In addition, we advertiseconjunction with our sales promotionspartnerships with the Big 12 and support our brand image through the use of local radio, television and billboards,Pac 12 conferences, as well as targeted direct mailindividual agreements with Arizona State University, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Southern California and University of Texas, Sprouts expanded our NIL portfolio by 20 athletes, thus having 104 deals to date, 98 of which are with female athletes.

Sprouts continued its first ever back-of-jersey sponsorship with the Angel City Football Club in specific markets.

2023, leading to almost 80 million impressions across multiple platforms. As a portion of the partnership, funds are allocated to support local causes that provide fresh food access and further children’s nutrition education throughout Los Angeles. In 2023, Sprouts donated more than 49,000 pounds of produce and over 400 collective service hours into the local Los Angeles community.

27% of all food grown goes uneaten and ends uptotal sales from organic products;

22% increase in landfills, while one in seven Americans is food insecure at some point throughout a given year.  We are committed to eliminatingless carbon intensive plant-based product sales from 2022;

Recovered more than 90% of food waste generated, and fighting hunger in the communities we serve.  We’ve taken great strides to ensure that each of our stores and distribution centers has a food recovery program in place.  In 2017, Sprouts rescued and repurposed nearly 50 million pounds of food.  

Every day, Sprouts team members gather product that may no longer be in retail condition, but remains wholesome to consume, through our Food Rescue Program.  In 2017, Sprouts stores and distribution centers donated the equivalent of 1929 million meals to hunger relief agencies.  Our annual Grab’N’Give campaign funded by contributions fromlocal food banks; and

Invested over $2.4 million into programs to provide an estimated three million students with six organizations that are committed to making a meaningful difference in the lives of children, individuals and families.

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Collectively,For more information on our Foundation, donated over $1.7 million to these organizationsplease visit: sprouts.com/about/sprouts-foundation/.

Human Capital Management

At Sprouts, our culture is rooted in 2017.  

In 2017, our Foundation beganvalues of “Care”, “Own it”, and “Love Being Different”. We remain focused on improving the Neighborhood Grants program to distribute donations received from Sprouts and our customers entirely inhealth of the communities in which the donations were collected. With grants ranging from $2,500 to $10,000, our Foundation contributed $430,000 to 58 local non-profit organizations aligned with its goal to create stronger and healthier communities. Our Foundation and stores also contributed financial and in-kind donations to those impacted by natural disasters during 2017 in Florida, Texas and California. Our stores and engaged team members also contribute to healthy environments through in-kind support and volunteerism at community events.  

Growing Our Business

We believe we are well-positioned to capitalize on two powerful, long-term consumer trends—a growing interest in health and wellness and a focus on value and are pursuing a number of strategies designed to continue our growth and strong financial performance, including:

Expand our store base. We intend to continue expanding our store base by pursuing new store openings in existing markets, expanding into adjacent markets and penetrating new markets. We have opened 32, 36 and 27 new stores in fiscal 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.  We expect to continue to expand our store base with 30 store openings planned in fiscal 2018, including our initial expansion into Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Washington, we have opened four stores in 2018 as of February 20. We intend to open approximately 30 new stores annually over the near term, with approximately 60-65% in existing markets.

The below diagram shows our store footprint, by state, as of December 31, 2017.

Continue positive comparable store sales. For 43 consecutive quarters, including throughout the economic downturn from 2008 to 2010, stores under our management have achieved positive comparable store sales growth. We believe the consistency of our performance over time and across geographies and vintages is the result of a number of factors, including our distinctive value positioning and merchandising strategies, product innovation and a well-trained staff focused on customer education and engagement. We believe we can continue to grow the number and size of customer transactions by enhancing our core value proposition and distinctive customer-oriented shopping experience. We aim to grow our average ticket by continuing to expand and refine our fresh, natural and organic product offering, our private label program, our targeted and personalized marketing efforts and our in-store and digital education. We believe these factors, combined with the continued strong growth in fresh, natural and organic food consumption, will allow Sprouts to gain new customers, increase customer loyalty and, over time, convert single-department customers into core customers who shop Sprouts with greater frequency and across an increasing number of departments.

Grow the Sprouts Farmers Market brand. We are committed to supporting our stores, product offerings and brand through a variety of marketing programs, expanded private label offerings and corporate partnerships. In addition, we will continue our community outreach and charity programs to more broadly connect with our local communities with the aim of promoting our brand and educating consumers on healthy choices. We will also continue to expand our innovative marketing and promotional strategy through print, digital and social media platforms.

Train Future Leaders. We believe Sprouts is an attractive place to work with significant growth opportunities for our approximately 27,000 team members. In 2017, we promoted more than 5,600 team members. We regularly assess prevailing wages in the markets in which we operate and offer competitive wages and benefits as we believe active, educated and passionate team members contribute to consumer satisfaction.serve. Customer engagement is critical to our culture and growth plans, and we place great importance on recruiting candidates and retaining team members that have a love of food, pride themselves on service excellence, and share our passion for Healthy Living for Less andpurpose driven culture. We build on our targeted recruitment efforts with robust training our team members on customer engagement and product knowledge to ensure there is friendly,

knowledgeable staff in every department in every store. OurAs of December 31, 2023, we had approximately 32,000 team members. None of our team members are trainedsubject to collective bargaining agreements. We consider our relations with our team members to be good, and empoweredwe have never experienced a strike or significant work stoppage.

2023 Highlights. We are proud of the following achievements during the year:

Total Rewards. Because we are a people powered business, we are proud to continuously invest in our workforce by offering competitive salaries and wages, which we regularly assess against the current business environment and labor market. We proactively engage with customers throughoutmake changes to our total rewards programs to attract the entire store. This includes investing timetalent that will support our growth strategy and will elevate the customer experience. Furthermore, we offer comprehensive, relevant and market competitive benefits to educateall eligible team members:

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Education, Training and Safety. We believe Sprouts is an attractive place to work with significant growth opportunities for our approximately 32,000 team members. To grow the next generation of leaders at Sprouts, we have developed a Leadership Training Model to on-board store managers new to Sprouts. In 2023, we had 36 Leadership graduates totaling more than 17,000 hours in training. We introduced a college fast-track program in stores in 2022 to train college graduates for assistant store management roles, with 18 graduates in the program. In addition, we reimagined our Assistant Store Manager training program to accelerate internal promotions. The first cohort supported 31 team members. Our store team members completed over 815,000 hours of in-store training in 2023.

We are committed to maintaining a safe environment for our team members and customers. Our stores implement various programs to reduce and eliminate hazards, resulting in a safer workplace and improved shopping experience. In 2023, our stores reported a 4% reduction in worker compensation claims and a 5% reduction in general liability claims over the prior year.

Diversity and Inclusion. We pride ourselves on supporting an inclusive, respectful, and caring culture throughout the store. We consider customer educationour organization. In 2023, approximately 51% of our team members were female and engagementapproximately 49% of our team members were ethnically diverse, which we believe to be particularly importantin-line or slightly better than our grocery peers. Further, of our promotions across all store roles, 54% were awarded to female team members and 47% were awarded to ethnically diverse team members. We conduct formal talent review and succession planning to identify top talent and intentionally make hiring and promotional decisions that consider inclusion of team members from underrepresented backgrounds. In 2021, Sprouts launched its first team member resource group "Inspiring Women at Sprouts" to continue to build a culture of inclusion and belonging. In 2022, we launched three additional team member resource groups representing affinity team members and allies: “Sabor” our Hispanic & Latin resource group, “Soul” our Black/African American resource group and “Rainbow Alliance” our LBGTQIA+ resource group.

