Popeyes plans to open initial 30 restaurants

Sunday, 25 February 2024

United States fried chicken giant Popeyes has confirmed its plans to set up shop in New Zealand, with the first of an initial 30 planned stores set to open in April.

Popeyes’ first fast food restaurant will open in Auckland’s southern suburb of Takanini, followed by further stores in East Tamaki, Lower Hutt, Taupō and Hastings.

The southern fried chicken fast food brand known overseas for its Louisiana-style cajun chicken “sandwiches” has 3700 stores around the world.

In an exclusive interview, Popeyes New Zealand general manager James Mclauchlan said Popeyes expansion throughout the country would be rapid, with six to eight stores set to open this year.

The upper North Island, Auckland, Tauranga and Hamilton, will be its immediate expansion focus, along with undisclosed sites confirmed in the South Island.

It plans to open at least eight stores a year over the next few years, with hopes for over 30 within the first five years.

“If we can, we’ll go faster than that,” Mclauchlan said, of the chain’s ambitious plans to take a bite out of the lucrative fried chicken market.

Long term, Popeyes has aspirations to have between 80 and 100 stores here.

Popeyes had been working towards a launch for two years, with Tahua Partners, the operator of Burger King and Starbucks, securing the New Zealand master rights last year.

Popeyes restaurants will typically be drive-through, sites which are in various stages of being built and open as they are completed. Most of its sites will be larger drive-through, but with time the brand will look at opening smaller restaurants in shopping malls, said Mclauchlan.

“We’ve found some really good sites but we need to get some scale to make this business work. We’re investing a lot in our back office and supply chains, too.”

The global brand is in expansion mode and looking to establish itself business in Australia and grow across Britain.

Parent company Restaurant Brands International has been growing its global footprint of Popeyes restaurants since 2019. It has more than 3500 restaurants in 35 markets such as Britain, Europe and China.

Popeyes started in 1972 as New Orleans Fried Chicken with a Louisiana-style spiced chicken, and will bring its international best sellers to the New Zealand menu, including its chicken sandwiches, biscuits and ribs, as well as localise some menu items.

“We’ve done a lot of taste testing the menu, making sure the flavour profile is right for New Zealand. What’s right in America or Europe doesn’t often resonate with people here. A lot of research and development’s gone on.”

Popeyes is perfecting and testing its New Zealand menu from its test kitchen in Takapuna on Auckland’s North Shore. A team of 10 people are working on the business from Tahua Partners’ head office.

The business has begun hiring restaurant managers for its first 10 restaurants, and are training in Indonesia, and it will soon begin recruitment for other restaurant staff.

Popeyes’ Asia Pacific office is headquartered in Singapore.

The average New Zealand store will need about 50 staff, and the company anticipates the brand will quickly grow to become a significant employer in New Zealand.

Mclauchlan said a tighter labour market had not affected Popeyes’ plans.

“Other brands in New Zealand have struggled with people challenges, but we’re starting to see [the talent pool] open up a little bit.”

The company had consents lodged with councils throughout the country, he said, and as they were approved the sites would open.

“What’s really exciting about this is launch is the product we’re going to bring in; it’s a little bit different to what’s in the market at the moment. We marinate our chicken for 12 hours, hand bread it and make a lot of stuff back of house.

“We’ve got mac and cheese we make fresh, hand spun shakes, but the main thing is the flavour profile of the chicken - it is a really different experience that we think Kiwis will really love.”

Fried chicken market growing

New Zealand is a big nation of chicken lovers, and the fried variant is particularly popular right now. KFC is increasing sales, and new market entrants Texas Chicken, NeNe Chicken, and other Korean fried chicken restaurants, are setting up restaurants.

Mclauchlan said there was a “big opportunity” to take a significant share of the market, but admitted it would be challenging as it was highly competitive.

Retail expert Chris Wilkinson said the New Zealand fast food restaurant sector was one of the most competitive in the world. And the fried chicken part of the market had been growing significantly after the Covid-19 pandemic, driven by the trend towards Korean fried chicken and people indulging in it as a guilty pleasure to treat themselves.

He said Popeyes would need significant scale to gain share in the market as there were well established players already that had strong consumer fan bases.

“It will be up against very established brands and there will be a high expectation because of the competition in the market. We have a very large number of international brands, plus we’ve also got a lot of best-of-breed local brands like Hell, Burger Fuel and Burger Wisconsin. The innovation in New Zealand has always been strong.

“Quick service restaurants have started growing their own markets and not so much cannabalising each other. But now we’ve started to see changes in consumer behaviour and [Popeyes] will essentially have to start cannabalising others to gain market.”