8/6/2025

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

we will open up the lines for questions and instructions to queue up will be provided at that time. I would now like to turn the call over to Patty Warren, Dutch Bros. Senior Director, Investor Relations and Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

speaker
Patty Warren
Senior Director, Investor Relations and Capital Markets

Good afternoon and welcome. I'm joined by Christine Barone, CEO and President, and Josh Gunzir, CFO. We issued our earnings press release for the quarter ended June 30th, 2025, after the market closed today. The earnings press release, along with a supplemental information deck, have been posted to our Investor Relations website. 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 our actual results to differ materially. They are qualified by the cautionary statements in our earnings press release and the risk our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q. 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 neither substitutes for nor superior to measures that are prepared under GAAP. Please review the reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to comparable GAAP results in our earnings press release. With that, I now like to turn the call over to Christine.

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Thank you, Patty, and good afternoon, everyone. Dutch Bros continues to fire on all cylinders, guided by a focused strategy, strong execution and our amazing people. Our second quarter performance underscored our continued momentum and reaffirmed the strength of our brand. We are encouraged by our significant multi-year runway and the opportunities we have to deliver sustained results and continue scaling this company with our tenured and passionate team. In Q2, once again, we delivered on our mission to be a fun-loving, mind-blowing company that makes a massive difference one cup at a time. Our business momentum remained strong and our second quarter results were outstanding across multiple fronts. We delivered revenue growth of 28%, system same-shop sales growth of 6.1%, and company operated same-shop sales growth of 7.8%. Our transaction driving initiatives are working. As system comp was primarily driven by transaction growth of 3.7%, marking yet another consecutive quarter of transaction growth. This growth was fueled by a coordinated effort of our long-term, multi-year transaction drivers. Our new shop opening cadence is on track and we remain confident in our ability to open at least 160 system shops in 2025. New shop productivity is at elevated levels and in Q2 we opened 31 new shops and entered Indiana, our 19th state. Our confidence in this year's trajectory continues to grow, reinforced by the strong performance we have seen so far this year. It is very clear that our efforts are working in unison to propel us forward. These efforts translated into strong financial results in the second quarter. Systemwide AUBs were $2.05 million in the quarter, in line with record levels. Revenue grew at 28%, with exceptional flow through generating an impressive 37% adjusted EBITDA growth for the quarter. Based on these outstanding results across the board, I am very pleased to announce that we are raising our full-year guidance for total revenues, same-shop sales growth, and adjusted EBITDA. Josh will share additional details in a few minutes. Let's begin today's business update by spotlighting our greatest force multiplier, our exceptional people. Since 1992, we have been trailblazing a category-defining people-first culture within the drive-through beverage industry. When combined with our relentless focus on speed, quality, and service, our people-first culture is not only our differentiator, but it is our most powerful competitive advantage. Every senior leader in our business has passed their flow checks, and every new broista begins their journey grounded in our culture before learning to handcraft beverages. This approach ensures our leaders are fully immersed in the heart of our business, building empathy, strengthening connection to the field, and enabling more informed people-first strategic decisions. Our commitment to culture is also reflected internally with ongoing field surveys. We consistently score high on overall job satisfaction and our values of radiate kindness, get up early, stay up late, and change the world. When we recently expanded into Indiana, our opening mob team was on the ground, delivering a track record of consistency and service to jumpstart the Dutch Bros brand in the state. This approach ensures every new market, every new shop, and every new future in the field reflects the culture that has defined us for over 30 years. Our current operator pipeline includes over 450 candidates, with an impressive average tenure of over seven years, each one ready to carry forward and scale the Dutch Bros culture. This homegrown pipeline, built over time with intention, ensures a consistent high bar across markets that is difficult to replicate. Our operator pipeline is central to scaling our shops, and more importantly to scaling the Dutch Bros culture consistently. These individuals are deeply aligned with our values and bring a strong foundation of experience, positioning us for long-term, people-driven growth. Shifting to development, we opened 31 system shops in the second quarter, and are energized by the accelerating momentum into the back half of the year to open at least 160 shops in 2025. Thanks to the robust tools, streamlined processes, and exceptional talent we've invested in thus far, we are well positioned to achieve our goal of 2,029 shops in 2029. If there's one takeaway from today's call, it is this. Dutch Bros is in growth mode, and we are just getting started. With a long-term addressable market of 7,000 shops nationwide, and just north of 1,000 shops today, the runway ahead is expansive. We continue to broaden our real estate capabilities by making key hires who will execute on our long-term pipeline. With refined systems and a disciplined market planning approach in place, we continue to scale our presence nationally and accelerate an ambitious growth strategy. New shop productivity remained at elevated levels in Q2, driven by our refined approach to market planning. With new locations opening in the right areas, in the right sequence, customers are lining up from day one. These strategic investments in planning, tools, and processes have improved system-wide AUVs and new shop productivity, positioning us for long-term success. Now let me share how we're expanding our competitive advantages through a focused set of clear and well-defined transaction driving initiatives. We are delivering transaction growth through a three-part plan, which includes an enhanced focus on category-wide innovation, an increase in paid advertising efforts designed to build brand awareness, and an emphasis on the Dutch Rewards Program for -to-one customer connection. We saw steady progress across each of these initiatives during the quarter, with clear signs that our efforts are working, evidenced by a sequential improvement in transaction growth. We are only beginning to unlock our full potential, with significant runway