Dutch Bros' New Shops Open Strong: Is Early Demand Scaling?

Dutch Bros Inc. BROS highlighted elevated new shop productivity during the third quarter of 2025, citing record system-wide AUVs and strong customer demand in newer markets, including the Midwest and Southeast. Management emphasized that these results reflect the broad appeal of the brand and its ability to resonate across diverse regions.

The company noted that new shops are opening with strong early productivity, supported by healthy initial demand and transaction activity. While management did not provide direct comparisons between new and mature locations, they pointed to sustained traffic trends and positive customer reception in newer markets as indicators supporting continued expansion. This performance has remained visible as the system surpassed 1,000 shops, with openings spanning multiple states.

Operational execution has also supported early shop performance. Management cited ongoing investments in market planning, labor deployment and enhanced shop-level dashboards designed to improve consistency and throughput, particularly during peak periods. In addition, newer markets are seeing higher adoption of Order Ahead, with some locations mixing at nearly double the system average.

As Dutch Bros advances toward its long-term target of 2,029 shops by 2029, continued strong early productivity in newly opened locations supports management’s confidence in its expansion strategy. While future performance will likely depend on execution and broader market conditions, current trends in early demand, transaction growth and new-market performance reinforce confidence in the scalability of the Dutch Bros model.

BROS’ Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Shares of Dutch Bros have gained 10% in the past year against the industry’s fall of 4.8%. In the same time frame, other industry players like Starbucks Corporation SBUX, Sweetgreen, Inc. SG and Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. CMG have declined 3.6%, 77.1% and 33.2%, respectively.

BROS’ One-Year Price Performance

From a valuation standpoint, BROS trades at a forward price-to-sales (P/S) multiple of 5.12, above the industry’s average of 3.47. Conversely, industry players, such as Starbucks, Sweetgreen and Chipotle, have P/S multiples of 2.6, 1.15 and 3.91, respectively.

BROS’ P/S Ratio (Forward 12-Month) vs. Industry

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BROS’ 2026 earnings per share has increased in the past 30 days.

EPS Trend of BROS Stock

The company is likely to report strong earnings, with projections indicating a 29.8% rise in 2026. Conversely, industry players like Sweetgreen and Chipotle are likely to witness an increase of 15.5% and 4.7%, respectively, year over year, in 2025 earnings. Meanwhile, Starbucks' fiscal 2026 earnings are likely to witness a rise of 28.3%, year over year.

BROS stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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