Black Rock Coffee Bar, Inc. is a Scottsdale, Arizona-headquartered high-growth operator of guest-centric, drive-thru coffee bars offering premium caffeinated beverages and an elevated in-store experience crafted by the Company's engaging baristas, with the Company founded in 2008 in Beaverton, Oregon by a single 160 square foot coffee bar that has since grown to one of the fastest growing beverage and food-service companies in the United States, with 200 stores systemwide as of June 30, 2026. For the second quarter ended June 30, 2026, the Company generated total revenue of $63.0 million, up 25.0 percent year-over-year, same store sales growth of 4.2 percent year-over-year, income from operations of $4.1 million (operating margin 6.5 percent), and net income of $3.2 million, a 403.3 percent year-over-year increase from the $(1.1) million net loss in the prior-year quarter. The Q2 2026 Adjusted EBITDA of $9.4 million was up 17.2 percent from $8.0 million in the prior-year quarter, and the Q2 2026 store-level profit of $19.0 million (30.2 percent margin) was up meaningfully from $14.9 million in the prior-year quarter. The Company opened 10 new stores in Q2 2026 and is updating its full year 2026 guidance to 38 new store openings, total revenue in the range of $255 million to $257 million, same store sales growth in the mid-single digits, Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $34 million to $35 million, and capital expenditures in the range of $42 million to $43 million which includes anticipated tenant improvement allowances.
The investment thesis rests on three variables. The new store opening pipeline trajectory is the load-bearing unit growth variable, with the Q2 2026 net new store openings of 10 stores bringing the systemwide store count to 200 stores as of June 30, 2026, and the Company guiding to 38 new store openings in full year 2026, a meaningful unit growth trajectory. The same store sales growth trajectory is the load-bearing same store sales variable, with the Q2 2026 same store sales growth of 4.2 percent (or 15.1 percent on a two-year basis) reflecting the resilience of customer demand and the consistency of the overall performance, and the Company guiding to mid-single digits same store sales growth in full year 2026. The Adjusted EBITDA growth trajectory is the load-bearing earnings variable, with the Q2 2026 Adjusted EBITDA growth of 17.2 percent year-over-year and the Company guiding to $34 million to $35 million in Adjusted EBITDA for full year 2026, a meaningful earnings growth trajectory.
The Company operates in the U.S. drive-thru coffee and specialty coffee market, where the relevant peer set includes the much larger U.S. coffee and beverage companies (the Starbucks, the Dutch Bros, the Dunkin', the Krispy Kreme, the Panera Bread, and the Tim Hortons), the much larger U.S. quick-service restaurant and drive-thru restaurant companies (the McDonald's, the Burger King, the Wendy's, the Taco Bell, the Chick-fil-A, the Popeyes, the Cinnabon, the Sonic Drive-In, the Arby's, the Jack in the Box, and the Carrols Restaurant Group), the much larger U.S. specialty coffee and beverage companies (the Peet's Coffee, the Stumptown Coffee, the Blue Bottle Coffee, the Intelligentsia Coffee, the La Colombe Coffee, the Counter Culture Coffee, the Verve Coffee Roasters, and the Philz Coffee), and a broader set of regional and specialty coffee and drive-thru restaurant companies. The Company's strategic positioning is differentiated by the drive-thru coffee bar format, the premium caffeinated beverage positioning, the elevated in-store experience, the customer engagement strategy, the disciplined expansion strategy, and the broader drive-thru coffee and specialty coffee market positioning.