Turning things around in one year requires using your noodle, and one fast casual restaurant chain is demonstrating they’re true experts at that.
Noodles & Company, a fresh, fast-casual restaurant brand with over 30 years of history under their belts, released first quarter financial results for 2026. The company reported a net loss of $3.4 million, a significant improvement over $9.1 million in Q1 of 2025. That was just one of several key metrics that indicated Noodles & Company is headed in the right direction.
“We are very pleased with our first quarter results, which exceeded our first quarter outlook, with comparable restaurant sales up over 9% and more than tripling our Adjusted EBITDA from a year ago, reflecting continued strong momentum at Noodles & Company,” said Joe Christina, President and Executive Officer at Noodles & Company. “This momentum has continued into April with second quarter to date system-wide comparable restaurant sales up in excess of 9%. We now have delivered positive same store sales for the last consecutive 16 months.”
Of note, comparable restaurant sales grew comparably at both company-owned Noodles & Company locations (9.4%) and franchise locations (8.0%). In the company’s announcement, Christina attributed the turnaround to retooled approaches to menu, marketing, and operator-level execution.
“Our significantly improved performance is due to a combination of our much improved menu, our value oriented Delicious Duos offering, our strong LTO offers including returning seasonal favorite Steak Stroganoff, stronger execution by our team members and more connected and effective marketing,” said Christina. “All of this has translated into a better overall guest experience as evidenced by a sequential improvement in our guest satisfaction scores, sustained traffic growth, increased engagement with new guests and existing guests, and more profitable in-restaurant performance.”
Noodles & Company’s turnaround is an example of how a restaurant chain can actually turn what looks like shrinking into strengthening revenue and setting itself up for a new round of growth. The brand closed 20 struggling locations in Q1 and plans to close as many as 20 more by end of year, but it’s allowing them to rally around and strengthen their best company-owned and franchise restaurants.
Christina explained: “In the first quarter, the majority of our comparable sales growth was driven by the improvements in our underlying business fundamentals. In addition, our portfolio optimization initiative, which involved the closing of 20 underperforming stores in the first quarter, continues to yield a significant transfer of sales to nearby locations given our high mix of off premise sales, resulting in further improvement in our comparable sales and overall profitability in the surrounding areas. We are very encouraged by this momentum and remain focused on executing the fundamentals every day as we continue to build a stronger, more resilient business.”
You can read the full financial report and dive into the numbers at https://investor.noodles.com/node/13406/pdf.
To learn more about franchise opportunities with Noodles & Company, visit https://www.noodles.com/franchising.
