Fast Casual Industry Growth for 2026

And we likewise 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 info about your background and you can also inform them a little bit about Chop Store.

My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Shop. We purchased the brand in 2016three unitsand I've grown it to 26. After a short stint of attempting to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment property and worked in business finance.

I was the first employee there after personal equity bought business. Assisted grow that from 20 to 150 places, 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 duplicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to a really excellent start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. The key to the program is we have a beverage component as well with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes.

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

Why Is Fast Casual the Best Investment?

I have actually been in this function for about 6 years. 4th, as numerous of you understand, is a leading supplier of software options to the dining establishment and hospitality industry. Our goal is to assist our clients be effective in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, managing inventory, and basically supplying them with tools they require to provide their vision.

It's uncommon to have business that are cherished and growing quickly, that can duplicate that success year after year. Jason, one of the factors I was so thrilled to have you join our session is the success at Zos was amazing. I've just met a handful of brand names where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand name.

And now you're doing the exact same thing at Chop Shop. When you speak to customers about Chop Shop, they love the place. They speak about its differentiation. And to be able to take what is a reasonably complicated idea in regards to delivering a fantastic experience for the customer, and be able to grow that from a couple of shops to now north of 30 shops next yearit's amazing.

We're going to talk about how to scale a dining establishment service. Every restaurateur I ever speak to has imagine taking one shop, 2 shops, five shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, across the state, into several states, and ultimately national, even global reach. It's not easy, specifically in today's environment.

It's not an easy time to drive profitability and development at the exact same time. How do you scale it and make it effective? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale terrific teams?

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The very first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this two times now in the restaurant market. What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to really drive success in broadening restaurants?

We talked a bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I've got a post teed up to follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a service. To me, among the essential things, and I feel extremely lucky, is that both brands I've been included with are distinct.

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

Because it's just more difficult to stand apart when there are 10, 20, 50 principles within a two- or three-mile radius trying to do the exact very same thing. A lot of it begins with the brand name. Does your brand have something special that nobody else is doing? That's uncommon.

Is Fast Casual a Best Move?

The second thingI came from a finance background, so a lot of my learnings are more financing and data-driven versus a lot of early startup restaurateurs who are imaginative types. They love the food, they built the menu, they constructed the brand.

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

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If you do not have those two things, you shouldn't be developing stores. Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you've highlighted 3 things: execution, brand differentiation, and monetary viability.

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Second, you require an engaging brand or special concept that resonates with clients. And third, the math has to work. If you do not understand your unit economics, your repaired and variable expenses, you may be broadening blind and losing cash. Precisely. And another essential lesson is about entering brand-new markets.

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