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MTY Food Group Inc
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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the MTY Food Group Inc. Q3 2020 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Before turning the meeting over to management, please be advised that this conference call accompanies statements that are forward-looking and subject a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded on Friday, October 9, 2020. I would like to turn the call over to your speaker today, Eric Lefebvre, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining me for MTY's Third Quarter 2020 Conference Call. The press release and the MD&A with complete financial statements and related notes were issued earlier this morning and are also available on our website and on SEDAR. [Foreign Language] Please be aware that we will refer to certain indicators that are non-IFRS measures. You can refer to our MD&A for more details. I also remind you that all figures expressed on today's call are in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise stated. First off, I want to take the opportunity to thank our restaurant staff, who works tirelessly to make the customer experience as good as it can be, given the unusual circumstances and additional procedures and protective equipment that are required. Thank you to our office staff, who have been shorthanded for most of the quarter, who have found creative solutions to complex and volatile problems and will help our franchisees make the best of the current situation. Your engagement is making a difference. I also want to thank our franchisees, many of whom are fighting against significant headwinds and making a tremendous effort to restore the success of their business. And then last, I want to thank everyone who is buying food from restaurants, whether they are MTY restaurants or competitors. Our industry, more than ever, needs the support of its customers. And we'll begin with a summary of our results. We are extremely pleased with our third quarter results given the current context and the challenges faced in the past few months. While our system sales were down year-over-year, many of our key financial performance metrics surpassed the third quarter of last year. This improvement was driven by several factors, such as our very strict discipline on controllable expenses, tight cash management and the strong performance of many of our concepts, including the 2 largest, Cold Stone Creamery and Papa Murphy's. In the quarter, we used the cash we generated to repay $38 million on our long-term debt and ended the quarter in a robust financial position. Turning to an overview of our network. We finished the quarter with 7,123 locations. We opened 45 locations and permanently closed 157 locations and 1 joint venture for a net store loss of 113. We started the third quarter with 1,470 temporarily closed locations. During the quarter, many locations reopened with a gradual lifting of restrictive public measures, which allowed restaurants within the network to slowly resume operations, although in many cases, at a reduced capacity. At the end of the quarter, 364 locations were still temporarily closed. System sales performance followed a similar pattern as restrictions were lifted, restaurants reopened and consumer confidence was gradually restored. As such, excluding the impact of acquisitions, the year-over-year system sales declined improved from 24% in June to 16% in July and August. If you remember, that follows declines of 67% and 48% in April and May. System sales for the quarter reached $897.5 million. The declines remain more material in Canada and international locations than in the U.S. mainly because of the higher proportion of mall and office power locations, which are 26%, 38% and 5%, respectively, for Canada, international and the U.S. Globally, our sales and mall locations were down 54% during the quarter, while office tower locations were down 86%. Mall and office tower locations represent 15% of MTY's locations at the end of the quarter. Locations that remain temporarily closed are mostly located in mall locations, office towers and nontraditional locations such as airports, gyms and universities. In total, approximately 52,900 business days were lost during the quarter as a result of these temporary closures, representing lost sales in excess of $80 million. Evolving government-imposed restrictions and public authorities response to COVID-19 continues to impact MTY. For example, on October 1, the government of Quebec imposed new restrictions that caused many of our restaurants to close their dining and patios and go back to take out and delivery operations only. Of note, the Quebec market currently represents 18.5% and of total third quarter network sales, half of which came from casual dining restaurants. At the same time, we're seeing other jurisdictions, lifting restrictions with obvious favorable impacts on our business. Therefore, ongoing government-imposed restrictions will continue to impact the health of our network. As a result, over the coming months, the number of impacted locations will continue to fluctuate in response to the rapidly changing environment, with a corresponding effect on consumer traffic, volumes and revenue. As we mentioned last quarter, considering the circumstances, we will not be reporting same-store sales. We believe that a combination of store closures, days of business loss and system sales are more reliable data points for the time being. I will now turn it over to Renée, who will discuss MTY's financial results.
