Q4 2024 CAVA Group Inc Earnings Call
All the best.
Speaker Change: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the CAVA Fourth Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session.
Speaker Change: If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Tuesday, February 25th, 2025.
Matt Milanovich: I would now like to turn the conference over to Matt Milanovich. Please go ahead.
Matt Milanovich: Good afternoon and welcome to CAVA's fourth quarter and full year 2024 Financial Results Conference call.
Matt Milanovich: The purpose of this conference call is to give investors further details regarding the company's financial results.
Matt Milanovich: as well as a general update on the company's progress. You will find reconciliations of any non-GAAP financial measures discussed on today's call to the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP to the extent available without unreasonable efforts in today's earnings release and supplemental deck.
each of which is posted on the company's website.
Matt Milanovich: Before we begin, let me remind everyone that this call will contain forward-looking statements. For this purpose, any statements made during this call that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed a forward-looking statement.
Matt Milanovich: Investors should be aware that any forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed here today.
Matt Milanovich: These risk factors are explained in detail in CABA's most recent annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly report on Form 10-Q, and other filings with the SEC.
Matt Milanovich: Please refer to these filings for a more detailed discussion of forward-looking statements and the risks and uncertainties of such statements. All forward-looking statements are made as of today, and except as required by law, CAVA undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.
Matt Milanovich: whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise. And now, I'll turn the call over to the company's co-founder and CEO, Brett Schulman.
Brett Schulman: Thanks, Matt, and welcome to the call, everyone. 2024 was another extraordinary year for CAVA, thanks to our more than 10,000 team members and their dedication to bringing heart, health, and humanity to food.
Brett Schulman: I'm inspired not just by their accomplishments, but by their spirit of generosity and how they take care of our guests, communities, and one another.
Brett Schulman: In 2024, their contributions allowed us to firmly establish Mediterranean as the next major cultural cuisine category. And as our unique value proposition continued to resonate with consumers,
Brett Schulman: We were one of just a few publicly traded restaurant brands that generated positive traffic growth.
Brett Schulman: Our success in 2024 demonstrated our broad appeal, the power of our unit economic engine, and the impact of the investments we have made in our teams, guests, and infrastructure to support our growth.
Brett Schulman: In our first full fiscal year as a public company, we delivered four consecutive quarters of free cash flow.
Brett Schulman: Our fourth quarter highlights include, excluding the 53rd week in 2023, a 36.8% increase in CAVA revenue, 21.2% CAVA same restaurant sales growth, including a 15.6% increase in traffic.
Brett Schulman: 15 net new restaurant openings, ending the year with 367 restaurants, an 18.8% increase year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA of $25.1 million, a 60% increase over the fourth quarter of 2023.
Brett Schulman: Net income of $78.6 million and adjusted net income of $6.5 million, a 216% increase over the fourth quarter of 2023.
Brett Schulman: And for the full year, we increased CAVA revenue 35%, excluding the 53rd week in 2023. Generated 13.4% CAVA same restaurant sales growth, including an 8.7% increase in traffic.
Brett Schulman: opened 58 net new restaurants, delivered adjusted EBITDA of $126.2 million, a 71% increase over the full year of 2023.
Brett Schulman: produced net income of $130.3 million and adjusted net income of $50.2 million, a 278% increase over full year 2023, and drove $52.9 million in free cash flow during the year.
Brett Schulman: It is clear that our unique value proposition, the quality and relevance of our Mediterranean cuisine, the convenience of our multi-channel format, and the experiences we provide across our physical and digital channels is meeting the moment for the modern consumer.
Brett Schulman: We have significant white space opportunity ahead, and we're proud to say that 2024 is trending to be one of our strongest new restaurant classes yet.
Brett Schulman: Our most anticipated and successful market opening to date, Chicago, marked our entry into the Midwest and expanded our presence to 25 states and the District of Columbia.
Brett Schulman: These new restaurants amplify our brand, many of them incorporating elements of our project's soul design, and their performance demonstrates our broad appeal across socioeconomic, demographic, and regional lines.
Thank you for watching!
Last quarter we announced plans to enter South Florida.
Brett Schulman: Today, I'm excited to share that we are expanding our presence in the Midwest with openings planned in Detroit and Indianapolis later this year. In addition, we will continue to grow our Mid-Atlantic footprint with our first restaurant openings in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Brett Schulman: As we move forward with our expansion efforts, we remain committed to deepening personal relationships with our guests, whether they are gathering in our dining rooms or engaging with our digital channels.
Brett Schulman: Our Reimagined Loyalty Program is a foundational element of this strategy, and its new Earning Banks Points model has been warmly received, driving increased engagement and frequency while setting the stage for future innovation.
Brett Schulman: Since we first introduced Rewards Reimagined, we've seen a 230 basis point increase and loyalty percent of sales.
