Silicon Investor - GENK - A Korean BBQ restaurant chain expanding in the USA

[Elroy] GENK's results stink. I sold most of my shares after hours. Sorry for bringin...

Elroy — 8/6/2025 4:58:59 PM

GENK's results stink. I sold most of my shares after hours.
Sorry for bringing this one to your attention!!

[Elroy] GEN Korean BBQ Opens 13th Texas Location in El Paso finance.yahoo.com

Elroy — 8/4/2025 6:46:59 AM

[Elroy] GEN Korean BBQ expands with new outlet in Texas finance.yahoo.com

Elroy — 7/16/2025 2:13:44 PM

[Elroy] GEN Korean BBQ Expands Internationally with First South Korean Location finance...

Elroy — 7/1/2025 8:34:30 AM

GEN Korean BBQ Expands Internationally with First South Korean Location

finance.yahoo.com

This is the first of three Korean stores they plan to open in 2025. If these stores work, it opens another decade (or more) of growth for GENK.

In the Q1 2025 conference call they said opening a Korean store costs about 1/3rd the price of opening a US store. Sales may be lower as well, but still, that's appealing!

[Elroy] GENK did a filing on last Thursday. They're paying a dividend? 3 cents. The b...

Elroy — 6/2/2025 10:43:08 PM

GENK did a filing on last Thursday. They're paying a dividend? 3 cents.

The board of directors of GEN Restaurant Group, Inc. (the “Company”) has approved a special cash dividend of $0.03 per share of the Company’s Class A common stock, par value $0.001 per share (the “Class A Stock”), which will be paid on June 23, 2025 to holders of record of Class A Stock as of the close of business on June 9, 2025. Future declarations of dividends, if any, and the establishment of future record dates and payment dates are subject to the final determination of the Company’s board of directors.

The Company’s board of directors also approved a distribution by GEN Restaurant Companies, LLC (“GEN LLC”) of $0.03 per Class A Common Unit and Class B Common Unit (collectively, “Units”) of GEN LLC, which will be paid on June 23, 2025 to holders of record of Units, including the Company, as of the close of business on June 9, 2025. The total aggregate amount of the cash dividend to the Class A Stock holders and the cash distribution to the Unit holders is approximately $984 thousand.

investor.genkoreanbbq.com

There's another filing today that a director of GENK bought 30,000 shares.

investor.genkoreanbbq.com

[Elroy] I listened to the conference call. They believe Q4 2025 sales will approach $75...

Elroy — 5/13/2025 7:54:46 PM

I listened to the conference call.

They believe Q4 2025 sales will approach $75m, without explaining what "approach" means. Sales in Q1 were $57m, $58m is "approaching" $75m!

They are opening three stores in south Korea rather than two (in the previous call).

Big negatives were Q1 2025 EBITDA margin was about 15.5%, they said March - April and the start of May had declining same store sales (after a strong Jan + Feb) due to the macro conditions (tariff nonsense).

Positive - they think they'll deliver full year 2025 store level EBITDA around 17%-18%, so profitability and cash flows are supposed to increase from here out. They couldn't really explain why, but they said in 2024 Q1 was the worst quarter for EBITDA margin, so ..... maybe 2025 is the same!

Ok.

If they are on a $300m run rate with a 17% EBITDA margin, that could make 2026 look pretty nice in terms of cash flows.

I don't know what to make of this result, lots of weak areas so the main items the stock has is a low valuation. I'm going to hold on for all of 2025 and see if things pick up. I do like their food.

[Elroy] GEN Restaurant Group Announces First Quarter 2025 Financial Results https://f...

Elroy — 5/13/2025 4:40:17 PM

GEN Restaurant Group Announces First Quarter 2025 Financial Results

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gen-restaurant-group-announces-first-201500175.html

[Elroy] GEN Korean BBQ Expands Texas Presence with New Austin Location https://financ...

Elroy — 3/19/2025 9:29:35 AM

GEN Korean BBQ Expands Texas Presence with New Austin Location

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gen-korean-bbq-expands-texas-123000598.html

[Elroy] I asked GENK Investor Relations a few questions via email, here's their comment ...

