How is Portillo’s pulling off $8.5 million-plus AUVs?

Take-Away with Sam Oches

Nation's Restaurant News

Business, Entrepreneurship

2.5 • 15 Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2023

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Michael Osanloo, the CEO of Portillo’s. Michael has been with the iconic Chicago-based Italian beef brand for five years now, and Portillo’s remarkable success in the past few years can be largely credited to the work he and his team have done in building efficient systems and a people infrastructure that can sustain the brand’s growth momentum. Today, Portillo’s does a staggering $8.5 million-plus average unit volume at roughly 80 locations and it’s on track in its evolution from a Chicago brand to a national brand. Michael joined the podcast to talk about how a servant leadership mentality is behind that success and how Portillo’s maintains such a massive operation without the wheels coming off.

In this conversation, you’ll find out why:

You should provide white-glove service to your most loyal guests
Strive for frictionless service in every channel you serve
Efficiencies can be achieved by breaking your operation down into individual parts with dedicated employees
Don’t move into a new market without team members who know the business inside and out
Have a development plan for everyone
Your job as a leader of a brand is to put your team in a position to succeed

Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, welcome to Takeaway with Sam Okas, a podcast from Nation's Restaurant News.
0:06.3	I am Sam Okis, editor-in-chief here at NRN, and this is the show where I give you an all-access pass to the restaurant industry's most influential decision-makers.
0:15.0	This week, I'm talking with Michael Osanlu, the CEO of Portillo's.
0:20.2	Michael has been with the iconic Chicago-based Italian beef brand now for
0:24.5	five years, and Portillo's remarkable success in the past few years can largely be credited to the work that he and his team
0:33.0	have done in building efficient systems and a people infrastructure that can sustain the brand's
0:38.8	growth momentum. Today, Portillo's does a staggering 8.5 million plus average unit volume at about
0:46.6	80 locations, and it's on track in its evolution from a Chicago brand to a national brand.
0:54.0	Michael joined the podcast to talk about how a servant leadership mentality is behind that success
0:59.3	and how Portillo's maintains such a massive operation without the wheels coming off.
1:05.6	In this conversation, you'll learn more about why you should provide white glove service
1:09.3	to your most loyal fans, how efficiencies
1:12.2	can be achieved by breaking your operation down into individual parts with dedicated employees,
1:18.1	and why you should have a development plan for everyone. Jumping now into my interview with
1:24.1	Michael Osanlu, the CEO of Portillo's. Also, don't forget to stick around after the
1:29.2	interview, as I will share my six takeaways from this discussion, actionable insights that you can
1:34.5	take with you on the go. Okay, I'm here with Michael Osanlu, the CEO of Portillo's. Michael,
1:42.9	welcome to the podcast. Thanks so much for joining me today.
1:45.7	Thank you, Sam. I'm excited to chat with you. Thanks for having. Absolutely. So I don't think it is such a
1:51.5	stretch to say Portillo's is one of the most exciting restaurants in America. You guys are,
1:57.6	you're killing it to use one phrase. And in that killing it is seen in multiple ways. For starters, you're killing it to use one phrase.
2:01.8	And in that killing it is seen in multiple ways.
	...

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