History of Panda Express
Panda Express has grown over 45 years, with college sweethearts Andrew and Peggy Cherng. From a single restaurant in a mall in Southern California to a worldwide empire of 2,000 locations. In the early 1980s, the married couple founded the company and Panda Express continues to own and operate itself.
Panda Express today now has a combined net worth of $3 billion. This huge amount has been accrued by the Cherngs’, making them two of the wealthiest fast food people. “Love is the emotion that we emphasize with our Panda kin,” Peggy Cherng told The Times. “We have to respect each other and look after each other. We have to be pushing and stretching.”
How the Cherng Developed Panda Express
However, Cherng has had to struggle hard to be on track to create a fast-food empire. Keep reading to learn how the Cherngs developed their fortune from multibillion dollars.
- Andrew and Peggy Cherng, both 71, are the co-founders and CEOs of Panda Express, the Chinese restaurant with nearly 2,000 locations around the world. The Cherngs have a total net worth of $3 trillion, according to Forbes.
- Practically every Panda Express location is owned and run by the Cherng’s themselves. However, they don’t lease it out to other owners, making Panda Express a rarity among its size restaurant chains.
- The pair also own an extremely ramen restaurant with branches in New York City and Berkeley, California, called Ippudo.
- The tight grip of Cherng on their restaurant operations contributed to maintaining the quality of the food and helped in the expansion of the restaurant chain. However, it has also created some employee issues. In recent years, PRG has settled several lawsuits relating to overtime pay and hiring discrimination.
- Andrew Cherng is a native of Yangzhou, China. His father was a chef, but at first, Andrew did not join the restaurant business. He came to the U.S. to study mathematics, ultimately receiving a master’s degree in applied mathematics from Missouri University.
- Andrew Cherng met his future wife, Peggy, during his bachelor’s studies at Baker University in Kansas.
- Once Andrew Cherng spent his summertime waiting for tables at New York City’s Chinese restaurants. As Peggy Cherng explained, the two countries regarded pandas as “a sign of friendship.”
- Then Peggy Cherng joined Andrew in the restaurant industry in 1983, and the two opened the first Panda Express in a Glendale, California mall
- Peggy Cherng merged her engineering skills with Andrew’s foodservice experience to streamline processes and logistics at the business.
- Panda Express started to grow rapidly and, within 10 years, grew to 97 restaurants.
- Two of their three children work for the corporate parent of Panda Restaurant Company.
Conclusion
Panda Express is reasonably cheap and offers a wide range of “Chinese-style American” dining options. It is also somewhat commonplace to reduce the chances of finding an unexpected meal, where offerings are usually consistent from place to location. They are offering the best quality food and high customer satisfaction at all of their restaurants.
