Top Benefits of Fast Casual Expansion in 2026

And we also have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of 4th, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. Jason, how about I let you provide 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 purchased the brand name in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. After a quick stint of trying to be an accounting professional for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment home and worked in business financing.

I was the first employee there after personal equity purchased the organization. Helped 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 Store. My hope is that we can replicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to a really good start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. It is mostly protein bowlsabout 40 percent of the mix. We likewise do salads, sandwiches. The secret to the program is we have a drink part as well with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes. We do all stables, we do breakfast throughout the day.

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

Why Is Scaling a Best Move?

Hey, everyone. It's excellent to be with you again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at 4th. I've been in this function for about six years. 4th, as much of you understand, is a leading company of software solutions to the dining establishment and hospitality market. Our objective is to help our consumers achieve success in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, handling inventory, and generally supplying them with tools they require to provide their vision.

It's unusual to have business that are beloved and growing quickly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, one of the factors I was so excited to have you join our session is the success at Zos was fantastic. I've only met a handful of brand names where there was such a strong consumer affinity for the brand name.

And now you're doing the same thing at Chop Store. When you speak with clients about Chop Shop, they enjoy the location. They speak about its distinction. And to be able to take what is a reasonably complex concept in regards to delivering a fantastic experience for the client, and be able to grow that from a few stores to now north of 30 shops next yearit's remarkable.

We're going to speak about how to scale a dining establishment business. Every restaurateur I ever talk to has dreams of taking one store, two stores, 5 shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, throughout the state, into several states, and ultimately national, even international reach. It's not easy, specifically in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Inventory costs remain high. It's not a simple time to drive success and development at the exact same time. We're grateful to have you here today, Jason, due to the fact that we're going to dig into that subject. The questions are going to be actually around: how do you grow a business? How do you scale it and make it effective? How do you duplicate early success? And from there, after we speak about your experience and the lessons you've found out, we 'd like to then state: well, look, how could technology help? How can you use innovation as a multiplier to duplicate early success to far-reaching success? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale great groups? And last but not least, AI.

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The first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this twice now in the restaurant industry. What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to really drive success in expanding dining establishments?

We talked a little bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I have actually got a post teed approximately follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a service. To me, one of the key things, and I feel extremely lucky, is that both brands I have actually been involved with are unique.

And there's absolutely nothing exactly like Chop Store in terms of what we're doing with a large, diverse menu. A lot of brand names today are extremely singularly focused in terms of what they're providing from a foodstuff. I feel like we started at an advantage with both brands by having something unique that filled a specific niche nobody else was doing.

Because it's just more difficult to stand apart when there are 10, 20, 50 concepts within a two- or three-mile radius trying to do the exact very same thing. A lot of it starts with the brand. Does your brand have something special that no one else is doing? That's rare.

Why Is Scaling the Best Move?

The 2nd thingI originated from a finance background, so a great deal of my learnings are more finance and data-driven versus a lot of early start-up restaurateurs who are creative types. They love the food, they developed the menu, they built the brand name. I most likely couldn't do that from scratch. If you offered me something that has all those components in location, I can take it from there and put the playbook in location.

They do not know their breakeven sales. They don't comprehend how margin improves as sales increase. I've seen so lots of business where the numbers simply don't work.

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If you don't have those 2 things, you should not be developing stores. Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand name differentiation, and monetary viability.

Is Scaling the Best Investment?

Second, you require an engaging brand name or special principle that resonates with customers. And another crucial lesson is about getting in brand-new markets.

When we broadened to Dallas, I expected new shops to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the very first year. Too lots of operators presume brand-new markets will open at complete volume day one. That nearly never ever occurs. And when the shops open sluggish, however you have actually signed leases and constructed a monetary model based upon higher volumes, you get overextended.