ahead. Here is an update on each. First, innovation. Innovation has been a cornerstone of our brand for over three decades, and it will continue to play a pivotal role going forward. This quarter, we responded to strong customer demand by bringing back lavender, and we We also introduced dulce de leche using ingredients from our existing pantry. We also introduced sour berry and matcha, showcasing how we simultaneously innovate across our menu categories. These launches reinforce our commitment to delivering bold, exciting flavors that resonate with our customers. In May, we elevated the customer experience with a thoughtful touch, returning the Friendship bracelets from 2024 that highlight our engaging customer-first approach in a fun way. Then in June, we kept the excitement going with the Dutch Cousi, bringing something fresh, relevant, and most importantly, fun for our customers. Second, paid advertising. During the quarter, we continued to step up execution of our paid advertising strategy, and the results have been clear. As we highlighted during our investor day, the strong performance of newer ventages has been driven in part by our laser focus on paid media and brand awareness. We are proud to share that based on recent survey data, both our aided and unaided awareness have shown significant improvement when compared to last year. We are seeing clear momentum, and we're energized by the positive trajectory. This progress reflects the strength of our brand and the impact of our continued efforts. Looking ahead, we see a clear and compelling runway to further close the awareness gap in new and existing markets, both in relative and absolute terms, unlocking even greater potential for our brand. As we scale and maintain a higher elevated paid advertising stance, the benefits of our awareness driving initiatives are clear to us. Additionally, we believe the planned launch of our CPG line in 2026 can provide a meaningful tailwind to brand awareness, providing an expansive runway for our brand to grow. And finally, Dutch rewards. In Q2, approximately 72% of system transactions were attributed to our loyalty program, representing a five point expansion versus the same period last year. We are just starting to tap into the full potential of this data to enhance our segmentation strategies. Recently, we have become more precise in the way in which we tailor communication to specific customer cohorts based on their rewards behaviors. This streamlined approach helps us build stronger, more personalized relationships across each segment. In addition to these foundational transaction driving initiatives, we see a clear path forward with our strategic growth drivers, order ahead, throughput, and food. We remain enthusiastic about order ahead as we believe it is contributing to our transaction growth. As of the end of the second quarter, order ahead accounted for approximately .5% of transaction mix. In select new markets, we are seeing transaction mix more than double the overall average. Order ahead awareness has been driven primarily by customer exposure to the program through shop signage and our mobile app. This deliberate steady approach remains our focus as we continue to prioritize driving the business forward while ensuring that our bro-easters are set up to deliver fantastic service. We are seeing our strategy come to fruition as order ahead gains momentum in the morning day part. We are focused on eliminating structural barriers, driving better throughput outcomes, and opening up the underutilized walk-up window channel. These results reinforce our confidence in our multi-year journey. We remain focused on increasing transaction potential at our shops by increasing speed and capacity through a series of throughput-based initiatives. Transaction growth continues to be healthy in Q2, and our shops are intentionally designed to support high volumes, aiding our throughput efforts. This enables us to meet rising demand while consistently delivering an exceptional customer experience. Recently, we introduced enhanced dashboards, which provide shop management greater visibility into speed-based KPIs. We know that when our field clearly understands and easily sees measurable goals, they take meaningful action to improve throughput. We are also continuing to refine our labor deployment model, ensuring that staffing better matches demand expectations during the day. While it is still early innings, these initial low-hanging fruit wins represent a strong We remain excited about the progress of our food pilot and look forward to continuing to test and refine throughout 2025. Early results suggest that an expanded food offering is driving incremental growth in the morning-day part, much like our Order Ahead initiative. During the quarter, we expanded the pilot to 64 company-operated shops. Extending beyond Arizona into select markets in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. The initial results from our pilot test are exceeding expectations and reinforcing the potential of this initiative to drive AUVs. We are seeing encouraging signs of both ticket and transaction lift within the test group. Early performance in new markets has been especially strong, adding to our confidence to continue testing, ensuring we scale thoughtfully over time. We are pleased with customer and Broista survey data as well, particularly around feedback from customers on quality and likelihood to recommend, and are encouraged by early results indicating our ability to maintain high throughput levels. We're well positioned to expand this test in 2025 and pursue a broader system rollout throughout 2026. This expansion will enable Dutch Bros to capture additional white space in the morning-day part, which is a routinized, high-value occasion with strong growth potential. In closing, momentum in our business is strong, and we remain confident in the multi-year growth runway ahead. We have the most passionate people who are deeply engaged in the business. Our Broistas energize every interaction with the customer, fueling momentum across our brand and our operator pipeline is ready to grow with us. We have clear visibility on our growth drivers. In Q2, we achieved 28% -over-year revenue growth and .1% system same-shop sales growth, reflecting the strength of our business. We are clearly resonating with our customers, as demonstrated by healthy transaction growth. With over 30 years of brand love behind us, we continue to open shops with lines that stretch well beyond our drive-throughs, underscoring the strength of our strong demand. We are operating at the intersection of a powerful set of secular trends which are shaping our industry. From the rising demand for cold beverages, energy drinks, and enhanced customization, we are exceptionally well positioned to continue the pursuit of our strategic vision. Our new shop productivity remains elevated, and we're excited about the cadence of openings throughout the remainder of the year. To be over 1,000 shops in with the amazing love we see for our brand gives me so much optimism in our future, our team, and the strength of this amazing company. I'll now turn it over to Josh, who will discuss our financial performance and updates on guidance.

