Golden Corral CEO Says One Habit Keeps 41-Year Career Alive

Lance Trenary has spent 41 years at Golden Corral, and he says one habit separates leaders who last from those who don't: staying physically inside the restaurants.

Trenary, president and CEO of the buffet chain since 2015, told Fox Business that proximity to the customer is a "critically important" practice he will "never break."

"Staying very close to the customer is really important," Trenary told the outlet. "I like being out in our restaurants. I've been with Golden Corral for 41 years, and I love traveling to restaurants. I know every franchisee, I know every manager in the stores, and I love visiting them."

That personal network, he argued, is what produces honest signal rather than filtered reporting.

"That's when you get the unfiltered truth about what's really going on — the way people really think about you and your brand," he said.

What is Golden Corral's scale?

Golden Corral is one of the largest buffet operators in the United States. The company says it runs nearly 400 company-operated and franchised restaurants across 42 states and serves roughly three million guests in a typical week.

An adult weekday dinner costs between $16.99 and $20.99 — a price point that leaves little room when input costs climb.

Why is 2026 a difficult year?

Trenary acknowledged the chain is under real strain. He cited mounting fuel, labor and food costs, pressures that hit a buffet serving unlimited steak and other high-cost proteins especially hard.

"We're having a difficult year this year," Trenary told Fox Business. "This is the first year in several that we've had some challenges, but at the end of the day, I don't get too nervous about it because I've got such an incredible team."

The chain is also dealing with declining traffic, which compounds the cost problem for a fixed-price, all-you-can-eat model.

How does Trenary define leadership?

Trenary, who rose through roles including senior vice president of company operations before taking the top job, measures leadership by the advancement of the people around him — not by his own accolades.

"Success is not about something that I've been able to achieve or something that is an accolade for me as a leader," he said. "It's more about the people that I work with and the opportunities that I can create for them."

What is the company's track record?

Golden Corral opened in 1973 as a modest steakhouse in North Carolina. The company later built its identity around the all-you-can-eat buffet, a format that made abundance, family dining and perceived value central to the brand. By the late 1990s, the buffet had become Golden Corral's defining format.

The pandemic exposed the model's fragility. When indoor dining restrictions arrived in 2020, communal serving lines and crowded dining rooms became especially difficult to operate. Golden Corral's sales fell by more than half, and the company eventually lost at least 80 restaurants, per The Wall Street Journal.

The recovery since then has been substantial, even as cost pressure persists. The chain's busiest restaurants now generate about $7 million in annual sales, per the Journal.

Trenary's bet is that the same habit that carried him through four decades — direct, unfiltered contact with franchisees, managers and guests — is what carries Golden Corral through this cycle as well.