Fast Casual Industry Growth for 2026

Thank you. And we also have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, 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 tell them a little bit about Chop Store. And then I'll let you take it from there, Clinton.

My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Shop. We purchased the brand name in 2016three unitsand I've grown it to 26. After a short stint of attempting 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 very first employee there after personal equity purchased the business. Helped 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 reproduce 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 primarily 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 throughout the day.

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

Major Expansion Milestones in 2026

Hey, everyone. It's fantastic to be with you once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at 4th. I've been in this role for about 6 years. Fourth, as a number of you know, is a leading service provider of software services to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our objective is to help our clients be effective in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, handling inventory, and generally providing them with tools they require to deliver their vision.

It's unusual to have business that are precious and growing quickly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, one of the reasons I was so fired up to have you join our session is the success at Zos was incredible. I've only satisfied a handful of brand names where there was such a strong client affinity for the brand name.

And now you're doing the exact same thing at Chop Shop. When you speak with customers about Chop Store, they love the location. They speak about its differentiation. And to be able to take what is a fairly complex principle in regards to delivering an excellent experience for the customer, and be able to grow that from a couple of shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's amazing.

We're going to speak about how to scale a restaurant service. Every restaurateur I ever talk with has dreams of taking one store, 2 shops, five stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, throughout the state, into numerous states, and eventually nationwide, even international reach. But it's challenging, specifically in today's environment.

It's not a simple time to drive profitability and growth at the very same time. How do you scale it and make it successful? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale terrific groups?

The Advantages of Restaurant Expansion in 2026

The first question 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 truly drive success in broadening dining establishments?

We talked a bit before we began about LinkedIn, and I've 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 very fortunate, is that both brand names I've been included with are unique.

And there's nothing precisely like Chop Shop in terms of what we're doing with a big, varied menu. Most brand names today are very singularly focused in terms of what they're offering from a food. I feel like we began at a benefit with both brand names by having something distinct that filled a specific niche no one else was doing.

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

National Success in Corporate Scaling

The second thingI came from a financing background, so a lot 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 name.

They do not understand their breakeven sales. They don't understand how margin enhances as sales boost. I've seen so many companies where the numbers simply don't work.

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If you don't have those two things, you shouldn't be constructing stores. Because as I hear your description, you've highlighted 3 things: execution, brand name differentiation, and monetary viability.

Significant Regional Milestones for 2026 Growth

Second, you require a compelling brand or distinct principle that resonates with clients. And another crucial lesson is about getting in brand-new markets.

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