Chick-fil-A charted significant progress this past year on what’s perhaps the biggest runway corner of its business—international expansion. The third-largest quick-service chain in America unveiled a $1 billion plan in March 2023 to explore growth in Europe and Asia, but clarified those efforts in September (U.K.) and October (Asia) of 2024 with announcements to spend $100 million and $75 million, respectively, to fuel growth in each.
But amid this overseas path, Chick-fil-A continues to balloon north of the border as well. The chain on Wednesday said it now plans to follow successful expansion into Alberta, Canada, last year—three stores in Calgary and Edmonton—with development in British Columbia. Chick-fil-A expects five to seven new restaurants to open in the province by 2030.
“We are excited about the opportunity to bring an authentic Chick-fil-A experience to guests in British Columbia, where local Chick-fil-A Owner-Operators will create hundreds of new jobs and invest in their teams and local communities,” Jessica Sisk Roehle, director of restaurant development in Canada for Chick-fil-A, said in a statement. “The incredible reception Chick-fil-A received when we expanded into Alberta this past year really energized us as we planned our next steps in Canada. British Columbia has a number of vibrant, thriving communities across the province that makes it such a great place for us to grow.”
Chick-fil-A said the first British Columbia restaurant would cut the ribbon by late 2027 or early 2028. Additionally, it expects to debut a record eight locations across Ontario and Alberta in 2025, making the most openings in the country in any year since Chick-fil-A entered Canada in 2019. It’s since brought 22 restaurants to market over five years. So more than a third of its five-year growth thus far will arrive this year alone, taking Chick-fil-A’s Canada footprint to 30 ahead of the British Columbia push.
As part of that latter aim, Chick-fil-A said local owner-operators will hire about 80–120 employees per location. It’s currently accepting applications for individuals interested in becoming franchise owner-operators in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia.
Since coming to Canada, Chick-fil-A has done the following, the company said:
Every time a Chick-fil-A restaurant opens, $25,000 is donated by Chick-fil-A, Inc. to Second Harvest, Canada’s largest food rescue organization, to support local non-profit organizations in the area to help reduce hunger and food waste. So far, Chick-fil-A has donated over $500,000 to local Canadian organizations in celebration of Restaurant openings. That tradition will continue in British Columbia.
Since the beginning of 2020, Chick-fil-A has donated more than $1.65 million to support Second Harvest’s food rescue programs that have helped provide 4.95 million meals worth of surplus food for people in need and supported the national expansion of Second Harvest’s food rescue initiatives to communities across Canada.
Participating Chick-fil-A restaurants donate surplus food to local shelters, soup kitchens and charities through the Chick-fil-A Shared Table program, which has resulted in ingredients for over 133,000 meals being donated by Chick-fil-A restaurants in Canada, with the number growing each day.
Canadian non-profits, like Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada, East York Meals on Wheels, Living Lakes Canada, Signal Hill Life Education Society, Toronto City Mission, Windsor Family Home and Community Partnerships and Yonge Street Mission, have collectively received $660,000 USD from the Chick-fil-A True Inspiration Awards, annual grants given to organizations that make an impact by Caring for People, Caring through Food, Caring for Our Communities and Caring for Our Planet—falling within Chick-fil-A corporate social responsibility pillars, which help guide overall giving efforts.
Chick-fil-A has awarded nearly $189,500 in scholarships since 2020 to 86 team members in Canada to support their goals of pursuing post-secondary education.
Returning to the larger prospect, Chick-fil-A’s Asia development will begin with Singapore in late 2025, the start of a 10-year, $75 million investment.
The brand in September announced it was kicking off U.K. expansion with stores in Belfast, Leeds, Liverpool, and London, which represented the first units outside of North America (joining the U.S., Puerto Rico, and growing Canadian fleet). The goal there being to open five licensed and locally owned and operated models across the U.K. in the first two years as a broader $100 million push over the coming decade.
Chick-fil-A ended 2023 as the third-highest sales brand in the industry despite being far smaller—unit count wise—than much of the top 10. Only McDonald’s ($53.1 billion on 13,457 restaurants) and Starbucks ($28.7 billion on 16,346 locations) earned more than Chick-fil-A ($21.59 billion on 2,552 stores) that year; 2024 financials haven’t been released yet. And this was also being open six days a week.
The main culprit owed to AUVs. Chick-fil-A’s drive-thru locations averaged $9.275 million, up from $8.51 million the prior year and $8.142 million the year before that. The top store made $19.094 million in 2023, which was more than the average sales take of a Cheesecake Factory, Outback Steakhouse, and Cracker Barrel, combined.
As for broader sales, Chick-fil-A exited 2023 with total revenue and income of $7,888,050,586. A year ago, it was $6,373,786,108; and $5,764,153,899 in 2021. Chick-fil-A in 2022 approached the $19 billion mark in total systemwide sales as it closed with $18.815 billion (a sizable year-over-year jump from $16.674 billion the previous calendar). The brand soared past that milestone in 2023 to $21,585,752,000.
Chick-fil-A also sped up net unit growth to 141 stores. In the past two years, it was 100 and 102, respectively.