The Chefs' Warehouse (CHEF) Risk Analysis

As of February 9, 2026, our executive officers, directors and their affiliates beneficially owned, in the aggregate, approximately 12.7% of our outstanding shares of common stock. In particular, Christopher Pappas, our president and chief executive officer, and John Pappas, our vice chairman and chief operating officer, beneficially owned approximately 11.0% of our outstanding shares of common stock as of February 9, 2026. As a result of their significant individual ownership levels, these stockholders will be able to exercise a significant level of control over all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors, amendment of our certificate of incorporation and approval of significant corporate transactions. This control could have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of our company or changes in management and will make the approval of certain transactions difficult or impossible without the support of these stockholders.

We monitor the recoverability of our long-lived assets, such as buildings, equipment and leased assets, and evaluate their carrying value for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of such assets may not be fully recoverable. The testing of long-lived assets and goodwill for impairment requires us to make estimates that are subject to significant assumptions and to apply judgment to estimate economic factors and the profitability of future operations. Changes in these estimates, or changes in actual performance compared with these estimates, may affect the fair value of long-lived assets, which may result in an impairment charge. We cannot accurately predict the amount or timing of any impairment. Should the value of long-lived assets become impaired, our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected. For more information on the goodwill assessment, see "Management's Discussion and Financial Condition and Results of Operations-Critical Accounting Estimates-Valuation of Goodwill and Intangible Assets" and Note 8, Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets, to our consolidated financial statements.

The foodservice distribution industry is highly fragmented and competitive, with national, multi-regional, regional and local distributors and specialty competitors. Regional and local companies may align themselves with other smaller distributors through group purchasing organizations, with the goal of enhancing their geographic reach, private label offerings, overall purchasing power, cost efficiencies, and ability to meet customer distribution requirements. These distributors may also rely on local presence as a source of competitive advantage, and they may have a lower cost to serve and other competitive advantages due to geographic proximity. Additionally, adjacent competition, such as other cash-and-carry operations, commercial wholesale outlets, warehouse clubs and grocery stores, continue to serve the commercial foodservice market. We also experience competition from online direct food wholesalers and other retailers. We generally do not have exclusive distribution agreements with our customers, and they may switch to other distributors that offer lower prices or differentiated products or customer service. The cost of switching distributors is very low, as are the barriers to entry into the U.S. foodservice distribution industry. Such changes may occur particularly during periods of economic uncertainty or significant inflation. Moreover, some of our customers, including a majority of our hotel customers, purchase their products from us through such group purchasing organizations. If group purchasing organizations are able to add a significant number of our customers as members, we may be forced to lower the prices we charge these customers in order to retain the business, which would negatively affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. Additionally, if we were unable or unwilling to lower the prices we charge for our products to a level that was satisfactory to the group purchasing organization, we may lose the business of those of our customers that are members of these organizations, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition or results of operations. Our future success will be largely dependent upon our ability to profitably meet our customers' needs for certain gourmet foods and ingredients, varying drop sizes, high service levels and timely delivery. We compete with numerous smaller distributors on a local level, as well as with a limited number of larger, traditional broadline foodservice distributors. We cannot assure investors that our current or potential competitors will not provide specialty food products and ingredients, produce, center-of-the-plate protein items or services that are comparable or superior to those provided by us at prices that are lower than the prices we charge or adapt more quickly than we do to evolving culinary trends or changing market requirements. Accordingly, we cannot assure investors that we will be able to compete effectively against current and future competitors, and increased competition may result in price reductions, reduced gross margins and loss of market share, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Consumer eating habits may impact our business as a result of changes in attitudes regarding diet and health or new information regarding the health effects of consuming the products we distribute. For example, customers have increasingly focused on well-being, including reducing sodium and added sugar consumption or using weight-loss drugs to reduce consumption overall or change consumption patterns, as well as the source and authenticity of ingredients in the foods they consume. If consumer eating habits change significantly, we may be required to modify or discontinue sales of certain items in our product portfolio, and we may experience higher costs associated with the implementation of those changes. Additionally, changes in consumer eating habits may result in the enactment of laws and regulations that impact the ingredients and nutritional content of our products or require us to disclose the nutritional content of products. Compliance with these laws and regulations, as well as others regarding the ingredients and nutritional content of our products, may be costly and time consuming. We cannot assure investors that we will be able to effectively respond to changes in consumer health perceptions or resulting new laws or regulations or to adapt our product offerings to trends in eating habits.

