CAVA GROUP, INC. (CAVA) Business

Item 1. Business

Our Mission

To Bring Heart, Health, And Humanity To Food

General

CAVA Group, Inc. (together with its wholly owned subsidiaries, referred to as the “Company,” “CAVA,” “we,” “us,” and “our,” unless specified otherwise) was formed as a Delaware corporation in 2015, and prior to that, the first CAVA restaurant opened in 2011 in Bethesda, Maryland. As of December 28, 2025, we operate 439 fast-casual CAVA Restaurants in 28 states and Washington, D.C. The Company’s authentic Mediterranean cuisine unites taste and health, with a menu that features chef-curated and customizable bowls and pitas. We centrally produce our dips, spreads, and certain dressing bases for use in our restaurants while also selling our dips, spreads, and prepared dressings in grocery stores.

Business Strategy

We believe that our differentiated offerings and broad appeal give us significant opportunity in the Mediterranean and health and wellness food categories. Our guests span age groups, genders, and income brackets with a strong Millennial and a growing Gen Z contingent. The broad appeal of our brand is evidenced by substantial diversity across geographies, formats, dayparts, and channels. We are in the early stages of fulfilling our total restaurant potential, and we believe there is opportunity for more than 1,000 CAVA restaurants in the United States by 2032. We believe we are well positioned to benefit from the following strong and emerging trends:

•Evolving consumer preferences for authentic and ethnic cuisine

•Increased focus on health and wellness

•Emphasis on combined quality and convenience

We aim to create an industry-leading, category defining brand rooted in the following strategic pillars:

Expand our Mediterranean Way in Communities Across the Country

•Grow our footprint and expand multi-channel access

•Fuel our culinary innovation and communication engine to drive traffic, mix, and check

•Express the essence of our category-defining concept consistently across brand properties

Develop Personal Relationships with Guests, Even as We Scale

•Leverage our digital ecosystem to enable more personalized communication with guests

•Deepen our connections with guests and drive increased frequency with our enhanced loyalty offerings

•Create a cohesive physical and digital journey

Run Great Restaurants, Every Location, Every Shift

•Streamline and automate preparation to make our restaurants easier to run

•Enhance our training and standards to consistently deliver our Mediterranean hospitality

•Leverage technologies to increase automation and improve restaurant operations

Operate As a High-Performing Team

•Create a culture of growth and accountability

•Use best-in-class data capabilities to unlock powerful, actionable insights

•Implement programs and tools that engage, retain, and connect the organization

Our Food - Where Taste and Health Unite

Our menu fulfills a broad range of dietary preferences, from hearty and indulgent to vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, paleo, keto, and nut-free diets. We have designed our menu to offer vibrant flavors using many fresh, high-

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quality ingredients inspired by our Mediterranean roots. Our guests can choose a chef-curated meal or a build-your-own-bowl or pita using our 38 ingredients with over 17.4 billion combinations. We make it deliciously simple to eat well and feel good every day.

People and Culture

As of December 28, 2025, we employed approximately 12,900 Team Members in our restaurants and 580 within manufacturing and our Collaboration Center Organization. From the very beginning, our founders were focused on ensuring CAVA treated all Team Members with generosity – we believe the health and well-being of our Team Members are just as important as the health of our food. Our Employee Net Promoter Score indicates we have a highly engaged team according to Denison Consulting, which conducted our 2025 Team Member engagement survey.

Our Values

We maintain a core set of values that guide the organization and our culture. They are:

•Generosity First, Always - We lead with kindness. Our best work happens when we act in service of others.

•Constant Curiosity - We are eager to learn, grow, and explore beyond the obvious.

•Act with Agility - We welcome change; it’s the only constant. We embrace, adjust, and adapt.

•Passion for Positivity - We greet each day with warmth and possibility.

•Collective Ambition - We have high aspirations that are achieved when we work together with a shared purpose.

Our values build upon our mission and set a clear foundation in establishing our seven core competencies for expected behavior from all Team Members, which we believe allows us to maximize opportunities for growth and development.

