El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. Announces Fourth Quarter 2025 Financial Results (Form 8-K)

El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. Announces

Fourth Quarter 2025 Financial Results

COSTA MESA, CA - March 12, 2026 - El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: LOCO) today announced financial results for the 14- and 53-week periods ended December 31, 2025.

Highlights for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2025 compared to the fourth quarter ended December 25, 2024 were as follows:

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"During the quarter, we not only delivered positive same store sales growth but also achieved growth in restaurant-level margins. As we look ahead, our priority for 2026 is clear: to drive sustainable traffic growth across our system and thoughtfully accelerate new restaurant growth in new markets," said Liz Williams, Chief Executive Officer of El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. "We will achieve this goal while maintaining margin discipline and unit economics. With the momentum we've built across our strategic drivers and a strengthened leadership team and board, we have tremendous confidence in our ability to accelerate growth over the next several years and we believe we are well-positioned to become the nation's favorite fire-grilled chicken restaurant."

Fourth Quarter 2025 Financial Results

Company-operated restaurant revenue in the fourth quarter of 2025 increased to $102.4 million, compared to $95.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. The Company's fourth quarter of 2025 included 14 weeks compared to 13 weeks in the fourth quarter of 2024. Revenue attributed to the additional operating week was $5.3 million. In addition, the increase in

comparable company-operated restaurant revenue was 0.4%. The company-operated comparable sales increase consisted of a 2.7% increase in average check size, partially offset by a 2.3% decline in transactions.

Franchise revenue in the fourth quarter of 2025 increased 15.5% to $13.0 million. The increase was primarily due to $0.5 million in additional franchise revenue related to the additional week recognized in a 14-week quarter compared to the 13-week comparable quarter in 2024, $0.4 million in revenue recognized related to terminated franchise development agreements. In addition, the increase was also due to a 3.3% increase in franchise comparable store sales and franchise revenue associated with nine franchise-operated restaurant openings during or subsequent to the fourth quarter of 2024. The 3.3% increase in comparable franchise store sales consisted of a 2.5% increase in average check size and a 0.8% increase in transactions.

Income from operations in the fourth quarter of 2025 was $10.3 million, compared to $9.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Restaurant contribution was $17.9 million, or 17.5% of company-operated restaurant revenue, compared to $16.0 million, or 16.7% of company-operated restaurant revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024. The increase in restaurant contribution as a percentage of company-operated restaurant revenue was largely due to better operating efficiencies combined with higher menu prices.

General and administrative expenses in the fourth quarter of 2025 were $13.1 million, compared to $11.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. The increase for the quarter was primarily due to $1.2 million in incremental labor and related costs, $0.7 million in restructuring and executive transitions costs and $0.8 million in other general and administrative costs, partially offset by $0.7 million in lower management bonus expense.

Net income for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $6.5 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, compared to net income of $6.0 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2024. Adjusted net income was $7.3 million, or $0.25 per diluted share, during the fourth quarter of2025, compared to $5.9 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, during the fourth quarter of 2024.

As of December 31, 2025, after net pay down of $20.0 million on its five-year senior-secured revolving credit facility (the "2022 Revolver") during the fifty-three weeks, the Company's outstanding debt balance was $51.0 million with $6.2 million in cash and cash equivalents.

Subsequent Events

Subsequent to the quarter-end, the Company paid down an additional $5.0 million on its 2022 Revolver, resulting in outstanding borrowings of $46.0 million as of March 12, 2026.

Outlook

The Company is providing the following expectations for 2026:

The company is providing the following expectations for 2027 and 2028:

¹ A reconciliation of the forward-looking fiscal 2026 Adjusted EBITDA to net income cannot be provided without unreasonable effort because of the inherent difficulty of accurately forecasting the occurrence and financial impact of the various adjusting items necessary for such reconciliation that have not yet occurred, are out of our control, or cannot be reasonably predicted.

Definitions of Non-GAAP and other Key Financial Measures

System-Wide Sales are neither required by, nor presented in accordance with GAAP. System-wide sales are the sum of company-operated restaurant revenue and sales from franchised restaurants. The Company's total revenue in the consolidated statements of income is limited to company-operated restaurant revenue and franchise revenue from the Company's franchisees. Accordingly, system-wide sales should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for our results as reported under GAAP. Management believes that the presentation of system-wide sales provides useful information to investors, because it is a measure that is widely used in the restaurant industry, including by our management, to evaluate brand scale and market penetration. System-wide sales do not include the eight currently licensed stores in the Philippines. The total number of currently licensed stores reflects the closure of two licensed restaurants during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025.

