Why Is Fast Casual the 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 give the audience some information about your background and you can likewise inform them a little bit about Chop Shop.

Thanks Christina. My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Store. I've been doing this for about nine years now. We purchased the brand name in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. Prior to this, I have actually spent the majority of my career in hospitality in some shape or form. After a quick stint of attempting to be an accounting professional for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment residential or commercial property and worked in business financing.

I was the very first staff member there after personal equity purchased business. 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 Shop. My hope is that we can replicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to an actually excellent 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 drink part also with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes. We do all stables, we do breakfast all the time.

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A little more complex than a few of the walk-the-line concepts that are out there, however we believe we've got something pretty special. We're going to add another store this year and at least 4 shops next year. So we will be 31 approximately stores by the end of next year.

Steps to Expand a Dining Brand

Hey, everyone. It's terrific to be with you once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at 4th. I have actually remained in this function for about six years. Fourth, as numerous of you know, is a leading provider of software application services to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our objective is to assist our customers be successful in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, managing inventory, and generally supplying them with tools they require to deliver their vision.

It's rare to have companies that are cherished and growing rapidly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, among the factors I was so fired up to have you join our session is the success at Zos was amazing. I've only fulfilled a handful of brand names where there was such a strong consumer affinity for the brand name.

When you talk to customers about Chop Store, they love the location. And to be able to take what is a reasonably complex idea in terms of providing a fantastic experience for the customer, and be able to grow that from a few shops 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 imagine taking one store, two stores, 5 shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, throughout the state, into several states, and eventually nationwide, even international reach. However it's challenging, particularly in today's environment.

It's not a simple time to drive success and development at the same time. How do you scale it and make it successful? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale great teams?

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The very first concern I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this twice now in the dining establishment 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 began about LinkedIn, and I have actually got a post teed as much as follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing an organization. To me, one of the key things, and I feel very lucky, is that both brand names I've been involved with are special.

And there's nothing precisely like Chop Shop in regards to what we're making with a large, varied menu. Many brands today are extremely singularly focused in terms of what they're using from a foodstuff. I feel like we started at an advantage with both brands by having something unique that filled a niche no one else was doing.

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

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

They don't know their breakeven sales. They do not comprehend how margin improves as sales boost. I've seen so many companies where the numbers just don't work.

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If you do not have those two things, you should not be building stores. Yeah, perhaps both? Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you've highlighted 3 things: execution, brand name differentiation, and monetary viability. You have actually got to begin with execution. If you do not have an operating design that works, expanding it simply increases issues.

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Second, you require an engaging brand or distinct idea that resonates with clients. And third, the math needs to work. If you do not understand your system economics, your repaired and variable costs, you might be expanding blind and losing money. Exactly. And another crucial lesson has to do with going into 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 numerous operators assume brand-new markets will open at complete volume day one.