Chick-fil-A location in New York Metropolis, Aug. 6, 2026.
Marcin Golba | Nurphoto | Getty Pictures
With eating places as far-flung as Singapore, Chick-fil-A has expanded far past its Southeastern stronghold lately, however CEO Andrew Cathy nonetheless desires the family-owned enterprise to remain true to its roots.
Practically 5 years in the past, Cathy succeeded his father, Dan, as chief govt of the rooster chain his grandfather, S. Truett, based. He took the reins as elevated inflation rocked the restaurant trade and a bevy of recent rooster rivals appeared to problem Chick-fil-A’s dominance. Since then, not a lot has modified — aside from sluggish site visitors throughout the trade as customers have change into extra selective about their eating selections.
The difficult circumstances have led to disappointing outcomes for McDonald’s, Popeyes, KFC and different restaurant rivals. Whereas Chick-fil-A just isn’t immune to those complications, Cathy instructed CNBC that the chain’s eating places haven’t seen the identical downturn.
“This has been a very good yr,” the Atlanta-based Cathy mentioned in downtown Manhattan earlier than a deliberate activation to boost consciousness for the chain’s Shared Desk starvation reduction program.
“Our operators have carried out such a very good job executing on the basics and including the hospitality to it,” he added.
As a privately held enterprise, Chick-fil-A doesn’t report quarterly outcomes. Nevertheless, franchise disclosures reveal that the corporate’s income in 2025 rose 14% to $10.3 billion, whereas its internet revenue ticked up 1% to $1.05 billion. Its roughly 3,000 areas generated $23.92 billion in system gross sales final yr, making it the third-largest U.S. restaurant by gross sales, trailing solely McDonald’s and Starbucks.
Chick-fil-A has no plans for an preliminary public providing or every other alternatives for outdoor funding. Cathy mentioned the corporate plans to stay with its “calculated” and “conservative” development.
Chick-fil-A CEO Andrew Cathy.
Supply: Chick-fil-A
However he could also be underselling Chick-fil-A’s latest growth. It opened 179 eating places final yr and has launched in worldwide markets like Canada, Singapore and the UK lately.
Staying personal additionally has benefits, significantly as restaurant shares have broadly struggled this yr. Shares of Jersey Mike’s have fallen practically 28% since its preliminary public providing in July, whereas Dunkin’ proprietor Encourage Manufacturers is reportedly unlikely to go public this yr except the sector’s efficiency improves.
“We’re capable of plan for the quarter century, and we do not have to plan for the quarter,” Cathy mentioned.
Balancing Chick-fil-A’s previous and future
Throughout Cathy’s tenure thus far, Chick-fil-A has pursued daring concepts for future development, like a $1 billion worldwide growth plan and Daybright, a brand new beverage-focused restaurant idea created by its enterprise arm.
However the firm is attempting to stability these new methods with its present traditions.
“I have a look at driving this enterprise like driving a race automobile — there is a motive that the windshield’s larger than the rearview mirror,” Cathy mentioned. “It is vital for the rear view to be grounded on the place you’re, and there are issues that we take into consideration our goal, our mission, that will not change, however all the things else we’ve to have the ability to evolve and alter.”
Some tenets, like staying closed on Sundays, won’t ever change. Others, like its eating places’ signature Southern hospitality, will evolve as diners change their ordering and consuming habits.
Individuals eat at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Penn Station on Aug. 9, 2025, in New York Metropolis.
Gary Hershorn | Corbis Information | Getty Pictures
Cathy mentioned that Chick-fil-A takes a “human plus” strategy to know-how in its eating places.
“We take into consideration all these new issues into the long run, about how will individuals need to obtain meals sooner or later?” he mentioned. “As you concentrate on drone supply and all the opposite form of issues that may very well be coming, it is a enjoyable time within the trade, to consider all the probabilities of what we are able to do to make a greater expertise for our visitors.”
Whereas Chick-fil-A is exploring alternatives to make use of synthetic intelligence behind the scenes, he mentioned that its eating places is not going to pursue AI voice ordering in its drive-thru lanes, in contrast to lots of its trade rivals. McDonald’s, for instance, mentioned at its investor day in September that it plans to check Archy, its voice AI tech, to take orders in each English and Spanish.
“From our expertise, we actually need that hospitality to be human to human,” Cathy mentioned. “We’re not gonna substitute that interplay with know-how, as a result of we really feel like that hospitality is so vital to create that heat setting for customers.”
