When a young food-tech start-up grows from a digital ghost kitchen into an internationally expanding chain of restaurants with over 350 employees in just three years, the industry takes notice. LANCH has achieved precisely this milestone with its successful brand ‘Loco Chicken’.
At this year's Digital Restaurant Day in Berlin, Elisabeth Rasch (People & Culture Lead) and Niklas Plit (Founder's Associate to the CEO) took the stage to share insights into this impressive journey. They outlined how LANCH set the course following its launch in 2023 and the opening of its first physical store in 2024: successful scaling in 2025, with over 20 stores in Germany and operations in Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands, will now be followed by global expansion via franchising in early 2026.
The presentation centred on one key question: How can such growth be managed in terms of operations and staffing? The answer lies in a modern technology landscape featuring best-in-class tools capable of meeting the requirements of a data-driven organisation – including Quinyx as a workforce management solution.
LANCH with Quinyx on stage at Digital Restaurant Day | Photo: Anette Riedl
When LANCH decided to expand internationally via a franchise model, the requirements were clear: a business that scales globally needs a ‘best-in-class' infrastructure, and the technologies used must provide staff with the best possible support in their day-to-day work. Elisabeth Rasch illustrates this using the HR department as an example:
“There are only two of us in HR looking after 350 employees, but because we have such a strong tech-first approach, we simply have a whole range of solutions that make our lives much easier, enabling us to provide comprehensive support to all employees with just a few clicks.”
Manual administration or rigid, siloed solutions were therefore out of the question for scheduling. The company was looking for flexible workforce management software with a global footprint that could be seamlessly integrated via APIs and would minimise administrative effort as much as possible. Niklas Plit, Founder's Associate at LANCH, provides some insight into the decision-making process:
“We came to the conclusion that, before working with the franchisees, we should identify the best-in-class tools that have not just a local but a global footprint. Quinyx is available in over 50 countries, and that is, of course, our plan too – to have stores in so many different countries in a few years’ time. That is why we chose Quinyx for our workforce management.”
In Quinyx, LANCH found the ideal partner to bridge the gap between data-driven sales forecasts and efficient scheduling.
At the heart of the collaboration is data-driven shift planning. LANCH uses an internal revenue forecasting model that takes various external factors, such as the weather or events, into account. This forecast data is transferred to Quinyx via an interface, where it is automatically converted into shifts, down to the hour. With the help of automatic shift assignment, schedules are generated at the touch of a button. Fixed workflows and compliance rules are automatically taken into account. Niklas Plit highlights the benefits this brings for staff at the stores and head office:
“We can import forecast data into Quinyx very easily. We automatically generate schedules and assign shifts to employees, and everything is clearly visible to the store manager. This automation eliminates a lot of administrative work. And that, after all, is the aim in QSR stores: to enable staff to focus on the core business rather than sitting down with pen and paper on a Sunday evening, making phone calls and drawing up the shift rota. We want a neat, clear process that is as efficient and transparent as possible for everyone involved – including payroll down the line.”
Elisabeth Rasch (People & Culture Lead) and Niklas Plit (Founder’s Associate to the CEO) shared the story of the successful food-tech brand LANCH | Photo: Anette Riedl
Particularly during the expansion into Scandinavia, it became clear just how important flexible workforce management is. Whilst the German market for quick-service restaurants often plans agilely and at short notice, the Swedish market requires a different planning structure. Elisabeth Rasch explains the differences:
“Here in Germany, for example, we plan things quite spontaneously – about two weeks in advance, sometimes just one week in advance. But in Sweden, we noticed that shifts are often planned six months in advance. For us in HR, this was a major learning experience and important for developing an understanding of the requirements of the various workforces.”
Quinyx enables LANCH to manage these differences – from long-term planning to short-term shift staffing – on a centralised platform.
LANCH demonstrates that in today's world, quick service restaurants must adopt a digital mindset. A tech-savvy approach is firmly embedded in the company's DNA and is also a key recruitment requirement for store managers, who benefit from the tools. Following the successful roll-out in the first markets, the next step is international expansion into Scandinavia. There is also growth potential in the Asian market. With an internationally active workforce management partner such as Quinyx, the technological foundations for these future plans have already been laid.
You want to see Quinyx in action? Explore our product tours here.