Texas Roadhouse, Inc. [TXRH] Filings

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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

Commission File Number 000-50972

Texas Roadhouse, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant specified in its charter)

6040 Dutchmans Lane

Louisville, Kentucky 40205

(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

(502) 426-9984

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

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Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

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Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ⌧ No ◻.

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act. Yes ◻ No ⌧.

Indicate by check mark whether registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports) and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐.

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐.

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company," and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ◻

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management's assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ⌧

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ◻

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ◻

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ⌧.

The aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of the last business day of the second fiscal quarter ended June 27, 2023 was $7,271,884,191 based on the closing stock price of $109.32 on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

The number of shares of common stock outstanding were 66,828,113 on February 14, 2024.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement for the registrant’s 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which is expected to be filed pursuant to Regulation 14A within 120 days of the registrant’s fiscal year ended December 26, 2023, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K.

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

From time to time, in periodic reports and oral statements and in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we present statements about future events and expectations that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements are based on our beliefs, assumptions and expectations of our future financial and operating performance and growth plans, taking into account the information currently available to us. These statements are not statements of historical fact. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations of future results we express or imply in any forward-looking statements. In addition to the other factors discussed under "Risk Factors" elsewhere in this report, factors that could contribute to these differences include, but are not limited to:

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The words "believe," "may," "should," "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "objective," "seek," "plan," "strive," "goal," "projects," "forecasts," "will" or similar words or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology, identify forward-looking statements. We qualify any forward-looking statements entirely by these cautionary factors.

Other risks, uncertainties and factors, including those discussed under "Risk Factors," or those currently deemed immaterial or unknown, could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements we make.

We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future, except as required by applicable law.

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PART I

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

Texas Roadhouse, Inc. (the "Company," "we," "our" and/or "us") was incorporated under the laws of the state of Delaware in 2004. The principal executive office is located in Louisville, Kentucky.

Introduction

The Company is a growing restaurant company operating predominantly in the casual dining segment. Our late founder, W. Kent Taylor, started the business in 1993 with the opening of the first Texas Roadhouse restaurant in Clarksville, Indiana. Since then, we have grown to three concepts with 741 restaurants in 49 states and ten foreign countries. Our mission statement is "Legendary Food, Legendary Service^®." Our operating strategy is designed to position each of our casual dining restaurants as the local hometown favorite for a broad segment of consumers seeking high quality, affordable meals served with friendly, attentive service. As of December 26, 2023, we owned and operated 635 restaurants and franchised an additional 58 domestic restaurants and 48 international restaurants.

Restaurant Concepts

Of the 635 restaurants we owned and operated at the end of 2023, we operated 582 as Texas Roadhouse restaurants, 45 as Bubba’s 33 restaurants and eight as Jaggers restaurants.

Texas Roadhouse is a moderately priced, full-service, casual dining restaurant concept offering an assortment of specially seasoned and aged steaks hand-cut daily on the premises and cooked to order over open grills. In addition to steaks, we also offer our guests a selection of ribs, seafood, chicken, pork chops, pulled pork and vegetable plates, and an assortment of hamburgers, salads and sandwiches. The majority of our entrées include two made-from-scratch side items, and we offer all our dine-in guests free roasted in-shell peanuts and fresh baked yeast rolls.

Bubba’s 33 is a moderately priced, full-service, casual dining restaurant concept featuring scratch-made food for all with a little rock 'n' roll, ice-cold beer and signature drinks. Our menu features burgers, pizza and wings as well as a wide variety of appetizers, sandwiches and dinner entrées. Our first Bubba’s 33 restaurant opened in May 2013 in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Jaggers is a fast-casual restaurant concept offering burgers, hand-breaded chicken tenders and chicken sandwiches served with scratch-made sauces. In addition, we offer fresh salads that are made-to-order and served with homemade dressings. Jaggers offers drive-thru, carry-out and dine-in service options. We also offer delivery services at certain locations. Our first Jaggers restaurant opened in December 2014 in Noblesville, Indiana.

Throughout this report, we use the term "restaurants" to include Texas Roadhouse and Bubba’s 33, unless otherwise noted.

Segment Information

We manage our restaurant and franchising operations by concept and as a result have identified Texas Roadhouse, Bubba’s 33, Jaggers and retail initiatives (including our online store and royalty-based licensing arrangements) as separate operating segments. In addition, we have identified Texas Roadhouse and Bubba's 33 as reportable segments.

Operating Strategy

The operating strategy that underlies the growth of our restaurants is built on the following key components:

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Restaurant Development and Unit Economics

We consistently evaluate opportunities to develop restaurants in new and existing markets. Our site selection process is critical to our growth strategy. In analyzing each prospective site, our real estate team and restaurant market partners devote significant time and resources to the evaluation of local market demographics, population density, household income levels and site-specific characteristics such as visibility, accessibility, traffic generators, proximity of other retail activities and competitors, traffic counts and parking. We work actively with experienced real estate brokers in target markets to select high quality sites and to maintain and regularly update our database of potential sites.

We design our restaurant prototypes to provide a relaxed atmosphere for our guests, while also focusing on restaurant-level returns over time. Our current prototypical Texas Roadhouse restaurant consists of a freestanding building with approximately 7,600 to 8,400 square feet with seating for approximately 270 to 325 guests and parking for approximately 180 vehicles either on-site or in combination with some form of off-site cross parking arrangement. Our current prototypes are adaptable to in-line and end-cap locations and/or spaces within an enclosed mall or a shopping center.

Our current prototypical Bubba’s 33 restaurant consists of a freestanding building with approximately 7,600 square feet with seating for approximately 270 to 330 guests. Some locations include patio seating for approximately 60 guests. Parking is targeted for approximately 180 vehicles either on-site or in combination with some form of off-site cross parking arrangement.

Our capital investment for new restaurants, which includes an estimate of pre-opening expense and a 10x initial base rent factor for those sites that are leased, varies significantly depending on a number of factors. These factors include, but are not limited to: the concept, square footage, layout, scope of required site work, geographical location, supply chain costs, type of construction labor (union or non-union), local permitting requirements, our ability to negotiate with landowners and/or landlords, cost of liquor and other licenses and pre-opening expense.

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For 2023 and 2022, our average capital investment for Texas Roadhouse restaurants was $7.9 million and $6.9 million, respectively. The increase in our 2023 average capital investment was primarily due to an increase in building and site work costs and an increase in liquor license costs. We expect our average capital investment for restaurants to be opened in 2024 to remain flat at approximately $7.9 million.

For 2023 and 2022, our average capital investment for Bubba’s 33 restaurants was $8.2 million and $7.8 million, respectively. The increase in our 2023 average capital investment was primarily due to an increase in pre-opening costs at one particular site. We expect our average capital investment for restaurants to be opened in 2024 to be approximately $8.5 million.

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Existing Restaurant Locations

As of December 26, 2023, we had 635 company restaurants and 106 franchise restaurants in 49 states and ten foreign countries as shown in the chart below.

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Food

Menu. Our restaurants offer a wide variety of menu items at attractive prices that are designed to appeal to a broad range of consumer tastes. At Texas Roadhouse restaurants, we offer a broad assortment of specially seasoned and aged steaks, all cooked over open grills and all but one hand-cut daily on the premises. We also offer our guests a selection of ribs, seafood, chicken, pork chops, pulled pork and vegetable plates, and an assortment of burgers, salads and sandwiches. Entrée prices include roasted in-shell peanuts, fresh baked yeast rolls and most include the choice of two made-from-scratch sides. Other menu items include specialty appetizers such as the "Cactus Blossom^®" and "Rattlesnake Bites". We also provide a "12 & Under" menu for children that includes a selection of smaller-sized entrées served with one side item and a beverage.

At Bubba’s 33 restaurants, we offer a broad assortment of burgers, pizza and wings as well as a wide variety of appetizers, sandwiches and dinner entrées. Our Bubba’s 33 restaurants also offer an extensive selection of draft beer and signature cocktails. We provide a "12 & Under" menu for children that includes a selection of items, including a beverage.

At Jaggers restaurants, we offer fresh, authentic, scratch-made food including double stacked burgers, hand-breaded chicken sandwiches and chicken tenders, made-to-order fresh salads and hand-spun milkshakes. We also provide a “12 & Under” menu for children that includes a selection of smaller-sized entrées, a side, a drink and a cookie.

Most of our full-service restaurants feature a full bar that offers a selection of draft and bottled beer, major brands of liquor and wine as well as made in-house margaritas and signature cocktails. Managing partners are encouraged to tailor their beer selection to include regional and local brands. In 2023, alcoholic beverages at all company restaurants accounted for 10.3% of restaurant sales.

We always strive to maintain a consistent menu at our restaurants. We continually review our menu to consider enhancements to existing menu items or the introduction of new items. We change our menu only after guest feedback and an extensive study of the operational and economic implications. To maintain our high levels of food quality and service, we generally remove one menu item for every new menu item introduced to facilitate our ability to execute high quality meals on a focused range of menu items.

We work with a third-party vendor to manage an online tool to provide nutritional information as well as help customers identify known allergens in each of our menu items. This information is available for all concepts.

Food Quality and Safety. We are committed to serving a varied menu of high quality, great tasting food items with an emphasis on freshness. We have developed proprietary recipes to promote consistency in quality and taste throughout all restaurants and provide a unique flavor experience to our guests. At each domestic Texas Roadhouse restaurant, a trained meat cutter hand cuts our steaks and other restaurant employees prepare our side items and yeast rolls from scratch in the restaurants daily. At both Texas Roadhouse and Bubba’s 33 restaurants, we assign individual kitchen employees to the preparation of designated food items in order to focus on quality, consistency, speed and food safety. Additionally, we expect a management level employee to inspect every entrée before it leaves the kitchen to confirm it matches the guest’s order and meets our standards for quality, portion size, appearance and presentation.

We employ a team of product coaches whose function is to provide continual, hands-on training and education to the kitchen staff in all of our restaurants for the purpose of reinforcing food quality, recipe consistency, food preparation procedures, food safety and sanitation standards, food appearance, freshness and portion size. The product coach team supports all of our full-service domestic restaurants.

Food safety and sanitation is of utmost importance to us. We currently utilize several additional programs to help facilitate adherence to proper food preparation procedures and food safety standards including our daily taste and temperature procedures. We have a food team whose function, in conjunction with our product coaches, is to develop, enforce and maintain programs designed to promote compliance with food safety guidelines. As a requirement of our quality assurance process, primary food items are purchased from qualified vendors who are regularly audited by reputable, outside inspection services confirming that the vendor is compliant with United States Food and Drug Administration and United States Department of Agriculture guidelines, the results of which are reviewed by our food safety team.

We perform regular food safety and sanitation audits on our restaurants and these results are reviewed by various members of operations and management. To maximize adherence to food safety protocols, we have incorporated

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Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points principles and critical procedures (such as hand washing) in each recipe. All restaurant managers are required to complete the American National Standards Institute Certified Food Manager training. In addition, product coaches and certain food team members are required to obtain their Certified Professional-Food Safety designation from the National Environmental Health Association.