Thank you, Eric. Good morning, everyone. Before I comment on the results, I would like to remind you that we implemented our first quarter -- in our first quarter, the new IFRS 16 accounting standards related to leases. We have selected not to restate comparative figures as permitted under the specific transitional provisions in the standard. You can see a more detailed description of the impact of the new standard in our financial statements and MD&A. I invite you to read those carefully as they have a material impact on how the business is presented. Revenues for the quarter decreased 16.1% from $161.2 to $135.4 million, mainly because of the impact of the pandemic. The decrease mostly came from our recurring revenue streams, which declined in line with our system sales decline of 17%. On a positive note, 2 of our flagship brands, Papa Murphy's and Cold Stone Creamery, represented 48% of total sales year-to-date. They performed very well in the quarter. In addition, retail operations benefited from higher consumer spending in grocery stores, the launch of new products and the expansion into new provinces, which generated 20% higher revenues during the quarter when compared to prior year. It's also important to note that on a sequential basis, revenues improved from a 22% decline in the second quarter as our manufacturing and distribution businesses were impacted by the closure of our restaurants. Despite the decline in revenues, adjusted EBITDA increased 4% from $41.8 million last year to $43.4 million. Excluding the impact of IFRS 16, adjusted EBITDA would have been stable at $41.7 million, which is an exceptional performance in our current environment. While a decrease in recurring revenue streams brought on by the pandemic put pressure on profitability, aggressive cost control measures mitigated this negative impact. During the quarter, the company continues to preserve capital as a result of the temporary layoffs made in Q2. Our Canadian segment also benefited from the Canada emergency wage subsidy, which contributed $2.6 million to EBITDA. We also reduced travel and meal costs by restricting travel to a minimum and reduced office expenses resulting mainly from our work-from-home policy. With customers moving to online orders and food delivery, we also saw a significant decrease in our gift card program costs as customers are shifting to online electronic gift cards. Net income attributable to shareholders was $22.9 million or $0.93 per share for the third quarter of 2020 compared to a net income of $22.9 million or $0.91 per share for the same period last year. Net income remain stable due to the reduction in operating expenditures in response to the pandemic, coupled with the contribution from Papa Murphy's and Cold Stone Creamery mentioned previously. Turning now to liquidity and capital resources. In the third quarter, MTY generated cash flow from operating activities of $38.6 million or $1.56 per diluted share, up 42% compared to $27.2 million or $1.08 per share per diluted share for the same period last year. The increase was mainly driven by favorable variances in EBITDA, reduction in income taxes and interest paid and by strict working capital management. In turn, we generated free cash flow of $37.1 million in the third quarter, up 39% from $26.7 million for the same period last year. As announced last quarter, we used the cash we generated to pay down debt and did not pay a dividend or buy back shares. During the quarter, we made repayments of $38 million on our long-term debt and remain well within our credit agreement ratios. We ended the quarter in a healthy financial position with $43.8 million of cash on hand and over $230 million available on our credit facilities, and plan to continue to repay our debt in the fourth quarter, where possible. I'll turn it back to Eric for the conclusion.
Thank you, Renée. For the next quarter, we will continue to monitor the impacts of the pandemic, adjust our operations to these volatile market conditions to help our franchisees access government programs that are available to them, and aggressively manage our expenses levels and liquidity. Our primary focus is to reopen restaurants, help our franchisees succeed to the best of our ability and provide customers with a safe and friendly environment while optimizing the profitability of our restaurants in these challenging times. At this stage, we are confident that we will be able to regain and retain customer confidence in our brands and restore the positive momentum, similar to what was achieved in the first quarter of 2020. However, this could take several quarters. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and we'll adapt our measures as needed going forward. MTY remains in a solid financial position to execute its recovery plan and pursue its growth strategy when the time is right. I would like to thank our employees, customers and suppliers for their support during these unprecedented times. With that, I thank you for your time, and we will now open the lines for questions. Operator?
[Operator Instructions] And your first question comes from the line of Nick Corcoran with Acumen Capital.
Can you maybe give a little bit more color around how Cold Stone and Papa Murphy's performed both in the quarter and subsequent to quarter end?
