When Greg Plummer started working in restaurants at 15, getting a work permit for a dishwashing job at Bennigan’s, he could not have predicted he would one day run a company serving 2 million travelers annually across four West Coast airports. But the path from dish pit to CEO of Concord Collective Partners reveals a philosophy that is becoming more critical as airport concessions evolve into full hospitality destinations.
On a recent episode of Behind the Numbers, Greg sat down with hosts Marc Cohen and Rich Sweeney to discuss the economics of airport dining, the forming-storming-norming journey of rebuilding a business post-pandemic, and why understanding your numbers in real time has become the difference between surviving and thriving in California’s restaurant landscape.
Concord Collective Partners operates in four airports, with the bulk of the business concentrated at LAX. There, Greg’s team runs 12 restaurants featuring 13 branded concepts, employing 300 people at LAX alone plus another 50 across other locations. That number is poised to grow exponentially as startup locations come online.
The transaction volume is staggering. The company processes roughly 2 million transactions per year, and chicken alone accounts for about 8 million pounds annually across concepts like Chick-fil-A, P.F. Chang’s, and Panda Express. Greg operates 13 different concepts today, with that number climbing to 16 by year-end, each with its own brand standards and operational requirements.
Behind those numbers sits another figure that shapes every operational decision: 550,000 labor hours per year across the organization, with approximately 42,000 of those being paid time off hours. In California, where break compliance is strictly enforced, managing that labor pool requires constant attention.
Rich posed the question every traveler has asked: why are airport restaurants so expensive? Greg broke down the cost structure with refreshing transparency.
The Los Angeles City living wage currently runs around $30 per hour all-in per employee at LAX, plus roughly 96 hours of paid time off per year. Fuel costs, which currently hover around $7 per gallon in Los Angeles, drive every downstream cost in the supply chain.
Then there is rent. Unlike street-side restaurants that typically pay flat rent, airport operators pay a percentage of gross revenue. That figure accounts for roughly 15% of Concord Collective’s overall P&L, a number that has moved higher in recent years and is now stabilizing.
“We got a guest comment yesterday saying, hey, I was at this restaurant, the same concept yesterday, and I bought this same menu item. I spent $22 in New Orleans and it was $58 here in LA. Well, we’re not New Orleans.”
Greg’s response to the pricing complaint is operational: if the cost is going to be higher, the experience needs to match. That means investing in service quality so guests feel valued rather than gouged.
Greg acquired the Concord Collective business in 2021, directly off the heels of the pandemic. Air travel had seen a 95% overnight decrease during COVID, and rebuilding meant navigating what he describes as three distinct phases.
The forming phase involved establishing company principles, hiring philosophy, and operational foundations in the middle of widespread uncertainty. Many employees had been laid off and were hesitant to return to a business perceived as high-risk. Supply chain issues sent cost of goods soaring. The gig economy pulled potential workers toward Amazon and DoorDash.
The storming phase brought the compounding challenges: the Screen Actors Guild strike, healthcare worker strikes, hotel strikes, and ultimately the 2025 Los Angeles fires, which forced the company to lay off staff. Rebuilding from that required working with labor partners to create more flexible frameworks for handling future disruptions.
By late 2025, the business entered the norming phase. Things stabilized enough to focus on reaffirming priorities, retraining teams, and preparing for the upcoming wave of major events hitting Los Angeles: the FIFA World Cup in 2026, the Super Bowl in 2027, and the Olympics in 2028. Greg noted the World Cup is just 60 days away at the time of recording.
Greg adopted Restaurant365 three years ago, and the impact on how he runs the business has been substantial. He described the old reporting approach as ancient history: pulling a P&L and seeing what happened two months ago, with no ability to course-correct in the present.
“Now I can look at my P&L and say, oh, I need to make an adjustment. I want to understand in real time P&L.”
For a business running 20 to 22 hour operations across concepts with varying margin profiles, that visibility matters. Greg can see whether labor is running too high or occasionally too low, how each brand is performing against its benchmarks, and where adjustments need to happen before the numbers become historical artifacts.
Technology adoption at Concord Collective is not theoretical. Greg shared specifics from a completed pilot program involving service robots that deliver food to dining rooms and bus tables back to the kitchen.
The robots have logged thousands of miles and carried approximately 340,000 pounds of food and dishes with zero safety incidents. Worker’s comp exposure drops, and team members can stay on the floor engaging with guests rather than running trays back and forth.
Self-order kiosks have produced another clear data point. Check averages have increased by about 30% when guests order themselves rather than through a staff member. Greg acknowledged the dynamic creates an incentive to expand kiosk deployment, though he was candid about the controversy around that decision.
The company has also rolled out digital marketplaces using the BBot platform, allowing guests to order from multiple restaurants in a single transaction. A family can get pizza, a burger, and Panda Express on one receipt, which simplifies expense reporting for business travelers and reduces friction for everyone else.
Marc made the observation that if a restaurant can make it in California, it can make it anywhere. Greg agreed, describing California as ninja level difficulty for operators. Beyond labor costs, the regulatory environment creates meaningful operational risk. Greg counted ten billboards for plaintiff’s attorneys on his drive in that morning.
Slip and fall claims, worker’s comp escalations, and the broader litigation environment all factor into operating costs that eventually show up in menu pricing. Greg’s response is to be hands-on, present, and rigorous about doing things right the first time so problems do not compound later.
Asked whether hiring or retention is harder, Greg came down on hiring. Candidates bring their best for 90 days, then reality emerges. His prescription is better onboarding, more training, and earlier integration into culture.
Restaurant managers, he agreed, are unicorns. They need guest relations skills, financial literacy, administrative capability, and the ability to manage a diverse team across age and background. Expecting all four in one person, especially in California’s operating environment, is a significant ask. Treating managers well and giving them reasons to stay is part of how Concord Collective approaches the role.
Greg’s hot take to close the episode cut through the operational detail: get back to the golden rule. Leave ego at home. Guests are choosing to spend money with you. Treat them with dignity and respect.
That philosophy scales from a 15-year-old dishwasher at Bennigan’s to a CEO running a 350-person operation serving millions of travelers. The numbers matter, the technology matters, and the real-time P&L definitely matters. But the underlying business is still hospitality, and hospitality still runs on people being good to people.
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