Key Market Milestones for 2026 Expansion

And we likewise have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of 4th, who will be moderating the conversation with Jason. Jason, how about I let you provide the audience some details about your background and you can likewise tell them a little bit about Chop Store.

My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Store. We purchased the brand in 2016three unitsand I've grown it to 26. After a brief stint of attempting to be an accounting professional for about a year and a half, I transitioned into casino home and worked in business finance.

I was the very first worker there after private equity bought business. Helped grow that from 20 to 150 locations, 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 replicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to an actually 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 drink component as well with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes. We do all stables, we do breakfast all the time.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

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 unique. We're going to add another shop this year and a minimum of four stores next year. So we will be 31 or so shops by the end of next year.

Steps to Scale Your Restaurant Concept

Hey, everyone. It's excellent to be with you again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at Fourth. I have actually remained in this function for about six years. Fourth, as a number of you know, is a leading provider of software options to the restaurant and hospitality market. Our goal is to assist our consumers be successful in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, handling inventory, and basically supplying them with tools they require to deliver their vision.

It's uncommon to have companies that are precious and growing rapidly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, among the factors I was so thrilled to have you join our session is the success at Zos was incredible. I have actually only fulfilled a handful of brands where there was such a strong consumer affinity for the brand name.

And now you're doing the very same thing at Chop Store. When you talk with consumers about Chop Store, they love the place. They speak about its distinction. And to be able to take what is a reasonably complicated principle in regards to delivering a great experience for the client, and have the ability to grow that from a couple of stores to now north of 30 stores next yearit's remarkable.

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

Labor is difficult. Stock expenses remain high. It's not a simple time to drive success and growth at the very same time. But we're glad to have you here today, Jason, since we're going to go into that topic. The concerns are going to be actually around: how do you grow a company? How do you scale it and make it effective? How do you reproduce early success? And from there, after we talk about your experience and the lessons you've discovered, we 'd like to then state: well, appearance, how could innovation help? How can you utilize technology as a multiplier to replicate early success to far-reaching success? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale fantastic groups? And lastly, AI.

National Success in Corporate Scaling

The very first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this twice now in the restaurant industry. What are some of the lessons you've found out? What has your experience been in regards to what it requires to truly drive success in broadening dining establishments? Tell me a little about your course, what you experienced along the method, and possibly some of the more difficult lessons you learned.

We talked a little bit before we began about LinkedIn, and I've got a post teed as much as follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a company. To me, one of the crucial things, and I feel very lucky, is that both brand names I have actually been included with are unique.

And there's absolutely nothing precisely like Chop Shop in regards to what we're finishing with a large, diverse menu. Most brand names today are extremely singularly focused in terms of what they're using from a food. I feel like we started at an advantage with both brand names by having something special that filled a specific niche nobody else was doing.

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

Corporate Updates: New Milestones for 2026

The 2nd thingI came from a financing background, so a lot of my knowings are more finance and data-driven versus a lot of early startup restaurateurs who are innovative types. They like the food, they developed the menu, they developed the brand.

They don't understand their breakeven sales. They do not comprehend how margin improves as sales boost. I have actually seen so lots of business where the numbers simply do not work.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

If you do not have those 2 things, you shouldn't be constructing shops. Yeah, possibly both? Because as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand name distinction, and financial viability. You've got to begin with execution. If you don't have an operating model that works, expanding it simply increases issues.

Key Strategies for Expanding Restaurant Brands

Second, you need an engaging brand name or special principle that resonates with consumers. And another essential lesson is about going into brand-new markets.

When we broadened to Dallas, I expected brand-new shops 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.