Say what you will about Raising Cane’s, but the company thinks big.
The fast-casual chicken fingers chain wants to become one of the 10 largest restaurant brands in the U.S., which is a noble goal and one we’re sure plenty of restaurant executives dream of.
Except Cane’s wants to do it within just a few years. “We want to be a top 10 U.S. restaurant brand before 2030,” Co-CEO/COO AJ Kumaran said in an interview.
It’s a lofty goal, but it may be unwise to bet against it. Cane’s, after all, has been one of the fastest-growing chains in the U.S. for years and doesn’t appear to be slowing down, anytime soon. “We’ve grown seven times our size in the past seven years,” Kumaran said.
Raising Cane’s finished 2022 with just over $3.1 billion in U.S. system sales, which is up 31% from the year before, according to data from Restaurant Business sister company Technomic. If the company were to grow over the next seven years as it did the past seven, it would have nearly $22 billion in system sales by 2030, which would almost certainly be enough for the company to reach that goal.
The company, which operates about 650 restaurants in the U.S. and another 30 internationally, plans to step up its unit growth over the net few years, with plans to have 1,500 restaurants domestically by 2030, a number that could make that goal possible given Cane’s remarkably strong average unit volumes.
To get there, Cane’s this week announced a series of investments in staff pay, training and development designed to get more of its workers from crew member to operating partner.
For instance, the company will start paying people weekly and are moving its hourly managers to $18 an hour minimum. Hourly workers will also be able to make $2 more per hour within their first year on the job. Crew members can get extra pay for training new crew members or by getting certification and Cane’s will pay more for times when workers are needed the most. For instance, workers get an extra $1 an hour past 10 p.m. and $1 an hour extra during major events.
The company is creating a group of traveling trainers who will help train workers in new markets, such as a team of 10 that will live in New York City to help establish new stores there. The company is increasing monthly incentives for salaried leaders by 25% and adding new management tiers to its restaurants. The company is also making $5 million in payouts to its restaurant partners and the company plans to pay $10,000 to help pay closing costs on a new home.
Cane’s is also taking some 2,000 people, including operators and business unit teams plus their spouses, to Cancun next year.
For Cane’s, the situation is simple. By focusing on developing its employees, the company can help fuel more of its growth. And by growing, it provides more opportunities for employees who become restaurant leaders who help the company open more locations. “It’s a circular situation,” Kumaran said.
“People want to be compensated well,” he added. “But they also want a career path, development and training. They want to be part of a proper business. They want a career.”
A growing number of restaurant companies are pushing team development while highlighting the career possibilities available to people who come to work in the industry. Kumaran noted that 20% of Cane’s restaurant leaders started as crew members and the company would like to increase that number in future years.
At the same time, more companies are raising pay and benefits—while highlighting those aforementioned possibilities—as a response to a shortage of labor over the past year-plus. “The market has been tougher over the last few years,” Kumaran said, but he noted that “This is the right way to grow. We’d be doing all of this even if there was no shortage.”
This is a company that wants to grow by seven times over the next seven years, after all. Developing employees is an important part of that equation. “It’s Business 101,” Kumaran said.
Kumaran also said that Cane’s can make these investments in its people right now because, well, it doesn’t need to look for equity financing, either from private or public investors. That takes one of the best-performing restaurant chains off the board for the foreseeable future.
“We’re not looking for private investors and we’re not looking to go public,” Kumaran said. “We do this one thing and this one thing only. That focus really helps. We’re not chasing any shiny penny.”
So, can Cane’s really become a Top 10 brand? It won’t be easy, and seven-fold growth is harder to do when you have $3.1 billion in system sales than when you have $500 million.
But that doesn’t mean the company can’t do it. A typical Cane’s generated $5.4 million in revenue last year. If the company grew unit volumes by 10% per year while maintaining its unit growth, it would have enough sales to reach $12 billion, which if it wasn’t good enough to be a Top 10 brand in 2030 would be within spitting distance. And that’s impressive enough.