Brett Schulman: As we move into 2025, we will build on our multi-phase plan by leveraging first-party data to deepen guest insights using enhanced rewards, tiers, and tailored communications to develop personal touchpoints across all of our channels.
Brett Schulman: On the culinary front, I'm incredibly proud of our best-in-class team. We continue to innovate and create newness across our menu while being thoughtful and operationally disciplined as we go through our stage gate process.
Brett Schulman: Guest reception of grilled steak, which we introduced in the summer of 2024, exceeded our expectations, and incidence of this new main has remained strong.
Brett Schulman: Similarly, we unveiled our new limited-time garlic ranch pita chips, introducing a platform for future flavor innovation and further expansion into the snacking category.
Brett Schulman: In 2025, we will continue to build on our robust pipeline of culinary innovation, which we'll speak to in the coming quarters.
Brett Schulman: Our culinary launches in 2024 demonstrated our use of social and earned media to drive trial, awareness, and affinity for our brand.
Brett Schulman: In 2024, we generated 340 million social media impressions and over 50 billion earned media impressions by tapping into the organic love for Kava through partnerships with like-minded influencers and creators who were genuine fans even before collaborating with us.
Brett Schulman: The most recent of these partners is Olympic gold medal sprinter Gabby Thomas, who fuels her training regimen and her life with kava. Gabby partnered with us to launch our latest new seasonal menu items.
Speaker Change: This campaign focused on abundance rather than restriction, highlighting the benefits of eating Mediterranean cuisine. We're pleased with the response to the ongoing campaign, and we are seeing an incremental increase of our premium protein and avocado incidence as a result.
Speaker Change: Shifting over to our team members, we are focused on empowering our leaders with the right tools, strategies, and processes to run great restaurants at every location, every shift.
Speaker Change: Our new labor and deployment model helps us put the right people, in the right places, at the right moments, improving the team member experience, and giving them more time to focus on our guests.
Speaker Change: While we are still in the early innings, we're already starting to see increased productivity across both day parts. Reception from the team has been positive, with restaurants refining and optimizing the tools.
Speaker Change: In 2025, we will continue to build on this initial deployment with a focus on improving speed and service.
Speaker Change: In 2024, our multi-year Connected Kitchen Initiative advanced on multiple fronts.
Speaker Change: Additionally, early results from our new kitchen display system, currently live in 25 locations, are promising. This technology has improved digital order accuracy and productivity while reducing customer experience complaints in the test locations.
Speaker Change: Encouraged by these outcomes we are planning a broader rollout of the new KDS in 2025.
Speaker Change: including new and existing restaurants, we expect to expand the technology to 250 restaurants by year-end.
Speaker Change: Building on our exceptional 2024, we will continue to define the category we have created, Mediterranean, by anchoring in our four strategic pillars as a guiding force.
Speaker Change: In 2025, we will expand our Mediterranean Way in communities across the country by opening restaurants in new and existing markets, offering warm and welcoming spaces to gather, and delight guests with innovative flavors and menu creations.
Speaker Change: As we move into the next phase of our Reimagined Loyalty Program, we will continue to develop personal relationships with guests, even as we scale, spreading our Mandarinian hospitality and creating a sense of connectedness across all our channels.
Speaker Change: As we focus on running great restaurants, every location, every shift.
Speaker Change: We will integrate new technologies and tools to support our team members and enhance the guest experience.
And finally,
Speaker Change: Knowing great people are key to unlocking our significant white space opportunity. We will continue to operate as a high-performing team, build out our talent pipeline, and create not just jobs, but career opportunities.
Speaker Change: In a world where screens and automation are infiltrating our everyday lives, we remain committed to using technology to enhance the human experience, not replace it.
Speaker Change: We're leveraging data personalization to help people feel seen for who they are and piloting AI technology that can improve team members' experience and give them more time to take care of our guests.
Thank you for watching!
Speaker Change: We are creating inviting places for people to gather. We know consumers are hungry to feel cared for and we believe that our success is driven not just by our category-defining brand and our unique value proposition, but also by our ability to authentically connect with the people we serve.
Speaker Change: This spirit of connection was beautifully illustrated recently when we had the honor of participating in a 100th birthday celebration for Mike in New York whose great-grandson wrote to us about Mike's love of kava and asked if we could be part of this special day.
Speaker Change: Whether it's Mike's 100th birthday or Anastasia, a high school student in New Jersey who wrote to us about her tradition of sharing a meal with her sister every Friday at Caba and how it has strengthened their bond,
Speaker Change: We're demonstrating the power and appeal of our brand to connect not just across geographies, but across generations
Speaker Change: CAVA was built on the idea of welcoming everyone to our table and at a time when people are craving happiness and a connection, we are delivering on that promise and proving that bringing heart, health, and humanity to food is a powerful formula for success.
Speaker Change: And with that, I'll pass the call over to Tricia to walk you through the financials.
