Taco taste test
Guzman y Gomez’s first results as a listed company show strong earnings but mixed analyst reactions, as CEO Steven Marks leans into the salesmanship that got him this far.
Guzman y Gomez’s brash New Yorker founder and CEO, Steven Marks, is known as a salesman at heart. So it was fitting that during a call with Capital Brief to discuss the burrito chain’s inaugural results as a listed company, he naturally gravitated away from questions about the company’s frothy valuation and slipped straight into sales mode.
“We have free range eggs, a crispy hash brown, these beautiful chicken chorizos by the Rodriguez brothers, clean bacon, Monterey Jack cheddar cheese, fresh pico — all for eight bucks,” Marks told Capital Brief. “I don't know where you can get such high quality [food] for that kind of value anywhere in Australia, especially through a drive thru.”
Two months after its high-profile and heavily scrutinised IPO, Guzman y Gomez appeared to pass its first big test as a listed company on Tuesday.
The company reported full-year underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation of $39.1 million — ahead of its prospectus forecasts, but falling just short of expectations from analysts at Barrenjoey, one of two investment banks behind the float.
