CAVA Group Inc (CAVA) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the CAVA second-quarter 2024 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) This call is being recorded on Thursday, August 22, 2024.

女士們、先生們，下午好，歡迎參加 CAVA 2024 年第二季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）此通話於 2024 年 8 月 22 日星期四錄製。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Matt Milanovich. Please go ahead.

現在我想將會議交給馬特·米拉諾維奇。請繼續。

Good afternoon, and welcome to CAVA's second-quarter 2024 financial results conference call. Before we begin, if you do not already have a copy, the earnings release and related 8-K furnished with the SEC are available on our website at investor.cava.com.

下午好，歡迎參加 CAVA 2024 年第二季財務業績電話會議。在我們開始之前，如果您還沒有副本，您可以在我們的網站 investor.cava.com 上找到美國證券交易委員會 (SEC) 提供的收益報告和相關 8-K 表格。

The purpose of this conference call is to give investors further details regarding the company's financial results as well as a general update on the company's progress. You will find reconciliations of any non-GAAP financial measure 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.

本次電話會議的目的是向投資者提供有關公司財務業績的更多詳細資訊以及公司進展的整體更新。您可以在今天的收益報告和補充文件中，找到今天電話會議上討論的任何非 GAAP 財務指標與按照 GAAP 計算的最直接可比財務指標的對賬，只要不付出不合理的努力即可獲得，這些對賬均發佈在公司的網站上。

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 to be forward-looking statements.

在我們開始之前，請允許我提醒大家，本次電話會議將包含前瞻性陳述。為此目的，本次電話會議中所做的任何非歷史事實陳述均可視為前瞻性陳述。

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. These risk factors are explained in detail in CAVA's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC. 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, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise.

投資者應意識到，任何前瞻性陳述都可能受到各種風險和不確定性的影響，這些風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果與今天討論的結果有重大差異。這些風險因素在 CAVA 最新的 10-K 表格年度報告和向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件中進行了詳細解釋。請參閱這些文件，以了解有關前瞻性陳述以及此類陳述的風險和不確定性的更詳細討論。所有前瞻性陳述均截至今日作出，除法律要求外，CAVA 不承擔公開更新或修改任何前瞻性陳述的義務，無論其是否出現新資訊、未來發展或其他原因。

And now I'll turn the call over to the company's Co-Founder and CEO, Brett Schulman.

現在我將把電話轉給公司聯合創始人兼執行長布雷特舒爾曼 (Brett Schulman)。

Thanks, Matt, and welcome to the call, everyone. In the second quarter, we once again delivered exceptional results, demonstrating the strength of our category-defining brand, our clear leadership position in Mediterranean, our powerful unit economic engine, and the return on investments we continue to make in our business and our people.

謝謝，馬特，歡迎大家參加電話會議。在第二季度，我們再次取得了卓越的業績，展示了我們類別定義品牌的實力、我們在地中海地區的明確領導地位、我們強大的單位經濟引擎以及我們繼續對我們的業務和員工進行的投資回報。

CAVA was one of just a handful of publicly traded restaurants brands with a positive traffic growth in the second quarter, and we believe our performance is a reflection of our unique and compelling value proposition. At a time when consumers are increasingly feeling the pressure of an uncertain economy and are more discerning about where and how they spend their money, they are choosing to dine at CAVA.

CAVA 是第二季客流量實現正成長的少數幾家上市餐飲品牌之一，我們相信我們的業績反映了我們獨特且引人注目的價值主張。在消費者越來越感受到經濟不確定性的壓力，對在哪裡以及如何消費更加謹慎的時候，他們選擇在 CAVA 用餐。

Consumers have been frustrated and fatigued by higher prices over the past few years. In this post high inflationary environment, traditional full-service chains are struggling to deliver a compelling value proposition, while conventional fast-food chains have raised prices at a faster rate, driving the perception that they have become too expensive.

過去幾年裡，消費者因物價上漲而感到沮喪和疲憊。在高通膨後的環境下，傳統的全方位服務連鎖店難以提供引人注目的價值主張，而傳統的快餐連鎖店則以更快的速度提高價格，導致人們認為它們的價格已經過高。

The wave of price discounting in response to these trends is now being referred to as the value wars. We believe that's a misnomer. Price is the cost of a meal, while value is it's worth and driven by a combination of attributes beyond the headline price, including quality, relevance, convenience, and experience.

響應這些趨勢而掀起的價格折扣浪潮現在被稱為價值戰。我們認為這是一種錯誤的說法。價格是一頓飯的成本，而價值是它的價值，由標題價格以外的多種屬性組合驅動，包括品質、相關性、便利性和體驗。

Our value proposition lies in the quality of our food, the relevance of our differentiated Mediterranean cuisine where taste and health unite, the convenience with which our guests can access that cuisine in our multi-channel format and the experience they have and they engage with our brand and our hospitality.

我們的價值主張在於我們食物的品質、我們獨特的地中海美食的相關性（將味道和健康結合在一起）、我們的客人可以透過我們的多通路形式獲得美食的便利性以及他們所獲得的體驗以及他們對我們的品牌和我們的款待的參與。

It's meeting the moment for the modern consumer and positions us at the nexus of consumer convergence, where we see guests trade down from traditional full-service chain dining, trade up from fast food, and trade over from legacy fast casual players. As we deliver this compelling value proposition, we continue to invest in our guests and the cost of their meals. One example of this is in California where we did not take incremental price increases in response to AB 1228.

它迎合了現代消費者的需要，使我們處於消費者融合的中心，我們看到客人從傳統的全方位服務連鎖餐廳轉向低端餐廳，從快餐轉向高端餐廳，從傳統的快餐休閒餐廳轉向高端餐廳。在我們提供這一引人注目的價值主張的同時，我們繼續投資於我們的客人及其餐飲成本。其中一個例子是加州，我們沒有根據 AB 1228 採取增量價格上漲。

While many have commented on decelerating traffic in the market, we have seen sustained momentum. Our strong value proposition and highly portable concept or supporting expansion in new and existing markets. Today, we are in 25 states and the District of Columbia, and our powerful unit economic engine continues to gain steam.

儘管許多人評論稱市場流量正在減速，但我們看到了持續的成長勢頭。我們強大的價值主張和高度可移植的概念或支持新市場和現有市場的擴張。如今，我們的業務已覆蓋 25 個州和哥倫比亞特區，我們強大的單位經濟引擎持續強勁成長。

Our average unit volume or AUV rose again in the quarter. We generated more net income and all of last year, and we delivered our second consecutive quarter of free cash flow. We believe our strong balance sheet and ability to self-fund growth allows us to continue to grow market share in this uncertain economic environment.

本季度，我們的平均單位交易量或 AUV 再次上升。去年全年我們的淨收入有所增加，並且連續第二個季度實現了自由現金流。我們相信，我們強大的資產負債表和自籌資金成長的能力使我們能夠在這種不確定的經濟環境中繼續擴大市場份額。

Our second-quarter highlights include a 35.2% increase in CAVA revenue, driving AUV of $2.7 million; CAVA's same restaurant sales growth of 14.4% with traffic growth of 9.5%; 18 net new restaurants ending the quarter was 341 restaurants today, a 22.2% increase year over year; adjusted EBITDA of $34.3 million, a $12.7 million increase over the second quarter of 2023; net income of $19.7 million; and $22.7 million in free cash flow during the quarter.

我們第二季的亮點包括 CAVA 營收成長 35.2%，平均每家餐廳營業額 (AUV) 達到 270 萬美元；CAVA 同店銷售額成長 14.4%，客流量成長 9.5%；本季末淨新增餐廳 18 家，目前餐廳總數為 341 家，較去年同期成長 22.2%；年第二季增加 1,270 萬美元；淨收入為 1,970 萬美元；本季自由現金流為 2,270 萬美元。

Additional highlights include our expansion into Chicago, which has been our strongest new market entry ever. We now have locations in Wicker Park and Vernon Hills with a third slated to open in Oak Park next month.

其他亮點包括我們向芝加哥的擴張，這是我們有史以來最強勁的新市場進入。目前，我們在威克公園 (Wicker Park) 和弗農山 (Vernon Hills) 設有分店，第三家分店計劃下個月在橡樹園 (Oak Park) 開幕。

During the second quarter, we also launched grilled steak, which is far surpassing our expectations. We were confident in steak's potential, but since the national rollout, sales have been significantly higher than we saw in our seven-month market test. This new main protein complements our existing offerings, fills a perceived gap on our menu, and is giving guests one more reason to visit CAVA and come back more often. The success of steak demonstrates our authority and culinary innovation and our ability to execute, and I want to thank our cross-functional teams that worked to bring this successful launch to life.

第二季度，我們也推出了烤牛排，這遠遠超出了我們的預期。我們對牛排的潛力充滿信心，但自從全國推廣以來，銷量明顯高於我們七個月的市場測試中所見。這種新的主要蛋白質補充了我們現有的產品，填補了我們菜單上的空白，並為客人提供了更多訪問 CAVA 並更頻繁回來的理由。牛排的成功證明了我們的權威和烹飪創新以及我們的執行能力，我要感謝我們的跨職能團隊為實現這一成功推出所做的努力。

I'll now turn to an update on our strategic pillars. Our first pillar is to expand our Mediterranean way in communities across the country. We opened 18 net new cover restaurants during Q2, growing across new markets, including Chicago and existing markets, including Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey and Tennessee, among others. Our new restaurants continue to outperform our expectations, giving us even more confidence in the proven portability of our category-defining brands and the significant whitespace in front of us.

現在我將介紹我們的策略支柱的最新情況。我們的首要支柱是在全國各地的社區推廣我們的地中海方式。我們在第二季新開了 18 家餐廳，在芝加哥等新市場和亞利桑那州、加州、康乃狄克州、佛羅裡達州、新澤西州和田納西州等現有市場都有所成長。我們的新餐廳繼續超越我們的預期，讓我們對我們類別定義品牌的可移植性和我們面前的巨大空白更有信心。

As we capture that white space, we are progressing on our Project Soul initiative. We believe the demise of the dining room has been greatly exaggerated with 64% of our occasions in restaurant, and the consumers are seeking great physical experiences. I recently visited our newest freestanding Project Soul location on McPherson Boulevard in Fort Worth, Texas, which has incorporated softer seating, increased greenery, and a warmer brand pilot to create a comfortable, welcoming environment and better express our concept assets.

