El Pollo Loco (LOCO) Q4 2025 Earnings Transcript

Motley Fool Transcribing, The Motley Fool

Tue, March 17, 2026 astatine 10:05 AM CDT 44 min read

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Thursday, March 12, 2026, astatine 4:30 p.m. ET

• Chief Executive Officer — Elizabeth Goodwin Williams

• Chief Financial Officer — Ira M. Fils

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Ira M. Fils: Thank you, operator, and bully afternoon. By now, everyone should person entree to our Fourth Quarter 2025 earnings, which tin beryllium recovered astatine elpolloloco.com successful the Investor Relations section. Before we statesman our ceremonial remarks, I request to punctual everyone that our discussions contiguous volition see forward-looking statements, including statements related to our maturation opportunities, strategical and operational initiatives, expectations regarding income and margins, imaginable changes to our merchandise platforms, superior expenditure plans, the quality of our franchisees to thrust growth, expectations regarding commodity and wage inflation, remodel plans, and our 2026 guidance, among others. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of aboriginal performance, and therefore, you should not enactment undue reliance connected them.

These statements are besides taxable to galore risks and uncertainties that could origin existent results to disagree materially from what we presently expect. We notation you to our caller SEC filings, including our Form 10-K, for a much elaborate treatment of the risks that could interaction our aboriginal operating results and fiscal condition. We expect to record our 10-K for 2025 time and promote you to reappraisal that papers astatine your earliest convenience. During today's call, we volition sermon non-GAAP measures, which we usage for fiscal and operational decision-making and arsenic a means to measure period-to-period comparisons, and which we judge tin beryllium utile to investors successful evaluating our performance.

The presumption of this further accusation should not beryllium considered successful isolation oregon arsenic a substitute for results prepared successful accordance with GAAP, and reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures are disposable successful our net release, which is disposable successful the Investor Relations conception of our website. With respect to the adjusted EBITDA outlook we volition beryllium providing connected today's call, delight enactment we person not provided a reconciliation to the astir straight comparable guardant GAAP fiscal measurement because, without unreasonable efforts, we are incapable to foretell with tenable certainty the magnitude of oregon timing of non-GAAP adjustments that are utilized to cipher income from operations and company-operated edifice gross connected a forward-looking basis.