speaker
Josh Gunzir
Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Christine. I'll provide a recap of our second quarter results, along with an updated outlook for 2025. Our Q2 performance built on the strong momentum from Q1 and clearly demonstrated that our transaction driving initiatives are continuing to work. These efforts, along with the maturation of our new vintages, fueled our transaction growth and reinforced the confidence we have in the long-term growth potential of our business. Second quarter revenue was $416 million, an increase of 28% or $91 million over the second quarter of last year. System same-shop sales growth was 6.1%, driven by .7% transaction growth. We are very proud of the transaction outperformance delivered this quarter. It is a clear testament to the strength of our transaction driving initiatives, which are working in unison to propel the business forward and serve as the primary driver of comp performance. I want to take a moment to recognize our field and marketing teams. Their execution allowed us to outperform our Q2 expectations. We continue to see strong traffic trends through July. With Q3 off to a great start, we are raising our full year same-shop sales growth guidance to approximately 4.5%. For the third quarter, this contemplates .5% to 4% system same-shop sales growth, which includes approximately 60 basis points of net price roll-off, the impact of the July 4th -of-week shift, and continued underlying transaction growth with a more normalized benefit for marketing activity in the third quarter. During the quarter, we opened 31 new shops, of which 30 were company operated, bringing total system shop count to 1,043 shops. We are confident in our ability to accelerate our pace throughout the back half of the year, with approximately 40 openings expected in Q3 and approximately 60 in Q4, positioning us to open at least 160 system shops in 2025. In the quarter, adjusted EBITDA was $89 million, an increase of 37% or $24 million over the second quarter of last year. Moving to our company operated shops, revenue in Q2 was $381 million, an increase of 29% or $85 million over the second quarter of last year. Company operated same-shop sales growth was outstanding at 7.8%, with .9% coming from transaction growth. Company operated shop contribution was $118 million, an increase of 30% or $27 million year over year. Company operated shop contribution margin was 31.1%. Beverage, food, and packaging costs were .3% of company operated shop revenue. The 20 basis points of -over-year favorability reflects beneficial dairy pricing, which more often offsets increases in coffee costs. We expect these dairy savings to continue through the remainder of the year. Coffee costs were roughly in line with expectations for the quarter. With that said, we do expect to see the impact from coffee to accelerate in the back half of the year. As a reminder, we are substantially price locked on coffee for the remainder of 2025. Tariffs remain an area we are actively monitoring, and at this point, coffee accounts for 10% of our total COGS basket, with approximately 50% of our coffee source from Brazil. With all this in mind, our full-year outlook assumes beverage, food, and packaging costs of approximately 26% of company operated shop revenue in the back half of the year. This reflects the higher impact of tariffs mitigated by savings we achieved on dairy costs. Labor costs were .6% of company operated shop revenue, which is 60 basis points favorable -over-year, primarily driven by sales leverage. Our full-year guidance continues to contemplate labor as a percentage of company operated revenue remaining flat -over-year for 2025. Occupancy and other costs were .8% of company operated shop revenue, which is 80 basis points unfavorable -over-year, driven largely from the impact of occupancy rates from new shops. Pre-opening expenses were .2% of company operated shop revenue, which is 30 basis points favorable -over-year. Given the accelerated shop opening cadence in the back half, we expect pre-opening expenses to be higher than the first half of 2025. Considering all of this, our full-year guidance contemplates a company operated shop contribution margin of approximately .5% for Q3. Adjusted SG&A was $58.7 million, or .1% of total revenue. We continue to expect approximately 90 basis points of leverage on adjusted SG&A for the In Q2, we announced that we are transitioning the majority of the remaining headquarters staff to Arizona. We expect to incur up to $8.5 million in non-recurring costs, which we anticipate will be excluded from our adjusted SG&A. In the quarter, interest expense net was approximately flat -over-year at $7 million. For the quarter, we delivered $0.26 of adjusted EPS, up from $0.19, or 37% from Q2 of last year. Now, we'll provide an update on our balance sheet, cash flow, and liquidity. In May, we successfully refinanced our credit facility, securing $650 million in total capacity. This includes a $500 million revolving credit facility, of which $50 million was drawn at close, and a drawn term loan facility of $150 million. The refinancing extends the duration of our available liquidity and provides more flexibility to support our long-term growth. As of June 30, we have approximately $694 million in total liquidity, consisting of $254 million in cash and $440 million in our undrawn revolver. During the quarter, we increased our net cash position by approximately $19 million, which was driven by strong cash flow from operations. With a solid cash position on our balance sheet and enhanced liquidity through our recently refinanced credit facility, we are well positioned to pursue our growth with great confidence. In Q2, our average capex per shop declined approximately 15% from Q1 levels to approximately $1.4 million, demonstrating the progress we continue to make in transitioning our portfolio to more capital-efficient, -to-suit lease arrangements. Turning over to guidance, in light of our recent strong business performance, we are raising our full-year guidance for total revenues, system same-shop sales growth, and adjusted EBITDA. Total revenues are now projected to be between $1.59 billion and $1.6 billion. System same-shop sales growth is now expected to be approximately 4.5%. Adjusted EBITDA is now estimated to be between $285 million and $290 million. There are no changes to our guidance for total system shop openings and capital expenditures. We continue to expect to open at least 160 new shops, representing 16% system shop growth. Capital expenditures remain within our estimated range of -$260 million, primarily made up of new shop construction costs. We are excited by our business momentum and maintain strong visibility into our multi-year growth runway. We are very well positioned to continue delivering incredible results, backed by a robust four-wall shop economic model and exceptional unit-level returns. Thank you, everyone. We will now take your questions. Operator, please open the lines.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. We will now be conducting a -and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 to remove yourself from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. In the interest of time, please limit to one question. First question comes from Andy Barish with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

