National Success in Brand Expansion

Thank you. And we likewise have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. So Jason, how about I let you offer the audience some info about your background and you can likewise inform 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 in 2016three unitsand I have actually 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 casino property and worked in corporate financing.

I was the first worker there after private equity purchased business. 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 replicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to a truly great 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 beverage element as well 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 some of the walk-the-line principles that are out there, but we think we have actually got something quite unique. We're going to add another shop this year and a minimum of 4 shops next year. We will be 31 or so stores by the end of next year.

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Hey, everybody. It's excellent to be with you once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at Fourth. I've been in this role for about six years. 4th, as many of you understand, is a leading company of software solutions to the restaurant and hospitality market. Our goal is to help our consumers succeed in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, handling inventory, and basically supplying them with tools they need to provide their vision.

It's unusual to have companies that are cherished and growing quickly, that can repeat that success every year. Jason, among the factors I was so thrilled to have you join our session is the success at Zos was amazing. I have actually just met a handful of brands where there was such a strong consumer affinity for the brand.

When you talk to consumers about Chop Store, they love the place. And to be able to take what is a relatively complicated concept in terms of delivering a terrific experience for the consumer, and be able to grow that from a couple of shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's incredible.

We're going to talk about how to scale a dining establishment service. Every restaurateur I ever talk to has imagine taking one store, two shops, five stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, throughout the state, into numerous states, and eventually nationwide, even worldwide reach. But it's difficult, especially in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Stock expenses stay high. It's not a simple time to drive profitability and growth at the same time. We're grateful to have you here today, Jason, since we're going to dig into that topic. The questions are going to be truly around: how do you grow an organization? 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 learned, we 'd enjoy to then say: well, appearance, 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 great teams? And last but not least, AI.

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The very first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually done this two times now in the dining establishment industry. What are some of the lessons you've learned? What has your experience been in regards to what it requires to really drive success in expanding dining establishments? Inform me a little about your path, what you experienced along the method, and perhaps a few of the harder 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 essential things, and I feel really lucky, is that both brand names I've been included with are unique.

And there's nothing exactly like Chop Shop in terms of what we're finishing with a big, varied menu. Many brand names today are extremely singularly focused in regards to what they're offering from a foodstuff. I seem like we began at a benefit with both brands by having something distinct that filled a niche nobody else was doing.

Due to the fact that it's just harder to stand apart when there are 10, 20, 50 principles within a 2- or three-mile radius attempting to do the specific same thing. So a lot of it starts with the brand. Does your brand name have something unique that no one else is doing? That's uncommon.

National Success in Brand Expansion

The second thingI came from a finance background, so a lot of my knowings are more finance and data-driven versus a great deal of early start-up restaurateurs who are creative types. They love the food, they constructed the menu, they developed the brand name. I most likely could not do that from scratch. If you gave me something that has all those elements in location, I can take it from there and put the playbook in location.

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

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If you do not have those 2 things, you should not be constructing shops. Yeah, maybe both, right? Because as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand name distinction, and financial viability. You have actually got to begin with execution. If you do not have an operating model that works, broadening it just multiplies issues.

Hospitality Industry Shifts Redefining 2026

Second, you need a compelling brand name or distinct idea that resonates with customers. And another essential lesson is about entering new markets.

However when we broadened to Dallas, I expected new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the first year. Too numerous operators assume new markets will open at complete volume day one. That almost never ever takes place. And when the stores open sluggish, but you've signed leases and built a monetary design based upon higher volumes, you get overextended.