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Popeye's to expand its presence in the US, plans to double number of locations

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X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Popeyes goes national

Look out KFC. Here comes Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen.

Led by former KFC executive Cheryl Bachelder, the chicken- and-biscuits chain is going national and ramping up the pressure as Yum Brands focuses overseas, letting its U.S. KFC operations languish in the process.

Long a regional player concentrating on the urban market, Popeyes is courting suburban white diners with a new menu and ads. Bachelder plans to double the number of U.S. Popeyes stores to 3,200. KFC has about 4,780 U.S. locations, about 600 fewer than in 2006.

"We've really reached the hearts and minds of a much broader customer base," Bachelder said in her office at Popeyes' Atlanta headquarters. While 40 percent of the chain's customers are black, that's changing as Popeyes opens eateries in places such as Sparks, Nev., where about three-quarters of residents are white.

Popeyes, owned by AFC Enterprises, will generate sales growth of about 13 percent this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. By contrast, U.S. fast-food restaurant sales will grow 1.9 percent overall this year to $170 billion, researcher IBISWorld Inc. said in a report last month. KFC's U.S. same-store sales rose 1 percent in its most recent quarter, while Popeyes's increased 8.1 percent.

"We feel good about our strategy going forward," Virginia Ferguson, a Yum spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. "We're focused on delivering the world's best chicken to our customers."

Shares of AFC surged 52 percent over the past 12 months, compared with 14 percent for the Bloomberg U.S. Quick-Service Restaurant Index and 33 percent for Yum.

Still, Popeyes has its "work cut out to suburbanize," said Bob Goldin, executive vice president at Chicago-based researcher Technomic. Suburban dwellers are more likely to frequent the likes of Panera Bread.

Twenty years after Col. Harland Sanders founded KFC in 1952, Alvin Copeland opened his first fried-chicken restaurant. The Popeyes name isn't a tribute to the spinach-scarfing cartoon; Copeland named it after Gene Hackman's character, Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, in the 1971 film "The French Connection." The chain's chicken caught on after Copeland spiced up his recipe and by 1985 there were about 500 Popeyes locations. AFC, then called America's Favorite Chicken, became the parent of Popeyes in 1992 and went public in 2001.

Bachelder, 56, got her start at Procter & Gamble Co. before managing the LifeSavers and Planters nuts brands at Nabisco, where Louis Gerstner mentored her. In the mid-1990s, Bachelder helped turn around sales at Domino's Pizza with flavored crusts and insulated delivery bags. After rebuffing an offer to work at Yum's Pizza Hut chain, in 2001 she became chief concept officer at KFC, where she learned how to run restaurants and deal with struggling franchisees.

Bachelder said she became disenchanted with KFC's relentless focus on quarterly results and left in 2003.

"It just wasn't a patient, long-view environment," she said. "It wasn't right for me."

Four years later, she signed on as chief executive officer of AFC. Bachelder was throwing in with a company where profits had stagnated and relations with franchisees were less than felicitous, according to AFC Chairman John Cranor.

"You had a culture that was contentious at best and frankly there were no clear-cut visions for the future," Cranor said. "That was sort of like serving up a feast to Cheryl."

Bachelder's first task: getting on the good side of store owners. She distributed headsets and timers to restaurants, cutting the average location's drive-through time by 40 percent to 180 seconds. She insisted on national ads, more effective than local TV because they reach more people, and convinced the board corporate should chip in on the advertisement fund.

She also hired another former Yum executive, Ralph Bower, to lead the U.S. business. Bower, who also worked at Domino's and KFC, scores and ranks every store each quarter and helps the 305 U.S. franchisees track costs weekly. Bower said he regularly has hour-long phone conversations with franchisees, who own 98 percent of domestic locations.

In 2008, Bachelder and her team rebranded the chain, ditching the Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits name for Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and replacing the cartoonish red, yellow and blue logo with an orange "P" set in a ring adorned with a pair of matching fleur de lis.

Earlier this year, Popeyes introduced a healthier menu, Louisiana Leaux, with so-called naked chicken wraps and a BBQ chicken po boy sandwich. Still, the chain continues to sell the fare that made it famous: bone-in fried chicken, chicken tenders and shrimp. With U.S. economic growth weak and consumer confidence in July at the lowest level this year, Bachelder is keeping the food affordable, selling combos for $3.99 and $4.99. KFC, meanwhile, is advertising a $19.99 family meal.

Bachelder, who reads one self-improvement or business book a week and started a library at company headquarters, is working on what she calls developing servant leaders to manage Popeyes when she's gone.

"That's where I've shifted a ton of my energy," said Bachelder, who last month met with 14 vice presidents to discuss their careers. "I want them to have everything in place to continue the success."

Still, she betrays no signs she's looking for a new gig, saying, "it's going to take me quite a while to get that done."
Click to expand...

Commence Popeye's vs KFC arguments.
 
V

Vilix

Unconfirmed Member
AS Popeye's expands so does America's waist line.
 
Z

zchen

Member
Why would you do that? said:
Huh, I was wondering earlier why their commercials and advertising seems more... numerous, I guess. Maybe it has to do with this?



Surely you have this backwards? Because there's no way anyone can say KFC's ia better. :p
Click to expand...

This x100. Popeye's is far superior to KFC. They better open one in my city again after that last one closed for no good reason.
 
R

ruuk

Member
I have to drive 2 hours to get to the nearest Popeye's. I CAN'T WAIT.

HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!

Daily doses of spicy chicken here I come!
 
C

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
gcubed said:
Church's
Click to expand...

Honey Butter Biscuits.

Hell yeah man.

sides-honey-butter-biscuits-big.png
 
H

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
Popeyes > KFC any day of the week. Its greatest flaw is that there are simply not enough stores.
 
Emerson

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
Meanwhile there used to be 2 or 3 in Pittsburgh and they closed them all. Good job expanding.
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Is the Popeyes by me like the only mediocre one in the country or something? Everyone raves about them but their chicken is almost always worse than KFC, IMO.

Then again, when it comes to tenders at least, neither of them beat the Raising Canes by me. Largest, tenderest tenders I've ever had, they just melt in your mouth.
 
H

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
The Technomancer said:
Is the Popeyes by me like the only mediocre one in the country or something? Everyone raves about them but their chicken is almost always worse than KFC, IMO.

Then again, when it comes to tenders at least, neither of them beat the Raising Canes by me. Largest, tenderest tenders I've ever had, they just melt in your mouth.
Click to expand...
Must be, I've never had a Popeyes meal that was worse than your average KFC meal.

The fact that their gravy looks like an actual gravy and not diarrhea really makes it more palatable.
 
Z

ZeroRay

Member
Yes, good.

More people should experience the best fast food chicken. Hopefully this expansion doesn't reduce quality.
 
B

bill0527

Member
O rly?

Popeyes opened up near me 2 years ago and was closed down a year later. Building was sold and now it's a Wendy's.

That's too bad because I loved their Chicken, but the sides were all ass.
 
S

Sean

Banned
Love Popeyes, but I'm pissed off they got rid of their buffalo chicken nuggets. Those were so good.
 
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