Aaron Allen & Associates is a global restaurant strategy firm that provides specialized advisory services in the foodservice sector, focusing on growth and expansion, market research, private equity, and risk management.

Aaron Allen & Associates

Aaron Allen &amp; Associates | 3,116 followers on LinkedIn. Global Restaurant Industry Strategy | Aaron Allen &amp; Associates is a global strategy firm focused exclusively on the foodservice and hospitality industry. 

With an unparalleled understanding of the dynamics driving the restaurant industry, and the ability to connect the dots in a way that is both holistic and actionable, we’ve answered the call of entrepreneurs, executives, and investors, and earned invaluable experience and specialized expertise by being practitioners — not just theorists. 

With clients operating across nearly all categories, cuisines, geographies, ownership types, operating models, and phases of the business lifecycle and experience across 2,000+ engagements, we have worked on six continents, in 100+ countries, for companies collectively posting annual revenues exceeding $300 billion.

Chief Global Strategist | Foodservice & Technology | M&A Advisory | LinkedIn TopVoice

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Project Manager/Human Resources at Aaron Allen & Associates

Brenda Spivey

PhD Business Administration & Quantitative Methods

Guadalupe Bastos

Proud of our team and accomplishments. A few examples here... Unlocking Growth: Real-World Case Studies in the Restaurant Industry With over 2,000 engagements across 100+ countries, Aaron Allen & Associates has helped some of the world’s most recognized restaurant chains, investors, suppliers, and tech companies achieve remarkable growth. We’re sharing five case studies that showcase how we’ve driven enterprise value and transformed challenges into opportunities. These examples offer insights into how strategic actions can lead to significant, measurable results.... #restaurants #strategy #casestudies

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While there are some restaurant categories that are growing fast and others that are shrinking steadily, it’s always possible to find chains outperforming their peers. When comparing Average Unit Volumes, the leading chicken chain sells more than three times the median category performance, and the leading burger chain sells twice as much as the category’s median. Similar situations repeat in Mexican, Snacks, and Sandwich. Pizza is the category where is the hardest to stand out. From the guest experience to throughput, the share of off-premise, brand, marketing, and technology, multiple factors play into sales volumes. In the face of 2024, time is running out to decide where to double down and where to back away. #restaurants #QSR #strategy

Restaurant chains are rapidly updating their kitchens and investing in back-of-house efficiency systems. It's not just about the equipment; it's about holistic approaches that integrate automation, advanced industrial engineering techniques, reimagined workflows, labor models, and layouts. There's also a growing emphasis on omni-channel commerce. In 2024, we've seen a significant uptick in calls from middle-market chains worldwide, particularly in APAC and LATAM. In MENA, the focus remains on new unit growth over efficiency engineering, influenced by competitive pressures, franchisor development schedules, and low labor costs. In Europe and North America, the emphasis has shifted to counter-measures for declining foot traffic and severe labor challenges. #restaurants #equipment #technology https://lnkd.in/epYCud6c

In our latest Slideshare we cover how to optimize restaurant performance. Focusing on restaurant chains, we provide insights about how to size and prioritize opportunities in the P&L, improve restaurant margins, optimize performance and become more efficient. We also provide with ideas for CAPEX and SG&A allocations. https://lnkd.in/ebhj2FVf

There are different ways to grow for restaurant chains and investment is required for it to pay off in the short and long term. For chains that are not growing via franchising (or that are doing so to an extent but still growing corporate stores), growth (and a high level of CAPEX to open new stores) requires building infrastructure to deploy the pipeline ahead of time, and that usually entails a higher SG&A percentage for some time until the stores are at their full revenue generating status. Two good examples are sweetgreen and Dutch Bros, both growing steadily over the last few years and with plans to continue to do so. Their CAPEX is considerably higher than the industry median, reflecting unit openings. SG&A for these companies is coming at the median or higher, supporting the corporate infrastructure needed to expand. Just as radar technology has improved dramatically for the weather industry, the same advancements can be made to corporate preparedness. The best and most successful companies (across sectors) worldwide are making investments into CAPEX, R&D, intelligence, and their own organizations (systems, processes, and organizational design) with a determination to win that can easily demoralize anyone half-heartedly standing up against it. #restaurants #investing #capex

We are seeing a brand new cycle in the foodservice industry. It’s unlike anything before. The last 130 years of US restaurant industry data will reveal some predictable patterns that mirror economic conditions, but this new cycle is absolutely unique. It’s as transformative to global foodservice and hospitality as was the Cotton Ginny to agriculture or the automobile to transportation. We are working with leadership teams of many of the biggest and brightest brand stars in the universe of foodservice and can communicate with clarity: we all realize this is something new and will require radically different thinking and approaches to navigate what’s ahead. It’s as exhilarating as it is exhausting to paddle through these rapids, but those with stamina and courage will transverse and transcend the new dynamics driving performance in the global restaurant industry. We’re so proud to roll up our sleeves and work along side execitive teams of emerging and established brands that are inspired to contribute something new. Will it be robotics? AI? IoT? Something else? These are the questions we’re helping executive teams size up and sieze as part of their growth planning and strategic debelopment. Exciting times! #restaurants #leadership #innovation

Here we explore how restaurant CEO priorities are shifting to keep up with how fast the economy and consumer are evolving. https://lnkd.in/df23YxRA #restaurants #CEO #innovation

For restaurants, SG&A typically includes a milliard of different expenses, from overhead to marketing to tech expenses and franchise systems CRM. For growing systems, it’s intentional to build the SG&A pipeline ahead of anticipated growth. This will mean a higher than industry SG&A during growth years (frontloaded by 6 – 12 months as a best practice to properly train and enculturate support teams ahead of the strains they will be tasked with supporting). An external view can often be eye-opening to assess the plan and right-size the infrastructure ahead of building the pipeline. #restaurants #finance #growth

En este artículo cubrimos las ventajas de validar iniciativas como modelos nuevos, cambios en las operaciones, y planes para el futuro de cadenas de restaurantes. También cubrimos qué está pasando con los márgenes de ganancias, puntos de venta para locales de alimentos y bebidas, adquisiciones, y estrategias de crecimiento en América Latina. #restaurantes #estrategia #LatAm https://lnkd.in/gt3YtHJ9

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Aaron Allen & Associates