00:00Talk about that expansion, because I mean, obviously, if you're down south, I mean, everyone knew Raising Cane's, but if you're up north, it was kind of like, what is this company? Where did they come from? And you guys are huge. Yeah, right. I started the business 29 years ago in Louisiana. Yeah. And so we kind of grew out concentrically from there, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and grew up from there. Then we went to up the Midwest and then we went to the West Coast and then the East Coast was our latest growth here. And it's been absolutely fantastic. You know, over the years, we're going about 100 restaurants a year.
00:30Now, and that's the amount of restaurants we feel we can operate well. Right. And so since restaurants are hard business, you got to make sure you're prepared and you don't overgrow. So you don't give that great quality and service when you say operate well. So all your stores are owned by the company. Yeah. Company restaurants. And, you know, like franchising works for some concepts, but nobody's going to run your restaurant like a founder wants it to be right. Like no one's going to care about as much as me and my team does. You know, actually, we had some franchisees in the beginning and I bought them back.
00:58We raised sales 35% plus just because I think we operated better. But how do you do that? I mean, I mean, managing, you know, one or even 10 locations in the same city or in the same geographic area is pretty easy.
01:11I would think are easier relative to 900 plus, you know, spread out across multiple states.
01:16Yeah. You know, we have almost a thousand locations and think about across the country. But the main thing is just having great people that literally share your same values and work ethic.
01:22And so if you get those people, the restaurant leaders in that restaurant or that Todd Graves in that restaurant taking care of their crew, if you get those types of people intrinsically motivated, good leaders, then it's not that hard to replicate.
01:34Talk about just sort of how this got into the zeitgeist. I mean, I've been familiar with some of your advertising campaigns, some of the partnerships you've had with celebrities and getting their faces, you know, plastered all across the space.
01:45What has been the primary strategy to make people aware of raising gains?
01:49Yeah. You know, top of mind. Right. And so traditional marketing for restaurants, you know, it was like fast food was top of mind, billboards, radio, TV.
01:58And that's about a penny to a penny and a half per impression. One person seeing that when social media came out.
02:04Right. When I started business, we have cell phones. Right. So I'm like, let me study the social media.
02:07I can be a tenth of a penny. Right. So I can blast out. But what people like is good content.
02:12They don't want to see your food every day. And they love celebrities and celebrities that love my brand. I love to do things with them.
02:17So it's like catching the moments. Right. So Eagles win the Super Bowl.
02:20It's Saquon. Two days later, I'm with them in the drive through working. Right.
02:24National Chicken Finger Day. My buddy Snoop Dogg comes on.
02:27We said it's like Christmas morning to me, but I'm sick.
02:29And he had to take over and deliver chicken fingers to all the good boys and girls like Cynthia Erivo, like her after, you know, one of the award shows.
02:35But immediately after she's at Kane's. Right. Yeah.
02:37My buddy Post Malone and doing great partnerships with them.
02:41You know, those things excite people. We tap into their fan base and then you stay top of mind.
02:45And it's actually much cheaper. So did I hear that you did something related to a Christmas story here in New York today?
02:50We did. We did. You saw our whole campaign this year. Peter Billings is a friend.
02:54You know, original Ralphie. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Christmas story.
02:56What a great guy. Seen that about a hundred times.
02:57And we partnered. Right. We did a campaign. And what Peter really liked was our charitable components, our bike giveaway.
03:02So he's like, can I be at the bike giveaway in Times Square when you do?
03:04I said, absolutely. I said, you be the star of this and come out.
03:07But Peter actually brought his original pink bunny suit and the cowboy suit and the Red Ryder BB gun.
03:13And there was only one on one. They gave it to him after the movie was done.
03:16He's kept it in his vault and he brought it out for everybody to see.
03:19We put them in our holiday windows at Raising Cane's.
03:21We won Best Windows again, New York, second year in a row.
