“We expect 2024 G&A as a percentage of system wide sales to be about 2.2%, which reflects elevated investments in technology, digital and global business services or GBS.”

In context

“And in IDL, we do not expect to see meaningful improvement until there is a resolution in the Middle East. We expect our net restaurant expansion in 2024 along with restaurants we opened in 2023 will contribute nearly 2% to system wide sales growth as we begin to accelerate our new unit development and make progress against our target of 50,000 restaurants by 2027. With expectations of moderating sales growth and ongoing inflationary headwinds, we expect our company operated margin percent will remain pressured in the near term and we expect the full year 2024 company operated margin percent will be relatively in line with 2023. Turning to G&A, the financial strength of our system enables us to invest in areas that will drive long term efficiencies for our people and for our stakeholders. We expect 2024 G&A as a percentage of system wide sales to be about 2.2%, which reflects elevated investments in technology, digital and global business services or GBS. Through these investments we'll look to run the business more efficiently over time, and ultimately free up more resource to continue to drive long-term growth. Despite headwinds throughout the P&L, we anticipate an operating margin of mid to high 40% in 2024, driven primarily by top-line growth and franchise margin performance. We're projecting interest expense this year to increase between 9% and 11% compared to 2023 due to higher average debt balances and interest rates and we expect our effective tax rate for the year to be between 20% and 22%. Transitioning to capital expenditures we plan to spend between $2.5 billion and $2.7 billion this year, more than half of which will be dedicated to new unit openings across our U.S. and IOM segments. Globally, we plan to open more than 2,100 r”