Steps to Scale a Restaurant Concept

Thank you. And we likewise have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, who will be moderating the conversation with Jason. So Jason, how about I let you provide the audience some information about your background and you can also inform them a little bit about Chop Shop. And after that I'll let you take it from there, Clinton.

My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Shop. We bought the brand name in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. After a quick stint of trying to be an accounting professional for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment home and worked in business finance.

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

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. It is mostly protein bowlsabout 40 percent of the mix. We likewise do salads, sandwiches. The key to the program is we have a beverage part as well with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes. We do all stables, we do breakfast all day.

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A little more complex than some of the walk-the-line concepts that are out there, however we think we've got something quite special. We're going to include another shop this year and a minimum of 4 shops next year. So we will be 31 approximately stores by the end of next year.

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I have actually been in this function for about 6 years. 4th, as numerous of you know, is a leading supplier of software options to the dining establishment and hospitality market. Our goal is to help our clients be successful in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, managing inventory, and basically supplying them with tools they need to deliver their vision.

It's uncommon to have companies that are cherished and growing quickly, that can repeat that success year after year. Jason, among the factors I was so fired up to have you join our session is the success at Zos was incredible. I've just met a handful of brands where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand.

And now you're doing the exact same thing at Chop Shop. When you speak to consumers about Chop Store, they love the location. They speak about its distinction. And to be able to take what is a reasonably complex concept in regards to providing an excellent experience for the customer, and have the ability to grow that from a couple of shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's fantastic.

We're going to talk about how to scale a dining establishment business. Every restaurateur I ever talk with has dreams of taking one store, two stores, five stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, throughout the state, into numerous states, and ultimately nationwide, even international reach. But it's not easy, especially in today's environment.

Labor is hard. Stock costs stay high. It's not an easy time to drive profitability and growth at the same time. However we're thankful to have you here today, Jason, because we're going to dig into that topic. The questions are going to be truly around: how do you grow a company? How do you scale it and make it effective? How do you duplicate early success? And from there, after we discuss your experience and the lessons you've discovered, we 'd love to then say: well, look, how could innovation help? How can you use innovation as a multiplier to replicate early success to significant success? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale fantastic groups? And last but not least, AI.

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

We talked a little bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I have actually got a post teed approximately follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing an organization. To me, one of the crucial things, and I feel extremely fortunate, is that both brand names I have actually been involved with are distinct.

And there's nothing exactly like Chop Store in regards to what we're doing with a large, varied menu. Most brand names today are very singularly focused in terms of what they're using from a food. I seem like we started at an advantage with both brands by having something unique that filled a specific niche nobody else was doing.

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

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The second thingI originated from a finance background, so a great deal of my learnings are more finance and data-driven versus a great deal of early start-up restaurateurs who are creative types. They enjoy the food, they developed the menu, they developed the brand name. I probably couldn't do that from scratch. If you provided me something that has all those elements in location, I can take it from there and put the playbook in location.

They do not know their breakeven sales. They don't comprehend how margin improves as sales increase. I have actually seen so numerous business where the numbers simply do not work.

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If you don't have those 2 things, you should not be constructing stores. Yeah, perhaps both? Since as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted three things: execution, brand name differentiation, and monetary practicality. You've got to start with execution. If you don't have an operating design that works, expanding it simply increases issues.

Key Strategies for Expanding Restaurant Brands

Second, you require an engaging brand name or special idea that resonates with customers. And another crucial lesson is about going into brand-new markets.

When we broadened to Dallas, I expected brand-new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the very first year. Too lots of operators presume brand-new markets will open at complete volume day one.