NYSE: SHAK

WE STAND FOR SOMETHING GOOD

Our Purpose — Stand for Something Good: We will nurture the world’s communities by delivering exceptional food and hospitality. Everything that we do should be in service of our team members, guests, and communities. Our prosperity is a means to an end, with the end being improving the world in which we work, live, and play.

Our Mission — To bring the world’s best fine casual experience to as many guests, team members, and communities as possible and, in doing so, to bring pride to everyone in our company and to deliver a strong financial benefit for our team members and shareholders.

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HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT

To ensure the near-term and long-term success of our business, we are focused on recruiting, developing. and rewarding high performing teams. Our teams are made up of people who have integrity, who are warm, motivated, self-aware, and intellectually curious alongside having the competencies and skills that continue to foster our growth. We believe this culture is fundamental to the way we operate our business, and a key driver of our ability to deliver great guest experiences, and therefore, successfully grow our footprint.

As of December 31, 2025, we had 13,873 team members, of whom 13,427 were hourly team members and Shack-level managers and 446 were Shack Support Center personnel.

Talent

We attract and recruit a workforce of top talent through employer branding, diversification of recruitment channels, and optimal recruiting practices to create a talent pipeline to support current staffing needs as well as enabling new Shack growth. At Shake Shack we foster an environment that attracts and welcomes individuals of all abilities, backgrounds, cultures, perspectives, skill sets, and experiences. Having a high performing and engaged workforce is important, and we seek to understand the needs of our teams through feedback to help to ensure they feel recognized, connected and proud to work at Shake Shack.

We are dedicated to providing content and experiences that develop and retain team members. At Shake Shack, we continue to rethink how we provide career growth opportunities with lattice mobility replacing the traditional promotion ladder to ensure team members continue to succeed in a market that is rapidly changing. We offer training programs to foster leaders from within, such as:

▪Our nine-week Rise program is created for exempt managers and California non-exempt managers and focuses on elevating leadership capabilities through coaching, building effective team environments, and driving meaningful business impact within the Shack.

▪Our nine-week Emerge program is targeted towards assistant general managers and is designed to empower them to influence their teams, drive accountability and deliver results through strategic, data-informed decisions.

▪Our 18-week Shift Up program is a leadership development program for early career Shack managers that provides training through cohort mentoring, business integration and real-world Shack experience to help improve their skill sets and grow their confidence to become senior leaders in our Shacks.

To make sure every Shake Shack team member at every level has a positive experience, we strive to build an inclusive workplace, where all team members have the support and resources they need to succeed and feel a sense of belonging. We foster this sense of belonging in part through our employee resource groups, which are open to all team members. Another way we support our team members is through the administration of our HUG Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization funded by and available for our team members. The HUG Fund provides timely financial assistance to team members impacted by emergency circumstances beyond their control and means.

We care about our team and are committed to setting them up for success at Shake Shack and in their future careers. In fiscal 2025, we promoted 3,720 people throughout our Company. We are proud of our leaders who graduate from hourly roles to managers, managers to General Managers and General Managers to regional leadership. This year, 61% of our new General Managers and 63% of new Area Directors were promoted from within.

Total Rewards

Our team members are at the center of all we do, and we remain committed to investing in their success and well-being. We continue to work diligently to ensure our team members have access to benefits to support their personal and family wellness and continue to explore new and meaningful ways to reward our high performing team members.

The following summarizes some of the benefits offered to eligible team members:

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▪Comprehensive health insurance coverage and health and flexible spending accounts are offered to eligible team members working 25 hours or more each week.

▪We offer eligible team members a 401(k) plan that includes a competitive matching component to support and encourage retirement savings.

▪Our tipping availability has offered team members the opportunity for increased hourly wages and is optional if our guests are inclined to reward our teams for additional hospitality and service.

▪Team members can accrue paid time off and sick time based on hours worked, which can be used for personal needs or to care for family members.

▪Parental leave is available for Shift Managers and above who are new parents welcoming a child through birth, adoption, or foster placement.

