Dive Brief:
- Zaxby’s opened its first franchised-owned, to-go-only restaurant on June 5 in Hoover, Alabama, the company said in a press release Wednesday.
- The location at 2071 Patton Chapel Road is operated by Chicken Scratch Holdings, which owns over a dozen Zaxby’s.
- Several QSR chains, including Biscuitville, Tim Hortons and Jimmy Johns, have opened off-premise-only units to cater to more on-the-go customers.
Dive Insight:
Zaxby’s originally opened its first corporate-owned, to-go-only prototypes last year in Memphis, Tennessee, and earlier this year in Clemson, South Carolina. On a case-by-case basis, Zaxby’s evaluates which model fits each market when it opens new locations, so it is likely that there will be more of these units in the future, the company said in an email.
Zaxby’s to-go-only unit in Hoover, Alabama, is 2,000 square feet, roughly two-thirds the size of of a standard Zaxby’s restaurant. It provides a walk-up window for guests to order takeout. While there is no dine-in seating, there are four tables on an outdoor patio. The unit also offers a double drive-thru with digital menu boards as well as a payment window and drive-thru delivery door for fast pay and pickup. Customers can also order through Zaxby’s app for mobile order pickup.
The roughly 900-unit QSR chain has been aggressively growing after Goldman Sachs bought a significant stake in the company in 2020 to help the largely Southeastern chain go national. In subsequent years, it brought on new leadership, including former El Pollo Loco CEO Bernard Acoca to lead the chain as its CEO. Last year, the company hired Mike Mettler as its chief development officer to help lead the company’s focus on designated market areas, creating a stronger recruitment platform and delivering more flexible options to increase profitability.
