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Cava Group Inc. (NYSE: CAVA), the parent company of Cava, a Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant brand, announced it is opening up to 68 new U.S. locations in fiscal 2025, after reporting better-than-expected first quarter earnings results. Cava, also known as Cava Grill, currently operates 382 locations across the United States, in 26 states and Washington, D.C. (as of the close of Q1). 2024 was Cavas first full calendar year as a public company. While Cava told Fast Company it does not release a full list of future locations, a look at the website shows restaurants in the following cities are “coming soon: Phoenix, AZ Huntington Beach, CA Plantation, FL Bel Air, MD Burlington, NC Charlotte, NC Cava told Fast Company of the targeted 64 to 68 new restaurants it plans to open this year, it has already opened 15 net new locations (in Q1) representing an 18.3% increase in total restaurants year over year. Those are in the following states: Florida (Ocala, Palm Harbor, Hialeah) New Jersey (East Brunswick, Union, Marlton) Massachusetts (Chelmsford, Chestnut Hill) Louisiana (Lafayette, New Orleans) Texas Virginia Indiana North Carolina New York The company previously said it wants to reach 1,000 locations by 2032. At the same time many fast-food chains and casual-dining restaurants are struggling, Cava’s growth stands out. Chief Financial Officer Tricia Tolivar told CNBC that over the last few quarters, Cava has found it’s hitting a sweet spot for customers who are trading up from fast food to purchase Cavas healthy bowls and pitas, while trading down, seeing it as cheaper than other casual-dining options. Cava cofounder and CEO Brett Schulman said the chain has purposely priced food items for the current economic times, while focusing on healthy food and hospitality. “At a time when guests are being more selective about where they dine, the appeal of our Mediterranean cuisine continues to resonate with the modern consumer,” Schulman told Fast Company. “We’ve also stayed focused on delivering our unique value proposition, investing in our guests, and underpricing inflation. We offer a warm, welcoming environment that fosters a genuine human connection. Its why we continue to drive traffic and sales growth, crossing $1 billion in revenue in the past 12 months.” Speaking of revenue, here’s a look at Cava’s first-quarter earnings numbers: Revenue grew 28.2% to $328.5 million, compared with $256.3 million in the prior year quarter Same restaurant sales growth of 10.8%, including guest traffic growth of 7.5% Cava Group net income of $25.7 million, compared with $14.0 million of net income and $11.9 million of adjusted net income in the prior year quarter Despite a strong quarter, Cava’s same-store sales forecast of a 6% to 8% increase remained consistent with last quarter, and could be one reason shares were down about 3% in afternoon trading on Friday. As Fast Company previously reported, while Cavas revenue grew 33% in 2024 along with a 9% jump in traffic, with same-restaurant sales up 13%, last quarter the chain forecast slower growth in the later half of fiscal 2025.
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E-Commerce
Novo Nordisk announced Friday that it would part ways with its longtime CEO, who steered the company into an unprecedented boom time for weight-loss drugs. The Ozempic makers chief executive, Lars Fruergaard Jrgensen, first joined the company as an economist in 1991. Jrgensen has served as Novo Nordisks CEO since 2017, leading the company before the current gold rush in weight-loss drug development was imaginable. Novo Nordisk cited market challenges and its declining share price in a press release announcing the leadership shake-up. Jrgensen will stay on as CEO temporarily for an undetermined period of time to support a smooth transition as the company looks for his replacement. Novo Nordisks value more than quintupled between 2017 and 2024, but the companys shares have fallen sharply since late last year, weighed down by Big Pharma rivals catching up and the proliferation of compounding pharmacies handing out affordable knockoffs of its signature drugs amid supply shortages. First out of the gate but struggling to stay ahead As a 100-year old company focused on treating diabetes since day one, Novo Nordisk initially enjoyed a first-mover advantagebut that edge has faded. Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide drug is in a class of drugs known as GLP-1 agonists, which simulate a hormone that would naturally be released during digestion. Its drug, marketed as Ozempic, was originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes. In 2021, the Food and Drug Administration approved Wegovy, a version of Novo Nordisks medication designed for weight loss and the first drug in that category to be approved since 2014. Novo Nordisks American competitor Eli Lilly made up ground quickly, securing FDA approval for its diabetes drug Mounjaro and its weight-management counterpart Zepbound in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Eli Lilly shares have soared since those drugs started hitting the market, showing no sign of flagging. Jrgensen was well aware that Novo Nordisk would need to push an aggressive pace of drug development to stay ahead. In late 2023, the company announced that it would buy a startup developing weight management drugs for $1.07 billion, just one massive deal in a