Now, Project Pollo has 12 brick-and-mortar units—in addition to two food trucks—and eight more are planned for the remainder of 2022. All of the restaurants are based in Texas, but not for much longer. The chain will debut in Boulder, Colorado, and Las Vegas within four weeks of each other, and another will debut in Arizona. Next year, Project Pollo will enter Nashville, Atlanta, Tampa, and Miami.
Bradbury says the pace is not about the number of units; it’s centered around seeing sales growth and retention. Are customers returning? Are they increasing their frequency? Is the chain bringing in new consumers just as often? Are guests spending more each visit? Ultimately, if the team feels those questions are being answered in the affirmative and the metrics back it up, then expansion will continue, Bradbury says.
From the outside, the CEO knows it looks intimidating. He’s not bothered by the sharks wondering how it can be sustained, and he’s aware the trajectory sounds too good to be true. Bradbury admits that he’d have the same concerns if he were not closely involved.
Taking the sharks’ message to heart, he even decided to slow growth in October 2021, a month after filming the episode. Bradbury used the pause to recalibrate the system, ensuring the right protocols were in place and he had the best possible employees fulfilling tasks. The plant-based leader says he could’ve added three to four more units this year if not for the temporary slowdown.
“The scaling part doesn't concern me,” Bradbury says. “As long as we're taking care of the team and the guests and as long as we do that, we will continue to grow at a pretty aggressive pace. … So I think the biggest lesson that we took was you can go fast and accurately, but you better damn well make sure that you have the measures in place in order to be able to do it. That was the biggest take away for me from that show—'no, like, we're not saying you can't do this, we're saying when you do this, you better be careful.'”
Next year, Project Pollo will add franchise expansion, after receiving interest from as many as 250-300 people per day, thanks in part to the Shark Tank publicity. The company began work on its FDD, including choosing the right territories, going over renderings of future stores, selecting the right menus, and getting more aggressive on the supply chain side. In terms of human capital, the chain added a vice president of corporate operations and a vice president of franchise operations.