Corporate News: New Milestones in 2026

Thank you. And we likewise have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of 4th, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. So Jason, how about I let you give the audience some info about your background and you can also tell 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 Store. We bought the brand in 2016three unitsand I've grown it to 26. After a brief stint of trying to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment home and worked in corporate finance.

I was the first employee there after personal equity bought the company. Helped 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 Store. My hope is that we can reproduce the success we had at Zos, and we're off to an actually excellent 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 element also 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 a few of the walk-the-line concepts that are out there, however we think we have actually got something quite special. We're going to include another store this year and a minimum of 4 stores next year. We will be 31 or so shops by the end of next year.

Comparing Franchise ROI Against Growth Data

Hey, everybody. It's terrific to be with you once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at Fourth. I have actually been in this role for about 6 years. 4th, as numerous of you understand, is a leading provider of software services to the dining establishment and hospitality industry. Our goal is to assist our clients achieve success in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, managing stock, and generally offering them with tools they require to deliver their vision.

It's uncommon to have companies that are precious and growing quickly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, among the reasons I was so fired up to have you join our session is the success at Zos was amazing. I've just satisfied a handful of brand names where there was such a strong consumer affinity for the brand.

And now you're doing the same thing at Chop Store. When you speak to customers about Chop Store, they like the place. They speak about its distinction. And to be able to take what is a fairly complicated concept in terms of providing an excellent experience for the client, and be able to grow that from a couple of stores to now north of 30 shops next yearit's fantastic.

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

Labor is tough. Stock costs remain high. It's not an easy time to drive success and development at the same time. We're pleased to have you here today, Jason, because we're going to dig into that subject. The concerns are going to be really around: how do you grow an organization? How do you scale it and make it effective? How do you replicate early success? And from there, after we speak about your experience and the lessons you've discovered, we 'd love to then say: well, look, how could technology help? How can you use innovation as a multiplier to replicate early success to significant success? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale terrific teams? And last but not least, AI.

Steps to Expand Your Dining Brand

The very first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually done this two times now in the dining establishment industry. What are a few of the lessons you've found out? What has your experience been in terms of what it requires to actually drive success in broadening dining establishments? Tell me a little about your course, what you experienced along the method, and perhaps some of the more difficult lessons you discovered.

We talked a little bit before we began 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 an organization. To me, among the crucial things, and I feel extremely lucky, is that both brand names I've been included with are unique.

And there's absolutely nothing exactly like Chop Shop in terms of what we're making with a large, diverse menu. A lot of brands today are very singularly focused in regards to what they're using from a food. I feel like we began at an advantage with both brand names by having something special that filled a specific niche no one else was doing.

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

High-ROI Hospitality Ventures Coming in 2026

The 2nd thingI came 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 like the food, they developed the menu, they constructed the brand name. I probably could not do that from scratch. However if you offered me something that has all those parts in place, I can take it from there and put the playbook in location.

They do not know their breakeven sales. They don't understand how margin enhances as sales increase. I've seen so numerous companies where the numbers simply don't work.

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If you don't have those 2 things, you should not be building stores. Because as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand name differentiation, and monetary viability.

Steps to Scale Your Dining Concept

Second, you need an engaging brand or unique concept that resonates with customers. And another crucial lesson is about going into brand-new markets.

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