To get a sense of just how optimistic the restaurant leaders at Raising Cane’s are feeling these days, consider that when co-chief executive officer and chief operating officer AJ Kumaran took the stage Monday night at the Moon Palace Resort in Cancún, Mexico, the 3,000-ish crew members and their guests in attendance rose to their feet for a sustained standing ovation.
He then introduced founder/owner Todd Graves, who received the same enthusiastic response. Several hours later, many of those same crew members hoisted Graves above their heads so he could crowd surf on the beach while his longtime friend Snoop Dogg performed on the stage in front of them. The concert kicked off with an extensive drone show outlining some of Raising Cane’s aspirations – $10 billion in sales, for instance. There was also a fireworks show, a few characters on stilts, and a constantly flowing bar.
The entire evening seemed to perfectly encapsulate the symbiotic relationship between Kumaran and Graves – the leaders of the swiftly growing chicken fingers concept – and their restaurant leaders, who were treated to a trip to Cancún for the company’s conference – creatively renamed Canecún for the occasion. There, they were provided with updates about the brand, attended workshops to understand their opportunities, listened to Snoop and Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky speak, and simply relaxed. There were plenty of “thank yous” from the leaders throughout the conference, as well as reminders that their abundant free time was for them to do whatever they wanted – spa services, pool time, golf, and of course plenty of food and drink.
“I’m here with you to grow something really incredible,” Graves said. “Thank you for your leadership. You have a tough job. You have a lot of people to support and who depend on you. We’re great because you’re great.”
Planning for this conference has been in the works since 2019, but the event was delayed because of COVID. Notably, Raising Cane’s ended 2019 with $1.46 billion in sales and 457 locations, according to Technomic. The company finished 2023 with $3.76 billion in sales and 727 locations. In 2024, the company turned in its first $1 billion quarter.
In other words, the Raising Cane’s narrative has changed quite a bit in the last five years, and to say it’s a growth company is a bit of an understatement at this point. The company has achieved many of its goals in its past 28 years, but Graves has his sights on what’s next.
“Our next aspiration is to be a top 10 restaurant brand in the U.S. Think of the big boys – McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Starbucks, Subway – companies that have been open a lot longer than we have,” he said. “We are going to hit $10 billion in sales, average unit volumes of $8 million, and 1,600 restaurants in all major cities and new international locations around the world. We’ll have 150,000 crew members including 16,000 internal promotes. And we’ll give back $100 million to communities. Imagine what we’ll be able to give back to our communities once we become a top 10 brand.”
Given Graves’ unwavering motivation to start and grow the brand, these goals are more than feasible.
Raising Cane’s: A history lesson
Indeed, one of Graves’ college professors learned early on not to bet against him. Graves turned in a business plan for a chicken fingers concept at Louisiana State University in the 1990s and received the lowest grade in the class. The plan included granular details such as the cost of aprons, but the professor docked him because the “industry was going in a different direction at the time.” Concepts were growing their menus to win over veto votes, and Graves’ simplified menu was like swimming upstream.
“I used it as fuel. Let me show you I can do it,” he said. “I took that business plan, bought a cheap suit, bought a briefcase from Office Depot, and I went into every bank in Baton Rouge. It turns out you need equity to get a loan.”
Graves didn’t have any equity, so he set out to make as much money as he could as fast as he could to realize his dream. He became a boilermaker in refineries, which could earn him overtime and triple-time pay. He went to Alaska to commercial fish, working 20-hour days in dangerous conditions.
“It was absolutely crazy, but I was out there for my chicken finger dream,” he said. “I was going to do it no matter what.”
Graves eventually returned to his hometown of Baton Rouge, La., and this time with some seed capital. He wanted to call his concept “Sockeyes’ Chicken Fingers,” named after one of Alaska's salmon species, to illustrate the hard work involved, but a friend told him that name “sucked.” So, he named it after his dog, Raising Cane.
“I had no idea the dog would become the beloved mascot. Then we had Cane II and now we’re on Cane III. It’s proven great because that was a circumstance of love. It’s not some marketing company coming up with it,” Graves said. “These things mean something.”
He found his “mothership” location – a dilapidated building on LSU’s campus – and renovated it himself to save money. He then started baiting people in the area to come in and try the chicken fingers. The location quickly became a popular late-night spot, then grew into a strong business during the day. The first month profited $30.
“We made money. I could make payroll, I can pay rent, vendors. I was so grateful for it,” he said.
Graves said he’s still friends with the original crew members, who established the very values and culture Raising Cane’s has today.