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Growing Our Business

As part of our long-term growth plan, we plan to expand our store base with approximately 10% annual unit growth. Our geographic store expansion and new store placement will intersect where our target customers live, in markets with growth potential and supply chain support, providing a long runway for us to achieve our growth target.

We intend to continue to focus our growth on areas where we have a large concentration of stores, such as many conventional supermarket customers thatCalifornia and Texas, while building out our newer markets, such as Florida, Georgia and the Mid-Atlantic region, to achieve a larger concentration of stores.We have not shoppedopened 30, 16 and 12 new stores in fiscal 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively. We expect to continue to expand our stores believe that eating healthy is expensive and difficult.store base with approximately 35 store openings planned for fiscal 2024, all of which will be in our new format. See “Item 2. Properties” for additional information with respect to our store closures in 2023.

The below diagram shows our store footprint, by state, as of December 31, 2023.

 

New Store Development

We have an extensive and selectiveanalytics-based process for new store site selection, which includes in-depth analysis of area demographics, competition, growth potential, traffic patterns, grocery spend and other key criteria. We have a dedicated real estate team as well as a real estate committee that includes certain of our executive officers. Multiple members of this committee willoften conduct an on-site inspection prior to approving any new location.

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We have been successful across varyinga variety of urban, suburban and rural locations in diverse geographies, from coast to coast, which we believe supports the portability of the Sprouts brand and store model into a wide range of markets. Based onAs we implement our long-term growth strategy, our future stores will deliver a unique and friendly shopping experience that stays true to our farmers market heritage by featuring a smaller box size than our recent vintages, generally between 21,000 and 25,000 square feet. By reducing our store square footage, we believeexpect that our broad product offeringnewer stores will have a lower cost to build and value proposition appealsdecreased occupancy and operating costs, while reducing non-selling space that will result in generally flat sales compared to a wider demographic than other leading competitors, including higher-priced health food and gourmet food retailers. Sprouts has been successful across a variety of urban, suburban and rural locations in diverse geographies, from coast to coast, underscoring the heightened interest in eating healthy across markets.

We currently anticipate opening approximately 30 new Sprouts Farmers Market stores per year going forward based on our new store site selection analysis.larger stores. We expect to open approximately 60-65% of our new stores in existing markets and approximately one-third in new markets, as we believe this provides for a good balance, given that our new stores in existing markets mature more quickly than those in new markets.  This mix allowsthese cost reductions will allow us to focusdeliver higher returns than our resources on developinglarger stores and continue to accelerate our new markets so they begin with a solid foundation.growth.

See “Properties”“Item 2. Properties” for additional information with respect to our store locations.

Seasonality

Our business is subject to modest seasonality. Our average weekly sales per store fluctuate throughout the year and are typically highest in the first half of the fiscal year and lowest during the fourth quarter.

Our Competition and Industry

We operate within the intensely competitive and highly fragmented grocery store industry which encompasses a wide array of food retailers, including large national and regional conventional independent and chain supermarkets, warehouse clubs, small grocery and convenience stores, independent grocers, and natural and organic, specialty, mass, discount and other food retail and online formats. According to the Progressive Grocer, U.S. supermarket sales totaled over $668 billion in 2016. Based on our industry experience, we believe we are capturing significantour new stores capture market share from conventional supermarkets and specialty concepts in thisthe supermarket segment.

While the natural and organic food segment is one of the fastest growing segments in the industry, conventional supermarkets have experienced overall share decline from approximately 73% in 2005 to approximately 63% in 2016, according to the Progressive Grocer, as customers have migrated to other grocery retail formats. Conventional supermarketGrocery customers are attracted to unique product offerings, formats and differentiated shopping experiences. Based on our industry experience, we also believe consumers are increasingly focused on health and wellness and are actively seeking healthy foods in order to improve eating habits. This overall demand for healthy products is driven by many factors, including increased awareness about the benefits of eating healthy, a greater focus on preventative health measures, and the rising costs of health care. We believe customers are attracted to retailers with comprehensive health and wellness product offerings. As a result, food retailers are offering an increased assortment of fresh, natural and organic foods as well as vitamins and supplements to meet this demand.

Our competitors primarily include other specialty food retailers such as Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and smaller local or regional operators, conventional supermarkets such as Kroger, Albertsons, Safeway, H-E-B and Safeway, and other food retailers such as Whole Foods, Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage and Trader Joe’s,Publix, as well as mass or discount retailers such as Target and Walmart, warehouse membership clubs, online retailers such as Amazon, specialty stores, restaurants, and home delivery and meal solution companies.companies, and any other outlets offering food and similar products as those found in our stores. We believe Sprouts offers consumers a compelling value and differentiated products relative to our competitors and will continue to benefit from increasing consumer focus on health, wellness and value, as well as their emphasis on an enhanced shopping experience featuring a broad selection of attribute-driven products along with exceptional customer engagement.

Insurance and Risk Management

We use a combination of insurance and self-insurance to provide for potential liability for workers’ compensation, general liability, product liability, director and officers’ liability, team member healthcare benefits, and other casualty and property risks. Changes in legal trends and interpretations, variability in inflation rates, changes in the nature and method of claims settlement, benefit level changes due to changes in applicable laws, insolvency of insurance carriers, and changes in discount rates could all affect ultimate settlements of claims. We evaluate our insurance requirements on an ongoing basis to ensure we maintain adequate levels of coverage.

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Trademarks and Other Intellectual Property

We believe that our intellectual property has substantial value and has contributed to the success of our business. In particular, our trademarks, including our registered SPROUTS FARMERS MARKET®, SPROUTS^® and HEALTHY LIVING FOR LESS!^SPROUTS® trademarks, are valuable assets that we believe reinforce our customers’ favorable perception of our stores. In addition to our trademarks, we believe that our trade dress, which includes the human-scale design, arrangement, color scheme and other physical characteristics of our stores and product displays, is a large part of the farmers market atmosphere we create in our stores and enables customers to distinguish our stores and products from those of our competitors.

From time to time, third parties have used names similar to ours, have applied to register trademarks similar to ours and, we believe, have infringed or misappropriated our intellectual property rights. Third parties have also, from time to time, opposed our trademarks and challenged our intellectual property rights. We respond to these actions on a case-by-case basis. The outcomes of these actions have included both negotiated out-of-court settlements as well as litigation.

