Broken Moats
Family-Office Long/Short Research, Variant Perception
Mid-tier restaurant chains like Shake Shack and CAVA face rising input costs they will struggle to pass on. Cattle prices are at an all-time high, and the war is set to raise packaging costs alongside surging transportation costs, driven partly by oil and mostly by CDL licensing rules. Low-end chains McDonald's and Yum keep pushing value pricing to win back consumers, limiting mid-tier pricing power heading into earnings. x.comÂ
Shake Shack's plan to grow revenue 50% over the next three years is unlikely to work out well for shareholders because the chain already has major quality-control problems. Recent personal visits have been bad. x.comÂ
McDonald's is likely to see its metrics hurt over the next year by the rising cost of supporting struggling franchisees. Its rent and royalties hide franchisee pain: US same-store sales rose about 35% while prices rose about 40%, so traffic is likely shrinking, and sales growth slowed to 0.8% in Q2. Per their association, 95% of owners said Q1 profit fell. With remodels costing $400K-$700K per restaurant, McDonald's agreed to take on $8.5B through 2036 in lower rent and capex support. x.comÂ
Shake Shack is starting to look cheap after a sharp selloff on beef-cost and consumer worries, despite solid growth and margins. Q2 revenue grew 17.2%, restaurant-level margins reached 23% and free cash flow is positive. It owns no real estate, so it is a bet on the brand, restaurant economics and expansion across its 703 restaurants. The key question is whether those margins hold as it grows. x.comÂ
McDonald's shares keep falling because the consumer is not doing well, with disposable income at lows. The stock briefly dipped below $250 before rebounding to $251 and remains near multi-year lows. x.comÂ
McDonald's roughly $8.5 billion plan to help franchisees serve better food, improve service and simplify restaurants comes too late and will likely end the same way as Wendy's. Plunging real estate values add further pressure on McDonald's. x.com x.comÂ
Shake Shack remains a long-term position despite cutting its guidance, citing uncertainty and competition. The second-quarter result was not surprising, but the lift needed in the second half looks hard to achieve. x.comÂ
Debt-laden consumer companies without pricing power are ones to avoid because their costs are surging and their customers are tapped out. Nike, McDonald's and Delta are already getting hammered. Constellation Brands should drop below $100 before its next report. x.comÂ
Shake Shack makes almost no money on about $1.5B of annual revenue despite its brand and traffic, and its overhead is not scaling. Per AlphaSense, Q1 revenue rose 14.3% to $366.7M and same-Shack sales rose 4.6%, but adjusted net income was just $0.1M with a $2.6M operating loss. G&A and D&A per store are about the same as in 2015 with 30 units; allocating costs to corporate makes the restaurants look profitable without real expense leverage. x.com x.com x.comÂ
Cava could become a bargain as investors abandon restaurant and food stocks to chase AI. x.comÂ
McDonald's lacks pricing power, leaving it exposed as food supply and prices look set to become a major issue in 2027. Fast-food chains are price takers on the supply side with products that carry little pricing power, and their downtrend roughly coincided with GLP-1 drugs going mainstream. Without GLP-1s, companies like McDonald's would be worth bidding up aggressively now. x.com x.comÂ