Company-Operated Restaurant Revenue consists of sales of food and beverages in company-operated restaurants net of promotional allowances, employee meals, and other discounts. Company-operated restaurant revenue in any period is directly influenced by the number of operating weeks in such period, the number of open restaurants, and comparable restaurant sales. Seasonal factors and the timing of holidays cause our revenue to fluctuate from quarter to quarter. Our revenue per restaurant is typically lower in the first and fourth quarters due to reduced January and December transactions and higher in the second and third quarters. As a result of seasonality, our quarterly and annual results of operations and key performance indicators such as company-operated restaurant revenue and comparable restaurant sales may fluctuate.

Comparable Restaurant Sales reflect year-over-year sales changes for comparable company-operated, franchised and system-wide restaurants. A restaurant enters our comparable restaurant base the first full week after it has operated for 15 months. Comparable restaurant sales exclude restaurants closed during the applicable period. At December 31, 2025, there were 482 comparable restaurants, 170 company-operated and 312 franchised. Comparable restaurant sales indicate the performance of existing restaurants, since new restaurants are excluded. Comparable restaurant sales growth can be generated by an increase in the number of meals sold and/or by increases in the average check amount, resulting from a shift in menu mix and/or higher prices resulting from new products or price increases. Because other companies may calculate this measure differently than we do, comparable restaurant sales as presented herein may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Management believes that comparable restaurant sales is a valuable metric for investors to evaluate the performance of our store base, excluding the impact of new stores and closed stores.

Restaurant Contribution and Restaurant Contribution Margin are neither required by, nor presented in accordance with, GAAP. Restaurant contribution is defined as company-operated restaurant revenue less company restaurant expenses, which includes food and paper cost, labor and related expenses, and occupancy and other operating expenses, where applicable. Restaurant contribution therefore excludes franchise revenue, franchise advertising fee revenue and franchise expenses as well as certain other costs, such as general and administrative expenses, franchise expenses, depreciation and amortization, asset impairment and closed-store reserve, loss on disposal of assets and other costs that are considered corporate-level expenses and are not considered normal operating costs of our restaurants. Accordingly, restaurant contribution is not indicative of overall Company results and does not accrue directly to the benefit of stockholders because of the exclusion of certain corporate-level expenses. Restaurant contribution margin is defined as restaurant contribution as a percentage of net company-operated restaurant revenue. Restaurant contribution and restaurant contribution margin are supplemental measures of operating performance of our restaurants, and our calculations thereof may not be comparable to those reported by other companies. Restaurant contribution and restaurant contribution margin have limitations as analytical tools, and you should not consider them in isolation, or superior to, or as substitutes for the analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Management uses restaurant contribution and restaurant contribution margin as key metrics to evaluate the profitability of incremental sales at our restaurants, to evaluate our restaurant performance across periods, and to evaluate our restaurant financial performance compared with our competitors. Management believes that restaurant contribution and restaurant contribution margin are important tools for investors, because they are widely-used metrics within the restaurant industry to evaluate restaurant-level productivity, efficiency, and performance. Management further believes restaurant level operating margin is useful to investors to highlight trends in our core business that may not otherwise be apparent to investors when relying solely on GAAP financial measures.

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are neither required by, nor presented in accordance with, GAAP. EBITDA represents net income (loss) before interest expense (net of interest income), provision (benefit) for income taxes, depreciation, and amortization, and Adjusted EBITDA represents net income (loss) before interest expense (net of interest income), provision (benefit) for income taxes, depreciation, amortization, and items that we do not consider representative of our ongoing operating performance, as identified in the reconciliation table included under "Unaudited Reconciliation of Net

Income to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA" in the accompanying financial tables at the end of this release. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as presented in this release are supplemental measures of our performance that are neither required by, nor presented in accordance with, GAAP. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not measurements of our financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as alternatives to net income, operating income, or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP, or as alternatives to cash flow from operating activities as a measure of our liquidity. In addition, in evaluating EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA, you should be aware that in the future we will incur expenses or charges such as those added back to calculate EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA. Our presentation of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA should not be construed as an inference that our future results will be unaffected by unusual or nonrecurring items.