Tricia: Thanks, Brett. CAVA revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024, excluding the impact of the 53rd week of 2023, grew 36.8% year-over-year to $225.1 million.
Tricia: HAVA same restaurant sales increased 21.2%, driven by traffic growth of 15.6%.
Tricia: As a reminder, to achieve an optimal comparison of fiscal weeks in the CABA Same Restaurant Sales Calculation giving consideration to holiday periods, each week of fiscal 2023 was shifted by one week.
Tricia: Had this shift not been made, Kavasane Restaurant sales growth would have been 18.3% for the quarter, representing the expected offset from Q1 of 2024. The impact of this shift was not material for the full year.
Tricia: During the quarter, we opened 15 net new Cava restaurants, bringing our total Cava restaurant count to 367. We continue to be pleased with our new restaurant openings, with newer vintages trending to be some of our strongest cohorts to date.
Tricia: In addition, our proven portability is reflected in our overall AUV, which increased from $2.6 million at the end of 2023 to $2.9 million at the end of 2024.
Tricia: Excluding the benefit of the 53rd week in fiscal 2023, CABA restaurant-level profit margin increased by 50 basis points to 22.4% of revenue.
Tricia: This improvement was primarily due to operating leverage from higher sales, partially offset by an increase in food, beverage, and packaging costs driven by our national rollout of steaks in the summer of 2024 and incremental wage investments.
Speaker Change: Kava's food, beverage, and packaging costs were 29.9% of revenue, an increase of 110 basis points as compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.
Speaker Change: This anticipated increase as a percent of revenue was the result of the launch at stake in June of 2024.
Speaker Change: How the labor and related costs were 27.3%, a decrease of 50 basis points from the fourth quarter of 2023.
Speaker Change: This decrease reflects leverage from increased sales, partially offset by investments in our team member wages of 4%, including the impact of AB 1228, which we chose to not offset with menu price increases to the guests.
Speaker Change: CABA occupancy and related expenses were 7.6% of revenue, an improvement of 70 basis points from the fourth quarter of 2023 due to sales leverage.
Speaker Change: Kava other operating expenses were 12.8% of revenue an increase of 10 basis points relative to the fourth quarter of 2023 reflecting investments in the integrity of our physical spaces in support of our increased restaurant volume
Speaker Change: Shifting to overall performance, our general and administrative expenses for the quarter, excluding stock-based compensation, were $23.6 million, or 10.4% of revenue, compared to $21.3 million, or 12% of revenue, in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Speaker Change: The 160 basis point improvement was driven by leverage from higher sales, partially offset by investment to drive future growth.
In 2025, we expect stock-based compensation
Speaker Change: to be between $20 million and $22 million, which includes new 2025 grants, and approximately 60% of this expense will be recognized in the first half of the year, given the timing of payroll taxes associated with RSU vestings and the extra period in Q1.
Speaker Change: Adjusted EBITDA, including the burden of pre-opening costs for the quarter, was $25.1 million, an increase of 60% versus the fourth quarter of 2023.
Speaker Change: The increase in adjusted EBITDA was driven by the number and continued strength of new restaurant openings, 21.2% CAVA same restaurant sales growth, and leverage in G&A.
Speaker Change: During the fourth quarter, we reported $78.6 million of net income. As I mentioned on our last earnings call, we historically have had a full valuation allowance on our deferred tax assets, primarily relating to net operating loss carry-forwards, which has resulted in immaterial tax expense.
Speaker Change: Based on our continued positive profitability trends, we released this valuation allowance in the fourth quarter, which resulted in a one-time significant net P&L benefit of $80.1 million as a reduction in tax expense.
Speaker Change: Keep in mind, we expect our cash taxes to continue to be immaterial until we fully utilize our net operating losses.
Speaker Change: In fiscal 2025, we expect our expected tax rates to be between 15 and 20 percent, which includes the expected permanent equity benefit of RSU awards vesting at a higher stock price relative to their grant date.
Speaker Change: Excluding the impact of the $80.1 million benefit and applying a consistent effective tax rate to each quarter in fiscal 2024, adjusted net income was $6.5 million during the fourth quarter of 2024, compared with net income of $2 million in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Speaker Change: This represents an increase of 216%, further demonstrating the strength of our business.
Speaker Change: We reported GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.66 in the quarter. After accounting for the aforementioned net benefit, adjusted diluted EPS was $0.05 in the fourth quarter compared to $0.02 in the prior year quarter.
Speaker Change: Shifting over to liquidity, at the end of the quarter we had zero debt outstanding. $366.1 million in cash on hand and access to a $75 million undrawn revolver with an option to increase our liquidity if needed.
Speaker Change: When looking at full year 2024, cash flow from operations was $161 million, compared to $97.1 million during full year 2023.
Speaker Change: This increase is primarily driven by our improved operations, generating increased profitability across the fleet.
