Chick-fil-A's founding family is worth more than $33 billion. Here's how the Cathys created the fast food chain and how they run it today

The Cathy family's multibillion-dollar fortune is rooted in the fast-food chain Chick-fil-A.

S. Truett Cathy had three children: son Dan T. Cathy, daughter Trudy Cathy White, and son Donald "Bubba" Cathy.

S. Truett raised his children in a "modest house" but had a car collection that included former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's 1937 Lincoln Continental, George Glaze's Brewster 8 Town Car, and a 1931 Duesenberg.

According to Forbes, the three children are worth $10.7 billion each as of September 2023. 

 

 

 

In 1946, without any management or restaurant experience, S. Truett and his brother Ben opened an Atlanta diner called the Dwarf Grill, later renamed the Dwarf House.

The restaurant had four tables and 10 stools at the counter. On opening day, sales totaled $58.20, according to the Atlanta 100. 

It was there that they first served chicken sandwiches, mainly to Ford factory workers and airport employees who worked nearby.

The Dwarf House name lives on. There are five locations, all in Georgia. Since the late 1980s, the Dwarf House has provided customers with a historical perspective on Chick-fil-A, and sites are modeled after S. Truett's first restaurant. They offer sit-down, counter, and drive-thru service for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

According to Chick-fil-A's website, it offers a typical Chick-fil-A menu plus specialty items such as green beans, fried okra, cornbread, and chicken salad.

In 1949, Ben and another Cathy brother died in a plane crash. S. Truett found himself handling the business on his own.

S. Truett began to expand the Dwarf House. In 1951, he opened a second restaurant in Forest Park, Georgia. It was there that he devised the formula for what would become the Chick-fil-A sandwich, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

In 1963, he trademarked "Chick-fil-A," and in 1967, he opened the first Chick-fil-A restaurant at a mall in Atlanta.

Nearly 60 years after the first Chick-fil-A opened, the chain is a massive restaurant empire.

Today, it has more than 3,000 restaurants in the US, Puerto Rico, and Canada, per its website.

In September 2023, the chain announced plans to expand to Europe, the UK, and Asia.

In 2022, it was the third-largest restaurant chain in the US by sales, bringing in $18.8 billion.

Chick-fil-A's franchise fee for a new restaurant is $10,000 — one of the lowest of any major fast-food brand.

In 2022, most locations averaged nearly $8.7 million in annual sales. That's more than double the revenue made in a year by the average McDonald's. And remember, Chick-fil-A isn't open on Sundays.

When S. Truett passed away in 2014, his son Dan was already leading the company. Dan served as Chick-fil-A's CEO from 2013 to 2021.

Dan grew up doing odd jobs at Chick-fil-A, including scraping chewing gum from table bottoms with a butter knife.

In his spare time, Dan plays the trumpet, gardens, and landscapes.

Dan helped grow Chick-fil-A monetarily and geographically, opening restaurants in big cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.

Dan and his wife, Rhonda, have two sons, Andrew and Ross, according to Forbes. Andrew now runs the chain. 

Dan's brother, Bubba, has held a number of positions in the company, including construction apprentice and executive vice president.

Bubba grew up in the business.

He is currently the president of Dwarf House, the string of modern restaurants modeled after S. Truett's first one.

Their sister, Trudy, began working for the family business at age 19 when she became the operator of a new Chick-fil-A restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama.

She's also an author — her book "Climb Every Mountain" was published by Simon & Schuster. Her also father published five books about business, motivation, and parenting during his lifetime.

Trudy is co-founder of Lifeshape, an organization supporting at-risk children.

The Whites served for 20 years with the International Mission Board. For half that time, they served as missionaries in Brazil, where they started a small church.

The Cathy family is known for their Southern Baptist values.

Restaurant openings often include prayer, and Chick-fil-A locations are closed on Sundays even though it likely costs the chain more than $1 billion in sales yearly.

"Truett Cathy always maintained he wasn't in the chicken business, but the people business," the chain says on its website.

S. Truett and his wife created the WinShape Foundation.

The organization donates money to Christian organizations and offers residential camps, a retreat center, and a foster home.

WinShape was criticized for donating to anti-gay marriage groups — about $5 million since 2003, Forbes reported in 2012.

In 2012, Chick-fil-A restaurants across the US faced backlash after Dan, then chain president, said he did not support same-sex marriage.

In an interview with Baptist Press, he said he's "guilty as charged" when it comes to supporting what he calls the "biblical definition of the family unit."

Dan later said the chain didn't have an anti-gay agenda.

"While my family and I believe in the biblical definition of marriage, we love and respect anyone who disagrees," he said.

In 2019, Chick-fil-A said it would no longer donate to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Salvation Army, two groups that have been criticized by LGBTQ+ advocates.

Chick-fil-A may be considered controversial by some, but it also has a reputation for its commitment to customer service and employee experience.

Chick-fil-A has been rated the most beloved restaurant chain in the American Customer Satisfaction Index's annual survey for nine years in a row. It remains a top chain for customer satisfaction, according to various fast-food surveys.

In April 2020, Chick-fil-A donated $10.8 million to local communities for pandemic relief.

In 2022, Chick-fil-A donated $3.5 million to Feeding America to help provide more than 17 million meals to communities in need. The company has also provided 14,000 employees with more than $24 million in scholarships to pursue higher education.

Franchisees have been known to cover costs for not just a worker's education but for support during a personal emergency.

The Cathy family has been working together for more than 70 years, and third-generation members continue to carry on the tradition.

Like In-N-Out, Chick-fil-A is privately held, and there aren't any plans to take the company public.

In November 2021, Andrew, son of Dan, assumed the role of CEO. He was 43.

Under Andrew's watch, Chick-fil-A has pursued digital and store design innovation. The chain has more than 30 drive-thru-only locations.

In July 2023, Chick-fil-A said it plans to test a restaurant with four drive-thru lanes that flow below an elevated building with a large kitchen.