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Don’t you dare call Cava (CAVA) a slop bowl seller!
“I think it’s more offensive to our guests,” Cava co-founder and CEO Brett Schulman said in a new episode of the Power Players With Brian Sozzi podcast (see video above; listen below).
Cava and others in the bowl-serving space, like Chipotle (CMG), are known as restaurants that heave large amounts of assorted food into bowls. Or, what has become known on the internet as slop bowls.
Schulman added, “We have a hundred million meals that we’re going to serve this year [to] people who love our food, who appreciate the freshness, the quality of the food.”
The former stock trader, who helped grow his wife’s snack-food business, joined forces with Cava’s original founders in 2010. He effectively professionalized the business, evolving the brand from a boutique, full-service Mediterranean restaurant into a highly structured, scalable fast-casual powerhouse.
The ultimate masterstroke came in June 2023, when he helped bring Cava public. The stock is up about 230% from its $22-per-share IPO price amid a steady drumbeat of solid earnings reports.
Meanwhile, the chain is knocking on the door of reaching 500 locations, with a goal of more than 1,000 in the not-too-distant future.
“Cava continues to be an economically advantaged business model with high-potential for full national penetration as the company hasn’t found a market that doesn’t love Cava,” JPMorgan analyst John Ivankoe wrote in a note.
Ivankoe rates Cava shares at Outperform.
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance’s Executive Editor and a member of Yahoo Finance’s editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
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