Information Technology Systems

We have made significant investments in information technologyInformation Technology infrastructure and business systems, including point-of-sale,enterprise data warehouse,management, business intelligence, labor management, purchasing, inventory control,store replenishment, demand forecasting, financial and reporting systems. Our recentsystems, and in-store technologies. Recent investments have focusedfocus on solutions to enhance ourincrease operational productivity, optimize our labor, maintain our in-stock positions, and forecast our customer demand, automate our supply chain, and enhance the customer’s experience in-store and online, while maintaining our high quality and value proposition. All of our stores operate under one integrated information technology platform which allows for our current and future store growth. We will continue making investments in our current information technologyInformation Technology infrastructure and invest in systems that scale to support our growth while evaluating how new and addemerging technologies can increase efficiencies to our growing operations.  operations and improve customer engagement. Our stores operate under one integrated Information Technology platform which facilitates agility and scalability to support our current and future store growth. In addition, we continue our focused efforts on limiting risk of cyber-security incidents by investing in IT security technology tools, resources, penetration assessments, third-party security audits and employee training.

Regulatory Compliance

Our stores and online retail operations are subject to various local, state and federal laws, regulations and administrative practices affecting our business. We must comply with provisions regulating health, sanitation and sanitationfood safety standards, food labeling, equal employment, minimum wages, data privacy, environmental protection, licensing for the

manufacture, preparation and sale of food and, in many stores, licensing for beer and wine or other alcoholic beverages.beverages, and cannabidiol (“CBD”) products. Our operations, including the manufacturing, processing, formulating, packaging, labeling and advertising of products by us and our vendors are subject to regulation by various state and federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (referred to as the “FDA”(“FDA”), the Federal Trade Commission (referred to as the “FTC”(“FTC”), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (referred to as the “USDA”(“USDA”), the Consumer Product Safety Commission (“referred to as the CPSC”) and the EPA.Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”).

Food. The FDA has comprehensive authority to regulate the manufacture, labeling, distribution, sale, marketing and safety of food and food ingredients (other than meat, poultry, catfish and certain egg products), as well as dietary supplements under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (referred to as “FDCA”(“FDCA”). Similarly, the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (“FSIS”) is the public health agency responsible for ensuring that the nation’s commercial supply of meat, poultry, catfish and certain egg products is safe, wholesome and correctly labeled and packaged under the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act.

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Congress amended the FDCA in 2011 through passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act (referred to as “FSMA”(“FSMA”), which greatly expanded FDA’s regulatory obligationsoversight over all actors in the food product supply chain. Industry actors continue to determine the best pathways to implement FSMA’s regulatory mandatesFDA regulations mandate participation in USDA's Hazard Analysis and FDA’s promulgating regulations throughout supply chains,Critical Control Points (“HACCP”) program or FDA's Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Prevention Controls (“HARPC”) program, as most requirements are now in effect. Such regulations mandateapplicable, which require that risk-based preventive controls be observed by the majority of food producers. This authority applies to all domestic food facilities and, by way of imported food supplier verification requirements, to all foreign facilities that supply food products.

The FDA and FSIS also exercisesexercise broad jurisdiction over the labeling and promotion of food. Labeling is a broad concept that, under certain circumstances, extends even to product-related claims and representations made on a company’s website or similar printed or graphic medium. All foods, including dietary supplements, must bear labeling that provides consumers with essential information with respect to standards of identity, net quantity, nutrition facts labeling, ingredient statement, and allergen disclosures. FDAThe agencies also regulatesregulate the use of structure/function claims, health claims and nutrient content claims.claims for food products. Additional in-store labeling requirements, such as disclosure of calories and other nutrient information for frequently sold items are scheduled to go into effectnow in 2018.effect. In addition, compliance dates on various nutrition initiatives that will impact many actors in our supply chain, such as in relation tothe elimination of certain partially hydrogenated oils and new nutritional labeling guidelines, are scheduled to gobrominated vegetable oil went into effect beginning 2018in 2023.

USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (“AMS”) oversees compliance with the National Organic Standards Program and scheduled into 2021.related labeling activity. In addition, AMS has responsibility for newly enacted requirements surrounding the disclosure of the presence of bioengineered ingredients in food.

AMS also enforces the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA) which imposes fair business practices on parties engaged in the sale of perishable fruits, vegetables and some nuts. Entities that buy and sell perishable commodities require a PACA license and disputes about sales of produce are subject to rules and regulations under PACA.

Dietary Supplements. The FDA has comprehensive authority to regulate the safety of dietary supplements, dietary ingredients, labeling and current good manufacturing practices. Congress amended the FDCA in 1994 through passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (referred to as “DSHEA”(“DSHEA”), which greatly expanded FDA’s regulatory authority over dietary supplements. Through DSHEA, dietary supplements became its own regulated commodity whilea separately defined FDA-regulated product that is also allowingsubject to the general food regulations.Dietary supplements are allowed to carry structure/function claims on products.which relate to support of healthy functioning. However, no statement on a dietary supplement may expressly or implicitly represent that it will diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat or prevent a disease.

Cosmetics. The FDA has comprehensive authority to regulate cosmetics under the FDCA and the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (“FPLA”). No cosmetic product labeling or marketing may advertise any therapeutic use, such as treating or preventing disease, or claim to affect the structure or function of the body. The Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 (MoCRA), which was enacted in December 2022, creates a comprehensive regulatory framework that imposes new FDA registration and listing requirements, adverse event reporting obligations, labeling rules, enforcement authority, and good manufacturing practices (GMP) requirements, among other regulatory obligations, on cosmetic manufacturers, packers or distributors of cosmetic products whose name appears on the label of the product.

Homeopathic Products. The FDA has the authority to regulate homeopathic products. Under the FDCA, homeopathic products are subject to the same requirements related to approval, adulteration and misbranding as other drug products. There are no FDA-approved products labeled as homeopathic. Any product labeled as homeopathic is being marketed in the U.S. without FDA evaluation for safety or effectiveness.

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CBD Products. The 2018 Farm Bill legalized the production of hemp and products made from hemp, hemp derivatives including CBD oil and extracts, and established that these products are no longer controlled substances, as long as the cannabis plant and products derived from the plant contain no more than 0.3% THC. Under the FDCA, it is unlawful to introduce into interstate commerce a food to which has been added a substance that is an active ingredient in an approved drug product or a substance for which substantial clinical investigations have been instituted, and the existence of such investigations has been made public. FDA has approved one drug product containing CBD as an active ingredient. Consequently, because CBD has been approved as a drug active ingredient, FDA’s current legal position is that CBD cannot be legally contained in a dietary supplement or food product. This restriction only applies to dietary supplements and foods. To date, FDA has limited its enforcement actions to those ingestible, topical, and cosmetic CBD products that make therapeutic or drug claims. However, regardless of enforcement priorities, FDA has the authority to remove from the market any CBD product if it is adulterated, its labeling is false or misleading, it is otherwise misbranded, or if it violates any other FDCA or FDA requirement or regulation. This enforcement authority extends to states that have legalized and regulated the distribution of ingestible CBD products.

Food, Cosmetics, Homeopathic and CBD Products, and Dietary Supplement Advertising. The FTC exercises jurisdiction over the advertising of foods, cosmetics, homeopathic and CBD products, and dietary supplements. The FTC has the power to institute monetary sanctions and the imposition of consent decrees and penalties that can severely limit a company’s business practices. In recent years, the FTC has instituted numerous enforcement actions against dietary supplement companies for failure to have adequate substantiation for claims made in advertising or for the use of false or misleading advertising claims.

