Here are a few brief analogies for Noodles & Co (NDLS):

• Chipotle for noodles and pasta.

• Panera Bread, but with a focus on cooked-to-order noodle and pasta dishes.

• Noodles and Pasta dishes: Cooked-to-order main courses featuring various noodle and pasta types.
• Soups: Hot, savory liquid dishes.
• Salads: Fresh, uncooked vegetable-based dishes, often with proteins.
• Appetizers: Small dishes served before the main course.

Noodles & Company (NDLS) primarily sells its cooked-to-order dishes directly to individual consumers through its fast-casual restaurant locations. As a restaurant chain, it does not have major corporate customers in the traditional business-to-business sense.

The company serves a diverse individual customer base, which can be broadly categorized as:

1. Lunchtime Diners: Individuals, including office workers, students, and shoppers, seeking a quick, convenient, and satisfying meal during the midday hours.
2. Families and Dinner Guests: Customers looking for a casual, relatively affordable, and family-friendly dining option for dinner, offering a variety of dishes to appeal to different tastes.
3. Young Adults and Students: Demographics often seeking customizable, diverse, and reasonably priced meal options that cater to various dietary preferences and provide a step up from traditional fast food.

• McLane Foodservice (a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK.A, BRK.B)

Joseph Christina
President and Chief Executive Officer

Joseph Christina became President and Chief Executive Officer of Noodles & Company on August 31, 2025. He joined the company in February 2025 as President and Chief Operating Officer. Before joining Noodles & Company, Mr. Christina was Chief Executive Officer of Tijuana Flats from 2022 to 2024. Prior to that, he served as EVP, U.S. Operations, and then CEO, President, and board member of Church's Chicken from 2013 to 2022. His career started at Burger King, where he worked for 29 years in various roles including Restaurant Manager, Franchise Owner, VP of Global Operations and Training, and SVP of Franchise Operations for the West Division.

Mike Hynes
Chief Financial Officer

Mike Hynes joined Noodles & Company as Chief Financial Officer in July 2023, bringing over 25 years of finance and accounting experience. Before Noodles & Company, he held multiple leadership roles at Ruth's Hospitality Group, including Vice President of Finance and Accounting for Ruth's Chris Steak House, where he oversaw investor relations, SEC reporting, strategic planning, and financial analysis. Earlier in his career, Mr. Hynes worked at firms including RSM and Deloitte. Ruth's Hospitality Group was acquired by Darden Restaurants in 2023. He is a Certified Public Accountant.

Frank Rodriguez
Senior Vice President of Operations

Frank Rodriguez joined Noodles & Company as Vice President of Operations, West in October 2019 and was promoted to Vice President, Company Operations in June 2025, then to Senior Vice President of Operations, effective June 3, 2026. He has over 35 years of restaurant industry experience. Prior to Noodles & Company, Mr. Rodriguez held multiple senior leadership roles, including Vice President of Operations at Bojangles' Restaurants, Inc. and Regional Director of Operations with Whataburger Restaurants, LLC.

Kathy Lockhart
Chief Accounting Officer

Kathy Lockhart has served as Chief Accounting Officer of Noodles & Company since August 2020, following 14 years as the company's Vice President and Controller. She has extensive experience from leadership roles at Einstein Bros., Boston Market, VICORP, and Ultimate Electronics. Ms. Lockhart is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA).

Corey Kline
Executive Vice President of Technology

Corey Kline is the Executive Vice President of Technology at Noodles & Company. He joined the company in September 2011 as Director of IT and was promoted to VP in 2016, and then to Executive Vice President of Technology in March 2021. Mr. Kline previously held roles at Famous Dave's, Accenture, Jefferson Wells, and IBM, with a background in enterprise applications and risk management.

The key risks to Noodles & Company's business (NDLS) primarily revolve around its ability to sustain operational improvements and manage its financial obligations.

1. Maintaining Comparable Sales Growth and Margin Expansion: A significant risk for Noodles & Company is the difficulty in sustaining its recent comparable sales growth and continuing to expand restaurant contribution margins. The company's earnings recovery is heavily reliant on these factors. Challenges such as food inflation, higher labor costs, and weaker customer traffic could quickly impede margin recovery. The success of promotional strategies and the consistent launch of successful new menu items are crucial to maintaining this growth.
2. Debt and Refinancing Risk: Noodles & Company carries a notable amount of debt, with its credit facility maturing in the third quarter of 2027. The company is actively evaluating refinancing options and other strategic alternatives to manage this debt. This represents a significant balance sheet and refinancing risk that could impact the company's financial stability.
3. Achieving Operational, Strategic, and Financial Goals: The company faces the overarching risk of not successfully achieving its stated operational, strategic, and financial goals. These goals include improving restaurant operations, increasing restaurant revenue, comparable restaurant sales, net income, and adjusted EBITDA. The success of initiatives such as menu innovation, enhancing menu structure, improving operational effectiveness, and refining pricing strategies is critical, and there is no guarantee these strategies will be entirely successful.

The clear emerging threat for Noodles & Co is the proliferation and increasing sophistication of ghost kitchens and virtual brands.

