By Heather Haddon

Americans will have more opportunities to eat ShackBurgers in coming years, as fast-casual chain Shake Shack plans to more than quadruple its U.S. restaurants.

New York City-based Shake Shack said Monday that it aims to have more than 1,500 U.S. locations in the future, up from a goal of 450 when the company completed its initial public offering in 2015. The chain now owns 330 U.S. locations.

Fast-casual restaurants have generally outperformed the broader restaurant industry in terms of customer visits and unit growth. Chipotle Mexican Grill is now one of the biggest U.S. fast-casual companies, with more than 3,500 domestic locations.

Shake Shack Chief Executive Rob Lynch, who joined the burger chain from Papa John's International last year, aims to increase the frequency of customer visits.

Lynch said the company will build smaller-format stores, including in fast-growing areas such as the South. It will also focus on building more Shake Shacks in 20 existing markets.

"One of the biggest barriers is, we are just not close," Lynch said in an interview. "This opens up the aperture of the type of real estate we can look at."

Shake Shack is among the restaurant chains slated to update investors this week. It shared some details of its fourth-quarter performance on Monday:

-- Sales rose to $328.7 million, up 15% from a year earlier. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected $326 million.

-- Same-stores sales grew 4.3%, versus analysts' expectations of 4.1%.

-- The company expects revenue of $1.45 billion to $1.48 billion this fiscal year, up from $1.3 billion last year.

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January 13, 2025 07:03 ET (12:03 GMT)

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