Dive Brief:
- Krispy Krunchy Chicken announced Monday that it plans to open more than 600 locations in 2025.
- The company opened 605 sites serving its fried chicken, wings, biscuits and other items in 2024 and said it aims to surpass that total this year.
- Krispy Krunchy is also focused on adding delivery through third-party providers like DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub as it expands.
Dive Insight:
There’s no shortage of restaurant competitors that feature fried chicken on their menus. Nevertheless, Krispy Krunchy Chicken sees plenty of runway for growth.
In 2024, the brand fueled interest with new menu items like its Cajun chicken sandwich. It also rolled out special promotions, including limited-time offers and a $4 value meal with potato wedges and two pieces of dark meat fried chicken or two Cajun tenders. The deals joined a glut of value menu rollouts from restaurants last year seeking to connect with price-conscious customers.
Krispy Krunchy said in its release that it plans to continue focusing on innovation this year. The company also said it has a new organizational structure and a focus on collaboration across departments like marketing, sales and supply chain. It named a new chief operating officer in November and earlier this month named QSR veteran Jim Zielke as its new chief financial officer.
The company has recently expanded its presence beyond c-stores, including opening more than a dozen locations inside Walmart stores.
Krispy Krunchy has added its menu on third-party delivery platforms like Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub. Last summer, it began rolling out a unified menu management tool that helps lower commission fees and streamlines online order processing across the various platforms.
The new menu management tool, which Krispy Krunchy rolled out in partnership with restaurant tech firm Olo, helped the brand nearly double its normal order volumes on Thanksgiving and quadruple the sales on Christmas Day, CEO Jim Nordberg said in a statement.
Krispy Krunchy Chicken operates more than 3,200 locations across 47 states.
