El Pollo Loco CEO Weighs In On Company's First-Quarter Earnings

El Pollo LoCo Holdings Inc LOCO reported better than expected first-quarter earnings on Friday. However, its shares slumped heavily during trade and closed down 15 percent on back of the weaker forward guidance provided by the company and worse than expected comparable-restaurant sales.

Stephen Sather, El Pollo Loco CEO, was on CNBC post the earnings release to weigh in on the results.

Softness In Q2 Concludes Next Week

“We had a good quarter, we exceeded on revenue, we exceeded on earnings per share and we had sales of 5.1 percent and we feel very good about our business,” Sather said. “We did again reaffirm our full-year EPS guidance and our full-year same store sales.”

“So, that being said, I think…a little bit of softness we saw in Q2 as we were testing multiple proteins and that concludes next week as we head into our what we think will be very popular, our new chicken salad, its hand carved chicken salads, which starts next Thursday.”

He continued, “And I think exciting on top of that is we have got as well our 500 line, which has been very popular will include the hand carved chicken salads.”

QSR+

On all restaurant chains playing the same game by going after the same things, Sather said, “I don’t think it’s really playing the same game for us. As you know, our positioning is what we call QSR+, we have got high quality food, like you’d find in fast casuals like a Panera or Chipotle and we bring that to you at the speed, convenience and value. So, we’ve been giving you great healthy chicken for years and we are just doing that now across our menu.”