The Cheesecake Factory’s ever-expanding menu is matched only by its ever-expanding revenues

Like a weekend visit to one of its branches where the maître d’ tells you that there’s actually no wait time, The Cheesecake Factory’s Q4 results this week just beat expectations. The company posted ~$921 million in revenue for the quarter and net income of $41 million, up from $12.7 million in Q4 last year. 

Big cheese

In the earnings release, David Overton, the company’s CEO who joined his parents’ bakery business 50 years ago and opened the first Cheesecake Factory restaurant three years later in Beverly Hills, cited demand for “distinct, high-quality dining experiences” as a reason behind the success. While that sentiment may apply more closely to some of its smaller restaurants like Flower Child and North Italia, the company’s namesake brand still accounts for the biggest slice of its ever-growing revenue.

Cheesecake Factory posted a record $3.6 billion in revenue for 2024 all told, with $2.7 billion of that coming from the eponymous chain itself. Now 47 years into the restaurant game, the brand still has customers queuing up to sample its famously expansive menu — while investors have been getting stuck into the stock, too, which is up a whopping 60% in the last 12 months.

The comforting familiarity of the chain’s offerings and ornate interiors is even helping to drive a renaissance of the great American mall. Data from Yelp last year revealed that restaurant concepts were the top driver of traffic to malls — with none other than The Cheesecake Factory topping the list of the US’s favorite “mall brands.”

Indeed, The Cheesecake Factory’s performance within the company’s wider portfolio has been so solid that one activist investor suggested that the business should break up last year, to get smaller, faster-growing brands out of the Factory’s shadow.