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Popeyes plans to open its first restaurant in China this week despite the coronavirus pandemic hammering the industry. The Cajun-inspired chain’s Shanghai chicken joint will open Friday as parent company Restaurant Brands International embarks on an expansion strategy that will see 1,500 Popeyes stores open in China over 10 years. The effort is in partnership …
Popeyes plans to open its first restaurant in China this week despite the coronavirus pandemic hammering the industry.
The Cajun-inspired chain’s Shanghai chicken joint will open Friday as parent company Restaurant Brands International embarks on an expansion strategy that will see 1,500 Popeyes stores open in China over 10 years.
The effort is in partnership with TAB Food Investments, which runs Restaurant Brands’ Burger King eateries in China. In addition to Shanghai, the chicken seller plans to open stores in nearby metropolitan cities such as Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou, according to Popeyes China CEO Raphael Coelho.
“We want to go deep on this type of clusters where you have better supply chain efficiencies, operation controls and you also benefit from this scale of marketing penetration,” Coelho said.
The opening will come as China works to restart its economy after the world’s first coronavirus outbreak locked down major cities and tanked restaurant sales. While the virus has waned significantly in China, a new cluster of cases has emerged in the original epicenter of Wuhan.
The Chinese arm of Yum Brands — which runs Popeyes rival KFC — said in February that its same-store sales had plunged 40 to 50 percent as the virus gripped the country.
But TAB Foods vice chairman Korhan Kurdoglu expects the virus to have only a “temporary effect.” Popeyes has already seen strong demand build up in China ahead of this week’s opening, Coelho said.
Popeyes’ popular chicken sandwich helped the chain’s sales surge 32 percent in the first three months of the year, Restaurant Brands said earlier this month. The growth kept the parent company’s overall sales roughly flat compared to last year despite declines at its Burger King and Tim Hortons chains.
Shares in Toronto-based Restaurant Brands were up about 1.8 percent at $53.53 as of 10:22 a.m. Tuesday.
With Post wires
