Shake Shack Passes 400 Restaurants, with AUV at $3.8 Million

This is an English adaptation of a FoodBud historical article originally published on August 6, 2022.

Shake Shack reported second-quarter results showing continued recovery in traffic and sales, alongside expansion past the 400-restaurant mark.

For the quarter, systemwide sales reached $340 million, about RMB 2.37 billion, up 24.8% year on year. Total revenue was $230 million, about RMB 1.55 billion, up 23.1%.

Company-operated restaurant sales contributed $220 million, while licensing revenue from franchised operations was $7.7 million.

Unit Economics and Traffic

Average weekly sales per restaurant were $76,000 in the second quarter. The company reported a net loss of $1.3 million.

For the trailing 12 months, average unit volume was $3.8 million, about RMB 25.7 million.

Same-store sales increased 10.1% year on year in the second quarter, driven mainly by a 7.8% rise in transaction volume. In-restaurant traffic grew by more than 20%, supporting a 2.3% increase in average check.

Urban restaurants outperformed suburban locations. Same-store sales at urban units rose 19%, while suburban same-store sales increased 3%. The main driver was the recovery of office-worker traffic in cities, which lifted lunch and dinner orders. However, in cities such as New York, average weekday lunch and dinner traffic remained more than 40% below 2019 levels.

Digital Ordering

Digital orders accounted for 38% of Shake Shack’s second-quarter sales. Average check from digital channels was 25% higher than from non-digital orders.

By the end of June 2022, 4.2 million guests had ordered through Shake Shack’s owned digital channels, up 75% from the first quarter.

Store Growth

Shake Shack opened 13 net new restaurants in the second quarter, bringing its restaurant count to 395. It recently opened its 400th restaurant, reaching a new scale milestone.

By the end of July, Shake Shack had 167 licensed restaurants. It opened 8 licensed units in the second quarter and another 2 in July. At the time, the company expected to open 25 to 30 licensed restaurants for the full year.

Shake Shack was also expanding in China. It opened new restaurants in Guangzhou and Hangzhou in April, Hong Kong in May, and Shenzhen in June. A Chengdu restaurant was scheduled to open in August.

Note: Forward-looking store-opening figures and scheduled launches were historical guidance as of August 2022.