Speaker Change: Free cash flow in 2024 was $52.9 million, an increase of $94.6 million compared to the full year of 2023.
Speaker Change: Before turning to our outlook for 2025, I would like to touch on some of the evolving dynamics amongst our most recent NRO classes.
Speaker Change: Our team has done an incredible job of delivering on its commitment, and as brand awareness and the appeal of Mediterranean cuisines continue to strengthen, we are exceeding our previous new unit economic goal.
Speaker Change: Based on data from the most recent NRO classes, we now anticipate
Speaker Change: Year 1 average unit volumes to increase to $2.3 million from $2.1 million and Year 2 average unit volumes to increase to $2.5 million from $2.3 million.
Speaker Change: Year 1 revenue growth rate to remain at 10% and Year 2 revenue growth rate to remain at 8%.
Speaker Change: Year 2 Restaurant Level Profit Margin to increase from 20% to 22%.
Speaker Change: And finally, Year 2 Average Cash on Cash Returns to increase from at least 35% to at least 40%.
Speaker Change: Consistent with our prior earnings call, we expect net new restaurant growth of at least 17% during 2025, and we anticipate that openings could be slightly back half-weighted.
Speaker Change: Now to our outlook for full year 2025, we expect the following. 62 to 66 net new CAVA restaurant openings, CAVA same restaurant sales growth of 6% to 8%, CAVA restaurant level profit margin between 24.8% to 25.2%,
Speaker Change: pre-opening costs between $14 million and $15 million, and adjusted EBITDA, including the burden of pre-opening costs between $150 million to $157 million.
Speaker Change: I want to share a few additional thoughts on our outlook.
Speaker Change: Turning to same restaurant sales, as mentioned earlier, we anticipate 6-8% growth this year. Given the dynamic performance we've seen over the past few years, we believe the best way to think about same restaurant sales on a normalized basis is to view it as a 3-year stack.
Speaker Change: We anticipate our three-year stack to remain robust in the high 30s with higher one-year same restaurant sales growth in Q1 and moderating over the course of 2025
Speaker Change: As it relates to restaurant level margin, as of January 2025, we implemented an approximate 1.7% in-restaurant menu price adjustment, and at this time we have no plans for further price increases this year.
Speaker Change: Additionally, I'd like to remind everyone that we introduced STAKE in early June last year and expect the approximate 100 basis point comparative impact on food beverage and packaging costs as a percent of sales to roll off by the summer of 2025.
Speaker Change: Further, our traditional seasonality, where the fourth quarter is typically approximately 200 basis points lower than the full year, experienced a more dramatic impact in 2024 as a result of the stake launch that we do not expect to reoccur in 2025.
Speaker Change: Our guidance takes into consideration what we are currently seeing in the business and the fluidity of the macroeconomic policy environment. Our business continues to be and remains strong and resilient, and that strength is appropriately reflected in our guidance.
Speaker Change: KAVA's economic model is powerful, and as we mentioned on prior calls, we will continue to make prudent investments in the business to drive long-term growth.
Speaker Change: Before turning to Q&A, I want to take a moment to reflect on what an incredible year 2024 has been. None of these results would have been possible without the hard work, dedication, and commitment of our restaurant, manufacturing, and collaboration center team.
Speaker Change: I often say CABA is a very special place to work, and it's the passion and perseverance of our people that make it so.
Speaker Change: Together, we're building something truly remarkable as we continue to push forward with our mission of bringing heart, health, and humanity to food. And with that, I'll pass it over to the operator for Q&A.
Speaker Change: Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star followed by the number one on your touchtone phone.
Speaker Change: You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star followed by the number two. We will allow one question per participant and please feel free to rejoin the queue if you have additional questions.
Speaker Change: If you are using a speakerphone, please make sure you lift your handset before pressing any keys.
Speaker Change: Your first question comes from the line of Brian Harbour from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thank you.
Yeah thanks, good effort in guys.
I know you'd previously mentioned kind of the...
Speaker Change: generally flat margin view for this year but could you just talk about you know some of the moving parts there I would it sounds like food would be sort of a pressure you know what are you thinking in terms of sort of any team member investments this year and anything else we should consider just in thinking about margins
Speaker Change: Thanks for the question. So when you think about food, the first thing you need to consider is the impact of steak, which we did not have in our offerings until June of last year. And so there's definite impact in first and second quarter as a result of that. Outside of steak are
Speaker Change: Inflation in food is in the low single digits and as we reflected a 1.7% menu price increase, I don't anticipate a lot of significant movements in COGS outside of the steak impact.
Speaker Change: When we're thinking about labor, we've talked about investments that we have made and continue to make, although at this point there's not outsized investments planned, but we do leave the opportunity to make incremental investments each quarter as we evaluate our competitiveness.
Speaker Change: in wages in each and every market to make sure that we remain an employer of choice in the markets where we serve.
