By Logan Langlois
NASHVILLE, TN — The internationally recognized Latin American restaurant chain Pollo Campero has announced that Tennessee is one of its targets to open new locations over the next couple of years. Pollo Campero Director of Franchise Development Blas Escarcega said the restaurant chain is looking to open 15 new locations across Tennessee over the next ten years, with the franchise’s third location opening in Smyrna sometime in March. Escarcega said he expects to sign another franchise agreement within the next couple of weeks to open an additional location in Metro Knoxville. He said additional Tennessee cities Pollo Campero is looking at include Pigeon Forge, Clarksville, and Murfreesboro.
Escarcega said Pollo Campero opened its first Tennessee location in metro Nashville in 2018. He said the Nashville location has continued to do well since, inspiring the franchise to draft a five-year plan on how to capitalize on its newfound momentum in the Volunteer State. He said the plan was updated every year as the company not only continued watching the sales of its existing location but the overall trends of what kind of chicken is selling well throughout Tennessee.
“I know people from Huntsville will travel all the way to Nashville to consume our product,” Escarcega said. “Our goal is to get it as conveniently and as close as possible, and that’s going to take time and we recognized that, but we have invested in our infrastructure and our platform.”
Escarcega said over recent years, the trends of popular chicken taste have shown that Pollo Campero would be well accepted as a widespread name in Tennessee. Escarcega said these trends in taste can largely be attributed to the immigration trends in Tennessee, with the state currently being an attractive location for immigrants who themselves or their families are from or near Central America. He said for Pollo Campero, this means an influx of legacy customers coming into Tennessee that are already familiar with the brand since being founded in Latin America.
Escarcega said the brand has long been receiving requests from existing customers in Tennessee to open more locations in the state, as many have reported that they regularly travel long distances to buy Pollo Campero’s products. He said Tennessee also looks attractive for how friendly it is for incoming businesses.
Escarcega said the biggest thing slowing growth is working with the different jurisdictions throughout different cities and counties throughout Tennessee in order to open up the locations properly. He said during their aggressive expansion, Pollo Campero is being careful to be purposeful so as to cause minimal cannibalization, or competing for the same potential customers with another of their own stores.
“We just want to make sure we grow the right way,” Escarcega said. “We don’t want to open restaurants just for opening them … we want to make sure they’re successful from the beginning.”
Escarcega said the first location they opened up was in Los Angeles in 2002, at which the location performed recording-setting sales and has continued to perform well since. He said this opening instilled much of the confidence that the brand has in the success of further restaurant openings in the United States, as it showed that there is already some brand recognition amongst immigrants as well as a widespread taste for the kind of chicken that Pollo Campero serves. Escarcega said the aggressive expansion is also part of the brand trying to establish its presence internationally, and he is excited for both new and old customers to experience the new restaurants.
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