May 7th, 2026

The call presented a generally positive long-term outlook driven by strong top-line growth, accelerating unit development, improving restaurant-level margins, robust digital growth, and successful culinary innovation. Short-term pressures included weather-related sales disruption, elevated beef inflation, higher preopening and G&A investments, a Q1 decline in adjusted EBITDA, and licensed-market impacts from the Middle East conflict. Management reiterated full-year revenue and margin targets while broadening EBITDA guidance to reflect near-term volatility and investing in technology and loyalty to support sustainable growth.

Company Guidance

Shake Shack's guidance for Q2 2026 calls for system‑wide unit openings of 24–27 (16–19 company‑operated, ~8 licensed), total revenue of $424–428M, same‑Shack sales up 3%–5%, licensing revenue $13.5–13.7M and a restaurant‑level profit margin of 24%–24.5%, with the company planning to exit Q2 with ~4% overall price and ~3% price for the full year; for full‑year 2026 management now expects 60–65 company‑operated openings, total revenue of roughly $1.6B–$1.7B, low‑single‑digit same‑Shack growth, licensing revenue $57–59M (40–45 licensed openings), restaurant‑level margin of 23%–23.5%, food & paper inflation down low‑single‑digits, beef inflation high‑single‑digits, labor inflation low‑single‑digits, G&A around 12%–13% of revenue (toward the high end), equity‑based comp ≈$28M (≈$25M in G&A), depreciation $124–128M, preopening $26–28M, net income $50–60M and adjusted EBITDA broadened to $230–245M (implying ~10%–17% YoY growth); cash at quarter end was $313.7M.