Cuộc họp công bố kết quả kinh doanh Quý 3 năm tài chính 2026 của Chipotle (CMG): Doanh thu tăng 9,6%, doanh số cùng cửa hàng Q4 dự kiến đạt gần 2%

Điểm tin chính

• Doanh thu quý 3 năm tài chính 2026 tăng 9,6% so với cùng kỳ năm trước lên 3,3 tỷ USD. Doanh số cùng cửa hàng tăng 2,1%, trong đó lượng giao dịch tăng 0,8%.
• Biên lợi nhuận cấp nhà hàng giảm 120 điểm cơ bản xuống 23,3%, trong khi EPS pha loãng đã điều chỉnh giảm 7% xuống 0,27 USD. Chi phí nhân công, tiếp thị, cơ cấu giao hàng và chi phí hoạt động cao hơn đã bù trừ cho chi phí bán hàng thấp hơn.
• Doanh số bán hàng qua kênh kỹ thuật số đạt 1,3 tỷ USD, chiếm 38,8% doanh thu, tăng từ mức 36,7% của một năm trước đó. Chương trình Chipotle Rewards có hơn 24 triệu thành viên hoạt động, với doanh số từ khách hàng thân thiết vượt 33% tổng doanh số.
• Ban lãnh đạo kỳ vọng mức tăng trưởng doanh số cùng cửa hàng trong quý 4 năm tài chính đạt khoảng 2%, với tỷ lệ tăng trưởng vào cuối năm có thể đạt từ 3% đến 4%, được hỗ trợ bởi món Smoked Brisket và các sáng kiến tiếp thị theo kế hoạch.
• Chipotle dự kiến mở khoảng 350 nhà hàng vào năm 2026. Cho năm 2027, ban lãnh đạo lên kế hoạch mở khoảng 340 đến 360 nhà hàng do công ty sở hữu tại Mỹ và Canada cùng 15 đến 25 nhà hàng do đối tác vận hành bên ngoài các thị trường này.
• Việc lắp đặt gói thiết bị hiệu suất cao (HEEP) đã đạt hơn 1.700 nhà hàng. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết các địa điểm được trang bị gói này đang tạo ra mức tăng doanh số cùng cửa hàng cao hơn vài trăm điểm cơ bản và bán thêm hơn hai món chính trong khoảng thời gian 15 phút cao điểm.

Dữ liệu tài chính cốt lõi

Kết quả kinh doanh và hoạt động

Đà tăng trưởng trong quý 3 của Chipotle đã chậm lại sau khi những khó khăn chung của ngành xuất hiện vào giữa tháng 7. Ban lãnh đạo đã ứng phó bằng các chương trình ưu đãi khuyến mại và xu hướng đã trở lại bình thường vào cuối tháng 8. Mức tăng trưởng doanh số cùng cửa hàng đạt 3,8% trong tháng 9 với các hoạt động khuyến mại hạn chế, được hỗ trợ bởi các sản phẩm Pollo Asado, Chili Lime Chips và chiến dịch 100 Creators.

Pollo Asado đạt tỷ lệ mua kèm trong khoảng hơn 20% và tạo ra thêm các giao dịch mới. Chili Lime Chips làm tăng tỷ lệ gọi món chip tổng thể, trong khi Cilantro Lime Sauce duy trì tỷ lệ mua kèm mạnh mẽ. Smoked Brisket dự kiến sẽ trở lại dưới dạng ưu đãi thời gian có hạn sau quý này.

HEEP hiện đã được lắp đặt tại hơn 1.700 nhà hàng, với mục tiêu đạt khoảng 2.000 nhà hàng vào cuối năm. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết mới chỉ có khoảng một nửa số nhà hàng được lắp đặt hoạt động đủ lâu để thể hiện đầy đủ lợi ích về doanh số, cho thấy sự đóng góp này có thể tiếp tục gia tăng trong suốt năm 2027 và 2028.

Công cụ nấu ăn theo nhu cầu tích hợp AI của Chipotle đã mở rộng sang hơn 500 nhà hàng, với kế hoạch triển khai trên toàn quốc vào đầu năm 2027. Giao diện dây chuyền chế biến kỹ thuật số Chipotle Kitchen dự kiến sẽ tiếp cận vài trăm nhà hàng vào cuối năm trước khi mở rộng trên toàn hệ thống trong năm 2027.

Doanh số của Bữa ăn Gia đình (Family Meal) đã tăng hơn 30% sau chiến dịch tiếp thị mới. Dịch vụ ăn uống sự kiện (Catering) và Bữa ăn Gia đình hiện chiếm khoảng 3% tổng doanh số. Ban lãnh đạo có kế hoạch bắt đầu triển khai dịch vụ catering trên toàn quốc vào quý 1 năm 2027 và hướng tới mục tiêu tăng trưởng 1 đến 2 điểm phần trăm mỗi năm từ các dịp ăn uống nhóm trong vài năm tới.

Ở thị trường quốc tế, Chipotle đã bước vào Mexico, Ả Rập Xê Út và Hàn Quốc trong quý 3. Ban lãnh đạo báo cáo nhu cầu mở cửa ban đầu rất mạnh mẽ tại mỗi thị trường. Các nhà hàng do công ty tự vận hành tại Châu Âu đạt mức tăng trưởng doanh số cùng cửa hàng ở mức hai chữ số thấp, cải thiện so với mức tăng trưởng một chữ số cao trong quý 2.

Dự báo của Ban lãnh đạo

• Doanh số cùng cửa hàng năm tài chính 2026: Ban lãnh đạo duy trì dự báo tăng trưởng ở mức một chữ số thấp.
• Doanh số cùng cửa hàng quý 4 năm tài chính: Dự kiến tăng khoảng 2%, với tỷ lệ tăng trưởng vào cuối năm có thể đạt 3% đến 4%.
• Giá vốn bán hàng quý 4 năm tài chính: Dự kiến ở mức khoảng 30,5%, chủ yếu phản ánh chương trình ưu đãi thời gian có hạn món Smoked Brisket.
• Chi phí nhân công quý 4 năm tài chính: Dự kiến ở mức khoảng 26%.
• Chi phí hoạt động khác quý 4 năm tài chính: Dự kiến ở mức khoảng 16%, bao gồm chi phí tiếp thị nằm trong vùng cao của mức 3%.
• Biên lợi nhuận cấp nhà hàng quý 4 năm tài chính: Dự kiến ngay dưới mức 22%, thấp hơn khoảng 150 điểm cơ bản so với cùng kỳ năm trước. Ban lãnh đạo cho rằng khoảng 70 điểm cơ bản là do doanh thu thẻ quà tặng không sử dụng của năm trước, khoảng 30 điểm cơ bản do thời điểm tiếp thị món Brisket và phần còn lại chủ yếu do sản lượng doanh số.
• Chi phí G&A non-GAAP quý 4 năm tài chính: Dự kiến ở mức khoảng 189 triệu USD.
• Thuế suất năm tài chính 2026: Thuế suất thực tế cốt lõi tiếp tục được dự báo trong khoảng 24% đến 26%.
• Số nhà hàng mở mới năm 2026: Khoảng 350 nhà hàng.
• Số nhà hàng mở mới năm 2027: Khoảng 340 đến 360 nhà hàng do công ty sở hữu tại Mỹ và Canada, cộng thêm 15 đến 25 nhà hàng do đối tác vận hành bên ngoài các thị trường này.
• Lạm phát năm 2027: Ban lãnh đạo hiện kỳ vọng lạm phát ở mức từ thấp đến trung bình của một chữ số và có kế hoạch sử dụng việc điều chỉnh giá menu một cách có đo lường để bù đắp lạm phát trong dài hạn.

