Chick-fil-A reports $24 billion in sales as it expands globally while remaining family-owned
The privately held chain posted nearly $24 billion in revenue last year, operates about 3,000 restaurants worldwide and has recently opened locations in the United Kingdom and Singapore.
Chick-fil-A, the third-largest restaurant chain in the United States behind McDonald’s and Starbucks, announced revenue of almost $24 billion for the most recent fiscal year. The family-owned company now runs roughly 3,000 outlets globally, including new restaurants that opened in the United Kingdom and Singapore this year.
The chain traces its origins to 1946, when brothers Truett and Ben Cathy launched the Dwarf Grill in Hapeville, Georgia. A rejected supply of chicken breasts led Truett to develop the sandwich that became the centerpiece of the first Chick-fil-A restaurant in 1967. The business has remained under family control, with Dan Cathy succeeding his father and his son Andrew Cathy becoming chief executive officer in 2021.
“It’s still the same recipe that we’ve had since 1967,” Andrew Cathy said, adding that the exact ingredients are proprietary.
Chick-fil-A continues to close on Sundays, a practice the company says reflects the founders’ religious convictions. Its corporate mission states a goal to “glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us.” The company’s charitable focus shifted in 2020 to education, homelessness and hunger, and its Shared Table program reports donating more than 200 million meals to nonprofit partners since its inception.
Amid rising consumer prices and modest wage growth, the chain acknowledges price sensitivity among diners. At a Dallas location, a standard chicken sandwich costs $4.99, compared with $3.99 for a similar offering at a nearby McDonald’s.
“Even though our costs are going up, we’ve got to be careful knowing that consumers are making that trade-off,” Cathy said. “What we want more than anything is if customers do choose to eat with us, they feel like ‘Man, I got a great value for what I paid for this experience.’”