v3.25.2
LEASES
6 Months Ended
Jun. 25, 2025
LEASES  
LEASES

12. LEASES

Nature of Leases

The Company’s operations utilize property, facilities, equipment and vehicles leased from others. Additionally, the Company has various contracts with vendors that have been determined to contain an embedded lease in accordance with Topic 842.

As of June 25, 2025, the Company had two leases that it had entered into, but had not yet commenced.

Significant Assumptions and Judgments

In applying the requirements of Topic 842, the Company made significant assumptions and judgments related to determination of whether a contract contains a lease and the discount rate used for the lease.

In determining if any of the Company’s contracts contain a lease, the Company made assumptions and judgments related to its ability to direct the use of any assets stated in the contract and the likelihood of renewing any short-term contracts for a period extending past twelve months.

The Company also made significant assumptions and judgments in determining an appropriate discount rate for property leases. These included using a consistent discount rate for a portfolio of leases entered into at varying dates, using the full 20-year term of the lease, excluding any options, and using the total minimum lease payments. The Company utilizes a third-party valuation firm in determining the discount rate, based on the above assumptions. For all other leases, the Company uses the discount rate implicit in the lease, or the Company’s incremental borrowing rate.

As the Company has adopted the practical expedient not to separate lease and non-lease components, no significant assumptions or judgments were necessary in allocating consideration between these components, for all classes of underlying assets.

Building and Facility Leases

The majority of the Company’s building and facilities leases are classified as operating leases; however, the Company currently has one facility and 24 equipment leases that are classified as finance leases.

Restaurants are operated under lease arrangements that generally provide for a fixed base rent and, in some instances, contingent rent based on a percentage of gross operating profit or net revenues in excess of a defined amount. Additionally, a number of the Company’s leases have payments that increase at pre-determined dates based on the change in the consumer price index. For all leases, the Company also reimburses the landlord for non-lease components, or items that are not considered components of a contract, such as CAM, property tax and insurance costs. While the Company determined not to separate lease and non-lease components, these payments are based on actual costs, making them variable consideration and excluding them from the calculations of the ROU asset and lease liability.

The initial terms of land and restaurant building leases are generally 20 years, exclusive of options to renew. These leases typically have four 5-year renewal options, which have generally been excluded in the calculation of the ROU asset and lease liability, as they are not considered reasonably certain to be exercised, unless there have been significant leasehold improvements that have a useful life that extend past the original lease term. Furthermore, there are no residual value guarantees and no restrictions imposed by the lease.

During the thirteen and twenty-six weeks ended June 25, 2025, the Company reassessed the lease terms on seven and nine restaurants, respectively, due to certain triggering events, such as the addition of significant leasehold improvements with useful lives that extend past the current lease expiration, the decision to terminate a lease, or the decision to renew or exercise an option. This reassessment resulted in an additional $5.7 million and $7.1 million of ROU asset and lease liabilities for the thirteen and twenty-six weeks ended June 25, 2025, respectively, which were recognized and will be amortized over the new lease term. During the thirteen and twenty-six weeks ended June 26, 2024, the Company reassessed the lease terms on four and 12 restaurants, respectively, due to certain triggering events, such as the addition of significant leasehold improvements with useful lives that extend past the current lease expiration, the decision to terminate a lease, or the decision to renew or exercise an option. This reassessment resulted in an additional $1.8 million and $8.1 million of ROU asset and lease liabilities for the thirteen and twenty-six weeks ended June 26, 2024, respectively, which were recognized and will be amortized over the new lease term. Additionally, as the Company adopted all practical expedients available under Topic 842, no reallocation between lease and non-lease components was necessary.

The Company also subleases facilities to certain franchisees and other non-related parties which are also considered operating leases. Sublease income also includes contingent rental income based on net revenues. The vast majority of these leases have rights to extend terms via fixed rental increases. However, none of these leases have early termination rights, the right to purchase the premises or any residual value guarantees. The Company does not have any related party leases.

During both the thirteen and twenty-six weeks ended June 25, 2025 and June 26, 2024, the Company did not record any non-cash impairment charges. See Note 1, “Basis of Presentation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies – Impairment of Property and Equipment and ROU Assets” for additional information.

Equipment

Leases of equipment primarily consist of restaurant equipment, copiers and vehicles. These leases are fixed payments with no variable component. Additionally, no optional renewal periods have been included in the calculation of the ROU asset, and there are no residual value guarantees and no restrictions imposed.

Lease Cost and Lease Activities

The following table presents the Company’s total lease cost, disaggregated by underlying asset (in thousands):

Thirteen Weeks Ended

    

June 25, 2025

June 26, 2024

    

Property

    

Equipment

    

Property

Equipment

Leases

Leases

Total

Leases

Leases

Total

Finance lease cost:

 

  

 

  

 

  

Amortization of right-of-use assets

$

19

$

29

$

48

$

20

$

47

$

67

Interest on lease liabilities

10

4

14

8

4

12

Operating lease cost:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fixed rent cost

7,213

105

7,318

7,180

49

7,229

Short-term lease cost

 

 

7

 

7

 

 

 

Variable lease cost

 

163

 

336

 

499

 

151

 

346

 

497

Sublease income

 

(1,748)

 

 

(1,748)

 

(1,758)

 

 

(1,758)

