How to Expand a Restaurant Brand

And we also have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. Jason, how about I let you give the audience some information about your background and you can likewise tell them a little bit about Chop Store.

Thanks Christina. My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Store. I have actually been doing this for about nine years now. We purchased the brand name in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. Prior to this, I've spent the majority of my profession in hospitality in some shape or kind. After a quick stint of attempting to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment residential or commercial property and worked in corporate finance.

I was the first worker there after personal equity bought business. Helped grow that from 20 to 150 locations, took it public in 2014, and after that left about a year and a half after going public to do this at Chop Shop. My hope is that we can reproduce the success we had at Zos, and we're off to a really great start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. It is mostly protein bowlsabout 40 percent of the mix. We also do salads, sandwiches. The key to the program is we have a beverage component too with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes. We do all stables, we do breakfast all the time.

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A little more complex than a few of the walk-the-line ideas that are out there, but we believe we've got something quite special. We're going to add another store this year and at least 4 shops next year. We will be 31 or so stores by the end of next year.

Top Benefits of Restaurant Franchising in 2026

Hey, everyone. It's terrific to be with you again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at Fourth. I have actually been in this role for about six years. 4th, as numerous of you know, is a leading service provider of software options to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our objective is to help our clients achieve success in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, managing inventory, and essentially providing them with tools they require to provide their vision.

It's uncommon to have business that are cherished and growing rapidly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, among the reasons I was so ecstatic to have you join our session is the success at Zos was fantastic. I have actually only met a handful of brands where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand name.

And now you're doing the very same thing at Chop Shop. When you talk to consumers about Chop Shop, they like the location. They speak about its distinction. And to be able to take what is a reasonably complex principle in terms of providing a terrific experience for the consumer, and be able to grow that from a couple of shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's fantastic.

We're going to talk about how to scale a restaurant company. Every restaurateur I ever talk with has imagine taking one shop, 2 shops, 5 shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, across the state, into multiple states, and ultimately nationwide, even international reach. However it's hard, particularly in today's environment.

Labor is tough. Stock costs remain high. It's not an easy time to drive profitability and growth at the very same time. But we're glad to have you here today, Jason, since we're going to dig into that topic. The concerns are going to be truly around: how do you grow a business? How do you scale it and make it successful? How do you duplicate early success? And from there, after we talk about your experience and the lessons you've learned, we 'd like to then state: well, look, how could technology assist? How can you use innovation as a multiplier to reproduce early success to significant success? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale great teams? And last but not least, AI.

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The very first concern I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually done this two times now in the dining establishment market. What are some of the lessons you've found out? What has your experience remained in terms of what it requires to really drive success in expanding restaurants? Tell me a little about your path, what you experienced along the way, and possibly some of the harder lessons you learned.

We talked a little bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I've got a post teed approximately follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing an organization. To me, among the crucial things, and I feel really fortunate, is that both brand names I have actually been involved with are unique.

And there's absolutely nothing precisely like Chop Shop in terms of what we're finishing with a large, varied menu. Most brands today are very singularly focused in regards to what they're providing from a food item. I feel like we began at a benefit with both brands by having something special that filled a specific niche no one else was doing.

A lot of it starts with the brand name. Does your brand have something special that no one else is doing?

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The 2nd thingI came from a finance background, so a lot of my learnings are more financing and data-driven versus a lot of early start-up restaurateurs who are imaginative types. They enjoy the food, they constructed the menu, they developed the brand name. I probably could not do that from scratch. If you provided me something that has all those components in location, I can take it from there and put the playbook in place.

They don't understand their breakeven sales. They don't understand how margin improves as sales boost. I have actually seen so numerous business where the numbers just don't work.

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If you do not have those 2 things, you should not be developing shops. Because as I hear your description, you've highlighted three things: execution, brand name distinction, and monetary viability.

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Second, you require a compelling brand name or distinct idea that resonates with customers. And another essential lesson is about going into new markets.

When we broadened to Dallas, I expected brand-new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the first year. Too numerous operators presume new markets will open at complete volume day one.