Speaker Change: that make sure that our restaurants are keeping up with the high volume that is existing today.
Thank you.
Thank you for watching!
Speaker Change: Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Charles from TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Andrew Charles: Great, thank you. Brett, I was hoping you could expand on the new focus on speed that won't be the expense of service. Can you help contextualize the size of the prize that if you're going to deliver on targeted service times, how big of a traffic opportunity does this represent during peak periods?
Speaker Change: Hey, Andrew. Thanks for the question. You know, we know that there's an opportunity at many of our restaurants, our high-volume restaurants. I'm sure you've witnessed it in New York where we have lines to the door. And we're mindful that we don't want people intimidated by those lines and walking away, but we're also mindful that it's many of our guests.
to have a great experience and choose their meal comfortably.
Speaker Change: So, we haven't quantified it specifically, but we've seen with the new labor deployment scheduling model, incremental improvements in speed, but also in addition to our service scores. And that's important for us. We don't want it to come at the expense.
Speaker Change: of those customer experience scores. So we'll continue to work with the teams to optimize and ramp up those deployments so that we can continue to increase the speed and have it not come at the expense of service.
Thank you for watching!
Speaker Change: Okay, maybe just a quick follow-up. If I think about, you know, an average check for around $15 or so per person, is it fair to say that a rule of thumb every five incremental customers per store per day gets you about a 1% lift in traffic?
Speaker Change: Yeah, it's pretty close. And, you know, Andrew, in the early results of the deployment, we are seeing this improvement across both APARTS.
Speaker Change: and even on peak and non-peak hours. So we're very encouraged by the early returns, but again, in this brand building phase of our growth, we wanna make sure that we don't push on the gas pedal too hard and, you know, have those negative first-time guest experiences.
Thank you for watching!
Speaker Change: Your next question comes from the line of Chris O'Call from STIFO. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good afternoon, guys.
Chris O'Call: Brett, the update on the loyalty program was very encouraging. First, can you share some baseline frequency data?
Speaker Change: maybe for, you know, a targeted consumer segment or core versus expansion markets? And then, could you also expand on how quickly you can deploy programs using the Consumer Insights to drive that additional purchase frequency, and whether you've tested any programs to kind of prove out effectiveness?
Speaker Change: menu of rewards. So we're seeing, and that was the goal of the program, if you remember, we wanted that initial reward opportunity bar to be lower, so people felt like it was more attainable, our lower frequency users would be more engaged. We're seeing that happen, so it's very exciting. And then the second part of your question, one of the insights or one of the tactics that we're now able to leverage in the loyalty program, when we launched our garlic ranch pita chips.
The pita chip redemption option is 400 points.
Speaker Change: We did a limited-time offer for half those points. For 200 points, you could try the Garlic Ranch Pita Chips. It was our highest-redeemed item ever. So we got great trial of a new item, great engagement and excitement. And that's just a small example of the way we can use the rewards program and our first-party audience.
Speaker Change: to really add value to their experience and influence behavior. And this year, we'll build on top of that initial deployment, and you'll see us add features on top, like tiered status levels, as well as non-food reward options to excite our guests with our brand in unique ways.
That's great, thanks.
Thank you. Bye.
Speaker Change: Your next question comes from the line of David Tarantino from Baird. Please go ahead.
David Tarantino: Hi, good afternoon. I had a question on the new unit economics that you shared
Thank you for that update.
Speaker Change: I'm wondering, Tricia, if you could comment on what you've seen out of the 2024 class and whether the new targets are
Speaker Change: are anchored on what you're you're seeing or is it something different than that? I guess I would calculate something higher in terms of new unit volumes for
Speaker Change: for what you did in 2024, but any perspective you could offer on kind of what informed your views on the targets, that'd be great. Thanks.
Yeah, thanks David.
Speaker Change: So certainly as we look at the 2024 class and compare it to 2023, we're seeing very strong performance, and in fact the cohort that opened in Q4
is performing at average weekly sales levels above 2023.
Speaker Change: Keep in mind, we're still early in looking at these restaurants and understanding how they're going to behave But we feel very confident in our ability to deliver 2.3 million in year one with 10% growth driving to 2.5 million and then 8% growth in the following year So really pleased with the performance of our new restaurants the health of our pipeline and their ability to deliver well against these new targets and
Speaker Change: as well as the increase in restaurant level margin. It really gives us a lot of optionality as we think about greenfield locations.
Speaker Change: and how we might have opportunities to go into other areas like Brett talked about on the call, entering South Florida, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis this year. So really excited about what lies ahead and certainly what the portfolio has told us regarding proof and portability and how this model can really deliver.
Speaker Change: Great, and one more if I could on this topic. Does your guidance for this year assume the 2.3 million AUV for the class you're about to open?
It does.
Great, thank you very much.