03:24Yeah. The costumes really helped. But Peter wanted to be part of that, giving out to the kids.
03:27He and I both were just had that memory of having a bike on Christmas morning.
03:31Yeah. And it's just great to give that joy.
03:32Yeah. Oh, sorry. I missed that. I did a pilgrimage earlier this year to Cleveland.
03:36And that was one of the first places I went to go see the house.
03:38Did you really? Oh, my gosh. I can't wait for Peter to meet you. He's going to love to hear that story.
03:42Absolutely. But so talk a little bit about kind of what comes next.
03:45I mean, you mentioned 29 years old. I mean, you were a mature company, obviously very successful.
03:50You're tracking, what, something like 10 billion a year in sales.
03:53What what how big can this get? I mean, are we talking like McDonald's level or I mean, what do you want it to be?
03:59Yeah, I just I want to grow it as as big and as far as I can.
04:02I love being part of communities, right, wherever it makes economic sense.
04:05You know, we're about a thousand locations now in the U.S.
04:08We could probably do about three thousand locations here.
04:11We were really well received in the Middle East.
04:13We've been there for 10 years. Fifty five restaurants. They're doing great.
04:16We're opening in London. Was the Middle East your first international output?
04:19It really was. And the main thing was my partner.
04:22There's really, really solid restaurant operator. You couldn't do company restaurants there.
04:25The politics and things that go on. Better to do a partner.
04:29Very good. But they also they love American concepts.
04:31They don't want you to change anything. No menu changes, things like that.
04:34So we've done well there. When that started to do well, then we got these attractions all over the world.
04:37I said we need to slow down, really learn this.
04:39Our next play internationally is going to be in the U.K., starting off in Piccadilly Circus next year.
04:44And also we're also going to grow into Mexico. We're going to start off in Monterey next year.
04:47So the U.K. So you're going to be basically chicken fingers and fries and you're going to be up against fish and chips,
04:52which is basically, you know, fish, fried fish and fries.
04:54So you think you can win over the Brits with with our American cuisine?
04:59I think it's just an alternative, right?
05:00So literally we are chicken and chips. It's the boneless chicken on that with the deal.
05:04They love that type of concept. We've had our number one request in all the world comes from the U.K.
05:09So we're going to we're going to break out there.
05:11I'm curious about competition. Do you worry at all about, I guess, new upstarts, but even like old ones, you know,
05:16like say a KFC, maybe they get their mojo back or Popeyes or something like that.
05:20Yeah, I try not to concentrate what others do. I say for us, let's just focus on what we do well.
05:25We've done the same thing for 29 years. The menu has not changed over all these years.
05:28We don't have limited time offerings.
05:30All we do is have a exceptional craveable meal because I've never cut quality one bit.
05:34The cook to order process, which goes out and concentrate on great customer service.
05:38That's us taking care of our crew that takes care of the customers.
05:40That's the winning combination, that craveable food, but served by friendly people.
05:44And the things we do in the community, I think people really resonate with that.
05:48Just real quickly, I only have a few seconds left, but on the customer service angle,
05:51and as somebody who's been in your store several times here, I have noticed the way they greet you,
05:57the way they give you your food. It's much more personable than a lot of places that shall remain nameless.
06:03Is that I assume that's a training process, right? You just don't just by happenstance.
06:07The main thing is they feel my crew feels appreciated.
06:10Yeah, I appreciate them. My team appreciates them.
06:12And it's a different style, positive, motivational management.
06:14Typically, I mean, I worked in restaurants in college and high school, and it was do this, do that.
06:20It was negative terms. We're like, hey, please do this. Great job.
06:23You know, you tell a 16-year-old kid, that's great toast you're grilling.
06:26You'd think they'd be like, this is easy, but they're like, hey, thanks.
06:29Thanks for working that drive-thru. You're doing amazing. You're making people's day.
06:32If people are appreciated, then they'll pass it on to the customer.
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