speaker
Andy Barish
Analyst, Jefferies

Yeah, hey, guys. Just wondering on the CPG strategy for next year, is that kind of going to roll out in newer markets or just any color on how you expect that to go forward in 2026 to support growing brand awareness?

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Great. Thanks for the question, Andy. Great. As we look at the CPG rollout, we're focused on areas where we have shops. We want to introduce our customers to the brand through the shops first. We'll be rolling out CPG in the markets where we have shops. As we look at how that rollout will go, it's a little bit aligned depending on where the resets are by each retailer. We would expect to start seeing some early rollout in Q1 of 2026 with kind of a more substantial rollout through the rest of the year. We're really excited by what we're hearing so far. I think the excitement in this market for having a new brand with a lot of energy behind it is something that we're really, it's being reflected in those conversations that we're having with retailers.

speaker
Brian Harbor
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Great. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Next

speaker
Sharon Zaxia
Analyst, William Blair

question. Sharon Zaxia with William Blair. Please go ahead. Hi. Thanks for taking the question and congratulations to you and the team on really good results again this quarter. I know you're doing a lot of work on speed and throughput and I'm sure that's manifesting some in these results we're seeing. I know you mentioned labor deployment and ongoing initiatives there. Can you kind of give us an update on where you are on speed and throughput? Maybe some metrics and what you're finding to be the best levers to pull to improve that further. Thank you.

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Yeah. So, I would describe where we are on throughput is we are still working on some basic blocking and tackling and I think we have a long runway ahead of us from a throughput perspective. One of the things we're really encouraged by is if you look at those results in Q2 led by that .7% transaction growth, that is really everything working in concert. And one of the most important areas is really that labor deployment. So some of what we're seeing there is we roll out a new LTO just having great training, making sure our teams are really well staffed against demand. As we do special merch drops and sticker drops, those are focused on different parts of the day. So our team's ability to really understand where we're going to see those demands match our staffing against it so that we can really provide exceptional service is one of the things I'm most excited about that I'm seeing from a throughput perspective. We've also rolled out speed dashboards and this is one of our first times that our teams get to see in a very easy way, how am I doing right now? How did I do on my best weekend or my best hour? And can I motivate and drive the team to see if we can deliver one extra smile during that time period? So those are the primary things we're doing right now. And I think it's really neat to see just how well the team is doing with labor deployment and ensuring that we're staffed really well to meet those high peaks, especially during some of those merch drops.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Brian Harbor with Morgan Stanley, please go ahead.

speaker
Brian Harbor
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Yeah, thanks. Hey guys. You know, obviously, as you mentioned, New Store productivity remains very good. You talked, you know, about, I guess, some of the market specifics that you're seeing there and is, you know, is it still your expectation that that holds up quite well into the second half of this year?

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Yeah, so if we look at New Shop productivity, it does remain elevated. And we're actually seeing really nice strong results across our different markets. We actually are our strongest performing shop last week was a very new shop in Georgia. And so really just neat to see that these long lines are holding as we move across the country. I think the strength of this brand is just really evident as we open new shops and get to see this amazing demand, even in markets very far from our home market of Grants Pass.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Next question, Christine Cho with Goldman Sachs.

speaker
Christine Cho

Yes, thank you. Congrats on a great quarter. You've really led innovation in protein coffee and customized energy drinks, but it seems like some of your competitors are trying to catch up. Could you help us understand how you prioritize investments and allocate resources across your beverage and food platforms to maintain that competitive advantage? And what framework guides your decisions when identifying some of the new white space opportunities? Thank you.

