A Portillo’s Beef Bus in Kissimmee, Florida.
Source: Portillo’s
When Chicago-based Portillo’s enters a new market, it sends its “Beef Bus” ahead of time, slinging its hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches to new customers for weeks, introducing them to the brand and whetting their appetites before a new restaurant finally opens.
Recently, the Beef Bus has been making a lot of trips to the Sun Belt.
“Texas, by itself, has grown more people in the last decade than eight midwestern states that we have a presence in combined,” Portillo’s CEO Michael Osanloo told CNBC. “So it’s kind of a no brainer to go where the growth is.”
The chain’s sales are “way stronger” in Texas, Arizona and Florida than in midwestern states such as Indiana and Wisconsin, according to Osanloo. Portillo’s opened its first location in Texas a little more than a year ago. In its first 12 months, the location generated $13 million in sales, the restaurant equivalent to a $1 billion box-office hit.
While the exact states…
2024-03-09 08:00:01
Link from cnbc.com/2024/03/09/mcdonalds-portillos-dutch-bros-open-restaurants-in-the-sun-belt.html” target=”_blank” style=”color:blue” rel=”noopener”>www.cnbc.com