The macroeconomic climate may be a challenge for some in the industry, but one chain continues to kill it: Raising Cane's.

Bond ratings agencies recently offered some insight into sales trends for the privately held chicken-finger specialist, which opened its 828th unit in Boston last month.

For the first half of 2024, Raising Cane's same-store sales increased 17.5%, which, in addition to the opening of 46 restaurants, helped boost revenues by 33% year over year to $2.3 billion.

That same-store sales increase was driven by a 12.8% increase in traffic, and a 4.7% increase in average check, according to a report from S&P Global Ratings. The latter was due to menu price increases implemented in November 2023, as well as price increases in California to offset the $20 per hour Fast Food Wage that went into effect in April for units in the Golden State.

Raising Cane's average unit volume has grown to $6.2 million. That's 2.3 times the quick-service industry average, according to S&P.

And that momentum for Raising Cane's is expected to continue through the end of the year, albeit with some moderation of growth ahead. Revenue growth is projected to be in the mid-20% area for the full year, S&P said.

"We expect higher AUV growth in the low-double-digit percentage area this year will moderate to the low- to mid-single-digit percentage area in 2025 as the company expands into lower density urban and suburban markets and normalizing inflation results in fewer, and more modest menu price increases," S&P said. "Consequently, we project revenue growth to slow to the mid-teen percentage area in 2025."

Fitch Ratings also sees Raising Cane's in a good competitive position with its simple menu and good brand perception, the agency said in a report last week.

While being a single-brand concept can be a vulnerability -- what if the American public decides they don't like chicken fingers? (Not likely.)

Fitch contends the lack of operational complexity allows the chain to maintain competitive pricing, and Raising Cane's' sales growth reflects a value proposition that resonates with consumers, the report said.

"The company is well-positioned within the growing chicken segment, which has grown in the mid-single digits over the past decade and is expected to continue to outpace the broader QSR category," the Fitch report said.

Last year, Raising Cane's was among the limited-service chains with the highest AUVs, according to Restaurant Business sister brand Technomic. Raising Cane's ended the year with an AUV of $5.7 million, which was third behind Portillo's' $9.1 million AUV and $7.8 million for Chick-fil-A.

This year in the sales-growth race, Raising Cane's may be chasing Wingstop, which reported an industry-busting 29% increase in domestic same-store sales in the second quarter, driven almost entirely by traffic.

Wingstop's AUV, however, at $2 million is a third of Raising Cane's

This year, Raising Cane's expects to open a total of 100 restaurants. The chain is mostly company-owned (90%).

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