Item 1. Business
Item 1. Business
First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc. is a Delaware holding company that was acquired by funds affiliated with or managed by Advent International L.P. (“Advent”) in August 2017 (the “Advent Acquisition”). Unless the context otherwise requires, “we,” “us,” “our,” “First Watch,” the “Company,” “Management” and other similar references refer to First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc. and, unless otherwise stated, all of its subsidiaries.
Overview
Since opening our doors in 1983, we have been a pioneer in Daytime Dining, serving made-to-order breakfast, brunch and lunch using the freshest of ingredients. We have built our brand on our commitment to operational excellence, our culinary mission centered around a fresh, continuously evolving menu, and our “You First” culture. Our focus on one daytime shift enables us to optimize restaurant operations while generating an average unit volume of $2.2 million p er restaurant in 2024 in only 7.5 hours per day. This daytime focus also provides us with a competitive advantage allowing us to attract and retain employees who are passionate about hospitality and drawn to our “No Night Shifts Ever” approach, among other attractive benefits.
As of December 29, 2024, we had a to tal of 572 restaurants across 29 states, 489 of which were company-owned and 83 were franchise-owned.
We “Follow the Sun”
Every morning, thousands of our employees arrive at the crack of dawn to slice and juice fresh fruits and vegetables, bake muffins, brew our fresh coffee and whip up our French Toast batter from scratch. Every menu item is made-to-order and prepared with care. We do not use microwave ovens, heat lamps or deep fryers in our kitchens. At First Watch, we are driven by a pursuit of freshness as is highlighted by our culinary and sourcing philosophy to “Follow the Sun.” With this philosophy, our menu, which is inspired by the seasons, changes five times per year. Our rotating seasonal menu is commonly cited by our customers as a core element of the First Watch experience and has included favorites such as the Sunny Seoul Hash, Strawberry Tres Leches French Toast and the Brooklyn Breakfast Sandwich.
These seasonal items are offered alongside of our award-winning chef-driven menu including elevated executions of classic favorites for breakfast, brunch and lunch, such as our protein-packed Breakfast Quinoa, Farmstand Breakfast Tacos, and Avocado Toast. Our menu also features fresh juices, that we juice each morning, including Morning Meditation and Kale Tonic.
Our Culture: You First
For four decades, we have cultivated an organizational culture built on our foundational concept of “You First,” which puts serving others above all else. As a company, we put our employees first and empower them to do whatever it takes to put our customers first. As evidenced by our vision to “Create Amazing Opportunities for Our People,” we also work hard to provide opportunities for advancement and meaningful relationships, and we prioritize personal and professional growth so that our people can thrive. We believe our approach and operating model have enabled us to retain and attract the best and brightest employees in the industry and are key factors in our ability to meet the growing demand we are seeing across the country. As a result, we are proud of the many people-focused awards and accolades we have received over the past few decades, most recently including the following:
• Ranked the #1 Most Loved Workplace® in 2024 by Newsweek and the Best Practice Institute
• Recognized with ADP’s Culture at Work Award (2022)
• Named the top restaurant brand in Yelp’s inaugural list of the top 50 most-loved brands in the U.S (2023)
• Ranked # 1 in a five-year study of employee surveys on Glassdoor published by William Blair for work/life balance and we were in the top 10 in overall employee satisfaction, among casual dining concepts (2022)
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We also extend our You First culture by giving back to important organizations and causes that are meaningful to our people. Most notably, First Watch is proud of two key efforts to give back in a meaningful way:
• Project Sunrise: Through this initiative of passion, we source our coffee beans from women-owned farms in Colombia, and we pay an annual quality incentive bonus to farmers to further support their high-quality production. This program in turn empowers these women leaders to reinvest in their communities.
• Pediatric Cancer Research: Through each sale of a First Watch kid’s meal, we donate a portion of proceeds to the V Foundation in order to support and advance pediatric cancer research. To date, we have donated $1.4 million towards these important efforts.
