U.S. fast-food chain Church’s Texas Chicken targets six Hamilton locations

U.S.-based fast-food chain Church's Texas Chicken is expanding in Ontario, with six Hamilton franchise locations targeted for 2022.

The company, known as Church's Chicken in the U.S., has grown in Canada from a single Toronto restaurant in 2017, to 46 franchises nationally - though none yet in the Hamilton area.

The first of the new Hamilton restaurant locations is expected to open as early as April, said Russ Sumrall, senior vice-president of international strategic development at Church's.

Sumrall, who spoke to The Spectator from the restaurant chain's newest international location in Doha, Qatar, said the company's confidence in Hamilton is based off the success of their Ontario franchises.

Canada wasn't on the fried chicken company's radar just a few years ago, but now, he said, it is an area of fast growth.

Sumrall was thrilled about pent-up desire" for new Church's franchise locations, hampered only by the company's lengthy franchisee and location screening process, as well as pandemic-related supply chain issues."

By the end of 2022, the company expects to have Hamilton franchises in up to six areas: downtown at Jackson Square; Centre on Barton; Centennial Parkway at the QEW; Centennial Parkway and Mud Street East; Upper Ottawa Street and Rymal; and in the area of King and Kenilworth. Four of these are already approved.

The company, starting in San Antonio, Texas, in 1952, has over 1,700 restaurants in 27 countries, as of Friday's opening in Qatar.

Jeremy Kemeny is a Hamilton-based web editor at The Spectator. Reach him via email: jkemeny@thespec.com