Item 1. Business
Item 1. Business.
Shake Shack Inc. was formed on September 23, 2014 as a Delaware corporation for the purpose of facilitating an initial public offering and other related transactions in order to carry on the business of SSE Holdings, LLC and its subsidiaries ("SSE Holdings"). We are the sole managing member of SSE Holdings and, as sole managing member, we operate and control all of the business and affairs of SSE Holdings. As a result, we consolidate the financial results of SSE Holdings and report a non-controlling interest representing the economic interest in SSE Holdings held by the other members of SSE Holdings. Shake Shack Inc. Class A common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "SHAK." Unless the context otherwise requires, "we," "us," "our," "Shake Shack," the "Company" and other similar references refer to Shake Shack Inc. and, unless otherwise stated, all of its subsidiaries, including SSE Holdings.
Equity Offering
On April 17, 2020, we announced an “at-the-market” equity offering program (the “ATM Program”), under which we may offer and sell shares of our Class A common stock having an aggregate price of up to $75.0 million from time to time. On April 21, 2020, we completed the sale of 233,467 shares of our Class A common stock pursuant to the ATM Program and received $9.8 million of proceeds, net of commissions. The proceeds were used to purchase newly-issued LLC Interests.
On April 21, 2020, we completed an underwritten offering of 3,416,070 shares of our Class A common stock, resulting in $135.9 million of proceeds, net of underwriting discounts and commissions. The proceeds were used to purchase newly-issued LLC Interests.
COVID-19
COVID-19 was officially declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020. The virus has impacted all global economies, and particularly in the United States, it has resulted in varying levels of restrictions and shutdowns implemented by national, state, and local authorities. Although the pandemic has presented challenges to our global business, it has also caused us to accelerate a variety of existing strategic growth initiatives — including new digital capabilities. By proactively taking steps to expand access, safety and convenience for our guests, we've positioned ourselves to return to growth, as described herein.
OVERVIEW
Shake Shack is a modern day "roadside" burger stand serving a classic American menu of premium burgers, chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, crinkle cut fries, shakes, frozen custard, beer and wine. Originally founded in 2001 by Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group ("USHG"), which owns and operates some of New York City's most acclaimed and popular restaurants — such as Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern and Maialino, to name a few — Shake Shack began as a hot dog cart to support the rejuvenation of New York City's Madison Square Park through its Conservancy's first art installation, "I Y Taxi." The cart was an instant success, with lines forming daily throughout the summer months over the next three years. In response, the city's Department of Parks and Recreation awarded Shake Shack a contract to create a kiosk to help fund the park's future. In 2004, Shake Shack officially opened. It soon became a gathering place for locals and visitors alike, and a beloved New York City institution, garnering significant media attention, critical acclaim and a passionately-devoted following. Since its inception, Shake Shack has grown rapidly — with 311 system-wide Shacks as of December 30, 2020, in 15 countries and 30 states, as well as the District of Columbia — and we continue to expand globally bringing the Shake Shack experience to new guests around the world.
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WE STAND FOR SOMETHING GOOD
At Shake Shack, we Stand For Something Good® in everything we do. We are on an endless pursuit to create uplifting experiences through elevated, modern and fun versions of classic food. Specifically, we are committed to seeing this vision executed across all aspects of the business, through the following actions:
• We elevate everything we do. Shake Shack is about creating uplifting experiences and moments of pure satisfaction. We aim to be thoughtful in every ingredient we buy, recipe we develop, Shack we design, team we build and community we support.
• We deliver Enlightened Hospitality at every touchpoint. Shake Shack was founded on the idea of Enlightened Hospitality. Today, we deliver on that vision by building hospitality through all our guest touchpoints. To us, hospitality is all about taking care of our team, our guests, our communities — and bringing those groups together.
• We gather communities and enrich our neighborhoods. Across the globe, Shacks have been an integral part of their communities, and, we believe we have a role to play in supporting and revitalizing the neighborhoods where we work and serve.
• We do the right thing and hold ourselves accountable. At Shake Shack, we've always believed in leading by example and making better possibilities come to life with our teams and community, beyond just making great food. Our commitment to doing things differently includes a focus on exceptional career support for our teams, while creating meaningful impact in both our neighborhoods and the global industry.
• We empower our teams to act like entrepreneurs. At the heart of a Shake Shack experience is our teams’ personal commitment to craft and hospitality. As we grow, we are developing our leaders and building tools that empower our Shacks to better promote uplifting experiences.
GUEST EXPERIENCE
Danny Meyer's original vision of Enlightened Hospitality™ guided the creation of Shake Shack's unique culture. We believe that culture is the single most important factor in our success. To maintain this, we take care of our teams first and foremost, and this allows us to take care of our guests, our community, our suppliers and our investors.
With Enlightened Hospitality, we strive to create a personalized experience for our guests at each of our Shacks around the world. We achieve this through innovations in service, trendsetting culinary innovation, and the design of warm community gathering places.
Digital Evolution
Our digital strategy makes it possible for us to offer Enlightened Hospitality to our guests at scale. Through modern platforms, we continuously strive to build better and faster ways to deliver the unique Shake Shack experience with convenience and accessibility. Our digital initiatives are defined by each of the following three themes:
▪ Enlightened Hospitality – Using our digital channels to bring guests an uplifted sense of hospitality. This ranges from developing innovative digital pre-ordering and pick-up experiences, to meaningfully engaging with guests through our Company-owned app and web channels.
▪ Personal Guest Experience – Knowing, understanding, and creating a personal guest experience that drives loyalty, frequency, and brand engagement across multiple digital platforms and in the Shacks themselves.
▪ Smarter Every Day – Building and refining our data platform and overall approach so we can drive return on investment on marketing campaigns and technology spending, and improve our ability to make smart decisions that fuel growth.
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As we have evolved our physical Shack design to efficiently serve our guests, the continued development of our digital ordering tools has also been essential. The pandemic has accelerated those plans, as we use these tools to connect with our guests directly, more frequently, and safely — while focusing on a return to growth in the process.
Our Company-owned web and app channels, when combined, continue to be the fastest growing channel on a year-on-year basis since the second quarter of 2020. At the end of fiscal 2020, we had added 1.8 million first-time purchasers to those channels since early March 2020, and this has now grown to over 2 million by the end of fiscal January 2021. This influx of new and returning guests has reinforced our commitment to optimizing these channels and has given us opportunities to capitalize on new marketing and targeting strategies, which could help drive both frequency and average check size.