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Yeah, so if we look at innovation, it's really this cool mix of art and science. I think it is understanding what is going on more broadly in the market, where there might be an idea that could work with our customers. Then we do a series of testing where we bring in some customer panel and we'll have them try different things. We'll also do name testing, concept testing. So we bring some science in to see how we're doing. And then as things start to make it through that process, we'll even do some market testing just to really understand what is the best way in as we look at innovation. I think the other thing that we're really focused on is our customers are drinking across platforms. And I think that the growth in the beverage market is really being driven across various different platforms. So for us, we're really simultaneously trying to understand what is going on in the coffee market with like the introduction of protein or what are we going to do next on the protein side. We're also looking at customized energy. What is the way to ensure that our customers really understand the breadth of the offering there? What are some drinks that we can highlight to really drive that? And then we'll also have innovation in some of our sparkling beverages, our fizzes. And we can pop that throughout the quarter in different ways, both through LTOs and through bringing in secret menu items or showcasing a part of the menu over the weekend.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Next question, Logan Wright with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

speaker
Logan Wright

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. Congrats on the solid print. I just had a question on the mobile order mix. It looks like it's up 50 basis points this quarter versus about 300 last quarter. I know there's going to be some sort of tapering off on the ramp, but just longer term, where do you see that mix getting to? I don't know if you have like an internal target or expectation, but just trying to get a sense of the ramp over the next several quarters of the mobile order mix.

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Yeah, we feel really good about where mobile order is. And I think especially with how our teams are embracing it and how our customers are embracing mobile order. So the 11.5 percent is really where we would expect it to be. I think if you look across our system, we do have some of our newer markets that are double that mix. And part of the overall mix that we look at is really driven by just kind of the historical setup of some of our shops. As a reminder, we've been around for over 30 years and a lot of our original shops are double drive throughs. And so kind of that speed of mobile order and being able to go to the walk up window, you know, just doesn't quite as the same thing as in some of our newer markets where we've got that walk up window channel. One of the things we have seen and it was something that we were trying to do is that walk up window channel now represents approximately 15 percent of the mix. When we started out on the mobile order journey, it was about 10 percent. And so really being able to balance that demand between those two windows is working incredibly well for us.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Next question, Andrew Charles with TD Cowan. Please go ahead.

speaker
Andrew Charles
Analyst, TD Cowen

Great. Thank you. Christine, thanks for sharing the details, the expanded food tests and the positive learnings you're seeing so far from the pilot. I'm curious with all the positive details, what's driving the decision to roll this out throughout 2026 rather than all at once?

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Yeah, so if we look at the food program, I think similar to how we looked at mobile order, the primary factor is ensuring we really take the time to do the training correctly, set up our teams for success, ensure that they are really ready to share this with our customers. And we found that stage process really working through everything as we rolled this out worked very well for mobile order. In addition with food, there are a number of equipment, things that have to go into our shop, right? So we're putting freezers into our shops, we're putting ovens into our shops, we're putting in different racks and things that make it really easy for our teams to execute on the food business. And so just the physical part of putting that into the shops will happen over time. The other piece is if we bring food in, we are working with each of our distributors and each of our markets to ensure that we're really rolling this out in the correct way. So we are just incredibly pleased with what we're seeing. We feel really good about the training cadence that we're establishing as we roll out into markets. And then we're also ensuring that we're testing the food business across a lot of different parameters. So this move in, starting in the market in Arizona and then going into some of our newest markets with food and seeing the results that we're seeing, we're just incredibly pleased kind of as we expand this under different circumstances to continue to see really great results.

speaker
Andrew Charles
Analyst, TD Cowen

Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

David Tarantino with Barrett. Please go ahead.

speaker
David Tarantino
Analyst, Barrett

Hi. Good afternoon. I had a question about maybe clarifying what you're seeing so far in Q3, Josh. I think you guided to Q3 comps of three and a half to four, but you indicated that you entered the quarter with good momentum. So I just wanted to understand if you're running in a way that's ahead of that guidance and you're planning your marketing in a way that maybe you expect it to settle for the rest of the quarter. And then I guess the second and bigger follow up for Christine would be if marketing is working, which it seems like it is generating a really good return for the business, why not lean in a bit more to keep that momentum going? So thank you.

speaker
Josh Gunzir
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, David. So I'll take the first part of the question there. And just to highlight Q2, we felt really good about our performance overall. We saw really strong underlying transaction trends. And then on top of that had some just incredible promotional activities, stricter drops, merch drops, LTO offerings that really just drove out performance. I would really describe Q2 as firing and also under is really outperforming our expectations. So as we move into July, we saw that underlying traffic trend continue. So we saw really strong help in our customer there as we move into Q3. And as we think forward, I think we have a lot of great initiatives planned for marketing for the balance of the year. We would plan those at a more normalized run rate and expect those to do well. But at a more normalized level, certainly wouldn't plan for them just to knock it out of the park like they did in Q2. So have a really good sense and feeling for the momentum coming in through Q3 and off to a great start. The performance we've seen through July is certainly factored into the guidance range that we provided for Q3.

