Taco John’s is making ready for continued growth in 2026 following a 12 months of operational funding and franchisee collaboration. In 2025, the corporate appointed Jackie Secor as Chief Working Officer and Tom Perella as Vice President of Expertise to assist systemwide progress and operational management.
The corporate carried out enhanced operations scorecards and expanded reporting visibility for franchisees. A turnkey new-restaurant opening course of was launched to streamline growth, together with deliberate monitoring of the event pipeline and efficiency analytics to capitalize on market growth potential. Franchisee assist, succession planning, and ongoing systemwide communication have been expanded.
Taco John’s continued adoption and beta testing of superior know-how, together with cloud-based point-of-sale techniques, AI-driven instruments, and different ordering platforms. Menu innovation was accelerated below Company Chef and Director of Menu Innovation Brad Bergaus, together with partnerships with 5-hour ENERGY and limited-time affords.
For 2026, Taco John’s plans to deal with data-driven growth into nontraditional codecs, piloting areas in comfort shops, journey facilities, airports, and different high-traffic venues. These codecs can be examined with skilled operators to validate efficiency earlier than broader rollout. This method is meant to guard unit-level economics.
Franchisees are anticipated to learn from optimized menus for smaller footprints, simplified labor and manufacturing fashions, efficiency requirements for high-traffic environments, and focused advertising methods for nontraditional areas. This technique is designed to permit growth into high-demand areas with decrease capital funding, complementing the standard growth pipeline.
Key priorities for 2026 embody refining and scaling the nontraditional growth mannequin, value-engineering the standard restaurant mannequin for improved capital effectivity, increasing instruments and techniques for data-driven decision-making, and supporting reinvestment and succession planning.
Ongoing developments embody the Path to Possession construction, optimized enterprise mannequin, and enhanced techniques for onboarding, actual property, building, and operations. Taco John’s has greater than 325 areas throughout 21 states and sees progress potential within the Higher Midwest and Rocky Mountain areas.
In keeping with Taco John’s 2025 Franchise Disclosure Doc, the common unit quantity for the highest 25% of freestanding eating places with drive-thru is $1,881,809.