Talent Development

Inspired by our Mediterranean Way and defined by a genuine expression of hospitality and warmth, we want our Team Members – who are vital to our growth and carry on the CAVA culture every day – to build a career, not merely find employment. Under our Flavor Your Future platform, we continuously nurture our talent-rich pipeline by offering a clear promotional track for Team Members to become General Managers, including by the introduction of the Assistant General Manager role. Another key component of our Team Member development pipeline includes a nationwide training network led by our Academy General Managers, who we have identified as achieving strong operational and financial results at the restaurants they operate.

Total Rewards

We believe recognition and rewards are key to a healthy and vibrant culture. We offer our Team Members competitive compensation and benefits including:

•medical, dental, and vision insurance for full-time Team Members and a mini-medical plan for part-time Team Members including office visits, telemedicine, behavioral health, and prescription discounts, among other items;

•401K matching;

•an employee stock purchase plan that gives virtually all our Team Members an ownership opportunity;

•an Employee Assistance Program that covers paid mental health benefits and counseling for all Team Members and their household members, elder care services, alcohol and drug dependency programs, continuing education and college planning, marriage and relationship counseling, relocation guidance, and family planning assistance;

•continuing education, including a tuition discount program in partnership with University of Maryland Global Campus for any Team Member wanting to further their education;

•financial assistance for adoption and family planning through our Well Being program for all Team Members;

•free meals to all Team Members during working hours and discounted meals outside of working hours; and

•short- and long-term incentive programs for our General Managers and Team Members within manufacturing and our Collaboration Center Organization.

Creating an Inclusive Culture

Guided by the skills and insights of our Team Members, we’re intentional about human connection, bringing down barriers, and creating an environment where everyone is welcome at our table.

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We are strongly committed to supporting and engaging all Team Members. We encourage our Team Members, to leverage each of their unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to deliver exceptional results. Inclusivity is a hallmark of several of our core competencies, such as enterprise leadership, service mindset, and people development. We are committed to equal employment opportunities and to providing a respectful work environment free of harassment, discrimination, or retaliation on the basis of any protected classes or characteristics in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

Real Estate

Our market evaluation and site selection process is data-driven and includes reviewing characteristics such as geography, presence of peer brands, demographic and psychographic data, urban/suburban balance, foot- and vehicle-traffic, retail and daily needs, employment and daytime activity, adjacent retailers, and volume potential.

Our restaurant designs are flexible and adaptable to fit any site, which allows us to enhance and tailor our format to our guests’ preferences, including their preferred channels. Each CAVA Restaurant includes walk-the-line ordering and digital pick-up capabilities, as well as a separate digital make line to maximize throughput. Our 2026 restaurant openings will feature our new Project Soul design, which, in addition to convenience, expresses our Mediterranean hospitality and taps into guests’ desire for human connection, including softer seating, more greenery and a warmer brand pallet. Our restaurants generally range from 2,000 to 3,000 square feet in size and seat approximately 30 to 60 guests indoors. As of December 28, 2025, we offered drive-thru pick-up at 75 locations. In select markets, we operate Digital Kitchens to serve as centralized production hubs.

Sourcing, Manufacturing, and Distribution

Our Sourcing and Supply Chain

We have invested in vertically-integrated manufacturing capabilities and built a differentiated directly-sourced supply chain with more than 50 trusted grower, rancher, and producer partners. We conduct certain site visits to maintain our strong relationships and seek to ensure that our partners adhere to our high-quality standards. To secure any potential sourcing needs well in advance of our growth, we continually evaluate the strength and diversity of our supply chain. For additional information, see Item 1A. “Risk Factors—Risks Related to our Manufacturing and Supply Chain.”

Manufacturing and Distribution

We operate a 30,000-square-foot production facility in Laurel, Maryland, a state-of-the-art 55,000-square-foot production facility in Verona, Virginia, and a 4,000-square-foot distribution facility in Edison, New Jersey, which we use primarily for CPG distribution in the Northeast. We have also signed a lease to expand our Laurel, Maryland facility by an additional 20,000 square feet. This expansion is expected to support the growth of our CPG production and provide additional capacity for the restaurant‑focused manufacturing operations currently centered in Verona. We expect that our production facilities will support at least 750 restaurants, as well as our CPG business, and plans are currently underway to develop additional capacity over time. We believe these strategic investments give us several key advantages, including the ability to create our signature dips and spreads with quality, consistency, and efficiency with the adoption of facilities and capabilities that are difficult to replicate.

