PAR Investor Letter 6.9.2020
PAR Investor Letter 6.9.2020
PAR Investor Letter 6.9.2020
I recently completed my first year as CEO of PAR and thought it would be helpful to write a letter
laying out the foundation for the decisions we’ve made as a Company this year and outline the path
we’re moving towards.
A little over a year ago, we were in a very different place. Our access to capital was limited, we lacked
rigor around capital allocation decisions, badly needed a strategic focus, were under shareholder
scrutiny, and were dealing with investigations for potential issues of our past. Our management team,
while committed and hardworking, lacked an aligned strategic plan. We struggled to make the sharp
right and left turns we needed, and instead chose a safe path with little conviction.
Since that time, we have gone through a deep restructuring, divested an asset, acquired two businesses,
completed two large fund raises, rebuilt the management team and, most importantly, emphatically
drove our culture in a new direction. We did this all while adding significant resources to our product
and pushing a culture of transparency and accountability with our customers.
Much of our journey this first year has been to align all PAR stakeholders to drive toward a common
and ambitious set of goals. To be clear, our goal is to become the world’s largest restaurant technology
business. With the COVID-19 outbreak, this goal is even more important as the restaurant industry
employs 10% of the American workforce. Every additional dollar of revenue or operational efficiency
we drive for restaurants, benefits our customers’ wallets and puts lifeblood into the U.S. economy.
Our team, capital, and focus are all aligned to becoming a software led organization. Even with the
challenges we currently face with the rest of the global restaurant community, we remain focused on
our strategy and ultimate objective. Our brand promise is to deliver the solutions that connect
people to the restaurants, meals and moments they love. Today our customers, the global
restaurant community, are on the front lines of this battle, trying to feed a community who is
frightened, uncertain and looking for comfort. Our customers are delivering the food and moments
our society desperately needs to keep moving forward. We at PAR want to hold true to our promise
and be a partner in delivering those meals.
As restaurants brace for slowing traffic, we are finding creative ways to support our customers with
new products as we adjust to our new reality. We expect off-premise dining, online ordering and
delivery to become mandates. Restaurants need to find ways to serve customers in this new
environment, while managing labor cost and their own supply chains. We are proactively working to
enable quick deployment of digital and off-premise ordering solutions and initiating aggressive
programs to offset the financial constraints our customers are feeling.
The impact of COVID-19 on our customers and our business is unprecedented and we are not
without effect; however, we believe PAR is well suited to grow during this uncertain time. Our cash
position is strong, and our customers include large enterprise restaurants who we believe will be able
to sustain during this time. More importantly though, the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the
dramatic need for digital investment by restaurants. The crisis has shown how powerful mobility,
delivery, and online ordering are for restaurants and highlights so much of what PAR can offer its
customers.
In closing
So much of success is driven by being in the right market at the right time, we believe we’ve focused
PAR into the right market. Said differently, our focus towards restaurant software at PAR is choosing
to fish in a very shallow pond with a very large net. While we believe Brink POS is a special product,
there is an industry tidal wave of fish flowing right into our little pond.
At PAR we like to think the sum of every decision we make is the return on our capital. Every dollar
spent and every minute used is earmarked to a future return, using a very high cost of capital. Our
business is immature; however, we have an enormous market in front of us and a product with ample
opportunity to expand. While M&A has done us well and we will continue to seek opportunities there,
our primary focus is building a rigorous and measurable management system that we can
layer capital allocation on top of. This system will ensure our ability to build repeatable playbooks
that reinforce a culture that builds and managers great software products.
With gratitude,
Savneet
Chief Executive Officer and President, PAR Technology Corporation
This letter contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, Section 27A of
the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not historical in nature,
but rather are predictive of our future operations, financial condition, business strategies and prospects, including expectations regarding anticipated financial
performance, customer and product opportunities, and assumptions as to future events. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by words such as
"anticipate," "believe," "belief," "continue," "could," "expect," "estimate," "intend," "may," "opportunity," "plan," "should," "will," "would," "will likely
result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties,
which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by forward-looking statements contained in this letter. Factors that
could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by forward-looking statements contained in this letter are described in PAR
Technology Corporation’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities law.