HuHot One Of The Fastest Growing Small Chains In The Nation

The Missoulian:

The Montana-based restaurant chain is expanding rapidly, and, in fact, is now the second-fastest-growing small chain in the nation, according to Restaurant Business magazine. The magazine contracted with Technomic, a food industry research and consulting firm in Chicago, to produce a list of the 50 fastest-growing restaurant franchises with total sales between $25 million and $50 million.

HuHot, which has corporate offices in Missoula, was the only company from Montana to make the list. Clocking systemwide sales of $27.5 million and average per-store sales of $1.7 million, it was outpaced only by Salsarita’s Fresh Cantina of Charlotte, N.C.

HuHot began franchising just 5 years ago, and has already exploded into 24 locations in 13 states, including a new restaurant that opened in Kalispell last month. 3 more locations are currently under construction, says Andy Vap, who founded HuHot and now runs it with a number of other family members…