flurry of acquisitions meant to shore up its defenses. A drug for everything To stay ahead, Novo Nordisk is pushing its semaglutide treatments into other areas of medicine. Cardiologists started being interested in GLP-1s, Jrgensen told Fast Company in 2023. The whole medical understanding of the link between obesity and diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and all of these cardiometabolic diseases is being understood now. Last year, the FDA approved Wegovy to reduce the risk of heart disease, and in January Ozempic got the green light for treating kidney disease. For semaglutide drugsand their counterparts from rival companiesosteoarthritis, Alzheimers disease, liver disease, and even addiction are all in play in the race for the next big thing. This week, the company announced a $2.2 billion partnership with Bay Area biotech startup Septerna to develop a pill form of its weight-loss and diabetes drugs. Novo Nordisk characterized Jrgensens departure as a mutual agreement but noted that the change was the wish of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, an independent nonprofit that controls the companyan ownership structure that is common among large Danish businesses. The foundation is designed to steer leadership from a long-term perspective and also doles out large scientific grants on topics ranging from endocrinology to climate-adapted soil. Lars Rebien Srensen, who chairs the Novo Nordisk Foundation, will join its board as an observer while the company seeks a new CEO. Srensen, Novo Nordisk’s CEO from 2000 to 2016, is expected to be nominated for a seat on the board during an annual meeting in 2026. We think, of course, in delivering here and now, but equally we think in decades forward, Jrgensen told Fast Company in 2023, describing the foundations role.
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E-Commerce
In February, the newly appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission opened a probe into Verizon just as the company was awaiting approval for a sizable acquisition. The telecom giant had announced plans last fall to purchase internet provider Frontier in a $20 billion deal, which was under review by the FCC. Verizon has now made the decision to cut its DEI programs, seemingly in response to FCC chair Brendan Carr’s investigation into its diversity practices. In a letter to the agency obtained by Reuters, Verizon disclosed that the company would scrub employee trainings of any references to DEI, along with changing its practices around hiring, supplier diversity, and corporate sponsorships. This afternoon, barely a day after receiving the letter from Verizon, the FCC announced that the acquisition of Frontier had been approved. According to Reuters, Verizon is eliminating workforce representation goals and will no longer tie compensation for managers to progress on hiring women and underrepresented employees. The company is also taking down its public page on “diversity and inclusion” and will no longer use the term DEI in its external messaging. (Verizon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) Verizon conceded in its letter that “some DEI policies and practices could be associated with discrimination.” In a statement, Carr applauded Verizon’s decision, calling it a “good and important step forwardone that promotes equal opportunity, nondiscrimination, and the public interest.” Verizon is hardly the first company to divest from its DEI commitments or make significant changes to those programs. Since January, President Trump has issued a wide range of executive orders targeting DEI programs across the federal government and private sector. Many major employers have pulled back on DEI to shield against potential litigation, accelerating a shift that had already been underway since the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action in 2023. Like Verizon, a number of companies have stopped tying executive compensation to diversity metrics, while tech giants like Meta and Google have also eliminated representation goals. It’s not yet clear which corporate sponsorships will be impacted by the changes at Verizon, but other companies have stopped sponsoring Pride events. Still, Verizon’s decision stands out as an example of how the private sector is responding to explicit pressure from the Trump administration to stamp out DEI programs. In an interview with CNBC, Carr was direct about what companies would need to do if they were seeking FCC approval. We’ve told everybody that’s trying to do deals before the FCC that they need to end their own promotion of invidious forms of DEI,” he said. Carr also specifically noted that the agency would be willing to block Verizon’s deal with Frontier over the company’s DEI practices. The FCC has already launched similar probes into Comcast and Disney to investigate their DEI practices. Paramount’s negotiations with the FCC over its proposed merger with Skydance reportedly involved a commitment to steer clear of DEI programs, according to the Wall Street Journalin line with changes the company already made earlier this year. Other commissioners at the agency have been critical of Carr’s investigations into DEI practices. “Stoking partisan culture wars is not the FCCs job,” FCC commissioner Anna Gomez said following the probe into Comcast. In a statement, FCC commissioner Geoffrey Starks added that from what I know, this enforcement action is out of our lane and out of our reach.”