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Yeah. And for the second part of your question on marketing and leaning in more, we feel really excited about how the business is performing right now. July was another great month for us. And if we look at marketing, I think that there is this very thoughtful and delicate mix of making sure that our customers love what we're doing and it also does not become too predictable. And so if you think about all of the different ways that we are speaking to our customers or sharing new ideas with them, with merch drops, with sticker drops, with points days, we really want to make sure that it is that right balance of those things. And we feel like we're in a really good cadence right now, but want to make sure that we aren't doing so much that the business becomes predictable or that it is not as fun as it is right now.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Next question, Dennis Geiger with UBS.

speaker
Dennis Geiger

Great. Thanks and congratulations. Just one follow up on mobile order. As it relates or two parts on mobile order, as it relates to the mix, Christine, is it something where maybe you lean in on marketing a bit more to highlight the mobile order dynamic to kind of increase or accelerate that adoption or are you pretty comfortable with the adoption that you're seeing? And the second part of the mobile question really is that contributing to the transaction growth, encouraging to hear that. Could you unpack that a little bit? Is that a throughput benefit? Is it repeat customers coming more because of the experience? Any kind of unpacking of how it's driving the transaction growth would be great. Thank you.

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Yes, we're very happy with the mobile order adoption rate and where we are today. And again, we are seeing in some new markets quite a bit over that 11.5 percent and some markets double. And I think that if you look at what we're trying to do, one, this was the number one thing that our customers were asking for through the app. So it was really a customer driven innovation. The other piece is we were trying to balance some of the demand across the shop, which is which is working quite well. And then to drive transactions. So we are seeing a frequency lift as customers come in and use mobile order. And we are also seeing that strength in the morning day part. And I think if you look at where we had untapped demand in that morning day part, it was both the lack of having mobile order and the lack of having protein based food options that were really highlights and where some of those bigger opportunities are for us in the morning day part. And so we're seeing that very much play out with mobile order. What we're doing is we continue to look at how we drive mobile order. It needs to really be driven by our customers. This needs to be how they want to order. And so we're continuing to make the app and the order process easy. We're continuing to do surveys every week just to understand are we meeting our customers, are there time expectations, do we have the menu items on the app that they want to have. So all of those things are working quite well and we're getting continuous feedback. And so we're really focused on just providing an absolutely exceptional customer experience through mobile order and are very happy with the slow and steady approach that's working well for our teams.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Next question, Sara Senatori with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

speaker
Sara Senatori
Analyst, Bank of America

Thank you. I guess one housekeeping and then a question. The housekeeping is I just want to make sure I heard right about pricing. So like two and a half points of price, I guess would imply perhaps a slightly negative mix. So just wanted to confirm that. And then my question is I think Josh mentioned how the maturation of new vintages has been contributing or fueling the transaction growth. So I wanted to understand is there some kind of maturity curve that you're seeing now that as you think about growing restaurants, you get sort of a tailwind just from that maturity curve or was that rather a reference to maybe perhaps some of the more recent vintages that maybe opened at lower AUVs, 22, 23 are seeing outsized benefits from the advertising. Just because I know, Christine, you said everything's working together, but it does seem like there's a step change. Thanks.

speaker
Josh Gunzir
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, thanks, Sara, for the question. On your housekeeping, you're right. There's a slight offset with mix. We've historically seen that in items per transaction, and that's continued through Q2. As you think about the newer vintages, I would broadly answer your question as yes, we're seeing performance from some of those older vintages that are not sorry, older, but the more recent vintages that we've opened in new markets in even some of the few years ago openings as well. We're seeing strength across the board. So we've had really strong comp performance coming out of all the new vintages, both from the And the你们 c'est

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

carse, the Valteminat Got jersey, the S Jonathan Mercieka, the using that paid advertising to build the brand awareness, to bring customers into the brand for the first time, then we want them to experience the brand and very quickly join our Dutch Rewards Program. So we have that very easy channel to talk to them, share with them all the new news that's coming.

speaker
Sara Senatori
Analyst, Bank of America

Thanks.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Next question, John Ivanko with JP Morgan.

speaker
John Ivanko
Analyst, JP Morgan

Hi, thank you. I wanted to revisit the marketing question and if you could remind me or tell me what marketing is as a percentage of sales, 25 versus 24 for example, and how high could we take that? I mean, some companies, for example, spend 4% of system sales on marketing. I don't know if that's a magic number. So I guess address it in that context. And Christine, I asked the question because at over a couple billion dollars of system sales now, you might be opening some new marketing efficiency windows that you didn't have as a smaller company where a lot of it had to be local and a lot of it had to be digital. So do you have any bigger reach marketing efforts that perhaps you can reach being a bigger company with just more aggregate dollars to spend? Thank you.

speaker
Josh Gunzir
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, thanks John. So we haven't given the specific total kind of holistic marketing budget as a percent of sales that our footnotes do disclose advertising, which is a smaller piece of that total. What I would say is we have continued to lean into marketing efforts. As we've talked about last year and into this year, just given the performance we've seen from that, we do continue to lean into marketing. I'd say we're generally probably on the lower end of how others might spend as a total percent of revenue. So I think we have a lot of strength and efficiency we see from the marketing dollars that we spend today. I'll let Christine kind of talk about the second part of your question there.