Growth Strategies
New Restaurant Openings
We believe First Watch has the potential for more than 2,200 restaurants in the continental United States. In 2021, First Watch was recognized by FSR Magazine as the fastest-growing full-service restaurant company in the United States based on unit growth and in 2024, we continued to realize that potential by openin g 50 new company-owned and franchise-owned restaurants, which we collectively refer to as “system-wide” restaurants, across 19 states. Our growth strategy targets an accelerating pace of new system-wide restaurant development with a long-term goal of annual percentage growth in the low double digits.
In selecting new locations, we evaluate specific market characteristics, demographics, traffic patterns, co-tenants and growth potential. Our development approach has proven that First Watch has tremendous portability across markets, with new restaurants boasting consistent and a strong average unit volume across all geographies. First Watch’s top 10% of restaurants in terms of sales, span 14 states and 22 designated market areas. The average annual sales volumes of our new restaurants outpace the system average and we expect to sustain the performance through quality real estate selection and the introduction of features and operational practices designed to efficiently serve more demand.
Acquisitions of Franchise-Owned Restaurants
Our long-term growth strategy includes the acquisitions of First Watch restaurants operated by certain of our franchisees. To that end, during 2024, we acquired 22 o perating restaurants along with development and territory rights in two separate transactions. We have also signed agreements to acquire a total of 19 additional restaurants from franchisees. See Note 22, Subsequent Events , in the accompanying notes to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of Part II of this Form 10-K for additional information. We believe the Company’s operation of the restaurants acquired from our franchisees as well as development in the reacquired territory provides substantial opportunity to realize new Company value. At December 29, 2024, we had 11 franchisees operating 83 restaurants with 29 total new restaurant development obligations. At December 29, 2024, 26 franchise-owned restaurants are subject to our option to purchase.
Drive Restaurant Traffic and Build Sales
Our attractive return on invested capital starts with an intention to build sales and traffic through a focus on the core elements of the First Watch experience: serving incredible food, with memorable service, in an inviting atmosphere.
• Delivering an Excellent On-Premise Dining Experience. Excellence in restaurant-level execution, recognized by customers and reinforced by the hundreds of accolades we have received, increases the visit frequency of our customers, promotes trial by new consumers and ultimately encourages loyalty. Our single menu, throughout the day, streamlines our supply chain and restaurant operations, simplifies our employee training and provides for a consistent and superior customer dining experience.
• Technology and Increased Accessibility. We believe that technology can continue to elevate the First Watch experience for both our employees and customers. To date we have implemented technologies that have enhanced accessibility by adding the functionality for direct ordering of takeout as well as third party delivery integrations. In 2024 and 2023, our total off-premises sales accounted for 17.5% and 18.3%, respectively, of our total restaurant sales.
◦ In-restaurant dining sales continue to strengthen, indicating continued customer demand for experiences and connection. In 2022 we implemented kitchen display screens in all company-owned
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restaurants to simplify the employee experience and improve back-of house efficiency. Along with many other operational initiatives, processes and procedures, we continue to see opportunity to use technology to elevate the customer experience and simplify tasks for our teams. In February 2024, we completed the roll-out of pay-at-the-table technology at all company-owned restaurants. Through a QR code on our receipts, customers can now seamlessly pay using Apple Pay, Google Pay or a credit or debit card, reducing bottlenecks at host stands, particularly during peak weekend hours.
• Continued Menu Innovation. We constantly evolve our on-trend menu which highlights quality and freshness and is operationally efficient. When it comes to sourcing our produce, we are guided by a core philosophy: “Follow the Sun.” Our five highly anticipated seasonal menus drive customer frequency. This means that we welcome each season with exceptional ingredients harvested when they are most flavorful and fresh. In addition, successful new platform introductions such as our Fresh Juice program, our Shareables, our alcohol program and our premium iced coffees add incremental sales opportunities and capitalize on growing trends.
