What is CAVA Group?
Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant company scaling company-owned CAVA restaurants across the U.S.
- Category
- Fast-casual restaurants
- Headquarters
- Washington, DC
- Founded
- 2010
- Employees
- 10,000+ team members
- Total funding
- Public; IPO raised ~$318M
- Status
- NYSE: CAVA; ~$10.4B market cap
What is CAVA Group?
CAVA Group is a public fast-casual restaurant company built around customizable Mediterranean bowls, pitas, salads, dips, dressings, and a small consumer packaged goods business.
CAVA operates a company-owned restaurant model, with 439 restaurants at fiscal year-end 2025 and 459 after the first quarter of 2026. Fiscal 2025 CAVA revenue was $1.169 billion, up 22.5% year over year, and Q1 2026 revenue rose 32.2% to $434.4 million as new units and same-restaurant sales growth compounded.
The brand competes in the broad limited-service restaurant category, but its positioning is Mediterranean, health-forward, and premium relative to traditional fast food. CAVA reports strong digital engagement, with digital revenue mix near 38% in fiscal 2025 and about 40% in Q1 2026, which matters because app, loyalty, order-ahead, and catering workflows increasingly shape store throughput.
The company is vertically integrated around production facilities, proprietary recipes, and a restaurant operating system, and it has stated a long-term goal of 1,000-plus U.S. restaurants. Its scale story for suppliers is therefore a unit-growth story: restaurant development, field operations, food safety, labor planning, data, loyalty, and supply-chain consistency all expand as the store base grows.
What does CAVA Group offer?
CAVA sells customizable Mediterranean meals through restaurants, digital ordering, catering, and a smaller CPG line of dips, spreads, and dressings.
- Bowls and salads· Restaurant menu
- Pitas· Restaurant menu
- Dips, spreads, and dressings· Restaurant and CPG
- Catering· Business orders
- Digital ordering· Consumer app
- CAVA Rewards· Loyalty
Sources:CAVA investor overviewCAVA menu
How does CAVA Group make money?
CAVA makes money primarily from company-owned restaurant sales, with smaller contributions from catering, delivery, and CPG products.
CAVA is not a franchisor-first model: its reported revenue is driven by restaurants it owns and operates, so growth comes from new restaurant openings, same-restaurant sales, throughput, menu mix, and price. Fiscal 2025 same-restaurant sales increased 4.0%, average unit volume was $2.9 million, and restaurant-level profit margin was 24.4%.
Menu pricing is not a single national subscription-style price list; it varies by market, channel, modifications, and delivery partner. The commercial logic is nevertheless clear: a guest pays for a configurable entree, sides, drinks, and extras, while larger orders flow through catering and digital channels that can raise average order value and improve demand visibility.
CAVA's cost base is restaurant labor, occupancy, food and packaging, pre-opening costs, and corporate technology and marketing. Seller opportunities are tied to restaurant construction, supply chain, training, scheduling, loyalty, data platforms, digital ordering, food safety, equipment, and field operations that can support rapid unit growth without eroding margins.
Who leads CAVA Group?
CAVA is led by co-founder, President, and CEO Brett Schulman, with finance, operations, and brand leadership around a company-owned restaurant growth plan.
- Brett SchulmanCo-founder, President, Chief Executive Officer, and DirectorCo-founder; CEO through IPOLed CAVA from its 2010 founding through the 2023 NYSE IPO and national restaurant expansion.
- Ted XenohristosCo-founder and Chief Concept OfficerCo-founder since 2010One of the original founders and a key voice behind the CAVA brand, food, and hospitality concept.
- Tricia TolivarChief Financial OfficerCFO since 2022Owns finance, public-company reporting, capital allocation, and margin discipline for the growth plan.
- Doug ThompsonChief Development OfficerNamed in 2026 executive employment filingRelevant to sellers tied to site selection, construction, facilities, and new-unit development.
How do you contact CAVA Group's leadership?
CAVA publishes investor and media aliases, and one named investor-relations contact, but no verified personal executive email pattern was found; use public aliases and the support/contact forms rather than guessed personal emails.
No verified executive email format; public aliases include investor.relations@cava.com and media@cava.com.How is CAVA Group capitalized?
CAVA is a public NYSE-listed company; its key financing milestones are private growth backing, the Zoës Kitchen acquisition, a 2023 IPO that raised about $318 million, and a June 2026 market capitalization around $10.4 billion.
CAVA should be viewed through public-company capitalization rather than venture-round history. The company completed its IPO in June 2023, listed on the New York Stock Exchange under CAVA, and used public equity to support restaurant expansion and the conversion of earlier preferred equity into common stock.
The pre-IPO capital story includes growth backing from Act III Holdings and other investors, plus the 2018 acquisition of Zoës Kitchen, which gave CAVA a large real-estate and operating footprint to convert toward the CAVA concept. By fiscal year-end 2025 CAVA had $282.9 million in cash and cash equivalents, $110.1 million in fixed-income investments, no borrowings outstanding under its 2022 credit facility, and $74.1 million of available borrowing capacity net of letters of credit.
For sellers, the capital signal is unusually strong for a restaurant growth company: CAVA has public equity currency, cash, positive restaurant-level margins, and a defined unit-growth roadmap. Procurement is still likely to be operating-function led, but larger technology, construction, supply-chain, and food-safety deals should be framed around scalability, margin protection, and repeatable new-unit openings.
How did CAVA Group get here?
CAVA grew from a Washington, DC Mediterranean concept into a public national restaurant platform through concept expansion, the Zoës Kitchen acquisition, and rapid company-owned unit growth.
- 2010CAVA foundedBrett Schulman, Ted Xenohristos, and partners launch the CAVA Mediterranean restaurant concept.
- 2018Zoës Kitchen acquiredCAVA acquires Zoës Kitchen, creating a conversion and expansion path for a national Mediterranean platform.
- Jun 2023NYSE IPOCAVA lists on the NYSE under CAVA and raises about $318 million in its initial public offering.
- 2024Digital mix and new-unit flywheel scaleCAVA continues expanding digital ordering, loyalty, and restaurant development as it builds toward a 1,000-plus unit target.
- 2025439 restaurants and $1.17B revenueFiscal 2025 revenue grows 22.5%; CAVA ends the year with 439 restaurants and 72 net new openings.
- Q1 2026459 restaurantsCAVA reports $434.4 million of Q1 revenue and 459 restaurants after 20 net new openings.
Who are CAVA Group's competitors?
CAVA competes with national fast-casual chains, Mediterranean peers, and health-forward bowl concepts that fight for lunch, dinner, digital ordering, and catering occasions.
- ChipotleLarger Mexican-inspired fast-casual chain with a proven company-owned operating model and deeper national scale.
- SweetgreenSalad and bowl specialist with a stronger urban lunch and digital-first health positioning.
- Noodles & CompanyFast-casual noodles and global flavors chain competing for customizable meal occasions at lower average ticket points.
- Shake ShackPremium fast-casual burger chain competing for discretionary restaurant spend and real-estate locations.
- Just SaladSalad and warm bowl chain with a strong sustainability and reusable-bowl message in dense markets.
- RotiMediterranean fast-casual peer with a narrower footprint and more direct cuisine overlap.
CAVA Group — frequently asked questions
