Chick-fil-A, a fast food chain which makes chicken right, is blowing financial metrics. The US-based fast food chain is a revelation. It has a cheap fee to open a chain but it has a premium royalty. About 60,000 people apply for an outlet operating license but only 80 are selected yearly! This company which has the highest customer satisfaction in the fast food business, in the U.S, has built a Perception Demand. How did it do it? Focus on those who can make customers to become fans.
“Eat mor chikin”? Consumers are doing just that: Chick-fil-A earns the most per restaurant out of all of America’s top fast food chains, per a new report from QSR, which covers the industry. Its 2,837 restaurants nationwide average nearly $7 million dollars each and more than $18 billion altogether. Coming in second is another chicken-focused chain, Raising Cane’s, with over $5 million in sales per restaurant; Shake Shack, Whataburger and McDonald’s round out the top five.
Yes, you just need to have $10,000 and if they pick you because you really like the business of serving customers, your outlet can generate $6.7 million in average yearly sales. And you do not need to be a person of means (with a big net worth); you just have to be the right person to run a restaurant and feed people!
The top five average-unit volume quick-serves in America last year (among the top 50 highest grossing by sales):
1. Chick-fil-A: $6.7M
2. Raising Cane’s: $5.4M
3. Shake Shack: $3.8M
4. Whataburger: $3.7M
5. McDonald’s: $3.6M
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Let’s move to Nigeria, focusing on Jevinik, a casual dining restaurant. It does not run a franchise model. Franchising is always challenging in Nigeria. But Mr. Biggs does, and I will say that it has run into challenges.
On that, there is a small lesson from the American brand: Give franchise licenses to those who love feeding people, over those with truckloads of cash who see this as pure business, for adding digits in their bank accounts. Possibly, if you recruit such feeding-loving people, banks can step in and provide them funds, with a quasi-guarantee as Chick-fil-A does to its chains.
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