During fiscal 2020, we innovated the order pickup experience and expanded the modes that customers could use to enjoy it. This now includes in-Shack pickup, Shack Track, curbside pick-up, kiosk and delivery on certain platforms such as Uber Eats, Postmates, DoorDash, Caviar, and Grubhub.
Shack Track
To give our guests the flexibility they needed in 2020, we introduced Shack Track, as an enhanced digital pre-order and fulfillment solution that allows guests to order through our Company-owned app or web channels — and pick up however they like, whether through curbside, walk-up window, drive-up window or at an improved in-Shack pick-up area. It allows for intentional, directional and friction-reduced order and pick-up, across all formats. Shack Track is integrated in the design of the Shack, while remaining separate and distinct from the in-Shack guest experience — allowing any guest's journey to be intuitive and efficient. Within Shack Track, our overarching goal is to bring together our physical and digital infrastructure to reduce friction at every step of Shake Shack experience.
As of December 30, 2020, we have added eight Shack Track pick-up windows to existing Shacks, as well as our first drive-up Shack Track. For fiscal 2021, we expect most of our new Shacks to have some version of a Shack Track, whether a drive-up or walk-up window, or a combination of enhanced interior pick-up, curbside pick-up, and/or dedicated delivery courier pick-up areas.
Curbside Pick-up
In 2020, we also introduced curbside pick-up on our app at participating Shacks. Guests can pre-order on the app, identify their car, and our team members will bring the order to them with contactless pay and hand-off. This model was created to solve the need for safe, contactless pick-up, and we will continue to evolve and improve this model as we learn more — and we intend to add this option to future Shacks wherever the layout allows for it.
Shake Shack Drive-Thru
To further expand our guests' range of choices for pick-up, we plan to launch our first-ever drive-thru location in Orlando, Florida in 2021. The Shake Shack drive-thru will be a modern version of the traditional drive lane experience, supported by technology-enhanced hospitality and innovative design – all while maintaining our core tradition of building community gathering places. We view this as an opportunity to increase our addressable market. We are targeting to launch between five and eight drive-thru locations by the end of 2022.
Delivery Service
Over the past several years, we executed various third-party delivery options in an effort to bring Shake Shack to our guests wherever they are and whenever they want. Delivery is an essential part of how consumers order today, presenting an opportunity to reach more people and have them engage with Shake Shack on their terms. With that in mind, we entered into an integrated delivery partnership with Uber Eats, expanded our existing integrated delivery partnerships with Postmates, DoorDash and Caviar and moved to a non-exclusive arrangement with Grubhub. Additionally, we partnered with Goldbelly to offer cook-at-home Shackburger meal kits available through nationwide shipping. We are also looking forward to an expanded rollout of delivery through our own channels, and as of December 30, 2020 had begun testing this functionality across three Shacks in Miami, Florida. Through fiscal February 2021, this testing will have expanded to more than one hundred Shacks across multiple markets, and we expect a nationwide rollout to be largely completed by the end of the second quarter fiscal 2021. Offering delivery through our own channels will help us create consistent and personal experiences, garner additional data and insights to allow for better service, and connect with guests more directly as part of our broader digital strategy. We are also enhancing our
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web and app functionality, with new and improved options, allowing for additional personalization and feedback, and offering new features like giving guests real-time order status.
Guest Insights
In an effort to better understand the preferences of our guests, in October 2020, we completed the first phase of an initiative to bring together disparate data and derive actionable insights through improved analytics and business intelligence. The first phase was focused on supporting our digital strategies, with the aim of increasing sales across all channels, improving our transactional and marketing communications, and, most importantly, delivering an enhanced guest experience.
Going forward, our data initiative will focus on improvements to digital marketing and collecting guest feedback, allowing us to further refine our ability to serve our guests and create lasting experiences that attract new guests, keep existing guests coming back and ensure all guests return with increased frequency.
Contactless Mobile Payment Method
With the safety and convenience of our guests in mind, we started implementing a mobile contactless payment method in 2021, helping to make the in-Shack ordering experience safe and secure. This new contactless payment method allows guests to pay through a secure payment device and utilize digital wallets on their own device. This technology will give our guests an easier, faster and more convenient way to pay for their meals and is expected to be rolled out nationwide by the end of the second quarter 2021.
Our omnichannel approach has unlocked new opportunities for us to better understand and personalize both our menu offerings and preferred channels for guests. We're continuing to explore the optimal balance of event-based marketing and targeted offerings to bring Shake Shack to anyone who wants it — whether our guests dine with us once a year or once a week. We are in the process of ensuring all of our channels offer a uniform user experience so that a pickup order placed in the app looks and feels the same as a curbside order placed from a mobile browser. No matter what channel or platform guests use, our goal is to bring them a customized and enhanced payment experience that suits their particular needs.
Our ongoing digital strategy in fiscal 2021 and beyond will continue to focus on these themes — safety, personalization and consistency — allowing us to expand on the omnichannel foundational work performed during fiscal 2020, and offer innovative digital interactions and dynamic personal relationships with our guests throughout every Shake Shack experience.
Development
Site Selection
In choosing a new site, we focus first and foremost on the guest experience — so that each new location can be the ideal spot for people to gather together. Our experienced development team actively leads the site selection process, and their recommendations are reviewed and approved by our Real Estate Committee, which follows a stringent approval process to ensure quality, fiduciary responsibility and overall adherence to our strategic growth goals. Our analytical tools allow for extensive demographic analysis and data collection for both existing and new potential sites. In addition to our in-house team of experienced real estate professionals, we also use a national real estate broker to manage a network of regional brokers in order to leverage external resources in pursuit of pipeline development. Looking beyond, we are pursuing and developing sites where we can continue to implement our Shack Track concepts.
Construction
In a normal operating environment, a Shack will generally take between 14 and 22 weeks to build. In fiscal 2020, the total investment cost of a new Shack — which includes costs related to items such as furniture, fixtures and equipment — ranged from approximately $1.4 million to $3.2 million, with an average investment cost of approximately $2.4 million, or approximately $2.0 million net of tenant improvement allowances received from our landlords. We use a number of general contractors on a regional basis and employ a mixed approach of bidding and strategic negotiation in order to ensure the best value and highest quality construction.
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Engaging the Community
A Warm Community Gathering Place
Shacks are so much more than a place to get burgers, fries and shakes; they’re places for the community to safely gather. We place a high premium on connecting with our communities — whether through the physical design of our Shacks or by the local causes we support.