▪Our Shake Shack Field Management Bonus Program incentivizes our leaders to grow both sales dollars and operating profit percentage.

▪General Managers participate in our equity-based compensation program, empowering them to share in the success of our business.

GUEST EXPERIENCE

Danny Meyer's original vision of Enlightened Hospitality guided the creation of Shake Shack's unique culture. We believe that culture is the single most important factor in our success. To maintain this, we take care of our teams first and foremost, and this allows us to take care of our guests, our communities, our suppliers, and our shareholders. We strive to create a personalized experience for our guests at each of our Shacks around the world. We achieve this through innovations in service, trendsetting culinary innovation, and the design of warm community gathering places.

Engaging with our Guests

Shake Shack grew up alongside social media and we believe we have benefited from our close relationship with passionate fans who want to engage with us and share their real-time experiences. We're proud to be recognized by media, influencers, and creators alike, garnering attention around the world. Our positioning and brand voice, derived from the spirit, integrity and light-hearted nature of Shake Shack, are reinforced by our contemporary, responsible designs and hospitable team members. This identity also anchors our marketing efforts, with the heart of our marketing strategy to awaken the world to joyful eating through uplifting experiences, cultivating community and connecting with guests both in our Shacks and through digital channels.

Capitalizing on Our Brand Strength

Since 2004, Shake Shack has become a globally recognized brand with strong consumer awareness relative to our current footprint of 659 Shacks system-wide. We pride ourselves on providing a vibrant and authentic community gathering place that delivers an exceptional experience to our loyal guests. One great advantage for Shake Shack has been our birthplace and headquarters in New York City and our origination from a fine-dining company, which have contributed to influential media visibility and brand recognition. Shake Shack continues to receive recognition for being a fan and industry favorite, and was named to Restaurant Business' Top 500 Chain Restaurants and QSR Magazine's QSR 50 in 2025.

Social Media

Just as we design our Shacks as community gathering places, our social media strategy creates an online community gathering place. We interact with fans across Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and more by sharing engaging content, comments, replies and the use of user-generated content; a quick search of "#shakeshack" on Instagram reveals over 1.1 million organic posts from our fans.

Brand Marketing Model

In 2025, we evolved our brand marketing model to create a durable, demand-driving engine that supports long-term sales growth, in part, by adopting a unified approach across advertising, paid media, insights & analytics, and earned/social engagement. As part of this evolution, we invested in paid media at scale for the first time supporting campaigns such as the Dubai Chocolate Shake, The Big Shack, and $1 soda in-app only promotion. The evolution of our brand marketing model has

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informed our strategic brand positioning and selection of a new creative agency partner capable of elevating how we communicate the Shake Shack story.

Digital Evolution

We are building a digital guest experience that aims to turn every visit into a routine and every order into growth. By aligning our roadmap across guest journey improvement, loyalty, retention, and digital excellence, we’re creating a growth flywheel that drives both comparable and incremental sales. We are making investments to amplify Shake Shack’s hospitality through a platform where ordering is frictionless, returning is rewarding, and reliability makes us a part of our guests’ everyday lives. By weaving these priorities into one journey, we aim to scale growth of our digital channels and deepen loyalty. Our digital initiatives are defined by each of the following themes:

▪Personalization and Hospitality — Leveraging data and guest insights to anticipate needs, tailor experiences, and bring hospitality to our digital channels at scale. We aim to make each guest feel recognized and valued.

▪Rewarding Guests with Value — Creating meaningful motivating value exchanges that deepen loyalty and help guests choose Shake Shack in a crowded space.

▪Easy, Reliable and Delightful Experiences — Delivering a frictionless journey that is fast, intuitive and dependable across app and web. From improving efficiency and availability to seamless checkout and thoughtful user experience interfaces, we remove barriers and deliver experiences that keep guests coming back.

We are focused on driving traffic to our Company-owned app and web channels, including growing the number of app and web sessions by acquiring and converting users across our digital ecosystem. Our mobile app drives higher frequency and offers a better guest experience, which we will continue to invest in. We also continue to offer third-party delivery through Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub and other third-party delivery providers.