Compliance. As is common in our industry, we rely on our suppliers and contract manufacturers to ensure that the products they manufacture and sell to us comply with all applicable regulatory and legislative requirements. In general, we seek certifications of compliance, representations and warranties, indemnification and/or insurance from our suppliers and contract manufacturers. However, even with adequate insurance and indemnification, any claims of non-compliance could significantly damage our reputation and consumer confidence in products we sell. In addition, the failure of such products to comply with applicable regulatory and legislative requirements could prevent us from marketing the

products or require us to recall or remove such products from our stores. In order to comply with applicable statutes and regulations, our suppliers and contract manufacturers have from time to time reformulated, eliminated or relabeled certain of their products and we have revised certain provisions of our sales and marketing program.

Employees

As of December 31, 2017, we had approximately 27,000 team members. None of our team members are subject to collective bargaining agreements. We consider our relations with our team members to be good, and we have never experienced a strike or significant work stoppage.

Corporate Offices

Our principal executive offices are located at 5455 E. High Street, Suite 111, Phoenix, Arizona 85054. Our website address is www.sprouts.com. The information on or accessible through our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (referred(“SEC”).

Available Information

Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and all amendments to those reports, and the Proxy Statement for our Annual Meeting of Stockholders are made available, free of charge, on our investor relations website at http://investors.sprouts.com/, as soon as reasonably practicable after such reports have been filed with or furnished to the “SEC”)SEC. We also use our website as a tool to disclose important information about our company and comply with our disclosure obligations under Regulation Fair Disclosure. Our corporate governance documents, code of ethics and Board committee charters and policies are also posted on http://investors.sprouts.com/.

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Item 1A. Risk Factors

Certain factors may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes. Any of the following risks could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition, or prospects and cause the value of our common stock to decline,decline.

Market and Other External Risks

General economic conditions that impact consumer spending or result in competitive responses could adversely affect our business.

The retail food business is sensitive to changes in general economic conditions. Inflation, recessionary economic cycles, increases in interest rates, higher prices for commodities, raw materials, fuel and other energy, high levels of unemployment and consumer debt, depressed home values, high tax rates, tariffs and other macroeconomic factors that affect consumer spending and confidence or buying habits may materially adversely affect the demand for and prices of products we sell in our stores. As a result, consumers may be more cautious and could reduce their spending in our stores or shift their spending to lower-priced competition, such as warehouse membership clubs, dollar stores, online retailers or extreme value formats, which could have a material and adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition.

In addition, prolonged inflation or deflation can impact our business. Food inflation, such as the elevated levels we experienced beginning in 2022 and continuing into 2023, when combined with reduced consumer spending, could also reduce sales, gross profit margins and comparable store sales. As a result, our operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. Food deflation across multiple categories, particularly in produce and proteins, could also reduce sales growth and earnings if our competitors react by lowering their retail pricing and expanding their promotional activities, which can lead to retail deflation higher than cost deflation that could reduce our sales, gross profit margins and comparable store sales.

Our failure to compete successfully in our competitive industry may adversely affect our revenues and profitability.

We operate in the competitive retail food industry. Our competitors include specialty grocers, conventional supermarkets, natural food stores, mass or discount retailers, warehouse membership clubs, online retailers and specialty stores, as well as restaurants and home delivery and home meal solution providers. These businesses compete with us for products, customers and locations. We compete on a combination of factors, primarily differentiated product selection, quality, convenience, shopping experience, customer engagement, store format, location, price and delivery options. Our failure to offer products or services that appeal to our customers’ preferences or to effectively market these products or services could lead to a decrease in our sales. To the extent that our competitors offer lower prices or similar products, our ability to maintain profit margins and sales levels may be negatively impacted. In addition, some competitors are aggressively expanding their number of stores or their product offerings, increasing the space allocated to perishable, prepared and specialty foods, including fresh, natural and organic foods, and enhancing options of engaging with and delivering their products to customers. Some of these competitors may have greater financial or marketing resources than we do and may be able to devote greater resources to sourcing, promoting and selling their products. As competition in certain areas or platforms intensifies or competitors open stores or expand delivery options within close proximity to our stores, our results of operations and cash flows may be negatively impacted through a loss of sales, decrease in customer traffic and market share, reduction in margin from competitive price changes or greater operating costs.

We rely heavily on sales of fresh produce and quality fresh, natural and organic products, and product supply disruptions may have an adverse effect on our profitability and operating results.

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We have a significant focus on perishable products, including fresh produce and natural and organic products. Sales of produce accounted for approximately 19% and 20% of our net sales in fiscal 2023 and 2022, respectively. Despite temporary challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have generally not experienced significant difficulty to date in maintaining the supply of our produce and fresh, natural and organic products that meet our quality standards. However, there is no assurance that these products will be available to meet our needs in the future. The availability of such products at competitive prices depends on many factors beyond our control, including the number and size of farms that grow natural or organic crops or raise livestock that meet our quality, welfare and production standards, tariffs and import regulations or restrictions on foreign-sourced products and the ability of our vendors to maintain required attributes or organic, non-genetically modified or other applicable third-party certifications for such products. Produce is also vulnerable to adverse weather conditions and natural disasters, such as floods, droughts, storms, frosts, wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, pestilences and other extreme or abnormal environmental conditions, including the potential effects of climate change, any of which can lower crop yields and reduce crop size and quality. This could reduce the available supply of, or increase the price of, fresh produce, which may adversely impact sales of our fresh produce and our other products that rely on produce as a key ingredient.

In addition, we and our suppliers compete with other food retailers in the procurement of fresh, natural and organic products, and other specialty, attribute-driven products which are often less available than conventional products. If our competitors significantly increase these types of product offerings due to increases in consumer demand or otherwise, we and our suppliers may not be able to obtain a sufficient supply of such products on favorable terms, or at all, and our sales may decrease, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. We could also suffer significant inventory losses in the event of disruption of our supply chain network or extended power outages or other damaging events in our stores or distribution centers. If we are unable to maintain inventory levels suitable for our business needs, it would materially adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

The current geographic concentration of our stores creates an exposure to local or regional downturns or catastrophic occurrences and the impact of climate change.

As of December 31, 2023, we operated 139 stores in California, making California our largest market representing 34% of our total stores in fiscal 2023. We also have store concentration in Texas, Arizona, Florida and Colorado, operating 50, 45, 43 and 33 stores in those states, respectively, and representing 12%, 11%, 11% and 8% of our total stores in fiscal 2023, respectively. As we execute our long-term growth strategy, we may become even more concentrated in these markets, as well as other identified expansion markets. In addition, we source a large portion of our produce from California, ranging from approximately 40% to approximately 70% depending on the time of year. As a result, our business is currently more susceptible to regional conditions than the operations of more geographically diversified competitors, and we are vulnerable to economic downturns in those regions. Any unforeseen events or circumstances that negatively affect these areas in which we have stores or from which we obtain products could materially adversely affect our revenues and profitability. These factors include, among other things, changes in demographics, population and employee bases; regulation; wage increases; changes in economic conditions; floods, prolonged droughts, diminished water resources, windstorms such as tornados, cyclones, hurricanes and tropical storms, winter storms or other severe weather conditions, which may be caused or exacerbated by climate change; and other catastrophic occurrences, such as pandemics, earthquakes or wildfires. Such conditions may result in reduced customer traffic and spending in our stores, physical damage to our stores, full or partial loss of power in our stores, loss of inventory, closure of one or more of our stores, inadequate work force in our markets, temporary disruption in the supply of products whether from self or third-party distribution, delays in the delivery of goods to our stores and a reduction in the availability of products in our stores. Any of these factors, particularly in areas with significant geographic concentration of our stores or produce growers on which we rely, may disrupt our business and materially adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Fluctuations in commodity prices and availability may impact profitability.