No matter the format or region, each Shack is specifically designed to be of its place and connect with its community. The original Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, for instance, was designed to set the tone for a dynamic dialogue inside the park and the surrounding neighborhood. Today, across our domestic and international locations, we secure vibrant sites and give them a hand-crafted, community-appropriate look by blending unique local features with our core Shake Shack design elements. We have also developed a number of iconic brand identifiers, like wrap-around steel beams, open kitchens, large distinctive menu boards and comfortable, distinctive furniture that advances our sustainability initiatives. We believe these identifiers are key components to the expression of the brand and the Shake Shack experience.
The overall atmosphere of our new Shacks evokes our original upbeat and relaxed park ambiance, combined with the fine dining experience that has become part of our brand's DNA. We use high-quality tactile materials, warm lighting that highlights every table and textured wall, as well as seating layouts that encourage guests to relax and stay for a while. Additionally, whenever possible, our Shacks feature either outdoor seating or easy access to a park or green space.
From time to time during the construction of certain new Shacks, we re-imagine the often-uninspiring plywood barriers that surround a construction site and use them as a canvas to introduce Shake Shack to the community prior to opening. We also collaborate with local artists and designers to bring beautiful artwork and installations to our Shacks.
Each Shack is designed to convey a consistent brand message while also tailoring marketing efforts to its specific region. We offer menu items that feature ingredients and beers specific to each Shack's community, and we often team up with local chefs and restaurants to offer our guests unique, collaborative menu items. We participate in local celebrations and develop relationships within the community, helping position Shake Shack as a premium brand that is connected to its neighborhood.
Community and Charitable Partners
In addition to special events, we regularly serve our communities by hosting 25% Donation Days. Supporters who participate in these fundraisers have 25% of their order totals donated to a local charitable non-profit.
In light of the impact the pandemic has had on our communities, in February and March of 2020, Shake Shacks across the country rallied to bring food donations to local hospitals and frontline workers. Over the course of that two-month period, we provided over 11,000 meals to healthcare and frontline workers and nonprofits. Additionally, as we have begun opening new domestic Company-operated Shacks, we have partnered with local charities in those areas to donate meals for every order placed on opening day.
In keeping with our commitment to give back to the communities we serve, we donated $100,000 to the Equal Justice Initiative in 2020, and we will continue to partner with them in 2021 as part of our evolving diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives as well as our employee engagement initiatives.
Engaging With our Guests
Shake Shack grew up alongside social media and we believe we have benefited from our close relationship with passionate fans who want to engage with us and share their real-time experiences. We're proud to be recognized by media and influencers alike, garnering attention around the world.
Our positioning and brand voice, derived from the spirit, integrity and light-hearted nature of Shake Shack, are reinforced by our contemporary, responsible designs and hospitable team members who Stand For Something Good. This identity also anchors our marketing efforts, with the heart of our marketing strategy to cultivate community and connect with guests both in our Shacks and through digital channels.
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Social Media
Just as we design our Shacks as community gathering places, our social media strategy creates an online, on-brand community gathering place. With our social media, we mirror the in-person hospitality a guest experiences when they visit a Shack. We interact with fans primarily on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok through comments, replies and the use of user-generated content; a quick search of "#shakeshack" on Instagram reveals over 1 million organic posts from our fans. In addition to social media, we also connect with our guests by sending out menu item alerts, local event invites, new Shack opening information and other relevant Shake Shack news through our email marketing program.
Promotions and Events
Throughout fiscal 2020 we continued to extend our brand by collaborating with celebrated chefs, developing new creative concepts, unveiling exciting promotions and participating in special events to drive brand awareness and engage with our guests. These initiatives were key to harnessing the growing strength of the Shake Shack brand and helping it stand out through unique moments and activations. Some notable collaborative promotions and events include:
▪ Brandon Maxwell Fashion Show — For the third time, we catered front and back of house for the Brandon Maxwell Spring Fashion Show at the American Museum of Natural History. Shake Shack has become a staple at this event and saw engagement from top tier influencers such as Bella Hadid.
▪ Postmates x Couchella Delivery Promotion — After a postponement due to COVID-19, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival partnered with YouTube to stream a documentary called Coachella: 20 Years In The Desert . During this festival weekend, we partnered with Postmates to offer a free ShackBurger with orders over $20 for guests to enjoy, while hosting their own watch party. In addition, we offered our Shake Shack fans a free month of Postmates Unlimited.
▪ Goldbelly DIY Kits — We partnered with Goldbelly to bring cooking kits of Shake Shack’s ShackBurger and SmokeShack nationwide. These offerings, which came in an 8 and 16 pack, marked the first time that fans could cook and enjoy Shack favorites from the comfort of their own home.
▪ Shack Camp — For the first time in 2020, we launched Shack Camp, providing families with our Shack Camp Box that included six weeks’ worth of activities to keep families entertained from home — with a portion of proceeds going to the Fresh Air Fund's virtual summer program. The program also included six IGTV videos for families to follow each week.
▪ Shake Shake: UberEats x Shake Shack — A campaign in partnership with UberEats, we created a new Tik Tok dance called “The Shake Shake” — a fun new way to shake hands during this “low contact” time. To drive sales, we offered BOGO Shakes via UberEats, plus a free Shake for EatsPass members.
▪ Election Campaign — For this year’s election, we had a number of initiatives to help educate voters and support the electoral process. We partnered with Vote.org on a content series to help inform and educate our social community on resources and voting options. We also partnered with Uber Eats to distribute 5,000 ShackBurgers via Uber Eats Food Trucks to particularly crowded polling stations and gave guests free fries to celebrate early voting. Additionally, for the first time ever, we offered our workers Voting PTO and Poll Worker PTO policies.
Capitalizing on Our Brand Awareness
Since 2004, we have become a globally recognized brand with significant consumer awareness relative to our current footprint of 311 Shacks. Shake Shack has become a New York City institution, a vibrant and authentic community gathering place delivering an exceptional experience to our loyal guests. One great advantage for Shake Shack has been our birthplace and headquarters in New York City, and our origination from a fine dining company. This gives us tremendous media and brand power, often outweighing our relative size. Shake Shack was awarded the Restaurant Business 2020 Pacesetter Award — an honor given to a growth chain with a sustained track record of success — and made Restaurant Business's Top 500 Chains. Additionally, Shake Shack was named in Fast Casual's Top 100 Movers and Shakers, was among the finalists in the 2019 Shorty Awards' Best in Food & Beverage Sites and Apps, was on Nation's Restaurant News's 2018 Top 10 Fastest Growing Chains and was named on Foodable's "brand of the year" list as part of their 2018 Top Emerging Brands. We believe this brand awareness will continue to fuel our growth in both new and existing markets.
