Dive Brief:
- Church’s Texas Chicken launched a catering option across its U.S. store system on Monday, the brand said in a press release.
- Church’s catering system is flexible, offering buffet-style setups, full-meal bundles for large group orders and individually packaged meals for more business-like settings, according to the press release.
- That flexibility could help the brand meet a wide range of occasions and avoid its catering program becoming too reliant on any one kind of event to drive sales.
Dive Insight:
Church’s may view catering as an important way to drive sales by taking advantage of the years-long shift back towards in-person events, while avoiding some of the consumer price sensitivity that has made it difficult to win individual meal occasions.
Roland Gonzalez, the chain’s CEO, said the catering debut was motivated by the continued importance of the ordering channel.
“As demand for catering and off-premise dining continues to grow, we're making it even easier to serve generous, great-tasting meals that bring people together,” Gonzalez said, adding that the catering program could serve “more occasions and groups of all sizes with the convenience, quality, and value our guests expect.”
Chicken tender and Big Meal bundles included in the catering program can serve up to 50 people, per the press release.
Other major chicken chains also offer bundled meals. Raising Cane’s, for instance, serves “Tailgate” bundles ranging from 25 to 100 chicken fingers, while Zaxbys offers a catering program. Last year, Dave’s Hot Chicken added catering as an ordering channel in a partnership with ezCater.
Outside of chicken, major brands like Chipotle are looking to group orders and catering overhauls as ways to generate high-ticket orders and compensate for weakness in demand among key consumer groups.
The increase in the importance of catering is a multi-year phenomenon, but the channel comes with operational and packaging requirements that can be difficult for brands to execute without significant resources.
Church’s in 2025 managed to end a run of store count declines — with net 25 and 27 closures in 2023 and 2024, respectively — and grow its U.S. store system by 12 units to reach 885 stores at the start of this year, according to its 2026 franchise disclosure document.
The brand’s average unit volume has also grown somewhat, from $1 million in 2023 to $1.1 million in 2025, per the FDD. A significant catering expansion could help it sustain its U.S. growth while also raising unit volumes.
Outside the U.S., Church’s is targeting significant expansion, with a 900-store development pipeline as of 2025. Earlier this year, the brand said it planned to eventually open up to 600 locations in China.
