CAVA Group Reports Second Quarter 2024 Results

CAVA Group, Inc. (NYSE: CAVA) (“CAVA Group” or the “Company”), the category-defining Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant brand that brings heart, health, and humanity to food, today announced financial results for its fiscal second quarter ended July 14, 2024.

“Our results in the second quarter continued to demonstrate the strength of our category-defining brand and our unique and compelling value proposition,” said Brett Schulman, Co-Founder and CEO. “During the quarter, traffic grew 9.5%, we opened 18 net new restaurants and, driven by the power of our unit economic engine, generated average unit volume of $2.7 million. In addition, we launched our new grilled steak main, once again exhibiting our excellence in culinary innovation. Grilled steak is significantly outperforming our expectations and giving guests another reason to visit CAVA and come back more often.”

Fiscal Second Quarter 2024 Highlights:

CAVA Revenue grew 35.2% to $231.4 million as compared to $171.1 million in the prior year quarter.

Net New CAVA Restaurant Openings of 18, bringing total CAVA Restaurants to 341, a 22.2% increase in total CAVA Restaurants year over year.

CAVA Same Restaurant Sales Growth of 14.4%, including traffic growth of 9.5%.

CAVA AUV of $2.7 million as compared to $2.6 million in the prior year quarter.

CAVA Restaurant-Level Profit of $61.3 million or growth of 37.3% over the prior year quarter, with CAVA Restaurant-Level Profit Margin of 26.5%.

CAVA Digital Revenue Mix was 35.8%.

CAVA Group Net Income of $19.7 million compared to net income of $6.5 million in the prior year quarter.

CAVA Group Adjusted EBITDA(1) of $34.3 million compared to $21.6 million in the prior year quarter.

Net cash provided by operating activities of $48.9 million with Free Cash Flow(1) of $22.7 million.

CAVA Fiscal Second Quarter 2024 Review:

CAVA Revenue was $231.4 million, an increase of 35.2% compared with the second quarter of fiscal 2023. The increase was primarily driven by 78 Net New CAVA Restaurant Openings during or subsequent to the second quarter of fiscal 2023, which are exceeding our performance expectations, and CAVA Same Restaurant Sales Growth of 14.4%. CAVA Same Restaurant Sales Growth consists of a 9.5% increase from guest traffic and a 4.9% increase from menu price and product mix.

CAVA Restaurant-Level Profit Margin was 26.5% compared with 26.1% in the second quarter of fiscal 2023. The increase was due to leverage from higher sales, partially offset by incremental wage investments and input costs associated with the June 3rd launch of grilled steak.

CAVA Group Fiscal Second Quarter 2024 Review:

General and administrative expenses were $28.3 million, or 12.1% of revenue, as compared to $23.3 million, or 13.5% of revenue, in the second quarter of fiscal 2023. General and administrative expenses, excluding equity-based compensation and certain non-recurring public company costs in the prior year quarter(1), were $24.7 million, or 10.6% of revenue, as compared to $20.4 million, or 11.8% of revenue, in the second quarter of fiscal 2023. The decrease of 120 basis points was primarily due to leverage from higher sales, partially offset by investments to support future growth and increased recurring public company costs.

Net income was $19.7 million, or 8.5% of revenue, an increase of $13.2 million as compared to $6.5 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2023.

Adjusted EBITDA(1) was $34.3 million, or 14.7% of revenue, an increase of $12.7 million, or 59.0%, compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2023. The increase was primarily driven by the number and strength of performance of Net New CAVA Restaurant Openings during or subsequent to the second quarter of fiscal 2023, 14.4% CAVA Same Restaurant Sales Growth, and leverage in general and administrative expenses.