Rủi ro và các điểm cần theo dõi

Xu hướng doanh số tháng 10 suy yếu cùng với tình hình chung của ngành, mặc dù ban lãnh đạo cho biết lượng giao dịch sau đó đã trở lại mức dương. Triển vọng quý 4 một phần phụ thuộc vào đợt ra mắt món Smoked Brisket và hoạt động tiếp thị theo kế hoạch.

Biên lợi nhuận cấp nhà hàng tiếp tục chịu áp lực do đòn bẩy doanh số thấp hơn, lạm phát tiền lương, chi tiêu tiếp thị cao hơn, cơ cấu giao hàng và chi phí liên quan đến việc mở nhà hàng mới. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết cần có mức tăng trưởng doanh số cùng cửa hàng danh nghĩa khoảng 4% để ổn định biên lợi nhuận trong kịch bản lạm phát 3%, với giả định việc điều chỉnh giá bù đắp được lạm phát.

Cơ cấu món ăn đã làm giảm khoảng 1,4% doanh số cùng cửa hàng trong quý 3, chủ yếu do quy mô nhóm khách hàng nhỏ hơn liên quan đến sự tham gia cao hơn của chương trình phần thưởng. Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến quy mô nhóm khách hàng vẫn sẽ là yếu tố cản trở khoảng 100 điểm cơ bản trong ngắn hạn, được bù đắp một phần nhờ việc gọi thêm phần đạm, nước sốt, chips và các Bữa ăn Gia đình.

Mở rộng quốc tế vẫn phụ thuộc vào năng lực thực thi của đối tác và các điều kiện khu vực. Ban lãnh đạo đã đặc biệt đề cập đến xung đột ở Trung Đông là một yếu tố có thể ảnh hưởng đến tốc độ tăng trưởng của các nhà hàng do đối tác vận hành.

Nội dung nổi bật từ phần Hỏi & Đáp với nhà phân tích

• Quỹ đạo quý 4: Ban lãnh đạo kỳ vọng mức tăng trưởng doanh số cùng cửa hàng khoảng 2% mặc dù khởi đầu quý có sự biến động. Smoked Brisket và các sáng kiến tiếp thị dự kiến sẽ hỗ trợ tỷ lệ tăng trưởng vào cuối kỳ đạt 3% đến 4%.
• Khuôn khổ biên lợi nhuận: Nếu giá bán bù đắp được lạm phát, Chipotle cần khoảng 1 điểm phần trăm tăng trưởng giao dịch để hấp thụ tác động của việc mở nhà hàng mới. Mức tăng trưởng giao dịch trên ngưỡng đó sẽ chuyển hóa vào biên lợi nhuận với tỷ lệ khoảng 40%.
• Tiếp thị năm 2027: Ban lãnh đạo coi khoảng 3% doanh số là mức cơ bản, với chi tiêu linh hoạt theo hiệu suất dự kiến và thời điểm đưa ra các ưu đãi thời gian có hạn.
• Đổi mới thực đơn: Chipotle lên kế hoạch tung ra khoảng 4 chương trình ưu đãi thời gian có hạn cho món chính trong năm 2027, kết hợp giữa sản phẩm mới và các món quay trở lại. Công ty cũng kế hoạch đổi mới nhiều hơn đối với món phụ, nước sốt chấm và thức uống.
• Nâng cấp nhà hàng: Các thử nghiệm cải tạo ban đầu đang được tiến hành tại California, Texas và Florida cho các nhà hàng cũ hơn. Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến sẽ cung cấp thêm chi tiết xung quanh cuộc họp báo cáo kết quả kinh doanh quý 1.
• Cơ hội từ dịch vụ catering: Công ty coi dịch vụ ăn uống sự kiện là một sáng kiến tăng trưởng toàn quốc nhưng có kế hoạch mở rộng mà không làm gián đoạn hoạt động kinh doanh bữa trưa và bữa tối cốt lõi.

Toàn văn biên bản cuộc họp báo cáo kết quả kinh doanh

Toàn văn cuộc gọi công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Phần trình bày của ban lãnh đạo

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to Chipotle Mexican Grill's Third Quarter Fiscal 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Christian D'Souza, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Unknown Executive

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Chipotle Mexican Grill's Third Quarter Fiscal 2026 Earnings Call. By now, you should have access to our earnings press release. If not, it can be found on our Investor Relations website at ir.chipotle.com. Additionally, supplemental investor information is available on our site as a reference for today's call.

I will begin by reminding you that today's discussion includes forward-looking statements, including projections about our future business, financial and other performance results. These statements are based on management's current business and market expectations, and our actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Please see today's earnings release and the risk factors contained in our annual report on Form 10-K and in our Form 10-Qs for a discussion of risks that may cause our actual results to vary from these forward-looking statements.

Our discussion today will include non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation to GAAP measures can be found via the link included on the Presentations page within the Investor Relations section of our website. We will start today's call with prepared remarks from Scott Boatwright, Chief Executive Officer; and Adam Rymer, Chief Financial Officer, after which we will take your questions.

And with that, I will turn the call over to Scott.

Scott Boatwright

Thank you, Christian, and good afternoon, everyone. We are pleased to see the momentum in our business continue in the quarter as we delivered revenue growth of 9.6%, once again, including positive comparable sales and transactions. These results were fueled by our Recipe for Growth strategy as we continue to improve restaurant execution, deepen engagement with our rewards members, bring new craveable innovation to the menu and expand occasions.

Additionally, our marketing connected with consumers in new and culturally relevant ways, including through our 100 Creators campaign. And we've been opening a new restaurant nearly every day of the year and see tremendous opportunity to continue to do so even in our most dense markets.

Our focus remains clear: strengthen what differentiates Chipotle, execute with greater consistency and create more reasons for guests to choose us. Broader consumer and industry headwinds may continue, but initiatives across our Recipe for Growth strategy are building and giving us more tools to win in any environment. We are still in the early stages of this work, and it's gaining traction.

The progress we delivered this quarter gives us even greater conviction in our strategy and the multiple avenues we have to drive sustained growth at scale. In short, we are a category leader. We have a uniquely differentiated brand with strong fandom, and we believe much of our growth opportunity is still in front of us.

Now I'll walk through our progress across each of the 5 strategic pillars, starting with our first pillar, protecting and strengthening the core, because everything begins with running great restaurants. For our guests, that means delicious food made from high-quality ingredients, generous and consistent portions, exceptional throughput, on time and accurate digital orders, clean restaurants and genuine hospitality. These are fundamental to our brand promise, and we remain focused on delivering them consistently throughout the day across every restaurant globally.

