Così May Comparable Restaurant Sales Fall 0.7%

Così, Inc. COSI revealed that estimated system-wide comparable restaurant sales for May recorded an aggregate fall of 0.7 percent compared to the previous year month.

While Cosi-owned comparable store sales fell 3.8 percent, franchise-owned comparable restaurant sales advanced 6.1 percent in May.

The company indicated that the 13 Hearthstone restaurants, which were purchased in April 2015, would be added in the reported comparable restaurants sales once they crossed 15 straight months of operations. For the period of May, Hearthstone locations witnessed 0.9 percent uptick in comparable restaurant sales.

Cosi President and CEO, Dourney, commented, "I am very encouraged by the sustained growth rate we continue to see in our franchise system, both domestically and internationally. Similarly, I am encouraged by the fact that our largest corporate markets continue to outperform the company's average sales growth by a significant margin."

He added, "Clearly the Company units underperformed for the period. The upcoming new menu rollout, digital media campaign launched over the past 30 days and key strategic initiatives are correcting this shortfall. Current sales trends indicate that the digital media campaign is working and is gaining traction. As a result, we expect to expand the campaign across the system during June."

Dourney concluded by saying, "Overall, we continue to be on-track with our four strategic priorities for the year. First, we are on track with our cash projections for the quarter and turning EBITDA positive in the third quarter. Second, we are on track to scale our initiatives to drive traffic. Third, we continue to make progress on the franchise growth pipeline. Finally, we continue to improve the strength of our people and culture."

The stock traded 2.73 percent down on Tuesday.