate.
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Our marketing strategy includes an emphasis on social media. As social media continues to grow in popularity, many of our competitors have expanded and improved their use of social media, making it more difficult for us to differentiate our social media messaging. As a result, we need to continuously innovate and develop our social media strategies.
If we do not appropriately use and manage our social media strategies, our marketing efforts in this area may not be successful, and any failure to effectively respond to negative or potentially damaging social media, whether accurate or not, could damage our reputation, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Our failure to adequately protect our intellectual property could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
We own and have applied to register trade names, logos, service marks, trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual property (collectively, "Intellectual Property"), including The Cheesecake Factory ® , North Italia ® , a collection within the Fox Restaurant Concepts subsidiary and other trademarks related to our restaurant businesses in the United States and in additional countries throughout the world. Our Intellectual Property is valuable to our business and requires continuous monitoring to protect. We regularly and systemically search for misappropriations of our Intellectual Property and seek to enforce our rights whenever appropriate to do so; however, we cannot be assured of success in every case and cannot possibly find all infringing uses of our Intellectual Property. Furthermore, we have not registered all our Intellectual Property throughout the world, as doing so may not be feasible because of associated costs, various foreign trademark law prohibitions or registrations by others. Our failure or inability to protect our Intellectual Property worldwide could limit our ability to globally expand our brand.
Our inability to effectively protect our Intellectual Property domestically or internationally could cause our customers to believe lesser quality products or services are ours, may reduce the capacity of our Intellectual Property to uniquely identify our products and services and/or may limit our ability to globally expand our brand, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
We face a variety of risks and challenges related to our international operations and global brand development efforts, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
International operations have a unique set of risks and challenges that differ from country to country, and can include, among other risks, political instability, governmental corruption, social, religious and ethnic unrest, anti-American sentiment, delayed and potentially less effective ability to respond to a crisis occurring internationally, changes in global economic conditions (such as currency valuation, disposable income, unemployment levels and increases in the prices of commodities and labor), the regulatory environment, immigration, labor and pension laws, income and other taxes, consumer preferences and practices, as well as changes in the laws and regulations governing foreign investment, joint ventures or licensing arrangements in countries where our restaurants or licensees are located and local import controls.
Operations at our international Company-owned and licensed restaurants may be negatively affected by factors outside of our control, including, but not limited to:
● difficulties in achieving the consistency of product quality and service as compared to restaurants we operate in the United States;
● changes to our recipes required by cultural norms;
● inability to obtain, at a reasonable cost, adequate and reliable supplies of ingredients and products necessary to execute our diverse menu;
● availability of experienced management to operate international restaurants according to our domestic standards;
● changes in economic conditions of our licensees, whether or not related to the operation of our restaurants;
● differences, changes or uncertainties in economic, regulatory, legal, immigration, social, climatic, and political conditions, including the possibility of terrorism, social unrest, trade embargos and/or trade restrictions, which may result in periodic or permanent closure of foreign restaurants, affect our ability to supply our international restaurants with necessary supplies and ingredients and affect international perception of our brand;
● inability of our licensees to locate profitable or suitable sites for development;
● rising cost and scarcity of labor world-wide;
● exchange rate fluctuations; and
● currency fluctuations, trade restrictions, taxes or tariffs adversely affecting our or our licensees' ability to import goods from the United States and other parts of the world that are required for operating our branded restaurants, including our cakes which are wholly manufactured in the United States.
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Our international licensees are authorized to operate The Cheesecake Factory restaurant concept in licensed trade areas using certain of our Intellectual Property, including our proprietary systems. We provide extensive and detailed training to our licensees so their staff members may be able to effectively execute our operating processes and procedures and periodically audit their performance and adherence to our requirements. However, because we do not operate these restaurants directly, we can provide no assurance that our licensees will adhere to our operating standards to the same extent as we would.