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Media, Product Placement and Influencers
Shake Shack’s unique positioning has helped us garner robust media coverage across food, lifestyle, business and trade publications. We have also been fortunate to receive considerable product placement in movies, TV shows and other media. In addition, we have been featured across various media outlets, allowing us to increase brand awareness. Shake Shack’s popularity and cultural relevance is reflected in our countless celebrity and influencer fans across Hollywood, music, fashion, sports and more.
Culinary Innovation
Shake Shack's unique value proposition is partially defined by our roots in fine dining. We embrace that heritage and are committed to sourcing premium ingredients — such as all-natural, hormone and antibiotic-free beef, chicken and pork — while offering excellent value to our guests. Our core menu is inspired by the finest versions of the classic American roadside burger stand. Occasionally, we supplement our menu with limited time offers, and we experiment with potential new categories we may consider adding to the menu over time.
We are committed to culinary creativity and excellence, collaborating with award-winning chefs, talented bakers, farmers and artisanal purveyors, each of whom bring their unique skills and expertise to the Shake Shack experience. As we grow across the country, we are excited to expand these collaborations with industry-leading chefs and suppliers.
While we’re extraordinarily proud of our legacy and current position, we will continue to look for the best ingredients and culinary partners, in an effort to exceed our guests' expectations in every aspect of their experience.
Our Menu
Our menu focuses on premium food and beverages, carefully crafted from a range of classic American foods at more accessible price points than full-service restaurants.
Burgers
Our burgers are made with a proprietary whole-muscle blend of 100% all-natural, hormone and antibiotic-free Angus beef, ground fresh, cooked to order and served on a non-GMO potato bun. We take great care in the preparation of our burgers — from sourcing, to handling, to cooking — to ensure their taste and quality is second to none. Our signature burger is the ShackBurger ® , a four-ounce cheeseburger topped with lettuce, tomato and ShackSauce™. Our burger offerings also include the SmokeShack ® , 'Shroom Burger™ (a vegetarian burger), Shack Stack ® and Hamburger.
Chicken
Our Chick’n Shack™ is a 100% all-natural, hormone-free, antibiotic-free and cage-free chicken breast, slow cooked in buttermilk herbs, hand-battered, hand-breaded and crisp-fried to order. Our Chick'n Bites are made with all-natural, antibiotic-free whole muscle that is sous-vide cooked for optimum flavor, moisture and texture.
Crinkle Cut Fries
Our classic, passionately beloved crinkle cut fries are made from premium Yukon potatoes and are prepared 100% free of artificial trans fats. So many of our guests love the crispiness and ridges of our crinkle cut fries — a nostalgic ode to the roadside burger stand of yesteryear. Guests can also enjoy our Cheese Fries; our crinkle cut fries topped with a proprietary blend of cheddar and American cheese sauce.
Hot Dogs
Shake Shack was born as a hot dog cart in 2001 and we’re proud to honor that legacy by continuing to offer a premium hot dog category. Both our beef hot dogs and our chicken dogs are made from 100% all-natural, hormone and antibiotic-free beef and chicken.
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Shakes and Frozen Custard
Our premium, dense, rich and creamy ice cream, hand-spun daily on-site, is crafted from our proprietary vanilla and chocolate recipes. We use only real sugar (no corn syrup) and milk from dairy farmers who pledge not to use artificial growth hormones. Shakes remain our guests' favorite in this category, and they're scooped and spun to order. Our concretes are made by blending frozen custard at high speed with premium mix-ins.
Beer, Wine and Beverages
Our proprietary ShackMeister ® Ale, brewed by Brooklyn Brewery, was specifically crafted to complement the ShackBurger's flavor profile. At select locations, we also offer local craft beers. Our Shack Red ® and Shack White ® wines are sourced and produced exclusively by Gotham Project, providing our guests with premium beverage options not commonly found in our industry — a nod to our fine dining heritage. We also serve canned red, white and rosé wines at our Shacks that serve alcohol. In addition, we serve Abita Root Beer, Shack-made Lemonade, organic fresh brewed iced tea, Fifty/Fifty™ (half lemonade, half organic iced tea), Stumptown cold brew coffee, Honest Kids organic apple juice and Shack| 2 0 ® bottled water, from which 1% of sales help support the clean-up of water sources around the world.
The Innovation Kitchen
To explore exciting new menu options for our guests, our Innovation Kitchen is located on the lower level of the West Village Shack and connected to our home office — the hub of Shake Shack's menu development. This dedicated space allows our culinary team to get even more creative, dig deeper into our fine dining roots, collaborate with other chefs and explore new opportunities as we continue to grow. The West Village Shack’s menu has all of our classic items and also features a rotating list of items from the Innovation Kitchen, with guest-favorite test items potentially becoming permanent menu items. This space also allows us to house our quality assurance and culinary teams together, ensuring that every item on our menu meets our strict standards.
Shack-Wide Limited Time Offerings ("LTO")
In response to COVID-19, we briefly simplified our menu during the first half of fiscal 2020. However, in the third quarter, we recommenced our rotating LTO calendar — with highlights including new chicken flavors, shakes and lemonades. Our LTO program generally features a new, premium burger or chicken menu item for varying time periods throughout the year. Some of our notable LTOs throughout 2020 were:
▪ Hot Chick’n, Bites, and Fries — In September 2020, we brought back Hot Chick’n, a perennial fan favorite, and added new Hot Spicy Fries and Hot Chick’n Bites to the menu with our new Ranch sauce. These items were offered in three spice levels: hot, extra hot and fire, with the latter exclusively available through our digital channels.
▪ Featured Shakes — Throughout 2020 we offered our guests a new shake corresponding to various time periods throughout the year, including flavors like Cookie Butter, Malted Milk Chocolate, Frozen Hot Chocolate, S’Mores, Cherry Blossom and Pumpkin and Winter Citrusade, to name a few. Additionally, we featured our trio of holiday shakes during November and December, which included Christmas Cookie, Candy Cane and Chocolate Spice.
▪ Lemonade — In addition to a variety of shakes offered throughout 2020, we also featured new lemonades, including Cherry Blossom, Pink and Winter Citrusade Lemonade.
