Who Owns Panda Express?
One married couple, through a family trust, with no franchising and no outside investors. A nearly six billion dollar restaurant business that never sold a share or a store.
Most ownership questions about big chains end at a holding company or a buyout fund. This one ends at two people, which is rare enough at this scale to be worth explaining.
How it started
The Cherng family came from Yangzhou in Jiangsu province, China. Andrew Cherng opened the first restaurant, Panda Inn, in Pasadena, California in 1973, with his father, the chef Ming-Tsai Cherng.
Panda Inn was a full service sit-down restaurant, not fast food. The fast service version came about because a customer asked for it.
A developer working on the Glendale Galleria shopping mall ate at Panda Inn regularly and suggested a quick service version for the mall’s food court. The first Panda Express opened there in 1983. By 1985 the business had gone from five locations to nine, and it kept compounding from there.
The engineer in the business
This is the part of the story that usually gets left out, and it explains more than the recipes do.
Peggy Cherng holds a degree in mathematics from Oregon State University and a doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri. She did not come from hospitality, and she ran the operational and systems side of the company rather than the kitchen.
No franchising, and that is unusual
Almost every American chain with two thousand plus locations grew by franchising, because franchisees supply the capital and the local management. Subway, Taco Bell, Dunkin and Popeyes are all overwhelmingly franchised.
Panda Express is not. The company owns and operates its restaurants directly, which is the same choice Chipotle made and for similar reasons.
| Consequence | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Slower growth | Every new store is funded by the company, so expansion is limited by its own cash rather than by franchisee appetite |
| Tighter consistency | Recipes, portioning and staffing standards are set and enforced centrally with no operator in between |
| More uniform pricing | Prices vary far less between locations than at a franchised chain, where operators set their own |
| No outside pressure | No public shareholders or buyout fund pushing for quarterly numbers or a sale |
That last line is the real difference from most of the chains covered on this site. Red Lobster, Subway and Popeyes all changed hands repeatedly and all carry the consequences. Panda has had the same owners for its entire existence.
What else the group owns
Panda Restaurant Group runs more than one concept, though one of them dwarfs the rest.
Panda Express is the bulk of it at over two thousand locations. Panda Inn, the original full service restaurant, still operates as a small handful of California locations. The group has also run Hibachi-San, a Japanese quick service format.
The group’s footprint reaches beyond the United States, with locations in Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Japan and Germany, though the overwhelming majority of restaurants are American.
Is it going public or selling?
Nothing suggests it. The company has stayed private through decades in which almost every comparable chain either listed or sold to a fund, and it has never needed outside money to grow because it grows out of its own cash flow.
The practical effect for customers is a chain that changes slowly and consistently rather than in the lurches that follow a change of owner. The dish that drives the whole thing has its own story in who invented orange chicken, and current prices are on the Panda Express menu.
Related Questions
Who owns Panda Express?
Andrew and Peggy Cherng, the married couple who founded it, through the Cherng Family Trust. Panda Restaurant Group is private and family owned, with no public shareholders and no private equity ownership, which is unusual for a chain of its size.
Is Panda Express a franchise?
No. The company owns and operates its restaurants directly rather than selling franchises, which is rare for a chain with more than two thousand locations. It means slower expansion but tighter control over recipes, portions and pricing across the whole system.
When was Panda Express founded?
The first Panda Express opened in 1983 at the Glendale Galleria in California, after a developer who ate regularly at the family’s sit-down restaurant asked for a quick service version. The family’s original restaurant, Panda Inn, opened ten years earlier in Pasadena in 1973.
How many Panda Express locations are there?
Around 2,300 across the group as of 2025, spread over 43 US states plus Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Japan and Germany. The company reported roughly 5.9 billion dollars of revenue for 2024 and employs about 48,000 people.
Who is Peggy Cherng?
Co-founder and co-chief executive of Panda Restaurant Group, and an engineer rather than a restaurateur by training. She holds a mathematics degree from Oregon State University and a doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri, and led the company’s operational and systems side.
Does Panda Express own any other restaurants?
Yes. Panda Restaurant Group also runs Panda Inn, the original full service restaurant, which survives as a small number of California locations, and has operated the Japanese quick service format Hibachi-San. Panda Express itself accounts for the overwhelming majority of the group.
Is Panda Express publicly traded?
No. It has never listed on a stock exchange and has no outside investors. It has funded its growth from its own cash flow throughout, which is why ownership has never changed, unlike most large American restaurant chains.
More on Panda Express
About this guide. USA Food Menu is an independent reference site and is not affiliated with Panda Express or Panda Restaurant Group. Ownership, location counts and financial figures come from company materials and published reporting and change over time. Current prices and calories are on the Panda Express menu.
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