Speaker Change: Your next question comes from the line of Sharon Zakfia from William Blair. Please go ahead.
Sharon Zakfia: Hi, good afternoon. Congratulations on a great 2024 to say the least.
Sharon Zakfia: I guess my question was more on the GNA front. It seems like the imputed GNA...
Sharon Zakfia: is accelerating quite a bit in terms of dollar growth, and I know
Sharon Zakfia: part of that is the Stockholm that you mentioned, but is it fair to think that a lot of these initiatives that you talked about are falling into that GNA? And then how do we think about GNA leverage, you know, in 26 and beyond?
Sharon Zakfia: Yeah, so when we look at G&A, we isolate the stock-based compensation impact and so therefore we look at G&A growing but at a lesser rate than our revenue growth, as well as our unit count growth. So you will see leverage in G&A over time. However, we've said we really think it's important to make appropriate investments in the business to drive for long-term growth. So just like you see on restaurant level margins and wanting to invest in team members and guests,
Sharon Zakfia: We've been thoughtful in leaning into GNA ahead of its needs so that we can be successful as we make prudent decisions to invest going forward.
Speaker Change: Your next question comes from the line of John Tower from Citi. Please go ahead.
Great, thanks.
Speaker Change: Maybe I'll just dig into, on the new store productivity side, I appreciate all the color you've been providing. Maybe you could provide a little bit more on perhaps what you're doing from a strategic standpoint within markets to ensure that this productivity level is so high and, frankly, the returns remain so high, you know, what you've done in the past 12 months.
Speaker Change: people in the market earlier, consumers earlier, to build that brand awareness such that you're ramping faster. Just curious if you could shed some light on that.
Brett Schulman: Hey John, it's Brett. You know, I think a couple things. One, Tricia's spoken in the past about our balanced portfolio approach and
Brett Schulman: and ready for us to open and then we do our typical traditional community day activities.
Brett Schulman: as a way to introduce ourselves to our new neighbors and donate to the local philanthropic organization.
Speaker Change: So, that all comes together to really create a lot of energy around the brand as we saw whether it was a greenfield market like Chicago or many of our openings in Southern California this year in an existing market. And again, we have so many different ways to win as we've talked about our top decile, not being one type of restaurant or one geography.
Speaker Change: all different types of geographies and trade areas, urban, suburban, college-adjacent, ex-urban, pickup-by-car locations. So it allows us to create this balanced portfolio approach and then obviously capture the energy in these markets that's been building around the brand.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Your next question comes from the line of Ivan Yu from Jeffries. Please go ahead.
Speaker Change: Great, thanks for taking the question. Just on, maybe on venue innovation, is there anything you want to share on...
Speaker Change: you know what we should expect whether it's something on the protein side or other parts of the menu. Brett, I think you've used the term tentpole and so you know how should we think about maybe leveraging digital and marketing to you know enhance the messaging around around these offerings for this year?
Speaker Change: Yeah, thanks Ivan. I think you'll see a similar cadence to what we've spoken to, that annually we want to have at least one tentpole moment.
Speaker Change: that could be expressed by a new protein, bracketed by a couple seasonal moments. And this quarter, you know, the Gabby Thomas collaboration with the items we partnered with Gabby on that have been very positive in terms of our spicy lamb meatballs and avocado that we've highlighted in those is an example of one of those bracketed seasonal moments. And then certainly leveraging the success of our flavor innovation, pita chips as a platform, you can imagine another flavor innovation on the pita chip front. But more to come.
Speaker Change: In the coming months, we're excited to bring some new news, but, you know, in the stage gate test process now, but would expect the same kind of sequence that you saw last year.
Speaker Change: That's helpful. And then separately, I just wanted to touch on, you know, the topic of relative value. And I think you've said in the past that, you know, CAVA sort of operates in this
Speaker Change: sweet spot in terms of price points. And, you know, that's kind of helped take share of occasions from both fast food and some casual dining as well. How are you thinking about that dynamic for this year, particularly as you know, we're seeing
Speaker Change: Some others get more sharper on price points and, you know, some trade downs still occurring. Any color will be helpful.
Speaker Change: Yeah, continuing with that philosophy, you know, now that we've turned the page on 2024, when you look at the time frame from the end of 19 to the end of 24, in aggregate, our price increases have amounted to 15%. CPI was almost 23% during that time period, so we underpriced inflation by 8 points. When you look at the Department of Labor statistics,
Speaker Change: In 25, Tricia spoke to our menu price adjustment only being 1.7%, which is under expected CPI for this year and what we've already seen some peers take. So, working on behalf of our guests, investing in our guests, driving that value proposition, not just from a price point, but again, how we view value, that combination of factors, the quality of the ingredients we source, the relevance of Mediterranean cuisine, again, ranked number one diet.
