Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

They don't ruffle feathers

The founder of the popular chicken chain says success comes from treating its customers and employees with respect.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published August 30, 2006

EAST POINT, Ga. - Every week, Harry Moss finds a cozy table at his neighborhood Chick-fil-A restaurant to read the entire newspaper and enjoy a salad garnished with the fast-food chain's staple - chicken.

However, he doesn't get to pore through the Sunday paper there. That day is when the fast-food chain's restaurants close to give employees a day of rest, a business decision 85-year-old founder Truett Cathy said has been a big factor in the company's success, by sticking to his doctrine of considering people before profits.

Chick-fil-A executives routinely say the chain's 1,250 restaurants in 37 states, spanning from Georgia to California to Massachusetts, make as much money in six days a week as many of its competitors do in seven.

For nearly 40 years, Chick-fil-A has offered up a taste of the South, from its chicken sandwiches to sweet tea and biscuits and gravy. The Atlanta company - the 25th largest restaurant chain in the United States with more than $1.975-billion in sales in 2005 - has increased revenues by at least 11 percent a year for the past decade.

This year is expected to be a major milestone for the company, as its officials estimate Chick-fil-A will cross $2-billion in yearly sales.

Chick-fil-A is known for a decadelong campaign of TV and billboard ads that use witty cows who try to make sure people eat chicken, instead of them.

"It's extremely clever. ... They are positioned in a fast-food arena that's dominated by hamburgers, and it distinguishes them in a humorous way as a nonhamburger fast-food outlet," said Bill Guilfoyle, associate professor of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

"But Chick-fil-A is not just about TV commercials or these billboards," Guilfoyle said. "They're about ... promoting that brand as an upstanding and positive fast-food company."

Chick-fil-A prides itself on its service, making the extra effort to win over customers - Cathy asks his employees to faithfully say "My pleasure" whenever customers thank them, for example.

"It's a small thing, but ... in our business it's very competitive, so if you can raise yourself above the norm ... and improve customer relations, that's going to be as beneficial to the chain as 'We need to sell more waffle fries.' Truett never says, 'Let's sell more waffle fries,' " said spokesman Don Perry.

Cathy, 85, remains involved with the company as its founder and CEO. His son, Dan, is the president and COO. The company is entirely owned by the Cathy family.

In a typical year, about 10,000 people apply for about 150 restaurant operator positions open across the country. The company averages 60 to 70 new restaurants a year, a slower expansion than other fast-food restaurants because of Cathy's philosophy of maintaining quality.

One reason so many apply may be that the restaurant charges franchisees $5,000 to operate the restaurant.

The fee for something similar at other fast-food chains can run as high as $500,000, said Mary Adolf, president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation.

The turnover rate for the restaurant's operators - 64 percent of whom have worked for the company during high school and college - is 3 percent. Turnover is 1 percent among the company's 575 corporate employees.

Adolf called the turnover "very unusual," compared to a typical rate as high as 50 percent among restaurant managers in the United States.

"I don't think there's any chain that creates such a wonderful culture around the way they treat their people and the respect they have for their employees," Adolf said. "It's their passion, it's their culture, they instill it in all their employees, and they really work to make sure they're hiring the right people."

[Last modified August 29, 2006, 22:57:35]