Panda Express may not serve the most authentic Chinese food in the world, but much like Chipotle’s Mexican food or Olive Garden’s Italian food, its Americanized cuisine has its own special place in our hearts (and our stomachs). Millions of customers feel the same, which is why the Chinese-American chain has over 2,300 locations worldwide, including a secret one in the Pentagon. The chain, which has been privately owned and operated by the Cherng family since its inception, is the flagship brand of its parent company (also owned by the Cherngs). But it’s not the Panda Restaurant Group’s only chain.
According to the company’s official website, Panda Restaurant Group also owns Hibachi-San, a Japanese teppanyaki grill concept, and Panda Inn, a sit-down style Chinese restaurant chain in California. In fact, Panda Express started as a spin-off of the original Panda Inn, which was opened by Andrew Cherng and his father, Ming-Tsai Cherng, in Pasadena, California, in 1973. Despite being the original endeavor, Panda Inn didn’t expand nearly as widely as its fast-service successor, and is currently limited to just four locations in California. Meanwhile, the company opened Hibachi-San in 1992 and currently operates six locations in the U.S.
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The Strategies Behind Panda Restaurant Group’s Success And Expansion
Busy Panda Express food line – David Tran/Getty Images
Though many iconic American fast food chains started as family-owned businesses, it’s rarer to find one that stayed that way, resisting the pressure to go public, buyout offers by private equity, and even franchising opportunities. Panda Express (and its parent company) are one such unicorn. Perhaps when you invent a dish as ridiculously popular as orange chicken, there’s joy to be found in keeping it in the family.
Still, there has been plenty of strategy behind the Panda Restaurant Group’s success, and it seems to have paid off handsomely — as of 2024, founders Peggy and Andrew Cherng had a combined estimated net worth of $6.2 billion. While the original Panda Inn was all about providing a “welcoming” atmosphere to experience Mandarin and Sichuan cuisine, according to its website, Panda Express turned into an expertly designed exercise in scalability and efficiency. The Cherngs opened Hibachi-San in 1992 as a “defensive strategy” to compete with Japanese restaurants, according to a 2013 Fortune interview.
While Panda Express, Panda Inn, and Hibachi-San are the only restaurant chains fully owned by the Panda Restaurant Group, the company does have supporting deals with other concepts. For example, it has a franchise agreement with beloved chicken finger concept Raising Cane’s and opened the chain’s first locations in Hawaii and Alaska. The Panda Restaurant Group is also an investor in a number of other chains, many of them Asian-owned, including Uncle Tetsu, Yakiya, and Piology Pizzeria.
Read the original article on Chowhound.
