Southern fast-casual chain Chicken Salad Chick is set to enter the Philadelphia market with six locations across Chester and Montgomery counties, writes Emma Dooling for the Philadelphia Business Journal.
Amanda Furiato and her fiancé Ryan Metz began exploring franchising opportunities in the region around a year ago and found that chicken salad was one of the few concepts that was not already oversaturated locally. The nearest Chicken Salad Chick location is in Maryland, more than a two-hour drive away.
“There’s no direct competitor for it, and we kind of just got this harebrained idea that we would be the ones to bring it to Philly,” said Furiato.
Along with Drew Christy, Furiato’s brother, the pair signed a franchise development agreement earlier this month for six locations in the Philadelphia suburbs.
The group is actively scouting sites, with one property already identified in Montgomery County, while concentrating efforts on Paoli, West Chester, and Exton in Chester County.
Ideal locations for the chain are 2,500-square-foot spaces in shopping centers with strong road visibility. The group also hopes to be near anchor tenants such as Marshalls, HomeGoods, fitness centers, and grocery stores.
Read more about Chicken Salad Chick looking for locations in Chester County in the Philadelphia Business Journal.
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