Chicken Salad Chick expanding Texas footprint

Chicken Salad Chick will open 16 restaurants over the next five years in Texas, thanks to the signing of two major deals over the past year — one for eight units in San Antonio and most recently one for eight in Austin. Although Texas is home to 21 locations in Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston, the brand plans to open five more by year's end.

Behind the Austin agreement is the duo of Austin Young and Sara Ingram, the owners of Chicken Salad Chick – Waco and two of the youngest franchisees on the Chicken Salad Chick roster. The pair also has two restaurants in development in Temple and Killeen. Young and Ingram plan to open the eight units in Austin over the next three years.

"Austin is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, and we're very excited to introduce the brand to such a booming market," Young said in a company press release. "As a young business owner, Chicken Salad Chick has been so welcoming and supportive — with great core values in both operations and customer services on top of its quality menu offerings. This eight-unit deal was a natural next step in our career with the brand because we get to be on the ground floor of a fast-growing, fan-favorite concept."

San Antonio development is fueled by OberRoc LLC, a franchise company formed by San Antonio natives James Oberg, Jeff Rochelle and George Shaw with the goal of growing restaurant concepts in the Greater San Antonio area. The eight locations will span San Antonio, including Bexar, Kendall, Comal and Hayes Counties, and development is underway with the first location slated to open by the end of this year.

Additional development is expected for the Dallas-Fort Worth area with Chicken Salad Chick franchise groups Hazel 5 Ventures LLC and Metroplex CSC LLC, which own six and three locations, respectively, and plan to open more over the next few years.

"As our brand awareness and guest loyalty continue to increase, we are seeing a demand in franchise opportunities throughout the state," Scott Deviney, CEO of Chicken Salad Chick, said in the release. "It is exciting to see Chicken Salad Chick's southern expansion in action. We're more than humbled to support our franchisees as they continue to thrive in markets across Texas, and look forward to seeing how communities across the state respond to the product."

Chicken Salad Chick is on track to open over 40 locations in 2022 which will propel it toward achieving its overall development goal to have 500 locations open and operating by the end of 2025, according to the release.