Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy keeps all restaurants closed on Sundays and the company remains private-owned forever as agreed in a covenant with his late father and founder S. Truett Cathy.
Back at the turn of the millennium, Dan Cathy and his brother Bubba sat around the dinner table with their parents, Jeanette and Truett Cathy to work out a covenant on how the brothers with their sister Trudy would take the lead over the company in 2013, according to Truett Cathy’s book “Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire More People,” Business Insider reported.
“We will be faithful to Christ’s lordship in our lives,” the covenant began. “As committed Christians, we will live a life of selfless devotion to His calling in our lives,” it said.
“We will prayerfully seek His leadership in all major decisions that impact our family and others. Our family roles as spouses to our lifelong mates, parents to our children, and loving aunts and uncles will be our priority,” it continued.
The siblings also pledged to continue supporting the family business’ philanthropic projects.
The company has grown explosively since 2000 with its first $1 billion in annual sales in that year. Now the annual revenue has hit the $10,5 billion mark. Chick-fil-A is the third biggest fast-food chain in the country revenue-wise, Forbes reported.
The company also holds the first place for a limited-service restaurant chain, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index for the fourth consecutive year, according to Fox News.
The company shared a statement with Fox in response to this latest success: “We are honored by the ranking and grateful to our customers for choosing Chick-fil-A, it’s truly our pleasure to serve them. Our commitment to serving great food with gracious hospitality started more than 50 years ago with our founder’s first restaurant. Today, the more than 145,000 individuals who represent the brand in 2,400 restaurants make honors like this possible by continuing his commitment to service.”
Dan Cathy, who holds the CEO position since 2013 has kept his word: The charity projects are still going on, the company is still privately owned and all 2,400 restaurants stay closed on Sundays.
Obviously, to become number one, it does not only take a good business instinct; a good set of rules on moral conduct also comes in handy.
Chick-Fil-A Becomes America’s Favorite Fast Food Restaurant, Dethroning In-N-Out
Chick-fil-A surpassed the fast-food chain In-N-Out Burger to become America’s favorite fast-food restaurant, according to a survey from Market Force.
Food & Wine published the annual survey results Wednesday and revealed the fried chicken restaurant, which is open six days a week and closed Sundays, surpassed the popular Californian hamburger joint In-N-Out in customer satisfaction ratings.
In-N-Out previously held the highest customer satisfaction ratings for the past two years, according to CBS Los Angeles.
The survey polled 7,600 consumers and found Chick-fil-A had 79 percent customer satisfaction while In-N-Out had 73 percent customer satisfaction.
A smaller southern chain, Raising Cane’s, came in second for customer satisfaction at 78%.
Chick-fil-A was also named the most popular fast-food chain, for the fourth year in a row, in a 2018-2019 American Customer Satisfaction Index report published in June.
“The company still demonstrates customer satisfaction dominance,” ACSI reported. “With its strong satisfaction edge and plans to continue expanding, the chicken specialist could pose a threat to even the largest players in the industry.”
Chick-fil-A made the third-highest sales at $10.46 billion in 2018, coming in behind Starbucks’ $20.49 billion and McDonald’s at $38.52 billion, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.
The Daily Caller News Foundation contributed to this report
