The growing Dave’s Hot Chicken chain has named Chief Operating Officer Jim Bitticks to the additional role of president, effective immediately, the company said Tuesday.
Bitticks joined the Los Angeles-based chain as COO in July 2020 and has helped build systems and processes to enable Dave’s Hot Chicken to scale at a rapid pace, said Bill Phelps, the brand’s CEO.
“Jim is an incredible leader who has brought on wonderful, best-in-class associates to support our franchisees’ aggressive growth plans,” Phelps said in a statement.
Bitticks started in the restaurant industry as a teenager and climbed the ranks at CKE Restaurants to become vice president of operations in the San Diego market. He joined Blaze Pizza in 2013 to lead operations and training and later became chief restaurant officer to help that concept grow from two to more than 350 locations.
Dave’s Hot Chicken got its start as a parking lot pop-up in 2017 that soon led to the opening of a brick-and-mortar. In 2019, the original co-founders Arman Oganesyan, Dave Kopushyan and brothers Tommy and Gary Rubenyan sold a 50% stake to a group of investors from Blaze, including Phelps, movie producer John Davis, Red Sox owner Tom Werner and former California First Lady Maria Shriver.
Franchising was launched and there are 32 Dave’s Hot Chicken location open with another 25 scheduled to this year, and almost 500 franchises in development, the company said.
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