Derrick Pratt, who has served as Portillo’s chief operating officer since 2021, is leaving the company June 30 following a brief transition period. According to Pratt’s LinkedIn page, he joined Portillo’s in September 2020 as senior vice president of restaurants. Prior, he was vice president of operations at Starbucks, a role he held from May 2009 to August 2020. From 1986 to 2008, he served as vice president of operations at McDonald’s.
Pratt’s departure comes as Portillo’s ramps up its focus on speed of service and throughput. During the company’s Q1 earnings call earlier this month, CEO Michael Osanloo said the company is striving for a 30-second improvement in drive-thru speed, which translates to a point of comp sales.
“Running world-class operations is the single most important tool we have to drive sales,” he said.
Portillo’s shared in a statement with Nation’s Restaurant News, “We are grateful for (Pratt’s) contributions to drive operations forward during his time with Portillo’s. This decision comes as we continue to execute our accelerated growth strategy and seek to uncover operational efficiencies and improvements at scale.”
Portillo’s has retained executive search firm The Elliot Group to fill Pratt’s role. In the interim, the company’s operations leaders will report directly to Osanloo.
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]
