00:00You know, we've seen a couple of your fast casual peers already report. They did not do as well as
00:05you did.
00:06What was specific to Kava that allowed you not only to post those numbers for the most recent quarter, but
00:11to guide as aggressively as you did?
00:14Hey, Romain, great to be back with you.
00:16I think what's driving our strength is what we've seen over the 15 year history of Kava.
00:20And we just celebrated our 15th anniversary last month is the growing and strengthening underlying demand for our differentiated Mediterranean
00:28cuisine.
00:28And then how we've worked every year to improve the relative value of that proposition and how we deliver that
00:35cuisine.
00:36So not just underpricing inflation by over 10 percent and underpricing the average restaurant brand by over half in recent
00:45years,
00:45but really delivering a holistic value of the quality of the ingredients we serve, the relevance of that cuisine, that
00:53Mediterranean cuisine where taste and health unites,
00:55the convenience in which you can access in a multi-channel format and the experience you have when we deliver
00:59that hospitality in our physical spaces.
01:02So that's all come together. We noted it coming out of Q3 when you looked at our new restaurant opening
01:07class in 2025, they were hitting record levels.
01:10And then on a two year basis last year, we sequentially accelerated every quarter.
01:15So while the one year had some deceleration and we were certainly dealing with a lot of the macroeconomic headwinds
01:20that that many brands were dealing with,
01:22the underlying strength persisted and then firmed up and strengthened further as we exited the year and came into 2026.
01:29I am curious about growth going forward. You're now over 400 restaurants, 439 or so, I believe, was the number
01:36that you gave on the call.
01:37You're approaching now a level where scale, I mean, obviously that's a benefit, but it also could pose new challenges
01:44in managing your business.
01:45And I am curious, as you continue to expand, how are you going to make sure that you manage the
01:50consistency and reliability at all of those locations?
01:54Yeah, we've invested heavily over the years in our infrastructure, whether it's our vertically integrated manufacturing production for our dips
02:00and spreads,
02:00our technology platforms, our digital order platforms, or our fiscal environments in our kitchens.
02:07We rolled out new Turbo Chef ovens last year that simplifies cook production while not diminishing any quality,
02:12makes it easier for our team members to deliver on that.
02:14We rolled out our new kitchen display screen systems to all but 69 restaurants that we're currently retrofitting this year
02:22that helps our teams not only with digital order production productivity, but improved order accuracy and timeliness.
02:29And then on the people front, we launched our Flavor Your Future platform at the end of the year
02:33to really broaden and deepen our pipeline of role-ready leaders to open those new restaurants with operational integrity
02:39and brought on recently Doug Thompson as our new chief operations officer.
02:43Doug has decades of experience really as a people developer and people leader in the industry
02:48to help build those future leaders.
02:50Because I always say the biggest governor to our growth is having qualified, role-ready general managers to open those
02:56restaurants.
02:56And in the spirit of doing that, we rolled out a new assistant general manager position in December.
03:03Sixty percent of those roles are now filled.
03:05We're on track to complete filling those roles in the next six months.
03:08And what that does is it provides a deeper manager experience complement across all 14-day parts,
03:16seven lunch, seven dinner, as our average unit volumes have increased in recent years from 2.1 to 2.3
03:21to now 3 million.
03:23Those are very busy restaurants.
03:24We want to make sure we have the right senior leadership to guide our teams every location, every shift,
03:30set us up to be able to have those new leaders to open new restaurants.
03:33I am curious about the menu, the in-store menu, and whether you are planning any sort of meaningful changes
03:40or additions,
03:40I should say, or subtractions for that matter, in order to just kind of keep up with taste.
03:45Yeah, Romain, we're always constantly evolving our menu, but within the lens of our Mediterranean brand essence.
03:51And so you saw in January, we brought back our fan-favorite white sweet potatoes.
03:56We launched a new greens blend, our Power Greens blend, which has been incredibly well-received.
04:00And our delicious sumac sour cream and onion pita chips, another flavor innovation on our pita chip flavor platform.
04:07And then I'm excited to say that before the end of the first quarter, we're going to be launching our
04:11first seafood protein item.
04:13We're going to have pomegranate glazed salmon hitting the menu by the end of the first quarter.
04:16We're really a core aspect of the Mediterranean diet. Excited to bring that to our guests here soon.
04:23Okay. I didn't realize you never had seafood protein.
04:26And I assume this is all still going to be in bowls.
04:29You know, some of your competitors have said bowls might be over.
04:33Yeah. So we serve bowls. We serve pitas.
04:35And look, Romain, people don't wake up and say, I want to go to a fast casual or I want
04:40a bowl.
04:40People wake up and say, I want delicious food that I'm craving.
04:43I want Mediterranean cuisine. I want flavorful, satisfying food.
04:48And more and more, they want food that they feel good about, that they don't have to make compromises to
04:53eat.
04:54And that's where Kava comes in.
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