Sustainability

Since our beginning, we have been committed to the well-being of people and the planet.

We believe in serving the full scope of human needs. CAVA offers benefits such as paid time off to vote and work in the community, adoption assistance, and mental health services for all Team Members and their immediate families. Starting in our restaurants, we work to create clear development paths for all of our Team Members, so they can have not just a good job, but the opportunity to build a great career. We have also created our non-profit Goodness Fund that allows all Team Members to help one another, in partnership with company contributions. Any Team Member can apply for financial assistance in the event of an unexpected financial hardship.

Utilizing food as a force for good, we cultivate relationships with our neighbors through local food-based non-profit groups. When we open a new restaurant, we host “Community Days,” where we provide free meals, and suggest and match donations to benefit local nonprofit partners that focus on underserved neighborhoods. We launched a national food donation program in the fall of 2023 to donate fresh, healthy, and delicious unused food prepared during each new

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restaurant’s training period to local community members. This work is part of our commitment to fighting hunger and reducing food waste. In 2025, we donated over 60,000 pounds of food with an overall retail value of $0.8 million.

We care deeply about the quality of our food, where it comes from, and how it’s created. We are dedicated to working with and sourcing our products from farmers and suppliers who share our values. We strive to use clean label-friendly ingredients, source dairy products from farmers who don’t treat their cows with rbST, and serve only antibiotic-free beef and chicken. As certain suppliers come on board, we ask them to verify their sustainability and sourcing credentials, including with respect to animal welfare. We remain dedicated to broiler chicken welfare and work diligently with our suppliers to support that commitment.

Marketing

Our marketing strategy is grounded in a growth mindset and centered on the evolving needs of our guests. We focus on creating, capturing, and retaining demand by building brand awareness while working to strengthen our value proposition and relevance with guests across occasions and channels.

Brand Marketing

We engage guests through an integrated ecosystem of touchpoints designed to deliver a cohesive and consistent brand experience. Our brand campaigns span an optimized mix of paid, owned, and earned channels, reinforcing our mission and extending the reach of the CAVA brand.

Paid media includes platforms such as Google, Instagram, TikTok, influencer and creator partnerships, and out-of-home advertising. Our owned channels include our restaurants, loyalty program, CPG offerings, the CAVA website and app, and our presence on social media platforms. We also leverage a seasonal marketing framework to create excitement around new menu offerings throughout the year.

Loyalty Program

In 2024, we launched our reimagined loyalty program nationwide which features an earn-and-bank points model with flexible redemption options across our menu, from freshly made juices to entrees. In 2025, we continued to evolve our reimagined loyalty program, introducing Sea, Sand, and Sun status tiers designed to recognize and reward our most engaged guests as their relationship with CAVA deepens. Guests may unlock accelerated earning, exclusive benefits, and elevated experiences as they progress through higher tiers. This tiered structure enables us to more effectively reward higher levels of spend, encourage progression over time, and deliver increasingly personalized experiences. As part of a multi-phased roadmap, the program continues to expand our first-party data capabilities and strengthens our ability to extend Mediterranean hospitality across channels in ways that feel both personal and scalable.

Restaurant Marketing

In our restaurants, we aim to create a warm, welcoming experience inspired by the Mediterranean with every visit. Our Community Days allow us to authentically engage with new and existing guests by partnering with local organizations and charities, reinforcing our mission while strengthening community ties.

To support new restaurant openings, we leverage our growing social media presence, local media outreach, and targeted neighborhood marketing efforts, including direct distribution of menus and flyers to nearby homes and offices. Together, these efforts drive awareness, trial, and excitement, contributing to strong restaurant performance.

Digital Business

As consumer preferences continue to shift toward convenience and personalization, digital remains a core pillar of our growth strategy. We have built a robust, multi-channel experience that includes in-restaurant dining, digital pick-up, drive-thru pick-up in select restaurants, delivery, catering in select markets, and CPG offerings—all supported by a strong digital and data infrastructure. Digital Revenue Mix was 37.9% and 36.4% in fiscal 2025 and 2024, respectively. We are in the early stages of our catering program and plan to expand our catering capabilities to an additional test market in 2026.