當我們抓住這片空白時，我們的「靈魂計畫」正在取得進展。我們認為，餐廳的消亡被大大誇大了，因為 64% 的用餐場合都是在餐廳進行的，而消費者正在尋求極佳的身體體驗。我最近參觀了我們位於德克薩斯州沃斯堡麥克弗森大道的最新獨立 Project Soul 店，這裡採用了更柔軟的座椅、更多的綠化和更溫暖的品牌試點，以創造一個舒適、溫馨的環境，更好地表達我們的概念資產。

Guests are responding well to the new aesthetic, and we are you using what we learned in our iterative process to finalize our go-forward design later this year. With automation and technology increasingly infiltrating the frontlines of many concepts, we believe consumers are seeking human connection more than ever. Projects Soul provides an environment to foster that connection.

客人對新的美學反應良好，我們將利用我們在迭代過程中學到的知識，在今年稍後完成我們的未來設計。隨著自動化和技術日益滲透到許多概念的前沿，我們相信消費者比以往任何時候都更尋求人際連結。Projects Soul 提供了一個促進這種連結的環境。

We believe our team's unique ability to tap into emerging trends and make CAVA part of the cultural conversation is helping to propel our success. Our social media campaign to launch steak, for example, generated more than 8.6 million social impressions and over 300 million PR impressions displaying the efficiency of our marketing efforts. Our social media campaigns have been effective because they are organic, authentic, and express the genuine love guests have for CAVA.

我們相信，我們團隊利用新興趨勢並使 CAVA 成為文化對話的一部分的獨特能力將有助於推動我們的成功。例如，我們推出牛排的社群媒體活動產生了超過 860 萬次社交印象和超過 3 億次 PR 印象，展現了我們行銷工作的效率。我們的社群媒體活動之所以有效，是因為它們自然、真實，並表達了客人對 CAVA 的真誠喜愛。

Many of our brand partners were passionate fans of CAVA before they work with us, including US Women's Soccer Captain and midfielder, Lindsey Horan. Lindsey not only loves our food and incorporates it into her training regimen, but she also has an extensive and growing following, and the unique content she created for us is resonating with consumers. Congratulations to Lindsey and our teammates on their gold medal victory in France.

我們的許多品牌合作夥伴在與我們合作之前都是 CAVA 的狂熱粉絲，其中包括美國女子足球隊長兼中場球員 Lindsey Horan。Lindsey 不僅喜歡我們的食物並將其融入她的訓練方案中，而且她還擁有大量且不斷增長的追隨者，她為我們創造的獨特內容引起了消費者的共鳴。恭喜林賽和我們的隊友在法國奪得金牌。

Our second strategic pillar is to develop personal relationships with guests even as we scale. A foundational component of this pillar is our reimagined loyalty program. We expect this project to significantly grow first-party data, help us create more frequent relevant experiences that drive traffic mix and check, and share our Mediterranean warmth and hospitality across platforms and occasions in ways that resonate with guests on a personal level. Our pilot has given us confidence in the program's ability to drive frequency and increase loyalty revenue.

我們的第二個策略支柱是，在擴大規模的同時，與客人建立個人關係。這支柱的一個基礎組成部分是我們重新構想的忠誠度計畫。我們期望該專案能夠顯著增加第一方數據，幫助我們創造更頻繁的相關體驗，推動流量組合和檢查，並以在個人層面上引起客人共鳴的方式在各個平台和場合分享我們的地中海溫暖和熱情好客。我們的試點讓我們對該計劃提高航班頻率和增加忠誠度收入的能力充滿信心。

We now expect the national rollout in October of this year ahead of schedule. This program will and include our new earn-in bank points model and a menu of reward redemption options. This initial rewards catalog will be the first phase of a multi-phase program, which we expect to build on in the months and years to come.

我們現在預計該技術將提前於今年 10 月在全國推出。該計劃將包括我們新的銀行積分賺取模式和獎勵兌換選項選單。這個初始獎勵目錄將是一個多階段計劃的第一階段，我們預計將在未來幾個月和幾年內繼續推進該計劃。

Our third strategic pillar, run great restaurants, every location, every shift, is focused on making our restaurants more efficient and easier to run. Our connected kitchen initiative is a multi-year journey focused on using data-driven and generative AI technologies to simplify restaurant operations and led our team members' focus on great food, great service, and creating meaningful connections with guests.

我們的第三個策略支柱是經營優秀的餐廳，每個地點、每個班次都致力於讓我們的餐廳更有效率、更容易經營。我們的互聯廚房計劃是一個多年的歷程，專注於使用數據驅動和生成人工智能技術來簡化餐廳運營，並引導我們的團隊成員專注於美味的食物、優質的服務以及與客人建立有意義的聯繫。

We are currently running a small pilot of AI video technology that monitors how quickly ingredients on the in-restaurant make-line are being depleted and alerts the team in real time for prep and click batch amounts. The system is in the learning phase, and we expect it to go live in pilot restaurants and early fall. We'll update you on the initial results in the next earnings call.

我們目前正在運行一項小型人工智慧視訊技術試點，該技術可以監控餐廳生產線上原料的消耗速度，並即時向團隊發出準備和點擊批次數量的警報。該系統目前處於學習階段，我們預計它將在試點餐廳和初秋投入使用。我們將在下次收益電話會議上向您通報初步結果。

While this initiative is in the very early stages, we believe it can drive quality and consistency, increase order accuracy, boost speed of service, and simplify prep and planning. Our labor model test also continues to progress, and we expect more than 75 restaurants to be in pilot by early fall. The focus of this test is on reallocating ours, putting our team in a position to deliver better food, better hospitality, and more efficient speed of service.

雖然該計劃尚處於早期階段，但我們相信它可以提高品質和一致性，提高訂單準確性，加快服務速度，並簡化準備和計劃。我們的勞動模式測試也持續進行，預計到初秋將有超過 75 家餐廳進行試驗。這次測試的重點是重新分配我們的團隊，使我們的團隊能夠提供更好的食物、更好的接待和更有效率的服務速度。

Early results are promising, and we have identified opportunities to strategically invest in lower-volume restaurants to drive increased revenue over time. We expect to continue expanding our tests throughout 2024 with a company-wide rollout plan for the beginning of 2025.

早期結果令人鼓舞，我們已經發現了對低客流量餐廳進行策略性投資的機會，以隨著時間的推移推動收入成長。我們預計將在 2024 年繼續擴大測試範圍，並於 2025 年初在全公司範圍內推出測試計畫。

Our fourth and final pillar operate as a high-performing team, includes deepening our culture of accountability, developing enhanced data capabilities, and investing in programs and tools to further engage with retain and connect our teams. As part of our restaurants health initiative, we're testing technology that proactively gathers guest feedback at the restaurant level and in nearly real-time. The test is live and 50 restaurants, and we are pleased with the results and expect to launch this new technology company-wide in early 2025.

我們的第四個也是最後一個支柱是作為一支高績效團隊運作，包括深化我們的責任文化，開發增強的數據能力，以及投資於計劃和工具以進一步參與和留住和聯繫我們的團隊。作為我們餐廳健康計劃的一部分，我們正在測試一種在餐廳層面主動且幾乎即時收集客人回饋的技術。測試已在 50 家餐廳進行，我們對結果非常滿意，並預計將於 2025 年初在全公司範圍內推出這項新技術。

In addition, we continue to reinvest and team members and by proxy, our guests. Our regular investments in wages and team member development are helping us recruit and retain top talent we need to support our growth. In the second quarter, turnover was down by approximately 28% year over year at the hourly level.

此外，我們將繼續對團隊成員以及我們的客人進行再投資。我們對薪資和團隊成員發展的定期投資有助於我們招募和留住支持我們成長所需的頂尖人才。第二季度，每小時營業額較去年同期下降約28%。

We don't just want to retain our talent; we want to continue to develop them. To that end, we now have 62 leaders in our Academy GM network, including nine promoted to higher levels as we grow our ranks to build our future leadership pipeline in support of our new restaurant growth. I witnessed firsthand the power of our Academy GM program on my recent shoulder-to-shoulder shift at our Laurel, Maryland restaurant.

我們不只是想留住人才；我們還想繼續培養他們。為此，我們學院總經理網絡中現在有 62 名領導者，其中 9 名晉升至更高級別，因為我們不斷擴大隊伍，建立未來的領導管道，支持我們新餐廳的發展。最近，我在馬裡蘭州勞雷爾的餐廳並肩值班時親眼目睹了學院總經理計劃的威力。

Our shoulder-to-shoulder program enlists corporate team members to worker restaurants shift every quarter. This program not only allows corporate team members a frontline view of the opportunities to elevate our operator and guest experiences but deepens cultural connections amongst our distributed workforce.

我們的「肩並肩」計畫每季招募公司團隊成員到餐廳輪班工作。該計劃不僅使公司團隊成員能夠從第一線了解到提升營運商和客戶體驗的機會，而且還加深了分散式員工之間的文化聯繫。

I had the privilege of working alongside Sandra Barrios, our Laurel GM, who's in the process of seeking her Academy GM certification. Sandra's pointed out a few high-potential team members she is looking to nominate for the GM training program. Possibly the best part of my visit was meeting [Ramon Canales], our grill champion at Laurel, whose spicy lamb meatballs are definitely in the running for the best I've ever tasted. Ramon is a true grill champion.

我有幸與我們的 Laurel 總經理 Sandra Barrios 一起工作，她正在尋求學院總經理認證。桑德拉指出了幾位她希望提名參加總經理培訓計畫的高潛力團隊成員。也許我此行最棒的部分是遇見了 Laurel 的燒烤冠軍 [Ramon Canales]，他做的辣味羊肉丸絕對是我嚐過的最好吃的。拉蒙是一位真正的燒烤冠軍。

I want to thank our loyal team for hosting me, and I want to thank our teams across the country for delivering an exceptional quarter while staying true to our mission every day. In this uncertain time for the consumer, we believe that delivering on our mission to bring heart, health, and humanity to food will continue to be a powerful formula for success.

