Enquirer Consulting Group
Neil Shepherd | Scoop Analytics | October 2026
As of 12 Oct 2026
Scoop sits on top of the BI a multi-location operator already runs, reads every location each cycle the way their best district manager would, and sends each manager a plain action plan.
This map lays out the five groups Scoop's own site names, how many organizations sit in each and at what size where a clean public count exists, and who usually signs off inside each one.
One thread runs through all five. The buyer is the person who owns performance across many locations, not the person who owns the dashboards, and the BI lead is the first person that buyer asks.
Counts are firms, not locations, and are banded on purpose. An operator running dozens of locations almost always employs several hundred people or more, so Scoop's buyers sit in the two right-hand columns, and mostly in the last one. The left-hand columns are single sites and small local groups.
| Group | Organizations in the US | Under 20 staff | 20 to 99 | 100 to 499 | 500 or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Store-based retailers, from grocery, pharmacy and apparel to home, sporting goods, convenience and general merchandise | about 490,000 | about 450,000 | about 33,000 | about 4,700 | about 2,200 |
| Restaurant operators, full service and quick service | about 450,000 | about 340,000 | about 99,000 | about 8,000 | about 1,700 |
| Hotel and motel operating companies | about 45,000 | about 34,000 | about 9,400 | about 1,100 | about 380 |
| Franchise brands with a field consulting team | no clean public count | ||||
| Private equity buy-and-build platforms in retail, restaurants and hospitality | no clean public count |
US firm counts by industry code, banded deliberately.
Titles shift with size. In a regional group the COO or founder holds most of these seats. In a national chain or a sponsor-backed platform each one is a separate person.
| Group | Who usually signs off | Who also weighs in | Who reads it every cycle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Store-based retailers | COO or SVP of store operations, with the CFO | Head of BI or analytics, IT security, and the regional VP whose region goes first | Regional, district and store managers |
| Restaurant operators | COO or VP of operations, and at smaller groups the CEO or founder | Director of BI, the finance lead who owns food and labor cost, area directors | Area directors and general managers |
| Hotel operating companies | CEO or COO of the management company, with the head of revenue | Regional VPs of operations, the finance lead who prepares owner reporting, IT | Regional VPs, general managers and revenue managers |
| Franchise brands | COO of the brand, with the VP of franchise or field operations | The data or BI lead, and a franchisee council where one exists and franchisees will see the output | Field consultants and franchise business coaches |
| Buy-and-build platforms | Operating partner at the sponsor, with the platform CEO or COO | Platform CFO and the value creation or portfolio operations team | Portfolio company COOs and their regional managers |
| Group | What moves the decision |
|---|---|
| Store-based retailers | The same stores underperforming cycle after cycle, district managers stuck in diagnosis, and the margin in lifting the bottom stores toward the middle |
| Restaurant operators | Labor running hot against covers, food cost drifting at single locations, and dayparts that hide behind a weekly average |
| Hotel operating companies | Answers ready before the owner asks, margin lost to channel mix, and the properties that drift while attention goes elsewhere |
| Franchise brands | Field consultants spending half of every call on diagnosis, early warning before royalty-bearing sales move, and spreading what the top franchisees do |
| Buy-and-build platforms | A value creation plan that stalls in the field, operating reviews spent reconciling numbers, and proof for the next buyer that the lever ran |
Operations owns the problem and raises the project. The data or BI lead decides whether it is safe and whether their own team could build it instead, and finance signs once the margin case is clear. In practice the build or buy question and the security review set the pace more than the demo does.
Size changes the path. A regional group with a few dozen locations often buys on the word of the COO or founder after a pilot in one district. A national chain or a sponsor-backed platform runs a formal evaluation with IT security, procurement and a pilot region, and the COO or operating partner carries it to the CFO.
The people who usually sign off at operators in the groups above, one a company, across store chains, restaurant groups, franchise brands and hotel management companies. Work emails and phone numbers as of Oct 12, 2026.
| Name | Role | Company | Where | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Laudato | Chief Operating Officer | The Vitamin Shoppe | Secaucus, NJ | andrew.laudato@vitaminshoppe.com | +1 817 307 8394 |
| Brad VanPelt | Vice President of Operations | Range USA | Cincinnati, OH | brad@rangeusa.com | +1 513 379 0657 |
| Jason Ricks | Chief Operating Officer | Road Ranger | Schaumburg, IL | jricks@roadrangerusa.com | +1 402 290 4942 |
| Kevin Koons | Chief Operating Officer | The Honey Baked Ham Company | Alpharetta, GA | kkoons@hbham.com | +1 571 296 3173 |
| Tony Darden | Chief Operating Officer | Portillo's | Oak Brook, IL | tdarden@portillos.com | +1 817 919 2287 |
| Kevin Whattoff | Chief Operating Officer | Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar | Newport Beach, CA | kwhattoff@lazydogrestaurants.com | +1 213 324 1914 |
| Sumi Ghosh | President and Chief Operating Officer | Mountain Mike's Pizza | Irvine, CA | sghosh@mountainmikespizza.com | +1 612 205 1177 |
| Ken Rice | Chief Operating Officer | Pickleman's | Columbia, MO | kenr@picklemans.com | +1 586 354 7641 |
| Jason Kreul | Chief Operating Officer | Remington Hospitality | Dallas, TX | jasonkreul@remingtonhotels.com | +1 513 314 7624 |
| Albert Smith | Chief Operating Officer | Hotel Equities | Alpharetta, GA | al.smith@hotelequities.com | +1 404 626 7549 |
Built from public federal registries and the company's own website, counts banded deliberately.
If a walk-through is useful, pick a time at cal.com/ecg.
Prepared by Ben Beattie, ben@enquirerconsulting.com.