These entities operate without traditional physical dining rooms, focusing solely on delivery and sometimes pickup. They leverage shared kitchen spaces and optimized digital ordering platforms to offer a wide variety of cuisines, often at lower operational costs compared to traditional brick-and-mortar fast-casual restaurants like Noodles & Co. This business model fundamentally disrupts the traditional restaurant industry by:

• Undercutting overhead: Eliminating the need for prime real estate, front-of-house staff, and extensive build-outs.
• Maximizing efficiency: Streamlining operations for delivery-only fulfillment.
• Rapid menu innovation: The ability to quickly launch and test new concepts and cuisines based on demand, including specialized noodle or pasta dishes that directly compete with Noodles & Co's core offerings.
• Directly competing on convenience: By focusing purely on delivery, they offer ultimate convenience to customers seeking prepared meals, directly challenging Noodles & Co's takeout and delivery segments.

This shift represents a new distribution and operational paradigm in the food service industry, analogous to how Netflix's streaming model disrupted Blockbuster's physical rental business or Uber's platform disrupted traditional taxi services, by offering a potentially more efficient and convenient alternative for a significant portion of the target market.

Noodles & Company (NDLS) operates in the U.S. fast-casual restaurant market, offering a menu that includes a variety of noodle and pasta dishes, soups, and salads. The addressable markets for their main products and services in the United States are as follows:

• Fast Casual Restaurants Market (U.S.): The United States fast-casual restaurant market was approximately USD 48.50 billion in 2025. It is projected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.40% between 2026 and 2035, reaching an estimated value of USD 90.19 billion by 2035.
• Pasta and Noodles Market (U.S.): The U.S. pasta and noodles market generated a revenue of USD 5,919.2 million in 2025 and is expected to reach USD 8,187.3 million by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 4.2% from 2026 to 2033.
• Soup Market (U.S.): The U.S. soup market is anticipated to reach US$6.95 billion by 2034, up from US$5.03 billion in 2025, exhibiting a CAGR of 3.66% from 2026 to 2034.
• Prepared Salads Market (U.S.): The market for prepared salads in the U.S. was valued at US$9.8 billion in 2023.
• Appetizers: Null

Noodles & Company (NDLS) is expected to drive future revenue growth over the next 2-3 years through a combination of strategies focusing on enhancing existing restaurant performance, leveraging digital channels, and optimizing its menu offerings. Based on recent earnings reports and company statements, the key drivers include:

1. Comparable Sales Growth through Increased Traffic and Average Check: Noodles & Company has demonstrated consistent comparable sales growth, fueled by both an increase in customer traffic and a rise in the average check size per order. For instance, in Q2 2026, system-wide comparable sales increased by 10.3%, with company-owned restaurants seeing an 11.4% rise. This was driven by a 7.6% increase in company comparable traffic and a 3.8% increase in average check, which included a 2.1% effective price increase. The company expects full-year 2026 comparable restaurant sales growth of 8%-11%.
2. Expansion of Digital Channels and Loyalty Program: The company is actively focusing on growing its digital presence and leveraging its Noodles Rewards program. Digital channel comparable sales increased by 18% in Q2 2026, indicating a strong shift towards online orders. This growth is attributed to attracting new guests through relevant brand messaging, food news, social content, and smarter media investments, rather than solely relying on discounts. The Noodles Rewards program, which had approximately 5.6 million members in 2024, allows for targeted and personalized offers to drive engagement and repeat business.
3. Menu Innovation and Culinary Changes: Noodles & Company aims to enhance its appeal and attract customers through ongoing menu innovation. In 2025, the company planned to introduce five new contemporary dishes and make culinary changes to four other existing dishes. These menu enhancements contribute to an improved guest experience and can lead to increased sales.
4. Strategic Portfolio Optimization: The company is undertaking a strategy of closing underperforming restaurants, which has resulted in the transfer of sales to nearby, higher-performing locations. This "portfolio optimization" has a positive impact on comparable sales. Management estimated that sales transfer boosted comparable sales by about 250 to 300 basis points in Q2 2026. For the full year 2026, Noodles & Company expects to close 30 to 35 company-owned and 5 franchise restaurants, with this optimization anticipated to drive a 200-300 basis point uplift in comparable sales.

Share Repurchases

• Noodles & Company announced a share repurchase program in July 2023, authorizing the repurchase of up to $5.0 million of its Class A common stock.
• During 2023, the Company repurchased 1,731,952 shares of its Class A common stock under this program.

Share Issuance

• In May 2023, Noodles & Company filed for a 2023 Stock Incentive Plan (S-8 registration).
• On August 21, 2026, Noodles & Company filed a $100 million mixed securities shelf registration statement, allowing for future securities offerings.
• In fiscal year 2025, the company experienced a modest share issuance resulting in a +1.83% change in shares.

Capital Expenditures

• Capital expenditures were approximately $33.89 million in fiscal year 2025, $52.04 million in fiscal year 2024, and $28.77 million in fiscal year 2023.
• The company projects capital expenditures of $9.5 million to $10.5 million for fiscal year 2026, with a focus on restaurant development.
• In 2024, Noodles & Company opened ten new company-owned restaurants, and planned to open two new company-owned restaurants in 2025.