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA have limitations as analytical tools, and you should not consider them in isolation, or as substitutes for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are (i) they do not reflect our cash expenditures, or future requirements for capital expenditures or contractual commitments, (ii) they do not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs, (iii) they do not reflect the significant interest expense, or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or principal payments, on our debt, (iv) although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized will often have to be replaced in the future, and EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA do not reflect any cash requirements for such replacements, (v) they do not adjust for all non-cash income or expense items that are reflected in our statements of cash flows, (vi) they do not reflect the impact of earnings or charges resulting from matters we consider not to be indicative of our on-going operations, and (vii) other companies in our industry may calculate these measures differently than we do, limiting their usefulness as comparative measures. We compensate for these limitations by providing specific information regarding the GAAP amounts excluded from such non-GAAP financial measures. We further compensate for the limitations in our use of non-GAAP financial measures by presenting comparable GAAP measures more prominently.

Management believes that EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period by isolating the effects of some items that vary from period to period without any correlation to core operating performance or that vary widely among similar companies. These potential differences may be caused by variations in capital structures (affecting interest expense), tax positions (such as the impact on periods or companies of changes in effective tax rates or NOLs) and the age and book depreciation of facilities and equipment (affecting relative depreciation expense). We also present EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA because (i) management believes that these measures are frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties to evaluate companies in our industry, (ii) management believes that investors will find these measures useful in assessing our ability to service or incur indebtedness, and (iii) we use EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA internally for a number of benchmarks, including to compare our performance to that of our competitors.

Adjusted Net Income is neither required by, nor presented in accordance with, GAAP. Adjusted net income represents net income adjusted for (i) costs (or gains) related to loss (or gains) on disposal of assets and asset impairment and closed store costs reserves, (ii) expenses related to special legal and professional fees, (iii) extraordinary legal settlement costs, (iv) restructuring charges and executive transition costs, (v) insurance proceeds related to reimbursement of lost profits, net of the related costs and (vi) provision for income taxes at a normalized tax rate of 29.0% for both the fourteen and fifty-three weeks ended December 31, 2025, respectively, and 25.6% and 27.2% for the thirteen weeks and fiscal weeks ended December 25, 2024, respectively, which reflects our estimated long-term effective tax rate, including both federal and state income taxes (excluding the impact of the income tax receivable agreement, valuation allowance and other discrete items) and applied after giving effect to the foregoing adjustments. Because other companies may calculate these measures differently than we do, adjusted net income as presented herein may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Management believes adjusted net income is an important supplement to GAAP measures that enhances the overall understanding of our operating performance and long-term profitability, and enables investors to more effectively compare the Company's performance to prior and future periods.

Conference Call

The Company will host a conference call to discuss financial results for the fourth quarter of 2025 today at 4:30 PM Eastern Time. Liz Williams, Chief Executive Officer, and Ira Fils, Chief Financial Officer, will host the call.

The conference call can be accessed live over the phone by dialing 201-493-6780. A replay will be available after the call and can be accessed by dialing 412-317-6671; the passcode is 13757075. The replay will be available until Thursday, March 26, 2026. The conference call will also be webcast live from the Company's corporate website at

investor.elpolloloco.com under the "Events & Presentations" page. An archive of the webcast will be available at the same location on the corporate website shortly after the call has concluded.

About El Pollo Loco

El Pollo Loco (Nasdaq: LOCO) is the nation's leading fire-grilled chicken restaurant known for its craveable, flavorful, and better-for-you offerings. Our menu features innovative meals with Mexican flavors all made in our restaurants daily using quality ingredients. At El Pollo Loco, inclusivity is at the heart of our culture. Our community of over 4,000 employees reflects our commitment to creating a workplace where everyone has a seat at our table. Since 1980, El Pollo Loco has successfully expanded its presence, operating more than 500 company-owned and franchised restaurants across nine U.S. states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Washington. The Company has also extended its footprint internationally, with eight licensed restaurant locations in the Philippines. For more information or to place an order, visit the Loco Rewards APP or ElPolloLoco.com. Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, or X.