Shake Shack announced plans for a massive expansion of 329 corporate-owned restaurants to 1,500 across the United States while presenting at the 27th Annual ICR Conference in Orlando, Florida, this week.

"Since the Company's founding in 2004, Shake Shack has been on a continuous journey of expanding how we bring Enlightened Hospitality to our guests and elevate our team members and our communities," said Shake Shack CEO Rob Lynch in a statement on behalf of the company. "We designed our six 2025 Strategic Priorities to deliver on our robust opportunity, mission and objective. These are to (1) Build a culture of leaders, (2) Optimize restaurant operations, (3) Drive comp sales by increasing guest frequency, (4) Build and operate our Shacks with best-in-class returns, (5) Accelerate our Licensed business, and (6) Invest in long-term strategic capabilities. Leveraging our internal data models, as well as more than 20 years of opening and operating our Shacks with among industry-leading returns, we now see our domestic Company-operated footprint to reach at least 1,500 Shacks.

"We are proud to announce that we ended FY2024 with 329 Company-operated Shacks with a marked improvement in our profitability and returns. However, we believe that we are just getting started, and see an ample runway for growth ahead. We are committed to bringing the world's best fine casual experience to as many guests, team members, and communities as possible. In doing so, we aim to bring pride to everyone in our Company and to deliver a strong financial benefit for our team members and shareholders."

Shake Shack reported that its total annual revenue grew by 14.8% from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the fourth quarter of 2024. The popular burger chain started as a hot dog cart inside Madison Square Park in 2001 before becoming a permanent kiosk within the park three years later, expanding its menu from hot dogs to also include hamburgers, fries and milkshakes.

Shake Shack is one of the fastest-growing food chains, becoming a publicly traded company 10 years after setting up its kiosk.

Ed Lambert