In the first quarter of fiscal 2021, we brought a regional favorite from our South Korean Shacks to the United States for the first time: a Spicy Korean-Style Fried Chick'n sandwich featuring a Gochujang-glazed chicken breast topped with roasted sesame seeds, over white kimchi slaw. A version of this menu item was on the LTO menu in our South Korean Shacks in 2020, and it demonstrates how our international presence can enhance and elevate our brand as we share exciting, innovative menu items across the world. Although the pandemic resulted in a short-term focus on simplification during early 2020, we hope to return to more consistent limited time offerings in 2021, with a culinary calendar that introduces bold new chicken flavors, innovation around our beverage and custard program, and expanded testing of our new Veggie Shack.
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Exclusive Offerings
In addition to supplementing our menu with Shack-wide LTOs, we also seek to create new, exciting offerings that are inspired by local favorites or special events. Some examples of our exclusive offerings from 2020 include:
▪ New Veggie Shack — The Veggie Shack is made with greens, grains, and herbs, served on a wheat bun topped with avocado, roasted tomato, shredded lettuce and tangy lemon mayo. The Veggie Shack was available for a limited time at select Shacks.
▪ Black Truffle Menu — In December, we paired up with specialty food purveyor Regalis Foods to bring a Black Truffle Menu to select Los Angeles and New York City Shacks for a limited time. Our Black Truffle Menu featured new items made with Regalis’ USDA Organic Black Truffle Arbequina Oil — a natural truffle product, made from Spanish black truffles and California extra virgin olive oil.
▪ Bar Sardine Collab — We teamed up with NYC Restauranteur Gabriel Stulman to bring the return of the Bar Sardine Burger. The one-day-only collab at the Madison Square Park Shack gave fans an early taste of the burger before it landed on the menu at Fairfax. And as a way to give back to our hometown New York City ("NYC"), net proceeds benefited the NYC-based ROAR, Relief Opportunities for All Restaurants.
GROWTH STRATEGIES
Even amidst the challenges of fiscal 2020, we added 36 net new system-wide Shacks and reached 311 Shacks worldwide — and going forward, we believe we are well-positioned to continue significant, sustainable financial growth. We plan to execute our growth strategies while remembering to Stand For Something Good in everything we do.
Opening New Domestic Company-Operated Shacks
We believe our greatest opportunity for growth lies in opening new, Company-operated Shacks. We waited nearly five years to open our second Shack, and a little over a decade since then, we are still in the early chapters of our story. We see a tremendous whitespace opportunity to expand in both new and existing U.S. markets, and we will continue to invest in infrastructure with an eye toward growing rapidly, but with discipline. In the long-term, we believe we have the potential to grow our current domestic Company-operated Shack footprint to at least 450 Shacks; for comparison, we have only opened 41% of that number through the end of fiscal year 2020. Of course, the rate of future Shack growth in any particular period is inherently uncertain and is subject to numerous factors beyond our control. As a result, we do not currently have an anticipated timeframe for such expansion.
In response to COVID-19, new design and construction of future Shacks was temporarily suspended and openings were put on pause in early 2020. With the gradual and sequential recovery of sales throughout the year, we restarted our new Shack development during the second quarter of 2020. Domestically, we expanded our Company-operated footprint by opening 20 new Shacks in 2020 — a 12% increase in our domestic Company-operated Shack count from the prior fiscal year. As of December 30, 2020, we had 183 domestic Company-operated Shacks.
We believe we have a versatile real estate model built for growth; our disciplined expansion strategy is designed to leverage our business model's strength and our brand awareness. We continue to be encouraged by the success of our multi-format strategy which includes but is not limited to free-standing pads, urban centers, food courts, shopping centers and more. As we look to 2021, we intend to return to the full development schedule that was in place before COVID, and we are targeting between 35 and 40 new Company-operated Shacks. We hope to launch in new cities like Portland, Tampa, Indianapolis and Boulder, while also developing a deeper presence in California, the Midwest and some of our other strong markets on the east coast. We aim to build a balanced set of formats across our portfolio, and to keep diversifying across markets as we look to ramp up Shack unit development in 2022 and beyond. To that end, we are planning to open a total of 45 to 50 new domestic Company-operated Shacks in fiscal 2022.
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Growing Our Licensed Shack Business
Beyond our Company-owned Shacks, we also hope to keep growing our licensed portfolio by expanding further domestically and internationally. Historically, this strategy has been a low-cost, high-return method to grow our brand awareness and increase cash flow. As of December 30, 2020 we had 128 licensed Shacks, of which 106 were international and 22 were domestic in the U.S.
International Licensed Operations
In fiscal 2020, we opened 22 international Shacks and closed six international Shacks. The 22 new international Shacks included four Shacks in mainland China, two in Hong Kong, four in the United Arab Emirates, four in South Korea, four in Singapore, two in Mexico, one in Turkey, and one in the Philippines. We believe our brand's strength continues to reinforce opportunities for global expansion. In the near-term, a meaningful part of our international business strategy remains focused on the Chinese and broader Asian markets. In fiscal 2020, we increased the Asian market Shack count by approximately 35%. In fiscal 2020, we also expanded our partnership with licensee Maxim’s Caterers Limited which targets a development agreement of 15 Shacks in South China by 2030, including locations in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and more. Through this expanded partnership, this agreement increases development targets for mainland China to 55 Shacks by 2030 — building upon the seven Shacks that were open as of December 30, 2020, including locations in Beijing and Shanghai.
These partnerships with our international licensed counterparts are great opportunities for our team to grow, learn and bring back insights to the broader Company. Given our position in New York and the success of our existing licensed Shacks at home and abroad, we continue to attract interest from potential licensees around the world. We see significant opportunities to expand our licensing footprint in existing and new international markets as our team and supply chain matures.
Domestic Licensed Operations
In fiscal 2020, we opened one domestic licensed Shack in the Salt Lake City Airport (in September) and closed one domestic licensed Shack. Our licensed airport and stadium business continued to be deeply impacted by the pandemic through the end of fiscal 2020, with only 14 of the 22 domestic licensed Shacks open as of December 30, 2020. In the meantime, we continue to work with domestic licensed operating partners to support new openings as they arise.
Growing Same-Shack Sales
In addition to opening new Shacks, we continue to focus on improving our same-Shack sales performance by providing a dynamic, personalized guest experience that includes new seasonal and Shack-specific offerings, technological upgrades like the Company-owned app and web ordering/delivery, thoughtful integration with local communities and excellent standards of hospitality. We also continue to innovate our core menu to deliver fresh offerings, while maintaining the standard of our signature items.
OPERATIONS
At Shake Shack, we believe our success depends upon maintaining efficient and nimble operations. Just as we invest in our menu options and in-Shack experience, we take special care to ensure our supply chain, distribution, quality assurance, and management information systems are constantly being evaluated and streamlined to deliver smooth results.