Personalized Offers and Challenges

In 2025, we integrated our new offer management tool with our guest data platform and messaging platform to deliver personalized offers and challenges to targeted guest segments. This enabled our marketing team to tailor offers to specific guests based on that guest’s behavior in Shack Shack’s ecosystem, allowing our messaging and offers to be more efficient and drive incremental value. In addition to the back-end integration, we improved how users view and redeem offers on our mobile apps and website to make it a more user-friendly experience. The integration and improvements also enabled the capability to run “challenge” offers where a user is rewarded for performing specific actions over multiple visits to Shake Shack, for example, visit three times in 30 days for a free Shackburger.

Kiosk

In 2025 we continued to invest in the development of our kiosk platform including releasing the capability for guests to identify themselves at our kiosks. By simply entering their phone number at kiosk, guests are able to view a personalized kiosk experience, access tailored offers, and participate in the challenges mentioned above. This has increased engagement on our kiosks and improved our tracking of guest behavior across ordering channels. Additionally, we have made updates to the way users navigate our menu on kiosk, improving usability and merchandising of Shake Shack’s menu.

Culinary Innovation

Shake Shack's unique value proposition is partially defined by our roots in fine-dining, which inspire us to offer premium food and beverages, carefully crafted from a range of classic American foods. We embrace that heritage and are committed to sourcing premium ingredients while offering excellent value to our guests. Our core menu is inspired by elevated versions of American classics.

Fiscal 2025 represented a meaningful shift in how we develop and manage culinary innovation across the Company. We strengthened our culinary and menu strategy by building a dedicated team and implementing a more diligent approach to taste testing, validation, and product development. This included establishing a strategic culinary calendar planned 12 to 18 months in advance, supported by guest feedback and insights to ensure each item meets our standards for quality, execution, and guest appeal. This new process has enabled us to deliver a consistent pipeline of compelling limited-time offerings across burgers and sandwiches, sides, shakes, and beverages, while reinforcing the quality of our food and our fine-casual positioning. Importantly,

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we have shifted the way we think about culinary innovation—viewing it not only as a product development function but as a core driver of guest traffic and sales mix.

Shack-Wide Limited Time Offerings ("LTO")

Our LTO program generally features a new, premium burger or chicken sandwich, special side innovation, and unique beverages and shakes for varying periods of time throughout the year. In fiscal 2025, these offerings highlighted several distinct culinary themes and showcased bold flavors and premium ingredients.

▪Black Truffle Menu — From September 2024 through April 2025, we reintroduced our beloved Black Truffle sauce made with real black truffle oil, with Black Truffle ShackStack as an option, combining our iconic ‘Shroom burger with one of our 100% Angus beef patties.

▪Summer BBQ Menu — In April, we brought back our seasonal BBQ flavors across burgers and new chicken sandwiches, complemented by sides of Fried Pickles and Spicy Fries, showcasing our signature Shack-crafted sauces and craveable combinations for the summer season.

▪Dog Days — In July, we launched a limited-time hot dog menu featuring elevated, inventive toppings, providing guests with unique options beyond our core burger and chicken offerings.

▪French Onion Menu — In September, we launched the French Onion Burger, 'Shroom, and ShackStack along with accompanying sides including Onion Rings and Parmesan Garlic Fries, bringing rich, fine-dining-inspired flavors to our LTO offerings. Onion Rings were so well received by our guests that they will join the core menu permanently in 2026.

▪Big Shack — In November, we introduced a more deluxe version of our famous ShackBurger made with two 100% Angus beef patties split between three layers of bun and topped with our secret sauce, lettuce, American cheese, pickles, onions, and tomatoes.

▪Beverage and Dessert Innovation — Throughout fiscal 2025, we continued to expand our beverage innovation pipeline, highlighted by the Dubai Chocolate Pistachio Shake, one of our strongest Shake LTOs to date. Following the success of the Dubai Chocolate Pistachio Shack, we added the same crackable feature to one of our holiday Shake LTOs - the Peppermint Bark Chocolate Shake. We also offered a Mini Raspberry Popping Boba add-on for lemonades and iced teas, delivering a premium and fun sensory surprise.