Procurement. Our procurement philosophy is designed to supply fresh, quality products to the restaurants at competitive prices while maximizing operating efficiencies. We negotiate directly with suppliers for substantially all food and beverage products to maximize quality and freshness and obtain competitive prices.

Food and supplies are ordered by and shipped directly to our domestic restaurants. Most food products used in the operation of our restaurants are distributed to individual restaurants through an independent national distribution company. We strive to qualify more than one supplier for all key food items and believe that beef of comparable quality as well as all other essential food and beverage products are available, upon short notice, from alternative qualified suppliers.

Service

Service Quality. We believe that guest satisfaction and our ability to continually evaluate and improve the guest experience at each of our restaurants is important to our success. We employ a team of service coaches whose function is to provide consistent, hands-on training and education to our managers and service staff in our domestic restaurants. This training and education reinforces service quality, teamwork, responsible alcohol service, staff attentiveness and guest interactions in the dining room as well as the implementation of new technologies and process changes.

Guest Satisfaction. Through the use of guest surveys, our various websites including "texasroadhouse.com," "bubbas33.com" or "eatjaggers.com," a toll-free guest response telephone line, emails, letters, social media and personal interaction in the restaurant, we receive valuable feedback from guests. We have implemented several programs to evaluate guest satisfaction, with particular attention given to food, beverage and service quality, cleanliness, staff attitude and teamwork, and manager visibility and interaction. We continue to evaluate and implement new processes and technologies relating to guest satisfaction, including reducing guest wait times, improving host interaction with the guest and improving the to-go experience for our guests.

Atmosphere. The atmosphere of our restaurants is intended to appeal to broad segments of the population. Substantially all Texas Roadhouse restaurants are of our prototype design, reflecting a rustic southwestern lodge atmosphere. The interiors feature wood walls and stained concrete floors and are decorated with hand-painted murals, neon signs, southwestern prints, rugs and artifacts. The restaurants continuously play upbeat country hits. Guests may also view a display-baking area, where our fresh baked yeast rolls are prepared, and a meat cooler displaying fresh cut steaks. Once seated at a table, guests can enjoy free fresh baked yeast rolls along with roasted in-shell peanuts. Our Bubba’s 33 restaurants feature walls lined with televisions playing a variety of sports events and music videos and are decorated with sports jerseys, neon signs and other local flair. Our fast-casual concept, Jaggers, offers both drive-thru and dining room service in a modern design featuring a contemporary exterior and a comfortable and inviting dining room.

People

Management Personnel. Each of our restaurants is generally staffed with one managing partner and a combination of operations, kitchen and service managers as well as assistant managers. Managing partners are single restaurant operators who have primary responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the entire restaurant. Operations managers support the managing partner in overall operations including oversight over the kitchen and service departments. Kitchen managers have primary responsibility for managing sections of the kitchen staff and certain kitchen operations including food production, preparation, execution and quality standards. Service managers have primary responsibility for managing sections of the front of house staff and certain dining room, bar and to-go operations including service quality and the guest experience. Assistant managers support our managing partners, operations managers and kitchen and service managers. All managers are responsible for maintaining our standards of quality and performance.

We use market partners to oversee the operation of our restaurants. Each market partner oversees a group of varying sizes of managing partners and their respective management teams. Market partners are also responsible for the hiring and development of each restaurant’s management team and assisting in the site selection process. Through regular visits to the restaurants, the market partners facilitate adherence to all aspects of our concepts, strategies and standards of quality. To further facilitate adherence to our standards of quality and to maximize uniform execution

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throughout the system, we employ product coaches and service coaches who regularly visit the restaurants to assist in training of both new and existing employees and to grade food and service quality. The attentive service and high quality food, which results from each restaurant having a managing partner, at least two to four managers and the hands-on assistance of a product coach and a service coach, are critical to our success.

Managing partners and market partners are required, as a condition of employment, to sign a multi-year employment agreement. The annual compensation of our managing partners and market partners includes a base salary plus a percentage of pre-tax income of the restaurant(s) they operate or supervise. Managing partners and market partners are eligible to participate in our equity incentive plan and are required to make refundable deposits at the time of hire, that reinforces an ownership mentality. Generally, the deposits are refunded after five years of continuous service.

Training and Development. All restaurant employees are required to complete varying degrees of training before and during employment. Our comprehensive training program emphasizes our operating strategy, procedures and standards, including responsible alcohol service, and is typically conducted individually at our restaurants or in groups throughout the country.

Our managing and market partners are generally required to have significant experience in the full-service restaurant industry and are generally hired at a minimum of nine months before their placement in a new or existing restaurant to allow time to fully train in all aspects of restaurant operations. All managing partners, kitchen and service managers and other management employees are required to complete an extensive training program of up to 20 weeks, which includes training for every position in the restaurant. Trainees are validated at pre-determined points during their training by a market partner, managing partner, product coach and service coach.

We have designated a number of our restaurants to be certified as training centers by our training department. These stores are utilized to train our new and existing managers to ensure compliance with all operating procedures and guidelines. Additionally, most restaurants are staffed with training coordinators responsible for ongoing daily training needs.

For new restaurant openings, a full team of designated trainers, each specializing in a specific restaurant position, is deployed to the restaurant at least ten days before opening. Formal employee training begins seven days before opening and follows a uniform, comprehensive training course as directed by a service coach.

Marketing

Our marketing strategy aims to promote our brands while retaining a localized focus. We strive to increase comparable restaurant sales by increasing the frequency of visits by our current guests and attracting new guests to our restaurants and also by communicating and promoting our concepts’ food quality, the guest experience and value. We accomplish these objectives through three major initiatives.

Local Restaurant Marketing. Given our strategy to be a neighborhood destination, local restaurant marketing is integral in developing brand awareness in each market. Managing partners are encouraged to participate in creative community-based marketing. We also engage in a variety of promotional activities, such as contributing time, money and complimentary meals to charitable, civic and cultural programs. We employ marketing coordinators at the restaurant and market level to develop and execute the majority of the local marketing strategies.

In-restaurant Marketing. A significant portion of our marketing fund is spent communicating with our guests inside our restaurants through point of purchase materials. We believe special promotions such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Veterans Day drive notable repeat business. Our eight-week holiday gift card campaign is one of our most impactful promotions.

Advertising. Our restaurants do not rely on national television or print advertising to promote our brands. Earned local media is a critical part of our strategy that features our products and people. Our restaurants use a permission-based email loyalty program, as well as social media and digital marketing, to promote the brand and engage with our guests. Our approach to media aligns with our focus on local store marketing and community involvement. Additionally, we continue to look for ways through various strategic initiatives to drive awareness and guest engagement with our brands. This includes the introduction of branded food and retail products that are available for purchase online or in select retailers. These products include non-royalty based food and accessories as well as licensing arrangements for certain non-alcoholic beverages.

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Restaurant Franchise Arrangements

Franchise Restaurants. As of December 26, 2023, we had 21 franchisees that operated 106 Texas Roadhouse and Jaggers restaurants in 20 states and ten foreign countries. Domestically, franchise rights for our Texas Roadhouse restaurants are granted for specific restaurants only, as we have not granted any rights to develop a territory. We are currently not accepting new domestic Texas Roadhouse franchisees. Approximately 85% of our franchise restaurants are operated by ten franchisees and no franchisee operates more than 16 restaurants.

Our standard Texas Roadhouse domestic franchise agreement has a term of ten years with two renewal options for an additional five years each if certain conditions are satisfied. Our current form of domestic franchise agreement generally requires the franchisee to pay a franchise fee for each restaurant opened and royalties based on a percentage of gross sales. In addition, domestic Texas Roadhouse franchisees are required to pay a percentage of gross sales to a national marketing fund for system-wide promotions and related efforts.

We have entered into area development and franchise agreements for the development and operation of Texas Roadhouse restaurants in several foreign countries and one U.S. territory. For the existing international agreements, the franchisee is generally required to pay us a development fee for our grant of development rights in the named countries, a franchise fee for each restaurant to be opened and royalties on the sales of each restaurant.

We have also entered into area development agreements for Jaggers, our fast-casual concept. Currently, we have agreements in place that allow for the development and operation of restaurants in specific territories in Texas, Oklahoma, and North Carolina. As part of these agreements, the franchisees are required to pay us a development fee for our grant of development rights in the named territories, a franchise fee for each restaurant to be opened and royalties based on a percentage of gross sales. We opened our first two Jaggers franchise restaurants in 2023.

Our standard Texas Roadhouse and Jaggers domestic franchise agreements give us the right, but not the obligation, to compel a franchisee to transfer its interests to us based on pre-determined formulas included in our franchise agreements.

Any of our area development or franchise agreements, whether domestic or international, may be terminated if the franchisee defaults in the performance of any of its obligations under the development or franchise agreement, including its obligations to develop the territory or operate its restaurants in accordance with our standards and specifications. A franchise agreement may also be terminated if a franchisee becomes insolvent, fails to make its required payments, creates a threat to the public health or safety, ceases to operate the restaurant, or misuses our trademarks.

Franchise Compliance Assurance. We have various systems in place to promote compliance with our systems and standards, both during the development and operation of franchise restaurants. We actively work with our franchisees to support successful franchise operations as well as compliance with our standards and procedures. During the restaurant development phase, we consent to the selection of restaurant sites and make available copies of our prototype building plans to franchisees. In addition, we ensure that the building design is in compliance with our standards. We provide training to the managing partner and up to three other managers of a franchisee’s first restaurant. We also provide trainers to assist in the opening of every domestic franchise restaurant and we provide trainers to assist our international franchisees in the opening of their restaurants until such time as they develop an approved restaurant opening training program. Finally, on an ongoing basis, we conduct reviews on all franchise restaurants to determine their level of effectiveness in executing our concept at a variety of operational levels. Our franchisees are required to follow the same standards and procedures regarding equipment and food purchases, preparation and safety procedures as we maintain in our company restaurants. Reviews are conducted by seasoned operations teams and focus on key areas including health, safety and execution proficiency.

Management Services. We provide management services to certain domestic franchise restaurants, some in which we have an ownership interest and others in which we have no ownership interest. Such management services may include accounting, operational supervision, human resources, training, and food, beverage and equipment consulting for which we receive monthly fees. We also make available to these restaurants certain legal services, restaurant employees and employee benefits on a pass-through cost basis.

