Earnings call transcript: Kura Sushi Q4 2025 beats EPS estimates, stock dips

Kura Sushi USA Inc. (KRUS) reported its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings, surpassing analysts' expectations with an earnings per share (EPS) of $0.20 compared to the forecasted $0.12, marking a 66.67% surprise. Revenue for the quarter reached $79.4 million, slightly above the expected $78.13 million. Despite the positive earnings report, Kura Sushi's stock fell 6.97% to close at $58.83, although it saw a slight aftermarket recovery, rising to $60.54.

Key Takeaways

• Kura Sushi's EPS exceeded forecasts by 66.67%.
• Stock price declined by 6.97% post-earnings but showed some recovery in aftermarket trading.
• Total sales for Q4 2025 were $79.4 million, with a 0.2% increase in comparable sales.
• The company opened 15 new locations in fiscal 2025 and plans for 16 more in 2026.
• Kura Sushi is focusing on operational efficiencies and product innovations.

Company Performance

Kura Sushi demonstrated solid performance in Q4 2025, with total sales reaching $79.4 million and a slight comparable sales growth of 0.2%. This growth was primarily driven by a 0.5% increase in customer traffic. Over the fiscal year, the company achieved over 30% growth in adjusted EBITDA, reflecting strong operational management amidst a challenging consumer environment. The company opened 15 new restaurant locations in fiscal 2025 and plans to expand further in 2026.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $79.4 million, up 0.2% from the previous quarter.
• EPS: $0.20, up from the forecasted $0.12.
• Net income: $2.3 million ($0.18 per share).
• Adjusted net income: $2.5 million ($0.20 per share).
• Restaurant-level operating profit margin: 19.8%.

Earnings vs. Forecast

Kura Sushi reported an EPS of $0.20, significantly beating the forecast of $0.12 by 66.67%. Revenue also surpassed expectations, coming in at $79.4 million against a forecast of $78.13 million. The earnings surprise indicates robust operational performance and effective cost management.

Market Reaction

Despite the positive earnings surprise, Kura Sushi's stock fell by 6.97% to $58.83. The stock has been volatile, with a 52-week high of $110.66 and a low of $40.03. In aftermarket trading, the stock showed some recovery, rising to $60.54, up 2.91% from the closing price. The decline may reflect broader market trends or investor concerns over future guidance.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking ahead, Kura Sushi has provided a total sales guidance of $330-$334 million for the upcoming year, with flat to slightly positive annual comparable sales. The company expects a restaurant-level operating profit margin of 18% and continues to focus on strategic initiatives such as product innovations and operational efficiencies.

Executive Commentary

CEO Jimmy Uba stated, "Our commitment to growing corporate profitability remains unabated," highlighting the company's focus on maintaining strong financial performance. Ben, SVP of Investor Relations, noted, "We didn't want to force a 20% margin in fiscal 26," indicating a cautious approach to margin expansion.

Risks and Challenges

• Consumer price sensitivity and macroeconomic pressures may impact customer spending.
• Tariffs could affect the company's cost structure.
• Labor inflation remains a concern despite operational efficiencies.
• Market saturation and competition from other restaurant chains.
• Dependence on Gen Z consumer trends, particularly near universities.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the impact of tariffs on the company's cost structure and improvements in the reservation system. Discussions also covered Kura Sushi's IP collaboration strategy and consumer spending challenges, providing insights into the company's strategic priorities and market positioning.

Full transcript - Kura Sushi USA Inc (KRUS) Q4 2025:

Operator: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Kura Sushi USA fourth quarter 2025 earnings call. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode, and the lines will be open for your questions following the presentation. Please note that this call is being recorded. On the call today, we have Hajime Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer; Jeff Ubs, Chief Financial Officer; and Benjamin, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Porten. Please go ahead.

