Church’s Chicken expands to New ZealandChurch’s Chicken expands to New Zealand

Church’s Chicken has opened the first of 20 planned Texas Chicken restaurants in New Zealand, the company said Wednesday.

The opening of the Auckland Texas Chicken marked the 25th country for the brand, a spokeswoman said. Texas Chicken is the trademark Atlanta-based Church’s uses in global markets, she added.

Of Church’s total 1,650 units worldwide, 500 are in foreign markets, she noted.

The New Zealand franchisee plans to open the 20 restaurants over the next 10 years, the company said. This first unit is in Auckland’s Westfield Manukau City Mall, and the second store, scheduled to open in November, will be in a free-standing location that is under construction.

“We’ve been looking forward to these highly anticipated Texas Chicken openings,” said Tony Moralejo, chief development officer for Church’s Cajun Operating Co., the franchising division. “With the addition of New Zealand within our system, our food may now be found in almost every corner of the globe.”

New Zealand franchisee George Constantinou said guests were lined up to try the Texas Chicken menu, which includes bread fried chicken and honey-butter biscuits in addition to local New Zealand regional menu adaptations.

“We are very excited that guests are embracing the brand,” Constantinou said in a statement, “and we are expecting more of the same results as we expand to other locations.”

Church’s Chicken remained at the No. 52 spot in Nation’s Restaurant News’ most recently annual Top 100 census. The chicken chain posted $861.3 million in U.S. systemwide sales in the latest year, up from $855.4 million in the preceding year. With its global markets, Church’s Chicken said it has more than $1 billion in systemwide sales.

Church’s Chicken and Texas Chicken are owned by the private-equity firm, Friedman, Fleischer & Lowe LLC.

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