Raising Cane’s has helped 54 of the brand’s Restaurant Leaders buy their first homes over the past year by contributing $10,000 towards closing costs.
It’s a benefit that was first announced in April 2023 for Restaurant Leaders that are working toward becoming higher-level Restaurant Partners. But last month, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based chain announced that the First Time Home Buying benefit has been expanded to include Restaurant Support Office and Business Unit crew members, including marketing, operations, recruiting, training and growth leaders at the divisional, regional and area level in local markets.
The move was announced at an all-expenses-paid gathering of about 3,000 Raising Cane’s crew members last month in Cancun, Mexico, which was temporarily renamed “Cane-cun” for the event. It was a celebration that had originally been planned in 2019, but the pandemic put those plans on hold.
Still, there was plenty to celebrate this year. Raising Cane’s has had an extraordinary year, despite the challenging macroeconomic climate that has dampened traffic for other brands. For the first half of 2024, the fast-casual chicken finger specialist saw same-store sales up 17.5%, driven by a 12.8% increase in traffic.
The chain opened 46 new restaurants, helping to boost sales by 33% year over year to $2.3 billion.
Raising Cane’s owner, co-CEO and founder Todd Graves and co-CEO AJ Kumaran at the Cancun event outlined the chain’s plans to become one of the top 10 restaurant chains and reaching $10 billion in sales.
Cane’s is almost halfway there. The chain is on track to reach 875 units by the end of the year, and to surpass $5 billion in sales, all with a fast-casual concept that focuses solely on chicken tenders, crinkle-cut fries, slaw and Texas toast.
“We’ve had 63 consecutive quarters of positive same-restaurant sales with an [average unit volume] of $6.5 million that is more than two times the industry standard,” said Kumaran at the event. “We have our sights set on becoming a top 10 U.S. restaurant brand with more than 1,600 restaurants, 150,000 crew, $8 million AUV, 100,000 community partners and $10 billion in sales. We are well on our way to achieving this growth, and we owe it all to our leaders and crew.”
Kumaran also outlined some milestones reflecting the company’s investment in staff, with the goal of building leaders from within.
Over the past year, 4,500 have been promoted internally, for example. Top-performing Restaurant Leaders have the opportunity to become candidates for Restaurant Partner, a status that brings the promise of becoming a millionaire within eight to 10 years.
The chain has about 170 Restaurant Partners now and more than 120 candidates in the pipeline of development, which takes about 12 to 18 months. Partners can earn more than $100,000 in salary, between base and bonus, with incentive payouts on top of that.
And the education and development they receive in the program includes financial planning to help them hit the millionaire mark as they meet certain goals—not “insane private-equity non-reachable goals,” but attainable goals, said Kumaran.
And then there’s the Home Buyer’s program, through which candidates can receive a lump sum of $10,000 toward their first home, which Kumaran said will be extended to hundreds more leaders over the next few years.
Kumaran said Raising Cane’s leaders and partners work very hard and “we are a shamelessly high standard business,” he said.
But the investment in developing leaders has a clear return that shows in the chain’s strong results, he argued. So offering such benefits is “simply the right thing to do.”
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