The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc. (CHEF), operating through its various subsidiaries, focuses on supplying high-end and gourmet food products across both the United ...
The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHEF) is a premier specialty food distributor headquartered in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Founded in 1985 by Christopher Pappas, the company has grown to serve over 40,000 customers across the United States and Canada, with a workforce of over 5,000 employees. The company's product portfolio includes more ...The Chefs' Warehouse, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHEF) is a premier specialty food distributor headquartered in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Founded in 1985 by Christopher Pappas, the company has grown to serve over 40,000 customers across the United States and Canada, with a workforce of over 5,000 employees. The company's product portfolio includes more than 50,000 SKUs, ranging from artisanal cheeses, charcuterie, truffles, and caviar to center-of-the-plate proteins like custom-cut beef, fresh seafood, and hormone-free poultry, as well as everyday kitchen staples. They source from over 1,000 artisan producers in 40 countries, connecting high-end restaurants, hotels, country clubs, catering companies, culinary schools, and specialty food retailers with unique and high-quality ingredients. The Chefs' Warehouse differentiates itself through its customer-centric approach, offering value-added services such as menu development, culinary training, and product customization. Financially, the company generates annual revenues exceeding $4 billion, with a market capitalization of around $4.5 billion. Despite a price-to-earnings ratio of over 46, the company maintains a gross margin of 24.5% and continues to expand through acquisitions and organic growth. The executive team, led by founder and CEO Christopher Pappas, focuses on strengthening relationships with both suppliers and chefs, while investing in technology and distribution efficiency. The company's commitment to quality and service has made it a trusted partner for top culinary professionals, and it remains dedicated to delivering exceptional value to its stakeholders.
Operator: Greetings, welcome to The Chefs' Warehouse second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Alex Aldous, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Government Relations Officer. Please go ahead, sir.
Alex Aldous: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. With me on today's call are Chris Pappas, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, and Jim Leddy, our CFO. By now, you should have access to our second quarter 2026 earnings press release. It can also be found at www.chefswarhouse.com under the investor relations section. Throughout this conference call, we will be presenting non-GAAP financial measures, including, among others, historical and estimated EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA, as well as historical adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per share, adjusted operating expenses, adjusted operating expenses as a percentage of net sales and as a percentage of gross profit, net debt, net debt leverage, and free cash flow. These measures are not calculated in accordance with GAAP and may be calculated differently in similarly titled non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. Quantitative reconciliations of our non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures appear in today's press release and second quarter 2026 earnings presentation. Before we begin our formal remarks, I need to remind everyone that part of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our estimated financial performance. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore you should not put undue reliance on them. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect. Some of these risks are mentioned in today's release. Others are discussed in our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, which are available on the SEC website. Today, we are going to provide a business update and go over our second quarter results in detail. We are also providing an update to our five-year financial targets. For a portion of our discussion this morning, we will refer to a few slides posted on The Chefs' Warehouse website under the investor relations section titled Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Presentation. Please note that these slides are disclosed at this time for illustration purposes only. We will open up the call for questions. With that, I will turn the call over to Chris Pappas. Chris?
Chris Pappas: Thank you, Alex, and thank you all for joining our second quarter 2026 earnings call. Today, Jim and I will begin our remarks with an update on second quarter results and provide an increase to our full year 2026 financial guidance, followed by an update to our five-year financial targets, taking our previously provided 2028 targets out to 2030. Second …