Chefs’ Warehouse recently released its 10-Q report. The Chefs’ Warehouse, Inc. distributes specialty food and center-of-the-plate products in the United States, the Middle East and Canada. Its assortment includes specialty cheeses, charcuterie, oils and vinegars, truffles, caviar, chocolate, pastry items, custom-cut beef, seafood, hormone-free poultry and broadline staples such as cooking oils, butter, eggs, milk and flour. The company serves independent restaurants, fine dining establishments, hotels, caterers, culinary schools, bakeries, cruise lines, casinos and specialty food stores, and it also sells some center-of-the-plate products directly to consumers through Allen Brothers.
In Item 2, management said the business operates with more than 90,000 SKUs across 23 geographic markets and serves more than 55,000 core customer locations. It described net sales growth as driven mainly by volume, with inflation and product mix also affecting results, and said it tracks specialty case count, center-of-the-plate pounds sold, unique customers and placements as key operating measures. Management also said it completed an asset purchase agreement on Oct. 1, 2025, to acquire substantially all of the assets of Italco Food Products, a specialty distributor based in Denver.
For the 13 weeks ended March 27, 2026, net sales rose 11.4% to $1.059 billion from $950.7 million a year earlier. Organic growth contributed $98.3 million, or 10.4%, and Italco added $10.0 million, or 1.0%. Specialty case count increased 5.7%, specialty unique customers rose 1.9% and placements increased 6.2%, while center-of-the-plate pounds sold climbed 6.2%.
Gross profit increased 13.9% to $257.4 million from $226.0 million, and gross margin widened to 24.3% from 23.8%. Management said the 53-basis-point improvement reflected effective pricing in an inflationary food-away-from-home environment and product cost management. Specialty gross margin improved 43 basis points and center-of-the-plate gross margin improved 110 basis points.
Selling, general and administrative expenses increased 10.5% to $224.1 million from $202.8 million, but fell to 21.2% of net sales from 21.3%. The company said the increase was driven by higher compensation and benefits, depreciation tied to facility and fleet investments, and higher self-insurance expense. Other operating expenses, net, dropped to $89,000 from $497,000, mainly because of lower third-party deal costs.
Operating income rose to $33.1 million from $22.7 million. Interest expense was essentially flat at $10.4 million versus $10.3 million. Income before taxes increased to $22.7 million from $12.5 million, and net income climbed to $17.4 million from $10.3 million. The effective tax rate was 23.6% versus 17.6%.
On liquidity, cash and cash equivalents were $122.7 million at March 27, 2026, up from $121.0 million at year-end. Working capital, excluding cash, was $380.5 million, and availability under the asset-based loan facility was $155.6 million. Debt included $246.3 million of senior secured term loan borrowings, $287.5 million of convertible senior notes, $100.0 million outstanding on the asset-based loan facility and $126.2 million of finance leases and other financing obligations.
In January 2026, the company amended its senior secured term loan agreement to cut the interest rate spread by 50 basis points. It also made a $5.0 million voluntary principal prepayment during the quarter. Chefs’ Warehouse repurchased 156,861 shares at an average price of $63.75, spending about $10.0 million, and had $57.6 million remaining under its repurchase authorization at March 27, 2026.
Cash provided by operating activities was $38.3 million, down from $49.6 million a year earlier, mainly because of timing around inventory purchases and supplier payments. Cash used in investing activities was $7.7 million, and cash used in financing activities was $28.8 million, including $10.1 million for tax withholding on equity awards, $10.0 million for share repurchases, $5.8 million of term loan payments and $5.0 million of finance lease payments. The company said it expects fiscal 2026 capital expenditures of $45 million to $55 million. Following these announcements, the company's shares moved 0.8%, and are now trading at a price of $65.47. For the full picture, make sure to review Chefs' Warehouse's 10-Q report.
