{"id":3132,"date":"2026-07-10T12:39:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T12:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=3132"},"modified":"2026-07-10T12:39:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T12:39:22","slug":"the-raising-canes-co-ceo-has-seen-those-world-cup-fans-praising-the-chicken-and-sauce-hes-pretty-grateful-to-have-chicken-fanatics-worldwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=3132","title":{"rendered":"The Raising Cane\u2019s co-CEO has seen those World Cup fans praising the chicken and sauce. He\u2019s \u2018pretty grateful\u2019 to have \u2018chicken fanatics\u2019 worldwide"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cTHIS IS THE BEST FRIED CHICKEN FOOD EVER. THE SAUCE MANNN!\u201d A Tartan Army fan wrote on X. \u201cWE NEED THIS IN THE UK!!\u201d Another fan posted a TikTok of her first Raising Cane\u2019s experience, unboxing a chicken finger box combo and proclaiming it to be a \u201c10 out of 10,\u201d before adding: \u201cThe sauce is delish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Vietnam is paying women to have more babies\u2014but there\u2019s a catch: they have to be on baby no. 2 to qualify for the cash bonus<\/a><\/p>\n

Raising Cane\u2019s co-CEO AJ Kumaran has watched the videos: Fans from Scotland, England, and beyond, fresh off matches in host cities across the country, posting their first bite of a chicken finger box combo to audiences in the hundreds of thousands. His reaction: \u201cWe don\u2019t push any of those. It\u2019s just organic stuff that people want to do, and we are pretty grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The company has leaned into the tournament on its own terms, too. Raising Cane\u2019s built a \u201cKick It With Cane\u2019s\u201d campaign around USMNT star and FIFA World Cup analyst Landon Donovan, including exclusive \u201cCane\u2019s FC\u201d merchandise and a soccer-themed takeover of its Times Square flagship. Donovan also worked the first \u201cshift\u201d at the company\u2019s Inglewood flagship, which opened June 11, a day before the USA\u2019s opening match a few steps away at SoFi Stadium\u2014known as Los Angeles Stadium for the 2026 FIFA World Cup thanks to FIFA\u2019s strict sponsorship rules.<\/p>\n

But according to Kumaran, the fan enthusiasm driving the current wave of attention goes beyond anything the company planned. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe now get requests and fans from all over the world,\u201d he told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cIn fact, a lot of my family from India, they\u2019re coming over and other parts of the world as well, for World Cup, and the kids, that\u2019s all they want to do, is to go to Raising Cane\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Focusing on the four things it does well<\/h2>\n

In 1994, the last time the U.S. hosted a World Cup, Raising Cane\u2019s didn\u2019t exist. Founder Todd Graves opened the first location at the north gates of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in 1996, two years after that tournament. Today, the company says it has roughly 130 restaurants near the stadiums hosting games, in the 11 host cities for this year\u2019s tournament: Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York\/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle.<\/p>\n

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Kumaran said the acceleration in the brand\u2019s global visibility was specifically due to the Times Square flagship opening three years ago, which he said is when momentum around global awareness and tourism \u201creally took off.\u201d Asked why tourists gravitate to his chain over other chains in the same host cities, his answer was about focusing in on what it does best. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe do one thing and one thing only,\u201d he said, comparing the model to a specialist position on a soccer pitch. \u201cWhen you do only one thing and really zone in on it and focus on it, you tend to get really good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe tend to be chicken finger fanatics, so we do that exceptionally well,\u201d he added. \u201cOur crew members focus only on that one job that they have to make customers happy, have a smiling face, and then serve them the best chicken finger meal as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Part of that is the autonomy the company\u2014there are no franchises, but Raising Cane\u2019s does hire locally and encourages each store manager to bring an entrepreneurial spirit\u2014offers to each store. Each Raising Cane\u2019s is integrated into the community, so you may very well see photos of the local high school football team hanging on the wall at one location and members of the community garden in another.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur belief and philosophy is that the local spelling bee champion is equally as big as Landon Donovan, who is now announcing for FIFA,\u201d Kumaran said. \u201cThey\u2019re equally important for that local community. That kid is the Landon Donovan when they play soccer.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The love that foreign tourists are showing Raising Cane\u2019s is more than just culinary. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a cultural diplomacy, and we\u2019re proud that we can share a little bit of America with them, and hopefully someday with the globe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kumaran was watching the tournament as a fan himself, too, rooting for players rather than any one team. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome of my favorites are already out, some of the favorites are still in, so we\u2019ll see where it lands,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Mexico\u2013England game the other day was just incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As a result of the new influx of tourists trying the chain for the first time, Kumaran said he\u2019s received a lot of letters requesting they expand worldwide. Currently, Raising Cane\u2019s operates more than 1,000 restaurants globally, including more than 50 in the Middle East, and across 44 states, Guam, and six countries, among them the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar. The company says it fields thousands of requests annually from fans and prospective partners hoping to bring Cane\u2019s to new markets, part of what it describes as a long-term vision to reach 1,600-plus restaurants worldwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are operators. We just really want to do it well and not have any compromise on how well we do it,\u201d he said. \u201cThat makes it difficult to quickly react and jump on to a different country. But yes, for sure, someday everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more In 2026 so far, U.S. VCs have deployed a record-shattering $412.7 billion. Almost none of it is trickling down.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Raising Cane’s co-CEO AJ Kumaran has seen those World Cup visitors’ videos lauding the chain’s sauce and chicken. Now he’s getting requests worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-and-drink"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Raising Cane\u2019s co-CEO has seen those World Cup fans praising the chicken and sauce. 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