Our high-efficiency equipment package is showing how targeted investments in our restaurants can drive better outcomes for our guests, our teams and our business. Restaurants with HEEP are delivering hundreds of basis points of comparable sales uplift, improvements in guest satisfaction and taste of food scores and over 2 additional entrees during the peak 15-minute period. HEEP is now installed in over 1,700 restaurants, and we continue to work toward approximately 2,000 restaurants by year-end.

HEEP is designed to simplify morning prep and grill operations, improve culinary consistency and flavor, reduce menu outages and help our teams deploy more effectively during peaks. Importantly, we continue to reinvest the labor efficiencies created by the equipment back into our restaurants, giving our teams greater capacity to focus on throughput and hospitality.

Throughput remains a key focus and one of the most important ways we believe we can improve the guest experience and drive incremental transactions. When we have the 4 pillars of throughput in place, our teams can move guests through the line faster while creating more opportunities to engage with them in a genuine and hospitable way. We have been focused on [ linebacker ] and [ expo ] deployment for the past several quarters and have made great progress on execution.

We are now expanding our focus to drive consistent execution across all 4 pillars, including [ mise en place ] and [ aces in their places ], which is happening in fewer than half of our restaurants today. We fully recognize the importance of exceptional throughput and know this is our strategic advantage. While we've made progress, I know we can be better. We will be emphasizing this evolution in Q4 so we are well prepared for the seasonal ramp in 2027 and we enter the new year with the momentum necessary to be great.

At the same time, we are reinforcing accountability around hospitality and execution. I attended our team director conference during the quarter, and this year's agenda was focused on being brilliant at the basics that bring guests back time after time. Preparing exceptional food is central to this, and Jason Kidd, our Chief Operating Officer, had a simple message for our teams: run to the food, taste it every time and ensure it's delicious for our guests. That focus is already paying off, with taste of food scores up nearly 1 point year-over-year.

We're proud of that progress, but just like throughput, we know we can be even better. Great execution starts with great leadership in the restaurants, and we continue to optimize general manager and apprentice deployment to ensure our busiest dayparts are supported. These efforts are collectively leading to the better outcomes we are seeing an operational metrics, and we have made meaningful progress, but we know there's more opportunity ahead. Our goal is to deliver the Chipotle experience with consistency in every restaurant every day.

Turning to our second pillar, modernizing our business through technology and digital innovation. Our goal is straightforward: use technology to make our teams more effective and make the Chipotle experience easier, faster and more rewarding for our guests. Under Chief Digital Officer Arlie Sisson's leadership, we are building the capabilities to accelerate progress, and Arlie is strengthening her team with the addition of AI and architecture leadership to help accelerate innovation across the business.

We are still in the early stages of what AI can do. One example is our AI-enabled cook to needs tool, which entered pilot during the third quarter and has now rolled out to over 500 restaurants. The tool, which we plan to roll out nationally early next year, uses AI-based demand forecast to recommend the right amount of freshly prepared food at the right time. This helps reduce manual data entry, increase prep efficiency and readiness, reduce waste and support better deployment and more consistent culinary execution.

Alongside this, we are also developing Ava Cado, our in-restaurant AI assistant. [indiscernible] see the potential to expand its scope and assist general managers with operational insights and actionable coaching that can help our team leaders make better decisions in real time. Our proprietary digital makeline interface, which we call Chipotle Kitchen, is also currently rolling out to our restaurants, with plans to reach several hundred by year-end. The technology is designed around improving the outcomes that matter most for our teams and guests: order accuracy, on-time fulfillment, speed, ease of integrating new menu items and guest satisfaction. We will continue scaling to the entire system throughout 2027.

In April, we revamped Chipotle Rewards and are continuing to see strong results from the program, with our highest comps consistently coming from loyalty occasions. In-store enrollment has also remained elevated, driving our active membership to reach over 24 million guests for the quarter, and we continue to see significant opportunity to deepen engagement with members.

Summer of Extras was a strong example, with 6.8 million rewards members opting into the program, an increase over last year. Members earned 25 million badges and completed approximately 600,000 challenges. Most importantly, our loyalty share of sales increased to over 33%, our highest ever. This is exactly what the program is designed to do: deepen engagement and give guests more reasons to visit Chipotle.

We also continue to progress with our frictionless rewards pilot. Around 30% of our guests use Apple Pay in store, and they will be able to automatically earn points while paying, eliminating the need for a separate reward scan. It's a simple change, but an important one because it reduces the key friction point while also supporting throughput. We will advance the test through stage gate in Q4 and plan to take the technology across the enterprise in 2027. Longer term, we see a significant opportunity for technology to make rewards increasingly personalized, improve in-restaurant identification and help us more effectively reengage lapsed members.

Our third strategic pillar is evolving our brand messaging, accelerating menu innovation and expanding the occasions where guests choose Chipotle. At the center of this work is the value proposition that has defined Chipotle for more than 3 decades: real food made with high-quality ingredients, freshly prepared using classic culinary techniques, served with generous portions in speed at an accessible price point. Our brand tracker revealed that our value scores and overall brand health remains strong in Q3, with sequential gains in both amount and quality of food for the money.

Under Chief Brand Officer Fernando Machado's leadership, we are supercharging how we communicate our value proposition and connecting what makes Chipotle different with what matters to consumers today. And we are doing it in ways that are more ambitious, culturally relevant and distinctive to the brand. We are showing up across creator content, sports and entertainment, gaming, fashion and other spaces to meet guests where they are, and guests are recognizing the differentiation. We saw stable or improving wallet share across the quarter, with broad strength across income and age cohorts. Importantly, we saw lower income cohorts outperform higher income cohorts for the first time this year, with the greatest strength in September, when promotional activity was at its lowest.

Driving this in Q3 was our 100 Creators campaign, which brought popular creators directly into Chipotle kitchens to experience the brand firsthand and capture the care, craft and fresh preparation that goes into our food every day. Our work with Cardi B and the Bardi Bowl created another meaningful connection while promoting our Chili Lime Chips. The [ Sales Schneider ] kids meal helped us engage families with younger guests, while our PGA 2K25 integration allowed us to tap into the strong affinity between Chipotle and the golf community.

And recently, we revealed that the music within our 100 Creators campaign was the result of a partnership with the London Vegetable Orchestra. We enlisted them to record an original track at the legendary Abbey Road Studios with instruments made from our 53 real ingredients. These activations are designed to do more than generate attention. They help us tell the story in fresh ways, broaden our reach and keep the brand top of mind.

Menu innovation is another important factor in enhancing our value proposition, attracting new guests and giving existing guests more reason to visit, all while staying true to our food with integrity commitment and the culinary principles that define Chipotle. On August 31, we broke new ground by launching 2 limited time offerings together, bringing back Pollo Asado with an all-new recipe and our Chili Lime Chips, our first innovation in the category. Pollo Asado features freshly grilled adobo chicken seasoned with garlic and Mexican spices, [ handcuff ] cilantro and bright citrus. Guest response has exceeded our expectations, driving incremental transactions and an attachment rate in the low 20% range, which is significantly higher than our prior launch.

