Profitable Hospitality Ventures Arising in 2026

Thank you. And we also 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 info about your background and you can likewise inform them a little bit about Chop Store. 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 trying to be an accounting professional for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment residential or commercial property and worked in business financing.

I was the first employee there after private equity purchased the organization. Helped 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 reproduce the success we had at Zos, and we're off to a truly excellent start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. It is mostly protein bowlsabout 40 percent of the mix. We also do salads, sandwiches. The secret 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.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

A little more complex than some of the walk-the-line principles that are out there, but we believe we have actually got something pretty special. We're going to add another store this year and a minimum of four stores next year. We will be 31 or so shops by the end of next year.

Major Expansion Targets in 2026

Hey, everyone. It's excellent 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. 4th, as much of you understand, is a leading provider of software application options to the restaurant and hospitality market. Our objective is to assist our consumers succeed in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, handling inventory, and basically supplying them with tools they require to deliver their vision.

It's uncommon to have business that are beloved and growing rapidly, that can duplicate that success year after year. Jason, among the reasons I was so fired up to have you join our session is the success at Zos was remarkable. I have actually only met a handful of brand names where there was such a strong client affinity for the brand name.

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

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

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

Why Is Scaling the Wise Move?

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

We talked a 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, one of the key things, and I feel really fortunate, is that both brand names I've been involved with are special.

And there's nothing exactly like Chop Store in regards to what we're making with a big, varied menu. A lot of brand names today are really singularly focused in regards to what they're providing from a food. I feel like we began at a benefit with both brand names by having something distinct that filled a specific niche no one else was doing.

Because it's simply harder to stand apart when there are 10, 20, 50 ideas within a two- or three-mile radius attempting to do the specific same thing. So a great deal of it begins with the brand name. Does your brand have something special that no one else is doing? That's rare.

Major Expansion Milestones for 2026

The second thingI came from a finance background, so a great deal of my learnings are more financing and data-driven versus a lot of early startup restaurateurs who are imaginative types. They enjoy the food, they built the menu, they constructed the brand name. I most likely couldn't do that from scratch. However if you offered me something that has all those components in location, I can take it from there and put the playbook in location.

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

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If you don't have those two things, you shouldn't be building stores. Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you've highlighted three things: execution, brand name differentiation, and monetary practicality.

Steps to Expand a Dining Brand

Second, you require a compelling brand or special concept that resonates with consumers. And third, the mathematics has to work. If you do not understand your system economics, your fixed and variable expenses, you might be broadening blind and losing money. Precisely. And another essential lesson is about going into new markets.

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