Information Technology

All of our company restaurants utilize computerized management information systems, which are designed to improve operating efficiencies, provide restaurant and Support Center management with timely access to financial and

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operating data and reduce administrative time and expense. With our current information systems, we have the ability to query, report and analyze this intelligent data on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and year-to-date basis and beyond, on a company-wide, concept, regional, market or individual restaurant basis. Together, this enables us to closely monitor sales and operating expenses at each of our restaurants throughout all concepts. We have a number of systems and reports that provide comparative information that enables both restaurant and Support Center management to supervise the financial and operational performance of our restaurants and to recognize and understand trends in the business. Restaurant hardware and software support for all of our restaurants is provided and coordinated from the restaurant Support Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

In the course of business, we gather and maintain sensitive information from our guests, employees, partners and business operations. To protect this information, we have created and implemented a detailed set of procedures that are informed by recognized national and international standards. We have implemented extensive detective and preventative controls designed to ensure the appropriate level of protection for the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data stored on or transferred through our information technology resources. Additionally, we guard against business interruption by maintaining a disaster recovery plan, which includes, among other things, storing critical business information off-site, maintaining a redundant data center, testing the disaster recovery plan and providing on-site power backup.

In addition to cash, we accept credit cards, debit cards and gift cards as payment at our restaurants. We have systems and processes in place that focus on the protection of our guests’ credit and debit card information and other private information that we are required to protect, such as our employees’ personal information. Our systems have been carefully designed and configured to safeguard against data loss or compromise. We submit our systems to regular audit and review, ensuring compliance with the requirements of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards and to assess vulnerability in our systems. See Risk Factors in Item 1A of this Form 10-K for a discussion of risks associated with breaches of security related to confidential guest and/or employee information.

We have made several digital enhancements to improve the guest experience and better support increased volumes at our restaurants.  These enhancements include a new, fully customized digital experience that allows our guests to get on the waitlist or place an order for pickup or curbside service.  The new digital experience also has added gift card and payment functionality.  We have also implemented texting systems which allows our dine-in guests to wait outside or in their cars and has improved the to-go experience. In addition, we have implemented systems that enable touchless menus and contactless payments, providing a smoother guest checkout experience and enhanced turnaround times. Finally, we have started implementing digital display systems in our kitchens that increase kitchen efficiency, allow us to handle increased volumes and enhance the employee experience.

We believe that our current systems and practice of implementing regular updates will position us well to support our current needs and future growth. Information systems projects are prioritized based on strategic, financial, regulatory and other business advantage criteria.

Competition

Competition in the restaurant industry is intense. We compete with well-established food service companies on the basis of taste, quality and price of the food offered, service, atmosphere, location, take-out and delivery options as well as the overall dining experience. Our competitors include a large and diverse group of restaurant chains and individual restaurants that range from independent local operators that have opened restaurants in various markets to well-capitalized national restaurant chains. We also face competition from meal kit delivery services as well as the supermarket industry. In addition, improving product offerings of fast casual and quick-service restaurants and better execution of to-go sales, together with negative economic conditions could cause consumers to choose less expensive alternatives. Although we believe that we compete favorably with respect to each of the above channels, other restaurants and retail establishments compete for the same casual dining guests, quality site locations and restaurant-level employees as we do. We expect intense competition to continue across all aspects of the restaurant industry.

Trademarks

Our registered trademarks and service marks include, among others, our trade names and logos and proprietary rights related to certain core menu offerings. We have registered all of our significant marks for our restaurants with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. We have registered or have registrations pending for our most significant

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trademarks and service marks in multiple foreign jurisdictions. To better protect our brands, we have also registered various Internet domain names. We believe that our trademarks, service marks and other proprietary rights have significant value and are important to our brand-building efforts and the marketing of our restaurant concepts.

Government Regulation

We are subject to a variety of federal, state, local and international laws affecting our business. For a discussion of the risks and potential impact on our business of a failure by us to comply with applicable laws and regulations, see Item 1A, Risk Factors.

Each of our restaurants is subject to permitting and licensing requirements and regulations by a number of government authorities, which may include, among others, alcoholic beverage control, health and safety, sanitation, labor, zoning and public safety agencies in the state and/or municipality in which each restaurant is located. The development and operation of restaurants depends on selecting and acquiring suitable sites that satisfy our financial targets, which are subject to zoning, land use, environmental, traffic and other regulations.

In addition to domestic regulations, our international business exposes us to additional regulations, including antitrust and tax requirements, anti-boycott legislation, import/export and customs regulations and other international trade regulations, the USA Patriot Act and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. We are also subject to laws and regulations relating to the preparation and sale of food, including regulations regarding product safety, nutritional content and menu labeling.

In order to serve alcoholic beverages in our restaurants, we must comply with alcoholic beverage control regulations which require each of our restaurants to apply to a state authority, and, in certain locations, county or municipal authorities, for a license or permit to sell alcoholic beverages on the premises. These licenses or permits must be renewed annually and may be revoked or suspended for cause at any time. We are also subject in certain states to "dram shop" statutes, which generally provide a person injured by an intoxicated person the right to recover damages from an establishment that served alcoholic beverages to the intoxicated person. Consistent with industry standards, we focus on responsible alcohol service training and carry liquor liability coverage as part of our existing comprehensive general liability insurance as well as excess umbrella coverage.

Our restaurant operations are also subject to federal and state labor laws governing such matters as minimum and tipped wage requirements, overtime pay, health benefits, unemployment taxes, workers’ compensation, work eligibility requirements, working conditions, safety standards and hiring and employment practices. A significant number of our hourly restaurant personnel receive tips as part of their compensation and are paid at or above a minimum wage rate after giving effect to applicable tips. We rely on our employees to accurately disclose the full amount of their tip income. We base our FICA tax reporting on the disclosures provided to us by our tipped employees.

Our facilities must comply with the applicable requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ("ADA") and related state accessibility statutes. Under the ADA and related state laws, we must provide equivalent service to disabled persons and make reasonable accommodation for their employment. In addition, when constructing or undertaking remodeling of our restaurants, we must make those facilities accessible.

We are subject to laws relating to information security, privacy, cashless payments and consumer credit protection and fraud. An increasing number of governments and industry groups worldwide have established data privacy laws and standards for the protection of personal information, including social security numbers, financial information (including credit and debit card numbers) and health information.

Seasonality

Our business is subject to seasonal fluctuations. Historically, sales in most of our restaurants have been higher during the winter months of each year. Holidays, changes in weather, severe weather and similar conditions may impact sales volumes seasonally in some operating regions. As a result, our quarterly operating results and comparable restaurant sales may fluctuate due to seasonality. Accordingly, results for any one quarter are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected for any other quarter or for any year and comparable restaurant sales for any particular future period may fluctuate.

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Human Capital Management

At Texas Roadhouse, we take pride in being a people-first company. As of December 26, 2023, we employed approximately 91,000 people. This included 845 executive and administrative personnel and 3,507 restaurant management personnel, while the remainder were full and part-time hourly restaurant personnel. None of our employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement and we consider our employee relations to be good.

Our business relies on our ability to attract and retain talented employees. To attract and retain talent, we strive to maintain our people-first culture through shared core values, a performance-based compensation program supported by competitive benefits and health programs with opportunities for our employees to grow and develop in their careers.

Additionally, we believe that diversity and inclusion are vital parts of our culture and what truly makes us legendary. We value and welcome employees of all walks of life to share their talents, gifts and strengths while working in our restaurants and the Support Center, as we strive to reflect the communities we are proud to serve. As a result, we are committed to attracting, retaining, engaging and developing a workforce that mirrors the diversity of our guests and is committed to upholding our shared values. The table below shows the gender and racial and ethnic diversity of our employees as of December 26, 2023:

Maintaining our Culture and Core Values. In our restaurants and at our Support Center, we are committed to our shared "Core Values of Passion, Partnership, Integrity, and Fun…all with Purpose". These Core Values form the foundation of who we are as a company and how we interact with respect, appreciation, and fairness towards one another every day.

Performance-based Compensation and Benefits. We support our employees by offering competitive wages and benefits for eligible employees. In addition to salaries, these programs (which vary by employee level) include, among other items, bonuses, stock awards, retirement savings plans with employer matching contributions, healthcare and insurance benefits, health savings and flexible spending accounts, tuition reimbursement, paid time off, paid parental leave and various employee assistance programs.

We also offer a performance-based compensation program to our managing partners and market partners. Each of these positions earn a base salary plus a performance bonus, which represents a percentage of each of their respective restaurant’s pre-tax income. By providing our partners with a significant stake in the success of our restaurants, we believe that we are able to attract and retain talented, experienced and highly motivated managing and market partners.

Personal Development. We motivate and develop our employees by providing them with opportunities for increased responsibilities and advancement. We provide numerous training opportunities for our employees, with a focus on continuous learning and development. With thousands of leadership positions across our restaurants, we provide a pathway and training for thousands of individuals across the country to advance from entry-level jobs into management roles. In addition, our geographic footprint often allows us to offer our restaurant team members relocation options at similar roles due to personal circumstances.

Health and Safety. The health and safety of our employees is a top priority and we are committed to providing a safe workplace, ensuring the safety and well-being of all team members while also ensuring that we are in compliance with all laws and regulations as well as internal policies. This commitment includes the deployment of specific protocols and standards to our restaurants that focus on maintaining the health and safety of our employees.

Andy’s Outreach. Founded in 2005, Andy’s Outreach is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization whose mission is to provide financial support to employees of Texas Roadhouse and their families in times of severe hardship or crisis and in

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cases of tragic or catastrophic need. Andy’s Outreach is mainly funded by the support of Texas Roadhouse employees through payroll contributions, a domestic franchise store that is owned by Andy’s Outreach and other fundraising efforts. Since its inception, Andy’s Outreach has assisted over 20,000 employees and distributed over $26 million.

Corporate Sustainability

Our corporate sustainability mission is to leave every community better than we found it by focusing on four pillars – food, community, employees and conservation. As we test and roll out new programs, we continue to build champions who are invested in furthering our sustainability efforts. Ongoing initiatives such as our meat cutter program, support of non-profits, employee development and focus on conservation, create steady progress for our overall corporate sustainability program and are integrated into our daily operations. Additional information about our corporate sustainability mission is available through our website at www.texasroadhouse.com, under the corporate sustainability section.

Website Access to Reports

We make our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports, filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, available, free of charge on or through our website, www.texasroadhouse.com, as soon as reasonably practical after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). The SEC maintains an internet site at www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.

Information about our Executive Officers

Set forth below are the name, age, position and a brief account of the business experience of each of our executive officers. Executive officers are appointed by our Board of Directors (the "Board") and serve until their successors are appointed or until resignation or removal, in accordance with their employment agreements. There are no family relationships among any of our executive officers.

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Gerald L. Morgan. Mr. Morgan was appointed Chief Executive Officer in March 2021. Mr. Morgan joined Texas Roadhouse in 1997, during which time he has held the positions of Managing Partner, Market Partner and Regional Market Partner. Mr. Morgan also served as President from December 2020 to January 2023. Mr. Morgan has more than 35 years of restaurant management experience with Texas Roadhouse, Bennigan’s Restaurants and Burger King.

Regina A. Tobin. Ms. Tobin was appointed President in January 2023. Ms. Tobin joined Texas Roadhouse in 1996, during which time she has held the positions of Managing Partner, Market Partner, Vice President of Training and served as Chief Learning and Culture Officer from June 2021 through her appointment as President. Ms. Tobin has more than 30 years of restaurant management experience.

