Dive Brief:
- Chicken Salad Chick is looking for franchisees to bring the brand into five new states: Arizona, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Utah, according to a press release issued this week.
- The new market entries would significantly expand the chain’s reach in the Southwest and Northeast, following its continued expansion across the Southeast.
- Fast casual chains have been doubling down on unit growth in 2025, despite macroeconomic softness starting to wear on the sector’s traffic and sales growth. Other Southern chains, like Bojangles, have expanded into the Northeast in recent months, too.
Dive Insight:
Chicken Salad Chick has been growing steadily in recent years. According to its franchise disclosure document, it added 20 units in 2022, 30 in 2023 and 33 in 2024, bringing its total to 288 locations at the start of this year. In late May, the chain hit 300 stores. The company projects in its FDD that it will open 42 franchised units during 2025.
The majority of Chicken Salad Chick’s unit growth in recent years has been franchised. Late last year, the chain signed franchising agreements in several new Midwestern markets, and last month it opened its first store in Kansas.
Mark Verges, the brand’s vice president of franchise development, said the opportunities in New York, New Jersey and the Southwest “represent some of the most exciting growth opportunities in our brand's history.”
The chain’s current target markets include Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and West Virginia, according to the press release.
Chicken Salad Chick’s menu puts it in something of a class all its own — few other QSRs serve the chicken prepared in this particular fashion. But its growth is part of the broader expansion of the chicken category, which has seen Raising Cane’s overtake KFC’s sales and Bojangles target New York for expansion. Zaxbys, meanwhile, is targeting Arizona, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
While Chicken Salad Chick’s roughly $1.5 million AUV increased by about $75,000 from 2023 to 2024 — a roughly 5% increase — the chain does lag behind other franchised chicken chains. According to their respective FDDs, Bojangles has an AUV of about $2.4 million, Zaxbys’ AUV is about $2.8 million and Jollibee has an AUV over $4.3 million.
