Shake Shack plans to accelerate its growth in 2018, the company said this week, aiming to open the most restaurants it ever has in one fiscal year.
The chain plans to open 32 to 35 new domestic company-operated restaurants in 2018, along with 16 to 18 licensed units. The aggressive growth will continue into 2020.
“[By 2020], we intend to have more than doubled our current Shack base to at least 200 domestic company-operated Shacks and at least 120 global license Shacks,” CEO Randall Garutti said in an earnings call yesterday. “We want to nearly double our total revenue to over $700 million.”
Same-store sales increased by 0.8% year over year last quarter, which ended on Dec. 27.
Shake Shack anticipates the average annual sales volume for total domestic units to be between $4.1 million and $4.2 million for 2018. Shake Shack shares were down 6% on Friday morning. Investors were likely unhappy with the chain’s expectation of flat same-store sales for 2018, a result of a menu price increase of 1.5% to 2% in December.
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