If we or our licensees fail to effectively operate our international restaurants, or if we or they fail to receive an adequate return on investment, and these difficulties are attributed to us or our brand, our reputation and brand value could be harmed, our revenues from these restaurants could be diminished and our international growth may be slowed, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
In order to support our international expansion, our bakeries supply certain of our bakery products to our branded international restaurants. In order to supply bakery products to restaurants in other countries, we may be required to adapt certain recipes to eliminate locally prohibited ingredients, comply with labeling requirements that differ from those in the United States and maintain certifications required to export to such countries. In addition, unexpected events outside of our control, such as, without limitation, trade restrictions, import and export embargos, governmental shutdowns and disruptions in shipping, may affect our ability to transport adequate levels of our bakery products to our or our licensee's international restaurants, for which we are the sole source of supply. A failure to adequately supply bakery products to our or our licensee's international restaurants could affect the customer experience at those restaurants, resulting in decreased sales, and could, depending upon the reason for the failure, trigger contractual defaults on our part, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
As we continue to expand our brand internationally, we must comply with regulations and legal requirements, including those related to immigration and the protection of our Intellectual Property. Additionally, we must comply with domestic laws affecting U.S. businesses that operate internationally, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and anti-boycott laws, and with foreign laws in the countries in which we expand our restaurants. (See Item 1A - Risk Factors - Risks Related to the Restaurant Industry - "Changes in, or any failure to comply with, applicable laws or regulations could materially adversely affect our ability to operate our restaurants and/or increase our cost to do so, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.") We may incur considerable liability in the event we or our licensees fail to comply with foreign or domestic laws relating to our or their operation of any international restaurant and can provide no assurance that our insurance programs or contractual indemnification rights would be effective to protect against such liabilities.
We may engage in expansion opportunities or other initiatives which may create risks to our business that could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
We may engage in other means to leverage our competitive strengths, including expansion of our brand to other retail opportunities and/or other initiatives. Many risks are inherent in any such development, investment arrangement, expansion of our brand or other initiative, including, without limitation:
● damaging our reputation if retail products bearing our brand are not of the same value and quality that our customers associate with our brand;
● dilution of the goodwill associated with our brand as it become more common and increasingly accessible;
● inaccurate assessment of value, growth potential, weaknesses, liabilities, contingent or otherwise, and expected profitability of such ventures; and
● diversion of management's attention and focus from existing operations to the expansion of our brand to non-restaurant items.
If we do not appropriately scale our infrastructure in a timely manner, we may be unable to respond to and support our domestic or international opportunities for growth, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
We continually evaluate the appropriate level of infrastructure necessary to support our operational and development plans, including our domestic and international expansion. Likewise, if sales decline, we may be unable to reduce our infrastructure quickly enough to prevent sales deleveraging. Either circumstance could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
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Our international license agreements require us to provide training and support to our licensees for their development and operation of The Cheesecake Factory restaurants. We have dedicated certain corporate personnel to international development and continue to utilize the talents of existing management, as we grow our international licensing and operations infrastructure. In addition, one of the most important aspects of our restaurant operations is our ability to deliver dependable, quality service by experienced staff members who can execute our concepts according to our high standards. This may require training our licensees' management in the United States and our licensees' staff members in the licensed territories, as well as providing support in the selection and development of restaurant sites, product sourcing logistics, technological systems, menu modification and other areas. If, for any reason, we are unable to provide the appropriate level of infrastructure support to our international licensees, our licensee's operations could suffer, which could make it more difficult for us to grow our brand internationally and materially adversely affect our financial performance.
We have and may again be required to record impairment charges, be unable to fully recoup landlord improvement allowances and/or decide to discontinue operations at certain restaurants, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
In the first quarter of fiscal 2020, developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic triggered the need to perform impairment assessments of our long-lived assets, goodwill and other intangible assets and a revaluation of contingent consideration associated with the acquisition of FRC. While no further interim assessments were required in fiscal 2020, future changes in estimates could further impact the carrying value of these items. (See Notes 7 and 8 for further discussion of impairment of long-lived and intangible assets, respectively. See Note 3 for further discussion of the revaluation of contingent consideration.)
We assess the potential impairment of our long-lived assets on an annual basis or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value of the assets or asset group may not be recoverable. Factors considered include, but are not limited to, negative cash flow, significant underperformance relative to historical or projected future operating results, significant changes in the manner in which an asset is being used, an expectation that an asset will be disposed of significantly before the end of its previously estimated useful life and significant negative industry or economic trends. In addition, we may incur impairment charges if an acquired business does not meet the performance expectations upon which the acquisition price was based. At any given time, we may be monitoring a number of locations, and future impairment charges and/or closures may occur if individual restaurant performance does not improve, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
We test our goodwill and other indefinite-lived intangible assets for impairment annually or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate a potential impairment. Factors considered include, but are not limited to historical financial performance, a significant decline in expected future cash flows, unanticipated competition, changes in management or key personnel, macroeconomic and industry conditions and the legal and regulatory environment. We cannot accurately predict the amount and timing of any impairment of these assets. Should the value of goodwill or other intangible assets become impaired, there could be a material adverse effect on our financial performance.
A portion of our tenant allowances at certain premises may be subject to recoupment against percentage rent otherwise payable for such sites. When we are unable to achieve sales in a sufficient amount to generate percentage rent obligations, we are not able to fully recoup available allowances at affected sites, which also could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Our inability to secure an adequate number of high-quality sites for future restaurant openings could adversely affect our ability to grow our business.
