Five Guys Empowers Franchisees to Lower Food and Labor Costs with Crunchtime Operations Management Suite

Five Guys is a prominent global fast-casual brand dedicated to high- quality, handcrafted burgers and fries. Faced with rapid international expansion, the brand required a single source of truth to help its franchisees manage high-volume operations without sacrificing profitability or guest experience. By implementing Crunchtime Inventory and Labor, Five Guys moved from manual, outdated processes to a data-driven culture, achieving industry-leading food- cost precision and operational excellence across its enterprise.

Gong cha Uses Crunchtime Ops Execution to Improve Task Completion, Guest Return Visits, and Brand Standards

Gong cha increased brand standards compliance and improved above-store oversight across its 400+ stores in North America with Ops Execution. The increased visibility and access to real-time data empowers leadership to make more informed decisions and will help scale its store and field operations teams as it adds 300+ U.S. locations in the next two years.

45min

average inventory process, down from hours

500

corporate locations rolled out in 3 months

50

performance metrics tracked at once

CHALLENGE

Empowering Franchisees Through Operational Efficiency

As Five Guys expanded its footprint, the brand encountered significant operational complexity. The management team knew it was time to begin the search for a back-of- house operations solution that would not only empower franchisees but also help control costs.

“Franchisees range in size from four to 100 locations, so operational needs can vary significantly depending on the group,” explained George Anthony, Crunchtime Administrator at Five Guys. “We are pushing 30 menu mix files a day, plus purchasing and labor elements. What we lack in complexity with our menu, we make up for in volume, and we needed a solution that could handle these needs.”

The Five Guys management team identified two critical franchisee pain points:

Actionable Data Access: Managers needed real-time visibility into food operations and labor management to draw smart, data-backed conclusions rather than relying on guesswork.
Franchisee Autonomy: The solution had to be flexible enough to support individual financial calendars and state-specific labor laws while integrating with existing payroll and HR systems.

After thorough evaluation, Five Guys selected the Crunchtime Operations Management Suite to unify their operations, completing a seamless initial rollout of Crunchtime Inventory and Crunchtime Labor to 500 corporate locations in just three months.

Operating Every Location Like the Best Location: Five Guys was an early adopter of Crunchtime’s franchise model, granting owners the flexibility to customize reporting and calendars to their specific needs while maintaining corporate brand standards.
Mobile Agility in Inventory: The brand replaced manual processes with the Crunchtime Inventory mobile app to enable simultaneous inventory counting and to manage vendor deliveries at the point of receipt.
Data-Driven Labor Management: Using Crunchtime Labor, managers create staffing templates based on sales-per-hour data to ensure the right people are scheduled to handle volume without overstaffing.
Real-Time Operational Alerts: Crunchtime tracks perpetual inventory changes every 15 minutes, utilizing real-time alerts to keep managers informed and proactive.

“We were able to convince around 120–130 franchises [to adopt Crunchtime], and in the last few years, we added about another 110 franchise locations,” explained George. “We were the first Crunchtime client that implemented the franchise model, which allows flexibility for franchisees to set up their own reporting calendars and tailor the application to meet their wants and needs.”

In addition to using Crunchtime Inventory and Labor’s web applications, the Five Guys team rolled out Crunchtime’s mobile apps, giving employees the flexibility to independently check scheduling or paycheck information and the freedom to work on inventory directly from their mobile devices.

Crunchtime’s mobile apps are essential for empowering Five Guys’ managers with real-time operational control. The Crunchtime Labor mobile app eliminates scheduling guesswork by connecting sales forecasting directly to staffing needs. This integration allows managers to proactively ensure optimal staffing for volume while adhering to all compliance guidelines. As George explained, “Crunchtime Labor allows us to look at sales and compliance requirements to manage shift hours. We can schedule each hour based on the number of sales and make sure that we have enough people on a shift to take care of that volume while remaining within our compliance guidelines.”

He also added that managers can use the data on hours scheduled, sales recorded, and labor variance to quickly determine if they are falling short of sales goals or need to adjust staffing levels. By unifying labor and inventory management through these intuitive mobile apps, Five Guys has successfully leveraged the Crunchtime suite to achieve its core objective: driving down food and labor costs across all its restaurants. Five Guys has achieved industry-leading inventory precision by leveraging Crunchtime Insights to track over 50 performance metrics behind a single pane. The centralized data empowers managers to make faster, data- driven decisions to protect and grow profitability.

Partner Brand Guidelines

These guidelines are your go-to resource for representing the Crunchtime brand accurately across your website and marketing channels. By consistently applying our core brand elements—including our logo, solution lock-ups, and color palette—you help maintain a unified, strong brand presence that builds trust with our mutual customers.

As a partner, you have access to ready-made visual assets designed to help you showcase Crunchtime Kitchen and Crunchtime Host. Please share this guide with your marketing team, product managers, graphic designers, and any other stakeholders to ensure all communications align with our branding policies.

SOLUTION

Real-time visibility and standardized operations for more compliance and efficiency in stores

Gong cha adopted Ops Execution to standardize operations and improve communication between stores, above-store teams, and headquarters. Rolling out the platform in phases, the team ensured smooth implementation and strong adoption. Gong cha’s success with Ops Execution stemmed from:

Store excellence guides: Gong cha created a comprehensive guide within Ops Execution to help managers prepare for third-party evaluations with visual aids and practice assessments.