Nick, yes. While Cold Stone performed extremely well during the quarter, clearly, it does benefit from people being at home a little bit more. So very good performance. The performance of September was also really good for Cold Stone. So there's a good trend there, continuing for Cold Stone. I mean, we can't take it for granted how long it's going to last. And obviously we're getting into the seasonal low for this brand. But the fact that we're performing well is still extremely positive. For Papa Murphy's, it's the same thing. We had a very good summer. And the performance in September was also good. So we're continuing the same trend. Nothing much has changed in the environment in the U.S. in the past few months. So we have our ups and downs, but we're doing a lot to try to maintain that momentum and capitalize on it so that -- especially for Papa Murphy's as we're now entering the strong season for this brand. We're hoping that we're going to be able to maintain that momentum. So there's no guarantee, and we don't know what's in the future or to COVID and with everything else that's going on. But we're trying hard to capitalize on the momentum we gained in the summer.
Great. Then switching gears to be back with a second wave and government restrictions in the province. How do you see your brands being positioned for take out and delivery?
Most of our brands are take out and delivery in their DNA. So I mean obviously we have now, we're a little bit more in casual dining, even though it's not a very large portion of our portfolio. But for the rest, most of our brands are takeout and delivery brands and operations, and they're very nature. You look at our brands. We just talked about Cold Stone and Papa Murphy's, those are takeout brands. You look at our sushi brands, they're takeout brands. You look at our Thai brands and obviously we're suffering a little bit more in malls. But for whatever is on the street, it is a takeout brand. And you look at our larger brands, and for the most part, they are takeout and delivery brands. So obviously there are adjustments we need to make when the pandemic hits. And we've now had 7 months to prepare for these things. So I'm not saying we're not going to have an impact if there's a very massive second wave and there's more restrictions, but I think we're better prepared now than we were in March when everything unfolded really fast.
Great. Then the last question for me, with 2 quarters of really strong cash flow generation, what would you need to see to reinstate either the dividend or the NCIB?
Yes. We need to remain prudent. We don't know what's in the future. I wish I had a very reliable crystal ball but I don't. So we had the discussion with the Board yesterday as to whether we should reinstate the dividend or not. I don't think we're at that point yet. I don't think we're out of the woods with this pandemic. So we decided to be prudent and allocate 100% of our funds to our long-term debt, so that we can protect our balance sheet. And if everything goes well, we're going to have more dry powder for more acquisitions down the road. And if there's a second wave, at least, we're going to have protected resources we had and made sure that the company was robust. So prudence, I think, is still the main element for us. So for the fourth quarter, our capital allocation strategy is going 100% against our debt. And it's going to be the same as the second and third quarter, basically.
And your next question comes from the line of Sabahat Khan with RBC Capital Markets.
All right. Just on the $10 million of cost savings that called out in the quarter. Can you maybe talk about where those were? And I'm trying to get an understanding of if those can continue into subsequent quarters. It seems like most of your network is open now, so those could be run rate but I just want to get more color on what they are.
Yes. There's a large portion of it that's coming from salaries. As you know, we had to furlough a lot of people. So a lot of people sacrificed for the company and for the future of MTY. Starting in September, we had to make a decision on everyone, and either we called them back or we terminated people. So in all, I think we terminated permanently about 125 people. So those will be permanent savings, but the rest of the people were all called back in September or before. So there's a portion of it. There's a portion of these expenses that are going to come back. And hopefully, it's going to go along with higher sales as well so that we can afford to pay for these additional expenses. But there is a large portion of our expenses also that I think we've learned new ways of doing things during the pandemic. We -- these events force you to take a step back and reassess the way you do things and reassess the way you want to look at things. So there's a good portion of it that's going to be a permanent saving. So not saying all of it can be permanent but there's a portion of it that will be. But definitely, in terms of whatever wages we saved, some of it will not be permanent. And as we disclosed in our notes and as Renée mentioned during her allocution script, she mentioned the amount of wage subsidies we got. So that obviously is not something that's permanent as our revenues will go up. The wage subsidy will move phase out, and you'll see that one disappear at some point, hopefully.
