For decades, Chick-fil-A – with its iconic cow mascot – has encouraged Americans to avoid hamburgers and instead “eat Mor Chikin.”
Chick-fil-A is now the third-largest restaurant chain in the United States behind McDonald’s and Starbucks, with revenue of nearly $24 billion last year. Chick-fil-A also has around 3,000 locations worldwide, having recently expanded to the UK and Singapore.
But the global giant had humble beginnings.
“My grandfather grew up in extreme poverty,” CEO Andrew Cathy said in a recent interview for NBC News’ Business in America series.
“He actually lived in the first government housing in the state of Georgia, and after the war he decided to start a business with his brother Ben. And they said, ‘We want a better life for ourselves,'” Cathy said.
So Truett and Ben Cathy opened a restaurant called Dwarf Grill in Hapeville, Georgia, in 1946. After a local supplier offered them large chicken breasts that had been rejected by Delta Air Lines, Truett developed the sandwich that eventually became the signature menu item at the first Chick-fil-A restaurant in 1967.
Truett’s son, Dan Cathy, eventually took over his father’s company, and his son Andrew became CEO in 2021.
For 60 years, Chick-fil-A has remained a privately owned, family-owned business — and Andrew Cathy says it plans to stay that way.
But even though a lot has changed within the company over the decades, its iconic chicken sandwich has remained the same.
“It’s still the same recipe we’ve had since 1967,” Cathy said. As for what’s in the recipe, he said: “It’s a lot of good stuff. I can’t give you the details.”
Faith in the business
But one of the essential ingredients of the business is certainly the Cathy family’s Christian faith.
Chick-fil-A has never been open on Sundays, a decision Cathy said her grandfather and great uncle made many years ago.
“In the 1940s it was very common for many places to be closed on Sundays,” he said. “They wanted to do this. They wanted a chance to take a break, go to church and others could just rest.”
For the Cathys, the business is an expression of their faith. Chick-fil-A’s mission is to “Glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.”
But running a business based on Christian values can be difficult in 21st century America.
The Cathys experienced this firsthand in 2012, when Dan Cathy told a religious newspaper that the family supported “the biblical definition of the family unit.”
Cathy’s comments sparked an explosion of controversy as Americans were deeply divided on the issue of same-sex marriage. Protests and boycotts of Chick-fil-A restaurants across the country have sparked counter-protests and buycotts.
On August 1 of that year, Chick-fil-A supporters flocked to the restaurant and treated the company to a record-breaking “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.”
The company has also donated millions of dollars to Christian organizations which have drawn criticism from LGBTQ+ rights advocates.
In 2014, Dan Cathy expressed regret for involving the company in the debate, although he maintained his personal views on marriage.
When asked about the backlash the company has received on LGBTQ+ issues, Andrew Cathy gave a diplomatic response.
“We’ve always been about serving great food and hospitality, and so for everyone who walks through the door, we’re going to continue to do that,” he said.
The Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, and starting in 2020, Chick-fil-A changed its approach to charitable giving, focusing exclusively on issues of education, homelessness, and hunger.
The company’s Shared Table program donates extra food from Chick-fil-A restaurants to local nonprofits that provide meals to people in need. Chick-fil-A says the program has provided more than 200 million meals since 2020.
A value proposition
The company is also operating this year in an economic environment in which millions of Americans have given up dining out.
Consumer prices jumped 3.4%, while wages rose just 3% on average, meaning that for many Americans, wages are not keeping up with rising costs.
Chick-fil-A’s prices aren’t the cheapest in the area either. At a Chick-fil-A in Dallas, for example, the standard chicken sandwich costs $4.99. At a McDonald’s less than a mile away, the similar McCrispy sandwich costs $3.99.
But Cathy said Chick-fil-A knows many of its consumers feel stuck and are making difficult choices about where they want to spend their money.
“Even as our costs increase, we have to be careful, knowing that consumers are making that tradeoff,” he said.
“What we want more than anything is if customers choose to eat with us, they think, ‘Man, I got great value for what I paid for this experience.’ »
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