Popeyes to open its first restaurant in the U.K.

Popeyes revealed its plans to bring its fried chicken to the U.K. The restaurant chain announced today, March 23, it will be opening its first store in Britain before this year ends.

With this announcement, Popeyes is effectively pulling the U.K. into the fried chicken sandwich war craze. This chicken war has been going on in the U.S. for months now as chicken restaurants try to outdo each other through their own versions of the chicken sandwiches.

Popeyes is coming to Britain

Popeyes successfully opened its stores in Switzerland and Spain not long ago, and apparently, it is eyeing the U.K. next. The series of restaurant launches in other countries are said to be part of the company’s plans to expand outside of the U.S.

Then again, Popeyes did not mention the exact date or location of where its first store is rising in Britain. However, it was suggested that the fast-food company is aiming to open 350 restaurants in the United Kingdom in the span of 10 years.

“The UK is such an exciting market and we think the authenticity of our brand and product is something customers here want to see,” the Evening Standard quoted Elias Diaz Sese, Popeyes co-founder in the U.K., as saying. “It’s difficult to say exactly what the scale will be right now, but we are looking to create hundreds of jobs in the restaurants and in the supply chain.”

Popeyes in the chicken sandwich war with rivals

Popeyes also set up its stores in Sri Lanka and China recently, and these countries are hoping to have the same success as the restaurants in the U.S. At this point, it was said that the fast-food chain had sold 250 million fried chicken sandwiches in the United States, and this record is just for one year, and it happened after the restaurant introduced the food item in August 2019.

As per CNN Business, the popularity of Popeyes chicken sandwich sparked an intense battle with its rivals, including McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell that launched their own versions of the fried chicken sandwich. Kentucky Fried Chicken and Burger King have also joined this chicken sandwich war, and the battle is just getting fiercer today.

Meanwhile, as Wendy's is also set to re-open its stores in the U.K., Popeye’s chief said that he thinks this is also the perfect time to introduce their brand in the country. Since Britain is also trying to recover from the pandemic, Sese said that their restaurant could help lighten up the struggles brought about by the COVID-19 because “Popeyes is all about celebration, joy and bringing people together."