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E-Commerce
For NFL teams social media departments, May 14 is the Super Bowl. NFL Schedule Release Day has become an unofficial holiday on the league calendar. All 32 teams unveil their season schedules in the most creative and entertaining ways possiblechasing quote tweets and marketing impressions before the internet crowns a winner. This year, the Los Angeles Chargers dropped a Minecraft-inspired video, complete with a nod to a viral Starbucks altercation between NFL reporters Ian Rapoport and Jordan Schultz during the combine. Give the Chargers every award, Pro Football Talk posted on X. The Commanders put their own spin on the classic game Rollercoaster Tycoon, while the Atlanta Falcons went with a Mario Kart theme. The New York Giants reimagined their 2025 opponents as contestants on Love Island. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles werent done flexing last seasons success. This unofficial competition started nearly a decade ago with the Seattle Seahawks cupcake schedule video. What couldve been a simple email has since evolved into full-blown productionswhere the schedule itself can feel like an afterthought. Brainstorming starts as early as December, months before the reveal. Teams usually dont receive their finalized schedules until the day before the official release, prompting a last-minute sprint to produce and post final edits within 24 hours. Everything is kept under tight wraps until 8 p.m. ET, May 15. People will ask me, said Megan Julian, the Chargers senior director of digital and social media, in an interview with Sports Illustrated. I definitely have been on Hinge [the dating app] and people are like, What are yall doing [for this years schedule video]? This is Hinge, bro. We gotta calm down. We gotta chill out. Im not telling you. And, as a truly unbiased Brit: this year, the Tennessee Titans won.
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E-Commerce
After a record-breaking 2024 and exciting offseason, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) is primed to keep the ball dribbling in 2025. The season kicks off tonight (Friday, May 16, 2025) with three exciting matchups. Here is everything you need to knowas well as some fun facts and historyin order to get up to speed about the new season, including how to stream the games live. A brief history of the WNBA The WNBA was not the first professional womens basketball league. That honor fell to the American Basketball League, which operated from 1996 to 1998. But it is the only one to have the support of the NBA. The WNBA was founded in 1996 and began balling in 1997, following the popularity of the USA Basketball Women’s National Team at the Summer Olympic Games. Eight teams battled it out on the court, but the Houston Comets prevailed as the first-ever WNBA champions. What happened during the 2025 WNBA offseason? Fast-forward to 2024 and the league had 12 teams. This year, its expanding to 13, with the addition of the Golden State Valkyries, based out of San Francisco. The new team on the block will be led by the first Asian American WNBA head coach, Natalie Nakase. Her impressive résumé includes being assistant coach for the NBAs Los Angeles Clippers and the WNBAs Las Vegas Aces. Last season, the Dallas Wings were shut out of the playoffs for the first time since 2020. This year, the organization has made changes, such as adding No. 1 draft pick Paige Bueckers to the roster. She will be led by new general manager Curt Miller and new head coach Chris Koclanes, who both have high hopes for a comeback. One cannot talk about the WNBA without mentioning last seasons rookie of the year, Caitlin Clark. Despite coming off a grueling college season, she helped the Indiana Fever reach the playoffs for the first time in eight years and set a new record of 337 assists. Imagine what she might do this year after getting a bit of a rest. Weekend WNBA schedule and how to stream the games live Be prepared, fans, as this weekend is going to be jam-packed with layups and three-pointers. Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET national: The Minnesota Lynx will face the Dallas Wings. Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET local: The Atlanta Dream take on the Washington Mystics. Friday, 10 p.m. ET national: The final game of the night has a California theme, with the Golden State Valkyries hosting the Los Angeles Sparks. All of these games can be viewed on the broadcast TV network Ion, whose full WNBA schedule is on its website. The station is available in many areas with an over-the-air antenna, or as part of a cable bundle. You can also watch Ion on live-TV streaming services such as Fubo and YouTube TV. The league also has a subscription-based service, WNBA League Pass. Saturday brings another triple-header. Saturday, 1 p.m ET: The Las Vegas Aces will try to take a bite out of the Big Apple, playing the New York Liberty. Saturday, 3 p.m. ET: Following that, things get hot and windy with the Chicago Sky challenging the Indiana Fever. Saturday, 10 p.m. ET: To end the day, the Seattle Storm will face off against the Phoenix Mercury. The first two Saturday games can be viewed on ABC, ESPN+, and Disney+, while the last one can only be watched on WNBA League Pass. Sunday will bring two more chances to see nothing but net. Sunday, 1 p.m. ET: In the afternoon, the Washington Mystics take on the Connecticut Sun. Sunday, 6 p.m. ET: In the evening, the Minnesota Lynx face the L.A. Sparks. Both games can be viewed on WNBA League Pass. How can I stream the rest of the WNBA season? This weekend is just the beginning of 175 regular-season games. These feats of athleticism will be available to watch across multiple networks and streaming services: ABC, ESPN, CBS, CBS Sports Network, Ion, NBA TV, Prime Video, and WNBA League Pass. Theres so much basketball to look forward to. The All-Star Game comes around on July 19. The playoffs begin on September 14, with the finals following in October. To plan accordingly, you can see the full WNBA schedule here.
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E-Commerce
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