Engaging the Community

Community and Charitable Partners

We regularly serve our communities in a variety of ways including Donation Days to show support for local schools and organizations. Guests who participate in these fundraisers have a portion of their order totals donated to a local nonprofit by mentioning the fundraiser when placing an order in-Shack or using a fundraiser code on the Shack app, website, or kiosk for pick-up or delivery. In 2025, Donation Days supported several of our Shack communities in need following disasters, including the Los Angeles-area wildfires and floods in North Carolina. For new Shack openings, we partner with local charities to donate $1 from each designated menu item sold on opening day. In some markets, we have existing tenured partnerships with organizations and in other markets we are building new relationships in our local communities as we open Shacks.

A Warm Community Gathering Place

Our Shacks are so much more than a place to get burgers, fries and shakes; they’re places for the community to gather. We place a high premium on connecting with our communities through the physical design of our Shacks and by the local causes we support. Each Shack is designed to convey a consistent brand message while also tailoring marketing efforts to its specific region. We may offer menu items that feature ingredients and beers specific to a Shack's community, and we may team up with local chefs and restaurants to offer our guests unique, collaborative menu items. We also collaborate with local artists and designers to bring beautiful artwork and installations to our Shacks. We participate in local celebrations and develop relationships within the community, helping position Shake Shack as a premium brand that is connected to its neighborhoods.

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DEVELOPMENT

During fiscal 2025, we focused our development strategy on improving how we build and open Shacks, which included reducing build costs, implementing strategies to better predict and forecast timelines and manage our supply chain, evolving our design efforts to standardize key components of our Shacks while maintaining brand quality and guest experience, and opening a mixed portfolio of formats that allowed us to maximize our potential in each market. We opened 80 net new system-wide Shacks, which included 44 net Company-operated and 36 net Licensed Shacks. We believe we remain well-positioned to continue significant, sustainable financial growth and we plan to continue to execute our growth strategies.

Company-Operated Shacks

We continued to expand our Company-operated footprint with 45 new-Shack openings for the year, our largest class of openings to date. These openings advanced our disciplined growth strategy and extended our presence across a broader set of markets, particularly outside the Northeast. As we grow, we remain focused on building a scalable foundation that supports our long-term opportunity, including our target to reach approximately 1,500 Company-operated Shacks, reflecting significant whitespace across both established and new U.S. markets. As of December 31, 2025 we had 373 Company-operated Shacks.

Building a Scalable Pipeline

Throughout 2025, we strengthened the capabilities that underpin our development strategy. Our real estate team continued to leverage data analytics, traffic and demographic insights, and stronger developer partnerships, and expanded local brokerage relationships to support high-quality site selection. We anticipate that these efforts will contribute to a strong future pipeline and reinforce our ability to deploy capital efficiently as we scale.

We made further progress in reducing development costs and delivered approximately 20% reduction in net cost-to-build for the year, despite continued inflationary pressures across the industry. In fiscal 2025, average investment cost was approximately $2.3 million, or approximately $1.9 million net of tenant improvement allowances received from our landlords. We lowered our build costs by implementing further standardization, including our first free-standing drive thru prototype. We further refined key building systems, improving the cost profile on finishes, as well as making meaningful improvements to interior furniture, kitchen equipment optimization, signage, and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems across all formats.

Gross investment cost of a new Shack, which includes costs related to leasehold improvements, furniture, fixtures and equipment ranged from approximately $1.6 million to $4.1 million in fiscal 2025. Shacks opened in fiscal 2025 took between 15 and 51 weeks to build. One Shack experienced an extended build time largely due to landlord and utility company delays. Excluding this Shack, the Shack class of 2025 took between 15 and 37 weeks to build. Shacks opened in fiscal 2024 took between 14 and 39 weeks to build. In fiscal 2026, we look forward to unlocking further opportunities for improving on how we build our Shacks including continuing our efforts to maintain our build cost structure and deliver strong cash-on-cash return across accelerated growth in new Shacks.