Checklists and audits: Tasks like opening/closing procedures and food safety checks were standardized across all locations to ensure consistency and make it easier to track performance data from store to store.

National operations initiative calendar: To ensure execution against seasonal promotions, regional or market-specific projects, etc., Gong cha assigned tasks and projects in Ops Execution ahead of these initiatives so that stores could have visibility into upcoming work while also tracking how stores completed (or didn’t complete) the work.

Franchisee engagement: Franchisee and team engagement were also integral to success. Ops Execution forms helped align franchisees with performance goals, integrating compliance metrics into bonus structures to incentivize adoption. Additionally, interactive tools like the “Gong cha Great Values” form encouraged daily team member engagement and reinforced company values.

“With Ops Execution, Gong cha can easily track performance metrics, gather data from individual stores, and identify specific opportunities for improvement with more accuracy.”

Rebecca Kahn
Sr. Director of North America
Master Franchise Operations

Why this report is different

Industry Insights
Unlike broad state-of-the-industry overviews, these findings offer fresh, unfiltered data and perspectives directly from 300+ of your industry peers, anonymously surveyed to reveal what's really working (and what isn't) to drive growth in today's restaurant landscape.

Actionable Benchmarks
Instantly see how your operations stack up and identify precise areas for improvement to drive competitive advantage.

Collective Learning
Gain clarity on key trends, validate your own assumptions, and learn from the collective wisdom of the industry.

202508-Crunchtime-25ResearchReport-LP-tablet_@2x-1

RESULTS

Significant improvements in operational consistency, compliance, and decision-making

Within just the first year of rolling out Ops Execution, Gong cha improved operational performance in several key areas:

• 49% more daily tasks completed, demonstrating consistent execution of operational priorities and enhanced team accountability

• 20% better compliance with brand standards, ensuring a more uniform and high-quality experience across all locations

• 25% increase in guest return rates, reflecting stronger customer loyalty and consistent positive experiences across locations

• 20% increase in guest satisfaction, measured by Net Promoter Score (NPS), highlighting the impact of operational excellence on customer experiences

The data-driven insights provided by Ops Execution also empowered district managers to address operational weaknesses effectively. One franchisee—initially among the lowest performers—transformed into a top-three operator within only 90 days by following a customized action plan based on the insights from Ops Execution reports. This success illustrates the platform’s ability to drive meaningful and lasting improvements.

“Crunchtime Ops Execution was the right choice for us because it’s very easy to use, makes sense, and helps us standardize operations as we scale,” said Kahn. Gong cha’s commitment to operational excellence and brand integrity ensures that it will remain a leader in the competitive premium tea market.

RESULTS

Significant improvements in operational consistency, compliance, and decision-making

Within just the first year of rolling out Ops Execution, Gong cha improved operational performance in several key areas

49%

more daily tasks completed

demonstrating consistent execution of operational priorities and enhanced team accountability

20%

better compliance with brand standards

ensuring a more uniform and high-quality experience across all locations

25%

increase in guest return rates

reflecting stronger customer loyalty and consistent positive experiences across locations

20%

increase in guest satisfaction

measured by Net Promoter Score (NPS), highlighting the impact of operational excellence on customer experiences

RESULTS

Achieving Gold-Standard Precision and and Global Readiness

The transition to a unified operations solution has delivered quantifiable results that allow Five Guys to continue growing confidently over a decade of partnership:

Unmatched AvT Accuracy: Outperformed the 1% variance threshold with three-year historical variances under 0.041%. Product-level drill-down in the actual versus theoretical report lets the team track every item from purchase to sale to final count.
Faster, More Accurate Inventory: What once took several hours and lacked accuracy now takes 45 minutes to an hour, including counting, data entry, and troubleshooting.
Smarter Labor Management: Demand- and task-based templates, paired with built-in scheduling graphs, show store managers peak hours and exact staffing levels so they know when to add or subtract team members.
Channel Agility: Integrated POS to instantly pivot to an 80% delivery/take-out model.
Competitive Recruitment: Automated new wage policies for tips to attract and retain high-quality talent.
Global Scalability: Strictly controlled operational costs and multi-currency support made the expansion into an international platform remarkably smooth.
Franchise Flexibility: Franchise-specific URLs let each franchisee apply its own business rules, from inventory scheduling to when its week ends.

“When a franchisee rolls out the Crunchtime suite, their ability to get results with controlling food costs and managing labor costs with scheduling tools and real-time cost of goods sold (COGS) reporting is a big sell,” added George. “We push our corporate restaurants to show positive results with cost of goods and labor savings. Because Crunchtime integrates well with other systems, it lets us get information out to payroll apps like ADP or Paychex.”

Crunchtime Insights rounds out the picture by combining inventory and labor reports into single dashboards. “It’s been tremendously helpful,” George said, “giving us a clear overview of each store’s performance.”

After a decade together, Five Guys and Crunchtime continue to innovate side by side, ensuring the brand has the tools it needs to keep growing, in every market and at every scale.