Great. And then can you maybe provide an update on the sort of the royalty collection? Where we are on that? I know you had an accelerated royalty payment option for your franchisees. Can you just talk about how the royalty collection is going across your network?
Yes. Well, you know what, it's going pretty well, all things considered. Obviously if you look at our notes, you'll see that we made larger allowances for collection problems, for collection losses. So we do have more provisions than we had in the past, and we do expect that there's going to be more franchisees that might not be able to pay. But all things considered, it's doing pretty well. The deferred amounts are being collected at the moment. For the most part, our franchisees are understanding that this is our bread and butter, and we need to collect these royalties. Obviously whenever we have more restrictions, it causes more challenges for us to collect. But all in all, considering everything, we're pretty satisfied with where we're sitting now.
All right. And then just last one for me, could you provide a bit of color on sort of the takeout and delivery during Q3 and then where those trends are? What you're seeing through your own app, perhaps, what you're seeing with aggregators, sort of where the network is on -- percent on some of those platforms? Or percent of sales?
Yes. Well, I'm not going to give you a full network percentage because it's so the number of concepts we have, it would necessarily be a very good data point for you, but there has been an increase, for sure, in the past few months. We're seeing some customers phasing out of delivery and going more in the takeout options, which tend to -- they tend to be cheaper for the customer. They're better for us as well. So we're -- for sure, trying to push every channel we have to sell to our customers. If we had a chance to favor takeout over delivery, I think it's cheaper for everyone. The customer experience tends to be more controllable for us as well. But there has been an increase. We are investing in these tools. We are spending considerable amount of time trying to maximize every channel. We have -- we are spending some important amounts of money also into promoting these channels and making sure that our franchisees are maximizing it and that we are maximizing it. Our websites are being challenged as well in terms of how functional they are and how seamless the experience can be. So we are rebuilding a few of our websites. And obviously I think this is a trend that's here to stay. So these investments are going to be important now, and they are going to be important in the future as well.
And your next question comes from the line of Vishal Shreedhar with National Bank.
Sorry Vishal, I can't hear you.
[indiscernible].
Sorry. Vishal, I can't hear the questions.
And that's an inflation [indiscernible] that have contributed to [indiscernible].
Operator, can we move to the next person, please?
And your next question comes from the line of Michael Glen with Raymond James.
Eric, just hoping that you can provide some insights into how your franchisees in Canada, are they -- is there an active participation in the CECRA indices programs and what kind of benefits they're getting from that participation?
Yes. Well, for sure, the wage subsidy is a key program in making the industry survive and not only our industry, but many other industries. It's also a key program for our suppliers, for our distributors, for everyone that is involved around -- here and around restaurants. So the fact that this program was extended well into 2021 is certainly a key attribute for everyone, including MTY. So we're really happy with that. And I have to assume that all our franchisees that are eligible have participated. We did provide a lot of information to them to try to guide them on how this was going to work and how to access the program. In terms of CECRA, wherever the franchisees are eligible for it, and as you know, the criteria are pretty strict there, and it does exclude a number of our franchisees. But wherever it's applicable, I would say that the vast, vast majority of our franchisees have had access to it and take the benefit from it. So our landlords are, for the most part, understanding. They see that our industry is in trouble. It's not only MTY stores that are facing challenges. It's all of the restaurant industry. If you look at the major urban areas that are pretty much deserted now, you look at the mall food courts, the office towers. There's a lot less business than there was. So we thought CECRA, I don't think any restaurant can really survive. So the landlords are understanding. They've been amazing to work with for the vast majority of them. So we're pretty happy with where we stand now. Now that leaves all the restaurants that did not qualify for CECRA, and we're working diligently with our landlords to try to find ways to make it a little bit more palatable financially for our franchisees and for MTY. But I would say that the relationship with the landlord has been very, very positive. And there's a few exceptions obviously and mainly with the smaller landlords that maybe can't afford to give us any abatement or any form of assistance. But for the vast majority of landlords, it's been extremely positive.
And with CECRA, I don't know if we've seen all of the details, that program takes on a bit of a new form post October 1. Is that a bigger benefit to your franchisees under the new rules?