Chili Lime Chips were inspired by a viral fan food hack and are made fresh daily and hand seasonsed with fresh squeezed lime and chili peppers. Guest response has been very positive, driving incremental growth in overall [ chip incidents ]. Cilantro Lime Sauce also remained on the menu throughout the quarter and has maintained a strong attachment rate while outperforming the benchmark set by prior sauce innovation.

Next week, we are excited to bring back Smoked Brisket for a limited time with a new and even more delicious recipe, featuring responsibly raised beef that is seasoned with spices including [ smoked serrano ] and Chipotle chili peppers before being smoked over Mesquite wood. Once in our restaurants, teams sear the brisket on the plancha, finish it with spices, toss it in a savory sauce made with smokey chili peppers and hand chop it in small batches throughout the day. Smoked Brisket has demonstrated both broad guest appeal and incremental transaction growth in the past, and we look forward to bringing it back.

We have been hard at work this year on our innovation pipeline, which remains strong. In 2027 and beyond, we see considerable opportunity across proteins, sides and beverages, giving us multiple ways to create fresh news around Chipotle while staying true to who we are. We also continue to make progress on our efforts to expand catering nationally, and we intend to begin rolling it out in Q1 of 2027. We have been working on refining our approach and developing the [ spoke load ] bouncing tools to help optimize the process. And our pilots have delivered the operational marketing and technology insights we need to feel confident we can grow without disrupting the core lunch and dinner business. Catering guests have heightened expectations, and we intend to deliver flawless execution as we scale.

Additionally, Chipotle Family Meals, which are also available in Canada, are resonating as a convenient, high-value solution for groups of 4 to 6. To drive awareness for the Family Meal offering, this month, we launched a memorable marketing campaign, which I'll just say, like its name, is an enormous bag to highlight the oversized meal offering. This was a fun and distinctive way to connect the branded culture, drive buzz and showcase value. Early results have shown a step up of over 30% in Family Meal sales.

Together, catering and Chipotle family meals represent approximately 3% of sales today. Both remain highly incremental and operationally efficient, giving us another meaningful runway for growth.

Turning to our fourth pillar, cultivating the best talent in the industry. Our people remain our greatest competitive advantage. The quality of our restaurant teams and leadership directly influences consistency, hospitality, restaurant performance and our ability to sustain growth. We continue to make progress building the pipeline of general managers, apprentices and field leaders needed to support new restaurant openings. And we're proud to see both general manager and crew turnover down year-over-year.

We also understand the value of a second tenured manager in the restaurant, with better operational and guest-facing outcomes occurring in restaurants that do have an apprentice. 3/4 of our restaurants have apprentices today, and we will begin expanding coverage incrementally in 2027. We will keep a keen focus on hospitality and measuring the sustained benefit of this investment, and we believe the returns will justify further expansion across the year.

Central to our people strategy is offering world-class benefits, and educational assistance continues to be a strong driver of retention. In August, we celebrated the 10-year anniversary of our partnership with Guild, which provides debt-free education and greater career mobility for our team members. Nearly 25,000 team members have enrolled in the education program, and more than 14,000 have completed one.

Those programs reinforce something fundamental to our culture: Chipotle is a place where people build meaningful long-term careers. And as we strengthen leadership across the organization, we're continuing to add capabilities and expertise at the Board level to support our long-term ambitions. In September, we added Sabir Sami to our Board of Directors. Sabir brings extensive global restaurant leadership and operating experience with capabilities that align with our international growth ambitions.

Finally, turning to our fifth pillar. We are expanding our global footprint. Our approach to development remains disciplined, site selection, restaurant economics, expected returns and the strength of our talent pipeline all inform the pace of growth, and each remains strong. Chipotlanes continue to be an important part of that model. They provide greater convenience, drive higher digital mix, generate stronger sales and returns and reduce friction for our guests.

During the third quarter, we reached an important milestone with the opening of our 1,500th Chipotlane. In the U.S. and Canada, we opened 83 new restaurants during the quarter, including 53 Chipotlanes. We continue to see significant white space in both countries and remain confident that we will open around 350 restaurants this year. Looking ahead to 2027, we expect to open approximately 340 to 360 company-owned restaurants in the U.S. and Canada.

Our company-owned international business also continued to expand during the quarter with a new restaurant in the U.K., which has seen opening performance consistent with our strongest London restaurants. Alongside our company-owned growth, our partner operating model is allowing us to enter new markets with experienced local operators and expand access to Chipotle around the world.

The third quarter marked an important step forward in our ambition to build Chipotle into an iconic global brand as we entered Mexico, Saudi Arabia and South Korea, meaning Chipotle is now available to enjoy in 11 countries across the globe. Each region has demonstrated strong local demand, which can be seen in the long lines of guests waiting for us to open the doors on day 1 in each new market we enter.

In Mexico, our first restaurant opened in July to an extremely positive reception in the Monterrey Metropolitan area with our partner, Alsea. Opening volumes exceeded our initial expectations, and this has reinforced the appeal of the Chipotle brand within the country. We plan to open our next restaurant nearby, as well as our first location in Mexico City in 2027.

We entered Saudi Arabia this quarter in partnership with the Alshaya Group, and we were thrilled to see new opening volumes set yet another record and build on the demand we have seen across the Middle East. We also opened new restaurants in the UAE and Kuwait, bringing our total across the region to 18 restaurants. Our long-term outlook in the region remains unchanged, and we continue to believe it can support hundreds of Chipotle restaurants over time.

Additionally, our first restaurant in South Korea opened last month near Gangnam Station, where lines stretched several city blocks for weeks and average daily sales trends built throughout the quarter. In fact, earlier today, we opened our second location in Seoul and have additional restaurants in development as we build the business with SPC Group, including our planned opening in Singapore next spring.

So far in 2026, 8 restaurants have opened outside the U.S. and Canada, and the response we are seeing across markets reinforces our belief that the appeal of Chipotle is borderless. Consumers around the globe value high-quality food prepared fresh with real ingredients, giving us confidence that our model can resonate well around the globe. In 2027, we expect to open around 15 to 25 restaurants outside the U.S. and Canada.

To close, our third quarter results reinforce that our Recipe for Growth strategy is gaining traction and creating multiple levers to navigate a dynamic industry and consumer environment and drive sustained growth. We are improving restaurant execution, throughput and hospitality. We are scaling technology and AI while building a more engaging rewards ecosystem. We are accelerating menu innovation and evolving our marketing to keep Chipotle relevant and top of mind.

We are also building new occasions through catering and family meals. We continue to develop a deep pipeline of talent and are expanding globally with discipline. I'm confident we have the right strategy, the right leadership team and a significant opportunity ahead as we continue to build Chipotle into an iconic global brand.

With that, I'll turn it over to Adam.