◦ Offer Alcohol as Only First Watch Can . Our alcohol platform is unique and reflects our culinary innovation through combinations of fresh juices and ingredients with a variety of liquors. We have continued to expand on this strategic initiative and acquire the necessary licenses. As of December 29, 2024, our alcohol menu was offered in about 90% of our system-wide restaurants. As we have finalized the initial stage of adding alcohol to the majority of our system, our alcohol platform offers the opportunity to innovate alongside our constantly evolving culinary platforms and seasonal menus.
• Increasing Our Brand Awareness. For over 40 years, our awareness has grown primarily through word-of-mouth as our service, menu and environment created loyal fans. While we believe that organic growth of awareness contributes to our local feel, we also recognize the potential of strategically marketing in appropriate channels to accelerate our brand awareness. We continue to build expertise in, and deploy tested strategies for, utilizing targeted digital channels to reach certain attractive customer segments and build top-of-mind awareness. By using our first party data, we have been able to identify higher frequency customers and target similar customers with digital media vehicles. These demand generation strategies have aided us to “balance out” our customer base in recent years by growing penetration with Millennial and Gen Z segments.
• Customer Technology & Customer Data: We accelerated the implementation of customer data acquisition systems in order to better inform the habits and behaviors of our customers. With the large increase in remote digital orders, we also sought to digitize in-restaurant orders for the purpose of creating an omnichannel view of the First Watch customer. By integrating remote waitlist, remote orders, tokenized credit card transactions and WiFi into one system, we now have the ability to better understand trial and frequency. Since implementation of these systems, we have gathered customer information for over 17.9 million unique customer profiles, 7.7 million of whom have opted for direct communication from First Watch. The advances in these foundational systems have allowed us to learn more about our customers and the behaviors that ultimately drive lifetime customer value. We see this as a long-term opportunity to drive increased visit frequency as we have the ability to build new customer technology features that elevate the customer experience.
Operations
Quality and Food Safety
First Watch emphasizes high food quality and a commitment to food safety in each restaurant through the careful training and supervision of personnel and by following rigorous quality and cleanliness standards. Food preparation and cleaning procedures are defined, monitored and maintained by our quality assurance department. We contract with third-party inspectors to regularly monitor restaurant performance through unannounced non-biased food safety assessments with program standards that meet or exceed those of local health departments. These inspections are intended to achieve active managerial control in our restaurants in an effort to reduce risk factors and maintain a strong food safety culture.
Restaurant management incentive plans provide strong motivation to meet and exceed standards. In addition, as part of our overall food quality assurance, we have a process in place to review vendors’ food safety practices to ensure they meet or exceed industry standards.
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Restaurant Staff
As of December 29, 2024, we had more than 15,000 restaurant employees. None of our employees are part of a collective bargaining agreement and based upon independent surveys and our internal evaluations, we believe our “You First” organizational culture continues to foster overall favorable relations with our employees.
Each restaurant operates with a staff of approximately 30 team members led by general manager(s).
During a restaurant’s 7:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. shift, our staff focus on gracious service, food preparation, order accuracy and “instagrammable” plating. General managers interview each applicant and identify motivated employees who are friendly, service oriented, eager to prepare high-quality food and a fit for our “You First” culture. We employ a narrow span of supervisory control, which we believe contributes to the consistency of our restaurants’ performance across our system.
Training
Our training programs share our legacy and culture of operating excellence. We have a training facility at our corporate headquarters named the F.A.R.M. (“First Watch Academy of Restaurant Management”), to which we invite managers-in-training for a week-long immersive brand experience where we teach everything from our history and cultural pillars to leadership and management tools. We have enhanced this training program to also focus on building a more diverse and inclusive team. In addition, managers-in-training also complete a comprehensive 10-week C.A.F.E. (“Culture and Food Experience”) training program in the restaurants, alongside experienced managers. Training for all in-restaurant management positions was also enhanced to clearly define and delineate roles in order to drive both results and engagement. New hourly employees participate in at least three days of initial onboarding training and shadowing. Our general managers and directors of operations conduct in-restaurant training for our staff who also train online through our Virtual Learning Academy.