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Many products we sell include ingredients such as wheat, corn, oils, milk, sugar, cocoa, nuts and other key commodities. Many commodity prices are subject to significant fluctuations and may be impacted by economic factors such as inflation and tariffs, and availability of commodities may be impacted by weather events and catastrophic occurrences. Any increase in prices of such key ingredients may cause youour vendors to loseseek price increases from us, and price decreases may result in our competitors reducing retail prices on items containing such ingredients. If we are unable to mitigate these fluctuations, our profitability may be impacted either through increased costs to us or lower prices and loss of customers due to competitive conditions, which may impact gross margins, or through reduced revenue as a result of a decline in the number and average size of customer transactions.

Supply chain disruptions may delay our store growth plans.

We experienced difficulties in obtaining necessary equipment from third parties due to supply chain delays complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Further disruptions to the global supply chain due to events beyond our control, such as pandemics or wars, may cause us to experience shortages of necessary products or equipment resulting in delays in our future new store openings.

Another widespread health epidemic or other incidents beyond our control could materially impact our business.

As evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, our business could be severely impacted by other widespread regional, national or global health epidemics or other incidents beyond our control such as terrorism, riots, acts of violence and other crimes. Such events may cause customers to avoid public gathering places such as our stores or otherwise change their shopping behaviors. Additionally, these occurrences could adversely impact our business by disrupting production and delivery of products to our stores and by impacting our ability to appropriately staff our stores.

Increasing energy costs, unless offset by more efficient usage or other operational responses, may impact our profitability.

We utilize natural gas, water, sewer and electricity in our stores and our transportation providers use gasoline and diesel in trucks that deliver products to our stores. We have been adversely impacted by the increased costs of energy and may be further adversely impacted if costs continue to increase. We may also be required to pay certain adjustments or other amounts pursuant to our supply and delivery contracts in connection with increases in fuel prices. Increases in energy costs, whether driven by increased demand, decreased or disrupted supply, increased environmental regulations or an anticipation of any such events or otherwise, will increase the costs of operating our stores and distribution centers. Our shipping costs also may increase if fuel and freight prices increase. We may not be able to recover these rising costs through increased prices charged to our customers, and any increased prices may exacerbate the risk of customers choosing lower-cost alternatives. In addition, if we are unsuccessful in attempts to protect against these increases in energy costs through long-term energy contracts, improved energy procurement, improved efficiency and other operational improvements, the overall costs of operating our stores will increase, which would impact our profitability, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

We may require additional capital to fund the expansion of our business, and our inability to obtain such capital could harm our business.

To support our growth strategy, we must have sufficient capital to continue to make significant investments in our new and existing stores and advertising. If cash flows from operations are not sufficient, we may need additional equity or debt financing to provide the funds required to expand our business. If such financing is not available on satisfactory terms or at all, we may be unable to expand our business or partto develop new business at the rate desired. Debt financing increases expenses, may contain covenants that restrict the operation of your investment.our business, and must be repaid regardless of operating results. Equity financing, or debt financing that is convertible into equity, could result in additional dilution to our existing stockholders. Our inability to obtain adequate capital resources, whether in the form of equity or debt, to fund our business and growth strategy may require us to delay, scale back or eliminate some or all of our operations or the expansion of our business, which may have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition or prospects.

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Business and Operating Risks

Our continuedability to execute on our long-term growth strategy largely depends on new store openings, and our failure to successfully open new stores could negatively impact our business.

Our continued growth depends, in large part, on our ability to open new stores and to operate those stores successfully. Successful implementation of thisour long-term growth strategy depends upon a number of factors, including our ability to effectively achieve a level of cash flow or obtain necessary financing to support our expansion; find suitable sites for new store locations; manage supply chain constraints to obtain necessary equipment; negotiate and execute leases on acceptable terms; secure and manage the inventory necessary for the launch and operation of our new stores; hire, train and retain skilled team members; promote and market new stores; successfully execute and gain customer acceptance of our new store format; and address competitive merchandising, distribution, operational and other challenges encountered in connection with expansion into new geographic areas and markets. Although we plan to expand our store base primarily through new store openings, we may grow through strategic acquisitions. Our ability to grow through strategic acquisitions will depend upon our ability to identify suitable targets and negotiate acceptable terms and conditions for their acquisition, as well as our ability to obtain financing for such acquisitions, integrate the acquired stores into our existing store base and retain the customers of such stores. If we are ineffective in performing these activities, then our efforts to open and operate new stores may be unsuccessful or unprofitable, and we may be unable to execute our growth strategy.

In fiscal 2023, we opened 30 new stores and acquired two stores. In fiscal 2022, we opened 16 new stores. We opened 32currently expect to achieve approximately 10% annual unit growth and 36 stores in fiscal 2017 and 2016, respectively, and we intend to open approximately 3035 new stores annually over the near term.in 2024, including penetration of new markets with a greater concentration of new stores. However, we cannot assure you that we willmay not achieve this expected level of new store growth.growth due to inability to find suitable sites, supply chain disruptions or otherwise. We may not have the level of cash flow or financing necessary to support our growth strategy. Additionally, our proposed expansion will place increased demands on our operational, managerial and administrative resources. These increased demands could cause us to operate our existing business less effectively, which in turn could cause deterioration in the

financial performance of our existing stores. Further, new store openings in markets where we have existing stores may result in reduced sales volumes at our existing stores in those markets. If we experience a decline in performance, we may slow or discontinue store openings, or we may decide to close stores that we are unable to operate in a profitable manner. If we fail to successfully implement our growth strategy, including by opening new stores, our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows may be adversely affected.

We may be unableReal or perceived concerns that products we sell could cause unexpected illness, side effects, injury or death could result in their discontinuance or expose us to maintain or increase comparable store sales,lawsuits, either of which could negatively impactresult in unexpected costs and damage to our businessreputation.

There is increasing public awareness regarding and stock price.

Wegovernmental scrutiny of food safety. Unexpected illness, side effects, injury, or death caused by products we prepare and/or sell, in particular our Sprouts brand products, or involving vendors that provide us with products or services that are consumed by our customers could expose us to severe damage to our reputation, product liability or negligence lawsuits or government enforcement actions. Any claims brought against us may exceed our existing or future insurance policy coverage or limits. Any judgment against us that is in excess of our policy limits would have to be paid from our cash reserves, which would reduce our capital resources. Further, we may not be ablehave sufficient capital resources to maintainpay a judgment, in which case our creditors could levy against our assets. Such illnesses, side effects, injuries or improve the levels of comparable store sales that we have experienceddeaths could also result in the past. Our comparable storediscontinuance of sales growth could be lower thanof these products or our historical average for many reasons, including:

These factorsstores, our insurance may cause our comparable store sales resultsnot be sufficient to be materially lower than in recent periods,cover losses we experience, which could harmhave a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and resultcash flows.

