Raising Canes
 |
|
| Private | |
| Genre | Fast casual restaurant |
| Founded | 26 August 1996 Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Founder | Todd Graves and Craig Silvey |
| Headquarters | Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. |
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Number of locations
|
320+ |
|
Area served
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U.S., Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia |
| Products |
Chicken fingers • French fries • Coleslaw • Cane's Sauce • Texas toast • Soft drinks • Lemonade • Tea
|
| Revenue | $97.3 million (2007) |
| Website | raisingcanes.com |
Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers is a fast-food restaurant chain specializing in chicken fingers, that was founded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by Todd Graves and Craig Silvey on August 26, 1996. While company headquarters remain in Louisiana, a second restaurant support office was opened in Plano, Texas in 2009.
Todd Graves first started dreaming of his very own restaurant in the early 1990s. Craig Silvey, an initial partner in Todd's plan, was enrolled in a business plan writing course at LSU at the time. They wrote the business plan and Silvey turned it in, for which Silvey received a "B-". Although the business plan was rejected numerous times by potential investors, Graves set out to earn the money he needed to start the restaurant, first by working in refineries in California, then by fishing for sockeye salmon in Alaska. He and Silvey then obtained a SBA loan, which they used to open the first restaurant in Baton Rouge at the intersection of Highland Road and State Street near the LSU campus. They even drew on the help of friends and family for some of the work on Cane's 1, and many of these names are carved in the restaurant woodwork. Originally, the small restaurant competed against a similarly themed drive-in called Bailey's Chicken Fingers on the opposite end of the campus. By 1999, however, it was able to prove itself the more successful business: it forced Bailey's out of business, becoming the only chicken-finger focused restaurant in the area.
In mid-1999, Silvey sold his stake to Graves to focus on completing an MBA at Wake Forest University and work in Silicon Valley. Later, Graves asked Silvey to return as vice president of finance and information technology.
By 2008, the chain had grown to more than 50 locations. Most of the locations are in Louisiana, particularly in the Baton Rouge area. The first location outside of Baton Rouge was opened in 2001 in Lafayette—since then, new restaurants have been opened in 22 other states, in addition to all eight metropolitan areas of Louisiana. Graves plans to continue expansion of the chain throughout the United States and internationally, one each in Kuwait (opened September 2015), Bahrain (opened September 2016) & Saudi Arabia (opened February 2017). Today there are over 320 locations in 23 states.Tennessee opened one in Knoxville in September 2014. California has 5 West Coast locations, all but one in Orange County: the first opened in late October 2015 in Costa Mesa; the second in early December in Aliso Viejo; the third in early March 2016 in Orange; and the fourth had opened in mid-June in Laguna Hills. The very first in L.A. County and fifth overall had opened in Downey in late August. Kansas opened its very first in Lawrence in early May, and the second opened in Overland Park in early October. Iowa opened its very first in Council Bluffs in mid-October. Illinois opened its very first in North Riverside, a Chicago suburb in late January 2017, to make it the 23rd state overall; the second opened in mid-February in Oak Lawn and the third opened in Naperville in late April.
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Wikipedia