We believe that we have built a strong reputation for the breadth and depth of our product portfolio and the brands we carry and that we must protect and grow their value to be successful in the future. Any incident that erodes consumer confidence in or affinity for our specialty food, produce or center-of-the-plate products or brands, whether or not justified, could significantly reduce their respective values and damage our business. If our customers perceive or experience a reduction in the quality or selection of our products and brands or our customer service, or in any way believe that we failed to deliver a consistently positive experience, our business, financial condition or results of operations may be affected in a materially adverse manner. Further, the growing use of social media by consumers has greatly increased the speed and extent that information or misinformation and opinions can be shared. Negative posts or comments about us, our brands, or our products on social media could seriously damage our brands and reputation. Additionally, negative reaction to our marketing and advertising, including our social media content, could result in damage to our brands and reputation. We may need to recall our products if they become adulterated. If patrons of our restaurant customers become ill from food-borne illnesses, our customers could be forced to temporarily close restaurant locations and our sales would be correspondingly decreased. A specialty foods distribution business such as ours can be adversely affected by negative publicity or news reports, whether or not accurate, regarding food quality issues, public health concerns, illness, safety, injury or government or industry findings concerning our products or others across the food distribution industry. In addition, a widespread health epidemic or food-borne illness, whether or not related to the use of our products, as well as terrorist events may cause consumers to avoid public gathering places, like restaurants, or otherwise change their eating behaviors. Although we have taken steps to mitigate food quality, public health and other foodservice-related risks, these types of health concerns or negative publicity cannot be completely eliminated or mitigated and may harm our results of operations and damage the reputation of, or result in a lack of acceptance of, our products or the brands we carry.

A public health epidemic or pandemic can significantly impact our business or those of our Core Customers or suppliers, particularly if located in geographies in which we have significant operations. Such events could significantly impact the food-away-from-home industry and other industries that are sensitive to changes in consumer discretionary spending habits. In addition, our operations could be disrupted if we were required to quarantine employees that work at our various distribution centers and processing facilities. The extent to which any public health epidemic or pandemic may impact our financial condition or results of operations is uncertain and will depend on future developments including new information that may emerge on the severity or transmissibility of the disease, new variants, government responses, trends in infection rates, development and distribution of effective medical treatments and vaccines, and future consumer spending behavior, among others.

In an attempt to reduce our operating expenses, increase our operational efficiencies, boost our operating margins and more closely track the movement of our inventory in our center-of-the-plate category, we have aggressively invested in the development and implementation of new information technology. We may not be able to implement these technological changes in the time frame we have planned, and any delays in implementation could negatively impact our business, financial condition or results of operations. In addition, the costs to make these changes may exceed our estimates and will likely exceed any benefits that we realize during the early stages of implementation. Even if we are able to implement the changes as planned, and within our cost estimates, we may not be able achieve the expected efficiencies, cost savings and operational enhancements from these investments which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. In addition, our systems may increasingly incorporate features involving artificial intelligence, which is complex, subject to increasing litigation and regulatory scrutiny, and may have errors or inadequacies that are not easily detectable. In some instances, we may make use of third-party artificial intelligence products and services. These features, products, and services may produce unintentional or unexpected outputs that are incorrect, infringe intellectual property or other rights, not match our business goals, not comply with our internal policies or applicable legal or contractual requirements, or otherwise be inconsistent with our business goals.

Our ability to implement our business plan successfully depends in part upon our ability to further build brand recognition, including for our proprietary products, using our trademarks, service marks and other proprietary intellectual property, including our names and logos. We have registered or applied to register a number of our trademarks. We cannot assure investors that our trademark applications will be approved. Third parties may also oppose our trademark applications, or otherwise challenge our use of the trademarks. In the event that our trademarks are successfully challenged, we could be forced to rebrand our goods and services, which could result in loss of brand recognition and could require us to devote resources to advertising and marketing new brands. If our efforts to register, maintain and protect our intellectual property are inadequate, or if any third-party misappropriates, dilutes or infringes upon our intellectual property, the value of our brands may be harmed, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations and might prevent our brands from achieving or maintaining market acceptance. We may also face the risk of claims that we have infringed third parties' intellectual property rights. If third parties claim that we have infringed or are infringing upon their intellectual property rights, our operating profits could be affected in a materially adverse manner. Any claims of intellectual property infringement, even those without merit, could be expensive and time consuming to defend, require us to rebrand our services, if feasible, divert management's attention and resources or require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements in order to obtain the right to use a third-party's intellectual property. Any royalty or licensing agreements, if required, may not be available to us on acceptable terms or at all. A successful claim of infringement against us could result in our being required to pay significant damages, enter into costly license or royalty agreements, or stop the sale of certain products or services, any of which could have a negative impact on our business, financial condition or results of operations and could harm our future prospects.