In addition, unexpected delays in deliveries from vendors that ship directly to our stores or increases in distribution and transportation costs (including through increased labor or fuel costs) could have a declinematerial adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Labor shortages, work stoppages or wage increases in the pricetransportation or other industries, long-term disruptions to the national and international transportation infrastructure, reduction in capacity and industry-specific regulations such as hours-of-service rules that lead to delays or interruptions of deliveries or increased costs could negatively affect our common stock.business.

Disruption of significant supplier relationships could negatively affect our business.

KeHE is our primary supplier of dry grocery and frozen food products, accounting for approximately 34%47% and 33%45% of our total purchases in each of fiscal 20172023 and 2016,2022, respectively. We also have commitments in place with KeHE to order certain amounts of our distribution-sourced organic and natural produce, and to maintain certain minimum average annual store purchase volumes, including for any new stores we open. Our current primary contractual relationship with KeHE continues through May 2018.July 18, 2025 and provides that KeHE will be our primary supplier for all of our stores. Our primary supplier of meat and seafood products accounted for approximately 14% and 13% of our total purchases in fiscal 2023 and 2022, respectively. Due to this concentration of purchases from a singlesmall number of third-party supplier,suppliers, the cancellation of our distribution arrangementarrangements or the disruption, delay or inability of KeHEour suppliers to timely deliver product to our stores in quantities or within service parameters that meet our requirements may materially and adversely affect our operating results while we establish alternative distributionsupply chain channels. Another 4%3% of our total purchases in each ofboth fiscal 20172023 and 20162022, respectively, were made through our secondary supplier of dry grocery and frozen food products, UNFI. Our current contractual relationship with UNFI continues through December 31, 2018.April 30, 2024. There is no assurance UNFI or other distributors will be able to fulfill our needs on favorable terms or at all. In addition, if KeHE, UNFI or any of our other suppliers fail to comply with food safety, labeling or other laws and regulations, or face allegations of non-compliance, their operations may be disrupted. Further, the food distribution and manufacturing industries are dynamic. Consolidation of distributors or the manufacturers that supply them could reduce our supply

options and detrimentally impact the terms under which we purchase products. We cannot assure you that we wouldmay not be able to find replacement suppliers on commercially reasonable terms, which would have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Any significant interruption in the operations of our distribution centers or supply chain network could disrupt our ability to deliver our produce and other products in a timely manner.

We self-distribute our produce through our two distribution centers located in Arizona and Texas and three third-party distribution centers, with two located in California and one located in Georgia. Any significant interruption in the operation of our distribution center infrastructure, such as disruptions due to fire, severe weather or other catastrophic events, power outages, labor disagreements, shipping or infrastructure problems, or contractual disputes with third-party service providers could adversely impact our ability to distribute produce to our stores. Such interruptions could result in lost sales and a loss of customer loyalty to our brand. While we maintain business interruption and property insurance, if the operation of our distribution centers were interrupted for any reason, causing delays in shipment of produce to our stores, our insurance may not be sufficient to cover losses we experience, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

In addition, unexpected delays in deliveries from vendors that ship directly to our stores or increases in transportation costs (including through increased fuel costs) could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Labor shortages or work stoppages in the transportation industry, long-term disruptions to the national and international transportation infrastructure, reduction in capacity and industry-specific regulations such as hours-of-service rules that lead to delays or interruptions of deliveries or increased costs could negatively affect our business.

Disruptions to, or security breaches or non-compliance involving, our information technology systems could harm our ability to run our business.business and expose us to potential liability and loss of revenues.

We rely extensively on information technology systems for point of salepoint-of-sale processing in our stores, supply chain, financial reporting, human resources, store operations, ecommerce and various other processes and transactions. Our information technology systems are subject to damage or interruption from power outages, computer and telecommunications failures, computer viruses, security breaches, including tampering with hardware and breaches of our transaction processing or other systems that could result in the compromise of confidential customer or team member data, ransomware attacks, catastrophic events, and usage errors by our team members. In March 2016, an email “phishing” scam was perpetrated against onePhishing attacks have emerged as

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Table of our team members, who inadvertently disclosed 2015 W-2 statements of our team members to an unauthorized third party purporting to be one of our executive officers. We worked with the FBIContents

particularly pervasive, including as a means for ransomware attacks, which have increased both in frequency and the IRS to investigate this crime and to determine the best ways to protect team member tax information, and offered credit monitoring services to impacted team members. As described under “Legal Proceedings,” we are subject to four complaints related to this scam, each on behalf of a purported class of our current and former team members whose personally identifiable information was inadvertently disclosed; these matters are covered by our cyber insurance, subject to applicable deductibles.  Additionally, in January 2013, we discovered sophisticated malware installed on certain credit card “pin pads”breadth. Point-of-sale hardware in a limited number of our stores designedhas also been targeted by individuals attempting to illegally access our customers’ creditinstall skimmer devices or conduct other tampering to illicitly obtain payment card information. WeIn response to these wide-ranging cybersecurity and data privacy risks, we have implemented numerous additional security protocols since these attacks in order to further tightenstrengthen security, and continue towe maintain a customary cyber insurance policy, but there can be no assurance similar breaches will not occur in the future, be detected in a timely manner or be covered by our insurance policy. Significant expenditures could be required to remedy future cybersecurity problems and protect against future breaches. Additionally, compliance with current and future applicable federal and state privacy, cybersecurity and related laws, including for example the California Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) and the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”), can be costly and time-consuming. These costs could have a material adverse effect on our business, and our efforts may not meaningfully limit the success of future attempts to breach our information technology systems.

Our information technology systems may also fail to perform as we anticipate, and we may encounter difficulties or significant expenses in implementing new systems, adapting these systems to changing technologies or legal requirements or expanding them to meet the future needs and growth of our business. If our systems are improperly implemented, breached, damaged, or cease to function properly, do not function as anticipated or are perceived to have failed, we may have to make significant investments to fix or replace them; suffer interruptions in our operations; experience data loss; incur liability to our customers, team members and others; face costly litigation, enforcement actions and penalties; and our brand and reputation with our customers may be harmed. Various third parties, such as our suppliers, including our most significant suppliers, and payment processors and their suppliers (i.e., our fourth parties), also rely heavily on information technology systems, and any failure of these systems for any reason (e.g., cybersecurity attack, software glitch, human or system error or omission), could also cause loss of sales, transactional or

other data and significant interruptions to our business. Any security breach or other material interruption in the information technology systems we rely on, particularly those required for point-of-sale payment processing in our stores, may have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.

In addition, many of our store support team members remain in a remote or hybrid work environment in response to changes in the work environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our failure to provide appropriate technological resources and maintain adequate safeguards around our remote work environment could result in loss of productivity and usage errors by our team members or the loss or compromise of confidential customer, team member or company data. In addition, the remote work environment may increase certain risks to our business, including phishing and other cybersecurity attacks.

If we are unable to successfully identify market trends and react to changing consumer preferences in a timely manner, our sales may decrease.

