Business Description

The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated is a leader in experiential dining. We are culinary forward and relentlessly focused on hospitality. As of February 23, 2026, we owned and operated 368 restaurants throughout the United States and Canada under brands including The Cheesecake Factory ® (216 locations), North Italia ® (48 locations), Flower Child ® (43 locations) and additional brands within our Fox Restaurant Concepts (“Other FRC”) portfolio (55 locations). Internationally, 35 The Cheesecake Factory ® restaurants operate under licensing agreements. Our bakery division operates two facilities that produce quality cheesecakes and other baked products for our restaurants, international licensees and third-party bakery customers. Our business originated in 1972 when Oscar and Evelyn Overton founded a small bakery in the Los Angeles area. In 1978, their son, David Overton, our Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, led the creation and opening of the first The Cheesecake Factory restaurant in Beverly Hills, California. In 1992, the Company was incorporated in Delaware as The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (referred to herein as the “Company” or as “we,” “us” and “our”). Our executive offices are located at 26901 Malibu Hills Road, Calabasas Hills, California 91301, and our telephone number is (818) 871-3000. We maintain a general website at www.thecheesecakefactory.com , as well as websites for our bakery and other brands, including www.northitalia.com , www.iamaflowerchild. com and www.foxrc.com . Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, all amendments to those reports and our proxy statements are available on our general website at no charge, as soon as reasonably practicable after these materials are filed with or furnished to the SEC. Our filings are also available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov . The content of our websites is not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K. We utilize a 52/53-week fiscal year ending on the Tuesday closest to December 31 for financial reporting purposes. Fiscal years 2025, 2024 and 2023 each consisted of 52 weeks. Fiscal year 2026 will consist of 52 weeks. Geopolitical and Other Macroeconomic Impacts to our Operating Environment In recent years, our operating results were impacted by geopolitical and macroeconomic events, causing supply chain challenges and significantly increased commodity and wage inflation. Our commodity and wage inflationary environment began returning to more historical levels in fiscal 2024. The impact of ongoing geopolitical and macroeconomic events, including evolving government policies and global trade and tariff dynamics, could lead to further wage inflation, product and services cost inflation, disruptions in the supply chain, staffing challenges, shifts in consumer behavior, and delays in new restaurant openings. Adverse weather conditions and natural disasters may further exacerbate a number of these factors. Any of these factors may have an adverse impact on our business and materially adversely affect our financial performance. The Cheesecake Factory As of February 23, 2026, we operated 216 The Cheesecake Factory restaurants, which strive to provide a distinctive, high-quality dining experience at moderate prices by offering an extensive, innovative and evolving menu in an upscale casual, high-energy setting with attentive, efficient and friendly service. As a result, The Cheesecake Factory restaurants appeal to a diverse customer base across a broad demographic range. Our extensive menu and strategic selection of locations enable us to compete for substantially all dining preferences and occasions, from the key lunch and dinner day parts to the mid-afternoon and late-night day parts, which are traditionally weaker times for most casual dining restaurants, as well as special occasion dining. The Cheesecake Factory restaurants are generally open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, and we offer additional menu items for weekend brunch. All of our restaurants offer a full-service bar where our entire menu is served. During fiscal 2025, alcoholic beverage sales represented 11% of The Cheesecake Factory restaurant sales. We offer all items on our menu, except alcoholic beverages where disallowed by regulation, for off-premise consumption, sales of which comprised approximately 21% of The Cheesecake Factory restaurant sales during fiscal 2025.…