Apprehensive expansion
Cathy was somewhat of a reluctant restaurateur.
“I didn’t really want a chain of restaurants,” he says. “I had two at one time, and I realized I had one too many then. But the Lord took care of that. One burned to the ground. It gave me the option to do something different.”
The something different was a self-serve fast food restaurant. The restaurant was not as popular as the Dwarf Grill, so Cathy tapped the wisdom of Ted Davis, an experienced restaurant owner, who suggested he change the format to a Kentucky Fried Chicken. But for Cathy’s insistence on not being open on Sundays — something owning a KFC would require — the world might never have known Chick-fil-A. Cathy leased the site to Davis and continued to operate the original Dwarf Gill.
It was around this time that he was experimenting with a fried chicken sandwich. The new menu item slowly started outselling his burgers. It was the birth of the Chick-fil-A sandwich. He licensed the product to other restaurants but quickly realized that he was unable to control the quality.
In 1967, 21 years after he opened his first restaurant, Cathy opened a 384-square-foot restaurant in the Greenbriar Mall in Atlanta. The menu was simple, just five items: potato fries, coleslaw, lemon pie, lemonade and, of course, the Chick-fil-A sandwich. The store was a success, and within four years, Cathy boasted seven restaurants, all in malls.
Cathy does not franchise his restaurants, and an operator needs just $5,000 to get started with the company — money that is returned if the relationship is severed.
“A franchisee invests his own money and carries the whole financial risk in his business,” he says. “There is not capital risk involved (in operating a Chick-fil-A restaurant), which gives him security. He must divorce himself from all other business interests to come aboard Chick-fil-A. It’s not a part-time job at all. We expect that strong commitment.
“It’s working real well. We have very little turnover among our operators, 4 percent. That’s very, very small when you get up to the number of units that we have.”
After nearly 60 years in the restaurant business, Cathy still enjoys his work.
“I’m here in my office every day I’m in town, says Cathy. “I still maintain the title CEO, but that doesn’t mean I call all the shots. (There are) a lot of things they did that I wasn’t aware of that proved good that I didn’t think so in the beginning. I’m learning to rely on the decisions of other people for my business.
“I think the Lord has blessed me bountifully more than I ever deserve, and I think I maintain a reasonably good reputation. I don’t have any regrets.”
On those Sundays when Cathy isn’t in the office, he can be found teaching Sunday school, something he has been doing for 49 years. It reflects his commitment to his faith and his family.
“I believe in the Ten Commandments; I think they were written for a purpose for us,” he says. “I think it’s strange that America was founded on biblical principles — the freedom to worship as you choose — and now it seems like you don’t mention the name God unless it’s in a negative way. The family was very important to individuals. But now, it’s talked about very loosely. The quality of our homes is very important to a human being. You need a family.
“We’re all created with an idea that we want to accomplish something that might be noteworthy in our lifetime. And we have that as a gift from God — that we are created with the purpose of giving, the purpose of achieving and winning. I see nothing wrong with being successful and pleasing the Lord. I think He intends for us all to be successful. Sometimes we do it our own way rather than the Lord’s way, but I think He has a plan for each and every life that He’s created.”
HOW TO REACH: Chick-fil-A, (866) CFA-2040 or www.chickfila.com