Elroy — 3/18/2025 5:01:11 PM

I asked GENK Investor Relations a few questions via email, here's their comment on International Expansion in Korea.....

The Company has not disclosed the unit economics for its South Korea locations, but the costs to open and operate will be lower than its current locations in the United States due to lower labor costs and faster build times in South Korea. The company has the team in place for this current phase of international expansion, so I would not expect any material increases on the corporate cost side of things. GEN’s competitive advantage in the South Korean market is the Company’s “all you can eat” beef, chicken, and pork menu as well as the large square footage of its restaurants both of which are not widely available in the country.

[Elroy] GEN Restaurant Group, Inc. Announces Stock Repurchase Program CERRITOS, Calif...

Elroy — 3/13/2025 9:04:23 AM

GEN Restaurant Group, Inc. Announces Stock Repurchase Program

CERRITOS, Calif., March 13, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GEN Restaurant Group, Inc. (“GEN” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: GENK), owner of GEN Korean BBQ, a fast-growing casual dining concept with an extensive menu and signature “grill at your table” experience, announced today that its board of directors approved a stock repurchase program authorizing the repurchase of up to $5.0 million worth of shares of the Company’s outstanding Class A common stock, par value $0.001 (“Common Stock”). The stock repurchase program may be suspended or discontinued at any time and does not obligate the Company to acquire any specific number of shares of its Common Stock.

[Elroy] Some quick thoughts on GENK post results. 2024 sales were $208m and 2025 is for...

Elroy — 3/7/2025 11:26:16 AM

Some quick thoughts on GENK post results.

2024 sales were $208m and 2025 is forecast to be $248m.

Market cap today is about $225m, so it's at about 1x sales.

Opening two stores in Korea sounds like an interesting plan. If successful, it could be another huge market to attack. However, I would think there is a lot more competition for Korean BBQ restaurant chains in Korea, but I don't know if there is a national chain? Interesting, but hard to evaluate.

I don't know what valuation a small growing restaurant chain deserves. Anybody? I know KRUS (rotating sushi chain about two years ahead of GENK in terms of US growth) trades around 2.5x sales. El Pollo Loco also reported yesterday, and it trades at 0.75x sales, but it didn't grow sales year over year.

Seems like GENK could go to 1.5x annual sales, and still be reasonably inexpensive relative to peers? That would be about $10.

Ok, I'll wait and see what happens for a while.

[nicewatch] GEN Restaurant Group, Inc., Q4 2024 Earnings Call, Mar 06, 2025 3/6/25 Operator...

nicewatch — 3/6/2025 6:50:14 PM

GEN Restaurant Group, Inc., Q4 2024 Earnings Call, Mar 06, 2025 3/6/25

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the GEN Restaurant Group, Inc. Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Tom Croal, the company's Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thomas Croal

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon. By now, everyone should have access to the fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings release. If not, it can be found at www.genkoreanbbq.com in the Investor Relations section.

Before we begin our formal remarks, I need to remind everyone that our discussions today will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities law, including, but not limited to, statements regarding growth plans and potential new store openings as well as those types of statements identified in our annual report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2024, and our subsequent reports filed with the SEC.

These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore, you should not put undue reliance on them. These statements represent our views only as of the date of this call and are also subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we currently expect.

We refer you to our recent SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K for a more detailed discussion of the risks that can impact our future operating results and financial position. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events.

During today's call, we will discuss some non-GAAP financial measures which we believe can be useful in evaluating our performance. The presentation of this additional information should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are available in our earnings press release and our SEC filings which are available in the Investor Relations section of our website.

Now I'd like to turn it over to our Chairman and CEO, David Kim.

Wook Kim

Thank you, Tom, and good afternoon, everyone. To begin the call, I wanted to summarize what we promised and delivered on our guidance for 2024. For revenue, we gave a range of $200 million to $205 million for the year. We finished the year with $208 million in revenue. For restaurant level EBITDA, we estimated that we would reach 17% to 18% for the year. We ended the year at 17.7%.

For G&A expenses, we estimated total G&A expenses between $18 million and $19 million for the year before noncash stock-based compensation. We ended the year at $18.3 million. For new restaurant development, our goal was to open 10 to 11 restaurants in 2024. We opened 6 restaurants during the year, have opened 3 additional restaurants in January of 2025 and are about to open a fourth restaurant in this next week.