We believe our success depends, in substantial part, on our ability to:

Consumer preferences often change rapidly and without warning, moving from one trend to another among many product or retail concepts. Our performance is impacted by trends regarding healthy lifestyles, product attributes, dietary preferences, convenient options, fresh, natural and organic products, meal solutions, ingredient transparency and sustainability, and vitamins and supplements, as well as new and evolving methods of engaging with and delivering our products to our customers. Consumer preferences towards vitamins, supplements or fresh, natural and organic food products might shift as a result of, among other things, economic conditions, food safety perceptions, scientific research or findings

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regarding the benefits or efficacy of such products, national media attention and the cost, attributes or sustainability of these products. Our store offerings currently include fresh, natural and organic products and dietary supplements. A change in consumer preferences away from our offerings would have a material adverse effect on our business. Additionally, negative publicity over the safety, efficacy or benefits of any such items, in particular our Sprouts brand products, may adversely affect demand for our products, and could result in lower customer traffic, sales, results of operations and cash flows.

If we are unable to anticipate and satisfy consumer preferences in the regions where we operate with respect to product offerings and customer engagement options, our sales may decrease, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Our newly opened stores may negatively impact our financial results in the short-term, and may not achieve sales and operating levels consistent with our more mature stores on a timely basis or at all.

We have actively pursued new store growth as part of our long-term strategy and plan to continue doing so in the future. We cannot assure you that ourOur new store openings willmay not be as successful or reach the sales and profitability levels of our existing stores. New store openings may negatively impact our financial results in the short-term due to the effect of store opening costs and lower sales and contribution to overall profitability during the initial period following opening. New stores typically build their sales volume and their customer base over time and, as a result, generally have lower margins and higher operating expenses, as a percentage of net sales, than our more mature stores. New stores may not achieve sustained sales and operating levels consistent with our more mature store base on a timely basis or at all. This may result in store closures or otherwise have an adverse effect on our financial condition and operating results.

On many of our projects, we have received landlord contributions for leasehold improvements and other build-out costs. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to continue to receive landlord contributions at the same levels or at all. Any reductions of landlord contributions could have an adverse impact on our new store cash-on-cash returns and our operating results.

In addition, we may not be able to successfully integrate new stores into our existing store base and those new stores may not be as profitable as our existing stores. Further, we have experienced in the past, and expect to experience in the future, some sales volume transfer from our existing stores to our new stores as some of our existing customers switch to new, closer locations. If our new stores are less profitable than our existing stores, or if we experience sales volume transfer from our existing stores, our financial condition and operating results may be adversely affected.

On many of our projects, we have received landlord contributions for leasehold improvements and other build-out costs. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to continue to receive landlord contributions at the same levels or at all. Any reductions of landlord contributions could have an adverse impact on our new store cash-on-cash returns and our operating results.

We may be unable to maintain or increase comparable store sales, which could negatively impact our business and stock price.

We may not be able to achieve or improve the levels of comparable store sales that we have experienced in the past. Our comparable store sales growth could be lower than our historical average for many reasons, including general economic conditions, competition, cycling prior year performance and the other matters discussed in these Risk Factors. These factors may cause our comparable store sales results to be materially lower than in recent periods, which could harm our business and result in a decline in the price of our common stock.

We may be unable to maintain or improve our operating margins, which could adversely affect our financial condition and ability to grow.

If we are unable to successfully manage the potential difficulties associated with store growth, we may not be able to capture the efficiencies of scale that we expect from expansion. If we are not able to continue to capture efficiencies of scale related to our smaller store format, improve our systems, continue oursustain cost discipline, optimize promotional activity and maintain appropriate store labor levels and disciplined product selection, our customer traffic and operating margins may stagnate or decline. In addition, competition and pricing pressures from competitors and our inability to timely pass on product cost increases due to inflation or otherwise to our customers through retail price increases may also adversely impact our operating margins. Both our inability to capture the efficiencies from scale and competition could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows and adversely affect the price of our common stock.

Real or perceived concerns that products we sell could cause unexpected side effects, illness, injury or death could result in their discontinuance or expose us to lawsuits, either of which could result in unexpected costs and damage to our reputation.

There is increasing governmental scrutiny of and public awareness regarding food safety. Unexpected side effects, illness, injury, or death caused by products we prepare and/or sell or involving vendors that supply us with products could result in the discontinuance of sales of these products or our relationship with such vendors or prevent us from achieving market acceptance of the affected products. Such side effects, illnesses, injuries and death could also expose us to damage to our reputation and product liability or negligence lawsuits. Any claims brought against us may exceed our existing or future insurance policy coverage or limits. Any judgment against us that is in excess of our policy limits would have to be paid from our cash reserves, which would reduce our capital resources. Further, we may not have sufficient capital resources to pay a judgment, in which case our creditors could levy against our assets.

As a fresh, natural and organic retailer, we believe that many customers choose to shop our stores because of their interest in health, nutrition and food safety. As a result, we believe that our customers hold us to a high food safety standard. Therefore, real or perceived quality or food safety concerns, whether or not ultimately based on fact, and whether or not involving products prepared and/or sold at our stores or vendors that supply us with products, would cause negative publicity and lost confidence regarding our company, brand, or products, which could in turn harm our reputation and net sales, and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows or financial condition.

If we fail to maintain our reputation and the value of our brand, our sales may decline.

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We believe our continued success depends on our ability to maintain and grow the value of the Sprouts brand. Maintaining, promoting and positioning our brand and reputation will depend largely on the success of our marketing and merchandising efforts and our ability to provide a consistent, high-quality customer experience. Brand value is based in large part on perceptions of subjective qualities, and even isolated incidents involving our company, our team members, suppliers, agents, marketing partners, or third-party service providers, or the products we sell can erode trust and confidence, particularly if they involve our private labelSprouts brand products, or result in adverse publicity, governmental investigations or litigation. Our brand could be adversely affected if we fail to achieve these objectives, or if our public image or reputation were to be tarnished by negative publicity.

If we are unable to protect against inventory shrink, our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Our business depends on our ability to effectively manage our inventory. We have historically experienced loss of inventory (also called shrink) due to damage, theft, spoilage, inventory management and other causes. Sustained elevated levels of inventory shrink could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. To protect against the possibility of rising inventory shrink, we have taken, and may continue to take, certain operational and strategic actions that could adversely affect our results of operations. In addition, sustained high rates of inventory shrink at certain stores could impact the profitability of those stores and result in the impairment of long-lived assets.

The loss of key management could negatively affect our business.

We are dependent upon a number of key management and other team members. If we were to lose the services of a key member of our management team or a significant number of key team members within a short period of time, this could have a material adverse effect on our operations as we may not be able to find suitable individuals to replace them on a timely basis, if at all. In addition, any such departure could be viewed in a negative light by investors and analysts, which may cause our stock price to decline. We do not maintain key person insurance on any team member.

If we are unable to attract, train and retain team members, we may not be able to grow or successfully operate our business.