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Sourcing and Supply Chain
Our Stand For Something Good vision isn't just a slogan — it indicates how we source and develop our ingredients. We work with best-in-class suppliers across our supply chain, and we're always looking for the best ways to provide top quality food at an excellent value. We pride ourselves on working with like-minded ranchers, farmers and food purveyors to source premium ingredients like 100% all-natural proteins with no hormones or antibiotics, that are humanely raised and source-verified. In fact, we are committed to sourcing 100% cage-free eggs for our global supply chain by 2025, and we're already sourcing 100% cage-free eggs for both the US and UK supply chains. We have also committed not to serve foie gras in our Shacks.
Another Shake Shack principle is that we aim to deliver menu items that are not only delicious, but nourishing. In 2020, for example, we worked with our pickle suppliers to remove artificial preservatives from our pickle recipe.
Our domestic regional strategy for ground beef production ensures we consistently serve freshly ground beef at our domestic Shacks. As we've grown domestically, we have eight butchers around the country who produce our burgers on a daily basis. As we grow, we will continue to partner with regional suppliers in new markets.
To ensure dependable quality, we have a limited number of domestic suppliers for our major ingredients, including beef patties, chicken, potato buns, custard, portobello mushrooms and cheese sauce. In fiscal 2020, we purchased all of our (i) ground beef patties from seven suppliers, with approximately 44% of our ground beef patties from one supplier; (ii) chicken breasts from one supplier; (iii) potato buns from one supplier; (iv) custard base from two suppliers; (v) 'Shroom Burgers from one supplier; (vi) crinkle cut fries from two suppliers; and (vii) ShackSauce from two suppliers, with approximately 78% of ShackSauce supplied by one supplier. We believe we have developed a reliable supply chain, but we have also taken strides to identify alternative sources to avoid any possible interruptions of service and product.
Distribution
We have pursued a centralized distribution process by contracting with one distributor, which we refer to as our "broadline" distributor, to provide virtually all of our food distribution services in the United States. As of December 30, 2020, approximately 84% of certain food and beverage ingredients including chicken, fries and custard — collectively representing approximately 45% of our purchases — were processed through our broadline distributor for distribution and delivery to each Shack. As of December 30, 2020, we were utilizing 20 affiliated distribution centers to supply our domestic Company-operated Shacks. We recognize that the safety and consistency of our products begins with our suppliers — so suppliers must meet certain criteria and strict quality control standards in the production and delivery of our food and other products. Finally, we regularly evaluate our broadline distributor to ensure the products we purchase conform to our standards and that the prices they offer are competitive.
Food Safety and Quality Assurance
As should go without saying, food safety is our top priority. We have rigorous quality assurance and food safety protocols in place throughout our supply chain and in our Shacks. We take a two-pronged approach: we allow for quarterly third-party audits of our Shacks, as well as a review of our suppliers. We have a comprehensive supplier and ingredient selection process, and we maintain a limited list of approved suppliers that meet our standards. We thoroughly review the results of suppliers' internal and external quality audits, insurance coverage and track record on an on-going basis. We perform food safety and brands audits, and we also audit and visit our suppliers. To stress test for exceptional scenarios, we conduct mock food recalls across a selection of our suppliers on a quarterly basis. We have developed and implemented training and operating standards related to the food preparation, cleanliness and safety in each Shack, as we ensure our team members go through crisis management training. And of course, we have a dedicated Quality Assurance team.
Management Information Systems
Our domestic Company-operated Shacks use computerized point-of-sale and back-office systems designed for the restaurant industry; we use many customized features to increase operational effectiveness, improve internal communication and enhance data analysis. This system uses a touch screen interface, graphical order confirmation display, touch screen kitchen display and integrated, high-speed credit card and gift card processing. The point-of-sale system collects daily transaction data, which generates information about sales, product mix and average transaction size. From there, our back-office systems assist in the
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management of our domestic Company-operated Shacks and provide real-time labor and food cost management tools. These tools provide the home office and operations management quick, easy access to detailed business data, and allow Shack-level managers to spend less time addressing administrative needs. We expect to continue improving our information technology infrastructure to better serve our business needs and accommodate growth.
Enterprise-wide System Upgrade – Project Concrete
In an effort to ensure our infrastructure and support systems are sufficiently robust and scalable enough to deliver upon our growth opportunities — in June 2020, we completed an enterprise-wide system upgrade, "Project Concrete." Project Concrete is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) project to implement new systems and processes that support our finance, procure-to-pay, inventory and human capital management areas. Project Concrete focused on (i) streamlining and automating business processes to make robust future growth possible; (ii) standardizing and centralizing business processes; and (iii) implementing new software applications to centralize our business in a controlled and efficient way. Project Concrete replaced our current back-of-house systems, reduced administrative tasks in Shacks, and it reflects our broader mission of investing in tools across the Company.
HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
We are committed to investing in our people so we can build, develop and retain the best teams. We aim to recruit people who have integrity, who are warm, friendly, motivated, caring, self-aware and intellectually curious — what we call "51%'ers." We use the term "51%" to describe the interpersonal and emotional skills needed to thrive in the role, with the other "49%" representing the technical skills. Our team is trained to understand and practice the values of Enlightened Hospitality: caring for each other, caring for our guests, caring for our community, caring for our suppliers and caring for our investors. We believe this culture is fundamental to the way we operate our business, and a key driver of our ability to deliver great guest experiences — and therefore, successfully grow our footprint.
Our Employee Value Proposition
Working at Shake Shack is about more than making a great burger — it's about creating elevated experiences for our team members and guests, and getting opportunities to build a rewarding career. We want every team member at Shake Shack to be empowered to impact our Shacks and the communities around them.
We're a family of passionate, fun-loving and hardworking people who encourage and uplift each other. We are committed to doing the right thing for our teams, guests and communities. We challenge ourselves, hold each other accountable and take care of one another. In short: We Stand For Something Good.
Leaders Training Future Leaders
We invest in leadership development programs so that Shake Shack remains a compelling career choice for team members at every level, through their entire career. As our team continues to grow, we believe that our culture of Enlightened Hospitality helps us deliver a consistent Shack experience, and to develop future leaders from within.
The Shacksperience and Steppin' Up Model
We call our team member life cycle and overall employment experience, The Shacksperience™. A key element of The Shacksperience is the Steppin' Up Model, which defines the steps in the employment life cycle, from team member to general manager. It clarifies the eligibility requirements and training necessary for each position, outlines the growth opportunities at all levels of the organization and furthers our philosophy of "leaders training future leaders."