Purchasing and Distribution
Our Supply Chain department manages and negotiates directly with qualified, national suppliers and distributors with the dual goals of securing the supply of high quality, fresh products and controlling cost. Our selected vendors undergo inspections to ensure that products purchased conform to our standards. Our Quality Assurance department requires third-party supplier audits or Global Food Safety Initiative certification for all food distributors and manufacturing facilities to ensure good manufacturing practices, food safety, pest control, sanitation, training, regulatory compliance and food defense systems are in place. To ensure freshness, most of our restaurants accept produce and broadline distribution deliveries at least three times per week.
Management Information Systems
All our restaurants use digital management information systems, which we believe are scalable to support our future growth plans. These systems are designed to enable functionality, improve operating efficiencies, provide us with timely access to financial and marketing data and reduce restaurant and corporate administrative time and expense. In addition, our in-restaurant systems are used to process customer orders, credit card payments, employee time-keeping and scheduling.
Marketing and Advertising
We use a variety of marketing channels, including affiliate partnerships, social media interactions, digital marketing, direct mailers, public relations initiatives and local community sponsorships, email communications, promotions and partnerships. We focus on increasing our engagement with social media platforms in order to generate brand awareness and also to gather information we can then apply to future marketing efforts.
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Franchise Program
As of December 29, 2024, we ha d 11 franchisees that operat ed 83 rest aurants and our existing franchisees had 29 total new restaurant development obligations. Typically, our franchise agreements provide an initial term of 10 years with additional renewal terms that total 10 years subject to various conditions that include upgrades to the restaurant facility and brand image. All franchise agreements grant licenses to use our trademarks, trade secrets and proprietary methods, recipes and procedures. The initial franchise fee for each restaurant is $35,000 to $40,000. Franchisees are required to pay 4.0% of franchised restaurant sales in royalties and contribute 1.0%-3.0% of franchised restaurant sales to a system fund, which is used for advertising, marketing and public relations programs and materials on a system-wide basis.
Human Capital
“You First” Culture Elevates Employee and Customer Satisfaction
First Watch has a simple mission statement based on its “You First” culture—“Making days brighter at every opportunity.” We have been people-focused from our inception as we have always believed our employees are our greatest asset. We believe that putting our employees first, in turn, leads them to put customers first and we are confident that our people-centric culture plays a significant role in retaining our employees. This culture was also a key factor in the Company’s achievement of being recognized as 2024’s #1 Most Loved Workplace in the United States by Newsweek and the Best Practice Institute. This is the third consecutive year in which the Company has been included in Newsweek’s Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces®, a designation that was a result of an assessment of First Watch’s people practices along with an independent survey of approximately 1,000 of our employees.
Listening to Our Employees
We believe in fostering an environment where all employees feel valued and heard, and we furnish employees with various communication channels to provide regular feedback, including surveys, meetings, and, most importantly, direct communication with Company leadership. In 2024, CEO and President, Chris Tomasso, Chief People Officer, Laura Sorensen and Chief Operations Officer, Dan Jones, hosted twenty-four separate 90 minute calls with hourly employees across the country for their fourth annual W.H.Y. Tour – their “We Hear You” listening tour. The purpose of these in-depth sessions is to learn more about the issues most meaningful to our hourly workforce. As a result of these tours, the Company has been able to take swift action on the issues that surfaced, resulting in positive changes for both employees and customers. New menu changes, employee benefits, training, operational practices and more efficient tools have been introduced as a direct result of feedback from each annual tour, reinforcing the Company’s culture of listening to its employees and taking action on the issues that matter the most to them.