Even though our timing was off by a month for opening new restaurants, we still achieved our overall revenue goals for the year. These 1-month delays were caused by continuous local and state government permits. The restaurants were built and ready to open in December of 2024, but could not due to these permit issues.

Continuing from this summary, we closed out 2024 with a strong fourth quarter as we delivered 21% year-over-year total revenue growth and 25% year-over-year growth in total adjusted EBITDA. For the full year, I'm proud to report we delivered our highest total annual revenue figure as a public company while maintaining healthy unit-level economics, primarily driven by the continued success of our new restaurant openings.

Total revenue for the year increased to $208.4 million exceeding the upper end of our 2024 guidance range and analyst expectations even with the 3 restaurants opening 1 month late. We also achieved our goal of our restaurant level adjusted EBITDA margin approaching 18%, with total restaurant level adjusted EBITDA of $36.9 million.

Additionally, we achieved adjusted EBITDA of $16.7 million. If you exclude preopening costs, adjusted EBITDA totaled $22 million. Net income before income tax for the year was $4.9 million, which equated to $0.13 of diluted earnings per share, and we delivered $7.4 million in adjusted net income, which equated to $0.21 of adjusted diluted earnings per share for the year.

Looking at our new restaurant development since our year-end call last year. We've opened 9 new restaurants, 6 of which were opened in 2024 and 3 since the beginning of 2025, bringing our total restaurant count to 46 locations nationwide. The 3 stores we opened in January of 2025 were originally planned to launch in December 2024. Additionally, we had a fourth restaurant opening in the next week.

Our restaurant development process is strong and is positioned to reach our 2025 target of opening 10 to 13 new restaurants, which does not include the 3 recent openings that shifted into the new year from 2024. Our current restaurants have maintained steady profitability with new restaurant driving consistent revenue growth in the fourth quarter benefiting as expected from the holiday season. With that, we delivered full year restaurant level adjusted EBITDA margin of 17.7%.

While our total revenue exceeded our guidance and analyst expectations, our comparable sales -- same-store sales for 2024 were down 5.6% year-over-year. As we have discussed at length, GEN's business model does not rely on comparable restaurant sales growth and primarily revolves around the expanding store count to generate our robust average unit level economics. Our new units deliver returns on investment in the 40% range.

That being said, we have been proactively working to return to comparable restaurant sales growth through pricing adjustment, enhancing training programs, additional premium drink options on the menu and our latest incubator projects. During quarter 4, we began to see impact on our efforts with premium menu sales increasing at our incubator projects receiving positive feedback as we continue rolling out these initiatives on a limited basis.

We also implemented a 3% increase to our menu price, which went into effect across majority of our locations at the end of 2024. We're happy to report that this price increase has not influenced customer traffic and GEN remains a high-quality value dining experience for our customers. We're even more pleased to announce, these initiatives have resulted in comparable restaurant sales return to growth, generating positive 1% comp figures in the first 2 months of 2025.

As a sign of confidence in the company's future, the Board of Directors have approved a stock buyback program for up to $5 million while still maintaining our goal of opening a total of around 75 restaurants by the end of 2026.

Transitioning now to our key incubator initiatives. Last quarter, we announced the launch of GEN gift cards at 78 Costco locations all within the 5-mile radius of most of our restaurants across the U.S. The gift cards have been selling exceptionally well with Costco's buying department saying that we are one of the best-selling restaurant gift cards ever. This is a testament to GEN's brand strength and position as a leader in the Korean barbecue. We look forward to expanding this avenue with additional big box retail partners in 2025.

Entering this next year, we're well positioned to achieve our growth target with 13 leases for new restaurant locations signed or in the process of being finalized with an additional 16 leases and negotiations. Additionally, we expect to maintain our restaurant level adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 18% and to generate $245 million to $250 million in total revenue for the year. All of this positions us nicely for our medium-term goal around 75 total restaurants by the end of 2026.