Our ability to grow our business depends on the availability and selection of high-quality sites that meet our criteria. The number and timing of new restaurants opened during any given period, and their associated contribution to the growth of our business, will depend on a number of factors including, but not limited to:
● unforeseen delays due to market conditions;
● the identification and availability of high-quality locations;
● an increase in competition for available premier locations;
● the influence of consumer shopping trends on the availability of sites in traditional locations, such as premier shopping centers;
● acceptable lease terms and the lease negotiation process;
● the availability of suitable financing for our landlords;
● the financial viability of our landlords;
● timing of the delivery of the leased premises to us from our landlords in order to perform build-out construction activities;
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● the ability of our landlords and us to obtain all necessary governmental licenses and permits, and consents of third parties, on a timely basis to construct and operate our restaurants;
● our ability to successfully manage the complex design, construction and preopening processes for our highly customized restaurants;
● the availability and/or cost of raw materials and labor used in construction;
● the availability of qualified tradespeople in the local market;
● any unforeseen engineering or environmental problems with the leased premises; and
● adverse weather or other delays during the construction period.
If we are unable to manage risks related to our business, costs associated with litigation and insurance could increase, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
We are subject to lawsuits, administrative proceedings and claims that arise in the ordinary course of business. These matters typically involve claims by customers, staff members and others regarding issues such as food-borne illness, food safety, premises liability, dram shop liability, compliance with wage and hour requirements, work-related injuries, discrimination, harassment, disability and other operational issues common to the foodservice industry. We could be materially adversely affected by negative publicity and litigation costs resulting from these claims, regardless of their validity. Employment-related litigation, particularly with respect to claims styled as class action lawsuits, are especially costly to defend. Also, some employment-related claims in the area of wage and hour disputes are not insurable risks and many employment-related disputes involve uncertainty in judicial interpretation from state to state and from federal to state court with respect to the effectiveness of arbitration agreements with our staff members, particularly those which provide for class waivers. We have experienced an increase in wage and hour litigation, in particular in California, where we have seen an increase in claims filed under California’s Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”). PAGA allows an aggrieved staff member to bring a lawsuit on behalf of other current and former staff members for labor code violations, including certain technical violations. PAGA claims are not subject to arbitration and may result in exposure to additional penalties, which can be assessed separately from recovery of attorneys’ fees. Significant legal fees and costs in complex class action litigation or an adverse judgment or settlement that are not insured or are in excess of insurance coverage can materially and adversely affect our financial performance.
We retain financial responsibility for a significant portion of our risks and associated liabilities with respect to workers’ compensation, general liability, employment practices, staff health benefits and certain other insurable risks. Several factors may significantly increase our self-insurance costs, such as conditions of the insurance market, the availability of insurance, or changes in applicable regulations. The accrued liabilities associated with these programs are based on our annual estimate of the ultimate costs to settle known claims as well as claims incurred but not yet reported to us (“IBNR”). Significant judgment is required to estimate IBNR amounts, as parties have yet to assert such claims. Our financial performance may be materially adversely affected if our actual claims costs significantly exceed our estimates.
