Name: Chris Porcelli
New title: Chief Executive Officer, Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux
Previous title: Chief Financial Officer, Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux
Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux promoted Chris Porcelli from CFO to CEO, the company said in a press release issued Monday.
Porcelli is the brand's third CEO since Jan. 2023, when the company promoted Scott Taylor, its longtime chief operating officer, to the role. Taylor lasted less than six months in the role and Chris Dawson succeeded him in June 2023. In turn, Dawson held the CEO role for about 15 months.
Under Dawson, the chain hired Porcelli as CFO, created a chief development officer role and hired a COO.
As CFO, Porcelli oversaw the chain’s strategic planning, supply chain management and human resources. Before joining Walk-On’s, Porcelli worked in automotive services franchising at Driven Brands and earlier at Maaco. Walk-On’s is developing a smaller prototype store, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.
Brandon Landry, the brand’s co-founder and chairman, said Porcelli was the right leader to take the brand through its expansion with the prototype.
10 Point Capital, a strategic investor in the company, previously said that Walk-On’s was planning to reach 500 stores.
That may take a long time. The chain had a total of 80 units at the end of 2023, of which six were company owned, according to its franchise disclosure document. By the end of last year, Walk-On’s had roughly twice the number of units it had in 2021.
But its growth may be slowing. The number of new openings fell from 15 in 2021 to 9 in 2023. Walk-On's said Monday it has “nearly 100 locations.”
But the average sales of those locations have been eroding for years, according to the FDD, down from $5 million per store in 2021, to $4.6 million in 2023, a roughly 8% decrease in per-store revenues.
Consumers have pulled back from spending at a great many restaurant brands, particularly since the rate of menu price inflation began to outstrip grocery inflation, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many chains impacted by falling traffic have swapped out CEOs in hopes of a brand resurgence — most notably Starbucks.