Speaker Change: the convenience of the multi-channel format that our guests can opt into their channel choice on their terms and the experience we deliver, I talked in the prepared remarks about the importance of human connection 64% of our guests
Speaker Change: come in and they want to engage with our team members. And the ability for our team members to connect, deliver that Mediterranean hospitality while they're having that experiential walk-the-line experience, and smelling the food, tasting or seeing the food, and hearing it cook is powerful. And I think all that comes together, that bang for the buck, to really be capturing whether it's folks trading down from a legacy casual dining experience,
Speaker Change: and sharing a meal in our dining room like we talked about the Project Sol Investments.
Speaker Change: or trading up from traditional QSR for a dollar or two more, sometimes at parity, and then trading over from other players in the space that we're clearly resonating with the modern consumer with what we're able to deliver. And so we continue to lean into that this year.
Speaker Change: Your next question comes from the line of Brian Mullen from Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.
Brian Mullen: Thank you. Question on the catering sales channel. Can you talk about what the priorities are for catering this year, what you'll be evaluating, and I'm wondering if
Brian Mullen: If 2026 might be a year where you push forward with catering in a bigger way, you know, any update would be great.
Brian Mullen: Yeah, thanks for the question. We're very excited about the catering opportunity, but again, we're going to be very patient and work through our stage gate process.
Brian Mullen: I think we've catered most professional sports teams at this point, many college teams, let alone offices and schools.
Brian Mullen: And what we're finding is the demand is clearly there. What we want to make sure is that we get the packaging right, the technology right on our self-service site in complement to our high touch catering sales team. And so we're going to expand the test this year to a major metro market test where we're going to take a whole major market and we're going to be testing the different production.
support, whether that's our hybrid kitchens...
Brian Mullen: to deliver on those commitments from a catering experience. We'll be excited to bring this across the country in the future.
Okay, thank you.
Speaker Change: Your next question is from the line of Jeffrey Bernstein from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Thank you.
Great, thank you very much.
Speaker Change: The epidot growth obviously incredible and 24 and you're looking for obviously outsized growth in 25 as I look at 25
Speaker Change: When I compare that to your long-term out though, I think you've talked about mid to high 20s
Speaker Change: So just curious, just because it is below consensus and maybe below the long-term algo.
Speaker Change: Just wondering what the puts and takes are, especially because the comps looks like you're talking about six to eight percent that would be above kind of your long-term plan, your unit growth is in line. So wondering where you see the greatest differential, what line items maybe see the greatest leverage or deleverage relative to that long-term thought process. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker Change: Thanks for the question. So certainly as we look at the opportunity that lies ahead, we feel very good about our long-term algorithm. What we're looking at from 24 to 25 is really anniversaries during very outsized growth in 2024 and the investments we're making in the business to drive the results over the long term. So while you might see some
Speaker Change: Modest adjustments in a shorter-term horizon. There's nothing that leads us to believe that the long-term algorithm is not fully intact
Speaker Change: This model is super powerful. Our top quartile of restaurants deliver restaurant level margins above 30%, but we want to make sure that we're making the right investments, leaning into the right things at this stage of our growth, so that we're positioning the business for sustainable long-term success.
Great, thank you.
Speaker Change: Your next question comes from the line of Danilo Gargulo from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Thank you for watching!
Thank you.
Speaker Change: So I wonder if you can talk about the puts and takes of SIMS for Sales guidance, especially any reflections on what you're currently seeing in the business leading to the lower range of your SIMS for Sales expectations to be MIPS single-digit, and how do you think about the drivers of your guidance between traffic and MIPS in 2025?
Thank you for watching!
Speaker Change: Thank you. So when we think about same restaurant sales, we have to consider the dynamic performance we've experienced over the past few years. We believe the best way to think about same restaurant sales on a normalized basis is to look at it in a three-year stack.
Speaker Change: So when you're looking at the three years back, we anticipate it to be in the high 30s.
Speaker Change: And as you just focused on a one year in 2025, we expect a higher amount in Q1, and then moderating over Q2, three and four to deliver that six.
to 8% same restaurant sales.
Speaker Change: And so within that same restaurant sales, we mentioned that price is 1.7%, and we don't anticipate taking any further price increases.
Speaker Change: throughout 2025 and that really leaves traffic and perhaps very modest mixed impact.
Speaker Change: So looking for robust traffic, even on top of the strong results that we've delivered in 24 and 23.
Speaker Change: Thank you. And Brett, if you don't mind, as you're stepping back and looking at your organization and assessing the growth readiness...
Speaker Change: Which areas of your business you think require disproportionate investment from today's levels and what material outcomes are you expecting from this incremental investment? In other words, you know, if you were to talk two years from now, what would be some of the big initiatives that you think you might be launching? Thank you.
Speaker Change: Yeah, thanks Danila. I feel very good about where we stand organizationally, you know I think that's something that we've been very committed to throughout our journey is investing ahead of the growth
Speaker Change: and investing in our infrastructure, whether it's our manufacturing, our technology, or our people. And last year, you know, we announced the hiring of Jeff Gall, our Chief Development Officer, which was the last...
