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let's switch to the implications for Chipotle of all of this, right? So, they got an interim CEO, someone who is there already. Jack Hartung, who is in the process of retiring as CFO is going to stick around a little bit longer, but you know, Nico has been so intertwined with the company. You know, you think of him, not, maybe not quite as, like, Schultz and Starbucks, but certainly he has been um the one that people have held responsible for the success of Chipotle. So, what does his leaving mean?

Well, I, I, my sense is that Chipotle will have a laundry list of great candidates that are interested in taking this job. So, if the board doesn't feel like Scott is ready, or the right person for the CEO role, I'm sure they'll have lots of other candidates to choose from. This is a fantastic brand that is on great footing with a lot of tremendous growth ahead of them. Uh, so, I'm not so worried about Chipotle. Again, they've got a pristine balance sheet with several billions of dollars of cash sitting on the balance sheet. They're growing units, high single digits on their way to double digits. They're, they're at record margins, uh record sales, uh and record earnings. So, in our view, I'm not really worried about Chipotle. I think they will need to figure out who's going to be their next round of leadership, but uh I my, my sense is that the board, have confidence that the board will figure that out in short order.

And Peter, I've heard that take from several analysts today, but I'm curious, it seems like the risks have at least gone up to Chipotle stock, right? I mean, how do you evaluate that? I think about maybe even we look at Starbucks, the other company we're talking about, when their long-term CEO, Howard Schultz, left, they've had fits and starts of bringing Howard back, right? Because they've struggled to put in a new person that's successful. And sometimes, that management structure isn't just plug and play, even if it's very well set up now. I mean, how, how much more risk is there to Chipotle as a stock today than there was yesterday?

So, so there there's always risk when you're swapping out, when you're, when you lose your, your CEO and your your CFO, who's been there for over two decades. Um, but again, I think they have a deep bench uh on the finance side, on the operation side. Folks that can step up into into these roles. Um, look, this is a, you know, might be a simpler model than Starbucks. It's a company-owned business model with plenty of capital. There's no licensed or franchise units. There's only a handful of international units, um and the cash-on-cash returns, you know, when you're talking about 60, 70% cash-on-cash returns, uh in our opinion, you know, the business is very healthy. So, um you know, there is some modest risk from losing your executive team, but you know, again, I think they will find a way to replace them and move forward. Uh with uh this is just a speed bump in our view for Chipotle.

Peter, good to see you. Thanks for your perspective.

Thank you very much.