Staffing

Chicken Salad Chick bolsters leadership team

Provided

August 12, 2020

Chicken Salad Chick has promoted five of its brand leaders. Jim Thompson has moved from vice president of Operations to COO; Terry McKee, the chain's former VP of Real Estate and Store Development, is now CDO, and Tom Carr, who had served as head of Marketing is the brand's CMO. The chain also elevated Former Human Resource Director Mary Lou Atkins to VP of Human Resources and Carrie Evans, who previously served as director of Franchise Development, to VP of Franchise Development.

"Despite all that we've faced over the past several months, these individuals championed our brand and continued to propel it forward, so it was important for me to recognize all their contributions and provide them with the opportunity to continue to grow within our organization," Scott Deviney, CEO of Chicken Salad Chick, said in a company press release. "We've come out of this challenging period stronger than we were before, and are excited for all that we can accomplish in the future with this strong team in place."

Chicken Salad Chick has grown exponentially in recent years, more than quadrupling in size since 2016. At the beginning of the year, the brand recorded 2019 as the most successful year in its company history, opening 40 restaurants, achieving 16 consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth and seeing a 40.1% and 38.5% increase in systemwide sales and unit count, respectively. The growth and year-over-year results attracted prominent private equity firm Brentwood Associates, which acquired Chicken Salad Chick from Eagle Merchant Partners in November 2019.

Despite numerous challenges and obstacles the restaurant industry is facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chicken Salad Chick has opened 19 restaurants this year and will add 15 by year's end, bringing it to 178, according to the press release.

Chicken Salad Chick, founded by Stacy and Kevin Brown in Auburn, Alabama, in 2008, aspires to hit 500 locations by the end of 2025.