Adam Rymer

Thanks, Scott, and good afternoon, everyone. Our third quarter results reflect the continued traction of our Recipe for Growth strategy as well as our ability to respond quickly and decisively when we see shifts in demand. In the third quarter, sales grew 9.6% to $3.3 billion, including a comparable restaurant sales increase of 2.1% and a positive transaction comp of 0.8%. Digital sales of $1.3 billion were 38.8% of total sales compared to 36.7% in the prior year. Restaurant-level margin was 23.3%, a decline of 120 basis points year-over-year. Adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.27, down 7% versus last year. And we opened 84 company-owned restaurants and 5 partner-operated restaurants, expanding into 3 new markets: Mexico, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

We entered the quarter with strong sales trends, supported by our Recipe for Growth initiatives. However, industry headwinds beginning in mid-July slowed our momentum. We quickly acted to reengage our guests with promotional offers, and I am proud of how thoughtfully our teams responded. We were pleased to see trends normalize by late August, and we saw further improvement in September after the launch of Pollo Asado and Chili Lime Chips as well as our 100 Creators campaign.

October trends have softened, consistent with the broader industry. However, we continue to see positive underlying engagement with our menu innovation and activations. We look forward to building momentum with the launch of Smoked Brisket next week, and we are confident we will deliver on our guidance of low single-digit comps for 2026.

On pricing, the impact in Q3 was around 2.7%. We anticipate it will increase to about 3% in Q4, bringing total pricing in 2026 to around 2%. As we look ahead to 2027, we currently anticipate overall inflation to remain in the low to mid-single-digit range and expect to continue managing that inflation over the long run with our new approach to menu pricing.

Before I walk through the P&L, I want to take a moment to highlight the economics behind our promotional strategy and how we approach our overall marketing investment. Promotions such as our buy-1-get-1 activations and protein limited time offers are designed to connect with our guests in a culturally relevant way. They do more than drive a single day or a single quarter of sales. They bring new and lapsed guests into our restaurants, increase frequency among existing guests and keep Chipotle top of mind.

As we shared earlier this year, our protein limited time offers typically generate a few hundred basis points of transaction lift over the life of the promotion. And we generally [ the same ] part of that lift longer term as many new guests continue to dine with us after the offer ends. Our buy 1 get 1 activations have followed a similar pattern, and the benefit is amplified when we find opportunities to connect with a cultural moment. It is this stickiness that makes these investments so productive over time.

We evaluate marketing and promotional investments through a return-focused lens. When we have great ideas that deliver attractive returns, we will lean in as we did this quarter. This discipline gives us the flexibility to respond quickly to shifts in demand while protecting the long-term strength of our economic model.

With that, I will go through the key P&L line items, beginning with cost of sales. Cost of sales in the quarter was 29.5%, a decrease of about 50 basis points from last year. The benefits of menu pricing and tariff relief were more than enough to offset inflation, which was primarily driven by beef and freight. For Q4, we anticipate cost of sales to be around 30.5%, primarily due to the impact of our Smoked Brisket limited time offer. On an underlying basis, this puts cost of sales inflation at around 3% for Q4.

Labor costs for the quarter were 25.7%, an increase of about 50 basis points from last year. The increase was driven by sales volumes, wage inflation and higher labor usage in support of promotional activity. In addition, we recognized some discrete costs related to insurance. These factors were partially offset by the benefit of menu price increases. Excluding these discrete impacts, we saw underlying inflation in the low single-digit range, and we expect this to continue into Q4 with labor costs around 26%.

Other operating costs for the quarter were 16%, an increase of about 100 basis points from last year, primarily driven by higher marketing delivery mix and inflation across several items, including utilities and maintenance. Marketing costs were in the mid-3% range during the quarter, an increase of about 40 basis points from last year as we leaned into promotional activity to reengage guests following the industry headwinds mid-quarter.

In support of the brisket campaign in Q4, we expect marketing costs to land in the high 3% range, bringing other operating costs to around 16%. Altogether, this will put Q4 margins at just under 22%, which is roughly 150 basis points lower than last year. After normalizing for a 70 basis point gift card breakage benefit in the prior year and the shift in marketing spend to support brisket, the decline is driven by sales volume. With pricing now in line with inflation, our unit economic model remains intact, and we expect margins to expand as we drive additional transaction growth.

G&A for the quarter was $185 million on a GAAP basis or $184 million on a non-GAAP basis, excluding retention equity awards granted to key executives in August of 2024. G&A included $155 million of underlying G&A, $29 million of noncash stock compensation, offset by $0.5 million related to lower bonus accruals and payroll taxes. For Q4, we expect G&A to be around $189 million on a non-GAAP basis, which will include $156 million in underlying G&A, $31 million in noncash stock compensation, although this amount could move up or down based on our actual performance, and $2 million in higher bonus accruals and payroll taxes.

As we continue to scale, our G&A growth is predominantly driven by field leadership roles supporting new restaurants, and we have leveraged G&A over the past several years, thanks to our disciplined approach to investments in technology and other areas. In 2027 and beyond, we intend to fuel our recipe for growth strategy while also leveraging G&A.

Depreciation for the quarter was $103 million or 3.1% of sales. And in Q4, we expect it to remain in the low 3% range. Our effective tax rate for Q3 was 25.6% on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis. For fiscal 2026, we continue to expect our underlying effective tax rate to be in the 24% to 26% range, though it may vary based on discrete items.

Our balance sheet remains strong, as we ended the quarter with $1 billion in cash, restricted cash and investments and no debt. Share repurchases are an important part of our capital allocation program and a meaningful way to return value to shareholders. Year-to-date, we've repurchased $1.4 billion at an average price of $34.32, and we have about $1.6 billion remaining under authorization. During the quarter, there was a period where we were unable to repurchase our stock. However, we believe our shares are undervalued, and we look forward to returning to the market as soon as the earnings blackout lifts.

To close, this quarter demonstrated the strength of our Recipe for Growth strategy and our ability to respond quickly and effectively when we see shifts in demand. Few brands can invest in the highest quality ingredients, offer an accessible price point and still deliver industry-leading economics. That unique model gives us the flexibility to invest behind our guests while protecting the long-term strength of the business. We are optimistic about closing out 2026 on a strong note, and we remain well positioned to continue creating long-term value for our guests, our teams and our shareholders.

And with that, we can open it up for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from David Palmer with Evercore ISI.

Phần hỏi đáp

David Palmer

I wanted to ask about this fourth quarter and what you think it means so far. I think you know that this quarter was supposed to be a payoff quarter of sorts where pricing was ramping through the year. You got the new kitchen equipment. You have more stores with that, the marketing improvement, the renewed focus on operations, that diminishing cyclospora headwinds and comparisons. And I think there was some expectation out there that the comps would continue to ramp maybe 3% plus, and you were kind of going there, it looked like, in the third quarter.

I think there's a perception that comps are down so far in October. And so that's making people jump to conclusions about wondering what's working, what's not working. So perhaps you can comment more specifically on October to date, what's happened? And then what's your diagnosis? What implications does this have for your strategy? And what sort of same-store sales expectation you might have for '27?