Christopher C. Colson. Mr. Colson was appointed Chief Legal and Administrative Officer in January 2023 and Corporate Secretary in August 2019. Mr. Colson joined Texas Roadhouse in 2005, during which time he has held the positions of Senior Counsel, Associate General Counsel, Executive Director of the Global Development Group, and General Counsel, a position he held from March 2021 through his appointment as Chief Legal and Administrative Officer. Mr. Colson has over 20 years of restaurant industry experience with Texas Roadhouse, Frost Brown Todd (serving as outside counsel to Texas Roadhouse), YUM! Brands and KPMG.

Hernan E. Mujica. Mr. Mujica was appointed Chief Technology Officer in January 2023. Mr. Mujica joined Texas Roadhouse in January 2012 as Vice President of Information Technology and then Chief Information Officer, a position he held from March 2021 through his appointment as Chief Technology Officer. Prior to joining Texas

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Roadhouse, Mr. Mujica held senior management positions at The Home Depot and Arthur Andersen. Mr. Mujica has over 30 years of experience in both industry and consulting roles.

D. Christopher Monroe. Mr. Monroe was appointed Chief Financial Officer in June 2023 when he joined Texas Roadhouse. Prior to joining Texas Roadhouse, Mr. Monroe held various senior level financial positions, most recently as Senior Vice President of Finance and Treasurer, at Southwest Airlines. Mr. Monroe has over 30 years of financial experience.

Travis C. Doster. Mr. Doster was appointed Chief Communications Officer in November 2023.  Mr. Doster joined Texas Roadhouse in 2006 as the Director, then Senior Director and Vice President of Communications, a position he held from 2018 through his appointment as Chief Communications Officer. Prior to joining Texas Roadhouse, Mr. Doster held a senior management position at FSA Public Relations where he provided services for national clients including Jimmy John’s, Qdoba and Cameron Mitchell Restaurants.  Mr. Doster has over 30 years of media, public relations and industry experience.

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

Careful consideration should be given to the risks described below. If any of the risks and uncertainties described in the cautionary factors described below actually occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations, liquidity and the trading price of our common stock could be materially and adversely affected. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New factors emerge from time to time and it is not possible to predict the impact of all these factors on our business, financial condition, results of operations or liquidity.

Risks Related to our Growth and Operating Strategy

Our growth strategy, which primarily depends on our ability to open new restaurants that are profitable, is subject to many factors, some of which are beyond our control.

We cannot assure you that we will be able to open new restaurants that are profitable in accordance with our expansion plans. We have experienced delays in opening some of our restaurants in the past and may experience delays in the future. These delays impact the timing of new restaurant openings and the related pre-opening expenses. Delays or failures in opening new restaurants could adversely affect our growth strategy. One of our biggest challenges in executing our growth strategy may be locating and securing an adequate supply of suitable new restaurant sites that satisfy our financial targets. Competition for suitable restaurant sites in our target markets may be intense.

Once opened, we anticipate that our new restaurants will generally take several months to reach planned operating levels due to start-up inefficiencies typically associated with new restaurants. We cannot assure you that any restaurant we open will be profitable or obtain operating results similar to those of our existing restaurants. Some of our new restaurants will be located in areas where we have little or no meaningful experience. Those new markets may have smaller trade areas and different competitive conditions, consumer tastes and discretionary spending patterns than our traditional, existing markets, which may cause our new store locations to be less successful than restaurants in our existing market areas. Restaurants opened in new markets may open at lower average weekly sales volume than restaurants opened in existing markets and may have higher restaurant-level operating expense ratios than in existing markets. Sales at restaurants opened in new markets may take longer to reach average unit volume, if at all, thereby affecting our overall profitability. Our localized marketing strategy may not result in brand awareness and guest engagement. Additionally, the opening of a new restaurant could negatively impact sales at one or more of our existing nearby restaurants, which could adversely affect our results of operations.

Our ability to open new restaurants that are profitable will also depend on numerous other factors, many of which are beyond our control, including, but not limited to, the following:

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You should not rely on past changes in our average unit volume or our comparable restaurant sales as an indication of our future results of operations because they may fluctuate significantly.

A number of factors have historically affected, and will continue to affect, our average unit volume and comparable restaurant sales, including, among other factors:

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Our average unit volume and comparable restaurant sales may not increase at rates achieved in the past, which may affect our sales growth and will continue to be a critical factor affecting our profitability. Our business is also subject to seasonal fluctuations. Historically, sales in most of our restaurants have been higher during the winter months of each year. Holidays, changes in weather, severe weather and similar conditions may impact sales volumes seasonally in some operating regions. Accordingly, results for one quarter are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected for any other quarter or for any year and comparable restaurant sales for any particular future period may decrease. In the future, operating results may fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors. In that event, the price of our common stock could decrease.

The development and/or acquisition of new restaurant concepts may not contribute to our growth.

The development of new restaurant concepts, including Bubba’s 33 and Jaggers, created internally or acquired as a part of our other strategic initiatives may not be as successful as our experience in the development of the Texas Roadhouse concept. These concepts may have lower brand awareness and less operating experience than most Texas Roadhouse restaurants. In addition, they may have a higher initial investment cost and/or a lower per person average check amount. As a result, the development and/or acquisition of new restaurant concepts may not contribute to our average unit volume growth and/or profitability in an incremental way. We can provide no assurance that new units will be accepted in the markets targeted for expansion and/or that we or our franchisees will be able to achieve our targeted returns when opening new locations. In the future, we may determine not to move forward with any further expansion and/or acquisition of new restaurant concepts. These decisions could limit or delay our overall long-term growth. Additionally, expansion and/or acquisition of new restaurant concepts might divert our management’s attention from other business concerns or initiatives and could have an adverse impact on our core Texas Roadhouse business.

Our expansion into international markets presents increased economic, political, regulatory and other risks.

As of December 26, 2023, our operations include 48 Texas Roadhouse franchise restaurants in ten countries outside the United States, and we expect to have further international expansion in the future with one or more of our concepts. The entrance into international markets may not be as successful as our experience in the development of the Texas Roadhouse concept domestically or any success we have had with the Texas Roadhouse concept in other international markets. In addition, operating in international markets may require significant resources and management attention and will subject us to economic, political and regulatory risks that are different from and incremental to those in the United States. In addition to the risks that we face in the United States, our international operations involve risks that could adversely affect our business, including:

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Our failure to manage any of these risks successfully could harm our future international operations and our overall business and results of our operations.

We are also subject to governmental regulations throughout the world impacting the way we do business with our international franchisees. These include antitrust and tax requirements, anti-boycott regulations, import/export/customs, tariffs and other international trade regulations, the USA Patriot Act and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Failure to comply with any such legal requirements could subject us to monetary liabilities and other sanctions, which could adversely impact our business and financial performance.

Acquisition of existing restaurants from our domestic franchisees and other strategic initiatives may have unanticipated consequences that could harm our business and our financial condition.

We plan to continue to opportunistically acquire existing restaurants from our domestic franchisees over time. Additionally, from time to time, we evaluate potential mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures or other strategic initiatives (including retail initiatives utilizing our intellectual property or other brand extensions) to acquire or develop additional business channels or concepts, and/or change the business strategy regarding an existing concept. To successfully execute any acquisition or development strategy, we will need to identify suitable acquisition or development candidates, negotiate acceptable acquisition or development terms and possibly obtain appropriate financing.

Any acquisition or future development that we pursue, including the on-going development of new concepts or retail initiatives utilizing our intellectual property, whether or not successfully completed, may involve risks, including:

Future acquisitions of existing restaurants from our franchisees or other strategic partners, which may be accomplished through a cash purchase transaction, the issuance of shares of common stock or a combination of both, could have a dilutive impact on holders of our common stock and result in the incurrence of debt and contingent liabilities and impairment charges related to goodwill and other tangible and intangible assets, any of which could harm our business and financial condition. Additionally, following a franchise acquisition, we may be required to incur substantial capital improvement costs to meet company standards, which could impact our return on such acquisition.

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Additionally, we may evaluate other means to leverage our competitive strengths, including the expansion of our products across other strategic initiatives or business opportunities (including retail initiatives utilizing our intellectual property). The expansion of our products may damage our reputation if products bearing our brands are not of the same quality or value that guests associate with our concepts. In addition, we may experience dilution of the goodwill associated with our concepts as they become more common and increasingly accessible.

Approximately 21% of our company restaurants are located in Texas and Florida and, as a result, we are sensitive to economic and other trends and developments in those states.

As of December 26, 2023, we operated a total of 87 company restaurants in Texas and 44 company restaurants in Florida. As a result, we are particularly susceptible to adverse trends and economic conditions in those states, including any state mandated changes in minimum and tipped wage rates and economic pressures that may result in lower sales and profits at our restaurants. In addition, given our geographic concentration in these states, negative publicity regarding any of our restaurants in either Texas or Florida could have a material adverse effect on our business and operations, as could other occurrences in either Texas or Florida such as health epidemics or pandemics, local strikes, energy shortages or extreme fluctuations in energy prices, droughts, earthquakes, hurricanes, fires or other natural disasters.

Our franchisees could take actions that could harm our business.

Both our domestic and international franchisees are contractually obligated to operate their restaurants in accordance with our applicable restaurant operating standards. We also provide training and support to franchisees. However, most franchisees are independent third parties that we do not control, and these franchisees own, operate and oversee the daily operations of their restaurants. As a result, the ultimate success and quality of any franchise restaurant rests with the franchisee. If franchisees do not successfully operate restaurants in a manner consistent with our standards, our image and reputation could be harmed, which in turn could adversely affect our business and operating results.

Decreased cash flow from operations, or an inability to access credit, could negatively affect our business initiatives or may result in our inability to execute our revenue, expense, and capital allocation strategies.

Our ability to fund our operating plans and to implement our capital allocation strategies depends on sufficient cash flow from operations and/or other financing, including the use of funding under our credit facility. We also may seek access to the debt and/or equity capital markets. There can be no assurance, however, that these sources of financing will be available on terms favorable to us, or at all. Our capital allocation strategies include, but are not limited to, new restaurant development, payment of dividends, refurbishment or relocation of existing restaurants, repurchases of our common stock and franchise acquisitions. If we experience decreased cash flow from operations, our ability to fund our operations and planned initiatives, and to take advantage of growth opportunities, may be delayed or negatively affected. In addition, these disruptions or a negative effect on our revenue could affect our ability to borrow or comply with our covenants under our credit facility. If we are unable to raise additional capital, our growth could be impeded.

Our existing credit facility limits our ability to incur additional debt.

The lenders’ obligation to extend credit under our credit facility depends on our maintaining certain financial covenants. If we are unable to maintain these covenants, we would be unable to obtain additional financing under this credit facility. The credit facility permits us to incur additional secured or unsecured indebtedness outside the credit facility, except for the incurrence of secured indebtedness that in the aggregate is equal to or greater than $125.0 million and 20% of our consolidated tangible net worth or circumstances where the incurrence of secured or unsecured indebtedness would prevent us from complying with our financial covenants. If we are unable to borrow additional capital or have sufficient liquidity to either repay or refinance the then outstanding balance at the expiration of our credit facility, or upon violation of the covenants, our growth could be impeded and our financial performance could be significantly adversely affected.

