National Milestones in Brand Expansion

Thank you. And we also have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. So 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 Shop. And after that I'll let you take it from there, Clinton.

My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Store. We bought the brand name in 2016three unitsand I've 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 corporate finance.

I was the very first staff member there after private equity bought business. Assisted grow that from 20 to 150 places, 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 reproduce the success we had at Zos, and we're off to a really good 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 drink part 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 complicated than some of the walk-the-line ideas that are out there, however we think we've got something quite unique. We're going to include another store this year and at least four shops next year. We will be 31 or so shops by the end of next year.

How to Scale a Dining Brand

Hey, everyone. It's terrific to be with you once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at 4th. I have actually remained in this role for about 6 years. Fourth, as a number of you understand, is a leading supplier of software services to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our objective is to assist our customers succeed in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, handling stock, and basically offering them with tools they need to provide their vision.

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

And now you're doing the very same thing at Chop Store. When you talk with customers about Chop Store, they enjoy the place. They discuss its differentiation. And to be able to take what is a reasonably complex idea in terms of delivering a great experience for the client, and be able to grow that from a couple of shops to now north of 30 shops next yearit's amazing.

We're going to discuss how to scale a restaurant service. Every restaurateur I ever speak with has dreams of taking one shop, 2 stores, 5 stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, across the state, into several states, and ultimately nationwide, even worldwide reach. It's not easy, specifically in today's environment.

Labor is tough. Inventory expenses remain high. It's not a simple time to drive profitability and growth at the very same time. We're pleased to have you here today, Jason, because we're going to dig into that subject. The questions are going to be really around: how do you grow a service? How do you scale it and make it effective? How do you reproduce early success? And from there, after we speak about your experience and the lessons you've discovered, we 'd enjoy to then state: well, look, how could technology assist? How can you use innovation as a multiplier to reproduce early success to significant success? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale terrific teams? And lastly, AI.

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The first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this two times now in the restaurant market. What are some of the lessons you've discovered? What has your experience been in regards to what it requires to really drive success in expanding restaurants? Inform me a little about your course, what you experienced along the way, and possibly some of the harder lessons you learned.

We talked a bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I have actually got a post teed as much as follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a business. To me, among the crucial things, and I feel very lucky, is that both brand names I have actually been involved with are distinct.

And there's absolutely nothing precisely like Chop Shop in regards to what we're doing with a large, diverse menu. A lot of brands today are really singularly focused in regards to what they're offering from a food product. I seem like we started at an advantage with both brands by having something special that filled a specific niche nobody else was doing.

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

Corporate Growth Milestones for 2026

The second thingI came from a finance background, so a lot of my knowings are more finance and data-driven versus a lot of early start-up restaurateurs who are creative types. They love the food, they built the menu, they developed the brand.

They do not know their breakeven sales. They don't understand how margin enhances as sales boost. They do not comprehend cash-on-cash returns. I've seen a lot of business where the numbers just don't work. And yet people say: let's open 10 more. And I'll say: why? It does not make money. Stop. You need to discover an idea that is distinct.

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If you do not have those 2 things, you shouldn't be developing shops. Yeah, maybe both? Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted three things: execution, brand differentiation, and financial practicality. You've got to begin with execution. If you don't have an operating design that works, expanding it simply increases issues.

Regional Milestones in Corporate Expansion

Second, you need an engaging brand or special principle that resonates with consumers. And third, the math has to work. If you don't understand your unit economics, your fixed and variable costs, you might be expanding blind and losing money. Precisely. And another key lesson is about entering brand-new markets.

When we expanded to Dallas, I expected new shops to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the first year. Too many operators assume brand-new markets will open at full volume day one.