Hospitality Industry Shifts Shaping 2026

Thank you. And we likewise have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of 4th, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. Jason, how about I let you provide the audience some information about your background and you can likewise inform them a little bit about Chop Shop. And then I'll let you take it from there, Clinton.

My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Shop. We purchased the brand 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 gambling establishment property and worked in business financing.

I was the first employee there after private equity purchased business. Assisted 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 Shop. My hope is that we can replicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to a really 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 secret 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.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

A little more complicated than some of the walk-the-line principles that are out there, however we think we have actually got something pretty unique. We're going to include another shop this year and a minimum of four shops next year. We will be 31 or so stores by the end of next year.

Expansion News: Regional Milestones in 2026

Hey, everybody. It's great to be with you once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at Fourth. I've been in this function for about six years. Fourth, as a number of you understand, is a leading supplier of software application solutions to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our goal is to help our clients be successful in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, managing stock, and essentially providing them with tools they require to deliver their vision.

It's rare to have business that are precious and growing quickly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, among the factors I was so excited to have you join our session is the success at Zos was amazing. I've just fulfilled a handful of brands where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand.

When you talk to customers about Chop Shop, they like the location. And to be able to take what is a reasonably complicated concept in terms of delivering an excellent experience for the client, and be able to grow that from a few shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's remarkable.

We're going to speak about how to scale a restaurant company. Every restaurateur I ever speak to has imagine taking one store, two stores, 5 shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, across the state, into multiple states, and ultimately nationwide, even worldwide reach. It's not simple, particularly in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Stock expenses remain high. It's not an easy time to drive success and growth at the exact same time. However we're thankful to have you here today, Jason, because we're going to go into that topic. The questions are going to be truly around: how do you grow a business? 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 enjoy to then state: well, look, how could innovation help? How can you utilize technology as a multiplier to duplicate early success to significant success? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale excellent teams? And last but not least, AI.

Quick Service Industry Growth

The first concern I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually done this two times now in the restaurant market. What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to really drive success in broadening dining establishments?

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

And there's nothing exactly like Chop Shop in terms of what we're making with a big, diverse menu. A lot of brands today are very singularly focused in terms of what they're offering from a food. I seem like we started at a benefit with both brands by having something distinct that filled a specific niche nobody else was doing.

Because it's simply more difficult to stand apart when there are 10, 20, 50 concepts within a two- or three-mile radius trying to do the exact very same thing. So a lot of it starts with the brand name. Does your brand have something distinct that nobody else is doing? That's uncommon.

How to Scale Your Restaurant Brand

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

They do not know their breakeven sales. They don't understand how margin enhances as sales boost. I've seen so lots of business where the numbers just don't work.

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If you do not have those two things, you shouldn't be building stores. Yeah, possibly both? Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted three things: execution, brand name distinction, and monetary viability. You have actually got to begin with execution. If you do not have an operating model that works, broadening it simply increases problems.

Fast Casual Industry Trends

Second, you require an engaging brand name or unique concept that resonates with consumers. And third, the mathematics has to work. If you do not understand your system economics, your repaired and variable expenses, you might be expanding blind and losing cash. Precisely. And another crucial lesson has to do with getting in brand-new markets.

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