Executing a Multi-Format Strategy

We are focused on creating a balanced portfolio of Shacks across multiple formats and improving how we build our Shacks. In 2025, we continued to refine our multi-format approach, including core urban locations, suburban drive-thrus, small-format Shacks, and select flagship experiences. Innovation remained central to this strategy, with meaningful progress in kitchen design, equipment optimization, and standardized production models, all aimed at unlocking higher throughput and improved unit-level performance. Our first-of-its-kind Shack at The Battery in Atlanta showcased the benefits of this work, featuring a new equipment package, operational enhancements, and a broadened beverage platform, including a full bar, that delivered strong volumes.

Optimizing our Portfolio

Alongside our investments in new Shacks, we continued to reinvest in our existing Shacks to maintain operational excellence and deliver consistent guest experiences. In 2025, we deployed capital towards facility upgrades, remodels, and ongoing digital enhancements, including improvements to kiosk functionality and reliability. As our portfolio expands and matures, these reinvestments remain central to sustaining high standards across our system, supporting strong operations, guest experience

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and sales growth. Together, our development, innovation, and operational initiatives position us to continue driving long-term growth and attractive unit-level economics across our Company-operated footprint.

Growing Our Licensed Shack Business

Our licensed business continues to serve as a key driver for enhancing brand visibility through iconic flagships in major cities around the world. During 2025, we expanded our global footprint through disciplined partner selection and strong performance from both new and existing markets. As of December 31, 2025 we had 286 licensed Shacks in operation.

Internationally, fiscal 2025 was marked by continued expansion, format development, and menu innovation. We opened 36 new licensed Shacks across 12 countries, including four in China and Hong Kong, where new product introductions, most notably our first-ever fish sandwich, generated significant guest adoption and informed subsequent product rollouts. Growth in Canada, Japan, and other regions exceeded expectations, and we signed several new long-term development agreements, including a plan to open 15 Shacks in Vietnam with Maxim's and a 12-Shack partnership in Panama with Grupo Attie–Multifood Enterprises. During fiscal 2025, we permanently closed three of our international licensed Shacks.

Domestically, we opened four licensed Shacks and expanded our footprint in major airports, travel plazas, and high-traffic entertainment venues, benefiting from strong demand driven by elevated leisure and business travel. Our partnership with Delta Air Lines grew meaningfully in 2025, with Shake Shack now served in select routes across flights originating from 13 domestic airports via First Class pre select and supported by strong guest feedback. In addition, we executed new licensing agreements with Union MAK Corporation to bring Shake Shack to Hawaii and also with PENN Entertainment to bring Shake Shack to 10 U.S. casino properties, expanding our nontraditional format growth and aligning with our strategy of entering high-volume destinations through experienced operators. During fiscal 2025, we permanently closed one of our domestic licensed Shacks.

OPERATIONS

At Shake Shack, we believe our success depends upon maintaining efficient and nimble operations. Just as we invest in our menu items, digital offerings, drive-thru and in-Shack experiences, we take special care to ensure our supply chain, distribution, quality assurance and management information systems are constantly being evaluated and streamlined to ensure cohesiveness.

Optimize Restaurant Operations

We continue to drive profitability through a focus on developing our team members, reinforcing performance accountability, and executing with operational excellence. In fiscal 2025, we strengthened the foundation of our business by executing on initiatives that improved efficiency, operational consistency, and the overall guest experience. We implemented a performance scorecard that drives accountability and visibility across our Shacks, helping to drive improvements in guest experience and overall profitability. To ensure that our teams are equipped to provide exceptional service, we invested in tools that empower our teams to operate more efficiently, including smarter scheduling systems and targeted coaching. These efforts have contributed to stronger performance across key operational metrics, including labor optimization, speed of service, and order accuracy. As we continue to strengthen productivity and operational discipline, we are also seeing corresponding improvements in guest experience metrics. We remain focused on identifying and executing opportunities to streamline our operations, including optimizing staffing levels, refining processes, and consistently delivering an elevated guest experience.

