<SEC-DOCUMENT>0000852772-21-000028.txt : 20210323
<SEC-HEADER>0000852772-21-000028.hdr.sgml : 20210323
<ACCEPTANCE-DATETIME>20210222144927
<PRIVATE-TO-PUBLIC>
ACCESSION NUMBER:		0000852772-21-000028
CONFORMED SUBMISSION TYPE:	CORRESP
PUBLIC DOCUMENT COUNT:		1
FILED AS OF DATE:		20210222

FILER:

	COMPANY DATA:	
		COMPANY CONFORMED NAME:			DENNY'S Corp
		CENTRAL INDEX KEY:			0000852772
		STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION:	RETAIL-EATING PLACES [5812]
		IRS NUMBER:				133487402
		STATE OF INCORPORATION:			DE
		FISCAL YEAR END:			1230

	FILING VALUES:
		FORM TYPE:		CORRESP

	BUSINESS ADDRESS:	
		STREET 1:		203 EAST MAIN STREET
		CITY:			SPARTANBURG
		STATE:			SC
		ZIP:			29319
		BUSINESS PHONE:		8645978000

	MAIL ADDRESS:	
		STREET 1:		203 EAST MAIN STREET
		CITY:			SPARTANBURG
		STATE:			SC
		ZIP:			29319

	FORMER COMPANY:	
		FORMER CONFORMED NAME:	DENNYS CORP
		DATE OF NAME CHANGE:	20020801

	FORMER COMPANY:	
		FORMER CONFORMED NAME:	ADVANTICA RESTAURANT GROUP INC
		DATE OF NAME CHANGE:	19980107

	FORMER COMPANY:	
		FORMER CONFORMED NAME:	FLAGSTAR COMPANIES INC
		DATE OF NAME CHANGE:	19930722
</SEC-HEADER>
<DOCUMENT>
<TYPE>CORRESP
<SEQUENCE>1
<FILENAME>filename1.htm
<TEXT>
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<title>Document</title></head><body><div id="iba17b0d2c71349618c9f95ab5841bcfa_37"></div><div style="min-height:72pt;width:100%"><div><font><br></font></div></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">February 22, 2021</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">United States Securities and Exchange Commission</font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Division of Corporation Finance</font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Office of Trade &#38; Services</font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">100 F Street, N.E.</font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Washington, D.C., 20549</font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Attention&#58;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Ta Tanisha Meadows</font></div><div style="padding-left:36pt;text-indent:36pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Rufus Decker</font></div><div style="padding-left:36pt;text-indent:36pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Taylor Beech</font></div><div style="padding-left:36pt;text-indent:36pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Erin Jaskot&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;</font></div><div style="padding-left:36pt;text-indent:36pt"><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Re&#58;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;</font><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%">Denny&#8217;s Corporation</font></div><div style="padding-left:36pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%">Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year ended December 25, 2019</font></div><div style="padding-left:36pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%">Filed February 24, 2020</font></div><div style="padding-left:36pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%">Form 8-K filed October 27, 2020</font></div><div style="margin-bottom:12pt;padding-left:36pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%">File No. 0-18051&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;</font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Ladies and Gentlemen&#58;</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">The purpose of this letter is to supplement the January 20, 2021 response letter of Denny&#8217;s Corporation (&#8220;we,&#8221; &#8220;us,&#8221; &#8220;our&#8221; or the &#8220;Company&#8221;) to the comments set forth in the Staff&#8217;s letter dated December 30, 2020. This letter also factors in the discussions between the Staff and the Company and its counsel on February 8, February 11 and February 18, 2021 (the &#8220;February Discussions&#8221;).  For your convenience, the comments of the Staff as to which we are supplementing our response have been reproduced in their entireties followed by our supplemental responses.</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%;text-decoration:underline">Form 8-K filed October 27, 2020</font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%;text-decoration:underline">Exhibits 99.1 and 99.2</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div style="padding-left:72pt;text-indent:-36pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-style:italic;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">4.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Since adjusted free cash flow is a non-GAAP liquidity measure, please revise your disclosures to reconcile this measure to cash flows from operating activities and prominently present amounts for the three major categories of the statement of cash flows. Refer to Item 10(e)(1)(i) of Regulation S-K and Question 102.06 of the Non-GAAP Financial Measures Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations.</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Response&#58;</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Consistent with the February Discussions, we will revise future earnings releases and investor presentations to provide a reconciliation of Adjusted Free Cash Flow to Cash Flows from Operating Activities. We included such a presentation on page 10 of our earnings release (the &#8220;February 2021 Earnings Release&#8221;) and slide 44 of our investor presentation (the &#8220;February 2021 Investor Presentation&#8221;) that were included as exhibits to a Current Report on Form 8-K furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 16, 2021.  </font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Additionally, per the February Discussions, in future earnings releases and investor presentations we will revise our presentation of this reconciliation to provide greater detail as to the individual components of the line item &#8220;Changes in Operating Assets and Liabilities&#8221; by expanding the presentation to show each of these components on a separate line, as we would in a typical GAAP statement of cash flows.  We intend to do this beginning with the earnings release and investor presentation for our second quarter of 2021.