Memorandum
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- Derek Weston via Fast Company
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- Business·3 min to read
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Panda Express Founders Launch Homeownership Push for 55,000 Employees
RePanda Express Founders Launch Homeownership Push for 55,000 Employees
Panda Express cofounders Andrew and Peggy Cherng are helping their 55,000 employees become homeowners through financial wellness benefits, as first-time buyer rates hit a record low.
Panda Express cofounders Andrew and Peggy Cherng are extending their American dream to the roughly 55,000 people who work for the Chinese food chain they built into a $7 billion empire. The privately held company, which operates more than 2,500 locations across 49 states and 12 countries, now offers employees financial wellness benefits that include budgeting training, savings guidance for a down payment, and homebuying seminars led by Panda’s in-house real estate legal team.
The effort arrives at a moment when homeownership has slipped out of reach for millions of middle-class families. U.S. homeownership has averaged just 61% since 2012, down from 70% between 2001 and 2011, according to Gallup. First-time buyers made up only 21% of all homebuyers this year, the lowest share since the National Association of Realtors began tracking the data in 1981. For immigrants, the gap is wider still: Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies found foreign-born households had an average homeownership rate of 56% in 2021, with rates ranging from 73% among Vietnamese households to 29% among households from the Dominican Republic.
Andrew Cherng, who was born in China and raised in Taiwan and Japan before immigrating to the U.S. in 1966, said the company’s mission has always gone beyond running a successful restaurant chain. «Building Panda Restaurant Group for the past 50 years has been our American dream come true, and we are deeply committed to helping our associates achieve their own,» he said. «Homeownership is a major milestone for many of our team members, so we proactively equip them with the tools to reach it.»
Peggy Cherng, who was born in Myanmar and grew up in Hong Kong, met Andrew at the University of Missouri. The two became co-CEOs and opened their first Panda Express in Glendale, California, in 1983. The restaurant launched as a faster-paced version of Panda Inn, the full-service Chinese restaurant Andrew had started with his father roughly a decade earlier.
The homeownership benefits are part of Panda’s Total Rewards Package, which also covers healthcare and higher education. Andrew described the approach as «whole-person» support designed to help associates build sustainable careers and long-term financial security. The strategy appears to be producing results: 63% of Panda Express managers are homeowners, with a median age of 34. That compares with a national homeownership rate of roughly 35% for U.S. adults younger than 35.
Peggy credited the company’s alignment with team members’ personal goals for its retention. «When you align closely with team members to help them reach their individual goals, strong retention follows,» she said. The company’s bet on homeownership stands out as many employers cut benefits, and it may become harder for competitors to ignore.
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