Quality and Food Safety

We are deeply committed to food safety. Our food safety and quality assurance (“FSQA”) team establishes and monitors our food safety programs and protocols and is responsible for reviewing and ensuring that our suppliers, restaurants, restaurant Team Members, and production facilities operate in compliance with our food safety standards and federal and state legal requirements. Our approach to food safety is interdepartmental. Our FSQA, supply chain, culinary,

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and operations teams work together to implement our standards for food safety, restaurant cleanliness, and employee health protocols. In addition, we periodically conduct reviews in an effort to confirm that our ongoing food safety practices across our operations are robust and efficient. The CAVA Food Safety Council, which is comprised of independent outside food safety experts, also supplements the knowledge and experience of our FSQA team and advises us on key initiatives in our restaurants and manufacturing facilities.

Our Suppliers

As part of new suppliers’ onboarding, we review applicable food safety and quality programs as well as general insurance coverage as appropriate. We perform site visits to evaluate certain suppliers’ compliance with our food safety standards and requirements. In addition, we periodically review certain suppliers’ compliance with their own internal processes and review their third-party audits.

Our Restaurants

To enhance our compliance with food safety and other regulatory requirements, our restaurants use customizable technology, giving us the flexibility to design and implement processes tailored to our specific needs. We contract with third-party auditing services to regularly monitor restaurant performance through unannounced and announced food safety assessments with program standards that are designed to meet the requirements of local health departments. To align incentives and increase accountability, adherence to food safety standards at restaurants is taken into account in determining the compensation of our General Managers, Academy General Managers, and other restaurant operations leaders.

Our Production Facilities

We operate two production facilities, one in Maryland and one in Virginia. These facilities are licensed to produce and warehouse food products in their respective states and are also registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Our production facilities’ processes and systems are designed to mitigate the risk of contamination and illness and help ensure compliance with applicable food safety regulations and standards. As required by our food safety programs and regulatory oversight, we have developed and implemented comprehensive Good Manufacturing Practices and Food Safety Plans. In addition, for certain of our offerings, we comply with standards of organic and kosher certifying agencies and the Gluten-Free Certification Organization. All of our CPG products undergo a validated cold, pressurized process step that demonstrably reduces pathogens and ensures a high-level of food safety.

Our production facility in Maryland holds a number of third-party certificates, including achieving a high rating based on the British Retail Consortium’s Global Standard for Food Safety, providing independent and external verification that our ingredients, food products, and/or processes comply with applicable food safety regulations and third-party standards. Additionally, our production facility in Virginia will be evaluated under the same third-party standards.

Competition

The restaurant industry is highly competitive with respect to, among other things, food quality and presentation, taste preferences, price, brand reputation, digital engagement, service, value, and location. The food manufacturing industry is also highly competitive with respect to, among other things, food quality, taste, functional benefits, nutritional value and ingredients, convenience, brand loyalty and positioning, food variety, product packaging, shelf space, price, and promotional activities. We face significant competition from national, regional, and locally-owned restaurants, including limited service restaurants, particularly within the fast-casual dining and traditional fast-food categories, which offer in-restaurant, carry-out, delivery, and/or catering services. We also compete with grocery stores, meal subscription services, and delivery kitchens, especially those that target guests who seek high-quality food. Our CPG business also faces competition from other producers of dips and spreads and other pantry and food items.

As we expand our geographic presence and develop our digital channels, we anticipate we will face increased competition for channel access. In addition, our competitors will likely grow in number as the Mediterranean food category grows, and we may face the risk that new or existing competitors will mimic our business model, menu offerings, marketing strategies, and overall concept. See Item 1A. “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Our Industry—We operate in a highly competitive industry” for more information.