我要感謝我們忠誠的團隊對我的接待，也要感謝我們全國各地的團隊在每天忠於我們的使命的同時，創造了一個卓越的季度。在這個消費者充滿不確定性的時期，我們相信，履行我們的使命，為食物帶來愛、健康和人性，將繼續成為我們成功的強大秘訣。

Consumers are hungry for flavorful, healthy, and innovative food, want the convenience of engaging with brands on their terms and in an increasingly automated world, crave human connection. From our relevant differentiated cuisine to the robust digital and physical experiences we provide and our unique brand of Mediterranean hospitality, we are meeting the moment for the modern consumer.

消費者渴望美味、健康和創新的食品，希望能夠以自己的方式方便地與品牌互動，並且在日益自動化的世界中渴望人際互動。從我們相關的差異化美食到我們提供的強大的數位和實體體驗以及我們獨特的地中海酒店品牌，我們正在滿足現代消費者的需求。

As evidenced by our outstanding second-quarter results, our value proposition is resonating with guests. And as we define next large-scale cultural cuisine category, we are well positioned to create long-term value for our guests, team members, and shareholders.

正如我們第二季度出色的業績所證明的那樣，我們的價值主張引起了客人的共鳴。當我們定義下一個大型文化美食類別時，我們已準備好為我們的客人、團隊成員和股東創造長期價值。

With that, I'll let Tricia walk you through the financials.

接下來，我將讓 Tricia 向您介紹財務狀況。

Thanks, Brett, and good afternoon, everyone. CAVA revenue in the second quarter 2024 grew 35.2% year over year to $231.4 million. During the quarter, we opened 18 net new CAVA restaurant or 78 net new CAVA restaurant during our subsequent to the second quarter of 2023, bringing our total content restaurant count to 341.

謝謝，布雷特，大家下午好。2024 年第二季 CAVA 營收年增 35.2%，達到 2.314 億美元。本季度，我們淨增 18 家 CAVA 餐廳，2023 年第二季之後淨增 78 家 CAVA 餐廳，使我們的餐廳總數達到 341 家。

We are pleased with our new restaurant openings which are continuing to exceed expectations. CAVA same-restaurant sales increased 14.4%, driven by a 9.5% increase from guest traffic, and a 4.9% increase from menu price and product mix.

我們對新餐廳的開幕感到非常高興，它們的表現不斷超出我們的預期。CAVA 同店銷售額成長 14.4%，其中客流量成長 9.5%，菜單價格與產品組合成長 4.9%。

Our steak launch to the beginning of Q1 benefited from a highly productive social media and PR campaign driving incidents well above test results and original expectations. CAVA restaurant level of profit in the second quarter were $61.3 million or 26.5% of revenue versus $44.6 million or 26.1% of revenue in the prior year, representing a 37.3% increase.

我們在第一季初推出的牛排得益於高效的社交媒體和公關活動，推動的事件遠遠超出了測試結果和最初的預期。CAVA 餐廳第二季的利潤為 6,130 萬美元，佔營收的 26.5%，而去年同期的利潤為 4,460 萬美元，佔營收的 26.1%，成長了 37.3%。

This increase is due to leverage from higher sales, partially offset by incremental wage investments and the launch of steak on June 3. CAVA's food, beverage, and packaging costs were 29.4% of revenue, consistent with the second quarter of 2023, as the increase in input costs related to the launch of steak was offset by other lower input costs compared to the same period in the prior year. We anticipate CAVA's food, beverage, and packaging costs to increase as a percent of revenue for the rest of the year as a result of our steak launch in June.

這一增長是由於銷售額增加帶來的槓桿作用，但被增量工資投資和 6 月 3 日牛排的推出部分抵消。CAVA 的食品、飲料和包裝成本佔收入的 29.4%，與 2023 年第二季度持平，因為與牛排推出相關的投入成本的增加被與去年同期相比其他投入成本的降低所抵消。由於我們六月將推出牛排產品，我們預計 CAVA 的食品、飲料和包裝成本將佔今年剩餘時間收入的百分比將會增加。

CAVA labor and related costs were 25.2%, up 40 basis points in the second quarter of 2023. The increase reflects investments in our team member wages of 9% year over year, including the impact from AB 1228, which we chose not to offset this menu price increases to the guests that we discussed in prior calls, partially offset by leverage from increased sales compared to the prior year. CAVA occupancy and related expenses were 6.9% of revenue, an improvement of 90 basis points from the second quarter at 2023 due to increased sales leverage.

2023 年第二季度，CAVA 勞動力及相關成本為 25.2%，上漲 40 個基點。這一增長反映了我們對團隊成員工資的投資同比增長了 9%，其中包括 AB 1228 的影響，我們選擇不抵消我們在之前的電話會議中討論過的菜單價格上漲，但部分抵消了與上一年相比銷售額增加帶來的槓桿作用。CAVA 入住率及相關費用佔收入的 6.9%，由於銷售槓桿的提高，較 2023 年第二季提高了 90 個基點。

CAVA other operating expenses were 12% of revenue, which is flat to the second quarter of 2023. Shifting the overall performance, our general and administrative expenses for the quarter, excluding stock-based compensation and non-recurring public company costs in the prior-year quarter were $24.7 million compared to $20.4 million in Q2 of 2023. This increase is primarily driven by investments to support our growth and recurring public company costs.

CAVA 其他營運支出佔收入的 12%，與 2023 年第二季持平。整體業績發生變化，本季我們的一般及行政開支（不包括股票薪酬和去年同期的非經常性上市公司成本）為 2,470 萬美元，而 2023 年第二季為 2,040 萬美元。這一成長主要得益於支持我們成長的投資和經常性的上市公司成本。

However, as a percentage of revenue, we experienced an improvement of 120 basis points due to leverage from higher sales, partially offset by the previously noted investments and recurring public company costs. Adjusted EBITDA, including the burden of pre-opening costs for the quarter was $34.3 million, which was $12.7 million higher than Q2 of 2023. The increase in adjusted EBITDA was driven by the number and strength of the performance of the new restaurant openings, 14.4% CAVA same restaurant sales growth and leveraging G&A.

然而，作為收入百分比，由於銷售額增加帶來的槓桿作用，我們實現了 120 個基點的改善，但部分被先前提到的投資和經常性上市公司成本所抵消。調整後的 EBITDA（包括本季開業前成本負擔）為 3,430 萬美元，比 2023 年第二季高出 1,270 萬美元。調整後 EBITDA 的成長得益於新開餐廳的數量和業績表現、CAVA 同店銷售額成長 14.4% 以及 G&A 的槓桿作用。

We reported $19.7 million of net income compared with net income of $6.5 million in Q2 of 2023, representing an increase of $13.2 million. The power of the model is evident with net income in the second quarter of 2024, exceeding total net income generated and all of fiscal year 2023. We reported diluted earnings per share of $0.17 in the quarter compared with diluted earnings per share at $0.21 in Q2 of 2023, which includes the impact of the lower share count prior to the IPO.

我們報告的淨收入為 1,970 萬美元，而 2023 年第二季的淨收入為 650 萬美元，增加了 1,320 萬美元。該模型的威力顯而易見，2024 年第二季的淨收入超過了 2023 財年全年的總淨收入。我們報告本季每股攤薄收益為 0.17 美元，而 2023 年第二季每股攤薄收益為 0.21 美元，其中包括 IPO 前股票數量較少的影響。

Shifting to liquidity. At the end of the quarter, we had zero debt outstanding, $343.7 million in cash on hand, and access to a $75 million undrawn revolver with an option to increase our liquidity if needed. We delivered cash flow from operations at $48.9 million for the quarter compared with $21.4 million in the prior-year quarter. This increase was primarily driven by our improved operations, generating increased profitability across the fleet. Total company free cash flow was $22.7 million in the current quarter.

轉向流動性。截至本季末，我們的未償債務為零，手頭上有 3.437 億美元現金，並可使用 7,500 萬美元未提取的循環信貸額度，並可選擇在需要時增加流動性。本季我們的經營現金流為 4,890 萬美元，去年同期為 2,140 萬美元。這一增長主要得益於我們營運的改善，從而提高了整個船隊的獲利能力。本季公司總自由現金流為 2,270 萬美元。

Now to our outlook for full year 2024, we expect the following: 54 to 57 net new CAVA restaurant openings; CAVA same-restaurant sales growth at 8.5% to 9.5%; CAVA restaurant-level profit margin between 24.2% and 24.7%; pre-opening costs between $12 million and $13 million; and adjusted EBITDA, including the burden of pre-opening costs between $109 million and $114 million.

現在展望 2024 年全年，我們預計：CAVA 將淨增 54 至 57 家新餐廳；CAVA 同店銷售額增長 8.5% 至 9.5%；CAVA 餐廳層面的利潤率在 24.2% 至 24.7% 之間；開業前成本在 1200 萬美元至 130 萬美元之間的成本開業後（EBITDA 1, 900 萬美元之間；億美元至 1.14 億美元之間。

I want to share some additional color around our revised 2024 outlook. Our real estates development and operation teams have done an incredible job during the first half of 2024 to get restaurants open on time and in some cases, ahead of schedule. As a result, we have a more front-half weighted opening schedule while still raising our full-year guidance and avoiding opening restaurants during the busy holiday season. We continue to feel confident in our real estate pipeline and are excited about our 2025 opening plan of at least 15% annual unit growth.

我想就我們修訂後的 2024 年展望分享一些額外的資訊。我們的房地產開發和營運團隊在 2024 年上半年做出了出色的工作，確保餐廳按時開業，有些甚至提前開業。因此，我們制定了更側重上半年開業計劃的政策，同時仍提高了全年業績預期，並避免在繁忙的假期季節開設餐廳。我們對我們的房地產儲備仍然充滿信心，並對我們 2025 年至少 15% 年度單位增長的開業計劃感到興奮。

Guidance for CAVA same-restaurant sales growth of 8.5% to 9.5% implies a low-double-digit, same-restaurant sales growth for the remainder of the year. This guidance reflects the strength that we are currently seeing in our business and also contemplates the macroeconomic and election uncertainty in the remainder of the year.

