The Chefs' Warehouse (CHEF) Earnings: Q3 Fiscal 2026 Results

The quarter ended September 25, 2026 and The Chefs' Warehouse published the results on October 28, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 fiscal 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison. The Chefs' Warehouse reports EPS two ways: GAAP, under the accounting rules every US filer follows, and adjusted net income per share, which leaves out items the company considers outside its operating results. The release reconciles the two, and when they diverge, the reconciliation says why.

• The Chefs' Warehouse's quarters end on the thirteenth Friday of each quarter, with a fourteenth week added to a fourth quarter every six to seven years. Q3 fiscal 2026 is the thirteen weeks ended September 25, 2026.
• The Chefs' Warehouse reports in thousands; figures here are rounded to the nearest $0.1 million.
• Diluted EPS counts 6,494,970 shares from the convertible notes and adds back their after-tax interest.

Source: The Chefs' Warehouse Q3 fiscal 2026 results, October 28, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 25, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How The Chefs' Warehouse splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 fiscal 2026 against Q3 fiscal 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• The Chefs' Warehouse's Center-of-the-Plate revenue was $447 million in Q3 fiscal 2026, up 14% from $394 million in Q3 fiscal 2025, 39% of total revenue.
• The Chefs' Warehouse's Specialty revenue was $688 million in Q3 fiscal 2026, up 10% from $627 million in Q3 fiscal 2025, 61% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

From the earnings release

The same list guides adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, at $317 million to $321 million for fiscal 2026.

In its Q3 fiscal 2026 release, The Chefs' Warehouse said:

“We are raising our fiscal 2026 full year financial guidance as follows:”

“Net sales in the range of $4.56 billion to $4.61 billion”

“Gross profit to be between $1.130 billion and $1.140 billion”

Source: The Chefs' Warehouse Q3 2026 release, Oct 28, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Oct 28, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the CHEF forecast page.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

GAAP net sales and diluted EPS, each as first reported in that quarter's release.

We do not hold a confirmed date for The Chefs' Warehouse's next report. Companies post the date on their investor relations site a few weeks ahead, usually with the time of the conference call.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 fiscal 2026 (this page), reported Oct 28, 2026

The Chefs' Warehouse sells food to restaurants, hotels, caterers, bakeries and specialty stores, and splits net sales into center-of-the-plate proteins and specialty products. In Q3 fiscal 2026 Center-of-the-Plate brought in $447.1 million, 39.4% of the $1,135.4 million total, and Specialty $688.2 million, 60.6%. The largest specialty lines were Dry Goods ($182.0 million), Produce ($151.9 million) and Pastry ($144.9 million); Dairy and Eggs was the one category that shrank, to $67.8 million from $73.6 million. (The Chefs' Warehouse Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 28, 2026)

Most of The Chefs' Warehouse's growth was organic. Net sales rose 11.2%, of which organic growth contributed $105.4 million, or 10.3%, and the remaining $8.7 million, or 0.9%, came mainly from the Italco acquisition. Organic specialty case count rose about 6.1%, and organic pounds sold in center-of-the-plate rose 6.6%. (The Chefs' Warehouse Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 28, 2026)

Price inflation added to The Chefs' Warehouse's sales on top of volume. The 10-Q estimates inflation increased sales by $16.2 million, or 2.6%, in specialty and by $26.0 million, or 6.6%, in center-of-the-plate. Unique customers and placements in specialty rose 4.4% and 7.2%. (The Chefs' Warehouse Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 28, 2026)

The Chefs' Warehouse's sales are mostly domestic. United States net sales were $1,048.6 million in the quarter and international $86.7 million, and no country outside the United States was more than 10% of revenue. Its CEO said Middle East revenue in recent weeks had been approximately 100% of the prior-year level. The company serves more than 55,000 core customer locations in 23 geographic markets, mostly independent restaurants and fine dining establishments. (The Chefs' Warehouse Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 28, 2026; The Chefs' Warehouse Q3 2026 release, Oct 28, 2026)

The Chefs' Warehouse's GAAP diluted EPS of $0.67 was slightly above its adjusted net income per share of $0.66 in Q3 fiscal 2026. The adjustments were small: a $558 thousand other operating income item, $756 thousand of duplicate rent and $29 thousand of moving expenses, with a $371 thousand tax effect. A year earlier adjusted EPS was $0.50 against GAAP EPS of $0.44. (The Chefs' Warehouse Q3 2026 release, Oct 28, 2026)

Diluted EPS at The Chefs' Warehouse assumes conversion of its convertible notes, which adds 6,494,970 shares to a basic count of 38,814,944 and adds back $1.2 million of after-tax interest. Diluted weighted average shares were 46,162,210, against 45,799,937 a year earlier. Through the first thirty-nine weeks of fiscal 2026 it repurchased 156,861 shares at an average price of $63.75, leaving $57.6 million of authorization. (The Chefs' Warehouse Q3 2026 release, Oct 28, 2026; The Chefs' Warehouse Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 28, 2026)

The Chefs' Warehouse's effective tax rate was 30.3%, against 32.6% a year earlier, and included a discrete tax benefit from the vesting of stock awards. Interest expense fell to $9.0 million from $10.5 million on lower debt and lower rates. Stock compensation was $9.3 million in the quarter, up from $4.9 million. (The Chefs' Warehouse Q3 2026 release, Oct 28, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

The Chefs' Warehouse raised its fiscal 2026 guidance in the Q3 release to net sales of $4.56 billion to $4.61 billion, gross profit of $1.130 billion to $1.140 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $317 million to $321 million. Its reconciliation puts fiscal 2026 net income at $108.5 million to $110.0 million at those ends of the range. (The Chefs' Warehouse Q3 2026 release, Oct 28, 2026)

Through the first thirty-nine weeks The Chefs' Warehouse reported net sales of $3,363.0 million and adjusted EBITDA of $230.4 million, so the guidance implies fourth-quarter net sales of roughly $1.20 billion to $1.25 billion. Its CEO said momentum continued into October. (The Chefs' Warehouse Q3 2026 release, Oct 28, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover The Chefs' Warehouse, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones The Chefs' Warehouse's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 fiscal 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning CHEF is on is CHEF a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the CHEF forecast, and what the company does is on the The Chefs' Warehouse (CHEF) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document The Chefs' Warehouse published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.