Q1 2025 Dutch Bros Inc Earnings Call

In This Article:

Participants

Paddy Warren; Investor Relations and Capital Markets; Dutch Bros Inc

Christine Barone; President, Chief Executive Officer, Director; Dutch Bros Inc

Josh Guenser; Chief Financial Officer; Dutch Bros Inc

David Tarantino; Analyst; Baird

Brian Harbour; Analyst; Morgan Stanley

Dennis Geiger; Analyst; UBS Equities

Andy Barish; Analyst; Jefferies LLC

Andrew Charles; Analyst; TD Cowen

Chris O'Cull; Analyst; Stifel

John Ivankoe; Analyst; JPMorgan

Gregory Francfort; Analyst; Guggenheim Securities LLC

Sara Senatore; Analyst; BofA Global Research

Jeffrey Bernstein; Analyst; Barclays

Jeff Farmer; Analyst; Gordon Haskett Research Advisors

Presentation

Operator

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Dutch Bros Inc. first quarter 2025 earnings conference call and webcast. This conference call is being recorded today, May 7, 2025 at 5:00 PM Eastern Time and will be available for replay shortly after it has concluded. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to Paddy Warren, Dutch Bros, Senior Director, Investor Relations and Capital Markets.
Please go ahead at this time.

Paddy Warren

Good afternoon, and welcome. I'm joined by Christine Barone, CEO and President; and Josh Guenser, CFO. We issued our earnings press release for the quarter ended March 31, 2025, after the market closed today. The earnings press release, along with the supplementation deck have been posted to our Investor Relations website at investors.dutchbros.com.
Please be aware that all statements in our prepared remarks and in response to your questions, other than those of historical fact are forward-looking statements and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause actual results to differ materially.
They are qualified by the cautionary statements in our earnings press release and the risk factors in our latest SEC filings, including in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
We will also reference non-GAAP financial measures on today's call. As a reminder, non-GAAP measures are substitute for nor superior to measures that are prepared under GAAP. Please review the reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to their comparable GAAP results in our earnings press release.
Now with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Christine.