Different eating places are additionally refocusing on hospitality, hoping that the additional effort from workers will encourage clients to come back again. Starbucks purchased round 200,000 Sharpie markers so its baristas may write pleasant messages on clients’ espresso cups. Burger King has redefined its restaurant supervisor function right into a “Your Manner Champion,” who greets diners and fixes botched orders. And beginning Monday, McDonald’s will start its “Make It Golden” coaching program for franchisees and workers, which focuses on hospitality in addition to meals high quality.
Chick-fil-A’s long-standing deal with service has made it the fast-food chief in buyer satisfaction for greater than a decade, in line with the annual American Buyer Satisfaction Index. That repute can even assist the chain stand out from different eating choices as customers have grown extra picky about how they spend their cash. Jersey Mike’s just lately toppled Chick-fil-A within the 2026 examine, though Chick-fil-A’s rating was unchanged from a yr in the past.
Waffles and pimento
One other enduring aspect of Chick-fil-A is its famously easy menu. However the chain has even been rigorously increasing its choices, sometimes via seasonal limited-time objects like rooster and waffles or its Honey Pepper Pimento Hen Sandwich. If a menu merchandise is a “residence run,” as Cathy calls it, then Chick-fil-A may add it completely, like its Pineapple Dragonfruit drink line.
“We’re very cautious about what we need to do, as a result of we need to preserve it actually centered on distinctive Chick-fil-A objects that they’ll solely get at Chick-fil-A,” Cathy mentioned. “However we do need to herald new flavors and profiles, and that is what we’ll do with numerous our seasonal objects that we do, and we be taught quite a bit from our clients about attempting these issues.”
The Hen & Waffles Sandwiches with the grilled filet from Chick-fil-A at a restaurant in Washington, Aug. 25, 2026.
The Washington Put up | Getty Pictures
Different fast-food chains are attempting to edge into Chick-fil-A’s territory. In 2019, Restaurant Manufacturers Worldwide’s Popeyes sparked the “rooster sandwich wars” by releasing its personal model. Chick-fil-A stays the dominant rooster chain within the U.S., with roughly a 43% market share as of 2024, in line with Barclays. Nevertheless, the rooster sandwich helped catapult Popeyes to the No. 2 spot, with about 11% share.
McDonald’s may reignite the battle because it prepares to check hand-breaded rooster strips and sandwiches.
However Cathy mentioned that he loves the competitors.
“I am grateful that there is competitors within the rooster house, as a result of which means we’re in a very good house to be,” Cathy mentioned. “Competitors simply makes us higher …. What little particulars can we do to make that setting much more welcoming for patrons?”
Purple Wagon Ventures
Chick-fil-A has additionally innovated exterior its eating places.
In 2017, the corporate created Purple Wagon Ventures, named for the car Truett used to promote bottles of Coca-Cola in his first entrepreneurial gambit at age 6.
“The lion’s share of our effort and time is continuous to make it possible for we’re getting higher and higher at Chick-fil-A, however we do have a small crew that is working and incubating a few of these new concepts and enthusiastic about what may very well be some issues that would assist us develop into the long run,” Andrew Cathy mentioned.
A few of these ventures are based mostly within the restaurant trade. Its experimental Little Blue Menu idea served conventional Chick-fil-A menu objects together with burgers, pizza and onion rings; the chain will convert its last location into a conventional Chick-fil-A subsequent yr. Extra just lately, the subsidiary opened Daybright, which serves coffees, smoothies, juices and doughnuts — however no rooster sandwiches or waffle fries.
One other Purple Wagon Ventures guess is even farther from Chick-fil-A. Final yr, it launched Acrew Dwelling Professionals, a house restore and upkeep enterprise that nodded to the Chick-fil-A ties by selling “service with a smile,” in line with its web site.
“I feel from a household enterprise standpoint, we have to construct off of our core competencies and have a look at different sorts of issues that we are able to get into, so we are able to proceed to serve clients in distinctive methods,” Cathy mentioned.
Cathy mentioned that he research household companies, and people which were round for greater than 100 years nonetheless have to consider innovation and suppose forward. At 80 years previous, Chick-fil-A nonetheless has a number of extra many years to go earlier than it hits the century mark.
“My grandfather was entrepreneurial to the core. He died at 93, and he opened a brand new enterprise at 92 years previous that he created himself,” Cathy mentioned, referring to Truett’s Luau, a Hawaiian-themed restaurant idea that opened throughout the identical month that Truett handed over the reins of the household enterprise to his son.
Along with beginning its personal manufacturers, Purple Wagon Ventures will discover acquisitions of household companies, Cathy mentioned. Most certainly, these shall be corporations with out a succession plan or simply seeking to promote — in different phrases, very completely different from Chick-fil-A.