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you all for joining. By now, everyone should have access to our fiscal fourth quarter 2025 earnings release. It can be found at www.kurusushi.com in the Investor Relations section. A copy of the earnings release has also been included in the 8-K we submitted to the SEC. Before we begin our formal remarks, I need to remind everyone that part of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements as defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore you should not put undue reliance on them. These statements are also subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect. We refer all of you to our SEC filings for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact our future operating results and financial condition. Also, during today's call, we will discuss certain 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, nor as a substitute for results prepared in accordance with GAAP, and the reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures are available in our earnings release. With that out of the way, I would like to turn the call over to Jimmy.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: Thank you, Ben, and thank you to everyone for joining us today. I'm incredibly proud of what our team achieved during fiscal 2025 as we delivered our strongest class of restaurant openings in recent memory, adding a record of 15 new locations. We also successfully managed our corporate G&A expenses, resulting in an annual adjusted EBITDA growth of over 30%. These accomplishments are particularly significant given the volatile consumer environment and the tariff pressures we navigated throughout the year, which have negatively impacted our top-line results and restaurant-level margins. Nevertheless, our team remains resilient, and we continue to believe that our focus on execution has positioned us well for continued growth in fiscal 2026. Total sales for the fiscal fourth quarter were $79.4 million, representing comparable sales growth of 0.2%, led by traffic growth of 0.5%, and partially offset by price and mix of -0.3%. Cost of goods sold as a percentage of sales were 28.4%, as compared to the prior year quarter's 28.5%. I am exceptionally proud of our purchasing team, who negotiate tirelessly to mitigate higher ingredient costs so we can continue to provide the best value possible for our guests. Labor as a percentage of sales improved by 30 basis points to 31.1%, as compared to the prior year period of 31.4%, meeting the expectations for year-over-year improvements for labor in Q4 that we had shared in the previous earnings call. In spite of ongoing labor inflation, we have been able to offset these cost increases through aggressive operational initiatives and system implementations. I have some exciting news on this front that I will discuss shortly. Turning to real estate, we closed fiscal 2025 with three store openings in the fourth quarter: Woodlands, Texas; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Boulder, Colorado. Salt Lake City and Boulder are the first units in their respective markets, and, as with every new market we've entered to date, have been very strong performers. Subsequent to quarter-end, we opened three units: Arcadia and Modesto in California and Freehold, New Jersey. With another six units under construction, the new fiscal year is off to a great start. We expect to open five to six units in the first half of the fiscal year and open the remaining units in the back half of the year. I'm excited to announce we are in the process of introducing status tiers to our rewards program. We're currently performing exploratory research to determine what kind of incentives resonate most strongly with our guests. This marks the first major update to our rewards program since we introduced the app. We are very excited to take our rewards program to the next level and look forward to keeping you updated on its progress. On system development, we have largely completed the revisions we have been working on for the reservation system. With these updates completed, we expect to begin marketing the reservation system to non-rewards members beginning in the fiscal second quarter. As you may have guessed when I mentioned this earlier, I'm extremely pleased to announce that we have secured commercial use certification for our robotic dishwasher and are currently in the process of installing these machines in eligible restaurants. As a reminder, our initial expectation was that the robotic dishwasher opportunity would be largely limited to new openings, with only five to ten restaurants eligible for retrofitting, but now we expect to be able to retrofit approximately 50 restaurants of our existing 82. We expect to have the majority of the retrofit rolled out during this fiscal year and to see labor improvements of approximately 50 basis points for restaurants that receive the retrofit. Fiscal 2025 was defined by the incredible cross-departmental efforts to do everything that we could to mitigate an unfriendly environment. Our commitment to growing corporate profitability remains unabated, as demonstrated by the strides we've made in adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income. We have made great strides in honing our unit expansion strategies and have built a pipeline that allows us to capitalize on the opportunities represented by previously unexplored smaller DMAs. The efforts by the operations team and the implementation of new systems have created lasting efficiency gains. I am very grateful for all of our team members who generated the good news we get to share at each earnings call. I don't see that changing. Jeff, I'll hand it over to you to discuss our financial results and liquidity.

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: Thanks, Jimmy. For the fourth quarter, total sales were $79.4 million as compared to $66 million in the prior year period. Comparable restaurant sales performance compared to the prior year period was positive 0.2%, with traffic growth of 0.5% and price and mix of negative 0.3%. Comparable sales in our West Coast market were negative 0.6%, and comparable sales in our Southwest market were positive 1.6%. Effective pricing for the quarter was 3.5%. On November 1st, we took a 3.5% menu price increase, and after lapping prior year increases, our effective price for the first quarter will be 4.5%. Beginning in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, we will no longer be providing regional breakdowns for comparable sales, as regional comps are largely determined by the timing of infills, and we don't believe that they are indicative of overall company trends. Turning now to our costs. Food and beverage costs as a percentage of sales were 28.4% compared to 28.5% in the prior year quarter. During the quarter, we began to see the impact of tariffs and our cost of goods sold of approximately 70 basis points. Labor and related costs as a percentage of sales were 31.1% as compared to 31.4% in the prior year quarter due to operational efficiencies and pricing, partially offset by wage inflation. Occupancy and related expenses as a percentage of sales were 7.1% compared to the prior year quarter's 7%. Depreciation and amortization expense as a percentage of sales was 4.7% as compared to the prior year quarter's 4.6%. Other costs as a percentage of sales were 15% compared to the prior year quarter's 14.4% due to sales deleverage and higher marketing costs. General and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales were 11.7% as compared to 20.3% in the prior year quarter due to the lapping of litigation costs incurred during the prior fiscal year, partially offset by higher compensation-related expenses. On a full-year basis, general and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales were 13.3%, representing a 300 basis point improvement over the prior year's 16.4%. G&A expenses as a percentage of sales, excluding litigation costs for the fourth quarter, were 11.4% as compared to the prior year quarter's 13.2%. G&A expenses as a percentage of sales, excluding litigation costs for the full year, were 12.5% as compared to the prior year's 14.1%. We did not have any impairment charges in the fourth quarter of fiscal 25 as compared to 2.4% in the prior year quarter. Operating income was $1.5 million compared to an operating loss of $5.8 million in the prior year quarter, mainly due to the lower G&A and the impairment expenses just discussed. Income tax expense was $43,000 compared to $19,000 in the prior year quarter. Net income was $2.3 million or 18 cents per share compared to a net loss of $5.2 million or negative 46 cents per share in the prior year quarter. Adjusted net income was $2.5 million or 20 cents per share as compared to adjusted net income of $1 million or 9 cents per share in the prior year quarter. Restaurant-level operating profit as a percentage of sales was 19.8% compared to 20.9% in the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $7.4 million as compared to $5.5 million in the prior year quarter. Turning to our cash and investments, at the end of the fiscal fourth quarter, we had $92 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments, and no debt. Lastly, I'd like to provide the following guidance for fiscal year 2026. We expect total sales to be between $330 and $334 million. We expect to open 16 new units, maintaining an annual unit growth rate above 20%, with average net capital expenditures per unit continuing to approximate $2.5 million. We expect general and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales to be between 12% and 12.5%. Lastly, we expect full-year restaurant-level operating profit margins to be approximately 18%. With that, I'll turn it back over to Jimmy.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: Thanks, Jeff. This concludes our prepared remarks. We are now happy to answer any questions you have. Operator, please open the line for questions. As a reminder, during the Q&A session, I may answer in Japanese before my response is translated into English.