Sourcing and Supply Chain

We pride ourselves on sourcing premium ingredients from partners who share our dedication to quality, such as 100% all-natural proteins with no added hormones, that are humanely raised and source-verified. We are currently sourcing 100% cage-free eggs across our domestic supply chain. We continue to strive to improve our sourcing practices across our international supply chain while maintaining the quality and standards we are known for.

Our domestic regional strategy for ground beef production is designed to help ensure we consistently serve freshly ground beef at our domestic Shacks. As of December 31, 2025, we have 11 approved raw beef suppliers and seven approved ground beef

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processors in the U.S. who produce our burgers on a daily basis. To ensure quality, we maintain strict standards for selecting and contracting domestic suppliers for our major ingredients, including beef patties, chicken, crinkle cut fries, potato buns, custard, portobello mushrooms and cheese sauce.

We believe we have developed a reliable supply chain, but have also taken strides to identify alternative sources to help mitigate business risk and optimize costs, including diversifying our supplier base and supplier footprint, and optimizing logistics. As Shake Shack continues to grow, we aim to refine ingredients and products to improve consistency and reduce back of house labor inputs, unlock transportation and logistics efficiencies, and enhance sourcing discipline through structured bid processes. Refer to "Risks Related to Our Growth Strategies and Operations", in Item 1A, Risk Factors, for additional information relating to our suppliers.

Distribution

We have a centralized distribution process with one distributor, which we refer to as our "broadline" distributor, to provide nearly all of our food distribution services in the U.S. As of December 31, 2025, approximately 95% of certain food and beverage ingredients including chicken, fries and custard were fulfilled through our broadline distributor for distribution and delivery to each Company-operated Shack which collectively represents approximately 42% of our total purchases.

As of December 31, 2025, we were utilizing 20 affiliated distribution centers to supply our Company-operated Shacks. We recognize that the safety and consistency of our products begins with our suppliers, and therefore, we require our suppliers to meet certain criteria and strict quality control standards in the production and delivery of our food and other products. Additionally, we regularly evaluate our broadline distributor to ensure the products we purchase conform to our standards and contracted prices are fair and competitive.

Food Safety and Quality Assurance

Food safety is our top priority. We have rigorous quality assurance and food safety protocols in place throughout our supply chain and in our Shacks. We conduct quarterly, third-party food safety assessments of our Shacks, utilize technology to manage and document food safety procedures, and ensure appropriate corrective actions are implemented for any noncompliance findings. In fiscal 2025, we implemented Belltower Instant Recall System, an industry-leading system for communicating product recalls from supplier to distributor to restaurant level. The implementation of this system improves our ability to react to and communicate any ingredient recalls with our Shacks.

We have a comprehensive supplier and ingredient selection process, and we maintain a list of approved suppliers that meet our standards. We thoroughly review the results of suppliers' internal and external quality audits, insurance coverage, and track record on an on-going basis. To stress test for exceptional scenarios, we conduct mock food recalls across a selection of our suppliers on a quarterly basis. We have developed and implemented training and operating standards related to the food preparation, cleanliness and safety in each Shack, and we have a dedicated Quality Assurance team.

Environmental Responsibility

We focus on environmental responsibility across our operations, including with respect to ingredients, where we are committed to sourcing premium ingredients from like-minded suppliers. We remain dedicated in our efforts to reduce our environmental footprint by using streamlined and minimal packaging elements and continue to use more sustainable, certified packaging materials whenever possible. We track and calculate scope 1 and scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions to publicly report in compliance with industry standards and assess our emissions year-over-year.

