Dutch Bros (BROS -1.39%), the fast-growing West Coast drive-thru restaurant chain that serves up both coffee and cold beverages such as Dutch Freezes and its Rebel energy drinks, continues to serve up piping hot revenue growth, as evidenced by its latest earnings report. That revenue growth can be partially attributed to an aggressive expansion in its store count.
Let's dive in and take a look at three big positives that stood out in this growth stock's earnings call, and what they mean for its future.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Dutch Bros is serving up piping hot revenue growth
Dutch Bros is first and foremost a revenue growth story. And on this front, the company delivered yet again with strong 53% year-over-year revenue growth. In the current economic environment it's getting hard to find growth stocks with this type of revenue trajectory in the public market.
What's even more encouraging is that Dutch Bros increased revenue for four straight quarters, with three of the four bringing increases of 50% or more. Furthermore, the company's trailing-12-month revenue as of the end of the quarter was more than double its total revenue for 2020. This revenue growth is coming primarily from opening new shops.
2. Full speed ahead for new Dutch Bros shops
During the quarter, Dutch Bros successfully entered new markets such as San Diego County for the first time. The chain, which started in Oregon and has a heavy presence on the West Coast, is expanding beyond its home turf; it also reports that it's had success in new markets like Kansas City, Oklahoma City, and Nashville, where average unit volumes for new shops range from $1.8 million to $2 million. This warm welcome shows that the Dutch Bros concept translates well in markets beyond its home base.
All told, Dutch Bros opened a record 38 new shops during the quarter. The number of shops it opened during the quarter is nearly equivalent to the total number of locations it opened in 2019, illustrating just how much Dutch Bros is ramping up growth.
The company says that it's on track to open 150 shops in 2023, which would bring it to a total of 800 locations. While Dutch Bros is ramping up growth quickly, keep in mind that this total of 800 would only be 20% of the total of its long-term goal of 4,000 in the next 10 to 15 years, a goal that it's maintained since going public.
But Dutch Bros has yet to expand to the East Coast of the United States, which has some of the country's largest population centers. That suggests there's plenty of growth ahead for the company.
3. A welcome return to same-store sales growth
As a shareholder of Dutch Bros, and one who plans to own the stock for a long time, I'm happy with the overall direction of the company. Last quarter, I wrote about my earlier concern as a long-term shareholder: that same-store sales declined. Same-store sales figures are an important metric for evaluating businesses like retailers and restaurants. They measure revenue growth for locations that have been open for at least a year.
The metric is particularly important for a company like Dutch Bros that's aggressively opening new locations; this brings in new revenue, which can mask a slowdown in revenue at existing locations. That can be a concern -- it can indicate that after the initial excitement about a new store entering an area has worn off, customers get bored and moved on. Last quarter, same-store sales growth actually declined 3.3%.
This quarter, the company reported same-store sales growth of 1.1%, which is much better than last quarter's number and a step in the right direction. It's still a fairly modest increase. For comparison, Starbucks (SBUX 0.06%) -- a much larger and more mature company than Dutch Bros -- posted far superior 11% same-store sales growth in the U.S. last quarter.
I'd like to see Dutch Bros build on this result by increasing same-store sales growth again next quarter. This might be through the further growth of its contactless payment app, which it says drives higher ticket prices, or through upselling customers more customized cold beverages.
Overall, this was a great quarter for Dutch Bros, and its earnings were clearly well-received by the market: The stock gained 22% on the day after earnings were released. The company trades at a fairly rich valuation of about 8 times sales, so the stock will continue to be under a lot of scrutiny and could sell off if there is any slowdown in growth. However, the long-term growth story looks intact, and the stock continues to look like a long-term winner based on these results.
Dutch Bros has yet to open a store in my neck of the woods. But if it were here, I'd grab a Dutch Bros Rebel to celebrate.