Scott Boatwright

Dave, it's Scott here. Thank you for the question. I'll tell you, we entered the quarter -- I'll tell you, we finished September up 3.8% with little to -- very little promo activity, which gave us a lot of confidence that we're on the right track. We saw some broader industry pullback in the first part of October.

I'll tell you, we have since regained positive transactions. And we have high confidence in the balance of the quarter on the back of what is an extraordinary product in Brisket, which has had incredible demand over the past few years when we offered it. We see no difference this year. We think the product's improved and even better. And so we feel very confident that November and December set up very well for us with a potential exit rate on the year of 3% to 4%.

Adam Rymer

Yes. And I'll add to that, David, just to give you an idea for Q4. So taking into account the choppy start for the quarter and the dynamic consumer environment, we anticipate that our Q4 comps will actually be around a plus 2%. But like Scott said, we'll have an exit rate in that 3% to 4% range. And again, that's going to be fueled by the launch of Brisket next week as well as several marketing initiatives that we have planned.

And we're really excited really to continue to build upon this momentum in 2027. Too early to give any kind of guide at this point for comps. We'll do that at the next call. but it's still early days, with many of our sales building initiatives from our Recipe for Growth strategy. So you can imagine that we're excited as this continues to build into 2027 and beyond.

Scott Boatwright

Yes, Dave, I'll just -- one more I'll add on there. I think it's a really important note to say that there's only a few core tent poles of the strategy that are actually working for us here in 2026. Much of the strategy is yet to continue to build scale and unfold. And most of the growth is still well ahead of us.

Operator

The next question comes from Sara Senatore with Bank of America.

Sara Senatore

Just maybe a question on throughput and then a quick question on, Adam, your comment on marketing. I think with the throughput piece, one of the things that we've heard from others is that maybe there's been too much focus on speed of service at the expense of hospitality. I'm just curious, I know you mentioned both, but as you think about measuring some of these other metrics to ensure that your -- the experience is better, has that changed what your checklist or your metrics that you measure for your management teams or how they're compensated?

And then the question for Adam was, you mentioned normalizing for marketing behind Brisket. I guess, I was trying to understand that comment about normalizing since it sort of seems like just this is a step-up in spending around marketing that has worked for you, but it's not necessarily onetime.

Scott Boatwright

Sara, Scott here. I'll start with the throughput question. I'll flip over to Adam on promo spending. I think it's important to note that Q3's performance and throughput was very consistent with what we saw in Q2. Bonus is still tied, so crew bonus is still tied to quarterly throughput measures.

In the restaurants where we have HEEP and fully loaded, it's about 1,700 restaurants today. We're seeing plus 2 entrees in those restaurants as compared to the base, which gives us confidence that the HEEP investment is the right investment for our brand. And we'll finish that rollout as we've talked about or near complete that rollout by the end of 2027. I assure you, we are going as absolutely fast as we possibly can there.

Also important to note, we are -- as Jason and team are about to go under the tent once again with throughput 2.0 and cascade the throughput fundamentals back to the organization once again, which is something we do on an annual basis. That work has started here this quarter to ensure we are front-footed going into 2027.

Can we get better? I am absolutely positive we can get better. Is it still an absolute focal point for this organization? It is core and center to Jason's operational strategy. We all know full well, how critically important it is to our brand, and we're going to lean into that momentum that's building in a really meaningful way here in Q4.

Adam Rymer

Yes. And Sara, it's Adam. So to answer your question on marketing, you have to think about the fact that switching to this [ 4 protein ] LTO strategy that we've had this year is causing some shifts in marketing. So with Brisket coming on in November, there's a little bit more spend in the last 2 months of the year than kind of prior year. So that's where -- when we kind of talk about in support of that campaign, we expect marketing cost to be a little bit higher in Q4. So that was where that comment was based on.

Operator

The next question comes from Danilo Gargiulo with Bernstein.

Danilo Gargiulo

Great. Scott, I wanted to expand on the comment that you were making earlier regarding your bias to action. I mean, it's clear that so far you've demonstrated greater bias to actions. You had 4 [ FTOs ], greater market spending, more locations being driven. Yet the -- on a traffic level, especially on the third quarter, it has been relatively flattish this year.

So I know you're not giving any guidance for 2027, but just directionally, what's your expectations on traffic? Meaning, do you think that you can get into positive traffic over there, even if the market overall is not improving? And if so, can you help us understand maybe the building blocks of the traffic -- of the positive traffic growth into 2027?

Scott Boatwright

Yes. Danilo, I think I heard you asking about traffic. I'll tell you, we've had positive transactions all 3 quarters of the year thus far. And we feel like we're in early days of the Recipe for Growth strategy, which is designed to do just that. It's a demand-driving strategy across the core tenets of technology, restaurant execution, innovation, brand messaging, group occasions. And we feel like we're in early days of that strategy.

So if you're asking can we drive transactions in a really challenging consumer environment, I think we've demonstrated for the past 3 quarters, we can do that. And the strategy is only in the early days, and we'll continue to build and scale as the year unfolds and as we enter 2027. So if you're asking me if I have confidence in this team's ability to drive transactions in this environment, the answer is absolutely yes.

Operator

The next question comes from Dennis Geiger with UBS.

Dennis Geiger

Wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the 4Q margin expectations? Adam, great color, but by line item, always helpful. I guess just relative to the comp expectation for the quarter, any other moving pieces? I guess that the marketing, it seems like a pretty big piece of this. Any other moving pieces for the 4Q margins that maybe you didn't touch on, if anything, on labor hours, investment in in some of the labor programs that you've got, anything on promo impacts? Anything else to flag beyond some of those items you called out earlier?

Adam Rymer

Yes. Sure, Dennis. So yes, what we called out earlier, of course, when you're kind of looking at it on a year-over-year basis, it's down about 150 basis points. Half of that is that gift card benefit that we got in the prior year. So you kind of have to look at that as a discrete item based off of that comparison.

And then really, the ad promo shift to support Brisket, call that another 30 basis points or so. And then the remainder is really sales volume. So we're expecting with that 2-ish percent guide about a flat transaction, but a mix impact of probably about a minus 1%. And then, of course, you've got the year-over-year impact from new restaurant openings.

And so that gives you the bridge. But taking a step back and really thinking about margins in total, that will get you -- based off of our guidance, it will get you to about a 2026 margin of somewhere in that like mid-23% range. However, you have to remember that, that includes about 100 basis points of kind of that price inflation dislocation, right? Because we're going to be around 2% pricing this year, but our OpEx inflation is closer to 3%.

And so when you're thinking about 2027, I would consider that 23.5% plus that 100 basis points, so call it a mid 24% margin is kind of the baseline, assuming that we're able to utilize price to offset inflation and then drive at least a point of [ trends ] to offset the impact of our NROs next year. And then any additional traffic growth on top of that, that will be margin accretive at our usual pass-through of somewhere around 40%. So I think those give you the pieces not only for Q4, but kind of looking forward.

Operator

The next question comes from Chris O'Cull with Baird.