CAVA 同店銷售額成長預期為 8.5% 至 9.5%，這意味著今年剩餘時間內同店銷售額將維持低兩位數成長。這項指引反映了我們目前業務的強勁表現，同時也考慮了今年剩餘時間的宏觀經濟和選舉不確定性。

As a reminder, to achieve an optimal comparison to fiscal weeks in the CAVA same-restaurant sales calculation, giving consideration to holiday periods, each week of fiscal 2023 was shifted by one week. As a result of this shift, approximately $3.9 million of revenue was not included in CAVA same-restaurant sales growth in Q1, which would have resulted in 200 basis points higher same-restaurant sales growth. Although the impact of this shift was immaterial to Q2 and expect it to be immaterial to Q3, an offsetting impact will occur in Q4.

提醒一下，為了在 CAVA 同店銷售額計算中與財政週進行最佳比較，考慮到假日因素，2023 財政年度的每一周都向前移動了一周。由於這一轉變，約有 390 萬美元的收入未計入 CAVA 第一季同店銷售額成長，原本會導致同店銷售額成長增加 200 個基點。儘管這種轉變對第二季的影響並不大，並且預計對第三季的影響也不大，但第四季將出現抵銷影響。

And turning to restaurant-level profit margin, note that about half of Q2 was impacted by the June 3 launch of steak, which outperformed our expectations. CAVA restaurant-level profit margin guidance for the full year effects this higher incidence of steak.

談到餐廳層面的利潤率，請注意，第二季度約有一半的利潤受到 6 月 3 日推出的牛排產品的影響，這超出了我們的預期。CAVA 全年餐廳級利潤率指引影響了牛排發生率的提高。

Additionally, consistent with last year, we anticipate Q4's seasonally affected margins to be around 200 basis points lower than full-year restaurant-level profit margins. Adjusted EBITDA guidance includes G&A spend as a percent of revenue on a full-year basis to be higher than the second quarter of 2024 due to additional investments to support growth and see leverage impacts from lower sales in Q3 and Q4.

此外，與去年一樣，我們預計第四季受季節性影響的利潤率將比全年餐廳利潤率低約 200 個基點。調整後的 EBITDA 指引包括 G&A 支出佔全年收入的百分比，該百分比將高於 2024 年第二季度，原因是額外投資以支持增長，並看到第三季度和第四季度銷售額下降帶來的槓桿影響。

Last, I want to spend a moment providing an update on tax expectations. Historically, we have had a full valuation of allowance on our deferred tax assets, primarily relating to net operating loss carry forwards, which has resulted in immaterial tax expense. Based on our positive profitability trends, there is a reasonable possibility that within the current fiscal year, we will be in a position to release the valuation allowance, which would result in a one-time significant P&L benefit as a reduction to tax expense.

最後，我想花點時間提供有關稅收預期的最新資訊。從歷史上看，我們對遞延所得稅資產的準備金進行了全面估值，主要涉及淨營業虧損結轉，這導致了無關緊要的稅費。根據我們積極的獲利趨勢，我們很有可能在本財政年度內釋放估值準備金，這將導致一次性重大損益收益，從而減少稅費。

After this release and valuation allowance, we will begin to have a more normalized, effective tax rate in the mid-20s. Keep in mind, we expect our cash taxes to continue to be immaterial until we fully utilize our net operating losses.

在這次發布和估值準備金之後，我們將在 1920 年代中期開始擁有更正常化的有效稅率。請記住，我們預計，在我們充分利用淨營業虧損之前，我們的現金稅將繼續無關緊要。

Before turning to Q&A, I want to thank our team members for delivering on our commitments, preparing and serving our amazing cuisine with CAVA hospitality to more and more people across the country and making CAVA a very special thanks to work. I recently returned from my first trip to Greece, where my husband and I had a chance to walk through the olive groves of our supplier, who's been with us since our earliest stage and continues to produce the olives and the liquid gold olive oil we use in all our restaurants.

在進入問答環節之前，我想感謝我們的團隊成員履行承諾，以 CAVA 的熱情好客為全國越來越多的人準備和提供美味佳餚，並使 CAVA 成為一項非常特別的感謝工作。我最近剛從希臘回來，我和我的丈夫有機會穿過我們供應商的橄欖樹林，供應商從我們成立之初就一直與我們合作，並繼續生產我們在所有餐廳使用的橄欖和液體黃金橄欖油。

It was an exciting trip for our family in part, because we were able to see where CAVA's founders came from and experience first-hand what inspires them. Their vision, coupled with the passion and drive our team members, lets us deliver powerful unit economics that get stronger with every new restaurant we open and every new market we enter.

對我們家來說，這是一次令人興奮的旅行，因為我們能夠了解 CAVA 創始人的來源，並親身體驗他們的靈感來源。他們的願景，加上我們團隊成員的熱情和動力，使我們能夠實現強大的單位經濟效益，而且隨著我們開設的每家新餐廳和進入的每一個新市場，這種效益會越來越強。

Now I will turn the call back over to the operator and open it up for Q&A.

現在我將把電話轉回給接線員並開始問答環節。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝。女士們、先生們，我們現在開始問答環節。（操作員指示）

David Tarantino, Baird.

大衛·塔倫蒂諾，貝爾德。

Hi, good afternoon, and congratulations on delivering those strong results. My question is about the second quarter and the strength you saw on the sales was quite a big acceleration it seemed from the first quarter. And I just wanted to get your thoughts on the factors that drove the large acceleration. I know you mentioned steak outperforming your expectation, but maybe you could piece together some of the key drivers.

大家下午好，祝賀你們取得如此優異的成績。我的問題是關於第二季度的，您看到的銷售強勁勢頭似乎比第一季有了很大的加速。我只是想了解一下您對推動這種大幅加速的因素的看法。我知道您提到牛排的表現超出了您的預期，但也許您可以總結出一些關鍵驅動因素。

And then the second part of the question, Tricia, that looks like the second half, you're not quite assuming -- or assuming quite the same strength to continue. So just wondering how you're thinking about the second half related to what you just delivered for the second quarter? Thanks.

然後是問題的第二部分，特里西婭，看起來就像是後半部分，你並沒有完全假設 - 或者假設以同樣的力量繼續下去。所以我想知道您對下半年的看法與您剛公佈的第二季的情況有何關聯？謝謝。

Thanks, David. So certainly, as you look at our second quarter of same-restaurant sales growth of 14.4% and compare that to first quarter, there is an acceleration, but really looking at it on a two-year same-restaurant sales basis, two-year same restaurant sales in Q1 of '24 were 30.8% and two-year same-restaurant sales in Q2 of 2024 grew to 32.6%. So there certainly is an increase, and you're seeing that in what we were able to deliver in Q2 with a very strong 9.5% traffic growth.

謝謝，大衛。因此，當然，當您看到我們第二季度同店銷售額增長 14.4% 並與第一季度進行比較時，您會發現增長速度有所加快，但實際上從兩年同店銷售額的角度來看，2024 年第一季兩年同店銷售額為 30.8%，而 2024 年第二季度兩年同店銷售額增長至 32.6%。因此肯定會有成長，您可以從我們在第二季度實現的 9.5% 的強勁流量成長中看到這一點。

When you look at what are the drivers impacting in the same restaurant sales, I kind of think of it like a comparable. There are lots of combinations that blend together to create something truly amazing. And it's things like new culinary innovation like steak that you mentioned, it's the strong value perception that we have in the marketplace, increased brand awareness and certainly our team member execution, and so all that combined together is delivering an outstanding result in the period and the quarter that we're proud of.

當你觀察影響同一家餐廳銷售的因素時，我會覺得它們具有可比性。有很多種組合融合在一起創造出真正令人驚嘆的東西。諸如您提到的牛排等新的烹飪創新，我們在市場上的強烈價值認知，不斷提高的品牌知名度，當然還有我們團隊成員的執行力，所有這些結合在一起，使得我們在本季度取得了令我們感到自豪的出色成績。

And then your second question about the second half and how it's not assuming, say, the same strength, we talked about this in our guidance and why we don't give period-to-period or into-the-quarter following quarter results. We are seeing strength in the business itself but also want to be thoughtful around the uncertain macroeconomic environment and the upcoming election and factor that into our guidance. So those two things together are influencing what we've communicated today.

然後你的第二個問題是關於下半年的，以及為什麼它沒有假設同樣的實力，我們在我們的指導中討論了這個問題，以及為什麼我們不提供逐季或逐季度的結果。我們看到了業務本身的實力，但也希望認真考慮不確定的宏觀經濟環境和即將到來的選舉，並將其納入我們的指導中。所以這兩件事共同影響了我們今天所傳達的內容。

Great. Thank you for that. And Tricia, is there any way to isolate the impact of steak on the comp in the second quarter? Is there -- however you look at it from a traffic and mix perspective?

偉大的。謝謝你。特里西婭，有什麼方法可以隔離牛排對第二季公司業績的影響嗎？是否存在——無論你從流量和組合的角度來看待它？

Yeah. There was a favorable impact on mix and certainly some benefit in traffic. But what we're seeing is strength in traffic across in general and fits much broader than steak by itself. Really pleased with the traffic and same-restaurant sales strength across all regions of the country in all of our formats as well as in suburban and urban environments. So it just isn't really one thing driving that traffic strength. It's a combination of factors.

是的。這對混合產生了有利的影響，並且肯定對交通產生了一些好處。但我們看到的是，總體而言，交通狀況強勁，而且比牛排本身的適用範圍要廣泛得多。我們對全國各地所有門市以及郊區和城市環境中的客流量和同店銷售實力感到非常滿意。因此，這實際上並不是推動流量成長的因素。這是多種因素共同作用的結果。

Brian Harbour, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的布萊恩哈伯 (Brian Harbour)。

Thank you. Good afternoon, guys. One question, I guess I was just curious about the margin side was, is there anything else -- aside from the steak impact -- is there anything else you're doing on food for the rest of the year? And then also, June plan to make a similar kind of labor investment from once we get into the end of the year, how will that kind of play into restaurant margins?