Operator: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate you're in line in the question queue. You may press Star 2 to remove yourself from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the Star key. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. First question comes from Jeremy Hamlin with Craig Howell. Please go ahead.

Thanks, and congrats on the strong profitability here. I wanted to just dive into what you saw over the course of the last several months. I think you were on the July call very pleased with how quarter-to-date comp trends were. Maybe things softened a little bit in the August period. But I wanted to see if you could give us a sense of where quarter-to-date trends were. And then you've had a bunch of IP collabs, and just to understand how effective those have been. I know you've had shorter periods than you previously had on the collabs, but some color on what you're seeing out there, especially in context that a number of restaurants have seen some softening in September and October.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: Sure. Thank you, Jeremy, for your first question. Please, allow me to speak in Japanese. He's going to be in his own translator. まず、これは今、この数ヶ月間見てる状況に関してなんですけど、マクロの環境っていうのは他のレストランのレポートが示してる通り、非常に厳しいものがあると思います。我々も同じ状況になってると思います。ただ、我々のPRチームは非常にいい仕事してまして、ジェレミーが言及しましたように、いくつかIPコラボレーションがQ4以降、毎月しっかりあるような状態で、やはり彼らの努力の結果もあって、一定のIPコラボレーションによる売上の効果が出てます。あと、それプラスですね、いくつかのテクノロジーのイニシアチブ、レザベーションシステムとか、ライトライスとか、ツーインフィクスプレートですか、そういったところもね、ある程度少しですけども貢献があると。でも、ただそれらの貢献っていうのは大きなマクロエンバイロメントのフリークエンシーが減ったりですとか、あと、チェックをマネージしたりとか、その辺で大部分オフセットされたっていうのがQ4の状況だというふうに認識してます。その状態は大きなところ、同じ状況がQ1も続いてるというふうに考えてます。とりあえずちょっと全部ここまでお願いします。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: Hi, Jeremy. This is Ben. Over the last several months, we've certainly been seeing the same macro pressures that our peers have been reporting, and we're not immune to them either. We're very pleased with the work that the marketing team has done. They've done a phenomenal job. They're doing everything in their power to drive comps, and the quarter would have been much more difficult without all their efforts. The IP collabs that you had mentioned, certainly the quarter would have been worse without them. It's hard to assess the impact on a numerical basis, but they definitely made a difference in the quarter. The upside from the reservation system, the light rice and the 25 plates cumulatively had a little bit of a contribution, but that's what got us to positive comps between all those different factors. All those efforts were largely offset with the macro pressures that you've mentioned, but we were pleased to come in with positive comps for the quarter.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: あと、同じその状況というのはQ1も同じ状況が続いているというふうに見てます。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: In terms of quarter to date, we've seen the same operating environment as we've entered our first quarter.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: あと、ついでにですね、コンプのことに関してある程度情報をシェアしてもらったということなんで、これいつもやらないんですけど、今回ちょっとやらせていただきますと、我々のQ1のコンプのエクスペクテーションです。残念ながら年間次ぐのミックスシングルデジットレベル、この辺りを今2ヶ月経ってね、我々見てるものも予想してますと。これは必ずしも我々のパフォーマンスがQ4と比べて悪くなってるっていうわけじゃなくて、単純にコンプのコンパリゾンによるものです。これからちょっと説明したいと思います。これここまでお願いします。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: While this is not going to be a usual practice going forward, we just felt, given that we're already two months into the quarter, that it made sense for us to share our comp expectations based off of the results to date and our internal expectations. Unfortunately, our expectation for Q1 is to come in negative mid-single digits. This is not a reflection in terms of worsening performance or a worsening environment, but really just a reflection of the year-over-year comparisons for Q4 and Q1, and the delta is pretty cleanly about 500 basis points between those two quarters.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: まず、だいぶQ4がネガティブ3%だったコンパリゾンだったのに比べて、Q1に関してはポジティブ2%ですから、そのデルタっていうのが5ベーシスポイントありますから、Q4がほぼフラットだったんで、自動的にQ1はネガティブミックスシングルデジットになるということです。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: Just to remind you, the numbers that we're lapping, Q4 was lapping a negative 3% comp, and so a relatively easy comparison, whereas Q1 we're lapping a 2% or a positive 2%. And so just given that we came out about flat in Q4 while lapping that negative 3%, our expectation is that same delta which would get us to that negative mid-single digit number for our Q1 comp expectation.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: というものの、通期では我々実はポジティブ予想してまして、フラットかスライトリーポジティブ予想してまして。というのもコンパリゾンがQ2ではマイナス5%、Q3ではマイナスになって、このプライシングもありますし、IPコラボレーションもこれから強いものになっていきますし、リワードプログラムもノンリワードの人にやっていきます。いろんなところを踏まえて、通期ではプラスに持っていくということです。これがちょっと我々のコンプのエクスペクテーションです。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: That being said, our goal remains to deliver positive comps for the year. We think we can get flat to slightly positive. Q1 remains the most difficult comparison. As we enter Q2 and Q3, we'll be lapping a negative 5% comp and a negative 2% comp. Those will also coincide with some of our stronger IP collaborations, will have benefited from the pricing that we took in November, and will also hopefully benefit from greater adoption for the reservation system as we start to market it to non-rewards members.

