Food Chain - Issue 205 - April 2025 | Page 117

________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Fat
Shack
the night has been fun, but a lot of our motivation behind growing the business has been on the people development side – building people up into the entrepreneurs that they could be. It’ s been an integral part of our journey. From the very early days, Tom and I both believe deeply that if you just put in that effort, time and care, it doesn’ t matter how old you are or how much you know, that passion can get you to where you need to be. Finding those people early on and being able to spot that talent and develop it over the years, that’ s what motivates Tom and I for sure. In the very beginning, it was that work ethic from Tom and me directly, but as we’ ve grown, there’ s no chance we would’ ve been able to do it without our people having the same mentality.”“ One of the biggest things for us is the store-level operations. That’ s what it all comes down to: giving awesome service and serving quality food, no matter what time at night it is,” Tom says.“ If you can have people, at every level but especially at store level, that deeply care about the brand and the customers, I think that’ s what really gives restaurants their energy and it’ s what’ s given us the competitive edge. That owner-operator focus is important to us and it’ s what helps us to continue growing. It’ s that grinding mentality, that‘ whatever it takes’ mentality. Everybody’ s come up the ranks and worked their way up to either being an owner or working with us corporately, and everybody’ s got that mentality.”
Embracing the grind
Capitalizing on its iconic concept and strong values, Fat Shack is well-positioned on the path for continued success. Further growth is on the horizon for the business, with many more franchising opportunities around the corner and lots more talent yet to be discovered.
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