Raising Cane’s growing fast in the Middle East
Up close with Raising Cane’s Founder & CEO Todd Graves
NBy Michelle Fe Santiago
othing comes to mind when it comes to the best chicken fingers in town. Nothing else but Raising Cane’s!
Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, the award-winning Louisiana-based restaurant brand known for its premium chicken tenderloin meals that made its official debut in the Middle East and opened its first restaurant in Kuwait three years ago is now growing fast across the Middle East with 12 restaurants now (three in Kuwait, two in Bahrain, five in KSA, one in Lebanon and one in the UAE) and not to forget the 375 restaurants in 24 US states.
Founded by Todd Graves in 1996 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers has multiple new restaurants under construction. The company has ONE LOVE® — premium chicken tenderloin meals — and is continually recognized for its unique business model and customer satisfaction. Raising Cane’s vision is to have restaurants all over the world and be the brand for premium chicken tenderloin meals, a great crew, cool culture and active community involvement.
The Raising Cane’s menu is known for its ONE LOVE® — serving premium chicken tenderloins that have been marinated for 24 hours and are then hand cooked to order to ensure a great-tasting meal served hot and fresh every time. Accompaniments include fresh crinkle-cut fries, grilled Texas toast, the signature Cane’s sauce and creamy coleslaw.
Secret
Raising Cane’s founder and CEO Todd Graves who visited Kuwait recently shared to the Arab Times the secret to the continuous success of the best tasting chicken fingers in Kuwait, the Middle East and the US.
“At Raising Cane’s we’re all about ONE LOVE – chicken finger meals. We’re committed to serving the highest quality chicken finger meals as fast as we can, in a friendly, clean restaurant. And best of all, having fun while doing it,” cited Graves he recounted the success story of Raising Cane’s when he first opened the very first Raising Cane’s restaurant called “The Mothership” in 1996 when some did not believe it will succeed. The banks would not lend him money that time so he had to work and save up. Starting from scratch and by using his savings from working as a boilermaker and fishing commercially for Sockeye Salmon in Alaska, Graves managed to grow the business with almost 400 restaurants all across the US and now Raising Cane’s is growing faster in the Middle East each year.
“I’m here to see my crew, my team. I try to be in Kuwait once a year and get to spend good time. It’s going great. The sales are up here 25% from last year. By word of mouth, people are trying us. We have 12 locations now in the Middle East. Eventually, we’ll have hundreds in the Middle East and we’re working with more locations in Kuwait,” stated Graves.
He outlined that they will continue at what they do best – the chicken fingers!
“For me it’s focusing on one thing and doing it better than anybody else, consistently delivering it is the key to our success. Rather than be okay at a lot of things or just good. We will be exceptional in what we do,” stressed Graves.
Graves is elated with how Raising Cane’s has been embraced and accepted in Kuwait and the Middle East.
“Aside from our strong partnership with Alshaya, people are incredibly polite and hospitable. I like the people here because they have an international thinking. People in the Middle East are open to different concepts from around the world, very international. They also want you to do your concept, the way you do it. They don’t want you to take it and change it or “midde easternized” it, that’s why the region is good. People are trying us and our sales are growing so much,” he pointed out.
Aside from the 375 restaurants in 24 US states, Raising Cane’s has 270 Company-Owned Restaurants with over 100 Franchised Restaurants with 12 Franchise Partners and 18,000 Crewmembers system wide with over $1 Billion in sales. Raising Cane’s has posted an annual growth of 20-25%
Raising Cane’s Founder and CEO Tod Graves