謝謝。大家下午好。我只是對利潤方面感到好奇，有一個問題是，除了牛排的影響之外，今年剩餘時間你們在食品方面還有其他什麼計劃嗎？此外，June 計劃在年底前進行類似的勞動力投資，這將如何影響餐廳利潤？

Yeah. Outside of steak, we're not anticipating any significant changes in input costs on the food, beverage and packaging cost side for the remainder of the year. And then when you turn and look at labor investments, we mentioned that average wage is at 9% year over year.

是的。除牛排外，我們預計今年剩餘時間內食品、飲料和包裝成本的投入成本不會有任何重大變化。然後，當你轉而看看勞動投資時，我們提到平均薪資年增了 9%。

We started making a fairly significant investments in wages in the fourth quarter of 2023. And that's what you're seeing the benefit of in the increase in average wage as well as the decline in turnover that Brett talked about in the prepared remarks. At this point, while we're always looking at ways to reinvest into our team members as well as our guests, there are no major planned for an incremental labor investments for the rest of 2024.

我們從 2023 年第四季開始對薪資進行相當大的投資。這就是布雷特在準備好的發言中談到的平均薪資上漲和營業額下降帶來的好處。目前，雖然我們一直在尋找方法對我們的團隊成員和客人進行再投資，但對於 2024 年剩餘時間的增量勞動力投資，我們還沒有計劃進行重大的計劃。

Okay. Sounds good. Thank you. And the new labor model that you mentioned, could you tell us more about that -- what some of the details are, what's kind of been most favorable within that so far?

好的。聽起來不錯。謝謝。您提到的新勞動模式，能否向我們詳細介紹——有哪些細節，到目前為止，其中最有利的是什麼？

Hey, Brian, it's Brett. I'll speak to that. It's basically taking that same net hours -- labor hours and reallocating them in a much more effective and efficient way so that we put our team members in the right places at the right moments during their shift. So they're prepping during down times, they're customer-facing during peak times sales to help with speed of service, to help with quality of guest experience.

嘿，布萊恩，我是布雷特。我會談論這個。它基本上是利用相同的淨工時（勞動時間）並以更有效、更有效率的方式重新分配它們，以便我們將團隊成員安排在輪班期間的正確時間出現在正確的位置。因此，他們在業務低迷時期做好準備，在銷售高峰期面向客戶，以幫助提高服務速度，並幫助提高客戶體驗品質。

And we're seeing quantitative improvements in the pilot restaurants as well as qualitative improvements, especially for our general managers or our shift leader saying, now we can really coach our teams and be in a position to manage versus having to jump into a position on the line to fill a gap at peak hours. So very pleased. We will be at 75 restaurants this fall with the goal to launch it across all restaurants in early 2025.

我們看到試點餐廳在數量和質量上都有所提高，特別是對於我們的總經理或輪班領班來說，他們說，現在我們可以真正指導我們的團隊，並能夠進行管理，而不必在高峰時段跳到生產線上填補空缺。非常高興。今年秋天，我們將在 75 家餐廳推出這項服務，目標是在 2025 年初在所有餐廳推出這項服務。

Andrew Charles, TD Cowen.

安德魯查爾斯 (Andrew Charles)，TD Cowen。

Great. Thank you. You talked about the revamped loyalty program, guests visiting and spending more than non-loyalty guests. Is it fair to say the loyalty pilot markets are seeing same-store sales materially optimal performance overall system? What I'm really looking to understand is that is the loyalty program same-store sales impact factored into the back-half guidance for same-store sales?

偉大的。謝謝。您談到了改進後的忠誠度計劃，客人的到訪量和消費額都比非忠誠度客人要多。是否可以說忠誠度試點市場正在看到同店銷售額在整體系統方面實現實質最優表現？我真正想了解的是，忠誠度計畫對同店銷售額的影響是否已計入下半年同店銷售預測？

Yeah. So loyalty we mentioned is going to launch in October, ahead of schedule, and we are seeing benefit through the program in our test markets, but we haven't factored anything incremental into our guidance for the rest of the year.

是的。因此，我們提到的忠誠度計劃將於 10 月提前推出，並且我們在測試市場中看到了該計劃帶來的好處，但我們還沒有將任何增量因素納入今年剩餘時間的預測中。

Okay, very helpful. Then Brett, just wanted to get an update on catering. Last time we caught up, I believe you talked about 10 production facilities. Is this something you expect to lean more into in 2025, or is this more of a 2026 opportunity for the system of catering?

好的，非常有幫助。那麼布雷特，我只是想了解一下餐飲的最新情況。上次我們見面時，我相信您談到了 10 個生產設施。您是否預計 2025 年會更傾向於此，或者這更像是餐飲系統在 2026 年的一個機會？

It's really more larger scale. 2025 will be a continuation of progression of our tests. Very excited about the catering opportunity, but want to be very mindful about how it impacts production in our restaurants. And so we do have 10 digital kitchen hubs and 10 hybrid kitchen hubs in various locations across the country as well as a cluster of regular CAVA restaurants that we're testing catering in now.

它的規模確實更大。 2025 年將是我們測試的延續。對餐飲機會感到非常興奮，但也非常清楚它會對我們餐廳的生產產生怎樣的影響。因此，我們在全國各地設有 10 個數位廚房中心和 10 個混合廚房中心，以及一群我們正在測試餐飲服務的常規 CAVA 餐廳。

We will move, in 2025, to a full market test of a major metro market to really inform how we would want to go across the country in 2026 from a more national perspective. But very excited about the catering opportunity. Certainly seeing a lot of demand. We want to make sure we set our operators up for success to deliver on that guest promise.

2025 年，我們將對主要大都會市場進行全面的市場測試，以便從全國範圍的角度真正了解我們希望在 2026 年如何在全國範圍內開展業務。但對於餐飲機會感到非常興奮。確實看到了很多需求。我們希望確保我們的營運商能夠成功兌現對客人的承諾。

Chris O'Cull, Stifel.

克里斯·奧卡爾（Chris O'Cull），Stifel。

Thanks. Good afternoon, guys. Brett, you mentioned new units are exceeding expectations. What factors do you believe are causing the better-than-expected performance? And then Tricia, what's been the average investment for new units opened this year? And maybe what's been the trend -- what has the inflation trend looked like recently relative to your targets?

謝謝。大家下午好。布雷特，您提到新單位的表現超乎預期。您認為哪些因素導致了業績優於預期？那麼 Tricia，今年新開幕單位的平均投資是多少？可能的趨勢是怎樣的——相對於您的目標，最近的通膨趨勢是怎樣的？

Hey, Chris. Thanks for the question. I think it's certainly the execution of our team and the increasing awareness of our brand. One of the things we talked about when going public was that this was an opportunity to put our brand and the category we're creating in the public sphere, and that's certainly amplified awareness around the country.

嘿，克里斯。謝謝你的提問。我認為這肯定是我們團隊的執行力和我們品牌知名度的提升。我們在上市時談到的一件事是，這是一個將我們的品牌和我們正在創造的類別推向公共領域的機會，這無疑會提高全國的知名度。

And when we do our community days, we've been able to generate great -- earn media and organic viral word-of-mouth in these communities that's driven very strong sales out of the gate. So it's been a bit of a kind of snowball rolling downhill as we open these restaurants and seeing the momentum of the openings.

當我們舉辦社區日活動時，我們能夠在這些社區中產生巨大的媒體收入和有機病毒式口碑，從而推動非常強勁的銷售。因此，當我們開設這些餐廳並看到其開業勢頭時，這就像滾雪球一樣。

And Chris, as it relates to cost to those new restaurants, we are experiencing cost of around 1.3 million net, which is in line with what we've expected. Really pleased with the team's performance in managing those costs. And when you asked about inflation, there has been very modest inflation that we've been experiencing, and that's a lot to do with how our real estate design and construction teams address the market, work with our general contractor base to expand and strengthen it, and conduct RFPs to really make us more effective in our spend.

克里斯，就這些新餐廳的成本而言，我們的淨成本約為 130 萬，這與我們的預期一致。對團隊在管理這些成本方面的表現非常滿意。當您問到通貨膨脹時，我們經歷的通貨膨脹非常溫和，這在很大程度上與我們的房地產設計和施工團隊如何應對市場、如何與我們的總承包商團隊合作以擴大和加強它以及如何進行 RFP 以真正提高我們的支出效率有關。

And then overall, when you combine that with strong returns and sales and operating performance that Brett talked about, it really drives the strong cash-on-cash return, exceeding our expectations as we go into the first- and second-year and beyond openings.

總體而言，當你將其與 Brett 談到的強勁回報、銷售和營運業績結合起來時，它確實推動了強勁的現金回報率，超出了我們進入第一年、第二年及以後開業時的預期。

Andy Barish, Jefferies.

安迪‧巴里什 (Andy Barish)，傑富瑞 (Jefferies)。

Hey, guys. Just dovetailing on that last question and answer. Just on Project Soul, are there any incremental costs that we should be thinking about? And then also the other side of that is digital pickup lanes. Do you expect any material increase in those as a percentage of kind of the new builds as we look out to '25, '26?

嘿，大家好。只是與最後一個問題和答案相吻合。就「靈魂計畫」而言，我們是否應該考慮任何增量成本？另一方面是數位接送通道。展望 2025 年和 2026 年，您是否預期這些新建建築的比例會大幅增加？

Yeah. At this point, we're not anticipating significant incremental costs, but we're still evaluating the components that we like in Project Soul, and we'll give updates as appropriate as we move forward. And when you think about digital pickup lanes, we're up to 45 lanes today, and those incremental costs are not significant as we bring the pickup lanes to life.

是的。目前，我們預計成本不會大幅增加，但我們仍在評估 Project Soul 中我們喜歡的組件，並將在推進過程中適時提供更新。當您考慮數位接送車道時，我們今天已經有 45 個車道，而當我們將接送車道投入使用時，這些增加成本並不重要。

And as a percentage of new builds, I mean, it's been an increasing benefit. Again, we're not going to establish a target that's suggesting maybe a certain percentage of our openings. We are being very opportune domestic about finding the right sites and making sure -- making the right economic decisions around on that site selection process.

就新建建築的百分比而言，我的意思是，它的效益一直在增加。再次強調，我們不會設立一個只顯示我們開業人數一定比例的目標。我們在國內尋找合適的地點，並確保在選址過程中做出正確的經濟決策。

Got you. And then just one follow-up on the input costs. Where did you -- I'm assuming there was some deflation in other areas just given the kind of rolling in for part of the quarter. Is there anything you would choose to share in terms of the basket that was deflationary and looking out to the second half? Anything of note there?

