Brand Positions Itself for Continued Growth in the U.S. and around the World for 2008
Atlanta-based Church's Chicken(R) recently announced 99 store openings in 2007, representing seven percent unit growth globally, and setting a company record for total restaurant openings in a single year after Arcapita, Inc. took the brand private in 2004. The brand opened 59 restaurants in the U.S. and 40 restaurants internationally, and added 12 new domestic franchise partners in the process.
'Church's continues to aggressively pursue growth opportunities, and our record openings from last year confirm that we engage in programs which offer a competitive advantage and attractive profits to our franchisees,' said Harsha V. Agadi, Chief Executive Officer of Church's Chicken(R). 'Our recipe for success includes a no-frills approach to operations coupled with freshly prepared, high quality menu offerings that appeal to consumers everywhere.'
According to Agadi, Church's helps its franchise community grow by singularly focusing on franchise profitability at every level - from construction and purchasing to menu development and advertising - and involves its franchisees in an advisory capacity in making major decisions about the future of Church's, particularly when it comes to factors that affect their bottom line.
2007 proved to be a major growth spurt for Church's for several reasons. The brand implemented a new resource tool, Church's Global Network, which is a point of reference for recording and retrieving information about current restaurants, as well as new restaurants currently under development. The brand also initiated a new development process which measures critical milestones as they develop new stores, and also engages their cross-functional teams - real estate, franchise operations, new business development and construction - in the process.
2008 promises to be yet another year of growth for Church's. The domestic franchise goal is to open another 47 restaurants by year's end, and the brand's international team has already begun opening a significant number of new stores under the Texas Chicken(R) brand in Russia and the UK, with an overarching goal to grow from over 400 to at least 1,000 stores in the next five years.
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