Hospitality Industry Trends Redefining 2026

And we likewise have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. Jason, how about I let you give the audience some info about your background and you can likewise tell them a little bit about Chop Store.

Thanks Christina. My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Shop. I've been doing this for about 9 years now. We bought the brand in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. Prior to this, I have actually spent most of my profession in hospitality in some shape or form. After a short stint of attempting to be an accounting professional for about a year and a half, I transitioned into casino residential or commercial property and worked in corporate financing.

I was the very first staff member there after personal equity bought 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 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 mainly 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 throughout the day.

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A little more complex than a few of the walk-the-line ideas that are out there, but we think we've got something quite special. We're going to include another shop this year and at least four shops next year. We will be 31 or so stores by the end of next year.

Fast Casual Industry Trends for 2026

I've been in this function for about 6 years. 4th, as numerous of you understand, is a leading company of software application services to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our objective is to help our clients be successful in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, handling stock, and generally providing them with tools they need to provide their vision.

It's uncommon to have companies that are precious and growing quickly, that can duplicate that success year after year. Jason, one of the factors I was so excited to have you join our session is the success at Zos was incredible. I have actually just met a handful of brand names where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand.

When you talk to customers about Chop Store, they love the place. And to be able to take what is a relatively complicated idea in terms of providing a fantastic 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 speak about how to scale a dining establishment business. Every restaurateur I ever speak to has dreams of taking one shop, two shops, 5 stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, across the state, into several states, and eventually nationwide, even global reach. It's not easy, especially in today's environment.

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

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The very first concern I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually done this twice now in the restaurant market. What are some of the lessons you've learned? What has your experience remained in terms of what it requires to really drive success in broadening restaurants? Inform me a little about your course, what you experienced along the method, and possibly some of the more difficult lessons you found out.

We talked a bit before we began about LinkedIn, and I've got a post teed up to follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a service. To me, one of the key things, and I feel very fortunate, is that both brands I have actually been included with are unique.

And there's absolutely nothing precisely like Chop Shop in terms of what we're doing with a large, varied menu. Many brands today are really singularly focused in terms of what they're using from a foodstuff. I feel like we started at an advantage with both brands by having something special that filled a specific niche no one else was doing.

Since it's just more difficult to stand apart when there are 10, 20, 50 ideas within a 2- or three-mile radius trying to do the specific very same thing. So a great deal of it begins with the brand name. Does your brand have something unique that nobody else is doing? That's uncommon.

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The second thingI came from a financing background, so a lot of my learnings are more financing and data-driven versus a lot of early start-up restaurateurs who are innovative types. They like the food, they constructed the menu, they constructed the brand name.

They do not know their breakeven sales. They don't understand how margin enhances as sales increase. They don't comprehend cash-on-cash returns. I have actually seen many business where the numbers just don't work. And yet people state: let's open 10 more. And I'll state: why? It doesn't earn money. Stop. You require to discover an idea that is unique.

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If you don't have those two things, you shouldn't be constructing stores. Because as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand differentiation, and financial viability.

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Second, you require a compelling brand or special idea that resonates with clients. And 3rd, the math needs to work. If you don't comprehend your system economics, your fixed and variable costs, you might be expanding blind and losing money. Exactly. And another crucial lesson has to do with getting in brand-new markets.

But when we expanded to Dallas, I expected new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the very first year. Too many operators presume new markets will open at full volume the first day. That nearly never happens. And when the shops open slow, but you have actually signed leases and built a monetary design based on higher volumes, you get overextended.