明白了。然後只需跟進投入成本。您在哪裡——考慮到本季部分地區的通貨緊縮，我假設其他地區也出現了一些通貨緊縮。就通貨緊縮的貨幣籃子以及下半年的展望而言，您有什麼想分享的嗎？有什麼值得注意的嗎？

A lot of the improvement was versus prior years. So a lot of change in input costs from Q1 to Q2 necessarily. We're not expecting, outside of stakes, significant changes as we go into Q3 and Q4.

與前幾年相比，取得了很大的進步。因此，從第一季到第二季度，投入成本必然會發生很大變化。除了股權之外，我們預計進入第三季和第四季時不會發生重大變化。

Sharon Zackfia, William Blair.

莎朗·扎克菲亞、威廉·布萊爾。

Hi, good afternoon. I know that CAVA has such a wide bandwidth of appeal across different demographics and household incomes. And I'm curious kind of how you did in the quarter across the different income bandwidths and whether you think you're getting trade-up as well as trade-down?

嗨，下午好。我知道 CAVA 對不同人口結構和家庭收入群體具有廣泛的吸引力。我很好奇，本季度您在不同收入範圍內的表現如何，以及您是否認為自己獲得了升級和降級？

Yeah. Hey, Sharon, and I hope you're continuing to recover well. Appreciate the question around performance. So we look at our restaurants based on median household incomes in their areas, and we stratify them. And what we're very pleased to see is that there's strong performance in same-restaurant sales across all income strata. And in fact, the lowest income strata has the highest level of sales. So double-digit same-restaurant sales strength across all strata.

是的。嘿，莎倫，我希望你早日康復。感謝有關性能的問題。因此，我們根據當地家庭收入中位數來篩選餐廳，並對其進行分層。我們非常高興地看到，各個收入階層的同店銷售額都表現強勁。事實上，最低收入階層的銷售額水準最高。因此，各階層的同店銷售額均維持兩位數成長。

And then when you drill in and look at the top decile of restaurants, there's representation from every income strata with in the top decile. So really underscoring, thus far, we've seen a lot of resilience in our guests than what they've been able to deliver and come to CAVA. We think a lot of that has to do with the strong value proposition that we are presenting for them, and really just pleased with the results overall.

然後，當你深入研究頂級十分之一的餐廳時，你會發現頂級十分之一中存在來自各個收入階層的代表。因此，真正需要強調的是，到目前為止，我們看到客人表現出了比他們來到 CAVA 所能提供的更多的韌性。我們認為這在很大程度上與我們向他們提出的強有力的價值主張有關，並且我們對整體結果感到非常滿意。

Yeah, Sharon, it's something I noted in our prepared, and I've talked about where you hear a lot about these value wars. And I think it's a bit of a misnomer and that people are focused on price, which is the cost of what they're paying versus the value, which is truly worth and the worth of their meal or their experience. And it was those attributes I talked about -- quality, relevance, convenience and experience put together.

是的，莎倫，這是我在準備中提到的內容，而且我已經談過你經常聽到的有關這些價值戰爭的事情。我認為這有點用詞不當，人們關注的是價格，即他們支付的成本，而不是價值，即真正的價值以及他們用餐或體驗的價值。我談論的就是這些屬性——品質、相關性、便利性和體驗的結合。

And so when you think about some of the challenges of the traditional full-service model in many markets to deliver on a proposition like that, we're seeing that trade-down. And we're seeing trade-up below us from traditional fast food, where if you look at the Department of Labor statistics from the end of '19 to the end of '23, fast food prices have increased upwards of 30%, CPI 18% during that timeframe; we only took price about 12% during that timeframe.

因此，當您考慮到在許多市場中傳統的全方位服務模式在實現這樣的主張時所面臨的一些挑戰時，我們就會看到這種交易的減少。我們看到傳統快餐的價格正在上漲，如果你查看 19 年底至 23 年底的勞工統計局數據，快餐價格在此期間上漲了 30% 以上，CPI 上漲了 18%；而我們的價格在此期間僅上漲了 12% 左右。

So now you've got a situation where for a $1 or $2 more or often at parity, you can get a bowl of fresh Mediterranean food for the same price as the traditional fast food freezer-to-fryer meal. And we see that trade-up, and that positions us at the nexus of this with our differentiated Mediterranean cuisine, which is really helping to fuel that traffic growth.

所以現在你面臨的情況是，只需多花 1 美元或 2 美元，或者通常以同等價格，你就可以以與傳統快餐冷凍油炸食品相同的價格買到一碗新鮮的地中海美食。我們看到了這種消費升級，這使我們憑藉差異化的地中海美食處於這一趨勢的中心，這確實有助於推動客流量的成長。

Thanks for that. And the question. I mean -- or productivity -- if my math is right, and we kind of always try to back into this; it looks like you're hitting year two targets in the first year of operation, at least for the trailing 12 months. And you talked about, Brett, a little bit about that kind of brand and the cycle you're on.

謝謝。還有問題。我的意思是——或生產力——如果我的計算是正確的，而且我們總是試圖回到這一點；看起來你在營運的第一年就達到了第二年的目標，至少在接下來的 12 個月裡是這樣。布雷特，您稍微談論了這種品牌以及您所處的周期。

I guess at what point do you start to think about changing those new unit hurdles when you think of internally about what sites to take, and what you're willing to pay for rent and then externally, of course, with us and how you think about and unit productivity?

我想，當您從內部考慮要佔領哪些場地、您願意支付多少租金，然後從外部考慮，當然還有我們，您如何看待單位生產力時，您會在什麼時候開始考慮改變這些新的單位障礙？

Yeah, thanks, Sharon. Our new restaurants have been performing very well, and we factor that into our internal assessments of sites as we look at them every two weeks as a cross-functional team to make sure we're making the right decisions as we go forward.

是的，謝謝，莎倫。我們的新餐廳表現非常好，我們將其納入對餐廳的內部評估中，每兩週我們都會以跨職能團隊的身份對其進行一次審查，以確保我們在未來做出正確的決策。

We do think there is likely an opportunity for us to more broadly communicate how we view new restaurant performance, both the opening year as well as subsequent years. And we'll likely have that to be something to communicate in 2025.

我們確實認為，我們可能有機會更廣泛地傳達我們對新餐廳表現的看法，包括開業第一年以及隨後幾年的表現。我們很可能在 2025 年將其作為交流方式。

Brian Mullan, Piper Sandler.

布萊恩·穆蘭、派珀·桑德勒。

Hey, thank you. Just a question on the connected kitchen initiative. Brett, you referred to this as a multiyear journey. As you think about it internally, how do you decide how to sequence all the initiatives you have in mind? Is it just the anticipated impact of the business? Or there may be, for practical reasons, certain order that you need to go on what you have in mind. So just any kind of color on how do you expect this journey to evolve?

嘿，謝謝你。我只是想問一下有關連網廚房計劃的問題。布雷特，你把這稱為一次多年的旅程。當您在內部思考時，您如何決定對您心中所有的計劃進行排序？這僅僅是業務預期的影響嗎？或者，出於實際原因，您可能需要按照自己的想法進行某些順序。那麼您預計這趟旅程將如何發展呢？

Thanks, Brian, for the question. I think it's the latter. It's definitely from a practical standpoint. You think about our labor deployment tests, getting down those foundational labor deployments and getting that rolled out. We've talked about new KDS, which is been in test pilot, getting that equipment capability and base capability out there and then bringing behind some of the more sophisticated long-term generative AI type technologies that we think are at the early stage but could prove very beneficial over the long term.

謝謝 Brian 提出的問題。我認為是後者。這絕對是從實際角度出發的。您可以考慮我們的勞動力部署測試，確定那些基礎勞動力部署並將其推廣開來。我們討論了新的 KDS，它目前處於試運行階段，旨在獲得設備能力和基礎能力，然後引入一些我們認為尚處於早期階段但從長遠來看可能非常有益的更複雜的長期生成 AI 類型的技術。

So it's kind of crawl, walk run, but starting with very base foundation initiatives and then layering on some of the more sophisticated initiatives that we think can ultimately make our restaurants easier to run and set our team members up to deliver on that great guest experience.

因此，這有點像爬行、走路和奔跑，但從非常基礎的基礎計劃開始，然後逐步增加一些更複雜的計劃，我們認為這些計劃最終可以讓我們的餐廳更容易經營，並讓我們的團隊成員能夠為客人提供良好的體驗。

Okay, thank you. And then a follow-up on development. I believe you just recently within the last few months, maybe hired a new Chief Development Officer role. So can you just -- kind of any early insights maybe he's brought to the organization thus far? Anything worth calling out?

好的，謝謝。然後進行後續開發。我相信你們最近幾個月內可能聘請了一位新的首席發展長。那麼，您能否—到目前為止，他可能為該組織帶來了什麼早期見解？有什麼值得一提的嗎？

Yeah, Jeff Gaul has joined us. He was formerly the Global Head of Store Development in Nike. He has been just a great addition to our team. He has hit the ground running, like he has been here for years with our ELT.

是的，Jeff Gaul 加入了我們。他曾任耐吉全球店鋪開發主管。他對我們的團隊來說是一個很大的補充。他很快就開始工作了，就像他已經在這裡為我們的 ELT 工作多年一樣。

And Jeff certainly has deep experience in scaling large pipelines of growth and has already brought to the table, whether it's on the landlord side, whether it's on the strategic sourcing side, some great value add to make sure that we're set up as we ramp up that 15% annual compound unit growth rate translating into more and more units every year.

傑夫在擴大大型成長管道方面確實擁有豐富的經驗，並且已經為業主，無論是在房東方面，還是在策略採購方面，帶來了一些巨大的增值，以確保我們能夠做好準備，實現 15% 的年複合單位增長率，從而每年轉化為越來越多的單位。

Jon Tower, Citi.