Our inability or failure to execute on comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery plans following a major disaster could interfere with our business operations, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
All our core and critical applications are housed in an external tier 3 data center, which is a location with redundant and dual-powered servers, storage, network links and other IT components. To mitigate business interruptions, we employ a disk-based data backup and replication infrastructure between our onsite and external data centers. We provide support for our restaurant operations, with the exception of design and construction, from our corporate headquarters in Calabasas, California, an area that is prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes and wildfires. Corporate support for our bakery operations is also performed from this centralized location. If we are unable to execute our disaster recovery procedures in whole or in part, we may experience delays in recovery and losses of data, inability to perform vital corporate functions, tardiness in required reporting and compliance, failures to adequately support field operations and other breakdowns in normal operating procedures that could expose us to administrative and other legal claims, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
A closure of or material damage to one or both of our bakery facilities could impede our ability to supply bakery products to our own and our international licensees’ restaurants as well as to other bakery customers. Such an incident could also result in the loss of critical data regarding our bakery operations. Any of these events could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
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Risks Related to Information Technology and Cyber Security
Information technology system failures or breaches of our network security could interrupt our operations and subject us to increased operating costs, as well as to litigation and other liabilities, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
We rely heavily on our in-restaurant and enterprise-wide computer systems and network infrastructure across our operations ("Cyber Environment"), which could be vulnerable to various risks. This reliance has grown since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as we have had to rely to a greater extent on systems such as online ordering, contactless payments, online reservations, systems supporting a remote workforce and the like. The efficient management of our operations depends upon our ability to protect our Cyber Environment against damage from theft, casualties such as fire, power loss, telecommunications failure or other catastrophic events, as well as from internal and external security breaches, denial of service attacks, viruses, worms, malware, breaches of the algorithms we and our third-party service providers use to encrypt and protect data, including customer transaction and credit card data, and other malicious or disruptive events (collectively, "security incidents"). On December 13, 2020, we were made aware that our Cyber Environment was penetrated by a cyberattack that penetrated thousands of organizations globally, including multiple parts of the United States government. The culprits exploited a supply chain attack on one of our information technology services vendors, SolarWinds, which is widely used in government and industry. We do not believe we were specifically targeted in the attack and after investigating we believe that no activation of the malware and no exfiltration of data occurred. We worked with SolarWinds to remove the malware from our systems and do not believe there is any ongoing risk to our Cyber Environment as a result of this attack. We employ both internal resources and external consultants to conduct auditing and testing for weaknesses in our Cyber Environment to reduce the likelihood of any security incident and have developed a multi-discipline security incident response plan to help ensure that our executives are fully and accurately informed and manage, with the help of content experts, the discovery, investigation and auditing of, and recovery from any security incidents. Despite these measures, we were unable to prevent the SolarWinds penetration and can provide no assurance that these measures will be successful in preventing a future security incident or mitigating losses resulting from a security incident. We have and will continue to have greater uncertainty with respect to these risks as they relate to our newly acquired concepts until we are able to complete a full review of their Cyber Environments and implement all identified corrective measures.
Our international licensees have access to certain elements of our intellectual property within their Cyber Environment and may not have developed adequate processes to secure their Cyber Environments against a security incident and may not maintain robust discovery, investigation, auditing or recovery protocols, or have the ability to promptly and effectively respond to a security incident. Available cyber-risk insurance coverage and policy limits may not adequately cover or compensate us in the event of a security incident. Our financial performance could be materially adversely affected if our operations are interrupted by a security incident from which we are not able to promptly and fully recover, if any cyber-risk insurance is unable to fully address our losses and/or if we become subjected to litigation or regulatory action because of such an incident.
Our inability to maintain a secure environment for customers' and staff members' personal data could result in liability and harm our reputation, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
We receive and maintain certain personal information about our customers and staff members. For example, we transmit confidential credit card information in connection with credit card transactions, and we are required to collect and maintain certain personal information in connection with our employment practices, including the administration of our benefit plans. Our collection and use of this information may be regulated by U.S. federal, state and local and foreign laws and regulations. If a security incident were to occur involving loss of or inappropriate access to or dissemination of such personal information, we may become liable under applicable law for damages (including statutory damages) and incur penalties and other costs to remedy such an incident. Depending on the facts and circumstances of such an incident, these damages, penalties and costs could be significant and may not be covered by insurance or could exceed our applicable insurance coverage limits. Such an event also could harm our reputation and result in litigation against us. Any of these results could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
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Our ability to accept credit cards as a form of payment depends on us remaining compliant with standards set by the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI). These standards require certain levels of Cyber Environment security and procedures to protect our customers’ credit card and other personal information. At The Cheesecake Factory, North Italia, Grand Lux Cafe and Social Monk Asian Kitchen restaurants, we have implemented a robust end-to-end encryption and tokenization technology, a public key infrastructure, ensuring only trusted devices can access our network, and Intrusion Detection and Intrusion Prevention (IDS/IPS) that scans data in transit detecting and preventing the execution of harmful code. In addition, we utilize a third-party security operations center (SOC) provider to monitor and analyze internal network traffic for potential malicious content. However, we can provide no assurance that our security measures will be successful in the event of an attempted or actual security incident. If these security measures are not successful, we may become subject to litigation or the imposition of regulatory penalties, which could result in negative publicity and significantly harm our reputation, either of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance. We are in the process of assessing the information technology systems and infrastructure for the FRC brands other than North Italia. We will continue to have greater degree of risk with respect to the acquired systems and infrastructure until we are able to implement any recommended improvements.
Risks Related to Owning Our Stock
The market price of our common stock is subject to volatility.