First and foremost, we train new team members on our culture and guiding principles. From there, we move to menu knowledge, followed by operational training. We know everyone learns differently, so our training programs use various formats: online interactive, video, hands-on and paper-based. For our online sessions, every team member has access to ShackSource™, our proprietary online training portal, which is used both as a learning platform and communication tool. ShackSource gives team
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members a platform to send recognition messages, comments, praise and thanks to their fellow team members across the Company. And for hands-on training sessions, we gather our teams around the country whenever possible, as well as in our Leadership Center, located below our home office on the lower level of our West Village Shack. The Leadership Center is dedicated to the training and development of our Shack and home office teams; we use it to host New Leader Orientation sessions for new managers.
We care about our team and we're committed to setting them up for success, at Shake Shack and in their future careers. In 2020, we promoted over 1,500 people throughout our Company, 56% of whom were women and 76% were under-represented minorities. We are proud of our leaders who graduate from hourly roles to managers, managers to General Managers and General Managers to regional leadership. This year, 73% of our new General Managers and 75% of new Area Directors were promoted from within.
We are committed to retaining our leaders by continuing to evolve our training, development programs, compensation and benefits. We want to incentivize our Shack leaders, give them the opportunity to feel like owners and reward them for their performance. One way we try to achieve this is by extending our equity-based compensation program to all General Managers.
Shift-Up Program
As part of our long-term investment in our people, we began to pilot the Shift-Up program in December 2020, which is designed to provide skills that help accelerate shift managers' career paths within the Company. This six-month program focuses on modules, like professional communication, public speaking and presentation skills, personal finance, management skills, and the ability to lead and participate in inclusion conversations. Shift managers generally attend these sessions through live virtual classrooms, as well as in small group or peer learning settings.
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We Are All-In
To make sure every Shake Shack team member at every level has a positive experience, we strive to build an inclusive workplace, made up of diverse talent throughout the Company. Our diversity, equity and inclusion program, All-In, is part of that mission. With the support of executive leaders, All-In works to ensure Shake Shack provides equal opportunities for, and removes obstacles to, success, while also fostering a culture of diversity, inclusion and empowerment. Our All-In program's initiatives include:
▪ Employee Resource Groups — We launched four Employee Resource Groups in fiscal 2020, with a focus on women, Black, Hispanic and LGBTQ+ identifying team members, to help Shake Shack continue to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace. These are voluntary employee-led groups of people who gather together based on common interests, backgrounds or demographics such as gender, race or ethnicity. These groups support both personal and career development.
▪ Unconscious Bias Training — We launched unconscious bias training for all home office and field-based team members. The training was designed to create awareness for the impact of bias in the workplace, and to provide tools for our teams to address and counteract that bias.
▪ Stand Together Series — We launched a Stand Together Series forum to discuss on-going social issues. The Company-wide sessions served as an open forum and safe space for sharing personal stories to help deepen the collective understanding of diversity issues in the United States while strengthening our community and team. In 2020, we hosted live sessions on topics such as racial discrimination and injustice, gender equity, LGBTQ inclusion, voting, and more.
▪ Mentorship Program — As part of our commitment to leadership and team member development, our mentorship program facilitates learning and growth, while providing tools and opportunities to connect with other members of the program, and the Company as a whole.
▪ #ShacktheVote — Leading up to the general election in November 2020, we launched an internal campaign to help educate our employees on the importance of civic engagement, including how and where to vote. We also provided our team members with paid time off to exercise their right to vote.
▪ We were proud to be named one of the "Best places to work for LGBTQ+ Equality" and earn a 100% score on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index for our support of the LGBTQ+ community in the workplace. This designation highlights the core of our Enlightened Hospitality ethos and our commitment to a great workplace for all.
The HUG Fund
One of the ways we embrace Enlightened Hospitality internally is through the administration of our own HUG (Help Us Give) Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization available for all of our employees. The HUG Fund provides an opportunity for all Shake Shack employees to take care of each other through tax-deductible payroll and other one-time contributions. The HUG Fund provides timely financial assistance to employees impacted by financially devastating circumstances far beyond their control and their means. In fiscal 2020, employee participation in the HUG Fund increased, with donations increasing by 24% compared to 2019.
Actions Taken to Protect our Teams and Guests During COVID-19
Our priority throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has been to keep our teams and guests safe first and foremost, while keeping our Shacks open wherever we can.
Our team created a new guest experience around curbside pickup with digital pre-ordering, and created distinct and separate areas for delivery courier pickups — all to ensure safety of our team and our guests. We have taken significant actions to ensure maximum safety for our team members and guests in these times, including increased cleaning, sanitizing and hand washing protocols, social distancing, and wearing gloves and masks at all times. We also incurred additional costs in procuring and distributing the supplies necessary to keep our teams and guests safe, such as face coverings, gloves, additional secure packaging for all orders, directional signage and cleaning supplies, which are all expected to be ongoing for the immediate
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future. Furthermore, in fiscal 2021, we have begun installing state-of-the-art air purification systems to ensure a safe and clean working and dining environment for our teams and guests.
Beyond the safety of our team, we also took steps to ensure their security during an uncertain time. We paid 100% of our furloughed team members’ medical insurance through August 2020, and we guaranteed full pay for our Shack General Managers even if their Shacks were closed. In fiscal 2020, we incurred close to $6 million incremental payroll costs to support our Shack employees. These incremental payroll costs were related to a temporary 10% premium pay raise to hourly employees through the end of August, guaranteed bonuses for Shack teams, and payments related to scheduling changes for hourly team members as our teams navigated the challenging operating conditions caused by COVID-19. Furthermore, understanding the burden that the pandemic has placed on people's mental health, our employees have free access to a 24-hour emotional support helpline.
As of December 30, 2020, we had 7,429 employees, of whom 7,187 were hourly team members and Shack-level managers and 242 were home office personnel.
COMPETITION
The restaurant industry is highly competitive and fragmented, with restaurants competing on a variety of fronts, including taste, price, food quality, service, location and the ambiance and condition of the restaurant. Our primary competitors include other fast casual restaurants, quick service restaurants and casual dining restaurants. Our competition includes multi-unit national and regional chains, as well as a wide variety of locally-owned restaurants. Our competitors may operate company-owned restaurants, franchised restaurants or some combination. Many of our competitors offer breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as dine-in, carry-out and delivery services. In certain ways, we also compete with companies outside of the traditional restaurant industry, such as grocery store chains, meal subscription services and delicatessens — especially those that target customers who seek high-quality food — as well as convenience food stores, cafeterias and other dining outlets.