“It’s the same vibe. We worked hard; we had fun. We played music in the kitchen. We were obsessed about serving the perfect box and being friendly,” he said. “When I worked in restaurants, it wasn’t the same type of environment. It was lot of ‘do this, do that, see you tomorrow.’ I wanted to be different – let’s have fun. Be yourself. Our values were set, our culture was set in that first restaurant, and it’s carried over today.”
Armed with that culture, things started to speed up a bit, and Graves opened a second location on the other side of campus 18 months later. A year later, he opened the first dedicated support office in an apartment behind the mothership. By the next year, Graves and his dozen or so employees opened five restaurants – all conversions. The concept’s brand awareness was growing, and its consumer set was growing with it. The next year, the team took a pause to develop a prototype, as well as infrastructure like branding, training and recruiting, etc.
When the engine started again, in 2001, the company expanded into new markets. By 2005, it had moved outside of Louisiana and into Mississippi and Texas. Hurricane Katrina, however, gripped the company’s core restaurants and 21 out of 28 locations experienced damage and had to shut down.
“We were in a dangerous cash position and were over levered. I was a young man, I thought I was bullet proof, but the cash flow still needs to be coming in. You still need to pay the bills,” Graves said. “I rallied the team, and we set out to reopen for the communities that needed to eat and the crew that needed a place to work. It reiterated to me that we had a special team.”
Fast forward to 2008 and Raising Cane’s opened a bigger support center in Dallas. Graves said the company was growing too fast and it was becoming too hard to attract talent to Louisiana.
In 2010, Raising Cane’s updated its vision statement to grow restaurants, serve customers all over the world, be known as the brand for quality chicken finger meals, and have a great crew, cool culture, and active community involvement. There are also the non-negotiables guiding the company – in particular, not cutting corners on ingredients, which would be “death by a thousand cuts,” Graves said.
“If we didn’t follow this vision, we wouldn’t be as special as we are today,” he said. “We want to grow locations all over the world, we want the aspiration to go do that. We want big goals, big dreams.”
Simplicity has also continued to be a North Star. Raising Cane’s has not once added a menu item in its 28 years of business – the very reason he scored the lowest in his class at LSU is also the same reason the company is now pushing $6 million in average unit volumes.
“Someone would tell me, ‘You know, desserts would make sense.’ I’m not getting off our focus. Go get a dessert elsewhere,” Graves said. “That focus is why we win.”
Things started to really accelerate around 2011, when the company opened its 100th restaurant. In 2014, Kumaran joined the company and in 2015, Raising Cane’s went global with an expansion into the Middle East. Through the next five years, more plans were put into place (for example, hitting $1.5 billion in sales, which the company did a year early), a new restaurant design was introduced, and a multi-lane drive-thru was added. Then, COVID hit. Graves said it reminded him of the Hurricane Katrina environment. Despite the challenges that gripped the entire industry, Raising Cane’s managed to hit its 500th unit milestone.
For the past four years, the chain has continued to grow its footprint by double-digit percentages annually and started adding flagship locations into its portfolio in places like Times Square in New York City, Broadway in Nashville, and Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Despite clear macro challenges that have dampened 2024, Raising Cane’s remains largely insulated – growing sales, units, and traffic. The company expects to finish this year with just over 870 restaurants, $5 billion in sales, $6.5 million in AUVs, and over 65,000 crew members.
“As we start getting closer to (the top 10 chains), it goes astronomically higher in sales, and we start outpacing everybody. It’s a lot of hard work, but it will take a lot of the same things we’ve always done,” Graves said. “With this group, we’ll get there. How fortunate we are to have a business that’s not only established, but thriving, and I feel like we’re just getting warmed up.”
Raising Cane's was the 28th largest chain in terms of domestic sales at the end of 2023, according to Technomic.
Leadership lessons from Snoop Dogg
During his presentation, Graves noted that he loves working with celebrities because they come with an automatic fan base and help boost brand awareness. In 2023, the chain launched its first drive-thru activation with Snoop Dogg, a friend of Graves’ who was on-hand to surprise crew members in Cancún. Prior to his concert on the beach, Snoop sat down with Graves for a fireside chat.
When asked what he does to stay on top, Snoop simply responded: “Listen – to the consumer, to the base of people who keep you successful. One thing about a great leader is he or she loves to listen. A leader knows how to receive information, take in what’s necessary to make the process better, and to know the consumer is always right. Real leaders listen and put things into perspective. And they don’t try to dictate, but they delegate.”
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]
