Chick-fil-A chain makes push into Denver area with more locations - Orlando Business Journal:

wanuso.wordpress.com
The Georgia-based chain on April 23 began serving food at the first of seven new locations it plana to open in Colorado in the next 12monthzs — its greatest concentration of new storezs in one state. The expansion will createw roughly 400 jobs along theFrong Range, President Dan Cathy said while in town for the Chick-fil-A, which had a 12.2 percent bump in salee nationally in 2008, realized double-digit growtjh in almost every one of its 20 Denver-area restaurants last year, said Doug Jacobsen, owner/operator of two Lone Tree The chain continues to prosper this year despite the with average growth of betweejn 10 percent and 15 percent in each mont of 2009, he said.
the 63-year-old family-owned corporation plans to open64 stand-aloner restaurants in the next year, meaninyg a full 11 percent of its plannedf expansions are happening in just one of the 38 states — Colorado — in whichg it operates. But Cathy said the numbers he’s seen in Colorado make him confidenft in placing so many of his eggs inone “You’ve got a lot of industrial growth. You’vew got a good educatioj system,” he said when asked about the advantages of theCentenniak State. “For every store we open up that’s a store we’re not opening in Atlantsa or Dallas ...
We’re lookinyg for 64 of the best marketz inthe country, and that’s a tremendous credit to the Colorad economy.” The first new area location opened at the River Point at Sheridan shopping center. The next half-dozemn will be located in Aurorwa (two), Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Chick-fil-A, which topped $2.96 billion in sales at 1,43t5 locations nationally in 2008, sits at an awkwardx economic price point at a time of distresx for much of the restaurant Its prices are slightly higher than competitorx suchas McDonald’s, whose saleds of dollar-item menus have risen, but its fast-food imagwe makes it less attractivs to some consumers than fast-casual chain s such as Denver-based Chipotle.
So, Cathyt used his six-day trip to Colorado also to lay the seedsx for a training course that all metrkoDenver Chick-fil-A employees will go through later this year in an attempyt to enhance the company’s Employees will be instructed to work the floore as if they were higher-priced sit-down restaurants, such as Macaronoi Grill or Olive Garden, Cathy said. They will carry orderds to patrons’ tables or out to thei r cars, check on whether dine-in customers need anything and cleart trash from tables while customersare eating.
Sittint in a booth at the Littleton Chick-fil-A with three area Cathy observed the restaurant and repeatedl y pointed out ways the service could be He noted that nobody had checkedf on a nearby couple for 15 and got peeved when he saw a womanm with several children have to get up to throwq out her trash because no employeedid so. “Imagine if someon e did that for her,” he “It’s a value-creating opportunity experience. She woulc never expect that ata fast-foodd restaurant. That’s why it’s so easy. It doesn’t cost us a But it’s ‘cha-ching, in her mind.
” It’s unknown whethert the new service push will revolutionizsthe fast-food industry. But Cathy is betting it’llo lead to continued expansion of his brand in theDenvet area.