PHOTO: ENVATO
service-oriented model. Shake Shack, for instance, has averaged 18.5% annual sales growth since 2022, more than any other burger chain. It was started based on the “Enlight- ened Hospitality” model of cofounder Danny Meyer, who built his reputation with fine-dining establishments in New York City. “Shake Shack is bringing the experience of a $25 burger to a lot of people who don’t typically get to eat $25 burgers,” the chain’s CEO, Rob Lynch, said in a January interview. Culver’s, meanwhile, has averaged 14% growth over the past four years and is now a Top 25 restaurant chain, bigger than such burger stalwarts as Jack in the Box, Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. The chain was modeled after supper clubs in its home state of Wisconsin and has become popular for its table service model and smashed “Butterburg- ers.” Culver’s operators typically come up through the ranks and are required to be in the restaurants. Cofounder Craig Culver once said in an interview that if your workers can’t recognize the CEO, the CEO is doing it wrong. That service level provides a strong value for the chain, even though it doesn’t push value meals and discounts the way many of its competitors do. “We’re not a cheap brand,” Julie Fussner, Culver’s CEO, said in an inter- view last year for the A Deeper Dive podcast. “You take your family to a Cul- ver’s and you get an amazing meal and a great experience. But we’re providing a value to that. “The only way to do that is if we never lose present, engaged, owner-oper- ators. So that is a non-negotiable for us.”
Culver’s, for instance, currently accounts for 3.85% of the burger chain market. It will have 6.62% of the market by 2030 at current growth rates. For Shake Shack, that share will jump from 1.32% to 2.48%. To be sure, consumers often shift allegiances to hotter, younger brands with innovative business models and differ- ent offerings. Consider chicken, where older, bone-in chains like KFC have long ago given way to brands like Chick-fil-A or Raising Cane’s. But unlike chicken, where the upstarts typically serve dif- ferent types of products, many of these newer burger chains simply offer a product with a better reputation from a more
JULY 2026 RESTAURANT BUSINESS
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