Captain D’s, the nation’s leading fast casual seafood restaurant, announced today its ongoing expansion in Georgia with the conversion of a former Bojangles restaurant to its newest franchised location in Elberton. Located at 123 Elbert Street, the Elberton restaurant marks the brand’s 106th Georgia location and signifies Captain D’s accelerated growth across the Southeast, following openings in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi to end a successful 2021.
Behind Captain D’s latest conversion is distinguished multi-unit franchisee, Chris Benner of Trident Holdings, LLC. Benner joined the Captain D’s franchise network in 2015 and has rapidly grown the portfolio of Trident Holdings with his business partners, Tim and Ed Stokes. Over the course of seven years, Benner and his team have become one of the largest Captain D’s franchisees, owning 45 of the brand’s restaurants, including a recent opening in Pensacola, Florida. Most of the group’s stores are based throughout the Southeast, highlighting how strongly the Captain D’s brand of high-quality seafood at affordable prices resonates with consumers throughout the region.
“Due to its flexible prototypes and development options, Captain D’s has proven time and again to be the authority in real estate conversions. Their team’s support and training has made the conversion process painless and efficient, and this has remained consistent since we began franchising with the brand,” said Benner. “We are thrilled with this opportunity to bring Captain D’s to the Elberton community and look forward to opening additional locations we have planned this year in Kentucky and Alabama.”
“We are excited to be opening another Captain D’s in the great state of Georgia underneath Chris Benner’s ownership. With 10 successful locations throughout the state, he has showcased the promising opportunity our business model provides for restaurant operators,” says Brad Reed, chief development officer of Captain D’s. “We put our expertise to work helping owners like Chris source the right franchise real estate from existing supply to get their new restaurant up and running. Our team is looking forward to utilizing this strength further to help accelerate the momentum we’ve carried into 2022.”
Captain D’s continues to identify markets in the South for further development and has multiple restaurants set to open throughout Alabama, Florida and Georgia over the next several months. One of those Georgia locations will be debuting the chain’s ‘Express’ prototype, a significantly smaller footprint featuring only a drive-thru and walk-up windows for ordering and picking up. As part of its overall growth strategy, Captain D’s is also focusing its efforts on corporate and franchise development in target markets throughout the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states, including Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The new Captain D’s restaurant in Elberton is open Monday – Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Captain D’s also offers online ordering and third-party delivery.
