A popular and rapidly growing Asian restaurant chain is making plans to build new locations nationally, after having opened outlets recently in Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada.
Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, P.F. Chang’s was founded in 1993 and currently has more than 300 restaurants both nationally and internationally. Outlets located in the U.S. have to date been primarily centered on the east and west coasts, with a growing presence Florida and Texas.
The company is seeing particularly strong growth with its To Go brand, which features take-out and delivery, and is usually housed in smaller structures.
As of last month, the company has opened a dozen To Go locations in Florida, Illinois, Texas, and New York, but has also said that it intends to open eight more in various locations nationally before the end of this year.
The company’s To Go locations measure around 1,500 to 2,000 square feet, substantially less than the average 7,000 square foot sit-down restaurants it operates.
The idea behind the To Go locations, said chief executive officer Damola Adamolekun in a recent interview with Forbes, is to “meet the evolving needs of consumers, and many are on the go. They can grab a meal between appointments or on the way home.”
Adamolekun added that the development of the smaller P.F. Chang’s is a response to customer input indicating a preference for “off-premise consumption.” As a sign of that preference, the company has reported that up to 25% of sales in its regular-sized outlets have come from take-out and delivery.
With 2021 revenue of about $1.3 billion, up from $913 million two years ago, P. F. Chang’s has been described by the Nation’s Restaurant News as the “first national full-service chain with a menu of wok cooking.”
By Garry Boulard
