American consumers have been shifting more toward chicken for the past two or three decades now and arguably no chain has been better positioned for this trend than Chick-fil-A. The numbers prove it: What started as a regional chain near Atlanta in 1967 has since grown into the third biggest restaurant chain in the country by sales. Its momentum started about a decade ago and continues to pick up speed; in 2023, the company added nearly 15% in sales, to over $21.5 billion, while growing its footprint by nearly 6%, to nearly 3,000 restaurants.
Chick-fil-A has been a case study in consistent growth, leapfrogging a number of legacy brands throughout the past several years on the Top 500 report, despite being closed on Sundays and, in many cases, having a smaller unit count. Chick-fil-A’s staggering success has ignited plenty of imitation — both in menu innovation (chicken sandwich wars) and operating model (owner/operator) — and the chicken segment as a whole has benefitted accordingly. Last year marked the fifth straight year of double-digit growth for chicken chains, with sales increasing in the category by over 12% to a total of $49 billion. There are now five chicken chains with more than $1 billion in sales that achieved double-digit growth during 2023: Chick-fil-A, Popeyes, Raising Cane’s, Wingstop, and Bojangles.
Chick-fil-A’s force of late has been so powerful that McDonald’s franchisees expressed urgency a few years ago about its growing competitive threat. McDonald’s has since launched an improved McCrispy chicken sandwich and is now focusing even more on the chicken category. Granted, Chick-fil-A has a bit to go to catch up to McDonald’s $53.1 billion in sales. But it’s worth pointing out that Chick-fil-A’s sales have grown by over 77% since 2019, versus about 31% for McDonald’s, so that game of catch up is well underway.
All data courtesy Technomic Ignite Company data. Looking for more data? Click here to access the complete Technomic Top 500.
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