![]() But to Osanloo’s directive, it was less than the broader 6.8 percent nationwide. Portillo’s prices increased 4.4 percent last year. The latter broke apart as 6.4 percent higher price and the remainder from mix. The comp comprised of a 0.8 percent bump in transactions and a 9.5 percent increase in average check. Portillo’s same-store sales increased 10.3 percent in Q4 as revenues upped 17.2 percent, year-over-year, to $138.9 million. Yet that’s not to say prices have been stagnant. Portillo’s average per person check today is less than $10, CFO Michelle Hook added. “We want to be a respite from that a comforting place where people don’t have to think about that.” “In times of economic certainty, we know people are seeing prices increase all around them,” he said. Osanloo said the brand’s go-forward strategy is to be a “price laggard.” Or to intentionally price below inflation and less aggressively than quick-service peers. This inflationary puzzle is coming at Portillo’s from all angles-labor, supply, construction-but it’s not shaking that age-old boiler plate. He called Portillo’s a “counter-recessionary business,” meaning in past downturns, business only picked up. “And that’s exactly the playbook that we’re applying today.” “We’re going to take traffic,” he said, referencing the brand’s tradition. ![]() Osanloo said Thursday on a conference call the present climate only reinforces Portillo’s backbone. ![]() This as inflation nationwide upped 7.2 percent-the steepest figure in four decades. Limited-service meals skyrocketed 8 percent in February, year-over-year, while full-service prices lifted 7.5 percent. The food-away-from-home index rose 6.8 percent over last year, which marked the largest 12-month hike since December 1981. If ever there was a time to pressure-cook that mantra, it’s now. As the colorful entrepreneur scaled his eponymous hot-dog brand, which began as a stand in Illinois’ Villa Park in 1963 (then called The Dog House), Portillo held to a philosophy: Provide a value-based oasis for guests when everyone else jacks up prices. Particularly when it comes to the gospel of Dick Portillo. ![]()
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