Speaker Change: addition to our ELT that we've built over the last few years.
Speaker Change: And we've built across the organization, so, you know, whether it's Beth McCormick or Andy Revhon who joined us.
Speaker Change: the prior year in technology and marketing. We've made those investments, not just at an executive level, but across all functions and teams. So feel pretty well balanced and positioned across the org as we invested ahead of growth to prepare for building this for the next decade.
Speaker Change: not necessarily the next quarter, but the next decade and beyond. So I'd say, you know, no specific area of the business that would need outsized investment from a people perspective.
Thank you for watching!
Thank you for watching!
Speaker Change: Your next question comes from the line of Brian Vaccaro from Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Brian Vaccaro: Hi, thanks and good evening. I just wanted to quickly follow up on Danilo's question and not to harp on the near-term too much, but just given what's been a softer weather impacted start for the industry in 2025,
Speaker Change: Tricia, that three-year comp, thinking maybe through that lens, do you expect to be in the high 30s?
Speaker Change: in Q1 as well. I just wanted to make sure that I was clear on the message you were trying to deliver there. And then my question was, I think you used to disclose this historically, but could you level set us on where your AUVs are across different regions, however you break that down? Thank you.
Speaker Change: Yeah, thanks Brian. So yes, we do anticipate our three years back in Q1 to be in the high 30s.
Speaker Change: So our business has been and continues to be strong and resilient and that strength is reflected in our guidance
Speaker Change: We've seen increases in premium attachment, we've seen strength in our lower-income cohorts and the improvement in same-restaurant sales that they've gotten, and so we've reflected all of that in the guidance to deliver that expected result in Q1 and for the rest of the year.
And then when you talk about AUVs across the region.
Speaker Change: Well, we've seen that AUV growing from 2.6 to 2.9. It's happening across all regions of the country. So Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Southwest, and the West all have experienced significant increases from the last time that we shared that information. We view all of this in totality, and so we haven't shared the specifics by region. But what I will say is
Speaker Change: Each region has delivered year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter increases in AUV, which again underscores our confidence in the proven portability of the brand and our opportunity to take this to more and more places across the country.
Speaker Change: Your last question is from the line of John Ivanko from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
John Ivanko: Hi, thank you. The question is on KDS, you know, obviously going from 25 units, I think, to 250 units.
John Ivanko: is a pretty big jump and really expresses your confidence in this system. So can you talk about, I understand the accuracy, but can you talk about some of the speed of service?
John Ivanko: benefit that that KDS might get, and you know, as you put that system in, might it make sense, you know, in the relatively near future, you know, to have kiosks as part of the COVID experience for people that want to interact with the brand in store in a digital manner.
Brett Schulman: Hey John, it's Brett. I know you love kiosks, but don't expect them to come anytime soon. We believe in human interaction in our restaurants, and if people want a kiosk-type experience, they can download, open up the app, and order on the app.
feel very strongly about that.
Speaker Change: What we've seen in the expanded test now in 25 restaurants is the ability to increase productivity on the second make lines.
Speaker Change: So there is certainly an opportunity with the number of bowls we do every 15 minutes.
Speaker Change: to increase that productivity. Most importantly, we've seen an improvement in order accuracy and an improvement in the customer experience.
Speaker Change: So, the last thing I'll say is we also have the ability now with the new KDS...
Speaker Change: to be able to do order status updates and if you opt into text notification.
Speaker Change: We can give you dynamic order status updates, your order's been received, your order is working, your order is ready, and if for some reason the order is...
Speaker Change: Either ahead of time or behind time, we can give you a dynamic update that your order is now ready ahead of time or that it's running three or four minutes late, which certainly that visibility to the guest has improved the experience and customer satisfaction, which we're very excited and not only to make the guest experience better, but also improve our team member experience and be able to managing the productivity of those lines.
Speaker Change: There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call over to Brett Schulman for closing remarks. Sir, please go ahead.
Brett Schulman: Thank you for joining us today. Before we wrap up, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to our entire team for an incredible 2024. Your dedication and passion make CAVA a special place enabling the results that we have been consistently delivering.
Brett Schulman: As we step into the new year, we recognize that many have been affected by the California wildfires last month.
Brett Schulman: Our thoughts are with those impacted and we remain committed to supporting in any way we can.
Brett Schulman: whether through our bowl donations to first responders or affected guests, or direct assistance to our team members.
Brett Schulman: Moments like these remind us why our mission matters. Heart, health, and humanity aren't just words. They're our mission that guides everything we do. Together, we will continue to make a meaningful difference, both inside and outside our restaurants. We look forward to speaking with you all on our next call.
Brett Schulman: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you very much for your participation. You may now disconnect.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for watching!