Unknown Analyst

Just as a follow-up, Adam, on the response to the margin question. The company has been making some sizable investments. Obviously, the increased traffic. What comp do you believe is necessary to stabilize margin performance with this inflation outlook?

Adam Rymer

Yes. I mean, assuming that we're covering our inflation with pricing, which is what we intend to do -- we might not get that right every quarter, but we intend to get that right over time. We need about 1 point of [ trends ] to offset the impact of new restaurant openings. So when you get north of that 1% [ trans ] comp, that's when you start to see that 40% flow through.

Unknown Analyst

So if you're looking at 3% inflation, you're thinking 4% nominal comp might be necessary to stabilize margin?

Adam Rymer

Yes, that's correct.

Unknown Analyst

Okay. And then how are you thinking about overall level of marketing investment that's right for the business as you go into '27? I think your spend is up over 20% year-to-date. So I'm just curious if you expect a similar rate of growth in marketing spend next year?

Scott Boatwright

Chris, this is Scott. I think 3% is the right range for us to think about, and that could flex up or down. We will lean into return-generating opportunities and pull back when we don't see that same opportunity is how I would think about it. Right now, the baseline for that budget for the upcoming year will be in that 3% range. And we think that gives us a really strong calendar to support what I believe to be a best-in-class LTO platform for the upcoming year.

But we'll see. There could be opportunities where we want to lean in where we know there will be a return to be gained or to be had. And so that's where we'll spend our dollars.

Operator

The next question comes from John Ivankoe with JPMorgan.

John Ivankoe

The question on the physical asset itself outside of the high-efficiency equipment package, really looking at the aesthetics of the box. We have talked about this before, but as over 2,000 Chipotle restaurants are over 10 years old, how much of an opportunity from both an employee and a customer perspective might a refresh give you? I say that because the vast majority of Chipotle customers, they might not dine in your restaurants, but they actually come to your restaurants, whether to order on-premise or pick up a digital order. So that must be a very important touch point for a lot of people. So as you've begun to stage gate the process in terms of refreshes, how big of an opportunity do you think it might be to modernize the brand further?

Scott Boatwright

John, thank you. I think it could be a really big opportunity for the brand. We're in the very early days of testing a group of restaurants here in California, Florida and Texas. We're almost through. We're done with California. Texas is up and running. I think Florida is still in early days of the remodel program.

And what we're looking to do is really resurrect some of the legacy restaurants that are, let's call it, the first 1,000 restaurants we've built in the brand, gosh, now over 20, 30 years ago. And what we're looking to do is bring them up to date, more open format, more modern, more differentiated. We think there's a strategic opportunity. We're seeing early signs that give us confidence that we're on the right track.

But we will -- we'll have more to say in the -- probably in the Q1 earnings call and how we think about a remodel program, if you will, or a remodel strategy, but we think we're on the right track. We know there's an opportunity to make the environment more appealing, soften up the environment a bit and make the consumer feel more welcome in our restaurants.

Operator

The next question comes from Peter Saleh with U.S. Bank BTIG.

Peter Saleh

Great. Scott, you just mentioned a great LTO lineup for 2027. Just trying to understand if you guys can help us out with how many of those LTOs next year will be new products versus existing LTOs that are coming back to the menu?

Scott Boatwright

Yes, it's a great question, Peter. So we'll bring in some new innovation you'll see on the calendar -- you won't see it on the calendar, but you'll see it as we launch those products in the marketplace. And then you'll see some tried-and-true favorites, items that we know consumers want because they tell us daily to bring them back.

And so we have -- we're setting up the calendar to have about 4 center-of-the-plate LTOs, and then we'll continue to lean into sides, dips. And we're going to really be a little more front-footed on beverage innovation in the upcoming year. We think there's a really strategic opportunity for our brand to drive incidence in a meaningful way through our partnerships with our beverage partners. And so you'll see more of that.

But I don't want you to think that LTO -- and I get this all the time -- means additional complexity necessarily for our restaurant teams. Our center of the plate LTOs are really just a sauce change on our core protein. Our teams are executing that with ease in our restaurants, and transition from one to the next is more simple than you would find in most brands that have an LTO strategy.

So don't be discouraged by the pace of innovation there. Just know that we're going to put forward products that are on trend, on market, on brand, and that will drive demand and create value. We've learned that our consumers are looking at value in different ways. Price isn't the only way they look at value. They look at innovation, menu innovation is a really meaningful point in the overall value equation.

Operator

The next question comes from Andrew Charles with TD Cowen.

Andrew Charles

You talked about high 3% of sales spent on marketing or planned for marketing in the fourth quarter. And I'm curious, with Fernando in place for the full quarter, should we expect this to be a fair run rate for the first half of 2027 and beyond?

Adam Rymer

We haven't gotten to the point yet where we're going to kind of give an idea of how it's going to be from quarter-to-quarter next year. But as Scott said earlier, we're somewhere in that low 3% range or around 3% for next year. But we'll ebb and flow that as we see fit, whether it aligns with what we're doing from a TV standpoint or from a big advertising standpoint around when certain LTOs drop or different investments that we want to make that we believe we can get a great return from.

Andrew Charles

Okay. That's helpful. And then just on the pricing side as well. We know there was the ramp throughout this year. Are you guys happy with the 2% rate, do this at a sustainable level? I know you talked about Adam, for instance, low to mid-single-digit inflation for 2027. What's kind of your philosophy on pricing as we look ahead?

Adam Rymer

Yes. I mean, it really hasn't changed. I mean, I'd say, over the long run, we're going to continue to look at utilizing price to offset inflation, but we want to do it in a very measured, patient way. And I say that because if there's temporary or transitory increases in inflation that we know is only going to last a few months, we won't utilize that opportunity, of course, to pass it on. We'll eat those costs. And so it's more of that longer-term inflation.

But primarily in the past, it's been closer to that 2% range. And so we hope to get back to that sooner rather than later. It's just not looking like that's going to happen in 2027 at this point, but we'll give more color on that as we get into next year.

Scott Boatwright

But I think it's important to note that the way we're rolling out pricing across the system allows us to measure pre and post net of control, the impact of that price lift to ensure we don't see resistance greater than we should. And so we're able to flex pricing up or down or discontinue altogether based on what we're seeing happening in the consumer environment.

Operator

The next question comes from Brian Harbour with Morgan Stanley.

Brian Harbour

The high-efficiency equipment package is -- does that comp lift that you talked about sustain quite nicely? I mean, has this been like an increasing contributor through the course of this year to your same-store sales? Is that what you expect in '27 as well?

Adam Rymer

Yes. I mean, I expect it to continue to build. So as we talked about on the call or in the prepared comments, we're at about 1,700 restaurants. But as we've said in the past, it takes a few months for us to really start to see that comp lift come into fruition, right? The teams have got to get used to the new equipment, and then it takes a little while for the guests to really see kind of that better hospitality. Taste of food going up, all of those elements take a little bit longer as well. And so there's a bit of a lag.