Taking Care of Our Employees
At First Watch, our people are our purpose, which is why we continue to invest in benefits and programs. We operate on a “No Nights Ever” model and work to get our restaurant employees “out the door by four”– which allows our teams to enjoy evenings with their family and friends, and an improved quality of life. This one-shift model provides our employees with a work-life balance that is simply out of reach for most restaurant industry employees. In addition to this flexibility, we support our employees with healthcare benefits, a 401(k) plan, tuition reimbursement, family leave and other assistance, including but not limited to:
• Backup childcare and eldercare available for all employees, at all levels
• Our “You First” Emergency Assistance Fund
• A text-based telemedicine platform with no out-of-pocket expenses, for all employees regardless of insurance plan
• Complimentary access to the Calm App (for meditation, relaxation and sleep) for all employees and five of their loved ones
• No-cost high school diploma program
• Discounts on thousands of items from sporting tickets and computers to cars and daycare
• Pet insurance
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In 2020, we created the “You First” Emergency Assistance Fund, which provides financial support to employees and their immediate families during times of significant hardship following the impacts of qualifying disasters. A portion of each kid’s meal sold by our restaurants benefits this program. Since its inception, this fund has provided employees with over with over $1 million dollars in tax-free hardship grants. Most recently the fund was leveraged to assist hundreds of our Southeast-based employees after the hurricanes of 2024 caused flooding and wind damage in Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina.
Including Our Employees
At First Watch, we are committed to making days brighter by creating a culture where our teams and our customers feel valued and celebrated for who they are and the differences they bring to the table. With our mission of “Making days brighter at Every opportunity”, we endeavor to provide all employees with the opportunity to contribute at the highest level to ensure everyone can belong, thrive, and “Follow the Sun” to reach their full potential. We believe the composition of our teams reflect the diversity of our restaurant communities across the country, allowing us to better anticipate market trends and address the needs of our customers. And while our work is ongoing, we’re dedicated to building on our “You First” commitment and unlocking possibilities for each team member and the communities we serve. First Watch works with an outside consultant to complete an annual assessment to both build and benchmark our policies, practices and representation.
In 2020, we developed and launched an annual campaign, branded #beabetterhuman, which has taken our people-focused approach to a new level. The #beabetterhuman initiative is comprised of monthly live, interactive in-person and online workshops fostering personal and professional development. The #beabetterhuman campaign was designed to educate and develop our workforce, raise awareness and influence change. We continue to build upon the success of the program with training for new managers and an ongoing #beabetterhuman series on Facebook, Instagram and Glassdoor highlighting employees within the restaurants and their unique and inspiring stories. Our #beabetterhuman campaign also inspired the opportunity for employees to give back to the community through our executive-sponsored and employee-led Kale Krew, which coordinates multiple volunteer opportunities annually.
Developing Our Employees
Professional development and growth are a way of life at First Watch. Since 2022, more than 85% of the 510 employees promoted to general manager at our corporate-owned restaurants were promoted from within. The average tenures for our directors of operations, regional vice presidents and field operations vice presidents are 8 years, 13 years and 19 years, respectively.
First Watch takes a 360-degree personal/professional approach to career advancement and development. We are constantly iterating and promoting career advancement opportunities for our people. Specific programs include:
• Our certified Black Hat and Black Apron program encourages leadership development for back-of-house and front-of-house employees through financial and growth incentives.
• A certified training general manager and restaurant program provides additional financial and growth opportunities for aspiring leaders, enabling us to promote more employees from within our restaurants and ensure we are delivering a best-in-class training experience to all new hires.
• Regional “Come Grow With Us” events provide hourly employees who are interested in leadership the chance to learn about growth and development and get on the fast track to management.
• Established in 2018, our First Watch Academy of Restaurant Management immerses new restaurant managers in our You First culture and leverages Company subject matter experts to educate these leaders on a variety of essential topics, including leadership behaviors. To date, nearly 1,000 high-potential leaders have attended the week-long sessions that take place throughout the year.
We prioritize personal and professional growth because it’s simply the right thing to do and it’s part of our culture. However, it also makes our aggressive growth plans possible. With over 100 new restaurants in our real estate development pipeline, we need a robust GM-ready talent bench. Our ongoing career growth opportunities, along with our culture and hours, are a key component to our employee value proposition, which fuels our ability to both attract and retain great talent.
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Retaining Our Employees
All of these aspects, and many more, contribute to our award-winning culture and employee retention. Our turnover sits well below the industry average and has improved sequentially over the last two years for both managers and hourly team members, enabling us to provide consistent and memorable dining experiences for our customers.
