Dive Brief:
- Cava is putting its hospitality-focused CX strategy directly in its restaurants with additional investments in labor and training for managers, CEO and co-founder Brett Schulman said on a Q3 2026 earnings call Wednesday.
- Over the summer, Cava conducted a contest with restaurant general managers to identify hospitality best practices, according to Schulman. About two-thirds of locations saw a bump in guest experience metrics during this period, and the practices are now scaling across the system.
- “The hospitality contest was a great way for us to gain the key behaviors and activities that are driving some of those exceptional hospitality results that we can scale across the system, and that's going to be a focus,” Schulman said on the call.
Dive Insight:
Cava is emphasizing the importance of workforce investments, including restaurant managers, as it pushes to stand out from the competition with hospitality.
“I've been on record for years saying the demise of the dining room is greatly exaggerated,” Schulman said.
Many other restaurants in the space have been shrinking their dining rooms, focusing on austere aesthetics and adding automated kiosks, according to Schulman. Cava is moving in the other direction to offer human connection when customers dine in and convenience when they opt into a digital channel.
The chain is investing in leadership readiness and training at new restaurants as part of its overall strategy, according to Schulman. The effort has led to higher guest satisfaction and lower turnover rates at affected locations.
“These robust openings that we've been delivering across the country wanted and needed the appropriate support to be able to deliver on that guest experience and continue that momentum as we move forward,” CFO Tricia Tolivar said.
Cava invested in additional worker hours to support improved customer service and newly opened restaurants, according to Tolivar. The effort improved guest experience scores, but drove labor and related costs as a share of revenue up 0.5% year over year to 26% of revenue.
Cava’s comparable restaurant sales increased 3.1% year over year in the third quarter, according to an earnings report. Revenue rose 22.1% year over year to $353.7 million.
