Financing

Behind Cava Group’s conversion of Zoe’s Kitchen restaurants

A Deeper Dive: Brett Schulman, CEO of Cava Group, joins the podcast to talk about a wide range of topics, including its rapid expansion thanks to its acquisition of Zoe’s Kitchen.

How is Cava Group’s integration of Zoe’s Kitchen restaurants going?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Brett Schulman, the CEO of Cava Group, who talks about a wide variety of topics, but particularly his company's integration of Zoe’s Kitchen.

Cava acquired Zoe’s in 2018 in one of the more interesting deals of recent vintage. Both were fast-casual Mediterranean chains but Zoe’s was publicly traded at the time. Since then, Cava has been converting Zoe’s restaurants into Cava locations.

Such conversions used to be relatively popular in the industry in the 1990s but have been relatively rare since, though First Watch used conversions to grow quickly several years ago. Schulman Talks about why that strategy makes sense and what it’s doing for Cava.

He also talks about digital sales, the current state of delivery and Cava’s potential plans for catering. And Schulman talks about his company’s strategy to balance demand from all these channels.

We’re talking with one of the premier fast-casual executives in the industry on A Deeper Dive so please have a listen.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on Spotify.

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Financing

The oil price problem

The Bottom Line: Economists are expecting a better year for restaurants in 2026. But that changes if oil prices remain too high for too long.

Marketing

For restaurants, 'fake news' is becoming a real problem

The rise of AI and social media is allowing misinformation to flourish, and forcing restaurants to be more vigilant in snuffing it out.

Financing

Papa Johns is reportedly weighing a buyout offer, again

The Bottom Line: The pizza chain is reportedly weighing an offer from Irth Capital Management that would take the company private, the latest in a long line of buyout rumors and reports.

Trending

More from our partners