Company: FWRG
Filing Date: 2025-03-11
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001789940-25-000010
Chunk: 13

Company: First Watch Restaurant Group, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-11
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 13
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-restaurant systems are used to process customer orders, credit card payments, employee time-keeping and scheduling. 

Marketing and Advertising

We use a variety of marketing channels, including affiliate partnerships, social media interactions, digital marketing, direct mailers, public relations initiatives and local community sponsorships, email communications, promotions and partnerships. We focus on increasing our engagement with social media platforms in order to generate brand awareness and also to gather information we can then apply to future marketing efforts. 

7

Franchise Program 

As of December 29, 2024, we had 11 franchisees that operated 83 restaurants and our existing franchisees had 29 total new restaurant development obligations. Typically, our franchise agreements provide an initial term of 10 years with additional renewal terms that total 10 years subject to various conditions that include upgrades to the restaurant facility and brand image. All franchise agreements grant licenses to use our trademarks, trade secrets and proprietary methods, recipes and procedures. The initial franchise fee for each restaurant is $35,000 to $40,000. Franchisees are required to pay 4.0% of franchised restaurant sales in royalties and contribute 1.0%-3.0% of franchised restaurant sales to a system fund, which is used for advertising, marketing and public relations programs and materials on a system-wide basis. 

Human Capital 

“You First” Culture Elevates Employee and Customer Satisfaction  

First Watch has a simple mission statement based on its “You First” culture—“Making days brighter at every opportunity.” We have been people-focused from our inception as we have always believed our employees are our greatest asset. We believe that putting our employees first, in turn, leads them to put customers first and we are confident that our people-centric culture plays a significant role in retaining our employees. This culture was also a key factor in the Company’s achievement of being recognized as 2024’s #1 Most Loved Workplace in the United States by Newsweek and the Best Practice Institute. This is the third consecutive year in which the Company has been included in Newsweek’s Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces®, a designation that was a result of an assessment of First Watch’s people practices along with an independent survey of approximately 1,000 of our employees. 

Listening to Our Employees  

We believe in fostering an environment where all employees feel valued and heard, and we furnish employees with various communication channels to provide regular feedback, including surveys, meetings, and, most importantly, direct communication with Company leadership. In 2024,