We are subject to all of the risks associated with leasing space subject to long-term non-cancelable leases, as well as risks related to renewal.

The majority of our company restaurants are located on leased premises. Additional sites that we lease are likely to be subject to similar long-term non-cancelable leases. In connection with the relocation, other operational changes or closure of any restaurant, we may nonetheless be committed to perform on our obligations under the applicable lease

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including, among other things, paying the base rent and real estate taxes for the balance of the lease term. We also are subject to landlord actions that could negatively impact our business or operations.

In addition, as each of our leases expires, there can be no assurance we will be able to renew our expiring leases after the expiration of all remaining renewal options, either on commercially acceptable terms or at all. As a result, at the end of the lease term and expiration of all renewal periods, we may be unable to renew the lease without substantial additional cost, if at all. As a result, we may be required to relocate or close a restaurant, which could subject us to construction and other costs and risks and may have an adverse effect on our results of operations.

We may be required to record additional impairment charges in the future.

In accordance with accounting guidance as it relates to the impairment of long-lived assets, we make certain estimates and projections with regard to company restaurant operations, as well as our overall performance in connection with our impairment analysis for long-lived assets. When impairment triggers are deemed to exist for any company restaurant, the estimated undiscounted future cash flows for the restaurant are compared to its carrying value. If the carrying value exceeds the undiscounted cash flows, an impairment charge would be recorded equal to the difference between the carrying value and the estimated fair value.

We review the value of our goodwill on an annual basis and also when events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of goodwill may exceed its fair value. The estimates of fair value are based upon the best information available as of the date of the assessment and incorporate management assumptions about expected future cash flows and contemplate other valuation measurements and techniques.

The estimates of fair value used in these analyses require the use of judgment, certain assumptions and estimates of future operating results. If actual results differ from our estimates or assumptions, additional impairment charges may be required in the future. If impairment charges are significant, our results of operations could be adversely affected.

Risks Related to Consumer Discretionary Spending and Macroeconomic Conditions

Changes in consumer preferences and discretionary spending could adversely affect our business.

Our success depends, in part, upon the popularity of our food products. Continued social concerns or shifts in consumer preferences away from our restaurants or food offerings, particularly beef, could harm our business. Consumer preferences regarding food sourcing in response to environmental or welfare concerns could also harm our business. Additionally, our success depends to a significant extent on discretionary consumer spending, which is influenced by general economic conditions, including high inflationary periods, and the availability of discretionary income. Accordingly, we may experience declines in sales during economic downturns, pandemics or other periods of uncertainty. Any material decline in the amount of discretionary spending could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition or liquidity.

Our objective to increase sales and profits at existing restaurants could be adversely affected by macroeconomic conditions.

In future periods, the U.S. and global economies could further suffer from a downturn in economic activity. Recessionary economic cycles, higher interest rates, higher fuel and other energy costs, sustained labor inflation, increases in commodity prices, higher levels of unemployment, higher consumer debt levels, higher tax rates and other changes in tax laws, financial market volatility, social unrest, government spending, a low or stagnant pace of economic recovery and growth, or other economic factors that may affect consumer spending or buying habits could adversely affect the demand for our products. In addition, there is no assurance that any governmental plans to stimulate the economy will foster growth in consumer spending or buying habits. As in the past, we could experience reduced guest traffic or we may be unable or unwilling to increase the prices we charge for our products to offset higher costs or fewer transactions, either of which could reduce our sales and profit margins. Also, landlords or other tenants in the shopping centers in which some of our restaurants are located may experience difficulty as a result of macroeconomic trends or cease to operate, which could in turn negatively affect guest traffic at our restaurants. All of these factors could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition or liquidity.

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Risks Related to Government Regulation and Litigation

We may not be able to obtain and maintain licenses and permits necessary to operate our restaurants and compliance with governmental laws and regulations could adversely affect our operating results.

The restaurant industry is subject to various federal, state and local government regulations, including those relating to the sale of food and alcoholic beverages. Such regulations are subject to change from time to time, sometimes without notice to us. The failure to obtain and maintain these licenses, permits and approvals, including liquor licenses, could adversely affect our operating results. Difficulties or failure to obtain the required licenses and approvals could delay or result in our decision to cancel the opening of new restaurants. Local authorities may revoke, suspend or deny renewal of our liquor licenses if they determine that our conduct violates applicable regulations.

In addition to our having to comply with these licensing requirements, various federal and state labor laws govern our relationship with our employees and affect operating costs. These laws include minimum and tipped wage requirements, overtime pay, health benefits, unemployment taxes, workers’ compensation, work eligibility requirements and working conditions. A number of factors could adversely affect our operating results, including:

The federal Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in public accommodations and employment. Although our restaurants and other places of accommodation are designed to be accessible to the disabled, we could be required to make unexpected modifications to provide service to, or make reasonable accommodations, for disabled persons.

We are subject to increasing legal complexity and could be party to litigation that could adversely affect us.

Increasing legal complexity will continue to affect our operations and results. We could be subject to legal proceedings that may adversely affect our business, including class actions, administrative proceedings, government investigations, employment and personal injury claims, claims alleging violations of federal and state laws regarding consumer, workplace and employment matters, wage and hour claims, discrimination and similar matters, landlord/tenant disputes, disputes with current and former suppliers, claims by current and former franchisees, data privacy claims and intellectual property claims (including claims that we infringed upon another party’s trademarks, copyrights or patents). Additionally, we are subject to Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and NASDAQ reporting and disclosure requirements. Inconsistent standards imposed by governmental authorities can adversely affect our business and increase our exposure to litigation which could result in significant judgments, including punitive and liquidated damages, and injunctive relief.

Occasionally, our guests file complaints or lawsuits against us alleging that we are responsible for an illness or injury they suffered as a result of a visit to our restaurants, or that we have problems with food quality or operations. As a Company, we take responsible alcohol service seriously. However, we are subject to "dram shop" statutes. These statutes generally allow a person injured by an intoxicated person to recover damages from an establishment that served alcoholic beverages to the intoxicated person. Some litigation against restaurant chains has resulted in significant judgments, including punitive damages, under dram shop statutes. Because a plaintiff may seek punitive damages, which may not be covered by insurance, this type of action could have an adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations.

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Litigation involving our relationship with franchisees and the legal distinction between our franchisees and us for employment law purposes, if determined adversely, could increase costs, negatively impact the business prospects of our franchisees and subject us to incremental liability for their actions.

Our operating results could also be affected by the following:

Regardless of whether any claims against us are valid or whether we are liable, claims may be expensive to defend and may divert time, attention and money away from our operations and hurt our performance. A judgment significantly in excess of any applicable insurance coverage could have significant adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations. Further, adverse publicity resulting from these claims may hurt our business.

Our current insurance may not provide adequate levels of coverage against claims.

We currently maintain insurance customary for businesses of our size and type. However, there are types of losses we may incur that cannot be insured against or that we believe are not economically reasonable to insure. Such damages could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and/or liquidity. In addition, we self-insure a significant portion of expected losses under our health, workers’ compensation, general liability, employment practices liability, cybersecurity and property insurance programs. Unanticipated changes in our claims experience and/or the actuarial assumptions and management estimates underlying our reserves for these losses could result in significantly different amounts of expense under these programs, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and liquidity. Additionally, if our insurance costs increase, there can be no assurance we will be able to successfully offset the effect of such increases and our results of operations may be adversely affected.

Changes in tax laws and unanticipated tax liabilities could adversely affect our financial results.

We are primarily subject to federal, state and local income and other taxes in the United States. Our effective income tax rate and other taxes in the future could be affected by a number of factors, including changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities, changes in tax laws or other legislative changes and the outcome of income tax audits. Any significant increases in income tax rates, changes in and/or interpretations of income tax laws or unfavorable resolution of tax matters could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations, financial condition or liquidity.

Failure to adequately address environmental, social and/or governance ("ESG ") matters could adversely affect our brand, business, results of operations and financial condition.

Entities across all industries are facing increased interest related to ESG matters including packaging and waste, animal health and welfare, human rights, climate change, greenhouse gases and land, energy and water use. In addition, we have faced enhanced pressure to provide expanded disclosures around ESG matters and establish goals or targets with respect to ESG matters. In response to the heightened level of expectation for expanded ESG disclosure, we have published a Corporate Sustainability Report detailing our ESG efforts and which we update regularly.

Evolving consumer and investor interest and preferences as well as governmental regulation may result in additional disclosure, due diligence, reporting and specific target-setting with regard to our business and supply chain that could result in additional costs to comply with such demands. Failure to comply with the increased demands could result in consumer or investor scrutiny and/or litigation and could have an adverse effect on our business. Establishing targets or making other public commitments due to these demands, without a full or complete understanding of the cost or operational impact of changes in our supply chain or operating model, could also adversely affect our business and financial condition.

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Risks Related to Human Capital

Failure to retain the services of our key management personnel, or to successfully execute succession planning and attract additional qualified personnel could harm our business.

Our future success depends on the continued services and performance of our key management personnel and our ability to develop future successors of such personnel as a part of our succession planning. Our future performance will depend on our ability to motivate and retain these and other key officers, employees and managers, particularly regional market partners, market partners and managing partners. Competition for these employees is intense. The unplanned loss of the services of members of our senior management team or other key officers or managers or the inability to attract additional qualified personnel as needed could significantly harm our business. In addition, our business could suffer from any actual or alleged misconduct of any of our key personnel.

Our business could be adversely affected by increased labor costs or labor shortages.

Labor is a primary component in the cost of operating our business. We devote significant resources to recruiting and training our restaurant managers and hourly employees. Increased labor costs due to competition, unionization, increased minimum and tipped wages, changes in hourly and overtime pay, state unemployment rates, sick pay or other employee benefits costs (including workers’ compensation and health insurance), company staffing initiatives or otherwise any regulatory changes resulting from any of the foregoing would adversely impact our operating expenses. In addition, failure to adequately monitor and proactively respond to employee dissatisfaction could lead to poor guest satisfaction, higher turnover, litigation and unionization efforts, which could negatively impact our results of operations.

Increased competition for qualified employees caused by a shortage in the labor pool exerts upward pressure on wages paid to attract and retain such personnel, resulting in higher labor costs, together with greater recruitment and training expense. We could suffer from significant indirect costs, including restaurant disruptions due to management or hourly labor turnover and potential delays in new restaurant openings. A shortage in the labor pool could also cause our restaurants to be required to operate with reduced staff which could negatively impact our ability to provide adequate service levels to our guests resulting in adverse guest reactions and a possible reduction in guest traffic counts. Additionally, personal or public health concerns might make some existing personnel or potential candidates reluctant to work in enclosed restaurant environments.