Christine Barone

Thank you, Paddy. Good afternoon, everyone. I am pleased to share that Dutch Bros continues to operate from a position of strength. We are well positioned to thrive in this dynamic environment. The enthusiasm for our brand, the loyalty of our customers, the passion of our team and a clear vision for our future give us great confidence.
On February 7, we opened shop number 1,000 in Orlando, Florida, 33 years after our founding and 3,000 miles from our original push card in Grand Passregan. With a long runway ahead and conviction in our brand, we aim to open the next 1,000 new shops with the goal of 2029 total shops in 2029. We see a long-term opportunity to drive sustainable transaction growth by addressing structural barriers bringing in new customers, enhancing frequency with existing customers, and sustaining ongoing momentum in the productivity of our newer shops.
Q1 results provide further evidence that we are well positioned on the journey to capture the growth opportunity that lies ahead of us. We delivered exceptional results in Q1. The momentum we saw exiting 2024 carried forward into the new year. During Q1, total revenue increased 29% when compared to the same period last year. Q1's strong top line momentum was driven by a healthy balance of new shop growth and productivity, coupled with strong system same-shop sales and transaction growth.
The Dutch Bros brand continues to resonate with our customers, demonstrated by Q1 systems same-shop sales growth of 4.7%. Transactions grew for another consecutive quarter, reflecting strong momentum in a highly dynamic external environment.
Company-operated same-shop sales grew 6.9%, including exceptional transaction growth of 3.7%. Our foundational transaction-driving initiatives continue to propel us forward. We have a coordinated plan and we are executing with tenacity across each of these initiatives. We are still in the early innings of these efforts with significant runway ahead of us.
We are seeing the benefits of order ahead. while successfully balancing transaction growth and ensuring customer satisfaction. These changes fit seamlessly in our current model without negatively impacting operational flow. This initiative serves as a prime example of addressing structural barriers and driving success in a key area of opportunity, the morning daypart. Our efforts are yielding not only revenue growth but also strong adjusted EBITDA growth, which grew 20% as compared to the same quarter last year.
Now let's talk about the driving force and key differentiator behind our brand. The Broista in our shops that serve our customers each and every day, and our HQ team mobilized to support them. Dutch Bros' exceptional culture, dedicated Broista, and passion for rear service resonate deeply with our customers, setting us apart and widening our most distinct competitive advantages. This foundation is built with each Broista in our shops from coast to coast. From the very start of the onboarding process our training and flow checks ensure every Broista is fully trained in our core anchor tenants of speed, quality, and service.
A continuous learning playbook allows us to enter the customer experience. Our shop growth is predicated on the readiness and capabilities within our operations teams. Leaders are deeply ingrained in the culture, allowing us to create compelling features for thousands Aristas as they advance their careers with Dutch Bros.
It is worth reminding that every new market begins with leaders from inside our system, bringing a level of engagement, experience and consistency to the journey of new employees and new customers. Our current pipeline includes 450 operator candidates with an average tenure of more than seven years, ready to lead a market. As we shared during our Investor Day, this number has more than doubled since our IPO.
Our robust training programs scalability of our culture and fun energy empower us to deliver an unparalleled customer experience, anchored by speed and quality with exceptional service. We are an employer of choice, and our team is motivated to deliver this great energy and service. This strategic approach is further exemplified in our real estate strategy. When I joined in 2023, we took our new market entry strategy to the net level by adjusting the pace of new market penetration, allowing newer markets the time to build brand awareness and demand.
In 2024, we enhanced our real estate development team by increasing investment in market planning capabilities and expanding with new members in construction and site acquisition. We supported these efforts with enhanced data, tools, and processes. Actions such as these continue to deepen and widen Dutch Pro's competitive moat for long-term success.
In February, we welcomed Brian Cahoe as our new Chief Development Officer. Brian brings nearly 25 years of retail experience. most recently serving as Chief Development Officer at Yum! Brands, KFC US division. We are thrilled to have Brian on board as we continue to invest in our real estate capabilities.
Once again, in Q1, we saw enhanced new shop productivity. This combination of investment in our real estate capability and paid media is driving this positive trend. In Q1, we successfully opened 30 shops and anticipate maintaining this pace next quarter with plans to accelerate the pace in the second half of the year. Our long-term real estate development pipeline is strong, giving us confidence to reiterate our expectation of at least 160 system shop openings in 2025.
Our strategic investments in development, construction and market planning, combined with our refined site selection process, have enhanced new shop productivity and give us even more confidence in achieving accelerated growth. Our goal of 2,029 shops in 2029 positions Dutch Bros for multiple years of mid-teens annual percentage new shop growth. This goal is supported by those investments in real estate processes and systems, robust new shop economics, and the expansion of our total addressable market to 7,000 shops.
Now I would like to discuss our multiyear efforts to grow transactions and develop sales layers. Last year, we outlined a transaction-driving strategy focused on three foundational initiatives to jump-start transaction growth, enhanced focus on category-wide innovation, increased paid advertising to build and grow brand awareness, and growth in the Dutch Rewards program as the primary avenue for targeted customer marketing. These efforts are working. We are continuing to see success as we execute on each of these elements.
For the quarter, we saw system same-shop transaction growth of 1.3%. The which is particularly impressive given we are also lapping two enormously successful LTOs in Boba and protein coffee from the prior year. We are still in the early innings and have considerable runway in our foundational transaction-driving initiatives.