Experienced, Passionate Leadership Team and Deep Bench of Talent
Our team is led by passionate executives who have an extensive mix of experience in our brand and with other leading national restaurant concepts and consumer facing businesses. We have a deep bench of talent throughout the organization. Our executives and key employees average more than 15 years of industry experience and our directors of operations have an average tenure at First Watch of approximately 10 years. In addition, our restaurant staff includes hundreds of fully-trained, tested, high-performing managers throughout our system who are poised to step into the general manager role as we execute our growth strategy and open new restaurants.
Government Regulation
We are subject to extensive federal, state and local government laws and regulations, including those relating to, among others, public health and safety, zoning and fire codes, alcoholic beverage control and franchising.
In addition, we are also subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, the Americans with Disabilities Act and various federal and state laws governing such matters as minimum wages, exempt versus non-exempt, overtime, unemployment tax rates, workers’ compensation rates, citizenship requirements and other working conditions. New laws, regulations or interpretations could impact our business or our cost of compliance.
For a discussion of the various risks we face from regulation and compliance matters, see Item 1A.“ Risk Factors. ”
Intellectual Property
We have registered “First Watch the Daytime Cafe,” “You First,” “Yeah, It’s Fresh!” and certain other names used by our restaurants as trademarks or service marks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). In addition, the First Watch logo, website name and address and Facebook and Twitter accounts are our intellectual property. Our policy is to pursue and maintain registration of service marks and trademarks and to oppose vigorously any infringement or dilution of the service marks or trademarks. We maintain certain recipes for our menu items, as well as certain standards, specifications and operating procedures, as trade secrets or confidential information.
Competition
The restaurant industry is highly competitive and fragmented, with restaurants competing directly and indirectly with regard to dining experience, food quality, service, price and location. We also compete with grocery store chains and meal subscription services. In addition, there is active competition for management personnel, real estate sites, supplies and restaurant employees. Competition is also influenced strongly by marketing and brand reputation.
As consumers increasingly seek higher quality breakfast, brunch and lunch experiences, we believe we are well-positioned to compete with a wide range of national, regional and local establishments that operate during our hours of operation. More directly, we do not believe there is a comparable offering within our segment that operates at the scale of First Watch and we view our primary competition as a network of independent restaurants that also serve breakfast and lunch in neighborhoods across the United States.
Seasonality
Our quarterly results of operations are subject to seasonal fluctuations. Additionally, the timing of holidays, weather conditions and the number of new restaurant openings may affect sales volumes seasonally.
See Item 1A.“ Risk Factors ” for discussion of risks related to seasonal and periodic fluctuations.
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Corporate Information
First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware on August 10, 2017, under the name AI Fresh Super Holdco, Inc. We changed our name on December 20, 2019 to First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc. Our principal executive offices are located at 8725 Pendery Place, Suite 201, Bradenton, FL 34201 and our telephone number is (941) 907-9800. Our corporate website address is www.firstwatch.com. We completed our initial public offering (“IPO”) in October 2021 and our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbol “FWRG.”
Additional Information
Our consumer website is located at www.firstwatch.com, and our investor relations website is located at https://investors.firstwatch.com. We make available, free of charge, through our internet website, our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, Proxy Statements and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, as soon as reasonably practicable after electronically filing such material with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Our reports and other materials filed with the SEC are also available at www.sec.gov. The reference to these website addresses does not constitute incorporation by reference of the information contained on the websites and should not be considered part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
We announce material information to the public about us, our products and services, and other matters through a variety of means, including filings with the SEC, press releases, public conference calls, webcasts and our investor relations website (https://investors.firstwatch.com) in order to achieve broad, non-exclusionary distribution of information to the public and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.
The information disclosed by the foregoing channels could be deemed to be material information. As such, we encourage investors, the media, and others to follow the channels listed above and to review the information disclosed through such channels. Any updates to the list of disclosure channels through which we will announce information will be posted on the investor relations page on our website.