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Yeah, and John, what I would add to that is I do think that it is an area that we continue to look at. Given what we are seeing, we're continuing to test new ways, understanding if more spend would make a difference. And what I would share is I just think some of the things that we're doing with MerchDrops and really the earned kind of reach that we're getting from all of the other activities that we're doing, that's performing so well that we haven't seen the need to increase that marketing spend too much further right now. It is something we will continue to monitor. But again, I think that the team is just doing an incredible job of having everything work really well together. And then I would also highlight, I think that if you look at how strong the Dutch Rewards Program is, having 72% of our total transactions going through that program, the success that we are seeing in getting new shops and new customers really quickly ramped up in Dutch Rewards is really allowing us to be super efficient with our marketing resources. And so I think that that is something that's really unique to us with the strength of that program. And we would prefer always to just talk directly to our customers. And so very, very pleased with what we've been seeing in Dutch Rewards and what the team is doing to continue to just segment our customer base further, talk to customers in unique ways depending on their patterns. So really excited by what we're seeing there. And I think that allows us to be super efficient with our marketing spend.

speaker
John Ivanko
Analyst, JP Morgan

Thank you.

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Next

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

question, Chris Ockel with Stiefel.

speaker
Chris Ockel
Analyst, Stifel

Hey, thanks, good afternoon. Congrats on a great quarter. Christine, I guess I also had a follow-up question on marketing and it may just be me, but I've noticed fewer email offers from the company as the quarter progressed. Just given the strength of the sales trend, have you been able to pull back on some of the marketing and offers and save them for a later time as just the benefit of the advertising in the past several quarters builds? And I was also hoping you could maybe elaborate on the awareness study, maybe the timeframe and magnitude of the improvement in aided and un-aided awareness.

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Yeah, thanks, Chris. So specifically on Dutch Rewards, I think more of what you're seeing right now is our segmentation. And so where a year ago, we were doing primarily just mass offers, everyone receiving the same thing. The team has made just incredible progress in starting to really segment the customer base, send out specific offers to specific individuals depending on their patterns. And so I think that that's actually more of what you're seeing as you look at the activity overall.

speaker
Sharon Zaxia
Analyst, William Blair

And then what was your second question, Chris?

speaker
Chris Ockel
Analyst, Stifel

I was just hoping you could elaborate on the awareness study. Oh, the awareness. The timeframe and magnitude of the improvement you mentioned.

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

I looked for you. Yeah, so if you look at the awareness study, that's something that we're doing right now on an annual basis so that we can really see movement in what's happening there. So we're looking at where we stand from an aided and unaided awareness. We haven't shared the exact improvements there, but we are seeing quite material improvements, especially in some of those new markets.

speaker
Chris Ockel
Analyst, Stifel

Great, thanks.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Next question, Jacob Aiken Phillips with Melious Research. Please go ahead.

speaker
Jacob Aiken Phillips
Analyst, Melius Research

Yeah, good afternoon. So another marketing question. So could you give any more color on the personalization and segmentation with Dutch Rewards? Like what ending are we in? What's the next phase of that personalization and then kind of how it relates to the operational focus and more top of funnel paid advertising you're doing?

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Yeah, so on the Dutch Rewards, I would say we are still in early innings of the segmentation. In addition to segmentation, we are also looking at what is the right functionality to have in the app? What are some things we can do to make some of those rewards offers even more fun, some of it that can make it more social, things like that. So I think that the team has a lot of plans to continue expanding in Dutch Rewards, continue making that an even more fun experience for our customers. And then as we compare like top of funnel marketing and how we think about that, really I think it's the separation of those two channels and thinking through that the paid advertising is more to build brand awareness and brand awareness that can drive some action. So what is Dutch Bros? What are those offerings that we have? So you might've driven past the shop, seen the windmill, now you see the advertising, you kind of connect what that shop is with what we serve and that can drive your first visit. And we find once we get customers in for that first visit, they're oftentimes coming back. So it really is focused on driving kind of that first visitor too. And then we focus at the shop level in making sure that you're aware that we have Dutch Rewards so that we can get you into that program.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Next question, Gregory Frankford with Guggenheim Partners. Please go ahead.

speaker
Gregory Frankford
Analyst, Guggenheim Partners

Hey, thanks for the question. Christina, I think you guys are now entering some markets where in this kind of maybe smaller format coffee box, you're second rather than first. And I guess I'm curious, how do you approach those differently? And do you ramp the same way? I guess I'm just curious as you look at the rest of the country and kind of the need to be first or second or third in some of these markets, just how that might play out differently. Thanks.

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Yeah, thanks for the question, Greg. And so, I do think every market that we enter for sure has a coffee shop in it. And so I think is as you look at where we enter, there might be other sorts of new competitors, things like that. It is something that we look at closely. What we are increasingly finding is that when we come into a market, customers know who we are. It doesn't really matter what order we're entering a market in. And the lines that we are seeing in our new shop openings, the excitement for the brand really continues to build. It's something that, you know, as I look at this brand past a thousand shops, to see the lines actually building as we scale, is just a really, really encouraging thing to see as we go. And so I just, I feel like the brand is in such a great place. I think that our customers, our potential new customers, really understand what Dutch Bros is. They build that excitement. They're driving from long distances to come to those first shop openings in an area. You know, as I mentioned at the start of the Q&A, to have our top performing shop last week was in Georgia, which is a new market. Absolutely amazing. So really, really cool to see the strength of the brand.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Next question, Brian Mullen with Piper Sandler.

speaker
Brian Mullen
Analyst, Piper Sandler

Hey, thanks. Wanted to come back to the food test. You know, you've talked about having a few important goals with this, you know, pro-ecstasy satisfaction, not disrupting throughput, you know, minimizing complexity, you know, and then having the right assortment to make sure you satisfy the food, but get that beverage occasion. So question is, you know, as you go through the tests and evaluate through the lens of each of your goals, which one is proving to be maybe a little more seamless or easy and then maybe on a relative basis, is anything proving to be a little more challenging or taking longer? Any thoughts on that would be great.