We're still waiting for the rules for this one. I don't think, unless I missed something, I don't think anything has really been disclosed yet. So we know something might be coming, although it hasn't been 100% confirmed yet. So we're still waiting for that. We do have the details of the provincial program for Quebec, and we're satisfied with that program. The mechanics are a little bit complicated. But all in all, it's a good program. But as far as the federal government is concerned, we're still waiting for details.
Okay. And then where would your -- where do you think your leverage would need to be before the company would start to look at some M&A options?
I don't think it's related to leverage, really, at this point. I think it's more related to having better visibility on where the world is going. So I think in terms of leverage, we're at a point now that it's getting a little bit more comfortable. So I think financially, if everything stayed equal, we'd probably be looking at something, but we don't know what tomorrow holds. And if there is more problems coming our way, starting next week or next month, I think we need to be prudent. So we're not closing the door on anything. And if there is an opportunity that comes our way that we really need to look at, than we will. But for the moment, prudence is -- for the next quarter is going to be the way to go for us.
And then how would you characterize the opportunity set for M&A right now?
Well, there's a lot of financial distress in our industry. So we're seeing a lot of distressed concepts come our way, especially in the U.S. where there has been probably more distressed in Canada, even though we tend to do better in the U.S., not everyone does. So -- but I expect the sellers market to get full gear very soon. So we probably see some good concepts change hands very soon and we'll be ready. I mean we're not closing the door on anything. And if the process starts today, it's not going to end in a month from now, it would go into 2021. So we'd probably invest some time in it. But I think the good quality sellers at the moment are not on the market. The good quality sellers will come when it's a better market for them to sell without having to discount their assets.
And your next question comes from the line of George Doumet with Scotiabank.
Eric, last conference call, you mentioned that we'll know more of the impact of the pandemic on store closures at the end of Q3. So here we are. Can you maybe give us an update on that?
Yes. Well, I think you've seen the number of restaurants we have that are still closed at the moment. So obviously we do have better visibility. We don't have full visibility because we don't know if there's going to be a second wave or how hard it's going to be. We know we're better prepared. We know we understand how this all works better now. The assistance programs are in place. So we do have better visibility. You see our store quarters are not necessarily much higher than normal. And yes -- so among the stores that are still closed, some of them just reclosed last week with the government of Quebec announcing new restrictions. So we had a few casual dining restaurants that closed. And the other ones for the most part, they're still closes because they just don't have any business, whether they're in airports and fitness facilities or in office towers. There's just no reason for them to open. So we are starting to get better visibility. And I know your next question is going to be how many of those are going to close, and I'm not going to answer that question because we don't give any guidance.
Okay. I wasn't going to ask that, but sure. Maybe on the Quebec locations that you mentioned earlier, the lockdown. Can you talk a little bit about what you think the expected sales for those stores would be maybe versus the last lockdown?
Well, the sales will be better. There's no question. Now are they going to be sufficient? No. Absolutely not, for the casual dining restaurants. It's -- there's going to be a few restaurants that will do better, depending on the customers, around the restaurant and different attributes of each restaurant and franchisees, but the sales are not sufficient to make ends meet for sure. And that's a good thing. We have the provincial program that was announced to help us with the fixed costs. So that's already a big help, but we're waiting for the federal government to announce something on the rest of the business. But yes, it's -- we just don't know how long it's going to last. For now, it's until October 28. Is it going to be extended or not? We don't know. We can all guess, but at this point, it's all speculation. But yes, sales are going to be better than the first time around, but they're still not sufficient to make a restaurant, make a profit. So we need these assistance programs.
Okay. I just wanted to follow-up on an earlier question on the royalty abatement program. Have you determined the deferral period? Can you maybe share some color on who hasn't paid the royalty back by banner or made by geography or by type of location?
Well, everyone is repaying the royalties at the moment. So all the concepts are repaying. We did have programs for repayment with some brands' repayment over 6 months and some other over 12 months. We started collecting in September, the first week of September. So that's all it is for now. There's -- we try to make it as simple as possible. We try to make it as small as possible for the franchisees on a weekly basis so they don't have to face large repayments of royalties on top of everything else they need to pay. So that's why we chose to -- for most of our franchisees, it's between 6 and 12 months on repayments, and it breaks it down into smaller amounts.
