Chief Financial Officer, Shake Shack
Search every verified Katherine Fogertey interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Katherine Fogertey, Chief Financial Officer of Shake Shack, discussed the company's financial performance and strategy during recent earnings calls and media appearances. On the Q4 2024 earnings call in February 2025, she noted that the company generated a record $36 million in free cash flow and ended the year with $320 million in cash and cash equivalents. She guided for adjusted EBITDA of $205 to $215 million and restaurant-level margins of approximately 22% for the year. In a March 2025 Bloomberg interview, Fogertey stated that Shake Shack has navigated inflationary pressures by raising wages, introducing tips, and managing impacts from the California Fast Food Wage Act, and she described the company's consumer as "more middle-income to higher-income." She also outlined growth plans, including adding 45 domestic company-operated locations and 35 to 40 licensed Shacks in the year. In earlier calls, Fogertey addressed margin improvement and cost pressures. On the Q1 2023 earnings call, she reported that the company grew revenue by 25% year-over-year and expanded restaurant margin by 310 basis points to 18.3%, while noting high single-digit food and paper inflation and uncertainty around beef costs. She stated the company planned to take a 2% menu price increase in the second quarter. On the Q4 2022 call, she reported total revenue of $238.5 million, up 17.4% year-over-year, and outlined a four-point plan for sustained profitability, including building back sales, labor efficiencies, improving off-premise profitability, and strategic pricing. She also noted that 36% of Shack sales came from digital channels and that kiosks were the highest-margin channel.
“We generated a record $36 million in free cash flow — the first time that we have generated positive free cash flow on the year since 2017 — and we ended the year with $320.0 million in cash and cash equivalents.”
“We're now guiding for adjusted EBITDA of $205 to $215 million representing 17% to 22% growth year-over-year, and we expect restaurant-level margins to reach approximately 22% this year.”
“We actually have been navigating through inflationary pressures for a number of years here, and doing so quite successfully — we've raised wages, introduced tips to compensate our team members, and managed impacts from the California Fast Food Wage Act. Through leaning into our strength we've been able to grow sales an...”
“We're giving them that $25 black truffle burger that we are actually selling for $10, and by delivering that elevated experience we've been able to both grow sales and grow margins at a faster pace.”
“We grew revenue by 25% year over year as our teams executed well on recent openings and drove higher sales in our existing company operated and licensed Shacks; we also showed strong improvement in our restaurant margin this quarter, expanding it by 310 basis points year over year to 18.3%.”
“We are returning to pre‑COVID guidance practices and reintroducing full year guidance for total revenue, same‑Shack sales, our licensed business and Shack level operating profit — and we are also providing a new guidance metric with full year adjusted EBITDA.”
“This quarter we generated $73,000 in average weekly sales and grew same‑Shack sales by 10.3% versus 2022 with 4.8% higher traffic year over year; price was up high single digits and our mix was driven by more guests returning to in‑shack channels.”
“Kiosk is our highest‑margin channel: kiosk order values are higher than traditional cashier transactions, kiosk is driving higher checks and we are executing ahead of plan to roll kiosks out to nearly all Shacks by the end of 2023.”
“We will take approximately a two percent menu price increase toward the end of the second quarter — this level is more in line with our historical annual price increases and is needed to help protect our profitability against persistent food and paper inflationary pressures.”
“Food and paper costs were $71.8 million or 29.4% of Shack sales — our blended food and paper inflation increased by high single digits year over year, with nearly every other item in our food basket showing accelerating cost pressures including fry costs rising by more than 20%.”
“We do not hedge on many components of our basket, including beef, which is the largest single part of our basket and an area where we see a significant degree of uncertainty around the cost this year.”
“Our balance sheet remains solid with $293.4 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the quarter.”
“We are planning to grow fiscal 2023 adjusted EBITDA by at least 50 to 70% this year to $110 to $125 million as we target achieving record profits in 2023, though actual results will depend on the degree of inflationary and macro pressures we face.”
“We delivered fourth quarter total revenue of $238.5 million, up 17.4% year over year, Shack sales grew to $229.9 million and licensing revenue grew 16.6% to $8.6 million; we generated Shack-level operating profit margin of 18.8% and grew adjusted EBITDA to $19.3 million.”
“In October we raised our menu prices by mid- to high-single digits across price tiers to help address high single-digit food and paper inflation and the continued investments we were making in our team members.”
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