Q1 2007 Sbarro Earnings Conference Call - Final.

Original Source: FD (FAIR DISCLOSURE) WIRE

OPERATOR: Welcome to the Sbarro, Inc. first quarter earnings call. In this call Management may make forward-looking statements that involve estimates, assumptions, expectations, or projections. These forward-looking statements may include statements related to future financial operating results and in some cases can be identified by the use of forward-looking terms, such as "will, expect, anticipate," and similar terms. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, and the Company cautions investors that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any such forward-looking statements.

These factors and other risks and uncertainties are described in more detail in the Company's 10-Q for the quarterly period ending April 1st, 2007 as filed with the SEC on May 16th, 2007, as well as in our registration statement on Form S-4.

Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date of this earnings call. The Company does not undertake to update any of these statements in light of new information or future events.

I'd like to now pass the call to Peter Beaudrault, Chief Executive Officer of Sbarro, Inc.

PETER BEAUDRAULT, COB AND CEO AND PRESIDENT, SBARRO, INC.: Good morning. Joining me on today's call is Tony Missano, President of Business Development, and Tony Puglisi, our Chief Financial Officer. It's my pleasure to welcome you to our first conference call since the completion of our transaction with MidOcean on January 31, 2007. As we indicated on our Road Show, we plan on regular conference calls each quarter, as well as a press release informing of our quarterly earnings and any other events which might be important for you to know.

We'll be talking to you today about our business results for the first quarter of 2007. Overall, our results for the quarter were good. We posted comp store sales growth of 2.7% for our Company owned restaurants, 3.4% for our domestic franchise restaurants, and 7% for our international franchise restaurants.

Our EBITDA calculated in accordance with the bank agreement for the comparable 13-week period increased from $9.7 million in 2006 to $9.9 million in 2007. We opened two Company restaurants and 15 franchise restaurants in the quarter and, moreover, increased our franchise pipeline to approximately 900 restaurants.

Tony Missano will talk to you further about business development, however, I am pleased with the progress made during our first quarter as our Team continued to focus on growth, while managing numerous distractions, including our merger with MidOcean.

At this point, I'd like to turn the call over to Tony Missano, who will comment on Sbarro's Business Development initiatives. Tony.

TONY MISSANO, PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, SBARRO, INC.: Thank you, Pete. Good morning to all of you.

We had an active quarter in Business Development initiatives. We did open two restaurants and transferred one from franchised during the first quarter, and successfully completed the …