Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to today's Noodles & Company First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions].

As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce Noodles & Company's Chief Financial Officer, Michael Hynes. Please go ahead, sir.

Michael Hynes
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter 2026 earnings call. Here with me this afternoon is Joseph Christina, our Chief Executive Officer. I'd like to start by going over a few regulatory matters.

During the call, we may make forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of the company.

Any such items should be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act.

Such statements are only projections, and actual events or results could differ from those projections due to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those referred to in this afternoon's news release and the cautionary statement in the company's annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the SEC.

During the call, we will discuss non-GAAP measures, which we believe can be useful in evaluating the company's operating performance. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP.

A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in our first quarter 2026 earnings release.

To the extent the company provides guidance, it does so only on a non-GAAP basis and does not provide reconciliations of forward-looking non-GAAP