Appreciate the color on that. And then just a follow-up here on the unit development, make sure I understood. So 16 new units for the year. I think you said five to six in the first half of fiscal 26. And three quarter to date, do you anticipate opening up any more in Q1? And then just confirming that you're five to six in the first half of the year and then roughly 10 in the back half of the year.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: まず、だいぶQ1であともう1店舗おそらくオープン時期で、Q2だと1店舗か2店舗、それぐらいのことで考えてます。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: Yeah, we're expecting to open one more in Q1, and then we would open one or two in Q2.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: 我々6店舗工事中と言いましたけども、そのうちの4店舗は始まった、3店舗も始まったばっかり。あともう1店舗はまだ初期なんで、大部分はQ3以降になると予想してます。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: In the prepared remarks, we've mentioned that six units were under construction, but the majority of them we just broke ground. So while we do have a lot of units under construction, our expectation for the first half of the year is to open five or six units total.

Thanks for the color. I'll hop out of the queue.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: Thanks, Jeremy. Thank you, Jeremy.

Operator: Next question, Mark Smith with Lake Street Capital Markets, please proceed.

Yeah, hi guys. Yeah, Alex Dernick's on the line for Mark Smith today. Thanks for taking my questions. In the prepared remarks, you highlighted around 50 basis points of labor improvement from the robotic dishwasher rollout, and that you said you'd be retrofitting about 50 restaurants. How quickly do you expect that to be implemented, and then when will we see the full impact on the P&L?

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: はい、これに関しては基本的に日本からマニュファクチャーで作ってから海を渡って持ってきてという感じで、やっぱりインプリメント時間がかかるというふうに理解してます。あとは当然サーティフィケーションが取れてから製造オーダーしてますから、大部分のインプリメンテーションというのはQ3以降になると見えます。ロボティックディッシュウォッシャーのベーバーのインプリメントの今期の影響に関しては非常に限定的なものと考えてます。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: Hi. As it relates to the robotic dishwashers, we placed our order to the manufacturer after we got certification. So they're in the process of developing or just manufacturing them now. It's a proprietary piece of equipment, so we can't get it just off the rack or whatever. So really, that's the biggest bottleneck for us, just getting them made and then shipped over from Japan to the United States. Our expectation is that the implementation in earnest will really start in Q3. While we do expect to get the majority of the eligible restaurants retrofitted during fiscal 26, the impact from a labor perspective would be much more pronounced in fiscal 27 than fiscal 26. Our expectations for the benefit from the robotic dishwashers in fiscal 26 are reflected in the RLOPM guidance that we shared earlier.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: とはいえ、私はちょっと直接今月日本に戻って、彼らのファクトリーに行って、なんとか生産を早めることができないかということを直接交渉しに行く予定です。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: That being said, as Jimmy is as impatient as I am, he's going to Japan to knock on the doors of the factory and speak with the president and ask for them to expedite things as much as they can. And so hopefully, we'll be able to get these in a little bit sooner than we're expecting right now.

That's great. Great color there. Last one for me. You mentioned tariffs a little bit impacting you in the quarter. Given the ongoing back and forth for tariffs on Japan and Vietnam, can you give an update on supplier negotiations? What level of cost sharing you're seeing? Have you taken or do you anticipate taking any additional pricing to offset those costs?

Hey, it's Jeff. We took 3.5% on November 1st, as we mentioned in the prepared remarks. That was after the negotiations we had with the suppliers. As we also said in the prepared remarks, we saw about a 70 basis point impact in Q4. Going forward, after we took the menu price increase, and these negotiations are still ongoing, but they're much more progressed than they were in the past. Currently, where we stand is that we expect our COGS for fiscal 26 to be at least 30%, around the 30% range. We thought in interest of transparency that it would just be useful to everybody to just kind of tell you what we thought COGS is going to end up at. Call it about 30%. That's also why we gave the restaurant-level operating profit margin guidance as well. That was a new piece of guidance for us that we gave this time that we've never given in the past. Just given the volatility of what's going on, we just thought in the interest of transparency that it was just a good thing to help the street and help everybody out of what we expect going forward.

That's great color. Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Operator: Next question, Jeff Bernstein with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Hi, great. This is Product On for Jeff. How are you guys?

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: Hey, Product.

