Pollo Campero Is A Big Hit In Boynton Beach
Pollo Campero seems to have made a big splash in Boynton Beach, where Central American immigrants are flocking to get chicken from the popular chain. We thought Boynton Beach was an interesting choice for the first location in Florida, but it doesn't look like it'll be the only one for long; the company is planning to open four more sites in Miami-Dade later this year.
The Pollo Campero on Congress Avenue, in the new Boynton Town Center shopping development, was packed on Friday as community leaders, residents and company officials from the United States and Guatemala celebrated the chain's Florida debut.Get this: There are also Pollo Camperos in Spain, Indonesia and China, and the company is eyeing the South Pacific, the Middle East and South America. Soon, there will be Pollo Camperos everywhere!
...Pollo Campero, the largest Latin American chicken restaurant chain, is on the cusp of a global explosion.
The family-owned fast-food franchise has more than 260 restaurants with 10,000 employees in 11 countries, including 37 locations in the United States.
Its goal is to reach 2,000 stores worldwide by 2013, including 500 in the United States, said Chief Executive Officer Juan Jose Gutierrez, whose father, Dionisio, founded the company in 1971.
It's an ambitious plan, Gutierrez said, but he's confident in the recipe his father concocted in the family's kitchen years ago.
It is still the chain's mainstay today.
"He didn't visualize what he really created," Gutierrez said of his father, who died in 1974. "In the next five years, we're going to have a lot of work to do."
The company hit $380 million in sales last year, with 2008 projections of $435 million, he said.
We have yet to try the chicken. Has anyone gone? What did you think of it?
Guatemalan sensation brings flavor of home [Palm Beach Post]
Pollo Campero [Official Site]
Photo: Flickr
