- Fast-food chicken chain Raising Cane’s plans to open 100 more locations this year. This follows the opening of 118 locations last year. Chicken-focused restaurants have seen sales explode in recent years, with some brands being sold for $1 billion.
The chicken wars are escalating.
Raising Cane’s, a fast-food restaurant that specializes in chicken fingers, has opened three new restaurants this week, and Fox Business reports the company plans to open nearly 100 more before the end of the year.
That follows 2024’s record-breaking year of growth for the company, which saw another 118 locations open up.
Ontario, Ohio; Wichita, Kan.; and Wethersfield, Conn., are the latest cities to get Raising Cane’s. Up next is Visalia, Calif., one of five planned openings in July. Las Vegas will also get a location that month.
The company, founded in 1996 in Baton Rouge, La., currently has over 800 locations spread across the country.
Chicken-focused restaurants are on a long-standing tear. The chicken category saw sales increase 9% last year, according to Technomic. Burgers were up just 1%. In recent months, McDonald’s has added chicken strips to its menu, and Taco Bell recently began serving crispy chicken tacos and burritos.
Chick-fil-A is still the leader in the category, but the category truly began to take off in 2019, when Popeye’s launched its own chicken sandwich for the first time in its then 50-year history. The chain had what it thought was a two-month supply of chicken sandwich materials on hand when it launched the product. As social media chatter exploded, it exhausted those in just two weeks.
That’s raising the interest of investors. Dave’s Hot Chicken recently sold for $1 billion—and Bojangles has reportedly reached out to investment bankers to sell itself at a potential price tag of $1.5 billion.