Hi. A big picture question about 2026. What kind of strategic changes do you guys foresee with the brand? Obviously, we've heard all sorts of commentary from restaurants about how the consumer is challenged and people are looking for value. What steps are you taking to address that current environment? And more excitingly, what new markets have you the most excited for 2026? And I have a follow-up. Thanks.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: まず、我々今、お客さんのすごくセンシティブな状況になると、プライス、特にプライスセンシティビティはすごく強くなっている。あとフリークエンシー減らしていると、そういう環境にあることをすごくよく理解してます。今回のプライシングに関しても、実質、まずバリューのクエスチョンを事前にサーベイに加えたりですとか、あとコンシューマーインサイトでのお客さんの意見を取り入れて、非常に細心の注意を払って、結構地域ごとにあらゆる差をつけて、もちろんプライシングしない的な状況は変わらなかったんですけど、その中でも非常に気をつけてやってきたつもりです。それがまず一つ。あともう一つはどんなことをして対策していくかってことなんですけども、一つの大きなことに賭けるってことじゃなくて、いろんな小さな改善の積み重ねをしっかりしていくことで。無理に20%のレベニューレベルをクリエイティブマーケティングまで乗せると、そういったことをするんじゃなくて、バリューのプロポーションをしっかり維持しながらお客さんの満足度を保っていくと、それをしっかりすることで、しっかりと今後の目標としていきたいなと思ってます。具体的にどういうことするか、これからちょっと後で今から説明していきたいと思います。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: Hi. Just keeping in mind that we're in an environment right now where guests are extremely price sensitive and are managing their frequency, being that much more thoughtful about where they're spending their restaurant dollars. We were very diligent in our processes as we approached the November pricing. We added a value question to the end-of-meal survey, which validated our beliefs that our guests continue to believe that we provide really an unbeatable value. We also conducted a consumer insight study. We actually got granular to the point where we were doing separate studies by geography to see the elasticity by market. So we feel that the pricing that we took really sort of threaded the needle in terms of what's appropriate. In terms of the efforts that we're making, it's really we're not betting the farm on any one big thing. It's really just the diligent small things all coming together from every department. It's really the approach that we've always taken. It's just lots and lots of small incremental improvements, which cumulatively give us that massive value advantage. We didn't want to force a 20% margin in fiscal 26. We didn't want to basically trade the future potential traffic for one year of better margins. We really want our guests to continue to see us as providing an unbeatable value. Yeah, we didn't want to be short-sighted as it relates to fiscal 26.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: 具体的にその小さなことの積み重ねのところの事例なんですけど、例えば当たり前のことですけど、商品をしっかりブラッシュアップしていったりですとか、あと引き続き、特にパーチェシングチームがいい仕事してますから、日本産の魚を使ったクリアリザーブやることも考えてますし、あとIPコラボレーションも、しっかりパイプラインを持ってきたんですけど、より効果的に販促するためにどうしたらいいかっていう小さな改善も常にディスカッションしてますし、先ほどちょっとプリペイドリワードやったようなティアードシステム、ティアードプログラムをやっていきますし、予約システムのノンリワードメンバーへの告知もしていきますし、コンシューマーインサイト、スコアリングしていったりとか、いろんなことを今チーム全員がやってますんでね。それらをやってしっかりね、18%台のレストランをやっていくと、お客さんの満足を確保して、それを我々は大きな目標としています。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: In terms of the things that we're working on, this is a very fundamental thing for any sort of restaurant business, but we're very focused on improving our products, both from the menu development perspective and a sourcing perspective. They've really been doing a phenomenal team. There's a reason we call them out every call. They're just tireless in their efforts, and it's really kind of staggering how consistently they've been able to improve our proteins in particular. We've got a number of Japan-sourced LTOs that we're looking forward to, which we expect will be a big hit from our guests. We know that the IP campaigns are a very big opportunity for us. We're pretty happy with the pipeline that we've built, but we know that there's more opportunities to be run from each campaign. We really want to use each one as a learning opportunity and build on that so that we can really maximize the opportunity that we see there. A couple of other things that we're working on is, as we mentioned in the prepared remarks, we're working on introducing tiered statuses to our rewards program, and we're also going to begin marketing the reservation system to non-rewards members. All those things together would be some of the things that we have on the docket.

Got it. That's super helpful color. My follow-up was for Jeff. It looks like the company ended fiscal 25 at exactly 12.5% of sales when it comes to G&A. I know you mentioned in your prepared remarks that you expect fiscal 26 to be at 12% to 12.5%. So at the midpoint, you're assuming about 25 basis points of leverage. I can certainly appreciate what's happening in today's environment, but that's not as much leverage as we're used to seeing in the past. I know, Jeff, longer term, I know you want to get the company to that sub-10% level. What's changed in fiscal 26? Is there a deliberate strategy to allow for less leverage, or is there another round of investment in certain areas? Anything you can help us unlock what's going on with G&A. Thanks.

