How Chili’s supply chain improvements are helping menu consistency

CSCO James Butler has reordered Chili’s supply chain priorities to focus on the customer experience, resulting in sales growth for the restaurant chain and its suppliers.

Chili’s growth spurt is one for the books. The restaurant brand just logged its 22nd consecutive quarter of sales growth — up 10% year over year with a cumulative increase of more than 50% over three years.

But it wasn’t always this way. When Chief Supply Chain Officer James Butler joined Chili’s parent organization, Brinker International, in 2023, the company “was a little bit stagnant,” he said. One glaring issue was a supply chain so hyper-focused on cost reduction that it took precedence over the restaurant team member and guest experience, said Butler, who is now Brinker’s SVP of corporate strategy officer in addition to its role leading supply chain.

“When I came in, I recognized that's not a recipe for growth,” Butler said. “I really had to convince the team here that if we're going to grow, we’ve got to think differently about the way that we're doing things.”

This story was originally published by Supply Chain Dive. Read the full story at Supply Chain Dive →