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Yeah, thanks, Brian. We're really happy with what we're seeing across the board on all of those metrics. And we are doing both frequent surveys with our teams and with customers to understand where we are. We're also obviously seeing kind of the demand and how that's going with our customers. So we are pleased across the board. We are seeing really nice throughput. Our teams are able to execute the food within the timeframe of the beverage. Our bro-ecstasy satisfaction is high and actually has continued to grow as we've rolled out to new markets with that really systemized training that we've gotten down to. And then the customer satisfaction is really high. I think we've got the assortment just right. And it is a, as we've shared, it's an assortment of just eight items. So it makes it really simple for our teams. And I think very easy for our customers to understand and know that there's this assortment that they could order from and it matches the beverages that they're ordering. So we're really pleased with what we're seeing from a food perspective across the board. The other piece that we just shared was we are seeing a ticket lift as well in early days and a transaction lift. And so seeing that transaction lift really validates what we thought we would see in the morning that our customers will sometimes share with us that they love us, but might go somewhere else because they want that food in the morning. And so now that having food in those test markets, seeing that little bit of transaction lift is something we're incredibly encouraged by.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Thank you. Jeffrey Bernstein with Barclays. Please go ahead.

speaker
Jeffrey Bernstein
Analyst, Barclays

Great, thank you very much. Christine, I do hate to ask this question, but it is a compliment as you are firing on all cylinders and so early and attacking the TAM. I think you mentioned 160 units this year, 16% growth. But when I think about that growth, the new and existing markets seem to be doing well. You've got 450 or more candidates ready to lead. I think Josh, you mentioned that the CapEx to build is eased pretty significantly over the past quarter or two. It seems like the opportunity to accelerate would be prime being more on offense versus defense in such a competitive category. I'm just wondering what would keep you from ramping up whether it's the growth this year or how you think about the pipeline for next year. Again, it just seems like all things are working for you. This would seem to be the time unless there are some gating factors that maybe we don't fully appreciate. Thank you.

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Yeah, no, thanks so much for the question. And we feel really good about where we are. We have continued to build out the real estate team. We are really excited about getting to that 2029 and 2029. And I think that the steps that we took two years ago to really get us into this position where we can continue to accelerate the growth were incredibly important and are playing out in such a great way. So, we wanted to focus on market planning. We're seeing those elevated AUVs in those new shops. We wanted to focus on building out but in a more capital efficient way. We are seeing those reductions in CapEx as we open the new shops. We wanted to get our teams really ready to open those new shops, ensure that we had a marketing plan to quickly build brand awareness so that we could open out of the gate really strong and we're seeing that as well. So, as we look across all of those things that we went and said, hey, we would love to make a little bit of a tweak here. We're actually now seeing results across all of those areas and I think are in just a great place to continue to accelerate our growth.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Next question, Jeff Farmer with Gordon Haskett. Please go ahead.

speaker
Jeff Farmer
Analyst, Gordon Haskett

Thank you. Consumers increased focus on value has come up, I would say on almost every call over this earnings season. So, with that as sort of the lead in, I'm curious what your thoughts are on Dutch Brothers sort of value positioning or offering and how you guys are competing for those customers who are looking for value. So, clearly you're doing well, but I am curious how you're competing for those customers who are looking for value right now.

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

So, we think we're in a fantastic position from a value proposition perspective. This is something we continue to test and survey with our customers. We've been very thoughtful, we've taken very minimal price this year. I think that that has put us in a fantastic position and it's something that we would want to continue to be a leader in. I think our customers really appreciate the sizes that we have. I think they appreciate the ability to really customize freely within their beverages. And we feel like we have the formula right to really be delivering on what the customer expects. And I think you add to that, that when you come through our drive-through lane, you just leave in such a great place. You leave with your day being a little bit brighter. And I think that's ultimately what customers are looking for in this market.

speaker
Jeff Farmer
Analyst, Gordon Haskett

Thank you, appreciate it.

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

I would like to turn the floor over to Christine Barone for closing remarks.

speaker
Christine Barone
CEO and President

Thanks for your questions. In May, we hosted our 19th annual Drink One for Dane Day, a company-wide initiative that raises awareness for ALS and honors our co-founder, Dane Borsma. In support of this event, the Dutch Bros Foundation donated $1 million to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, our longstanding partner in the fight against ALS. In the quarter, many of our shops also held local give-back days, each one driven by the passion and energy of our crews. The heart of Dutch Bros remains unchanged. Moments like Drink One for Dane reflect our commitment to community impact, connection, and purpose-driven growth and values that have guided us since 1992. I want to thank our teams who made Drink One for Dane Day and all of our local give-backs truly special. Your efforts allow us to keep showing up for our customers and communities in meaningful ways every single day. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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