So really looking at it on a kind of an average year basis, we got 160 basis points of leverage this year compared to last year. I was expecting under 100. We were able to pull some savings from fiscal 26 forward into fiscal 25. When you look at it on a two-year basis, even if we did hit that midpoint, that's still almost 100 basis points of leverage per year when you look at it that way. We can't really parse it out year by year by year. We take the savings when we can get them. We were fortunate to get the savings earlier on than we thought. I'm looking at it on a year-by-year basis. Because we got much more than we expected, I didn't want to overshoot next year. I'm hoping we can beat that at the beginning of the year. That's our starting guidance. We'll do our very best to bump that guidance up in one of our future calls. Right now, I think that that's a proved number between 12% and 12.5%.

Makes perfect sense. Thank you so much for the color.

You bet. Thanks.

Jeff, Chief Financial Officer, Kura Sushi USA: Thank you, Product.

Operator: Next question, Andrew Charles with Cowen. Please go ahead.

Great. Thank you. This is Zach Ogden on for Andrew. It looks like new store productivity did improve from 2024 to 2025. Are you able to quantify what new store AUVs are relative to the system average of roughly $4 million? Or maybe if you could qualitatively speak to what's driving that improvement and if it's one or two units driving that strong new store productivity or if you're seeing more of a broad-based improvement. Thanks.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: そう。まず、FY24が4.2で、今回25が新しく3.9、5に近いんですけど、これになってるよというのは、もちろんこれ計算上、新しくコンプベースに入った店舗の数字がAUVを下回ってた。具体的には、FY23の後半のレストラン、あと24の前半のレストラン、これらのコンプベースを入れた時に少しAUVが低かったということで、これは我々が分かったことなので、その結果のものだと思ってます。一方、これまで述べた通り、25に関しては非常にここ最近では一番強いことですので、少しタイムラグはありますけど、これだからしっかりコンプベースに26の後半が27の前半に入ってこれれば、AUVというのはしっかり回復していくというふうに見てます。ただ一方で、我々AUVは特にターゲットにはしてませんので、結果的な数字の変化をキャラクターでも答えてますけど、ここでターゲットにしてないということを改めて述べたいと思います。ここまでまとめました。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: I'd just like to caveat this by starting by mentioning that we don't have an AUV target. We have a cash-on-cash return target. That being said, Zach, you basically got it right. The pressure on the AUVs that we saw that we reported today versus a year ago was largely due to the new entrance to the AUV comp base. But also to your earlier point, the fiscal 25 stores are spectacular. They've been one of the strongest classes in recent memory. It's not limited to one or two units. We're very excited to see those go in the AUV comp base, and we expect that number to improve with their entry.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: あと、一つAUVのところで話していたので、我々。AUVってもちろん店舗の大きさにも左右されますけど、基本的に調べたんですが、セールスパーツクラフトで言うと24も25も同じレベルと思ってます。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: On the note of AUV, just as I mentioned before, it's not a target for us. There are a lot of things that can impact AUVs. Just something as simple as store size doesn't necessarily reflect performance. But we did want to internally corroborate the things for as strong as we felt. They are. The sales per square foot for fiscal 24 and 25 are unchanged. That's, I think, a more meaningful metric of our productivities.

Great. Thanks. My follow-up question is, Jeff, the guidance for new store build costs stayed at $2.5 million, which is what it was in fiscal 25. That's pretty encouraging considering you previously talked about a $300,000 to $400,000 impact from tariffs. Is the impact from tariffs not as bad as you thought, or are there just offsets to it?

Let me first clear it. Same as it was in 2025 and 2024. So we've been in the same for a couple of years, which we're very proud of. That's a net number. The cost to build did go up a little bit because of tariffs, but we're now getting better TI allowances from our landlords. So when you offset the TI allowance against the higher build, it comes out to a net about $2.5 million. So our cash out of pocket remained the same.

Got it. Thanks, guys.

Thanks.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: Thank you.

Operator: Next question, Brian Mullen. Please go ahead.

Hi. This is Allison R. Sturmohn for Brian Mullen. Thank you for taking the question. Just a quick one on the reservation system. Sounds like it's off to a strong start. At this point, are you able to quantify the impact? And if not, just anything new that you've learned with a few more months underway? Thank you.

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: It's hard to tease out the impact of any one initiative, and that's always been the case for us. The rollout of the reservation system coincided with the resuming of our IP collaborations. There's just a lot going on. We were really happy to see positive traffic. But as you can see with the numbers, our comps were more or less flat. The reservation system wasn't a massive traffic driver. I think it supported the quarter from being weaker, but it wasn't a massive, massive thing. But that also doesn't surprise us given that we really haven't meaningfully advertised it. It's basically just organic discovery from our existing rewards members. I'm really excited to see what numbers we can see from it once we advertise it to the broader audience. In terms of learnings, we've been able to identify some things that just make it easier to use both for our servers and for the guests. This should actually allow us incremental front-of-house savings by reducing front-of-house costs as we introduce these improvements.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: Thank you.

Operator: Next question, JP Wong with Wealth Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Thank you for taking the questions here. Maybe just to sort of focus around the guidance. One, if I think about kind of the comp expectations that you guys just mentioned for the upcoming year, can you give us a sense of how much maybe the upgraded reward system and the broader marketing of reservation are baked into that expectation? Is there any risk that those underperforming would harm comp expectations, or is that really just upside to what you guys have underwritten right now?