Okay. Eric, I think you gave some color on Papa Murphy's. I think you said you the concept accounted for $15 million year-over-year growth in EBITDA for the first 9 months. Would you have that number just for this quarter?
I -- well, no, I don't. I don't.
Okay. Okay. And just one last one, just to clarify, maybe for Renée or for yourself. I know I saw $2.6 million of waste subsidies in the quarter. Is there anything else like in terms of government aid, be it like any other item or maybe talk deferral or anything they received -- you also received this quarter?
Yes. There's no other subsidies. So that's the only one we got. And it's a good number of -- it's a good number. So it's material for us, and we really appreciate it. In terms of other government programs, we did have a deferral and payment of tax installments in Canada to September 30. So those were paid in September. So that's more or less it. There's nothing else out there other than that.
And your next question comes from the line of Derek Lessard with TDSR.
I guess, congratulations, Eric on your team. It's a very -- it's a difficult environment out there. Maybe if I can just get -- you did highlight that you wanted to continue the momentum of Papa Murphy's into Q4. Just wondering if you could highlight some of the initiatives that you've got on the go, whether from a marketing standpoint or promo standpoint.
Yes. There's a lot going on at Papa Murphy's and I'm not going to tell you all what we're doing because we have a lot of region-specific initiatives also. So we -- I'm going to bore you to death for 2 hours, but we do have a few major initiatives. We have the one now that's actually a lot of fun, is trade your frozen pizza. So we're asking people to go in their freezer and dig out old frozen pizzas that they have and trade them for Papa Murphy's pizza. That's a lot of fun. Actually, if you can follow it on Twitter, there's people that find a 5-year past due frozen pizzas in their freezers, and they -- it's created a good buzz on social media. We also have detailed baking. So we're associating with the football season, the NFL football season. Like this weekend, we're going into a football stadium, and we're going for the party in the parking lot, and we're calling it Tail-Bake. So it's -- we're making fun with these things. So we have a number of these initiatives that are going on, some more major, some smaller. And we've also reshuffled the way we do marketing and the way we approach our customers. Obviously the old medias are not as relevant as before. So we're adjusting that, and there's going to be more changes coming. But I'm really proud of everything we're doing in terms of marketing, the way we've started to ship around is quite impressive. So stay tuned because there's a lot more to come. But I think we have a lot of good things going now to make the brand relevant again. Because one of the things we noticed when we acquired it just over a year ago, as everybody loved the brand, but nobody goes. So I talked to my Uber drivers, to my cab drivers, they all said, "Yes. We love Papa Murphy's." And when I asked them, when was the last time you went, they said, "Well, maybe 10 years ago." So that's not good enough for us. So we're trying to make the brand relevant. We're trying to make the brand fun, younger, also to attract a different crowd, and it seems to be working at the moment.
Sounds all promising. I wonder, do you have any metrics on how you're performing, I guess, relative to fresh pizza QSRs?
Yes. Well, we -- we're kind of in between the frozen and the fresh. So we do compare to other players in the fresh pizza, but we also compare to whatever is going on with frozen. So I'm not going to start putting numbers out there to compare against one or against the other, but I think we're faring pretty well.
Okay. And that's fair. Maybe a couple more questions. I guess, you mentioned in your remarks that Papa Murphy's and Cold Stone were like almost 50% of revenues. And obviously the majority of the U.S. sales and royalty. So I guess if your U.S. royalty was down overall, it was down, I think, $2 million year-over-year. Does that mean Cold Stone was comping negatively, especially if you take into consideration like how strong the pizza environment has been?
