Why Is Fast Casual the Best Investment?

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 information about your background and you can likewise tell them a little bit about Chop Shop.

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've grown it to 26. Prior to this, I have actually spent many of my profession in hospitality in some shape or type. After a short stint of trying to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment residential or commercial property and operated in corporate finance.

I was the very first staff member there after private equity purchased business. Assisted 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 reproduce the success we had at Zos, and we're off to an actually great start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. It is mainly protein bowlsabout 40 percent of the mix. We also do salads, sandwiches. The key to the program is we have a drink component as well 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 some of the walk-the-line principles that are out there, but we believe we have actually got something quite special. We're going to add another shop this year and at least four stores next year. So we will be 31 or two shops by the end of next year.

Quick Service Industry Trends

I have actually been in this role for about 6 years. Fourth, as many of you know, is a leading company of software application solutions to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our goal is to assist our consumers be effective in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, managing stock, and basically providing them with tools they require to deliver their vision.

It's unusual to have business that are cherished and growing rapidly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, one of the factors I was so ecstatic 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 customer affinity for the brand.

And now you're doing the very same thing at Chop Store. When you talk with clients about Chop Store, they love the location. They speak about its distinction. And to be able to take what is a fairly complex concept in regards to delivering an excellent experience for the client, and have the ability to grow that from a couple of shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's amazing.

We're going to talk about how to scale a restaurant business. Every restaurateur I ever talk with has dreams of taking one shop, 2 stores, five shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, across the state, into multiple states, and ultimately national, even international reach. But it's not easy, 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 innovation, how do you scale terrific teams?

Is Scaling the Best Move?

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

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, among the essential things, and I feel really lucky, is that both brands I've been involved with are distinct.

And there's absolutely nothing exactly like Chop Store in terms of what we're making with a large, varied menu. A lot of brands today are very singularly focused in regards to what they're providing from a food product. I seem like we started at an advantage with both brand names by having something unique that filled a specific niche no one else was doing.

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

Essential Strategies to Growing Hospitality Footprints

The 2nd thingI originated from a finance background, so a great deal of my learnings are more financing and data-driven versus a great deal of early start-up restaurateurs who are imaginative types. They like the food, they constructed the menu, they developed the brand. I probably could not do that from scratch. If you gave me something that has all those components in location, I can take it from there and put the playbook in place.

They don't understand their breakeven sales. They do not comprehend how margin enhances as sales boost. I have actually seen so numerous business where the numbers just do not work.

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If you do not have those 2 things, you shouldn't be building shops. Yeah, possibly both? Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you've highlighted 3 things: execution, brand distinction, and monetary viability. You've got to start with execution. If you do not have an operating design that works, expanding it simply multiplies problems.

Steps to Scale a Dining Brand

Second, you require a compelling brand name or special principle that resonates with consumers. And 3rd, the math has to work. If you do not understand your system economics, your repaired and variable costs, you may be broadening blind and losing cash. Exactly. And another crucial lesson has to do with entering new markets.

But when we expanded to Dallas, I expected new shops to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the first year. Too many operators assume new markets will open at complete volume the first day. That practically never occurs. And when the shops open slow, but you've signed leases and constructed a monetary model based upon greater volumes, you get overextended.