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: そう。まず先ほど言ったみたいに、言ったようにIPコラボレーションによる一定の効果、あとは後々データベースとかそういったところのノンリワードへの効果、これらである程度の一定の効果っていうのはあると思うんですけども、やっぱりマクロの環境によってそれらがオフセットされていくんで、結論から言うと数字で見た時にほぼフラットぐらいのところのコンプを我々は予想してます。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: In terms of the revenue guidance, really all the guidance that we shared, it does not hinge on the IP campaigns or the reservation system. Those would be gravy opportunities for upside. We know that it's really hard to proactively quantify the impact of new initiatives. We don't make that into our revenue estimates just for the sake of being prudent.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: あと、もう一つレベニューガイダンスの中で重要な要素はご存知の通りニューレストランケイデンスですね。これも我々として重要なのでしっかりプリペアドにマックスまで埋め立ててもらいましたけど、相当バックロードになっていきますんで、稼働が平均でいくと50%ですけど、やっぱり40%引き切るぐらいの多分ニューレストランの稼働になるというふうに予想してますんで、それも踏まえた数字で我々はアニュアルガイダンスを出しています。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: On the note of guidance, we think you might have raised an eyebrow when you saw our revenue range, combined with our commentary that we expect to be able to hit flat or slightly positive comps for the full year. This is really a reflection of the opening cadence. We touched on this a little bit in the prepared remarks, but that is really the bridge there.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: 50% of the whole year.

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: Right. So if typically you were to use a mid-year convention for revenue at 50%, we would recommend 40% or even less just looking at the cadence of openings.

Great. Thank you. Then just switching over to kind of the four-wall guide. Just kind of curious, obviously the environment hasn't gotten any better since July, but just curious if you could kind of just give us a sense of what's changed since we talked in July when it sounded like maybe there was some optimism about really ramping back towards that 20%.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: あの、20%のレストランレベルを上げていくこと、ちょっと聞いてくれるかな。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: With the 20%, you're referring to the RLOPM?

Yeah. The restaurant level.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: あ、20%のゴールっていうのは我々決して諦めたっていうわけではないんですけども、現実的に18.4%っていう25のフルイヤーの数字は、カルクスのインパクトがほとんどない状態での数字でした。けども実際、ジムのコメントであった通り、もうQ1からもう26、FY-26に関してはもうインパクトほとんどフルに近い状態で受けてます。当然そこから3.5%のプライシングってやるんですけど、これまでの事例から100%、フルで3.5%ベネフィットを受けることを期待してませんので、それらとあとその他のその他アザーコストの中での関税のインパクトで広告追加で上がってるものですとか、ユーティリティとかその辺とか、あと関税がさらにちょっと悪化する可能性もあります。そういったいろんなことを考えた時に18%っていうラインが今回妥当だというふうに判断しました。なんで7月からに比べたらQ1、この9月、10月でコックスのインパクトが予想したよりも大きく出てるっていうところがちょっとトーンが変わったっていう理由となります。ちょっと長くなったけどごめんなさい。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: JP, to answer your question first, really the major difference between when we last met in July and the discussion today would be just the expectations for COGS have changed. As Jeff had mentioned in the prepared remarks, the impact to tariffs in Q4 were 70 basis points. On a four-year basis, that impact was not very much. We had 18.4%. But looking to this year, we have the full impact, all quarters instead of just Q4. We know that we took price and we'll benefit from that, but you typically only get about half of flow-through. As we look to other costs, we've seen meaningfully elevated utility costs and tariffs impacting non-COG items as well. With all those in mind and all those pressures in mind, we felt that 18% was the appropriate number for us to expect for fiscal 26.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: That being said.

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: Emphasis for fiscal 26, 20% remains the overall goal, and we hope to get back to that as soon as possible. Also keep in mind that with COGS of 28.6% this year and an expectation of 30% next year, that's 140 basis points. But our restaurant-level operating profit margin guidance is only 40 basis points lower than what we ran this year. So we're using.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: これはあのレバコ。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: Yeah. We're able to control the rest of the P&L.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: それは大きなところでは。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: Thank you guys for the color. Best of luck.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: Never mind. Sorry.

Operator: Next question, Tanya Anderson with William Blair. Please proceed.

Hi. Most of my questions have been answered. But just to follow up, you mentioned that there were some things that you noticed with the reservation system that you could do to improve it. I was wondering if you can give a little bit more detail on that. Second, on the IP collaborations, I mean, given that you're kind of building out this portfolio and you have a mix of, say, known collaborations and maybe some new or more experimental new collaborations, maybe experimental ways of doing the collaborations, I think you mentioned last quarter that might have more risk. How much control do you have over the exact timing and flow of all these collaborations per year, like during the year and throughout the year? I'm curious about that. Thanks.