Management Technology Services

During fiscal 2025, we advanced our digital guest experience, operator tools, and underlying technology platforms to support scalable growth and enhance operational performance. On the guest-facing side, we introduced behavior-based promotions, strengthened guest recognition on kiosks, and improved the digital ordering experience. Foundational improvements to kiosk performance, fraud prevention, and development processes further increased scalability of our digital platform. We also

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advanced our enterprise operational and analytics strategy to strengthen data-driven decision-making across the organization. We further advanced the technology backbone that supports enterprise operations and restaurant systems.

As cybersecurity threats continue to increase in sophistication and frequency, we remained focused on strengthening our cyber maturity and safeguarding guest and Company data and continue to invest in our security and technology infrastructure and enhancing threat detection capabilities.

As artificial intelligence becomes more embedded in business operations, we expanded our governance framework for artificial intelligence technologies, including updating our business-use policy and implementing guardrails that promote responsible adoption in alignment with emerging regulatory expectations.

COMPETITION

The restaurant industry is highly competitive and fragmented, with restaurants competing on a variety of fronts, including taste, price, food quality, service, location and the ambiance and condition of the restaurant. Our primary competitors include other fast casual restaurants, quick service restaurants and casual dining restaurants. Our competition includes multi-unit international, national, and regional chains, as well as a wide variety of locally-owned restaurants. Our competitors may operate company-owned restaurants, franchised restaurants or some combination. Many of our competitors offer breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as dine-in, carry-out, drive-thru and delivery services. In certain ways, we also compete with companies outside of the traditional restaurant industry, such as grocery store chains, meal subscription services and delicatessens — especially those that target guests who seek high-quality food — as well as convenience food stores, cafeterias and other dining outlets.

As new competitors enter the burger and fast casual segment and offer new digital experiences as well as companies that offer subscription based meal options, our competition continues to intensify. We also face increasing pressures from certain competitors who have announced initiatives to offer better quality ingredients relative to their previous offerings, such as antibiotic-free meat or plant-based meat alternatives. For more information regarding the risks we face from our competitors, see "Risks Related to Operating in the Restaurant Industry — We face significant competition for guests, and if we are unable to compete effectively, our business could be adversely affected" in Item 1A, Risk Factors.

We see ourselves as well-positioned to continue our market growth, as we believe consumers will keep seeking higher quality offerings, especially given an increasing consumer focus on responsible sourcing, ingredients and preparation. Additionally, we place a focus on culinary innovation to ensure our menu offerings stand out from those of our competitors. We believe that many consumers want to associate with brands whose ethos matches their own, and that Shake Shack, with our purpose to Stand For Something Good, reflects the values of conscientious consumers.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Since our inception, we have strategically and proactively developed our intellectual property portfolio by registering our trademarks and service marks worldwide. As of December 31, 2025, we had 29 registered marks domestically, including registrations of our core marks ("Shake Shack," "Shack Burger," "" and "") and certain other marks, such as Stand for Something Good. Internationally, we have registered our core marks in 85 countries spanning six continents. These marks are registered in multiple international trademark classes, including for restaurant services, food services, non-alcoholic beverages and apparel. We also own the domain www.shakeshack.com, as well as over 420 other domain names for use in other markets.

In addition, we have agreements with the suppliers of our proprietary products stating that the recipes, formulas and in certain instances the production processes associated with those products are our property, confidential to us, and may not be provided to any other customer. Our proprietary products include the burger recipe for our specific blend, our patty grinding specifications and the product formulations. We've developed several product formulations including our ShackSauce, 'Shroom Burger, chicken breast, chicken bites, chicken breading, buttermilk herb mayo, cheese sauce, unflavored custard base, vanilla custard base,

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chocolate custard base, as well as certain toppings and custard mix-ins. We also have exclusive arrangements with our suppliers of crinkle cut fries, ShackMeister Ale, Shack Red wine, Shack White wine, Shack Rosé wine, hot dogs and cherry peppers.

