Company: FWRG
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form Type: ARS
Source: 0001789940-25-000033
Chunk: 51

Company: First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form: ARS
Chunk 51
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 to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (“Section 404” in accordance with the rules and regulations of the SEC, which requires management to certify financial and other information in our quarterly and annual reports and provide an annual management report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. In addition, under Section 404 our independent registered public accounting firm will also need to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in the future to the extent that we are no longer an emerging growth company, as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (the “JOBS Act”. To comply with the rules and regulations of the SEC, we need to continue to dedicate internal resources, engage outside consultants and continue to execute on a detailed work plan to assess and document the adequacy of our internal control over financial reporting, continue taking steps to improve control processes, as appropriate, validate through testing that controls are functioning as documented and implement a continuous reporting and improvement process for internal control over financial reporting. Despite our efforts, there is a risk that we will not be able to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective. As further described in Part II Item 9A of this Form 10-K, in connection with the preparation of our consolidated financial statements, we identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, which could result in misstatement of the consolidated financial statements that would result in a material misstatement to the annual or interim consolidated financial statements that would not be prevented or detected. We have taken certain measures to remediate the material weaknesses. See Item 9A for additional information. 30

• limiting our ability to borrow additional amounts to fund capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements, execution of our growth strategy and other purposes; • limiting our ability to make investments, including acquisitions, loans and advances, and to sell, transfer or otherwise dispose of assets; • requiring us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to pay principal and interest on our borrowings, which would reduce availability of our cash flow to fund working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, execution of our growth strategy and other general corporate purposes; • making us more vulnerable to adverse changes in general economic, industry and competitive conditions, in government regulation and in our business by limiting our ability to plan for and react to changing conditions; • placing us at a competitive disadvantage compared with our competitors that have less debt; and • exposing us to risks inherent in interest rate fluctuations because our borrowings are at variable rates of