During fiscal 2020, the price of our common stock fluctuated between $14.52 and $43.00 per share. The market price of our common stock may be significantly affected by a number of factors, including, but not limited to, actual or anticipated variations in our operating results or those of our competitors as compared to analyst expectations, changes in financial estimates by research analysts with respect to us or others in the restaurant industry, and announcements of significant transactions (including mergers or acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures or other strategic initiatives) by us or others in the restaurant industry. In addition, the equity markets have experienced price and volume fluctuations that affect the stock price of companies in ways that have been unrelated to an individual company’s operating performance. The price of our common stock may continue to be volatile, based on factors specific to our company and industry, as well as factors related to the equity markets overall.
Our stock price could be adversely affected if our performance falls short of our financial guidance and/or market expectations.
Our failure to achieve performance consistent with any financial guidance we provide and/or market expectations could adversely affect the price of our stock. Factors such as comparable restaurant sales that are below our target, slowing growth of our concepts domestically, our inability to successfully integrate and realize the anticipated benefits of the Acquisition, execute other growth opportunities, a decline in growth of our international business, any event that causes our operating costs to substantially increase, including, without limitation, any of the events described elsewhere in these Risk Factors, or our failure to repurchase stock as expected or pay or increase our dividend over time, could cause our performance to fall short of our financial guidance and/or market expectations.
Our stock price could be adversely affected if we continue to be unable to pay dividends or, if paid, if we are unable to increase dividends.
To preserve liquidity during the COVID-19 pandemic and in conjunction with the terms of our Amended Facility, our Board suspended the quartely dividend on our common stock. Any future dividends on our common stock will depend on our ability to do so under our Amended Facility or any future credit facility as well as our ability to generate sufficient cash flows from operations and capacity to borrow funds, which may be subject to economic, financial, competitive and other factors that are beyond our control. (See Note 12 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Part IV, Item 15 of this report for further discussion of our long-term debt.) Continued failure to pay or increase our dividends over time may negatively impact investor confidence in us and may negatively impact our stock price.
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Our stock price could be adversely affected by future sales or other dilution of our equity.
Subject to Nasdaq Listing Rules, we are not restricted from issuing additional common stock or preferred stock, including any securities that are convertible into or exchangeable for, or that represent the right to receive, common stock or preferred stock or any substantially similar securities. Our Board of Directors is authorized to issue additional shares of common stock and additional classes or series of preferred stock without any action on the part of the stockholders. The Board of Directors also has the discretion, without stockholder approval, to set the terms of any such classes or series of preferred stock that may be issued, including voting rights, dividend rights and preferences over the common stock with respect to dividends or upon the liquidation or winding up of our business and other terms. If we issue preferred shares that have a preference over our common stock with respect to the payment of dividends or upon liquidation, dissolution or winding up, or if we issue preferred shares with voting rights that dilute the voting power of our common stock, including additional shares issued in connection with the paid-in-kind dividends on or anti-dilution adjustments to the conversion price of the Series A preferred stock, the rights of our common stockholders or the market price of our common stock could be materially adversely affected.
General Risk Factors
Changes in tax laws and resulting regulations could result in changes to our tax provisions and expose us to additional tax liabilities that could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
We are subject to income and other taxes in the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions. Changes in applicable U.S. or foreign tax laws and regulations, such as the 2017 enactment of Federal legislation commonly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020 (collectively, the "Tax Acts"), or their interpretation and application, including the possibility of retroactive effect and changes to state tax laws that may occur in response to the Tax Acts, could affect our tax expense and profitability. In addition, the final determination of any tax audits or related litigation could be materially different from our historical income tax provisions and accruals. Changes in our tax provision or an increase in our tax liabilities, whether due to changes in applicable laws and regulations, the interpretation or application thereof, or a final determination of tax audits or litigation, could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Our failure to establish, maintain and apply adequate internal control over our financial reporting and comply with changes in financial accounting standards or interpretations of existing standards could limit our ability to report our financial results accurately and timely or to detect and prevent fraud, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
We are subject to the ongoing internal control provisions of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. These provisions provide for the identification of material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting - a process to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting for external purposes in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. There can be no assurance that we will be able to timely remediate material weakness in internal controls (if any) or maintain all of the controls necessary to remain in compliance. Any failure to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting could limit our ability to report our financial results accurately and timely or to detect and prevent fraud, any of which could materially adversely affect our financial performance. Additionally, changes in accounting standards or new accounting pronouncements and interpretations could materially adversely affect our previously reported or future financial results, which could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
Our business and stock price could be adversely affected by the actions of activist investors.
Publicly-traded companies have increasingly become subject to activist investor campaigns. Responding to actions of an activist investor may be a significant distraction for our management and staff and could require us to expend significant time and resources, including legal fees and potential proxy solicitation expenses. Any of these conditions could materially adversely affect our financial performance.
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
Not applicable.
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