Michael Aronovici on the Decisions Restaurant Brands Make Before the Year Turns

• Michael Aronovici explains why the weeks between year-end results and January openings often set the direction a restaurant brand takes for the rest of the year.

The Season That Decides the Year

Quebec, Canada, Oct 10, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE — Most restaurant brands treat the holiday season as a sales push and January as a slow month to get through. Michael Aronovici, President and sole owner of Interaction Restaurants Group, sees it differently.

“The real work happens after the holiday rush ends,” Aronovici said. “That’s when a brand can finally see its full-year numbers clearly, and that’s when the decisions that matter get made.”

Aronovici has spent more than 30 years building and advising restaurant, retail and franchise businesses, including the development of Pizza Hut in Quebec, the acquisition and repositioning of the Cultures restaurant chain, and the license to develop and operate Starbucks Coffee in Eastern Canada. Over the past decade, he has provided strategic consulting services to leading U.S. and Canadian restaurant and investment groups.

What the Numbers From Q4 Actually Tell You

Fourth-quarter results carry more weight than any other quarter, according to Aronovici, because they combine the holiday lift with the full-year baseline.

“A strong December can hide a weak October,” he said. “You need both numbers side by side before you decide anything about the year ahead.”

He said brands that wait until spring to review their full financial picture lose time they can’t get back. Franchisees, in particular, need clarity early, since many make staffing and inventory commitments for the new year in January.

Menu and Margin Decisions Made Early

Menu repositioning and margin improvement are two areas where Aronovici has worked directly with operators, and he said both are easier to execute before the year gets underway than mid-year.

“Changing a menu in June means fighting against momentum that’s already built,” he said. “Changing it in January means you’re working with a clean slate.”

Margin pressure tends to show up clearly in year-end numbers, Aronovici said, whether from food cost increases, labor, or supply chain issues. He said brands that address margin questions early in the year have more room to adjust before the next holiday season arrives.

Why Expansion Calls Get Made Now

Decisions about opening new locations, entering new markets, or pulling back on growth are also concentrated in this window, according to Aronovici. Financing conversations, lease negotiations and development agreements often start in the first quarter because landlords and lenders are working on their own calendar-year cycles.

“If you want to open in the fall, you need to be deciding in January,” he said. “Expansion timelines in this industry are longer than people expect.”

Aronovici’s own history includes periods of expansion and periods of consolidation across several brands, from building out Pizza Hut locations across Quebec to introducing P.F. Chang’s to the Canadian market with a measured rollout rather than a rapid one. He said the pace of growth should follow what the numbers and the market will support, not a calendar target set the year before.

Market Assessments Before Committing

Aronovici’s consulting work has also included market assessments for groups considering new territories or new formats. He said the start of the year is when operators are most open to an honest look at where a brand actually stands, before momentum from a new initiative makes that harder to see clearly.

“Once you’re three months into a new rollout, it’s hard to step back and ask if it was the right call,” he said. “In January, that question is still easy to ask.”

He said the brands that do best are the ones willing to ask it anyway, even when the answer means slowing down rather than speeding up.

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About Michael Aronovici

Michael Aronovici is President and sole owner of Interaction Restaurants Group, a consulting, management and holding company based in Montreal, Quebec. Over more than 30 years, he has built and sold restaurant brands including Pizza Hut locations in Quebec, the Cultures restaurant chain, Salisbury House, and the Starbucks Coffee license for Eastern Canada, and introduced P.F. Chang’s to the Canadian market. He has also served on the boards of the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, the National Restaurant Association, Prime Restaurants Inc., and Meditrust Pharmacies.