GOVERNMENT REGULATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS

We are subject to extensive federal, state, local and foreign laws and regulations, as well as other statutory and regulatory requirements, including those related to, among others, nutritional content labeling and disclosure requirements, food safety regulations, local licensure, building and zoning regulations, employment regulations and laws and regulations related to our licensed operations. New laws and regulations or new interpretations of existing laws and regulations may also impact our business. The costs of compliance with these laws and regulations are high, are likely to increase in the future, and any failure on our part to comply with these laws may subject us to significant liabilities and other penalties. See "Regulatory and Legal Risks" in Item 1A, Risk Factors for more information.

We are not aware of any federal, state or local provisions that have been enacted or adopted regulating the discharge of materials into the environment, or otherwise relating to the protection of the environment, that have materially affected, or are reasonably expected to materially affect, our results of operations, competitive position, or capital expenditures.

SEASONALITY

Our business is subject to seasonal fluctuations which can impact sales from quarter-to-quarter. We typically see higher sales in the summer months, followed by a slower fall season during the back-to-school months and an increase around the holiday season. However, given our use of a fiscal calendar, there may be some fluctuations between quarters due to holiday shifts in the calendar year. Year-over-year and quarter-to-quarter results can also be impacted by the number and timing of new Shack openings.

INFORMATION ABOUT OUR EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

The name, age and position held by each of our named executive officers as of December 31, 2025 is set forth below.

NameAgePosition

Robert Lynch
49Chief Executive Officer and Director

Stephanie Sentell
47
Chief Operations Officer

Robert Lynch has served as Shake Shack’s Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors since May 2024. Prior to joining Shake Shack, Mr. Lynch served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Papa John’s International, Inc., where he drove record global system-wide sales of over $5 billion across approximately 5,900 units. Previously, Mr. Lynch was President of Arby’s Restaurant Group, one of the largest sandwich restaurant brands in the world, with more than 3,400 restaurants across eight countries, where he led operations, marketing, culinary, development, and digital transformation. Mr. Lynch previously served as Arby’s Brand President and Chief Marketing Officer. Prior to joining Arby’s, Mr. Lynch served as Vice President of Marketing at Taco Bell. Mr. Lynch has over 25 years combined experience in the QSR and consumer packaged goods industries and has also held senior roles at BJ Heinz Company and Procter & Gamble. Mr. Lynch is a graduate of the University of Rochester, where he obtained his B.A. and M.B.A.

Stephanie Sentell has served as Shake Shack’s Chief Operations Officer since July 2024. Ms. Sentell brings a portfolio of experience with her from a 25-year restaurant industry career. Prior to joining Shake Shack, Ms. Sentell served as SVP of Company Operations at Inspire Brands. In this role she was responsible for a $1.5 billion dollar business across 1,100 company-owned restaurants with over 22,000 restaurant team members in the U.S. Previously, Ms. Sentell held the position of SVP Restaurant Operations & Innovation at Inspire Brands. Earlier, Ms. Sentell served as SVP Restaurant Excellence as well as SVP

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Product Development and Menu Delivery at Arby's Restaurant Group. Ms. Sentell also spent over 11 years at Dairy Queen as the Director of Marketing and a franchisee owner. Ms. Sentell is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin at River Falls, where she obtained her A.S. in Marketing Communications.

AVAILABLE INFORMATION

Our website is located at www.shakeshack.com, and our investor relations website is located at https://investor.shakeshack.com. We are subject to the informational requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") and file or furnish reports, proxy statements and other information with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements, statements of changes in beneficial ownership and amendments to those reports are available for free on our investor relations website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file them with, or furnish them to, the SEC. The SEC maintains a website (www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.

We webcast our earnings calls and certain events we participate in or host with members of the investment community on our investor relations website. Additionally, we provide notifications of news or announcements regarding our financial performance, including SEC filings, investor events, and press and earnings releases as part of our investor relations website. Investors and others can receive notifications of new information posted on our investor relations website in real time by subscribing to email alerts. We also make certain corporate governance documents available on our investor relations website, including our corporate governance guidelines, board committee charters, code of business conduct and ethics, as well as certain Company policies.

The contents of our website are not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our websites are intended to be inactive textual references only.

Shake Shack Inc. Form 10-K | 12