ZOES KITCHEN INC (ZOES) saw its loss narrow to $0.29 million, or $0.02 a share for the quarter ended Oct. 03, 2016. In the previous year period, the company reported a loss of $2.26 million, or $0.12 a share. On the other hand, adjusted net income for the quarter stood at $0.72 million, or $0.04 a share compared with $0.94 million or $0.05 a share, a year ago. 

Revenue during the quarter grew 19.35 percent to $67.30 million from $56.38 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter contracted 29 basis points over the previous year period to 40.14 percent. Total expenses were 96.95 percent of quarterly revenues, down from 97.19 percent for the same period last year. This has led to an improvement of 24 basis points in operating margin to 3.05 percent.

Operating income for the quarter was $2.05 million, compared with $1.58 million in the previous year period.

However, the adjusted EBITDA for the quarter stood at $6.63 million compared with $6.15 million in the prior year period. At the same time, adjusted EBITDA margin contracted 105 basis points in the quarter to 9.86 percent from 10.91 percent in the last year period.

Kevin Miles, president and chief executive officer of Zoës Kitchen, stated, "We are pleased to report third quarter results that included our 27th consecutive quarter of positive same store sales growth, while successfully lapping a two-year stacked same store sales comparison over 10%. We opened 11 new Zoës Kitchen restaurants during the quarter, and now have more than 200 locations, doubling our store count in the last three years."

Zoes Kitchen Inc projects revenue to be in the range of $276 million to $277 million for financial year 2016.