00:00I am curious, I just have to ask you about the challenges of scaling up.
00:04It's one thing to have, you know, a few dozen stores, but when you've got 800 spread across a wide
00:09geographic swath here,
00:11how do you make sure that you maintain, I guess, consistency in product, but also in service?
00:17Great to be on here, Romain, first of all.
00:20By the way, we're close to 1,000 restaurants, not 800.
00:23But, look, the challenge of growing a business like ours is making sure that we stick to our values
00:30and make sure that we can take care of our people.
00:33That's the most important thing for us.
00:34We do one thing, and we do that one thing better than anyone else, and we're in no hurry.
00:39We're proud about the 100 restaurants that we opened last year.
00:41We're proud about the 100 more, all company-owned.
00:44We, again, will open this year.
00:45But we could be happy with one or five or 10, whatever it may be.
00:50We're not driven by numbers.
00:51We're driven by the culture of our crew members, taking care of them, doing right by them.
00:56And that turns into what we can do for our customers, which is the best chicken finger meal that they
01:01can get anywhere else.
01:02So we're proud of it.
01:04I am curious, though.
01:05I mean, obviously, this is a U.S.-based company, but you are now expanding internationally.
01:10And I am curious as to how much that tasty chicken finger dinner translates into, say, the U.K. or
01:17other parts of the world that I guess maybe we traditionally wouldn't think being fans of that.
01:22You know, honestly, chicken is the number one consumed protein across the world.
01:27So we have several restaurants in the Middle East right now, and we are expanding into U.K., again, company
01:33-owned business.
01:33We'll open that later part of this year.
01:35We found that we don't make any changes to our menu.
01:38We've been doing the same thing for now 30 years.
01:40This is our 30th birthday coming up in about a few months here.
01:43And it is well-received.
01:45People are very excited to eat.
01:47It's a very indulgent meal.
01:48We make no qualms about it.
01:50You know, that is what we are.
01:51And people love it.
01:52It is, you know, fried chicken and fries and sweet iced tea to go with it.
01:58And, A.J., we had an interesting conversation yesterday about malls and kind of the operations and the fact that
02:04the death of malls maybe was greatly overstated.
02:06Just thinking through how you guys plan out when you open up a new restaurant, a new chain, are you
02:10thinking through the drive-thru, or do you want to focus more on high-foot traffic areas?
02:15You know, we really want to be where our consumers and customers want us to be, and that may include
02:20malls sometimes.
02:21But predominantly, we like to build drive-thru restaurants so that they're convenient for our customers to come through, experience
02:29in the dine-in, but as well as go in the drive-thru as well.
02:32But, look, I mean, one of our busiest locations, not just for us, but for the entire QSR industry, is
02:38Times Square location in New York.
02:41And that is one of the busiest fast food restaurants in the entire world.
02:45And that doesn't have a drive-thru, but that's where almost 400,000 people walk through in front of it
02:50day in, day out.
02:51So it all depends on where it is, and we always want to be there, available for our customers with
02:58that chicken-finger meal.
02:59A.J., I just want to ask a question about marketing spend.
03:01How do you think about targeting new consumers?
03:04Is it through TikTok partnerships with creators, or is it through kind of your broader advertising on TV or advertising
03:11that way?
03:13We do a little bit of everything, but one of the things that we do a little different is that
03:16we believe in authentic and genuine partnerships with the business.
03:20So most of the big names that you see eating a chicken-finger meal or being in a restaurant or
03:27posting about it, they are true fans of our business.
03:30They are very authentic about it, and we allow them a space to come and talk about it, is what
03:35we do.
03:36So that translates into anything that is happening in the world.
03:40For example, FIFA is coming up.
03:42Olympics just ended.
03:43You know, anything that is happening in the world, we want to be a part of that conversation.
03:48There is someone in there who loves a chicken-finger meal, and we would feature them as a part of
03:54the brand.
03:55We also do the traditional media, traditional advertising, such as television, radio, all of that as well.
04:01All right.
04:02I mean, looking at some of the numbers, I mean, you're projected to surpass $6 billion in sales this year.
04:08You're a large company.
04:09You set it yourself, 1,000 locations and counting.
04:12You're privately held.
04:14Are you going to go public anytime soon?
04:16No, sir.
04:17We want to continue doing what we're doing.
04:19Todd is the founder, and we want to remain private.
04:23We're not lacking any capital at this moment.
04:26We like what we're doing.
04:27We can do right by people when no one is looking and when no one is expecting us to,
04:33and that is only possible when we're allowed to do so as a privately held business.
04:38So we'd like to remain that way for the time being.
04:40Just thinking through international markets, we talked to UK and potentially Mexico.
04:44What could be on the horizon in the years out?
04:47So, you know, honestly, our vision is to grow restaurants and be there all over the world.
04:53Someday India, someday all over the world.
04:55So no specific plan.
04:58UK is very exciting for us.
05:00We're going to open our first restaurants in Piccadilly, very much like Times Square of UK.
05:04That's going to happen in November or so.
05:07And then after we slowly expand in UK and also in Mexico the later part of this year,
05:12we will think through what makes the most sense to grow into.
05:16And we can also do so without tiring our people, which is very important.
Comments