And so I would look at it as even though we're through 1,700 restaurants, it's probably only half of those restaurants that we're actually seeing that have been in place long enough to get that comp lift. So I expect this to continue to build. And everything that we look at, whether it's that first phase of restaurants or the ones that have kind of hit that 2- or 3-month mark, those comp lifts have sustained in that couple of hundred basis point range. And so we're excited to continue to build on this because I think it will build on our comps in 2027 and also in 2028.

Scott Boatwright

Yes. And the current note there as well, to follow on, is we're seeing in those restaurants where we're fully loaded, stronger guest satisfaction scores, stronger taste of food scores and better throughput at max 15, which tells us we're on the right track. And as that continues to roll out to the entire system, we'll continue to scale and build.

Brian Harbour

Okay. Great. Do you still expect kind of the mix dynamics that you've been seeing, just within same-store sales? Do you still expect that to continue?

Adam Rymer

Yes. I mean, for the near term I do, so mix impact in the quarter, for example, was about a minus 1.4%. It's still driven by lower group size, which again is being driven by increased rewards engagement. And our rewards percent of sales has been growing nicely. I think we're at around that 33% or so right now. We were at about 30% or 31% last year at that same time. And so seeing nice improvement there.

So think of that as people coming in and redeeming 4 free entrees or certain elements there that's lowering that group size. And so that we expect to continue, especially as we continue to lean in on rewards. But we're also seeing a nice offset from extra meat, for example. So still up about 20% from the protein campaign that we launched in January. We'll, of course, start to lap that this January. But we're also seeing offsets in Cilantro Lime Sauce. We only had about a month of Chili Lime Chips, but that was in there as well. And then, of course, family meals. But again, I expect that roughly 100 basis point drag from group size to continue as we continue to lean into rewards, but it will ebb and flow based off of some of this LTO activity.

Operator

The next question comes from Jon Tower with Citi.

Jon Tower

I'm curious if you could speak to the delivery business, what you saw in the quarter and frankly, if there's any channel shifts you're seeing with consumers? And specifically, are there any initiatives underway to try and build the value perception with consumers in that channel specifically?

Adam Rymer

Yes. I kind of start with just kind of what we're seeing. I mean, it was kind of a low single-digit comp. But in all honesty, it was the least in terms of growth in the digital channels. Order ahead was our primary grower. I mean, there's a lot of things going on in there, especially around rewards. And as Scott mentioned earlier, 1,500 Chipotlanes, that's driving a lot of people to order ahead. And then catering actually out comped delivery as well. But delivery is still seeing growth on a year-over-year basis, just not as much as the other digital channels. Scott, I don't know if you want anything to add?

Scott Boatwright

Yes. I think delivery is still a huge growth channel, and we've seen a lot of growth over the last 3 quarters. But we're seeing a lot of progress with loyalty. I think loyalty comps are up over in restaurant comps for the quarter. The relaunch has really paid huge dividends. We now have 24 million people in the rewards program that are driving 33% of our transactions for the entire system. We think that number can move much higher. If you talk to Arlie, she'd tell you it should be in the 40%, 50% range and has aspirations and plans to get there. But there's a lot under the hood that's being worked on to continue to drive demand through the channel.

Operator

The next question comes from Brian Bittner with Oppenheimer & Co.

Brian Bittner

It's interesting to hear that you're going to begin this catering rollout in the first quarter. Can you talk to us about what percentage of your markets you can scale the catering strategy to? Or should we actually be thinking of this as a national strategy? And can you give us an idea of the performance you've been seeing in these pilot markets that maybe give you the confidence to really get after this opportunity?

Scott Boatwright

Yes. Thanks for the question. We think it's a really strategic opportunity for us. So it's more of a national rollout in the upcoming quarter, but we'll continue to add elements of the offering that will continue to have it scale and ramp for the consumer, whether that's third-party marketing, third-party delivery and/or the technology advancements we need to make to ensure we're load balancing correctly across restaurants.

We think today -- so group occasions today represent 2% to 3% of sales. If you look at what are some of our competitors in the space are doing upwards of 5%, 10%, dare I say, 15% of total sales and catering, we know there's an enormous opportunity. We're not trying to get to 15% tomorrow morning. What we'd like to do is see 1 or 2 points of growth year-over-year in the next couple of years, and we continue to ramp and scale. The goal here is to ensure we can deliver an incredible consumer experience and not disrupt the core business, which is priority #1 for us.

Operator

Thank you. I understand there is time for one last questioner. That will be Gregory Francfort with Guggenheim Securities.

Gregory Francfort

My question is just on international and maybe what you're seeing there? I think you called out kind of opening up 15 to 25 stores overseas next year. I'm not sure if you'd be willing to break out how many of those might be company-operated? And then kind of what sort of ramp maybe we should expect from there in the next couple of years?

Scott Boatwright

Yes. So those 15 to 25 will be all partner-operated across the regions where we're open today. The 340 to 360 will be equity owned, so take U.S., Canada and Western Europe with some limited growth in Western Europe. We are now actively building a development pipeline there, which takes time, as you can imagine.

So most of that growth will come through partner-operated. Alshaya Group in the Middle East, our Middle Eastern partner, has really aggressive plans for growth there. We'll expand to Singapore in Q1 with our partner, SPC, and then opened up Mexico City early Q1 as well or Q1, Q2 of next year.

So that's where the growth is coming. Can they go faster? Perhaps. It will really depend on what's going on with the conflict in the Middle East and how fast our partners in Latin America and Southeast Asia can get up to speed.

Adam Rymer

Yes. And I would just add one thing on our company-operated in Europe. We continue to show better economics, and we actually had comps in the low double-digit range in Q3. I think we mentioned they were in the high single-digit range in Q2. So that is driving increased restaurant margins and our cash-on-cash returns in Central London and Frankfurt are still very attractive. So like Scott mentioned, we're going to continue to grow in those areas.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Scott Boatwright for any closing remarks.

Scott Boatwright

Well, thank you for joining us today. I'm really proud of the progress our teams delivered in the third quarter. The [ 140,000 team members ] out in our restaurants that work so hard for us every single day to deliver an incredible experience to our support center staff here in Newport Beach and Columbus.

We're in the early days of our Recipe for Growth strategy and believe much of the growth is still to come. I think that's a really important note. And we've seen measurable progress across 2026 with positive transactions in every quarter. And we've been -- we see promising results in multiple areas of the 5 pillars of our strategy.

Looking forward, we're going to continue to build momentum in this dynamic environment, and many of our initiatives are in early stages of the rollout. As I said earlier, I know we have the right strategy and the right team and more growth levers in place today than any point in our history. And I'm confident in our ability to build Chipotle into a global iconic brand while creating long-term value for our guests, our teams and our shareholders.

I think it's a really important note to say that we are still a category-defining brand. That is the way people want to eat in the world today. And so I think that's an important note, and that there's more growth in front of us than there is behind us.

And if you're asking the question, are we still a growth brand, we absolutely are. We have industry-leading economics. We have incredible growth in front of us, an extraordinary team of professionals that are committed to our strategy. That said, I just want to say thank you for your continued support, your confidence in Chipotle, and we look forward to updating you our continued progress next quarter.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.