Intellectual Property

We rely on a combination of trademark, patent, trade secret, copyright, and other intellectual property laws, as well as contractual provisions, including in employment, confidentiality, and inventions assignment agreements, to protect our

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intellectual property, intangible assets, and associated proprietary rights. Our intellectual property, particularly our trademarks, is material to the conduct of our business and our marketing efforts, as our brand recognition is one of our key differentiating factors from our competitors. The success of our business depends in part on our ability to use our trademarks, service marks, and other intellectual property, including our name and logos, and the unique character, atmosphere, and ambiance of our restaurants, to increase brand awareness and further develop our brand reputation in the market. In the United States, we have obtained trademark registrations for key trademarks including CAVA, CRAZY FETA, SPLENDIDGREENS, and CAVA DIGITAL KITCHEN. We are currently pursuing additional trademark registrations in the United States and will continue to pursue additional trademark registrations to the extent we believe they would be beneficial and cost-effective. We also own three issued patents in the United States, which cover various features relating to our sentence builder system, walk-the-line functionality, and other functionality used in the CAVA app. A further continuation patent application has been filed that seeks to further broaden the scope of protection for features included in the CAVA app and which seeks more expansive coverage for the walk-the-line functionality and other functionality. In addition, we have registered the cava.com domain name, which we use in connection with our primary online platform.

We have procedures in place to monitor for potential infringement of our intellectual property, and it is our policy to take appropriate action to enforce our intellectual property, taking into account the strength of our claim, likelihood of success, cost, and overall business priorities. See Item 1A. “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Information Technology Systems, Cybersecurity, Data Privacy and Intellectual Property” for more information.

Government Regulation

We are subject to or affected by various U.S. federal, state, and local laws and regulations, including those relating to building and zoning requirements, public health and safety, the preparation and sale of food, import duties and tariffs, and data privacy. Our license requirements include those relating to the preparation and sale of food and beverages as well as food safety requirements. In addition, the development and operation of our restaurants depends to a significant extent on the selection and acquisition of suitable locations, which are subject to zoning, land use, environmental, and other regulations and requirements. Difficulties or failure to maintain or obtain the required licenses and approvals could adversely affect our existing restaurants and delay or result in our decision to cancel the opening of new restaurants, which would adversely affect our business.

Our operations are subject to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act, which governs worker health and safety, the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act, which governs such matters as minimum wages and overtime, California Assembly Bill No. 1228, which increased the state’s minimum wage and created a council to set minimum wages and recommend regulations to address working conditions and other matters in the broadly defined fast food industry, and a variety of similar federal, state, and local laws (such as fair work week laws, various wage and hour laws, termination and discharge laws, and state occupational safety regulations) that govern these and other employment law matters. We may also be subject to lawsuits or investigations from our current or former employees, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Department of Labor, or others alleging violations of federal and state laws regarding workplace and employment matters, discrimination, and similar matters, and we have been a party to such matters in the past. These lawsuits and investigations require resources and attention from our senior management and can result in material fines, penalties, and/or settlements, some or all of which may not be covered by insurance, as well as significant remediation efforts that may be costly and time consuming, and which we may not implement effectively.

We are also subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and similar state laws that give civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities in the context of employment, public accommodations, and other areas, including our restaurants, website, and smartphone applications.

For a discussion of the various risks we face from regulation and compliance matters, see Item 1A. “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Legal and Governmental Regulation” for more information.

Seasonality

Seasonal factors influencing our business are described under the heading “Fiscal Calendar and Seasonality” in Part II, Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

Corporate and Available Information

We were incorporated in 2015 in Delaware. Our principal offices, which we refer to as our restaurant collaboration center, are located at 14 Ridge Square NW, Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20016 and our telephone number is (202)

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400-2920. Our website address is www.cava.com. We completed our initial public offering (“IPO”) in June 2023 and our common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “CAVA.”

CAVA’s Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), are publicly available free of charge on the Investor Relations section of our website at investor.cava.com or at www.sec.gov as soon as reasonably practicable after these materials are filed with or furnished to the SEC. We also make available through the Investor Relations Section of our website other reports filed with or furnished to the SEC under the Exchange Act, including our proxy statements and reports filed by officers and directors under Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act, as well as our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, Corporate Governance Guidelines and Board committee charters. We intend to make any legally required disclosures regarding amendments to, or waivers of, provisions of our Code of Conduct on our website rather than by filing a Current Report on Form 8-K. We also use our website as a tool to disclose important information about the company and comply with our disclosure obligations under Regulation Fair Disclosure. The information on our website (or any webpages referenced in this Annual Report) is not part of this or any other report CAVA files with, or furnishes to, the SEC.