Growing GEN's footprint is at the heart of our business model and we're excited to finally announce our international expansion. In the near future, we will be bringing the GEN experience to South Korea with at least 2 locations planned for 2025. Overall, 2024 marks a year of consistent progress towards our key growth objectives as reflected by exceeding our revenue projections and meeting our restaurant level adjusted EBITDA margin goal for the year.

With strong demand for GEN Korean BBQ and our growing brand strength backed by our robust balance sheet, we believe we are well positioned to capitalize on our promising pipeline of new restaurants and achieve our growth targets, both in the United States as well as internationally. Thank you for all your continued support. We're excited for the future ahead and look forward to delivering sustainable value to our shareholders.

Now I'd like to hand the call over to Tom for a deeper look at our fourth quarter and full year financial performance.

Thomas Croal

Thank you, David. We ended the year with a strong fourth quarter as revenue was up 21% year-over-year. Restaurant level adjusted EBITDA was up 29% and and total adjusted EBITDA was up 25% for the year-over-year quarter, all leading to a fantastic year-end. With that, let's dive into the specific financial metrics for the fourth quarter and full year. For the fourth quarter, revenue increased 21.2% to $54.7 million compared to $45.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. For the year ended December 31, 2024, revenues increased 15.1% to $208.4 million compared to $181 million in 2023, driven by new restaurant openings.

Turning to expenses. Cost of goods sold as a percentage of company restaurant sales increased by 160 basis points in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the fourth quarter last year. For the full year, cost of goods sold as a percentage of company restaurant sales increased 80 basis points to 33.1% compared to the prior year period. The increase is largely due to higher store count and our premium menu.

Payroll and benefits as a percentage of company restaurant sales decreased by 130 basis points in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 30.8% compared to the fourth quarter of last year. For the full year, payroll and benefits as a percentage of company restaurant sales decreased 60 basis points year-over-year to 30.9%.

Occupancy expenses as a percent of company restaurant sales increased by 30 basis points compared to the fourth quarter of last year to 8.6%. For the full year, occupancy expenses increased by 30 basis points to 8.4% compared to 8.1% in 2023 due to the new restaurant openings over the last 18 months. Other operating expenses as a percentage of company restaurant sales decreased 140 basis points to 9.8% compared to 11.2% in the fourth quarter of last year.

G&A during the fourth quarter was $5.6 million or 10.3% of revenue, excluding stock-based compensation, compared to $4.4 million or 9.7% of revenue in the year ago period. For the full year, G&A, excluding stock-based compensation, was $18.3 million or 8.8% of revenue compared to $12.6 million or 7.8% of revenue in 2023, including management fees in 2023.

The year-over-year increase in G&A is largely a result of additional personnel hired to support new restaurant development, including construction teams, regional managers and staff training persons as well as higher costs associated with our first full year of being a public company. As a reminder, we expected to incur $18 million to $19 million in G&A this year, and we are pleased to be within the low end of our cost expectations.

In the fourth quarter, we had a net loss before income taxes of $1.2 million, which equated to $0.04 per diluted share of Class A common stock compared to a net loss before income taxes of $0.3 million, which equated to $0.01 per diluted share of Class A common stock in the fourth quarter of 2023.

In the fourth quarter, the loss was created by preopening costs of $2.3 million as we opened 2 restaurants and had 4 more restaurants ready to open. We continuously reinvest our operating cash flows to open additional restaurants without incurring significant debt.

For the full year, net income before taxes was $4.9 million, which equated to $0.13 per diluted share of Class A common stock compared to net income of $11.5 million, which equated to $0.08 per diluted share from stock in 2023. Adjusted net income, which represents net income plus noncash stock-based compensation was $7.4 million, which equated to $0.21 per diluted share of Class A common stock for 2024.

Restaurant level adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter increased 28% to $9.3 million or 17% of total revenue. For the full year, restaurant-level adjusted EBITDA increased 10% to $36.9 million or 17.7% of total revenue. Both figures were in line with our expectations of approaching 18% in 2024.

Total adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2024 increased 25% to $2.1 million compared to $1.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2023. For 2024, total adjusted EBITDA was $16.7 million compared to $18.8 million for fiscal 2023. This decrease is primarily the result of increased preopening costs. Without preopening costs, adjusted EBITDA would be approximately $3.7 million for the fourth quarter and $22 million for the year.