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: In terms of the collaboration timing, we're generally at the mercy of the licensers. They typically have their own marketing schedule, which generally speaking, works in our favor because they want to partner with us when they're advertising something. But in terms of just having control over the timing, that's not really something that we can do. In terms of the reservation system, this is going to get pretty inside baseball. But in terms of guest-facing improvements, I think the most obvious one and the most meaningful one would be for guests to be able to pull their own reservation information. Right now, you get it in a text. If you've made a reservation a week ago, you're not going to be able to find that text. That's a pretty big headache, not just for the guests, but for the servers as well. I know because I was desperately trying to find people's reservation numbers when I was testing out the program, and it's just not fun. That's really one of the big things that I meant when I was talking about labor savings for front-of-house. The other is we're changing the way that servers can see parties. It doesn't really make a big difference from an operations perspective. But basically, the way that we were, the way that it was set up before, we were working it in a way that made it impossible to collect correct data. This shift will allow us to, for the first time, really get accurate data, and then we can make adjustments and decisions based off of that. I'm really excited for that. It's not very flashy, but it will make a big, big difference in terms of our planning for what we can do with the reservation system.

Operator: Next question, Todd Brooks with Benchmark StoneX. Please go ahead.

Hey, thanks for taking my questions. Jeff, can we talk about... I think you said mix was down 30 basis points last quarter. Obviously, the consumer weakened across the course of the quarter. I guess did mix weaken as well as far as side menu attach or beverage attach? And within that down mid-single-digit comp expectation for Q1, is there a deeper kind of drag on price mix versus what we saw in fiscal 4Q?

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: お返事、どうしようかな。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: えっと、まあ、チップのマネージがもっと激しく。だからがメインですね。

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: うん。客数も今、Q1に関しては基本的には先ほど言ったようにパフォーマンスは変わってないんですけどね、Q4とQ1。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: Todd, just to clarify, are you asking about what we're seeing differently between Q4 and Q1, or is this just a general question about mix?

I was just trying to tie it to what people are seeing with the consumer. Did mix slow during the course of Q4 to end up at down 30 basis points, but the consumer maybe tightened their wallets a little bit more and didn't attach the same way as the quarter went on? What's the price mix assumption within the down mid-single-digit guidance for the first quarter same store sales?

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: まあ、あの、逆にQ4と比べてQ1は変わってないんですが、もちろんQ4はQ3とかと比べた時にちょっとミックスが下がってるってことは事実なんですけども、基本的に我々ライトライフですとか2-in-6プレートで、あとはIPコラボレーションで、シルエットホールドを作ったりですとか、いろいろ上げる工夫をしてきたんですけども、やっぱり今のコンシューマーのお客さんのマネージするっていう環境の中ではなかなかその辺がうまくいってませんので、どちらかというと我々は新しい新商品で魅力的な商品、そういったものを含めて、お客さんをもっと使おうとするような形でやる施策をこれから取っていきたいと思います。ただ、少し時間がかかるんで、そのあたりが入ってくるのはQ3以降になるというふうに思ってます。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: We certainly have seen tech management. In Q4, we had a number of initiatives that were intended to drive improvement in mix, such as the light rice, the 25th plate, experimentation with the spending thresholds associated with giveaways. But just with this overall environment and the consumer not feeling as strong as they might have six months ago, those efforts, the timing's not right in terms of trying to drive mix. So really our focus is on traffic. This is how we've approached every economic downturn in the past. We know that people are going to control check. What we do want is just to make sure that they come in the door. We're working a lot on menu development. We've touched on this a little bit earlier, but we want people to be coming in because we have new great items that they want to try and then come back because they liked it so much. That's one of the things that we're excited for. We expect to start seeing the results of those efforts starting in Q3.

Great. Second question. I don't know if you guys have ever talked about your customer profile, but if you looked at performance across the quarter, did you see any big disparities by income cohort or age cohort or geographically that would be instructive to share with us?

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: 基本的にはその辺に関して、特にQ4に関して大きな変化が見られたことは特にないと思ってます。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: There have really been no meaningful changes in demographic patterns or behavior that we've seen, and so nothing to call out.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: ただ、やっぱりいろんなニュースで若年層の人のフリークエンシーが減らしてるっていうニュースになりますんで、やっぱりいくつかユニバーシティからしたら近いところあるんで、その辺のトレンドをしっかりモニターしていきたいなと思ってます。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: That being said, we're seeing a lot of reports about a weaker Gen Z consumer, and some of our best-performing restaurants rely on university or college traffic. So we're keeping a very close eye on those units.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: ですけど、今のところまだそこまで大きな変化は見られてない。

Ben, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and System Development, Kura Sushi USA: But we're not seeing anything that would cause concern for us at this point.

Great. And then, Ben, I'll give you a chance for the commercial here. I know typically you'll give us a forward look and a tease for some upcoming IP partnerships that you might want to share. I didn't know if, other than Kirby, if there was anything else you wanted to highlight coming in the next two or three partnerships.

Yeah. The next one that we have is Sanrio. We're working with a couple of characters from that Sanrio universe that we've deliberately chosen. I won't spoil it for the marketing team. I'll let them unwrap that present. But I'm really excited about that, not just because I think those characters are probably the strongest properties we could pick among the Sanrio stable, but also this is going to be a shorter period, a one-month campaign instead of a two-month campaign. So it's another opportunity for us to explore how these differences can affect the response that we see from our guests.

Okay. And then Kirby following that, was that the cadence of the first three that you talked about last quarter?

Kirby is actually the next one. We entered the year Demon Slayer. We're in One Piece now. We'll have Kirby coming up in December, January, and then February will be Sanrio.

Okay. Perfect. Thanks.

Thank you, Todd.

Jimmy Uba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kura Sushi USA: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

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