花旗銀行的喬恩‧陶爾 (Jon Tower)。

Great. Thanks for taking the questions. Just a couple if I may. First, I am curious -- just following up on the new unit performance and obviously well ahead of expectations and second time this year that the company has taken up its new restaurant opening expectations. I'm curious as you're looking beyond '25 or into '25, does that at least 15% target that you're speaking to, doesn't that appear just a bit too conservative given what you're seeing in terms of consumer response and new store productivity and profits that you're generating plus the balance sheet that you have today? I mean, why can't that be closer to 20%?

偉大的。感謝您回答這些問題。如果可以的話，我只想舉幾個例子。首先，我很好奇——只是跟進新部門的表現，顯然遠遠超出了預期，這是該公司今年第二次提出新餐廳開業預期。我很好奇，當您展望 2025 年以後或 2025 年的時候，您所說的至少 15% 的目標，考慮到您所看到的消費者反應、新店生產力和利潤，加上您今天的資產負債表，這個目標是不是有點太保守了？我的意思是，為什麼不能接近 20%？

Hey, John, it's Brett. It's really predicated upon developing future leaders. There's certainly the demand out there clearly. We kind of talk internally. Chicago has been our best new market opening ever. We need to get more restaurants open in Chicago, but we also don't want to open those restaurants and have bad operations. So we want to make sure we've got the proper leaders trained, which is why we've invested in our Academy GM network.

嘿，約翰，我是布雷特。這確實是為了培養未來的領導者。顯然，存在著這樣的需求。我們有點像是在內部交談。芝加哥是我們迄今為止開拓的最佳新市場。我們需要在芝加哥開設更多的餐館，但我們也不想開設那些經營不善的餐廳。因此，我們希望確保我們培訓合適的領導者，這就是我們投資學院 GM 網路的原因。

You heard we're up to 62 Academy -- certified Academy GMs and make sure we've got that feeder system of pipeline talent that is properly trained and ready to serve our guests and run our teams in those restaurants. And we also just want to have commitments that we can deliver on that we feel comfortable with and not overheat the engine, so to speak.

您聽說了，我們擁有多達 62 名經過認證的學院總經理，並確保我們擁有經過適當培訓並隨時準備為我們的客人提供服務並在這些餐廳管理我們的團隊的人才輸送系統。而我們也只是希望做出能夠兌現的承諾，讓我們感到滿意，並且不會讓引擎過熱，可以這麼說。

And if we see the opportunity to push growth a little bit faster like we have this year, this quarter in particular, then we'll take advantage of that opportunity. But we do not want to get over our skis on restaurant growth. We are students of history and have seen that that has undermined a lot of great growth brands over time.

如果我們看到像今年，特別是本季那樣推動成長更快的機會，那麼我們就會抓住這個機會。但我們不想放棄對餐廳發展的追求。我們是歷史的學生，我們已經看到，隨著時間的推移，這種情況已經破壞了許多偉大的成長型品牌。

Fair enough. Maybe just kind of taking a deep breath on -- I noticed you guys are doing a connected TV test. I'm curious how many markets it is in today and maybe what your early results have told you about testing this platform for building brand awareness in the markets that you've rolled it out to.

很公平。也許只是深呼吸一下——我注意到你們正在進行連網電視測試。我很好奇它現在在多少個市場，也許你的早期結果告訴了你關於測試這個平台在你推出的市場中建立品牌知名度的情況。

Yeah, we've only tested in about eight markets today, and it really is just a test. We're testing and learning. I talked about in my prepared remarks about the efficiency and effectiveness of our social media and our earned media marketing to date. It's very powerful. We get tremendous user-generated content that the team helps amplify or our own content on social media and collaborations like we noted with Lindsey Horan that have proven to be incredibly effective, especially with our Gen Z audience.

是的，我們今天只在大約八個市場進行了測試，這真的只是一次測試。我們正在測試和學習。我在準備好的演講中談到了迄今為止我們的社交媒體和贏得媒體行銷的效率和效果。它非常強大。我們獲得了大量的用戶生成內容，團隊幫助擴大這些內容，或者在社交媒體上發布我們自己的內容，以及與 Lindsey Horan 合作的內容，這些合作已被證明非常有效，尤其是對我們的 Z 世代受眾而言。

But as we scale across the country and we elevate to a more national stage, we are testing tactics and strategies to understand what really is most effective when we are ready to do a little bit more of that upper funnel activity and out-of-home activity.

但隨著我們的規模擴大到全國範圍並上升到更全國性的舞台，我們正在測試策略和策略，以了解當我們準備進行更多上層漏斗活動和戶外活動時，什麼是真正最有效的。

[Rahul Kro], JP Morgan.

[Rahul Kro]，摩根大通。

Good afternoon, guys. How much of this comp performance was driven by the peak hour throughput versus the non-peak daypart for shoulder periods. And also, is there any way we can look at how much of this performance was attributed to existing customers coming more frequently versus the new customers and I have a follow-up.

大家下午好。這項業績表現有多少是由尖峰時段的吞吐量與平季非尖峰時段的吞吐量決定的。此外，我們是否可以看看這種表現有多少是歸功於現有客戶的頻繁光顧，有多少是歸功於新客戶的頻繁光顧，我有一個後續問題。

Okay. Thanks, Rahul. So I think your question was around day-part and what we were seeing from performance, peak versus non-peak. We certainly though steak would be a driver as an increase in dinner performance, which it was. But we saw a tremendous response at lunch as well. So consumers are finding it just a wonderful option for both times of the day and really creating an opportunity to deliver strong traffic results.

好的。謝謝，拉胡爾。所以我認為您的問題是關於一天中的某個時段以及我們所看到的性能、高峰與非高峰的情況。我們當然認為牛排會成為提高晚餐業績的一個推動力，事實也確實如此。但我們在午餐時也看到了巨大的迴響。因此，消費者發現它是一天中兩個時段的絕佳選擇，並且確實創造了帶來強勁流量結果的機會。

As you look at existing and new customers, there's certainly a balance. And so because of the impressions that we've gotten, we've brought in new customers into the restaurants, but because of the perceived gap in the menu around the lack of a beef item, it is certainly has resonated with our existing customers as well.

當你觀察現有客戶和新客戶時，肯定會發現一種平衡。因此，由於我們獲得的印象，我們為餐廳帶來了新顧客，但由於菜單中缺少牛肉菜品，這當然也引起了我們現有顧客的共鳴。

Understood. Brett, as we look at this impressive margin growth trajectory, how do you internally think about the philosophy of reinvesting these margins into what you just defined as the value worth or the quality of experience? And where limit put or threshold for this brand at which you can directly reinvest into the price -- through menu pricing? I mean, thank you.

明白了。布雷特，當我們看到這個令人印象深刻的利潤成長軌跡時，您內心是如何思考將這些利潤再投資到您剛才定義的價值或體驗品質中的理念的？那麼，這個品牌的限度或門檻在哪裡，您可以透過菜單定價直接對價格進行再投資？我的意思是，謝謝你。

Yeah, Rahul. Thanks for the question. That's kind of -- that's our job right is to figure out where do you make smart investments. And a couple of examples that we've done in the past years, Tricia noted, 9% year-over-year wage increase to our team, making sure we're positioned to be very competitive in the markets we compete in on wages for our team members, making sure we support them in delivering that great Mediterranean hospitality.

是的，拉胡爾。謝謝你的提問。這就是——我們的工作就是弄清楚在哪裡進行明智的投資。特里西亞指出，我們過去幾年所做的幾個例子是，我們團隊的薪資年增 9%，確保我們在團隊成員的薪資競爭市場中保持競爭力，確保我們支持他們提供優質的地中海式款待。

And then another example is on behalf of our guests in California with AB 1228 and absorbing the incremental cost of the legislated wage increases there. And so we are looking all the time at different areas of the business, whether it's an ingredient spec, whether it's team member benefits, whether it is mitigating price increases. We only took less than 3% in January, which is the only price increase we've taken this year.

另一個例子是代表我們在加州的客人提出 AB 1228 並吸收當地立法工資增長的增量成本。因此，我們一直在關注業務的不同領域，無論是成分規格，還是團隊成員福利，還是緩解價格上漲。我們一月只漲了不到3%，這也是今年以來我們唯一一次漲價。

I noted earlier from the end of '19 to the end of '23, we only took 12%, and we think that that's all coming together, all of these investments we make to drive that 9.5% traffic in the quarter. So we'll continue to look across the business to understand as we grow restaurant level margin, where we can share some of that wealth across our team members, our guests, and ultimately create long-term, sustainable restaurant-level margin growth and shareholder value.

我之前提到過，從 2019 年底到 2023 年底，我們只佔了 12%，我們認為這一切都是綜合起來的，我們所做的所有這些投資都是為了推動本季 9.5% 的流量。因此，我們將繼續關注整個業務，以了解隨著餐廳利潤的增長，我們可以與我們的團隊成員和客人分享部分財富，並最終創造長期、可持續的餐廳利潤增長和股東價值。

Jeffrey Bernstein, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的傑弗裡·伯恩斯坦。

Great. Thank you very much. Two questions. The first one, just on, I guess, sales drivers more broadly, as you mentioned, steak was better than expected and obviously, a huge protein enhancement. As I look at the menu, it seems like there's less glaring holes for a significant new protein, for example.

偉大的。非常感謝。兩個問題。第一個，我想，就更廣泛的銷售驅動因素而言，正如您所提到的，牛排比預期的要好，而且顯然蛋白質含量大大增加。當我看菜單時，似乎對於重要的新蛋白質等來說，明顯的漏洞就沒那麼明顯了。

But wondering if you could maybe prioritize what you think of the two or three biggest sales drivers over the next 12 months, whether it is product or promotion or technology advertising, social media, you've got so many different levers. I'm just wondering how you prioritize what you think is the next exciting opportunity and whether the system can handle that potential increased traffic? And then I had one follow-up.

但我想知道您是否可以優先考慮未來 12 個月內最大的兩三個銷售驅動因素，無論是產品、促銷還是技術廣告、社交媒體，您都有許多不同的槓桿。我只是想知道您如何優先考慮您認為的下一個令人興奮的機會，以及系統是否可以處理潛在的增加的流量？然後我進行了一次後續行動。

Yeah. So as it relates to the first question, we are launching loyalty in October. That, certainly, we think can be an enhancement to our guest experience and the overall value to the business. We talked about the longer-term catering can certainly be a driver. And then my Co-founder partner, Ted Xenohristos, our Chief Concept Officer, leads our culinary innovation team. They're working on a multi-year, deep pipeline of innovation to bring new and exciting products to our guests.