Total lease cost

$

5,657

$

481

$

6,138

$

5,601

$

446

$

6,047

Twenty-Six Weeks Ended

June 25, 2025

June 26, 2024

    

Property

    

Equipment

    

    

Property

    

Equipment

    

Leases

Leases

Total

Leases

Leases

Total

Finance lease cost:

  

 

  

 

  

  

 

  

 

  

Amortization of right-of-use assets

$

38

$

59

$

97

$

38

$

48

$

86

Interest on lease liabilities

19

9

 

28

 

19

8

 

27

Operating lease cost:

 

Fixed rent cost

14,397

 

208

 

14,605

 

14,208

 

152

 

14,360

Short-term lease cost

 

 

35

 

35

 

 

1

 

1

Variable lease cost

 

302

 

670

 

972

 

284

 

693

 

977

Sublease income

 

(3,463)

 

 

(3,463)

 

(3,537)

 

 

(3,537)

Total lease cost

$

11,293

$

981

$

12,274

$

11,012

$

902

$

11,914

The following table presents the Company’s total lease cost on the condensed consolidated statements of income (in thousands):

Thirteen Weeks Ended

Twenty-Six Weeks Ended

  

June 25, 2025

  

June 26, 2024

  

June 25, 2025

  

June 26, 2024

Lease cost – Occupancy and other operating expenses

$

5,970

$

5,851

$

11,935

$

11,566

Lease cost – General & administrative

 

106

117

 

214

235

Lease cost – Depreciation and amortization

 

48

67

 

97

86

Lease cost – Interest expense

 

14

12

 

28

27

Total lease cost

$

6,138

$

6,047

$

12,274

$

11,914

During the twenty-six weeks ended June 25, 2025 and June 26, 2024, the Company had the following cash and non-cash activities associated with its leases (dollars in thousands):

Twenty-Six Weeks Ended June 25, 2025

Twenty-Six Weeks Ended June 26, 2024

Property

Equipment

  

Property

  

Equipment

  

Leases

Leases

Total

Leases

Leases

Total

Cash paid for amounts included in the measurement of lease liabilities

 

  

 

  

 

  

Operating cash flows used for operating leases

$

14,504

$

186

 

$

14,690

$

14,076

$

108

$

14,184

Financing cash flows used for finance leases

$

47

$

67

 

$

114

$

47

$

54

$

101

Non-cash investing and financing activities:

 

  

 

  

 

  

Operating lease ROU assets obtained in exchange for lease liabilities:

 

  

 

  

 

  

Operating lease ROU assets

$

7,070

$

15

 

$

7,085

$

6,866

$

1,233

$

8,099

Finance lease ROU assets obtained in exchange for lease liabilities:

Finance lease ROU assets

$

$

$

$

$

69

$

69

Other Information

 

  

 

  

 

  

Weighted-average remaining years in lease term—finance leases

 

15.38

 

2.95

  

16.38

3.11

Weighted-average remaining years in lease term—operating leases

 

9.81

 

3.29

  

10.26

4.22

Weighted-average discount rate—finance leases

 

2.57

%  

 

6.87

%  

  

2.57

%  

6.21

%  

Weighted-average discount rate—operating leases

 

5.36

%  

 

6.72

%  

  

5.12

%  

6.67

%  

Information regarding the Company’s minimum future lease obligations as of June 25, 2025 is as follows (in thousands):

Finance Leases

Operating Leases

    

Minimum

    

Minimum

    

Minimum

Lease

Lease

Sublease

For the Years Ending

Payments

Payments

Income

December 31, 2025

$

110

$

14,731

$

2,530

December 30, 2026

 

191

 

29,274

 

5,082

December 29, 2027

 

180

 

28,036

 

4,942

December 27, 2028

 

134

 

26,128

 

4,665

December 26, 2029

 

118

 

23,182

 

4,027

Thereafter

 

1,274

 

123,264

 

23,269

Total

$

2,007

$

244,615

$

44,515

Less: imputed interest (2.57% - 6.87%)

 

(340)

 

(56,966)

 

  

Present value of lease obligations

 

1,667

 

187,649

 

  

Less: current maturities

 

(174)

 

(22,427)

 

  

Noncurrent portion

$

1,493

$

165,222

 

  

Short-Term Leases

The Company has multiple short-term leases, which have terms of less than 12 months, and thus were excluded from the recognition requirements of Topic 842. The Company has recognized these lease payments in its condensed consolidated statements of income on a straight-line basis over the lease term and variable lease payments in the period in which the obligation for those payments was incurred.

Lessor

The Company is a lessor for certain property, facilities and equipment owned by the Company and leased to others, principally franchisees, under non-cancelable leases with initial terms ranging from three to 20 years. These lease agreements generally provide for a fixed base rent and, in some instances, contingent rent based on a percentage of gross operating profit or net revenues. All leases are considered operating leases.

For the leases in which the Company is the lessor, there are options to extend the lease. However, there are no terms and conditions to terminate the lease, no right to purchase premises and no residual value guarantees. Additionally, there are no related party leases.

The Company received $0.1 million of lease income from company-owned locations for both the thirteen weeks ended June 25, 2025 and June 26, 2024. The Company received $0.2 million of lease income from company-owned locations for both the twenty-six weeks ended June 25, 2025 and June 26, 2024.