Dive Brief:

• Bojangles will open its first California store next year through a multi-unit franchise agreement with Poulet Brothers LLC and Lorenzo Boucetta, according to a press release issued Monday.
• The store will be located in Los Angeles County, a region with more than 9 million residents, and is the first of 30 units to open there over the next six years. 
• The deal may indicate that the state’s new $20 fast food minimum wage is unlikely to spur an exodus of brands from the world’s fifth-largest economy, as some critics predicted it would. 

Dive Insight:

Bojangles said Boucetta has a “lifetime of experience in the hospitality industry” and “background in real estate development, e-commerce, and technology,” with which to lead the chicken chain’s entrance to the market. But Bojangles did not immediately respond to a request for comment on where Boucetta acquired this experience. 

Boucetta is listed as the organizer on one of Poulet Brothers’ filings with the state, and it appears the franchisee was organized this January, based on its initial filing.

Bojangles has been pursuing an aggressive growth trajectory of late. In September, the chain said it had a 250-unit development pipeline. In March, it inked a deal to enter Arizona and develop 20 units there, in a major test of its ability to expand outside of its Southeastern base. In February, the chain signed up with Roadster, a c-store chain, to open five units in Texas. Bojangles said it was open to building more restaurants in other California markets.

Bojangles did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether California’s newly implemented $20 wage had impacted its development plans in the state.

Critics of the wage have generally portrayed it as a job killer, citing several Pizza Hut franchisees that laid off 1,200 delivery drivers, though the company has focused on using third-party delivery drivers as a way to combat rising wages since at least 2022, according to Restaurant Business.

Executives themselves have been more circumspect in their statements, saying the wage had no impact on development plans or that it posed an opportunity to take market share for big brands. Proponents of the wage have argued that consistent economic data shows wage increases have a limited impact on employment. 

Ingrid Vilorio, a member of the California Fast Food Workers union and a Jack in the Box worker, told Restaurant Dive shortly after AB 1228 took effect that she and her coworkers had not seen any of the cuts to hours or jobs forecast by the industry.

“We've heard rumors that they're going to take hours and layoff workers, but that's not what we see is happening right now,” Vilorio said in an interview conducted with the aid of an interpreter. “In reality, there's some workers that have been offered extra hours.”