是的。關於第一個問題，我們將於十月推出忠誠度計畫。當然，我們認為這可以提升客人的體驗和整體業務價值。我們談到長期餐飲絕對可以成為動力。然後，我的共同創辦人、首席概念長 Ted Xenohristos 領導我們的烹飪創新團隊。他們正在致力於多年的深度創新，為我們的客人帶來全新且令人興奮的產品。

We think there's still some gaps in the menu that we can address and certainly create greater value for our guests. So there's a number of ways we feel like over the long term can continue to drive value for the business.

我們認為菜單中仍然存在一些我們可以解決的不足，並且肯定會為我們的客人創造更大的價值。因此，我們認為從長遠來看，有很多方法可以繼續為企業創造價值。

And lastly, you think about awareness and just -- we are still a newer cuisine and a newer brand. In many markets, we are at a 40% awareness versus many more mature brands in our space that are in the 90s that as word-of-mouth spreads, as people become more aware of the benefits of even the Mediterranean way, that's a natural tailwind in and of itself. We think we also have speed-of-service opportunities as we've noted in the past.

最後，想想意識——我們仍然是一種較新的菜系和較新的品牌。在許多市場中，我們的知名度為 40%，而我們領域中許多更成熟的品牌都處於 90 年代，隨著口耳相傳的傳播，隨著人們越來越意識到地中海方式的好處，這本身就是一個自然的順風。我們認為我們也擁有提高服務速度的機會，正如我們過去所指出的。

And to the operational piece, we certainly believe we can handle it. I think that's the beauty of our simple operational model. 38 ingredients on the line, offering our guests over 17 billion combination that walk the line -- assembly line kind of old Henry Ford production line that allows us to do high volumes and do it efficiently. We see it. We have some restaurants doing very significant revenue volumes.

就操作層面而言，我們確實相信我們能夠處理好。我認為這就是我們簡單的營運模式的美妙之處。生產線上有 38 種原料，為我們的客人提供超過 170 億種組合——流水線類似於老式亨利·福特的生產線，使我們能夠高效地進行大批量生產。我們看到了。我們有一些餐廳的收入非常可觀。

So there's no question that the existing fleet as well as the robust infrastructure we built across the business can handle and scale that growth. We talked about this in the past, whether it's our production facilities that can support upwards of at least 750 restaurants today or our technology infrastructure with our digital ordering group ecosystem and the new micro-services architecture that we deployed in 2022 to be highly scalable. We've made investments over time to be positioned to have this growth that we're now embarking upon.

因此毫無疑問，現有機隊以及我們在整個業務範圍內建立的強大基礎設施可以應對和擴大這種成長。我們過去曾討論過這個問題，無論是我們目前可以支援至少 750 家餐廳的生產設施，還是我們的技術基礎設施，包括我們的數位訂購組生態系統和我們在 2022 年部署的具有高度可擴展性的新型微服務架構。我們一直在進行投資，為現在正在開始的成長做好準備。

Well, there's sure a lot of levers and a lot of combinations, billions of combinations. And I just wanted to follow up, Tricia, on the restaurant margin, I think you've previously talked about long-term guidance for 20% and kind of don't look at the current run rate as sustainable necessarily. It looks like this year's guidance is now for the mid-24% range.

嗯，肯定有很多槓桿和很多組合，數十億種組合。特里西婭，我只是想跟進一下餐廳利潤率的問題，我認為您之前曾談到 20% 的長期指導，並且並不認為當前的運行率一定是可持續的。看起來今年的指導價是 24% 左右。

I'm guessing it's sales leverage that's the biggest driver of the upside. But the AUVs continue to be growing. And I'm just wondering if there's opportunity for further leverage or ability to sustain this best-in-class margin, or do you still believe that over the next couple of years you should see maybe a more significant pullback in that margin from current levels? Thank you.

我猜測銷售槓桿是推動其上漲的最大動力。但 AUV 仍在不斷成長。我只是想知道是否還有機會進一步利用或維持這一最佳利潤率，或者您仍然相信在未來幾年內，您可能會看到該利潤率從當前水平出現更顯著的回落？謝謝。

You're welcome. Certainly, we believe there's the opportunity to sustain this level of margins, given the AUVs that we've been able to deliver out of our restaurants today. But we'll always be looking for the proper investments to make and team members and guests, whether that in terms of benefits and wages that we're offering to them or and investments in price and how we're managing that with the consumers.

不客氣。當然，考慮到我們目前能夠從餐廳交付的 AUV，我們相信有機會維持這個利潤水準。但我們始終會尋求對團隊成員和客人進行適當的投資，無論是在我們為他們提供的福利和工資方面，還是在價格方面的投資以及我們如何與消費者進行管理。

So that will depend on what we're experiencing in the market and the economy and how will we impact that going forward. But we feel good about what we've been able to deliver over the past few quarters.

因此，這將取決於我們在市場和經濟中經歷的情況，以及我們將如何影響其未來發展。但我們對過去幾季所取得的成績感到滿意。

Brian Vaccaro, Raymond James.

布萊恩·瓦卡羅、雷蒙·詹姆斯。

Hi. Thanks and good evening. Sounds like you're seeing some pretty broad comp strength, and I think it's been a few quarters that as I was wondering if you might have or provide that maybe a mid-year update on where your regional AUVs are.

你好。謝謝，晚上好。聽起來您看到了相當廣泛的競爭實力，我想已經過去幾個季度了，我想知道您是否可能有或提供關於您所在地區 AUV 的年中更新資訊。

Curious to the degree to which you might be seeing the gaps in the Southeast and Southwest narrow versus other regions and if the brand might be hitting sort of a higher year in terms of awareness, et cetera, where those markets can be seen really in outsized comp lift.

我很好奇，與其他地區相比，東南部和西南地區的差距縮小到了什麼程度，以及該品牌在知名度等方面是否會達到更高的水平，這些市場是否真的會出現超大的競爭提升。

Guess that we have been experiencing strength in all regions across the country and improving performance. And so when you look at the Southeast and Southwest, those are our youngest markets. And so their AUVs are naturally going to be lower than all of the other regions across the country. And so really pleased with what we're seeing in that performance that we're delivering and the strength of it throughout the country and every type of format as well.

猜測我們在全國各個地區都經歷了實力增強和業績提高。因此，當你看東南和西南時，你會發現它們是我們最年輕的市場。因此，他們的 AUV 自然會低於全國所有其他地區。我們對自己的表現感到非常滿意，也對它在全國範圍內和各種形式中的表現感到非常滿意。

So really underscores the proven portability that we've been able to demonstrate, and the opportunity for us to bring that across the massive white space that's ahead of us and bring club CAVA to more and more guests around the country.

因此，這確實凸顯了我們已經能夠證明的可移植性，以及我們將其帶到我們面前的巨大空白領域並將 CAVA 俱樂部帶給全國各地越來越多的客人的機會。

Okay. And if I could just, one quick follow-up on the margins. Obviously, very impressive store margins, but Tricia, I just wanted to ask about the other operating cost line, where we haven't really seen leverage on some pretty big comps. Could you just remind us what types of investments you're making in that line and if that's expected to sustain the rest of this year? Thank you.

好的。如果可以的話，我對邊緣問題做快速的跟進。顯然，商店利潤率非常可觀，但是 Tricia，我只是想問一下其他營運成本線，我們還沒有真正看到一些相當大的同類產品的槓桿作用。您能否提醒我們您在該領域進行哪些類型的投資，以及這些投資是否有望維持今年剩餘時間的投資？謝謝。

Yeah. It is likely that we'll continue to see other operating expenses on [$1] per period be fairly consistent through the remainder of the year, and that reflects investments in our restaurants, largely around repairs and maintenance and really keeping up with the demand in the restaurants and impact it's having on the facility itself and making sure it's meeting our standards from a guest experience perspective.

是的。我們可能會繼續看到，在今年剩餘時間內，每期 [1 美元] 的其他營運費用保持相當穩定，這反映了我們對餐廳的投資，主要用於維修和保養，真正滿足餐廳的需求及其對設施本身的影響，並確保它從客人體驗的角度滿足我們的標準。

There's also a little bit of marketing associated with the restaurants that's included in other operating expenses, much lower than many others in this space, because we've got such powerful results on the social investments and the other PR initiatives that we have. But outside of that, it's got the typical utilities, which we will tend to see higher in warm summer months and other items like that.

與餐廳相關的一些行銷費用也包含在其他營運費用中，比該領域的許多其他費用要低得多，因為我們在社會投資和其他公關舉措方面取得了非常顯著的成果。但除此之外，它還具有典型的實用功能，在溫暖的夏季和其他類似情況下，我們往往會看到它的功能更高。

There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call over back to Brett Schulman for closing remarks. Please go ahead, sir.

目前沒有其他問題。我想將電話轉回給布雷特·舒爾曼，請他做最後發言。先生，請繼續。

Thanks, everyone, for joining the call today. As we approach the celebration of Labor Day, I want to, once again, acknowledge and thank our more than 10,000 CAVA team members who executed our strategies, took care of our guests, and delivered another exceptional quarter. With traffic growth of 9.5%, 18 net new restaurant openings, and second-quarter net income higher than all of 2023, we demonstrated the strength of our cash category-defining Mediterranean brand and the power of our mission to bring heart, health, and humanity to food. Thanks again for joining us. Have a happy Labor Day weekend, and I look forward to speaking with you next quarter.

感謝大家今天參加電話會議。在勞動節即將到來之際，我想再次感謝我們 10,000 多名 CAVA 團隊成員，他們執行了我們的策略，照顧了我們的客人，並創造了另一個出色的季度。隨著客流量增加 9.5%、新增餐廳 18 家、第二季淨收入高於 2023 年全年，我們展示了定義現金類別的地中海品牌的實力，以及將心靈、健康和人性帶入食品的使命的力量。再次感謝您的加入。祝您勞動節週末愉快，期待下個季度與您交談。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

女士們、先生們，今天的會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。