About The Cheesecake Factory

The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated owns and operates restaurants. The company is culinary forward and relentlessly focused on hospitality. The company owns and operates restaurants throughout the United States and Canada under brands, including The Cheesecake Factory (216 locations), North Italia (37 locations), Flower Child (32 locations), and additional brands within the company’s Fox Restaurant Concepts (‘FRC’) portfolio (41 locations). Internationally, the company’s some restaurants operate under licensing agreements. The company’s bakery division operates two facilities that produce quality cheesecakes and other baked products for the company’s restaurants, international licensees and third-party bakery customers. The Cheesecake Factory The company operates various The Cheesecake Factory restaurants, which strive to provide a distinctive, high-quality dining experience at moderate prices by offering an extensive, innovative and evolving menu in an upscale casual, high-energy setting with attentive, efficient and friendly service. As a result, The Cheesecake Factory restaurants appeal to a diverse customer base across a broad demographic range. All of the company’s restaurants offer a full-service bar where its entire menu is served. During the year ended January 2, 2024 (fiscal 2023), alcoholic beverage sales represented 11% of The Cheesecake Factory restaurant sales. The company offers all items on its menu, except alcoholic beverages where disallowed by regulation, for off-premise consumption, sales of which comprised approximately 22% of The Cheesecake Factory restaurant sales during fiscal 2023. The company works with a third party to provide delivery service from all of its locations and offer online ordering for to-go sales at all of the company’s domestic locations. The Cheesecake Factory menu features approximately 225 items, exclusive of beverage and dessert items and including items presented on supplemental menus, such as the company’s SkinnyLicious menu that offers innovative items at 590 calories or less. The company’s menu offerings include appetizers, pizza, seafood, steaks, chicken, burgers, small plates, pastas, salads, sandwiches and omelettes, including a selection of vegan and gluten-free items. The company offers approximately 45 varieties of proprietary cheesecake and other desserts in the company’s restaurants. The Cheesecake Factory restaurants operate in the upscale casual dining segment, which is positioned above core casual dining, with standards that are closer to fine dining. In 2023, the company launched the Cookie Dough Lover’s Cheesecake with Pecans in conjunction with National Cheesecake Day. New Restaurant Site Selection and Development The Cheesecake Factory concept has demonstrated success in a variety of layouts (e.g., single or multi-level and varying interior square feet), site locations (e.g., urban or suburban shopping malls, lifestyle centers, retail strip centers, office complexes, entertainment centers and urban street locations — either freestanding or in-line) and trade areas. Accordingly, the company intends to continue developing The Cheesecake Factory restaurants in high-quality, high-profile locations that meet the company’s rigorous site standards. The company has the flexibility in its restaurant designs to penetrate a wide variety of markets across varying population densities in both existing and new markets. The company continues to target company-owned and operated The Cheesecake Factory restaurants domestically over time. Licensed Locations The company has licensing agreements with three restaurant operators to develop and operate The Cheesecake Factory brand restaurants in selected international markets. Consumer Packaged Goods Given the strong affinity for The Cheesecake Factory brand, the company leverages opportunities in the consumer packaged goods channel by partnering with various third-party manufacturers to offer a variety of products marketed under The Cheesecake Factory At Home mark, including the company’s Famous ‘Brown Bread,’ which is available in select retail stores nationwide. The company continues to evaluate other synergistic, on-brand licensing opportunities to add incremental revenue streams to the company’s business. North Italia North Italia is a modern interpretation of Italian cooking in the upscale casual dining segment. North Italia strives to be a modern Italian restaurant with a neighborhood feel, offering classic Italian favorites with a fresh twist made from scratch daily. Contemporary design and décor elements, including large dining rooms, high ceilings and open kitchen layouts coupled with a focus on exceptional hospitality and high-quality, personalized service creates a warm, lively atmosphere for guests to create memorable experiences. The menu features a broad selection of delicious, handcrafted dishes, including appetizers, salads, fresh pastas, pizzas and entrees, and each restaurant includes unique menu items tailored to local markets. North Italia offers an assortment