We have many restaurants located in states or municipalities where the minimum and/or tipped wage is greater than the federal minimum and/or tipped wage. We anticipate that additional legislation increasing minimum and/or tipped wage standards will be enacted in future periods either federally or in state and local jurisdictions. In addition, regulatory actions which result in changes to healthcare eligibility, design and cost structure could occur. Any increases in minimum and/or tipped wages or increases in employee benefits costs will result in sustained higher labor costs.

Our operating margin will be adversely affected to the extent that we are unable or are unwilling to offset any increase in these labor costs through higher prices on our products. Our distributors and suppliers also may be affected by higher minimum wage and benefit standards which could result in higher costs for goods and services supplied to us.

Our success depends on our ability to attract, motivate and retain qualified employees to keep pace with our growth strategy. If we are unable to do so, our results of operations may also be adversely affected.

Risks Related to Technology, Privacy and Intellectual Property

We rely heavily on information technology, and any material failure, weakness, ransomware or interruption could prevent us from effectively operating our business.

We rely heavily on information systems in all aspects of our operations, including point-of-sale systems, digital apps, financial systems, marketing programs, e-commerce and various other processes and transactions. This reliance has significantly increased in recent years as we have had to rely to a greater extent on systems such as online ordering, contactless payments, online waitlists, and systems supporting a more remote workforce as our guests are increasingly using our website and digital applications to place and pay for their orders. Our point-of-sale processing in our restaurants includes collection of cash, credit cards, debit cards, gift cards and other processes and procedures. Our ability to efficiently and effectively manage our business depends significantly on the reliability, security and capacity of these systems. As our business needs continue to evolve, these systems will require upgrading and maintenance over time, consequently requiring significant future commitments of resources and capital. Additionally, as we become

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increasingly reliant on digital ordering and payment as a sales channel, our business could be negatively impacted if we are unable to successfully implement, execute or maintain our consumer-facing digital initiatives.

The failure of these systems to operate effectively, maintenance problems, upgrading or transitioning to new platforms or a material breach in the security of these systems could result in delays or errors to guest service and reduce efficiency in our operations. In addition, as we implement new technology platforms to improve productivity and overall guest experience, there can be no guarantees that these platforms will operate as reliably or be as operationally impactful as intended.

We have disaster recovery procedures and business continuity plans in place to address events of a crisis nature, including tornadoes and other natural disasters, and back up off-site locations for recovery of electronic and other forms of data information. However, if we are unable to fully implement our disaster recovery plans, we may experience delays in recovery of data, inability to perform vital corporate functions, tardiness in required reporting and compliance, failures to adequately support field operations and other breakdowns in normal communication and operating procedures that could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and exposure to administrative and other legal claims.

Our ability to expand and update our information technology infrastructure in response to our growing and changing needs would be inhibited in the event of a cybersecurity incident. This could lead to a delayed implementation of new service offerings, disruptions to guest experiences including via our website and applications and the diversion of resources that would otherwise be invested in expanding our business and operations. Additionally, we could be subject to litigation and government enforcement actions as a result of any such failure. Any such claim or proceeding could cause us to incur significant unplanned expenses in excess of our insurance coverage, which could have a material impact on our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, if there are malfunctions or other problems with our processing vendors, billing software or payment processing systems, it may cause interruption of normal business performance. These vendors may also experience interruptions to their information technology systems that could adversely affect us and which we may have limited or no control.

We outsource certain business processes to third-party vendors that subject us to risks, including disruptions in business and increased costs.

Some business processes are currently outsourced to third parties, including such processes as information technology, gift card tracking, credit and debit card authorization and processing, insurance claims processing, unemployment claims processing, payroll tax filings, vendor payment processing and other accounting processes. We continually evaluate our other business processes to determine if additional outsourcing is a viable, and the most appropriate, option to accomplish our goals. We make a diligent effort to validate that all providers of outsourced services maintain customary internal controls, such as redundant processing facilities and adequate security frameworks to guard against breaches or data loss; however, there are no guarantees that failures will not occur. Failure of third parties to provide adequate services or internal controls over their processes could have an adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition or ability to accomplish our financial and management reporting.

We may incur increased costs to comply with privacy and data protection laws and, if we fail to comply or our systems are compromised by a security breach, we could be subject to government enforcement actions, private litigation and adverse publicity.

New, modified and existing privacy and data protection laws and regulations may result in significant costs and compliance challenges and adversely affect our business and financial condition. These privacy laws and regulations, which are constantly evolving, may be interpreted by regulatory authorities in new and differing manners, including the issuing of rulings that invalidate prior laws or regulations or increase penalties, and such interpretations may be inconsistent among jurisdictions. We may incur increased costs to comply with increasingly demanding privacy laws and regulations and such compliance may impede the development and offering of new products or services and may adversely impact the guest experience. We could also be subject to government enforcement actions, private litigation and adverse publicity including reputational damage and loss of guest confidence.

We receive and maintain certain personal, financial or other information about our guests, vendors and employees. In 2023, approximately 88% of our transactions were by credit or debit cards. In addition, certain of our vendors receive and/or maintain certain personal, financial and other information about our employees and guests on our behalf. The use and handling, including security, of this information is regulated by privacy and data protection laws and regulations in

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various jurisdictions, as well as by certain third-party contracts, frameworks and industry standards, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Hardware, software or other applications we develop and procure from third parties or vendor’s third-party applications could be subject to vulnerabilities or cybersecurity incidents or may contain defects in design or manufacture or other problems that could unexpectedly compromise information security. Unauthorized parties may also attempt to gain access to our systems and facilities through fraud, trickery or other forms of deceiving our employees or vendors.

In addition, if our security and information systems are compromised as a result of data corruption or loss, cybersecurity incident or a network security incident, or if our employees or vendors (or other persons or entities with which we do business with) fail to comply with such laws and regulations or fail to meet industry standards and this information is obtained by unauthorized persons or used inappropriately, it could result in liabilities and penalties and could damage our reputation, cause interruption of normal business performance, cause us to incur substantial costs and result in a loss of guest confidence, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

Our failure or inability to enforce our trademarks or other proprietary rights could adversely affect our competitive position or the value of our brand.

We own certain common law trademark rights and a number of federal and international trademark and service mark registrations, including our trade names and logos, and proprietary rights relating to certain of our core menu offerings. We believe that our trademarks and other proprietary rights are important to our success and our competitive position. Therefore, we devote appropriate resources to the protection of our trademarks and proprietary rights. However, the protective actions that we take may not be enough to prevent unauthorized usage or imitation by others, which could harm our image, brand or competitive position and, if we commence litigation to enforce our rights, cause us to incur significant legal fees. Our inability to register or protect our marks and other proprietary rights in foreign jurisdictions could adversely affect our competitive position in international markets.

We cannot assure you that third parties will not claim that our trademarks or menu offerings infringe upon their proprietary rights. Any such claim, whether or not it has merit, could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, cause delays in introducing new menu items in the future or require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements. As a result, any such claim could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition or liquidity.

Risks Related to the Restaurant Industry

Changes in food and supply costs and/or availability of products could adversely affect our results of operations.

Our profitability depends in part on our ability to anticipate and react to changes in food and supply costs and/or the availability of products necessary to operate our business, including increased costs arising from federal and/or state mandated requirements. Any increase in food prices or loss of supply, particularly proteins, could adversely affect our operating results. In addition, we are susceptible to increases in food costs as a result of factors beyond our control, such as food supply constrictions, weather conditions, food safety concerns, global pandemics, product recalls, global market and trade conditions, and government regulations. We cannot predict whether we will be able to anticipate and react to changing food costs and/or loss of supply by adjusting our purchasing practices, menu prices or menu offerings, and a failure to do so could adversely affect our operating results. Extreme and/or long term increases in commodity prices could adversely affect our future results, especially if we are unable, primarily due to competitive reasons, to increase menu prices. Additionally, if there is a time lag between the increasing commodity prices and our ability to increase menu prices or if we believe the commodity price increase to be short in duration and we choose not to pass on the cost increases, our short-term results could be negatively affected. Also, if we adjust pricing there is no assurance that we will realize the full benefit of any adjustment due to changes in our guests’ menu item selections and guest traffic.

We currently purchase our beef primarily from four beef suppliers coming from the United States or Canada. While we maintain relationships with additional suppliers, if any of these vendors were unable to fulfill its obligations under its contracts, we could encounter supply shortages and/or incur higher costs to secure adequate supplies, either of which would harm our business.

Our success depends on our ability to compete with many food service businesses.

The restaurant industry is intensely competitive. We compete with many well-established food service companies on the basis of taste, quality and price of products offered, guest service, atmosphere, location, take-out and delivery

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options and overall guest experience. Our competitors include a large and diverse group of restaurant chains and individual restaurants that range from independent local operators that have opened restaurants in various markets to well-capitalized national restaurant chains. We also face competition from meal kit delivery services as well as the supermarket industry. In addition, improving product offerings of fast casual and quick-service restaurants, together with negative economic conditions could cause consumers to choose less expensive alternatives. As our competitors expand their operations, we expect competition to intensify. We also compete with other restaurant chains and other retail establishments for quality site locations and employees. Additionally, our competitors may generate or better implement business strategies that improve the value and the relevance of their brands and reputation, relative to ours. This could include the testing of delivery via internal or third-party methods or better execution around guests’ to-go experience.

The food service industry is affected by litigation and publicity concerning food quality, health and other issues, which can cause guests to avoid our restaurants and result in significant liabilities or litigation costs.

Food service businesses can be adversely affected by litigation and complaints from guests, consumer groups or government authorities resulting from food quality, illness, injury or other health concerns or operating issues stemming from one restaurant or a limited number of restaurants. Adverse publicity about these allegations may negatively affect us, regardless of whether the allegations are true, by discouraging guests from eating at our restaurants. We could also incur significant liabilities if a lawsuit or claim results in a decision against us or litigation costs regardless of the result.

Health, social and environmental concerns relating to the consumption or sourcing of beef or other food products could affect consumer preferences and could negatively impact our results of operations.

Like other restaurant chains, consumer preferences could be affected by concerns about the consumption or sourcing of beef, the key ingredient in many of our menu items, or negative publicity concerning food quality and food safety, including food-borne illnesses. In addition, consumer preferences may be impacted by current and future menu-labeling requirements or social and environmental concerns about the sourcing of food products throughout our supply chain. Future regulatory action may occur which could result in further changes in the nutritional and environmental disclosure requirements. We cannot make any assurances regarding our ability to effectively respond to changes in consumer perceptions and to adapt our menu offerings to prevailing trends. The imposition of menu-labeling and food sourcing laws or regulations could have an adverse effect on our results of operations and financial position, as well as the restaurant industry in general. The labeling and sourcing requirements and any negative publicity concerning any of the food products we serve may adversely affect demand for our food and could result in a decrease in guest traffic to our restaurants. If we react to labeling or sourcing requirements or negative publicity by changing our concepts or our menu offerings or their ingredients, we may lose guests who do not prefer the new concept or products, and we may not be able to attract sufficient new guests to produce the revenue needed to make our restaurants profitable. In addition, we may have different or additional competitors for our intended guests as a result of a change in our concept and may not be able to compete successfully against those competitors. A decrease in guest traffic to our restaurants as a result of these health, social and environmental concerns or negative publicity or as a result of a change in our menu or concept could significantly harm our business.

