Dutch Bros (BROS 0.22%) stock is down 30% from its 52-week high. Given that, you'd think the coffee shop operator was struggling. However, that's just not the case. In fact, its business is performing exceptionally well. Here's the one-two punch that proves it.
Dutch Bros: Growth on two fronts
There are two ways for a restaurant to grow its revenues and earnings. The first is to open new restaurants, and the second is to generate higher sales at the restaurants it owns. Investors can actually track both fairly easily, and Dutch Bros is going great on both fronts.
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Regarding new stores, Dutch Bros opened 154 shops in 2025. That increased its store count by 16%, which is a huge number. To be fair, the coffee shop is fairly small, with just 1,136 locations. So that growth is coming off a low base. However, that's actually a positive for long-term investors, noting that coffee giant Starbucks (SBUX 0.52%) operates over 40,000 locations. Dutch Bros still has a long runway for growth even if it only gets to a quarter of the size of Starbucks.
Meanwhile, Dutch Bros grew same-store sales every quarter of 2025. That metric increased 5.6% for the year, ending with an impressive 7.7% rate in the fourth quarter. Notably, transaction volume rose 3.2%, so it wasn't just a matter of Dutch Bros raising prices. The company's coffee appears to be attracting new customers.
Dutch Bros is putting up impressive results
With material new store openings and strong same-store sales, it shouldn't be surprising that Dutch Bros grew its revenue by a huge 29% in 2025. And the business is solidly profitable, as well, with earnings of $0.64 per share in 2025, up 88% year over year.
NYSE: BROS
Key Data Points
The problem is that Dutch Bros is still a fairly small business that remains in growth mode. So investing in new locations is going to eat up most of its earnings, noting that the plan is for at least another 181 new shops in 2026. Conservative investors probably won't be interested, but more aggressive growth investors should probably do a deep dive into this strongly performing coffee chain.
Watch both sides of the growth equation
If you do choose to buy Dutch Bros, you should monitor both new store growth and same-store sales. Young restaurants often focus so much on opening new locations that they drop the ball in their existing operations. That's obviously not a problem right now for Dutch Bros, but if same-store sales fall consistently over several quarters, you may want to rethink your investment.
