Frisch's Restaurants reported revenue of $52,016,000 during its fiscal 2015 second quarter ended December 16, 2014, a 5.7 percent increase over the $49,217,000 reported in the prior year's second quarter.
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Net earnings increased 4.9 percent in the second quarter to $2,464,000 ($0.48 diluted earnings per share (EPS)) up from $2,350,000 ($0.46 diluted EPS) in the comparable quarter last year.
Several factors contributed to the increase in net earnings. Increased operating income was driven by higher sales and lower pension costs, which were offset partly by higher administrative costs and the impairment in value of a parcel of real estate.
In addition, this year's net earnings for the second quarter benefitted from an effective tax rate of 23.7 percent, which was an improvement over last year's 26.3 percent rate.
Year-to-date revenue was $114,599,000 versus $110,453,000 in the prior year, a 3.8 percent increase, and year-to-date net earnings grew 18.7 percent to $5,087,000 ($0.99 diluted EPS) from $4,286,6000 ($0.84 diluted EPS) in the prior year.
In the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended December 16, 2014, the company discloses a charge to administrative expense of $232,000 to correct the understatement of gift card liabilities and overstatement of cash that had occurred in the current fiscal year.
Same store sales increased 4.8 percent in the second quarter of fiscal 2015 while customer counts increased 2.0 percent.
The restaurant operating margin in this year's second quarter was 13.3 percent, which compares with 11.8 percent in the prior year's second quarter, primarily as a result of higher sales, lower pension costs, and relatively fixed operating costs being spread over higher sales, offset partly by higher beef costs.
At the Corporate level, administrative expense increased 30.2 percent in second quarter 2015 over last year's second quarter, the result of the $232,000 charge to correct certain balance sheet accounts, higher fees for legal services, higher advertising costs and compensation accruals. ■