Food safety and sanitation, food-borne illness and health concerns may have an adverse effect on our business by reducing demand and increasing costs.

Food safety and sanitation is a top priority, and we dedicate substantial resources to help our guests enjoy safe, quality food products. However, food-borne illnesses and food safety issues occur in the food industry from time to time. Any report or publicity, whether true or not, linking us to instances of food-borne illness or other food safety issues, including food tampering or contamination, could adversely affect our concepts and reputation as well as results of operations. In addition, instances of food-borne illness, food tampering or food contamination occurring solely at restaurants of our competitors could result in negative publicity about the food service industry generally and adversely impact our revenue and profits.

Furthermore, our reliance on third-party food suppliers and distributors increases the risk that food-borne illness incidents could be caused by factors outside of our control and that multiple locations would be affected rather than a single restaurant. While we attempt to minimize the risk, we cannot assure that all food items are properly maintained during transport throughout the supply chain and that our employees will identify all products that may be spoiled and should not be used in our restaurants. If our guests become ill from food-borne illnesses, we could be forced to

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temporarily close some restaurants. Furthermore, any instances of food contamination, whether or not at our restaurants, could subject us or our suppliers to a food recall.

In addition, the United States and other countries have experienced, or may experience in the future, outbreaks of viruses, such as COVID-19, Hepatitis A, Norovirus, Ebola, Avian Flu, SARS and H1N1. To the extent that a virus is food-borne, future outbreaks may adversely affect the price and availability of certain food products and cause our guests to eat less of a product which may have a significant adverse effect on our business.

Our business could be adversely affected by our inability to respond to or effectively manage social media.

As part of our marketing strategy, we utilize social media platforms to promote our concepts and attract and retain guests. Our strategy may not be successful, resulting in expenses incurred without improvement in guest traffic or brand relevance. In addition, a variety of risks are associated with the use of social media, including improper disclosure of proprietary information, negative comments about us, exposure of personally identifiable information, fraud, or dissemination of false information. The inappropriate use of social media vehicles by our guests or employees could increase our costs, lead to litigation or result in negative publicity that could damage our reputation and adversely affect our results of operations.

Given the marked increase in the use of social media platforms, individuals have access to a broad audience of consumers and other interested persons. The availability of information on social media platforms is virtually immediate as is its impact. Many social media platforms immediately publish the content their subscribers and participants post, often without filters or checks on the accuracy of the content posted. Information concerning our Company may be posted on such platforms at any time. This includes posts by social media influencers that have a significant number of followers and reach on the variety of social media platforms. Additionally, social media has increasingly been utilized to target specific companies or brands as a result of a variety of actions or inactions, or perceived actions or inactions, that are disfavored by interest groups and such campaigns can rapidly accelerate and impact consumer behavior. If we are unable to quickly and effectively respond to such reports, we may suffer declines in guest traffic. The impact may be immediate without affording us an opportunity for redress or correction. These factors could have a material adverse impact on our business.

Risks Related to Stock Ownership and Our Corporate Structure

Provisions in our charter documents and Delaware law may delay or prevent our acquisition by a third party.

Our certificate of incorporation and by-laws contain several provisions that may make it more difficult for a third party to acquire control of us without the approval of our Board. These provisions include, among other things, advance notice for raising business or making nominations at meetings and "blank check" preferred stock. Blank check preferred stock enables our Board, without approval of the shareholders, to designate and issue additional series of preferred stock with such dividend, liquidation, conversion, voting or other rights, including the right to issue convertible securities with no limitations on conversion, as our Board may determine. The issuance of blank check preferred stock may adversely affect the voting and other rights of the holders of our common stock as our Board may designate and issue preferred stock with terms that are senior to our common stock. These provisions may make it more difficult or expensive for a third party to acquire a majority of our outstanding common stock. These provisions also may delay, prevent or deter a merger, acquisition, tender offer, proxy contest or other transaction that might otherwise result in our shareholders receiving a premium over the market price for their common stock. If we issue preferred shares in the future that have a preference over our common stock with respect to dividends or upon liquidation, dissolution or winding up, or if we issue preferred shares with voting rights that dilute the voting power of our common stock, the rights of our common stockholders or the market price of our common stock may be adversely affected.

The Delaware General Corporation Law prohibits us from engaging in "business combinations" with "interested shareholders" (with some exceptions) unless such transaction is approved in a prescribed manner. The existence of this provision could have an anti-takeover effect with respect to transactions not approved in advance by the Board, including discouraging attempts that might result in a premium over the market price for our common stock.

There can be no assurance that we will continue to pay dividends on our common stock or repurchase our common stock up to the maximum amounts permitted under our previously announced repurchase program.

Payment of cash dividends on our common stock or repurchases of our common stock are subject to compliance with applicable laws and depends on, among other things, our results of operations, financial condition, level of

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indebtedness, capital requirements, business prospects, macro-economic conditions and other factors that our Board may deem relevant. There can be no assurance that we will continue to pay dividends or repurchase our common stock at the same levels we have historically (if at all).

Our business could be negatively affected as a result of actions of activist shareholders, and such activism could impact the trading value of our common stock.

We value constructive input from our shareholders and the investment community. Our Board and management team are committed to acting in the best interests of all of our shareholders. There is no assurance that the actions taken by our Board and management in seeking to maintain constructive engagement with our shareholders will be successful.

Responding to actions by activist shareholders can be costly and time-consuming, disrupting our operations and diverting the attention of management and our employees. Such activities could interfere with our ability to execute our strategic plan. The perceived uncertainties as to our future direction also resulting from activist strategies could also affect the market price and volatility of our common stock.

Failure to achieve and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting may negatively impact our business and our financial results.

The Company is responsible for establishing and maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting. This includes establishing controls around the adoption of new, or changes in existing, accounting policies and practices. Despite its inherent limitations, effective internal control over financial reporting helps provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting for external purposes. A significant accounting error correction, financial reporting failure or material weakness in internal control over financial reporting could cause results in our consolidated financial statements that do not accurately reflect our financial condition, a loss of investor confidence and subsequent decline in the market price of our common stock, increase our costs and regulatory scrutiny, and lead to litigation or result in negative publicity that could damage our reputation.

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

ITEM 1C. CYBERSECURITY

Risk Management and Strategy

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In the course of our operations, the Company receives and maintains sensitive information from our guests, employees, partners and business operations. To address cybersecurity threats to this information, the Company uses a risk-based approach to create and implement a detailed set of information security policies and procedures based on frameworks established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The Company’s Head of Information Security leads the Company’s cybersecurity efforts under the direct oversight of our Chief Technology Officer. Together, these individuals have over 50 years of experience involving information technology, including security, auditing, compliance, systems and programming. Additionally, the Company engages in the use of external cybersecurity experts for training, contingency planning, consultation and process documentation.

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The Company has implemented detective and preventative controls designed to ensure the appropriate level of protection for the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data stored on or transferred through our information technology resources.  The Company has a risk assessment process to identify risks associated with our use of third-party service providers and has implemented specific processes and controls designed to mitigate those identified risks. Both internal and third-party audits are performed routinely to verify that these controls are effective. Additionally, the Company has implemented trainings designed to provide best practices for protecting our network and systems, and also routinely leads exercises for employees to reinforce the risk and proper handling of targeted emails. The Company’s Head of Information Security is responsible for developing and implementing these controls and training exercises with support from our information technology department. 

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The Company’s enterprise risk management program has established an internal risk committee to evaluate information governance risks. This committee comprises members of management of the Company’s information technology, human resources, marketing, accounting, risk, procurement, training, finance and legal functions, and is focused on performing risk assessments to identify areas of concern and implement appropriate changes to enhance its

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cybersecurity and privacy policies and procedures. The internal risk committee is informed of the Company’s risk prevention and mitigation efforts on a regular basis. The committee is also briefed on detection and remediation of cybersecurity incidents in a timely manner following the detection of any potential events.

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The Company has a crisis response team comprising senior members of various corporate functions to oversee the response to various crises including potential crises arising from cybersecurity incidents that may impact the Company and/or its vendor partners.  This team conducts regular tabletop exercises to simulate responses to cybersecurity incidents. To the extent there is a cybersecurity incident impacting the Company and/or a vendor partner, the crisis response team’s process would be to ensure that our Head of Information Security and Chief Technology Officer are informed immediately and that the potential impact of the incident and remedial measures arising from the incident are communicated to the executive officers of the Company.

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There can be no guarantee that our policies and procedures will be effective. Although our risk factors include further detail about the material cybersecurity risks we face and how a cybersecurity incident may affect our business strategy, results of operations or financial condition, we believe that risks from prior cybersecurity threats, including as a result of any previous cybersecurity incident, have not materially affected our business to date. We can provide no assurances that there will not be incidents in the future or that they will not materially affect us, including our business strategy, results of operations or financial condition.

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Governance

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The Board has authorized the audit committee to oversee the Company’s risk assessment and risk management practices and strategies. This delegation includes maintaining responsibility for overseeing the Company’s enterprise risk management program. As a part of this oversight role, the audit committee receives regular updates from management on cybersecurity and privacy risks impacting the Company, which includes benchmarking these risks versus our industry. Our Board members also engage in ad hoc conversations with management on cybersecurity-related news events, receive training specific to cybersecurity risks and threats and regularly discuss any updates to our cybersecurity risk management and strategy programs.

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ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

Properties

Our Support Center is located in Louisville, Kentucky. We occupy this facility under a master lease with Paragon Centre Holdings, LLC, a limited liability company in which we have a minority ownership position. As of December 26, 2023, we leased 133,023 square feet. Our lease expires on October 31, 2048, including all applicable extensions.

Of the 635 company restaurants in operation as of December 26, 2023, we owned 155 locations and leased 480 locations, as shown in the following table.

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Additional information concerning our properties and leasing arrangements is included in Note 2 and Note 8 to the Consolidated Financial Statements appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

Information regarding legal proceedings is included in Note 13 to the Consolidated Financial Statements appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

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PART II

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR THE REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol TXRH.

The number of holders of record of our common stock as of February 14, 2024 was 158.

On February 14, 2024, our Board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.61 per share of common stock which will be distributed on March 26, 2024 to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 13, 2024. The declaration and payment of cash dividends on our common stock is at the discretion of our Board, and any decision to declare a dividend will be based on a number of factors including, but not limited to, earnings, financial condition, applicable covenants under our credit facility and other contractual restrictions, or other factors deemed relevant.

Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities

There were no equity securities sold by the Company during the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K that were not registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Issuer Repurchases of Securities

In 2008, our Board approved our first stock repurchase program. From inception through December 26, 2023, we have paid $683.5 million through our authorized stock repurchase programs to repurchase 21,496,468 shares of our common stock at an average price per share of $31.80. On March 17, 2022, the Board approved a stock repurchase program under which we may repurchase up to $300.0 million of our common stock. This stock repurchase program has no expiration date. All repurchases to date have been made through open market transactions. In 2023, we paid $50.0 million to repurchase 455,026 shares of our common stock. For the 13 weeks ended December 26, 2023, we paid $4.8 million to repurchase 40,707 shares of our common stock. As of December 26, 2023, $116.9 million remains authorized for stock repurchases.

The following table includes information regarding purchases of our common stock made by us during the quarter ended December 26, 2023:

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Stock Performance Graph

The following graph sets forth the cumulative total shareholder return experienced by holders of the Company’s common stock compared to the cumulative total return of the S&P 500 Index as well as the industry specific S&P Composite 1500 Restaurant Sub-Index for the five year period ended December 26, 2023, the last trading day of our fiscal year. The graph assumes the values of the investment in our common stock and each index was $100 on December 26, 2018 and the reinvestment of all dividends paid during the period of the securities comprising the indices.

Note: The stock price performance shown on the graph below does not indicate future performance.

Comparison of Cumulative Total Return Since December 26, 2018

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ITEM 6. RESERVED

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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The discussion and analysis below of the financial condition and results of operations for Texas Roadhouse, Inc. (the "Company," "we," "our" and/or "us") should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the notes to such financial statements (pages F-1 to F-29), "Forward-looking Statements" (page 3) and Risk Factors set forth in Item 1A. For discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations for fiscal year 2022 compared to fiscal year 2021, see Part II, Item 7 of our 2022 Form 10-K.

Our Company

Texas Roadhouse, Inc. is a growing restaurant company operating predominantly in the casual dining segment. Our late founder, W. Kent Taylor, started the business in 1993 with the opening of the first Texas Roadhouse restaurant in Clarksville, Indiana. Since then, we have grown to three concepts with 741 restaurants in 49 states and ten foreign countries. As of December 26, 2023, our 741 restaurants included:

We have contractual arrangements that grant us the right to acquire at pre-determined formulas the remaining interests in 18 of the 20 majority-owned company restaurants and 53 of the 58 domestic franchise restaurants.

Throughout this report, we use the term "restaurants" to include Texas Roadhouse and Bubba’s 33, unless otherwise noted.

Presentation of Financial and Operating Data

We operate on a fiscal year that ends on the last Tuesday in December. Fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2022 were both 52 weeks in length, and the fourth quarters were both 13 weeks in length.

Long-term Strategies to Grow Earnings Per Share and Create Shareholder Value

Our long-term strategies with respect to increasing net income and earnings per share, along with creating shareholder value, include the following:

We have entered into area development and franchise agreements for the development and operation of Texas Roadhouse restaurants in numerous foreign countries and one U.S. territory. We have also entered into area development agreements for Jaggers, our fast-casual concept. We opened our first two Jaggers franchise restaurants in 2023.

In 2023, we opened 30 company restaurants while our franchise partners opened 15 restaurants. The company restaurants included 22 Texas Roadhouse restaurants, five Bubba’s 33 restaurants, and three Jaggers

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restaurants. The franchise restaurants included ten international Texas Roadhouse restaurants, three domestic Texas Roadhouse restaurants and two domestic Jaggers restaurants.

In 2023, we also completed the acquisition of eight domestic franchise Texas Roadhouse restaurants for an aggregate purchase price of $39.1 million.

At our high volume restaurants, we continue to look for opportunities to increase our dining room capacity by adding on to our existing building and/or to increase our parking capacity by leasing or purchasing property that adjoins our site. We also continue to make a number of building modifications and/or expansions to existing restaurants in order to better accommodate increased dine-in and to-go sales. These modifications include room expansions which add additional guest seating, the addition of to-go areas and cooler expansions to accommodate higher inventory levels.

In recent years, we have relocated several existing Texas Roadhouse locations at or near the end of their associated lease or as a result of eminent domain which allowed us to move to a better site, update them to a current prototypical design, construct a larger building with more seats and greater number of available parking spaces, accommodate increased to-go sales and/or obtain more favorable lease terms. We continue to evaluate these opportunities particularly as it relates to older locations with strong sales.

In 2008, the Board approved our first stock repurchase program. On March 17, 2022, the Board approved a stock repurchase program under which we may repurchase up to $300.0 million of our common stock. In 2023, we paid $50.0 million to repurchase 455,026 shares of our common stock. As of December 26, 2023, $116.9 million remained authorized for stock repurchases. From inception through December 26, 2023, we have paid $683.5 million through our authorized stock repurchase programs to repurchase 21,496,468 shares of our common stock at an average price per share of $31.80.

Key Measures We Use To Evaluate Our Company

Key measures we use to evaluate and assess our business include the following:

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In calculating restaurant margin, we exclude certain non-restaurant-level costs that support operations, including general and administrative expenses, but do not have a direct impact on restaurant-level operational efficiency and performance. We exclude pre-opening expense as it occurs at irregular intervals and would impact comparability to prior period results. We exclude depreciation and amortization expense, substantially all of which relates to restaurant-level assets, as it represents a non-cash charge for the investment in our restaurants. We exclude impairment and closure expense as we believe this provides a clearer perspective of the Company’s ongoing operating performance and a more useful comparison to prior period results. Restaurant margin as presented may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies in our industry. A reconciliation of income from operations to restaurant margin is included in the Results of Operations section below.

Other Key Definitions

Restaurant and Other Sales. Restaurant sales include gross food and beverage sales, net of promotions and discounts, for all company restaurants. Sales taxes collected from customers and remitted to governmental authorities are accounted for on a net basis and therefore are excluded from restaurant sales in our consolidated statements of income and comprehensive income. Other sales include the net impact of the amortization of third-party gift card fees and gift card breakage income, sales related to our non-royalty based retail products and content revenue related to our tabletop kiosk devices. 

Franchise Royalties and Fees. Franchise royalties consist of royalties, as defined in our franchise agreement, paid to us by our domestic and international franchisees. Domestic and international franchisees also typically pay an initial franchise fee and/or development fee for each new restaurant or territory.

Food and Beverage Costs. Food and beverage costs consists of the costs of raw materials and ingredients used in the preparation of food and beverage products sold in our company restaurants. Approximately half of our food and beverage costs relate to beef.

Restaurant Labor Expenses. Restaurant labor expenses include all direct and indirect labor costs incurred in operations except for profit sharing incentive compensation expenses earned by our restaurant managing partners and

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market partners. These profit sharing expenses are reflected in restaurant other operating expenses. Restaurant labor expenses also include share-based compensation expense related to restaurant-level employees.

Restaurant Rent Expense. Restaurant rent expense includes all rent, except pre-opening rent, associated with the leasing of real estate and includes base, percentage and straight-line rent expense.

Restaurant Other Operating Expenses. Restaurant other operating expenses consist of all other restaurant-level operating costs, the major components of which are credit card fees, profit sharing incentive compensation for our restaurant managing partners and market partners, utilities, supplies, general liability insurance, advertising, repairs and maintenance, property taxes and outside services.

Pre-opening Expenses. Pre-opening expenses, which are charged to operations as incurred, consist of expenses incurred before the opening of a new or relocated restaurant and consist principally of opening and training team compensation and benefits, travel expenses, rent, food, beverage and other initial supplies and expenses. The majority of pre-opening costs incurred relate to the hiring and training of employees due to the significant investment we make in training our people. Pre-opening costs vary by location depending on a number of factors, including the size and physical layout of each location; the number of management and hourly employees required to operate each restaurant; the availability of qualified restaurant staff members; the cost of travel and lodging for different geographic areas; the timing of the restaurant opening; and the extent of unexpected delays, if any, in obtaining final licenses and permits to open each restaurant.

Depreciation and Amortization Expenses. Depreciation and amortization expenses include the depreciation of fixed assets and amortization of intangibles with definite lives, substantially all of which relates to restaurant-level assets.

Impairment and Closure Costs, Net. Impairment and closure costs, net include any impairment of long-lived assets, including property and equipment, operating lease right-of-use assets and goodwill, and expenses associated with the closure of a restaurant. Closure costs also include any gains or losses associated with a relocated restaurant or the sale of a closed restaurant and/or assets held for sale as well as lease costs associated with closed or relocated restaurants.

General and Administrative Expenses. General and administrative expenses comprise expenses associated with corporate and administrative functions that support development and restaurant operations and provide an infrastructure to support future growth. This includes salary, incentive-based and share-based compensation expense related to executive officers and Support Center employees, salary and share-based compensation expense related to market partners, software hosting fees, professional fees, group insurance, advertising expense and the realized and unrealized holding gains and losses related to the investments in our deferred compensation plan.

Interest Income (Expense), Net. Interest income (expense), net includes earnings on cash and cash equivalents and is reduced by interest expense, net of capitalized interest, on our debt or financing obligations including the amortization of loan fees.

Equity Income from Investments in Unconsolidated Affiliates. Equity income includes our percentage share of net income earned by unconsolidated affiliates and our share of any gain on the acquisition of these affiliates. As of December 26, 2023 and December 27, 2022, we owned a 5.0% to 10.0% equity interest in 20 and 23 domestic franchise restaurants, respectively.

Net Income Attributable to Noncontrolling Interests. Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests represents the portion of income attributable to the other owners of the majority-owned restaurants. Our consolidated subsidiaries include 20 majority-owned restaurants for all periods presented.

2023 Financial Highlights

Total revenue increased $616.8 million or 15.4% to $4.6 billion in 2023 compared to $4.0 billion in 2022 primarily due to an increase in comparable restaurant sales and an increase in store weeks. Comparable restaurant sales and store weeks increased 10.1% and 5.8%, respectively, at company restaurants in 2023. The increase in comparable restaurant sales was due to an increase in guest traffic along with an increase in per person average check. The increase in store weeks was due to new store openings and the acquisition of franchise restaurants.

Net income increased $35.1 million or 13.0% to $304.9 million in 2023 compared to $269.8 million in 2022 primarily due to higher restaurant margin dollars, as described below, partially offset by higher general and

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administrative expenses and higher depreciation and amortization expenses. Diluted earnings per share increased 14.3% to $4.54 from $3.97 in the prior year primarily due to the increase in net income.

Restaurant margin dollars increased $80.5 million or 12.8% to $708.0 million in 2023 compared to $627.5 million in 2022 primarily due to higher sales. Restaurant margin, as a percentage of restaurant and other sales, decreased to 15.4% in 2023 compared to 15.7% in 2022. The decrease in restaurant margin, as a percentage of restaurant and other sales, was due to commodity inflation, wage and other labor inflation and higher general liability insurance expense partially offset by higher sales.

We repurchased 455,026 shares of common stock for $50.0 million in 2023. We also paid a quarterly dividend of $0.55 per share of common stock, which totaled $147.2 million.

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