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Cheryl Bachelder has increased the growth statistics of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen by leaps and bounds as she focuses on a nation-wide expansion of its U.S. stores. Bachelder targets doubling the number of stores to 3,200 as it “suburbanizes” to attract more white diners. Businessweek.com reports that Popeyes, owned by AFC Enterprises, projects to grow 13% this year while quick service restaurant sales in the U.S. will grow only 1.9%. In the last quarter, Popeyes’ same-store sales increased by 8.1% compared to KFC’s 1%. It has introduced a new healthier menu while maintaining its famous bone-in friend chicken, chicken tenders and shrimp. Bachelder intends to keep its prices affordable at $3.99 and $4.99 for combos.

Led by former KFC executive Cheryl Bachelder, the chicken- and-biscuits chain is going national and ramping up the pressure as Yum! Brands Inc. (YUM) focuses overseas, letting its U.S. KFC operations languish in the process.

Long a regional outfit concentrating on the urban market, Popeyes is courting suburban white diners with a new menu and ads. Bachelder plans to double the number of U.S. Popeyes stores to 3,200. KFC has about 4,780 U.S. locations, about 600 fewer than in 2006.

Popeyes, which is owned by AFC Enterprises Inc. (AFCE), will generate sales growth of about 13 percent this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. By contrast, U.S. fast-food restaurant sales will grow 1.9 percent overall this year to $170 billion, researcher IBISWorld Inc. said in a report last month. KFC’s U.S. same-store sales rose 1 percent in its most recent quarter, while Popeyes’s increased 8.1 percent.

Shares Surge
Shares of AFC surged 52 percent over the past 12 months, compared with 14 percent for the Bloomberg U.S. Quick-Service Restaurant Index and 33 percent for Yum.

Still, Popeyes has its “work cut out to suburbanize,” Bob Goldin, executive vice president at Chicago-based researcher Technomic Inc., said in an interview.

Twenty years after Col. Harland Sanders founded KFC in 1952, Alvin Copeland opened his first fried-chicken restaurant. The Popeyes name isn’t a tribute to the spinach-scarfing cartoon; Copeland named it after Gene Hackman’s character, Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, in the 1971 film “The French Connection.” The chain’s chicken caught on after Copeland spiced up his recipe and by 1985 there were about 500 Popeyes locations. AFC, then called America’s Favorite Chicken, became the parent of Popeyes in 1992 and went public in 2001.

Healthier Menu
Last year, Popeyes introduced a healthier menu, Louisiana Leaux, with so-called naked chicken wraps and a BBQ chicken po boy sandwich. Still, the chain continues to sell the fare that made it famous: bone-in fried chicken, chicken tenders and shrimp. With U.S. economic growth weak and consumer confidence in July at the lowest level this year, Bachelder is keeping the food affordable, selling combos for $3.99 and $4.99. KFC, meanwhile, is advertising a $19.99 family meal. …

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