With a store that — like Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A — is only open six days a week, Chicken Salad Chick ended 2020 36.6% up in same-store sales and 27% up in units. But that wasn’t an anomaly for the growing chicken salad brand; they had planned for it.
“We were expecting a phenomenal year in 2020,” said CEO Scott Deviney.
In fact, the brand stayed on track for the unit goal it set out at the beginning of 2020. In the first quarter, 11 units opened, and more than two-thirds of the year’s new stores opened after June 1, when Chicken Salad Chick resumed normal operations following pandemic-related lockdowns.
“Fortunately, we’re in the Southeast where the lockdowns were eased sooner than other parts of the country, and that was a little bit of luck,” Deviney said.
Chicken Salad Chick is preparing to open 40 restaurants this year, three more than in 2020. But the company’s goals aren’t only around unit growth: The chain expects to hit a big sales milestone by the end of 2021.
“We could conceivably see 250 million [dollars] in sales by the end of this year, which is huge. We’re thrilled that we could hit the quarter of a billion dollar mark this year,” Deviney said. The brand’s 2020 systemwide sales totaled $175.1 million.
Check out the interview with Scott Deviney for more insights and be sure to read all previous Snapshots of Success from NRN