No. Cold Stone was comping positive. Domestic U.S. was comping very strong. Internationally, it was a little bit more challenging. We're in different jurisdictions internationally, where we're located in malls and in major urban centers. So international was a little bit more difficult for Cold Stone, but domestically, extremely positive and overall positive. So no, but we do have concepts. For example, in the U.S., that are major concepts for us that are predominantly in California, where restrictions haven't been lifted. They've been sort of lifted for a few weeks, and then they were put back in place. So these concepts that are predominantly California are struggling a little bit more. We also have our New York City and basically all of New England, that's a little bit more difficult. So we do have concepts that are in pockets, that are in these areas that are more difficult, and we also have sweetFrog. That's another concept that's -- especially in the summer, it's an important one for us. It's a self-serve type of concept, which is a problem for COVID, and we're not allowed to operate normally. And it does take away a lot of the attractiveness of the brand to consumers. So this brand is also down for the best season for this brand. So all in all in the U.S., Cold Stone, Papa Murphy's comping positive and very strong. But some other concepts are a little bit more challenged.
Okay. That's -- I mean, that's great color, Eric. Just wondering maybe if you can drill down a little bit more in California. What would be your top concepts there?
Well, Baja Fresh is one of them, The Counter is another one. Those 2 concepts are more impacted by restrictions, government restrictions than others. So those are 2 of the main ones that are being affected.
Okay. Okay. And one last one for me. Great, great job on controlling your expenses, and you did get a $2.6 million benefit from the wage subsidy. Just wondering how -- if I'm looking at your financials properly, it says that you paid $7.7 million or so in cost of goods sold and rent, but you have 95% of your locations open. I was just wondering if you could help me tie those 2 together.
So you're questioning why the COGS are so low? Or why they're so high?
Why they're so low. I mean if I look at year-over-year, they were $22.8 million last year and then $7.7 million this quarter.
Yes. There's a few things in there. You look at the construction of restaurants, for example, has gone down quite massively. As you might expect, people are a little bit slower to invest and build new restaurants at the moment. So those are an important component of these cost of goods sold. We also sold a large number of Papa Murphy's corporate locations over the last few quarters. And obviously that reduces our rent and our cost of goods sold. And then you also have to look at our distribution centers, which are serving some of our brands, including one that's in the casual dining space, where sales were more impacted. So there's a few elements there. I don't think it's unusually low considering everything that's going on and the components are in there, so yes. I think it's more in line. And if you see our revenues go up, this is a line that's also going to go up.
Our next question comes from the line of Dimitry with Veritas.
Eric, could you please let us know the percentage of digital sales as a percentage of system sales or give us some rough indication of the magnitude of digital sales.
Yes. This is not a metric we publish, Dimitry, and I apologize for that. Because of the number of brands we have in a number of jurisdictions, I don't think it would be necessarily a very relevant metric if we published it. We do have a few brands that are performing, that are selling a lot more digitally. If you look at the, for example, Papa Murphy's, our online orders are very strong, and we're trying to push our customers towards online orders. You look at some of our Mexican brands also where online orders are very strong. And you have a few of the other concepts that are stronger. And some of them are just not as relevant for online sales and for delivery so they're lower. So all in all, it's not a metric that we publish, but I can confirm we do have some brands that are performing very well and some brands that have opportunities there.
Okay. And just to clarify the meaning of the word, strong. Is there a way to gauge what that is?
How do you want me to define it?
Well, let's say, for Papa Murphy's and for some of the Mexican brands that you mentioned, if you have some kind of -- what percentage of system sales are coming through digital for those brands?
Yes. I'll give you only one. If you look at Papa Murphy's, for example, we're between 25% and 30%. It goes up and down depending on promotions, depending on marketing and everything and depending on the day of the week. But typically, it's going to be between 25% and 30%.
Right. Appreciate it. The other question while we are at Papa Murphy's, I wonder if you could perhaps quantify for us Papa Murphy's as well as Cold Stone's year-over-year system sales growth in the quarter.
No. We don't give brand-specific information for the sales growth for all the brands. All I can tell you is that both of them are performing very well and they're up versus last year. But we're not going to quantify the exact performance of each brand.
Got it. Okay, good. All right. The other question is just on the cash flow statement. There was an increase in provision paid of $7 million this quarter. Is it related to working capital management in the prior quarter? Just trying to understand how to think about the cash flows related to payment of provisions going forward.
