Topic: Tom Cawley

Acoustic Ladyland pianist Tom Cawley's Curios took the Best Band prize at the BBC Jazz awards in July - but if he's the electronic engine room of Acoustic Ladyland, Cawley is a subtle acoustic pianist with Curios. He sounds more creatively ...

Peet's Coffee & Tea, Inc. (PEET) Q1 2008 Earnings Call Transcript May 01, 2008 5:00 pm ET. (Operator instructions) Now for opening remarks and introductions, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Tom Cawley. We strategically use our licensing and We Proudly Brew programs as part of our multi-channel strategy to develop the Peet's brand in key markets and as a means of accessing target markets in captive locations we could not serve any other way. For the full year, we expect gross margin to actually be slightly better than last year as we lap higher milk prices later in the year and we continue to see the benefit of improving operating efficiencies in our stores, particularly coffee, milk, and baked goods waste reduction from the new inventory management system we are now rolling out.. I think this quarter report is representative of what we'll be doing throughout the year and of what distinguishes our longer-term vision and strategy for Peet's. (Operator instructions) And first, we'll hear from David Tarantino from Robert Baird.. I think that the average store volume dropping obviously is as we bring in -- we've 31 new stores now and we still have 45% of our stores -- over 45% of our stores today are less than three years old. The only area where we are putting a little bit more that hits the G&A line is the marketing expending as we go into new markets does go up a little bit, which is what I explained was half of the G&A growth this quarter and that was mostly in new markets. So just to set a baseline, in the western U.S. where we've been for five-plus years now, in the most recent IRI reporting that we have, our dollar sales growth for the first quarter -- and this is out of grocery stores in the western United States -- is up 14% to 15% and we've been there for five years. So when we went into New England for example, we were fully into New England last year in the first quarter this time. Relatively speaking, obviously in the western United States where we've been for five years compared to the eastern -- and our brand was born here -- compared to the eastern United States where we've only been for a year, the average movement in any particular store is obviously significantly less in the eastern United States than it would be in the western United States, and by a factor of two or a little bit more. What he's referring to is that 45% of the Peet's stores at the end of the year were less than three years old. What I referred to is that I think if I were to take the end of the quarter, just the fact that we opened nine versus eight last year, we might be a little bit above 45% right now just from the opening timing so that that impact would be a little greater. If you weren't to add any stores, do you normally have as far as attrition, whether it's just them making their decision to leave Peet's or it doesn't fit the exact market if it's a lower end market or anything being -- behind my question I'm wondering if there's any change now that for instance, Starbucks is referring to their CPG group stand-alone and seems to be focusing on it a little bit; then you've got Dunkin getting into the grocery channel. In an iconic location in the middle of Manhattan, or if you put one in and just see how it goes and sort of help out the experience of ...

It's healthy to find two English bands sharing a double-bill at this Soho shrine but don't expect the expected. Post-punk outfits like these don't play the pretty notes or swing collectively hard, although in earlier days Curios' pianist-leader Tom ...