P.F. Chang’s is planning to go public in two years.
That was a bold goal announced by CEO Jim Mazany at the Restaurant Leadership Conference in Phoenix on Tuesday.
Mazany and El Pollo Loco CEO Liz Williams shared the stage in a leader-to-leader conversation, during which the two chiefs shared their strategies for turning around two very different brands that needed a bit of work.
Mazany is only six months into his role as CEO at Scottsdale, Arizona-based P.F. Chang’s, a 30-year-old casual dining brand that he described as the only pan-Asian chain in the world, with about 300 units in 22 countries.
He said P.F. Chang’s is in “a turnaround situation,” saying he was brought in to stabilize the brand and get it back into position to compete in the polished casual-dining space.
His No. 1 goal is to grow the chain’s average unit volumes and dining-room sales, and not with price increases, he said. In fact, P.F. Chang’s has lowered prices at lunch with a $13.99 deal, as well as $16.99 dinner specials, half price wine on Wednesday and other value-focused promotions to drive traffic. This summer, a limited-time-offer series will focus on Japanese dishes as a “Tour of Tokyo.”
Mazany also plans to ramp up growth to about 10-15 restaurants domestically per year over the next two to three years. The current pace has been about five new restaurants each year.
He also believes there is room to triple the international unit count, now at about 100.
“We believe we can do 300 restaurants throughout the world,” he said.
All of that is with an internal goal of filing an initial public offering in two years.
The company is off to a good start. P.F. Chang’s had its first positive quarter of traffic and sales since 2023, and the second quarter is looking good, he said.
Williams, meanwhile, is two years in to a three-year plan to turn around the quick-service chicken chain, which has more than 500 units.
Costa Mesa, California-based El Pollo Loco is a 50-year-old brand that has been focusing hard on what consumers want.
Value has been a big push, with $12 salads that offer double portions of chicken, which Williams said compares favorably with fast-casual and casual-dining peers.
This week, the chain is launching new-and-improved chicken tenders with unique sauces, which are portable for diners on the go.
“We’re going to continue to lean in on this modern eating with handhelds,” she said. Bone-in chicken will remain a core of the menu, but “when you think about the consumer on the go, there’s also an occasion. A lot of people are eating in their car, and there’s a lot of delivery going out.”
The company is also working on modernizing restaurants, she said. And El Pollo Loco is working to build more of a social media presence to reach a new audience.
Williams would also like to grow El Pollo Loco’s footprint. The chain is in nine states, though about to move into its 10th. International growth is also an opportunity.
“What keeps me up at night is trying to prioritize,” she said. “How do we get after the growth and how do we do it in the right way? Because most of us have seen this movie so many times, seeing brands that have done the growth the wrong way.”
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