Significant Regional Shifts Shaping 2026 Growth

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

My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Store. We bought the brand name in 2016three unitsand I've grown it to 26. After a quick stint of attempting to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into casino residential or commercial property and worked in business finance.

I was the very first employee there after personal equity bought the business. Assisted grow that from 20 to 150 areas, 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 duplicate 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. The secret to the program is we have a drink part as well with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes.

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A little more complicated than a few of the walk-the-line principles that are out there, but we think we've got something quite unique. We're going to include another store this year and a minimum of four shops next year. We will be 31 or so shops by the end of next year.

Steps to Scale a Restaurant Brand

Hey, everybody. It's excellent to be with you once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at Fourth. I have actually been in this function for about 6 years. Fourth, as much of you understand, is a leading service provider of software services to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our goal is to help our consumers achieve success in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, managing stock, and generally supplying them with tools they require to deliver their vision.

It's unusual to have companies that are precious and growing rapidly, that can repeat that success every year. Jason, among the factors I was so fired up to have you join our session is the success at Zos was amazing. I've just satisfied a handful of brands where there was such a strong consumer affinity for the brand name.

When you talk to customers about Chop Shop, they love the location. And to be able to take what is a reasonably complex principle in terms of providing an excellent experience for the customer, and be able to grow that from a few shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's remarkable.

We're going to talk about how to scale a dining establishment organization. Every restaurateur I ever talk with has dreams of taking one shop, 2 shops, 5 stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, across the state, into several states, and eventually nationwide, even international reach. However it's not simple, especially in today's environment.

It's not an easy time to drive success and growth at the exact same time. How do you scale it and make it successful? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale terrific teams?

Key Regional Milestones Shaping 2026 Growth

The first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this twice now in the dining establishment market. What are some of the lessons you've found out? What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to really drive success in broadening restaurants? Inform me a little about your path, what you experienced along the method, and possibly some of the more difficult lessons you found out.

We talked a bit before we began about LinkedIn, and I have actually got a post teed up to follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a business. To me, among the essential things, and I feel really lucky, is that both brand names I have actually been included with are distinct.

And there's nothing exactly like Chop Shop in terms of what we're making with a big, varied menu. Most brand names today are extremely singularly focused in regards to what they're using from a food. I feel like we started at an advantage with both brands by having something special that filled a specific niche no one else was doing.

Since it's simply more difficult to stick out when there are 10, 20, 50 ideas within a two- or three-mile radius attempting to do the specific very same thing. So a lot of it begins with the brand name. Does your brand have something unique that no one else is doing? That's rare.

How to Expand Your Dining Brand

The second thingI came from a financing background, so a great deal of my learnings are more finance and data-driven versus a lot of early startup restaurateurs who are innovative types. They enjoy the food, they developed the menu, they constructed the brand. I most likely couldn't do that from scratch. If you offered me something that has all those parts in location, I can take it from there and put the playbook in place.

They do not know their breakeven sales. They don't understand how margin enhances as sales boost. They do not understand cash-on-cash returns. I've seen numerous business where the numbers just do not work. And yet people say: let's open 10 more. And I'll state: why? It does not earn money. Stop. You need to find a principle that is special.

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If you do not have those two things, you shouldn't be constructing shops. Since as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand differentiation, and monetary viability.

Top Advantages of Restaurant Expansion in 2026

Second, you need a compelling brand or unique concept that resonates with customers. And 3rd, the mathematics needs to work. If you do not comprehend your unit economics, your repaired and variable expenses, you may be broadening blind and losing money. Precisely. And another essential lesson is about going into brand-new markets.

When we expanded to Dallas, I expected new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the very first year. A lot of operators assume new markets will open at complete volume day one. That practically never takes place. And when the stores open slow, but you've signed leases and built a financial design based on higher volumes, you get overextended.