We rely upon information technology solutions including enterprise networks and software to process, transmit and store data related to virtually all our business processes and activities. Our business involves the storage and transmission of many types of sensitive or confidential information, including customers' and suppliers' personal information, private information about employees, and financial and strategic information about us and our operations. We leverage a suite of integrated hardware and software that relies on the availability of private and public networks to facilitate collaboration among all stakeholders. Likewise, we use mobile networks, web social media and other online applications to conduct business with suppliers and customers. Our operations depend upon our ability to protect our computer equipment and systems against damage from physical theft, fire, power loss, telecommunications failure or other catastrophic events, as well as from internal and external cybersecurity breaches, viruses, worms and other disruptive problems. We are continuously improving our information technology solutions, resulting in a larger technological presence and corresponding increase in exposure to cybersecurity risk. We and our third-party suppliers may experience cybersecurity incidents of varying degrees from time-to-time, such as ransomware and phishing attacks, as well as distributed denial of service attacks and the theft of data. Cyber threats are constantly evolving, are becoming more sophisticated and are being made by groups and individuals with a wide range of expertise and motives, and this increases the difficulty of detecting and successfully defending against them. Any damage or failure of our computer systems or network infrastructure that causes an interruption in our operations, due to theft, destruction, loss, corruption, misappropriation, or unauthorized release of sensitive and/or confidential information or intellectual property (including personal information in violation of one or more privacy laws), or interference with our information technology systems or the technology systems of third parties on which we rely, could result in business disruption, disruption to our systems, loss of revenue, negative publicity, reputational and brand damage, violation of privacy laws, loss of customers, potential liability, (including litigation or other legal actions against us or the imposition by governmental authorities of penalties, fines, fees or liabilities, which, in turn, could cause us to incur significantly increased cybersecurity protection and remediation costs), and competitive disadvantage, which in turn could adversely affect our business and results of operations. In addition, if our suppliers or customers experience such a breach or unauthorized disclosure or system failure, their businesses could be disrupted or otherwise negatively affected. This may result in a disruption in our supply chain or reduced customer orders, which would adversely affect our business operations. We have also outsourced several information technology support services and administrative functions to third-party service providers, including cloud-based service providers, and may outsource other functions in the future to achieve cost savings and efficiencies. If these service providers do not perform effectively due to breach or system failure, we may not be able to achieve the expected benefits and our business may be disrupted. Further, as we pursue our strategy to grow through acquisitions and to pursue new initiatives that improve our operations and cost structure, we are also expanding and improving our information technologies, resulting in a larger technological presence and corresponding exposure to cybersecurity risk. Failure to adequately assess and identify cybersecurity risks associated with acquisitions and new initiatives could increase our vulnerability to such risks. While we have implemented cybersecurity solutions, conducted employee awareness campaigns, employed both internal resources and external consultants to conduct auditing and testing for weaknesses in our systems, controls, firewalls and encryption and intend to maintain and upgrade our security technology and operational procedures to prevent such damage, breaches, attacks, or other disruptive problems, such efforts may be unsuccessful which in turn could provide an opportunity for cyber attacks. Additionally, information technology systems, including those used by cyber attackers, continue to evolve and, in order to remain competitive, we must implement new technologies in a timely and efficient manner. For example, as artificial intelligence capabilities improve and are increasingly adopted, they may be used to identify vulnerabilities and craft increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity attacks. Attachments crafted with artificial intelligence tools could directly attack information systems with greater speed and/or efficiency than a human threat actor or create more effective phishing emails. Vulnerabilities may also be introduced from the use of artificial intelligence by us, our customers, suppliers, and other business partners and third-party providers. Use of artificial intelligence by us or such third parties, whether authorized or unauthorized, increases the risk that our intellectual property and other proprietary information will be unintentionally disclosed. Our failure to implement timely and/or successfully new technologies may adversely affect our business and competitiveness and, consequently, our results of operations.