Shifting to liquidity. As of December 31, 2024, we had $23.7 million in cash and cash equivalents, and we carried no material long-term debt aside from the approximately $4.3 million of government-funded EIDL loans, which we had when we went public in 2023. We also had the majority of our $20 million revolving line of credit available. We did borrow $3 million from our line of credit as we prepared for future expansion, but we have since paid that down and our net cash position remains in line with our expectations.

One thing I would like to note is that we have $148 million in lease obligations on our balance sheet as required by GAAP with the new ASC 842. This may show up as debt on certain financial platforms due to reporting requirements. Please note this is not debt and is offset by $131 million of operating lease assets. We continue to have a healthy liquidity position.

Moreover, GEN continues to generate strong free cash flow, which allowed us to self-fund approximately $18 million in new restaurant development costs and an additional $4 million towards the buyout of our GKBH restaurant. We anticipate this trend of substantial self-funding to carry throughout our long-term expansion plans.

Lastly, turning to our fiscal 2025 outlook. We expect to open a total of 10 to 13 new units in 2025 which does not include the 3 recent openings that were originally slated for 2024. We also expect to generate total revenue between $245 million and $250 million and restaurant level adjusted EBITDA margin of 18-plus percent for 2025.

This concludes our prepared remarks. We'd like to thank you again for joining us on the call today, and we are now happy to answer any questions that you may have. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to David Kim for any closing remarks.

Wook Kim

Thank you all again for joining the call. As always, we welcome the opportunity to speak with any of you at one of our upcoming investor conferences. We'll be attending the 37th Annual ROTH Conference in Southern California, March 17 through the 18. We'd love to meet you -- would like to meet you there, but if you are not able to connect, we'll speak with you all when we report the first quarter of 2025 in May. Thank you.

Thomas Croal

Thank you, everybody.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

[nicewatch] Will post full text of call soon. Not surprised by lack of questions, this is a ...

nicewatch — 3/6/2025 6:47:03 PM

Will post full text of call soon. Not surprised by lack of questions, this is a smallcap company barely covered by the street. If they continue to execute like this, that should change on future calls especially in a near term environment that looks difficult for portions of retail and restaurants.

[Elroy] I'm listening to the GENK conference call. 2025 revenue target = $245m-$250m 2...

Elroy — 3/6/2025 6:28:20 PM

I'm listening to the GENK conference call.

2025 revenue target = $245m-$250m

2025 restaurant EBITDA margin target = 18%

2026 store count target = ~75

GENK has almost zero debt ($4m), but they do have significant lease obligations which may appear as debt on some platforms. The lease obligations are not debt.

GENK expects their expansion plans to remain self funding (means probably no secondary offerings or additional debt issuance).

Q&A - not a single question?! Odd.

[Elroy] GEN Restaurant Group, Inc. Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Financial...

Elroy — 3/6/2025 4:41:33 PM

GEN Restaurant Group, Inc. Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Financial Results

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gen-restaurant-group-inc-announces-210500552.html

Strong Start to 2025 with Comparable Restaurant Sales for Q1 Quarter-to-Date Increasing 1% Through the End of February, a 6% Improvement Compared to Q4 2024

Cash and cash equivalents at December 31, 2024 was $23.7 million.
As a sign of confidence in the Company’s future, the Board of Directors have approved a stock buyback program for up to $5 million.

[Elroy] Well, these guys are an expanding chain of Korean BBQ restaurants. Valuation is...

Elroy — 2/24/2025 1:18:22 PM

Well, these guys are an expanding chain of Korean BBQ restaurants.

Valuation is slightly below 1x annual sales. They're in growth mode, and hope to grow the number of outlets from mid-40's today to 7-75 by the end of 2026. If they succeed, and sales and profit per restaurant just remains stable, seems like the stock price may hold it's 1x sales valuation, and therefore increase by more than 50%.
Lets see what happens!

They should announce Q4 results sometime in the first week or March. Their Q3 results were fairly disappointing with same store sales declining 9% year on year, and they indicated the expect to bounce back somewhat in Q4. The stock price has been doing nothing but declining for the past six months, so perhaps the coming results will turn the share price around (I don't think it would take much!).