The idea for Chicken Salad Chicken began in January 2008 at the Auburn, Alabama, residence of Kevin and Stacy Brown, who sold so much product the health department decided they needed to open a formal streetside location.

That first unit had drive-thru, takeout, and no inside seating. It was a new journey for the married couple, and one that was met with even more customer demand. On the first day, the duo made 40 pounds of chicken salad and opened at 11 a.m. The product sold out in a couple of hours. The next day it was 80 pounds of chicken salad, and it wiped out just as swiftly.

After that, the brand was off and running. The Browns opened three locations around Auburn and began franchising in 2012. Three years later, Scott Deviney—who serves as CEO—teamed up with Eagle Merchant Partners to acquire a majority stake in the fast casual. When he started on May 1, 2015, there were 32 locations, comprising eight company stores and 24 franchised locations. Chicken Salad Chick has since expanded to more than 250 restaurants and believes it has a total addressable market of 2,000 stores.

“There are not many chicken salad concepts. We feel like we’re in a category of one for sure,” Deviney said. “It is scratch-made in-house every day and we can do that in a very streamlined way. Our culture we do believe sets us apart. We really want to love on our guests when they come in the door. But we also want to love on our franchise owners and make sure that they’re well taken care of and happy and served in the same spirit that we serve our guests.”

The brand earned $353 million in systemwide sales last year and about $1.5 million in AUV. All of that is earned in 60 hours of operation each week, Monday through Saturday. Here’s a look at how Chicken Salad Chick’s growth figures have trended in recent years:

	Systemwide Sales	AUV	Unit Count
2016	$54 million	$1 million	64
2017	$76 million	$1.1 million	79
2018	$110 million	$1.2 million	104
2019	$153 million	$1.3 million	144
2020	$175 million	$1.1 million	177
2021	$255 million	$1.3 million	205
2022	$307 million	$1.4 million	222
2023	$353 million	$1.5 million	255

For 2024, Chicken Salad Chick projects at least 40 openings and more than $400 million in systemwide sales. Deviney is hoping a few more will be slotted for this year so the brand can eclipse the 300-unit mark. About 200 outlets have been sold, but haven’t opened yet.

The fast casual will debut in New Mexico in 2024. It’s also sold franchise restaurants in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Maryland that should all open within the next 12 to 18 months, depending on the real estate environment. This would take Chicken Salad Chick from 18 to 23 states. Additionally, the brand has opened up markets in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, but hasn’t sold any restaurants yet.

Seventy percent of the footprint is franchised. A mixture of existing and new franchise owners are building stores, and a major reason is consistent positive same-store sales. Chicken Salad Chick saw comp growth in 28 out of 32 quarters from January 2016 to December 2023, with the exception being the four quarters of 2020.

Operators are also attracted to the simple operating model. There are no fryers or grills in the kitchen and the food-making process is easy to follow. Several hundred pounds of the Classic Carol flavor are made each day, and then ingredients are added to produce the other 11 classic flavors.

Last year, Chicken Salad Chick expanded its menu with the Chicken Melt. It’s a warm item, which is unlike most of the brand’s menu, but it didn’t require additional product. Restaurants just brought in a new toaster to heat a buttered croissant filled with chicken salad and a flavored slice of provolone cheese.

“It’s a nice warm sandwich and it really helps us with cold weather,” Deviney said. “It helps us with dinner dayparts, but by the way, also helps with lunch because it’s a great-tasting product. And you can get whatever flavor you want. This also opens up opportunities for us in many ways. So think about different cheeses and how they melt, how they change the taste profile of chicken salad. I will tell you my personal favorite is buffalo broccoli and you add a couple of pieces of bacon to a Melt, it’s really, really good. So this gives us another opportunity to expand what we’re doing with our sandwiches.”

Chicken Salad Chick also upgraded its dessert options by acquiring Atlanta-based bakery chain Piece of Cake. The cake slices are slightly bigger than what Chicken Salad Chick offers, so the brand can charge a higher price for them. The number one seller thus far is white chocolate. Whole cakes are available too, which performed well around the holiday season. The desserts were in five stores as of January and mixed 3 percent. Further rollout will come throughout 2024.

In terms of sales, Chicken Salad Chick has built a strong off-premises program because of the menu’s portability. The company had 1.7 million loyalty members in 2023, half of which were considered active. One of the brand’s initiatives this year is to revamp the app so that it’s more user-friendly and personalized for each customer.

Takeout accounts for 31 percent of sales, followed by dine-in (27 percent), drive-thru (20 percent), online (9 percent), third-party delivery (8 percent), and catering (6 percent). The strength of the in-restaurant guest should be noted; Chicken Salad Chick has no plans to stray from that.

“We have packed dining rooms,” Deviney said. “We love packed dining rooms. We’re not going to shrink our footprint for that. But there are ways to streamline and make it easier.”

In 2019, Brentwood Associates—an investor of Blaze Pizza, Lazy Dog, and Snooze, an A.M. Eatery—purchased Chicken Salad Chick from Eagle Merchant Partners. Despite ownership exchanging hands, the chain’s leadership team is filled with longevity. The shortest tenure in the C-suite is about four years. Deviney has been with the brand for almost nine years, and CFO Dave Ostrander has served for nearly eight years.