Investor Feedback and Sentiment (Post #85): The Daily Catch: 2Q26 Pre-Quiet Period Catch-Ups: CMG and FWRG

Research evidence excerpt

Investor Feedback and Sentiment (Post #85): The Daily Catch: 2Q26 Pre-Quiet Period Catch-Ups: CMG and FWRG

Off the Cuff |

23 Jun 2026 05:00:11 ET │ 11 pages

Investor Feedback and Sentiment (Post #85)

The Daily Catch: 2Q26 Pre-Quiet Period Catch-Ups: CMG and FWRG

We caught up with teams at CMG and FWRG ahead of 2Q26 quiet periods. Key points:

CMG:

– The company’s made-from-scratch cooking is a competitive advantage that the

new CMO has been tasked to better highlight through marketing. This advantage also

comes as an impediment to the cadence of innovation as full in-house product prep Jon Tower, CFAAC

requires greater labor/time commitment relative to many quick-service/fast-casual +1-212-816-6238

competitors. CMG continues to build out its pantry of core (e.g., protein) and non-core jon.tower@citi.com

menu options (e.g., potentially seasoned chips soon).

– For delivery, 3PD has been one of CMG’s best-comping channels over the past 12-

18 months and the company has tested lower premiums vs. in-store, but to-date

there have been no strong conclusions regarding how to proceed in part because 3rd-

party platforms use different algos to promote brands.

– CMG continues to tweak the catering platform, but believes learnings-to-date will

provide for broader expansion of the platform in ’27.

– On operations, the company is exploring other options around in-store order

payment that may integrate pay + loyalty and expedite thru-put without adding

another pin pad to the front line.

– On modeling, guidance for other opex being higher Yr/Yr is in part due to increase

utility costs.

FWRG:

– Similar to what we observed in our survey work, FWRG believes the brand is well-

suited to navigate a broadening of consumer access to GLP-1 medications with its

current offering.