Hospitality Sector Shifts Redefining 2026

Thank you. And we likewise have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, who will be moderating the conversation with Jason. Jason, how about I let you give the audience some details about your background and you can also 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 purchased the brand name in 2016three unitsand I've 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 gambling establishment residential or commercial property and worked in business finance.

I was the very first employee there after personal equity bought the company. Helped grow that from 20 to 150 locations, took it public in 2014, and after that 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 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 also do salads, sandwiches. The key to the program is we have a beverage part 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 complicated than some of the walk-the-line ideas that are out there, but we believe we have actually got something quite special. We're going to include another store this year and a minimum of four stores next year. So we will be 31 or two shops by the end of next year.

Steps to Scale a Restaurant Brand

Hey, everyone. It's fantastic to be with you again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at 4th. I've been in this role for about 6 years. Fourth, as a lot of you understand, is a leading company of software options to the dining establishment and hospitality market. Our goal is to help our customers be successful in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, managing inventory, and essentially providing them with tools they need to provide their vision.

It's unusual to have companies that are beloved and growing quickly, that can repeat that success every year. Jason, one of the reasons I was so fired up to have you join our session is the success at Zos was amazing. I've only met a handful of brands where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand.

And now you're doing the same thing at Chop Shop. When you speak to clients about Chop Shop, they enjoy the location. They speak about its distinction. And to be able to take what is a fairly complicated idea in terms of delivering a great experience for the customer, and be able to grow that from a few shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's amazing.

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

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

Major Expansion Milestones in 2026

The first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this two times now in the dining establishment market. What are a few of the lessons you've learned? What has your experience been in terms of what it requires to really drive success in expanding dining establishments? Inform me a little about your course, what you experienced along the way, and perhaps some of the more difficult lessons you learned.

We talked a little 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 company. To me, among the essential things, and I feel very fortunate, is that both brand names I have actually been involved with are special.

And there's nothing exactly like Chop Store in terms of what we're finishing with a big, varied menu. A lot of brand names today are very singularly focused in regards to what they're using from a foodstuff. 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.

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

Quick Service Market Share Trends for 2026

The 2nd thingI originated from a finance background, so a lot of my learnings are more finance and data-driven versus a lot of early startup restaurateurs who are innovative types. They love the food, they constructed the menu, they developed the brand name. I most likely couldn't do that from scratch. If you gave me something that has all those components in place, I can take it from there and put the playbook in place.

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

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If you do not have those two things, you should not be developing shops. Yeah, perhaps both, right? Since as I hear your description, you've highlighted 3 things: execution, brand distinction, and monetary practicality. You have actually got to start with execution. If you don't have an operating design that works, expanding it simply increases issues.

Essential Strategies for Growing Hospitality Footprints

Second, you require a compelling brand name or distinct concept that resonates with consumers. And another key lesson is about going into new markets.

However when we expanded to Dallas, I expected new shops to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the first year. A lot of operators presume new markets will open at full volume day one. That almost never ever occurs. And when the stores open sluggish, however you've signed leases and developed a monetary design based upon higher volumes, you get overextended.