--- title: "⛫ Chick-Fil-A's New Brand" url: https://burnaze.com/article/bf2b6f00-3e3c-44a9-8593-56d75907f581 source: "Empires Weekly" original_url: https://empirespod.substack.com/p/chick-fil-as-new-brand author: "Patrick Buckley" category: "Chicken" industry: "Restaurants" segment: "Chicken" published: 2026-03-02T00:26:11.000Z modified: 2026-10-31T13:19:08.378Z image: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!zqCS!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6e427847-0741-4265-9e07-4f371afc0c9c_1200x600.png --- # ⛫ Chick-Fil-A's New Brand **TL;DR:** Chick-fil-A's innovation arm, Red Wagon Ventures, has launched Acrew, a new handyman service brand focused on bringing the restaurant chain's hospitality standards to home maintenance. Red Wagon Ventures was founded in 2017 to explore new business models and diversify beyond traditional fast food. *By Patrick Buckley, originally published in Empires Weekly on 2026-03-02. [Read the original](https://empirespod.substack.com/p/chick-fil-as-new-brand).* ## Story I’m covering Chick-Fil-A’s venture division, as well as my recent interview with Darren Spicer, founder of Clutch Coffee (recently acquired by Dutch Bros for $20M). Chick-Fil-A, via their venture department Red Wagon Ventures, announced a new company this week: Acrew. It’s a home services company that looks to be a one stop shop for handyman services: - Leaks/clogs - TV mounting - Smart home + wifi - Furniture assembly …and more. And while it’s unclear if Acrew members say “my pleasure”, every new concept from Red Wagon aims to have the same level of hospitality that Chick-Fil-A is known for. The innovation arm of Chick-Fil-A was founded in 2017 to explore new business models, test innovations, and ultimately diversify beyond traditional fast food with new businesses. The name itself, is a nod to Truett Cathy, who at age 7 during the Great Depression, would use a little red wagon to sell Coca-Cola to neighbors in Georgia to help support his family. When Red Wagon Ventures was officially formed, it was led by Drew Panayiotou, a successful executive in the food & bev + retail space, who is currently Chief Marketing Officer for all of Keurig - Dr. Pepper. He led the first business Red Wagon Ventures created: Kefi. It was a family entertainment center that opened in 2019. Panayiotou described it as “a combination of Disney, Best Buy, Procter & Gamble and Starbucks”. The 29,000 square foot location in Atlanta contained a toy store, coffee shop, co-working space, and daycare…all in one. They deliberately wanted it be a place where both kids and parents could spend time. And yes, it was closed on Sunday’s. It was bold, but it didn’t work. In 2021, it closed abruptly. Panayiotou had left by that point onto his next gig. And the next two businesses to come out of Red Wagon Ventures would be much closer to Chick-FilA’s core competencies… Later in 2021, Chick-Fil-A launched **Little Blue Menu** in College Park, Maryland as a delivery-first brand. The menu blends Chick-fil-A classics with new items like burgers, pizza, wings and boba drinks. They’ve recently remodeled the location to accommodate sit-down customers as well. But the 4+ years since launching, this is the only location for the concept, which has 480+ reviews and just a 3.7 star rating on Google. Next up is **Daybright**, the beverage-focused concept in Hiram, Georgia that debuted late last year. Daybright specializes in specialty coffees, smoothies, cold-pressed juices and light food. Unlike Little Blue Menu though, Daybright *does not serve traditional Chick-fil-A menu items*, positioning it as a standalone café. The jury is still out if Chick-Fil-A will grow that via a multi-unit footprint. Since closing Kefi, Red Wagon Ventures has stayed in the restaurant arena. That is until this week when they announced **Acrew…** It’s interesting to me that RWV chose to launch a home services business, as they are notoriously difficult to scale due to labor constraints. That said, it’s certainly a category that has a ton of surface area to differentiate via customer service & hospitality, which no one knows better than Chick-Fil-A. Like Daybright, there’s no word yet if there will be opportunities for operators to come in under these brands. All in all, it’s been ~8 years since Red Wagon Ventures was announced, and until Acrew, had just 2 locations open total. While Kefi can be written off as a failure, there was at least a clear attempt at creating something different there. Little Blue Menu doesn’t appear to be resonating, and while Daybright is very early, they’re in a very crowded beverage category with national brands already at scale. I don’t know if a volume approach or carefully curated approach is the right way to run a venture studio, but I hope to see more innovation coming at a faster pace from the Red Wagon Ventures team. Darren’s first job ever was at Dutch Bros, and in January of this year he sold his own coffee chain, Clutch Coffee, to DB for $20 million! ☕ He was *early* to the drive-thru coffee model, which has a hospitality first approach (different than the transactional nature of other chains) ☕ He brought on two co-founders to cover his weak spots, and says he wouldn’t have been able to achieve what Clutch did without them The mediterranean fast casual announced Q4 2025 results, which brought full year revenue to over $1 billion. They also achieved +4% SSS. The grocer operates more than a dozen locations of Joe' V’s, it’s discount brand, in Houston and North Texas, and recently announced another upcoming store. ## Entities - Home Services (sector) - home services (topic) - Chick-fil-A (company) - Dutch Bros (company) - Empires Weekly (publication) - Patrick Buckley (person) - Keurig Dr Pepper (company) - Clutch Coffee (company) - Darren Spicer (person) - Dutch Bros acquisition of Clutch Coffee (deal) - new brand launch (topic) - Truett Cathy (person) --- Originally reported by Patrick Buckley, Empires Weekly (https://empirespod.substack.com/p/chick-fil-as-new-brand). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/bf2b6f00-3e3c-44a9-8593-56d75907f581).