National Milestones in Brand Expansion

And we also have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of 4th, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. Jason, how about I let you offer the audience some info about your background and you can also inform them a little bit about Chop Store.

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 name in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. Prior to this, I've spent most of my career in hospitality in some shape or kind. 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 personal equity bought the organization. Assisted grow that from 20 to 150 areas, 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 duplicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to a truly good 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 beverage component 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 some of the walk-the-line concepts that are out there, but we think we've got something pretty unique. We're going to include another store this year and at least four stores next year. We will be 31 or so shops by the end of next year.

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I have actually been in this role for about six years. Fourth, as many of you know, is a leading provider of software application services to the dining establishment and hospitality industry. Our goal is to help our customers be successful in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, managing inventory, and basically supplying them with tools they need to deliver their vision.

It's rare to have business that are beloved and growing quickly, that can repeat that success every year. Jason, one of the reasons I was so excited to have you join our session is the success at Zos was fantastic. I have actually only fulfilled a handful of brand names where there was such a strong consumer affinity for the brand.

When you talk to consumers about Chop Shop, they love the place. And to be able to take what is a relatively complex concept in terms of delivering a fantastic experience for the customer, and be able to grow that from a few stores to now north of 30 stores next yearit's fantastic.

We're going to discuss how to scale a dining establishment business. Every restaurateur I ever talk with has dreams of taking one shop, 2 shops, five shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, across the state, into multiple states, and ultimately national, even global reach. However it's hard, specifically in today's environment.

It's not an easy time to drive success and growth at the same time. How do you scale it and make it effective? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale great teams?

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

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

And there's nothing exactly like Chop Store in terms of what we're making with a large, diverse menu. Most brand names today are extremely singularly focused in regards to what they're offering from a food item. 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.

Since it's just harder to stick out when there are 10, 20, 50 principles within a 2- or three-mile radius attempting to do the specific very same thing. So a great deal of it begins with the brand. Does your brand name have something unique that nobody else is doing? That's uncommon.

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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 start-up restaurateurs who are imaginative types. They like the food, they constructed the menu, they developed the brand.

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

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If you don't have those two things, you shouldn't be building shops. Yeah, maybe both? Since as I hear your description, you've highlighted 3 things: execution, brand distinction, and financial practicality. You've got to begin with execution. If you don't have an operating model that works, expanding it just increases issues.

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Second, you need a compelling brand name or special concept that resonates with consumers. And third, the mathematics needs to work. If you do not understand your system economics, your fixed and variable expenses, you might be broadening blind and losing money. Exactly. And another crucial lesson has to do with getting in new markets.

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