Yes. That's a good question. You've been studying the statements pretty hard in a short amount of time. So we had the provisions, we have 2 major lawsuits that were settled during the quarter. Both of them were Papa Murphy's pre-existing lawsuits. So they'll be dated from before the acquisition, and those were settled during the quarter. So that accounts for the -- pretty much the entire amount of the provisions that we paid out.
I see. Okay. And let me see here if there was something else. So a lot of my questions were addressed, by the way. Do you anticipate any major assistance to franchisees in foreseeable future that might require MTY to provide either loans or additional royalty release?
Well, we're not looking at anything at the moment. It doesn't mean nothing will be required. At the moment, I think in the U.S. generally, our franchise community is doing well, and there are exceptions. So we're managing that on a case-by-case basis. In Canada, the only province that's really reinstated restrictions is Quebec, and there was a good program offered by the provincial government. And as I mentioned, we're waiting for the federal government to come up with something. And then we're going to have to make decisions. If the programs are sufficient, maybe MTY won't have to do anything. But there's a possibility at some point that if the restrictions last longer, that we might have to help our franchisees now. That being said, we're not a bank. So we don't lend the money to people. There are institutions that are specialized in that. So if we do something, it's going to be for royalties. But at the moment, there's nothing in the cards.
Okay. And in terms of the locations that are receiving rent relief right now, especially given the fact that you are on the head list for some of them. How do you think about potential loss exposure to those for franchisees that might potentially fail?
Yes. It's a very valid possibility, and there have been, unfortunately, some casualties already, where we've had to face the situation. So we have many opportunities when these things come and we can refranchise the location, we can operate the location corporately. We try to turn it around or we can try to find a way to exit the lease with our landlord. And depending on each situation, it's something that we need to handle case-by-case, but we did take more provisions this quarter and last quarter to take these things into account. So if you look at the amount of provisions, we took 4 bad debts and 4 collection problems, they're a lot more material than they were in the past just for that reason because there's a possibility that we're going to have to pay. And if we do, then we're prepared for it.
And I guess, how easy it is to exit from a head list in situations like that? I understand probably depends on your individual negotiations with specific landlords. But in general, how should we think about your ability to exit the lease in situations where stores are underperforming?
It's never easy. It's never easy. The first thing that's not easy is to accept the fact that our franchisee is failed. And it's -- we like the franchisees to succeed. We don't like them to fail. So we need to accept that first part. And then depending on the location, on the landlord and on quality of the location, if the landlord has a lineup of tenants for the space, sometimes it's a little easier to get out of the lease. But if it's an area that's not as popular or that's a bit more difficult for them to find tenants, then it's going to be a difficult discussion with the landlord. So again, it's really case-by-case. And it's not about one given landlord or one given location. It's really depending on a set of facts that are related to each location that we need to take into account. But it's never easy to get out of a lease. It's a contract. And there's 2 parties, and landlords obviously they like to have their tenants pay the rent, and that's what they do for a living. So for us to take that away from them is not easy.
I understand. Do you have any comments about the general health of your franchisees? I know you have a lot of different brands. So it might be a bit hard, but if you give us some kind of general picture of how they are faring, maybe how many of them are relying on various forms of government assistance, be it on the rent side? Or on the payroll assistance programs? Any color on that?
Yes. Well, the health of our franchisees is very variable. And even if I told you for a concept that all our franchises are doing well, if you have a franchisee in that specific concept that's in a major urban area that's been deserted and they're struggling with that one location. And for our franchisee, the only location that matters is theirs because that's where they put their savings, and that's where they invest so much time and energy. So the health of our network in general, considering everything, I think, is good. But obviously we're facing challenges with a number of locations, with the number of franchisees. And yes, so it's not perfect for sure, given the circumstances. So we're trying to assist everyone to make the best of it, weather the storm and restore good profitability and good returns after the crisis. But when you have, for example, like in Quebec where they open up and then they lock back the dining rooms. It's a little bit more challenging financially, but also mentally on the franchisees. It's very draining when you're facing these situations that are out of your control and that are affecting your livelihood to such a material amount.
And there are no further questions at this time. I will turn the call back over to Eric for closing remarks.
Thank you again for joining us on this call. We look forward to speaking with you again on our next quarterly call.
This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.