The Benefits of Fast Casual Expansion in 2026

Thank you. And we likewise 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 also inform them a little bit about Chop Shop. And then I'll let you take it from there, Clinton.

Thanks Christina. My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Shop. I've been doing this for about nine years now. We bought the brand 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 form. After a brief stint of attempting to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into casino home and worked in business finance.

I was the first employee there after personal equity purchased business. Helped grow that from 20 to 150 places, took it public in 2014, and then left about a year and a half after going public to do this at Chop Shop. My hope is that we can replicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to a truly good start.

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

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A little more complicated than some of the walk-the-line ideas that are out there, however we think we have actually got something pretty special. We're going to add another shop this year and a minimum of four stores next year. So we will be 31 approximately shops by the end of next year.

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Hey, everyone. It's great to be with you again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at Fourth. I've been in this function for about 6 years. Fourth, as a lot of you understand, is a leading company of software application options to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our objective is to help our customers succeed in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, managing inventory, and generally providing them with tools they need to provide their vision.

It's uncommon to have companies that are precious and growing quickly, that can repeat that success every year. Jason, among the factors I was so ecstatic to have you join our session is the success at Zos was remarkable. I've only satisfied a handful of brands where there was such a strong client affinity for the brand.

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

We're going to talk about how to scale a restaurant organization. Every restaurateur I ever speak to has imagine taking one shop, 2 stores, five stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, throughout the state, into multiple states, and eventually nationwide, even worldwide reach. It's not easy, especially in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Inventory costs remain high. It's not an easy time to drive success and growth at the same time. We're delighted to have you here today, Jason, due to the fact that we're going to dig into that topic. The concerns are going to be really around: how do you grow a business? How do you scale it and make it successful? How do you replicate early success? And from there, after we discuss your experience and the lessons you've found out, we 'd enjoy to then say: well, appearance, how could innovation help? How can you utilize technology as a multiplier to duplicate early success to significant success? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale great teams? And last but not least, AI.

Why Is Scaling the Best Investment?

The first concern I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this two times now in the restaurant industry. What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to actually drive success in broadening dining establishments?

We talked a little bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I've got a post teed as much as follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a company. To me, among the key things, and I feel extremely lucky, is that both brands I've been involved with are unique.

And there's nothing precisely like Chop Shop in terms of what we're making with a large, varied menu. The majority of brand names today are very singularly focused in terms of what they're offering from a food item. I seem like we started at a benefit with both brands by having something special that filled a specific niche nobody else was doing.

Because it's simply more difficult to stand apart when there are 10, 20, 50 principles within a two- or three-mile radius trying to do the precise same thing. So a lot of it starts with the brand name. Does your brand have something unique that no one else is doing? That's unusual.

Analyzing Franchise ROI Against Growth Data

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

They do not understand their breakeven sales. They don't comprehend how margin improves as sales increase. They don't understand cash-on-cash returns. I've seen numerous business where the numbers simply do not work. And yet people state: let's open 10 more. And I'll say: why? It doesn't make money. Stop. You need to find an idea that is unique.

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If you don't have those 2 things, you shouldn't be building stores. Since as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand name distinction, and monetary practicality.

Top Advantages of Fast Casual Expansion in 2026

Second, you need an engaging brand or special concept that resonates with customers. And third, the mathematics has to work. If you don't understand your unit economics, your repaired and variable costs, you might be broadening blind and losing money. Precisely. And another essential lesson has to do with going into brand-new markets.

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