</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div style="height:72pt;position:relative;width:100%"><div style="bottom:0;position:absolute;width:100%"><div><font><br></font></div></div></div><hr style="page-break-after:always"><div style="min-height:72pt;width:100%"><div><font><br></font></div><div><font><br></font></div></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Finally, we will prominently present the three major categories of the statement of cash flows.   We included in the fourth quarter and full year 2020 highlights in the February 2021 Earnings Release and on slide 2 of the February 2021 Investor Presentation such three categories for the relevant periods presented.</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div style="padding-left:72pt;text-indent:-36pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-style:italic;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">5.</font><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%">&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;</font><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-style:italic;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Please retitle the non-GAAP measure total operating margin to better convey what it represents and so that it is not confusingly similar to operating income</font><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%">.</font></div><div style="padding-left:36pt;text-indent:-36pt"><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Response&#58;</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Consistent with the February Discussions, we will revise future investor presentations by retitling all instances of the non-GAAP measure &#8220;total operating margin&#8221; as &#8220;restaurant-level operating margin.&#8221;  </font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Further, while this was not specifically addressed in the Staff&#8217;s comment, we will as discussed in the February Discussions revise the bar chart showing total system sales to be a &#8220;stacked bar chart&#8221; consisting of two components, company restaurant sales and franchise restaurant sales.  We included such a presentation in the February 2021 Investor Presentation.</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div style="padding-left:72pt;text-indent:-36pt"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-style:italic;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">6.</font><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%">&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;</font><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-style:italic;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Refer to your non-GAAP presentations on pages 3, 24, 26, 29, 30 and 34 of your investor presentation and the comparable GAAP measures that are not presented until a GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation in the appendix on the last two pages of this presentation (pages 37 and 38). Please tell us how you considered the guidance in Question 102.10 of the Non-GAAP Financial Measures Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations. Also, refer to Item 10(e)(1)(i)(A) of Regulation S-K</font><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:700;line-height:120%">.</font></div><div style="padding-left:36pt;text-indent:-36pt"><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Response&#58;</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">Consistent with the February Discussions, we will revise future investor presentations to include, within the presentation itself, the comparable GAAP measures.  In the February 2021 Investor Presentation, we included on slide 2 presentations of the following GAAP measures for each of the last ten fiscal years&#58;  Operating Income&#59; Net Income (Loss)&#59; and Net Income (Loss) per Share.</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">We believe the details discussed in this response to your letter sufficiently address the comments raised. However, please do not hesitate to contact the undersigned at 864-597-8347 if you have any further questions.</font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><table style="border-collapse:collapse;display:inline-table;margin-bottom:5pt;vertical-align:text-bottom;width:100.000%"><tr><td style="width:1.0%"></td><td style="width:42.970%"></td><td style="width:0.1%"></td><td style="width:1.0%"></td><td style="width:7.073%"></td><td style="width:0.1%"></td><td style="width:1.0%"></td><td style="width:25.021%"></td><td style="width:0.1%"></td><td style="width:1.0%"></td><td style="width:20.536%"></td><td style="width:0.1%"></td></tr><tr><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td><td colspan="6" style="padding:2px 1pt;text-align:left;vertical-align:bottom"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:100%">Respectfully,</font></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td></tr><tr style="height:15pt"><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td></tr><tr><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:2px 1pt;text-align:left;vertical-align:bottom"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:100%">&#47;s&#47; Robert P. Verostek</font></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td></tr><tr><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td><td colspan="3" style="border-top:1pt solid #000;padding:2px 1pt;text-align:left;vertical-align:bottom"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:100%">Robert P. Verostek</font></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td></tr><tr><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:2px 1pt;text-align:left;vertical-align:bottom"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:100%">Senior Vice President and</font></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td></tr><tr><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:2px 1pt;text-align:left;vertical-align:bottom"><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:100%">Chief Financial Officer</font></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:0 1pt"></td></tr></table></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font><br></font></div><div><font style="color:#000000;font-family:'Times New Roman',sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:400;line-height:120%">cc&#58;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Mr. Justin W. Chairman</font></div><div style="height:72pt;position:relative;width:100%"><div style="bottom:0;position:absolute;width:100%"><div><font><br></font></div></div></div></body></html>
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