First, innovation. For over 30 years, Dutch Bros has been an innovator. And this will continue to play a pivotal role in our growth story. Relevant innovation helps us deepen our competitive moat and build upon our core menu pillars of coffee, energy, refreshment.
In Q1, we successfully rolled out the suite cereal SIPs LTO, offering customers a unique way of enjoying cereal flavors with their favorite latte, freeze or chai. We also launched the spring fever, Drink Trio, a Hyperchrome Rebel with Blue Raz Poppin' Boba, Brownie Batter Mocha, and a Birthday Cake Latte or Freeze with Soft Top and sprinkles.
In March, we delighted our customers with a fun rubber duck, adding a playful touch to their visit. Exciting merch drops like this are another way we make each visit memorable. Our ongoing innovation efforts are contributors to these outstanding results, enabling us to lap last year's strong performance from Boba and protein coffee.
Second, strategic use of paid advertising. In Q1, we continued our elevated paid advertising strategy in new and mature markets. It's clear to us these efforts are having a positive impact on our business and growth trajectory, given the outperformance we have seen in our newer vintages following the ramping up of this initiative. We expect to continue our paid advertising efforts as we see significant opportunity to drive increased aided awareness in all markets, especially newer ones.
And finally, Dutch Rewards. In Q1, we attribute approximately 72% of system transactions to our loyalty program, representing a 5 point improvement versus the same period last year. Dutch Rewards allows us to reach our customers more effectively with a strong focus on a personalized experience. Through this dynamic communication channel, we introduce customers to innovative new products and provide unique Dutch experiences, such as surprise sticker days and merch drops.
We strategically incentivized visits across various segments, geographies, and dayparts. Dutch Rewards serves as a highly effective direct line of communication with our customers. allowing us to gather real-time feedback from our campaigns and continuously improve our cut experience. For context, this program launched in early 2021 and is just four years old. We expect Dutch Rewards to be a strong lever for our future growth.
In addition to these foundational sales-driving initiatives, we see a clear path forward with order ahead, throughput, and food. Our objectives with the order ahead rollout were clear: maintain connection throughout the customer experience, remove potential structural barriers, and win more in the morning daypart, all without losing the Broista connection that makes coming to Dutch Bros so special.
We are encouraged by the continued success of our order ahead program, which saw strong adoption in Q1. As of the end of the quarter, order ahead accounted for approximately 11% of transaction mix, representing a 3 point improvement versus Q4. In many new markets, we observed transaction penetration rates nearly 2 times higher than the system average, driven by this easy way for new customers to discover our brand.
Our order ahead thesis is playing out as anticipated at this early stage with transactions over indexing in the morning, a daypart where many customers are more time sensitive. This is encouraging as we recognize that at times, we have long lines. Order ahead also meets our need of increasing speed with better throughput outcomes, opening up the underutilized walk-up window channel.
We are pleased by the initial throughput driving initiatives we have implemented, and they are already showing promising results. Our throughput work is focused on fundamental blocking and tackling with an emphasis on specific actions to address bottlenecks, remove unnecessary steps, and elevate our productivity.
Our objective right now is making sure that we have the right people in the right place doing the right things at the right time to deliver speed and quality with exceptional service. At this early stage, our efforts are aimed at driving incremental throughput during peak hours because it is simple, clear, and measurable. We are challenging our shops to exceed their base targets, and early results from a small pilot have been promising. We believe this initiative will enhance our ability to improve speed of service across our shop base as we implement a set of simple and proven techniques.
We are thrilled with the success of our limited food test launched late last year and are excited to continue testing and refining this initiative throughout 2025. Building on the success we are having with our order ahead initiative, we believe food can generate incrementality in the morning daypart and by frequency. Our approach to this test is both strategic and deliberate. We recognize the potential multiyear growth opportunity with our current food mix at less than 2% of sales.
Our goals for this test are clear. Maintain existing high levels of Broista job satisfaction, continue to support throughput efficiency, minimize complexity, and offer a targeted assortment that allows us to satisfy our customers craving for food while capturing incremental beverage opportunities. The pilot test has informed our decision to now offer eight SKUs, including four hot food offerings. With the completion of an initial pilot, we recently expanded this initiative from 8 to 32 shops.
Looking ahead, expanding the food test pilot is a crucial step towards a broader test and rollout anticipated to occur throughout 2026. This expansion aims to reach a wider potential audience and positions Dutch Bros more competitively in high-value routinized beverage occasions.
In closing, momentum in the business is strong. and our strategies to build our business are working. We have the most passionate people who are well positioned to succeed and grow our brand. We have top-tier growth that we see sustaining well into the future. In Q1, we delivered 29% year-over-year revenue growth and opened 30 new shops.
We have a multiyear road map with visibility to the path ahead. Our foundational transaction-driving initiatives are working, and we have clear plans on order ahead, throughput and food. Our real estate strategy is working, and we are building momentum. New shop productivity is strong and system-wide AUVs were $2 million. We've enormous confidence in our future, anchored by our passionate team, our loyal customers and a clear road map to grow Dutch Bros. Together, we are poised to achieve remarkable success and drive our vision forward.
With that, I'll turn it over to Josh.