The food retail industry is labor intensive. Our continued success and ability to grow through new store openings is dependent upon our ability to attract and retain qualified team members in our stores and at our regional and store support offices who understand and appreciate our culture and are able to represent our brand effectively and establish credibility with our business partners and consumers.customers. We face intense competition for qualified team members, many of whom are subject to offers from competing employers. Due to a tight labor market, availability of talent and other factors, we have experienced, and could continue to experience, a shortage of labor for store positions. Our ability to meet our labor needs, while controlling wage and labor-related costs, is subject to numerous external factors, including the availability of a sufficient number of qualified persons in the work force in the markets in which we are located, unemployment levels within those markets, unionization of the available work force, prevailing wage rates, changing demographics, health and other insurance costs and changes in employment legislation. In the event of increasing wage rates, if we fail to increase our wages competitively, the quality of our workforce could decline, causing our customer engagement to suffer, while increasing our wages could cause our earnings to decrease. If we are unable to hire, train and retain team members capable of meeting our business needs and expectations, our business and brand image may be impaired. Any failure to meet our staffing needs or any material increase in turnover rates of our team members or team member wages may adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows or financial condition.

Union attempts to organize our team members could negatively affect our business.

None of our team members are currently subject to a collective bargaining agreement. As we continue to grow and enter different regions, unions may attempt to organize all or part of our team member base at certain stores or within certain regions. Responding to such organization attempts may distract management and team members and may have a negative financial impact on individual stores, or on our business as a whole.

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Higher wage and benefit costs could adversely affect our business.

Changes in federal and state minimum wage laws and other laws relating to employee compensation and benefits could cause us to incur additional wage and benefit costs, as well as increased contractual costs associated with our service providers. Increased labor costs brought about by changes in minimum wage laws, other regulations or prevailing market conditions would increase our expenses and have an adverse impact on our profitability.

Our lease obligations could adversely affect our financial performance and may require us to continue paying rent for store locations that we no longer operate.

We are subject to risks associated with our current and future store, distribution center and administrative office real estate leases. Our high level of fixed lease obligations will require us to use a portion of cash generated by our operations to satisfy these obligations and could adversely impact our ability to obtain future financing, if required, to support our growth or other operational investments. We will require substantial cash flows from operations to make our payments under our operating leases, all of which provide for periodic increases in rent. If we are not able to make the required payments under the leases, the lenders or owners of the relevant stores, distribution centers or administrative offices may, among other things, repossess those assets, which could adversely affect our ability to conduct our operations. In addition, our failure to make payments under our operating leases could trigger defaults under other leases or under agreements governing our indebtedness, which could cause the counterparties under those agreements to accelerate the obligations due thereunder.

Further, we generally cannot cancel our leases, so if we decide to close or relocate a location, we may nonetheless be committed to perform our obligations under the applicable lease, including paying the base rent for the remaining lease term. In addition, as our leases expire, we may fail to negotiate renewals, either on commercially acceptable terms or any terms at all, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, cash flows or financial condition.

Claims under our insurance plans may differ from our estimates, which could materially impact our results of operations.

We use a combination of insurance and self-insurance plans to provide for the potential liabilities, including for workers’ compensation, general liability (including, in connection with legal proceedings described under “—Legal proceedings could materially impact our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows” below), property insurance, director and officers’ liability insurance, vehicleautomobile liability insurance, environmental liability insurance, and team member health-care benefits. Liabilities associated with the risks that are retained by us are estimated, in part, by considering historical claims experience, demographic factors, severity factors and other actuarial assumptions. Our results could be materially impacted by claims and other expenses related to such plans if future occurrences and claims differ from these assumptions and historical trends.

We may be unable to generate sufficient cash flow to satisfy our debt service obligations, which could adversely impact our business.

As of December 31, 2017,2023, we had outstanding indebtedness of $348.0$125.0 million under our credit agreement (referred to as the “Credit Facility”Agreement”). We may incur additional indebtedness in the future, including borrowings under our Credit Facility.Agreement. Our indebtedness, any additional indebtedness we may incur, or any hedging arrangements related to such indebtedness could require us to divert funds identified for other purposes for debt service and impair our liquidity position. If we cannot generate sufficient cash flow from operations to service our debt, we may need to refinance our debt, dispose of assets or issue equity to obtain necessary funds. We do not know whether we will be able to take any of such actions on a timely basis, on terms satisfactory to us or at all.

The fact that a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations could be needed to make payments on this indebtedness could have important consequences, including the following:

Our ability to obtain necessary funds through borrowing will depend on our ability to generate cash flow from operations. Our ability to generate cash is subject to general economic, financial, competitive, legislative, regulatory, and other factors that are beyond our control. If our business does not generate sufficient cash flow from operations or if future borrowings are not available to us under our Credit Facility or otherwise in amounts sufficient to enable us to fund our liquidity needs, our operating results and financial condition may be adversely affected. Our inability to make scheduled payments on our debt obligations in the future would require us to refinance all or a portion of our indebtedness on or before maturity, sell assets, delay capital expenditures, or seek additional equity investment.

Covenants in our debt agreementsCredit Agreement restrict our operational flexibility.

The agreement governing ourOur Credit FacilityAgreement contains usual and customary restrictive covenants relating to our management and the operation of our business, including the following:

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Performance Graph

The graph set forth below compares the cumulative total stockholder return on our common stock between August 1, 2013 (the date our stock began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market)December 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017,2023, with the cumulative total return of (i) the Nasdaq Composite Index and (ii) the S&P Food Retail Index, over the same period.

The comparison assumes that $100.00 was invested in our common stock, the Nasdaq Composite Index and the S&P Food Retail Index, and assumes reinvestment of dividends, if any. The graph assumes the initial value of our common stock on August 1, 2013December 28, 2018 (the last trading day prior to the beginning of fiscal 2019) was the closing sale price on that day of $40.11 per share and not the initial offering price to the public of $18.00$23.19 per share. The performance shown on the graph below is based on historical results and is not intended to suggest future performance.

 

This performance graph shall not be deemed “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the SEC for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act or otherwise subject to the liabilities under that section, and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filing of Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc. under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act.

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Item 6. [Reserved]

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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with the consolidated financial statements and related notes that are included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.10-K as well as "Part II—Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 1, 2023 filed with the SEC on March 2, 2023, which provides comparisons of fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2021. This discussion contains forward-looking statements based upon current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth under “Risk Factors” or in other parts of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Please also see the section entitled “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.”

Business Overview

Sprouts Farmers Market operates as a healthy grocery store that specializes in fresh, natural and organic products at prices that appeal to everyday grocery shoppers. Based on the belief that healthy food should be affordable, Sprouts’ welcoming environment and knowledgeable team members continue to drive its growth. Sprouts offers a complete shoppingunique specialty grocery experience that includesfeaturing an array ofopen layout with fresh produce inat the heart of the store,store. Sprouts inspires wellness naturally with a delicarefully curated assortment of better-for-you products paired with prepared entreespurpose-driven people. We continue to bring the latest in wholesome, innovative products made with lifestyle-friendly ingredients such as organic, plant-based and side dishes, The Butcher Shop, The Fish Market, an expansive vitamins and supplements department and more. Sincegluten-free. From our founding in 2002, we have grown rapidly, significantly increasing our sales, store count and profitability. With 285Headquartered in Phoenix with 407 stores in 1523 states as of December 31, 2017,2023, we are one of the largest and fastest growing specialty retailers of fresh, natural and organic food in the United States. As

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Outlook

Since 2020, we have grown to 289 stores in 15 states.

At Sprouts,focused on our long-term growth strategy that we believe healthy living is transforming our company and driving profitable growth. We continue to execute on this strategy, focusing on the following areas: