Chick-fil-A generated $10.3 billion in revenue in 2025, up 14 percent, while net income rose 1 percent to $1.05 billion, according to franchise disclosures. The chain's roughly 3,000 locations produced $23.92 billion in system sales, making it the third-largest U.S. restaurant by sales behind McDonald's and Starbucks.

CEO Andrew Cathy, who took over nearly five years ago from his father Dan, told CNBC the company will remain privately held and pursue what he called "calculated" and "conservative" growth. Chick-fil-A has no plans for an initial public offering or outside investment. "We're able to plan for the quarter century, and we don't have to plan for the quarter," Cathy said.

The chain opened 179 restaurants last year and has expanded internationally to Canada, Singapore and the United Kingdom in recent years. The company has pursued a $1 billion international expansion plan and created Daybright, a beverage-focused restaurant concept developed by its venture arm.

Cathy said Chick-fil-A has resisted trends adopted by competitors. Unlike McDonald's and other chains testing AI voice ordering, Chick-fil-A will not deploy voice AI in drive-thru lanes. "From our experience, we really want that hospitality to be human to human," he said. "We're not gonna substitute that interaction with technology, because we feel like that hospitality is so important to create that warm environment for consumers."

The chain will maintain its Sunday closure policy and other core traditions. However, Cathy said the company must evolve in how it delivers hospitality as customer ordering and eating habits change. Chick-fil-A ranks as the fast-food leader in customer satisfaction on the American Customer Satisfaction Index for more than a decade, though Jersey Mike's recently topped the ranking in the 2026 study while Chick-fil-A's score remained unchanged from the previous year.

The chain expands its menu cautiously, typically testing seasonal items and adding them permanently only if they perform as what Cathy termed a "home run," such as its Pineapple Dragonfruit drink line. "We're very careful about what we want to do, because we want to keep it really focused on unique Chick-fil-A items that they can only get at Chick-fil-A," Cathy said.