As new competitors enter the burger and fast casual segments, and offer new digital experiences, our competition continues to intensify. We also face increasing pressures from certain competitors who have announced initiatives to offer better quality ingredients relative to their previous offerings, such as antibiotic-free meat or plant-based meat alternatives. For more information regarding the risks we face from our competitors — who may have, among other things, a more diverse menu, greater financial resources, lower operating costs, a more well-established brand, additional locations and more extensive marketing than we do — see "Risks Related to Operating in the Restaurant Industry — We face significant competition for guests, and if we are unable to compete effectively, our business could be adversely affected" in Item 1A, Risk Factors .
We see ourselves as well-positioned to continue our market growth, as we believe consumers will keep seeking higher quality offerings — especially given an increasing consumer focus on responsible sourcing, ingredients and preparation. We believe that many consumers want to associate with brands whose ethos matches their own, and that Shake Shack, with our mission to Stand For Something Good and our culture of Enlightened Hospitality, reflects the values of conscientious consumers.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Since our inception, we have strategically and proactively developed our intellectual property portfolio by registering our trademarks and service marks worldwide. As of December 30, 2020, we had 22 registered marks domestically, including registrations in our core marks ("Shake Shack," "Shack Burger," " " and " ") and certain other marks, such as Stand for Something Good. Internationally, we have registered our core marks in 82 countries spanning six continents. These marks are registered in multiple international trademark classes, including for restaurant services, food services, non-alcoholic beverages and apparel. We also own the domain www.shakeshack.com as well as over 400 other domain names for use in other markets.
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In addition, we have agreements with the suppliers of our proprietary products stating that the recipes and production processes associated with those products are our property, confidential to us, and may not be provided to any other customer. Our proprietary products include the burger recipe for our whole-muscle blend, our patty grinding procedure and the product formulations for our ShackSauce, 'Shroom Burger, chicken breast, chicken breading and buttermilk herb mayo, cheese sauce, unflavored custard base, chocolate custard base, as well as certain toppings and custard mix-ins. We also have exclusive arrangements with our suppliers of ShackMeister Ale, Shack Red wine, Shack White wine, hot dog and chicken sausage, relish and cherry peppers.
GOVERNMENT REGULATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS
We are subject to extensive federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations, as well as other statutory and regulatory requirements, including those related to, among others, nutritional content labeling and disclosure requirements, food safety regulations, local licensure, building and zoning regulations, employment regulations and laws and regulations related to our licensed operations. New laws and regulations or new interpretations of existing laws and regulations may also impact our business. The costs of compliance with these laws and regulations are high, are likely to increase in the future, and any failure on our part to comply with these laws may subject us to significant liabilities and other penalties. See "Regulatory and Legal Risks" in Item 1A, Risk Factors for more information.
We are not aware of any federal, state or local provisions that have been enacted or adopted regulating the discharge of materials into the environment, or otherwise relating to the protection of the environment, that have materially affected, or are reasonably expected to materially affect, our results of operations, competitive position, or capital expenditures.
SEASONALITY
Our business is subject to slight seasonal fluctuations which can impact sales from quarter-to-quarter. Year-over-year and quarter-to-quarter results can be also be impacted by the number and timing of new Shack openings. Additionally, given our use of a fiscal calendar, there may be some fluctuations between quarters due to holiday shifts in the calendar year. And of course, the COVID-19 outbreak may have an impact on consumer behaviors and customer traffic that may result in temporary changes in the seasonal fluctuations of our business.
INFORMATION ABOUT OUR EXECUTIVE OFFICERS
The name, age and position held by each of our executive officers as of December 30, 2020 is set forth below.
Name Age Position
Randy Garutti 45 Chief Executive Officer and Director
Tara Comonte 46 President and Chief Financial Officer
Zachary Koff 41 Chief Operating Officer
Randy Garutti has served as Shake Shack's Chief Executive Officer and on the Board of Directors since April 2012. Prior to becoming Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Garutti served as Chief Operating Officer of SSE Holdings since January 2010. Prior to leading Shake Shack, Mr. Garutti was the Director of Operations for USHG, of which Mr. Meyer is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, overseeing the operations for all its restaurants. In addition, Mr. Garutti served as General Manager of Union Square Cafe and Tabla, both of which won numerous accolades in the hospitality industry. Mr. Garutti graduated from Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration in 1997.
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Tara Comonte has served as Shake Shack's President and Chief Financial Officer since October 2019 and as Shake Shack's Chief Financial Officer since June 2017. Prior to becoming Chief Financial Officer at Shake Shack, Ms. Comonte served as Chief Financial & Business Affairs Officer and Executive Vice President at Getty Images, a global digital media company, since October 2016 where she was responsible for the company's global finance, enterprise reporting & analytics and investor relations functions, together with real estate and facilities, as well as oversight of information systems & technology. Prior to that, Ms. Comonte served as the Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Getty Images since April 2013, where she managed the overall leadership and strategic direction of all aspects of the company's global finance function. Prior to that, Ms. Comonte served as Chief Financial Officer at McCann Worldgroup, the world's largest marketing communications business, since October 2010.
Zachary Koff has served as Shake Shack’s Chief Operating Officer since January 2017. Prior to becoming Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Koff served as the Senior Vice President, Operations since March 2015, Vice President, Operations since April 2012, and Director of Operations since February 2010. Prior to joining Shake Shack, Mr. Koff spent eight years working in operations for the Bravo Brio Restaurant Group. Mr. Koff graduated from Cornell University’s School of hotel administration in 2002 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Hospitality Administration.
AVAILABLE INFORMATION
Our website is located at www.shakeshack.com, and our investor relations website is located at http://investor.shakeshack.com. We are subject to the informational requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") and file or furnish reports, proxy statements and other information with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements, statements of changes in beneficial ownership and amendments to those reports are available for free on our investor relations website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file them with, or furnish them to, the SEC. The SEC maintains a website (www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.
We webcast our earnings calls and certain events we participate in or host with members of the investment community on our investor relations website. Additionally, we provide notifications of news or announcements regarding our financial performance, including SEC filings, investor events, press and earnings releases as part of our investor relations website. Investors and others can receive notifications of new information posted on our investor relations website in real time by subscribing to email alerts. We also make certain corporate governance documents available on our investor relations website, including our corporate governance guidelines, board committee charters, code of business conduct and ethics, as well as certain Company policies.
The contents of our website are not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our websites are intended to be inactive textual references only.
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