of wines, beers and house-made cocktails. The company’s North Italia restaurants are generally open seven days a week for lunch, dinner and weekend brunch. The company operates various North Italia restaurants. The company targets an average North Italia unit size of 6,000 to 7,000 square feet. Flower Child and Fox Restaurant Concepts Flower Child operates in the fast casual dining segment, offering a customizable menu, made fresh from scratch, featuring locally-sourced, all-natural and organic ingredients. Flower Child provides the company an opportunity to diversify its portfolio in a strong and growing niche. The company operates various Flower Child locations and targets approximately 15% to 20% average annual unit growth for this concept. The company targets an average Flower Child unit size of 3,000 to 4,000 square feet. FRC operates as an independent subsidiary in Phoenix, Arizona and serves as an incubation engine, innovating new food, dining and hospitality experiences to create fresh, exciting concepts. With over a dozen evolving restaurant brands launched to-date, its concepts are diverse in industry segment, occasions, square footage and geography. Other FRC potential growth concepts include Culinary Dropout and Blanco, which together with the other FRC brands, serve as an ecosystem for talent, menu and design development. The company operates various other FRC locations. The company targets approximately 10% to 15% average annual unit growth for the aggregate Other FRC portfolio, complemented by additional market tests of the potential growth concepts. The company targets an average FRC unit size of 3,500 to 15,000 square feet. Bakery Operations The company owns and operates two bakery production facilities, one in Calabasas Hills, California, and one in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. The company’s facility in California accommodates both production operations and corporate support personnel, while the company’s facility in North Carolina houses production operations and a distribution center. In October 2023, the company announced plans for a third bakery production facility in Charleston, Indiana. The company produces approximately 60 varieties of proprietary cheesecakes and other baked desserts using high-quality ingredients for The Cheesecake Factory restaurants and for international licensees and third-party customers. The primary role of the company’s bakery operations is to produce cheesecakes and other baked desserts for sale at the company’s restaurants and those of the company’s international licensees. The company also leverages The Cheesecake Factory brand identity and utilize the company’s bakery production capacity by selling cheesecakes and other baked products to external foodservice operators, retailers and distributors. Large-account customers include retail and supermarkets, foodservice distributors and operators, a national retail bookstore, other restaurants and national warehouse clubs. Additionally, the company sells a selection of its cakes online and in catalogs domestically through an agreement with an upscale retailer. Items produced for outside accounts are marketed under The Cheesecake Factory At Home and The Cheesecake Factory Bakery marks, as well as private labels. The company sells baked goods internationally in approximately 15 countries under The Cheesecake Factory At Home mark. Offering the company’s cheesecakes and other baked desserts internationally is important to the company’s branding, creating awareness and driving demand, not only for bakery products but for the international expansion of the company’s restaurants. Government Laws and Regulations The company is subject to the regulations of the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The company’s facilities must comply with applicable requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (‘ADA’) and related federal, state and foreign laws and regulations, which prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability with respect to public accommodations and employment. Trade Names, Trademarks and Other Intellectual Property The company owns and has applied to register trade names, logos, service marks, trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual property (collectively, ‘Intellectual Property’) in the United States, Canada and in additional countries throughout the world in various categories, including without limitation, restaurant services and bakery goods. The company regards its Intellectual Property, including ‘The Cheesecake Factory,’ ‘North Italia,’ and a collection with the Fox Restaurant Concepts subsidiary, as well as the company’s trade dress, as having substantial value and as being important to the company’s marketing efforts. The company has also registered various internet domain names, including ‘www.thecheesecakefactory.com,’ ‘www.northitalia.com’, and ‘www.foxrc.com’. History The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated was founded by Oscar and Evelyn Overton in 1972. The company was incorporated in 1992 in Delaware.