[This article is Part II of Editor Sherri Daye Scott's interview with AFC head and Popeyes' president Cheryl Bachelder. Read Part I here]

When you were first approached about the job with Popeyes what was your impression of the brand? I’ve been in the restaurant business since 1993. And when you’re in the restaurant business, you’re watching all the restaurants. But my close association began in the fall of 2006 when I joined the board of directors of AFC Enterprises. I was one of two board members brought on at the time to bring industry experience to the board. I made that decision [to join the board] based on the belief in Popeyes and its potential.

I saw the brand as having highly distinctive food, very loyal customers willing to drive a long way to get the food. I saw the opportunity to dramatically grow, believing we could double in size in the United States and triple in size internationally.

Those same qualities drew me to accept the position as CEO when it was offered a year later.

Are your growth plans based on company stores or franchisees? We are a franchisor. We today own 57 company restaurants in the United States. But we are first and foremost about providing the program, support, and tools for franchisees to be successful. We, in fact, do all our testing of new products and innovations and operations with franchisees. We are very focused on being a franchisor.

How does the state of the credit markets impact Popeyes’ expansion plans? Every chain is right now trying to figure out where the financial markets are going and what the availability of credit is going to be. We don’t know the answer to that yet.

It’s way too early to know what government policy is going to be, to know how the bank bailouts are going to turn out, and how that’s going to impact that credit environment. But I can tell you that right now, there is not a good source of credit financing in the restaurant business.

As long as the banks are talking about 10 percent interest rates, 50 percent down in personal guarantees, we’re going to be waiting on the sidelines.

I’m hopeful that the policy makers of our country understand there is a stall in entrepreneurship until we get the momentum back in our economy.

Are you seeing that same stall at the international level? Not yet. But global markets are very interrelated, and I’m watching carefully. There have already been a couple countries announce that they’re at risk for financial crisis. Luckily, we’re not in those countries.

Name some of the international markets Popeyes is targeting. We currently have a strong presence in Asia, the Middle East, Latin/Central America, and Canada. We have about 300 restaurants in those markets. So our first opportunity is to go deep in those regions. Build more restaurants in Southeast Asia. Build more restaurants in the Middle East. Build more restaurants in Canada and Mexico, in particular.

Are you seeing that same stall at the international level? Not yet. But global markets are very interrelated, and I’m watching carefully. There have already been a couple countries announce that they’re at risk for financial crisis. Luckily, we’re not in those countries.

Name some of the international markets Popeyes is targeting. We currently have a strong presence in Asia, the Middle East, Latin/Central America, and Canada. We have about 300 restaurants in those markets. So our first opportunity is to go deep in those regions. Build more restaurants in Southeast Asia. Build more restaurants in the Middle East. Build more restaurants in Canada and Mexico, in particular.

Is there not a market for Popeyes in Europe? Europe is not a great opportunity for fast-food restaurants. Even the largest fast-food restaurant, McDonald’s, will tell you that.

They’re not as disposed to fast food. Their income and their well-developed economies make them less a factor.

Every chain I can think of has struggled in Europe. Popeyes chose not to struggle and skipped over to middle-market economies where young people with a lot of disposable income are growing fast. That certainly would be true of the Middle East and Asia.

KFC, whose international presence you helped build, has a firm hold on the Asian market. What’s Popeyes’ strategy in regards to capturing market from KFC? The same as it is everywhere. We have better chicken that comes from a place called Louisiana and whose flavor profile is preferred compared to KFC.

Internationally, KFC has been on the ground for decades. We are the new person in town with the better food. I often compare it to when Papa John’s entered the pizza category. The fresh, new kid on the block with the preferred food … that’s what Popeyes is to KFC both domestically and internationally.

What does “Louisiana” mean to global customers? It’s up to us to explain what “Louisiana” means. The essence of what it is internationally is flavorful food and spicy food.

In our development model, in deciding which countries to go into, we looked at the preference for spicy food and chose our markets accordingly. When we go into a market, we go in knowing the culture enjoys the kind of complex flavors and spices that come out of Louisiana.

Louisiana is a melting pot of nine nations. It almost goes around the globe. It’s not surprising, given its culinary history, that our food plays well in Africa, the Middle East, and in the Asian countries.

Seafood is one of our great competitive advantages, as well. Being from the Gulf Region, it is a natural fit with our brand. Seafood takes flavor well, and it’s a wonderful variety play. We are very strong in shrimp, for example: butterfly shrimp, popcorn shrimp. Those are great promotional items for us across the globe.