Why Is Fast Casual a Best Move?

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

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

I was the very first employee there after personal equity purchased the business. Assisted 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 reproduce 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 secret to the program is we have a drink component as well with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

A little more complicated than some of the walk-the-line concepts that are out there, but we think we've got something pretty special. We're going to include another shop this year and at least 4 shops next year. We will be 31 or so stores by the end of next year.

Corporate Expansion Targets in 2026

I have actually been in this role for about six years. Fourth, as many of you understand, is a leading company of software solutions to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our objective is to help our clients be effective in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, managing stock, and generally supplying them with tools they need to provide their vision.

It's unusual to have business that are beloved and growing rapidly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, among the reasons I was so fired up to have you join our session is the success at Zos was incredible. I have actually just satisfied a handful of brands where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand.

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

We're going to talk about how to scale a dining establishment company. Every restaurateur I ever talk to has dreams of taking one shop, two stores, 5 stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, throughout the state, into several states, and eventually nationwide, even global reach. It's not simple, particularly in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Stock expenses stay high. It's not a simple time to drive profitability and development at the exact same time. We're pleased to have you here today, Jason, due to the fact that we're going to dig into that topic. The questions are going to be really around: how do you grow an organization? How do you scale it and make it effective? How do you reproduce early success? And from there, after we discuss your experience and the lessons you've learned, we 'd enjoy to then state: well, look, how could innovation assist? How can you utilize innovation as a multiplier to duplicate early success to significant success? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale fantastic teams? And last but not least, AI.

Significant Regional Milestones Shaping 2026 Growth

The very first concern I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually done this twice now in the dining establishment industry. What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to truly drive success in broadening restaurants?

We talked a bit before we began 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 business. To me, one of the key things, and I feel extremely lucky, is that both brands I've been involved with are distinct.

And there's absolutely nothing precisely like Chop Shop in terms of what we're finishing with a big, varied menu. Many brands today are really singularly focused in regards to what they're providing from a food. I seem like we started at a benefit with both brand names by having something special that filled a niche no one else was doing.

Due to the fact that it's just more difficult to stick out 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 name have something distinct that nobody else is doing? That's unusual.

Steps to Expand Your Restaurant Concept

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

They don't know their breakeven sales. They don't understand how margin enhances as sales increase. I've seen so numerous companies where the numbers just don't work.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

If you don't have those two things, you shouldn't be developing shops. Yeah, maybe both? Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you've highlighted three things: execution, brand name differentiation, and financial practicality. You have actually got to begin with execution. If you do not have an operating model that works, broadening it simply increases issues.

Steps to Expand a Restaurant Concept

Second, you need a compelling brand or unique idea that resonates with consumers. And 3rd, the math has to work. If you don't understand your system economics, your repaired and variable costs, you might be expanding blind and losing money. Precisely. And another essential lesson is about getting in new markets.

However when we expanded to Dallas, I expected new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the first year. A lot of operators assume brand-new markets will open at complete volume day one. That practically never happens. And when the stores open slow, however you've signed leases and built a monetary model based upon greater volumes, you get overextended.